#could serve for something real cool yknow?

[drakkonyan]

The future never forgets the events that shaped it The past awaits for better times to come

[noelledeltarune]

gooigi rant?? pls. i love the goo-ber

ok this is another case where i don't really have that much of substance to say but literally gooigi is so fucked up to me. like e gadd's research journal actually makes me kind of upset 💀💀. i know he has very little canon character but i am very endeared to gooigi and so just knowing about e. gadd's research journal kind of fucks me up :-(

like literally you read it and one of the first things said about goo is that its like. sentient to some extent. even as a blob. and it's capable of reacting to stimulus. when water is poured on it it actively like. moves away from the water to avoid melting. it can hear and will follow music being played.

so you see that and then it's like oh ok cool this thing is alive. sick. and so then there's the whole shebang with the using stolen dna thing to give gooigi like his actual physical form. and it's like oh okay cool so you've made a guy. that's a guy now. you made a person. 👍

and so then it's like the. weaknesses testing and stuff.

which like ok. whatever. sure. see like idk if gooigi just doesnt really care about the whole getting experimented on and hit with giant hammers and melted and set on fire thing so i'll also just say that's whatever. but like idk it kinda fucks me up in general just because of the last part LOL like

was this really necessary :-( like think with me. imagine you made a guy. you accidentally spilled coffee on some of the samples you were studying and it came to life and you so made a guy.

this guy is sentient. reacts to stimuli. can definitely act independently because you cannot play as gooigi in 1p mode in the luigi's mansion 3ds port.

so like this is the main point of the post because it just messes me up soooo baddddd like i have never ever imagined gooigi as a tool even playing lm3 in 1p mode just because of the way that he like. is a separate guy from luigi. not really questionably. like when you collect something as one the other will still react (even if you're only controlling luigi while gooigi is out of the tank, gooigi'll give a little thumbsup yknow). the several cutscenes where gooigi just acts on his own independently of luigi like right after you beat king boo + the ending + several of the credits photos if my memory serves correctly. that's a guy. so hearing e gadd be like "oh man this person i made has his own thoughts and feelings and doesnt listen to me sometimes. i think i will possess him." is just like. was that really the only option. did you HAVE to do that.

like i'm sorry this is becoming just mainly pictures but 😭😭 wow so crazy how embedding a chip in someone to control them will stop them from acting independently and doing what they would normally do if they could control their actions... and like the fact he landed on POSSESSION of all things as the best way to control gooigi like 😭😭 this kinda shit's always happening to guys who's names end in uigi

also like kind of unrelated but can you imagine being luigi and finding out about this? like "wow you used my dna to make a guy and then spent hours of rigorous testing trying to and eventually succeeding in quashing his free will so you could possess it to hunt ghosts? thats nice" he doesnt actually know about this as far as i'm aware but it's the principal of the thing :-( i feel like it would upset him

ANYWAYS point is i like gooigi and always imagined him as like being his own character so the research journal fucks me up a little 💀 top ten moments that really cement e gadd's status as a fucked up scientist.

in general to me i feel like he definitely got meaner over the years :-( which makes me kind of sad because in lm1 his main goal definitely seemed to be like..helping luigi LOL. like he saved his life and seemed genuinely concerned when he found out about mario being a real man who has since been captured. and he helped luigi to get mario back without it feeling necessarily like his primary goal was in his own self interest. but a lot of his dialogue just feels really mean in dark moon and lm3 goes like almost the opposite way. this section in particular always stood out to me as feeling out of character compared to him in the original

and like i could be wrong about dark moon because i've never played it but just like reading the dialogue on the wiki was like 😬😬 he was SOOO mean to luigi like

reading half of these was just like man if i were him i would have cried i'm serious 😭

and this is of course not to say that i hate e gadd in general but i will admit to not really liking him much after dark moon

[solomonish]

Dork Solomon Agenda

You say sexy shady sorcerer I say nerd and love of my life

Solomon is a sad lonely little man why just wants a genuine connection us that so much to ask???

No but seriously like. It's totally fine if you hc Solomon as this man-turned-lowkey-sex-god with a million succubi and more at his whim whenever he wants and would be a tough one to put the ol' ball and chain on like to each their own for sure! But that's not MY hc

(Thats not to say my hc means he doesn't ever engage in casual sex like that and wanting a genuine long term relationship at some point [or finding out thats what you want when you meet someone] are not mutually exclusive yknow)

So like Solomon isn't the type to be short with you or keep you at an arm's length (i mean...u get what I mean. Once you're close enough and all that jazz) or get annoyed by you wanting to be affectionate?? Hello??

He LOVES the little things you do (some on accident tbh). You feeling affectionate today and give him a kiss or three on his face before you leave to go to your separate classes? Adorable, he's fallen in love again. You do that thing where you like.. forget how to walk straight and just accidentally bump into him? No come back he likes being close to you :( He doesn't SAY these things but there's a light, airy laugh he has that gives him away.

If you're ever facetiming he will say "boo!" when you connect instead of just. Greeting you like a normal person.

His fuckin. His devilgram name is monSOLO. My mans is a star wars fan!!! I dont know any of The Discourse bc I'm not super into star wars myself but he has IN DEPTH opinions about the movies. Seriously rivals Levi in this aspect. Please make time for movie nights where you watch the movies together 🥺 especially if you haven't seen them before he'd love to convert you 🥺

Didn't Solomon also have a thing for TSL??? Or am I just imagining it??

I feel like his ideal date would be exploring something new, whether its this new spooky forest or "hey have we been down this alley before? Let's check it out!" but ideal date number TWO is movie night. Even if it isn't Star Wars. He likes to sit on opposite ends of the couch throwing popcorn into each other's mouths (and big candies like peanut m&ms where you both have almost choked before) and maybe a footsie war if he's feeling real devious. Then at some point you grab a blanket and snuggle up to him and you both fall asleep on the couch

Simeon yells at him when you leave because there's popcorn EVERYWHERE

LOVES when you laugh super loud. Idk man he just thinks its great when you have such unbridled joy and then he laughs too 😊 not as loud though he's more of a quiet chuckle kind of guy (most of the time).

Is friends with Asmo so is extremely great at slumber party gossip. Catch him in his pajamas, cross-legged on the floor while clutching a pillow to his chest and listening intently to you rant about the brothers.

