#but why not have a little fun on the way amirite

[sokovianfortune]

currently fantasizing about a wanda stan's worst nightmare (animatic set to confrontation from jekyll and hyde)

[defenestrationn]

We all love Cater, amirite?

okay, quick a/n. this does get sad but its has a good ending!

oh and not proof read

Cater couldn't help the small pep in his step as he made his way to the ramshackle dorm his partner resided in. his hands fiddling with two tickets for a full spa day in his pockets. He had already gone through the effort to bribe Grim to hang with ace and deuce. With a deep breath, Cater left the tickets alone and grabbed his phone. Within seconds, he was on magicam. 

The ginger perked up when he saw he did, in fact, have a notification! A notification from Yuu. “Alrighty, when you get here, just walk in. I'm making spicy ramen!” The text made his cheeks heat up as he couldn't help the silly smile that came to his face. After all, this right here was why he loved them so dearly. They cared enough to learn his likes and dislikes, his music taste, his hobbies. They chose and would continue to choose him. Yuu, the ever patient soul they were, took the time to break down his high walls. To worm their way into his head and heart. Cater would never have it any other way.

“Cay–Cay is in the building!!” Cater called out as he closed the dorm's wooden door. “Perfect timing, Babes! I'm in the kitchen!” the boy smiled as he kicked off his shoes and quickly made his way into the kitchen. The smell of spice and rich pork broth filled his nose as he did so. His green eyes scanned for his partner before he saw them setting two mismatched bowls on the table. “Lunch is ready! You told me to make sure I ate before this date. So I made us both food!” they chriped with a beaming smile

Once the pair were done eating, they got ready to leave the campus. Cater bit his lip in an attempt to not ruin the surprise he planned. After all, this was the least he could do for Yuu. not only had they fought 7 overblots in the past year. But they were his partner for the past 6 months. They deserved to be spoiled and taken care of. During their walk. The couple chatted about future date ideas that would both be fun and pretty. 

Upon arrival, Yuu initially kept walking before realizing they had reached their destination. “A spa? .. wait..” Yuu looked over to see the cheeky boy holding up the tickets. “Why wait?” Cater teased as he pressed a kiss to their temple. Then with a dramatic swing of the door, he waves You through with a cheeky grin on his face.

“I told you, I was going to pamper you. It's not my fault you didn't listen.” he teased as he watched you walk in before him. He followed you in before he went to check in with the receptionist. Once he was done, the women behind he desk led you both to the private room. The worker in the room smiled and waved as she introduced herself and explained what would be happening. 

After a few hours of pampering and laughter, the session was finished and the couple went back on their journey back to the dorms. “Am I still good to sleep at ramshackle tonight?” Yuu shot him a blank stare. “That's a joke right? Obviously! What about Riddle? Do you have a plan?”

The devious smirk on his face screamed that he did, in fact, have a plan cooked up.

“Of course I do! I have an ace up my sleeve. Oh, and Ace himself I guess. But he's not part of my plan. Ill just use a Split Card to make it seem like I'm going to my room and in reality, I'll be sneaking back for my little Pookie!”

Once the sun had set and the night air gained a chill, a familiar head of orange hair began up the path past the graveyard. Yuu grinned as they ran to the door to open it. “Quick! Come in!” they whisper yelled, making the ginger bolt inside. Worried his housewarden has noticed his disappearance.

“Damnit! Was he behind me!?” his voice panicked as he peeked out of a window. “Nope. I just missed you. Oh, and this is the day Horton comes over to admire the gargoyles.” They snickered with a smirk.  Cater turned to give the prefect a blank state, that they only returned with mischievous giggling. “Love ya, Babes!”

Cater could have never expected to wake up to the head mage knocking bright and early the next morning. His eyes were wide as he hid a few feet away. “Prefect! Good morning! I came to tell you about an emergency meeting that will be held in one hour! I have already warned the housewardens as well. And be sure to tell your friends, dear Prefect. You too, diamond.” the magicalles student didnt have time to respond before the head mage took of like a bolt into the air

The couple shared a petrified look as cater came out of hiding. “How did he know I was here?? And an emergency meeting?? And he wants us to tell.. Our friends??” the headmaster never made sense to you but even this was a new low. “Cater.. I have a really bad feeling about this.” The boy took a deep breath before he spoke again. “I do too.”

When it was time for the meeting, the prefect stepped into the room, followed closely by the heartslaybul housewarden and his card soldiers. A soft smile came to their lips as they noticed no collar around their boyfriends neck. It was only once everyone had arrived and filled the mirror room that Crowley would explain why they were gathered. “Now, everyone! I have an important announcement! We have officially found a way for Yuu to go home!” 

The prefect looked confused as they looked at the head mage. “Crowley. I told you I wasn't interested in going home. What is this about?” the large crow man only smiled as he opened his arms in a grand gesture. “Why yes you did, my dear Prefect! However, because I am oh so generous! I'm sending you back to your own world! Isn't that amazing!” he cooed as he began to push the smaller human to the dark mirror. His voice recites a spell to activate the portal.

"Cater! CATER!" The boy in question began to sprint to the swirling and glowing mirror. His hand reaching out to grab his partner as they got shoved through the mirror. "CA--" The silence was deafening as Yuus scream for their boyfriend was cut off. His fingers slip past theirs, only to come crashing into the hard surface of the mirror. 

The sound of a gut wrenching scream broke the silence as he fell to the floor.  The room was in immediate uproar as Yuu's friends began to scream insults at the headmaster who had shoved the dear prefect. The prefect who never wanted to leave. The prefect who had carved a home in their hearts and dorms. The prefect that Cater had fallen in love with. Gone.

All of their plans. Their late night conversations. The silly spicy ramen dates. Everything except the memories. Ripped away from him. All his new found hope and motivation. The newfound Happiness. Shattered. Destroyed. The same way his heart was.

Trey came to kneel beside his friend as he rubbed his back. Anger filled the clover but the words refused to leave his lips.  His heart broke further as he watched Grim pick up the prefect's bow off of the ground. The dire beast could only stare at the scrap of fabric as the earth shattering realization hit him. Tears quickly soaked his fur as he looked to cater. His eyes begged for this to not be real. 

Cater could show him no such mercy. They were gone against their will. Their voice screaming his name for help echoed in his head. The once perfect diamond on his cheek had begun to run from his tears. Cater's hands moved slightly,  opening them for Grim. The direbeast ran into the boy's hands as he began to wail. The chaos around them deafen by their joint sobs

The two boys screamed out their anguish and sobs as they held one another. The two people the prefect loved the most. Their sobs were drowned out by the angry screams and the booms of magic being cast.

—-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

But that's not what actually happened. Was it?

Cater woke up with a sobbing scream. Sweat soaked his hair as he desperately tried to push it from his face. The sound of his own pulse was deafening in his panic. Bleary and unadjusted eyes frantically searched the room. However the sound of springs squeaking makes his head snap to the side. 

“Babes.. Are you okay??” the gravely, sleepy voice of his beloved Yuu made another wave of tears such down his face as his hands desperately pulled them close. “You're okay.. You're… here..” his voice as weak as his partner held him tightly. Cater began to babble out his nightmare as his grip only got tighter. “I thought you were gone!” he would repeat between sobs. 

Their hands gently traced hearts and shapes into his back as they spoke so gently. Slowly, with their guidance, Cater began to calm down once again. When his grip loosened, Yuu took the opportunity to wipe his tears. Their hands moved to cup his cheeks when they were finished. “I'm right here cater. I'm not going anywhere. I promise.” they cooed as they placed a kiss on his forehead. “It was just a nightmare, my brilliant diamond.”

[tiramisumin]

a nonsense christmas

⋆⁺₊❅. pairing: kim minjae x f!reader

⋆⁺₊❅. word count: 4.25k

⋆⁺₊❅. content: MATURE CONTENT AHEAD!!!, fluff, some humor, swearing, strangers to classmates/friends to lovers, more mutual pining, mentions of alcohol, junmin cameo, if u squint this fic and the sumin one are connected lolz, if u couldn’t tell i like writing about kissing, vaginal fingering, face riding haha, minjae has an oral fixation, protected sex (cowgirl position yeehaw), she fell first he fell harder type beat

synopsis: you could see yourself falling for kim minjae and sharing a future with him. and maybe this time next year, you’ll be standing right beside him at this same party.

୨ৎ she’s a little late.. but better late than never amirite!!! thank u @tmrwsuns for being my personal cheerleader the entire writing process i think i might’ve kms’d without u bff 🤍 pls reblog if u liked this!

The annual Kim Minjae Christmas Eve party is something you dread every year. 

Since your first attendance your freshman year of college, something eventful has always happened at that damn party. There was the time your best friend had to go to the ER because she drunkenly tripped, fell, and broke her nose. There was also the time they left, without you, and you had to Uber back to your apartment all alone at one in the morning. Your friends always dragged you to it, though, for tradition’s sake. Unlike the other parties they tried to force you to go to throughout the semester, you didn’t have the excuse of studying for this one. 

Besides, you think Kim Minjae himself might tear the world apart looking for you. 

You knew of him vaguely every year before this one, obviously. But you’d never actually met him at one of his infamous parties, or in person at all for that matter. However, this semester you wound up in the same production course. And, well, let’s just say you started to understand the hype…

Like when you sat next to each other during lecture a couple weeks into the semester, Minjae peeking over at the doodles you were doing over your notes. 

“Those are cute. Are they supposed to be butterflies?” 

You jumped in your seat, caught off guard by the low voice so close to your ear. Minjae grinned at you, sitting back upright. You nodded in response as to not disrupt your classmates who were actually paying attention to the professor. 

“I’m Minjae, by the way.”

Or when he remembered a comment you made in passing about missing a lecture for a concert you were going to with your friends. 

“Wait, why was my absence last week excused?” You muttered to yourself in confusion, eyes scanning the class roster to see the words ‘Excused Absence’ beside your name under last week’s attendance slot.

“I didn’t want you getting points taken off your grade just ‘cause you wanted to have fun,” Minjae answered with a smile that rivaled the stars. “I asked my mom if she could email a doctor’s note to the professor to get it excused for you.”

There were a lot of things that needed to be unpacked. One; he did all that for you? Two; his mom was a doctor? Three; were you dreaming right now??

“You didn’t have to do that…” You said bashfully, initialing under today’s slot. Minjae took the sheet from you when you were done so he could do the same.

“I wanted to.” He shrugged nonchalantly. 

The rest is kind of history. All it took was a couple smiles and you were cooked. In fact, cooked was an understatement. You would be competing against more than half of the girls at your school for his attention. While you had the advantage of being somewhat friends with him, that didn’t exactly mean he felt the same as you did.

“You worry too much.” 

Your best friend comes up behind you at your mirror, shaking your shoulders. You were currently getting ready for the party, pulling out all the stops. Every year, there’s been a different dress up theme. This year it’s famous holiday characters. Sexy Mrs. Claus anyone?

”There’s just a lot at stake here. My ego, my dignity, everything I’ve ever stood for.” You don’t pause as you say this, ensuring your makeup was absolutely perfect. All of which were true. Your pride would be smothered to bits if he rejects you. Any sense of self respect would fly straight out of the window. And you’d be a failure of a person for ignoring your own morals for him. 

“I know, but you’re stressing yourself out for no reason. I think it’s very obvious that he likes you, too, Y/N.” She tries to rationalize with you. You block her out, because no it is not. You can’t read him or what he’s feeling.

And maybe she was kind of right…

When you spot him, he’s dressed as a sexy Santa Claus. The rest of his friends are dressed as his reindeer, one of them even donning a bright red nose. The concept is actually really cute. Yourself as Mrs. Claus and your friend as Cindy Lou Who does not match at all. Not even just in terms of cohesivity. Usually the roles would be switched. You didn’t like to stand out much. 

“You look hot, go talk to him!” She whisper-yells in your ear, nudging you forward. 

Your bottom lip catches between your teeth, fingers laced together behind your back as you nervously make your way across the room. He had just finished taking a shot with his friends when you approached, that sparkle in his pretty boba eyes twinkling even brighter upon seeing you. You have to admit he looks even better up close, the unbuttoned top of the Santa suit revealing a white cutoff t-shirt, doing very little to conceal his lean torso. 

You don’t miss the way he checks you out, dragging his gaze up and down your body. It has the room feeling a little warmer than it was a couple minutes ago. Your fingers stay behind your back, nerves evident by the time you reach him. “Hi.”

Minjae smiles cutely at your shyness, almost cooing at how adorable you are in spite of being dressed so scantily. “Hello, Mrs. Claus.”

