#anyway here's the point in fandom where i just find my people and go sit in the corner cause i'm not putting up with this kind of fuckery

[chouettecrivaine]

Ah, Young Love! [Our Life: Now & Forever]

Fandom: Our Life: Now & Forever

Characters: Qiu Lin, Tamarack Baumann

Notes: takes place during Step 1, so he/him is used for Qiu as that is how he identifies at this point in the story!

So anyway I'm obsessed with how everybody wants Qiu but Qiu only has eyes for MC once they meet so I'm thinking about his silly little boyhood crush. And then I couldn't leave best girl Tamarack out of the love fest so here's just a few little things I was thinking about with them having childhood crushes on u <3

Note that only the demo is publicly available and I am not currently a patron so anything here that is proven true is coincidence and anything proven false is just me having a little fun

Qiu Lin

So like. I've seen Qiu call you pretty twice in the demo. Once when you meet him if you choose to call him pretty first, and again towards the end of what's available in the demo when he's listing off reasons why you should be allowed to join the club..

I just think that whenever he talks about you he always has to let it slip that he thinks you're cute. "They had on a really nice hair clip today!" "Their hair looked so cute when they took off their hat at school." "When I picked them up to walk to school, I was so surprised at how pretty they looked!"

When he told his parents about you he probably said "this really pretty kid surprised me in our yard and we went on a miniature adventure!"

Also (and note that my MC uses she/her so im gonna quote him using gendered terms but only for this one instance) When he's introducing you to one of his friends, he starts off with your name and says "she's a girl!" (Or whatever terms you have set)

So I just think he says the most basic facts about you with so much awe and wonder 🥺 like you wore overalls to school? He talks like you invented denim. You had a funny comment or joke? It's like he's never heard one before in his life when he retells it.

I feel like…the first thing that makes him interested in you is that you're new. Not only does this make you fun to mess with, but it makes you far more interesting than the people he's known his whole life. Plus you, unlike Tamarack, don't immediately brush off the cool things he wants to show you or do with you if it isn't immediately your cup of tea.

Darren and Baxter are sick and tired of hearing your name !! If you're not around Qiu wonders aloud at least once if he should or should've invite(d) you. If he did invite you and you had to decline, then he wonders what you're doing.

The type of kid to skip out on his weekend chores at home and go to your house to help you unpack instead

Ok so MC says they used to live in an apartment, right? Probably in the city? And MC was only allowed to play on their own because Golden Grove is "a safe neighborhood?" What if MC doesn't know how to ride a bike. What if Qiu teaches them…

Whether you get a hang of it or not, he daydreams about doing that thing where he rides the bike and you sit backwards on the seat or on the handlebars or something

When he finds out you can't ride a bike, he definitely shows off by riding around without his hands on the handlebars.

Will teach you how to jump off the swing set too, then will have competitions over who can swing the highest and leap the farthest

I feel like Golden Grove has a cute little main street with a bunch of locally owned shops. If you're interested, he'll show you every. single. business. Even if most of them are "granny shops" he isn't interested in. He'll let you poke around for a bit :)

He has a special page in his notebook for all the little notes and doodles about you

If you look closely at the note he gives you after class, you can see the remnants of a few tiny little hearts that he erased!!

Going back to him offering you to ride on his bike: he probably got you in trouble once because you were on your front lawn and he rode up asking you to go on an adventure with him on his bike. You're expecting a fun little 20 min ride through the walkable path in the woods that'll have you back home by dinner. Instead he takes you to town and buys you ice cream and the two of you have to struggle your way back up the hill on foot and it takes like an hour and a half to get back and your mom was worried SICK

Buys a pack of pens with one/some of your favorite color(s) and writes you notes exclusively in that/those ink(s)

If you and your mom go somewhere and he knocks on your door while you're out, you will come home to see him sitting on the steps to your front porch and waiting for you

Before class starts, he always gives you a funny face or a wave. If you come in late because of a doctor's appointment or something, naturally a lot of the kids turn to look at your entrance, and he immediately waves at you. Maybe even says hi to you out loud if he knows Mrs. Murray is in a good mood / he can get away with it.

If he finishes his work early or something, he'll turn around in his seat and just watch you from across the room with major heart eyes. He smiles wider and waves when you notice.

Anything you compliment him on, he immediately draws attention to around others. Say his hair looks good today? He'll hit you with a "oh but not every other day?" but then tell his seatmates about what you said.

Buys extra portions of his little snack bags of chips and candy or whatever he likes when he can so that he can give them to you during lunch.

Gets on a kick and will pester you about having a secret handshake until you let him come up with one. He likes having special things just you and him 🥺

Probably invites you to his hideout at a specific time and day every week and he gets soooooo excited for that time to roll around.

Tries extra hard in your favorite subject, even if it's one he hates. He's not trying to be top of the class, but he doesn't want you to think he doesn't care about something you care about!

If you like a class he's terrible at, he'll ask for your help! Or, if you struggle in a class he's good at, he'll volunteer to help you out even though he HATES the concept of doing extra schoolwork. That's how much he likes u

He'll do this with any windows but especially if one of your bedroom windows faces his: he will definitely pull a Taylor Swift in "You Belong With Me" and write notes for you guys to read to each other

Since he can't sit with you, he'll write you notes or make you doodles and then pretend he has to get up to sharpen his pencil so he can pass your desk and slip it to you

Tamarack Baumann

Tamarack will straight up just stare at you 👁👁

She follows you around like a lost puppy and visibly brightens up when you're around

Looks forward to school because she gets to sit next to you all day! Like she'll skip happily along the path with you and Qiu and you'll ask her if she's looking forward to all these things and she'll just go "No!" and when you finally give up and ask why she says "because I get to spend the whole day next to you!"

When she goes to play in the woods, sometimes she'll spend a while in the shallower end of the tree line waiting to see if you'll come outside and play with her

Has definitely thrown sticks and pebbles at your back door to lure you out before she gets bored

Likes to go around and pick up the coolest rock, the prettiest flower, the biggest piece of tree bark, a leaf the size of her head…then before she goes home for the night, she stops by your house and gives what she picked up to you!!

If you're not home then she leaves it on your porch with a note, usually held down by a rock if it's not something heavy 

She'll be over the moon if you give her cool rocks and stuff you found. Even if you're literally giving her trash, like if you ONLY give her bottle caps or pop tabs you find on the sidewalk, she cherishes them. Would make jewelry out of them tbh

Ok so quick tangent but there's a book I read in about 4th grade called Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli, and in it the love interest girl is the quirky type. One thing she has is a little decorative cart on her dresser which she puts rocks in every time she's happy and takes rocks out when she's sad. When the protag goes to her house and finds out, she explains how she has put the most rocks in it since meeting him. They kiss sometime after that and she puts another rock in and tells him about it. I think Tamarack would have a jar or a doll house bathtub and she would do the same thing, putting rocks in it when she's happy! So what I'm saying is give her plenty of rocks so she can exclusively use MC rocks for that 

Also will make matching jewelry for the two of you without even stopping to think if you even wear what she's making. She'll buy kits to make special rings and headbands, braid a million friendship bracelets out of multicolored string, use acorns she found to make earrings…anything! She is just as happy if you wear it then she is if you buy a jewelry display stand and show them off in your room. Eventually she adds keychains into the mix for some variety

Doesn't mean to spend a lot of her time waiting on you but she does. On weekends, instead of going directly into the woods, she'll just lie on her back in her yard and stare up at the clouds, completely still, daydreaming (about you) until she hears your door opening. Then she runs to you.

If any of your windows are open, particularly your bedroom window, she'll send a bunch of paper airplanes your way. Most of them make it! However, you've learned that if you find even one paper airplane inside, you're going to have to check that side of the house for more scattered on the ground

Grips onto your arms or your clothes whenever she can. You two are connected.

Makes a BIG effort to like anything that you like as much as you do! And when she follows you around, it doesn't really matter if you're doing something she doesn't care about. She just wants to spend time with you! It does make her whole week if you follow her into the woods, though.

She doesn't take notes in class, but you leave a writing implement out for her and sometimes she'll reach over and doodle a cute bear or something on your paper :)

If you say you're cold, she'll give you her scarf, no questions asked. Is also down to share but don't let her do that while you're walking because it WILL end badly 

Has wrapped the scarf around the two of you and tied you guys together before and yes it was the best recess of her life 

When walking, she tends to lean into you which sometimes almost turns into pushing you and Qiu into the road if you're not careful

Likes to drag you around places and pretty quickly invites you to her house. She doesn't tell her grandparents that she's inviting you over, so they're surprised by you almost every time, but they don't mind! She's dragging you up the stairs to her room too quickly for them to say anything anyway

[rallamajoop]

An absurdly detailed analysis of That One Soldat Photo

Hang around wintersberg fandom long enough, and you'll likely run into a popular crack-theory that, since Heisenberg obviously thinks that building a set of huge, yellow-painted signposts is a good way to point Ethan to the Stronghold, maybe it's Heisenberg who's been leaving all those handy, yellow-painted supply crates all over the place for Ethan to find! It's exactly the kind of fun nonsense I'd enjoy if it didn't feel folks are starting to take it a little too literally (by which I mean I have now read multiple fics in which it's played completely straight ‒ and, like, people do get that it's just a crack theory, right? Like, why would Heisenberg have left so many yellow crates around his own damn factory? Look, you don't have to explain every last game mechanic, not everything is lore!)

But as anyone reading my own fic would know, I'm guilty of echoing the idea that Heisenberg-was-leaving-stuff-for-Ethan myself ‒ just not because of any yellow-striped crates. No, I'm way more interested in this one weird soldat-photo you can find in the village ‒ long hours before you'll ever see your first Soldat in the flesh...

Very creepy. And if you turn it over, you'll find a clue to a puzzle you'll have to solve in order to progress.

(And of course, when you do look out the window, odds are you'll get jump-scared by a lycan just when you're focused on the numbers, because RE8 loves that sort of misdirection ‒ but I digress.)

Anyway, the code you can see out the window will open a safe containing a jack handle you'll need to move a vehicle in the village, as well as the M1911 pistol (which will very likely be your go-to handgun for the rest of the game). The game is full of conveniently-helpful clues like that (heck, most games are), often with no obvious Watsonian justification. And there are other photos around the village ‒ Luiza has a whole photo album ‒ but photos of experiments created by Miranda and her lords don't generally turn up outside their own territory.

For a player exploring the village for the first time, that photo is a lovely little bit of foreshadowing, hinting at monsters and factory stages to come. But on replaying with full knowledge of Heisenberg's later attempts to get Ethan on his side, that Soldat photo is just enough to make you go, huh... did Heisenberg leave that for Ethan? Like, on purpose?

You can find another copy of that photo later, in Heisenberg's factory, along with his notes on his early series Soldat experiments. Which doesn't really prove anything beyond the fact that assets exist to be reused... but it does at least make it pretty canon that Heisenberg has photos of his Soldats sitting around.

Possibly also significant: both the clue photo and the factory documents are tagged 'geekmemo' in the game files. Most everything related to Heisenberg in the files is labeled 'geek'-something ‒ it seems to be an early nickname for his character that lasted well into production. Everything in the factory is geek-something, even the model for the passageway from the altar to the bridge is labeled 'pathtogeek'. Considering that so many soldat-related assets are already labeled 'geek', maybe that 'geekmemo' tag doesn't really tell us anything we don't already know ‒ but it certainly doesn't work against the idea that Heisenberg wrote that 'memo' himself.

Besides, it's not like there isn't precedent for this kind of thing. RE7 had a whole mechanic where you'd have to find 'treasure photos' pointing out the location of a few rare and useful items, all with "I hid something here" written on the back. We're never explicitly told who left those photos lying around, but it's obviously Lucas: he loves playing games, he loves taunting prisoners with the possibility of escape, and who else would it be? The complete population of the Baker mansion is like 6 people and a bunch of semi-sentient mould.

Over in RE8, there are a lot more village resident who might have left that clue lying around. Like it or not though, Heisenberg is very much RE8's equivalent of Lucas: the family's wildcard show-boater who loves making Ethan jump through hoops for his amusement. So how does the game let us know it was Heisenberg who left this particular clue? Well, who else would leave a message on the back of a Soldat photo?

There's may be additional supporting evidence Heisenberg could be involved ‒ most notably the location, being a locked-off cul-de-sac labeled 'Workshop' on signs and maps. The area is full of metal junk very much like you'll later see lying around the factory.

The workshop location does have other relevance ‒ it makes sense that you'd find the jack handle in the village workshop, whether Heisenberg was involved or not. But it also stands to reason that if there's anywhere in the village proper where Heisenberg might hang around and leave clues for Ethan, the workshop is it. And you have to admit that leaving Ethan useful stuff in a safe along with an easy clue that will likely get him jumped by a lycan is 100% more in-character for the guy than just leaving useful stuff out in the open, even if it doesn't really prove anything either.

There's one more weird-little does-this-mean-anything detail: there are three dead crows near the safe too.

It's not the first time in the game you've seen dead crows (there were a bunch outside the village, and I've talked about what that might mean in the context of Miranda's cult before). But I don't remember finding any others around the village itself, other than in this one spot. And instead of being hung from trees like a ritual sacrifice, these ones are just dead ‒ messily, and with blood everywhere.

Now, maybe it doesn't mean anything, but is there anyone in the village more likely to vent his frustrations by violently killing a few of Mother Miranda's avian avatars than Heisenberg? I'd think not.

In conclusion: I still don't think all those yellow crates have anything to do with Heisenberg. And I still don't know for sure whether the RE8 development team wanted me to assume that Heisenberg left Ethan that photo, jack handle and gun. I don't know if we're supposed to read that Heisenberg keeps a workshop in the village and sometimes kills crows out of spite. But the evidence sure does point that way ‒ and it's as valid an interpretation as anything else you might take from this game.

[burntheedges-updates]

over again, chapter 1

This is my updates-only blog! Follow me at @burntheedges

Joel Miller x f!reader

summary: you fell in love with Joel Miller in Austin, Texas, in 2001, but you thought you lost him and your whole family in 2003 when the world turned upside down. now it's 2024, and you find the surprise of your life waiting for you in Jackson, Wyoming. or, five times you and Joel fell deeper in love, on both sides of the apocalypse (and one time you did something about it)18+ minors DNI chapter tags/warnings: fluff, flirting, light angst, cursing, no use of y/n, no description of reader (see note below), smallish age difference (reader is 26, Joel is 32/almost 33 when they meet in 2000) (small for this fandom, anyway) (the smut comes later, y'all, we're just getting started here) a/n: Well, here we go! This is part 1. This fic is completely finished. It’s a 5+1 and for some of the 5 parts I’ll post them together (on Sundays) and for some I’ll post them separately (on Sundays and Wednesdays) just due to length. Obviously I'm posting this one early (lol). I’ll tell you whatever the schedule is for the different parts. I've paid a lot of attention to the reader's description in this fic. I've avoided skin color, hair type, body shape/size descriptions, and even clothing (except for one or two spots where you are specifically wearing jeans and boots). You are vaguely shorter than Joel. He does not run his fingers through your hair, and you feel the blood rush to your face or your face heat, but you don't turn red or pink. Please tell me if you notice anything I missed - I want this to be as inclusive as possible. word count: 1724 (for this part) series main post & chapter list | series playlist (w/ plot-related mix) ao3 | chapter 2

Chapter 1: Meet Cute

Jackson, Early Winter, 2023

You’ve been heading northwest from somewhere in Kansas, thinking you’ve never bothered going out this way, even Before, so why not? It’s been months since you saw another person. You’re not even sure the last time you spoke out loud. 

