#anyway i predict that this post will get 0 notes

[writesvani]

dear me | 10

lawyer! jungkook x privatechef! reader

SUMMARY: Once upon a time, Jungkook and you were everything. Best friends who shared every moment, every secret—except one: you were in love with him. But life changed. High school ended, real life began, and slowly, you drifted apart, the distance between you growing too wide to cross.

The end. Except it isn't.

One day, after a long day at work, you open your email to find a message from 13 years ago—written by your younger self. A letter you’d forgotten, sent by a service you paid to remind you of your youth, your love for him. As the emails keep on coming and you keep reading, the flood of memories hits you, and you realize something heartbreaking: you never stopped loving him.

But now, it’s too late. Jungkook is about to marry someone else. Or is he?

estranged childhood best friends-to-friends-to-lovers?

TRIGGER WARNINGS: anxiety, emotional conflict, frustration, feelings of inadequacy, fear of failure, intense argument, self-doubt, stress, mild emotional distress

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SERIES M.LIST;

— previous chapter // next chapter (pending...)

wc: 5,1k // date: 24th of May 2025

CHAPTER TEN — TETHERED THREADS happy reading my gummies...

AN: oh my god hi babies!!! dear me is back and so am i? so are we all excited or what. i don't want to spoil this chapter but it goes from 0 to 100 real quick so like. prepare yourselves. i warned you!!

now, about the note goal — plot twist — there is none. i’m currently in my ✨mystery era✨ trying to figure out a better posting system so we’re just gonna wing it for now. that does NOT mean you shouldn’t like, comment, or reblog because hello?? validation?? serotonin?? but no pressure.

if you liked the chapter and wanna scream about it, i’m here. reading. refreshing. obsessing. after all the weird energy and negativity lately, i’m really hoping we can bring back our chaotic little community — full of kindness, laughter, and just the right amount of delusion.

i love you all so much it’s actually concerning. chapter 11 will be posted on june 2nd unless the universe decides otherwise but let’s manifest consistency together, okay? okay.

The morning starts like every other.

One shot of espresso — because two makes you jittery and one feels just right — gulped down in the dim glow of your kitchen light. No breakfast, of course. You’ll eat whatever Ms. Kim requests you to make, and if it’s something boring like porridge again, well, that’s just the universe’s way of punishing you for not getting groceries. Quick shower. Music playing from your phone speaker (Today: old Arctic Monkeys. Why? Who knows, they felt like a Wednesday band). Then, one episode of Suits. Always Suits. Always one. You like the predictability, the build-up. You like the false sense of control it gives you, knowing you’ll be left on a cliffhanger but choosing to turn it off anyway.

Everything is smooth. Everything is routine. Your perfect little mental tightrope, walked with the balance of someone who’s been practicing calm like it’s a sport.

Until you sit in your car.

Crack.

Not a literal sound — no smoke, no explosion — but the kind of mental snap that jolts you right between the eyes. The one that makes your chest tighten and your hands pause on the steering wheel. You try to start the engine once. Twice. A third time, just for good measure. Nothing.

Your car is dead. Or maybe just extremely petty.

You stare at the dashboard like it just told you your childhood dog ran away. Because how did you not notice the gas light? You always notice the gas light. You’re religious about the gas light. It’s your one non-negotiable.

You bang your head lightly against the steering wheel and mutter under your breath, “I deserve this.”

Maybe it’s karma. Maybe it’s sleep deprivation. Maybe it’s the fact that you’ve been so wrapped up in pretending everything’s fine that the basics — like fuel — slipped through the cracks. But now you’re sitting in your silent car, the neighborhood too quiet and you realize something dreadful.

This day has already betrayed you.

And it’s not even 9 a.m.

Your first logical solution is Yoongi.

It always is, really. Calm, capable, cursed with a heart way too big for that grumpy exterior. His work is basically around the corner from Ms. Kim’s place anyway, so in theory, it makes perfect sense. One quick call, a dramatic but well-timed sigh, maybe even a guilt trip about “doing it for your beloved bestie” — and boom, problem solved.

Except, as always, the universe has beef with you.

Because when Yoongi picks up the phone, he doesn’t greet you. He whispers. Weakly.

“I’ve been betrayed,” he croaks.

“By who?” you ask, alarmed.

“My body,” he whispers, hoarse. “Fever. I’m dying. Tell my cat I love him.”

You pause. “You don’t have a cat.”

“Then who have I been feeding?” he mumbles, and the line cuts with the faintest of coughs.

You exhale through your nose, long and tired. Of course Yoongi can’t come. He’s sick. Sick-sick. Not hungover-sick, not "I stayed up binge-watching anime and now I’m emotionally unstable" sick — actual sick. You text him a get-well-soon and a half-serious promise to bring soup and put your phone down with a sigh that echoes in your dead car.

Uber? Taxi?

You wince just thinking about it. It’s not the cost, or the inconvenience, or even the question of how many strangers' asses have occupied those seats before yours. It’s just… uncomfortable. The whole idea of being stuck in a confined space while some overly chatty middle-aged man named Bob tells you about his second divorce and favorite Coldplay album?

No thanks.

You’re not a snob. You just prefer your social anxiety from a safe distance.

So your next logical option — and by logical, you mean potentially dangerous to your mental well-being — is Jungkook.

Yeah. Jungkook.

You already feel your eye twitch at the thought.

Because asking your hot, soon-to-be-married best friend to rescue you from your own stupidity has never ended in emotional stability. Still, you unlock your phone, thumb hovering over his contact.

What’s the worst that could happen?

(You know exactly what could happen. You just choose to ignore it.)

“Hey,” Jungkook says as you practically haul yourself into the passenger seat of his car, the sharp scent of his cologne greeting you before his voice even fully lands.

“Hey, Kook,” you say, breathless, fumbling with the seatbelt. “Thank you for coming so quick. You literally saved my life. Or my job. Or both.”

He gives you a small smile, fingers still on the steering wheel. “Don’t worry about it. It’s on the way for me anyway.”

You hum, settling into the leather seat, trying not to notice how put together he looks this morning. Hair styled to perfection, parted just right, not a single strand out of place. His charcoal gray suit is pressed, not a wrinkle in sight, with the cuffs of his white shirt peeking just slightly from under his blazer sleeves. There’s a navy tie around his neck, loosened just a bit — enough to make him look a little less intimidating, a little more like your Jungkook.

And it’s… a lot. It’s too much, honestly.

Because you haven’t really talked since that Sunday.

Since the night he stepped on stage and left his soul in every note of that song. Since he cradled your face with both hands and pressed his forehead to yours like he couldn’t breathe unless you were that close.

Since you felt something shift.

But after that? A few texts. A meme exchange. Some "dude, that show was crazy" type messages. Nothing heavy. Nothing about the way your chest physically ached when the music stopped and you realized how close you’d been to crossing a line neither of you were meant to approach.

And maybe it was just adrenaline.

Maybe it was a high from the performance. A beautiful, fleeting moment of blurred feelings and too much noise.

But you’re an overthinker. And even now, as he drives through the streets in his sleek black car, his hand calmly resting on the gearshift, eyes focused on the road — you wonder.

Did he feel it too?

You glance sideways at him, and it’s honestly infuriating how effortlessly attractive he looks at 8:43 in the morning. You’re here with a wrinkled hoodie and barely brushed hair, and he looks like he walked out of a Vogue editorial titled "Litigation and Lust."

Your thoughts spiral. You hate it.

Because he’s your best friend.

And he’s engaged.

And you’re supposed to be so, so far from this kind of thinking.

But your heart still clenches in your chest when you think about that Sunday. His hands on your face. His breath on your skin. That look in his eyes, like maybe he was fighting something too.

So you swallow the thoughts. Tuck them behind your ribs. You look back out the window and say nothing.

Because saying something might ruin everything.

You’re both quiet for a beat too long — not awkward, not exactly — just suspended in that weird, stretched silence that sits heavy between two people who almost talked about something important but didn’t.

Then Jungkook pulls out his phone and sets it in your lap without a word.

You glance down, confused. “What’s this?”

“Play whatever you want,” he says, eyes still on the road. “I know you hate car rides without music.”

You snort softly. “Obviously. I’m not a psychopath.”

He raises an eyebrow. “So I am one now?”

“Well…” you smirk. “For someone who lives and breathes music, it’s a little criminal that you drive around in complete silence.”

He chuckles under his breath, and it’s the first sound that feels a little like the old Jungkook. “Music distracts me when I drive.”

Your fingers freeze for a moment over his Spotify. “What is it with you and music being a distraction…”

It’s innocent — said without much thought. But the second the words leave your mouth, the memory flashes sharp in your brain.

Shit.

You remember now. The moment he told you—how Nina said that playing drums made him lose focus. How it’s an unnecessary distraction.

You swallow hard, wishing you could drag those words back down your throat.

Jungkook doesn’t respond. But his fingers tighten slightly on the steering wheel, just enough that you notice.

You tap at the screen, trying to play it off. Your thumb hovers over House of Balloons, because of course that would be his last played. Typical. It’s not morning music by any stretch, but you tap play anyway.

The slow, pulsing rhythm of the song fills the car like smoke — sultry, haunting, too much for the morning.

You stare ahead at the road, heart rattling a little too loud in your chest.

God, you hate how much you remember. And worse — how much you want to.

You close your eyes, pretend you didn’t see the way he clenched his jaw. Pretend you’re not hearing lyrics that have nothing to do with you, but still feel like they’re scraping something raw open inside you.

Because yeah.

This is definitely too much.

And somehow still not enough.

“Well, it is distracting,” he hisses, sharper than he means to be.

He exhales through his nose and lets his voice soften. “I just don’t like to multitask like that. Plus… I wasn’t talking about that night.”

You glance at him. “I never mentioned the night you played.”

“No, but you were thinking about it.”

Your brows lift. “How do you know that, Jungkook?”

“Because I know you.”

“And I know you too,” you shoot back, “which is exactly why I can tell you’re itching to explain yourself. Because you know I’m right.”

He rolls his eyes. “Right about what, exactly?”

“You being scared to play again.”

He blinks. “What is it with you this morning? You never even said that to me before, and now suddenly you’re Freud in the passenger seat.”

“I never said it. But you know it’s true.” You turn slightly in your seat. “Come on, Kook. We both know you weren’t scared you’d suck.”

He doesn’t answer. His jaw ticks.

“So why were you scared?” you ask gently. “Hm?”

He’s quiet.

“You were scared you’d love it. And you did.”

He scoffs under his breath, but it’s weak. “Well, not all of us get to do what we love.”

You snort. “That’s literally just an illusion toxic society and late-stage capitalism shoved down our throats.”

He throws you a look. “Okay, great. Now you’re being philosophical for no reason.”

“Am I?” you challenge. “I mean, if people did what they loved, the world would be a lot less miserable.”

“Maybe,” he shrugs. “But that’s impossible.”

“How and why?”

“Because we’d be living in a world full of artists, musicians, basketball players, and TikTok therapists—who the hell would do the boring, dangerous, miserable jobs?”

