#and like that's great and all but half of them are tone deaf. so. | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

definitelynotafurinasimp · 8 months ago

Note

Hii,do you mind if you make an scene where you and furina or any other characters fight and you ended up taking their cuddling privilege through the rest of the day? Thanks!!

Them taking away your cuddle privileges after a fight

characters: Furina / Nilou x gn!reader (separate)

warnings: none

a/n: ....you know... reading through the request one last time before posting this, it looks like I may have misunderstood smth *slightly*.

I hope this is still fine! If you want me to write reader taking away their cuddling priviledges after all just request it again and I'll try to write it someday!

Anyway, hope you enjoy!

Furina

“I’m nowhere clingy!”

You’d have to be either deaf, stupid or oblivious to an unhealthy degree to miss your cuddling privileges being revoked. Furina had not exactly been subtle when openly declaring it after all. And while she may not have mentioned cuddling specifically, not trusting herself to not blush like a little kid at just the mention of it, you felt confident in saying that she had delivered her message well enough for even the most tone-deaf idiot to understand.

And yet, the exact same accusation that you had half-jokingly thrown her way and that she had taken such great offense to, turned the next few days into some of the best entertainment you had experienced in recent memory. Seeing an former Archon act dignified while at the same time having to fight the obvious urge to hug you the moment you were behind closed doors, only to then turn around and act like her embargo on hugging and cuddling was punishing you, was funnier than any comedy a human could possibly ever pen.

“So… about our argument a few days ago.” Furina spoke up the moment you returned to the table with your cooking, forcing you to fight off the grin that was threatening to pop-up on your face.

“So, about our argument a few days ago”, you repeated her words, intentionally ending on a high note to leave her waiting for your next words, only to continue to set up the table in silence.

“Are you- I-” she eventually stuttered out, only to stop herself before she could embarrass herself further. Her cheeks glowing slightly red as she tried to regain her composure.

“Who knows, if you were to apologize for your groundless accusations a few days back right now, I might just forgive you”, Furina graciously offered with closed eyes, avoiding to look at you in the process.

All the better for you, or she might have noticed the wide grin that had finally broken out on your face. For a moment you considered her ‘offer’. Sure, you missed cuddling on the couch as well and weren’t exactly the biggest fan of keeping up these kind of games…. and yet seeing her continue to needlessly die on this hill that so obviously harmed her more than you was very amusing.

“Wow, really? That seems very nice of you”, you mused with a smile while filling her plate with a portion before doing the same for yours and sitting down opposite of her. “Bon Appetit!”

“Oh come on. Stop being so stubborn! I’ve even given you such a good opportunity to apologize!” Furina's dignified act crumbled right before your eyes as she started to sound more and more desperate. You could practically hear her begging you to be the bigger person, and yet being small felt surprisingly great.

And yet you eventually- FINALLY gave in, much to the relief of the person sitting in front of you. “I am so sorry for calling you clingy Furina. I now see that I was clearly in the wrong and the one actually fitting the description of ‘clingy’ was in fact me”, your apology came out with a… healthy amount of sarcasm, and yet it was more than enough for her.

“...I’ll forgive you. Since you were nice enough to cook for me today”, she declared.

“I know I might be overplaying my hand here, but would you be so kind as to indulge me in a bit of cuddling later on? I’ve simply had to go on without it for far too long.”

“YES- Sure”, Furina immediately jumped at your offer before quickly switching back to her usual act, a wide smile plastered on her face nonetheless as she looked down at the food in front of her.

“It looks delicious, bon appetit!”

Nilou

While the two of you seemed to have quickly moved past your argument, spending time together as if nothing had happened and avoiding to even mention the subject again, it quickly dawned on you that while you had hoped this to be one of those arguments noone had to explicitly apologize for and that was simply forgotten the next day, the other party involved seemingly was of a different opinion.

Not that Nilou said anything, she greeted you with the same sweet smile before chatting and going on small walks through the bazaar with you in the same manner as on any day of the week. And yet, whenever you as much as tried to initiate any kind of physical contact, no matter if hand-holding or hugging and cuddling, she’d dodge as easily as she breathed. At first it seemed like nothing but a coincidence, but after the dozenth time even you realized something was wrong.

What followed was a days-long standoff. Both of you trying to make the other one crack before yourself, while retaining your sweet and unbothered facade, and while there were moments where you could have sworn to nearly see Nilou instinctively grab your hand, she always managed to stop herself before anything happened.

And while you certainly could have continued with the act for weeks to come, you eventually decided to be the bigger person. For the sake of putting this childish game of chicken behind, of course. And for no other reasons.

“Sure Nilou. You win”, you disrupted the silence that existed between the two of you while Nilou was in the process of adjusting her stage, her movement grinding to a halt as she began staring at you in confusion.

“I wasn’t aware we were playing something. Did you have fun?”

‘Not aware’ your a-

“Mhm, I am sorry about the argument”, you cut off your thoughts, immediately earning yourself a tilt of her head. After all this time you knew her clueless act to be nothing but an act and yet, when she looked at you like this you nearly found yourself doubting it all over again.

“Oh that? That was a whole week ago, did it still bother you all this time?”, she asked before finally finishing putting down the pot of flowers, quickly making her way down from the stage to join you and shooting you a sweet smile. “Don’t worry, I forgive you. I also didn’t mean everything I’ve said.”

If Nilou hadn’t suddenly grabbed your hand and started pulling you along her daily routine, you might have almost rolled your eyes, instead you found yourself thanking Lesser Lord Kusanali that you were indeed correct about your theory.

Bye Bye childish standoff, welcome back cuddling privileges.

#nilou x reader #nilou x you #nilou imagines #furina x you #furina x y/n #furina x reader #furina imagines

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hannie-dul-set · 1 year ago

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HOME FOR THE BITCHLESS [1].

SYNOPSIS. wherein your friend offers a room for you to crash in while your dorm is being renovated, but fails to mention that your new housemates don’t know how to talk to women (oh, and they also have an ongoing bet about you, too).

PAIRINGS. choi soobin, choi beomgyu, lee heeseung, park jongseong, sim jaeyun, park sunghoon x female! reader. GENRE. housemates! au, rom-com, sitcom, reverse harem time baby. WARNINGS. swearing, a house fire, mentions of sex, like the chapter title says there is too much underwear in this, an awful amount of embarrassing men WORD COUNT. 2.2k.

TAGLIST. @cerealdreamwriter @tyongff-ff @dinonuguaegi

NOTE. i have nothing to say except i hope you enjoy this shitshow as much as i enjoyed writing it. please check the link in the masterlist if you're curious about the layout of the house. feedback much appreciated i love u.

MASTERLIST | NEXT >

CHAPTER 1 — this is too much underwear for a first meeting.

YOU WISH YOU CAN TAKE BACK ALL YOUR COMPLAINTS ABOUT DORM LIFE. Sure, the disgusting, communal bathrooms scrape a year off of your lifespan every time you have to take a piss, and the abhorrently thin walls make you want to rip your ears out every time your neighbors have mind blowing sex, but hey— all of that is better than not having a roof above your head. Even if that roof is two years behind maintenance.

But it’s all too late. You should’ve appreciated having a bed to sleep in before life pried it out from you in the form of a swirling inferno.

When the semester came to a close, your dormmates thought it would be a fantastic idea to throw an end-of-year party. The problem is, that party ended up in flames. Literally. The last person you saw entering the kitchen was Choi Yeonjun until something exploded and before you know it, there’s a stampede, and you’re choking on black fumes, and there’s suddenly a lightshow happening right before your very eyes with the dorm building you’ve been living in for the past year serving as the sparkler.

Holy shit, your dorm is burning down.

It’s a good thing that the fire was stopped before it could reach your room. You don’t know what you’d do if all your notes and textbooks burnt down along with half of the building into debris. Even prior to the fire, a lot of the facilities were janky and needed to be renovated, so you had to pack your bags and find somewhere else to stay for the next two months while the place went through repairs.

“Great,” you huff, filling your two carriers with the bare minimum you have collected in your unit. “This is just fucking great.”

However, just when you’re falling into the brink of homelessness, a friend from your book club graciously offers you a room in his house as a saving grace from your misfortune.

“It’s a small bedroom compared to the rest, but you only have to share a bathroom with one other person! There’s also a laundry room and a living area on the same floor. It’s a big place, so it doesn’t feel stuffy at all even with six, seven people.”

You have no reason to decline Jake’s offer, especially when it’ll be just a temporary arrangement anyway. “Are you sure? You said you have housemates, right? Are they fine with living with another person on such short notice?”

“Yeah, they said it’s cool,” he assures, helping you load your luggage into the taxi. “I’ve been wanting to fill up the last bedroom anyway. The house is just too big even with our current living setup. The more the merrier.”

You’ve always known that Jake Shim was fucking rich. Not because he bragged or flaunted his wealth or anything— but because he’d drop the most privileged, tone-deaf shit at the most inappropriate times and no one can get pissed because he looks oh so innocent while saying them. You had once complained about stuffing yourself with too much meat during a club dinner and that one more bite will have you nauseous. He replied with, “oh yeah, I once ate wagyu steak for a good week in Japan and I got sick of it, too!” and you physically felt your economic status erode at that very moment.

He and you will never be the same. And that fact is made suffocatingly evident right now, as the vehicle slowly pulls into a fancy neighborhood and stops right before the fence of an unreasonably gigantic yard with an unreasonably gigantic house. You do feel a little poor when he shows off the pool and the two garages, but at the same time, beggars can’t be choosers.

Also, it’s a really nice fucking house.

It’s three stories tall, with a covered deck and a substantial amount of outdoor lounging areas. Floor to ceiling windows give you a glimpse of the modern interior of the foyer and spacious living room. You’re a little afraid of getting used to such luxury that you might never want to come back to your old, dingy dorm room— but with every blessing comes a curse.

Jake did mention that you will be living with six other people including him. What he did not mention is that those ‘other people’ would all be men.

Imagine your shock when you’re greeted by a whole ass man in nothing but neon green boxers and shades the moment you slip through the sliding doors of testosterone hell.

Very. You’re very shocked.

“Hey, man,” Jake greets the almost naked individual who is also holding a bowl of cereal in the middle of the afternoon, presumably having just walked out of the kitchen. “What’s with the glasses?” That’s not the biggest issue here. You can see the outline of his fucking penis.

“Oh,” he reacts. “It was just so bright when I got out of the room.”

Jake nods. “That makes sense.” No it does not.

“I think it just got even brighter.”

You can’t tell, but you assume he’s squinting at you underneath his shades. You believe you might also need a pair because there’s definitely a contender in being the brightest thing in the room, so you try your best to not be distracted by the neon of his undies as Jake introduces you to him. “And this is Park Jongseong— or Jay, as he prefers to be called.”

“Call me whatever you like,” Jay smiles at you and reaches out his non-cereal hand for a handshake. He seems chill enough. Maybe he’s just a very laid back person who doesn’t care about general appearances. You can work with that.

“Nice to meet you.” You shake on it. “Aren’t you cold, by the way?”

When he retrieves his hand, he combs his fingers through his hair, ruffling the strands. “My friends often say that I am pretty cool.”

“No, I mean cold,” you clarify. “That does look like a statement, but I’m worried you might get sick.”

You’re starting to get an inkling that you have misjudged Jay. It takes him a few seconds to understand what you were referring to, until a breeze passes by from the open entrance and suddenly, he looks down. “Oh,” he flatly says. “Of fuck.” And the innocent bowls cereal crashes and spills into the ground as Jay disappears into the hallway to your right.

You and Jake stare at the milk minutely seeping into the wooden floor. “I was gonna ask him to help you with your luggage but—” Where Jay disappears, a new person emerges (fully clothed this time, thankfully). “Oh! Hyung, come help.”

He has his neck turned back as he walks up to the both of you. You can hear the sound of footsteps scrambling from where the newcomer is looking at. “What happened to Jay?”

“I don’t know, but let me introduce you to our new housemate!”

“Hi there.” You give him a smile.

Jake tells you his name is Choi Beomgyu, and Choi Beomgyu doesn’t exactly look like he’s keen on accepting your handshake. Instead, all he does is stare you down with his arms crossed, eyes scaling your entire height like he’s doing a motherfucking evaluation. You’re trying your damn best to maintain a pleasant expression. You almost break when he quits his rude staring and turns over to Jake. “So, you need me to help carry her things?” The bastard isn’t even talking directly to you. Your pride can’t take this hit.

“No, it’s alright. I can take care of these myself. Thanks!” Jake flinches when you snatch your second carrier from his hands. “Third floor, right?”

“Uh, yeah.”

“Got it.”

Yes, you might have shoved past Beomgyu on purpose, but that’s not the point. You leave the two behind to take care of Jay’s fallen cereal as you struggle to lug your luggage up the staircase. You manage to bring them all the way to the second floor landing before your arms give in and you let the two cases settle on the floor with a huff. When you pause to take a breather, you catch a familiar face walking down the stairs from above. You recognize him from Jake’s instagram stories. You’re sure his name is Lee Heeseung. “Oh! Let me help!” he quickly exclaims after noticing the situation, hurrying down the steps. “You’re the new addition to our residence, right?”

“Yes, I am, and it’s totally fine! You don’t have to—”

Big mistake. You should’ve just let him help, but you’re a little prideful so you reach out for the carrier he took, and when your fingers brush against the back of his hand, the man suddenly drops the fucking case and retracts his entire arm. You stare, wide-eyed, as Heeseung stumbles back to the ground next to your carrier that happened to crack open in the fray and is now spilling out all your clothes like guts and blood. Behind Heeseung, the door creaks open. “Is everything oka— oh my god, is that a b-bra—”

Well. It is, in fact, a bra, and its color seems to match the flushed face of the poor, unsuspecting individual that just opened the door out of concern for his friend. You make eye contact with him once before he retreats into his room with a loud slam! Heeseung is still on the floor and he’s now profusely apologetic.

“Shit, I’m so sorry, this is all my fault, please let me help—” The issue dawns on him belatedly, right when it’s already too late and he has your undergarment in his hands in the midst of trying to undo his mistake. “I don’t think I should help.”

“Good call.” You kneel down, politely prying your blood red bra from Heeseung as you proceed to gather the rest of your clothes back into the carrier.

“I should cut my hands off.”

Oh no. “Hey, it was an accident. It’s fine—” When you try to reach a hand out to give him a completely innocent, completely harmless pat on the shoulder for assurance, he flinches back again. Now your arm is awkwardly hanging mid-air and you’re both looking at each other with shared looks of alarm. The exchange (or lack thereof) reminds you of a forgotten memory— a memory from your childhood. Snacktime all throughout elementary school, to be specific, when all the boys would fucking run away from you and your girl friends for having cooties.

This moment is oddly reminiscent of that and you don’t want to acknowledge it.

“What happened? I heard a crash, is everything alright?”

By the time Jake arrives, you have already managed to clear up the crime scene. With a grunt, you get back up and prepare yourself for another round of heavy lugging. “Can you tell me where my room is? I think you should stay here and make sure your friend is okay.”

“It’s...the first door through the hallway, next to Sunghoon’s. Hyung, are you good?”

You have no idea who the fuck Sunghoon is, but you nod in acknowledgement anyway. “Who’s the person living in that room?”

