#buster doing that face for acting or…?

[patchwork-crow-writes]

The Roaring Knight encounter at the end of Chapter 3 is a masterclass at showing you that the REAL protagonist of Deltarune isn't Kris - it's Susie.

This doesn't really make much sense at first glance - you can't even really FIGHT the thing on equal footing without the Shadow Mantle, and to even get that Kris has to go through a harrowing gauntlet and fight a whole OTHER secret boss that doesn't even use the battle mechanics we've grown accustomed to. Kris Suffers to get that item, the one thing that can let them stand up to the Knight's merciless assaults. Hell, the game won't even let you retry if you lose until you have the Mantle in your possession. You would therefore assume that the Mantle belongs to Kris, and that they are the ones who should wear it.

And yet. Even when you don't have this item, who stands up to defy it? Susie. Who stops it from doing... whatever it was trying to do to Toriel, TWICE? Susie. And who gives chase across the boundary between light and dark, across the entirety of hometown, to stop it from abducting Undyne? Why, it's Susie. Her actions are those of a hero standing up to a terrible villain of unknowable power, and she does it without a shred of hesitation, even faced with the very real prospect of being killed.

And if that were it, it'd be kind of boring. But that's not it at all, because the reinforcement of this idea continues into the fight itself. Because if you can keep Susie alive for five turns, she starts monologuing against the boss, telling it how much it sucks and that she'll always have her friends behind her.

The Knight is presented to us as unknowable, invincible, unstoppable. Regular attacks bounce off of its absurdly high HP, it cannot be Checked like a normal enemy, attempts to reason with it fall on deaf ears. And yet, what's the one spell that can meaningfully hurt the Knight, to the point of temporarily disrupting its form? Susie's Rude Buster.

And then, when you throw yourself at the Knight again and again, trying to figure out its weakness, trying to outlast its brutal onslaught, it hits you - the Shadow Mantle does NOTHING for Kris in this fight, but it does EVERYTHING for Susie. Susie's the one doing all the damage. Susie's high HP perfectly compliments the shadow mantle's protection against the Knight's more absurd attacks. Ralsei has no way to meaningfully contribute to the fight at all, and while Kris can use Hold Breath to give the SOUL a boost, their utility begins and ends there. The most that either of them can really do is to act as TP and healing bots for Susie, and to equip weak armours that have beneficial effects, such as the TwinRibbon, Silver Watch, Blue Ribbon, TensionBow and Lodestone - the effects of these items persist regardless of whether the character wearing them is DOWNed or not, and, you guessed it, are equipped not to help them survive, but to allow them to support Susie even when incapacitated.

Then you start seeing it in other areas. Who is it that facilitates change in the other characters - Ralsei, Noelle, Berdly? Susie does, each and every time. She effortlessly upends their own myopic views of the world, defying them to change and be better, without even really realising that's what she's doing - is it any wonder that EVERYONE in the main cast seems to have a thing for her? She's magnetic in the way that heroes are, not despite her brashness and short temper but BECAUSE of them - because she cuts so effortlessly through the FICTIONS that other characters cling to, the stories they tell themselves about who they are, what they can do, and how they ought to be. Susie shatters those preconceptions and offers an alternative - live how you want to live, make the choices that you want to make, and let no-one else ever tell you who you are.

Susie is the hero of Deltarune, and the Roaring Knight's fight encapsulates why perfectly, without ever once drawing attention to the fact. It's sheer genius on Toby's part and I salute the skill with which it conveys those ideas in such an organic way.

[keferon]

Still in the hospital but bored af so here's Part Two of fish dad

PART 2 of A Family can be A Fish and his Foster Kids

—-

Trailbreaker watched the mer approach their dock of concrete and broken cars, long tan body cutting through the water like butter. Soundwave held his hand tightly, Ravage curled around his shoulders. The twins and Windcharger were pressed against Trailbreaker’s back, the twins holding onto an arm each, Wrap on his left and TC on his right. Buster, TC’s service dog for his seizures, stood in front of his boy. Damus held Soundwave’s other hand in a vice grip, the cloths around his mangled hands dripping slightly, Skids behind him holding onto his shoulders.

The mer seemed to take them all in, large inhuman blue eyes tracking over one child to the next. It didn't make any more movement, except to lift it's torso out of the water.

Trailbreaker tensed as the mer revealed its true height, torso alone bigger than any human man. He took a half-step back, placing himself a little more firmly in front of the twins.

“He's so cool.” TC whispered softly, voice shattering the tense silence. Soundwave flinched back at the sound, his hat nearly falling off as the red glasses he used for his migraines fell a little off his nose.

“Dude!” Windcharger snapped, glaring at the other boy.

“It's true!” Warp said, voice raising in defense of his brother, his need to defend his twin overriding his fear.

And, in Trailbreaker’s opinion, his Goddamn Common Sense.

“Do…” Skids spoke up, running his hands over Damus’s wet hair nervously. "Do ye think th’ bloke’s friendly?” He asked, looking at Soundwave. “Th’ mers at th’ ‘quarium didn’ seem so bad, y’know. Not ta us kids.”

“Those were orcas.” Soundwave said slowly, squinting at the mer in front of them, still quietly watching the group of boys. "And trained to perform. We have no idea how this one will act.”

There was a moment of silence, before Thundercracker let go of Trailbreaker's arm and took a step forward, Buster by his side.

“I'm gonna go say hi.”

Trailbreaker made a move to grab TC’s shirt, fingers falling short as his brothers who were still holding onto him pulled him back.

“Wait, TC, no-” He called, only to be cut off by Ravage’s fur in his face, the cat having jumped off of Soundwave’s shoulders to follow the boy and dog.

Soundwave made a noise Trailbreaker never wanted to hear again but didn't move, all of them watching as TC walked up to the mer, dog and cat right next to him. Trailbreaker felt like he was going to pass out, heart pounding in his head.

“Hi!” Thundercracker said brightly, one hand on Buster’s head, the other held out as if the goddamn fish was going to SHAKE IT. Ravage wound herself around TC’s legs, sitting down on his feet like she could prevent the boy from moving any further.

Warp was trembling in Trailbreaker’s arms, barely held back from going to tackle his twin and bring him back to the group. Trailbreaker felt like Soundwave’s hand and Windcharger’s grip on his OWN shirt were the only things preventing him from grabbing the kid. (And maybe strangling him a little. He'd deserve it. Warp would have to understand)

A huge hand lifted out of the water, clawed and tan and big enough to crush TC like a fucking twig. The middle schooler didn't even flinch, keeping his own hand held out steady.

Trailbreaker practically felt Soundwave deflate as the mer gently shook Thundercracker’s tiny hand in its own much MUCH larger one.

“Guys, see?" Thundercracker said with a grin, wiping his hand off on his shirt, though that didn't help much. “He's nice!”

The mer looked back at their group, dipping lower into the water and smiling up at them.

“That's great, kid.” Trailbreaker said softly, trying to mentally teleport Thundercracker back to his side. “Can um- can you come back now?” He asked, trying to ignore how his voice cracked.

Ravage meowed loudly and jumped onto the mers head, provoking something that sounded suspiciously like a chirp from the fish itself. Soundwave’s cat, notorious for hating anybody and everybody except for Soundwave himself, settled into a loaf.

Soundwave let go of Trailbreaker’s hand to adjust his hat and glasses, sniffed once, and took a step forward, beginning to walk towards the fish with Skids and Damus in town.

“Ravage likes him.” He said simply in response to Trailbreaker's utter look of fear.

Trailbreaker took a breath, acknowledged that level of logic, and pulled Skywarp and Windcharger forward.

If nothing else, he could make sure the fish ate him FIRST, if it turned out they were wrong.

—----

HELP. Shockwave got cat-approved ahajakdmdmdbKFKDBDH OH THIS IS AMAZING

Just the. The mental image of this giant fish guy with tiny ass cat-loaf on his head??? I had to doodle it hehejej

[bobur-the-berry-guy]

HEKLO I LOVE YOUR PHANTOM BUSTERS HCS THEY'RE SO SILLY AND CUTE

Do you think I can ask for Hcs of the PB boys + Ichimiya about hickyes.. Perchance.. Like reader giving them to them and them giving them to us.. THANKYOU

Phantom busters makeout and such hcs!

•Oh anon, LET ME TELL YOU ABT THE AMOUNT OF FREAKY REQUESTS?? I DIDN'T EXPECT THESE, AT ALL??? keep em coming tho, live laugh love phantom busters

••also writer's block caused by horde of exams and life decisions are fucking me in the ass with a figurative bad dragon didlo rn means you guys won't be getting scheduled posts for a bit💔

•••PRAY FOR ME TO PASS THE EXAMS W AN ACTUALLY GOOD GRADE YALL IM SWEATING

ft. Mogari, Eugene, Kaoru, Tamon, Ichimiya

‧₊˚ ⋅* ‧₊✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧⋆.˚✮•🍒•✮˚.⋆✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧‧₊˚ ⋅* ‧₊

ᯓ★୭˚ Mogari

⋆｡𖦹° Making out with him is.. an experience. I mean, you're literally his only experience to begin with. He goes in a bit too fast sometimes but he's just so enthusiastic about it. He makes out with you like there's a spirit he needs to eat and it's hiding somewhere in your lungs. He goes in with a few small pecks and smooches at first and suddenly dives in for the real deal. You'll be feeling his tongue in your mouth like he's trying to memorise exactly how it feel, and if you let him kiss your jaw and lower you'll probably be feeling his tongue on your neck too.

This man BITES. I think that was already obvious but yk i had to start off with that. He's ruthless and he just doesn't fucking get exactly why you're so embarrassed about all the bites and the hickeys he's leaving on you. He loves you, right? Then why are you acting like people seeing that is the most shameful thing to ever happen to you? Even then, i don't think he really bites that hard. He leaves a mark but he makes it in a way that he knows doesn't genuinely hurt you. It just stings a bit, but that's ok. If you decide to bite him back he's all for it. He doesn't feel shame about ut either - he won't go around showing the bites n hickeys to everyone but he won't try to hide them.. at all.

⋆｡𖦹° School is over for the day, but for some reason you're still in school.

For the past.. however long, you've been making out with Mogari in the club room.

It started with a few pecks in the morning, a teasing word here and there, pulling each other into an empty hallway for a bit more than pecks. And in the end, here you are.

Sat on top of the table with Mogari kissing you like he's trying to taste what's the last dessert you ate.

He moves a bit, angling his head to kiss the corner of your mouth, down your face to your neck, peppering you with feverish kisses until you're brought back from the haze and you feel his teeth on you.

Looking back at him, he's staring at the bite he left around a hickey he'd just made proudly, like he painted the next Mona Lisa.

His eyes shoot up to look at you, and he smiles so smug you can feel the mischief dripping from his smirk.

"Think i can give ya a few more?"

ᯓ★୭˚ Eugene

⋆｡𖦹° You won't even realize you're making out with him until you feel your breath escaping you like it's trying to become his breath instead. He escalates it slowly, he's so gentle and careful and when you give him a sign you're comfortable with the pace he's upping it up a bit by bit until you pull away and it feels like the world is running circles around you and he's the only other thing in the center of that carousel.

As for hickeys and bites - he actually really enjoys leaving them on you. The flustered face it leaves on you. And he's slick with it. You'd think the fact that he's a nerd and acts so prim and proper would mean he's actually like that. Yea, no. To his credit, he does make sure to leave them in places that aren't obvious. It's just that they aren't exactly well-hidden either. If you open up your shirt a bit more or someone in the changing room catches you without it you're done for. He'd be more apprehensive about you leaving any marks on him given he has to keep up with the whole perfect student thing, but that doesn't mean you can't catch him in a moment of weakness. He's just gonna have to be extra careful to not let someone else see the little gift you've left on him. In the end, he actually likes seeing you've left a mark on him too.

⋆｡𖦹° Today you've got a learning session with Eugene over at his house.

He's got it all prepared - the books, the notes, the study plan, the schedule on when to take breaks and what lessons to go over. That was the plan anyway.

And honestly? The plan be damned.

Instead of going over the last math lesson right now you're sat, almost laying on Eugene's bed with him hovering over you, kissing you like he's trying to steal your breath.

One of his hands holds his weight to keep him from falling flat on top of you while the other hold you gently by the small of your back, keeping you from moving too far away from him to his liking.

He pulls away for a second to look at you and he stares like he's having the time of his life just having you looking so flustered in front of him, but you've got quite the view yourself.

He's staring at you, his messy hair out of it's usual hairstyle, cheeks flushed a pretty pink and breathing heavily. There's a glint in his eye that tells you you're in for a ride.

And right then he dips his head to leave a few pecks along the side of your face down the side of your jaw before he stops to suck down low behind your ear.

He parts his mouth from your neck with a wet sound before he dips back down to keep going, and you feel the smirk on his mouth when he talks.

"We can take longer break now, yeah?"

