#but it also feels like the laziness of something that doesn't understand *why* you'd go this far. zero understanding of others

[ebitenpura]

I like to hc Jadus is like. a Sith parasite. someone who became so warped by the dark side that they don't even resemble what they used to be or anything mortal (instead of just going to the beach that makes you old). the definition of something that looks like a Sith, acts like a Sith, and resembles one in order to fool others and worm their way amongst their ranks, but clearly has become something that merely mimics them now. His body is incorporeal, his mind in a different time and place; so steeped in the dark side is he that he barely qualifies as any kind of species but rather an individual offshoot of the Force, shed like a lizard's tail.

He may have been a man once. That doesn't matter now.

[6okuto]

KENMA RELATIONSHIP HCS

gn!reader, timeskip mentions

isn't a pda guy, but will fall asleep on your shoulder/rest against you as he games, and if you play with his hair, who's he to say no?

if you change your contact name in his phone, he keeps whatever it is, even if it's super silly or cheesy. like okay call "my honeybear darling angel 😚". he says it's because he's lazy but he does find it kinda cute/amusing

you cheer for kenma at practice in like, a sort of exaggerated way, like "gooo kenma!!! yeaahh!! let's go kenma!! kenma! kenma!" and he tries really hard not to look at you—not because he's annoyed, but because he doesn't want you to notice how red his face has gotten. his teammates point it out anyway

lol his team using you as motivation. "don't you want to impress them?" and kenma's like 😒😒 but gets up from the floor

kenma teaching you how to play his favourite (co-op) video games!! he's pretty patient and explains things well, so if you don't have a lot of gaming experience, don't worry too much ^^ buttt if you're competitive, get ready to Compete. he seems like someone who doesn't take it too seriously unless you start (jokingly) shit talking him

he'll try out any games you like too, even if it isn't something he'd pick himself. he doesn't really plan to when you're describing it, but then he thinks about it, or sees a post mentioning it, and the curiosity (And Affection 4 U :3) gets him

easily notices if you've gotten quieter/tired when you're out. if you're with a group, he'll tap your shoulder and offer his own, ask if you're alright, and or make up an excuse so you can both leave. if it's just the two of you, he's quick to find a place to rest for a while

he'll never make you join if you don't want to, but fans eat up any videos or streams with you—they make edits and compilations of you walking in during streams and everything. the amount of begging for a q&a and story time of how you met is crazydsjdhsj

chat is soo annoying about it too /lh "no they're not single," "i know they're out of my league," "yes they were my first subscriber," kenma telling you not to answer them when they ask if he's clingy, etc etc

! i think it'd be cute if you guys had matching phone cases, but his fans didn't know until you showed up with the other one. and they realize Just how much he has on that's matching you—the bracelet and necklace that they catch glimpses of under his hoodie, the hoodie itself from the same line as yours... yeah.

time for "he said no pickles." unless you also don't like asking/don't care,, then you guys can just take the pickles off together <3

^ if it's a serious mistake they made with your food, kenma's a lot more compelled to approach the counter.

would teach you about stocks. if you asked

mutual info dumping and yapping... he's very aware of how much he's telling you the first couple of times, but gets more comfortable when you do it back !

^ kind of guy to do his own research afterward. he makes a semi-obscure reference/joke the day after and you're like ???? Who told you that.

kind of boyfriend who hears you go "i want him" "wait why's this character kinda..." and isn't like, that offended or put off by it. says "understandable" (or questions your taste), but knows they're a character at the end of the day

quality time kind of guy. people know you're special even if they don't know you're dating because you can convince kenma to go to events or try something new when they wouldn't expect it. (obviously it's never something crazy out of his comfort zone, and it's probably because he knows you'd feel better with someone with you, but he's going all the same!!)

kenma isn't the best with receiving words of affirmation or gifts... he appreciates it, but gets awkward and doesn't know how to react ^^; you reassure him that he doesn't have to jump for joy or be super affectionate back—he shows his love in his own ways !

his gifts are very thoughtful. he gets you something practical, and then things that you've really wanted for a while. his cards aren't filled with long letters of adoration, but they're genuine and very much kenma. (+ having money in the timeskip doesn't mean he'd ever buy something expensive or flashy just because it might be 'easier.' it means he gets to buy you way more merchandise for your favourite media, paying the shipping fees that kept you away.)

you get him a super thoughtful (and maybe expensive) gift and he Lights Up. and then he's like ? you remembered / really paid that much ? really ? and he keeps smiling when he looks at it..

kenma coming downstairs with super bad bedhead and pouting when you snicker. but then he relaxes as you comb your fingers through to fix it

tying up his hair... a little ponytail or bun...

matching pajamas... or those fluffy headbands you wear to wash your face... he looks so silly and cute

university student kenma who walks in visibly irritated, and you know you're about to shit talk his group members or professor together.

late night breakfast. sitting in the kitchen eating bowls of cereal past midnight

! late night gaming sessions... and or sometimes you fall asleep waiting for kenma to finish, then wake up to realize he fell asleep at his desk. you have to coax him into bed after saving the game for him

very nervous during the first year you're together any time there's a holiday, especially valentine's day or your anniversary. he wonders if his plans and gifts are enough, not romantic enough, too boring, if you'd rather do something exciting, even if logically he knows you'll like anything he thinks up

sometimes you guys will just lie on the floor, stare at the ceiling together, and talk. maybe there's music, a game menu screen playing in the background, or you're just listening to the birds and neighbours outside. floor time is healing all the same

bleaching kenma's hair + him helping dye yours... timeskip where chat asks if you've done your hair recently because his hands have been stained :')

it's super easy to team up with kuroo to tease him but also ! teaming up to taunt and prank kuroo !! think of kenma laughing bright and loudly, eyes squinting and arms clutching his middle !! kuroo can't be that mad because he's happy someone else can get kenma this happy too

🏷️ | @icekitgeorge3 @dira333 (hey guys) @pelicanpizza @godoffuckedupcats @causenessus @priv-rose @ur-local-simp @respitable @deepenthevoid

[nogenderbee]

DAMN FINALLY REQUEST ARE OPEN!! Can I get the Astral Express crew with an extremely fatigue reader? I'm also really fatigue and I even struggle with going from point A to point B even if its like from my room to the kitchen.

Omg yes!!! So happy to do some Star Rail for a change!! Also help why do I relate- Like I'm trying to do silly little PJSK dances so my condition won't be this bad but omg it's still not great... But here it is! Hope you like it vodka <3

Also sorry for Himeko and Welt being a bit shorter-

♡˗ˏ✎*ೃ˚ 𝔽𝕒𝕥𝕚𝕘𝕦𝕖 ₊˚ˑ༄

*ੈ✩‧₊˚ March, Dan Heng, Himeko, Welt with fatigue!reader

*ੈ✩‧₊˚ fluff but can be read as platonic too!

*ੈ✩‧₊˚ @miya-akane (not tagging you since you'll get notification either way)

✧ I feel like March would somehow relate to your problem... I know she had LOTS of energy in game but just listen to me!!

✧ she's not necessarily fatigue but she is a bit lazy after long adventure where walking around Express can be hard for her

✧ so she'll never make you walk and let you sit down whenever you need! If you're with others, she'll offer to wait for you even if they prefer to keep walking for whatever reason

✧ she also rambles or keeps the conversation going so you can forget about tiredness a bit and so the time passes quicker

✧ if you were getting into trouble by your condition, she definitely did protests-

✧ anyway, if you want to get your condition up, she definitely knows a lot of fun ways and will do her best to help you find something for you!

✧ when both of you are after adventure, you may as well be sitting in the same room, refusing to go out so someone has to bring you food so you won't starve yourselves-

"C'mon it's finally time to take a break from all this walking! I'm sure others can wait and we get to talk a bit more~"

﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌

✧ Dan Heng wad actually a bit mean the first time you felt too tired to walk...

✧ he'd complain that you're slow and that you're just slacking him down but he quickly feels bad and depending on how close you are, he either offers to sit down for a bit or to carry you for a while!

✧ but don't get used to being carried as he'll do it for 5 minutes max and then he puts you back down so you can walk by yourself

✧ he's definitely getting softer as the time passes tho!

✧ he'd try to drag you out of your room as much as possible so you can get your condition up but if you're stubborn person and simply refuse to, he'll eventually give up

✧ definitely tried convincing you to get out with things like "if you won't get out you won't get dinner" but if you won't get out, he'll bring dinner to you in the end because he doesn't want you to starve...

✧ even tho you prefer to stay indoors, he won't usually stay with you as he does have to walk around as Trabilazer so there's a high chance of him not being by your side most of the time...

"C'mon hurry up already. I carried you literally 5 seconds ago, you can walk for at least 2 minutes..."

Why he so mean idk ToT he just seems like that

﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌

✧ Himeko would actually be caring towards you!! She'd try her best to understand if you don't want to move much

✧ she stays in Express for most of the time herself so she'll most likely be around you when others are gone exploring and so

✧ has no problem bringing you food, she just wants to make sure you stay healthy!

✧ but she does try to get your condition up by encouraging you to at least take small walk around Express with her and may even offer you your favorite sweet as treat for doing good job!

✧ she honestly is the type to not care much as long as you stay happy and healthy

✧ she often stays in the Express but if you'd want to go on adventure, she'll be more than happy to go with you!

✧ she's pretty supportive during it too, maybe she won't necessarily carry you but she sits down along you whenever you feel like taking a little break

"Hey, since others are gone walking around Jarilo VI, how about we take a small walk?"

﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌

✧ Welt would most likely scold you for not taking care of yourself and explain how it's important for you to move at least once a day and so

✧ he'll still bring you food tho! Just be prepared for small scolding every time he enters...

✧ definitely tried getting you out of your room and even on expeditions by suggesting going to your favorite cafe on the way or so

✧ if he does manage to get you out for adventure, his scolding actually stops and he's pretty supportive!

✧ he'll let you rest whenever you need and even often drop some "I'm proud of you"s since he sees you're trying your best

✧ trust me when I say he'd love to carry you to help you out but I feel like he has a back of old men so he can't-

✧ instead he'll sit down with you whenever you need and maybe bring you some water or so to calm down

"You're doing a good job, don't give it up, alright? It's alright to take a break so ask for it whenever you need."

﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌

[minhosimthings]

Someone Older, Just a Little Bit Colder.

Summary: Yoon Y/N and Lee Minho. Perfect enemies. But when some guns and roses get mixed up with both of them, I wonder what the fates have weaved for their story.

Pairings: Fem!reader × Minho, classic Enemies to Lovers. Includes rest of Skz and other groups

Warnings: lots of violence, blood, murder, guns, swearing, mention of food, mention of dead bodies. There is a lot of violence so please do not interact if you are sensitive to these things.

A/N - I finished this finally. This took a lot of time and it is probably my longest work till date. I took inspiration from an edit I saw on Instagram. So here you go! Please enjoy this and feel free to give me feedback. I don't like some parts of the fic that much tho. Cause I was very lazy when I wrote them.

Song rec:

1: I need someone older

"No, no, no" Mournful voices were surrounding your frame. "No this can't be happening. Please Y/N!" Tears, not yours, dripped onto your skin as something red mixed with it to create a pretty little cocktail. "Fuck princess wake up! Fuck no....."

"Y/N! Come down quick! You've gotta get to school!" Another day of school. How mechanical was your life. In your final year of high school, you'd have thought that your life would have sugar, spice and everything nice. But instead, you got stuck with a robotic schedule, which consisted of waking up, going to school, coming back, food time, homework, checking to see if any colleges had sent you mails and then going back to sleep. But you couldn't really complain, because you were in Jeju Island. Literally everyone here had the same robotic schedule. Well maybe except for the richest people here. Your family was what was known as the middle classes. You lived comfortably, but not too plushily and your mom and dad both had jobs. Your elder sister Jinhee and you basically raised each other and now, with Jinhee, already graduated and married (since she was seven years older than you), you were left all alone in your turquoise room, with white borders and black finishes. It wasn't the fact that you weren't happy or anything. But, as a child of the Cosmos and as a ruler of the skies and tides, you wanted to feel that feeling that people had when they would roll around in the grass, or buy flowers from a sweet old lady, or wear ridiculous nail polish with someone, keeping the stories of the stars to yourself, whenever someone asks 'what did you do last night?'. But wasn't that why fairytales existed? To tell you that getting all those things was nothing but a mere dream? A dream which you hoped would come true? Which you hoped that the universe would understand your heart's desire and grant it to you?

"Be safe alright? Got your pepper spray?" "Yes ma don't worry. Im always safe aren't I?" Your mother kissed your forehead gently before letting to walk off to school, pepper spray in hand, knife hidden up the sleeve of your blue school sweater. The road from your house to your school was one of the safest ones. It was a suburban area, with families like yours lining up the street. You had no problem walking by yourself, and casually greeting the wakening families, with their toddlers and teenagers. You felt safe here and in the rare times there was some danger, you knew you could kick their asses (flashback to that one time you thought your dad was a stranger and accidentally kicked him hard in the shin. He still doesn't forgive you for that)

"Miss Yoon. Are you walking alone your highness?" That voice. That voice was perhaps the bane of your existence (not the object of all your desires. Sue me for using Bridgerton right now). A smooth black car pulled up next to you as you were just a metre away from the school. The windows were rolled down to reveal a young boy, your age with fluffy plum brown hair, cat like eyes, a sharp nose and a smirk on his stupid face. Lee Minho. Also known as the worst person you knew. And no this wasn't an enemies to lovers scenario. It usually is but this? Yeah absolutely not. Lee Minho had been your childhood neighbour since he was six. He lived with his grandparents since he was six, with his parents being in one of the richest families of South Korea and working in Seoul. He also went to your school, which was weird considering he was basically a billionaire and still chose to go to the 'middle class' school along with his his seven friends, who coincidentally were also from the seven richest families of South Korea.

"Oh no Minho. I wasn't walking alone. I have an invisible friend that you can't see from behind those stupidly pretty eyes of yours." You threw him a glare as his smirked just increased in size. "You think my eyes are pretty?" "Oh for fucks sake. What do you want?" "Language, princess." Minho chuckled and unlocked the passenger seat door. "Get in." You let out a chuckle and said "With you? Oh no thank you. I would rather go to Hell and dance with the devil." "Oh come on princess." Minho's face only widened even more to form the face of the devil himself. "You know people who die to even touch my car. You're lucky I'm offering you to ride in it." You rolled your eyes at him. So fucking cocky for no reason. You decided that you couldn't take it anymore and just started walking with a small 'I'll see you at school Minho goodbye now.'. Minho seemed to have taken the sign as he locked his doors, rolled the windows down and sped away to school.

