#and that poll coming out two chapters after he showed up again in the story during Ch100

[fullscoreshenanigans]

Reading these popularity polls and feeling like I'm going lowkey insane

(WSJ Chapter 102 Popularity Poll, released September 7, 2018)

(Official Anime Site's 4th Anniversary Popularity Poll, conducted in August 2020)

(VIZ February 2021 Popularity Poll)

Anna being more popular in fanon that Don illustrates the phenomon of a fandom being willing to do one of their least favorite things (appreciate a female character) in order to avoid doing another one of their least favorite things (appreciate a character of color)

[http-paprika]

noise / simon “ghost” riley

dad!ghost / pairing simon “ghost” riley x wife!reader / wc 504 / warnings none, pure fluff

summery raising a baby is completely different than anything else simon has done. but a new skill she learns leaves him completely surprised.

note this is what I wrote for the result of the poll, it’s not very long, I know. I just had to write this little story, it was too cute to pass up. maybe I’ll add more dad!ghost one-shots in the future.

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The baby smacks against his chest, babbling loudly as he carries her through the house, trying to pass the time as his wife enjoys a moment of solitude in the shower after Simon got home from work.

Having a baby was still such a strange new chapter in Simon’s life, and the seven months since her birth, it had been a wild ride. Between the joys of watching her grow and learn, to the endless nights of her crying and the struggle of Simon learning how to actually be a good father for her. But the moments he got to spend with her alone, when she wasn’t screaming her lungs off, had become a favorite part of his day. Watching her smile, listening to her little laughs, was one of the things that he always looked forward to when he returned home from a long day.

“Oh really? And why’s that?” He chuckles, pretending to understand his infant daughter as she tries to converse with him. Moving through the house, he walks her out into the cool autumn air where their dog ran up to greet them.

“Be careful.” Simon tells her as she turns, leaning against his arms to try and reach the happy, retired military dog, Bandit, who barks up at her. Slowly, he crouches down on level with the canine who continues to enthusiastically bark and paw at them.

“Gentle.” He says to her as she reaches out, taking a fistful of the dog’s fur. “Gentle, lovie. Gentle. Just like that”

Simon takes her tiny little hand in his own, showing her how to pet the dog. Eventually, he drops his hand allowing the baby to reach out on her own autonomy and pat at Bandit’s muzzle.

She makes a noise that startles him, his eyes widening as Simon realizes the baby is attempting to mimic the dog as it yips back at her. It comes out a babbled mess, but there’s no mistaking the imitation and the excited nature of the baby everytime the dog responds back to her.

“There you two are, I was wondering where you’d disappeared to.” His wife steps out onto the patio, a startled look on her face as Simon looks up at her, exasperated. “What’s wrong?”

“She’s barking.”

“What?” She furrows her brow, confused by his statement and folding her arms looking down at him and the baby. “What are you talking about, Simon?”

“Just— listen. Bandit, speak.” He commands the dog, who obliges and barks, quickly followed by the daughter who attempts to bark back, giggling and kicking her feet afterward. “She’s imitating the dog.”

Almost as if to prove his point to her mother, the baby does it again, this time smiling up at her mother while doing it. The two adults just stare down at the baby who’s proud of the new noise she’s managed to make.

“She’s never gonna stop, is she?” Simon finally asks his wife, the realization creeping over him, his face contorting in horror.

“No, she’s not.”

[ladykailitha]

Well Met By Moonlight Part 14

Hey all! Because I'm working strictly on Paper Hearts and Sweet Home Indiana exclusively until they're done, I thought I would put out chapters of this, Icarus (metal band), and Never Hold Back Your Step...(boy with a bat book 2) this week to tie you over until I can get back to them.

The poll wanted me to continue this one and Never Hold Back Your Step, so show me how much you love this story. Because people it is going to get juicy good and hella twisty and you really don't want to miss out on that. ;)

This is a very Nancy heavy chapter and as always she comes off very nuanced.

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10 Part 11 Part 12 Part 13

****

Steve had two thorns in his side. Tommy Hagan and Murray Bauman. Jonathan had gotten his mom and Hopper to back down by citing actual pack law.

He suspected that Nancy had given him that little tidbit to throw in their faces.

It was nice to have the younger generation on his side. Well, most of it. There was still the matter of Tommy.

But now it was time to let Nancy in on what had been going on in the pack.

“I wish you had come to me sooner,” she huffed after he had explained everything and shown her his proof.

“Would you have come to me if the shoe was on the other foot?” Steve asked sharply.

She folded her arms and looked down at the ground. Steve raised an eyebrow at her and she threw her arms in the air.

“Fine!” Nancy cried, throwing her arms in the air. “I wouldn’t have gone to you, I would have gone to Jonathan first. But at least I would have gone to another pack member instead of a keeper, Steve.”

Steve curled his lip and she took a step backward. “Keepers are bound to a scared trust and while Tommy has broken his, Robin would never.”

“Platonic soulmates, I know, I know,” she said, rolling her eyes. “So you keep saying. But she isn’t your female alpha, she isn’t even a werewolf Steve.”

Steve drew himself up to full height and glared at her. “At what has this pack done to show me any loyalty? It goes both ways, Nance and frankly all I’ve gotten since I came back to the pack is suspicion and distrust. Where’s my loyalty, huh? Where is it?”

She looked down at her feet again and sighed. “You weren’t a pack member for ten years, Steve and then you come back, in just a year you’re alpha. Like the rest of us have grown up together. Played together as children and then as puppies when we changed. We know everything about each other, but nothing about you. Then you start to change things and we’re just supposed to take it?”

“Yeah?” he said. “Okay, I’ll walk away. Hopper can take over or hell, give it straight to Murray. He’s the one that wanted it so bad after Hop was taken. See how you fare under his alphaship. If you guys have no loyalty to me, I’ve got none to you.”

He shook his head and walked away.

“Steve!” she cried. “Wait!”

Steve whirled back to face her. “What? You wanted me gone, so I’m leaving.”

“Of course I don’t want you to leave!” she huffed. “God, that wasn’t what I meant at all.”

“No?” he growled. “Because that’s what it fucking sounded like Nancy. What? You think Jonathan would be a better fit?” Nancy didn’t answer but her look said it all. “Because let me tell you, the Byers boys are the best of us, but both are straight up pacifists. They would make for terrible alphas.”

Nancy refused to look at him.

“And besides,” Steve finished with a smug grin, “Jonathan would back me in a fight for alpha, not challenge me and you fucking know it.”

She let out a long sigh. “God, how did you get so smart?”

“I’ve always been, thanks,” he huffed. “School stuff? I’m absolute shit at, but leadership and knowing the right play for the whole team? That comes as naturally to me as breathing. I don’t know it’s all the sports or if I was good at sports because of the natural ability to lead. Either way, there is no adult male in this pack better suited for alphaship and you can’t argue that.”

She looked up and stomped her foot. “I hate it when you’re right.”

“You better get used to it,” Steve said with a wink. “It’s going to happen a lot.”

Nancy clenched her fists and set her jaw. “You are the best leader for the pack as much as it literally pains me to say it, but you have to understand that all we saw was how rich and popular you were in high school. Captain of several teams, friends with Tommy and Carol even though you weren’t pack. King Steve. And then you come back to the pack after high school and the first chance you get you challenge for alpha and fucking win. That fight with Murray was the most brutal fight I’ve ever seen.”

Steve cocked his head to the side. “In what way?”

“You don’t fight like a wolf, even in wolf form,” she muttered. “You don’t even fight like an animal most of the time. It’s like... the wolf is only a vessel for you. Instead of being ingrained into your psyche like it is for the rest of us, you are still aware. You fight the way a human would if suddenly given four legs and a tail. It’s frightening to watch.”

He blinked as he thought about the implications of that. “I don’t have the socialization of a wolf pack, so I fight and think differently. That’s why everyone is worried about where I’ll take the pack. Because you think I’ll try to separate you from your wolf.”

Nancy bit her lower lip. “Exactly that.”

Steve nodded and then transformed. “So teach me how to be a wolf.”

She smiled and transformed, too. Maybe they weren’t friends, but they could be allies and Steve was okay with that.

****

Nancy had learned a lot that day. About Steve and why he didn’t know how to be a wolf and it was a secret she would take to her grave. She learned that she was only the fourth person ever to know about what really went on at the Franklins. Behind Wayne; who was there; Robin, his best friend; and Eddie, his boyfriend.

And if Steve was to be believed, and she had no reason not to, Wayne had told Eddie, not him.

So she was the second person Steve had personally told and that was a lot of trust he had placed in her.

But it also stirred memories in her mind of the day the pack had been informed that the Harrington’s were dead and that Steve was going to be living with another couple until he came of age.

She had been pretty young herself, but she remembered how Wayne and Hopper had almost come to blows about it.

Hopper had yelled that the pack was as safe as houses and Wayne said the house was a condemned building.

She remembered it because she thought the phrase was hilarious. But regardless there was someone else who was there. Someone who was fighting to keep Steve in the pack, but she couldn’t remember.

Nancy rubbed her forehead between her eyebrows as she thought.

She shook her head.

She had bigger fish to fry. Steve’s threat about banishing those that had threatened his alphaship had stirred up a lot of feelings in the pack that she as female alpha had to try and smooth out.

The pack had only banished two people ever since Hopper had taken over the remains of the shattered Harrington pack after Wayne had torn them to literal pieces.

Just then she heard an argument break out. Josh had been swapped out for Chase and she could hear his raised voice.

“What the fuck were you thinking, Pat?!” Chase hissed. “Joining these flea-bitten mongrels?”

Nancy frowned. Maybe Chase should have come to the compound first, rather than Josh, because it sounded like Chase had been overly influenced by Billy’s style.

“How about not dying?” Patrick snapped back. “Billy wasn’t going to change me and Steve was willing to try. Vampire’s don’t need consent to change you, but werewolves do. And so yeah. I fucking consented. I didn’t want to die.”

“Better dead than a werewolf,” Chase said. “Hanging out with the vamps was fun. But all this is hard work and the stench of rotting meat.”

Nancy reached a point in the woods where she could see them, but they couldn’t see her.

Patrick shook his head. “He saved me twice, Chase. Even Jason is impressed by how respectful Steve had been about the whole thing, especially since we nearly killed him.”

Chase blanched. After those six weeks at the coven, he had forgotten the reason for the whole exchange program in the first place. That they could have been thrown in jail for attempted murder.

He looked down at the ground. “Shit, man. I didn’t mean it like that. Of course you’re grateful to Harrington for saving your ass. It’s just so much has changed in so little time that I loss track of all that...other bullshit.”

Patrick sighed. “I know, it all seems like it’s from another life. But Wayne has said that he’s going to recommend to the DA that we get a year of community service under his eye and it won’t go on our permanent record so we can still go to college.”

“That’s decent of him,” Chase said. “He could have made things really bad for you.”

Patrick shook his head. “I don’t know. I don’t think Jason is being genuine. He’s still angry about getting caught by Eddie Munson of all people.”

Chase frowned. The rivalry between Jason and Eddie Munson was the stuff of legends. Jason would bully the Hellfire Club kids, and Eddie would stand on table tops in the cafeteria ranting about basketball players were only good at putting big orange balls in laundry baskets.

It was actually Eddie and not Billy who had stepped in between Chrissy Cunningham and Jason when he found out she was a vampire and not some pure Christian girl who would stay at home once they were married and pump out his babies.

Chrissy could have defended herself considering how strong she was as a vampire, but Eddie had still stepped between them. Chase was sure that if the principal hadn’t walked by just then, that Jason would have decked Eddie.

“Especially now that Eddie is the same supe Chrissy is,” he said slowly.

Patrick nodded. “I worry he’s going to get caught up in something that might get himself killed.”

“Jason is such a bone head,” Chase said shaking his head. “Why did we follow this guy again?”

Patrick threw back his head and laughed. “Because he was captain of the basketball team, dating the head cheerleader, and hot as fuck.”

Chase let out a startled snorted. “Yeah, okay. You’ve got me there.”

They moved away from the clearing and there was a tap on Nancy’s shoulder.

She yelped and whirled around, coming face to face with Murray.

“Jesus!” she hissed, putting her hand on her chest as she fought to catch her breath.

“You shouldn’t be eavesdropping on people,” he said with a smarmy smile.

She returned his smile with a tight lipped version of her own. “Well, you would only know I was eavesdropping, if you were doing the same thing. A bit pot calling the kettle black, don’t you think?”

He tilted his head and regarded her with interest. “I can see why Steve would chose you as his alpha female. So smart. Just don’t go digging holes you can’t jump out of.”

He slipped into the shadows of the woods and she felt a shiver down her spine.

She had been so wrapped up in the drama with Steve that she had neglected her duties as alpha female.

Well that changed today. She would get to the bottom of this and give Steve her full support. Like a proper female alpha.

****

Part 15 Part 16 Part 17 Part 18 Part 19 Part 20

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[bcwritingjourney]

Chapter 8 of my novel, Sanguinatus, is up on patreon for my members! Below will be a portion of the chapter if you're interested, and the prologue and chapters 1-7 are free to read on my patreon.

This novel is a labor of love, and one of my dreams. I don't need to make money or get famous, just release the world's and stories I've created and get better over time.

Chapter 8 and upcoming chapters will be exclusive to members for a short time, then they will be available to the public. You can support me by joining my Bound by Blood tier, which is only $3! Even if you only decide to support me briefly, during that time you'll get access to chapters of this novel and my other works before the public, private communities, exclusive content and behind the scenes content, polls that will influence smaller things, and more!

Any and all support is appreciated, even just reading or liking this post.

Read on below!

She pulled on the Drossenac blood as she peeked out of the alley again to look at a point a few paces to the right of the group, and was quickly sucked into the other place. She cleared her head, focusing. When she approached the rift that would spit her out, and her form seemed to solidify again, she dug her feet in, squatted to strengthen her stance, and willed herself not to be pulled out of this alien place.

She threw her three daggers in quick succession, and at the same time focused on the distorted image it showed her through the rift. She settled her gaze on a point to the left of the rift, right past the furthest guard. As the daggers flew into the first rift, she was pulled into a newly opened rift, and since she didn’t fight it this time she was deposited to the left of the men.

Luckily that had worked better than intended. Her foes had turned to the first rift, likely at the command of the specialist. They had done so just as she fell from her rift and dropped into a crouch.

As she appeared and landed, the light of her warping or some slight sound caused the specialist to whip around in surprise,and almost simultaneously, the daggers, one after another, flew from their rift. Two hit the guard closest to the rift, both digging into his chest deeply, while the other narrowly missed the specialist, heading towards her.

She leapt, assisted by the Khurdae blood, power coursing through her muscles, and snaked an arm around the neck of the other nearby soldier. He flailed in surprise, but she easily spun them around, into the path of the dagger.

It pierced his side, planting itself into his stomach. He hardly had the chance to scream as Ryanil pulled out her long dagger to thrust into his lower back several times. She let him drop to the floor afterwards, calmly wiping his garish scarlet blood off her dagger before sheathing it.

The last man was silent and still, watching her cautiously. He may have been able to help his comrades, but it wasn’t surprising that he hadn’t moved a single step from where he stood. He held his right brown furred hand up as his left pulled a water skin from his belt.

She tried to dive away as she realized what he was doing. Water exploded out of the skin, flowing to swirl around his right hand. In the blink of an eye he had snapped his hand forward as though he held a whip, and a tendril erupted from the water, arcing through the air.

She hit the ground and was about to go into a roll as she felt the tendril of water curl around her right leg with crushing force. She knew what was to come. It was even more ironic to her in her already tired state, as he used Sesinae blood to combat her, with her being a Sesinae who essentially couldn’t manipulate a drop of water worth a damn.

That was all the time she had to muse about the irony of it before she was pulled away from the cool bricks of the street, only to be slapped against the ground a moment later. She groaned and was pulled up again, before being whipped away and let go by the tendril. She sailed through the air gracelessly for a brief moment she flailed, then her back met the trunk of a tree, driving the breath from her.

She slumped to the ground for a moment, dazed. The man, fangs bared and eyes dark, stalked forward slowly, carefully. Ryanil had her eyes closed, one hand touching the tree she leaned against, the hand just out of view of the man. She just hoped he wouldn’t notice until it was too late.