ᯓ★୭˚ Kaoru

⋆｡𖦹° God, he's SO nervous about it. He's never been with anyone, nobody else has ever really wanted him around quite like that, and suddenly you kiss him and he forgets which planet he's on. He feels his blood rushing to his head and his face going red and his heart feels like its gonna explode but he likes it. And he wants you to keep kissing him until he faints. Which will happen if you don't give him time to get used to the whole kissing and making out part of the relationship. Take it slow and easy, not only for his sake but yours too. I feel like having him all blushing and disheveled and looking at you all dazed and loving would give you heart attack.

Honestly, he's painfully shy when it comes to hickeys and bites. You'd probably have to hype him up a bit or straight up tell him to not be scared to leave some marks because otherwise he'd take his sweet time to grow the balls to do it. He just doesn't wanna unintentionally hurt you, you know? That being said, he'd combust on the spot the second he feels you either biting or sucking on his neck. He's frozen on the spot and he has no intention of moving at all. He's all yours.

⋆｡𖦹° It's a lazy hot afternoon. The type that you hear the crickets and cicadas making a symphony outside and wish you lived in an iceberg. It's the perfect time to stay home if you don't have any urgent business to go out and about. That's exactly the reason you and Kaoru ditched coming to the phantom busters club hangout 15 minutes ago, with the promise you'd arrive later.

That, and the fact you've been making out for the past half-hour.

You didn't even make it to his room - you were cuddling, kissed each other a few sweet kisses on the couch and just.. stayed there. Thankfully his sister isn't home, and isn't supposed to be for a while.

Still on top if him, you lift yourself a bit up so you can keep kissing comfortably. You kiss him in the lips a few more times before moving to the side of his mouth and then littering smooches all over his face, gradually moving up his temples then down to his jaw.

And he looks so cute like that - all red and flustered, breathing a bit heavy and averting his eyes to look at the floor shyly. It's just so adorable you can't help yourself.

And you bite down on the side of his neck.

He gasps a bit when he feels you sucking lightly at the place you bit, but doesn't try to move you away when he feels you repeat that.

When you back up to see the work you've done, he's already looking at you.

"Wait- hold on, move a bit. I wanna leave some on you too."

ᯓ★୭˚ Tamon

⋆｡𖦹° The things I'd to to make out with him.. anyway. He'd be so nervous in the beginning - clumsy, flustered, face as red as a lobster and his ears are practically steaming from just a few prolonged kisses. He needs to get a bit more used to it, but when he finally gets comfortable with making out you'd think it's his goal to make your world spin. He's keeping the first few kisses sweet and gentle and he's gradually deepening them until you feel like you'd melt on his lips if he doesn't break the kiss himself. Even then, when he pulls away you'll feel him practically panting a few centimeters away from you, waiting for you to let him kiss you again. His face is a a soft red and his cheeks are practically glowing with how hot they are, and he's still staring at you like you're the only thing on his earth, and he just wants to keep kissing you.

When it comes to bites and hickeys, he's also nervous about these too. Just like the rest of the cast smh he hasn't had any prior experience, so he doesn't know what to do exactly. Let him get comfortable until he gets the hang of this. But when be does he's an actual menace. Not because he'd do it often, on the contrary - he does it rarely, but you can never guess just when he'd decide to do it. You're making out and smothering each other with kisses and he's dipping his head down to kiss your jaw, your neck and suddenly you feel a dull sting and would you look at that? You have a small, barely noticeable trail of a few tiny purple hickeys leading down your neck to your collarbone. Maybe a bit lower if he's feeling brave. If you decide you want to mark him up, he's all yours. The slower you go, the hazier his mind gets. You could've done barely anything and he's still so worked up over the fact you're kissing all over his collarbones and you're slightly tugging the collar of his shirt away so you can keep sucking small bruises into his skin.

⋆｡𖦹° It's been such an exhausting day of lazing around and doing basically nothing with Tamon, but the summer heat is to blame. The nightfall bring with it not only salvation from the heat but also a newfound spring of energy that you missed during the day, but that also means you need a way to spend it. And what better way than making out with Tamon?

You're on his bed, straddling him, making the room feel hotter despite the breeze coming in trough the open window.

He's leaning back a bit to give you the space to lean forward into him, one arm holding his weight and the other firmly placed on your waist as if making sure you don't disappear from his grasp.

And he looks just as good as he sounds too. Little whimpers and sighs escaping his peachy swollen lips, cheeks flushed that same warm color and his pretty brown eyes glazed over, making them appear even shinier in the dim room.

After a particularly delicious whine from him you pull back to look at him for a second before diving back in.

Slowly you tug at his supporting arm and he lies on his back slowly, making sure you don't fall on top of him and still letting you continue kissing him even as he's lying back down.

Now lying in top of him you move down easier, leaving a trail of burning kisses, each with a bit more pressure than the last.

Sucking and biting on his neck down to the collarbone, making sure the marks you leave aren't too eye-catching while still not being hidden either.

His little whimpers only egg you on as you bite on a particular spot between the junction of his neck and his collarbones, and you finally lift yourself up to look at his face again.

His breath is ragged and his face is almost steaming just from that, his wet jewel-like eyes looking right back into yours. In his perspective, you look like something akin to a mythical creature or a predator - teasingly holding onto the hem of his shirt while your other hand is placed over his heart, staring at him with pupils blown wide. Staring at him like you want to eat him.

And honestly? He'd let you do it too.

"Y'know, you can keep going.. if you want to... please."

ᯓ★୭˚ Ichimiya

⋆｡𖦹° He's such a loser, i love him. You've got a MAJOR nerd packaged in the body of an untouchable student council president. What does that mean? Zero experience. The first time you ever kissed him he almost had a heart attack internally, on the outside it pretty much looked like he was stuck somewhere between shocked at the audacity and shocked at the tenderness. Making out with him is like putting your hand in a box and taking something out without looking - you never know what to expect. Or at least most of the times. He's usually shy and meek when it comes to making out, letting you do the work and enjoy yourself kissing him until he feels feverish and lightheaded. Though sometimes he gets the courage to be the one leading you, and that results in you looking as disheveled as you make him feel when you're smothering him with kisses.

As to bites and hickeys.. he's SO nervous about them but he enjoys them even more. It's the counter-intuitive part of him that views it as a little secret break from his student council president persona. He likes leaving marks on you, but likes you leaving marks on him even more. It feels like you're claiming him as yours even when you knows he's a different person under the diligent student mask and that has him in a chokehold. So, please, do as you wish and cover him with bites and hickeys from head to toe - just make sure he can hide him under the uniform, yeah?

⋆｡𖦹° "Hold on- wait— did you hear anything?!"

Yes, you heard something. It's the students on the other side of the locked student council room door. The same door that lets you steal a moment of affection with Ichimiya. And maybe half an hour or so for some couple time.

By now he's all red and flustered, barely looking you in the eyes from just how shy he feels under your gaze. Even his forever serious face melts under the atmosphere - locked in the room just to have you alone. How scandalous!

And despite that he keeps pulling you back for another kiss. And then another, and another.

It's risky, yes - what if some really needs help? But then again, it's lunch hour. Nobody will question Ichimiya on why he chose to go over some documents now and nobody will question why you aren't sitting down to eat with your friends as usual. But then again, what's life without some risks?

Giving him a playful scoff and a "yeah, im hearing you keeping it quiet" you pull him back by the tie and kiss him again.

Now straddling him as he's sitting at the desk, your other hand moves to the back of his neck to pull him closer. Practically sucking the air out of his lungs as you keep kissing him you let your tongue brush over his lips and he pulls back with a startled whine to catch his breath.

You don't let that stop you though. Leaving kisses all over the side of his face you barely move your lips from his skin, deepening them with each passing kiss. Moving your head down to the collar of his shirt you loosen his tie and move it to make space for you to continue your trail of kisses.

Looking at him in the eyes, while you unbutton the first button of his shirt and continue to kiss him down to his collarbones, stopping short of the second button.

Leaning back to look at him again, you notice the fee hickeys you've left on the base of his neck. Thankfully for him, they'd be covered by the uniform when he fixes it up.

You look at the time and give him a short-lived passionate kiss before helping him fix the uniform and look presentable again. His usual scowl is back on his face, but even that can't hide the blush on his cheeks and the infatuated look he has when he looks at you.

".. we should do this more often."

‧₊˚ ⋅* ‧₊✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧⋆.˚✮•🍒•✮˚.⋆✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧‧₊˚ ⋅* ‧₊

(⁠=⁠^⁠･⁠ｪ⁠･⁠^⁠=⁠)/ request, as always, are open!

[freshxsturniolo]

haunted jealousy - chris sturniolo x femreader

summary : you had been a sam and colby fan for years and when they asked the triplets to film with them, your boyfriend chris could not wait to tell you and bring you along for the weekend. it was also common knowledge that colby was your biggest "celebrity" crush, but chris thinks nothing of it until you actually met and start to get along, and his jealousy takes over him.

mentions / warnings : fluff. smut. slight angst? swearing. pet names.

"are you not scared that your boyfriend might be about to get possessed?" chris says, throwing his arm around your neck as he walks by your side to the restaurant you were planning on meeting sam and colby.

you look up at chris as his fingers graze your shoulder, his other hand in the pocket of his hoodie.

"youre a pain in my ass now, never mind possessed." you joke, and he pushes away from you in a joking manor.

"might mean you can run off into the distance with colby" he said, a joking grin on his face as he came in front of you, walking backwards as you continued to step forward into him.

"with any luck" you joke, and you laugh as chris slams his hands to his heart, letting out a cry.

it was no secret you had had a crush on colby brock since you first found their channel, way back before chris and his brothers had even started their channel, way before you and chris even considered their could be anything more than friendship between the two of you. colby was your "celebrity fantasy" if you will, and your guilty pleasure. chris loved to tease you on it all the time, but it was always in jest.

"we're here" matt shouts from in front of you, and chris turns around, coming to a stop so you accidentally walk straight into him.

"fuck" you whisper, stepping back, and he turns to grab your hand, laughing once he realises youre not hurt. your relationship with chris was always like this. making jokes, having banter, being the best of friends. but he was in every single heartbeat your loving, caring, boyfriend too.

you step to the side, gripping chris' hand in yours as you walk across to both matt and nick, as you stand and wait for sam and colby to arrive. tomorrow, they would be filming their video, where they go and investigate a popular haunted hotel, but tonight they wanted to formally meet for the first time. they had all been sending messages back and forth for the last few months, so they already felt like friends. of course, you were just the little tag along that wanted to be involved, but when chris' had made everyone aware you were coming, they were more than happy.

after a few minutes of waiting, your eyes finally land on the blonde and brunette walking towards you. it felt weird to be excited, but it equally felt weird your boyfriend and best friend where fast becoming friends with them too. once they reach you, they all dap each other up, a chorus of hellos, how are yous, how was the flights, before chris introduces you.

you say hello to them both, both of them coming in to give you a hug.

"shes a huge fan" chris chuckled behind you.

"chris" you give him an eye as you pull away from your hug with colby, looking back at him to see him laughing down at you.

"we appreciate it" colby says, and you give him a nod before he turns and walks into the restaurant.

its super lowkey, not many people in, but its lovely all the same. as you take your seats, chris sitting to your left, you cant help but be shocked when colby sits beside you and you give him a smile. checking the menu you all order food and drinks, before sam starts to tell the triplets exactly what it is they'll be doing tomorrow. youre invested, of course, being a fan of sam and colby and genuinely interested in their content, but youre caught off guard when you hear colbys voice.

"what are you doing tomorrow?" he asks, taking a sip of his drink.

"whilst you're acting ghost busters?" you joke, and he coughs on his drinks which makes you laugh, before giving you a nod. "ive bought plenty of books to keep me occupied. i know you guys film until early hours so i'll probably try get some sleep before they all come bouncing in." you laugh, and colby laughs with you.

"chris says youre a huge fan?" colby says now, and you give your boyfriend a side eye before turning back to colby.

"i swear im not crazy. ive just watched you for so many years, this just all feels a little surreal" you admit. but before you know it, you're chatting away like you'd met a thousand times. your food comes and you slowly pick your way at it, listening to stories from videos they had never put out, or things they've seen when they aren't even filming, your eyes widening the more and more he speaks. before you know it, you're laughing and joking with him and you realise you haven't paid attention to anyone else in the room. when colby announces he's going to the bathroom, you turn around to face the rest of the boys youre seated with. matt and nick are still having a conversation with sam, who looks at you and gives you a smile, but when you look to your side to give a smile to your boyfriend, you can tell his entire mood has changed from what it was earlier.

"you okay, babe?" you ask. and he snaps his head to look at you.

"hmm? oh, yeah. im good." he says, picking up a fry from his plate and nibbling at the end.

"not nervous for tomorrow, are you?" you give his shoulder a little shove, and finally a smile appears on his lips.

"no" he says. "just thinkin."

"about what?" you press, but before he can answer you hear colbys voice again from behind you.

"i paid the bill guys."

"oh god, how much do we owe you?" you say. he smiles at you.

"dont worry about it!" he says enthusiastically before sitting himself down, leaning over slightly so he can see chris.

"your girl knows a lot about ghosts" he says, and you look to chris with a smile who gives a chuckle.