"Come here I have a secret to tell you" (blows air in your ear) "okay okay I'm sorry but come here again" (blows air on your neck) "okay okay last time! I actually have something to tell you. Please? Its important...." (kisses ur cheek) "like u a lil bit xo"

Never the type to send "good morning beautiful" or "good night 💞" texts. Instead he'll send you something at 4 am like "the infinite cosmos will eventually swallow whole all familiarity and life as it is now presently known and despite the adaptations humans or demons or angels could make i will still have to adapt and face the world as an alien in the realm I love so dearly. Funny how the strongest of beings bow to the whim of space and time. But sometimes my eternal journey doesn't seem so daunting when I realize that with my everlasting life will be the memory of you no matter how distant and the survival of the vessel you loved...."

And then at lunch that day when the brothers pull you away he'll send you a picture of the lasagna they're serving with "this kinda looks like you? Don't worry I'd still hit it" and then two minutes later "you not the pasta"

Is the type to think randomly "oh damn I love you so much" but has an impressive filter about it. Or he thinks he does until Luke grumbles "ugh get a room thats the fifth time you've seen that since monday" ok, sometimes he has a good filter about it

He can't help it! Sometimes you just say something really smart (or something SPECTACULARLY dumb) or you do something cute like lean on him or smile a specific way or-

Sir.....you're head over heels sir :/

The type who would go to a playground at night with you and just swing on the swings talking about life

Wants to have a secret handshake with you!!

If you're ever on a road trip with just the two of you, you can get him to join in on the terrible singing but he'll be a lot quieter than you

Also will only join in if he isn't driving. If he is and you aren't talking, he's just humming underneath his breath. Will drum on the steering wheel though

Cooking

(Yes, it gets its own section because MAYBE I'm obsessed with the idea of MC teaching Solomon to cook and the food still turning out terrible but at least it isn't a void when MC is helping)

The type to flick water at you every time he washes his hands. Will chase you down just to do it.

"Hey, tilt your head back and open your mouth MC" (proceeds to dump too big a handful of shredded cheese in your mouth)

100% the type to lean over you just to hinder your cooking abilities. Who cares if the sauce splashes he's tiiiired.... you'd let belphie do it :(

Puts a hand on your lower back when he passes behind you. Hopes you'll lean into it/step back and offer him a kiss 🥺

Believes in always having a proper table setting. Prepare for whatever juice they have (or water) in wine glasses if you're having a nice-er meal

Under the assumption that a spell ruined his sense of taste (and not that he's just bad at cooking) he hates spicy food. He can feel the burn but he gets none of the flavor??? Wack. Don't hurt him like that MC. If you do because its hilarious to watch him try to be cool about it he will pout

Gets cheesy aprons. He just likes them.

Will hit you on the top of your head with a whisk to hear the noise it makes

Will buy every kitchen hack tool there is. A ketchup dispenser that looks like a gun? He's got it. A fish that helps you squeeze out the egg yolks? Yes! A dinosaur soup ladle? You bet! Pizza scissors? A tool that makes hard boiled eggs into cubes? Something that's gotta be like 200 years old and no discernable purpose? Absolutely! He wants a hot dog toaster. Do they even have hot dogs in the devildom?

Will sneak bites just because it bothers you

Overall

Look at him. He hasn't had friends in centuries. He's playful!

Look at his DEVILGRAM NAME

His funky little WAND

This is a man who is a huge nerd, thrives off of cliches and just wants to have a good time. So let him! Its mentally exhausting having those pretenses up all the time.

[madame-fear]

screaming, crying, foaming at the mouth and gripping the sheets. your works are so good 😭🫶best writer ily

more josh templeton head canons pleassseeee 😽

i was thinking like some more cutesy cutesy stuff yknow “i like the way your hand looks in mine” and OMG dancing😭in the😭rain😭🥹 just absolutely kill me with the amount of cheesy fluff please. hugs from behind, first kiss, the confesion even omg. “would you date me if i was a worm?🥺”

~🦈

OMG THANK YOUUU!!! 😭😭💕💕 I swear it makes me so so happy to read that you like my work aaaaaa–🥺🥺❤ It's an honour to serve this lovely community 🥰

JOSH TEMPLETON FLUFF HEADCANONS COMING RIGHT UP 🙌 I decided to make general HCs for this one so I could write a variety of things for this cutie boy, so here it goes!! 🥰 Happy reading! 💕

(whoops I just noticed i also got a bit carried away with this one and might be long 😅 anyways! Hope you still enjoy it! Made it as fluffy as possible💕)

_________________________________________

Josh Templeton x Fem!Reader | General Fluff Headcanons

Lover boy™

Once this precious boy has fallen in love with you, you've got him. He's forever yours, he's the most LOYAL person you could ever have in your life.

When he realises he's falling deep for you (a lot), it would take him some time to actually admit it, even to himself. Just let him process what he's feeling, and he'll eventually give up and just admit it.

This cute boy would be so, so incredibly awkward and nervous around you 🥺 On the outside he tries to keep his cool, and on the inside he's absolutely losing his shit when he sees you near him.

You're one of the girls he told Zach he would date and have sex with

He's ALWAYS near you, or putting up excuses just to be near you. He thinks so highly of you, and he appreciates every second he gets to spend with you 💕

It takes him some time to actually confess to you that he's in absolute love with you. Despite being so, so afraid of rejection, he needs so badly to get it off his chest.

The day he finally confesses, he would do it by inviting you to hangout at his house after school. I definitely picture him with a whole speech prepared! Mainly because he knows he'll get extremely nervous and perhaps stutter, so he doesn't really want to fail, especially because he's confessing his undying love for you.

You had your first kiss that same day he confessed. Of course, you were the one who initiated the kiss because he was too nervous to do so.

After the kiss please tell him you love him too, because hIS WHOLE HEART WILL MELT WITH TONS OF EMOTIONS HE'S NEVER FELT BEFORE 🥺💕💕💕

Your best friend, Josh had invited you to hangout to his home after school. You had an enormous crush on him, so of course you said yes. You were enjoying yourself a lot spending time next to him, but the problem was, that you noticed him more nervous than usual.

Worried for him, you placed a hand on his shoulder reassuringly. His body immediatly tensed at the feeling of your hands touching him. "Hey, Josh, are you ok? I noticed you've been acting tense lately." Slightly tilting your head to your side, there was a spark of concern in your voice, as you gently rubbed his shoulder, his body was still tense.

He wasn't looking at you, he was directly looking to the floor. He took a depe breath, and sighed. "I have to tell you something." His voice was soft and quiet. "What is it? Please tell me. You know you can trust me." Your other hand went directly to grab his hand and slightly squeeze it. You could feel him getting even more tense under your touch.