Finally some peace. You breathed in the September air as you watched the Magpies fly around with their mates. You always loved Magpies, courtesy to your dad always encouraging you to birdwatch whenever you were free, with the pink binoculars you had. And today, in the serene September air, it felt good, watching two birds in love fluttering around, probably having a conversation about who knows what. There was that odd feeling in your chest again, that feeling which you pretended wasn't loneliness. People never understood the difference between alone and lonely. Yes you can be alone and you can enjoy it to your fullest. Some of your friends loved to be alone, eating chocolate, reading a nice book, sitting by the rain, all of those aesthetic things those Pinterest people do. You always craved to be like that too, but you never could. And you still had to learn to accept the fact that being basic wasn't a bad thing.

"Babe your foundation isn't blended properly come here. Hasn't Mama Huh taught you anything?" Your best friend Yunjin greeted you at the stairs of your school, with her bright unicorn bag and her perfect makeup as usual. "Sorry sweetheart. I really can't focus today." Yunjin gave you a sympathetic look as she blended the foundation on your neck with her hands carefully. "Is it Lee again? I swear to God one of these days I'm gonna go and tell him that you like him and then he'll confess to you and then this can be an enemies to lovers novel where I'm the sassy, amazing best friend who saves the day." You laughed at Yunjin's rambling. "And I thought Chaer was more delusional than you." "Do I hear my name?" A pretty girl with long black hair and perhaps the greatest jawline in the world came up behind you. Lee Chaeryoung, cousin of Minho and your second best friend, also your prettiest friend (sue me she's my wif- I mean my bias) "Hey Chaer. By the way have you guys completed Mr Hong's assignment?" Yunjin groaned at your words as she pulled out a red copy from her bag and opened it to reveal her messy handwriting. "I stayed up to finish this shit. Why do we need to analyse what a curtain means in Shakespearean language? Like I don't know. It could mean the heroine wants to be at an orgy for all I know." Chaer hit Yunjin's arm as you laughed at went inside the school to go to your English class along with Yunjin. Chaeryoung stalked off in the other direction, to her biology class, as you entered the class, where Mr.Hong wasn't present yet. You always dreaded English period, not because you weren't good in the subject, but because of the seating arrangement. Yunjin would always sit at the back of the class while you were stuck in the front with Minho. You internally groaned as you walked up to your seat, where Minho and Chan were talking to each other. Chan was a good friend of yours since your mom was the head of the Jeju Island branch of his dad's buisness. Curly haired, eyes filled with stars and the most gentle behaviour ever, he came straight out of a goddamn book. You always wondered how he became friends with Minho, considering both of them were as different as chalk and cheese. But then again, they has been brought up together, by their grandparents while their parents would stay in Seoul to run buisness.

"Hey Chan. Did you get those physics notes done yesterday?" Chan greeted at you with than omnipresent smile on his face as he nodded fervently like a puppy. "Yeah I got them done! It was really hard though. I really hope Mrs.Choi is absent today. So she can't call me out on my 'mistakes'." You smiled fondly at Chan as he took his seat on your other side, while Minho toyed with a blue hairband. Your hairband. "Minho where did you get that?" He turned to look at you and gave you that smug smirk again. "Why princess? Is it yours?" You scowled as you reached forward and grabbed the hairband out of his hands and stuffed it into your bag. "Yes it is mine! I think you'd know that considering I have been looking for this ever since the playground incident from when we were seven! Oh but I think you wouldn't remember that would you? Considering you're an ajhussi." It was Minho's time to scowl now and he scrunched up his nose like an angry bunny and stuck his tongue out at you, all while mumbling "I'm only two months older you know.", As Mr.Hong entered the classrooms in his pinstriped shirt and began asking for the assignments.

The rest of the day went as normal. You went to all of your classes, had a gossip-filled lunch with Chaeryoung, Yunjin, Miyeon, Sunoo and Jake, accidentally spilt water over Sunghoon from Chemistry, and got top grades in biology as usual.

Gosh September was good. September was lovely. People don't really get why September was so comforting to you. And to be frank, you didn't get it either. But there was this aura that September had that you couldn't shake. It wasn't just all pumpkin spice lattes or orange scarfs. It was..... Something else. Something you couldn't describe. You know that feeling when you bite into an ice cream cone? It crumbles all over you, but you love that feeling, that crunch combined with the sweet ice cream inside. That's what September was.

The bell rang loudly as school got over and you went over to the the basketball court. Being captain of the girls team, you always needed to stay back after school in order to train your team. "Unnie come quick would ya!" Chaewon, the team's greatest shooter called out to you. "Im not that late today Chaewon. That's a record for me!" Chaewon rolled her eyes as she adjusted her shorts. "Y/N are we gonna discuss some tactics for next week's game then? Cause I drew a lot of shit last night and I don't want it to go to waste." Wonyoung, the team's co-captain was nudging some papers into your hands. You gave her a quick smile as you looked over all the loopy drawings she did. "Oh and girls! Please remember to get your registration documents tomorrow! I really don't want to submit them late to Coach Kim." All your teammates nodded at your words and went on to the court, where to your dismay, Minho and his team were also practicing. You were annoyed. You had booked the court for today and has specifically checked with both of your coaches and yet again, your mortal enemy was playing with his team on what was meant to be your court. "Yah Minho! Get off the fucking court. We have it booked for today!" You gave him the biggest glare that you could muster, while he simply strode up to you, ball in hand, and that stupid smile on his face. "Aww princess. You booked the court for today? Well sad because I booked it earlier. I have a signed consent form from Coach Kim too. So either you can get off the court or we can have a practice game together." You felt like blowing up the earth below his feet right now but you couldn't do anything when he showed you the piece of paper on which Coach Kim had signed specifying that the boy's team could play today. "Fine then. But a practice game? Together? Boys versus girls?" Minho simply nodded at your words as you looked back at your girl standing behind you who were currently looking like they wanted to go to war. Seeing their determination, you extended a hand forward to Minho and in a assertive tone, said, "You're on then Lee. I wanna watch your pretty little face when you lose really badly. So what's the prize then?" You regretted asking that question when you saw Minho's face turning into that evil little smirk again. His team was assembled behind him and now you were a bit scared, considering that your tallest player was the size of their shortest one. "How about........ loser has to take the winner to that nice ice cream place that just opened down the street? And it'll only be us two. You know, captain to captain." Hearing that both your team and Minho's team broke out in high pitched 'ooohs' (yes even the Bois) as if you were doing something scandalous. You had no choice but to accept so you extended you hand again as Minho gripped it with his veiny hands and shook it firmly.

Chan and Chaeryoung were sitting by the stands since neither of them played and you smiled gently at them talking and giggling so fondly. The game started with one of the assistant coaches, Jungwon, refereeing. You were more determined now than you were at last month's regional games. You had to beat Minho and he had to take you to that stupid ice cream place. "Scared princess?" Minho asked as you assembled on the half line. You didn't say anything but threw him a smirk, hoping that it would catch him off guard. "Alright, ready set. Rumble!" Jungwon blew the whistle and threw the ball up in the air as you reached forward and managed to slap it onto your side of the court, where Wonyoung caught it and swiftly passed it on to Chaewon, who was standing by the hoops. You heard Minho scolding Jeongin, who was defending Chaewon, for not blocking her properly as you high fived Wonyoung for the quick pass.The rest of the game pretty much went the same way as you kept using witty tactics while Minho kept using speed and strength, which you knew was his greatest weakness. From time to time, his shirt would fly up ever so slightly and you would get distracted for a split second by his abs (which you scolded yourself for).

"Guys can you stop now please? It's 7:30. I'm going home now and you guys should too before they shut the school gate." Jungwon finally ended the game as you looked over at the scoreboard. You had won! You hugged Chaewon tightly before striding up to a very sweaty Minho who, not even in the slightest, looked defeated. "So, Mr Lee. You owe me ice cream now." He gave you a small smile, which made your heart leap, and said "Of course your Highness. Do you wanna get changed and then we can go? Or would you like to come being all sweaty?" You scowled at him and stuck your tongue out as you made your way to the changing rooms as he shouted behind you, "Meet me at the gate!" You quickly took a shower and changed into the tshirt and yoga pants you usually brought with you to change into after a sweaty game.

"Yah are you going to take me in your dumb car?" You questioned Minho as he pulled up by the gate. Chan had taken Chaeryoung home today so you didn't have anyone to walk you home, which was a plus point (for Minho). "Yes princess. Since the ice cream place is not at a walkable distance, atleast for my feet, we are going in my dumb car. And you don't wana walk home this late Y/N. It's dangerous you know? So get the fuck in and let's go. I'm hungry." You begrudgingly got in the car, silently admiring the sleep leather seats as Minho started the engine and turned the car. "Oh and Chan hyung already informed your mom and dad. They're not gonna come home tonight cause they're busy or something so I'll drive you back if you want." You snapped your head from the flying butterfly outside the window to Minho's concentrated face as you shyly mumbled a 'thank you'.

The drive to the ice cream was long and silent. You simply stated out the window while Minho stared forward, trying not to look at the way the rays of the setting sun fell on your skin or how your hair fell in that particular way that just felt good. Do the boys usually confess first? He didn't know. No he hated you. This is absolutely not fucking happening right now. You were Yoon Y/N, captain if the girls basketball team, annoying neighbour, beautiful mortal enemy. No not beautiful. Get out of it Minho!

"Uh is this the place? Looks cute." Minho's car pulled up near a tiny cafe like building called 'Jureimi's parlor', lit up in bright pink signs. "Oh yeah. I'll just park and we can go." You got out of the car as Minho parked nearby and got out too. "Is that boba flavoured ice cream?" You pointed at a brown coloured ice cream in ghe booth. The lady at the counter smiled at you as she nodded and gave you little sample cup. You offered a bit to Minho, who shook his head and went to find a table. "Get what you want. I'll pay." You rolled your eyes at him. He had to pay anyway for losing the game so badly.

You tasted the ice cream, which tasted like heaven and decided that you wanted this. "Can I get this in a cone please? Two scoops." The lady nodded and told her co worker your order, who went to the back to make it. You noticed some pudding cups on the shelf behind the lady. "Are those puddings?" "Oh yes. They're a new addition really. It's a favourite among all the grandmas here." You pointed at the vanilla one and asked the lady to give you that one, while you handed her the money and she handed you your ice cream and the pudding cup. You strode over to Minho, who was sitting with his legs wide open at the little round table in the corner of the store. "Is that for me?" He pointed at the pudding. "No dumbass it's for the Magpies." He gave you a sarcastic smile and grabbed the pudding cup from your hands. "I only got it for you cause this boba ice cream is expensive. So stop smirking at me." He looked up at you with those cat like eyes and slightly pouted, but remained quiet as both of you savoured on the sweet, sticky food.

"Dude how slow do you eat?" You watched Minho as he has halfway through his pudding, while you had already finished your ice cream. "Just slow enough to annoy you baby." You frowned at his words. "Do not call me that ever again. It's makes me wanna vomit." You made a gagging motion as Minho just simply chuckled. "Fine then. While I finish this amazing pudding, how about we play truth or dare hm? Because our impatient princess can't wait for five seconds without doing anything." You thought for a while before finally saying yes. "Alrightly then." Minho smiled at you. "Y/N. Truth or dare?" You picked truth, which seemed like the only viable option, considering the fact that you were in a shop, and Minho said, "How's your brother?"

Your heart dropped as you heard that sentence. How did he know about that? The blue shade of the shop spun around you as you tried to focus on anything else other than what just came out of Minho's mouth. Silence. Yes silence would work. Just give him a glare and it'll be over. "Oh come on princess. We all know what happened to your brother. I just wanna hear it from you personally." Your blood turned cold as your mind kept feeding you memories of that night. That faithful night. That peace filled night. That night when the Magpies stopped singing and September ran cold once more.

"Fuck you Lee Minho." Saying that, you picked up your bag and got up, slamming the chair to the ground, behind you. The lady at the counter looked up to see you walking about the door, pushing it agressively. "No Y/N wait!" Minho knew he had fucked up now. He had never meant to hurt you like this. He had learnt from Yunjin that you were already over your brother's incident. This was just supposed to be normal mortal enemy banter. How do you still remember? He quickly pulled out some cash and slammed it on the counter to the very shocked lady as he ran out after you. You wouldn't have gotten far. After all, you had to pass the school to get to your house. Minho quickly got in his car and started the engine with a blast. You had also left your headband in the carseat. So, that was another excuse for him to chase after you. He wasn't going to lose you again. Not now. Not when he was so close.

The street was dark and cold, lit up faintly by the wavering streetlights. This wasn't September anymore. You could feel December taking all the love out of September. And as you walked upon the concrete, you could feel the Magpies talking about you. You could feel the crescent moon feeling nothing but pity for you. You could feel all the plants with their bugs, looking at you and saying, "Yoon Y/N. You fucked up again just like you always do." You shouldn't have let your anger take control. But then again, when we deal with anger so long, she never tells us that her actual name is grief. Your brother was supposed to be a closed chapter of your life, but like a faded page of an Agatha Christie novel, he lingered on in your brain. All your family had far moved on, but you loved your twin brother, older than you by 8 minutes, too much to let him go from the dusty cabinets of your brain. You tried to forget his screams on that day and that cold, hard cackling but you couldn't. You were right there. Right in front of all the destruction, when your heart broke into a million pieces. Yet how could you forget such a memory?

"Y/N!" Minho was rolling up with this car next to you as you reached your house. The magenta coloured door was locked, your parents were still out on work. "Minho just fucking leave me alone. And I mean it this time. Don't even fucking talk to me." "Yn would you listen to me? Don't go inside the house!" What was this maniac saying? You stared at his figure getting out of the car and swiftly moving across over the lawn to your figure standing at the front door. "please just don't go inside the house." You noticed some figures behind him and you realised that Chan and his friends Jisung and Changbin were also there. "Minho what the fuck are you doing?" Minho looked at with what you thought looked like an expression of pity. "Just please don't go inside the house."

