#but her conclusion has been to abandon any such interests

[woso-dreamzzz]

Natalia III

Hardersson x Daughter!Reader

Natalia Guijarro (OC) x Hardersson!Reader

Part of The Big Adeventures Universe

Summary: Talia reflects on your relationship

The first time Talia ever saw you, was on tv.

She was hunkered down in Patri's apartment avoiding going home to her parents because she knew that they would make her clean her room. A random Swedish league match was playing and she'd looked up from her phone to see you make a daring save that kept your team in the title race.

The commentator called you 'Linköping's young talent' and Talia had searched you up on the internet. She also briefly stalked your socials but came to the conclusion that you didn't really post much.

She didn't know what it was about you but you kept her interest. You seemed sweet enough in interviews, if a little nervous, and you looked especially sweet when your first stop after a match ended was to your parents.

Then, she met you on the youth teams.

It had been a while since Denmark and Spain had played against each other, longer than either of you had been on the teams.

Talia was excited to put your skills to the test and, maybe, to impress you with her skills too.

You were nervous when she approached you at the end of the match, oblivious to her flirting and teasing and to the way her eyes glanced down at your lips when you spoke and the way that she wouldn't stop touching you in ways that weren't friendly at all.

But, still, she had gotten your number and you had taken her out on a date that you didn't know was a date.

It was perfect, even if your parents were hunkered down at the back and very clearly trying to eavesdrop.

Youth teams don't guarantee a professional career though and Talia hopes that you and her will be the ones that make it despite the odds. She knows she's good. She's a great striker and she knows you're good too. You're a great keeper.

She just knew you'd both make it professional.

Talia signs for Barcelona's first team and you leave Linköping and Sweden for Arsenal and England.

Soon, you're abandoning Talia in the youth teams to take your rightful place in Sweden's senior team.

It's easier to get a hold of senior team matches so Talia has a much easier time watching you. You hold your own against the adults and, while you don't play as often as the other keepers, you still thrive and Talia's desperate to solidify her spot in the senior team to face you again.

You win things at Arsenal and Talia wins things at Barcelona.

She's not yet broken into the Spain senior team. Their front line is packed with talent and Natalia has yet to prove herself better than any of them.

The World Cup comes and goes and she's still in Spain, training her skills as you win the greatest football tournament in the world by your own two feet.

Then, you join Barcelona and Talia can't help herself.

The playful flirting she used to engage in goes into overdrive. You're oblivious though and it's just part of your charm.

It drives her crazy in the best way possible until that night in the club is the spark that ignites your relationship.

Now, though, you're in her bed.

She can hold you at night and play with you during the day and take Prins out for a walk with you in the evening.

You're in her bed and you're in her life as her girlfriend.

She's been to visits to Sweden with you and had long talks with your mothers. Your relationship was strong and stable and survived the year you went to France and all those times that Sweden had crushed Spain on the international level.

Sweden is going through a golden age of players and it's intimidating.

But you're at the helm, the one leading all of those talented youngsters, the one that opened the coach's eyes to what happens when young talent is brought into the squad as soon as possible.

You groan. "Talia?" Your eyes flutter open. "Are those my parents making all that noise?"

She had been ignoring that.

Your mothers were visiting and it sounded like they were rummaging through the kitchen if the banging of pots and pans were anything to go off.

"Yes," She says with a wince," I think so."

You groan, turning over and burying your face in Talia's chest. "Can we just ignore-"

There's a long string of swear words as a loud clatter of pans falling echoes around the house. Prins joins in and barks up a storm.

"Nevermind," You say," I'm up."

Your kitchen is a mess.

"Nothing is where it should be!" Magda's complaining as Pernille gingerly tries to put things back.

"This isn't your house," You say with a teasing huff," We organise things a different way."

"Your Morsa was trying to make breakfast," Pernille says," She's forgotten that breakfast was never her speciality."

"We can go and grab breakfast." Talia comes out of the bedroom, fully dressed and pulling her hair back. "I've already ordered something."

The way she's said it makes you frown and you miss the way Magda and Pernille's eyes light up in delight at what she says.

"I'll come." What's even weirder is Magda is the one that offers. Morsa is still in that phase where she's pretending to hate absolutely everything about Talia, at least to her face so it's strange that she's having some one-on-one time with your girlfriend.

"Oh," You say with a frown," Give me a second. I'll put on my-"

"No," Pernille cuts you off quickly," Let those two get it. We can tidy up this kitchen."

"Oh...er...okay. I guess?"

Talia loves that you're oblivious. She's been dropping hints all week and the week before. She'd asked you specific questions and said very specific things but you're none the wiser about her true intentions.

To you, it just seems like Talia's picked up a sudden interest in rings.

[ephemeral--dreams]

Making you cry during a fight (2) - Scaramouche, Yae, Kaeya

Okay guys here you go never ask me for anything ever again /j

(part 1)

☆ ☾ ☆ ──────────────────

Scaramouche

There's a sort of deep, instinctive fear that takes root inside the place where a heart would be, as he watches tears fall after a few too-harsh words. 

He's hurt you. He's been careless, he's been too difficult, too much - and it's going to drive you away. You're going to abandon him because of this incident, surely. Why would you stay with someone who makes you cry? 

It's… it's not a feeling he's dealt with for many years. The fear of being left. He has not allowed anyone to get close enough to him to have any concern over whether they're around or not. Scaramouche had learned his lesson about getting attached and having emotion, after all. He had spat out whatever  bitter words he pleased and felt nothing when he upset anyone he spoke to.

But those days are past, and while that's a good thing in many ways, right now it feels anything but. 

"I-"

"Sorry. I shouldn't be crying," the way you apologize as if you're the one in the wrong stabs right through him. You're the one crying, yet he is being wounded just as much. It's an awful thing, caring. "Just. Just give me a moment…"

Scaramouche hesitates. He's paralyzed, caught up in the idea that anything he does or says may make things worse. But what wins out is the idea of fixing it, fixing things before you give up on him—

"Stop it. You shouldn't be the one saying sorry here. I shouldn't have said that to you, alright? You should know better than to take everything I say so seriously, honestly, I-" he sighs, irritated with himself more than you, before pulling you into his embrace. You don't pull away. Good. Maybe he hasn't entirely fucked things up. "...I didn't mean it. Sorry."

Yae

Yae Miko is not the sort of person who yells during a fight. Or at any time, really. So that hadn't been at all what had happened during your little conflict. 

Rather, her words were pointed to hit where it hurt, an attempt to shut down whatever silly human nonsense you thought was worth causing a riot over. Problems came and went, and most weren't nearly as important as they may seem in the moment. Living many years had led her to this conclusion. She was a busy woman who had little interest in wasting her time arguing. 

...Calculating and perhaps dismissive she may be, but she isn't cold. Yae still very much has a heart, and it skips a beat when she realizes you're nowhere to be found at the usual time she would meet with you after finishing her shrine duties. Surely you weren't that upset over it all, right? 

No, you couldn't be still lingering on the issue hours later… 

Well, you could. Others were far more sensitive to these things, a fact she often forgot. Yae should know better. Isn't she used to highly emotional people, after all? At least your tantrums weren't going to practically destroy the nation…

She finds you at the foot of the mountain, sitting and idly staring into the distance. The tear tracks on your face are all too telling. 

Yae is not above realizing when she has done something wrong. Though she's also not one to openly apologize. She doesn't do much of anything openly. 

"You don't listen to me," you tell her. 

"Well, I'll try to listen more, then. Is that satisfactory?" She offers a hand to you. You wait a moment before taking it, allowing her to pull you up. "Just remember to consider my side of things as well. We can work on it… But let's not linger on this too long. Time is fleeting for mortals like you, hm?"

Kaeya

Kaeya is excellent at one thing - avoidance. In fact, he's been successfully avoiding you ever since your fight a couple of days ago. It's easier to simply wait until you've both cooled off. 

That's what he tells himself. It's certainly not  that the fight made him feel anxious. He's not running away from his problems, of course not.

(He's lying to himself. One wrong word and you'll leave. He knows that. It's bad enough that you had an argument, archons forbid he confronts you and it's the last straw.)

So Kaeya carefully stays out of your way, doesn't speak to you, doesn't let you catch sight of him. He'll have to deal with things eventually, he knows, but… Until then, he's content to keep things this way. Four days in you finally seek him out yourself, looking exhausted and absolutely miserable. 

"Can we- can we stop fighting? You're right, I'm wrong, all that-" He can only watch as you start breaking down in front of him, a cold, sinking feeling of guilt settling in. "...Just stop ignoring me, please?"

His life has been filled with bad decisions - it seems that he's made yet another, by avoiding you so long. Now Kaeya is faced with your tears as you practically beg for his attention. It's quite the opposite of what he intended. He reaches a careful hand to brush them away. "Shh, shh. No more, alright?"

You sniffle, looking up at him. "You're not mad at me?"

"Of course not, sweetheart. I never was. We can talk about it later, okay? Let me make you feel better."

[besidesitstoowarm]

so i'll talk about this more tomorrow when i put up my "amy's choice" write up but i am thinkingggg about moffat's characterization vs davies

like with rory and mickey. rory is obviously the mickey, the back-home boyfriend getting ditched in favor of the doctor. but the thing with mickey is like... he's a good reason to leave, not to stay. he's kind of a loser, implied in the first episode to be cheating (telling rose not to check his email) before she even meets the doctor! he's the tin dog, mickey the idiot. he represents everything rose is tired of. she straight up never seems to care about him ever, and the doctor openly mocks him, and even the narrative doesn't seem interested in giving him interiority or sympathy

vs rory. rory is a legitimately good option: good career, kind, gentle, intelligent, handsome (mickey was also handsome, to be fair). he's the antithesis of the doctor, but he's not presented as the worse option, just very different. he has the doctor dead. to. rights. immediately! "you make people a danger to themselves" and that will carry on, past "you forget that not every victory is about saving the world" he's like the Reasonable One

the potential danger of traveling with the doctor is treated as an inevitable minor footnote in the davies era, i feel like. it's always there but it's rarely Real. rose was so borderline suicidal i'm amazed she only got trapped in another dimension, martha dipped cause his ass was pathetic, donna was literally railroaded and never had a real choice. but amy? amy feels like she's in real danger of losing rory, she does lose her daughter, she DIES in the end. and clara dies. and bill– like the consequences are real. they make their choice, and their choice makes them. obviously all of them are in danger in any given episode but it feels like the moffat companions really play that out to the inevitable conclusion

and i feel like his companions have faults and traits that actually... matter? like with davies companions we do learn a lot about their lives in terms of jobs and skills and family, but less about deep character flaws, about ethos. i do love them but halfway through s5, the obvious impact on the story that amy's abandonment issues have feels genuinely unmatched by earlier companions. she's savage! she's nasty! she is given a trolley problem and chooses murder suicide bc either her life is a lie or her husband is dead and life isn't worth living. it's deranged. in the davies era it felt like i was piecing together characters and arcs on my own, picking up my own observations, it feels far more passive than it does with amy so far. amy is deliberate, her character arc and growth is very active. clara and the doctor get so codependent she tries to kill him and then dies horrifically. like it's insane

none of this is meant to shit on the davies era. i enjoyed it a lot and love all his companions (except adam but he doesn't count) and obviously the moffat era couldn't have been what it was without davies preceding, but i'm really remembering why moffat's era is my fave. it feels so intentional, so rich, it is exactly what i personally want out of a story. i love s5 so much

[mdhwrites]

You've said before how you feel about Luz abandoning the Isles when they needed her because she refused to try and fix it. I think it's said that she genuinely believed she would only make things worse so she thought she needed to take herself out of the way? Are my memories faulty?

