#but their actual unit outfit is so bad

[dirkxcaliborn]

Last one but I need y’all to see Emerald Planet fornite dance cringe.

[sieglinde-freud]

i need more non three houses side characters winning cyl tbh bc the lord outfits are so predictable and boring and for three houses all they do is the normal timeskip shit. like, felix and bernadetta’s art looks great, but the designs… come on. weve all seen mortal savant felix. thats literally just bernadetta’s timeskip outfit with added shoulder stuff. bring back queen camilla of nohr. they did something fun with marianne that one time until everyone was like “boo wah i hate creativity and serving cunt�� but they need to not listen to the haters. when tharja wins in three years (if we dont hit eos) i want her cosplaying as grima or something like the lizard version

[we-re-always-alright]

so I accidentally watched like 5 episodes of Chicago PD while in Florida (while killing time) and so I was like ‘oh I like SVU, maybe this won’t be bad, seems like a good cop becoming corrupt story’ and nope. Nope. cannot do it. every other episode you’ve got two teams of 10 people each shooting up a city block with AKs on a typical Tuesday at noon for one drug dealer. they walk out dressed like they’re about to invade Kuwait as average detectives. based on this show, the city is always one bad afternoon from turning into mad max. and the writing is just bad for a procedural. like I live here. there are not gang shootouts in river north next to some of the most expensive restaurants in the city/country. the Michelin reviewers were not dodging bullets like it’s the matrix. not to mention these cops stop traffic violations all the time……..unrealistic.

[bigbuffjoonie]

SEOKJIN PLEASE LMAO

I ran out of tag space I’m so sorry in advance but I just wanted to say I love that their names are Dark Hobi and Evil Yoongi lmao bc that also means in canon either they call themselves that or the heroes call them that and either way is so funny to me 😂

Versus | MYG, JHS - Chapter Two

Pairing: Yoongi x Reader x Hoseok

Genre: smut, fluff, angst, crack, enemies to lovers, Villains!AU

Rating: M (18+)

Warnings: weapons - daggers & laser gauntlets, swearing, mentions of blood, fighting (superhero workout-style), masturbation (m), allusion to shower sex

Word Count: 2.7k

Disclaimer: NSFW, obviously I don’t own BTS - they just inspire me

Summary: Supervillain exes Yoongi and Hoseok are sick and tired of having their plans for world domination wrecked by you, aka Vitality, the world’s most powerful superhero. When fellow villain Jimin suggests a little competition to see who can bring you to your knees, they both eagerly accept. Now the battle is on as both men engage you in fight after fight to see who will conquer you first. Will you finally defeat these two, or will they destroy you - and possibly take each other out in the process?

A/N: The challenge has been accepted, now it's time to establish the rules! And introduce a few other key players. Also, uh, gird yourselves, here comes the angst. Just a little!

Unbeta’d as usual. I’d love to know what you think - my inbox is always open! 💕

Chapter One ✨ Series Masterlist ✨ Chapter Three

CHAPTER TWO - THE RULES OF ENGAGEMENT

Hobi stalks angrily through his lair. Struts, actually. Not intentionally. It’s just how he walks, like the world’s his runway. Helps that he’s usually dressed to kill, both literally and figuratively. 

At the moment, he’s striding towards his weapons room wearing a stunning embroidered Louis Vuitton suit that has all of his henchmen doing double takes, and not just because of the splattered blood staining the luxe threads.

The life of a henchman is hard, as one constantly risks bodily injury time and time again for one’s leader, but working for someone who looks like that helps to soften the blows a bit. 

Hobi glares into the retinal scanner outside the weapons depot and the doors slide open as it recognizes his chestnut orbs. It also recognizes his glare. 

“Rough day, daddy?” a robotic voice purrs overhead. 

“Yes, Jin, today was shit,” Hobi declares as he returns his laser gauntlets to their place in his vast arsenal. “And I thought I told you not to call me that?”

“Sorry, sir,” the integrated A.I. system replies. Hobi rolls his eyes in annoyance. Perhaps it was a mistake giving the Synthetic Electronic Optimum Knowledge Jung Intelligence Network aka S.E.O.K.J.I.N. (Jin for short) sentience. The first thing it did upon rebooting was declare its undying devotion to Hobi. Which means an endless stream of ridiculous terms of endearment. Or pet names. Or worse.

Hobi’s starting to fear he’s going to grind his teeth into dust.

“Want to tell me all about it?” Jin inquires, automatically opening the vault door to Hobi’s inner sanctum.

“Not particularly.” He’d rather not rehash his day. It was painful enough living through it. 

Of course, Jin is undaunted. “Did the meeting at Jimin’s not go well?”

Hobi’s lithe fingers work the knot in his tie, loosening it until he’s able to tug the thin strip of fabric from his neck. “It was fine. Productive. We nailed down the rules of engagement for Jimin’s contest.” 

The terms of the challenge are concise and clear:

No outside help

No teaming up

The competition ends when Vitality draws her last breath. The man responsible wins.

The first rule is the most important. No outside help means neither can ask for assistance from any other villains, including Jimin, who must remain an impartial observer, as he so haughtily put it. The only exception is the allowance for both to continue to use Jimin’s power disrupters. 

Jimin originally decreed that the disrupters were banned, but swiftly reversed course and said they could use them since they already had them. The meeting then paused so Jungkook could apply some bandages to Jimin before he bled out all over his newly-cleaned rug.

As far as Hobi is concerned, rule two is completely unnecessary. Moving on. 

The final rule is mainly a technicality, making sure everyone understands the goal here. Once that annoying little superhero is gone, the victor will be declared. And to the victor go the spoils. Namely, a straight line to world domination, and the knowledge that they’re the superior villain, second to none. 

“That doesn’t sound very upsetting,” Jin muses. “Is it because Yoongi was there again?”

At the mention of his ex’s name, Hobi snarls. “No. I can handle seeing him.” He continues to strip, frowning at the sight of his ruined suit. Once he’s completely bare, he wanders through his bedroom to his en suite for a shower. 

“Then I guess I just don’t know what’s got you so mad, kitten.” 

Hobi presses a finger to the pinched spot between his dark brows, rubbing soothingly. The bathroom door opens. “I’m going to shower. If Jimin calls, tell him to expect a dry cleaning bill tomorrow.” 

He sighs wearily as the door closes behind him. There are no cameras in this room, so Jin is blind to what goes on in here. Not because Hobi is shy. Quite the opposite, actually. But he needs one room in the underground lair he calls home where he can go to be totally and completely alone.

Tucked away at the bottom of his vanity is a picture frame. He pulls it out, gently running his thumb over the photo inside. Bad idea. Too many conflicting emotions swirl through his already disquieted mind. He tilts the frame away and catches his reflection in the fingerprint-coated glass. The man gazing back at him struggles to maintain his cool demeanor. He turns away.

Warm water pours from the rainfall showerhead, filling the room with steam. Hobi stands directly underneath the stream, still adrift, until one particular feeling bubbles to the surface, and he strokes himself until he’s shuddering, his release washing away without a trace. When he exits the bathroom later, towel slung low over his hips, his expression is calm once again, betraying no sign of the maelstrom within.

THOCK

Taehyung strolls down the quiet hallway of the mansion. 

THOCK

He pauses outside the study, strands of his bright blue locks falling in his eyes as tips his head, listening. 

THOCK

With a grimace, he twists the doorknob. “Yoongi-hyung.” 

“Taehyung-ah,” Yoongi responds cordially, before flinging another dagger. 

THOCK

The blade lands directly in the middle of a face.

“Didn’t know you were back already.” 

Yoongi doesn’t reply as he saunters across the room. With a violent yank, he jerks the dagger out of the nose where it’s embedded, and grabs the other six that form a perfect circle around it, leaving only the one at the top that pins the portrait in place. 

“Meeting ended early,” he finally states. He removes his striped suit jacket, hanging it primly over the back of a chair before resuming his position several paces in front of the wall. “Jimin fell ill.” 

Taehyung notes the dried blood still clinging to one of the blade handles. “What did he want this time? Did he finally figure out the bug with the power disrupters?”

“Of course not. No, he wanted us to go over the rules for his stupid little competition.” 

THOCK

“And you didn’t like his suggestions?” Taehyung gestures to the dirty dagger. “Hence the blood?” 

Yoongi pauses mid-throw to inspect the handle of his blade. “Oh, we had a little disagreement, you could say. But Jimin eventually came around to our point of view, and I agreed to all of his terms. As did Hoseok.” 

THOCK

Ah, of course. Hoseok-hyung was there again. No wonder the wall was currently under attack by Yoongi’s blades. Taehyung tries to remember where he’d put the spackle after Yoongi’s last assault on the drywall.

THOCK

As another dagger whizzes by, within millimeters of Taehyung’s unconcerned face (he knows his hyung never misses), he tries not to think about what happened when Yoongi and Hoseok split. Taehyung had never seen Yoongi on a rampage like that before. So many blades. So much blood. As much as he adores his hyung, that’s a side of Yoongi he hopes to never see again. 

“So… what are the rules?”

“No outside help.” 

THOCK

“Even from me?” Taehyung pouts at the thought of not being allowed to help his hyung vanquish his enemy. His entire life is devoted to Yoongi, after hyung saved him. He gave Taehyung a purpose and something solid to cling to when the cruel winds of fate tried to tear him apart. 

In other words, Yoongi’s his rock. 

“No outside help from other supervillains. You’re not on the outside. You’re in my inner circle.” 

Taehyung beams proudly, boxy smile lighting up his handsome features.

“The other rules are simply formalities. No teaming up.” Yoongi laughs dryly. “As if that would fucking happen. I’d rather die than ask Hoseok for help, and I’m quite sure the feeling is mutual.” 

THOCK

“And the challenge is over once Vitality is dead.” 

“Okay. Those all make sense, to me.” Taehyung treads lightly. “So… just letting off some steam, then?” 

THOCK

“A little. But I’m also brainstorming. You know the blades help me think.”

Right. Taehyung remembers when Yoongi was preparing for the Tokyo maneuver. What a horribly stressful time that had been. Yoongi spent so many nights strategizing that Taehyung had ended up replacing an entire section of the wall. Spackle only goes so far. 

“Strategizing how you’ll take Vitality out?”  

“Yes. But I’m planning so much more than that.” He tosses a dagger straight above his head. Taehyung watches it flip a few times before Yoongi effortlessly plucks it out of the air, pinching it by the blade. The smile he flashes chills Taehyung to the bone. “I’m going to take them both out.” 

THOCK

The hilt quivers with the force of Yoongi’s throw, dagger buried once again dead center in Hoseok’s face.

“Harder!” A grunt falls from Namjoon’s panting mouth at your command. “Come on, Joon, give it to me!” 

“Can’t…don’t…wanna hurt you.” 

You scoff, rolling your eyes. “I’m not gonna break, Joon. Fucking stop holding back!”

Namjoon obeys, throwing his next punch with more oomph. Still, you easily dodge the blow, sliding beneath his outstretched arm and landing a jab to his gut. 

“Jesus, if you punch like this on your next mission, you’re never going to win! You gonna need me to come fight all your battles for you?”

Your goading works. The yellow haze surrounding Namjoon shimmers as he spins into a roundhouse kick. As his large foot connects with your torso, you let out a pained “OOF!” and fly across the mat, landing square on your back. All the wind in your lungs leaves your body in one loud whoosh. 

Namjoon hovers over you, hands on his knees as he catches his breath. “You okay?”

Weakly, you flash a thumbs up. 

“Okay, I think that’s enough sparring for today,” Namjoon clucks his tongue. 

“‘M fine. Just gonna… lay here… for a while.”  

Your teammate flops down next to you and rolls into his cool-down stretches. “I know what you’re doing, by the way.”

“Trying to breathe?”

“You know what I mean.” 

Of course Joon sees right through you. He’s your best friend on the team. The two of you have clicked since the day Doc brought you to the company. His hulking frame and frankly mind-boggling strength run counter to his sweet, quiet nature. A gentle giant if ever there was one. But he’s an astute motherfucker, much to your displeasure

“You don’t have to punish yourself for Dark Hobi and Evil Yoongi both escaping again. That’s not on you. Once we capture our targets and turn them over to the containment teams, it’s on them to keep them imprisoned.” 

Obviously, you know this. But it doesn’t do anything to calm the anger still roiling in your chest. How many times are you going to have to defeat those two before they’re captured for good? 

It’d be so much easier if you could just take them directly to The Hole, where all the villains found guilty of crimes against humanity are taken and locked away for eternity. But no. You know the rules - find the target, take them down, turn them over to containment. They’ll be brought to justice by the company’s tribunal, who judge whether a villain is fit to be rehabilitated and reenter society or sent to The Hole forever. 

Justice. What does that word mean, anyway? Why does the company get to decide their fates? You’re the one with the power. 

You know better than to mention these thoughts to Namjoon as he reaches for his toes, loosening his hamstrings. He’ll just recite the same annoying phrases again and again–we’re not above the system, we work for it. No one is meant to be judge, jury, and executioner all in one. It’s not right. 

Except… it sure seems like the company is all three. Why does it get to decide what’s right?

These questions are above your pay grade. Which, admittedly, is pretty high. 

“I’m not punishing myself,” you finally reply, grinning. “I just prefer to spar with someone worthy. No one else here can really give me a workout like you can. Being friends with the strongest man in the world has to have some sort of perks, you know?” 

“Besides literally bench pressing you?” He winks. “Like the other night?”

You stare off into the distance. “Ah, yes, that was a magical evening. The day I discovered I have a size kink. You really made my head go brrrr, you know that?” 

Namjoon frowns. “Sometimes I think we speak two different languages.” 

“Whatever. Help me stretch my thighs, will you? They’ve felt really tight since we got off the treadmills.” Lying on your back, you lift both knees to your chest. Namjoon nods, kneeling by your ass. He grabs one of your ankles and extends the leg, then presses your thigh into your torso. 

It’s a terribly intimate position, but neither of you flush, both deeply familiar with the other’s body by now. It’s hard as fuck to date as a superhero. Practically impossible, really, with the crazy schedules and the always lurking paparazzi, not to mention the groupies–the cape clingers, as the company calls them. So the two of you have an arrangement. Purely physical. 

“I heard the search for Hobi’s lair isn’t going well,” Namjoon murmurs, his thick fingers digging into your flesh as he switches legs. He is unfortunately correct, which you already know without hearing whatever gossip he’s about to drop. “Doc said the presentation to the shareholders last month kinda skirted around the scout’s report.” 

Over the years, Dark Hobi has completely managed to elude your company’s ability to locate his base of operations, despite the fact that you’re pretty sure his weapons cache alone must be the size of Texas. Whatever he is using for security is clearly more sophisticated than anything the company has, a fact that absolutely drives the CEO mad. He wants to be the one with the best toys. 

“I’m telling you, he’s got an underwater base. It’s the only thing that makes sense,” you mutter back, making a face at Hyunjin when he walks by and whistles suggestively at the two of you. “Oh, fuck off, Jinnie, you know you wish you were the cream filling in this delicious whoopie pie right now.” 

Hyunjin just laughs, but Namjoon rolls his eyes. ”Whoopie pie?”

“I don’t know, I’m hungry.”  

Namjoon releases your legs and begins to stretch his own. “Anyway… he said the meeting was pretty cut and dry, the usual facts and figures, not much new. Oh, I guess there was some sort of weird Geiger spike the other night out in Busan but when the teams combed the area it came from, they didn’t find anything.”

“Busan? Who do we suspect is in Busan these days?”

“No one new that we know of. Just Jimin.” He snorts and you both begin to cackle. 

“Fuck, could you imagine if that guy got his hands on nuclear weapons? Probably blow himself up immediately.” As far as villains went, Jimin aka Mr. Machiavelli is less of a threat to mankind than Dark Hobi or Evil Yoongi than he is to himself. And he isn’t some sort of amazing tactician who keeps slipping through your fingers–no, you’ve defeated him plenty of times. The only reason he isn’t currently in containment is because he has an uncanny knack for charming the guards into letting him go. 

With a yawn, Namjoon stands, offering you his hand. “Probably. Come on, I need a shower.” 

”And that requires me?”

“Yes. You blew off your steam, now I gotta blow off mine.” 

Namjoon tugs you into the communal changing area where your other teammates are milling about and you giggle as he helps you shuck your gym clothes in front of an eye-rolling Hyunjin. “Stop gawking, Jinnie, haven’t you ever seen two people about to fuck before?”

Bang Chan runs into the shower area, blue aura blazing. “Vi, we just got word that Dark Hobi’s been spotted off the coast of Jeju Island. Doc wants you ready to mobilize in ten.” 

You sigh. Just another day’s work. “Ten minutes? Fine.” Taking Namjoon’s hand, you lead him into one of the shower stalls. “Come on, thunder thighs, show me what you can do in five.”

© 2022-23 by sunshinerainbowsbts/minisugakoobies. Crossposted to AO3. Please do not copy or repost.

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[lizardshands]

im knowingly setting myself up for a nervous breakdown this semester

[onlyhereforthestories]

Chica Medica - Part 5 (Alexia Putellas x Reader)

So its been a while (sorry!) You won't have to wait long for the final few parts of this I am half way through the next part. Thank you all who have stuck with me, this was one of the first things I wrote and I feel a little emotional that it is finally coming to an end. Anyway enough ramble enjoy part 5!

You had gone through your whole wardrobe by this point, and you still couldn’t find the right thing to wear. All your clothes were spread around your room in various states of crinkled from the constant changing you had been doing. Nothing was working together or, or you were not feeling confident in others.

You checked you phone to see you had exactly 23 minutes before Leila and Mapi were due to collect you, so you knew you needed to get a move on. Deciding the only way you were actually going to put anything on over the underwear you currently resided in was with some help, you dialled the number of the only person who could sort you out.