No you weren't going to listen to him. Absolutely fucking not. The last time you listened to him, you ended up in a mud covered ditch. Not today. "Fuck you and fuck your fucking existence Minho! I'm not listening to one word that comes out of that stupid mouth of yours." Before Minho could stop you and before Chan called out your name, you opened the door with gusto, only to be met, not with the familiar scent of Eau de Perfume but with the stench of iron. Your world came crashing down again. Your parents. Lying dead. On the floor. Of your house. Covered in blood. You were frozen. You couldn't move. A sense of familiarity came over you. You knew this feeling. This feeling of feeling like a thousand icicles had pierced your veins. All that came to your mind was him. No this can't be September. September was his birthday! It can't be this bad. No please don't let September be bad. "Y/N. Princess are you alright?" "Min- Minho. They're- they're not. No." The tears weren't coming. This wasn't sadness this was shock. "Chan hyung can you get her out of here? Jisung call the police. Now. Y/N. Y/N what are you doing!" You had strode up to your parents' bodies. Your mom was covered in more blood than your dad. Your dad looked like he was peacefully sleeping. Your mum's head seemed bashed in. Oh god the smell of blood. That night. All that remained was that night. You were too immersed in looking at your parents, that you didn't notice the creeping black figure in front of you. "So you're their daughter are you?" That husky voice was the last thing you heard before a gun shot, Minho's voice and the thud of your body. There was something warm on your stomach. And gooey. And red. This felt nice, you thought. Dying felt nice. If only he felt like this before....

Chan and Changbin slammed the man who had stabbed you onto the wall, destroying some photo frames in the process. Jisung turned on all the lights and went over to the two other men to get a look at the stranger. Minho, on the other hand, had rushed to your side, picking you up in his arms, towel pressuring the wound on your stomach.

"No, no, no" Mournful voices were surrounding your frame. "No this can't be happening. Please Y/N!" Tears, not yours, dripped onto your skin as something red mixed with it to create a pretty little cocktail. "Fuck princess wake up! Fuck no....."

2: Just a little bit colder

"Well well well, Mrs Yoon. How are the children?" Your mother cowered in fear as your elder sister and your dad were tied up next to the fridge in the kitchen. Your twin brother and you were in the clutches of some buff looking men. Eleven years. That's all you were. Eleven fucking years. "Mr. Wang I promise I won't leak the papers. I swear on my children. Please do not harm us." Mr. Wang or whoever he was striding up and down the carpeted room, white papers in his scarred hand. "It's ok Y/Nnie. I'm right here. It's just another November. September will come soon won't it?" Your brother, Doowon tightly held your hand and calmed you down, as your tears threatened to escape from their prison. "Mr. Wang. Please I beg you. Please do not harm me. You have the papers. What more do you want?" Mr Wang smiled at your mother. A cold smile. Shivering and undaunted. "Oh my dear Danbi. I have the papers of course, but you know how I do my work. I do not like bitches who butt their heads into everything. So I want your children to see how their mother is a little bitch." Mr Wang pulled your mother's hair as she screamed and cried out. "Hey don't do that to my mom!" Your borther screamed out as you but the hand if the man who was holding you. Both of you escaped from the clutches of the two men as Mr Wang looked on, slightly amused. "Or what little boy? You gonna beat me up?" Your brother stood his ground, not even daring to break eye contact. "Doowon get back please!" Your mum pleaded with Doowon, but he wouldn't listen. He stepped forward to Mr Wang and stepped painfully on his smooth black shoes. Mr Wang let out a cold laugh as he grabbed your brother by the neck of his shirt. "Grab the little girl too. Let her see how her twin meets with death." A man grabbed you from behind as your family pleaded and you thrashed around, trying to escape. "Let me go!" You screamed as the man took you upstairs while Mr Wang followed with your brother. You reached your bedroom door, which you shared with Doowon and Mr Wang slammed it opened pushing you and your brother inside. "Open that window, Brian." He spat at the man who grabbed you, while you and Doowon stood still. "Now boy. Come here. Come. Here. Now. Unless you want your sister harmed." Doowon looked at you and squeezed your hand before going ever to Mr Wang. And that was the last touch of your brother you had, before Mr. Wang pushed him out of the window on to the green grass below. Your screams had filled the neighborhood, scared the Magpies and threatened September to never come again. September's child,you told yourself. That's all he was. September's child, at the mercy of October.

"She'll be alright Minho. Just give her a few hours. She'll wake up." You were lying on an oak bed with grand purple bedsheets. You had a white sheet wrapped around your waist and your stomach, which stopped blood from coming out of your stab wound. Minho had taken you to his mansion outside of town, where all the sons of the mafias of Korea would hang out. Bang Chan, Seo Changbin, Hwang Hyunjin, Minho's brother Lee Felix Yongbok, Han Jisung, Kim Seungmin, Yang Jeongin and Lee Minho. Stray kids, they called themselves. Basically abandoned by their workaholic parents and brought up by relatives. "Hyung she'll be fine don't worry. Seungmin's aunt is the best surgeon in the country. She stitched Y/N up all fine." Changbin put an arm on Minho's shivering shoulder. Chan and Jisung were also there in the room, trying to comfort Minho and convince him that you would be fine. "What if she's not ok hyung? What do I tell her when she wakes up? Ho-how do I explain to her how I knew that her parents' bodies would be lying in her floor before she even got home? How do I fucking explain that?" Minho looked up at Chan with teary eyes. Chan was worried. Minho hadn't eaten or drunk water for the whole day, ever since you came out of that four hour long surgery. Never before had he seen Minho's cold face so filled with emotion. "Minho listen to me. You can explain everything to her once she wakes up. I called her sister and she'll be coming over in three days from Busan. Now please. You've got to eat something or drink water atleast. I promise you, Y/N will understand if you speak to her properly. Now come on, let's get some breakfast. It's 8 am in the morning. The boys would have woken up by now." Minho listened silently to Chan's words and simply nodded. Words weren't coming out anymore as he slowly got up from his chair and let go of your hand. Taking one last look at you, the boys left the room, all the while commanding two bodyguards to stand outside the door, making sure no one else can even come near you.

"Y/Nnie! Look what I can do!" "That wasn't a proper cartwheel Doowon, it doesn't count!" "Atleast I can do a cartwheel." "Yah don't stick your tongue out at me! Jinhee unnie! Doowon's making fun of me!"

'Do you remember? Twenty first night of September? Love was chasing the minds of pretenders.' "Happy birthday Doowon! I got a CD of your favourite song!" "Thanks Y/Nnie. Let's listen to this song on my birthday every year!"

Purple sheets? This was not your bed. Your bed had dinosaur sheets and made a rickety noise every time you moved. You noticed the white tape wrapped carefully around your waist and dared not touch it. You tried to remember what day it was and where you were as you slowly moved and leaned comfortably against the bed frame, groaning slightly as your stomach was hurting. Gosh what day was it? Was it still September? Or did October come to take you away again?

Lost in your thoughts, you looked around the room, trying to figure out whether you were still in Jeju Island or not. You noticed a drawer close to the bed. Curious, you opened the drawer, to find your phone, a bracelet and a picture of a you and Minho in your jerseys. That bracelet. It was the one which your brother had made for you. Which you hadn't seen ever since that day. And the picture was the one which was taken when you and Minho were elected captains of your basketball teams. You grabbed your phone hurriedly as you realised that this had to be Minho's house. You had to get out. Now. Your memory was coming back to you and you remembered the events that had unfolded the night before. Blood. The smell of iron. The blade of a knife. The tears of a plum brown haired boy.

You threw the sheets off of yourself and made to get up. Stupid decision, you told yourself as the moment your feet hit the floor, you fell down witha loud thud. "OUCH!" you cried out loudly, hoping that this was a soundproof house. Probably not, because five seconds later, you heard footsteps coming down to your door. The oak door swung open with a loud crash to reveal a panic stricken Minho, who had dark circles under his eyes, a worried looking Chan, who was clutching a half finished piece of toast and a very confused Seungmin, who was holding a cup of coffee in his hand. "I knew I shouldn't have left your clumsy ass alone." Minho grumbled as he made his way to you and gently lifted you up, taking care not to touch your injury. You should have probably thrashed around, but for the sake of not accidentally injuring yourself even more, you resisted, as Minho put you back on the head and flicked your forehead painfully. "Yah!" You exclaimed rubbing your forehead. "Ok first of all, where the fuck am I? Second of all, what the fuck am I doing here? Third of all, I know my parents are dead now, so what I am going to do?" You directed the last question at Chan, who scratched his hair and glanced at Seungmin, who was looking at you as if you were his hero. "You know noona, you can come stay with me if you don't wanna stay in Minho's hyung's house." Minho glared at Seungmin as Chan took him by the arm and forced him out of the room, before saying "Minho explain everything. And no I will not help you stop pouting." He slammed the door, leaving Minho and you all alone. All alone in this wood carved room. All alone to face September together. "Alright" Minho took in a deep breath. "Im going to explain everything to you princess. But you will not fucking interrupt me, got it?" You opened your mouth to fire something back at him, but you decided against it in the last moment and quietly nodded. "Alright here goes. First of all I am really sorry for bringing up your brother. I know it was an asshole move and I thought you'd have forgotten about it. Clearly you didn't so I'm sorry. Please forgive me. Second of all, yes your parents are dead. Im sorry Y/N but they are. We informed your sister, she'll come in a few days from Busan. And the reason I knew that your parents were dead and tried to stop you was because my cousin killed your parents." Pause button. Wait what?

"Minho what are you talking about? If this is some kind of joke I will seriously kill myself right here and right now." Minho looked at you with an expression of pure sympathy. "It's not a joke Y/N. You know your mom is the head of the Jeju Island branch of Chan's parents' buisness right? Well all our businesses are connected. And one day when you were a child, your mother had found some papers which proved that my family was in illegal work. My family was ready to forgive her but my cousin, Jackson, wasn't. All those papers were related to his dealings and he wasn't happy that a mere woman had found out about it. So one day, without my parent's knowledge, he found out about your family and well. I think you know the rest don't you?" Too many things. Too many things for your brain to process as it went back to that night. Mr Wang. Jackson Wang. Pretty name, you thought, as you tried to bring his face back to your memory. Scarred. That's all you remembered. Scarred face, scarred mouth, scarred hands grabbing your brother by the cuffs on his shirt. "Chan had found out first. You know him having contacts and all. And when he told me about it, there was this thing inside of me that told me that your parents were probably already dead. I know my cousin pretty well. And he isn't one for patience." "But what did my mom do now?" Minho sighed at your question. "She, she found out some more information about Jackson and she decided to step up. But we all know what happens to heroes don't we?" Your breathing had gotten more steady now and your hands had stopped shaking. Sadness wasn't arriving for you. Not yet. Was it September? Or was it because you never actually knew your mother and father? Because thinking about it, you actually never did.

"Y/N I think it's time to tell you what my parents actually do. What all the boy's parents actually do. We run an underground syndicate over the whole of South Korea. We own every piece of land in Korea. We have information about every person existing in this country. And I want to tell you that your mom was actually one of the most important people for our 'buisness'. She wasn't just some head of the Jeju Island branch. She was a personal spy for my father and mother, put here along with your dad, to spy against, uh, some people." Your head hurt even more with all the information that Minho was unloading on you. You held your head in your hands and massaged your temples gently. Minho looked slightly worried at this and nervously asked, "You ok princess? Want some breakfast?" Oh gosh his lips. "Or a doctor? You know what I'll get a doctor. Chan hyung will say no-" Those lips looked so kissable" "- but what if you don't feel well later on a faint and then you become even more sick-" Don't kiss him Y/N don't you dare. "-and then I'll have to marry you and take care of you foreve-"

Yep you couldn't keep it to yourself anymore. "I wanna kiss you." You blurted out, instantly cringing and regretting your words and Minho turned his head towards you, eyes wide and mouth slightly parted in surprise. "This is adream right? Oh shit I had too much coffee." You were surprised at his words. Wait did he dream of this in a regular basis or what? Or were in you in a coma and this was all in your head? You slightly moved in the bed and as your stomach slightly hurt, you thought, yes definetly not a coma. "Or you could just get me some breakfast? Im hungry and in pain right now." "O-oh yeah I'll just tell t-the guys to get you some. K cool bye Y/N! See you later definetly don't wanna kiss you haha bye!" You were in a state of euphoria as Minho left the room, a blushing mess. Did you just make the Lee Minho blush and stutter? Oh you could jump in joy right now. Well if you could jump. Was this wrong, you thought. Not feeling sad even though your parents had just died? Or were you too familiar with sadness, that meeting her wasn't a big deal anymore?

The door opened again after fifteen minutes to reveal a blonde- haired boy with the most prettiest eyes you've ever seen, carrying a breakfast tray, followed by a taller long haired boy, who looked like he came straight out of those anime comics you read. "Hey noona! Here's some breakfast! Are you feeling better now?" The blonde haired boy, who had a very deep voice, said in a cheery tone. You considered asking him if he was a pixie or an angel because God did he emit that vibe. That positive vibe that just made you wanna pick some flowers and braid them in someone's hair. "Oh hello there. Um thank you for the food. Im sorry if it was of any inconvenience to you." This time, the long haired boy responded instead, saying "Oh no Noona it's fine. Minho hyung would kill us, well specifically me, if, according to his words 'you felt any discomfort', so please eat up. Im Hyunjin by the way and this is Felix." "Im Y/N. Yoon Y/N. But I'm guessing you already knew that?"

"Well of course we know about you. Minho hyung doesn't stop talking to me about you." Jisung had just appeared at the door, dressed in a leather jacket with leather pants, making him look like a biker. "He literally talked to me about your favourite ice cream flavour for five house noona I'm not joking. So please would you tell him you like or something so that I can get out of this hellhole of listening to him?" You were slightly taken aback by Jisung's words and as he plopped and deflated onto the purple couch, you looked at him with a curious expression, "Oh I'm Jisung by the way. Minho's amazingly talented best friend." You heard Hyunjin mutter something along the lines of 'he forgot to add annoying'. "Um I have a lot questions that Minho didn't properly answer. May I ask them,if you don't mind?" You directed this question at Felix, who looked ecstatic at the thought of answering questions, as Hyunjin pulled up two chairs. "Yeah of course Noona! My brother is really vague so please forgive him for that." You smiled at Felix's words about Minho. "Ok first of all where are we right now?" "We're in the outskirts of Jeju Island. This is Minho's hyung's mansion. Well technically our mansion, but my parents are the ones who own it. It's really old and no one cares about it. So we carry out our, er, operations here." Seeing Felix say all that was like seeing a chick with a knife. "So do all of you have like different jobs here? Like in the books and movies?" Hyunjin chuckled at that. "Minho hyung told us you liked suspense literature. Well to answer your question, yes we do have different jobs here. Chan hyung is kind of like our leader. He basically gives all the contacts and manages our profile and connections. You know all the administration shit. Changbin hyung and this idiot over here-" He gestured towards Jisung who gasped dramatically, "-they are our muscle and also so the money work. Lix over here does all the hacking work since his parents trained him and also since he's obsessed with gaming." Felix turned red at that, "Seungmin and Jeongin are our snipers. They are really young but I mean none of us really had an actual childhood. I run the interrogation work. And Minho hyung basically does everything. He doesn't really have a designated position." The way Hyunjin said all of that in the most casual tone weirded you out. He talked as if he was talking about morning coffee, as if it completely normal and nothing suspicious. You smiled awkwardly at Hyunjin who simply stared out the window at the sunlight. "Are all of you so gorgeous over here?" You blurted out, to which Jisung choked on his own saliva, Felix blushed pink and Hyunjin blinked multiple times. "I mean unless you count Jisung out, then yeah all of us are really pretty." You laughed at Hyunjin's statement to which Jisung looked like a furious squirrel.

