#can you tell I’m projecting?? hahahaha

[sweetlysniffly]

okay so just think about it

character A has always been insecure about their nose, they don’t love the way it looks and they don’t like any attention on it. They were teased and bullied for their nose growing up, especially the lower half of it.

So, whenever they catch a cold/their allergies act up and their nose is all red, they feel the need to hide it as best they can so people aren’t looking at their nose: makeup, masks, tissues, scarves.

Now it’s the first time they’ve caught a cold since living with their partner B for the first time, and they keep going through great lengths to cover their nose until it’s time for bed.

B and A are laying facing each other, and A has the blankets up to cover their nose, and while B thinks it’s a cute for a second they do get a little worried.

“Babe don’t you think you should pull the blanket down a little so you can breath? I don’t want you to suffocate or anything”

B goes to pull it down but A quickly pulls it back up. B isnt really pressing it far just giving an awkward “Okaaayyy”

A tries to make something up; but they’re tired and feeling vulnerable so they admit the truth: with the blanket still covering their nose ofc.

“It’s just that, I really don’t like my nose, and now that’s it’s all red I’m afraid of you staring at it and realizing how ugly it is.”

B takes their hand and rubs A’s back. “Baby. I love all of you. And that includes your nose, which is absolutely beautiful by the way, and I’m not just saying that. It’s perfect. And you’re sick, you shouldn’t be worrying about how you look. Just worry about feeling better okay?”

A smiles and brings the blanket down “okay.”

“See! There you are! Mwah!” b plants a peck on the tip of A’s nose, which of course sends them into a miniature sneezing fit that makes them duck back into the blanket anyway to avoid spraying B.

[theleetoalerandalertoalee]

Ler!Alhaitham x Lee!Kaveh

Day 4 - Weak Spot

I know that the plot “weak spot” isn’t tied very well in this but I hope you all enjoy it either way ^^

“This is killing me-! How can he say no to this design?!”

Alhaitham came into his house, disappearing to his room immediately upon entry. The Acting Grand Sage wanted nothing to do with whatever it was that the architect was whining about.

“Agh…I followed everything he asked for! I can’t lower the rate or price any more! These materials- this is insane!”

Alhaitham spoke from his seat in his room, “is this level of volume necessary to complete your project?”

“Well- no- but it’s just- it’s really annoying!”

“Oh. I couldn’t tell.”

The architect scoffs, looking away, “can’t you pretend that you care for once?!”

“Fine,” Alhaitham stands up, setting down his book and walking towards the architect.

“Kaveh, I can see more of your designs than I can of the very floor in the house.”

“Well, I’m sorry that you simply don’t understand what the lifestyle of an architect consists of!”

“Does it include being on the poverty line?”

“You-! Ugh- I don’t even know why I bother with you!”

Alhaitham suddenly puts his hand on the window in the back of Kaveh’s shirt.

The architect jolts forward in his seat, caught off-guard, “ghk-! What are you doing?”

Alhaitham speaks from his stance behind Kaveh, “there’s no words that I can say that’ll get through that thick skull you have. So, I’m going to not attempt that route anymore.”

Alhaitham slides his fingers down Kaveh’s shoulder blades, focusing on the muscles right beside the architect’s spine. The Acting Grand Sage knew full well what he was doing.

Kaveh gasps, “ah-! Wh- what are you doing? Stop that-! Gah!”

Completely ignoring his words, Alhaitham continues, “you were at the tavern the other day, as always. You kept griping about how tense your shoulders have been because of stress- and, since you don’t take care of it- you’re making it my problem, so here am I fixing it.”

Alhaitham digs his thumbs into the muscle he was grazing with his fingertips just seconds beforehand.

“Alhaitham wait- don’t!”

Alhaitham ignores Kaveh, continuing with his mischievous massage with the smallest of smirks on his face. Kaveh jolts in his seat, laughter pouring out of him, like the wine that’s seemingly pouring endlessly into his glass at night.

“Hm, I’m surprised that somehow you can become louder than before I came home. I could have sworn I could hear your complaining from the House of Daena. I’ll wager the researchers at Sanctuary of Surasthana can hear you now.”

“Alhaitham-! Wh- hahahahaha! This isn’t- hahaha- helping!! Hahahaha!”

“This is your weak spot, so you might as well embrace it.”

“Wh-? How do you know- hahahahaha!”

“You can barely handle even fabric on this spot, so it’s natural to infer this.”

“Well it’s uncomfortable to wear- gah! Stop it- hahahahaha!”

“Hm, I doubt you actually want me to stop. You are free to stand up and walk away, and yet you haven’t.”

Kaveh’s face flushed. Alhaitham is right- of course he is…when is he not, at this point?

“Just shut it- hahahahahaha!”

“Now you want it to be quiet? Hm, how amusing.”

Kaveh gives up acting like he wants it to end. He needed this attention. He’s been nothing but neglected, and the only attention he got was when he was being degraded or rejected…but just this once…neither of those are the case, and it’s nice to say the least.

Alhaitham stops the massage, walking away to his room silently to continue reading his book.

Kaveh whirls around in his seat, feeling more relaxed but a bit disappointed that it was over, “umm- Alhaitham…?”

The Acting Grand Sage turns, waiting to hear what the roommate had to say.

“Thank you…”

“Sure.”

Alhaitham continued to read his book quietly. For the first night in a while, Kaveh reached for a bottle or water rather than a glass of wine. Maybe this weakness is a secret benefit after all…

[rayan12sworld]

💠🧡SOS: Wei Ying Injured from Fighting a Horrifying Monster!

Anonymous

Summary:

“…See, it’s a very scary curse that prevents me from stating the truth about this creature!” Wei Ying raises his milk to the ceiling, “It’s deceitful and secretive. It’s done this so I can’t share with anyone else, about the horrors I have seen. Lan Zhan, these horrors are meant for my eyes, and my eyes alone. This is a battle I must fight on my own. Lan Zhan, my good Lan Zhan, you understand this, don’t you?”

Lan Zhan stares at him, completely dead-panned and fish-eyed.

“Lan Zhan, you understand, don’t you?” Wei Ying raises the milk carton higher.

Lan Zhan turns resolutely towards the stove, then casts a side-way glance at Wei Ying, “I do not.”

or

Wei Ying returns injured from a night-hunt. Lan Zhan is worried. And there was something about an elevator.

Chapter:1/1

Words:16,743

Status:completed

Wei Ying pouts, “Er-gege, you think everyone is like you? I’m innocent, don’t involve me with the likes of you. It was a pretty big deal for me, okay?” “You are… innocent?” Lan Zhan struggles to comprehend this. His entire life, it appeared that Wei Ying was miles ahead when it came to things like romance. Lan Zhan frankly expected him to have had four girlfriends at a time, it would even make sense; Wei Ying is just very loveable, “At the hunt, then… why did you tell me…?” “Told you what?” “Firstly,” Lan Zhan starts, “You didn’t resist my kiss though clearly, you didn’t know who it was. You then told me you have ‘fought countless battles.’” “You believed me?” Wei Ying looks stunned. Lan Zhan blinks, “Yeah?” “Wah, Lan Zhan, just look at you. When I kept telling you my cultivation doesn’t harm me as much as you think, you didn’t believe me! But when I bragged and made up bullshit about having tons of experience, you did? Tsk. Tsk. Just what sort of opinions do you hold about me, Lan-er? I’ve never even held a girl’s hand, if not for life-death situations.” He pauses, “Which I know are plenty, but hey…” Lan Zhan feels strangely called out. It isn’t like Wei Ying is wrong… he has often totally dreamt of Wei Ying residing on a black throne, all power and wicked smiles, while he sits by his feet, like an obedient concubine. Wei Ying doesn’t need to know that though.

~~dream ha?

He looks down at Wei Ying, whose eyes are gleaming, who keeps giggling, his face flushed. His heart softens, the guilt and the flames of his yearning settle down into a calmer, but steadier fire. He thinks to himself, he will protect that smile forever. “Or were you actually angry because you were jealous?” Wei Ying continues, “What if someone else was kissing me like that when I was defenceless, and you ran into that sight, what would you have done? Gone and cut up trees because you lost hahahaha?” What a stupid question. Lan Zhan’s lips form a straight line. Just… imagining the scenario makes his stomach swirl and muscles tense. His attacking instincts flare up. If not for Wei Ying’s resounding laughter in the room, Bichen would’ve flown into his hands. “What? Are you angry now?” Wei Ying teases, “So, you can kiss me however you wish, but others cannot?” “I was wrong,” Lan Zhan states, “But others still cannot.” “Why can’t they?” Wei Ying tilts his head to the side, acting all cute and small under his weight. Does he - does he even know? What a dangerous game he is playing? Lan Zhan’s throat bobs, “Do you wish to be kissed by others?” “Well, hmm… if given the choice-” “ Cannot. ” Wei Ying blinks slowly, “Huh?” “Cannot be kissed by others,” Lan Zhan says with much difficulty, “Cannot be touched. Cannot be held.” Cannot smile at others like this. Cannot call others in the way you call me. Cannot be seen by - okay, he needs to calm down. Wei Ying’s eyes shine, “Oh? Only you can have me?” Lan Zhan’s eyelashes tremble, “If - If you wish.” Wei Ying laughs, “So, what I wish for matters after all!” Then, his tone becomes a bit more serious, “And what does Lan Zhan wish for?” “You. Only you.” Lan Zhan presses. “It can only be me, is that right…” Wei Ying whispers, “Then, do you know? That it’s only you for me too? That it can’t be anybody else. That I want to be forever by your side. Whatever the conventional titles exist for lovers, I want them all. Your lover. Your cultivation partner. Your… husband. Your every day, and your every night. Lan Zhan… am I wishing for too much?” “Too little,” Lan Zhan says, laying down beside him, and cradling his face to neck, “You can ask for anything. I’ll give it to you.” Wei Ying lifts himself up, places a kiss at his jaw, “All your love. Your attention. Your consideration.” “You already have them,” Lan Zhan whispers, as Wei Ying plants butterfly-like kisses on his jaw, “Ask for more.” Wei Ying barks out a laugh, “Tonight, I’m going to claim Hanguang-jun’s body for myself - or, well, get claimed. Then, I’d want it some more. I’d want it everyday. Do you know how difficult it is to live with you, and not jump you? Do you appraise my endurance? Say, not even a Lan can hold back as much as I did.” “I know,” Lan Zhan says honestly, “It’s too difficult.”

~~

[happiness-of-the-pursuit]

RHYS I JUST TRIED TO SEND YOU AN ASK AND ACCIDENTALLY UNFOLLOWED YOU FORGIVE ME FRIEND KJSHKDH

BUT I AM HERE TO BEG YOU FOR ANY AND EVERYTHING REGARDING SEAHORSE FIC <3333 (since I assume you can't say much about birthday fic hehehe)

I HOPE YOU'RE WELL! xx

hahahaha YOU ARE FORGIVEN!!!

Seahorse dad fic: this is going to be an AU, where Henry (who is trans in this) and Alex meet at a club and go home together and an accidental pregnancy comes out of it.

Some fun details:

Pez helps Henry hunt Alex down to tell him

We get a lot of protective/freaked out Dad-to-be Alex

Lots of Thoughts on body and dysphoria, but while it'll be really hard for Henry, who has so hard to get to a place where he loves his body, it's really going to be joy-centered

I shared more for @gayrootvegetable's ask, but here's another snippet of them talking before sex. We love communication!

“I mean, I’m bi, so I’m not a complete novice to sex that doesn’t involve two dicks. Or, like, traditional ones at least,” he says, pausing to correct himself before he finally makes eye contact with Henry again. “Look, I feel like I’m completely fucking this up, but my point is that I haven’t been with a trans person before, so please let me know what, like, works for you. Because I don’t want to keep putting my foot in my mouth here. You’re super fucking hot, and it would really suck if I fucked this up.”

Also, for the birthday fic a fun tidbit I can tell you: I think I've officially decided to chapter it instead of long one-shotting it :) It's projected at about 16,000 words right now if I keep up the same pace!

[lepartidelamort]

Infertile Korea Founds New Government Ministry Dedicated to Begging Women to Reproduce

Andrew Anglin

South Korea’s entire model for convincing women to have kids is based on the theory that they are not having kids because of economic concerns.

This isn’t going to work.

Seriously.