Okay so I'm going to start with a scenario to make my point clear because you're not wrong... But you also are.

Let's say you're assigned two partners for a science project. You decide the best way to split the work up evenly is to have one person do the research, one person to write up the conclusions and one person to do a lot of math for the calculations you'll need. You each state your strengths with one saying writing, one saying research and the last saying, "I like math."

However, a week passes and you are struggling to finish any it because you've gotten none of those calculations for it back. When you push, the person goes, "Well sure, I like math but I suck at it. As such, my calculations would have been wrong. That would have caused you all problems so I decided the thing that made the most sense would be not to do anything at all." The project still needs to be done though and the majority of the work has been done for them. As such, now you and the second person have to work your ass off to do what your third member cannot while they contribute nothing but they promise they feel really bad about it and they're okay taking a C if this ends up making the project fail, even though their actions would have gotten them an F on their own.

Luz likes to make decisions. She essentially never consults ANYONE on what she should do and half the time someone tells her, "Don't do X," she goes ahead and does it. This also constantly gets other people in trouble and gets her in trouble because she is really bad at making decisions. And yes, with helping Belos free the Collector, she admits that she made a terrible mistake and that she makes a lot of mistakes. Her literal statement on this is that she'll finally listen to her mom and learn from her mistakes by staying in the Human Realm. Permanently.

Do you potentially notice a problem here though? Yeah, my thoughts have NEVER stopped at "Luz left a planet to die because she wanted to stay home." No. I always do mention that she claims part of her reasoning is because she makes stupid, rash decisions on her own that hurt others but then she goes ahead and makes a stupid, albeit with implied a LOT of thought, decision ON HER OWN that will hurt people.

Do you know a great way to avoid making a mistake? Asking someone else if it's the right choice to make. Or hey, just decide you don't need to lead anymore. If your decisions are the problem then let someone else make the decisions. But... Then Luz doesn't get to do the fun thing she likes to do. She actually has to listen to other people and maybe do things that aren't her number one option because her first choice would get people hurt. That isn't what Luz wants. Luz doesn't want to actually grow or learn or get scolded for her mistakes. Otherwise, she wouldn't CONSTANTLY LIE ABOUT EVERYTHING.

So instead... Why not just let them suffer the consequences while she stays home and lives in peace, her problems in a far off fantasy realm that she never has to think about again? People always like to say she's giving up so much but what is she actually giving up? The fantasy world? You mean the one that's currently ravaged by a child god and has a populace that she assumes will hate her? Yeah, that's hardly something to give up. The chance at friends? Too bad Thanks to Them shows people who are very interested in being her friend and also Yesterday's Lie showed there are people like Luz who would probably be willing to be her friend. What is Luz sacrificing by deciding to just sit at home with her loving mom and live a normal life?

So why grow? Why learn? Why try to do better? When you can do nothing. That's what Luz wants to do. She wants to just stay home and do nothing, even as that means condemning an entire world, bare minimum at least a continent, which includes her found family and friends, to death. Her claims of trying to do better are nothing but excuses so she can have a clear conscious as she allows thousands upon thousands to be enslaved and tortured.

So yes, she SAYS that she is doing this because she doesn't want to make things worse. The problem is that there are plenty of ways for her to still have even attempted to help without having to make the decisions she's afraid to make worse but those options would require more work and require her not to be the star. And none of this, even if this is the most expanded version of this point, is missing from those past blogs because they also talk about how she claims to have a problem making decisions and yet still makes this choice entirely on her own.

Because she isn't learning. She's just deciding that some broken puppets are a small price to pay to keep getting to do whatever she wants. It is an excuse, end of story. See you next tale.

======+++++======

Sorry for so many blogs about this. It's admittedly to me a very important point because it's the moment Lumity dies. It's the moment that Luz's character can never recover. It's the moment when the TOH fandom became genuinely horrifying when it comes to mental health as THANK GOD no one has tried to refute this with "She has depression" because yes, that will get you blocked if you try to tell me that. I am disabled by depression and I understand lives still matter. I understand I'm not supposed to lie, CONSTANTLY. I understand basic ass morality, unlike Luz. And in this moment, there's no turning back for her, let alone after For the Future when she doubles down on how selfish her desires are.

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead. If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

A Twitter you can follow too

And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

AITA for telling my friend that our mutual friend doesn't care for us as much as we care about her?

'Harriet' (20F), 'Daisy' (19F) and I (20F) have been friends since we were kids. 6 years ago Harriet was forced to leave the country - we planned on all meeting again once we were adults and could afford it.

Daisy has wanted to visit Harriet for over a year now, but I've been reluctant because Harriet never shows the same interest. She never seems very excited when the topic is brought up, and I also find it questionable that we should have to visit her rather than the other way around, considering there are two of us here and one of her over there.

Daisy admits that Harriet doesn't reply to her texts that much, and I barely talk to Harriet at all nowadays. It does make me sad but I don't want to spend my money going to see someone who doesn't really want to see me. Daisy has been abandoned and let down by her friends time and time again, and basically never gives up on people. She has a lot of insecurities about people secretly hating her, which is why I could never bring myself to tell her how I really felt. After all, I don't think that Harriet hates us, I just think she's moved on with her life.

About a week ago I found out that about a year after Harriet was forced to leave, she returned to the country without telling anyone - I guess this was to visit family. I found out from a mutual friend who lives in the same country as Harriet. I was shocked and angry that she hadn't said anything - I would have been prepared to travel to whatever part of the country she was staying in just to see her. I was especially shocked because she was still very close to Daisy and I at this point, so I didn't understand why she would lie. She would constantly talk about how badly she wanted to see us, but was in the same country as us and didn't say anything!

Yesterday Daisy brought up the topic of visiting Harriet again, and with the information that I now have, I found myself unable to keep my thoughts to myself. I told Daisy that Harriet has moved on and that we shouldn't waste our money on her, and that if she cared that much she would make more of an effort to talk to us, or even visit us herself. I also told her about my recent discovery.

Daisy was really sad and started crying over the phone, saying that she didn't understand why no one wanted to stay friends with her. I felt awful and did my best to comfort her, explaining to her that I didn't think Harriet had any bad feelings towards her and that she had just grown distant over time. This didn't really seem to help though and she hung up and hasn't been online since.

To be honest I'm still confused about a lot of things, like why Harriet lied about not being able to visit before, but I still think that what I said was fair. I don't want Daisy to waste her affection on someone who doesn't feel the same way. I will admit that I hold a lot of resentment towards Harriet due to messed up things she has done to me in the past - however, I don't think I've been blinded by my anger towards her, I think the conclusion I came to was fair and unbiased. Still, I feel guilty, since what I said seems to have badly affected Daisy, and maybe I'm biased against Harriet without knowing? So, AITA?

[erika111111]

The Quary and queer-baiting

It's a pretty known issue within The Quarry fanbase that this game basically set us up with two gay couples for them to just... not happen. In fact, it's almost as if the game rubs it in the players' faces that they don't, won't, and can't happen, besides the first half of the game setting them up rather clearly. It feels like the writers completely abandoned the idea halfway through, or for some reason just wanted to draw players in with the concept of queer relationships/characters just to rip it away in the end.

Disclaimer: This topic has been in my rough drafts for like, nearly two years at this point. I updated and added some stuff, but forgive me if I missed any crucial details.

So in the beginning, a lot of people wind up shipping both Ryan x Dylan (Rylan) and Emma x Abigail (Blygbank). Let's start with Blygbank since it's the shorter of the two.

So we do establish that Emma had a boyfriend, but the keyword is "had." To be fair, Jacob and Kaitlyn talk about it for the entire first section and that's the whole reason this game even happens, since Jacob wants another shot with Emma. So this straight couple is obviously very prominent. But, throughout the entire game, from multiple characters (Emma herself, Kaitlyn, Dylan, Ryan), it's repeatedly stated that Emma wants to move on from Jacob. Then we're introduced to Abigail, who's first scene is of her drawing a sketch of Emma. It's established that Emma and Abi are good friends. Maybe Emma and Abi will start a relationship? But, then we're introduced to Abi's crush on Nick. So I guess that idea just got blown out of the water...

To be fair, Emma's lack of interest in Jacob and Abi sketching Emma all happens very quickly within the first chapter. Perhaps it's the players' fault for jumping to that conclusion so quickly... but still.

What's more disappointing is that Abi and Nick are basically useless after chapter 6. There is actually yet another opportunity to develop some Blygbank relationship, but once again, it goes nowhere. Nick is bit and infected and starts acting absolutely horrible toward Abi, which very noticeably turns Abi off from him. Then Nick disappears for the rest of the game. But given Abi survives, she'll have another opportunity to have some alone time with Emma. Yet nothing of actual importance is discussed here. Not Emma kissing Nick. Not how Nick treated Abi. Not where Abi and Emma's relationship stands. Not where Emma and Jacob's relationship stands. We do get a moment where Emma reveals some of her true colors and she says that she needs Abi and she's been great to her, but once again, this goes nowhere. I guess we could see this as romantic, but Abi kind of seems just tired of and annoyed with Emma at this point and doesn't comment much about any of it. Basically there's just no conclusion. We have literally no idea where their relationship stands, romantically or otherwise. It's a huge missed opportunity.

While you can't get both of these scenes in the same playthrough, they do also push the Blygbank agenda. If you can get the "Nobody's Fool" route where Emma and Jacob reunite and Jacob tells her the truth, Emma will be completely and entirely done with Jacob. No more joking, no more mixed signals, she's just done. Which is kind of where the entire game was leading to from the beginning anyway, but this route gives it to us loud and clear. This accompanied with Abi and Nick going south again leaves us with a Blygbank option, but obviously, we get none of it. I know there's not much time left in the game by the time any of these scenes happen; maybe this is something else that could've been developed if we got any post-credits scenes, police interviews, I don't know. Again, maybe I'm reaching way too far with this one, but I think there's pretty good reason to ship Blygbank and assume maybe that's the direction they planned on going in. But I digress...

Onto part two, we have Rylan. And... Ryka? I have no idea what the ship name for Ryan x Kaitlyn is and I don't know if shippers for this couple even exist, so I'll just call them Ryka. And they're not a queer couple, but it's necessary to talk about the two at the same time.

I'll be honest, during my first several playthoughs/watchthroughs of The Quarry, I had no idea Kaitlyn was interested in Ryan. They do not do a good job of establishing that at all, and you can very easily miss every single opportunity for it to be brought up until chapter freaking nine. So honestly, Kaitlyn is pretty much a non-factor here. Dylan's crush on Ryan is very vocal and obvious, and the two are paired up very often throughout the game. Even if Kaitlyn's crush on Ryan was more well-known, Dylan is still the more obvious one between the two because, again, Dylan and Ryan are always paired up together.