"Yah Yongbok, Hyunjin are you coming down?" You heard Minho shout from below. "Oh gotta go. Anyways it was nice talking to you noona! I think Minho hyung called the doctor to come in the evening, so you should probably rest up until then. Oh and-" Felix paused for a moment and pulled out a sketchpad from nowhere. "Don't tell Minho I have you this. He told me you like to draw so I sneaked this in here." With that, all of them left you in the room, with a sketchpad, your phone and September's tunes.

You wiled away the hours by drawing the room around you. You tried to draw Hyunjin, Felix, Jisung and Chan too. The house was quiet apart from the voices of whom you assumed was Jeongin and Seungmin talking very loudly. But something was distracting you. That bracelet. The bracelet lying on the bedside drawer. You knew that bracelet very well. It was the bracelet which Doowon had made for you when you were eight or so. And you hadn't ever seen it ever since that night. So what was it doing here? Minho had told you that his cousin and his family don't talk at all, so how was this bracelet here? Was Minho lying? No he wouldn't do that. Yes mortal enemy things but you didn't think this man would be crazy enough to kill. You picked up the bracelet and twirled it in your hands. It was pretty, with gold lining the thing.

You noticed something on one of the biggest pink beads of the bracelet. The bead was... Open? It had a line tracing it as if it was a Pokemon ball, ready to split at any moment to reveal your Pokemon. Curious, you dig your nails into it to open it up. After a few minutes of difficulty (and you almost giving up), you managed to open the ball up. Inside was a tiny piece of folded paper. It was so tiny indeed, that you wondered how someone had managed to fold it. You dug the paper out and unfolded its many layers of folds. This definetly wasn't there when your brother had so lovingly made it for you. The paper was faded, but still looked relatively new. There were some words on it typed out in red, black and blue. The words:.

Yoon Doowon

Birth: September 21, 2005 (Age: Unknown)

Job: Hitman, Ally, Possible heir

Status: Alive

3: Take the weight off his shoulders

'Do you remember 22st night of September? Love was chasing the minds of pretenders all while dancing the night away."

"God boss can you turn that off? It's been playing for an hour now." A stout man, dressed in tight black clothes, which fitted his muscles was sitting spread eagle on a nice blue cushion chair. Sitting in front of him on a much more bigger chair, was a man dressed elaborately in a white mink stole, a pristine white suit, with rings of all colours adorning his fingers, and a big black brooch on a golden chain stuck to his suit. "I won't turn it off until the chorus Brian. You know I love this song don't you? And you shall listen to it until your ears bleed out." Brian groaned and leaned back in his chair. "When is Mr Wang coming?" The man asked Brian. "It's possible he'll be arriving in a few minutes sir. But don't worry. I have intel that he got the job done well and good." "And the little rat? What about her?" Brian shifted uncomfortably in his seat. "Well she might have gotten away. Lee's gang was there." The man threw his long hair back and threw off the stole, a frown and a red scar decorating his handsome face.

They were in a large room, an office, but it looked more like a King's throne room, where there were chairs for the ministers and wine glasses all decked with pink fluid. There was no door, but a few handing blue beads, which tinkled every now and then. "How could she have gotten away? Who did you send to kill them?" "I sent our best assassin sir." The man scoffed. "Well, clearly he wasn't the best. Does he have family?" Brian nodded in response to the question. "Good. Kill them." "Of course sir."

The blue beads tinkled as a heavily scarred man came into the room along with two bodyguards. "Mr Wang." The white draped man bowed deeply to Jackson who bowed back, only a bit. "Well well well Doowon. You did good. Your parents are dead. This deserves a toast. Shall we?" Doowon smirked at the man and got a green bottle from underneath the table. "Only the finest whiskey for you Mr Wang." Jackson chuckled coldly, taking a glass from the table and extending it forward to Doowon. "But-" Doowon said as he slowly uncorked the bottle. "I do not wish for your bodyguards to be here. You know how the Lee Family works? Even the most trusted allies can turn into back stabbers when their money is involved. " If Jackson Wang was startled, he didn't show it on his face. Instead he motioned for his guards to leave the room, who followed suit, although with a little uncertainty. Brian also left the room, leaving the two scarred men alone.

"Well then a toast. To me and you. Buisness partners." Doowon raised his glass in unison with Jackson, who drank up the whiskey quickly. "Mr Wang I have something to tell you." Jackson looked up at the younger man and waved his hand as if to say 'go on'. "First of all I just want to thank you for taking me in that night, when everyone thought I was dead. You were so ever so good with your observations to notice that I was only playing dead. And then you trained me and everything so thank you for that. And for telling me the truth about everything." Jackson simply nodded. He felt a sharp jab in his stomach and his head started to stir. Doowon was going out of focus now and in what seemed like a split second, Jackson Wang rolled off of the chair, onto the floor. Dead. "But I wanted to tell you sir." Doowon spoke to the limp body on the floor. "That I would like to take over by myself now. You're getting too old and I don't want you to interfere in my personal matters."

"How do you feel now Y/N? Better?" A pretty older woman was checking up on you. She wore a doctor's coat with the nametag 'Dr Kim' on it. She was Seungmin's aunt, the surgeon who had saved your life. "Well the pain has subsided a bit Dr.Kim. I still feel a bit dizzy every time I move, but I think I'm good now." Dr Kim warmly smiled at you as she checked your heartbeat. "Well in any case, I think you'll be fine by tomorrow. You can even walk around tomorrow if you like. But for now, just get some more sleep. I'll tell Minho and the boys not to disturb you alright?" Dr Kim gently squeezed your hand and packed up her equipment. She spoke to you as if you were her own child, with such delicate words and a comforting voice, something that your mother never gave you. "Um Dr Kim? Could you ask Minho to come up here please? If you don't mind?" "Of course honey! I'll ask him. Take care now." She gently kissed your forehead and went out the door.

"You wanted to see me?" Minho was dressed in a blue shirt, slightly open at the top and white pants. He looked so.... refined. And hot, exactly like a K drama CEO. God damn he looked delicious. Don't lick your lips. Do not lick your fucking lips Y/N. "Yeah I have some questions." Minho groaned as he shut the door and came forward to sit on the bed. "What now?" "Where did you get this bracelet?" You held up the bracelet to Minho, who looked at you, perplexed. "That's my bracelet, for your information. My mother gifted it to me. It's been in my family for centuries." Wait what now? "Minho stop fucking lying would you? My brother gave me this as a surprise gift when I was ten. And it went missing ever since the day he fucking died! So could you please tell me where the fuck you got this? Or I'm getting out of this bed and asking Chan." "Woah there princess." Minho looked at you, worried at your outburst. "Alright don't get out of bed please. I don't want you bleeding out and dying. But I'm telling the truth. This is the bracelet my mother gave me when I was twelve. It's been passed on from generation to generation in the Lee Family. It's a special bracelet, because it has these tiny chits inside the beads, telling the person who opens it who the next leader of, well, underground South Korea is going to be."

Too much information again. Number one, you could not stop staring at Minho's pretty pink lips. Number two, why did the chit inside the bead have your brother's name? And why did it say that he was alive?" "Wh-who puts the chits inside of this?" You asked Minho, carefully hiding the chit inside of your hand. "Well my uncle Wang dies. Jackson's dad. His great great great grandpa was the one who made this bracelet. So he has the right to choose the heir." "Minho I think you need to see this." You handed Minho the faded chit. He looked at it for a solid fifteen seconds before looking at you, blinking rapidly, just like how he does whenever someone surprises him. "Y/N oh fuck. Shit come on get up. Quick. I'll help you." "Wait Minho what? What happened?" You asked Minho as he gently wrapped his arms around your waist, supporting you as you slowly got out the bed, and onto your legs. "Y/N we need to get to a safer place. If- if what this chit says is true, you're in more danger than I thought." "Wait Minho stop. Would you stop for a moment? Minho- Lee Minho!" You shouted his name, which made him stop in his tracks, arms still supporting your waist, even though you could still walk fine. "Would you please explain to me what's going on?" "Come down to the hall." Minho sighed and told you. "The boys, except Chan hyung, don't know either. So I can tell them and you at the same time. It'll be easier won't it?"

You nodded, not saying anything. Your mouth was dry and words were not escaping it. Gosh September was meant to be good. Why was it so full of surprises?

"Yah Minho Hyung! Auntie told noona can't get up until tomorrow." Seungmin said to Minho as both of you cam doen the stairs. All of the boys were pin the living room, immersed in their own work. Seungmin and Jeongin were playing chess and Chan was on his laptop as usual. "Chan hyung. I think I've figured out who the Mink Thief is." Chan's head snapped from his laptop to Minho so fast, that you swore you heard a cracking sound. The other boys' attention was also now on Minho. "Are you joking or are you actually telling the truth right now?" Minho smiled at Chan's words and set you down on the couch next to Changbin gently. "No I am not joking. Look at this." He handed Chan the bracelet and the chit, which Chan twirled in his gorgeous fingers, all the while looking at it as if it was some alien substance. "Oh fucking hell. Not him?" Minho nodded at Chan's exasperated words as Chan slumped in his chair, setting his laptop down on the table. "Can anyone explain what's going on please? Minho hyung?" Felix asked. "Alright bitches-" "language Minho" "Hyung stop being so old. Alright bitches listen up. So first of all let me introduce you to a man named Yoon Doowon, also known to us as The Mink Thief, who has been sending our families threats for a long time, also know to Y/N as her dead brother." "Yah! Rude!" "Anyways, one thing that Chan hyung found out a few days ago is that The Mink Thief has been in contact with my cousin, Jackson, ever since the day of Y/N's brother's murder. Also Y/N," he paused at looked into your eyes. "Whatever I'm about to say next will probably shock you so please don't faint out of surprise." You looked at Minho with the best offended eyes you could.

Minho then continued in a much more serious voice, "Yoon Danbi, Y/N's mom has been a spy for my family ever since I was born. Her and her husband had been placed here in Jeju Island along with their only daughter Yoon Jinhee, for an important mission. But soon, people grew suspicious of how both of them would act all the time, leaving their daughter alone for such long periods of time, coming home late at deadly hours and blah blah blah. So, in order to make their family seem much more 'normal', they took in two children. Choi Doowon and Jeon Y/N." "Minho what the fuck are you saying right now." Why were there so many surprises? Was your entire life a lie? Were you adopted for some stupid mission or something? What kind of Marvel shit was this? "Yeah this is why I said, don't faint out of shock." Minho slightly chuckled as Chan looked at repramandingly. "Look yes it's true your parents aren't your real parents. But the thing is your didn't even have parents. You came straight from the orphanage. So when my family took one look at you, someone with no background information which can be traced, they thought you were perfect for this mission. I mean, think of it Y/N, haven't you ever saw your parents hiding any documents from you or getting afraid when you asked for your birth certificate whenever you needed to register for your basketball games?" Yes, when you thought about it, they did do that.

"Hyung don't you think you should have had this conversation somewhere more private?" Felix looked from your distraught face to Minho's. "We probably should have but I have shit to tell all of you too." Minho said to his younger brother. "When Doowon supposedly died that night, Jackson Wang got a new partner in crime. Doowon was probably still alive. I know that no one can survive a fall like that, but I seriously don't know how he survived. So what I'm assuming from this tiny chit here, is that Jackson probably told Doowon the truth about his true parentage and all, and then like a basic villain, Doowon wanted revenge and now Y/N's life is basically a fantasy novel." "Ain't that right?" You scoffed. "My entire fucking life is a lie. I mean is my name even Y/N? Are we just living in a hallucination? What if all humanity is meant to do is just live our boring lives until a giant space turtle comes along and kills us all?" "That would be a cool way to die." Jisung said, not even a bit surprised by your rambling. "Jisung." Chan looked at Jisung with a glare. "Alright listen up everybody. Now that the sad backstory is out the way, we need to get down to buisness. First of all we need to get Y/N somewhere safe. Well safer. So Y/N, would you be willing to go along with Jisung, Jeongin and Seungmin?" You nodded at Chan, who looked very relieved. "Great. Felix, Hyunjin, would both of you search out if Vernon's mansion is still protected and everything? " Felix and Hyunjin replied 'yes' to Chan and quickly went out the room. "Um noona we should get going. Can you walk by yourself?" Seungmin stood up and extended a hand to you, which you gratefully took and got up. "Yeah I can walk don't worry. Um where are we going?" Seungmin smiled at you, revealing his braces. "Don't worry about that. Just follow me to the car."

Fifteen minutes later, you were sitting in the back of a Bentley with Jisung, with Seungmin driving and Jeongin stared out the window, sitting quietly in the passenger seat. "You're lucky Minho hyung gave us his car noona." Jisung commented. "He never even lets us touch it. But then again, we're with you, so I guess that makes up for it." You looked at Jisung's wavy hair and thought to yourself that how can a sweet boy like him, be Minho's best friend. "Jisung, when you said Minho doesn't stop talking about me to you guys, what exactly does he talk about?" "Oh noona I could write an entire seven book Series about that " Seungmin responded instead of Jisung. "He doesn't ever stop talking about what your favourite song is, or what you wore today or how your hair falls in such a perfect way. And when we tell him to just tell you that he is pathetically in love with you, he sulks and says that he would rather kill himself." Well that was certainly surprising. "Oh we're here." Jeongin said, as the car pulled up to a massive iron gate, which had the letters C, H and V on it. What it was guarding was a massive black mansion, which looked very much like a vampire's lair, covered in vines of ivy with a statue of bat hanging out in the big yard. "Chwe Hansol. Also known as Vernon. This is his mansion. He's a good friend of Chan Hyung's and he lets us use the mansion whenever we want. It's the safest place in Jeju Island so we'll be good here noona." Jisung told you, as you stepped out of the car. The mansion looked so ethereal and as you walked into the yard through the gate, you wondered if this was the mansion which was described in the story of the vampire Carmilla. You lived and breathed for that story and you were excited at the thought of hiding in a place which looked exactly like Carmilla's mansion, where she took the blood of her lover, weeping over her body, and complaining about her death.