Her eyes shot open, and she drew on the well of Osin power within her. Three thick roots burst from the street, sending bricks flying. The man was too fast however, the roots converging on empty space as he leapt away with frightening speed.

Ryanil pushed herself up with a groan, getting even more annoyed when she noticed the roots withering quickly. Drops of water bled from them oddly, streaming towards the Khurdae’s hands. Within moments he had significantly more water than he began with.

Alright, maybe we don’t use Osin powers against this bastard. She thought.

Ryanil didn’t dare take the time to try and drink more blood, so all she had was warping, thick scales and a dagger. Maybe it would be enough? She shook her head to clear it and dashed forward.

Only to immediately be met by multiple tendrils of water, which promptly swept her off her feet and into the air. She pulled on the Drossenac blood and focused on a spot just behind the man. It was a valuable thing, being able to slip out of attacks.

She leapt out of the vortex a heartbeat later and straight into a tackle. He managed to turn towards her, but nothing more as she hit him, the extra weight of her armored scales letting her knock the heavier and larger man off his feet. He quickly got a foot under her, flat against her stomach.

He pushed with surprising force, and she was thrown from him, landing flat on her back a ways away. She was getting awfully sick of getting thrown around by this over confident blood mage. She looked up and cursed, rolling to the side and leaping into a dash as a bolt of fire struck the ground where she had been.

He sent two more bolts of scorching flame towards her after the first, giving her no respite. One grazed her, singeing her cloak and blackening the scales of her right arm. The second, unfortunately, hit her dead on.

She was thrown sideways and to the ground again. This wasn’t working. She hissed as the pain set in, the scales of her entire chest blackened by the flame. While the thicker scales had protected her in a sense, she could still feel the flesh underneath blistering and cracking.

She struggled to get up, each movement sending waves of pain across her chest, and she watched as he raised his flame engulfed hands towards her. She slammed a palm down to the bricks, sending green energy into the earth.

Hundreds of tiny plants and blades of grass shot up through the cracks of the street, growing quickly. They twisted and knotted themselves around the man’s legs, though otherwise they were harmless. He looked down in annoyance before sending out sweeping waves of fire, the plants turning to ash against the onslaught.

[beaulesbian]

Thoughts and more thoughts about the potential of Rob Lucci after chapter 1111 - spoilers and theory

(disclaimer: this might be totally implausible and not at all what could happen, but it's something that's been on my mind since last chapter, so here are my thoughts on this. again, very long post ahead, I don't know how it keeps happening)

The way Oda allowed Lucci to feel during chapter 1111, is something I didn't expect to find so intriguing, and it points to how much depth really has each character in this story.

There is a subtle change of certain aspects of Rob Lucci's personality since the start of Egghead, and in the chapter 1111 even a bigger focus is on his reaction to meeting Mars Gorosei and asking for Kaku to be spared.

Given this swept away answer with seeing whom he's been serving all this time, there could come a realization that'd sort of wake him up. There's a potential to somewhat turn power of Cipher Pol agents from blindlessly following the World Government. To stop being the WG's shield.

It's very probable the story might deal with the reform or even collapse as a whole of the World Government - especially since the Gorosei are currently Luffy's main enemies. With that, the Cipher Poll intelligence could play a significant part of it as well, along with other moving pieces like the Revolutionary Army, Shanks, Luffy's fleet or even Morgans and his newspapers, and, of course, the Strawhats.

There's been comments of readers who only saw Lucci and Zoro's fight as one dimensional - one has to win, the other has to lose, and comparing points and skills without really diving into their respective characters - thankfully Oda knows those characters and knows how to make the story interesting and compelling. Where before I hoped we would get a follow up about the words directed at Zoro, instead Lucci was given more space for this chapter.

Where one would hope for Zoro to win and move to other parts of the island with the Strawhats, we instead stayed with Lucci and him witnessing Mars in his full on demon form - something that even Lucci was shocked to see.

Those two pages were such incredible moments for Lucci as a character who serves fully the Gorosei and the World Government in first place, yet! Yet! In the last part he's on the page, he's allowed and shown to be worried and caring for someone else than himself- after arcs and arcs where he appeared here and there just carrying out on orders and missions without seemingly caring about anyone to much depth before, he's given space to actually express the concern regarding Kaku.

Of course he's still this same of bloodthirsty killer, just like in Enies Lobby, (ch. 382),

both his immediate fight upon seeing Luffy on Egghead, and later against Zoro paints it clear what he's capable of.

Rob Lucci is regarded as one of the strongest assassin's in the Cipher Pol agency CP9 (and later with higher rank of CP0). Just reading his wikia to remember more moments, the section about his personality is mostly compiled of traits like cold-hearted, agressive, and especially taking the Wold Governments meaning of Justice into brutal heights, thinking all is allowed to accomplish his goals/missions/orders.

There's his past and how he has been trained by WG to do as they told him, or even go to length which he wasn't even ask to do, but knowing his position as assassin he did as he wanted.

By the end of Water 7 and leaving to Enies Lobby, where he preteded to be friends with Iceberg, Paulie and other shipwrights for 5 years, he didn't show any regrets leaving the place (contrary to Kaku, who seemed to really enjoy his work as shipwright and is sometimes shown really excited about new places and such)

Up until the chapter 1111 I mostly took him as someone really dutiful to follow orders through and through and not gave it much more thought beside that, but it's true that this already started to shift around chapter 1062, when we see Lucci, Kaku and Stussy on their way to Egghead Island:

"They want us to eliminate the most useful man in the world..."

"The last thing a man as keenly perceptive as you should be doing is looking for answers." (says Stussy, a double agent working for Vegapunk, lol).

I wouldn't call it distrust in WG, yet. At this point he was still adamant about following the mission to kill Vegapunk. But maybe it's more visible that he's thinking more about such orders and their consequences.

He fights Luffy immediately after setting foot on Egghead, calls it as it is in wanting to defeat Luffy and destroy his whole crew without any pretense (and maybe that honesty was why Luffy took his word for their brief cooperation in fighting Seraphim). ch. 1076

He says this honestly, yet after the Strawhats and Vegapunks are healing later on, Lucci still tries to attack Vegapunk, ch.1091

Once knowing Kizaru appeared too, Lucci returnes back to finish his mission, he strikes at Vegapunk again - unsuccessfuly because Stussy takes that attack, and Zoro pushes him from the lab and then keep him occupied until the latest chapter 1111.

And that is a big part of him, eyes always on the mission - get information to his bosses, to Navy/Saturn/Gorosei/Kizaru, and keep his enemies occupied or better yet - dead. This thinking was always present with him to this point in ch. 1111, and that is from where it could lead to even more nuance in his future decisions:

The first time seeing Mars in his demon form there's that blink-and-you-miss it expression of pure horror, hinting that even the highest ranking agents probably had no idea just what the true nature of the Gorosei looks like, and that a sight like that can pull this expression from Lucci:

After that brief shocked state, he goes back to immediately report all informations he has on Vegapunks, Strawhats, even their plan of escape, as well as mentioning the other Cipher Pol agents, trapped in the Lab:

then there's this panel, "well done. no further questions.":

which reminded me of very similar words Lucci said to Robin in Water 7, ch. 348: "you've fulfilled your role. good work."

Maybe it's not intended as parallel, but just that similarity of something he's been clearly hearing from his higher ups, that he added it to his own vocabulary.

But then there's this more surprising part of ch. 1111:

After his shock of seeing that monster in front of him, and after giving Mars all the informations, he still finds the strength to ask him to spare his partner's life, to save Kaku:

What he gets as an answer is along the lines of: "it might be difficult when everyone to us is like ants" and that's the last of Rob Lucci for this chapter.

Mars seem to share this same thinking like Saturn expressed before, while the navy guy heard that even the life of an CP0 agents isn't something Saturn (and Gorosei) would really be troubled over, if lost.

and hearing that from Mars could be an eyeopening moment for Lucci.

They're assassins and an intelligence agency of almost the highest standing among the World Governement, but even the lives of Kaku and such seem to mean nothing to the Gorosei.

The point of the current anime episode 1098 where Lucci & CP0 were just arriving on Egghead reminded me how he was asking Vegapunk about the missing Cipher Pol agents and their disappearances, ch. 1068:

It's not that he was only concerned about Kaku in the latest chapter, but since the end of Water 7 - and seeing how his crew cared for him to pay for his medical bills (cover story chapters 491 - 528, manga only, which is very interesting that the anime didn't adapt that cover story), I think he started to care more about "his own people" - the Cipher Pol agents in general - even to visit to their "hometown" while he was healing and defended that place (and the new young trainees) from the Marines who were sent to attack CP9 after their failure at Enies Lobby:

So the question is.. once Lucci saw just who he was serving all those years, the World Government and the Gorosei - and now seeing Mars in his bird monster form disregarding any care for any lives, even their own agents - will that be a tipping point for him?

He asked Mars to spare Kaku but got an answer that all of them, Cipher Pol agents even on the highest places, are still the same as insects in the eyes of the Gorosei

Could that be something that will help him make a certain change?

My possible theory of what he might do/what might happen (given that he still has the strength to walk after his fight with Zoro):

Find Kaku himself - he was trapped in the bubble like the other Seraphim - we don't know if anyone else un-trapped him in the meantime, and Lucci himself doesn't know about the bubble prison, given his flashback to Kaku is just him laying down, as he last remembers that from the Lab.

Sanji said to Kaku that Lucci abandoned him - something that Lucci kept taunting Zoro with during their fight - about the inability to sacrifice one from their team for the greater good. (It could mean that Kaku either wouldn't count on Lucci coming back, but it would work even better if it was shown Lucci actually coming back for Kaku

and they could go finish their side mission of rescuing the other Cipher Pol agents -

and that's another thing -

even during that brief panel of their rescue -they were thankful to Luffy! Despite their positions of agents of Government, which puts them always directly opposing pirates/Strawhats/Luffy, they appreciated and thanked Luffy for giving them food and saving them, ch. 1090

This together I feel could become a moment of all these agents realizing that Luffy isn't their real enemy - or wake up from their WG brainwashed thinking once they see just who is outside fighting: Gorosei in their monster forms vs. Luffy

I think that Rob Lucci stands there now as one of the few who could sway the Governments power to a tipping point from the inside.

Not precisely helping Luffy or Strawhats, but taking that power of the intelligence agency away from the WG and Marines.

It was shown in multiple pages how the Gorosei care more about the rank and position than any lives of their trained assassins, and think of them as something to be disgarded left and right.

Their intelligence agency and assassins act as a Shield to the WG, and the CP0 even carries that in their name: AEGIS, (a powerful shield from greek mythology).

If the other agents would follow Lucci in a different direction, he could be the one to take away that shield from the Gorosei, uncover one of the layers that act as their security, leaving them more exposed and vulnerable to future attacks (possibly from people like Dragon and Revolutionary army when the time comes for them to strike).

[sarahjtv]

My Hero Academia: Chapter 424 Spoiler Thoughts:

MHA is finally back from break and we have a calm after the storm chapter. Let me put my thought on Tumblr for a bit:

So, let's get this out of the way: Tomura Shigaraki/Tenko Shimura is dead. Like, DEAD, dead. Unless Kohei Horikoshi pulls the rug under us, I think he's made it clear that Tenko's not coming back. Those last 2 pages were it for his conclusion. He did add one more panel of Shiggy and some dialogue from Deku to say that maybe Deku really did "save" Tenko, but that's all we got. I'm still unsure how to feel about this, but I appreciate Horikoshi giving Tenko a bit more of a conclusion after the last chapter. But, the story isn't over yet, so we'll see if he's mentioned again.

Bakugo's parts were the best parts of this chapter. I'm glad to see him alive and well after everything (I highly doubt Horikoshi would keep him dead again anyway) and that his parents are there for him (Mitsuki yelling at him was funny ngl). Sucks that his right arm will never fully recover, but maybe that rehab will help him get to a good enough place. Also, his moments with Deku and All Might were incredibly sweet and a great conclusion to their little storyline. Seeing Bakugo genuinely tear up and look back on his and Deku's relationship throughout the years honestly moved me because it shows how far this young man has come (the artwork on his face is so good btw; Horikoshi has always been great at expressions in particular). Katsuki Bakugo's character development is one of my favorites in the series and he deserves #1 in every character poll he gets.

EDIT: OH, BAKUGO'S CRYING OVER DEKU BEING QUIRKLESS AGAIN AFTER THE EMBERS BURN OUT ONE DAY I'M GOING TO FUCKING CRY WHAT THE FUCK 😭

Deku continues to be Deku till the very end. I loved Izuku nerding out about how he gets to share a hospital room with All Might because of course he would. It's also nice to hear that A.) All Might reassures Deku that even though he doesn't feel like he saved Tenko because Tenko died, he still might have in the end and B.) Deku still has the embers of One For All which doesn't make him Quirkless. I assume this means that Deku is basically back at the start when he first got OFA. I'm sure his strength is still there at least, but it's probably not nearly as powerful as it was in the final battle.

Also, Deku's haircut 😭! I know they had to do it because it got messed up in the final battle and surgery, but please let his hair grow again before the manga ends, Horikoshi! I want his cute, bushy green hair back! There's also a scar on his right cheek covering his cute freckles I can't. His eyeball popping out of his socket when he sees Kacchan cry was hilarious, though 😂

All Might also telling Deku and Bakugo that they're the greatest heroes to him and everyone else is a really nice full circle on their initial dreams when the story started.

And then there are the two panels we get of Shoto and Ochako. I assume we'll touch on their epilogues next chapter, but I'm curious how they're doing because Ochako looks solemn and we don't even see Shoto's face because his back is turned to us in a dark light. I bet they're reflecting on what happened to Toga and Dabi respectively. We're still not sure if either of them really died, so it's a coin flip as to whether they did or not. There's also Shoto's whole family situation that needs tying up which is a whole other can of worms. I really hope this gets covered in the next chapter.

Finally, we see Deku and the others returning to UA which is currently being rebuilt. I'm guessing we'll see how everyone else is doing post-war too either in the next chapter or later. While we need to cover the main 4 (Izuku, Bakugo, Shoto, and Ochako), we also need to see how everyone else is doing because they weren't the only ones affected by the war. Everyone has battle scars of some kind.

And while the chapter is called "Epilogue", it's not over yet. We clearly have more story to cover and bows to tie as neatly as possible. Horikoshi can't please everyone (no one can, really), but I can tell that he's doing his best and that he still genuinely cares about his story after nearly 10 years. I'd say we have the rest of June at least and the end of summer at most until MHA finally ends. This was a really nice "wrap-up" chapter and we have more to go until the end. Despite its flaws, My Hero Academia is still peak fiction to me and some of the parts in this chapter cement that. It will always have a special place in my heart. I will be sad to see this series go, but I will be there until the end.

EDIT: I just saw Horikoshi's comment this week and it basically confirms that we have more story to come. He doesn't say how many chapter but he says "I'll keep going for a little while" and that we're returning to school life; the "Academia" part of the story. I'm really glad he's not rushing the conclusion because there's a lot of stories and characters to give finales to. I'm also really curious to see how school life is post-war, so I'm glad that'll be explored.

[swampstew]

KillerCook Chapter 10

Welcome to Raven’s Reading Nook - a small corner of this blog dedicated to cozy story times. Join us in the family room as we sit around and browse our phones, and eat some Girl Scout cookies as we begin tonight’s story. Rated Mature for language. Minors DNI

“Almost ready guys?”

Affirmative voices responded to Killer as he tied his apron around his waist, preparing to go live. Wire adjusted the overhead camera mount for angles and fluid movement while Heat used his laptop to monitor and assist with the show’s channel.

“Last run down: we go live, I do my bit, the ingredients are presented, the rest of the crew helps mix, assemble, and decorate, we call in Kid and we start the party. Did I miss anything?”

Blank stares looked back at him, not answering until—

“Where’s your helmet Killer?” Dive pointed to his bare face.

“OH SHIT!”

A light knocking came from the kitchen door and Killer jumped, “NO ONE COME IN HERE! ITS FORBIDDEN!”