“Soobin hyung,” Jake answers, helping a dazed Heeseung back to his feet. “Why?”

“You should go check on him, too.”

With that, you leave another mess in your wake as you climb up the flight of stairs to the third floor. You can’t wait to rest. You really want to lie down. But when you walk past the hallway, entering into the floor’s unreasonably cozy living area, you’re met with a fucking fork in the road.

There’s one door right across the hallway, but when you open it, it’s not a bedroom, but a laundry room. So you make a sharp right to the archway opening up to three doors on each of the walls. Jake should have been more specific with what he meant by the first door. You don’t want to take a risk and walk into something you’d fucking regret.

Fortunately, someone emerges from the door on your right and reveals what looks to be a bathroom. You assume he’s Sunghoon, and Sunghoon nearly doubles over when he turns around and meets eyes with you. His expression stiffens, and you’re both just standing there for a good moment and looking at each other without saying anything.

You press your lips into a smile. Holy shit, he’s intimidating. Why the fuck isn’t he saying anyting?

“Hi. I’m—”

“S—shit—”

Suddenly, he’s gone. He’s disappeared into the room in the center after struggling to open the door for a bit. You’re left dumbfounded, but at least now you know where your room is.

You slot the key Jake gave you and twist open the doorknob. The empty room greets you with a body slam of fatigue, and before you know it, you’re sinking face down into the bed and you have no energy left in your fingertips. Admittedly, you have questioned yourself multiple times upon first entering the house whether you made the right decision, whether it’d be better to find an apartment, or maybe you should just crash at your parent’s place for the time being.

But this bed is more comfy than any hotel suite you’ve ever been to, and your bank account isn’t suffering from an enormous dent. Six disastrous men is nothing when you’re able to call a place your home. You can already envision where you’ll be placing your new bookshelf. They’d have to pry your new house key from your cold, dead hands if they want you out of here.

HOME FOR THE BITCHLESS. �� hannie-dul-set, 2023.

#tomorrow x together x reader #enhypen x reader #txt x reader #enha x reader #choi soobin x reader #choi beomgyu x reader #lee heeseung x reader #park jongseong x reader #sim jaeyun x reader #park sunghoon x reader #tomorrow x together scenarios #enhypen scenarios #txt scenarios #enha scenarios #home for the bitchless

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theravencawsatmidnight · 5 months ago

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I AM SO FUCKING BACK

Leland Coyle x F! reader.

W! Nsfw, dubcon, swearing, insertion.

WOOOOOO ENJOY I HAVEN’T WRITTEN FANFIC IN LIKE FOREVERS .

If this is liked ill do more!!! It has build up but i love it!!!!!

Every trial you managed to give Coyle the slip, whether you slipped by him, barricaded a door or just teased him from a distance. You were always one step ahead of the officer and each and every time he would bite his smoke in half while he watched the transporter take you away , the only sound of your snickers bouncing off the cold walls. But this trial would be different, he told himself . He would catch you. And he would do whatever he wanted.

The next few trials he was nowhere to be seen, the other nuts would be out and about while he hung back to watch you and your tactics, every move, every hiding spot, every little room you snuck off to just to get a quick heal fix. How would he catch you though? Should he do it outright? The man puffed out heavy smoke from his mouth watching you scramble around, you looked like you were in a bitchy mood. Rolling your eyes each time you got cornered and it was not him. Groaning when you could not sneak away to finish a task on your own. Poor thing. He let this go on for a bit, watching your friends distance themselves from you as the trials went on until they just went off on their own once they arrived leaving you all alone. This was perfect, a perfect opportunity.

The doors opened letting you and your friends into the dark parking lot riddled with cop cars, immediately they went off without you leaving you with a huffy face and hands on your hips. “Whatever, i don't need any of you to do this” you yelled off to them just for it to fall on deaf ears. Instead you stomped around the parking lot hearing the alarm go off inside the building only you did not bother to see who it was, Coyle was nowhere to be found lately so you had no one to toy with. “Probably dead, damn bastard” you said with a grunt under your breath as you wiggled into an open cop car door to pluck free some small medicine that was under the seat. “Everytime” you said with a satisfied tone. Tucking away the bottle you went on with your trial ducking from screams, gunshots and whatever else seemed to happen. Just when you had gotten inside the door you always went through to get to the main office was shut oddly enough. “Did they not come through here?” you asked tilting your head as you grabbed the knob to whip the door open only to get stabbed in the chest and fall on your ass. “ fuck!! FUCK FUCK FUCK!!!!” With great haste you yanked the object out, dropping it to cover the bleeding hole in your chest and crawling under a desk panting heavily as you fumbled around the medicine, unscrewing the knob and hanging it over the wound just for nothing to come out. “What… its ITS EMPTY?!” you tossed the bottle away in a fit of rage swearing up a storm. “What the fuck?! How the shit is it empty, who just leaves an empty fuckign bottle ?! and who knew my stash was there…..” it made no sense, but you had more, more heals, antidotes, everything you needed in other places in this fuckin trial…

Meanwhile Coyle was lifting his baton to light his cigarette while he watched you from inside an old room, a smirk crawled up his face as he puffed out smoke. “Working so far” he thought to himself. Ignoring the bleeding wound you stumbled into the main office finding bandages placed.. Conveniently on a desk . Without thinking about it you quickly patched yourself up feeling great relief. It was… oddly quiet. Where was everyone? Your friends could not complete the Kill the Snitch trial without you. And where were the nuts? Is this some kind of new test? Whatever. “I just need to find them so we can finish and leave.” you told yourself as you made your way around the trial only to come up empty. Every hiding spot had junk shoved into it making it impossible to squeeze in. every little stash had empty bottles and even your secret room was flipped upside down. And… where was the Snitch? Your friends? You checked the electrifying room to find the chair empty and your friend's terminals already full. “What? But they can't do it without me…” something was not right… you decided to poke at the terminal as if it would help but no luck. Even pressing the button was left unnoticed. They had already left. “What the fuck? So i just have to stay here till a new trial starts?”

“It seems that way” said a voice behind you. Quickly you turned around to some Bambino standing there pointing his shotgun at you. “I'm here to deliver you to your DATE” he laughed wildly. While he was doing so you rushed off into the trial once more, trying to find any kind of hiding spot. Heavy footsteps were growing louder and shotgun shots were bouncing off the walls. Sliding down a corner you spotted an open door rushing in slamming it shut and barricading it with a heavy inhale of breath. “Fucker… maybe i can hide out in here.” you told yourself , unaware of the small burning light behind you that got brighter with each breath the mouth around it took. You stepped back a few steps tripping over some garbage onto your ass and felt your wrists get grabbed and tied together behind your back. “HEY!!! whatTHE !!!!” a cloth was tied around your mouth and your body was shoved to the center of the room till your back hit a flipped over chair. Your ankles pulled apart and tied to a leg of the chair leaving you very exposed to whatever had caught you , you thrashed about which led to an arm wrapping around you pulling you to the chair to tie your chest to it keeping you in place. And here you were, hands tied up, legs tied apart and chest tied to a god damn chair..

Heavy footsteps filled your ears making your heart thump in your throat , you were starting to sweat out of fear and your eyes were straining to see who had caught you in this dimly lit room. The figure stopped in front of you sliding on his heels with a cattle prod in one hand and his other on his belt. Your heart fell all the way to your ass as Coyle leaned down with the biggest grin on his face , he took in the fear on your face making him feel so nice inside . “well sweetness, whos got who now?” he asked with sarcasm on his tongue, he laughed up at the ceiling while you thrashed about as if it would free you .

“Ya know you been pissin me off,” he told you as he twirled his electric prod around. “Always making my day so fuckin hard and annoyin sweetness. “ his free hand found your breast sitting firmly above the rope , slowly he rubbed it watching you through his shades , every struggle, every bite down on the cloth, every bit of drool that fell from your mouth turned him on. “I was getting tired of it.” he got a firm grip on the shirt around your chest ripping it off you , the excess hanging off the rope exposing your chest to the cool air. “So cute, so I devised a plan, I know, crazy right? “ Slowly his hand traveled down to your raggy pants, he grabbed hold of the garment, ripping it to shreds with ease, leaving you with just your panties. “Always so snarky, bitchy and just flat out annoying” the hand with his cattle prod curled your clit in small circles and your body twitched. No no no… “mmhgg!! “ you tried to plead, beg, anything. You would never do it again… never ever ever… “haha!! Whats that?!” he held his free hand up to his ear to mock you. “Cant hear ya!!!” the circles turned into up and down rubs from the cattle prod as Coyle had his fun with you, he loved this to bits. You on the other hand, your body was reacting against you and a wet spot was forming from all the stimulation, your body was feeling heavy and your vision was fogging over. Coyle used his other hand to squeeze a nipple and twist it around, lifting it up getting a loud muffled scream out of you and what sounded like pleading for him to let go, when he did your body fell limp in your restraints but you were not allowed rest because he just did the same thing to the other poor nipple. All while Coyle tortured you you could feel yourself getting close to climax.. This stupid fucking body. Coyle had glanced down seeing your pussy twitch around and the wet spot leaking from the sides. The officer looked back up at you resting his free hand on his cheek freeing your nipple from its squeezing. Just when you thought you were about to climax the man smiled and moved his prod away sending you into a frenzy as your orgasm faded away. “ MFFFF” you thrashed around biting the cloth hard trying to get any kind of friction, any kind of stimulation … you just wanted to cum. Just once. Just one time and you would learn your lesson… Coyle did not tease your clit again till you had fully calmed down just to do it all again .Every climax you chased disappeared like it was never there. You were a mess, a sweaty huffing mess. The white panties were covered in your juices by now and left a spot on the floor under you. “Ya know sweetness this all could have been avoided … if you were such a bitch…” he tried to sound sympathetic but his body language said otherwise. Every time he moved the prod away he would smirk at you, or tilt his head or blow smoke in your face. The hours were lingering… your body was needy and tired… you were a sweaty mess.. And just when you were about to pass out an alarm went off waking you back up. Coyle threw his head back with a satisfied groan. “Finally a new trial, i'm feelin frisky though. “ the man looked back down at you brushing the wet hair from your forehead” do me a favor sweetness?” the man ripped your panties off and shoved the prod up your pussy just enough so it would not fall out but not enough to cause any damage to you. “Keep this warm for me, im goin scarin!” he laughed getting up leaving you tied up with an electric prod shamefully shoved up your needy pussy. Coyle opened the door and looked back, tipping his hat to you. “Dont worry, your my little toy, i wont let anyone in here” the door closed leaving you in the dark, the sound of the lock echoing in your head.

Tags/ @outlastrabbit

Thought you might enjoy this!

#coyle x reader #leland coyle #leland coyle x reader #the outlast trials

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echo-bleu · 1 year ago

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shine still brighter (1/?)

On AO3. Deaf!Artanis bullet-point fic.

Here is yet another fic that I started thinking it would be 2k tops (I have almost 5k and haven't even started the main plot). It started as a mix of this art prompt I did, and a post I can't find now that went something like "it's a good thing that Galadriel hated Fëanor's gut, because if they had pooled resources they would totally have taken over the world." And I wanted to write Fëanor being a passionate linguist. The AO3 link has a Quenya name primer if you're confused.

(cw for mentions of difficult birth and post-partum, and mentions of ableism)

Artanis is born in pain and fear.

Her spirit is nearly as bright as Fëanáro’s. She’ll grow as strong and smart and stubborn as her half-uncle, but her birth also takes almost as much of her mother’s vital energy.

Eärwen doesn’t die. But she doesn’t recover very well, either. She’s very, very tired, too tired to really connect to her daughter for a long while.

Everyone is comparing it to Míriel and Fëanáro, and nobody is happy about that, Fëanáro least of all. Eärwen isn’t anything like Míriel. She shouldn’t get to have the spotlight like that.

Finwë is understandably focused on taking care of his youngest son and granddaughter for a while, which just makes it worse.

Arafinwë is very scared for Eärwen and overprotective of Artanis. Her brothers are already enamoured of her but also a little traumatized by the whole thing.

The baby is very cute and very awake, grabbing everything within reach in her tiny hands and pulling. Especially if it’s bright or moving.

Because of all the complications and worry over Eärwen, no one realizes that there’s something distinctly different about her.

Finwë is the one who sees it first.

Mostly because everyone else is dazzled by the strength of her fëa, but Finwë raised Fëanáro and he knows how to look past that.

Artanis has many of the same traits as Fëanáro that everyone worried about when he was a baby: she won’t look people in the eye, she sometimes screams when they pick her up, and sometimes screams even louder when they put her down (and her screams are the loudest since Makalaurë). She’s extremely picky about eating, and it doesn’t help that her mother doesn’t have the energy to feed her.

Those are all fine, Finwë knows how to handle that. Half of Fëanáro’s sons were and are like that too, and his other granddaughter.

No, the thing he notices is that singing entirely fails at settling her.

Fëanáro had a hard time falling asleep, but he would always settle with his favourite lullabies.

Artanis doesn’t even seem to hear them.

Actually, Artanis doesn’t seem to hear. Anything.

By that point she’s old enough that she should be starting to speak, but the only sounds she produces are wordless screams and laughter.

No music at all. Even the most tone-deaf of elflings know how to carry a tune before they learn how to speak.

Deafness is pretty much unheard of for the Calaquendi. There are some hard-of-hearing elves, but they mostly get on fine with speaking louder.

(The Moriquendi have Deaf elves. There have always been Deaf elves, but there’s something about Valinor’s perfection… Well, it’s partly that there haven’t been that many births in Valinor yet, and most of the disabled elves didn’t make it to Valinor for various reasons, from dying on the way to being scared that they weren’t welcome (the Valar were maybe not as clear as they should have been and some things got lost in translation). And some of that misunderstanding carried over into elves taking babies who are a little too different in Lórien to be “healed”. They’re never heard of again. So the number of visibly disabled elves in Tirion is very small.)

(Estë and Irmo take great care of the disabled elves and they find their own community together, but they don’t quite understand why the Calaquendi just leave babies on their doorstep. Some of them need medical care, yes, but many don’t.)

(Fëanáro would probably have ended up in Lórien if he hadn’t been the Crown Prince. And he knows it. The one time someone suggested that some of his sons might benefit from Estë’s help, he threw a fit so violent that no one ever spoke of it again.)

Survivor’s bias (the elves who made it through the Great Journey were the strongest one, and thus we, as a people, are strong and cannot be anything else) led to a good deal of ableism. Finwë has rather vague memories of disabled elves he knew growing up, but mostly as “they weren’t strong enough to make it”.

He’s already certain that Artanis, like Fëanáro, is absolutely strong enough to make it through anything. Also Míriel’s death after she made it with him through the Great Journey rather skewed his own perspective on that.

All this to say that he has some cognitive dissonance there, but his reaction to discovering Artanis’s deafness is more of less the same as his reaction to Fëanáro’s autism:

“Hey, Arafinwë, so your daughter can’t hear, but the good news is that she’s really smart and strong and also a princess, so all we have to do is teach her to be great at everything so people won’t notice.”

Arafinwë, blinking: “What.”

He’s not at all sure about this, but he’s also very much in over his head wrangling four kids on his own and caring for his ailing wife (Maitimo babysits when he can, and Findaráto is old enough to take care of himself most of the time, but it’s still a lot).

