#and if you're out there complaining that it's different from a platform you already had to join and learn how to use then you're an idiot

[thekimspoblog]

Demon trying to feed on my insecurities: "You're a bad driver"

Me: "Of course I am. I hate driving. Going 80 mph surrounded by tons of metal is nerve-wrecking. I try to do it as little as possible. Of course I'm bad at it"

Demon: "You're a bad writer"

Me: "Well that part's simply not true. I never claimed I was the greatest author of my generation, but when I put pen to paper I know what I want to communicate and I usually do it well. If someone isn't impressed with my work, that's unfortunate but they're entitled to their opinion"

Demon: "You're a bad leader"

Me: "Well I don't know about that! I mean there was that one time when... Ok look just because people don't see me as an authority figure doesn't mean... 😠 You know you can be a real asshole, demon!"

[askshivanulegacy]

NO SUPPORT

DON'T BE STUPID, N00BS.

"tumblr is not easy to use" girl hunderds of thousands of people figured it out. it's not rocket science

[queenie-official]

going with ani to the cafè for pumpkin spice latte only for him to be super nervous since we are so cool and he's some random engineering nerd ☝️🤓

‘Fall In Love With Me’

main masterlist Word count: little over 3k

pairing: modern!Anakin skywalker x fem!reader

a/n: you sending this request in as soon as i mentioned wanting to write fall fics is iconic of you and i love you for it 💋

“come on y/n, this is the only good thing about college! skipping without any repercussions” Honey continued to beg as you walked across campus.

“that’s easy to say when you're skipping a language class you’re already fluent in” you protest as she clings to your arm, pleading like a child.

“you don’t even care about French class, you just wanna ogle your little crush” she retorts before tugging on your arm as she comes to a stop forcing you to stop with her.

“okay that’s only half true, i like French class” you hardly believe your own lie as it tumbles out of your mouth. judging by Honey’s deadpanned expression she doesn’t believe it either.

“you were complaining just yesterday how the Teacher refuses to speak in any other language than French and you had no clue what was going on.” if only you didn’t vent to her about everything maybe then she wouldn’t be able to call you out on your bullshit.

“you’re gonna make me late” you sigh, slumping forward solemnly. she rolls her eyes not buying the act for a second.

“good, if you’re going to be late then it just makes even more sense for you to skip with me.” you let out a groan, gently pulling your arm out of her hold before starting to walk again. “you could at least talk to the guy if you’re gonna keep going just to look at him.”

“he’s too smart for me, i mean he’s a mechanical engineering major for gods sake” did he tell you that himself? no, you and Honey just did a little snooping through instagram after you got his full name and found out for yourselves.

“i have a friend who dated an engineering major and she told me they are not as smart as they think they are.” right but he was, he had all A’s it was a known fact around campus. Anakin Skywalker the college’s golden boy.

academic wise anyway, he didn’t socialize with anyone. you had guessed it was because he was much too focused on keeping his grades as good as they were, he had to if he wanted to keep his full ride scholarship… was it considered stalking if you got this information on a public platform?

“yea well Anakin’s different Honey” you can feel the look she’s giving you and you hate it. she jogs up in front of you now, forcing you to look her in the eyes.

“fine don’t skip but you have to talk to him, you’ve got the confidence and social skills to charm a snake y/n stop selling yourself short” you both stare at each other, a silent challenge that you always lose.

“alright!” you huff defeated and she cheers, throwing her arms up in victory before doing a celebratory dance.

“have fun talking to the boy of your dreams” she teases before spinning on her heel to walk in the opposite direction as you.

“have fun skipping spanish” you snort and she shouts back a quick ‘i will’ as you continue walking towards the building.

your professor was the type of teacher to close the door as soon as class began. ’if you want to waste my time by being late, don't bother coming at all’ was the first thing she’d said at the beginning of the semester, it was the only sentence she’d said in english.

which is exactly why you speed walk past her right as she’s starting to head to the door, keeping your head low when you see the annoyed look on her face as you do. internally counting your lucky stars that you somehow managed to make it before she’d closed it.

Anakin was always one of the first people to arrive in class so it was no surprise he was already there when you get to take a proper look at your surroundings. he was sitting in his usual spot; last row, second to last seat from the aisle.

you take a deep breath mustering all the courage you have as you walk down the aisle past your usual spot and straight to one of the empty seats next to him. he stiffens, hands freezing mid type on his laptop before he forces himself to relax and continue like normal.

you spare a glance at his laptop screen, wondering if it was related to the class. maybe you had missed an entrance ticket or something. you’re met with a shit ton of equations that makes you want to do a double take, unable to even process what you’d just seen.

the sound of your professor starting the lesson pulls your attention before you can. not that you could even understand what she said, all of it going in one ear and out the other. still you pretend to listen, wanting to give it a little time before you possibly ruin this man’s whole mood.

you pretty much dissociate, resting your hand on your palm without a thought in your mind. it’s about thirty minutes later when everyone who didn’t already have their laptops open are pulling them out of their bags that you snap out of it, following their lead you take yours out before turning to Anakin.

kind of a perfect way to start a conversation if you think about it. “sorry, but do you know what we’re supposed to be doing?” you tilt your head slightly watching as it takes a second for it to click in his mind that you’re speaking to him.

“we have to go onto canvas and answer the newest discussion post and then we have to comment on two other people’s answers all in French” he says after clearing his throat, his voice a soft rumble that makes your heart flutter.

you smile warmly at him, a whispered “thank you“ rolling off of your tongue before you turn back to your laptop. you’re about to copy and paste the question into google translate when you realize you could use this as another excuse to talk to him. “don’t suppose you’ve got any clue what this is asking us?”

his attention is on you again, eyes flicker over your face with uncertainty before he looks at your screen “comment prépares-tu la journée?” he reads it out loud in an accent that rivals the professors “it’s basically a formal way of asking how you prepare for the day”

you nod thinking of your answer only to remember a second later you’d have to respond in French. you bite your lip fighting back the urge to ask another question, afraid that you may start to annoy him. you tap on the table lightly locked in an internal debate, and right when you’re about to cave and go back to your trusty friend google Anakin speaks up again.

“do you need help forming your answer in French?” you can’t help but laugh as you turn to him, a shy smile growing on your face.

“is it that obvious i’m struggling?” you joke at your own misery and he rubs the back of his neck, nervously chuckling.

”no, no i wouldn’t say that…” he trails off before finishing with “well maybe a little bit” which makes you snort and cover your mouth to make sure you don’t laugh too loudly.

“help would be much appreciated, thank you” he smiles, wiping his palms on his jeans before clearing his throat again.

“it’s no problem i already finished my work anyway, i was working on homework for another class” he says while closing his laptop “i’m Anakin by the way” he extends his hand and you're quick to shake it. his palms are clammy, his grip gentle yet firm.

he was definitely nervous, even more than you were which somehow helped fuel you with more confidence. “y/n, it’s nice to meet you” you greet back, releasing his hand and turning your laptop screen more towards him.

“it’s.. uh nice to meet you too” it’s almost funny how awkward he is, you’d expected the college golden boy to be more.. well suave. it was endearing though, and you wish you’d made the effort to talk to him sooner.

you tell Anakin your normal routine before leaving for the day and he translates it for you, at first you were the one typing it but when he saw you failing to spell out the words correctly he offered to just do that as well.

of course you agreed, sliding your laptop more towards him. he reaches forward immediately retyping what he’d told you, and you get a front row seat to watch his mind work. so casual and effortlessly translating each thing you told him onto the discussion post. you’d be lying if you said it wasn’t attractive.

thanks to Anakin’s help you’re able to get the discussion post done and comment on two other people’s posts in under 10 minutes, leaving you with nothing to do as the professor waits for everyone to finish before continuing the lesson.

“so do you usually finish all your work early and work on homework for other classes?” you ask wanting to spark conversation again before he gets the chance to reopen his laptop.

“yeah, French is kind of my first language- my mom had me speak both French and english growing up” he answers, shifting in his chair nervously. uncomfortable from the attention you were giving him. “so this is sort of.. my easy pass class, i just took it for the credits”

“i wanted this to be my easy class, and then the first day she spoke almost purely in French and i knew i was fucked- it’s a miracle i’m passing” that miracle was your usual seatmate who would always give you the answers.

“not to be rude but uh.. how are you passing?” you can tell he didn’t want to come off too blunt but there wasn’t really another way to put it that wasn’t beating around the bush.

“lots of google translate and help from peers” he laughs at how proudly you say that, and you can’t help but smile enjoying the sound of it.

“right, that makes a lot of sense” you raise your brow at that unable to resist the urge to mess with him.

“a lot of sense is crazy wording” you act offended and he instantly starts to panic, backtracking his statement while attempting to apologize. you can’t help the laugh that bubbles out of you making him freeze when he realizes you weren’t actually upset.

he doesn’t respond even as you apologize, simply shaking his head with a faint smile. he relaxes in his seat, a look on his face like he wanted to tease back but was still unsure.

once you’ve calmed down and chosen to ignore the looks you were getting from the people around you there’s a brief silence until your professor speaks up, calling everyone’s attention. all of the discussion posts must have been turned in as she now continues the lesson.

it’s not until the end of class that you and Anakin speak again, you turning to him as he packs his stuff away. “hey, we should hang out sometime” you suggest, rather bold for someone who was afraid to talk to him a little over an hour ago.

he whips his head towards you, completely caught off guard. “i- i…” he stutters, his brain trying desperately to catch up with the situation.

you wince worried you misread him, maybe you had actually offended him with your joke or perhaps he had no intentions or desire to talk with you after today.

when he sees you physically pull back he forces an answer out of himself in an almost panic. “no! well i mean yeah- i’d like that..” he squeezes his eyes shut cringing inwardly.

“you’re cute” you giggle, and he reddens. eyes snapping open as he tries to catch his breath, you’re too much for him. like taking a sip of coffee that has way too much sugar and cream in it.

“cute?” he repeats practically breathless, he swallows hard. looking down to his bag for a distraction, busying himself with zipping it closed.

“there’s a cafe i like to go to with my friend that we could go to together?” you offer while pulling your phone out of your pocket. readying it for him to put his number in as you sling your bag over your shoulder.

he hesitates for a moment before taking your phone; typing in his name and number, eyes flicking up to you every once in a while like he expected you to change your mind and tell him to stop.

“i’d love too” he finally responds, handing your phone back with his number officially saved into your contacts. you have to hold in a giddy squeal, doing your best to play it cool.

“great it’s a date!” you cheer singsongy, putting your phone back in your pocket. Anakin looks like he may pass out, every time he thinks you can’t surprise him more you do. “i’ll text you the details later tonight”

his mouth opens and closes, every possible response dying on his tongue. you give him the time he needs, brows knitted together in understanding.

he fakes a cough, rubbing the back of his neck with his hand. “okay, i look forward to it” he says voice cracking slightly which he tries to play off with another fake cough, turning away from you and heading out of the classroom in a hurry.

as soon as he’s out of sight you let out the squeal you’d been holding in, jumping up and down before excitedly running out of the classroom to go find and tell Honey about what happened.

you wait just outside of campus. rocking on your feet as the cold autumn breeze rushes past you making your nose cold, honestly you were far too happy to care.

i’d been two days since your interaction with Anakin and today was the day you’d both agreed to meet up after classes finished. the wait was agonizing but worth it, especially when you see Anakin heading towards you.

he had on a flannel overtop a gray shirt, hair tussled from the wind. palms sweaty which he tried to keep under control, alternating between wiping them on his jeans and trying to fix his hair.

he hasn’t noticed you yet, mumbling something to himself as he walked. you contemplate whether or not to say something, afraid you may startle him if you do but thankfully he finally looks up from the pavement eyes locking with yours. he stiffens mouth snapping shut before standing tall as he tries to look relaxed.

“y/n hey..” it was awkward for sure and you had to bite back a giggle not wanting to make him second guess himself.

“hey, you ready to go? it’s not too far a walk from here” you point behind you in the opposite direction from which he came. he nods, robotically coming to your side as you begin walking.

there’s a awkward silence between you both, Anakin wanting to talk to you but unsure where to start. “sooo…you like coffee?”

you laugh, unable to hold it back this time with how strained his question came out. “i do, it’s a college student's saving grace don’t you think” you half joke, after all there have been many times coffee has actually saved you from passing out and turning in a late assignment.

he smiles, relaxing with your easy going nature. “oh yeah, coffee the holy grail for all college students” he jokes back for the first time and you beam. “you said you go to this cafe with your friend?”

“yep, me and Honey go all the time. they’ve got the best coffee and baked goods. it’s also the perfect environment to do homework or study” you both round the corner of the sidewalk, walking a little ways down to the crosswalk.

“oh that reminds me i’ve been meaning to ask, what’s your major?” well if he was asking that then he had yet to see your instagram account since it was in your bio. good because you’re pretty sure there’s a photo of you from middle school still up on your page.

“i’m an art history major” his brows raise slightly at that, making you tilt your head curiously. “what’d you think i majored in?” he shrugs unsure what to say.

“i don’t know… maybe psychology” this time your brows raise and he laughs. “you seem like the type” your nose wrinkles unsure how to take that but you ultimately decide to brush it off when it was clear he didn’t mean it in a bad way. “why art history?”

“i wanna become an art teacher, i need a bachelors degree for that to happen and art history seemed like the most interesting.” you both slow to a stop as you arrive at the cafe; Anakin steps in front of you, opening the door and holding it for you.

”thanks” you smile, walking in and heading to the usual table in front of the big storefront window that you and Honey sit at, placing your backpack onto the back of the chair. Anakin follows your lead doing the same with his bag before you both get into line.

thankfully it was short, most students preferred the other cafe directly across the street from campus. “ooo they finally have the fall flavors on the menu” you chirp excitedly upon seeing the newly chalked on pumpkin spice latte on the menu.

“are they any good?” your jaw drops dramatically, turning your head slowly towards him in full theatrics.