"shes probably watched your videos a thousand times, bro" he says, giving, and then the two start talking comfortably, you sat in the middle, looking between the two of them and having your say every now and then.

when the night draws to an end, and you all say your goodbyes to go to your own separate hotels, colby gives you a hug.

"so lovely to meet you," he says, as he pulls away he puts his hands on your shoulders. "i'll find you on instagram and give you a follow. chris tagged you in some stuff, yeah?"

you let out a laugh. "yeah! please dont feel you need to" you laugh, and he gives you that famous colby side eye.

"youre a friend now" he laughs, giving your shoulders a slight tap before he moves to say goodbye to everyone else.

when they turn to walk away, nick is the first to come to your side, wrapping his arm in yours. "girl, did you fucking hear what we are doing tomorrow?" he says, and you laugh as you pull yourself closer to him, his warmth a comfort in the winter chill outside.

"yes. are you nervous?" you say, starting to head in the direction of your hotel.

nick starts to talk about how excited he is, the things he wants to do, the things he hopes to see, that you dont even notice when you get to the front of their hotel.

"chris," nick says, and you turn around to catch the eye of your boyfriend as he chats away to matt. "are you coming to our room?" he says, giving you a smile as he does so. you smile back and look to chris for an answer, but the look on his face already tells you its a no.

"im tired." he says, and you hear nick let out an "oh" before turning to you.

"i suppose you wont leave your knight in shining armour for an hour to keep me company, will you?" he says, a pleading look on his face. you have to admit that with the adrenaline from the last couple of hours, you were defiantly not ready for sleep yet, but chris speaks for you.

"no. shes coming with me." he says, and you screw up your face as you look towards him. chris had never been demanding, and you had spent many times with his brothers without him, but the look he was giving you now, you knew there was nothing wrong.

"i guess i'll see you tomorrow then." nick says, giving you a hug. you hug him back before making your way to matt, giving him a hug too, before chris comes over and grabs your hand, practically pulling you in the direction of the hallway that your separate room was.

"ouch, chris. whats wrong with you?" you ask, and the tone to your voice makes him loosen his grip.

"nothing. sorry. im just tired" he says as you get outside of your room. you take the key from your purse and unlock the door, stepping inside and throwing your purse down.

you let out a stretch, a small moan coming from your lips, before you move over to your bag to get out one comfier clothes. you hear chris slam onto the bed and you turn to look at him, his eyes on you as he places his hands behind his head.

"chris, whats wrong? and dont say nothing" you say, a stern look on your face. he chuckles.

"nothing. im sorry. honestly i am. its been a long day" he admits, and you give him a sympathetic smile as you see the bags already forming under his eyes. luckily, filming wasnt until tomorrow night, so you had the whole of the next day to catch up on sleep.

you turn away from him now and slide your jeans down your legs before you hear your phone tumble to the floor. "fuck" you whisper, as you forgot you'd put it in your back pocket rather than your purse, and you bend down to pick it up, the home screen illuminating from the fall.

"oh," you laugh, turning round to face chris and making your way across to the bed, throwing yourself down on it so you were on your front, nothing but one of chris' fresh love hoodies on your body now. "colby actually followed me. and sam" you say, opening up your phone to double check the notifications.

but chris snaps. whatever had been bothering him suddenly become too much, and he stands up off the bed in a huff, walking over to the bathroom and slamming the door. you watch in astonishment, waiting for the bathroom door to open up again, and after a moment when it doesnt, you take your way over to it, knocking lightly.

"chris?" you say, but it takes not even a second before the door is flung open. you stumble back in surprise, chris with one hand on the door handle, the other on the side of the frame.

"you're mine, you know that don't you?" he says, and you almost laugh.

"excuse me?" you choke out, looking him up and down. he does the same back.

"you're mine." he says again. this time you do laugh.

"im so fucking confused, chris. what on earth are you talking about?"

but your laugh, and your obliviousness to what hes taking about only angers him more, and he rolls his eyes as he goes to slam the door in your face. but not before you manage to wedge your foot in the way, hand coming to the side of the door. chris spins around and looks at you, shock on his face, but the anger is still there.

"what the fuck is wrong with you?" you say, pushing the door fully open now and stepping into the bathroom.

"doesnt matter" he says, turning on the tap, but you step at the side of him, turning it off.

"of course im yours, you idiot. who else's would i be?" you say, but the no answer makes you laugh as you realises exactly where he is going with this. you connect the dots immediately.

"youre joking me chris. its because i spent the night chatting to colby, isnt it?" you say, and you see his eyes screw up slightly. you laugh again. "are you jealous?" you say.

"ive heard you talk about how much you love him for years" he scoffs, eyes traipsing down your body, down to your bare legs.

"yeah, when i was fucking 16, chris. are you serious?" you laugh, but your laugh and lack of seriousness is infuriating him.

"he wanted to know what youre doing tomorrow" he says through gritted teeth.

"he was making polite conversation" you confirm, eyeing him up. you'd never seen him like this before. you had never and would never give him a reason to act like this. you loved him deeply and your eyes had never scanned for another man since.

he doesnt answer you though, and he pushes your hand away from the sink so he can turn back on the tap. you step to the side and look at him through the mirror, but he isnt letting up, and your frustration is building.

"so youre going to ignore me. because i spoke to someone ive been a genuine fan off for years. we were talking about GHOSTS, chris, do you even understand how ridiculous youre being?"

he notices the tone in your voice, and he looks at you through the reflection of the mirror, before bowing his head again to continue washing his face. you scoff in astonishment, before making your way back into the main room of the hotel. you throw yourself on the bed, picking back up your phone, when you hear chris coming back in.

"what are you doing?" he asks, and you roll your eyes.

"texting colby" you joke. you know its a low blow, but the frustration you feel is next level. youre actually about to text nick to see if you can stop by his and matts room for an hour, to let chris chill out, but you dont get chance before you feel the bed dip and a pair of hands on your hips, flipping you onto your back.

"chris" you squeal.

"texting colby, hmm?" he says, and then his fingers are looped in the band on your underwear, pulling them down. the heat that comes in between your legs is instant, and you know exactly where this is going to go.

"well, we were having a great conversation earlier." you say.

"oh yeah? you wanna go spend the night with him?" chris says, your underwear now at the bottom of your feet and in on swift swoop theyre in his hands, before he shoves them into his back pocket.

"well my boyfriends being a jerk, so" you start.

"didnt notice how he called you my girl?" he says now, but then his hands are on your hips and he drags you down the bed. you cant hide the gasp that escapes your lips. "well?" he asks now, dipping his head to inbetween your legs.

"didnt notice. was too busy looking at his face" you say, but your breathing is hitched.

"i'll fucking show you who's girl you are" he says, and then his tongue is in your folds and your arms outstretch instantly, gripping at the bedding.

"fuck, chris" you pant, his tongue working wonders in-between your legs, hitting all the right spots, your back arching as his teeth scrap against your folds. you move your hands to his head, pushing him further into you, before his head snaps up.

"chris-" you pant, looking down at him, but he grips both your wrists with one hand and pushes them behind your head, his entire body coming with them so his face is inches from yours in one quick swoop. you look into his eyes, and he gives you a smirk before his free hands moves down to your wet folds, fingers teasing you.

"chris-" you say again, and he lets out a deep chuckle before his fingers enter you.

"oh, god" you utter and you close your eyes as he starts to move his finger back and forth, thumb coming to your clit and rubbing gentle.

"open your eyes" he says, and you do as he says. "who's girl are you?" he says now, fingers moving more vigorously now, hitting your g-spot perfectly. when you dont say anything, unable to from the pleasure youre feeling, he stops abruptly, a small whimper escaping your lips.

"who's fucking girl are you?" he spits out.

"yours, chris. im yours" you cry out.

"good girl" he says, before his fingers start working again, pumping you so hard you're seeing stars but your eyes fixed on him, not wanting him to stop.

"im gonna-" you start, unable to finish your sentence.

"let go for me my girl" he says, and the words on his lips bring you to your climax, legs buckling and squeezing into his hand tightly as you ride it out. when you finally settle, your breathing harsh, he pulls out his finger and gently removes his hand from your wrists.

you lay, in utter bliss and also disbelief as he removes himself from your body, gathering yourself before you sit up on your elbows, looking straight at him as he walks off back into the direction of the bathroom, but before he does, he turns back to you and gives you a grin.

"i dont know about no ghosts," you start. "but that jealousy possessed you." you utter, and a laugh escapes his lips as he enters the bathroom finally.

you stand up, finally going back over to your pyjamas you'd abandoned just moments before but you hear the shower turn on, a smirk comes over you, thinking about how you're going to return the pleasure he just gave you.

[mx-pokirby]

We wanna quickly map out Deltarune's canon calendar rq with new Ch 3 & 4 info

If some days are off mark, whatever. We ball

Thursday:

-Kris and Susie, ostensibly two normal teenagers, fall into a Dark World -Are given the prophesied title of Heroes -Susie learns how to cast magic (Rude Buster + possibly Pacify) -Together they beat up/outlast a kid's old abusive dad

Friday:

-Suddenly Kris and Susie are super acrobatic, doing spin flips & shit -Survive unknown heights from a roller coaster crash -(Dark Worlds may just passively increase physical ability) -Susie learns Healing Magic -The group pilots a massive fusion mech, which they use to destroy an even bigger mech (with lasers! Which they are hit by, out of their mech!) which is so big it could probably elbow-drop their entire fucking town in the Light World -(We will be ignoring Noelle & Berdly. And Spamton. And Kris getting run over by Toby Fox)

Friday-Saturday, past Midnight:

-The gang fights the fucking Roaring Knight, this weird supernatural being (Lightner) with bizarre powers and the strength to instantly Swoon Susie unconscious down to -999 HP (which somehow isn't just Death) -Swoon being a state Susie can wake herself up from within seconds through force of will, and take off running at max speed across town, desperately bang on the steel Shelter doors and return to act in the search party for Tenna's body and patch him back up. And maybe get a quick nap in to fully recover before breakfast -(Susie is strong enough to fracture the Knight's weapon)

Saturday:

-Susie drinks an entire bowl of juice. ... Maybe not superhuman, but makes my stomach hurt thinking about. -Kris falls an unknown height, smashing their head into a glass window of sorts, and keeps falling. AFTER being stabbed by way too many of the Knight's blades. And Kris staggers, but lives. -Susie's Healing Magic is able to out-perform Ralsei's, the healing mage's. -Kris & co (can) literally kill the spawn of a Titan just through Fighting. -Not only do the gang easily survive *any* attacks from the Titan. They are able to beat it. And I'm not talking about the feats of using the climbing gear, the acrobatic tossing, or the Soul's ability to Banish its shield. -I mean that the damage the Fun Gang is able to output is enough to kill the Titan. They can get it down to like 50% HP before it chooses to regenerate. But if it just chose not to regen and keep attacking instead, there's little reason to think they couldn't get it to zero. -On top of that, Gerson definitely helped, but logically Kris & Susie could've weakened the Titan, Banished its shield, and then jumped inside it to Banish it too at any point before Gerson joined the fight.

To recap it has been 3 days. And perhaps the most impressive feats of all. Kris has earned Carol Holiday's respect, and Susie said to Carol's face that she's going to fuck her daughter /j At this rate we could fight The Angel and Gaster in a 3v2 and it could just be the mid- boss of Chapter 6, Kris could instantly revive from death infinitely (ala But It Refused) and Susie will parry a nuke.

[darlingdream1010]

DannyMay day 8

Lost

Recently, a little bit of Danny’s ghost side has been spilling over into his human life.

No, his ears aren’t pointed.

No, he doesn’t accidentally float. (That’d be the equivalent of peeing the bed as a ghost—and he’s way past that)

No, he doesn’t seem eery or creepy to normal people.

…well, maybe a little bit.

But Danny’s been acting just like the teenager he is, stressing over getting scholarships for college and wondering what he even wants to do with his future. It’s just that he’s been wandering a little bit. If all the way to the next city counts as “a little bit.”

Issue was, while Danny could instinctively find his way back home when he was in the ghost zone, he didn’t have a GPS for the human realm.

So he was just…lost.

~~~

Turns out, ghosts aren’t in much of a rush, ever.

After being stuck in bumfuck nowhere for the past month, he’d decided to stick around for a while. Get a job. See how it goes.

Danny walked downtown with a carefree shrug set permanently in his shoulders and a keen eye for hiring posters.

Dave & Busters Hiring - Night shift

The lowest of lows for someone else, in the eyes of Danny looked like his next few weeks of impulsive decisions.

At least he wasn’t doing drugs, right?

~~~

Danny regrets his impulsive decision. Now, he’s not just wandering to a new city every day trying to get back to Amity Park—he’s appearing at cities in new dimensions. All with a Dave & Busters.

When he gets off his shift at 4:00 AM and steps out that door, it’s never the same.

He’s in the clutches of a cage of his own ignorance. He cannot leave this place for risk of getting stuck in a dimension that isn’t his.

It is disheartening when your only comfort is that cleaning up vomit is the same in every universe.

The parts of this experience that eat away at him most are the kids he meets. He meets too many kids on night shifts in different universes.