He agrees wholeheartedly that he won’t take his daughter to Lórien, because he’s very much not over being terrified of having to visit his wife’s body there and he’s not losing his daughter.

But it’s also a lot to take in and he doesn’t know what the right decision is for Artanis.

He’s also not entirely certain that trusting his father with it is the best idea.

Eärwen is not really well enough to help, and Olwë is definitely not helping by making remarks about Artanis’s strangeness every time he sees her, and maybe it would do her good to seek out help, and also Arafinwë should move their whole family to Alqualondë, can’t you see how much good it would do to Eärwen?

Ñolofinwë has enough work trying to wrangle his absolute terror of a daughter, who is barely more than a toddler and has taken a liking to Tyelkormo of all people.

Fëanáro won’t talk to him. Not that Arafinwë values his opinion. He’s not Ñolo, forever chasing after their half-brother who hates them. He’s not.

Findis thinks he should take Artanis straight to Lórien because a baby taking so much energy from its mother is not natural, and just look at how Fëanáro turned out, is that what you want your daughter to be like? (Arafinwë thinks that it’s unfair. Fëanáro’s a little intense, sure, and his dislike is hard to bear, but he’s not that bad.)

Lalwen really hates babies.

He is not close to his sisters-in-law.

As the youngest son of the King, he doesn’t really have close friends.

Maitimo is incredibly good with Artanis, but he’s barely an adult, he definitely can’t help with this.

Findaráto unconditionally adores his sister and is very distressed about it all.

“But Atar, why does it matter if she can’t hear? She’s perfect as she is!”

“How are we going to communicate with her, though?”

Findaráto takes his hand and leads him to little Artanis, who is playing with blocks on the floor.

“Hey,” he tells her, sitting down across from her. “Are you hungry?” Saying that, he pats his belly, and then mimics eating with his fingers.

Artanis claps her hands and nods, squealing. She puts her fingers in her mouth, twice, and then holds up her arms to be picked up.

“See?” Findaráto says, turning back to his father. “It’s easy.”

These words stay with Arafinwë. Artanis doesn’t go to Lórien, Eärwen recovers little by little, and it is, indeed, easy enough to find out when Artanis is hungry or sleepy or wants something with simple signs.

Osanwë with little children doesn’t really work past sharing basic emotions, it’s not really communicative.

Finwë valiantly tries to get her to speak. Arafinwë isn’t actually sure if she can’t or if she just won’t.

He feels like trying to speak when you can’t hear yourself, and you don’t even know what words sound like, is probably very hard work. Playing with blocks in understandably a lot more fun.

Findaráto is Artanis’s favourite person by far, and they’ve become good at communicating without words, though no one else can understand them when they do. They’re using a mix of basic hand signs and facial expressions. She follows him everywhere, and he lets her ride on his back when she’s tired.

Maitimo, who has five brothers and a father who regularly have silent days (Makalaurë has never had a silent day in his life), is also very good at figuring out what she wants and needs, though they don’t really communicate beyond that.

But Artanis is growing up, and increasingly frustrated at not being able to communicate her thoughts. Her system with Findaráto is good for simple things, but she’s having complex thoughts now.

She’s also old enough to know that she’s different, and to know that everyone else is talking over her.

She’s not going to take that affront lying down.

She turns into a terror.

Not an Írissë-style terror, running away and climbing trees and biting people. No, she’s an Artanis terror. A very focused terror.

She rejects anybody who doesn’t understand her. And since she has no real mean of expressing herself in an understandable way, that’s everybody.

She’s figured out that screaming very loudly in someone’s ear is a good way of getting them to go away.

The Arafinwëans start wearing earplugs while at home.

It gives them a new appreciation of Artanis’s plight, when they try to speak to each other over her screams and can’t understand anything, but it’s also very tiring.

Artanis, in her child’s logic, rejects Findaráto the strongest. Because he’s the one who makes the most effort and he still can’t solve this for her and it’s so unfair.

Findaráto takes it very hard and is depressed for two years straight. He’s been so focused on Artanis that he never really reckoned with the trauma of his mother almost dying and his sister nearly being given to Estë, so it suddenly hits him and now Arafinwë has two children to worry about.

Angaráto and Aikanáro take to spending a strange amount of time with Carnistir and Arafinwë doesn’t like much the sounds of Maitimo’s reports on his sons’ behaviour. But he doesn’t really have the bandwidth to deal with it.

Eventually Arafinwë has had enough. Everyone is trying to give him advice and absolutely none of it is useful. People in Tirion are whispering about Artanis’s behaviour, and what it says about her parents.

(Fëanáro, for all his intensity, was actually a very quiet child, and his eccentricities were dismissed as a result of his motherlessness. Finwë’s capabilities were never put to doubt.)

He only wants the best for Artanis, it’s just that he can’t figure out what that is. His daughter is hurting and it tears him apart.

(Eärwen agrees with him, but she’s gone to stay at her parents’ for a while because all the screaming and stress were making her relapse.)

What he knows is that a) the problem is mostly communication and b) what has worked the best so far was Findaráto using gestures.

What they need is some way to make the gestures more complex.

They need a language made out of gestures.

Who do we know who’s into linguistics and invented their entire writing system?

Arafinwë takes his courage in both hands, fully anticipating a disaster, and goes to talk to Fëanáro.

“You want me to invent an entire language of gestures for your daughter,” Fëanáro blinks.

“Yes. And then I want you to teach it to me.”

“...do you have any idea how much work that would be?”

“Probably not, but I know you’re the only one who can do it.”

He expects Fëanáro to say he’s too busy to do anything for people who aren’t even really his family, or to go on a rant about Arafinwë’s thoughtlessness or his entitlement or something.

Instead, all he says is, “Come back in three weeks. And bring her along.”

Stay tuned for part 2!

All of my Disabled Tolkien Characters posts.

#galadriel #feanor #finarfin #finrod #silmarillion #the silmarillion #silm fic #tolkien #tolkien fic #echo's fanfiction #I don't actually know where I'm going with this xD #disabled tolkien characters #shine still brighter

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kaylinalexanderbooks · 9 months ago

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OC questionnaire

Thanks to @drchenquill here, @somethingclevermahogony here and here, @mk-writes-stuff here, @elsie-writes here, and @dyrewrites here!

My last questionnaires:

Robbie, Gwen, Maddie, Noelle, Jedi, and Kelsey here.

Carmen, George, Akash, Sam, Lexi, and Ash here.

Gabriel, Carla, Parker, Rose, Alex, and Ewan here!

Below the cut I'll do: Liam, Hye-Jin, Wendy, Wade, Issa, and CJ!

#1- Liam

Which color do you hate?

“Beige. Oh my God, it's just a boring color. I thought that we were past this. Different shades of beige and brown are being used to be the ~aesthetic~ of so many people on Tiktok. Ma'am, where are you from, Boringsville??? I'm not dissing brown. Brown is a great color. But beige??? Who thought this would look nice on anything, much less everything? Why are all of your walls beige--you look like you live in a sandcastle. Man, I feel bad for Hye-Jin. Her powers appear beige! You poor thing. I have brown. An awesome color, remember. So earthly. Anyway, beige can go die with the sand in the Yukon River Basin for all I care. If I go into your house and see one beige wall, I'm leaving. A rainbow is weeping. You disgraced the rainbow. How dare you.”

If all the sounds in the world would cease to exist, which sound would you miss the most?

“I don't see the point in making me choose a favorite sound. Also, how do you know sound stopped? Ceased to exist? Sound exists as a vibration through matter. Why would that vibration suddenly stop? How do you know we didn't all just go deaf? That's a significantly more logical explanation than sound disappearing. And if you think I don't have an answer and am just avoiding the question, you're very mistaken. I'd miss people's voices. For a variety of reasons. Connection, analyzing tone, nuances of emotion or thought, even my own voice. Sure, I'd be able to learn a gesture-based language--I am not saying voice is the most important thing to hear. But considering I like a good oral debate, I would still miss it, even if it would take me time to adjust to the new mode of speaking. Next!”

What is the first rule you learned as a child?

“You are going to have to rebel and argue your way out of everything. You may or may not be able to tell, but I am a strongly opinionated person. I can make an argument out of everything. Knowing how to back stuff up with logic and facts to get your way. Push and push and push. Know your shit. If you're wondering how this was the first rule I learned, one of my first memories is refusing to eat my carrots because they were bad. I was...three and a half maybe. And I told my mom, 'if I eat these carrots, I will throw up, and then I'd have to eat more food, and you get mad when food is wasted'. I then ate carrots and threw up. Never had to eat them again.”

#2- Hye-Jin

What is one embarassing memory from your childhood that you can't shake?

“Oh, oh no. First day of class, kindergarten. I had to introduce myself in front of the class. I was so excited for my first day of class. I wore this cute little dress, my hair in high pigtails and bows. But when I stood in front of everyone else, I got so sick I threw up. I think I ate something like prune juice in the morning. My dress was ruined. Had to be walked to the nurse to change. Wore that the rest of the day.”

What would you take with you if you were trapped on a desert island for one week?

“Food, water, and shelter. Sunscreen. I'm not pale, but that doesn't mean I'll be protected from UV rays. I would like a change of clothes just so I feel clean. I wouldn't mind bringing one person along with me, but you said what, so that may not be an option. But I really think I could do it.”

What is your favorite animal?

“I actually really like snakes. They're super cool in terms of design. Love reading about them, and I have a snake themed room!”

#3- Wendy

What is your favourite animal?

“Changes depending on the day. Yesterday it was tigersharks. Today it's a water dragon. Tomorrow it may be a capybara.”

Do you have any obscure skills? What are they?

“I can basket weave. Some people think that's obscure.”

If you could change one thing about the world you live in, what would it be?

“More hours in the day so I can do what I want to do.”

#4- Wade

What is your favorite song?

“Rasputin. How can you not love that song? Mr. Brightside is up there, too.”

Do you like consuming happy, positive media, or sadder, more thought-provoking media?

“I like both. You need a balance in life. But thought-provoking in general. I like thinking about things, analyzing them. Not necessarily sadder stories, but thought-provoking.”

What is your favorite type of weather?

“I like it warm and sunny, but enough cloud coverage. The kind of weather where everything is greener, that makes you say out loud, 'it sure is a beautiful day.'”

#5- Issa

When is the last time you were afraid?

“Last week, I was staying up late working on an essay. I was home alone--something I rarely am with six siblings. It was eerily quiet. I already felt uncomfortable. I was on the phone with Alex, multitasking, so I could have someone to talk to to ease my nerves. She got up to pee, which left me alone in my living room for a few minutes. In that time, I heard a banging on our garage door. It was harsh, constant. I thought someone was trying to break in. Then as quickly as it came, it was gone. Alex got back on the line then. I would've felt much better if whatever that was happened any other time.”

Does the fear haunt you still?

“Not really. It was only a minute, maybe two. Took about an hour talking to Alex. But I stopped working on my essay for the rest of the night. Not that I didn't try, but Alex convinced me to stop when I couldn't concentrate due to my heart pounding.”

What do you do when you're afraid?

“What's with all the fear questions? Well, I usually stand my ground. I yelped a bit when that happened. I was frozen for a bit, but I actually was about to get up to check what the banging was when it stopped.”

#6- CJ

What was your favorite toy as a child?

“I had little mini figurines of a bunch of Puppets* characters. I liked them because most of my playtime consisted of me ordering them based on height. After I lined them up, I would play. I also liked burying a bunch of rubber balls in the yard, leaving them there for, like, a week, then digging them up again. My shovels were definitely a favorite. There was also some cool Alii tech thing that simulated growth of a plant. The entire life cycle, in fact. Man, that was awesome.”

What makes you laugh every time you see it?

“Issa and Alex invite us to their improv shows each Friday. Issa is the best at anything they give her. I could watch her all day. She loves putting inside jokes in her skits for me, and is great at linking back previous gags. And then Alex wins Can You Ask a Question? each time. But it's hilarious how she and Issa interact. One time, Wendy laughed harder than I'd ever seen, and she spit out her drink. Then this one asshole Ellie slipped on it during her turn. So yeah, the improv shows.”

Who is the most annoying person you know?

“Issa is annoyingly optimistic sometimes, but that's why I love her. Parker is also a bit annoying at times, but he's funny as shit, so I don't care. Gabriel is quite annoying. Everyone tells me that we're very similar, but I don't see it. Honestly, yeah, it's Ellie. I didn't want to say she was annoying cause she's mainly rude. She's constantly making fun of me for everything I do. Like she doesn't like how organized and specific I am for some reason. She asked for a pencil once, and I told her no, I have my pencils for a very specific reason, and don't let anyone else use them. I think she's hated me ever since. It's probably not as petty as that, unless it is. I don't know. Thankfully, I don't know her well enough to answer that question.”

*this universe's Muppets

TSP intro

I'll tag @gracehosborn @little-peril-stories @willtheweaver @willowiswriting @rickie-the-storyteller @mysticstarlightduck @badluck990 @unrepentantcheeseaddict @winterandwords @oh-no-another-idea @awritingcaitlin @cwritesfiction + anyone else who would like to play!

EDIT: I DID NOT GIVE YOU QUESTIONS OH MY GODDDDDD I'm so sorry

What's something that was horrible in the moment, but in hindsight is hilarious?

Do you often get lost in thought? Where does your mind go? How do you focus?

Who do you worry about the most?

TSP tag list (ask to be +/-): @thepeculiarbird @illarian-rambling @televisionjester @finchwrites

#the secret portal #tsp #teaspoon #oc questionnaire #oc tag game #my ocs #liam beaumont #hye-jin song #wendy amante #wade attwood #issa johansen #cj reynolds #writers on tumblr #writing community #writers of tumblr #writing on tumblr #writeblr #writeblr community #writing tag game

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alphyser · 2 months ago

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I come back to post about Kaminari and ended up posting about Monoma instead.... anyway, here are some Monoma things in my Dr ☕

(Also for some odd reason he looks like Satan from obey me....)

(Just look at that... it's so uncanny..)

— he is partly dutch, he doesn't talk about it much though. He does brag about his gramma being a royal (we don't know if this is true)

— He is prideful and boastful, not about himself though. Mostly his friends or his family. He loves them to death and is their ultimate hype man. Bro's the type of guy who doesn't mind being insulted but look at his friends the wrong way and he'll beat your ass

— EXTREMELY bad singer. Like, I think he's tone deaf, one of my favorite stories (that I heard from Kiri who heard from Tetsu) was that Monoma was singing in the showers and everyone could hear it in the dorm, it got so bad to the point that Manga screamed at him and the text bubble broke a wall 😭

— He's actually a very quiet person (just get him away from class 1-a and his opps). He much prefers to study or read cooped up in his dorm room. He's just an introvert in disguise guys, trust me.

— Theater kid! Despite his lack of vocal ability, the man can ACT. Okay for a bit of context, UA has a lot of events in the SY, one of those was a play put on by the students, written by the drama club and performed by the drama club and whoever wants to audition. During our year, they performed Be More Chill, and Monoma got Michael as his role and he ATE. I cried. Izuku cried. Most of us did.

— UA had the school festival, but they also have University week! It's basically a break for the students to just enjoy and celebrate the legacy of the school! There are stalls all over with food and a few events set up by the students. Why did I say all that you may ask, well there's this improv game that happened in the courtyard of UA's main campus and anyone could enter, from any course and any grade. Monoma joined it and he slaughtered the competition... it's actually insane how easily he can go from insane and deranged to giving the most heartwrenching monologue...