“you’ve never had a pumpkin spice latte before!?” he smiles, laughing awkwardly while shaking his head no. “oh we’re gonna fix that right now” you don’t even let him respond before stepping in front of him once the person in front of you leaves the line, ordering two pumpkin spice lattes and apple cider donuts for the both of you.

you don’t let him pay either, brushing him off with a “if i’m the one indoctrinating you into fall culture then it’s only right i pay” he only relents when you add “you can pay next time” a content smile on his face at the prospect there was even going to be a next time.

the cashier hands you a bag with the Donuts as well as two disposable cups with your lattes which you take to the table you saved. animatedly sliding the cup over to him as you pull out the donuts placing them on napkins in front of you both. “come on try it, i bet you’re gonna love it”

“a lot of confidence for someone who doesn’t even know if i like sweets” your face falls not having even thought about that, he laughs instantly making you flush when you realize he was messing with you.

still you smile back, it was about time he got you back. really you were just happy he was even comfortable enough to do it. “alright enough teasing, chop chop Frenchie”

“what am i a dog” he snorts, brows creasing together when he laughs this time. it was hardy and from his chest and gods did it make you warm to have been able to pull that out of him. “okay, okay i’m doing it” he says after you nudge him under the table with your foot.

you wait with anticipation as he brings the cup to his mouth, taking a sip of the warm nutty pumpkin flavored drink. you lean in as he takes his time, one hundred percent keeping a straight face on purpose. “..well?”

he pulls the cup away making a show of smacking his lips together to ‘savor’ the flavor. “Anakin!” you groan and he chuckles, holding his hands up in defense before grabbing the cup again.

“you’re right, it’s delicious” you cheer at the success, and he just watches with a smile. taking another sip of his drink before taking a big bite out of the donut you'd given him. his eyes widening as he tries it. “oh this is a dangerous combination”

“addicting isn’t it?” he nods enthusiastically, practically wolfing down the donut in a few seconds and almost completely chugging the latte. “oh my gosh” you laugh, before taking a sip of your own. “it’s not going anywhere”

“not technically true, you said it yourself these are seasonal items” he says and then chugs the rest of his drink. you may have actually just sent this man on a path of addiction.

“well we’ll just have to make it a tradition to come here every fall then. just for the coffee and donuts” he smiles brightly, more than satisfied with your words.

“is the rest of their menu this good year round?” you nod and he leans back in his chair, fiddling with the napkin his donut had been on. he licks the bottom of his lip in thought, bitting the inside of his cheek to hide his nerves before he finally speaks. “well maybe we should make it a year round tradition”

you lean on your palm, absolutely crushing harder on him with each passing second. “year round dates? kind of sounds like you're asking me out” he practically falls out of his chair, choking on whatever sugar the apple cider donuts had left at the back of his throat.

“i-i…i mean..” he stammers and you start to worry you may accidentally be the death of him. “i’d like that a lot.. you know only if you’re into it too-“ he cuts himself off mumbling a ‘she brought it up of course she is’ to himself which makes you giggle.

“why don’t you ask me?” you wait for his answer, not even trying to give him a break. he’s still barely recovered from your initial tease, cheeks a bright red that he’s trying desperately to push down.

it takes him a moment, before he finally works up the courage to speak again. “would you wanna go out with me?” he’s quiet and you briefly contemplate dragging it out more, just to watch him squirm but the poor boy looked tormented enough so you finally grant him reprieve.

“i’d love to” he smiles, relaxing before laughing at himself and you join in. the two of you lost in a fit of giggles, that’s how it is the rest of the date. the two of you getting to know each other better and tossing jokes around.

the more comfortable Anakin becomes, the less awkward and shy he seems to act. no longer as nervous as he was when you first spoke to him.

the cold weather outside is the perfect contrast to the warm cozy bubble around you both that the cafe helped provide. the beginning of many moments to come.

a/n: hope this okay!! im so used to writing Anakin as the more confident and collected one so this is a little different for me but it was so fun to write 😋😋

also how do we feel about Honey becoming a reoccurring character in my fics and oneshots? would you guys prefer me putting ‘y/f/n’ instead?

anyway hope you all enjoyed reading 🫶🏼🫶🏼 have a great day huns!! Xx<3

[sturnioloszn]

TRICK OR TREAT? - C.S

summary; your friend drags you to the sturniolo's annual halloween party but your slutty costume catches chris' eye and staring isn't enough.

warnings; smut, oral, praise, begging, dirty talk, mentions of alcohol.

a/n; this is my first post, so let's keep the hate tame, thank you. but if you enjoyed this, feel free to leave suggestions on other stuff I can write or if you want to see different content (texts, clips, etc) because I suck ass at writing lmaoo.

★ ° . *　　°　.　°☆ 　. * ● ¸. 　　��★ 　° :. ★　 * •

"Y/n come onnnn, are you really going to make me go by myself AGAIN?" My friend complains as she flops down on her bed in front of me.

"You know parties aren't my scene, especially not the Sturniolo's parties," I say, leaning against the headboard. Every year on Halloween, the Sturniolo's throw a massive party at their house and it always details a shit ton of alcohol and drugs.

"It'll be funnn, just give it a chance, you haven't come to a party with me since high school," She continues to whine about the fact that she always has to go alone or find random people to hang with but it's not my fault we are polar opposites.

She continues her persuasion for another half hour and I finally begin to cave.

"Even if I were to go, I don't have a costume to wear," I say, shrugging my shoulders, knowing that she'll find something so that I'm forced to go.

"You can just wear what I wore last year, you'd look so hot," She replies as she moves towards her closet. She's rummaging through her clothes, pulling out random pieces of clothing and tossing them over her shoulder, causing them to scatter all over the room, making a mess.

"How slutty is it?" I laugh, acknowledging the fact that she loves going out half naked every Halloween since we were 16.

"Actually, not bad at all," She says, pulling out a leather mini skirt and a low-cut body con top. I look at the clothes layed out on the bed with a clear sense of confusion.

"What is this supposed to be?" I say trying to make sense of the plain, black clothes.

"A black cat, duh," She grins.

"Are you serious?" I ask, furrowing my brows to see if she's joking or not.

"Of course, it doesn't look like much now, but with a few accessories and makeup, it'll look amazing. You're just going to have to trust me,"

Ugh, I guess I'm going to this party.

~

I'm sliding into the tight-fitting clothes that I was given, and I could barely breathe. The skirt just about covers my ass and any movement at all would cause my ass to be on show completely. Whereas the top pushed my tits together, making it the focal point of the outift. Wow. I looked like a slut.

I paired the outfit with black mid-thigh tights, black platform heels, and gloves with claws attached at the fingertips. I went to show my friend who was currently doing her own makeup.

"What do you think?" I ask, already certain of her response.

"Oh. My. God." She says, turning around in her makeup chair to look at me properly. "If you weren't my bestfriend...smash," She speaks again, now giggling.

I laugh at her stupid commentary before questioning what to do for my makeup. She insists on doing it, so I wait for her to finish her makeup before doing mine.

Our costumes didn't really correlate considering I was a black cat and she was a slutty Wednesday Addams but regardless we did look hot.

After a few hours of getting ready, we were finally heading towards the door. We took an uber to the triplets house even though I would probably be able to drive anyway because I had no intention of drinking.

As the car pulled into the neighbourhood, you could instantly identify which house the party was being held at. Aside from the heaps of cars messily parked around, there were a bunch of people gathered outside, in front of the house, with red solo cups in their hands and music blaring from inside the house.

We stepped out of the uber and began to make our way to the door. I felt at least 4 pairs of eyes on my ass, I knew this skirt was going to be a problem. The party itself consisted of a bunch of sweaty and drunk strangers rubbing against each other.

I will never understand parties.

Before we got too close to the speaker, I felt someone move to my ear. "I'm gonna go get something to drink, what do you want?" My friend asked.

"Nothing, I'm not drinking," I say, also speaking into her ear since the music is already too loud.

"Oh, come on, you need to loosen up, it'll make the party more tolerable," She says as if she acknowledges the fact that being at a party sober really does kill the atmosphere.

"Fine, just get me something that's not too strong," I give in. I guess I am drinking tonight. Good thing we took an uber then.

After a few drinks and a couple of shots, I feel my walls come down, and I began to actually enjoy myself. I lost sight of my friend a while ago, but I know she's either dancing or getting laid. Either way, I'm happy for her.

As I'm dancing and swerving my hips to the beat of the music, I feel a pair of eyes burn into the back of my head. I turn around and see Chris leaning on the kitchen counter with a red solo cup in his hand. We make eye contact for a brief moment before I decide to turn back around and keep dancing as if his glare wasn't intimidating the fuck out of me.

A few moments go by, and as I rock my hips, I feel a presence come up behind me, and 2 firm hands grip either side of my hips. I shift my head to the side to see who it could be, and of course, it was him. However, turning my head seemed to be a mistake because it gave Chris the opportunity to dip his head onto my shoulder. This makes my heartbeat instantly spike.

I then feel his lips move to my ear, "You've been driving me insane for 2 hours straight,".

The atmosphere becomes thick, and I'm struggling to find the air to breathe. "What are you talking about?" I ask innocently, putting up a façade.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about, don't act naive," he responds. I guess he's smarter than he looks. Before I have the chance to say anything else, I feel him speak into my ear again, "Trick or treat?".

What? What is he talking about?

"Treat?" I respond not really knowing what I'm asking for. I feel his smirk grow against my ear before he intertwines his fingers with mine and begins to drag me down the stairs of his house. We walk down a narrow hallway, and we reach a room. He puts a code in to open it and pulls me into the room with him.

I look around briefly and realise it's likely his bedroom. It looks like a normal guy's room; a king-size bed, a desk with a gaming setup, a closet, you know, the usual pieces found in a bedroom.

I turn to look at him, and he's looking straight at me as if he's trying to memorise my face.

"So, do you want your treat now?" He questions seductively as he steps towards me. I consequently take a step back, but I'm blocked from making any further moves when my back hits the door. I gulp at the fact that there's nowhere for me to run or hide.

"What's my treat?" I ask, my voice being barely louder than a whisper. His eyes are glued to mine, and it begins to feel a bit like a staring competition.

"Whatever you want," He smirks.

"Whatever I want?" I repeat slightly in shock, my heartbeat growing faster and faster. On top of my heart trying to escape from my chest, I feel my wetness beginning to gather in my panties. I mean, who could blame me. I was being seduced by The Chris Sturniolo himself.

He nods at my silly repetition.

All of a sudden, I feel a wave of confidence wash over me. This must be the alcohol resurfacing.

"I want your mouth between my legs," I say, looking at his face for a response to what I just said. A sly grin crawls up his face as his hand slides up to the side of my face and holds me gently as he guides my head towards his.

I feel his soft lips come in contact with mine, and I feel myself melt into his touch. The kiss was soft and tender, but it very easily transformed into one full of lust and passion. The hand that was cupping my cheek moves to the nape of neck, and his other hands begins to roam across my hip and lower back.

I take the chance to slip off my gloves and tangle my hands into his messy hair. Chris grows tired of kissing my lips and firmly tilts my head upwards to give him access to my neck. He delivers wet, open-mouthed kisses all over my neck and collar bone before I feel him find my sweet spot. I release a soft moan at his discovery, which just encourages him to suck and stimulate that area further.

As he continues to mark my neck, I feel his hands move to the back of my thighs before delivering a few taps. I obediently listen to his commands as he lifts me up from the floor, and I wrap my legs around his torso. In this new position, I feel his hard dick strain against clothed pussy.

Suddenly, my back is pulled away from the door, and I feel him carry me towards the bed. Surely, a few seconds later, I was placed onto his mattress. He was on top of me, still placing kisses all over me but slowly making his way closer to my tits.

Before his mouth even has the chance to reach my tits he pulls away. I shudder a little at the loss of contact, but my disappointment doesn't last long when I realise he has his eyes on the prize. He shifts down the bed so that he's now lying on his stomach, and I feel his breath on my inner thighs.

He places a gentle kiss along the inside of my thighs, and I buck my hips at his face, needing his lips somewhere else.

"You're so impatient, aren't you?" He sneers against my soft skin. I groan at his question because he knows where I want him, and yet he's everywhere, but where I need him most.

"Please, Chris, I need you..so, so bad," I plead, I don't care how needy I sound. I just need the relief. With every kiss he placed on my skin, the wetter I became, and it started to become unbearable.

He hummed at my pathetic begging, which caused jolts of electricity to spark all around my body. He finally gave in, and he pulled my panties to the side, taking in the sight before him.

My wet, pink pussy was displayed right infront of him and all he could do was smile. He carefully brought his middle finger to my slick folds, and he collected the wetness that had gathered, I moaned at this action, finally getting some relief. He then brought his finger to his lips and sucked it clean.

He held eye contact with me the entire time, and the only thing I could do was look into his lifeless, blue eyes as he pleased me. He finally sunk his middle finger into me, and the relief was intense. His long, slender finger pumped in and out rhythmically.

"You're so fucking wet, and I've barely touched you," He states almost disgusted by me. His comment made me throw my head back and just focus on his delicious movements. After a few moments, he added his ring finger to the mix, stretching me out further.

All of this was nothing, though. The second he lowered his mouth, I knew I didn't stand a chance. His tongue begins to expertly lick between my folds, collecting all of my juices. By now, I'm a breathy and whimpering mess.

"Chris, please," I plead again.

"What do you want, baby?" He asks, briefly pulling away.

"I want to come on your tongue," I breathe out.

This encourages him to work more efficiently, as he moves his mouth over my bundle of nerves before sucking at it. I can't help but moan at how good it feels.

His fingers are still pumping in and out of me at an amazing pace, and his mouth is working wonders. I feel my orgasm building up in my stomach. I tangle one of my hands into his hair to push him into me further. I need him as close as to me as possible.

At this point, I'm practically riding his face, but I can't help it from how good it feels. My legs begin to spam uncontrollably, and I know I was close.

"I'm so...~ah~...close" I moan, letting him know even though he can definitely tell.

"Beg to come," He says without slowing his movements.

"Please let me come...it feels so good, please...I'm begging you, Chris," I beg shamelessly. He's satisfied with my pitiful pleads and starts to move both his tongue and fingers faster. All that can be heard is the music from the party bleeding into the room and the wet sound of him pleasuring me. This pushes me even closer to the edge.

I feel my orgasm about to wash over me, and I know he knows because I feel my pussy squeeze around his fingers and my thighs grip his head, basically holding him in place.

"You're doing so good f'me," He manages to say while drowing in me, and that was the final straw.

I finally let go, and I feel my juices cover his mouth, chin, and fingers as he continues to ride out my high. I arch my back off the bed, and the most pornographic moans leave my mouth.

I start to recover, and his movements begin to slow. He eventually separates his mouth from my pussy and he slips his fingers out. He moves his body back up to my face, and he places soft kisses against my mouth, and I taste myself on his tongue.

"That was..." I begin to say but realise I can't find words powerful enough to describe how amazing that was. He just smiles lazily at me.

He then moves to lay beside me on the bed, I'm still catching my breath as I hear him wince. I look over and see him looking down. I follow his gaze over to where his dick is basically fighting it's way out of his jeans. He's rock hard. I bet it hurts.

I look over at him once again and smirk before moving off the bed and bringing myself to the floor between his legs...

