#and the fact he really believes that stuff

[idyllwave]

30 MILLION TO 1

yandere!phainon x fem!reader | part ii. ∄

you promised phainon you could handle things, and he let you go against his better judgement. next time though, he refuses to let you go alone. however, next time may never happen.

word count | ~2k

cw | angst , death , blood, yandere!phainon , low key stalker phainon , 30 million cycles , grammatical errors , etc.

taglist

@hoonobono

Unlike most people, Phainon starts his day a bit differently. The moment he wakes up he is already pulling you close to his chest so he could hug you as tight as he could. His actions always jostle you awake as you yawn and wrap your own arms around his waist and stuff your face into his chest. He knew that if you didn’t hug him back in the morning then something was obviously wrong.

“Morning, Phainon,” you mumbled, your voice being muffled by his chest as he hugged you impossibly closer. He didn’t know why, but he very much enjoyed squeezing you. Now that he thinks about it … he believes Hyacine calls it cuteness aggression.

And like always since you both started living together, you would be up first. Somehow managed to wrestle out of his grip and get out of bed, and he would, of course, be hot on your heels. He honestly couldn’t stand not being close to you and you never said anything about his clinginess. In fact, you enabled him more often than not.

“What do you have planned for today?”

That was another thing. After he gets done training and makes some random excuse to the other Chrysos Heirs, he would quickly find himself tailing you throughout the day. His eyes soaking up any detail that he has failed to notice before while also hoping you would slip about something you’ve been keeping secret (like where you really come from). But he couldn’t say that to you, he didn’t want to see you react negatively towards anything he does. Which is why he hides the fact that he threatens any man or woman who comes your way, why he hides his tailing habits, why he hides how he is utterly obsessed with everything about you.

“Just some training,” he said simply as he started to brush his teeth right next to you in front of the mirror, his elbow sometimes knocking into yours.

You hummed as you spit out your toothpaste, “well, I have my own business to attend to today.”

He spit out his own toothpaste, “like what?”

You turned on the sink and cleaned off any toothpaste residue from your mouth before gently doing the same for Phainon which he happily leaned into your touch for.

“Professor Anaxagoras has some info for me that I had asked him about awhile ago, and asked me to meet him this afternoon.”

Phainon huffed, “I should-“

“Stay here just in case an emergency pops up,” you finished.

“But what if you run into some trouble?”

“I can assure you that I am a capable fighter Phainon.”

He gave you that look that screamed ‘I’m not too sure about that’ as you lightly pushed him with a roll of your eyes, “you were too much Phainon, I swear that I’ll be fine.”

“Promise?”

“Promise.”

Against his better judgement, he did let you go alone. And later on through the day, he did get busy, so he didn’t even get the chance to see you off. Much to his dismay.

Meanwhile, when you had finally reached the Grove in the afternoon, Anaxa was already waiting for you. His eye already picking you out as he gestured for you to follow him.

“Leaving Amphoreus isn’t possible right now.”

You didn’t even have to ask as he already decided to hit you hard with the truth.

“I understand… so I’m stuck here.”

Anaxa looked at you as you closed the door to his office, and leaned against it as you hung your head – he never seen you look so defeated.

“Have you told Phainon?”

You shook your head, “no… I haven’t. I thought that if we could find a way to break through this place, then I could call for help, and then tell him everything, and maybe… ask him to come with me. However, it seems I will need to find a way out of this place before I tell him everything.”

“Wouldn’t it be simpler to tell the truth now?”

“He has the prophecy to worry about,” you said after a moment, “I don’t want to burden him with my own problems.”

“Then why bother getting close to him?”

You opened your mouth to say something, but ended up closing it. Why? You know you aren’t apart of this world, but you ended up getting close to Phainon anyway. It wasn’t like you planned to get trapped here and fall in love with him. In fact, this place wasn’t even where you were planning to go because someone or something pulled you here. Not to mention that Phainon didn’t make it easy. He was definitely persistent.

“Because I fell in love with him.”

“Foolish,” Anaxa muttered, “utterly foolish.”

You smiled a bit sheepishly. Anaxa reminded you a lot of Dr. Ratio, but luckily Anaxa was a bit more tolerable. (Especially when you were wrong about something he didn’t throw chalk at your head…)

“Anyway, Professor-“

You jumped as there was a knock on the door. And panicked voices were yelling from the outside.

You were quick to open it as a few people bursted in causing Anaxa to step forward as well, “what’s wrong?”

“It’s the black tide! It’s here!”

“Already,” you asked, “without any warning?”

You heard about the black tide, had your reservations about it, but decided to leave the problem to the chyrsos heirs while also offering your help here and there. You didn’t think that this would happen.

“We need to evacuate,” Anaxa said, “where-“

One of the students clutched her hands to her chest, “this is everyone, Professor. The others-,” she cut herself off with a choked sob. So another student spoke up, “the escape routes were blocked off. We’re basically stuck here!”

“Why weren’t the alarms set off?”

“Someone disabled them.”

You huffed, not really understanding why everything was falling apart so quickly, but it was fine. If this was all that was left, then you would just blaze a path for the survivors. As a nameless. It was your job to trailblaze a new path.

Phainon was the first to get the emergency. His footfalls were light even as he raced through Okhema. The other Chyrsos Heirs could only try to keep up, even Mydei couldn’t catch up to the Deliverer because the moment that it was said that the Grove was attacked he was already gone. And the sight that was left for him was –

His feet felt like lead as he forced himself to put one foot in front of the other. His eyes refusing to look down at the bodies he had to step over or move around.

“Phainon-“

He didn’t wait to listen to what his fellow Chyrsos Heirs had to say, and he didn’t want to ask Castorice if she could sense your soul. He had to find you for himself. Wherever you are.

Like a mantra, he chanted inside his head that you were fine. Probably fighting off the last remaining enemies.

And you were, you had been at least… but a sword had plunged into the upper left side of your chest, the jagged blade splitting your heart in two. Your weapon dropped to the floor as you raised your hands to grip the blade. Your eyes staring up at a figure dressed in black, his face masked behind metal plating.

“Not part of the cycle.”

In broken words, the masked figure spoke to you, his sword plunging in just a bit deeper as the students behind you huddled close together while also protecting a knocked out Anaxa.

“Cycle? What cycle?”

You coughed as blood dribbled from your mouth and seeped from your wound. Your vision was already darkening and your body started to feel cold where the wound was as a numbness started to form around your toes and fingertips which wanted to seep and spread into your very limbs. The cloaked figure raised it’s other hand, grabbed your neck for stability, before pulling the blade from your chest and dropping you to the floor.

“Core .. not here.”

You couldn’t manage to say anything as you lied there. You could feel everything going dark as you closed your eyes.

Is this where the trailblaze ends for you?

By the time Phainon and the others make it to where the survivors were, the cloaked figure was already gone. And even as the survivors cheered for their arrival, Phainon was only focused on you and your still body being cradled in one of the girl’s arms. His steps were slow as he walked over and knelt in front of the student who was holding you.

“What happened,” he managed to ask, his hand shakily reached out to touch your face, but you were already so cold. He moved his fingers to your neck. No pulse.

“A cloaked figure attacked us, but she stood in his way. They fought for a long time before that monster got the upper hand and stabbed her through the chest… We- we think she would have won if she didn’t get injured by protecting us from the black tide.”

He hated hearing the words “would have won” because that means these students were in the way of her victory. If she didn’t protect these selfish, ignorant, undeserving people then she would still be alive. Though, he also has the cloaked figure to blame as well… like a nightmare that monster seems to fester.

“Deliverer. You’re scaring them.”

He snapped out of his thoughts and noticed that he had ripped your body from the girl’s grasp and pulled you close to his chest. And the look on his face… just looking at the students he could tell that he had struck fear into them. And truthfully, he didn’t care.

He stood up and picked up your body as well. One arm was hooked under your knees while the other supported your back so that your head was resting against his chest.

