#and the big bad seemed like a loser the second you knew his backstory and it was much harder to be scared of him

[whatyoutaughtwasfear]

wahoo! just finished reading the September house. It was REALLY good, but the author saying she tried to avoid horror tropes is very funny considering: walls bleeding. well meaning ghost children. Person being haunted is crazy moment. Certain [blank] all along reveal that happens TWICE. also its a metaphorical and cyclical haunting. i do not think she has seen the babadook

[nebulastarss]

World building the Catbatfam AU:

About Gotham: it's actually peaceful there. Yeah, all is casual, no need for costumed vigilantes. There's still a dark and dreary aesthetic, but is it truly GOTHam without the gargoyles and rain and darkness? It's just a normal city, no unusually high crime rate.

About the Rogues: honestly? They're either also cats or don't exist. With things being the way they are (peaceful Gotham, no vigilantes), some of the Rogues dont have their problems.

Examples:

Mr Freeze: Nora's illnesses don't work if she's a cat, and we can't have Victor going villain, so instead she has a rare illness, but beats it against the odds, and they live together happily. This works as both cats and humans

----------------------------

The Joker (a potential side story in a series): he's a human, he's just a bitch with a bad sense of humor who doesn't like animals. He moved to Gotham thinking the smog would lower the amount of animals, but not only did he move in across from a (thriving?) Park, but also his last remaining relatives died, and all they left him was their fucking cat named Harleen, or Harley.

(They did that as they left everything else to their close friends. They hated him, so they didn't want him to sue for being forgotten in the will, and instead left him something they knew he'd hate. They figured he'd give Harley up within a week. The Joker has too much pride for that.)

He hates that cat. He refuses to get a litter box, so she very quickly has to learn to be an outdoor cat. Harley does not know how to outdoor cat. She is struggling.

----------------------------

Ivy: a stray cat who's taken over the park outside of the Joker's house. She's got plant powers, always having plants threaded through her orange fur. She helps Harley, and their story ends with her kicking the Joker's ass. They become Gotham's resident cat-park lesbians. Honestly, she's living her best life. Harley is no longer struggling.

----------------------------

Killer Croc: Waylon is a cat with a skin condition, he always seems to be covered in scabs. He was taken in by a lovely family.

I can't think of anything else, I don't really care for the rogue's backstories tbh

----------------------------

The Wayne's (main plot): the owners are Martha and Thomas Wayne, and their cat Alfred. They refer to him as their friend, talk to him like a person, and eventually claim he's co-parenting their kitten Bruce. They got Alfred in college, and I'll post a drawing of him the second motivation hits. Until then you don't get to know his breed, it's a surprise. (I found out that the breed exists like. 10 minutes ago. Never heard of it before) from there, Bruce slowly collects his kittens and everyone lives happily ever after

Potential other families

The Kent's: lovely older couple bigs up a dog off the street. Who picks up a dog off the street (they're apparently related? Hello Kara.). And then another dog (who... he's also related too? Why do you have a son. Where did he come from. Whatever, his name is Kon) And then another dog, but at least he brings his wife this time. (Your wife's name is now Lois. Your newest son is now Jon. How many of these are we getting?) Etc etc for other superfamily members. They become those farmers with a whole clan of dogs who help out.

The Prince's: honestly I know jackshit about Diana. However I think she has a boyfriend? (Steve? Trevor? I dunno.) So he's a loser living alone with his badass cat. She could beat him in a fight and he knows it. He's pretty sure that she has more muscles than him. Also she's not like. Aging? Girl how old are you. Why do you look at me with such intelligence. I love you with my entire heart and would do anything for you but also you scare me. (I feel like he'd get her a talking button pad. She'd love it I think.) ("Is Diana otherworldly?" 🤷. If you ask her boy he'd say yes, but her vet would say no)

The Allen's: Barry is a bird. End of story, I shouldn't have to explain myself here. He is a bird, along with Wally and Bart.

J'onn: fish. He is a fish. To me. I dunno I'm working off of vibes here. M'gann is also a fish. Martians are fish.

(Picture me, desperately trying to remember the other members of the Justice League after having a busy day and 2 big meals. I'm so tired)

The Lanterns: there's canoically a rage cat. There's a cat with the red ring. They are cats. All of em, Hal, Guy, Kyle I think, there's probably more but I don't know em, all cats.

The Queens': genuinely I do not know this man. Well, no. I have like the opposite problem here as I do with Diana, as I know Diana's personality but I know nothing about her. I know Oliver's backstory, but I know nothing of him as a character. I can't accurately say anything about him. I think it would be funny to make him a cat because Bruce is a cat and these 2 parallel each other, but I'd rather make that decision based on him, not Bruce.

[incorrecttowerofgodquotes]

Gundam: The Witch From Mercury Season 2 Episode 2 Review

- There’s so much to talk about

- First, let’s start with the people I hate so I don’t have to think about them any more. Shaddiq and his loser harem. I fucking hate Shaddiq so much. This dickhead just got innocent kids killed and traumatized so many others for what? To be the new Grassley President? And all of his girls just follow his lead. Fucking brownnoses. The real question is why did he kidnap his father instead of just killing him? Is it because he’s scared if he does kill him, he won’t be the stated heir?

- Poor Nika. Her backstory was pretty sad. She just wants to live a happy life, and she wants others to have the same thing. However right when she was about to solidify her love for her friends, Shaddiq’s number one simp, Henoa, stopped her and probably kidnapped her. And now with Nika being branded a terrorist, and Earth House being arrested, she won’t be able to explain the situation and they’ll think the worst of her.

- The Jeturk curse hits once again with Lauda almost fucking dying. Dude literally just wants to avenge his brother and father and he’s getting fucked by the narrative. Meanwhile, Felsi seems to be feeling outcast since Petra has a crush on Lauda, and thus the two are leaving her behind. At the end of the day, the Jeturk house seems to be a family, all working to support each other.

- Chuchu was too powerful so life had to nerf her by giving her PTSD. She was about to go on a killing spree, but she snapped out of it when she realized that people needed to be saved. It shows just how kind she is under her big attitude. Even if she doesn’t like Spacians, she doesn’t want them to die, and she’ll prioritize their rescue over revenge. But now she’ll have to deal with the fact that her “big sister” was labeled a terrorist

- El5n once again being the ultimate babygirl. However we also get to see past his happy facade. He’s someone who desperately wants to live. He refuses to use his Permet because he sees no use in wasting his life. And his mention of El4n indicates that the two knew each other? Were they close? And how will El5n bond with Norea as the show is putting those two together. Finally, why did El5n become the body double when he knows the Permet will kill him? He says it’s because he wants to live, but wouldn’t becoming a Gundam pilot just kill him faster? I’m so interested in his story.

- Norea and Sophie. One wants revenge against the Spacians who destroyed her world, and one just wants what everyone else does. A nice home and warm meals and a happy family. But they’re Gundam pilots which means they’ll die before they’ll ever see their goals realized. They want so desperately to be happy but their circumstances means they can’t. And poor Sophie dies, and all Norea can do is mourn her and move on. But what will Norea do now? She seems set in her ways on destroying Spacians, but maybe El5n can break her from that curse. Maybe there can be a happy ending?

- Finally, the moment I’ve been waiting for. The reveal that Eri is the Aerial and Suletta is just a clone/second daughter. Eri’s conscience has been locked into the Aerial and when it goes Permet 6, she fully takes over. The side story implies Eri knows what’s going on and agreed with her mother, so will she be the true big bad? Or is she going to ultimately side with her little sister and protect her? How lonely she must be locked in a robot, never being able to love a normal life. And is there more? Cause once you get one kid in the suit, it’s not too hard to put more in there.

- Suletta almost broke out of her programming. She realized her mom put her in a suit of war and that she took a man’s life with its hands. She realized that her “siblings”, Sophie and Norea, were cursed. But then the brainwashing takes over. Aerial tells her that everything will be okay. Aerial doesn’t want her to feel guilt so it says that Suletta did no wrong. And Suletta, who wants to believe her mom is good, takes the bait and reconditions herself. Only Suletta can break herself free, but she needs support in Miorine and her friends.

- But where do we go from here? The school’s been attacked and people have died. What small basis GUND-ARM was gaining has been torn apart. Gundams are evil again. And maybe this pressure will make Miorine crack and finally take up Quiet Zero. And then no more wars and everyone will be happy! Yay!

[iamnmbr3]

Can I sign up for a Disney- Service where I pay them not to put out any type of new content or interviews? Bc wow I am tired of this show and I’m tired of Mike Waldron shooting his mouth off and spewing grossness. But here we go again. He’s given another interview and I am once again left wondering why Disney had to hire him and not...literally anyone else. Like if they just grabbed a rando off the street it couldn’t have been any worse and statistically it probably would’ve been a lot better. 

"I knew that I wanted to position somebody opposite Tom, opposite Tom's Loki, who had the same energy in a way, but also a totally different energy, that female energy”

Female energy??? Can someone please tell Mike that "girl" isn't a personality trait. Remember when I talked about how Sylvie isn’t a good female character because she’s physically strong but not strongly written? Remember when I talked about how she’s an empty “strong female character TM” who is a woman first and a human second because she’s not a good character who happens to be female but rather a character whose defining and only personality trait is her gender? Yeah.

"But it's one thing, I guess, to be narcissistic and to think you're great and everything, it's another thing to really believe that, to project that outwardly. It's another thing to really believe that and to actually practice self-love and everything. So if the show is about Loki falling for Sylvie a little bit, the hope was always that maybe that it's also about him learning to forgive himself." 

What. No really. WHAT. Mike’s pathetic attempts to justify his ridiculously bad romance and also pretend like he didn’t straight up lie to us about Loki learning self love are hilarious. this makes NO sense. huh???? This is just a really bad attempt at damage control. Loki doesn’t learn self love. He never says anything positive about himself. The show frames him internalizing other’s harmful messages about him like that he is a villain and a pathetic loser as something positive. What has he learned to love about himself? Mike has yet to be able to name one positive trait he has. His hatred for Loki is so obvious. And how is loving Sylvie him forgiving himself???? she didn't do any of the things he did???? This makes ZERO sense.

"He is just a character who doesn't like to self reflect, and would rather pontificate, and would rather scheme, because he's good at it, because he's very clever. "

Really? He would rather pontificate? Another comment that seems to indicate that Mike really didn’t watch Thor 2011. Remember how the opening scenes established how SILENT Loki is and how he is constantly spoken over? That’s a big part of his other and victim coding. The way Mike constantly shames Loki for speaking is very disturbing given the way Loki is Other coded. And also given the fact that he is now canonically queer. Why must the Other be silenced??? 

“And when faced with an actual mirror of himself, he sees things that are attractive and that he empathizes with. He also sees things that are broken and wounded, and it helps him understand those very things in his own psyche" 

Wrong. But also? Where? Where is that in the show??? This never happened. He’s just lying here.

"I mean, he has done terrible things. That was part of the work that the first episode had to do, was hold him accountable for that, sort of lay him bare and everything. And the journey that he's been on has been one of reckoning with that. Is it possible to atone for that? I think Loki's still trying to figure that out."

Terrible things? Huh. Kinda like Thor. Remember when he slaughtered all those Jotnar while laughing (which was considered totally acceptable in his culture)? Remember when Odin slaughtered and enslaved thousands? Remember when Loki was motivated by trying to PREVENT a war? And. Remember when Loki was captured and TORTURED by Thanos? Also. The first episode didn't do that. The first episode was about things he hadn't done bc it was him seeing his future. AND FURTHERMORE the TVA can't hold him accountable bc if what Loki did was bad then the TVA has no moral high ground bc what they did was orders of magnitude worse. And if what the TVA did was ok then Loki didn't do anything wrong. Why does the TVA get a pass for their horrific acts of evil???

"I think, for me, that's one of the most important scenes in the show because this is a guy who has been driven by glorious purpose, by the feeling that everything he does is in the service of his grand destiny."    

So Mike really just watched that glorious purpose clip and decided it was Loki’s whole motivation huh? What an idiot. So much for the Loki Lectures. Obviously this guy was asleep during them and didn’t bother to watch Thor 2011 either. You know, the movie all about Loki’s backstory and motivations. Guess he also missed the fact that Loki is LITERALLY KNEELING when he comes through the portal and looks awful bc he’s just been tortured is very obviously repeating the stuff Thanos told him while breaking him. Loki is not motivated by believing in a glorious purpose. He cries when Thor tells him to look at the destruction in Avengers. 