This is not an economic issue. That is a total hoax.

Women will not have kids unless you remove their options. You cannot talk them into it. That will not work.

Reuters:

As South Korea scrambles to halt the sharp decline in its birth rate, policymakers are having a hard time convincing many in their 20s and 30s that parenthood is a better investment than stylish clothes or fancy restaurants. Asia’s fourth-largest economy plans to launch a new government ministry dedicated to demographic challenges after years of incentives failed to ease the baby crisis. But for Park Yeon, a 28-year-old fashion Instagrammer and aspiring singer, spending choices are guided mostly by her appetites for clothing and travel, leaving little budget for marriage and babies.

HAHAHAHA.

Yeah.

The bitch is going to become a hit singer when she’s 34. At 28, she’s right on the edge of becoming a top world sex symbol.

“I’m all about YOLO (you only live once),” said Park as she sells her Supreme T-shirts at a thrift fashion festival in Seoul’s high-fashion enclave of Seongsu-dong. “There isn’t enough left to save each month after I do things to reward myself. Getting married might happen at some point but being happy right now – that’s more important, right?” South Korea continues to break its own record for having the world’s lowest birth rate, which hit a fresh low last year.

That is literally the mindset of 100% of women who are not compelled by circumstance to get married and have kids.

Women have free reign. They can do whatever they want. Life is a big party for them.

If you want them to have kids, you have to box them in somehow.

I prefer the Taliban method.

That is the ideal.

But you can manipulate women in a lot of different ways. The goal is simply to limit their options, to force them onto a path of marriage and children at a young age. Simply changing the way the university entry and professional hiring systems work would go a long way towards doing that. Massive social shaming of women would do a lot too, although that would be complicated in any of these countries with massive pussy-worship entertainment media industries.

I am aware that 95% of the readership of this site are K-pop fans, but it is a pussy-worship industry that tells women to “reward themselves” and “focus on happiness.”You would have to cut all of that out if you wanted to shame women.Probably, you could make the music all about getting married and having kids, and have all the K-pop idols be pregnant half the time. That might work. But you can’t have shame while the culture revolves around a bunch of skanks doing the slut-strut.But again, even if you didn’t have shame, if you just locked women out of the universities and most professions, you could box them into young marriage.The big thing is: it’s not about money. Money is not even the 10th thing it is about. The poorest women in the world have the highest birthrates.

“The birthrate is an economic problem” is a total nonsense claim, and it creates a stupid situation where governments are attempting to solve a problem that does not even exist. This basically comes down to men projecting masculine thought patterns onto women in order to try to understand them better, and they are not understanding them at all.

Women will tell you it is about money. But women do not even understand their own behavior. And they lie to men. Women saying the birthrate is a money issue is complete irrelevant to anything. It’s totally meaningless, as proved by the fact that women with no money do nothing but reproduce.

We used to talk about the fact that economic prosperity lowers the birthrate, now we’re talking about how we need more economic prosperity to raise the birthrate. It’s dumb. It’s incredible that people are still saying this.

You have to limit their options.

The Taliban is the most extreme example of “limiting options,” because they block women in at every turn, but if you don’t want to do that, you have to come up with at least some way to limit their options.

Banning birth control, including abortion, is a start. Blocking them out of school and work is a start. Social shaming is a start. You can come at this from all kinds of different angles. There are various things that would help, starting points to move from. None of them are related to economics.

Again, let me repeat: economic prosperity is what causes the birthrate to drop.

These women are living in absolute luxury, by any historical standard. If you doubled their money, they would double the luxury. They would buy handbags that are twice the price, sushi that is twice the price, makeup that is twice the price, etc.

South Korea is probably doomed already. They are on a path to extinction.

I do hope, however, that others can learn from these failures.

[centuryberry]

@peachshadows / @terrible-leviathan MK never asks for much, so when he shows interest in the the Brotherhood’s spars, Wukong is more than happy to give him a chance to witness it and more.

It all started with an off-handed comment.

Wukong had been cuddling with Macaque under the shade of one of the trees, watching their cubs tussling around in one of the Celestial Palace’s many courtyards. More often than not, MK allowed A-Dan to gain the upper hand, falling and laughing as his sister stood on him victoriously before starting the game all over again. Many servants who passed by the sight had their hearts filled with warmth at such a domestic sight.

But then, the playing lulled when MK didn’t get up. He remained on the grass, panting as he tried to regain his breath. A-Dan chirped and poked at him worriedly, wondering why he wasn’t getting up. Wukong felt his Moonlight tense beside him, alert and concerned. He ran a comforting hand down his mate’s fluffed up pelt.

“It’s fine, Moonlight. The kid’s fine. He’s just tuckered out from all that playing.”

“Oof, sorry A-Dan. Gege needs a little break,” MK said, confirming Wukong’s words. It’s only then when his Empress relaxed back into his hold. Meanwhile, MK patted A-Dan on her little head with a shaky smile. “Man, I’m really getting out of shape.”

“Then get your head out of the Royal Libraries for once and train. You’re pretty good, kid, but talent like that won’t do you any favors if you don’t practice,” Wukong called out. He didn’t know why his eldest seemed so interested in that boring place. Even Macaque, who occasionally enjoyed reading about new knowledge, didn't spend as much time in the library as MK did.

MK snorted from his position on the ground. A-Dan giggled at the sound and poked at his nose, making it twitch. “Psh. And make everyone’s jobs harder by tearing up the palace grounds? No thanks.”

“…Or you can use the training grounds that the soldiers use,” Macaque said slowly.

MK sat up suddenly. A-Dan let out a little surprised ‘mrrp’ noise but hung onto his clothes pretty easily.

“Wait, I can?!”

Wukong and Macaque shared a look at his genuine surprise. As a Prince, MK should want for nothing. But again and again, he showed surprise at receiving finer things and being allowed into certain areas ever since he wound up here. Did someone tell him he wasn’t allowed to have certain things? Did someone tell him he couldn’t go to certain places?

“‘Course you can, bud,” Wukong said casually, careful not to reveal the suspicion and anger in his voice. “Did anyone say you couldn’t?”

Because if they did, he’d find them and crush them. That was, if his Moonlight didn’t find them first.

Wukong must’ve not done a good enough job in hiding his expression because MK paled and shook his head. “No! No one did! I just thought that it was just for soldiers, y’know? Haha, hahahaha pleasedontkillanyone.”

“That’s a normal mistake to make,” Macaque agreed easily before Wukong could get another word in. “But the training grounds aren’t just for the soldiers. Where else do you think your Baba and Uncles train to keep their skills sharp? Where do you think they have their spars?”

For the first time in the entire conversation, MK perked up with interest. “Spars? You guys spar regularly?”

Wukong grinned widely at MK’s shining eyes and enthusiasm, his previous bad mood gone in an instant and perceived slight forgotten. “Of course! I might be Emperor, but that doesn’t mean I stopped sparring with my sworn brothers! We’re demons, after all!”

“Would you like to join them?” Macaque asked with an indulgent smile, already knowing MK’s answer. When MK nodded excitedly, he chuckled with delight. “We can make a day of it. We’ll get your armor ready and the entire training grounds cleaned up for you. I’m sure Azure, Peng, and Yellow Tusk can move around their schedules sometime this week.”

MK’s tail wagged happily. “So soon?”

“Yeah, bud. Excited?”

“Heck yeah!”

A-Dan didn’t know what was happening, but she echoed her brother’s excited cheers with just as much happiness. “Yeah!”

Wukong made it happen in only a day. It’s not often that his firstborn voiced what he wanted, so he was going to make sure it’s given to him immediately. (Not that MK would ever know how hard he ran all of the palace staff, the soldiers, and the blacksmiths to the ground to make it happen. His son always got a bit sensitive when they weren’t treated well.)

MK was absolutely ecstatic when he found out Wukong had a set of armor created just for him. It was reminiscent of the armor Wukong used to wear into battles during his youth. With MK wearing his colors, the resemblance between the two of them was clearer.

Honestly, he couldn’t believe there was a time he was convinced that MK wasn’t his.

With a wave of fondness, Wukong watched as MK excitedly showed Macaque and A-Dan.

“How do I look?”

“Shiny!” A-Dan marveled. “Gege cool!”

“You really do look like Wukong when he was younger in that,” his Moonlight reminisced as he admired the armor. “Aside from the color of your fur, you cut the same figure as your Baba. The blacksmith did a wonderful job.”

“What about you?” MK wondered as he took in Macaque in his usual attire. “Aren’t you going to wear your armor too?”

Macaque startled. “…Me?”

“Well, yeah!” MK said, tilting his head. “You’re, like, super-strong and skilled. Don’t you use the training grounds to spar too?”

Macaque looked to the side. “Just with your Baba occasionally. I haven’t sparred with the rest of the Brotherhood in…a while.”

MK didn’t like the sound of that. His eyes flashed with genuine distress and offense for Macaque. “They exclude you?!”

“Oh, MK.” There’s a fond lilt to his Moonlight’s tone. “That was by my own choice. Whenever I’m up in the Celestial Realm, I spend every moment I can with your Baba. As fun as spars are, he’s more important to me.”

Wukong melted at his mate’s words. He came over and draped himself over his Moonlight’s shoulders, rubbing his cheek against his beloved’s affectionately.

“You should change into your armor and join us,” Wukong rumbled into three, trembling ears. If his children weren’t in front of them, he would’ve given them a playful nip - among other things. Instead, he gave them light kisses. “Our son wants to see you in action.”

“But A-Dan -

“I’ll take care of A-Dan,” Wukong soothed. “Go and change. We’ll wait for you at the training grounds.”

While A-Dan was too small for an armor of her own, she fit perfectly inside a helmet. Wukong made sure to pad the insides with a cushion so his little Princess would be comfortable.

“How clever of you, my king,” Azure complimented when Wukong and MK met him and the rest of the Brotherhood at the training grounds. He offered a paw at A-Dan so she could play with the soft pads. She took the offering with gleeful “Kitty!”

Peng looked around critically. “…And our venerable Empress? He seems quite noticeably absent. I’d think he’d at least participate as an audience along with the little Princess instead of skulking away in the shadows like a wounded beast.” Then, after a beat, he turned to MK and asked, “Your mother isn’t actually unwell, is he?”

“No, he’s good,” MK assured him.

“So, he just didn’t bother to show up,” Peng concluded, concern turning into a sneer. “How…carelessly lazy for an Empress.”

Out of all of his sworn brothers, Wukong liked Peng the least. He never had anything nice to say and he was always instigating things unnecessarily. Not to mention his insufferable arrogance. If it weren’t for Azure and Yellow Tusk’s closeness with the sharp-tongued bird, he wouldn’t have brought the other into the fold.

But the worst part was Peng’s wandering eyes when it came to Wukong’s mate.

As much as Peng constantly disparaged and slandered Macaque, no one knew more than Wukong how much the eagle demon coveted his Moonlight. Thankfully, he wasn’t much of a threat since he shoved his clawed foot into his mouth every time he interacted with Macaque.

Well. He hadn’t been a threat until he became MK’s tutor. Much to Wukong’s displeasure, their relationship became almost civil and, worse yet, friendly.

Wukong’s lips unconsciously pulled back in a warning after he heard Peng question Macaque’s rightful position as his Empress. MK wasn’t any better, scowling at his tutor.

“Now, now, don’t be like that, Peng,” Azure laughed with good humor, smoothing things over whenever Peng opened his mouth as always. “You know that Macaque - forgive me, Empress Macaque - never liked participating in activities like this. Perhaps our thoughtful Emperor decided he needed some time to himself? We’ll do a good job keeping the cubs entertained.”

The shadow at Azure’s feet warped and stretched. Macaque’s shadowy form rose from the ground with an impish smirk.

“Wrong. I’m just fashionably late.”

“Moonlight!”

Macaque stepped completely out of the shadows and revealed himself. His cocky grin softened at the sight of Wukong for a moment before returning to its original smug state. Macaque glided over to Wukong’s side and latched onto his arm with a possessiveness that Wukong appreciated.

“Being so thoughtful, my husband encouraged me to put on my armor and join in on the fun. It’s been such a long time since I sparred with all of you, after all.”

Azure’s smile became a little odd. “I see. How very thoughtful of him.”

MK bounced over and started to gush over Macaque’s armor, dispelling the strange tension between Azure and Macaque. He even took A-Dan away from Azure so she could get a closer look.