“I should’ve known you’d pick the main character for your own party,” you say in reference to his outfit. “I didn’t really think about that when I was picking what I wanted to dress as.”

“Some might call that fate,” he grins something cheeky as he tucks some hair behind your ear. “Honestly, I think I’d be a little bummed out if you hadn’t unintentionally matched with me.”

You’re sure you look like a mess, every flirting comment driving you insane. Maybe he talks like this with all the girls he comes across. You wouldn’t be surprised, given the fact that everyone and their mom wants him. You’re not sure if he does it just to entertain people (or himself) and if he does, well, then you’re stupid. That’s why whatever happens tonight between you is such a big deal. Getting heartbroken by someone known for breaking hearts is more embarrassing than anything else.

You open your mouth to say something, but someone beats you to it, a pretty girl dressed like a sexy elf. “Minjae! There you are! I was beginning to think you stood me up at your own party.”

Minjae looks between her and you, giving you a small frown that you might not have noticed if you weren’t so perceptive. The girl latches onto his arm like a leech, eyeing you with something thick and full of disgust. (Or jealousy, you aren’t too sure, actually.)

“I know what this looks like, Y/N, but I—”

“Have fun at your party, Jae. I’ll see you later.” You interrupt him with a tight-lipped smile, bowing before heading back over to your friend. You feel so dumb. This is what you’d been trying to avoid this entire time. Now you have to do the walk of shame back to your friends.

Not only do you feel like one, but you probably look like a loser, too. Your best friend shakes her head at you when you come into view. You’re confused by her actions, because wouldn’t you think she would feel awful for you? As your personal confidant, she should be hugging you and supplying you with endless alcohol so you could get over this.

She grabs you by the shoulders the second you’re within arms’ reach, staring directly into your eyes. “We are not doing this right now.” 

“Doing what?”

“You’re not gonna stand around here at this party and act all mopey just because some random girl who thinks she has a shot with Minjae wedges her way in. You look too good for that. And besides, if you look over there, you’ll see that he doesn’t even care for her. He was excited to see you. Not her. Now, what you are gonna do is pick one of his friends to make him jealous and finally get him away from her.” She says, holding you firmly. 

“I don’t even know any of his friends like that, though.” You glance back to where they’re all gathered around the beer pong table. 

“I wouldn’t recommend Sumin, ‘cause he and his best friend are so in love with each other it’s kinda sickening. I don’t think they realize it though, so I don’t wanna mess with that. I know the rest of them are single,” she squints her eyes as she observes the nine boys. “Maybe Junmin. He’s really nice and he’s super close with Minjae, so he’s perfect for the job.”

“Why do you know so much about their friend group?” You ask curiously. She sounded so well-versed in the lore behind Kim Minjae and his friends. It was a little concerning, honestly. How much free time did she have to learn all of this information?

“Instagram and I are like this,” she crosses her index and middle fingers. “But enough about that. Are you down with the plan?”

You sigh. Were you really about to go through all this trouble for a guy? You guess so, since you nod before you even register that you’re doing it.

She manages to flag down Junmin just as he passes by. His antlers are slightly lopsided, telling you that he’s probably already tipsy. His cheeks are flushed, another indication of his intoxication. This guy had to be a lightweight or something. He smiles warmly at you both.

“What’s up, guys?” He asks, energy equivalent to that of a puppy being offered a treat.

“We have a proposition for you, Mr. Park.” Your best friend answers, to which Junmin just smiles and nods. 

“How can I be of service?”

“Okay, first things first; how does Minjae feel about Y/N?” She pats your shoulder, gesturing to you as if you weren’t an active member in the conversation. He looks at the two of you as if you’d both grown a second head.

“Do you really have to ask that? It’s kinda obvious that he’s obsessed with her.” Junmin snorts. “I’ve never seen him actually interested in someone the way he is with you. He talks about you every opportunity that he gets. You know that meme that’s like, ‘how can I make this about ‘blank’’? That’s Minjae with you.”

You can’t help the way the corners of your lips curl up. Okay, so maybe you did overreact when that girl came between you earlier. You didn’t let Minjae say anything and explain the situation either. She quickly fills him in on the plan she curated. Junmin is a little apprehensive at first, afraid of making his friend mad when he knows how he feels about you. But after some convincing, he agrees.

“What am I even supposed to do?” His hands stay inside of the pockets of the reindeer onesie he was wearing, scared of touching you, too.

”You don’t have to do much. Just stand by her and laugh at the things she says. If he sees you getting cozy, he’ll have no choice but to drop everything he’s doing and put a stop to it. At least, if he likes her as much as you say he does, that’ll be the case.” She shrugs, turning around to join in on the dance circle your other friends had started without another word.

Junmin sighs, and it’s clear that any and all signs of his inebriation have disappeared. This entire ordeal sobered him up pretty fast. You make the mistake of looking over at Minjae again, accidentally making eye contact. He narrows his eyes at you and Junmin, though nothing has happened yet and he’s merely standing beside you. You instinctively nudge his arm subtly.

The boy shakes his head and rolls his eyes playfully. “Of course he’s already jealous. That’s just like him.”

“You seem really close. How long have you been friends?” You ask to continue the small talk. This way, it won’t be completely awkward. He’s doing you a favor by playing along with your charade, you didn’t have to make it worse by being weird about it.

“I’ve known him since we were freshmen in high school,” he shifts his weight onto one foot. “Which is a little bit longer than everyone else, but not too long either.”

“Junmin, that’s eight years. That is a long time.” You laugh at him, pointing out the fact that his attempt at being nonchalant slightly failed. He scratches the back of his neck with a chuckle. 

“I mean, yeah, I guess you’re right.”

You reach out and hold onto his arm carefully. “Thank you, by the way, for doing this for me. You didn’t have to. I appreciate it.”

“Don’t worry about it,” he waves his hand in front of his face. “It was no problem. In a way I’m doing this for Minjae, too. He has the tendency to put his own happiness aside if he doesn’t think he deserves it.”

Your mouth resembles an upside down crescent moon as he tells you this. “What do you mean?”

“He thinks that you’re too good for him. You know how everyone calls him a heartbreaker and how everyone says he can’t commit. That’s why he hasn’t made a move. He doesn’t want to disappoint you and he thinks you deserve better than someone with that kind of reputation.” Junmin mirrors your expression for a moment, and you can see how much he cares for his friend. It’s heartwarming actually.

Before you can respond, he’s covering the back of your hand with his own and glancing behind you to indicate that Minjae was coming. The raven haired male stands between you, scanning the scene for anything that would stand out to him. You’re sure there’s hearts in your eyes as you stare at him, even with the fake beard on his face. 

“I didn’t know you knew each other,” Minjae comments after a bit of silence, crossing his arms over his chest. 

“We don’t,” your hand falls to your side. “Not well, at least. But we’re friends now, right Junmin?” 

“Yeah, we are,” he turns to his friend with a smile. “I’ll catch you later, Y/N, it was nice meeting you.”

As soon as Junmin is out of ear shot, Minjae is turning back to you with a raised eyebrow. You peer at him innocently, but you know he’s caught you red handed. “You did that on purpose, didn’t you?”

“Did what?” You act coy, messing with the fluffy hem of your skirt. His tongue pokes the inside of his cheek and he glances away from you with a small laugh. 

“You’re really something special, you know that, Y/N?” His voice is only loud enough that the two of you can hear what he says, but nobody else. 

“You think so?” 

“I know so.”

Minjae doesn’t hesitate to lean into you, pressing his lips to yours softly. It’s perfect, the most perfect kiss in the whole world despite the fact that he’s wearing a fake beard. It tickles your face as he tilts his head. Your lips tingle everywhere that comes into contact with his, sparks running through your veins like electrical currents. Now that you’re certain that you’re on the same page, you want so much more than just this. You need him, all of him. 

But then you realize where you are. Your cheeks warm up impossibly hot, your nose cowering into the space where his shoulder meets his collarbone. Minjae can’t help but laugh at how cute you are. Truly, he hit the jackpot with you. You checked just about every box on his list, the missing puzzle piece he had been looking for all along. 

Had he written a Christmas list this year, like he’d done so many times as a kid, you’d be right at the top. 

“Should we go upstairs?” He whispers into your ear. You nod frantically, desperate to be alone with him for the first time, well, ever. He takes your hand into his and guides you through the house and up the stairs. The hallway is long and it feels like forever has passed by the time you make it into his room. 

There’s posters of different bands on the walls, a keyboard and a guitar in one corner, and a desk with a laptop and a smaller mixing board in the other. The room is neat, but not too neat, and somehow exactly what you’d imagine Kim Minjae’s room to look like. You take it in all at once, allowing him to pull you onto his lap on his bed, a knee on either side of his thighs. He’s since ditched the beard. 

“I didn’t think you’d ever go for a guy like me.” He confesses, hands on your hips. His thumbs rub circles into your exposed midriff. You cup his face with a pout on your lips. 

“Why do you say that?”

“I was told I’m not really your type,” he frowns, but then his mouth is attaching to your lower stomach. “That you usually don’t go for guys who break girls��� hearts.”

Your eyes flutter shut as his fingers creep beneath your skirt, tugging at the thin material of your lacy panties. “S-Sometimes, I make e-exceptions.”

You feel rather than see the curve of his smile, gasping when he drags your underwear down your legs. Your head is spinning and you’re overwhelmed by everything going on in the best way possible. Minjae’s hand disappears under your skirt again, his fingers teasing where you need him most. A whine escapes you when his thumb massages your clit, slowly and agonizingly. Your grip moves from his face to his shoulders, nails digging into the material of his Santa suit. 

His index and middle fingers don’t waste time slipping inside of you, forcing a louder moan out of you. The position the two of you are in makes it easier for him to curl them, brushing along that sensitive spot deep in your pussy. He keeps at it, alternating between calculated pumps into your cunt and showing attention to your already sensitive clit. 

“You’re so warm around my fingers, angel,” he mumbles into your skin, mouth still connected to your abdomen. “I bet you taste so sweet, too.”

You whine once more, riding his fingers like your life depended on it. It’s not enough, however. It’s not enough to satiate the hunger and the desire burning behind your chest. You needed to become one being with him. He pauses, looking up at you with eyes resembling pools of tar, unbridled affection swimming in them. 

“What is it?” You ask breathlessly, lips subconsciously pouting at him. 

“Can you…” He trails off, looking for the words. “Can you ride my face?”

You gawk at him, not at all expecting that to come out of his mouth. It’s not that you were this pure virgin who’s never done anything before, but Minjae was more experienced than you in multiple departments. And that happened to be one of them. You’ve never sat on anyone’s face before, and you’re sure it shows because he coos at you. 

“I’ve never… You know…” Your bashfulness has him growing harder beneath you and he can’t stop the groan he lets out after. 

“That’s okay, I’ll be your first,” he reassures you, rubbing up and down your sides comfortingly. “And hopefully your last.”

You smile widely, leaning down to kiss him. There’s more than lust translated into the way you slot your lips with his. You could see yourself falling in love with Kim Minjae and sharing a future with him. A future where you go out on dinner dates and he picks you up at your apartment, staring at you in awe when you get all dolled up for him. One where you take late night drives just because you want to, his arm outstretched across the center console to hold your hand. And maybe this time next year, you’ll be standing right beside him at this same party. Maybe you’ll wake up on Christmas morning to a kiss on the forehead and a tree filled with gifts for each other. 

Minjae lays with his head on the pillows after he shrugs off the jacket of his Santa suit while you shimmy out of your skirt, pulling you up so you’re straddling his face. His arms hook around your thighs just as you unzip your top and discard it somewhere behind you. 

“Just relax, angel,” he leaves a kiss on your inner thigh. “Hold onto the headboard if you need to.”

You do as he says, shutting your eyes when you feel his breath on your pussy. First, he kisses your clit experimentally. The moan that comes out of you encourages him to continue, his tongue kitten licking the expanse of it. It doesn’t take long for him to find a rhythm, the blunt edges of his nails pressing into your thighs. 

Your forehead falls to the headboard, sounds you’ve never made before bursting from your chest. You try to watch him between your legs, but the pleasure is so overwhelming you can’t keep your eyes open. His nose bumps your clit repeatedly, and somehow that’s what has you nearing your end. 

Minjae releases one of your thighs, his thumb applying pressure to the sensitive bundle of nerves as he fucks you open on his tongue. Loud is an understatement to describe your volume. You’re thankful that there’s an entire party going on downstairs, because despite being so shy earlier, there’s nothing shy about you right now. And he’s eating it up. 