Silence took over as the person on the other side of the door didn’t answer or knock again. Instead, something was pressed against the wooden door, and multiple feet could be heard scurrying through the hall and away from the kitchen.

“Who else is in the house?” Killer asked after he quickly counted his crew.

“Distractions for the Boss,” Wire flashed him a thumbs up.

“…Which one of you invited the Straw Hats?”

“Killer its time!” Heat called out a minute before the hour.

“Shit, where’s my helmet?!”

Pomp was closest to the door and cracked it open before fully opening to bring in a box sitting on the floor. Inside, Killer’s helmet. A note attached to the front that read:

Sorry we took it. Wanted to see what it looked like with my hat. Jaggy already hit me and the lady in pink said to apologize. Save me some dessert please. Monkey D. Luffy

“I-whatever. As long as it doesn’t smell weird,” Killer grumbled, tossing the note in the trashcan.

Wire led the countdown, “Going Live in 3, 2, 1,” he mouthed the final number and pointed his finger at the chef to begin.

“Hey everyone! KillerCook here with a special announcement. It’s my #1 taste tester’s birthday! So today me and the crew are working together to make awesome desserts for the man who eats anything and everything!”

The crew walked through the camera’s focus as Killer introduced each one to the audience.

“Everyone is contributing, no spice or egg will be added by the same person as we all work together, quite possibly in peaceful harmony, to make this day as great as possible. As always, the recipes will be pinned to the top for anyone wanting to try it out at home. Keep the tags and stitches coming, I love seeing you all try these dishes and putting your own flair on them!”

Directing the procession with the crew, Killer had them walk in and out of the camera frame showcasing each ingredient as if it were a game show presenting the prizes to be won.

“We’re throwing the Captain a party so we need to make enough desserts for everyone AND him. Now Kid isn’t the type of guy who sticks to most traditions, just a few that he holds close to the heart. Birthday cakes he can go either way. To make things interesting, we’re not doing just One Cake. We’re going to make 3 desserts, and hopefully still have enough to satisfy everyone’s appetite and not leave ANY leftovers.”

Pulling out his tablet device, Killer showed the screen to his followers to share the desserts in mind. The sound of notifications pinging indicated that the poll was popping off. Heat gave Killer an enthusiastic whisper shout and lowered the background music so the audience could hear Killer better.

“I’m hearing a debate has broken out on whether or not two of the desserts are the same. Well kind of yes and no. Choux pastry technically is the branch family that makes both Profiteroles and Cream Puffs, HOWEVER – the difference is the filling, one uses custard and the other uses whipped cream and fruit. So technically different. Yes, I agree that a Chocolate Trifle is the clear ‘birthday cake’ replacement, but like I said, we need enough for everyone and Kid doesn’t love sharing.”

Killer motioned for Gig and UK to bring a massive serving dish into the camera’s focus.

“This is why we had to custom order this bad boy!” using a rag from his apron pocket, Killer wiped some fingerprints from the side of the bowl. “This is a pure crystal trifle bowl that can hold enough servings for 4 Kids! So I think we’ll be good. We’ll assemble the layers last to let the pudding and whipped cream chill for serving.”

The two men brought the bowl to a different area and out of the way as Killer brought out the first group of bakers.

“This is the Trifle Squad. Get to position,” the group composed of Reck, Dive, Jaguar, Pomp, and House moved towards the counter space nearest to the fridge. They began grabbing their ingredients and tools to begin baking when given the sign.

“This is the Cherry Squad, they have the fun bonus of mashing the cherries for our glaze outside. Speaking of, you can go do that now,” Killer pointed off camera. Mosh, Boogie, Quincy, Compo, and Disc J marched to their designation.

“Can’t forget about the [redacted] squad. And if you’ve been wondering about the recent use of censorship lately, well to be honest it’s all on you guys. There’s been an addendum to the social media contract that says we can’t say certain words or risk getting banned. So keep it PG-17!”

Haikei, Emma, Moai, Hop, and Papas made their way to the kitchen island with their respective mixing bowls and ingredients. That left only a few members of the official crew left.

“And last but certainly not least, the Rough Runners. Unlike the name implies, they will be our kitchen coordinators that clean dishes, bring us ingredients or tools we need to each other and from anywhere we keep them. Step up guys,” Killer motioned for the last members to come forward.

Hip, Oscar, Noe, UK, Gig, and Bubblegum stood in a line from descending order as they waved to the camera.

“Bubblegum and Gig also act as bouncers and security on the side and will also be the enforcers tonight as our parties tend to uh, get a little crazy,” Killer waved to the other tallest members of the crew that weren’t Wire.

“With the help of some local friends, the party is being set up in the backyard while we prepare the desserts for the birthday brute. Ideally, we all work in harmony to make the desserts at once. If we can manage that, well let’s just say there’s an underground betting pool that this is all riding on.”

The crew laughed as Killer joined them with his pastry hat adjusted on his helmet. Heat turned up the music playlist and Wire took over directing the live show so the chef could focus all his energy in his kitchen. Every crewmate had their moment of camera time as Wire woved between the bakers, the glazers, the runners, and Heat who entertained the community chatters as he ran polls and answered the text channel to keep the audience engaged.

As Killer prepared the doughs for baking, his commis chefs worked in their respective sections to make the glaze, whipped cream, chocolate sauce, bake the brownies, crush the No-reos, and do everything in between. Any time the groups found themselves with a few minutes to spare, they would huddle around Heat and talk to the audience as Wire filmed it.

“—And that’s cool and all but I wouldn’t mind becoming a tattoo artist, in fact I already do dotwork style but most people prefer other methods so no reason to stay in one lane,” Emma finished the rest of her water and handed the glass to Oscar. He threw her a dirty look before going to the sink.

“User_x58469: is directing this question to Papas: ‘are the tinted sunglasses indoors a statement’?”

“Yeah it’s a statement. A statement that says I need prescription glasses and I have style. [Redacted] off, I’ve got work ta do,” he grumbled, pulling his hoodie over his head and walked to the kitchen.

“He’s sensitive about his eyesight,” Heat tutted at the chat.

“And I’m sensitive about lingerers,” Killer loomed over the sizable group that had crowded around Heat and Wire. “It’s time to do the decorating, give me my show back!”

As the crewmembers ran to their stations, Killer tsked at his technical assistants before taking command of the camera once more.

“We’re in the last stretch! Now we get to the fun part, filling and putting together the layers. For the trifle, we’ll be taking turns layering the cooled pudding and whipped cream, the chopped up brownies, crushed no-reos, and chocolate shavings in the crystal bowl. We’ll also be filling the profiteroles with vanilla custard and drizzling the chocolate sauce on top once all the dough balls are filled. At the same time, we’ll be cutting the other half of the dough balls in half so we can layer the black cherry whipped cream between the two halves and top it off with some powdered sugar and a generous drizzle of black cherry glaze.”

Killer looked at his watch, “We’re making such great time that we’ll actually be done at the time the party starts which is just perfect. I have time for a few questions before I get back to supervising and layering.

“FreeBritney_MS: wants to know how difficult is chiox pastry, and if you need to be an advanced baker to attempt it.”

“Oh this is a myth! Its considered an advanced form of bakery but really all you need is patience and creativity. Most people fail between making the dough just right, or in the double baking process. Common mistakes I see are undercooking the dough, or having the structure fall when baking is done. I would advise working slow to see what your dough needs from you in order to bake exactly what you want. Don’t forget to poke a hole before the second bake, otherwise the inside won’t fully cook and get that flaky crispness its known for.”

Before long, the kitchen was relatively quiet as the music flowed and the crew took their time meticulously decorating each dessert. When they were done, they had created 300 pastries and probably the world’s biggest trifle.

“Without further ado, let’s bring in the man of the hour for his taste testing.”

Killer pressed the button under the counter to signal for Kid to come in. With a final grating of chocolate shavings on the trifle and making sure the sauces and glazes dripped in droolworthy fashion, he pushed a plate of desserts from the main bounty forward and motioned for the crew to move around to still be in the camera’s wide frame shot.

Everyone waited in anticipation as the thudding sound of boots echoed from the hallway. The door was pushed open, revealing a behemoth wearing an outfit fit for the King of Punks.

Kid was dripped out in black, ripped jeans with a mesh tank top that was partially covered by his beloved patched jacket. It had all his favorite bands, his own jolly rogers, and other inside jokes patched on the black dyed denim and spikes that ran down the collar and shoulders. At his waist, a checkered plaid half kilt that shrouded his legs but did not take away from his steel toed Doc Martens. His tufted hair was styled extra pointed, and his signature goggles were gone, in their place a simple paisley bandana keeping his long locks from his face.

Instead of his usual black guyliner, Kid had opted for a dramatic wing effect and complemented the look with a smoked red color that made his eyes glow. He had gone a little heavy on the highlighter dusted across his cheekbones and tip of his nose, but his red lipstick was immaculate as always. His golden piercings shone as if a hundred camera flashes were going off at his every movement.

The pièce de résistance was the massive wreath that rested against chest.

Massive whirls of meringue were piped together side by side to create the wreathe, and inside each of the piped nest shapes, there were tufts of meringue piped inside and on the outer rim of the nest to create a thick chain of meringue gears. The inner circle of the wreath was reinforced with solid layers of meringue to keep the shape stable, and in those flat surfaces, diluted food coloring had been used to paint a watercolor like design. The design looked vaguely like an eastern red dragon encircling the wreath itself. The gears were sprinkled with splashes of silver food coloring and edible gold leaf flakes placed on the outer rims.

A smirk was plastered on Kid’s face as he gently lifted the wreath from his chest, “Jealous of my bling?”

“Wh-what is it?” Dive asked.

Killer walked up to the birthday boy and lightly tapped his finger to the wreath, “It smells and looks like it’s made of meringue.”

“Damn straight it is. Gonna eat it later.”

“Oh that’s really cool, look at the detail,” Wire ran his fingers on the wreath for the camera and pressed too hard on one of the gears causing it to crackle and dent.

“WATCH IT! You break my wreath and I break your face,” Kid snapped, stepping past the curious hands to stand in front of the island countertop.

“It’s sturdy enough which means an expert made this,” Killer scoffed, “It’ll stay together assuming you don’t punch it or tug it.”

“Yeah yeah, what’d you make for me?”

“Excuuuuusssseeee me, Captain,” the chef regained his posture. “Made you this. Happy [redacted] birthday!” he flippantly pointed at the desserts.

“What’re you bitchy about?”

“I thought I was making your birthday dessert.”

“This isn’t dessert, Kill. It’s a tasty treat, from a tasty treat. Drop the dramatics.”

Like a switch had been flipped, Killer straightened his hat and cleared his throat, looking at the camera to continue his script.

“Aye aye Captain,” he said only a little sarcastically. “We present you with profiteroles, cherry cream puffs, and a chocolate trifle. We put together ‘specially for you.”

“Happy birthday captain!” the crew began cheering in the background as Kid smiled and nodded his head at them. He popped a profiterole in his mouth first.

“Oh damn that’s so good! I thought it was going to be cakier but the way it just crumbled and the custard to pastry ratio is just perfect!”

Killer nodded in approval as the others whooped.

Grabbing a napkin in his metal hand, Kid carefully ate the cherry cream puff, careful to not let it drip on his clothes. “I never knew cherry could taste this [redacted] good! The glaze has a tarty aftertaste but it hits so well after the whipped cream and pastry goes down. I really like those, make sure I get more of those.”

“Aye aye,” Killer went to section off a generous portion.

Balancing his mini dessert bowl in his hand, Kid took a precarious bite before a pleased smile spread across his face, “I really thought this would be too sweet but [redacted] [redacted] if that isn’t the best chocolate dessert I’ve ever had. The pudding and whipped cream layers are so light that its easy to just gobble this up. The brownie and no-reos go well with that sweet and salty balance, and just all together like this, I already said it but I’ll say it again, the BEST chocolate dessert, maybe in the history of ever. Great [redacted] job everyone!”

The crew swarmed Kid to individually wish him a happy birthday before the camera could get a clear shot of the Captain again. When they moved to the background and out of the frame, Kid grabbed Killer in a delicate hug that didn’t crush the sugary wreath.

“Thank you brother, it means a lot to me you went through this effort to make me something. You always do but it never ceases to amaze me.”

“Anytime little brother. We’ll always have your back, ride or die for life, we’re the Kid Pirates!”

The sound of howling and whistling overtook the music as the crew cheered for their nakama. They began tossing balloons around the kitchen and Killer took of his chef hat to replace it with a party hat. Suddenly, the sound of a young man’s voice cut through all the yelling.

“IS IT TIME FOR THE CAKE?!”

“Looks like we’re outta time! See you next time when I teach you all how to tackle the dreaded croissant. It’s not that hard, and like everything else I make, slays. This has been Faffaffaffa-Food with Killer.”

Live has ended.

Bonus: The comment section

Prop0$aline: How does a guy get a dessert order like that for my birthday? Asking for me. KillerCook: For a limited time only, I’ll be selling baked goods online! Scream_Maim_Fire: Siiiike, most state laws prohibit the sale of consumable goods. If you drive here that’s a different story. KillerCook: Please do not drive here. CabinHo3: From the bottom of all our hearts, happy birthday Captain!!! PunkNeverDied69: Thanks <3 Iwannabe_wherethepirates_arr: When is recruitment open??? FlamingHot420: Ehh…to be determined. Working on some…roadblocks at the moment.

Read on Wattpad | Read on AO3

[provedlovelessindeath]

Welcome to Proved Loveless in Death

An Interactive Tumblr Poll game where you choose who's your favorite... and who dies <3

Basic Idea: You are the poor victim of the Court of Fey, targeted with a spell called 'Rose Tint' that makes you able to see choices and decide on what path fate will take in the name of madness and love.

I'll post snippets of backstory and character designs and then write chapters of the story with a poll in the end of updates every once in a while, having votes for how things will proceed. Scuffles and ultimatums, life and death. You've made quite a lot of boys devoted to you throughout your life. Now, years later, see how far the fay's corruption and lovesickness twists their actions through this game.

TW for horror with gore, maiming, psychological abuse, gaslighting, and dub/noncon.

You are trapped having to see the sweet memories and friendships you shared turn into red splatters of blood. The versions of them you remembered, marred forever by how sick and twisted they became as soon as your friends realized this was a competition. You are the prize.

Whoever comes out of it will be your fated lover, and own your heart whole-y (along with getting some compensation from the Fey for the good show of course).

Choose wisely.

Short Profiles and Concept Art of the Friends You've Gathered Throughout the Years:

Cassius (5-10): Violent, protective, entitled.

You were next door neighbors as kids. He played pranks on you at first but would get mad at others and hit them if they tried to do the same. Although you thought he hated you because of how mean he was sometimes, he would not stop hanging around you instead of going home.

After you heard yelling and shattering from his home, you'd let him slip inside your house in secret too. You really became his security blanket, and he eased up on the teasing. But he'd be mean again if you ever tried partnering with anyone other than him.

When you had to move, he bullied you into promising you'd marry him. You eventually relented as you saw him cry for the first time. He's taken this oath way too much to heart and has been doing his best to become someone reliable and strong for you.

Even years later, he can't stay interested in anyone because of how strongly he clings to the fantasy of you. That his goal has only ever been to become someone you could be proud of. He feels like it's a betrayal to let you go.

So he starts chasing after your trail.

Ami (10-13): Girly, manipulative, spoiled.

You came to his school as he was getting retribution for bullying his classmates. He had been snide, unsympathetic, and cruel to them, toying with everyone's emotions. Finally, his classmates snapped, and he found out how powerless he could be against a mod. He started getting bullied himself. He had been so sure the adults would help, but there was no response from his teachers, and his parents never noticed. He felt alone for the first time in his life.

He was at his lowest, accepting his fate, and you saved him without having context to the full story. You became his his knight in shining armor; the person that proved to him again that he had value. He clung to you.

With new resolve, he rebuilt himself. He regained his confidence, and began living two-facedly, as he promised himself you'd never know about his mean side. He kept finding ways to shut anyone who tried talking to you about his past... then, because of his overzealousness, he threatened ANYONE who even tried befriending you too.

