#but I can't start from nothing. I have a hard time going into games blind because I just don't know what I'm doing at all

[neverendingford]

.

[foone]

I see a lot of people joking about the adhd thing of "I have a appointment/phone call at 3pm, guess I won't do anything all day!"

But no one seems to make the connection that it's a time blindness thing. One of the symptoms of ADHD is not having a good and accurate sense of time. And not doing stuff prior to an event with a hard deadline is an obvious coping mechanism for that.

Can I go to the store? It's 10am and the appointment is at 3pm. How long does going to the store take? An hour? Three hours? Five hours? I DON'T KNOW!

I get anxious trying to do things before appointments because I'm aware that I don't know how long those things take, and that if I think I do, I may be very wrong. Too often I've been like "hey I can walk to the corner store and grab a drink, that'll take like 15 minutes!" and then an hour later I get back and whoops my rice has burnt.

Plus there's also the fact that ADHD people know that motivation and focus is a two-edged sword.

Like, let's say you decide to play a video game. You've got time, you can pause/save whenever, so this should be a perfect fit to make good use of your waiting-time. So you start playing and WHOOPS you get really focused for some reason today (because people with ADHD do not get to pick when their brain decides to focus) and the next time you look at the clock it's 2:49 and you haven't showered or dressed and the appointment is 30 minutes away. Fuck. (you could have set an alarm, but now you're asking people with the forgetting-things-and-time-ignoring condition to remember it set alarms)

And with motivation, it can be almost worse. Instead of playing a game, you so something useful or creative. You clean your room or fix your plumbing or write a story or draw a picture. And suddenly it's great. Your brain is firing on all cylinders. You've got all the motivation you can ask for, and you are FLYING. the ideas are brilliant, your hands are nimble, you're getting stuff done you've been putting off for weeks or months. And then the alarm goes off. Time to go to your appointment. Fuck.

You drive there, your brain still full of ideas and plans. But by the time you get back, the motivation is gone. You may still have the ideas but you don't have the drive to write them down. You can't force yourself to do it. Your sink is still in pieces. Your room is half-cleaned, and you have to shove all the sorted clothes into one big bin just so you have somewhere to sleep. You've left things half finished again, in a cycle that has been repeating your whole fucking life. It seems sometimes that nothing ever gets finished.

So next time you don't even start. There's not time. You've been burnt too many times. Why add another half-completed project to your pile of shame?

My point is that people seem to be going "lol I can't do anything all day if I have an appointment at 3pm" like this is a quirky "oh I'm so scatterbrained!" weirdness they alone have, and not a major complication of a disabling mental illness.

(and that's not even getting into the secondary effects. If you know that having an appointment ruins your whole damn day, you're going to avoid them. Even when it's things like "going to that party" or "meeting your friends for a drink/game" or "going to a movie with that cute girl from your math class". Things you should enjoy. Things that'd help you be social. Things that make you feel human.)

[goldsbitch]

can I request a Lando x reader where the reader’s weakness is when people stroke her hair? Her mind goes completely blank and she falls silent immediately when people stroke her hair and Lando uses it at his advantage.

Fluffy pls and ty🫶🏻

omg, i love this prompt so much - thank you and hope you like it!!

This is one is dripping with sweetness a little too much, don't say I did not warn you. No other warning.

Lando was born a tease, oscillating between clueless and shy, to unapologetic and bordeline dickish. It all depended on the setting, his relationship to the person and how much sleep he got the night before. Sometimes your boyfriend was the sweetest little thing, giggling shyly about everything instead of coming up with an actual response, and the other times he was a walking menace actively seeking every opportunity how to get you into a flustered state.

You and Lando were full on deep in the beginning of your relationship, the sweetest part of the honeymoon phase. To put it bluntly - fucking almost non stop. And the desire was never-ending. Blinding sunshine kissed good morning to every day you two got to wake up next to each other. Problems seem to be non existent. Bliss.

It was the way his hair curled when he got a little bit sweaty, his toned body what you were desperate to explore from every angle and the need to know every little secret trick that worked on him. It became some sort of a game, who would get better at knowing the other. Which one of you found all the buttons to push.

Lando rose up that morning and chose violence. Metaphorical one, of course. Snuggling up to you in order to wake you up as well for some morning work out, as he like to call it. Whispering sweet nothings to your ear and touching you all over your body. But you were just incredibly sore from the past few days, physically unable to keep up.

"Why don't you love me anymore," he pleaded jokingly as you murmured another weak appeal for your sleep.

"Lando, you know I love you more than anything," you replied, still half asleep. But it was hard to distinguish as reality resembled a sweet dream everyday lately.

"I remember when you used to want me, physically," he kept going.

"We literally had sex few hours ago, stop whining," you kissed him between your words. He looked at you with his incredible eyes, little devil dancing in each one of them.

"Exactly, too long ago. Wish I could go back in time when you were not sore and get inside you all over again."

You simply laughed, absolutely smitten with this lovey dovey side of him. His words made you melt like butter sitting under direct sun. You brushed your noses together and then he kissed you.

The best part of romantic relationships is the one that you cannot absolutely share with other people, the almost embarrassing pleas, desire and gross goofiness, simping at each other all the time.

"Fine, if you play by these rules, I'll come back with my own revenge," he said finally as you inevitably had to start getting ready to go to the paddock with him.

Today was the big day. You'd been spotted in public countless of times, the "girlfriend" title officially sitting on your head for weeks now. But this was the first time you were to join him in the paddock as a wag. You were trying to hide your nervousness, but he saw right through you. Before you exited the apartment, he made you stop and took your face in his hands. "I'm happy I get to do this with you. I love parading you around, for everyone to see that we're a team." You smiled, his words hitting like first snowflakes of the year. "Poor Oscar, I can't wait to finally trauma dump the shared misery you bring to our lives," you jokes and locked lips with him once again. "God, it's terrifying how much I like you," you said automatically, without having to think about it.

//

It actually wasn't as bad as you'd expected. It was definitely weird and strange, but not necessarily bad. Having Lando by your side as you passed the gates definitely helped. The photographers were lined up as people at a shooting range would and it did feel like that at first. But as quickly as you were initially overwhelmed, fatigue took over you and you blocked their ever-presence out. Trying to chat up those Lando introduce you to and memorizing the names. You knew how much some of these people meant to Lando, so you were trying to be at your best behavior. The thought that his friends would hate you in the same way as some of his fans haunted you.

In the middle of all the rush, you parted for a moment. To be honest, little peace of quiet and chill was something you appreciated. But remember, Lando woke up and chose violence this morning. And his plan was quite simple, yet bulletproof.

"Y/N! There you are, my love," you heard from coming from behind you. "I have someone to introduce to you! I'm very much sure you'll appreciate meeting him." As you turned, you saw Daniel Ricciardo walking your way with your Lando. You were a little perplexed as to why Lando was so cheerful about that. You clearly remembered him getting very upset when you admitted to him that at some point in the past, when formula 1 was a world far away from you, that you had a minor crush on Daniel. Which obviously went out of the window once you met Lando. That did not mean that Lando was 100% ok with it.

"Y/N, as I'm sure you know, this is Daniel, hell of a driver and good friend of mine," Lando continued and you knew him well enough to know he had ulterior motives. Not sure what to do, you smiles shyly and shook Daniel's hand.

"Hi, Daniel," you said, eyes flinching between him and Lando. You were full on preparing for anything. Lando's smirk almost had a life of his own at that point.

"Nice to finally meet you, Y/N. I've heard quite a lot things about you!" Daniel opened, life of the party as per usual.

You chuckled. "All good things, I hope!" And with that, Lando stepped behind you and put his arm around you.

"Only the best," he said, leaned closed and inconspicuously started to stroke you hair gently. Oh, he did not just go this low.

It was slow, yet like tidal wave. You stopped breathing for a moment. Your body relaxing, as if you'd just taken the world's best sedatives. The way his hands made you feel was etherial. It was the same sensation the luckier ones experienced when listening to ASMR and the less fortunate ones sometimes called an orgasm. Shivers slowly traveling around your whole body, every part becoming sensitive out of nowhere. You weren't able to look at Daniel, let alone continue speaking. Lando was more than aware of what touching your hair did to you. He'd discovered this trick quite early on. And it was his favorite one.

"So, where are you from?" Daniel attempted at small talk. But how could you possibly give a fuck at that moment. Not that your body would even allowed you to respond. The only thing you were able to take in from the outside world were the soft slow movements Lando's fingers were doing, blocking everything out instanteniously.

Daniel stared at you, waiting. From his perspective, this was a very awkward meeting.

Lando answered for you, with a smirk you did not see, but could feel from the tone of his voice. "You have to excuse her, she is bit shy in front of new people."

You could not give less of a fuck at that moment of what these two were saying. Your lips were starting to shiver from getting so sensitive. You took a short breath and someone who would be standing close and knew you well would know, that what escaped your mouth was not a nervous laugh, but something very close to a moan.

Lando and Daniel were saying words, but none of that was important, while Lando's fingers were working his magic. He would only leave your hair alone once he saw Daniel leaving.

You wanted to be mad at him. But you were still sort of high from all the sensation bomb Lando dropped on you. You slowly turned around to face him, coming down from your own personal nirvana.

You took a deep breath while he watched you without a blink and biting hims smile away.

"You promised," you let out air that got stuck in your lungs somewhere along the way. "You promised you would not do this in public." Your brain was slowly wiring up to normal again.

"I told you I'd punish you for the morning," he said as if it was the most amusing thing ever. "Also, if Daniel is my competition, I'm going to use all the advantage I have."

Lando had a way of looking at you that made you unravel instantaneously and there was no way of stopping it. There was just something about his smile that did it for you. As anyone who is properly in love, you could not imagine somebody being able tor resist that. In your love soaked mind, he was irresistible. To a normal mind, he was probably just a regular guy, but that idea was unfathomable to you.

"I'm pretty sure that after what I just pulled, you will not have to worry about Daniel liking me," you chuckled, having to accept that Lando won this one.

"I would never let my guard down...But yeah, I think this one is pretty safe," he chuckled once more. You kissed his overly proud face and promised to yourself to get back at him later, in the privacy of his bedroom.

[bahrtofane]

flics and feelings

your job becomes exponentially harder when jude comes into the picture. Literally.

jude x wc!photographer

Word count : 3.2K+

Watch it : suggestive language, skinny dipping, light angst but happy ending !!

Hope you enjoy <3 !!

—--

You're a sports photographer who's just been added to the list of the england national team. Not just for friendlies no no, you're going to the world cup.

You've done a few things here and there for them during friendlies and public appearances and the hard work has seemed to pay off ! 

You can't stop smiling and bouncing around from pure joy after you open the email informing you. This is the chance, the opportunity, the place and time to really make a name for yourself and put your foot out there in the market and world.

You truly believe that this is your calling. It does help that the team isn't bad eye candy either. You'd be blind to argue with that. But nonetheless you must stay professional !

—--

Your professionalism goes down the drain thanks to one very hands, flirty, and mouthy Jude Bellingham. 

It's his fault really. 

It started as nothing more but curiosity to look at the raw pictures you took of him at training. That soon escalated to teasing words, and hands straying away from your camera and to your own. 

He had kissed you for the first time after the first game, under the cover of the locker room long after most people had gone. Gently taking your face in his hands and giving your lips a kiss so tender you wonder if it was even real sometimes.

You're playing a risky game now, you know. But his smile is worth every moment. And besides, your boss has been complimenting your shots lately. Calling them a “raw glimpse into the truth of bellingham.” Whatever that means.

To be honest you don't really know where this new found relationship even stands, fleeting or otherwise you don't have the guts to challenge it in fear of losing him too soon. 

—--

Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep

You groan, stretching meekly to find the source of whatever is ruining your sleep, and in the process elbow Jude in the stomach. 

“Ah, sorry baby.” You rasp, trying to rub the sleep out of your eyes. 

He stifles a groan, looking up at you meekly. “ ‘S okay, just ‘m alarm,'' Flopping back into his face dramatically. 

You sigh, lying back down. That means you also have to get up and ready soon. The suns not even out yet but you have to be ? Unbelievable, truly. 

You spend the little time you have scrolling through social media and answering emails while Jude sleeps soundly next to you as cozy as ever. 

When his second alarm goes off, you give him gentle kisses to the tips of his cheeks and nose to help him wake up. But all you get is him dragging you back down into the covers with him. 

'Little more..” He babbles hanging into you and any covers he can reach. 

You flick his arm gently, “We have to get going, especially you, don't want Saka beating you out there again?”

He gets up at this and narrows his eyes at you, “I think you've taken a fancy to him more than me now.”

You chuckle, “Uh huh, sure. It's his bed I'm in right now right ?’

He opens his mouth to argue but settles for getting out of bed and sulking to the bathroom. 

You take this as a sign to get ready yourself. Getting dressed and making a metal note for the equipment you'll need to grab from your own room. 

Jude walks out of the bathroom toothbrush hanging from his mouth and motions for your turn, giving your hip a little squeeze as you walk by. 

He's all dressed, save for the toothbrush, by the time you walk out. Ducking back into the bathroom when you're done. You take a moment to appreciate him, so pretty. 

“You look good.” You smile.

“Thank you love,” He leans in to give you a quick peck, “ i'll see you later yeah?”

You nod watching him leave. 

—--

You come back to find him nowhere to be seen, but you have more than enough pictures to make the whole photo team happy for a year. You spend the rest of the night editing them and sending them off to your list of clientele. Mainly online papers and twitter if you're being honest, but hey it gets the job done and keeps you fed.  