Now, he lifted his sight and looked directly into your eyes, his blue eyes heavily pierced through your whole soul, provoking small butterflies in your stomach. In his cheeks, there was a hint of redness. "I..." He stopped for a brief moment, but continued, "I like you, (Y/N)!" Your eyes went wide at his sudden confession. Was this real? Or just a pretty dream? You thought to yourself.

"I love you. I love every little thing about you. Your smile never fails to lighten my day. You're so, so pretty in many ways, and so incredibly smart. I spend my nights completely sleepless because of you, I just can't get you off my mind. I get it if you don't li–" You interrupted his speech by throwing yourself at him as you immediatly wrapping your arms around his neck, and gave him a deep and loving kiss.

He was ar shock first, but eventually gave in the kiss, allowing himself to be immersed in your love as he softly caressed your cheek with his thumb. You then broke it apart after running out of air, and you looked at him with a wide grin on your face. "I love you too, silly. I always have, since the first time we met." His blush intensified, as a smile also began forming on his face. "So, that means...we are dating now?" You shyly asked, as you were still on top of him, your arms wrapped around his neck.

"Only if you want to." "Of course I do." "Then it's settled. We're a thing now."

Prepare to be absolutely loved by this cutie boy 💗

Baby steps with him, please. He's literally clueless about dating.

He's actually very shy when it comes to physicality, so it would take him a while to get used to it. Most likely you're the one initiating the physical contact with him until he's confident enough to do it first.

Eventually he'll start getting used to your kisses, hugs, cuddles, and all sort of physical contact. So, that's enough to boost his confidence a bit and make him kiss you first.

His kisses are so soft and are full of pure love 🥰 He loves cupping your cheeks when he kisses you because he loves how they feel in his hands 🥺💕

When it comes to display of affection, he prefers doing it in private rather than PDA. The only way he shows his love for you in public is by grabbing your hand and giving you a quick peck on your lips.

HAND HOLDING ALL THE TIME 24/7 💗

His favourite part of your body are your hands. He always grabs your hand and places it on top of his hand so he can caress it with his fingers.

For him, it's actually very cute how delicate and small your hands look in his 🥰

"You know," He finally spoke, after you two were in complete silence for a few good minutes. "I like the way your hand looks in mine."

At this point, hand kisses are very often. He'll love kissing your delicate hands, and sometimes he gives your finger little pecks.

Dates as often as possible! 💕

He loves the feeling of your body pressed against his, so expect him to randomly hug and kiss you from behind.

He would lovingly wrap his arms around your waist and press you against his body, also, he places his head on top of your shoulder and kisses both your cheek and neck 🥰

Considering that he likes always hugging you from behind, he would definitely be the big spoon in bed.

Speaking of beds & cuddles, you often spend time at his house and definitely spend the night there with him. He loves having you sleeping in the same bed as his! 💞 He gets to admire your beautiful and angelical face while you sleep.

Very often likes to play soft music and slow dance with you 💕Though, he kind of prefers slow dancing with you under the rain 😍

Only likes dancing with you bc he likes holding you near and twirling you around 💞

Just so, so pure and sweet. Expect to catch him staring at you completely lovestruck more than once! 🥺

Mess with his hair a bit, he'll absolutely move the feeling of having your fingers interwined in his wild hair.

His kisses are so gentle and passionate, and he'll love to either cup your cheeks or grab you by the waist while kissing you ♥️

If you ever want (and need), you can use his lap or shoulder as a pillow. If you place your head in his shoulder, he'll put an arm around you and sweetly rub your arms. But if you place your head in his lap, he'll love playing with your hair and touching your cheeks with the back of his fingers 😍

Biking around together all the time!

He loves teaching you how to use the katana. So, he'll usually take you to a forest or any place far away from the city & the people and will definitely teach you how to use it by slicing milk cartons.

He'll cheer you up and would be so proud of you when you slice several milk cartons without failing! You'll definitely be rewarded with a big smooch on your lips 😌

You're his top priority. This loving boy would take so, so much care of you, and promised to himself that he would always protect and defend you no matter the situation💗

"Would you date me if I was a worm?" "What–? Well, of course I fucking would. You'd be the cutest fucking worm I would've ever seen and I would take so much care of you."

[faelapis]

so. while this was confirmed a year ago, new tweets by ian jq have reawakened the discourse about humans being the first intelligent life gems encountered. note intelligent life, not organic life. alien animals still died from previous invasions, but humans are the first intelligent creatures gems encountered. 

apparently, the party line on twitter (where nuance goes to die) is that it’s too “convenient” that humans are the first other intelligent species gems met.

i take a few issues with that assessment: 

a) “it was pink’s first colony, isn’t it convenient the diamond concerned with organic life owns the first planet populated by intelligent organics? wouldn’t they have died if any other diamond got them? isn’t that super lucky?”

no. we know rose/pink was very interested in organic life from before earth. she always thought aliens were cool, interesting, fun, and liked learning about them and keeping some as pets - such as the rainbow worms. we know she visited the others’ colonies, even if she doesn’t own them. she’s the only diamond who is simultaneously “selfish” enough to visit colonies up-close on a whim because it’s fun AND doesn’t see herself as too good to play with local organics.

so, then, why on earth (hah) wouldn’t she care if there had been intelligent life on any of the other planets? she didn’t fight for earth just because she “owned” it. she cared because she was able to form connections to humans... which she would have done regardless of which diamond’s colony it was. if anything, ownership is a hindrance to her usual romps, because blue & yellow expected her to stay put in her moon base. smile and wave. be a “leader”. 

b) “how is it realistic that humans are the first intelligent life gems have met?”

the SU universe as a whole is not a universe filled with life. it has been framed as cold, animalistic, overall lifeless, purposeless, and one in which you gaze at an empty sky and beg for an authority figure to give your life meaning. this works much, much better if life, especially intelligent life, is incredibly sparse. they are small flickers in a cold void. it adds to the feeling that both humans and gems feel of loneliness and pointlessness, where you create these intricate structures of organized almost-religion to feel devoted to a purpose. this existentialism, which we will explore further below, is a huge part of SU’s themes.

c) another theme - and this one is important - is that gems and humans have been treated as this mirror parallel of life, people, and society (tm) for the entire runtime of the show. hence, steven as the bridge. a bridge, usually, connects two sides, not five. they are more similar than they are different - to the point where you can use gemkind to comment on how humans are like, and see some of the horrors and tragedy of what humanity looks like “from the outside”. not once has there ever been implied to be any other intelligent species to disrupt this elegant, thematic dichotomy. ever. 