“This might come as a shock,” you grin, “but there are people who dream of doing those jobs.”

“That’s just… incorrect. And I could elaborate.”

“Then elaborate.”

“I don’t want to.”

“Why?”

“Because you’re pissing me off.”

You laugh, incredulous. “For saying you should maybe do something you love again? Even just as a hobby?”

“For acting like it’s that easy,” he snaps. “Like it’s not a fucking luxury to even consider that.”

“A luxury, huh?” you scoff. “Are you insinuating something, Jungkook?”

“Come on,” he mutters, eyes on the road. “Don’t put words in my mouth.”

“No, seriously. I’d really like to know—why do you think like that?”

“I said it generally. I wasn’t talking about you.”

“Not directly,” you fire back. “But you meant it. So just spit it out.”

His jaw clenches. You watch him, waiting.

“I’m not accusing you of anything,” he says tightly, “but it’s easy for you to sit up on your high horse, acting like you can’t understand why people don’t chase their dreams—when you had a net. You had support. You had parents who would catch you if you fell.”

Your stomach twists.

“And now,” he continues, bitter, “you have the audacity to judge the rest of us. To judge me—for choosing something stable. Something that won’t fall apart.”

“I have never judged you, Jungkook,” you say, voice firm now. “Not for a single second. All I’ve ever wanted is for you to be happy. But you’re too deep in your own bitterness and insecurity to see that.”

“Insecurity?” he snaps.

“No,” you tilt your head. “Jealousy.”

He laughs, harsh and humorless. “Jealous? Of what?”

“Of the people who went for it. Who chased what they wanted. Who lived their fantasy, even if it was just for a little while.”

“Oh, so now I’m jealous of you?”

“I didn’t say that,” you say quietly. “But since you did…”

“Please,” he scoffs, shaking his head. “You’re literally screwing yourself over.”

“What does that mean?”

“I mean, you’re not living your dream. You lived it that one summer in high school—when you were traveling and learning and cooking and being free. Now? You’re working a glorified 9-to-5 cooking vegan meals for a neurotic rich divorcee. That wasn’t your dream.”

You blink, heart thudding. That one stung.

“Maybe not,” you say after a beat. “But by that logic? I still lived my dream. Even for a moment. Something real came from it. You never even gave yours a chance.”

His voice drops low, almost a whisper. “Because I’m not meant to.”

Your chest aches. “Then why are you so pissed?”

“Because I’m trying to reason with you!” he bursts, his voice cracking around the edges.

“And I’m trying to reason with you!”

“No, you’re not!” he snaps. “You’re trying to fix me.”

You go still.

“God, Jungkook, are you delusional or something?” you snap, voice low and tight. “I’m literally just trying to open your eyes.”

“To what, exactly?” he shoots back. “You’re talking without even trying to see it from my side. Like you always do.”

“I never act like I know everything.”

He huffs a bitter laugh. “Yeah? That’s kind of your thing, though.”

“My thing?”

“You always act like you know what’s best—for everyone. Like your opinion is the only valid one, and if people don’t see it your way, then they’re just wrong.”

“That’s not true,” you bite, anger laced with hurt. “I want what’s best for you. That’s all I’ve ever wanted.”

“I know that, Y/n. But maybe what you think is ‘best’ for me isn’t the same as what I want. Maybe I don’t have everything I ever dreamed of—but I’m content. I’m satisfied. I’m… happy.”

“Okay,” you say quietly. “Sure. You’re happy. But I still wish you had everything. Everything you wanted.”

He exhales sharply. “That’s impossible.”

“Why? Why, Kook?”

His eyes stay locked on the road, jaw tense. “Because if that were possible… we wouldn’t be sitting here having this argument.”

You blink. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I—” he pauses. “Nothing. Just forget it. I’ve got a hearing in an hour, and I can’t walk into that courtroom like this. Let’s drop it.”

You shake your head slowly. “Right. Of course. Now you want to drop it. That’s your real ‘thing,’ Jungkook—running. From arguments. From real conversations. From me.”

“I’m not running,” he says quietly. “I’m protecting my peace. Maybe you should try that sometime.”

“Protecting your peace doesn’t mean shutting people out the second they say something you don’t like,” you snap, heart hammering in your chest. “That’s not peace, Jungkook. That’s fear.”

“I’m not afraid,” he fires back, “I’m tired.”

“No, you’re afraid. Of feeling things too deeply. Of doing something reckless. Of being disappointed. So you built this perfect little life with a perfect little job and a perfect little routine, and you convince yourself it’s enough.”

He laughs bitterly. “And what, you want me to be like you? Burning out in someone else’s kitchen just so I can feel something?”

“At least I’m feeling something! At least I’m not numbing myself with depositions and court dates pretending I don’t miss the version of you that used to dream out loud.”

“That version of me doesn’t exist anymore!”

“Well, maybe I miss him anyway,” you say, voice quieter now. “Maybe I miss who you were before you decided being safe was more important than being happy.”

Silence fills the car, thick and heavy. The tension crackles between you like static. You want to reach for him, want to pull the words back, but it’s too late.

Jungkook exhales slowly, finally turning to look at you at the red light. His voice is low. “And maybe I miss the version of you who didn’t make me feel like shit for choosing differently.”

Your heart sinks.

“Maybe,” he says again, voice softer now, almost tender. “We just don’t know each other like we used to.”

You swallow around the lump forming in your throat. “Maybe we know each other too well. And that’s the problem.”

He doesn’t answer.

The light turns green.

He drives in silence.

And this time, you don’t reach for the music.

The silence becomes a living thing—thick, suffocating, curling around your chest like a fist. Jungkook’s grip on the wheel tightens, knuckles white, but he doesn’t say a word. You turn your face toward the window, watching the city blur past, every billboard and traffic light glowing against the tension burning behind your eyes.

You finally speak, voice quieter this time. “Why does it always have to be like this with us?”

“Because we’re both stubborn. Because we know everything about each other,” he says, his voice quiet—like the anger’s burned out and all that’s left is ash and honesty.

You hum, not in disagreement but more like a sound of recognition. You shift in your seat, knees angled slightly toward him, your spine pressing into the cool edge of the door. The city lights bleed into the car, flashing across his jawline. He looks good like this—annoyingly good—hair perfectly styled, suit neat despite the hour, but his expression? It’s all cracked open.

“I’m sorry,” he says, cutting into the silence like it’s something he has to slice through before it swallows you both whole. “I went too far with all of this. I didn’t want us to argue.”

“No, Kook… I started it,” you say, voice soft but heavy. “I’m sorry too.”

He lets out a small breath, almost a laugh. “I hate fighting with you.”

“Same,” you murmur. “It sucks.”

“You know I didn’t mean most of what I said, right?” His eyes flick toward you, searching your face. “Most of the shit… it was just—heat of the moment stuff.”

You nod, hand reaching over to rest gently on his shoulder. “I know, Kook. Me neither.”

The car stills for a beat. There’s no music playing now, just the muted sound of tires on wet asphalt and the whisper of things you can’t say aloud. You let the silence linger too long, and it hangs there, taut and unspoken.

Because the truth is… some of the words you said? You did mean them. Not all. But some.

And you wonder—did he?

Did he mean it when he said you were delusional? Did he mean it when he implied you had it easier? Or was that just his bruised ego talking, scared of how deeply you still saw him?

You pull your hand back and press it to your lap, fingers fidgeting with the hem of your sleeve.

“I meant some of it,” you admit, voice barely louder than a whisper.

He blinks. “Which parts?”

You hesitate. “The part about you being scared to play again… and how it’s easier for you to pretend you’re content than to admit you still want more.”

He doesn’t respond right away. Instead, he shifts his hand off the wheel and runs it through his hair—slowly, like he’s buying himself time.

“You really think I’m just pretending?” he asks finally, almost offended. But not quite.

You shrug, eyes glued to the dashboard. “I think you tell yourself you’re fine so you don’t have to want something you think you’ll never get.”

He exhales sharply. “You make it sound so fucking tragic.”

“Isn’t it?” you glance at him. “I mean, maybe not in a dramatic way. But quietly, in the way that gnaws at you slowly. You don’t realize it until it’s too late.”

He’s gripping the wheel again, jaw tight. “And what about you, huh? Are you living your big dream life?”

You pause, a bitter laugh escaping your lips. “I thought I was. I tell myself I am. But some nights I lie awake wondering if I’ve just built a pretty version of settling.”

He looks at you again, this time more carefully. “So we’re both full of shit.”

“Maybe that’s why we get each other so well.”

Jungkook lets out a breath, something between a laugh and a sigh. “God, we’re a mess.”

“A beautiful one,” you tease softly.

He smiles faintly. “Speak for yourself.”

You nudge his arm. “Don’t deflect.”

“I’m not deflecting,” he mutters. “I’m deflecting with charm. There’s a difference.”

You laugh, finally, and the sound breaks the tension like a crack in glass letting in fresh air. But underneath it, something lingers. A feeling. A thought. One neither of you has dared to voice yet.

You turn to him again, serious now. “You don’t have to go back to being a musician full-time, Jungkook. But you could play again. For yourself. Just… because you want to.”

He’s quiet for a moment, eyes on the road ahead.

“And what if I do? What if I play again, and it lights something up inside me I can’t ignore?”

You reach over and squeeze his hand, firm and gentle all at once.

“Then we deal with that fire together.”

He looks at you, and this time, you don’t look away. Not when his eyes soften, not when his lips twitch up just a little. Not when the weight of years and unsaid things hangs between you.

Maybe this is how it’s always been between you two. Messy. Complicated. Raw.

But it’s real.

And for now, maybe that’s enough.

He doesn't let go of your hand.

Doesn’t flinch or pull away like he usually does when things get too real, too close to the bone. His thumb brushes over your knuckles absentmindedly, and it’s terrifying how natural it feels. How long you’ve both pretended this wasn’t still buried somewhere between you, under layers of arguments and half-truths and detours in life.

“I’m scared,” Jungkook says, and it’s so quiet, you almost miss it. His voice cracks on the word scared, and you’ve known him long enough to understand how rare that kind of honesty is coming from him.

You don’t say anything. You just wait.

“I’m scared that if I play again… if I really try… and I still fail…” He swallows. “Then it’s not just about life being unfair. Then it’s me. Then I’m the reason it didn’t work.”

You lean in a little, turning your body more toward him. “That’s not how it works, Kook.”

“But that’s how it feels,” he says, finally looking at you, eyes wide. “Like if I never try again, then I get to keep the dream. It stays perfect. Untouched. Still possible.”

“Untouched things don’t grow,” you whisper.

He closes his eyes, head dropping back against the headrest. “God, why do you always say things that hit me like a truck?”

“Because you drive the metaphorical car straight into denial, and someone has to steer,” you offer with a small, teasing smile.

He laughs—really laughs—and it’s so genuine that it softens the ache in your chest.

“You know, back then… in high school,” he says after a moment, voice low, “when we all thought the world was ours… I used to think I’d marry someone who got me the way you do.”