Ona picked up on the second ring, “Hola Hermana, what can I do for you?” her smile and voice had the wave of calm you needed right now to stop your mind from its current running all over the place.

“I need help. I have Christmas drinks with the Barca girls tonight and I don’t know what to wear, I have tried my whole wardrobe on and nothing is right. I need you to just tell me what to wear.” Ona could hear the frustration in your voice.

“I’m guessing you are only this stressed about what you look like because of a certain midfielder, you never care about what you look. I’ve literally been to the club with you in joggers before.” You rolled your eyes at the woman before giving her a pointed look through your phone. Now wasn’t the time for memories or teasing you about the fact that you were hyperaware of the brunette that would in fact see you in the clothes you picked tonight.

“Ona please.” You pulled out the puppy eyes and the bottom lip, both of which you knew would get Ona helping you in a couple seconds flat.

“Oh, you really want my help you’ve pulled out the big guns. Okay show me what I’m working with. Ooooo actually do you still have that black silk shirt? The one you wore to you knows party?” you knew exactly what shirt she meant, it was the only item you had not actually tried on tonight, you’d just chucked it to the side.

“I do yes. Is that not like bad luck or something to wear?” Could you really wear a shirt your ex loved on you so much to a party you were so worried about looking good for because of the new person you had feelings for.

“She didn’t buy it for you I did, and you look really, really hot in it so if you want Alexia to drool over you, I would definitely say wear it.” You found it in the pile of clothes and picked out some beige slacks with the help of Ona, you chatted with the Manchester United player while you got ready and only said goodbye when you heard the doorbell ring.

Getting to the hired club was fun, Mapi and Leila had both complimented your outfit and made comments about who you were trying to impress much to your annoyance. The best thing was they both promised to protect or help you if you needed it, something that you almost chocked up on thanking them for. You were very lucky to have such amazing friends around you.

When the three of you got in you could tell it was going to be a fun night, Pina came running over to you all with Patri hot on her heels both had beers in both hands, and you were all passed one. Apparently, a drink had to be drunk as soon as you got in to be allowed to join the big group at the table.

Not one to back down from any challenge, you smirked at the two younger women who gave you the drink as you held the beer up in a semi cheers to them and downed it in a very easy and quick time. When you wiped your upper lip, you couldn’t help but laugh at the look on Claudia’s face. The younger woman’s jaw was on the floor so to say, and she had a slight spark of awe in her eyes.

What you didn’t know was that Alexia had walked in with Jenni just as you raised your beer so got to watch you smoothly chug it. An action from you that she found very hot indeed and even voiced that accidently out loud which put her on the receiving end of a slap to the back of the head from her best friend.

Righting herself and sending a quick but not really meant sorry to the older woman, Alexia walked just behind the little group surrounding you to the table where she was greeted with her own drink to see off as quickly as she could. She took a lot longer and struggled a lot more than you did to do it.

As the night went on the drinks flowed more and more, you had had your fair share but had stopped once the pleasant buzz had fully kicked in. You really didn’t like the feeling of losing your senses anymore, so you knew when to switch to sodas. Alexia had noticed you do this and chose to do the same thing in order to hopefully talk with you when her confidence wasn’t on the floor.

Confidence or not her opportunity came when Leila dragged the people on your table up and to the dance floor and you waved them away, stating you needed to watch and see what moves they were doing before you could join in. An excuse for sure but Alexia wasn’t going to complain.

Taking a breath to calm her already racing heart she grabbed her drink and walked towards you. “Mind if I join you?”

“I was wondering how long it would take you to come over here once they left. You pleasantly surprised me with a little under a minute.” You faced her with a giggle, which turned into a full on laugh when you saw her cheeks heat up. “I am only messing with you, of course you can sit. In fact, I would really like it if you did.” It was your turn to blush now, the alcohol you had consumed earlier obviously making your lips a little looser then they would normally be.

“I haven’t got a chance to tell you how stunning you look. That shirt is incredible.” Alexia wasn’t hiding her obvious attraction to the outfit you were wearing, in fact you could see it swimming in her gaze.

“You look incredible yourself, I do have to admit that open back dress on you will always get to me.” You were again saying a lot, more than you ever had in fact. Your inner thoughts of tracing the tattoos on her back came to mind and you had to shake your head to clear your mind of that briefly.

You did manage to catch her ducking her head at what you said, and it boosted your confidence a little bit. Deciding that you needed another actual drink now that this situation was clearly happening you decided you were not going to do it alone. “Do you want to get a drink with me?”

“I’d love nothing else. Lead the way, but drinks are on me.” Alexia was standing next to where you were sitting in the booth with her hand held out to you, a hopeful look in her eyes. A hopefully look that turned into full blown joy the second you placed your hand in hers and made to stand up.

Alexia was quick to drag you with her to the bar where she got you both a shot and a normal drinking drink. Those were drunk at the bar, the both of you enjoying the time away from the bulk of the group and slightly further away from the music so you didn’t have to shout so much to hear one another.

Alexia had just downed the last of her drink while making direct eye contact with you, taking the obvious hint she was giving you, you downed the last bit of your own. As you put the glass down on the bar you found a hand placed on the small of your back and your body gently pulled in the direction Ale was moving. You ended up on the dance floor with the rest of the girls, you split of slightly from the woman that was always on your mind so you could join the girls that dragged you here.

You danced with them all for an unknown amount of time, you were having the best time, and it didn’t matter who you were with. Alexia would slide up behind you every so often and get you dancing with her before she let you go back to either Mapi or Leila depending on who was requesting your presence.

As the night progressed and you consumed your final drink, you cut yourself off as you knew this was your limit. You knew that if you drank anymore it would go from a fun slightly heavy night to a messy night. Apparently, Alexia was in agreement because about 30 minutes after that final drink she was heading towards the bar to get water, something that you were planning on doing too.

“Did you get water?” You didn’t realise how much you were pressed up to the woman, but she did. Alexia could feel the curve of you pressed up against her and it was sending her head spinning more than alcohol every could. She took a second to compose herself before glancing over her shoulder and answering you.

“Si.” You smiled before requesting that she made that two. With a water in each of her hands she nudged your shoulder to get you moving back in the direction of the booth you were in earlier.

As you and Alexia returned to the booth, drinks in hand, the atmosphere between you was charged with unspoken words and lingering glances. The club was still buzzing with energy. Laughter and music filled the air, but here in your little corner, everything seemed quieter, more intimate.

You settled in next to Alexia, close enough that your knees brushed under the table. It sent a spark through you, but you focused on your water, taking a long sip to calm the nerves that had been building all night.

"Did you enjoy the dancing?" Alexia asked, her voice just loud enough for you to hear over the music. She leaned in slightly, her breath warm against your ear, and you tried not to let it affect you too much.

"Yeah," you replied, looking at her with a playful smirk. "Especially when you kept sneaking up behind me."

Her cheeks flushed slightly, but she didn’t break eye contact. "I thought you liked that."

You raised an eyebrow. "I didn’t say I didn’t." The tension between you hung in the air like a charged wire, sparking every time you exchanged a glance or a touch.

For a while, you talked casually; about the team, about the night, both of you skirting around the real conversation neither of you seemed ready to have. But the underlying feeling of something more was undeniable, every small gesture, every laugh shared, seemed to pull you closer.

After a bit of quiet, you glanced over at the dance floor where Leila and Mapi were making a scene with some questionable dance moves. You shook your head, laughing softly. "I don’t know how they manage to be so ridiculous and so fun at the same time."

Alexia grinned. "That’s Mapi and Leila for you. But it looks like they’re having a good time. I think this was really needed for them." You always admired how much the woman cared for her teammates, it was one of the many things that made her such a wonderful captain.

You nodded in agreement but felt the weight of her gaze on you, the air between you growing heavier. The rest of the room faded into the background, and suddenly, sitting so close to her, the only thing you could focus on was the warmth radiating from her body and how easily her presence made your heart race.

Without thinking, you stood up, needing a moment to collect yourself. "I’m going to the bathroom," you said, your voice steadier than you felt. "I’ll be right back."

Alexia watched you go, her eyes following you as you made your way through the crowd. The moment you disappeared into the hallway leading to the bathrooms, she stood up, almost on instinct, and followed. She caught up with you just as you reached the door to the bathroom.

"Hey," she called softly, causing you to turn around. Her gaze was intense, her brown eyes darker under the dim club lights. "Wait a second."

You stopped, heart pounding in your chest. "What is it?"

For a moment, Alexia just looked at you, like she was weighing her next words, but instead of speaking, she closed the distance between you. The hallway was dimly lit, the noise from the club muffled, and the two of you stood close, the space between you shrinking with every passing second.

Her hand brushed yours, a light touch that sent a shiver up your spine. "I—" she began, but whatever words she’d been about to say faded into silence. Instead, she leaned in slowly, giving you a moment to pull away if you wanted to, but you didn’t. You couldn’t not with her.

Your heart raced as her lips met yours, the kiss slow and deliberate. It wasn’t the rushed, drunken kiss from before; this one was different. It was tender, purposeful, and full of the tension that had been building between you all night. This kiss was meant, you could feel it in the way you both eased into it and melted into one another.

You kissed her back, your hands instinctively moving to her waist, pulling her closer. The world around you disappeared, leaving just the feel of her lips against yours, soft but insistent, like she had been waiting for this moment just as much as you had.

When you finally pulled away, both of you were breathless, your foreheads resting against each other.

"I... I’ve been wanting to do that all night," Alexia admitted softly, her thumb brushing over your hand, still entwined with hers. You got slightly lost in the feeling of her warm breath running over your lips as she was still so close to you.

You let out a soft laugh, your heart still pounding in your chest. "I’m glad you did."

Before you could say more, you heard familiar voices approaching from the direction of the club. You glanced at Alexia, the tension still palpable between you.

"We should get back before they notice we’re both gone," you said, though a part of you wasn’t ready for this moment to end. A part of you knew that if you could you would stand here like this with Alexia for as long as she would allow.

Alexia nodded, but her fingers lingered on your hand for a second longer before letting go. "Right. Yes."

Just as you both started to head back to the booth, Leila and Mapi came around the corner, clearly on a mission to find you. "There you are!" Leila exclaimed with a mischievous grin. "We were wondering where our chica medica disappeared to."

Mapi’s eyes flicked between you and Alexia, a knowing smile spreading across her face. "Ohhhh, what did we miss?"

You laughed, trying to play it cool. "Nothing much. Just needed a break from all your terrible dancing."

Leila gasped dramatically, placing a hand over her heart. "Excuse me, my moves are iconic."

Alexia chuckled beside you, but you could still feel the tension simmering beneath the surface. You weren’t sure if Mapi and Leila could sense it, but you knew you couldn’t stay here much longer without risking more teasing or worse, revealing too much.

"I think I’m going to head home," you said suddenly, glancing at Alexia for a brief second before turning to your friends. "It’s been a long day."

Leila and Mapi exchanged a glance but didn’t push. "We’ll come with you," Leila offered, her tone softer now. "It’s getting late anyway."

"Yeah," Mapi added, clearly sensing there was more going on but choosing not to dig, for now at least. "Let’s get out of here."

As you all made your way out of the club, Alexia stayed close to you, her arm brushing against yours every so often. You didn’t speak much, but the kiss still lingered in the air between you, full of possibility and unanswered questions.

And though you weren’t quite sure what would happen next, for now, you were content knowing that something had shifted between you and Alexia, something that felt too real to ignore.

The final whistle echoed through the stadium, marking the end of the last game before Christmas. The team had secured a comfortable win, and the energy in the locker room was buzzing with excitement. You smiled, watching the others as they celebrated, but your mind was already elsewhere, on the gift you’d been planning for Alexia.

Tomorrow was Christmas Eve, and you both had flights to catch you were heading home to your family, and Alexia was off to Dubai for a much-deserved break as well as the award ceremony she had to attend. Despite the unspoken tension between you, the connection had only grown deeper, especially after that night at the club. But there were still so many things left unsaid, and you wanted to give her something so that she knows you are thinking of her over the break.

The present you had picked wasn’t overly sentimental, but it was personal. Something that could remind her of your time together while not being overly obvious to anyone outside of the two of you. You had chosen a silver necklace with a pendant that had a small wave on it, echoing the tattoo she had on her arm. To you, the wave symbolized something constant and unyielding just like the ocean, always in motion but forever steady. It was your way of telling her that, no matter what storms or calm seas lay ahead, you would be there, quietly supporting her, just as the ocean never stops flowing. You remembered a conversation you had shared about her tattoo and how it made you feel, how it reminded you that even when things are chaotic, some things, like your care for her, would always remain steady.

Attached to the box that held the necklace was a simple note with "Open on Christmas" written across the top in your neat handwriting. You didn’t dare give it to her directly, it wasn’t a grand gesture, but the idea of watching her reaction made your stomach flutter nervously.

As the team headed for the showers, you saw your chance. While everyone was distracted, you slipped over to Alexia’s bag. Glancing around to make sure no one noticed, you carefully placed the small box deep inside, just under her change of clothes. The note, tucked on top of the box, would be the first thing she’d see when she unpacked the bag later.

Your heart raced a little as you zipped her bag back up, the nerves making your hands slightly shaky. You weren’t sure what Alexia would think, but you hoped she’d at the very least like the necklace, even if she didn’t appreciate the meaning.

Just as you finished, Mapi walked by, oblivious to what you’d just done. "Hey, you ready to head out?" she asked, a wide grin on her face.

"Yeah," you replied, forcing a calmness into your voice. "Just about."

As the rest of the team began to gather their things, you exchanged a few quick goodbyes. With the Christmas break upon you, you’d all be going your separate ways for the holidays. You lingered for a moment, watching Alexia as she packed up her own bag, a small smile playing on her lips as she laughed at something Jenni said. You wondered when she’d find the present, and a nervous excitement built in your chest. You just hoped shed find it before she left, the logical part of your brain knew she would. Alexia couldn’t not unpack and clean away her kit bag after every session, it was something she had told you at the start of your time together.

That evening Alexia did exactly as you thought she would, she was slightly distracted with thoughts of you, slightly annoyed at herself for not speaking to you before she left the grounds. As she unpacked her bag, Alexia pushed those thoughts aside, focusing on getting comfortable. She was just about to pull out her toiletries when her fingers brushed against something unexpected, something small and wrapped. Frowning, she pulled it out from the bottom of her bag, her breath catching when she saw the small box wrapped in simple paper with a note attached.

"Open on Christmas," it read in your familiar handwriting, the instructions clear.

A soft smile tugged at the corner of Alexia’s lips as she ran her thumb over the words. You had managed to sneak this into her bag without her noticing, and now, holding the gift in her hands, a warmth spread through her chest. It was thoughtful, quiet, just like you had always been when it came to her.

The next morning, Christmas Eve arrived, and the airport was packed with travellers rushing to get home or off on holiday. You were there early, having left for your flight to see your family. As you waited in line at security, you couldn’t stop thinking about the gift you’d left in Alexia’s bag. You pictured her finding it when she unpacked, seeing the note telling her to wait until Christmas to open it. You just hoped she listened to it and took it with her.

Part of you felt nervous, wondering if it was too much or maybe not enough. But you pushed the thoughts aside as your boarding group was called. You checked your phone one last time and saw a message from Mapi, teasing you about the quiet night in before you both left.

You responded with a quick laugh emoji, then turned off your phone as you headed through the gate.

Later that morning, Alexia was checking in for her flight to Dubai. She was looking forward to the break, but her mind kept drifting back to the past few weeks, and more specifically, to you. Things had felt different lately, not just because of the kiss, but because of how you seemed to understand her in a way not many people did.

She sighed softly, adjusting her carry-on bag as she walked through the airport. The team had celebrated last night, and now they were all headed in different directions. As she sat down in the waiting area for her flight, she thought back to the locker room, wondering if she’d missed her chance to say something to you before you left. But then again, you had both left so many things unsaid.

Her thoughts were interrupted by an announcement for boarding. She stood up, rolling her shoulders to relax, and joined the line for her flight. As she settled into her seat on the plane, she tucked her bag under the seat in front of her, the box with the note she discovered last night tucked neatly in a pocket inside the bag.

After a long flight from Barcelona, Alexia finally landed in Dubai, exhausted but relieved to be away from the whirlwind of the season for a few days. The city sparkled beneath the night sky as she made her way to the hotel, her thoughts wandering to the time off she would finally have to herself.

Once inside her hotel room, the silence felt both comforting and strange. The entire flight had been spent mulling over the last few weeks, her thoughts drifting to you more than she’d like to admit. She hadn’t been able to figure out where she stood with you, especially after that kiss, and the uncertainty had left her unsettled.

Her mind was also on the wrapped gift she now had put on the desk in her hotel room, she could see it from her place laying on the bed. She didn’t get you anything which wasn’t because she didn’t want to, she was just scared it wasn’t the right move. Apparently, you had the bigger balls of the two.

She got up and walked to where the gift was placed, she picked it up and re read the little note on top. Her mind involuntarily making her smile at the thought of you scribbling it. She turned it over a few times contemplating whether to open it now or not.

But it wasn’t Christmas yet, and despite the temptation to tear it open right then and there, Alexia placed the small box on the nightstand. She’d wait until midnight. It wasn’t long, and she wanted to do it properly.

As the evening passed, she showered, had a light dinner, and spent some time aimlessly scrolling through her phone. But her thoughts kept drifting back to the gift waiting for her. The curiosity of what you had chosen for her grew with each passing minute, and as the clock crept closer to midnight, the anticipation made her heart beat just a little faster.

Finally, when her phone’s clock ticked over to 12:00, Alexia got up and reached for the gift, her fingers carefully undoing the wrapping. She peeled away the paper slowly, savouring the moment, until she uncovered the small box underneath. Her breath hitched slightly as she lifted the lid, revealing a delicate silver necklace nestled inside, with a tiny, intricately engraved wave symbol on a pendant.