One is a small ghost boy who only wished his mom could see him.

Another cried tears of joy when Danny told him he didn’t have to be homeless and could stay here, only for the boy to be gone that morning as the next dimension awaited him.

There is nothing to hope for or help with in this last universe. Only a little girl sits on the threshold of the Dave & Busters, and she hugs him the whole night while he’s forced to face the apocalyptic horizon of this universe.

~~~

Stargazing was Danny’s habit, a long time ago. Getting carried away by a sea of stars that waited for him patiently each night.

They pass no judgement, feel no pain, and evict no wrath.

It is his own fault he cannot bare to face them any longer. He is home, now. Home is no longer Amity Park, it is a dimension with a gloomy city and a plethora of madness raging about at night. The stars are still visible to his clear ghost vision. By his own choice does he stay away from the stars that remind him of the lonely girls and boys.

One day, he will honor them without his core cracking in his chest.

For now, he will keep mopping.

And mopping…

Mopping…

Mopping….

But he is still lost.

So, so lost.

[megumismyhusband]

phantom busters boys x bday reader

mogari:

ren helps him plan everything weeks in advance. he makes spreadsheets. mogari texts ren at 2am like “what flavor did we pick again???”

mogari wants everything to be a surprise. he says he’s got it under control, but the moment you so much as hint at your birthday, he starts telling you all his plans for it

ren gave him a script to stick to when he picks up your birthday cake but he still ends up panicking and asking the cashier “is this a good cake? like. for someone really really important?” and then he proceeds to explain your entire relationship to them

mogari wraps your gift himself. it’s a little lopsided and there’s way too much tape but he’s soproud of it. when you open it he watches your reaction like it’s a life-or-death situation

he ends the day with a quiet little “happy birthday. you deserve good things every day, but especially today.” and his voice cracks just a little when he says it

kaoru:

kaoru acts cool about it all week but he’s secretly been planning your birthday for a while. like… months.

for your birthday, kaoru makes you keychains of things he knows you find cute. your favorite character, a small animal, a smiling star. he says it’s nothing special but he spent a lot of time on them.

your main gift is probably something you mentioned once, maybe a book you wanted, a cute stuffed animal, or something weirdly specific like a rare pen. he pretends it was no big deal to find, but he spent hours tracking it down.

he gives you a little stack of manga to borrow, either his favorites, or ones he thinks you’ll like. each one probably has sticky notes inside with little commentary like “this guy reminds me of me (whatever you say, buddy)” or “you’ll cry here. call me when you do.”

his sister 100% helped him with the wrapping and probably picked out the nicer stationery. she told him to write you a card, and he grumbled but ended up writing something really sweet with barely any sarcasm. you can tell she read it first because there’s a tiny heart sticker on the envelope that he definitely didn’t put there.

kotaro:

he would make you a whole playlist with songs that remind him of you

he’d write a note for each song explaining why he picked it and fold them up into tiny hearts

he’d try to bake you a cake even though he’s never baked anything before (it turns out a little lopsided but he’s so proud of it) he’d also get up extra early just to be the first one to tell you happy birthday in person

he’d learn how to sing happy birthday in at least three different languages and dramatically perform each version like it’s a concert

he’d most likely write you a song but gets too shy to sing it, he ends up playing it for you once and hides his face the whole time

eugene:

keeps a small notebook where he writes down things you like. checks it before your birthday to make sure he gets everything right.

gives you a flower bouquet he made himself (it’s very pretty)

makes you breakfast. it’s simple, but you can tell he tried really hard.

gives you a small gift, like a necklace or a ring.

doesn’t plan anything big. just wants the day to feel peaceful and full of moments you’ll always remember.

[darkangel11122]

Imagine you are a fairly well-respected pirate, with a passion for cooking. Then you get stranded on a rock in the middle of nowhere. Which is fine really you didn’t enter this career path without expecting to meet your end in blue water. Though you had hoped to go out in a more…well starving to death wasn’t on the list, it is ironic though as you enjoyed cooking, and if life had been a lot kinder or your wanderlust a bit less you probably would have stuck with that. Then again you had given your propensity to look for new spices and things when raiding an island. You’re pulled from your lamenting your likely demise by a small boy. Who you just now noticed is here with you, and leaves you wondering how you didn’t notice him earlier.

Well, you have a kid now, and starving to death isn’t an option anymore cause you can’t let an innocent kid, who obviously up to this point hasn’t had the best life, to begin with, die what feels at the moment to be a painful death. 

Long story short ya eat your leg, well your calf really but that’s basically your leg, and no your not gonna stop saying leg, falls off the tounge easier. 

You and your kid, yes you’ve known him for… you're not really sure at this point so it’s not relevant. He’s your kid, the seas gave him to you, No takebacks. Anyway, you both get rescued, the kid looked freaked when they asked who was with you. Don’t hesitate to say “my kid” to your rescuers, the kid won’t stop clinging to your good leg anyway so might as well keep him. Life’s already weird as it is might as well roll with it. 

The kid is kinda an asshole, do you regret keeping him? No. Is he a little shit who seems to enjoy vexing you? Yes. Do you still love him? Eh yeah, he keeps making stink faces at you while you’re trying to concentrate on your lobster bisk you might change your mind. Going from seasoned bachelor to single dad is a bit of a challenge but the kid loves cooking about as much as you do so he might as well be yours. Not like his birth family wanted him anyway if how slidish he was and how he flinched at loud sounds for a while is anything to go by. You also do your best not to think about why he’s not too fond, and by not too fond you mean dam terrified, of dark spaces with no windows, like basements or bulkhead or hold. Needless to say your glad your kid acts like an asshole and feels safe enough to talk back and argue. 

Given your experience on the rock, you got your son on, and you stopped saying ‘had’ because people started looking at you Funny, and Patty started making jokes about you having another one when you put on a little weight. Anyway, you open a restaurant, catering to All who come in civilian, marine. Pirate or anything in between. This doesn’t mean you don’t have troublemakers come in, so you and your staff are more than capable of fighting to protect the place. Something you make sure all that work there can do, including your son, especially your son. 

Something you're glad for when a group of kids around his age come in after you’d been telling him for years to go off and have some fun, meet a girl or guy, make a name for yourself, find the all-blue, something. Anyway, you make the ringleader of this little rag-tag group wash dishes after he runs up a huge bill. Of course, he makes an impression on your son, gets him out of his shell and after one of your regulars, the regular being a gothic bird with a buster sword, fights the green-haired one and almost bleeds out on your deck, the kid leaves with them. Good for him, your sea kid is finally leaving the nest. 

Next thing you know that regular adopted the kid he almost killed and wants to speak with you more… you don’t know why at first. Then you see the news, what your son sees in that idiot you have no idea. Swordsmen make awful partners, maybe awful is harsh, but aggravating sounds more like what you’re going for. Now you could say that no one is good enough for your kid which is true, he couldn’t have picked the one with the large appetite or his older brother the shirtless one, or the blonde? Apparently not. 

After many, a bottle of wine and jeering from your staff, mostly about how parents always have trouble with their kid's first real partner. Then they say something about how he always had a bleeding heart so a swordsman with no sense of direction isn’t the worst he could do. However, that doesn’t stop you from glaring at the goth regular. This seems to get him to bemoan a bit to one of the bartenders that he’s at least trying to make sure he's not adopted son, he says not adopted son which you found strange but he’s a strange guy anyway, doesn’t fuck this. Then something about getting him to bathe more is like getting a rum drinker to switch to vodka, and that getting him a sense of direction is a lost cause. At least the guy knows what’s at stake if his kid hurts your kid. 

Your son never calls enough, so when he does you are thrown for a huge fucken loop, he almost got married, he’s a sperm donor and his asshole brothers threatened you and your staff as well as his friends, he’s actually a prince. The last two you kinda knew, you do read the news and well that dead prince and your son look really similar, he sounds a little sad when you say we kinda figured he had an awful family. Some heart-to-heart stuff is said and neither of you will admit to crying. Then comes the question you asked mostly to know if you needed to kill a swordsman and ban for life another one. “How’d the mosshead take it? Sure he would have been upset you running off to marry someone who's not him. I’ll come out there and deal with him myself if you need me to eggplant. Might be old but I know how to use a kitchen knife and butcher an animal.” 

Theirs a record scratch in his head you can hear it through the phone, he then flounders and splutters before going right into dental. Saying something about the swordsman doesn’t care and would never want to marry him. 

To say you were seeing red was an understatement, you were about ready to hang the call, get your best knives, and head right to where they were and teach the idiot a lesson for thinking your son wasn’t worthy of a ring. You also were gonna have to call that regular and cancel his reservation for next week. The warpath and ranting, you said most of that out loud apparently, is stopped by his assertion that he and the adopted son of a regular aren’t nor ever have been together. 

“What?” That is all you can really say as your anger deflated like a calmed-down puffer fish. 

“We have never been together, I can’t stand the shite swordsman you know that! Are you losing your mind, shite old man?” “ 

“You bitch about him all the time sure but you do the same about me and I you. Figured it was like your love language or something.” 

“ Thats different.”

“Is it though?” 

“Yes!” 

That starts your explanation on why you, and just about every-fucken’-one thinks the two of them are together. He gives vehement and rather eloquently rebuttals until he can. It's all the ones of how the son of a regular looks at him and seems to search for him when he’s out of his eye line when fighting side by side, or how he does the same thing. Those ones he just gets all senile, and told to drop because he’s wrong. 

When your son starts calling every day you begin to think you would like to go back wishing he would call a bit more, the key word being a bit. Especially given the calls are just to make more denials of his now very obvious feelings for the adopted son of a regular. All comes to a head one night when you pick up the phone after a long dinner shift with a fight that should have been on pay-per-view. Finally snapping at your son to get his head out of his ass as if he didn’t actually care about the son of a regular he wouldn’t be calling every day for two months with reasons he hates him.

Par for the course with you and your son the yelling gives way to a heartfelt conversation and maybe a little crying on your son's part, soft-hearting boy that he is, and the truth finally comes out. 

Truth is he’s head over heels for the kid and doesn’t know what do to with himself. Flirting doesn’t seem to work and with what happened recently, the almost-married thing, he’s sure he lost whatever chance he had. You offer to kill the kid again, mostly as a joke, which makes your kid laugh a bit. You suggest talking and say worst comes to worst you can ban his father from coming in anymore. 

Calms your kid down and the Daly calls stop, thank the seas. At least you would than them if he ever called again, once maybe twice a month is all you're asking. Nope, you seem to either get them fucken Daly or maybe he’ll call at some point, hopefully before he’s actually engaged or has a kid but at this point you’re not sure.

When you started commiserating with the regular you're not completely sure but at least he knows kinda what you're dealing with, life’s weird just gotta roll with it at this point. 

____________________________________________________________

Here's some more, since people seemed to like the first one. I got to thinking, saw some cute kid Sanji and Zeff content, and wrote another, might write more might not.

Hope you all enjoy this one too.

for those wondering zeff was saying “sea had a kid, took him with me.” Or “was trapped on a rock, had a kid appear, took him with me.”

[hotvintagepoll]

Donald O'Connor (Singin' in the Rain, Francis, Call Me Madam)— LOOK AT HIM. Those giant blue peepers. Those tappy tappy little feet that don't quit. The ears that stick out like little wings, ready to lift him up to goofy heaven. The way his face contorts into the strangest yet most endearing expressions. His ability to sing and dance alongside the hunk that is Gene Kelly and yet pull all attention away with his big-eyed buffoonery. The way his energy is unmatched in songs like "Make 'em laugh" - bouncing off the walls and tumbling through the air straight into my cold cold heart. Who else but a true scrungly lil guy would sit upon the witness stand and defend a talking mule with all the love and affection in the world - staring out into the court room with his bright wide eyes and eternally mouse-like expression, openly admitting that the mule is his best friend?!??! I see him and I want to pull him from the screen into my hand and just squiiiiiiiiiiiiish with all my might. I want to pinch his cheeks and have him bat those eyes at me. He just makes me go "eeehehehehehe" every time I see him and his silly little self. He is pure chaotic, ridiculous, scrungly perfection!

Mantan Moreland (Mr. Washington Goes to Town, Cabin in the Sky)—i love mantan moreland SO. MUCH. and he is the pERFECT scrungly little guy!!!!! like a lot of black actors at the time he was always getting sidelined into small parts, but unusually he also managed to become a star in his own right and was almost one of the three stooges! he was a groundbreaking comedic actor known for his distinctive stare (very good for the horror movies he did), and he always is way more fun to watch on screen than anyone else. he had a famous double-act where he perfected this technique of non-conversations (where both people keep finishing each other's sentences before any actual information is conveyed). a lot of his movies are free on youtube and i really enjoy seeing him do his silly little guy thing in all of them!!! anyways yeah please include mantan he deserves some recognition as peak scrungle