And in Thor 2011 he is motivated by wanting to avert a war and also more deeply by his desire for love and validation. He never wanted the throne. He wanted to be Thor’s equal. He has a mental breakdown and tries to kill himself when he comes to believe that he is inherently monstrous and that he can never earn his family’s love. LOKI IS DEFINED BY HIS LACK OF SELF ESTEEM AND HIS SELF HATRED! That is. The opposite of what Mike has said. Also Mike contradicts himself. Is Loki someone who is arrogant and needs to learn his purpose isn’t glorious or is he someone who needs to learn self love? It can’t be both. What a disgusting, victim blaming, abuse apologist lying hack.  

“In that moment, he sees that no, it was his destiny to get his neck snapped by the bad guy he was working for"

Excuse me? Working for??? Loki never went back to Thanos. He died sacrificing himself to save Thor. WTF!!!?!?

[saijspellhart]

Could you do 8 for Radicalshipping? I think it would be sweet :)

8. Laying a gentle kiss to the back of the other’s hand. (Radicalshipping)

3. A breathy demand: “Kiss me” - and what the other person does to respond. (Radicalshipping)

16. One person pouting, only to have it removed by a kiss from the other person. (Radicalshipping)

“I knew he only liked me for my body,” Bakura spat. He flicked a duel monsters card at the TV and watched it hit the screen and deflect off of Malik’s face and join its brethren on the floor.

They were watching a tournament on the television, and the broadcast was currently wrapping up Malik’s latest duel. He’d been successful of course, and they were in the post duel interviews where Malik was answering questions about his plays. Ryou was with him, their arms thrown over the other’s shoulder in congratulations and friendship.

Malik leaned his head against Ryou’s and smiled at the camera, bright and proud.

Bakura flung another card at the TV.

“I like your body.” Yami Marik pulled off a pair of headphones, and turned away from his game at the desk.

Bakura threw a card at him too. “That’s the whole point you twit! This isn’t my body.” He gestured to himself, his thin lanky frame. There were muscles, because Bakura worked for them. But they weren’t incredibly defined because Ryou had never had that sort of stature. Upon being given a second chance at life, the gods had humbled Bakura by giving him a replica of Ryou’s body, rather than his original body. “And now Malik is shacking up with my former host.”

Marik eyed the television which was still showing the interviews with Malik. He’d been purposely ignoring this portion of the broadcast. Seeing his other half always stirred troubled emotions of resent and anger in him. Feelings he was working hard to overcome.

“They look like friends to me,” Marik remarked.

“Feh,” Bakura shuffled the stack of cards in his hand. He was lounging across the couch, one foot crossed over the other. The floor around the apartment was littered with Duel Monsters cards that he’d been throwing for the last hour.

“Well he certainly wouldn’t like you for your personality,” Marik snipped. “You’re an insufferable bastard.”

“Prick,” Bakura spat.

“Bitch.”

“Wanker.”

“Look! Yugi’s on!” Marik suddenly leaped from the chair and vaulted over the couch. He snatched the remote off the coffee table, and was already turning up the volume. Bakura didn’t bother to move his legs, which didn’t bother Marik at all. He climbed onto the couch, crouching on it like L from Death Note rather than a sane normal person.

Then again, Yami Marik was not a sane and normal person. In the years of separation from Malik—and with the gift of his own body—Marik had grown into himself. In some ways he had matured, grown, and mellowed out, but in other ways he’d developed his own idiosyncrasies, and still had a streak of impulsivity that reared from time to time.

Marik turned up the volume, and even Bakura sat up straighter. The two men watched as the small “King-of-Games” appeared on screen stepping up to a podium on a duel stadium. This tournament was using a classic stadium, rather than Kaiba’s portable duel disk system.

Yugi waved to the crowd, and smiled. Then the cameras switched to his opponent, and they watched as a different person, a taller guy with black hair and a ball cap, stepped up to the opposite podium. He too, waved at the crowd. But he followed it up with a fist pump that awarded him a round of cheers.

Bakura flicked a card at the guy on the screen. It struck the man’s ball cap before bouncing onto the floor.

“Boo!” Marik voiced both their thoughts aloud.

The two Yamis resented their absence from the tournament. They had not been allowed to sign up due to a lack of identification. Kaiba promised that he was working on creating identification for them, as well as obtaining credible backstories and citizenship. They’d only been given their fleshy new bodies less than six months ago, and it had taken a lot of convincing from Yugi to persuade Kaiba to help Marik and Bakura.

Suffice to say Kaiba wasn’t exactly in a rush.

So here they were, at home—Yugi’s home, because he had been the only one willing to take them in—behaving themselves. Sort of.

Yugi’s apartment was a mess right now. The carpet blanketed in a layer of trading cards that Bakura had spent the last hour and a half throwing about.

The desk where Marik had been faired no better. It was covered in the empty cans of energy drinks, sodas, and the occasion alcohol. Marik had a tendency to stay up all night playing MMOs, and the lack of sleep only enhanced his usual crazy unkempt appearance, rather than detract from it. Amongst the cans were the various wrappers of plant protein bars and veggie chips; there were also a few cards here and there that had managed to find their way amongst the mess.

The tournament commenced after a handful of commercials and a few more interviews with the other contestants. It was mostly speculation of who they thought would win, and what strats might be employed from each player.

Bakura muttered his own commentary about Yugi’s strategies, and Marik grunted in agreement.

And then the duel was underway. Yugi was first to go, and played a face down card before ending his turn, and letting his opponent retaliate.

Ball-cap Boy, as the Yamis labeled him, lost his first summoned monster to Yugi’s trap hole.

“Kick his ass!” Screamed Marik. He was clutching the remote between his fingers like a demented gargoyle.

“Not a bad start,” Bakura remarked. “The field is wide open for Yugi to make a counter attack, and Ball-cap Boy only played one face down card.”

The turn passed back to Yugi. He drew a card.

“Yugi has cards to sweep the field of magic and traps,” Marik nodded at the screen, stating the obvious. It wasn’t necessarily for Bakura’s benefit, as they were simply voicing their own thoughts and observations.

Right on cue, Yugi used a Mystical Space Typhoon, and sent Ball-cap’s card to the graveyard. Then he used a Pot of Greed, drew two more cards, and played a Black Magic Ritual spell card. He sent two monsters from his hand, to the graveyard as tribute, and summoned Magician of Black Chaos right to the field.

This was followed by the activation of the field spell, Yami. Which cast the whole holographic playing field into a black and purple miasma. The change in field giving Yugi’s Spellcaster and Fiend type monsters a boost.

Which included Magician of Black Chaos.

Yugi struck his opponent with a savage blow to his life points, then ended his turn. His hand was empty of cards except for one. It was a vulnerable position to be in, but he did have a very powerful monster on the field.

“YAAS!” Marik bounced on the couch and howled at the TV.

“Babysitter had a very lucky hand to start with,” Bakura remarked. “This will hardly be a fair match.”

“Don’t care as long as Yugi fucks him up.”

Bakura nodded his agreement, and they both continued to watch the game unfold.

The duel didn’t conclude as one-sided as the Yamis first predicted. Ball-cap Boy managed to make a come back, and get rid of Yugi’s Magician with a spell card. After that, he had Yugi on the defensive for a bit.

But when the match finally concluded it was with Yugi’s decisive victory.

The cameras momentarily followed the loser as he slunk offstage, as well as a shower of trading cards and popcorn from Marik and Bakura.

When attention returned to Yugi, interviews and congratulations commenced. With his latest win, Yugi would be attending the semi-finals tomorrow, where he would face off against Malik Ishtar, Mai Valentine, and Weevil Underwood. They would draw names tomorrow to decide who would face off against whom.

The Yamis continued to watch the broadcast even after Yugi had excused himself from the cameras, and mysteriously disappeared. No one appeared to be able to locate him again for further interviews, and turned instead to interview various members of the crowd about today’s matches.

Twenty minutes later the apartment door flew open, and the spikey little “King-of-Games,” entered the apartment. He tossed his bag on the floor next to the shoe shelf.

“I’m home! Did you guys catch my duel?”

Bakura quickly snapped the television off and looked over the back of the couch.

“Of course not. I don’t watch bullshit.”

Marik fixed Bakura with a dark stare. Then turned and draped his large frame over the back of the couch to watch Yugi kick his shoes off.

“Oh.” Yugi’s face drooped a bit. “What were you guys watching?”

“The news.”

“My Little Pony.”

This time it was Bakura’s turn to fix Marik with a death glare. “We do NOT watch My Little Pony.”

“Keh, speak for yourself,” Marik muttered, “Discord is my kindred spirit.”

Yugi hung up his jacket and approached the two of them with an infectious smile. A smile different from his other ones, and one he only seemed to wear when he saw them. Whether it was coming home from a long day, or upon seeing them whenever they picked him up from university.

“Did you win?” Bakura inquired, folding his arms over the back of the couch.

Marik struck him with his unsocked foot, where Yugi couldn’t see. “Of course he won. Babysitter is the King.”

“I lost. Big time,” Yugi lamented. He dropped his eyes and kicked the carpet in shame. “Sano, will go on to the semi-finals tomorrow.”

Marik held out his arms, beckoning Yugi to come close for a sympathetic hug.

When he did, the Yami scooped him up instead and dragged Yugi over the back of the couch and onto the cushions between him and Bakura.

Yugi yelped in surprise.

Both Yamis drew over him like a couple of predators. It was akin to being flanked by a lion and lynx.

“Let us console you,” Bakura purred.

“We’ll ease the sting of loss,” Marik added. “Tell us how it happened.”

“You definitely should have won.”

“Especially the play with the graceful charity, and the discarding two dark magicians from your hand to boost the power of Dark Magician Girl. That was a wicked thing to do~”

“Marik! You absolute knob-head!”

“I knew it,” Yugi giggled, and a grin spread over his face from ear to ear. He stared up at the two Yamis. “You did watch my duel.”

One Yami was baring his teeth and scowling so hard that creases formed on his brow. The other was grinning with feral delight.

“I never wanted to play this game in the first place,” Marik defended. He turned his attention to their babysitter and picked up Yugi’s hand, placing a chaste kiss to the back of it. “You sacrificed your most precious monster cards so callously for power. How unlike you. We must be rubbing off on you.” he purred almost sensually.

It sent butterflies squirming in the young man’s stomach.

“Congrats of the victory, My Precious,” he hummed the words against pale skin before dragging his long tongue over Yugi’s hand and fingers. The endearing nickname was something he’d coined for Yugi after the three of them binged a Lord of the Rings marathon. Bakura refused to use it, preferring his own terms for Yugi. So this one was uniquely Marik’s.

“It was a good duel,” Bakura grumbled. He folded his arms over Yugi’s bent knees and rested his chin upon them.

Yugi couldn’t help but beam up at him even whilst Marik slipped one of Yugi’s fingers into his mouth. “I’m sorry I didn’t catch that over the sound of my hand being molested.”

“You kicked ass,” Bakura snarled louder, his cheeks suddenly flushing a deep pink. His eyes were staring at the floor off to the side though.

“Thanks.” Yugi knew the admission didn’t come lightly. Bakura was generally sparse with his compliments, and praise did not fall from his tongue lightly.

Marik was now biting Yugi’s fingers, but this didn’t bother him at all. Marik tended to be very bitey, and on numerous occasions Yugi had to get creative covering up various bruises ranging in spots from his neck to his calves.

He leaned his head back to meet Yami Marik’s lovely lavender colored eyes.

“I won my duel. So, do I get a victory kiss?”

A sinister grin pulled over Marik’s face, Yugi’s fingers still caught between his teeth. He released the thoroughly molested hand with one final lingering caress of his tongue and leant forward to place a kiss on Yugi’s cute mouth.

A pale hand intercepted, two fingers placed against Yugi’s lips before Marik could kiss him. “But I thought you lost?” Bakura sneered.

Yugi shot him a pouty look.

“We can pretend he won,” Marik tried to pry Bakura’s hand out of the way.