★ ° . *　　°　.　°☆ 　. * ● ¸. 　　　★ 　° :. ★　 * •

a/n; should I do a p2 to this??? let me know, and I'll do it, I'm also taking requests, it doesn't have to be smut. I'm happy to write cute one shots or fluffs with Matt, Chris, or Nick. anyway, thank you for readingg, love you <33.

[emotionallyattachednerd]

Wicked Ones | ES Skywarp x Nova Storm x f!human reader | NSFW 18+

Word count: 1500+

Warnings: Smut ( Spark merging, touching, licking, fingering and oral ) and robots on human. NSFW 18+.

Notes: Something new and different. I really enjoyed working with these seeker femmes. Thanks for sending in your request @badkarma-900 hope you like it. 🥰

Title of this story was inspired by this song. ❤️

Conjunx Endura - Significant Other Amica Endura - Long-term Best Friend

☕ Coffee

The high you get when playing music is an addiction you craved each time you and your band would perform. You're the lead drummer, and pretty damn good at it. On stag you were swimming through the loud music and the cheers of the crowds with a wide beaming smile, loving every moment of it as the performance went on. People loved you and you admired your fans, but there are two who were your biggest fans that no one else knew about, and with good reason.

Who would've thought two giant alien robots from another planet would come into your life?

"Hey ladies!" You cheer outloud to the seekers at their little bunker they had settled. You've just come from a long performance, the adrenalin still kicking through your heart.

"There's our rockstar!" Skywarp giggles as she comes down to help you up onto the platform to stand in their view.

"We loved the performance!" Nova Storm adds through pumped enthusiasm. "Hope you didn't mind Skywarp and I adding in that little jet performance nearing the end?"

You grin wildly. "Are you kidding? It was fucking amazing! The crowds loved it too, which added more thrill for everyone."

"I don't understand why you two waste your time doing silly stunts for the humans." You hear Starscream say from across the room. "Entertaining them for a short moment like trained pets."

"You make it sound so much worse." You shake your head holding a small smirk. "If you join them you might feel the thrill."

"I'll pass." Starscream wasn't one for a lot of fun you think to yourself.

"In that case, shoo." Skywarp suddenly says to the red and blue seeker catching him off guard slightly.

"You're kicking me out?"

"It's ladies night!" Nova Storm giggles with her wings flickering.

Starscream lets out a wounded groan before he starts heading out. "Fine. But I'll be having my own fun tomorrow and you two will need to shoo then." He's out of the bunker before any of you could question.

"What kind of fun is he into?" You ask through a curious smile.

"Starscream's fun? Could be anything, but most likely his fun is peace and quiet by himself." Skywarp shrugs as you all make your way further into the bunker.

"Well that's sad." A part of you feels sorry for him. "Perhaps next time I do a show you two should drag him along, force him to have your kind of fun, he might like it."

Suddenly you feel yourself being picked up by Skywarp and held closely up at her face. You feel the heat radiating from her warm face plating adding blush against your skin. Right to it then. You're not complaining in the slightest, as this is what you came here for.

"And let him steal our fun? Steal you from us? Nah." Skywarp lets out a vibrating purr that gently shakes through your body and causes a low delightful hum to leave you.

"Besides, don't you want us all for yourself?" Nova Storm is already sitting in their little area before Skywarp brings you over to join.

"Never knew you two were the jealous types."

You remove your top casually and wiggle out from your shorts, leaving you in your lace bra and thin thong clinging against your sweaty skin, mostly from the concert, but you feel yourself beading with sweat and heat once again due to the growing arousal.

"You're ours, y/n." Skywarp watches you, ruby optics eternalling, the very lingering stare they both give that makes you ache and so wet. "And all you need is us."

Nova Storm shifts closer and gently takes Skywarp's chin between her digits, tugging her closer and sharing a kiss with her conjunx. You bite your lips softly at the sight of them, watching your seeker lovers kissing gives you such a surprising thrill. While seated in Skywarp's servo you toss the rest of your undergarments aside, leaving you bare and naked for them to do with as they please.

"Is someone missing out?" Nova Storm asks through a silky tone before leaning closer over you, nuzzling against your breasts before nudging your legs apart, her thick glossa darting out and swiping across your very core.

The very action causes your back to arch up under her warm glossa, letting out a soft shrill and gripping your hands against Skywarp's digits. It was such an erotic feeling having them do this to you, and so much more has happened already. You three simply are in it for fun.

Nova Storm lets out a muted moan against your tingling core and clit, Skywarp watching through lustful optics while you wiggle yourself against the wet warmth gliding across you. Suddenly you feel the tip of her glossa press against you, entering, stretching your depths as you clench down, moaning loudly out for your biggest fans.

You were already so worked up from the concert, so it doesn't take long for you to orgasim and you don't hold back, arching your ass up as you tremble with your juices soaking out and dripping.

"Oh my, was it that good?" Skywarp can't help but giggle and bit her lips at the way you came so quick and hard. Nova Storm laps everything you give, her frame quivering at your taste.

"Like sweet energon." She purrs as she moves away and kisses Skywarp to share your sweet nectar. You have no idea what that is, but you can guess it must taste pretty good to them.

"So good..." You manage to sigh between heated breaths, laying there and gazing up at them, craving for more. They seem to pick up on this and both smirk down at you.

Both their chassis open up and you're faced with the illuminating blue light of their sparks. It's such a gorgeous sight. You know what they wanted. It's been done before between you three and you're very turned on and fascinated by what happens.

Sitting naked between them you sit on the inside edge of Nova Storm's spark chamber, gently touching the glowing orb and smiling to yourself when you hear her gasp out. You know to be gentle, to take care of their sparks and enjoy yourself. After all, you're pretty much in contact with, as the humans say, their hearts.

Gazing down you notice Skywarp has started to finger Nova Storm, servo pumping away at her endura while listening to the music they played, and you start to caress both their sparks as they close and join together in front of you.

It's been explained to you what spark merging is. It's a ritual that joins two or more sparks together of friendship or romantic love, so they can combine into one. How detailed that bond is, from the mental link to a physical need to be together, to full out emotional and mental mind reading to one another.

Skywarp and Nova Storm were conjunx endura, in human terms, married. Starscream was also part of this bond but he is only an amica endura, a close friend.

As you caress the blue orbs under your hands you tilt you head and lick along the outside, feeling a gentle electric buzz rushing through you as you taste it, moaning lowly, mixing in with your seekers' own sounds. You hear them speak your name, praise you and one another, some other words you think is their own language as you take care of their sparks and help build up their pleasure.

The only way you could describe the taste of their sparks is that it's almost like dragon fruit, mildly sweet, a blend of pear and kiwi. It might sound weird but that's how it did taste to you.

Moving your hand down you start to rub your clit in circular motions, sucking and licking at the joining orbs as you let out a moan as you feel another orgasim suddenly build in you. Doesn't take much at all.

Their sparks glow more intense, glittering around you, and this is your only warning that your seekers were closing in to their overload, and so you work your fingers quicker against yourself, continuing to touch and drag your tongue against their sparks. It honestly felt like an honour to be able to touch such an intimate place to them. They chose you, they wanted you. You love spending every moment with them.

Skywarp passionately kisses Nova Storm as they both pump their digits into her valves together, glossas coiling with her mates while their human friend stimulates their sparks perfectly. It won't be long now.

Then it happens. Their sparks glow brightly in a burst of light as both seekers came to their overload and you came hand a second time under your working fingers. Watching their sparks sizzle together was such a beautiful sight. You'll never tire of it.

When it's over you're carefully brought up and set against Skywarp's shoulder where you lay down to get comfortable.

"Best ladies night ever." You grin softly before kissing her cheek.

"Damn right." Noza Storm joins and you three let yourselves calm down from your arousals, knowing very well that you'll probably be at it again soon enough.

"Night is still young..." You tease lightly, making them both snicker.

"Oh y/n, we're never letting you go."

Fine by you.

[sizzlingpatrolfox]

Am I the only one that doesn't care that the production diary was released on wv and not some other platform? Since the travel show was announced to be on disney+ an hour ago all the pjms are complaining about the production diary not being on disney or amazon but I personally am not upset about it. Idk but it felt too personal to be on a big platform. I feel like jm had a very specific audience in mind for that doc and it wasn't the casual fans. It would be nice for jimin to be seen in that light by a wider audience but I can't bring myself to care that much. Do people even watch docs of someone they're not a fan of? The only non-bts music docs I think I have watched are the Beyonce ones and I am a Bey casual fan but I LOVE watching her perform so I'm not some random. Like do we think the jhope doc or the dday doc did numbers? I'm sure jimin one would have found a bigger audience but I think everyone who wants to watch it can find it pretty easily, even for free.

I was never upset about face documentary being on weverse, but I was annoyed and confused. I think it's a valid question why it's only Jimin the different one.

I do lol, I watch documentaries of people I'm not a fan of. I don't know if it's true that anyone who wants to watch it can find it easily. When I just got into BTS I used to have to dm random army accounts asking them where I could watch stuff. I don't think accessibility should be taken for granted. Why is everything else on Disney? Why not release everything on weverse, if it makes no difference?

It's okay to not care, but in your message you yourself say a couple of times that it would've been better for the face docu to have that reach. So I think you already know why some people complain. If you're not bothered by it, that's okay. I'm not particularly bothered either but that doesn't stop me from wondering what's the difference. Because I do believe it would've granted him the possibility to reach a bigger audience. And that's really all we've been asking for a lot of times - just the possibility.

Now, I'm asking because I genuinely don't know how many shows they've put out since hiatus. I only know of one, which I tried to watch but gave up in the middle of the first episode because it was so boring (and I don't expect this jikook one to be much different).

Anyways, my question is didn't some media say that BTS had a contract with Disney for a certain amount of shows? That was in like 2022 or early 2023. Have they already released all the previously agreed on shows, and this one is an "extra", or is this one part of the deal they already had?

[mildly-inconvenienced-bat]

ATEEZ THE FELLOWSHIP: BREAK THE WALL IN LATAM - BRAZIL EDITION

Now that I have your attention, let me just tell you how utterly INSANE that concert was.

For a little more background, this Saturday (Aug. 26) Ateez came to Brazil for the first time and held their 1st stadium concert at Allianz Parque in São Paulo. According to a few articles, there were around 30k people, even though they weren't using the full capacity of the space (around 45k I guess). So far, this is the biggest public they have performed in front of. Also, the only other kpop group to perform there was BTS, so there's that.

I know some countries work differently, but in Brazil we don't have numbered chairs/spots in most of our concerts, so the first ones to get inside on the day of the concert are the ones with the best spot to watch it. That being said, there were people camping around the stadium 3 MONTHS before the concert even happened, just after the tickets were sold. Yes, we hate that kind of people.

But funny enough, when a VIP package was announced, 10 days before d-day (yeah, that's right, a soundcheck-early-entrace package announced only 10 days before the concert - and we hated that also), that meant that unless those people bought the VIP expansion, their camping would have been useless. Fun fact about the VIP expansion/upgrade: it ranged from 1,8k reais (+-370 USD) to 3k reais (+-615 USD) depending if you already had Pit (kinda front rows?) tickets or would need to upgrade - and our minimum wage is 1,7k/month (+-350 USD/month).

Now that I've covered that, let's move on to my personal experience, because that's what I really want to talk about (and no other social platform would really listen, so thank you tumblr for allowing me to talk to myself comfortably).

I live kinda near São Paulo, but the bus I had to take would only do the longer route, so that meant waking up early. Like, 1am early, to have breakfast, get dressed up and styled for the concert, and get to the bus station. I went with my sister and my best friend, we did our best to stick to our schedule, and we almost missed our bus - shout out to the other bus driver who took pity of us and helped us get to the right bus, you're the best and I hope that both sides of your pillow are aways cold.

We arrived in São Paulo at 6am, and took the subway to the stadium's district. We also had to walk 1,5km to get there, as most streets around it were closed and no uber would take us. So picture me, in 12cm platform boots, walking 1,5km. It was an experience, to say the least.

When we finally got to our sector's line, it was around 7:30 in the morning, and there we stayed until 4pm. Yep, almost 9 hours in line, with barely enough space to sit down for a few minutes before the line would move forward for no apparent reason. But, I also met new cool people, and got a few free pc and pins to keep as souvenirs!

I know it must sound like I'm complaining about the whole experience but I promise I'm not. Actually, it was my fist kpop concert, and also my first time on a floor spot, and everything felt so crazy and intense, I don't even know what I was expecting from it all.

We got inside at 4-something pm, and that was the first bathroom break we took since we left the subway (and about that, never doing that again). We managed a place not that far from the b-stage, fixed our things and ourselves, and waited.

If you ever watched an Ateez concert livestream, you know that sometimes they run a bit late, perfectly normal. But let me tell you it didn't take more than 10 minutes for them to start, and I'm pretty sure that if we were excited and nervous, they were 10 times more.

Unfortunately Jongho wasn't there, he's in Korea and will have to fix his ankle with surgery. We did our best to sing his lines even more energetically so that the boys would see that we understand the situation, and that we love Jongho just as much. 8 makes 1 team, after all.

