#and like. i did not do good work. i know i could have done better but idk what exactly happened

[sarcasticsparkles]

This brings me psychic damage in ways I could not possibly hope to describe. There are no words to properly convey the sheer frustration, so I am going to explain this from a perspective on the consequences of this.

My parents and I are my younger sister's English teachers.

The reason? Because her school developed such a problem with students using ChatGPT that they taught accordingly, in that they didn't teach at all. The rare time there was an attempt to properly teach, most students had no ability to think critically to the point being in a room with them was actively endangering the neurons of everyone around them. We needed to pull my sister out of English class because she simply was not learning despite her best efforts.

Being a teacher is not my field, but I have been writing since I was a preteen, and I am now an adult woman. Teaching a teenager to engage with media critically and write essays is not an easy task. The only thing maintaining my sanity is knowing my sister is a good kid and I've never had an issue of ChatGPT with her. But it has brought forward an interesting question a lot of students are faced with:

Why bother? What is the point of trying when the class moron with the broccoli hair and a singular braincell bouncing around in his head like a windows screensaver could get the same grade with the click of a button?

Removing my sister from a class of her peers was monumental in removing this argument, but not every student has family willing or able to aid them. It's a fascinating discussion and a depressing one.

When I was in school, there was an art to violating academic integrity. Some skill had to be learned to guarantee not being caught. There were obviously kids stupid enough to plagiarize an entire essay often from the first result on the first page of google. Or my favorite example of my classmate googling the answers to our trade school final exam on the school tablet, during the exam, with the google typing sound loudly on for all to hear. But the existence of those students was rarely harming anyone. If the assignment they cheated on was important to their future, they only harmed themselves, and if it was useless busywork, it's a victimless crime.

Furthermore, I've asked people what assignments they would cheat on, if any. Some people admitted to cheating on tests and such, as expected, but a lot of it was in situations where a teacher refused to respect their time. Meaningless busywork, designed for nothing more than to guarantee the student didn't sleep or have a life outside of school. If a teacher won't respect the students, why respect them by actually doing the pointless assignment?

(I need to clarify cheating on busywork means assignments like a math teacher giving a 26 question assignment each with multiple lettered sub-questions, none of which is going to appear on the test, and refusing to let students use a calculator. The type of assignment that in a creative setting would simply mean half-assing it.)

ChatGPT has not just blurred but outright decimated the line in the sand on what is busywork and what are assignments meant to help further the learning. Every assignment feels meaningless when it's common knowledge half the class spent 30 seconds on the work, if that. Every minute working on that important essay feels like time that could be spent on better things, and the question is raised why the teacher ever assigned it.

Why should a student waste hours of their time for something they know will mean nothing, and did mean nothing to so many who will get the same result as their hard work?

All ChatGPT has done is reduce critical thinking and writing ability on a massive scale, and destroy morale to create at all. There is something to be said in the context of the education system about failings that cause every aspect of learning to feel pointless in relation to the real world, but that has always been a problem, just as cheating has always been a problem. ChatGPT is a new ball game, and its effect on anyone it touches, even if indirectly, are catastrophic.

As a tidbit for any teacher or parent who may see this, the best way to confirm if ChatGPT was used in instances they don't accidentally leave in the "this was made by ChatGPT" blip is to ask the student to define the words in their essay. More often than not, they cannot pronounce or spell the word without a computer, let alone define it.

[pisceanfilm]

⋆ ｡  𐀔  ° ‧     what does this person want you to know?

KEYWORDS: romance, relationships, (past) situationships, seperation, energy check between you and your person of romantic interest.

ꕤ * ． pile one. → ꕤ * ． pile two. → ꕤ * ． pile three.

relax your body, close your eyes, and take a deep breath. ask yourself: "which pile has a message for me today?" when you open your eyes, what image did your eyes fall on? what image do you feel most drawn to energetically? that's your pile!

this reading is timeless! it will cross your path whenever it's meant to find you 🍀 while my main intention was to channel someone you're already involved with, you can also use this for your sp, a future partner, a soulmate, or whoever you're thinking about!!

PILE # 01

your person is a true yearner, i'll tell you this much. their heart is very fragile, they want you to know they're scared of getting hurt, of being betrayed. this is a person who didn't have many healthy relationships in the past. they're confused, unsure what to do, and just wishes to avoid it all right now.

they're very much fantasising about a future with you, though... they want it all with you, they loooove your laugh. (i'm seeing that maybe they want to travel with you? explore the world together is what i heard.) with you on their side, they feel invincible. they really want you on their team. when this person has been processing their emotions healthily, i see that they're very attentive, unafraid of showing a passionate desire towards you, and generally very caring and loving. they appreciate you so much, you're the brightest star in their existence.

however, if this person isn't standing strong in their emotions, i see them being very hot and cold. when you're together, everything feels right. you feel secure, you feel like there's something there. but when you're apart i see that you're very confused by the energy of your relationship. your mind appears to be your biggest enemy: do they like me? am i good enough for them? is this something that could work out? (i see that this is you picking up on the energy of your person... their confusion and doubts are making you doubtful as well.)

what i'm hearing is that you need to focus on your own healing and stability, so you can help this person heal energetically as well. this is a connection that's mostly guided by the divine. (currently there's a lot happening behind the scenes that you aren't even aware of.) you're meant to heal and complete certain cycles with this person for sure, this is not the end of the connection. so have faith, and trust that everything will align!!

a letter from your person: do you think about me too? i can't get you out of my head, no matter how much i try. you're always there. it frustrates me, how easy it would be for you to secure a spot inside of my heart. how well we could work together if i let my guard down. i'm scared, though. scared of hurting you, scared of hurting myself, scared of failing. what if i have something so beautiful with you and then ruin it by my fears and self sabotaging tendencies? i don't know why you still stick around, but i'm trying to be a better person. please call me out on my bullshit, i need you to be firm and stand your ground. don't take shit from me, i know i need to step up. i care for you, i'm trying to put my ego aside.

PILE # 02

god help my soul, i'm sensing a very intense and determined energy coming from your person 😭 this is definitely giving me the energy of an ex, or a situationship that was meant to take off but somehow didn't (i see this being your person's fault, for sure). this person absolutely regrets losing you. they're the reason things aren't moving forward. they blame themselves, they're angry and devastated. they wish they could've done things differently.

in the most favourable outcome, i see this person working on healing themselves. they're going through an ego death/dark night of the soul and are questioning everything and everyone around them. in this reflection i see them wanting to become a better person (for you), if you're willing to give them a chance. they want to love you right, they want to show you how much you mean to them... i see them wanting to swoop in and steal you away so you can ride into the sunset together!!

if this person refuses to face their demons, however, i see that spirit is going to give them a very difficult time unfortunately</3 they will hit them with the same harsh lessons over and over again until they finally see the light. in this case i see spirit keeping this connection in a separation (or limbo) in order to protect you. you can't heal this person right now... if they open their eyes, if they're able to see... they would understand what you truly mean to them. what a treasure they had in front of them. they will get there, though. it might take some time, i'm hearing.

depending on your situation with this person, only take them back if you can see that they've changed!! you know this is the case when they come back and show humble energy, that they're able to admit that they were wrong. i see, for some of you, they truly fucked up. so please use your discernment! losing you has been their biggest regret, though, and they will be carrying this guilt for a very long time...

a letter from your person: i'm going to win you back. i'll return to you and prove that i can be the person you need me to be. i'm sorry for hurting you in the past, i'm sorry for making you feel like you weren't good enough. apologies won't cut it, i know things need to change. i'm working on facing my demons. you were right, you made me realise i need to heal. i hope you still will be there when i come back... do you have someone new? are you willing to forgive me? i messed up, and losing you will be the biggest regret of my life.

PILE # 03

this is such a sweet and gentle energy, i just want to squish their cheeks<33 i see many different scenarios for you two. you could be dating, this could be a secret admirer, this could be your friend... this person feels very hesitant to me. i feel like they often have a poker face or wear a mask. i sense that you might pick up that they're hiding something from you/aren't being 100% authentic. don't be afraid, they aren't hiding anything malicious! if anything, i see they're hiding the depth of their emotions for you. they fear coming off too strong, they fear scaring you away. if you're in a relationship together, i see them wanting to take the next step... (making things official, living together, an engagement maybe? 🤭) they want to move things forward in a fruitful way, they want to give you all the love in the world. they're sooooo gentle with you, this makes my heart want to burst with love. they have such good intentions with you and they want to make you happy for as long as you'll have them<3

i don't feel any negative energies for this pile</3 literally, the worst case scenario here is that your person is a bit hesitant and reluctant to show the depths of their true feelings for you. they fear rejection, they fear being judged by you. (i see this person really cares and values your opinion of them, so your rejection would hurt tbh.) they're mostly testing the waters right now, trying to figure out what you want and what you're ready for. this is a very considerate person! but again, their insecurities might stop them from taking any action right now.

you have such a special place in their heart, it's no joke. you must have such a beautiful and powerful energy because this person literally loves every. single. thing. about. you. they see you as their sun, their moon, their stars, their whole universe... you mean a lot to them. i think the depth of their emotions scares them as well, to be honest. but i see them being brave and facing this head on. they want you, they know they want you, so i see them making a very significant move in the very near future.

please, my pile 3, be gentle with their heart<3 their energy is so pure and wholesome, they could be such a bright light in your darkness! i'm hearing that, if you aren't sure of this person's intentions, know that it's safe to trust them. you'll be very pleasantly surprised with what's waiting for you if you open your heart!

a letter from your person: do you like me? you shine so bright, sometimes it's blinding me. you radiate so much warmth, you make me so happy. when i'm with you there's no other place i'd rather be. did you know this? i'm placing my heart in your hands, i surrender myself to you...

(i'm not getting much more from them because this person is a bit shy... but when i'm in their energy... their heart just glows thinking about you. i see shy smiles, unable to keep eye contact without blushing, i feel like sometimes they need to take breaks from you because you're so overwhelming. love love love this energy 🩷)

[lascvitae]

❀༉‧₊˚ telepathy ── kim minjeong!

── minjeong has been distant lately and you have no idea why. she’s also been blushing way more around you lately and you still don’t know why.

pairing. spider!minjeong x fem!reader genre. fluff, comedy, angst but not too much bc i wanted to keep it minimal 😓 (happy ending dw) warning(s). cursing, horrible attempt at comedy, i want a natty and i want a julie

word count: 4.4k

feat. natty & julie of kiss of life, yeonjun of txt & ryujin of itzy.

── ⟢ ・⸝⸝ katty ᥫ᭡: a birthday gift for the og camp @jjjaliyah happy birthday pookie <333 also let me guys know if you want a part 2 bc i left so many openings for one (on purpose) BTW i tried a new layout i hope you giys like it OKAY I’M DONE YAPPING BYE

masterlist.

“if you could have any superpower in the world, what would it be?” you asked, setting down your cup of strawberry ice cream and turning to face your best friend.

minjeong brought her knees up to her chest, tilting her head as if she were contemplating an answer to the question.

“mm…” she hummed, concentration etched onto her pretty features.

it finally clicked and she averted her gaze to you, scooping up a spoonful of ice cream. “i would choose telepathy.” she decided, bringing the spoon up to her mouth. “so i could read people’s minds.”

you nodded, leaning backward on your hands. “that’s a good one.” the sun had begun to set and you couldn’t help but stare at it.

“what about yours?” she returned your curiosity, tongue darting out to swipe up the ice cream that settled on the corner of her lips, coating a bit of her piercing.

“probably telepathy too.” you agreed. “i want to know what people think of me.” that wasn’t lie, even if your mind constantly wondered what only minjeong thought of you. “it would be nice to know what the judges think of my performance.”

the blonde-haired girl laughed at your reasoning, shaking her head as she continued to devour her cup of ice cream. “that’s such a y/n thing to do.”

you raised an eyebrow, slightly offended. “and what does that mean?” her smile widened at the sound of your offense, playing with her snake bites with a humorous gaze.

“of course you’d use your power for that.” she began. “you’re so worried about this talent show. don’t you know that you’re already gonna win first place?”

“you don’t know that.” you argued. “mrs jung could select some critical judges.”

“i do.” she answered quickly. “i know you better than you know yourself.”

typically another strong remark you could come up with silence her for a bit further but you accepted defeat this time around. something you rarely did but with minjeong, you didn’t mind it.

so with a sigh, you picked up your cup of ice cream and began to work at it again. “what would you use your telepathy for then?”

a quiet giggle escaped her lips. “to know what you’re thinking.” she spoke rather bluntly. this caught you off guard and frankly confused you. this wasn’t something minjeong would normally say.

“so i can think of easier come backs. that way, you won’t ever have another win under your belt.” she concluded, making you roll your eyes in a good-natured manner.

“i should have known.” you took a spoonful of ice cream to your lips.

this was becoming a daily routine — hanging out in the trunk of minjeong’s car and watching the sunset while eating whatever the two of you had craved that day.

the summer heat left no other option but ice cream to cool the two of you down, and lucky for you, minjeong knew the best ice cream spot in town.

so these conversations weren’t uncommon for you two. it had been something that she suggested as soon as she had gotten her car in sophomore year.

and now, nearing the end of senior year, it was a staple in your friendship. not only that alone, but it was one of the main reasons why you fell for minjeong in the first place.

the small moments added up to unforgettable moments and everything in between, deepening your relationship with her. the fact that you both could go anywhere and never run out of things to talk about was something that you required in a partner.

from the time that you met her in third grade to now, there was really never a dull moment with minjeong. it was always full of smiles.

but something about her seemed off as of late.

it worried you deeply because it was something that you had experienced before with your ex-girlfriend ryujin.

ryujin would be late to dates that were arranged even weeks prior, and she was always prepared with a lame excuse underneath her belt.

minjeong looked down at her apple watch, setting her cup down soon as it was empty. “we should get going now. didn’t you say that you wanted to practice some more?” she glanced at your form. “even though you don’t need it.” she mumbled.

you were honored that she remembered, holding onto your cup as you stood up from your spot. “i did. what time is it?”

“seven.” she responded quickly, following in your steps. you waited for her to toss the cup into one of the nearby garbage cans at the park, walking towards thepassenger door as you saw her coming back.

sbe practically teleported to your side with how fast she made it there, opening the door for you. and she wasn’t even out of breath.