“Good.”

After your death, the cycle continued as it always had and ended just like before with him resetting and starting the cycle anew.

When he walked through Okhema’s gates for the first time, he had immediately set out to find you. Though, throughout the years that he had lived there, day in and day out, you were never in sight. Even when he had become a Chyrsos Heir you had made no appearance. Before too long, he had went through one hundred different cycles but you hadn’t appeared again.

It was like you had never existed in the first place.

Meanwhile, you were resting a palm over your chest as you sat in the Astral Express infirmary. Your memories on what had happened being lost on your as Himeko told you that they found floating around in space with a massive wound in your chest. And you couldn’t even tell them nor remember how you got there. The last thing you remember was leaving to check a stellaron reading.

“Mannn, well, I guess it’s better than losing all my memories.”

“No kidding,” March said as she, Dan Heng, Welt, and a person you never met before entered the room.

And you learned that this person was named Stelle. A new member of the Astral Express. Also a person who currently housed a stellaron in their body…

“I feel like I missed so much.”

“You did. Thankfully, since we’re going to Penacony next, you can finally have some time to rest and relax.”

That was another thing you learned, you have been missing for about one to two years now. But that was alright, you were sure that you would get back into the swing of things eventually. And hey, maybe they were right. Penacony, as you had heard, was a lot like a fancy resort of some kind. So some fun and relaxation was definitely what you needed.

[nymphl]

“A character’s perspective is not equivalent to that of the creator.”

LOUDER FOR THE PEOPLE IN THE BACK.

That’s something that truly upsets me, cause really nowadays we can't write/we can't enjoy anything that contradicts some people's views and they go "but this person believes and supports wrong stuff. Did you see? Their character committed genocide, they must support genocide, too. Their character said they like something, THEY MUST LIKE IT TOO!!!"

Luthen is just a character and some people do like him, and some people don't. The fact that the protagonist has his back doesn't mean Tony Gilroy believes he's the most important character ever. Especially because as creators, we KNOW that every character is important when telling a story, from the main character, to the guy who shows up and has only two lines (and even those who don't have any lines).

Unbelievable that in the year 2025 of our lord we've to say that.

We are not our characters.

Sometimes, it happens that our views as creators are the same as some of our characters, but most of times it's not. And if any story/character's views match their creator's perfectly, you can bet that's a terrible story unworthy of anyone's time.

I said what I said.

“None of this would be here without Luthen” is not Tony Gilroy making his oc into the sole cause of the rebellion, it is Cassian Andor expressing loyalty to the man who recruited him into the rebellion, and whose contributions are downplayed by the rebel leaders he assisted. Cassian exaggerates to counteract the council’s dismissal of a man who should really be among them. A character’s perspective is not equivalent to that of the creator.

[astronomical-light]

HELLO july 4 has me thinking about jack being sensitive to fireworks due to his military service, and robby comforting him or stepping in to support him when the explosion sounds start. do you have any headcanons about this? or know of any fics w this premise? <3

so my headcanon for this goes a little bit against the grain. i was actually talking at length about this to @alethialia last week but the stars didn’t align for either of us to write it, so allow me to present to you now

FOURTH OF JULY: JACK’S FAVORITE HOLIDAY

look, we don’t know any hard facts regarding jack’s time in the service, but i think it’s pretty safe to assume that he’s been out for at least ten years, probably more like fifteen. i more often than not headcanon him enlisting at 18, and if we go off of hatosy’s age, that would most likely have him enlisting in ‘94. say he does the medic thing for a few years and then decides to goes back to school and become a doctor, you can still have him getting a few tours in by the mid-00s

that would have been TWENTY years ago.

my point is that while i can maybe buy a jack who doesn’t like fireworks, i personally find it hard to believe that the jack we see in the present day has such strong and unmanaged PTSD symptoms that he’s having a full-on breakdown over it. maybe he did twenty years ago, but i think it does a disservice to the character we see on screen and the clear amount of work that he’s put in to himself to have him be that much of a wreck about it. but ymmv, you do you and all that.

and not to be all I Have Veteran Friends, but i know the EXACT fic i would write about him on the fourth of july, and it is as follows:

jack always takes fourth of july off. the fourth of july is sacred. the fourth of july is the one day he and all his army buddies get together for the tried and true american tradition of blowing shit up.

robby usually works a double on the fourth so jack can have it all off, and everyone knows this. cue everyone misunderstanding why jack takes it off, and being So Sympathetic when he gets called in to help with day shift for [reasons].

he’s SO goddamn grumpy about it, but he’s grumpy because he should be tits out poolside right now. he’s grumpy because he has incredibly expensive steaks in the fridge that he should be eating. he should be manning the grill right now. his grillmaster skills are the stuff of LEGEND. he should not be at work on this auspicious day.

(robby always works the fourth because he Cannot hang out with jack’s friends at jack’s barbecue. any other day, they’re great guys. but he does Not want to witness what OSHA violations are going to take place. he will have an aneurysm, no matter how many times jack says trust me, i’m a doctor or it’s fine, it’s just steve, he’s a demolitions expert. like, that’s exactly why he has concerns, jack.)

so jack is working, and he’s not in the best mood, and now we have THE most absurd comedy of errors. he starts going on a rant about fireworks in the daytime, and it’s not about the noise, it’s about how that’s a FLAGRANT waste of explosive firepower because you can’t even see them? he wants to see that shit spark, baby.

(one of my favorite things to imagine is that jack spends the lead up to the fourth going “you know what next week is?” to robby with Very Serious Eyes, and everyone thinks it’s because he’s being vigilant and prepared, and it’s not wrong, but really he’s just preparing robby for the fact that he’s about to blow hundreds of dollars in the meat department. he’s a little twitchy because he’s HYPE.)

maybe there’s a situation that gets him a little angry, makes him start breathing a little heavily. maybe one of his buddies texts him a photo of steve touching the steak in the fridge that is specifically labeled DO NOT TOUCH - THAT MEANS YOU STEVE. maybe one of the ducklings thinks he’s having an episode and starts furtively googling how to deal with fireworks related PTSD and then starts trying to guide an increasingly confused jack through box breaths about it.

mel would show him her lava lamp app, and jack would not get it. “kid, in my day, those things were real?”

someone asks if he’s fine and he snaps that he’s NOT fine, because he’s here when he should be chugging beers and setting off roman candles, but he doesn’t get the chance to finish that sentence because someone starts coding and he has to go run and deal with that.

robby at some point finds out about the misunderstanding, and because he likes to cause problems on purpose, gently encourages all of the ducklings. when jack finally buys a clue about why the fuck everyone is being so weird to him today he’s SO exasperated. threatens robby with some kind of punishment. see if he gets any of jack’s meat, later.

(there’s a spinoff to this fic where brad comes to visit one year and jack goes into a TIZZY about making sure he can show up the marines and live up to his reputation, because Winning At BBQ is definitely something normal to want and possible to achievable, even when brad is like why are you trying to out-brisket a jew? i knew you were an officer, but damn because fortunately for jack, HE KNOWS A GUY. anyway, robby spends an entire month eating brisket. he’s never yearned for a fresh vegetable so badly in his life.)

anyway i have no idea how this story ends. jack ends up making out with robby in the call room to turn him all red as part of his punishment, and robby is like “this doesn’t feel very much like a punishment” but then he has to go back out into the ED looking Like That so jack’s all have fun with that, bye!

jack manages to makes it home right in time for nightfall and right in time to blow some shit up, everyone lives happily ever after, the end.