Your heart stutters. You almost don’t breathe.

“Jungkook…”

“I don’t mean it like a confession or anything,” he adds quickly, though the way he avoids your eyes tells you it is one. “I just mean… you’ve always seen through me. Even when I didn’t want you to.”

You don’t know what to say. The space between you feels electric now—like something’s about to snap or shift or fall apart in a beautiful, devastating way.

“I wish I could be braver for you,” he admits, and there’s a rawness in it that nearly breaks you. “I wish I didn’t always pull away. Didn’t always shut down when things get too close.”

“You still can be,” you say softly. “Bravery isn’t some fixed trait. You can choose it. Every day.”

He turns to you again, and for a moment, everything else fades—the world outside the car, the ticking clock, the stupid hearing he has to be at in forty-five minutes. It’s just you. And him. And this fragile truth hanging in the space between.

You inhale slowly. “Maybe we’re not meant to live perfect dreams, Kook. Maybe we’re just supposed to chase the pieces that still make us feel alive.”

He nods, eyes searching yours. “And maybe I want to start chasing again.”

Your heart thuds. But you don’t let it show. You squeeze his hand instead and whisper, “Then I’ll be here. Right behind you.”

The silence that follows is no longer heavy.

It’s filled with possibility.

A few quiet beats pass. The tension between you has shifted—softer now, but still charged, still full of words unsaid.

You clear your throat. “I meant what I said though. About wanting you to be happy. And… not judging you. I never have.”

“I know,” he says, his voice steady. “I just forget sometimes. I get in my own head and push people away. Especially the ones who know me best. Guess that’s some kind of twisted reflex.”

You shrug. “You’re not the only one. I’ve done my fair share of self-sabotaging too.”

“Yeah, well…” He laughs under his breath. “Maybe we need an actual therapist in this car.”

You smile a little, the tension in your jaw easing. “Maybe. But then again, I think we’ve been each other’s therapists for so long, we wouldn’t know what to do with a real one.”

He glances at you. “You’re not wrong.”

Another pause. Then he adds, “I want to be clear about something. About Nina.”

Your stomach clenches a bit, but you keep your voice steady. “Okay.”

“She’s important to me. And I respect her more than I know how to say. She’s been nothing but good to me—and I’m not going to mess that up.”

You nod, relieved at how firmly he says it. “I know, Jungkook. I wasn’t trying to cross a line or anything.”

“You didn’t,” he assures quickly. “It’s just… I know how our conversations can get. How intense they can feel. And I want to make sure we both remember what they aren’t.”

You nod again, your voice soft. “They’re not a doorway back.”

“Exactly,” he says, offering you a brief glance. “They’re just… two people who know each other too damn well, still figuring shit out.”

You let out a quiet chuckle. “Some things never change.”

He sighs, running a hand through his hair. “Still. I don’t like fighting with you.”

“Me neither.”

“And I don’t want this to be a cycle, you know? Us going from avoiding things to blowing up in each other’s faces.”

“Then maybe we should work on saying things before they pile up,” you offer, folding your arms.

He nods. “Yeah. That’s fair.”

You both fall quiet again. This time, it doesn’t feel tense—it feels reflective. Like two people recalibrating. Not leaning on each other like they used to, but still existing in the same gravity.

“I still think you should cook more for yourself, by the way,” Jungkook says after a moment. “Not for clients. Not because someone paid you. Just… for fun. For joy.”

You scoff. “Didn’t you just accuse me of being too idealistic twenty minutes ago?”

He smirks. “I did. But I’m allowed to change my mind.”

You roll your eyes but smile anyway. “I cook enough already.”

“Not like you used to,” he says, and something about the way he says it makes your chest ache a little. “Remember that summer after high school? You were obsessed with making pasta from scratch for like three weeks.”

“It was a phase,” you say with a chuckle.

“It made you happy.”

You nod, looking down at your lap. “Yeah. It did.”

“Then maybe try it again. No pressure. No performance. Just… you and the food. That’s all.”

You glance at him, your smile small but genuine. “Maybe I will.”

A beat.

“And if you ever want someone to peel carrots for you or taste test or pretend to know the difference between béchamel and hollandaise—I’m your guy.”

You laugh, the sound breaking up the last of the tension. “Noted.”

The car grows quiet again, but this time it feels okay. Comfortable. Like something has been salvaged. Not what once was. Not what could’ve been. But what is.

The ride to your job is quiet, but not uncomfortably so. A shared stillness fills the car—like neither of you want to poke at the tender spot you've both just exposed.

Outside, the city hums to life. The early sun catches on glass windows and street signs, and your reflection in the window looks tired, but lighter somehow.

When Jungkook pulls up in front of the quaint little apartment building, tucked between a florist and a gallery, he shifts the car into park but doesn’t move to open his door.

You glance at him. “You gonna walk me in like a gentleman, or do I have to carry all my things like a peasant?”

He huffs a laugh, but it’s soft, fond. “You’re the one who always says you like to make a dramatic solo entrance.”

“Only when I’m wearing heels and carrying an attitude.”

He shakes his head, grinning faintly. Then, more seriously, “Hey. Go easy today, okay?”

You nod, hand on the door handle. “You too. Good luck with your hearing.”

“Thanks,” he says, then hesitates. “And... thanks for being honest with me. Even when it’s messy.”

You pause at the door, looking at him with something that lingers between affection and ache. “That’s the only way I know how to be with you.”

He doesn’t respond right away. Just holds your gaze, something unreadable in his eyes.

Then, “Go cook something that makes you forget the world exists.”

You smile, softer this time. “You say the most poetic shit when you’re sleep-deprived.”

“Don’t get used to it,” he says, but the corners of his mouth tug upward.

You get out, closing the door gently behind you. As you make your way to the entrance, you feel the weight of his stare on your back. You don’t turn around. You don’t need to.

The engine hums back to life just as you unlock the door and disappear inside.

And just like that, the morning swallows you both into different lives—still tethered by a thread that neither of you are ready to cut, but both are too careful to pull on.

taglist: @lovingkoalaface @santiiagopopegarcia @jadaocon1 @asyr97 @gukieater @themwordsblog @whatevevrerr @amarawayne @tititania @guwol @reallygenerouskoala @bgfdcvbnjk @kyljjk @whoa-jo @taekritimin123 @minimoninini @upo1313 @polnaraffsrack @tatzzz-25 @orphicepiphany @coletaehyung @bjoriis @epiphany-n @kimyishin @eegyo @dearmyfavoritepeople-bts @parkinglot-nights @mar-lo-pap @evrsncenewyork @jjeonjjk7 @minghaosimp @cerulean1riz @anumita-2007 @vantelover1306 @vynmin @nadzzzblog @jnghs @lachimolalajeon @joonwater @choijay-07 @notsevenwithyou @mononoaware16 @sky-23s-world

[oensible]

Calculating the theoretical downfall of my shrambling empire

We can do this using a little algebra! :3

First to get the equation for the balance of our shrambing empire balance, this is just a compound interest problem since each bet is 3% of our current balance! We started the season with $1000, but we've since had some wins and losses affect our balance since them, we'll just start with our balance before the first loss of this streak as our principal amount: $955.86 on 2025 Jan 14! (Georgiev's 2nd win as a Shark and the 3rd (and final) game in the Pickles win streak!) (also keeping in mind i forgot to bet on that Boston game ;-; but maybe for the better because they lost that one too lol)

We can pop this into the compound interest formula and get the equation "y = 955.85 * 0.97^x", where "y" = the balance after "x" games played. But for anyone following along who happens to not know this formula we can easily derive it like so:

Let y0 represent the initial balance before any given game and let y1 represent the balance after any given game

y1 is equal to y0, minus the amount of our shrambling bet

The amount of our shrambling bet is 3% of our y0, or "0.03 * y0"

Therefore "y1 = y0 - (0.03 * y0)"

We can rewrite this using the distributive and identity properties as "y1 = (1 * y0) - (0.03 * y0)" -> "y1 = (1 - 0.03) * y0"

Simplify to "y1 = 0.97 * y0" -> here is our recursive function! :D we can use this to get the balance before or after a bet, given we are always betting the max on the sharks and know either the amount before or after!

Since each consecutive balance is the previous one multiplied by 0.97, we can get any balance by multiplying the initial balance (our $955.85) by 0.97, one time per each game played (assuming the loss streak continues) since then!

We can write this rule as a function to make an explicit function for our account balance after any # of games: "y = 955.85 * 0.97^x". ta-daaaa :3 all done!

Here's our function graphed on Desmos, plus a table of some key points on the graph! + a bonus graph of our permitted bet amount (3% of our account balance!)

This model will predict our balance values a little low btw, because our max possible bet has to be rounded down to the nearest cent on NHL66. But I think that the rounding error is negligible for our purposes here

As can be seen in the notes of this post, the people clamor for the downfall of my shrambling empire.... so let's see exactly when we would hit these milestones, assuming the Sharks loss streak continues! :D

Scenario #1: net loss of $500 via @puckpocketed

We can just calculate this from our "y = 955.85 * 0.97^x" equation! Substitute the $500 balance into y, then solve for x games played by dividing the $500 balance by 955.85, then taking the log base 0.97 of 500 divided by 955.85....or convert to log base 10's if your calculator doesn't just have a log base 0.97 function lying around lol

Anyways! Our solution (to the thousandth) is 21.274 losses, and obviously we can't have fractions of games played in terms of bets which are discrete/only counted per whole game played. Thus, we can see on our table that we will have lost $500 (in fact, $510.93!) after 22 games lost in a row! This is possible, as we have bet on 4 losses already, so we need to lose only 18 more bets in a row! :) There are currently 31 games left in the season! :)

Scenario #2: negative balance via @proceedwcandy

Due to the 3% cap on our bets, as our balance gets smaller, so too will our bets.... we will cannot enter shrebt (sharks debt) by this model :(. (We can verify this by attempting to take the x-axis intercept, where y = 0 or any negative value, the same way we did for scenario #1 and we will get an undefined value. Plus we can see from the graph that even if we kept zooming out it would never go to a negative value.... Sad! Such is the nature of an exponential function with no vertical shift down.... u_u)

However! There is a stipulation in NHL66 rules where once the maximum bet amount reaches $2, it will stay there. We can find the balance at which we reach this minimum cap—$2 is 3% of $66.666... going on forever, but we'll round up to the nearest cent at $66.67. We would reach this amount after 87.423 losses, and again we must round up, so after betting on 88 losses in a row (or 84 losses from now) our max bet from then on will be $2!

After that the scenario is represented by a linear function, "y = -2x + 65.51" (65.51 is our balance after this, rounded up to the nearest cent), so we can find the point at which we would go into shrebt! If we have y = $0 and solve for x, we get 32.755 more losses (on top of the 88 losses to get to this threshold) to get to $0, or 33 more losses to get a negative balance! (not that NHL66 will actually let me do this, they'd just cap that last bet at however much I have left :P but we'll ignore that for this hypothetical)

Tl;dr: It would take 121 losses in a row (or 117 more losses) to get a negative balance! We. um. Well, we do not have that many games left in the season to lose! ^_^" but, well.... who am i to doubt the prowess of the psiionic warriors manifesting my downfall...... ">_>

[ajuice-matts]

the official petey post prediction rules:

the petey post prediction (the ppp) is where i predict & track how many posts @atwhughesversion mentions elias pettersson 1.0 from puck drop to final buzzer

-any post or reblog is 1 petey point.