You wonder just how far England will go, just how long you can pretend to have Jude in these fleeting moments you share thousands of miles away from home. 

The door opens as you're knee deep in emails to reveal one very bouncy Jude. 

“What's got you in such a good mood ?”

“You.” He grins.

“Is that so?”

“Mhm , you looked really good today.”

“Oh please, all I was doing was crouching on the side lines and sweating.”

“And yet you looked so hot doing it.” he pokes your side.

You roll your eyes and him, swatting his hand away and turning your focus back to emails on emails on emails. He plops himself down next to you, kicking his shoes off and wiggling dramatically. 

“I wanna show you something when you're done.” He blurts. 

That's all the motivation you need to speed through all your work for tonight.

He takes your hand in his, against your harsh whispers that someone might see, he doesn't care one bit. Only dragging you along more dramatically.

He takes you down hallways and loops of the hotel you haven't been able to get to yet, up a short spiral staircase to a single elevator that doubt will fit the both of you. But he makes it work. Pressing you up to his chest and wrapping an arm around your waist.

He's so warm, radiating more heat than a damn fireplace, but it feels nice against the brisk hotel ac. He tilts his head while staring at your lips, and you've come to know exactly what he wants. You give it to him. How could you not. 

You bring your faces together, a hand on the back of his neck, to pull him impossibly close to you. He always lets you set the pace, plush lips hesitating before opening enough to meet your tongue. 

Too bad the elevator ding interrupts, he's blushing now, you can see and feel the heat radiating from his face as he hastily pulls away. 

But he still finds the courage to pull you out of the tiny elevator gingerly, leading you to what you think is the hotel rooftop. It's gorgeous, honestly. Small patio like area with white couches and chairs facing an electric dome fireplace.  A small swimming pool in the far corner overlooking the city, and a blanket layed out in the artificial grass. Pillows, snacks and all. 

You’re silent for a moment trying to figure this out, figure him out. 

He takes your hand in his, gently leading you to the blanket before you can over think any longer. Letting you sit down and looking at you with too much fondness than you can handle. 

“I don't…” You begin.

He only smiles at you, “I wanted to spend time with you. Proper time that's not in my hotel room or behind the locker room.”

You can only stare at him in disbelief. You can't remember the last time anyone let alone a man, and one you were romantically interested in, doing something so sweet for you. 

Your voice fails you, as well as basic thinking it seems as you launch yourself at him. Smothering not only Jude but the chips in between you. He only lets out giggles when his back hits the ground, letting you do as you please while rubbing your back.

“Thank you so much, really. It means a lot.” You finally choke out.

He gets up immediately, taking you by the shoulders and staring right at you. “Don't do that. Don't cry. Please.”

Your bottom lip only wobbles harder as you try to hold back the tears, but they come all too soon as you sniffle. “ ‘M not sad. Really happy. You make me happy.” You mumble, head now smushed on his shoulder.

“Hey it's okay, take your time love, we've got all night.” 

And all night you do have. By the time your tears have dried Jude makes you try every single snack and little treat he hauled up here. 

You notice a pile of towels sitting at the edge of one of the pool chairs and raise an eyebrow, “What are those for?”

“In case, you wanna swim.” He shrugs face full of chewy gummies. Sugar free fat free everything free it seems. Nutritions orders. 

“Can we ?” You turn to him expectedly.

“Why not.” He smiles.

You don't take a second longer, taking off your shoes and other accessories. Tip toeing at the edge of the pool before his voice stops you.

“You're gonna swim in those ?”

“Im mean yeah. I didn't bring a change.”

He only shrugs, wiggling out of his own clothes faster than you can stop him. “What are you doing?’ You hiss 

“Uh swimming ?”

“Naked ??”

“Not like it's anything you haven't seen before.” He bumps your shoulder with his, giggling. 

“You're unbelievable. What if someone sees?”

He shrugs, getting in the pool. “Oh they won't, I got that covered with hotel staff already. No ones gonna bother us up here.”

He turns to you after the water is up to his navel, motioning with a hand for you to join. 

Really the problem isn't the situation at hand, skinny dipping seems like great fun really, the problem lies with the man who you're in this predicament with. He's all but invaded your heart and mind at this point. He's just, so, everything you've ever wanted and more. Sweet smiles and even sweeter words, teasing but still kind, always making room for you in his life. During the goddamn world cup of all things. Hard working to his core.

The way he looks at you while you tell him the most mundane things about your day makes your head spin, the care he takes into looking out for you is unmatched by anyone. You are so gone for him

He gives you a concerned look, “You don't have to really it's no pressure we can-”

Fuck it.

You toss your clothes to the side faster than you can change your mind about it and slide your way into the freezing water

“It’s fucking freezing what the hell.“

He only strides closer to you, gently lacing your hands together and pulling you further in, where the water now comes to your collar bones.

“I got you” He murmurs.

You shiver and shake at the water, ”M still cold.”

But he only presses himself impossible close to under the water

“Well, let me warm you up then” He barely whispers while your chests are flush together, his hands on either side of your face. 

Gently bringing your lips together once more.

—--

Once the two of you have had more than enough fun trying to drown each other he swaddles you up in big fluffy towels and lays down next to you on the blanket, star gazing. 

“See, that one's Orion.” He breathes out into the night air.

You hum, burying your face where a bit of his shoulder peaks from his towel. It's warm okay. When you yawn for the third time in a row does he bring up heading back down. 

“You've had a long day, come on.” He nudges your arm. 

You give in, groaning, getting up reluctantly and putting your clothes back on. He tidies up while you tussle with your shoes for a second before joining you at the foot of the elevator. The ride down is a comfortable silence and you swing your joined hands while you walk back to your room.

The moment you step into the room do you collapse into the bed, completely drained. He still makes you get up for a quick shower to rinse the chlorine off. Letting you get into bed first while he does the same after.

You're halfway to dreamland when you feel the bed dip and his familiar warmth envelop you. A gentle kiss on the forehead is the last thing you remember before crashing soundly.

—--

Jude won't admit it but he's definitely started favoring your side more often during games. Whenever there's a celebration he always looks over to you. You try not to make it too obvious and just hunker down, shove your camera in your face and think of something odd to keep you from smiling. 

Your go to recently has been imagining Klopp with fingers for hair. Bizarre. 

It all ends too soon when England gets knocked out by France. 

You can see the disappointment and anger in him. 

“I really thought we had a chance.” He mumbles into your neck later that night.

“Hey it's okay, what's done is done. No use stressing out on the past when there's so much future in front of you.” You try to comfort him.

He sniffles and shrugs. Not wanting to say more. You're set to leave in a day. Then what ?

He begs you to stay, “Just one more night, please.”

Just one more then, one more and you go back to the redundant life you lived before all of this. Before you even felt him utter bliss on your skin. You wonder what his type really is, what are the people he chooses to truly make his. What kind of lovers would move mountains for and shout sappy poetry from the rooftops just to see them smile.

You suppose you should be happy to even have this kind of encounter. Count your blessings, cant have your cake and eat it, blah blah blah. You want him. Now and forever more. 

You don't say any of this, instead choosing to hold his hand gently while he curls up next to you. 

—--

The day the team is set to leave you dont see much of him really. You're too busy counting and recounting all your supplies and making sure you have all the right paperwork for the very heavy and very expensive equipment you're about to embark with.

You have about a week before you're off to Italy for some fancy car races on the coast. You're going to mope and sulk in that time you can feel it. 

You're making your last trip to give the luggage guy your set when you run into Jude. 

“Oh hi, you're leaving already ?”

“Ah no just taking my equipment to the lobby. It always flies before I do.” You try to smile.

He nods, a little solemnly.

“Am I gonna see you at mine later ?’

“Yeah, maybe.”

And with that you take off. You honestly don't expect to ever see him again if not for work. At least this can be a cute story you can tell to friends back home.

—--

Not a cool story at all because you have just realized that you've forgotten your really nice and expensive headphones in his room. Good lord. They were a gift from you to you on your birthday last year when you had a lot of videos to edit and needed to be able to listen to any variation in sound. 

You can not buy those again. 1, the money. 2, you're attached. 

But good god is it going to be awkward just waltzing in there. Maybe you can just ask room service. No to creepy. Text him ? twice as awkward.

Oh fuck, guess going back up to his room it is.

You feel like some stalker creeping around the halls, even though you've been here plenty of times. Now it feels entirely different. Like youre no longer welcome here. But damn do you need your headphones back.

With a deep breath you knock on the door as friendly as a knock can get, and it opens almost immediately. 

“Hi! I'm glad you came.” He beams.

You don't have the heart to tell him it's only for your headphones, you walk in away. Taking a seat at the edge of the bed. You notice everythings been tidied up and organized, there's only his suit cases left standing in the corner. 

He joins you not long after, playing with his fingers idly. Waiting for you to say something, anything. 

“Is something wrong?” He tries.

“No, no, nothing. Just came to say bye and look for my headphones is all.” You mumble. 

He frowns,“There's something up.”

“No.”

“Yes there is. Why else are you acting like you don't know me and you've never been in this room.”

“Because that's what it feels like Jude. We had our little fun and now it's over we go our separate ways.” You have finally reached your tipping point.

He only looks back at you hurt,“Is that what you think this is?”

“Is it not?”

“God no, why would I rent out the roof of this hotel just to stargaze and goof around in the pool with you. Did that mean nothing?”

“It meant everything to me. I told you as much.”

“Then why are you acting like this now?”

“I'm scared. I'm scared when I leave this room and we leave the country. That'll be it. That i’ll never get to have this again.” You whisper.

“Love,” He takes your hand in yours, “I truly want something with you. More than a fling more than a work romance more than whatever you've been thinking of it as. I’ll book a flight to meet you when you land right now if you want. Just say the word.”

“Seriously?”

“Of course. I'm serious. You said it yourself no use stressing over the past when there's so much future. And I want you to be my future. If you'll have me.” He gives you a small smile. 

“Of course i'll have you Jude. You're so incredible I can't even put it into words. I want a future that has an us, I want you to be mine as much as I'll be yours.”

This time it's he who rushes to tackle you into the bed, bombarding your face in kisses while you squeak and give soft punches to his arms in a futile attempt to get him off. 

He finally does and rushes to fish his laptop out of his suitcase, immediately going to his flight information and adding a connecting flight faster than you've seen most people function. 

In the time it takes for him to find his passport you find your headphones, neatly tucked away in the bedside drawer. That makes a lot of sense.

You lean on his shoulder watching the last bit of information go in before he clicks confirm, looking up to smile at you. 

“I'll see you when I land in your city then ?” 

“Yes you will pretty boy.” You murmur, with one final kiss goodbye. Or more a see you soon kiss.

You walk out of the room not only with your fancy headphones but a lovely man to call your own.

[honeytonedhottie]

getting into the wish fulfilled in manifesting⋆.ೃ࿔*:･🧁

ok so the first thing that i want u to do is STOP believing that the state of knowing that u have ur desire or having blind faith in manifesting is hard for you to do. bcuz its not, ur limiting beliefs being attached to this is the only thing thats holding u back so thats something you've just gotta get rid of cuz its not serving you.

oftentimes we self sabotage. example : if u assume that ur relationship with ur sp ended before it actually ended then u have nobody to blame BUT yourself.

if ur being someone who isn't sure, or if ur being someone who's waiting for the 3d to conform then nothing can change bcuz ur operating from lack and because u dont believe in urself.

HOW TO GET INTO THE WISH FULFILLED

everything starts with ur self concept and it'll trickle down from there. when u know how much power u have, when u know that u create thats when you'll understand how minuscule your circumstances are

detach from ur circumstances, this doesn't mean to stop thinking about ur desires, u can think about ur desires all the time if u rly want to, but u must think about it from the state of already being in possession of it.

discipline. you need to stick to what u want, u cannot serve two masters. you can't keep going back and forth between the state that u dont have it and the state that u do. dont go back to the old story bcuz if ur so-so in ur discipline game then you'll get so-so results. u have to be in the state of already having ur desires DOMINANTLY. its about who ur being most of the time

[vssail]

aventurine x fem! reader

warnings: boss x secretary, VERY out of character, reader is tired of avens gambling addiction

this is my first post here and also my first time trying to write something in english that isn't for school, so sorry if there are mistakes. hope someone likes it!

Many times you regretted picking up this job.

It was the 10th missing call you left to Aventurine. As always, he didn't picked the phone.

Sighing, you got up from your confy bed. You didn't even bother to change to proper clothes, judging by the time, almost 3 am, everyone at the casino would be too drunk to notice some girl walking in there in sleeping clothes. Your priority right now was to take Aventurine out of there and go back to your confy bed.

After a short ride in your car, you got in that demonic place. The bright lights were blinding you. You really hated casinos.

You didn't have to search too much to find the man you were looking for. A fight in the poker table was the only necessary hint you needed to find your boss. When you reached the scene, it was the same as always: some looser that doesn't accept his bad luck.

"There's no way you won five rounds in a row!" a guy shouted while holding the little peacock of your boss by the shirt collar.

This always happened, and you always appeared to save him from a beating. But this night you were tired, tired of all the paperwork he gave you last minute, tires of staying up because he didn't want to pick his fucking phone, tired for having to take the car at 3 am and tired of seeing the same scene every freaking night.

He saw you behind the guy, and a proud smile appeared on his face, thinking that you were going to save him like always. You could see his face change when he saw the guy holding him and you not moving to stop him. In your mind, this would be a good lesson for him to stop his bad habits.