There's not much to say about the concert, I guess everybody knows the setlist and the interactions they usually do with the crowd. But my honorable mentions go to:

The boys introducing themselves in Portuguese! Also them speaking Portuguese randomly during the concert~ it really felt special seeing them doing it

Their reactions to our cheerings! We are known for our passion, and honestly we are very much proud of being loud - they looked so happy whenever we'd match their energy

On the topic of cheering - the "break the wall" chant. Or even better, THE "break the wall" chant. Not to be cocky, but I challenge any other country to surpass us

Wonderland. I mean, do I even have to elaborate? We did our best to sing Jongho's highnote, it wasn't perfect but it was full of love

Last but not least, us making them blush HARD. we have this chant that goes "Lindo, tesão, bonito e gostosão", and you can translate it if you want, but roughly it means we called them beautiful and hot <3

I don't think I'll be posting my videos in here, but if you wanna fell the Brazilian vibe, you can check out my Instagram highlight "ATEEZ IN BRAZIL" on @/itsme_clarinha, or my Twitter (X?) under the same name where I'll post a thread with the full videos I didn't manage on Instagram ✨️

So that's it! I probably forgot a bunch of stuff, but what I remembered was what I wanted to mention the most;; and if you got this far, here's the video of the best brazilian fanchant ever lol

[hamofjustice]

it's nice that we're getting anything i guess, but, i'm gonna be what may come off as a little petty and whiny here; it'd be cool if either iteration of the gen 9 anime so far was actually about gen 9's characters instead of using them as cameos to promote original stories we have no investment in yet

it's like, i dunno, like the bait and switch with sonic appearing in wreck it ralph ads, except if wreck it ralph existing meant there would never be a sonic movie, and if you were invested in those characters and recognized they weren't generic platformer mascots, sucks for you, nobody cares

maybe they're just giving the DLC space to do its thing with them first (if they do anything at all...) but idk, i was cautiously optimistic about nemona in horizons, only for her to be a character of the day that the episode wasn't about, and pretty excited by "gen 9 prequel anime" only to find out it's going to be like, four short stories about OCs who have quick brushes with them. these are like the lacroix hint of what an anime about the game could've been like and you're left to imagine the rest yourself

i shouldn't be that surprised if the gen 8 anime reduced hero of galar hop to a character of the day with a level 5 wooloo in order to let the galaxy revolve around ash battling his brother because epic charizards, but man. what if it wasn't like that that now that ash is gone.

we haven't seen penny and team star at all because they're the hardest to talk about without bringing up the trauma of school bullying and the fear of being yourself at school when you're way too young to be dealing with all that drama responsibly. she's still learning to love and forgive herself and feel wanted.

arven's story is about, like, being a latchkey kid to a self-absorbed parent, being unsure how to feel about repairing the relationship or how seriously to take them saying they love him, and struggling to make friends due to misdirected resentment toward people he's jealous of for having apparently normal families and the stubborn self-reliance he was forced into. he's still trying to process things, find himself, and let people in.

nemona is supposed to have been a directionless lonely and depressed kid who hated being called gifted when everything was hard for her, until she met the player character and gained a peer who understood and appreciated she was a little different and she didn't have to mask her true self to have friends anymore. she's happy for now, but may still be under a little too much pressure to be perfect at the expense of her own personality, and probably won't deal well with being abandoned.

as much as they resonate with adults and are a little darker than usual pokemon fare, they're also smaller scale and realer. they are all stories that are explicitly about and meant to be relatable to kids going to school! y'know, your audience! you don't need to paint over them with 3-4 new characters and new stories every time like there was nothing there, or something shameful you need to sanitize and cover up! you can just use the game the way it is!

this got a little more heated than i intended, i just feel a little ridiculous waiting anxiously for loose scraps of a sign that this story isn't over and in the trash already and nemona's life-changing attachment to the player character isn't going to go totally ignored, as we are bombarded with what is supposed to be followup material that almost all seems eager to talk about literally anything else like they think the main story was a mistake they need to run away from

now, i'm not one to complain about original stories being told, but this was already a story that had room to grow. imagine a world where the gen 9 anime was actually about nemona, arven, penny, and the friend who brought them together. or what their lives were like before that friend came along. every episode. that would get me to watch the anime again and whatever movie came out for it. ask yourself why we don't have that, or even the traditional, like, 1-2 characters tagging along with the MCs per region thing that would leave us knowing them better than we know some irl friends

how was starting over with 100% original characters and new lore that might conflict hard with the upcoming DLC the safer bet? why is a 44 minute miniseries specifically for fans of the game making up OCs for them to get invested in and scrambling to tell their stories as quickly as possible before throwing them in the trash instead of being about the damn game?

sigh. i shouldn't get invested in a series that's about selling monster plushies just because it had one story that stuck with me

[hellsaint7w7]

(4) Witchcraft

••Fandom: Yu-Gi-Oh!••

Full disclosure, I have only ever watched the OG anime (English dub because I legitimately can't find the Japanese version no matter what platform I check), and I haven't seen/read anything else. So if I have characters wrong because they act differently in the manga or movies or other series, I am sorry.

Potential Trigger Warnings:

Ritualistic sacrifice, descriptions of injury and death, and psychological horror.

—————

Third Person POV

Bakura sat on the bench as he usually did, reading his book. The weight of the Millennium Ring hung around his neck, he didn't bother hiding it despite the fact someone might want to steal it. All his attention was focused on the book in his hands.

He didn't like sports very much and he had no friends. Some people around him were playing Duel Monsters and don't get it wrong, Bakura also loved Duel Monsters and spent hours and hours researching it, but he had 3 cards to his name and no one to play with anyway. Bakura stuck to himself, he always did.

"Hey, I saw a symbol like that before!" Shouted someone, sitting next to Bakura. The teenager was so shocked to be talked to that he didn't register what the blonde said. And when he did, he had to think hard to realize what he meant. "Your necklace! My friend has a cool necklace just like it. But different, more triangular and bulkier."

Bakura took a moment to mentally reset. How long had it been since he last said a single word? "O-Oh, yes. My father bought it for me."

"Oh, you do talk! People say you're mute." The other teenager said. "I am Joey."

"I am Ryo Bakura." He said, shaking the blonde's hand.

"What are you reading?"

Instead of answering, he closed the book and turned it for Joey to see the cover. It was a book about the origins of monster legends. Specifically, it was about ghosts and Doppelgängers.

"Jeez, isn't that scary? And it's kinda weird to be reading at school." Joey said.

"Are you scared of ghosts, Joey?" Bakura asked playfully. Immediately, Joey's attitude changed.

"What? No! No, of course not. Not at all. It's just a silly book anyway." Joey said. He stared at the book's cover once again. "What's a... Doppelgänger?"

"It's German for double walker or double ghost, and it's said that everyone has a Doppelgänger in the world; someone unrelated to you that looks similar if not identical." Bakura said. Joey nodded, listening intently. It was nice to have someone to talk to about this stuff, he never had that before. "However it's said that if you see your Doppelgänger, your life is marked."

The look on Joey's face was priceless. Bakura had been researching this stuff so much that he became numb to it, but this was amazing. He liked talking about things that interested him, even if his throat hurt from talking so much.

"And... Is that real? Like... uh..."

"Who knows?" Bakura said mischievously.

"What else do you got in that spooky book of yours?" Joey asked.

When the bell finally rang after several minutes, Bakura's voice was gone. He'd spoken more in that one conversation than he did in the entire last two months. But Joey was fun and listened to him ramble.

  "Which class are you going to next?" Joey asked as Bakura put away his book.

  "Uh... E1. Japanese history." Bakura said.

  "E1?! I had that teacher last year and she sucks!" Joey said. "I turned in a paper the next day after it was due and she threw it in the trash can! And then she took 4 months just to grade our tests."

  "Yeah, I am not the biggest fan of hers either, but I have a good grade in that class so I can't complain." Bakura said.

  "Yeah, well- Ah!" Joey moved to put his hand in his pocket, but then his Duel Monster's cards fell out and all over the hallway. "Oops!"

  Bakura and Joey quickly bent down to collect all the cards. He picked up one off the floor and looked at it before adding it to the group he'd already picked up. "Alligator Sword? That's a nice card. Pretty good attack and defense."

  "Do you like Duel Monsters too?" Joey asked, eyes metaphorically glowing.

  "Yeah, I do. I haven't played before because I don't have a lot of cards, but I read a lot about it. I've also seen most Duel Monsters competitions if they were uploaded to the internet."

  "So you're a Duel Monsters nerd too? You'd be great friends with this buddy of mine, Yugi. Have you met him?"

  "No, I think I have heard his name before... we might share some classes." Bakura said.

  "Next time I see you, I'll introduce the two of you. Anyways, we need to hurry to class."

  Bakura nodded and they parted ways. He didn't end up seeing Joey for the rest of the day. After Japanese history, he had one more class before the day ended.

  When Bakura got home, it was deafeningly silent. With a sigh, he dropped his backpack on the couch and took out his homework. He needed to do his homework first before he did literally anything else. If he even thought about doing something else first, like getting something to eat or taking a shower, he'd completely forget about his homework. So that's what he did.

  He finished his homework and took a shower before sitting on his bed to read. Hours ticked by in silence. Only Bakura's breathing and the flipping of pages filled the space. Usually the quiet didn't bother him as much, but after today he felt suffocatingly alone. Which he was of course. His father was almost always gone, he left for days at a time and was only home to shower and sleep before leaving again. It started when Bakura was about 7 years old and got worse the older he got.

  When he couldn't take the quiet anymore, he turned on the tv for background noise and started making dinner. Even that wasn't enough to take away the loneliness, but at least he was distracted. The bright side was that he went to bed excited to go to school tomorrow.

-

  Bakura woke up in the dead of night, and he had no idea where he was. There were trees all around him and he was soaked to the bone. It was raining! Why was he out here?

  The last thing he remembered was falling asleep on the couch. Being in the middle of the woods was completely impossible! You'd be walking for a good 3 or 4 hours just to get out of the city or else you'd need to drive here. Bakura didn't remember even leaving the house! This had to be some weird dream.

  A stick cracked and Bakura snapped his head around to see what made it. It was dark. Rain poured all around, mud and drowned grass clung to his shoes. Not even the starlight could touch the forest floor, just intense darkness that seemed to swallow him whole.

  "Hello?" Bakura said quietly. He didn't really want a response, but if it was an animal then his voice would scare it away.

  The rain continued to hit the ground and the trees, a constant flow of noise without disruption. Bakura's eyes were locked on the dark bushes, trying to make out shapes. His mind started to play tricks on him, but anything he thought he saw was gone when he blinked.

  And then he heard something behind him. Bakura turned around as quickly as he could and suddenly felt his breath robbed from him. Ice filled his veins even as red hot tears bloomed in his eyes. Standing in the dark was him.

  A Doppelgänger.

  Bakura ran as fast as he could. The cold stung his eyes as he ran and he kept getting caught on branches and twigs. Breath was pulled from his lungs in a constant stream and he couldn't seem to get it back. No matter how hard he tried to suck in oxygen, he never seemed to have enough.

  Water and mud splashed his pants, he must look like a mess. All around were noises, so many noises. The forest suddenly seemed alive, as though the trees wanted to ensnare him.

  His arm caught on a branch and he felt his skin tear. A startled cry left his mouth as he stumbled to the ground. Mud soaked his clothes, it splashed his already icy cold face.

  Bakura scrambled onto his back and turned around to see if he was still being followed. His breath came in heavy waves, the darkness was thicker than fog. Thicker than blood. All he could do was stare, he couldn't even blink.

  And suddenly, a golden glow blinded him. His necklace was floating in midair and glowing, burning his eyes with the sudden light and faintly illuminating the Doppelgänger behind the ring. Bakura made a pathetic noise, but he couldn't move. The only warmth he felt was blood dripping down his arm and pain pulsing through him with each beat of his heart.

  "Don't you know, Landlord?" The voice asked. His voice. A slivery smile emerged from the darkness, plastered on his own face and bathed in golden light. "You can't run from yourself."

-

  Bakura gasped, sitting up quickly. He glanced around with wild eyes and saw that he was back in his living room. Some horror movie was playing on the tv at a low volume.

Slowly, he calmed down. That had to be a dream, an absolutely crazy dream. Maybe he should stop reading about scary things.

The nightmare felt so real though. Bakura got up from the couch and went to wash his face. The details were beginning to fade as cool water hit his skin. And so, he decided to get dressed and ready for school.

He changed from his home clothes to his school uniform, looking outside the window to see that it was later than he normally woke up. Maybe his alarm didn't go off. That's not too uncommon, he'd knocked his alarm off the nightstand enough times that if the cheap alarm started malfunctioning it wouldn't be surprising.

But then Bakura looked at the Millennium Ring sitting on the counter. A sudden shiver of fear ran down his spine as he remembered the nightmare. It was ridiculous to be scared of a piece of jewelry! Reminding himself that it was just a dream, he grabbed it and put it on. This time, he hid it under his shirt.

Now that he was ready for the day, skipping breakfast because he usually did anyway, he left for school. He walked a little faster so that he wouldn't be late. But for some reason, perfect attendance wasn't the biggest thing on his mind.

-

Today when he saw Joey again, the blonde introduced Bakura to his friends. He'd seen them all before, but never spoke with them. Bakura was more than anxious to meet them, but the fear faded quickly. They were all so nice and fun to hang out with.

He watched Yugi and Anzu play Duel Monsters together. Occasionally, his eyes drifted to the Millennium Puzzle that Yugi had around his neck, he'd never seen another Millennium item before. Bakura idly wondered how many of these weird items there were in the world as he watched the two play.

"I don't think I can win with the cards I have." Anzu sighed. She played a card face down. "That's all I have."

"I'll play Dark Magician," Yugi started, placing the card on the desk. "And then I'll attack your Fairy Dragon with dark magic attack."

"My face down card is the trap Waboku which prevents me from having my monsters destroyed this turn." Anzu said, flipping her card over to show the art on it.

From where Bakura was sitting, he could see Anzu's cards. She truly didn't have any card that could protect her. Most of them were monster cards that weren't strong enough to take out the dark magician and she was quickly running out of cards to play. So it wasn't crazy when Yugi won on his next turn.

"Good game." Yugi said.

"Yeah, I tried." Anzu laughed.

"Hey, Bakura, do you play Duel Monsters?" Yugi asked. Bakura hadn't expected to be talked to and was caught off guard. Only for Joey to step in.

"He's a big Duel Monster's nerd! I am sure he can play well!" Joey said.

"I appreciate that, Joey, but I don't have many cards." Bakura said. "I think I have three or four cards and I left them at home."

"Oh, my Grandpa owns a game store where he sells Duel Monsters cards." Yugi said. "You can always come by and buy some!"

"Really? I'd like that. I love Duel Monsters." Bakura said.

"You could come with us after school." Honda said. "We were heading there anyway."

"Oh... I'd love to, but I don't have the money for it right now." Bakura said. The only money he had came from his father whenever he'd occasionally stop by. His father hadn't been home in 3 months and his money was running dangerously low. "I could go with you guys, but I can't buy anything."

"Alright, that's fine. We can just hang out." Yugi said kindly. He was a very nice guy. Bakura was grateful to be invited, he liked having friends. It was something he wasn't used to.

-

  Bakura couldn't remember the last time he had this much fun. He had a great time with the group at the game store, he even had dinner with them even though he felt bad he couldn't pay for himself. Yugi's Grandpa even gave him a free card. He went home very happy that night.

When he laid down, homework completely forgotten, he was ready to sleep. Until pain started radiating from his arm. He sat up, completely confused, and pulled up his shirt sleeve.

There was a cut on his arm. It wasn't bone deep or anything, but it stung. Fear ran through him.

It wasn't possible. He didn't remember getting cut all day long. But last night...

Bakura shook his head and laid down, squeezing his eyes closed. He couldn't believe that was real. He didn't WANT to believe it. Maybe he'd deal with it tomorrow. Or maybe not.

It took a while to get to sleep. When he did he had no dreams, not really. There were vague images of Yugi's puzzle floating through his mind, but they left soon after. And when he woke up, he was even more tired than before he went to sleep. But his alarm was going off, so it was time to go to school.

