#but i know I don’t have to ability to talk my way out of it

[wendichester]

Can I request cute Dean fluff of him realising he’s in love with you when you take care or save Sam from something bc we all know that man would know he’s found the one when she cares just as much for Sam as he does

˚ ༘ ೀ⋆ 🩹｡˚ aftercare,

summary. taking care of sam is also taking care of dean ‹𝟹

pairing. dean winchester x reader

wordcount. 782

notes. the softest boy sigh

You’re kneeling next to Sam, your hands moving quickly as you press a clean rag against the gash on his arm. The hunt had gone sideways—too many moving parts, too many variables—but you’d managed to keep it from going completely off the rails. Now, the three of you are holed up in a shabby motel room, the faint smell of antiseptic mixing with the metallic tang of blood.

Dean stands a few feet away, his hands gripping the back of a chair, watching as you work. He should be helping, should be doing something, but all he can do is stare. There’s a look of determination on your face, tempered by the kind of gentle care that makes his chest ache.

“Hold still, Sam,” you murmur, your voice soft but firm. “I know it hurts, but this needs to be cleaned.”

Sam winces but doesn’t argue. “I’m fine. It’s not that bad.”

You glance up at him, arching an eyebrow. “Oh, really? Because you’re bleeding all over my jeans.”

Sam chuckles weakly, the sound turning into a hiss of pain as you dab at the wound. “Okay, maybe it’s a little bad.”

Dean’s lips twitch at the corners, but he doesn’t say anything. He’s too busy trying to process the strange, overwhelming warmth blooming in his chest. It’s not like he hasn’t seen you take care of someone before—you’ve patched him up more times than he can count—but this feels different. Watching you with Sam, seeing the way you’re willing to get your hands dirty to keep his brother safe... it does something to him.

“You’re gonna need stitches,” you say, your tone matter-of-fact as you reach for the first aid kit. “Dean, can you grab me the thread and needle?”

He snaps out of his daze, nodding quickly. “Yeah, yeah. Got it.” He rummages through the kit, pulling out the supplies and handing them to you. His fingers brush yours, and for a second, he forgets how to breathe.

You don’t notice—or maybe you do, but you don’t say anything. Instead, you focus on threading the needle, your hands steady despite the tension in the room. “This is gonna sting,” you warn Sam, your voice gentle.

“Just do it,” Sam mutters, bracing himself.

Dean watches as you work, your movements precise but careful. You talk to Sam the whole time, distracting him with small jokes and reassurances, and Dean can see the way his brother relaxes under your touch. It’s like you’ve got this magic about you, this ability to make even the worst situations feel manageable.

When you finally finish, tying off the last stitch, you sit back on your heels and let out a sigh. “There. You’re all patched up. Try not to rip it open again, okay?”

Sam gives you a small smile. “Thanks. You didn’t have to do all that.”

You roll your eyes. “Of course I did. What kind of person would I be if I let you bleed out in a crappy motel room?”

Dean’s heart stumbles in his chest. He can’t remember the last time someone cared about Sam like that—someone who wasn’t him. And it’s not just the act of taking care of him; it’s the way you do it like it’s the most natural thing in the world. Like Sam’s life is just as important to you as it is to him.

You stand up, brushing off your hands, and glance at Dean. “He’ll be fine, but he needs rest. And food. I’m guessing you haven’t eaten since this morning?”

Dean blinks, caught off guard. “Uh... no. Not really.”

You sigh, shaking your head. “Alright, I’ll order something. You two sit tight.”

As you step into the adjoining room to make the call, Dean looks over at Sam. His brother’s eyes are already closing, exhaustion pulling him under, but there’s a faint smile on his face.

When you come back, carrying your phone and rattling off a list of takeout options, Dean feels it hit him like a freight train. This is it. This is love. It’s not just about how he feels when you’re around—it’s about how you make everything better. How you make him better. How you’d do anything for Sam, the way he would.

You catch him staring and raise an eyebrow. “What?”

Dean shakes his head, a slow, disbelieving smile spreading across his face. ��Nothing,” he says, his voice warm. “Just... thanks. For everything.”

Your expression softens, and you give him a small smile in return. “Always.”

Dean watches you for a moment longer, the realization settling deep in his bones. He’s in love with you. And if he’s honest, he doesn’t think he ever stood a chance.

want be part of the taglist.ᐣ ⋆.˚ ★— @iloveeveryoneyoureamazing ⋆ @deans-daydream ⋆ @ariasong11 ⋆ @ambiguous-avery ⋆ @krabog ⋆ @itsdearapril ⋆ @nymphet-quenn ⋆ @bluemerakis ⋆ @titsout4jackles ⋆ @lyarr24 ⋆ @hauntedrose555 ⋆ @chevroletdean ⋆ @dulcescorderitas

[honourablejester]

My thought for Numenera’s Ninth World setting was an automated ferry terminal from a previous civilisation, because I was inspired by the ‘Gateway’ novel by Frederick Pohl. Basically the idea is that you find an abandoned transport hub containing a number of pre-programmed ships/trains/shuttles/whatever you like, so that once you’ve explored and investigated the facility itself, you then have the option to potentially get in one of these vehicles, turn it on, and roll the dice that its pre-programmed route is going to bring you somewhere interesting and/or survivable. If its something like a rail or subway system, you also have the option of manually exploring the connected tunnels as well. A fun way to chain dungeons together, the first one linking out to others. Depending on the size of the vessels in the hub, like the ships in the ferry terminal example, or space ships if you found, say, an asteroid deployment base or something, they might also function as their own little mini-dungeons as well.

For science fiction in general, absolutely anything that’s been automated and then abandoned. Factories, supermarkets, theme parks, hospitals, literally anything. Because the thing with something that’s automated and running on remorseless, unchangeable programming, is that even if it’s the most harmless thing in the world, if you don’t know the procedures, then you’re stepping inside a massive operating machine with no knowledge of how to traverse it safely. Like, you’d think no one would make an automatic supermarket that would kill you, but then maybe they just never expected someone to try to use it without what they considered the absolute base-level know-how for someone in their society, such as, for example, the ability to read their language, or the knowledge that their tech is voice-activated, or the cultural understanding that payment comes first, or the ability to recognise the visual indicators for an emergency stop. Everyone’s had the experience of trying to navigate the most obstinate automated menu. That, but physical, and possibly in an alien language, and possibly arranged in such a way that if you push the wrong buttons, grievous bodily harm can result. Lots of modern industrial set-ups have ways to do hideous damage to you, because they assume that if you’re going to be operating outside its usual parameters that you know the procedures to turn things off to do so safely. But if you’re say, 200 years late to the party, don’t read the language, and possibly didn’t even know you were in a machine in the first place, well …

And that’s leaving aside the idea that the programming has decayed or run into other issues while operating for an extended amount of time unmanned. I’m not even talking about AI here, I’m talking about a machine that’s been running dry for 80 years because no one was putting materials in but no one turned it off either, and now its dangerously close to exploding and one wrong sneeze in its vicinity will do very bad things to a significant chunk of the surrounding landscape. The final boss of this dungeon is the dangerously overheating stationary behemoth on the lowest floor that the players have to disable without blowing the whole dungeon sky-high in the process.

Problem with making sci fi dungeons is coming up with places that aren't just military tech bases, research facilities, mines or abandoned space stations.