You blame the lengthy isolation for how easily they get the jump on you. 

It's just after dawn when you're rudely awakened - at first, you’re not sure why, but a second kick to your hip sends you scrambling to sit up in your sleeping bag, which is tangled around your legs. Looking around as you struggle, you realize you’re surrounded by people on foot and on horseback. Every single one of them is pointing a gun at you. You glance to the side and realize your backpack along with anything possibly useful inside of it has been kicked away from you. The woman who kicked you has a steely look in her eye that reminds you, in your half awake state, of the last boss you had Before. 

“State your business.” As she speaks you notice the two men closest to her start to fan out a bit, but you don’t dare look away from her.

“I’m just passing through, I’ve been looking for a good place to spend the winter.”

Or, that’s what you would have said, if not for the voice from your past shouting your name in shock just as you open your mouth. “No goddamn way, is that really you?”

You think you must be hallucinating, because everyone you knew Before is dead, but then Tommy fucking Miller pushes his way in front of the woman who spoke. For a moment you can’t do more than stare at each other — him with his gun hanging limply in his right hand, you with your legs still tangled in your godforsaken sleeping bag. Then you launch into motion and start to kick it away as you find your voice. It comes out shaky. Or maybe you’re shaking all over.

“Tommy? But — you’re alive? Where the hell have you been? Wait, are Joel and—“

Tommy cuts you off as he pulls you to your feet and into a tight hug. “Holy shit, we thought you were dead. Holy fucking shit.”

“We? Tommy wait, are they—“

Tommy pulls back, keeping hold of your shoulders as he looks you in the eye. He’s grinning, his eyes wandering all over your face. “He’s alive, sunshine. Or he was when he came through here about a month ago. We’re expecting them back in the spring.”

You can feel your heart racing and your whole body feels hot and tingly. You’re overwhelmed. You didn’t think you could still feel hope like this. It’s terrifying, but you have to know. “He’s- Them? They’re both alive? Sarah?”

You know the answer before he even says anything. Tommy’s face falls, his eyes drop from yours, and you feel it like a sucker punch, as bad as it was the first time around. Your knees give out even though this is what you’ve known, or tried to convince yourself must be true, for 20 years. Tommy falls gently with you to the ground.

Your baby girl. “Oh god, Sarah. And Joel, he must have been—“

“Yeah, sunshine. He thought he lost you both. It wasn’t… well. It wasn’t good.” 

You’re starting to feel numb. You have no idea what your face is doing right now, but judging by Tommy’s, it isn’t pretty. 10 minutes ago you were alone in the apocalypse, and suddenly you’re face-to-face with your almost-brother-in-law and you know, without a doubt, that your fiancé hasn’t been dead this whole time. Is this shock? It’s been 20 years since you felt a shock like this. Since you felt anything like this. 

“Tommy, I… I need to sit down.”

“Well, you are sitting down, sunshine. But get up, gather your stuff. You can come to town with us. Stay as long as you’d like.” You nod, unsteady, and Tommy guides you carefully towards what must be his horse. 

The day passes in a daze. You think you might actually be hallucinating, or still back in your sleeping bag, dreaming, because a whole, functional town? A commune, and a house they’re just going to let you have as your own? A real community? With your only remaining family, miraculously alive? It’s impossible. You float through the rest of the day and find yourself sitting on a bed in a house with indoor plumbing that somehow belongs to you, having just eaten real food in the company of the family you thought you lost 20 years ago.

You give up and go to sleep. (What else are you going to do?)

...

As you settle into life in Jackson, the knowledge that you might see Joel — your Joel, any day now — never leaves your thoughts. It’s like a drum beat at the back of your mind that only repeats his name, marking time every hour of every day. You don’t know how you’ll prepare yourself for it. How could you? You haven’t seen him in 20 years. Anything could be different. You can so easily picture him with a daughter, but it’s Sarah in your mind, not Ellie, who Tommy has told you a bit about. Every time you open those old wounds that you’ve done your best to bury it hurts like the first time. Would he still want you? Still know you? Do you still know him? Would Ellie like you? You can’t imagine not knowing Joel, or Joel not knowing you, but it’s been 20 years and people change. You’ve changed, after all. Some days you barely recognize yourself. 

You express these fears to Tommy once, but he only laughs and says his brother may be stupid but he’s not stupid enough not to want you. It’s reassuring and rude, so, exactly like Tommy. At least some things never change.

The day Joel Miller walks back into Jackson you happen to be standing on the road near the gates, talking to Tommy, and you swear he spots you in less than 5 seconds. It’s like you can’t help but look to each other first, even when you don’t know the other is alive, even when you haven’t seen each other in 20 years. You’d know the shape of him anywhere and your eyes have never stopped looking for it, never stopped catching on a set of shoulders, a cocked hip, a tilted head, only to be disappointed when it faded like a mirage. When the person in front of you didn’t fit the hole he left behind. It hurt every time. Maybe it’s been the same for him. 

Joel looks like he’s seen a ghost, and you have no idea what expression is on your face, but the moment you lock eyes all you see is the moment you first met, almost 24 years ago, like a film negative laid on top of what’s really in front of you. He’s older, of course, but so are you, and he’s still the most handsome man you’ve ever seen.

He steps towards you and whispers your name like a prayer.

Joel fucking Miller. 

Austin, Summer 2000

It was a Saturday morning in late summer, so not yet the hottest part of the day, but not comfortable, either. Your belongings were steadily moving from the truck to your new rental house under your somewhat careful supervision when movement from the house next door caught your eye. You looked up just as one of the guys from the moving company almost dropped your nightstand off the back of the truck, distracting you from the sight of a young girl, maybe about 10, rocketing out of the house next door and down her front steps. She was wearing a bright green soccer uniform.

By the time your nightstand had been righted and you looked back towards your neighbors’ house, she’d made her way to the bushes between your driveways, standing on her tiptoes and taking in all of the commotion. She met your eye and grinned. You grinned back as she called, “Hi, new neighbor!” 

You walked over, stopping on the other side of the bush to introduce yourself. “Hi there, neighbor.” 

It didn’t seem possible, but she grinned even wider. “I’m Sarah, that’s my dad.”

You looked up, realizing there was a man coming down their steps towards the two of you — the most attractive man you’d ever seen in your life. He was tall, with broad shoulders and the look of a man who spent a lot of time in the sun, tan lines peeking out of his shirt sleeves. His brown curls were a bit messy and his shoulders and strong arms drew your eye like a magnet. You caught yourself giving him a quick once over and felt your face start to warm, embarrassed, but when you met his eyes again you caught him doing the same to you. You realized you were both caught and you smiled, introducing yourself. 

“Nice to meet you, darlin’. Joel Miller, and I think you’ve met Sarah.” You felt your face turn hot at the endearment but you knew he probably didn’t mean anything by it. Southern hospitality and all. “Welcome to the neighborhood.”

You’d opened your mouth to respond when you were rudely interrupted by a crashing noise from the moving truck behind you, and you whirled around to see a box on its side on the ground that definitely should not have been. You glanced back at your neighbors as you excused yourself. “It’s great to meet you! Sorry, I need to see what that was.”

They shooed you along before you could even finish your sentence, reassuring you that they understood. “Let me know if anything broke, darlin,’ I’m pretty handy, could probably fix it. It’d be my pleasure.” He smiled at you a bit, just on one side, edging towards a smirk, and you did your best not to stare at his mouth. “Deal,” you agreed, grinning. Both you and Joel seemed unable to draw your eyes away from each other. You were stuck, pinned in place under his gaze until Sarah tugged on his arm and dragged him towards their truck. “Dad, we’re gonna be late!”

The view from the back was just as nice as the front. 

...

a/n: ch 2 is up!

taglist: @morgaussy

[discluded]

I just realized that the porsche in the book was probably like kinn’s type? Cos they initially imagined a korean actor to play it right.. so apo being called to cast is really sus lol

I have never read KPTN and according to people who have, it's better for my brain that I haven't 😂

According to Reliable Sources, apparently Porsche wasn't Kinn's Type™ because Kinn's type is pretty and novel!Porsche wasn't pretty. But Apo is very pretty so obviously that wouldn't work 😁

Okay since I have a minute now:

KinnPorsche Casting: The Lore

First posting (one version) of the casting story for everyone to set the stage. Thanks to @lorddio for helping me find this one again and MileApo Safe Place for translating as always. it's got a very special part that needs highlight 😉

But setting the record straight(ha!) about the basics:

Mile was Kinn's face model, and purportedly many elements of Kinn were based off of Mile's public image (very importantly: wealthy heir to an important Thai family)

In the variations of posts about Mile is Kinn lore I've seen, this was the specific photo that inspired Daemi's Kinn. He reposted it around the same time his casting for KPTS was announced (this was reposted Dec 2020) but if I remember correctly from scrolling back in his feed, it was taken when he was 24-25 years old.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by MP 15.15 (@milephakphum)

As anon mentioned, and Apo mentioned in the clip above, Daemi chose a Korean actor as the face cast for Porsche.

However, he was contacted and specifically invited to audition for the role of Porsche. According to Apo, he didn't even read for any other characters

Those are the basic public facts we can agree on. But of course there's more going on behind the scenes! There's actually a lot going on here so I'm going to break it down for each actor, starting with Mile because that might set the ground for some of what happened with Apo.

Admittedly some of this is my opinion or interpretation, so take it with a grain of salt and use your own judgment! Again, the above facts are what is probably known and agreed upon.

Casting dates (a clarification)

First of all, there's a couple of confusing things going on with the dates, which I actually didn't highlight in the last post about it, but was exposed by the Facebook posts.

The first Facebook post dated October 1, 2020 talks about how the audition process has started and the first round will go on to October 3. The second post is from October 4 and then lists the dates of the auditions for October 10.

Now, October 10, the "official" audition date is (1) The day Mile and Apo were both fast tracked through auditions and (2) met again. I don't think anyone on the English side of fandom has noticed this or at least publicly talked about this discrepancy so I'm bringing you hot news (that I've been sitting on and not sharing lol)

It is worth pointing out that this is supposedly the photo below is of their first kiss from the auditions, and they're both wearing different clothes, so. I'm guessing the fast tracking was actually for the first round of auditions between Oct 1-3, and then the kiss was Oct 10.

Anyway, they sat next to each other and Apo talked to Mile first, regardless of if it was the same day (likely not, in my opinion)

There's also a couple of different photos of them together at audition.

Notably, in the first they're sat in uh, waiting area chairs. There's a different clip of Apo sitting behind Bible, so I'm guessing this is before Apo talked to Mile and he had noticed Mile while sitting in this area and went to talk to him.

The moved together down the line to the audition room, I think?

where Sprite interviewed them:

Also based on this last photo they switched sitting order at some point while waiting to audition

Mile's casting

So aside from the fact Mile visibly went to auditions, there is a rumor with some basis that Mile was pre-cast as Kinn. Probably soft confirmed by Mile himself.

I'm just going to close the loop on this discrepancy too: I think Mile was an invited audition/casting in the same way Ke Huy Quan was invited to audition for for Waymond Wang. Mile did audition. He was likely get the role because he was so preferentially invited by the authors and was the basis for the character.

Clearly, Ke Huy Quan won an Oscar and Mile won a GQ breakout actor award, so in invited casting, even for seemingly "unimportant" roles, it doesn't speak to an actor deserving or not deserving the role based on of acting skills. Mile also was cast as the main character Bohn in My Engineer in 2017 before turning it down; he clearly has some acting chops and can win lead roles.

In academia, often times internal postings will open for tenure track positions with a preferred candidate in mind; but due to rules these postings are made public and sometimes an outside candidate will blow the preferred candidate out of the water in terms of quality and get hired instead.

Which is to say there could have been another actor that ended up impressing more in auditions as Kinn even with Mile being preferred, or another actor pair that seemed more suited for Kinn and Porsche.

The other thing auditions do is allow for actors to screen test chemistry. So finally, Mile actually going through the casting process allows him to screen test a for a pairing partner. Which brings us to...

Pre-cast Preferred casting rumor credibility: 10/10

Apo's Casting

Play Mastermind.mp3 by Taylor Swift

Once Twice upon a time, the planets and the fates And all the stars aligned You and I ended up in the same room At the same time

Okay if you didn't catch it on the first watch...

Mile, what the heck is that expression. 😂😂😂

Again, Apo was invited to go to casting specifically for Porsche and only for Porsche. Apo has never acted in a BL before going to audition for KPTS, so the question begged who invited him and why?

First of all, Mile has made it clear that he was a fan of Apo's acting work and followed his career after they met in the gym. He's also made it clear he had the world's biggest crush on Apo. Look how excited he was to talk about working with Apo and how handsome he thinks Apo is in January 2021 (like 3 months after they met again!)

If Mile was the preferential Kinn cast and he didn't have an pairing partner, it would make sense to ask him if there were any actors he thought he might work well with.

I'm not entirely convinced Mile engineered for Apo to get cast or anything. Apo's acting career and skills stand on their own and I think their insane screen chemistry speaks volumes about why they were cast. But as for who made the request to Apo's manager ... hm 😏 Maybe we'll find out one day.

Mile Phakphum - Mastermind.mp3 rumor credibility: 6/10

[bluestjayy]

fck stop begging for comments on here all the damn time. i did like u as a writer but its getting so pathetic and annoying now jus begging constantly. Ur writing isn't that good for getting tonnes of comments anyway half the time Ur dragging plots and characters r so uninteresting probs coz Ur on here begging instead of writing properly. every update feels rushed lately it shows u don't even care anymore. just stop begging and focus on updating instead that's all pppl want

Hey anon, I normally don't respond to rude asks like these because I think what you want is the attention.

I especially don't usually respond to asks that have, in any way, anything to do with begging or demanding I update my fics (and I have seen an uptick in those in recent months) but I'm gonna respond to this one, and by proxy, all the others currently sitting unread in my inbox, and any future asks of this nature that may come my way.

Buckle in, this is a long one.