For a long moment, Alexia just stared at it, running her fingers gently over the pendant. The wave it was very similar to the one she forever has on her arm. She understood it immediately. The constant, steady flow of the ocean, like how you had been there for her, quietly supporting her through her physical recovery and beyond. It was personal, thoughtful, and most of all perfect.

Her eyes fell on the folded note tucked inside the box. She unfolded it carefully, her heart thudding in her chest as she read your words:

Ale,

For all the times you’ve been my steady wave, keeping me grounded even when you didn’t know it. Merry Christmas.

Y/N

Alexia’s breath caught in her throat as she read the message. She hadn’t expected to feel this much emotion over a simple gift, but the weight of your words settled deep in her chest. It wasn’t just the bracelet, it was everything. The way you had been there for her, listening to her, supporting her, even when she hadn’t been sure of her own feelings. The message was your feelings about her, but they very much reflected her own for you too.

She leaned back against the pillows, the necklace still resting in her palm as she stared at it, feeling the emotions swell up inside her. It wasn’t just a gift. It was a message, one that told her, in no uncertain terms, that you were thinking of her, that you cared. That you might well always care if she would let you.

For the first time in a long time, Alexia allowed herself to think about what might come next. You were more than just her physiotherapist. You had become someone important, someone she couldn’t stop thinking about.

As she slipped the necklace around her neck, she made a quiet promise to herself. When she returned to Barcelona, she’d talk to you. Really talk. She wasn’t going to let this connection slip away, not after everything that had happened between you.

She glanced at the clock again, the soft ticking of the seconds filling the quiet room. It was Christmas now, and despite the miles between you, Alexia felt closer to you than she had in weeks. Smiling softly, she ran her fingers over the pendant one more time before closing her eyes, your words still lingering in her mind.

Merry Christmas.

Christmas with your family had been exactly what you needed. It had been cozy, familiar, and full of the warmth you'd missed while away in Spain. You'd spent a few extra days with them, catching up on lost time and letting yourself fully relax before heading back to reality. But after a while, the pull to reconnect with old friends had you itching to get out of the house.

It was Ona, of course, who suggested you stay in England a little longer after Christmas. "Why rush back?" she had said over FaceTime, her face lighting up at the idea. "We don’t have training for another few days, and you deserve some downtime with your friends. Take it."

You’d agreed, and soon you found yourself planning a few nights out with some of your old friends from the England team. That included Leah. The tension between you and her had lessened, especially after you had decided that a proper conversation was long overdue. There were still things to be said, things you couldn’t quite walk away from until they were fully resolved.

So, it was then that you found yourself out with a mix of friends from your past clubs, including Leah, Beth, and a few others. It was a relaxed evening at a familiar bar, drinks flowing and laughter filling the air. You weren’t overly worried about how it might look, knowing that everything with Leah was firmly in the past. But the conversation needed to happen, and tonight felt like the right time.

You and Leah stepped away from the group for a moment, moving to a quieter corner where you could talk privately. The noise of the bar created a bubble of privacy around you both as you began to speak.

"I’ve been meaning to say this for a while," Leah started, her voice soft but steady. "I’m sorry for how things ended between us. I know I didn’t handle things well, and it hurt you more than I realized at the time."

You nodded, appreciating her honesty. It wasn’t easy to dig into the past, but this conversation felt necessary. "It wasn’t easy for either of us," you admitted. "But I’m glad we’re talking about it now. I think we both needed this. I think it’s time for us to both let go of the past and move on with our lives."

Leah smiled, the tension between you dissolving as the conversation continued. It was nothing more than an honest exchange, two people clearing the air. But what you didn’t know was that in the background, someone else had unknowingly captured the moment on their phone.

Beth Mead had been recording a playful story for Instagram, filming some of the team dancing and enjoying the night out. In the background, just out of focus, you and Leah were caught in a seemingly intimate conversation, standing close as you talked quietly. It was innocent, but without context, the image could easily be misinterpreted.

Thousands of miles away, in the luxury of her hotel in Dubai, Alexia scrolled through her phone after a long day. The trip had been relaxing so far, a much-needed break from the intensity of the season, but her thoughts kept drifting back to you. She hadn’t heard much from you since before Christmas, and the uncertainty of where you stood with each other was gnawing at her.

Her thumb paused over an Instagram story from Beth Mead, recognizing several familiar faces in the crowd. She smiled at the sight of you laughing with your friends, but as the story continued to play, her heart dropped. In the background of the video, you and Leah were standing together, heads close, deep in conversation. The image of the two of you, smiling and looking comfortable with each other, sent a pang of jealousy straight through her.

She stared at the screen for a long moment, her mind racing. Were you getting back together with Leah? Had she misread everything between the two of you?

Without thinking, she grabbed her phone and opened her messages, typing out a quick message to Ona.

Ale: Hey, I saw something. Is Y/N back with Leah? They were together at a bar, looked... close. Just want to know.

The message sent, and Alexia sat there, biting her lip as she waited for a reply. The logical part of her knew she shouldn’t jump to conclusions, but the image from the story kept replaying in her mind. What if you were moving on with Leah? What if she had missed her chance?

It wasn’t long before her phone buzzed with Ona’s response:

Ona: It’s not my place to say anything, Ale, but trust me it’s not what you’re thinking. Just... give her time to explain when she’s ready.

Alexia stared at the message, her heart still unsettled. Ona’s words were somewhat reassuring, but they weren’t enough to silence the nagging doubt in her mind. She didn’t want to overstep, but the thought of losing you to Leah, especially after everything you and Alexia had shared, was hard to swallow.

Back in England, you were unaware of the storm brewing. The night had ended on a positive note, with you and Leah parting on good terms, both of you agreeing that the past was where it belonged. You felt lighter, like a weight had been lifted off your shoulders. You felt like you were finally in a place where you could move forward and you had in mind the person you wanted to do that with, hopefully.

It wasn’t until the next morning, when you checked your phone, that you noticed a missed call from Ona. Confused, you called her back immediately.

“Hey, what’s up?” you asked, leaning back against your bed, still feeling the contentment of last night’s resolution with Leah.

Ona’s voice was calm but cautious. “I just wanted to give you a heads-up. Alexia saw a video from last night of you and Leah. She asked if you were back together.”

Your stomach dropped. “What? No, we were just talking. Clearing the air.”

“I know,” Ona reassured you. “But the video doesn’t exactly show the context. You two were in the background, and I think Alexia got the wrong idea. Well actually I know she did.”

You groaned, running a hand through your hair. Of course, Alexia would see that. Of all the things to misinterpret... You could picture her in Dubai, overthinking everything, and the thought made your chest tighten.

“What should I do?” you asked, feeling the weight of the situation now settling over you.

“I didn’t tell her anything beyond that it wasn’t what she thought. But you might want to talk to her, explain things when you’re ready,” Ona suggested. "She’s over there worrying, Y/N. It’s not my business, but I can tell she’s thinking the worst, which I know isn’t fair to you. You both have baggage, and you haven’t worked this all out yet, you need to talk to each other. And properly Y/N."

You nodded, even though Ona couldn’t see you. “Yeah I know, I’m sorry I haven’t been great at doing that. I wanted to sort the Leah thing before I had that conversation with Ale but maybe I should have been a bit more open after the other night. I’ll talk to her. Thanks, Ona.”

After hanging up, you stared at your phone, a mix of emotions swirling inside you. You knew you needed to talk to Alexia, to clear up the misunderstanding. But a part of you also wondered, what did this mean for the two of you. If Alexia was bothered by you being seen with your ex that much surely that had to be a sign of something right. Before you let your head run too much with this, you got out of bed and joined you family for one of your final days before heading back to Barcelona.

Christmas Day passed quietly for Alexia, it was just her mother and sister with her in Dubai, which is all she really needed. It was a much-needed break from the whirlwind of her career, but her mind kept drifting back to you. The silver necklace with the wave pendant had become her constant companion since she found it in her bag and she hadn’t taken it off since she opened it mere minutes into Christmas Day.

She ran her fingers over the pendant absentmindedly as she prepared for the Globe Soccer Awards, where she would be picking up the Women’s Player of the Year award. It was an honour, something she had worked hard for, yet the excitement that usually accompanied such recognition felt muted by the unease sitting heavy in her chest.

Ever since she had seen that Instagram story of you and Leah, a knot of doubt had been tightening inside her. She kept replaying the image in her mind, how close you and Leah had seemed, how comfortable. It had been days since she’d seen it, but she hadn’t reached out to you. She wasn’t sure what to say. Ona’s message had reassured her slightly, but the doubt lingered. Especially as you also hadn’t reached out to her.

As she stood in front of the mirror, adjusting the elegant outfit she had chosen for the awards, Alexia glanced down at the necklace resting against her skin. The wave, a symbol you had described so thoughtfully, felt heavier now. She knew what it meant, how much care and thought had gone into your gift, but that only made the misunderstanding hurt more. If you and Leah were rekindling things, where did that leave you and her?

Later that night, under the glittering lights of the awards ceremony, Alexia was announced as the Women's Player of the Year. The room erupted in applause as she made her way to the stage, graciously accepting the award with a quiet smile. She gave a heartfelt speech, thanking her teammates, coaches, and family for their constant support, but even as she spoke, her thoughts were elsewhere, on you.

The night continued in a blur of congratulations and photographs, but Alexia’s mind remained clouded. By the time she returned to her hotel room, the weight of the day had caught up with her. Sitting on the edge of the bed, her phone buzzed with notifications, messages from friends, fans, and teammates congratulating her.

She opened Instagram, scrolling through the flood of posts from the ceremony. As she crafted her own post, thanking everyone for their support, she hesitated. Her fingers hovered over the keyboard, and almost instinctively, she glanced down at the wave pendant resting against her chest. Without thinking too much, she typed a line from your note into part of the caption.

And finally Merry Christmas. Sometimes in life you need your wave to keep you steady, even when you don’t realise it.

It was a subtle nod to you, one that no one else would pick up on, but she knew you would.

Alexia posted the picture: a candid shot of her holding the award, smiling at the camera with her necklace peeking just slightly into view. That along with the end of the caption she hoped would be enough to show you what the gift and you meant to her. Well at least until the conversation could be had, if you wanted it still after the Christmas break.

Back in England, you scrolled through Instagram while waiting for your flight back to Spain. It had been a whirlwind few days, catching up with friends, clearing the air with Leah and now, you were finally heading back home. As you mindlessly flicked through your feed, Alexia’s post popped up.

You stopped, your breath catching in your throat as you read the caption. It was your words, changed slightly, but still the meaning you had written in the note attached to the necklace. The same words that carried all the meaning behind your gift, now reflected back at you in a public post for the world to see.

Your heart raced as you stared at the screen, wondering what this meant. Did Alexia understand the depth of your message? Did she feel the same way? Or was this her way of saying goodbye before you’d even had a chance to explain?

Without thinking, you opened your messages and hesitated before typing a quick text to Ona.

Did Alexia say anything to you about that post?

Ona responded almost immediately, as if she had been waiting for you to reach out.

She didn’t mention it to me, but I know she’s been thinking about you. You should talk to her.

Your fingers hovered over your phone as you debated what to do next. The conversation with Leah had cleared the air, but now you were left with a different kind of uncertainty, one that involved Alexia and the feelings that had grown between you. And whether you were really ready for that again.

Taking a deep breath, you opened a new message to Alexia, your heart pounding as you typed.

Hey, I saw your post. I think we should talk when you get back.

The next few days passed slowly as Alexia remained in Dubai, the distance between you both growing heavier with every passing moment. The wave pendant rested against her chest, a constant reminder of you. And as Christmas turned into the new year, the tension between you both, fuelled by misunderstandings, unspoken feelings and lack of communication, remained unresolved, waiting for the moment when you could finally have the conversation that had been building for so long.

[t1oui]

going to school and being friends with percy jackson would be REALLY WEIRD so let's discuss it rq

he gets dropped off every day in his stepfather's car, which inexplicably has hoof prints on the hood?

the panic attacks... there's a lot of them, and nobody can even tell what's triggering them at this point

the old counselor disappears about a week into his first year at AHS (here's some cotg lore for yall) and is replaced by a weird lady who finds a way to bring percy up to every. single. student. who visits her office.

randomly disappears multiple times throughout the year

very very sea green eyes and a gray streak in his hair

once got out of the pool after swim practice and was completely dry (he insists it was a trick of the light)

the blue food obsession ofc

talks about his girlfriend annabeth all the time... even his friends are convinced it's a "my canadian girlfriend" situation bc he never calls her. he doesn't even have a PHONE

always carries around a pen in his pocket and even though it's just a shitty old ballpoint, NOBODY IS ALLOWED TO TOUCH IT. also he never uses it. ever.

every teacher has sent an email with their concerns about him to the counselor and when that doesn't work to his parents. the responses are always very awkward and vague

talks about his bio dad a lot... never explicitly negative but bro clearly has daddy issues lol

will sometimes randomly mention camp/war/gods and then brush it off like it never happened

absolutely vibrated in his seat the entirety of the greek mythology unit... told the teacher "a demigod named perseus fought ares once" and the teacher just assumes he means the og (aka the one he's named after)

that one upbeat popular guy everybody knows absolutely nothing about, his friends included

they probably have a spreadsheet with all the info they actually DO know about him

finds a way to brag about his mom in every conversation no matter how irrelevant... his friends are used to it atp

everyone's so used to seeing him smiling and laughing that when, say, he catches a younger kid being bullied, it's actually terrifying to see how angry he gets. everybody in that hallway gets chills

there's something off about him and nobody can tell what. that's just how he is

sometimes weird people in weird outfits are hanging around the school and they're ALWAYS looking for him.

every time someone asks what college he's going to he gives a different answer or straight up avoids answering so nobody actually knows

(if he says a school and someone is like "omg me too" he changes his answer right then and there lol... he's like "oh nvm i forgot i'm actually going here my bad" and the person is so confused)

nobody ever sees him working on college applications but he complains about having to do them all the time... bro is like "yeah i had to go through a sewer system but at least my girlfriend and my best friend were there" and his friends are like yo HUH

never explains anything he says

presentation night presentation = all the shittiest things my family has done and he's laughing about it but wdym your aunt kidnapped you and gave you amnesia???

sometimes he's getting fed up with a teacher or another student and a pipe randomly bursts in the school. like it's weird how often his anger ends in a plumber being called when he's nowhere near the problem

where everyone else is excited to watch a movie and chill in class, percy complains through the entirety of hercules - not just "oh this movie sucks", more like "god hercules is such a dick, idk why they made him chill in this movie"

the weirdest part is how, when percy complains about zeus being a good dad in the movie, it starts thundering outside

nobody can keep track of how many schools he's been to at this point... there's a whole section of the spreadsheet for this

when percy's friends finally meet annabeth they are SHOOK bc they truly did not think this girl was real

alright i can't think of anything else but if i DO i will add on later

[clean-bands-dirty-stories]

Tread Carefully ~ S.S.

Request: “Stiles x male reader, reader getting hurt trying to protect stiles from a werewolf” by anon

Word Count: 1400+

MASTERLIST

Stiles had been harboring a crush on Lydia Martin for as long as he could remember. Even longer than Scott had known about it; and that was ages. So when he actually became friends with her, he'd thought he'd had a chance.

And then she'd dated Allison.

If he was honest, Stiles really hadn't ever considered that before. I mean yeah, he knew about queer people. But every time he brought it up, people had brushed it off and dismissed it. Stiles especially just wasn't - according to everyone. So he had never thought about it, until his old crush became one of his best friends and then she was taking about it all the time. Telling him about how happy she was, and when he asked, about how she'd realized she was into women. And suddenly he realized something he'd never considered before: he'd one hundred percent had a crush on Scott when they were kids. 

He didn't tell anyone for a long time. Well, anyone but Lydia. She was a fantastic confidante and an even better secret keeper. And she was good at keeping Stiles' sexuality a secret... until he developed a crush on her brother.

Y/n Martin was very different than his sister. They were a unit, they always had been, but where Lydia leaned into expectation to make herself popular and as perfect as possible, Y/n had leaned away from it. He didn't have a lot of friends, outside of the kids in the programming club, and some people he'd met over the internet. He was the type that knew high school was stupid, and thought that made him a little bit cooler than everyone else.

Stiles thought he was awesome. Y/n was putting as little effort into school as possible, focused less on college and more on learning to program and prepping himself to just do that forever. He was smart, which meant he knew that school didn't actually teach you anything you needed to know - as long as you knew what you were heading into. He often talked Lydia's ear off about how school was just preparing you to be part of the machine of society, and rolled his eyes when Lydia tried to get him into a "better outfit" or take him shopping.

But that was actually why Stiles liked him. They had math together, and Y/n made jokes under his breath and talked about how stupid it all was, and then leaned over and gave him pointers and help with the work in a way he could actually understand. He never ran out of patience and didn't find Stiles' burst of energy or hard time focusing or burn out annoying. He encouraged Stiles and hyped him up and when he did a good job and Y/n was leaning over his shoulder grinning at him, whispering compliments to him and joking about having to reward him one of these days, Stiles couldn't help but think that all he wanted in that moment was to kiss him.

Lydia picked up on it too fast. She was at first a little hesitant, making Stiles promise this wasn't about her, because her brother deserved better than being a replacement, but Stiles promised that wasn't it. And he proved it too, even if the pining looked the same. He talked to Y/n and became friends with him and fought against werewolves and other big-bads, and they bonded over being the only two just-humans on the team, but Stiles never reached out to him to tell him how he felt. Stiles didn't want anything from Y/n that he didn't want to offer; which was sweet except Lydia wanted to see her best friend and her brother happy.

So what was she to do except play match maker?