Then, the first punch came, making his glasses to fly away of his face. That was the fact that changed your decision of not doing anything. With his eyes exposed to the angry looser, what you expected that was going to be some punches was going to turn into another thing beyond a game.

"A damn Avgin, I knew you were a liar!" he said. You could see your boss looking for you while trying to recover from the punch.

"I'm gonna beat you so hard that you-" he stopped talking to scream in pain from your sudden grip on his arm.

"He what, little fucker?" You encouradged him to continue. Aventurine was suddenly at your side, with that horrible proud smile again in his face.

After giving the guy a little warning to never mess up with your boss, you let him go.

"For a moment I though you were going to let me on my own" he joked.

"I was" you simply said, getting out of that damn place. You knew he would follow you.

"What?!" he shouted, stopping you in the hall of the casino "Why would you let that man beat me up? You know that if I'm dead, you won't be paid, right?"

Before speaking, you took a long, long breath, so you wouldn't scream at him.

"In my contract there's nothing about saving my boss at 3 am in casinos" you breathed again ", there's nothing about risking my own life to save him from fights." you didn't breathe this time "Do you know how much I sleep beetwin finishing the work that you give me in the last minute and searching for you?! For the love of the Aeons, I'm a secretary! I shouldn't be beating people up for you!"

You didn't notice, but you started crying in the first sentence. And you wouldn't notice if he didn't wipe the tears at your cheeks. You were too angry to let him touch you, and tried to push him away, but he got close again and hugged you. This time, you just accepted the hug, but didn't hug him back.

"I didn't know I was causing you so much stress and trouble," he whispered in your ear "I'm sorry for everything"

"Being sorry isn't enough"

"I know, just as you know that I can't promise you to stop gambling" he separated from you to see your face, and took off his jacket to put it over you (you didn't realise you were trembling) "but I can promise you that I'll try to control myself"

You didn't reply, just buried your face on his neck and hug him.

"When I started working with you and saw you risking your life like it is nothing, I wonder if you knew what self-love is" you asked, holding him tighter

"Why would I care about risking my life when no one cares?"

"I'm gonna kill you" you broke the hug and prepared to beat him.

"Wait wait wait, it's not the same as what I mean" he got away from you "you only care because I'm your boss"

"You little..." you breathed to calm yourself down "If i only cared about you professionaly, I wouldn't go to casinos in the middle of the night in sleeping clothes only to look for you and make sure that you're okay. You don't pay me enough to do all that shit"

He seemed to think about what you said.

"Do you mean that you do that because you care about me?"

He looked at you like he just had discovered a whole new galaxy.

"Yes"

"In a loving way?"

"Maybe, can we go now?" you started to get embarassed of all this sudden confession.

"Wait" he holded you, one hand in your arm and other on your cheek "That means that I can kiss you?"

You easily got away from his hold.

"Yes, but not tonight" you started to go to your car, taking your keys to open it "You won't get a kiss until you return every missing call that I left you this week"

"Oh, common!" he run after you, unable to hold back the genuine smile that appeared in his face.

I really went out of character but hope that someone likes this.

[cherry-romper]

Loving You Sounds Like a Song

Playlist

+ Eren, Mikasa, Armin, Marco, Jean, Connie, Sasha, Levi, Erwin, Hange, Reiner, Bertholdt, Annie, Porco, Pieck, Zeke

Eren; Radio - Lana Del Rey

Not even they can stop me now

Their heavy words can't bring me down

No one even knows how hard life was

Lick me up and take me like a vitamin, 'Cause my body's sweet like sugar venom

How do you like me now?

Mikasa; All I Wanted - Paramore

Think of me when you're out, when you're out there

I could follow you to the beginning, Just to relive the start

And maybe then we'd remember to slow down, At all out favourite parts

All I wanted was you

Armin; Ocean eye - Billie Eilish

Cant stop staring at those ocean eyes

You really know how to make me cry

I've never fallen from quite this high

I've been walking through a world gone blind

Careful creature made friends with time

Marco; Heart To Heart - Mac DeMarco

To all the days we were together, To all the time we were apart

So, we never saw the start, Of each other's lives

Sentimentally assumed, Walking parallels

Heart to heart

Jean; FOR YOUR LOVE - Maneskin

I wanna be the first man you look at tonight

I wanna be a good man and see you smile

I wanna hold you in my arms tonight

For your love, I'll do whatever you want

I've got so much to give to you

Connie; Nothing Breaks Like a Heart - Mark Ronson, Miley Cyrus

This world can hurt you, It cuts you deep and leaves a scar

And nothing breaks like a heart

We live and die by pretty lies

We got all night to fall in love

nothing gon' save us now

Sasha; BIRDS OF A FEATHER - Billie Eilish

I want you to stay

Nothing left to lose without my baby

Can't change the weather, might not be forever, But if it's forever, it's even better

And I don't know what I'm crying for

I'll love you till the day that I die

Levi; Cinnamon Girl - Lana Del Rey

You try to push me out, But i just find my way back in

There's things I wanna say to you, But i'll just let you love

Like if you hold me without hurting me, You'll be the first that ever did

Hold me, love me, touch me, honey, Be the first who ever did

Hange; i wanna be your girlfriend - girl in red

I don't wanna be your friend, I wanna kiss your lips

I wanna kiss you until I lose my breath

Although my lips are blue and I'm cold

I don't wanna be your friend, I wanna be your bitch

Erwin; Twilight - Boa

It's a necessary evil

You give me an inner sanctity

Your feelings and mine are all lonely

And dawn comes, you're there lying with me

And you reach out to touch me, But I am in the twilight

Reiner; i love you - Billie Eilish

Its not true, Tell me I've been lied to, Crying isn't like you

What the hell did I do?

You didn't mean to say "I love you"

I love you, And I don't want too

I can't escape the way I love you

Bertholdt; Strangers - Ethel Cain

"Don't talk to strangers or you might fall in love"

How funny, I never considered myself tough

I tried to be good, an I no good?

I just wanted to be yours, can I be yours?

Am I making you feel sick?

Annie; We cant be friends (wait for you love) - Ariana Grande

I didn't think you'd understand me

Just wanna let this story die, And I'll be alright

We can't be friends, But id like to just pretend

Wait for you love

Me and my truth, we sit in silence

Porco; Never Let Me Go - Florence + The Machine

Reflections still look the same to me

No need to pray, no need to speak

Found the place to rest my head, Never let me go

And all this devotion was rushing out of me, And the crashes are heaven for a sinner like me

But the arms of the ocean delivered me

Pieck; Linger - The Cranberries

I'm sure, I'm not being rude, But its just your attitude

I swore I would be true

Why are you lying all the time? Was it just a game to you?

But I'm in so deep, You know, I'm such a fool for you

You got me wrapped around your finger

Did you have to let it linger?

Zeke; When We Were Young - Adele

Everybody loves the things you do

Everybody here is watching you, 'Cause you feel like home, You're a dream come true

Can I have a moment? Before I go?

Hoping you're someone I used to know

You look like a movie, You sound like a song, My god this reminds me, of when we were young

We were scared of getting old, It made us restless

[evilbihan]

It's interesting how the game never calls Bi-Han a "traitor". Sure, some of the characters do, but the game itself never refers to him that way.

One of his gear pieces is called "Wayward Son" and that is what he is, someone who strayed from the right path and lost himself in his own ambition. He made one wrong choice, one he regrets, if you listen closely to his intros with some characters, like Shang Tsung or Kitana, and it's ridiculous how certain people try and write him off as an evil turncoat who is lost beyond redemption. Liu Kang will try and (at least partially) succeed at bringing him back to the light. I don't get why people are trying to deny Bi-Han any character development and pin him to that one mistake he made or force the traitor role onto him when that's never who he was to begin with.

Bi-Han is the one getting betrayed, constantly, throughout his life. His father kept secrets from him, his brothers turn their backs on him when all he wanted was for them to be part of the future he envisioned for their clan. Even Frost wants to eclipse him and will undoubtedly betray him at some point. His own allies want to kill him after he helped them escape from captivity. Bi-Han has no one he can trust. He's entirely on his own. That may be his own fault to some extent, but I genuinely can't understand how people can be so blind to his suffering or worse, want to see him suffer even more? He's already bearing the consequences of his actions and it's painful to witness.

To get back to the point I made in the beginning, has anyone else noticed how the invasions mode nodes and encounters also never call Bi-Han a traitor or anything of the likes? I've seen Tanya's nodes and even some of her seasonal skins referencing her betrayal in previous timelines, even if nothing hints at her being a traitor this time around. In Bi-Han's encounters, the game only calls him "Ice Fighter", "Chill Initiate", "Snowfall Brother" or "Matchless Cryomancer", always refering to two things, Bi-Han's skills and his affiliation with the cold. That is who he is and always was. A cold, ruthless fighter. That hasn't changed in the current timeline and it makes no sense how some fans claim he was ruined because he made one bad decision.

When equipping Johnny as the announcer voice, the most negative thing he has to say about Bi-Han is that he's bossy, as opposed to how he speaks of actual villains like Shang Tsung ("Hate this guy" etc.). There are no references to his supposed "betrayal" which is why I believe it's only going to be a small part at the very beginning of his character arc that won't hold much relevance for the future, especially as the story develops more, except to serve as a reason for Kuai Liang and him to be enemies.

The way the game speaks of Bi-Han always sounds bittersweet to me and so do the names of his skins/gear pieces. It's almost like a parent talking to or about a stubborn kid that won't take their advice. One of my favorite examples is the kombat league skin that was added this season named "It's cold outside, Bi-Han". It reminded me of Liu Kang telling Bi-Han to "come in from the cold" and I think it's heart wrenchingly beautiful how even outside of the story mode and intros the tragedy that is Bi-Han's story is being acknowledged by the game through all those small subtle references.

One could argue that I'm reading too much into these details but I think some of you don't do that enough. There's 20+ characters on the main roster, the story would have to be dozens of hours long to give all of them in depth background stories and fully flesh them out so we can empathize with their motives. It's hard to understand Bi-Han's character unless you start looking at these small bits and pieces of lore and unfortunately, not enough people do that.

[helpfandom]

OOO can I suggest the "If I break your legs, then you can't leave me." prompt for Irving from the hex? If you know you know ;)

>:) I had an immediate smile on my face when I saw this. You, you get my vision.

@lonleydweller

Tw: Breaking bones, Violence, heavy dependency on you - the reader, Guns, Death of side-characters, bombs.

🥀19. "If I break your legs, then you can't leave me."

°⁺⁎⋅❤︎⋅⁎⁺°⁺⁎⋅❤︎⋅⁎⁺°⁺⁎⋅❤︎⋅⁎⁺°

°⁺⁎⋅❤︎⋅⁎⁺°⁺⁎⋅❤︎⋅⁎⁺°⁺⁎⋅❤︎⋅⁎⁺°

It'd been months since your game got destroyed, leaving you without a purpose, and yet Irving had a proposition for you! Thankfully, he could use a designer to help him out, so now you didn't have to go to that weird inn or end up in the void of rejects.

So naturally, you had accepted, wanting to avoid the unfortunate fate of it. And so for a few months, around four or five, you slowly worked under Irving, trying to understand his gruff attitude and harsh nature.

I mean, sure he's insulting to a lot of people, but he's been okay when around you, he's not mean to you, if anything, he's kind to you, in his own way. I mean, he took off his glasses around you a couple weeks ago, that's progress, right?

°⁺⁎⋅❤︎⋅⁎⁺°⁺⁎⋅❤︎⋅⁎⁺°⁺⁎⋅❤︎⋅⁎⁺°

That was two months ago, god what you would give to go back to that time and tell yourself to run away when you could have. He was, hurt, corrupted somehow, he must have, because he developed feelings. And as much as you wish you could pretend that he was just an unfeeling bastard, the way he holds you, crying into your shoulder from guilt, holding onto as if you're the last thing he might be able to hold on for a long time, his whispers of "sorry. I'm so sorry." It's hard to hate him. It's hard to hate him when he makes you feel like everything depends on you.

°⁺⁎⋅❤︎⋅⁎⁺°⁺⁎⋅❤︎⋅⁎⁺°⁺⁎⋅❤︎⋅⁎⁺°

"I'll be going now. Don't hurt yourself." He says, like you could, and walks out the door of your his house, the one he had you design, a mockery of your work at this point to trap you in the same home you designed as a safe space before he took you into your safe space.

He closes the door, and walks away to his office, that much you can see from the partially made windows, you never did finish animating those, and now it's a waiting game again. You slowly crawl over the house again, trying to figure out what to do again. Eyes flit over to the bookcase, thankfully you put a pencil in here before you realized why he wanted you to design a home you'd be comfortable in. The books aren't readable, he didn't program that in, but if you glitch it, you could open it to a blank page to write in.

It's been a boring few hours, there's only so many times you can try glitching the book into reality to draw one before frustration takes over. Throwing it down onto the ground in anger, it almost perfectly syncs up with the sound of alarms rising in the background, only now hearing due to being blinded by anger.

Now's the chance, the alarms on the door won't sound off as loud due to the other alarms, run. Taking the opportunity, you run and open the door, slamming it into the wall from how rushed you are. Running to the other side, the opposite of where Irving works, the assumption was right, the sirens on the door means nothing to the sirens in the facility, this might be the chance.

The chance to escape. Run.