Bakura pushed against Marik’s forehead with his other hand. “We don’t reward losers.”

“Oh, just kiss me.” Yugi huffed, sounding a bit breathless in his demand.

“Babysitter ordered.”

“Well in that case...” Bakura pushed Yugi’s knees apart and crawled between them. He dipped his head under Marik’s nose and his mouth closed over the Game King’s. It was soft but aggressive, wasting no time coaxing Yugi to let him in, and then letting his tongue slip into the kiss.

Marik growled above them.

Bakura paid him no mind. Relishing the taste, lips moving, molding, and coaxing delightful noises from the male below them. He stole breath and sound like the thief he was, and swallowed them both. And his hand trailed over Yugi’s thigh, fingers raking over more sensitive areas until Yugi arched against him.

They broke apart for air, and Bakura watched Yugi pant, with a playful hunger in his half-lidded eyes.

Yugi blinked, and refocused just past him.

Marik’s mouth was twisted in a pout, and he looked very left out.

Yugi reached both hands up, and dragged the Egyptian down for an upside down kiss, that was more teeth than lips, but no less intense and heated.

Marik made a noise akin to a growl, but more hungry and throaty, and slipped his own hands under Yugi’s head to grasp fistfuls of his colorful spiked hair.

Both men continued to lath the little King-of-Games in attention. Occasionally squabbling with each other over possession of Yugi’s mouth. But both of them spoiling their little keeper with touches and affection.

If someone had asked Yugi six months ago if he would ever have two boyfriends—and both of them the former Yamis of his friends, Malik and Ryou—he would have laughed and called them insane. Six months ago he had still been mourning the loss of Atem. Moping about his departure for the afterlife, even though three years had already passed since the ceremonial duel.

Six months ago he had tentatively taken in the homeless, aimless, pitiable Yamis; whom the gods had saw fit to grant a second chance to redeem their souls. He had been the only one of their friend group willing to give these two the second chance he felt they deserved.

And for awhile they resented him with the same disdain they showed the rest of the world.

But Yugi never ceased being patient and kind, freely giving them his friendship. No strings attached.

They had come to accept it begrudgingly at first. And then coveted it selfishly.

Somewhere along the way friendship had morphed into affection, and feelings became complicated.

A strange relationship of hate, friendship, lust, and loyalty, that sometimes left Yugi feeling lost and drowning. He really liked them both, maybe more than he should. And they couldn’t seem to decide if they liked him, or hated him, but they certainly wanted him.

Things were now very complicated.

All this, compounded on the sinful things they were doing with their mouths, was enough to fray his nerves and light his skin ablaze with sensations and confusing emotions. It left Yugi extremely overwhelmed and dizzy.

He broke from all the attention to catch some much needed breath. Marik and Bakura backed off looking mischievous and starved, their eyes dragging over their little Babysitter like he was a juicy piece of meat.

“Why are there duel monsters cards all over the floor?” Yugi asked, finally taking in his surroundings and the state of his apartment.

“Because Bakura was huffy about staying home, and decided to fling his trading cards at everything,” Marik explained, sounding equal amounts amused and annoyed.

“Actually,” Bakura corrected. “They’re all Marik’s cards.”

Lavender eyes shot up.

“What?”

~0000~

So this was interesting to write. Sorry it took me so long. I had to agonize how I wanted to write this ship for the longest time. Pondered over their dynamic, and what circumstances would even bring them together. I hope this was satisfactory. I did a have a lot of fun writing this. Mayhaps you’ll have fun reading???

[spookieloop]

5 MALE CHARACTERS I LOVE

Tagged by: @fadedjacket Thank you!!! I think I’m also going to take the opportunity to go on about WHY I love these characters

1: Doom-Head (Rob Zombie’s 31)

First and Foremost I love Doom-Head because I’m thirsty AF, but beyond that the character absolutely steals the show; Richard Brake gave a STUNNING performance. He’s a fun character because he seems like he’d be just an edgy-grimdark type of character, but he is the kind of loser trash man who says the word “dong” and loves the sound of his own voice so much he fucks himself over(and he absolutely IS an edgelord). BEYOND affectionate ripping on the character, he is actually so TRAGIC when you think about the time period the movie takes place in, and the fact that Rob Zombie is a very smart man with a great love of the time period. In the movie, we catch glimpses of Doom-Head’s mental state, which is obviously...suffering; compounded by the fact that the movie takes place in the late 70s, and the fact that the character is at least in his forties(Brake is in his 50s), there was absolutely no such thing as decent mental health care in his youth. I could talk for hours about this character. And I have on my Horror Side Blog @its-monster-mash

2: Porter Gage (Fallout 4)

I HAVE talked for hours about how much I love Porter Gage and why, I run a Gage Request blog at @raiders-r-us, and a general fallout sideblog @0nce-in-a-bluem00n

Basically, Porter Gage is a companion in Fallout 4’s Nuka World DLC and is your second in command as you lead and manage a group of Raiders; though he has personal morals that go above and beyond your standard raider. If you go down his friendship/romance route, he will open up to you about his backstory and how he became a raider in the first place. In short, as he grew up he watched his family constantly knuckle under to raider gangs, and at age 13 he ran off and joined a mercenary company...who also knuckled under to raiders. So from 16 on he’s been a raider. It’s the only life he ever really knew.

I ADORE his character because if his parents had stood up to the raiders, or his mercenary company had been a little tougher, Gage would almost definitely not have become a raider. Unlike the typical raiders of the Fallout universe, Gage hates chem use, and has a strong work ethic(to the point where he will get pissed if the player chooses lazy dialogue choices); those two things alone set him above the rest, but it also can’t be ignored how intelligent Gage is. He’s been leading the Nuka raiders from the sideline(he chooses to be second in command to avoid a bullseye on his back) since before they found Nuka World, he cares deeply about his people whether he would admit it or not. IN SHORT, Gage is such a dynamic character and I live for that shit.

3: John Seed (Far Cry 5) Farcry Sideblog is @wrath-of-eden

Dear Sweet Johnny Boy. Honestly, I walked into the living room when my husband was playing Far Cry, the loading screen with John’s picture came up, and we were both SHOOK because he resembles my husband A LOT(like right down to the outfit, John’s outfit is basically what my husband wore to our wedding); so I was predisposed to like John.

What I WASN’T prepared for was how emotional I would get when I played through Far Cry 5 myself and learned John’s backstory. I didn’t go through the same religious torture John did, and I never struggled with drug addiction, but I did have a very traumatic childhood that resaulted in a similar “Yes” complex and intense need for approval. Up until a few years ago when I had a scary moment that taught me the importance of enforcing boundaries, almost every significant figure in my life took advantage of my inability to say no, often in malicious ways. To me, John represents someone who never had that awakening. The evil shit John does, he does because he BELIEVES it; that becomes undeniable in his death seen(in the gif). John was tortured and made to believe it was good and necessary, so he believes he is doing the right thing when he tortures people; Joseph only reinforces this. As horrible as the torture aspect to his character is, I see too much of myself in him not to feel for the character.

4: Cullen (Dragon Age) Dragon Age Sideblog is @the-greyest-warden

I have been crushing on this character since he was an awkward blushing mess in DAO, so being able to romance him in Inquisition?? You bet your ass I jumped at the opportunity. This character appears in both earlier Dragon Age games, so I jumped in FULLY aware of his trauma...but I didn’t expect his addiction arc.

I loved Cullen’s entire storyline; I think his timeline of trauma/lashing out/healing felt very natural. People hate on Cullen for having been harsh against mages, but he was TORTURED by mages he probably knew since he was young; the evils from both mages and Templars he experienced in Kirkwall would be a compelling case for his negative feelings, the growth he has done by Inquisiton is honestly so impressive, and really shows what a compassionate and critically thinking character Cullen is. His addiction plot line takes it to a whole new level for me personally though, because my husband was an addict when I met him; so I am very intimate with the reality of watching your loved one suffer through withdrawals, and watching the person you love reach his breaking point and still push himself beyond it. (My husband has been clean for over two years now, and our son turned one year old last week ❤️)

5: Vegeta (Dragon Ball Z)

The gif says it all. Vegeta has been my favorite character on DBZ since I was a little girl first watching his villainous little ass land on earth. From then to current DBZ content? Vegeta’s character growth is absolutely immeasurable. He went from big bad villain to a fiercely devoted husband and father(certainly a much better husband and father than Goku has ever been). His development was so gradual it never felt out of place; I don’t think there is any other beloved character from my childhood for whom new content continues to be made who has NEVER disappointed me.

Tagging: @thatpinkthot @atomkatz @chazz-anova @just-an-adventurer @undead-gearhead @aimsharpfloora @booklover2929 @xredskullxx

[tinylilemrys]

Rating: T

Word count: 3,407

Summary: Richie Tozier was an open book – some would call it the best thing about him, others would argue that it was the most annoying thing about him.

There were only two secrets that Richie fiercely guarded. One: he had been desperately and completely inconveniently in love with his best friend, Eddie Kaspbrak, for years now, and two: Richie liked – no, loved – playing Dungeons and Dragons.

Richie Tozier was an open book – some would call it the best thing about him, others would argue that it was the most annoying thing about him. While it was true that you were never unsure of where you stood with Richie, there was also almost nothing others would classify as too much information that Richie wouldn’t feel comfortable sharing. They knew when he was angry, they knew when he was scared shitless about his Calc test, they knew when he’d eaten food that was more than a bit past its sell-by date as a dare and all about the day of spectacular gastrotechnics that followed, they knew (in great detail) when he’d found a new supermodel that he considered attractive, they knew when he had fought with his parents, and they knew when he was feeling particularly sentimental about his group of friends.

There were only two secrets that Richie fiercely guarded. One: he had been desperately and completely inconveniently in love with his best friend, Eddie Kaspbrak, for years now, and two: Richie liked – no, loved – playing Dungeons and Dragons.

He hadn’t meant to enjoy it as much as he did. He’d only agreed to sit on a few sessions because one of the girls from his Drama class told him it was really good way to improve his storytelling and improv skills, but after one session of being sucked up into the world that Will Jones, the Dungeon Master, had spun and being frustrated at not being able to influence the decisions the party made, Richie was hooked. He had spent all of that night creating his character and eagerly (though stealthily) handed his character’s backstory to Will at school the next day.

And that had been that. His little Gnome Cleric had been a vital part of the party for the past six months and Richie couldn’t remember what life was before he started playing.

Of course, finding excuses to duck out of plans with six other friends had proven more difficult than he initially thought it would. Though the party only met to play every second Friday, it was often when the rest of the group had made plans for a movie night or a night swim at the quarry and finding excuses to not be there was tricky. Though the excuse he’d finally settled on was guitar lessons, he could almost feel how annoyed the rest of them were each time he flaked out and though he felt bad about it, D&D had become too important to give up.

The only one who seemed to understand was Eddie, who had started tutoring to make a bit of extra cash on the same Fridays that Richie had D&D and as such was also subject to the ire of the group.

Eddie, however, had a far shorter fuse for these things than Richie did.

“Could you all just give Richie a fucking break?” he snapped one Thursday when Bill had complained about them never hanging out together anymore. “We’re in our junior year. Shit’s getting busy. You can’t accuse us of being shitty friends just because we’ve got other things going on. He’s trying his best and so am I, so back the fuck off.”

Richie had wanted to kiss him – even more so when he’d given him a shy glance afterwards to make sure he hadn’t overstepped.

Though honestly, there weren’t many times when Richie didn’t want to kiss him.

The Loser’s Club had backed off a bit after that, and it had become a routine for them to schedule their movie nights on the weeks where Richie and Eddie could make it. It had also become a routine for Eddie to come over to Richie’s place the day after the Fridays where they couldn’t hang out.

This Saturday was no different, apart from the fact that Eddie wasn’t quite himself. He’d sensed that something was wrong as soon as he opened the door, but when Eddie didn’t even fight him over which movie to watch, Richie knew for sure there was something up.

“Hey, are you okay, Eds?” asked Richie, setting down the VHS tape he was about to put on. “You seem a little down.”

“I’m fine,” said Eddie, but he chewed his bottom lip the way he always did when he was lying.

“No you’re not,” Richie replied, crossing the living room to sit next to him on the sofa. “It’s not your mom again is it?”