This is round 3 of the contest. All other polls in this bracket can be found here. If you’re confused on what a scrungle is, or any of the rules of the contest, click here.

[additional submitted propaganda + scrungly videos under the cut]

Donald O'Connor:

My silliest little guy. My funnyman. My horsie. I have watched many a bad movie for this man. The scrungliest fact I know about him is that he was supposed to star as Danny Kaye's role in the iconic White Christmas (1954), as he had known Bing Crosby since he was a child, but couldn't because he caught a mule disease while working on those Francis the Talking Mule films Universal endlessly made him do. I wouldn't exactly recommend those movies, but Don's character getting psychologically tormented by a sardonic mule does make for quite a good movie night, if you know what you're getting into. Are You With It? is another one I don't exactly recommend, but it does open with Donald as a math genius actuary who is about to kill himself over a displaced decimal point before getting taken in by a traveling carny instead. His more well-known and beloved roles have plenty of scrungliness too, in my opinion. This man slapsticked so hard he wound up bedridden for his physical exertion! Rather than submitting Make 'Em Laugh, which the electorate has likely already seen (I hope), I'm submitting an underrated dance number of his, where he explains maths through tap dance. That movie is Not good, but god do I love him in that role.

I think it's arguably very scrungly to seemingly be a real life cartoon character made out of rubber, as proven by how slapsticky the list of scrunglies is so far. In which case, Donald O'Connor? He scrungles supremely. He even played Buster Keaton in a movie (that apparently can't be recommended, but still).

Mantan Moreland:

here's his double act in action!! [editor's note: Benson Fong cameo too!]

He just had a scrungly look about him and he played big with his roles so any of it became especially scrungly. Plus he was very funny in the way only scrungly people can be.

the FUNNEST GUY TO WATCH ON SCREEN. he was an immensely gifted physical comedian, able to convey loads with his eyes, and while some of his parts are so sad and cringeworthy, I feel like he always brought a humanity and humor that lifted them beyond cheap stereotype.

[lynxgriffin]

i Don't think the knight is feral at all actually, it knights kris, and holds back on them, it also... And i hate using this word, but it's accurate, it aura farms for literally no reason, susie taunts the knight and tells it that it can't defeat them in the light world, then laughs in her face, just to make a titan to flex, it didn't ANY of that mind you, they made a titan for literally no reason, it didn't do anything, it was just to flex, as if to say: "Hey, maybe i can't defeat you outside of a dark world, but you know what? I CAN JUST MAKE ANOTHER ONE" I think the knight is very aware of what they are doing, i think the reason they aura farm is literally just... Well, if you knew that your actions were predetermined, if you were following some kind of fate, wouldn't you atleast... Want to have some fun with it, if everythings gonna go a certain way anyway, might aswell dick around, pretend to want to kidnap toriel (Despite having no reason to do so), just to piss this lizard girl off, pretend to fight the party for real, despite being able to effortlessly one shot them in an instant, and dodge all of their attacks (they dodged all of susies rude busters in chapter 4, even though they had their back turned to the party and couldn't see them, meaning they could have dodged all of our attacks if they really wanted to) scream and literally put the "roaring" in the "roaring knight", for again, no reason, they don't do it again, it was just to look cool that one time. We also know that the knight holds back on kris, though i don't think them doing damage to kris at all is that weird, considering that dess canonically beat kris over the head so hard with a wiffle bat, that its FUCKING BENT IN HALF in her room in chapter 4, like do you realize how hard she was hitting kris for that bat to be like that? And the dialouge specifically states that "These things make your head hurt", MEANING it wasn't JUST the wiffle bat, she was beating kris over the head with ICE SKATES, and nobody points that out lol, like she's DEFINITLY willing to hurt kris pretty badly. And even then, despite susie being at -999 hp, she was still able to move and grab onto the knights leg, so i don't think dark world damage numbers really mean much in terms of actual damage. Another idea might be that the knight is acting like a traditional cartoon villain, so that the heroes don't question who they are, or what their motivations are, sort of a kayfabe thing going on.

While I don't know if the Knight made the neo fountain and summoned a titan JUST as a flex, (they could have legitimately needed something that was a guaranteed distraction in order to avoid another confrontation with the Fun Gang), I'll still take these points as yes, the Knight is more aware of what they're doing than first thought.

Also, I'm gonna argue against Dess literally beating Kris senseless with a bat and ice skates; I see no reason why Kris would then look up to Dess as much as they did if she was being physically abusive to them! (Also, the bat that's dented can't be a wiffle bat, wiffle bats are hollow and have holes in them precisely to make them safer.) I think the dented-up things in her room are just her being rough when using her things because that's how she was, not because she was attacking Kris with them. Kris getting a headache looking at them mirrors the "you feel a migraine coming on" message from the Knight fight...basically just further connecting the Knight with Dess.

I think the most reasonable explanation could be the "we already know how this is supposed to play out" aspect of the prophecy basically giving the Knight a degree of confidence in what they're doing. It raises questions as to how much she would know about her place in the prophecy and why she's sticking so much to that role, but it's a useful explanation.

[quirkwizard]

It’s kinda funny how much 1B got ignored in the final arc, and from a narrative perspective it makes sense not to clutter things up to much but aside from a few brief appearances the arguably best attention they get is for monoma for copying warpgate and eraser. With that being said assuming anyone cared enough what do you think the class B “Iron Might” items would be like?

That just makes me think that All Might just has another car full of tech just for the 1-B kids. All For One thinks he's got Toshinori dead to rights and his second car, Heracles, comes out of nowhere with another suit like it's the second stage of a boss fight.

-Awase: Giant metal pillars that fire out and sear themselves onto the target to deal damage and weight them down.

-Kamakiri: A giant sword. Would it be more fitting to have swords pop out of him? Yes, but I want him carrying a buster sword.

-Kuroiro: A cape-like extension meant to camouflage with it's surroundings to hide the user.

-Kendo: Giant fists. Just a ton of armor all coming together to make a giant set of meaty claws.

-Kosei: Sets of floating plates that act as both platforms and shields as All Might needs them.

-Komori: Sprays that activate a fast growing mold meant to fester in wounds and inhibit breathing.

-Manga: A series of marked grenades around the suit that can disperse various effects, such as a flames or electricity.

-Juzo: A set of drills from the hands that can help him rapidly dig underground.

-Reiko: A series of drones meant to latch onto and control anything All Might sicks them on.

-Rin: A set of tiny, jagged plates that can stab anyone the user grapples and be fire out like bullets.

-Shoda: Pilebunker. Just a giant hydraulics system meant to add some extra punch to his fist attacks.

-Ibara: A series of cables to coming from the back of the suit to tangle and bind with.

-Tetsutetsu: It's a giant suit of armor that helps protect All Might from bigger attacks. It's literally the same as Kirishima's.

-Bondo: A cannon near the upper back of the suit that fires out the same face acting concrete used in the License Exam.

-Sen: Various gyros around the suit to make parts of the armor spin and help improve the damage of the other weapons systems.

-Jutora: An additional layer of armor meant to augment the user's natural strength and give a more beastly appearance.

-Pony: Missiles. Just a bunch of homing missiles centered on whomever is unlucky enough to be in his line of sight.

-Setsuna: A series of small, multi-purpose drones linked up to the suit's sensory system. Maybe they could double as quick replacement parts.

-Kodai: Various pieces of micro tech that's meant to unfold and expand into larger weapons. Possibly used in tandem with ome of the other weapon systems.

-Monoma: An operating system meant to monitor and redeploy the various tools in play, effectively acting as the reserve for all the other gadgets.

[razzellyn]

Cuddles!!

No tricks this time!! Just fluffy cuddle session!!!

Part 2!!!!

MCB

Part 1 here!!!

Notes in the end!!!

°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°

Dexter

• Oh he's a cuddle bug. He doesn't act like it, but he's very cuddly at times. He also doesn't really mind when someone sees you two, still would prefer to be in private though.

• Sometimes the two of you cuddle while nature/bird watching. He often points out the little creatures that the two of you could find and then share fun facts about them. He yaps like that only to the people he trusts.

• More often than not he bombards you with kisses all over your face. How? By pressing his face against yours of course!

Fleta Z

• He's a bit hesitant for some reason, but once you've convinced him he's actually very into it. He also takes this time to learn more about you! Maybe even sway your heart with a compliment or two.

• Not overly cuddly, but he will smother you in affection. In fact, he's not leaving you alone until you give him his daily hugs.

• Soft kith after every cuddle/hugs. No backing out from him! He will hunt you down (not literally). Quite the gentleman while he kissed you. Very gentle indeed.

Wild Guardy

• What's a cuddle?

• Jk, he knows what cuddle is. He just doesn't know what to think of it. You'll have to slowly introduce him to the concept too, start by holding his hands and then side-hug him, etc.

• Overtime he does gets comfortable and decided to cuddle. He's awkward and terribly nervous about it, but he's doing great. Be patient with him okay?

• He usually asks for cuddles when either of you are stressed out about something or just having a terrible day in general. Surprise him with a peck on his cheek too, that helps him greatly.

Buffalo Crush

• Absolute cuddle bug. You might be crushed under his strength, but don't worry, he always apologizes after. Oh and please hug him daily, he loves it.

• He is also the one to DRAG you to a cuddle if he thinks you haven't spend much time with him yet. Though he will be a bit shy about it at first. He just loves being close to you okay!!!

• Unfortunately he's hard to be pushed away once you do cuddle. It was either him or the world. The world, which means letting him hug you to death. Him, which means leaving him to sulk in the corner.

Buster Gallon

• He'll make a comment about how it's a waste of time and is a useless thing to do, but then when you pull him into a hug he puts his entire weight on you and cuddles you like crazy.

• The cuddle doesn't end until he says so. Well you could just bribe him with a kiss or two if you want to be freed, but that's a 50/50 chance. He's tired of Black Dan's bullsh t man let him be.

• He also lets go when someone randomly comes in on you two cuddling. If they make fun of you two, he's hunting them down. If they don't make a single comment, he just lets them be. He's got a red face though so that's something.

Black Hook

• It's also a 50/50 situation with him. He'd either be immediately into it or he thinks it's stupid and leaves. Let's be real, his actions depends on his mood.

• That being said, despite being the leader of his team, he's quite gentle with holding you. Unless he's been feeling a bit down, he's going to cuddle you until death.

• Don't expect to be treated like a royalty though, he's a pirate not a servant. He's going to cuddle you whenever and wherever he wants to. Yes, even in mid air, however that works.

Heavy Iron

• Definitely thinks he's better as a big spoon than a small spoon. Well he's true, but he's definitely more 'cuter' as a small spoon. He won't admit it but you will.

• He'll hug you when he feels like it, or you're genuinely in one of your less preferred moods. That being said, if he was also in one of his preferred moods, a quick cuddle does well in calming him down.

• The same as the two above, it's a 50/50 situation with him unfortunately. He's not exactly a lovey dovey type so... don't expect much out of him.

°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°

First of all, i would just like to say

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Secon of all, i am SO SOSOSOSOSOS SORRY for being gone for MONTHS

eugh I'm so lazy at times and so busy at the same time it's FKALRBSOCNW

No srsly I'm so sorry

I'M SORRY

I'm sorrryysyaurhisyroah 😭😭😭

Anyways hope y'all like this part 😋

[southsideserendipity]

I saw your post about Mikey so I hope this is okay & what you were looking for. Mikey meets a girl that is like sunshine whenever she walks in the room & makes him finally feel worthy/valued so he’ll do anything to make her feel special in return

Sunshine (Mikey Berzatto x Reader)

Warnings: Swearing, mentions of weed and alcohol.

Word Count: 4.2k

I found a good boy and he's on my side You're just my eternal sunshine, sunshine

“John, John- you listenin’ to me?!” Mikey was pacing his office, trampling over receipts and month-old sticky notes while aggressively combing his hands through his tussled black hair. “I’ll have your money. When have I not paid you, goombah? I didn’t see the invoice, you should see this fuckin’ office, not enough time to organize this damn shit show” he responded, kicking a stack of papers in the process. 

Bending down, he began rummaging through the various papers littering the office floor, attempting to compile them into categories. “John! You there?! Fuck.” Mikey frantically pat himself down, a sudden yearn for nicotine overcoming him. Finding his carton of Marlboros, he slipped the end of a cigarette in the corner of his mouth.

Letting out a sigh, John grunted, “Yeah, I’m here, Mikey. I’ll give you a couple more d-” before being interrupted by the vibrations of Mikey’s phone. 

“Fuck me, that jagoff is calling” Mikey thought out loud. “Listen, John, I hear you, you’ll have your money, mmkay? On my ma, I swear to ya, I gotta go though there’s another ball-buster on the other line. K? Ciao.” Before John could respond, Mikey stood up to accept the other call.

“Mark, brother, hey, before you start… I know, I know.” He picked up his phone, taking it off speaker to slip it under his ear. “I— Listen, I know. I hear you. I- Hey, you gon’ let me speak, or wha’?!” Speaking with his hands he continued to pace around the room, his booming voice stifled by the cigarette. 