Her butting in was helping, too. Y/n was telling her all the time now about how he liked Stiles, how well they got along, all the stuff they were doing together. About his eyes and his smile and his laugh and how brave he was. About how they made so many plans together and learned to trust each other. About how nice his voice was, and how they studied together and often fell asleep late into the night and woke up next to each other.

And yet... it took Y/n almost dying for either of them to do anything about it.

It was a shit storm like all the others they had to live through. A battle, injuries all around, and Stiles and Y/n trying to find each other because this time they'd gotten separated. It was never good when those two got separated, they were both idiots.

Something that showed more than ever when Y/n rushed into the room, saw Stiles being cornered by a werewolf, and screamed at the top of his lungs. It was a faceless beast at this point, mind controlled by a spell that a witch had cast. She was making their lives hell, and this was only the most recent of poor bastards that had been mind controlled and sent their way. The only way to break the spell was to find the object that mattered to them most and destroy it. This worked because the witch had to cast the spell on such an object, and destroying it broke the spell. But she was aware of this, so she often sent her subjects after whoever found or had the object at the moment.

And right now, that person was Y/n.

So the werewolf turned, getting on all fours and shooting after the teenager, who's eyes went wide as he turned sharply and began barreling down the hallway as quickly as he could. It was a ploy to save Stiles' life, and it was a good one, but it couldn't last forever. The werewolf swiped at him, sending him flying one way and the thing he was carrying flying the other way. Derek arrived that moment, having been tied up before, and managed to fight the creature off while Stiles scrambled onto the scene and burned the object.

It was over.

But the damage had been done.

The pack brought them to Deaton, who immediately launched into stitching the poor boy up and lathering something on him to fight infection and help him heal faster. Then they were all left to simply wait and hope Y/n would wake up. He still had a heartbeat, but shock had hit his system and he still might not make it. A lot of blood lost, a really bad concussion...

Stiles of course never left Y/n's side. Y/n woke up to the boy asleep on his little make shift hospital bed, head on Y/n's leg, holding his hand. Y/n smiled, exhausted and sore and feeling like shit, but unable to deny that Stiles still looked adorable when he was asleep. Y/n ran his hand through Stiles' hair and the boy jolted up. "Oh." He blinked sleep out of his eyes, rubbing his face and shaking his head to clear it. "Hey."

Y/n laughed. "Hey, Sleeping Beauty," Y/n joked. His voice croaked from disuse and he flinched. "Jesus I sound like I died."

Stiles' smile withered. "You almost did."

There was silence at that. They couldn't meet each others' eyes, couldn't pass that stiffness and awkwardness. Neither of the boys were good with silence and always tried to scramble to crack jokes or entertain or cheer up, but Stiles' bluntness had shattered that. And it was kind of nice. Vulnerable.

"Stiles," Y/n began. "I... liked you." He sighed, shoulders dropping. "Like, really really like you. And I know it might ruin everything, and I don't want you to say you like me back because I almost died. I don't even need you to say anything right now, just, know I like you. And everyone knows you've always liked my sister but-"

At that, Stiles broke. He caught Y/n's face between his hand and pulled him into a kiss. They both sighed, smiling into it, and all the unspoken things seemed to be understood without any of the words needing to be said. They often communicated like this, with just an understanding, and no need for specifics or long rants. Leaning their foreheads together, Stiles still did say one thing. "I like you too." They both laughed, and all the tension melted away from both of them.

"Maybe next time you two need to talk about your feelings, one of you doesn't need to die for it?" Lydia sassed from the doorway. The boys parted, blushing, as she tackled her brother in a hug. But all of them laughed, and for now all of them were okay, and that... that could be enough. After all, they still had a witch to kill.

-

Male Readers: @ravenpuff-oli @sortzz @fadedver

[dallasgallant]

Time period post- Greaser subtypes

This one was asked of me a little while back, as I mentioned briefly the types of Greaser and someone wanted to know the difference. (Also have some posts on terminology!) and it sent me down a bit of a rabbit hole, this one is a little more researched that my more rambly general knowledge ones.

Going to put this before the cut as it’s a important aspect and was fascinating to me at least,

“The Greaser” has been a costume and a character longer than it ever had been a clearly defined demographic or subculture. A lot of what we understand today is from pop culture and rockabilly revivals of the 80s and the whatever the fuck was happening in 2010 (which is more a tumblr aesthetic than it ever was reality). What unites and makes an ‘actual’ greaser is without a doubt class status, certain behavior and dress more so than the affiliation with Rock n’ roll.

Another thing to consider is “Greaser” is a derogatory term! Pony talks about it briefly in the book how they don’t like other people calling them it, only themselves. It’s not a group invented term, more something they’re called/reclaimed.

Same goes for Hood, JD, Con, Punk, white trash, Redneck, Hick, Okie etc.

Some have come on to be used more commonly, or nicer meaning such as redneck but half the time it’s self used by people with a slight accent and would not actually— different conversation.

Another thing to be aware of (that I have a post on) is inter-lapping terms like all Greasers are punks but not all punks are greasers. (Original connotation not the music based subculture)

Motorcycle v. Hot rod-

Now to what this post was sparked about the distinction between “Type” of greasers. This is sort of what it says on the tin.

Motorcycle greasers are the types to ride bikes and be in that sort of gang.

Hot rod greasers are those who are into car customization (making a hot rod by suping it up) and drag races that sort of thing.

Both of these can be named gangs, matching jackets with the name and everything. However that’s more larger city and pop culture than true across the board (Pony mentioned there’s a few named gangs in Tulsa; types like this also tend to run over)

But again! It’s important to understand not every motorcycle gang or car club are greasers! It’s complicated in a strange way as there’s simultaneously no difference and a lot of difference.

Not all greasers are a “type!” Either. Some are just grease. Like the Curtis outfit leans towards the car side but are not a car club/gang or centered around their cars. They’re a run of the mill unnamed friend group type gang.

Varying term-

Interesting is, some stereotypes and pop culture examples of greasers are relatively true to life… though they tend to run softer or harsher depending on if they’re the bad or good guys (typically bad.) Some are upset over this… mainly because a childhood bully was a greaser and they have a demonized depiction in their head which was wild to come across while looking into this.

It’s actually one of the instances where people’s recollection as a bit better of a source then looking it up. As google gives you mainly “Ayyyyy” or “tell me more tell me more” (which don’t get me wrong we love the Fonz and the T-birds in this house)

What seems to be the true uniting factor of making a Greaser is Levi’s and being a “Working class bully” which has become a whole other stereotype within itself but, greaser’s never really went away they just changed their haircut. Allow me to explain,

The kid who’s rough because he has to be. Life isn’t so great at home, dad beats him, poor, mom strips etc there’s a thousand variations. To the point again there’s an entire trope. Besides being lower class they were also the kids to frequent the shop and remedial classes- get in trouble, speak their mind get into fights and so on. Looking into antidotes sometimes what they were called changed or the music they listened to but- hair grease, jeans, rough etc are all a common factor.

This also ties back to the book. There’s something about everyone either thinking you’re mean and a criminal or immediately pitying you because your life must be so horrible you poor thing you—- has got to suck! It’s understandable that Pony would flip out on Cherry the way he did about pity and charity.

The thing about Greasers that gets me is that they’re either doomed to Demonization or romanization. (As let’s be real crime, being rude etc were also an active part. Not always but there) Both in memory and pop culture. Don’t get me wrong there has always been some nuanced depictions and conversations about Greasers or JD’s (the outsiders is one of them) but that just isn’t the case for the dominant public memory. They’re stuck as a costume or a bully…

[project-sekai-facts]

Here's a fun little Project Sekai fact! Almost all of your faves have appropriated other cultures as costumes and some have even done blackface. If you're supporting this game and refusing to make a meaningful statement about it beyond "b-b-but i said it was bad! 🥺", you are fucking racist.

You're either anti-racist, or you're a pro-seka blog. Choose one. You can't be both.

Basically everything is problematic and actually I have criticised the cultural appropriation and racism present in the game multiple times, at no point have I refused to acknowledge it (and you’re not the first person to send an anon in). You can play the game and be anti-racist actually it’s called being critical of the media you consume and having social awareness, we’ve been over this. Everything is problematic you probably like problematic media too.

Yeah the game did revival my dream and that was fucking racist, the costumes are stereotypical and they didn’t research into any specifc native culture they just wanted to make something that would get them money. it’s not princess mononoke put the trained costumes next to each other, the trained costumes are heavily stylised to look "pretty and fashionable" and forego accuracy. I’m aware of that, I’ve said this before multiple times but you wouldn’t know that because you just randomly came here to send me this message.

Then there's also the kamikou sports fes set. Luka's qipao is very obviously altered for the sake of fanservice which is just so wrong, do not sexualise other cultures for money. Rui's I think is meant to be some sort of military hanfu? But quite stylised, which again for someone outside the original culture to stylise a traditional outfit just is a no-go because you will probably get things wrong. Mizuki's outfit seems to be based on Qi-lolita and there's a whole thing surrounding that about whether you should wear it if you aren't chinese.

and then there's the island panic cards which are both orientalist. yes, not just the boys, the girls too. the outfits aren't based on any specific culture and just mishmash different swana and south asian cultures and stereotypes together to make something that looks "exotic".

If you notice a recurring thing is that all of these are in some way wxs related, and wonder why that is, it’s because they’re the theatre unit. They wear costumes, these are just cultures being appropriated as stage outfits, because the devs don’t care they just want a quick bit of money.

all of these are horribly common in idol games and gacha games, not just project sekai, and it's important to recognise the problems rather than just blindly consuming it. If it makes money, devs will continue to include ca, recognise that.

and yeah puchiseka episode 6 happened at no point have i ever denied that. it should have never happened but it did and at the very least the fandom was able to rally together and get sega to take it down. even after they did that sega and clpl should still be held accountable for even letting it be released. while they didn't make the episode, that was entirely handled by an external company (who should also be held accountable for their actions - we're never getting a second season for a reason), sega still released it knowing full well the contents. it wasn't ganguro like people said it was extremely clearly based on a very racist and crude interpretation of african tribes, and for part of a joke no less. It was disgusting. And it’s not ganguro like how people defend it; ganguro is part of the gyaru subculture and the outfits in that episode were not that. there is no defence for what happened. at the very least, it was impressive that the fandom called out the episode and actually got staff to listen and learn. that doesn't happen in other games, and we managed to do it again with rmd. the fanbase is calling the game out and actually educating staff. It’s just critical consumption - fans of the media were able to recognise that the episode was racist and correctly called out management with enough of a voice to make staff correct their mistakes. They apologised, it’s not my apology to accept, and I still hold them accountable for the fact it even happened.

This probably all makes me sound like a white saviour, and I don’t want to speak over the people affected by this, but that’s what you wanted, isn’t it? You probably have me blocked already and never followed me in the first place, but if you really wanted to call out racism, then maybe you should’ve sent this to blogs that do turn a blind eye to the flaws in this game, not one that calls them out. Why just me? Was it because of the username, because you’re not the first person to make that quip. I know you won’t see this anon, but a word of advice. Most media is problematic one way or another, you can enjoy something but still be aware of and acknowledge its problems. Project sekai is not made with the intent of encouraging or funding harmful behaviour, yet it still includes some harmful content. Call it out, educate staff and tell them not to do it again, they listened once they can do it again.

[babesway22]

“In too deep”

Vox x femreader

Part two

After today’s strange events you needed to go home with a pint of hells-cream and watch your favorite trash tv and that’s exactly what you did. It was already close to 3am and you were desperately needing sleep, but after convincing yourself to relax after a shitty day you slipped into your most comfortable oversized t-shirt and shorts. As you sat there shamelessly eating your hells-cream with trash tv blaring in the background you still couldn’t understand why vox of all people needed your disgusting, shitty boss, but whatever, it made him quiet the rest of the day ultimately not even looking in your direction all day and letting you leave slightly earlier than your normal 2am. You knew vox was one of hells hottest bachelor’s and you could understand why. Never actually seeing him in person until now, you couldn’t stop thinking about how his tailored suit clung to his tall, slender frame, his narrow waist and oddly attractive tv face. Was he charming or manipulative? How hard would he fuck? How big was it? Would he whine or moan? And- oh my god you needed to get laid. Stopping yourself, you realized he was a pompous asshole with a tv for a head. He wouldn’t give you the time of day. Right? Finally exhausted you crawled into your shitty excuse for a bed passing out as soon as your head hit the pillow. After all, another hellish day awaited you tomorrow. Today? Whatever.

After an oddly uneventful day at work you made the short walk home to your depressing apartment and that was being too kind, it was an utter shit hole. The other units were occupied by scum bags and hells sleaziest citizens. You often felt alone and out of place on this side of town. Surely you were meant for more, even in hell. You Passed an array of demons and other hellish creatures catcalling and trying to sell you a slurry of drugs and various sex toys. Although temping, you were already on edge from the strange week you were having. You needed a pick me up and fast.

Quickly pulling out your phone and calling angel dust you both agreed to meet at the snazzy new bar in town co- owned by his boss, val and his fellow vee, velevtte. The establishment was huge with two floors filled with copious amounts of liquor, exotic dancers and DJ’s for each level. You expected nothing less from Val and velvette and felt rather impressed. You headed to the bar and grabbed a few strongly made drinks and sought out to find the pink spider demon, which shouldn’t be hard. You pushed your way through the crowd of sweaty, drunk party goers, swatting off a few roaming hands from horny men and “come on baby’s” when you saw him, sat with all three of the vees in the center of the room. “Oh, come on” you muttered as you slowly made your way to the center of the room. You didn’t particularly want to interact with any of the vees, especially with their reputation, but you missed angel dust and figured you could deal with it for his sake. “Hey, hey toots! Over here” angel dust shouted. You held up your drinks letting him know you heard him and made your way onto the stage where they all sat on a large red couch. You felt embarrassed with all of their eyes on you, not having changed out of your rather sleazy work outfit that your boss liked so much. You looked to angel dust, but could tell he was already going in and out of a hypnotic state on whatever bullshit Val was giving to him. “Oooo, who is this lovely specimen, amante” Val cooed to angel. “Another useless whore, no doubt” velvette spat looking at your outfit with visible distaste.

“Hey now, she’s a good friend” angels New York accent slurred, his eyes unfocusing slightly. You felt bad for him, realizing whatever Val was doing to him was slowing breaking his spirit. It soured your mood completely. You quickly downed both of your rather large drinks giving you extra courage and earning a purr from Val “I like this one. Let’s-“ but before he could say another word you turned to vox, who stared at his drink in hand and wore his signature indifferent, and utterly bored out of his mind face. “Hey, asshole” you snapped your fingers at him immediately earning his attention. “this should be good” velevette sneered taking a sip from her hot pink martini. Vox slowly roamed his red eyes up your body landing on your face, making your cheeks heat up. Which, unluckily for you didn’t go unnoticed. You hadn’t expected to have an immediate reaction to him because just moments ago you were fully ready to slap him in his stupid tv face for being so unbothered by your friend laying wasted in Val’s lap. You suddenly wondered if the drinks were made too strong or if someone had laced them. He leaned forward in his seat, claws sparking and digging into the couch “What did you say” vox’s voice was low, dark and filled with static. It sent an icy shiver up your spine making you instantly regret even coming out in the first place. You began to feel dizzy and sick. You had the urge to lay down and began to stumble about the stage. “Fuck. You. Asshole.” you slurred managing to flip him off before falling straight into his lap, blacking out entirely.

What a sight it was for onlookers who gasped and pointed. Val with angeldust thrown over his white furry shoulder and vox carrying a limp you, wedding style to their limo. You went in and out of consciousness after that only remembering small snippets of conversation between the vees, slightly aware you were in a moving vehicle.

“What the FUCK did you do to her? Val. Do you know how bad this is for our image” vox said mildly annoyed

“It wasn’t me pendejo and thanks for clawing up my new red couch!” Val pouted

“She sure as shit ain’t staying on my floor” velvette spat out

“Can everyone just shut the FUCK up” vox said static filling his voice making his screen glitch slightly

“Aww, does voxy poo have a crush” velvette cackled loudly

“Fuck you, bitch” vox growled giving her a clawed middle finger

You tossed onto your stomach, stretching and yawning. The satin sheets beneath you felt like cool water on your bare skin. You sat up wildly, feeling disoriented and stared about the strange, massive bedroom. You were greeted by Pristine white and navy blue tile floors, massive windows that gave a breath taking view to pentagram city’s blood red sunset and sprawling streets. The height making you nauseated, still sick from the previous nights laced drinks. Turning around in the king sized bed you saw a massive fish tank that swirled hypnotically behind the headboard. After taking in your surroundings, you looked down and noticed you had a giant oversized blue shirt that read “voxtech enterprises”

You stumbled out of the bed cursing under your breath about where the fuck angel dust was, how you were most definitely getting fired from your job and and why you were in what you assumed, was vox’s bedroom and “who the fuck changed me”

Just then the double doors to the bedroom swung open theatrically and vox walked in, suit perfectly in place with his long arms folded behind his back.

“Good morning! or, should I say even-“

Cutting him off angrily you gritted your teeth “Why the fuck am I here, asshole and where’s angel dust” you picked up the nearest object, a lamp and pointed it at him “back up” you yelped pathetically, pacing backwards a couple steps bumping into the cool wall.

He slowly walked in your direction staring down at his long blue claws “I can assure you” he chuckled darkly “that lamp will do you no good” he flashed you a charming smile that disarmed you slightly. You lowered the lamp realizing there was no fair fight with an over lord of his stature, he was powerful and you both knew it.

Bored already, he sighed “angel dust is in the kitchen, my assistant will be up shortly to provide more suitable clothing” he paused allowing his dark red eyes to roam up your body languidly. You looked down, trying your best to hide your flushed cheeks. Failing miserably. You noticed his shirt completely swallowing your small frame making you feel tiny under his gaze.