“No, not this time,” he replied, his face screwing up when he realised that he’d just admitted he wasn’t fine. “It’s really stupid.”

“If it’s making you this upset, it’s not stupid to me.”

Eddie looked up at him then and Richie’s heart jumped to his throat. He knew he was being reckless, that being this soft with Eddie would lead to him working it out, but he couldn’t imagine being snarky when Eddie looked so sad.

Eddie heaved a deep sigh.

“Okay, well, it’s my, uh, my babysitting.”

“You mean your tutoring?”

“Yeah, what did I say?” asked Eddie, eyes wide and cheeks flooding with colour.

“You said ‘babysitting’.”

“Fuck. Well, I meant tutoring.” He was looking down at his hands now, red-faced. “It, uh, it didn’t work out. I got let go.”

“Ah man, I’m sorry to hear that,” said Richie, placing a comforting hand on his shoulder. “Do you maybe want to ditch the movie and go for ice-cream instead? You seem like you need sugar. My treat, since you’re broke now that you’ve lost your job.”

“Ha fucking ha,” Eddie replies, and though he rolls his eyes, he’s grinning. “You know me, I’d never say no to ice-cream.”

“Thought so,” laughed Richie.

Half an hour later, they were sitting on a patch of grass near the river, quietly eating their desserts. What he appreciated about hanging out with Eddie was that the silences between them were never awkward. He didn’t feel the need to fill the air with the sound of his voice, because it was always so comfortable between them. When Richie was with Eddie, he could just be.

“Thanks for this, Rich,” said Eddie, finishing up the last of his cone. “I needed it.”

“Anytime,” said Richie, lying back in the grass to look up at the sky now that he had finished his own. “Don’t stress about it though, alright? We can find you another kid to tutor.”

Eddie sighed and lay down next to Richie, propping himself up on his elbow to look at him.

“To tell you the truth, I wasn’t… I wasn’t actually tutoring anyone.”

Richie frowned and propped himself up on his elbows too.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean that I lied about the tutoring because I didn’t want you or the rest of the Losers to know what I was really doing.”

“Okay, so what were you doing?” asked Richie. “Since you telling me the truth now obviously means that you want to let me in on the big secret.”

“You swear you won’t laugh?”

“Oh, my dear Spaghetti, I can promise you a great many things, but that is not one of them.” The crease in Eddie’s brow deepened. “But I can promise you that, depending on how serious this is, I will at least try not to laugh.”

Eddie rolled his eyes.

“I suppose that’s as good as I’m going to get from you. Fine. The truth is that instead of tutoring every second Friday like I told you, ivebeeninadungeonsanddragonsgroupwithsomeoftheavguysforthepastfewmonths.”

“Jesus Christ, Kaspbrak, slow your roll,” said Richie, turning to his side to face Eddie better. “Tell me again, but slowly.”

“I’ve been in a Dungeons and Dragons group with some of the AV guys for the past few months,” Eddie repeated, his face the reddest Richie had ever seen it. Richie had been fully prepared to laugh or at least suppress a laugh, but none came. He was too astounded to hear that Eddie played D&D to do anything except stare at him. “At least I was until Steve, you know the president of the AV club? He said that because Grant and Matt can’t sort out their shit, he’s dissolving our party. That’s why I was upset earlier. And, yeah, I get that probably makes me more of a fucking loser than the rest of the other Losers, but I was really enjoying it. I wasn’t expecting to like it as much as I do, but it’s been really fun. See I play this Bard who’s less of a musician and more of a stand-up comedian and I’m starting to get really good at getting into character. He’s so different to me and it was just nice to be able to stop being Eddie Kaspbrak for a few hours to be someone else, you know. And I just –“

Richie places a hand on Eddie’s arm and his words, which had been flying at a mile a minute a moment ago, suddenly falter.

“You don’t have to justify it to me,” he said, knowing he should probably take his hand back now that Eddie had calmed, but somehow not being able to work up the will to. “If you enjoy it, fuck the rest of them, right?”

And it was at that point that he totally meant to tell Eddie that he was doing the same thing with his Fridays – that the two of them had been keeping the same damn secret for half a year – but it was also at that point that he felt Eddie’s lips crash into his.

Richie’s brain shut down. Eddie, Eddie who he’d been in love with for years, was kissing him. Eddie was kissing him. But no sooner had his brain began whirring back to life than Eddie was pulling back with a look of horror.

“Oh my god, Richie, I don’t know what I was thinking, I’m so fucking sorry I–“

“Hey, Eddie,” said Richie, smiling as he slid his hand from Eddie’s shoulder to his burning cheek. “Don’t be.”

And all thoughts of dungeons or dragons or the president of the AV club left his mind as he kissed Eddie, enjoying the taste of vanilla ice-cream on the lips he’d been dreaming about for so long, enjoying the way that Eddie’s fingers began tangling through his hair, enjoying his soft laugh as they pulled apart again, and especially enjoying the euphoria rising in him at the realisation that this meant that Eddie felt the same way. He was looking at Richie shyly through his long lashes the way he often did, but now he finally knew what that look meant.

“For what it’s worth,” he said, brushing back a tendril of soft dark hair that had flopped across Eddie’s forehead, “though I totally get the appeal of wanting to be someone else for a few hours, I happen to like Eddie Kaspbrak. Like, a lot.”

“He likes you too,” Eddie replied. “Like, a lot.”

There was no way he was changing trajectory now to tell Eddie his other secret. Not when Eddie was scooting closer to wrap his arms around him, not when the two of them were lying together watching the blue sky turn from orange to pink and eventually deep blue, both the happiest they had been in years.

He later realised of course – long after Eddie finally announced that he should head home, long after the hour it had taken them to finally move after this announcement, long after trying to bring it up during the car ride home, though being unable to find the moment to – that there was no longer a good time to tell Eddie that he also played D&D, not without an unnecessarily awkward conversation.

He had missed his window and now he hoped and prayed that another would miraculously show up.

–

The next two weeks were the best of Richie’s life so far. Though he and Eddie had both agreed to keep it quiet for the time being, there were so many stolen glances, and brushes of skin and kisses that the secret felt less like a burden and more like a covert and daring mission. So far it seemed that the Losers suspected nothing, to the point that they had even gotten away with holding hands the whole way through that week’s movie night without anyone noticing.

As the two of them lived the closest to each other, they spent every moment they could at each other’s houses (though mostly at Richie’s – his parents were far more prone to knocking than Mrs Kaspbrak was). Despite all the time that they spent together, however, Richie still hadn’t found a good way of telling Eddie that he was in a D&D party. He fully acknowledged how ridiculous his situation was – he couldn’t bring himself to say it, though he also couldn’t imagine that Eddie would be too upset if he just told him and it would mean that he could potentially invite him to join their party. Their party could do with a Bard. The rest of the drama kids were too focused on exploring the tragedy of their backstories and the idea of having Eddie’s quick wit and banter at the table was a glorious one.

There was just no good fucking way to bring it up.

It was getting to the point by Thursday evening where he found himself, for the first time ever, dreading the next session. He knew he had to tell him – he wasn’t going to give Eddie a sloppy excuse – but he was already curling into a ball at the embarrassing idea of not only having to admit to Eddie that he also played D&D, but also that, for whatever reason, he had felt too awkward to talk about it until then.

Thankfully, he was saved from having to do anything when a beaming Eddie stopped by Richie’s place on his way home.

“I can’t stay – my mom’s inviting people over tonight so I have to help her set up. I just wanted to let you know that I found another group that plays D&D and I’m starting with them tomorrow. I don’t even have to change my time slot.”

“That’s great,” Richie said, pulling Eddie into a hug just as the pager in his pocket started beeping.

“Shit, that’s my mom. We’re still on for Saturday, right?”

“Always.” Richie kissed Eddie on the cheek and when it looked like he was lingering at the hope of more, Richie laughed and nudged him out the door. “Go, you dork. The last thing we need is your mom not letting you come over anymore because she thinks I’m trying to kidnap you or some bullshit.”

“Miss you already,” said Eddie and though Richie vowed he would never, ever, be one of those couples, the sentiment made his stomach somersault.

“Miss you too,” said Richie, closing the door before he said anything more cliché and sappy than that.

Richie got to Will’s house early the next night to help set up the game table and set out chairs.

“Are you alright there?” his friend asked, giving him a curious look. “You’re kinda bouncy today.”

“I have ADHD – I’m always bouncy.”

“You know what I mean,” scoffed Will. “It’s like you have an extra spring in your step or something.”

For a brief moment, Eddie’s face popped into his head and Richie couldn’t keep himself from grinning.

“I guess I’m just really looking forward to tonight’s session,” he replied and though Will still looked curious, he didn’t press the matter further.

“Oh shit, before I forget,” Will said, taking a tray of pizza rolls out the oven, “we have a new guy joining us tonight.”

It took every one of Richie’s spider-man reflexes not to drop the bowl of chips he was setting out.

“Oh yeah?” he asked, hoping his voice sounded casual and not like his blood was suddenly pounding in his ears.

“Yeah. Steve Himble from the AV club says that two of his players were giving him shit so he decided to just stop the game, but he’d invited this guy from his Biology class to join them and he feels shitty that he dissolved the party just as he was starting to really get into it. Apparently, he’s really good. He’s playing a Bard, so that should be fun.”

“Yeah,” Richie replied, not sure what else to say. Was it too late to fake being sick to avoid the situation that was rapidly hurtling towards him?

The crunch of tyres in the driveway answered that question for him.

When the rest of the party had arrived and there was no sign of Eddie, Richie began to hope against all hope that Eddie had chickened out or that he wasn’t going to show, but there was a damning knock at the door five minutes later. Eddie strolled into the room a moment later, as adorable as he always was, cheeks flushed because he was no doubt embarrassed to be the last to arrive.

“Hey, sorry I’m late,” he said as he strode towards the table. “I took a wrong turn and I got…”

His voice trailed off as his eyes locked with Richie’s and Richie, unsure of what else he could do to make the situation less awkward, waved at him.

“No worries, Eddie,” said Will. “We usually just talk bullshit for the first half an hour anyway. I take it you know Richie?”

“Yeah, we’re friends,” Eddie replied, pulling his eyes away from Richie to introduce himself to the rest of the party. When he took the seat next to Richie, Richie was certain that his heart was visibly thudding like in a Tex Avery cartoon.

“Sorry, Eds, I meant to tell you, but the moment passed on the first day and I wasn’t sure how to bring it up again without looking like a dumbass,” Richie whispered.

“The good news is that you don’t need to worry about looking like a dumbass,” Eddie replied under his breath as he set out his character sheet, notebook, and dice, “because you are one. And I’d be a lot madder at you if it wasn’t just such a fucking relief to see you here.”

He threaded his fingers through Richie’s under the table, and Richie beamed at him. The crisis had been averted.

Eddie was as good as Will said he was. It became instantly clear from the moment he opened his mouth that he was just what the party needed. His Bard was snarky, impulsive and had a witty comeback for almost everything. Richie had been right in his guess that they would role-play well together – their characters bantered back and forth seamlessly and it filled Richie with pride to see the rest of the party laughing at Eddie’s clever one-liners. It was also the best feeling in the world to glance over at the person he loved more than anyone else in the world and know that he was enjoying all of this as much as he was.

While in combat with several wyverns that had suddenly snuck up on the party, Eddie nudged Richie, pushing his notebook closer so that he could read what he had scribbled there.

Salvan is kinda based on you, just so you know.

Richie couldn’t stop the grin that spread across his face, despite the twenty points of damage Lucy’s character took just then. He scrawled his reply beneath Eddie’s message, the words curving up because of the angle he was writing at.

Pips is kinda based on you too.

Eddie gave him a confused look and began writing again.

An angry little gnome cleric? I don’t get it.

Richie raised an eyebrow at him.

Think about it, babe. You’re obsessed with making the people around you better – healing – and you hold a disproportionate amount of rage for someone so small.

Eddie narrowed his eyes at Richie after reading the note, but the corners of his mouth betrayed his amusement.

Fuck you so much, Tozier. ♡

Richie’s stomach flipped at the little heart next to his name, and he smiled softly to himself as he penned his reply.