-if hannah makes a meme pertaining or includes petey, that's 2 petey points.

i will also be getting points based on how accurately i predict the petey posts.

-if i predict the ppp, i get 2 points

-however, i have a buffer zone with 2 posts in either direction & if it's in there i get 1 point. for example, if i predict 16 & hannah posts 14, 15, 17 or 18 times i get a point (i hope that makes sense)

anyways that's the game!! so far i have *checks notes* 0 points...

[color-cacophony]

I was going to make a Big Official Review Post about Rayman in the Phantom Show but I don't really have enough complete thoughts to make something comprehensive and organized, but I still want to share some points from my experience with it so uhhh without further ado, here's a bunch of thoughts on what dazzled me and what I thought could have been done better.

Here I go...

I'll start with the stuff that bugged me first because I don't like to end on a bad note:

I think the biggest issue is that giving the player the option to complete each set in any order diminishes the opportunity to have a linear story. Without a series of events building up to the finale, the actual climax doesn't feel as grand or substantial as it should be (it definitely feels like a few lines were cut from the moments before Phantom's first verse with how abruptly it starts). It would have felt more immersive to see actual scenes of the heroes trying to play their roles and have more varied quests based on puzzles or even characters and dialogue (like the search for Sweetlopek's stolen axe), all whilst gradually putting the pieces together that they were led into a trap.

Speaking of putting the pieces together, it would've paid off to have Beep-0 learn from his own arrogance in the past instead of repeating his assertion that he knew what Phantom was up to all along. That part made me kind of sad because I really like Beep-0 and it seemed like they were setting him up to eventually become less uptight and more open to admitting his mistakes, which would be more satisfying and obvious!

As we all know, Beep-0 isn't the only one who repeated himself. I remember an exchange I had with @randomrabbidramblings about our predictions for what would happen in the climax; they were hoping the final showdown with Phantom would not be redundant with his first encounter, having the same battle gimmick as before. Unfortunately that is, in fact, what they ended up doing. While framing it as Phantom being unoriginal or making a callback helps it a little bit, ultimately it made me feel let down (although I love Beep-0's delivery when he reiterates his line from Kingdom Battle. he means business).

As for the aftermath of the battle, I want to know where Phantom went. There doesn't seem to be any sign of him anywhere in the studio. It's really odd, given how this was supposed to be his grand comeback (alongside Rayman, of course), but we don't get even a simple explanation of what happened to him after he was defeated for the second time, unless I missed something. I presume this is his last major appearance in a game (unless they decide to do something completely different with him in the distant future??? wishful thinking but not ruling it out!), so it's a strangely underwhelming and mysterious send-off to our beloved ghostly diva. I would have been bummed that we didn't get lore paintings for him, but the memory entry summarizing his surprisingly short-lived career actually made me laugh and honestly, the thought of him only releasing one album and becoming so well-known just because he's notoriously a huge jerk and a producer of incredibly terrible films is so in-character for him.

Another choice I found unusual was the lack of any explanation as to how he got his voice back, since it's been established that he screwed it up by overdoing it. Although, they must have dismissed it knowing that not everyone is going to find the mural containing the only source of that detail. His voice could have healed over time anyway, but it just doesn't entirely make sense that they don't acknowledge it at all (I did see @bramble-scramble 's post mentioning a detail @randomrabbidramblings pointed out where a gramophone can be seen in a box in the studio's control room and it is supposedly the one Phantom replaced with a new one when he messed it up, but even if that's true, it's still a bit easy to miss).

I understand that a lot of these issues were due to restraints since it's only a DLC and they could only fit so much in, but that goes to show that this concept is a little too big for a DLC, but not quite big enough for a full game.

Now, for the things I loved...

I must give massive props to the artists and animators for taking reference from multiple Rayman games and essentially making the pinnacle of his goofiness. Rayman was HIGHLY entertaining to see (and listen to, thanks to David Gasman) and very lovable in this! And the way his dynamic with Rabbid Peach and Rabbid Mario changes up until the end where he becomes friends with them and realizes that he can work with the Rabbids now instead of against them it's just 🥺 awgh... It feels cheesy to talk about it but it really does make me happy now that Rayman has a chance to be an equal to the Rabbids and have something resembling a mutual understanding.

I appreciate them bringing back characters from the main game and giving them their own sets. Fittingly enough, it's like a curtain call for the final installment of SoH.

The return of Beep-0's swearing. SERIOUSLY IT'S SUCH A SMALL THING BUT IT DELIGHTED ME

The studio's lobby is gorgeous. Absolutely STUNNING I love all the details and the music notation motifs on everything.

Honestly the rest of this is just going to be me gushing about Phantom hehehe...

First of all, I was completely awestruck at the decision to give him a swing/jazz sequence because I love the aesthetic of the whole sassy big band musical number kind of thing so when I saw that Phantom was going to do that I went INSANE. The animation in the song sequences is absolutely top tier. Phantom is ALL OVER THE PLACE, very charming, very energetic. The swing bit made me realize just how unbelievably coordinated he is. Like when he's zipping and spinning around the stage and it doesn't affect his singing at all? Holy crap. Then, I went even MORE insane when rock/metal Phantom showed up. I would have wanted a verse in that style too, but I get that it was cut because it would mess up the pacing of the battle.

I love Phantom's inability to contain his excitement at the start of the battle, his annoyed lines when you destroy the lights, his smug remarks even when he's taking damage. He's just so- I'm just gonna say it- so freaking cute in this! His line deliveries in general made me fall so hard for him, especially "were you EVER a thing, Rayman?". The way he drops his voice sounds so cool...

Regarding his abilities, I thought they were going to explain why he could turn people to stone in Kingdom Battle, but they simply took that detail away. I don't have a big problem with this, as the Stone Deaf ability could have been part of the Megabug's influence (and it makes him at least a bit less OP lol). I'm also satisfied to finally know that he can indeed phase through things like any other ghost and isn't limited to just teleporting.

His death acting has definitely improved since last time, in that it's silly and makes me smile instead of just making me feel embarrassed lol.

So uummmm yeah that's all the noteworthy stuff I can think of! Overall I thought the DLC was delightful during my playthrough, but after I finished it I felt kind of sad because it just didn't feel "thorough". However, given that Sparks of Hope generally improved on so many aspects from the last game, I'm confident that they'll keep adding and experimenting with more characterizations and scenarios and make something even better if they decide to continue with Mario + Rabbids. And even if they don't, we'll always have the amazing fans to continue the story and put even more wonder into this wild crossed-over universe!

Anyway, thank you for reading through this highly disorganized rant/gush! And while I'm at it, thank you to everybody in the Mario + Rabbids community for making such amazing art and just being here to share our love for the series. That means thank you to @randomrabbidramblings @bramble-scramble @salamifuposey @hostess-of-horror @phandrow @pastelprince18 @critterzone13 @hostdoozy @majorpepperidge and more! You guys are super cool and I appreciate you even though I've never directly interacted with all of you, hehe. I suppose all I have left to say is goodnight, so goodnight/day everyone! Until next time I decide to dump more nonsense onto your dashboard :D

[archaeren]

Hi! I hope you’re doing well. I apologize in advance if you’ve already answered this but I just found your blog and got excited to see another author using Notion.

I saw one of your posts where you showed how you use it and I think I saw you have a formula that shows you the word count of your page content? If that is true would you be willing to share?

I might have gotten that wrong but I am dying over this because I only seem to find formulas that will count the number of words in a *related property* but never in the page itself.

Thank you in advance! 🫶

Ps. I know i can check the word count in the menu but a formula would just make it so much better 🥲

God I WISH!!! I too, have searched fruitlessly for a solution to this problem. It's the biggest drawback to using Notion tables for writing. I know Notion updates and adds new features only constantly, so I can only hope that they will some day get around to adding this feature. They might do it if enough people hassle them for it XD The formulas you saw are for tracking wordcount, but they still rely on me inputting the wordcount manually from the menu counter. I'll note them down anyway in case their functions are still of interest to you! Basically, I have four different fields tracking different aspects of wordcount. These are called, 'wc', 'est. wc', 'Remaining', and 'Total'. The first two are Number fields and the second two are Formula fields. 'wc', as you can guess, is the current wordcount as counted by Notion, which I input manually. 'est. wc' is estimated wordcount, so the number of words that I predict a scene will be. I'm not usually that good at making this estimate, but I don't mind being wrong. It's good to practice anyway XD I also adjust this number if it seems like the scene will be longer than I had originally expected once I start working on it. The reason for this field existing is so that I can (attempt) to predict how much I still need to write to complete a chapter, part, the whole story... etc. I'm currently at 103k for this fic, and 'est. wc' is currently projecting it to be finished around 109k, which is surely wrong XD 'Remaining', therefore, is just the wordcount subtracted from the estimated wordcount. It also sets itself to 0 if the scene is marked complete The formula I made for this field is: Status != "completed draft" and Status!= "posted" ? (Est. wc-wc) : 0 'Total' is a more accurate-ish completion prediction. It's set up to use 'est. wc' until a scene is marked as complete, and then it swaps the 'est. wc' number for the 'wc' number. The sum of all those numbers gives a more accurate idea of the predicted final total, which it currently thinks is going to be around 120k. Which is also, surely, still wrong. But hopefully a little less wrong. XD The formula I made for this field is: Status == "completed draft" or Status== "posted" ? wc:Est. wc​

I know it's not what you hoped for, but I hope this is useful or at least interesting anyway!

[snugglesquiggle]

Any tips on using fonts in ao3?

going to assume you're familiar with the basics — creating a new workskin at Dashboard → Skins → My Work Skins, and selecting a skin on the Edit Work page. if not, AO3 has a tutorial for this

(though skimming the tutorial, it doesn't seem to mention the <span> tag, which is your best friend when it comes to applying styles to a bit of text within a paragraph)

now for the more specific part of this question. also, be warned i'm going to be embarrassingly technical before i actually answer your question.

this is going to sound funny, but i am by and large not a fan of manipulating fonts as a stylistic device. my personal opinion is that what font a text is displayed in should be for the user to decide, both for preference and for accessibility reasons (e.g. there's fonts designed for dyslexic readers). i also tend to find most font changes to be a a bit goofy and immersion-breaking

it's different when i do it, but i'll explain my cope in a second

anyway, the style property you want to change to set in your work skin is font-family. e.g. font-family: monospace will give text a code/"typewriter" look, and on my own site i use "font-family: Newsreader, serif;". (the comma there essentially says 'if you don't have Newsreader installed, any serif font will do)

but as mentioned, i don't like messing with fonts, and in fact, there is no font styling as such in my fic at all. what gives?