He leaned forward giving you his best showman pose, holding his arms out wide, and bending at the waist slightly “And welcome to V tower!” He gritted through razor sharp teeth. Dropping the facade almost immediately and turning on his heels muttering about ungrateful brats and slamming his double doors closed.

Currentky working on part 3 already! Let me know if you enjoyed. If you want a tag list at any point or have recommendations or areas where I could improve I’m all ears, lovely people. 📺💙

@redfoxwritesstuff. 🥹

[violenteconomics]

First year gang but it’s an au where they’re ghostbusters

anything 4 u, baby. (gonna be real with you, though, i have never seen a single ghostbusters movie, so some of this is just based off of preliminary research, lol)

okay, so it's a TWST event based on that one old mickey mouse short "the haunted house" and the actual "the haunted mansion" ride at disneyland. there's this old, decrepit house on school property that used to be its own dorm -- we're just gonna call it "skaladare". however, after an undisclosed accident nearly a century ago where all the dorm members died simultaneously, it shut down and is now the most dangerous place to be on all of campus. for this reason, demolition companies don't want to go anywhere NEAR this thing, so it's just been chilling in its pocket dimension for a while.

you can see where this is going.

the first-years originally think they're just going into skaladare to get the cinders cloak that used to belong to the old housewarden, which has great magical properties -- which is partially true, if nothing else. that idea degrades over time, though, as crowley gives them ghostbusting outfits, magestone equipment (proton packs, containment units, etc.), and even gives grim a funny pair of ecto goggles. ("you probably won't get in any real danger, but i'll give you all this stuff anyway because i'm just so darn kind---")

(the housewarden of skaladare, named gale roths (a pun on the term "gale rots"), is twisted from the grim reaper from the mickey mouse short, btw.)

as soon as they get there, the door closes in on them and they're locked inside. luckily, they're met with the ghost of a former skaladare first-year named gabriel hauntings (for... obvious reasons), twisted from the ghost host from the haunted mansion ride. he's pretty friendly as far as most undead go, though (if extremely sassy and sarcastic, but i guess being stuck with nothing to do but crossword puzzles will do that to you).

gabriel can't remember how he died, but everyone else does. and he can tell you that everyone has been extremely aggressive after they woke up as ghosts, so the first-years better watch their backs. after a bit of threatening by epel and manhandling by sebek (which everyone is deeply confused by, because he's supposed to incorporeal, sebek is there something you want to tell us--), gabriel agrees to guide them through the mansion to the housewarden's bedroom, where the cinders cloak is.

they fight through a bunch of skeletons and ghosts, and as they continue through the halls, talking to old paintings on the walls and random scraps of memories gabriel regains, they slowly piece together the story behind skaladare's mass extinction.

as it turns out, skaladare used to be the worst-ranked dorm in the whole school -- in grades, definitely, but also in the fact that the dorm was literally falling apart, and no matter how much housewarden roths begged for repairs, the headmage at the time (who i'm just going to assume isn't crowley) refused to spend money on what the entire school saw as a lost cause.

skaladare lost every spelldrive match they were ever apart of, they were cut out of school-wide field trips, the teachers looked down on skaladare first-years the moment they stepped into the classroom, and getting sorted into skaladare was basically a death sentence (*hint hint*, *wink wink*)

being the housewarden of this awful place was already bad. combine that with the housewarden's already ongoing issues (we're just going to assume they're similar to riddle's), and he overblotted in no time at all. except this time, there was nobody who could stop him -- and he wound up killing every single person in skaladare. the reason gabriel doesn't remember any of this is because he was sleeping when this happened, which is why he describes the process of becoming a ghost as "waking up".

blah blah blah, the first-years have to deal with another overblot, can you believe it? except this time, gabriel is going to battle with us after hanging back this whole time (yes, he can get a card, too). and at the end, gabriel and gale and everybody else can move on to the afterlife. gale gives the first-years the cinders cloak, the freshmen and gabriel have a tearful goodbye, and they leave up into the great unknown after one last twistune.

even if this is a twst event and those are usually pretty goofy, let's say that this ending has our freshmen thinking about how this school and their own dorms might actually kill them one day.

as for cards, i'm gonna give jack and sebek the ssr cards ('cause let's be real, they deserve it at this point), deuce and epel can get the sr cards, and (i'm so sorry) ace and ortho get the r cards. and since gabriel is our event guest, he also gets an ssr card.

[burningdaybreak]

"BURN and CHILL" — The Duality of BAD DOGS

Hello everyone! First of all, I'm sorry for not posting a proper essay in the last two months; as I mentioned in my short post the other day, I lost motivation to write for a bit, then thought I should wait until Akito5 (or rather, Rekindle the flame) to post this... however, I think I won't add in Akito5 things after all except for some small things, and rather may write a proper essay about the event sometime soon. This essay had been pretty much done for a while now, but because of my small hiatus, it took me this long to post it. Sorry. (By the way, I fixed and finished this essay while taking breaks from tiering Akito5. I blame any mistakes on that.) Anyways... (Previous introduction) So, ever since I posted my last essay, my works have been getting quite a bit of attention, and I've gotten a lot of interactions and new followers, which makes me happy. I hope people have been enjoying what I write! The topic of this essay is Akito and Touya's duality and contrasts, both within themselves and with each other, which I believe is a pretty interesting topic. There's a lot to talk about here, so, let's get into it!

0. Introduction

Duality: the quality or state of having two different or opposite parts or elements.

When it comes to their characters, their designs, their personalities, and even individual stories, Akito and Touya are pretty much opposites; they contrast each other when it comes to all those aspects, and yet, they're completely inseparable. They are pretty much made to fit together, being two halves of the same whole. The contrasts and differences between each other — or in other words, the duality of their relationship, is basically what makes them perfect for each other, since what one lacks, the other makes up for, and with the other's help and support, they can push each other forward; this, in turn, makes them to be the best partner possible for the other, allowing each other to grow — together. And, through that, they become one, united through one of their common traits: their love for music, spawning a desire to sing with each other and nobody else, forever and ever; an inseparable couple with an unbreakable bond and a growing love for each other that won't be replaced by anybody else... Together, they become BAD DOGS! And so, in this essay, I will talk about their contrasts in a lot of parts of their characters: from the more mundane aspects, like school grades, to how they interact with others, and even their family backgrounds, among other things.

1. Character design

Starting from their very character designs, Akito and Touya are already opposites: their image colors, orange (#FF7721) and blue (#0077DD), are one of the primary complementary color pairs. Complimentary colors are combinations of cool and warm colors that, when placed together, they bring out the best in each other by making their complement more vibrant and noticeable. Even when it comes to their image colors, they're perfect for each other. The warm and cool aspects are also apparent in their designs, with their hair colors (Akito's orange and dyed-blonde hair V.S. Touya's dual-blue hair), both of their default outfits (Akito's outfit colors being predominantly warm colors, such as yellow, red, orange; while Touya's are predominantly cool colors, like purple and blue), and even their personalities, which I'll get into soon. Furthermore, we have BURN and CHILL, the words for Akito and Touya's World Link chapters' Top 100 ranking's titles, which makes their contrasts even more apparent and intentional. Speaking of their personalities, and their warm and cool natures, we also need to mention how Akito and Touya are themed after the sun and moon, respectively. Both of Touya's old and new default designs feature moon-related things, with both of them having "DerMond", which stands for The Moon in German; and his new design having "VERSTECKT MONAT" in the back.

Fun fact: "VERSTECKT MONAT" actually means Hidden Month, but it's likely they actually meant for it to say Hidden Moon, which would have had to be "VERSTECKT MOND"; this mistake possibly comes from the fact that the kanji for moon, 月, stands for both "month" and "moon".

On the other hand, Akito does not have direct associations with the sun in either of his designs like Touya does, but his new default design features the word "SCORCHING", which can be related to the sun. However, we can mention how Akito's last name, Shinonome (東雲), means "daybreak" or "sunrise", which does actually associate him with the sun in some form.

For other forms of sun & moon association in Akito and Touya, we have Akito's second event song, 月光 (Gekkou), translated to Moonlight, obviously being related to the moon; while ミライ (Mirai), Touya's second event song, features a sunrise in its song jacket, so it's related to the sun. Although Gekkou is not explicitly related nor referencing Touya (I talk about this song more in-depth in The Gay Akito Thesis™, if you'd like to learn more about it), I believe the fact that it can be related to Touya; symbolically, it fits Akito and Touya's relationship, and how Akito is chasing after Touya, to be on the same level as his partner, and how the moonlight (Touya) is guiding Akito and taking care of him, always watching over him and supporting him. On the other hand, Mirai (which means Future), a song representing Touya's journey with Vivid BAD SQUAD, and how has finally found a place that accepts him and that he feels comfortable in, a place where he can be himself — a place where they can laugh. Looking back fondly at everything they went through, grateful to everyone and wanting to keep all these memories close to him, and how he wants to keep walking alongside his friends, even in the future — therefore giving this name to the song. Once again, this song is not explicitly related to nor referencing Akito, but between the sunrise in the song jacket, and the lyrics referencing Touya's journey, which Akito is a very important part of, you could say this song can be related to Akito; he's the one that has always been with Touya, the one that showed Touya this new world, the one that brought back Touya's happiness and laughter, and the one that Touya wants to sing alongside with, forever and ever — in a way, Akito is Touya's future.

Another fun fact: Gekkou and Mirai are the only Vivid BAD SQUAD event songs where both Akito and Touya have Another Vocals at the same time, making this association with each other even further. RAD DOGS also has an Another Vocal for Akito and Touya, but it's a duet rather than solo alts, which is also a noteworthy fact because it's the only Akito + Touya duet Another Vocal.

Finally, even in their card sets, you can see how they're themed after each other's theme, with sunlight being a predominant theme in Same Dreams,Same Colors' cards, while moonlight is one of the main parts of Akito and Touya's cards in THE POWER OF UNITY's cards:

Final fun fact of this section: Speaking of Same Dreams,Same Colors, we can mention how Touya's card's costume is named Winter Camp Jacket, while Akito's is named Autumn Camp Jacket; this is a reference to their names as the kanji for "Tou" (冬) in Touya can also mean winter, and "Aki" is also the word for autumn or fall in Japanese. Coincidentally, Same Dreams,Same Colors was released on December 20, 2021, right before the Winter Solstice (December 21), which is when the fall season ends and the winter season begins, making it very fitting that both Touya and Akito were the main cards in the gacha banner.

Considering these two songs are the second event songs for each of them (that is, the second event song rotation), and they're themed after the other's theme in both songs and cards, along with both having Another Vocals in both songs, you could say they reference each other in these events, too.

2. Personality

When it comes to their actual personalities, they are also very like the sun and moon, with their characters even being themed after those: Akito is the sun, in the way he guides people — he fuels others' passions by the intensity of his own. Furthermore, he is the sun in the way that his fire often burns so bright and hot that it burns him along with it. He is very passionate and active and with a desire to shine the brightest, to be in the spotlight — the star of the show. Then, Touya is the moon, in the way that he's more gentle in his approach to things; mysterious at first glance, but often one of the brightest lights despite the darkness — with a soft, illuminating, and guiding presence — and who is somehow so perfectly positioned to match the sun. As an extra detail, the moon is allowed to shine thanks to the sun's light, which really fits Akito and Touya's relationship of Akito bringing back the light to Touya's life, allowing him to shine as his own person once more. And now, Akito is chasing after his partner's light — the moonlight, aiming to reach his level, to walk by his side and reach their dreams together. Even here, their relationship of giving and receiving is abundantly clear: Akito grants light and love to Touya, and to reciprocate, Touya wants Akito to rely on him too; to give back that light and love that was given to him. Chasing after each other, relying on each other, inspiring each other, guiding each other... this cycle of giving love and reciprocating that love is a core part of their relationship, and what makes them so inseparable.

However, when it comes to sun and moon, we should also talk about the usual sun / moon perception in fandoms, and how people interpret both Akito and Touya: In the traditional sense of the trope, "sun" characters are characters that are active, loud, cheerful, and often associated with dogs (more especifically golden retrievers); while, on the other hand, "moon" characters are characters that are viewed as cold, rude, harsh, and quiet, and associated with cats (normally black cats). From that description, I could say Akito is a bit like the moon in the way that he's more aloof, reserved, and "introverted", not bothering with matters that don't interest him and only really having a special spot for Touya (and only doing things if they somehow involve Touya), and being kind of rough and rude. Akito can also easily be associated with cats due to his double-faced personality, his fear of dogs, his reserved nature but affection for specific people, and his orange hair and green eyes, which is the most common pretty much default orange cat. Furthermore, Touya has been shown with a specific, stray orange cat a few times, which I believe is no coincidence...

Fun fact: 猫被り or nekokaburi, which means "wolf in sheep's clothing" or "feigned innocence", or directly translated as "donning a cat's mask", is an expression that Akito is officially referred by. In his paired Kizuna Rank title with Kohane, ハムハムと猫被り (Hamuhamu and Nekokaburi), hamuhamu is a word used to describe eating noises, and Kohane is also often associated with hamsters in the game, which this title definitely references, since hamu also means hamster. (Also hamsters make cute noises when they eat! Therefore, hamuhamu.) And so, one could think that nekokaburi isn't just a term to describe Akito's double-faced personality, but also to associate him with cats, due to the way some cats are that appear to be friendly, but can be aloof and temperamental, which really highlights the contrast between Akito's appearance and what he's truly like; giving this title a quite fitting double meaning — describing Kohane and Akito's personalities, but also associating both characters with those animals. However, this double meaning was sort of lost in the official English translation, as it was simply translated to "Hammie & Feigned Innocence"; although it's understandably difficult to translate it and keep the original meaning behind it.

Meanwhile, Touya is a bit like the sun in the way that he's bright and more "extroverted", curious to learn and try new things for the sake of experience, which you could associate with him being dog-like — a puppy-like innocence with a desire to interact with the new world around him, having been caged for many years. Furthermore, in the Project SEKAI×Sanrio Characters collab, Touya got a card with Pochacco the dog, and Akito himself compares Touya with Pochacco in his curiosity; not to mention the collab's 4koma featuring Touya with dog ears and a tail, which he is wagging out of excitement — he definitely seems like the kind of boy who needs a tail to wag. Touya is generally laid back, with a calm and quiet nature, but because of his inexperience, he has a tendency to wander into things for the sake of learning and experiencing new things. And so, he's more inclined to talking with people and helping others, which can lead one to believe Touya's similar to the sun. When it comes to the fandom and associating them with the sun and moon, people they often end up trying to shove them into the usual "boxes" of the common sun and moon tropes, often leading to mischaracterization, since they don't look at these characters any more deeply than a surface level read of them. As is usual for common sun characters, Akito is cheerful, loud, and active at a first glance, but there's more to him than that; furthermore, believing he's a "golden retriever-like" character just doesn't feel right. I'd say he's definitely very dog-like, despite his fear of dogs, but golden retrievers are more like dogs that are playful and friendly, which Akito really isn't; he's more of a dog in the sense that he's very loyal (to Touya), determined, and with a fiery and strong personality. He also lowkey likes getting praised by his partner. He's a lot like a dog... but I believe that, ultimately, he's not actually a dog — just that he acts like/wants to be like a dog. While Touya, as is usual for common moon characters, is quiet and with what can be interpreted as a scary and tough appearance, this is just the first impression of him as a person and not all there is to his true self. I could say he's a bit cat-like, but I believe the connection is weaker and most of the time comes from judging him on the surface (viewing him as a mysterious, quiet, withdrawn guy), and not taking into account his whole personality and development. However, the fact both of them can be associated with both dogs and cats is quite interesting and fun, and adds yet another contrast in themselves, and also between each other. A "cat that wants to be like a dog" (Akito) and a "dog that acts like a cat" (Touya) are simply perfect fits for them — very contradictory, which is a common theme in both of them. [Addition post-Rekindle the flame: in Kohane's 4✰ card's second side story, we have both Kohane and An commenting on how a cat really fits Akito, so we now have an explicit mention of Akito being like a cat... this is huge, really. Akito truly and intentionally is like a cat.]

Disregarding what animals they would theorically be, however, since it's not really important... thinking that Akito's the sun and Touya's the moon for the reasons I mentioned in the previous paragraphs isn't wrong, because they are the sun and moon, respectively; but if people believe there's nothing more to them than what is associated with the tropes, I think it shows a lack of understanding to the depth of their characters — it's a case of "judging books by their covers"; which is something Akito absolutely hates, by the way. Project Sekai's characters are characters that are in constant development, and they keep changing and growing as people as they explore the world around them and interact with their close ones and other people they meet. Growth is a very important theme among all the characters, so pushing them into singular boxes, or common tropes, or anything else, and not viewing any depth in them, is not really right. They are growing, they aren't simple people and there's more to them than meets the eye, so saying they are this or that will never be fully right. But in the end, when taking into account their whole characters and designs, Akito is the sun and Touya is the moon (as they are explicitly themed after these), but they have traits of the other even if they aren't themed after it — they kind of are "a sun that acts like the moon" and "a moon that acts like the sun", putting it simply. I think this makes them quite contrastful and very interesting characters; this depth leads to them being interpreted in many ways, and even if many of those interpretations aren't fully correct, it's interesting to see how people view these characters, and shows just how deep and complex they really are. They are a bit of everything, in my opinion, and I genuinely think they can't be boiled down to just one thing or another. The way I see it, they'd be more like a mix of a bunch of contradictory things... rather than fitting in just one, individual box.