Fuck you too, Kaspbrak. ♡♡

Eddie blushed, and Richie wondered how he had gotten so lucky. For the first time in years, he officially had no secrets.

Well, he mused as he took Eddie’s hand again under the table, at least not from him.

–

@faequill

[lhugbereth]

Promptio Bar AU Teaser

Collab with @jilldrawblog

I feel like I’ve been talking about this for a while, but haven’t had anything to show for it yet. So here’s the introduction - a big of mood-setting, some Gladio backstory - with more to come soon. I’ve actually got about 3k words written so far and ideas for the next few big scenes :) Brainstorming with my artist-in-crime (jill) is always so fun, and usually results in filthy, smutty Promptio for us all ;) 

(Also drinking is good)

Comments and suggestions welcome!

Promptio Bar AU (title pending), SFW for now 

Five o’clock was usually a busy time at the Regalia. Technically, the bar didn't open for another hour and a half, and the regulars didn't start rolling in until even later. But five was when the prep-work got done - things like washing the glasses, cutting the garnishes, arranging the cheese on the platters just to Ignis’ liking. There was almost always something that needed Gladio’s attention behind the bar, and keeping busy was just how he liked it.

Except...that evening was different. Neither Ignis or Noct had turned up yet (they had gone across town to interview a potential hire) and had left Gladio in charge of the big, empty place all alone. Which was, well, lonely. Gladio didn't do well with quiet; with time to think and wonder what the hell he was doing with his life at thirty, still single since longer-than-he-cared-to-admit; still disappointing his father, who’d wanted him follow in his footsteps and join the Force, not drop out of the Academy to work in a run down bar.

But, hey. At least he could add ‘Letting Dad Down' to the short list of things he was consistently good at.

No, quiet and downtime didn't rank high among Gladio’s favorite things, so without Ignis to boss him around, he was forced to get creative. He cleaned the shelves. Restacked the shot glasses. Made himself a drink (then a second, and a third) and was just going over the counter with a fresh coat of polish when the bell above the door announced their return.

Noct entered first, dark hair flecked with powdery white from the storm outside, followed closely by Ignis who smiled as he took both of their coats. The door fell shut against the elements, and Ignis’ eyes landed on the bar. “Ah, Gladio, thank you for holding down the fort,” he said, turning to hang up the garments on hooks behind them. “Have any trouble while we were gone?”

Shrugging, Gladio tossed his rag into the sink and dusted off his hands. “Not really, unless you count the cockroaches partying it up in the back room.”

“...My bar does not have roaches,” Ignis deadpanned.

From his left, Noct gave his upper arm a reassuring pat. “Sure, keep telling yourself that. I hope you didn’t chase them out, Gladio,” he continued with a grin. “They play a mean game of poker.”

“Noctis.”

“It’s a joke, babe.” The younger man - Gladio was honestly still trying to figure out what exactly he did there besides suck Ignis’ dick and mooch off of his rich father - pushed himself up on the toes of his sneakers and gave Iggy a kiss. “I’ll be in the office. Call me if you need me.”

“Of course.” An indulgent smile, followed by another chaste (probably for Gladio’s sake) peck on the lips, before Noct was sauntering out of the room and Iggy was approaching the bar. He removed his gloves, ghosted his fingers over the freshly-polished countertop, and favored his friend with a smile. “You’ve been busy.”

“So have you,” Gladio retorted, nodding his chin in the direction Noctis had taken off. “How’d the interview go?”

“Far better than expected. If I’m being honest, I had imagined the Lieutenant's choice in character to be as bad as his choice in liquor. But I was pleasantly surprised.” Ignis pulled a thin stack of papers from his bag, and set them on the bar where Gladio could take a look. The top page was a resume for some kid named Argentum (sounded fake), who seemed to have about as much stable job experience as Noctis and even less perfunctory education.

Gladio scoffed. “He’s a loser.”

“On paper, perhaps,” Ignis countered, green eyes glinting behind his sharp lenses. “But he’s friendly, outgoing, and quick on his feet. Eager to work, too. Says he wants to put himself through school, what with his family….”

Ignis didn’t have to finish his sentence. The second page of the packet explained it all in bold headlines and shocking photos. His parents, gone. Dead. Brilliant scientists assassinated by some Niflheim extremists as punishment for defecting. Their twenty-four-year-old son, according to the newspaper article, had survived the ordeal because he’d been staying in Insomnia at the time, with his uncle Cor Leonis.

Well, at least that explained how the Lieutenant knew him.

In the wake of his silence, Ignis continued. “He’s got nowhere else, Gladio. We can put him to work here, help him to get by. And he and Noctis seem to get along so well already.”

“Great, just what we need. Another stray to take up space in the break room.”

Green eyes narrowed. “I know you think you can handle this bar by yourself, Gladio. But having a little proper help might do you good.” He folded his arms over his chest as he took in the sight of his friend, jaw still unshaven and hair pulled back in a messy bun. “And goodness knows we could use a fresh face around here."

"Hey, I have it on good authority that no one’s tired of lookin’ at my face, okay?"

“Regardless,” Ignis waved the topic aside. “Prompto’s going to be starting this weekend, so try not to scare him off. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got some business to take care of in the office.”

There was nothing subtle about his smile, or the way he loosened the knot of his tie as he went. Gladio sighed, made a mental note not to go bother them for at least half an hour, and instead distracted himself once again by drying off the glasses he’d washed earlier in the night.

Prompto, huh. I’ll give him a week.

~

[smhtaehyung]

when all daisies disappear🌼|| chapter 6

• masterlist

• Pairing: taehyung x OC (mental hospital au)

• Genre: angst, fluff, smut in this chapter, romance

• Word count: 4.1k

• Warning: swearing, will contain themes such as suicidal thoughts, depression and physical violence. Some of the backstory for Taehyung’s character is taken from the BTS concepts during the hyyh era. if you feel uncomfortable with the topic of mental illness, I advise you not to read further.

•••

chapter 6 ➸ 443 🌼

I woke up the next day to a sound of something being dropped outside the door. Something, by hearing the noise, like a metal tray. I opened my eyes and lazily rubbed them as I observed Taehyung, who didn't even flinch, probably not even hearing the noise. I looked down and noticed my covered hands, his sweater still keeping me warm. Since Taehyung was asleep and had his back turned to me, I decided to quickly change. I put on my very old jeans and took off the knitted sweater and a top, only to put the sweater back on. Part of me was practical about it, the morning temperature being slightly colder, and the other part just wanted to keep his soft, cool looking and clean sweater on.

I walked out of the room, barely making any sounds as I enter the quite noisy hallways. Thank god that the thick walls of our room were enough to block the noise every day.

I walked down the hallway, and tried to remember every single detail about last night. It baffled me how could he like me this much when I'm so demanding and agressive with words. And his words are often so fragile, mainly because his usage of words and sentences makes it often difficult to understand what he's getting at. When people talk, we turn our feelings into words, slightly morphing them into another perspective that another human being would understand. But Taehyung has his own perspective, not wanting to let it be percieved the other way, so he lets you think about it and feels burdened when he needs to explain. So because he doesn't think how would he explain his emotions in a simple way through words, his words often sound overly emotional and can get pathetic at times. But I don't know why my mind overthought the way he speaks, when it sounds so caring and thoughtful.

My mind was trying to protect me, but also male sure that Taehyung wouldn't hurt me, like people, boys, had in the past. On top of all the other things, getting fucked over was the last thing I needed, so my mind was focused on slowing my emotions down. Like always, my emotions were confused. As I tried to balance each one out, it only started a worse mess. So we're playing it safe. And I hope I won't fall for his charms or his weird, yet cute hobby of collecting daisies.

I glanced at the big blue clock that was hanging in the interaction room. I widened my eyes when I realised it was almost lunch time. Taehyung and I really did stay out very long on the roof. No wonder he's still asleep.

I walked to the art room that was just a few steps away to the left from the interaction lobby. Jiyu greeted me inside the room with a warm and a smile that somehow shined sudden hope. "Ji! This sweater looks so pretty on you." She smiled and stroked my shoulder. "Thanks, Jiyu." I smiled back and walked to the empty table that had one half of it plastered with sunlight flares that shone through the window. "You're in a good mood." Jiyu softly spoke, standing at the opposite table, helping some patients while they were drawing already. "I guess so, I don't know actually. The better I feel, the more I sense I'm going to get worse and snap." I whispered and pulled a larger paper from the stack to my left. Jiyu sent me a worried glance. "Don't worry, Ji. Use this good mood while it lasts then. Don't feel burdened to feel certain things and don't try to come across as tough or untouchable. You're a human being. And no one's gonna hurt you here anymore." Jiyu warmly spoke, stroking my hair. I often consider Jiyu being as my mother figure. How could I not after she helps me this much and cares about me like a mother would with a child. She said on many occasions that she perceives me as a daughter of a one weird yet beautiful kind.

"Thanks Jiyu. You always know what to say." I smiled the same way she did. She walked to the other side of the room, keeping an eye out on us. I sat for a few minutes in silence, thinking about what should I draw. I bit on the pencil, trying to concentrate. My head immediately turned to the door when I heard a sound of someone coming in. It was sleepy Taehyung, of course, putting the napkin back in his pocket after he touched the doorknob. Without a thought, I slightly panicked upon seeing him and nervously looked around. Jiyu eyed me with provoking curiosity, probably onto me that I might trust Taehyung enough to like him.

Our other ward mates, greeted Taehyung and with a bright smile, like always, he walked over to their table, not even noticing me. A small smile on my lips dissappeared once I realised he didn't know I was in the room at all. I pulled the knitted sleeves over my fingers, making it look like 'sweater paws' as I clenched the soft fabric, desperately trying to relax. After a few minutes of me eavesdropping a random conversations he had with them, I sighed and started sketching. I sensed Taehyung coming closer to me. I looked up and caught eye contact with him. "You're going to sit here with me?" I questioned in a doubtful tone, motioning with my head towards the other ward mates and an empty seat at their table. He sat down and sighed.

"You looked lonely, so I came here." He said, focusing on taking out two of his sanitized and not dull pencils and an eraser. "I'm not lonely." I said and looked down, focusing on my sketch. "Okay. You're not. I'll always know though-" He tried to speak but I cut him off, looking directly into him. "Okay, so you came out of pity?" I questioned to which he immediately denied. "Why are you friends with those losers?" I scoffed, sending an annoyed stare their way. "I'm friends with everyone." He said, to which I couldn't really argue, because it was fairly truthful. "Ugh." I groaned. "You angry when I'm right?" He questioned with a smirk as he began drawing. "Very." I said and avoided eye contact with him, knowing I would start giggling. For a few minutes I observed Taehyung's drawing. The boy had an unique style indeed. He also had some talent that he showed, so it had potential to be good with practice, to which I hoped he would take.

"You like drawing caricatures?" I asked, smiling when I glanced at his paper. His lips curled up into a smile immediately when he saw me smiling too. "Yeah, but I'm more into graffiti." He said and looked down as he kept focusing on his work. "Really? Didn't know you were a bit on the edge with the law. Ever been arrested?" I asked with a chuckle, obviously joking, but Taehyung's mood switched for a second before he spoke. His hand stiffened for a second and his eyes searched the corners of the paper before he spoke. "Yeah." He quickly said and focused on his drawing. "Wow. Someone was in trouble." I commented, ignoring his puzzling reaction. "It's not really like that-" He tried to truthfully speak but stopped himself half way. "Never mind." He said and continued drawing. Not wanting to force him to say something he doesn't want to, like I usually do, I simply spoke. "Okay." I said and shrugged. He cocked his head to the side and opened his mouth to speak in sudden confusion. "You're not gonna force me to tell you?" He let out a confused tone. "Don't want to." I casually answered. He stared at me for a while as I could feel his eyes capturing me. After a few seconds of silence, his facial expression snapped back to a serious one.

"Listen, about last night-" He starte speaking as I felt my heart drop to my stomach and my neck suffocating itself slightly. I carefully listened and tried my best to not seem affected. I took a breath and looked up into him, letting him speak. "I know that the really soft version of you yesterday night wasn't what you like showing, or wasn't who you...are, like, most of the time." He tried to explain and even though it could come out wrong, I knew what he was getting at.

