#because the casting was too good to be wasted on random shit

[softiedingo]

I would EASILY join the dark side for this man and would be capable of doing the craziest things if he asked me to

[angelfoxx]

┊ ➶ ｡˚ ° “…US?”

…in which their feelings for you become apparent.

FEATURING: simon “ghost” riley, john “soap” mactavish, & keegan p russ I AM SALIVATING

WARNINGS: suggestive, but nothing nsfw. yet 😇 also so sorry i write k**gan’s name and i just get fucked up. i just can’t behave myself. so i lose my mind a little in his section eek

NOTES: excuse my rather small starting lineup; i’m still new to the game and all of its lore and i’d rather get to know the characters first rather than make horrible headcanons based off of their fanon interpretations. you know, like making a six foot ten war criminal dresses in a fucking executioner’s hood a little uwu baby

— SIMON “GHOST��� RILEY.

✧ Everything I see on TikTok regarding this guy makes him seem like a fucking demon in the sheets. I really don’t get that vibe. Especially not at the start of a relationship.

✧ The first time you meet, he thinks you’re attractive. And then he pushes that thought aside, because he’s a soldier. He’s actively at work doing a high-risk, high-stress job. You’re attractive, yes, but he’s not going to pursue you. This is not the right time for that.

✧ Things develop after…like, a long ass time. And it’s not sexual in the start. It’s, like…you’re cleaning your gun down after a mission, and you get a clean rag thrown into your lap. You look up into those hollow soulless fucking eyes and Ghost just shrugs, not meeting your gaze but instead just vaguely gesturing at your gun. “Your rag’s dirty. You’re rubbin’ dirt int’a the thing.”

✧ It’s small things like that. Things that are helpful but always laced with a comment that could be considered sort of rude or abrasive. He doesn’t notice; he only realizes that he’s coming off as rude and probably pushing you away after he makes a comment on your form being lazy and Price, sort of quietly laughing, asks why he’s so insistent on snarking on you. He replies that mistakes like yours could get you hurt. Which, they could. But so could everyone else’s, and he doesn’t make comments about them. So…?

✧ Phase two of him trying to…hit on you? Exist with you? Who fucking knows. Anyways, he just stops talking. He’ll still throw you clean rags, but he won’t make a comment about how using a dirty rag is ruining your gun. He’ll still make a point out of sweeping fallen food and shit off of your spot at the table after you eat, but he doesn’t grumble and scoff at you not to waste anymore. He resorts to silent acts of service to the point where it gets annoying. He’s always quiet, but now he’s unnervingly quiet and honestly, is it still him if he doesn’t catch you for random things every now and then?

✧ The silent stage can go on forever, so a catalyst really saves you. The catalyst comes when a new recruit gets a little too aggressive; a small argument about your ability on the field turns into a minor brawl. Aforementioned brawl immediately ends when the recruit dares to put their hands on you and shove you and Ghost, like some six-foot-one demon cast from the pits of hell, appears behind you and gets very up close and personal with them. Asking what the hell they think they’re doing, asking if they think that’s a good way to have a team on the field, et cetera, et cetera. Basically, he makes the recruit feel like absolute shit. Oh, and he doesn’t look at you the entire time.

✧ So, obviously, now you have a weird situation at hand. You’re getting ready to go to sleep and everyone’s sort of looking at you funny, because there’s no reason for a fucking lieutenant to jump in and break up an argument like that—pulling people apart, sure, but not so suddenly and not so aggressively. The recruit hasn’t spoken to you. Ghost hasn’t spoken to you. So, anyways, you pay him a visit.

✧ You go down to say thanks, and for some fucking reason, the guy can’t take a compliment. Or gratitude. He says you were slower than the other recruit, that it’ll get you killed on the field, et cetera. He can’t just shut up and take the thanks.

“I’m telling you, I…I came down here to thank you, of all things. Can you cut the criticism one time and accept it?”

Ghost stiffens. It’s not a thousand-yard stare anymore. It’s just a wide, pissed-off glare. For a long minute, he’s silent. And then…

“Welcome.” His voice is grumpish. “Happy?”

“Sure.” You manage a little smile. It’s sort of funny; he can’t just take your thank you and drop it. “It’s improvement.”

Ghost nods once, albeit stiffly. “Okay.”

“…so, you gonna tell me why you did it?” You ask it as a joke. You aren’t dumb. You know he wants you gone. You’re expecting a harsh “get out” or something of the like. You aren’t expecting an answer.

“Disrespect makes ignorance. Ignorance makes casualties.” Oh. An actual real, reasonable answer. Surprising. Ghost himself seems a little surprised; he blinks owlishly again, and he doesn’t say anything else. He’s just a big guy standing in a little room with a skull mask on.

“Oh.” You swallow. “That’s…rational.”

“Were you expecting irrational?”

“No. I wasn’t expecting anything.” You scoff. “You’re not exactly chatty.”

“I don’t waste words.” Ghost’s eyes narrow. “I’m not dumb.”

“I didn’t call you dumb.” You shrug. “I’m just surprised you gave me an answer that wasn’t bitching at me.”

“I don’t bitch.”

“You do.”

“I’m not a sixteen-year-old schoolgirl, recruit. I don’t bitch.”

“Even Price thinks you bitch. At me, at least. All the time.”

✧ Price thinks he bitches at you? And he’d told you? Oh, no, no. Externally, Ghost is stiff and stoic. Internally, Ghost is shitting bricks. Price had told you that? Straight-up told you that? Oh, no. You and Price talk and he comes up in conversation? Oh, no, no, no.

✧ He addresses this with Price, obviously. Storms in all puffed-out and pissy and asks what the hell he’s doing gossiping about his soldiers and Price just sort of laughs him off, asking what he’s talking about and then why he’s so upset that he’s bringing up one of his best men to one of the recruits.

✧ Oh.

✧ Ghost swears up and down it’s not like that. He swears and he bangs the side of his hand on the table and he curses on his own heart that it’s not like that but the whole time Price is laughing because in all of the years that he’s known Simon, not once has Simon broken through Ghost. But now, he has. The stumbling over words, the defensive aggression, the way he’s pacing so furiously—oh, Simon Riley is melting down inside that big mask and it’s equal parts heartbreaking and hilarious.

✧ Cue Price becoming a wingman. Ghost swears he’ll kill him every time he puts you two together to spar or puts you two on cleanup duty or god fucking forbid you’re in the doghouse doing some foul task and Ghost has to watch you. God fucking damn the captain, because he knows Ghost will grumble and complain but with you, he’ll eventually stop that in favor of helping you. And it’s sort of heartwarming for him to do his nightly rounds and it’s all quiet but there’s voices coming out of the kitchen and he can hear Ghost in that gruff, grumbly tone telling you how to mop and you snidely telling him that if you can’t do it right, then maybe he should do it instead. And he objects, of course, and then within ten minutes Price watches Ghost’s shadow come up to yours and he hears the mop change hands.

✧ It takes you a long time to realize that you’re really being assigned to Ghost’s side for every fucking thing you do. It takes you an even longer time to realize that Price tends to pass by you two on occasion, and every time he does, he’s smiling. And it takes you a ridiculously long time to realize that Ghost isn’t always radiating heat; whenever he takes the mop from you or takes the gun you’re cleaning from you, whenever he finishes off a task that you’ve started, it’s not that he’s always that hot. It’s that, under that mask, he’s flushed.

✧ It takes you a very, very long time to realize that the legendary Ghost has taken an actual liking to you.

— JOHN “SOAP” MACTAVISH.

✧ Thank fucking god this guy is next. Slow burn ass Ghost makes me want to rip my eyes out. Just have passionate angry sex and talk about your feelings after. Christ.

✧ It’s not exactly a secret that the minute you arrived on base, you gained an admirer.

✧ Soap isn’t someone who rarely gets hooked on someone else. The guy’s a walking heart eyes emoji. The difference with you was that it wasn’t the kind of attraction that had him sweet-talking you over drinks that night.

✧ This was different. Rather than chase, Soap wanted to impress — and, well, he tried. He tried his fucking hardest. He tried so hard the other higher-ups noticed. How embarrassing.

✧ Every time you’re in the room, he somehow gets even chattier. His voice drops. If he’s working out, he starts loading weights onto the bar he’s using to an almost comical degree. He loses his fucking mind. It’s like he short circuits. Which is ridiculous, because he’s a fucking soldier. What the fuck is he doing trying to lift five hundred pounds on a Tuesday morning? Why is he freaking the fuck out?

✧ The thing is, right, is you’re not exactly hovering over the guy. You have your own agenda to adhere to and also, it would be really weird if you just started laying praises on him, so you go about your day as regular and poor Soap is left heartbroken and also achy-armed because you literally could not care less that he’s lifting double, triple his body weight.

✧ Literally every higher-up notices. They make jokes about it and he borders on threatening friendly fire. It’s just a little crush. That’s all it is. Yeah. And so when you’re all doing team sparring and you keep winning, he’s just watching you like a lovesick puppy because it’s just a little crush. That’s all.

✧ Price can’t have his soldiers slacking off. Of course not. He can’t have them getting lazy — so he orders Soap to go up against you. Because, you know, he seems out of it and you’re the best of the recruits, so you’ll go against someone better. Yeah. That’s why he calls him out.

✧ God bless the poor guy. He panics for like three seconds and then makes a very thickly-accented taunt about how it’s unfair to you to go up against him. You, of course, in the spirit of good fun, reply to his taunt and tell him to prove it.

✧ He goes into the circle with you. He goes into the circle with you and he fucking falls apart.

You’ve quickly learned that talking is Soap’s weakness. If his mouth is moving, his feet fall behind.

“Get enough sleep last night, MacTavish?” You dodge a flying fist. “You look a little sleepy.”

“Got plenty.” A wry grin crosses his face. “Don’t worry about my beauty sleep.”

“I have reason to. You need it.” You wrinkle your nose. “Bad.”

Soap’s jaw drops slightly, and — there! — he hesitates. Probably out of surprise, but it’s enough. Deftly, you lunge in at his knees, swipe them out, and…hm. Simple. Almost too easy, actually, to pin him.

Soap’s heart is pounding under your hand. His chest is flat against the ground, but you can feel it through his back, which is wild in and of itself. He grunts when his cheek hits the ground; he mumbles something akin to “bloody hell”, but you can’t quite make out the words.

Grinning, you sit back and kick your heel up against his neck, keeping his head pinned down. The cheering you receive mostly comes from recruits who are impressed with your skill.

The minority is higher-ups, exchanging amused glances. They seem awfully humored with the sight of one of their own being pinned so easily by a new recruit. Hmm…

✧ From that point on, Soap somehow manages to watch more of your sparring sessions. He usually just watches, rather than critique; if you ask, he’ll just say you certainly seem to be doing fine. If you ask for help, though, he’ll help you. Christ, he’ll help you. He’ll genuinely spend time assisting you on whatever is troubling you.

✧ Eventually, after a long training day, you decide to ask Soap to join you in the ring. You genuinely just want to see how you stack up to a “better” opponent; you’ve apparently pushed beating him to the side. Or you just want to do it again. He doesn’t think of that, though.

✧ He’ll come in (after teasing you just a bit) and he will spar with you, just giving you advice and pointers mid-action. He’s whipped, but he’s also still a trained soldier. He knows what he’s doing, and once he gets through the brain fog you seem to weigh down onto him, he is genuinely helpful.