Ryan is rather... uninterested in everything and everyone. But between everyone, he seems closest to Dylan. Of course, this can depend on how you play as both characters. You can make them argue A LOT, and Ryan won't always say the "I'm a bit closer to Dylan, I guess" line, but regardless, there's some scenes with them being close that will always happen. The most prominent scene between them is when they're walking to the radio hut and Dylan actually opens up to Ryan about who he is and what he likes to do. Ryan will have unwavering, non-negotiable interest in Dylan as a person here. Sure, they CAN kiss at the firepit, but Ryan can also choose to kiss Kaitlyn. They can joke around about the Bizarre Yet Bonafide podcast name, or they can't. They can agree over the gun, or they can argue instead. Ryan can cheer Dylan on or rush him. They can grab the phones and go or Dylan can annoy Ryan so much, he'll yell at him. Point being, there's a lot of options you can take with their relationship. You can make them close or you can make them bicker. Regardless, Dylan will remain interested. And regardless, they will have this intimate moment together on the way to the radio hut. Point being again, it's veryyyy obvious this a queer relationship in the making. Justice Smith is even a queer actor, and Miles Robbins is a very vocal supporter of the LGBTQ+ community.

Then Laura comes and fucks the whole thing up. And I love Laura, mind you, but for some reason the writers decided to take this whole ship and spin it on its head when Laura arrives.

Before we get into the Laura segment, let me point a few more things out. I personally thought that Ryan was maybe oblivious to Dylan and Kaitlyn's feelings, didn't really know which one he liked more, or most prominently, maybe he was asexual. When Emma tells him to kiss either Dylan or Kaitlyn, he asks if he can kiss both. I thought that was kind of an odd thing to say unless he either liked both or just didn't care. Also, he can ask Laura, "You're doing all of this for a boy?" He really seems like he doesn't understand this kind of love or investment in another person romantically. Upon discovering that line, I pretty much accepted Ryan as asexual.

But then he's not asexual. And he's not oblivious to Dylan and Kaitlyn's feelings. And he's not interested in either of them. According to Justice Smith himself, when Laura asks Ryan who he likes more and he answers with "Maybe neither," it means that Ryan has a crush on Laura. And I truly don't get this, for several reasons. For starters, yes, Laura is doing all of this for a boy--her boyfriend, Max. She literally has a boyfriend already. And Ryan already had a thing going with Dylan. So why, seven whole chapters through this entire game, giving us LauraMax and Rylan, do they suddenly pair together Lyan? It's just a creative decision I will never understand. Maybe if Laura and Max had broken up, but still. She's not reintroduced until chapter 7 so we've already had six chapters of Rylan still. Maybe they could have made it more obvious from the beginning that Ryan wasn't interested in Dylan or Kaitlyn, but they just didn't do that. They particularly paired Ryan and Dylan up all the time and made them close. So, I call queer-baiting.

Of course, Lyan never goes anywhere. The only ending you can get that involves any kind of romance is actually Laura and Max reuniting. Laura and Ryan's romance happens in basically two seconds and there's barely any romance to even speak of. Laura does flirt with him a lot, but I believe that's due to the werewolf curse, as she stops that kind of behavior after her curse is lifted. They do seem to be close friends by then, she just doesn't flirt anymore or make weird comments. And really neither does Ryan. Sure, you don't always get the "maybe neither" line and you can choose less flirty options sometimes, but then they have a whole ass The Lovers card. So it's extremely obvious what the developers were going for. I just don't understand why suddenly go for this couple eight chapters through after already establishing a gay couple with Ryan himself and Dylan.

The only other thing we get on this matter is Dylan and Kaitlyn discussing Ryan's relationship with Laura on their way to the scrapyard. The most positive outcome for Rylan here is when Dylan says he and Ryan got close and Kaitlyn tells him "There's always next year." So it does give a bit of hope to this ship, leaving it open-ended despite the sudden occurrence of Lyan. Of course, you might not always get these lines, and Dylan and Kaitlyn can both agree "screw Ryan" and move on. So... I don't fucking know. It's like they purposefully set players up to support this clearly laid out queer ship of Rylan to then make it all insanely confusing and open-ended and piss people off. I think they really fumbled the bag with this one, and it's why I have a hard time shipping Ryan with literally anyone. It's all just a confusing mess.

I'd definitely say that the whole Supermassive Games chain of video games definitely got less queer-baity and more queer accepting over time. Just a few months later, The Devil in Me is released and they give us a Lesbian ship with Jamie and Erin. Also, with the Until Dawn remake, they cranked up the Jemily and Climbing Class. Not by much, mind you, but regardless, they acknowledged the popularity of these queer couples in the fanbase and added some crumbs for the players. It makes me wonder if they'll ever delve on Blygbank or Rylan in the future. I'm doubting The Quarry will ever get a remaster/remake with added content like Until Dawn, but who knows, I guess. As I said, both ships are pretty much left open-ended. But for now, I think The Quarry has a serious problem with queer-baiting, or maybe they just had no idea how to handle writing queer characters. I really don't know.

Lastly, none of this was supposed to be negative or attacking any single one of the ships mentioned in this post. I don't know how anything I said could be interpreted that way, but you never know. This post was just supposed to be informative. I hear a lot of people criticizing the queer-baiting within this game, as they should, and I decided to make an informative post covering all of the points and how I believe they screwed up the opportunities to put in these queer couples and somewhat alienate their queer audience.

[laurarolla]

Arknights dropped the "Babel" event last week and I did actually read through almost all of it (I got interrupted by something partway through the introduction of the Doctor and ended up never reading that cutscene), and it's an interesting mix of various story elements and character histories. What interests me most is our final answer to the origins of the Doctor and the precursors, as well as the purpose of Originium.

The simplest way to describe Originium, as best I can gather, is that it is a possibly primordial element that the precursors discovered/theorized contained a collective universe of consciousness, or could be used for that purpose. Civlight Eterna is an originium art that can tap into this element of Originium to connect to history, providing a potentially perfect understanding to the one using it. This power, passed through the Black Crown, is not unlike the ability of a Newtype, connecting across conciousness through time and without limitations. However, it can also create physical manifestations of power pulled from that history and those connections, as seen with Ying Xiao, Amiya's sword that was created from the memories of Chen's Chi Xiao in Chapter 8.

In an effort to either overcome or escape the threat of some unnamed malevolent force, the precursors created or modified Terra to serve as a garden of Originium, intending to create that collective consciousness for their own ends. The mastermind behind this project, as far as Oracle (the true original Doctor) and Friston have stated is Priestess, who was set up as the next big narrative mystery to solve or explain post-Victoria. The story of Babel shows a version of the Doctor struggling to deal with the moral dilemma created when living, sentient creatures were born on Terra after the start of the experiment.

Kal'tsit went on a whole personal journey to eventually come to the conclusion that the life on Terra has a right to make their own future, and that any of the intentions of the "experiment" should be abandoned. Oracle comes to the same conclusion, with dialouge options the player must specifically click on as they do when speaking for the Doctor in most parts of the story. However, some other voice inside the Doctor's head keeps pushing them to continue the mission, leading to the tragedy of Theresa's murder and Amiya's crowning. Additionally, Theresa took her last moments to destroy the Doctor's memories, an act that Oracle accepts as necessary. It's likely that only be destroying the Doctor's memories could the Doctor be free of Priestess's influence, allowing them to pursue the path that Oracle, their true self and OUR version of the Doctor, would prefer.

Other little highlights of the event for me include: Getting to see Savage in the history of Babel, the Vampire lord continuing to be a repugnant and irredeemable prick, Ascalon defeating a sociopathic enemy by overwhelming his precognition abilities, little Amiya and the Doctor riding a big animal, and Theresis just being the big old complicated walking catastrophe that he's always been.

Oh, and the chain mechanic is pretty awesome, with the EX stages really requiring you to think very carefully about how you need to deploy to actually use the chains effectively. Probably in my top 5 event mechanics in the game overall.

[rosemarydisaster]

I feel like Chani choosing to save Paul through the prophecy would make their reconciliation so much easier. I really dislike Jessica's use of the voice in general but especially at this moment.

It would have been such a great moment of tension with herself, completely devastated by the loss of her Usul. And then she remembers... the tears of the desert spring, a stupid prophecy. She isn't sure that's how it works. The desert spring is supposed to be a metaphor for the ecological change, right? But it is her name and she does feel like crying. She isn't convinced it will work because it's a silly prophecy, but she just has to try.

She springs into action she grabs the water of life and Jessica tries to stop her, probably thinking she's trying to join Paul. But Stilgar, who knows Chani's, name stops her. And Jessica sees her mix the tears with the water of life, she know another drop of it might either kill Paul or bring him back so she let's it happen, hoping for the best. We get some much needed nuance with her character, clearly worried about her son and asking Alia "what have we done?".

Chani, who doesn't believe in religious prophecies nor Bene Gesserit bullshit holds the two drops to Paul's mouth. A part of her simply wants to show everyone how stupid this is, how there's no prophecy, and how they're fanaticism has killed a great man. But then Paul wakes up.

The relief, the horror, the completely upending of her entire belief system... chef's kiss. She isn't sure if this is some Bene Gesserit thing, if Paul was pretending so he could get her to fulfill the prophecy. And then she hears Stilgar's voice "Tears of the desert spring".

Everyone around them drops to worship the Lisan Al-Gaib. Jessica is relieved, Stilgar is overjoyed and she's just confused. Paul tries to hold her, tk kiss her to thank her but she isn't ready. She feels tricked. She has spent her entire life believing one thing and now nothing makes sense.

So she keeps her distance, she tries to resist the prophecy that Paul himself called bullshit but she's confused. She isn't going to abandon her conviction that their savior must be Fremen. She remembers Paul asking in the tent if he's not Fremen enough after passing every test and she doubts.

She fights for the Fremen at the battle for Arrakeen, she does her part and she wonders if she had any choice at all. And then the thing with the princess happens, and she's distraught. Paul reassures her that he will love her as long as he breathes and it comforts her. At least until she remembers how he stopped breathing after the water of life. What's worst, he declares himself an emperor, forcing the old man to kiss his hand like a petulant child. And he threatens to destroy the spice if people don't accept him as their new ruler ...is too much.

She made a promise too, to love him as long as he remained himself. He changed and the most frightening thing is that she still loves him. She needs space, she needs the desert.

This would offer the possibility of Paul finding her and saying "You are angry at me for participating in the prophecy to save this planet but you used it to save me when you thought I was dying". He could try to convince her with that whole "when everything and everyone you love is at stake you'll take whatever chance you get" which is kinda how he locks himself in that specific future in the books.

I don't know they could have a conversation on how things would be different if he had died in Siege Tabur or after the water of life. He would explain to her (and the audience) the narrow golden path, and how the alternatives are so much worse.

I think it would be interesting if Chani comes to the conclusion that she has to end Paul's tyranny out of love, because her Usul would rather die than become a monster. But she pretends to accept Paul's argument (the audience unsure if she does buy it or not). That would set the stage for Dune Messiah much better and have a very interesting dynamic between the two (specially for that ending).

Jessica forcing her doesn't accomplish anything it only confirms for Chani that the Profe y is some Bene Gesserit bullshit (Jessica calls for her and forces her to do it). The reconciliation is going to be so much more difficult after that. Also, for a guy that wants to tell "a bene Gesserit story" the director is misusing Jessica. If they let her be more manipulative (talking to Alia about how the drop from the water of life will trigger the reaction for him to wake up) we could see how the prophecy is planted while allowing the Fremen to believe something magical happened. It would open Chani to her manipulation...but no, she had to scream.

