#but also is putting the most important events in the second half of the act

[reidtina]

Vodka Girl

Pairing: jack schlossberg x fem!reader

Content warnings: +18 MDI public sex (im only noticing now that thats kind of my thing now lol), vaginal fingering, petnames (vodka girl, pretty girl, whiskey guy), orgasm, alcohol, casual sex (:()

Word count: 3.8k

Summary: Before Jack Schlossberg was the president of the USA and dated Y/N, he was a recent Harvard graduate and she was a Vogue photographer covering an event at the White House.

a/n: this is kind of a prequel to the president!jack fanfictions on my profile, but can also be read independently. repost and like it if you like it, also requests open for jack and spencer reid! and sorry i disappeared, i was kinda unmotivated and didnt have ideas. its on ao3 too

It had been only a few months since you became a photographer for Vogue and you still hadn’t gotten totally used to the fanciness and all the famous and important people you had to photograph, but tonight was especially important, you were covering an event in the White House, which meant having to be around a few of the most important men and women in the whole country. It’s been hours and nothing had gone wrong so far, so you decided to reward yourself with a little drink, who could blame you? You’ve been working for hours and hadn’t eaten or drunken anything so far. So you make your way to the bar and sit down, but before you could order anything a man sat next to you with a beer on his hand and as much as you tried to stay professional, you couldn’t help but notice he was really hot, he had dark hair, was tall, was wearing a suit, well, every men there was, but he looked better than all of them in it. He looked familiar, but you couldn’t quite put a name to the face yet, but considering this was an event for high-classed people, it wasn’t surprising people here looked familiar.

You probably shouldn’t have stared so much at his hands, because he definitely noticed, as he said: “No ring”, which really confused you, and he could see it on your face because he felt the need to explain himself  “I’m sorry, I thought you were checking my fingers for a wedding ring or something, my bad” He said and chuckled embarrassed, making you join him in the laughter.

 “No, I was just impressed with how nice your hands are” the second the words came out of your mouth you wanted to die, why the fuck would anyone say that? Fuck. But somehow that didn’t freak him out or made him get up and leave, instead he laughed and said: “I’m Jack, by the way”

“Y/N.” You smiled politely

“Would you like to come with me, Y/N?” he said near to your ear “This party is so boring” he added. You didn’t know what to do, you were here for work, after all, but it’s been hours and you had taken more than enough photos already, maybe you could give yourself a half hour break. So you nod saying “Yeah, sure, why not?”

“Come on.” he softly laughed as he took you by the hand to the beautiful moonlit garden. He took a deep breath before stopping between a bench and a wall, looking around to check if anyone was looking. He then looked down at the bottle of beer and then at you, smiling before opening the bottle and taking a long sip, making a disgusted face as he pulled it away, “Ah, I hate this stuff.” He chuckled and passed you the bottle.

You take a sip from the bottle as well and agreed saying “Yeah, me too”

He laughed, grabbing the bottle from your hand, putting his lips where yours were just a few moments ago, before taking a sip again, wincing at the bad taste. “I'm more of a whiskey kind of man.” He said, looking at the bottle and then at you with the corner of his eye.

“I’m more of a vodka kind of woman.”

He chuckled again, taking another sip, “Vodka girl, uh?” he said, leaning against the wall and facing you, “Any particular reason why?”

“I like the way it goes down” you say with a smirk, trying to be sexy and funny to impress him. You weren’t usually like this, you tended to act natural around guys, but he’s just so hot you can’t risk being weird or boring.

He smirked too, crossing his arms on his chest and taking another sip before passing you the almost empty bottle. “No reason to be surprised you drink vodka, though, you have the look for it.” he teased, making an obvious look up and down on you.

You tilt your head to the side and raise your eyebrows before asking playfully, yet genuinely curious “What's that supposed to mean?”

He chuckled at your pose, taking the almost empty bottle from your hands before putting it on the bench next to you and taking a step closer. He looked at you up and down once again, a smirk on his lips.

“You look like you have a strong but soft personality, vodka is strong, and you make a soft impression. You also have a sharp gaze.” He said, looking deep into your eyes.

You chuckle, nervous with his sudden closeness “I'll take that”

He smiled, slowly stepping closer until you were pressed against the wall behind you, his hands on each side of you, against the wall, trapping you, but not making full contact with you yet. “So, vodka girl..." he said in a low tone. “What's the story? Here alone?”

“I’m a photographer for Vogue, I’m just covering the event. You?”

He chuckled, slowly resting the tip of his fingers on your hips, moving them slightly to the side, but still keeping a small distance between your bodies.

He looked into your eyes with a smirk on his lips, “I'm just here by myself, politics is a family business, you know?” When he said that, something clicked inside your brain and you realized who he was, he was Jack Schlossberg, JFK’s grandson. “I just graduated college, so now I’m being more active in these kind of events with my family.” His attractiveness was already making you nervous, but now there was his name to make things harder. A Kennedy? Is your dress pretty enough to be around someone like that? How do you even breath? You have to act cool, so you smile. He smiles back “So I see we are the same.” he said  while softly caressing your sides up and down, “Both alone at this boring event, no one is wearing a ring, which means we are both single, right?”

You chuckle, you were so nervous, but he’s so nice, so it’s suddenly easier to breath and so you say “I think so, I am at least”

He smiled once again, tilting his head to the side, “I'm single too.” he said, his voice lower and his eyes never leaving yours. He slowly and softly moved his fingers to your hips, “So both single at a boring event, we came here alone and now we are alone in the garden...”

You smile and say “It looks like it, what do you think about it?”

“I think...” he whispered, his fingers digging into your sides on your hips, “I think a pretty girl like you shouldn't be spending the night alone.”

“Oh, yeah? And how are we going to fix this?” you ask, finally thinking you’re being cool enough. He chuckled and finally moved his body fully in contact with yours, pinning you against the wall by your hips, “I have an idea.” he said in a low tone by your ear, his hands slowly sliding up your sides. “Hm, tell me.” you said, knowing you should stop it, but unable to actually do it.

He smirked, his hands now fully touching your body and his lips close to your ear, “I think we should spend the end of the night together...” he whispered, slowly letting his teeth graze the skin on your neck. You smirk “Sounds good to me” no, it doesn’t, what the fuck are you doing, Y/N? You’re working here, for fuck’s sake, why did you say that it’s good?

He smiled and slowly left a trail of kisses on your neck, his body pressing against you even more. “I'm glad you agree, vodka girl.” This nickname made you feel things that you probably shouldn’t be feeling right here, right now, but it’s impossible to contain it when a man this hot is around you. He slowly began moving his lips up to your jawline, “So we have a plan for the night, hm?”

“Yeah, we do, whiskey guy” you hope the nickname does the same to him as it did to you.  He chuckled against your skin, “I love that nickname.” he said before putting his hand under your chin and tilting your head slightly to the side, allowing access to more of your neck. He began leaving a few more kisses on the side of your neck, his hand leaving your chin and slowly moving down your body, his fingers tracing your shape.

He began moving back to your ear, his hot breath against your skin as he whispered, “I have one rule, vodka girl.” His fingers played with the hem of your dress, slowly pulling it up and exposing more skin, touching it ever so softly. This was so, so wrong but so hard to resist, so you can’t help the words “And what is it?” from coming out of your mouth. He slowly lifted your leg up with his free hand, his fingers digging into your skin while lifting it and pinning it against the wall between his body and yours. So, so wrong.  He looked into your eyes as he leaned closer, his face millimeters from yours, almost touching your lip, “You have to be silent.”

Okay, it’s beyond wrong, but it’s so hot. “What? You’re going to do me here?” You ask, still a little nervous and surprised.  He smirked, taking your earlobe between his teeth and slowly started moving his hand further up on your leg, his touch leaving you craving more. “Can you be quiet?” he whispered, his lips just above your neck. Fuck it, you only live once or whatever.

“That depends on how good you are” you finally gave in to your desires. He chuckled, moving his hand even further up your leg, the thin fabric of your dress the only thing stopping him from touching you. “Oh, pretty girl, you don't know the limits to my good time.” he said as he started slowly leaving a trail of kisses from your neck to your jaw. “Then I can't promise i can be quiet, I might have to bite you to keep my mouth shut” you smirked. He bit his lip, moving his hand to your hip and pressing his body against yours, the pressure almost making you gasp but you somehow managed to stay silent. “Bite whatever you want, vodka girl, but keep quiet, we're out in the open after all. We wouldn't want to get caught.” He leaned his face closer to you, his nose almost touching yours, “Unless...” he paused, his voice low and seductive, “Unless you don't mind being heard, hm?”

That question brought out a seductive chuckle from you and you asked him: “Does the idea of me being loud out here in public risking getting caught turn you on?” He groaned lowly as he heard the question, his eyes closing from the sound of your chuckle, “You have no idea...” he said, his voice shaky now. His body was fully pressed against yours, and you can feel exactly how it affected him, especially on the spot under his belt.

You fake innocence while playing with his tie. He swallowed hard, feeling you slowly toying with his tie as he tried to form words in his mind, the heat of your touch making it hard to think. He needed no further invitation, the look on your eyes was enough to know you wanted him as much as he wanted you, so he picked you up, your legs wrapping around his waist as he carried you to a more secluded part of the garden, far away from any guests or cameras, making sure no one could see you.

“You asked for it, vodka girl.” He said as he gently sat you down on a soft patch of grass next to a wall, his body covering yours as he pinned you against the ground, his body pressed between your legs, and his lips just above your neck. He began attacking your neck with kisses, his tongue and teeth now on your skin. He whispered, his breath hot against your ear, “Now be quiet.”

You chuckle as you say “Whatever you say, boss”. He smirked as the sound of your words hit his ear, moving his lips to your ear, “That's a good girl.” He whispered into it. He started leaving a trail of kisses down your neck and across your collarbone while slowly moving his hands to the hem of your dress, slipping his hands underneath the thin fabric.

His touch was light and teasing, slowly moving up higher on your legs, “I want to hear those pretty little moans of yours, pretty girl.” he whispered against your neck, his fingers digging into the skin on your leg.

“Then touch me and make me cry out for you” you said, getting bolder and bolder as desire began taking over you, unable to contain yourself, even knowing the dangers of keeping it going, this was John Fucking Kennedy's grandson after all, your grandma probably had the hots for his grandpa and now he was here, about to fuck you.

“With pleasure.” he said as he began moving his hands higher, his fingers feeling your skin as they inched upward, slowly but getting closer to where you craved him. Thankfully you were wearing good underwear. He began sucking on your neck, leaving hickeys where your hair would cover later, thankfully, but still making sure he left his mark as he finally reached the edge of your underwear, “I want to hear you, vodka girl. I want to hear all the pretty noises you make when I touch you. But only I can hear it, got it?” You nod and beg: “Please.” He chuckled, his breath hot against your ear, "Please what, pretty girl?" he teased, his fingers tracing the edge of your underwear.

“Please, just touch me” you ask impatiently.

He smiled against your neck, enjoying the way you're melting under his touch. ”Say, please again and I'll give you exactly what you want.” he whispered, his fingers still tracing up and down the edge of your underwear. “Please, I need your fingers deep inside me” you begged, too horny to feel embarrassed. He smirked, his lips hovering over your ear, “That's a good girl.” He didn't make you wait any longer, his hands finally moving where you wanted him, a soft moan escaping your lips almost immediately as his fingers found your entrance and started moving in and out of you. He groaned as you let out a sound, his body still pressing against yours as much as it could “Careful, pretty girl. You don't want to be too loud.” He began slowly and gently caressing your clit with his thumb while still moving his fingers in and out of you, his touch soft but firm, making sure to build up the tension. His lips left your ear and you pull him in for a kiss to try and stay quiet.

He was caught off guard by your sudden pull but quickly melted into the kiss, his tongue slipping through your lips, tasting you, and exploring the inside of your mouth while his hand continued exploring your pussy. You moan softly through the kiss and he lets out a low growl, the sound of your moan only driving him further. He continued to kiss you, his tongue tangled with yours, while his free hand slowly moved up your body, touching and exploring every inch of you. He muttered between kisses, his voice low and ragged, “You taste so good, vodka girl. You made my night"

“Can you please fuck me?” You ask without thinking of the consequences, right now nothing else mattered, only having his dick deep inside you. He groaned at your question, his body reacting to your words and the sound of your panting. “What a polite woman asking ‘please’.” he said, his voice low and seductive, the sound of it sending a shiver through you. He whispered in your ear, “Do you wanna feel me, vodka girl?” to which you couldn't say anything other than “Yes, please.” He smirked, slowly moving his fingers away from your body, leaving you craving his touch.

He let out a deep-throated chuckle, his breath warm against your ear, “You're such a good girl, so I'm going to give you exactly what you want.” his words made your body build up with anticipation.

He began gently biting and sucking on your neck, but making sure not to leave marks where your hair wouldn't cover later, while his hands began to move down, slowly pushing up the fabric of your dress. “Do you have a condom?” you ask and he chuckled, slowly pulling away from your neck to look into your eyes. “I do." he said, his voice low and seductive, "I always come prepared.”

You roll your eyes playfully “To this kind of event? What a man whore.” as much as you were joking, you couldn't help but feel a bit of jealousy, you must be sick. He laughed, pinning you to the ground again, his body entirely covering yours, “I can't resist when I'm around a beautiful woman like you, vodka girl. You make me weak”

You pushed any jealousy away and asked “Then please fuck me already”

He moved closer to your ear, whispering, “When you ask like that, how can I say no, vodka girl?” and you take it as your sign to start unbuckling his belt, he lets out a sharp gasp at the feeling of your hands on his pants. “Eager, are we?” he said in a low tone, his breathing getting heavier with the way you were touching him. You roll your eyes and tease “Oh, shut up, we have to be quick, you know that” He chuckled “You're quite feisty, vodka girl. I like that.” He leaned in closer, his face hovering millimeters from yours, “But not that quick, though. I'm going to make sure you remember my name when we're done.” he said it as if you could forget him, but his words send shivers up your spine either way and you reply in a whisper “Just quick enough to make sure we don't get caught.”

”Don't worry, pretty girl. I'm used to multitasking. I'll make sure you're completely satisfied, and we won't be caught.” as he finishes that sentence he pulls out a condom from his pocket and pulls his pants just down enough to take his cock out, and fuck, what a dick, it was big and thick, and you knew it'd hit just the right spots. He smirked, his eyes fixed on you as he quickly rolls the condom onto himself, when he's ready he positions himself between your legs, his body pressing yours down, his eyes holding an intense look of hunger and desire, “Are you ready, vodka girl?”

You nod, not finding the words, but that was all the invitation he needed, as he slowly pushed your panties to the side and began pushing it inside you, when he felt how thigh your pussy was, he groaned, the sound deep and full of the need he had for you. Once he had already entered all his length in you, he started moving himself against you, his eyes locked on yours, “Say my name. I want to hear you.” You moan softly at his request “Jack, please”

His body shuddered from the sound of his name on your lips. ”That's a good girl” he said in a low voice. “Say it again.”

“Jack, we have to be quiet” you moan between thrusts.

He started moving a little faster, his body pressed against yours as he whispered, “You're just too sexy, I can't resist you.”