“you know you don’t open doors with me around.” her tone made you feel as if she were scolding you, even if it were supposed to be more of a reminder. but the smirk on her lips didn’t go unnoticed.

rolling your eyes playfully, you climbed into the seat and buckled your seatbelt. she closed the door, walking over to the other side.

with a quick button press the trunk began to close and she started the car, driving through the city because she knew how much you enjoyed the view.

that wasn’t the only reason why, though. the scenic route allowed you to spend more time with her.

her playlist began to start on shuffle, serving as the perfect background noise while you let your window down.

the lights of the city illuminated your face beautifully as minjeong traversed through the streets, breeze assisting in cooling you off with the coldness of your unfinished ice cream.

the billboards flashed with a multitude of bright, beautiful colors and different advertisements but there was one that was always consistent whenever you two took a drive. or a theme that was consistent, rather.

it was anything spiderman. man, did this town love the fact that they had gotten a superhero. you couldn’t see all of the hype surrounding him, honestly. he was a superhero, yes, but some of the attention was a bit excessive.

but you pulled out your phone, snapping a few pictures of the beautiful before you. and little did you know, minjeong was desperate to do the exact same thing.

once you clicked the frame in the tiny corner you were met with nothing but blurry pictures, disappointment etched onto your face as the car stopped at a red light.

so you took the opportunity to capture a few photos now that the car wasn’t in motion anymore, earning a quiet laugh from minjeong.

“what?” you scoffed, making her head shake from left to right. she had been staring at you the whole time, and you hadn’t even noticed.

you shivered a bit, unsure if it was because the amount of cold coursing through your veins now or because of the intensity of minjeong’s gaze.

either way, she didn’t hesitate to toss her jacket in your direction. “we come this way almost every single time and you still have pictures to take.”

you huffed, stubbornly wrapping the jacket around your body and snuggling into the dizzying scent of her perfume.

“when a view is pretty you don’t get tired of taking pictures.” you answered matter-of-factly, scrolling through your most recent ones.

minjeong hummed as the light turned green, stepping on the gas as she made it her top priority to get you home safely.

“well i guess you’re right.” she muttered, watch making a weird noise before she checked it.

“but i have to cut the tour short.” she spoke, voice with a slight roughness to it now. she made a quick left turn, taking the backroads to your home.

you sighed.

this wasn’t anything new. whenever minjeong got a certain notification on her watch, she was quick to leave you and disappear for about an hour or even sometimes more.

you were used to it, though. she had made it a habit ever since junior year and you were too afraid to bring it up.

“you’re driving kind of fast, jeongie.” even if it were true or not, you just wanted to get her attention back on you. or at least have one last conversation before she would leave for who knows how long.

“i’m doing five over. that’s legal.” she didn’t spare you a glance, eyebrows furrowed slightly. you couldn’t tell if she was annoyed or lost in thought.

you decided to leave her alone, finishing your ice cream moments before she pulled to the side of your lawn.

“same thing tomorrow?” you unbuckled your seatbelt, ready to get out of the car.

she nodded, and once you began to step out her hand gripped onto your arm to prevent you from doing it.

“wait.” she called out, face tinted a light shade of red.

you would find her cute if she hadn’t been blowing you off for the past year.

“um. can we do something different tomorrow?” she asked, reluctantly releasing her grip on you.

your eyebrow raised, clearly intrigued. “like what?”

“a date?”

you freezed up, blinking a few times at the sound of it. you almost believed that she was just joking before you saw the tug she did on her piercing that she only performed once she was nervous.

“yeah. sure.” you nodded, fighting back the smile begging to dance across your lips and squeal out loud. “as friends?”

but you lost the fight as minjeong smiled, leaning back in her seat with a shrug. so you just squealed internally.

“i don’t know. maybe more. how is five pm?” she suggested and you could only nod.

“then goodnight, y/n. get lots of rest so you won’t be tired.” you giggled quietly, shutting the door after a brief moment of silence.

she made sure that you got into the house safely, closing the door behind you and locking it with a soft click.

you sighed, tossing your ice cream into the trash before walking into your room and taking off your jacket, pitching it onto your bed.

that was when you realized.

that wasn’t your jacket.

shit, shit, shit. you thought to yourself, grabbing it and speed-walking to the front door so you could avoid confrontation from your sister and catch minjeong in time.

to your surprise she the car was still parked in the same spot, not even had moved by an inch.

so you sprinted towards it, jacket in hand. only to be met with no minjeong.

your smile instantly faded, examining every inch of the car to see if she was just in the backseat or something along the lines.

but there was no minjeong. her shoes were tossed in the backseat and so was her bag.

she had to come back, though — how else would she get home?

you wanted to leave the jacket on the top of her car or somewhere else but you feared that someone would take it so you just stepped back inside with it in your hands.

tomorrow came rather quickly and so that meant your date with minjeong did as well.

you gathered everything you needed into your bag as the final bell rung, signaling that it was time for dismissal.

usually minjeong would drive you home after school but you weren’t sure if your nerves could handle seeing her before the date, so you were pitching a ride with some of your other friends this time around.

“are you ready for tomorrow?” julie found you at your locker, sipping from her stanley as she locked arms with you. “they’re gonna love your performance. i already know it.”

you smiled, letting her lead the way to the school parking lot. “i really hope so.” your heart began to race at the thought, anxious at all of the possible outcomes of tomorrow evening.

“hey! girl, none of that!” she nudged you playfully upon noticing how you quickly your expression had changed. “we’re all gonna be there. me, natty, and minjeong. we’ll get front row seats and —“

as the two of you continued to walk, the person who you resented locked eyes with you.

shin ryujin.

but it was different this time.

she looked like she wanted to reach out for you. like there was something she was begging to say. time seemed to slow as you walked past her and yeji.

“ —but hopefully a fire doesn’t like break out and some supervillain attacks the school or something. but i would i’ll be recording so i wouldn’t mind! maybe we can even catch spiderman on camera.” julie concluded, giggling before taking a sip of her stanley again. “hey, you listening?” she asked.

you hummed, instantly snapping your head to the side to look at her again. “oh, yeah. thanks for cheering me up, juls.” you offered her a smile and she returned it generously. “you know i’m here for you.”

you opened your mouth to speak but her gasp stopped you from speaking any further, fingers combing through her hair. “act natural! yeonjun’s looking over here.”

you rolled your eyes as she sipped from the stanley again, giving the male a wave.

“he wants me sooo bad.” she sighed and pushed the exit door open, unlocking the doors to her car. “ugh why can’t he just ask me to prom already!”

“like i know he likes me! he sat beside me in —“ and she was ranting again.

you climbed into the seat while listening to her, buckling your seatbelt.

“and he’s been checking me out hella recently. he would take pictures of me when i’m not looking and stare at me and call me pretty and stuff. and girl, he asked me out on a date! like we’ve been hanging out almost everyday and —“

“wait, you have a date with him?” you asked. the situation was beginning to sound a bit familiar. “when?”

“this weekend.” she answered, starting a random playlist. ‘espresso’ by sabrina began to blast through the speakers and just like that, julie was distracted for another three minutes.

once you arrived to your house and waved julie goodbye, you were greeted by your older sister, natty.

“hey, stranger.” she quirked an eyebrow due to seeing you home so soon. “you’re a few hours early.”

“i have something to do.” you excused yourself awkwardly, desperately trying to avoid any further conversation from the older.

she let out a scoff of disbelief, chasing behind you throughout the halls as you gradually sped off. “y/n! i just have a question!”

you stopped as you reached the doorway of your bedroom, turning around to face her. “i charge five dollars per question.”

“of course you do with your cheap ass.” she crossed her arms and you gave her a fake smile before closing the door in her face, locking it swiftly after.

“i’ll just find julie’s instagram some other way.” you heard her say from on the other side of the door, face contorting into one of disgust.

“eww! leave my friends alone!” you yelled with a shudder. after not receiving a response you decided to voice your distate in her choices once more.

“she has a boyfriend!”

five pm came around quicker than you could blink and you lay face up on your bed, waiting for minjeong to inform you upon her arrival.

you mindlessly scrolled through tik tok for a few minutes, trying to distract yourself from the growing aching sensation in your chest at the thought of minjeong standing you up.

no, she wasn’t like that. you knew her. she wouldn’t do that.

but lately, you weren’t sure of what to believe. she was ending hangouts early, putting you on the back burner. and she always had an excuse for it. it reminded you of someone.

and the realization of that stung your soul, and soon so did the tears sting your eyes.

minutes quickly turned into hours and there was no sign of minjeong. your phone buzzed multiple times with news articles but none of it was who you wanted it to be.

you accidentally clicked on a news article, grumbling quietly as you sat up.

‘spiderman saves the day again!’

you tossed your phone to the side, sitting down on the chair positioned in front of your piano. honestly, you were grateful that the town had a superhero to count on now but you couldn’t care less about him if he couldn’t fix your relationship.

the piano keys became increasingly wet as you practiced the song you planned to play for the school talent show, ‘let you break my heart again’ by laufey.

minjeong’s lack of effort recently made you question a lot of things, especially how she really viewed you.

she wasn’t the type to show anyone up and even once upon a time, you were her main focus. there wasn’t a thing in the world she would choose over you.

but recently, that just didn’t seem to be the case.

music was your refuge. it had always been. but it was just nearly impossible for you to focus on anything but minjeong.

“you okay?” natty knocked on the door lightly, voice laced with concern.

you cleared your throst before quickly wiping your tears away. “yeah, i’m fine.”

there was silence aside from the last few notes you played of the song, shoulders slumping as you finished. but you didn’t hear any retreating footsteps so you knew that she was still there.

“i got julie’s number.” she spoke in a rather annoying tone.

you laughed through the tears, shaking your head but still grateful that she could get you to show any kind of happiness in your current state.

“ew. go away.” you smiled, standing up and focusing your attention on your phone that was buzzing with a flurry of messages.

jeongie 🧍‍♀️

i’m sorry y/n

jeongie 🧍‍♀️

my mom made me help her with dinner so i couldn’t come out tonight :(

jeongie 🧍‍♀️

i’ll be at the show tomorrow, i promise

you sighed, feeling the familiar ache creeping into your chest once more. but how could you even be upset?

me

‘it’s okay, things happen ❤️’

was all you typed in response.

you swore that you heard the message sent noise from your window, eyebrows knitted together as you opened the window to investigate it.

as you saw that there was no one and nothing there, you knew that it was time for bed.

but what you didn’t know is that minjeong was there, watching you with a heavy heart.

she was just too scared to say anything.

you paced back and forth in the back of the stage, chewing at the inside of your cheek.

there were all kinda of different noises that emerged from the practice rooms and wings of the auditorium, making you even more anxious.

“y/n, you’re worrying for nothing.” natty took your hand into her own, running soothing circles onto your knuckles.

your breath was shaky, checking your phone almost every two minutes.

“minjeong still isn’t here.” you spoke with an unsteady voice, inching closer to your sister to receive more of her comfort.

natty sighed, wrapping her arms around you for a gentle hug. she caressed your back in attempt to calm your nerves more. she wasn’t one hundred percent confident of what was going on between you and your best friend but she had an idea.

“she’ll show up.” with that sentence she broke the hug, caressing the sides of your arms and fixing your hair. “you look so beautiful. mom would love to see you right now.”

you took a deep breath, eventually giving natty a courageous smile with the motivation of her words. “okay.”

“you okay now?” she double checked, and even though you nodded you didn’t feel okay yet.

“i’m gonna get some fresh air.” you infotmed her.

“be quick. they’re about to start and you’re the third act.” she warned, following you off the stage to catch the seat that julie was saving her.

on the way out you received a concerned look from her as yeonjun practically begged for her attention, only being shoved in the shoulder by her stanley. you stifled a laugh, pushing the heavy doors open and being met with the fresh air.

it was calming if you ignored the occasional sound of loud music, sirens, and car horns.

they grew progressively louder with each passing second and you couldn’t help but grow curious, taking a few steps so you could get a proper look at the scene.

you squinted to really see what was going on, walking further into the scene when you abruptly saw a car get launched into a strong man with a green suit on.

your eyes widened as it flew past you, making your first instinct to run as the ambulance had begun to be manipulated as well. all you heard was someone yelling out your name before everything else happened to quickly.

a silent scream left your lungs as you were suddenly lifted off of the ground and in the arms of spider-man himself, with the superhero and supervillain taking a newfound interest in you.

“are you insane?” the masked superhero asked you, making you furrow your eyebrows while you tried to process what just happened.

the green suit man seemed to grow jealous of how much attention you were receiving from his foe, making you his new target. “is that your girlfriend?” he spoke in a mocking tone.

the hero groaned, ignoring your protests to swing you to a nearby rooftop and out of everyone’s sight before setting you down gently.

then they shot out a web, saying one last thing before disappearing. “just stay here, okay? please. i can’t lose you.” you were extremely confused but who were you to refuse what the superhero was telling you to do?

you were y/n, of course.

“who are you?” you couldn’t help but ask.

“i’m spider—“ within milliseconds the hero was gone again, swinging through the city and leaving you with the loud fan that overpowered your thoughts.

“this stupid ass superhero. i have a talent show i can’t miss.” you grumbled, walking to the door so you could enter the building.

it ended up being locked, and with pure determination you tried to bash your way inside with no avail.

“i hate spiderman.” you crossed your arms, looking around for any other chance to get out. you had left your phone with natty so there was no possible way to phone anyone for help.

but the sake of figuring out their secret identity, you stayed put. this was someone that cared about you from what you deducted.

and in less than ten minutes the hero was back, relieved to find you in one piece where they left you.

“who are you?” you demanded again, not even giving them a chance to speak before asking your question.

they laughed, crossing their arms. “what happened to ‘thank you for saving my life spiderman?’ civilians are so ungrateful these days.”

you rolled your eyes, clearly not amused by their lame attempt at humor. “answer my question.”

they continued to stall, trying to find any excuse to beat around the bush. “you look like you’re dressed for an occasion. what is it? birthday party or funeral?”

you grumbled, pursing your lips into a thin line and crossing your arms. “no!”

“grocery run?”

“no.”

“school talent show?”

“no — wait, how did you know?”

“cause i’m spiderman.”

“ugh, i know that already!” you groaned. “take your mask off. i already know who you are anyway.” you bluffed.