d) unlike fanon speculation, the show has always been very careful about never implying there were any previous rebellions. SU is not a star wars-esque universe populated with a million different intelligent species and cyclical rebellions + alliances between them. it is a big, cold, empty void, with tiny pockets of fragile life. which is part of why the connection between two alien species is so remarkable. it is the exception, not the rule.

e) many of us who looked at homeworld in a not-badfaith light already came to the conclusion that humans are probably the only intelligent life they’ve met. (based on what we know about the universe, its logic, the themes, the implications of other colonies, pink diamond’s personality, no other species ever bonded with enough to fight for, etc etc,)... and those of us who did, including myself, have (lovingly!!) compared the crystal gems to hippies or eco-terrorists. this 100% holds up to how homeworld gems generally, and the diamonds specifically, see them. 

this is why blue thinks a “solution” to pink being sad about the invasion is to create the zoo. it’s a petty conflict, from her perspective, of environmentalism vs conservationism. like how, if a capitalist is kinda sad about a rainforest being bulldozed, you might as well just take some pretty toucans and panthers and stick them in a zoo. they’re preserved for humans to enjoy. problem “solved”. it worked with the kyanite colony & rainbow worms, why not here?

this is part of why lapis accuses the CGs of not caring about gemkind. they put this silly little dirtball above gemkind, starting a war that hurt (”real”) people? 

this is also why pink, mocking the other diamonds, says “you wish to save these life-forms at the expense of our own? ha! don't be absurd!”. gemkind needs resources to create more gems. so, to the diamonds, of course that’s more important than Making The Bees and Monkeys Sad. they’re not even directly killing them, they’re just taking resources. it’s not “””their fault””” they need ‘em too, gems are more important. the same way, to us, humans are always the most important. many of us don’t give a damn about how we hurt animals.

f) it galls me that anything but the darkest possible interpretation, even when it makes perfect sense with what we know, is always seen as “convenient” by people who watched nostalgia critic once and think they’re now great media critics. i saw similar comments to jasper being brought back to life, even though it made perfect sense with what’s implied about the powers of the diamonds. most of that, too, was woven together by paying close attention to implication, not outright stated in a lore dump - but that doesn’t make it “convenient” in the bad way. it makes it the logical outcome of this world, if you paid attention.

like jasper coming back to life, it also told us something thematic about the diamonds’ absolute power over life & death. steven is kinda horrified, even if it’s a good thing, that things can ever be fixed. he still feels like he needs to be “punished”. he holds this toxic mindset that punishment is more important than healing, because of the pit of self-harm he’s fallen into... which is kind of how some people see the diamonds, and the world as a whole. 

even if things can get better, it doesn’t matter. at least not as much as punishing and distancing ourselves from the “bad people”. even though, actually, things CAN get better, and that’s more dependent on systemic change than it is on punishing “bad” individuals... that doesn’t fascinate them. it’s a fucked-up idea of “consequences” that is sadly prevalent in fandoms: they’d rather the world be doomed if they get to kill the bad people for it, than the world being slowly healed in this bittersweet way that includes everyone.

and i’m tired of that. on the whole, fiction is a reflection of this very dour, justice-oriented view of the world where we can only gain satisfaction from punishing the bad guys responsible. SU’s response to that is, that actually, just this once... no! the world gets better, and the “how” doesn’t revolve around individual punishment. it’s trying to heal everyone. 

g) it seems to me that for a substantial amount of people, “convenience” has less to do with the themes and logic of the world than it does with wanting canon to live up to their fanon image of homeworld and the diamonds. even if that means a ton of offscreen intelligent life dying Just for the sake of a 1-v-1 earth-vs-gems conflict, with no agency in the story. i don’t understand how that would make it better. all other life we’ve seen have been animals. pink was around for other colonies - even if she didn’t personally “own” them - yet didn’t care deeply enough to fight for them. because she couldn’t bond with worms the same way as humans. (yknow, unfortunately, for the worms :’<)

also, you don’t NEED other species of intelligent life to have been made extinct to still have a somewhat cynical interpretation of the diamonds’ intentions here. even if it makes the world less grimdark in praxis. it’s not enough to be aware of humans in the abstract, blue and yellow still won’t listen. you need to actually interact with humans in order to learn about / care for organics that don’t serve a purpose in your system. this was just the first chance gemkind had to do so. it makes sense that some would be curious, while others more jaded and dismissive, after encountering a universe mostly made of the lifeless & animals.

to give the other diamonds some credit, they’ve probably encountered plenty organic life, and thus have built up a bias that everyone but gemkind are aimless, animalistic life forms, and its up to them to give themselves purpose. why should humans be any different? oh wow, they live in groups? big whoop. so do ants. they build nests? so do birds. they babble? so do parrots and rainbow worms. they still serve no purpose. they still die if you breathe on them.

it’s only when blue meets greg - thousands of years later - that we see even the tiniest of cracks, in which blue is made aware of some level of emotional intelligence, but is still firmly entrenched in the view that he’s just a Slightly more advanced organic than others. like... puppies comforting you. she was surprised he could even do that much. this was a slow process for rose as well! 

but anyway, at the point of the war, to many gems, they are concerned first and foremost with gemkind. life matters because of your singular, gem-oriented “purpose”... but some gems, like pink, who never saw herself as a justified goddess, take the opposite approach. they don’t see themselves as “above” other life out of either lack of awareness of the capabilities of intelligent life forms or a self-appointed Higher Purpose. they’re curious, and then, willing to fight for life they can bond with, once they learn to love. 

which brings me to...

h) how a big theme of the show as a whole is selflessness vs selfishness. 

here, the crystal gems as a whole have actually been on the side of selfishness, from homeworld’s perspective. the end of gathering resources would mean they would no longer create more gems. which, to HW, is selfish. which... of course it is, if you think you’re the only intelligent life out there. 

the way homeworld gems express themselves is through an elaborate system of self-perpetuation and creation, in which the emergence of more gems is a higher purpose for the collective. the individual doesn’t matter. to them, the random creatures they find on other planets do not matter. they’re just organics.

humans matter to pink because she’s, like i said, curious about alien life, and less convinced about her own purpose... but also more personal, relationship-driven, and cares about what happens the specific individuals she subjectively bonds with, rather than prioritizing the overall “needs” of her species, like a good queen bee is “supposed” to do. 

homeworld thinks that no individual feelings - even a diamond’s - is more important than perpetuating of the system that gives their species meaning. most gems are happy to be shattered for that cause, because they’ve never formed those “selfish” relationships that makes life worth living without purpose. so actually, yes, this works with pink’s motivation, and blue and yellow not being as easily swayed works with theirs.