"I heard you have some issues from the past, and I understand that-" He continued speaking and I had to cut him off, trying to process what he had said. "What? Where'd you get that from?" I asked, furrowing my eyebrows. He widened his eyes, slightly scared by my sudden change of emotion. "It's okay-" He spoke but I cut him off. "No, it's not okay, it's all lies." I spoke, trying to calm down. "Hey, it's really okay." He said and instinctively went to hold my hand that rested on the table but stopped himself and looked away, frustrated. "I want to do it but it hurts." He mumbled, looking down. "What?" I questioned, pretending I didn't understand that it had to do with him making a physical contact with me. He ignored and looked up, continuing the topic.

"We all have a bad past. No one sees you as weak or anything like that-" He started talking but I couldn't handle it. "Just, don't please. Whatever you heard, my truth is the one that counts." I said and continued as Jiyu sent me a worried glare. "There are a lot of different truths. Everyone has their own, so if you at least care about me like you show, you shouldn't listen to their truth before I tell mine." I said. "Do you really care that much about what I think?" He questioned and in the spur of the moment I answered, immediately regretting after. "Yes. No. No. I mean-no." I said and shut my eyes, the frustration taking over me. "Stop making me confused." I said as I stared into his eyes. "Everything was stable and good with me before you came." I said and got up, ready to leave. "I know it wasn't." He whispered, talking about the rumours he heard. "Fuck you, rat." I spat out and started walking out of the art room. I walked down the hallway and was stopped by my therapist.

"Jia. Time for a talk therapy session." He warmly spoke, not knowing how frustrated I was. I sighed and quickly answered. "I don't want to talk." I said. "I'll take the fucking meds and we can talk tomorrow, okay?" I rudely added and started walking past him. "Jia. That's not a way. If you want to talk-" He tried to speak but I cut him off, finishing his sentence. "You can drop by my office, I know. I'm feeling fucking amazing and I don't need the talk right now." I sarcastically spoke and made my way to mine and Taehyung's shared room. I walked inside and walked around in slight nervousness I felt. I took off his pure sweater, his scent being too much for me to handle at that moment.

I put on a black t-shirt and a light grey cardigan over it. I folded his sweater and kept it in my hands, trying to savour the softness of the material and Taehyung's scent that broke oxygen barriers. I pressed so close to my chest and enjoyed a few seconds before getting ready to give it back to him.

I was interrupted by a knock on the door. It was Taehyung, and he was known for not knocking. It was a flaw of his, but right at that moment it was a precaution to not piss me off.

I immediately walked to him as he entered. I stood close yet focusing on keeping him comfortable, because even when I was furious I couldn't hurt him like that.

"Here." I hurriedly spoke. "Take it back." I motioned with my hands, keeping the knitted sweater gently in my hands. "No." He said in an absurd tone. I assumed he was talking about me wearing it, therefore making it dirty. "For fuck sake, I'll wash it, alright?" I said but he immediately answered. "It's not that." He slightly giggled but immediately turned his facial expression to a more serious one. "Then what?" I asked, trying to drag the amswer out of him. "It keeps you warm, I'm not gonna take that away." He said, which made me lower my arm, holding the sweater in one of my hands. "So even after you heard what you've heard, you still want me- I mean, still, like, care about me?" I asked as he slightly smiled as I tried to change the question. "Only because I know you wouldn't like me after I'd told you about my past." He said and gulped. I furrowed my eyebrows in a confused manner. "It's not that bad." I said, comparing the two of us. "I'll tell you, but before that, give me some more time. Time with you." He said as I felt myself blushing, but stopped it and started speaking. "How are you not mad at me for saying all the stuff just a few minutes ago." I questioned. "I'm used to it. I know that wasn't you. And it never is you, actually. You're very easy to read, even if you hate that thought. That was just one of your...ways, let's say." He said as I furrowed my eyebrows, sighing and giving up to prove something that wasn't heading to a point in any way. "Angry when I'm right?" He asked in the same tone he did when we were in the art room. "Very." I said, this time in a slightly brighter tone. "I'm sorry I can't hug you right now or something. Still haven taken my meds to even force myself to do that." He excused himself so innocently to which I chuckled. "You know how to ruin a moment." I said and walked to my bed, putting the sweater down. He walked to his bed, on the opposite side and accidentaly stepped on a daisy that fell out of the vase. "Oh-no." He said and kneeled down, trying to see if it was hurt.

A sudden feeling of warmth and careness spread across my chest as I observed how cute Taehyung was, picking up the trampled daisy. "It's just a daisy, Taehyung." I giggled. "I don't want them to dissappear and die so quickly." He said and put the daisy in the tissue he had on the night stand. "You have plenty." I pointed to which he shrugged, not wanting to explain what he was thinking. He sat on the bed and stared up and down the room in silence before he turned to me and locked his gaze with mine.

"Will you tell me what's your truth?" He asked, talking about what I said in the art room. "Will you tell me yours?" I asked back in the same tone. "Soon. You?" He quickly spoke back. "Soon it is." I said and turned my back to lean against the wall.

•••

Just when I thought I wouldn't be forced to talk about my feelings, or try to desperately avoid it, the support group was rescheduled for tonight. I was forced to listen, but my medication made me sleepy, so I spent every few seconds yawning and trying not to be so bored out I might fall asleep. "Jia." The support group therapist, Sejun, was trying to shake me awake. "Jia." He repeated, to which I only half opeend my eyes. "Ji. Wake up." Taehyung's soft voice sent electricity up my back, shaking me awake. "Don't call me Ji." I quickly spoke, cursing myself for stopping him to call me by a nickname. He smiled and looked down. "What?" I asked Sejun. "It would appear to be your turn." He said as I rolled my eyes. "Nothing new in my life." I lazily said.

"No, Jia. Tonight is a different topic. It's about compliments." He said and warmly smiled, trying to get me to lighten my mood too. "Someone in the room must compliment you and you must compliment them. Then you can describe what that compliment feels like." He explained. "That's dumb-" I tried to make fun but he stopped me. "Would you like to start?" He interrupted me. "Can I recieve a compliment first?" I asked, teasing like a child would. He slightly sighed. Taehyung hungrily stared at me. "Alright, fine." Sejun ageeed. "Everyone, who would like to compliment Jia?" Silence. It is true that compliments are helpful and nice, but when you hear it from someone you're dying to hear it from, it makes a small meaning to your seemingly meaningless existence. You feel as if you were supposed to be right there, in that moment for that person to catch a detail you own. Or to catch a charm you confidently carried. Maybe I was dying with desire to hear a detailed compliment from Taehyung. Like this. When I would know he is being serious. When Taehyung noticed no one was speaking, he opened his mouth to talk, making my heartbeat change. But he was cut off by someone else. Out of all the people, it was Minjee. The girl I stole pink earmuffs from to make her panic. "I- I like the white sweater you-you wore today." She timidly spoke. "Thank you." My voice synchronized with Taehyung as our eyes immediately met. Everyone looked with confusion plastered all over their faces. "It's not my sweater."."It's not her sweater." We both answered at the same time, chuckling a bit. Some of the girls that were looking at Taehyung with awe were now analysing every single of his and mine movements. They all carried a judgemental and a jealous expression. All the girls were falling hard for Taehyung. And I couldn't really blame them. But Taehyung ignored all their attention and seemed to be obsessed with getting only my attention, whether it was good or bad. Or he tried to be my reaction to the obscurities he says to make me shocked. I couldn't decide really.

Taehyung giggled at me and kept his gaze onto me as I tried not to smile. As the others started speaking, I was all he was focused on. I tried to ignore it, but every time I would casually glance at him, he still looked at me the same way. And It's a nice way to look at someone. It's a nice feeling.

•••

Completely exhausted from my medication and the boring support group talk, I threw myself onto the bed once I finally reached the room. Taehyung got inside, following me. With half closed eyes I saw him closing the door with his napkin and putting it back in his pocket. Thinking I was fully asleep, he started to take off his clothes to change into his pajamas. I saw his tanned back in the corner of my eye and almost found myself letting out a weird noise once I realised he was just in his underwear. Ever since Taehyung came, I always thought he was handsome. He really did enter any room full of charms and good looks. Taehyung's pretty and big hands fascinated me ever since I layed my eyes upon them. Seeing his back made me adore another side of him. I hoped there were many more as I fought the massive urge to drift off to sleep.

Taehyung walked to the bed as I blacked out for a second, stepping a border between sleep and what seemed a reality. I felt myself falling asleep up until I felt a soft voice coming from Taehyung on the other side of the room. "Jia." Taehyung whispered, stepping closer to me. I lazily opened my eyes and felt slight dizziness and tiredness as Taehyung was sitting on the corner of my bed. "I can't sleep." He spoke, his voice completely calm. I opened my eyes and stared him down. I observed the way he so easily and comfortably sat on my bed, like it would be his hundredth time doing so. "Why? Is something wrong? Did you take your meds?" I questioned. He moved closer to me. "I did. I think that's what's letting me do something and not caring." He spoke and leaned fairly close to me, brushing the tips of his fingers against my arm. I moved away, but Taehyung went for my bare upper arm again, my cardigan falling down to my elbows as I sat up. "Rat, what are you doing?" I soflty whispered and moved my arm away. "Please, while I don't care, let me do this." He spoke and reached for my arm with his big tanned hands again. "Are you sure?" I asked in a scaredy and worried tone. "The way you stared me down at the support group made it a sure decision for me." He whispered and nodded as he placed his hand onto my bare arm again. He let out a few soft grunts and quickly breathed in and out as he was softly stroking my arm. His skin was so soft, pure and felt incredibly untouched. "Are you okay?" I worriedly asked, worrying about his mental fragileness. "It feels great." He chuckled at sudden comfort. In the spur of the moment I reached for his lips and he instinctively brought his down to mine. His lips were soft, incredibly soft and unkissable for years, the same way mine were. I felt the vivid softness of his plump lips as I couldn't ignore the small winces of discomfort and slight pain.

"Are you-" I tried to check if he really was fine but he cut me off, not wanting me to worry about it. "I'm okay." He said and started kissing me again. He placed his fingers onto my neck and pulled me closer to him. I grabbed him by his shirt and pulled him down, making him hover over me. "Can I touch you?" I asked in a very timid tone. He immediately nodded and took my hand in his and placed it onto his neck. He tried to relax into my touch, feeling a bit tense. I wanted to ask him about it again but he was quicker. "I'm good." He spoke and hungrily kissed my lips. I breathed out a moan and leaned closer to him. Both of us dying for air, we kept getting closer to each other, making our bodies touch and rub with slight movements. I slid my tongue into his mouth and he gladly accepted it, letting it wander inside his mouth. He pulled me closer as I felt his hard erection poking my thigh. I softly moaned, feeling my heat dripping in arousal. "You want to-?" I questioned him, rolling my hips that caused to rub into his hard member. "Aah, fu-yes. Jia. Please." He groaned and I went in to eagerly kiss him. I pulled off his pajama shirt and bottoms and looked down at his painfully strained member that tried to like out of his underwear. He took off my shirt and started kissing my chest as I helped him take my bottoms and underwear off. Taehyung lowered himself down to my abdomen and started kissing down. He licked a stripe up my wet heat and inserted a finger inside. I grabbed him by his neck, to which he arched his back in sudden contact. Taehyung's fingers worked me up like they have been experienced for years. His tongue was toying with my clit as I couldn't hold back my moans. "Ahh, Taehyung." I moaned as I looked up to the ceiling. He began sucking on my clitoris ad curling his fingers in a steady pace. His voice mumbled out a few pure moans, sounding high pitched and sensitive to my touch on his neck and his tongue on my heat.

I felt his fingers grip my hips and the other ones filling up my core completely. His skin was pressed against mine, and his soft hair was touching my abdomen. But in that extremely vivid reality and arousal I realised that one thing was missing. As I felt a sudden wave of pleasure hit me, I threw my head away, looking to my right. One thing was missing for this all to be real.

I widened my eyes.

There were no daisies on his side of the room.

part 7

[mrsspidermanmaryjanewatsonparker]

...

“I was really enraged over “One More Day”. Having been on the Ditko side of the argument for so long, I finally saw that Marvel was totally against letting Peter Parker age and develop new stories. I had planned on protesting the books. But, then they hooked me with the creative teams. Then, they brought back Norman Osborn.”