[devilish-cherry]

ᨳ♡₊➳ jujutsu kaisen x reader

ᨳ♡₊➳ crack with plot

"You hate your job. The pay is bad, your manager is worse, and customers are somehow both entitled and clueless. Just as you finish contemplating whether unpaid breaks are a human rights violation, weird new people keep showing up to the café. They all seem to know each other. Sometimes they talk in cryptic phrases. What the hell is this domain and why do they want to expand it? One time, a man with stitches on his forehead walked in, made prolonged eye contact with you, and then left without ordering anything. You’re pretty sure he was a serial killer. Another time, the one with white hair and sunglasses indoors mentioned a "higher mission", and you’re 90% sure this is how cult documentaries start. One of your regulars only speaks in weird food-related phrases. You assume he has some kind of medical condition, but no one explains anything to you. But you are not about to ask questions, because ignorance is bliss and also job security. And unfortunately, they are all weird and they seem very interested in coming back."

꒰ masterlist ꒱ ₊⊹. ꒰ chapter 8 ꒱ ₊⊹. ꒰ chapter 10 ꒱

ᨳ♡₊➳ or read on archive of our own!

ᨳ♡₊➳ a/n: hi besties… yes. it's been months. i am so sorry this chapter took so long. i've been dealing with a lot of personal stuff behind the scenes and on top of that, i kept spiraling over whether or not this chapter would be good enough. i didn't want to disappoint anyone, which of course led to the classic perfectionism paralysis loop™. but we're here now. mwms lives. and i missed this chaos so much! thank you so much for your patience, love, and support. i say that every time but i really mean it – you guys make writing so worth it! 🖤

It's been a few weeks since the news segment aired, and the café has finally quieted down.

By "quieted," of course, you mean the line no longer wraps around the block like a demonic conga line of true crime podcast listeners eager to witness a live haunting. The daily mob of "I saw the scary coffee shop on TikTok and I want to see it in person!" has finally thinned. The influencer with the ring light surgically attached to her hand has moved on to reviewing haunted Airbnbs. The man who claimed he could "feel the ghosts in the foam" has vanished, possibly into another dimension.

The novelty has worn off. The chaos is subsiding. Customers now trickle in at a pace that almost feels normal – if you ignore the fact that someone recently asked if they could rent Muffin Guy for an art installation. The café's haunted buzz has faded to more of a dull, persistent hum, like tinnitus or Greg's attempts at leadership.

For one shining moment, you genuinely considered quitting. You'd updated your resume, spell checked it three times, and hovered your mouse over apply on a listing for an administrative assistant job that offered dental and said "strong Excel skills preferred," which you interpreted to mean "lie through your teeth and hope for the best," but something stopped you.

Not a sense of duty. Not loyalty.

No, it was Choso.

You were exactly two clicks away from salvation when you made the fatal mistake of mentioning it out loud. That was when Choso, who had been quietly sipping a latte and watching you with his usual intensity, like you were a wounded sparrow he had adopted emotionally if not legally, set his drink down with a startling determination.

"If you abandon this post," he said solemnly, eyes narrowed as if delivering the grim news of an impending apocalypse, "the chaos will consume them all."

You'd laughed. He had not. And for some reason, you believed him.

So here you are. Still underpaid. Still over-caffeinated. Still working in a café that feels more like a cosmic test of patience than a functioning business.

The espresso machine, perhaps sensing your wavering loyalty, was again emitting noises that straddled the line between dying whale and demonic summoning ritual. You, already dead inside, jabbed at the steam wand with a spoon. Predictably, this did nothing except make the machine groan louder, the kind of sound one makes when they realize their card declines at a packed grocery store.

Greg the Manager, appeared from the back, looked at the machine, and nodded sagely. "Just give it some time."

You turned slowly, narrowing your eyes.

"We've been giving it time for months," you pointed out flatly. "I think it's evolving."

Greg clapped you on the shoulder in what was probably meant to be reassuring but mostly just felt like being touched by failure. "No worries. I already fixed the real problem."

"... With the espresso machine?"

Greg waved a hand. "No, not that. I mean, the real problem. We're not getting enough customers anymore."

You stared at him, choosing your words carefully. "Greg. The reason people stopped coming is because they finally realized just how weird this place is. If anything, fewer customers might mean fewer problems."

Greg shook his head vehemently. "We don't want fewer customers. We need to go viral again. We need to be… immersive."

Oh god.

"I hired a mascot," he announced, grinning.

There was a long silence.

"What."

"Check it out," Greg gestured grandly toward the entrance, his smile smug with misplaced pride.

And that was when you saw it.

The first mistake was thinking Greg the Manager was incapable of taking initiative. The second mistake was assuming he would take the right kind of initiative.

Standing near the door was something that absolutely should not exist. A mascot costume, if you could even call it that, shaped like a massive coffee bean with two stubby little arms and two stumpy little legs. But its face… oh god, its face.

Its eyes were glossy, unblinking voids, deep and lifeless, as if it had seen things no coffee bean ever should. Its stitched on smile stretched far too wide, grinning perpetually as if it had just whispered your deepest, darkest fears into your ear and found them hilarious.

"Why," you said, voice hollow, "does it look like it knows my sins?"

The mascot did not respond. It did not move. It simply stood there, radiating an aura of unspeakable horror.

"Behold," Greg announced, sweeping his arms toward the thing like a magician revealing his final trick, "our new marketing strategy."

You stared.

The coffee bean stared back.

Greg patted its velvet head fondly, oblivious to the terror he had unleashed. "The kids love mascots. This is how we go viral once more, baby!"

You glanced at the customers. A child was actively sobbing into his mother's coat. An old man whispered something in Spanish and made the sign of the cross. Even Muffin Guy paused, as if sensing a greater evil had entered the café.

"This is a disaster," you whispered to yourself.

Greg ignored you. "C'mon, I know what you're thinking, but listen. After Nanami showed up and fixed things for, like, an hour, I had an epiphany."  

"That you should finally quit and find a better job?"  

Greg ignored that too. "That I should take this café seriously. I should be a leader." He adjusted his posture to exude confidence. It did not work. "Nanami's whole thing is about efficiency, right? So what's more efficient than hiring an employee who just stands there advertising for us? We're calling him Beanie. He's going to increase foot traffic, boost engagement, and create an immersive brand experience."

"You learned those words from a TikTok, didn't you?"

"... Perhaps."

The mascot – Beanie, apparently – remained motionless. The oppressive weight of its gaze settled onto you like a physical force.

"Does he ever… talk?" you asked, wary.

Greg hesitated. "Not really."

"Not really, or not at all?"

"Not at all."

"Great." You turned back to the looming nightmare in a coffee bean suit. "Welcome to hell."

Beanie said nothing.

Later that day, the bell above the café door chimed with its usual pathetic ding – a sound so lacking in energy it might as well have been a cry for help. You glanced up and braced yourself for the next wave of nonsense.

The man who had just walked in did not look like the kind of person who should be here.

Tall. Immaculate black suit. Sunflower lapel pin. Briefcase. Haunted eyes. His shoes alone probably cost more than your entire paycheck. Everything about him screamed "burned out public defender in the midst of a very existential crisis." The man looked like he had walked straight out of a legal drama.

He paused just inside the door, taking in the room with the clinical detachment of someone mentally cataloging every fire hazard, potential lawsuit, and ethical violation in a five meter radius.

His gaze landed on Greg the Manager.

Greg the Manager was attempting to refill the napkin dispenser by jamming loose tissues into it one by one. It wasn't working.

Then his eyes slid to Muffin Guy, who was, as always, staring at a single muffin like it held the answer to mortality.

And then… they landed on Beanie.

The mascot stood motionless in the corner like a nightmarish, foam suited guardian of unspoken horrors. Its glossy eyes were fixed forward. Its stitched on smile stretched too wide, as if it knew secrets about the universe. Terrible, coffee stained secrets.

"...Welcome in," you said, voice flat. "Don't mind the mascot. It's mostly harmless. I think."

The man's eyes did not leave Beanie.

"That," he said slowly, "looks like it's committed several felonies."

You leaned your elbow on the counter, deadpan. "It probably has."

Beanie tilted its head slightly. No sound. No movement. Just quiet judgment, like it was deciding whether or not your soul was worth harvesting.