— He is fake pretentious 😞 He says he likes tea and wine but he is a liar. He loves shitty coffee. His favorite are those vending machine ones because they're sweet. His "wine" in lunch? grape juice 😞

— DnD player. This is actually how I figured out he's a chill guy. He is a great Dm and is actually very considerate of his players. The first time I played with him he taught me how to do character sheets properly, also he owns so many dice but they're all basic as hell (apparently he prefers the clean look). He also has a dmpc, it's a half-goblin btw.

— Was bullied as a kid, not for his quirk really, it was mostly because he was a little... chunnibyou. Think Kaidou from Saiki k, he was a lil weirdo 😞 (He's recovered now. He's not like that anymore but sometimes he does do rp online)

— Shit spice tolerance. It's so bad. He can't even handle black pepper and peppercorns 😞 He pretends like he has god tier spice tolerance though.

— Language man, he speaks many! Mostly european languages though. Japanese, English, Dutch, German, and French. He likes studying them and is currently learning Spanish

#neito monoma #shifting blog #shifting #mha #mha dr #my hero academia #my hero acedamia #my hero academy fanfiction #monoma neito #Alli's mha dr ｡𖦹°‧ !!

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bylerposting · 1 year ago

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Max knows about Billy & Karen and that's what's in her letter to Mike: Season 5 Theory.

I've always wondered what the purpose of Mike being in this scene was, because it feels like such a specific choice. This scene is about Max experiencing the nosebleed symptoms. Mike is all the way in California having gay thoughts about his best friend. What's he doing here in Max's flashbacks? Why was it important that Mike saw Max getting this nosebleed?

From his perspective, Max's hair would be blocking his view from the blood, so mabye he didn't notice the nosebleed specifically. But he noticed something was wrong.

Check out these BTS pics. Look at how much went in to this scene.

All of those extras, the classroom location, outfits for everyone, makeup, props, just for a few shots of B-roll.

Note how Mike is blocked at the start of the shot, and the camera pans right to reveal, as well as racking focus on to him.

It could be just to show growth between the two characters. They both take math class together, and they sit next to each other. Mike and Max have been at odds with each other a lot, so its nice to see them a little closer.

It does keep Mike's from feeling too disconnected from the main Hawkins plot. But due to the nature of his story this season, his character was going to be little disconnected regardless. That's why I like to think there's more to it.

Remember that thing Karen/Billy had?

As lots of time has passed between seasons, a lot of fans have criticized that for it's characterization of Karen because, while it provided excellent subtext for what happened to Billy as he was flayed, it doesn't condemn Karen's involvement. Therefore it comes off as painfully tone-deaf toward the predatory nature surrounding that dynamic. If they weren't going to condemn Karen's involvement, then why characterize her this way in the first place?

At the same time, people have also noticed that season 4 seemed to slowly build something up with the Wheeler family. Namely, with Nancy's vision in S4E8 showing her Karen, Mike, and Holly presumably dead.

And I think the final piece could be hidden in Max's letter to Mike.

Season 2 Episode 8: Billy and Karen meet for the first time and are instantly infatuated with each other.

Outside of the meet-cute, Billy is looking for Max, and Karen knows where she is. Karen gives him the address and says "And when you see Mike, tell him to come home already, yeah?"

Both Mike and Max get tied to this from the start. Billy and Karen talk about Max and Mike as their responsibility, even though Billy is only 17.

As of up to season 4, neither Max nor Mike have any clue this even happened.

But I think Max could know.

Season 3 takes place 6 months after season 2. Billy and Karen met before the 1 month time jump at the end of S2E9, Add that up and from their first scene together up to their last scene together, Karen and Billy have known each other in-universe for 7 months.

Maybe sometime prior to S3, Max could've seen Billy and Karen together. Maybe she could've overheard how they were talking to each other, and and maybe just didn't know what to do. (I wouldn't blame her. She's 14. She shouldn't have to have a conversation like that.)

Mike's presence in this scene could therefore be to represent that secret. To hint at what she was hiding that got her the symptom.

As of Season 4's ending, Max is in a coma, and she instructed that her letters only be read if she died. Right now it's 50-50 on whether they'll actually be read in S5.

Mike finding out this truth would be really interesting. Finding out your mom cheated on your dad with Billy Hargrove makes a great catalyst for a TON of conflict. I think there's so much that it could lead to.

Argyle being cut in half in that shot with Mike and Karen; "your dominoes are gonna fall."

#st5 #st5 theory #st5 speculation #stranger things #max mayfield #mike wheeler #wheeler family #karen wheeler

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ask-cinnavanillamelody · 10 months ago

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Momentary Mod Explanation and Apology

It has come to my revelation that I may be hurting people unintentionally with my choice of wording sometimes, and I would like to explain myself and apologize.

I really hate being accused of things, especially of saying words and phrases I didn't say. I also have a bit of a speech impediment, (I consider it one) sometimes, I have occasional slurred speech, and people cannot understand me when I am speaking. I also have voice modulation issues, so sometimes I am speaking quieter or louder than I realize.

(I am also half deaf in my left ear and have audio processing issues due to ADHD)

Because of these facts, I always take great care in saying exactly what I mean as clearly as I can, so there is no room for misinterpretation. Sometimes, I punctuate my sentences out loud, or I talk like Yoda does, (thing, verb, question) for example:

"Do you want pizza for dinner?"

"what?"

"Pizza, Dinner, You want?"

still with me?

this care I have in communication with others carries over in text conversations, and I realize that when I type a certain way, I have a very sarcastic voice or a very stern/upset tone. Sometimes I don't realize I am upset until I am actively typing in an upset state of mind. I have a short temper, and it is very easy for me to get poked into that state of mind. All facial expressions or vocal cues are lost, and it's very easy for others to misinterpret what I type, for being aggressive and meaning something else that I did not mean at all. For example. I might text someone,

"Hey, sometimes *thing you do* is really annoying to me, could you *change behavior*?"

and it can be interpreted as:

"Hey you're REALLY annoying, could you like, not?"

This is a very loose example, but it illustrates my point well. Another thing is if I use a word that's very similar to another word, and its meaning gets misconstrued.

I told someone they were exhibiting "childish behavior" and they took that as "You are a child".

I said the phrase, "You cannot lie to me" and it was taken as "You are lying to me. (actively)" or "You have lied to me"

Those two phrases have two entirely different meanings and connotations. Saying someone is "being childish" does not mean you are calling them a child, it means they are exhibiting behavior that a child would.

"You cannot lie to me" means exactly that, "You cannot actively lie to me" That is not calling someone a liar, that is saying they do not have the ability to lie directly to you.

I can see how those two phrases can be misinterpreted, however, if they appear to be coming from an aggressive party. And for that, I deeply apologize. I did not mean to lose my temper, and I did not mean to throw out any sort of insults. If I have ever not clearly communicated with any of you, it was not my intention to cause harm, I am just very bad at communicating, and am easily misunderstood.

That is all,

-Mod Mocha 🍫

#mlp ask blog #ask box open #cinnavannilamelody #cinnaverse #lemonverse #mod mocha #thank you

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silver-tooth-the-panther · 2 years ago

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Tanzen Headcanons For My Half-Demon! Tanjiro AU!

(In this AU, Tanjiro and Zenitsu start dating and I want to elaborate on their relationship!)

First, let’s start with how they realized they had feelings for each other!

When Tanjiro went missing (to overcome Muzan’s control), Zenitsu couldn’t handle the grief he felt

He felt like he lost his source of stability and love

After all, Tanjiro was the first person to truly see the value in him

Nezuko tried her best to stick by his side and comfort him during that time, but it just couldn’t fill the hole in his heart

It was basically one of those situations where the character realizes that they are in love, but their special person is gone

When they finally found Tanjiro in his Half-Demon state, the trio was overwhelmed with joy

Tanjiro then picked them all up and swung them around in pure happiness (he’s a big boi, okay?)

However, Zenitsu didn’t tell Tanjiro his feelings out of fear of rejection (also because gay relationships weren’t all too common back then)

For Tanjiro, he realized he had feelings for Zenitsu when he forced Tanjiro to look after his injuries (which Tanjiro neglected to take care of)

Tanjiro loved how Zenitsu cared for him and made sure that he would take care of himself

Despite this, they didn’t confess to each other for quite some time

They both ended up telling Nezuko and Inosuke about their feelings for each other

This made Nezuko and Inosuke team up and try to get them to confess (this also made Nezuko and Inosuke fall in love)

They managed to convince Tanjiro and Zenitsu to confess to each other by getting the Hashiras into the situation and having them give their support on their same sex relationship

So on one faithful Valentine’s Day, Tanjiro and Zenitsu finally confessed their love for each other (They ended up being sobbing, flustered messes afterwards)

Now on to more general headcanons!

They are both HUGE cuddle bugs!

Once they are cozy and in each other’s embrace, it is physically impossible to move them until morning

Zenitsu is the little spoon, there’s no debate (I mean Tanjiro’s freaking HUGE!)

Tanjiro’s purring makes him irresistible for Zenitsu

His gentle sound, purring, and soft growls make one of the most heavenly sounds Zenitsu’s ever heard

Picnics in the lush forest are their ideal dates! (Bonus if there’s fireworks!!)

When it come to housework, they both work together to make sure that it’s done

Tanjiro is an excellent cook (his sense of smell makes him an expert) and Zenitsu will never stop complimenting it

We all know that Tanjiro is tone deaf, but i believe that Zenitsu has a great singing voice and Tanjiro will occasionally ask Zenitsu to sing him his mother’s lullaby

Zenitsu gets absolutely flustered whenever Tanjiro compliments him or does something nice for him

Both Tanjiro and Nezuko nuzzle to show affection

So when Tanjiro nuzzles Zenitsu, Zenitsu’s face goes entirely red

Tanjiro sometimes kneads his claws like a cat against pillows, blankets, or even Zenitsu.

Yeah it kinda hurts, but Zenitsu loves it and urges him on

They are both there to help each other

Tanjiro will always comfort Zenitsu when he’s stressed and Zenitsu will always make sure that Tanjiro is doing well and taking care of himself

Despite knowing that Tanjiro will never betray him, Zenitsu still gets INSANELY jealous

He mostly gets jealous when Tanjiro spins anyone else around (he does that when he’s happy) or when he holds someone and purrs to heal them

Of course, no healthy couple doesn’t have no arguing

They don’t argue too often since they usually have great communication, but sometimes they do

When they do argue, they usually have to be apart for a little while

But after they’ve calmed down, they talk about the issue and make the other person understands their situation and tries to fix it

The two major ones they’ve had were about Zenitsu’s jealousy and Tanjiro’s self neglect

Despite this, they always stick by each other’s side

(I hope you’ve enjoyed these headcanons! This ship is my personal OTP for Demon Slayer and I love their relationship!!)

Also I hate autocorrect

#tanzen #demon tanjirou #demon slayer #demon slayer zenitsu #demon slayer tanjiro #Half-Demon! Tanjiro AU #tanjiro x zenitsu #zentan #tanitsu #demon slayer au

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doodle-pops · 2 years ago

Text

Sunshine In The Rain

Erestor x human!reader

Request: Hey my favourite tumblr writer! If it’s not too much trouble, may I please request either a fic or headcanons with Erestor x human reader who is a scholar who Elrond envites to study in Imladris and they have a bit of a grump/sunshine troupe were reader is all sunshine while Erestor is... Erestor. Perhaps just life between the two of them in the libraries, also can be completely platonic! Like begrudgingly best friends but denies it even though everyone knows they’d die for each other. Thanks! - Anon

A/N: I decided to take a platonic approach for this fic 😊.

Warning: fluff, humour, annoying Erestor

Word: 1.6k

Synopsis: A day unlike any other never went without annoying your favourite grumpy librarian and telling him how much he meant to you.

“Do you deny it?”

“Would be so kind as to pass me those manuscripts to your right, the ones on Quenya linguistics, please.”

“Erestor, do you deny it?”

Exhaling, he kept his head afront, focused on arranging the manuscripts in chronological order and not messing up. He had heard your question loud and clear, but choosing to focus on his work before him, he continued adjusting the old scrolls and books to make room for the ancient artifacts. They were brought from Lindon and arrived two days ago, since then, Erestor had spent day and night with his nose buried deep within the pages, marvelling at the hidden beauty of the language of the great Eldar of the West. The complexity of such simple words was as beautiful as the dawn to him— the thoughts of a true admirer of the ancient languages.

Your stance beside him fell into a silent stare the longer Arien moved across the sky. Arms folded behind your back, sleeves overlapped due to the elves' fascination with appearing as though they floated on air, hair neatly swept into a single braid, back straight, eyes shining with mirth and lip eagerly being chewed on, you stood on your toes and leaned in closer. Craning your neck, your robes hung off your figure and left you with a drowning appearance in greys, blues and browns. The colours wonderfully complimented your eyes and skin tone which were enhanced the moment a gust of wind ripped the curtains apart and Arien’s rays fell on you. Breaking into a smile, from your point of view, Lord Erestor seemed to be engrossed in sorting the manuscripts to notice your approach.

You had the most interesting habit of engaging in any activity the elven Lord was set on accomplishing. Even if it meant standing on the side and conversing for the area was out of your expertise— being a scholar who specialised in medicine. Your time spent with Lord Erestor over the year and a half you were welcomed into Imladris were the greatest moments experienced. There was never a dull moment with him no matter how grumpy he appeared. His grumpiness was a beacon to you.

“My Lord, are you ignoring me? Lord Elrond requested you to assist me with gathering information from manuscripts in the archives on mugwort and eucalyptus...” you sang as you inched yourself closer to the ladder and looked up at him. His face was set, and his eyes fixated on the shelves before him, not once did they dip in your direction.

A slight frown marred your face.

“Are you still planning on writing your book?” his voice piqued up from the empty silence the library had fallen into it.

You jolted at the shock of his deepened voice. It was rare he used that tone when communicating with you. “So he listens and speaks? I thought for a moment you were deaf?” you chortled.

Shaking his head slightly and closing his eyes, Erestor sighed at your so-called humorous antics. To think that within the year and a half flew by, he would have been accustomed to all of them by now, it appeared as though you had a few stashed up your sleeves. Reopening his eyes, his hand reached for another script and placed it beside the others. Though his eyes were stern, his lips were loose and friendly. The corners were lifted. “I’ve told you time and time again, when working, speak work matters,” he reminded you with a lack of seriousness in his voice.

“But wouldn’t that make your work boring… Ah, right, right, Of course. How could I forget?” you snickered. Your head nods at the recollection of why he was boring as the others claimed him to be. Not receiving any feedback, you turned away from him, and cast your attention on other objects scattered across the room; the single table that held a vase with a single flower, the empty bookshelves, the stacks of hardcover books and the rolled-up rug in the eastern wing. The twins had spilt wine on the rug one evening when they came to annoy you and Erestor. You remembered watching the poor librarian catch a stroke as he scolded them. Breaking into a smile and then a small chuckle at the memory, it caught his attention.