“Mama, cool!” She patted the armor. “A-Dan too?”

“When you’re bigger, you’ll get one just like mine,” Macaque promised, kissing her little head. “But for now, it’s the helmet for you, sweetheart. Clever idea, by the way. Was it MK’s idea?”

Wukong pouted. “It was mine.”

“You? A good idea?” Macaque teased. Wukong pouted even more, making him laugh. He leaned over and nuzzled him under his chin. “Awww, Peaches, you know I was just kidding. You’re so, so clever for planning all of this. Right, A-Dan? Isn’t Baba so clever?”

“Baba cl-evr!” A-Dan agreed.

Wukong forgave Macaque instantly.

“As sickeningly sweet as all of this is,” Peng’s obnoxious voice cut into the moment, “I would like to challenge you, Macaque, for the first duel. Unless that armor is just for show?” There’s a gleam in his eyes that Wukong didn’t like as he goaded Macaque. Sparring would mean getting close to his Moonlight, close enough to touch, grab, pin -

No, that wouldn’t do.

“Fine,” Macaque accepted, making Wukong bristle. “MK wants to see me fight, so I’ll accept that challenge.”

“No,” Wukong nearly snapped, but then saw how MK and A-Dan both looked at Macaque with hopeful excitement. “One. Just one duel,” he gritted out instead.

Peng smirked and preened. “Your majesty, one duel is all I’m going to need.”

Why that little-!

Before Wukong could lunge at Peng’s throat, he felt something being shoved into his hands. “Wukong. Take as many pictures as you can for the cubs as I beat this cocky chicken into the dirt.”

“I got the camera, Moonlight. Go kick his butt.”

Completely oblivious to his parents’ respective rage, MK took a seat in the stands with A-Dan and her helmet on his lap. “A-Dan, Mama is going to be so cool,” he gushed with excitement as she played with his hands. “You have to pay attention, okay? You’re going to use those moves too when you kick butt. Oooh, maybe when you’re bigger, we can train together and make combo moves!”

“Yeah! Like Mama!”

Much to Wukong’s growing ire, Peng spent the entire duel showing off his strength and skills. He preened and danced in the battle in a way he never had with anyone else. Wukong was no blind fool, Peng was blatantly flirting with his mate.

Even MK’s excitement was dimming at the odd display, finally noticing Wukong’s irritation as he snapped away with the camera. He looked between Macaque and Peng before paling.

“Peng too?” Wukong heard his firstborn mutter and oh how that lit a bigger fire in Wukong’s heart. There were others coveting his Moonlight? More competition? Did any of these fools ever learn?

Azure tried to draw him into lighthearted conversations, but Wukong either ignored him or brushed him off, too focused on the fight.

“My king -

“Not now, Azure. I’m trying to decide whether or not we’re going to have chicken for dinner tonight.”

The only silver lining of this was how thoroughly Macaque wiped the floor with Peng. He had something to prove, after all, and was actually giving his all in the fight. At the end, his mate was victorious.

“I want a rematch,” Peng dared to demand, ego bruised from his loss.

“Actually,” Wukong swept in, “all of my Empress’ future duels for today will be with me. You said you only needed one duel, Peng. You had it. Now, it’s my turn.”

Macaque’s tail thrashed with excitement at Wukong’s possessive announcement.

“My dear husband,” he purred, “you spoil me.”

Back at the stands, MK sighed and readjusted A-Dan’s helmet so she could see better. His little sister cheered.

[ilaein]

Hi babi,

Happiest Birthday to you again. It’s been 8 years and I’m still fond of you. I hope you always well. I’ve been so happy to witness all your achievements in life. I had the chance to see you twice personally and the recent MysteryElevator still lingers in me. You look exactly how I thought of you, well more ethereal than ever. You look so.. so unreal. Most of the time while you are performing I can’t compose my thoughts that u are really right infront of me It feels like I’m just watching you on the big screen. Silly. My soft spoken voice struggle to shout your name as everyone in the crowd did the same. I sob in between some of your songs esp my fave ones. I can’t believe my eyes you’re glowing! Glowing infront of me .. of us..

I remember how stunned I was during our Hi-Bye session. I didn’t expect you’ll be that close.. I nearly can’t breathe. 😅 Got some heart and soul malfunction. 🤭🤣 I was mesmerized.. I wasn’t able to fell asleep no matter how tired I was after the show. I spent the rest of the evening wondering.. how can you be that handsome?! Hahahaha I also promised to myself that, that would be the last fancon of yours that I’ll go to. ‘Cause I just wanna move on with my life.. this life around me. I’m getting old and I find it hard to like someone else while I’m attracted to you. Hahaha It’s crazy. Im crazy.

For the past few weeks I avoided watching your clips that pops up everywhere.. literally in every social I have .. even random reels I was scrolling to in my dummy Insta I saw you! I restricted myself from checking notifs that includes news about you. I even unfollowed your official twitter account haha. I talk about it to some of my friends I requested them not to mention you anymore. ‘Cause they love to tease me using gifs of u or sending me clips about you. I’m still your fan but I have to detach myself in some way before it gets deeper than this. I don’t want my future husband be mad when he sees my diary full of dongmin. Haha.

Recently i bumped into twitter account handler “Kai” she’s the luckiest fan ever. She was able to attend most of your fanmeets and had several videocall with you. I was so happy for her. She even prepared a NEW YORK TIMES SQUARE AD with the largest single LED with the best resoultion! for your Birthday today! Like just wow! She really made everything so possible! She also prepares gifts and a manager of one of your fan projects. Incredible! 🤍💜

Then I realized.. for those long years that I became your fan, I wasn’t able to give you anything.. aside from flexing you on my socials, making you my cover photo since 2016 haha which I remove last 2022z Greeting you a Happiest Birthday in all of my socials.. Facebook, Insta, Twitter, etc. Supporting your songs, projects and dramas silently reposting them.. and just praying for your happiness and health.. that’s all I manage to do.. Don’t have the means to sent you food trucks like what Kim Domingo did.. or to show up in every fancon venue you have scheduled like Andrea. But one thing we all have in common.. that I’m sure of.. We all love you! 🥰

This might be my last post and greetings as I now focus in my own journey. But no matter what I’m still an aroha and eunwoo stan by heart. Thank you for being my inspiration all throughout my college years. Thank you for existing..

Happiest Birthday to you again, naesarang.

May you get all the best in life and please know that you deserve them all.

Yourstrully,

A.Lee

(Ps. As I am writing the last few sentences spotify that’s currently on shuffle playing some random playlist decided to play “STAY” from your Entity Album yes. And I almost chuckled. You’re growing so much on me, I’m scared haha. Next thing I knew I was giggling and turning red. You’re not even here! I’m sweating! Hahahahahaha)

Here are some of your recent pictures I truly love! Its not that obvious I love your long hair right? Haha!

And ops! I will definitely tell you once I had my Gabriel Dongmin hahahaha 🤭

[elialys]

It's interesting that it seems more proper to name P/0 child after Elizabeth than after Olivia's mother.(Elizabeth is a beautifully tragic name in the show and your fic,though.) Peter and Olivia's relationships with their own mothers are both complex but totally different. How do you understand their mother issues?

Thank you for your lovely question. I have so many feelings regarding Peter & Olivia and their relationships with their mothers. That’s a topic I’ve explored a few times in stories through the years; as someone who’s had a rather rocky relationship with my mother (to put it mildly), I know my perspective on this to be very biased, but to me, that’s the beauty of an emotionally intelligent show like Fringe. They show us just enough to get a feel of how various character dynamics are/were, all the while letting us imagine the rest.

I think it’s harder to know how Olivia’s relationship with her mother might have been, because we saw a lot less of Marylin that we did Elizabeth, and the Marylin we did see was exclusively Altlivia’s mom, who from what we know had quite a different life from Olivia’s mother. I know in this case, I’m definitely projecting my own experience. My mom also got into a relationship with someone abusive who made our lives hell for a few years, and the fallouts are extensive, long after that person is gone.

That’s why I always pictured Olivia’s childhood and relationship with her mother to be quite sad, unfortunately, since her father probably died when she was very young, then there was the abusive step dad, who she ended up shooting, only for him to traumatize her even further by sending her all those birthday cards, and then her mother dies when she was just fourteen—and I doubt those five years between the shooting and her death were happy years. But Olivia would have loved her mother no matter what, as shown on the show when she got to meet her mom’s alternate in the other universe, and the emotion of it literally broke her mind and got the other memories working.

Olivia felt strongly enough that it was her JOB to defend her mother to shoot a grown man with a gun when she was nine. That tells you so much about Olivia’s core personality (and trauma, did I mention trauma?)

Like I said, that topic is very personal to me and I have a hard time ever being objective about it, but it’s also important because of how I imagine Olivia as a mother with Etta. And that’s why I’ve always been so pained by people who misunderstand the things Olivia says about it in season 5, about her feeling like she was too ‘at odd’ and basically too messed up to deserve her little girl, and that her worrying so much instead of just appreciating having her led to them losing Etta, like a punishment.

I’m writing this right now and I don’t understand how people can misinterpret it enough to say things like “Olivia probably was cold and distant with Etta.” Like, over my DEAD BODY. She’s a traumatized human who lost her mother when she was still just a kid herself. That doesn’t mean she’s not capable of love or of being nurturing, it mostly means she probably worried herself sick over every thing and convinced herself that she was doomed to be terrible at it.

Ugh. I’m gonna need a drink before I can continue this.

ANYWAY. Peter and Elizabeth hahahaha

I think his relationship with his mom was pretty tragic and heartbreaking, too. I think that he would have loved his mother very, very much, just like Olivia loved hers, but I also think the Elizabeth he grew up with never recovered from losing her son and having to brainwash this version of Peter into thinking he was her child. We know she ended up committing suicide when he was nineteen, and from what we saw in 3x15 ‘Subject 13’, she struggled a lot with the whole fucking mess that was their life—and that was before Walter lost pieces of his brain and went insane. Now whether Elizabeth was struggling with alcoholism is up to interpretation. My reasoning has always been that the show wouldn’t have shown us Elizabeth drinking in that episode if it wasn’t meant to imply she ended up doing that a lot, so that tends to be my headcanon. Even without the possible alcoholism, I think we’re supposed to deduce from everything Peter says that she suffered from depression.

Either way, that poor man has had a SHIT childhood and adolescence. It sucks to grow up with a parent who suffers like this, it makes you feel responsible for them while also feeling absolutely helpless because you can’t really help, and also very angry because all of it is shit, honestly. In the context of the show, I can only imagine how torn and guilty Peter felt about his mother’s suicide, which happened after he left her. And that had to become that much worse after he learned the truth about his origins and realized he was basically ‘responsible’ for his mother’s ongoing misery.

Soooooo yeah. One of the things I love about Peter and Olivia is that I think they get that about each other, implicitly. Shit childhood/adolescence just shape you differently, and you can definitely tell when you meet other people who’ve had ‘similar’ experiences (can I say trauma again?) It definitely make them particularly suited for each other, as life partners and as parents.

[ssreeder]

Oh man. Even when there are soft moments, pain lurks somewhere. We will go through turmoil.😭

Also, possible upcoming projects? 👀 Seems interesting!

I like Red Balloon anon! :D

...

Reeds... you're giving me too much power with that name. You have no idea what you gave me because that's going to be my "alter ego" now. Pain will be nicer, still wants to sprinkle pain here and there because yes. But even Pain can take so much torment.

Now Red. Red likes chaos, and wants all of us to suffer. It will read and give possible worse outcomes of what may or may not happen. It will want for us to think over and over about those bad situations. Worry about the safety and health of all these characters.

Reeds... what have you done to me? Why are you making me do this... I hate myself for creating this at the moment. AHHHHH! Please tell me not to continue this! PLEASE! Tell me to stop!

Welp, Pain will continue to talk with this font.

Red on the other hand will

talk with this one.

Tick tock. The timer has now begun. On what? Well, that's a little surprise! We wouldn't want to ruin that now? Do we? :) HEHEHE! It will be so much fun! OH! Look at that. A small RED thing in the corner. What are you doing there? Come out and play! Don't be shy.

-Pain Anon

and

Red Anon

(It's fun to play roles from time to time :D

Reeds, please. Tell me to just be Pain.)