✧ Still, after you’re both hot and panting and finished and resting on the sidelines, you have to ask him why he helps you so much. You have to ask if it’s because he thinks you’re lacking, or bad, or if it’s some sort of personal vendetta for that one time in front of the recruits and the higher-ups.

✧ Soap just laughs and, rather awkwardly, rubs at his neck. He avoids eye contact, and he bites his lip, and he tilts his head around before he dares answer you, tone sheepish. “Consider it a, ah, personal interest.”

— KEEGAN P RUSS.

✧ SHITS MYSELF VIOLENTLY. SO SORRY

✧ i love this fucking man so very much and i don’t know jack shit abt him because i need to play ghosts and get the first hand experience like I don’t want to spoil his character but I URRRGHHGGGGG

✧ imma try to do him justice but sorry if im missing on important lore

✧ He’s not as uptight as Ghost, but he’s not as whipped as Soap. He’s somewhere in the middle; he’s aware that you’re attractive but he does push it aside. He’s working. You’re working. He doesn’t have time for that, and it’s also a safety concern. He remembers what they did to Ajax, and god fucking forbid they try to pull that shit with anyone else to use as bait.

✧ When he’s at base, he’s busy. He’s devoted to his work and he doesn’t cut corners to chit-chat. The most social he’ll really get is at dinner; he’s the kind of person who will eat with the group, but rather than talk, he’ll really just listen. he’s me fr fr

✧ Getting to know Keegan is sort of awkward because he’s just not super outgoing. He’s attractive (if your radio is on and you don’t buckle at the knees the first time you hear his sexy deep pantywetting voice over the thing, are you even real?) and he’s got the whole mysterious quiet guy thing down, and yet when you approach him to try and strike up a conversation with a simple question (“So how was your day?”) he’s prone to just looking at you and raising a brow and answering sort of flatly. (“Same as every other one. What, did something happen?”)

✧ Most of your bonding actually occurs when it’s just the two of you. You’ve bumped into him late at night before — sometimes he’s at the range shooting targets and fiddling with a variety of weapons, or sometimes he’s in the kitchen scouring the shelves, or sometimes he’s in the gym working out when nobody is there to bother him and ogle his fine ass fucking body holy shit his thighs. He’s a little easier to talk to at night, actually. Maybe it’s the lack of a crowd, but the first time you stumble into him making himself a pot of fucking tea at damn near midnight, he actually seems friendly.

“What are you making?” For a moment, you panic, thinking that you might’ve just scared the shit out of poor Keegan by speaking so suddenly and from behind where he’s standing beside the sink, a little humming kettle in front of him. His shoulders god his fuckinf shoulders i want to lick them don’t so much as twitch, though — and then you remember the guy’s entire job is stealth and observation. Hell, he probably heard you across camp.

“Tea.” Yeah, he couldn’t sound less concerned. His voice is as low and gravelly as usual; he sounds a little more relaxed, actually, not so brash and shout-y. “Chamomile.”

“Sergeant Russ drinks chamomile tea?” You laugh a little, sort of tentatively. You two aren’t strangers, but you’ve only had a few conversations…if you can call brief exchanges conversations, of course.

“…yeah?” Keegan actually sounds confused; it’s dark in the kitchen, but you can make out the outline of his head turning over his shoulder. “What, you got a problem with that?”

“No. No, sir. No problem.” You shrug. “I just didn’t peg you to be the chamomile tea type.”

“Didn’t you?” The short scoffish bark Keegan lets out is a brief laugh. “What did you peg me for?”

“Dunno. Black, I guess.”

“Are you calling me boring?”

“No.”

Keegan hums in response to that. He busies himself with pouring his tea and thank fucking god your eyes have adjusted to the dim light in here because god, his fucking hip to waist ratio under that gear is something wicked and you let your conversation slip. You’re in here for a snack, but you don’t want to bother—

“You come in here for somethin’ other than staring?” Oh. Good. This is the Keegan you’d expected after hearing him sass half of his team on comms. You can hear the edge of a grin in his voice; there’s a shuffle as he turns around and then a wooden groan as he leans against the counter. A short second later, you hear the almost exaggerated slurp of tea.

“Crackers. I’m hungry.”

A wooden scrubbing sound. He’s moved over, presumably to let you open the cabinet housing boxes of sort of dry, not particularly good crackers. He doesn’t say a word; he just keeps drinking his tea and pretends to ignore you as you make your way over, crouching down to fumble for a bag of crackers. Pretend, because you can feel that he’s watching you. His presence on the field is invisible; his gaze in the kitchen is not. Still, he doesn’t bother you; he lets you get your crackers and retire to the edge of the counter across from him to snack, and he doesn’t say a word.

“Are you always so quiet?” You gesture vaguely at the slight shape of him. “Is it just part of the job?”

Keegan laughs, more to himself than in response to you. “Sure.”

✧ He is, generally, pretty quiet. His usual demeanor is laid-back and observant; if he’s not under stress, though, and you start talking to him, he’ll respond almost always with something mildly sarcastic. You come to learn that he isn’t actually boring. He’s got a quick sense of occasionally-dark humor. Sometimes he laughs at his own jokes—usually after he’s started to walk away from you. He’s fiercely protective of the Ghosts and any recruits training near or with them. He also doesn’t seem to mind you.

✧ You’d hesitate to say you two were friends — it always seemed like there was something in between you, though you couldn’t name what — but you were friendly, and it was nice.

✧ During group dinners, he’d stand against the wall behind you. Or across from you, though usually doing that meant that he’d make a game out of trying to get you to squirm under his constant staring. He’d run into you late-night in the kitchen and make casual, not uncomfortable, small talk. Hell, at one point he offered you a drink post-training and made a sort of point to always offer you one whenever you had returned to base and were lingering around in the later hours.

✧ After a particularly long day, you find him in the kitchen, just drinking straight from the bottle. He offers you the thing — he seems more than a little tipsy, but when you decline (he’s been drinking directly from it, and…the fuck does army hygiene look like?) he sort of half-laughs and says, sarcastically, “What d’you look so horrified for? Too good to share a bottle, princess?” and then he immediately excused himself afterward.

✧ You know that saying, “drunk words are sober thoughts”? Yeah. Yeah.

✧ i need the fatty part of keegans thigh in my mouth right now i need to bite it i need to bite it and go rrrrrahrhrahrah like a fucking rabid dog

[ssaltlicker]

Sidenote; I do think the isha plotline wasnt fleshed out enough and ended up taking a ton of time away from fleshing out the rest of the cast/storylines. Vander couldve easily been the one that restored jinx’ humanity. In fact he basically was, after he showed up isha just got pushed to the side.

Shes a cute character, but story-wise, that plotline was weak. Felt like fanservice and didnt really serve an overall purpose well. More time shouldve been given to vi and jinx from the beginning to let them work shit out; introducing a random kid to fill in was odd, especially because it meant vi and jinx barely interacted. I liked their reunion, but holy shit it was way too abrupt. And again, its because of isha.

Her whole part of the story severely detracts from what s2 was trying to do imo. And with her becoming irrelevant to the plot immediately kinda shows me that she was a late addition. Its sad. Shes a good character that got wasted, and in the process the story took a hit by trying to half-ass two huge storylines at the same time.

[marictheirins]

know your enemy fallacy unlocked in my brain so ive played 10hrs of datv after snapping & the review isnt looking good. ive limited spoilers to just one minor one but look at thyne own risk my honest review thus far---

this game is optimized worse than early access bg3, whole environments just dont load or even unload as i run around sometimes stuff not loading for minutes at a time. i have collected loot from chests locked away clearly from places im not meant to be because the damn wall never loaded sooooooooo

dragon age 2: the sequel right down to varric clearly telling the story like he's written it already. this is not a benefit for me, thats a big negative

the prologue is incredibly disappointing after inquisition's MASTER CLASS in how to begin a game. i could literally play by play moment by moment go into why the prologue of inquisition is one of gamings best openings but haha its funny rook beat up people in bar because bad ass teehee

actually the writing overall has taken a step backwards, most quests are uncreatively predictable & the dialogue is flat & lacks any sort of life. its giving MMO quests.

the combat is fun but it doesnt work half the time with the game forgetting the mouse buttons or number buttons exist ive died twice solely because i couldnt actually attack bc the game didnt register i was clicking my mouse or pressing hotkey 1

custom character gets reset at random & i have to reload the game several times for the game to spawn the correct edited character

i would love to care about neve but its hard to give a shit when her voice actress doesnt give a shit about delivering her lines. bellana's actress over acts and thats fine considering her character but these two have scenes together and its soooooooooooo embarrassing to see which actor cared and who wanted a paycheck

actually it feels like 70% of the various cast of npcs are just flatly reading the script & its violently immersion breaking not to mention the game treats the player, the protag, AND the npcs like they are stupid. rook parroting information to a character who parrots it back is not effective or good writing thats just repeating the same words several times so the player doesnt forget, addled by this happens in scenes back to back multiple times about any major plot point which wastes time & paints me, the player, as too stupid to pay attention when i was told the first time

$80 for 40hrs of main story. youre joking. supposedly theres 60-80 overall if you 100% it but the main story can be beat in 40 flat. for eighty goddamn dollars.

so far this has been a mid tier triple a game with dragon age packaging, it took about 4hrs before i actually felt like i was playing a dragon age game vs a copycat styled game. over the shoulder camera sucks im so over this goddamn pov. it plays, looks, & feels like a sony ip in a bad way. god of war last of us resident evil ass controls camera and gameplay.

its jank, the animations glitch & ragdolling just happens, hair textures muck up, again my enVIORNENTS DISAPPEAR. despite running on ultra bc my rig can handle it the textures & some of the models are plain ps3 looking, not nice at all not a loading issue they are just poor assets.

corridor simulator. i sure love that we finally broke free of the curse origins put on da2 where we had repeat maps long hallways & got to never explore bc dai was more open world & while some of the maps were too big we have regressed to going in a straight line, limited exploration, & each widdle level gives you a chest as a pat on the head because we are playing a very pretty platformer :)c $80

why do i have health pots in boss battles, is this a zelda

companion ai is nonexistent & the tab to open the spell / ability menu to tell my companions to do their job is clunky & invasive & in previous games companion ai let the party fend for themselves just fine why does harding have to be told to heal me when any mage in origins 2 or inquisi just already knew because low health trigger

rook is just hawke again. 3 options for dialogue red purple green dont fix it if its not broke i guess but the inquisitor had more options AND the warden had tons of dialogue choices to really flesh out a character. multiple origins are nice but whats the point of these elaborate backgrounds that are constantly mentioned by both rook & npcs if i didnt get to see or play these events. it feels like im playing someone elses character or that rook isnt a player protag its just the character you play vs one you create

f to jump, not spacebar ???? thats not how video games work bioware even you know this because spacebar to jump is the default in inquisition you absolute morons

if you survived this far heres some positives, the first being that i heavily enjoy the legacy characters popping up to support various factions maevaris tilani the bad bitch that you are i gasped when she walked into frame & i could recognize her INSTANTLY which dai failed to do with its legacy cameos like teagan fiona hell even loghain and alistair are uhhhhh not great so im glad we took greater care in making these characters more identifiable

sorry, lucanis hot. im a stupid bitch who likes the crows leave me alone.

it is pretty, i will give it that its a pretty game. the artstyle is a hit or miss tho

i like when rook smiles its the same smile animation the inquisitor had in dai its very cute

transmog is cool ig

u can call solas an asshole within the first hour of the game and that makes up for negative number six bc its my review and i make the rules

im not having fun. like honestly im not. this game is disappointing but im at this point willing to finish the main story at least to get the lore and closure i want from this franchise. this game is this odd thing that doesnt fit in the series & is vastly different from its predecessors in what i see is a detriment. gaider and weeks are VERY different directors and have split this franchise in two for better or worse. while i love dai its not perfect and started the stray away from the formula leading into scary new territory but at least it felt like dragon age. veilguard just feels generic and boring as any EA or ubisoft title out there it feels like a product im aware im playing a product instead of a game. that hurts the most honestly

[koumeowkami]

🪐 no celestial ; kanallen

— chapter four

"Kanata was a poor little angel that heaven couldn't help. He'd always been a tough one, not trusting anyone but his little brother Nayuta, the only person that ever made him feel love. Growing up by themselves, he did everything in his power to protect his sick brother, things that dirtied his holy hands. "It's for a good cause though", he thought. But it wasn't enough, and Nayuta died soon after.