 Er no they didn’t they brought HARRY Osborn back...pointlessly....

 “Plus, they were trying new stuff and it wasn’t terrible.”

 By new stuff I wonder if they mean ‘Guess who this Goblin themed character is’ and ‘Oh no Spider-Man is framed’ or ‘Yuk yuk Peter just can’t get a date lulz!’

 And by not terrible I wonder if they mean ‘Hey look it’s the Chameleon and his whole history with Peter Parker is being ignored so we can imply he’s raping a woman’ and ‘Here watch this woman take advantage of Peter when he’s drunk before turning on a dime into a racist and sexist sterotype of Latin American woman’ or ‘Let’s ruin the Lizard and Kraven’s Last Hunt for everybody’.

  “What was going on here? Constant creative rotation to keep things fresh and lively?”

 Fresh as in a fresh way to suck shit as inconsistent story and artistic beats pile up to insanity.

  “Villains being reintroduced as the classic threats we know them to be?!?”

 Because we didn’t have that before OMD and needed the marriage gone for that to be the case.

  “Then, we got to see Marcos Martin and Dan Slott on the book. Spider-Man had entered into a new Golden Age. ”

 John Romita Senior’s run was a Golden Age.

 Roger Stern’s run was a Golden Age.

 2004 was a Golden Age.

 Mary Jane dates a loser cleberity because she’s out of character whilst Peter Parker invades people’s privacy which is even MORE out of character and here comes Mysterio alive and well ignoring everything we knew about him for the past 10 years isn’t a Golden Age. Its just hot trash.

  “But, what of Mary Jane? She was Peter’s wife and the mother of their disappeared baby. Would we ever get some sort of closure? Hell no. What was more surprising was how little it mattered.”

  WTF does ‘it didn’t matter’ even mean in this context?

  It mattered to most of the readers hence they kept teasing us with reconciliation to spike sales over and over again before just giving us an AU book...then bringing them back for real!

  “ Does that say a lot for Mary Jane and her defined role in the Spider-Man universe. I venture to say that it did. But, why are now realizing the futile nature of Peter being married and its importance to Mary Jane?”

 Yeah. It’s so futile to have character development for the lead and second biggest character that was the bedrock of 20 years of stories that by and large were better than the objective trash that followed int heir wake and fundamentally damaged both characters going forward.

 “Mary Jane has always never made sense for Peter Parker or Spider-Man. It was wish fulfillment for a guy that went from puny nerd to crushing multiple samples of poon in a three year period.”

  This sexist bullshit again.

  Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and even if that wasn’t true Peter is himself attractive and even if he was ‘average looking’ someone as attractive like MJ would marry someone like Peter all the time in the real world.

 It was their personalities and shared histories that made the relationship make sense.

 To dismiss MJ’s backstory and the inter-personal emotions between them that made the relationship happen is ignorant and a clear sign of either not having read or not having paid attention to the material.

 The hard truth is MJ pretty much ALWAYS made sense for Spider-Man. She wasn’t wish fulfilment she was her own well rounded character who organically developed in tandem with Peter, as Nick Spencer himself has corroborated.

  “Gwen was his equal,”

 How?

 Gwen was more financially affluent than Peter, had a higher social standing afforded by her father’s job and their comparative wealth to Peter.

  If we are talking her brains, Gwen wasn’t anywhere close to Peter’s league. Peter was the kid whipping up web-fluid in his bedroom as a teenager. Gwen was...someone who was in his science class. A statement that could apply to Harry.

  “ Betty was the older woman and Mary Jane was the neighbor’s niece thrown upon him. ”

 Betty was younger than him canonically Stan lee said so in a letters page but even if she wasn’t in the context of the times she wouldn’t been a few years removed from high school and Peter would’ve been a senior. Big whoop.

 Betty’s place has little to do with her age but more to do with just being his first romantic experience.

  As for MJ putting aside how she was retconning to not be his neighbour, that assessment for her character applies to the Silver Age and literally no other period of time beyond it. That was NOT her role in the Bronze age in the 1970s, the DeFalco run of the 80s and obviously not the time during the 1990s or 2000s when they were married.

  WTF is with his toxic notion that a character is not allowed to develop FFS!

  MJ hasn’t been the nieghbour’s blind date for him for the majority of her existence.

   “Mary Jane doesn’t even show up until the classic final page of her debut issue. Sure, it’s one of the best entrances in comic history. However, Mary Jane already feels like a put on intruder into a world that she doesn’t understand.”

  Correct and Norman Osborn wasn’t revealed as the Goblin until 4 issues before that, Gwen Stacy didn’t die until 7 years after that and Venom never showed up until 22 years after that.

  I guess all that shit is irrelevant to the character and mythology of Spider-Man and is just totally optional and superfluous.

  I’m sorry I never realized only the first 4 years and few months of Spider-Man mattered.

  I never realized Venom, Hobgoblin, Carnage, KINGPIN and all the OTHER shit from after ASM #41 were ‘intruders’ in Spider-Man’s world.

  Give me a fucking break.

   “She spends the next year dancing through the comic and pushing off the boys. ”

  And again, the early years of a character don’t = the inherent nature of the character that is never allowed to develop beyond that ever. If it did the X-Men would’t ever need Wolverine or Storm and Dick Grayson being Nightwing wouldn’t matter at all.

  “Peter grows closer to Gwen until she eventually dies, then he’s forced back onto Mary Jane. ”

  No, he and MJ over the course of 2 years of masterful stories by Conway gradually grow closer organically.

  Can you spell ‘Gwen Stan’?

  “Mary Jane rejects him, then he starts associating with related ESU students, Marvel Team-Up guest stars and the Black Cat.”

 That’s YEARS later. Gwen dies in 1973. Peter and MJ hook up in 1974. They break up in like 1978!

  “When all of those go into the crapper, Mary Jane shows up and he proposes. ”

 Oh dear god this is a quintessential example of buying into Marvel propaganda.

 That isn’t the sequence of events.

  First of all MJ showd up DURING his relationship with Felicia.

 THEN she revealed she knew he was Spider-Man and became his confidant.

  THEN peter and Felicia broke up.

  THEN he and MJ began growing closer and closer.

  THEN he had one last fling with Felicia following a seeming rejection by MJ.

 THEN he proposed to MJ.

  All that shit played out between approximately 1983-1987. That’s about FOUR YEARS of publication with THREE titles running simultaneously!

 “Parker gets rejected, then MJ accepts due to a pending marriage in the Spider-Man comic strip.”

 Again no. Yeah the wedding we got occurred due to synching with the newspaper strip but the build up to it was in the works for years by DeFalco and Frenz who were in charge of the book and embellished by Peter David and other people on the satellites. It wasn’t intended as actually leading to them crossing the threshold as man and wife but the build up to make that happen and for it to hypothetically happen anyway still existed.

 “That’s right, kids. Peter and Mary Jane only got married because Marvel wanted to tie it into an unrelated storyline in the national newspaper comic strip.”

 Again that’s true but the build up for to nevertheless make sense in story was still there and still paid off 4 years of character development.

  “The key point of Peter and MJ’s relationship was based on editorial interference. ”

  Peter and MJ’s relationship began in 1973 nearly 15 years before they got married and it occurred out of a sincere desire by the writer to tell a story about grief.

 “Tom DeFalco had actually spent a storyline early explaining how MJ figured out Peter’s identity, but kept it to herself. ”

 Er...no he didn’t. He explained she knew his identity but never explained how.

 And...this kind of egregiously undermines the central argument right here.

  “Then, made a very reasonable argument for why she could like Peter as a friend. ”

 And then along with Frenz his collaborator and Peter David spent the next 3 or so years developing their relationship as clearly much more than friendship so why is this fuckwit taking one line from ASM #259 totally out of context and ignoring all the stuff it led to.

 Oh right....in order to support the argument via lying.

  “Cut to two years later....”

 It was more than 2 years.

  “forced attacks and a second rejected marriage”

 Forced attacked? Alastair Smythe made the natural presumption that MJ was affiliated with Spider-Man based upon his encounter with her in ASM Annual #19.

  “then MJ is cool about dealing with Peter.”

 No. MJ has a change of heart after resolving her commitment issues directly connected to her estrangement from her sister and her bad blood with her father which Peter helped her to resolve in the course of the story where she accepts his proposal.

   Learn to read the damn stories!

  “Why was it such a big deal? Why did we loft MJ up to this status that doesn’t seem deserved?”

  Because it was wholly deserved based upon the actual stories that were written and not the propaganda assessment this article is pushing.

 “The marriage issue is so confusing. It happened in the first Amazing Spider-Man issue I ever read and most of the imagery has come to dominate my opinion of Spidey through the years. Whether it’s the marriage nightmare with the villains attacking the guests or the robbery with Electro; these images are what I see in my head when I see Spidey. Everything after that point was an excuse to force MJ into action, whether it was Venom attacking for the first time or the creepy landlord stalking her. ”

 Putting aside how ‘everything’would have to mean literally 100% of each Spider-Man story ever when there were many issues MJ either didn’t appear or had a small role...why would this be a bad thing?

  You have a supporting character...they are important...they are used within the narrative...this is bad because why again?

  The sexism and hypocrisy is strong with this point because half the time MJ gets shit because she didn’t do ENOUGH in the marriage. But when she is involved within the super side of things in some capacity it’s forced and bad.

  How?

  A super villain knows Peter’s identity and invades his home, targeting someone clone to him who he maybe lives with. That’d been happening since the silver age with Aunt May, Betty Brant and Gwen Stacy.

  As for her getting kidnapped by a stalker, this happens in real life especially to women and famous people and famous women. Spider-Man is a reflection of real life so WTF is the problem with this? HOW is this forced.

  “For next decade, everything became about MJ’s pregnancy, habits and constant fears for Peter.”

  Again, ‘everything’ would need to mean 100% of stories.

 MJ was pregnant for under 2 and a half years, not a decade.

 Not every story revolved around her fears for Peter.

 Her smoking habit lasted for less than 2 years too.

 And there was after all a period of time when Peter wasn’t even the main character of the damn series.

 And of course the notion of ‘everything’ or even ‘most things’ REVOLVING around MJ is bullshit because hate to break it to you but MJ was never the main character, Peter was.

 Everything revolved around him and since she was his wife a lot of stuff revolved around her which is called ‘Godd Wrting’.

 Notice how a shitton of screen time and subplots revolve around the wives of the main characters of drug dealer and mafia boss Walter White and Tony Soprano in the 2 most critically acclaimed TV shows of all time, Breaking Bad and the Sopranos.

  USING supporting characters and giving them screen time is IMPORTANT!

  It’s also the reason people hated Aunt May for decades until JMS started doing this in 2001! That’s near damn 40 years of Aunt May being mostly underutilized and useless to the point where people hated her and wanted her to die. THEN a lot of stories or story moments began involving or revolving around her and opinions changed.

  “The comic was quickly becoming a relationship drama, when we weren’t dealing with fake robot parents, clones, the Superhuman Registration Act or Aunt May getting shot. ”

 a)     The dumbass who wrote this referred to events across the decade following the marriage and then included 2 things AFTER that point in time

b)     This is again a lie it wasn’t a relationship drama

c)     God forbid there be relationship drama in a book that heavily involved soap opera elements and also the real life of the hero who could be you, i.e. someone who has to deal with relationship drama a lot because most people in real life do

 “Enough was enough, as the time came to re-evaluate what MJ brought to the team. ”

 A grounding for Peter. Character development for him. Strong female representation. A human hero who didn’t need to fight villains to be heroic. A realistic flawed and complex human character in a series all about that? A confidant for the main character? An exposition device?

  “The answer was that she is a party girl who worked better as an X Factor.”

  Get fucked and read some comics beyond the Silver Age hack.

MJ STOPPED being a party girl or an X-Factor in 1973!

  “The mystery created by Romita and Lee was long dead and that revealed something didn’t work. ”

 It’s so interesting this author will quote one line from ASM #259 and then totally ignore the rest of the entire issues which developed MJ into a supporting character and confidant who mirrored Peter.

 Because she just didn’t work.

  Get fucked.