I have the entirety of modern life to pull from and I come up blank somehow.

[historicity-was-already-taken]

Received this question just now. Posting my response sans askers' username per their request:

Hi, as you are a holocaust historian, and as you mentioned in a recent post, words mean things, I was sort of wondering what you thought about people saying that what’s happening in Palestine isn’t genocide because the holocaust was genocide/6 million Jews was genocide. I’ve seen a couple people saying stuff along the lines of ‘if what’s happening in Palestine is genocide, we need another word for the holocaust’. I’m not worried about you knowing it’s me asking (like asking on anon) because I think you talk to people pretty reasonably but if you could answer it in private or without my name on the ask I would appreciate it, people seeing it could get… unpleasant, talking about this stuff and I try to stay out of the line of fire to the best of my ability. Totally fine if you don’t want to answer, I don’t want you hounded about Palestine either, it just seemed like you might have an interesting take with your studies

Anyone is capable of genocide, of following orders to commit human rights abuses, of attacking civilians, etc. No identity groups’ past—however violent and traumatic—makes them incapable of committing war crimes. Referring to what’s happening in Gaza as genocide doesn’t invalidate Jewish communal thought regarding the Holocaust. Moreover, the fact that the State of Israel has built Holocaust memory into its nation-building doesn’t mean that that country is inherently incapable of crimes against humanity. There is a cohort of primarily 65+ Jews who hold a trauma-induced belief that Israel could never be capable of these crimes because everything Israel does is in the interest of protecting the Jewish people. It’s a pretty thought, and one I used to hold, but it’s not reality. Many as well would argue that, because the October 7 attack was inherently genocidal, Israel was moral and just doing what it needed to do to bring the hostages home and stamp out Hamas cells. Indeed, these hypothetical individuals would continue, the fact that Hamas has built itself into the civilian architecture of Gaza means that Hamas is using Palestinian civilians as human shields; not that Israel is committing genocide. I personally think that’s wishful thinking. Hamas 800% bases itself near structures like hospitals and kindergartens so Israel will look bad when it attacks those places,* thus willfully allowing the people it governs to exist as human shields. HOWEVER, I don’t believe for one minute that the Israeli military doesn’t have the technology needed to seek out evidence of heat, heartbeats, etc, in hidden subterranean areas. Their counter-attack was always going to happen, but the way it’s been fought? Naw man it’s indefensible.

You know I don't do comparisons or Holocaust inversion, but I do have feelings and emotional responses which don't care about my Serious Intellectual Historian views on comparisons and Holocaust inversion. And, there's a very disturbing moment in one of my primary sources for my book where a woman describes a Nazi attack on a hospital in the Warsaw Ghetto. She describes the screaming and the panic and the civilians begging to be euthanized. Similar readings and sources exist for hospitals in Warsaw during the 1944 Warsaw Uprising when the Germans were destroying the city. I suspect similar descriptions exist of any hospital of a densely populated civilian area under siege. And, even if I was still bullheadedly in my Zionist era, I wouldn't have been able to simultaneously do the work I do, watch Israeli soldiers attacking hospitals, and emerge completely fine with everything. All of that doesn’t erase the simultaneous facts that: 1) the Holocaust happened and was a traumatic moment in Jewish History, the memory of which will endure throughout the millennia; and 2) the October 7 attacks were carried out by Hamas with genocidal intent.

What you’re seeing is people within our community dealing with cognitive dissonance. And honestly the experience of watching people lash out is stage 1 of that process (or as I call it, the Cognitive Dissonance Temper Tantrum). It’s no fun to witness, but can be positive if the person doing the temper tantrum chooses to learn from it. 

ETA: When I discuss things I felt/believed in my "Zionist Era," I'm discussing stuff from when I was like, under 21 years old. For reference I am currently 35.

No one has my permission to use my words to silence other Jewish people. You have no obligation to stick around for people having cognitive dissonance freakouts or saying shitty things about Palestinians, but I see part of my...duty as being available to work with Jewish individuals who want to deal productively with their cognitive dissonance once the freakout period dies down, if they want help.

*Here my Unnamed I/P Reader notes that it’s quite a bit more complicated than stated here in part due to Gaza’s pre-Oct. 7 2023 population density.

[hannahbarberra162]

Petrichor (Alpha Luffy x GN Beta Reader)

This is an apology OS for being too horny on main (I'm not sorry). It moves a little fast but this is kind of how Luffy recruited the rest of the crew, so I thought it fit.

SFW, ~3.7k, OS, Luffy x GN Reader

TW: none, Luffy does a smooch <3

~

“You smell like dirt,” an Alpha said, standing in front of your face. He was wearing a straw hat and an open red shirt and staring at you intently. He and a friend were standing in front of your beachfront stall after strolling down the boardwalk. His friend was a Beta like you, wearing overalls and a bandanna on his head. You thought you recognized him from somewhere but you weren’t sure exactly where. Based on what he’d told you, you weren’t sure you wanted to know him, either.

“That’s rude,” you stated, already turning away from him. You were working so you couldn’t rip him a new one but you wanted to. Some Alphas made it a hobby to be assholes to Betas, maybe this guy was like that. Maybe he was bored, maybe he was a dick, maybe it was the hot weather - you didn’t care why he was being nasty. It was a slow day at the kite store, the dead, stagnant air not helping sales along the beach in the slightest. You worked along the boardwalk, trying to sell kites to kids and their parents for a fun day time activity. Sometimes you did kite flying competitions if there was money as a prize but mostly you liked to make your hourly and spend time on your own hobbies.

“Nah, it’s my favorite smell. Dirt after the rain. You smell like the forest after a big morning rain clears the clouds,” he said, taking a big whiff near you and giving you a bright smile. You were a little weirded out - you were a Beta and it was known that Betas didn’t have strong scents. No one had ever commented on your scent before, much less to say that they liked it. One time when you were a kid a friend came over and said your house smelled like soup, but you didn’t think that counted.

“So whatcha doin’?” the Alpha asked you, his big eyes staring at you over the counter.

“Working?” you replied, more of a question than a statement. 

“Is it fun?” he continued, now reaching for a kite’s tail with his fingers. Was this Alpha for real? Was he teasing you?

“No? That’s why it’s called work and not ‘fun-time,” you replied, hoping your coworker wouldn’t overhear you. Not that it would be a surprise, you didn’t think your boss could require you to have fun on the job. Still, customer service was always number one (or whatever).

“I don’t like working. I tried it once at a restaurant with Sanji and it was terrible,” he stated, sticking out his tongue like he’d tasted something bitter. You laughed despite his seriousness. What the hell was he talking about?

“Yeah, I get it. But gotta make money, right?”

“We just find treasure, it’s easier that way,” he said, his arms extending like rubber to touch the top of a kite high up on the wall. Ah! That was where you recognized him from. You had liked his charming smile on his wanted poster, he looked more like he was on a camping trip than a wanted man from his countenance.

“You’re Monkey D. Luffy, the pirate,” you stated, watching as his friend smacked his hands from touching the kite too much. 

“Yeah, that’s me! I like your kites,” Luffy said, continuing to touch the most expensive piece in the store. It was a replica of the Oro Jackson but in kite form, it would sail through the skies beautifully when the weather was right. And with your devil fruit power, you could make the weather right whenever you wanted. You ate the Wind Wind Fruit, giving you the ability to control, and turn into, the wind. You tried not to use it much in public since you didn’t want to be forcibly taken as someone’s private bellows or used by the Marines to propel their warships.