He wrapped an arm around your waist, pulling you against him even closer, “You're unbelievable, vodka girl.”

He continued to move inside of you, his body pressing against yours, both your breathes heavy and ragged. “You feel so good. I can't get…” He couldn't find the words to speak as the pleasure continued to build up between you. He was close, and he knew you were close to the edge too. He groaned, his body shuddering, “You're so perfect. I can't hold back anymore. Say my name once again”

“Jack” you moan softly into his ear and the sound of your voice mixed with your hot breath into his ear make his body shudder with release, and he whispers your name back in your ear over and over as the waves of pleasure wash over him.

He collapses on top of you, panting and trying to catch his breath, “You're incredible, Y/N. I wasn't expecting anything like this tonight.” You try to catch your breath as you pull the hem of your dress down again and pull your panties back to their place. He gently rolls onto his back beside you, still catching his breath, and turns to look at you as he removes the condom and pulls his pants up. He smiles, his eyes still holding a hint of desire and satisfaction. “You're quite the troublemaker, vodka girl.” he teased, brushing a loose strand of hair out of your face with his free hand.

“I could same the same about you, whiskey guy.”

He chuckled, rolling onto his side to face you. “Me, a troublemaker? I'm innocent.” he says, giving you an mock innocent look before grinning and reaching out to trace a finger along your cheek, “You're the one who got me all worked up, pretty girl.”

As a little bit of reasoning thinking washes over you, you say: “Maybe we should get back to the party now, we can't risk someone seeing us lying down on the garden.” He sighs, reluctantly agreeing “You're right. We can't risk getting caught.”

He sits up, buckling his belt and straightening his hair, before making a knot on the used condom and putting it into his pocket. “Well, this is kinda gross” he laughs and offers you the other hand. “But let's head back in and try to look innocent.” You take his hand while laughing and get up.

He leads you back to the inside, his hand still holding yours. As you enter the room again, you both try to act nonchalant, like nothing happened, but nobody seems to have noticed your absence either way. He whispers to you, trying not to attract attention, “We gotta act natural, vodka girl. Don't want to raise suspicion.” The fact that he’s worrying now when he’s then one that initiated the whole thing makes you chuckle and you say “I think we’re in the clear now”

He chuckles too, the tension of getting caught slowly fading away. “You’re right, looks like we’re in the clear” he agreed after looking around the room. “So, I think I should try to get back to the boring conversations, but before I go, can I get your number?” he asked and after you gave it to him and got back to work, he spent the rest of the night thinking about you, looking around the room, hoping to get a glance of you.

[saintsenara]

Hiya! What do you think of the idea that Jily and Romione are meant to be parallels? I personally don't quite agree, but what's your take?

thank you very much for the ask, anon!

and the short answer is that i am definitely not convinced...

i presume that the idea that jily and romione are meant to be deliberate parallels hangs on a couple of things. the first of these are a series of superficial similarities, which i think we can dismiss fairly easily:

that each pairing is made up of a pureblood man and a muggleborn woman; that one person in each pairing is ginger; that both pairings fancied each other the moment they met, but didn't act on that attraction until their seventh years; and that both pairings seem to communicate primarily by bickering.

none of these hit for me - not least because, individually, none of james, ron, lily, or hermione are particularly alike.

[and i certainly think that it's tedious to suggest that two female characters must be broadly similar in terms of personality and serve parallel narrative roles simply because they're both muggleborn...]

the second piece of evidence for the two couples being intentional parallels is, however, slightly more persuasive. on paper, at least...

this is, of course, that idea that ron and hermione act like harry's "surrogate parents".

i do see why this is so widespread among the fandom [ron weasley, domestic god, my beloved], but it's a reading of the text which, i'll be honest, brings out the contrarian in me...

harry's character archetype is primarily the "everyman hero" - a hero who is perfectly, averagely normal in terms of talent, intellect, and appearance - who defeats a villain who is abnormal and exceptional. this is - obviously - one of the most common archetypes in the history of human storytelling, because it enables the people who read or hear those stories to see themselves in the protagonist, to root for them, to comfort themselves with the idea that evil people must be so unusual in terms of appearance or behaviour that they can be easily spotted, and to believe that ordinary people can triumph over evil.

but, nonetheless, harry is also required - like all heroes - to be special, and to be set apart from [and, indeed, above] all other characters in the series in terms of importance by virtue of this specialness.

[not least because the main hero-figure he resembles - especially in deathly hallows... is christ.]

in harry's case, his much-vaunted ability to love fulfils this requirement.

and we can see this narrative purpose affecting many of his relationships within the canon text - above all, in the way that he primarily views all the other characters with whom he interacts either as people he needs to keep safe from voldemort or people he needs to keep others safe from.

ginny is the primary victim of this tendency, especially at the end of half-blood prince, but ron and hermione experience it too - albeit in slightly more subtle ways...

for example, everything they ever know about harry's mission is at harry's own discretion - he notably doesn't trust them with several key aspects of it [above all, that he's a horcrux and that he's going to walk into the forest to die] within the canon narrative, and he generally holds the view that their interpretation of events is partial and wrong because they lack the special knowledge that he has as the series' singular hero [in particular, how he says several times in deathly hallows that neither of them understand voldemort as well as he does, and that's why they're so convinced that he'd have hidden a horcrux in the orphanage].

similarly, he insists throughout the series that following him - and following is the operative word - is dangerous to them. he never considers that being associated with them puts him in danger - because his narrative purpose is to be more important than they are in voldemort's hierarchy of interest.

[and, indeed, it's always really striking to me that deathly hallows heavily implies that voldemort doesn't have a clue who either of them are...]

ron and hermione certainly demonstrate many traits which can be associated with parent-child relationships - they are extremely loyal; they are [especially ron] extremely caring, including in domestic and pseudo-domestic ways. ron also provides harry with his greatest longing - the experience of a loving family - in a way which, superficially at least, mirrors james providing the same for sirius after he runs away from home.

but harry is - before the pre-epilogue end of deathly hallows - still set apart from the weasleys by virtue of his narrative specialness. we can see this throughout the series - in chamber of secrets, just after harry is astonished that everyone in the burrow likes him, his vastly different financial circumstances make him feel like there is a division between the weasleys and himself; in order of the phoenix, he initially aligns himself with the group who aren't family when visiting arthur in hospital, and is only brought into the family group at molly's insistence; he leaves ron's bedside in half-blood prince to make room for family visitors; he is adjacent to the family grief over both george's injury and fred's death in deathly hallows.

similarly, while james and sirius' relationship is set-up in canon as essentially fraternal, the same cannot be said of harry and ron. ron is narratively lesser than harry - he isn't as academically successful, or as good at quidditch, or as instantly recognisable, or as aspirational to get to know - and he is very aware of this, which is why his jealousy plays such a major role in the series.

[although it's worth saying, on a more positive note, that his and harry's relationship is genuinely close, mutually fulfilling, and nowhere near as codependent as james and sirius'...]

and so the apparently parental traits which ron and hermione display for harry actually reveal a power-dynamic which is very different from a pseudo-parent-child one - in which we would expect the parent-figures to consider their care for the child-figure to be their responsibility. instead, the dynamic is a [benevolent] master-servant [or, to return to the christ allegory, master-disciple] one - in which ron and hermione fill the role of harry's faithful retainers, who care for him, serve him, and follow him because it is their duty.

this doesn't mean that ron and hermione aren't more important to harry than other characters [ron - in particular - is harry's saint peter, the most important of the apostles, who doubts], but it does mean that they're subordinate to him within the narrative's hierarchy of power.

and this - obviously - is not the dynamic which existed between harry, james, and lily prior to his parents' deaths...

[odyssean-flower]

the winding path of fate chapter 13 sneak peak

(this is the second half of the first part. I want to rewrite the first half. tbh i'm thinking of posting the first part of chapter 13 since it is relatively long. ngl i feel like i put too many events in a single chapter sometimes. will put up a poll tomorrow when i finish the rewrites.)

With the new day and the cozy safety of your room, the events of last night seemed like they happened a lifetime ago. The fear had mostly subsided, leaving mortification and regret in its wake, especially as everyone was acting so considerate towards you. Looking back, you had no idea what you were thinking, and you realized once again just how lucky you had been.

Your ankle’s swelling had gone down considerably the next day, but it still hurt whenever you put even the slightest bit of pressure on it, so you spent most of the day in bed, reading books, drawing, or staring out the window at the gray sky. Your knee didn’t hurt quite as much either, but you still had to change the dressing regularly. You weren’t without company, though, as Marie sat with you in your room often, bringing you food and helping you put away your newly bought clothes in your closet. She had been horrified when you came home last night, injured. “Oh, Madame, you should have asked someone to get me!” she had lamented. “The streets at night are no place for a young lady to walk by herself!”

Marie wasn’t the only visitor to your room. The Melusines, including those who hadn’t gone shopping with you, also came to see you throughout the day. You supposed that Neuvillette told them about you, for they all brought you cakes and other desserts as get-well presents (you also suspected that they also reported back to Neuvillette about your condition, for when you mentioned to one Melusine how you would like to drink some Fonta, your wish was granted by the next Melusine who visited. However, she also heartily recommended that you drink water from Snezhnaya instead, which held a coolness that was good against swelling, and if you wished, you could ask Marie to fetch a bottle of it for you from Monsieur Neuvillette’s personal stash. She also added that you need not hesitate to ask, as he had more than one bottle. Perhaps all Melusines shared his specific tastes in water, but you didn’t quite believe that was the case).

Rhemia and the other Melusines who had been with you yesterday had been the most distressed upon seeing you bedridden. “I’ll stick to you like glue from now on, Madame! No criminal will escape my sights!” Rhemia had declared, and her sisters nodded vigorously in agreement.

“There really is no need for that,” you tried to decline her offer. Privately, you thought that there wasn’t much a Melusine could do against muggers anyways. “The whole incident only happened because I was careless and in the wrong place at the wrong time. I’ll be much more careful next time, so I doubt it will happen again. Just because I’m Neuvillette’s wife, it doesn’t mean that I deserve special treatment or anything of the sort. And if he put you up to this, then—”

Rhemia blinked at you in confusion. “But this has nothing to do with Monsieur Neuvillette. Not entirely, anyways.”

“It doesn’t?” Now you were confused.

“Nope! I’d do this for all the people important to me! Oh, but I guess you’re more than that, since you’re married to Monsieur Neuvillette! That would make you our mother, I suppose.”

“Um…” There was the m-word again. You considered correcting Rhemia, but she continued on, seemingly not noticing your discomfort.

“You’re always so kind and patient with us, just like Monsieur Neuvillette. You greet us whenever you see us, and you always ask us about our days and listen to our troubles. Oh, and Madame, you’re such a good teacher too! I’ve gotten so much better at drawing humans thanks to your lessons!” Rhemia turned to her friends. “Am I right?”

Her friends nodded enthusiastically. They began recounting all the times you’ve spent with them.

“I’m glad to hear that you all think of me as your friend,” you said after they finished, a little embarrassed but also pleased. You hadn’t expected them to remember so much about you. But you felt a little guilty as well. At first, you decided to become friendly with the Melusines because everyone knew that Neuvillette treasured them greatly and you wanted to be in his good graces so that he wouldn’t have any reason to kick you out. They had always been the ones to come up to you first, especially in the first few weeks after your marriage, and while you didn’t consider yourself to be a particularly friendly and warm person, even you weren’t heartless enough to be cold to such a cheerful race of creatures.

“It’s not just us! I’m sure all the Melusines in the Court of Fontaine feel the same way. You’re just as important to us as Monsieur Neuvillette.”

“Oh…” Looking at their bright, earnest faces, you didn’t know what to say. Your eyes suddenly became misty. Before this marriage, you hadn’t really given much mind to Melusines. They were just the public servants you would occasionally pass by on the street. But now that you were connected to them through Neuvillette, you were belatedly learning just how wonderful they were.

“Thank you,” you said at last, patting each of them on the head. Your hand still stung a little from last night, but you ignored it. “It means a lot to me that you think so highly of me. Truly. Still, you don’t need to follow me around. If I ever need help, I promise that I will come straight to you. And…I hope that you would all come to the sunflower viewing party we’re holding here next month.”

“Of course, Madame! We wouldn’t miss it for anything!” the Melusines chirped in unison.

By evening, the deluge of visitors had finally ended. You sank into your pillows, feeling exhausted. You weren’t used to having so many people fuss over you. It was unfamiliar territory, one that you weren’t quite sure how to navigate.

Still, as you gazed at the teetering pile of confectionary boxes covered in Melusine stickers on your bedside table and remembered all the get-well wishes you received, a rush of warmth flooded your heart. How did I get so lucky? You wondered. Perhaps even after I leave Neuvillette, we can still be friends…

As you were lost in your thoughts, Marie came into your room again.

“Oh, Madame, I completely forgot to give you this because of everything that happened yesterday. It appears to be from your family.”

Marie handed you an envelope made of thick, creamy paper. You recognized the stationery as the kind used by your father for formal correspondences, and the address written in familiar, flowery cursive on the front was indeed that of your family’s house.

“Ah, that would be from my sister,” you said, tearing the envelope open and taking out the contents. The enveloped contained two cards made of similarly thick paper. They both had an elaborately drawn border of Lumidouce Bells and Rainbow Roses and had an invitation written in the center. This was new.

You are cordially invited

To a celebration

Honoring

Justine’s nineteenth birthday

Semi-formal attire requested (Floral themed outfits are preferred)

P.S. Sister, please tell me if Monsieur Neuvillette has any allergies or requires any accommodations!

“Ugh…” you groaned, putting your palm over your face. “I still haven’t gotten her a present yet!”

That had been the cause of this trouble in the first place, and yet you hadn’t even accomplished your goal in the end.

While we’re on this topic, shouldn’t she have sent the invitations much earlier if she wanted people to RSVP? It’s just like her to do things last minute! And why is she acting like it’s already decided that Neuvillette’s coming?

“Marie, could you please fetch me my pen and paper?” you asked the housekeeper. After you received them, you began to write a reply to tell Justine that while you were coming, Neuvillette definitely wasn’t. But just as you got to that last part, you paused. The idea of the Chief Justice attending a teenage girl’s birthday party all the way out in the countryside was absurd, of course. You tried to picture him sitting at your family’s worn dining table, singing “Happy Birthday” eating the butterscotch cake your housekeeper always made for birthdays, all the while fending off the barrage of questions from your family and friends. I can’t imagine it! It’s just too ridiculous!

It would be better if he didn’t have too much contact with your family, in order to avoid them asking too many questions, and to make the eventual divorce go smoothly.

He rarely even attended the far more glamorous functions of high society, so something like this would be out of the question. His answer would go without asking.

Or would it?

You didn’t really know why you were entertaining the idea. Perhaps being with Neuvillette these past few months had greatly inflated your sense of self-importance—but then again, you thought that the two of you had gotten close enough where asking him wouldn’t be so preposterous. You were friends, and wouldn’t it be ruder to not at least extend an invitation to a friend? Wasn’t the act of asking in itself greatly appreciated?

And…there was a little part of you that would like to show him around your hometown. It was pretty much in the middle of nowhere, and all you could see for miles around were fields of wildflowers and mountains—a common sight in Fontaine—but there were a few spots that you had fond memories of. Since Neuvillette showed you his favorite places, it was only right to repay the favor, even if none of your favorite spots were as exciting as the giant willow tree or Merusea Village.