Depressed Phoenix Wright finally moved forward, slow and measured, as though worried sudden motion would trigger the thing into lunging. He approached the counter. Looked at the menu with the bored detachment of a man who had once cross-examined someone for three hours straight without blinking. His expression – stoic, bordering on existentially done with everything – didn't change.

You, internally, were already assessing risk.

Still, you kept your face neutral. "Can I help you?"

"Espresso. Medium." he said, tone calm but clipped.

You punched in the order. "That'll be–"

He'd already slid exact change across the counter.

You blinked.

Then looked up again.

Depressed Phoenix Wright was staring directly at you. Not in a weird way. Not like Choso's unblinking hyperfixation or Gojo's unsettling game show host smirk. No, this was different. Calculated. Measured. It felt like being appraised as a witness on the stand.

“Name for the cup?” you asked, already grabbing the marker.

The man blinked, just once. As if the question had caught him genuinely off guard, like you’d asked him for a blood type instead of the bare minimum for drink identification.

Then he answered, voice even, “Higuruma.”

You wrote it down carefully, trying not to butcher it. He definitely looked like the kind of guy who had been correcting teachers since age six. Neat cursive, perfect spacing.

As you moved to prepare the drink, Higuruma stood perfectly still, arms folded behind his back like he was listening for a trapdoor to open. His eyes drifted back to Beanie.

"Has that... always been there?" he asked, voice low, like the mascot might be listening.

"Nope," you said. "The manager hired it two days ago. Called it a 'marketing pivot.'"

"I see."

Greg chose that exact moment to pop up from behind the pastry case with an empty croissant box on his head and announce, "I'm doing inventory!"

Neither you nor Higuruma responded.

Beanie, however, tilted its head again. Just slightly.

You handed over the coffee.

Higuruma accepted the cup with the solemnity of a man receiving final evidence in a trial that would determine the fate of humanity. He took a slow sip, then blinked.

"This isn't bad," he admitted.

"Thanks," you replied. "It tastes better when the machine's not actively trying to kill me."

"I understand," he said, dead serious. "The judicial system does the same."

You blinked. "... You okay?"

"No," he replied, taking another sip. "But I'm trying new things. Like walking into cafés that seem statistically likely to be portals to hell."

Then, just as you thought the moment couldn't get any weirder, Beanie turned its entire body to face Higuruma. It didn't move its legs. It just… swiveled.

Higuruma stared. Slowly, carefully, he took one step back.

"I see," he said, completely composed. "It's trying to establish dominance."

"It does that sometimes," you muttered.

"I will now leave before it attempts to communicate."

And with that, Higuruma turned and walked out of the café with the air of a man who had just solved a murder and also maybe committed one. Beanie watched him go. Silently. Eternally.

Greg popped up behind you again.

"That guy seemed fun," he said.

You didn't respond. You were too busy wondering if you had just served coffee to someone who had definitely prosecuted, defended, and executed a war crime all before lunch.

From that day, things with Beanie only escalated.

At one point, Beanie was standing at the counter, watching you make a drink.

Nothing unusual.

Except when you looked back up, its head had turned 180 degrees.

You dropped the milk steamer.

"Greg," you hissed desperately, pulling him aside, fingers digging into his shoulder. "Fire. It."

"No."

"You've summoned a demon," you informed him flatly. "This is an eldritch horror in a coffee bean costume."

Greg scoffed. "Nah. It's just a guy in a suit."

"Is it?" you asked, because now that you thought about it – you had never actually seen them outside of the costume.

Every morning, the mascot was already there before you. Every night, it was the last to leave. It never took breaks. It never removed the costume.

And, worst of all, it never said a single word.

"Wait," you said suddenly. "Do we even know who's in there?"

Greg hesitated. "... Well, we already paid for the costume."

"This isn't a costume, Greg, this is an omen."

Greg waved a dismissive hand. "You're overreacting."

The espresso machine made a garbled, death-rattle noise. The mascot's head snapped toward it, and the machine immediately shut up.

You pointed. "Did you see that?"

Greg was already scrolling on his phone. "See what?"

This was your life now.

One night, after finally mentally compartmentalizing the eldritch horror situation as "Not My Problem," you returned to the counter and noticed something out of place.

A letter.

A single, folded letter sat neatly by the register. No envelope, no name. Just paper.

Suspicious.

You reached for the letter cautiously, like it might explode. You hesitated. Then, against every survival instinct screaming at you to leave it alone, you unfolded it.

The handwriting, if it could even be called that, was… something. Jagged, sharp, slightly slanted, the ink looked like it had been scrawled by a creature unfamiliar with the concept of pens. Or perhaps by something ancient. Forbidden. Possibly demonic. The kind of handwriting that looked like it belonged in an exorcism manual.

You squinted and began reading it, already filled with regret.

'You are the moonlight that guides my path. I long for your warmth, yet I am unworthy. You consume my thoughts like an unrelenting curse.'

You blinked.  

Looked around.

Beanie was still in the corner. Watching. Smiling that same too wide stitched on smile.

You turned back to the letter, read it again, and felt your soul leave your body. It was terrifying. Obsessive. Deeply, deeply ominous.

You turned to Gojo, who was leaning against the bar, sipping his sugar loaded nightmare drink. "Hey."

He looked up brightly. "Sup?"

You held up the letter, face expressionless. "I think I just got a message from a stalker. Possibly the creepy mascot."

Gojo did not react with the concern you had hoped for.

Instead, he inhaled his drink wrong and choked violently, then bent over laughing so hard it was unclear whether he was okay or just emotionally unhinged. Still coughing, he fished out his phone.

"What are you doing?" you asked, a dull ache forming behind your eyes.

"Submitting this to my favorite true crime podcast," Gojo answered cheerfully.

"Why?"

He was already snapping a photo. "They have a 'Creepy Corner' segment."

Meanwhile, across the café, Choso sat at a corner table. His hands were folded, posture painfully straight. He had been watching you with silent, monk-like devotion.

His chest was tight. His throat dry. His latte sat untouched.

He had spent hours crafting that letter. Choosing the right words. Conveying his feelings. He'd even rewritten it three times after Yuji said his original draft sounded like a death threat. He'd slipped it onto the counter when you weren't looking, then retreated to the shadows to wait.

Would you say something?

Would you acknowledge the words he had so carefully written?

Would you understand?

Surely, you would read his letter and understand his feelings. Surely, you would see the depth of his words, the weight of his affections.

He had imagined you reading it with curiosity. Perhaps confusion. Maybe even a rare smile. He had not accounted for Gojo. He had not anticipated Gojo photographing it. Or Gojo loudly announcing, "Damn, this is definitely serial killer behavior."

Choso's soul left his body.

He stared at his hands. He had no idea why his anonymous love letter was now being used as potential evidence for a future Dateline special.

He had failed.