Maybe it's better if we both unite Pain.

Hahahaha. Is it weird that Red Balloon anon gives me more strange vibes than Pain anon because I think of IT & the red balloon from that??

Hahaha…, I’m sure you saw what I meant with the mixture of fluff/angst from last chapter ;) <3

Love you Painfully Red Balloon anon <3

[someplace-that-is-else]

GOOD AFTERNOON, LIKERS!!! How has the #fullmoon madness been treating you? Or do I even need to mention #tacos? ;) Well...it's that time again. And by time I mean February. Ahhhh #February...I loathe it just as much as I disliked December. Thankfully, no one has been tripped yet. :D Goodness knows people have already been extra. So...more reason for me to continue to focus on myself. And with that in mind...let's see what I will be up to this week. Aka EDITING, TYPING, and WRITING. EDITING. What is that I see? Is that a #light at the end of the tunnel? Hahahaha. I think that summed up how I was feeling about editing. What could have me thinking about editing outside of a #blog? Teasers. More soon... TYPING. Well, the typing has been light. But I expect to get some more typing time in on the side project. And #thankfully I now have another 90 + pages to type up. Very excited to get to it. WRITING. Oooooo...burn. Which means that Eugene's fundraiser went well. It had its ups and downs, but it had been written. And now I have a little bit of the #fallout left. After that...a break. A brief one, but one all the same. I was going to work on my side project a little bit. And then...it's back to finish writing HOW THE OTHER HALF LIVES. I can't believe that I'm so close to getting it done. I can tell working on Eugene's fundraiser had worn me out a bit so I need time to recharge for the end. A bonus? I saw it on the horizon. It? By it I meant, yesterday I was trying to figure out my writer schedule for this week since I was going to be busy on other professional fronts and realized. I saw DARKENED SOUL: THE BREAKING OF CIRCLES. I had not thought about it in a looong while. And yet...I could see it enough that I was starting to think of time in my head to get back to returning to researching time periods. Mind blown. I had been so productive last month and keeping to myself. That BOOM. I was seeing things getting done. I could see #output again. It really had been a minute. And I felt ready. So...progress...

[adultswim2021]

Saul of the Mole Men #9: “A Hammer in His Hand” | April 8, 2007 - 12:00AM | S01E09

Saul of the Mole Men continues to be bad, and this episode is not a good one. I am going to be summarizing it using disrespect, and bad writing.

After the events of the last episode, Saul and Fallopia’s relationship is muddled, but emotions and tensions are high. She flees from him after an awkward almost-exchange. Just then Bertram shows up to bring Saul to the worksite at Project Thunderhole, demanding that he inspect the hole (which hovers over a giant pile of dead workers). Saul crawls inside and starts pointing out how the structural integrity of the hole is in poor shape. In the middle of offering some helpful advice, there’s a cave in. But instead of joining the ranks of the freshly dead, Saul is trapped inside, losing the will to live. 

Meanwhile we periodically cut back to the boat with the Strata operators (Dana Synder and Gary Anthony Williams, whose name I didn’t bother to learn until now. Just now realizing he was on Malcom in the Middle and was the voice of Uncle Ruckus on Boondocks, among probably many other more recognizable things) on it. They’re bringing a big drill ship to Indochina so they can drill upwards to the Mole Men to save the previous digging expedition that’s currently trapped there. We cut back and forth to them just to remind you that that whole thing is going on. They are going through a bad storm, and the captain makes them watch Remains of the Day, the Merchant-Ivory classic. Things go south when the captain insists that the drill ship needs to be dumped or else they won’t survive the squall, opting not to dump Johnny Tambourine merchandise that is apparently taking up the same amount of weight. That’s the end of their story line for this episode (GOOD!!!).

The rest of the episode is basically Saul with American folklore character John Henry, the steel-driving man. He’s real and alive, and living in an underground cave apparently not far from Mole Man land. Dumb premise? Sure! But I’ve literally watched an episode of Ark II where they meet Don Quixote, so I’m not gonna dog it. They eventually make friends with one another. Things seem to be going alright, but then Jim E. James and Jen E. James, now with rocks for heads, bust in to attack Saul. You might recall from the last episode that they want his amber gem. Saul gets out alive thanks to John Henry, who not only fends them off, but gives Saul a parting gift; a similar-looking gem of a different color. Saul puts them together and they generate some sort of energy, or at least a cool glow. Episode ends. 

Okay, so I noticed one line in this that qualifies as a “running joke”: When John Henry urges Saul to come get his crystal/gem/rock/whatever, it’s inside a little furnace embedded into his abdomen. He calls Saul over and says “this ain’t no sex thing” or something like that. That line was also uttered when Saul was in Jail, and a cell mate of his said the same thing to him asking for a spot while lifting weights. At least I wish it were a running joke in that I want it to run AWAY!!! HAHAHAHA SAUL YOU FUCKING JERK!

Anyway, this one seemed particularly like a waste of time. I guess I appreciate the effort to make these episodes have standalone elements as well as a serialized arc. It’s mostly telling a story about a guy getting trapped in a cave with John Henry while also advancing the overarching plot, and that’s a good thing. And I’ve already stated elsewhere that I appreciate the show’s irony and design and all that. I just wish the show were more actually-interesting and funny.

EPHEMERA CORNER

MAIL BAG

User “burpingcontest” (disgusting name by the way) asks:

You brought up Tom Green's internet show but forgot to share that it gave you a chance to talk to one of your comedic heroes one on one. Mind telling the folks at home how that went?

I blocked that out, thank you. Okay: so the fun thing about Tom Green’s call-in show, was that he would frequently formally end a show or come on at random times between episodes and just take calls for fun. One night he had a skateboard guy named Jeremy Kline? He was really annoying, I remember his one note was just pressing teenagers about weather or not they’d had sex before or not. He literally did it on every call. He was also very fixated on the idea that they could have strippers and naked chicks on the show because it was the internet and there wasn’t any censorship. This lead to a repeat appearance where he torpedoed the Michael Showalter episode by bringing a stripper without running it by Tom. It was a marvelous train wreck.

To this day I still think about this one moment, it was after a proper episode of Tom’s show: Tom was screwing around wearing a rubber horse mask; the scary one that I think is basically an overused meme now. He called for food delivery and invited the delivery person into his home studio, and brought him on camera. He was nervous and small and probably spoke English as a second language. Tom stared at him with the horse mask on and asked him: “would you like to wear the horse mask?” the man looked at Tom dead serious and grimly said “No. Never.”

ANYWAY: At this time me and my friends would regularly get on Skype to watch Tom Green’s web show together. After this first Jeremy Kline episode, I was sorta dared to call in by my friends on Skype, so I worked up an obnoxious bit that was just a dumb inside joke: I would do a dumb guy voice, identify myself using the first name and city of another one of my friends that was in the Skype chat, and repeatedly ask Tom if he smoked weed. I think I came up with this premise because I was pretty sure it wouldn’t actually go well. I’ve never in my life been good at prank phone calls and this was a dumb idea. At the very least I could just dismiss the whole thing as just trying to do a dumb thing to make my friends laugh rather than have it be seen as a sincere attempt at a fully-formed prank phone call. I wasn’t committing to the pure comedy of it all, is what I’m saying.

Problem was, this friend I was shouting out signed off before I got on the air, so it made even less sense, but it was the only bit I had. I did manage to say “you gotta smoke weed, right?” to Tom, who calmly explained that he was drug free and proud of it. “That’s great Doug” I said, calling HIM by MY FAKE NAME (AHHH). “I mean, Tom. I’M DOUG!” I said, desperate to not break character. Tom hung up on me and mocked me saying I was auditioning for MADtv and mockingly repeated the phrase “I can do a funny voice!” Very scary situation all around. I went back to the Skype chat and pretended I didn’t make a fool out of myself.

What is sinful about tomato sauce and cheese? What a bizarre thing to say. You would not be welcomed in my italian mamas home with that kind of mouth.

Brother, if you only knew how fucked up I am with food preferences. I think there’s weirder stuff going on with me. I think an alien might be controlling me

Prankass is on youtube. It's less than 7 minutes long. Give it a watch and tell me what you think. Is it Adult Swim material? Thanks - Patrick

Patrick, the film is great and I love it and it needs to be in theaters and not Adult Swim. I love you son, thank you

Funny to see a young Tim match wits with Neil Hamburger. Little did they know they would eventually become the best of friends and Neil would replace Eric entirely. Not counting Doug Lussenhop because he's too much of a ho-ho (like David Cross says!) to be Tim's numero uno. See you later. (as David Cross says!)

It’s funny that this never even crossed my mind. I so think of Neil and Gregg as separate entities. Hell, even though Neil starts cracking and letting the Gregg voice through in this video I still enjoy the movie magic that goes into every internet show.

He emptied out the mailbag boys. Fill it to the brim with more inane shit! We can do this together like JJ Pepper!

Gonna empty this thing again all over your face and chest you nasty lad

[floweroflaurelin]

I'm sorry if this is rude, and you totally don't have to answer this if you don't want to, but i'm curious - why in the world are you using the name "flower of Laurelin" for a as far as i can tell 100% mcyt art blog? Like, no judgement or anything, but it just genuinely throws me for a loop every single time lmao

Hahahaha!

So I made this blog back in 2018? I think? And I had every intention of making it a Silmarillion blog. I made a lot of Silm art just for me while I was a teenager and I actually still make Silm art for school projects! I called myself Flower of Laurelin because Arien, the Maia who carries the sun, is my favourite character in the whole Tolkienverse. (She has one whole paragraph talking about her.)

Also in 2018, both The Dragon Prince and She Ra and the Princesses of Power started airing on Netflix and took over my whole brain and I instead started painting fanart for those two shows and posting it here, and they were all fairly popular paintings. This was during the gap year I took before heading to university in 2019 and it really helped me develop my art style! I realized that since my style is more like realism I could adapt cartoons in a really fun and fresh way. And I was always like oh well I’ll get to the Silmarillion stuff soon… And then I went to university and did Illustration projects on the Silmarillion, as I’d always planned to do, and I completely forgot my Tumblr art blog, which was very infrequently posted to until 2021.

Then when I was in university I started getting excited about Minecraft’s updates because I hadn’t played since 1.13 and cool things were coming up and so I typed “Minecraft” into YouTube and found Pixlriffs’ Survival Guide. And then I got into Hermitcraft bc Mumbo and Iskall would show up in the recommended. And then Pix joined Empires I got into the whole Empires crew, and by then I was getting burnt out of never making art just for me and only for assignments and I took an hour out to sketch the Copper King during class, which I posted, and people liked it! And Pixlriffs himself emailed me that same day to say how much he liked it! And then I was like okay well there’s a niche here—there’s little more cartoony than a Minecraft skin so my style would work great here, and wow it turns out there are a lot of people into this too! A lot of other awesome artists! And my work got more and more attention until I got to work with the CCs on their series and now I’m a mcyt blog.

TLDR; I was supposed to be a Silmarillion blog because I used to make a lot of Silmarillion art, but in the time since making my URL I ended up getting into other fandoms instead by accident! And now I’m a mcyt blog even though I’ve kept my original URL because I like it a lot 😋

[trainwreckzadr]

Four Years Later

So, I was deep-cleaning my room the other day for the first time in like two years (god, the dust was disgusting), and I found an old sketchbook of mine. Like, OLD old. The earliest drawing was labeled March 23, 2009--I was 11. 

Most of what was in there was TERRIBLE anime art; you know the stuff. Scoopy noses, eyes that float around on the face, characters conveniently holding their arms behind their backs so you don’t have to draw their hands. Edgy character deaths and thinly-veiled self-inserts comin’ atcha full force. But I’m flipping through this thing, and I’m finding that for the first time in forever, I... don’t hate myself for it? I’m actually finding it cute! Like, “Aww, she’s learning.” Mind-boggling feeling.

So I figured, for old times’ sake, what the heck, let’s go reread Trainwreck too. So I googled the name of the blog (because I’m the kind of person who googles URLs instead of just typing them into the damn URL bar), and I happened across THIS comic dub, by Nessa G.:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55skXrjaY-Y&ab_channel=NessaG.

I fucking died.