The lunch rush at The Beef was dying down, exposing you to increasingly longer bits of the chaotic conversation occurring in the office. This was Mikey’s typical presentation; disheveled, malnourished, and overexaggerately buzzed off of caffeine, nicotine, and italian-ness. Although he was impossible to reason with in this state, you took it upon yourself to fix him up his favourite; a mortadella sandwich with sundried tomatoes, pesto, and mozzarella.

“You think I don’t know that? Pft, c’mon! Mark, man, you’re killin’ me!” You stood in the doorway, observing Mikey as he stood with one hand on his hip, the other flailing around to exemplify his frustrations. In one of your hands was the plate holding the lunch you made; in the other was a Chicago Bears BIC lighter.

Subtly knocking on the already open office door, Mikey whipped around to face you, his inconvenienced facial expression seamlessly evaporating into his wide-tooth grin. Mouthing ‘meet me outside’ was all it took for him to fake an excuse off of the phone and trail in your footsteps.

Albeit cheesy, you had that captivating effect on him, your hidden-well insecurities and past failed relationships blinding you to the fact that Mikey was infatuated with you. That, in combination with the 15-year age gap between you two. For Mikey, none of those factors changed the fact that you were his daylight, sunshine in human form.

Outside in the back you sat on a milk crate, the pre-Spring Chicagoan air fluttering over your skin. Moments after, Mikey joined you by sitting on an adjacent crate close to you after propping open the door. “Thanks, Bella” he said as he leaned over, his palm squeezing your thigh in an attempt to physically communicate the appreciation he held for your act of service. 

You offered out the plate to him, prompting him to begin devouring. He gruffly moaned after taking his first bite. “Mhhhh, shit, this is like Marry Me chicken but in sandwich form.” You giggled in response with your hands resting in your lap, watching as he attacked it hungrily. Mid-bite, he motioned with his head towards the other sandwich on the plate, “Ain’t gonna eat itself, Italiana.”

“I’m not hungry right now, Mike,” you responded, suddenly losing your appetite as you thought of the most effective way to check in on him without him brushing it off. Mikey had a fortified ‘I’ll deal with it maself’ attitude; his hard-headed, traditional Italian, ‘Godfather’ persona caused him to keep you far away from the messes he had gotten himself into. In his eyes, you are more than capable of dealing with life’s bullshit, but his innate urge to protect you from harm’s way and unnecessary stress made it difficult to involve you.

“What was going on in there?” you motioned towards inside with your head. “Ah, nothin’ doll.” He shrugged his shoulders in an attempt to brush off the topic, wiping his mouth with a napkin. “Just some bills that need payin’, I got it covered. Business good today? Any jagoffs give you trouble?” He frantically read your face, urgently hoping you’d buy his not-so-discreet attempt at changing the topic.

“C’mon, Mike. Cut the shit. You’re suffocating in that office.” The only person whose bluntness Mikey could listen to happened to also be the only person he’d accept ‘Mike’ from. He took the cigarette that had been hanging from his lips in his office out of his shirt pocket and proceeded to light it. Taking the first drag of it, he flicked it, holding it out to you.

Pursing his lips to blow out his puff, he responded confidently. “I got it all figured out, sunshine. Plus, I got cousin helpin’ me with the books and shit. Just gotta pay back those muthafuckas who keep callin’ me. They’re all, ‘where’s my money!?’” he playfully rolled his eyes, making hand gestures and displaying a funny face as he imitated the callers. You both knew damn well they had every right to be calling him. 

“You telling me that Richie is on the books is supposed to bring me a sense of comfort?” Asking him that question with pure seriousness and handing him back the cigarette, Mikey stifled a laugh. “Hey, him and the IRS are like this” he crossed his middle finger over his index while winking and making a clicking noise with his tongue.

“Cousin, where the fuck are the receipt rolls, the office looks like an abandoned and pissed-in office depot” Richie’s exclaiming became increasingly louder the closer he got. “Feels like we change the damn paper in that thing ever- oh shit, pardon my interruption to your rendezvous. Were you guys about to fuck? I can leave” Richie pointed with his thumb towards the kitchen as he sported a fake-worried and devious expression, slowly inching backwards.

Now it was your turn to roll your eyes. “No one’s fucking anyone, Rich.” Mikey looked to the ground as he faked a chuckle, ignoring the slight pang of hurt in his chest.

“You want a mortadella sandwhich?” You held out the plate to Richie, knowing he couldn’t resist. “Uh, DUH,” Richie grabbed an additional crate to join the two of you, immediately beginning to eat.

“Oh fuck, are you fucking serious right now?! Mikey, if you don’t marry this girl I’ll do it for you. ‘S like a mouf orgathm” Richie had just begun eating yet he already had food on the corners of his mouth. You chuckled, choosing to ignore the marriage comment. “Here, you child. You’re such a slob” you threw him a napkin you had stored in your apron. 

“Hey, the real slob is right over there” he pointed directly at Mikey, not even bothering to wipe his mouth but proceeding to take a another massive bite. “Something’s gotta be done about that cesspool of an office,” Richie shook his head disapprovingly, despite also functioning well in chaotic enrivonments. Mikey took yet another drag, the stress of you and Richie’s indirect demand to get his shit together getting to him. “It’s organized chaos, I know where everything is, s’all that matters.” 

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

This was the third night in a row that you had difficulty falling asleep. You had tried everything in your arsenal of melatonin-producing activities, and yet, your brain was spiraling, most of your thoughts pertaining to Mikey.

You weren’t going to kid yourself. You needed something and you knew exactly who to get it from. Picking up your phone, you made the call.

“Rich?? You awake?” You rolled over to your side, holding yourself up by your elbow and propping your head up with the palm of your hand. “Yeah I’m awake, but why the fuck are you awake, missus?” “I need a favour…” 

Richie’s dirty mind figured any call from a woman at this hour was for sex, but he also knew about Mikey’s schoolboy yearn for you and wouldn’t dare make any advancements. The silence on his end was telling. “Not that type of favour, God, Rich! Stop being a man for a second. I need weed.” You huffed out, a whiny tone of desperation heavy in your voice. 

“Now that I can help you with” he chuckled.

“YES thank you, Rich, oh my god” You sprung up out of bad as if there were hot rocks in it. “I will meet you at The Beef, okay?!” And that was where he met you.

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

You and Richie sat at the back of The Beef, exactly where you had had lunch earlier that day. “You want to do the honours, stoner?” Richie held out the joint and lighter for you. You faked an annoying look and exaggerately took them from him. “I’m not a stoner, Rich. I just have an undiagnosed sleeping problem.” You put the joint between your lips and lit it, taking an ungodly large pull from it. 

“Woahhhhh cheech and chong, relax” Richie practically yanked the joint from you. You immediately began coughing as you hadn’t smoked in a while. “What or who the fuck are you trying to forget, Italiana?” Richie’s joking tone didn’t conceal his concern as he took a puff himself. You looked at him, tilting your head to the side to signify confusion.

Richie took another pull before returning the joint to you. “If you’re calling me at 12am to smoke because you couldn’t sleep, it tells me your big brain was overthinking.” You took a moderate inhale this time, the buzz beginning to radiate out to your extremities. “What were you thinking about, Richie? Something tells me you were awake for similar reasons.”

“I’m not sayin’ anything ‘til you do” he responded whilst shrugging. 

Making a sour face, you attempted to restore the saliva in your mouth. “I have cotton mouth like a bitch, I’m going to get something to drink. You want anything?” you asked, heading inside before he could interrogate you further. “Get me a brio!” You chuckled to yourself, shouting back “You know you’re not Italian, right?!”

You walked over to the walk-in fridge, grabbing Richie’s Brio and a Fresca for yourself. On the way back out, Mikey’s office door caught your attention, and you suddenly had an idea. “Rich. Oh my god. I know exactly what we can do.” 

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

“I… I think we just made things worse.” Looking up at Richie in horror, he mirrored your reaction. “Yeah, we fucked up cousin. We’re in some deep shit.” 

You and Richie were both sat on the office floor, waist deep in the paper equivalent of a small forest. You took a swig from your Fresca, attempting to decipher where to start. “We can do this. For Mikey. He deserves this, and fuck, let’s face it, he was never gonna do it himself!” You attempted to motivate Richie, knowing his child-like attention span and patience were on their last legs. 

Picking up various pieces of paper, you attempted to make sense of them. “Okay… I’ll make one pile for receipts, and I’ll sort them by date, and then-” You felt Richie’s eyes burning a hole into you, causing you to look at him and flail your hands around. “What?!” Impatiently waiting for his response, you began gnawing on the inside of your cheek, nervous that he was onto you. 

“You like him.” Richie slowly grinned from ear to ear as he stated it matter o’factly. “You like like him.” You flung your head back and groaned. “‘Like like?’ C’mon, Rich, what are you, 12? Shut the fuck up and help me.” The blood rushed into your cheeks almost immediately at his accusation, the THC physiologically betraying you and making it impossible to put on a front. “You like him. Oh my god. I fuckin’ knew it,” he giggled. 

“I don’t know whether it’s the weed or the fact that it’s 3am and I’m reaching the point of delirium, but since I’m not a pre-teen, I’ll admit that you’re not wrong. But it’s never going to happen. He’s mentally ill with a fucked up family and so am I- that doesn’t tend to be the ideal romantic combination. Now, lets finish this so we can still go home and get some rest before shift starts.” You looked at Richie with a stern look; he was shocked at your mini rampage, and internally, you were petrified about the fact that you had just spilt your guts to Mikey’s bestfriend.

“And don’t get any ideas, because this conversation does NOT repeat itself, you hear me, Jerimovich!” When you addressed someone in the kitchen by their last name, they knew you meant business. “Uh-huh, yup, yes ma’am.” Richie gulped, considering you just displayed more emotions in the last 5-minutes than you had for the entire length of time he has known you. It didn’t help that he was beyond stoned and couldn’t quite comprehend the nature of what you had told him. 

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

“Cousin! What the fuck is this? Why can I see the floor?” Mikey was standing at the doorway of his office in utter disbelief that morning. Richie jogged over peaking his head into the office. “It was Italiana’s doing, she just told me what to do. We were preeeetty fried” he chuckled to himself, recalling last night’s events. “Surprisingly, we didn’t throw anything out. She’s got a real knack for organizing, should’ve let her do this months ago. The IRS and I aren’t going to have anymore beef, see what I did.” 

Richie couldn’t keep his big mouth shut. His nervous rambling was an attempt to not tell Mikey about your confession. Knowing how much Mikey admired you, it was killing him to not be able to tell his own bestfriend that the girl of his dreams reciprocated his feelings. Mikey slowly turned to look at Richie, hands still on his hips. “What the fuck did you smoke, crack? Why are you acting all fucked?”

You had walked into the kitchen at perfect timing before Richie blabbed your secret. Going to hang your purse up, Mikey called you over; he didn’t even need to see you to feel your presence. “Italiana, come ‘ere!” You sped walk over and stood in the entrance, your hands folded in front of you with a nervousness. A part of you was worried that messing with Mikey’s ‘organized chaos’ was going to disorient him, but you wanted to lessen the stress he was experiencing. That was what you did for the people you loved; especially the man you loved. 

“You did this?” He looked directly at you; despite being an expert in Mikey’s nuances, you couldn’t tell whether he was pissed or overjoyed. “Uh, yeah! It’s all pretty self-explanatory but I can go through it with you if you want? I just thought it’d make your life a lil easier. And Richie’s! Of course.” You rubbed your arm with your hand as a means of self-soothing.

“This is great, Bella. Truly. I can’t believe you went through all this trouble, I mean, I don’t think I’ve seen it look like this ever” he motioned towards the filing cabinet and the paper baskets you had labelled appropriately, using his other hand to comb through his hair in shock. “I couldnt of done it without Richie. And Richie’s weed! It was nothing, Mike” you smiled at him and showed yourself out as nonchalantly as possible. 

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

You were waiting the last tables of the day - mainly consisting of left behind beer bottles and plastic sandwich baskets - when Mikey came up behind you putting one hand on your waist. “Meet me in the office when you’re done here, yeah?” As he whispered into your ear, you had to keep your knees from buckling. “Yeah, Mike! Okay!” Fucking Richie.

You attempted to stall for the inevitably painful conversation that awaited you, slowly walking towards the kitchen. While washing your hands, your brain began to spiral. Wiping your hands on your apron, you attempted to bravely walk towards the office, standing in the doorway. 

“What’s up?” You halted in your tracks almost immediately as you noticed the charcuterie board Mikey was standing in front of and the bottle of red wine in his hands. “Fuck me. Okay, listen.” You walked closer to him. “Before you say anything, I don’t know what Richie said to you, but as someone who doesn’t know the difference between your and you’re, he has no idea what he’s talking about. You didn’t have to do any of this.” 

Mikey looked at you like a deer in headlights. “What the fuck are you talking about,” he chuckled. There was that dimpled smile. And now you were confused (and distracted) before you realized Richie didn’t say anything.

“I wanted to thank you for organizing the office…” Mikey explained, twisting the bottle of wine open and pouring you a glass. “I know how much you like your charcuterie. If Starbucks ever stops selling those little boards I’ll wonder what you’re gonna eat.” He earned a laugh from you for joking about your mild salami addiction.

You sported the fakest wide tooth grin you could muster. “Hey, I’m Italian. I can’t help it. I think I’m keeping them in business though” you joked in response. He held out the glass for you and winked. “Thanks, Mike” you smiled, hoping he couldn’t pick up on your nervousness. 

“Okay, let me show you what we’ve got here.” He clapped his hands together, excited to introduce you to his concoction of Italian meets and cheeses. Hunched over his desk with both of his hands planted on the surface to support him, he pointed at each meat and cheese as he went through the board’s contents. 