First, I'm going to assume by 'begging for comments' you mean the few posts I have been reblogging over the past couple of days that encourage readers on AO3 to engage with authors by leaving positive and thoughtful comments, and discouraging them from making unreasonable and impersonal demands. If this is the case then I would like to clarify that I am not 'begging for comments', rather I am supporting a community of writers like myself who are actual human beings who take several hours, days, even weeks, out of our very real lives in order to make something and share it with the world and for some reason are beginning to see a trend of entitlement slowly growing across our comment sections. A trend we wish to nip in the bud because, as I previously pointed out, fanfiction authors are real life human beings, taking time out of their days to make something, not machines on a factory line that churn out content at the behest of someone's demands. We want our fandoms and communities to be safe, supportive spaces where we can have fun. We don't want them to become workloads that begin to feel like full time jobs.

Secondly, to say my writing isn't all that good but in the same message tell me to update? Wild my guy. Truly. But let's keep breaking down AO3 comments/kudos/general feedback (such as this delightful ask you sent my way, I guess hoping it would make me want to update??) from readers and how this can affect an authors updates, this time using one of my favourite metaphors for this type of thing and see if it helps:

AO3 is a potluck. It's a backyard party. There is a veritable buffet at this party. My fic is the cake I baked myself to bring for all my friends to eat. One of my other friends brought potato salad. Another friend brought the punch. Everyone who is at this fun get-together brought something to offer at the buffet table.

Now, I might not like potato salad, but you know what I'm not going to do? Tell my friend to her face that her potato salad sucks and she never should have brought it. I'm going to politely pass on eating it, and be glad that all the people at the party who do like potato salad have something to eat. In the same vein, not everyone is going to like my cake, maybe the flavour is wrong, maybe I used too much icing, maybe they just don't like cake. But that's fine, they don't have to eat my cake. But if you choose to eat my cake, and find you don't like the flavour after taking a bite, then the polite thing to do is quietly stop eating the cake, and go and find something else to eat.

Do not seek me out and tell me to my face everything that was wrong with my cake, and why you don't enjoy it. Do not tell me to my face, that my cake sucks and you wish I'd never brought it.

Do you think telling someone that you hate the way they made a cake is a good and productive way to get them to keep making cakes for you? Or perhaps, is the way to keep an amateur baker wanting to bake, to tell them what you enjoyed about their cake. Even a simple, 'I really liked this cake' goes a long way.

And if you do like my cake, if you love my cake actually, do not then follow me home from the party and start demanding I make you cake all the time. I don't always have time to make cakes.

And just to cover all of my bases, because I am also seeing a trend of folk who think that sharing fanfiction online is the same as submitting manuscripts to publishers and that therefore criticism is allowed. It's not.

To continue to beat this cake metaphor. This is the difference between taking my cake to a party with friends (AO3) and taking my cake onto the Great British Bake off (A professional publishing environment).

If I wanted constructive criticism on my cake, I'd seek it out from expert bakers who know what they're talking about.

No one goes to a friend's party with a cake they made and wants to hear what they're doing wrong. Unless explicitly asked, keep your criticisms to yourself and put the cake down if you don't like it. It's so very easy to not eat a cake if you hate how it tastes.

Finally, a combination of both the points above, really, but I cannot stress this enough. These usernames you're sending anonymous asks to? The handles on AO3 you're writing comments for? They're people. They are human fucking beings that deserve respect and kindness. I am a human being. And sending what you sent up there to another person over fanfiction?? That's just mean, friend. That's just out and out cruelty. I have no other words to describe that.

I could give a flying fuck if you think I'm begging for comments. I could care less you wanna say my writing is terrible. At the end of the day, my writing is mine and I'm going to keep doing it because I find writing fun. It's a hobby that helps me de-stress from the horrors of my real life situations. Frankly, you should be begging me to stop because I have no plans to do anything but keep inflicting my drawn out plots and bad character writing on the world for as long as it keeps making me happy.

But I beg you to take a second off of social media today and think over what makes fandom- something that should be a hobby, a safe place to escape from the world- this serious for you. Because the kicker in all this? My friend, if you think what I post is annoying and my writing is bad, you can not see it. You can block me. You can click away from my stories. Your online space is yours to curate and no one, literally not a single person, is making you engage with things you don't want to engage with. Curate your space, fill it with people who aren't 'begging for comments', fill it with fics you think are really good and deserve to be told how good they are through wonderful comments. Please, I am begging you, because at the end of the day to live in such negativity must be so exhausting for you.

I've no idea if you, the original sender of this message will even read through all of this, but if you did, please, if not me, then any other fandom creators you come across going forward. Please treat them with kindness. Please respect that sometimes fandoms are spaces people hide in when their real lives are scary and frustrating and negative enough and all you do with messages like these is drive people away.

TL;DR: this is not the way you get more updates from fic authors, and further from that, it's not the way you treat anyone. Ever. Do better. Do much better.

[madlori]

The Claw is our master.

I've had a few folks in DMs ask me how/why/when my shipping did such a completey 180. It's a fair question. I am, after all, someone who spent the last 2 years fervently Buddie shipping, writing fic for them, doing the same hoping/analyzing/searching etc that everyone else (well...not exactly the same, I've always been skeptical of most of the theories and such because I don't believe in a production's ability to be that sneaky, covert or mischievous).

And yet, here I am. I can't really even pretend I'm still a Buddie shipper anymore. Initially I said sure, I still hope for it. I...can't in all honesty say that now. I've firmly decamped for BuckTommy Land. Is this a recipe for heartbreak if they eventually breakup? Sure, but that's always a risk. No more than shipping a non-canon pairing, anyway.

And there's nothing wrong with shipping a non-canon pairing. People do it every day. Hell, it's practically the backbone of fandom. Obsessing about ships being canon is a one-way ticket to dissatisfaction and sometimes total unraveling. I've seen it happen more times than I can count over 30 years in online fandoms.

But if that's the case, why didn't I stay on Team Buddie? Why did I defect so thoroughly that I'm at the point now where not only do I not think Buddie will ever happen, I don't want it to, because I now want to see something different from those two characters, something I believe we will actually get from the writers.

The answer to that question is: I have no idea.

People ask this like I'm somehow in control of it. I'm not. The Fandom Brain is like The Claw in Toy Story. The Claw is our Master. The Claw decided who will go and who will stay.

Fandom Brain is my master. It decides what I'm going to ship, what I'm going to be fannish about and what I'm not, and when I'm going to stop feeling fannish about something. I have zero say in the matter, I'm just along for the ride. At some point in every fandom I have ever been in, my Fandom Brain has, usually with no provocation, decided "Ok we're done with this fandom now." And nothing I can do will make that not true. I can't force it. I can't cajole it. It just is.

Similarly, Fandom Brain has decided "Welp, we're done with this pairing now. We like THIS pairing now. Proceed." Are there reasons? I'm sure there are.

Is it just that it's a canon pairing? Possibly. There is something very seductive about a canon pairing after so long of looking for crumbs and tiny hints where there (mostly) none to find. But I've shipped plenty of non-canon pairings before.

Is it that I prefer Tommy/Lou to Eddie/Ryan? Absolutely not. I love Eddie, always have. I admit to being slightly more of a Buck girlie, but that doesn't mean Eddie means nothing to me.

Is it the immediate gratification? Maybe. Is it just how the relationship's being written? Possibly. Is it just a mental adjustment for my belief that Buddie will never happen, and Eddie will always be straight? Likely. But that doesn't change the outcome.

So here I sit, just...yep. Sometimes it just be like that. I didn't choose this, it's just what my brain decided was going to work for me going forward. If this goes up in smoke, my brain will choose something else, whether it's to run back to Buddie, or be done with 9-1-1 entirely, or who knows what else?

The good news for any of you who follow my writing is that I'm still working on the next Husbros installment. That universe is removed enough from the canon that it almost feels separate to me now, and I'm still feeling connected to it. Yes, I've written a few short BT fics, but so far I've not had any lengthy or involved plot bunnies for it.

So there you have it. I didn't choose the thug life, the thug life chose me. I don't know if I'd have chosen this if I could, but tbh I'm having a pretty good time with it so far, so. That's probably a big part of the reason.

[okkalo]

hi wifey :3 here for the event match up !

hmmm for an ideal date i prefer either to go to the cinema, arcade or just to stay in okay games and watch old disney classic, ah and my favourite season is 100% summer.

as from which fandom i would prefer to be matched :: blue lock or league of legends <3 surprise me ~

hi ma chérie i love u more than any of these men can so never forget that ! also i added hsr because she dmed me if anyone was wondering (idk if people read other people’s matchups)

𝗶 𝗻𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗮 𝗰𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗲 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗳 𝘄𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗯𝗲 𝗮 𝗳𝗮𝗻 𝗼𝗳 𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗲 ₊˙♡﹗

𝗸𝗮𝗹𝗼 𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗰𝗵𝗲𝘀 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 : nagi from bllk

“nagi, baby, do me a favor?” your sweetly asked question caught his attention in the sea of bright neon lights. it didn’t take much thinking for him to figure out what exactly you wanted. after all, it always seemed to be the exact same thing whenever you had an arcade date together.

“where is it?” he asked back, his lazy eyes watching as you lit up into a bright smile. your hand was quick to catch his wrist, leading him to the one game that had always managed to catch your attention each time: the claw machine.

“i want that one,” you instructed, like always, pointing to the one plushie that caught your attention. and, like always, he swiped his arcade card to win you that plushie you desired so.

you knew it never really took him any effort to win you one. in fact, it always seemed to be the first try he got your desired plushie in. he should’ve thought it to be annoying—he thought. after all, you asked him to win you one every time. though, it was hard to think so after seeing you all happy once he offered you the plushie he worked so hard for.

𝗸𝗮𝗹𝗼 𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗰𝗵𝗲𝘀 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 : ezreal from heartsteel

“are we watching lion king again tonight?” ezreal asked, his hands moving to adjust the face mask sheet on you. his hands were gentle, his face close and eyes narrowed to make sure he adjusted it perfectly onto your skin.

“mmm, yeah,” you murmured your response while sitting patiently on the couch. it had been routine for the two of you to watch a movie together at least once a week. the other heartsteel members knew well to steer clear from the living room on friday nights due ezreal’s non-apologetic clingy and affectionate self.

“‘kay, but you gotta sing the songs with me,” he set his condition, acting as if you didn’t sing with him every time. it didn’t take him long to wrap his arms greedily around you, while also grabbing the remote and setting the movie up.

despite his overwhelmingly clingy nature, you couldn’t help but feel at peace every friday night. it was like routine for you, comforting you each time. the tray of food that consisted of popcorn and fruits—which, he knew you didn’t eat, but still added anyways for good pictures—to the cuddle positions or the blankets that would surround you two. each time, it reminded you of why exactly you loved the singer, despite his clingy nature.

𝗸𝗮𝗹𝗼 𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗰𝗵𝗲𝘀 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 : aventurine (ur welcome) from hsr

maybe his luck finally played in his favor. maybe the blessing that had been bestowed upon him hadn’t been so bad after all. you were like a rare patch of water in a desert—at least, he thought. all of you seeped into his brain, leaking and filling his once pessimistic mind to grow optimistic.

it was times like this where he realized just how lucky he had been. with the soft breeze but warm breeze of the summer wind brushing past the both of you while the flowers and grass danced below your knees. the way the sun complimented your brown eyes perfectly, letting him see a pool of honey. so utterly sweet—just like you.

he couldn’t help but let his mask slowly fall around you, finally finding someone to trust in. a smile graced his lips, mimicking yours perfectly after hours of observing the sight of you. maybe he could thank gaiathra triclops for something.

[ohwell-itsme-but-danganronpa]

[NSFW AU prompt] Bunny Prince Ouma and His Guard Saihara

Apollo: Thought of two more royal aus Either Prince Shuichi x Personal Assistant (or really any servant) Kokichi Or Bratty Prince Kokichi x Personal Guard fed up with his shit Shuichi

[I asked about the first one, but literally everyone else picked the second, and I am glad we went with it]

Apollo: I read a story for a different fandom ages ago where the guard got so fed up that in the middle of the night, they dragged the prince to the empty throne room and fucked him on his throne so whenever he had to sit in there, all he'd be able to think of is the time he got fucked by his secret boyfriend I think they were planning to marry once he became King or something

Bunny: see the thing is kokichi is not actually even close to a spoilt, utterly out-of-touch, silver spoon little princeling. but i am not thinking with my first head here okay put him in ruffles

Apollo: He's not out of touch but sometimes he acts like it and Shuichi has to put him back in his place because how the fuck are you meant to run a kingdom when you're acting like that?

Bunny: consider: he keeps running away to Shenanigan in the village near the castle and shuuichi has to chase him down i love when shuuichi grows enough of a spine to be someone's rock

Dra: Help he pretends to be a commoner,,

Bunny: he wears the silly vampire cloak all hooded and creeping thru the commoner alleyways

Apollo: He tries to act all innocent after running off so when they're alone in Kokichi's room, Shuichi spanks him as punishment before walking out to stand guard because he's not fucking Kokichi as part of the punishment

Hina: Is he out of touch or acting?

Bunny: see i think it would be interesting if he THOUGHT he wasn't out of touch he could also be adopted by the king and queen as a pr move, if you want to give him a more canon-adjacent backstory

Apollo: Yes. He's just some kid they adopted and he KNOWS it was nothing more than a PR stunt so screw it. He's gonna be a dick when possible then get dicked down by his sassy guard boyfriend

Bunny: adopt him as a pr move?? he'll be nice long enough to cement his place and then become a pr nightmare better get a personal guard to reign him in and keep him from shenaniganizing… sure that'll work……

Hina: What if they caught him stealing from the castle or SMTH? And they were just so generous and recognized a “soul in need” that they took him under their wing themselves

Bunny: i need shuuichi to say "your highness" in the most disrespectful way possible points if he's in front of the king and queen and saying it ostensibly respectfully but all kokichi can hear is the way he said it last night he knows he doesn't mean it squirming in his lil throne

Apollo: They ask if he's okay and he has to lie. Shuichi is just smirking because no one is looking at him anymore other than Kokichi. The only other people who know about them is DICE and the other staff. Kokichi is actively destroying any hope of his parents hooking him up with someone from another kingdom

Hina: Are they trying to marry him off

Bunny: how sex-positive is this kingdom? is kokichi's virginity cared about

Apollo: I mean a lot of kingdoms try to marry off their kids for stronger connections and shit so I think it'd be funny if Kokichi's ruining all of their attempts to he can stay with the hot guard I find both options hilarious. Either they want him 'pure' for when he eventually gets married or they don't care he's slept around as long as he behaves damn it!

Hina: Do they care about homosexual couples or nah?

Apollo: Nah they're chill with that if they weren't Kokichi would ruin them

Bunny: 'kokichi' and 'purity' in the same sentence are already so fucking funny but yeah i can go for some good Defilement™ just be SUBTLE about being a whore jesus christ STOP EYEING UP THAT DUKE YOU'RE EMBARRASSING US

Apollo: "Now honey we know you're…Exploring yourself but please try to behave." "Uh huh sure…Anyway, you reckon he'd be down to fuck?" "Kokichi!" "What? I'm just asking!"