Kanata's soul was completely spent. He became unable to feel love, and adding to his dirty dealings that soon were found out, he got cast out of heaven. Fallen on Earth with his wings blackened, he felt so lost and empty he thought he could've just died.

But a random encounter with a very annoying, persistent, stupid redhead human boy would've made him discover love again."

2389 words

genre: supernatural, hurt/comfort, angst

warnings: none

previous ✧ next

"...And who the fuck are these people now?"

Kanata's head was spinning. Having to deal with that Suzaku bastard was already plenty enough, he definitely didn't need other nosy people to bother the fuck out of him. He wondered if all humans were like that, unable to mind their own business; at least now he knew why he hated them so much.

"Yeah, um..." the guy stuttered again, probably because Kanata was looking at him as if he was ready to kill, "they're my roommates. I didn't know they were there either, to be honest..."

"I'm sorry, Allen! We were worried about you..." the pink-haired one spoke, joining their hands together, "It looked like you constantly had something on your mind and it was annoying to see" the mushroom-head continued, eyeing Kanata weirdly. He didn't know why and it was getting on his nerves.

"So... do you want to take this stray kitten home? Honestly, I don't want him to get my house dirty."

So he was of those filthy rich guys, huh.

Although he was used to being treated like that, it had always made Kanata's blood boil. Those people represented everything he hated the most: they ruined his and Nayuta's life, never helped them when they needed it despite having all the means to do that; they just watched the twins suffer and pretended they didn't exist. Of fucking course everyone would've been like that on Earth, too. He didn't even know why he was expecting something to begin with.

"Are you pickin' a fight with me!?" he snarled. If that guy thought Kanata was scared of him, he was so damn wrong. He started inching towards him.

"Oh, do you maybe prefer being called a rat?" Mushroom-head provoked him, "Sorry, but I don't take part in such vulgarities. You better do that with people of your kind". He smiled. God, he really wanted to beat the shit out of him.

"HAH!?"

"Hajun, stop being an asshole, will you?" Pink Hair intervened, then turned to Suzaku, "Allen, did you guys meet here?"

"Uh... yeah, a week ago" he scratched the back of his neck, "he has no other place to go, so I was trying to help him. I can feel he's not a bad guy... so guys, please."

The redhead looked at his friends with big puppy eyes, begging them. Kanata couldn't stand that look. He just hated being pitied like that, but something deep inside of him didn't want to stop him anymore. He could've done anything to drive that annoying little bastard away. He could've shown his black wings, could've proven he was an angel in order to scare him, but would've that been enough? Fighting again and again would probably only be a waste of time and energy. But was it really the only reason he was about to admit defeat? Kanata honestly didn't know anymore; his thoughts just turned into a mess whenever he was around that kid. The flames of his soul were desperately trying to burn the ice around Kanata's heart.

"...Are you gonna stop botherin' me if I agree to this?" he started, making Suzaku turn around, "Will you finally leave me alone? I'm so sick of you stickin' to me like that."

"Sure! I told you, the apartment is big" he smiled, "you won't be bothered. We'll make one step at a time."

"Stop actin' like we're gonna become besties or somethin' like that, it makes me gag" Kanata looked away. He feared that if the redhead kept shining just a bit more, he would've turned him into dust. So annoying.

"It seems we agree on something, at least" Mushroom-head spoke again. "If Allen is so desperate about taking the stray kitten home, then I guess I can't say no?" he huffed, "However, I can kick him out whenever I want to if he messes up. It's still my house, after all."

"Come on, Hajun... he doesn't look like the kind of guy who causes problems" Pink Hair said, turning their gaze on Kanata, "Allen is naive, but not enough to let weird people into his own house!"

"Hey, stop treating me like a kid!" Suzaku pouted, again. He looked so damn punchable. "Then that settles it! Thank you guys, I love you!" he hugged the other two so strongly they were gasping for air, then went towards Kanata.

"Don't even think of huggin' me! Who do you think you are!?" Kanata was panicking. He hadn't been close to another being in ages and got so unused to it he didn't know how he was supposed to take it anymore. Fine by him, human interactions never really mattered to him as long as they weren't with his brother, but this somehow got him more nervous than it should have.

"Ah, sorry... I promised not to bother you, didn't I?" the redhead smiled shyly, "I'm pretty sure someday I'll be able to hug you, though!"

"Yeah yeah, sure. Your friends are leavin' us behind, by the way." he pointed towards the park's entrance and started running in that same direction. He could hear a muffled "Oi, wait for me! " from behind him but he didn't look back.

Why the fuck was he even blushing for?

— ☾ —

Kanata couldn't believe his eyes. That apartment was huge, in a massive skyscraper. He had never seen something like that before, being used to the small ruined buildings of the slums back in the Celestial Kingdom; many people there, including the twins, didn't even have a home in the first place. He had missed that warmth.

"If only Nayuta could feel this, too..." he thought. He felt horrible knowing he couldn't share it with his brother, guilty that he had originally planned to rot somewhere in the streets to reach him, since he had nothing to lose anymore. He was still alone, after all; living in the same space of those humans didn't mean anything to him.

"I'm sorry, Nayuta..." he muttered, his voice so quiet no one even heard him. Then, a huge smile in front of him pulled him out of his thoughts.

"We're finally here! Make yourself at home, yeah?"

Mushroom-head interrupted him, "Before making himself at home, I'd like him to take a shower. He stinks" he said while walking to what seemed to be the kitchen, "I'll make dinner in the meantime."

"I don't have other clothes, though..." Kanata said in a small voice. He didn't like how things were turning, as he already knew that the answer would've been -

"Oh, no worries about it! Allen is gonna lend you some!" Pink Hair cheerfully replied with a smile.

"Why me!?"

"Why him!?"

The redhead and Kanata screamed at the same time, the former astounded and the latter clearly pissed. Yeah, things were definitely turning worse than he expected.

"You dummy, Hajun's clothes would be too big on him so you're the only option left." they turned to Suzaku, then glanced at the poor boy, "That is, if he doesn't want to wear some frilly dresses~? He'd be so cute in them, like a little doll-"

"No fucking way!" Kanata was so embarrassed he thought his cheeks were about to explode from how much they were hot. Why the fuck did they enjoy playing with him so much?

"Then it's decided! The bathroom is over there" Pink Hair pointed to a door in the corridor, "See you later~" they said before disappearing in their room.

Suzaku then turned to Kanata, a bit embarrassed himself, "Well, then... I'm gonna bring you some clothes later" he smiled softly. He was blushing a tiny bit, Kanata noticed it immediately. He suddenly got that weird feeling in his chest, the same one he had after meeting the redhead for the first time. And once again, he did his best to ignore it.

"Yeah, um... thanks" he said looking at the floor, "By the way, if you even dare to peep in while I'm showerin', I'll kill you" he went back to his intimidating gaze.

"Whoa, uh... believe me I won't!" the redhead gulped before dashing towards his room. Kanata didn't know if it was because he successfully got scared or he was simply embarrassed. Maybe both.

— ☾ —

"Hey, you don't look bad dressed like that!"

Kanata appeared in the kitchen wearing some black sweatpants and a grey hoodie. Those would look just right on Suzaku, but that bastard was at least 15 centimeters taller than him; this resulted into him looking tiny as hell and he hated it.

"Yeah, you look cute! I mean, my clothes still look a bit big on you but-"

"Stop lookin' at me! I ain't cute at all!" he screeched, stomping towards the nearest chair and sitting. That was the reason why he hated being small. He definitely was not cute, and he felt like dying even more when the redhead said it. For the second fucking time, even.

"Exactly. Now can you all sit, please? Let's have dinner before it gets cold." Mushroom-head sat at the table, showing some food Kanata had never seen before. Not that he used to eat a lot when he was in Heaven, but he had no idea how human food was supposed to taste or look like.

"...The hell is this?" he questioned, while he let the food sit on his tongue, "Never seen this kinda stuff before."

"Please don't talk while you're eating, it's gross" the other guy sighed, "It's samgyeopsal, a Korean dish. I'm Korean, so I cook these traditional dishes often."

"Oh, I just realized I didn't introduce you guys to each other!" the redhead suddenly raised his head from the plate, "Kanata, these are Hajun and Anne", he pointed first towards Mushroom-head, then towards Pink Hair.

Kanata didn't reply. He could care less about their names. Hell, he didn't even bother to call Suzaku by his actual name. They weren't close and surely will never be, so that didn't matter, right?

"Well, Kanata doesn't seem to be the talkative type, does he?" Anne looked at him a little concerned, "He must be really tired. Honestly, I can't wait to go to sleep, too~"

"Yeah, we should hurry up. I'm also kinda sleepy..." Suzaku yawned, rubbing his eyes.

"Uh... where am I supposed to sleep, anyway?" Kanata intervened, at this point craving to be finally left alone and have some time for himself.

The redhead nervously laughed, "Ah... well, about that..."

"You told me I got to have personal space! Do you call sharing a room «to have personal space»!?"

Kanata wasn't mad. He was absolutely fuming, mentally regretting ever saying yes to that dumbass. This was probably one of the most disastrous things that could've happened to him: he already couldn't manage to sleep alone anymore, but having a stranger in the same bed as him sounded even worse. He couldn't believe how the redhead had accepted this thing right away, as if it were normal; he really was way too naive and it irritated him so damn much.

"I'm sorry, okay! I worded it a bit wrong." Suzaku took a step back from him, who looked like he was gonna jump on him at any second. "The apartment is big and you can go wander anywhere you want to, but we only have three bedrooms! And I'm definitely not letting you sleep on the couch." he concluded, looking dead serious for once.

Honestly, Kanata didn't mind sleeping anywhere, as long as he had at least a roof on top of his head. But he got to the conclusion that arguing about this wouldn't have led nowhere, since that guy didn't seem to budge.

"So here's what we're gonna do! I got my sleeping bag here" he proudly showed that weird puffy bag to Kanata, "I'm gonna sleep on the floor with this, while you can use my bed. Sounds good?"

He really couldn't believe what he was hearing. Was he really that determined to stay in his room and still give him some space? To a random kid met in the park, who could've seemed suspicious in any possible way?

What the hell was wrong with this dude.

"Alright..." that was all he could say, a bit taken aback but mostly too tired to think about anything else to say. So he swiftly got on the soft bed covered in red sheets and turned on the opposite side, facing the door. He heard a faint "Good night" but didn't reply. The room fell silent.

He knew he wouldn't have slept as always, but at least he finally got to close his eyes for a while. There was the tiniest bit of comfort in that.

And then, it came back.