Recent events, including the latest incident, had taught you the folly of making assumptions, even for seemingly inconsequential things like this. Just because you thought

The worst thing he could say is no, you reasoned to yourself. And it’s not the end of the world if he does. Sure, Justine will be disappointed, but everyone knows how busy and reclusive Neuvillette is, so she’ll understand if he declines.

As if on cue, you heard the front door open downstairs. Neuvillette had returned home. After a brief conversation with Marie, the sound of his heels briskly ascending the stairs and heading in the direction of your room until it stopped in front of your door. There was a soft knock.

“Madame, may I come in?”

“Yes,” you called out, and Neuvillette opened the door and stepped inside your room. He was about to close the door behind him, but then he looked at you. A thought seemed to cross his mind, and he left the door ajar.

Um, why is he just standing there? You stared at him, confused when he didn’t take a seat right away. He simply stared at you, his gaze a mix of worry, uncertainty, and something else. For a second, you wondered if he was that caught off guard by your dishevelled appearance that was a result of staying in bed all day. It took you a minute to realize that he was waiting for you to ask him to sit down. Really, this man… I thought we’re past such formalities.

“You can pull up a chair,” you said, nodding towards the cushioned chairs in the center of the room. He complied, clasping his hands in his lap after settling in his seat and leaning towards you slightly. He stared at you intently, as if afraid that you would disappear before his eyes. You squirmed uncomfortably, suddenly very aware of the fact that you were wearing only your rumpled nightgown and that you were lying in bed. You surreptitiously pulled your covers up to your chest.

Come to think of it, this is the first time I’ve ever had a man who isn’t my father in my room, you mused, though you were also aware that this wasn’t really the occasion to think about such things. Well, I guess it technically isn’t the first time, since he carried me back here when I fell asleep in his study that one time. First time that I was conscious, then.

Thankfully, Neuvillette broke the silence and (once again) prevented your thoughts from going in strange directions.

“The robbers will be tried in court shortly,” he said. “It will be a short, simple trial, considering the number of witnesses at the scene. I will not be presiding over it, however.”

“I see,” you nodded. “I’m very glad to hear that.”

Despite that, his brow remained creased with worry. “How are you feeling, Madame? Should I take you to the hospital after all?” he asked.

“No, that really won’t be necessary,” you shook your head vigorously. “It’s only a bad sprain. I’ll probably be able to walk again tomorrow.”

“It is highly unwise to rush your recovery. What will happen if you worsen your injury? The meeting with Furina can be postponed—”

“Don’t postpone it,” you said, leaning over to grab his sleeve and stared into his eyes. “The sooner we get this over with, the better. I’ll drag myself up the steps of the Palais if I have to.”

Neuvillette looked like he wanted to argue, but he swallowed back whatever he was going to say. “There’s no need to exert yourself in such a way,” he said at last. “I would be happy to carry you into my office, if you should ask.”

“Carry me into your office, huh?” you leaned back against your pillow with a smile. You sometimes wondered if Neuvillette realized how unintentionally funny he could be. “Wouldn’t that give people the wrong idea?”

“You do have a point. Then, I propose that we arrive at my office early in the morning, before the Palais employees come into work.”

“How about instead of carrying me, I borrow your cane?”

Neuvillette seemed to be pondering your words seriously. “But that would also run into the problem of rousing people’s suspicions. Someone might wonder why my cane is in your possession.”

You turned your head away to smother your laugh.

“It seems that the Melusines have made their visits,” Neuvillette said, looking at the tower of boxes on your bedside table.

“Yes, they were all very sweet. Although, I’m not sure how they expect me to eat all these…” You liked dessert and all, but not to this extent. Perhaps you could bring some of them back home with you to share with your family and friends.

“Clorinde also asked me to pass on her well wishes to you. She was very sorry to hear what happened.”

“I see. Please thank her for me, and tell her not to blame herself for my foolishness.”

“I will do that,” Neuvillette nodded, then was silent for a moment. His solemn gaze as he looked at you made it seem like you were diagnosed with some terminal illness rather than merely spraining your ankle badly and hitting your knee against the ground.

“Neuvillette?” you called out his name in hopes of getting rid of that grave look in his eyes. It made your chest feel heavy.

“Ah, by the way, I consulted with a friend of mine about your injury. She made this drink for you,” Neuvillette brandished a green, ridiculously adorable cup from out of nowhere. It reminded of you of the cups toddlers drank juice out of. “She says that it will help your body recover quicker.”

“A friend of yours?” you repeated, your interest piqued. While Neuvillette would happily talk to you about the Melusines for hours on end and occasionally talk about his (human) acquaintances, you had never heard him call anyone his friend before.

“Yes. She is the head nurse the Fortress of Meropide’s infirmary, and one of the kindest and considerate people I know. I hope the two of you can meet one day.”

“That’s high praise coming from you,” you said, making a mental note of this mysterious friend. “Why don’t we invite her to the sunflower viewing as well?”

“What a wonderful idea. I shall do just that,” he said, then held out the cup to you. “Now, Madame, you should drink this.”

“Alright,” you took a sip of the drink and nearly spat it out. “Bleakness” was the only way to describe the taste. It almost made you want to get out of bed and walk so that the pain could distract you from the torture of your tastebuds. For a heartbeat, you wondered if Neuvillette was trying to poison you. “A-Are you sure this is h-healthy?”

“Of course,” Neuvillette said, looking baffled by your question. “I’ve drank it on numerous occasions, and I’ve always found myself quite refreshed and invigorated afterwards. I asked Sigewinne to make it taste more palatable for you, as I’m aware that her concoctions are not for everyone. She truly hopes it makes you feel better.”

This is palatable? You thought. Did I do something to this Sigewinne person? Whoever she was, she shared the same incomprehensible sense of taste as Neuvillette.

Speaking of Neuvillette, he was looking at you expectantly. Oh Archons, is he expecting me to finish it in front of him? Just as you were trying to come up with an excuse to not drink it, those efforts were dashed by his next words. “Is it not to your liking?” he said quietly. You were vaguely aware that it had started raining outside.

“I…um…” you didn’t know what to say or where to look. You suddenly had the impression that a large puppy was at your bedside, staring at you with sad eyes. Gah, he must be doing this on purpose! Either that, or he must really be fond of that friend of his. “Well, when it comes to medicine, it’s not really a matter of liking it or not liking it, right? A-And since you’ve gone to the trouble of asking your friend to make this for me, it would be rude of me to not drink it, right?” You sounded like you were trying to convince yourself.

“If you do not like it, then you do not need to force yourself—”

“No, no, I mean, I’ve taken plenty of bitter medicine when I was little, and I survived. This will be no different,” you brought the straw up to your mouth and held your breath. Let’s just get this over quickly, you thought, then emptied the cup in one go. Fortunately, there wasn’t much to drink. However, the lumpy texture was still a struggle to swallow. You felt as though you had just eaten concrete.

“That was…certainly something I’ve never drank before,” you managed, flopping back onto your pillows to recover. You opened a box of lemon tarts and shoved one into your mouth to get rid of the taste. Honestly, you wanted to drink some Fonta instead, but decided that it might be a bit uncouth. Of course, some might say that it was unladylike to eat cake in bed in the first place, but you doubted those people ever had the misfortune of having to drink that so-called “healthy drink.” “Please thank your friend for me.”

Neuvillette nodded, watching you as you ate a second, then a third tart. Lemon wasn’t your favorite flavor, but anything would do right now. YYou offered one to him, but he politely declined. His gaze dropped to the papers in your lap. “…Were you writing a letter to someone?” he asked.

“Oh!” you had almost forgotten about that. “My sister Justine sent us invitations to her birthday party. It’s a bit short notice, but it’s in a few days.”

“Ah, yes, I’ve heard you mention it before,” Neuvillette took a pause, as if he had only just taken in the entirety of your words. “Did you say ‘invitations’?”

“Yes,” you nodded. Your hands suddenly felt sweaty. What were you so nervous about? “Since we’re, you know, husband and wife, it’s only natural that invitations would be sent to the both of us. Funny thing is, Justine thinks you’re already coming and has asked me if you require any accommodations, but of course you haven’t given any answer as to whether or not you’ll be attending the party. I-I know that you usually don’t attend public functions, but birthdays parties in our party don’t tend to be very extravagant affairs. It’s usually just a small gathering of close friends and relatives. We can even make everyone sign a contract of confidentiality, if you want. You don’t have to bring any gifts either. I think your presence will be a gift in itself for my sister, haha…”

Oh no, I’m rambling again…why do I keep doing this in front of him? You toyed with the edge of your comforter, suddenly too nervous to look at his expression. Would there be a look of disgust there? Why would there be? Your brain argued back. You haven’t asked anything offensive!

Finally, you dared to sneak a peek. He was staring at your face, as though scrutinizing it for answers to a difficult question.

“You don’t have to go if you don’t want to,” you said, thinking that he must be trying to find a way to let you down gently.

“…Do you want me to attend?” he said at last.

You hadn’t expected that question. “What do you mean?” you frowned.

“What I mean is…would it please you—would it make you happy if I attended your sister’s party?”

Ah, so the answer is no, then, you thought. That was expected.

“Well, it’s not my party, so my opinion doesn’t matter,” you said slowly. “Justine would like for you to come, but there is no obligation on your part to say yes. If you like, I can make up some excuse about your absence to tell everyone.”

“But your opinion does matter quite a lot to me,” Neuvillette said. He was oddly insistent about this. “I would like to hear what you think.”

“As I said, it’s not my party. It will not affect me one way or another should you choose to come or not,” Realizing that you might be sounding too harsh, you softened your next words. “It’s okay to say no. I’m sure everyone will understand if you can’t come.”

Neuvillette stared at you for a long while, his eyes unreadable. You could hear the rain pounding against your window, and you turned your head to it. The sky was a dark, leaden gray. It’s been raining pretty frequently these days, hasn’t it? You thought distantly.

“Unfortunately, I have a trial to oversee on that day,” he said. Out of the corner of your eye, you saw him clench and unclench his fists. You wondered why he didn’t mention the trial earlier. “I do not think it would be wise for me to attend, in any case. It would be a needless distraction.”

“Alright then. I’ll tell my sister you can’t attend,” you said lightly, then turned your attention to your unfinished letter. You picked up your pen and began to write. Focusing your mind on producing the words helped distract from the tumult of emotions within you—emotions that you didn’t know quite what to make of. Was it relief you felt, or disappointment? Relief for what? Disappointment about what? You couldn’t tell at all.

In any case, it’s over and done with, you told yourself firmly, signing the letter with a flourish. Maybe too big of a flourish. I’ll post this first thing in the morning—that is, if I can walk by then.

You glanced up to see Neuvillette still sitting there. He was drinking from his cup, but he was watching you over the rim. You had long gotten used to him studying you like you were some kind of strange specimen, but it was still awkward, especially in this silence. Your room, which had always felt needlessly spacious to you, suddenly felt very small.

Just as you were debating whether or not to fake a sleepy yawn and ask him to leave, he spoke again.

“You haven’t yet bought a birthday present for your sister, yes?”

“That’s right,” you replied, wondering what he was getting at.

“I won’t have any time tomorrow, but I do have an hour or two to spare after our meeting with Furina. We shall go pick out a present together then.”

You gaped at him. “Are you serious?”

“Why would I not be? It is customary for married couples to give presents as a pair, is it not?”

“I…suppose so,” you said. Neuvillette was so hard to grasp sometimes. Sometimes, he was clear as a fresh water spring. Other times, like now, you had the sense that you were staring into the sea, unable to see all the way to its bottom.

“Then it is settled,” he said with a note of satisfaction in his voice, then leaned forward and cupped your cheek. It happened so quickly that you didn’t even have a chance to react. “W-Wha…” was all you could manage to stammer out. There was only a millimeter of space between your faces. Your heart sped up a little when his gaze moved to your lips. His thumb moved to the corner of your lip and brushed against it. It took you a moment to realize that he had flicked off a cake crumb.

“I still have some work to finish, so I’m afraid I’ll have to take my leave now,” he informed you, removing his hand from your cheek. Despite that, you could still feel the smooth silk of his glove and the latent strength in his long fingers. “Please rest and get well soon, Madame.”

You could only nod as you gazed up at him. He stared into your eyes for a moment longer before turning on his heel and leaving your room. It was only when you heard his footsteps recede to the other side of the house that you realized that it was no longer raining.

[metvmorqhoses]

did aleksandr ask for alina's consent before installing the stag collar on her body? if he didn't, isn't that a form of assault?

A form of violation and betrayal, yes. A form of rape-y act directly against Alina out of some sort of inner perverted evil as they are constantly painting it (even continuously implying Aleksander is the most responsible for what happened to Genya), absolutely no. It's disgusting and disrespectful towards his character.

It's difficult to pinpoint what exactly bothers me about this particular and continuously stressed metaphor in the show, but I'll do my best to explain.

For book!Darkling the matter is a bit different and the justification for his actions is more pragmatic and less personal, but Aleksander in the show is an immortal being constantly carrying with him hundreds of years of excruciating pain, loneliness and heartbreak, a still very present and very painful humanity, for the sake of trying again and again to save his persecuted people. He lost everyone and everything, repeatedly, but the old abusing mother that loathes him and that he nevertheless stubbornly loves. He is resigned to this living eternal hell, because he believes he has a noble and selfless mission to accomplish. The only problem is that, no matter what he does, no matter his efforts, he simply doesn't possess the right kind of power to "change the world".

Then, many centuries down the line, a miracle happens. Not only a miracle that could put an end to all wars, a forced perpetual peace (this is what he wanted to do weaponizing the Fold, forcing all the countries to stop all conflict at gunpoint), but a miracle that could mean to him specifically the end of his personal solitude and despair.

So, he tries to do his best to give this girl everything he would have needed as a young boy and was denied to him, someone who believed in her, someone who taught her, someone who could make her feel her worth and unique destiny, someone who assured her she was not alone. But since of course he has a duty, he thinks, towards Ravka and his people, since he is the adult of the situation, since he is the eternal mastermind, he obviously cannot only selfishly focus on making her love him. He has also to make sure she follows the path he had schemed for her in the most efficient and direct way possible, for the sake of everyone.

That's the reason for the half-truths, for the faint general deception - Aleksander is not a fake groomer who is trying to brainwash a young girl, he is a desperate man whose soulmate is a frightened child who has to save the world and give sense to thousands of years of collective suffering and efforts, his own included and that, in his opinion, has to be guided since he cannot afford to have her fail or to lose her.

Everything goes better than anticipated, she even effortlessly grows feelings, real feelings, for the real him. Then one night his mother tells her in the worst possible way an exaggerated for the worst version of the truth, and she flees without even a second thought or thinking of hearing his version of the story.

We can safely affirm Alina betrayed him first, but not only on a personal level, which I'm sure he would have immediately forgiven, but she, in his mind, had turned against the salvation of Ravka, on top of being a deserter of the army he was the general of.

Those are the events that led to his decision to decide for her about herself, decide to take control of her power, to forcedly share it. And even in this case he continuously tried to make her see reason, to talk to her, and she just continuously shunned him and exaggeratedly hated him for the sole reason she was told half-truths by the person in the most difficult position on planet earth.