ᨳ♡₊➳ a/n: also! if you've been craving more choso content from me during the wait, i actually started a new fic starring him and a very socially anxious reader who's fresh off a breakup. it's more serious than mwms (still has my usual crack moments tho), and it's all about hurt/comfort, healing, and two awkward people slowly figuring each other out. if you like my take on choso, you might really enjoy it 🥹

₊⊹. tag list: @luluminati @inthedarkshadows000 @isomehowexist @not-aya @emochosoluvr @lov3vivian @literallyushiwaka @kodditty @arrozyfrijoles23 @queenmimis @elizarikaallen @iloveyoucaesar @roseberry-jam @matcha-kitty13 @arrozyfrijoles23

[lacobus]

I know deep in my soul that Mark is a freak, but I'm silently debating if he's an exhibitionist freak or likes to keep it in the bedroom kinda freak

i think that it depends on when you catch him era-wise, like yellow suit mark or blue suit mark. he's bolder with the blue suit because he's kind of dated already yk, but yellow suit mark's palms are sweaty and he's nervous as hell because you'd be his first sexual encounter.

in general, i think mark likes the thrill but tweaks out harder than you afterwards when post nut clarity hits. like quickly fumbling clothes on when he's finally rode out his orgasm and is also making you dress up so you guys can smooth out any wrinkles and stuff 😭

beneath the cut: yapping beneath the cut about the invincible variants !!!

ik this isn't what you asked, but i'd say yellow suit mark has more voyeuristic fantasies and wants to roleplay hero who flies by and unexpectedly sees a civilian getting off to them.

blue suit mark probably wants to bend you over the guardians of the globe console in their den to stick it in cecil's face, but he refrains from bringing this up because he's a little embarrassed and doesn't want to make you feel weird.

and the variants i believe all have some kind of exhibitionist thing where they all want to power trip by doing it for an audience to see that they can't stop him and that you explicitly belong to him.

much to think, like viltrum mark + mustache mark (as viltrumites who were raised that way) don't really care about if someone watches, sex is an act of procreation anyway, they just care about the fact that this is a way to stake their claim bluntly speaking.

mohawk, no goggles, and shiesty are pretty into pretty dastardly methods; mohawk would want to televise it for just a quick moment (enough for someone to see and get bombarded with footage of you face up ass down), no goggles thinks having anyone important (i.e. the guardians of the globe, before he beats them all to a pulp for his entertainment) walk in is fun and shiesty (also, bald + retro mark to a smaller extent) just wants to gloat and show people that he's the man.

sinister mark is very, very, very into things that are potentially disgusting and very dehumanizing. you're his pet, not a lover. sex is a tool to remind you, and he'll have you however he wants without paying attention to your writhing. the exhibitionist thing he has going on for him is to wrangle all the variants and have them watch him with you but never actually let you cum. and he gets everyone to laugh too, so when you cry its just the cherry on top for him

others: omni mark isn't into exhibitionism, he thinks its a waste of time and frankly unbecoming. prisoner mark doesn't care, he's been stuck in a holding cell for forever, if it turns you its nothing to him, he just wants to fuck. full mask mark (black mask + blue goggles, aka maskvincible apparently according to the wiki???) would indulge you, and get into it as a result

[legalandnotease]

Yeah. Can we please not make Yelena's ensemble movie about Sam though? I mean really? It's her movie. Not his.

Also we're not going to see another Civil War because Bucky isn't trying to forcibly impose authoritarianism on the whole world. It's his team and they're doing thier own thing. They're not forcing anybody else to agree or go along with it. Whatever arrangements they do or don't have with the government only effect them. Not Sam. Not anyone else.

I just don't believe in the sambucky divorce and Bucky wouldn't be that stupid to work under government control after everything he's been through!

Are they taking over Bucky's mind and forcing him to kill? It doesn't look like it. In fact Bucky is more than able to refuse any missions or assignments he doesn't like and this applies to the whole team now. They're not being told *what to do*. If anything they're complaining about not being kept in the loop and told stuff they need to know to do thier jobs.

So yeah. Bucky is fine. There's no divorce. There's not gonna be a Civil War 2. He just found some new family and isn't a sidekick anymore. He may still have depression though because that's kind of the whole point of the movie.

This might be me screaming into the void a bit here, but I have a theory!

Bucky stayed with the new team to keep everyone in check and to make sure they're not being exploited by Valentina, he's either gathering inside information or watching Val's every move to build up evidence against her.

Maybe he's let Sam know, because they are partners after all, and Sam being "mad" and suing for the Avengers name is just part of taking down Valentina.

I just don't believe in the sambucky divorce and Bucky wouldn't be that stupid to work under government control after everything he's been through!

[conclaveconfessions]

I'm not og anon but, imho when I started reading conclave fanfic I also sometimes felt like the Catholic yaoi is not Catholic enough, that being said if you go to the book Vincent literally says he isn't afraid of a schism. So I understand why people write him like that. it's a bit difficult to write the character differently. I don't quite agree with the notion that he wouldn't care about his vows or see them as irrelevant, because it's a whole thing in the book as well, but the whole confession stuff was actually so weird ajdjdn. I think book!Vincent is complicated in a way that perhaps has to do with the author not knowing how to make the theme land. And movie!Vincent is just this unknowable figure, really. Like "Vincent thinks it's ok so he ropes Lawrence in, who is so devout to him that he lets go" is not... A totally incorrect interpretation of the characters. It's AN interpretation, that yeah, protestants and atheists would be more partial to.

But there are different types of Catholics, and some are more progressive than others. And not everyone upholds his vows.

If we're talking about celibacy vows there are many justifications on how or why a priest would fuck. Youd have to guess the thought process of any given character except Lawmeli, and you can get creative with it. Someone like Tedesco might outright believe he's above it even if he's a traditionalist, something something cognitive dissonance.

The only place where I do care is extremely petty and has nothing to do with care for the scriptures and just on my understanding in how religion works as an atheist that grew up in a Catholic society, and it's when fanfics make Thomas and Vincent "marry" each other. Like my brain literally can't compute it and I just ignore it or outright skip it ajsjdjdj

I 100% understand this is poetic language (tho not always) and yet-

I'm always like... but they are Catholic priests... They're "married" to the Church... Even if they were a straight couple/the church was nice to gays it's just not possible... I have a friend and her parents are married evangelical pastors and the first six months of friendship I kept forgetting and remembering this fact and my brain said: ... That's not how religion works.....

But that's like, my gut feeling. Obviously religion works in many different ways. My friend has like legit religious trauma because her parents do not like that she's queer (she liked conclave btw sjdjdj).

This is a small cultural bias (I knew in other religions priests can marry but I constantly forgot) that is actually Huge in terms of how the characters relate to each other. They would never consider themselves husbands, as long as they're pope and cardinal... And this has to rattle their brains ajsjddj how do you, top dog of THE catholic church, rationalize your union to the eyes of god? Compartmentalize? Ignore it? Confess all the time? Change your whole POV? It's tricky! It's interesting! It's also mostly absent in some Conclave fanfic. It doesn't seem to be a question. It's ok if your answer is "oh but it's fine because we love each other c:", but it could be more of a challenge to get there. Also I don't buy the explanation that "well some Catholics allow priests to marry". Not these Catholics ajsjdnd

So if you're wondering: what does someone with a Catholic background might feel it's missing? Sometimes it's not even about anything scriptural and it's really just the vibes of forbidden love and guilt. Bartender, more guilt please!!! At least to me that was the feel. It's not called catholic guilt for nothing.

Eh, actually, it's not that it's not present, but it's usually not developed from Vincent's perspective, and that's the thing, I think.

If you rewrite Vincent to be sexually active prior to the conclave it all ties together more neatly, he can be the instigator to Lawmeli's desire and, I like it, but if he held onto his vows... Why? Why now and not before? Why Lawmeli? Is that why you are marrying them? You think he thinks in marriage is less sinful? Why? Oh, you say he doesn't care/believe in sin? Then why didn't he break his vows before then? Why were his vows important before but not now? Was breaking his vows a sin before but now that he's pope he can deem them not a sin now? Is his lust just that big? But then, doesn't he feel guilty about it? Because it kinda seems like he should feel conflicted about it, if he held to his vows all his life only to break them after becoming Pope.

You can take this in so many different directions but for that, it needs to be a conflict first. But if you're protestant, and you had a married priest growing up, maybe it just wouldn't occur to you. You "know" catholic priests don't marry or have sex, but you don't feel anything about it, so when you write conclave porn, they don't care about it. If Vincent is fine with being an intersex priest he would be fine with sex, right? But would he? And why?

Take this with a grain of salt given the atheism. Maybe an actual catholic can reply in earnest.