He couldn't trust them with you. You were *his*friend; his person to play with, spoil and adore... Up until you had to move far away. Again.

He was distraught and tried so hard to convince you to run away, to hide in his house. He'd take care of you! Of course, you couldn't. It was just a dumb, kiddish fantasy. But even now, years later, as his life went on without you, he keeps revisiting the possibility whenever he misses you.

He's made an enemy out of everyone. No one else has treated him as kindly and as sincerely as you. No one is meant for him like you are. He can't let you go.

He just can't.

Ragnar (13-16): Depressed, asocial, cold.

His mom passed away and his dad moved them to another state. He fell into a deep depression and started having bad, bad thoughts. You were both new to school.

You clung to him because of this; after relying so much on only Ami previously, you were so unsure of how to make friends again that you were terrified. Ragnar was initially disgusted being smothered with attention, he just wanted to be left alone and not care about anything. It was sad, but your classmates started seeing you both in negative ways, and it furthered a divide between you both and them. All the more reason for him him to feel overwhelmed by you. You and your manner of being probing, kind, funny, and so... persistent. He thought he hated you.

But then you got sick and had to miss a few days of school. Getting his wish, being alone all school day and at home, Ragnar realized it was the opposite. He'd unfortunately gotten attached to you.

And he was looking forward to seeing you again.

When you came back, to your shock, he slowly started clinging back. e kept making up reasons as to why in his head. You came to him first anyways, so this much attention was fine, right? And... making sure you weren't be allowed to get close to anyone else was also okay... because it's not like anyone would be able to understand you the way he does.

He began monopolizing you. Everyone in the school was such a fake, you needed someone loyal to look out for you. That could only be him. He was always by your side, ready to give you anything and to keep everyone away. Slipping up on his undiscovered true emotions and telling you at random sometimes, poetic stuff about how much you mean to him and how you two were made to make each other happy.

He was always sweet to you.

When you told him you had to move again, he took it really hard, as if you were the one deciding to leave him. You'd made him want to live again and just took that hope away. He became cold and detached the following weeks, it made you both depressed up until your last day when he was finally to the point of breaking down. He ran to your house, knocked, and hugged you tightly, crying. He didn't say anything as he handed you an envelope and ran away. It said 'Don’t open until we meet again.' You've been obedient.

He knows it's stupid but... he still clings to you as the light in his life that he needs to get back. His life is yours, and yours is his.

Varrik (16-18): Top student, smart, diligent.

You met him in the later years of highschool as all the pressure put on him being on top was beginning to make him break his charming persona. After moving so much, you'd become tired of trying to keep friendships and were settling into being a loner. But, you caught him having an anxiety attack in an empty classroom and helped calm him down.

Because you were new, Varrik let his guard down and felt like he could open up for the first time in years. You didn’t have a preconceived idea of him. You didn't care. It was freeing. After he was done, you tried giving him reassurance, but he lied about being busy and fled the room. Embarassment caught up to him, but when nothing came of his vent session, he started to relax again.

And the prospect of talking to you started to excite him. Ever since, he'd keep an eye on you, and sometimes, when he caught you alone afterschool, he'd linger just a bit around you, hoping you'd find some reason to talk to him. You fell right into your curiosity everytime and would ask him how he felt. Getting to talk to you in private like that would make his day.

It meant the world to him to be able to have someone understand him. In return, he realized your grades could be better and decided for himself to help you by hosting a lot of study (date) sessions. Also in private.

He knew how much of a loner you were, and that talking to him during school could open you up to other friendships... but he liked things as they were already. You were always available and a little expectant about you activities with him. It was cute.

He tried keeping your meetings a secret for thsoe years, but eventually, someone noticed. To combat this, he readily convinced them that he was set up by teachers to be your tutor in private because you had poor behavior that had to be monitored. He made a convincing story about the real reason you never socialized and always kept to yourself. No one doubted someone as reputable and kind as him.

He got his wish. No one else talked to you, and honestly, you couldn't be bothered to realize what had gone on. Now he never had to worry... but just to be safe, he started moving these (dates) sessions to other places. Like cafes, libraries, the park, his home... You were so close outside of school... even hanging out during the breaks. Giving gifts in secret. He was so happy... he wanted to stay that way.

Come senior year, he had a plan. He'd push you to go to the same, elite college as him. He really did his best to monopolize your time and energy into it with extra tutoring, volunteering, and scholarship hunting. He was picturing a future that HAD include you.

Finally, letters were sent and… You weren't accepted.

He was.

It broke his heart more than it did yours. He-He had to go, he couldn't just… not. His parents, his efforts, it'd all have been in vain otherwise. But he hated leaving you behind and felt wrecked with guilt. You did your best to console him. He pretended it worked.

As you waited with him in the airport, you thought about how what a weird twist of fate it was to be the one seeing their friend off now. You hugged him and reassured him you could meet up again sometime. But with how intense his program would be, you both know that was likely impossible. The last call for his flight rang and he had to let you go. You handed him one last gift before you left him. He opened it when he sat in his seat. It was a little keychain with a small photo of the both of you. He couldn't take his eye off it the whole ride.

He still has it, and stares at it when he needs to feel something again.

Ludovic (18-21): Domestic, dependable, protective.

Roomies assigned when both your actual roommates dipped at the last second.

Ludovic started off terrible. He was in a shitty friend group that he'd followed into college just to party. He thought you were a stick in the mud and would intentionally get on your nerves a lot. He was the worst during the first semester, and you planned to ditch him as soon as housing gave you the clear.

But, after staying late studying for semester finals, as you were going back to your dorm on your car, you saw Vic being dragged away by two people. As you get closer it looked shadier and shadier.

You stopped the car and told them you were his roommate. You tried to appear friendly as you told them you'd take him back to your shared dorm. They refused, until you recognized one of them (someone Vic had brought over before) and you called her name. That makes her nervous and their bravado broke. They loaded him in the passenger seat and walked away.

He was definitely, unusually out of it.

He was a mess as you drove back home. He puked on your car. And while going up the elevator. And in your room. You had to help him change and he finally he realized who you are. He started crying about how he knew he was a shitty person, and you didn't deserve putting up with him. He was really starting to blabber about how he knew his life was spiraling with his clique, but that he felt helpless. He had no motivation to change.

It made you pause your initial opinions of him and reevaluate him. You were up all night checking on him and thinking about it as he's passed out. You couldn't help doze off after a while... and woke up feeling like you were watched. You turned around and saw him looking at you. Really looking at you. He didn't say anything, and turned around in his bed. You thought he was embarrassed and let him be, going back to your slumber.

Things changed a lot after that. He dropped his friend group, he became a bit more serious about his degree, he cleaned up after himself and... he valued you a lot more.

He had an epiphany after going through that; that he had to make better life choices. He needed more dependable people around him. Like you. He really wanted to make it up to you. A year later, he has gotten very involved in your life.

Once a week, he'd treat you to something you like, walk you to your classes when possible, and inadvertently memorize your schedule, friends, preferences, quirks.

He'd go above and beyond for you, even taking up extra chores and learning to cook things you liked in the communal kitchen. You felt guilty, like you weren't worth all this attention, but he always told you honestly that he just wanted to work on himself. And part of that was by becoming a good roommate to you. That quelled most arguments.

He's still a bit of an asshole sometimes; he likes to tease you a lot because of your inexperience to a lot of things, but he's never mean. You can finally say you're fond of him, and even look up to him for helping you whenever you were in trouble.

Meanwhile, as time went on and he had more introspection, Vic comes to terms with knowing that.. he loves you. But he's afraid. He can't trust himself anymore. He can't trust his judgment on what's right and wrong. On if he's really a good person or just pretending to be so that he can stay close to you. Against better judgement, his thoughts and urges slip into fantasies that aren't... healthy. It's a vicious cycle that feeds into his guilt, wanting to make up for it by doing something special for you, you give him a compliment that gets to his head and makes him think of more. He can't help it.

Another year, and another. Everything is great. Stuff gets lost and he makes fun of you for it. You binge watch shows and always try to eat together. Other friends you make start to drift away, but he remains your constant.

He'd follow you anywhere... it gets so domestic, anyone would mistake you for a couple already! But unfortunately, that last line is never crossed...

It's time for you to graduate. Because of certain mistakes and a lack of concentration in his classes, he isn't able to join your year. This is it. He'd been spiraling over through all of your final semester. You were leaving him.

He helps you pack, hiding the dread he feels, like his life was slipping away. He had to say something, to confess... Or... did he? Could you do long distance? Would you consider waiting for an idiot like him, still stuck in school?

He didn't want to burden you... after everything was loaded into your car, you both wavered. He joked that this wouldn't be the last of him. Next time you need a roomie, he'll zip right over. You laughed and told him you'd take him in a heartbeat.

In a heartbeat.

You drive off and he's alone, trying to tell himself he can always sneak back into your life. He's gonna graduate. He'll go after you. And even if you're in a relationship, married, or just uninterested, he'll find a way to convince you you two were perfect, and he'd claim you.

He just has to wait.

Xander (21-24): Socially awkward, weakwilled, obsessive.

A tall, gawky, nerdy guy who joined the company you work at the same time as you.

Both of you were given the same assignments so you could help each other out. Xander was super flighty, nervous and stuttered a lot when you first met him, but with you were persistent. You'd take over the reigns when he couldn't, you gently tried making him feel comfortable when he was anxious, and you encouraged him when he did things right. You were a good, sweet coworker, and the man was starstruck, feeling blessed to even be in your presence when he was such a.. screw up.

The reason for Xander's awkwardness was attributed in part, because of his fearful and overbearing parents. He was home-schooled his whole life, kept to the house and taught schooling the 'proper' way. He was told meeting kids his age would only dumb him down, and yet, he felt like he was drowning under his parent's expectations anyways. He was never as good as they wanted.

Finally, he was allowed, at least, to escape to college. He was so nervous and excited. He tried so hard, too hard, to socialize... and found out very quickly that people did not like his ticks. The people in his class thought he was annoying, and he could never get the courage to talk to anyone outside of what was mandatory. Making friends was... too hard. He was hopeless without the tools to express himself well. In the end, he couldn't make any genuine connections up until he graduated.

His dreams of being happy were crushed. He was kicked from his parent's home and felt dread, believing work would be the same kind of hell in a different form.

How lucky he was, that you were there.

You, patient, kind, funny and cool. You, who seek him out even when you're not paired up, who wants to hang out with him for lunch, and doesn't shame him when he makes a social mistake. You're the first person he can call a friend. He's ecstatic and way too overeager... subtly, without realizing at first, he's even building a shrine to you in his head.

Which slowly became into an... actual shrine.

Obsessive. He can't help himself. Overanalyzing the things you talk about, looking for ways to feel closer to you, getting into all the things you're into so you can talk about it at work, stealing your lunch when no one is around and offering his own when you cant find it, soon even coincidentally moving somewhere closer and suggesting carpooling to save on gas. It's all pretty obvious if you weren't so trustful. It's not like anyone cares, no one bats an eye. Xander can get away with it all... for now. The long looks, the extra shifts, random (offerings) gifts in your desk and his constant, looming presence.

You're perfect. There is no one else in Xander's world but you.

[thestarishere]

Answers and explanations, MAJOR OVERALL SPOILERS FOR TTYD BELOW

1. One Character Has Boob Jiggle Physics

Status: TRUE

Explanation: Flurry is a character you meet in Chapter 2: The Great Boggly Tree after you find and return her necklace.

This is what she looks like

And her boobs bounce a little when she moves around

2. You Fight The Same Character Three Times as a Chapter Boss

Status: TRUE

Explanation: While running this poll I realized this is true twice, however I'll start with what I had in mind. So first of all, the character I had in mind about this was Lord Crump.

Crump has four total fights, once in the prologue, once as the chapter 2 boss, once as the chapter 5 boss (after Cortez so technically counts), and the chapter 7 boss

HOWEVER, I HAVE LEARNED THERE IS A SECOND ANSWER TO THIS QUESTION IN CHAPTER 4

Simply put? Doopliss.

Doopliss is fought 3 times in Chapter 4, once as the chapter boss fake out, (at least) once to force you to guess his name, and one last time as the ACTUAL chapter boss fight. I didn't realize he technically fit that criteria too so if you weren't tricked by that one for whatever reason between these two, congrats!

3. The Letter P is Stolen From Your Keyboard in a Story Segment

Status: TRUE

Explanation: There is a section in Chapter 4 after your first fight with a character named Doopliss, the thing is, you're not supposed to know his name yet because if you do, it would be a sequence break. To prevent breaking the game the letter P leaves your keyboard without warning and you have to go find it in the overworld

4. A Dragon Offers to Let you Smell her Feet

Status: TRUE

Explanation: I don't think I have to use words, I could just show you the screenshot where she says it

5. Princess Peach Gets Naked on Screen Twice

Status: TRUE

Explaination: Oh boy I knew this would catch people. So basically, there are two segments in the game where this happens. Once where Peach takes a shower (she is covered by the shower curtain but obviously she isn't showering with clothes on, she hangs up her dress over the bath), and another which... I'll be honest I find a little weirder.

Basically, Peach must drink an invisibility potion in order to hide herself for what is basically a stealth mission. HOWEVER, the potion does not make her clothes invisible so she steps off to the side a moment and takes off her clothes. She then walks through the X-Naut Fortress naked and invisible, steals that item, and then comes back, puts her clothes back on and makes herself visible again. Certainly... a moment to be certain

6. One Character is Secretly Revealed to be Wario

Status: FALSE

Explanation: Ok, it's entirely false but I have a story behind it. See, my favorite character in this game is Lord Crump and I often looked him up to see his wiki. Well, one of the top searches when I looked him up is "Lord Crump is Wario" and I was so confused by this I had to check. Turns out, it's a theory from someone on Reddit.

7. There is a Noose in Town Square of One Town

Status: TRUE

Explaination: I absolutely know anyone who picked this has never even looked at this game for more than 5 minutes because it's not only in the intro cutscene, BUT ALSO IN THE MAIN HUB TOWN

8. There are Two Rival Mafia Gangs in the Main Town

Status: TRUE

Explaination: There are two mafia gangs in Rogueport, one called the Pianta Syndicate that runs a casino in town, and their rival gang on the other side of town The Robbo Gang.

9. The Main Overall Villian Gets Decapitated on Screen

Status: TRUE

Explanation: At the end of the game when Grodus finally summons the Shadow Queen to do his bidding, she declines and its at that point where it is revealed that Grodus was lied to about her. In one last attempt to take control of her, she blasts his entire body and all that's left of him is his head (he's still alive too if I'm not mistaken)

10. At Least 2 People Break the 4th Wall, one is a Child, the Other an Antagonist

Status: TRUE

Explanation: There are two characters who break the 4th wall indeed! One of them is a child in Petalburg who if you talk to him will mention the games he's playing, one of these games is Paper Mario the Thousand Year Door, the game YOU'RE playing. The other is Lord Crump when he's disguised as a man named "Four-Eyes" in your ranks. The disguise is very obvious but apparently it fools Mario and the crew, and "Four-Eyes" takes a second to warn YOU THE PLAYER not to tip him off to his disguise.

Overview: I just want to thank everyone who answered this poll, it was for fun and I loved doing it

Which of these about TTYD isn't true? (For uh, new people but you can do it if you want, I'm not gonna tell you not to)

The answer will be in reblogs when the time is up

[cellsshapedlikestars]

Your stories & regency movies are my happy place currently in a world of awful. Also, so glad you're inspired to start into On the Run again because I love it! ALSO ALSO - another reality show prompt if you're interested lolol. Sansa is the host of a reality show (dating? survivor-y? Skill-based forged in fire-y?) and Jon is on the show. Maybe fans of the show are obsessed with them?

first - thank you anon, I'm so happy you like my writing! That's so sweet

second - funnily enough, @hilarychuff and I MAY have gone on a tangent a long time ago about alternate Bachelor stories, including one where Sansa was hosting Bachelor in Paradise (and I even wrote a bit at that time, too). Smash cut to me getting this prompt, and I was immediately reminded of that. So thank you anon, for the prompt, which got me to finish the snippet I had started writing, and thank you to hil, for helping brainstorm & come up with ideas! I didn't even get to use most of them, but they will live rent free in my head.

third - this is in no way related to my full Bachelor story, I just have a problem. And yes, I did write this during the 3 hour Bachelorette finale last night. It kept me sane.