°⁺⁎⋅❤︎⋅⁎⁺°⁺⁎⋅❤︎⋅⁎⁺°⁺⁎⋅❤︎⋅⁎⁺°

"MIR DAMN IT!" He yells, practically screaming. "They tricked the player into this?" He slams his fist on the desk, knocking over a mug filled with sunglasses. He looks over at the chipped thing and sighs. You gave it to him, before he became this mess. He looks back at the screen. "What am I supposed to do?" He frowns, and looks back at the screen. "What do they see? What does the player see?" They obviously see something, because if they saw what they were really doing, they would stop.

He starts typing on the computer. It must be Lazarus that the player controls, he was the only one from Vicious Galaxy that was a different protagonist. He finds the level they're on and smiles. He could fix this in time. He has to fix this. For you.

°⁺⁎⋅❤︎⋅⁎⁺°⁺⁎⋅❤︎⋅⁎⁺°⁺⁎⋅❤︎⋅⁎⁺°

Even though everything hurts from being cramped up in the house with nowhere to go, no way to stretch, you keep moving, you have to. Breathing heavy, you slow down and lean on the wall. You got a few floors down from the house and that should've put enough space between you and Irving.

Groondas litter the floor, blood seeping out from gunshots on their carcasses. What's going on? What happened? Why are people killing the Groondas? Just keep moving. Escaping his suffocating grip is more important than finding out why the sirens are going off.

You keep moving, walking now to try and ease a bit of the pain flowing from your muscles and skip past the elevator, there's an exit on this floor that can take you lower if you remember correctly.

BOOM!

°⁺⁎⋅❤︎⋅⁎⁺°⁺⁎⋅❤︎⋅⁎⁺°⁺⁎⋅❤︎⋅⁎⁺°

Irving looks around for just a moment when a bomb goes off, before the realization that Lazarus and Jeremiah are gone, the floors broken up into pieces and ceilings cracking under pressure. Shit. How is he supposed to deal with all of this mess?

Wait...

Are you okay? You're on a higher floor, the bomb could've cracked the house and hurt you.

He starts walking, beginning to run with a purpose.

°⁺⁎⋅❤︎⋅⁎⁺°⁺⁎⋅❤︎⋅⁎⁺°⁺⁎⋅❤︎⋅⁎⁺°

You tripped, how stupid that one of the few floors who didn't get too much damage made you trip and break your ankle? What kind of cosmic event timing is it that right as you get close to the exit that could help save you, you fail to walk now?

Gritting your teeth and riding adrenaline to go past the pain, you're so close to the exit now. Your hand is on the handle and it swings open to reveal...

Stairs.

The company did change the floor plan after all. A longing sigh comes from you and you start walking down, using the railing to avoid putting pressure on that foot.

One of the doors swings open on a different floor and frantic footsteps start running up the stairs. A flash of blue from an upper floor tells you all you need to know that it's Irving.

"No. No no no no. They have to be okay. They have to be." It slowly dissipates as he goes upward, the opposite direction of you. Thank Mir.

°⁺⁎⋅❤︎⋅⁎⁺°⁺⁎⋅❤︎⋅⁎⁺°⁺⁎⋅❤︎⋅⁎⁺°

Door swung right open against the wall, a book on the floor and the alarms going off.

No. No no no . no no no no no no no you can't be gone, you must have been taken, he treated you kindly, there's no way you would have escaped, you need him like he needs you.

°⁺⁎⋅❤︎⋅⁎⁺°⁺⁎⋅❤︎⋅⁎⁺°⁺⁎⋅❤︎⋅⁎⁺°

Running down the stairs, pain be damned, it's the final floor that isn't decimated. There's a window that leads to Secrets of Legendaria mockup, if you make it there then you can make it down to where a lower floor is for re-creation and make it out of the headquarters.

Frantic running and then tackled down before you make it to the window. "NO!" You cry out, and arms wrap around you. "Oh thank Mir you're okay, did Lazarus hurt you? Did Jeremiah?" He growls from the back of his throat. "Oh I'll do much worse then Vicious Galaxy this time. It will be much worse."

He stands up, still hugging you with a firm grip and looks you up and down as best as he can, noting your foot. "Oh no, no. They did hurt you." His grip gets noticeably tighter on your arms without him thinking and he breaks his grip when he realizes he's hurting you. "I'm sorry, I just..." He shakes his head and picks you up by the shoulders, gently placing you down and wrapping your arm around his shoulders. "C'mon. I need to fix this and you need to be safe."

You chew on your lip for just a moment, but the window is so close, so tantalizingly close. This is the chance. You shake your head. "No. I want out." You shove him, not very well but it's enough of a surprise to him that he genuinely stops for enough of a moment to for you to run before he snaps from his daze and yanks you back, nails digging into your skin.

"What? No. No! I need you, and you need me." He shakes his head, his glasses are slightly broken and it allows for just a mere glimpse into his eyes, deranged and red, pupils wide.

"No!" He shakes his head and pushes down onto the ground. "No." Something snaps in him, and he gets a smile on his face, already eerie enough to see a smile break upon his face, but the mere fact that he's not crying out in anger anymore is enough to send shivers down your spine. "If I break your legs, then you can't leave me."

He pushes you down further, strength so apparent by the fact that not even your meek struggles even break his focus. His hand grips your kneecap and he fucking snaps it.

A gurgle erupts in your throat, bile rising and threatening to spill from your lips as the mere sound of it cracking and then breaking, bone sticking out of your skin.

You scream and he shushes you with his other hand, moving his next focus to your other leg. It's a blessing that you black out from pain before you can feel the other leg snap.

°⁺⁎⋅❤︎⋅⁎⁺°⁺⁎⋅❤︎⋅⁎⁺°⁺⁎⋅❤︎⋅⁎⁺°

The next time you come to, you're laying down in a bed, him sitting next to you. "I'm so sorry." He mutters to himself, head in his hands. "I shouldn't have. I need you. I'm so sorry." You grip the sheets in anger and he notes the movement. "Oh thank Mir, I thought you would never wake up." You glare at him and look down at your legs, mangled and twisted and where they are most certainly not supposed to be.

He follows your eyes and refuses to look at your legs. "I'm sorry, but you just haven't realized how much I need you, and how much you need me."

[dragonflydestiny]

Letter from your Soulmate 🌻

My second pick a card. This pick a card is going to be about letter from your soulmate. What would they write to you?. Would their letter respond to yours? (you can reread 'your letter to your soulmate' in my first pick a card I post earlier). Let’s find out. Pick from 1-4. Thank you.

P.S. This is a very long pick a card for me and I put in a lot of work so I would be very grateful if you could tip me, only if you have the means to. It would encourages me to do more. Thank you so much.

Disclaimer: This is meant as entertainment only. Takes only what resonate.

My Master Lists

💌

💌 Letter 1 🦋

The Lovers, The Chariot, Father of Swords in reverse and 4 of Pentacles (back of the deck).

To (Your name),

I knew from the moment we first met, I felt a sense of familiarity. Your presence alone brings me a feeling of nostalgia. When our eyes meet, I feel like I am existing in the present, the past and the future all at once. It is very strange, and for a brief second it feels like time didn't exist. At that moment, I’m sure was confused. Hesitantly, I introduce myself to you, half expecting you to somehow recognise me and say that we've met before. I'm sure we did, this meeting doesn't seem like it's our first. Would you believe me if I say that there are histories and memories of us buried deep inside waiting for us to uncover it again?. It wasn't love at first sight with you, but more like remembering I have loved you all along. All these time I was waiting for you to show up, a piece of my puzzle I was missing and when you did, I felt so relieved. Yes, I thought to myself, I know it's you, it is going to be you. My soul recognises yours because it is the same stars that we were born. Even though It took us so long to meet, I know I would've been much more happier if we've met earlier.

Before you, I used to dream about having someone by my side, someone I can experience both the joy and pain of life together. And we would travel to every corner of this world but I guess I was naive. My biggest and most painful lessons came from those desires. Through the union with my past person, I had dealt with such malice and hostility. Loving another person became a game, it became dangerous for me. I learned it the hard way of how not to love someone. I'm not proud of what I did and what I had to do to get out of my previous relationship. But that story had long ended. I didn't know it myself but I was searching for you. I was searching for you in everyone that I'd dated/met. But with my past person/people we couldn't see eye to eye. We lacked communication and eventually drifted apart. At those points, I start to wonder if that is it in life, was that my peak of happiness. And sometimes, I'm not going to lie, I did believed that was it. Nothing else can make me happier, until now.

Finally, now I can see the sliver lining. I used to resent my past choices and always play the blame game, if only I'd know that those same choices I made would lead me here to you. I would've been more than willing. I would've been able to make peace with it sooner. Like I said before, if we'd met sooner, I would've be a very very happy man/woman. But I know life doesn't work like that. Seeing you makes me want to try again, to give this 'love' thing another chance. To practice lessons that I learned. I still have a lot to learn but it is very hard for me to hold back from pursuing you. Just know this, when we first met, I wanted to go after you right away but half of me know that I am not ready. I still need to learn to be patient and less impulsive. I need to learn to see situations from different perspective and to control my emotions. I tend to let emotions blind me from seeing things clearly. I can't go to you yet if I don't learn these things. So please wait for me, know that I will find my way back into your arms again.

The torments and pains I will have to face, I will face them with courage and determination just to be with you again. And when I am lost, I will find myself again with your love. Although I don't remember our love, I have never forget it "cause I loved you than and I love you still". I can't wait to remember how to love each other again together in this life. I already know though, that I am right behind you in all that you do, I pray for you to be safe and taken care of when I can't be there with you. When your heart breaks know that mine break too. I promise that it will be easier once both of us let go of things that are too heavy to carry. Gently, I will go with the flow, like a river then eventually meeting the vast ocean, where it is wide and free. And what it is that you have to say I will listen to you, my heart will be open and ready then. Ready to listen to you and only you.

With love,

(Their name)

Channeled song from them to you: Woodlock - I Loved You Then (And I Love You Still) "And I'm right behind you in all that you do. And I spoke with God. He’ll Take care of you. Find me. Stone on a hill. Cause I loved you then. And I love you still."

💌

💌 Letter 2 🌷

6 of Swords, 9 of Cups in reverse, Son of Wands and 6 of Pentacles (back of the deck).

Dear You,

Life was hectic lately but thankfully it is getting calmer. I can finally see the rainbow after the storm. Now I want to take a little get away trip for the weekend to celebrate the end of this tough cycle. It was difficult because of the work that I do and unfortunately there were misunderstandings as well. So much was going on, I was up the wall and didn't have much time to write to you before. Even though, it is settle now, I am still not satisfy with where I am at. Between you and I, I want to confess that I am unfulfilled, with my life, with my job and with what I do. I would never say this out loud or to anybody about how unhappy I am with my life. There is so much conflicting energy around, both on the outside and within me. I tried so hard with my work, my business, working slowly towards my wish but I don't see much progress. So now I am frustrated. I wonder if you can understand what I am going through or at the very least sympathise with this frustration too.

Thankfully, slowly it is getting better but it took a lot out of me and now I am burnt out. I need to rejuvenate or else I won't have time or energy to meet you. I need to rest to revitalise and go on a vacation to somewhere nice and relaxing. I do wish you could come with me. After the rest, I will come back stronger than ever. There's this new project that I want to start. Even though I have to wait to be replenish first, I am just so excited to get it started and I want to tell you all about it. But sometimes, I can get ahead of myself and tend to focus a little too much on the future such as what I have to do next. It's hard for me to focus on my rest when all I want to do is jump start on my next project/adventure right away. Do you have something you are passionate about as well?. Don't you get these impulses too?

All in all, I work hard and I always want to play fair to others. I would tell myself to be kind and treat others how you want to be treated. But unfortunately, some people just want to screw you over. There were times where my kindness were being taken advantage of and it did led me to my downfall. I used to give too much but it only left me with nothing and for that I learned to hate unfairness and unfair people. I still resent those people who took from me and left me out in the cold. I will be hesitant to give because of my past and I hope you can be fair to me and understand my hesitancy. I also want you to know that it was hard work and it still is hard work for me to learn to be kind to myself. It was because I was being unfair to myself first that allowed others to do the same to me. For the longest time I ignored my own heart and in turn, I was the cruelest person to myself. But I thought I was being selfless, ultimately those 'selfless' acts I wrongly perceived only led me to resentment and bitterness towards others especially when they don't give back to me what I have given them. And when my cup was empty, my demands from other was out of hurt and desperation. It was not an easy realisation coming to term with the fact that I was mostly responsible for my own misery.

It was a hard lesson but I learned it now. To get away from the turmoil, I stopped ignoring my heart and I strongly urge you to do the same. Choose and act with love, follow your truest desires because I believe it would eventually lead you to me. Please believe that your purest desire will never lead you astray, it will forever guide you. I believe that to be true for me and in turn, I believe in myself. I will also believe in you too. When I look at you, I can see how brave and strong you are especially when you go after those desires. I truly believe you can achieve anything. You want to reach for the heights so don't be afraid to fall. I know you can see my wings and I fly high in the sky but "little birdie, you are also a bird in my eyes, when will you realise that you can fly too?”. So let's fly and conquer the world together and when your wings are tired, I will carry you. Just like you, before I was a flightless bird, scared to fly and scared of the heights but when I learned that my wings wasn't broken, only disregarded, I began to daydream of all the wonderful things I deserve. Things of divine essence, I began to daydream about you, "to dream of you even when I am wide awake". To be curious about you and see with my own eyes how will you spread your wings and start your flight because I want to be by your side. And this letter to you will be proof of my daydream come true.