Dra: Are we allowed to angst in here/hj

Bunny: chanting ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT, ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT, ASS-

Dra: I can't believe I'm bringing Islam here again but Fun fact when they tried to kill the prophet someone else slept in his bed and they almost cut his head off Saioucoded methinks

Bunny: maybe someone's a royal purist and mad he got adopted?

Apollo: Maki is the assassin which hurts because both Kokichi and Shuichi knew her growing up. Kokichi from the orphanage and Shuichi via Kaito. So now Shuichi is forced to fight one of his friends

Bunny: why did shuuichi get hired. how did he gain a reputation as a brat tamer

Hina: Remember how he wrestled an alligator?

Apollo: NEW IDEA: Kokichi's parents are Nagito and Hajime who are just pretending they don't know that their son is a fucking whore for his guard. They're supportive but are still trying to figure out a way to bring it up.

Bunny: awww but i wanted them to suck nagito and hajime would be actually decent parents how am i meant to cheer for their banishment like this the idea of them just. trying to figure out how to breach the subject is SO funny though

Hina: You see. I love the idea of Hajime fucking hating Shuichi in this context, so.

Apollo: Hajime being the dad to rant about Shuichi not getting permission to date let alone have sex with their son while Nagito is just sitting there like Isn't young love adorable?

Mauri: something something kokichi watching shuichi train and getting horny bc of how easily he could throw him across the room (but wouldn’t bc shuichi is a sweetheart) Apollo: YES! Kokichi keeps sneaking away from his lessons because god DAMN his boyfriend is hot and can do whatever the fuck he wants to him

Mauri: “your parents will have my head if anything happens to you, especially with your own guard-“ “shuichi beloved shut up and let me give YOU head”

Dra: How petty do we want Shu in this

Bunny: extremely wait, toward who?

Apollo: OKAY BUT NAGITO IS THE ROYAL BORN WHO DATED THE 'COMMONER' WHICH PISSED OFF HIS PARENTS AND THEY KEEP TRYING TO PRESSURE THE PAIR TO AT LEAST MARRY KOKICHI OFF TO SOMEONE OF 'DECENT' BLOOD AND THEY KEEP GOING TO HIM WITH PHOTOS OF PRINCESSES AND (EVENTUALLY) PRINCES BUT KOKICHI IS TURNING THEM ALL DOWN BECAUSE FUCK HIS HOMOPHOBIC CLASSEST GRANDPARENTS!

Mauri: ,,,can fantasy elements be introduced bc i want kokichi helping tenko woo the royal mage himiko [I cut out a portion when an arranged marriage was suggested between him and Tenko]

Dra: Can we creature the characters [pleading face emoji] just slightly Maybe not straight up critters but some small traits sjfjd

Apollo: Himiko is Kokichi's magic teacher and he spends the whole time trying to hook her up with Tenko

Bunny: THAT DOESN;T SPECIFY WHETHER I CAN PULL OUT THE BUNKICHI PARTY POPPER YET DRA /SILLY his ears flattened under the cloak hood,, shuuichi yanks it off and they just ! straight up

[ideas for Shuichi] Sini: Half elf? Dra: Pointy ears,,,, Sini: To match bf in a way Apollo: Kokichi keeps poking his ears so Shuichi just gently tugs on his Lulu: Shu high elf. Intense parental pressure to be confident and proper. <- doesn’t know what the conversation is about Dra: That or he should get a tail that can also drag Kokichi when wrapped around him/hj

Bunny: aww shuuichi can't drag kokichi around by his ear like this huh…sacrifices must be made for bnuy i suppose did we ever decide what DICE are to him?

Apollo: Ooooo what if Nagito brought all of them back with him after learning they knew Kokichi before he was adopted and brings them all to Hajime like Babe can we keep them? Look at them! They're adorable and Kichi's friends! [pleading face emoji]

Bunny: (hajime vc) YOU ALREADY GAVE ALL OUR ROOMS TO THOSE LITTLE CANDY-COLORED HEATHENS JUST BECAUSE WE LIVE IN A CASTLE DOESN'T MEAN WE HAVE INFINITE ORPHAN SPACE

Sini:Nagito stop adopting strays challenge

Apollo: Hajime loves his stupid husband but damn does he wish he had more impulse control

Bunny: the castle was so cold and quiet when he was young. never again it's full of laughing children now. if they steal all his food then that price must be paid sndsbjfgsf the kitchens are TERRORIZED they could just ask but they like theft. it's funny

Apollo: Kokichi hugs his parents and mumbles a thank you before running off to play with his friends (when they're not working at least the ones old enough. The only catch was they needed to work which none of them minded because it's easy and fun work)

Hina: Nagito’s parents like. “Y’all need an heir” and Nagito is like, “I’ve got twenty.”

Bunny: "they'll just bite each other for the crown. it's fine" "togami's parents did that i'm pretty sure" "they'll prove the strength of their hope" ok so that's the Lore established. what's the third act conflict and why is it grandpa and grandma hiring an assassin

Apollo: Can't deal with all the poors 'dirting' the castle and it started with the purple brat. If it weren't for him, they might have been able to convince Nagito to dump Hajime and find someone else (it wouldn't have worked) so now they want the twink gone

Bunny: psssst shuuichi i found a way for you to endear urself to the parents you may or may not have to get stabbed

Apollo: Want to know how to get the Kings to approve of you constantly fucking the Prince? Just get stabbed!

Bunny: okay but for real kokichi not moving an inch from his bedside,,,

Apollo: He starts arguing with whoever tries to get him leave and says they'll have to drag him kicking and screaming from the damn room if they want him out

Bunny: shuuichi's gonna drag him kicking and screaming when he wakes up cracks an eye open like hm i sense poor self care kokichi's fucked in more ways than one! he ties kokichi down and it's NOT EVEN SEXY. the BETRAYAL it's the best nap he's had in years though

Mauri: consider: shuichi gets stabbed and its the first time he's seen kokichi genuinely cry everyones worrying over kokichi bc assassination attempt and hes just screaming at everyone to help shuichi, dammit

Apollo: Nagito tries to pick him up to take him to safety but Kokichi is struggling and screaming that Shuichi needs help. Shuichi's the one in danger not him

Bunny: shuuichi would be [uno reverse emoji] were he not mostly unconscious at this point kokichi feels Cripplingly guilty for every time he's ever bothered shuuichi. if he weren't such a brat shuuichi wouldn't even have to be here

Mauri: hajime sends a reluctant kokichi out to talk w shuichi alone and shuichi is Panickign n then hajime gives him the most awkward blessing to court his son in history

Beez: kokichi not leaving shuichis side until he recovers. . .. . . augh

Bunny: bunny ears drooped all the way down :(((

Mauri: someone tries to get kokichi to leave and he does the thump

Bunny: you can't see his face bc it's buried in shuuichi's torso but if you even suggest leaving you hear a muffled thump

Apollo: He starts crying because he wants to hug Shuichi but he doesn't know how to without hurting him and what's worse is that Shuichi got hurt because of him

Mauri: the first thing shuichi does when he wakes up and is lucid is ask if kokichi is unhurt and kokichi just starts Sobbing

Bunny: SADDEST BNUY OF ALL TIME shuuichi gently scooting over so kokichi can wiggle into the hospital bed

Mauri: shuichi uses all his strength to provide ear scritches so kokichi will forgive him (kokichi forgave him a while ago hes just sad and needs physical comfort)

Bunny: back on the thumping. mikan is flashing back to every time she's heard a distant DON'T YOU THUMP AT ME from down the hall and Understanding YES!!! pet the boy tender kissies except shuuichi tastes SO FUCKING BAD from not brushing his teeth for several days oops

Mauri: baby bunkichi where hajime tries to give him carrots and nagito just does the most offended horrified gasp bc THOSE ARENT GOOD FOR THE BABY

Bunny: baby bunkichi seeing some bright colorful candy, eating it immediately, and getting sick bc it turned out to have gelatin in it

Hina: How did Kokichi become bunny

Bunny: beastfolk just Exist in this world and he's adopted remember

Apollo: Hajime being clueless is so hilarious. He wasn't prepared for kids and now he has a hybrid for one. He's so confused but he's trying

Bunny: nagito bans all non-vegetarian candy from the castle FOREVER tiny kokichi wailing like he's DYING from a tummyache nagito is this close to making gelatin ILLEGAL FOREVER it's less that he has an allergy and more than he literally can't digest it bc. yknow. herbivore

Mauri: derailing back to horny bc i just think tail scritches during sex

Bunny: kokichi doing these jerky excited little bunny thrusts that are not satisfying at All. shuuichi thinks he's adorable but he does grab his hips and make him slow down still

Beez: will never be over the fact that bunny tails r lengthy shuichi gives it a lil tug n it just stretches out n he goes [eyes but fast emoji]

Apollo: Okay but I adore when Shuichi has to slow Kokichi down and remind him that they have all the time in the world so there's no need to rush through anything

Mauri: kokichi bottoming and he gets too excited and starts thumping except hes basically just kicking shuichis back really hard

Bunny: counterpoint: shuuichi forcing him to go slow and steady and getting little angry thumps if he's edging his prince in the name of royal virtues like restraint and patience that's his business

Apollo: Hajime tells Kokichi he has to learn patience and Shuichi's like Bet

Bunny: the funniest part is that it works shuuichi gives him the Look and he gets so polite and patient all of a sudden

Apollo: Hajime just dies inside when he realises the guard he hired to protect Kokichi, basically trained him to be kind and obedient and there's only one way that could have happened

Bunny: shuuichi walks by with kokichi slung over his shoulder and hajime is just what have i done

Apollo: Nagito is just trying not to laugh because now that Hajime has given Shuichi the go ahead to court their son, everything is about to get worse

Bunny: a couple nights after shuuichi is hired as a guard, kokichi gives him the slip and runs down into the city. he's far from the first guard hajime has hired to keep him under control; he's confident shuuichi will either quit or be fired like all the rest. shuuichi tracks him down with ease, sneaks up behind him, and yanks his hood off, bc i still think his ears doing the ! is adorable. kokichi nervous-laughs - none of the guards have actually caught him before - and tries to charm his way out of it. shuuichi tells him firmly that he's going home, NOW. (kokichi discovers he may have a bit of a thing for authority). kokichi runs for it, and shuuichi gives chase. they're evenly matched at least in brains, and the race goes on for quite a while. (kokichi discovers he may have a bit of a thing for predator/prey). shuuichi slings him over his shoulder (kokichi discovers he may have a bit of a thing for strength) and carries him back to his rooms. (kokichi discovers he needs to lay the fuck down). (shuuichi discovers that Brat Prince Cute Oh Fuck) he is laying flat on his back on his big round prince bed trying to breathe normally

Hina: Is it just bunny ears and a tail he’s got or anything else?

Bunny: just ears and a tail, physically well that's not quite true i suppose a herbivorous digestive system counts as does a mildly rabbity brain/instincts but he hasn't got any other externally physical traits

Mauri: twitchy nose but that can be a regular human thing tbh

Apollo: He's just a flustered mess because holy shit not only did this guard catch him, he's hot as fuck and now Kokichi knows a lot more about himself than he thought he ever would Wait Don't rabbits go into heat or something?

Mauri: quietly holds up breeding kink

Me: yeag, finally something catering to me

Apollo: Hajime awkwardly warns Shuichi that during his heat, there's a chance Kokichi will try to run again but this time to find a partner…He's unaware that the two are already are fucking. Nagito already knows that the two got together. He hasn't told anyone. He just picked up on the looks so he tells his husband that he won't have to worry about him finding a stranger to fuck Shuichi didn't know he had a thing for breeding until a horny ass Kokichi begged him to

Mauri: would condoms have been invented in this time period

Me: irrelevant <3 cream pie time

Mauri: bc i can see nagito lecturing kokichi and shuichi on safe sex bc he wants to be a good responsible parent shuichi is Slowly Dying

Apollo: Nagito is explaining safe sex while Shuichi is sitting there pretending he didn't fuck his son that morning Kokichi, mid heat: Breed me damn it Shuichi: Oh fuck why am I so into that?

Bunny: shuuichi doesn't even have a dick (and wouldn't be able to impregnate kokichi if he did) but kokichi is. a lil stupid rn he's heatdrunk no one tell him that's a strap

Me: fuck it, this is a fantasy au with creatures, there are potions for it (probably ones that would have to be regularly consumed like how taking hormones works, but for Everything and Instant bc it's Magic)

Beez: himiko casts whatever the opposite of penis explosion is on him

Apollo: Himiko finding out Shuichi is trans: Skidaddle skidoodle your pussy is now a noodle!

Me: or that

Bunny: damn i LIKED the pussy /lh she magics his strap into connecting with his nerves, best of both worlds Me: we've all thought of detachable boobs before, now get ready for the sequel: detachable schlong, you know you want it, call now for a discount-

Apollo: Shuichi: Awkwardly trying to explain what happened Kokichi: So you have both now? Cool! Hajime: I saw Saihara down herre ealier…Everything okay? Himiko: Yeah he just wanted a spell to help with his junk when he fucks Kokichi Hajime: WHAT? Himiko: I mean he wanted a cleaning spell for when Kokichi drops something and fucks it up!!! Nagito just smiles because so helpful! while Hajime is trying not to cry because he did NOT need to hear that

Bunny: hajime is also trans nagito is having Scheming Thoughts

Apollo: Okay but Kokichi knows he can talk to Nagito about anything so when he's asked if the spell works, he says yes (naturally he doesn't go into detail about it) so Nagito now knows what he's getting Hajime for his birthday! Okay but Nagito's parents show up and at some point see Kokichi kissing Shuichi on the cheek (who lightly hit his ass for it) and rush of to report it to their son and Hajime just stares at them blankly and says Be glad that's all you saw. I walked in on them making out yesterday. He just doesn't care anymore As long as they don't fuck where he can see/hear it, he'll turn a blind eye

Kai: dexterous tails are underutilized in saiouma porn

Apollo: Kokichi would enjoy that a lot tbh

Me: Would he be demon-ish and leathery or furry like Kokichi? But tbh I just jump to tentacles when it comes to extra dexterous limbs Tail is good but they're more bunny prince and his bodyguard switch

Bunny: OKAY IM LISTENING

Me: https://www.tumblr.com/vespertin-y/730446928861626368?source=share you put the post on my dash

Bunny: I WASN'T THINKING ABOUT THEM

Me: and you're going to be held responisble we have to cook now

Bunny: shuuichi deserves to be taken care of too,,,, a relaxation day BY ROYAL DECREE [knife emoji]

Me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2B5NkVqfIVo getting in the top Ouma mindset [LIZ - When I Rule the World] but also the post got me by thinking about devotion so I am not sure what direction to take it like I said, I love service-y, worship level devotion vibes, but in a service top Shu & demanding pillow princess Ko but with the whole vibe of this, I want to up this to 11, have a staright up dominant Kokichi? with the twist that I added the song for, it's a switch making a threat out of explaining what they'll do when they will "rule the world" (aka dominate)

Bunny: EITHER IS SO GOOD thinking about the first time shuuichi is healed enough for sex n kokichi taking care of him,,

Me: omg, like after the assassination attempt right? they go gentle for once nice and slow

Bunny: shuuichi goes to dominate him like usual and kokichi is just NO >:( LAY DOWN UR GETTING A MASSAGE YESSS…scar worship <333

Me: Kokichi can deal with a role reversal and pamper him a little, he earned it

Bunny: both of them did it just slowly devolves into lazy cuddlefucking,,

Me: Kokichi discovers that he actually enjoys being on the other side of servicing quite a lot, providing and caring tickles the same itch in his brain as the breeding kink bossy but in a "It's my turn to take care of you"

Bunny: it starts as just repayment but then he realizes he Likes it and it's nice to see shuuichi fall apart for once. he didn't realize he'd get so flustered sndsdsjbf local stoic guard melts into a puddle of goo over neck kisses

Me: (cw corny)"It's a ruler's responsibility to care for his people. Now let me give you your reward for serving the country" you know what would make this better? pregnancy (just kidding.. unless?)