“Ah, thanks. I make most of the complex ones here,” you replied. There were regular kites, dragons, birds, boxes, diamonds, the regular kind that kids and adults like to buy but you made the one of a kind kites in the shop. You'd made replicas of a lot of famous pirate ships - you made the Oro Jackson, Moby Dick, Red Force, Queen Mama Chanter, Victoria Punk, Polar Tang, the Numancia Flamingo, a whole bunch of Marine ships and a few others belonging to up and coming pirates. When you were hired at the store you didn’t have much to do when it wasn't busy so you started making them to pass time. They brought people to the store and since you understood the wind so well it wasn’t that difficult for you to make them.

“I think I actually made your old ship,” you said, picking yourself off your forearms from leaning over the counter.

“Whaaaaa - really?! You make these?!” Luffy exclaimed, his hands on his cheeks in shock. The pirate with him was now paying attention to you after looking at some of the kite string for sale.

“Yeah, the ‘Going Merry,’ right?” you asked, looking through the inventory behind the small counter.

“Merry!” the other pirate sobbed as you brought out the kite, reaching over the counter to hold it. Whatever, that one wasn’t worth much anymore as the Strawhats had a new ship made by Franky. 

“You can have it, no one’s gonna buy that,” you said, offering the pirates their own kite.

“WHOA REALLY?! USOPP DID YOU HEAR THAT?” Luffy asked, his mouth hanging open. 

“How do I fly it? There’s lot of strings and attachments. And wait, why won’t anyone buy it? The Merry was a great ship!” Usopp accused, pointing a finger at you.

“Eh, it’s nothing to do with the ship -customers are fickle. They’ll want a model of your current ship now that you’ve got a new one. Besides, people don’t usually buy my kites, they’re for show and competitions. They’re too expensive for people to mess around with,” you explained. Usopp was holding the Merry kite like it was spun from glass.

“I can show you how to fly it, I’m gonna be on my lunch break in a few minutes anyway,” you offered. From everything you’d ever heard, the Strawhat pirates were a small and rather nice bunch. They didn’t steal people or money from islands and you hadn’t heard of them killing anyone either. Besides, so few people cared about your kites or asked how to fly them it would be fun to finally teach someone the right way to do it. And if there was any trouble, you’d be able to whisk yourself away no matter how strong they were.

“How? There’s no wind today,” Luffy mused, his head tilted to the side like a dog. He really was cute, you thought. He was exactly your type - cute, sweet, strong, and funny. If he wasn’t going to be leaving soon you would have tried to shoot your shot, even if he was an Alpha. A lot of Alphas would fuck around with Betas until someone better showed up and as much as you didn’t like to think of yourself as a second rate option, that was the way things were.

“I’m sure it will be picking up soon,” you replied enigmatically. 

“Hey Anna, I’m going to lunch. Be back later,” you yelled at your coworker, who was staring at a telesnail.

“Yeah,” she replied, not even sparing you a glance. Whatever, you’d done your due diligence. Taking the kite back from Usopp, you folded it quickly and put it under your arm.

“Come on, let’s go to the cliffs, there’s more wind there,” you explained, beckoning to Usopp and Luffy. Luffy’s face broke into a wide grin as he linked his arm in your own. You’d never been so close to an Alpha before, he smelled like salt and sunshine and a hint of meat.

“Let’s go!” he yelled, pumping his fist in the air. It felt like the air was charged with excitement, like fun was bubbling up from the ether.

It was a little awkward to walk linked arm in arm with an Alpha so you kept your face down. As you passed all the other shops on the boardwalk, you noticed Omegas preening and pushing their breasts forward to get the attention of the Alpha. It wasn’t their fault, Alphas and Omegas were more beholden to their biology than Betas. They were going to want him and he was going to want them, even if just for a night. Even you as a Beta could tell he was incredibly strong so you were sure they were being pushed by their pheromones to present for him.

“You can look if you want,” you muttered to Luffy. He looked around at the other stalls with confusion.

“Are there other kite stores? Do they have the Merry too?” He asked with a frown.

“What? No, there's no other kite stores. The Omegas, you know, you can look. I uh….I'm sure you want to,” you mumbled.

“Do they make fancy kites too?”

“No - wha- no, only I make unique kites on the island. But they're, yanno, Omegas. And you're an unclaimed Alpha. So like, I get it. You can go talk to them or sniff them or whatever.” Your ego would take a hit but you did it to yourself - you knew how the world worked and it wasn’t his fault if you forgot your place.

“I don't wanna talk to them. I wanna keep talking to you. Besides, none of them smell as good as you do. They smell like flowers ‘n food but none of em smell like dirt,” he said with sincerity. You were a little taken aback, no Alpha gave up talking to Omegas for a Beta, no matter what kind of kites they made. Still, you steeled your heart for the inevitable time when you'd be left on the side of the road for an Omega. It was bound to happen, you had to keep reminding yourself. 

Taking the craggly path up to the cliffs, you and Luffy and Usopp chatted, mostly about kites and kite design. They were more interested than you expected, but you enjoyed the conversation anyway. Reaching the summit, the wind has picked up a little bit not much.

“Are we gonna have enough wind to fly this thing? It's pretty heavy,” mused Usopp.

“I think it'll work out,” you replied, already creating a stronger gust of wind. You tried to do it inconspicuously, like the wind had just picked up on its own. The kite fluttered in the wind as the waves below crashed into the rocky cliffs. It was a beautiful day, you could see for miles out into the ocean. 

“Oh hey, isn’t that your new ship? The 1,000 Sunny?” you asked, squinting into the distance. With the huge lion’s head on the mast it was instantly recognizable. The design would make a good kite too, you thought.

“Yeah! HI SUNNY!” Luffy yelled, waving his arms wildly at the inanimate ship in the distance. He was a little strange but you found him charming. You'd met plenty of alpha-holes but no one ever like him before.

“So how does this work? I see the main string but how do you -?” Usopp questioned, motioning for you to hand him the kite. Snapping out of your thoughts about the Alpha, you focused back on Usopp. 

“Right, uh. Ok. So, it's different from other, simpler kites, you need to use both hands and control the other strings with your fingers and even with your feet if you want to waggle the ship in the air,” you began to explain, unfolding the kite in your hands. You explained by flying the kite and illustrating in real time. Usopp was a quick study, he understood fairly easily what he had to do to get the kite to fly. And you were subtly giving the exact kinds of breezes that would make the kite soar with ease.

“See? You’re a natural,” you said to Usopp. He flushed a little but otherwise kept concentrating on keeping the Merry in the sky. You used your power to make the ship bob in the air, mimicking its motions on the water.

“Like I said, you guys can keep it. I’ll make another one of the Sunny sometime,” you said, about ready to put a cap on this experience. It was silly and cute and you’d fantasize over the Alpha that got away but ultimately it was time to get going back to work and back to reality.

“Too bad we’re not kites,” Luffy said wistfully, watching the kite soar in the sky. 

“What do you mean?” you asked, interested again. 

“Well, maybe I could sail like that,” Luffy started to say while rubbing his chin.

“DON’T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT!” Usopp said, bonking Luffy on the head. Betas didn’t usually strike at Alphas and live but you were starting to realize there wasn’t anything usual about Luffy.