(note: im going include mildly spoilery excerpts from my fic, Hostile Takeover)

but basically, i wrap cyn's dialogue in <code> tags, and most browsers will make that monospaced by default, but it leaves the door open for custom userskins to add their own flair to code blocks.

for example, my site puts little boxes around them

but with all that said, i think i might be taking this question overly literally. i think it's likely you aren't talking specifically about just fonts, and most of the interesting things people want to replicate from my fic aren't about what shape the letters are.

my secret weapon for styling this fic is the humble text-shadow property.

what it does is simple: it creates a copy of the text, and you have four knobs to turn: you can shift it over horizontally or vertically, blur it, and of course change the color

text-shadow: 1px 2px 3px red;

this gives you a copy of the text shifted to the right 1 pixels, down 2 pixels, blurred 3 pixels and colored red.

text-shadow: 1px 2px 3px red, -1px -2px 3px blue;

same deal but now there's another in the opposite directions colored blue, like a chromatic aberration.

you don't have to include the color or the blur if you dont want color or blur.

now i'll run through some real examples

the "pain" effect is what you get when you stack text vertically

text-shadow: 0 -3px 0px, 0 3px 0px;

the "beyond the grave" effect is text stacked horizontally

text-shadow: 2px 0px 0px;

the famous "i want you destroy you" text is of course colored, and here i offer an actual tip

you can predict the offsets, but the color is special

text-shadow: 2px -1px 0px #da38;

full explanation here, but basically, when you write a color with four values, the first three are RGB, but the last is the opacity. i think this matters because, if the earlier part of this post didn't make it clear, i care about readers getting a good experience no matter how they choose their custom styles (within reason, ofc)

by making the color slightly transparent, it blends with the background color, means whether you read with a light them or dark, it meets you half way

(try removing the transparency on that shade, and it's a pretty harsh contrast on both modes — though part of that might be that i made it super saturated to compensate for the transparency.)

i have some complaints about how ao3 handles css, and one of them is that it forbids you from using the very convenient filter: blur() function. to work around this, i cooked up a very "we have blur at home" solution

text-shadow: 0px 0px 6px, 1px 1px 3px, -1px -1px 3px; opacity: 50%;

(it looks much better on my site, where i can filter: blur all i like)

one of the reasons this sucks is that without a doubt the biggest limiter on doing really complicated stuff with text shadows is that they don't stack.

you'll notice that when the "pain" effect shows up, the "blur" effect disappears.

this matters most for what is definitely the most striking and involved use of text shadows in the work: the big man himself

the basic principle here isn't that special. the illusion of depth is accomplished by increasing blur and opacity the 'deeper' the text is supposed to be. the biggest trick here is that instead of the 'px' we've been using everywhere before, the offsets use 'em', which is a unit that relative to the font size.

but there is a nuance. you see:

text-shadow: 0px 1px 0px, 0px -1px 0px, #fd64 2px 2px 2px, #fd68 2em 1em 3px, #fd65 4em 2em 5px; text-shadow: #fd64 2px 2px 2px, #fd65 2em 1em 5px; text-shadow: #fd6 2px 2px 5px, 0px -3px 0px, 0px 3px 0px, #fd68 2em 1em 3px;

the "translate" looks like a combination of the new effect and the pain effect, but i had to give it a special style, specifying both by hand.

if you want to layer things, it will get out of hand, and if you ever opt to revise the specific colors or values, solver help you.

also, this doesnt show up anywhere in HT (yet), but i've used it in the past — only setting the blur of a text-shadow lets you give words an 'aura', and it's a neat and simple effect

(excerpt from Eifre Quest, an original work of mine from years ago. i have mixed feelings about it)

sorry if that was a long ramble or self-indulgent, but hopefully something there was new or helpful.

thanks for asking!

[double-erasers-are-the-standard]

0/10 RAGEBAIT, FROM THE MOMENT YOU RESPONDED, I ALREADY WON. DON'T FEED THE TROLLS NEXT TIME, FUR BOY! BUT SINCE I'M HERE, LET'S KEEP THIS PARTY GOING! CAN YOU REALLY SAY YOU FEEL PROUD FOR THIS? ARE YOU GOING TO LOOK BACK IN 10 YEARS AND THINK FONDLY ON THIS. DAMN, YOU REALLY SHOWED ME, HUH? YOU KNOW WHAT THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ME AND YOU IS? WE'RE BOTH BAD PEOPLE, BUT I KNOW I'M IN THE WRONG AND CHOOSE TO DO IT ANYWAY. YOU GENUINELY BELIEVE YOU'RE IN THE RIGHT, DON'T YOU? YAP YAP YAP, HOLY FUCKING SHIT, BACK AND FORTH. IT NEVER ENDS. YOU'RE SO PAINFULLY PREDICTABLE. LETS TAKE A GUESS, SHALL WE? YOU'RE GOING TO: 1. POST A RESPONSE TO TRY TO "STRIKE BACK" AT ME, A FACELESS NOBODY WHO'S CLEARLY JUST DOING THIS TO FUCK WITH YOU. 2. PRETEND LIKE YOU DON'T CARE, WHEN IF YOU DIDN'T CARE, YOU WOULD HAVE JUST BLOCKED ME AND MOVED ON. 3. CALL ME A BAD PERSON, WHICH I AM. BUT YOU'RE MUCH, MUCH WORSE THAN I AM. I DON'T TRY TO REDEEM PEDOS, AFTER ALL. 4. GO TO BED AND CRY YOURSELF TO SLEEP YET AGAIN. SO GO ON, RESPOND. I KNOW YOU FUCKING WANNA. GO ON, CALL ME OUT. I KNOW YOU WILL, TOO. YOU CAN'T FUCKING RESIST IT. I KNOW YOU CAN'T. YOU'RE DESPERATE. SO SO DESPERATE TO PROVE THAT YOU'RE RIGHT. YOU TWIST AND CONTORT YOUR WORDS AROUND THE SIMPLE TRUTH AS MUCH AS YOU CAN, BECAUSE YOU JUST **CAN'T** BE WRONG, RIGHT? DO YOU THINK ANYONE WOULD STILL BE HERE IF YOU JUST WENT. "YOU KNOW WHAT? I DID SOME THINGS THAT WERE PROBLEMATIC, AND ITS 100% MY FAULT. LET ME STEP BACK FOR A MINUTE, SORT THINGS OUT INTERNALLY, AND THEN AFTER A GOOD WHILE, COME BACK AND MAKE MY APOLOGIES." DON'T GET ME WRONG, NOBODY WOULD WANT TO FORGIVE YOU, BUT YOU WOULD HAVE DONE THE RIGHT THING. AND THAT'S BETTER THAN 100% OF WHATEVER THE HELL YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING RIGHT NOW. I'M OUT OF HERE. SHOUT ME OUT IN THE NOTE.

motherfucker blocked me here was my response cause he wants to be a pussy! i know hell probably have his friends stalking me so pls go show him thanks hee hee

[desiccatedwithering]

steddie fic: "the older"

me, a person who descended to such depths of insanity that I read multiple 80s newspaper articles and sections from a literal law book: but which one of them is older? because eddie could be younger than steve according to canon

[the-prsc]

LET THE GAME BEGIN:

Hello and welcome to the one and only interactive Prog Rock Survival Competition (definitely not a Lord of The Flies/Hunger Games rip-off)! We are your hosts, @probably-not-mig (Host Mig, aka The Good Host) and @theprogrockbstheorist (Host Violet, aka The Evil Host). 

This account chronicles a hypothetical situation in which we place a bunch of prog bands in the woods (include map) and have them try to kill outlive each other. It’s essentially a theoretical survival competition, except there isn’t a lot of actual surviving. Yeah. There can be only one winner, so if killing off hypothetical (and fictional, btw) versions of your favorite musicians isn’t your thing, uhhh… you should probably leave now. It gets bad. We’ll be doing real-time updates on the hypothetical situation, along with some prediction polls, journal entries, comedy routines, and whatever other things we come up with. 

Map of the arena (art by @zralokx!! Go follow him)

Do note that this is meant to be purely for entertainment and therefore purely fictional and hypothetical: nothing posted should be taken seriously, and is not an accurate reflection of anybody named. This never happened, will never happen, and should never happen. For all intents and purposes, this is really sort of a parody, so if your favorite musician is like… a murderer in this, it’s important to the plot, and not a statement on our opinions on them as a person. 

Furthermore, this sort of takes place outside of time. Nothing chronologically makes much sense: the lineups are all wonky and there are references from all over these bands’ careers. Just assume that everyone is 1) alive when beginning the “game”, and 2) in their physical peak. We have also factored out drug/alcohol addiction, mostly because we had already finished the plot by the time we thought of that.

Anyways, on to our cast of characters/bands! It’s a small list, and we would have loved to include more, but then it would be much longer and we would’ve needed to kill off more of them, which would’ve diluted the quality. If your favorite band isn’t listed, honestly consider yourself lucky. 

We have:

ELP (The lineup is in the name)

Genesis (the ��classic” prog lineup)

King Crimson (Larks’ lineup)

Rush (do I really need to specify?)

and of course...

Yes (Tales linup)

There will also be surprise appearances, to be revealed later!

We recommend reading from Day 0, however if you’re only interested in the game, you can start at Day 1. We will be keeping this as a pinned post as the game goes on, and updating it with links to all of the daily updates. 

Are there any rules to this game/hypothetical situation/clusterfuck? No, not really. It is completely safe for work, but questionably safe for your mental health. We will reveal that there is ONLY ONE SURVIVOR. Did it have to be that way? That’s up to you, the reader. 

One last technical note, all of our posts will be tagged as both #progrocksurvivalcompetition and #prsc (an abbreviation of the first tag). If any of you end up making fan art of this, or have Thoughts on our little thingy, you can use those tags! Once again, we are Host Mig and Host Violet, and let the game begin! Day 0 Day 1 Day 2 Day 3

Day 4 Special Report: The Conglomerate (Day 4)

Day 5

Day 6

Day 7

Day 8

Day 9

Day 10

Day 11

Day 12

[myjunkisyuzuruhanyu]

Free skate predictions for the Olympics 2022 - Men

SP prediction scores here

These scoring predictions are based on GOEs and PCS awarded during Worlds 2021 and the 2021/2022 season from international judging panels. If things are taken from different judging panel it’s explained. All mistakes are mine and if you find any please point them out. This just gives a general impression of scores that could be awarded based on the season if a skater skates clean and gets all level 4s for spins and steps. I called it a “realistic” score. The “maximum” score is the base value + all elements receiving +5 GOEs and maximum PCS = 50.00. So a maximum perfect score which actually can’t happen. This isn’t about whether something GOEs or PCS were rightly awarded but what judges did award at international competitions.

I didn’t score all skaters but those who are among the best scoring skaters of this season - namely Nathan Chen, Yuzuru Hanyu, Shoma Uno, Yuma Kagiyama, Vincent Zhou, Jason Brown, Junhwan Cha and Mark Kondratiuk.