This is when Aleksander decides that, for the time being at least, taking control of the Fold is more important than her free will. He also thinks he has lifetimes to make amends, to make her understand.

Am I condoning his actions? No, it was indeed a violation and a betrayal on a personal level, but it was a decision I completely understand from his point of view, even if I find it morally wrong.

If one single person in the world had the cure for cancer in their blood and yet refused to donate it for whatever reason, what would you do? Respect them and leave thousands to suffer? Or would you do an amoral thing for the greater good and force them to? What is the greater good? You see, it's pretty much the trolley dilemma Aleksander faced. I don't think there's actually a psychological winner. There's only a mathematical winner - the suffering of one instead of the suffering of many.

All this has obviously nothing to do with the disgusting way the show is painting it, over and over, as if Aleksander was basically an ideological rapist. Is more complicated than that, more noble than that, don't you think?

[dyke-a-saur]

Finished watching Heartbreak High and I gotta say, I feel like they pulled off Gen Z High School really well. Like I could go to school with these absolute agents if chaos.

Okay but important business:

Amerie

I loved her the second she popped up on screen. Her energy, her personality, and her friendship with Harper. It was just the best. At times tho, I could see why the other characters antagonized her. After all, it was just as much her map as Harper’s and she put people in awful situations. Not to mention the reveal that she failed to let Harper in, then had the nerve to say she’d always be there. She even did the same to Malakai (tho it’s clear she acted out of trauma from her and Harper’s friendship gone sour)

Dusty

Fuck you. Youse a bitch, a snake, and truly a shit stain on the trousers of humanity. Work on yourself. Big soulful eyes tho.

Ca$h

Arguably the second most emotionally intelligent character in the show? Definitely better at it than Darren and his relationship was so refreshing? It was neat to see it not be a “I like dudes, oh no,” storyline and instead “I’m ace and just need to better express that to my partner who I love and adore”. Also that “I love you scene” was peak ghetto and I loved it. Darren’s Baby Daddy really behind bars, huh?

Malakai

This man. Is so fine. So sweet. And so funny. I love the way he gets to know Amerie and then befriends her and then becomes her first. And even if he handled the peer pressure to talk about the details poorly, he wanted to do right by her. I also loved how they explored the kinship he had with OTHER BLA(c)K CHARACTERS. It was nice to see how much he healed by being in his community and being surrounded by love for his culture. Missy being a big part of that was beautiful.

Harper

I did get the "spoiler" that she went through "something traumatizing" right before the start of the show, then later got more clues from Tumblr. So i had more patience with her character at the start, being honest. But goddamn it was so hard to watch her shut Amerie out and lash out at her. It also sucked seeing her antagonized in the second half because if she could've reached out or accepted people reaching in, then I feel like shit could've been handled better. But after seeing the events of "that night" I could totally get how and why she would want Amerie out of her life. Fake as hell for not owning up to the Incest Map tho. I was constantly whisper-yelling at my phone "girl, get it together!'

Quinni

No notes. Love her. She's the best. Also the most emotionally intelligent character (not a surprise and fuck you Sasha). She helps so many characters process their emotions, make up, figure out wwhat they want, and still stands on her own as a great character with her own life going on. I'm NT, but from what I've seen on Tumblr, most ND people see her as good rep.

Spider

Fuck this guy. Racist, sexist, (not as homophobic as previously assumed), and awful. But I love it. I love when he gets told to shut up. I love it when he's being awful and the other characters are like "yeah, fuck this dude". But also, he was weirdly complex? like the scene where he would've gotten it on with Amerie makes a lot of sense in context of the rest of his behavior. He's overcompensating because someone he genuinely liked, and cared for to an extent, hurt him in a vulnerable place and treated him like a dissapointment. Doesn't give him the right to react with daily verbal abuse, but his character makes more sense that way. I'd like to see him grow from that, but I'm not sure how.

Star of the Show

They're here, they're queer, they're unapologetically BLACK, they. Are. DARREN.

Okay jokes aside, I love this bitch. They're not only a great friend, but they (mostly) know what they want in life. It's sad to see Darren be dismissed as “too much” in their home, and you can really see how its affected the way they view their ability to be loved and cherished. So seeing them find that in Ca$h and watch the relationshp between the two grow was beautiful. It hurt to see Darren hurt Ca$h, like they gay ass ain't know what the "A" in "LGBTQIA" stood for, but that growth and intracommunity hurt was important to see.

Others

Ant annoyed me but he seemed like he could do/be better if he wasn’t around the rest of the guys. Sasha pissed me off, but I hope losing Quinni was enough to actually get her to look at her self-righteous tendencies and work on herself, I wanna see her go far. Missy was a fucking icon and I love her. Ms. Jojo is the love of my life and fuck Spider/Ant/Dusty (nigga) for screwing her over like that. Mrs. Spigot is my literal soulmate.

I think that’s all for now? But yeah go watch it if you haven’t already. It is another show focusing on the sex lives of teens but it feels more authentic than anything we’ve been given before.

[lgcmanager]

TEAM UNKNOWN 005

SCHEDULE TYPE: TRIMESTER ( PART 1 OUT OF 2 ) SCHEDULE RESTRICTIONS: cannot be paired with another trimester schedule, unless stated otherwise. for reference as to whether your muse is eligible for this event, please click over HERE.

( important note: there are no writing requirements for this, just ic information to help all of the TEAM UNKNOWN members understand what is going on. )

on JULY 8, all of the current TEAM UNKNOWN members were called to a meeting with JANG INSUNG present. the look on his face makes it difficult for anyone to guess what the outcome of the meeting will turn out to be. “i have news to share, both good and bad.” INSUNG began as he pondered which one was best for him to start off with.

EVALUATION FEEDBACK

“let’s start off with the first evaluation — the group ballad performances. based on my evaluation along with fellow coaches who saw your performances, we can agree that the performances itself was good in terms of the vocal aspect part. all of you were able to do your parts individually and we saw improvements with many of the trainees. however, in terms of ACTING…we didn’t see a lot of improvements as a group in that area. some of you were able to still give us a passable performance we could connect to, but we expected more from this because this is a ballad song and to sing two ballad songs successfully, we need to connect and feel the song that you are performing. it wouldn’t be an entertaining performance if all of you sang such a sorrowful song with a blank expression on your faces, hm?” INSUNG asked in a teasing manner. slowly turning his head towards YOOJOON, INSUNG told him, “for this evaluation, we felt that you were the one that performed the best and improved the most. you were one of the few trainees who spent some time working on all of the skills we were looking for in this evaluation, so good work.”

“now for the second part of the evaluation, which are the solo performances. like i mentioned previously, many of you mentioned CREATIVITY as one of your weaker areas so for many of you, we were very lenient with what to expect from each of the performances. this goes the same with the second solo performance where all of you were expected to perform in a different language. honestly, the one we had the highest expectations for was HYUNTAE.” the coach paused before he continued on, “that’s why it wasn’t a complete shock to the coaches that you would also be the one who would do well and have the biggest improvement in this evaluation overall. in fact, a few of them have pointed out to me that they were quite impressed with your improvements for the past couple of months and are hoping that you continue this momentum.”

looking at the rest of the trainees who weren’t called, INSUNG knew that there were a few more comments he had to mention before getting to the most important part of the meeting. “throughout both of the evaluations and more so during the ballad one, we were surprised by MINJUN and JUNKYU. while the ballad evaluation put both of you in roles that you might have not expected initially, we saw growth as performers and this makes me hopeful to know how both of you will fare over time.” he smiled at them fondly before quickly telling the rest, “while i don’t have specific comments or criticisms towards the rest of the group, the takeaway message that i want to say from the coaches is that we still want all of you to continue working on your performance based skills and that this won’t be the last time all of you will have evaluations, so there is still a chance to do better. and as a reminder, don’t forget about ACTING too! you may think that ACTING might be solely for the ones interested in being dramas or musicals, but it works hand in hand with PERFORMANCE.”

TRAINEE MISSION 018

as you will find out in the post after this, the second half of the trainee mission will be very much similar to the CREATIVE evaluation that all of the TEAM UNKNOWN members have participated in. however, instead of TEAM UNKNOWN taking part in that again, they will be exempted from it and work on a different project.

NEW PROJECT

“so the somewhat bad news — somewhat meaning that it’s only bad for a short period of time.” INSUNG joked, even though he was disappointed too by the current circumstances. “from what i was told, the project that LEGACY wanted all of you to be a part of was supposed to happen now but due to unknown factors and this year’s FAMILY CON 2K24 being two days instead of the usual one day, they’ve decided to delay the project a bit.” the male coach let out a defeated sigh quietly. trying to think of the positive in the situation, INSUNG added, “but once LEGACY does their final touches on the project, all of you will be expected to attend our next meeting as soon as possible! i promise you that your efforts won’t waste and while all of you get to do something fun for the next few weeks, don’t forget the advice i said earlier!”

he then concluded the meeting with a smile on his face, “now go back to your training and look forward to your next meeting with the rest of the trainees!”

for this new project, the details will be announced sometime around AUGUST or SEPTEMBER so stay tune for that!

[amphibifish]

ramble about nicky and rod’s subplot /nf

-your number one pookie

(I HAD TO REWRITE THE ITEHR HALF OF THIS I AM MILDLY ANKOYED SO SORRY IF THIS SUCKS PAST A CERTAIN POINT)

ON IT BOSS !!!!!! this is gonna be very disorganized lmao

rod and nicky's sideplot works really well to sort of almost mirror princeton and kate's ? i think ive made like 20 posts about how similar they are so i won't go too in depth abt it but basically they follow a sort of similar structure.

fantasies come true is one of my favorite songs for like. so many reasons. i'm gonna try and keep this on topic 2 just rod and nicky BUT JUST KNOW kate is very important to this as well and i will end up talking about her lol.

aside from the fact this is the song where rod finally believes he isn't alone his struggles and believes that he's finally found someone to care for him just as he's cared for them, this song sets up for the end of act i so so much !!!!

this is the song that shows just how much kate and rod care about princeton/nicky, and how much they truly mean to them. princeton and nicky are the people they have been waiting for all this time, the people that would stay by their side and love them and care for them just as much as they do to them(princeton/nicky).

the ending of fantasies come true is also so so bittersweet. like rod gets awaken and all of his dreams are crushed !!! he goes back to believing he is alone, and not only that, he has to deal with the fact that him and nicky truly weren't meant to be, and they will never work out. the script makes this SO SAD. like look at this.

rods goodnight can be interpreted as him putting his fantasy (haha get it) of him and nicky being together to rest, and accepting that it will never be. despite this, he still longs for it, knowing it will never happen. ("he looks at nicky, wistfully")

this makes the end of act i so much sadder !!!! like kate thinks that princeton is just as dedicated to their relationship as she is then and then princeton ends up breaking up with her. rod also has it pretty rough.

already he's feeling lonely and envious (implied here but somewhat stated in act ii) of the bonds his peers have, and then his best friend, the person he though he could trust the most, goes ahead and betrays that trust by outing him in front of everyone. not to mention he's already mildly ashamed of the fact he's gay, and that christmas eve (indirectly) told him to stay in the closet + that he's good for nothing.

john tartaglia acting in the scene where rod kicks nicky out is so good btw ."!??! like when rod yells at nicky i jumped the first time i saw it, it gave me the exact feeling i'd have when someone starts yelling at *me*.

nicky doesn't quite understand the gravity of what he's done (ex. making a small joke out of rod implying he wants nicky to move out), so he's a little confused and very upset at these turn of events, but anyways act ii time.

act ii is pretty sad for the both of them. nicky getting kicked out of brian and christmas eve's place has some dialogue that implies a lot. when brian tells nicky to try staying with kate and/or princeton, he tells brian that he's already tried and they kicked him out too, most likely for similar reasons(being messy and not helping around the house too much). this implies that rod was the only one who cared enough about nicky to deal with all of his messiness and what not, despite the aggravation it caused him.

then nicky sings about schadenfraude with gary coleman but anyways let's just move along to rods one scene in act ii.

this is so so sad and made me almost tear up the last time i watched it so.

rod has the chance to take nicky back into his life, to mend their relationship, but he doesn't. despite him desperately missing nicky, he also doesn't want to swallow his pride and admit that he misses him after how much nicky had hurt him.

i'm gonna be honest i was a bit slow with this one but when rod goes to consult with christmas eve, it took me a second to realize that rod brought up nicky after his whole spcheel about wanting someone by his side that make him feel comfortable and safe not only because he loved nicky, but because nicky was the one who made him feel that way, and that's just so .? ? !.?!??

"why don't i have someone by my side? someone who makes me feel special and safe, someone who loves me the way i love them?" "i miss nicky."

nicky was that person for rod, the only thing was that he didn't, and couldn't, love rod the same way.

side note, this scene is also very sweet to me besides the sadder parts because it shows just how much rod trusts christmas eve. i mean he indirectly and very subtly comes out to her, something that rods been so so afraid of. also it's so so so funny to me that rods come to christmas eve with his problems so many times that she just started fuckin charging him money LMAO

the money song is nice because nicky and princeton sort of uplift each other in mending their relationships. i don't have much else to say about rod and nicky's plot in this since the song then focuses more on princeton/kate but yeah.

let's just skip to the end.

it's mildly fucked up but also sort of funny how everyone thinks that rod just fuckin killed himself at the end. especially christmas eve's "GOD DAMN IT" cause that implies she has had to talk rod off a ledge at least once which is like. damn.

anywho the end of rod and nicky's subplot is. well. look i do not mind ricky *THAT* much. i just think it makes the ending of their plot sort of weaker. it doesn't come to that satisfying conclusion.

i understand it's a comedy musical and it's supposed to be funny, which it is cause rods like all "ricky ??!? oh la la *heart eyes* let's go have gay sex" which makes me laugh every time BUT from the perspective of the story itself, it would have been a much more satisfying ending for rod and nicky to get together, or at least have some resolution to rods feelings aside from nicky vaguely implying he knew the whole time(or just missing the point ? i've seen some people say they though that the joke was that nicky didn't realize how similar they looked and just thought ricky was a nice guy but i'm more inclined to believe the former)

idk the ending just feels a little lackluster compared to how much rod went through in the musical, and how much it was shown that he loved and cared for nicky very deeply. plus nicky didn't have that much development as a character aside from that one line that's like "hey rod i won't be messy anymore thanks 4 all u do 4 me do u forgive me" despite having much more screen time than rod, and the ending just doesn't complete that very well. if nicky was also written as queer + closeted i guess it would've been a coming out story 2x but i think they could've written their way around that as well.

i've seen some peoples mention a ver their local theatre or something did in which nicky agrees to try having a relationship with rod, and seeing how well it works out, which i think provides that conclusion to rods feelings and also mirrors kate's "can we take it one day at a time?" very well, so it's too bad that is not the broadway version of the show lol

nicky being written just gay and closeted and just also hiding his feelings for rod would also make for a funny perspective on the story because it would seem like nicky is just hardcore projecting his insecurities onto rod. that's just my two cents though cause what's canon is canon and this musical is already 20 years old and i don't think they're gonna change anything about it lmao

anyways this is why we have the luurvefest "grow old with you" cover

this was much longer i think but then tumblr threw half of it in the trash so uhhh i might be missing half of what i said before cause i had to rewrite a shit ton of it lmao

[astorinx-writes]

Tame Impala’s song “Elephant” Is About Tenma

Tame Impala’s second album, Lonerism, is considered by many (including myself) to be the artist’s magnum opus. But one song that became a huge breakout hit was certainly “Elephant.” A song about the various bands that existed around the time of Tame’s creation in their city of Perth, Australia- It tells the story of one person, who is likened to an Elephant, and is quite arrogant. Many people, both real (and fictional) may come to mind when you yourself try to imagine who the “Elephant” could be. For me, I’m most reminded of Tenma, and I’m here to explain why.