Seriously, I hope it’s not narcissistic, but I forgot most of the jokes, and everything I drew here was so 100% my own sense of humor that I CRACKED. THE FUCK. UP. (”Fan... squirrels?”) God, I haven’t laughed that hard (or that sincerely) in a long time. And hearing the words I wrote read out loud by another human being was so weird! In a good way, obviously. Thank you for the dub, Nessa. It brought me so much joy. And it’s that video that’s inspiring me to come back to this blog and at least explain what’s going on.

So... Imma be straight with you. (Prepare to be hurled headfirst into a steaming hot pile of TMI.)

When I said I was “busy”, I was flat-out lying. 

I was in a bad place, I had been for a while, and I just... couldn’t draw anymore. Like... at all. God, it was terrifying, it just snuck up on me out of nowhere. I think I worked on maybe three or four projects between 2018-2019, all to help out a family member, and then I just... stopped. Drawing became terrifying, talking to people became terrifying(er)... I basically gave up on art altogether, ghosted everyone I knew, and spent the last four years cooped up studying alone, barely eating or sleeping, scared of anything with a shadow... ACK, it was bad. I looked like a fucking skeleton by the end of it.

Now, I’m not telling you this because I want comfort or sympathy. I’ve actually been doing a lot better over the last six months. If I weren’t, I’d never post something like this--I don’t tell ANYONE my genuine feelings unless I’m already over it. Which is... ~Probably Not Healthy!~ hAhaHAhA *finger guns*

But seriously though. I’ve been reconnecting with the people I love, I’ve been eating more and putting on some weight, I got a long-term freelance position with a translation agency, and I had a breakthrough recently that took away a ton of fear... things are going okay. Importantly, I’m also starting to be more mindful of my own behavioral patterns. I’ve been trying to figure out which habits keep getting me into trouble, and work towards changing them.

One of those bad habits is MAKING PROMISES. 

I have this tendency to promise the moon to people because I’m scared of disappointing or angering them (and because I constantly underestimate how long things will take me). Then I wind up skipping meals and sleep so I can get everything done, getting further and further past my deadlines, stressing and stressing until, before I know it--SKRRCH!--my entire brain comes to a screeching halt, and I shut down.

Obviously, this is bad for me, because I’m putting a ridiculous amount of strain on my own body and mind. Obviously, it’s also bad for other people, because I’m promising them all this stuff and then ditching them out of nowhere. This is just all-around bad, and it’s gotta stop. Sure, there’s this whole sad backstory as to why I do this, but that doesn’t make it okay to continue the behavior.

SO! What I’m getting at here is! When it comes to picking Trainwreck ZADR back up:

I make zero promises.

Drawing a fan comic--ANY comic--is a lot of work. Towards the end, it was taking me like 6-8 hours for just one page. I think I have finally gotten to a place where I want to start drawing again, but... I’m broke as all flying hell. I don’t have an ATA certification or any experience in translation, so I’m working... the kind of job you can get with no credentials or experience. (Bruh, this shit makes less than minimum wage.)

So, jaded though it sounds, if I’m going to be investing that much time and effort into anything other than my translation career, it HAS to be something I’m being paid for, because anxiety or no anxiety if I am not out of my parents’ house by the age of 25 I am going to jump off a fucking bridge. Into a lifeboat. Which I will then sail to the Arctic tundra to live out the rest of my days in obscurity, sucking frozen algae out of a straw for sustenance.

BUT, on the other hand... god, there were so many jokes and gags in Trainwreck that I never got to see to fruition. Watching Nessa’s video made me remember that.

Zim was going to kidnap a goat while wearing a very silly hat. Zita was going to be possessed by a demon, and then “zITARATH” was just gonna BE THERE for the rest of the comic, in the background, nobody addressing it. “Nice dress, Zita!” “tHANK YoU. IT WaS SEWN from tHE SKIN OF MY ENeMiES.” “*gasp* It’s homemade??”

Oh my god, and there was a second song!! I wrote a whole song to the tune of Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious where the Tallest find out about The Zadr(TM) and use it as an excuse to fire Zim! I don’t remember most of the lyrics, they were on my old laptop, but I know it started with “You’re~ in~ an~ interspecies, highly inappropriate relationship!♫♪♪ “

God, that would be fun to draw.

So... possible compromise. No clue how many people are still hanging around, but just a shot in the dark: Would anyone be willing to commission me to finish this comic? I have no clue what my rates would be, cuz I, uh... *ahem* I really haven’t thought that far ahead. I’d have to google copyright laws too, but I... think it’s allowed...??

Alternatively, I could set up a Patreon, and post X number of pages X often depending on how much the monthly income is.

Last option, if there are only like three people still here and you’re all just as broke as I am, I could at least rummage through my old sketchbooks, post whatever snippets I can find, and just tell you where the plot was gonna go. It’s the least I can do after ditching you guys for so long.

So... yup.

Please let me know what your thoughts are about where this comic should go. I’m gonna go finish an assignment, eat something, and possibly fall asleep. I’ll check back with this later to see if there’s any response.

By the way... I’m genuinely sorry for ditching you guys without saying anything. Seriously.

[soulmate-game]

Well, here is the stupid thing I was alluding to. It’s mostly a filler chapter, but yeah.

Harley’s Plea for Help, Chapter 3

“Well, that took a while,” a relatively deep female voice smoothly drawled. The plants placed right next to the window pulled away, no longer blocking the pathway inside. The two figures who were perched right outside the windowsill took the invitation and climbed inside, the shorter of the two looking at the woman who had spoken and smiling widely.

“Auntie Ivy!” Marinette happily exclaimed, making the redhead across from her grin back.

“That’s me. It sure is nice to actually see you in person, little Marigold,” she held out her arms for a hug, which Marinette instantly ran in to accept. “Video calls are never quite enough, are they? You’re so tiny! Are you sure you eat alright?”

“Auntie Ivyyyyyy,” Marinette whined, knowing full well that Ivy was just teasing her.

“So, what took you all so long?” Ivy asked Red Hood, even as she kept her arms wrapped around her soon-to-be daughter in law. “Usually you bats are all about getting back on the streets to punch people, we didn’t think you’d be bringing her in at almost one in the morning.”

Hood shrugged, thumbs hooked in his pockets. “Your little garden fairy nearly gave us the slip. Went straight out the back exit instead of doin’ anything showy like we half expected and we almost missed her.”

“I stopped as soon as I noticed who they were, I swear!” Marinette pulled away from Ivy, holding her hands up in mock surrender. “I didn’t expect Momma to send them to babysit me before our first full day being in Gotham. In hindsight, though, I really should have.”

“Yeah, you should’ve,” Ivy agreed with a smirk, ruffling Marinette’s hair and making her pigtails go a little crooked. “And I know for a fact that you’ve done some stunts off your balcony back in Paris, so at least I know you can be responsible and hold yourself back from doing the same here. Must get that from me, because we both know it doesn’t come from Harley.”

Marinette and Hood both had to laugh at that. Being responsible was definitely not a trait that Marinette could have inherited from anybody in her family tree, that was for sure.

“Are ya makin’ fun of me in front of my daughter?” the comically scandalized voice announced the arrival of one Harley Quinn, who walked into the room in white onesie pajamas with a poker print on them. All of the “joker” cards were crossed out heavily with red sharpie, and a few of them had black-sharpie devil horns and handlebar mustaches vandalizing them. Marinette even caught one such card with a googly eye on it, the matching eye having fallen off and leaving only a small circle of since-dried hot glue where it used to be. “If you guys are gonna be that way, fine! Ivy dyes her hair!”

“No she doesn’t,” Marinette deadpanned, clearly fighting against a giant grin. The corners of her lips gave her away, they never stopped twitching with repressed mirth. “But you do. I got the pictures to prove—- aah!” Harley tackled her daughter to the ground, attacking her with tickles immediately.

“Take it back! My hair is naturally blond!”

“Yeah, naturally— hahahahaha! Sandy blonde! You— hahaha! Have just as much brown— stop I can’t breathe! hahahaha!— as yellow!”

“Hmph,” Harley finally backed off, crossing her eyes and looking away from Marinette with an exaggerated pout. “How dare you reveal my darkest secret?”

“I was a natural redhead even before I got my powers,” was all Ivy had to say, looking all too amused at this turn of events. “Your original costume completely covered your hair.”

“Don’t worry, Harley,” Red Hood butted in, reminding the three girls that he was still here. His tone suggested that he was definitely smiling under his helmet. “We found out about your hair dye years ago.”

“I just cover up the brown parts! It’s not like I’m changin’ much,” she argued before standing up again. “Thanks for gettin’ my cupcake back safely, little birdie. Oh, that's right! I made cupcakes! Hang on, lemme grab one for your trip back!” with that, she span on her heels and ran back further into the apartment. Marinette dashed over to Hood, immediately shoving him to the window.

“Quick, save yourself! Momma can’t bake for her life!” she whispered urgently. “I’ll say you were called away for an emergency, just hurry!”

“It’s not even a lie, getting away from Harley’s baking is an emergency,” Ivy agreed, waving as the vigilante took their advice and fled. It was only three seconds later that Harley slid back into the room, nearly falling due to the feet of her onesie having pretty much zero friction. Her face immediately fell when she saw that her victim was gone, leaving her standing there with a cupcake that was about twice as much frosting as actual cake, covered in sprinkles like a kid’s craft project that was smothered in glitter. The frosting was also shapeless, just heaped on the cake like a half-melted scoop of ice cream. She sighed in despair.

“There goes my chance of giving a bat diabetes. You guys warned him, didn’t ya?”

They both nodded shamelessly. “We’re not that cruel, Harley,” Ivy defended, getting up from her spot on her cushioned armchair and wrapping an arm around her fiance’s waist before she kissed the top of her head gently. “Hood got our little Marigold back safe and sound, and he’s even started a garden at his apartment. He doesn’t deserve to be poisoned by you.”

“I thought you said he got a single cactus at the flea market last month,” Harley deadpanned, making Ivy shrug.

“Might as well be a garden for him, and it’s something he’s not likely to kill so that’s a plus to me. He’s actually taking really good care of the little baby.”

“Speaking of garden!” Marinette gently took the sad excuse of a pastry away from her mom and sat it down on a side table before ushering both of them over to the living room and onto the sofa. “My garden back home is growing so big, I don’t think I can keep everything much longer. I barely have room to walk on the terrace, with all the vines and leaves and branches. Got any ideas of what I can do?”

“Of course! Do you have pictures, Marigold?”

—*—*—*—*—*

Slipping back through her hotel window at six in the morning was risky, since it involved climbing the wall and hoping nobody saw, but her classmates were so unpredictable that it was the only way she could be sure nobody would find out that she had violated curfew and snuck out. Of course, having Red Robin waiting outside her mom’s apartment’s terrace to escort her back helped. At least she knew that no street cams would record her comings or goings, and his grappling hook made the whole scale-the-hotel-wall business much more efficient.

Once she was inside, she sighed happily. “Thanks, now—“ her apology was cut off as Red Robin held up a finger to tell her to wait.

“Hold that thought, be right back. Don’t move.”

Thinking, rightfully, that something was wrong, Marinette obeyed. She watched Red Robin leap off of her hotel balcony and disappear into the streets. Immediately, she began a search to make sure her room had been left untampered— everything important had been packed in the backpack that she had taken to her mom’s place, but still. Could never be too careful. By the time she finished checking for bugs or any signs of snooping, Red Robin landed back on her balcony.

“Here we go.”

Turning to face him, Marinette opened her mouth to ask what the problem had been— only to tear up a little and walk over to the vigilante.

“Oh, my hero. Truly, my one and only savior. Knight in shining red Kevlar. I’m running on two hours of sleep and you have read my mind!” The pigtailed drama queen eagerly took the coffee that he offered her, and he sipped from a larger cup that looked like he had grabbed it from the same place. Marinette almost instantly sighed in gratitude when the hot drink lightly scalded her tongue. This. This was the elixir of life.

To his credit, Red Robin was able to restrain himself to merely an amused smirk. Probably because he was running on just as little sleep as she was. “Sorry it’s only a small, I figured it was best to have something you could finish quickly and easily hide the evidence for. If you need more caffeine, I happen to know that Wayne Enterprises has a very good coffee shop in their main hall. You’ll be touring there today, right?” He asked, taking another sip as he waited for the answer that he already knew.