.

read it here:

ephemera, chapter 30

.

Sansa rolls her luggage into the hotel room, depositing it near the foot of the bed before turning and flopping face down onto the mattress.

She can't believe she's back.

One would think, after two disastrous runs on this show, that she would know better than to sign another contract.

First, her time on Joffrey's season that had ended with her in tears, humiliated on national television. Watching that season back had been a revelation. Watching him lie to her. Watching her eat it up. She remembers in the Fantasy Suite, he'd told her he loved her and hinted she was going to be his winner, and she had agreed to sleep with him, thinking he'd be her fiance in another two weeks - only to be dumped in the finale for Margaery.

And then, while she was still emotionally destroyed and with her dignity in ruins, she had agreed to be Bachelorette. She'd signed the contract with the producers telling her this would be her comeback, she would be redeemed, she would get her love story. Instead, what she got was Harry. An actor and musician who she only found out later, after she picked him (after he put a ring on her finger), had a girlfriend already. He was using the show - using her – to further his career.

God, why did she agree to come back?

At least she's only the host this time.

…

Free vacation, she reminds herself as she sits down with Tyrion, and Varys for her debriefing. That's what they're calling it – debriefing – as if this is some top secret mission and not a reality TV show that, ultimately, is meaningless.

She's reminding herself why she's doing this. Free vacation, and the fat paycheck she would get from it. A big paycheck. They're desperate, after the scandal that ousted Jaime from his iconic host role – one he'd held for over a decade. They had called her up and practically begged her to come to Paradise. They needed the ratings she could bring. Twice-dumped Sansa. Even now, a year and a different Bachelorette later, people are still calling for her return.

It's sweet, really, that people want her to have her love story. It's sweet that they care. And she's lucky, she knows, to have come out the other side of this with a relatively positive reputation within Bachelor Nation. There was even a recent poll where she was voted the most popular Bachelorette of all time.

But the thing is, Sansa can't do this again. She can't have her heart broken on television, in front of millions of people, again.

So she'd turned them down. A hard no. And no, there's nothing they could do to convince her.

Well, that was her stance, until they offered her the host gig. Take over Jaime's role, instead of coming on as a contestant. Get on camera to welcome the actual contestants to Paradise, say a few lines at the elimination ceremonies, do some narration in post-production. Minimal work, considering the amount of money they're throwing at her just so she'll come back. Just so she'll help them rebuild a bit of their crumbling reputation after the scandal.

She can do this.

Free vacation, minimal work, lots of money.

…

The first round goes fine.

Sansa stands at the entrance to Paradise and greets each new cast member as they show up. She's friends with some of them, and familiar with almost all of them – Dany arrives first, her pale blonde hair in a crown of intricate braids and wearing a silver bikini she barely hides under a wrap. The show had tried to paint her as a villain on Daario's season, but most of the audience ended up liking her anyway, and now she's set to be the star of the beach this season. Sansa can already picture the men tripping over themselves to get with her.

Next comes Theon, from Val's season, all cocky smile and waggling eyebrows as she greets him. Then Mya, Dickon, Myranda... the list goes on. She loses track of who she greets, and by the end of it, her cheeks hurt from smiling. Then she goes and gives the group a welcome speech, hands out the date card, and she's done.

Back to the hotel for a massage and a drink (or two).

By the time she's nice and relaxed and laying by the hotel pool, she thinks she definitely made the right decision.

…

The day after the first elimination round, Sansa stands at the top of the stairs leading down to Paradise, waiting for the new arrivals. As she's waiting, she reads the card that has the basic info of the new contestants again, just to make sure she's got it.

First will be Domeric, he was on one of the earlier seasons. She doesn't remember him, and she wonders if the audience will.

Then it's Jon. She does remember him – he'd been on Val's season, the year after Sansa's.

Sansa remembers Jon the way everyone else does – because Twitter went crazy over him. He'd been eliminated night one, and Twitter had gone into an uproar about it. The hashtag #MechanicJon was trending through the whole season, memes were made, a petition was created to make him the next Bachelor. All for a guy who was eliminated night one, who didn't even have an Instagram account until he became internet famous and had to create one because of all the fake accounts that were popping up.

She's surprised he's here, honestly.

Though to be fair, the contestants are actually paid for Paradise, so he probably figured why not – a couple grand for three weeks of shooting, plus a free vacation to Sayulita? She's here for the same reasons.

Domeric comes down first and he's nice enough. She greets him and hands him the date card, and he heads in, no issues.

Then Sansa's dabbed with oil blotters, she's given a fresh coat of powder to try and hide how ungodly hot it is here, and then she's back in position, waiting for the next arrival.

Jon comes down next, and she will admit, she does understand the appeal of him. He's so unlike most of the other contestants – he's a mechanic from Boston (which actually isn't too far from her hometown). From the brief minutes of screentime he got, plus the bits she's seen of him on social media, he almost seems like a sort of anti-contestant. Someone she never could have imagined would go on the show. She thinks she remembers some article, where he said his niece had begged him to go on, which is the only reason he did.

“Welcome to Paradise,” she greets when he makes it to her. He's even more handsome in person, she thinks idly.

“Uh, thanks,” he says, then seems to rethink it and adds, “it's great to be here.”

He's a bit awkward, she thinks he doesn't really know how to hold himself in front of cameras. It's refreshing, actually, and sort of cute. He gives her a tentative smile that she returns in full, and her smile seems to give him a bit of confidence - she watches his shoulders square and his spine straighten, and his own smile gets wider.

“Now, you had such a short run on the show, are you excited for the possibility of finding love here in Paradise?”

“Yeah,” he says, though he doesn't sound convinced.

“Let's try that again, with a bit more enthusiasm,” Tyrion calls from behind the camera, and Jon winces. “Say you're excited to get a real chance at love. You're looking for The One.”

She can see Jon hesitate, and she realizes now why he was sent home night one. He doesn't seem as willing to play the game as most of the others, and if Val was on the fence about him, Sansa can imagine the producers telling her to cut him, knowing he wouldn't be easy to control.

That's what they like, she knows. Easily controllable contestants, or the ones who create explosive drama. Jon, it seems, is neither. She thinks the only reason he made it to paradise is because of his sudden spike of popularity.

“I'm really excited to... see what comes out of this for me,” is what he ends up saying, and Sansa tries to suppress her smile, just knowing Tyrion is likely fuming. The producers want the contestants to talk about love as much as possible, and Jon isn't giving them what they want.

“Well, here's a date card for your first chance at love here in Paradise,” she says, holding out the envelope to him. “You can ask anyone.”

Jon nods, looks at the envelope, then back up at her, eyes flicking over her briefly. “Would you want to go?” he asks, and for a moment all Sansa can do is stare.

“Me?” she asks, completely dumbfounded.

“Yeah,” he shrugs, giving her another one of his smiles.

To her utter horror, she feels a swirl of butterflies in her stomach.

“Uh,” she looks towards production for help, but Tyrion is watching them intently and hasn't cut. “I'm the host,” she says, turning back to Jon.

“Oh,” Jon's brows furrow a bit. “So... I can't take you on the date?”

“Yeah, that's not really how it works,” she glances over at Tyrion again, who remains silent. “Um, you take the card down to the beach and you talk to the women – or men, whatever you prefer – and see which one of them you'd like to take on a date.” She tries to make her voice light and airy, tries to add a bit of laughter, but she's not sure how well it works.

“You were on the show before, right?” he asks, and she's actually a bit surprised that he doesn't know who she is, considering how much of a mess both her "journeys" had been. He must have gone on the show without ever watching an episode.

“Right,” she nods.

“But I can't ask you,” he says, brows furrowing even deeper. For a second she wonders if he's an idiot, but then she sees the slight quirk to his lips, and she narrows her eyes at him. He's being obtuse on purpose.

“I'm off limits,” she says archly, flicking her hair over her shoulder, and she watches his lips twitch, like he's trying to hold back a smile.

“Okay, I think I've got it now,” Jon nods slowly.

Sansa rolls her eyes at him, and he finally gives her a full grin. It makes the corners of his eyes crinkle, and sends those butterflies in her tummy going again.

“Then you should go on down,” she gestures towards the stairs that lead down to the beach.

He gives her once last look, his eyes raking over her fully, before he heads past her.

Once he's gone, Sansa's knees almost feel like they're about to give out.

It's just the heat, she tells herself, as she heads over to where the cameras are set up.

“Why didn't you jump in?” she asks Tyrion when she reaches them, pulling at the microphone taped to her before Pod even gets there to help her.

Tyrion gives her an appraising look and just shrugs. “That'll make for good TV,” he says, though there's something in his voice Sansa doesn't like. She's been around him enough by now to hear the things he doesn't say, and Tyrion's tone is... well, if she didn't know any better, she'd say he sounds almost giddy.

“Won't it muddle the story?” she frowns, grabbing one of the portable fans from Pod and closing her eyes for a moment as she turns it on her face. “You can't seriously be thinking of airing that. You should be focusing on the actual contestants and whatever romance he finds there.”

Sansa tries to think of the women here and she can't imagine who would even be Jon's type.

Not that she knows what Jon's type is.

She doesn't know Jon at all.

Sansa heads towards the car waiting to take her back to the hotel, and she really does not like the gleam in Tyrion's eye.

…

“And just to be clear,” Jon says, as everyone watches him pick up a rose from the table, “I'm not allowed to give this to you?”

Sansa can feel her face go hot, just like it does every time he flirts with her.

Everyone on the beach knows he tried to ask her on the date when he first arrived, and now it's a thing. The girls are keeping him on, giving him a rose at every elimination ceremony where they have the power, even though he hasn't formed a romantic connection with any of them. They're keeping him around for this – for the moments when Sansa is on set and Jon will, inevitably, ask if he can give her a rose or take her on a date.

There's a few cheers from the contestants, and Sansa turns a glare on them. Her friends, and even the ones she's not all that close with, are really enjoying this.

“That's against the rules,” she tells Jon, just like she has the last two times.

“Right, right,” he nods, which gets a laugh from the others. Then he turns back, holds up the rose, and says, “Missandei?” Missandei tears up as she steps forward. She'd just had her heart stomped on, and Sansa hates how sad she looks. Luckily she's made friends with a lot of the girls, especially Dany, so Sansa knows she at least has a support system here. “I think you deserve another shot at love,” Jon says as she walks over to him. “Will you accept this rose?”

“Thank you,” Missandei sniffs, giving him a watery smile.

Sansa watches and narrates the rest of the ceremony, then says goodbye to those who were eliminated. As they're wrapping up, Jon makes his way over to her.

“You're still alright?” he asks, murmurs it to her as the crew starts to herd the contestants away. But they leave Jon alone, and she knows it's because Tyrion has told them to. In fact, she's fairly certain there's a camera somewhere, trained on them right now. “Just tell me if-”

“It's fine,” she whispers. He had asked, the first time he did this, if his flirting made her uncomfortable. She had stuttered through her response, which ended up being – no. No, it didn't make her uncomfortable. The only thing that does is that they're being filmed, and she swore she'd never do this again in front of cameras.

“Alright,” he nods, eyes searching her face, like he's trying to make sure she isn't lying. “I'll see you next time, then?”

“Good night, Jon,” she says, trying to sound professional. But it's hard when he gives her a soft smile and his gaze drops to her lips, before he finally turns around and heads off with the other contestants.

“Stop filming me,” she scolds Tyrion the moment they're gone.

“What?” Tyrion says, eyes wide and innocent. “We film everything.”

“I told you I don't want to be a contestant,” she huffs. “So stop-” she waves around at the cameras that are now being packed away, now that Jon's gone.

“Seems to me,” Tyrion hums, eyebrows raised, “you could tell him to stop anytime and he would. Then we'd have nothing to film.”

Tyrion spins on his heel and walks away and she stares after him, mouth agape.

…

Sansa groans as she zips up her makeup bag, looking at herself one last time in the mirror before she heads back into the living quarters of her hotel room.

Production had interrupted her very important sipping-margaritas-by-the-pool time to tell her she had to get camera ready. She wasn't supposed to film today, so she has no idea what's going on.

There's a knock at her door and she makes her way over to it, expecting Tyrion to be on the other side.

Instead, it's Jon.

“Hi,” she says, eyes immediately darting around the hall to look for the cameras.

Except there aren't any. At least not that she can see. Just a production assistant waiting a distance away.

“Hey,” he says, giving her that same soft, warm smile. “I just wanted to let you know, I've uh... I've decided to leave.”

“Leave?”

“Yeah,” he sighs. “I mean, obviously this isn't for me. I've known that since I got here. I should've left earlier, if I'm being honest, but...”

His eyes meet hers, and something swoops low in her belly that she tries to ignore.

“Anyway,” he continues. “I just wanted to um... here.” He hands her a piece of paper and she unfolds it to find- “My number,” he says, as if she couldn't figure that out. “In case you ever wanted to call me. I don't really look at any social media, so if you tried to contact me that way... but yeah. You can call me if you want.”

Her head feels completely empty of words, and all she can do is nod.

He leaves, then, escorted out by the production assistant who had been waiting down the hall, and Sansa slowly closes the door and goes to sit on the couch.

She's not sure how long she sits there, staring blankly into the distance, when a knock comes at the door and she jolts out of her reverie.

It is Tyrion this time, and he gives her a look.

“Did you get the footage you wanted?” she asks, trying to sound annoyed, though she's still reeling. Still clutching that scrap of paper.

“Didn't get any footage,” Tyrion drawls. “Did you see a camera around?”

She hadn't, but they're sneaky sometimes.

“He asked to come up, but said he wouldn't if we followed him with cameras, so-” Tyrion shrugs.

“Why would you agree to that?”

A look passes over Tyrion's face, something she might almost describe as soft. Affectionate. Or, she would, if she didn't know Tyrion better than that.

“I know we're usually all cynics here,” he says, “and hey, maybe the show's finally brainwashed me, but I think you deserve that love story you were looking for.”

Sansa sucks in a breath as Tyrion reaches out and places a hand on her arm, just for a moment, before he lets go and leaves her hotel room.

Still in a daze, she walks back and sits on the couch, before pulling out her phone, and adding his number.

Hi, she types. This is Sansa Stark.

[makeste]

but I just feel too tired to be fighting

this is a follow-up post to what I said in my recap the other day about this arc being the Deku Angst arc, as opposed to the Villain Hunt arc or the Deku SIXQUIRKS Exhibition arc. I feel like the fandom discussion tends to focus on the flashier parts of the chapters -- the sexy villains and the new quirk reveals and the Shindous -- each week, and so the quieter emotional beats sometimes get overlooked, especially since the character arc here is playing out in little bits and pieces over time rather than all at once.

this has always been a very reactionary fandom, and there’s a tendency to judge the chapters week to week without ever going back to look at how they all fit into the big picture. so I figured I would try to attempt that, and basically go chapter by chapter here to look at what exactly Horikoshi is setting up and how it all fits together.

so let’s start with the end of chapter 306, which is when the arc officially kicks off. specifically with the very last page:

this is imo one of the best pages Horikoshi has ever drawn. I got the sense that this was a scene he’d had in his mind’s eye for quite a long time, and that he was excited to finally get to this part of the story. it’s extremely effective as both a chapter-ender, and an arc-opener. like, look at this:

it establishes the initial premise of the new arc -- the world is in chaos, and Deku is now seemingly on his own

it leaves the readers with a number of questions. why did Deku leave U.A.?? is he really on his own now?? why does he look so beat-up and exhausted?? what is he up to?? what is the world like now that all these villains have been unleashed and the heroes have been decimated?? and most importantly of all, what the fuck is going to happen next??

it pays homage to some of Horikoshi’s comic book influences -- Batman in particular

it dramatically hits us with that “THE FINAL ACT BEGINS” and lets us know that shit is getting real now

that’s some good shit. so much so that I think people tended to overlook the other notable thing about this page amidst all of the initial excitement and discussion and speculation about where the series was headed. and that is the fact that the final panel in this chapter is NOT the panel of Deku standing above the city. the very last panel, the one that this chapter actually ends on, is instead the close-up of Deku’s face. his face, which is covered in shadow; and his eyes, which have dark circles under them and are prominently missing the usual flecks of light that give him his signature “sunny optimistic shounen protagonist” look.

not to mention this last line here, which is a call back to the very first time we saw the 14-year-old Deku way back in chapter one.