The boys pushed open the big dual doors of the mansion with difficulty, but not before Jisung had entered a pass code on the tiny keyboard thing which was on the right side of the door. This was indeed Carmilla's mansion, you thought as you entered the big living room, which was decked from head to toe in gold and silver. There was a magnificent chandelier hanging from the ceiling, along with busts of some vague looking people.

"Gosh this is so pretty." You said to Seungmin, who smiled and said "Wait till you see the ball room." You were about say 'theres a ball room here?' when suddenly the lights went out. "Ah fucking hell. Guys stay here with noona. I'll go and see what's wrong." You heard Jisung's voice. "I don't think you need to do that, my dear Mr.Han." you heard a cold voice, which didn't belong to any of the boys. "Who's ther-" Before Seungmin could finish his sentence, you felt a hit to your head, and you blacked out, before hearing Jisung shout, "Noona!"

"Y/Nnie. Wake up." Doowon said in a sing song voice. The boys were tightly tied up to the chairs, with cello tape around their mouths. You were also tied up to the big blue cushion chair, with Doowon, standing in front of you, wearing a red coat and that mink fur stole. He had three bodyguards with him, all buffer than Changbin, all carrying guns and all looking scary as fuck. "Y/N wake up you stupid bitch." Doowon slapped your face painfully, which made you slightly stir. "Hey don't do that she's injured!" Jisung shouted out, having managed to chew through his cello tape. Doowon looked at Jisung with a sarcastic smile and said nothing, while one of the bodyguards punched Jisung. "Doowon?" You had woken up and the surroundings were appearing more clearly now. Your stomach hurt so much and your brain was still fuzzy, except for your dead brother standing in front of you, smirking. "Oh hey Y/Nnie. You miss me?" He asked you in a cold voice you didn't recognise. Never September. This was not September's child standing in front of you. This wasn't September's child, who used to chase butterflies and gift you cute little stones, standing in front of you. "Doowon you're alive." You managed to cough out some words, along with a bit of blood. "Ahh yes I am. I assume your stupid boyfriend already told you what happened to me. So I'm going to skip over the part where I explain shit to you." He let out a cold laugh which made you flinch. "Doowon this isn't you. What are you doing?" You asked him, tears welling up in your eyes. "This isn't me? No Y/N this is me. I've been lied to my entire life and Jackson Wang told me the truth. He taught me the way to survive in our world. He's dead now by the way. Just like our 'parents'." "Doowon please. Stop this lunacy! Atleast let the boys go they haven't done anything wrong!" Doowon leaned down to your level and lifted your chin with his finger. You shivered at his cold touch. "Aww Y/N. Always so fucking innocent. Baby the boys are leverage. Soon the rest of the boys will be here and then after some introductions, I can finally rule all of South Korea." Your tears had escaped now as you looked over at the boys, who were knocked unconscious by the bodyguards. You felt like the most lowest human being on earth, when you looked at Jeongin's bleeding lip, wondering what Chan's reaction would be when he arrived here. "Brian! Go check if the doors are open please. I want them all to waltz in here and call for these pathetic boys. And then we'll hit them where they don't even know it hurts. Maybe we'll start with this one." He moved over to Jeongin. The man named Brian laughed and winked at Doowon. "I'll get the door sir." He moved out the room swiftly.

Fifteen minutes had passed. Fifteen silent minutes. This was silence which you did not enjoy. Silence was sweet in September, when only the Magpies chirped. But now, as you watched Jeongin and Seungmin slightly stir, silence became bitter. "Is Brian not coming? You!" Doowon shouted at one of the guards. "Go out and see where he is! Does it take this much time for the rascal to come back?" The guard obeyed and made to get up from his seat on a rickety wooden chair. BANG! A bullet shot went through the guards head, and as he slumped to the ground, with a pool of blood around his head, Doowon screamed and grabbed Jisung by his chin. "You! What have you done!" Jisung merely smirked at him as Doowon lay frozen there, staring at the body. "Oh for fucks sake what are both of you doing?" Doowon spat at the two remaining guards. "Go upstairs and check if the rats have entered the house already!" The guards nodded their heads fervently and went off in opposite directions, only to be met with two gunshots. The door burst open, as Minho and the remaining boys barged in.

"Doowon." Minho said coldly to Doowon, who merely smirked, trying to hide the fact that he had peed his pants a bit. "Well you found me didn't you? Good job Minho. You know Mr Wang told me how your family works. So I'm honoured that I'm actually getting to experience a member of the great Lee family trying to kill me." You were disgusted by his words. Where did your sweet Doowon go? Where did the boy whom you had cried for day and night go? "Let the boys and Y/N go. Now Doowon. And we won't have any consequences." Chan said to Doowon. He looked furious. You hadn't ever seen Chan like this. "Oh you can take the boys first and then I'll give you Y/N." Hearing that, Changbin and Hyunjin hurried forward, untied the boys, who were concious by now and supported them on their arms, as they carried them back to safety.

"Now Y/N's turn. Give her back to me Doowon and maybe you won't end up choking on your own blood tonight." Minho's voice made your heart go warm. He had nothing but cold fury in his voice. If you thought you had seen his anger on that one particular basketball match in Busan, you were mistaken.

"Now why would I do that? Sweet little Y/N is all ok tied up to his chair aren't you Y/Nnie?" He pulled your hair and kicked you hard in your stomach, which made you cough out blood. Yep, the stitches in your stomach had probably opened up. Fuck no, not now. Don't die in September. Let me wait for October. October seemed more comforting now. The Magpies had their babies in October. Im October, you could get boba on discount. In October, you could hand out with your friends whenever you want. In October, Minho would turn a year older. Wait how did you know that? Why was this room so fuzzy? Hey Minho's face. His beautiful face. It was going out of focus now. Good way to die isn't it. You hoped death came to you, wrapped in white silk and picked you up in her arms like a baby and put you in a cradle. A cradle painted orange and yellow. A cradle with Magpies on it. A cradle which loved all the months equally. But especially October. Especially October.

"Doowon, stop that! Stop fucking hurting her!" Minho screamed at Doowon. You were blacked out now and as Minho looked at your gently sleeping figure, his heart dropped to the bottom of his stomach. "And what if I don't? What will you do oh great Lee Minho? I have her in my arms and I can do anything I wa-" That was the last thing Minho heard before all he saw was Doowon's dumb face, struck with shock, bullet hole in his big head, blood staining his already red suit and his stupid mentality finally gone from this world. "Good job Minho. Now come on let's get Y/N. Guys get Jisung, Seungmin and Jeongin to the car. We'll get Y/N." Chan told the others, while Minho had already strode over to you. He hurriedly untied the ropes around your arms and legs and got you to his arms, fingers looking for your wrists, to check your pulse. Tears were coming out now. Tears he never knew would come for you. He loved you. So much. So much it was honestly pathetic. The way you scowled everytime you saw him, the way your eyes lit up whenever you got a high test score, the way you cherished December for your birthday, the way you existed. He loved everything about you. And he can't lose you. Not now. Not ever.

"Feeling good kitten?" You had woken up in Minho's house again, with Dr Kim checking your heartbeat and adjusting your blood pump. "Minho." You managed to breath out weakly, making Minho's heart drop again. He was quick to stand up and cup your face in his arms gently as tears poured out of your eyes. "Hey hey hey don't cry." He said so gently, in a tone which he never used with you. "No Y/N. Shh. I've got you. You're safe. You're safe." He hugged you gently, supporting your head with his hands as you silently sobbed into his shirt. Once you pulled away, you noticed that his shirt was wet from all the crying and that his eye bags were more prominent. "Im sorry. I'm so sorry Minho. I-I really didn't know about..... about him and I caused you all this trouble. I am so sorry." "Hey hey princess. Y/N listen to me." You looked into his eyes, which were twinkling into yours. "None of it is your fault. You hear me? None of it. If anything, I should have told you all that I know earlier but I couldn't. Because- because I- I love you Y/N." That was it. That's all it took. That's all it took, for your eyes to widen, your hands to reach up to his jaw and for your lips to meet his, in a slow dance accompanied by the melodies of the Magpies outside, celebrating that you two had finally realised your love for each other. You pulled away after what felt like a very short time, but you were running out of breath. Minho and you stared at each other for a while and then burst into giggles. "That felt nice princess. You sure you haven't kissed anyone before?" You slapped his chest playfully as you said "Yah! Don't make me think back about being your girlfriend Lee Minho." Minho's eyes lit up and he stuttered out "Girlfriend? Yep I'm in a dream someone pinch me." You rolled your eyes as you pinched him and he let out a tiny scream. "Oh stop so dramatic. How long was I out by the way? And are the boys alright?" "You were out for two days now kitten. And the boys are good. Jisung is saying he finally got his 'Wattpad best friend gets kidnapped moment' and I think Chan told Dr Kim to double his dosage of sleeping pills so now he's crashed out. And snoring loudly."

"Noona you're awake!" Felix had come into the room, well more like bounced into the room along with the rest of the boys, Seungmin sporting a cast, and Jeongin having a pink band-aid on his lip. Felix hugged you tightly while Chan hugged Minho. "Lix let her go. She needs to breath." Chan said to Felix, who had been hugging you for a long time now. "Seungmin, Jeongin are you guys ok now? I am literally so sorry." Jeongin smiled at you sweetly, his fox like eyes forming crescents and said, "We're good noona. Technically we should be asking you that question. And it's fine please don't apologise." He bowed a bit to you and as you tried to bow back, whilst sitting, Hyunjin said, to Minho "So hyung. Have you finally got your ass together and asked noona out?" Minho glared at Hyunjin as everyone else in the room laughed. "You will be getting your mouth stuffed tonight Hyunjin. And yes I have asked her out. And now she's my girlfriend." "Yah who said I was your girlfriend?" You jokingly said. "Ok I'm gonna ask Jisung out then." Minho said standing up.

Four years later

You had been living with Minho for four years now, as his live-in Girlfriend. He had introduced you to his parents, who had been nothing less that kind to you. They had first apologized profusely for the whole Doowon incident, to which you told them that you really didn't care. You had Minho with you and all of your past had slowly faded away.

And every year as October and September came, you learnt to cherish ,not the month, but the memories you made every day. You learnt to forever keep memories of you, your boyfriend, your friends and everyone around you. You learnt how to let go of grief easily.

And when Minho proposed to you, on the twenty first night of December, you learnt, you just needed someone a bit older, and a bit colder, to teach you what it meant to love a person like you'd love a month.

[she-posts-nerdy-stuff]

Hi,

Do you ever think on the first conversation Inej and Kaz had in Heleen's office? It feels like theres a lot there and I wondered if you have any thoughts on it. I come back a lot to when Inej asks Kaz if he convinced Per Haskell to buy out her indenture because "you like Suli girls" and Kaz answers "i don't know enough Suli girls to say"

that's a very interesting sort of snarky answer to me because he refutes the idea that he's the type to fetishize the Suli culture to the point of being "into" Suli women just because they are Suli. But also he doesn't just shut down the idea of him being into anyone. Which ... This is post Imogen debacle, he's resigned himself to not being "into" anyone at this point for several years. He doesn't care how people see him for it either. He could have been ruder or more just more direct about this, but he wasn't. And its like that with many of his early actions towards Inej. He's nicer than you'd think he'd be and its interesting becuase i don't get a sense that Kaz fell for Inej "at first sight", i think his love for her was gradual and snuck up on him (heh) so really everything he did at first and especially not demanding she gets a dregs tatto must have been from some basic sense of compassion, although he'd shank me for saying so.

Also, i always wondered how Kaz explained to Haskell why Inej didnt get a tattoo, then i re-read the books recently i realized omg i bet he totally probably just didn't?! Inej wasn't the type talk about it, she wears concealing clothes and is not very seen/social within the gang so my theory is that lazy ass Haskell didnt ask and assumed she got a tatto and kaz just let the assumption happen. Do you think that's believable?

Hi, thanks so much for your question - and so sorry it’s taken me an eternity to reply!

When I tell you that I think about this meeting once a week… well I’m hoping that you think “woah so cool she knows so much and thinks so in depth about these characters literary analysis is awesome” and not “Jesus Christ she’s insane”. But genuinely, the Kanej meeting is something I think about a lot and I think holds an awful lot of meaning.

The “you like Suli girls” “I don’t know enough Suli girls to say” to me is such a wonderful moment because, as you quite rightly said, it immediately refutes Kaz’s endorsement of the hyper-sexualisation of Suli culture that we see so prevalently in Kerch / Ketterdam (I’ve gone into this at length before but in a whistle stop tour think about the way the Menagerie customers talk about Inej and place so much emphasis on her skin colour, her bedroom at the Menagerie being a “farcical” version of a Suli caravan, the way “the Menagerie always stocked a Suli girl”, the Rare Spices billboard, etc). And this is so important for so many reasons, but in particular because the second Heleen exits the room and she’s alone with Kaz, Inej immediately tenses at the assumption that he is going to rape or assault her- “braced herself for what would come next, fingers twisting in her silks”. And what happens instead? He asks her for her name. Her name, that has been ignored and erased for an entire year as yet another roll of dehumanisation piled against her. Even though the pair discuss and make a clear understanding of the fact that this isn’t some kind of rescue mission and Inej’s world isn’t going to suddenly fix itself, this moment makes an instant connection for Inej between Kaz Brekker and safety. Because somehow, despite everything that’s happening, this moment in Tante Heleen’s office is the safest Inej has felt for an entire year. It’s also interesting that you mentioned he doesn’t shut down the idea of not being interested in anyone and I definitely agree with that, personally I don’t believe that Kaz is asexual although I know some people headcanon him that way it’s just not something that works for me and my perception of his character, and that’s because of situations like his attraction to Imogen and several situations he’s in with Inej. His exact words when considering being with Imogen are “he knew the things he was supposed to want. He did want those things”, which to me very clearly shows that he does experience sexual attraction and sexual desire, and the limiting factor is his ptsd and touch aversion rather than his sexuality/orientation. I agree that Kaz and Inej didn’t experience a love at first sight kind of moment, but I do think that this meeting really solidified their relationship to a level of immediate understanding between them, in essence an acknowledgment of them being “twin soldiers, marching on, pretending they were fine”. They are both able to see the other, clock that they understand to some extent, and respect each other.