Marinette nodded absently, drinking in the euphoria of her coffee as she tried to both savor it yet finish it as quickly as safely possible. When she came up for air, she said; “Yeah, that’s right. We’re touring Wayne Enterprises for most of the day, having lunch there, and leaving for dinner after the tour. Then we have a visit to the Gotham Museum of Fine Art, and we’ll stay there until about eight-thirty before heading back to the hotel.”

Red Robin nodded, then turned and looked out the window at the slowly rising sun. Sunrise was always a bit later in Gotham, partly because of the abundance of high-rises and partly because of the thick cloud cover and ever-present fog on the edges of the city making everything seem darker than it should have been. He had to be at work soon himself, which is why he had been chosen to escort her to the hotel in the first place, but that meant that he had to be heading off.

“Alright. We arranged for a bodyguard we trust to keep an eye on your class during the WE tour, but he doesn't know who you are or that we’re the ones who asked. We’re still in the process of arranging someone to shadow you after the tour, but we’ll tell you about that once it’s solidified. Until then, follow the usual self-defense procedures if you suspect anyone of following you. You have the panic button we gave you?”

Marinette nodded, gulping down the last of her coffee and carefully putting it in her room’s tiny trash can. “Got it. Thanks, again. Seriously,” she met his eyes— or, probably did since they were hidden behind that weird white film that the whole Batfam had covering the eyeholes of their masks. “I mean it. For listening to me, for listening to Mom. It means a lot. I’ll keep the panic button on me, and I’ll use it if I think I can’t handle a situation on my own. I’ll cooperate with the people you get to watch over the class, and I’ll do my best to not get into any trouble. No promises, but I’ll do my best,” she maintained eye contact until Red Robin nodded, hiding his expression behind his coffee cup. After a second, he cleared his throat.

“Well then. We’ll contact you once we have anything to say about your intel. Until then, I gotta go. And by the way?”

Marinette tilted her head curiously as Red Robin paused for just a moment on her balcony railing, aiming a smirk back at her. “Yeah?”

“Welcome to Gotham.”

And if she couldn’t help but smile widely as he grappled off into the fog-veiled sunrise? Well, only she had to know. She wasted no time closing and locking the glass balcony door, and pulling the curtains over it completely. Once that was done, she couldn’t help but do a little shimmy of Joy. She was caffeinated, she met Auntie Ivy in person for the first time, she got to sleep next to her momma— and she was in Gotham! Technically her hometown— or town she was conceived in? Didn’t matter. Point was, even with the chaos and dark energy clouding the very air, she couldn’t help but feel like she belonged in that city. Like that was where she was always meant to end up, where she could thrive and the environment that she was made to thrive in. The environment that she was born to start fixing.

She beamed at herself in her bathroom mirror as she gave herself one more once-over. Yeah, so far her visit to Gotham was going much better than she could have hoped. Now, she just had to make sure it stayed that way.

Three businesslike raps sounded against the door to her room, just in time for Marinette to feed Tikki one more cookie and straighten her purse on her shoulder. Madame Mendelieve’s voice called out from the other side of the door in her usual no-nonsense bark;

“Dupain-Cheng! Room check! It’s time to get up, we’re meeting down in the lobby in ten minutes.”

Marinette ran up to the door, not quite able to contain her energy, and swung it open with her trademark large, beaming smile.

“Way ahead of you, Madame Mendelieve!”

Her science teacher blinked, adjusting her glasses on her nose as if she couldn’t quite believe what she was seeing.

“Ah. You’re already awake and ready?”

Marinette giggled and nodded. “Yup! I was so excited for the tour that I could barely sleep! Does the hotel breakfast include free coffee?”

—*—*—*—*—*

The hotel breakfast did, in fact, include coffee. What it did not include, however, was free coffee that Marinette could reasonably stomach. Especially after the heaven in a cup that Red Robin had gotten for her earlier, the watered down motor oil in the hotel lobby had been unbearable. She had barely managed two sips before regretfully throwing the rest away. Which is what brought her to stand in line at the very same coffee shop that Red Robin had mentioned was in the main hall of Wayne Enterprises, as the rest of her class mingled and waited for their teachers to check their tour group in and their tour guide to arrive.

“Hmm. Sorry, this is my first time ordering here,” she apologized when she reached the counter, gaining a slight lopsided grin from the barista at the register. “Um, I usually like strong coffee, with a lot of caffeine, but I also like something sweet. I don’t need anything too complicated though, do you have any recommendations?”

The barista gave her a customer service smile that seemed just a tad softer at the edges than usual. “Sure! So, we can add an extra shot or two of espresso to any of our drinks, to make it stronger and give it an extra kick. If you’re looking for good sweet flavors, the classics are our white chocolate or caramel. But we also have a seasonal syrup right now that I personally love, which is our cinnamon butterscotch. Did you wanna try that?”

Marinette smiled widely. “That sounds delicious! Then, if I could have your largest size café latte, hot, with… two extra shots and that syrup? Does that sound good?”

The barista actually let loose a soft laugh, already keying in the order. “If you’re a coffee lover and a sweet tooth at the same time, then you’ll love it. If not, come back during your tour’s lunch break and I’ll make you something else.”

Marinette made a little more small talk as she handed over the proper cash for the order, and grabbed her drink after just another minute’s wait. She turned around, taking a sip of the unsurprisingly heavenly coffee and started off to join her class.

Only to realize none of them were where she had left them. She sighed, starting to reach into her purse to see if anyone had texted her about where they were going, but a heavy presence stopped her. She could feel him approaching from in front of her, slightly to her right, but she couldn’t hear him at all. On guard, she straightened up and turned to observe the potential threat.

A security guard. Marinette blinked, running over what she had been told earlier that morning. Was he..?

He seemed to notice her instinctually defensive posture because he raised his hands to show he meant no harm. “Sorry, didn’t mean to catch you off guard,” he apologized. “I’m the guard that was assigned to your tour group. I offered to stay behind until you got your coffee while the rest of your group went ahead and got the run-down on all the boring rules and whatnot of the tour. Figured you’d already know everything they had to say anyway, you’re the class president right?”

Marinette relaxed her posture, nodding and sending the man a relieved smile. “Yeah, that’s right. Well, that explains why they left without me then. Usually Madame Mendelieve is strict about following rules though, how’d you convince her to go on without me?”

The man chuckled, jerking his head to show that she should follow him as he began to lead the way to a side door. Marinette kept her guard up just in case, but wasn’t too worried. If nothing else, she was still in the middle of a super crowded building and the other security guards around didn’t seem concerned. She could easily yell for help if she needed to.

“Well, can’t you tell it was my devilish charm?” He teased, grinning. He waited until she rolled her eyes to continue; “but really, I’m like a second tour guide. She made me show a lotta proof that I’m actually assigned to you guys and not just faking it, not that I can blame her. Eventually she saw the logic in my suggestion and agreed. See, there they are,” he pointed casually ahead of them in the large side hallway they had entered. Sure enough, near the end of the hallway was her class at what looked to be the tail-end of a standard rules-and-guidelines speech from the tour guide. “By the way,” the guard spoke up again, holding his hand out. “My name’s Jason. You’ll be seeing me more often, since I’m supposed to guard you guys for all of your visits to the Tower. Call me if you need help with anything, ‘kay kid?”

Marinette grinned, now positive that this guy really was the guard that Red Robin had said was assigned to her class. She switched the hand she was holding her coffee in so that she could properly grab Jason’s hand for a shake.

“Got it, Monsieur Jason. Let’s both hope I don’t end up needing your help though, I think that would be easier on both of us,” she joked, earning a chuckle from the large man. And— yeah, now that she was relaxed, he really was big, wasn’t he? Then again, Marinette didn’t always realize when people were a bit larger or more buff than they should be. Living with her dad had seriously skewed her perception of the normal size of an adult male (which, she learned when she was seven, most definitely was not almost seven feet tall and muscled enough to make a pro wrestler jealous). But she would like to think she had gotten better in that aspect, and Jason was definitely a big guy. A little over six feet tall, she thought, and though the guard outfit hid a good portion of his physique, she could tell he carried enough muscle to do serious damage if he wanted to.

With a wave, she left him to join her class and sipped at her latte. She had figured that the Bat Clan’s criteria for civilians that they would put to guard her class had to be high, but now she had to wonder just how high. Most police officers or security guards were fit, sure, but not like Jason. Casting a quick glance back at him, she confirmed that he had quite a few faded but visible scars. Again, more than your average officer even for Gotham. Who had they tasked with her class’ safety, exactly?

An elbow in her side distracted her from her thoughts, forcing her to blink and stop her cup from going back to her lips. The grin of none other than Adrien Agreste greeted her when she snapped out of her own head long enough to pay attention to her surroundings. He jerked his head to indicate that the class was already starting to move off.

“Come on, Mari or you’ll get left behind again,” he teased. She grinned back at him, rolling her eyes but falling into step beside him as they followed at the back of their class. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d think you were gonna marry that coffee. You haven’t zoned out that badly in years,” his tone was light and cheery, but Marinette didn’t miss the concern in his emerald eyes. She sighed, gently bumping her shoulders against his in silent reassurance.

“I’m fine. Just didn’t get much sleep last night, that’s all. But this really is good coffee. Elixir of the gods,” then, just to provoke him, she took a giant gulp of the still steaming hot drink. Adrien grimaced in pained sympathy even though Marinette didn’t seem affected at all.

“Oww, Marineeeeeeeeeette,” he whined. “Don’t do that, my throat hurts just watching you guzzle hot coffee like that,” he complained, rubbing at his neck to make his point clear.

“Wimp,” she teased, unrepentant. Adrien just groaned dramatically.

“I’m not a wimp, you’re just concerningly used to burning your throat from the inside out,” he accused. “Anyway, how’d it go?” He was being deliberately vague, but it was obvious to her what he meant. He was only one she had told about visiting her mom, after all, just in case she needed a quick getaway.

In fact, he was the only one of her friends that she had even told about her biological parents. Alix knew too, but only because of time shenanigans. Marinette was fine with it now, but still.

“It went great,” she smiled widely at him, keeping her voice low but casual. “If I have a chance, I’ll introduce you sometime during the trip. I have a feeling you’ll love Auntie Selina, but I have to meet her first. All I have so far are stories.”

“Fair enough,” Adrien agreed easily. “But you don’t have to, you know that right? I’d love to meet your family, but I’m also fine just being your pseudo-brother like I have been up until now. I know it might be a bit… uncomfortable, for you.”

“Nah,” Marinette shrugged. “Nerve wracking, maybe. But that’s also about half the things that I do in my life period, anxiety is no joke. I’ll catastrophize for a while, but I know you’ll love them and they’ll love you.”

“Sounds like they have paw-some taste,” he didn’t even miss a beat with his puns, earning a playful glare for his efforts.

“Never mind. You’re a heathen. Disowned. Who are you?”

“Mariiiiii,” he whined, causing them both to laugh for a while before focusing on the tour.

So far, so good, Marinette thought.

—*—*—*—*—*

Part 1 Part 2

@emotionalsupportginger @alysrose-starchild @emistar0 @kibastray @justanotherfanficlovinbitch @alyssadeliv @blackroserelina @blackstarlight-co @readingalldaysleepingallnight @maanae @aespades @jaybird-and-co @fleursroses @probably-a-hologram @misterpianoman @deathssilentapproach-blog @user00000003 @frieddonutsweets @blur-of-colours @prettylittlebutterflie @ladyqnoirr @a-star-with-a-human-name @mizzy-pop @laurcad123 @dorkus-minimus @chocolatecatstheron @tazanna-blythe @golden-promises @literaryhiraeth @asrainterstellar @hewantedbeefintheparkinglot @miraculous-trinity-leo @missanalysis @lovelyautumnsunflower @lolieg @ann0631 @whitetiger1249 @meow-now @toodaloo-kangaroo

[akaashisupremacy]

New Beginnings

Summary: Having broken off your engagement for an arranged marriage with Gojo, your relationship is in shreds. Will you be able to find peace in each other again?

Notes: Gojo Satoru is good-looking, all powerful and beyond good at his job. I’ve always wanted to explore something he struggles with 

Gojo Satoru  x reader

Multi-fandom Masterlist || HQ Masterlist || Ao3 version

Genre: ANGST AND PINING, exes to friends to ??, commitment issues lol (wc: 1.3k) tw: mention of blood, infedelity-ish

“Sensei, why are we heading to the infirmary?”