I feel like, for all that they show us Jessica manipulating the religious people, that scene left a lot of people confused. I saw the people at the theater saying "wait so the prophecy is real" which is the last thing you want to do in a Dune adaptation.

What I described would only take two more minutes (and a lot of acting) but I think it would make the themes clearer and make Chani and Jessica a bit more interesting. I liked the movie but this is one of those moments I simply can't understand, specially from a fan of the Bene Gesserit.

[fairy-without-a-tail]

Why do people forget Juvia is a grown woman? What adult decides ‘yeah, I’m just going to sit in the rain until this guy comes back no matter how long it might be’. Six months! What if it’d been even slightly longer? With no healer, Juvia would have killed herself, and it would have been her fault. It’s not romantic it’s stupidity.

She followed Gray. And it is canonically said that she kept trying to sleep with him (in the bed but I think we all know she probably wanted something more) and Gray had to push her out.

The rain came back because she was obsessed with Gray and made everything about her, him. That’s not healthy!

Not leaving a note was dumb (and a dick move). However with the way she acts, what is the chance she’ll try to follow him? And she couldn’t join Avatar because she’d blow their cover. Gray had personal reasons to join, he had devil slayer magic, he was the perfect choice. Juvia had none of those. And whose to say they’d get any information because Juvia would be possessive (especially around Briar).

I just wish the writers and fans would give Juvia the respect she deserves. Because no one respects her, not really. We can say she acts the way she does because of her trauma and obvious abandonment issues, but how many years will it take of her character not changing until we can say ‘she deserves better’? A love interest that has shown to care about her romantically (and not just shoved in after years), a true friendship with another woman, becoming the powerhouse she was when she was first introduced. If anyone respected her they’d want her character to grow, to change, to become more than just her love for Gray. I don’t like her behaviour towards Gray, obviously, because it’s extremely toxic and creepy, however I also don’t like it because that’s all her character seems to be. I liked Juvia when she was introduced and I thought her little crush on Gray was cute. But it didn’t end. And like I said at the start, Juvia sitting in the rain for six months isn’t just stupid, it’s an insult to her character.

If a guy (or girl) isn’t showing you any interest or not being clear, stop trying to get him to. (And maybe it’s just me, but throughout the series I’ve always registered Gray’s behaviour towards Juvia as a clear ‘no’. Take that scene during GMG, when Erza tells him to be clear…he has been! He has shown no romantic interest. How is it Gray’s flaw if Juvia can’t take a hint or see what’s in front of her? Why is no one telling her that maybe she should cut her losses. If he wants to be with her, he will be. (And maybe it’s just me again, but spending all your time with one person isn’t going to endear them to you. It’s going to smother them.) (For goodness sake, the dialogue in the game even has Gray saying he doesn’t feel like his body is safe).

In conclusion, Juvia is more than her love for Gray and deserves to be seen as such.

[zuko-always-lies]

Hey, as a long viewer of your anti iroh posts, which, as a person who just recently watched ATLA, I have a very controversial theory/headcanon based on my knowledge of general psychology (not a psychologist so disregard if incorrect) and perspective of Iroh's character and by the attitude of his fans that can possibly get me hate messages and even death threats. So I came to the conclusion that Iroh expresses an uncomfortable character of NPD or particularly a certain "sub" that you will, being Benevolent/Vulnerable Narcissim.

Iroh loves to present himself as "wise, kind and fatherly," but his actions showcase the total opposite, and his supposed identity appears far more shallow and self-centred. He never properly mentors or shows to really know Zuko. Instead, he simply uses Zuko to serve as his act of penance, which is why he never meaningfully teaches Zuko to become a better person or to realise that his father is at fault and that his sister is not his real enemy. But no, instead, he lays off to do the bare minimum. He shows less to no remorse for Zuko's predicament that was caused by him for not standing up to his brother when he was banished. Nor does Iroh show any for Zuko's victims. Instead, Iroh operates under the mindset that supporting Zuko and making him Firelord will accomplish his penance. His lack of care for Azula is precisely because she is an obstacle not just for Zuko but for his "penance" as well.

It's also interesting the lack of self-awareness that Iroh has. He calls Azula crazy for doing what he did for decades. The only difference is that Azula genuinely cares for her nation while Iroh doesn't really care except his glory. He sent his son to the front lines to fight his own battles for him, which isn't that different from Ozai's treatment of Azula and Zuko. Oh, and at the finale, what does he do? Send Zuko and Katara into danger while abandoning them to satisfy his selfish desire. Of course, as you mentioned, he also doesn't live up to his own "wisdom" instead using that wisdom to appear smart and confuse others. Because in all honesty, Zuko NEVER applies any of Iroh's suppose wisdom because Iroh doesn't ever think to teach BLUNTLY to Zuko, like any basic teacher can look at Iroh and already have their hands in their face, but of course the further issue is that instead of applying basic healthy logic, Iroh instead utilises the toxic sibling rivalry to manipulate Zuko into becoming his "perfect" son. Zuko becomes a better person despite Iroh not because of him, Zuko's "metamorphosis" (aka breakdown) is the best example of how unhealthy Iroh's parenting is.

Iroh is also shameless when it comes to his mistakes. He never feels guilt or apologises to June for his blatant sexual harassment. He has no shame for being friends with the Rough Rhinos or assisting Zhao in the further conquest and bloodshed of the Northen Water Tribe. He never thinks or comes clean with his crimes against the Earth Kingdom, instead choosing to profit off the very same people he victimised. He never apologises to Zuko for being a shitty mentor/Uncle.

Iroh reminds me of ALOT of narcissistic so called "benevolent" or "vulnerable" people who will appear kind and even express self hatred but only for further validation and without taking risks or responsibility whatsoever for their mistakes, instead blaming others or doing "good" little things to create a narrative that they are "saints" and that people who disagree or despise them are "crazy or evil".

This might be far-fetched, but when you consider that to this day, the majority of ATLA fans have been juiced in this narrative that Iroh = 50 year old warmonger is a Saint who should be worshipped and that Zuko should be "thankful and grateful" of said Iroh, and that Azula = 14 year old abused child soldier who did the least messed up things and is the youngest member is demonised for being "crazy" and even Aang gets treated inferior to Iroh, well it already feels right at home with typical narcissistic narratives

I've had similar thoughts myself, but I really don't like applying medical diagnoses to fictional characters living in a very different society, so I never quite articulated them. Certainly Iroh seems to be an extraordinarily self-centered person who puts major effort into pretending not be so self-centered.

[vellichorom]

I really like your headcanons for Cori and totally agree with them!

And if you don’t mind my asking, what did you dislike about the recent episodes of Chikn Nuggit? Because personally I dislike a lot of it too…the whole shift to lore has been kind of jarring for me and I also think things were resolved too easily.

THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH, THAT MAKES ME VERY HAPPY!

& OMG THANK YOU FOR ASKING because god i've been pissed. with one episode they made me hate that stupid yellow dog

HERE'S THE THING, RIGHT. i don't even mind the shift from slapstick shenanigans in youtube short format to something that illustrates a bit more lore. in FACT, i thought the way they were going about it was very interesting! having chikn realize his ultimate power & being due to a moment of vulnerability & having been manipulated some by bezel therein,

however,

this is all cheezborger's fault. for some fucking stupid reason

LET'S BACK UP A MINUTE. cheezborger got the girl! she's all excited about it & prioritizing her girlfriend above all, as i think we all do when we're excited; we make whatever we're excited our entire worldview for a bit, it happens!

chikn, at least from my perspective, sees this - sees that all of his friends are busy doing stuff without him or have their " significant other " where he does not - with cheezborger, his best most important friend, caught up in the moment, & he feels left out. he feels like a " third wheel " &- with all of his friends occupied with something or someone else, he's all alone & feels bad. i've been there a few times, i get it. in that moment of vulnerability does bezel take advantage & PUSH chikn to realize his power & potential, to control his friends or control the world & make things how he wants them to be.

suddenly the plot goes from " chikn suffering from third wheel grief " to " chikn coming to terms with the fact that he's a god & his powers have unintendedly warped his friends. we're taking all the nonsense seriously suddenly " okay. interesting. so chikn ascends to god form & starts fucking up the whole world because he believes that's what he's MEANT to do. the conclusion of his spiraling is realizing that he was meant to cause chaos & rip apart the world? ok. i think we jumped a bit far, how & when did he decide that

now we're leaning really hard into the ' i have to do this because it's my DESTINY ' trope. okay. did you come to this conclusion after deciding you don't need your friends? or realizing that you're the god of everything & therefore such menial things don't matter? did bezel coach you more than we see through the shorts? i don't remember there being an episode dedicated to chikn's sudden snap of character, thus we just never find out where that leap in logic came from.

so the world's ending but fwench fwy & iscream manage to trap chikn for 5 seconds. chee intervenes & tries to get through to him, despite all his bullshit ramblings of " go away i'm a god this is my destiny, " this WORKS. chee pulls him from his divine spiral & all's fine now.

except chikn, IN FRONT OF EVERYONE MIND YOU - NOT IN PRIVATE, blames cheezborger for it. he's like " you ditched me & that wasn't very nice, you need to make time for all your friends "

LIKE OH OKAY. BUZZFEED YOU JUST KILLED THE VIBE.

cheezborger's excitement for her new girlfriend might have been the tipping point & the technical catalyst of this all, but not at any fault of her own. she did not do this maliciously or purposefully & i hate the way chikn says she " ditched " him. no she did not you horrible mutt she politely declined your offers to hang out because she was busy with her girlfriend, & YES IT CAN BE UPSETTING WHEN YOUR FRIEND CAN'T HANG WITH YOU BECAUSE THEY GET CAUGHT UP IN SOMETHING THEY LIKE, BUT SHE DID NOT DITCH OR ABANDON YOU SHE JUST GOT BUSYYYY

it's circumstances. chee didn't do anything " wrong ", things just happened & chikn couldn't take being apart from his friend or not having what all his other friends had & downspiralled + got manipulated by bezel.

chee gets called out in PUBLIC for " ditching " chikn when she really didn't & this is turned into a big lesson about " managing all your friends " ( kiss my ass buzzfeed your usual social lessons aren't going to fly with this one ), in essence blaming chee for the apocalypse despite the initial start of the arc having gone unaddressed since the beginning.

OH & GET THIS, we blame chee for being excited but bezel, THE ONE PUSHING FOR TOTAL DESTRUCTION OF THE WORLD & ACTIVELY MANIPULATING CHIKN TO DO IT, gets a literal slap on the wrist chikn nor anybody else calls him out for being a gigantic prick, he's just like " i fowgive u let's be fwiends " & we leave it at that apparently. are you fucking for real. that straight up smells misogynistic & straight up shitty regardless. this COMING from the stupid little youtube shorts series all about validating everyone & equality & being kind to people too just feels a PARTICULAR kind of rancid.

& yeah whatever it's a rinkydink silly buzzfeed show where every character is named some woobified or joke rendition of a food product ( chikn nuggit, cheezborger, fwench fwy - so on ), BUT I FEEL LIKE THEY WERE DOING A VALUABLE SERVICE & DOING PRETTY GOOD FOR BEING A RINKYDINK SILLY YOUTUBE SHORTS SERIES !!!!! they had such good intentions & good lessons in mind...