Caught between placing the last script on the shelf and observing your shaking figure, he fumbled around before inquiring. “Don’t tell me you’ve gone mad? Laughing at yourself now or perhaps you’ve seen a comical ghost as your human stories have it,” he probed. Brows arched and body half turned in your direction, awaiting your fascinating response. His eyes were no longer strict and were now relaxed, gazing with curiosity.

Whipping your head around to notice him patiently waiting for an answer, you squinted your eyes and pursed your lips. Running your eyes down his body, down the ladder and across the floor to meet your feet, you tilted your head deep in thought. “…I thought when we are at work, only work-related matters?” You threw his own words at him, a smirk growing at his baffled state once he realised he had gone back on his words. Sputtering a few noises as his frustration grew, not liking the idea of being caught, he gave an exasperated sigh and rolled his eyes.

“This is why I don’t like speaking with you! You make everything complicated,” he accused with annoyance laced in his voice. You on the other hand were rolling with laughter. It wasn’t often you managed to trick the Lord and force him into awkwardness.

“Oh, come on Erestor! It was just a joke! You know I’ll inform you anyway,” you consoled. At that moment, you walked over to the ladder and looked up to flash him a sympathetic look, hoping he bought what you conveyed. To your unamused self, he scoffed at your attempts and looked away with a light tint of red peaking at the tips of his ear. The sighting only prompted you to laugh with more gusto.

Hand on your stomach, you curled in to release peals of laughter throughout the library, disrupting the tranquil ambience. If Erestor was in his librarian mode, he would have scolded you for obstruction of peace by now, but he was far busy with covering his ears and adjusting his composure. Huffing and puffing as the sound of your voice diminished into squeaks and large intakes of air, he scowled, “Why must you always be like this? Is there ever a moment when you’re not making things awkward?”

Through your fit of laughter, your gaze turned to him and transformed into foreign shock. A hand over your chest and the other on your stomach while your lips parted to inhale and exhale exasperatedly, you gawked at him. “What do you mean ‘why am I always like this’? …Am I not supposed to be jovial around my friend? I mean, I apologise if I make things awkward, but it’s just how I am when I'm around people I’m fond of. You should know,” you proclaimed. A brilliant smile had made its way across your face and touched your eyes.

Erestor couldn’t help but remain still as he listened to your words. He had heard them from Lord Glorfindel before, but they sounded different when emitted from you— a little warmth and sunshine, glad tidings and mirth. With his stillness as he remained perched on the ladder, leaning against the shelf, he stared at you and wonder what he could possibly say to counteract your words. He always had some quirky remark, but instead, he remained voiceless. Tightening his grip as he motioned his body to move down the ladder, his thoughts raced with the ulterior motive behind your words. You considered him your friend, as if he didn't know, but refused to admit. What were you attempting to do?

“Are you alright Lord Erestor? I didn’t say something to offend you? I mean, I know you elves have a different concept of expressing emoti—”

“— No you did not.” He paused at the base of the ladder before shifting to stand before the desk filled with scrolls and parchments. His cheeks were hurting from the stress of resisting to form a smile— he was touched. Calling someone a friend was a high act of affection and it was odd for anyone to consider him given his cold exterior and persona— Glorfindel not included. “It’s just…you consider me a friend.”

Quizzically chuckling, you walked around to greet him at the front of the desk and corrected him. “Not ‘a friend’, ‘my friend’. And yes, I do! What, you think that after spending a year and a half around you I wouldn’t consider you my best buddy? Yeah, you’re grumpy, but I can live with it!” you assured with a brilliant smile and shrug.

Lifting his head to turn his smile into a frown at your choice of words, he grumbled, “I am not grumpy! I simply lack the will and strength to lift my facial muscles to produce a joyous appearance.”

“…Hm, that sounds right. You are complicated, but at least you’re my complicated friend.” You shook your head and frowned at his complexity. You could feel the headache coming on.

“This is exactly why I’m not friends with you in the first place. You bully me,” he announced casually with a disappointed shake of his head as he strutted towards the exit. From your angle, you couldn’t see the smirk on his face at his joy at teasing you.

Gasping at the absurdity, you did not hesitate to trail after him, robes flowing behind you dramatically while you bored a look of disbelief. “How dare you accuse me of bullying you! Especially after all that we’ve been through! Get back here!” you exclaimed as you waved your fist in the air.

All Erestor did was roll his eye and shook his head tediously while he stood at the door holding it open with an unamused look. “You're the reason I question my sanity.”

Masterlist

Taglist: @eunoiaastralwings @noldorinpainter @ranhanabi777 @spidergirla5 @lilmelily @someoneinthestars @mysticmoomin @aconstructofamind @floraroselaughter @singleteapot @the-phantom-of-arda @rain-on-my-umbrella @asianbutnotjapanese @ilu-stripes @justellie17 @justjane @silverose365

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kiriiqt · 2 years ago

Note

Hello ^_^ I hope your requests are still open, I also hope this ask isn't too vague ^^'. I would like to ask for an angst/comfort scenario (with happy end please) with Venti and his s/o. If possible something with that ominous upside-down statue of him. It gives me really bad vibes, if you know what I mean, like I have a feeling that it will affect him somehow later in the game.

great pretender

- loving an archon is never easy, and the reminder of this is always harsh

characters: venti x reader a/n: thanks for your request! and requests are always open, unless otherwise stated in my pinned, so no worries. I'm so sorry for the wait. no excuses, just life happened. warnings: y’all are kinda mean to each other but good ending! aether is the og best friend. ending is cheesy.

He was always good at pretending.

Pretending that everything was well. That he wasn’t hurting. That the weight of an entire nation on his shoulders didn’t affect him in the slightest. Pretending to be whatever people needed him to be. Pretending that he wasn’t affected by erosion, like so many others of his kind were. That he didn’t miss those lost to time. That he wasn’t so, so lonely.

For him, pretending was a tool of the trade; prancing around on stage, reciting tales of old and new, playing his lyre, all seemingly without a care in the world, yet with enough grace and dignity to honor the legends the tales were about. It never seemed hard for him; it never wore him down. Or so, he liked to pretend.

You used to joke that his theatrics, his mask that he so carefully maintained, belonged in one of the circuses of Fontaine, and he would laugh with you. You’d laugh together, and you’d half-heartedly remind him to take care of himself, and he’d tell you not to worry about him. It became a routine, though a short lived one. It didn’t take long for all your remarks to stop coming, the weight of the truth ingrained in them too heavy to bear. You saw how he had gotten weaker. How the breezes he once had conjured so easily now left him breathless, even more so when he tried to hide his frantic gasps for air. He’d grip your arm as if you were a lifeline, his one hope for survival - and yet, he’d wave you off with a smile the second you expressed any concern. Really, the only time he’d touch on the topic was whenever your face fell a little too far, and even then, his words of comfort didn’t reach you. Eventually, it became an unspoken rule; you didn’t bring up his worsening condition, and he made no attempts at reassuring you. You were thankful for that. You’d rather not see the look he had on his face when you snapped at him, ever again.

“If you’re going to tell me another white lie, I’d rather you don’t say anything at all.”

Something flashed in Venti’s eyes; surprise, hurt, maybe even a bit of fear. He hadn’t ever heard you snap at anyone like that, much less him, you realized. Exhaling, you crossed your arms and turned away from Venti, entire body tense.

To your surprise, he wasn't quick to reply. For once, he didn’t jump into a tedious explanation full of empty promises, and for a moment you wondered if you had finally gotten to him.

“...I’m sorry, love.”

You bit your lip in anger, both at him and yourself.

“...Hello? Anyone home?”

Aether raises an eyebrow at your lack of response, his outstretched hand wavering slightly, before he retracts it. Or, tries to; you yank the envelope from his grip, seemingly free from your daze. He rolls his eyes, and Paimon cocks her head to the side with a curious expression on her face.

“You seem out of it! Everything okay?” She asks with a smile, and you nod, mumbling something about being tired. Aether’s eyebrows furrow in concern.

“...Venti again?”

You nod in defeat, and Paimon’s expression morphs into one of annoyance. She hangs her head, exasperated.

“The tone-deaf bard? What did he do this time?!”

Weighing your options, you decide to spare yourself the trouble.

“Just causing trouble and expecting me to get him out of it again. Business as always.”

Paimon lets out a yell, following it up with various insults, as she floats about, punching the air in a comedic fashion. It earns you a few odd looks from passersby, but your attempts at making her quiet down falls on deaf ears.

Aether shakes his head, though you can’t tell if he’s amused or embarrassed. What you do know, is that he doesn’t believe your lie for one second - judging by the look he gives you, anyway.

‘it’s fine’, you mouth at him, and he rolls his eyes, but at least he spares you the remark that was about to roll off his tongue.

“Anyway - care to tell me what this is?” You ask, holding up the envelope.

Aether crosses his arms; “A commission, duh.”

You narrow your eyes at the blonde.

“Oh, thank you for enlightening me, it’s not like there’s a massive stamp from the Adventurers Guild on it or anything.” You spit out, voice dripping with sarcasm as you go on. Aether sighs dramatically, motioning for you to open the letter. You reluctantly do so, unfolding it gently - the seal has already been ripped open - and reading it.

To your surprise, the letter is short, asking for ‘The Traveler and their entourage-’ you suppress a laugh at the wording ‘-to report to the Adventurers Guild in Liyue Harbor for further details’.

You skim over the rest of it, but there isn’t much to read; there are no details of the commission itself, and you assume that there is a liability in passing on the details.

“Ironically, the lack of details makes me feel like this is more complicated than your average bounty.”

Aether nods, lost in thought.

“So, you in? Or am I going to have to erase your memory of this top-secret encounter?”

You let out a chuckle, handing back the envelope with a remark about his shitty choice of location for a 'top-secret encounter'. Nevertheless, you make your way towards Katheryne’s booth, rummaging through your bag to find your badge.

She smiles at you as you approach.

“Welcome! I presume you will be joining the Traveler?”

You nod.

“Yes, if possible.”

She turns around with a smile, and opens one of the many drawers in the back of the booth, humming gently as she skims through the names on the folders.

“Ah, there it is.” She mumbles, and soon enough, she’s flipping through your file.

“Your current commissions are not marked as time sensitive, so I will put them on hold for you and inform the employers.”

You smile. “Perfect. Thanks, Katheryne.”

“It’s no issue at all. I will just need your signature. Here,” She quickly makes a note in your folder and slides it towards you, along with her pen, and you jot down your signature with a small ‘thanks’.

“Then you’re good to go. Take care. Ad astra abyssosque!"

You repeat the words, and set off with a wave.

Back at the square, Aether is sitting on a bench, fiddling with his scarf - Paimon is nowhere to be found, you realize, but she has a tendency to disappear and then appear out of nowhere.

“Esteemed traveler, your entourage has returned!”

He looks up at you as you laugh, clearly unimpressed with your antics. Still, he smiles as he gets up.

“Anything you need to do before we set off?”

“Not really, I’ll stock up in Liyue anyway.”

He opens his mouth to ask another question, hesitating for a moment, but still continues.

“...No one you wanna say bye to? This commission could drag out for a while, we don’t know.”

You’re lost in thought for a moment. An uneasy feeling spreads in your stomach as you recall your last conversation with Venti, just two days prior, and you know Aether has a point.

Still, you shake your head.

“No, let’s just go. He ran off somewhere anyway - haven’t heard from him for two days.” The last part comes out more meek than you wanted it to, and you take a deep breath to steady yourself. Aether leans over slightly, trying to catch your gaze; his brows are still furrowed in concern, but he lets it go.

“Okay, if you’re sure…Paimon, we’re heading off!”

You didn’t regret your decision when you passed by the Winery, leaving Mondstadt. You didn’t regret it when you stopped at Wangshu Inn for a break, and Xiao asked you how Venti was doing. You didn’t regret it when you saw Liyue Harbor in the distance, and you didn’t regret it when you finally set off for the actual commission, although the involvement of the Abyss did trigger that uneasy feeling again. No, the regret came much later.

The ruins are quiet, save for the occasional rush of water, or something scurrying across the floor. Sometimes, all you hear is a soft dripping sound; soft enough to drive anyone insane after a prolonged amount of time. Unlike some of the underground caverns you’ve explored, the air is frigid. Paimon’s voice quivers as she comments on how cold it is, and uses it as an excuse to squish herself between the two of you, though you have a feeling that the cold isn’t her only issue with this place. It’s too quiet. Far too quiet.

You all make your way down, with Aether insisting that the two of you stay behind him; you complain, but one look from him makes you bite back your words. The three of you file down in a single line - something that proves to be a good idea, because soon enough, you enter what appears to be a chasm, stretching so far that you can’t see one end. 'You can’t see the bottom either', Paimon squeals, and you bite back a remark about how that should be the least of her worries. To your relief, the stone structures are still somewhat stable, so with appropriate caution, death by falling shouldn’t be a concern for you, either. The way down is also well-lit, mainly by the various elemental devices, and some rays of light coming from the cracks in the surface, far above you. It’s no torch, but it’s enough for you to see. Not that there’s much to look at. It’s completely empty; not even a stray hilichurl is running about. You occasionally hear some small rocks fall down from the surface, but you never see where they land.

Paimon follows suit behind both of you, occasionally gripping your shirt with a squeal when she hears something. It’s not the occasional noise that worries you, though; it’s the lack thereof. The entire cavern is suspiciously quiet. You realized it early on, and it's been bugging you ever since. You’re sure Aether noticed as well, though neither of you have mentioned it. The three of you narrowly dodge the weird bubbles floating down the hall, and finally make it to a large staircase, with a door at the top. Aether glances at you, and you nod, preparing to summon your weapon if needed. You make your way up the stairs with caution, convinced that there'll be more than a few Abyss Mages awaiting your arrival. In hindsight, if you could choose - you would rather fight off a horde of Abyssal creatures, if it meant that you wouldn’t have to see what you saw there.

It’s as if everything goes quiet for a second - and then, it unravels. An indescribable feeling of dread hits you like a great wave the moment you climb the stairs; it’s as if every single nerve in your body is alert, your intuition screaming at you to run back to where you came from. It reminds you of how you felt back when you were narrowly dodging Stormterrors’ attacks, or when Osial appeared out of the ocean for the first time; but somehow much stronger.

You freeze; before, you were staring at the odd purple energy swirling around a structure, trying to make out what was behind it, but your attention is pulled away. There’s a figure at the far end of the room, right below the purple aura, curled up in an odd prayer-like position. Paimon lets go of your shirt and leans forward as Aether approaches cautiously, and you’re half tempted to tell them both to ditch the mission, feign an illness, anything. But, it’s as if your body betrays its own sense of danger; you trail behind the two, albeit slowly. Paimon speaks, but you’re not paying attention; instead, you shuffle past the two, moving closer against your better judgment to inspect the figure. You cut Paimon off, voice louder than anything you thought you could muster, though still quivering.

“Why have they not moved an inch since we entered the room?"

Aether is by your side in a few steps, examining the figure.His eyes widen briefly.

“...They’re not breathing.”

“Are they dead? Is the Grand Thief dead?!” Paimon yells, voice shrill as ever, and you suppress the urge to shush her.

“Dead, or under a spell. Considering we’re dealing with the Abyss, I hope it isn’t the latter.” You mutter.

Paimon doesn’t reply, and you don’t dwell on it. Instead, you speak up, voice loud and demanding.

“We need to get out. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the only other person we’ve seen here is dead, and there hasn’t been a single monster or Fatui member in here. It’s far too quiet.”