First, It would help if you gave the song a listen, so I will be linking it down below, give it a shot! Secondly, of course, I don’t actually think Kevin Parker wrote “Elephant” to be about Tenma, that would be foolish to think beyond measure. I do, however, think that the lyrics and themes contained within the song remind me of him, which again is what we’ll be discussing today.

To start, let’s go over the first half of the first verse’s lyrics. As stated on Genius.com, they are:

Well, he feels like an elephant Shaking his big grey trunk for the hell of it He knows that you're dreamin' about being loved by him Too bad your chances are slim And it's not like Mr. Shuck To get shy when they ask him who is on top

From what we can gather about Tenma’s portrayal in the 2003 series, we can see that at times he tends to give off quite an air of hubris. He’s never not upfront about his place in the world, and the people in his puzzle that he’s so desperately trying to put together. Likening him to an elephant, we get the impression that he’s large and in charge, “shaking his big gray trunk for the hell of it” implies that he’ll flaunt and make a big show about whatever, whenever, just to remind everyone of his importance. I’m always reminded of Astro/Tobio when it comes to the next 2 lines, “He knows that you’re dreaming about being loved by him / too bad your chances are slim” because quite literally we all know that at times they’ve both pinned after Tenma giving them the time of day. Even though, always like clockwork, he never delivers. Also likening him to the character in Art Garfunkel’s “Mr. Shuck ‘n’ Jive,” we’re reinforcing what was mentioned earlier about being pretentious. This time, though, we’re referring more to an event, so to speak. In this, he is being asked “who is on top,” and without hesitation, he is saying himself. Even if you considered the numerous times he’s brought up robot domination, you can’t deny he wouldn’t turn around and act like he was the glue that put everything together.

Next, we’ll discuss the second half of the first verse, which is as follows:

There must be something deep down in the dark down there But he's not too easily scared He's got friends but they got the fear Wouldn't care too much if he just disappeared Oh look, hey, there he is now coming down the stairs (Here he comes)

Now, we are getting deeper into our understanding of the “Elephant” (who again in this case would be Tenma). We begin with the notion that Tenma is quite fearless, though I would argue there are some caveats to that interpretation. My idea here is that instead of being fearless, he is actually scared shitless at many points, but to maintain appearances (either from others or even himself), he pretends not to be scared, thus further emphasizing his cockiness. The people he surrounds himself with, like Drake, are portrayed as only associating with Tenma because of what he brings to them. In many episodes, he is seen giving either money, or insider information to things no one else of his caliber would have. Which is great for them, but it ultimately means there probably isn’t anything genuine in their relationships. Rather, they are all purely transactional. The lyrics, “Wouldn't care too much if he just disappeared” do a fantastic job at emphasizing that point. The final 2 lines give way to the song becoming a bit more plot like, which leads us into the next part: the instrumental.

The instrumental part of this song has got to be my favorite part of the song, second to only the opening lines of the second verse. It’s a rock odyssey anthem that goes through many phases, that in my eyes are telling the story of Tenma showing up and the chaos that ensues. I mean, the first part before “(Here he comes)” in the first verse sounds exactly like walking down the stairs, and the roaring synth that comes in afterward is just so on brand.

What we’re left with now, is only the final verse, which, again, is below:

He pulled the mirrors off his Cadillac (Yeah) 'Cause he doesn't like it looking like he looks back He talks like his opinion is a simple fact Somebody grabbed his collar He cried the whole way home No one remembered a thing when they saw him again That's how it is 'til the end (Yeah)

In what has to be my top 3 Tame Impala lyrics of all time, the alliteration in “He pulled the mirrors off his Cadillac (Yeah) / 'Cause he doesn't like it looking like he looks back” is simply impeccable. What it does is continue where we left off before the instrumental break, where the “Elephant” was being described to us. Now, we are being told that Tenma, does not look back. So much so, that he pulled his rearview mirrors off to ensure of it. Obviously, there’s no way of knowing if he actually drives a Cadillac, or if he literally has pulled his rearview mirrors off, but what I can say is based on those lines, we’re solidifying that he views himself in a high regard, and will keep trotting forward, no matter what. The next few lines detail an event where things have gone awry, and we’re made to believe that nobody did or said anything after the fact. Though (obviously) I cannot say exactly what event this could be referring to, as it may be just hypothetical, there is no doubt in my mind, that anything that happens to Tenma just gets swept under the rug. Not even O’shay seems to say or do much regarding getting Tenma off Astro’s back, so clearly there is some forgetfulness going on here.

Overall, this was a pretty silly post to make. However, I will concede to the fact that not all things need to be serious, and sometimes you want to combine your special interests like gay barbie dolls you’ve forced to kiss. I hope, however, though, you at least left this post with a new bop to jam out to!

Here's the link to give it a listen!

[dedahblog]

"Starter" the second chapter of this manga is probably the most important one in this whole story

This is my personal analysis of Ichigo/ Rukia's dialogue. This is a no romance related post, just me trying to interpret the words of those emotionally constipated idiots.

Of course, this is undeniably a tribute to Rukia

Rukia knew from day one that if she gave even half of her powers to Ichigo, she would get executed.

However, she did it anyway

No one could ever comprehend what was happening in her mind in that one tiny panel, before she suggested that "crime" to Ichigo.

Kub0, what was the main message behind her noble act ? Please put into words what readers should conclude regarding her character.

Let's appreciate the fact that that woman was aware that she could be executed and even slaughtered by SS in any given time.

Ichigo was aware that Rukia was not guilty of anything. He was the one who should pay the price of his arrogance.

However, there was something more important for Ichigo than Rukia's fair treatment and his own pride. It was his family's safety.

If he were to accept Rukia's offer, his family could get killed at anytime while he was saving some stranger, just like what happened to his mother. Some strangers getting killed was not his concern compared to the immense guilt he would feel if he were to live his trauma again.

..

It's also important to note that Ichigo didn't forget about her sacrifice. He was aware that she owed him one and expected him to return back the favor thus him saying " sorry to disappoint you".

I want to stress over the fact that he didn't forget anything because this topic will be brought up again later

..

Rukia thought it was probably a lack of confidence so she quicky tried to reassure him.

Ichigo refused to help her, if I may say half heartedly : that little sweart dropple showed how he wasn't confident of this decision.

However, Rukia neither caught how unsure he was about his decision nor gave a f.

Girlboss is a woman of action.

She made the most crucial move in this manga.

Ichigo, just like the readers, was confused seeing a soul being seperated from its physical body.

Was Ichigo going to come back to his body ? Was he going to leave his body like that ? Was it considered a corpse at that point ? Did Ichigo turn into a shinigami trapped in a corpse ? Was he no longer a human ?

When Rukia said the line " Follow me", Ichigo and us understood that all those questions were meaningless at that moment.

All those fantastic, supernatural events were not that important. There was something more impactful in this whole picture, this whole manga and Kub0/ Rukia was going to show it for us/Ichigo

She told us/Ichigo to follow her lead since she took his place as the hero and the main character as he obviously didn't want to be any of those.

Not only did she make Ichigo wait for twenty minutes for the hollow, but she also intimidated him so much that this ungrateful punk ass teen didn't dare to ask anything for that long.

Readers understood the extent of the charisma radiating from this petite woman.

Then, when a hollow appeared, Rukia who, as a reminder, had sacrificed herself for a stranger the night before, didn't move even one inch

As she was saying, whether Ichigo helped that kid or not, that won't mean he wanted to be the main character and the hero, since any other "kind-hearted" character would help that kid in those precise circumstances.

Rukia was shaking her fist while proclaiming her ideals for two reasons.

First of all, she was just as scared as Ichigo about that kid's safety and she was holding herself back from sacrificing herself for him.

Secondly, she could never deny Ichigo's individuality ; she knew she couldn't control his mindest so she was putting all her heart in that speech to convince him to help her.

The thing about Rukia is whatever sacrifices she had made, she thought she was responsible for that decision thus she never blamed Ichigo for her execution.

However, that was different. That wasn't about her. People's lives were in danger. Even if she can do some kidou spells, there was a high possibility that people would get killed. She was shaking her fist because she was worried what may happen if Ichigo let her down.

In that last panel, Ichigo recalled how Rukia sacrificed herself for him. As I said before he had never forgotten it but at that time, he started seeing it in a new perspective.

Rukia was someone that was certain that a shinigami is defined as someone who would die protecting anyone in need. If he didn't help her, she would never sit back and blame him for all the lives that were not saved. She would sacrifice herself over and over again until her last breath.

So his decision was made.

When Rukia asked him if he accepted, he replied (gracefully)

then continued with,

He added that he would never believe that her shinigami morals are universal.

No one in the world could fully embrace those ideals because it's hard to even fathom that you need to be omnipresent for the sake of others

(isn't that one of the reasons why humans invented Gods in the first place? )

He told her that she didn't sacrifice herself thanks to her shinigami upbringing. There was a goodness in her that was driving her to do it, a goodness he didn't have.

His speech wasn't about conforming to her ideals since he didn't have her guts " I'm not as nice of a person" as you.

( which to be fair is 10000% true. Ichigo admitting you're trash compared to Rukia👏👏good shit)

He told her that if he get scared, he may feel the impulse to run away from this duty, but he won't for one reason.

Anyone who read this manga knows what the shaded closed up mouth panels represented. They were used to show that a character was not true to himself.

Kubo did the same trick at that time. He drew one tiny panel focusing on Ichigo's mouth before making him say he was doing it out of debt.

That reason was neither the only one nor the main one.

As I explained, the fact he was indebted to her had never been forgotten and it didn't prevent him from refusing her offer in the first place.

The reason he became a subtitute was that Rukia's safety became his priority ;

She would die if he didn't help her.

and more importantly he believed in Rukia's noble value and understood them even if he couldn't commit.

By the end of that chapter, Ichigo regained his status as the main character but Rukia remained the undeniable hero.

We later understood what made him become one : he was finally ready to fully commit to Rukia's ideals.

The only time Kub0 acknowledge him as onz was in the last arc, in a chapter named "the hero" (ch 555).

[asachuu]

(4/10)

Part 3: Fifteen

Content warning: major Fifteen light novel spoilers.

[List of all parts]

[Part 2]

This may be a far, far shorter section than you would expect from me as we don’t get too much to analyze in Fifteen, compared to Stormbringer later on. I will not be summarizing the entire novel, since I have stated before that I’m going into this assuming my readers have seen both books already. This is merely a summary of the most important things which occurred that I will be referencing/referring to in terms of Rimlaine as a ship itself, and also to bring up details that could have been missed along the way if the reader wasn’t focused on them.

I would also like to add an additional note before I begin— as for Fifteen, I am only talking about the events of the written novel, not the anime adaptation of it. I believe I make this explicitly clear everywhere when I say “novel”, but I’m aware some people still may think of those two as the same or similar to each other and don’t actually distinguish between the two, even when I directly state which piece of media it is. I need for it to be said before going to write about any canonical events, solely to avoid statements such as “I remember watching something else”, “when did that even happen”, etc., considering the anime could practically be interpreted as its own separate story. Additionally, this will also apply here if an anime adaptation for Stormbringer is released, as I can’t say I have any faith in a short, animated version’s ability to not cut out or twist extremely crucial or important details from such a long novel either to save space, budget or provide fanservice, just as it did in S3.

So then, what exactly do we establish in Fifteen?

Part 3.1: the fight and Arthur’s memories

Despite talking about this novel and a major part of Arthur’s character, I will not be going over the entire section where he gets introduced into the BSD universe, nor where he explains his initial recollection of events about the Arahabaki incident. Instead, I will skip right into the fight with Dazai and Chuuya. Why? Because, to put it simply, the former parts have absolutely nothing to do with the topic at hand. As much as I could talk about them for a rather long time, they provide me with no information I could give out in terms of Arthur’s relation to Paul, which is the sole focus here.

Now, during the fight in the second half of the novel, we get to learn of Arthur’s true identity, as well as his purpose in Japan. His initial mission was to research “Arahabaki” and take it back to his home country alive, however his intent had changed significantly over time. He had no longer planned to take Chuuya, or rather, “Arahabaki” back alive, rather deciding to kill him— as we learn further on, this was not done due to a simple desire for violence, power or anything of this kind. In fact, that would go against his whole character, as it’s not only implied, but also outright stated by him he doesn’t truly want to go along with it and does certainly feel remorse for his actions…so then, what might his reasoning possibly be?

That reasoning was Chuuya’s memories. Eight years ago, when he was sent on this very mission, he wasn’t alone. Here, we learn of another character, one who supposedly accompanied him and worked with him, according to his vague recollections. Arthur had long since forgotten what happened to that person, whether he died or survived the Arahabaki explosion— all he remembered was the two being partners, even “best friends”, as he referred to him. Unsurprisingly, Arthur wished to know what happened to someone so important to him, especially after eight years of having no possibility of finding this out, and due to Chuuya/Arahabaki being present at the time of the two still being together, he believed he could retrieve his lost memories by taking in Chuuya’s ability, though unfortunately, that could only be done if Chuuya was killed. It wasn’t an act of anything other than simply a desperate wish to know what happened to an old friend of his, even if it now went against his actual mission. Despite his amnesia, desires and even his own orders, he still cared about his partner strongly enough to try and go through with his plan. That plan, however, failed.

Just as Arthur thought he succeeded in their altercation, with Chuuya seemingly not being able to fight back any longer after being heavily injured, he was fatally stabbed through by a scythe he used to pin the redhead to the ground. Instead of Chuuya’s ability itself, that was the action which made him remember the true events of his past. In his final moments, he states he was betrayed by his partner at the last minute, who is now revealed to be named Paul Verlaine. According to him, Paul had tried to kill him, and thus it’s implied he had to defend himself. In his recollection of events, he believes to be the one who ended his partner’s life, and while he does not explicitly state this himself, as I assume he wasn’t even able to, he hints at it. This part of Fifteen ends with Arthur passing away, thinking about Paul in his very last thoughts.

Part 3.2: Paul’s appearance

This is a part which many people are not aware of– Paul’s actual appearance in Fifteen after Arthur’s death, which was not even mentioned a single time in Fifteen’s animated rendition. It will most definitely be a very short summary, given it is a rather short part itself, yet it’s quite crucial to my points.

The section revolves around Paul getting into the Port Mafia’s office during nighttime. As he himself claims, it was to retrieve a document of “[his] best friend’s life”. One could even begin to think he did care about Arthur the same way he was clearly cared for by the latter just with that line alone, yet the rest of his dialogue entirely disproves this.