“I’m gonna—!”

“Wait,” he stops, pushing down his pants and his underwear. “I want you to cum on my cock.”

“Minjae… I don’t think I can last any longer.” You whine, your cunt contracting around nothing. He kisses it one more time before sitting up and helping you back into his lap. He reaches into the drawer of his bedside table, grabbing a condom and quickly unwrapping it so he could slip it on. The time between riding his face and hovering over his dick is a blur, your whole self delirious from how good everything feels. 

“There, there, angel,” he murmurs into your collarbone as you sink onto his cock, both of you moaning at the contact. “Fuck, you feel like heaven.”

He knows you’re tired, so he does all the work for you. His grip stays on your hips, fucking up into you with desperation. He was already stiff and throbbing with need just from eating you out. You’re both searching for sweet release, your hands grabbing onto his shoulders, then his arms, then tangling in his hair. 

His mouth latches onto one of your breasts, and you’re starting to think he has an oral fixation, the orifice always connected to some part of your body or another. Your fingers stay in his hair, attempting to bounce on his dick and meet him halfway. You’re exhausted, though, and it barely does anything to help Minjae, who’s doing everything. 

You were so close when he decided to change positions, so it didn’t take a lot to get you back to that point. Your pussy tightens around him, and he knows that your orgasm is near. He swipes his ring and middle fingers on your clit, the added stimulation finally bringing you to the edge of bliss. It feels like you’re on cloud nine, the fatigue evaporating from your bones. 

Minjae is right there with you, gritting his teeth so he can take care of you first. “Where— shit— where do you want me, angel?”

“Inside,” your voice is hoarse and seeping with sleepiness. “Cum inside me, Jae.”

He doesn’t have to be asked twice, finishing into the condom with a low groan. You rock in his lap to ride out both of your highs, until eventually he slides out of you and you collapse into his chest. Minjae laughs, pulling back the covers on his bed so you could be warm and comfortable. 

“Y/N?” He whispers softly, in case you might’ve already fallen asleep. You hum in response, stirring so you could look up at him. He thinks he could fall in love with you. “I just want you to know that I mean it when I say things are different with you. I wanna see where this road takes us.”

“I believe you,” you smile, something so pretty like the star on top of his Christmas tree and so cozy like a mug of hot cocoa. “And I want that, too. My feelings for you are kinda scary, Kim Minjae.”

“I could say the same about mine for you.” His expression is the spitting image of one of your dreams. You were in this exact scenario, except instead of confessing to each other for the first time, you had been together for years and this was just a typical morning ritual for you. 

“Just promise me one thing?” You trace random things into his abdomen, blinking up at him. 

“Anything.” He nods, recognizing the seriousness in your gaze. 

“Don’t break my heart.” The way you ask him this, looking at him like he personally painted sunsets, he would burn bridges for you. 

“I wasn’t ever planning on it.”

© 𝒕𝒊𝒓𝒂𝒎𝒊𝒔𝒖𝒎𝒊𝒏.

[argentior]

Headshots of the apathy adoring guys.

Sketch ver

apathy adoring is a self-indulgent rewrite of redo of healer that is probably at least a little influenced by the way too many manhwa/manga with dubious relationships I've read. Which is to say for some reason I looked at Redo of Healer and thought "I can make a messed-up Josei story out of this" and ended up doing it. Still has dark themes though so like. Careful before you click.

Anyway. Notes on the guys as of Ch 11 and general apathy adoring notes/spoilerish recap if anyone cares to read that I suppose. Random summary stuff and fun facts.

The Boy | Keyaru

Protagonist of Redo of Healer. The premise of that thing is that this guy at 14 years old was abused physically and sexually for 2 years because his semen can raise the level cap of others. It be one of those magic with numbers and a limited slot of skills fantasy worlds. He goes back in time and carries out a long rape revenge seinen fantasy thing. I did not like that. I don't know why the fic got into my brain so much.

Still out for revenge in the fanfic. He ran away from Alban and managed to eat a couple more poisonous plants and fungi relative to canon before he was caught this time, so his immunity to drugs and poison kicked in sooner.

Was still caught, healed Kureha, allows himself to be abused for the revenge plan, that whole deal.

Interested in the maid because of previous timeline memories. Infatuated by the Maid/reader in this current timeline due to the chain of events that occurred that resulted in more interactions. (Came in later, she was assigned to clean him up, and it just went on and on)

A notable differences from the source material includes him playing along and "getting better" at healing publicly so he gets to stay out of the dungeon some days. I was getting tired of writing scenes in the dungeon.

Has introduced himself to the Maid/reader character. So she knows his name. She just refuses to acknowledge it.

The weirdest thing he's done in the story so far: used healing magic to kind of transform his hand into being like the Maid's wounded one and kissed it.

Main aim when writing him: Pitiful enough to make you help but there's something wrong with him that makes you regret it. Or maybe you're just being paranoid.

The Knight | Bako

Appears in the light novel/manga and is killed shortly after. Was used by Keyaru and his group because Bako was the "most sane of the knights" whatever that means. In the novel it was murder after his aid because he was involved in the attack on Keyaru's village and could have spread knowledge of Keyaru's party, in the manga it was because he attacked Keyaru's group in revenge for killing Renard. Renard had taken him in. He's vice captain of Princess Flare (first/main abuser of Keyaru)'s knights.

In the fic he's a coward who is aware of Renard's atrocities but is too attached to his father figure to really do anything about it.

Infatuated with the maid due to projecting. He is very aware of what the kingdom does to the boy in the dungeon but you know. Coward.

Savior Complex.

I hate his hair why are you so spiky.

Has no colored version in the manga. Was that insignificant. Chose blond hair for the "knight in shining armor pretty gold good and righteous" imagery and steel blue eyes and something dull and different from the red eyes of the other guys. Also. Similar to Renard.

Main aim when writing him: physically strong/imposing but kind of pathetic if you're not in a fight-or-flight headspace.

Yukito | Harris | The Rabbit

An oc I made to balance out the cast. What's a josei without 3 guys amirite haha

No but like sincerely. A character to balance out whatever freak stuff is happening with the other two. Also probably delves into the idea of free will and consent somewhat.

Is a rabbit demi-human (basically a rabbit boy). Escaped slave, gave his "true name" to the Maid/Reader after they met by chance, which by source material lore means that he is bound to her mind and heart, body and soul. She is Not Happy about this.

Has chopped his ears and tail off and is blending in as the "human" Harris surprisingly well. Being albino tends to answer the question of why he hides his face for most people.

Main aim when writing him: a decent, sweet person in unfortunate circumstances. Kind of the physical manifestation of the idea of running away, which even if possible the maid thinks of too much of a dream than actual choice.

Bonus

The Maid | The Reader

Low level low magic horrible stats. Instead of being a competent warrior like the other staff in the palace, she is just good at cleaning.

Very tired, very paranoid. Violent intrusive thoughts.

Wary of all the boys. No attraction to any of them lol.

But if pressed. And had to stick to any of them. It would be Yukito.

[thescribblings]

Long post ahead! (It got out of hand, this is very wordy)

So! I've mentioned his second prosthetic. I've spent a while trying to draw some sort of visual aid to my explanations since I'm not the best with words lol-

I also might have burned myself out a bit but anyway-

Here's what i came up with!

Individuals, backstory, and info under the cut!

Backstory - prosthetic - random notes

How about a little storytime then?

Leo was 23. He and raph were leading a supply run, and everything was fine until they bumped into sister krang, and she brought backup. How lucky amirite?

Lets fast forward a bit towards the end of the battle, troops were fighting hounds, zombies, tech - you name it, they fought it. And while that's happening, Raph had taken on sister krang herself in an attempt to stall for everyone to escape, and leo was trying to make a path through the chaos for the troops.

But no matter his size, raph wasn't strong enough to take on sister krang alone. Leo knew this, raph knew this, She knew this. Leo started making his way over to raph, sprinting and teleporting left and right, getting glimpses of that stable red and her sadistic smile.

When he was almost there, leo got knocked back a few hundred feet by a sudden explosion, knocking him out for a minute or so

Miraculously he was fine when he came to and started his mad dash towards raph once again, but before he could reach him, sister krang reeled her hand back and plunged it straight into his construct, dead center.

Leo screamed when his construct started falling apart, but raph only smiled at him before it fizzled out completely. Then sister krang finally noticed leo, her smile turning to a sneer. This unlocked something in leo, giant blue portals opening under all the troops, sending them anywhere else while he reached his older brothers mangled corpse.

While he was mourning, krang knocked him away. All he managed to grab was raph's mask as he flew across the battlefield and passed out on impact.

Sadistic as she was, sister krang decided to have fun with him. He woke to his odachi laying broken, just out of reach. While she was slowly breaking his right arm off before tossing it to a hound as a treat, then she started slowly, excruciatingly carving away at his leg, from his hip to his knee, all the way to his femur.

She then grabbed his femur and twisted it out of its socket as slowly as she could, laughing. He managed one more burst of ninpo, teleporting himself, his severed leg, and his odachi out of harms way.

Onto the prosthesis!

Here he is! My favorite middle-aged turtle

What you see here is his uncovered prosthetic since he took off the sleeve for this (more on that later), the majority of his thigh had been too damaged to save from sister krangs little torture session, and instead of just doing something like a rotationplasty and calling it a day

(Image taken from google)

Donnie decided to just remove the damaged tissue and replace it with nanotechnology instead.

Since his femur was left with krang, donnie made him a new one out of some sort of metal as well. It's hollow because why not. but let's talk nanotech, yeah?

I'm not the best at explaining these things (and i only have a surface level understanding of it), but I'll try.

If you've ever watched endgame and watched when Iron Man tapped his chest and his suit built itself on the spot, that's nanotech. Teeny tiny pieces of metal that make something bigger! Or, if you've watched Big Hero 6, it's kinda like the nanobots. The gist is that you just have to program the tech to do what you want. In this case, it's been programmed to act as muscle tissue.

The tech formed individual muscle strands that interlocked with his remaining muscle. That way, it had a pretty straightforward connection. Why make something complex when the body is a perfectly functional mechanism in and of itself?

So, as you might assume with an injury this severe, it took months upon months to heal, even with their impressive healing factor, this is a lot. And to avoid oberwhelming Leo's body and mind too much while he's healing, donnie decided to manually keep the severed leg alive in a machine that simulates the body, providing oxygen and nutrients, and of course, doing physical therapy on a set schedule.

Let me tell you, leo did not like this at all. He was forced to look at the bloody remnants of his leg constantly, always reminded of everything he lost in that last battle for months.

Donnie installed the ports separately and let them heal before reattaching the limb months later. This was especially rough for leo as he had literally lost an arm and a leg and was forced to look at the bloody proof 24/7. When his leg was finally back on his body, he hated it. It felt weird and unnatural at first, but soon enough, he refused to take it off at all.

Present day, he forgets it's a prosthetic half the time, he's just so used to it that it's become part of him, the only time the realisation hits that yes, his leg is gone now, is when he has to do maintenance on it. (lil more on that later, not much, tho)

The prosthetic was designed to function just like an ordinary leg would, and it was a success! It acts just like it did before the injury.

You might be wondering how his reattached leg is still alive, right? Since, y'know, there's nothing but tech connecting it to his body now. Remember how the femur is hollow? There are actually teeny tiny pipes running through the walls of his femur that provide blood to his leg!

At first i thought i could make blood pass through the metal muscle like it would with flesh, but i quickly realised a major flaw in that, were he to, say, get stabbed or something, the muscle would rebuild in moments sure, but there would be blood in the prosthesis and he might get some deadly blood disease from it so-

I decided it would be more practical for it to pass through the femur, since it would take some very severe damage to the prosthetic for it to cause any actual issues, even if he did get stabbed or slashed he would be stunned, but over-all fine when the tech retakes its shape

Now, you might be thinking 'well it can't possibly be removable! It must be permanent' jokes on you. It's completely detachable!

Kinda rushed these drawings, lol, but you get the gist

This whole 'secondary prosthetic' idea is something i actually thought of while drawing these! Since it would be pretty flawed if he was suddenly bedridden or reliant on someone strong enough to carry him if they suddenly needed to escape, lol (my boy weighs like 200+ kg, sure, it's doable, but it's better if he can handle himself in emergencies)

So! His leg can, in fact, be removed! It'll sustain itself for upwards of 12 hours with the built-in mechanism that circulates and provides oxygen and nutrients to the blood in his leg, i won't go into too much detail about that whole process since i already wrote down the gist of it in the picture itself.