“We’ve got cacciatore, prosciutto, mortadella, then I added parmesan - I know how much you like it - along with romano and gorgonzola. I was thinking we can add it to the menu. We’re no hipster yuppies but throw some olives and overpriced crackers on here and I mean, we’re talkin’ business, baby.” Looking up at you, he attempted to read your face for your thoughts.

Mikey was passionate. That was his entire nature. And when he presented you with ideas, he seemed to put your approval and opinion on a pedestal. You had helped significantly with business at The Beef, assisting in bringing Mikey’s visions to fruition while also providing your input where necessary; he valued your insight more than you realized. 

Taking a baguette slice, you added cacciatore and parmesan onto it and bit in. “Fuck, Mike.” Your eyes rolled into the back of your head and you let out a near moan. “We gotta add this. It could even be part of a date night special. The charcuterie as an antipasto, a soup or salad, a main, and then dessert” you presented.

Mike glanced up at you with a smirk, content with your proposal. “Have I ever told you that I love your brain, Italiana?” You giggled as you continued to devour the board, attempting to ignore his blatantly obvious attempt at flirting as you couldn’t believe he could possibly be interested in you. 

The rest of the evening was spent brainstorming business ideas, reminiscing on memories shared between you, Mikey, and Richie, and consuming copious amounts of wine. 

“Oh my god, Mike. You remember when Richie tried picking up that blonde girl at the bar with a magic trick, and you- y- oh my god.” You flung your head back as you cackled; you were wine drunk and snortling to the point of incoherence. You were sat across from Mikey who was planted behind his desk, his ankle resting on top of his other knee. His forearms rested on the arms of his chair, and he loosely held a glass of whiskey as he watched you with amusement and a sly grin of admiration. 

“You had to go over there and save him from the embarrassment. Poor thing.” You chuckled. “I’m pretty sure the chick he was tryna bag had started flirting with me,” Mikey said, taking a sip of his whiskey and raising his eyebrows as he attempted to recall the events of that evening. 

You looked intently at him, not breaking eye contact. “Can you blame her?” The wine encouraged a new-found confidence to emerge from within you. There was no way you would’ve been this direct with Mikey while sober. 

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Mikey leaned forward to put his glass on his desk then returned to his laid back position. With a dumbfounded look on your faced, you laughed then displayed a look of annoyance. “Don’t play stupid. Look at yourself, Mike.” You stood up, put the wine glass down, and rested both of your hands on his desk, leaning forward until you were mere inches away from his face.

Looking into his right eye, glancing down at his lips, and looking back up to his left eye, he began to shift in his seat. It was evident that you were both under a hazy and horny alcohol-induced influence, the sexual tension very obviously suffocating the room. “Now take me home before I say or do something I’ll regret.”

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

As Mikey walked you back to your apartment, you held onto the side of his frame with all your might. He guided you through the streets of Chicago with ease; he was nowhere near the level of drunk that you had achieved. “You okay, darlin’?” He looked down, a slight smile on his face as he recognized your drunken effort to walk in a straight line. “Yeah, Mike. Thanks for tonight. No one’s ever gone through such an effort to appreciate me.”

You peered up at him with a smile; you wanted to put into perspective how much his actions meant to you, however, Mikey felt an even stronger urge to spoil you moving forward. Quite frankly, he was bewildered that his small gesture that evening exceeded all that you’ve known. 

Arriving to the door of your apartment, you began rummaging through your purse for your keys. Finding them, you held your arm out straight and dangled them in front of Mikey. “You’re gonna need to unlock the door, mister. I do not currently possess the fine motor skills” you joked, earning a laugh from him.

You caught the glimmer in his eyes. Mikey felt like your fierce protector. You both knew you didn’t need protecting- while this was a part of you he admired, his masculinity often fought for dominance; for the chance to show you how well he could look after you and how much you deserved it. 

He opened the door, propping it open for you as you stumbled through, immediately attempting to take off your shoes. You hadn’t thought this out thoroughly as you ended up toppling over, Mikey catching you in the process. “Easy, doll. Here, sit down,” he motioned toward the ottoman in the foyer of your apartment, guiding you as you lowered yourself. 

He crouched down at your feet and placed the heel of your foot on his thigh, proceeding to untie your shoes. Grasping your ankle one at a time, he wiggled your feet out. You looked down at him, admiring his gentle touch, the concentration present in his furrowed brow; you loved to watch him, whatever he was doing, and you’ve known for a long time that you’ve loved him.

“Let’s get you to bed, yeah?” Holding out both of his hands for you, you stood up, letting him walk you through to your bedroom. You had a case of the over-tired drunken giggles, prompting you to laugh as you slurred your intentions to take off your make-up.

Mikey picked out some pjs for you, then proceeded to pour you a cold glass of water while you got changed. Opening the door to your bedroom, you motioned for him to come inside. “Sleep next to me?” You proposed with a curious tone despite knowing he’d decline as he (annoyingly) insisted on being a respectful gentleman at all times. “S’all good doll, I’ll be good on the couch” he motioned to the living room with his head. “Lemme tuck you in.” 

As you got under the covers, Mikey offered you the glass of water to which you happily obliged. Handing it back to him, he placed it on your bedside table as you snuggled yourself into the sheets. He turned off the lamp, the room engulfing with darkness save for the midnight blue hue that the window cast in. 

Mikey began to walk out of your room when you called out to him. “Hey Mike, c’mere” you turned over, watching him as he slowly approached. Motioning for him to come closer, you whispered into his ear. “I like like you.” 

Knocking out after the words escaped your lips, as if they were made of melatonin, Mikey smiled to himself as he looked down at you. “And I love you, sunshine.”

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

EEEEEEEEK my very first Mikey imagine! Which means I am still learning to integrate his personality into my writing- it’s hard when he has extremely minimal screentime. ALSO I am writing this in whatever year Mikey was operating The Beef, so Carmy, Syd, and the others aren’t there, and Richie and Tiff are still together. I am completely open to feedback and would also love to get more requests for Mikey. Let me know what y’all think!!! :)

[bobur-the-berry-guy]

Y'ALL THOUGHT I'D FORGET ABOUT OUR CUTIE PATOOTIE ICHIMIYA DIDNT YOU

Ichimiya relationship hcs!

‧₊˚ ⋅* ‧₊✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧⋆.˚✮•🍪•✮˚.⋆✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧‧₊˚ ⋅* ‧₊

Man i love him

If you have him I'll assume you're a mindreader or absolutely love closet idiots because this man is an absolute enigma

Everyone else is amazed too

Like, it's obvious just how much he loves you but he still seems so irritated but whe you're around he just chill out and keeps the scowl??

That's literally the dynamic

He wants that cookie BAD

And despite him trying to keep the retupation of the big scary school council president his adorations leaks trough it

On that note everyone ans their mama knows he's into you bro💔

Like.. he can't really hide it all that well

It's not necessarily that he's very visibly sweet or nice but more so the fact that he's much less strict and scary with you

And that does NOT go by unnoticed by the rest of the council

I mean, everyone else is lowk terrified of him because of his horrid glare and his tone and he's just intimidating

And suddenly you pop up and he seems just.. calmer

Remember that scene in lilo and stitch when lilo threw a flower necklace on stitch and he just chilled out on the spot?

Exactly that

The phantom busters club has learnt to take you along w them if they're asking Ichimiya for something

And if you're a part of that club it becomes a whole circus show

Because we know he has to keep up appearances and whatnot so he kind has to act like the phantom busters even as an idea of a club is ridiculous but.. how is he supposed to be a dick when you're there... and you're the one asking him to let you do something...

The most you'd get is a pout glare and he's just beating around the bush to let you "reluctantly" do whatever you've asked for

And it's crazy because?? He's just okay with you??

Yea the student council bootlickers that follow him around are absolutely flabbergasted but what can they do

Now not only do you get special treatment from him but they're fairly nice to you too

Back to the phantom busters member thingy

He would be SO excited to hear what you've done for the day

Though you'd have to be somewhere private so it doesn't hurt his reputation yk

Still, he wants to hear everything

Was it interesting? Did you see a ghost? Oh my god, did you have to fight it? Did you let it pass on peacefully? Do you know how it looked like? Tell him everything!!

I think a phantom busters member or generally unconvetional s/o would be amazing for him - he'd really admire someone that can be true to themselves

Also if you're really somewhere private and can let himself be himself it would take him some time to adjust not having to pretend to be so cool-headed

I don't think he'd be exactly the way he acts internally but you'd really see that excitement and enthusiasm

He strikes me as a weird kid hidden in disguise

He's also such a great listener, he'd listen to you ramble for HOURS

He just really appreciates you liking him the way he is even without having to pretend to be so cold

The little things you do for him really make his day

You go to the student council room to bring him hot chocolate because you know he likes it better than coffee? Suddenly he's not scowling anymore

Gift him a little plushie because he collects them? He'd flex and flaunt it to everyone if his reputation allowed him to

Just showing you see him for him makes his heart leap and soar

He's also lowkey clingy

Picture a grumpy cat rubbing itself onto you

Please hold his arm or hand while passing through the hallways

I can see him kinda shooing everyone out of the student council room on the bad days when he's feeling shitty and just hugging you for a good long while

His face all pressed into the space between your neck and your shoulder, recharging from all the work and the people

I also think he'd like just laying on your lap and oh just play with his hair while he's there

Most of the time that would lead to him taking a little nap there but if you're not really paying attention and you think he's still sleeping he would just.. stare at you, admiring you

Oh he'd also LOVE to have you hold his face in your hands, looking at him all lovingly

Yea kiss him all over his face

HE'S SO CUTE AUGH

He'd be really shy about kissing in the beginning

You'd have to initiate most of it in thr beginning, but once he gets comfortable he could get real cocky with it or so he thinks

His go-to places to kiss you is yours cheeks, temples or pretty much the top of your head

He still has to keep up appearances after all, he can't straight up kiss you on the lips in public

I do think overall his favourite kiss place would be your cheeks

KISS HIS MOLE

KISS. HIS. MOLE.

He'd get so flustered and cute🫠🫠

That and praise him

Tell him how good he's doing being a responsible president of the council and how admirable he is with how much dedication he has

Tell him how cute he is when he's pouting and scowling and how absolutely gorgeous he is

I mean LOOK AT HIM?? HE'S ETHEREAL

His ebony blue hair matches his magnatic blue eyes, his lush shiny eyelashes only make the blues of his eyes pop brigher and again HIS MOLE

Also he's so considerate it makes your heart ache - always thinking of the best course of action and having to keep up and remember everything that's happening yet still making time just for you, he deserves some kindess for that, no?

Overall he's a genuinely compassionate, sincere and caring and i too want to kiss him

[g0nta-g0kuhara]

The Chapter 4 Essay Part 1: Kokichi Ouma

A metapost on my thoughts on Kokichi’s overall motivations and Gonta’s actions during ch4. Split into two parts. You can find the Gonta half here: (LINK)

I think the way Kokichi acts when he’s telling the truth says something crucial about his personality. When he’s telling the genuine truth, his expression becomes carefully neutral.

(post trial, chapter 1)

To me, it feels like he’s trying very hard to keep this face of neutrality. Normally, he’s able to expertly express any emotion that he wants to. In these moments, its almost like the emotion he’s feeling is so overpowering that he’s trying to repress it in order to maintain control over the face he presents to everyone else, but isn’t quite able to do so.

Kokichi is very careful about keeping people from seeing the parts of himself that he doesn’t choose to show. His villain persona and constant lying is part of this- He wants to keep people away from him. During the events of the killing game, he uses the distance that he creates in many ways. Part of it was that not having many close alliances allowed him to go off and do whatever he wanted during daily life. This let him explore the school and investigate the truth of the killing game without interruption or much attention. Lying also gave him distance between the game and himself. Pretending that the killing game was fun might’ve been his way to cope with everything that was happening. I think Kokichi is really damn good at separating himself from his emotions, lying to himself to do what he thinks needs to be done. This line from Chapter 1 is pretty telling…

(post trial, chapter 1)

This was also something he says himself to Kaito in the exisal hanger during chapter 5.

(post trial, chapter 5)

I’m inclined to believe everything that Kokichi says to Kaito in the exisal hanger. As Kiibo says when Kaito questions it, “I think his dying words may have been the honest truth.” Knowing he was about the die, and that he absolutely needed Kaito’s help to get his plan to break the killing game to work- to achieve his genuine, true goal- I don’t see any reason for him to lie.

This emotional distance extends past just the killing game. I think it's a key part of how he interacts with others around him.

Kokichi is an ultimate leader. I think he uses his talent throughout the game in an attempt to “lead” everyone from the shadows. He wanted to stop the killing game and escape with as many people as possible. However, his methods are very ends-justify-the-means. I believe that he did genuinely care about everyone at the ultimate academy, but in the detached way a distant king might care about his subjects. On the other hand, if he had to use or sacrifice a few as pawns for the greater good, that is what had to be done. It’s not like it didn’t emotionally affect him, but I think he was deliberately trying to keep his distance so that it would not impact him as much, and so that he could continue trying to tear the killing game apart with as many tools in his arsenal as possible.