Following up on the topic of the impression of their characters, Akito and Touya are also contrasting in the way they initially appear in the story, and how they subvert those expectations. When he first appears in Vivid BAD SQUAD's main story, Akito is shown acting surprisingly outward, friendly, relaxed, polite, and gentle, hiding his true nature... that is, showing a fake innocence (nekokaburi, which, as mentioned earlier, means "wolf in sheep's clothing" or "feigned innocence", and is a term that Akito has officially been referred by). In reality, Akito's a very serious guy, who doesn't mince his words, and acts mostly cold and rude to most people that aren't important to him (mainly his partner). He has a double-faced nature, so to say. This shows a duality within Akito himself, where he shows a good face to other people in order to keep a cordial relationship, and therefore avoid troublesome situations. This is pretty interesting as Akito is someone who really pushes himself to make up for what he lacks: he has no music experience, and in an attempt to reach the level of his teammates, he overworks himself; and in the same way, he makes up for his lack of interest in interacting with others by showing off a fake personality. There is more things Akito tries to make up for, such as attempting to seem tougher than he is and appearing stereotypically manly; however, that's a topic that will be brought up later. All of the aforementioned is so people won't judge him prematurely; Akito hates people that make fun of him and his skills, but most of all, of what's most important to him — that is, his dream. On the other hand, when Touya first appears, he's shown as a scarily quiet and reserved guy, who doesn't really talk nor show emotions. This directly contrasts Akito's (fake) outward and friendly personality, though it also contrasts Akito's true nature of not mincing his words and saying what he thinks. At first, Touya is a character who doesn't really express how he feels, whether on his face or verbally. After a childhood that was mainly spent dedicated to playing classical music, unable to ever satisfy his family's high expectations, Touya grew apart from his emotions and leading an unhappy life, until he finally grew tired of it and ran away. Meeting Akito was the beginning of getting back in touch with his emotions, being able to enjoy music once again by singing with him, and everyone's kindness and support showing him that he can now be his own person. Touya then slowly learns how to show his feelings, becoming a happier person than he was in the past thanks to his partner, his friends, and everyone else that supports him, showing his true nature as a boy with a curiosity to explore the world around him and learn new things about himself and everything that surrounds him, and with a desire to repay the kindness of everyone that has helped him become his own person. This shows a contrast within Touya himself, too, between his sad, past self, and his happy, current self. Comparing his current personality, such as in his recent focus event Let It Ring! Beautiful Sound!, and his personality back when he met Akito, as shown in the VIRTUAL SINGER World Link event At the Beginning of SEKAI With You, in Len's chapter, is like night and day; Touya is much happier and cheerful nowadays, all thanks to his partner.

For contrasts between each other, we have the fact that Akito is insecure about himself and masks his true self, both through a feigned innocence, and by making up for his weaknesses; while Touya is more genuine and simply showing himself as he is, now confident in his own person. We also have the fact that, despite their first impressions, with Akito being more friendly, and Touya being more cold, the tables are turned and Akito is actually the more introverted and reserved person, mainly keeping to himself and being mostly cold to others, while Touya is more extroverted and always down to interact with others. But that doesn't mean Akito's exclusively reserved, since he still very much has an active, passionate, and fiery personality; and Touya isn't simply outward and someone who talks with others easily, he's still quiet and calm. This shows how contrasting their own personalities are, too. As a funny mention, Akito does end up often doing things and interacting with people he normally wouldn't do so because of Touya, folding pretty easily when Touya asks him to do something by simply saying "Akito.", or doing things if they are even mildly related to his partner. His partner ends up being a source of motivation quite often.

🥞 So… I'm only helpin' you out here for Touya's sake, alright.

And we also have Touya often being kept in check by Akito, with the latter sort of overprotecting Touya and looking after him at all times. In the end, even in funny ways, they make up for each other's faults, and they help the other grow and improve and be better versions of themselves — that's what being partners is about, after all. Yet another interesting contrast to mention is how they approach problems: Touya has been shown to have a predisposition to run away from and avoid troublesome things that he doesn't know how to face. The main example of this is in Vivid BAD SQUAD's main story, where rather than telling Akito how he feels, Touya instead lied to him, which resulted in BAD DOGS' temporary break up. Touya believed that lying to his partner would be better than disappointing him, and so, he ran away from his feelings, and from Akito. Touya was afraid of facing his partner and telling him about those feelings he dislikes. He was scared that Akito wouldn't accept those feelings, that he would leave him; but he also thought Akito deserved a better partner than him, someone who wasn't so half-hearted. He kept running away from his feelings: not just from telling them to his partner, but also from how he really felt, since he did actually love music, and enjoyed singing with Akito, and wanted to chase his dream — their dream, together. But Akito's recklessness and refusal to give up on them allowed Akito and Touya to become partners once again. Akito accepts Touya no matter what, even though he never believed Touya was half-hearted and always believed in him; and he makes Touya voice how he really feels.

☕ Gh…! Isn’t it obvious that I want to…! I’ve felt that so many times! I wanted to chase that dream with you as far as I could…!

Despite that, Touya was still unsure about being partners with Akito, but Akito won't allow any other outcome; they both know how they feel, they both want to be together, and that's all that matters:

🥞 Oh, shut up already. Don’t go makin’ this complicated. I want to be with you, and you want to be with me as well. And after that, our dream will come true. … Isn’t that enough?

With his partner by his side, Touya will no longer run away from how he really feels, and keep singing with Akito, no matter what, for years to come.

Another example of Touya's predisposition to run away is back before meeting Akito, when he ran away from home because he couldn't handle the stress of living under the pressure of his family's expectations. However, the regrets of that choice haunted him for a long time, affecting him and his self-confidence, preventing him to be proud of himself and his works. Fortunately, he's now gotten to terms with it, and accepts both classical music and the fact that he ran away. This is something he can't change, but he now accepts it as part of himself: he may regret running away from classical music, but he realizes that, as long as he enjoyed that time, he shouldn't beat himself up over it, and instead use it as his weapon — his feelings and experiences will allow him to become a better version of himself, and create stuff he can be proud of.

"My past has become my strength."

Akito, on the other hand, faces things head on, and more often than not, in a reckless way; such as participating in the Crawl Green live, despite only having been singing for a year and definitely not having enough skill for it, because Shepard challenged him and he had a pride to uphold; or how years later he faced that same team challenged him to a duel and, despite winning, he immediately went running and didn't celebrate his victory because he can't be satisfied with his current skill level. He's a guy that does things on the spur of the moment: he follows his own code (or, in other words, his heart), and does what he truly wants — what he feels is right. Suddenly quitting soccer, and suddenly deciding to dedicate his whole life to singing... and also confronting people because he's not satisfied with how things went (confronting Touya in Vivid BAD SQUAD's main story), or approaching his friends because he feels something is wrong, like An in Someday, with Our Lyrics Joined Back-to-Back and Bout for Beside You, and Arata in THE POWER OF UNITY. Akito can feel when something's going wrong with others, and often confronts them to know what's up. However, that recklessness makes him charge ahead when he's not satisfied with nor believes in himself, and he ignores his own feelings and even his health because of it. Calm down, boy... Fortunately, with his partner and teammates by his side, Akito doesn't have to recklessly rush ahead; he now has friends with the same goal as him, and with them by his side, even when he feels lost and helpless, he can rely on them — they'll help him back up, and support him along the way. They are a team that walks together.

☕ So, in those times where you've hit a wall… rely on me more!

And yet, when it comes to facing other people, Touya is predisposed to help others and interacting with them; if someone needs help, he's likely to accept right away, because he enjoys experiencing new things and likes repaying favors. The main case of this would be Walk on and on, Touya's third focus event, where Touya decides to learn how to compose his own tracks, in order to be able to help his team in some way, and at the same time show his gratitude to them — especially his partner — and how much he appreciates them by pouring his feelings onto his music. Some other minor examples of this are Let's study hard !, where Touya was going to help Akito and An with their studies no matter what (since he's always worried about their grades and them studying properly), and even invited Rui to help tutor Tsukasa, Akito, and An along with him. Or in Take the Best Shot !, where Touya helps Kohane with the photography competition she's entering in order to win special chocolates for An... In short, Touya is a person who is inclined to help others, and likes to give back to everyone, grateful for everything they've done for him. Meanwhile, Akito is mainly wary when it comes to interacting with people that he isn't close to (which is... most people that aren't Touya), and he would rather avoid troublesome things that don't interest him. However, when he does something, he does give it his all — he doesn't like half-assing things. For example, in Rise as ONE! where, despite his fear of dogs, he trains very hard to do his best at the dog disc competition because he related to the bond the injured owner had with his dog Max, which really shows, uh... Akito's one-track mind when it comes to his partner and how passionate he is about him. As mentioned earlier, Akito often ends up doing things he normally wouldn't because of Touya or something related to him, either getting convinced by Touya and giving in pretty quickly, or because his one-way brain somehow relates something random to his partner. So, a guy who runs away, avoiding his problems; and another who recklessly rushes ahead, facing his problems head on... yet, at the same time, the former is always up to help others and engaging with other people, while the latter avoids interacting with troublesome things.

Finally, we can also mention their social skills — or in simpler terms, how they are "book smart vs street smart": Touya has a lot of knowledge, and is very smart and studious, but he has a total lack of experience in socialising due to his isolated childhood and barely interacting with other people, so he comes off a bit more clumsy and awkward in those settings. He's more experienced in studying rather than interacting with people; but at the same time, this lack of experience is what predisposes him to interact with others and learning more about them, always available to talk to anybody and help them, in order to experience new things. On the other hand, Akito is more versed in interacting with people, with a more regular upbringing — having had to live "by his own means" in the streets to gain experience and make a name for himself, interacting with and facing many kinds of people; that, along with his "customer service face" and general double-faced nature, allows him to socialize well with most people. However, when it comes to school studies... he's not very good! He doesn't really care about studying and is more about living his life to the full — which Touya isn't quite happy about... but then Akito will put in effort for once and make Touya smile brighter than ever and Akito becomes a blushing mess upon being complimented... they're so funny. With that difference in socialization, they make up for each other, with Akito doing "most of the talking", as Touya says; and they contrast each other, too, even when it comes to how they face studying, with Touya helping Akito... although not often by Akito's choice, as Touya takes studies very seriously and will get mad at Akito if he fails. And so, they are quite opposites when it comes to how they deal with problems, and how they face and interact with other people. They keep each other in check; when one runs, the other will catch up, and when one is held back, the other will push him ahead. Those differences in personality actually help them understand each other perfectly: they support each other, and help each other grow, and will always be there for the other... that's what being partners is all about, in the end.

3. Background

Even in their backgrounds, Akito and Touya contrast each other, having had pretty different experiences with both music and their relationships with their family: As we know, Akito fell in love with music and decided to dedicate his whole life to it despite having no skill or experience. But despite that, Akito is determined and passionate to accomplish his dreams, and works extremely hard to improve and reach his goals. Even when he's on the brink of giving up, Akito will keep pushing forward, no matter what, because he finally found something that he truly wants to do — something that finally makes him feel alive; and alongside his partner, he'll keep singing... forever. On the other hand, Touya has lived with music since he was young, being a born prodigy and with a lot of musical experience. Dedicating most of his time to playing music, though, for around ten years, he ended up growing tired of this lifestyle, isolated from a "regular" life and frustrated at his inability to ever reach his parents' expectations, and it led him to run away from music. However, despite thinking otherwise after running away from it, Touya still loved music; although he was afraid of disappointing his partner, just like he disappointed his family in the past, and thought Akito deserved a partner who wasn't as half-hearted as Touya believed he himself was, Akito makes him realize that he still loves music. Nobody who hated music would dedicate as much time and effort as Touya did during those two years where they sang together. Touya finally realizes he actually loves music, and, most of all, singing alongside his partner; although he regrets some choices he made in the past, he learns that he can use his past as his "weapon" — his experiences are unique to him, and so they will become his strength. With this, he'll improve both himself and his music, in order to achieve his dreams — the dreams he shares with Akito. Or, in other words, their dreams.

☕️ Let's go, Akito. Let's make our dreams come true.

When comparing their music backgrounds, a really interesting point of contrast is their innate talent for music, and their relationship with music. Although he was the one that is a born prodigy and extremely gifted with music, it was Touya that briefly came to hate music; and Akito, who didn't have an innate ability for it, was the one who was so dedicated to his love for it that it even ended up hurting him at times. They were both hurt by music, but in different ways: because of their talent, or lack thereof. And yet, they both love music so much they couldn't help but keep fighting to stay with it. They love music so much, they want to keep singing and making music for as long as they live — with the best partner they both could ask for by their side.

When it comes to their family background, and their relationships with their families, there's also many contrasts between Akito and Touya. Touya's family is more traditional and strict with how they raised and educated Touya, expecting him to continue the family tradition of becoming renowned classical musicians. He had a very isolated life: dedicating most of his time to this objective — an objective that he believed he could never reach due to the difference in skill level between him and his father. Exhausted and unsatisfied by this constrained lifestyle, he ended up running away from both classical music and that life. An important detail to mention is, although he wasn't happy with that life, and felt guilt and regret over running away from it for a long time, Touya does not hate either classical music or his father, which is something the fandom often misinterprets. Despite everything he went through, Touya doesn't reject either classical music, and still appreciates it, even if he doesn't have a desire to actively play it anymore. He is grateful for all the knowledge and experience it granted him, and appreciates his family regardless. Opposite to Touya, though, Akito's family raised him with more freedom — or rather, less strictly, and less worried about him. Unlike Touya's father, who was a big presence in Touya's life and education, Akito's father, Shinei, was quite absent, instead occupied by his job as an artist; so you could say the Shinonome family lacked a father figure. Furthermore, even when he was there, Shinei wasn't very good as a parent: when Akito's sister, Ena, expressed the wish to become an artist like their father, instead of encouraging and motivating her as a good parent would, he instead discouraged her in the worst way possible, effectively ruining her life. Although we later find out that it was because the life of an artist is very rough and Shinei didn't want his daughter to also experience those hardships, he really didn't express it well at all.

With a father that was mostly absent, and who barely carried his role as a father well, the Shinonome family did not really have a male role model that taught and guided the children of the family. So, despite being the younger brother, Akito pretty much took up the role of a "male role model" for his sister, supporting and looking after her as she lived a life with the regret of being unable to carry out her dream. This, in turn, led him to have a warped view on masculinity and gender roles, which will be elaborated on in the next section. Unlike Touya's family, where Harumichi (Touya's father) had high expectations for his children, and wanted Touya to continue the family tradition of becoming classical musicians just as his brothers previously did, Akito's family had a father that did not want his children to follow in his steps, and neither parent had particular expectations for their children and instead allowed them to do what they wanted. This leads to a curious contrast, where Touya mainly lived a strict and difficult life and, upon fleeing from it, became more free and able to do what he wanted, while Akito (and Ena) lived a very free life, where they were allowed to do what they wanted, with no expectations or rules for them, and yet chose to focus on a difficult goal for which they weren't experienced or talented for — Touya fled from a cage, and Akito and Ena chose to place themselves in one, in a metaphorical way. However, Akito instead found a male role model in a different person: Ken-san, the man that ignited a fire in him upon witnessing RAD WEEKEND, and also the one that motivated Akito to keep singing when he was on the brink of giving up, pushing him forward and giving him the advice to do what he loves, regardless of what others think. Akito truly respects and appreciates Ken-san's guidance, being extremely excited and immediately agreeing to being trained by him in BURN MY SOUL — there's no bigger honor for Akito than to be taught by the man that contributed so much to his life... Ken-san is, in a way, a second father to him.

In contrast to the comparison between Shinei and Harumichi and the education of their children and their expectations for them, Ken-san plays a positive role on Akito as a person, motivating him to follow his dream and guiding Akito forward, and allowing him to be true to himself, while Harumichi wasn't such a positive influence in Touya's life, where, rather than motivating Touya, he mainly pressured him to be a specific way and didn't give him room to grow. To finish off, Ken-san's positive influence can be broadly associated to Vivid Street and all the people living there: with a community that is united by music and the freedom to sing as you like, Akito, Touya, and everyone else are able to be free — be themselves, and have as much fun as possible, without worrying about labels or expectations. Vivid Street is pretty much like a big family, especially to An, and they accept and support anybody who wishes to express themselves through music. Although derailing a bit from the current topic, Vivid Street is interesting in the way that it can work as a queer community allegory: a community that allows the Vivid BAD SQUAD kids to be and find themselves and supporting them to show their true selves. Besides An, who lived there to begin with, the other Vivid BAD SQUAD kids all grew and figured out stuff about themselves singing in Vivid Street, away from their homes — from their previous lives, so to say; away from the regular life that wanted them to stick to rules and norms, labels, and usual expectations. As mentioned before, in Vivid Street, they can sing freely, having as much fun as they want, and without worrying about anything — they can just be themselves, and do what they truly want to do: sing along with their partners, and reach their dreams together. And nothing else matters! They're just them, regardless of what others think; and that's what's important, in the end.

4. Gender

(Disclaimer: This section may repeat things from the previous section; this is because I wrote this one first.) Following up on the queer topic, a very interesting yet possibly controversial topic is how both Akito and Touya view and interact with gender, whether directly or indirectly. Masculinity, gender roles, and conforming to those... it's quite interesting to think about. While I've already talked quite a bit about this topic in The Gay Akito Thesis™, my aim here is to compare Akito and Touya's characters. Also because I like talking about this topic. On the topic of Akito and gender, I talk about it more in-depth in The Gay Akito Thesis™, so I recommend checking that essay for a wider look at the topic, but the most essential part is that Akito's writing is very gendered; it is a very ingrained part of Akito's character, whether intentionally or not. The way he hides and even ignores his feelings and emotions and how he hates crying, viewing those as weaknesses and ashamed of showing any sign of being weak or uncool in front of others, are typical elements of traditional masculinity. He also often deals with his problems with anger, and sometimes aggressiveness, and showing frustration, which are more "socially acceptable" for men traditionally. He even used to exhibit behavior that can be interpreted as toxic masculinity in the past, saying things that can be seen as homophobic — which can be easily related to insecurity of his own sexuality and what others could think of it, since it comes off that way rather than actual bigoted behavior. (Fortunately, that kind of behavior hasn't popped up at all in a long time, proving he's not a bigot and was just insecure) Akito's very reserved when it comes to how he feels, and insecure about himself, viewing himself as "weak" and "not good enough", therefore actively trying to be masculine to make up for his faults and flaws. Even though I don't think anybody else would really mind his real self, Akito is not satisfied with himself, and others making fun of him and his goals got to him, so he ended up ingraining traditionally masculine traits onto himself to appear cool, strong, and manly to others. This overly masculine behavior can quite easily be associated with his sexuality and gender, more specifically to homosexuality and transexuality and insecurity of those, although those fall more into personal interpretation territory; however, I deeply believe these queer readings fit into Akito's character and story perfectly, and even enhance it (as I explain in The Gay Akito Thesis™). Akito actively tries to be masculine, to conform to "normal" masculinity, and hiding and avoiding his feelings and emotions to not be seen as weak by others. He's not satisfied with himself and how he thinks others view him, therefore he'll show himself as someone that can't be made fun of, someone that others will take seriously, and show everyone just how strong and determined he really is. He'll become someone that he himself can be satisfied with.