“I mean….we could,” you started, kicking a rock off the cliff in front of you. “I do happen to have a paraglider that I built up here -”

“YES!” Luffy yelled with a huge smile.

“ABSOLUTELY NOT!” Usopp said, crossing his arms in front of his torso in the shape of an X.

“But it needs two people by weight and the two of you wouldn’t know how to maneuver it together -”

“I have a severe case of paraglider-itis,” Usopp said quickly, backing away from the cliff. “You guys can do what you want but I’m going to stay on land….uh, I think I hear Franky calling my name,” he stammered, already running along the path back to town with the Merry kite tucked safely under his arm.

“Let’s do it!!” Luffy yelled, letting his hat hang off his neck. You were starting to get excited too - no one else had ever wanted to be your second, saying it was too dangerous or that you’d fall to your deaths off the cliffs. You strongly suspected you wouldn’t, you were fairly sure your paraglider would work. And if not, well, you could turn into the wind and you’d be fine. Luffy seemed durable, he would probably make it out alive as well. 

“Heeheehee, OK! I’ll go get it, stay here!” you said as the wind turned stronger with you0r excitement. You tried to calm down but were too happy to finally have someone else to test your paraglider with. 

About twenty minutes later, you’d gotten the paraglider up and ready to go. You’d strapped yourself into it

“So, it’s a giant kite?” Luffy asked as you handed him his harness.

“More or less,” you said, shrugging. “Do you want me to explain how it works?” you asked Luffy, who was struggling with the straps.

“Nah. I don’t really care,” he said, still stuck in the straps. He groaned and tried again before throwing the whole thing down.

“Can’t we just use my body for this? I don’t wanna wear that thing. Feels too tight,” he complained, kicking the harness with a sandaled foot.

“Use your body…?”

And so, with a surprisingly little amount of convincing from Luffy, you’d detached from your paraglider. He’d made his body into roughly the same shape as the sail and was holding you in his arms and had his legs looped around you for good measure.

“If you drop me, I’ll kill you,” you said, giving him the harshest glare you could. You wouldn’t die if he dropped you but he didn’t know that. 

“Stop talking and let’s go,” he whined, getting impatient.

“Alright, I’m gonna run and jump off the cliff, OK? And the wind will do the rest. Here! We! Go!” you yelled as you ran as fast as you could off the cliff. Using your fruit, you caused an updraft to pick up Luffy so you soared through the air. Your laughter was ringing through the cliffs towards the sea as you enjoyed the ride. You’d been flying for a little while in your Logia form but it was more fun to stay in your physical body for rides like this. Luffy was laughing too, the two of you whooping and cheering when you made the wind take him higher or push him faster. 

All too soon, you were headed towards the deck of the Sunny. With your power you could have probably kept Luffy in the air longer but it had to look kind of natural to ensure you didn’t arouse suspicion. You wanted to land gracefully on the deck and braced your legs for a landing but Luffy snapped back to his regular form earlier than you anticipated, making the two of you tumble one on top of each other until you hit the main mast of the ship. You groaned as the wood from the deck bit into your side but it was Luffy who took most of the hit from the fall.

“Ow, that didn’t go as planned -”

“We can practice so that next time we won’t crash -” Luffy interrupted, excited as ever. Luffy was laying on top of you smiling as you laid on your back. Now that you were up close and personal, you could smell his delicious scent and had the urge to wrap your arms around his neck to pull him closer. Instead you tried to dislodge him from on top of you by pushing him off. But Luffy was a lot heavier than he looked and you weren’t able to move him an inch.

“I wanna kiss you,” Luffy said, apropos of nothing. You blinked.

“You don’t mean that,” you replied, unsure of how to leave with your pride still intact.

“I do. I’ve never wanted to kiss anyone before but I wanna try it with you,” he continued, now resting his head on your chest.

“I think you should find someone better for that,” you said, trying to wiggle away. Luffy looked at you seriously for the first time since you’d met, the intensity making you shiver.

“There’s no one better. No one else knows how to fly me like a kite,” he said, like that made complete sense.

“Yeah but you're an Alpha and I'm just a Beta. It doesn't - you'll change your mind you'll see,” you said with a little more sadness in your voice than you anticipated

“I told you. I don’t care about some Omega somewhere. I wanna kiss you,” Luffy said, staring into your eyes. You blushed, it sounded exactly like the lines in the romance novels you indulged in secretly, the ones where Alphas forewent their designations in favor of love with a Beta. Even though they were popular reads, you’d never heard of it actually happening in real life.

“I wanna know if you taste like dirt too,” he said, his hands now holding you by your face. 

“Uh-? Is that your favorite flavor?” This was by far the strangest prelude to a kiss that you’d ever had but then again, watching a man fly down the cliffs using his own body wasn’t something you saw before either.

“Shishishishi, how'd you know? Good dirt is hard to find,” he laughed into your face. He leaned in so close you could practically feel his eyelashes on your cheek. What the hell, you thought.  You closed the gap for a small kiss, hesitant in case you misread his cues. His eyebrows hiked but after a moment he kissed you back. There wasn’t any tongue and he didn’t open his mouth, but he laughed into yours which made your heart skip a beat. A light wind blew his messy hair out of his face as he pulled away, pushing himself up to his elbows.

“That was great! Come with me and join my crew and we can keep kissing. You’re already on the ship, why not?” Luffy exclaimed, hauling you off the ground and into a bear hug. You didn’t quite follow his reasoning but it was flattering to hear it all the same.

“I don’t think you need a kite maker for a pirate crew,” you said dryly, noting the various elements of their ship from your slightly higher vantage point. Adding a tangerine grove to the deck of a kite would make an interesting challenge. 

“But I like the kites! And besides, you control the wind. That’s really useful,” he stated. Your emotions went into overdrive - how did he know? Was he going to keep you on the ship to power their sails? You knew you shouldn’t have trusted a wanted pirate, especially not an Alpha who pretended to be so nice to someone like you to ensnare you.

“N-no, that’s not true -” you stated as the wind started whipping the two of you, nearly taking the straw hat off his head. 

“Yes it is. The wind changes with your emotions, you need more practice. But you can practice with me,” he replied, crossing his arms with a smile. You bit your lip, your cover was blown. You could deny it but the fact that the wind was increasing moment by moment wasn’t helping your case. You closed your eyes and took a deep breath, trying to calm down. It kind of worked, the wind dying back down to a pleasant breeze.

“Besides, I wanna keep kissing you and tasting your dirt. That’s another good reason for you to come along with us,” he said with no shame whatsoever. 

“And what if I wanted to leave?” you said, still unsure about the whirlwind of events unfolding before you. Luffy pouted.

“If you wanna leave and be a master kite maker I won’t stop you from achieving your dream. But I’d be sad. I want you here with me,” he whined at you. You laughed and kissed his cheek.

“No tellin’ where the wind might blow. So, sure why not? But can I at least go get some of my stuff before we take off?”

[quinnverse]

Does that make us even then? “That depends. Do you want us to be even?” With heavy lids, she gazed at him, her eyes flicking from his lips to his eyes, and back again. “Is that your way of asking me to stop kissing you?”

Her tone was teasing, but Emma desperately hoped he wouldn't say yes. Perhaps it would've been safer that way. Maybe it would've been better for theboth of them if they stopped now and went their seperate ways, but Emma couldn't bring herself to stop now. Ever since the night she met him, she's been falling towards him, slowly, but now she was picking up speed and she was enjoying the descent.