(all of this is extremely relevant to the arc steven has in “future”, btw. he needs a reason to be needed, purpose. and pearl’s arc, white diamond’s arc, jasper’s arc, etc etc - living for purpose vs living for relationships and selfish exploration of the self is a massive theme of the whole show!! at leaast if you pay attention to anything more subtle than merely “here’s a lore dump!”, which the show has always avoided. it’s more sublime than that. you, too, are supposed to only have a small, subjective understanding of the world, like steven does, which teaches you to value subjective perspectives. your purpose is not higher than the agency of others, and you shouldn’t control the world.)

i) it makes dramatic sense, actually, to center the conflict around the first time gems have met another species that stand a chance of understanding them! hence steven is a bridge. that’s a good basis for mirroring two species, a conflict that raises interesting questions about how we, too, see non-human life, the premium we place on emotional connection vs “purpose”, and how even when we learn to value humans that are different from us, we might still fuck around and bulldoze a rainforest, if it’s convenient and we can justify it internally. 

and again, it’s more logical. as we know it, the story went “long ago, gems took resources all over the universe, until pink found a species intelligent enough some of them learned to bond with on a deeper level than Cool Pet Worm”, NOT “long ago, gems zapped a bunch of intelligent species - which we will not mention ever, or give any agency in the story - and pink just ignored that, until she randomly decided humans were more important than all those, for no reason, even though she’d met countless intelligent species before”. 

the former makes more sense in ~every reading of canon, be it thematic, logical, personal, character-driven, etc~... except the one most favored by SU’s most badfaith of critics, which is that the only “logical” way for the story to go is one in which we can safely label the diamonds as inhumanly, unchangably bad, rather than having base assumptions, motivations and logics that aren’t so different from many non-dictator humans.

i think for some, they protest not because that makes more sense on a thematic, logical or character level, but simply because they want to. they’re USED to being fed that narrative satisfaction has to do with seeing the bad guys face comeuppance, in place of inclusive, welfare-oriented healing. faced with storytelling that rejects their view of justice while also openly being subjective, sublime, and loving of all of its characters, not just the “nice” ones, they see it as a “failure” to be what they’re used to. 

if the world CAN systemically heal in a way that includes people you personally don’t forgive, that must be a “flaw”. if those “bad guys” haven’t actually killed hundreds of intelligent species offscreen who have no chance to heal, that doesn’t fuel your justification for the most cynical interpretation of justice possible, so that, too, “must” be a “flaw”. if it’s framed as possible for them to work towards undoing their harm, that deprives you of the satisfaction of edgy punishment for unhealable hurt, so that, too, is of course a “flaw”. any world where healing is possible for everyone, and the perpetrators can contribute, must be a “flaw”, to a mind only concerned with the validity of vengeance. 

even when the story is perfectly candid that you’re personally allowed to be hurt and traumatized (like steven - and most characters, really), you’re still allowed to feel... you just can’t expect society as a whole to abandon its “inclusive healing” model and function on your logic; that your pain is solved by vengeance. it isn’t.

in short, cry about it. 

[to00ch]

I love what you write! If not, can I please ask HC for Heartslabyul, Leona and Malleus with a "madly" eccentric and cheerful reader like the Mad Hatter who can become more frightening and violent when someone hurts or speaks ill of the reader's loved ones? (on the same level as Floyd when he is in a bad mood lmao).

I feel like most of them turned out rather platonic aaaa I am not sure if I correctly potrayed ‘reader’ as a madly eccentric character, I just wrote them based on my interpretation on how I viewed the mad hatter hahaha

I hope you enjoyed it nonetheless <3

Tags: hinted romance, platonic love, mad hatter!reader

Characters: Heartsabyul babies, Leona Kingscholar & Malleus Draconia

Riddle Rosehearts

he’d be having plenty headaches from you

sometimes he’d use his magic on you cause he’s so tired of you breaking the rules, but that’s only if your actions are too much for him to handle

you have a lot of fun teasing him honestly, cause he’s super cute when he’s mad!! whenever he’d use his unique magic on you, you would bug him more, so in the end he’d undo his magic and let you go

“Riddle~ please let me go hehe, I’ll behave? I think?” you’d repeat a number of times

You’re really protective of him, since you’re very fond of him. When you hear someone trash talking him, you won’t hesitate to throw them in a bin

“Oh my god, (y/n) how many times do I have to tell you to stop doing that?” he’d scold you as he rubs his temples “But Riddle, they were speaking ill of you! How dare they! Talking trash about my favourite person, so I decided that it’ll be good if I dumped them in an actual trash can!” you huffed. 

Moments like this though, made him soften up a little for you, he didn’t show it though, cause if you knew that that made him happy, you would actually be more encouraged to do those things again. “Seriously, what am I to do with you,” he’d sigh and shake his head

Trey Clover

Trey is very good at handling you, it’s like handling a child

He really didn’t mind it, it amused him

Sometimes he’d get overwhelmed from it though, so he’d gently tell you to calm down a little

He always made you your favourite dessert, served with his special tea blend! He loved making you happy! But you felt like he always made you happy regardless

Trey always called you a good girl/boy if you calmed a little, and give you head pats

He gets really worried if you started acting brashly when you’re angry, so what he’d do is give you a butterfly hug (a method used to calm a person down) and made sure you breathed properly

“Sorry Trey, but they were bad mouthing you, I couldn’t let it go! I wish you didn’t do that to me so I can teach them a lesson,” you pouted. That made him chuckle a bit. “You see, (y/n), being violent could lead to something worse, and I don’t want anything bad happening to you,” he said gently as he rubbed your arm “You should really count to three before you act okay?” 