(post trial, chapter 5)

With this core motivation in mind, this brings us to Chapter 4.

In my opinion, the Killing Game Busters was never a plan that was meant to succeed. From an in-game perspective, the idea that he was originally going to follow this mercy kill plan doesn’t make sense to me. Firstly, Kokichi already had suspicions that they were being watched as early as chapter 3.

(post trial, chapter 3)

…and he later confirms that he was fully convinced of this fact when Monokuma agreed to reuse the chapter 4 motive in the virtual world.

(post trial, chapter 5)

He knew that this killing game was for somebody else’s entertainment. I’ll go a bit into the secret of the outside world in a moment, but considering this, I don’t think he ever fully believed in it. Choosing to mercy kill everyone, in the name of a “truth” that was incompatible with what he had discovered… just doesn’t make sense to me.

Not to mention, from a narrative standpoint, I think the idea that he was completely for this mercy kill plan, decided to throw out the plan mid-trial, and then start an entirely different plan to end the killing game in chapter 5, isn’t very compelling. It weakens Kokichi’s overall character by making his motivation less cohesive and making him seem less organized over all, which I think is one of his strengths as a character. A Kokichi that is this fickle with what he’s trying to do would not have been able to write the script for chapter 5.

I think he always had different goals in mind with the Killing Game Busters. The first was something that is made very clear in chapter 5, but started here in chapter 4: He wanted to stop the killing to give himself room to break the game while minimizing deaths. The second was to further villainize himself, for all the reasons I talked about above, and some more I will get into in a little bit.

Seeing the secret of the outside world was undoubtably disturbing, regardless of whether he believed it or not; there is a noticeable shift in how Kokichi acts before and after he swipes that card key. Combined with discovering that Miu, someone he’d been working with closely, was planning on murdering him, I believe that seeing the destruction of the outside world pushed him towards more drastic measures than what he had been doing in previous chapters. He decided that in order for his plan in chapter 5 to work (which he had almost certainly already been planning at this point, considering how elaborate it was), he needed to make everyone question if pursuing the truth was the right thing to do at all.

After Miu’s body discovery, nobody was really worried about losing this class trial. Everyone had seen how Shuichi had guided them all to the truth and caught the blackened three times in a row, despite the unique difficulties in each case. They had full confidence in his abilities.

(investigation, chapter 4)

Shuichi is also not really doubting his abilities as a detective anymore. One of Shuichi’s core internal conflicts is his fear of the consequences of revealing the truth. Up to this point, it seems like he’s been moving past it. Especially after catching Korekiyo “Actual Serial Killer” Shinguji, who had no regrets or grey motivation for his killings. Shuichi’s morale, and subsequently everyone else’s, was at an all time high. (Of course, he was starting to feel a lot of pressure to solve these cases and save everyone on his own… but that’s another issue. ily Shuichi)

If Kokichi could take the wind out of Shuichi’s sails, really destroy the confidence he had built up so far, he could set up his impossible trial in chapter 5 to be more likely to work as intended. Everyone will be less motivated to try and figure out what happened if they are uncertain that finding the truth would actually result in anything good.

And I do believe he was trying to knock Shuichi off balance specifically. Damaging his confidence is one thing, but he was also deliberately trying to drive a wedge between him and Kaito. He antagonizes Kaito all chapter 4 investigation, including making up a nickname for Shuichi (“Shumai”) that directly riffs off Kaito’s closeness with Maki. He insists into the trial that he and Shuichi are partners now.

(class trial, chapter 4)

(Sidenote: Kokichi’s behaviour during trial 4 is genuinely really interesting to me. On top of the direct digs like this, he says a lot more subtle things to get under Kaito’s skin during trial 4 that I think are super neat to pay attention to.)

Theoretically, pushing Kaito away from Shuichi, combined with the powerlessness he’ll feel in the wake of the truth of both trial 4 and the outside world, could make him easier to convince to join Kokichi’s “side”. He even directly asks Shuichi to team up with him before leaving the virtual world:

(daily life, Chapter 4)

This leads me to believe that Shuichi was originally the one that Kokichi intended to use to build his impossible trial. I mean, if Shuichi was the one in the exisal hanger and presumed dead instead of Kaito, the chances of everyone else solving that mystery drops Significantly. Everyone else, aside from maybe Kiibo, was 100% convinced that Kokichi was the mastermind at that point. No one except Shuichi would’ve tried to dig as deep as he did, for better or for worse. I think this idea is supported by the note that Kokichi wrote next to Shuichi’s face on the whiteboard in his room (“trustworthy?”). He was clearly considering Shuichi as a person for one reason or another, and I believe this is it.

By condemning Gonta, who everyone else perceived as a kind soul who would never hurt anybody, someone who was struggling to understand what the virtual world even was with his amnesia, would be perceived by the others as kicking someone when they were down. Gonta has an absolutely miserable time through the accusations and wholly blames himself for how things turned out in the end. That, and Gonta’s actions were even well-intentioned. The secret of the outside world was apparently so horrible, Gonta thought it would be kinder to mercy kill everyone rather than force them to face it. This result would make everyone question if the truth was really as undoubtably good as they had come to think so far; Not only did Gonta suffer because they had to find the truth, but seeking the secret of the outside world would apparently also only lead to suffering. This would make them hesitate during Kokichi’s impossible trial.

(class trial, chapter 4)

As I said before, Kokichi’s second goal for trial 4 was villainizing himself even further. He says that this was a goal himself to Kaito in chapter 5.

(post trial, chapter 5)

Part of this villainization was just adding to the persona he had already created for himself and that I already talked about his motivations for before. The other part was what he says here. He specifically wanted everyone to think that he was the mastermind. This gave him leverage in two main ways. First, making himself appear to be the mastermind with an actual mastermind as hands off as Tsumugi genuinely gave him power over everyone else. He used this in chapter 5 to put a pause to the killings and give himself more room to enact his plan to break the killing game from the inside.

(daily life, chapter 5)

Although he then says “You guys can commit suicide together or kill each other… / Or, you can change your mind and stay here! You’re welcome to do that too!”, having experienced the secret of the outside world already, I think he’s pretty confident in what they will be feeling in this moment. No one is going to kill each other, and he knows that. He wants them to take that second option for the time being while he sets up his plot.

Making himself appear like the mastermind also benefited his impossible trial plan directly. Everyone would be much more likely to vote for someone they were convinced was the mastermind rather than one of their friends. No one would suspect that it was really him that was the victim.

“Using Gonta and making him into a murderer” was a significant part of how he villainized himself, but the way he treated Gonta during this whole experience was also a major factor. Starting as early as just after Miu was killed, he begins to be really aggressively mean to Gonta. He just straight up bullies him throughout the second half of the trial.

(daily life, chapter 4)

(class trial, chapter 4)

And then, after all this, he acts remorseful and sides himself with Gonta at the very end. It isn't genuine emotion like he felt before Kaede's execution, shown by his neutral expression. To me, this uncharacteristically open expression of grief feels like it was just set up to exacerbate the impact of his cruelty after Gonta’s execution. At this point, everybody’s little faith in Kokichi has been shaken significantly. With the shock of the trial, maybe you Could start to believe they were on the same side, as a team. Then, at the reveal of the extent of Kokichi’s manipulation, that is all ripped painfully away again.

(post trial, chapter 4)

(post trial, chapter 4)

Even if these parts of trial 4 make my stomach turn, I don’t want to imply that Kokichi is completely cold-hearted and unfeeling. Actually, I think there were multiple moments in chapter 4 that show him struggling to regulate his emotions and keep face around everyone else while he enacted this plan.

1: I don’t think Kokichi initially planned to make the reveal that Gonta was the killer as dramatic (or frankly, a bit traumatic) as it ended up being. He had been carrying himself a certain way during the first half of the trial, and I think Shuichi lying to his face in front of everyone about Kokichi’s own alibi dramatically changed his attitude. I mean, Shuichi lied (as he had done almost every trial and gotten 0 flack for) and Tsumugi even called him out on it, but everyone believed him over Kokichi anyways. So when Kokichi lies, it’s completely inexcusable, even though he’s been working tirelessly on his own trying to save everyone?* But when SHUICHI lies, and gets caught in it, people go along with him? They don’t doubt their trust in him for even a second? This double standard infuriated him. It’s at this point that he completely shifts in energy. If Shuichi, no, everyone, is going to disrespect him like this, he was going to make them suffer for it.

(class trial, chapter 4)

2: Kokichi only goes full villain after Kaito says “Kokichi, If you really cared for Gonta, explain yourself to everyone” in the post trial. I think that even though he was always going to paint himself as the villain, he was legitimately affected by the things that had just happened (Gonta’s death, Miu’s attempted murder, the secret of the outside world, even if he knew it wasn’t real) and what he’d just done. Even if he was trying hard not to be. The sudden shift he has from not saying anything to cackling about how little he cared about Gonta feels to me like he was kicking himself back into gear after trying to process some genuinely difficult emotions. 3: After Kokichi punches Kaito down, and everyone completely ignores him in favour of helping Kaito up, Shuichi says these iconic words to Kokichi: “Kaito always has us by his side, see? But no one wants to be around you. / You’re alone, Kokichi. And you always will be.” Kokichi responds like this:

(Post-trial, chapter 4)

There’s something about the way he cuts himself off, pauses, and then his mask falls. I think Shuichi’s words got to him more than he wanted them to. Honestly, Kokichi’s attitude towards cooperation, keeping everyone at arm’s length, and insisting (to himself) that he (as a leader) must fix the killing game completely on his own just seems so lonely to me. Even if he is intentionally trying to alienate himself and get everyone to hate him, being so viscerally cut into like this must have hurt. Especially from someone he was trying to work to get onto his side. It’s no wonder he quickly left after this moment.

This is what I think drove Kokichi in chapter 4. He’s a leader who wants to “lead” his classmates into safety, but he isn’t afraid to use underhanded, cruel tactics if he thinks it will get him ahead in the game for the greater good. He viscerally represses his emotions in order to keep himself going and keep everyone else away from him. He tried to destroy Shuichi’s confidence and drive a wedge between him and Kaito to get him on his side for his plan. He used and made Gonta into a murderer to villainize himself and discourage everyone else from seeking the truth.

Whenever I imagine Kokichi on his own, out of the spotlight of the Audience or the eyes of his castmates, he’s never as expressive as he is in the open. I think in reality, Kokichi is a pretty depressed and lonely person. His clownish personality isn’t entirely a facade, and outside of a killing game scenario, I think he would act pretty similarly to how he does in game. But I do think that he uses it as a mask for his true emotions. While I feel like the “evil villain” persona is a genuine part of Kokichi’s personality, outside of the killing game he probably doesn’t act on it as deeply as he does in-game. I also think Kokichi struggles with letting people become close to him, even without anything on the line. The killing game just caused him to lean into these aspects of his personality hard, and in potentially the worst ways.

*I feel like here it’s important to mention that personally, I still think the collateral damage he caused in his attempts to stop the killing game matters. A lot. I don’t think he should be excused for the things he did, even if he had good intentions. This makes him a really interesting, morally grey character, and I like that about him. EDIT: I can't believe I have to add this, but please do not use this essay as ammunition for harassing people who ship ougoku… I don't agree with doing that at all. I hope I made it clear that I find Kokichi to be a complex character whose mistreatment of Gonta was never targeted, and more just an aspect how how he isolated himself and how he manipulated others to end the killing game, even if it caused suffering to them in the moment. Kokichi cares about everyone in the ultimate academy, in his own weird, detached way. He's not completely heartless nor is he an abusive monster. And even if none of that was the case, it's never an excuse to harass people for disagreeing with you. Please be cool!! Thanks <3

[kaasknot]

(ID in ALT: buster keaton in the blacksmith, the frozen north, the gold ghost, the scarecrow, the haunted house, the love nest, the navigator, and the cameraman)

tbh i kind of think the whole Thing about buster keaton's "stoneface" is that he figured out acting for the camera before a lot of other ppl did. i can't say before anyone else did, because we've lost so much early film that it's impossible to know, but like. audiences and critics in the 1920s grew up with stage acting, which is very large and expressive, and early film actors usually came from/were influenced by the stage, so that was what ppl expected. but then buster keaton toddles onscreen, with his instinctive Understanding Of Film, and his acting is incredibly subtle—not at all like the stage. and ppl didn't know wtf to do with it. especially when you factor in how wildly expressive he nevertheless is—here's some guy who's a freaking forerunner in modern acting, but his contemporaries were still like "his face never moves! witchcraft stoneface!"

but of course when king vidor does it with 1928's "the crowd," suddenly naturalistic acting is all the rage. meanwhile poor buster's stuck with his reputation for being unmoved at all times.