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Horikoshi chose to throw this reference in. nor is it a coincidence that THIS is the scene he actually chose to end the chapter on. what this does is show us the drastic shift in Deku’s emotional state of mind, and his attitude towards being a hero. he’s gone from being thrilled and excited to being jaded and exhausted. he’s matured, but at a great cost. it’s always been his dream to be a hero, but “be careful what you wish for” is a popular adage for a reason. and right now he looks the furthest thing from happy.

and this is the emotional beat that Horikoshi chooses to end the chapter on. this is the panel that closes out the War arc, and begins the final act. to me the message could not be clearer -- this arc will be about the exploration of Deku’s character, and his struggle as he tries to live up to the expectations that have been placed on him as the Last Holder of OFA and quite possibly the World’s Only Hope.

it’s a character arc that builds on a lot of the things we’ve already learned about Deku over the course of the series, such as the fact that he is reckless, and that he focuses on others often at the expense of himself. but more importantly, it’s an arc that finally expands on the dark side of what has up until now been a net positive for Deku -- the power of OFA. up until this point, despite its ups and downs, it’s been a boon for Deku overall and has allowed him to pursue his dream. but now we’re finally reaching the point where the monkey’s paw part of the OFA blessing/curse finally starts to come into play. OFA gives Deku more power than he could have ever dreamed of, but it also comes with a built-in destiny that he can’t opt out of whether he likes it or not. AFO is on the loose and out there trying to destroy the world. and now everyone has pinned their hopes on this sixteen-year-old kid, and the question of whether or not the sixteen-year-old kid is ready is apparently not one that anyone feels inclined to ask (possibly because they’re afraid that the answer might be “no”).

he doesn’t have a choice in the matter. he has to do it, because there’s no one else who can. that’s the kind of pressure that is on Deku now.

and on that note, we begin the Deku Angst arc.

chapter 307

this in hindsight was mostly just a set-up chapter to better establish the current state of the BnHA world at large (spoilers: it’s not good), while also providing an answer for one of the big initial questions of the arc -- namely, “what happened to all of those villains that AFO released from Tartarus?” these are important things to touch on, but the pacing could definitely have been better, and the bulk of the chapter was dedicated to providing fanservice to all of the Shindou fans who spammed the most recent popularity poll (which, whatever lol). anyway, so this was the sole chapter thus far with absolutely no Deku development. thankfully the arc picks up from there.

chapter 308

on to the next one! this was the one and only chapter thus far which I think actually qualifies as an “exhibition fight.” this was definitely all about showing off Deku’s current powerset, as well as introducing us to another of the SIXQUIRKS. however, there was Deku development here as well, most notably in this scene:

this is the scene that got a lot of people speculating that this arc was going to focus on Deku hunting down all of the old villains. but I think people got so caught up in that speculation that they overlooked what this scene tells us about Deku’s mindset. and yes, there is new information being revealed here, and it’s not just a rehash of the stuff we already knew. like yes, we know that Deku was shaken up by the recent encounters with Dabi and Tomura, and we know that made him start questioning why villains become villains in the first place, and all that good stuff, and that’s great. however, there are two additional important things that this scene helps establish for us.

the upcoming battle with TomurAFO is weighing heavily on Deku’s mind. this is something that will become a recurring theme in this arc. Deku is thinking about this constantly. the question of what to do when he finally encounters TomurAFO again is knocking incessantly at the back of his mind, and this won’t be the last time it comes up.

Deku is using these villain encounters as test runs. can Tomura be redeemed?? is he just being stupid and naïve?? or is this really something worth attempting?? the interesting thing about this is that Deku’s resolve to save people is usually so strong and unwavering that it’s more than enough to overcome any doubts that he might have. but this time it seems like the repeated objections posed by the Vestiges and Gran Torino have really gotten to him. it’s possible I’m just reading way too much into things, but to me it really feels like Deku’s recent attempts at Talk no Jutsu were meant to do more than just show his growing awareness that the line between heroes and villains is thinner than he once imagined. they’re also serving as trial runs for the real test, when it finally comes. if he can “save” even a villain like Muscular, there’s hope for him being able to save Tomura as well. and so that moment when Muscular rejects him out of hand is all the more disappointing to him, even if it wasn’t really unexpected. basically it wasn’t the answer that he had been hoping for.

aside from those little notes though, like I said, this was unquestionably an exhibition fight first and foremost. which is fine; we needed to establish where Deku is currently in terms of strength, and it was also just fun to see him kick some ass, ngl. in terms of story purpose this chapter was similar to 219, which showed us how Shouto and Katsuki had powered up after getting their provisional licenses. people who don’t care about those characters might argue that these fights weren’t necessary, but as someone who stans all three characters hard, I would disagree! but anyways, moving on.

chapter 309

in contrast to the previous chapter, this chapter focuses more on establishing Deku’s current mental state, as opposed to his physical state. and this is what we learn:

(1) Deku is ~technically~ being shadowed/accompanied by All Might and the Hawksquad (but in practice he’s avoiding them).

(2) it was Deku’s own decision to leave U.A., and he did it because he didn’t want anyone else getting hurt in order to protect him.

and finally, (3) Deku’s game plan is to stop Tomura and All for One before they reach full power.

this last part is very important, because it means there’s a countdown in effect. as far as Deku is concerned, there’s only a finite amount of time before TomurAFO becomes unstoppable. which means that he’s not only under “gotta get stronger” pressure, but time pressure as well. he doesn’t have the luxury of taking his time and training in safety. he’s being rushed now; this is do-or-die.

this chapter is also the first in this arc in which we get to see Deku’s expressions without the hood covering up his face, and what we see is very telling. as previously stated, the light is gone from Deku’s eyes. he keeps his expressions very neutral, and the only time we even see a hint of a smile is when he hugs his mom in the flashback, and it’s clear from the dialogue (“it’s okay, I’ll come home to you”) that he’s doing it for her sake in order to comfort her.

but aside from that, this is very much not the Deku we’ve grown accustomed to. this is the chapter that really establishes his current mental state imo. above all else, he’s afraid that more people will get hurt because of him, and so he’s distancing himself from everyone around him. and he’s also morbidly preoccupied with the inevitability of having to face TomurAFO again, and soon. the chapter ends on the flashback of Gran giving him his cape, and telling Deku that “killing can be another way to save someone.” there’s a lot on this kid’s mind, to say the least.

chapter 310

this chapter opens with a gang of civilians who are trying to open fire on a nice fox lady whose only crime was walking around in the rain at night. Deku intervenes to save her, and it’s the first time in this arc that we see anything close to the “old” Deku, who just wanted to save people with a smile.

but it’s bittersweet, because all the lady can talk about is how scared she was, and how horrible everything is right now. and so Deku, who feels responsible in a lot of ways for everything that’s happened, just feels that much more pressure to somehow make things right again.

there’s also this extra throwaway line which is especially heartbreaking:

“I can’t afford to be around anyone.” fucking ouch. just reinforcing once more how incredibly isolated Deku is right now -- not by choice, but because he feels like it’s not safe to let anyone else get close to him. and so he’s out here running around this dystopian cityscape in the middle of the night in the pouring rain all on his own, and neglecting himself to the point where All Might practically has to force a bento on him.

but does he complain? of course not. because his focus is never on himself. instead, when he settles down to eat, his thoughts immediately drift back to, guess who...

it’s that time pressure once again. “unless I draw out One for All’s full power, I can’t stop any of this.” it’s just nonstop, I have to get stronger, I’m running out of time, I have to do better, and constantly thinking about that inevitable confrontation.

Deku is a thinker, you guys. and when left to his own devices he will overthink, every time. his mind will run in endless loops while he mentally works his way through all of the possibilities. and that’s one of his greatest strengths, don’t get me wrong, but at a time like this it’s also one of his greatest weaknesses. it’s just so fucking easy for him to get stuck in his own head, in his endless rambling thoughts and analyses. and without anyone else there to help distract him, or help him focus, he’s become fixated on his mission, and it’s slowly consuming him.

this, incidentally, is also the chapter in which we finally see Two and Three’s faces, and learn why Two in particular is so reluctant to lend his power to Deku. he appears to be the lone holdout at this point, so stay tuned on that, because I don’t doubt this will wind up being crucial to Deku’s future development, however it winds up playing out.

chapter 311

this chapter flips back to the Hawksquad for the first half, so we get a brief respite from the ongoing Dekuangst. right before we switch back though, we do get confirmation of something we had pretty much already guessed:

like, that much was already apparent based on what we’d seen (the bags under his eyes; the fact that he refused to sit still in any one place for very long even at night), but it’s always nice to get the official confirmation so that people can’t dispute it lol. so yeah, Deku isn’t sleeping much. and not eating much either, if all he’s getting is the occasional bento from Dadmight. so basically not taking care of himself at all, huge shocker there. but this is something that’s important enough to the story that Horikoshi took the time to point it out in the dialogue, in addition to all of the visual clues we’d already gotten.

and just in case we needed to drive that point in any further, this chapter ends with the appearance of Lady Nagant! like yeah, no shit Deku isn’t getting much sleep, what with him having to fend off racist civilians and hired assassins every five fucking minutes. smdh. can he live??

chapter 312

so this is the chapter that properly introduces Lady Nagant, who maaaay or may not be one of the primary antagonists of this arc?? like, it’s really unclear right now tbh, but she gets hyped up by Hawks and AFO, and has a flashback and a mysterious past and a weird trump card (where did you go, Overhaul) and all that good shit, so yeah? one can hope at any rate.

but anyway. so to his credit, Deku’s first thought is to retreat, but he quickly abandons that plan once he figures out Nagant’s location. this is played off like a logical strategic decision at first, but the subsequent chapter quickly makes it clear that Deku’s decision to take the fight to Nagant is less rational than he might have you think.

chapter 313

so yeah. last but not least, the most recent chapter, in which Deku’s real reason for targeting Lady soon becomes apparent:

what’s more, it quickly becomes clear that he miscalculated and probably would have been better off following Hawks’s advice, seeing as he promptly gets himself shot, and subsequently realizes that AFO gave Nagant an extra quirk, something he hadn’t taken into account. but instead of cutting his losses and running at this point, he doubles down instead and not only breaks out Smokescreen, but also the Third’s quirk which he has never even used before.

it’s worth noting that both En and the Third start telling him to chill at this point, and warn him that what he’s attempting is too dangerous. but tbh if they were expecting him to listen, they haven’t been reading the same arc I’ve been reading. once again, Horikoshi makes it clear that Deku has one thing and one thing only on his mind right now.

of course. once again it all comes back to this. hunt down AFO. it doesn’t matter that he’s exhausted. it doesn’t matter that he’s just been shot twice. it doesn’t matter that Hawks, despite knowing what Deku was capable of with his OFA abilities, specifically warned him away from this one person only. it doesn’t matter that even the Vestiges are trying to tell him you’re going too fast and you’re trying to do too much and it’s too dangerous.

he just doesn’t care. long story short, the only thing that matters to Deku right now is tracking down and defeating TomurAFO. and as the person who knows him best once so aptly put it, “he doesn’t take himself into account.” and therein lies the major challenge of this arc.

and so this is where we’re currently at now. and this has been a very long post, but if nothing else, I hope I was able to get this one point across: there is absolutely no way that Deku will be able to defeat TomurAFO as he is now. not a chance in hell. somehow he’s managed the uncommon feat of waging a war of attrition against himself, which is really quite an accomplishment. he’s not taking care of himself, and he’s refusing to listen to sound advice from the people surrounding him, and is trying to skip ahead to the final boss battle before he’s ready, because the guilt and pressure from feeling responsible for the current situation are eating him up. the only way that the world can go back to normal is if he can defeat AFO; therefore he has to do it as soon as possible, because time is running out and everyone is counting on him. this is who Deku is. and this is what inevitably happens when his saving mentality is taken to extremes, and left unchecked.

anyway so to wrap up this post now, I do think this arc is a lot more cohesive than it’s gotten credit for thus far, and Deku is the glue holding it all together. I for one am loving the exploration of his character and all the subtle little angsty touches as we build up to the big moment, whenever it finally comes. just keep in mind though that if his decisions right now seem reckless and short-sighted, it’s because they’re supposed to seem that way, because Deku is not in a good mental state right now. the cracks are finally showing in our perfect protagonist, just like everyone has been wanting this whole time. he is just a kid. he is doing his best. he is trying far too hard to do his best, and it is hurting him so badly, but he doesn’t even realize. this arc is not an endorsement of the Angsty Nomad Hero lifestyle, lol. it’s the exact fucking opposite, and I think it’s being wildly misinterpreted with all of the emphasis on “oh look at that, he mastered another quirk with no effort”, as opposed to “oh look at that, he is shutting down emotionally and is a few more missed nights of sleep away from a complete and total breakdown.”

tl;dr the overarching storyline of this arc is all about Deku slowly falling apart due to his trauma from Jakku, and the subsequent pressure that was put on him by the Vestiges with their whole “GUESS WHAT, YOU’RE THE LAST USER OF OFA, THAT’S RIGHT, IT’S ALL ON YOU BUDDY” pep talk. and mark my words, things are not going to go according to plan. something is going to go terribly wrong here. whether it’s something happening to All Might, or AFO setting up a trap for him, either way Deku is being set up to fail in a major way. unless of course, someone (or a group of someones) manages to intervene first, and possibly stage an intervention or something. it’s what he needs right now, but idk if Horikoshi is going to make it that easy.

anyway, but in other words, the point of this arc is not to show how much stronger Deku has gotten and how he doesn’t even need his friends anymore. it’s the exact opposite -- the point of this arc is to show that Deku needs his friends now more than ever. that in spite of OFA and all of its mystical trappings and fancy SIXQUIRKS, Deku can’t do this alone. he needs his friends. that’s the core message. and right now, we are at the “I can get by on my own” part of the story. and the part we are all waiting for, but which is coming -- I guarantee it is coming, you guys -- is “the thing is, you don’t have to.”

and that shit is going to slap hard you guys. and I for one can’t wait. but until then, enjoy the angst.

[trelkez]

I had a request for fic snippets to go with this poll, so I'll drop each one into a separate reblog.

The West Wing fic snippet under the cut:

(notes on this story: this is a plot-heavy AU in which Matt and Helen were never married, Josh and Matt hooked up on the campaign trail in 1998, and these things lead to a sharp canon divergence shortly after 6.10 - Faith Based Initiative, aka the episode where the internet thinks CJ is gay. Helen is a main character in this, but she's doing her own thing. the shuttle leak never happens, half the characters are now queer because I said so, and at 60k there are currently something like a dozen pov characters. I think this one will land at ... either 100k if I end it where the show ends, or upwards of 150k if I keep going with the additional chapters outlined? who knows.

this is both the oldest fandom in the poll and the most recent fic, which I started in January. this snippet takes place in chapter 3.)

---

"You got a call while you were out," said Callie. "Or – no—" She held up a stack of message slips. "You got a lot of messages, but only one that seemed urgent."

"I'll take these," Daisy said, plucking the message slips out of Callie's hand.

"Who called?" Mandy said, shrugging out of her coat. "If it was Hoynes again—"

"Josh Lyman," Callie said. "From the White House."

She sounded awed when she said it, White House, her eyes wide. God, she was young. When she inevitably quit in three to four months – Mandy's current record for keeping an assistant was six months, they were on the clock – they needed to look for someone with an AARP card, the kind of lifelong secretary who wasn't awed by anything. That kind of help didn't come cheap, but Callie was their fifth assistant in two years. Mandy was ready to pay whatever she had to.

Hold on, had she said—

"Josh called?" Daisy said. "Do you think he's calling for Hoynes?"

Well, now Mandy thought it.

She pulled out her Blackberry right there on the spot, not giving herself time to overthink it.

"Josh Lyman," he said, after she was transferred through.