Kaz is quite abrasive in this scene, but what always gets me is how confrontational Inej is able to be - “And what happens when you take their money, and you become a rich man?”. (The quote is something to that effect, sorry I don’t have my book with me right now). I think that a big aspect of her being able to summon the confidence to put herself against him so immediately is that she genuinely feels this level of safety with him, because this far he represents the opposite of everything that had tormented her. Or at the very least the polar end of a spectrum that she has been tormented by another part of. And controversially to the image of everything Inej has experienced in the Barrel so far, Kaz is amused by and enjoys her standing up to him, in fact he almost seems endeared by it saying “Then you can steal all my secrets too”.

And ohh the tattoo, or lack thereof, makes me so happy! It doesn’t require much reading between the lines to understand the relevance of Kaz not forcing Inej to take the Dregs tattoo on, she even says herself that he refused to be the one who marked her again, but I love the idea that he didn’t actually tell anyone she’s not got it!! I hadn’t considered this before but it makes perfect sense with everything we know about Inej’s relationship with the Dregs - Nina doesn’t know she lacks the tattoo, and Inej comments on the fact that the others can’t see her scars from having the Menagerie feather removed but that “they all knew it was there”, suggesting she keeps her forearms covered most of the time, and the emotional disconnect she feels from the rest of the Dregs is always discussed at an intellectual level and in the way she spends most of her time with Kaz or alone rather than with them rather than any dislike/distrust/etc of her because she didn’t take on the tattoo. I absolutely love this theory because it takes away any feeling of guilt around lacking the tattoo and also makes it a far more personal thing to be shared only between Kaz and herself.

Thank you so much, I’m so sorry it took me so long to reply, but I hope this made sense and that you enjoyed reading it! <3

[thedomesticanthropologist]

A comment you said on your last post really hit me as a good point of development/angst, please take or leave as you'd like and apologies if I've mischaracterized your Tav at all, but still hope this helps turn some wheels. "As a Cleric of Ilmater Mira is no stranger to Suffering for the sake of Faith." Has Mira considered that Astarion suffered for nothing?

Ultimately Mira's suffering gets her a cool connection with a god and awesome powers. Would that not make Astarion bitter in that respect? To me it seems like Mira is constantly pushing back against Astarion with a lot of "why is he like this" and "you have to be better because it's the right thing to do." At what point does Astarion share his story with her about that boy he tried to spare from Cazador's wrath? I feel like with this dynamic, that would be something he'd bring up as proof that she just got lucky that her god gave a shit about her in particular. Like he did the right thing, was horrendously punished for it and as far as he's concerned, Ilmater was sitting around twiddling his godly thumbs.

I feel like that would be a good point to develop some better mutual understanding between the pair of them that would make Mira maybe not forgive Astarion in the Act 2 confession, but at least understand where he's coming from, rather than just pushing her worldview.

So! You gotta keep in mind that the story you're referring to isn't told to the player character until Act 3, well after his confession.

By the time he confesses, Astarion has (depending on how many cut scenes you've managed to snag/long rests etc) Only told you that he lured victims back to Cazador, and that Cazador is a monster.

He's told you about his scars, and how he pities the other 6 of his "siblings". Plus a few small anecdotes, but *none of them* about anything he's ever done for anyone else.

He has however:

- Been extremely racist towards the Gur based on being attacked by them, likely having been hired by Cazador based on how the story was told so Mira explained that you can't hold an entire race of people accountable for the actions of the few. Astarion said he absolutely can, and fuck you

- Assaults you in your sleep then begs for blood and if you do trust him enough to let him bite "I'll be as gentle as a babe! I only need a little" but u don't pass the checks he will murder you

- Tried to abandon the Tieflings to their fate and told Mira they should move on not because of the tadpole problem, but because killing goblins "would take hours" and he's too lazy to bother

- Repeatedly and loudly stated that he desires power over all else, but has NOT yet told her its because he's scared/desires to feel safe

- Asked to be left out of the Nere quest because he didn't want to ruin his nails and would prefer to move on. Mira said Nere isn't the point, the gnomes are and he was EXTREMELY racist towards deep gnomes in general. He has NOT yet explained to the PC / Mira why he is against digging through rock (the crypt for a year thing) by the time he does this

- Tells you if you get in the way of what he wants he will go through you if necessary (denying him the tadpoles) and to stay out of his way

- Snaps at you about how to deal with Yurgir if you try to figure out what's going on instead of immediately killing him, even if you plan on killing him, and also rails against PC loudly in many other instances as well

And much much more, I won't go on. The point is that by the time he confesses, you have no back story. You have nothing to go on. There is nothing to trust. And the ONE thing Mira and Astarion had together where she thought they were making headway, their physical relationship, has now just been revealed to be a huge scam from the start.

Not ONLY that, but he doesn't regret doing it. He is proud of his simple plan and upset that it fell apart (at least that's how he presents it) and does NOT apologize for trying to use her. He instead says because he fell in love and she is so incredible he feels he can trust her enough to confess his deception without fear of being kicked out of the party.

You must remember that while Astarion has reasons, he hasn't revealed them. And if you judge a man based on his words and actions, at the point of the confession scene, he's not got a lot going for him besides puppy dog eyes and a backstory of admittedly horrific slavery that has only been lightly touched on because he wants you to know Cazador is Bad, but he's not about to spill his guts on what really all happend to him yet.

TLDR: Faith is just about all Mira has to give at this point, and Astarion has made her suffer by gaining her trust through manipulation and then only messing up because HE caught feelings.

In other versions of the game, if you don't finish his quest, he breaks up with PC very cruelly.

If you make it to Act 3 with Caz and you don't make the right dialogue choices or pass the persuasion and instead just say you won't let him ascend, he says he hopes you die screaming.

This man is my fave, don't get me wrong. But without the knowledge of his entire character, when you go in blind or you play a character that you don't give High Insight to, you have to see that he is a very difficult person to navigate. Especially a Lawful Good Cleric of Ilmater who's life purpose is to help and alleviate suffering.

She feels called to him because of his suffering and she *does* have faith she can help, but that faith is majorly BLIND right now and it hurts to know the man who proved time and time again that he isn't trustworthy just confessed his love by explaining that he has been extra untrustworthy

[chorodevotee]

The Matsu's preferred weapons (Medieval AU)

There's a Hesokuri Wars set about this exact topic. I wanted to share my thoughts on it!

Osomatsu

Osomatsu is the one you'd expect to have a normal sword by default. I mean, why wouldn't he? He doesn't come across as the kind of person who'd be too strategic or picky about his weapon of choice. As long as he gets to do stuff, he'll roll with whatever!

So... the staff gave him a lance. And, you know what? There's really nothing wrong with that. It's different from the usual "Osomatsu gets the basic option" trope that HW had going on. It looks cool and it makes sense that he would use a weapon like that, but... Come on.

Osomatsu is a simple man. I think a standard sword is perfect for him. He can even have a shield, too. As a treat.

Besides, I have my reasons (it's only one) to give the lance to someone else.

Karamatsu

As for Karamatsu… Yeah, the long sword is perfect for him. Completely agreed with the (kinda? Is HW canon?) canon choice. Of course he'd use something big and eye-catching. Maybe he'd even try to customize the damn thing. Make it sparkly or have his name inscribed into the sword's metal.

Alternatively, I think double swords would also be a great choice for him. He'd get to do some sick poses with his swords while he fights. Surely he'd use some convoluted fighting style that looks like a dance; exaggerated, but deadly... Or, at least, he thinks it looks like that.

Also: Two swords, he's the second son… Yeah. It checks out.

Choromatsu

Remember the lance? Yes, the one I mentioned like 10 seconds ago. I just happened to have the perfect excuse to hand the thing to Choromatsu.

You see, the name "Choromatsu" comes from the japanese onomatopoeia "choro-choro." It apparently means "the way children and small things move around quickly". Can you already see where I'm going with this?

I can just picture this 5'3 king, ramming into battle with a pointy, sharp lance. I'm pretty sure running away from his problems is Choromatsu's favorite thing to do, so he'll have no problem using this weapon since it involves a lot of running!

I can also see him using a bow, which is as much, if not more, of a classic weapon than the lance itself. But let's face it, Choromatsu with a lance is way cooler (and it's unique and meaningful, too).

Ichimatsu

A crossbow is an interesting choice for a person like Ichimatsu, who is often portrayed as someone of very low energy. I like it, yes… But consider, whatever the hell is this:

Ichimatsu can be lazy sometimes… But not when it comes to violence, I think. Is this anything? I'm pretty sure he'd enjoy the absolute carnage that comes with using a weapon like this.

Jyushimatsu (no way, there's no yellow?! I'm sorry, Jyushi!)

The HW staff gave this man an axe. A giant one at that. He is an absolute unit and I can totally respect that, I love me a good axe representation, but… It seems a bit out of character to me. Am I the only one?

Jyushi can be violent, yes… But an axe? That feels excessive. Also, I just don't understand how the staff missed the opportunity to give him something like this:

Look at it. Now, look me in the eyes and tell me it doesn't resemble a baseball bat even JUST a little bit.

This was the obvious choice for him, so why did they not give him a [whatever the hell this thing is called]?

Perhaps it was too gruesome? I mean, it can't possibly be more gruesome than an axe, right? Also, this would have made for a excellent visual gag. It would have been perfect! Oh, how it hurts to have such big brain that only has objectively correct ideas!

Todomatsu

Finally… Totty. Oh, Totty. What a sneaky little rat you are.

I'll admit that a shield with spikes is an amazing choice for him. The thing is heart-shaped! Very cute. Very cute, Totty… While the combo of a sword and a shield is an absolute classic and doesn't look bad on him at all, I must say…

Let's give this man a dagger and see what happens.

"Ah! Oh, no, I've fallen!" Todomatsu whines, curled up on the ground of the battlefield. With fat tears in his eyes, he tries to shield his body with his arms. "And I don't have a weapon, oh! Whatever shall I do!"

And then, when somebody approaches… BOOM. 37 STAB WOUNDS IN FIVE SECONDS. YOU'RE DONE, BABE.

He'd be an absolute menace with a dagger. Maybe the staff knew this. Maybe it IS for the best that he doesn't have a dagger.

[final-girl96]

My Boyfriend's Back Chapter Twenty-Five

Stu

"You're going to manipulate me into having sex with you?" She asked. "I don't need to manipulate you, sweetheart. You'll give in just like you did the last time and the time before that." I leaned down and kissed her soft lips. "I'm not the killer. I don't even know who it is." That's a lie. Well, the part of me not knowing who the killer is. I do know who it is. "I just know that I need to make sure you're okay."

"You don't need to be scared of me." I kissed her jaw moving down to her neck and her head fell to the side. I smirked into her skin. "I can feel your pulse picking up," I whispered, kissing her pulse point on her neck. "Do I make you nervous or do I just turn you on? Maybe it's both." She put a hand on my chest and pushed me away.

"Stu, you know this can't work, right? You are a murderer. You killed my mother, our classmates, you tried to kill me and my sister." I went to say something but she continued before I could. "Threatening to kill my sister and my best friend also doesn't help. Especially when two people who went to my college were just killed at a perimire based on what fucking happened. On what you and Billy did."

"It's based on Gale's fucking book, babe. She made you all look like idiots. She's the hero in her book." I sighed and sat up, pulling her with me. "I know what I did and I'm still not sorry about it. But I have nothing to do with what happened at that theater. I mean Phil Stevens and Maureen Evens. I know you're not stupid, sweetheart." She looked at me confused and I rolled my eyes.

"Come on! Think, babe. I'm not the smartest guy but I know when someone is trying to be a copycat! Phil Stevens. Steven Orth. Maureen Evens…." Her eyes grew wider as she finally put it together. "There she is! Why the fuck would I want to recreat Woodsboro?" I asked. "I don't know! To finish what you and Billy started?" She stood up, throwing her hands in the air. "Trust me if I was going to kill any of you I would have by now! And yeah, okay, I use the whole "I'll kill your sister or best friend" thing to manipulate you!

Or fucking try to anyway but you're too smart for that shit. To be honest I don't need to manipulate you into giving me what I want, baby. You want it. You just can't admit it because you're ashamed and afraid." I stood up and walked over to stand in front of her, putting a finger under her chin so she was looking at me. "I could just take what I wanted. You know, force you. But um…I like my dick so…and I couldn't do that to you. Not unless you wanted me to do that.

"I can chase you again but I don't think you'd make it back to campus. It was hard enough for me to wake up and make sure I left your dorm before people started to wake up." I gripped her hips and walked backwards to sit on the couch, pulling her down on my lap. "I don't believe you by the way," she said. I leaned forward kissing her neck. "About what?" She tilted her head back. "About you…umm…that you don't have anything to do with those two students being killed."

"Mm… understandable." I continued to kiss her neck and jaw. "You hurt me, Stu." That made me stop and look up at her. "I know I did. I'm sorry I hurt you but–" she rolled her eyes and went to get up but I held her tight to me. "Come on, baby, I can only say I'm sorry so many fucking times. Let's just pretend nothing ever happened and let me fuck you. I can feel how wet you are."

I slipped my hand between us, pushing her panties to the side and running a finger through her soaked slit. I rubbed slow lazy circles on her clit, running my lips up the side of her neck. "Always so wet for me." She gasped when I slid a finger into her, her nails digging into the skin on my shoulders. I added another finger, continuing to rub lazy circles on her clit and pumped into her. "Cone on, baby, let go for me."

I could feel her tighten around my fingers as I pumped and curled them inside of her, hitting that spot I knew all too well over and over. When she finally came her head fell onto my shoulder. I pulled my fingers out and licked them clean before taking my cock out of my pants. I moved her panties further to the side and nudged her clit with the head of my duck. "Lift up a little for me, sweetheart."

I held her hips as she lifted up a little then I grabbed the base of my cock and lined myself up with her entrance. She slowly sank down on me, mouth open in a silent gasp. "Fuck, you're so tight, baby. Take me so fucking good." I held her down on my until she adjusted to my size before lifting her up and helping her move up and down.

"That's it. Good girl. You feel so good, baby." I lifted her and flipped us so she was laying on back. I pulled almost all the way out and snapped my hips forward pulling a loud moan of my name from her. My hand wrapped around her throat and I brought one of her legs up so it rested on my shoulder. I slid deeper into her thrusting into her hard and slow.

The whimpers and cries of my name fell from her lips. "Doing so good for me, baby. Now be a good girl and come around my cock." I pressed my thumb down on her clit drawing slowly right circles. Her walls tightened me indicating she was about to come. "Come on, baby. Let go." Her walls spasmed around me and tightened even more, making me groan as she came around me.