“But wouldn’t that mean that the Abyss has also abandoned this place?” Paimon wonders, and you shrug.

“That, or we’re being watched. Regardless, this could be a trap. We need to leave. Now.” You push yourself off the ground, briefly considering hauling the poor thief with you, but Aether interrupts you.

“I don’t think the Abyss has abandoned this ruin. Look up.” He mumbles, and you swear that you hear his voice quiver. Reluctantly, you listen.

From your position, you can see what’s behind the purple aura, which you now realize is concentrated in a mysterious orb. It’s not the orb Aether is looking at though, it’s the hands that are holding it – hands that belong to a Statue of the Seven, which is suspended upside-down, mid-air.

“Is that…A Statue of the Seven? from Mondstadt?” Paimon asks, voice faltering towards the end. Neither of you reply - both of your gazes are locked on the statue, both in morbid curiosity and fear. You hear Aether’s breathing pick up slightly, and you feel yours do the same. You realize that the origin of the disturbing feeling is the statue, or rather the orb.

The empty feeling in your chest only takes over when you see the defiled statue. Venti’s defiled statue.

Your breath stutters while you try to steady it, counting slowly as you breathe in and out. You’re not injured, thankfully, but the Abyss Herald did a number on you as you dodged his attacks. And that’s only the cherry on top of everything else you’ve encountered today.

Aether approaches your field of vision, and you see the man he was talking to - Dainsleif - cast a concerned glance your way. You answer his question before he gets a chance to ask; “I’m fine, just a bit shaken up”

“You don’t look ‘just a bit shaken up’ to me, if i’m being honest.”

“Ever heard of a white lie, Aether?”

A smile pulls at the corners of his lips. He sits down on the grass in front of you, fiddling with a flower in his hand. He hesitates, but eventually wills himself to speak.

“You’re worried about Venti.”

It was more of a statement than a question, but you still nod.

“500 mora says that his rapid decrease in energy isn’t just because that Harbinger lady yanked his gnosis out.” You spit out, and scoff; it was intended to come out more lighthearted, but at that moment your words are dripping with venom.

“I’d rather not set myself up for failure here”

It’s quiet again. You close your eyes and listen to the rushing waterfall not far from you, while Aether gets lost in thought.

“It’s just ironic. You’d think that with an Archon of all beings, they would be the ones worrying for your health more, but with Venti and I it’s the complete opposite now. Instead of wondering about how much time he’ll have with me, I’m wondering how much time I'll have with him.”

“...Is it that bad? I saw him struggle on multiple occasions, but I didn’t think erosion set in that fast.”

“All I know is that he’ll lie through his teeth about it, until the day he dies, I’m sure.”

Aether inhales sharply, as an awkward silence fills the space between you two.

“Sorry.” You eventually mumble, but he brushes you off.

“It’s okay. You’re not the only one who’s got a few bones to pick with him about honesty”

“Or lack thereof” You quickly add, getting a chuckle out of him.

A sad smile spreads on your face.

To your joy, it doesn't take long for Aether to announce that he's heading back to Mondstadt to investigate with Dainsleif. The taller man apologizes for ‘hijacking’ your commission, but you reassure him that you have had more than your fair share of anything related to the Abyss.

“I need to speak to someone in Mondstadt anyway.”

As you approach Springvale, you begin to feel small drops fall on you, and one look at the sky confirms that it’ll start raining down in rivers soon. Paimon somehow tucks herself under Aether’s cape, and he sighs but does nothing to stop her. It only increases the further into Mondstadt you go, and as you approach the bridge to the city, Paimon threatens to ditch the little group if you don’t hurry up

“Actually, I think i’ll head to Windrise”

Paimons eyes nearly pop out of her head.

“Are you crazy? You’re gonna end up looking like a Hydro Slime dragged you into Cider Lake!”

You chuckle at the mental image but shake your head.

“I’ll see you all later. Don’t go and bring down the Abyss Order without me!”

“No promises!” Aether yells, and you roll your eyes, before turning and walking as fast as you can, trying not to slip in the mud.

Venti has always preferred to spend rainy days at Windrise, sitting on a branch in the tree and quietly watching. You've always assumed it's therapeutic for him. It's calming. Rain, being a natural phenomenon, remains unaffected by things such as erosion - it's one of the things that will always occur, regardless of how much time passes or how much civilization develops. You assume this is part of the reason why Venti loves it so much.

At first, disappointment fills you when you don’t see anyone - not even the crystal flies seem to be out, so you let out a sigh, deciding to rest there for a while anyway. The rain is heavy now, and the branches of the large tree provide good shelter at the trunk, so you close your eyes and lean against it. Soon enough, you slide down and hug your knees to your chest, leaning your chin against them. With a deep breath, you aching muscles finally relax a bit. Seems like Celestia has granted you a rare moment of peace; you just hope that thunder and lightning won’t accompany it.

With this, your thoughts begin to roam, as you try to process everything that has occurred in the past few days. The argument with Venti that was left hanging in the air…the trip to Liyue, and the commission…the dread you felt as you saw the dead body in the ruin, and then the statue…

Tears sting at your eyes, and you shake your head with a sniffle. You can cry later, you decide, and open your eyes, blinking rapidly. The stray tears on your cheeks are rubbed away and stain your sleeve, but you ignore it. Instead, your gaze falls to the roots around you; you’re sitting in a space between two larger ones, so big that they’re practically hiding your body from both sides; it makes you feel safe, almost.

Your eyes scan the roots, following them down to the statue, the field, and Mondstadt, which is now barely visible through the rain, as the sky and ground blends into one.

Your attention falls back to the statue, beyond the cluster of roots. The sense of serenity it used to bring has been polluted by the sight in the ruins. It brings back the pit in your stomach, and although it's less overpowering, it’s still noticeable. Like a shadow lurking behind you, slowly looming over you like the gray clouds above your head.

Fiddling with the grass to distract yourself, you spot a small dandelion, the ball of white fluff still fully intact. You pluck it, careful to keep it intact. A small prayer leaves your lips; it’s more out of habit than belief at this point, but you still close your eyes for a moment, inhaling deeply. As you open them, you blow all the seeds off the dandelion, watching them scatter into the air.

“Y’know, instead of praying to me, you could just call my name.”

You snap your head up, searching for the origin of the voice. The area in front of you looks the same as before, so you tilt your head back, eyes scanning the branches.

Venti is perched on one of the lower ones, with one leg hanging off the branch, while he rests his chin against the knee of the other. Contrary to the lilt in his voice, the small smile on his face looks rather somber.

“Did I scare you? Sorry, dear.”

He clearly doesn’t expect an answer, thinking you’re still mad at him. You would be, but the anger from a few days ago has slowly dissipated since you left the ruins.

“How long have you been here?” You ask, so quietly that you worry he can’t hear it. Thankfully, he does.

“Hm, technically for the past 3 hours, but if it makes you feel better, I only moved to this branch when I thought I heard a prayer from over here - an awfully quiet one, at that.”

“Well, it’s not like I was expecting anyone to hear it.”

You assume he’s done testing the waters, because he promptly launches himself off the branch, landing rather gracefully on the ground. You nod when he glances at the root next to you, and he sits down, with his elbows on his thighs and head in his hands as he looks down at you.

“No offense, but that’s rather ridiculous, considering the tree you’re leaning up against. Not to mention the statue over there.” He nods towards it, before moving his gaze back to you.

“No offense, but the one who’s supposed to hear it doesn’t exactly have a great track record of listening to anyone.” You get out through gritted teeth; some of the anger still lingers, you assume, and sigh.

You force yourself to look up at him; the words clearly stung, and you feel a twinge of guilt, but say nothing.

“...You’re still mad, huh?”

Your shoulders fall, and you lean back against the trunk again.

“Did you think I wasn’t going to be?”

“Well, part of me hoped for that, but considering you got up and disappeared for a few days, I wasn’t expecting too much.” Oh right. You nearly forgot about that.

“...That I am slightly sorry for. In my defense, you were gone as well. It’s not like I had time to search the entire region for you.” You mumble, and he shrugs in defeat.

“Touché.”

You’re both quiet for a bit, listening to the rain that doesn’t seem to be going away anytime soon. Venti wants to say something, you can feel that, but he never gets past glancing down at you.

“Aren’t you a bit cold, love?”

You shake your head. The spot you’ve chosen to sit in is surprisingly cozy, and warm for whatever reason. You make no comment at his awkward attempt at conversation.

“...I’m sorry.”

Your head snaps up towards him again, meeting his sad gaze. He looks genuinely apologetic, you notice, but it’s not enough. If anything, it stirs the anger once more.

“Y’know, coming from you, those words don’t really hold a lot of meaning anymore.” You mumble. You’re being mean, you know that; you see the way he winces at your words, and how he’s at a loss of his own. Most importantly, you know that he does mean it. It’s just not enough anymore. Those words don’t hold the same weight they once did.

There’s a long pause, and then you hear a shaky sigh.

“...I know I’ve messed up, and I keep doing it, and I need to put a stop to it, and I’m sorry, but I just don’t know what to say or do anymore. I’ve been horrible, I know, and I feel even worse knowing that it took you leaving without a trace for me to truly realize it, but I don’t know what to do! How can I make this better? Please.” His voice quivers, and it stings, but you hold your ground.

Or try to, anyway.

“Do you want me to leave?”

“No,” You whisper; a sound so meek that the rain drowns it out. Slight panic fills you when Venti moves, so you reach for his hand, grasping it. You clutch it tight, as if that could ever stop him from disappearing into thin air if he wished to do so; thankfully, he doesn’t. Instead, he mirrors your action, twisting his hand in your grip to intertwine his fingers with your own. He wastes no time in sliding off the root he was sitting on, and down to wrap his arms around you in an embrace. You return the favor - arms shaking too much for your liking, as you bury your head in his chest.

You don’t cry - your voice comes out quivering, interrupted by sniffles that you later insist are due to the cold - but you don’t cry. At least, not until after you explain what occurred in the ruins; the dread, the ambience, the lack of living beings…down to the treasure hoarder, and finally, the statue. The words spill past your lips like an avalanche, moving too rapidly for you to even process what you’re saying, and before you know it, stray tears are spilling with them. You don’t miss Venti’s sharp inhale at the description of the statue, nor the way his hold on you gets all the more stronger.

Voice quivering, you continue; “I…I don’t know how to fix this.”

He’s quick to answer, almost cutting you off.

“You don’t need to.” His voice is surprisingly stern, though a tinge of fear seeps through.

“Something has to be done, I don’t want you to go and die on me because the damn Abyss Order decided to pick you as some weird puppet in their scheme-” Anger rushes through you as you almost cry out, though it fades into nothing when Venti’s hands find their way to your face, holding it softly and rubbing his thumbs across your cheeks. He gently nudges your head up, and away from his chest, and before you can protest, he rests his forehead against yours, still drawing soft patterns on your cheeks.

“Shhh. It’s okay. I’m okay…just breathe.” It’s almost a whisper, but a gentle one. For a moment, you close your eyes, and do as he says.

“I just don’t know what to do,” You whisper, opening your eyes once more.

“Neither do I, love. Neither do i.” He mutters, half-lidded gaze focused on you. Moments later, you see his lips curl into a soft smile - barely noticeable, but a smile nevertheless.

You sniffle, and send him an odd look.

“...This could have horrible implications, and you’re smiling?”

He leans back a bit with a small ‘heh’, and rubs some tears away from your cheeks, before letting go. Still, being the affectionate person he is, his hands move to grasp your own again.

“No. I’m just happy that instead of being clueless alone, I’m clueless with you.”

You let out a strained giggle of sorts, and he sighs.

“That was…a bit too cheesy” He mutters, and you nod in agreement.

“Still,” he moves closer again, “it’s true. I’m not going to lie, this is…unsettling, to say the least. And while I hate that this is weighing you down, I know it’ll be easier to deal with together.”

You mirror his smile, but it falters quickly. Venti sees right through it, anyway.

“...You’re still worried, aren’t you?”

You nod.

“...I’ve just never heard of this happening. First they corrupt Stormterror, then an old God is reawakened…how do we know this is something that can even be dealt with?”

He shushes you again.

“This isn’t the first time I’ve faced something that seemed impossible to overcome, y’know? Sure, my strength isn’t what it used to be. But for now, I’m okay.”

Something stings behind your eyes again, and you try to blink it away while nodding. Venti reaches up to clear away your tears again.

“We’re both okay, and that’s what matters for now.”

#fics #genshin impact #venti genshin #venti x reader #genshin impact x reader #venti

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selkiesstories · 1 year ago

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I was going through your grrm critical tag and I have to say you really hit on a lot of the points I always noticed with his writing but could not articulate and I think you're way better at being critical of him, than like 90 percent of the fandom that just glosses over his shoddy world building and weirdness lmao. I think that GRRM has a big problem with tone deafness, not being consistent about the supposed themes he's exploring, distorting history yet claiming realism, and just over all not understanding the implications of some of his more baffling writing choices.

Also, I think that fandom tends to project the plots, characterizations, and themes they want this work to be about, and not what is actually presented in the text. A lot of this is of course his fault for not finishing the books, because he uses a lot of POV traps, misdirection, vague retellings of events, ambiguity, which is all fine and well.....if the author actually delivers a resolution to the seeds that he plants thus giving readers some semblance of answers to these questions. I doubt Martin ever will at this point.

That being said, I think fandom also thinks he's some moral philosophy teacher that is imparting 'lessons' with a lot of his writing choices especially when it comes to the sexualization of pre-teens and teens in his work and I just.....don't think that's the case. I think he's a bit of Freak and uses 'well, this is set in medieval times' to place barely teen girls in unambiguously romantic/sexual relationships with older men. I also think the whole 'well, he's really doing a massive critique of incest' in his work and....I just don't see that as the case lol. I remember reading Fire and Blood and him describing how 14/15 year old Alyssa marries her brother Baelon and it's a great marriage, and relationship, and she was so hot for him her cries of passion could be heard through the castle on their wedding night lmao. I see fandom propagate that GRRM thinks incest is this disgusting terrible thing and is always framed badly and it's....not? lol. I'm not endorsing these narrative choices btw, I just think a lot of people don't want to admit that they like a series that would be considered deeply problematic in 2023 and instead try to twist themselves into a pretzel to make GRRM into the most Woke Author to have ever Woked.

Also, don't even get me started on this man choosing to have half his main characters be either literal children and pre-teens and then just treating them as if they are 25-years-old both in terms of mental and physical development (because he obviously has no idea how teens develop). Like, if you have no concept of a the differences between a 12 year old girl a 15 year old girl and a 18 year old you.....maybe don't have the characters start off so baffling young because it makes you look very Weird considering the writing choices in the series.

Aww thank you so much! I think I owe a lot to my realization that I just wasn’t enjoying the books and was under no obligation to finish them. I have no need to twist myself into intellectual pretzels to justify my preferred ending or why actually Martin loves my favorite character or why my ship is endgame. He’s never finishing the series anyway Obviously he’s the author and can say whatever he wants, but he also says that Daemon Targaryen is the most complex character he’s ever written.

Anyway the moral of the story I guess is to not overly identify with whatever it is you like to the point where you think that it has to be above moral reproach because otherwise it reflects badly on you as a person. That, and not insisting on historical accuracy in a story featuring dragons.