"You didn't even call me when you were shot," Mandy said. "Now you're digging around for Hoynes? After what he did? He's unelectable, Josh! What the fuck are you doing?" 

She didn't quite manage to close her office door before she said it; Callie looked horribly scandalized, bless her. 

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Josh said. "I'm not calling for Hoynes. Is – has he been calling you?"

"Every day this week," Mandy said. "He wants to hire us. I keep telling him I'm booked."

"He talked to me too," Josh said. "I told him no."

That couldn't have gone over well. When Mandy had left the White House, Hoynes was still treating Josh like an ex-boyfriend who'd dumped him the day before prom. 

"Was that before or after he mentioned you two dozen times in his book?" Mandy said. The day Hoynes' shitty made-up tell-all had come out, she'd gone to a bookstore just to pull a copy off the shelf, flip to the back, and browse the index. She had one index entry. It was a story about Josh.

"That's not – I'm not calling about Hoynes. I'm calling to give you a heads up."

"About what?" Mandy said.

"I'm about to be outed by the press," Josh said.

"As an asshole?" Mandy said.

"As a bisexual," Josh said, exasperated. "You do remember—"

"Your big coming out speech? 'I like Bond girls … and Bond'? Hard to forget that masterpiece of modern oratory." She should probably try to be a little nicer, all things considered. "How do they know?"

"Someone has pictures of me from '98. After we dated," he added quickly, as though she would've worried he had cheated on her. Josh was smotheringly loyal. She didn't think he had it in him to even imagine cheating on someone in the abstract. "Once it hits, you might be getting some calls."

"What, do they think I might have had a threesome with you and Sam?" It wasn't like she hadn't thought about it. "How did the press get pictures of you two from 1998?"

"It isn't Sam in the pictures," Josh said, his voice gone funny. "What made you think—"

"Oh, please," Mandy said.

"Sam and I were never—" Now he was getting shrill. "Why does everyone think—"

"You know, there were days on the campaign when I thought that if you and I went the distance, it would be as a timeshare." Mandy flipped through the mail on her desk. Callie wasn't allowed to sort the mail; she had no eye for what was important. "I wasn't all that mad about it. I would have been fine timesharing you with Sam. You're a lot for one person to deal with."

"You're messing with me, right," Josh said. "This is my punishment for wanting to do a good deed and warn you before—"

"I'm absolutely not." Mandy unwound her scarf from her neck and threw it somewhere. "After Lisa dumped him, I thought, here it comes. I didn't realize it was never going to happen until we broke up and he was the saddest person in the room. If plausible deniability were a woman, Sam Seaborn would marry her."

"That's not fair," Josh said.

"He's never met a woman he wouldn't hit on to reinforce his imaginary heterosexuality," Mandy said. "And you want to talk to me about what's fair?"

"He doesn't—"

"Sure," Mandy said. "What do you want me to say to the press?"

"That we broke up in August," Josh said.

"Because otherwise they're going to wonder if you cheated on me," she said. "Josh, how explicit are these pictures exactly? Should I look for them above the fold, or will I have to dig through an internet forum?"

"They aren't explicit," Josh said. "A man is leaving my hotel room, and I'm in my underwear. I hear. I haven't seen them."

"A man," Mandy repeated. "Do I have to wait for the Fox News hysteria to find out who, or are you going to tell me?"

"A congressman," Josh said.

Several candidates immediately came to mind, but there was an obvious frontrunner.

"Matt Santos," Mandy said.

"How the hell do you know that?" Josh demanded.

She considered letting him think she was psychic, or just so well networked that it amounted to the same thing; it wouldn't kill him to fear her a little bit.

"One of my former assistants used to be his scheduler," Mandy said, relenting. "Your name came up. She said you were on his schedule all the time. That the two of you were BFFs. I thought she was exaggerating, everyone knows you hate Congress."

"She disclosed his schedule to you?" Josh said, a new edge in his voice.

"And then I fired her so she wouldn't have a chance to disclose mine to the next guy," Mandy said. "I wouldn't bet the farm on her keeping much of anything to herself once they're screaming about you on cable news."

"Great," Josh said. "That's great."

"I'll let you go find someone innocent to scream at about that," Mandy said. "You know you don't have to wait for a PR crisis to call me, right? It would be nice to hear from you now and then."

"Everyone sounds like my mother today," Josh muttered.

"Have you talked to your mother? Because you really should—"

"Goodbye, Mandy," Josh said loudly, and hung up.

Daisy looked up as Mandy emerged from her office. "What was that about?"

"Josh slept with a congressman," Mandy said. Callie knocked over her pen cup, sending cheap Bic stick pens flying everywhere.

"What does he want from us, an award?" Daisy said.

"It's about to be the story of the week," Mandy said. "And it was in 1998, so he thinks the press are going to come knocking in the hopes it'll turn out he cheated on me."

"They probably will," Daisy said. "Nothing livens up a gay sex scandal like a crying girlfriend."

"Josh Lyman is gay?" Callie said, shocked.

"He's bi," Mandy said. "Is there a word for being attracted to people who make fun of you? I think he's actually that."

"Do you have a problem with that?" Daisy said, her eyes narrowing.

"I'm bi," Callie said. Daisy's whole face rearranged itself into an oops. "So – no? It's just – since the CJ Cregg thing, people have been saying that—" She hesitated.

"Spit it out," Mandy said.

"There isn't a single publicly out LGBTQ person in the White House," Callie said. "There was an article in The Advocate about it." She hesitated again. "And there's this – anonymous blog, written by queer staffers on the Hill? And they said the President only hires queer people if he can ship them overseas."

"If he can ship them overseas?" Mandy said.

"Because of those two gay ambassadors he appointed last year," Callie said.

Jesus Christ. Was it worse if this was somehow flying under the West Wing's radar, or if they knew about it and had decided to ignore it? They really needed to hire a new press secretary. The sheer quantity of stupid PR mistakes was steadily rising from avoidable to farcical.

"Mr. Lyman isn't going to get fired, is he?" Callie said.

"Even they aren't that stupid," Mandy said. Callie made a skeptical face.

"I've got it," Daisy called out. She came out of her office carrying her laptop. "'Establishment liberals are falling in line to praise President Bartlet for getting the marriage amendment removed from the budget, but those in the know say the President had no intention of vetoing—'"

"This anonymous blog has White House sources?" Mandy demanded. She pulled up Toby's cell number and hit send on her phone so hard the button got stuck. "Someone over there needs a goddamned wake-up call."

If I were to commit to posting fic again after almost a decade, which of these should I commit to?

I included everything in my wips folder I can for sure finish, including some ... pretty dusty ones. (I started that Star Wars fic in January 2016 as a post-TFA story. Last update: December 2019.)

Whichever one I start with will probably be posted as a wip, except for the Queliot story, which I think tops out around 25k. The one closest to being finished is probably the Stranger Things AU; the one that will wind up going the longest is probably the Star Wars AU.

All of that said:

[frobin]

Random consideration: there is an online legend about Oda can change story events if someone on the web/fans guess the thing. So... what do you think about this topic? It can be really valid? If yes, even for whatever eventual not-canon ships? I don't know, because ships are just a very side element in the story, and not like main events of the storyline. (And for my opinion, for Jin:be father topic, I could agree with who said is for the age, maybe. Anyway, I will ship FroBin forever).

Hey anon! Thank you for your question!

Maybe Oda really made Jinbe the dad because of age. right now Oda and Jinbe have the same age (46). He has two children who are (if the internet and my math are correct) 15 and 12 years old. So may it’s not unlikely? If he connects with Jinbe he would rather see him as a dad than a grandparent or a weird uncle. 

-

Now, to the rest... I have to say sorry for answering so late but as of right now I’m writing parts of my answer and I literally pulling my hair because I really try to make sense of the whole situation and trying to understand the intention of a 46 year old japanese man. And this is long again so sorry about that. Anyway... 

I have heard about that. I remembered something about Oda not reading Fan Theories and now I googled once more. Apparently this is the newest Information:

"Oda once said he will change OP story if it coincides with fan theories. But according to TV show today, Oda will never change his plan about "final chapter" even if a fan theory hits the nail on the head. Oda said in 1999 that he had already decided final panel and chapter."

https://twitter.com/sandman_AP/status/1352851201478418432?s=20

I don’t think Oda is actively browsing the web for OP content ( how would he have time to) but he gets fanmail with questions and suggestions. And considering that over 4 million people are One Piece fans... one of them has to get it correct eventually. Trying to avoid any similarity with any fan-theory is IMPOSSIBLE. 

And I do believe that Oda knows how he wants One Piece to end and won’t change that, no matter what. 

As for the details in-between........ I wouldn’t say Oda is not prone to be a Troll and sometimes downright an ass towards his fans. XD Never out of malice but because he thinks it’s funny. 

I’m also sure he will never focus on romance in the manga, but since love is an important part of life it will come into play now and then. Classic romance (?) more with side-characters  (Roger/Rouge, Sai/Baby5, Bege/Chiffon) than with main (Strawhats) but still possible.

He may very well edit less-important plot lines if they don't change the ending. 

That also includes, that I absolutely think it’s possible that the Strawhats will have romantic involvement at the end of the story. At the moment it is never in the focus, except for plot reason (Whole Cake Island for example, though that is an entirely different topic) but absolutely possible. 

Because the Strawhats boning each other or maybe someone outside of the crew will not change the story. It has no influence to anything, except if it’s on a higher scale, like if Luffy really suddenly married Boa Hancock. That would influence the political outline of the world.

Meanwhile Pauli/Iceburg or Noland/Cagara or Bartolomeo/Cavendish have literally no influence to the story (anymore). And I don’t think I have to start on things like other rare pairs or even OC-ships. 

That being said, and having more stuff in mind, I wouldn’t put it past Oda to actually focus more on Jin/Bin. 

Why? Well... 

we had so many interactions between Robin and Franky after the time skip that it was almost ridiculous. In every single arc we see them fight alongside each other. We had strong romantic tropes portrayed with them: 

Their meeting after the timeskip (Sabaody Archipelago)

Franky having his head in Robins lap (Punk Hazard) 

Wearing the same shirt (Dressrosa) 

Finishing each others sentence (Zou)

Franky offering Robin a ride and her answering with a heart (Wano)  

And the moment the internet exploded when Robin was holding Frankys face. Which yeah, only a Colorspread and not canon yadda yadda

For now let’s gloss over all the other moments that showed that they cared for each other. 

... so many.

Anyway what I want to say is that Oda had declared “All the Strawhats are in love with adventure.” and “I won’t focus on romance.”  but is seemingly showing a connection between Franky and Robin, that made one think that he might actually be aboard the ship even if the fandom itself is rather silent and small. 

Meanwhile when Jinbe appeared (in the timeskip) he was instantly a hit. His popularity then rose thanks to Fishmen Island Arc. And again I can’t blame anyone. On the other hand Franky always had a hard stance. This was recently shown again because is the lowest ranked Strawhat in the popularity poll. 

One (Oda) might come to a conclusion here:

Maybe people don’t like Franky and so would dislike FRobin. But since Oda also seems to enjoy grown up relationships (?) maybe he thinks Jinbe is the only reasonable replacement?  -> It could be a tactial decision. 

Maybe he really changed his opinion and personally likes one more than the other. He was a FRobin supporter but now likes JinBin more? It wouldn't change anything for the story and there wouldn't be any harm -> It could be a personal decision. 

Maybe he fears that he put too many hints in the manga and now has to paddle back? Because let’s be honest, until the colourspread with Robin putting her hand on Frankys face... the FRobin fandom was on the backburner. And so he wants to throw out some Red Herrings.  -> Again a tactial decision

Maybe he never inteded to make it  romantic and it is actually all just friendship. Subtext is something many authors use without being aware of it. (Just ask anyone who is a lesbian!Nami fan. They have good points.) -> A mistake from the very beginning. 

And you can use these same thoughts for every other non-canon ship. 

Please take everything of this with a grain of salt because I try to understand the intention of a man who is more than 10 years my senior and from a culture I can’t even start to try to comprehend (sometimes I don’t even get my own culture), who is the head figure of a money-making machine. So it’s hard to tell what else influences his decisions. 

My interpretations are influenced by my own experiences and knowledge which is big and vast but also stretched very thin. 

Last but not least I want to make clear that any speculation is really the same as asking a crystal ball. In the western fandom we have only few people who can even slightly try to give an insight to the whole thing and they (smart enough) keep out of any shipping discourse. 

tl;dr: I don’t think Oda will change the ending. But I do think that he is willing to change minor plotlines  and so yes I think Oda might change couples for any possible reason, as long as it does not change the ending, and he does not even has to choose a good reason because in the end they are his characters and he is free to do whatever he wants with them.

[mikanyuzu-26]

Is Chapter 139 of Attack on Titan being messed up deliberately?

*Views are my own. I barely post anything on social media but I feel the need to express my thoughts as a long-term AOT fan.

You need to be a genius in getting everything wrong. As a reader who has been following the series for 8 years, the frustration and disappointment the recent chapters brought me are beyond words. The series Attack on Titan has long been known for its well written plotline, with pieces of hints eventually leading to the reveal of mysteries, ranging from the identity of enemies to the origin of titan. Isayama the author is more than capable in building a story, as evidenced by the carefully arranged setups and successful characterization in 130+ chapters. Probably echoed by other readers, the story surprisingly went downhill since Chapter 124 (aka the alliance arc) when pacing becomes slow with no major progress in overall plot. Eren who is the supposedly main protagonist is nowhere to be found in most of the chapters, let alone his inner thought. The conclusion in Chapter 139 is even more confusing, showing clear disconnection with previous chapters and major characters being OOC. There are fans who are kind enough to summarize the inconsistencies.

Chinese netizens’ comment on the story quality

I would interpret the bad writing in Chapter 139 as intentional, with two possible reasons, or both: 1). To betray and hurt the readers as expressed in his interview. He is free! 2). To passively protest against a plot change by his editorial team

“I was a big fan of Game of Thrones, so I can relate to the feelings of those fans who were disappointed with how the series ended. But when I’m drawing, I’m expressing my own feelings, and I think as long as I’m doing that, my fans will be able to accept whatever ending I come up with for them”. The question is – was Isayama hinting at a GOT-like ending that expressed his true feeling? Looking at his response at this point of time, was he foreshadowing a disappointment?

Personally I am a believer of (2) – the plot was hijacked. I see the pacing issue starting from Chapter 124 as Isayama and the editorial team trying to buy time in reconstructing the plot. This is the period when multiple minor subplots (e.g. Connie’s mom, Aruani, conflicts with Yeagerists like Daz, formation of Alliance, Reiner’s mom & Annie’s dad) are introduced and closed off shortly after, while Eren is nowhere to be found.

Also note that Isayama did not even show up in the interview/live stream after the end of the manga in on Apr 10 and Apr 14, 2021. The editor represented him instead. It was also revealed in the most recent live stream that the editorial team had quite a lot of influence over the plot, in which they changed the last few pages of Chapter 139.

As many of you have already raised, early chapters already mentioned the “only way to put a final end to the cycle of revenge” is to do a full rumbling. I believe this is the first draft of the ending of the story as this idea has been expressed more than once directly out of the mouth of Eren.

The other possible change is the way of how Ymir is being freed. In earlier chapter, Eren clearly understands what Ymir has been waiting for 2000 years in Chapter 122, and this is also the reason why Eren is able to start the rumbling in the first place. The possibility of Mikasa freeing Ymir is not being introduced until Chapter 138 (or 139), and certainly comes out of nowhere as the only people outside of path who have seen Ymir are Armin and Ramzi.

How is Chapter 139 being intentionally messed up? The inconsistencies above suggest that at least two plot twists are only being decided at the very late stage of the story. • Eren’s true intention (Eren Requiem vs. full rumbling) and the reasons behind • What Ymir wants

Throughout Chapter 139, there are definitely better choice of words which even average Reddit/Twitter/Tumblr users were able to re-write in the past few days. However Isayama just somehow chose the worst way in presenting the story as if it is a shoutout to readers. The presentation also makes Chapter 139 memorable, though not in a way most have expected.