A few hard thrusts and I was emptying myself inside of her, marking her as mine once again. After we both calmed down I cleaned her up and let her sleep for a couple hours before taking her back to her dorm. "I love you." I kissed her and watched as she walked into the building. I waited outside until I saw a light turn on in her room and then took off.

[tfwhynoy]

Hello! S/O is phlegmatic and usually doesn't care what happens on the Autobot base. Type...She just watches, doesn't go anywhere, and doesn't do anything special. Perhaps her pofigistichnost emotionlessness and some laziness irritates the active Miko. What about bots?

I now have a very obscure word to describe me from high school. Cool

There's a general feeling of 'why are you here?' Everyone else is fighting for the lives of themselves and those around them. They're either clinging to the moments of peace while they can, or preparing for the next fight or mission. You don't take part much of anything, and when you do you aren't even an active part. You shrug off most invitations unless there's the option to sit and watch.

That's okay, bots like Optimus, Ratchet, and Ultra Magnus are pretty similar, but they're also usually busy doing something. You're human so you're technically there for your own safety more than being an active war effort so there's no reason for anyone to suggest you leave.

Making bonds with most of them is going to be hard.

Wheeljack is probably just going to ignore you unless he's your guardian and then... He's a pretty high energy guy most of the time. He likes having someone he can banter and be rowdy with. Considering he wouldn't be much of being anyone's guardian you're already gonna be fighting a bit of an uphill battle. it's not that he dislikes you, you go along with whatever happens well enough that you aren't a bother, it's just hard to forge a bond when you give him nothing.

Bulkhead is a little torn. It's nice to have someone whose calm and mellow. As much as he loves Miko, if the team got another of her he's pretty sure Ratchet might explode. He just wishes you would try. Maybe if you put yourself out a bit you'd feel more like apart of the team but with you always standing on the edges watching, it just feels like they have an odd one out that won't leave.

Ratchet and Magnus feel pretty similar. You're another human, another liability if you're in the field, and another person they have to watch for at base. You don't cause much trouble so they aren't going to open the can of worms that is fighting for you to be kicked out.

You can't understand Bee and you don't really go out of your way too interact with him as a result. You're relationship with him is somehow even more painfully neutral than anyone else on the team.

Arcee feels a little uneasy around you. She can't pin point why, but she tends to linger on the edge with you whenever you're around. It just doesn't feel comfortable doing things with someone constantly watching like you.

Smokescreen is probably your best bet when it comes to a guardian. Someone who he can explore human culture with whose level headed and takes a backseat while he picks what he wants to do would probably be good for him. He considers you a friend but he can't shake the feeling that you may not feel that way towards him. Makes him feel down if he thinks about it too long.

[zepskies]

hey!! this is for the supernatural ship exchange :)

* prefer male ships

* i'm a deeply empathetic person, i care a lot about others and sometimes i forget to care for myself because of it.

* I can be very silly, especially late at night. I like giving things voices, or petting every dog I see, or giving nose boops.

* on the flip side of my sensitive/kind nature, i can be very feisty. I’m also DEEPLY sarcastic

* i would consider myself a brave person. I don't struggle to have hard conversations with people (i don't like them but I'll do it),and I've stood up to every bully I've ever had

* i would consider myself a wise/intelligent person (i give good advice), resilient, but also easy going.

* INFJ | Pisces sun, cancer moon, libra rising, pisces Venus | Ravenclaw |

* In a partner, I look for someone who will support and listen to me. I also look for someone who is self sufficient (I can’t deal with laziness). Most importantly, they should be kind (i.e. If I’m ranting about things like sexism in a tv show, I want them to be able to understand why it’s important to me.)

* I’m the singer/guitarist in a rock band so music is very very important to me. I also love to draw and I read pretty much all the time. My ideal day is going to a coffee shop and then a bookstore. Which reminds me— I drink an obscene amount of coffee. I’m also a geek who does go to comic con (*boos are heard throughout the audience*)

Hey, lovely!! I’m very excited to dive into this for you. 💜

(For others’ context, we agreed to do a little ship exchange for SPN characters based on our personalities!)

I debated on this, but I kept coming back to one of our guys for you…

Sam Winchester

(More below the cut): ⤵️

Sam is also an INFJ: deeply a feeling type, introverted, intuitive, but also a very precise decision maker. Even though you two are the same personality type and have some hobbies in common, you still have plenty of differences to balance you out.

Sam would appreciate the fact that you're so deeply empathetic. Someone who cares about others is a very attractive quality to someone like him, who's very passionate himself, and has literally dedicated his life to saving people. And the fact that you take the time to truly listen to him is something he doesn't get very often (besides Dean).

He would also be very amused by your silly side, especially on late nights while researching for hunts, when you're both exhausted but trying to push through that invisible wall of tiredness. Maybe you'd take up funny ways to distract him from reading...

And maybe those funny distractions turn into fun distractions, where Sam may just have to clear off the table for you. 😏

Like you, Sam can also get a bit sarcastic at times. 😅 Sometimes you two might butt heads, all passive-aggressive like, but then he'll make it up to you with those earnest eyes of his, so you can talk out your issues more sincerely.

While Sam shares the quality of bravery, he would also see that and like that quality in you. He not only finds confidence attractive, but also someone who doesn't bend on her principles.

He respects the fact that you're so opinionated, and not only would he listen to your rants, but he would offer his own opinions respectfully, which could lead to some very deep and meaningful conversations between you. (Though he could also be a balancing force for you; if you have moments of getting a bit hot-headed, he'll figure out how to diffuse you. 😂)

He would find your career fascinating! He loves music himself (maybe not the same genres as Dean, but he does listen to rock music). He'd be very supportive, going to your concerts and sitting in the front row. Maybe he wouldn't be the most boisterous of fans, but he's certainly dedicated to you and your success. 💗

And as Dean so often teases him, Sam's a big nerd himself. He's probably never gone to Comic Con, but he's up for that experience with you, as long as you keep him close and help him navigate the cosplayers. (He has some experience with LARPing, so that's kind of close? 😂)

Sam would also love to go on bookstore dates with you. He'd take you to his favorite coffee shop (or yours), and he'd get coffee or tea depending on his mood. He might remind you every now and then that too much caffeine isn't all that good for you (but he really has no room to judge, so feel free to tease him about it 😂).

Then he'd browse the rows and rows of books with you -- whether it's a huge Barnes & Noble, an independent bookstore, or a second-hand thrift shop. He doesn't really care, as long as there's books (and you).

You two often find yourselves exploring the bunker's library together, wiping dust off of old books to see what little treasures you can find, whether it's a book you've read before, or something old and interesting you'd never find otherwise in this vast collection of knowledge.

You and Sam could snuggle up on the couch together and read in a companionable silence.

Sometimes his fingers brush up and down your arm absently, unintentionally distracting you. Or he smoothes your hair out of your face, or even sneaks a kiss or two. Moments like these are when he's his most content, and at peace.

Also, this man is by no means lazy. He may not be the best cook, but he has a "can-do" attitude to pretty much everything, and he's willing to figure it out with you and/or for you. If you need help, an encouraging word, support, or a listening ear, Sam can and will be your steady rock as a partner.

This was my first time ever writing a ship for someone, so I hope I did this justice for you @perseephoneee! I feel like I already know a lot more about you. 💕 And I'll be sending you my info shortly.~

[animehouse-moe]

Heavenly Delusion Episode 6: 100% Safe Water

This is one of those episodes that you either get, or you don't. It takes a dive into the ridiculous, into foreshadowing that is miles ahead of where we're at, and sprinkles it over an episode that is by and large for comedic effect. That said, the staff doesn't give into the comedy, and still delivers on an incredibly well executed episode across the board.

I'd really love to start at the end, but I can't, so I'll start at the beginning. Yes, Kiruko and Maru waste two shots of the Kiru Beam on a bear. Yeah yeah, I'm sure plenty of people are arguing with the potential logic, but let me present this piece of information: they thought it was a Hiruko. If you knew your weapons weren't strong enough to kill, why would you shoot to kill? It's an easy thing to gloss over, but I feel like they do a good job of establishing that understanding through the whole sequence.

Now, before moving on, the episode overall takes a bit of a twist in terms of direction. I wouldn't go near as far as saying it's bad, but that a lot of time is spent on comedy, so the direction reflects that. Undoubtedly, there's still plenty of cool shots that stick close to the overall vision like this one. We've really been spoiled with the static framing that shows off animation like this.

Now, comedy, comedy. I think the voice acting really sells it this episode. Just top notch work that brings an incredible energy to the moments. So much energy that they're able to change up how they play things off. Undeniably it's more heightened than how the manga approaches it, but I think it's really fun with moments like this one. It's a very bold move to remove any sight or motion from the scene, but the voice actors throw themselves into it so well that it works quite well.

Overall, a lot of the changes made in this episode are for comedic effect, and I think they work really well. They translate the humor of the manga into something that works in motion with sound and color. In addition to that, it tones down the... well, I guess you'd say "sexuality" of some of it to make it more reasonable for television. Not in some lazy way of course, as they give us creative camera angles to hide that sort of thing.

Of course, this episode isn't all comedy, as Ishiguro sneaks in some character progression with Kiruko. It's a very simple piece, but I like how earnest and curt Maru is about giving Kiruko praise for something so important to their character. It's partially to blame for him and his sister's predicament, but they also just want to be able to help people with it, so those few casual words from Maru really give Kiruko the push they need to find their resolve.

Anyways, back to comedy. This piece killed me when I first saw it. Not at all in the manga, instead in the source it's more a casual/deadpan delivery without any sort of visual gag.

Anyways, hurtling towards the end of this post, I just wanted to share this clip. For the uninitiated, this is a different color than the usual setup, and a great example of how the anime is working to improve upon the curiosities and oddities of the work. Such a great detail to add.

Just one little detail here. I love that Ishiguro is accurate and consistent with their world. All of the stuff written by younger people is in Hiragana, like the sign for this Hotel. Such a simple piece but really adds a great deal to understanding the overall state of the world.

And last but not least, I love how well they work with Totori in this episode. It really hammers home that post-apocalyptic feel even more. The sorrow, the dejection, the understanding that's apparent in here character and personality shift is really well expressed.

It's such a painful, and very raw depiction of the world. This little girl, who was full of spunk and energy and hope the day before, finds it all crushed in the face of reality. Not left coming to terms with death, but moving past it, and in such a quick period of time. Her dream is absent from those eyes, and the passion has left her body. It alienates her from what makes her a child/young teen. She stands isolated, alone in the street, to work on her hotel.

It's such an incredible scene that helps refocus viewers on the state of the world. Kiruko and Maru can goof off because they have each other. They have someone beside one another that they can count on, lean on, share burdens with. And it's such an easy thing to forget. That there's other orphans out there, other people that struggle to find ways not to survive, but to live. After all, this is a world after the end of itself.

[cadybear420]

Hi! I love your edits! You're doing god's work editing these men in the fem outfits, they all look so good! Also I agree 💯% with your frustrations about all the LIs having "sculpted abs", it's so lazy and boring. I think we should at least get to pick bodytype for the MC to be honest. Anyway! You said you were bored and you wanted asks. I don't know much about your main fandom and LI, but I'd love to hear some of your headcanons about the LI experimenting and exploring with fem outfits, if you'd like to talk about it! I'm a newcomer to your blog so Idk of you have written about it before. Have a lovely day!

OMG Thank you thank you thank you so much! I'm glad you love them <3

I kinda understand why having bodytype options for MC might be a bit more difficult since you have to make different versions of each outfit, but even then it's not something they're incapable of doing. I mean they basically had that in BOLAS to an extent. At least have bodytype-neutral writing for the MCs, why can't they just say "stomach" instead of "abs" or "waist" instead of "curves"?

And even with that in mind, it should at least be much easier to have different bodytypes for LIs since you're not going to customize it.

Anyways for the actual question, I do have some headcanons about m!LIs and a few m!MCs trying fem outfits (and vice versa). I don't have many headcanons about Cas, Gabe, Drew, Jordan, and OH m!MC since they're not characters I'm very attatched to despite the edits I made for them, but...

Aiden: Aiden's interest in exploring with outfit mainly comes from hanging around his girlfriend Evie, AKA my HSS MC who is a very openly GNC woman. He especially takes interest in stuff like crop tops and short shorts and later leg-slit dresses– he's at first a bit embarrassed about them but grows to like how he looks in them. Not to mention he has a bit of a thing for receiving praise/attention from Evie, and wearing those sort of outfits gets him a lot of compliments from her. Later on he does become more interested in wearing dresses and even wears a gown when he and Evie get married.

Michael: [tw: abuse discussion] I have a headcanon that Michael had an abusive father who pushed him into super masculine things and actively shamed him for any feminine things he liked. So I think he likes dressing fem sometimes partly because he enjoys dressing in them to be flirty, and partly because they give him more confidence and are a kind of a "fuck you" to his dad. He's especially partial to 80s-style crop top fits.

Ajay: It takes him a bit longer to try and explore fem clothing, but the first time he tries a crop top is when they're in Paris during the Spotlite trip. He and Cher (my HSS:CA MC who is more fem-leaning genderfucky) are going on a double date with Aiden and Evie and he takes interest in it from Aiden.

Tyler: Dressing in fem clothing I think is something he does enjoy from time to time, but doesn't do much of because those other jock assholes who pick on him. Becoming close to Peggy, AKA my MAH MC who is futch, and seeing her defend him from those other jock assholes does make him start to feel more comfortable with it.

Bryce: I haven't played past OH 1 and I'm kind of on hiatus for my replay of the book, but we all know he would be very open to trying fem outfits. Despite his in-game wardrobe, he is definitely the type who would love to go strutting around in a crop top and short shorts. I don't think this should even count as headcanon cause it's something he'd 100% do in canon if PB weren't cowards lol. He'd definitely wear the crop top Nighthawks baseball outfit.

Liam: My MC Lew has very GNC tastes in clothing/appearance. She does occasionally enjoy wearing the big fancy ballgowns, but both she and Liam agree that they look much better when they're tried and fitted onto him. I haven't yet played past TRR 2 Ch 1 but I'm considering swapping their wedding outfits. And their sexy underwears, because the "sexy underwear" they gave to Liam is so lazyyyyyilw

Alan Kim AKA my HSS m!MC: I haven't done a playthrough with him yet, but in an alternate universe of mine exists my HSS m!MC. He's just as much of a proud GNC guy as Evie is a proud GNC gal. A lot of his wardrobe consists of some of the HSS f!MC's outfits that I am in the process of editing.