What i didn't mention is that the secondary prosthetic is optional, so he can choose to just go legless if he feels like it. He never really went without it in the apocalypse, usually choosing to keep up his everyday work instead of taking a break for once in his miserable life. but now that he's safe and all, he usually just hangs out on the couch or something. Actually, there's some emotions here

When he does take it off, mainly for maintenance, he gets hit with the realisation that he had, in fact, lost most of his leg, followed by depressive episodes where he refuses to leave his room - the couch - or any space he percieves as safe until it's back on. Usually, he ends up moping on the couch bundled up in at least two blankets until his leg is returned to him or, more commonly, he usually does maintenance on it himself, and yes, he mopes the entire time. He will mope for hours on end without saying a single word at times

Donnie, ever the tech enthusiast, invented a whole new fucking metal for this prosthetic, it's specifically made so that normal x-rays pick it up as bone and flesh instead of metal, he also designed a special x-ray that sees the prosthetic as metal, of course. But they usually just used the regular ones just in case something got caught in the tech

Since leo is, well.. leo. He did sometimes store raph's mask in the hollow space in his femur, donnie highly discouraged it but jokes on him. His mask was also stored in there at some point. It wasn't a common occurrence, of course. Just mainly when he wanted to hide them from someone who would have otherwise seen them on the handle of his (very historically inaccurate btw, i did some research), custom nagamaki blade, it's more based on a nagamaki blade than it is an actual nagamaki blade, leo wanted it that way lol

Onto the sleeve!

As you might have noticed, he's missing some skin, right? Not to worry! Donnie designed a protective cover out of a silicon like material. It's like artificial skin!

Showing you his most commonly worn sleeve while standing like the gayest middle-aged turtle you ever did see

When i draw him in colour, his sleeve will most likely be black, as it's my favorite colour on him lol.

His two main ones are black and green, the green one is a bit off in colour, a bit too saturated compared to his scales, it matched his skintone better when he was younger since his scales have dulled with age. And as of right now, none of his sleeves have his markings on them. They're all pretty plain

And as you can see, the sleeve makes his leg look completely normal in shape! You wouldn't even know it's fake if he wore full lenght pants! (Don't tell him i called it a fake leg, he'd smack me lol) anywho, the green sleeve is more discreet if he wants to wear shorts out in public without catching everyones attention, y'know?

He 100% has like three of these just laying around. We all know he's gonna get stabbed, donnie knew, at least

(Sidenote, remember how he lost his arm at the same time? And how raph died? He begged donnie to model his new arm after raph for a very special reason. 'So he and raph could still fight side by side', sappy, i know)

I definitely missed something, and i might add it later if i remember what it is, but here it is! My own prosthetic design

Thank you vv much for reading!

Have nice day

[literaticat]

Dear Jen, Do you know why are all the editors are leaving Chronicle? Should authors be wary of subbing there? What is going on??? Thanks

(Jenn, or Jennifer. Thx!)

Yes, there's been a fair amount of churn at Chronicle. I can give you a little timeline, but please know (ESPECIALLY if you are any of the people I'm alluding to!) -- I TRULY LOVE CHRONICLE, I love every editor who was there and is there, I count them among my friends, I have MANY successful and beautiful books with Chronicle, more coming, and I hope to have many more in the future. I am not talking trash or giving any particular "inside scoop" here, this is just an outside perspective that I think/hope is at least relatively accurate and neutral.

So first of all: Many editors leave the publishers they start with at some point, because sometimes, that's how you get a promotion if you are in a rut where you are, and if you are in NYC, you can just apply to another job down the street. This tended to happen LESS often at Chronicle than at most NYC publishers, because pre-pandemic especially, if you live in San Francisco and you want to stay in San Francisco... that's the publisher in San Francisco! So many editors who started there never left the way a NYC editor might. But then the pando happened, and lots of work got remote, and it was less imperative to be tethered to one location. This is where our tale begins.

A couple (few?) years back they lost an editor who had a lot of books. (For a good reason, she got a different job, yay for her). However, they didn't replace her, and all those books got assigned to the remaining editors on top of their pretty full workloads. That's a lot -- but OK, so far so good.

Then there was some kind of upper-management rearrangement or something (way above the editor's pay grade, nothing to do with them) -- but the result is, they lost a couple of key managerial positions and didn't replace them for a while, so there was a power vacuum -- nobody was really in charge or able to hire more people to help.

Meanwhile (at least as far as I can tell), there were too many books and not enough editors, burnout / fatigue / life changes happened to cause a diabolical domino effect where one editor left so the others had EVEN MORE books and burnt out even faster, another left, burnout faster, another one left. So now, very unfortunately, many of the "original" Chronicle editors (by which I mean people that had been there about as long as I've been agenting or longer) are gone.

The good news is, there's a new boss, who seems to know what's what, there are still a couple folks left who have institutional knowledge, and there has been at least one great new hire, with I'm sure more on the horizon.

SO: The metaphorical Good Ship Chronicle hit a storm and sustained some damage, lost a captain and some crew, and was starting to capsize, but now has somebody new at the helm and is in the process of being righted. This is not a process that will or can happen quickly -- but it's happening. The passengers on board are hanging tight. I don't know if new passengers need to be WARY per se -- but I would suspect that the ship wouldn't really WANT to take on a bunch of new passengers until there's some more crew on board and they are sure it is smooth sailing. So, you know. Expect delays. (publishing, amirite?!)

(PS: I don't know too much about boats, but you get the picture!)

(PPS: Do you know the difference between "flotsam" and "jetsam"? THAT, I do know. Flotsam describes debris of a boat -- after a shipwreck, say -- cargo or bits of wood or whatever that are floating around. Jetsam describes things that are deliberately thrown off a boat by sailors when they have to lighten the load because they are in distress and sinking or something. You can remember because "floating = flotsam / jettison = jetsam". That's your fun fact for the day!)

[raayllum]

Very non-consequential, but still fun question: what animal do you associate with each of the main trio? (plus anyone else you feel like doing!)

I overthought this question because I couldn't just do animals in general and had to go with specific species so:

Callum is a bird, obviously. The boy loves his Ocean arcanum too but birds have the wings, and the intelligence and mating for life bonds (more often), and sharp little beaks that can gouge your eyes out. Man has teeth. Let's leave them there.

From there it was whittling down which bird to pick, so I learn towards either a standard Rock Pigeon or a Clark's Nutcracker bird.

Rock Pigeon

Rock pigeons for a few reasons.

Elegant but not overly pretty, which fits Callum pretty well. He's grown into a handsome boy but he'll always have a tiny bit of awkwardness, and the green sheen nicely ties into his eyes

Callum's name means dove, and pigeons and doves are very similar overall. However, Callum is less squeaky clean/outright peaceful than just a dove would indicate, so pigeons have a more grey/black down to earth colouring felt right. "Dirtying yourself with dark magic" and all that

They mate for life, which is a memo re: Rayla Callum has definitely gotten on board with lbr here

Pigeons are very smart, remembering faces, see the world in complex colours (artist anyone) and able to navigate complex routes to find locations / their way home (hence why they were used as messenger birds during wartime).

At his best, Callum is very communicative, has a great memory, and will eventually learn to navigate his own path away from others' imposed destinies on him

Clark's Nutcracker

They're in the Corvidae family like crows and ravens, which makes me happy, as those are two of my favourite birds

Again has the intelligence that our boy needs/deserves; these guys in particular are very good at prying seeds apart with their beaks, which gives me key of Aaravos / Callum unlocking secrets vibes

Sharp pointy beak to bite/stab people with. It's what he deserves

They also mate for life hell yeah

I also feel like they somehow match him better aesthetically but Idk why so grain of salt

Rayla I defaulted pretty easily to either a wolf or honestly more likely an arctic fox.

I wanted something smaller and more solitary than a wolf, since even within her village community Rayla has always been an outsider

Also very influenced by aesthetic (white, fluffy, slim) in addition to being loyal the way canines tend to be + a hunting animal bc like look at her swords

They also change colours as their coats update with the seasons, which felt very on par with how Rayla has transformed her wardrobe colours and herself / tries to take on different faces and identities depending on where she is on her arc

Constantly shifting like the moon amirite?

They are described as playful, cunning, cheeky, and curious

Bc they're heavily arctic animals / places with long winters, they depend more than other animals on hiding and stowing food away for later, which makes me think of how Rayla is pretty consistently carrying secrets / stashing the coins away in Stella's portal

Ezran to me is a Strawberry Poison-Dart Frog.

I chose this one cause I feel like an amphibian of some sort would best reflect Ezran, given his associations of being torn more explicitly between two worlds and two things. On the one hand, he's a child and should be treated/respected as such, and on the other hand, he's also a king and should be treated/respected as such. So amphibians having water and land, the way that Ezran does well both in times of conflict and times of peace (the latter being something Rayla really struggles with in particular) is well reflected. Also Bait, obviously

I went with orange > red even though Ezran wears the latter, cause orange feels warmer than the danger! zone red puts in, as well as mixing well with Ezran's brown hair. The touch of blue is for his eyes and his connection to Zym, and a tropical lil guy who likes sunshiney weather. Frogs are also pretty slippery and fast and Ezran (esp pre-series) is pretty wily and mischievous, getting into nooks and crannies he shouldn't be and then getting out of hot spots later on in show, so that matched up in my head

Other notes:

Viren always makes me think of serpents, and Claudia and Aaravos always make me think of spiders, so I'll toss those two in as well (although I feel they're more self explanatory symbolism wise / more offered within the text itself).

[fury-brand]

Ysayle for 1, 12, 20, and 26?

1. Why do you like or dislike this character?

I like her because I think feeling your convictions so strongly that you deify yourself is cool. Says the Sephiroth fan amirite?

Ysayle's a little tricky because they put a lot of stuff down for her and then never follow through with it. She's got the a following dragon heretic cultists (badass) that they just... drop entirely and do nothing with. They set her up as an extremist, and then walk it back in a way that I can narratively reconcile but which smells very much like "we need to make her more sympathetic." I think it's rather stupid of her to unleash a hoard of dragons on Ishgard and then be surprised pikachu when the poor people get hurt and the upper class don't but like. I can turn my head and squint about it and say she got caught up in the moment, happens to us all.

Anyway she's the first character in XIV who I feel really starts to echo WOL and put down some of the themes and ideas that become more fully fleshed out later on in better expacs like shadowbringers. She's the first to start echoing answers, to say "we who walk before may lead those who walk after," the first to start looking at the history of an apparently intractable tension, the first to take an extreme position to try to correct an injustice.

She's also written very clumsily because she is a girl and they don't know what to do with all that complexity. They kill her off because they don't know what to do with her at the end and that's obviously egregious, but the whole confrontation scene with Hraesvelgr is nonsense. Prior to then her convictions are never predicated on the idea of actually being St Shiva reborn - that is a gift of power given to her that's separate from her honest beliefs about the injustice of Ishgardian society and the Dragonsong war, two points on which she is absolutely correct. But they can't let her have that so they do this rug-pull about how she's not actually Lady Shiva and then shuffle her off camera to have a breakdown about it, as if it invalidates anything else about what she believes - as if it isn't way more metal to have conjured that power in the image of a saint all unto herself.

There's a lot to DISLIKE about Ysayle tbh, if you just take the writing at face value. But if any character deserves to be saved from their own writing, it is certainly her. The pieces are all here, they just need some reconfiguring, and the points of weakness all tend to stem from the same root - wanting Ysayle to be sympathetic enough to hang out with you, and needing to punish her for complicating the narrative and not being enough of a "good guy".

12. What's a headcanon you have for this character?

Uh, hm. I don't know. Not sure I have a headcanon in the strictest sense but it is fun to think about AU Scion Ysayle. She deserves to be there and keep Alphinaud "let's put the refugees to work in the mines" Leveilleur in check.

20. Which other character is the ideal best friend for this character, the amount of screentime they share doesn't matter?

Me :) My Wol :)

No, kidding. I liked her relationship with Estinien. I'd have liked to see that antagonistic relationship evolve over time into a lot of trust because the reasons for their behaviour ultimately share similar roots, and they are both inclined towards drastic measures and striking off alone.

26. What's something the character has done you can't get over? Be it something funny, bad, good, serious, whatever?

Couldn't defeat the reaper so had to be her, made up her mind her fear is gone open her eyes and now here she comes obliiiiiiiviiiiiiooooon

[cinamun]

Hey Boo heyyyy,

You know I'm in love with TFA (swoon). So, my question is who in your life or someone who's close to you their life did the inspiration of the Drake family evolve?

Heyyyyyyyyyyyy BOO!!!!!