  “MJ isn’t meant to be understood by Peter, she’s out of his league.”

 There is no such things as leagues. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and any two people with enough time, compassion and empathy can come to understand one another. Peter came to understand MJ via her tragic backstory which echoed his own.

  “Ultimately, what matters is that Mary Jane stays a viable character in the Spider-Man universe”

 Which she was for over 2 decades and even longer before that when she stopped being a party girl.

  “While she is a personality mis-match, she’s a life-long friend that knows a lot about the man behind the mask. ”

  How are their personalities mis-matched.

  “That kind of grounding is absent outside of a direct family tie to Peter. When MJ makes Mephisto end their marriage during “One More Day”, ”

  GET FUCKED!

  Mj doesn’t MAKE Mephisto do shit. This is yet more of the author swallowing and regurgitating Marvel’s sexist lies. Peter put MJ on the spot with an untenable position then she sweetens Mephisto’s deal. Mephisto made the offer though. MJ didn’t make anyone do shit, especially Mephisto. She just complied with his wishes.

  “she whispers something that we don’t find out until “One Moment in Time”. Unfortunately, this twist is negated by the fact that Peter forces MJ to remember their life together as it was, but the duo chooses to split and move on.”

 Fuck this article even fails to accurately represent the events of the bullshit storyt hat supports their claim.

 MJ’s whisper to Mephisto takes places before he changes time and Peter forcing MJ to remember (more like he forces her to not forget) occurres for unrelated reasons after time has been altered. The two things aren’t directly connected.

  Moreover the duo don’t CHOOSE to split, MJ leaves him.

 At least represent the bs you are defending accurately.

  “It’s a tricky setup, but it’s one that has led Spider-Man back to the promise of the early 1980s”

 It’s not tricky it’s hacky.

 It didn’t lead Spider-Man back to the promise of the 1980s because things weren’t written as well.

 Moreover the early 1980s were when O’Neil was writing Spider-Man and the series sucked shit, why would you want to go back to that?

 In fact even if it didn’t suck why would you want to go BACK to something antiquated as being 25-30 years old FFS!

  “There are multiple people in his life demanding certain things, but they all want to push him forward. Even Mary Jane has setup her own business and works as an outside factor in Peter’s life.”

All of which didn’t require ending the marriage or a deal with Satan to facilitate.

 “The book is “The Amazing Spider-Man” for reason and not “Mary Jane Knows Best” for a reason.”

 Get fucked the book was never that during the marriage either.

 “ Supporting characters work when they have a defined role for our central figure.”

You mean like a life partner, best friend, confidant and life line to normalacy.

 “After a quarter century in the main book, MJ lost that focus and the story suffered.”

 After what feels like a quarter century reading this article I feel like my brain has suffered from the lies and misinformation contained within it.

 “While we have turned back the clock on that matter, something harsh remains. Why can’t a woman be on par with Spider-Man?”

She can be but when she is sexist jackasses like this knock her down and just plain lie, misrepresent or twist things to pretend things are untenably bad when they aren’t.

 “ Much has been made out of his MC2 counterpart Spider-Girl. Sure, it’s his daughter as a legacy character keeping the identity alive, but she manages to find time for her retired father in her book. But, her book keeps getting cancelled and the readership of that title is a tenth of what Amazing Spider-Man pulls down. Point rested.”

 Point no rested.

 Spider-Girl suffered in sales because it was a female led book at a time when that wasn’t something the market was kind to. It suffered because it was a mass market book sold on the direct market. It suffered because it underined Marvel’s desired narrative and was spearheaded by a former EIC, people who traditionally generate a lot of bad blood courtesy of consequent editorial regimes who throw them to the wolves. It suffered because they wanted to promote another character with the name. It suffered because it was an out of continuity title.

 It has shit to do with anything related in this dumpster fire of an article.

  In summary:

  This article is hot trash peddling sexist propaganda in line with a false narrative Marvel wants.

 Kill it with fire.

But what can I expect from a writer who doesn’t even know Eddie Brock wasn’t a photojournalist or thinks Ned Leeds was ‘tricked’ into becoming the Hobgoblin.

[sage-nebula]

yoshi12370 replied to your post: yoshi12370 replied to your photoset: ...

Like I do understand that Kanto was originally going to be a standalone series and the way it was written shows this fact, however it’s really glaring in retrospect. Gary during Kanto was just a shallow bully than a true rival for Ash and the writers didn’t really want to focus on it as a rivalry rather than comic relief scenes. Of course the series got expanded and I felt that their relationship didn’t translate too well in the transition from Standalone to Multi-Season. Not saying Ash and Gary’s relationship was bad but as you said, the bulk of Gary’s development was offscreen. He barely had any focus during his time and a lot of his achievements were informed rather than shown (tho when it was shown, it delivered). This is part of what I meant about the rivalry being one-sided, as it seemed like they had Gary be ahead just because

Oh yeah, I definitely see where you’re coming from, and for the most part I agree.

I do think that Gary’s relationship with Ash was always meant to be a rivalry from the start. However, since we don’t know exactly when they realized they were going to continue on past Kanto, I wonder if perhaps Ash and Gary were originally meant to battle in the Kanto League, only for that to fall through when they realized that the anime was going to be carrying on indefinitely. We know, for instance, that Mewtwo Strikes Back was originally supposed to end the series, but that it was rewritten when they realized that wasn’t going to happen. I wonder, then, if around the time that decision was made, they also made the decision to postpone Ash and Gary’s battle (and include a bunch of smaller ones) until the Johto League instead.

I say this because it makes sense when you think about how they basically copy-pasted the rivalry from the games. The backstory is the same (albeit a little more fleshed out later on), and Gary Oak is the most accurate adaptation of game!Green Oak I’ve ever seen, save for that little short from Pokémon Generations. People can rag on the PokéAni all they like, but the PokéAni team straight up nailed Green when they created Gary. They got him dead-on accurate. Even his personality shift later is reminiscent of how Gary acts in the GSC games (which comes across a lot more sloppily in the anime due to the anime not having a three year time skip like the games, but the PokéAni team did the best with what they had---though oh, imagine the possibilities if they had included a time skip after the Orange League!!). They did a damn good job with adapting his character, although it’s a bit of a double-edged sword since his character in the games is pretty one-dimensional.

Regardless, the point is, in the games, the rivalry between Green and Red is summarized as thus: Green and Red were childhood friends when one day Green decided to be an asshole and started bullying Red instead. Throughout the RGBY games he shows up at various points to be an asshole, battle Red, lose, act like an asshole again, and leave. This culminates in the two of them meeting at the League, Green declaring that he is “THE STRONGEST TRAINER IN THE WORLD!!!!1!!1!!!” because he became the Champion, Red beating him again, Green being scolded by his gramps, and Green stalking off, not to be seen again until he’s a more humble Gym Leader three years later. There’s not a lot of depth to that story, there aren’t many layers; Green’s just a jerkass who takes a dose of Break the Haughty before becoming a better person. He has a line or two about wondering where Red is, showing that perhaps their relationship has improved, but again, that’s not until GSC. In RGBY, Green was a douchebag from start to finish.

So when you consider that the PokéAni team was adapting that story, I would say that they definitely wrote Ash and Gary’s relationship as a rivalry from the start---it’s just that they wrote it as the Gen I games rivalry, versus the rivalries that we would come to experience later (in both the games and the anime). I wouldn’t say the scenes that we get with Gary were meant to be comic relief so much as they were meant to show that these two are rivals, and when Ash beats his ass at the League it’s gonna be so good. Sure, there are things to laugh at in Gary’s scenes due to how over the top ridiculous he is (the car, the cheerleaders), but I do think those scenes were meant to show us the Gen I games rivalry without the battles, for whatever reason---probably because they wanted to have One Big Battle™ between Ash and Gary at the League, which Ash was supposed to win, a la how Red beats Green at the League in the games. This would have worked fine, except then they realized that they were going to have to prolong the anime indefinitely, which left them with three options. They could:

Proceed with the plan as scheduled, and create a new rival for Ash after they wrote Gary out of the show following his loss to Ash at the League. (It’s possible executive meddling ruled this one out, because they had a ready-made rival in the Johto Rival that they could have used but didn’t. It’s possible that Gary was so popular that they decided to keep him on rather than replacing him with the Johto Rival, but I don’t know for sure.)

Have them battle at the League, but have Gary win, resulting in their rivalry continuing, but Ash getting booted from the League before Gary. (And also making Gary look correct for all the times he called Ash a loser.)

Have Gary booted from the League before Ash, but by someone else’s hand, and then create a new, League-exclusive rival for Ash.

In retrospect, I do think option one would have been the best option, as much as I do like Gary’s character later on. While I know they re-used the Johto Rival in DP in the form of Paul (though I hate making that comparison because I like the Johto Rival and dislike Paul but it is what it is, the similarities are there even if I don’t like it), I think it would have made more sense to utilize his character in Johto as a new rival for Ash, while letting Gary develop in the peripheral if they did decide to continue developing his character. At the very least, it might have helped make his development seem less clumsy and rushed, since all of it happened off-screen anyway.

But that said, as we know, they went with option three, which is how we got Ritchie. And I like Ritchie, don’t get me wrong! But I also feel that you can see how rushed he is in how much he resembles Ash, from his appearance to his choice in pokémon. (He’s just more polite and less snarky, which in retrospect means that he’s probably Serena’s actual Dream Guy, if we’re being honest.) Ritchie really feels like he was thrown together at the last minute when they realized they couldn’t have Ash battle Gary at the League, and it shows. I like him, but . . . well. It is what it is.

Anyway, this is getting off subject. It’s 5am. I’m very tired. My point is---I definitely see where you’re coming from and I agree, though I still think the real problem lies less in the beginning and more in the middle; they changed their plans at the last minute (I believe, anyway), and then didn’t know how to handle the transition they had to create as a result of that. I think that, had they gone along with their original plan and written in Ash beating Gary at the Kanto League like it was probably originally planned, things would have been better, even if Gary still showed up from time to time. Ash would have already secured a victory against Gary under his belt, we might have been able to actually see Gary coming to terms with the fact that Ash was the one who beat him out of the Kanto League, and if they had continued following the games faithfully, perhaps we could have even seen him become the Viridian City Gym Leader, at which point he and Ash had a rematch now that the Gym was legitimately run (instead of owned and operated by Team Rocket). Who knows. (Meanwhile, if the Johto Rival was the actual Johto Rival, i.e. was Giovanni’s son, that could have been really interesting too.)

I’m pretty sure we’re on the same page, though, even if there’s a bit of contention over where the problem stems from---and even then, I think we both agree that this was caused by the sudden decision to not end the anime after Kanto, and the decision to continue it indefinitely is absolutely what made it lose that original flavor it had in the first season. I mean, I think the Orange Islands season maintained that flavor, in all honesty, due to how much it was very much its own thing---but Johto adopted that formulaic, commercial taste that the anime would have for the rest of its run. They knew what they had to do by the time they hit Johto and it showed, whereas the first two seasons---and Kanto especially---were treated much more like an actual narrative and show rather than, “welp, this is a story we’re going to continue until long after the sun burns out, so we better keep and maintain a status quo, boys.” It wasn’t perfect by any means (my god, the OS could be called the Saga of Abandoned Subplots tbqh), but whenever I watch the anime, the Kanto season especially (but also Orange Islands) just has a very authentic feeling, whereas Johto and beyond* just . . . doesn’t, even if it’s still enjoyable to watch.

(*The Strongest Mega Evolution is the exception, because it was its own narrative story because that was the entire purpose behind its existence, hence it, too, had that very authentic feel that I honestly haven’t felt in the anime since the second season. It was literally written because they couldn’t figure out a way to show Alan’s backstory in the main anime, and so it was created for no purpose other than to just tell a story and it goddamn shows and I just---it’s one of the reasons I love it so much. I didn’t make an entry for PokéAni week, but honestly, my favorite saga? The first two seasons of the OS, and TSME. Do those really count as a favorite saga? Probably not, but see if I care, I will face Arceus and walk backwards into the Distortion World, that’s how much I care.

. . . Okay, honestly, it’s 5am, I should probably shower and then go to bed, I’m very tired. It’s been fun talking about this, though. Sorry for writing several rambling essays, hahaha.)