He got ready for school in a daze. Bakura was so tired that he wasn't thinking straight. Terror plagued his thoughts. There were only a few answers to explain what was happening to him and the most logical answer was that he was going crazy. It was the only thing that made logical sense, but if this wasn't something logical than it was somehow even worse.

Bakura tried hard to distract himself, and for a while it worked. Days past without anything else happening. He threw himself into studying even harder, whether it was for school or the occult. He checked out a lot more books from the public library, Bakura wrote down things that didn't make sense so he could research it later, he also wrote down things that may pertain to what he experienced. And for a while, things seemed normal again. Sure, sometimes he'd wake up on the couch when he fell asleep in bed (or vice versa) and sometimes things in his house would move around for no reason (like when he lost his backpack for a week but found it stuffed under his bed) but he could always dismiss that as sleep walking or forgetfulness.

But one day, he woke up feeling so miserable that he regretted waking up. Bakura fell off the couch and slowly got up. His legs hurt, his knee felt scraped, but his face felt worse.

He walked to his bathroom, his vision blurred, and looked into the mirror. The entire left half of his face was bruised. It looked like Bakura had been hit in the face by something heavy. His eye was bloodshot, he was starved and his mouth was dry. It felt like he hadn't eaten, drank, or slept in months on top of being beaten. What the hell happened to him?

Bakura didn't think he could go to school, which is why he was glad that today was Sunday. He dragged himself back to the couch and debated getting something to eat. He was starving, but that meant having to get up and cook which he didn't feel well enough to do. Slowly, he closed his eyes and let his head fall to the back of the couch. Good half of his face pressed against the soft-ish fabric, it was hard to not sleep.

A few minutes later, he woke up with a jolt and looked around wildly. Whatever woke him up stopped. Maybe a loud car?

With a sigh, he turned on the tv. It was on some news station. "That's all the updates I have on the ongoing situation here. Back to you in the studio for the weather." The anchor said.

"Thanks Cameron. Today, we have rain advisory from today all the way to Friday." She said. Bakura idly looked at the screen, but then fear hit him. The screen showed that today was Monday.

Bakura sat up. How was that possible?! Yesterday was Saturday! How did he somehow skip an entire day? Maybe this head trauma caused him to forget what happened yesterday?

Oh god, who was he kidding? This was bad and denying it was only making things worse. His eyes filled with helpless tears.

Miserably, he got up from the couch and got ready to go to school. He was already late, so he didn't rush, but he didn't know what else to do. He nearly laughed at how ridiculous it seemed to go to school after all this, but he didn't know what else to do.

He got stared at when he went to school, but no one said anything. That is until Joey came up to him as he was reading in the hallway. And by 'reading' I mean staring at the page because he was too distracted to process the words.

"Hey, Bakura!" Joey said. Concern flashed in his eyes when he saw the bruise on Bakura's face.

"Oh, hey, Joey." Bakura said.

"What happened to your face? That looks painful." Joey said. Bakura couldn't talk for a moment before he closed his book.

"I don't know." He said honestly.

"You don't know?" Joey asked. Bakura shook his head. It was the truth, a truth he didn't want to accept. Joey looked a little uncomfortable, but he sat down on the floor with Bakura. "Uh... You know you can tell me if something happened. I may not look like it, but no one keeps a secret better than Joey Wheeler."

Bakura felt confused for a moment. He'd never heard Joey speak so sweetly. It was nice, Bakura needed someone to be nice to him today. But it was very confusing. And suddenly it hit him. Did Joey think this was a domestic issue?

"That's very sweet of you, Joey, and I appreciate it very much. But I don't think you and me are on the same page." Bakura said. Now Joey looked confused. Could you blame him? What could Bakura even tell Joey? He didn't know what was going on. And if told Joey about all this craziness, would the other believe him? Maybe he'd think Bakura is losing it (which he might be) and leave him alone again. Bakura didn't want to be alone again. "There are periods where my memory blacks out and I don't remember anything. Yesterday it-... yeah. I wish I could tell you more, but it's not what you're thinking."

He didn't want to look at Joey. That was such a non-answer, avoiding the question. But for the most part, it was true, he was just leaving out a few details. Still, he stared at the ground so that he didn't have to see Joey's expression.

"Well... that's alright. How about we go to the nurses office and get you an ice pack or something?" Joey suggested.

Bakura was a little surprised. Joey wasn't prying for answers and instead was offering a good idea for the pain. He couldn't help but smile and nod.

-

There had to be some explanation. Bakura thought about it as he walked home. If he was going crazy, he might as well go completely crazy. Maybe confronting 'it' was the best option.

Bakura was good at ignoring things. He could pretend everything was fine startlingly well. He could pretend his dad cared about him, he could pretend like he wasn't haunted by memories of a family that no longer existed in this world, and if he pretended hard enough he could almost imagine his family at home waiting for him. Confronting things wasn't what he did. He never asked why his dad was always gone, he didn't ask why his world had been so cruel, he just pretended it wasn't. And maybe if he kept pretending, these weird blackouts and strange dreams would become normal too.

But he didn't want that. He didn't want any of this to become 'normal'.

  He closed the door to his empty apartment and dropped his backpack on the couch. Bakura looks around, but he doesn't know what he expected to see. Awkwardly and more than a little nervous, he cleared his throat before he spoke.

  "Whatever is going on, spirit or Doppelgänger, just talk to me. What do you want?" He asked out loud. He pulled the Millennium Ring out from where it was hidden and stared into the eye. "I don't know what's going on, but maybe we could help each other? There must be a reason why you're doing this."

  Silence. Cars, wind, and then...

  "Did you figure that out on your own, or did someone tell you?" Said a sarcastic voice. His own voice. Bakura looked over and saw someone who looked like him, the Doppelgänger from his dream. His Doppelgänger had darker skin and different eyes, plus the scar over his eye, but other than that he looked like Bakura.

  "Who are you?" Bakura asked.

  "My name is Bakura."

  "Well, that doesn't really help our situation."

  The Doppelgänger blinked in surprise before he laughed. "You actually have a sense of humor? That's surprising." He said.

  "Just call me Ryo, and I'll call you Bakura." Ryo said. The Doppelgänger nodded and leaned against the wall. This was all so strange. "What is it that you want?"

  "I don't remember much of my past, my memories are slow to return, but I do remember that I need to acquire the 7 Millennium items. Like the one around your neck that I currently possess." Bakura said.

  "Like the one Yugi has?"

  "Yes. But I can't just steal them, I need to win them in a duel." Bakura said. "And I don't care whether you help me or not, but I need to get those items back where they belong."

  Ryo stared at the Doppelgänger for a moment. He wanted some jewelry back? By the sounds of it, they were once his anyway. If that was all, he had no issue helping out.

  "As long as no one is hurt, I'll help you out." Ryo said. Bakura smiled and nodded. "That includes me. I don't want to keep waking up with bruises."

  "That was an accident." The spirit said. "I wouldn't intentionally injure our body."

  'Our body'. That phrase sent a creeping chill of wrongness down Ryo's spine. Of course it made sense that they shared a body now, but it just felt wrong.

  "Look, I am not happy about this either." Bakura said. Ryo blinked. Did he say that out loud? "I would prefer to have my own body too, but we need to compromise."

  "Can you read my mind or something?"

  "No, but your dopey face tells me all I need to know. You look like a frightened rabbit."

  Ryo quickly wiped the emotions from his face, feeling more than a little embarrassed. No one has ever told him how easily readable his facial expressions were. Was that true or was the spirit just very good at social queues?

  "Listen, I don't want to be here anymore than you want me here. The second I get the Millennium items, I'll have the power that I deserve and you'll have your body back." His demeanor suddenly changed to be much more serious. There was an anger in his eyes that terrified Ryo.

  "Alright, fine. We have a deal then. No one gets hurt, and everyone gets what they want." Ryo said, his body was completely stiff as if the spirit might attack him at any moment.

  "Then we have a deal."

-

  With every day that passed, Bakura gained more of his memories and with it came his lust for revenge. When he was first awoken, all he knew was Ryo. The child was the barer of his ring in which his soul existed. He knew the child's name, he knew he wanted to get something back, and he knew that he died some 5,000 years ago.

  After that, memories started to come back. Through Ryo's books he saw stone buildings and tablets that awoke something deep inside. The place was called Egypt and he was born there.

  Soon, when he and Ryo were at the graveyard for Mother's Day, another memory unlocked. He remembered his own mother and his father, and most of all his baby sister.

  Even standing in a field of death, Bakura felt peace as he relived those memories. He closed his eyes and could almost smell home. It was like he could feel the stone under his feet.

  "Remember to be careful of her head, Bakura." His mother said. Bakura could feel the weight of his sister in his arms. "That's it. She'll grow up looking up to you, you need to be a good big brother and protect her."

  He remembered what his home looked like, how it smelled, and the people in his home. And for a moment he felt more content and sure of himself than he ever did. And then of course confusion set in. Why did he feel such a strong pull to revenge when he had everything he could ever want right here with him? (In the past of course)

  After that day, the nightmares started. Bakura couldn't sleep anymore because anytime he closed his eyes or let his mind wander, all he could hear were screams. The smell of blood was so strong that it made him gag.

  "No, please! Not my daughter, please, she has done nothing wrong!" His mother cried. Bakura couldn't move but tears fell from his eyes as he watched from inside of the chest he hid in.

  "Let go of the child!" The soldier shouted. He stomped on the woman's arm, making it crunch. Bakura's mother cried, but just curled up around his sister to protect her. "In the name of the Pharaoh, you will relinquish your souls to us, you foul demons!"

  In the name of the Pharaoh. The Pharaoh. You foul demons.

  He watched as his mother and sister were dragged out of the house. Bakura couldn't move, not until he heard the screams of the other villagers fade in the distance. All the sudden, his pathetically weak voice worked.

  "N-No, wait..."

  Bakura got out of his hiding place and followed the glow of torches retreating further into the night. He kept out of sight but remained close. Everyone he'd ever known was funneled into an underground area, the smell of blood was so thick that he couldn't breathe.

  The images were burned into his mind. Each and every one of them were sacrificed, beheaded. The stones under him ran red with blood and the aura of death. Bakura couldn't move.

  He was too weak, too young. What was a child to do about an army sent by the Pharaoh? And so he did what any pathetic coward would do: he ran. He ran into the night crying like a baby. Because he wasn't strong enough.

  Never again. Never again! He promised himself he'd never be weak again, he'd have the Pharaoh's head on a pike.

  "Spirit?" Ryo said.

  "What?" Bakura snapped, pulled from his unpleasant thoughts. Ryo flinched.

  "Jeez, all I did was try to get your attention. You've been glaring holes in the wall for thirty minutes." Ryo said.

  Bakura huffed in annoyance and crossed his arms roughly. "Who cares? I need those Millennium items. I need them, but what can I do? I need a plan."

  The horrors of the Massacre of Kul Elna was his and his alone. Cursed upon him by the Pharaoh, the Pharaoh who got to sleep peacefully at night even knowing what he did. Bakura couldn't stand for this. He needed to make him suffer. Bakura's anger was alive, it had a pulse and was burning in his chest, demanding royal blood.

  "You're going to drive yourself insane if that's all you think about, Bakura." Ryo said.

  "Who cares?! Who cares about any of this?!" He shouted with far more rage than he had before. Ryo recoiled, startled by the spirit's outburst. What happened to them working together? Something must have pissed the spirit off.

  Just as Ryo thought that, the spirit grabbed him by the collar of his shirt. Suddenly, gold flooded Ryo's vision as the Millennium Ring started pulsing. As if the ring had a heart beat.

  "We have work to do, Ryo. And I'll make that foul beast that calls himself 'Pharaoh' relinquish his soul!" The spirit said. Unhinged laughter was the last thing to echo through Ryo's head before the world went dark and silent.

(4935 Words.)

[aishangotome]

Chapter 13-5 Doubts about Baixiao Pavilion (百曉疑竇)

Chapter 13-4

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Two days later. Qinghun had not yet returned. I was sitting alone in the room when a figure gracefully landed by the window.

Zhong Wu Xiang leaned against the window and looked at me, his burning red eyes warming the cold night.

Zhongwu Xiang: Princess, there are so many people in your heart right now.

Princess: Don't joke, you know I'm worried about Chen Qi.

Zhongwu Xiang: Chen Xiu's whereabouts are unknown, and Chen Qi has closed his door to visitors... Is this making you so upset?

Zhong Wu Xiang came in front of me, so close that I could feel his breath.

Zhongwu Xiang: If you want to see him, I'll take you there.

Princess: ...No, I believe he has a reason for not seeing me, and I still have other things to do.

Zhongwu Xiang: Then let's go.

Zhong Wu Xiang extended his hand to me, seeming to know exactly where I was going. I smiled and patted his palm.

Princess: What, do you think I need the "National Teacher" to back me up?

Zhongwu Xiang: How could the Emperor need the National Teacher to back them up? It's just that the mortal world is boring, and Nancang is even more boring...

Zhongwu Xiang: I came back for you, you have to spend some time with me.

Princess: I will have time when I finish these things.

Zhong Wu Xiang knew that I was just casually agreeing, but he just smiled, with a helpless indulgence.

Zhongwu Xiang: What the princess wants to do will naturally go smoothly, there is no need to worry.

-

Nancang bordered the sea, and wherever I went, there was a damp smell in the wind.

In the spacious hall, only Ning Ji and Wangjue stood side by side, seemingly having been waiting for me for a long time.

After the open and honest conversation, they no longer bothered to pretend to be anyone. Ning Ji tilted his head slightly, as if trying to figure out my expression.

Ningji: Princess, are you here to condemn me?

Princess: Minister Ning, with your flawless planning and ability to predict things like a god, I'm afraid you already have a way to deal with this, right?

Ning Ji had a faint smile on his face and a distant gaze as he bowed to me.

Ningji: "Flawless planning", I don't deny it. As for "predicting things like a god"... what the princess wants to ask about should be this, right?

Princess: Let's not beat around the bush.

Princess: This palace change was within your expectations, as was the collapse of the Tide Viewing Platform --- or rather, this was all part of your plan.

Wangjue's eyes flickered with urgency.

Wangjue: Auntie, the Tide Viewing Platform was originally created by Gao Zhuo to attack me...

Ning Ji slowly shook his head at him, stopping him from saying anything further.

Ningji: Gao Zhuo used human lives as bait to make the monarch lose the trust of the people, so that he could justifiably replace him with another obedient puppet.

Ningji: He wanted a bloodless coup, but what I wanted was to use his plan against him.