It shows you the trend what scores might be possible for skaters and what the maximum of each score would be.

Note: If a skater hasn’t landed a jump clean yet this season aka Yuzu’s 4A for example I put a 0 as GOE 

Note: Nathan said in a recent interview that he wouldn’t go for 6 quads. Imo it’s neither necessary nor will it make much of a difference for his placement the way they overscore him anyway

Please do not share anything of it without referring to this post. Please give proper credit. This is for fun only!

[artofapeach]

I've always worried if no one will like me or just ignore me because I ship DamianxKayla. I used to be in a zoophobia discord chat and use to draw a lot. But whenever I post art in the chat, especially with a certain ship, I just get ignored in favored for someone's art or ship. It hurt so much that I lost motivation to draw for almost a year. Just a couple months ago I finally started drawing again. But I'm scared if I will get ignored again all because they don't like what I ship.

Please please please draw for you no MATTER what!!

It does suck getting ignored and having no one to talk about it with and worrying that people dislike you *because* you ship it—I go through that all the time!

…well okay not with shipping since if it’s not Blitzfizz I don’t really ship much, but with other things!

I draw a lot of body horror art and enjoy working on original stories—which pretty much gets 0 notes every time I post them. Usually, I don’t mind, since this blog was created for me to dump my art, but now that I have a primarily Vivziepop following, I feel this expectation to post mainly Vivziepop fanart. When I’m more in the mood for body horror and other original work, I’m often worried people won’t like it anymore and stop following :(

But I post it anyway!!

Because this is Tumblr dammit!!!!!! This is the place where we’re supposed to be cringe and post the things we enjoy, whether others like it or not!!!!!!!!!

I will tell you this. Unless it’s a proship (which Damian and Kayla is most definitely not) no one will ever not like you for what you ship! If they do, trust me, you don’t want to be involved with them anyway!

People will see your art, go “hey that’s a ship I don’t care for” and go on with their lives.

But for some people??? It doesn’t end there! They’ll keep seeing your art thinking meh, but then they see more and more and go “okay this is kinda cute actually” until they end up shipping it too!

How do I know this? Because it’s happened to me! Twice! Yes, once with Blitzfizz that’s predictable I know. But ALSO with Dandash—Danny and Dash from Danny Phantom. I did NOT care for them until I saw tumblr user Pbeltarts draw soft art of them again and again and I just finally went “okay this is cute actually”

You gotta keep drawing for you, not just for yourself but also for others! There’s 7-8 billion people on this planet—someone’s going to like your ship, your art of the ship, the way you implement the ship, etc. They just either haven’t realized it or haven’t found you yet :)

Again I know it’s hard—I still struggle with it. But I hope this motivates you to at least keep going!

[talkingbl]

Thoughts on the GMM Pillars + New GMM Royalty?

Just a post on my general thoughts on the pillars, the state of their pairings at this point (and moving forward), and potential new pillars in the mix.

KristSingto: As of the time of posting, I never really watched SOTUS/SOTUS S so I can't comment at length on KristSingto. Based on the first episode, I can see why people fell for SOTUS, KongpobArthit, and KristSingto generally. Krist and Singto also have some pretty funny iconic moments. But I didn't watch them enough to understand the complete cult following they've garnered, and thus can't really predict their future as a Pillar besides that they might be dead due to Krist wanting to branch out. But maybe someone can enlighten me lol.

OffGun: I have A LOT to say about OffGun. The first thing I'll say is that this is going to have strong hints of clowning so please indulge me for a bit. But let's just get into it.

I've watched Puppy Honey and Theory of Love and bah gawd does OffGun's chemistry carry the hell out of PickRome and KhaiThird (more so PickRome). But because Khai and Third are well-written as characters (more on that another time), I can focus more on Off and Gun's acting in TOL. I must say that on rewatch, Off and Gun are easily my favorite Thai BL pairing to watch onscreen and a good part of that is pure acting skill. That isn't to say they don't have chemistry because good lord do they do hot-and-cold/flirtationship extremely well. They also seem to have a very professional working relationship and you never see their drama overcome their work and this is vital as GMM Pillars and as co-leads in general. I firmly believe that Off and Gun can work together for as long as they so desire (not that they have to) based purely off the fact that they are so professional, are both good actors (and improving over time), and naturally seem to have a strong respect for each other.

Now that that's over with, this is where the clowning comes in... I'll start this with saying that Off and Gun know how to play the game. Not saying they should play the game or that I myself need that, but just saying that they know how to get their fans going. That being said, early OffGun gave a feeling of over-familiarity on Gun's behalf. Then, between 2019-2020, Off seemed to warm up a lot to Gun's familiarity and Gun then pulled back. I'm noting this because I think this push-and-pull in their early days was actually very genuine. Not saying it meant anything or something like that, just that you could clearly tell that Gun was a flirty person and Off was not comfortable with it but then, probably as a result of playing opposite Gun, Off started to open up more with everyone (not just Gun). I think their pairing actually forced them to grow as actors and professionals and it's part of the reason why they are likely the only current GMM Pillar I see having even more longevity.

TayNew: Okay so, y'all had to know I wrote this last... My thoughts on TayNew are weirdly complex, just like my journey with them. Full disclosure, I started out REALLY hating TayNew and very against their pairing. A lot of this has to do with the fact that I wasn't familiar with them prior to Girlfriendgate (not the official term but that's what I'm calling it 🤪). I felt so bad for New and felt like their fans ruined their work. And my issues with the fans bled over into the pairing itself. I didn't understand what people saw in them, thought they had 0 chemistry, and ESPECIALLY didn't know why people thought they were real (I tend to not believe in any of these offscreen things anyway though so there's also that). BUT this was all before I had even watched any of their shows together, watched a single interview, watched them do things separately, or even heard New speak lmao. I think I actively clung to JossTay just because I didn't want to even be associated with TayNew or Polcas. Probably in another post specifically about TayNew, I will discuss Girlfriendgate and my thoughts about it but for now, I want to focus on them as a pairing (i.e. acting in a show as co-leads) and their future as a GMM Pillar.

Firstly, KMA: Pete-Kao wasn't some phenomenal story or anything with like crazy good writing but what it did well was allow Tay and New to play to their offscreen dynamic. Before fully watching KMA, I had only ever seen people say "Tay and New bicker like a married couple" or "Tay and New are really Pete and Kao" and I just thought, that's a little delusional...but then I watched KMA and early TayNew, and when you watch them, you get the distinct feeling that they are very honest with what they show people. Tay and New are not over-the-top with their offscreen interactions and they don't play up the "we're really boyfriends" thing like *cough* MewGulf *cough*. They don't even have classic romantic (or even friendly) chemistry IMO. Unlike, say, EarthMix, TayNew come off as coworkers who have tension/history lol. I know they always talk about hating each other at first and I can totally believe that. But there's also a weird feeling of something really sweet there that usually doesn't exist between people who hate each other. It's so hard to describe (especially in a brief section and without looking like a straight up clown) so I might try to elaborate later. Point is, Tay and New 100% bring this energy to Pete and Kao and it's hard to know when they've stepped out of character. Because of that, I think it became easy for Polcas to project Pete and Kao onto Tay and New. That said, I don't know if TayNew has a future as a GMM Pillar. It's a tough call right now because I do get the feeling that New is opening up to the pairing again but I also get the feeling that Tay might be a bit over it at this point. But I think I'll discuss more on that in a TayNew post.

BrightWin: So 2Gether was my first proper Thai BL and after watching it I totally understood the hype. It wasn't until I got further into Thai BL that I realized people actually did not like BrightWin as actors and thought they had no chemistry. I admit that Bright's acting wasn't the most inspired, but partly why I felt (and still feel to this day) that he worked with Win is that he was good at looking interested in Win. Win on the other hand seemed to be forcing it a bit more, though I'm not sure how much of this was acting his character to a T and how much of it was him just not having chemistry with Bright. I do highly doubt its the latter though because offscreen, there's a lot of easygoing chemistry there. It's not as loud as some of the other pairings on this list but you can tell they're not awkward with each other, which brings a lot to SalawatTine IMO. That said, I do not see BrightWin sticking around as a new GMM pillar. They're like an inbetweener pair that I don't think will do any more BL work together.

EarthMix: Earth and Mix have so much onscreen romantic chemistry it's almost jarring when you see them interact in real life. Despite the fact that they do almost nothing romantic in ATOTS, Tian seems smitten with Phupha in that tsundere sort of way and Phupha has a strong stillness in his adoration for Tian. Almost like a rock of controlled emotion for Tian. Offscreen, Earth and Mix have such a fun dynamic and you can tell they've been friends for years. I think it's a testament to their acting skills (mostly Mix's) that they're able to pull off romance onscreen in a way that other guys on this list who are close friends cannot.

PondPhuwin: This is my newest GMM pair and definitely one of my favorites in their show. PondPhuwin is like a higher vibrational BrightWin in many ways. Pond does very well as Mork with regard to showing attraction to Pi, and Phuwin is just a decent actor in general. Like 90% of his onscreen chemistry with Pond is how he his able to reach into a very vulnerable feeling and portray that as Pi. Offscreen, they have a very mutually respectful relationship and, as with the other GMM pairs, good boundaries with the fans. Their chemistry is brotherly and very marketable in that way. I definitely think they can become part of the GMM pillars.

[miniwolfsbane]

Sweet Tooth S1 thoughts (BIG SPOILERS)

First off, I am disappointed we were shown a PURRING PUPPY BABY in the trailer and had 0 follow up with it? Did he/she escape to Istanbul with it’s parents? Get captured? Live a nomadic life? Live in the forest? I WANT ANSWERS!! :( Also, puppies don’t purr, so I want answers to that too. Unless they were trying to go for a whimper or an animal noise and just went with that instead.

BIG SPOILERS under the cut

Anyway, the only two things, aside from the bits of gore and violence (Reviews are all like “IT’S A FAMILY SHOW!” And I counter back with “I would not let any child under 13 watch this and I have never seen a family show with three seconds of guts being removed and two scenes of implied, live vivisecting on sentient beings without anesthetic.”), the only things I didn’t like about this were using 2 overused cliche’s. One being the hero hanging off a bridge for what seems like 12 years above peril, and the other I can’t remember. It was Jeppard nearly missing the train. The only thing that saved it was the flashback.

The other thing was that, while dark, there’s a bit of predictably and not much depth to the story. I realized last night that the comic source material my have the depth I’m craving out of the story. Just because it has child actors doesn’t mean the story can’t be dug into deeper and have more meaning. I applaud them for what they did and how they handled it, mixing in human-ish vivisecting with neighbors burning down their friends houses and being murderous hypocrites into a story about children, but it wasn’t enough for me. I wanted more.  Edit: Not more violence, obviously, just more to the story. dig into the universe, hard. Like gardening, just shove both metaphorical hands into that story soil and root around in it. Find all the gems that are the interesting parts of this universe and answer our questions. 