The image of his dear brother passing away with a smile on his face, cursing him forever, making him remember that the only thing he ever loved in this shitty world disappeared. The voices would tell him it was his fault. It was his fault he wasn't a good boy and their mommy didn't love them. It was his fault he wasn't a good brother, who couldn't even protect his precious little treasure. It was his fault he was left alone and deserved it.

He didn't even realize he ended up crying in his sleep, calling Nayuta's name.

"Nayuta... miss you..."

Allen was almost falling asleep when he heard some sniffling from over the bed. Slowly and cautiously, he got up and got closer to Kanata, who was talking in his sleep. He couldn't quite register what he was saying, though.

"He must be having a nightmare..." he thought, noticing the kid was shivering while slightly holding out his hand, as if he was trying to reach out to someone. Before he could even process what he wanted to do, he took his hand, but luckily Kanata didn't wake up. Instead, he gradually stopped crying, until he turned into quiet snores.

Allen smiled, hidden by the darkness of his room. He slightly got up from the bed, but the boy's grip on his hand was so strong he just couldn't go anywhere without waking him up. So he just stayed there, laying down a bit far from Kanata not to bother him.

"How am I gonna explain this to him tomorrow?" he asked himself, falling asleep.

[non-neutoniangender]

Well the train is started and so I guess I'm watching episode 35.

McAdverbot .... Sam this one is good, but you can't rap lol

Top table has a new member..... :/ I'm not sure putting Fearne next to Chetney was a good idea...

Oh I hadn't realized that they lost their note-taker

10k gold 👀 Thats a lot.

I gotta say, I love portable holes as a extraplanar storage option, because they require organizing, like you can just chuck shit into a bag of holding with very little care but with a hole, its just a easy to carry, very large box.

(Also its really funny how the starting storage options are worse in each subsequent campaign, bag of holding -> haversack -> portable hole)

Treshi got involved in stuff he didn't quite fully understand huh... Interesting that he is in some ways happy to be pulled out of it.

MOLD STORAGE!!!!

I love the question of "Is Laudna undead"

"I'm tired of leaving people behind" ....I should've finished EXU

Its really interesting that they players have to ask "is this above board or does your character know this" with regards to Delilah. The whole situation is very interesting

The whole "take notes about the briarwoods" is a really funny bit. I really like how big this world has gotten that character knowledge is much bigger than player knowledge in ways that doesn't happen in a typical campaign.

Sam....... the flask...... its way too on point, but its also such an odd callback to c2.

"at this point we're friends" found family my beloved!

I need to be normal about Matt playing his wife's character.....

I'm not being normal about Matt playing The voice of the Tempest

aaaaaaaaaaaaa voice actors are good at their jobs

"That is the best use of wood I've ever heard of" Chetney 🤣 I love how much everyone is essentially fangirling over keyleth, to be fair, she is a very cool level 20 character....

Oh this was back in the ✨Enhance✨ era of the internet

"Wow that was a big waste" "Ok Jester" What a great comeback. (you poopin?)

"Sweet little metal boy" good LORDY

Poor Ashton with character development. They're going soft. He's not happy about it

SAM MADE A SPELL!??!?!?!?!?! Share Dream?!? thats so fucking cool

Also I love the casts reactions to that.

Chetney just accidentally yelling

Since Travis loves a good d6, he should play a wizard!

Finally googled the meaning of Pyrrhic.... a good title choice.

I really appreciate that Matt is continually correcting people on Xandis' pronouns, I don't appreciate the cast continually forgetting.

.....oh my god. Will is gone because the resurrection didn't work....

Thats so much worse, I hadn't thought about that....

God I had almost forgot there was a city on the moon. Moon's haunted

I really love the idea of ashton, I love how dunamancy is now a central part of the world

Anyway, these mind sequences are very cool, I love them.

How does Matt even come up with, or plan these things?!?? I can't even imagine

"There is strength, but there is pain. There is pain but there is strength" good God!! Matt, that is so cool.

Oh my god Ashton..... poor kid.

I... I love this story though. Ashton. And the chronic pain is..... wow

It's really interesting to watch them try to figure out dunamancy from zero knowledge and just random stuff.

Perhaps not definitely, but I bet Matt's description of the inside of Ashton's head with stars and possibilities would've been different if the person had seen inside a beacon before.

"Do any of us know who we are?" asking the right questions

Delilah is dying with Laudna........ good God.

Man these players created some fucked up characters.

The moment of realization that the wisdom save was against Keyleth's scry lmao.

Keyleth!!!!!! I love her!!!

I love how she's like, buckle up fuckers, you're coming with me on a trip to whitestone.

Anyway, that episode was amazing and the ending was perfect, I cannot wait to find time to watch the next one!!!!!

[baby-xemnas]

I saw you talking about the quality of the One Piece writing on Twitter and I'm curious to understand what you mean! (I am newish to the fandom so sorry if this is widely discussed/understood). What's different about newer writing that you preferred about earlier arcs?

disclaimer: dont fucking come arguing with me this is a subjective opinion which anon asked for so im giving it, its off the cuff and not thought through im not a OP analysis writer

I'll tell you hwat anon - i dont know what is "widely discussed/understood" among the fandom is because i don't discuss things with people and i don't read takes -

just saying that because even tho im an older fan i am very unreliable and didnt read/watch most of the post time skip because i think its bad and what i've seen of it havent gotten me interested in reading it

even tho it seems insane that how can writing have such a sharp decline after a clear midpoint of the story but that is the case with OP for me - it really all ended in marineford

thing i dislike about newer arcs is too much time wasted on random new characters rather than strawhats/characters we know, the overinflated cast feels more overinflated the more the story goes (wano is absolute worst offender of this. im glad that at least egghead gave bonney some time shes fun. not reading the arc tho idc)

i just dont think 0da is doing that good of a job telling this part of the story that is bigger in scope involving gov/revolutionaries/marines etc. and its not just because its a personal preference of mine that i dont usually read those types of stories - i can recognize it if its good but all of it feels pretty empty and u just read this big "important" characters say shit waiting for ur fave to show up

pre-TS is more focused more personal, stakes are clear, motivation are clear, it doesnt meander as much. its just been telling better stories

[demonfox38]

Post Game Evaluation - Final Fantasy V (GBA)

In questions that'll make a Millenial sweat.

This year has ended up being demanding in terms of travel. I'd like to say that it was all for positive reasons, but it's hard to frame my maternal grandmother's sudden health decline and relocation into an assisted living facility as positive. (At least she's alive and remembers my name? That's something.) To go full teal deer, I've been spending a lot of weekends away from my house. And, hell. What good are portable video games if not keeping me sane and conscious during frantic times?

This isn't the first time I've played through "Final Fantasy V." My previous completion was done while I was on a Christmas break in college, which…man, don't make me think about how long ago that was. Point being, I was a little foggy on the game and my reception of it. So, I wanted a refresh.

It's amazing what your mind decides to retain. Or, many times, doesn't.

"Final Fantasy V" is structurally similar to the first and third "Final Fantasy" games. Protect elementally based crystals, fight dudes in obnoxiously luxuriant armor, assign jobs to characters for the task. Unfortunately, the main cast for this game either has the worst sense of timing or is completely inept (your choice!), as all of the crystals they aim to protect get obliterated into dozens of pieces. Like, all of them, every time. And then they go to another world, upon which they actively get the previous generation of heroes all killed off for good. And then the worlds get "Tales of Symphonia"-style smooshed back together, and that somehow is also a bad deal because hell is apparently a vacuum, and it's going to suck everyone into it if your party doesn't stop sucking for 5 minutes!

Look, these people eventually get things cleaned up. Just don't trust any of them with your vehicles, pets, or house plants. All will be toast in 30 minutes.

I might give this cast some shit for being master-class failures, but honestly, this isn't the worst party I've had to deal with. It is neat that the end assembly is three chicks to one dude. The job system also lets you play fast and loose with everyone's skillset, so it's not like anyone is hard-locked into one role. (I guess you can lean into what they are naturally good at, but it doesn't hurt for everybody to have six levels in healing magic, either.) The configuration doesn't feel like some convenient anime harem pervert set-up, either. It shouldn't matter to me who has what gender or what role, but in a series that has a bad habit of defaulting certain characters into certain roles based on gender (or even going completely mono-gender, which blegh), it's nice that you can go, "Nah, fuck that. These princesses are now all samurai. Start dancing, salsa boy!"

With as much diversity as you can get with the Job system, you can also easily end up making yourself sick by grinding too much. I've got the "get everyone's numbers maxed out" mind goblin, to borrow a term from Pat Boivin. It's not enough to have one person master healing magic; everyone's gotta be maxed out on that. It doesn't matter that I might not really need the Monk class's maximum skill. I need all Jobs maxed out for everybody. Considering the game gives you three bonus jobs and an extra post-game job, this can make grinding insufferable. Time-consuming.

I mean, I had the time to waste, considering how often I was away from home. But, still. If grinding wasn't aggravating, then it was lulling me to sleep. (It's amazing when you get older and find out that putting your legs up for 5 minutes will knock your ass out.)

Unlocking all of the options for a job can be a pain in the ass, too. Are you good at finding hidden pianos? What about random monsters hiding out in arbitrary locations? Do you have a spreadsheet open for all of the potential item combinations you can make with the Chemist class? Is your Blue Mage of the right level to learn Level 5 Go Fuck Yourself? Long story short—trying to get a perfect game file is a fool's errand. Getting it done right will require cross-referencing several guides and maps to find every last little nugget, and even then, you may get screwed out based on how much knowledge is available on the specific variant of the game you are playing. And let's be honest—are you really going to use that Bard class outside of one or two dungeons? Are you really going to die if you don't get Catoblepas? Hell, is that even its name, in the version you are using? Who gives a shit if you get that Brave Knife, anyway? It's not like you don't have at least twelve other weapons to use…

Further complicating the situation is "Final Fantasy V"'s release history. This game falls into the same category as titles like "Tales of Phantasia" or "Seiken Densetsu 3" when it comes to its history in the US. I.E.—there was a significant gap in time where the game was unavailable to general audiences, so fan translators stepped in. When an actual release came out of the game's publishers, the previous verbiage had been so entrenched that trying to explain what was what would come with whiplash and potential rejection from previous players.

Now, I say all of this not to say that the translation is bad. From my POV, it's fine! Krile's a weird name, but whatever! At least Bartz isn't Butz here. The text is competent. What I am saying is that trying to get help on the 2005 GameBoy Advance variant or the 1999 Playstation release or anything made post-2010 does require some backwards translating to understand the ancient texts on GameFAQs and/or fan-managed websites. Don't kick yourself when you miss something. Researching this game is just that much of a shitshow.

Can you imagine waiting almost 6 years now-a-days for a game to get properly localized? I think people would pee their pants if they didn't get an English-translated copy within 6 minutes of the game's release! I'll stick to my guns when I say my favorite games came out between 1986 and 2006. But, damned if I don't appreciate translations just being there for my spoiled English-speaking face. I might play a Pokémon game in Spanish or plow through "Lagrange Point" with the help of a Google Translate-garbled document and a Japanese dictionary, but it's nice when I don't have to take such extreme measures.