“I guess that’s fair. But don’t think I’ll forget what you said. My mind is an iron trap, Bolton.” When Emma was younger, her cousins Belle and Ned used to tease her for her impeccable memory and ability to hold a grudge. She was capable of remembering the littlest things, so she was sure to remember him admitting that he enjoyed being around her. She was sure to remember this night for a long time, no matter how it ended.

“I don’t suppose those sentiments apply when the woman takes you to bed, does it?” She teased, but her voice held a layer of concern. Had she made him break his morals by crawling into bed with her? Emma knew she could be persuasive--or manipulative, depending on who you asked--but she didn't want him to regret this later on. And she didn't want him to hate her.

Or did he have actual feelings for her? She supposed it wouldn’t be the worst thing. After all, she couldn’t deny that she was beginning to grow attached to him, too. All she had wanted for the last weeks was to be left alone, but now the mere idea of him leaving felt like a punch to the gut.

Real feelings were hard. Lust was easy. Hatred was easy. But love? Emma didn’t know if she knew how to love anyone, especially a man like him.

A part of her wished she could talk to her mother about it. Would her mother approve of John? Surely, her mother wouldn't be against her daugther marrying for love. But would her mom try to encourage her to marry like her father had been, or would her mother, supposedly as fierce and stubborn as she was, encourage Emma to stand her ground?

She’d always been sure about her stance on marriage. A husband would take her away from the business. But the prospects didn’t sound so bad when she imagined the husband being John. He was smart and determined and the two of them could run the business with ease. And it was an added bonus that her father already seemed to like him enough.

“I do not wish to mock you.” Emma confessed with a soft sigh. “Not for that, anyway. In fact, I think it’s rather noble of you to abide by your morals. Most men cannot say the same.”

If there was one thing she’d learned in her time around him, it was that John Bolton was not most men. He was infuriating and stubborn, witty and intelligent but utterly vexing with the ability to fluster her and irritate her in one fell swoop. He was handsome and he also had a soft side that she wanted to see more of. He had patience and drive and Emma couldn’t think of better qualities to have in a man.

“Since we’re confessing our deceit," She began with a sigh. "I’ve never been with a man, either. I know, it's quite shocking, but it’s true.” She smirked, accepting defeat with another dramatic sigh. It seemed like a silly thing to admit, but she’d acted so confident—or tried to—that she wasn’t sure if her efforts had come across as wanton or merely exaggerated.

“I’ve kissed boys before. Before now, that is. But I’ve never taken one to bed myself. Though, I suppose I never realized how easy it was to do.” Reaching out, Emma brushed her fingers along his jaw, smiling to herself. “So much for your hedonistic harlot, huh? It seems neither of us have really shown our true selves.”

"And yet it must have worked, seeing where I'm presently lying," Benjamin volleyed, unable to resist a smug little smile. He couldn't help it -- Emma made it so easy to fall into bouts of pettiness, frustration, yearning, and with a faint pink etching along his cheeks, he took her chin between thumb and forefinger. "I was never desperate," he corrected. "Though the 'embarrassing' accusation, I'll allow."

Emma wrinkled her nose at him. "Only twice? Tsk, tsk. I think can do better than that.”

Before he could deny the offer, Emma entwined their legs and tugged him closer, her thigh serving as an anchor as her mouth fastened firmly to his. Momentarily forgetting how to breathe, Benjamin stayed completely still, his fingers clawing at the air before settling against her shoulders and tugging her nearer.

Far too soon, her lips slid from his and he punched out a breath, blinking at her in a daze. "Uh...does that make us even then?"

Emma sneered and brushed her fingers through his air, oddly soothing him despite the warm, flooding tension throbbing between his legs. "So, you admit that you enjoy my company, then?"

"Let's not push it, Dunster," he warned, though he was mirroring her grin. "It takes a lot for me to admit when I'm wrong, and I certainly don't like repeating myself."

She hummed, shifting into position. A decidedly contemplative look filled her soft features, and as the hearth flickered its shadows across her deceptively sweet face, Benjamin's stomach dipped when they locked eyes.

"Can I ask you something?"

Hesitant, he nodded.

"Have you actually had a lot of paramours? Or was that just to try and make me jealous? Not that it did make me jealous. I'm just... curious is all."

Humility burst throughout Benjamin's veins like a wildfire, and cautious, he appraised her face for any signs of scorn. When he found none, he slowly shook his head. "No, I...I've had no paramours," he confessed, wincing. "And by no, I mean none. I had an opportunity back in college, but I changed my mind at the last minute. Call me old-fashioned, but I wanted to have feelings for the first woman I ever took to bed."

With a bitter smile, Benjamin added, "So much for your lothario. Go ahead: mock me all you wish."

[ongreenergrasses]

"me basing my characterization and then subsequent 200k around two lines LMAOOOO" wait sorry but what are the actual lines? i feel bad bc it's like...very clearly your brand and i must know it deep inside me somewhere but i am curious as to what actual lines in particular you're talking about?

maybe this is a sign im due for a reread lol

“I vote no with Peeta,” [Annie] says. “So would Finnick if he were here.” (mj, 370)

although it’s very little, I see it as extremely telling about Annie’s character. she’s clearly smart, she’s very aware that she has almost no sway over these people but Finnick does, so she’s going to use his name to get her point across. she’s able to clearly and effectively communicate. that’s huge, because there’s a ton of fanworks out there that make it where that’s not the case, and while sometimes that might be true, canonically she is able to express herself well in an extremely stressful and high stakes situation. I think it shows she’s pretty fearless, because all the victors have got to be terrified of any president, and she has no problem speaking her mind and disagreeing openly with Coin. she’s also clearly got some ability to be manipulative, see above point about using Finnick’s name.

I think overall she’s probably woefully underestimated by everyone around her just based on Katniss’s perception of her, contrasting with the way she actually acts in that passage. and being that underestimated all the time, it seriously does a number on your psyche. so knowing all of the above, the fact that she is warring with people not seeing her for who she is, and that she experiences psychosis, that’s what I base her characterization on. it’s probably 75 percent those two lines.

(also please don’t feel bad I’m just absolutely unhinged that those lines live in my mind and I was almost immediately able to flip to them smh. but a reread is always fun!)

[yeonmuse]

𓇢𓆸. 𝕯ECELIS ACA𝕯EMY. —— YJW

BLOODBOUND. ִ. 𓍯𓂃

☪︎ ִFull Chapter log Next Chapter

WARNING | EXPLICIT CONTENT ℭontains the mention of blood & voilence. Mentions of sex & death, Jungwon will be a little mean in this one but the way that each member is written in this does not portray their true selves. Includes ot7, angst/romance/fluff. Includes otr, angst/romance/fluff

𖤓 reader x yang jungwon ── 𝒢enre. angst. fluff, non idol vamp enha. [reqs are open] ᝰ.ᐟ 𝓁ibrary

𝕾ynopsis. — Yang Jungwon has stood by her side from the age of six to the night of her eternal age ceremony. He has spent nearly her entire life reassuring her that her time would come, that she would possess her vampiric abilities soon enough, but he couldn’t have been more wrong. Her lack in vampiric traits cause a ripple in their friendship, her father is withholding secrets from her and she slowly begins to lose a sense of self, but maybe with Jungwons help she can find out who she is truly meant to be in this life.