Hina: How would you add that

Me: via cream pie?

Bunny: oh they're gonna be in so much trouble

Dra: Didn't they say Shu was afab dkfjd

Me: yeah, when it's Kokichi bottoming breeding is just a kink, when Shuichi is bottoming it's an option

Bunny: they wouldn't do it on PURPOSE at this point imo but. birth control fails sometimes! hinata trying to breach why kokichi's fave guard looks suspiciously round

Me: they keep it a secret?! not again what, is he matching with a horse? [inside joke, I might explain one day] just get quickly married so the child isn't born a bastard smh

Bunny: they're not SUPPOSED to get married class differences remember they'd have to fight for it

Me: love wins, the assassination was foiled, they can do what they want

Bunny: OHHHH yeah i forgot who hired the assassin oops SHOTGUN WEDDING TIME I GUESS shuuichi getting his suit tailored in an extremely suspicious way

Me: one day tho, one day the kid is going to do the math

Bunny: sorry ur parents are whores allister. it happens

Me: he's like: you said you wanted me [face holding back tears emoji] and one of them replies: planned and wanted is not the same

Bunny: does shuuichi stay as his guard after marriage?? he probably can't huh the other guards call him when they need someone to actually go get kokichi sndhbkshfg hello mr your majesty sir can you go get your husband he's bothering the kitchen again

Dra: Help they just mix words in there

Bunny: they're new okay theyre a lil nervous the other guards may be hazing them a little bit. it's fine

Me: Thinking of komahina reactions too They announce the engagement And Nagito is like "why so sudden?" Knowingly They say it's because of the assassination, their enemies are gone, something about realizing they could lose each other

Bunny: knowingly [sob emoji] i mean, that's not a lie

Dra: Yknow how the "I should've left you on that street corner where you were standing"

Bunny: butcha didn't BD and hinata just sighs

Dra: He did not and now they have a heir djfjd

Apollo: Kokichi 100% skips out on his duties to watch Shu train and then they make out and/or fuck in a hidden corner because Kokichi gets so turned on

Bunny: little bunny face peeking up over the training ground barriers [sob emoji] i need him to have a bunny nose. for my own mental health

Apollo: People quickly figure out he's there but never say anything because well he is the prince. Plus it makes Shu work harder to impress him

Bunny: kokichi, after seeing shuuichi decapitate a training dummy: CAN YOU DO THAT TO ME shuuichi's showing off now

Apollo: Kokichi's internally whispering Don't jerk off don't jerk off because he's gotten too horny

Bunny: just absolutely Dying seeing shuuichi's back muscles flex NSJDNSJFH

Apollo: It's a pain to his poor teachers because he skips out on his lessons to watch Shuichi then get fucked. They end up rescheduling to make sure he has the time free

Bunny: they've gotta reschedule around him being able to walk shuuichi's training opponent seeing bunny ears out of the corner of their eye and immediately knowing they're gonna Die

Apollo: They see him limping and sigh

Bunny: he fake cries until shuuichi agrees to carry him

Apollo: The idea of moving Kokichi's lessons to his room is quickly shut down because no one wants to go in there knowing the prince is either getting railed or is railing his boyfriend practically every night

Bunny: bold of them to think they can find a room where they haven;t fucked

Apollo: Exactly. They just like to pretend there's untouched areas Love how Kokichi's og disappearances were to escape his guard to go fuck around in town but now his disappearances are so he can fuck his guard

Bunny: he still disappears into town but it's partially so his guard will find him and fuck him

Apollo: "You can just ask" "I'm a bunny. I like the chase." "No you're just a whore." "Only for you babe."

Apollo: Once again thinking of Prince Kokichi and Guard Shuichi.

Imagine getting assigned to the Prince (nerve wracking enough) who's known to run away and piss off all his guards until they quit or do something that ends up getting them fired (or Kokichi might actually lies).

You're nervous, you chase him down when he escapes and all of a sudden, he starts trying to seduce you.

Is this a test? Is he trying to get you fired?

What are you meant to do? You accidently flirt back once and you get pulled aside by one of the Kings.

You think you're about to be fired. You failed somehow and now you're gonna be fired…But the King just says you're a good fit for his son and sends you on your way.

Like Kokichi is known to fuck with people and give them little 'tests' and has also flirted with his guards in the past so poor Shuichi is just screaming inside because he doesn't want to lose his job but Kokichi just wants to kiss him and maybe get fucked

Dra: Is that one of the reasons Shu was kinda cold/stoic at first djfjd

Apollo: Yeah. It's an important job to watch the Prince and others keep failing but god damn Kokichi is cute and flirting with him??? What's he meant to do?

He accidently calls him cute once and freaks out because Ko just bluescreens Kokichi meanwhile is annoyed because the hell is he meant to do? Just kiss him? Without consent? He tries to get it through Shu's thick skull by like feeling his arms and stuff and telling him how strong he is It's not working

He trips like a dumbass or something and Shuichi asks if he's okay only to get a I'd feel better with a kiss from you handsome and just doesn't know how to react He's trying his best and it's just not working

springbug: stoic/quiet guy getting flustered by little shit sunshine is my favorite trope and reading this au makes my heart happy

Me: I was thinking about them too, but the time period around when Allister is born, people in the castle start thinking it was a good thing, Kokichi seems to have mellowed out, became responsible and careful, but after a few months the fresh-baby phase that lowers horny hormones ends and the newfound mutuality of protectiveness saiou have now turns from a blessing to a boost effect on the nightmare that they returned to being they thought Kokichi was bad when all he thought about was getting fucked

he just enters a phase when he's so over-protective it's downright possessive, Shuichi has to make him calm down, tone it down, it was nice getting a little spoilt, but he can take care of himself he just got carried away with the whole thing, but Shuichi put his foot down and put Kokichi back in his place

it was escalating for a while tho, he was letting him at first, thinking that Kokichi can just get that anxious energy out, but he was only getting more intense about it, nearly losing Shuichi, and then the pregnancy, and then planning a wedding, and then birth (he was holding Shuichi's hand through it, and it's a shock he hasn't fainted, he was horrified), and it sinking in that they're parents, taking more responsibility, he just sinks really deep into the Protecting & Caring mindset, it's hard for him to let Shuichi do something on his own without hovering

and it gets bad enough for Shuichi to stop it at that point, because sex is a huge outlet for this & Kokichi latched onto that right away, but in their sex life this far Shuichi has been mostly dominant so he gets tired of this pretty quickly he doesn't mind Kokichi being clingy but being treated like glass in bed is where he draws the line

Ves: kokichi being anxiously overprotective is Good Stuff this saiou r just constantly bullying the other into selfcare huh kokichi bullied Too Hard and had to be bullied himself kokichi almost fainting during the birth [sob emoji] he was more scared than shuuichi fr

[days later] Me: art corner reminded me of the bunny prince au because Shuichi's easy temporary transitions with potions, and Kokichi's breeding kink bc he's a hybrid, and the genuine confusion just got me like Shuichi believed they could both be pregnant, and you know what? I want to believe too [it was a joke comic, Kokichi tried to tell Shuichi he's pregnant, and Shuichi went "I'm pregnant?"] tired: getting pregnant at the same time as your friend so the kids will become friends too wired: getting pregnant at the same time as your husband so you're experiencing everything together something something equal distribution of responsibilities in a relationship this is after Allister and their shotgun wedding and the whole mess is sorted out, they healed from the assassination attempt Shallot and Scallion time they talked about wanting a second kid & Kokichi maybe half-joked about it being his turn (he is into the idea. but doing it for real is… intimidating), so they have more in-depth conversation about pregnancy & when Shuichi talks about it, he doesn't omit how overbearing Kokichi became (he needs to keep on reminding him, it won't happen again) and basically after going over how different their experience & perspective on that time is brings them to the conclusion that it'd be best for them to experience it together this time, instead of just switching roles

Bunny: god help the castle servants there's Two Of Them now

Me: most of them are veterans atp, but imagine being new and not expecting anything like this on your new job cleaning the castle they're def more careful about privacy than when they were younger tho, cause Allister is running around

Bunny: how old is allister?

Me: a toddler ig? circa 3-4?

Bunny: and is it old enough to understand his dads' feet are too swollen to play with him - OH NO ye that's gonna result in some growing pains poor kiddo

Me: I just had him in mind little enough not to be too used to being a single child, just big enough to be running and not crawling so older than that is a no, bc 6yo is a mental only child apparently, and I want to avoid giving kid the angst about it as widely as possible

Bunny: i was two when my first brother was born and i asked my parents to send him back but allister's sweet, i think he'd get over the jealousy bump fast enough he's the type of kid to spend a really long time peering over the edge of the crib i think hes curious

Me: yeah, he's just ["many thought, head full" creature reaction image] his dads both think "he has it after me" he's looking with those big eyes it's a family trait (it's autism)

Bunny: they show him how to hold a bottle and he feels like it's Magic

Me: wait I just had the best idea I had in weeks the babies are going to inherit some of Kokichi's bunny traits

Bunny: INCREDIBLE BEAUTIFUL POWERFUL SHOWSTOPPING AMAZING- TINY ITTY BITTY BUNNY BABIES. IM GONNA EXPLODE AND DIE they're gonna be fucking terrors they can get away with anything-

Dra: Poor palace workers,, Saiou's pda was already horrible for them and now there are more of them

Bunny: god bless the kitchen workers

Dra: Are the kids picky [sob emoji]

Bunny: i imagine they're obligate vegetarians like their dad, so kinda - but i meant they're gonna be raiding the kitchen constantly do yall remember the triplets from brave

Beez: instead of bears theyre bnnuys

Dra: They get byunnier when given greens/silly

Apollo: Thinking again of Kings Hajime and Nagito being disappointed because instead of focusing on his lessons, their stupid bunny son is too busy fucking his personal guard.

Shuichi just feels awkward because yeah they're dating and all but please babe I think your dad is ready to explode because you skipped a math exam to suck my dick

Kokichi like always, does not care

springbug: nagito just sighs and tells them to be safe meanwhile hajime is staring off into space, questioning his entire existence

Apollo: He adopted this kid, hired his gremlin friends, finally found a guard said adopted brat hasn't scared off and that's because he wants to get into his pants and actually managed to succeed in that goal I mean…He is a rabbit hybrid though so they can't really blame him for wanting to fuck his guard a lot…That's the only reason. It's pure instincts. Totally nothing else

Bunny: when they realize shuuichi is the in, kokichi is DOOMED they just have to mention the exam being important and shuuichi will give kokichi the Eyes hes the chink in the armor that is kokichi being a shithead Apollo: Basically he's the ticket to get Kokichi to actually do shit because of how whipped the prince is His dads? Kokichi whines and complains, dragging his feet to do the task Shuichi? Well, he might whine and stuff but with a look (and possibly like a finger snap or something) he's off to do it

Bunny: shuuichi holds both carrot and stick tremble before his power Flaire: Oh Shuichi has a 'carrot' and 'stick' alright Bunny: kokichi does enjoy the rewards of getting good scores i mean he is trans here so he probably does have multiple dicks laying around, actually… kokichi tries to name them shuuichi wants to die Flaire: Kokichi does name them The only question is, is one colored like a carrot and is it Kokichi's favorite? Bunny: YES he pretends to be offended at first won't use it he is genuinely a little mad when it turns out to be Very Good Flaire: He gets back at Shuichi by incredibly Playing It Up once he gets over it and making Shuichi the embarrassed and cringing one Bunny: the dirty talk is actually fucking insufferable shuuichi wants to throw the thing out a window after a while Flaire: …but it is a little bit hot And Kokichi's clearly having a great time So Shuichi can… tolerate it

Me: anyway, the side of Kokichi being distracted by Shuichi was covered before, yeah, he ogles him training, whatever but what about the side of Kokichi being a brat testing Shuichi's limits in the early days, he's figuring out what can he still get away with and how exactly he can get away with it, now that he knows Shuichi can chase him down He Is Going To Find Those Buttons And He Will Push Them Can he distract Shuichi by acting sexy? Can he bribe him? Can he get the punishment that's actually a treat to him if he plays his cards right? Apollo: He messes with Shuichi's room hoping to get punished for not only breaking in but for messing with his stuff springbug: he can and he will Me: I think it takes at most a few weeks for Shuichi to figure out the punishment thing and start punishing him by blueballing him instead, telling him that he has to earn a reward, but he remains the master of being distracting as for bribery… Sometimes Shuichi is willing to be bribed, it doesn't hurt, he can entertain him, but other times it only gets him in more trouble, because if it's serious Shuichi is going to be pissed off

can't solve all his problems by being submissive and breedable, sometimes has to do his job [pensive emoji]

Also. The very beginning. When Kokichi was teasing and hinting. Back when Shuichi was nervous about the job. Everything to me. Yeah, he can chase him down and put him in his place, but why can't he get in the place where he should be, between Kokichi's legs? Why so shy, mr. bodyguard? I just think. The thing where he points a finger at Shuichi's chest and runs it in a little pattern while flirting, is that anything? Bunny: it is not anything it is Everything Me: Lots of cringe attention grabs like bending over & various stretching while Shuichi is looking And you know Ouma's flirting is corny af Flaire: It sure is, Source: I can write it Me: full of puns, he's making insinuations about how Shuichi should be under him because of status Flaire: Oh god Shuichi thinks Kokichi is just insulting him at first doesn't he Me: sure, why not Flaire: Kokichi says one(1) thing about Shuichi being beneath him and Shuichi immediately internalizes it as proof Me: but can't have this Saihara be too dense, he's already been catching on the other hints Kokichi's been giving, but the bad flirting throws him off for a bit, because it slots into reaffirming the worries he had, seeing it as the reason why he shouldn't pursue anything with Kokichi so Kokichi shot himself in the knee with this but it's okay, Nagito's "accidental" meddling will fix it, it's just a small comment from him, but being told he's good for Kokichi means a lot to shu he totally thought they were already together, he didn't mean to meddle, he would never Bunny: of course not!! Apollo: He would never meddle in the love life of the weird gremlin he's grown attached to!