Princess: At the height of the party struggle, Chen Qi happened to return to the capital with the Black Cloud Cavalry, which forced the Gao faction to take risks.

Ning Ji's eyes showed approval as he nodded in response.

Ningji: Gao Zhuo had a high reputation among the aristocratic families. Although the common people also complained about the aristocratic families, they believed that all suffering was caused by the incompetence of the monarch.

Ningji: If we can pin this case on Gao Zhuo, it would be a way to pull the rug out from under him.

Ningji: It's a pity that he's slippery, no matter how I investigate the case, there's no real evidence...

Princess: What you're talking about, Minister, are hundreds of lives, not just a few lines in a file.

Ningji: The path to the highest position in the mortal world is full of thorns, paved with the flesh and bones of countless people.

Ningji: Princess, you are a nine-day phoenix born in blood, don't you understand such a simple truth?

Princess: I beg to differ.

We looked at each other in silence. In the end, it was Wangjue who broke the deadlock.

Wangjue: Auntie, I know you're still angry with me, and I don't expect you to forgive me.

Wangjue: But now, we are not your enemies.

Princess: You and I are connected by blood, even if you are honest with me, I may still not help you.

Wangjue: But what if I don't agree with the Chen family? Will you still help me, Auntie?

Princess: That's what I want to ask you.

Princess: The Chen brothers are loyal, but you are suspicious of them. This is not the act of a wise ruler.

A bitter smile disappeared in a flash, and his gaze finally became firm.

Wangjue: The Chen brothers are just like the National Teacher, they are defending Nancang, not for me.

Wangjue: Take precautions, be cautious from the beginning. I have been walking on thin ice since I was a child, and I will never forget such words of warning.

Princess: Even if they turn against you, how can you win? Unless...

Princess: In your plan, you can win this game without the Black Cloud Cavalry.

Wangjue stopped playing word games with me and nodded to me with a half-smile.

Wangjue: If you were in danger in Nancang, Auntie, the people of Lingzhou would naturally come to your aid. But I really didn't expect you to be so well prepared.

Princess: You are constrained by the Gao family in Baiyujing, and you even need the National Teacher to help you leave the palace. How can you know so much about me and Lingzhou, which are thousands of miles away?

Princess: I guess someone must have given you information about me.

Wangjue: All kinds of events are hidden in a deep pavilion, and everything in the world is known.

Wangjue: Baixiao Pavilion lives up to its name, knowing everything. We got a lot of our information from there.

Princess: Him again.

Wangjue: Again? Could it be that you have already had contact with this Pavilion Master, Auntie?

Before I could answer, a green figure gracefully landed behind me, as light as a feather.

Qinghun: Princess. There are clues about the Yuyan Tower.

I took the letter that Qinghun handed me, and it felt heavy in my palm.

Qinghun frowned slightly and stared at me intently. He breathed carefully, so lightly that he almost disappeared.

Qinghun: That landlord is from Nancang, and he did build this Yuyan Tower himself, but... he has another master.

I clenched the letter in my hand, my expectations and doubts intertwined, resonating with my increasingly rapid heartbeat in my chest.

Princess: Is it the Pavilion Master of Baixiao Pavilion?

Qinghun: Yes.

Wangjue, who was standing aside, was lost in thought, and suddenly his eyes focused on me as if he had figured something out.

Wangjue: Auntie, this Yuyan Tower was originally just a place for poetry and music gatherings, nothing special.

Wangjue: But a few months ago, it suddenly became famous and has since gathered many talented people. The landlord has also taken on a mysterious aura.

Princess: A few months ago...

Qinghun bowed slightly and whispered in my ear.

Qinghun: Princess, it was shortly after the Shengning Palace change.

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Chapter 13-6

If you’d like to support my translations, feel free to buy me a coffee here! :)

[xivanxiety]

The First & Worst FC (Approx June 2019 - May 2020)

As previously mentioned in my last blog entry, a long time RP friend reached out to me mentioning that he'd started playing XIV and had started an FC. And by started an FC, they'd just started. I was the fifth person to join this FC, so I was officially the first member. This FC eventually grew to consist of people from two different RP communities from two different platforms, so there was a lot of familiar and new faces for everyone. I will need to use names, so I will be naming some of the people in this story after the cast of Mean Girls. Anyway, back to the beginning:

I'm typically pretty shy with groups at first, I like to sit and observe and get a feel for the vibes, I'm also just a quiet person in group settings as other people tend to dominate the conversation. So making friends doesn't come quick for me... typically. However, it didn't take long for Janis to befriend me. I'd say we were pretty attached at the hip. She found a lot of joy in witnessing me go through the MSQ and hearing my reactions to all of the major plot points. She also helped me through a lot of dungeons, trials, etc.

One thing I will note is that Janis did warn me about one of the members in our FC, Regina. She told me that Regina was Aaron's (our FC lead, and my friend from Tumblr) best friend, she had feelings for him, and their characters from their RP community were in a romantic relationship, so she was quite protective of him (I think she meant possessive).

One day, our small group decided to go hang out in Mordona. It was me, Janis, Aaron, Regina, and Glen. We were just shooting the shit and taking screenshots while hanging out in voice. And then as we were sharing the shots we took, Regina blurts out "Katy, why are you staring at Aaron??" I was caught off guard by this, so I simply responded, "I'm... not?" She then hissed at me and said "You're looking at him in all of your screenshots!" I was actually targeting Janis who was standing behind me, so it looked like I was targeting Aaron. I told her "I don't know what to say, I wasn't targeting him." She then let out a deep breath and said "You know what? I just need to chill the fuck out." And left the voice chat. It would appear that either she caught herself in the moment, or someone privately DM'd her telling her to stop which wouldn't have surprised me given future incidents. However, I do believe from that moment on, I was Regina's public enemy #1.

I don't recall a single civil interaction between the two of us and I maintain to this day, I was definitely not an instigator.

Example #1: One day in voice chat, I was helping Janis with pronouncing Korean foods and words. I was talking to Janis but at some point Regina griped, "I know, Katy! I already study Korean so I don't need you teaching me!" Girl, I wasn't even talking to you!

Example 2: She was quick to assume or claim I was being antagonistic in Discord when I was simply engaging in discussion, she'd tell me to calm down and drop it. She was quick to disagree with me in any group chat and treated me like I was being aggressive and antagonistic. ie. I was stating that I wished the Valentione dresses came with petticoat layers in the design because otherwise, it makes no sense why they'd be so poofy. She got on me about complaining over nothing and said they looked fine the way they were. What is wrong with a little critique? I swear, I wasn't allowed to be critical of this game and Yoshi P even in the slightest.

Example 3: One day, another sprout in the FC asked in FC chat what materia they should use for SCH. Regina chimed in telling them not to worry about it, they're not at level cap, much less ready for raids. I asked if she could hypothetically answer the question because I was curious how similar it was to WoW, because a lot of the stats were quite similar and I was a healer main in WoW. Also, Regina was a SCH main at the time. She repeated, "I said not to worry about it!" I then went to Google and looked it up myself and repeated what a few sources online were saying. She responds with "LOL no!" and logged out. The other sprout thanked me for speaking up and answering their question because Regina was starting to scare them.

The final incident (for some time) occurred when I logged into the game one day and dove right into working on the MSQ. I was finally in Shadowbringers and I was eating up the story. Mind you, I was still very much so a sprout. I'd been doing almost nothing but MSQ since I started playing. I do believe this was about... August-ish after SHB came out. We had a new member in the FC, someone who wasn't from either RP communities so we especially wanted to make him feel welcomed. I was running into an issue where I couldn't get past a fight with a few NPCs and was playfully teasing myself in the FC chat. I then quickly realized it was because I hadn't repaired my gear in some time and some of it was broken. Rookie mistake, I know. Regina sees me talking in FC chat and tells me to just go buy some gear off of the market board. I tell her that's too expensive. She then barks back telling me "No it isn't" I then explain I am still leveling so I don't want to waste gil on gear I am going to either replace quickly or can get for free through the MSQ. She then appeared to get fed up and told me to just buy the damn armor. I then went onto explain that it wasn't for a need of armor, I just forgot to repair and now everything is fine. She took it as an opportunity to crack jokes at me and shame me for forgetting to repair my gear. I think she then went and looked me up on the Lodestone or something because then she continued, "WTF are you doing in lvl 82 armor when you're lvl 88?? Go buy higher level gear!" and once again the back and forth about her telling me to go buy armor continued, I told her that even though I'm lvl 88, I am in lvl 82 content (I started SHB at about lvl 86ish, the exact numbers are fuzzy). She continued essentially yelling at me in FC chat but then grew silent and then eventually logged off.

I was then informed by Janis that Regina has been complaining to her and Aaron about me in DMs and they were getting tired of it. Janis told Regina to stop coming to her with her complaints about me as we were friends. And apparently, Aaron had gotten onto her for making a scene in front of our new member and told her she needed to give me a chance or leave. She logged out, and wouldn't log back in for a long time.

The thing is, this character in the FC wasn't Regina's main. She had a main on a completely different DC and tbh, she hardly ever did any content with anyone in the FC except for when Aaron needed help. Otherwise, she'd log in, seemingly check if Aaron was online, maybe say a few things in FC chat, and then log out. She was mostly active in the Discord server.

And for some time, there was peace. We were building structure within the FC. I had become the 'HR' of the FC so to speak and I was also one of the house decorators, having used my own gil to furnish and decorate the place. I felt quite liked by the community. I helped run events and people often confided in me and seemed to feel comfortable coming to me with their issues with the FC. I genuinely liked being there for everyone and playing my part. That was not going to last and it all changed overnight.

I woke up one morning to find that Janis had stepped down as co-FC lead and had promoted Regina to co-lead. And Regina had gone through all of the roles and changed their permissions, and which one received the most lockouts? Mine. I was essentially demoted to just being a member. I couldn't do jack shit, I even lost the ability to drop furnishing items into the FC house. I was not happy and reached out to the admin chat in Discord stating that I couldn't even drop furniture when I was the one who was investing their gil in the furniture. Aaron wasn't happy as he hadn't authorized those changes, to which Regina replied "How was I supposed to know?? I've been gone for months!" Yes! Exactly! You weren't even active with us to begin with. You used your gil you got from your MSQ and level boosts to help pay for the FC, and that was that. She didn't know a damn thing about the community other than when she'd pop into the Discord server and boast about her achievements on her main.

Meanwhile, Janis had started to avoid me. I knew that running the FC was beginning to take a toll on her. She didn't like running an FC, she just wanted to play with her friends. I never got to confirm what her issue was with me, but she never spoke to me again. I do believe Regina had something to do with it because the timing was too coincidental. It became painfully awkward and uncomfortable for me being in the FC. Regina was on a power trip, Janis wasn't talking to me, and Aaron wasn't doing a damn thing to help. Janis and Aaron had been my closest friends. I was quite vocal to Aaron about my dislike for the changes to the FC and I was often the voice for other members who were too afraid to speak out because they too were afraid they'd become Regina's punching bag. We had these farming plots placed in the FC yard, but only Regina was allowed to use them. We were told not to mess with them. One day, one of the members saw that her crystals were ready to harvest, so they gathered them and mailed them to Regina. Her response? She threw a fit in FC chat, told us "Don't touch my stuff!" and removed all members abilities to harvest from the plots.

Meanwhile, Regina continued bullying me, always making passive remarks about me. Anytime I shared a screenshot, she would post 2-3, bumping my screenshot out of view. She always had snide remarks in response to anything I said. I once mentioned that my partner at the time had ordered us Jimmy Johns for dinner, and Regina proceeded to shame me in voice chat claiming I support a man who hunts wildlife in Africa... just because my partner bought me some Jimmy Johns. I had to set myself to DND and turn off notifications on my phone because just any sound related to Discord was giving me anxiety.

Then the Valentiones event came around, the one with the obstacle course you have to run with a partner. A friend of mine, Karen, joked that she and Aaron should run it together. Their characters canonically did not get along, so she thought it would be amusing, besides... it was a joke. Regina did not like this. She pitched yet another fit telling Karen absolutely not, and asked her how would she like it if Regina approached Karen's partner and asked him to run it with her? Regina was constantly forgetting one of the major rules (at that times). Our character's canons did not exist in the FC. There was too much overlappage and we didn't want to deal with petty jealousy. Basically, Aaron's character was actually in a romance with a few characters in the FC. Funny enough, my character was not one of them, and yet for some reason Regina was Hell bent on pushing me out. And this rule apparently did not apply to Regina because she just assumed that Aaron and her character were going to get married and assumed she was his partner in the game. However, over on Tumblr, Aaron's character was starting to eye mine in their story. So it kind of came to no surprise when Aaron decided, due to how Regina was behaving, he was not going to run the event first with her, and instead, asked me to run it with him. I saw no big deal in it, Regina already hated my guts, so I may as well, I otherwise didn't have anyone to run it with. In the moment, I hoped maybe he decided to run it with me because I was not behaving like a brat, but I kind of wonder if he did it to ruffle Regina's panties. Funny enough, Regina didn't have a damn thing to say about it. I assume Aaron had a word with her in private.

But things continued going downhill from there. I had extended an olive branch to Janis asking if we could just talk about why she wasn't talking to me. It was becoming painfully awkward and uncomfortable being in an FC where 2/3 of the people on top did not like me. People I considered friends were beginning to become questionable. Gretchen had once upon a time confided in me because she too felt Regina was on a power trip and she didn't like seeing someone who was so inactive suddenly in control of the FC, meanwhile, she too had been making all efforts to help the FC and felt like she wasn't appreciated. But even Gretchen was starting to hang out with Janis more and speaking to me less. My only two friends left were Karen and Damian, or so, that's how it felt at the time (there were definitely more people on my side in the end). They'd even arrange FC events in secret, definitely without my knowing. I'd be logged in only to check the FC roster to see that most of them were in a group together running maps or FATEs. No mention of it in FC chat or the Discord. But seeing as Janis was often involved in these runs, I was clearly being purposefully excluded, Karen as well. We found comradery in each other as the rejects of the FC. When Karen first joined the FC, Janis asked me to not RP with her as all she liked to do was ERP. She made it a point to say this to everyone she saw getting close to Karen. I took her suggestion with a grain of salt. Yeah, Karen had her flaws, but she was by far the least problematic in the end. This was when I began to wonder "Why the fuck am I still in this FC??"