So see you in a while my little bird.

(Their Name)

Channeled song about them: Iron & Wine - Flightless Bird, American Mouth "Have I found you? Flightless bird, brown hair bleeding Or lost you?"

💌

💌 Letter 3 🪲

2 of Pentacles in reverse, 5 The Hierophant in reverse, 2 of Swords in reverse and 10 The Wheel of Fortune in reverse (back of the deck).

Dear (your name),

It’s truly harder now for me to believe in true love. There were chains of events that led to my pessimism. Changes that weren’t pleasant. I understand that two people can love each other but eventually, they will change and become a completely different individuals. So what then, would that two specific people love each other’s new selves still?. Do you think they will still love each other?. Because I don’t think so. They might’ve loved that person for the person they used to be but that doesn’t mean they would love their new selves as well. Because of these facts, I am scare of change, people changing, it can break a relationship, taking away people you used to care for most. They can change into a completely new person and you wouldn’t recognise them anymore. So you are forced to mourn the death of that person’s old identity and be forever parted. As you can tell, I have a negative connotation with change, it is one of my deep rooted fear. However, deep down I know that change is very necessary. But this fear is still lingering and deep within me, subconsciously affecting how I view my life and my relationships. So, If I change, would you still love me the same?. Or would you resent me instead?.

Nonetheless, I do find the growth rate of a person fascinating, whether it’d be spiritual growth or emotional growth. But I have to admit that it also scares me. Subconsciously, it terrifies me. To think that one day people whom I loved and know most will turn into strangers and become unrecognisable. So I am scare to go deeper and to open my heart. I am afraid that I would be left behind if I am the only person in my relationship to open up. I would become oblivious to the mask my partner can wear. I don’t want to be oblivious to the fact that truly, I didn’t know the person I was with at all. They never show me who they truly are but is only pretending to be somebody they’re not. It is very hard to come to term with this fear especially when it comes to choosing a life partner. So if I open my heart to you, would you let me in and crack my guarded heart open?. Would I be able to be vulnerable with you?. Teach me to show you “the stranger” in me, even if I resist. Do you have a part of yourself hidden away as well?. Would you let me see too?.I want to be brave together and get rid of this blockage we both have. Blockages of our secrets and truths that we didn’t want to face. We hide part of ourselves because we are insecure, we don’t want to be judge because of how we look or how we live our lives. I didn’t want to be judge, only accepted. So I pretended to be someone I’m not just to fit in and over time I, too, became a stranger to myself. I regretted a lot of my past decisions because it was chosen through falsehood. Failed relationships were also a result of that as well. Ironically, I became the manifestation of my deepest fear. It is funny how the universe works. But not anymore, because with you I don’t have to pretend to be someone I’m not. When I get to know you, you accept me as I am and you make me value my true self. You don’t judge me and you let me live my life. The least I can do is to give you the same respect.

So, no more falsehood, no more illusions. I start to become greedy with life again. I decided to disregard my miserable destiny and doom mindset I had curated for myself. I want to face the truth and become my authentic self even if people do judge. I want to stop waiting for the wheel to turn, I want to gather all my courage and turn the wheel myself and become the master of my own fate and the captain of my own soul. You can do it too. The universe had been silent with me for far too long, I asked for guidance, for a message and I received none. I asked them to show me who I am and what my life purpose is, there was no answer. I felt lost and I became passive, just letting life dragged me along. I can no longer sit back and waste away my time anymore. Let’s take control of our lives together, you and I, realise that because we are more than capable of forging our own path and choosing our own directions. We are both so worthy. We are worthy of love and success, worthy to receive love, to give love and becoming successful. I don’t want to be indecisive anymore. I used to believe that my opinions didn’t matter, no one cared. I was also scared of the consequences it would cause. Because decisions can be life altering, it could change the course of my life path, for better or worse. I was scared of that risk so I shifted the accountability and the responsibility to the divine and by doing that, I also shifted my own powers. And my life became really really dissatisfying. I don't want to do that anymore, I want to break the cycle, I want to be empower. Now I learned to respect myself and my decisions. I will respect your decisions too, without judgement. Whatever you will choose, whatever it is regarding, know that I will support you no matter what. You are so worthy of everything, loveable things I want and will give to you and I'm sorry if you and the people around you couldn't give that love to you before. Yours and mine’s journey are mirrored and all those past "could've beens" and missed opportunities taught us enough pain to not let it pass by again. Still, I am so proud of both of us for everything we have to go through.

All the promises I made, in this and last lives, will be kept. The promise that we will protect each other, that we will be safe in each other's arms. No wrong or harm of me turning into a stranger to you and stop loving you. When I know you, I can never stop loving you. If you or me become strangers to each other, I'm certain that I will fall in love with you again and again and again. Because our bond is spiritual, it goes beyond this life time. A stranger we will never be because you are a part of me, a piece of my soul. We will live this life together like we did the last. Although I know this to be true, I am sometime skeptical. I will ask for proof that magic is real, that you are real. But we both know that we have to believe in magic to see it. And I will, I will believe and trust in this connection. I will try my hardest to have faith and believe that it is meant to be. And when we face difficulties, I will make my choices with love. I will make decisions with your heart in mind because "my heart is so full of you I can hardly call it my own". And when the time comes for me to be with you, I would know that my internal fire was guiding me all along just like I had asked. It will be proof that magic is real because my choices eventually lead me here, back to you where I have always belong. Won’t be long until we meet again.

From your biggest supporter,

(Name)

Sorry no channeled song for this pile.

💌

💌 Letter 4 🌹

Sorry I forgot to write down your tarot cards 😥

Dear my love,

Lately, I’m suffering a lot, especially mentally. Things are not doing so well. My dreams turn into nightmares and now all I see are dark visions. I don’t think my future look very bright. Am I destined to fail?. All these fears creeping in every night and they are eating me alive. I feel like everything is against me, all my friends turn into enemies. Slowly, they’re waiting for my downfall. When will these sufferings and struggles end ?. But little by little, through these sufferings, I get a spark of clarity. Especially when my demons come into light and manifested in people around me. I can see how demanding, power hungry and greedy they can be. People around me mirror back what I don’t want to become. When I interact with them, I realised that I am stronger than I thought. If I can deal with these malicious beings, I can deal with anything. I can face hard challenges. With will and determination, I can get through a lot of obstacles. Overthinking and worrying wouldn’t do me any favours. I can learn through these hardships, learn to become more resilient. And every time I have to face those negative thoughts again, I will fight against them. I hope you’d do the same and remember this my love, “the clouds in your confusion comes from your own mind and thus, it can only be taken away by your own mind”. And when you are aware of this, clarity will come. With clear visions, you can learn to ”bend the world to your will”.

Unfortunately, for me, my cycle of self-destruction haven’t end. It is still lace and exacerbate by my environment. When I asked for help and support, it was only met with betrayal and abandonment. All my life, I was left alone. People had abandoned me and now I nearly abandoned myself as well. All these doubts and fears run too deep, they were instilled in me since childhood. People around me have hurt me and now the pain has become unbearable. I couldn’t take the pain and the anxiety anymore. I decided it was best for me to leave and go my own way. I distanced myself from everyone around me. If you are curious about my past, forgive me if I am reluctant to share, it is still hard for me to revisit them. But more importantly, I want to tell you that I have started to work on myself. Controlling those fear-based thoughts. I sit with those thoughts and instead of being consume by them, I entertain them. I try to find and see different perspective to these worries. I ask questions to find the root, to find objectivity because most of these fears are so subjective and self-induced. And someday, I hope, my mind would become my greatest asset instead of my biggest enemy. Slowly, I will learn to do exactly that. I will work through the self-sabotaging thoughts, slowly changing my narrative. To really believe that things are not against me but they are actually working in my favour. And positive mindset will help me build harmonious relationships, with myself, my friends and most importantly, with you.

I want to work on myself because I want to show up as my best for you. I want to be there for myself and stop this cycle of self-abandonment. I want to be brave, strong and confident. To know that one day, I can show up for you and help you fight against those negative forces too. I want to be there for you wholeheartedly. To tell you that you are always supported, by your spirit guides, by the universe and by me. You are never alone. I want to tell you that I am proud of you for fighting with your demons and thank you for when you would help me fight mine too. You have never abandon me and I will never leave you. All the hardships I will fight through it with you. And every time you smile, it only gives me more reasons to fight.

I want to transcend and face whatever life throws at me just to see the light ignited in your eyes again. My dark visions turn bright when now I see that you are a part of my future. You have lend me the stars in your eyes so I can walk through these dark roads, you are so kind. I have never felt a love so powerful. All those pains I’ve been through, when I saw you, I feel like I’ve finally awaken. At last, you brought me light and shifted my world. My world is new and the whole sky light up. You are my light, my sunshine. Through your light, your presence, your being, it is warm and bright. “Everything looks different now that I see you”.

You brought me true love and true happiness. Your name replaced the word “love” in my vocabulary. I can say that I learned so much from you, I learned what true love and true compassion is, it is surely the definition of you.

Your true love,

(Name)

Channeled song from them to you: Found by Zach Webb “I, I found life When I found You”, “All the times that I cried, I know. You were there. Holding me tight”

💌

Thank you so much for stopping by, please do not hesitate to comment and leave a tip if you want. Any constructive criticism is also appreciated. See you on the next pick a card, you can leave any topic suggestions.

Kind regards,

- Dragonflydestiny 🪲

[definitelynotshouting]

So I just started playing In Stars and Time because I got curious about the sad little blorbo you occasionally post about and afshdjdkrn

I just. Wanna hug them. So badly 😭

Siffrin isat my everything my cinnamon fucking apple WKDNWKDNEKEKSK HE IS SOOOOO SQUISHABLE...... THEY NEED A HUG SO BAD I LOVE THEM SO MUCH

Incredibly pleased im helping spread the isat propaganda like the dev rlly just Made a whump fic in video game format huh....... for tumblr girlies by a tumblr girlie.... my gods we respect the grind as if i could EVER be normal abt that

I'll be so real ive already written little tidbits for a longer au oneshot i want to write in between chapters of hunger au, and the exercise in 2nd person pov is SO MUCH FUN im enjoying myself immensely :] here, a snippet for both fun and profit (and more fun):

"Siffrin...." Odile says, and it strikes a sour chord, a ripple of dissonance that screws rivets around your chest and tightens. She shouldn't have to say your name like that, with that kind of weight— as if all the Craft in the world isn't enough to carry it. Pure reflex ducks your chin into the collar of your cloak; you avert your gaze back to the rubble-littered floor of the tunnel, tracing dark crags in the stone where sputtering torchlight fails to reach. There you go again, stardust. Loop's voice is an ephemeral echo in your ears, a byproduct of months, years worth of past loops gone by. It isn't real. Gone and made yourself another person's problem. It isn't real. "— need you to start taking this more seriously." Odile bites out each word with the same deportment of a dog tearing off chunks of meat, clipped and cutting. Her brows knit together, mouth pulling down in a sharp curve; the lines around her eyes are tight, carved from the knife's edge of her own disappointment. Her disappointment in you. You almost miss the next sentence as well. "I have no way of helping you if you don't speak to me," she says. "And when you minimize these things you went through— you realize that's going back on your word, yes? Gems alive, Siffrin. We want to help." You speak before your mind has caught up with your mouth, hundreds of loops sanding down the words into something practiced, rote. "But there's nothing to help me w—" "Stop lying to me." Odile snaps, and your jaw shuts so fast you miss biting your tongue by a mere hair's-breadth. Your lungs threaten to buckle— inhale. Exhale. Come on, stardust, Loop's imaginary voice sneers, can't you do something as simple as breathe? Or are you just that blinding useless? ... Shut up. Odile's eyes slip shut. She raises a hand to meet them, kneading at the soft skin between her brows. "I'm... sorry, Siffrin," she says, halting, stilted. "I shouldn't— that wasn't productive. I apologize." Tentatively, you say: "You don't have to." "Yes, I do." Odile straightens once again, tucking a strand of sweat-slicked hair back behind her ear with a grimace. "It's not... conversations like these are... hard. Yelling is pointless for both of us. I'm sorry." "But you didn't—" "Siffrin," she says, and this time the syllables of your name twist, a rise and fall that cracks wryly in the middle. One sharp eyebrow arches up into the canopy of her hairline. "You're supposed to say you accept the apology." You stare. She stares right back. Oh. She's serious. "I..." you look down. "Um. Accept?" "Excellent," Odile says brusquely, and bends to peer at an invisible speck of dirt clinging to her forearm. She brushes at it with absent, studious flicks, the epitome of single-minded focus. "Then now we can move on with our lives."

[xstarkillerx]

Okay but how would Anakin react to a short ass trying to top him. Because i cannot shake the need to dominate Anakin. Like i just wana pounce and wrestle him into submission before fucking his brains out. I want to ruin him. But i know even without the force its physically not possible as a 4'9 ankle biter but my god the thoughts wont stop 😭😭😭

LEEEEEEET'S TALK ABOUT IT, and I apologize if this ends up being a long tangent, but as a 4'11 switch who's had more submissives than dominants, I feel you! While there are always exceptions, the reality is we will likely never be able to have a dominance style that relies on intimidation or physically overpowering people, but that doesn't mean dominance is an impossibility!

Thinking about this from an Anakin-centric perspective, I'm gonna be honest, even if you WERE taller, stronger, aided by the force, you still wouldn't be able wrestle him into submission because that's Anakin H. Skywalker, that's Darth Vader, that's the Hero With No Fear, it's a losing battle regardless. But like I said, there are other ways to dominate, and what you have is the benefit of a misleading appearance.