I know playing Italian translated "Castlevania" games is a one-way ticket to flunking a language exam. But, I wonder if playing "Lupin the Third" games in Italian might actually be helpful…

In more positive notes, I really like the sprite and menu artwork for the GBA release. It's normalized with the rest of the games that Square Enix put out at the tail-end of the GBA's life cycle, so some of the landscapes and menu pieces have been touched up to try and match the quality of "Final Fantasy VI." The job spritework has always been really cool. It adds personality to each character's interpretation of the job's uniform, like giving cat ears to the White Mage role for Krile or showcasing different dancing style for the Dancer job. Hell, it's funny that the Mimic job is just their normal clothing with a cape thrown on. That sort of design feels like the kind of detail that would have some kind of work-around in a modern adaptation just so the player could keep the clothes they like. I'm thinking like "Monster Hunter Rise" and being able to craft outfits to look like other outfits. That would be perfect!

Having said that—I could have done without the Amano portrait work by the character's dialogue as seen in the GBA version. Like, there was always a divide between character design in and out of the game, but boy, does it stick out like a sickly sore thumb here. Way too pale and dead compared to the otherwise lively color palette. I would enjoy playing a fully Amano-stylized game (although, I suppose the FFIV remake is probably that, weird character proportions aside.) As it is, it's weird to see his work alongside what others decided to roll with.

I wish I could offer more opinions on the music, but since I was playing around other people, I was keeping my volume off as much as possible. That bridge fight theme versus Gilgamesh does kick ass, though. Other than that? I was more going, "Hey, wait. I think I recognize this from a Vaporwave song" more than anything.

I'm surprised with what details stuck with me after two playthroughs a decade apart. I think it would be pretty hard to forget Galuf and all of the shit he goes through. But, a lot of Faris' story stuck with me, too. When I was wrapping up prep-work for the rush through the final dungeon, I remembered getting her dragon as a summon, but weirdly enough, not getting her sister's wind drake. I wonder if I had skipped that in the past. I don't think its set pieces are anywhere near as memorable as those from "Final Fantasy VI", but there are little memorable chunks here and there.

Also—as goofy as the whole "the antagonist is an evil tree" idea can be, I do like the concept. Considering how many Japanese games pull in the Shinto principle of holy trees for their pivotal plot points, it is funny to see a game go "But what if it's a bastard tree, though?" What is it, like, this game, "Kuon," and a dozen Kirby games? It feels like it should be more of a thing. I just wish that you got to see more "evil tree" and less "dude in armor" for him, though. I mean, we already had FF1's Garland and FF4's Golbez. Imagine if we had something a bit more hinting into Exdeath's tree nature. Like, chunks of armor breaking off, revealing coarse bark and branches pushing their way through. Basically, like if we met a fucked-up Groot that was going around wearing Darth Vader's suit after it had went through a trash compactor. "Resident Evil 4"'s Armaduras, but with vegetation!

Is this the best "Final Fantasy" game I've played? No. I'd put it in the top quarter of "Final Fantasy" games that I would be likely to replay, but I wouldn't say it's my favorite. It's just kinda there. It's 1 and 3 with a plot that gets out of control. But, I didn't hate the cast, as unfortunate as they were. With my propensity towards finding "Final Fantasy" protagonists obnoxious, that alone may be worth a thousand words of praise. It can be picky and obtuse at times, but honestly, finishing the game may not require being that fickle yourself. You've just gotta ask yourself if grinding everything down to a polished sheen is really worth it.

[i-like-sticks]

2 and 10!

2. Are there any popular fandom OTPs you only BROTP?

I don't usually get involved in fandoms as heavily as I did years ago because that sort of shit landed me in a hot mess of trouble. The same goes with shipping. I usually prefer to keep my distance with all that noise.

But there are a few so called fandom OTPs I do see and go "Eh, more a BROTP for me".

One being Barb x Poppy from the Trolls fandom. Like I get it. Its cute and I don't have anything against it, but I more prefer them as a BROTP then I do a couple. Trolls in general has a number of that for me. Same for FNAF.

SuperJail was another one of those fandoms that had a lot of shipping discourse with the Warden being shipped with everyone and everything around him. Me, personally, I just don't see him fitting with anyone for how selfish and childish he acts. BROTPs maybe with some of the main cast if he didn't annoy the hell out of some of them.

ATLA though... Oh boy, so many popular ships and I am like a good chunk is BROTP material for me.

But overall, I don't really involve myself in big fandoms anymore nor the whole shipping discourse of it. It's a bit pointless and tiresome for me.

10. Most disliked arc? Why?

I guess it really depends on the show/movie/whatever piece of media it is.

I don't much care for idle/filler arcs where literally its just the characters doing random shit for filler. A filler episode is fine every so often but when its an entire arc/season, it feels completely wasted and pointless. Like all that time just wasted on stupid shenanigans that really did not need to be seen.

Same goes for character arcs where a character is just spending the entire time being moody and mopey, angry at everyone who helps them and never makes an attempt to help themselves when people help them. But suddenly in the end they act like they knew this all along and just become great at everything. I really despise a rushed arc of development like that. It doesn't feel rewarding nor does it feel like the character is likable at all, but just instantly forgiven for their nasty behavior despite never saying sorry or anything of the sort. They go back to being mean and its just..meh.

And anything that is rushed/pacing is too fast, that almost all the info/lore is dumped on you in one go that you have no time to soak it in. ESPECIALLY, when its cast off as not important later on. Like, come on, dude. Really? It's so annoying.

[lunarrolls]

hiii luna hiii you said for the ask game we could do dnd characters so if you want to, the Wish spell with Alden and Perle?

elysium you little shit. giving me the ultimate angst spell with my silly little blorbos. well TOO BAD. nobody’s casting wish even though there’s definitely a timeline in my mind in which that scenario becomes real BUT you can have some pre-campaign shenanigans because i Do Love Them So Much,

•

Wish is a 9th level conjuration spell on the sorcerer and wizard spell lists.

Wish is the mightiest spell a mortal creature can cast. By simply speaking aloud, you can alter the very foundations of reality in accord with your desires.

The basic use of this spell is to duplicate any other spell of 8th level or lower. You don’t need to meet any requirements in that spell, including costly components. The spell simply takes effect.

•

Perle sits draped over Alden’s windowsill. He’s engaged in some crafty new thing, probably homework, but that’s alright—Perle’s an expert at talking to the air, and Alden’s an expert at half-listening in a wonderful way that never makes her feel belittled. It’s part of why she likes him so much.

“Sage?” Perle asks, kicking her legs back and forth. “Saaaage?”

“Mm,” Alden responds, not looking up from their work. “What’s that?”

“Elle told me,” Perle says conspiratorially, “that there’s some crazy magic out there. And she would know, right? She’s got all that—that weird—well, you know. I’ve told you about Elle, right?”

“Mhm,” Alden says, fiddling with something very small in the contraption set on his worktable. 

“Right, well, today, her ballad—I actually got to sit in the audience this time and really listen to what she was saying rather than having to perform alongside her with those lights I just learned, and the lyrics! They were so mystical, almost heroic! Absolutely gorgeous, in my book. So I asked her where she got the inspiration.”

Perle grins, flopping onto his back to stare up at the small crescent of starlight that’s just barely visible from Alden’s window. “She said that her mother and her mother’s mother and so on and so forth—all that shit, the generational stuff, you get it—passed on stories of great magical prowess, of a spell so powerful, it could reshape reality. She said that the spell plucks a star from the sky and forces it to grant you a wish. The caster has to wrangle a star into submission, Sage, that’s—that’s fucking crazy, right?”

Alden actually looks up at that, considering their words. “I think I’ve heard of something like that. Vaguely. Obviously, it’s banned in Piltover—“

“—right, this definitely happened outside Piltover, even before the undercity was here,” Perle adds, nodding along.

“Yeah, yeah, but… I think it’s taught, still. At least, its existence is. It’s probably just a fable, anyway. There’s no way magic like that exists out there.”

“Right, right,” Perle half-heartedly agrees. “But, you know, it’s fun to think about. Like, if you had a wish like that, what would you do?”

Alden pauses, staring thoughtfully off into the distance. “Um, I’m not sure. That’s kind of a big ask, isn’t it? The kind of power to reshape reality… seems like I’d be a waste of a caster to have that.”

Perle frowns and sits up abruptly. “I don’t think so. You’re the most capable caster I’ve ever seen. You could run Hextech yourself, probably better than—“

“Oh, come on, Perle,” Alden scoffs, leaning back. “Don’t be rude.”

Perle relishes in the brief excitement in his chest at Alden using his new name. It’s been a long, long time since he was anyone but Abalone to anyone, even his mothers. He can’t remember a time he’d been anything different, actually, and it felt… good, personal, intimate, friendly, safe, to have a name just for trusted people. 

“I wouldn’t be rude to two random rich bastards if you weren’t mean to yourself,” Perle mumbles, crossing their arms. “But whatever. If I had a wish, I’d use it—well, actually… hm.”

“See? It’s hard!”

“I don’t know nearly as much magic as you do, that’s not fair!” Perle pouts. “And I can’t cast water magic with my hands at will, Perle,” Alden points out gently. “You’re also not allowed to be mean to yourself.”

“One day, one of us will be powerful enough to get a wish, and when that day comes, we’ll figure out what we want,” Perle decides. “Until then, we gotta think about it.”

Alden gives her a half-smile that indicates they don’t really believe her, but they definitely want to. “Sure.”

[solarsavoy]

001 for Assassination Classroom?

Egads, is this an ask I see? *holds the precious*

Favorite character: Tie between Karma and Nagisa, each for different reasons. Shuu is an extremely close second. (I also get a kick out of him being second in everything. XD) Least Favorite character: Gastro is an absolute waste of a character. Sorry not sorry. His gun into ramen does make for some really funny memes though. XD 5 Favorite ships (canon or non-canon): KARMAGISA FOR LIFE!!! I also firmly support Shuuritsu, Karushuu, Sugizaki/TomoYuki, and Chihaya. Character I find most attractive: Karma... Character I would marry: Karma but not Karma because I know better than to get tied down to that. Wait... maybe Nagisa. He'd make for a wonderful house husband. ^^ (He still gets to be a teacher though.) Character I would be best friends with: This one's kinda hard actually, and random. Probably Itona. He seems like he'd be pretty chill to hang out with and I'd love to sit back and talk shit about the Terasaka gang while we do our own thing in the background. a random thought: Why don't I like Gakuhou more? (Or was this supposed to be and actually enlightening answer? You asked for a random thought and this randomly popped up in my head when I read it. How much more random can you get?) An unpopular opinion: Hiromi is redeemable. Now hear me out! Until I wrote it into Life in Retail, I hated her just as much as the next person, but surprisingly? She's just as much a victim of the same type of abuse as Nagisa, and that's just sad. :/ No it does not make it okay, but generational trauma is quite difficult to overcome for anyone of any age. My Canon OTP: I feel like there's only one to choose from, so Karasuma x Irina. My Non-canon OTP: KARMAGISA! Most Badass Character: So, I'd say Karma, but it's a tie between Nagisa, Itona and Kaede imo. They're all unexpectedly badass because of their height, and I love that. Most Epic Villain: Tentacled Reaper 2.0. 😢 It's also very sad. Pairing I am not a fan of: Fuwa with anyone. She's a queen all by herself. 😊 Character I feel the writers screwed up (in one way or another): Tie between Karma, Shuu and Nagisa. Karma because they always make him so heartlessly cruel sometimes and he really isn't. Shuu because they basically make him Karma as though he weren't his own, completely valid person. And Nagisa because they make it seem like he likes girly things when he clearly has issues with his femininity. Like, come on people. (Realized I answered this for fanfic writers, not Matsui. 😅) As far as Matsui goes, I don't think he did anyone wrong. That's probably also an unpopular opinion, but if everything was done right and perfect, then you'd have nothing to add, and as an avid fanfic writer, I think the more perfect characters are the ones your own mind can add too. Their background, their personality, anything really. And Matsui has an all-star cast of characters that do just that, feed the imagination with a good foundation. Favourite Friendship: Another tie between Nagisa & Sugino and Karma & Rio. Character I most identify with: Karma Character I wish I could be: Karma XD

Thank you muches for the askies, Anon!