“you… do?”

“um, yeah.”

“fuck.” you heard them whisper. you had to fight back the laugh pleading to escape your throat, committing to the lie.

“so you might as well take the mask off.” you spoke in a convincing tone, shrugging your shoulders in a nonchalant manner.

it was deafening silent and when you looked back up the mask was off, revealing the person you would’ve least expected to see.

“minjeong?”

her cheeks were flushed a light tint of red. “you said that you knew who i was!”

“i was lying!” you argued.

she sighed, playing with the piercing using her teeth. this was the hard part for her.

“i apologize, y/n. i wanted to tell you for a while now but i just couldn’t find the right time.” minjeong’s voice trembled slightly.

this scared her. she wasn’t sure how you would react to the news or if you would even still want anything to do with her after this conversation.

“i don’t know what i thought. i didn’t know why you kept disappearing but i would’ve never guessed this.” you replied.

“i don’t want to hide anything from you anymore. i’ve been hiding too much from you.”

“…this isn’t the only thing?”

she stayed silence for a moment, avoiding your gaze and swallowing the lump in her throat.

“my biggest fear is putting you in danger.” minjeong started. “putting you in danger and losing what we have. you’re my best friend and i’ve loved you for so long that i — i was just really scared.” her hands were trembling slightly.

the look on her face told you that she was terrified but you just smiled a bit, feeling the giddy sensation in your stomach.

“you love me?”

minjeong bit her lip. “yeah?”

you laughed shakily, a soft yet vulnerable smile dancing onto your lips. “so you did really want a date.”

“i still do.” your contagious smile triggered her own. “i mean, i’m down to reschedule if you are…”

“promise you’ll be on time and won’t stand me up this time?”

“yeah. i promise.” minjeong grinned from ear to ear.

“i guess, then. but i’m still mad at you for keeping this a secret and standing me up.”

she let out a light chuckle. “that’s fair enough this time.”

“speaking of on time, i believe you have an event to make it to.”

your eyes widened, a gasp escaping your lips. how could you have forgotten so quickly?

“it’s a shame that you don’t have a ride… or a swing.”

you rolled your eyes. “you’re so impossible.”

she walked over to you, taking your hand into her own before bringing you close. “am i really impossible for trying to protect my favorite person? i just don’t want to lose you. ever.”

you brought your arms to her middle, making her blush at the close contact.

“you won’t. i’m not going anywhere without you.”

minjeong smiled, slinging out a web and examining your facial expression. “ready? i’ll be gentle this time, i have precious cargo.”

“less talking, more swinging.”

taglist — @saysirhc @aedollie @prologue-ae

[moonstruckme]

hii i was wondering if you could write something for poly! jily? i have reynaud syndrome which means times in the past my fingers have started going black when im really cold but i will always refuse to wear gloves (they make my hands itch), maybe a little bit of angst of them arguing over reader needing to take care of herself better and her not really understanding what the big deal is as she’s had it all her life,

love your work so much <33

Thank you for requesting gorgeous!

cw: reynaud's syndrome/hints at gangrene

poly!Jily x fem!reader ♡ 1k words

“—cause it’s dangerous, lovely.” Lily hears the upset in James’ voice as soon as the door opens. “It’s scary.” 

Yours is low and soothing to balance it. “I can barely even feel them.” 

“That’s the scary part!” 

Lily sets aside her novel, turning around on the couch to see you both. James has two grocery bags in one hand and your hand in the other. He holds it close to his chest protectively. 

“What’s the matter?” she asks. 

Your eyes go to hers with a familiar our boyfriend is a nutter look. “Nothing,” you say. 

“Stop that.” James is shocking in his sternness. “Can you move them?” 

“I can move them fine, Jamie. It’s okay.” 

“Let me see.” Lily’s known you long enough to put together what this must be about. She sits up on her knees, reaching over the back of the couch for your hand. Frowning, James releases it into her care. “Oh, sweetheart…” She cradles your discolored fingers. Irrationally, she’s afraid they might break if she’s not careful. “Let’s run some water over them, okay?” 

You both let her lead you into the kitchen. James looks terribly uneasy, a concern in his soft brown eyes that Lily sympathizes with. She turns the tap on, letting it get warm before drawing your hand underneath. 

Your expression twinges, but you don’t complain. “I’m really fine,” you mumble, uncomfortable with all the worry being directed at you. 

“Just wiggle them around for a while,” Lily murmurs in reply. James is watching the water run. He still hasn’t set down his bags. “Jamie, the groceries?” 

“Right.” James’ voice is clipped. He lifts the bags onto the counter. Takes a couple of steps backwards, starting to unwrap his scarf. “I’m just, I’m going to…” 

You turn to watch him disappear into your bedroom. For all the insouciance you’ve projected, now your expression is worried too. 

“I don’t think he’s ever been so angry with me,” you say. 

Lily steps closer to you, putting her hands under the stream of water with yours. She begins gently massaging your cold fingers. It is rare for James to be so upset. It makes it scary when it happens, not because of his response but because you know you must have done something very grievous to provoke it. 

“He loves you a lot,” she says after a moment. Pressing her shoulder to yours. “I love you a lot, too.” 

“I love you,” you murmur, shy. 

“I think it scares both of us when you let yourself be hurt. I know it doesn’t feel like a big deal to you, but it does to us.” 

You bite down on your lip as she coaxes blood back into your fingers. Lily’s heart twinges, but she knows it’s a good thing. It hurts as you’re getting better. 

“This has always happened,” you say, wiggling your fingers as if to demonstrate. “I can’t avoid it, it’s been like this my whole life.” 

“You could wear gloves,” Lily points out. 

Your mouth twists. “They itch.” 

Lily fights the urge to roll her eyes. You’ve had this argument a dozen times before; it’s a pointless battle. 

“We’d just worry less if you did.” She kisses your cheek. “How do they feel?” 

“Okay.” You’re grimacing, the circulation returning. “Almost back to normal.” 

She releases your hands, drying hers on a tea towel. “Keep them there for a few more minutes, please? Just to be safe. I’ll check on James.” 

Lily unloads a few groceries before she goes, ensuring everything that needs to be refrigerated goes in. Your fingers are nearly back to their normal color by the time she steps out. 

James is sitting on the edge of your bed. He hasn’t removed his scarf or his coat. His shoulders are slumped. When James is upset like this, he droops. Like a plant that’s full of too much water, like his body is suddenly too heavy to hold up on his own. He leans, he slouches, he finds something else to bear the weight. 

Lily smiles commiseratively. “Hi.” 

He looks up, eyes big and tired. Droops further when she steps between his legs, hugging him. 

“Hi,” he says. 

“Are you in a fight?” 

“No. I don’t think so.” James’ arms come around her middle, squeezing. “I sort of thought you’d be in a fight once we got home, honestly.” 

Lily laughs. “Guess I’m not in the mood.” 

“Caught you at a bad time?” 

“Something like that.” She uses her nails to scratch lightly between his shoulder blades. “She’s alright.” 

A deep sigh. “She carried one of our bags most the way home. I didn’t even think about how she couldn’t put her hand in her pocket with it. And of course she didn’t have gloves.” 

“It’s not your job to think of it, love.” 

“I know it sounds loony, but I really thought her fingers were going to fall off.” 

Lily rests her chin on his shoulder. “I had a similar thought,” she admits. 

“She’s alright now, though?” James’ voice is fretful. 

“Yeah. She’s alright.” 

When they return to the kitchen, you’re still holding your hand under the tap. 

Lily smiles. “I think you’re alright,” she says. “Thank you.” 

You turn it off, watching James nervously as you flick water off your fingertips into the sink. He goes over to you, and your expression melts with relief as he wraps his arms around you. You go up on your toes to hug him back, damp fingers pushing into the curls at his nape. 

“I need you to take better care of yourself,” he says, voice soft but not thin. 

“Okay,” you agree readily. “I’m sorry I scared you.” 

James hugs you tighter. Your face turns in towards his neck. “I’m sorry for being so harsh.” 

You and Lily both laugh. She boosts herself up onto the counter, crossing her legs and watching the two of you with a fond ache in her chest. 

“Jamie, your harsh is everyone else’s mild.” 

“I was harsh,” James argues. “I didn’t say I love you all the way home. I do, by the way.” He pulls back to look at you, urgent. “I love you so much.” 

You roll your eyes, but a good deal of the acerbity is lost when you smile. “I know.”

[frudoo]

just thinking about the slasher!141 au....in between meeting and getting wifed by all of them, there have to be some awkward moments, right? And that reader is a true crime junkie, right?

I was just thinking about reader talking to one of the guys about how they all met, what they do for fun (BESIDES that!!!), or how they got started killing, and they start talking about some of their crimes and reader goes, "wait. are you...you're not...are you the east side slasher?" or something and the guy in question is all "well, that's not what I call myself" (but they are very flattered)

or they're talking about a killing that's a bit of a local legend (maybe it's the first one they all did together?) and reader is like "no WAY! I lived three blocks away/in that building/worked with his neighbor!"

or maybe reader is complaining about a podcast or local news piece on a string of unrelated killings a few years ago, and reader is all huffy because there was "nothing tying the victims together" the way they were killed, where, etc was all different, but reader believes they were done by the same person because of some common thread that the authorities didn't think was relevant and the guys are like "!!! that was us!!! you're right!!" and they're actually really proud and impressed lol

PLENTY!!!! These are a few of my favorite moments.

Warnings: Talk of murder, obviously. Suggestive imagery. Series is a dark!fic. MDNI.

With a prolonged groan, you stretch and attempt to throw the quilt off of yourself. 

     The quilt is too heavy to lift. 

     This is not a quilt. Wha-?

     “Mm, where’re ye goin’?” A sleep-tinged voice that you recognize but can’t quite place hums from right behind you. 

     You blink away the film in your eyes in confusion before your eyes meet bright blue ones. Johnny. You know him. Johnny, your boyfriend, has his arm wrapped around you in place of your beloved quilt. 

     “Johnny,” you yawn, turning to face him.

     “Hen,” he responds, nuzzling his nose against yours sweetly.

     “Simon,” a rough voice muses from somewhere across the room.

     You scream and sit up in the bed, eyes landing on the dark figure leaning against the door frame. Simon raises a brow and trails his gaze down to your tits that hang free and bare. You huff and cover them up with Johnny’s sheets, pouting at both men’s chuckles. 

     “Sounds like the two o’ya ‘ad a good nigh’, yeah?” The blond man smirks. “Kep’ the rest o’us awake wi’ all tha’... noise.”

     “Och, haud yer wheesht, ye big bastard,” Johnny rolls his eyes. “Dinnae wanna scare awey the swee’ lass already.”

     “Mm, watch your tone, MacTavish. I simply jus’ wanted t’tell our girl ‘ow gorgeous she sounds when she-”

     “Fuck’s takin’ so long? Brekky’s gonna ge’ cold,” Kyle comes around the corner with his arms crossed, face lighting up at the sight of you. “Ah, ‘ey, dove! Ya hungry? I be’ ya are after las’ nigh’. Sounds like Johnny pu’ ya through the ringer.”

     “Ye can all fook off!”

     Simon and Kyle laugh amongst themselves as they make their way back downstairs, leaving you and Johnny to gather yourselves. When you and your lover join them—now fully clothed—the other three are already stuffing their faces full of the hearty breakfast Price made. John looks up from his plate and smiles widely, looking you up and down.

     “Ah, glad you could join us, darlin’. You and Johnny have fun?”

     “Fu-!”

     //

     You’re cuddled up in Kyle’s arms as the five of you gather around the bonfire Simon built. They’re talking about their most recent kill, and you’re silently listening. Thank God you’re on their good side.

     John says something that makes your ears perk up.

     “Machete? Like the one guy that got caught a couple years back? I thought you’d know better than to be a copycat, John,” you tease with a cheeky laugh.

     “They’re sayin’ I got caught?” He scoffs, grabbing one of your calves and pulling it into his lap to massage it. “No, I was ‘that guy,’ and, as you can fuckin’ see, I was never caught.”

     You’re stunned into silence once again, much to everyone’s amusement.

     “Ah did tell ye tae ne’er accuse us o’copycattin’, lass.” 

     //

     You aggressively pull the shower curtain open, hastily turning off the true crime podcast you’d been listening to. Water drips down your arms onto the floor but you don’t care. These dumbasses can never piece together the most obvious fucking clues. You don’t even dry yourself off, only wrapping a towel around yourself, before storming into the living room. 

     “Tell me I’m not fucking crazy,” you huff, seating yourself right on Simon’s lap.

     “No’ gonna be able t’say much s’long as you’re naked in my lap, lovie.”

     “Five murders, each exactly two weeks apart, alternating between neighboring cities. Each of them took place at eight o’clock at night, right on the dot. No sooner, no later—but these assholes keep saying that it’s just coincidence that they all happened in the same time frame! I mean, yeah, the murder weapons were all different, and no shoe size was the same, and their victims were all chosen at random, but… it’s way too convenient. It’s almost ritualistic, you know? Eight o’clock, two weeks apart, in cities that literally fucking touch each other. Like clockwork.”

     The four men exchange glances, wide eyes focusing on you all at once.

     “Bloody ‘ell,” Kyle mutters, and you swear you can see his pupils morph into a heart shape.

     “Fuck me,” Simon groans.

     “Clever girl, you. It was our first spree as a group,” John explains, kicking back in his recliner. “We’d meet at a diner after each killing to plan our next. One would perform the murder while the other three stood watch. Seems we covered our tracks well enough.”

     “No’ guid enough fer me smar’ wee gal,” Johnny beams, ruffling your damp hair.

     “That was y’all?!” You shriek, covering your mouth with both hands in shock.

     “Sure was, dove,” Kyle hums.

     “W-wait, so… why eight o’clock? Why was that so significant for you guys?” 

“Because we always went to a chain restaurant, and they serve half-off milkshakes at nine o’clock,” Simon shrugs, hands wandering up your soft body to unwrap the towel from around your torso, exposing your bare body to the cool air. “Bu’ as o’late, I’ve found tha’ I prefer my dessert completely free.”

[venusentranced]

can you do hyunjin x stylist reader?