I mean, I wont say who specifically... I mean I might... so basically...

So at first, I made Indya as the complete opposite of myself in terms of traits because we gotta do that sometimes!! What would it be like to play in a way that might make you cringe? It was fun and a form of escapism (why so many of us play, amirite). It was also a challenge after playing out another very wholesome family.

ANYWAY

I would absolutely say that, throughout this saga, there have been themes and personalities and situations that were inspired by either mine or the experiences of people I grew up with or around or loved.

I wrote all that and then decided I won't say who, specifically. I think the reason is its personal but also, what I love is that people who read this feel a familiar connection to either a persona I've written or a situation I've put a character in. I love when I can relate to something and others do too!

So.... are there real life inspos woven throughout this story? Even the OCs? Absolutely. Will I say who and what and when? No because I ain't no snitch.

ALSO

There is a little bit of me sprinkled in everything I write, even that wild ride of a Globetrotter Challenge. Its fun!

[cosmiclion]

Familiar AU angst hours: I know I said that hunger makes demons weak and vulnerable, but what if it makes them revert back to a mindless state? The longer they go without consuming a soul the closer they are to becoming the feral monsters that they so look down on.

And ever since he became Ciel’s guardian Sebastian hasn’t made a contract with anyone, what with all the time consuming work that comes with caring for a young child. Of course, since demons are immortal they can go years without really starving, but the thing is Sebas had already been a bit hungry when he first found the child. Sure the prospect of raising a little human and gaining his trust so that he’d later decide to make a contract with him sounded fun, but years go by and the Phantomhive boy still doesn’t mention it.

Conflicted, strange feelings start swirling around inside Sebas. While he does care for the kid and even feels protective of him (in his own demon way), he has never stopped viewing him as a potential meal. But if the kid never offers him his soul, does that mean he should just leave? If Ciel grows up and doesn’t need help and guidance anymore, why stay? Saving him and keeping him alive was just an experiment, right? Right?

To make matters worse, he starts to worry when he finds himself often fantasizing about the flavor that the past trauma has added to the young soul. He’s always been a patient calm demon, so what’s going on? Demons can also smell souls, and Ciel’s is mouth watering, oh how he’d love to open up his jaws like a giant wolf and swallow him whole.

Oh no.

He’s losing his mind. He hasn’t even gone looking for souls of dying people all this time, as that goes against his aesthetic. And of course the idiot bastard hasn’t talked to anyone about this. Which is why he doesn’t know Ciel has been studying demonology behind his back, knows everything about demons and contracts and actually plans to make a contract, but what he wants is for Sebas to be his familiar, which means he’ll be bound to him until he dies of old age (the little shit does view him as a parental figure but also wouldn’t mind having a demon by his side to help him gain power and smite his enemies, boys amirite?).

I haven’t fully decided how the story goes from here, but maybe it gets to a point where hunger overcomes Sebas for a while and Ciel has no choice but to confront him and forcefully bind him with the knowledge he has acquired, maybe also with Agni’s help (they have met Soma and Agni by now, more or less at the same point in time as in canon). After Sebas has calmed down, Ciel makes a promise: if he stays with him all his life and becomes his sword and shield, he can have his soul in the end, effectively making him a familiar demon; and in the meantime he can take the souls of any enemies they may kill whenever he gets hungry.

Tl; dr: Scrawny Victorian orphan catches demon like a pokémon.

[ooops-i-arted]

idk if this is an unwelcome rant or anything but I saw your anti ahs0ka posts from july and I’m just….so frustrated. I don’t want to sound like a dudebro but as someone whose favorite SW character is Luke I just can’t stand Star Wars anymore. I personally didn’t like him in tlj, but I could accept it—but then they just sort of kept chipping at him through every new piece of media. He’s strange in mando/tbobf, no one will join his temple despite apparently all of these older force sensitives surviving rotj, even obi-wan is retconned to know leia more. now this shit w this show, where #she is the self-insert in thrawn stuff. also you don’t even have to be FS anymore, etc etc. the “important Jedi lineage” is now obi-wan-anakin-ahs0ka, bc who even cares about luke amirite. it just sucks because I did genuinely used to like her, but with every new thing it could not be more clear that narratively she should have died bc now the whole gffa’s story is hers

I'd love to say I'm above petty rant but I am SO not, your rant is most welcome. If you don't have anything nice to say about Ahsoka, come sit by me. 😉 (Honestly I'm just happy to see other people acknowledging what a poorly written character she is when I've been saying this since the Rebels season 2 finale. I definitely felt like the only one back then.)

More seriously.... yeah, I do get the feeling of everything you loved about Star Wars being chipped away. I hope those who do enjoy it have fun and all, I don't begrudge anyone that, but I can't lie, I do kinda feel the same way. Like it's all being rewritten Filoni-style. And George Lucas he is not, no matter how much he thinks he is. Also I don't presume to know Timothy Zahn's feelings but I still think it's shitty and disrespectful as hell to carve a big hole out of the wonderful, iconic Thrawn trilogy and plop Ahsoka in. It's becoming REAL obvious that Filoni isn't the creative genius he's hailed as, he strip mines Legends for ideas and then gets the credit.

At this point I almost rather they leave Luke alone. Han is my BOY and they already did him so dirty (left Leia, returned to smuggling invalidating all his character development in the OT, gets a crappy death from his shitty incel son - I did like Solo but it was too little to late) so I 100% get your feelings there. It's like Disney doesn't even care how important these characters are so many people in their rush to replace them with their new, safely copyrighted and controlled characters. And ofc Filoni props his TCW OCs over all. Just look at how Mando S3 had Din and Grogu's story trashed so Girlboss Barbie Bo could feature instead. I'm not sure why they're so resistant to paying writers, they clearly need some new ones.

[spicykaraage]

I Want to Be Santa Claus - Story Translation

[Prologue]

Ryoga: (Alright, now that practice is over, I can go see Chibisuke.)

—

Ryoma: Practice ended pretty early today, didn’t it? It’s not even noon yet.

Kikumaru: Well, it’s Christmas Eve. And we’re gonna have a party tonight, it’ll be fun~

Ryoga: Happy birthday, Chibisuke!

Ryoma: Big Bro. So you remembered my birthday.

Ryoga: Of course I did. You really thought your dear older brother would forget?

Kikumaru: I’ve said it before, but I think it’s so cool that your birthday’s on Christmas Eve.

Ryoma: Well, thanks for remembering. See ya.

Ryoga: Not so fast. Since it’s Christmas, let’s go pay a visit to the Christmas market.

Ryoma: A Christmas market? In Japan?

Kikumaru: I saw the commercial on TV too. Apparently it’s being held at this big park and they have stalls with Christmas food and other goodies.

Ryoga: That’s the one. The perfect way to spend Christmas, amirite?

Ryoma: Hmm. Well, I don’t have any plans after this, so I guess I can come along.

Ryoga: Great, done and done.

Ryoma: But how we do we get there from here? It’s at some big park, so it’s probably pretty far, right?

Mizuki: We’ll be able to take the train there.

Kikumaru: Mizuki. So you’re interested in the Christmas market too?

Mizuki: I am. It looks like an interesting event, so I’m planning on going with Yuuta after this.

Yuuta: They’re selling limited edition Christmas sweets and fresh roasted chicken and all this other good stuff.

Kikumaru: But what’s so special about chicken during Christmas?

Yuuta: Oh, yeah… it is just regular old chicken, I’ve never really thought about it before.

Tohno: Hey, that’s actually a pretty good point.

Kikumaru: Wha…

Tohno: People trying to make everything all festive and Christmas-y while not knowing its original meaning.

Mizuki: If you’re talking about the chicken, I already know the answer to it.

Mizuki: Since I’ll be hosting tonight’s party, I’d be able to explain it to you all, if you’d like?

Tohno: Just being a know-it-all is a bore. Why don’t you come up with something entertaining yourself?

Mizuki: Wha… excuse me?

Ryoga: Hey, now. Why are you getting so heated over Christmas?

Tohno: I just hate how half-assed it is. If you wanna liven things up and have fun, then you gotta be thorough about it.

Yuuta: Yeah… you do got a point.

Kikumaru: Yeah. It would be cool to look more into the meaning of it and enjoy it in your own way.

Kikumaru: If we went to the Christmas market, we could see and learn all kinds of things. I think I’ll invite everyone else from Seigaku too.

Ryoma: Huh, so now more people are gonna come?

Ryoga: The more the merrier, right? Well, let’s all get going.

[Episode 1]

Ryoga: This Japanese Christmas market’s a lot bigger than I was expecting.

Ryoma: There’s so many stalls. Plus the decorations are incredible, it actually looks pretty nice.

Ryoga: Right. Plus I heard the whole market is lit up at night.

Oishi: There’s some kind of outdoor stage over there too, what do they have planned with it?

Yuuta: They’re gonna be holding a Christmas concert. You can read about it on this flyer.

Mizuki: Well, well… it appears they’ll have a gospel choir and brass band performing. Maybe I’ll check it out later on.

Kikumaru: Huh? Where did Fuji and Taka-san go, they were just with us.

Oishi: The two of them decided to visit this big advent calendar on display.

Kikumaru: Advent…?

Ryoga: It’s just a calendar to countdown to Christmas.

Ryoma: It’s basically a wooden house with little drawers in it that are marked with the days until Christmas…

Ryoma: And each day you open a drawer there’s candy or other stuff inside.

Kikumaru: I see. Sounds cool.

Ryoga: They have a massive one on display, and they also have smaller ones over at this stall.

Mizuki: Ah, so this is what you’re referring to. It says it’s a sample product, but you’re still allowed to open the drawers.

Yuuta: Hm. Wonder what’s in them.

Mizuki: Well let’s open one and see, shall we.

Mizuki: So this one… has a candy inside.

Yuuta: A calendar with a different candy each day would be cool.

Mizuki: Not everything inside has to be candy, you know?

Mizuki: But regardless, it would be fun to count down the days to Christmas with one.

Ryoma: I wanna see what’s in the drawers in that big one on display.

Yuuta: Right. Maybe they’ll have these giant candies.

Ryoga: You wanna go check it out, too?

Kikumaru: Oh, well there’s some other stalls I wanna check out, so I’ll catch up with you guys later.

Oishi: I’ll go with you.

Ryoga: Gotcha. Welp, see ya.

—

Oishi: What did you want to see?

Kikumaru: Tree ornaments. There’s a tree at the camp that hasn’t been decorated yet.

Kikumaru: I talked with the staff and they said I could decorate it if I bought the ornaments.

Oishi: Oh, yeah? There’s a stall right around here that’s selling all kinds of them.

Kikumaru: Oh, so there is. Here’s some ball ornaments, and some holly ornaments.

Kikumaru: But they’re all pretty basic, aren’t they? It’s gonna be hard trying to pick out ones I actually like~

???: See, I knew you guys weren’t putting any thought into it!

Oishi: Wha…

[Episode 2]

Tohno: See, I knew you guys weren’t putting any thought into it!

Oishi: Wha…

Omagari: Sheesh. You yelled so loud I thought something happened, but you were just calling out to those middle schoolers.

Tohno: Well I couldn’t just stay quiet and let those halfwits half-ass what they’re doing.

Tohno: If you’re gonna celebrate Christmas, then it’s only right that you celebrate it thoroughly and with its original meaning in mind.

Kikumaru: I’m trying, but… do the decorations have any meaning?

Tohno: Holly was used to ward off evil, and ornaments represent an abundant harvest.

Tohno: There’s always meaning and customs in the things you prepare for this. If you don’t follow those customs, then you can’t call them Christmas decorations.

Kikumaru: So, I guess that means we should stick with the status quo. But I was wanting unique decorations…

Oishi: Well, yeah… but maybe you could make the basic decorations look unique by using different colors?

Kikumaru: Different colors…

Tohno: Hey, now that’s a good idea!

Oishi: Oh… thank you very much.

Tohno: But you have to be smart when using different colors too. It’s become a whole lot harder now, hasn’t it~?

Tohno: But you’re the one who raised the bar on yourself, so that’s on youuuuuu!

Kikumaru: Nice going Oishi, you’ve raised the bar…

Oishi: No, I was just making a suggestion…

Tanegashima: Hey-o. I’ve got meat pies.

Tanegashima: Oh, there’s middle schoolers here too. Looks like everyone’s gettin’ merry on Christmas Eve~☆

Omagari: Was the stall crowded?

Tanegashima: It isn’t now. That tree over there’s starting to light up, so it looks like people are flocking in that direction.

Omagari: That one there? It does glow beautifully, even during the daytime.