Ask thing.

[sakumasmut]

Midinon here

Hey, how's it going with your life? Did anything remarkable happen?

So I've been thinking about some scenarios related to sex, and I want to know which character(s) you think fits the best to the scenario

🪑

- them making a drink for you, and secretly drugging it with an aphrodisiac

- them searching for hours about sex positions/how to do aftercare and foreplay etc, or asking their friends

- going on a date with them, and they keep teasing your thigh/crotch (consensual of course)

- doing the pocky game with them, they offer the pocky which is covered in chocolate which makes you horny

- them buying the most random sex related stuff off of an online store, like a sex pillow or a specific incense

- them trying to seduce you by trying to pole dance with something that looks like a pole like a lantern

- you finding out a secret place in their closet, which has the kinkiest shit in there, and they're just saying something like: "yeah, my buddy asked me to hide them from their s/o" or some other stupid lie

- you falling asleep on their lap, and you accidentally get too close to their crotch, making them horny. When you wake up, they're like "uh yeah you got me horny, wanna fuck?"

- them putting plushies, varying from size, everywhere on and near the bed before asking you to have sex

hi! I don’t think anything super interesting happened, just regular school and stuff. this post might get long because of my responses so I’ll put it under the cut.

drugged drink-natsume, ibara, mika, rinne. natsume is the biggest aphrodisiac enjoyer in the cast imo, so he’d want to experiment on you sometimes. ibara also has a collection of them to try out, he loves to see you desperate and needy for him. mika, I think if he hadn’t had sex with you in a while and wanted to get you to initiate it. rinne would do it for fun to fuck around and totally tease you once you come to him for help.

researching sex-mao, makoto, chiaki, nagisa, kaoru, souma

mao probably gets position ideas from his manga and has to look up if they’re actually possible to do. makoto doesn’t fuck often so he looks up guides too, always embarrassed while reading them. nagisa probably would read sex help books like the kuma sutra because of an interest in sex, and he picks up on the tips very quickly. chiaki is very nervous when it comes to sex, so he tends to ask for tips from kaoru. kaoru is actually fairly experienced, but he also gets nervous like chiaki so he looks up guides a lot even if he knows the tips already. souma is very inexperienced, and asks keito and kuro directly for advice. they usually have sound advice after the initial surprise reaction.

teasing on a date-wataru, subaru, hiyori, rinne, ritsu

wataru uses his hair often to fondle you while being discreet. subaru usually gets bored during dates and starts teasing you to get reactions, same with hiyori and rinne. if ritsu insists on going home early he’ll tease you for the quickest get out card, though he expects to pay the price later in bed.

horny pocky-natsume, niki, arashi

again natsume is the aphrodisiac guy, he’s probably the guy that made it in the first place to trick you. niki doesn’t realize the chocolate is laced, but he eats a few sticks for himself too so it doesn’t matter too much when you’re both lusting for each other. arashi thinks the pocky game is adorable, but could be spiced up more for the aftermath.

random purchases-hiyori

hiyori has the money to waste. he’s spending it all on various sex related stuff, half he doesn’t even use. at least sex with him will usually involve new gadgets every time.

pole dancing-rinne, arashi, wataru

rinne would wanna mess with you in public so he starts trying to pole dance, though he isn’t actually that good at it. arashi and wataru actually do know how to dance though, so expect to be turned on by their movements despite the odd usage of a street lamp.

closet secret-mao, makoto, keito, koga

mao and keito both have a lot of erotica material, and the more hardcore ones they have to hide in the same place they put their toys. makoto has a lot of secret kinks that he looks up online, but he does own a few specific toys to suit his tastes like beads. koga has a lot of petplay stuff that he tries to pass off as for leon, but the size of the collars and such make it obvious it’s for himself

sleep near crotch-mao, yuzuru, mayoi, mika, jun, kaoru

this fits multiple idols honestly. they all can’t help but to get hard, though their way of asking/demanding you to please them changes sometimes

plushies-mika

mika canonically loves plushes, he definitely enjoys sex even with them on the bed, or he purposefully want to keep them on for or encouragement

[tranquilspot]

John: Captchalogue GameBro.

It might come in handy if you ever need something that burns easily.

The ecologist part in me is growling, but on the other hand good riddance. Alright, I'll try to speed up a bit. I kinda want to reach the part where the beta is installed, preferably in June.

John: Captchalogue magician's hat.

You expend your final card on the MAGICIAN'S HAT.

No more room in the sylladex.

John: Get funny glasses too.

You don't have a free card in your SYLLADEX! However, you are able to MERGE the BEAGLE PUSS with the MAGICIAN'S HAT to create a CLEVER DISGUISE.

Merging! What was the other concept again? Starting with a 'c'. In c.. *search in past posts* conjunction! Mark that down, writers, write that down.

John: Wear disguise to fool dad.

*raise eyebrow*

John? Who is this "John" you speak of? You are quite certain there has never been, nor ever will be... Yeah, this is a really shitty disguise.

No shit, Sherlock! Points for trying at the very least.

While you are wearing the items, they remain on the card, but it is temporarily removed from the deck, thus freeing up the cards beneath it.

*sigh* wasted potential for cool shit and shenanigans.

Finally!

CW: major spoilers of themes, key objects, characters and places Edit: I confused "hallowed" with "hollowed" so I changed my commentary accordingly

John: Leave room.

So, I learned recently that the harlequin paintings are different in the books, because of copyrights issues? I don't recall exactly, just that it has to be changed.

On one wall hangs a picture of a fella who sure knows how to have a laugh, a man after your own heart. You always thought he looked a lot like Michael Cera. […]

Don't ask me, I wouldn't know. Though I do know that it's a picture that come up first in images search, so we can conclude that it's just a random dude.

But your DAD swears on the many HALLOWED TOMBS of Egypt that it is not. You're not sure about that though.

Interesting choice of words here. We have "hallowed tombs" and "egypt". The tombs and resting places in general are a main theme in the alpha teens' session in Act 6. Important to note that grieving deceased kin is also a significant theme in Homestuck. Egypt echoes to pyramids, which can be briefly seen on Roxy's Land. There's also the Cairo Overcoat, a garment juju worn by the Big Bad himself, that can turn into a transportation device, a flying sarcophagus. A early mention of those themes, which I'm pretty sure weren't plotted at this point of the story. Though I wonder why DAD specifically swore on these? What does this entail? "I swear on a sacred tomb in a far away land". Shouldn't he swear on a closer person? For example 'I swear on my beloved deceased mother'?

'You're not sure about that though.' When you look deeper into it, John's right to be skeptical. Not for the same reasons obviously but he's right. Perhaps DAD is outrightly lying, out of embrassement or fear of copyright claims? Perhaps DAD is right, but his metaphor is dubious, thus casting suspicion on its veracity? It's all very silly. And the answer is shrouded in darkness. Hmm, swearing on an sacred tomb. I feel like there's a connection to LE, but I don't see what or how exactly. Also a 'hallowed tomb' could refer to a tomb raid by adventurers. Jake English/Harley?

On the other wall is one of your DAD'S stupid clowns. Or HARLEQUINS, as he is quick to correct anyone who would venture such brazen assumption.

Language dictates that distinction is important,

Having coulrophobia (fear of clowns) harlequins seem way more friendly. Mainly because of them wearing masks, and not necessarily makeup, which conceal more their face. And idk I always saw their behavior as creepy. Plus harlequins have pleasant and colorful clothes so points for them. Harlequin (or arlequin in french) is from the commedia dell'arte, according to Wikipedia. Wait 'an emissary of the devil'?! But I always thought Arlequin was a poor, mischievous dude that tricked the cops and hit people with his wand. I guess his depiction changed with time. Anyway, clown, jester and harlequin seem to belong to the same family tree. Their behavior, clothes and fonction is what is different. A jester serves royalty (or noblemen), make people laugh and have the privilege of mocking the king without getting punished. They are recognizable by their hat. In french, being 'un bouffon' is calling someone pathetic, or more commonly, a loser. A clown wears makeup, entertain people but mostly children nowadays, is often affiliate to a circus (not always), shape balloons, etc.. Clown is not only a profession, but also a more general behavior, whether it's to play to the gallery, being pathetic or being blatantly in denial (man progressively putting on a clown disguise meme) Harlequin is a poor man (pieces of cloth stiched together), comical valet depicted as lazy, having a great appetite (both for food and women), acrobatic, a trickster but mainly want to avoid making any effort. But back to Homestuck proper

—>

[yakdeculture]

Granblue Fantasy Relink Review

Okay guys here's the thing. I don't really play the gatcha game lets get that out of the way. You ask me to post grid I'm getting scared. Idk what means like my weapons? I just log in for free rolls man I've had an account for 6 years and I'm on chapter 19 I don't think I read a damn word of the story. I know the popular women I know there's a stupid little fucking twink guy and there's like 5 of him an sometimes he has brown hair but other times he has white hair and hes likes saber fate stay night but for fujoshis but Idk his name and I don't want to know. All that to say I pretty much have no business playing this game. I bought it because my friend tweeted "theres a milf in relink" and i thought it would be funny to reply to that with a receipt of me buying the game. So yeah I went into this with barely any knowledge at all about this series in terms of what the hell is actually going on.

That said if people were being fr about there being people who think the game's story is bad because it's confusing or doesn't explain enough then I don't get where that's coming from. To be honest I kind of thing that idea was made up because some of y'all are way too fucking bored online and you have to invent discord so you put on your little FBI or CIA cap and you say lets go find some completely random idiot off the side of the street who will literally say anything at all so we can qrt them and act like this is a commonly held opinion. Sorry for the tangent but you know what I mean? Like someone will qrt like the craziest person you've ever fucking seen OR a 15 year old and act like whatever they said was the normal default opinion. Listen no offense but I'm 25 if a kid is wrong on the internet its not my fucking problem and I'm not wasting my time thinking about what they think about anything. Randoms do not exist to me. I have no interest in arguing anything at all with anyone. I am happy to give my analysis on some things if I am asked but I don't just think about this shit unprompted.

Anyways with that out of the way yeah the story is very beginner friendly not at all confusing in pretty much any way and also the gameplay goes fucking hard so yeah this is an awesome game. So every I've written everything I've just said before I beat the game, I'm on chapter 8 right now but I can think without having beat it I know the gameplay is fire I know the story as at the very least understandable and is probably pretty good, I don't know how it ends but I've thought it was pretty good so far. Pretty much the only way you could argue this game expects you to have played the gatcha is in the sense they don't try to spend like too much time building up the relationships between the characters, they pretty much just tell you what they are, show them to you in action with like a cute little dialogue scene before the game really start then its kinda like okay you should get the point we can move on now and I think that's true. Like what the fuck else were they gonna do did you want Granblue Origins. Did you want Granblue Fantasy The Animation The Game as a little intro? Look I would play the first however many chapter of the gatcha story as a game like this who wouldn't but I don't think this game is missing anything that prevents you from enjoying the cast. You get the vibes they pass you the joint and you smoke that shit. It's that simple.