[mydemonsdrivealimo]

Wait Jensen leaves edenbrook? 🤲 spare lore pls

(~night-triumphantt this is my main loll)

OMG OMG JENSEN LORE?? were going to be here for a while (these are literally my fav types of asks)

yes jensen does leave edenbrook (and unfortunately it is not cute and fun. but anyway.) like 2-3 years post book three (i havent decided exactly when)

so in my hc ethan is as bad, if not worse than he is in canon. hes always had issues w jensen, and jensen is not one to try and smooth it over. this post is a lot more detailed, but for a quick summary, ethan always had something of a thing for jensen, but didnt know how to act on it. like hes never been w men before in a romantic sense (just some weird fucked up competitive longing way. cough cough tobias) so he had a hard time coming to terms w that aspect of it. and on top of it jensen wanted NOTHING to do w his ass

jensen tells it like it is and ethan has always taken it very personally, which has put a lot of distance between them and sparked Many arguments. jensen has been upset w him for making his first and second year so much more difficult than it needed to be, and ethan has never apologized or acknowledged it. overall, they just frustrate each other and theres a lotttt of tension between them all the time. theyre both headstrong but in opposite ways (ethan likes to be right and outsmart people, jensen just wants shit to get done which makes him very direct) and its just never worked out, essentially

ethan also has a remarkable talent for hitting triggers jensen didnt even knew he had. theyve had their fair share of blow-up arguments because of ethans demeanor, abuse of power, and how they handle cases in general, and ethan just knows right where it hurts every time. jensen doesnt even like arguing, and usually he just shuts down the second they start raising voices, but he always tries his best to get his point across before then

anyway, now that you have the backstory, we can actually get to How jensen quits

at the end of book 3, jensen takes over the diagnostics team and ethan takes up an administrative position. in fandom, a lot of people keep ethan as the dt lead bc he would hate an administrative position. i know this and put him in the administrative position anyway bc its what he deserves. with that in mind, ethan takes pretty much any chance he can to stop in to check on the dt and the cases they have. hes a Terrible micromanager and doesnt like the changes jensen has made to it

jensen tries to take his advice/guidance in his first year leading it, but is ready to make changes/decisions by himself as time goes on. ethan is not ready to give up his spot, even if he already did in writing, and it just turns into a lot of unnecessary overseeing and trying to comment and help on cases after jensen already had them distributed and handled

ethan has always had a problem when it comes to questioning and not trusting jensens calls and judgement on diagnostics cases. while he was more subtle about snooping into some of the DT cases, theres one case he goes over jensens head with and changes a bunch of the calls he made just bc he didnt trust that jensen could "handle" it

jensen ends up finding out, obvi, when the patient he spent nights and days researching for is suddenly Not following the treatment plan he laid out. he talks to the rest of the dt about it and obvi nobody knows anything, so it doesnt take him long to figure out what happened

ethan comes to see them and it is Not pretty. jensen straight up asks why tf he touched the case, and jensen knew it was because he didn't trust him, but he wanted to hear him say it to confirm. they end up arguing back and forth, but, for once, jensen doesnt just sit quietly (theres more reason to this that will be detailed in the fic i eventually post ab it). when ethan yells at him, which usually keeps him quiet, jensen lays out every instance where ethan has ruined his time there. how hes selfish, priviledged, and doesnt stand for anything someone in medicine should care about. basically spells out every way hes incompetent and biased as a doctor and how actually he should just quit bc he was never cut out for it in the first place. and then jensen quits on the spot.

now, jensen had actually been looking into leaving before that. bryces residency was done, and bryce had been having a difficult time connecting w people bc when you push everyone out of the way to get to the top, surprise, they dont like you! also, jensens ambitious as fuck. hes wanted to start more accessible dt resources and teams across the country since he heard ab edenbrooks team

so while him quitting seemed very impulsive, he was already waiting on offers from a hospital in california and chicago (and trust, they were happy to have him)

the whole thing was a HUGE point of drama for the hospital. jensen is not known for blow up reactions. hes more known for lack of reactions to big things, if anything, so to have him quit like that was absolutely wild. also like. thats just an insane way to quit as it is

but in the end it led to a lot more scrutiny of ethan and how he behaves as a doctor. his behavior is highlighted in the book jensen eventually writes ab his experience w the medical field (not by name, but it doesnt take much to figure it out) which also ends up leaking a lot more shit ab ethan as the board further pushes into the specific incidents detailed in jensens book. basically jensen ruins ethans career which is so real of him

but yeah anyway. i didnt need to post a novel length explanation but here u go <3

[thessalian]

Thess vs Lack of Accessibility

Is it petty to just be, like, really really sad right now?

I came to Tumblr because of the Dragon Age fandom. I hadn't been in a fandom in so long, not after the first one, which ... look, getting into a fandom while having a nervous breakdown is a bad thing, okay? Especially when that fandom has named you a BNF for some reason and the responses end up going from "nagging daily to finish a fic" to "long essays shitting on everything you ever wrote" and you're a people-pleaser by nature. Just ... that on top of everything else is ... not recommended. You have no idea how phobic I was of the very idea of fandom. I literally flinch when the media in question comes up (though I have some very good friends because of that fandom and I would not be without them; just ... I will avoid that particular piece of media the same way I do anything overly zealously Christian and conversations about politics with my mother, and for the same reason - my sanity).

Anyway, point is that the Dragon Age fandom gave me back my love of and, more importantly, trust in fandoms. Sure, there's some toxic bullshit, but it isn't like that. Y'all have been so wonderful, and between how awesome the fandom is and how DA: O itself really helped me cope during a particularly dark time, for all I flag up its flaws, I'm always going to have a soft spot in my heart for this franchise.

So of course it makes me happy that everyone's finding something to love about Veilguard and spreading it all over Tumblr. Picking their blorbos and squeeing about Assan and all of that, and it's everywhere. And on one level, I'd love to join in. I'd like to start thinking about what my Rook would be like - which of my internal presets would I send after Solas first? What faction would a Molly be a part of? A Jessie? A Jallira?

...Just ... why, when I probably won't even be able to play it?

One of the reviews had the reviewer literally screw up a livestream by getting knocked over a cliff because her reflexes weren't up to it, and highlighted just how much you need those reflexes and that dodge to actually get through the game. And she couldn't manage. And she's not, as far as I'm aware, fucking disabled. I, on the other hand, am. And it doesn't sound like easy mode and accessibility options are going to get me out of "you have to constantly dodge-roll or experience Death By Cliff".

For most things, I can budget my spoons appropriately. If I want to go to a convention - a big one like MCM or a small one like Dragonmeet - I can plan my life accordingly. But that's a one-off. So is "I'm going to bake things", or "I'm going to make soup", or "I'm going to Borough Market". I can have rest breaks after these things. I can plan them for good days. Most of the time, I can cope with this. I hate it, but I can cope.

But ... I mean, how do you do that kind of thing for a video game that runs so many hours? Too many breaks and you lose the momentum - far too many abandoned playthroughs of BG3 have taught me that. Waiting for good days could have me waiting a week or more before I'm up to even touching it again. If it's not a bad pain day, it could still be a day where I'm having spasms, and believe me, I don't touch anything that requires precision when I'm having spasms ... but sometimes I don't know until I'm trying to do a thing, so I could end up dodge-rolling myself off a cliff if I go to the spasm place.

Thankfully, I'm not the sort of person who turns around and resents the people who are looking so forward to it when I can only sit here and dither over what I'm going to do about this whole mess. I'm glad people are enjoying the anticipation. Just seeing it makes me sad, and I don't want to block the tags because a) I still have some tiny shred of hope and b) that's too many tags.

I resent the fuck out of EA and Bioware, though. I get that they couldn't necessarily go back to DA:O's real-time-with-pause tactical structuring, but moving us to something that's ... probably closer to Kingdoms of Amalur than anything Souls-like but there's still an element of that latter ... anyway, it's a giant fuck-you to the disabled. I've had one of those before. I got chosen for the closed beta of Secret World: Legends when Funcom was making its changes to The Secret World. I was not alone in flagging up that everything from the reticle targeting to the particle effects to the random-roulette light-up stuff all over the UI was a massive trigger for vertigo and migraines. And we all got the same response: "This is what we're doing and we're not changing it; sucks to be you". And it really wasn't that much more polite than my paraphrase, either. (Which is another problem with Veilguard for me, because even that first gameplay trailer full of prologue gave me a migraine that lasted for like two days; part of it was the particle effects, part of it was the glowy redesigns of all the demons, but mostly it was the dodge-rolling making the camera bounce around like a fucking squash ball.)

I resent EA and Bioware for jumping so entirely on the ARPG train that even the best their accessibility options can do don't help. I also resent them for not giving us a fucking demo. I know that AAA games don't do that anymore, for some reason, but how the fuck am I supposed to know whether or not I can play it if I don't have a demo? Steam gives a two-hour return window, and adding the time taken in character creation plus the prologue, that doesn't give that much time to really get a feel for whether or not it's playable, especially not when it depends on the kind of day I'm having.

There are a lot of reasons I hate being disabled. I think most of them boil down to "the people who make accessibility a fucking nightmare". That thing about Borough Market, for example, where I'd have to take a fairly roundabout route to even get there because the most direct route is via a train station that has raised platforms and no elevators, and those stairs were a nightmare even before the cane. And of course, video games. Far too many video games. Including, it seems, the franchise that really got me back into video games in the first place, and one of the first things that really gave me joy after fleeing the abusive ex.

Fuck my life entirely.

[iamamythologicalcreature]

Holy fandom this shit is big.

Okay, so I've been exploring the Simon Snow fandom this evening, and now my head is exploding.

I feel kind of old. Or maybe just late. Or both. I mean, the last time I was active in any fandom was...a very long time ago. Things were smaller. Way smaller. We had forums, and email lists. (I hate how I'm likely dating myself, but I was very young and now I'm no longer so young. It happens to most people.) Anyway, you could be a part of a fandom and actually get to know just about everyone in it. Maybe this also had something to do with my choices of fandom, but it was also before the big explosion of social media that brought everybody else to the internet, clogging it all up. (I'm not bitter.)

So now, I'm adult-aged (I hate saying that though, it feels like there are expectations). And I just read this amazing trilogy of books, and I think to myself, "You know what? This is worth it. This is worth diving back in, because I bet this fandom is awesome."

This fandom is awesome. And big. Like. You all have wikis to keep track of things, but this stuff has exploded so quickly those wikis aren't even updated (no shame to the wiki-makers, at all cause as I'm saying, this shit is big). The AO3 count is off the charts. You have discord servers and about a million Tumblr pages, and screencapped memes that have become... What do you call it when it's fan-created and not canon, but it's so well known it's like canon? Whatever it is, there's a ton of it. (Everywhere I look, Penelope has purple hair.)

I have to say, I am simultaneously thrilled with this and intimidated as hell. Every time I think I have something new to say, I find someone else has already said it. This makes me a little nervous about saying anything because this thing is so big I can't possibly know for sure I'm not repeating something that's practically old hat to the rest of the fandom. Like, "Yeah, sure, we see your point, but we saw that point in 2019, here's a link to the original post."

*deep breath*

I will never catch up on fanfic. Not ever. (I'm going to try, and I'm kissing my goodreads yearly read goal goodbye to do it, but still.)

Curse me and my policy of waiting until all the books are out before reading them...

I've never seen anything like this fandom. I've never tried to throw myself into anything like this fandom. If you're at all concerned, I am absolutely still throwing myself into this fandom, and I'm going to write fanfic (slowly), and draw (eventually), and I will quite willingly wear the big HI I'M NEW HERE WHERE IS REGISTRATION? sticker on my forehead. Because, I mean, it's Snowbaz. What wouldn't I do for them?

I just thought you should know. This is big. And I love it. But seriously, freaking huge. (Yeah, I can hear myself. "That's what she said." There you go. XD)

*ahem* Carry on.

(Edit to add: I've continued my dive since writing this and I literally am sitting at my desk, clicking, saying, "Oh my God, you guys are amazing." Just... over and over. And over. So many clicks. So much amazing. This fandom is dedicated and I love it so damned much.)

[amazing-lovers-fic-fest]

This is it, folks! The time has come!

IIIIIIIIt’s Proposal Previews time!!!

Thank you to everyone for sending them in so far! You guys have so many lovely proposals. 😍🥰

Artists, now it’s your turn to be in the spotlight! Read through and choose which work you would like to do art for. Keep in mind that you are allowed to choose more than one work! Or you can stick to one; whatever works for you!

Aaaaand here they all are! Starting with:

PROPOSAL NUMBER 1

Work(ing) Title: No Mistakes With You

Author: Seanagh (racingliners/racingwrites)

AO3 Rating: Teen and Up Audiences

AO3 Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Fandom: Formula 1 RPF

Relationships: Sebastian Vettel/Lewis Hamilton

Important Characters: Sebastian Vettel, Lewis Hamilton, mentions of both Lewis and Seb's families and various people from Aston Martin & Mercedes.

Additional Tags: Established relationship, Domestic Fluff

Summary:

Follow-up to my prompt fic “This Must Be a Mistake”, focusing on small snapshots of Lewis and Sebastian’s life together over the span of multiple years (Seb’s retirement in 2022, Seb attending his first race publicly as Lewis’ partner in 2023, Silverstone 2024) all building up to their wedding day.

PROPOSAL NUMBER 2

Work(ing) Title: and if i may just take your breath away

Author: Ars (espressosnotdepressos)

AO3 Rating: Teen and Up Audiences

AO3 Warnings: Choose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Fandom: Formula 1 RPF

Relationships: Seb/Lewis, Jenson/Nico, Kimi/Minttu

Important Characters: Main characters: Seb, Lewis. Important/notable side characters: Jenson, Nico, Britta, Antti

Additional Tags: Fashion Designer Lewis Hamilton, T4T (Seb/Lewis), Trans Man Sebastian Vettel, Nonbinary Lewis Hamilton, Girl Nico Rosberg, Weddings, Fake Relationship, Chronic Back Pain, Christmas, Christmas Parties, 2016 FIA Gala, based off 'sweater weather, Brake Testing, Misunderstandings, Britta Roeske is Probably Some Kind of God

Summary:

He sighed. “Anyways, there’s no point in trying to make me find a date anymore.”

“Oh? And why’s that?”

“Because I’m already seeing someone.” Wait, what?

“Wait, what?”

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

In general, Sebastian likes to think of himself as a smart person. A reasonable person. A person who doesn't lie about having a partner just to get people off his back about his inability to keep a relationship. Lucky for him, a certain Armani fashion designer is here to help, and *not* because Seb owes them after rear ending them on purpose because he thought they were break checking him. Definitely not.