Cater Diamond

Dear lord, sometimes it could get tiring with you around so sometimes he would leave it to his clones

He’d try his best to avoid you, cause you knew which is the real Cater. How exactly? Well, you just knew

Oh but when you dress up eccentrically he’d take a picture and upload it on Magicam! And somehow it got pretty trendy, he knew what he was doing

Sometimes though he actually enjoyed hanging out with you, cause you were super eccentric, so he never got bored regarding the topics you talked about

During tea parties, he would sit with you! And you guys would gossip a lot, sometimes it got rlly funny and you couldn’t contain your laughter, so you laughed really loud and he’d close your mouth when people looked at the both of you

Cater didn’t mind people talking bad about him, well, atleast, he pretended to not care; which made you pissed when people were just being as*holes to him, purposely or not, and you just gave them a punch in the guts without any regrets. 

“Um, I guess I should say thank you? Oh but we totally gotta take a pic together, I won’t upload it though, its just a small memento,” and the both of you would casually take a selfie with the guys who messed around earlier on the ground, looking very much in pain

Ace Trappola

Phew, you guys would bicker everyday it gets worse when Grim is involved

Oh I think you guys would be the biggest headache combined, if you both weren’t fighting, you guys would sometimes gang up on teasing others

When you made stupid remarks he’d say “bro,,,,what IS going on in your head. I think about that every day,” you would look at him and giggle before pinching his nose “The fact that you’re thinking about me makes me kinda flattered,” and he’d pretend like he’s gagging

He won’t ever admit it but he really enjoys your company, if you weren’t there he’d ask your whereabouts

When he’s down, you’d always brighten up his moods by giving some random ass brain fart you thought of that day. It always worked, “you’re so weird, I’m getting worried,” he’d say but with a smile

Once he was picked on by a senior when you were there with him. Cause yknow he ‘bumped’ against that senior, and well the senior was like those typical “oH yoU bUmpEd me so aPologIse,” and obviously ace, being ace, was defending himself, which made that guy almost punch him but you just grabbed that dude’s arm and gave it a twist and threw him on the ground which came with a loud thud 

Ace smirked and gave you a high five and the both of you just left to wherever you guys were about to go and you guys kept on reenacting the scene otw

Deuce Spade

Deuce is very awkward around you, he didn’t know how to respond to your energy at first

But well people in NRC are all weird so this isn’t new, but he thinks the way you dress eccentrically is pretty cool

“Oh wow, where’d you get that fit? That’s pretty cool I’d be happy to wear something like that,”

Sometimes he unintentionally joins in your antics, then he suddenly realises that he has to act like an honour student

“Hey! We should probably start behaving. Jeez....I could’ve ruined my chance on being an honour student,” he’d clear his throat and return to his goody boy side “Aw c’mon Deuce, you’re no fun,” you’d tease him 

When he calls his mom you would always interfere him and embarrass himb

Ngl tho if the both of you were involved in a fight you’d partner up instead and scare those people away before they can even do stuff to the both of you 

Leona Kingscholar

He does not have the time and energy to deal with you honestly

Locks his room door before you can barge in

“Leona!!” *bangs door* “Open up, pretty please~” then you’d cackle

Groans all day long every time you bother him

But because he’s so used to you bothering him it’d be pretty weird if you didn’t show up sometimes, but he’d also be like “Good Lord, finally some silence,”

He was thankful though, there was this one time where you lost your sh*t when someone was insulting him for how he won’t ever be crown prince and you gave em a good whack plus a bunch of insults to feed em up

He started seeing you as a likeable person but definitely won’t admit it at all. He’s a tad bit tsundere but he got protective of you too and you’d tease him a lot regarding that

Malleus Draconia

He was kinda shocked at first how you easily just approached him, and you were very cheerful about it too!

Yours and his dynamic is the reserved one and the wild one, it was always a weird sight for people to see the both of you together

Oh people do be avoiding the both of you btw

Sebek would often scold you for acting such way towards Malleus and you would always just get on his nerves and the only way for the both of you to settle that is by Malleus’ words

“Well, I don’t really mind (y/n)’s company,” he’d say and you would stick your tongue out to Sebek who would mutter under his breath

You would always play tamagotchi with him together and compare each other’s, it would honestly go on for some time

There was a time when he saw you being violent and he’d be very shocked about it, so he used his magic to restrict you for a bit to calm you down, it was too strong for you so you ended up falling asleep from fatigue. He was very worried about you, so he took care of you the whole time you were asleep

[goosedawn]

i've never listened to Friends At The Table (though it's on my list now, dnd campaigns podcast wooo!) what would the storyline of the crossover entail? with the HermitCraft characters i'm guessing it's chaotic and interesting 😊

:0!!!! :DDD!!!!!!! if u end up giving it a shot i hope u enjoy it! they dont actually play dnd, they play a bunch of other tabletop games which are all really neat also! (also if u need a suggestion for where to start if/when u get to it, feel free to drop me an ask)

the story follows the typical structure of "group is sent off to do tasks for money, and eventually realise something bigger is going on" so i am largely following the plot in that way, where groups of adventurers are sent out to investigate a series of towers that appear to have some connection to the gods of the world. ajhsjjejhfhjef most of my thoughts about the au are more character based,, so instead of a proper plot summary i can give details and thoughts on where some of the hermits fit into everything so far (while. trying to avoid the big twists revealed in the podcast ig,,?) i also ended up including some sleepybees (sbi + beeduo) in the au but im still not 100% sure on where they fit in (as in i have too many ideas djhdkndnj)

ANYWAY uhhhh some spoilers for the universe im basing this off of, under the cut cos it got long :'D

context/setting:

the specific arc/universe that this au is set in is the one from Seasons in Hieron (SiH) which is their fantasy season! (its. its long,, this arc spans i think. 3 seasons? plus a short interlude season)

the setting was previously a traditional fantasy world that had some sort of great catastrophe (the Erasure) happen, and the current world is after people have rebuilt a new society! its described as "post-fantasy, post-post-apocalyptic" its very fun and subversive and afhdjfbj the worldbuilding is just. real good :>

-----

characters:

im still figuring out where different hermits fit into the au but i am basically taking aspects of various characters from the podcast and splitting roles and traits to hermits, so its all mixed up! also,, there are just. so many hermits,, i have not found places for all of them (not even most of them i dont think) but here is what i have so far:

impulse and zedaph work in the New Archives (a series of huge warehouse-like archives run by the orcs of this world!) impulse is an orc, zed is not! impulse works to retrieve artifacts for the archive, and zed,, hes just kinda there. learning and experimenting with pattern magic (a type of magic done by arranging and rearranging things in specific configurations, often they are obscure and weird things like "27 brown birds in a tree, 5 table legs, 500 buttons, 16 steps to the east" etc.) when the story finds them they are studying a fallen tower in the center of the Mark of the Erasure (a location still showing the effect of the great cataclysm that befell the world)

tango vaguely takes the role of Ephraim, prince of something or rather,,, idk man hes cool and has fire powers, very anime. his powers were a gift from the gods, and he goes on to hv close relations w them! he meets up with impulse and zed later on and become fast friends obviously

joe is an expert in pattern magic, and is on the run from the archives after having stolen a pretty nondescript notebook. its a nice notebook! hes just a human guy. he writes and recites poetry in order to do pattern magic using the notebook!