Anakin is a cocky man who is often blinded by his love and desire, with that it'd be more of a game of easing him into submission and not showing your cards until he's on his back with his eyes rolling into his head and no clue how you got him there.

If it were me, I'd start playful, right. Distract him from whatever little droid or trinket he's modding in his spare time with a deep kiss and strategic brush of his jaw that implies more. Pull away, but only a little, enough to make him want to close the gap again and when he tries to, pull away entirely. It's bait and you'll see it in his eyes, intrigue for what exactly you're playing at. With your fingers tucked behind his belt, pull him with you; lead him to the bed and kiss him again, stripping off his outer robes and tabards, leaving nothing but his base layers. Before he can get you on your back, make sure his legs are right up against the bed so you can push him against it and climb on top of him.

Understand that, while caught off guard by this, Anakin still probably won't take you seriously at this point, but he's playful when he wants to be and he'd be amused if anything, so you're in a good spot. Keep an unsuspecting ere about it for now though, like you don't quite know what you're doing yet, like you're playing dress up. He'll put his hands on your hips and guide you back and forth against his hardening dick, "explaining to you" with his body what comes next when one is on top. Keep grinding, run your fingers against his skin, kiss his neck and jaw and what little of his chest is exposed while you rub yourself on him until he can't help but grind back. Pull his trousers low on his waist until his cock is exposed. Get him so hard and wanton that he begins digging his dull nails into your thighs, itching to flip you over and put himself on top. When his fingers curl under you, shove your hands beneath the hem of his shirt.

Tease your fingers over the expanse of his body and gyrate faster on his bare cock, as if you're the one losing control. Scrape the side of his ribs with your nails and listen to how the biting pain makes him purr. Kiss him through it. Bring his shirt higher until it lifts over his head and up the expanse of his broad shoulders, his biceps, then his elbows and that's where you spread your hands out over the fabric, locking it tight against his arm and putting your whole weight down on the bed.

It's an awkward restraint position to be in. I honestly think his initial thought would be that you meant to go for the wrists but aren't tall enough, however, you're exactly where you need to be. At his wrists, he'd have the option of using the full strength of his arms to break free; simple pivot from the shoulder is all it would take, but in this position, all he has is his upper arm strength and the awkward flailing at anything below the elbow. Could he break out of it? Oh absolutely, but the chains are the easy part, it's what goes on in here that's hard, Mentally you've already got him halfway there anyway. I personally think he'd be so intrigued from the moment he realized you're serious about this, that somehow you got him locked down with your pretty chest in his face, that he wants to see you go through with it now. Remember how hard you made him, remember that he's already dripping to be inside you.

Before his amusement runs out and he uses the full extent of his power to flip you over and have his way with you, get up close to his ear and make sure he knows "if you try to get free, I'll stop. Now put your cock in me." He'll have just enough range of motion in his arms to guide it into you with the force.

Now have fun fucking his brains out ♥️

Never underestimate your ability to be dominant, to take control of a scene. In my opinion dominance and submission is less about inherent power, but rather how power is transfered from one person to another, is it coaxed? Is it given on a silver platter, bent over in supplication? Is it won, is it bartered for? Everyone has their own way of getting and giving.

Contrast, unconventionality, the mental game of it, that's what's beautiful to me about BDSM now go forth and be a tiny Dom ♥️♥️♥️💖

[moonlitgraffiti]

S o. As few people are probably aware, over a year ago, I made a joke post that Joseph Pulitzer and Theodore Roosevelt are bitter exes in Livesies and that I would not be elaborating.

... As many fandom things tend to go, it is Definitely not a joke anymore. As such, I will now be elaborating as I did not all those months ago. For those of y'all willing to at the very least entertain it, strap in.

A l r i g h t so for everyone coming along for the ride, let us begin at the basics: the canon we are given to start with. Early in act I, we see even m e n t i o n of Roosevelt gets under Pulitzer's skin; he gets loud, he gets angry, he has to rein himself in. He will find any means he can to criticize and does not shy away from it.

Roosevelt does not come up again until late, l a t e game, where he shows up unannounced in Pulitzer's office. And it's where things start getting very interesting.

Pulitzer tries to be professional with him, tries to address him in a proper manner, calling him "Governor", trying to lay out his case before him from the start. But Roosevelt doesn't display much interest in this propriety. When he first lays eyes on him, he calls him "Joseph", and nothing more. Medda gets her full name, and he does not address anyone else. It's familiarity, and also some slight disrespect on Roosevelt's behalf. But it's also t e a s i n g, he smiles, he seems to enjoy watching him squirm. Not to mention the comfort in Pulitzer's personal space.

(Now kiss.)

He waves his power in Pulitzer's face, all the while refusing to call him anything other than "Joseph", despite Pulitzer trying to iron out the interaction into anything vaguely professional.

We also have the "hard heart, soft head" exchange.

Theodore where are you l o o k i n g??

After Jack manages to get a deal from Pulitzer and these two are standing up on the platform together, they continue to antagonize each other. But Pulitzer seems to be sliding into Roosevelt's game: he calls him "Teddy", a name which Roosevelt's real life counterpart despised. He moves to push his cane into Pulitzer's chest, and when Jack interrupts them, they both turn to give him this look:

I'm sorry, was he interrupting something?

Foreplay?

Sadly, here is where our canonical events end. However, now we jump into the richness of the relationship.

In the events we see in Newsies, I see this pair as bitter exes. As it so happens, based on the timeline of reality, Pulitzer and Roosevelt were in New York City at the exact same time for a while, immediately after Roosevelt's wife died. (I feel it important to note here that while I draw from real events, this is not to be intended as RPF. This is for the characters Newsies, specifically Livesies, has made of them both and only these characters. The real Pulitzer and Roosevelt led vastly different lives and neither were even present for the strike at all. So Newsies is fudging it, and so will I.)

At any rate, Roosevelt would have been young and vulnerable and emotional during this time. He and Pulitzer catch each other's eye, and after an age begin a tentative love affair. But Pulitzer can't bring himself to be open and honest with his emotions, especially not in a way that a vulnerable Roosevelt would so desperately need, and is too blinded by his own ego to see that he is causing problems.

Feeling ignored and twice brokenhearted, Roosevelt takes off to the Dakotas after the end of the legislative session without telling Pulitzer. This leaves Joseph confused and hurting, bitter and angry, and never wanting to see him ever again.

Years pass, and Roosevelt's fame grows. Pulitzer grows more and more bitter, thinking about the abandonment he's convinced himself was his reality. Until they meet again. Roosevelt as governor to confront him as a titan.

And so brings us to canon day. When your skinny, fiery, weak voiced lover crashes back into your life and he is big, loud, confident, and sexier than he's ever been.

I'm not asking you to ship it, but I'm asking you to at least consider how it can be compelling. Rekindling a love affair that ended so badly when both parties are older, wiser, and much better equipped. For those of you that want to see Pulitzer suffer, he will! That personal growth to force him out of his closed off emotional constipation, to make him confront that he isn't alone and doesn't have to be. And to slowly trust each other again.

[soraviie]

you compare yourself to him 2.txt

━ type: bts x f! reader ━ navigation ━ part I here

━ about: angst atop of angst and some fluff

━ a/n: Bacchus here is a reference to a Korean energy drink in Yoongi's part. Jimin's part is my own favourite one :)

━ previously posted on soraviii

NAMJOON: The world is...beige. Since when? Blinking away the heavy grogginess, you reach to touch the material on your face before removing it. Looking around one might think you'd slept through the whole warfare as every surface is covered in clothes. Amidst the maelstrom like a blur in the wind is Namjoon, tossing everything he could find all around. You reach to hook a finger around a silver chain necklace inexplicably dangling on a bedside lamp. You remember this one. You'd gifted him this in Tartu on a whim of being overwhelmingly lovesick for his dimples.

"Are you fleeing the country?" you rasp, voice falling gruff from the disuse. It had been...hard to talk after the gallery. Or look at yourself in the mirror. Or leave the bed.

At the sound of your voice, Namjoon whips around, accidentally pulling along with him a lightbox. Dimly you watch it clatter on the ground.

"Baby! Hello! Did you sleep well?" he asks with an eagerness of a zealous labrador and you frown.

"Well enough. Have you gone mad? Perhaps?"

He laughs as though this simple remark was the finest joke in the land.

"No, I'm very focused and logical," he chirps and your frown deepens. No way his brain was not harmed somehow. This was...suspicious to say the least.

"Listen, I'm going to be on the TV today -"

"You always are," dryly you point out but then he crawls on the bed and practically sticks his face into yours, so close you go cross-eyed.

"Make sure you watch it, okay? It'll be a live. Starts at 3."

"Okay," flustered you comply and as his breath fans your face the suspicion surges. "How many energy drinks have you had?"

"Nine!"

Your eyes pop open but you can't do much about it as he glimpsed down, finds the necklace glimmering between your fingers and lets out a jubilant cry.

"I've been looking for this thing! Thank you!" he begins leaving rushed kisses all over your face, graciously ignoring any protests. "Thank you, baby! My moon and stars!"

Was he drunk as well?

Pulling back just as haphazardly he glanced at the clock, breathing a horrified gasp.

"Oh, shit, I'm late! But the mess..." he tosses a guilty glimpse at the destroyed closet before you push him.

"I'll..I'll clean it, just go."

You had little to do anyway, not like you could go to a gallery to have worldly people fun. At that, a natural scoff worms upon your face.

"Thank you! I love you! I love you so much!" he yelps and presses himself fervently against you, capturing your lips in a sloppy, frantic kiss. The taste of energy drinks spills onto your mouth. The next you know, your boyfriend becomes Sonic and is out of the door leaving nothing but destruction in his wake.

Typical.

You're still folding some pants when reluctantly the weight of the promise burdens you too much and end up switching the TV, knowing in your heart that seeing him in his role as an idol, you'll only feel more distant. What sort of girlfriend tunes into the TV to see their boyfriend not just call them? What sort of girlfriend were you at all? You frown at the leg of the pants, bunching it in your palms before releasing it. A lame one. You were a lame girlfriend.

It couldn't be said that this interview was anything else that you hadn't seen and heard hundred times before but one thing does stick out like red in a sea of mourners. Namjoon looks like a goddamn patchwork game. You can squint and frown, an action which is done by many, including the interviewer, his band, and the camera operator probably as well. The look presented makes it seem he was blind, drunk, and high when choosing his clothes and also made that choice in a closet belonging to a crazy person. Green baggy pants, a red turtleneck, a white, little scarf, a beret and the necklace proudly laid to glisten in the middle of his chest which that turtleneck is giving it all to protect.

Was this his way of saying he needed a break?

"Uh, Namjoon, to address the uh...elephant in the room," the interviewer begins, pulling the collar of the shirt aside, under pressure to both ask and be very polite about it. "Are you experimenting with new fashion these days?"

"No," he beams back, suspiciously innocent and wide-eyed. "These are my favourite clothes! They give me comfort and remind me of being loved whenever I go."

You think back and start piecing together, a patchwork of your own if you will, that these were all things you got him. Some you had forgotten - the joke beret, the necklace but the red turtleneck was an impromptu Christmas present while the green pants he wanted but didn't have the time to go out and buy himself.

"I see," the interviewer drawls. "To segway off what you said, as k-pop idols, love is certainly a big part of your songs, may I ask how you view love on your own? Is it something you share with your image or is it completely different?"

"Well, I-" Taehyung begins but is immediately interrupted by Namjoon whose eagerness makes him look like a complete maniac. Poor Taehyung can only blink owlishly and then let the matter be.

"Thank you so much for asking! I've thought a lot about love, I always made it complicated in my head, but now I know better. Love is being understood," his eyes snap straight into the camera and you flinch as you hold eye contact. "It's to be comfortable and feeling heard. Most of the time you know people say you have to be of similar interests, that then you'll be able to bond better but that is simply not true. People are not bonded together by their diplomas, how many stamps they have on their passport or how many painting meanings they can discern."

Your cheeks flush.

"They are bonded because they share one another and that's what's important not the trivial nonsense others may push upon them. The world is made of perspectives and whenever our loved ones express their thoughts it becomes a better, more interesting place. And I think we ourselves as well. What matters is not how many, let's say, artwork meanings they get but how much of us they get."

"And do you feel..."get"?" the interviewer asks awkwardly and Namjoon splits into a broad smile.

"Very much so. I need nothing of no one else."

YOONGI: He stands there menacingly. A (not so) tall shadow cast over your bed at the very break of the dawn.

"You slept well?" he asks. Menacingly. Cause that's what he was. Menacing. Even the package in his hands is...menacing. You scurry to press yourself against the headboard. There's a determined gleam in his eye, one that says he was up to something and will see the fruits of his labour even if it kills him.

"Umm it was okay. Why are you cosplaying as the boy from the Grudge?"

He whines and the sinister aura disappears. You had hoped to avoid him for some days. Despite your best intentions, the words that you were only charity to Yoongi repeated their heinous loop over and over in your head.

"It was meant to be cute," he pouts. "Like watching over you in a guardian sort of way."

"Ended up with Brahms," you mutter and then erupt in a fit of coughs, dryness in the throat making it hard to speak.

Yoongi's face sours in an instant.

"Did you fall mute again?"

You shrug. It's easy not to talk when you don't exist. He sighs but doesn't prod, knowing full well he can't force things to be alright.