‧₊˚ ┊i’m sorry this is so late but here it is <3 it’s a little short so i’m sorry for that too + i didn’t proofread

the photoshoot has been going on a few hours now, changing through looks as quickly as you can to make everyone’s life easier, hyunjin is of no help. his hands are holding onto your waist, trying to coax you into giving in. “please?” he asks for the nth time, you roll your eyes in response. “we have five more looks and you have zero patience.” you response is a little harsh but that’s how he likes it, he balls up your shirt in his hands leaning in. “i promise i’ll be quick.” he whispers, his face dipping into your neck to place a haphazard kiss. a defeated sigh leaves your lips, tapping his shoulder and pointing to the changing booth; his face lights up like the new york skyline rushing to hide himself behind the curtain. you hang the next set of clothes on the peg inside the booth. you pull him close to you and give him a serious look. “be quick and be quiet.” you instruct in a hushed voice watching his head nod eagerly, “you need to change once you’re done,” you continue, quickly unzipping his pants and beginning to pull them down. “try not to ruin your makeup.” you say exasperated, the last thing you need is the rest of your team figuring out hyunjin can’t keep it his pants during the day. your spit drips its way into your palm, smearing it on top of his already hard dick. he sucks in a shaky inhale, his hands resting on your shoulders for stability. your pace is fast and unforgiving, the stimulation is entirely overwhelming for him so he bites his lip to keep quiet. you whisper in his ear, “you’re such a pervert, you know?” your voice is seductive and teasing and it only eggs him on. he shakes his head no, a failed attempt at denying what he already knows is true. “yes you are, look at you. you’re already hard and nearly ready to cum and i never did anything.” he kisses you hastily, rutting into your palm. “you’re just so hot…” he mutters out when the kiss breaks, leaning his head into your neck to leave kisses. you gently push him away, “i just told you not to ruin your makeup.” your reminder is met with a displeased sigh but he listens this time. there’s a beat of complete silence where he’s holding his breath, “will you… use your mouth, please?” his voice is so hushed you can barely understand him. typically you’d scold him for not only pulling you away from your work but then having the audacity to make requests, however, it’s a better plan—less mess. your free hand places against his chest, pushing him back against the wall. “you’re so lucky you’re cute.” you slowly sink to the floor, your ass pressing against the wall with how small the area is. when your lips wrap around him he’s quick to cover his mouth, muffling the moan that would’ve otherwise given you away had someone been anywhere near. you push yourself forward, taking him in as far as you can before pulling back, testing it out a few times before you’re comfortable enough to set a faster pace. you do your best to limit the sounds that could be made from your actions, trying not to let him get too wet. his voices are still quiet which pleases you, you pull off to catch your breath. “good boy~” your murmur, jerking him off just as fast as you were sucking. he squeezes his eyes shut, putting his hand on top of your head to try and warn you off the mess he was about to make and you get the hint. you take him back in your mouth going all the back and on the way the warm, salty taste of his cum floods your mouth, you give him a moment to finish before completely removing yourself. you swallow it and stand back up, pecking his lips. “now, change.” you wipe your mouth and sneak out of the booth, adjusting your clothes so that it looks like nothing ever happened despite the faint panting coming from the confined space.

[sturnsblogs]

COMFORT IN ALL THE CHAOS

Teacher!Matt X Milf!Reader

—

You’d been trying to have a good week. Really, you had. But no matter how hard you tried, everything seemed to be working against you.

Eliana had been throwing tantrums left and right—big, screaming, kicking, crying fits that drained you more than you’d like to admit. On top of that, your baby daddy had suddenly decided he wanted to re-enter her life after five years of complete absence. Five years of silence. Five years of nothing. And now, he had the audacity to beg for time with her like he hadn’t vanished without a trace.

You were exhausted. Physically, mentally, emotionally—everything.

And Matt had noticed.

You’d been ignoring his texts all week—not on purpose, but because the days slipped away so fast, lost in the chaos of single motherhood and the overwhelming weight of everything hitting you at once. Every time your phone buzzed with his name, you’d glance at it, promise yourself you’d reply later… and then another meltdown or another stressor would pull you away.

You felt horrible about it.

So when your doorbell rang late that night, and you opened the door to find Matt standing there, you were both surprised and relieved to see him.

He stood there, looking a little unsure, holding a bouquet of flowers in one hand and a bag of Chinese takeout in the other. “Hey, uh, I know things’ve been rough, but I brought dinner. Thought I could—well, help you out. If you’re up for it.”

You blinked at him, feeling a mixture of guilt and comfort. Matt hadn’t pushed. He just showed up, simple and easy, like he was always there when you needed him.

“Hi,” you murmured, voice quiet, the weight of the week still sitting on your shoulders. “Thank you. I didn’t—” You broke off, unsure of how to finish the sentence. You didn’t mean to ignore him, but things were spiraling, and the last thing you wanted was to drag him into it all.

Matt’s smile softened, and his eyes, full of warmth, met yours. “I figured I’d check in. Rough week?” His voice was gentle, but there was a hint of concern beneath it.

You nodded, bottom lip trembling slightly, and instinctively, you stepped aside to let him in. He set the flowers and food down on the counter as if he’d done this before—like he belonged. Maybe that’s what you were trying to avoid—feeling too comfortable, too dependent.

But here he was, and you did need him.

“Yeah,” you said, finally able to speak, your voice breaking just a little. “It’s been a lot.”

You wiped at your eyes, the tears that had been building finally spilling over. Matt didn’t flinch. He didn’t try to fix it or tell you it would be okay right away. He simply stepped toward you, his arms opening in an invitation for comfort.

You didn’t hesitate this time. You walked into his embrace, feeling the weight of the last few days ease just a little as he wrapped his arms around you.

He held you without saying a word, his warmth surrounding you in a way that felt like a safe place. He wasn’t offering solutions. He wasn’t rushing you to feel better. He was just there, and for the first time in days, you could breathe.

After a moment, Matt pulled back just enough to look at you, his hand resting lightly on your shoulder. “Do you wanna talk about it?” His voice was soft but steady, like he genuinely wanted to know.

You swallowed hard, then nodded, not knowing where to start. You looked down at your hands, suddenly unsure of how to say it all without sounding like you were drowning. “I… I don’t know where to start. Eliana’s been so difficult. And then—” You paused, your heart aching. “He called. After five years. And now he wants to see her. And I’m just… I don’t know what to do. I don’t even know how to feel.”

Matt stayed silent, just letting you talk. His thumb rubbed gently over your arm, comforting you without overwhelming you.

“Why now?” you whispered, the anger and frustration creeping in. “He didn’t want to be there for her before, but now that he’s ready, he thinks he can just waltz in and fix everything?”

Matt’s voice was low, understanding. “It’s not your fault, Y/N. You’re doing everything for her. You’ve done everything for her.”

You exhaled shakily, feeling the weight in your chest start to ease. “I just want to do what’s right. But every time I try to make the decision, it feels wrong.”

Matt nodded slowly, his hand on your back. “You’ll know what’s right. And if you ever want someone to talk it through with… I’m here. No pressure.”

You sniffled, blinking back tears, and gave him a small smile. “Thanks. That… that means more than you know.”

There was a long, comfortable pause. Then Matt reached down and grabbed the bag of food. “How about we eat? Watch a movie? I mean, unless you’re not in the mood for that, but I figured if you wanted some company… I can do company, you know?” He raised an eyebrow, a soft smirk pulling at his lips.

You laughed softly at his attempt to lighten the mood, feeling the tension in your shoulders release. “I think company sounds nice.”

Matt grinned, his energy a bit lighter now, though still grounded in that caring, gentle way he always seemed to have. “Alright, then. I’m not going anywhere, so let’s get comfy.”

You sat down at the kitchen table together, unpacking the takeout and digging into the warm food. The atmosphere was more relaxed now, no rush, no pressure. Just two people trying to unwind after a long, exhausting week.

As you both ate, you found yourself slowly talking about anything and everything that wasn’t related to your stress. The conversation shifted from Eliana to your favorite movies, to funny moments from work, and even some of Matt’s own silly experiences in teaching.

You weren’t in a relationship with him—yet—but something about the way he made you feel, the way he listened and showed up when you needed him, made it seem like you weren’t so alone in this after all.

When the night ended, Matt stood up, brushing crumbs off his lap. He looked at you with that same soft, sincere smile. “You doing okay?”

You nodded, a genuine smile finally making its way onto your face. “Yeah. I think I am now. Thank you, Matt. Really.”

He smiled, and for a moment, you saw that quiet understanding in his eyes. “Anytime, Y/N. Seriously. You don’t have to go through this alone.”

With a small but meaningful glance, he gave you one last soft squeeze of the shoulder before he slipped on his jacket. “I’ll let you get some sleep. You’ve had a rough day. But if you ever need anything—”

You smiled, feeling lighter than you had in days. “I know where to find you.”

—

A/N- I did not listen to you guys last night and didn’t post what i had so why not do it now.. (updating all my AU’S)

My beautiful babies- @blushsturns @starrii-sturns @izzylovesmatt @chrisslut04 @slvtme0utt @oopsiedaisydeer @csturnioloswifey @just-a-girl-1 @sturdyyolo @sturnslvtt @sturnbows @sturniolosrtewsexy @chriss-slutt @franticroads @thecrawlys @ribbonlovergirl @freshlyinlovewchris @whore4chris @matts-girlfriend @ariana3lovesu @cass-sturn @sturns-mermaid @sunrisemill

[mecha--maniac]

This is possibly my fault since I started being active in the community again, and posting my sympathetic thoughts about Solaris quite a bit. So I'mma ramble the thoughts this makes me think.

By no means do I think Solaris is entirely sympathetic -- he's a god, and gods are almost never depicted as being perfect -- but I point out the sympathies a lot because the game sure doesn't, and most people will pick up on what they (almost certainly correctly) perceive as a biblical Satan/demon analogy, and thus are predisposed to assume he's evil for the sake of being evil. This is almost certainly what the devs were intending, buutttt the story for the game seems pretty clearly unpolished, so it's hard to say for certain that someone on the team didn't purposefully add a lot of background trappings that imply the history of the area is more proto-indo-iranian than the modern european parts of the setting would imply, and thus the themeing could actually be more of an observation on how christianity absorbed traditions from other cultures and turned positive things into negative things, such as the neutral-to-positive origins of things like 'hell' and 'demons' and how they became synonymous with 'evil' and 'bad' when transplanted. It wouldn't change much in regards to good/grey/evil readings; but it would support that the past has been obscured purposefully at some point. Historically, it would have been obscured by the ruling class with something to gain, but since deities are a Real Thing here it could also be Solaris himself.

(But again I really do honestly think most of the potentially purposeful detail in this game is an accident... I kinda assume the bg/asset team somehow had more time to work than the writers. This game was rushed to Hel and back. I think they wanted to play with grey areas, but didn't get the chance to actually put in everything they were building to.)

And honestly, I love any reading of the character; good, evil, and especially in between. I'd like to see more done with the old story mentioned (I'm aware of it and think about it a lot) and I'd say I'm surprised that I haven't seen anyone go down that 'Solaris was malevolent the whole time' road when exploring him... But this is the gay weirdo website, and historically gay weirdos tend to sympathize with the demonized monsters, so I'm not actually surprised he's usually played with more benefit of the doubt (plus there's a distinct reverse correlation between tone of a subject vs tone of the fan interaction; the darker the thing, the lighter the fan content, and vice versa)

I gotta say, though. That old story doesn't prove Solaris has ever been malevolent. That could very well have been the intention -- I always assumed it was, and assumed the average reading was 'oh the game characters have this story wrong, Solaris is secretly the bad guy here' -- but it's not proof. The lines tell us for sure that there is a story about Solaris, and that's it. It may sound to us -- with outside biases -- that Solaris faked saving the city; it may sound to them with their ingame biases that Solaris did save the city; but there's a whole lot in between there. An incident similar to the story probably happened, but we can't say for sure. And while it seems like the obvious starter of the fire would be the fire god, we should consider that devastating blazes that destroy entire cities are a thing that happen in modern times, and thus probably happened in any time period (probably more often, what without fire codes and such.) A legitimate blaze could have just happened. And who better to douse it than someone that can control fire? The 'Solaris tricked them' interpretation is easy to see under the surface, but it might legitimately not be that deep. Maybe Mrs. O'Leary's cow starts a fire; fire god cleans it up; fire god decides to be the city's patron; citizens honor patron deity with ceremonies. Or maybe there was even a mix, since we definitely can't know Solaris's intentions; maybe he did start it as a trick, but later legitimately cared for the people, only for the people to betray him so now mass murder is back on the table. Maybe it wasn't a trick, but he's pissed enough now to throw away the loyalty.

My point is there are a hell of a lot of interpretations to be made with what is frankly a scaffolding of a script, and that's what I like about it. There is extremely little we can confirm in the game, unless we see it actually happen, with all included intentions of the characters stated (for instance: Mephiles literally never kills Sonic. No blood; he comes back; even the characters 'sense he's still there'. Did he intend to? Maybe. Probably. The writing probably isn't that deep. But all he actually needed was Elise to think he was dead, so we can't say for sure he didn't pull a trick there.) Cause characters like Mephiles can seem all dramatic and evil and trickstery, but dude might just be ye olde theatre kid. And this leaves a loooot of room for different readings and fanworks that don't even need to actually contradict the game, since so little is known for certain. So; I just like to point out that it's possible this debacle was more a tragic misunderstanding of hurt people than a good v bad situation. We can assume the writers probably went pretty basic with the ultimate theme being the usual 'you versus the bad guy' with the starters of some deeper stuff before corporate rushed the game out the door; but we can't know that's the case.

P.S. I usually ignore everything after the game when it comes to interpreting it, but if we did count modern stuff, SXSG drops a damn bombshell with that 'I want to exist' line, and talking about restoring himself to the timeline. It's still just a theory, but man; that sure seems to imply he never was trying to destroy reality and/or time the way Eggman told everyone he was. That's just more fuel to the tinfoil hat 'Eggman was goading everyone on in that fight on purpose since he had a lot to lose, as Solaris was aware Eggman was trying to use him' theory.

P.P.S. Also, like, Solaris was confirmed for sure stuck inside a stick and a t(w)eenager for a decade, and I doubt anyone could come out of that making rational decisions. Meanwhile the other side are almost all children that have possibly been a bit rattled by all the time traveling, chaos energy, and trauma they've been injected with over the course of that three days or so (+for Silver and Blaze), so I find it hard to judge them, either. I can judge Eggman, though. Dude was definitely just a dick. He's proven that plenty.