I could certainly point to his proclamation of Arthur’s memory being “interesting” due to him having mistakenly remembered ending Paul’s life, seemingly being amused by it with such wording, but there’s a far more glaring example of this that does not require any amount of analyzing whatsoever. Following this, he then goes on to thank Chuuya for killing his former partner on his behalf before stating he wishes to meet him. Even if one was to reach for rather far-fetched assumptions, there is no grief or regret expressed by him to be found at any point during this specific part, rather the opposite— this was supposedly what he wanted to see happen. The section ends with him disappearing into the night, confirming a sequel to the novel.

[Part 3.3]

[bluedalahorse]

Defence of Kristina OP here!

I just thought an ask would be a bit simpler... but I really liked your added input!

I think when it comes to Kristina and Wille's relationship, Wille is something of a stranger to Kristina. This fact becomes more and more obvious to Kristina, especially with the phone call in Season 2. It also makes some logical sense that Kristina was closer to Erik, he was the first born, her heir, and probably wanted to build with Erik the memories of her own father raising and helping her prepare for her future role. The first time we see the whole family, it is Kristina and Erik together, and Ludvig and Wille on the other side of the room. Without Erik however, I feel Kristina was at first having some expectation of a 'second' Erik, but has the scandal unfolds she does spend sometime with Wille she discovers how little she knows. She also shows that she doesn't exactly know what to do to handle him either. It is a sort of one step forward, two steps back situation.

And you are right, Kristina is a planner, but she's been knocked off kilter with multiple events in quick succession (Wille's club fight, Erik's death, sex tape) all within mere weeks of each other. Even the most well-rounded adult would struggle, and I think that is an important note, adults don't know how to deal things half of the time either. They just have better masking strategies to manage.

My season 3 wish list includes a proper sit down conversation between Kristina and Wille about what he wants in his life. Both of them are acting on intuition on what they think it best (and yes, Simon did hit the nail on the head, mother and son are a lot more similar they either believes) without having a proper conversation. Season 2, Wille and SImon learned the art of compromise, and with the help of Boris, I think Wille has also learned how to communicate what he wants and have his own voice heard. I don't think mother and son may ever have the best relationship, but I do think there is the possibility of understanding each other.

Omg hi! I loved your post. Hope you’re okay with me sharing this because these are additional cool thoughts.

I think you’re right about Kristina having some expectations re: Wille being a “second” Erik. I’m an older sibling myself and my younger brother has frequently complained to me (mostly with affection) about how my parents’ lessons learned from parenting me then got applied to their parenting of him, when we are very different kids with different needs. So I think this is a dynamic that’s common in so many families, which then gets magnified because Kristina and Wilhelm are the royal family, constantly in the public eye.

I can see your season three wish playing out—YR puts so much catharsis into moments where characters learn to communicate—and I very much look forward to it happening onscreen.

[fudgetunblr]

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My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

The parallel between the first and last episode of Derry Girls where Erin is restricted from wearing a jeans jacket to express her individuality, to her putting one on after she's voted. 11/10.

1,042 notes - Posted October 8, 2022

#4

Ok some thoughts about Kanye and his bullshit:

1. If you’re a holocaust denier then you’re a fucking idiot. There are people still alive today (or that have passed away THIS year) that fell victim to the nazi parties heinous crimes. More than half the Jewish population was killed in the holocaust. Several other marginalised groups were also imprisoned and killed. Even after the Second World War things weren’t magically okay again and we see the repurcussions of the nazi parties actions and ideas to this day.

2. Hitler wasn’t a good guy, he was the leader of a party that committed unspeakable acts and crimes against humanity.

3. Kanye has said horrible things about slavery as well in the past, claiming it was a choice. If you think people would chose to be degraded, killed and treated like a second class citizen, then you’re a fucking idiot.

4. If I see anyone try to make Kanye’s “downfall” about Taylor Swift I’m going to scream. She is not the first woman he has done wrong, there’s a list of women, specifically black women, Kanye has been an absolute piece of shit to. Taylor Swift is not a holier than thou celebrity, she has a long list of fucked up things she has done as well, she does not have a place in this. I don’t want to hear about her, focus on what’s important here.

5. I don’t care how you feel about Kim Kardashian. She’s not devoid of criticism, however, the way Kanye has acted after their split has been unacceptable and no one deserves that shit.

6. Yes, he’s mentally ill, but mental illness does not turn you into a bigot and it certainly doesn’t excuse all the bullshit he’s pulling.

Anyways, support the Jewish population. Stop denying an event in history that was designed to purge them from existence. Stop supporting Kanye, he does not deserve your support even a little bit. If despite all of this you still insist on supporting him, get the fuck off my page.

1,340 notes - Posted December 3, 2022

#3

See the full post

1,403 notes - Posted June 30, 2022

#2

Pretty sure Nandor’s wishes are all used up, the djinn is just bored as fuck and he knows Nandor won’t wish for anything useful ever.

1,420 notes - Posted August 3, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

I could make so many of these 😭😭

8,147 notes - Posted July 14, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[xhalcyxn]

Oliver Holmes

Occupation: Senior at Mathieson College - Major Business Management Species: Wizard Age: 22 FC: Froy Gutierrez

From leading scientists and top scholars to favored politicians for arcane rights and combat medal-of-honor recipients – the Holmes family has been a pillar in the magical community from the dawn of magic’s awakening.  They founded the Foundation of Magical Creatures to help and aid those in need. Engaged in more philanthropic events and charities than any other family. Fought for equal rights for those of the arcane world. And most notably, reopened Mathieson College to provide the same opportunities as many of their own family members had prior to the school burning down. While the nation may not have royalty, the Holmes family came close to qualifying. And thus, Oliver Holmes was born a modern-day prince.

The eldest son of the immediate Holmes family children, Oliver was provided with every opportunity that would ensure his success. Private schools, tutors, music lessons, etiquette lessons, and more. His days were often filled with being shepherded from one lesson to the next, one lecture to another. While other children were out playing in the streets or playing video games, Oliver was at home in the study with books far above his age or taking dancing lessons with his older sister Tabitha. His parents and grandparents would tolerate nothing less than perfection. Their means of maintaining perfection; however, were often enacted behind closed doors and away from prying eyes and listening ears. It only took Oliver acting out twice for him to learn to never step a toe out of line.

The two young siblings often confided in one another late at night under the blankets in their hidden alcove in the attic. Tabitha was often held to a higher standard than Oliver, expected to be a Lady of Holmes which had far more duties and impressions than Oliver thought reasonable. Tabitha often brought ice packs for Oliver’s hands. Oliver learned how make-up could hide bruises with Tabitha’s guidance and her face the canvas. The siblings would spend those quiet hours reassuring one another that it was necessary, that part of being a Holmes meant being tough and enduring. However, as the years went on, they found themselves spending less and less time with one another. Tabitha swept away by their mother and grandmother and Oliver forced into every sport and more lessons than he thought imaginable. If he saw her in passing in the hallway with tear-streaked cheeks – he said nothing. If she saw him wincing at a step down the stairs – she said nothing.

In high school, Oliver held true to his family’s desired image. Nothing less than best. He waltzed the hallways with an air of importance and a smirk on his lips as if he knew a secret that no other soul knew. A reminder to everyone that he was a Holmes and at the top of the food chain. However, being a Holmes also meant befriending anyone who wanted to speak with him, volunteering at any fundraising event, or loudly advocating for one current issue or another. High school also brought the smallest ounce of freedom. His parents had given birth to his younger brother Matthias a few years prior and being old enough now to be thrust into the Holmes family regime, they were occupied. The rare moments when Oliver had time to himself, he often found that he had no idea what to do.

What did other kids his age do? Oliver’s finances were too closely monitor to buy a game console. Every time he picked up his phone to text a friend, he found himself putting the phone down with a resigned sigh. No one was allowed to visit the Holmes house unless for an event and he doubt he’d be allowed out to meet up with a friend. But… what if? The first time Oliver snuck out from the house, he stayed at the end of the property line. Too hyperaware of every noise and shift of the shadows. The second time Oliver snuck out, he found himself sitting alone at the coffee shop just half a block away from home. Each time, Oliver pressed his luck a little further to see just how much farther he could venture without being caught. It was an exhilarating freedom, defying all the rules that had been set in stone for majority of his childhood.

Seventeen years old, Oliver snuck out to attend a party thrown by one of his friends for the first time and he felt alive. It was his first taste of alcohol, his first experience of loud music, and the first time he found he could fade away. He was still Oliver Holmes. He was still noticed by plenty of people. But if he closed his eyes and let the music take over, he could fade away and forget it all. Oliver took every opportunity to sneak out to attend parties thrown by other friends or sneaking into the late-night clubs. His first foray into magical drugs left him feeling as if he’d left the world – a feeling he found himself repeatedly seeking. But during the day, Oliver maintained the Holmes image. He studied hard, went to every lesson, attended fundraiser events with his family, and always smiled to every camera.

When the time came for college applications, it was no surprise that Oliver would be applying for Mathieson. They knew better than anyone else that there are no guarantees with the new acceptance policies that Albert Holmes, his grandfather, set in place. Tabitha had been accepted a year prior and that had been a celebration of a century. Now, it was Oliver’s turn. But as he sent off his application and his parents expressed their hopes for him to be a Mathieson student – the silent words spoke louder. Be accepted. Or else.

By the grace of magic, Oliver had been accepted into Mathieson. He began his life at the college riding the high of achieving what his parents wanted while also obtaining freedom from the Holmes house. Orientation had been a whirlwind of information and people, but he’d always remember the heavy hand placed on his shoulder at the end of the welcome ceremony. Headmaster Bartholomew grinned down at Oliver and said, “Mathieson is a place where anyone can learn who they truly are…

Who are you, Oliver?”

[dinitride-art]

Five Act Structure: Seasons vs. Acts

Reworking some thoughts and ideas here. If Stranger Things is set up in five act structure (which is so cool and I never want to stop talking about it also here’s this post where I explain what I’m talking about) then the parallels between season two and season four change a bit- but also viewing the story as a whole might change too (when looking at it in five acts).

Season one had a pretty cut and dry story: Will went missing, supernatural elements introduced, character introductions, banishing supernatural elements, Will comes back. If they didn’t get a second season the story would still hold up. This is also a really good set up for the rest of the story, it’s the ~prologue~. Also it’s ACT I. But just talking about the story within the season- it’s solid stuff. There’s stuff that’s unresolved yeah, but not to the point where you’d watch it and think, what’s next. We’re not done here- hey! Get back here- like you would think at the end of let’s say, season four. (Also season one has the first major death that effects the narrative later- barb)

Season two is more complicated than season one. We’re well aware by the end of it that this story is not done- the Mind Flayer is still a problem. The last scene where we flip over into the Upside Down tells us that this part of the story isn’t finished. Season two also starts developing Lucas and Max, and Mike and El’s (although really different from Lucas and Max) relationships. It also explores Mike and Will’s relationship.

The Snowball is a really interesting point in the season because it’s the last episode and the last scene. It’s also a weird sort of misdirection that’s telling us everything worked out okay. But it’s not okay. Bob is dead, El literally just ran away and was being confronted with her past, Will was just possessed, Barb is still dead, the Mind Flayers still alive- the Snowball is like a bandaid on you’re feelings for your best friend. Unhelpful and clearly hiding something. Season two is a good portion of ACT II, and it makes sense for things to be unresolved at the end of season two- because ACT II hasn’t run it’s course yet.

All characters usually are introduced by the end of ACT II, so Robin being introduced in season three would make sense if we’re actually still in ACT II at the start of season three. Season three also continues to follow the Mind Flayer. We’re still dealing with the same problem as season two. Character wise, we’re exploring Lucas and Max’s romantic relationships, El and Max’s relationship (continuing from Max’s interests in El in season two), Mike and El’s relationship, and Mike and Will. We’ve also continued on with Dustin’s focus on girls, and his friendship with Steve. We’re dealing with almost all the same problems for everyone, just continuing in a different season. Our main problem is the Mind Flayer, and that leads us straight to the climax- the Mind Flayer at Star-court and Hopper’s “death”.

Right before the battle at star court is where ACT II ends. Then we get to ACT III, the climax, where everything big happens all at once. Usually the climax is one scene so that’s why I’m saying it’s when they defeat the Mind Flayer, Billy dies, Hopper “dies”, and there are literal fire works going off making everything that much more intense. After the climax, the Byers move away, Mike and El (get back together?) have a relationship development and Mike seems all out of sorts about it, and everything starts going in a downwards spiral.

However, going back to ACT II for a second here, looking at where we are by the time of the climax (and during) everything has pretty much been resolved- Suzie’s revealed as a real person/Dustin’s girl problems stop, all party relationships are pretty okay again. Max and El are friends, Nancy and Jonathan are cool again, Hopper and Joyce were going to go on a date, Mike and El are cool again, pretty much every problem that’s had a clear cut story line from season two finds an end in season three. Of course there’s still things that aren’t resolved, but for the most part, when the season ends it’s okay. The cliff hanger comes separately from the end of the season (like Will in season one).

Season four is a lot like season two; it’s the start of and act but it also stops in the middle of that act. A new problem is introduced in season four: Vecna/Henry Creel/One. This is not the same guy as the Mind Flayer at all. Everything also starts going terribly in season four because now we’re in ACT IV- the bad one. After the climax everything falls to pieces- and where we’re sitting right now, in the middle of ACT IV, it’s still falling apart. Season four problems are going to carry over into season five, much like the Mind Flayer into season three, because it’s the same act.

So this all got me thinking about the act structure in relation to the story, and what if ACT II and ACT IV are paralleling each other, and not just season two and season four? That would mean that all of season two and most of season three could be seen as paralleling season four (and most of season 5). That really changes things for me because that expands the possibility of what’s actually happening quite a bit. It also messes with the idea that season two and season four could be related to each other in specific ways(like being inverted), because ACT II and ACT IV cover different things. However, it would make more sense for ACT II and ACT IV to be paralleled because of the Snow Ball scene in the middle of both of them.

Mike also makes a lot more sense as a narrator when looking at Stranger Things in acts. Season one was a single act, so we saw a lot of Mike. We focused in on him and Joyce because they’re guiding us in season one. In season two, there’s less of Joyce and more of Mike and other characters stories- but Joyce makes a return in season three where Mike falls a bit more off to the side. But looking at season two and three as a whole, it’s pretty well divided between all the characters in respect to their placement and roles within the story. In season four we got a lot more Joyce and a lot more of the other characters development. Mike fell a bit to the side again, but it makes sense for that to happen if ACT IV isn’t completed. We haven’t really gotten to Mike in ACT IV yet. Similar idea with how Will goes from being the focus of season two, to being sidelined in season three. They’re still there and present in the narrative but they’ve done their part of the act- and now are helping the others do theirs.

Season five looks like it’s going to finish the rest of ACT IV (the downwards spiral) and pick up the storylines that haven’t been covered in the act yet. Mike and Will, Jonathan and Nancy, Max and El, Vecna and the Upside Down, the consequences of Eddie’s death, what happened to Owens, mystery around the Upside Down- and everything else that season four started to get into but didn’t actually conclude.