This is not to say that Akito isn't cool, strong, or manly, though, those are very much part of himself; but, deep down, Akito's an insecure person who doubts himself and his abilities, and his arc is all about getting to terms with how far he has come and getting in touch with his emotions and showing them to everyone to become a better version of himself, and accepting himself — learning that he's good enough and that there's no need to try so hard. He is fine just like he is, both how he feels inside and how he shows himself to others — they are all part of him, and he should be more confident in his abilities, and himself. On the other hand, Touya's gender is... a pretty debated topic in the fandom, so to say. Contrary to Akito, Touya does not really care about gender norms or roles, he's not particularly focused on how he shows himself to others nor if the stuff he does, such as wearing make up or carrying plushies around, are not "masculine". However, Touya himself is a masculine character. While Akito actively tries to be masculine, Touya has been raised in more traditional values, which leads him to be an inherently masculine character. The youngest son of the Aoyagi family... that's who Aoyagi Touya is, and that's a pretty important part of his character. The more conscious parts of his character, such as the expectations of carrying on the Aoyagi family tradition of becoming a classical musician just like his older brothers did; and the more unconscious parts, such as growing apart from his emotions and not showing them in the past, and expressing his frustration through anger rather than crying... these are all related to masculinity and traditional gender norms.

Fun fact: Touya is the only character who has not canonically cried at any time (as of writing this essay). In fact, his Live2D model is straight up not able to cry at all — he just can't cry (yet).

Touya being inherently masculine can be associated to the fact that he was raised in a family that was predominantly composed of men: his father, and his two older brothers. His mother takes on the more traditional role of a housewife, and therefore likely didn't have much of a role in Touya's education; it was mostly Touya's father who was in charge of teaching him, and so Touya ended up inheriting a lot of his father's values. But, Touya ends up running away from classical music, and by extension, that lifestyle. Meeting Akito was the first step — into a new life that he is happy, into a new world where he can find himself, away from that life that didn't allow him to be the happy little boy he was meant to be. By Akito's side, Touya slowly learns to be himself: figuring out what he's like, recovering the joy and happiness in his life, and bringing back the little boy in him that was never allowed out and is so curious to explore and interact with the world around him. And so, we go back to his gender: no longer held back by an unsatisfying life, Touya is now a guy who is very excited to learn new things and satiating his curiosity, and he's not held back by things being "not masculine" or "girly"; he has no problem trying out wearing make up, for example. In general, Touya seems like a character who does not really care about his gender, which often leads to the fandom to interpret him as girly and feminine, and even a woman — however, that's far from the truth. He's not afraid of trying out "feminine" things or having "cute" hobbies; he doesn't let how those things are viewed hinder him, and he simply doesn't care about how others view him. He just wants to be himself and enjoy his life. As it currently stands, he does not want to be a girl, and still views himself as a guy. He just doesn't really care about things like "gender" the same way Akito is. In the end, it's fine to headcanon or interpret characters any way you want, but I believe Touya's story and character mainly work because he's the son of the Aoyagi family, and as a boy, the expectations for him were higher; the guilt of going against the tradition, of disappointing his family, and most importantly, his father, have the weight on him that they do because he's a man, as (unfortunately) the society he lives in has higher expectations from men than women.

Running away from the traditional values of his family and the family tradition, and from society's expectations — with Touya slowly finding himself surrounded by a community of people that value him and allow him to be himself, not worried about the gender norms or his gender, along with the deep bond he has with his same-sex partner — really adds a very easy queer reading to his story and character. In short, Touya is confident in how he is, and comfortable in his current gender — he's just curious and excited to try new things, and not insecure about or held back by typical gender norms (like Akito is). He's totally fine and happy doing those things even as a man and that is, possibly, the epitome of masculinity. Akito and Touya both interact with their gender and identity in quite different ways, leading to more contrasts between their characters: Akito is a guy who actively tries to be masculine, while Touya is a guy who is inherently masculine. This likely comes, in part, from how they were raised: with Akito being raised with more liberty to do what he wanted, in a family that didn't look after him that much, and in a predominantly female family (his mother and sister), since his father was mostly absent due to work; while Touya was raised a lot more stictly by his father, and having a predominantly male family (father and brothers), with his mother not having much of a say on Touya's education and simply acting as a mother figure for him. This leads Akito to try very hard to be more masculine and take on a more typical male role when his unconfident and unsatisfied personality increase, with a harsh world that keeps trampling over him despite his sincere feelings. He doesn't want to be seen as weak or pathetic, therefore he'll show everyone just how strong and cool he is. Meanwhile, Touya is indifferent towards his masculinity and gender, wanting to explore the new world around him regardless of what others think. He's not worried at all about how others see him, he just wants to learn more about everything that he finds interesting. However, that doesn't mean he rejects his masculinity or gender — he's just not worried about it and very confident in how he is. This contrast, though, also leads to interesting situations between both of them, such as Akito, despite being more stubborn and embarrassed about his gender, he often sacrifices a little bit of embarrassment for Touya's sake when there's something his partner wants to do (for example, the photo print in Close game/OFFLINE where Akito and Touya had to pose cutely, but Akito sacrificing his dignity in order to win); or Touya, who's more carefree and doesn't worry about how others view him and gender (for example, him carrying around plushies he wins at crane games and Akito worried about how Touya will be seen as others (due to Akito's own insecurity), but Touya not really understanding what Akito's talking about, since he doesn't really care about those things).

In summary, the contrasts between Touya and Akito's genders and how they view it and interact with it are: Touya, although inherently masculine and raised more traditionally and strictly, does not really worry about how others view him and simply wants to enjoy himself, be himself, and explore the world around him, regardless of what others think — which, in a way, makes him truly masculine, as he's confident in how he really is. While Akito, raised more freely and allowed to do what he wants, really worries about how others view him and what they think of him — so he actively tries to conform to typical masculinity and gender roles, masking his insecurities, in an effort to not be mocked by others. This does not deny his manly self, though, and all the ways that Akito shows himself are a part of him — and it's part of his character development to come to terms with how he truly feels and accepting himself, as has happened more recently, with Akito being more confident and showing how he feels to others. Once again, they're pretty much opposites, but as two guys with a deep bond, who interact with and acknowledge each other's feelings, they support each other and grow as people — and as partners. These differences in how they view themselves, and each other, enhance their bond and make it stronger, as they can make up for what the other lacks. Despite the stereotype that men don't show how they feel (although their conflict during the main story is exactly due to their lack of communication), Akito and Touya are really in touch with their feelings, both their own and their partner's, and a big part of their arcs and their story together is about figuring out their feelings and finding themselves. While they don't explicitly show how they feel often, they don't have to — their relationship is so strong and deep, they don't need to put into words how they feel (though, deep down, they still would like to hear it...). And that, in a way, defies typical masculinity; their relationship itself goes against gender norms, and, for good reason, often leads it to be interpreted beyond a regular friendship... they truly love and care about each other. They're the best partner they could have, and the only one they ever want to be with.

5. Love

(Yet again, I am talking about love; sorry, I love this topic. As a disclaimer: it's quite similar to what I write about this topic in previous essays, so this section can be skipped if you're tired of the topic. However, I feel like it's something I must add, as it is relevant to the main point of the essay.) How Akito and Touya love, and also view love, also contrasts each other. I've brought up in various essays before, but a specific set of lines from Aun no Beats, a song that Akito and Touya cover, perfectly represents them:

🥞♪ Why do I want to be loved? ☕️♪ Why do I want to love?

Although it's not just this set of lines that represents them and their relationship, but the song in general (which I talk about in my previous essay, Aun no Beats & BAD DOGS' Relationship), these two lines exactly represent the very core of themselves and their relationship with love and, by extension, each other. Akito is a character driven by love. He only wants to do things he's truly passionate about, something that will make his heart beat — and when he truly cares about something, he will give it his all, putting all his effort and love into it. He is, then, a very loving character. Even if he's not "loved back", he doesn't back down or give up on doing what he loves; he listens to his heart, at all costs, doing what he wants to do, regardless of what others think. And yet, despite that burning passion and love, he wants that love to be reciprocated — he wants to be loved in the same way that he loves. Meanwhile, Touya is a character that grew up without love, estranged from his emotions and feelings. He led a life where the passion and love he held for music, for his family, for living slowly vanished, due to a lack of appreciation and freedom from the people around him. Actually, in a way, Touya was loved — but rather than as a person, it was for his talents and his potential. Therefore, Touya grew up without knowing what real love was like. However, meeting Akito, seeing his passion and love for music and for him, and Touya being appreciated for what he is, by both his partner and the new people he meets, allows Touya to find a place where he can be comfortable showing his emotions and feelings. So, Touya learns what love truly is like — and because of that, he wants to love, too; to give back to those that helped him break free from his past: Tsukasa (who Touya considers his savior) and Saki; and those that allowed him to be himself and appreciate and love him for what he is: Kohane, An, the town, his friends, and, most importantly, his partner, Akito. Akito and Touya, then, contrast in their relationship with love: Akito loves (music, the town and other people, etc.) while Touya is loved (by music, the town and other people, etc.); yet Akito wants to be loved, while Touya wants to love — or in other words, they want to receive and give back, respectively, from/to others and, most important, their partner. Their relationship with each other is, in short, one of mutual affection and love — of giving and receiving. Akito and Touya provide to the other what they want and need; they give and receive what they lack, while in turn receiving it from and giving it to their partner. While this point is about love, it also applies to many other things; they genuinely complete each other, making up for each other's shortcomings. They are truly perfect fits for each other, leading to an extremely strong and unbreakable relationship together.

I also wanted to take this chance to talk a bit about their relationship and its common interpretations. Although I've mentioned it many times before, their relationship is not inherently romantic. The concept of partners in Project Sekai is not a romantic partner, but rather, a companion or very close friend — that is, "aibou" (相棒, partner). The concept of aibou is pretty interesting because it is something very special: someone you're extremely close to, and the one and only person you want to be with. It's a very special bond that actually goes beyond a regular friendship — we see this in the way that An considers Haruka her best friend, which raises some brows considering how Kohane is so special and important to her, but this leads to the conclusion that an aibou simply transcends friendship. (Although, I genuinely believe Akito and Touya are not just partners, but also each other's best friends — there simply isn't anybody else they're closer to than each other! They truly mean everything to each other.) Even though it's not inherently romantic, Akito and Touya (and also An and Kohane)'s bond is so close and deep, it just feels like it is sometimes. I believe, rather than being merely platonic or merely romantic, it's more like the lines of the relationship is quite blurred, and this leads to being aibou. Putting it in a simple and funny (yet accurate) way, the concept aibou is not romantic at all, but they're just so gay and crazy about their partners that it becomes gay anyways. The bond between Akito and Touya is simply insane. Akito fell in love instantly with Touya; he knew from the first moment he saw him that he was the one — the one he wanted to partner up with.

🥞 (… I can't take my eyes off him.)

And upon singing with Akito, Touya also felt a special connection with him. Even though he wasn't aware of it at first, Touya, too, wanted to be with Akito, and forever be with him — and he would become aware of it later, and completely change him and his view of his partner. Akito fell first, and Touya fell harder, so to say. To put into perspective how insane their bond is: in Len's chapter from At the Beginning of SEKAI With You (the VIRTUAL SINGER World Link event), we find out that the Street Sekai versions of Rin and Len appeared because of Akito and Touya's bond as partners and how close they were to one another... Considering the only concrete lore across all depictions of the Kagamines is that they are reflections of one another and instrinsically linked, it really goes to show how close Akito and Touya were right from the start (or, perhaps, how close they were fated to become): they are pretty much meant to be with one another. (Disclaimer, just in case: This is in no way talking about anything romantic involving the Kagamines, and rather comparing Akito and Touya's platonic and partner bond with them.) To finish off, returning to talking about love and contrasts: Akito doesn't particularly love himself, not being confident in his skills and being insecure about being seen as weak and uncool; and yet, he pushes through and is confident on what he wants to achieve, always looking ahead and wanting to push past his limits. He, in a way, looks for this love for himself he lacks from others, wanting to be admired and loved. Similarly, Touya doesn't hold himself in high regard, with his past mistakes dragging him down and thinking he's not worthy of being Akito's partner; but, upon realizing his feelings and how he's loved and appreciated by Akito, he becomes confident on how he feels and what he wants to do — aiming to reach his dreams along with his partner. He knows he wants to be by Akito's side, for years to come, experiencing new things alongside him and giving back everything that Akito has given him. They're quite similar in this regard, in the way they're both unconfident on themselves, and yet, are confident on their goals and what they want to do. Eventually, though, they both improve on how they feel about themselves: with Akito learning to stop a bit and appreciate how far he has come — having become a source of inspiration for others because of how hard he was worked to reach where he is; and Touya accepting those regrets that hold him down, realizing that those are something he can't change and a part of himself — with his unique experiences giving him a special strength. In short, love is a very integral part of Akito and Touya, both in their own characters, and in their relationship. Despite their contrasting experiences, their individual love for music and for each other really shape them as people; their common feelings making their relationship very strong and inseparable — a relationship where they complete one another. Their deep and undying love for each other makes them, after all, the best partner they both could ask for.

6. Other noteworthy contrasts

Finally, we have a section about extra contrasts that didn't really fit into any other section:

To begin with, we can talk about Walk on and on, Touya's third focus event. In that event, Touya gives making his own music a try, and after learning how to create his own tracks through sampling, he shows his creation to the rest of Vivid BAD SQUAD; with this track, he wanted to convey his feelings of gratefulness to Akito and his teammates, for remaining by his side all this time, and for supporting him and allowing him to be himself. While he doesn’t think it’s that good, everyone else really likes it, with Akito praising his partner for his good work, and saying really wants to sing this song. Touya says he’s especially thankful to Akito; for finding him after he had left classical music, and telling him it’s okay to sing by his side.

☕ I realized how lucky I am to still be singing with my partner… I was able to make this song because I wanted to be at his side, as his partner, for years to come.

Thanks to Akito, he didn’t quit music, and is extremely grateful that he is able to keep singing next to his partner; he wants to continue being Akito’s partner forever; and that is why he was able to make this track.

☕ Akito, you’re the best partner I could ever ask for.

This event is really special as it shows how special the bond between Touya and Akito is, and just how inseparable they are. They're truly the best partner possible for each other.

Fun fact related to Utsuro wo Aogu (Walk on and on's commissioned song): in the Master chart, the Full Combo total note number is 1112; coincidentally, Akito and Touya's character IDs are 11 and 12, respectively. Furthermore, Akito's birthday is November 12, aka 11/12 (or, depending where you live, 12/11), so the song's total note count matches Akito and Touya's IDs, and also Akito's birthday. This is definitely very intentional, considering the plot of the event and the costumes (which I'll talk about next), so this song is pretty much like a song dedicated to Akito and Touya's bond, and also a song dedicated to Akito especifically. This is so sweet... (This is vaguely unrelated but adding this for adair. And because I really like this fact)

Now getting to the point: with Walk on and on came the From on a perch Gacha card set. The cards from this set have a lot of symbolism, and I do talk about them in various of my previous essays, especially when it comes to the freedom and captivity themes. But leaving aside the freedom and captivity themes, as I have a series of essay for those themes, their designs also hold quite a bit of symbolism.

The main design themes of the set are birdcages and crows, with the characters' outfits predominantly being black and white. Touya (and Kohane) wears mainly white, while Akito (and An) wears mainly (or only, in An's case) black, showing a mirror between the each partner pair's outfits. In addition, Kohane and An's cards feature white crows, while Touya's card features black crows (and Akito himself), dividing them into two pairs. A special detail about this card set's outfits, though, is something that can't be seen at first sight: they feature wings on their backs. More specifically, each of the Vivid BAD SQUAD members has one wing on their backs, although Akito and An's wings can only be seen vaguely in Touya's card and her own card, respectively; but considering the context, it can be assumed they both have a wing that matches and mirrors their own partner's, making a pair of wings when they're together — becoming one.