P.P.P.S. Main complete fuckin mystery in the game to me beyond 'probably just an unfinished plotline' is the Mephiles trying to get Silver to kill Sonic thing. I don't see how it makes sense in any case whatsoever; if Solaris was somehow a saint, why the hell would he take such a roundabout route, particularly since he obviously didn't need to? If he was a schemin' demon, same goes -- why go so roundabout, why pick Silver for it, why get so complicated, when it backfiring was so obviously a risk? Maybe because he knew Silver had something to do with Shadow, and maybe he found out Shadow was kinda-sorta friends with Sonic, so he just... Hoped it would be ironic for the half-moment between victory and pulling the plug on the timeline? I dunno man, and I'd love to hear more theories about that from folks, particularly since there's a lot of room for introducing ideas of there being limits or rules to Solaris's power/time travel/the universe itself/etc that might justify playin' what is essentially an intradimensional combination hopscotch/cat's cradle.

Tl;dr: Pretty much all bits of this game are up for wildly different interpretations, as little is ever actually confirmed, and we have a whole lot of unreliable narrators. I think the conversation should be 'here's how I read it, or the version I enjoy' and not 'your way of reading and liking the thing is wrong'.

A lot of people recently—as in, a weirdly high number of people—have been posting about how Solaris as a deity is a sympathetic figure, and how he was a victim in the grand narrative of Sonic ‘06.

This post is neither meant as a “gotcha” nor is it attempting to disprove or devalue this reading of the narrative, in fact I’m actually going to demonstrate how moral ambiguity is a theme that ‘06’s story definitely and intentionally explores, but I do want to just… point out what’s textually stated about Solaris in the game’s story.

To best illustrate what I’m getting at, I want to talk about Solaris chronologically. To do that, we need to discuss some deep lore that has come up on my blog several times in the past. (And no, it’s not the fact that the owner of the shops in Soleanna is named Enrique.)

Most people know that Solaris is represented by an eagle in Soleanna’s religion, but for those who missed the symbolism, Soleanna’s crest depicts an eagle standing proud with wings outstretched underneath a simplistic depiction of the sun, with the prominent feathers protruding outward in a manner reminiscent of sunbeams. Considering Solaris is known as Soleanna’s sun god and the eagle here is clearly represented as being a proxy for the sun (with the wing-sunbeams and all), and based on the fact Solaris’ physical form heavily resembles an eagle, it’s safe to say the eagle became a symbol in Soleanna due to worship of Solaris.

Additionally, the stained glass murals found in Kingdom Valley seem to show the eagle—Solaris—having some connection to or dominion over the day cycle, with the mural depicting this in a serene, positive light.

With that connection in mind, I would like to bring up the most insanely loaded and impactful throwaway NPC dialogue of any Sonic game:

Now, I’ve posted about this dialogue plenty before, but I wish to reiterate how this completely missable dialogue from some random woman in Soleanna’s New City contains deep lore that is heavily implied to be the origins of Soleanna’s symbol of their god, and may even be an origin story for Solaris’ worship in general.

The story is about Soleanna being overtaken by huge flames, until out of nowhere a huge eagle saves it. We know that Solaris’ physical form has the appearance of an eagle, so it’s barely conjectured to say that this story represents Solaris saving Soleanna—otherwise it would literally just be a narrative red herring. Additionally, the NPC specifically says that some people still believe the story to be factual, so this is clearly meant to be some manner of biblical non-fiction in the Solaris religion.

Clearly, this event sparked worship of Solaris, which, as previously mentioned, was viewed by the people of Soleanna as a positive deity—the “Eternal Sun,” which was paid homage to via the Festival of the Sun, which involved (description from the game’s official guide but this is also just what’s shown in the intro cutscene) “lighting a beautiful fountain of fire, bathing the city in the crackling glow of a thousand flames,” which I would say is representative of the great fires that overtook the ancient Soleanna, then afterwards “fireworks fill the sky, and there is much rejoicing by the general populace.” I would consider this as representing Solaris appearing from the call of the flames, but that’s conjecture—all that we need to focus on is what’s textually stated, which is that fact that there’s “much rejoicing by the general populace.” This is mirrored by the dialogue heard in-game, in which Elise, whilst lighting the fountain, prays: “Sun of Soleanna, guide and watch over us with your eternal light.”

The next event that we know of chronologically is, after somehow taking the form of a meager sentient flame, Solaris was entrusted to the royal family as the “Flame of Hope.” We don’t know how this happened, just that it did.

Later down the royal family lineage, we get to Elise’s father, the Duke of Soleanna. At some point, his wife—Elise’s mother—died, and conveniently the Duke then became infatuated with the altruistic idea of harnessing the power of time to allow his people to rectify past mistakes and avoid bitter fate. To that end, he started the Solaris Project, which aimed to study the Flame of Hope the royal family had been entrusted with and, more bluntly, manipulate the super-dimensional god-being Solaris for its power.

It is noted that the Living Flame had to grow larger for this power to be harnessed.

It is explicitly stated in-game that Solaris disagreed with this treatment. During the cutscene “The accident 10 years ago” which shows the Solaris Project experiment failing, a scientist notes that out of nowhere an electromagnetic pulse has been generated, which is causing a meltdown. The Duke responds to this by saying, “Why, Solaris? Why do you refuse to listen to my voice?” which suggests that Solaris itself generated the EMP, despite the fact that this causes it to fracture.

Furthermore, the game’s official guide (which should admittedly be taken with a few thousand grains of salt, as it’s a Prima Games guide and those are rather notorious) has this to say regarding Solaris and the experiment:

So, pretty cut and dry when you view it all like that in isolation, right? Solaris was a benevolent god that was abused by the duchy of its people and driven berserk from said abuse, which is why even after reforming its darkness and wrath it still sought to destroy all time. The Duke of Soleanna sucked bad and Sonic ‘06 is a narrative about… god dying for no reason? And the ending of Sonic ‘06 with Elise extinguishing Solaris represents, uhhh… deicide? Elise is perpetuating the cycle of abuse???

Obviously no hate to people who prefer viewing Solaris in a strictly sympathetic light (I literally wrote a fanfic with that as a partial premise), but you have to admit that it muddies the narrative. And, additionally, what a lot of people ignore when they come to that conclusion is the fact that Solaris had known malevolence.

First of all, consider the fact that the Flames of Disaster were a known thing in Soleanna’s faith—specifically known as Solaris’ wrath.

And when you remember the fact that Solaris takes the form of fire, and is known to be the being whose wrath is released in the form of flames,

Suddenly the story of the eagle has an alternative reading!

I am SO firmly in the camp that that NPC’s one-off dialogue is meant to suggest that Solaris manipulated its way into a position of worship, and that it being reduced to a meager flame was a saving act—which is why said flame was then entrusted to the royal family.

As stated above, this isn’t even an unheard of concept: Elise just casually tells Sonic about the potential of the Flames of Disaster, and all of Eggman’s actions throughout this game hinge on the fact that he wants to take the power of said flames (which he already knows about, just not how to channel) for himself.

Not to mention the fact that the component parts of Solaris don’t do the sun deity any favors. Iblis is literally a destructive manifestation of blind wrath, and Mephiles is a misery maximalist who literally overcomplicates plans to a fault just so the absolute most amount of karmic irony and sheer misfortune can underline all of his actions.

So… Solaris was vastly malevolent, ergo the Duke’s actions were completely justified, and Sonic ‘06’s narrative is about defeating ontological evil?

Also probably not!

A major theme of Sonic ‘06 is the dichotomy between the actions of an individual and the impact those actions have on the whole of society/the future—impact those actions hold in general:

Elise’s decision to sacrifice her relationship with Sonic by unmaking the instigating event of their meeting from the timeline, all to save the future, that’s just the underlining of this theme. There’s also the fact that Elise had to bear the Flames within her and repress her emotions in order to lead her people and hold back Solaris’ wrath, and the fact that Silver grapples with the idea that to save his future he has to personally kill an individual. Shadow has that whole moment where he says if the world chooses to become his enemy he’ll still fight like he always has, and even Amy gets the (admittedly pretty funny) line where if she had to choose between the world and Sonic, she’d choose Sonic—and for what it’s worth, that arguable ideology did plant the seeds of Silver questioning whether what he was doing was right or wrong. Even Blaze, who’s notoriously underutilized in ‘06, sacrifices herself to seal away the flames of Iblis for good.

I feel like the intended reading you’re supposed to have is that, yes, Solaris was terrible and did terrible things, but the Duke of Soleanna and contributors to the Solaris Project were also terrible and attempting to harness powers no mortals should possess, and both sides acted in manners that impacted the wider world in direct and indirect ways. It’s supposed to be a little difficult to work your head around and completely justify in one direction or the other—it’s trolly-problem-esque, in that sense.

So, in conclusion… all of this being said, there is still room to be made and interesting narratives to be constructed around the idea that Solaris was a victim—and personally I agree there’s some sympathy to be felt for the Flame and the experimentation it underwent even with its malevolence—but I feel like the actual narrative presented is much more intentionally nuanced.

[scarybabe]

you've been working with a personal trainer, yeah? i'm in the semi-weird position of both loving large bodies and wanting to be a hardcore fitness professional. is there anything your trainer does to make you feel comfortable in, like, gym spaces and stuff? any modifications or other programming that you've found beneficial as someone who's not necessarily trying to like... slim down as much as possible?

Hell yeah! There’s a lot of things my trainer has done right.

In my consultation with her I was around 250 lbs and I explained that I didn’t want to lose weight or restrict at all, because of my history of that being unhealthy for my brain and she was fully supportive. I explained my history with weight gain to her as objectively as possible and she was the opposite of judgemental - she said she thought it was really cool that I achieved my goal of 300 pounds despite the adversity of getting there instead of making assumptions (and yes I did explain the kink part of it) 🤭

As I started weight training more intensely I did lose more weight, which was frustrating because I had to get my wedding dress altered twice 😭

instead of congratulating me for my weight loss (I was really stressed in the month leading up to the wedding, it was a lot of planning and coordinating and money being spent) she had a very harm reduction mindset, she worked with me on what I could do to slow down the loss and building better habits in my day that could help me meet my nutrition goals easier.

At first I was not very mobile honestly, she had me send her videos of my lifting form and worked with me closely to make sure I wasn’t putting myself at risk for injury and assigned me mobility stretches to do before every weightlifting session (I still do them)!

She created a safe space for me to be honest if something the assigned me was beyond my skill level and never made me feel bad for not being able to complete or do an exercise. It was hard at first not gonna lie! Just the mobility stretches alone used to wipe me out 🤣 I’ve come so far, it’s crazy to think about.

As I got more mobile, she scaled up the difficulty of my mobility stretches and exercises. She’s also increased my nutrition goals a lot since I started training and my appetite is so much better than it was when I first started (I could write a book on how your body has to adapt to transitioning out of hardcore feedism but I’ll save that for another post) 💕

We have weekly check ins where I submit a form that covers all my basic functioning and tell her how my week went, strengths and weaknesses and she replies with a 7-10 min long video addressing everything and explaining any adjustments she’s making to my program, and advising me on whatever I ask her about. She’s also available all week in the coaching app if I need recommendations for pre-rave stretches (for example) or nutrition tips, or help with my form. We have a weekly group call on zoom where myself + her other clients discuss whatever topic she’s covering and share our wins and losses (last week it was “bite size habits”) ☺️ she also has ADHD and is very neurodivergent friendly in her coaching style.

Cost for the program averages out to I think $7-$9 a day? It’s not super cheap but she’s been invaluable to me in terms of staying on track to maintain my weight and gain muscle. If I feel depressed or stressed I can’t eat, and knowing she’s going to be checking to make sure I’m hitting my macros every day is good motivation to just power through on days I’m not feeling up to it. Accountability helps a lot. ❤️

[vodika-vibes]

A New Dream

Summary: Crosshair comes home from work, and takes a moment with his wife.

Pairing: TBB Crosshair x F!Reader

Word Count: 1206

Warnings: None

A/N: I was in a Crosshair mood this morning, so I wrote this. I'm a bit worried it's not very good, but I'm still posting it anyway. This story is not set at any specific point in TBB, but Crosshair used to live on Pabu and now doesn't.

Click HERE to be added to my taglist

“So, any plans with the misses tonight, Cross?”

Crosshair doesn’t look up from the engine he’s rebuilding even as he responds, “Nothing too special. Dinner, maybe watch a movie. Why?”

“Because,” The other man leans across his desk, “I’m going dancing with my girl.”

“The girl you won’t marry because you might find someone better? That girl.”

“Hey, you can’t blame a guy for keeping his options open!”

“I can and I will.” Crosshair shoos him off of the table, “Aren’t you supposed to be working on the heating unit?”

His coworker, and sometimes friend, shrugs. “It’s totally busted. I had to put in an order for new parts. How’s the engine?”

“Totally shot. At this point it’ll be cheaper to replace the engine rather than rebuild it.” Crosshair rolls his shoulder, and glances at the chrono, “But I suppose that’s not up to us.”

“Some people really have more money than sense, don’t they.” His coworker laughs and slaps his shoulder, “You sure I can’t convince you and the misses to join us when we go dancing.”

“Not this time. She’s not allowed to do much physical activity until she’s healed fully.” Crosshair glances at him, “Maybe next time.”

“Sure.” An alarm blares from across the shop, and Crosshair releases a sigh of relief. Workday’s done. “Well, I’ll see you in two days, Cross. Say hi to your lady for me! We definitely need to throw another cook-out, you know what. I’ll talk to Dunn about it, and he can get it set up.”

Crosshair shakes his head as his coworker runs off, nearly skipping in his excitement to leave for the day, and then he turns and cleans up his mess, and heads to the fresher to wash the grease off his hands and to change out of his work clothes into something more comfortable.

As soon as that’s done, he leaves the garage and makes the fifteen minute walk back to the house he shares with his wife. At this point, he could make the walk blindfolded, he walks it so often. But he doesn’t mind.

The walk is nice, and when it’s a nice day like today it helps him decompress from his workday.

The home Crosshair shares with his wife is, what she calls, a ranch. Long and spread out across a wide stretch of land. Once upon a time, her family were ranchers, though they’ve not ran cattle in generations at this point.