[obeiii-mee]

Can I angst for Mammon where he is in a really bad mood and his brothers are at it again calling him names. And already ask them kindly to leave him alone but they keep at it. And Levi says something and it's the last straw. The air around them get cold for a moment as he slowly looks up and he flat out threatens them to shut up before he puts them back into there place with a really dark and threatening voice, before leaving. And the look could rival Satan's or even Lucifers glare.

I think Mammon takes the abuse of his brothers but sometimes he isn't in the mood and want a little peace and it is very very rare for him to get pissed

Like he's the kind of person who would yell when he's upset but when he's down right pissed it's like really fucking scary

People forget that as much as he lets his brothers push him around he is still the second oldest and is powerful so 😬

Brothers+ undateables reaction

Mammon snaps:

___________________

This is something I’ve mentioned in previous posts, but I basically second everything you said. I believe that Mammon dislikes getting into confrontations but isn’t by any means weak or stupid. He is the second eldest. However he is also, arguably, the one with the most self control out of them all. He has an overwhelming amount of patience when it comes to his siblings and I like to think he puts up with all of their insults because he loves them. Then again, it’s very possible for him to go berserk after years worth of build up.

Thanks for the request!!! I had a bit of trouble at first because I didn’t know how I was going to format it but I like the way it turned out so I hope you do too. Uhh also I reached my word limit writing this so I couldn’t include Simon, Luke and Solomon. I do plan on writing for them as well but at this point I’m just trying to get this done. Let me know if I made any grammatical errors! I double check my writing all the time but sometimes mistakes got over my head! The undateables are short because honestly I view the brothers as the ones who will suffer the most out of everyone. I hope you enjoy reading it anyway!!

•Characters: Lucifer, Leviathan, Satan, Asmodeus, Beelzebub, Belphagour, Diavolo, Barbatos.

⚠️Warnings: Cursing, mentions of blood & gore and that’s about it.

___________________

For the past few months, Lord Diavolo’s pleasure of hosting parties and inviting people over had become more and more noticeable. It was pretty obvious that the Prince was lonely, isolating himself from others due to the responsibilities he has as the heir to the throne and a leader in the making. Attending his gatherings seemed like a down right chore for most of the brothers but you never had any problem tagging along. Besides, it felt nice knowing he seemed you worthy of coming to such important meetings. Your seven demons were, of course, also invited and per Lucifer’s orders, they all got cleaned up and dressed in fancy clothing to impress the regals prancing about the castle. Though the outfits themselves came with their own set of problems. Levi’s was way too tight; the collar seemed to annoy him more than anything else, judging by the patches of red skin on his neck. Satan accidentally ripped one of the buttons from his jacket off in a fit of rage earlier that day and was now silently fuming while poking his finger through the hole he made. Even Asmo spilled some water on his shirt before they arrived, ruining his pretty pink suit! Not to mention Beel was munching on his tie, having last eaten about 15 minutes beforehand. Lucifer pulled it out of his mouth and scowled at the saliva stains that were left behind. Safe to say they were all in a miserable mood to begin with.

“I expect all of you to behave in a respectable manner,” Lucifer flicked Belphie on the back of the head just as he began dozing off, making the youngest growl at him. He shot Mammon an irritated look “I’m especially talking to you Mammon. Don’t try to steal anything or I’ll cut your hands off.”

“I told ya big bro, ya don’t have to worry about me! I’ll be a golden child today! Promise!” Mammon held up his pinky as if he was committing to some kind of oath. The eldest darkened his glare and opened his mouth to say something else, but you interrupted in hopes of avoiding any bickering that might’ve followed.

“Look, there’s our table! Let’s go sit down. Lord Diavolo’s speech is going to start any minute now.”

Beel leaped at the table as soon as he sniffed out the appetisers, which were neatly arranged on the expensive tablecloth, shoving at least half of them in his mouth by the time the rest of you caught up with him. Having been seated, you quickly glanced around the room in hopes of spotting Diavolo. You bumped into Solomon and the angels before entering the castle, chit chatting with them for a while about the event. Even now, Luke was excitedly waving at you from across the room, using both of his arms. However, Lord Diavolo and Barbatos were the ones in charge of this party and you were yet to see either of them.

Out of the corner of your eye, you noticed Mammon eyeing the golden utensils laid out in front of him. Not the biggest of surprises really. Anytime Mammon sees something along the lines of gold, he can’t help but snatch it away. And there’s obviously so many valuables scattered all over the place, including the silverware that was proudly presented on every table. You sucked in a breath of anticipation when he reached for one of the spoons, only to exhale in relief when he placed it on the bridge of his nose, trying to balance it.

“MC, look at this!” He tapped your shoulder, as always wanting your full and undivided attention as he demonstrated his newfound skill. You giggled at his antics with fondness as he accidentally let the spoon drop with a clatter and a quiet ‘shit’ coming from him. Lucifer pulled on his ear, like a mother scolding her child and whisper-yelled at him to stop acting like an idiot. The only reason the oldest chose a sit right next to Mammon was to maintain order and peace. Basically, he did it for disciplinary reasons.

“I understand that being impertinent is your full-time job, Mammon but keep this up and I’ll throw you in Cerberus’ room. Let him do with you as he pleases.”

“Lucifer, it’s not a big deal-“

“Yeah, OK,” Mammon hissed, picking up the spoon from the recently polished floor with a slight grin that didn’t quiet reach his eyes “I gotcha. Can-“

“Speaking of Cerberus,” Levi suddenly piped in, no longer fussing about his collar or nervously twiddling with his thumbs because of the massive crowd of demons surrounding him “Didn’t you force me to walk him last week when it was your turn to do it?? I only agreed because you promised to buy me the newest Ruri-Chan limited edition body pillow that came out last Tuesday! And you never did! And now they’re out of stock, you scummy piece of-“

The third eldest would’ve leapt across the table and aimed for the throat if you hadn’t pressed a gentle hand against his chest, making him sit back down with a huff. People were starting to stare at the commotion coming from your table, turning heads and muttering between themselves. You were slowly dying from embarrassment by the way, since you guys definitely became the topic of conversation for the other guests. The brothers were being too noisy to even notice and Lucifer himself was too preoccupied to see the scene they were creating which made you further slouch down into your chair, silently hoping for the ground to swallow you whole. The night really wasn’t going as intended. You could hear Solomon laughing at the brothers’ antics from three tables down.

“I guess that’s Mammon for you,” Belphie yawned, barely raising his head from table “He lies everyday, all day. What exactly is new here? And that says something since it’s coming from me.”

“I apologised for that!” Mammon whined, referring to Levi’s accusation and choosing not to address Belphie’s insult “I was gonna buy it but then I realised I spent all my money earlier that week anyway so I couldn’t!”

“Perhaps that wouldn’t happen if you learned how to save the money you earn properly,” Satan muttered, sipping from his glass of whatever beverage he had snatched from the servants earlier “Not like you know how to earn money in any way besides stealing it.”

You watch as Mammon clenched his fist “Can we please just move on-“

“I can’t believe that I was cursed with this moron for a brother,” Asmo sighed, almost theatrically, as if he was performing. And, in a way, he was. People were getting really interested in the drama unfolding over there. It was making you even more anxious, all those eyes staring at you. The Avatar of Lust was leaning so much on his chair, you were sure he was going to topple over and at this point, you kinda hoped he would. Anything to stop this momentum of hatred aimed at Mammon “You’re always getting us in trouble, you know. Hmph, we can’t go anywhere with you Mammon! You always end up ruining it for us! With your stupid schemes and-“

“I’m hungry-“

“Not now, Beel!”

“Cutting him up into tiny pieces for the witches will always be an option,” Lucifer chimed in, smiling at the thought.

Mammon snapped his head upwards at that. It was such an abrupt reaction, it made you jolt a little in your seat. You couldn’t miss the tension radiating from him, how quickly his body stiffened and exactly how hard his hands were gripping the edge of the table. His brothers were still paying him no mind, blaming him for this and that under their breath or being silently judgemental in Lucifer’s case. You worried for him because Mammon rarely acted like this; feral, in a way. Just so you know, he definitely noticed it. The look of concern plastered all over your face. That’s the only reason he released the table from his vice-like grip and slouched back against his chair. Satan went quiet and was staring at Mammon in bewilderment.

He disliked the idea of you watching him lose control of himself. He was your guardian. Your first pact. It’s important to him that your relationship is build around a pillar of trust. And he can’t even expect you to trust him if he exposes you to his demon form every time something inconveniences him. Mammon would rather cease to exit than have you fear him. So he kept his breathing regulated as the fog cleared his mind. The Avatar of Greed isn’t an angry demon. Snuffing out the the flame of rage he had fanned up until then was relatively easy. He just needed to get through tonight, then he could go home and complain to you about it once he got out of his brothers’ earshot.

“Why does he get to spend so much time with MC anyway? He’d probably sell them for a few Grimm any time of the day, wouldn’t he? It’s so fucking unfair. He won’t change no matter what so why risk MC’s safety? I will summon Lotan on him if he starts getting on my nerves.”

It would be an understatement to say that those words rubbed Mammon the wrong way, judging by the lack of immediate response. It was unexpected for him keep his mouth shut at a time like this. What was even more unexpected was the abrupt, delayed reaction he had a few seconds afterwards, resulting in his chair being flung back about 5 feet in that general direction. The seemingly deafening thud it made when it collided with the floor echoed around the dining hall, bouncing off walls and whacking people over the heads with the aggression behind it. A moment of pure, indescribably loud silence filled the crowded space as everyone else stared in shock at their brother, mouths agape and eyes bulging out of their sockets. Mammon would’ve laughed at their faces if it weren’t for the circumstances leading up to that point.

“What gives any of you the right to treat me like some sort of punching bag?” Mammon drawled, accentuating his obviously superior nature to almost every single demon at that table. He laughed, in an oddly half hearted way, before his sea struck gaze landed back to his siblings “Do not try to push me into a corner, because I will not handle it well. You’ve been having a field day with me for centuries now and I’m starting to get really ticked off, ya know? But that doesn’t matter. What matters is that I’ve done everything in my power to keep MC alive for the past few months and y’all are acting as if I’m out here playing with their life. Complain about me all you want. But...” He thumped the table, loud enough to make all the noblemen in the room flinch.

“Don’t you dare insinuate that I would ever put MC in danger, willingly or not because I will rip out your insides and paint the walls of this palace with them while hanging your intestines from these chandeliers. I will pluck your hairs out one by one, then your nails, then your eyeballs and then your teeth. You’re the ones that have put MC in danger’s way time and time again in the past few weeks, and you’re out here trying to suggest that I would even think about hurting them? Unlike every single one of you, who almost killed my human-you’re lucky I don’t have your fucking heads.”

He smashed his fist into the table again, using even more of his strength this time and effectively breaking the whole thing, the wooden legs giving out and shattering into thousands of splinters. Mammon spoke again, his voice lowering “MC forgave you. I didn’t. And I have no reason to. Not with how you’ve been treating me.”Once he spit that out, Mammon turned on his heel and left, slamming the door shut behind him hard enough to shake the whole building, leaving his siblings in dazed awe.

......

Even more silence. For some reason, all of the brothers at the now broken table ended up looking your way, silently questioning what they should do. It often ended up like this

You gave them all an unimpressed stare and a half-assed shrug “Don’t look at me. You guys fucked up.” Before sliding out of your seat and following Mammon out of the castle, sending an apologetic smile to Diavolo on your way out. Hopefully, you could manage to calm him down before everyone else gets home otherwise this might drag on for a while.

Lucifer:

-In all honesty, he probably saw the signs from a mile away and still decided to ignore them

-Maybe because he believed they weren’t being all that harsh on him, even if in Mammon’s eyes they were

-‘Harsh’ in Lucifer’s vocabulary usually means being hanged upside down from a ceiling or publicly executed, not a couple of mere insults

-Not to mention the eldest had always been horrible at communicating with his brothers when it came to emotions

-Despite Mammon clearly suffering from the treatment he received from his brothers, Lucifer refuses to believe he’s the root of the problem

-As the Avatar of Pride, he always had a hard time realising that all those words and the constant teasing, which he deemed to be pretty harmless, scarred Mammon a lot more than expected

-Once he actually comes to that conclusion, and after getting over the initial shock, Lucifer would probably feel the guiltiest out of them all

-Being the eldest means he carries quite a few burdens on his shoulders as most responsibilities fall on him due to his prideful nature

-He would blame himself for Mammon’s outburst simply because he’s the older brother and he should’ve known better, not just because he sees how a big of a role he played in all of this

-Usually, if his brothers do something bad, then he’s there to fix it within hours, that’s how it always worked

-Except he doesn’t know how to fix this exactly

-The problem is he has no idea how to approach Mammon after that sudden meltdown and he has no idea how to talk it out with him because he sucks at expressing himself verbally

-And since this took place in a public space, Lord Diavolo’s Palace no less, he felt really conflicted on what should have been done at that moment in time

-There was a lot of frustration, embarrassment and confusion in him for a good five minutes after Mammon slammed that door shut behind him and even after he gathered his thoughts together, he was still in shock for the rest of the night

-In any case, the whole event was promptly cancelled and everyone ended up going home earlier than expected, after Lucifer apologised to Diavolo about the spectacle they created (several times)

-When they finally get home, he decided to give Mammon his space instead of trying to knock at his door and instead went back to his room

-He knows they will need to solve this matter soon but there’s no way Mammon will want to see, let alone talk, to any of them just yet

-He’s sort of hoping he can apologise best he can next morning at breakfast, cross his fingers and wish for the best but judging by the venom that laced Mammon’s voice the night before, it’s not likely he will forgive any of them that easily.

Levi:

-If I were to guess, he saw the ending credits of his life flash before his very eyes as soon as those words left his mouth

-Levi felt a panic in him like never before, not even while playing his engaging horror visual novels at 3am in complete darkness or that one time he used Lucifer’s credit card to buy merch before being found out

-Must’ve forgotten his brother technically ranks higher than him on the power scale for a second there

-Or maybe he didn’t think his insults were going to affect him much

-They usually don’t

-Or at least that’s the impression he’s been under for a while now

-Mammon doesn’t snap easily under pressure but Levi must’ve really hit a nerve there that night

-While everyone was sitting in a short silence after Mammon left the building, he started twiddling with his fingers again the more he thought about it

-Because now he went from nervous to fucking terrified of what the hell was waiting for him when he finally got home

-He does feel guilty, nowhere near as much guilt as Lucifer feels but still pure shame

-However most of that guilt is swallowed by a steady fear and the constant worry of ‘how do I stop my brother from killing me?’