cleo hails from the city of *Nacre*, where people get multiple chances at life. people from there can get killed but will exist on as zombies, then if they are killed again, they exist as ghosts, and then they pass away fully. she is an undead pirate captain that joe somehow manages to sway over to their side ahjbhfbjf,, she is hunting down the lost prince/king of Nacre.

wels is a pala-din (pal-ah-deen, rather than paladin), a sort of living marble statue that serves one of the gods in the pantheon.

scar is ofc, a wizard! it. it should be noted that wizards dont really exist in this world, people who perform and study magic are mages, not wizards,, "wizard" is kind of a weird term to use sjbdbjhfjjhb scar takes place of The Great Fantasmo in the podcast, and similarly has an invisible assistant! he doesnt seem to remember much of his past...

cubfan works in Velas, a fishing town where the story "begins" he does not enjoy talking to scar, and seems to be sad whenever hes around. perhaps scar reminds him of someone, or perhaps of better times...

tfc hes a priest aagsuijdjhkdgjdkihwhjvd i swear theres a reason for this later,, the role of the npc alyosha is somewhat split between tfc and cub!

-----

others i have thoughts on but im not settled on yet:

im debating having xisuma as part of the pantheon, but if not, he would be a druid so he can shapeshift into animals sjbakjnsnfjb he would take the general role of Fero in the story, but would also be kind of split with evil x, who captures... a certain stubbornness and deepset frustration Fero has in later times.

etho could take the place of Samol, the first god to exist. he is the embodiment of this world, and is kind of isolated and strange wbhshjhbdbhjdjbdkjn,, strange /pos. hes also. kind of dissapearing though... i wonder why :)

while theoratically i could have xisuma as samol cos. yknow. admin. i think the vibes and role just fit etho better

and... if i had etho as samol i think it could be fun to have doc and bdubs as other members of the pantheon, if u go with their dynamic from the start of s7 they even fit the divorced couple vibe two of the gods have /lh /hj (nho pantheon pog..? maybe. theres a total of 5 deities in the pantheon tho...)

im leaning toward either false + stress or maybe gem + pearl pairs for two of the goddesses in the pantheon, but thatd probably depend on if i can find a better place for them ;P

techno and phil take the role of red jack, and techno is a Huge Oni Dude >:] in canon red jack has a cool horse!!! it fits!! hes also. heavily implied to be kinda immortal?? anyway. im torn on this because techno and phil ALSO fit the roles of some of the player characters, with relation to the missing prince/king of Nacre but im still working things out,,

no matter whats up with them, ranboo takes the role of bluejay, redjacks son, meeting up with tubbo and tommy who take the place of benjamin, the son of one of the player characters. tubbo and tommy kind of. get sent to another dimension to keep them safe,,? and live in a lie for many years before they are brought back.

when i first thought about this au, i also thought about the whole. sending child off into fake dimension to live life, and of course. i thought about. grumbot ofc and originally planned to have mumbo or grian take the place of that player character abhdfvnbrvbn but it also implies one or both of them would be paladins (not pala-din! just the normal religious knight) AND have connections to tubbo and tommy which is. funny but ehhhh idk.

-----

and that. maybe probably somewhat incoherent train of thought is what i have for the au so far! its. still very much a work in progress so thank you if you stuck through all that!! ive still got a lot to think abt in the au,,,, lots to figure out ;P hopefully i can iron it out a bit more in the future, but its fun to think about for the time being

[bagofbonesmp3]

plz bitch about bw movie <3 i want to know

ok under the cut because i get annoying ❤️

I'd like to preface with the fact that the MCU could never do a good black widow movie. EVER. they don't have the range. they don't have the ability to write deep characters. nat is complicated to say the least and they fucked her up since she was created so she's not natasha. she's natalie.

but they went OVERBOARD with the usamericanism. like i get it, you couldn't find Russian people who wanted to touch your movie with a stick but CMON. they changed her whole backstory it's almost funny how much she isn't the black widow. she could be the purple caterpillar for all i care. she spent part of her childhood in OHIO. the movie is so clearly usamerican that you can't suspend your disbelief that these characters are Russian. not only because they had NO RUSSIAN ACTORS. IN YOUR VERY PROMINENT RUSSIAN MOVIE. but also because the jokes, the attitude these characters have, it's just... usamerican. i can't explain it. it just is.

this doesn't go well with the fact that this is just another formulaic marvel movie. you have the jokes every five fucking seconds (which, btw, are any of you laughing with marvel movies anymore? last time i laughed while watching one was when shuri made t'challa's epic fail video), the pacing is weird as hell, the villains are literally flavorless, the secondary characters overshadow the protagonist and so on. it did have a slightly different vibe that reminded me of catws (may her soul rest in peace) which made it more bearable than any of marvel's other monstrosities. but like. it's almost nothing.

the whole climax was so... underwhelming? i was staring at it sipping at my drink feeling nothing. not anxiety not fear NOTHING. i blame scarjo for not being a good actress like... she was surrounded by so many frankly good actors that she just disappeared for me. her emotional range is literally zero. she was fighting those other widows which should have been traumatizing and painful but she was like 😟 the fight while falling down the sky IS a cool concept i thought it was cool but yknow. it was just well done SFX. also the pacing was SO WEIRD. stick yo your fucking three act formula for god's sake.

the nuclear family thing they pushed onto her is so stupiiiiid. like, even natasha says it in the end of the movie "i thought I had no family" because in the comics she didn't!!! she was picked from the streets or found in the ruins of a castle or created in a lab (natasha has no clear origin story. that's her thing. "you will never know my full story etc etc") but what we do know is that she didn't think the red room was her family but her duty. and she was deeply traumatized which i will talk about later. she did feel love for people in the room and later for people in the KGB. she married alexei even (who they made her father figure here? weird) but never did she entertain the idea she was safe ANYWHERE.