"Would you be up for dinner? A fancy one?"

You incline your head to the package and he hands it over. Inside sits dinner wear made of the finest quality.

"Why?" you rasp. "You don't usually like dressing up."

He shrugs and something about it has your eyes narrowing.

"Just wanted to do something different," he replies a bit too offhand. "Are you up to it?"

"I-" another cough interrupts the sentence and Yoongi rushes to get a glass of water. "Thank you. Okay. We can go to dinner."

Another dinner, yey, you think to yourself dryly but he seems for some reason excited and it would be no good to be a curmudgeon to him as well.

"Thank you, Bacchus," he bids softly and leans to kiss the top of your head.

You snort at the nickname.

But the dinner extravaganza didn't simply end there. With every passing second, the mystery tightened like an Agatha Christie novel. Yoongi insisted on you taking the car he ordered, tinted windows to add, to an undisclosed restaurant and with the driver oathed to not speak a word of it. Your phone he asked to shut off as well. Not put it on mute but turn it off entirely. You partially wondered if he hit a psychotic break of sorts and/or has unfortunately turned into a murderer. Mulling over the heartbreak that would be if your honey boy would turn into a killer, you were stunned to see a familiar face when climbing out of the car. Your mother.

"Mom? What are you doing here?"

She was dressed to the nines as well and seemed rather shocked to see you climbing out of the car. Around her neck sat a pearl necklace one you don't recall her having and she was nervously twiddling with it in front of the restaurant's host. A restaurant that you very purposefully avoided as one of its managers was none other than that annoying, grating, stick-so-far-up-her-ass-its-practically-impaling-her cousin of yours.

"I don't know," she replied, glancing around. "Your boyfriend asked me to be here."

Before you could answer anything, the host urged you to enter into a private area as was the case when you dined with someone who needed absolute security at all times. The group wasn't all that large, consisting of yourself, your mother, your aunt, the aunt who wasn't as cool as the first one her weird husband and their dog even, who was sporting a fancy bowtie for the occasion. By the table sat Yoongi and though many would say he appeared stoic you knew exactly what that sly, scheming son of a biscuit had done this evening. He raised to stand, politely bid welcome to all your relations who as always didn't know how to act so they settled on an ungainly silence, and then gave you flowers before kissing your cheek. By the bar, her eyes glinting like two wildfires, sat your cousin gurgling her own poison most likely.

"I'm so going to choke you for this," you discreetly whisper into his ear but he only smiles.

With alcohol loosening much of the knotted tongues, the dinner progressed smoothly. Yoongi occasionally coquettishly leaned in, so unlike him, and brushed his nose against your cheek. All, of course, a part of an elaborate apology.

"But you were afraid of my mother," you argue, walking hand in hand back home. Where your cousin went you did not know but it was unlikely she would be present at the next meeting.

"Still am," he chuckles but even then there is an undercurrent of fright running deep. "But after you hung up I called her and she relayed that you looked like a ghost for the rest of the evening. And I know I said this a thousand times but I'm sorry, I'm sorry I'm not always there for you, I'm sorry for being absent, I'm sorry if anyone ever made you feel like you're invisible," he sighed, stretching he tie looser from his neck and you adjusted his hair, mussed by a strong gust of wind.

"Still you don't need to do all that," softly you say. "It's enough for you to just show up sometimes and be awkward in the corner."

"I know," he kisses the top of your head pushing the doors open. "Just wanted to show that you're the only one I see."

JIN: In a fashion that probably millions of other people did before him he pretended everything was fine. That it was all fine. What was it? Fine. Normal. Nothing was happening. Everything's usual. The same old. And then he cried in the bathroom stall for ten minutes, before forcing it to all stop and pretending that it was all fine.

But as your things became scarcer and two lives that he meant to unite forever were separated, clinically and detached like a scalpel of a surgeon, the less he could pretend it was fine.

It wasn't fine. It was over.

Jin was never one for relationship theatrics to say that his life was over as well but now he realized that it was - the life he wanted at least and possibly could have had in the future - was dust.

But there is some truth to the idea that sometimes loving someone was leaving them, letting them go in a wind, like a migrating bird, away from the winter of discontent and into the summer of ease.

And you assure him it's nothing he had done. Perhaps that's the most infuriating part, it's nothing he'd done so he can't correct, he can't change the world for you even if he wants to oh so bad. But harder still is to watch, watch you be a hollow shell, driven to a point of insecurity so high you ill. No jokes of his, no smiles, no well-meaning words of his can change the sentiment.

"I can't do this anymore. I can't handle the world you live in."

Even if he wouldn't be an idol, it's a world Jin has always lived in. He knows how to not buckle underneath the waves of judgment cause he had swum in them since but a bare-bottomed infant.

"You can always crash here or call me if you need help," he offers, trying to sound as light as possible while helping you pack the last boxes. Such a strange thing to help the love of your life leave you but despite all Jin has always wanted to take care. So he takes care one last time.

"That's not how it works," you laugh. It's dry and humourless and he wonders how long will it take for you to move on. The love is not lost it just couldn't conquer all as lovely as that would be.

"Yeah, I guess so," he scuffs his slipper against the floor. The home is empty now. It feels physically wrong and Jin hopes to himself this would all be a bad dream. That this is the same night he got you from the police station and this was a concoction of the mind, wormed and plagued by guilt.

"Eat well, okay," he reminds. There's so much he wants to say but he lets himself choke on those words. Why? He doesn't quite know but the last thing he wants to do is make you feel any worse. That's not what a good partner does. Even if he's soon to not be one.

"I will," you promise. "Remember to stretch once in a while, you play too many video games, they can make your muscles tense."

He doesn't trust his voice so Jin nods. And just like that, it's over. A thirty-second walk to the elevator is all he gets instead of a whole life he'd been so certain of. But even now he thinks that better you be happy than miserable by his side. The elevator dings and he's buying seconds, he would put his entire fortune for just a minute.

"Where will you be travelling exactly?" he asks.

"I don't know. Somewhere warm, somewhere cold. Find myself again," you reply, pretending it's all fine as well. If you acknowledge the reality for just a second, you'll break and so you delude yourself. For just a bit.

Jin nearly says to send him a lot of videos but then bites on his tongue. The elevator opens and you climb in, a suitcase behind you, a carton box in the crook of your arm. Jin smiles.

"You know, life is strange. Should we suddenly cross paths five years later who knows how it'll turn out, right?"

It's, of course, a hopeful delusion, a length of rope many have tied around their necks with a smile on their face but he can't stop. He doesn't want to stop. If the movie has a hopeful ending, it's a love story, if not - it's a tragedy and Jin was never one for tragedies.

Be that as it may, you open your mouth to say something, anything, but the elevator closes and the rest is silence.

HOSEOK: He glowers. Hoseok is not known for glowering but he does so to his earnest. The foot tapping the floor nearly makes a dent in the material as he waits. Waits for you like a disappointed parent or a hunter lying in an ambush. Hoseok himself doesn't particularly care what he is as long as he gets what he wants which is you at home.

She's not cheating, she would never cheat, he tells himself but isn't that what all poor bastards of the world thought. The hallway is dark and you stumble freely, assuming he's not here and then nearly crack your skull open when seeing him stand stoic like a statue in the dark.

"Fucking hell!" you yell and he jumps, somehow startling himself by the loudness of your voice.

"Welcome back," he greets you cooly, turning on the lights. "Hoped I was out?"

You stand squirming in guilt and avoiding his gaze exactly like a cheater would but there's no cologne on your blouse or a hickey on the neck. The only thing you carried was a plastic bag with snacks. Cheap, cheap snacks.

He takes it away from your hands and peers inside. Ramen, cotton buds, chocolate chips, and seaweed for some reason.

"I don't understand," he breathes out. "You're...all this time...every time you're not home you're doing grocery shopping?"

You don't answer anything and his brows furrow in confusion.

"_____________, I don't understand. Please, tell me what's wrong."

"Nothing wrong per se," you brush off. "It's just I..."

"I?" he urges.

"It's where I feel like I belong."

For a while, he leans into the wall and then it clicks together.

The store was perhaps the most normal thing possible with people going about their day, hardly any limelight. Hardly any luxury.

"You're with me, I love you," he sighs. "My world is your world."

"Yeah," you brush off, clearly lying. "I know."

And perhaps it's the stress or perhaps the fierceness with which he's ready to tie himself to you, a move he never thought he could wholeheartedly make, he has none of it. Which brings him back to a party, one in his name once more just a tad more covert.

"I don't know about this," you stammer, trying to pull your hand away from his.

"Just trust me. Don't you trust me?"

"Not with that tone," you whine crossing the street. "Listen, I'm happy your album is a success, couldn't be prouder -"

Hoseok's ears flush to this day when hearing any praise from your mouth.

"Thank you."

"- but you can, you know, have fun and I'll chill out somewhere else."

He whips around.

"Is it something someone said?" he confronts and you awkwardly glance away.

"They don't need to say it, it's apparent. I'm sticking out like a sore thumb in these places."

"I don't care for them and neither should you! If these parties are about me, then you should always be a part of them. I invite all the guys, all the time -"

"Yeah, you all work in the same field," you roll your eyes and he lightly flicks your forehead.

"Dummy, they're my family, you're my family and my family is with me in celebrations."

You gaze at your intertwined hands.

"Obviously, I can't and shouldn't force you to be here but trust me and maybe I can make you feel a little bit better."

You draw a heavy sigh, bemoaning to yourself about the sacrifices of love and with gritted teeth step into the enemy territory. It's loud and bright with many strangers surrounding you like flies around honey. You notice Jin and Jungkook tucked away neatly in the corner and they offer knowing nods of the head. You frown at them and turn to the stage where there's a podium and a magnificent chair like a throne behind it. Hoseok sits you, confused, down in it, sort of in the background but always present like an overarching symbolic presence and if people look then even faster they swerve away in guilt. Hoseok's smile is bright and polite but there is no question about it that the line "let's be friendly" means no one so much as opens their mouth to toss a curt comment or swerve their eye your way in an inappropriate manner. In between Hoseok frequently checking back and Jin pulling you into a nameless 1v1 phone game, you forget of the crowd, their judgement and your need for their opinion. Whenever you glance up, Hoseok is there giving an encouraging smile and you realize the one opinion that matters the most will never waver from always being in your favour.

JIMIN: The money spilt all across the counter as Mari yelped, startled when the door was simply kicked open.

"I-I'm sorry but we're clo-"

"What is this?" Jimin's voice comes with a sharpness you'd never ever heard before. It makes you swallow nervously, eyes lingering on the paper slip clutched in his palm.

"I...I explained what it is," you squirm anxiously and Mari's head is a blur, switching to left and fro in between you both.

"We..we have to keep closing," she whimpers, shrivelled small by the register squeaking in a barely audible tone.

Jimin's eyes snap towards her and she immediately withers underneath his rage.

"Just go home," you order her, tired, and she doesn't have to be told twice. Only a second passes before she's scurrying to the door. Momentarily, you can see that she recognizes the masked stranger but that makes her eyes only hang lower as she desperately tries to not be remembered, probably counting the sum of his displeasure in her head. When the bell rings to announce her exit, the air presses down with tension.

You twist the towel in your hands, pulling a deep breath to speak a string of words that cut your heart open.

"Jimin, I want...I want to break up."

"No."

A pause.

"No?" stunned, you echo.

"I'm not breaking up with you."

He has pulled the mask off his face and his eyes are crazy. They're rimmed red. He's been crying.

"You can't just -" you begin to object but he quickly interrupts.

"Do you still love me?"

The question takes you by surprise but he's not content with silence.

"Do you still love me?" he reiterates with more strength and you nod, voice catching in the throat.

"I do, but -"

"When we got together I said it would be hard but we promised, you promised that we would work through our problems together."

"I'm sorry," you murmur.

"Not accepted," Jimin snaps and you flinch. "What was this - "I'm sure in time you'll find yourself a more appropriate partner with whom you'll feel happier." With all due respect, ______________, you do not get to dictate what or to whom I should feel something. I'm dating you because I want you, not a model, not an idol or whoever you think is "good" for me. I want you."

"But what if I begin to resent you?" glaring at your shoes you listlessly argue but Jimin's face doesn't differ from the hard scowl with which he barged here into.

"I'm not going to part with the love of my life on a what if," he sneered throwing your breakup letter decidedly into the trash.

"But I'll just be a burden-!"

"Oh for the love of!" he throws his hands into the air. "You're not a burden for asking my help. I want to do it, you understand? Me! I want to help you, I want to provide for you, that's what I want not what you force me to do," completely worked himself into a heated tirade, he barely took a breath before pelting the words one after another like hail upon your shoulders.

"We're going to go home, talk about our problems and then live happily ever after, god fucking damnit!"

You stand mutely, hunched in yourself quite like a berated kid. Exhaling slowly through the nose, Jimin's rage seems to abate, if a little bit, and for a lingering pause, there's only the rhythmic ticking of the wall clock filling the air.

"I still need to close," you shuffle, sensing the familiar sting in the eyes.

"Fill out the documents," he replies stiffly but at least not sneering anymore. "I'll do the rest. You must be tired."

You comply without a question sitting down to fill out the proper numbers. Jimin's ensnared with dusting the countertops, mopping the floor, and gathering the trash. An unsightly, lowly work that a national star like him shouldn't be doing but he does. He does it all.