(Touya's outfit, Melody Walker. The first picture is the default look, while the second picture is his Master Rank 1 (MR1) variant.) Furthermore, if you look at Touya's costume MR1 variant, it features Akito's image color (orange) where the default outfit's blue is, and the black and white elements of the shirt itself are mirrored. Moreover, the wing on the back is the exact same color as the default outfit's, but mirrored. The other Master Rank variants don't match the wing's color or even form a pair with it, so this really suggests Touya and Akito are meant to match, showing how they contrast each other. (This is also the case with Kohane's outfit and her MR1 variant, and Kohane and An's colors and the wings, but theirs are white rather than gray.) Also, these designs may be based on the concept of Jian (鹣), also known as birds that fly wing to wing or lovebirds (比翼鳥), are mythical birds that possess only one eye and one wing. They are often used as a metaphor to refer to a beloved couple in Chinese culture and tradition. These creatures are born imperfect, and they need to lean against each other and act as one in order to be able to fly. Their mutual dependence is eternal, lasting through death and rebirth. They are believed to be symbols of the complementary relationship between yin and yang. To finish off, crows are also a curious choice because crows are animals that mate for life — and in the story, Touya said to Akito he wanted to stand shoulder to shoulder with Akito for the rest of his life, which is where the crows are landing on, in Touya's card — Akito and Touya's shoulders, where their wings would be. They're truly meant to be together forever... (credits to adair for telling me about the jian birds stuff. this is kinda crazy really)

Now for more minor contrasts, we have Find A Way Out's card set, Break the Chain Gacha. In this card set, the characters wear black rider/biker costumes, and then blue or red layers; Akito (and Kohane) wear red, while Touya (and An and Luka) wear blue under their biker jackets. This makes the partners contrast with each other, with Akito and Kohane wearing the warmer color, and similar to their image colors being warm colors (orange and pink); and Touya and An wearing a cool color, which is also their image colors (dark blue and teal, respectively). Although the main reason they're wearing these colors is for the heart theme in the event and song (made even more clear with the Kashika 2DMV and how the characters are arranged like an anatomical heart) — with the characters being the veins and arteries of the heart, and all together keeping the heart that is Vivid BAD SQUAD beating, — I believe the color contrasts between the partners is completely intentional.

As a fun fact, Find A Way Out released on December 11, 2022; that is, 12/11 (or 11/12, depending where you live). As mentioned earlier, Akito and Touya's character IDs are 11 and 12, respectively, and they're both (along with Luka) the 4✰ cards in the card set. This one may be a coincidence, but it was pretty funny to notice this. Also, again, Akito's birthday is November 12, aka 11/12 (or 12/11), so it's like his birthday date but reversed. It's pretty curious that Akito's birthday is Akito and Touya's character IDs put together, isn't it? This one has to have been 100% on purpose, really.

For a final cards contrast: recently the third anniversary event happened, and Touya got a new limited 4✰ card with it. What's interesting about this card is that it contrasts Akito's previous anniversary 4✰ card in various ways, such as how the cards are black and white, which are opposite colors; furthermore, the second anniversary's card set is after black lilies, while Touya's card especifically is themed after white lillies; this feels like an intentional choice because the cards in the fourth anniversary card set all have different flowers, yet they chose to do lillies again for Touya's card. Something noteworthy to mention is how, in his card, Touya's bringing a lily to his mouth; while Akito, in his card, has a white petal in his mouth. What truly stands out about Touya's flower is that, in his card, there's many lilies, but three of them have colored stamens: teal, pink, and orange, which is safe to say represent Vivid BAD SQUAD's members. The teal and pink ones are on the sides of the cards, while the orange-colored stamens flower... is the one on his mouth. I feel like I don't have to say much more about this, really. It's definitely a very intentional choice. So wonderful.

Another fun contrast to talk about is Akito and Touya's moe aspects — that is, cute stuff in their otherwise not-cute characters. For example, despite Akito always trying to look so tough and cool, he likes pancakes and cheesecakes, sweet food that you wouldn't expect from such a guy. Furthermore, he's scared of dogs and not many people really know about this (pretty much just his family and Touya); and he also blushes pretty easily at Touya or when it involves him, such as getting teased for something Touya said, or when getting praised by him. Then we have Touya, who looks so cool,mysterious, and aloof, yet in reality he smiles easily at Akito (nowadays), and is actually a very curious and clumsy boy, who likes playing crane games and giving plushies to his close ones and trying out new things even though he may be terrible at them, like being confident to play a ball throw game then failing spectacularly or climbing a tree despite being afraid of heights and having to be helped down by his partner. Despite both looking or acting so tough and cool, they have stuff about them that are unexpected or even cute about them, which contrasts their own personalities and often leads to fun situations and scenes.

7. Conclusion

In short, Akito and Touya mirror each other in so many ways; they're extremely contrastful. They're genuinely pretty much made for each other, meant to be with one another: their different backgrounds and personalities make them fit each other perfectly, because they have what the other lacks, making up for the other's flaws; and, with that, they can push each other forward, and support each other fully, being fully in sync — and become one in the process. They allow each other to grow, drawing the best out of each other, and their contrasts is what makes them the perfect partner for the other. They're, in the end, the best partner both of them could ask for.

🥞 (Reaching the top through clashing with your partner, isn't your privilege alone!) ☕️ (We both looked to each other—we looked at what we didn't have, and ran upward.) ☕️ (So that we can keep being partners who deserve one another!)

8. Afterword

And that's all for the essay! This one took a little while, but I finally finished it... I tried to be more confident in my writing, and also summarize stories less (I summarized stuff a lot in my past essays), and I think it turned out overall solid (although I believe it still has some flaws). This essay was sort of a group effort thing, where my friends helped me throughout by contributing to it and checking over my progress, so I'm very grateful for everyone's help! Thank you so much!! There isn't much more to say now. Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoyed the essay! I put a lot of effort into it, and I'm quite proud of it. I will try to write something for Akito's birthday next month... exciting stuff. See ya!

[hunieday]

Re:vale - 2D☆STAR Vol.5 interview

Please note that I am not a professional translator and I'm only doing this to share the side materials to those who cannot access them, if you notice any mistakes please let me know nicely. Enjoy!

This magazine has been released in November 2016 aka before part 3!

Interviewer: Thank you so much for your hard work with the shooting and outfit change! Pleased to work with you for this interview.

Interviewer: It's been a little while, but congratulations on the success of your 5th anniversary live performance at the Zero Arena inaugural event!

Momo: Thank you very much!

Yuki: Thank you.

Interviewer: Your live concert was very exciting. Could you please share your honest thoughts?

Yuki: It was our honor as Re:vale to be chosen to perform in such a special place like Zero Arena.

Yuki: I'm grateful to all the staff who worked hard to make the show a success, to TRIGGER and IDOLiSH7 for their support and their performances, and to all the fans who came to see us.

Yuki: I’m sincerely glad that Momo and I worked so hard together.

Yuki: Right, Momo?

Momo: Yeah!

Momo: I'm really grateful too! I want to thank each and every one of them as loudly as I can!

Yuki: We’re also glad we were able to cover a Zero song as planned.

Momo: And the exclusive one-night shuffle units with TRIGGER and IDOLiSH7 were super exciting too!

Interviewer: Speaking of TRIGGER and IDOLiSH7, they did perform a medley of Re:vale songs, how did you decide on that?

Momo: Actually they didn’t inform us about that, it was a complete surprise!

Yuki: It sure was.

Yuki: We were as surprised as the audience, if not more.

Momo: I almost cried even though we were about to perform!

Yuki: You mean you were actually crying.

Momo: Come on, Yuki, don't reveal Momo-chan's secrets so casually!

Yuki: Fufu. My bad.

Interviewer: I see. Thank you for sharing that precious memory with us!

Interviewer: Allow me to change the topic, could you share your thoughts on this cover photoshoot?

Momo: The shoot was so much fun! There was Re:vale spray-painted on the set which was very exciting!

Yuki: It was. The letters weren't very visible in the end because we stood in front of them, but it was nice to have a set specifically dedicated to us.

Momo: And the outfits exuded our adult charms thanks to the casual jackets and hats, don’t you think!?

Momo: Right, Yuki?

Yuki: Fufu. For me at least. Momo didn't give off much of an adult vibe.

Momo: Huh!? That's not true! I was oozing with charm, right!?

Interviewer: Yes! You both looked wonderful.

Interviewer: The theme of this issue is "Secret Talk with Close Friends", so please tell us about a moment where you felt grateful for having a partner.

Yuki: I'm not good at socializing or livening up the mood, so Momo's ability to make everyone around him happy helps me out a lot.

Momo: I'm happy, but you say that all the time~ Tell me something new!

Yuki: Then show us your example, Momo.

Momo: For me, it's Yuki's cooking!

Momo: I'm really happy that he makes dishes with meat just for me since he doesn’t even eat it! I can really feel your love!

Yuki: Hmm, I see what you mean.

Yuki: Then, during our indie days when Momo and I were still living together in poverty, Momo never got mad at me even when I was getting fired from my part time jobs. I’d love to thank you for that.

Yuki: Thank you.

Momo: You went back in time out of nowhere!?

Yuki: It's about how grateful I am to you ever since we started working together.

Momo: Here it is! Yuki's handsome comment!

Momo: You're in such high spirits today, you’re making my heart flutter!

Yuki: Fufu. Sorry for always being so handsome. 

Interviewer: Since we’re already at it, is there anything you'd like to tell your partner?

Momo: Yuki, there's still a confession you haven’t told me yet, right!?

Yuki: Why does it have to be a confession?

Momo: Because we're on the cover, so it's a great opportunity!

Momo: Please give me a warm confession that will convey our relationship to those who don’t know about Re:vale!

Yuki: Wait. Don't ask me to do things outside my expertise out of nowhere.

Momo: No way... I've always trusted you, Yuki... Was I just a game to you...!?

Yuki: No, not in the slightest.

Momo: If you don't share that special confession, Momo-chan might not recover...

Yuki: Ahh, are we doing this?

Momo: Momo-chan might not recover...

Yuki: Alright...

Yuki: "Until the end of the world, you’re the one and only partner for me in the universe." …*chuckles*

Momo: Yuki, you’ll ruin everything if you laugh at the end!

Yuki: I tried my best, so cut me some slack.

Interviewer: Thank you for the passionate messages!

Momo: Actually, TRIGGER’s Gaku came up with this line for me.

Yuki: The Number One most desired Man is also handsome on the inside, isn’t he?

Momo: I respect him for being able to churn out a dramatic line like that without any shame, even though he’s our junior!

Yuki: That’s right. No matter how many times I say it, it doesn't sound as manly as when he does.

Momo: You'll sound good if you don't laugh halfway through, Yuki!

Interviewer: Now onto the next question. Where do you see Re:vale in 10 years?

Yuki: I'll be 36, Momo will be 35, and it'll be Re:vale's 15th anniversary in ten years.

Momo: I'll work hard so that Yuki doesn't replace me with a younger guy!

Yuki: Hey, don’t say something that might cause misunderstandings.

Momo: Because I'm working on anti-aging!

Yuki: You’ll still be my partner even ten years from now, right? I’m looking forward to working with you more, Momo.

Momo: Yeah! Looking forward to it too, Yuki!

Momo: If I can still be with you and Re:vale in ten years then that's enough to make me happy!

Yuki: Thank you, Momo. I’ll be happy too.

Momo: I’m gonna be a bit greedy, but I’ll also be super happy if all our fans continue supporting us in ten years like they do now!

Yuki: Fufu. Indeed.

Interviewer: Lastly, please share a message for your fans who continue to support you.

Momo: I hope everyone enjoys the cover issue featuring Re:vale.

Momo: We were able to be on the cover of the magazine and succeed in the inaugural performance thanks to everyone's support! Thank you!

Momo: You have plenty of choices with so many charming idols featured in the magazine, including TRIGGER and IDOLiSH7, but please continue to support Re:vale!

Yuki: We were able to achieve all of this, from the magazine cover to the inaugural performance, all thanks to our fans who believed in Momo and I and kept supporting us.

Yuki: We will continue to do our best to keep offering the best Re:vale, so please continue supporting us.

The End

[nerissalmao]

The Sexualization of Octolings

Hey y’all! My friend Ray suggested this lil thread essay post whatever it’s called, and I figured it would make perfect sense to do. I’ve never really made an in-depth Splatoon post before, but I’m not afraid to try. Today’s topic is.. the sexualization of Octolings.

We all know Octolings. We all think they’re cute and fun and cool, but they’re just so.. you know.. sexy. That’s not a bad thing, but it seems like it’s their whole entire species which is literally sexualized and shown in midriff-baring, skimpy outfits. I mean, come on guys. When Callie, the most wholesome Inkling around, briefly joins the Octo Party, she’s suddenly turned into the hottest dominatrix-looking rigid icon ever (a number of my friends started to crush on her after that).

It’s definitely not just Callie. We all know Marina, guys. I don’t even have to show you images to prove what she looks like, her and her love for crop tops. And Marina, as we all know, is an ex-member of the Octarian army, like all Octolings.. like Agent 8, whose Octo Expansion outfit was on the sexy side with a crop top and high-heeled little booties. And who later in Side Order wears a form-fitting bodysuit that shows off their midriff and causes several Splatoon players to meme the fact that their backside seems to be lookin’ large to death. Why is it that Marina and Eight, who used to be in the army, have sexualized attire even now? And when Callie linked up with them, she too was wearing a shirt that in certain poses accentuates her chest, and pants so loose-fitting you can see her actual underwear.

Have you seen the enemy Octoling’s outfits? Yes, they’ve got on armor, but it’s stylized as crop tops and short shorts. Not to mention that most of the enemy Octolings present as or resemble females, and their armor has the age-old shoddy trope of having extra panels for their breasts. They’ve got little booties too and look more like a dancing glam squad or sexualized warrior cosplay than actual warriors, but this is just a design choice and doesn’t affect the way they fight. A pretty weird design choice for a game like Splatoon if you ask me.

I find this very bizarre and random. Because it seems that the entire Octoling enemy brigade has some level of sexiness to them, especially the females. Every single one. But wait on a second. There’s two Octolings we haven’t covered yet. Shiver, an Octoling, has an outfit no more racier than Frye, her Inkling co-star’s. And Acht’s outfit may have a questionable thigh slit, but that’s nowhere near the typical belly-button-bearing short shorts of the Octarian army. That seems to make my theory seem dumb, huh?

Not in the slightest. See, Acht was never in the Octarian army’s fighting unit with the rest of the girlies (they were in the army and wore the same uniform, but as they were never on the front lines they seemed to be able to wear it differently, tilting it so their midriff wasn’t easily seen and wearing a bracelet instead of those tight gloves). As for Shiver, she was born into a clan of Octolings long separated from the other Octarians. Agent 8 on the other hand was once an Octarian warrior, as was Marina (she was later promoted though, but even so along with other enemy Octoling warriors was there during Octavio’s fight with Agent 3), and Callie was turned into one briefly, or something like one, despite her being an Inkling. It seems all the sexualized Octolings were once on the front lines strutting their stuff while fighting. So why is this?

Well, here’s my theory added onto another random semi-theory that I am here to share with you all. You see, in Japanese, the enemy Octolings, preferably the ones you fight, are called “Octo-Amazons”, and the Amazons are legendary female warriors. So perhaps DJ Octavio knew what he was doing with this, and it’s a sort of empowerment move that perhaps the masculine Octolings work on maintenance jobs or something given we never see them, whereas most feminine Octolings are fighters with their female-ness put on blatant display, waggling their little hips as they jump in to do battle with the Inklings. And this practice is so well-known among Octolings that those formerly in the army still tend to gravitate towards more revealing clothes even when they are free. Just a penny for your thoughts, Splatoon community.

[cl0ckworkpuppet]

ranking how i think valkyrie collabing with each unit would go

fine: bloodbath onstage. wataru needs to physically hold shu back multiple times during rehearsal. yuzuru and mika make out onstage. the song would go so fucking hard but at what cost

trickstar: valkyrie would be a little out of their element here unless they go the daydream × reality route. in which case, it would go SO FUCKING HARD except trickstar would be dancing so happily and valkyrie's on the side looking like theyre about to kill

ryuseitai: honestly? this would be hilarious. i just want a ryuseitai song to start like a normal ryuseitai song with the exact same energy then about 15 seconds in the lights go out and valkyrie reveal themselves as the villains and itd be like a superhero movie with contrasting energy between the two sides GOD it would go so hard

alkaloid: we already know how this went. si vis artem para bellum, bitch

eden: DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW BAD I WANT THIS? DO YOU HAVE ANY FUCKING IDEA HOW HARD THIS WOULD GO????? DO YOU GUYS HAVE ANY FUCKING CLUE????????? also mika and ibara make out onstage

2wink: i want this to happen so bad not because i think it would be good but because i desperately want to see shu and mika in bright cute colourful outfits and see them sing to something silly and energetic simply because it would be hilarious

crazy:B: this would be total chaos. the stage ends in shambles. audience gets into fistfights. mika and himeru make out onstage. it would make everyone feel like a badass when they listen to it. Let Shu Growl.

akatsuki: again, we all know how this went. keito and shu get into a fistfight onstage. kuro has popcorn to watch it. the resulting song again goes so hard. mika and souma make out onstage

ra*bits: the only thing shu and nazuna should be collaborating on is therapy

undead: THIS IS ALSO ONE THAT I DESPERATELY WANT. IT WOULD BE SO FUCKING INTENSE. SHU AND REI WOULD PUT THEIR ENTIRE ECCENTRUSSIES INTO THIS SONG. I'D FUCKING EXPLODE IF THIS EVER HAPPENS. THIS WOULD PROBABLY BE THE BEST VALKYRIE AND BEST UNDEAD SONG. HAPPYELE LET THEM COLLAB IM GONNA SHAKE YOU GUYS UNTIL YOU DO IT. shu and rei make out onstage

knights: this one might actually work considering how close their genres are. i get accordion vibes from this one. or melodica. or both. maybe music box too. let valkyrie have a silly song please

switch: our final wonderful fistfight breaking out onstage between shu and tsumugi, except tsumugi is just getting beat the shit out of and there is no fight. mika and natsume make out onstage. sora is just so happy to be there. the song goes hard

mam: i don't have any thoughts for this one except the mental image of valkyrie having victorian cowboy hats. mika in a little cowboy hat. holy shit

double face: THIS. THIS ONE IS IT. THIS ONE IS ONE I ALSO WANT SO BAD. DO YOU GUYS HAVE ANY FUCKIGN CLUE. UGUGHHHGGHGHH VALKYRIE WITH THE SAXOPHONE. DGGHFHRGRHRGRRRRRR

anyway im normal