That was when Karen, Damian, and I discovered it... Balmung. People in the FC had always badmouthed the server, stating it was filled with degenerates. And you definitely don't go to the Quicksands. Well, we wanted to see it for ourselves, so together we went to Balmung. We took a liking to people-watching in the Quicksands. Karen had a thing for a certain race, so she liked to try to chat them up, flatter them, etc etc, never anything serious. One day she spotted a fellow in the distance whose character design she really liked, like... really liked, but she was too shy to say anything. So, I offered to talk to him for her. I sent him a tell letting him know that my friend next to me liked his character design. He took the compliment in stride, but did not appear to take any interest in talking to Karen, but instead chose to talk to me. No, he didn't start hitting on me or anything creepy. In fact, he too was just there to people watch and see who sends him tells.

My time on Balmung encouraged me to start considering diving into RP in XIV. I was beginning to feel more comfortable with just going out on my own and expanding my social circle outside of the FC. Meanwhile, every time Karen and I were spotted on Balmung, people in the FC had things to say, there was a lot of slut shaming going on. I'd swiftly call people out on their hypocrisy because there's no way in Hell some of these people hadn't ERP'd. Aaron especially had art of his character and other people's characters in the act. So what is wrong with Karen, Damian, and I hanging out on Balmung??

Another mutual on Tumblr reached out to me and said I should make a character on their DC and join their FC. They were an RP FC and there was no pressure to make the character my main. So I started a second life on this other DC. It was there that I made one crucial change to my character: Her race. I'd kind of sped my way through character creation the first time around and wasn't 100% happy with her initial design. However, the race and clan I really wanted to be was the exact same as Regina. And I just knew if I changed my character, I'd never hear the end of it. But when I finally made her into what I truly wanted her to be, it was hard to go back to her original design. She was just so cute and my other FC absolutely adored her. They encouraged me to just bite the bullet and fantasia my main, who cares what Regina thought? That FC clearly no longer gave any shits about me. So I did. And sure enough, as soon as I posted a screenshot of my character in the Discord server, Regina had things to say. "Looks like I need to fantasia, one too many (race/clan) in this FC."

The more time went on, the less fucks I gave, and the more I distanced from this FC. I finally decided to have a talk with Aaron. I asked him if there was some issue that people had with me. He tried spinning it onto me and said "I don't know, it sounds more like it's you who has a problem with other people." I asked him to clarify what he meant by that. He then told me I need to be more careful about talking about others behind their backs. To this day I don't know what the fuck he was talking about, because everything I complained about in private to others I told to Aaron himself. I had no qualms about expressing my concerns to him. But I also posed the question, wouldn't that mean there's a great deal of hypocrisy going on then? I never vented to anyone who didn't verbally agree with me. I'm not the type to just dump onto someone without mutual expression of feeling the same way and without valid complaints. I never have problems with people unprovoked. I genuinely never had any issues with Regina in the beginning, it was she who had problems with me and I was beginning to believe that Regina had somehow flipped the narrative. So either way, he was allying with someone who had no issue acting two-faced, and does anyone really want to be friends with someone like that? I later learned that Gretchen had been repeating things I said to Aaron and Regina. I was officially done with this FC. I just needed to wait for a good opportunity and for Balmung to open up.

Meanwhile, I just spent most of my time on Balmung. One fateful day, I was sitting in the Quicksands when some guy started sending me tells. It quickly escalated (on his end) and the dude was asking desperately for my attention and was not taking no for an answer. The guy I'd spoken to for Karen noticed me and asked if I was having any issues. I told him that the other guy wouldn't leave me the fuck alone. He then told me to tell the guy that I needed to go meet with my friends. He then lead me to a different part of Ul'dah where there was a little group of people just sitting and chilling. They were friends and FC mates of his. They weren't RPers, just long time Balmung residents. They were the chillest group of people I'd ever met, and still to this day, remain some of the chillest people I know. They took me in and I began hanging out with them every day. My birthday came around and they showered me with gifts and celebrated with me.

I finally made the move not long after my birthday. Over night I abandoned my house, exited my FC room, said goodbye to anyone who happened to be online at the time, and transferred to Balmung.

Balmung was such a silly place, I don't think it's as bad as a lot of people make it out to be. Upon logging in after transferring, a little lalafell walked up and gave me a hug. I then stepped away from the aetheryte and stumbled upon two people who were in character. One of the characters appeared to be mute and was acting bashful toward my character, like he thought she was really cute, meanwhile his friend was expressing disapproval in me, shaking her head no at him and gesturing that he stop before approaching me and pointing as if telling me to walk away. They didn't really speak to me after that so I assume they were just goofing around. But it was quite the welcome to Balmung.

Aarson of course DM'd me the next day expressing his disappointment in me. He said he wasn't bothered by the fact that I left the FC, but why did I have to go to Balmung?

Years of friendship, dedicated writing partners, invested so much time and energy and gil into your FC, and that's what you have a problem with?

Thank you, next.

The Aftermath

So, I had another character in the FC who I forgot I'd left in there. And I logged in on that alt the day after I left to remove her and also say my goodbyes to people who I didn't get to say goodbye to. Regina was not aware of this. While I was logged into said character, Regina logged in and said in FC chat "Finally, I can breathe in my own FC!" Bitch please.

I'd learn over time that I had more allies in the FC than I initially thought. A number of people reached out and stayed in touch with me, including Gretchen who I ended up softblocking. Another member of the FC tipped me off and told me she was likely just in contact with me to give the FC leaders tea on what I was up to, probably hoping I'd be miserable on my own. I wasn't.

Sometime later, Damian and Karen ended up getting pulled into a voice call and was yelled at by Regina for continuing to associate with me, treating them as though they were guilty of some crime for fraternizing with the enemy. Aaron also sided with Regina on this matter. They then left the FC and went off and started their own.

I was also told that Regina was never physically active within the FC ever again, only in Discord. And Janis eventually took over her position as co-lead again.

Basically, anyone who was a friend of mine in the FC ended up leaving. Besides Gretchen. I named her Gretchen because of the pick-me nature of both individuals. Even Janis left the FC recently. Honestly, I feel as though Aaron was far more antagonist than most would've given him credit for. I think he found joy in how much Regina adored him and how possessive she was and how quick she was to bow down to him. He liked stirring the pot. The RP community that they all came from (I was in the minority from Tumblr) was almost cult like in my eyes. They all placed him on a pedestal and a lot of people develop crushes on him. I'm told he ended up getting together with someone else and married them in-game and of course everyone attended but Regina.

[ciboriaadastra]

context in lrb

imo it all comes down to the fact that everybody has the choice to care and to do what they can AND they know it and shouldn't need to be told that. Everybody knows in a community setting that they have social responsibilities in addition to personal responsibilities, and either you choose to fulfill them in some way or you choose not to. You gotta put your trash in the public trash can instead of dumping it on the ground; you gotta call EMS if someone is having a medical crisis in your vicinity instead of letting their condition get worse and potentially end their life. Social responsibility is not a foreign concept. People teach you or provide resources for you to learn to do your due diligence, often since childhood this has been taught in some fashion, and it's your choice to do them or not do them when the situation calls.

Yes, doing the right thing doesn't make somebody better than you. This is also the least important thing to care about. Someone else's ego has no bearing on your ability to do the right thing. Your ability to do good is not about other people; it's about you and your choices.

People spend so much time focusing on their own feelings about social responsibilities instead of just either doing them or not doing them. Yeah, people are going to judge you, but that's literally life. If you only did things that nobody had some kind of opinion on, you'd never do anything in your life. So long as there is life capable of higher order thinking, there will be someone to judge you. Even in your death, people will judge you. It's literally not different offline; people just tend to not tell you to your face their opinions on you irl, because they don't want to waste time making a scene because it passes in consecutive time and they can't just continue on their day while fussing at you intermittently for whatever it is that's causing a problem.

I have an anxiety disorder and avoidant traits, so I get the discomfort, I really do. It just literally does not matter in the grand scope of things. There are things you have to do and you have to do them scared. The necessity and urgency does not change just because you're afraid of it, and you'll feel worse if you don't do them regardless of whether another person can readily communicate to you an opinion on your decision to not do something.

Like atp I'm out of sympathy, especially for other Americans. If you're able to complain about this, you already know what is being asked of you. You already know what your social responsibilities are. Just do them. You can click a button every 24 hours. Somebody else set up a website, so pressing a button sends ad revenue to a vetted organization. You don't even have to figure out how to donate. People have already written scripts for you to send to your representatives, so you don't even have to think for yourself what to say unless you want to do it organically. A list of companies to avoid buying from has been compiled for you, so you don't have to figure it out yourself. Entire accounts exist to spread and explain up to date news, so you don't have to have an account on every socmed platform to have access to on the ground journalism. A list of protest and rallies have been compiled for you; and every time people talk about protesting, they share important information on how to safely protest and the supplies you'll need and what to do in the event of a crisis at the protest. Other people already did the hard work for you. All it takes is to listen and do your part.

Just...what is the problem? What is so hard? Everything gets handed to people (Americans) on a silver platter, so you don't have to use your brain if you don't want to and YET there's complaining about guilt and shame and hurt feelings. God forbid someone asks you to take 1-3 minutes out of a 24 hour day to do something important that 99% of the work has already been completed for you. It takes you more effort and time to complain than it takes to just do it. People have already met you more than halfway to make it as easy as functionally possible.

At some point, the only person stopping you is yourself, and that's nobody else's problem. No one can take the last leap for you. And by the gods, if it really is that much of an issue for you to make the choice...just don't do it then. You're not making a difference in the world through indecisiveness and petulant waffling, so you might as well have done nothing and spare folks the whining.

[pelicanoctopus]

During a conversation with my partner a while ago, I compared different social media sites to different bodies of water, and the concept has been stuck in my head ever since. I need to write it out to move on, so, here goes:

The basic premise of the metaphor is that the "water" in each of these bodies of water (websites) = the thoughts and feelings people share on there. This is materially distinct from Content, which, depending on the nature of said Content, can be carried by the water, or sink beneath it, or be destroyed by it, or be dissolved into it.

The universal constant, here, is that if something goes into the water, whether it's Content or an actual person, it's going to get wet. If you put anything - works of art, advertisements, memes, dad jokes, research papers, newspaper articles - out into a social media website, people are going to have thoughts and feelings about it. The effect these thoughts and feelings will have on the Content itself is entirely dependent on the nature of said Content, just as an actual literal body of water will have different effects on a glass bottle than it will on a plastic bottle, or a milk carton, or a loaf of bread.

Likewise, the effect that visiting any given social media website will have on particular people varies widely, based on things like age, media literacy, familiarity with the platform, and past trauma, as well as more variable factors like whether the person in question has had enough food and rest lately. Some people only ever swim in swimming pools. Some people do open water triathlons. But even people who are trained in open water swimming know it can be dangerously overwhelming if they are tired, or sick, or injured.

With me so far? Okay. Moving on to the rest of the metaphor - the actual bodies of water (websites) themselves:

Twitter (I refuse to call it X): used to be a really nice river full of wildlife and other interesting things to look at. The water was pretty nice to swim in, though if you spent too long in the water, swimming against the strong current would exhaust even the strongest swimmers. Now? The whole place is so polluted and full of actual garbage that it makes me sad to even look at it, so I don't. Most of the cool people I used to spend time with at the river have stopped visiting. I worry about the health of people who still have to navigate the river as part of their job, and I am extremely judgemental of people who still choose to swim in it out of their own free will.

Facebook: an extremely overdeveloped river with boardwalks down the entire length of it. It's polluted, but only with the kind of pollution that's hard to see, because the businesses along the riverwalk won't tolerate garbage piling up. It's not really a river for swimming in, and if you try to swim anyway, people will think you're weird. I don't really have much reason to go there for my own sake, but I have friends and relatives who I can only see if I go there, so I visit sometimes and don't complain about the rotting-fish-and-petrochemical smell while I'm there, because it's not like the people I'm visiting have any control over that.

Cohost (in my experience so far): a pretty normal river, though it's not as deep or as wide as the rivers I'm used to. It's small enough that people debate about whether it's even a river at all, or just a creek. The smaller size is a good thing; if I can see the bottom, I'm not as likely to slip and fall all the way in when I was only trying to wade around a bit.

Tumblr: some kind of very very deep caldera lake. Pretty scenery and neat birds exist in abundance, but unless you go to the lake with people you already know, it can feel kind of lonely. Creatures that live nowhere else in the entire world live in the deepest parts of this lake. There are piles of rocks all over the shoreline, and I'm never sure if I'm supposed to leave them standing or knock them over.

Discord: a directory of backyard pools. Some are open to the public, but most of them are private. Some are big, some are small. Some are nice in-ground installations, and some came out of a box. Some have pleasant landscaping around them, and some are surrounded only by concrete, or gravel. Some are lovingly maintained. Some are only cleaned up when the owners are about to have a party. Others are never cleaned at all, and have become objectively disgusting. It all depends on which pool you visit, and whose backyard it's in.

Reddit: the ocean. It's so vast that it is impossible to visit every part of it in one lifetime. Truly bizarre things wash up on the shore all the time. The water is kind of nasty in most places, but let's be honest: most people don't go to the beach to swim, they go to the beach to be at the beach. Great for people-watching, even if people-watching at most beaches does wind up making you despair for humanity in general.

[iisasarcasticlittleshite]

Can you do a BNHA LOV x male reader who is really tall (like 6’8) and is physically stronger than them? I dont know I just find the differences really funny.

Thanks a million for asking! I read this and immediately couldn't help but smile. I stuck to the characters I know best as I haven't written much BNHA in a while and I'm not quite up to date on everything.

Hope you enjoy, and again thanks a million!

Warnings: It's the LoV boys and girls, there's strong language and Toga's involved so mentions of blood.

Shigaraki Tomura

"Try not to scratch the damn ceilings, ya damn tree."

"Real creative, boss."

"Screw you."

When you first joined the league, Shigaraki had made a handful of underhanded comments on your height. It's nothing you haven't heard before and to this day some people still make you laugh with it.

You'll never get over the way Shigaraki glowers at you though.

He's like a petulant child, huffing at you to stand further away whenever he's "working" because you make him look short. You started looming over him on purpose, just waiting for him to swipe at you and tell you to piss off.

After a while though, he starts to take advantage of just how intimidating you are, and that's without your quirk. You and Dabi already get to go around and scare the shit out of everyone in the league's name, but he doesn't want Dabi standing behind him during important meetings or stand-offs. He wants you.

Take from that what you will, because Tomura sure as hell won't be admitting anything out loud.

Dabi

"Fire doesn't care how tall you are, I'll still melt your bones, pretty boy."

He doesn't give a shit, mildly annoys him when you look down your nose but seeing as you don't dare do that to him, you two get on just fine.

That doesn't mean he won't trip you every chance he gets to "bring you down a peg". He's an asshole, and you're sure to tell him so.