Finished the main story, pretty much my only complaint is they fake like its gonna end like 4 times. Like I got places to be man you can't keep doing this you have to end eventually. But yeah the story was great this game has some fantastic set pieces and fights. I don't know how much of a most game this game has, I imagine it must be a lot because you end the game at like level 50 and you can go up to 100 so there must be more shit to do. I don't know if I'm gonna do all that to be honest idk how much I would get out of it. Not saying I'm gonna immediately uninstall the game or anything but I got what I came for and now I'm not sure how much of what is left to do was designed for me considering I was mostly interested in doing the story and meeting the characters and stuff. But hey great game.

[bisexualgiftedburnout]

UN-POPULAR OPINION I THINK: I DONT LIKE WEDNESDAY, not the day, the show on netflix, ANYWAYS HERE IS MY RANT.

The internet is amazing, no one cares about my opinion and yet here it is.

Anyways..

Ok, so on paper it seems really good, and I love Jenna Ortega in it, she played it wonderfully and the latina representation was gorgeous, they nailed her character 100%. But the amount of missed opportunities on that dam show I swear. First of all and probably the most annoying TEENAGERS DONT TALK OR ACT LIKE THAT TF. l

Like I'm around that age and the amount of weird outfits and random coffee shop things and all that was so fucking annoying like a classic case of adults not knowing how to write teens. Also they never fucking went to class. Not once. I get that the plot was about the mystery, but they could have at least used it as a setting once or twice. Or implied there was homework, like, more than once. They went to plant school that one time but THAT WAS IT. As someone who is aggressively overwhelmed by homeowkr that I'm paralyzed by it this was widely inaccurate. And the use of the words "normie" and "outcast" was so fucking annoying. Like please stop.

Also, I feel like the plot could have been a little deeper, if they had just been more explicit about people they were representing. I've heard fan theories about how the whole thing was a metaphor for people on the autism spectrum, and I actually really liked that idea, I'm not nerodivergent, I don't think, but Wednesday seems like she would fit this well, especially with the plot line of her neglecting friends because she was extremly focused on her SPECIAL PROJECT TM. but they did zero with that. She spoke very briefly about how the pilgrams had stolen land, that was great, but that could have been taken further. When laurel said that thing about how nevermore was on "stolen" land I thought Wednesday was going to pull out books and maps and shit but NOTHING. Also, yes, I know, including a couple of black characters in the background was a ton of project for Tim Burton but come on, they could have gotten better roles/plotlines (one dead, one a dangerous bigot, one with a dysfucntional family who got the spotlight for one episode), there could have been more minorities in the cast, THEY COULD HAVE USED THEIR EXISTENCE TO TELL MORE STORIES. Wasted potential. And the one that bothers me most. WEDNESDAY ADAMS IS THE MOST QUEER CODED CHARACTER I HAVE EVER SEEN. SHES AND OUTCAST HER ONLY REAL CONNECTION WAS WITH HER FUCKING ROOMATE . THEY COULD HAVE KISSED, COME ON MAN. Wednesday was an "outcast", literally every gay kid ever. Come on. I'm too tired to lay out the arguments, but that bitch ain't straight, infact I'm pretty sure she's not even bi, girl's a lesbian. Doesn't want to turn into her parents who's whole thing is that they are madly hetero for each other that's a dead fucking giveaway. And enid's whole plot line where they actually name dropped conversion therapy was weird. And then she became a werewolf anyways? Like what was that plotline? No I'll never change for you, my disrespectful mother who wants me to be different. But I changed by myself to be that exact thing so it's fine now. Like let's be real, this was supposed to mean something, some writer thought this was meant to be like a thing about uniqueness or something, but even then what was this????

But you know what, the main plot was decent, I actually got invested, love Wednesday, and even though they hired adults to play children at least they didn't sexualize them.

[binniesthighs]

dear anon, sweet anon, thank you so much for requesting this <3 i didn’t know that i needed it in my life and now...here it is;) IT WAS SO FUN hehe

melt in your mouth | reader x jisung

Pairing: self insert, gender neutral reader x han jisung 

Genre: that good good smut 

Summary: After hearing a rather interesting story about a certain brand of chocolate aphrodisiacs, your curiosity gets the best of you and your friend’s roommate, Jisung.....a spin off of bites like bittersweet

Word count: 3.7k 

*photocreds to OP!

{see below for tags, nsfw and warnings!} 

Tags: aphrodisiac au, somewhat friends to lovers, hints of mutual pining, bestfriend!seungmin, seungmin’sroommate!jisung, hardswitch!jisung, hardswitch!reader, explicit language, mentions of food/eating, hand stuff (r &m), degredation, petnames, dirty talk, unprotected sex (stay safe cuties), creampie, voyeurism, and we love a plot twist ;)  

~💋~

two flavors seemed excessive. one flavor seemed like just enough. you didn’t want to break the bank or anything on something that was likely crappy quality or potentially psychedelic; even worse, it could be both. 

“and you want to try these with me why?” seungmin pushed his wire-framed glasses up his nose bridge and scrunched it up. he inspected the paper wrapper with a skeptical glare. the design itself was anything but trustworthy: in swirly cursive pink font, the name Cherri Amore and under it, a absurdly large lipstick mark with the outline of a couple doing what must have been fucking “spread eagle.” 

seungmin muttered, leaning over the counter of the dingy kitchen he shared with his roommates, “proven aphrodiasiac and libido booster...? y/n, sorry, i just--i’m fucking lost here--” 

“--ever heard of trying something for the hell of it seung??” you snatched the bar from his hand. “the review that i read online said that it made them crazy fucking horny, so much so that they fucked their best friend of something like five years or something like that. isn’t that insane?!” 

your best friend’s eyes blew out with his mouth aghast, “what the hell?? shit--of course you’d find something insane on the internet like this and drag me into it...”  

in your incredulous laugher, you threw your neck back so hard it hurt a little. “loosen up! it’s probably a scam or something. plus...if it does work on us...don’t act like i haven’t caught you in the act before...” 

seungmin, ever the angel, flushed a shade of fuchsia you thought inhumanly possible for someone to attempt. “that-that wasn’t--that wasn’t what you thought it was!!!” he cast away the chocolate bar as if it were his dick on the very night that you had walked in on something that was supposedly not what it looked like. 

“relax!” you punched your embarrassed friend on the arm which he dramatically rubbed into. “it’s not a sin to jerk off or anything. hell, i do it....obviously.” 

seungmin chuckled out unsteadily, “well, um, what if it does work then, what do we do?” 

you snickered, “ha! hell if i know. cross that bridge when we get there?” 

“so what you’re saying is...this could either be a massive waste of our time, or, both of us get so stupidly turned on that we decide to have sex....with eachother?” 

“that’s the gist i’m getting.” you took to the corner of the shiny pink paper wrapping at the corner. “but...who said that we had to fuck or anything...?” 

from fuchsia to nearly scarlet, seungmin averted his eyes at the speed of light. 

“seung!!! do you have something to tell me?!” your teasing grin spread wide and you lifted your hand to give your adorable friend a clap on the back. 

“i’m just repeating what you said!!” 

you broke the bar open, cracking off the first square on the counter with a solid snap. with a smirk, you offered it to your friend. he reached out, only to nearly jump out of his skin when the old-timey ringtone from his phone erupted in the hollow kitchen. 

“shit.” he murmured under his breath, pulling it out and immediately pressing the call button upon seeing the caller. “h-hello? yeah? wait, wait...slow down...the cultures did what?! and you have to start over?? shit--” 

before you could have anything to do with it, your friend was already throwing on his sneakers and sky blue raincoat. “sorry, y/n but i have to go. that was my co-worker, they said that something went bad with the incubator, and all of the cultures are ruined, and there’s the stupid lab meeting in the morning--” 

“i’m gonna pretend that i understood everything you said.” you hung at the doorway to the kitchen, observing him trip over pairs of shoes and other random-ass college-aged boy items. “you only get a pass because i have a feeling that the coworker we’re talking about here is the cute one.” 

your friend rolled his eyes, mouthing a reluctant, “yes.” 

“fine then. we can try the chocolates another time.” 

“fine--sure--” seungmin grabbed for the handle, “sorry. again.” 

~💋~

you felt like the chocolate bar was taunting you, just sitting there opened with two squares all ready for the eating. oddly, you really couldn’t figure out exactly why you had wanted to try them in the first place. for a second, the guilt and loneliness started to seep through and it felt sticky, pathetic, and stung like thorns right into your breaths. 

“fuck it.” you whispered under your breath, swiping them all up and walking over to the trash can. 

“whatcha got there?” a voice entered the room attached to one of seungmin’s roommates, jisung. 

the two of you had met many times in passing, and you had shared enough small talk to consider him somewhat of an acquaintance. from what you had gathered about the boy, he spent much too much time in his room working on his animations and was the dictionary definition of one of those cocky-assholes you had a soft spot for. 

“jisung--hey. it’s...it’s nothing. something stupid that i blew my money on.” 

“let me see.” he crossed the room, looking wired and overtired as usual. 

from staring at his screen for so long his eyes bagged with dark circles, but somehow it made him look mischievous, or something like that. his muscle tank had been cut low to reveal his sides and ribs which flared when he grabbed for the bar of chocolate. 

“huh.” he scoffed, “i’ve seen like, infomercials for these things. you were going to try it?” 

“yeah...i-i mean--no...i was.” 

“what’s stopping you? not curious anymore?” 

“window of opportunity passed.” 

“i don’t think so.” he grinned, matter of a fact. “i like chocolate.” 

you couldn’t quite believe what was being said to you at first. jisung, the boy that you barely knew, was standing there with his goofy heart-shaped smile and all, holding libido boosters and asking you to take them with him. 

“you do know what those are, right? what they could do?” 

immediately, he popped one in his mouth, nearly like it was a challenge. “empahsis on the “could.”” 

he held them closer to you, prompting you to take the remaining square which was flecked with little red hard-candy looking bits. 

“fine then. you’re right. what they could do.” you downed the candy, crunching it and finding that the quality was certainly not a guarantee. the thing itself tasted halfway between a tootsie roll and cold medicine. “fuck.” 

jisung laughed, throwing the rest of the bar away.

“what did you that for?” 

“i’m guessing whether they work or not, you might not need them anymore.” 

your friend’s roommate slicked his hair back, and ruffled it over his dark eyes. his face was slightly puffed with exhaustion, but it didn’t make him any less handsome. 

“so we wait now?” you asked, glancing at the clock. 

“wanna order some food or something?” he smacked his lips, “i need a fucking chaser after that.” 

~💋~

you didn’t know what time it was; late, probably. after a couple hours of realizing that nothing was really going to happen to you or your friend’s roommate, you had decided to stop expecting it. although, you had kind of hoped...

the sofa that the boys shared was just about as comfortable as you had remembered it. it was large enough to hold you and seungmin’s two roommates on better days, but, once again, random-ass college-boy stuff cluttered at least half of it. it was one of those “dumpster finds” and kind of smelled like a grandma’s house, but honestly, that was what made it so comfortable. 

the tv carried on, playing some kind of animated movie that jisung had chosen claiming that the director was some kind of “god of animation and storytelling.” you liked the colors, but soon you felt yourself being lulled and drowsy: your head felt heavy simply resting on your shoulders. 

your eyelids fogged, and the sounds from the tv set started to fade into inexistence. beside you, jisung had crossed his arms, but the lack of space had pressed both of your thighs together, and the warmth from his leg started to wash over your drowsy state. your head bobbed, swayed...then fell, directly onto his shoulder. had you been more lucid, you would have cared more. 