Right after Gojo Satoru arrived at the den Itadori Yuuji was staying, Kiyotaka burst in and whispered something in his ear. Gojo’s eyes widened and he immediately set off with Yuuji tailing him.

“What happened to her?” Gojo exclaims.

The three arrive at the infirmary to see you writhing in pain and screaming in agony. There is dark red blood on your side. Gojo looks like someone had been clawing nails at a chalkboard. He hates to see you like this.

Kiyotaka looks for a healer. Yuuji goes to hide. Gojo tries to undo your makeshift bandages. You’re in a blur of pain.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

The next thing you remember after your aborted mission is Gojo Satoru’s concerned eyes watching over you. You’re in the Jujutsu Tech infirmary. Your wound is still fresh as hell.

“She’s really beautiful, sensei.” Itadori Yuuji comments quietly from your bedside.

“She is.” Gojo agrees. Your eyes are closed, yet you sense his presence seated on a stool by your bed.

“Is she a former classmate?” Yuuji asks.

“Among other things. She used to be my fiancée too.”

Yuuji probably scrambles at his stance, “Your what????”

Gojo turns to him, “To be clear it wasn’t a love match. We were arranged to be married by our families by 21, but we broke it off.”

Whenever either of you say this, it always leaves more questions than answers.  

Your eyes flicker open. You wince as you try to sit up. Gojo immediately reaches out to aid you. Your hands swat him away.

“Welcome back?” He cheekily greets.

You sniff and look the other way. Why did he have to work here?

Beside him is a young student with pink hair. He must be Yuuji.

“Go get her something to eat from the kitchens.” he tells his student, “Something gentle on the stomach and nutritious enough to get her strength back.”

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Seeing Gojo Satoru is  a different kind of pain. You once thought you were to be married to this man. Because you knew it was your obligation to your family, you learned to love him.

You both enter Jujutsu Kaisen at 15, Gojo a year ahead. It was the most painful three years of your life. Gojo was a popular and inexorable flirt. His attention span for romances was short although he was never short on female attention.

He cared for you very much. He protected you, assured you and was one of your best friends, but you’ve come to accept that he could never love you romantically or be faithful. He just wasn’t interested.

It hurt you deeply of course. You had tried so hard to love him and he couldn’t do the same for you. Was something wrong with you?  You felt deficient. You took the blame onto yourself.

When you were about to graduate, you decided to take matters into your own hands.

“Gojo, I’m going back home this Sunday, probably for the last time.” you approached him while he sat on a stone bench. He had just come back from a mission.

“Any reason it sounds so dramatic?’ he raised a brow.

“I’m breaking off our engagement to my clan leader.”

Gojo was so taken aback he didn't know how to react. His mouth hung open.

“You don’t love me and I don’t think you can.” you sighed, looking away.

Gojo fiddled with his hands, “I do, just not romantically.”

It bothered you that he loved you like family. How could you be married to him if he couldn't see you as more than a friend?

“I don’t know why you haven’t come up with this idea yourself honestly.” you frowned. You can feel yourself glaring more intensely than you had wanted to project.

A gentle gust of wind blew by, ruffling the hairs on your head.

“I have,” he quietly admitted, “But I was afraid you’d take it personally and I was trying to find a way to spare you the anguish.”

You shook your head and kicked a pebble, “There’s nothing you can do to spare me.”

“I’ll go with you. If you do this alone, your clan will exile you. Maybe if they see that it’s mutual maybe they’ll be kinder.” he resolved. The arranged marriage was important because it solidified an alliance between your families. Breaking it off meant you were essentially having your own insurgency against your clan.

But they weren’t kinder. You were still exiled. It was hardly a surprise. At least you were relieved of the prospects of loveless marriage.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

“Can you not watch me eat?” You weakly snap at him.

"I can see you’re still pissed at me.” he acknowledges saintly.

You angrily stuck your spoon on your porridge with all the strength you could muster

“Every time I see you I’m reminded of how I failed to make you love me,” your voice is peeling with emotion, “And how my clan kicked me out because of it.”

Gojo opens his mouth to talk, but nothing comes out. Instead he nods understandingly. He goes to grab you more water.

“Every time I see you hurt like this, it reminds me how I fail at protecting you too.” he murmurs, “I know we’re no longer engaged, but I can’t shake the feeling that I’m supposed to keep you from harm.”

He talks with his back away from you, as if you could see through him even without his eyes.

“You didn’t fail at anything,” he continues, “Things couldn’t work out between us because of me. I’ve long since known that I’m not into romantic relationships—at least not in the long term, monogamous way that leads to a wedding and a family. But if I could…I promise…it would be with you.”

“Maybe in a different life.” He adds, reigning in his emotion.

Your face softens at his words. You reach out to hold his hand and he holds you tenderly.

“I didn’t mean to cause you the pain that I have.” he whispers, his voice hoarse.

Tears fall down your eyes. You’ve always carried the blame on yourself. Hearing that from him lifts imaginable weight from your chest. You didn’t realize how badly you needed his apology.

He reaches into his pocket for a handkerchief and wipes away your tears.

“We’ve wasted so many years lost in our own pain.” you mumble back, looking away from him.

“We were too young to deal with the cards that we have been dealt then.” he replies, “You should be kinder to our younger selves.”

He lightly squeezes your hand and for a moment you’re both silent.

“Yeah, I guess I should.” you said with a small smile, “I wish we could press a reset button to start over.”

You hear footsteps entering the infirmary. Itadori Yuuji sees the two of you, hands still entangled in each other. He tries to walk back as if not having seen you.

You both pull away. Strangely you don’t feel embarrassed at all.

“Yuuji, go get a wheelchair. We’re taking our guest for a walk. It’s a beautiful day today.” he instructs, eyes still locked at you. Yuuji nods, glad to be sent away.

He turns to you grinning, “That kid was stunned at how beautiful you are. He told me so on the way back. He only likes Jennifer Lawrence so I guess you’re at par with her.”

You both chuckle and laugh.

“I’ve always wanted to be mistaken for a celebrity.”

“You’re more badass in real life though.” he tilts his head.

“You didn’t need him to get a wheelchair. I can try to walk.” you insist, pushing against the bed rails.

Gojo stands to help you, “The doctor clearly said you need to save your strength. You can walk when we get to the garden.”

“I can’t believe we’re bickering already.” you roll your eyes.

Gojo snorts. You crack a smile. He helps you swing your legs down the bed. Today you start anew, an attempt to reshape how your relationship should’ve been. Today, you finally get some new beginnings.

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General taglist: @itstheee-ha-chan @kaizumi@holaaaf@glxar@francxsca

Series Taglist: @kageyamakock 

Like this fic? Check out another Gojo fic here.

The rest of the series: Part 1 || Part 2 || Part 3 || Part 4 || Part 5 || Part 6 || Part 7 || Part 8

Heyyy if you made it this far. Let me know your thoughts and if you’d like to see the next chapters 🥺 Writing this fic had me feeling so many typa ways hahahaha and I just need to share it with people. 

[gyusbambi]

humph; han seojun (pt 5)

click here for humph masterlist!

story: frenemies to enemies to lovers, high school au

synopsis: seojun and you have known each other since kindergarten. you’re neighbors and even attended the same singing and piano classes. despite knowing each other for such a long time, you don’t enjoy spending time with seojun. even though you are aware of his unfairness, you keep spending time with him. when will you finally leave your childhood frenemy?

note:  this is the last part of the series! i’m thankful for everyone who liked, commented and shared this fanfiction it really means a lot to me! through this series i gained many followers, i never imagined that this would get so many likes! again, hope you enjoy the last part and stay tuned for many other fictions hehe. humph! is a story inspired by pentagon’s “humph! / 접근금지”. originally, this is a seungyeon fanfiction, which i posted on my wattpad. words: ~4k

words cannot describe your current feelings. all you can say is that everything feels unreal and odd. indeed, you’re no longer able to focus on your work. all because of that night. all because of stupidly drunk han seojun.

why did you have to pick him up? why didn’t you just call someone else? thanks to his actions, you feel emotionally confused. not to mention, you are frightened to go to school. 

can you imagine how awkward it’s going to be if seojun remembers the night? without doubt, your heart would get broken because you just know he’s going to apologize for kissing you. he’ll tell you it happened because he was drunk and definitely not because he feels anything for you.

memories from that night fill your head and it’s the only thing you can think of for the rest of the weekend. 

not until your mother forces you to visit the han’s with her. no wonder you refuse to go, han seojun kissed you! of course, neither your mother nor your brother understand your panicked actions when you drop on your knees, hiding your face in your palms dramatically. both of them end up dragging you to the han’s, ignoring your annoying whines.

seojun’s mum greets you with excitement when you eventually arrive at their front door. stepping in with your trembling body, you look around in paranoia, checking if seojun’s home. while doing so, you fail to notice juyeong giving you a side glance with narrowed eyes.

you: chorong please pick me up from seojun’s house

quickly you type your friend a text message before entering the living room, where gowoon waves at you happily.

kim chorong: you’re at seojun’s?! 

kim chorong: can i guess what you’re doing ;)

your phone rings two times in a row, making all eyes land on you. laughing it off, you put your phone on mute before typing chorong a reply.

you: ew no please just save me from here okay?

the conversation between the mums continue and suddenly your brother asks if seojun is home. gowoon replies that he probably got out of the shower just now, which puts you in a panicked situation. 

i need to get outta here

but like always, the universes loves playing with you right on time because the next thing you see is seojun walking out of his room, dressed in jeans and a hoodie, hand ruffling his wet hair. trying your best not to make eye contact, your gaze darts around the whole room. 

after greeting your mother and juyeong, seojun’s eyes land on your awkward figure. no longer able to avoid his gaze, you look right back at seojun, cheeks turning into a red color. you can’t do anything but blink since you’re extremely nervous. if he does remember everything from that night, you want to get swallowed by the floor beneath you. if he doesn’t, you certainly will try your best to remain calm and unsuspicious. 

“do you have a moment?”, without waiting for too long seojun grabs your wrist after putting the towel away.

“f-for what?” you manage to speak as your panicked posture suddenly stiffens.

“science project.”, the boy comes up with an average excuse while trying to ignore the surprised looks everyone is giving him as he practically drags you to his own room.

what if he knows?!

from all the heart racing, you’re sure that you’ll end up in the hospital one day. it technically pounds heavily in your chest when you’re head is going through every possible answer you could give seojun when he asks you about the kiss. 

after pulling you into his room, seojun closes the door behind you before pushing your body against it. in only seconds, his palm presses against it, right next to your face. it reminds you of the time when he questioned you about his motorcycle keys in the hallways. thankfully, his face isn’t as close as back then. you’re pretty sure, you would’ve fainted by now.

“so what about the science project, haha?” words finally leave your mouth when you realize seojun isn’t going to say anything but stare at your flustered face.

“about that...”, seojun mutters in a quiet tone as he leans in slowly. the only thing you can do is avoid his gaze while gulping, thinking that he probably remembers the kiss. yet, when he doesn’t stop getting closer, lips almost touching yours, you push him away in a swift move, eyes wide in shock,

“what the hell!”

han seojun doesn’t seem surprised. he only scratches his neck, eyes darting around his room before finally landing on your panicked figure,

“i had to do an experiment.”

“w-what experiment? are you kidding me?”

more confused than ever, you question with a flushed face. however, seojun sighs to reveal his exhaustiveness, hands hiding his face before rubbing his brow to ward off his headache,

“i- something happened friday night and i can’t stop thinking about it.”

acting like you don’t know what happened, you continue to look at him with confusion.

“i drank a little bit too much and can’t really remember anything except for one detail- but apparently someone came to pick me up and brought me home. i asked the worker who it was and he told me it was my neighbor.”

when seojun trails off and shakes his head with furrowed eyebrows you hold yourself back from letting out a relieved sigh. 

he doesn’t know it was you. it’s like all the worries leave your body before the boy starts talking again,

“isn’t that weird? i mean why would my neighbor come to get me, it’s not like i’m close to any of them. also, which neighor? he said it was a girl around your height with y/h/c hair. the only neighbor that comes to my mind is lee minji but there’s no chance i could have kissed her.”