These days, large portions of the land are rented out for weddings or parties. Save, of course, for the decent stretch of backyard that’s dedicated to his wife’s herb and vegetable gardens, his woodworking shed, and the swimming pool.

He might be a bit biased, but he thinks his home is the best.

Crosshair sits on the swing next to the front door long enough to pull his work boots off, and he sets them next to the door, before he opens the screen door and steps into the house.

“I’m home!” He calls from the front door, as he turns and opens the door to the laundry room, tossing his work clothes in the basket dedicated to his work jumpsuits.

“Welcome back, how was your day?”

Crosshair turns and a smile lifts his lips when he sees his wife heading his way, “Long and miserable.” He opens his arms, allowing her to slide into them. Immediately, she wraps her arms around his neck and presses her face into his shoulder.

“Oh? Did something happen?” She asks, her voice muffled against his shoulder.

“Yeah. I couldn’t see you or hear your voice all day.” He teases as he drops a kiss to the top of her head, “I missed you.”

She pulls back and grins up at him, “You saw me this morning.”

“That was so long ago, though.”

A laugh spills from her lips, “Well, you could always come home for lunch.”

“If I did that I’d never want to return to work,” He points out with a growing grin, “You’re far, far too tempting.”

“So it’s my fault?”

“Always.” He leans in and kisses her, unable to help himself when she’s so close and so adorable, “Were you gardening?” He asks against her lips.

“Mm-hmm,” normally she would be a bit more chatty, but she’s far too distracted with pressing light kisses all across his face.

“I take it you missed me,” He teases, a sigh slipping from him as her lips fall on a spot just below his ear.

“Only a little.”

“Yeah? This is only a little?” He settles his hands on her hips and squeezes tightly enough that she squeaks. “What would you do if you really missed me then?”

She pulls back and grins at him, “More.”

“I like the idea of more.”

“That’s because you’re a man.”

��You’ve never complained before, sweets.”

“Wasn’t a complaint~”

Crosshair chuckles and lifts her so that she’s able to hook her legs around his waist, “Well then, what have you been up to today?”

“I went swimming,” She replies cheerfully, “It’s supposed to be good for my knee. And then I did some gardening work, and I did some cleaning.”

“You used your stool when you were gardening, yes?”

“Yes, mother.” She rolls her eyes, and then squeaks when he prods her side, “I’m being careful with my knee, Cross. Don’t worry.”

“Good.” He kisses her cheek, “What else did you do today?”

She hums thoughtfully, her slender fingers playing with the hair at the base of his neck, “Well, I talked to Hunter today.”

“What did he want?”

“He wanted to know if we would be willing to house Omega this summer, she misses you apparently.” She shifts in his arms, “I told him I’d talk to you about it before saying one way or another.”

“We can talk about it, sure. Our home isn’t exactly kid friendly.” Crosshair admits with a sigh, “What else?”

“They want you to move back to Pabu.”

“Never going to happen.” He says immediately.

“They just miss you, Cross.”

“They can keep missing me. I can go skiing here, sweets. And snowboarding. I can do that on a tropical planet.” He leans in and presses his forehead against hers, “Besides, this is your home. I could never ask you to leave.”

“You could.” She offers, her voice soft, “I’d follow you anywhere.”

“I would never ask you to give up your home and your life for me.” Crosshair says, “Not when we’ve worked so hard to make it ours.”

Her smile becomes slightly watery, “I love you.”

“Love you more.” He replies as he leans in and kisses her again and again. “Now, how about we do some swimming before dinner, hm?”

“We could use the hot tub in the fresher,” She offers.

Crosshair grins at her, “Well, that sounds like a much better plan. You wanna go get it ready while I find us a bottle of wine?”

And she giggles, “Yeah, I can do that.” She steals one more kiss, and then slides down his body to hurry to the bedroom. Crosshair watches her go with a fond smile on his face.

Yeah, this is so much better than anything he could have on Pabu.

@heidnspeak

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[jianghushenanigans]

In defence of Shan Gudao

I can hear what you’re thinking. “Shan Gudao??? What the fuck is wrong with you???”

In my defence. Well. People defend the actions of villains who have done much worse with less valid motivations.

Look at him. He's crying. (Granted he's about to throw his son in a murder pit but still.)

TO CLARIFY I am not denying that Shan Gudao did things that are bad. He’s in general not a great guy. I’m just saying that a lot of what he does is reasonably understandable given everything that happens to him. This is very tongue-in-cheek and should only be taken as seriously as you want to. But also I’d kill for more fics/meta/etc that dealt with Shan Gudao as a 3D character with complex motivations (Which he can be!!!!! If you try hard enough!!!!!)

Warning: here be spoilers. (Obviously)

Things that Shan Gudao does that are Not Good: abandoning his preganant not-girlfriend; bullying a disabled child; joining the evil foreigners; not dying even when he said he did; killing his shifu; and throwing his son in a murder pit.

Abandoning his not-girlfriend and unborn child

To begin: casual sex is not a crime. Sleeping with the girl who won’t stop following you around and is clearly has a crush on you a bit of a dick move, but the first thing Shan Gudao actually says to He Xiaolan, as per the flash back, is something along the lines of ‘you’re bad at martial arts and should go home’. He’s not her keeper, he’s not her babysitter, he’s not her lover. She falls in love with him – because she’s into negging, apparently – but they don’t actually have any sort of two-sided relationship going on at any point.

(And honestly who can blame her for falling in love. The man looks like this. He should never have grown that moustache.)

He Xiaolan returned to Tianji Manor ‘heartbroken and pregnant’. But, notably, she didn’t actually tell Shan Gudao about Fang Duobing. He didn’t know his son even existed. This screams, ‘he finally agreed to sleep with her after she kept following him around, and when he still didn’t return her feelings after that she realised it was over and finally gave up’. He didn’t abandon her: she left him. If she left him because he didn’t return her feelings, this… isn’t really his fault? The most he could be blamed for is not communicating his feelings but honestly we don’t get to see much of them at all and what we do hear about them suggests that He Xiaolan was the one doing the chasing and he wasn’t encouraging her.

Sidebar: I’m aro + ace and the idea of blaming Shan Gudao for not returning He Xiaolan’s feelings makes me feel kinda ill. To clarify I am not blaming He Xiaolan in this situation either. It’s fucky for everyone involved.

Also, Shan Gudao did not grow up with healthy relationships to model. We don’t know much about his upbringing other than that he was living on the streets until he was around 12 or 15 or however the timeline works when Qi Mushan found Li Xiangyi, and even if we did know about that, he doesn’t remember it. The only ‘romantic’ relationship he has actually ever seen is whatever the hell was going on between Qi Mushan and Qin Po. He might not have even recognised that He Xiaolan actually had romantic feelings about him, because his only example was a couple who used their two disciples as a way of fighting each other.

And finally regarding this point: eight years after Fang Duobing is born, when Shan Gudao finds out that he does in fact have a son, he wants to take him with him. This is not the move of someone who willingly abandoned his pregnant not-girlfriend. Obviously he does change his mind when he actually meets Fang Duobing, which leads us to…

Bullying his disabled eight year old son

Yeah this one’s pretty indefensible, other than the fact that Shan Gudao never had a father/uncle/shifu/parental figure who ever said anything nice to him either so he didn’t really know any better. This is a reason but not a justification. Stop being an arsehole to the child.

Joining Feng Qing and the Nanyin rebels and attempting to take the throne

Picture, for a moment, that you woke up with no memories in some guy’s house, and he says he’s your shifu now, and this 5 year old who says you’re his older brother. And then your shifu begins training you and it’s not only immediately obvious that this 5 year old is better than you at martial arts, but also your shifu does not like you and does not want you in his house and only took you in because of this child who he thinks is the best thing that ever happened to him. And you grow up and this child continues to show you up in every way and gets lots of praise for it and your shifu thinks you’re such a burden to train he gives you to his wife so they can use the children as a way to compete with each other.

And then you leave home and some guy sees this token which is literally the only thing you own that you had with you when you woke up with no memories, and says ‘You’re important. You’re the person we’ve been looking for all this time. We want you with us. You deserve the world’.

Like, I’m sorry. Who wouldn’t say yes in this situation? Shan Gudao, neglected and ignored and alone in the jianghu, was ripe to be groomed for this sort of thing. Why wouldn’t he get swept up in the daze of finally being someone that mattered to someone other than a child?

As far as literally everyone other than his shifu and shiniang are aware, Feng Qing is telling him the truth. But because they didn’t bother to tell even Li Xiangyi about this, let alone the other boy they didn’t even want, there was literally no way anyone could have known any better.

And the truth is, the descendant of Consort Xuan/Nanyin heir did have a right to the throne by blood in a way that the present Emperor of Da Xi very much did not. And how would Nanyin get the throne back if not by a coup? If the heroes had been the ‘true heirs’ to a throne then the coup would have been presented as a good thing to do. But I digress.

Joining Feng Qing and attempting to claim the throne he was led to believe was rightfully his actually makes sense given everything we know about Shan Gudao. They gave him a family and a home in a way that the dysfunctional shit going on on Yunyin Mountain never managed to provide.

Faking his own death

Technically not really a crime. Yeah Li Xiangyi got a bit sad about it but then we wouldn’t have got to see Cheng Yi weeping as he cradled his shixiong’s corpse in his arms. So really, we should all be thanking Shan Gudao for his totally normal and rational plans.

Killing his shifu

This is, technically, the worst crime that Shan Gudao actually commits. This being said. Looking at it from Shan Gudao’s point of view, Qi Mushan deserved it actually. I have already ranted about the fucked up way Qi Mushan and Qin Po raised their disciples and especially Shan Gudao and there’s no need to rehash all of it. But there are always a few extra things I have to say about Shan Gudao and his fuck-ass shifu.

At the end when Shan Gudao is, unsurprisingly, having a massive breakdown about how everything he has been told and made part of his personality for the past twenty years has all be a lie, Li Lianhua says ‘no one was ever competing with you’. And to an extent this is true. Li Xiangyi was not competing with him, from his point of view: they were just training together. But Qi Mushan and Qin Po were competing with him each other using him. For Li Xiangyi, the younger child, the always-victor, this had the effect of bolstering his pride and arrogance, but being young (and proud and arrogant) he wouldn’t necessarily have noticed anything else about it. For Shan Gudao, who was forced to always compete with this child he could never beat, who was the tool that meant Qin Po would never be able to win? No wonder this fucked him up immensely.

When Qin Po finally decides to bother telling Li Lianhua about his heritage, she looks at Shan Gudao and LAUGHS at him and says ‘do you really think you were a nobleman from Nanyin? You were just a little beggar Qi Mushan and I took from a group of beggars’. Like wow, I can’t believe you have delusions of grandeur despite the fact that everyone in a position to know anything about you either refused to tell you anything or genuinely believed what they told you to be true. You pathetic beggar child. You should have known your place.

He should have killed her also xoxox

Throwing Fang Duobing into his torture-dungeon-pit-thing

This was also reasonably uncalled for. He’s not a particularly great dad. Do we blame this on the fact that Fang Duobing, like everyone else, chose Li Xiangyi over Shan Gudao? (If so that’s definitely on Shan Gudao, no wonder he didn’t pick you, stop bullying children) Or do we blame this, once again, on his shifu and shiniang using him as a tool to fight each other with? I will choose the latter for the sake of making a point.

ONE FINAL NOTE

Shan Gudao was looking after Li Xiangxian and Li Xiangyi on the streets. This child in episode 30, who is buying food for Li Xiangyi,

is the same as this child in episode 39, who is Shan Gudao.

He’s not someone who was inherently incredibly selfish. He wouldn’t have wasted his own resources on taking care of an unrelated child otherwise. He got an illness that gave him a brain injury bad enough that he forgot his entire past, and then was raised in competition with Li Xiangyi, however much Li Xiangyi was unaware of it.

In conclusion: everything is Qi Mushan’s fault. Thank you for coming to my TED talk

[valleymyristica]

[ TagGame ]

Post 4 fictional characters you relate to and assume something about the previous person based on their characters [ Original ]

Thank you @nightjasmine10 for the tag! This one sounds like quite an interesting one

Eris Sinbad

Alastor Hazbin Hotel (Pilot)

Snufkin Moomin (1990 TV series)

Fluttershy My little pony: Friendship is magic

And the gifs are quite fitting too, especially the Alastor one, when it comes to the story, what we have in mind, can't help but let a smile spread from time to time. Heh Eris is more the author in me.

Thank you again @nightjasmine10! This was a fun surprise

Here's my little analysis based on your characters Hope it's somewhat fitting as I didn't know most of them

.·˚✧ Koenma (Yu Yu Hakusho) ✧˚·. You have a level head, making sure that things goes as planned, helping. You like to focus on what you enjoy, and not too much on what's outside of that. Plus, you're loyal to those you care about, always wanting the best for them.

-

.·˚✧ Peri Fairywinkle Cosma (Fairly OddParents: A New Wish) ✧˚·. Likes to add some flare to what you do. Fearful of failure and always seeking to do good. Maybe also a sprinkle of, wanting to give others a nice impression of who you are out of fear of how they might perceive you if you don't.

-

.·˚✧ Chandler Bing (Friends) ✧˚·. You're a fun one who enjoys making others laugh. It's better to bring others up with joy than down with any sorrow you may feel. Hiding behind a smile because you've learned that others just like to see the sunshine you may spread, instead of any hurt that may be in your head. Still, all in all, you're a good person.

-

.·˚✧ Monica Geller (Friends) ✧˚·. You're indeed one that likes to keep the peace. Making sure all is well, maybe even at the expense of yourself at times. You don't think yourself bad, but you sometimes have a hard time seeing all the wonder you give.

-

You know yourself well enough to keep yourself up. You know what your ideal life may be, but you can still find joy in what you have currently. Still, there are many things that could be better, but hey could be worse too, right?

In essence, you're a good person Pretty like a flower

Hope I didn't overdo it Or maybe I did and it brings you glee Well, the important part is you being happy!

As for people to tag, always so unsure, but there are always lovely people to bring some brightness to!