-Unlike Lucifer, I honestly don’t see him taking any sort of initiative when it comes to apologising to Mammon

-Not even because he doesn’t want to, but he would freeze up if he were to come face to face with him after that incident and then scamper back to his room like a rat in hiding

-So without your help, it’s likely the two won’t be speaking to each very soon which can honestly make life at the House of Lamentation so much more miserable

-In the end, if either you or Lucifer forced him to, he would say sorry by selling some of his merch and then giving him the profits (in secret but we all know it’s him)

-That is a big sacrifice on Levi’s part considering how precious his merchandise is to him

-But the idea that he’s gonna get murdered in his sleep by his older brother was getting a tad too real

-Besides, Mammon is still his brother and if he has to sell a couple of items in order to make him less mad, he would do it, albeit with a bit of grumbling

-Despite that, Mammon still refuses to come out of his room and sort of relies on you to bring him food because he doesn’t want to see his brothers

-Levi and Mammon would probably have to rebuild a lot of their relationship after this but it could easily take months for that to happen since Levi is too terrified to look him in the eye and Mammon is too upset to even hear his voice

Satan:

-He wouldn’t be the Avatar of Wrath if he couldn’t spot the anger within someone from a mile away

-He’s always been able to recognise the fury building up inside of him so for Satan it’s second nature to just know when someone’s on the brink of snapping

-It’s no surprise to say that he probably noticed Mammon’s wrath spilling out before anyone else did

-But alas, he realised it too late

-If he had reacted quicker, maybe he would’ve been able to diffuse Mammon before he exploded on them. Or not

-It’s difficult to tell if he could’ve actually helped because who was he to tell Mammon to calm down??? If anyone told him that while he was throwing a fit, he would probably break their necks-

-In the end, he just pressed his lips into a straight line and watched his brother throw his chair across the room

-Not gonna lie, he found it a bit entertaining purely because of the look on Lucifer’s face

-Satan had to try really hard not to crack a smile because he knew Mammon would probably smash a glass against his head or something

-Even so, he was the first to stand up and offer to go after him, though he wasn’t sure he could do much consoling

-Being so experienced with anger meant that he knew Mammon had built himself into a rage that he won’t be able to escape out of too easily

-Which is why he advises Lucifer to give Mammon his space once they get home

-Overall, the most understanding out of all of the brothers

-At this point in time, probably the least judgemental out of everyone and once Mammon comes out of his room for the first time in a while, either him or Beel is going to apologise to him first

-He may push and push him alongside the rest of his siblings but I feel like Satan doesn’t want to reach a certain low, like cornering Mammon into the frenzy he had that day ever again

-He might get pissy with him if he’s being too stubborn to forgive anyone after coming down from his intrusive thoughts

-And he really hates that Mammon had to remind them about all the times you had nearly died because of them, because he knows they won’t be able to make it up to you so why is Mammon upset about this????

-But he will try to maintain respect for his older brother from then on

-Even if the sharpest of remarks is on the top of his tongue!

Asmo:

-Asmo is the type to laugh it off and then start feeling really upset about it later on, the longer he thinks about the whole thing

-After Mammon storms out, he just assumes it’s another one of those ‘Mammon’ things and tried to brush the feeling of unease off him

-Even so, later that night the memory of Mammon kept coming back to him while he laid in his bed, unable to have a nice rest for the first time in how long? He’s always been really strict about his sleeping schedules after all

-Asmo’s observant, almost on par with Satan himself when it comes down to it. He definitely saw the gleam of anger, pent up frustration and hatred in his brothers’ eyes that moment and it legitimately scared him, even if it was for just half a second

-Honestly, he begins neglecting himself out of anticipation and worry which is a huge red flag for the Avatar of Lust who always holds himself at such a superior level compared to everyone else

-It may start out slow, but it has the same effect as a snowball rolling down the hill. It becomes more of a problem the longer it’s ignored

-Because he spends most of his days now debating whether he should try to coax his brother into coming out of his room and apologising to him, he forgets about himself

-Skincare routines are missed, pedicure appointments have been cancelled; hell, if Mammon’s keeps being stubborn, he may let his hair become absolutely filthy

-Asmo sort of relies on his brothers to provide the living environment he revolves around. If something is off with his brothers, he can not work properly either because it doesn’t feel right to do so

-Imagine a machine not working anymore because one of the clogs in it got stuck

-I can see Asmo feeling a decent amount of guilt when it comes to the situation but he still blames Levi for completely pushing him over the edge at dinner

-So now those two aren’t talking (it’s honestly so exhausting since they’re shoving the blame onto each other without stop)

-If Mammon decides to come out and hear them out, Asmo might get on his knees and beg because that guilt bubbling up inside of him may end up being his demise

-No seriously, MC might need to keep an eye out on him too while comforting Mammon because whatever he is doing isn’t healthy

-Takes Mammon’s outburst pretty badly and tries apologising to him many times but the second eldest still hasn’t said a word to any of them

-And that’s driving him into a fucking swirl of insanity at this point

-Of course, much like Mammon’s mental breakdown, this builds up over time but the result can be devasting

-If you pass by his room at night, you could probably hear him sob about how his brother hates him and it’s really heartbreaking to hear pained cries like that coming from such an overly confident demon like Asmo

Beel:

-Literally the only one here that doesn’t dish out insults onto Mammon every hour of the day

-He joins in very rarely and even when he does, it’s usually in good nature rather than malice

-Unless food is involved. Feelings (and Mammon) might be hurt if that’s the case

-Beel wasn’t listening to his siblings as they were diminishing Mammon, he was way too hungry to comprehend what the hell they were on about

-So he just started wolfing down appetisers until he noticed you looking all weary

-That’s the first thing that put him on alert

-And then the second born’s aura was also...off putting

-Might’ve actually tried to nudge Belphie to stop him from saying anything offensive to Mammon in this state when he realised how tense the atmosphere got

-Flinched when his brother left the palace, almost cracking the whole doorway on his way out

-Hunger is all but gone and at this point he wants to go home to check up on him

-Beel is a bit of a softie and he wears his heart on his sleeve a lot of the times

-He never did anything particularly bad to Mammon, not on the same scale his brothers did certainly and yet he still felt extremely bad

-Perhaps because he didn’t step in as much as he should’ve...?

-Either way, when his loved ones suffer, he has a tendency of putting the blame on himself because he feels it’s the only logical answer

-Honestly, he feels guilty enough to the point where it’s affecting his eating habits-which is obviously not normal for the Avatar of Gluttony

-Beel knows Mammon doesn’t want to talk to him but he still brings him food and leaves it at the doorstep of his room since he doesn’t want to come out and have dinner with them

-Or he relies on you to give it to him

-The thought of Mammon being so mad at them that he doesn’t even want to eat makes him feel so vulnerable

-As soon as he sees him for the first time since that night, he will probably be the first to apologise, even if Mammon isn’t in the mood to hear apologies

-Again, he’s trying to use food to make up to him (bringing him his favourites and paying for them)

-Even if he gets ignored, he’s still going to do it

-Beel is trying his best to say sorry to his older brother the only way he knows how to do so, but Mammon still doesn’t give in

Belphie:

-Could’ve been asleep the whole time Mammon was thrashing about

-Or at least that’s what it looked like to the average passer-by

-Kept one eye open to watch as Mammon finally snapped under pressure, having to raise his head once his brother broke the whole god damned table

-“OK, alright, storm off I guess-I have a splinter now-“

-Don’t trust that sarcastic commentary, he’s in deep thought on the inside

-Maybe he should’ve expected this but then again, he never would’ve guessed Mammon had it in him to be so aggressive

-Will narrow his eyes at him when he talks your death and scowl

-As if he didn’t already feel like the world’s biggest piece of shit, he had to bring that up

-As soon as he leaves, he turns to Lucifer and goes “See what you did? You broke Mammon. You suck, Lucifer.”

-The shifting of blame suits Belphie really well (it takes Beel side glancing him to get him to shut up)

-The Avatar of Sloth is too tired to even try to communicate with his brother so he goes straight to bed after getting home

-However, he actually visits Mammon’s dreams that night

-Or at least tries to, if Mammon is getting any sleep after that showdown

-It’s his way of checking in with his brother, helps him evaluate the situation

- Whether that works or not, there was definitely an attempt that required a lot of effort and you don’t see that very often with Belphagour

-It really demonstrates how much he actually cares for his family, even if he hides behind snide remarks and the likes of it

-However, if Mammon refuses communication, then he can’t do anything but give up

-He clearly won’t be able to convince him to step aside for a chit chat and why waste energy trying to force him to do so

-When the time comes, Belphie knows his brother will willingly talk to him (or at least someone else because he knows he’s not any good at comfort or apologies)

-At the same time, a lot of the things Mammon said during that party rubbed him the wrong way and seeing his twin suffer because of it is also pissing him off so patience may be running thin with Belphie

-Like Levi, there may be a lot of ice between the two from then onwards so it won’t be easy for them to find the middle ground in this whole argument either

-It could lead to a strained relationship if no one intervenes or even a physical fight if the youngest pushes all of Mammon’s buttons properly

Diavolo:

-The Future King feels guilty too, for some reason

-He is clearly not involved but he’s under the impression his party was a catalyst of sorts to the fight that broke out that night

-Diavolo wasn’t even in the same room when it happened-he heard shouting and growling from next door whilst talking to a noble about future arrangements in DevilDom and rushed in

-The sight was something to behold really; Mammon cornering all of his brothers and threatening them with pure venom in his voice wasn’t something you saw everyday

-More often than not, it was the other way around so the Prince had every right to be concerned

-He tried asking Lucifer what was going on after the second eldest slammed the door shut behind him and left but to no avail; the Avatar of Pride was in a state of shock and the only thing he did was apologise to him about a million times before his departure with the rest of his siblings

-Despite his worry, Diavolo tried not to get involved in the aftermath either, believing it’s not his place to interfere and hoping they would solve it out amongst themselves

-He did give Mammon permission to miss RAD classes for that week, thinking a small break is what he needed most

-Even drops by every now and then to check up on him (he just asks you how he’s holding up because he doesn’t want to pry)

-He can’t do much but watch from the sidelines, I mean this is a family dispute so it would be wise to just give them all a bit of space

-If it drags on for too long, however, he will be forced to do something because the brothers are all distracted and can’t get on with their student council work because of it

-Lucifer is even more stressed than usual and can’t even focus during their meetings so for the sake of his friend, if nothing gets resolved quickly, he will intervene and it won’t be pretty

-For now, he’s counting on you to make sure there are no further incidents but it’s unlikely you can stop a train once it’s set in motion so just hope Mammon doesn’t come out of his room until he’s calmed down

Barbatos:

-The butler is a Time Lord so it’s probably no surprise to find out he already knew this was going to happen eventually

-Not like he believed Mammon was going to take his brothers’ insults for much longer anyway

-Being the quiet and observant demon he is, he’s been keeping a close eye on the Avatar of Greed knowing damn well he was going to lose his patience soon enough and go on the offence

-If he knew this was going to happen at such an important moment in time, he would’ve warned his majesty beforehand but he failed to see the potential catastrophe awaiting his breakdown

-Again, he has no right to intervene

-Unless, of course, Lord Diavolo asks him to do so but really the most he can do is give you tips on how to deal with miserable demons

-I mean, you’re the one that’s going to be stuck with them for the rest of the year and this isn’t the type of conflict that gets resolved too easily

-Barbatos is clever so if there is still bitterness between Mammon and his siblings after an amount of time passed, he might try to change timelines (with the permission of Diavolo)

-He’s had enough of Beel coming over to eat his cakes and cry about his older brother hating him (believe it or not, the butler is definitely a bit fond of the sixth eldest so his cries did pull at his heartstrings)

-Basically, in the same position as the Prince

-He relies on you to get them all to make up but he knows it’s not likely to happen any time soon

-For now, he’s getting ready for the chain reaction this fight set in motion because there was no easy way to end this, considering they’re all vicious demons and all

—————————————————————-

Al~ im mad I couldn’t add Simon, Luke and Solomon-I want to write for them too >:(

[just-an-enby-lemon]

✨️ 10 characthers, 10 fandoms, 10 tags ✨️

I was tagged by @nikosaurushex, thank you soo much, this was very fun : )

1. Alphonse Elric - Fullmetal Alchemist

Look at this baby!! He is such a good boi, he is the most inocent, sweet, giant baby boy to ever exist!! He deserves everything in this word and more. I love him soo much.

2. Akira Ono - Hi Score Girl

Another baby who deserves every good thing in the word. She chooses her game characthers based in wich one is less played with! She cares soo much about everyone. I really love her. Also I love how even though she doesn't speak she is still understood and very expressive and no one thinks less of her for it. Ono is the best.

3. Blitzen - Magnus Chase and The Gods Of Asgard || Riordanverse

To choose only one Riordanverse characther was really painfull. But if I didn't, I would had dedicated half of this thread to different riordanverse sagas. So instead I choose the one of my favorite characthers that does not recieve as much love as he should. Fashion Dwarf Dad is amazing!! We need to talk more about him. His sass, his criativity, how he never gave up, how loyal he is... I could compliment him forever. Even his mommy issues are great. I love him. Fashion Dwarf Dad is the best!

4. Clare Devlin - Derry Girls

I identify soo much with this anxiety ball, she cares about everything and everyone to the point of being a problem and I really want to hug this wee useless lesbian soo bad. She is my ficcional little sister and my favorite characther in a show where all characthers are amazing.

5. Sunny Baudelaire- A Series of Unfortunate Events (both bookerverse and seriesverse)

While it was hard to choose only one Snicketverse characther to put here my choice was made by too words: badass baby. Sunny is amazing, she is a force of nature and if she can already do soo much as literal infant I'm sure adult Sunny will just conquer the wolrd. This girl can do annything!! And I'll support anything she does.

6. Edward Nygma (Riddler) - Adam West Batman.

I promissed myself I would not put a Riddler in this list. It lasted like twenty seconds most. Ed is my problem child and I love him.

I choose Adam West Batman's Riddler because I'm also a Gorshin fan and I will hype this man acting anytime I get the chance. He is soo good.

(Since I promissed I would use only one Riddler, because otherwise this list would only be Riddlers, I will give Batman Unburied Riddler a small footnote here, because aaaaaaa reasons)

7. Frida - Hilda

Okay maybe is because I'm indecisive, but that was such a hard choice. I wanted to add a Hilda characther but they are all soo good. So I chose my girl Frida, cause she is great. I love all the episodes that focus on her and her jorney to became a Witch is very good.

8. Eda Clawthorne - The Owl House

I'm a very huuge Eda stan. I once got a chance to choose any fictional characther to do a college presentation (an psychological analysis) on and I choose Eda. She is great. I love her soo much. Chaotic Mon is the best.

9. Sakura Kinomoto - Cardcaptors Sakura

The ninith characther in this list was a complicated choice. TBH, this was my tenth choice, but I putted the ninith one at ten because they have no image.

So I had a lot of characthers and only one space. I swear I changed the characther like five times but in the end Sakura won. This anime was very important to me when I was little, all brazilian dubbed episodes of the first season in good quality were on YouTube at the time (and you could illigaly dowload the rest). This girl made me feel wonder in a way I can't describe, she still does. She makes my hearth warm.

10. Tamika Flyn - Welcome to Nightvale

I love everyone in Nightvale, all citzens of that weird little city and specially Cecil and the faceless old woman. But I choose Tamika because she was a child revolutionary, a monster slayer and a bookworm and she grow to be a concilwoman and to be there trying and suceeding in making a difference. Tamika is amazing and to listen to her grow was great and people should really talk more about Tamika!

No need to do the challenge, but here is my friendly fun tag: @sillymanwithocs, @lesbian-in-leather, @pharoahkittylover, @the-goodfellow-bard, @dreamerinasmallworld, @fatgumsupremacy, @selenophilenova, @decadentturkeycashroad, @sevenseasofthigh, @i-hate-liking-batman