Tohno: There’s a toy soldier hanging from the tree. They’ve got pretty good taste, don’t they?

Tanegashima: I’m pretty sure that’s just a basic decoration, but you really like it?

Tohno: I think it’d be great inspo for an Execution! I’m gonna take a closer look!

Omagari: Man, doesn’t matter what he sees, he’s always thinking of executions. That figures.

Tanegashima: Atsu’s very committed, especially when it comes to his Executions. He’s always got his antenna up.

Oishi: True… that must be why he said Christmas should be celebrated thoroughly.

Tanegashima: Yeah, maybe so. Or he’s just the type of guy who wants people to put in the effort with what they’re doing.

Kikumaru: Yeah, true…

Kikumaru: Well, let’s put in all the effort we can then. We’ll pick out decorations with creative colors.

Oishi: Yeah. Let’s do it.

[Episode 3]

Yuuta: These chocolate strawberries are so good!

Mizuki: And they said these chocolate-covered apple desserts are exclusive to this market.

Mizuki: There’s many families visiting here as well. This certainly does seem to be an event that can be enjoyed by people of all ages.

Yuuta: Yeah. It is Christmas after all, I even saw some kids buying gifts.

Mizuki: That’s right, there will be a gift exchange at tonight’s party, have you gotten anything yet?

Yuuta: I haven’t yet. I’ve been checking out all the stalls, but I don’t know what to buy.

Mizuki: Why don’t you try getting something you would be happy to receive?

Yuuta: Mmm… for me, that’d be sweets. Maybe we can check them out?

Mizuki: Of course. There’s a sweets stall right around the corner, let’s go check it out.

—

Ryoma: They’re doing another street performance over there. Juggling this time.

Ryoga: Wow. I still think the clown walking on stilts was pretty cool, though.

Ryoma: Hm…? They’re selling socks over here. They look a little big, though.

Ryoga: A little. But with your size Chibisuke, you could fit your whole body into one, huh?

Ryoma: Don’t treat me like a kid.

Ryoga: Kakaka. I’m just kidding.

Ryoga: But stockings do take me back.

Ryoma: What do you mean?

Ryoga: Back in the US, we’d put letters in our stockings asking Santa for gifts.

Ryoga: I thought we could spend Christmas together like we did back then. It’s been so long, though.

Ryoma: What’s wrong. You’re getting all deep all of a sudden.

Ryoga: Mm. Yeah, maybe?

Ryoga: If there’s anything you want, just let me know by the end of tonight.

Ryoga: I’ll let Santa know too.

Ryoma: Are you treating me like a kid again?

Ryoga: Hey, now. Santa only visits good kiddos, remember?

Ryoga: C’mon, let’s go check out the other stalls.

Ryoma: Hey, don’t pull me…

Ryoma: Jeez, you’re a handful, Big Bro.

[Episode 4]

Kintarou: Hey, hey! Why don’t they sell any takoyaki~?

Chitose: Kin-chan, this is a Christmas market, they’re not gonna have takoyaki everywhere like Osaka.

Ishida: But the octopus is red and the seaweed’s green. They could sell it as Christmas colors.

Chitose: Well, that is one way to look at it. Maybe they do sell it somewhere.

Chitose: Let’s browse the stalls while we look for some takoyaki, okay?

—

Kai: Hey, Rin. That scarf looks so thick and fluffy and warm.

Kai: …Huh, he’s gone?

Chinen: He left to go get something to drink.

Chinen: …Wait, Kei-kun’s not here either.

Kite: He went to the stalls over there to purchase some hot food.

Kai: Everyone’s all over the place.

Kite: They can do whatever they want to do.

Kai: Whoa, they have a plush toy shaped like a tree. How cool.

Chinen: They’ve got all kinds of Christmas costumes too. I’m gonna look for a black Santa suit in the sale cart.

Kai: Black Santa suit?

Chinen: Fufu… I wanna be a black Santa that’ll scare all the naughty little children.

Kintarou: Huhhh! Mister, you’re gonna be Santa?

Ishida: A black Santa costume, that’d be a cool way to change things up.

Chitose: There is a party tonight, maybe I should look for something too.

Kite: Oh, so you’re all here too.

Kintarou: If you’re gonna be Santa, then please give me a present.

Chinen: Yes, right… if you’re a good little boy, then I’ll give you a present. But if you’re a naughty little boy, then I might take you away somewhere.

Kintarou: I’m a good boy!

Ishida: That’s right, Kintarou-han’s been working real hard in tennis.

Chinen: Yes, yes, I see. Alright, then I’ll give you one of the cookies I just bought.

Kintarou: Yay! I got a present!

Kite: You certainly are kind for a black Santa.

Chinen: That’s because he wasn’t a naughty child. I’m saving the scares for the naughty children… fufu…

Kai: Well I’ve been a good boy too, so does that mean I get a present?

Kite: And just what makes you believe that? Once you’ve made up for all the times you were tardy, then you can talk.

Tanishi: Hey, guys! There’s these huge sausage kebabs over here!

Kai: Whoaa, those look so good. I’m gonna go buy one too.

Kintarou: Sounds great. I’ll go have one too!

Kite: So carefree… the lot of you.

Chitose: But it’s Christmas, so it’s good to have fun. These happy vibes are actually pretty nice.

[Episode 5]

Ryoga: Here, Chibisuke. I bought you some hot chocolate, this oughta warm you up a little.

Ryoma: Thank you. Looks good.

Ryoma: Whew… whew…

Ryoga: Too hot?

Ryoma: I just don’t wanna burn my tongue.

Ryoga: Oh snap, that is really hot. I’ll let mine cool off too.

—

Ryoga: By the way, have you seen anything you liked at the stalls?

Ryoma: Nope… Why?

Ryoga: I already told you. I’m gonna tell Santa what you want.

Ryoma: This joke again. You’ve been teasing me all day.

Ryoga: (He thinks it’s a joke? Man, this kid…)

Krauser: Ryoma, Merry Christmas!

Ryoma: Merry Christmas. So you came with them, Krauser.

Yagyuu: He saw the ad of this place on the TV and invited me.

Niou: I came along since there’s stuff I wanted to buy, but this place is actually pretty nice.

Krauser: So you came with your brother, Ryoma. I’m jealous that you’re able to spend Christmas with your family.

Ryoma: Really? We just happened to be around each other today.

Ryoga: Oh c’mon, quit lying. You know you chose to stick with me.

Niou: How about you try some of this magic gum? Eat this, and it’ll make you honest in no time.

Krauser: I tried it earlier and it made me very honest. I highly recommend it!

Yagyuu: Uh no, it’s snapping gum…

Krauser: Yagyuu-san, you ruined the prank.

Ryoma: Yeah, I’m gonna pass on that then.

Niou: Aw man, you’re no fun.

Ryoma: Heh… you’ve got a ways to go.

Ryoga: (…Chibisuke’s looking like he’s having fun.)

Yagyuu: By the way, there’s a Christmas concert being held soon, will you be going?

Ryoma: It’s an outdoor stage. It’ll probably be too cold to just sit still and listen to the performance.

Niou: I wouldn’t worry too much about that. Apparently there’s heaters placed at the foot of the seats.

Ryoma: Huh, it shouldn’t be too bad then… Okay, let’s go.

Ryoma: Hey, get a move on, Big Bro.

Ryoga: Hey, hey, don’t just leave me behind.

Ryoga: (I was hoping I could find out what gift he wants.)

Ryoga: …Being Santa isn’t easy.

[Episode 6]

Ryoma: They had so many singers, they were all extraordinary.

Ryoga: That choir was legit, wasn’t it. They performed the usual Christmas songs but their take on them was pretty refreshing.

Krauser: I was surprised to see a koto being played with the brass band! It was very Japanese!

Yuuta: Whoa… the wind’s strong…

Mizuki: Now that we’re away from the heaters, it’s going to feel extra cold.

Tohno: Huh? How pathetic, you’re shivering so much over this?

Ryoma: So you watched the concert too, senpai.

Tohno: Their performance wasn’t that bad to listen to.

Mizuki: It was a very nice concert. The music was superb, but the host’s presentation was excellent as well.

Krauser: He also shared a lot of knowledge about Christmas. It was very interesting.

Mizuki: I learned methods on livening things up with conversational skills and when to take breaks for tonight’s party, it was very informative as well.

Ryoma: Oh that’s right, you are hosting tonight’s party, huh.

Mizuki: Yes, I even prepared a script as the host that I’ve been working on as we speak, I intend to hold a fun party.

Tohno: That sounds great!! I’m looking forward to it, okay?

Mizuki: Oh…

Tohno: Well you said it yourself, you’re putting in the effort as a host, so everyone at the camp should at least get excited over that.

Tohno: But if you end up letting us down, it’s not gonna be pretty.

Mizuki: …Yes, of course, I understand.

Yuuta: Mizuki-san… I’m rooting for you!

Mizuki: Worry not, I will ensure that it will be a fun party.

Mizuki: …It will, it absolutely will.

Ryoga: Not getting a lil’ nervous, are you?

Mizuki: As if I would. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I must finish the preparations for tonight.

Yuuta: Oh, I’ll head back with you. I think I’ve seen enough of the market.

Tohno: I should head back and do one last checkup on some things.

Krauser: What will you two do now?

Ryoma: Why don’t we head back too, Big Bro? It’s getting really cold again.

Ryoga: Yeah… I’ve still got things I wanna do. You can go on ahead without me.

Ryoma: Oh…

Ryoga: Alrighty… time to start working as Santa.

[Episode 7]

Clerk: Thank you very much.

Ryoga: …Okay, got it.

Ryoga: (Chibisuke said he didn’t want anything… but when we were together, he kept eyeballing this.)

Mouri: Oh, hey.

Kabaji: Good evening.

Ryoga: Oh, it’s kinda weird seeing you all together.

Ochi: We just happened to run into each other at the moment.

Mouri: Did you come to buy Christmas presents?

Ryoga: I actually plan on becoming Santa. Don’t tell anyone else what I bought, please.

Atobe: I see, so it’s a secret gift.

Ryoga: Well, yeah. You guys buying gifts for other people too?

Ochi: Mouri gave me a gift this morning, so I came here to return the favor.

Mouri: It was just a lil’ something to express my gratitude, I didn’t mean to make you feel obligated.

Atobe: I’m getting gifts for all of my club members at the camp.

Atobe: Right, Kabaji, show me the list of what everyone wants.

Kabaji: Right.

Ryoga: That’s nice, so they told you directly what they wanted.

Ryoga: I couldn’t get a straight answer, so I had to pick one I thought they’d like.

Ochi: But if you chose it yourself then that means you put thought into it, right.

Mouri: Yeah, plus I think it’d be a nice surprise.

Ryoga: But if they end up not liking it, I’m gonna be really upset.

Kabaji: When it comes to gifts, I believe people are more happy that you got them something rather than what you got them…

Atobe: Heh, that’s a good point.

Ryoga: Yeah, I get that… I hope that’ll be the case for this.

Kabaji: Why not write a letter and include it with your gift?

Mouri: There you go. A letter would be a great way to express your feelings directly.

Ryoga: That would be a whole lot better than just giving them a present. I’ll give it a try.

Ryoga: I wonder if they sell any stationery around here…

Ryoga: …Oh, I found some good ones.

[Episode 8]

Ryoma: Man, where did Big Bro run off to…

???: Ho-ho-hooo!

Ryoma: …

Ryoma: …Was that your Santa impersonation?

Ryoga: Yep, pretty much.

Ryoga: I told you you could go on ahead without me, but it looks like you stayed just to look for me.

Ryoma: Yeah, ‘cause you just disappeared and I thought something was wrong.

Ryoga: Everything’s fine, I told you there was some things I wanted to do, didn’t I?

Ryoga: But I’m sorry if I made you feel lonely.

Ryoma: I didn’t feel lonely…

Ryoga: I bet. ‘Specially since you got all these nice friends around you, huh.

Ryoga: I was really glad to see you smiling and having a good time with them earlier today.

Ryoma: Why would you be happy to see me smiling?

Ryoga: Because you’re my little brother, of course I’d be happy to see you happy.

Ryoga: I also figured you’d be fine with me being gone since they’re here, too.

Ryoma: Well, I guess being with them is pretty nice.

Ryoma: But you’re alright to hang out with too, Big Bro…

Ryoma: It feels a little better to have you around than not… Just a little, though.

Ryoga: Aw, what a cute thing to say.

Ryoma: Yeah, never mind. I can’t with your jokes.