“you did what?”, although knowing exactly what he did, your eyes widden in horror when you notice that he remembers the kiss but not the person. seojun realizes what he just said and tries to explain everything in a rushed tone,

“look, i don’t know why i did it. i was drunk! besides that, i’m not even sure if it was her, or anyone! what if it’s just a false memory? or a dream?”

the young boy feels like he needs to justify himself to you when he catches glimpse of the worry hiding in your eyes. han seojun doesn’t want you to think that he would kiss anyone just like that. in fact, he wouldn’t want to kiss anyone but you. 

but that’s not what you’re thinking at the moment. the only thing you can focus on is seojun’s statement leaving his mouth a few seconds ago: “i was drunk!”

of course, he was. how could you even have the smallest hope that he kissed you because he wanted to? ashamed of your expectations, you clear your throat and look away, playing with the rings on your fingers.

“oh man, that sucks!”, you chuckle falsely, “don’t worry about it too much. it could happen to anyone, you know?”

“i think about it day and night, thought.”, seojun rubs his neck, eyes fixed on the carpet on the floor.

“why? was it that special for you?”, laughing you push his shoulder playfully.

unexpectedly, seojun looks up to meet your eyes and blinks,

“it was.”

your heart drops. your body freezes on spot. your eyes stare into his. 

hearing this shocked you, why was it special to him? without doubt, it was special to you too. precisely, you remember his soft lips on yours, warm touch on your face.

breaking the stare, you shake your head and look around, “just forget about it.”

after a short silence, your eyes finally land on something certain on seojun’s desk. taking a few steps closer, you are able to take a closer look at the item. picking up the polaroid picture, you smile at the photo of you sleeping on seojun’s shoulder in the bus. your arm was wrapped around his torso, his look fixed on you.

“where did you get this?”, turning around with the picture still in your hands, you show it to seojun with a happy face.

“o-oh that? the others took it while you were sleeping.”

“i didn’t know you had this.”

“yeah, i kinda just forgot hahahaha.”

“sure you did!”, suddenly kim chorong bursts into the room with a teasing smile,

“i’m here, y/n. but it seems like you don’t need me anymore.”

“why are you here?”, seojun frowns.

“she told me to come! it’s not always about you.”, sticking out this tongue, your friend shrugs and lets himself fall on seojun’s bed,

“what are we doing today? how about noraebang?”

_

brushing his fingers over the multiple lipsticks, seojun’s eyes focus on a certain pink one. hesitantly, he picks it up to take a closer look before putting it back to its place.

“do they have strawberry ones?”, he asks his sister who looks for something specific. gowoon asked his brother if they could go to the mall together, since she’s been getting into make up these days and therefore needs more products.

“what?”

“like strawberry lip balms.”

“why do you need one?” she laughs at her brother who seems a little unsure.

“just because!” seojun tries to hide everything when he notices his sister making fun of him.

when she eventually shows him the lip balms and he’s able to smell all of them, seojun gives up. the boy went through several lip balms but couldn’t find the right one. maybe he should just give up looking for signs.

“why is everyone so obsessed with them? y/n owns plenty of them, it‘s insane.“

juyeong, who happened to tag along with gowoon and seojun, lets out a sigh as he watches the older boy.

“she does?“, suddenly seojun is interested in something that juyeong says.

“absolutely. you can ask her, you know?“

“i should ask her as well! she seems to like make up!“, gowoon smiles excitedly.

although juyeong is aware of his sister‘s lack of skills in make up, he still nods almost to quickly,

“definitely, you should! you can come to our house since she‘s always home anyway.“

seojun no longer listens to the younger‘s conversation, but instead thinks about what juyeong said earlier.

_

running to get in class on time has become a regular thing for you. once again, your legs move in super speed in the empty hallways as you hold tight on your heavy books. not even realizing your open backpack hanging on your right shoulder, you struggle to breathe normally. 

you become interested in your untied shoes while running and suddenly bump into someone else, because you didn’t look ahead.

in a swift move the person steadies you to keep you from falling. still, your backpack drops from your shoulder and causes all of your belongings to drop on the floor. 

too distracted from the mess that got created, you quickly kneel down to collect your books and folders,

“shoot!” you mutter, extremely stressed from the fact that you’re losing more time.

“running late again, zombie?”

you realize it’s han seojun when he bends down to help you pick up your stuff. after collecting some of your folders and books, his eyes focus on a certain lip balm placed next to your foot. instantly he reaches for it with a frown, your books still in his other hand.

completely stressed out, you rapidly stuff all of your supplies into your backpack and fail to notice seojun observing every small detail of your lip balm. as you finally look up, you take your books away from seojun’s grip and hold them in your hands instead of putting them back in, so that you can save some time,

“thank you.”, before you can leave seojun stands in front of you, holding your strawberry lip balm. after smelling it, he raises his eyebrows at you,

“is this yours?”

“oh, yes! thanks.” unaware of his thoughts, you take the item from his hand with a smile and put it into the pocket of your blazer. 

and then seojun just stands there, watching you sprint to your next class. 

he’s about to lose his mind. 

_

patting his skin dry with a towel after washing it with cold water, seojun’s gaze darts around the school’s gym. his eyes look for you in the big hall filled with students, who came to watch the basketball game. the young boy is sure to have seen you sitting in the first row with lee suho during the game. however, it seems like you are nowhere to be seen. did you maybe leave with lee suho?

frustrated and tired at the same time, seojun approaches his friend kim chorong only seconds after the game,

“do you know where y/n is?”

“y/n? i’m not quite sure. she was here during the whole game, thought.”, chorong shrugs with a small pout forming on his lips.

“how did she leave so fast?”, seojun sighs annoyed before someone suddenly hits his back forcefully,

“if you’re looking for y/n, she just left with lee suho.”, sua tries to hide her teasing smile.

“with lee suho? why? where did they go?”

“she told me she lost her bracelet and wanted to find it.”, sua crosses her arms,

“they’re probably looking in the hallways or something.”

hearing that, seojun instantly drops his bag and runs out of the gym hall, ignoring his friend’s calls.

“yah, where are you going? we’re gonna celebrate your win!”, kim chorong yells only to turn to sua after seojun is out of his sight. they both share a smile before high fiving,

“good job.”

“taehoon just called me. suho left y/n. she’s alone in the hallways, looking for that bracelet.”

“as expected, cupid team never fails.”

_

seojun slows down when he turns the next corner. finally reaching the hallway of the third floor, his steps echo in the empty area. it’s dark outside and many students already left the building right after the end of the basketball game, leaving only seojun and you in the dark hallway of the third floor. 

eventually the young boy spots you near your classroom, searching for your bracelet with worried eyes. he notices how you run your hand through your hair, upset that you lost something so important. seojun hides behind the wall, still questioning if he should approach you. strangely, suho is not around which makes him question everything.

while thinking about leaving, seojun’s eyes land on a specific item placed right next to the plant on his right side. surprised, he picks up the flower bracelet, which he gifted you after he apologized on the last day of the school trip, and stares at it for a short while. 

hesitantly, seojun finally steps out and approaches you with a more relaxed figure. 

letting out a yelp, you turn around in a swift move when you feel two hands placing on your shoulders. with widen eyes you face han seojun standing only a few inches away from you. pressing a palm on your chest, you sigh in relief,

“you scared me. again.”

“looking for this?”, ignoring your annoyed eyes, he swings your bracelet in his right hand.

“how- where did you find it? i was looking everywhere!”, quickly you snatch it away from him to place it around your wrist tightly, making sure it won’t slip out this time.

“is it so important that you spend hours searching in this building?” seojun rolls his eyes and crosses his arms over his chest, “you should go home now. it’s really late.”

“yes. it is important to me.” you mutter and glare at the boy in front of you before thanking him.

after that, suddenly silence takes over the room. you are too busy adjusting the bracelet on your wrist, while seojun only watches you with a curious gaze. he seems to be lost in his own thoughts. 

it’s true that he’s seen you wear it every single day.

he’s also certain about the smell of your strawberry lip balm. seojun is a little bit angry at himself, for remembering every small detail of the kiss, but not the face of the person he shared it with. maybe he’s just tricking himself about it. maybe it is actually you, who he kissed that night.

thinking of the only way to find out, the boy interrupts the long silence as he puts his hand into the pocket of your blazer, taking out the specific strawberry lip balm. you’re more than surprised and freeze on spot when he places the tip of the container on your bottom lip and applies it on your lips. 

absolutely taken aback, you fail to notice seojun taking a few steps closer to you, his body almost attached to yours now. it doesn’t take him long to lift up your chin, enabling your eyes to meet his. they look into yours with so much intensity that your cheeks start glowing from the heat. once again, your heart pounds aggressively in your chest as the young boy nears his face to yours. from all your experiences till now, you feel the most nervous now. not to mention, confused from his sudden actions. (*insert “i’m the mood for dancing” by yuju*)

last time he was drunk and didn’t know what he was doing.

now he’s completely aware of his actions.

instantly you close your eyes shut, waiting impatiently for his lips to touch yours. both of you have been longing feel this feeling again, never able to get rid of the memory from friday night. seojun tilts his head slightly before finally placing his lips on your soft ones. 

and in the exact moment, when he tastes the strawberry flavor on your lips, his heart speeds up, his hands hold your warm face, he knows it’s you. he realizes that it was you, who picked him up and you, who he kissed with so much emotion.

firmly you grip onto seojun’s t-shirt when your knees feel weak. as a result the boy only smiles against your lips before his hands move from your face to your waist, pulling you to his body. running one hand up and down your waist, he continues moving his lips against yours.

before you have the chance to move yours arms to wrap them around his neck, seojun slowly pulls away. you open your eyes to see him licking his bottom lip with a small smile. somehow you’re unable to meet his eyes when he lets out a chuckle,

“thought i wouldn’t find out sooner or later?”

“h-how did you know it was me?”, you whisper, grip still tight on his shirt.

“strawberry taste.” 

his simple answer surprises you, “oh, right...”

seojun caresses your face in his hands as he notices your shy tone to make you look at him,

“why didn’t you just tell me?”

“i thought you didn’t mean it since you were extremely drunk.”

“ah, y/n. you haven’t changed at all, have you?”

hearing seojun suddenly laugh makes you even more confused,

“what do you mean?”

“you’re always so oblivious about everything like my feelings towards you.” seojun smiles at you adoringly and pushes a few strands of hair behind your ear.

“you-”

“i like you, y/n. have been the whole time.”

“you were always mean to me, how was i supposed to know?”, slighlty pouting, you push his shoulder playfully.

“you’re right and i’m sorry about that. i was so focused on hiding my feelings that i didn’t realize i was hurting you. i didn’t want you to think that i liked you.”

“you succeeded.”

“yeah,” seojun scratches his neck while looking into your eyes, “still haven’t gotten an answer from you, y/n.”

taking his hand, you rub the back of it before kissing his right cheek,

“i like you too, seojun.”

seojun melts. he feels his happiest and his cheeks turn into the shade of a tomato.

“look at us. who would’ve thought?”, you laugh at his shyness.

“not me.”, seojun smiles before pulling you in for another kiss.

_

the cold hair hits your face as you sit on a swing while seojun pushes you. swinging your feet with a big smile on your face, you glance behind your shoulder quickly to see seojun looking at you with adoring eyes.

“higher!”, you scream, catching the kids’ attention on the playground for a short second.

therefore, your boyfriend pushes you with more force as he tries to hide his amused grin, “as you wish, my highness. but you’re scaring the kids away, don’t you think?”

“feels like we’re kids again.”, you remember your childhood moments with seojun.

“enough for now. when is it my turn?”, seojun pouts playfully, still pushing you on the swings.

“i said ten minutes not five, seojun.”

both of you laugh hysterically at your remark before he firmly grips on the chain of the swing, making it stop abruptly. before you can turn around to look at him with a frown, your boyfriend places a kiss on your left cheek, causing them to turn into a shade of bright pink.

“i love you.”

“i love you too, seojunnie.”

that’s all seojun needs to hear before pushing you on the swing again, heart melting in his chest.

and in the end of the day he knows that you’ll always be there for him. and you know that he’ll be right there too.

_

the end!

this is the last part of the series “humph; han seojun”. firstly, i hope you liked the ending and the story in total. secondly, i wrote this story because i noticed that there aren’t many han seojun fics! i thank everyone for giving me all the love that i don’t deserve. thirdly, please stay tuned for more fanfictions! be aware that i’m open for requests, feedback and everything nice. love you and stay safe,

your writer renjunes