More | please remember that the things written in this series are a work of FICTION,meaning NOTHING you read in this series correlates to neither enha nor their storyline.

© YEONMUSE 2024. do not copy, plagiarize or steal my works. You can join the taglist for this series here

Chapter 9

For a moment the room was dead silent, neither of them spoke a word to one another until she let a sigh slip past her lips.

“What did you want to talk about, im kinda tired Jungwon if you don’t have anything to say then-“

“What did you mean when you said that I ditched you?”

“Jungwon, are we really talking about this again? You’re really going to act like you don’t know? I waited for you every night after the night of my party. I went to the park so many times hoping that you would be there waiting for something but you never were there”

“So you’re going to blame me when you never even bothered to reach out? I sent you countless letters, even tried to reach Eless and the others since I know you didn't have a phone. You never wrote me back, you never told them to call? You completely disappeared after that, no trace of yet everyone around me kept asking and asking even when i tried to forget you i was still being haunted by you.”

“Letters? Jungwon, I never got any letters?”

“I wrote to you every week for two months…yet you never wrote me back.”

“Jungwon, my father , had me training like some crazy person for four months straight. I didn’t get any letters, he never even told me that you wrote to me.”

“So you never…you never got any of them, not one?”

“Not any of them…if I had known then I would have written you back, I wanted nothing more than to talk to you that entire time because you were the only one i knew that would have given me comfort or made me smile, you were all I had.”

“If you didn’t get them then why did you send me that letter telling me not to come over anymore, not to write anymore?”

“Jungwon, what are you talking about? I never sent you anything?”

4 months earlier

Jungwon sat in his room pacing back and forth, he had been staring at the door for hours hoping for one of the housekeepers to enter the room with a letter from her. Did he make things awkward with his first letter? Should he not have confessed to her in that way? Maybe it would have been better face to face. Was that the reason she hadn't written him back because of the first letter he sent confessing his feelings?

He was going crazy not having heard from her in two months, two whole months, the two had never gone so long without speaking to one another, since they were kids the longest they’d gone without talking to one another was often a week. He waited days, then weeks , then months until he could no longer wait anymore, until he came to the conclusion that you simply didn’t like him, that you no longer wanted to be friends with him because he had made things awkward.

Though when he had finally lost all hope a letter had finally come. His heart sank in his chest upon reading the contents of the letter.

Dear Wonnie,

Please don’t show up here anymore, don’t send anymore letters, all it will do is cause distractions. Thank you for being there for me but i don’t want you coming here anymore.

Yours dearly yn

Jungwon was heartbroken, just like that she had cut him off? After months of hearing nothing from her this was the letter she had chosen to send him?

The next morning she woke with far too many heavy things weighing on her, having found out her father hid Jungwons letters. Her father not showing up last night, she was now holding in so much anger, so much resentment- all because of her father. No matter how busy she kept herself throughout the entire day she couldn’t shake the feeling of betrayal that she had been experiencing all because of her father.

As she pushed herself out of bed and went to get washed up, her thoughts drifted back to last night between her and Jungwon, what had those letters said? She wondered if her father even still had them or had he thrown them away?

She had been in the middle of brushing her teeth when Aleera burst into her room, leaning over the bed and trying to catch her breath as if she had just run a mile.

“You Yo”

“Do I need to get you a defibrillator?” Seconds later fawna had appeared in the doorframe, her gaze dead set on yn.

“Your father is here”

🔖 @jwonistic @bubblytaetae @pkjay @heesallure @planetmarlowe @dreeki @butterflywonz @lilotus17 @squiishymeow @river-demon-slayer @jiamini @sol3chu @st4rryst4r @firstclassjaylee @right-person-wrong-time

[problemchildtm]

Die With A Smile

Summary: Derek has a nightmare about you dying in the field and feelings are realized

CW: death, guns, violence, typical cm stuff, lmk if there's anything I missed

A/N: I was listening to Die With A Smile by Bruno Mars and Lady Gaga and wanted to write something short and sweet. Honestly I'm just happy I had motivation to write again I forgot that I actually like it lol.

It’s quiet, eerily so. The chirping of crickets is the only thing reminding him of the task at hand. Get in, get the unsub to surrender, and get out. Clearing the grounds is as routine as possible until the sounds of screams tear through the night. Not just any scream though, it was your scream. His legs took off before his brain could process the action. After what seems like ages he makes it to the shed that holds the entire scene.

Hotch is trying to talk down the unsub while Rossi supports him. Prentiss, JJ, and Reid have their guns at the ready, and Morgan freezes. Not because it’s a high-stakes situation— he’s seen plenty of those without batting an eye. He bursts into the room and sees you, kneeling while the unsub has a gun to your head. His ears are ringing and the voices of his team are muffled. The room is spinning and everything is moving entirely too fast but simultaneously in slow motion. 

Tensions escalate and the screaming brings him back to reality. Before he can react the unsub pulls the trigger. With two loud bangs and a flash of light, you were gone. 

He jolted awake, drenched in sweat. A nightmare that’s all. Not an uncommon experience but the strange part was you. Lately, his dreams have had one common denominator: their leading lady. Every time he closed his eyes to recharge you appeared. Never in nightmares though, this had been the first. Unable to do anything he got up and went through the motions of his morning. Still, he couldn’t shake the lingering emotions of his nightmare. What did it mean? Why you? His concerns came to a head when he finally walked into the bullpen and saw the person consuming his thoughts. 

Derek has prided himself on being comfortable around women. For the large part of his adult life, he’s been a confident, handsome, self-assured man. So why has he been standing at your desk, with a mouth full of cotton, without the ability to form anything that resembles a sentence for the last… minute and a half?

“Morgan? Is everything alright” you ask confusedly. 

No. Nothing is right. The fear is back. He’s always cared for you but this is different. Bringing coffee in the morning, catching your eyes in silent moments, and consistently watching your back in the field can be entirely chalked up to a budding friendship. But this guttural fear of being apart is new. It’s swallowing him whole and the only way he can escape is to forcibly unclench the jaw of longing created by his own thoughts. 

“Hello? Earth to Derek.” Your voice snapped him out of his momentary internal panic. “Are you okay? You look like a deer in headlights.” And he felt like one. He had two options: he spills his guts about his feelings and hopes you don’t reject him, or he makes up some bullcrap excuse about distractions and silently pines for the foreseeable future. Option 2 for sure.

“Sorry, I got distracted thinking about my family. I haven’t talked to my sisters in a while and they’re giving me crap about it”

Not his strongest lie but believable enough in his opinion. You don’t seem entirely convinced but you move on without question. The rest of the day drags on with every spare second of his time consumed by you. He doesn’t know much but one thing’s for sure: nobody’s promised tomorrow. So while he can he’s gonna love you like it’s the last time, even if it’s in secret for now. 

[sailorscout93]

Okay attempt number 2 at posting why I personally think Galinda Upland is a high masking AuDHD person after I saw a post pegging Elphaba as Autisitic and Galinda as ADHD:

See under the cut

1. She’s very clearly high energy/hyperactive, always busy, never stops talking, the way she talks it seems like that’s how her brain works, just running and running constantly.