~

[wanderingmind867]

I don't really like Denny O'Neil. Like, at all. He's responsible for Frank Miller getting involved with Daredevil as a writer, I heard. He's also responsible for Frank Miller ruining Batman. Denny O'Neil may have overseen the creation of some cool characters in the 90s, but him letting Jim Starlin kill off a teenager in the form of Jason Todd is when he lost me permanently. I already hate Denny O'Neil's Justice League and Green Arrow work, but that was positivity tame compared to the Jason Todd stuff.

Denny O'Neil is the guy who ruined Batman. You can't recover from letting a child get killed. It ruins the fun, and it makes your main character look like an asshole for letting a child die! I don't care if Batman actually let Jason die or not, that's semantics! Fact is: it happened. And it ruined a perfectly good character. Lesson of the day? You can't come back from child murder. It ruins everything. I can't believe that needs to be said. Fuck all these writers who're killing preteens or teens. They haven't even gotten to live! Screw realism, you're all just assholes! Jason Todd or even Jason Grace, child murder is unacceptable. No, no, no. I already hate character death, but these were children! I...gods, it sucks.

[escapingreality51]

Prompt 96: Do I mean that little to you

"do I mean that little to you?"

Aaron doesn't know why he said yes to this. Maybe it was Mack's smile when he asked Aaron to go out for a drink, and that John immediately said yes. Maybe it was the fact that John was happy for the first time in weeks. John's difficult when he's not happy... or maybe it was boredom. He doesn't know, but they're getting out of the cab to Hotton with Vic and John's got a glint in his eye.

'Tried this place before?' John asks.

Vic and Aaron's eyes meet and Aaron shakes his head slightly. Vic catches on, thankfully. There's no need to let John know that this is where Aaron realised he wanted Robert back, all those years ago. Where he broke up with Alex and tried to get Robert back, all while Vic watched them both dance around each other.

'No,' Vic says. 'I haven't.'

Aaron shrugs and stuffs his hands into his pockets. 'Once or twice,' he says.

It's Mack's birthday. He wanted a drink. So here they are, wandering into one of Hotton's many gay bars. It's just a pity Aaron has such vivid memories of being here for someone else.

It's mostly unchanged since Aaron was here last. The lighting is overpowering and the music is so-so, but the atmosphere makes Aaron relax instantly. There's nothing like being in a place where you know you are explicitly accepted.

They find a table next to the bar and Mack orders drinks for the table. John sidles up next to Aaron, presses close so that his nose is against Aaron's ear.

'Not really your thing, is it?' he asks.

Aaron shrugs. 'Not recently, no.'

John smiles, presses a kiss to Aaron's cheek.

'Just going to the bathroom,' Aaron says.

It's off to the side of the dance floor and on his way, Aaron spots a mop of blonde hair. Robert.

He's wearing a nice shirt and he's got his arms around some bloke who's, frankly, fitter than Aaron expected. Robert's dancing, badly, but the bloke seems into it. He's mouthing at Robert's neck and in a moment, their mouths slot together and Aaron feels like he's been punched.

Robert's coming here... on the pull. To meet men.

Aaron clenches his fist and, as if something between them that never went away pulls taut, Robert breaks away and looks up, and for a moment their eyes lock across the dance floor.

Robert freezes and peels away the arms of the bloke he's met from around his body and in an instant, Robert's in front of Aaron.

'Aaron --'

'What are you doing here?' Aaron asks.

Robert lifts an eyebrow at him and throws a glance over his shoulder. The bloke is still there, dancing, keeping one eye on Robert. 'Thought that was obvious.'

'Do you just come here on the pull?' The words wrench themselves from Aaron before he has a chance to think, to stop himself.

Robert puts his hands up in mock-surrender. 'What do you expect, Aaron... you told me to move on, to find someone new. I can't keep waiting for you... you're married.'

Aaron moves in closer. 'Are you kidding me? Do I mean that little to you? You'd come here, of all places, on the pull?'

Robert's eyes narrow. 'Why do you care?'

Aaron looks at him, really looks at him. Robert's lips are red from kissing someone, and there's a sheen of sweat on his forehead. His eyes though... they're a challenge, a spark that could ignite this whole thing again if Aaron let it.

'I don't,' Aaron says.

Robert lets his gaze fall down to Aaron's lips and then back up. 'I don't believe you... mate.'

He turns around and walks back to the bloke, taking his hand and dragging him off, away. It makes Aaron furious, makes his head spin imagining the men that Robert's met here, or the women he's taken home.

He walks back to his table, the bathroom forgotten and he can't shake the fire in his chest, he can't calm down.

They don't stay long. John gets tired and Vic needs to be ready to take care of Henry tomorrow, so it isn't long before they head out, grab a cab and go back to the village. They pile into a cab together, Aaron up against one door, when his phone vibrates in his pocket.

He takes it out and looks at the screen, and a small smile stretches from the frown he's been wearing.

You know, is all it says.

Aaron does know.

'Who's that?' John asks.

'Just... my mum, asking about dinner tomorrow.'

John buys it. Aaron thinks of it the whole way home.

[bebeluss]

The more I read this, the more embarrassed I am that you guys keep on liking it and reblogging. I mean, thanks you're all so nice but also, maybe to add a little (because seriously the more I read it, the more I think some points might be missing), so:

1) first of all, when I kept on saying that people go hard defending "fictional shit" yet here I am defending fictional stuff too... Well, what I meant is that people really go SO hard defending the indefensible and it honestly worries me. It worries me that you people behave like that in real life. I'm talking to the John Walker, Alexei crowd. Especially the John Walker crowd because how can you watch tfatws and go so hard "defending" him and how can you go so hard for him to the point of dragging Sam? Listen, nobody's perfect, not even fictional characters but I swear to God, I can't think on a single bad action Sam has done. Nothing, nada. So the fact that you drag Sam in order to defend John Walker is so questionable to me. Are you aware that you can like villains/questionable characters and that's ok, right? All stories need villains/these questionable characters so they'll always be there but what happened to just like a character and accept that their actions are in fact wrong or that they were wrong and there haven't been efforts to mend those wringings? I haven't seen a single acknowledgement from him for what he did to Sam (and even Bucky... You "winteragent" people are.. weird 😶). If you like John Walker, that's fine! But don't justify his shitty behavior, just enjoy him being shitty as he is. And actually this goes for all the characters. I, as a Bucky Stan, know that Bucky has been wrong so many times. He was wrong in tfatws with his obsession with that fuckass shield, he was wrong at the end in thunderbolts and that's ok to accept because that's real life too, people fuck up, you don't need to make excuses for these characters. They dont have to be perfect for you to like them. And it's so weird that many people use "trauma" as a justification because that's not it. As someone with mental illness, I can tell you that having bad mental health explains shitty behaviors but it doesn't justify them. (And btw I am not comparing Bucky and John because Bucky never killed anyone just because he lost it like John did. I'm just saying that if me, being a Bucky Stan can accept that he's fucked up, then you can do it too. 🤷🏽‍♀️).

I also believe that these characters can do better, there's this line of Sam that I truly adore: "The only power I have is that I believe we can do better" because yes, we all can do better but we need do to the work to be better and John Walker hasn't done shit to be better yet he has so many defenders only because he's a white dude and a super soldier and to many racists that automatically makes him "better" than Sam (no). It doesn't matter that he killed innocent people, it doesn't matter that he's a shitty ass dad and husband... No, the dude is white and a super soldier so that's enough and it's so frustrating to witness. 🫩 So yes, I won't go too hard defending fiction because listen, I'm already a Queer brown woman living in a dangerous environment so I have enough shit with myself but I'll keep on calling out racism on social media because that's a pretty real issue (I know I said I don't say shit here but if you knew the amount of insta and TikTok accounts I've lost for calling out racism in fandom 🫩 it's exhausting). Do you know how exhausting it is, as a Queer, as a bipoc and as a woman, to come online to try and forget our real life shitty situations only to encounter racist people and sexist people online? And believe me, I block a lot of people, I block left and right but it's never enough. And a big part of that problem is the people riding behind fictional characters like John Walker... You people need to stop making fandom spaces dangerous for minorities.