Cedric Zhao AKA my ILW MC: I haven't yet played ILW, but I'm making my ILW MC a very proudly GNC guy. His default outfit is that one crop top outfit, his formal outfit is the leg slit dress option, his default underwear is that one lingerie outfit. Yes, all of those outfits are indeed existing outfits in the ILW game for a male/masc MC, because PB COULD NEVERRRRRR

[yanderefairyangel]

How much of a pass can we give writers for writing one thing that wasn't intended to be something different (usually controversial) but it was interpreted that way by the audience/fandom?

Normally as much as needed, but in this era the answer is sadly none.

But I feel like most people don't even realize some of the things they say are problematic and not just because of the questionable morality of accusing someone to villify a mental disorder without actual proof nor actually listening to their real intentions but also because of the effect it has on the writing.

Not trying to bring this back but when the Fell twins were confirmed romance and thus leading people to try to prove they are siblings to Alear (because of course, that's the normal response to that ) they don't even realize that Alear being siblings with the Fell twins has ACTUAL bearing on the plot and would have consequence on the continuity of the text. However, independantly of their S support with Alear, it's kind of obvious IS wasn't intending to do anything too big with them : their plot relevance last the Fell Xenologue and that's it. The writing for their relationship with Alear and how they don't affect much the plot in general and their design or how the writers purposefully made them not siblings to their Alear in canon so that it would determine their relationship with our Alear, regardless of Sombron. And the thematic of the pair of sibling within our cast and how they foil each other. So their S support isn't really the cause of this narrative but more a result of this narrative which is that IS didn't knew what to do with them and made them romance to call it a day...(regardless this decision will result in IS denying the siblings allegations, as they always do).

In the case of Veyle and Seadall, you'd have to ask yourself what DID and ED brings to their writing seeing how 1/In Seadall's case, the diet thing just exist and isn't deeply explained 2/ In Veyle's case, it kind goes against her own character arc of finding herself and becoming whom she wants to be since the brainwash is likely a metaphor (used literaly here) for the psychological damage a parent inflict upon his children when he is being violent against them... I mainly say this based on Rafal and additonally her brainwash doesn't exist just to explain why "evul" but to create a parallel with Alear and their past self... to put it short those allegations are all bothersome in the sense that they show that they don't understand the writing and blame the writers that never intended that to happen in the first place.

In one case it makes Seadall looks like a lazy attempt to tackle a heavy topic when... it was clearly not the goal and in another it would make Veyle's narrative convoluted leading to a contradiction between what the story is showing and telling and whatever those people though the writers had in mind

The difference between the two and idk Bernadetta is that Bernie explicitely tell us herself that her "waky attics" are actually PTSD comming from the parental abuse that her father made her go through so there you can say that the handling of her trauma is badly done in 3H because of how the writing contractids herself

This doesn't exist in Veyle and Seadall's case because Seadall's situation is never treated as seriously and Veyle is never used to make slapstick jokes.

What's worse is when the fandom doesn't even realize that it really is just an intepretation on their part and get mads at other for trying to explain that to them while unfairly accusing the writers of something they never though someone would imagine

(note : me talking about the Fell twins/Alear situation as an example is not an invitation in flodding my ask box with arguments to whether or not they are close relatives)

[ghost-proofbaby]

Hi friend 😘 Congrats on your milestone! I’d like to pick sunset orange. I love long walks on the beach, piña coladas, and getting caught in the rain. Kidding! Although technically all those things are true. 🤔

For real though - I enjoy baking, cooking, reading, and traveling. I’m into gaming, including video games and tabletop (I love dnd, and I promise that’s not me saying it to be matched with Eddie). I’m pretty introverted, so I love a cozy day at home. I show my love through a mix of acts of service and words of affirmation - let me cook/bake you something while also hyping you up.

Congrats again!

hello my beautiful friend! oh, i have been waiting for this one.

i ship you with..... me. fuck those other guys, i'm keeping you to myself.

just kidding, just kidding (...or am i? 👀)

in all actuality, i ship you with the one, the only (drum roll, please)..... eddie munson!

now, i may be a bit biased as your friend, but indulge me for a second. because although you get brownie points for being a gamer and loving dnd, that is absolutely not the deciding factor here.

see, the thing is, in our chats, i've noticed something - you are brilliant, you are smart, you are so observant, but most of all? you're so fucking funny. you have the most out of pocket memes and say things that make me genuinely snort. the type of laughing until i get all teary eyed. and eddie needs someone like that. he's a giant dork, an absolute menace to society, and he needs someone who can keep up with his humor. but then to top it all of, you're also a massive nerd? he must be dreaming. seriously. someone, please pinch this boy, because he can't be convinced that he's been lucky to find someone like you who fits with him so goddamn perfectly. he can talk out all his campaigns with you, and you'd actually probably help him write them! he'd probably bug you to teach him video games, only to give up and decide that he'll stick to tabletop and just watch you with your wonderful dark games. he'd love to spend lazy evenings with you, getting to lounge and cuddle and do absolutely nothing and yet feel happier than he ever has. he always knows you'll be there for him on his bad days, ready to reassure him that no, he isn't that annoying, and yes, you'll make him brownies if he lets you get up out of his koala death grip for just a few minutes. you're there for every hellfire night, you're there for every ramble he's bound to go on after reading his latest fantasy novel, and you're there for him even on the days he's especially being a pest. he's sure at some point you'll get annoyed at him waking you up at odd hours to reassure him that you still love him at some point, but you never do. even if you were already asleep. you just give him that sleepy smile, promise him that you'd love him even if he were a worm, and get back to your beauty rest. although, he still doesn't understand why people say that - it's not like you're not just as stunning when you run on lack of sleep as you do to him after a full 8 hours. in short, you're a dream, and he hopes he doesn't wake up any time soon.

which is exactly why yours and eddie's song would absolutely have to be i must be dreaming by the maine.

1k celebration - come party with me!

[justsomeoneintoomanyfandoms]

Hellooo!! Could I get a matchup for Bungou stray dogs and Genshin please?

Pronouns: she/her

Sexuality: straight

Zodiac/MBTI: Scorpio, ENTP

Appearance: 5'5, fluffy dark brown hair, pale skin, people tell me i'm really androgynous but prob just because i have a very deep voice and thick eyebrows 🤓

Persoality: I'm a huge extrovert, I love talking and connecting with people and i'm a people pleaser tbh. I love making people laugh and i think people telling me i'm funny is one of the coolest compliments ever hehe

Likes and dislikes: I looove music (especially old rock bands), true crime (currently in uni studying criminology:))), animals, sports (i practice equestrian and it's my favorite ever)

Hobbies: Reading and drawing a lot, watching history classes on yt lmao i love history, going out and finding new places in my city, playing video games, cosplaying 🤓🤓

Other info: it's really hard for me to open up but i find myself listening to a lot of friends venting and i wish i could do that too lol, i get distracted really easily and my love languages are acts of service, physical touch and gift giving

Hello! Thank you for the request! Sorry it took a little while, university has been a bit stressful lately. Hope you like your matchup!

In Bungo Stray Dogs, I match you with...

Another extrovert! Poor Kunikida. Poor Atsushi. They have another one to deal with now.

Dazai would love spending lazy afternoons with you, skipping work and laying on the couch, listening to your favourite old rock bands.

He's a naturally touchy person, so physical touch is something you won't feel is lacking in your relationship.

He's almost always touching you somehow. Sitting close enough that his legs touch yours. A hand on your back as he walks past you. Intertwining fingers when walking.

He just wants reassurance that you're still with him. He doesn't want to wake up and find out you were a dream; too good to be true.

Loves your cosplays but will tease you relentlessly about it. It's his way of showing affection. In all honesty though, he finds it very admirable that you have something that you're so passionate about.

Dazai would also enjoy exploring the city with you. He already knows quite a few hidden places from his time as part of the darker side of the city but he'll just nudge you towards those places, letting you discover them yourself.

He enjoys watching your face light up when you find a new place.

All in all, Dazai enjoys spending time with you. He finds you a calming presence in his life.

In Genshin Impact, I match you with...

This was actually a close call between Cyno and Zhongli so if you'd like me to write a matchup for Zhongli, just let me know.

Cyno is the standoffish almost-introvert to your extrovert. People who see you together never know if either of you are willingly spending time with the other.

Of course, Cyno loves spending time with you. Even if he doesn't show it very often, he cares deeply for those he allows to get close. And that certainly includes you.

He'll never understand why people always laugh at your jokes and never his. Tighnari both loves and hates hanging out with you two. There really is no escape from the jokes.

Cyno's love language is definitely acts of service (with quality time a close second) so you can count on him to do things for you if you're too busy or have other things to do.

He doesn't cook a whole lot but he'll be happy to make his signature dish (Duel Soul) for you. Hope you like rice!

If you play Genius Invocation TCG (or any other similar card game like Yu-Gi-Oh in a modern au), Cyno would love to play against you. If you beat him, he may propose to you right then and there.

You and Cyno balance each other out. All in all, a pretty good relationship.

[finalgirlminamurray]

v/h/s/94 segments, ranked

just watched this a couple nights ago! i know ranking the segments is kind of a lazy way to review an anthology film but i couldn't help doing it after watching this and the first two. i'll probably put my rankings of those up later.

i liked this one a lot, probably the best of the series so far. i don't know if i'll continue on with 99 and 85 after this. i think 94 was the most coherent out of all of them and i genuinely liked every segment, such that it was harder to rank them than the first two. i'd put my top three choices very close together in terms of quality.

i don't really think of the wraparound segments in these as something you can rank along with the rest because they're just meant as a framing device and not their own story so i'll leave "holy hell" out, but it's probably the best wraparound so far. it's not actively unpleasant to watch like the first one (at least in the beginning) and the interludes are more interesting. they put a lot of effort into crafting a creepy atmosphere for this location and it actually ties into the tapes as well. however although i appreciate them trying i think the ending of this one is. kind of dumb. oh well it's not that important.

(also this entry automatically gets points over the first three for actually being set entirely in the vhs era. i don't know why they were theming this series around vhs tapes and then having all the segments - except one in the first film - shot using in-universe ~modern technology~ instead of actually feeling like something you'd find on an old videotape. i thought that would be the conceit from the beginning? thankfully the new trilogy gets back on the track they should always have been on.)

not counting the wraparound there are 4 segments here:

4. the empty wake. this one wasn't bad it was just a little underwhelming compared to the others, maybe because it was shorter. (was it? i don't actually know.) the atmosphere is great - empty funeral home during a raging storm - and the visuals of the dead guy shambling around as his body falls apart were very cool but ultimately i was left kind of like. well that was it. maybe i'm just dumb but i didn't really have a clear sense of what was supposed to be going on at the end - the main character turns into a zombie? there's some kind of occult ritual involved? it has something to do with the circumstances of the man's death maybe? it probably doesn't matter and was left ambiguous on purpose but overall i thought it was just fine. not bad at all though, it speaks to the quality of this one. (simon barrett apparently said this one was partly inspired by viy and that's something i really want to watch, along with the 2019 film the vigil, which wasn't cited as an inspiration but it's what i thought of even though this is in a christian church.)

3. terror. this was also one where i didn't fully understand what was going on in it until reading up on it later but once i did i think i liked it more. probably the most realistic-feeling of the tapes in a genuinely scary way given the subject matter. maybe a little too realistic - there are clear parallels to real-life stuff like the oklahoma city bombing which i definitely did pick up on right away. i feel like there's been a number of films these days with easily hatable alt-right type villains that are still strangely hesitant to explicitly reference exactly what they believe that makes them evil, and this one kind of plays with that in that these guys aren't turning to the camera and directly stating who it is they blame for society's ruin but they don't need to, it's pretty clear exactly what kind of group this is. strikes a good balance between making them pathetic losers and actually dangerous - this feels pretty accurate to how these guys would talk and act. it also doesn't spell out what's going on with the alarms and them killing the same guy over and over, and again maybe i'm dumb or i was watching this too late at night to be fully paying attention but i did not connect at first that he was "the beast", i thought they were just harvesting his blood to feed it.

the beast's design is again, very cool when we finally see it and the deaths are very satisfying. since team radio silence were producers on this i wonder if they lifted the idea of vampire blood exploding in the sunlight from this one for abigail. this segment is also the only one that explicitly ties back into the framing device and i think feeds into a larger theme about law enforcement that runs throughout a number of these. v/h/s/94 said acab?

2. storm drain. debated a lot about switching my first and second choices because they're both really solid. i put this one second because it's shorter but i think it could easily go first if i did this on a different day. this is a really well-crafted short film that's definitely the funniest of the segments while taking a turn into genuine freaky shit at its climax. i really liked watcher so it was cool to see chloe okuno making something in a very different genre of horror. she said she was inspired by REC which is a fantastic movie about average local news turning into something horrific and this captures that vibe very well, i love the interviews with the locals in the beginning. holly marciano is a great gale weathers-esque character and there's some pointed commentary about journalism exploiting homeless populations (who seem to be an object of some fascination for documentarians - okuno also cited the documentary dark days, about people living in a subway tunnel.) the creature design when it's finally revealed is extremely cool, not surprised the same guy who worked on the ritual also worked on this. this is a good example of short films that don't need to explain anything to be effective.

RAATMA: there was a SEWER RAATMA

1: the subject. don't know if i'm giving this one the top spot because it was longer or if i just found it the most memorable but either way timo tjahjanto knocks it out of the park once again. "safe haven" was the clear standout from v/h/s/2 so it makes total sense he'd be the first returning director. this one starts out strong with some good freaky gruesome mad science imagery but it ends up a lot more poignant and thematically strong than i was expecting, even when it kind of turns into a video game halfway through. i haven't seen the raid or its sequel (i'm really not an action movie person) but if this is the vibe i get why people are into those. i think i prefer action setpieces in short form. continuing the acab theme, i liked seeing a story where the police showing up and immediately shooting the bad guy dead with no hesitation does not do much to improve the situation. i especially liked the horror of being kidnapped and experimented on turning into the horror of no longer being considered human by the people who are supposed to help you even though you very much still want to live. there's the obvious disability reading and i think you could apply this a number of ways in addition to that. i was pleasantly surprised to see this ending with the main character getting away, even if i'm not sure how she's going to recharge her batteries. good for her! good for her.

this was fun i like anthology films. i'll have to see if i think the next v/h/s films are worth watching. i got this one from the library but if i want more motivation to watch films without waiting for my loan requests to come in i'll have to reiterate to myself that I Really, Really Need To Get Shudder.