& then this happens. it just puts SUCH a bad taste in my mouth now, you know? & it's honest to god so disappointing! & INFURIATING

that ending was a total BUST & relaying it back now, THE PLOT OF THAT ARC IS ALL OVER THE PLACE. it can't at all decide what the point of itself was & ended SO poorly. i'll forgive the pacing because this is a youtube shorts series MEANT to be done relatively quickly & chikn nuggit isn't necessarily a show you're going to expect a masterpiece of, right. it's endearingly imperfect

but god that ending. this entire arc. fuck it all man fuck that dog

oh wow i wrote down a lot but YEAH. VERY UPSETTING. hopefully this was an entertaining read or i just look insane to my friends

THANK YOU FOR ASKING! been LOOKING for an excuse to be upset on main

[aihoshiino]

Hey! I’ve been hearing a debate pretty recently about Kana’s character, especially after 151. Some are saying that Aka is weakening her character…ignoring her past development..reducing her to a love interest…etc, stuff along those lines, by making her dream be just being Aqua’s idol. What’s your take on this?

Saying this with the full awareness that i am Asking For It by phrasing it like this but. this honestly just feels like a bad faith read by people who already don't like aqukana/kana in particular LOL. Like... idk, I can get being frustrated by the sudden swing over to all the romcom stuff again when we have A Potential Serial Killer just kind of vibing in the background, but Kana -> Aqua is something that's been part of the series for over a hundred and thirty chapters. It was going to need resolving before the series ended regardless of whether they actually hook up or not and it's baffling to me that people are throwing this accusation at Kana's arc when like... sorry, but Ruby is right there, lol

Like, if we're going to talk about 'ignoring past development' and 'reducing her to a love interest' whose dreams revolve around a romance with Aqua... is that not just describing Ruby since 123? Everything to do with Sarina's trauma of abandonment and emotional abuse at Marina's hands and the way it continues to affect Ruby, Ruby being triggered and retraumatized by having to engage with material depicting Ai's abuse at Ayumi's hands, the way she mistreated and took Kana & Mem for granted while she was clout chasing and how that caused fan backlash against those two while they did their best to keep B-Komachi afloat for her - all that shit goes out the window at mach speed once she finds out Aqua is Gorou and she spends the majority of her screentime after that gushing over her oniichansensei and having her narrative recentered around her obsession with Gorou. Never mind how bizarrely she'd flanderized and dumbed down she is in relation to it all.

(Note in advance: shout out to this thread by KizzityKaito on Twitter that I stumbled on while I was chewing on this ask that helped me to articulate some of the stuff re: Kana that I was kind of struggling to put to words - I don't agree w/the whole thread but I think the Kana analysis here & 'reincarnation as child acting' is fascinating and really in line with what OnK seems to be going for.)

By contrast with Kana... this feels consistent to me! This feels like additive characterization building on top of and not contradicting what came before. I've seen people frothing and screaming about her talk vis-a-vis being an actress not being her 'dream' but like... that just kind of checked out to me?? Kana is an actress. If that's her 'dream', she's already achieved it, as she says. Everything else has been her fighting and clawing to hold onto it. That's what she means when she says she didn't have any dreams; for Kana, becoming a nationally recognize actress again isn't a dream because it's just a return to the status quo.

Not only that, but like... being an actress wasn't even necessarily Kana's dream in the first place! She herself outright says it - it was enforced onto her by her abusive mom so she could live vicariously through her.

That's not to say Kana hasn't found her own spark for acting and that she isn't deeply passionate about it in her own way. But again, this is something Kana already has. A 'dream' is something you want to achieve - it's something you, well, dream about. And if you read between the lines, Kana's dream has never really been about acting.

It's about love. It's about Kana feeling secure in her relationships with the people she loves.

I think a lot of people are taking Kana's words in 151 entirely at face value and just... totally failing to read the subtext because they've been ignoring her all this time and now her arc is actually coming to a climax they don't know what the conclusion is building off of lol. Kana's 'dream' right now is something pitifully simple - to have the boy she loves not even return her feelings necessarily, but just to say that in his eyes, she shines brighter than anyone else.

[onemeangreenbean]

Chapter 9

SUMMARY: On the precipice of death Wynter does the only thing she can think to do to save herself. Something that is forbidden in her practice….to summon a demon and make a deal. The demon that answers her call ask what Wynter is offering  and in her delirious state she answers with the only thing she can think of  “Anything”.

PAIRING: Demon!Yoongi x BlackWitch OC 

GENRE: Demon AU, Mystery, Strangers to Lovers, Soulmates, Smut, Fluff, Angst, slowburn

WARNINGS: violence, gore, murder (maybe), eventual smut, panic attacks, honestly my brain has stopped but promise each chapter with have individual warnings!

WORDCOUNT: 6,689

A/N: Hey guys! I'm back from the dead! Long story short moved into my first home and IMMEDIATELY got laid off from my job.....all that to say I am now more stable and less depressed. I have been working on this story so she is not abandoned. I can't say that the updates will be consistent but I have written up to Chapter 12! That being said if anyone is interested in beta reading please let me know. I need someone to help hold me accountable for writing 😭. Anywho, love ya'll bunches XOXO!

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Anything Masterlist | Masterlist

“Are you sure you’re feel alright?” It was what felt like the hundredth time that Namjoon had asked Wynter that same question. Rolling her eyes she continued to sweep up the non-existent dust that was on the floor. Keeping busy was not helping her from not zoning out. In Namjoon’s defense he was still unsure if the effects of the potion had really worn off and didn’t leave any lasting effects. Wynter had reassured him numerous times that morning that it had not and that she had felt perfectly fine. 

���Yes.” Her tone coming out more clipped than usual. Less because of the concerned owner and more because of her raging and unprocessed emotions swirling in her head. To say that she was confused would be an understatement. After yesterday it was like every single thought, feeling, that she had successfully locked away in a little box in a dusty corner of her head regarding Yoongi exploded, leaving nothing but chaos in it’s wake. Not helped by the fact that she woke up this morning  to him not forcefully waking her up but instead to a full course breakfast that he had made. 

She was leary about what it was for - lowkey traumatized by the time he spelled the food to make it unbearably spicy because in his words “all food could be tampered with. Even by those you trust”.  Wynter had cussed him out for that once she had downed most of the milk. So when she questioned him before taking a bite this morning he had simply stated that she deserved a break after yesterday. It made her suspicious. 

All month he had basically been missing and now suddenly he was  gently waking her up with the small of an american style breakfast. When he had time to even learned to make that type of food only confused her further. The only conclusion was that he was planning on throwing some big test her way. Either way though now with her emotions all over the place it was hard to not conflate his act of “goodwill” with something deeper. 

Gasping Wynter stopped mid-sweep. What if he heard her yesterday? She felt her body heat up from the sheer embarrassment of the mere thought that he knew that she had masturbated. Even more that she masturbated to the some of the most deprived thoughts of him. Fuck, she even said his name. Groaning hung her head in shame as she continued cleaning. In her defense it wasn’t really her fault. She was under magical influence that exacerbated her very real, very deeply hidden, feelings for said demon. 

“Are you sure-”

“If you ask me that one more time I’m going to throw this broom at your face.” Wynter huffed as Namjoon mouth opened and closed as he tried to find a response. “It honestly didn’t last but a few hours. I felt normal by the time I went to bed last night.” Did it have to do with what was probably the most powerful orgasm she had given herself? Maybe, but Namjoon didn’t need to know that. 

Reluctantly nodding, the shaman went back to counting down the cash register. Making her way over to her little workstation in the corner, Wynter went about putting up the ingredients and materials she had used that day. Smiling a bit to herself she was happy that Namjoon had enough faith in her to allow her to start fixing candles and making small charms in the shop. It took some of the stress of doing all of the spellwork off of him and allowed him to focus on doing work for their actually magical clientele. 

The smell of orange and rose filled the air as Wynter wiped the area off with some Florida water. Humming to herself she blessed the space to prepare it for use the next day. Lost in her own little world she didn’t notice that Namjoon had walked over to her, “Wyn?”

Looking up she saw that the sliver haired shaman was standing directly in front of her, shifting his weight from side to side. Pushing his round framed glasses up with a long finger her cleared his throat. “I was wondering if you were busy this Sunday?” His voice came out stable but a slight tremble gave away that her was nervous. 

Unsure of where this was going Wynter slowing down wiping the counter until she stopped. Sunday’s were usually the days that Yoongi let her rest. Consisting of them mostly lazing about with her binge watching a new drama and Yoongi begrudgingly participating, but Wynter could tell he was secretly starting to get invested in the newest one they were watching. “I should be free. Did you need me to come in and work for a bit?”

Namjoon was quick to shake his head, “No that’s not it. Jin and Taehyung are going to watch the store that day.” Wynter’s eyes narrowed in question as a quizzical look overtook her face. “What I mean is that Tae had been talking about this new art exhibit that’s just opened up over in Samcheong-dong and I wanted to see if you would be interested in checking it out. With me?” 

Tilting her head slightly Wynter really took a moment to take him in and now very clear nervous disposition. “Like a date?” She question confusion coloring her tone, because she was genuinely confused. Never in a million would she had guess that Kim Namjoon would ask her out. Racking her brain she tried to figure out of there were any signs she missed. This must be the friend the Jin and Tae were talking about last month. She thought it was going to be one of the servers at Moon not their brother. Which just begs the question of how long had Namjoon like her. 

“Uh, yeah.” He said quietly, rubbing his hands together to try and disperse some of his anxious energy. Wynter stood in front of him, rag still in hand, at a lost for words. She wanted to say no, mostly out of habit, but other than the fact that he was her boss and mentor Wynter couldn’t find a valid reason. She knew that after that last date that she would have a hard time finding someone to accept the fact that she was tied to a demon. Though, if it was Namjoon she wouldn’t have to since he already knew. Maybe her feelings that she had for Yoongi were just misplaced. 

“Yeah. I would love to go out with you Sunday.” The words felt odd coming out of her mouth, but she chalked it up to not saying yes to an organic date in years. She didn’t count the blind date with Mrs. Kwon’s son. To her amusement Namjoon body sagged with relief at her yes, a blinding smile lighting up his face - dimples on full devastating display. “Wonderful! I’ll come pick you up around four if that works?” 

Wynter couldn’t help but smile back as she agreed to the time. “I should get going, but I’ll see you tomorrow?” Namjoon nodded as he clumsily made his way back to his workshop with a dopy grin on his face, tripping over his own feet every few steps. 

Laughing Wynter walked out of the shop with a mixture of excitement and confusion about what had just happened.

Yoongi had just put the kimchi on the table when he heard the front door open and close. He was proud of himself for getting the timing right. It had took a while to get the handle on gauging Wynter’s schedule but he had it pretty down at this point. “I didn’t really feel like cooking all that much so I just made some ramen-” Yoongi’s voice trailed off as he watched as Wynter plopped down at the small dining room table with a dazed look on her face. “What’s wrong?” His eyes scanned her for any injuries and his flicked through her mind for any hint as to what could be happening. 

“Namjoon asked me out on a date,” her voice sounded far away like she was still processing what had just happened. Pulling her hair out of her scrunchy she shook out the curls, fluffing them around her head. 

Yoongi paused his assessment and fixed her with a stare, “What did you say?” 