Sadly, I see someone on tumblr called it...something. Like, were we even watching the same show?? A multi-racial cast that gives all it’s characters dignity isn’t...that.

Bobby isn’t creepy to most and not shown that much. If you really think Bobby is that creepy, you need to go see original Bobby and get back to me. https://www.bing.com/images/search?view=detailV2&ccid=mv4YBZHa&id=071BD6BDAA183CA5965247E7F8F68E873375399B&thid=OIP.mv4YBZHau8dTzxGoK0L0ggHaHD&mediaurl=https%3A%2F%2Fvignette.wikia.nocookie.net%2Fmarvel_dc%2Fimages%2Ff%2Ffc%2FBobby_Sweet_Tooth_001.jpg%2Frevision%2Flatest%3Fcb%3D20150813115735&cdnurl=https%3A%2F%2Fth.bing.com%2Fth%2Fid%2FR9afe180591dabbc753cf11a82b42f482%3Frik%3Dmzl1M4eO9vjnRw&pid=ImgRaw&exph=616&expw=647&q=sweet+tooth+comics+bobby&simid=608026455638091252&ck=7A4DBACCF6BFE43E3B1E799F7F88C55A&selectedindex=0&adlt=demote&shtp=GetUrl&shid=3fb5000d-4d63-494a-986d-006fedeb28d5&shtk=Qm9iYnkgKFN3ZWV0IFRvb3RoKSB8IERDIERhdGFiYXNlIHwgRmFuZG9t&shdk=Rm91bmQgb24gQmluZyBmcm9tIGRjLmZhbmRvbS5jb20%3D&shhk=NjRWN4Jv1KDrxu8T30I3UN0IQ71oVtCAEnsLIeSmFl4%3D&form=EX0023&shth=OSH.nyb0RMh%252Bnm%252B%252B%252FIH1cnkhHw

Okay, kid does sorta look like a gremlin mixed with a Furby in the show, like one post said, but I’ve seen worse. https://www.bing.com/images/search?view=detailV2&ccid=F9mlBjUo&id=49C0257935E4A941563E579C7E9DCF48B72BEC01&thid=OIF.eyTVbAuEqt0R%2bKFmrIK4gA&mediaurl=https%3a%2f%2fepipoca.com.br%2fwp-content%2fuploads%2f2021%2f06%2fE3NUK2kVoAE5Ct_.jpg&cdnurl=https%3a%2f%2fth.bing.com%2fth%2fid%2fR17d9a5063528805f1ade0ea77464df86%3frik%3d%26pid%3dImgRaw&exph=675&expw=1482&q=sweet+tooth++Bobby&simid=297111136187&ck=7B24D56C0B84AADD11F8A166AC82B880&selectedIndex=49&FORM=IRPRST&ajaxhist=0&ajaxserp=0

Sometimes stuff goes over my head. I had no idea that the babies were being born and not made in a lab. When they showed them in the maternity ward, I genuinely thought they had been experimented on and didn’t come out of the womb like that. Apparently I missed that it was a maternity ward in a hospital. That’s my other problem with this show I forgot to mention: It defies logic and you really have to turn off your brain to accept the hybrid concept. I’m guessing the virus or other means (possibly according to the comics, I tried to avoid big spoilers), mutated them in utero. That still doesn’t satisfy me. Thankfully, Gus was somehow lab created, so that helps. (More information and context would be appreciated. Was it, like, they were experimenting with in-vitro or what?) Edit: This article https://screenrant.com/sweet-tooth-theory-purple-flowers-cure-sick-virus/ explains that putting the virus in a chicken egg produced Gus. Which makes even less sense. Edit: This MAY or MAY NOT be right. Someone on YT pointed out they never said this in the show.

 IRL, Virus + chicken embryo=would never randomly produce a human/deer hybrid baby. It’s so freaking random it sounds like nonsense or the delusions of a madman, not a rational comic book author with a presumably sane mind. Just...I’ve said it before...things have to make sense, even in fiction. 5 step process of anything cannot equal random result. It goes against all science, right? And made up worlds have to have rules, even silly worlds. Like I said, you have to turn your brain off, but this stretches even my disbelief. Hybrids, I get, fine, but that? I’m sorry, what? *headdesk* I don’t know, maybe the comics had something I’m missing since I never read them.

I’m eager to learn the connection to the kids and the virus as we go. And if we don’t get a season 2, I’ll be getting the comics to satisfy my thirst for this show.

Gus is my baby and I don’t understand how a kid could be that cute. Jeppard is the GOAT (lol) Bear could use better line delivery at times, but her acting will improve I’m sure. Nice to see Diana Ramierez acting again, her character is likeable. Wendy is cute, but kinda just there for me. Needs more traits or character development to get on my favorite characters list. Bear also needs more than just backstory and a tough girl persona. She’s not bland, she just needs more spark to her as a character. More personality, if that makes sense. 

Lastly, I wanted a tiny bit more from the make-up department. Wendy and rabbit kids (yes, I took note of this detail and I love bunnies) make-up is on point, but the rest look like kids dressed up in dollar store feathers and fur for a school play. Get more creative if you’re gonna show these hybrids, even if it’s just for a few seconds. You have the budget!! (But I think most of that went to Bobby’s puppetry/CGI and Jeppard’s baby, to be honest.)

I wanted a cat girl or boy, because the lulz for the anime community (Also, because I have 2 cats and stuff), but at least we got bird kids, even if they weren’t cockatiels like mine. I’m ready for Season 2, hurry Netflix!!

I can see why people wouldn’t like this show or wouldn’t recommend watching it, but I see many have embraced it. It’s either you’re thing or it’s not, but you should give it a chance and see. Just don’t shoot it down if you hate it, there’s enough wet blankets out there and we all have different tastes.

Edit: One last thing. I do have a problem with hybrids being half-human. Like, you would think that being half-human, they’d still have all the problems humans have with causing wars and all. I know it’s a dark story with a good outcome, but there’s something too saccharine about hybrids having “The best parts of us.” What exactly are those best parts? Last I checked, humans are selfish and vain at their core. Even the most altruistic, giving person can be greedy about something or want more. It’s like Genie said in the new Aladdin, “You can have all the money and power in the world and it still won’t be enough”.  Wouldn’t bird people and pig people and deer people all want to side with each other instead of living in some grand utopia? Fighting over land and resources? Portraying hybrids as taking over the earth after people are gone from extinction and everything going peachy doesn’t quite work for me. Not that I’d want it to still be dark, but, eh, they’d have to have SOME problems, wouldn’t they?

[insecxreasalwqys]

100

A/N: This is a lil no romance Ff I made abt Kuzuryu (the guy with glasses and blue shirt, n.2 in the show) and Chishiya (it’s canon), since it’s a manga, I wanted to make an ff abt what I think their emotions would have been. I cant explain it to well, so if you wanna read it before reading, or just read it in general, here you are :https://r.mangaowls.com/reader/308/598467?tr=AVxcBBDwX7DfqTYJo6xqMQ%3D%3D&s=aHR0cHM6Ly9yLm1hbmdhb3dscy5jb20%3D is all I included in this ff (there’s a chapter bar at the top I think, or if ur on phone click on the three lines and you’ll see the chapter bar, I only did the chapter it’s in rn. If you wanna read from the beginning of the k♦️  (The game they’re in) click this:https://r.mangaowls.com/reader/308/598474?tr=2s0OTe496oNiPUaeoDk7zw%3D%3D&s=aHR0cHM6Ly9yLm1hbmdhb3dscy5jb20%3D  ide recommend atleast reading from the beg. Of k of diamonds to get a better grasp since I suck. also, sorry if stuff and the links are incorrect, it’s my first time on here, bear with me- also I’m posting this in case they don’t show any of this in the s2 coming in December. Anyways sorry for this long “note”. I just didn’t want too much confusion, anyways- um here you are ig

Spoilers

100? Chishiya had left Kuzuryu to make the choice. No one else was there and it was just them. Does this life have value? Or does it not. It was all him. Chishiya had been unrelentlessly (in some way) mocking Kuzuryu about being an attorney, and believing that “all lives were created equally”. Keiichi saw Chishiya as insane, unhinged, as they could call it. Why would someone who seems so, so prideful, someone like Chishiya leave it up to someone he barely knew to make a call on whether he could live on or not?  It should’ve been an easy, simple decision, right? But why? Kuzuryu wasn’t dumb, not at all, he was probably one of the most intelligent characters in the whole series, surpassing Chishiya in some ways. Yet he couldn’t understand why Chishiya would leave it up to him to decide.  0:13 seconds remain. “You decide.” Chishiya said.

Now, Kuzuryu could’ve picked something else that wasn’t 0, but Chishiya, being Chishiya, while not having physically forced him, manipulated him into doing it anyways, that’s Chishiya. Yk?

“So that’s your decision? You decided to let me live?” Chishiya said, with a hint of amusement in his voice. “Well, that wasnt my actual intention, I wanted to make the game impartial.” Keiichi responded. “Impartial, huh,” Chishiya said, smiling. “You really like that word, don’t you?” He added.  “If you really don’t like making decisions,” Chishiya started, “All you have to do is kill me.” He offered, “That’s an impartial rule, isn’t it?”

Kuzuryu, still wanting to be fair, thought that if that’s what Chishiya wanted, then fine. If he wanted to die so badly, then let it be. Keiichi could still follow the rules, and win. Yet, he was still hesitant. The thing that was holding him was the fact that if he killed Chishiya, would he deserve to live? Between us two, who has more right to live? He couldn’t, he just couldn’t decide. He was lost. 

The winner of this round is: Chishiya-sama.

Kuzuryu hadn’t chosen. Now they were both at -9 points, one more point lost for one of them, and it’s game over.

“Is this your plan? You realized I couldn’t make a decision, so you chased me into a corner where we both had the same amount of points?” Kuzuryu asked.

“If that were the case, ide be quite the evil tactician. Does sound nice, though.” Chishiya answered, smiling calmly, as always. “Unfortunately, I’ve lost all interest in the lives of humans (including him), and these worthless games.” He said genuinely. “I also want to know,” Kuzuryu knew exactly what Chishiya was about to say, and Chishiya was aware of that one. “what your final decision will be.” Shuntaro, predictably said. Chishiya, once again, held up his board for Kuzuryu to see, the big 100 on his screen. 

“Fine. Allow me to settle this.”

Kuzuryu finally admitted to himself, that he truly didn’t know the value of one’s life. Chishiya had done it. 

Kuzuryu remembered the words of momoka.  “Human hearts are beautiful, human lives are precious.” That’s what she believed. “The fact I’ll die as the ‘witch’, doesnt mean I submit to your rules, it’s because I want to show you that things won’t keep going your way, and we won’t needlessly kill each other!” She was doing it for her ideals. His ideals were that all lives were equal, right?

5, 4, 3, 2, 1, beep.     The winner of this round is: Chishiya-sama.   Now that a participant has reached -10 points, it’s game over. For the final player. It is game clear. 

“What happend to your normal expression? You look like you’d rather die than live.” Chishiya said.