TAEHYUNG: He keeps thinking that it can't simply end like that - on a slammed door in the silence. But it does. It's inevitable like seeing your favourite movie with a sad ending over and over again, always hoping that the familiar reel will somehow change, that the world will be a better place than it is but the movie is set and the ending is set and everything is set in stone. Taehyung's role is set to play the irredeemable villain and be ruined by his own actions.

"This..you know...big city...but lovers find their way," he slurs in a bar with only Jimin to keep tabs on him. He's angry, untalkative and quite upset as Taehyung lost the love of his life and he lost a good friend all in one fell swoop. It's only because of Jimin's curt text of "way to miss your girlfriend's birthday, prick" that he came to his senses. He'd rushed home all at once though it did no good. The apartment was empty, the neighbours vouched for you moving out and in the trash, he found a single, crumpled note. It began and ended with only one word - V. Not Taehyung the one he's always been to you but V. There was nothing after it but he kept it still.

"Lovers...they find each other in every life right?" he asks but Jimin remains obstinately quiet yet when comes the time to weep he reaches out to pat his friend's back.

"It's just a scarf!" he yells into the stylist's face. "It's just a scarf! What's the big deal? It fits the theme, right? Just let me keep it!"

Namjoon having rushed to the room inspects this strange friend of his, backed into the corner with an expression so vicious he fails to recognize him. He doesn't know what happened but he knows the way Taehyung hugs the scarf to his chest, to protect, to cradle it like a kindling flame. He knows grief when he sees one.

"Just leave him alone," he orders the stylist and Taehyung is let on the stage with a scarf on his neck, one he doesn't stop touching throughout the entirety of the event. It was the only thing left besides the note, otherwise, you'd been very thorough, combing your life free of him in all conceivable ways. World as always goes on and Taehyung hates it for it doing so. Rather it'd stop, rather it stand completely still so he can mould himself into time itself and stop existing. He sees fractures of you in scenarios of happy strangers, of hands intertwined and smiles shared, a life lived together as he always wanted to. He intended to with such certainty it's like the very basis underneath his feet is crushed. He never assumed it'd go so wrong.

Largely he keeps this obsession to himself, of fear of being judged, of being called crazy, only Jimin knows and in his neverending love for his friend, he tolerates it. Partially in the happier moments, Taehyung tries to romanticize the situation. In any good love story, one person meets another and they are split apart by circumstance only to end up together. Forgiveness always wins and love prevails. That's what he was told since being a baby. This was...this was his term of punishment, a way to apologize for his actions but nothing of the sort is of course real. The reality which Taehyung was never too fond of was much more sterner and cutthroat. You didn't love him anymore = you left. The End.

The End.

He lives in dreams and he lives in love that now is just an echo.

But the wronger still comes the day when your scarf splits at the seams. It can't be fixed, it can't be brought back, it's just ruined and gone and it sits in Taehyung's hands - useless. Still, he shoves the threads in his pocket, fully aware that there was a line, a fine line to be drawn but he can't bring himself to draw it. If he stops hoping, just for a second, his movie will end like it was always meant to be.

JUNGKOOK: "Please come home."

"No."

The begging had been going on for almost half an hour. Both attempts were fruitless, his - to get you back, yours - to get him to leave.

"I'm sorry."

"You didn't accidentally step on my foot! You told me my entire life is useless. That I'm wrong for being not like you."

He licks his dry lips and runs a hand through the messed-up hair. Unwillingly, you notice that his knuckles were faintly bleeding. The temperature had dropped suddenly overnight. He must have forgotten to lotion them. Not that it mattered now. Though he had quite a lot to argue about that.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry for what I said. I was stupid, petulant and..." he sighs, staring at the floor. "Jealous."

"Over what?" you tilt an eyebrow.

"Yoongi. You get along with Yoongi. He gets you and I was scared so I lashed out."

"It's not an excuse," listlessly, you frown at his figure lodged halfway into your friend's apartment. A safe haven, he somehow managed to find out about. One couldn't argue with how driven Jungkook was. A quality you did not appreciate much right now.

"What do you want here? That I'll spring back into your arms, magically find some sort of passion and suck you off in gratitude?!"

"No!" he objects. "No! It's not like that!"

"Then explain! Explain for us lowly, dispassionate losers what is this all about?!"

He begins to twiddle with his thumbs, tongue playing with the back of his lip ring. It wasn't often that a 1.79m, tattoed muscle mass known as Jeon Jungkook could possibly appear small but he appeared as such in this very moment.

"I just want you back. Want to eat my words," when you open your mouth to tear him a new one, he hurries faster. "But I know I can't. So I am asking, I'm begging to give me a chance. Not forgiveness, just a chance to start over. As...friends...if you'd like. I'll get to know you anew, open mind this time. Be as you are. That's all I'm asking."

"Friends?" you parrot, part scornful, part impressed. He used to drone on and on about how he always wanted to be more than friends, how that name was like a lightless void to him, an unshakeable role in the distance he was desperate to breach so to hear him offer that very role so eagerly was if anything a symbol of truly wanting to listen. If he could be trusted.

You assess him sternly, tucking away the feeling of a girlfriend far way.

"If we do it, if!" you emphasize yet his eyes gain a hopeful tint. Retribution. "I want to be able to cut ties without you throwing a fit, tracking me down and doing this because this," you wave over his crouched figure. "Is not cute. It's annoying. One strike and you're out! And we start as friends!"

He's not deterred in the slightest on the opposite his face is glowing.

"I'll get to know you as I should have," he promises. "No judgement."

You let out a prolonged, irritated sigh.

"I hate you."

"I don't," he replies, nose scrunched in happiness. "Not in the slightest."

© soraviii/soraviiie 2022-23

[mycomicbox]

Random Thoughts on Live A Live

🕑 General:

I'd like to make it known that I'm jumping into this game almost completely blind. All of my prior knowledge of Live A Live comes from this video.

Beautiful presentation, though that's pretty characteristic of the 2D-HD look. More retro games should be remade in this style.

This soundtrack slaps, as to be expected from Yoko Shimomura.

One complaint: why is the file menu so laggy when the rest of the game runs fine?

I'm choosing to play the chapters in chronological order, beginning with Prehistory and ending with Distant Future. I'm also playing with the English dub.

🍖 Prehistory:

Fred Flintstone called. He wants his car back.

I can't say that I've ever played a JRPG with zero dialogue.

I like the item and ability descriptions. Why many word when few work?

...My party members can fart and throw shit at enemies. 7-year-old me would've been rolling on the floor laughing.

Pink gorilla harem to the rescue.

GO GO GADGET CROTCH LIZARD

🐼 Imperial China:

Interesting how you play as a kung fu master teaching his techniques to his disciples, rather than the reverse, like in other stories. Fitting that Shifu is at the max level from the start.

This chapter's narrative really feels like an old tale from ancient China, what with a kung fu master single-handedly defeating dozens of men and tigers, entrusting his techniques to his student, and passing away.

I wonder if any student could have been Shifu's surviving disciple in this chapter. For me, it was Hong, but Yun or Lei probably could have been the new master. (UPDATE: I looked this up after the fact, and I was right.)

🍡 Twilight of Edo Japan:

I like Oboromaru's design. He looks fun to cosplay.

Really cool how there are no-kill and no-mercy routes. I tried (and failed) aiming for the no-mercy route, but I'll have to check out this chapter again some time.

Okay, so the Edo period is a little more recent than I initially thought, considering that a few characters have firearms.

Can't trust a single mf in this whole chapter smh

🤠 The Wild West:

I've heard that a few terms in this chapter were changed between the Super Famicom release and this remake. Like, the ointments and jerky used to be alcohol and cigars in the original.

That "your mom" joke got me good.

The part with the townsfolk trapping the town was really cool. Feels very fitting for the setting, and I like how it has a tangible gameplay effect.

I've seen that Sundown and Mad Dog are a semi-popular pairing, and I can definitely see why.

🏋‍♂️ Present Day:

I love Masaru's gimmick of learning techniques from other fighters. He's like a physical variant of Final Fantasy's Blue Mage job.

The saxophone in this chapter's battle theme slaps so hard.

🏙 Near Future:

First time in this game that a character directly addressed me, the player.

Psychic powers are one of the coolest tropes in fiction. The MOTHER series got me hooked on it years ago.

In terms of battle capabilities, poor Akira is probably the weakest of the protagonists, or at least he felt weaker to me.

This chapter feels like I'm playing through a mecha anime. I dig it.

🔧 Distant Future:

Not to get political or anything, but I would die for Cube. I want a plush of them.

something something Among Us joke

When OD-10 commandeers the ship, it even takes over the loading screen tips...

This chapter may have my favorite narrative.

-

⭐️ [A new chapter has been unlocked.]

-

⚔️ Middle Ages:

His fight for heroism was in vain.

Betrayed by an ally, framed as a murderer, denounced by his country and his lady...

With nothing to lose, he gives his heart to the Dark.

Odio.

-

⭐️ [A new chapter has been unlocked.]

-

The Dominion of Hate - Oersted:

From what I've read, choosing Oersted here will lead into a unique (and short) take on the final chapter, adding yet another incentive for replayability. In games with multiple endings, I like to view the bad endings first.

Through pure misanthropy, I'm retconning the outcomes of previous battles to ensure hatred's victory. That is so cool... and so depressing.

There are actually two outcomes to this chapter. The first is by beating all 7 battles, where Odio simply celebrates his success. The other is far more crazy, only achieved by being knocked to critical HP during any of the fights. Odio just... fucking blows up the world in order to recreate it.

The Dominion of Hate - Hero's Route:

I chose to begin this chapter as Oboromaru, mainly because I like the variety of elements in his skillset.

Not gonna lie, this was when the game lost a bit of steam for me. Due to the lack of fast travel or a detailed map, the last few dungeons were a bit of a chore to get through. It's why I put off this chapter for a while.

Even though this is a modern remake, some mechanics in this chapter still carry that air of '90s JRPG crypticness (which could be a positive or negative depending on the gamer). Like, I stumbled into Akira's dungeon on complete accident! And how was I supposed to know about the hidden boss you encounter by fleeing 100 times?

That final boss phase was pretty bittersweet, what with Oersted opening his heart again, freeing himself from Odio. And to think it was a brand new addition, exclusive to this remake.

💭 Final Thoughts:

If I had to describe Live A Live in one word, it'd be... unique! I can't really say I've played any other RPG like it, with each chapter being a mini-adventure with its own unique gimmick. At the same time, it's not just a bunch of demos, as it still manages to come together into a well-written narrative about choosing trust over misanthropy, despite it all. It's almost unbelievable that a game like this released in 1994!

I'm not exactly dying for a sequel, but I can't help but wonder what a "Live A Live II" would look like. Not a direct story continuation, of course, but I'm thinking something like the Final Fantasy or Shin Megami Tensei series (where each game is standalone, yet also shares common elements). I might draw my ideas some time.

Overall, a fun and interesting hidden gem, and I'm glad that it got a well-deserved remake.

[iwritenarrativesandstuff]

P5R Random Thoughts #1

(I'm doing a blind playthrough btw please no spoilers if you can help it!!)

I was thinking about Joker's initial transformation into his thief outfit and how he can't seem to hold it, implying his resolve is still weak. Then I think about how, when he and Ryuji entered the Palace the second time, he was able to, and suddenly, I'm not buying the people who call Joker a blank-slate protagonist.

I recognize I'm still very early in the game and I understand there's variation with what you choose to do and say and whatnot, but... there is a character there, and it's not even all that subtle.

See, Joker's awakening took... a long time. And most of that was other people bombarding him with continuous questions: "Are you going to leave him?" "Are you running away?" And ultimately, his own voice from within: "Is what you did really wrong?"

And one of the options to the last question is, surprisingly enough, "It might have been..." Now, I didn't pick that option, but the fact that it was there is interesting in the first place, because he clearly doesn't really think it was wrong to get involved, but the events that happened to him after the fact all happened so quickly that he hasn't even had time to process.

I kept snickering at the way the protagonist really is no thoughts head empty, can't seem to keep a thing inside his brain, and yet... that's actually a bit concerning, though not exactly surprising. He's spent most of the game so far sounding completely disoriented. He didn't even know the name of his school - was he told nothing? Did he just not hear any of it?

I don't know how else to interpret this other than that the arrest and subsequent probation really shook him and now he's kind of... aimless. Directionless, even. He's trying so hard to not draw any more attention to himself and it just isn't working. The experience may have even been traumatic - "it might have been", and the way he consistently gives these noncommittal responses to Ryuji about the castle even though he knows full well they saw the same things indicates to me that Joker, at least at this stage, doesn't trust in himself much to know what the "right thing" is.

So, even though he has all this anger and righteous fury in his heart, even though it was enough to awaken... his spirit of rebellion is still weak. There was only one clear answer in that initial situation - save Ryuji. But after that, it's like he's not sure what his goal should be, or what he should do with himself. But then, the second time they enter, he's able to keep the transformation up - and I'm positive it's because of Ryuji. Joker sees Ryuji's anger and his determination to go help the people trapped in Kamoshida's Palace and suddenly he has no issues. It's fitting for a character whose powers rely on bonding with others. Ryuji's sense of rebellion is already starting to help him direct his own. Because otherwise I don't think he would've really known what to do with himself.

Anyways, maybe I'm just reading too deeply into things. But that's what I do here, isn't it?

Also my boys' standards are so low. "Ryuji doesn't seem like such a bad guy." "Wow, this guy totally wasn't cool with me getting killed in front of him!" Literally they latch onto the first person who's been remotely tolerant of them. They are ride or die now. I love them.