“Yeah.” Picking up her pink chopsticks she popped a piece of kimchi into her mouth. Chewing absentmindedly. Meanwhile Yoongi felt as though his entire world just stopped working because it would just be his luck that when he decided to pursue and lean into his feelings the shaman would finally make a move. Taking a calming breath he tried to keep his even. 

“Why?” It came out  bit rougher than he intended but Wynter was so in her head she didn’t even notice. 

Taking another piece of kimchi to eat, Wynter thought for a moment. “Well, he’s a really great man honestly. I mean he’s so good at what he does. Not only in the store but also as a shaman. I know you don’t get to see him work but the things that his mind comes up with. He’s so kind and compassionate too. I mean he’s a little clumsy but who isn’t. Plus I’d have to be blind to not notice how unbelievable hot he his, I mean have you seen his thighs. Though I’ve never looked at him that way because he’s my boss and my mentor so it seemed inappropriate but it’s been so long now that I think we’ve become equals in some ways.”

Yoongi could feel his temper raising with each word that Wynter rambled in praise of Kim Namjoon. It was like she was taking a red hot blade and stabbing him in the heart over and over again. His soft face harden as he tried to keep his jealousy in check but if this was a test he was failing spectacularly. “You’re not going?”

The finality of his tone made Wynter stop mid sentence and look over to where Yoongi was leaned on the counter his arms on either side of him. She could see where his hands were flexing from gripping the countertop. “Excuse me?” She needed him to repeat what he just said because she thought she heard him say that she couldn’t go on a date. 

“You heard me the first time,” Yoongi’s tone was as dark as his face as his stared her down. 

Scoffing in disbelief she threw her chopsticks down onto the table, “I’m so sorry but I thought I made it very clear the last time I went on a date that you do not get to dictate who I get to go out with.” 

“I’m not telling you that you can’t go out,” Yoongi felt his chest constrict a little at the lie. “What I’m saying is that you can’t go out with the shaman or really any of the Kim’s for that reason.” 

Crossing her arm Wynter laughed in his face, “Be so fucking for real right now. Whatever your deal is with the Kim’s leave me out of it cause I don’t have shit to do with it.” She could not believe him right now. To have the audacity to tell her who she could and could not date. “Your afraid that the big bad shamans are going to send you packing again,” Wynter mocked in a baby voice rolling her eyes. 

He felt it as his anger took over. The cheap table broke upon impact against the wall. Scattering broken dishes and food everywhere. Yoongi grabbed a fistfull her her soft locks at the back of her head, yanking it back forcing her eyes to his now fully black ones. Tears pricked the corner of Wynter’s eyes as she stared into his cold ones. “Do not forget who you are speaking to?” Yoongi’s voice was low and calm as he spoke to her. “If you would like to fuck your way up to the top of high shaman society I won’t stop you, but remember that at the end of the day I own you. Mind, body, and soul. So if I get sent back down you get dragged along with me.” 

Yoongi couldn’t stop the words leaving his mouth even if he wanted too. The regret and guilt was instant when he felt fear seep it’s way into their bond. He was doing the one thing he never wanted to do which was make Wynter scared of him. The monster that he truly was being reflected back to him in Wynter wide eyes. Inhaling deeply he removed his hand and watched as she bounced a bit in the chair from how forceful he dropped her. Turning away he walked out. The front door slamming behind him echoed in Wynter’s ears.

Wynter could feel the tears that she was trying to hold back begin to run down her cheeks. The fear that had dissipated throughout the few months that she had known Yoongi came back full force. Suddenly Wynter felt very small and as if nothing was in her control. More importantly she came to the stark realization that whatever these feelings for the demon she was having were foolish. Yoongi’s words doing nothing but making that abundantly clear that she was nothing more than an obligation, and investment, in his eyes.

Maybe that’s why the tears weren’t stopping. Not because she was scared of him -Wynter understood that Yoongi wouldn’t hurt her, at leat not in any real way- but because she had been slammed back into reality and into her place in his life. Wiping her tears she picked up what she could and threw out what was broken. 

Smoothing down the front of her silk skirt, Wynter took one last look at herself in the mirror. The 90’s style midi skirt was a burnt orange that complemented her skin tone and paired with a white tank top style bodysuit gave the right balance for a casual day to night date. Fixing her headscarf she added an few extra bobby pins to make it more secure to support the pineapple she had threw her hair into. It was one of those days where she just wanted to cut it all off but chose to throw it up and out of her face. 

Fidgtinging for a few moments, Wynter threw her hands up in defeat. She looked fine and she knew she looked fine, she was just anxious. Surprisingly not about this date with Namjoon but about the fact that she hadn’t seen or heard from Yoongi in days. Not even for trainings or lessons, which was odd. Obviously their argument was bad, but usually he at least popped in for a quick check in. This time it felt as though his anger was masking hurt. Now that Wynter had had some time to process the events Yoongi did seem hurt by what she said. Knowing herself she knew she would feel anxious and guilty until she apologized which was why him up a disappearing was unsettling to her, because what if he didn’t come back. Sighing she looked over to where she heard a soft knock at her door. Knowing that Namjoon was there. 

Putting on her platform heels and grabbing her small crossbody bag, Wynter opened the door to a surprised Namjoon with his fist still raised mid-air. Bashfully smiling he put his hand down, as he took a quick scan of her. “I got these for you,” he held out a bouquet of wildflowers for her to take. The mix greenery and purple flowers were beautiful and made butterflies erupt in Wynters chest. 

“Thanks!” Her heels clicked across the floor as she made her way over to the kitchen to put the flowers in a vase and some water, before setting it on her coffee table. Namjoon gave a hum of acknowledgement as he looked around Wynter’s apartment. He had been there before but he this was the first time he had been back since Yoongi had “moved in”. Wynter figured it was due to the fact the neither of them could be in the same room as the other without wanting to kill each other. 

“What happened to your table?” Wynter looked up from where she was arranging the flowers to see Namjoon pointing over to the empty space where her dining room table once sat. Wynter felt her chest tighten at the fresh memory. 

“Um, training gone wrong,” her chuckle sounded force even to her own ears. She felt bad for lying to Namjoon but if she told him what actually happened then they rest of the day would be ruined, and Wynter was determined to give this date a fair chance. He seemed to accept that answer as they left the apartment. The way over was filled with talk about the art exhibit they were going too. Wynter didn’t really contribute much content to let Namjoon lead the conversation. The way his eyes would light up with each new piece of information he remembered about the artists that were featured made Wynter’s heart swell with fondness. 

Apparently it was supposed to be a multimedia exhibit that brought together modern and classic artists pieces and allowed visual and audio artist to bring the pieces to life. Namjoon explained it better than Wynter ever could but she understood the gist of it. Knowing that anything she didn't understand Namjoon would happily explain. 

After securing their tickets, where Namjoon insisted on paying, they entered the first spaces. To say that that it was a interactive experience would be an understatement. It was as if Wynter walked right into the art itself. Somehow immersing the spectator and making them the subject. Stepping into the first exhibit it was like they were transported to the Korean countryside. The soft dirt path through the room lead them through a field of grass next to a small country home during what looked to be early morning. Wynter wasn’t sure that it was made to scale but it felt as though it was. She could even smell the smoke coming from the chimney and here the water from the stream the path followed. 

Looking to her right she was surprised to find that there was an actual stream with small fish swimming through them. Gasping she tugged on the sleeve of Namjoon’s cardigan as she made her way over to take a closer look at the fishes. “We have to stay on the path!” Namjoon whispered at her. 

“I don’t think so. Aren’t there usually signs that say that,” Wynter countered, “Plus the lady of front said that the exhibit is meant to be explored to its fullest extent.” Looking back up at him with her eyes wide, they had a mini stare off which just resulted in Namjoon sighing and letting himself be dragged over to look at the small fishes swim. Every room that they went through was like the first one, transporting them to different times and places. Wynter let Namjoon explain what painting each room was because he was actually paying attention to the small plaques on the wall, while Wynter was basically running headlong into what awaited them in the next room. 

By the time they got to the last room Wynter felt as though they had lived so many different lives. She couldn’t remember when was the last time she had such a fun time on a date. Their hands were tightly intertwined as they walked into the last room. Both, Namjoon and Wynter, stopped at how beautifully breathtaking the space was as a sea of purple greeted them. Wynter didn’t need Namjoon to explain what painting this was, the smell of wild irises filled the air as the abstract field waved in the late afternoon breeze. She didn’t know how the had managed to pull off an entire field of flowers exactly in Van Gogh’s iconic style with just lights, holograms, and pieces of  soft fabric but they did. 

They took their time walking through knowing that this was the last room, wanting to soak in the experience and tranquility that the room brought. “I wish they were real. Irises are my favorite,” Wynter said quietly as they meandered. 

Namjoon looked over to see Wynter staring longingly at one of the faux purple flowers swaying. Feeling Namjoon bend down next to her, she turned to see him gently grab the fabric stalk of one of flowers. The air around them seem to charge as Namjoon plucked it from it’s spot transforming it into a real iris, the bright yellow petals a complimentary contrast to its purple and blue counterparts. “Have you ever seen a Korean iris before?” Eyes wide Wynter shook her head as she accepted the flower from the handsome shaman. “Well now you have,” his smile wide and his dimples deep as he turned his gaze shyly to the ground as they made their way out of the room. 

The restaurant that Namjoon took her to wasn’t far from the art exhibit. It was a small Italian bistro with intimate seating and low lighting. Wynter looked over to where the sun had began to set through the window, as she listened to Namjoon order them a bottle of wine. Her fingers lightly tapped the menu as she tried to find something to eat, before finally settling on eggplant parm. There conversation flowed easily as they went through a full breakdown of the art exhibit going over their favorite parts and what painting they wished were included. 

Wynter loved watching Namjoon talk about art. His passion for the subject taking her by surprise the first time the had met. It was through him, and Taehyung, that she had grown an appreciation for art at all. “I’m glad you enjoyed it.” Namjoon spoke in between bites, “To be honest, I’ve been nervous all week so to hear that you’re enjoying yourself is a relief.”

“I always enjoy myself when I’m with you, Joon.” Wynter giggled as she took a sip of her wine. While not a lie, she was enjoying herself, she realized that something felt off. The entire time through the exhibits and throughout the majority of dinner it was like she was going through the motions. Understanding that this was a wonderful date, damn near perfect, but knowing that she still wasn’t satisfied. A weird form of double think as she casually conversed with the man in front of her, yet thought only of if a certain someone would enjoy the meal in front of her. Wondering if a certain someone would have enjoyed the art, particularly the Joseon royal courtyard overflowing with peonies, Korean red pines and crepe myrtles. Wynter wondered if that was what his courtyard looked like. 

No matter how much of her full attention she wanted to give to Namjoon, she couldn’t help the fact that her mind kept wondering back to the dark haired demon who she was currently missing. Still, she smiled and bickered with Namjoon over who would pay, eventually letting him win. Wynter kept up the light flirting and conversation as they made their way back over to their neighborhood. 

Yellow iris still gripped in her hand, Wynter and Namjoon stopped in front of her apartment door. Him being enough of a gentleman to walk her up the steps to make sure she made it home in one piece. “I’ll respell this tomorrow at the shop,” Namjoon reached out and touched the selenite that rested against her chest. They both stood for a moment as they both tried to find a non-awkward way to end the date. Namjoon’s gaze dropping to her full lips.