@waitineedaname, You're a lovely one who's analysis is always fun, plus, it would be fun to see who you may related too (feeling one of them might be a librarian, though, guess that depends)

@shrimpyjackal, LOOK! Can you see me? Do you find the characters fit? Always so fun to hear from you, always a joy in seeing what you do, so it would also be fun to know which characters you relate to too ᵔᵜᵔ

@stitchwraith-stingers, You're a fun one, so it may be fun to see, who are the four that call to out to you? And why does it feel like not all of them are human too? Whatever it may, hope you have a wonderful day. Ups and downs are sure to come, but save the fun, enjoy what you can.

@wreckrinho, The cool cat that is you, do oh so wonder, who do you relate too? What characters make you feel more at home, for not all is lonely. You don't have to be alone. For you are one who deserves to be seen and happy, with joy to fill what's in-between!

@freesso, Sweet and fun, happy one. Hope all is well, do you want to play? It's odd, I have a vision of silver shimmering white, no idea who that could be, right? Regardless of choice, hope you are having fun in whatever you working on getting done ᵔᵜᵔ

@midnightdemonz, You're a fun one, wanna join in the game? Whatever you choose, I hope the day will give you much joy to gain, much fun to be had and do hope that things are good, not bad. For a lovely fun one, just like you, deserves much joy, it's true!

@vhs-consumer, Fun fantastic! Hope you're good and the world is kind, bringing you lively things to mind. Hope there is fun to be had in your day, hope you are doing okay ᵔᵜᵔ

@poggieking03, Hope all is well, and the day brings you glee, just like you have so many times brought me! Would be fun to see what you may say, and who are the ones that best match your days. Surely someone cool and full of spark, for you are always a bright spot in the dark.

@paaelle, A fun one to see, you come and you go, hope you're day is bright and enjoy all that you know. You may join if you like, but most of all, I want to tell, that I appreciate you as well!

And for clarity, no pressure of course!

Most of all, I just want to wish you all well For you are all so sweet and swell! So very wonderful, just wanted to tell ᵔᵜᵔ

Also, if anyone else would like to join in, then that would very much bring glee Fun people are always fun to see, trust me

[fridgemissionmaster]

Beelzebub x Reader ft.rest of the bros: March Prompt/Day 26

Prompt list/available prompt requests here, making a fic everyday of march

“Are you sure?”

“I mean, yeah. Pretty much just scraps at this point. Maybe Mammon or Asmo can help me find a replacement.” With that you dropped the torn fabric into the emptied recycling bin, shivering a little as you walked away. “Besides, it’s going to warm up soon anyway.” Beel didn’t like that… strained tone in your voice.

…

Beelzebub slipped the scraps into his pocket before draping his jacket over you, those sleeves dragging against the ground, the garment more of the cloak on you. “You don’t have too!”

“I’m fine.” He adjusted it a little to make sure it wouldn’t slip off your little human frame.

Unfortunately human clothing was much less durable than demon’s. Most of your wardrobe were things from here but you still had the occasional item from home. One had to be careful though as the daily chaos of Devildom life would destroy any human garments easily. At least you didn’t get hurt but…

Carefully Beel hand washed the thing in the sink, it was so thin at parts Beel worried it’d just disintegrate in the washing machine. But then what? It wasn’t like there was enough fabric left to make you a new jacket let alone repair it.

Actually…

“Levi, how do you repair clothing?”

“You uh… find…” That tap, tap, tapping came to an abrupt stop just as the music did, a pause menu now displayed on the handheld. Utterly baffled the third born looked over his shoulder. “Beel!?”

Beelzebub held out the scraps to his older brother. “… What’s this?”

“What’s left of MC’s favorite jacket.”

“Hmm.” Levi scrutinized the bits of fabric trying to figure out some way to put his baby brother down gently. “I don���t…”

“I thought so.”

“OH! Well, then, Good.” And with that Levi turned back to his game.

… Was there really nothing he could do? But if even Levi didn’t think anything could be done, then it was impossible. Maybe Barbatos could help? Didn’t he sew an outfit for you once? Could he know a way? Even then, Beel had seen Levi make so many extravagant outfits, and he certainly couldn’t count how many times he gave Levi one of his jerseys to repair only for it to be given back good as new, so if he couldn’t surely no one could. Besides then Levi had a whole shirt to work with not… this.

“FINE!”

“Huh?”

“We’re going to my room.” With that Levi began stomping off. “I swear, you and Belphie and your puppy eyes.” But Levi only glanced at his face for a moment, focusing on the fabric before. Did he have an odd expression?

Beelzebub stood by the door while Levi got a big fold out table from behind some shelving, setting it up, before patting his hands on it. “Come on. I need to know what we’re working with here.”

“…”

It was almost sad to look at.

“Is this it?”

“Yeah.”

Levi studied the thing in dismay.

“What are we all doing here?”

“GAH! Get out party animals! You have to say the password!”

“Excuse me, you left the door wide open!”

Asmodeus and Mammon easily slipped past Levi, immediately making their way for the out of place table.

Levi sighed realizing the pair wouldn’t leave any time soon.

“Some scrap?”

“Oi, that’s MC’s jacket.” Everyone glanced to Mammon about to question how he could recognize it in this state but then remembered the word ‘privacy’ didn’t exist in his vocabulary when it came to you. Beel had even seen him snooping through your stuff for the hell of it.

“It got wreaked yesterday.” The intruders nodded, recalling the tales they were told of it at dinner the night before.

“Well, what are you going to do with it?” Asmo pinched at a corner before lifting it up to get a better look.

“I want to repair it.”

Beel didn’t much care for the pitiful look Mammon gave him. “Eh? You might as well be startin’ from scratch.”

“Mammon, hush!” Asmo smacked the back of his hand against Mammon face and kept it there, seemed he didn’t like that look either. Not enough force to leave a mark or even hurt probably, but enough for an audible fwap sound.

“EY!”

“It’s sweet.” Placing the fabric down he started talking with his hands as perusual. “Besides, did you see that yukata he made for MC? You still need to make me one! It’s gorgeous!”

Beel grumbled at the fabric. “I couldn’t make it again even if I wanted too. I didn’t write down any instructions.” He could repair it if needed.

“Come on, you at least have the pattern pieces left, right? We can just adjust them to my size.”

“No.”

“But Beel-”

“I don’t know what pattern pieces are, so I can’t even if I wanted. And I don’t.”

…

“Why are you staring at me?” His older brothers looked between one another, having some silent conversation before Levi scurried off, placing some big paper on the table, while Mammon immediately began to scribble on it.

Asmo placed his hands on Beelzebub’s shoulders, a deathly serious look in his eyes. “You didn’t use any patterns?”

“Uh? No?”

“You didn’t draw out the pieces and then cut them out?”

“No? Mc did that to make my yukata, but we didn’t have much paper so I let them use it.”

“YOU FREE HAND THE ENTIRE THING AND IT TURNED OUT LIKE THAT!?”

“I-”

“WHY HAVE YOU BEEN KEEPING YOUR DESIGN AND SEWING SKILLS SECRET FROM ME BEEL!”

Levi and Mammon had cut out one of the things Mammon drew, shoving their way past Asmo to hold it right up to his face. “Ya didn’t do anythin’ like this before cutting out your fabric?”

Beel just shook his head, words getting lost as he only got more and more confused by his brothers beginning to freak out and question him all at once. You did that to make a guide for what to cut but for Beel, trying to keep the paper and fabric in place while cutting was a bit much so he just went without and trimmed when he needed.

“I guess I can’t freehand MC’s jacket though.” It wouldn’t be your exact jacket but his own thing then.

“Uh duh. Here, just let me…” And so Mammon went scribbling away again. Beel really should have been surprised at how Mammon had even the details of your favorite clothing memorized, down to the individual parts that made them, but he couldn’t be. It was Mammon after all, the man was terrifyingly skilled.

“Oh, I know!” Asmo took one of the smaller scraps. “We need kamillion fabric!”

“Wh-” Asmo pinched Beel’s cheek, looking all too giddy.

“It’s a fabric that will turn into an exact copy of whatever material you press into it, and once you do that it won’t change, so we can get plenty of new material!” And off Asmo was, his heels clacking away as he went.

“Here, cut these out.”

“Oh-okay.” Beel had to admit it was impressive Mammon could already be done with some parts and how he drew such straight lines.

“Later, I need to show him my sewing machine.” Levi grabbed his arm, dragging Beel away to the opposite side of the table. Seemed Mammon didn’t hear, passing another sheet to where Beelzebub was.

“So, we’ll skip the basics and go straight about the special features.” Levi pointed to the machine excitedly, already beginning to ramble.

“Wait, I don’t know how to use this.”

“…” He… just started. Unblinking. “No… Beel, you didn’t use a sewing machine EITHER!?”

“Well… no. We didn’t have one to use when we made our yukatas.”

“… NO WONDER YOU TWO KEPT WORKING NONSTOP ALL DAY AND NIGHT! Beel. Okay, I’ll get us some scraps so I can teach you. Trust me you’ll love this, it’ll make everything so much faster!”

Well, he was going to have to wait on the fabric anyway. It did get a bit annoying with both Levi and eventually Mammon hovering over his shoulders and arguing about what kind of stitching would be better in certain situations, but he did learn a lot from the both of them.

“I’m surprised though…” Mammon draped an arm over the redhead’s shoulders, leaning in to get a closer look at his work. “Yer picking all this up so quickly. You used to be- uh… struggle with this more fiddly stuff. What got ya interested?”

…

“Wasn’t it when Belphie made that plush for him?”

“Oh yeah. He made one for Belphie after that.”

“Then it was the yukatas him and MC made for each other.”

“Still though, between then and now he’s improved a lot!”

“I know, and now he even designed our outfits for the parade!”

“Look at our baby bro growing up!”

“Gross Mammon.”

“Eh!? What’s so wrong about prasin’ my little brothers!?”

… there was just something nice about it. It felt good. For the yukatas you taught him a lot, you got some good tips from Barbatos when sewing that Devilcat plush for him that you shared. He did a couple of little things since the yukatas like drawstrings bags or trying to repair his jerseys himself. He couldn’t be sure why but something in him was just drawn to this. It felt soothing in a way. It was also nice to use things that you taught him, to repeat it, to memorize it, to make it part of himself.

It would take a couple of days for the fabric to get shipped so Beel used the time to get other fabrics he’d need that he couldn’t get the original parts of like the inside lining of the pockets.

“Hey, Beel.” Satan strolled a bit closer than he normally would with anyone but you. Said you was at the front of your group, excited to get home and warm up after classes.

“Yeah?” Beelzebub matched his brother’s hushed tone.

“Tell me when your package gets here.”

“My what?”

“The… supplies.”

“Uhh... Oh, you mean the fabric?”

The fourth born quirked a brow before maintaining the distance he usually would, although his voice stayed low. “So it’s not a surprise?”

“… huh?”

He shook his head. “Anyway, tell me when it arrives. You’re using kamillion fabric, right?”

“Yes.”

“Then it will be just as weak as before. I know a few spells that can make it as tough as Devildom fabric.”

“Thank you!” Beelzebub hadn’t even thought of that. Although… who told Satan about this project? It wasn’t a secret, exactly, Beelzebub hadn’t quite been open about this though either. In a way he didn’t want you to know. You surprised him with the Devilcat so it would be nice to surprise you with something.

In the planning Beel did overlook one thing. It was Fangol season so most days after school had to be spent out on the field. So instead after Lucifer had finished his bedtime check-up Beelzebub would get back up. On the loft was where he’d place the table, light, and sewing machine. He hoped the distance would make it less disruptive to Belphegor.

And yet every night a few minuets after he began work he’d hear a yawn come from the winding staircase. Belphie would trot up, pillow in hand before sitting on the floor beside him and rest his head on Beel’s lap. The company was nice. Usually he’d immediately fall asleep but sometimes he’d try staying up, ask Beel what part he was working on or what exactly he was doing, it also helped Beel stay up on nights where practice hit hard and all his battered body wanted to do was collapse in bed.

Nice soft bed…

… so warm

…. And

Comfy

…

…

…

A groan rumbled in his throat, his neck killing him. Slowly he sat up, his body stuttering and creaking from the movement. Arched back, hands up high he stretched, a yawn escaping him. He couldn’t help smiling feeling that weight on his lap and getting that familiar yawn in reply. “Morning Belphie.”

“Morning Beel.”

“Morning you two.”

Immediately Beel’s eyes shot open being greeted to the worst sight. Lucifer stood across the table, arms crossed, a glowering stare. His every step was noted with the soft thud of his shoes against the wood floor. His eyes flickered up and down the pair, clearly not pleased with the sight. “Well, get ready. You’re going to be late.”

A couple of quick nods and Beel practically bolted out of the chair with his twin in his arms.

“Wait… Lucifer, we don’t have classes today.” The man simply sighed, the distinct click of the lamp being turned off before, following him down the stairs, your jacket in hand.

“You have practice.” The jacket was placed on the railing before he reached out and…

And placed his hands on Beelzebub’s cheeks?

“Wha-” Squished, stretched, pulled, smushed Beelzebub was left baffled at Lucifer playing with his face like that!

“There, now there’s color in your cheeks and you won’t worry them by looking so sickly.”

…

“… Heh, thank you!” And so Beel was off. He had to give you your jacket before practice, you were going to be watching today after all!

You stood by the door, giving him a little smile in greeting before your eyes were drawn to the garment he held. He simply placed it on your shoulders before holding the door open for you, leaving you baffled, looking to your jacket all the while everyone else piled on one another, peeking around the corner, some filming, some giving a thumbs up, some trying to act like they didn’t care yet still stood there watching anyway.

“I hope you like it.” You held the thing close for a moment, rolling some of the fabric between your fingers.

“I- what? How?”

“I got help making it. Is it… like your old one?”

“… Even better.” Good, you smiled.

[changingplumbob]

Day seven - Luther group part 2/2

@bakersimmer, @berrysims-lp, @daedriyth, @hashimasims, @invisiblequeen, @lostinsixam

Alaina: I won! As I should

Nathalie: HAHA!! YES!

Alaina: Now I can never bowl again right

Nathalie: I mean, I always knew I could do this. So… do I really have to share the date?

Alaina: I'm literally right here Nat

Nathalie: Yes but the frame should be focusing on me, I'm far more photogenic. Mama always says I should be in the limelight

Nephinae: …Okay but I looked good losing, right?