PROPOSAL NUMBER 3

Work(ing) Title: Bookmarks

Author: Tianvette (tianvette)

AO3 Rating: Mature

AO3 Warnings: Choose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Fandom: Formula 1 RPF

Relationships: Sebastian Vettel/Mark Webber

Important Characters: Mark Webber, Sebastian Vettel, Jenson Button, Sébastien Buemi

Additional Tags: Bookshop AU, Non-Famous, Idiots to Lovers, 100% Pure Fluff, How to Annoy Your Way Into Someone's Heart, Minor Injury

Summary:

Mark has no idea what he’s doing. He’s never felt so far out of his depth in his entire life.

He slouches back downstairs, walks right out of the front door, and if he had somewhere else to go he’d just keep going and never come back. There’s not one good thing about this place.

He’s not sure where the cake comes from. One minute there’s nothing, and the next – like a strange kind of magic trick – there’s a delicious-looking chocolate muffin sitting right there beside him.

He lifts his head from his hands and stares around. There’s a cardboard cup of coffee, a wooden stirrer and a couple of sachets of sugar next to the cake, a napkin stuck underneath. Mark gently pulls it free and snorts to himself at the little note someone’s scribbled onto it: <em>Hello new neighbour. Come say hi when you’ve finished pulling your hair out.</em>

It’s signed with a lopsided little smiley face, what looks like a kid’s drawing of a bumblebee, and two initials: <em>J & S.</em>

He uncurls a little, stretches out his legs, takes a bite of the cake and groans out loud at the intensity of the flavour. <em>Yeah, okay,</em> he thinks, reaching for the coffee and adding the sugar. <em>One good thing.</em>

***

When Mark agrees to take over the refurbishment of his uncle's abandoned second-hand bookshop, he has no idea what he's doing. Feeling lost and overwhelmed, he's pleasantly surprised when the friendly owner of the coffee shop next door offers to help out. Unfortunately for Mark's blood pressure, that help comes in the form of the two recent graduates who live in the upstairs flat, one of whom is possibly the most chaotic little chatterbox Mark has ever met in his life.

What could possibly go wrong?

PROPOSAL NUMBER 4

Work(ing) Title: colours

Author: Sacha (sacharowan)

AO3 Rating: Teen and Up Audiences

AO3 Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Fandom: Formula 1 RPF

Relationships: Sebastian Vettel/Mark Webber/Jenson Button/Charles Leclerc

Important Characters: Sebastian Vettel, Mark Webber, Jenson Button, Charles Leclerc

Additional Tags: Alternative Universe - Soulmates, Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Soulmates identified through touch leading to colour exposure, Angst with a Happy Ending, 2009 - 2024 Formula One Seasons, Charles Leclerc is a Formula 1 World Champion

Summary:

Everyone missed at least two colours from their life until they met their soulmate - their own and their soulmates. But Sebastian was missing four. One colour for each of his soulmates and one of his own. The first colour would come, he knew, when he met the first one, and little by little, his rainbow would become complete again.

Yellow and orange and red and blue. The colour of the sunset over the ocean, idyllic and peaceful, something that Seb has always wanted to see for himself. He can’t wait to see it properly.

It takes a long time (and a lot of struggle for each of them) but they find each other eventually. Two first and then three and then four comes quietly, slowly.

Together at last, finally.

PROPOSAL NUMBER 5

Work(ing) Title: The Ghost of Australia

Author: Cobb (ZoomGuanyu)

AO3 Rating: Explicit

AO3 Warnings: Major Character Death

Fandom: Formula 1 RPF

Relationships: Charles Leclerc/Sebastian Vettel, Kimi Raikkonen/Sebastian Vettel

Important Characters: Charles Leclerc, Sebastian Vettel, Kimi Raikkonen, Carlos Sainz jr.

Additional Tags: ghosts AU, air kissing, forbidden romance, ghost!Sebastian, hurt/comfort, bittersweet ending

Summary:

Charles has seen ghosts for as long as he can remember. Just when his life started looking good as a Ferrari driver alongside the legendary Kimi Raikkonen, his world is turned upside when he meets the ghost of a man he's always admired. Charles must deal with how to handle Sebastian's antics. As time goes on, the mystery of how Sebastian passed away and how to keep a relationship with a ghost burns ever brighter, searching for an answer that Charles has yet to solve.

And finally…

PROPOSAL NUMBER 6

Work(ing) Title: Hiding Evidence In Silent Trepidation

Author: Gemma (avidaheidia5)

AO3 Rating: Teen and Up Audiences

AO3 Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Choose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Fandom: Formula 1 RPF

Relationships: Sebastian Vettel/Jenson Button

Important Characters: Sebastian Vettel, Jenson Button, Susie Wolff, Martin Brundle

Additional Tags: Heist AU, Police drama, Train Robbery, Breaking into a bank, Slapstick with a touch of realism, Injury detail, Violence, Crack fic

Summary:

In 2012, DCI Wolff receives an anonymous call one night reporting that two masked men in their 30’s and 20’s have hijacked a steam locomotive and are taking it en route to one of the largest banks in London, which holds billions of cash inside the vault. Teamed up with the inept Officer Brundle, they go on a widespread search for the mysterious masked men so they could catch them and arrest them before they run off with their precious goods, never to be seen or heard from again.

Sebson Heist AU.

And that’s all of them! Artists, get choosing!!!!! If you need help with anything, let us know on Discord or in the ask box box box!

Happy arting!!! 🎨💙

[stvrchaser]

omg omg omg ur such a lifesaver w ur requests for jay kelso being open! but how about going to the drive in movie with jay!! maybe a lil kissing here and there 🤭 n e ways i appreciate all your work! <3

drive-in

( note ) : ahh!! i loved this prompt sm. it gave me an excuse to write teeth-rotting fluff and temporarily retreat to a fandom i abandoned a while ago. the it miniseries had two episodes (I think??) and idk if drive-ins usually show series. if not, let’s say they do for plot purposes. the two episodes are like 3hrs total anyway so it’s a somewhat passable movie length. i just wanted to include a horror movie moment (because jay canonically gets scared easily and i couldn’t not use that to my advantage)… so here we are. have fun!!

oh. and can you tell by reading this that bullying is 80% of my love language? /j

( pairing ) : jay kelso x reader

( words ) : 1700

There’s a certain charm to Point Place. Most people dream of living in the city where time slips by faster than they can keep up with. They seek the thrill in busy streets and sleepless nights. Personally, you don’t think small towns are too bad. Point Place isn’t too bad. Of course, you might be a little biased.

The city doesn’t have a Jay Kelso. It doesn’t have the local ice-cream shop Jay took you to on your first date. It doesn’t have the old gazebo where you waited out the rain on your one-year anniversary. It doesn’t have a weekly drive-in at the local park where you spend hours critiquing movie plots and laughing at stupid jokes over milkshakes and burgers.

There’s only one place you’ll find that — home.

There’s a loud boom over the speakers, the kind they pair with a loud crescendo to evoke that sense of suspense. It shakes the ground and everything that touches it, startling your boyfriend. His hands find your own and grips them tight. When you look up, you see his eyes are squeezed shut.

“Why do they keep doing that?” Jay sounds breathless, his cheeks flushed from knowing that you’d definitely felt him flinch. It’s endearing, really.

“Why do they keep doing that?” Jay sounds breathless, his cheeks flushed from knowing that you’d definitely felt him flinch. It’s endearing, really.

“It’s a horror franchise, babe. If you wanted something more quiet, you should have just asked me to read the book. Less sound effects and pointed teeth.” You make a show out of baring your teeth, imitating the snapping jaw of the werewolf on-screen.

“There’s a book?” he asks, finally opening his eyes. You think he’s joking, at first. Like he’s about to say something about how waiting for the movie is just so much easier. But his brows are settled into that look he gets when he’s really confused. You sit upright, startling Jay with the suddenness of your movement.

“There’s a— What do you mean ‘There’s a book?’ It’s Stephen King!” He stares blankly. “You’re kidding. He’s published like thirty novels.”

“Well, none that I’ve read.” You roll your eyes.

“Well, duh. When was the last time you picked up a book?”

“I read!” he bristles.

“Comics don’t count.”

“I read other things! I don’t have an A in English for nothing.” You want to say something about how class novels don’t count either but you decide against it. He is smart, really. He’s easily distracted, sure, but Jay is a lot more knowledgeable than he lets on. He’s particularly good at reading people, what they like and don’t like. It’s probably why he gets along with everyone.

“Alright, fine. But please tell me you’ve watched some of his other films.” He shakes his head. ”No? Not even Carrie? The Shining?” You think your pitch rises with every question, baffled by this new revelation regarding your boyfriend’s lack of horror movie knowledge. “Jay, I don’t know how I feel about this.” He rolls his eyes at your dramatics.

“I’m just not a big horror fan!” That, you know, is a gross understatement. Jay can get scared by so much as a light breeze. You refuse to confirm nor deny whether you find pleasure in taking advantage of that very fun fact.

“Fair enough. Some people just scare easily, I guess.”

“Not me, though,” he huffs a defensive, albeit nervous laugh.

Oh, that’s cute.

“Really?” you challenge.

“Uh-huh. It’s gonna take a lot more than a movie to scare me.”

“Whatever helps you sleep at night.”

⋆

“Just imagine this happening in real life. I mean, it’s terrifying. This guy can just get inside your head. Sure, ghosts and stuff can be scary. But at least you can move out or… perform an exorcism for that. How do you tell an ancient omnipotent alien to get out of your head? I don’t even have to be afraid of one specific thing, but if I’m creative enough, who knows what I could come up with? Like… a flesh-eating centipede the size of a crocodile. What do you think he’d shape-shift into if he was trying to scare you?”

You’re only slightly thrown off to be met with silence. Your mind is running through a thousand words a minute, theorizing about hypothetical evils and mind-reading. The absurdity, all too welcome, is only manageable to the extent that you’re still aware of where you are, who you’re with, and how said person seems to have stopped breathing.

“Jay? Ja-ay!” you try to snap him out of it.

“Nothing, duh. I think I’d know if a creepy clown was trying to manipulate me, thanks.” He’s pale as a ghost, clearly unnerved. You’re cruel, and he’s unlucky.

“Really? Not even if a spider started crawling on you?”

“Y/N,” Jay warns, sensing the mischief in your tone, low and taunting.

“I wouldn’t go to sleep with my mouth open tonight, if I were you.”

“No, no, Y/N don’t put that into my head,” he whines. You grin.

“The creepy crawlies are out to get-cha!” You reach for the nape of his neck, fingers crawling upward to imitate his eight-legged foe. Jay’s eyes widen in horror. Before you know it, he’s scrambling for his car keys.

“Nope! Nuh-uh! Not doing this. Going home now, thank you!”

“Oh my god, Jay!” you call after him.

The couple to your right hisses an angry scolding in your direction. In your opinion, that was a hell of a lot scarier than the face-painted clown with a preference for human flesh. Jay doesn’t seem to notice that though because he’s climbing into the driver’s seat, face pale. He looks a little bit sick.

“Jay, baby, I was just messing with you.” He shakes his head profusely.

“First it’s centipedes, next it’s spiders. I don’t even wanna know what else you can come up with. I’m already not sleeping tonight. I’m gonna try to keep it to a one-night maximum.”

“Jay.” He looks at you through the rear-view mirror. “Ja-ay. Can you look at me for a sec?” You crawl after him, wrapping your arms around the backrest of his seat. There’s only an inch of space between your mouth and his neck. Your steady breath, and the softness of your voice, eases the tension in his shoulders. “How about this? If you watch the whole thing with me and still feel scared, I’ll sleep over at your place tonight. I’ll protect you from any killer clowns and creepy insects, hm? What do you think?” He takes ahold of your hand, looking at you through the mirror again with a slight grin. You can tell he’s holding back, biting at his cheek to keep the corners of his mouth from turning upward.

“Is that a promise?” You press a kiss to his knuckle.

“Cross my heart, hope to die. I can throw in a pinky-swear in, if you need it.” With your free hand, you raise a pinky to his face.

“Oh, shut up.”

“You love me.” He grumbles through your fit of laughter. When your breath evens out again, you’re surprised to see his expression change. Jay's eyes crinkle with a smile. Not his usual teeth-baring grin, but the blissed-out turn of the mouth that holds all weight in his gaze, alone. Sincerity. Admiration. Love.

“I do, don’t I?” You’re momentarily stunned by the intimateness of this moment. The sudden vulnerability is so unexpected that all you can do is press a kiss to his cheek – a silent acknowledgement of his affection as if to say ‘I love you too.’

Like most days, you slip back comfortably into childish banter.

“But I still don’t get why you like this movie so much.”

“It’s a classic. Besides, doesn’t The Losers Club kind of remind you of us? Tight-knit friend group in a small town, spending the summer together?” He tilts his head to the side, seemingly deep in thought.

“Does that make you Beverly?” You open your mouth, but hesitate to respond. Jay raises his brow, intrigued by your tentativeness.

“I was thinking Richie.”

“Huh. You know what? That checks out. Trashmouth Tozier’s got nothing on you.”

“Damn right.” You clap an approving hand for his shoulder, reaching back to the abandoned meal you’ve left in the back of the car. Jay, with his impeccable timing, decides to return the attempt of humiliating you just as you reach for your milkshake. Admittedly, it’s well-played. You’d be proud if it wasn’t you he was trying to make fun of.

“You sure it’s got nothing to do with your crush on Bill?” Your jaw drops, surprised.

“I do not have a crush on Bill!” Your voice gives you away, sounding undoubtedly guilty, almost reminiscent of the turbulence in Jay’s voice when he insisted that he wasn’t scared. Turns out, you’re both terrible liars when it comes to each other. It’s quite humbling. “Well, maybe a little.”

“I knew it!”

“Hey! I’m allowed to like things for multiple reasons.”

“Yeah, yeah. I’m sure you’re here for the power of friendship.” He waves a dismissive hand.

“See?” You play dumb to his sarcasm. “Now you’re getting it.”

“You’re so lucky I like you.”

“Does that mean we’re staying?” You flash him a sickly sweet smile. With a sigh, Jay finally surrenders.

“Fine. But I’m holding you to that promise. You’re coming over.”

“Good.” You shift back to where you were seated, facing the large screen again. “I really wanted to get through all of the scenes with Bill.” He gasps, feigning offense with an exaggerated hand to his chest.

“First of all, how dare you?”

“You love me! Remember that!”

taglist (reply or dm me if you want me to add you!)

@ajaxisbae

[dearweirdme]

I saw something interesting on twitter.

So a TKKR made a compilation of taekook hanging out secretly together and as usual, it made some people go mad. I was surprised at how many people were furious and calling us delusional over a simple post that could have been made by anyone.

But anyway.

So I was looking at the quotes with one eye open bc the hate was too much. Calling tkkrs all sort of names bc of a harmless post...hm.

And a comment caught my attention. I'm still thinking about it to this day.