2. She speaks what’s on her mind without thinking about how what she says may affect those around her. “You’re green!” It very much gives me “If you’re from Africa why are you white?” From Mean Girls vibes. (And yes, I do think Karen Smith is autistic too lol)

3. She has 2 special interests: being Popular and sorcery. I mean, aside from just being a huge gay flamingo mating dance, Popular also feels like a giant infodumping session of Galinda onto Elphie. She’s sharing all the knowledge she has on one of her favorite topics. The works she puts in to following her hearts desire to be a sorceress, saying how it’s her hearts desire. She would do anything to be able to do magic and I personally think she has the knowledge behind it, even if she doesn’t have the magic ability in her in the way Madame Morrible is looking for. She recognizes that Elphaba was the one who did the magic in the courtyard at Shiz and she begs Elphaba to share how she did it, even though she claims to loathe her. She thinks Elphaba knows something about her special interest that she doesn’t so she MUST find out!

4. I know the suitcases and trunks all her stuff is in is partially because of the lack of closet space in the dorm room but while it seems like everything has its place, drawers are labeled, etc… it’s still very cluttered. She just has SO. MUCH. STUFF. A little bit of hoarding. She cannot bear to get rid of anything because what if she needs it one day?! (I.E. the hat her grandmother made her!)

5. Speaking of the hat. I don’t think she actually hates it. It may not be her style, but her grandma made it for her! When Pfannee pulled the hat out and he and ShenShen started hating on it and Galinda turned around, it took her a moment to read her friend’s tones. You can see for a second her expression looks neutral but contemplative when she’s looking at Pfannee before it changes and she starts to hate on the hat. She had to take a second to read and process her friend’s tone before she responded so she could have the correct reaction her friends were expecting from her.

6. The ‘toss toss’ and ‘leg’ things are both stims. You cannot change my mind.

7. Why is she so high masking? Because her momsie and popsicle conditioned her to hide any trait of hers that could seen as “undesirable” or “unladylike”. She’s Galinda Upland of the Upper Uplands after all! She has a reputation to live up to!

8. After the Ozdust Ballroom night when she and Elphie become friends, she quickly becomes attached to her. Elphie becomes her “safe person” and she develops an attachment to her that I see frequently in neurodiverse people. She always wants to be around her and she is always holding her hand and touching her because she’s so comfortable with Elphaba. She finally has someone she can unmask around.

9. Speaking of Elphie…. Galinda shows some HEAVY Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria in the deleted scene “Elphaba’s Promise”. She is sad and hurt, not that Elphie and Fiyero were doing something without her, but that Elphie “chose” Fiyero to help her rescue the cub, not Galinda. “If you needed someone, you could’ve picked me!” Breaks my heart every time!

10. She seems to have a little bit of rigid thinking when it comes to Dr. Dillamond not being able to pronounce her name. She seems to think if she just keeps repeating the correct way to say it, he’ll eventually get it and not understanding that he’s physically not capable of pronouncing her name correctly because of his lack of upper front teeth, even when it’s explained to her.

11. This last one is very much a stretch (pun not originally intended this time lol) but I’m putting it in too, hypermobility issues are a very high comorbidity with autism and when she’s dancing around during Popular she does a high kick. Could it just be athleticism? Maybe. Could it be a hypermobility thing? Also maybe.

[that-student-that-has-homework]

Moot Appreciation Post

I wanna appreciate my moots a bit:

Please, please, please take a look at their work and give them some love!

I’m gonna start with @birinboom Em, my dear sweet potato moot. She’s a really kind moot and will hear you out and support you in your endeavors! She also writes really sweet fics and has a penchant for sweetheart and silly/mischievous type characters…dunno much about Hashbrowns (Hoshina Kn8) but he seems silly and mischievous to me. Very warm like a baked sweet potato! Also has a way of describing nature that puts you there. Em you already know my favorite, and it’s coming up again: she has the ability to nail the vibes of one universe but apply it to different characters.

@philistiniphagottini Nagi is so very kind. It’s the firm kind of kind, the one that encourages establishing and maintaining boundaries. Also writes really sweet pieces and for chubby readers to boot! Embodies multiple characters and matches their vibes with her narration too! I have come across some neat prose reading her work, I cannot remember them off the top of my head. Which is concerning given I meant to borrow that… Anywho Nagi is considerate! Be kind to Nagi please! She has definitely taught me a lot by being herself.

@feral-artistry : in my head you’re objectively hot. Like a Thai spicy mango salad, sweet with a kick and it’s fun! I don’t think I thought to apply traditional painting techniques to digital painting until I saw you do it. The way she hears you out and gives out solid advice and interesting pieces of information. Generally an educational experience talking with you and I would recommend it to others here. Also: pretty art. Oh and your sense of humor might just align with mine because you’re effortlessly funny in some posts I’ve seen. Also you kicked one of the things I had only ever hoped to experience off my bucket list when you made art of Ace after reading my headcanons of him. Pure joy.

@captainportgasdace an absolute sweetheart. Seriously: like 80-90% fluff and sweetness. Deeply loving (her dedication to her blorbo and her sweet characterization of him speaks volumes) has absolutely brought me brainworms and joy on the dash. Also a patient listener and just so kind? Like...imagine a whole stranger tells you about something completely unrelated to you and you just wish them well? Tell them they deserve good things? Like...lovely. Just lovely.

(Yes my mutuals are all very kind sweethearts)

@silentgravesdontexist a well-meaning sweetheart through and through. Kinda feral not gonna lie, and the spice adds a nice variety. No, not spice like spicy work, more like a bit of a warm kick-her energy? Very energetic, it’s refreshing! Also I don’t think I’m going to be forgetting Cy and the Cap having one of my all time favorite reblog convos under my fic. The dopamine high was real. Absolute sweetie pie and she's goes out of her way to be kind to you.

@throwmethroughawindow : I remember sharing something with her about my reading preferences and her responses surprised me in a really good way. No judgement, just a lot of respect and consideration. I appreciate that. Also loving, and enthusiastic about it. The fun person screaming in the tags (as I've seen and had the privilege of experiencing)

@true-deru : haven’t been mutuals long, but definitely a lot of fun! There’s a decent amount of alignment in fandoms we’re interested in and is generally a sunny presence on the dash! Haven’t gotten to reading her stuff yet, but when I dooooo. Also a lot of the YuGiOh posts throw me back to my childhood and it just brings me this sense of: yay! other people like YuGiOh too!

Thank you all for listening to my rambles, struggles, and for providing me advice and being patient with me when I don't respond promptly.

[valenteal]

What is Arahabaki? What is Corruption? How do they differ from each other and For the Tainted Sorrow?

Ok so Chuuya theory coming up. I’ve been idly toying with this for a while, never really dedicated a ton of brain power to it but I think it’s come together in my subconscious to post at this point.

So. Chuuya might be a clone. This is a genuine possibility. This doesn’t mean he’s inhuman, it’s specifically stated that Chuuya is genetically and physically indistinguishable from a normal human, which in my mind means that he is human, even if he wasn’t born naturally. I don’t necessarily think he has to be a clone but I’m not ruling it out.

Here’s the thing though: N and the other Arahabaki researchers didn’t just copy the original experiment that created Verlaine. N thought that the whole thing was monstrous even with his own incredibly skewed morals. So there’s something different about Chuuya.