“Why Mikasa?” “Well…only Ymir knows that one…” When I reread Chapter 139, it seems to me that Isayama is not trying to shy away from admitting the plot change. The disbelief from Armin’s way of saying “Huh? Did you just say Mikasa?” is an analogy to the readers’ reaction due to the lack of interaction between Ymir and Mikasa before the last panel of Chapter 138. Eren is also drawn with a resigned expression. If this is an over interpretation of the frame, Eren’s next response “Well…only Ymir knows that one…” directly points out how the statement lacks a clear and sound reasoning. You can translate it into “Well…only [the company/my editor] knows that one…” or “Nothing I just want to throw this in”. Isayama clearly knows what he is writing and indeed “only Ymir knows that one” becomes a meme.

Also to add that prior to Chapter 139, Ymir has always been a parallel of Historia/Krista, not Mikasa, even as early as Chapter 51, but this plot was just somehow nowhere to be found eventually.

Why Rumbling? The most disastrous consequence of a plot change, from wiping all history and civilization (that has been repeated in his conversation with Historia in Chapter 130 and his internal monologue in Chapter 131) to an Eren Requiem, is that it takes away all the justification and rationale for Eren to eliminate 80% of the population in the first place. Whether or not Eren executes the rumbling and dies willingly, the world will still be in conflict and future generation will remain in the forest. If the plan is to free Ymir, a better way is probably just asking Mikasa to chop his head off. That saves humanity (Ymir likes drama, after all!).

Isayama could have easily used phrases like “I just want to move forward” but he put “I don’t know why, but…I wanted to do that…I had to”. This is also Isayama speaking from the Eren – he does not know why Eren is doing rumbling just to achieve the 80% plan. He just “had to” draw it.

“10 Years, At least!” This is probably the most debatable and dramatic part of the chapter. Eren expresses his love to Mikasa but the scene is presented in a way as if it is a kid throwing a tantrum. In addition to that there is Armin’s comment “Oh ok…I didn’t expect something that pathetic..” as if it is again, the readers’ comment. The scene is portrayed in an unbelievably comedic way, especially when you compare it with Eren’s conversation with Ramzi in Chapter 131, which is supposed to serve the same purpose in showing Eren’s human/soft side. Most importantly, freedom has always been Eren’s core value throughout the series. The outright contradiction this line shows only makes the whole idea of this panel questionable.

Character Regression Needless to say, characters’ behaviours surprisingly regress back to the first arc, wiping out all developments throughout the series. The worst thing is it even kills the hype of re-reading the manga as you know the characters never grow, after all the sufferings and hearts sacrificed. Examples include: • Eren is still a crybaby • Mikasa remains trapped by her relationship with Eren and the scarf • Historia is not living proudly for herself after the Uprising arc • Reiner sniffs Historia’s letter after going through depression and wars (there is even a petition online asking Isayama to change this! You see how problematic this is.) • Jean and the horse joke

Almost everything that could possibly go wrong is wrong in 1 chapter These are written by the man who have been writing good chapters in the past 10 years. Can you believe it is just a lack of sense?

• “Thank you. You became a mass murderer for our sake.” • The “poop” that Armin gives Eren (Isayama likes using meme right? :P) • Eren’s face when he is punched

Is this the High School AU style?

Compared to Chapter 112...You can tell the difference.

The way how the fandom views Chapter 139 is certainly very divided, but even amongst those who like it, most still think “things could have done better” (source: SNK Chapter 139 Poll), showing how awkward the style is compared to previous chapters. The inconsistencies in character portrayal and plot are too hard to ignore. It pains me to see a well-constructed and reputable series, one step away from legend even just with an average ending, closed with a chapter that almost defeats the purpose of the rest. Trust in Isayama – while he can build a legend in 10 years, he can also take it down with 1 chapter.

By the way, Levi is one of the few characters who isn’t ruined. Probably also a conscious choice.

[just-like-playing-tag]

aaaaaaa okay i just watched the new episode and im so curious about how theyre going to handle the rest of this arc? you always have really good takes so i was wondering what your thoughts were!! bunkerman is such an important character in this part of the story, it seems like they cant cut him out entirely????so where is he!!!

~ Sorry for the late answer, I kept procrastinating writing my thoughts because I knew this would have turned out to be long ahah ~

Thank you for the compliments, I'm flattered!!! Tho I doubt I will be of great help, I feel like I'm lost at sea ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ But I'll do my best!!!

First of all, I'd want to point out that, as of now, I'm confident they will not cut Bunkerman and Goldy Pond off the plot. Goldy Pond is a strong and solid arc that I'm sure received a positive response from SJ readers while it was on going; once it's animated, the anime will be completed of the action that has so far been lacking. As for Bunkerman, in the Shounen Jump's tpn popularity polls he earned 16th and 7th place, which makes me think he's fairly popular. His presence adds a very nice twist to the plot: not only he's the first male adult we see; even though he doesn't side with demons, he's still hostile to the children, which comes off as very surprising to the reader / watcher (and builds up to how Andrew and later the whole Ratri clan will persecute them, introducing the aspect that not all humans on the outside are their friends). Additionally, he is the first character to help build up the theme that Emma is not only going to help her friends and family, but also her enemies, which puts the basis of her character development and her decision to save all the demons and mamas. Moreover: how people have already pointed out, Bunkerman has also a very important role as representing the “what-if” version of the children, as showed in chapter 177:

His character has a very poignant role, as he's revealed to have a very tragic backstory: his story consolidates the cruelty of the world they live in, which is a main theme of tpn, and the way it's ultimately revealed how the children saved his life and gave him the chance to start living again comes to the viewer as extremely moving.

To sum up, he's too much of a great character to be omitted- they're not going to have all that great potential go to waste. His character development and personal growth is too powerful to be thrown away, and I refuse to believe they will (I'm going through chapter 109 again after a long time and I'm getting a little emotional :')

So next up is when we're going to see him, right? I doubt it is going to be soon. My guesses are that he'll show up either in the second half of the season, or even at the very end as teasing for an eventual following season.

The conditions in which the children have found the shelter unsettle me. The shelter confuses me so much, because things simply don't add up. If Bunkerman and his friends have already been there, then why Minerva's letter is still hanging there, unopened. On the opposite, if they have never been there, then that doesn't explain the cookies, which are a clear wink to manga readers, nor the scratched room. I'm confused, because these elements just aren't coherent with each other, and that makes me uneasy. I'd exclude that the Glory Bell escapees didn't open the letter, or that a Minerva supporter came back and placed a new one, but then again those elements really don't make any sense? Any that I can understand anyway- I hope they'll come up with a good explanation in the next episosodes.

Back to why I don't think Bunkerman will show up in the next episodes: several elements from the shelter make me think that. The most evident is obviously the rotten cookies. If he's just out hunting, and he usually lives in the shelter, then I don't see why he would keep those moldy biscuits (if not to commemorate his comrades? Dunnot). Besides, the shelter as for how it's been displayed seems to have not been inhabited for a long time: all the crockery was neatly placed; besides from the biscuits, there was not a single hint of people living or having lived there like the food we saw in the manga- if there had been, the children would have surely noticed. Again, that confuses me. Everything is perfectly tidy and clean, making it more similar to the untouched, neat shelter the Glory Bell escapees found when they arrived there for the first time- except for a conveniently scratched room? Isn't that weird that the room and the biscuits are the very only hint that somebody has been there before? But I'm digressing.

Other things that make me think Bunkerman is not going to show up: the children are learning everything on their own. There won't be Bunkerman to show them the armory, to talk about the limited resources and stuff. I believe that them finding about all these things on their own is a further proof that the kids aren't going to meet him soon.

I don't know how the children are going to meet Bunkerman. I'll be frank, I'm very worried, because for the way the children meet Bunkerman to be as it is is of great importance for his character and character development; I worry to make them meet in a different context is likely to have negative consequences to his character growth.

Shifting back to Goldy Pond, I don't think we're getting there any time soon either? There was no hint to A08-63 in the letter. My personal guess is that the "Poachers" skretch was replaced with "help" because we're not getting any poacher this season, and they didn't want to introduce so early an element that is not going to be explained in this season. Of course "Minerva" could reveal it in their phone call- but then why not mention it at all in the letter, besides from ending the episode with a cliff hanger? Furthermore: would it make sense to introduce Goldy Pond before Bunkerman? Goldy Pond wouldn't be the same without him- besides the fact that it would be hard to integrate the story of Lucas and the other Glory Bell escapees, this is a friendly reminder that it's Bunkerman to both break Lewis' mask and later kill him.

Now, as for my personal guess? I think the children are going to leave the shelter and look for Minerva. First of all, that would explain why, in the opening, everyone has the go-out-shelter-coats:

That's the outfit Emma, Ray and later Gilda and Don wear when going out; it's an outfit we never saw the younger children wear in the manga. Another reason why I think that all the children are going to leave together is because it's the only way to protect them: they still can't be sure the shelter is a safe place (the manga reveals it isn't), so they can't leave the children alone in it. In the manga, they divide in two groups: Emma, Ray and Bunkerman leave the shelter, and Gilda and Don would have stayed to keep the children safe. For how things are in the anime, this becomes a problem. Let's say they decide to leave the shelter (and like, they will, otherwise the plot can't move on lol): Emma and Ray can't leave on their own, without Bunkerman to both guide and protect them; at the same time, they can't leave with the support of Gilda and Don, for that would mean leaving the children alone in the shelter. It's not only because leaving a group of less then nines alone would normally not be a good idea (these children are very smart, so maybe they'd manage to go on?), but they can't really know if the shelter will continue being a safe place: only because the demons haven't found it so far, that doesn't mean they can be sure they won't find it at some point; additionally, for what they know poachers are still after them. That's why I think the most logic progress of events will be for the children to leave the shelter together. Which, even though I stand for what I've said... Sounds like a very bad idea??? Not only the children keep travelling in this demon world- they also don't have weapons besides from bow and arrow? That's why I find the armory being empty one of the most senseless things- of course I want the children to be safe, but for the children to survive in demon forests completely unarmored sounds extremely unrealistic. I just hope they aren't going to kill one of the "irrelevant children" to prove how dangerous the world is, that would destroy me.

(I'm Chris.)

Ok, I think I covered everything! Thanks for asking! Let's hope together they won't mess this up for us :))

[ye4gerismarchives]

the bachelorette chp 5, part 2: connie’s proposal

an: hey yall 😛 i'll be posting another q&a before the final elimination chapter comes out. the day after that, i will close the poll, so make good choices! if you wanna change your mind, do it NOW! if you haven't voted, NOW is your chance😁 also, once again, i had to add an extended part to the connie family chapter because the full thing did not upload :( if the extended part helps you change your mind on connie, let me know! also, i really like this chapter because i could properly write a beach story! i went to a beach last week for the very first time and now i won't sound stupid when writing (and i'll never beat around the bush again!) link at the bottom!

tags: fem, black reader

tag list: @taybird

Unlike Jean, Connie did give you an idea of where you were going. He told you to bring some sandals and a light outfit and "not to worry about swimming because I know you don't want to mess up your hair- or makeup". There was a high chance you would be going to the beach where you had your first solo date. It was also the first time you talked about Connie being your husband. He said something about being "wise" about your decision. Now that you think about it, there was a pattern of Connie trying to avoid the fact that you two would have to be in love. You wondered if he'd bring that up again while proposing to you. You wouldn't want to say no to Connie if he did that but the whole friend zone thing is a BIG turnoff (y'all's words, not mine 😉)

But there was a positive side to this maybe? You already knew Connie and he had a higher advantage than Jean. You wouldn't even have to think about building a connection with him because you already had one. But the problem was love. You knew would enter a relationship with Jean, y'all would be lovey-dovey BUT you would need to build a friendship too.

Damn, this was hard. But this would all be over soon. You'd get a big wedding and if you didn't like Connie or Jean, you could move on. It's not like you're signing papers at the televised ceremony.

But anyways 😭 let's starts Connie's date. No time for analysis!

Connie had texted you that he was outside. You grabbed your purse and left the mansion. When you got outside, Connie was leaning on his car, being handsome and all.

"Hey," you greet him. You hold your arms out, hoping for a hug or even a kiss. Connie steps forward leans towards you but his head goes to the side and he's hugging you. Would this guy wait till the possible engagement before getting romantic with you or would the rest of your marriage be like this?

Connie pulls away. "I'm really excited," he says. You want to yell at him right now but the day just started. Maybe he was doing all this to lead you on and make sure you want to fight for him. To be real, this was getting tiring. Connie better be doing something big!

"I'm really excited to see what you have in store for me as well," you reply. Other than seeing Connie's next moves or his proposal, you were excited about the food. You knew Connie could cook, it was in his genes and he did cook for you multiple times throughout the show. As Connie opens the passenger seat for you, you begin to ask him what was on the menu today.

"Well, I've noticed how nauseous you get when under the pressure, so I made egg sandwiches and I packed juices and water. I hope that's alright. When we get engaged, I'll make you a big meal. I promise," Connie says before closing your door.

You thought it was sweet that Connie took note of that. When he got into the driver's seat, you gave him a small smile before opening your mouth. "Thank you, Connie. I really appreciate the fact that you thought about that."

Connie starts the car and begins the drive to the venue. There wasn't much talking done, probably because you would bring up the whole friendship thing. You wanted to get that settled but you also wanted to see what Connie has planned. These two dates weren't just about you saying yes or no but it was a way to see how much Jean and Connie wanted you. If there were problems in the past, they would try and fix them now.

Minutes later you were at the beach (you were right😁). Connie found parking and got out of the car to get the food. You got out on your own. It was weird not having someone rush to your side to open your door. Connie met you on your side of the car and offered you his hand. You can't remember him doing that before (if he has, forgive me yall🧍🏾‍♀️). But his hands felt nice, so you couldn't complain.

The same table from your solo date remained there. "Hey, Connie, just for you, I'll get in the water," you suddenly say. "Huh?! Really?!" he explains. 'Gosh, what a kid,' you think. "You just made this better, y/n! Thank you!" Connie continues. "Just my feet though. I didn't come here to get baptized or anything."

Connie places the picnic basket with all the little things he packed for you. He then proceeds to pull a chair out for you. When you sit, he pulls out one egg sandwich for you. "Juice or water?" Connie asks. "Um, (juice/water)," you reply. He places the drink of your choice in front of you and finally sits down. Connie sets up his food and is ready to dig in until he notices that you haven't touched any of your food.

"Hey...is everything alright? You feel sick?"

You shake your head. "Connie, we need to talk."

Connie sits up slowly. "What's up?"

You liked that Connie was able to see that something was up. This would be useful if you got married.

"How long are you going to friendzone me?"

Connie chokes in his spit. "What?"

"I mean sure we've been lovey-dovey but I still don't feel that romantic connection. If I do say yes to you, I expect us to start acting like a couple. I want you to be my husband, not my friend."

Connie is silent for a minute and then he opens his mouth. "But people who are friends-"

"Oh, shut up. You can be my friend but I want a husband! Please, stop bringing up those statistics and love me!"

You never thought you would be throwing a mini tantrum over a man. Is this who we are? Is this what we represent?

"Come with me," Connie says. You're hesitant to get up until he offers his hand to you. You take it and he pulls you up from the chair.

Connie slowly leads you down the water and you start to freak out mentally. Was he going to drown for telling him off? Connie wasn't that crazy right?

As you walked, you felt yourself slipping out of your shoes. The sand didn't hesitate to fill in the gaps of your toes and tickle your feet. The further you went, the deeper you were. Connie was just walking like it was nothing. You reached the water and Connie came to a stop. For a moment, he stared out into the ocean. You just stared at your feet. The waves pushed the water on your feet causing you to sink more into the sand. This was the world. You were on the edge. You weren't going to live for long, so you had to make the best of it.

"y/n, I hear your cries for love and I'm willing to give it to you. Marry me. I'll work on myself and you'll work on yourself. I promise you, I'll do anything to grow old with you."

Connie’s ring didn’t come in a box. He just pulled it out from his pocket. It was a diamond covered band with a halo shaped sapphire right in the middle.

damn, wonder who y’all gonna choose🤒 LINK

if you’re curious about how these rings look like, here:

connie (left) jean (right , however, his doesn’t match the description i wrote😒)

also, sorry for the white hand. i took a buzzfeed quiz