Ryoga: I’m being serious here. You little fart~

Ryoma: Can you stop… Quit messing up my hair…

Kikumaru: Oh, there he is. Shorty!

Fuji: You’ll be late to the Christmas party if you don’t head back soon, you know?

Ryoga: Ah, it’s about time now, huh.

Ryoma: …Achoo.

Fuji: Fufu, it’s gotten pretty cold too.

Kikumaru: They were giving away these hand warmers for free. I have some more, so you can use them.

Ryoma: Thanks.

Fuji: Take one too, senpai.

Ryoga: Oh, thank you.

Fuji: …Huh, it’s snowing.

Kikumaru: Huhhh. The forecast didn’t mention it was gonna snow.

Ryoga: But seeing all these lights with the snow sure is beautiful. It’s cold, but maybe it’s lucky that we got to see this.

Ryoma: …Yeah. I’m glad we didn’t leave yet.

[Episode 9]

Mizuki: Now, let the party commence. Everyone, please raise your glasses of juice.

All: Merry Christmas! …And happy birthday!!

Ryoma: Wha… how’d you all know it’s my birthday?

Kikumaru: Senpai had spread the word about it. We may as well celebrate them together, anyway.

Ryoga: The more people celebrate, the better, right?

Ryoma: Can’t you just mind your own business… well, it’s fine.

—

Mizuki: —All right, we will now begin the gift exchange.

Mizuki: Exchanging gifts during Christmas time is said to be a custom born out of feelings of mutual consideration for each other.

Mizuki: So let us celebrate this Christmas gracefully, and share our compassion with others.

Tohno: SURPRISE!!!

Oishi: Senpai…?

Mizuki: …Oh, what is it?

Tohno: I’ll take it from here. Not that you’re a bad host or anything, you seem to know what Christmas is all about and have done a good job livening things up.

Mizuki: Nhm. Why, I’m honored.

Tohno: But I wanna spice things up a bit. I’m gonna turn this little gift exchange into an official competition!

Mizuki: What… a competition…?

Tohno: Everyone will draw numbers and choose their gifts in numerical order. The catch is that the even numbers can swap their gift with another person.

Kikumaru: That’s different, but it sounds interesting.

Mizuki: But, weren’t you the one who had said that it’s important to hold these events while upholding its original meaning? Does this not contradict that statement?

Tohno: This kind of competition is popular in Europe and the US. Besides, it’s still a gift exchange.

Tohno: Look here, these are the numbers you’ll draw that’ll decide which order you’ll pick the presents.

Tohno: And these extra slips are a little gift from me…

Tohno: They’re “Execution Test Subject Tickets”. This is a perfect time to use them!

Oishi: E-Execution test subject…!?

Tohno: I’ve hidden some of these tickets in the presents. Whoever ends up with one will get executed.

Tohno: It’s one of the best surprises you’ll ever receive. Hyaahyaahyaa!!

Mizuki: E-Excuse me!?

Kikumaru: That’s not good… if we choose a gift that has one of those tickets in it, we’ll get executed!

Ryoga: Haha, how fun!

Oishi: Huh…?

Ryoga: It’s a big surprise, but you may as well have fun with it, right?

Ryoma: I won’t care if I end up with one of those execution tickets. I’ll just get my revenge on him.

Kikumaru: Oh, really? You guys really are brothers~

Mizuki: You certainly are brave. Very well, as the host, I will brace myself and join the fun.

Mizuki: Now… let the gift competition commence!

[Episode 10]

Mizuki: Everyone, this concludes tonight’s entertainment. Please continue to enjoy your meals and merriment to your heart’s content.

—

Tohno: Keh, the surprise I worked so hard on got ruined…

Mizuki: So it did, all of the upperclassmen ended up with your execution tickets…

Mizuki: But today is the Holy Night of mercy, so why not spend the rest of Christmas Eve peacefully?

Tohno: Hmph… well, I guess I can just give ‘em all a good beating later.

Oni: Hey, that apple pie you like so much is about to run out.

Tohno: Huhh? Please, I’m gonna get some regardless.

Mizuki: *sigh*… I am utterly exhausted…

Kikumaru: Nice job. Big surprise aside, you made it a lot of fun, Mizuki.

Mizuki: It’s only natural that my skills would produce a fun party.

Kikumaru: Nyahaha. Of course, Mizuki.

Kikumaru: Oh, yeah. I’m gonna check out the gift I got.

Kikumaru: I’m happy to see all this candy in here. But what do you even call this thing…?

Oishi: It’s a Christmas Boot.

Kikumaru: Oh, yeah, that’s a fitting name.

Oishi: Wow, there’s a snowman cookie in there too.

Kikumaru: You want some? Okay, I’ll share it with you, Oishi~

—

Ryoga: Looks like Christmas Eve’s almost over. Feels like the whole day just flew by.

Ryoma: It does. With going to the Christmas market and this party…

Ryoma: Oh yeah, I know I’m a day late for this. But happy birthday, Big Bro.

Ryoga: Oh wow, the birthday boy just congratulated me. Thank you.

Ryoma: Also, thanks for inviting me to the Christmas market today. It was actually kinda fun.

Ryoga: That’s good. I’m glad.

—

Ryoga: (Okay… is Chibisuke fast asleep?)

Ryoga: (Good… sleeping soundly. I’ll leave his present here, then.)

Ryoma: Mm…

Ryoga: (Crap, is he waking up?)

Ryoma: Big Bro… let’s go to this stall next…

Ryoga: (What the, he’s talking in his sleep. Must be dreaming about today.)

Ryoga: Merry Christmas… and happy birthday, too.

The following morning—

Ryoma: A present and Christmas card…? Is this…

Card: “Santa brought you a present, Chibisuke! I hope you like it.”

Card: “I’m glad I got to spend Christmas Eve with you again.”

Ryoma: Heh… typical, Big Bro.

[Epilogue]

The day after Christmas—

Mizuki: We’ll store these decorations away in this box. Please do not mix any of them up.

Kikumaru: Huhh, I won’t be able to tell the difference. You’re gonna have to label them with magic marker or something~

Mizuki: Just pay attention to the size of the decorations inside, please. We’re sorting them by size.

Tohno: Hey, I already took care of the decorations over there.

Kikumaru: Thank you very much, senpai.

Tohno: I’m not gonna rest until all this stuff’s been taken care of.

Kikumaru: Wow, so thorough.

Kikumaru: And that surprise on Christmas Eve really had us on the edge of our seats, even though it was kinda scary.

Mizuki: Yes, it was. Although it was unexpected, it did make things a lot of fun thanks to you.

Tohno: Kuukuku! Is that so?

Tohno: Maybe I should keep it up and try doing something interesting for New Year’s too, eh?

Tohno: Like maybe we could use actual bodies as the hagoita, and ring in the New Year with screams around the camp, and instead of a happy face in fukuwarai we could do one of anguish…

Mizuki: It’s still too early to be thinking of New Year’s… let’s prioritize cleaning up after Christmas for right now.

—

Ryoma: Hah…!

Ryoga: Yo, Chibisuke. You’ve been really going at it with that wall since this morning.

Ryoga: So you’re already out of the Christmas spirit?

Ryoma: Yep. I wanna become even stronger.

Ryoga: It’s always about aiming for the top with you.

Ryoga: That competitive streak hasn’t changed since you were a kid.

Ryoma: Well yeah, I’m not gonna lose to anybody… including you, Big Bro.

Ryoga: Oh-ho, is that right.

Ryoma: How about I show you just how strong I’ve become. Let’s have a serious match today.

Ryoga: …Whoa there. I hate to break it to you, but I’m gonna hold off on that for now.

Ryoga: But if it’s just some simple smackin’ the ball, we can do that all you want.

Ryoma: Tch… whatever.

Ryoma: Alright, let’s take it from here.

Ryoga: Heh… you got it.

[STORY END]

[stop-breaking-my-heart-dragonage]

listen I love DAO, DA2, and DAI very much and will replay all three on repeat but DAO really spoiled me with the whole "origins" part, something DA2 and DAI severely lack.

In DAO, you get to play through one of six origins that show how you got recruited to the Grey Wardens and affects how you play. I play as a Tabris and that plays a part in every decision she makes from how she views the Grey Wardens as a whole, who she romances, what she does with Loghain at the landsmeet, etc. It's incredible because that origin you get adds so much to the immersion each playthrough.

But then there's DA2 which I do adore with all my heart, but I can't lie, the first time I played it was very much "Oh, I have to be this human named Hawke? and the only differences in backstory really come from whether I'm a mage or not ...Ugh, okay, but only because you showed me Carver and now I'm attached, I'll keep playing, I'm sure nothing bad will happen to him."

And then DAI, which I also adore, comes along and just, "Okay pick who you wanna be. Great, here's a paragraph detailing your backstory, but you get to start in the same spot no matter who you make your Inquisitor to be, have fun."

It's not like it's a deal breaker that we can't play through an origin first before jumping into the main story. The player can take that element into their hands to make up for it. We see it all the time with players sharing the upbringings and family dynamics for their Hawke, or fully fleshing out their Inquisitor and why they were at the conclave in the first place.

I think DA2 does this a little better since at least it feels like Hawke had a life before Kirkwall. Your mother and survivng sibling are reminders of that life, as are every mention of your dead sibling and father. You're always reminded that you're a Fereldan refugee. You lost everything to the blight and now you have to rebuild yourself up in a new city.

But the Inquisitor? A lot of times it feels like the Inquisitor didn't even exist until they fell out of the sky. Sure, Cassandra can ask you where you're from or Josephine will ask you questions about your life prior, but that's about it. it's so unfortunate because DAI was the perfect set up for a origin stories the same way DAO was; what lead the Inquisitor to be at the conclave? What specifically put them there?

The first time I played DAI, I didn't put much thought into my Inquisitor. It took me playing through DAO and DA2 and starting a replay of DAI to actually figure out my Inquisitor and you know what I ended up doing?

I used a DAO origin.

Yeah, we know that all the wardens exist and the player picking their character decides where Duncan will be to recruit them and the others are just shit outta luck. I decided my Lavellan's actually Surana who escaped the circle with Jowan and she eventually joined the Dalish and adopted a new name after he died. Lemme tell you, roleplaying that as my Inquisitor's backstory makes everything in DAI just 10x better.

Every staff Ash crafts is named after Jowan. She wasn't born Dalish but her cover story says she was, and she slips up a lot. Her accent doesn't sound typically Dalish. Threnn tells her "Loghain was super cool actually" and Ash flashes back to when Jowan was taken by Loghain's men and when she tracked him down to Redcliffe only to find out Loghain planted him there to poison the arl, he was caught and tortured by the arl's wife, she begged a pair of wardens to let him go if they found him.

Ash is very against blood magic after it eventually killed Jowan and she isn't shy about expressing it. So you know Varric pulled my Hawke, a blood mage, aside like, "Listen, keep the blood magic stuff to yourself, the Inquisitor has a thing about it." and Edgar just gives a thumbs up and keeps going, "man, blood magic bad, amirite?"

Every conversation Ash has with Solas and Vivienne is just her biting her tongue and forcing out, "...yeah, okay." She knows the Chantry and Circles are bullshit but can't go off about it because hmmm, you know an awful lot about this for being Dalish?

Ash and Cullen see each other again after ten years and both just, "Hmm... you look famil...liar.......... oh no."

But that's my point: If I'm going to replay DAI, I boot up DAO first. I play through the mage origin as Ash, and as soon as Jowan runs off screen, I quit out of the game to boot up DAI with a little "Ten Years Later" mumble to myself, and it's so much better.

Honestly if I could find a way to incorporate an unused origin into my Hawke's backstory, I probably would! Because DAO knew what it was doing and it's super effective. I can't gush about DAO enough, I swear.

I can only cross my fingers that DA4 y'know, goes back to it's origins.

[caninerants]

Honestly, Ive been meaning to write something about Helluva Boss for a while and uh. I'm in that Writing Mood. So here, have some quick rambles about my thought on HB and worldbuilding and stuff

They'll be under the cut just in case I write too much lol

The way HB fails [hard] with being what it wants to be

First things first: I am not a professional writer at all. I'm just some dog who can write for fun.

Ok. That's out of the way, cool!

So... Helluva Boss, amirite? I think the frustration a lot of detractors/critics have over it (and frankly, I'm amongst these) is how much *potential* it has. It exudes it, and like, if you read 5 different HB rewrites, they will all grab different stuff and run with it, because there's many, many things to tinker with that, in the hands of a well planning writer, could make the series just. Brilliant!