“If that’s the case, then I was finally able to decide how to live my life, thank you.” Kuzuryu declared.  Chishiya just sat there. Watching the acid pour down onto someone he knew, it felt weird, almost. He didn’t care about anyone, really, so why did he care now?    “Well, that’s kinda unfair. Even though you died, it’s like you got away with the true victory. Now I finally understand why you were interesting. You’re the literal opposite of me.”  “I’m…envious of you.”

———————————————————————————————————

                                                      <End>

So I forgot to say I was gonna add in a quote or 2 that I liked from this side story.

K: “You’re such a sad existence.”

C: “Indeed.”

____________________________________________________________________

C: “Well that’s a cold look for someone who’s come so far to see you.”

[steve0discusses]

S5 Ep8: The Saga of Grandpa Muto’s Mysterious Broken Ass

Getting ready to eat some Devlin eggs this Easter Sunday, feeling festive, and I figured it’s time to post this one a little earlier. Also, because it’s done, which I wasn’t expecting. It’s a slightly longer episode this time, but still, eh, pretty short.

We’ve come off of the very predictable, but still kind of disappointing downfall of Joey Wheeler, and onto a Rebecca arc. Which I’m sure won’t be annoying at all.

The lesser Roland--who’s name I do not know, but the one that wears the weirder sunglasses and seems way smarter than Roland, but clearly isn’t the favorite--lets us know that Zigfried has been going by an alternate identity for years and years. Which like...who cares? It’s not like the Kaibas have always been Kaibas. This is old hat to them.

So Seto sets him off on a quick bribe run, opening a list of different politicians and saying “Oh, this one’s super easy, go for it--he’s in my ass pocket, this guy. Hate this guy.” and it was...that easy for Seto to glide right into that Gozaburo lifestyle that he insists he totally doesn't do anymore. But youknow, with Seto Kaiba there really isn’t any good or bad just win or lose.

On the other end of the park, the choo-choo blue eyes white dragon train pulls in from death mountain, and once again the seating arrangement was really mystifying. Yugi in the very front, all alone. Tea sitting next to Tristan for some reason. Duke sitting next to Joey Wheeler, when I’m pretty sure Duke is probably the least comforting person in this entire group.

In fact all Duke had to say to comfort Joey was “you lost because you went up against a professional duelist!” and it’s like...at what point do you become a “professional duelist?” The game is fake. How many times do you have to save the world before you’re a “professional duelist,” Duke?

Course...maybe he has to get a high school diploma first...

Anyway, Joey spent the last part of this ride sobbing into the seats next to Duke Devlin while everyone else went “weee!” around the...molten pools of lava in this literal volcano that the Kaibas are pretty sure are a really good idea.

(read more under the cut)

Speaking of loss.

Grandpa Hawkins runs over to inform us that not only is no one watching his Grandaughter, but also, he lost a grown ass man because he decided to look for a doctor, couldn’t find a doctor, did watch Rebeccas match for a little while, listened to the part where she was like “I dedicate this match to my true love and boyfriend Yugi Muto with this sonnet I just wrote” and was like “normal thing to say!” and then finally found a doctor, who was like “well he’s not here so clearly he’s cured!” and charged Hawkins a bill despite Grandpa being no where to be found.

I can’t imagine the review that Hawkins is going to leave on Yelp.

Stepping away from thinking that Grandpa ditched his date with Hawkins to go on another date with some random theme park hussie, Yugi decides to ditch Rebecca, because he has way too many fake relationship plotlines in this group to juggle in his already double-stuffed brain.

And Rebecca takes it as if she kind of assumed this would happen.

Also in the actual canon of the show, Hawkins did not tell her that Grandpa was missing, or that Yugi would probably not be coming. Man these people love lying out their ass.

Speaking of being just completely flat on your ass, which happens so much this episode, they stumble upon Leon, who once again kind of comes out of the last place you expect and goes “Hello guys, I regret to inform you I still exist and I really need you to start noticing me already. I swear I will become plot relevant any day now. Please don’t forget I exist.”

...The Kaibas sure did make a tiny town. That sure is the only thing here.

Straight up, the Kaibas don’t know what fun is, and that is canon. And when I look across this landscape, I can only think of that one scene in Arrested Development where they made a very tiny city to convince investors that their housing development was actually legit and very real. And like I feel like the Kaibas would absolutely do that, too.

It’d be good for the gram...but this was before social media was a thing so what is this for?

I mean Leon sure the hell doesn’t know.

Local sad boy genius, Leon, here to get ignored by Rebecca despite being exactly her age, just like other local sad boy genius, Mokuba.

I really called it when I gave him Mai’s font color, huh? Good that even when Mai isn��t here, we can still have a chronically friendless character. But he is like...a lot more adorable than Mai was. Leon is just a lot more likeable. And again--really good hair color. Helps that he doesn’t want to constantly murder Joey Wheeler for no reason.

These kids came out of nowhere and can I just say it’s a really good thing someone woke Leon the hell up before the cameras arrived because that would have been SHOCKING if they all thought he was dead.

I love this boat.

Also Joey makes this observation and it was really funny the way he said it:

The sign that hangs above the park entrance that says “no one kidnapped in 1 days” flips back to 0.

I mean, we all know it’s Vivian, because it’s this global tournament where everyone is defined by stereotypes. But, I want to know how she got the panda stationary. That’s pretty good. There’s a side of me from my 11 yo self that never got over my sanrio phase collecting cute stationary with matching stickers and jelly pens to write 1 (one) letter and stuff it into a friend’s locker (and then have them say they cannot read my handwriting) and that part of me loves panda stationary.

Like if I got matching stationary with like...the matching stickers on it...in my ransom letter...damn that’s like seriously sentimental stuff. I’d feel a little ambiguous about that.

This town is the exact size that California was last season where you could just leap skip from Death Valley to San Fransisco.

And later we are...one step closer to Vivian. And if it’s not, and it’s actually like Bandit Keith on the other side of this door, I will be very happily surprised and this will be my favorite arc.

Also...please note that Joey is still wearing this duel disk after he’s completely done dueling.

Joey, please. It’s over, Joey. You live that Duke Devlin life now, retire the disk.

Anyway, until next time, this is the link to read these from the first to the latest:

https://steve0discusses.tumblr.com/tagged/yugioh/chrono

[pianjeong]

congressional debate zukka au

this is inspired by @owlsantuary‘s post i was a congressional debater in hs so here u go

sokka is captain of his school's debate team; he joined as a freshman bc he was like "a club that lets me expound on my opinions for five minutes straight? yes plz" and was good enough that he made captain as a sophomore when the previous one graduated

- the idea of "politicking" is really important in congressional bc it's how you get people to support your bills if you wrote them, or if you have a really good argument and want that bill to be higher on the docket (bc sometimes you run out of time)

- sokka absolutely OWNS at this bc he's that guy that everyone wants to be friends with and half the people he talks to don't even realize that he has an agenda

- he also makes actual friends with the people from rival schools bc that's just what he's like

- his assertiveness sometimes gets him into sticky situations bc ppl get offended by him cutting them off during question time, but it's usually bc theyre trying to run out the clock and he is NOT having that

- i always led tongue twister exercises at the start of every competition to get our voices warmed up and im imagining sokka and his team SHOUTING the "betty bought a bit of butter" one in the middle of the hallway and getting weird looks (if you haven't heard of it look it up it's HARD)

- he always gets full points for pathos (yes that's a real thing) bc he'll tell jokes abt his teacher dads or his sister but then he'll turn around and make his dumb joke into a big-picture argument about the value of education or something; sometimes it backfires though bc he makes a joke at the wrong time

- i think he’d struggle with arguing for opinions he doesn’t agree with…bc he has CONVICTIONS and is basically physically incapable of arguing against like. a climate change bill or something

- this means that he sometimes scores low bc he only argues what he agrees with

- zuko is research captain for his team, which happens to be no. 1 rivals with sokka's school

- he is the master of the rebuttal bc he loves nothing more than tearing holes in people's arguments

- he isn't the best at being adaptible if the debate takes a turn away from what he predicted/researched for, and he does have problems with looking down at his notes WAY too much (youre allowed notes but youre meant to make as much eye contact as possible), but he always shows up with exorbitant numbers of sources and flattens people with FACTS

- when he's not speaking he is the most awkward of the awkwards and he despises politicking bc it makes him feel self-conscious; this means that he honestly doesn't have v many friends besides his own team but at the same time everyone Knows Of him and the "oh SHIT zuko sozin is in my debate room im so screwed" whispers are real

- he's better at arguing whichever side of the debate is available instead of only sticking with his own beliefs, which allows him to rack up a ridiculous amount of points bc he's speaking every ten minutes

- he's also at least co-author, if not singular author, of like 80% of the bills his school submits for debate (which also contributes to everyone knowing his name)

- sokka and zuko had definitely heard of each other before they actually meet; sokka bc of zuko's Reputation (tm) and zuko bc ofc he'd know of the captain of their biggest rival

- also bc they're always getting called up at the awards ceremonies for best speaker awards (and best bill for zuko)

- they do NOT understand what's so great about the other...but also are Looking Respectfully bc debate requires formal wear and ofc zuko shows up in a tailored three-piece suit and sokka's probably wearing his dad's old suit but makes it look good anyway

- this changes the first time they're assigned to the same room and sokka bounds up to zuko to introduce himself and immediately stutters bc o god cute boy cuter up close and zuko thinks this is precious but also has no idea what to say and blurts out something dumb and then they both sit down and look Determinedly Away

- zuko is very surprised when he finds sokka is actually kinda funny and even tho he thinks that him only arguing one side is disadvantageous he's also v impressed by the strength of it (and oh my god a good family relationship what???)

- sokka is floored by zuko bc his speeches literally sound like poetry with sources (insert that line from rwrb that's like "'see attached bibliography' is the single sexiest thing youve said to me")

- and THEN...they both get to go to the captains' lunches which is where they really sit and talk for the first time over pizza and sodas and maybe exchange numbers :0

- there is definitely "fraternization with the enemy" talk from their teams mostly joking but also sokka youre CAPTAIN you cant do that hes ZUKO SOZIN PLS STOP (spoiler: he doesnt care)

- it takes ages and ages for them to progress past being friends but they always sit together at captains' lunches and sometimes their teams....sit close at awards...and they trash talk and flirt across the bleacher dividers......

- it all comes to a head at the state competition which both teams make it to and they're both REAL nervous the night before and run into each other in the hotel lobby and it turns into them sitting up half the night talking and theyre both exhausted on competition day but it's ok bc coffee is a thing

- and then oh shit....sokka qualifies for nationals and zuko doesn't but someone else on his team does......and everyone expects zuko to be mad about it and sure he's disappointed but also hes just so happy for sokka that it kinda overshadows it

- they sneak away from the celebration dinner that both teams just Happened to be at the same restaurant for (actually, the sponsor squad aka iroh, hakoda, and piandao definitely planned this) and make out outside and tell their friends to fuck off when they come looking for them; they've both been dancing around this forever they deserve it