Here’s how I see it: Chuuya’s handed over to the Arahabaki team by his father who is also a military doctor. His original ability is unknown, somehow affecting inanimate objects and causing them to glow and under some unknown circumstances he could create a singularity from a single coin. Incredibly powerful. But limited by the fact that the human body and brain has fail safes to keep us from hurting ourselves. Humans don’t use all of our physical potential because doing so could lead to severe damage to ourselves. Like what happens when Chuuya uses Corruption.

So Chuuya’s original ability is turned into a singularity, changing its very nature and manifestation, as shown by the change of color from white to red. I have multiple theories on what it originally was but I won’t get into that right now. The point is: Chuuya’s gravity manipulation is a result of the singularity housed inside him, which we know because Verlaine has the same gravity control that Chuuya does and it’s unlikely that they started with the same Gift. Somehow, using their singularities, Chuuya and Verlaine are able to warp space and time. Because that’s all gravity is, the curvature of space time around mass and energy. The singularity is under control and can either be turned on and off at will (unlikely) or is somehow contained in another plane of existence that only the Gifted who created it has access too (my preferred theory). Idk what that other plane of existence is, but for now I’m thinking of it as a pocket dimension. I think it exists in the same space as Chuuya like an aura that doesn’t interact with anything around it unless Chuuya wants it to. It can’t be seen or felt by things in this dimension but if anything were to somehow get into its dimension it would behave similarly to a supermassive Shwarzschild black hole. Or maybe Chuuya’s is Kerr and Verlaine’s is a Shwarzschild… actually yeah that based on their fight.

But what about those limitations of the human body? What about Corruption? What about the Persona Model?

I think that the Persona Model is akin to dissociative identity disorder, in that it’s a separate consciousness housed in Chuuya’s mind, but unlike DID it’s unnatural and doesn’t originate from Chuuya’s psyche. It’s a mental state created by the researchers that allows Chuuya’s mind and body to bypass all limitations imposed upon it by basically turning off huge portions of Chuuya’s brain. The lines of code thing Verlaine talked about, the Persona Model, exists in Chuuya in a very different and much less sophisticated way, because Chuuya doesn’t need an artificial intelligence when he already has a natural intelligence, unlike Verlaine.

So to answer the questions asked in the title: Arahabaki is Chuuya, the code name given to him and the research team behind him. Corruption is the artificial mental state he enters to gain access to the full potential of the singularity. Arahabaki is all of Chuuya himself as well as the people who created him while Corruption is one specific aspect of Chuuya created by those people, and For the Tainted Sorrow was his original ability. I say that because I don’t think he has ever actually called his gravity manipulation For the Tainted Sorrow, just Gravity Manipulation, which is actually so sad to me.

[cuchufletapl]

It truly drives me nuts the way that a good portion of the fandom talks about Vi abandoning Powder, as if she is irredeemable for her actions right after the explosion that killed Mylo and Claggor and directly led to Vander’s (presumed, at the time) death.

For one, I think it’s a deeply uninteresting way of looking at things, because that scene is what kickstarts the conflict between Vi and Jinx, which is one of the driving narrative forces of Arcane (… during season one, at least, even though it is present in season two as well). Powder causes the explosion, Vi hits her and walks off to calm down, Silco approaches Powder, and Vi gets kidnapped and sent to prison. The main wedge between the sisters is the extremely traumatic experience that they went through right before being separated for seven years — during which they become different people than whom they used to know, and they struggle to accept that. Powder/Jinx reinvents her identity around the last thing that Vi told her, assuming the idea that she is only good for death and destruction (something that Silco incentivises by having her do his dirty work). Vi spends her entire time in prison berating herself for leaving Powder alone for even just a minute, betraying what she thinks is her duty as an older sister and their group’s leader (a value that Vander instilled in her). These things are at the core of who they are, or whom they perceive themselves to be, during most of the story; it’s what shapes their actions, it’s the starting point of their development. Thinking that Vi shouldn't have done one of the inciting incidents of their character arcs is a shallow critique in my opinion, because it's essentially wishing for the story not to exist.

The mind-boggling thing, however, is how many of the Vi haters resent the fact that Vi is a fully fleshed-out character with feelings and emotions of her own, instead of a mindless drone that exists for nothing else but to love and care for Jinx.

Vi was fifteen.

Vi had just seen her brothers and father die from an unforeseen explosion that went off right when they were about to succeed in freeing Vander and escaping.

Vi had just found out her little sister, whom she had told to stay out of the mission for her safety, was the one who made and set off the bomb.

Her reaction, realistically, could be nothing but grief-stricken anger. Maybe one could conceive of a character whose immediate reaction to something like this is truly compassion and comfort for the one who caused it — but that’s not Vi. That couldn’t be the child who’d already lost her parents before, who had spent her entire childhood scraping by and placing her self-value on her ability to protect her family, who was impulsive and brash and afraid of losing anyone ever again and thought her best bet at everyone surviving was putting her own body on the line. And even so, she loved Powder deeply, which is why, right after she hit her and called her a jinx, her mind cleared; she stared at her own hand in horror, wondering what the fuck she was doing, and then walked off to fully process and calm down so that she could later go back to Powder and be the older sister that she needed her to be. (Although she got kidnapped before she could do any of that.) But the point is that even while wrecked by grief and anger, her love for Powder cut through — just after her first reaction.

No, Vi hitting Powder wasn’t right, but it was a normal and (I’d go as far as to argue) understandable reaction. It was emotional, not logical. Even if she knew that it had been unintentional — and she did know it, although I don’t think it fully registered in her mind at the moment of the punch, because she was too caught up on “Powder did this, Powder killed Mylo and Claggor” — her emotions overwhelmed her and she moved before she could even think. This is honestly such an extreme situation that I don’t think judging it on the morality of the characters’ actions is a productive analysis — it’s kind of Kantian, in a way, in the sense that Vi is a bad sister for doing this if we take morality to be absolute, universal, and detached of context.

Interestingly, the discourse against Vi never considers: what if Powder hadn’t let her impatience and need to prove herself by saving her family override Vi’s orders? What if she had stayed home? (Which would also be an extraordinarily boring take that seeks to rob a character of their personality and motivations, by the way.)

No, rather, the quid is always: Vi should be devoid of emotion because Powder/Jinx’s trauma about this situation is more important than anyone else’s and therefore it needs more tending to.

At the end of the day, the Vi hate on this issue is just the classic “my blorbo was hurt by this other character’s actions, which means that they’re evil incarnate.” But it’s frustrating to see it posited as genuine, serious analysis on the show.

[unsiredtribrid]

conversations about Ben are endlessly fascinating to me because being the only adult left out there and seeing teenage girls cannibalize their own is already insane just on its own as a concept but then you pile on that he refused to join in and at that point realized he was going to be left out of the lord of the flies situation because of it (if he didn’t just starve to death, but even then they would eat him)

I think people don’t talk about enough how odd and horrible it would’ve been if he ate Jackie. Like the fandom chastises him a lot for failings as an adult but what kind of failing would it be for him to set an example, as the adult, for them to continue eating each other? For him to eat a child he was previously paid to care for as his job?

[littlebittywildflower]

I miss you. I think I probably always will.

[fingertipsmp3]

There are two wolves inside me. One is trying to convince me to do extensive research for the job interview tomorrow and the other is saying “wing it”

[sourkitsch]

Two things that are true at once:

I am not nearly as mentally ill as I’ve convinced myself I am

I am far sicker than I’ve convinced my friends that I am