Kay: *Shoulders turned down with a frown on her face*

Nephinae: Whatever. At least I got a higher score than Kristina

Kay: I really wish I could have done better, but I'm staying positive. I got a strike!

Nephinae: Twinning! But not the fall part obviously

Kay: That fall was so embarrassing, but I also think I learned a lot today

Kristina: Ah well, can't win always! Had fun though, and that's what matters

Abigail: That's like what I tell my friends if they get wiped out in a campaign

Kristina: *laughs* How do you feel about your result then

Abigail: Eh, I kinda saw that coming. At least I didn't hurt anyone, so I'm counting that as a win

Kristina: Can you imagine getting hit with a bowling ball?

Abigail: *laughing* I'd rather not

Nathalie and Alaina may be the winners of the duo date but neither are overly excited about the park. Deanna flirts with each of them before letting them direct the conversation. Nathalie had some funny stories to tell about her time in various jobs, while Alaina had some dramatic stories from her time auditioning for various acting gigs. While they seemed to have a good time neither felt like flirting back.

Back at the villa for the afternoon. Again room doors were locked, but contestants were allowed to do whatever they wished before dinner.

Half of the contestants flocked to the pool. Alaina and Abaigail took one look however and decided not today. While Alaina went to sharpen her foosball skills alone Abigail played some Don't Wake the Llama. Sure Nathalie was also outside playing simbles but Abby seemed keen for a moment alone.

After some encouragement from Kay, Nephinae went to talk to Kristina. Surprisingly the interaction didn't anger her and the pair actually gained some friendship. Thank you Kay!

Deanna saw Nephinae trying and when the redhead headed for the TV Deanna caught up with her. Feeling confident Nephinae flirted which prompted Deanna to hold her hands. Is Nephinae on track to be the first kiss of the season?

Back outside Nathalie did eventually sway Abby to join her at simbles but both headed inside when Deanna called them for dinner. The group ate together but there wasn't a lot of chatting. They must have been tired from today's challenge.

Again the contestants could choose what the wanted to focus on for some evening skill time. Abigail retreated to her beloved video games, and Kay attempted to get Sims forever to work for her. Nathalie begrudgingly spent her time working on logic while Kristina decided to get a headstart on her rock climbing skill. Nephinae and Alaina had similar thoughts, both choosing to focus on the broader area of fitness.

I interview my sister as she works on preparing food for tomorrow.

Devin: Are you making pasta

Deanna: Don't tell pa or he'll demand to try some

Devin: How was today then De

Deanna: Bowling was interesting. A lot of drops and gutterballs, got to see how people react to that. The duo date was just so so, didn't really feel too romantic about it sadly. But in the afternoon I saw Nephinae trying to work through her dislike of Kristina which made me happy. I know not everyone can win but I'd still like them to be able to be friendly to each other, it would help them not feel lonely I think

[girlietips]

Big sister advice school addition 📖🖋️📚

Here is the next installment of my big sister advice for academics.

School is easy if you just do the work you should know everything for the test.

There is no reason (except for literally terrible teaching) that you wouldn’t know the concepts for the test unless you didn’t do all the work assigned to you.

Obviously this doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t study or practice the skills but if you have no clue what could be on the test you didn’t do all the work.

But if you are struggling in the class there is no longer an optional assignment or an extra credit opportunity you aren’t going to do. Always do extra credit anyway because 102% before the final means you can relax for finals week. Plus the teacher will take note and you could probably get a letter of recommendation from them.

Having a predetermined homework time is the best thing you can do

No matter what do homework at that time. If you finished all the homework for the week do next weeks.

Mine were at 7am-9am (I work best first thing)on Monday and Friday and I had to work the entire time so I basically never had to work outside of those times except for studying and reading.

It only benefits you too be ahead.

If you have the ability (some courses are not laid out that way) to get ahead in work you should. Especially if you are given a list of all the assignments before hand.

It gives you the ability to take days off and knowing what the lecture is going to be on before you head in will help if you have a hard time focusing.

Even if it is just skimming the reading right before class it’ll help.

You are allowed to be disappointed in grades (even if they are still good grades)

This past term was the first term in college where I didn’t get a 4.0. I got an A- in chem and I literally was 5points away from an A. (Honestly a B would’ve been less devastating and I’m not being dramatic)

Even tho my gpa is perfectly fine I am allowed to be frustrated with myself because I know that that 5 points was easily attainable I just got lazy towards the end.

Don’t let people tell you you can’t be upset over a slightly low grade. But also don’t beat yourself up about it if you truly tried your hardest and did all you can do. There is a difference between a B where you worked for hours on end did all the assignments but the class is that difficult and a A- in an easy class but you allowed yourself to slack off. (Self call out lol)

But obviously don’t push this standard on other people cuz that’s rude. Even if you wouldn’t be happy with a B if your friend is celebrate celebrate with them. Don’t be a bitch

Be strategic in what classes you skip.

I am not going to be all high and mighty and say I never skip classes or try and tell you to go to every lecture no matter what. I barely showed up to my math class this term. But I still got an A because the class was assignment based and in a subject I can do in my sleep. I did all the homework and showed up for the tests and did great but if you can’t do that with a class don’t act like you can. Pick and choose your battles.

Never skip a class you struggle in!!!!!!

You never know when a teacher is going to say something that makes everything make sense. Or give you the best life hack ever.

Getting all your homework done before the weekend means you can have a social life.

If you want to have a good life/school balance you have to schedule when you complete things.

School should always come first so if you want to party that weekend you better finish everything by Friday.

Also not really school related but if you are gonna be a party girl in college (me too me too) don’t party everyday of the weekend!!!!!

It’s seriously unhealthy to consume alcohol like that consistently and guess what you can get burned out from too much partying just like you can get burned out from too much work. Even hot girls can be functional alcoholics and that’s not cute.

If you are going to make it an every weekend thing make sure it’s only one night. So you still have one day to recover from the party and one day to be productive!!! Obviously there are going to be some weekends (halloweekend) where people go out multiple days in a row and to that I say know your limits and be safe! Please please freshman don’t make halloweekend be the first time you drink!!!!

That’s all I have for school themed advice! Hope you all have great day!

Love you all Xoxo💋

[a-small-batch-of-dragons]

Creature Craft | Protection

Read on Ao3 Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4

Warnings: bullying

Pairings: analogical

Word Count: 1671

Logan has a word with Virgil's...'friends.'

"I'm just saying, you might want to be a little careful. Obviously this place has, like, a reputation, but I wouldn't want you to get hurt."

"That's very kind of you."

Virgil can hear the responding little giggle from behind the door and feels sick.

"Have you been waiting here long? The service at the place could really use some work," another one of his friends says, toying with the edge of Logan's coat. "It was almost impossible to book another appointment."

"I'm sorry to hear that."

"Oh, you're so sweet."

"I hope your spell works out better for you than it did for us," a third friend simpers, "though if it doesn't, I'd be happy to commiserate with you."

Virgil feels his cheeks flush at how shamelessly they're flirting with Logan. Right there. In front of everyone. Like they're all drunk at a bar and Logan's just the piece of meat they're all deciding to turn their attention to and he—he has to swallow the sudden lump in his throat because Logan clearly hasn't told them to stop. They're still sitting there, smiling and listening and not even blinking as the flirting gets more and more audacious and that bubble of joy in his chest pops with a sickening feeling.

What if—what if Logan decides they don't want him anymore?

His hand grows slick on the door handle, and he accidentally pushes it down when a hand trails down Logan's arm and the door clicks before he can stop it. All of their faces turn to him, and he sees surprise dawn on his friends' faces.

"Virgil? What're you doing here?"

"Have you been crying?"

"Wait, what happened with you? You never told us."

"I—um—"

But then Logan's face changes. They're suddenly smiling softly at him like they haven't seen him in years, and when they stand up it's like there isn't anyone sitting anywhere near them, moving swiftly over and settling one hand on his waist, the other coming up to brush a tear from his—oh. He hadn't realized he started crying again.

"How did it go, sweetheart? Are you okay?"

How the fuck did he ever doubt this? He gets to keep this. He gets to keep all of Logan forever and he's got a giddy smile forming on his face, he knows he does, and Logan's smiling back as they wipe away another tear. "'S good, Logan. 'S all good now."

"Good news, I take it?"

He nods, a little frantic. "Really good. I…I really get to keep you."

"Of course you do," Logan says, almost sounding a little offended but they wink, "as if I'd let it be otherwise."

"Yeah, Amelia mentioned that."

"All good things, I hope."

"I think you gotta tell me that."

"Oh, dear," they drawl, leaning down to brush their nose against his, "whatever shall I do with such a terrible request?"

"Uh, hello?"

Oh, right. They're in public and Virgil's friends are…right there. They just saw and heard all of that. Virgil glances over Logan's shoulder to see one of them standing with their arms crossed, the others looking to be various stages of confused and upset. He can't help the way he leans a little more into Logan's touch, nor the way he lets out a little noise when Logan's hand slides possessively over to the small of his back.

"Uh, hi, guys." Is that what his voice sounds like right now? "Didn't expect to see you here."

"Uh, yeah, we didn't expect to see you here either, since you ghosted us completely!"

"What?"

"Jeff—"

"No," Jeff growls, "you didn't say a goddamn thing! We had no idea what happened to you! Shit, Virgil, you couldn't have at least texted us that you were also done? We've all been freaking out! And I know Sandra and Alex tried to call you, and you just what, hung up on them?"

"Sorry."

"Are you here about your follow up?" Alex asks, though his gaze keeps sliding to Logan. "Did, uh, yours come out weird too?"

Virgil coughs. "A little weird, yeah."

Logan tugs lightly on the back of his shirt. "But a good weird, right?"

"Yeah, yeah, a…a really good weird."

"Well, shit, Virgil, that might have been nice to know. If you had told us."

He can't help the way he shrinks back from Jeff's angry voice. Jeff's always been good at making him feel small.

"Are you not going to introduce us?"

"Kate," Alex mumbles, "I don't think this is the right—"

"Oh, so Virgil's allowed to hide the fact that he knows this really handsome guy who he trusted enough to bring to this appointment and not tell us?" Kate bats her eyes at Logan who barely even looks in her direction. "Come on, Virgil, you know better than that."

"This, um, this is Logan."

"Logan, I see. Well, it's a pleasure to meet you."

"Let me guess, Virgil told you his sob story and dragged you along with him?" Jeff's voice, with a warmth that Virgil never hears directed at him, makes him colder and shit, has this—have his friends always been this…mean? "Or wait—no, you said you were here for an appointment too, right?"

"It's really nice of you to be here, is what Jeff's trying and failing to say," Alex says quickly, smiling at Logan—he's never smiled at Virgil like that, "especially when you don't know each other that well."

"You should come with us after this!" Kate twists her hair around her fingers. "We're gonna go to the bar down the road and—"

"No, thank you."

Logan's abrupt dismissal of the idea makes Kate draw up short and Virgil holds his breath. She laughs, almost like she can't believe Logan just said that. "C'mon, it'll be fun! And we can—"

Logan turns to him. "Would you like to go?"

Virgil shakes his head. Logan makes a 'well, there you are then' sort of noise. "If you'll excuse us, then, we must be on our way."

"On our way? Wait, wait, hold on a second." Jeff catches hold of Virgil's arm as they pass and he doesn't imagine the way Logan's head whips around. "You never said how the hell you know this guy."

Virgil's throat closes. He can't. He can't. He can't explain how he knows Logan. Not right now. Not while Jeff's fingers are digging into his arm.

Logan squeezes his hand.

He gestures meekly around the clinic. Jeff's brow furrows in confusion for a second before his mouth drops open.

"No. No fucking way."

"What?"

"No fucking way that you got him."

"It's 'them,' actually," Virgil mumbles.

"Shut the fuck up, Virgil—"

"Do not speak to him like that," Logan says darkly.

Jeff laughs. This is the laugh he's used to hearing. "You expect us to believe that you had that evil looking plant and the demon cat and you got this? You got—"

"You're joking," Alex says, looking between both of them, "you're—this is a joke, right? What, is this like some Princess and the Frog bullshit?"

"There has to have been some mistake," Kate says, their voices building, the grip on his arm getting tighter, "you—maybe it got mixed up with one of ours. Is that what your appointment was for? Are they explaining that they messed up?"

"Did you like, go back and pay them extra or something?"

"God, that's why you didn't respond to us, you've been fucking lying this whole time? What, did you ask for them to switch it out?"

"That is enough."

Silence.

Virgil's heart is in his damn throat. He can only stare at nothing as Jeff's hand is forcibly removed and he's tucked behind Logan, one hand still holding his.

"You have the audacity to behave so abominably to someone you would call a friend and are surprised when your spells create things of cruelty? You accuse him of lying when you wouldn't know decency from deceit if it were spelled out for you? No. You do not get to act as if you are the ones who have been wronged."

People are filming this. They're definitely filming this.

"Even if you hadn't been so foolish as to insult Virgil right in front of me, your behavior would be enough to tell me that any magic so unfortunate as to have you as a conduit would be damned to darkness. You speak over him, you belittle him, you put him down to make yourselves look better, and you act as though the idea of him having something good is the biggest joke you could ever imagine. Virgil was scared for you when you told him the outcomes of your spellcraft. Fear that you did not and do not deserve. Not when you have spent every moment since proving that you created it for yourselves."

"Logan," Virgil mumbles, because yeah, this sucks, but no one deserves to be that scared.

Logan pauses, head turning slightly. They do calm slightly, the line of their shoulders easing, and they let out a small scoff.

"Even now, he's proving that he's better than you. I suggest you think long and hard before you say anything else."

Silence. A fan in the ceiling kicks on.

"That's what I thought."

And then there's an arm wrapping around his waist and he's being walked out into the sunlight, settled in the car, and then Logan's hands are on his face and he's—

Oh, God, Logan just yelled at his friends. Logan just humiliated and berated his friends and they're going to be so mad at him, they're gonna be so upset, they're gonna—

"Breathe, little one, it's over, you're safe—I'm sorry, I didn't mean to upset you," Logan's murmuring, "I'm not angry at you, dear one, I promise. They just—you deserve better, Virgil. You deserve so much better."

Shaking, Virgil reaches up and covers Logan's hands with his. "I…deserve better."

"Yes, little one, of course you do."

"I deserve…I deserve you, right?"

Logan's grin is blinding. "Damn right, you do."

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