Now when I said that Bucky is a hero and blabla, I know it seemed so random lol but I said it because the same person who told me the thing about sambucky's shippers wanting Bucky to be Sam's "lapdog" told me that I was "jealous" because Bucky can "finally be a hero with thunderbolts"... Like... Even if Bucky had stayed dead since the 40s, even like that, he'd have been a hero because as I said, he was fighting Nazis before most of the avengers were born. And he was a hero fighting in wakanda and he was a hero fighting alongside Sam in tfatws. He is a hero and he doesn't need of a bunch of criminals to be one. And if you think he does, well.. don't call yourself a Bucky Stan because you clearly don't know the character you Stan and you clearly hate him somehow (same goes for the ones who ship him with his abusers or with Zemo).

And I think that was all I wanted to "clear up" 😅

And remember to keep Sam Wilson's name out of your mouth, especially if you're a thunderbolts stan because believe me bae, they'll be following Sam's orders soon and you'll be foaming from your mouths but that's on you and your racism, not on Sam 🫶🏽❤️ (like why wouldn't you want your fav to follow sam's leadership?? Again, I cannot think on a single bad thing he's done 😭 so yes, as a Bucky stan I hope he's still following Sam's leadership, that doesn't make him less of a hero and that doesn't make him a "lapdog", that only makes him a loyal character, which he's always been -fuck you Joana calo fr-, anyway!)

Oh and also!!! So many Bucky stans get mad at him being "sidelined" and listen... I got kinda mad at his screen time in thunderbolts because they sold us the movie with the slogan "now with more Bucky" and it turns out that he only had 8 minutes of screen time... The same as in the first avenger so yeah I thought that was stupid BUT his presence wasn't necessary in the movie at all, it literally could've been any other character and even tho I loved how he looked and some things... It could've been anyone, really. That said, Bucky Barnes is a supporting character and THAT'S FINE!!! All stories need all kind of characters and the supporting characters are important too. One of the main reasons I've always loved Bucky is because he is super loyal, he's been there for Steve and Sam in all movies and I love that. He being a supportive character doesn't mean he isn't important, he's there to support the main characters and THAT'S FINE. Like why would you have a problem with that? Him being a supportive character is one of the reasons why 2 of the biggest ships of the MCU exist (stevebucky and Sambucky) so idk why so many of you are mad.. 🚶🏽‍♀️🫩

People who go so fucking hard in the name of "defending" thunderbolts are so fucking annoying. To begin with, i've never understood why there's so much hate unleashed against Sam after that stupid ass post credits scene. He wasn't even in the movie. Now, the line "it went poorly" doesn't have to mean that he was "rude" or whatever towards Bucky/thunderbolts but even if he was, well.. HE'S RIGHT! Because what do you mean Bucky (and Yelena and ava and bob!!) out of everyone, is working willingly for the government/fuckin Valentina whom he wanted to impeach through the movie and then he got amnesia, like??? The same government that wanted to put him out in civil war, the same government that didn't trust him in tfatws, the same government who tortured him and kidnapped him for over 70 years because let's not forget that hydra and shield were the same shit... LIKE???! explain to me in which world would he be working willingly for the government??? And I'm saying this as someone who loves Bucky so damn much. He's literally my favorite character, I watched thunderbolts BECAUSE OF HIM, and that's it, otherwise I wouldn't have watched it. And if I'm honest, I dislike that post credits scene, because he's just out of character. He is and if you're a real Bucky Stan, you should see that. I didn't like that he didn't defend Sam, the person who's been with him for more than a decade in the MCU's world. The person who gave him his REAL found family. The only person in all these years that he's canonically said "I love you" to, Sam wilson is Bucky's closer friend and ally. I don't like the fact that he's betraying wakandans once again by working with Valentina (even tho I'm honestly not mad at him freeing Zemo because at the end of the day it was for something justified and he ended up turning him over), and you know what? Now that I'm complaining, I also didn't like his fucking obsession with the shield in tfatws. He saw Steve dropping that shield for him TWICE, he knows that shield isn't more important than the person carrying it so I don't get why was he so obsessed with it and why was he being annoying towards Sam throughout all of tfatws (Malcolm Spellman and Joana calo, YOU WILL PAY FOR YOUR CRIMES for making him act out of character 😤 ).

I've got someone in my notifications telling me that sambucky's shippers only want Bucky to be "Sam's lapdog".. excuse me??? If there are people being like that, then it's mainly Bucky's stans believing Sam is some kind of therapist for Bucky and that Sam should be there ready to serve Bucky and nah, that's not how it works. And anyway, this same person says that Bucky wouldn't abandon the thunderbolts because he "feels responsible for them".. so.. you don't want Bucky to be Sam's "lapdog", instead you want him to be a -children trafficker (yes I watched black widow and that's what he is), a murderer and 2 women who killed because they chose to do that- baby sitter??? Mmmm.. interesting. 🤔 I can understand Bucky wanting to protect Yelena, Ava and Bob (does he even need protection? Lmao) but the other 2? Nah nah. Bucky is nobody's babysitter and in any case, if he were to feel responsibility towards someone, then it should be towards Sam. You know? The man who was willing to go to jail FOR HIM. Yeah. He owes that TO SAM and to the entire Wilson family and to the wakandans, whom literally saved his life.

My thought are all over the place and I want to say so many things and this post is messy because 1) English isn't my first language and this is the first time I write anything here, for real I don't even write tags and 2) I'm angry as hell with the behavior of most thunderbolts stans since late april. y'all are a bunch of racist bullies. You have no real reason to hate on Sam, because guess what? He's basically the same as Steve, even better, yet you dislike him? ... interesting, I wonder why that is 🤔

Now, I hated that marvel made the decision to separate Sam and Bucky. I know most Sam stans, rightfully, didn't want Bucky to be in cabnw, after the shit show that was tfatw in social media, I get it but forgetting about people's reactions, which have nothing to do with the characters dynamics, and being objective, Bucky should've been next to Sam in cap4 instead of thunderbolts. I hate that it didn't happen that way. Anthony and Sebastian literally made sambucky one of the most popular, if not THE most popular pair in marvel post endgame and you separate them??? That makes no sense to me. 🫩

However, here goes my last -messy- thoughts (because believe me, I know this post is all over the place lmao):

- Sam Wilson IS captain America and he's only doing what Steve would've done too but he's a Black man so you hate him because if it was Steve, you all would be eating it up. (Because in fact, Steve did what Sam told HIM to do many times in his trilogy and in IW and eg, go back and rewatch the movies)

- Sam is no one's therapist and he also has all the right to be mad at Bucky (even tho in the movie they don't say that, y'all made that up)

- Sam Wilson IS the avengers' leader and everybody, and I mean, EVERYBODY, will be following his lead in "doomsday", period, even the thunderbolts and I cannot wait to see that 😙

- now, because I've seen people say otherwise: James Buchanan "Bucky" Barnes IS a hero, he IS an avenger. Since the moment he decided to fight Thanos in wakanda, and anybody saying otherwise is wrong. Are we forgetting he was fighting Nazis much before most of the avengers' were born? He was there fighting with the first avenger yall... He is a hero, period. No discussion. (Also, unlike ava and Yelena, he didn't decide to keep on killing people after freeing himself from his abusers, nope, he chose to go back in cryo because he didn't trust himself EVEN THOUGH, killing people wouldn't have been his choice, because he was literally mind controlled.. again, unlike Yelena and ava (love them but yeah) 😶)

- I don't think he's suddenly a horrible character, the writers have made him do ooc actions but that doesn't mean he's a terrible character, not in my books. And actually even though this whole situation makes me mad, I do think things will be better in doomsday. Marvel would be shooting themselves in the feet if they separated sambucky for real. 🤡 What's annoying about all of this is that I cannot think of a right way to get Bucky and Sam to talk about this, I mean, I can but in a movie with so many characters, I can already see them making a quick joke and that's it, everything will be alright again.. ala Russo's style meanwhile we've been enduring a year and a half (by then) of horrible takes about Sam (seriously ask yourself why do you hate this character so much.. even more if you like Steve.. ask yourself why you don't like Sam and the answer will always be racism btw 🤷🏽‍♀️)