He makes fun of you every time you hit your head or complain about your back and makes some sort of rude or straight up lewd comment.

You can no longer tell if he's flirting with you, or insulting you, and finding out may well cost you your eyebrows.

Toga Himiko

"Oooh, you're a big boy! I'll bet you've got lots of pretty blood to spill!"

"Toga, you're creepin' the new guy out."

"Hey, how tall are you?"

Aside from being mildly creepy, Toga is by far the least "offended" by your height. She'll use you as jungle gym if you let her, climb you like a tree and sit on your shoulders and demand that you carry her around all day.

Honestly, she just wants to be carried and it makes twice slightly jealous, depending on who you ask.

According to Toga, your shoulders make for an excellent reconnaissance platform, therefore it's her job to make sure your back is "up to standards".

Honestly, she can be a lot, and you'd swear she's had a knife by your ear at some point, but she knows better than to actually cut you.

She does play with your hair though, and you've started to realise that's more for her comfort than anything else.

[thefanficmonster]

Ahhhhhh sorry requesting another penguinz0 fic T^T I just love him so so much but can you do a charlie headcanons where him and the reader has a slight age gap (maybe the reader is 19-21) shshwhw sorry if this makes you uncomfortable you can just ignore this <33 (ALSO THOSE TWO HEADCANONS THAT YOU WROTE ARE *CHEF KISSES*)

Noo please don't apologize sweetie, I love writing for Charlie! His characterization is always fun to write 🤭 And no worries, age gaps don't make me uncomfortable (i have a thing for relationships with bigger LEGAL age gaps)

And I'm so glad you enjoyed my previous headcanons! I didn't know their quality myself since I haven't written much for Charlie but I'm so happy you liked them 🥰

Now on with today's headcanons. Enjoy 💕

Pairing: Penguinz0 x Reader (Gender Neutral)

Warnings: Age Gap (LEGAL), Swearing,

Genre: FLUFF, Humor, RPF (Real Person Fic)

- You met Charlie your freshman year in college

- A bright-eyed but timid nineteen year old trying to make your way through life with not many friends is who you were back then

- And he was a complete loner

- Well, he did have friends, but not any in the same shoes as him

- Most of them had dropped out of college while he had graduated and was afterwards considering post-grad studies but at a different college

- Faith just made it be so that college was the same one you attended

- There was a presentation being held for possibly interested post-grad students which he had signed up to see but unfortunately couldn't find his way to the auditorium where it was being held

- And because of that very presentation, your own class was moved to an auditorium you had never been in before, hence why you had no idea where to find it

- During your search for it, you ran into the long haired man who looked just as lost as you felt

- You know it'd be cliché to admit, but the truth is that your heart sped up when he smiled at you after his initial look of indifference

- "You're a student here, right?"

- "Yeah." You answered suspiciously with a nod

- "Ok great, can you tell me where the World Literature 4BF auditorium is?" He asked, reading the marking of the auditorium from the booklet he was given

- You couldn't help but chuckle, "You're all out of luck if you expect me to know where that is. Hell, I don't even know where Science 17SE is and that's where my class is being held as we speak."

- He laughed as did you, "Seems like you're way more fucked than I am." He commented, trailing off for a second before speaking up again, "You wanna go on a scavenger hunting for your class then?"

- "But what about you? Don't you need to find yours too?" You asked, ready to turn down his offer

- "Nah, I'm not going to class. I was gonna attend the post-grad presentation and shit but I'm starting to second guess if I even want that. College fucked me up enough already, I don't need to go through another hellhole anytime soon." He chuckled, running a hand through his hair before readjusting his cap

- "Don't scare me like that, dude! I'm a freshman here!" You complained, turning his chuckle into laughter

- "In that case, I'll be the human embodiment of the warning people should be given before going to college. What's your major?"

- And just like that, you got to talking

- You walked out of the second building with the intention of searching the third for your class but just ended up lounging on a bench outside in the warm sun and soothing breeze

- March was treating you well, allowing you two to talk your asses off, imagine if it was raining instead...

- You came to know a lot of things about him

- His name: Charlie, his age: 27, where he's from: Tampa, he graduated from the University of Tampa with a degree in Human Sciences

- What interested you most was what he said about his career: Content creator on different social media platforms

- You would've questioned him more if you both could stay on one topic for long enough but you kept segueing from one into another

- And an hour and a half ended up being far from enough for you to talk about everything you wanted

- Seeing as how you were talking like long time friends, you hadn't noticed the time pass by, but when you realized the next class was about to start, you had to run much to your own and his dismay too

- "I hope to see you around, Y/N." He told you as you were about to part

- "I do too but if you're not doing the post-grad program, I'm afraid we won't be seeing a whole lot of each other." You replied, not thinking much of it

- "I'm actually starting to reconsider it." He said and suddenly you were thinking much of it

- That's all you could think about for the rest of the day and the morning after

- The only thing that could invade your mind and replace it was the happiness you felt when you saw him back on campus the following day

- "Are you stalking me, old man?" You joked as you walked up to him in the quad

- "I beg of you to not call the cops on me cause we will indeed be seeing quite a bit of one another. But you'll never know....am I stalking you, or is it just a coincidence...." he trailed off, seemingly finally fathoming what you had said, "And I'm not an old man, kiddo."

- You gasped theatrically, 'hurt' by his insult, "I'm no kid, you ass!"

- Ah, bickering - the best relationship-starter

[alicethepiper]

guess who made a bad decision and stayed up finishing the game last night

alright so first things first ive made some discoveries (although im sure im not the first one to make these discoveries, it's just fun finding shit out on your own)

okay so, if you have a golden egg and you give it to your partner during the item management screen - when you're in game, the egg becomes an infinite golden egg. when you eat it, it "disappears" and then your character goes back to holding whatever item they had last, but if you go back to the hotkey with the egg (or go back to your inventory) it's still there. which is wild. but if you give the egg to your partner, it stops it and it goes back to being just one egg.

idk the parameters of this. it worked on online co-op, idk how it works with an ai partner. im guessing this has to be a glitch because it goes back to being just one egg whenever you give it away, but who knows maybe capcom is just wildin. also im sure there's more info about this out there and that people already know i just feel like that one guy who thought he discovered america

also - the person who joined my game and then immediately left, and then i took their golden egg from my ai sheva (because sheva keeps their inventory) and then i went to my inventory and it was 90-somethings eggs; my theory is that MAYBE that was an "infinite egg" in their inventory and when i took it from ai sheva, the game just clocked it to the max or whatever and that's why it was in the nineties. idk though, i remember it being like 93 or something which seems too specific of a number for what im thinking happened. but idk. i want more golden eggs. ive sold so damn many of them to upgrade my weapons I NEED MORE.

okay some recent revelations as well (pun intended leave me alone) also spoilers for end game boss fights/encounters as well as a warning for the shit ton amount of complaining im about to do <3

---

the first reaper encounter sucks

the mkono fight sucks

the excella fight sucks

---

the jill fight goes on too long

the last wesker fight goes on too long

--

SO i recently (like maybe a week ago) was replaying this game on the xbox 360. idk if versions have to do anything with this, but it was the standard version, not the golden whatever. the mkono fight lasted i swear maybe ten minutes. it was so damn easy in comparison to the forty minutes to an hour it took on my first playthrough (which was couch co op on 360). the same thing with the first reaper encounter. the same thing with all the reapers actually. also the number of reapers was different. the room with the shooting and stuff (yeah i know super specific) usually has three reapers, and then you have to turn on the power and then turn on the platform and kill the guys and get your partner across the platform and then those guys have rocket launchers and its such a slay. when i was playing here there were only two, so im thinking maybe re5 has a little difficulty measure where its like "oh youre struggling? maybe i can fix that" but idk. also.

having the first reaper encounter occur RIGHT BEFORE THE MKONO BOSS FIGHT is actual bullshit. capcom. what the fuck. this isnt a problem on a new game plus whatever but it is a fucking problem when im replaying the game on pc and i dont have any previous saves. god that is so lame. to use ALL my shit on the reaper. and then to have nothing for the boss fight. look, twenty minutes for a boss fight is a fucking stretch - so when it takes forty minutes to an hour for any of this bullshit - it HURTS me. dont do this to be capcom. not in my resi game. pleaasseeeee.

we used a rocket launcher on mkono because that was bullshit.

also - love the "explaining how the rocket launcher works on boss fights to someone who is relatively new to resident evil." sibling already had a rocket launcher i let them pick up from the marshlands so it was their job. and i was like "the MOMENT you see them, shoot." and they were like "nah but lets widdle them down a bit first" and i was like "NO LISTEN. THE MOMENT THE BOSS FIGHT STARTS. AIM AND SHOOT." and so they listened (luckily) and boom the immediate "boss dying" cutscene right after the "boss fight beginning" cutscene was very funny.

okay so for the final chapter, i played the entire thing online with a stranger who i think also relatively maybe didnt know what they were doing which is so fun actually because theres this like "fuck it we ball" energy that i love. and also - THE LEVELS OF COMMUNICATION HAPPENING WITHOUT EVEN ACTUALLY BEING ABLE TO SPEAK TO EACH OTHER IS INSANE scientists should study this. figuring out how to work the first wesker encounter of chapter six? PERSEVERING THROUGH THE EXCELLA FIGHT EVEN THO WE DIED LIKE FOUR TIMES?! THE FINAL BOSS FIGHT WITH WESKER BEING THE BULLSHIT THAT IT IS (not as bad as 360, NEVER AS BAD as 360). that person is an absolute king/queen/nonbinary ruler of some sort. and i LOVE the comradery that was so fun.

my chief complaints about the final wesker fight and the jill fight: when you do the same thing and it goes on for a really long time (and it's just the same repetitive strategy) it makes me think "oh shit did the game glitch" and i dont think it should do that, that's just me. there's a charm to it and all, the game is fucking old and we love that, but damn after the fifth attempt to get the thingy off jill's chest, it really should've just worked. capcom don't make me think my strategy is wrong by edging me with success, only to be like "jk lol" because then that makes me not do that strategy anymore OR it makes me think the game glitched (which, unfortunately, is likely and therefore a believable explanation). like, shit, i've played the damn game before and ive already done the boss fight with jill and i knew the strat was right and i was STILL second guessing myself because damn that shit took a long time.

(also i got the heart of africa achievement thingy - it's no biggy just you know, success and all that. love beating the shit out of wesker and then him being like "u suck. ur actually so weak, you know that?" and it's like - homie you said seven minutes and it's been five and you're tapping out come on. i love this though. definitely not a complaint)

also my mods officially just stopped working at some point. i deleted and redownloaded the leon one to see if i could fix it, reverified game files and all that, and i still got stuck with buff shaggy most of the time and jensen ackles some of the time. sheva was in her cute bsaa outfit tho so it was fine. at the end though, neither worked, but the color filter mod thingy that removes the green worked - so that's all i can wish for honestly. that green filter is nasty af and idk who at capcom allowed that

alright you know what time it is

my girlllll my girlll my girlllllllll i love her have i made that obvious enough yet

had to incude these two because obviously

i know ethan says this: "They say that when one door closes, another opens. Well, a door closed tonight. And what a long night it was—but not just for me. Mia and I weren't the only victims here. So were the Bakers. It was that... thing, Eveline, who made them that way. But now Eveline's dead. And these guys are here to clean up the mess. I had just come to terms with losing Mia. But now she's back and wants to start over—put all of this behind us. Maybe this is where the next door opens."

but all i hear is "door-door-door"

ethan also says "you gotta give me your gun!"

and also "youre the one who's cursed"

and also-

im done. these are just the stupid fucking quotes you can say and like a sleeper agent it triggers something in me and then boom im saying them for the rest of the week

unfortunately i have a lot of photos of buff shaggy and jensen ackles - ima keep messing around with the mods but now that i can play as sheva i dont mind anymore mwahaha. i need to go get rich now so that i can get infinite ammo and never suffer ever again. i'll test out the egg thingy later cuz im curious if im right and also i want money

if you read this whole thing youre crazy and i love that

also. one more thing.

botox buddies :)

mods used:

Leon RE4 Definitive Edition - kreedyk

RE5 GE - Sheva BSAA SOU Outfit - EvTital

Resident Evil 5 - Awakening - True Colour - QTmodz

RE5 time babey lets gooo

okay so we did mods (of course we did)

i got rid of the gross green filter with a mod thingy (i will credit at the end) and the screenshots are so fun, they give me two copies of each photo i take? one with the green filter and one without?? absolutely wild to see them side by side idk why capcom put that filter blegh

look at that side by side !! wooooooo absolutely wild

look at this side by side !! woahhhhh

(i changed chris to leon because i dont want to play as chris but you dont get to play as sheva until its your second playthrough and so to manage i switched it to leon, it's slightly more bearable) (no hate to chris i just dont wanna play as him) (i love chris but i wanna play as sheva) (do you catch my drift) (when the option is between sheva and ANYONE and im forced to not play as sheva it hurts me) (love you mr. redfield no hate)

look at her look at her look at her look at her look at her (i had to point my gun at her to take these shots and it made me feel bad) LOOK AT HER UNIFORM SHE IS SO STINKING CUTE the lack of outfits for her hurts me (i love you modders, thank you for all that you do - this isnt a complaint aimed at you guys at all) IM ABOUTA LEARN HOW TO MOD TO GIVE THIS GIRL SOME MORE CLOTHES

also the leon mod is absolutely WILD - the people behind this are so cool, it replaces cutscenes and also his voice lines are in there?!? he calls sheva ashley which i think is fun, but when you throw out commands its leon saying them and i think that's so awesome

the mod didn't work for all of chapter 3 tho? but then boom chapter 4 and it worked again so that's fine. i also can't get long sleeve leon to work but im pretty sure its something on my side, re5 literally had an application error when i first tried to boot it originally (before the mods) and then i looked it up and apparently its a widespread problem so... let's blame capcom :)

okay now here's where i messed up the mods (this one was my fault 100% watch the order in which you download shit fellas)

leon head on chris body is scary it's like when shaggy drinks that potion in scooby doo 2 monsters unleashed and he gets really buff, this is like buff shaggy i dont like it

hi josh :3

hi jensen ackles :3

i have more photos to post so im just gonna add to this in a reblog?? and then it'll be one big long post - that's probably a bit hectic but it keeps it organized

also shout out to the amount of people that have joined my game love that people are still playing - that one person who showed me where all the fun treasures were, you're awesome sorry i got lost on the map

mods used:

Leon RE4 Definitive Edition - kreedyk

RE5 GE - Sheva BSAA SOU Outfit - EvTital

Resident Evil 5 - Awakening - True Colour - QTmodz

Josh Stone HD Textures - epicawesomemods