#grrm critical #he just isn’t to my taste #ASoIaF is really him writing a dark fantasy with protagonist centered morality #which is fine #just be upfront about it

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convenientalias · 2 days ago

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Kdramas I Watched in 2024

A little roundup as the year comes to a close :D

First, the dramas I watched that aired in 2024:

A Shop for Killers - I wasn't as big a fan of this as I expected to be. I liked Jeong Jian, and the uncle-niece moments, but there was a lot of screentime that was just gunfights and explosions, which kind of bore me. When it comes to action, my preference is fistfights and swordfights. I also think I might not actually be a Lee Dong-wook fan; this is the third show I've watched of his, and I never quite get into the characters he plays. I'd rate it 2/5.

Bitter Sweet Hell - Ever since watching Mine, I'm always looking for the next female-led thriller that can deliver the same femslashy energy, or at least an intense and complicated relationship between two women. Bitter Sweet Hell seemed like a good bet for this, as the two leads are both women (a woman and her mother-in-law), but it never quite hit for me. It is a bit femslashy between our FMC and the woman having an affair with her husband, especially towards the end, but overall, it's not a very shippy show, and as a thriller, it never quite got me fully invested. 3/5.

Black Out - I watched this show primarily for Byun Yo-han but also because I like plots about ppl getting framed for crimes. I read the book beforehand, which led to me constantly scrutinizing it for differences lol, and there were many. Some good, some perhaps less so, but I won't go into that here! I really enjoyed the whump (lots of that in the book too) and I loved Geon-oh's character, who barely appears in the book but here actually got some screentime. There are a LOT of terrible people, of course; probably the majority of the characters have committed some crime they are trying to cover up, and after a certain point, you're constantly watching them rip into each other and throw each other to the wolves. Barely anyone makes it out intact. I would recommend this one! 4/5.

Queen Woo - The first few episodes of this show are amazing. Beautiful costumes, political intriguing, complicated relationships, and a villain played by Lee Soo-hyuk who comes across as both sadistically evil and rather pathetic. Then the second half of the show is consumed by chase scenes and fight scenes, and the political intrigue kind of gets confusing and falls apart, and Lee Soo-hyuk barely shows up anymore, and the female lead's character goes from survival mode to girlbossification. This show infuriates me in a way only a show with great potential could. I still love the first few episodes though. Queen Woo/Go Bal-gi forever. 2/5.

The Trunk - I'm not sure what to think about this one. I really liked the two lead actors, Seo Hyun-jin and Gong Yoo. The atmosphere of the show (especially at the beginning) is strong, in turns mellow and tense, very absorbing, a bit slow paced. And the exploration of two people cohabiting, in a "marriage" that is at first stiff and impersonal but that slowly becomes something more. At the same time, I'm not sure I buy the central relationship as much as the show wants me to--I'm not sure I'm convinced that either lead would get over their past so quickly, or that these two really could not just be interested in each other but love each other. Maybe they just sold a tone of estrangement and nostalgia too hard, idk. I also don't love the way the second female lead is portrayed less and less sympathetically as the show goes on--the last episode tries to dial it back, but she's become very flat by that point. So, mixed feelings all around. I'd recommend more for vibes than for plot. 3/5.

When the Phone Rings - I'm only 2/3 through this one so I won't rate it yet, but so far it's been good. I love the identity porn and the complicated central relationship. Also the representation of mute and deaf characters, though I'm not sure the female MC would technically be called selectively mute, as she seems to be able to talk and chooses not to. In any case, the sign language is a cool aspect of the show. And I hadn't seen Yoo Yeon-seok in anything since Mr. Sunshine, so it's fun to see him again! (I also hadn't seen Byun Yo-han in anything since Mr. Sunshine until Black Out, so I'm associating these two shows in my head lol.)

Shows that didn't air in 2024 that I watched this year:

Circle - This was my fourth time watching this show lol. I think I've said all my feelings about this show before but!!! ITS SO GOOD. There are lots of shows that play with a split timeline, showing half the show in a flashback and half in the present, or just a short flashback every episode, but I've never seen a show use the format as successfully as Circle. The way it uses the separation of time as well as space to show the longing of two separated brothers to find each other; the way events in the past are slowly revealed at a pace that makes sense given what's going on in the future. The fact that the future portion has a significantly different setting in a dystopian sci-fi city, and the very existence of this city ties into what happened in the past. THE ACTING. Yeo Jin-goo and Kim Kang-woo at their best! AMNESIA. MIND CONTROL (of sorts). ALIENS. This show truly has everything. I know it came out in 2017, I KNOW I have recommended it a hundred times before, but I am never over it and yes, that's right, I'm not over it now either. Not only 5/5 but 100/5 To Me.

Crime Puzzle - This show? is not? good? Speaking of shows that use a bunch of flashbacks, that happens here too, but? it's just not well done? It was so boring I can barely remember what happened in it, and just... not satisfying. My favorite character died. The answers to certain mysteries were kind of obvious. I feel like the central relationship could have had Flower of Evil vibes if I had cared about them at all, but the chemistry was simply not there. 1/5.

The Deal - Kidnapping show! Kidnapping show! I LOVE KIDNAPPING it is my favorite trope of all time. And I don't know if I've ever seen a show that was as purely "Hey, wanna watch a kidnapping go wrong and everything be whumpy and fucked up" as this one. The two kidnappers and the kidnap victim are equally protagonists of the show, and both sympathetic. You just want them all to somehow come out of this situation okay and yet everything is constantly going wrong and the longer the show goes on, the more emotionally unstable everyone gets. Incredibly shippy between all the main three characters. I AM BEGGING YOU TO WATCH THIS SHOW. mostly bc I need more fanfic but also I would settle for just more ppl talking about it. 5/5, the best show that I watched for the first time this year.

Jirisan - I'd recommend this show primarily for the atmosphere and setting. It takes place on a mountain (Jirisan) and is about rangers trying to save people from life threatening accidents (and also murder). There's just so much panning over the landscape and it's absolutely gorgeous. Lots of hiking etc. As a thriller, it's decent; the setting leads to different sources of tension than usual, a lot of man vs. nature rather than the usual man vs. man conflict of the average thriller. But also a certain amount of detection and investigation. Also, one character spends a certain amount of the show as a ghost!!!!! which is very cool but I won't give too many spoilers on that. The only downside of this show is that the pacing can get kind of slow if you binge watch it due to the aforementioned focus on the beautiful landscape. 4/5.

Pale Moon - I rarely watch a show focused on an affair that I actually like, but Pale Moon really did it for me. Part of it's the acting. Kim Seo-hyung in the lead creates a quiet, withdrawn character who sort of steps out of her life and starts creating the world she would want to live in: A younger lover rather than her distant and dismissive husband, a lover she can pamper with her own money rather than accept money from submissively. But it's fake - the money is embezzled from her job at a bank, and the lover, at first awe-struck by her and utterly infatuated, becomes less the person she loves the more support she offers him and the more success he finds on his own. Money courses through the show, enchanting and corrupting all the characters. The minor characters are also great, especially the MC's best friend, played by Yoo Sun. And the ending, while not entirely tragic, is still emotionally devastating (or at least, it devastated me). 5/5, maybe not for everyone but I think more people should try it out.

I also watched a lot of Korean movies this year! I won't go into too much detail here but I did rank 15 Park Sung-woong movies here. TLDR everyone should watch Daemuga, For the Emperor, Method, and New World. Apart from that, a brief summation:

In Dream (2023) - Spooky dreamwalking, but basically your average serial killer thriller apart from that. 3/5.

Love and Leashes (2022) - I came for the femdom and I did enjoy it but the structure of the plot is still very man-pursues-woman, plus the femdom in question barely seems to enjoy BDSM. So, it wasn't quite what I hoped. 3/5.

The Night Owl (2022) - Spooky happenings and Murder in Joseon. Lots of political intrigue. 5/5.

Tomb of the River (2021) - I just wanted to see Jang Hyuk in a gangster movie and I did get that. But the plot was not so strong, and after all the Park Sung-woong movies I watched this year, my standards for gangster movies have gotten higher. 2/5.

Burning (2018) - Have you ever watched a Murakami adaptation and said to yourself, yeah, that sure seems like a Murakami? I hadn't until this year but now I have. That said, it did make one change that, without having previously read the short story, I could completely pinpoint--there are some things Murakami just doesn't do. I liked the change, though, and I liked this movie. 4/5.

The Divine Move and The Divine Move 2: The Wrathful - I like watching people play go and murder each other in convoluted ways. Both these movies are a bit ridiculous and over the top, but I enjoyed them! And Woo Do-hwan is in one of them :D. 4/5.

Old Boy (2003) - Wins the "most fucked up movie I've watched this year" award. If you know, you know! 4/5.

Overall, I had a good year for kdramas and Korean movies both. The dramas I would recommend the most would be: First and foremost, The Deal, more people need to watch it ASAP. After that, Pale Moon and Black Out were really good; I also would recommend Jirisan but you do need some patience!

I hope you watched good kdramas this year too! We'll see what the next year holds :D <3

#kdramas

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istumpysk · 2 years ago

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Operation Stumpy Re-Read

ADWD: The Queen's Hand (Barristan IV) [Chapter 70]

Long ass chapter for no good reason.

The Dornish prince was three days dying.

He took his last shuddering breath in the bleak black dawn, as cold rain hissed from a dark sky to turn the brick streets of the old city into rivers. The rain had drowned the worst of the fires, but wisps of smoke still rose from the smoldering ruin that had been the pyramid of Hazkar, and the great black pyramid of Yherizan where Rhaegal had made his lair hulked in the gloom like a fat woman bedecked with glowing orange jewels.

Perhaps the gods are not deaf after all, Ser Barristan Selmy reflected as he watched those distant embers. If not for the rain, the fires might have consumed all of Meereen by now.

+.+.+

He saw no sign of dragons, but he had not expected to. The dragons did not like the rain.

We already know they hate the cold, and don't do well in the north, but not liking rain seems to be a new development. At least for me.

"I knew it would rain," he said in a gloomy tone. "My bones were aching last night. They always ache before it rains. The dragons won't like this. Fire and water don't mix, and that's a fact. You get a good cookfire lit, blazing away nice, then it starts to piss down rain and next thing your wood is sodden and your flames are dead."

Gerris chuckled. "Dragons are not made of wood, Arch."

"Some are. That old King Aegon, the randy one, he built wooden dragons to conquer us. That ended bad, though." - The Dragontamer, ADWD

+.+.+

Missandei sat at the bedside. She had been with the prince night and day, tending to such needs as he could express, giving him water and milk of the poppy when he was strong enough to drink, listening to the few tortured words he gasped out from time to time, reading to him when he fell quiet, sleeping in her chair beside him. Ser Barristan had asked some of the queen's cupbearers to help, but the sight of the burned man was too much for even the boldest of them. And the Blue Graces had never come, though he'd sent for them four times. Perhaps the last of them had been carried off by the pale mare by now.

It seems little Missandei can stomach some pretty gruesome things. Reminds me of another little girl in this story.

I'm going to pretend the Blue Graces aren't helping because they hate him.

+.+.+

The tiny Naathi scribe looked up at his approach. "Honored ser. The prince is beyond pain now. His Dornish gods have taken him home. See? He smiles."

Dornish gods?

+.+.+

How can you tell? He has no lips. It would have been kinder if the dragons had devoured him. That at least would have been quick. This … Fire is a hideous way to die. Small wonder half the hells are made of flame. "Cover him."

Says the Targaryen loyalist.

+.+.+

"I'll see that he's returned to Dorne." But how? As ashes? That would require more fire, and Ser Barristan could not stomach that. We'll need to strip the flesh from his bones. Beetles, not boiling.

Something tells me House Martell won't be enjoying this skull as much as the last one.

+.+.+

"You should go sleep now, child. In your own bed."

"If this one may be so bold, ser, you should do the same. You do not sleep the whole night through."

How does she know that?

+.+.+

Grand Maester Pycelle had once told him that old men do not need as much sleep as the young, but it was more than that. He had reached that age when he was loath to close his eyes, for fear that he might never open them again. Other men might wish to die in bed asleep, but that was no death for a knight of the Kingsguard.

If there is any justice in this world, Barristan Selmy falls down a flight of stairs. Make it old man shit.

+.+.+

After the girl was gone, the old knight peeled back the coverlet for one last look at Quentyn Martell's face, or what remained of it. So much of the prince's flesh had sloughed away that he could see the skull beneath. His eyes were pools of pus. He should have stayed in Dorne. He should have stayed a frog. Not all men are meant to dance with dragons.

Misleading. Remember everyone, the dance won't actually involve dragons, Daenerys or any other real Targaryen.

+.+.+

And with the sun arrived the Shavepate. Skahaz was clad in his familiar garb of pleated black skirt, greaves, and muscled breastplate. The brazen mask beneath his arm was new—a wolf's head with lolling tongue.

LMAO.

Two for three! If this guy is in a rat mask at the start of TWOW, I'm going to lose my mind.

Can someone do me a favour and ask a Targ if it's a good thing when the poisoner dresses like a wolf?

+.+.+

"They await the Hand's pleasure below."

I am no Hand, a part of him wanted to cry out. I am only a simple knight, the queen's protector. I never wanted this. But with the queen gone and the king in chains, someone had to rule, and Ser Barristan did not trust the Shavepate.

You realize you didn't have to do anything, you stupid jackass.

+.+.+

There are two hundred highborn gathered in the square, standing in the rain in their tokars and howling for audience. They want Hizdahr free and me dead, and they want you to slay these dragons. Someone told them knights were good at that.

Personally, my money's on cripples, bastards, and broken things. And Samwell.

+.+.+

Men are still pulling corpses from the pyramid of Hazkar. The Great Masters of Yherizan and Uhlez have abandoned their own pyramids to the dragons.

You find any lions under that pyramid?

+.+.+

"Nine-and-twenty?" That was far worse than he could ever have imagined. The Sons of the Harpy had resumed their shadow war two days ago. Three murders the first night, nine the second. But to go from nine to nine-and-twenty in a single night …

Sounds like the perfect time to go to war, Barry.

When she opened her eyes again, Daenerys said, "I cannot fight two enemies, one within and one without. If I am to hold Meereen, I must have the city behind me. The whole city. I need … I need …" - Daenerys V, ADWD

+.+.+

Why do you look so grey, old man? What did you expect? The Harpy wants Hizdahr free, so he has sent his sons back into the streets with knives in hand.

Both of these men thought Hizdahr was the Harpy.

+.+.+

The sign of the Harpy was left beside the bodies, chalked on the pavement or scratched into a wall. There were messages as well. 'Dragons must die,' they wrote, and 'Harghaz the Hero.' 'Death to Daenerys' was seen as well, before the rain washed out the words."

Damn, they forgot my favourite.

+.+.+

"Twenty-nine hundred pieces of gold from each pyramid, aye," Skahaz grumbled. "It will be collected … but the loss of a few coins will never stay the Harpy's hand. Only blood can do that."

"So you say." The hostages again. He would kill them every one if I allowed it. "I heard you the first hundred times. No."

He can deny him all he'd like, the blood is still on Barristan's hands if these kids die. He's the one who committed treason, and empowered this maniac.