Clearing her throat, “I’ll see you tomorrow than?”

The sound of her voice seemed to have startled Namjoon, causing his eyes to snap up to meet hers from where they rested on her lips. “Yeah. I’ll see you tomorrow.” Taking the hint he took a step back giving Wynter enough room to unlock her door and enter her apartment. After turning to say one last bye she watched as the tall man walked down the hall towards the elevator before closing her door. Slouching against the door she took what she felt like was the first relaxing breath. 

Wynter felt like absolute shit because that was her ideal date with someone she put in the friend box because she didn’t think he’d even look at her twice. Yet, she was too busy worrying about if Yoongi was still mad at her and if he would enjoy a date like that. Internally cussing herself out she took off her heels and put her stuff up. Taking the lone yellow iris she laid it on the edge of the counter next to where the vase of flowers reasted. 

The real problem was that during her almost four hour date with Namjoon she came to the annoying conclusion that she really fucking liked Yoongi. She had made the promise to herself to not let him take her heart too but here she was serving it up to him on a platter so that he can incinerate and then piss on it. Though there were moments where she was sure she saw an odd gleam in his eye or a caught him staring at her. Pushing all of that to the side he made clear that she was nothing more than an investment to him. Wynter had known him just long enough to notice that when backed into a corner he lashes out, so how sure could she really be of that train of thought. 

Groaning Wynter leaned against the back of her couch looking out into the Seoul night skyline. Hypothetically speaking even if he does reciprocate her mix of feelings, then what? They ride off happily into the sunset? That seemed like a load of bullshit even to Wynter but realistically they were from two different worlds that were constantly fighting with each other. There was no way that whatever relationship that they had would end well. The question that swirled around Wynter’s head was if it was worth it. Her mind reminded her of all the possible ways it wouldn’t work and ended up with one or both of them dead. Her heart screamed at her that none of that mattered as long as they faced it together. 

Slowly she closed her eyes and took in a deep breathe sighing it out. Her momma had always told her to follow her intuition. To follow the path her soul lead her, and it was leading her down this clearly doomed path. Only real way to begin down this path was to talk to him. Rolling her eyes she went and opened a cabinet grabbing two whiskey glasses and the bottle of Yoongi’s favorite whiskey. After pouring both glasses she mumbled under her breath, “I hope this fucking works.” Looking up towards the ceiling she shook her head before calling out. “Yoongi!” After a moment of silence she tried again, “Yoongi, I have your favorite whiskey. Poured it just the way you like it.” Her saccharine voice still not enough to get the demon to answer. Switching tactics, “Yoongi, I know you can hear me. Stop ignoring me. Get up here right now and talk to me like a fucking adult instead of hiding.”

Minutes seemed to tick by as she waited for the pale demon to show up. Head hung low she closed her eyes in defeat. He wasn’t going to come. Yoongi had abandoned her. She could feel the tell tell sting of tears starting behind her eyes. Grabbing her glass she knocked the spirit back letting the burn of it coating her throat banaish the tears away. “It’s not polite to drink the offering before the person the offering is for.” Wynter almost broke her neck to see where Yoongi stood next to her. 

Apologizing was the first on her list of things to do but seeing him in front of her after so long made her brain short circuit. Much like when the first met he stood leaned against he kitchen counter, an oversized black shirt draped over his frame, with a pair a ripped jeans to tie the whole look together. His shaggy hair was parted down the middle and looked as though he had been running his hands through it. It was the only thing that betrayed his nerves, that and the fact that he kept rubbing the bottom of his scar. 

Taking a sip of his whiskey, Yoongi stood there and watched with light amusement as Wynter tried to find her words. “Gongjunim, did you need something?” His tone playful as Wynter just gazed up at him before putting her glass down on the table. 

“Where the hell have you been?” She seethed. Wynter didn’t think she was that annoyed at him just up and leaving but she apparently was. “I have been worried sick about you. I-”

“I’m a big demon. I can take care of myself.” The interrupted doing nothing irritating her further. 

“I know you’re a ‘big demon’ but you don’t get to just disappear when we get into an argument. You get to sit there like the ‘big demon’ that you are until a resolution has reached.” Wynter’s determined gaze flickered back and forth between the demons wide eyes. Yoongi wasn’t used to people yelling at him, let alone someone who when he last saw them were terrified. Opening his mouth to respond he was swiftly cut off, “We also don’t just get to disappear without a single word or check in either! Understood?” Yoongi gave a stilted nod unsure if speaking was the best route to go. The only other person that ever reprimanded him so thoroughly was his master teacher growing up. 

This was not the way the Wynter saw this apology going but it just tumbled out of her mouth. “Now,” pouring herself another glass, Wynter took a sip before continuing. “I wanted to apologize for what I said to you. It was mean and it was hurtful. You didn’t deserve it and for that I’m sorry.” She hoped the her level gaze conveyed her sincerity. It seemed as though, after searching her gaze for any hint of trickery, Yoongi accepted her apology with a nod and a hum. 

They both silently finished there drink unsure of how to move forward. Yoongi knew he should apologize but the concept of guilt, remorse, and regret were still taking some getting use to. Clearing his throat he glanced over to where Wynter stood next to him. Seemingly dressed up like she went out. A knot formed in his chest at the recognition that she had her date today. Contrary to what she thought Yoongi was still checking in on her and making sure she was doing okay.

“So, uh, how was your date with the shaman,” Yoongi cringed at how he stammered.

Chuckling Wynter brought her glass up to her lips and took a sip, “Well, it was perfect. Namjoon was perfect.” The knot seemed to tighten in his chest at her low mumble. Knowing that he would never be described as perfect. “But.” The word lingered in the air between them as Wynter tried to find the words to explain. 

“But?” 

“I don’t think he’s perfect for me.” Wynter admitted. Yoongi made sure to hide his shock, and satisfaction, behind a neutral look. Turning herself to look into the demons face her eyes seemed to sparkle, “Just didn’t feel right you know?” A light smile graced her lips as she looked up to him, neither of them realizing just how close that they were to each other. Their bodies gravitating towards the other without their knowledge. 

“I see,” Yoongi rotated his body to set his glass behind him on the counter, needing to take a moment to compose himself without her bewitching him. The muted thud of the glass hitting the counter was the only other sound in the apartment. Looking a bit further down the counter he saw a splash of yellow. The Korean iris laid peacefully unaware of the melancholy that was raising in his heart. Slowly, hesitantly, he reached over gently picking it up - admiring it. “Where did you get this?”

Wynter  barely heard his whisper, but when he brought the flower around to show her she smiled and gave a light laugh. “Oh, one of the art exhibits we saw was a room that was a field of faux iris based on a Van Gogh painting. They were all purple and blue irises though, but when I told Namjoon that irises were my favorite-”

“Irises are you favorite?” Yoongi’s soft interruption brought Wynter’s sight from the yellow flower and up to the demons soft features where she could see a sadness lurking. 

“Yeah,” she said just as softly. “They’re my favorite. He used his magic to transform one of the fake purple irises into a Korean irises. I had never seem one before so imagine my surprise when I saw that it was yellow.” 

Wynter’s giddy excitement at the discovery seized Yoongi’s heart. Memories of a past that he longed to forget came forward. A field of bloodsoaked yellow irises burning as he tried to erase every human part of him. Wynter’s face scrunched in concern at the film of unshed tears the showed up in Yoongi’s dark eyes. Gently placing her hand on his wrist she tried to pull him out of whatever memory he was getting stuck in. “Are you okay?” She knew it was a stupid question but she didn’t know how to really comfort a demon. They weren’t suppose to have emotions like this. 

Taking in a shaky breath, Yoongi pulled away from Wynter wiping the moisture out of his eye. “Yeah,” he croaked. “I just haven’t seen one of these in a long time.” Quickly he created a small vase made of white porcelain covered in images of irises done in the distinct style his kingdom was known for. Placing the lone flower in it’s new home perfectly made for it. “A beautiful flower deserves a beautiful place to be admired.”

Wynter felt herself hold her breath at the soft look Yoongi had as he admired his work. She wondered if in the moment if this was the real Yoongi. The romantic ideals of a young prince not yet jaded and corrupted by the power that comes with being king. His feline eyes pinned her in place, caught in her staring. They stood like that, gazes locked,  admiring each other in the soft light of the kitchen. Feeling the start of something blooming in her chest, Wynter’s sharp intake of breath broke the two out of their moment in time. 

Yoongi watched as she rubbed the space of her heart as if trying to soothe the feeling away. He knew it was their bond snapping fully into place for her. Knew that it would only be a matter of time before Wynter begin feeling what he had been. “You should get some sleep.” Picking up the glasses he went and started washing them. Leaving Wynter standing there still rooted in her spot. “I promise I’m not leaving this time.”

Nodding, Wynter walked off to get ready for bed. When he heard the bathroom door click shut, Yoongi allowed himself to relax his body. He didn’t even realize how tense he was until he had came back into her presence. His time away was spent trying to instill trust with the head of prominent factions that he needed on his side, so that they had a fair chance to win against Jungsoo. It wasn’t just that, it was trying to make sure that they also wouldn’t betray him once Jungsoo was taken care of. The power vacuum that was going to happen needed to be filled quickly and that meant promising positions that allowed them to feel in control. 

On top of that, he could feel himself getting closer than ever on breaking down what this curse affect Wynter was, as well as locating Jiyeon. Yoongi needed help though. The squirmishes up top had attracted the attention of small shamans clans looking to gain power. It needed to be nipped in the bud. The padding of Wynter’s feet across the wooden floor pulled Yoongi’s focus. 

Wynter watched as the demon walked around tidying up the apartment as she settled into her bed. When she had walked out and saw that he was still there, she was pleasantly surprised. Once he deemed the place clean enough he shuffled into his side of the bed. They both knew that she didn’t need the comfort anymore but at this point it was a habit neither of them were willing to give up. It felt nice to have a warm body next to her, as she drifted off to sleep.

Yoongi waited as Wynter’s body slowly relax, signaling him to him that she was asleep. He kept is gaze trained on the white ceiling as he racked his brain with what to do next now that he knew that the threat of the shaman was no longer warranted. Now really the only thing in his way was the many ways that he could fuck this up and in turn fuck his beautiful soulmate up. Even without all of the outside forces - the curse, the rebellion, the obvious problem with a witch and demon pairing - Yoongi was most afraid of handling Wynter. He didn’t know how to love. He had crushed that feeling, along with his heart, long ago. He was a monster and he saw that reflected in her eyes. The universe wouldn’t have gifted him Wynter if it knew he would ruin it. 

Shifting Yoongi placed on arm behind his head as he got comfortable. “Wynter,” Yoongi whispered. When he got know response he tried a few more times, even peeking over to see the rhythmic raise and fall of her shoulder. He was glad he was faced away from him on her side. It gave him courage for what he was about to do next. 

“Wynter, I wish this was something that I could tell you while you were awake, but I’m a coward. I’ve been hiding something from you, not really knowing how to tell you. So I hope you don’t mind me practicing while you sleep.” Yoongi felt stupid but if he got the thought out of his head and into the air he knew he would be able to focus on his other responsibilities. “I,” swallowing down the lump in his throat he gathered the courage to trek on, “We are soulmates. I know that if I told you that you’d laugh in my face. Hell I would have laughed in my face to but it’s true. I feel the soul bond we have with each other, which is unbelievable since I have no soul.” 