I can't find it so I can't write word for word what the person said but it was something like :

"You have created a space where you can't see out of the bubble. One day, you're going to be shocked at how crazy you guys sound. One day, reality is going to smack you so hard you'll ask yourself how you got there."

Apart from the fact that it was exaggerated, it's still strikes me. Because how can someone come to that conclusion? Aren't we in the same fandom?? Even if you don't believe in Taekook, you can't be 100% sure that they aren't a thing no??

So I concluded that the person was probably throwing their insecurities on us because there's no way.

Hi anon!

Mmm, fandom is a pretty tough place to be in. I think many outside Tkk fandom don’t actually want to see. I think the mole-anon is a great example actually. They thought we were delusional too, until something Tae and Jk did that caught their eye and they started to actually look further. There is stuff pointing at us being right, Tkkrs (and shippers as a whole) just have such a bad reputation they don’t even want to consider there being any validity to what we think.

There can be plenty reasons for someone not even considering Tae and Jk being a real couple: homophobia, hate of shippers, other existing ships having preference, feeling it is disrespectful to discuss their private lives. But we are not delusional anon. Plenty of the people calling us delusional would have no qualms of speculation on a relationship if either Tae or Jk had been a woman. Plenty of those people have no qualms of speculating about other celebs being in a relationship right now. Plenty of those people have no qualms of having fantasies about themselves being with either Tae or Jk. So yeah, there’s something about the idea of Tae and Jk together that doesn’t sit well with them.

It’s true that some shippers are caught in a bubble. But definitely not all of them, and I feel the people on here are always very much aware of BTS as a whole. It doesn’t really matter what non-tkkrs think. Although it does suck to be fandom’s punchingbag, there’s very little to be done about it (though being normal when the guys go live would probably help… (😭😭😭 I miss them going live)).

When reading comments like that, just tell yourself: if one day Tae and Jk decide to come out, you will have been the one who saw love… and the person leaving that narrow minded comment, will have hate to look back at.

[stevethehairington]

Steve gets hanahaki, coughs up yellow acacias if he so much as thinks of Eddie too long. He tries not to think of the way his eyes soften when he talks to the kids, or the laugh lines he already has curved in his cheeks where Steve wishes he could put his hands. Ever the self-sacrificing person, Steve doesn't say a word about it even as he hacks up bouquets of it, but Robin and Dustin are the first to know something is wrong, and encourage him to go to the hospital, so he does. The doctors tell him about the surgery, which would remove the roots that are threatening to pierce his lungs, but that he would lose the love he has for the long-haired man. They tell him that many people choose death.

"That's stupid," Steve says, "if I die because of a hopeless crush, my friends will find a way to bring me back to life just to kill me themselves."

He agrees to the surgery, and they let him make a phone call before they get him a room, so he calls Robin and lets her know everything. She sighs but says he's doing the right thing, and Steve gives her permission to tell Dustin as well, since he was worried. While Steve is in the hospital being prepared for surgery, Robin calls Dustin and lets him know the situation, and he's understandably upset that Steve was quiet about it for so long about it, but sighs in relief that he's not the romantic idiot Dustin thought he was. Dustin, not knowing who the flowers were for, accidentally mentions it to the group since it was DnD night, and Eddie jumps from his chair and runs to the phone to call Robin back. The kids hear him pleading with her for an answer, then a huff of disbelief, and a silence, before Eddie inhales deeply and says, "It's okay. If he was able to fall in love with me once, then the capacity for it is there. I just have to... meet him where he is, and we'll go from there together, right? So it's okay. We still-- I still have him. We still have time."

omg so i wanted SOOO badly to do a little volleying back to this and like do a proper little write up of what happens next in response for you, but my brain is just not working with me on it and i am SO upset about that, but this has been sitting in my ask box for a while now and i feel bAD for letting it sit for so long so i am just going to publish it now but.

BUT.

I LOVE THIS I LOVE THIS I LOVE THISSSS OMG. it's so funny too bc i have never really cared much for the hanahaki trope before, like i knew it existed but i never really read it or looked for it or anything, i was pretty indifferent to it, but there have been a couple ive seen for this fandom and for steddie specifically and HOHOHOHO oh my god i eat that shit UP its so fucking GOOD it just works so damn well for them and i LOVE IT.

and this THISSSSS is so good omg.

"if he was able to fall in love with me once, then the capacity for it is there" SCREAM SCREAM SCREAAAAM!!!! eddie thinking he's going to be too late, but that's okay because if it happened once it can happen again and this time it'll be different!! this time he wont let it get to this point!!!

except EXCEPT!!! he rushes to the hospital and he makes it there RIGHT as steve is about to be wheeled back for the surgery and he's breathless from sprinting and his heart is hammering in his chest because what if he tells steve the feelings are returned but he doesnt believe him?? what if he still tries to go through with the surgery anyways? or what if hes doing this because he doesnt want those feelings?? but eddie doesn't care, he's got a chance here and he's going to take it. so he pleads with the doctors, begs them to give him a minute to talk to steve, and they look to steve and he gives his permission. and so they leave the room, leave steve and eddie together. alone.

and eddie tells steve, he confesses everything that he's been holding back too, he tells him that he loves him. and when he's done he holds his breath, he hopes he wasnt too late, wishes that this does the trick to convince steve otherwise, he wonders he wonders he wonders.

and then steve coughs. and eddie's breath catches in his throat, everything on the verge of crashing down around him because oh fuck it didnt?

but when steve pulls his hand away from his mouth, it's empty. there's no flowers, no leaves, no blood. no nothing. his hand is empty.

he looks up at eddie with huge eyes, back down at his hand, then back up at eddie. he clears his throat, coughs again, still nothing.

and then his whole face lights up. and its magic, it's fucking magic. the sick pallor of steve's face clears as the color returns, the rattle of his breaths quiets until it's gone, until he inhales deep and blows it out in a smooth, easy breath.

"eddie," he says, and he grabs onto eddie's hand. "i love you." he says, like it's suddenly the easiest thing.

eddie laughs, he laughs so bright, and he doesn't even care as he practically throws himself at steve, catching his face between his hands and pulling him in for a kiss.

he almost lost him, but he didn't. he didn't.

"i love you, steve, i love you so much."

it's that easy.

[charcubed]

Listen. I'm going FUCKING. INSANE. because it seems like almost no one on the internet gives a shit about Shy Baldwin/Reggie Harris from The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, which boggles my mind because like ???? they're in love?????? and their relationship is so compelling??

And what we see of what becomes of Shy's story is so tragic obviously but to me it also hints at potential for him and Reggie to maybe someday get out of showbiz and be together. And from what I can tell, no one in fandom TALKED ABOUT THISSSS when season 4 came out!!! What the fuck!!!!! This is maddening!!!

So. I'm making this post mostly to get this off my chest and as a yell into the void. Because maybe somewhere, someday, someone else will ALSO be searching tumblr to see even a glimpse of content about these 2 exceedingly compelling characters, and I will write this so that I save that person the despair of coming up empty-handed like I am.

I'm also gonna drag other people down with me if anyone who hasn't seen this show happens to be curious enough to read this, so in that vein, I will cover some basics to outline this. Because I want to TALK ABOUT THEM despite most of this being obvious and no one giving a shit, Goddammit!!

(Spoilers or whatever I guess but who cares)

This is Shy Baldwin. He's a singer (clearly) and canonically a Black gay man who (obviously) has to hide his sexuality because this is set in the 60s.

This is Reggie Harris, Shy's manager and longtime best friend.

This is how Reggie introduces himself:

Let me tell you what kind of manager I am, Susie Myerson and Associates. I've been looking after Shy since we were kids tossing rocks in vacant lots. We was running numbers for Stephanie St. Clair before we were ten. When he found his singing, I collected the money, kept him out of trouble, kept people from bumping him. I'll be at his side when he draws his last breath unless I get there first. I would lay down my life for him. That's what's going on here. You hear me?

–3x02, "It's the Sixties, Man!"

In episode 3, they casually sing "Is You Is or Is You Ain’t My Baby" together just for fun.

INSANE harmonies. And their flirty banter in this whole 1 minute long scene makes me want to eat my own arm.

Anyway... hold those thoughts.

So, Midge Maisel (the titular character) is the opener for Shy on tour with her comedy act in season 3. The show reveals in episode 3x06 that Shy is gay, in a scene where Midge finds him bruised and bleeding because he hooked up with a guy and it went sideways. Shy comes out to her as part of his explanation, and she helps cover up the bruises on his face with makeup so he can get on stage that night.

That leads to him doing a sitting "stool set" with slower songs because his ribs are fucked so he can't stand/dance, and the unsubtle song the show has him sing is "No One Has To Know."

The clip isn't even on Youtube, which is indicative of how much I'm suffering with how under-appreciated Shy's storyline is, but you can listen to the song here or on Spotify.

No one else can tell I think you're beautiful No one else can tell You're my favorite view Let the world all think what they will I'll wait until they're through 'Cause no one has to know I need you No one but you

^^^ Literally the whole song is like this / about being gay but that's a piece of it.

Shy looks at Reggie as he sings.

Thankfully Tumblr user microclown made several GIFs. Here are two.

KILLL MEEEE

Clearly, obviously, this is deliberately not subtle. Everything telegraphs that Shy is in love with Reggie.

Now, considering wider context of Shy hooking up with a random man etc., one could be forgiven for thinking it's meant to be seen as unrequited love... but I really don't think that's the case. I think there's a delicious undercurrent of angst that ties into how Reggie tells Susie (Midge's manager) at various times throughout the season that their job is to make the hard decisions on behalf of their clients, and Reggie references making hard decisions on Shy's behalf or for Shy, because his job is to do what's best for Shy even at the times Shy doesn't like it. So... are they in love and Reggie tries to keep them from properly being Together to protect Shy? And/or does Shy think his love is unrequited at this point? Lots of room to play there.

So now comes the part that no one's talking about!

More explanation: season 3 ends with Midge being very straight and very white as she does a comedy routine in which she makes way too many cheeky references that out Shy as gay on stage if you know gay-related coding/lingo. There are Reasons why she sort of panics and does this, and the audience loves her jokes, but that is very much Not The Point. She's fired from the rest of the tour as a result–rightfully so.

In season 4, it's announced that Shy is suddenly getting married to his longtime girlfriend and it's totally a publicity stunt 🙃 Midge and Susie are invited to the wedding... but not by Shy; by the team of straight white dude management who stepped in to control Shy's every move in the name of "helping him to stay on the straight and narrow" to keep his career on the rails. Midge's fuck up gave them the opportunity they needed to control him. (Shy and Midge end up reuniting in a bathroom at the reception but we won't be unpacking that conversation and how I disagree with how Midge leaves things between them).

So the suits invite Midge and Susie to the wedding so they can escort them to a side room and have a meeting with them, and they try to pay them off to sign an NDA. (Midge declines for them both, saying she will keep her silence for the sake of Shy, not for the suits.) Come to find out that that management team also forced Shy to pay off / fire his entire band–who were shown to be like family to him throughout the tour in season 3–and also forced him to pay off / fire Reggie.

LOU: Look, he's a good guy, Reggie. I like him. But he's too close with Shy to control him. There's too much history.

...

SUSIE: Reggie got Shy to where he is now. You realize that?

LOU: Reggie's taken care of. Big severance. We threw him some publishing. He's buying a house in Westchester. Everybody's happy.

SUSIE: Oh, I bet. 'Cause when you think Reggie, you think Westchester.

–4x05, "How to Chew Quietly and Influence"

Here's the obvious thing: Shy and Reggie clearly had no choice in this matter.

There's no way in hell that Reggie would have left Shy willingly. Absolutely no Goddamn way in hell. Whether he's in love with him or not, Shy is "his boy" (his words, repeatedly) and he said "I'll be at his side when he draws his last breath unless I get there first." That was his character introduction! Holy shit!

But here's my hot take: I DO think Reggie is in love with Shy, and I do think he intends to keep that promise of being by his side as much as possible. And I'll tell you why.

At the wedding, Shy sings a short excerpt from his new single to his new wife:

Come close to me, baby Cool as the river When you're here in my arms Manhattan's getting dimmer I know it sparkles, too But city lights don't shine as bright as you

Once again the clip is not on Youtube and I am suffering.

There are a few more lines from the song in that episode referencing Paris and Rome (where Shy and Reggie and the band went on tour in season 3...), but it's a piece of a longer song. We thankfully have the song in full, here or on Spotify:

And in the episode, Shy says on stage that the song was written by Reggie.

"You just heard a little of my new single. And it's a special one because the lyrics were written by my boy Reggie Harris. Which is fitting because that man's been putting words in my mouth since we were kids begging his grandmom to buy us ice cream.

–4x05, "How to Chew Quietly and Influence"

This makes me FUCKING FERAL.

Especially because of the lyrics in the full version of the song... which, as it turns out, is all about giving up fame and the spotlight to be with the one you love.

There are hidden lyrics in the full track that are meant to actually be in between the shortened ones we hear in the episode. The lyrics from the full version that Shy doesn't sing at his wedding are as follows:

I’ve had the spotlight Been bewitched by wealth and fame But I’d give up that hot light Just to hear one special someone Call my name

...

I could search the world over Go as far as a man can roam But nothing I’d see Would mean nothing to me Like the vision of you when I’m coming back home Baby, you are my home

Buildings may rise And reach for the skies They twinkle and flash But they won’t ever last Like the beauty in your eyes

Whatever they may do Those city lights won’t shine as bright as you

Reggie wrote this song for Shy. He literally wrote this song for Shy. Shy says it himself! And Reggie's not in attendance at Shy's publicity stunt wedding because the suits are keeping them apart for now, but he's in Shy's heart, and Shy chooses to sing this song and share that backstory about the lyrics because they're each others' home in secret.

I can't handle it! I can't FUCKING handle it!!!!!

Like are you SERIOUS!!!! And in the episode where the suits say Reggie took his severance pay and went and bought a fancy house? BITCH. If he even actually did that (and didn't just claim he was doing it to fly under the radar), then he bought a house so Shy could one day join him there because ???? "You are my home." Ohhhh myyyy Goddddd ;___; A song about giving up the spotlight to be with the one you love........ I have connected the dots. Just wow.

So yeah I'm literally going insane. I LOVE them. I've been thinking about this for like 2 weeks and no one gives a shit but I love them! They are important to me and every part of their subplot is so compelling and makes me so emotional!

There is fic about all this that's in my brain and outlined in my google docs and if I ever write it I will post it on AO3 for the maybe 2 people who will care someday. But yeah.

WHERE is their spinoff!!!!!!!! Jk I don't want it because I don't trust they'd be handled properly. However, I am manifesting even a crumb of information about them in season 5 because Shy Baldwin is my son and I would like any kind of hint he and Reggie manage to eventually orchestrate their happiness <3

If you actually read this post, thank you so much for indulging me. I had to get this off my chest, okay, I'm losing it.

I love them and they're in love. That is all.