+.+.+

Hizdahr's grotesque dragon thrones had been removed at Ser Barristan's command, but he had not brought back the simple pillowed bench the queen had favored. Instead a large round table had been set up in the center of the hall, with tall chairs all around it where men might sit and talk as peers.

The audacity of this man.

+.+.+

They rose when Ser Barristan came down the marble steps, Skahaz Shavepate at his side.

[...]

"Whitebeard." Belwas smiled. "Where is liver and onions? Strong Belwas is not so strong as before, he must eat, get big again. They made Strong Belwas sick. Someone must die."

Someone will. Many someones, like as not.

You can only laugh. I'm sure Skahaz is.

+.+.+

Should Drogon return to Meereen without Daenerys mounted on his back, the city would erupt in blood and flame, of that Ser Barristan had no doubt.

Wanna bet the same thing happens if she is mounted on his back?

+.+.+

Thus far both dragons seemed to have a taste for mutton, returning to Daznak's whenever they grew hungry. If either one was hunting man, inside or outside the city, Ser Barristan had yet to hear of it. The only Meereenese the dragons had slain since Harghaz the Hero had been the slavers foolish enough to object when Rhaegal attempted to make his lair atop the pyramid of Hazkar.

Uh, no actually, that's not accurate at all.

The dragon twisted violently in the air, wounds smoking, the girl clinging to his back. Then he loosed the fire.

It had taken the rest of the day and most of the night for the Brazen Beasts to gather up the corpses. The final count was two hundred fourteen slain, three times as many burned or wounded. Drogon was gone from the city by then, last seen high over the Skahazadhan, flying north. - The Queensguard, ADWD

Convenient to forget something like that. I bet Barristan is going to be forgetting a lot of things in the future.

+.+.+

"We have more pressing matters to discuss. I have sent the Green Grace to the Yunkishmen to make arrangements for the release of our hostages. I expect her back by midday with their answer."

Barristan Selmy sending the Harpy to go negotiate with Yunkai is the most Barristan Selmy thing he could have done.

+.+.+

Skahaz Shavepate slammed his fist upon the table. "The Green Grace will accomplish nothing. She may be conspiring with the Yunkai'i even as we sit here. Arrangements, did you say? Make arrangements? What sort of arrangements?"

"Ransom," said Ser Barristan. "Each man's weight in gold."

Of course the Shavepate would be the one to correctly suspect treachery.

+.+.+

"Their sellswords will want the gold, though. What are the hostages to them? If the Yunkishmen refuse, it will drive a blade between them and their hirelings." Or so I hope. It had been Missandei who suggested the ploy to him. He would never have thought of such a thing himself. In King's Landing, bribes had been Littlefinger's domain, whilst Lord Varys had the task of fostering division amongst the crown's enemies. His own duties had been more straightforward. Eleven years of age, yet Missandei is as clever as half the men at this table and wiser than all of them.

Hm, it's usually Arya. This is the first time Missandei has given off older sister vibes.

+.+.+

"They will refuse, even so," insisted Symon Stripeback. "They will say they want the dragons dead, the king restored."

"I pray that you are wrong." And fear that you are right.

Reasonable demand.

214 people dead.

+.+.+

"Your gods are far away, Ser Grandfather," said the Widower. "I do not think they hear your prayers. And when the Yunkai'i send back the old woman to spit in your eye, what then?"

"Fire and blood," said Barristan Selmy, softly, softly.

✨ foreshadowing ✨

+.+.+

Skahaz Shavepate stared through the eyes of his wolf's head mask and said, "You would break King Hizdahr's peace, old man?"

"I would shatter it." Once, long ago, a prince had named him Barristan the Bold. A part of that boy was in him still. "We have built a beacon atop the pyramid where once the Harpy stood. Dry wood soaked with oil, covered to keep the rain off. Should the hour come, and I pray that it does not, we will light that beacon. The flames will be your signal to pour out of our gates and attack. Every man of you will have a part to play, so every man must be in readiness at all times, day or night. We will destroy our foes or be destroyed ourselves." He raised a hand to signal to his waiting squires. "I have had some maps prepared to show the dispositions of our foes, their camps and siege lines and trebuchets. If we can break the slavers, their sellswords will abandon them. I know you will have concerns and questions. Voice them here. By the time we leave this table, all of us must be of a single mind, with a single purpose."

Horse shit, this is exactly what he's wanted from the beginning.

"You mean to take the field?" The Shavepate's voice was thick with disbelief. "That would be folly. Our walls are taller and thicker than the walls of Astapor, and our defenders are more valiant. The Yunkai'i will not take this city easily."

Ser Barristan disagreed. "I do not think we should allow them to invest us. Theirs is a patchwork host at best. These slavers are no soldiers. If we take them unawares …" - Daenerys V, ADWD

The queen sighed. "What do you counsel, ser?"

"Battle," said Ser Barristan. "Meereen is overcrowded and full of hungry mouths, and you have too many enemies within. We cannot long withstand a siege, I fear. Let me meet the foe as he comes north, on ground of my own choosing." - Daenerys V, ADWD

Ahem.

Ser Barristan is a valiant knight and true; but none, I think, has ever called him cunning."

"Knights know only one way to solve a problem. They couch their lances and charge. A dwarf has a different way of looking at the world. What of you, though? You are a clever man yourself." - Tyrion II, ADWD

I'm dying at the author giving the Daenerys side a beacon. I'm used to Stannis copying her.

+.+.+

And when all that had been discussed, debated, and decided, Symon Stripeback raised one final point. "As a slave in Yunkai I helped my master bargain with the free companies and saw to the payment of their wages. I know sellswords, and I know that the Yunkai'i cannot pay them near enough to face dragonflame. So I ask you … if the peace should fail and this battle should be joined, will the dragons come? Will they join the fight?"

They will come, Ser Barristan might have said. The noise will bring them, the shouts and screams, the scent of blood. That will draw them to the battlefield, just as the roar from Daznak's Pit drew Drogon to the scarlet sands. But when they come, will they know one side from the other? Somehow he did not think so.

A little friendly fire. No biggie.

I wonder which ally is getting smoked.

+.+.+

Ser Barristan took two of his new-made knights with him down into the dungeons.

Ego always wins in the end.

As he watched them at their drills, Ser Barristan pondered raising Tumco and Larraq to knighthood then and there, and mayhaps the Red Lamb too. It required a knight to make a knight, and if something should go awry tonight, dawn might find him dead or in a dungeon. Who would dub his squires then? On the other hand, a young knight's repute derived at least in part from the honor of the man who conferred knighthood on him. It would do his lads no good at all if it was known that they were given their spurs by a traitor, and might well land them in the dungeon next to him. They deserve better, Ser Barristan decided. Better a long life as a squire than a short one as a soiled knight. - The Kingbreaker, ADWD

+.+.+

Ser Gerris punched a wall. "I told him it was folly. I begged him to go home. Your bitch of a queen had no use for him, any man could see that. He crossed the world to offer her his love and fealty, and she laughed in his face."

"She never laughed," said Selmy. "If you knew her, you would know that."

"She spurned him. He offered her his heart, and she threw it back at him and went off to fuck her sellsword."

"You had best guard that tongue, ser." Ser Barristan did not like this Gerris Drinkwater, nor would he allow him to vilify Daenerys. "Prince Quentyn's death was his own doing, and yours."

This will be the man who tells Dorne what happened. I couldn't be happier.

She did laugh, and she did influence him.

+.+.+

Barristan Selmy could not dispute the truth of that. He had spent the best part of his own life obeying the commands of drunkards and madmen.

Sounds like another king I know.

Jon laughed, laughed like a drunk or a madman, and his men laughed with him. - Jon VIII, ASOS

+.+.+

To Ser Barristan the big knight said, "No need to come and talk if you meant to hang us. So it's not that, is it?"

"No." This one may not be as slow-witted as he seems.

You can't be serious.

This POV is unbearable, I can't believe I have one more to get through.

+.+.+

Ser Archibald grimaced. "Why is it always ships? Someone needs to take Quent home, though. What do you ask of us, ser?"

"Your swords."

"You have thousands of swords."

"The queen's freedmen are as yet unblooded. The sellswords I do not trust. Unsullied are brave soldiers … but not warriors. Not knights." He paused. "What happened when you tried to take the dragons? Tell me."

Even 11-year-old Sansa wasn't this deluded about knights.

+.+.+

The chains … there were bits of broken chain everywhere, big chains, links the size of your head mixed in with all these cracked and splintered bones. And Quent, Seven save him, he looked like he was going to shit his smallclothes. Caggo and Meris weren't blind, they saw it too. Then one of the crossbowmen let fly. Maybe they meant to kill the dragons all along and were only using us to get to them. You never know with Tatters.

What a weird thing to write.

+.+.+

"Ah, what did you expect, Drink? A cat will kill a mouse, a pig will wallow in shit, and a sellsword will run off when he's needed most. Can't be blamed. Just the nature of the beast."

Still holding out hope this isn't only about Brown Ben Plumm.

+.+.+

"What did Prince Quentyn promise the Tattered Prince in return for all this help?"

He got no answer. Ser Gerris looked at Ser Archibald. Ser Archibald looked at his hands, the floor, the door.

"Pentos," said Ser Barristan. "He promised him Pentos. Say it. No words of yours can help or harm Prince Quentyn now."

"Aye," said Ser Archibald unhappily. "It was Pentos. They made marks on a paper, the two of them."

There is a chance here.

If you thought Barristan Selmy sending the Harpy to Yunkai was the dumbest thing he would do in this chapter, I've got some news for you.

"Pentos?" Her eyes narrowed. "How can I give him Pentos? It is half a world away."

"He would be willing to wait, the woman Meris suggested. Until we march for Westeros."

And if I never march for Westeros? "Pentos belongs to the Pentoshi. And Magister Illyrio is in Pentos. He who arranged my marriage to Khal Drogo and gave me my dragon eggs. Who sent me you, and Belwas, and Groleo. I owe him much and more. I will not repay that debt by giving his city to some sellsword. No."

Ser Barristan inclined his head. "Your Grace is wise." - Daenerys IX, ADWD

+.+.+

"I mean to send them back to the Tattered Prince. And you with them. You will be two amongst thousands. Your presence in the Yunkish camps should pass unnoticed. I want you to deliver a message to the Tattered Prince. Tell him that I sent you, that I speak with the queen's voice. Tell him that we'll pay his price if he delivers us our hostages, unharmed and whole."

Yup that's right, Barristan Selmy promised to give Pentos to a sellsword. PENTOS.

There are no words.

+.+.+

"Why not? The task is simple enough." Compared to stealing dragons. "I once brought the queen's father out of Duskendale."

Past your prime, peaked in high school energy.

+.+.+

The simple part, at least, thought Barristan Selmy, as he made the long climb back to the summit of the pyramid. The hard part he'd left in Dornish hands. His grandfather would have been aghast. The Dornishmen were knights, at least in name, though only Yronwood impressed him as having the true steel. Drinkwater had a pretty face, a glib tongue, and a fine head of hair.

God, shut up.

He would have a thin blue line bumper sticker, I know it.

Edit: Necessary addition.

+.+.+

By the time the old knight returned to the queen's rooms atop the pyramid, Prince Quentyn's corpse had been removed. Six of the young cupbearers were playing some child's game as he entered, sitting in a circle on the floor as they took turns spinning a dagger.

Uhh, that doesn't feel like a good omen.

+.+.+

Far off to the east, beyond the city walls, he saw pale wings moving above a distant line of hills. Viserion. Hunting, mayhaps, or flying just to fly. He wondered where Rhaegal was. Thus far the green dragon had shown himself to be more dangerous than the white.

He sure is!

+.+.+

The Dornishmen, Hizdahr, Reznak, the attack … was he doing the right things? Was he doing what Daenerys would have wanted? I was not made for this.

NO YOU CLOWN.

I want no war with Yunkai. How many times must I say it? - Daenerys VI, ADWD

+.+.+

Galazza Galare was attended by four Pink Graces. An aura of wisdom and dignity seemed to surround her that Ser Barristan could not help but admire. This is a strong woman, and she has been a faithful friend to Daenerys.

That's all the Harpy confirmation I need.

It's not clear what Pink Graces do. I am reminded of House of Pahl.

+.+.+

"I am pleased to hear that. The Wise Masters of Yunkai asked after him. You will not be surprised to hear that they wish the noble Hizdahr to be restored at once to his rightful place."

"He shall be, if it can be proved that he did not try to kill our queen. Until such time, Meereen will be ruled by a council of the loyal and just. There is a place for you on that council. I know that you have much to teach us all, Your Benevolence. We need your wisdom."

"I fear you flatter me with empty courtesies, Lord Hand," the Green Grace said. "If you truly think me wise, heed me now. Release the noble Hizdahr and restore him to his throne."

"Only the queen can do that."

But you can arrest the king, start a war with Yunkai, and give away Pentos?

+.+.+

The pyramid of Hazkar has collapsed into a smoking ruin, and many of that ancient line lie dead beneath its blackened stones.

How about twins? Any set of twins under that pyramid?

+.+.+

"And murder. The Sons of the Harpy slew thirty in the night."

"I grieve to hear this. All the more reason to free the noble Hizdahr zo Loraq, who stopped such killings once."

And how did he accomplish that, unless he is himself the Harpy?

+.+.+

"Her Grace gave her hand to Hizdahr zo Loraq, made him her king and consort, restored the mortal art as he beseeched her. In return he gave her poisoned locusts."

"In return he gave her peace. Do not cast it away, ser, I beg you. Peace is the pearl beyond price. Hizdahr is of Loraq. Never would he soil his hands with poison. He is innocent."

"How can you be certain?" Unless you know the poisoner.

If he would take one fucking second to listen to the words pouring out of his dumb idiotic mouth, he might realize there's no motive here.

+.+.+

"They did. No amount of gold will buy your people back, I was told. Only the blood of dragons may set them free again."

It was the answer Ser Barristan had expected, if not the one that he had hoped for. His mouth tightened.

Should the hour come, and I pray that it does not, we will light that beacon.

+.+.+

"I know these were not the words you wished to hear," said Galazza Galare. "Yet for myself, I understand. These dragons are fell beasts. Yunkai fears them … and with good cause, you cannot deny. Our histories speak of the dragonlords of dread Valyria and the devastation that they wrought upon the peoples of Old Ghis. Even your own young queen, fair Daenerys who called herself the Mother of Dragons … we saw her burning, that day in the pit … even she was not safe from the dragon's wroth."

"Dragons," Aemon whispered. "The grief and glory of my House, they were." - Samwell III, AFFC

+.+.+

Ser Barristan was on his feet at once. "What is it?"

"The trebuchets," the Shavepate growled. "All six."

Galazza Galare rose. "Thus does Yunkai make reply to your offers, ser. I warned you that you would not like their answer."

They choose war, then. So be it. Ser Barristan felt oddly relieved. War he understood. "If they think they will break Meereen by throwing stones—"

"Not stones." The old woman's voice was full of grief, of fear. "Corpses."

Yeah no shit, I would also feel relief if I manipulated the system for a specific outcome, then got exactly what I wanted.

I wish him well. Barristan Selmy is not allowed to die in Meereen with a sword in his hand.

Final thoughts:

Live look at me trying to get through the last three chapters.

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#operation stumpy re-read #adwd #the queen's hand #barristan iv

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