Yoongi’s quiet  laugh sounded jaded even to his own ears. “But I feel it. Reforming. It’s reforming because it calls out to yours. I wish I had more information or research, but it’s rare. I know you would never choose me. The thought of me as a soulmate should disgust you. I’m a monster.” He didn’t even bother to wipe the tear the slid down his face and onto the pillow below him. “I’m a monster but I would do anything to change that for you. To be better for you. I feel deep in my soul, in my being, that I love you. Fuck, that’s weird to say.” His face broke out with a gummy smile at the relief of finally saying those words out loud, even if sadness of never being able to say the to you cause the tears to keep falling. “I love you. I know that in our deal you promised anything, but I’m afraid that it is me who must live with the reality that it is I who will give you everything.”

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

“Crowley is Malleus’s long lost father” theory is popping off right now in like every twst social media community so I wanted to know what your thoughts on it were?

I briefly discussed this theory in the final paragraph of this post (although it is full of spoilers, so please be cautious of that). To reiterate (and to add more details), the main pieces of evidence that come up when discussing this idea are:

Malleus’s dad is confirmed missing, but we never saw a body or have confirmation of his death so we can’t 100% trust that.

Crowley’s past and motives remain a total mystery. (The crow mask he wears is also highly suspicious; why does he never remove it? Why does it resemble the masks worn by Briar Country soldiers? Because Malleus would recognize his father? Because Lilia might recognize his old friend?)

The name of Malleus’s dad may be romanized as Levan/Revan (we don’t have an official English localization for book 7 yet, so we don’t know for sure how it would be written). (Edit: EN has confirmed that his name is "Raverne".) The former looks like the word “raven”, just with the vowels swapped around. And you know who else is a black bird?? Diablo, Maleficent’s crow and right-hand man, similar to how Levan/Revan was Mallenoa’s right-hand man. Who else do we know that’s a crow? Crowley.

Levan/Revan is described by Lilia as someone who “always dumped their work onto others/him”, which is something that Crowley also does to his own students.

So I guess the conclusion is that Malleus’s dad went into hiding to protect himself (especially if we assumed that his wife got killed off shortly after his disappearance; his own life may be in danger as well)?

I think the idea is definitely… interesting??? It would also be a big rug pull since players have been joking since day 1 that Crowley gives the vibes of a deadbeat/absentee dad or someone who went off to buy milk and never came back 😂 But in terms of how likely I think it is to become a reality??? I think it’s definitely kind of shaky if we’re going with only what we know right now.

The problem I have with this theory is twofold. Firstly, it’s counting a lot of omission of information as proof rather than details present as proof (which really could be spun any which way you like if you tried hard enough). Secondly, the main thread of logic here is basically the same as “Ace traitor” theory. We’re drawing conclusions from… a name (in Ace’s case, the fact that his surname isn’t “Heart” like the other card soldiers but is “Trappola”), which isn’t a lot of solid evidence in of itself.

I don’t know if I totally buy that Malleus’s dad would go MIA for literally 400ish years either? Like… he was the princess’s confidant, right? So he must have cared for her very much. Why would he up and abandon his wife (rather than coming to her rescue), his friend (Lilia), his country, AND his unborn child who NEEDS his love magic to be hatched? Why wouldn’t he return once the war was over?? Why would he run off to Sage’s Island and become the headmaster there??? If he doesn’t want to be a present father figure, why have a child at all or put himself in a position where he now has to monitor several hundreds of children every year instead of the one child that is actually his? (I know that Lilia started off not wanting kids and then became more open to the idea over time (ie people can change), but I don't think we can conclude the same happened to Crowley given how dismissive he still is in present day and how little we really know about Malleus's dad's true personality.) And surely if Crowley was Malleus’s dad, he’s not so ignorant as to not know Malleus is his son, right…? But then why forget about his existence 90% of the time and forget to invite him when he knows Malleus is on campus and he had not been there for him all his life???? Why actively be such an asshole???

The mask thing on Crowley is suspicious as heck, yes, but I don’t know if Malleus would be able to identify his father on sight since he never saw him or got to know him before hatching. On the flip side, how would Lilia not immediately notice his friend by voice??? Or by the mask if it is, indeed, his friend’s trademark or a custom from Briar Country? Are we arguing “characters made dumb for the sake of plot”? 😭 (Believe it or not, this is actually the most credible piece of evidence to me just because of how often TWST has employed cases of mistaken identity for the sake of convenience; I wouldn’t put it past them.)

Lilia does describe Levan/Revan as someone who dumps work on others, but he says Mallenoa does the same thing. Yet there are other aspects to Mallenoa which we also learn about. Shirking work is not the entire personality of Malleus’s dad and while his overall character may be inclusive of that, there are tons of traits unaccounted for; we barely know the guy. The Crowley = Levan theory feels like taking a conclusion and working backwards/retroactively changing the interpretation of other details to prove the conclusion we began with, instead of taking suspicious details and synthesizing a conclusion from it.

Anyway! You can see that I’m hesitant about this theory. I’d like more concrete details before I get on board with it because there isn't enough to implicate Crowley specifically—but hey, that’s not to say the idea isn’t interesting or funny 🤔 I’d personally love to see Malleus’s reaction to Crowley Darth Vader-ing him, haha 😂

Side note: It’s also sort of funny how people don’t believe Crowley is Malleus’s dad simply because they think Mallenoa is “too good/hot” for a man as bumbling as Crowley www

[antianakin]

It's so interesting to look at just HOW BLIND Ahsoka's loyalty towards Anakin truly is.

She is told point blank by Maul that the Sith Master is planning to make Anakin his new apprentice, and her reaction is NOT to warn anybody that this is a potential problem for them to look into but simply to reject the possibility so entirely that it's not even worth warning anyone about. She's so absolutely convinced of this that she dooms the entire Jedi Order and the Republic they serve by keeping it secret in order to protect Anakin from even a SUSPICION of him going dark.

She then HEARS Anakin betray Mace, she hears Anakin turn on Mace and side with Palpatine just moments before Order 66 goes out. And while it's mildly understandable that she could come to other conclusions from that without any more knowledge and just assume Anakin died, she continues to refuse to believe that Anakin became Vader when she senses him despite that evidence.

She spends a YEAR trying to disprove what she already knows to be true, what she could put together from Maul's claims, her vision on the ship just moments before Order 66, and sensing his presence in Rebels. She goes ahead and tells Ezra that what would've surprised people about him was his KINDNESS, despite the fact that she is actively looking for proof that Anakin DIDN'T genocide the Jedi because she's like 99.99% sure that he DID and she's desperately telling herself that no, Anakin was KIND, he would NEVER commit genocides.

This is someone who put her in a training regime where she is knocked out for hours at a time by her own men, forced her into training after being knocked out without a rest beforehand, and left her on the ground after being knocked out with no attempt at making sure she was safe or comfortable. This is someone she has WATCHED go nearly apoplectic with rage more than once, someone she has seen keep himself from murdering people by the skin of his teeth.

And when she comes face to face with him, a year after looking for proof, despite all evidence she's got pointing her to one super obvious and irrefutable conclusion, she LETS HIM convince her that he's NOT Anakin, that he KILLED Anakin, because her blind loyalty to Anakin will let her believe anything rather than face the truth she's on some level known since she was seventeen years old.

AND THEN, after getting all of that loyalty thrown back in her face, after her worst fear is confirmed true and Anakin decides to keep TRYING to kill her, that blind loyalty leads her to decide she'd rather die than live with this truth. She'd rather die FOR HIS SAKE, to keep him from having to be alone, than run away from him again.

Anakin could do quite literally anything to Ahsoka and she'd forgive it. Anakin DOES do just about every possible horrific thing to Ahsoka he COULD do and she's more worried about not abandoning him than anything else still. Ahsoka can recognize he's a Sith who has done horrific things to her and everyone else but because he's ANAKIN, her loyalty is still first and foremost to him and his happiness and his wellbeing. She will abandon the Jedi again, abandon Kanan and Ezra, before she abandons the person actively trying to kill her.

It's so interesting to see that, the one time she DOESN'T do this is in the Wrong Jedi, when she leaves him behind and puts her own needs first.

And THAT'S what she seems to consider her greatest mistake. Not leaving the JEDI, not TRUSTING Anakin at all, but abandoning Anakin when she was at her lowest. Because her blind loyalty to him won't let her see it as anything but a betrayal of ANAKIN.

Ahsoka CANNOT see him for what and who he is, she CAN'T. She's been ignorant of it before, but she also intentionally blinds herself to it over and over again.

[fancifulplaguerat]

I am thinking about my beautiful cancelled wife again. In particular her worldview about humanity, because I maintain the impression that Aglaya cares about humanity, firstly through her dialogues: “I am a humanitarian. My duty is to save people, not kill them,” “I only wish to do good; not specific, targeted good, like that Clara, but overarching good,” and “Human lives are valuable to me. To this day, I’ve been paying for my kind-heartedness.” Likewise this seems implicit in her hatred of Nina’s purported callousness for human life, but then Aglaya claims: “We’re inherently evil, Clara. Evil is what defines human nature. An attempt at self-discovery is a provocation.” Pardon me but reading that makes me need to Blair Witch It in the corner for an hour. At least. Just due to the potential implications of Aglaya apparently advocating for a humanity she believes is evil. It immediately calls to mind Daniil’s quote “The point is that in this case, the winner will be […] mere humanity. Any kind of it—even malicious, and yet still a living one,” and a dialogue between him and Artemy: 

> If the Polyhedron alone caused so many deaths, how much evil will a whole city of incarnated miracles beget?  Bachelor: Rather a lot. Let’s be realistic here. Does this mean, however, that we—all of us, humanity, I mean—should abandon our attempts, efforts, and search? You’ll never convince me of it. 

So Aglaya’s dialogue reinforces that recurrent theme of pursuing impossibility, but the ramifications for her individual character interest me more. Like. She despises Nina for being the literal “embodiment of evil,” yet she considers human nature inherently that? Perhaps & perchance Aglaya’s hatred for Nina (pre-Polyhedron) is because Nina embodies Utopianism, which is *arguably* the most ‘humanity-’ oriented philosophy, as its ideologues are “those who believe in the power of the human spirit and the infinite scope of creativity.” Outlandish conclusion to draw but this is a Tumblr post so I shall say my piece: maybe on some narrative level, Aglaya despises Nina for being an embodiment of some kind of human nature. 

Also hey. That “An attempt at self-discovery is a provocation” I’m going to Cask of Amontillado myself into the wall thinking about that in context of Aglaya and Artemy’s conversations about selfhood and free will. When Artemy says that he wants to explain himself Aglaya says, “Explain yourself? Your very self? How curious! Speak. I’ve found myself rather preoccupied with matters of identity lately! Seems like I’ve abandoned those matters all to early—seeing what they have done to me.” I imagine Aglaya has considered her selfhood in her attempt to wrestle some autonomy from her awareness of the metanarrative but ough. Ouch. Does Aglaya also consider herself inherently evil. Aglaya if I could I would crawl in my computer and hold your hand and feed you strawberries I love you & you never did anything wrong even when you suicide baited Daniil D Dankovsky and bullied a twelve year old