“oh--” he jumped slightly, and shifted awkwardly. 

the room darkened and soon all you could see was the thin line of light that your half-open eyes allowed. 

“this-this can’t be comfortable for you.” jisung hushed and clicked the tv off. “hey, you should be heading to bed anyway, it’s late.” 

“are you kicking me out, jisung?” you babbled, not really aware of your own words. 

your friend’s roommate chuckled, straightening his posture to support you. “i’m not gonna make you walk back to your place at this time of night.” 

“it’s only a couple of blocks--” 

“--you’ve slept over here before, haven’t you?” 

you stretched out your arms with a little squeak.

“yeah. on the couch.” 

“you...can’t do that. you’d have to sleep in a fucking corkscrew if you did that.” 

“yeah, i know.” you giggled, now finding yourself in a kind of stupor that made you wonder if the chocolates really were doing their job. “i’ll just take seung’s bed then--” 

“--he’s! not back...yet.” jisung hugged his arms to himself. “i dunno, shouldn’t he have his bed when he comes back?” he cleared his throat, composing himself. “of course, there’s space in my bed if you’d like.” 

“me? sleep with you?” 

“yes, with me.” just as he had before, that little challenging edge coated his tone, “only if you’re comfortable i mean. i guess that i’m forgetting that the most that the two of us have shared yet is some wack-ass chocolate so, i shouldn’t be making any assumptions.” 

“no, no!” you pounced off from the couch, reaching high to the ceiling to stretch out your sore back next. and, perhaps to let your shirt tuck up just a little bit as you did so. “i don’t have a problem with it.” 

jisung nodded, grinning in the half-lit room, cleaning away to-go boxes. you had noticed before, but the way that his triceps tensed when he moved around was really just a little too distracting. 

“you can head on in, but--be quieter about it. jeongin is sleeping in here.” 

you clicked off a sleepy salute, following the hall down exactly where you had known his room to be, but you had never entered it before. it didn’t surprise you, but it was just as messy as the rest of the place was, and you had to tip-toe around god-knows what to find your way.

after tripping on something soft and sort of damp, (which you prayed was a shower-towel) you made your way to jisung and his face illuminated by the blue-glow of his phone screen where he had immediately jumped in bed after navigating through the room much more skillfully than you had.  

“you have an issue if i sleep in my underwear?” you asked, realizing. 

jisung paused, wide eyed, but quickly fell back into his casual and cocky smirk. “i mean, that’s basically what i’m doing so...”  

“scooch over. i hope you’re not a blanket hogger or anything.” 

the bed was already pleasantly warm from jisung having occupied it. it would have felt amazing if you had been as tired as you had been moments ago, but now your entire body felt horribly wide-awake. 

“--and if you start to snore, i’m leaving you for the couch, got it?” 

jisung let out an airy laugh, shifting and creaking the bed a bit under him, “i don’t snore...for your information.” 

with the blankets pulled up to your nose, you turned to lay on your back, eyes finally adjusting to the darkness of the room. above you, the faint green glow of glow-in-the-dark stars sprinkled across the ceiling, making up constellations: from what you could make out, the big dipper was above jisung’s bed, and the little one was above jeongin’s, who peacefully slept with tiny breaths. 

jisung rolled to the side, accidently brushing his bare leg against yours. 

“night, y/n. sorry the chocolates didn’t work out. would’ve been kind of hilarious if they did.” 

“psh.” you rolled over too, closing your eyes, “you saying you would’ve taken up the opportunity to get in my pants?” 

“guess we’ll never know.” he sighed. 

~💋~

birds chirped, signaling the coming sunrise what was nearly breaking upon the horizon, and filled with deep blue sky with a type of orange-glow. the room was dim and stuffy, and noticeably much hotter than you remembered it being before. over the course of the night, you had tangled your legs with the sheets, finding them trapping you between them, and you shuffled to escape them and feel the air hit your skin. they shifted, letting you feeling the sticky mess between your legs. 

“what the--” the aching and heated desire made itself painfully obvious, soaking directly through your underwear, making a wet mess of them where you throbbed with an utterly unexplainable arousal that reverberated in your core. 

the friction from your legs only heightened the sensation, and you found yourself unwillingly rutting down into the mattress just to feel an ounce of relief. 

fuck, the chocolates, you recalled. while you had expected to feel something from them, this was twenty times more intense than anything you could have planned for. 

you were like an animal in heat, vulnerable, weak, dazed. your body set ablaze, and it only made sense to strip of any and all clothing that held you back. in your own desperation, you had completely forgotten about the man resting next to you. 

“y/n? what's--what are you doing?” jisung groggily croaked in a tone several octaves lower than you were accustomed to. your brain could only calculate it is as downright, unbelievably sexy. 

“jisung, i’m fucking burning up, an-and, i think i’m finally feeling something....are you?” 

he hadn’t noticed it at first until he did, but from where he could see where the blanket dipped all the way down to your waist, you were completely bare. with fluttering eyes, he gulped down dry. you noticed the way that he took you all in, looking at every inch of you. you reveled in how he greedily and shamelessly didn’t stop. 

under the covers, his own legs twisted. 

“me too.” he answered gravely, speaking with a low whisper.  

carefully, his tentative touch advanced under the covers, slowly reaching to your bare hip, where he settled a testing caress, squeezing harder, then cascaded down the small of your back to make you shiver. your own hand did the same, instead finding his leg and creeping your hand up and under his shirt. little space existed between the two of you, and only the panting of your heavy inhales and exhales could be heard. 

your eyes glued to his, beautifully brown and dilating, trembling a little while holding yours. from his light touches, it took every bit of your will to control yourself from launching over him. jisung’s hand fell lower, and toyed with the elastic band of your underwear which had started to feel painfully confining. each of your own fingers traveled up his torso, brushing over his chest which made his whole body shake. 

“sh-shit, i’m so fucking--” jisung started, dropping off his words to let out a wavering sigh. you didn’t need to guess any further. 

jisung slid two fingers under your elastic band, and it became too much to handle. 

“please, touch me jisung.” you whined out pitifully, clawing directly into the soft muscles of his back. 

you were shocked how quickly he had given into you, immediately crashing his lips against yours first, then using both arms to pull you into his chest so close it stole all of your breath away. you kissed him back roughly, ravenous to feel the sensation of his mouth against your own. he growled out a small groan directly into your lips, sloppily working every single corner and edge of your mouth with a devilish smile curling his own. 

lower, both of your hips met flush, grinding and twisting to create the kind of pressure that the both of you craved. limbs twisted, sweating and heated skin mingled, and you could feel every bit of his hardened cock right against your own arousal and how his shaft throbbed helplessly. 

“you taste so good.” he murmured between haphazard kisses, letting his low tone vibrate against you. 

“take these off.” you ordered, tugging at his boxers, nearly taking them off yourself. 

“take yours off.” he echoed, and you did. 

curious hands plunged deeper, delighting fingers in the slick of the other’s cum. 

“fuck.” jisung dragged the explicative over your lip where he lapped lazily into you. “don’t stop.” 

you gave him a moment’s pause, stopping to wet your palm with saliva, then met it with his cock. you worked his length with the sharp and twisting turn of your wrist, causing him to whimper out shamelessly. 

“shhh.” you hissed, pulling his lip with our teeth, “don’t want to wake up your roommate do we?” 

he nodded, biting each and every tantalizing little sound into his lip instead. your own breaths grew shallow feeling the pressure from his hand between your legs and how he had grabbed into your thigh to swing it over his hip for better access. 

“wouldn’t you like me to fuck you out, baby? fuck you like the good little cock whore that you are for me? i’ve seen the way that you look...you’ve wanted this...haven’t you?” jisung’s words were slick and luxurious despite their bite.  

to suppress the begging moan in your throat, you cupped your hand over your mouth, and pressed hard into it. 

the blanket tented from your pulling at his cock and how you rubbed over his slit: it was an ethereal sight even in the blurriness of the room. 

slowly, you leaned over to his ear, waist rocking back and forth over the sensation of his hand rubbing into you relentlessly. “don’t lie baby, you want my ass bouncing on your cock...don’t you?” 

in one movement, he swept his full body weight over yours and harshly pulled your legs back to open your entrance just for him to tease with his tip. he guided himself in slowly and meticulously, bottoming out once you had sunk your fingers into his shoulders to manage some of the screams you would have let out otherwise. 

“fuck yes, baby.” jisung growled, finding an animalistic pace that burned your whole body with white flames of pleasure. 

you grew impatient wondering furiously what his cute little pouty cheeks would look like when you fucked him from above, riding his dick. you wouldn’t wait any further, taking your grasp on his shoulders to then flip him, settling your hips over his dick which you pounced on to the tune of one of his moans slipping past, loud and guttural. 

“shut. the fuck. up.” you scolded him, throwing your hand over his pretty mouth. he whimpered out once again, eyes rolling feeling the tip of his dick reach as deeply inside of you as you would let it.  “cum inside me sungie, i won’t stop until I have every last drop.” 

jisung nodded, chest flaring as his breaths quickened. 

“cum for me baby, and i’ll cum for you...got it?” your breathy whispers scratched your throat, but you needed him to hear. 

you held his eyes which glistened with two pretty little tears that fell  as he came hard, shaking with his whole body and letting each of his gleeful moans come spiraling into your hand. 

your own heat came surging, right at your core, growing....growing...

a lamplight flashed on. 

“WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING? WHAT THE--WHAT THE--” 

jeongin threw his sheets over his eyes, while shuddering. “I WAS FUCKING SLEEPING!!” 

his shrill scream sent you jumping out of your lust, and you scrambled off jisung’s throbbing and pink cock, and forgetting the force of gravity, which sent his cum dripping out from inside of you. in your panic, you grabbed at anything to cover up your body and his, only to get so tangled that you lost your balance on the edge of the bed and.....

~💋~

THUMP 

your body hit the wooden floor of jisung and jeongin’s room, right on your butt where you knew that it would be hurting for weeks. 

as disoriented as you were, it took you a good few minutes to realize what had actually just happened. 

“y/n?” jisung called with his groggy half-awake, half-asleep tone. “did you just fall out of the bed?” 

on the opposite side of the room, you whipped your head over to see jeongin still peacefully sleeping with his back turned to jisung’s bed.

“fuck--um, yeah. i did. shit...” 

jisung chuckled in the dark room just barely peeking with the first bits of the sunrise in streaming into the room. 

“i don’t know how you did that considering i gave you plenty of space. get back up here.” 

still dazed and brain overheating, you could have sworn you felt the little aftershocks of the orgasm that felt so real still coursing through your body. 

you felt it too: the way that your underwear had slicked. some part of it all must’ve been real. 

“jisung--” you started, not even sure if you wanted to tell him in the first place. “are you certain that you didn’t feel anything?” 

jisung turned to face you and shook his head, “no, you?” 

you hesitated, holding his eyes to see that he must have been telling the truth. 

“i just...i just had this insane dream...” 

“dream? about what?” 

“it’s hard to explain...” you trailed. 

“you look kind of shaken up, are you sure that you’re okay?” jisung extended a careful hand, and smoothed down the side of your face in the way that had felt frighteningly real only seconds ago. his hand lingered, falling down your neck and giving you goosebumps. your eyes fell to his lips, and you wondered if they would taste like you had imagined them to be. 

you leaned in closer, closing the gap. 

“it went something like this.” 

~🌹~

Bunch of (Ro)ses! 

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