- and lastly: y'all have to stop bringing the real life relationship of Sebastian Stan and Anthony Mackie to the equation. They are real friends and both of them respect each other, admire each other and love each other so much and they've been saying it all these years, even this same year. Stop equating sambucky's (FICTIONAL CHARACTERS) relation to Seb and Anthony's. Y'all weird as hell for doing that. And y'all weird as hell for going against Anthony or Sebastian for what their characters do or not do in the movies. 🙄 I'm talking to the "Anthony is Sebastian's biggest fan" crowd too. Sure, he's very enthusiastic but in any case, Sebastian's the president, vice president and first member of the "Anthony Mackie fanclub". You need to watch all the interviews of that man speaking about Anthony, literally the man whow said "one of the perks of my life is knowing Anthony Mackie", the man who said "I'd walk in Anthony's shadow all the time if I had to", the man who through all of tfatws said that Mackie was THE leader of the project because he knows how to read people and that people have to give him more recognition for his work. Sebastian said that. Their relationship is based in mutual everything, mutual love, respect, admiration. Seriously, do NOT try to speak shit about them only because you disagree with what happens in the fictional world of the MCU. 🙄

- lastly FOR REAL!!: y'all really need to observe the reactions towards thunderbolts in comparison with captain america: brave new world/other bipoc projects. The hate Sam Wilson/Anthony Mackie faces is unbelievable. Remember when everybody kept saying they'd boycott cabnw because of that nasty Zionist?? Well.. where was that energy towards darevill? Margarita Levieva is a Zionist (as a Seb Stan I was still following her until a year ago when she was literally justifying the murders of children on her instagram, nasty ass woman). Where's that energy towards the upcoming spiderman? Jon bernthal is a heavy Zionist. He was even following isra-hell's accounts on Twitter. Where's the boycott energy, huh??? 🤔 Ah yes... The leads in those movies are white men, I forgot they all have several passes.

Anyway, I do think all Hollywood productions have Zionists working in them, it's almost impossible that they don't, especially in this case because Disney itself IS a Zionist company 🙄 so you can keep your stupid ass excuse of boycotting something only when the lead is a Black man (or a woman), seriously check your fucking racism. It's so tiring to see white people giving stupid takes. Stfu and CHECK YOUR RACISM. 🫩

I think that was all lol, I don't think anyone's gonna read this because it's long as fuck and all over the place and I normally don't say shit but damn, it's been 2 months, going on 3, of non stop shitty takes. Keep Sam Wilson's name out of your mouth and please, stop being weird with Bucky. he'd hate you, Sebastian would hate you. 🫩 Do not become a nasty person in the name of defending fictional shit. This is the real world and some of you say really nasty ugly things in the name of defending fictional characters (defending from what? Idk but y'all swear you're doing something lol).

And btw, you don't have to like Sam but if you don't like him then don't speak about him, because again... There is NO a single reason why you should be feeling so much hate towards him (unless you're a racist). And if Bucky was real, he'd dislike you so much for being a piece of shit towards Sam. Think about that!! 😗

Honestly I don't even know what I wanted to achieve with this long ass post lmao, I might end up deleting it if I'm honest because I suffer anxiety and that's a big reason why I never interact with anyone here but damn, having people in my notifications being so wrong about Sam (and Bucky too actually) is so annoying. 🫩🫩🫩🫩🫩

[unsoundedcomic]

With the news of the new books I was wondering, when you periodically play around with the website for pages, do you think about how you will adapt that to a printed book? Some of the instances I can see not being too difficult, but others seem much more tricky (like the stuff with Boo in chapter 18).

I don't have the original editions of your printed books, and don't remember exactly what they covered, so I'm not sure if you had to deal with this previously.

Yeah, I had to adapt Sette's fall into the khert for print already. I think it looks just fine.

I'm always really aware of print while I'm laying this stuff out. In fact I typically draw the elements as if it's for print, and then from there I split them up for the unique web presentation. Everything needs to be in print res first, after all.

But I don't really sweat it? The two mediums are very separate to me. Print is print, web is web, and there is absolutely no way to replicate one as the other. You can't break the boundary of a book, and you can't (or at least I won't) display an A5 piece of page art on peoples' phones. You get the one on the web, you get the other in print.

Boo's journey will look different in print. He can't rifle through the website because the comic's not on the website there - it's in a book! :) That is how I really differentiate them thematically. Different presentations. Different limitations.

And at the end of the day, as interesting as the meta web stuff is, it's ultimately a gimmick. It's fun in the moment, but it's not something that the narrative leans on. At least I don't believe so.

[boarloved-art]

ig ooomfie said i should draw xuanli and i kinda went crazy abt them whoopsydoodle

[menlove]

paul being so mad at backbeat for giving john long tall sally and nowhere boy for making john ride on top of a bus is so fucking funny to me he said I don't care if you make him bisexual or say he wanted to fuck his mom I care about more important details. like who sang this song and that he rode the bus like a normal person.

[fredricwertham]

I honestly feel bad for the writers who've been tasked with reviving him, there's no way of doing it that doesn't feel forced.

Dick's position of importance in the old universe emerged organically because there were 70 (at the time Flashpoint was published) years of history behind it—I mean he’d been establishing relationships with non-bat characters since… whenever World’s Finest started, probably. Writers had ample time to build his relationships with DC's other characters, and the fact that he was both one of their oldest and most popular characters meant that they'd often use him to integrate new characters into the narrative, but the reboot essentially reduced his significant relations to Bruce and Barbara. He's not a leader on Prime Earth, he's not a mentor, he doesn't have friends, he barely has an established life in Gotham (even Selina doesn't know him anymore) let alone outside of it. Sometimes these things are obliquely alluded to, but there aren't stories about it, so they aren't really essential aspects of the character.

Even after the unsiloing of rebirth, and to a lesser extent the DCYou releases, it's shocking how little story Dick has. Look at it this way: we're 127 issues into Nightwing (2016), which encompasses both the Dixon and Grayson runs on the 1996 title in their entirety, and what's been added to the character? I'm enjoying the Watters run, so I'm glad it's still going, but the sane part of my brain thinks it ought to have been cancelled 10 times over.

It doesn't help either that so many of the stories published between Flashpoint and Dark Crisis emphasize his insignificance. Axing his team and reconfiguring Roy and Kory to revolve around Jason as a meta ‘fuck you’ to Dick, for one thing, and more or less retreading Damian’s preboot arc with him with Bruce, and making Tim’s main ‘big brother’ character… also Jason, for some reason. But we've also been shown through multiple extended storylines that his death—or abrupt transformation into another person—doesn't leave much of an impact on other characters. That makes “heart of the DC universe” a pretty hard sell!

So you’re left with this character who has nothing but shallow, underdeveloped relationships and who hasn’t accomplished much of anything within the current continuity. It makes no sense to have a bunch of characters suddenly insist that this kind of inept guy who’s not especially liked by others and who almost seems to struggle more than Bruce with relationships is actually a well-respected leader and an integral part of a lot of people’s lives. That’s a bottom-of-the-barrel isekai life turnaround. While it’s nice that DC is interested in re-canonizing his pre-2011 relevance, I don’t think it’s possible to do so in a way that’s actually believable or even interesting because these developments are only comprehensible if you understand that this stuff used to be true, years ago, in a completely different universe.

[sunjestic]

watercolor doodle i did of the kintsugi gang peeking around a door. i think i had this labeled “just saw zelda kiss hilda” but that isnt canon, so imagine whatever u want them to be seeing haha

[theunconcernedembalmer]

Purple sop purple sop purple so