But, let's be real, the series doesn't do that. I'm not original in saying this but, from a plot perspective, HB sucks. It falls flatter than a metal sheet (is that a phrase?) And, hypocritically, it's obvious how Viv prides herself as writing it as revolutionary in ways that the story doesn't even (and forgive me for this) have the balls to be in.

It prides itself in having raw portrayals of queer folks, yet it only lets itself write the same overused "gay ppl + sex = funni" jokes over and over again, it goes and compares it's protagonist Blitz to Bojack Horseman, yet in Helluva Boss the plot bends itself backwards to lift any sort of responsibility that Blitz has for his actions (which is, y'know, NOT what BH does, at all), prides itself of being a female centered plot even though it's obvious how underdeveloped the female characters are compared to the male ones. I could go on and on.

And, in the most sincere, nice way I can conjure, this isn't just the creator being a hypocrite, this is straight-up a symptom of what I think dooms not only this series, but most of the works Vivziepop has done: The story of the thing doesn't know what the fuck it wants to be

Helluva boss is, at least in theory, supposed to be a dark comedy about demon hitmen. Simple concept, lots of stuff to tinker and play with! A lot of ways and directions to take it to, too. But then it tries to be a musical every few episodes. And then a family drama. Sometimes it's an episodic story and sometimes it tries very hard to fit into a season-long arc, depending on the mood. It gives characters some sort of growth just to take it away, and then give them another sort of growth. It defangs and villanizes it's antagonists in a way you just can't help but feel bad for them, because it takes away what made them interesting. The protagonists fuck up and the plot let's you know they fucked up, but then... The consequences of their actions never come!

Blitzo indirectly causes permanent scarring, disability , and trauma on his childhood friend and it causes such a rift that they don't talk in fifteen years, but it's fine! Look! Fizz forgives him in the span of a day after a little chat and now they're friends again :] don't think about it at all :] this is perfectly A-OK and totally not a way of making our poor little Blitzy a victim and Fizz the cunt for not forgiving him until now :]]]

Don't get me started on Barbiewire

Helluva Boss biggest sin is not it's lack of character growth, or it's dumb sex jokes (they ARE bad btw. I'm dying on that hill), or any of that sort. There's many good shows that can pull stuff like that and still be, y'know, good. Or at least mid. It's greatest mistake it's in the way that not only doesn't know what to do with itself, but also wants to do everything without understanding why and how to do it. To bite more that you can chew, if you know.

I have way too many thoughts and criticisms around this funky web series, and I'll probably do more rambles around this specific problem. But I think this is it for me and for now

[crusherthedoctor]

For the top 5 prompt: Top 5 Eggman boss battles.

This is yet another list that probably shifts depending on the day, because there's a lot of good ones.

5.

An underrated one. Like Rush Adventure in general.

There's no deep reason, I just think it's a neat fight, and since it uses the Jeweled Scepter, that grants it a plethora of unique magical attacks that you don't often see in an Eggman battle.

4.

I couldn't decide between these two, so fuck it, they're both here. Can you blame me? They're both well-known, and for good reason.

The Egg Walker marks the end of Tails' story, and it follows up the race to the missile in the city. The battle itself is fine, if perhaps a bit easy, but Eggman's tranquil fury in the cutscene prior really sells the mood. Shame he's rarely been given opportunities to show that side of himself since then. But that's where Stellar comes in. Either way, between that and Tails standing his ground, it's a great moment for both characters.

As for the Viper, we all love the obvious meme, but like the Walker, the fight is also fun in itself, and is reasonably tricky for a final boss. But as weird as it might be to say, the ending is what really makes it for me. The way the music stops the instant you get the last hit in, the way Tikal warns you about his kamikaze dive, the way the lonely sound and visuals of the explosion lingers before culminating with what could be mistaken for a volcanic eruption... awesome.

3.

It's an awesome mech. It's an awesome battle. It's an awesome moment for both the hero and the villain. Capped off with descending towards the center of the earth. As someone who considers Unleashed flawed in ways that I can't ignore, even I can't deny that this is one of the game's standout moments, and it deserves all its praise. I'd argue it's a better final boss than the actual final boss, and I'm not just saying that because the latter is another giant monster... okay, maybe that's part of it.

Shout out to the Generations version, because I really enjoy that one in its own right.

2.

Oh boy, here comes the controversial one. How dare I put anything from Forces on a top five that isn't derogatory, amirite.

In all seriousness... look, say what you will about the fight itself. I think it's alright, but I get why it might be considered perhaps a little anti-climactic compared to what it could have been as far as gameplay goes. And you guys know that I always consider gameplay to come first and foremost, no matter how good or bad the story of the game in question is, so it's not like I'm ignoring that part. And of course, there's the Nega-Wisp Armor reskin aspect that everyone complains about, which caused Twitter to throw the baby out with the bathwater and consider Eggman's position as the final boss to be the true problem. Which is probably why the final boss of Frontiers ended up being a talking ballsack. Thanks, everyone.

Anyway, all that said, I think there are certain elements that elevate it in spite of its ultimately okay status. There's the music, but that goes without saying for a Sonic game that isn't Chronicles. But another factor is the combination of the seriously underrated sound design, with the complete and utter silence on Eggman's part, which like @skaruresonic, I interpret it as the doctor being too focused on killing your ass that he disregards his usual banter, and like the Egg Walker cutscene in SA1, I think the effect really works, regardless of the actual intent or reason behind it.

So yes, I'm putting it as #2 for these overlooked attributes. I'm not sorry.

1.

The finale of S3&K will always be particularly special to me. There have been many great Eggman throwdowns, but this one illustrates how the doctor's high octane levels of pure determination rival Sonic's own; perfect for an arch-nemesis. There have been godlike figures who go down after a single fight, meanwhile this mortal man belts out a bonanza, because the mere concept of giving up the Master Emerald does not compute.

The build-up also goes a long way: S3&K as a whole establishes and maintains this aspect of Eggman's character throughout. He's going to get the Death Egg back up and running, and nothing is going to stop him. His robots set the jungle on fire. He himself destroys the ruins in Marble Garden, in the hopes that Sonic will get killed in the process. He's not even phased when the Death Egg falls smack dab into a volcano; his dedication never wavers. Then come the endgame, where he finally fucks off with the Master Emerald after telling Knuckles it was Nothing Personnel Kid, which is followed up with a dramatic chase through the crumbling Sky Sanctuary, which then culminates in the final showdown aboard the eponymous vessel... and then continues even after it blows up.

It's iconic, it's fun, it's climactic, and Eggman's ridiculously exaggerated refusal to quit being on full display cements it as one of my favourite Eggman portrayals, despite hailing from a 2D game with no dialogue.

Honorable mentions (that currently come to mind):

Death Egg Robot, cause c'mon, it's a classic. This mostly refers to the original Sonic 2 version as well as the variations in Generations and Mania.

Egg Shrimp (Sonic Advance 2), for being petty enough to abduct Vanilla after his plan's been foiled, and for the badass moment afterwards in which Sonic narrowly saves Vanilla.

Egg Emperor, because I don't care if it's Metal Sonic, it's an Eggman mech, he's trying to mimic Eggman, shut the fuck up or I'll do a in-depth Shadow the Hedgehog level tier list. The design is rad as hell, and it has the iconic TAKE THI-TAKE THIS, TAKE THI-TAKE THIS.

Egg Salamander (Sonic Rush), for capping off the dynamic between Sonic and Blaze... and because Wrapped in Black.

Nega-Wisp Armor, because the fight is fun despite its simplicity, and it's noteworthy because Eggman finally got to be the true final boss of a 3D mainline installment for the first time. And it only took a decade...

The endgame for Mania, in which Eggman menacingly jumps around in a Pokeball and then holds his own in a three-way standoff instead of being tactlessly upstaged like he's nothing.'

The one in IDW that doesn't exist.

[thesinglesjukebox]

MIRANDA LAMBERT - "WRANGLERS"

Use promo code "JUKEBOX" at checkout to get 20% off your first pair of jeans...

[5.36]

Alfred Soto: She didn't write a note or a word for this, and I can tell. It's as if someone typed "Gunpowder and Lead" and "Mama's Broken Heart" into ChatGPT and out came "Wranglers." The brawny production hinders: every rote syllable gets punched up. [4]

Aaron Bergstrom: Miranda Lambert knows her way around a great revenge song, so I have no idea how something as bloodless as "Wranglers" made it past quality control. This sounds like if "Kerosene" was taken over by a hedge fund. [4]

Nortey Dowuona: Someone needs to get Audra Mae on the record on how long Wranglers take to burn. We would all learn a great deal. I mean, they're jeans, how long do they -- wait. [10]

Ian Mathers: See, other jeans burn like this [crowd goes "ooooh"] but Wranglers burn like this [crowd loses it, uproarious laughter]. Wranglers be burnin', amirite folks? [crowd goes absolutely feral with joy, rips up seats, destroys stadium] [6]

Katherine St. Asaph: As a bar, "Wranglers take forever to burn" sounds badass until you think about it -- so you're what, waiting around your no-good ex's house for a couple hours watching yourself fail to commit arson? As a piece of maybe-product placement, it's no "Wrangler butts drive the cowgirls nuts." [5]

Jacob Sujin Kuppermann: Just as schlocky as Chris Stapleton's take on prestige-country RAWK; just as charming, too -- you get the sense that Lambert knows she could do a little better than replicating the feel of "The Chain" for the Taylor Sheridan aesthetic universe, but she's clearly having fun. The drums unfortunately sound like Stadium Arcadium-era Red Hot Chili Peppers, but everything else is gorgeously-wrought in the way that Lambert's best singles sound: it's not subtle and brilliant in the way that "Bluebird" or "Vice" were, but even unsubtle Lambert can be an exceedingly good time. [7]

Wayne Weizhen Zhang: The way that the chorus descends -- as if engulfed by flames and consumed by vitriol -- is satisfying as hell. This one is for your inner pyro.  [7]

Taylor Alatorre: One of the purposes of a song like "Wranglers," even if Lambert will deny this, is to demonstrate how much more "real" its performer is than Nashville newcomers like, for instance, Dasha. Which is fine on its own: gatekeeping, in forms both benign and ugly, has been a country tradition since it was still being called "hillbilly music," and it makes more sense to police the authentic in a genre whose very name embeds it in the soil. Lambert certainly sounds more comfortable tossing around the signifiers of battle-scarred, woman-scorned country than Dasha does -- maybe too comfortable, if all the instant "Kerosene" comparisons are any indication. But there's one fatal flaw that "Wranglers" shares with "Austin," and it's the intended wham line in the chorus that serves only to douse the narrative in the cold waters of an anti-climax. Steer your mind away from the familiar abstractions of vengeance and female autonomy, and actually picture what Lambert is asking us to picture here: does a pile of faded blue jeans burning in the desert sun for half an hour longer than expected really sound all that satisfying to observe? Why write a revenge fantasy where it can be assumed that the revenger is impatiently checking her watch every few minutes, waiting for the fantasy to be over already? [3]

Jonathan Bradley: A far cry from “Kerosene” or “Gunpowder and Lead,” what’s supposed to be a barn-burner turns out to be a damp squib due to a muddy mix that chokes the guitar in indistinct haze, taking Lambert’s own voice with it. Soggy kindling results in little heat and so much smoke you can’t make out much of anything at all. [4]

Mark Sinker: A pop song is after all no more than a cluster of commodities circulating within a set of interlinked markets -- so how is a Brit listener my age (me) still faintly rattled when said song’s burden is a straight-up major brand-name placement? As if that’s somehow not allowed (or anyway not really cricket). Blame the BBC’s straight-up long-term ban on any hint of advertising in anything they broadcast, and the penumbras of ideology beneath and alongside that ban, the smoke and the steel shaping my inner mind: it’s like The Who never Sold Out; like the late Nick Kamen kept his laundrette Levis on to Marvin’s “Grapevine,” like Sigue Sigue Sputnik never sold literal ad-space slots on their first LP (for L’Oréal, EMI, i-D magazine and more); it’s like Run DMC went barefoot. I escaped it enough that Vybz Kartel, Gaza Slim and Popcaan excitedly hymning their nice new furry suede shoes is one of my all-time favourite Jukebox entries. Sadly this is no “Clarks”: after a misleading Morricone lens-flare it slumps quickly into charred serge and claggy ash. No ethical immolation under capitalism! [5]

Michael Hong: If this is Miranda's attempt at returning to being the shit-talker and the fire starter, well, it sounds like she's got her kindling stacked too neatly and forgotten her matchbook at home. [4]

[Read, comment and vote on The Singles Jukebox]