which takes me to Yelena. now, i get that they need to have a heavy quipper. but GOD. she needed to stop. yelena is younger than natasha and way more carefree and naive (at least in that period of her life) but here she just felt... childish. she was meant to replace Natasha. she saw her as competition. and Natasha thought she was a real threat for her (she never thought of her as a sister. maybe as a victim like her but not as a sister) (which the comics are changing up BECAUSE OF THIS STUPID FUCKING MOVIE) this is literally vanilla flavored Yelena. how do you make the white widow boring get help.

something else that bothered me was the obedience chemicals thing. it feels so lazy, in a way, to pretend that all you need to bend someone's will is a serum and all you need to make someone to realize this is another serum. you could explore how trauma affects women, how being treated as objects can be incredibly damaging to the sense of self, how hard it must be for these women to think of themselves as free. but no. it's all the magic serum. Natasha spent most of her time in comics dealing with her past and her trauma. i get nothing from this movie. also, the widow program did use a bunch of scifi magic science, but the main focus was on how these girls were raised by the room and how loyal they were to it because they thought they were serving their government and saving their home. and because that was all the ever knew (just like Natasha). they weren't making black widows in this movie, they were making winter soldiers (yeah Natasha trained with Bucky but their situations while working for the Soviet union were very different). it's obvious they just wanted to make tem mindless killers because they couldn't imagine that other countries use their patriotism like the us does and turn people into weapons under the pretense of defending their government. it just sucks to take the agency away from the widows. when they stepped out of the KGB, they did it voluntarily, and it was a process. some of them didn't even leave and became trainers of the next generation.

I just think that this movie could be something if it was its own thing. but it's not. it's a rip off of comic names and concepts treated in the most boring and predictable way. and this is no black widow movie, these aren't black widow characters, this isn't natasha romanoff's story. it's natalie rushmore's

[dahniwitchoflight]

Airy Thoughts about Heirs and Gender

That kind of always has been John’s modus operandi when it comes to dealing with problems though hasn’t it?

Eveen waaaaay back in the beginning when John totally pushed it out of his mind that his dad was actually just a normal business man and not obsessed with clowns, that it was actually John who was obsessed with clowns, and jokes and pranking, thats always been how he deals with stuff he doesn’t like

Ignore it, make it not real, don’t acknowledge it, compartmentalize it, heck, joke about it, do pranks, make it silly, make it lighter, try to lessen the seriousness of it all

John has ZERO skill when it comes to actually dealing with perceived negativity in any sense, always been very reliant on basically his Aspect’s traits to solve problems for him

and now its becomes so bad, thats hes on the edge of having a full blown dissociation disorder about it

(I wonder actually if being too reliant on what’s been given to you on your plate already is a trait overall for Heirs or Those Who Inherit? It fits well with my previous idea of Heirs notable for being stuck in ruts, but it seems the true train of thought here, is that Heirs basically are caught in a pre-determined state, the lines have been drawn around them, their plates have been served, and they have to deal with what’s given to them, and as a result, have ZERO ability to handle situations that their pre-equipped toolset cannot deal with)

definitely an area where Heirs are prone to overembracing, when they become so, reliant on their pre-existing toolset, that they become unable to change things ups, see things differently, handle different problems

There’s an element of priveledged behavior here that clearer to me now, people who Inherit their wealth have no idea what it’s like to work for it or earn it themselves

and now isn’t THAT a connection to Maid and Heir?

this is where you could spin Heir as someone who starts out having no idea how to create something new and having to forcibly learn that

I could see someone creating a Maid/Heir argument for this

but then the problems arise of “how is that different from the Maid’s arc of also having to learn to take what was given them and start making anew what they want”

and the biggest hurdle to Creation Heir: Heir is not a feminine associated class

and the reason this matters, is if creation doesn’t have to be feminine associated, then masculinity gets the lion’s share of creation and destruction in Homestuck overall, and that feels like favoring masculinity too much, especially with how much Creation and Destruction as concepts are overvalued over the other aspects by far, it’s tilting it too far in one direction, when these Red and Green concept should spiral Equal (theoretically)

its out of step with how Creation and Destruction have been shown to be thus far

BUT

All of this was how things went down for me, back before June Egbert became a thing

So, in reading this, and with having the knowledge June might actually be a girl (maybe, Hussie said so, but thus far have yet to see anything from John in canon)

is that enough to make “Heir” feminine associated overall? moreso than other feminine associated classes like Maid/Sylph/Witch? Enough to be a strong enough pair to the Maid over Sylph? Two words that can literally mean “Girl”

Equius and Mituna still exist, what does that say about them? Is the background joke of Equius in a Maid outfit starting to actually become relevant?

who knows, but, It’s bringing up interesting questions I think, for me at least

John is the Main of Main Characters, versus Equius being background and Void aspected and Mituna being essentially non-existant, is that enough to balance out importance wise of who really gets to define what being an Heir means?

is it distateful to call being Spoiled an essentially feminine associated trait, if it’s balanced out by Maids being hardworking (or Servile..?) as opposed to a royally spoiled Prince and silly clown Bard?

better question, are these questions about gender things that Hussie never actually thought that deep enough about, so theres threads of things that could work, but end up falling apart in practice, revealing biases unfortunately baked into the system itself

cuz its like this: if Sylph/Maid is the females creation classes, its making sure girls vs boys in the grand scheme of things is equal, but that’s kind of going with the quid pro quo of masculine destruction/female creation thats baked into homestuck from the start, which is likely just the result in the authors inherent bias. Is that a net good? or a net bad? kind of unsure

if creation doesn’t have to be female, the idea that we should just be able to do away with the idea of gendered classes entirely is a thing, which is good in its own context, unfortunately leaves things with a different unfortunate gendered bias, where masculinity gets all the good shit and importance and feminine associations get sidelined and its unequal again, is this a better or worse way of seeing things? if male just happens to get the lions share of cool stuff, does it mean we can ignore gendered classes altogether, or is that exacerbating the problem with gendered classes to begin with

if a class that so far, hasnt had any traits associated with either masculinity or femininity (kind of a lie with Heirs being unusually good at the “mangrit” stat) gets strongly associated with femininity via one main character, is that enough to tip the scales and make things balanced again?

(is the above perhaps just a beautiful metaphor for the question of said characters eventual transition?)

(yknow, if that actually happens in canon, and gets explored by John/June at some point, and doesnt just die as an author word of god background fun fact..)

basically, Ive been wondering exactly how much the who gendered association of classes in homestuck should matter, but more importantly, how much it’s already affecting

would it be a good step to make Heir/Maid a creation pair? or is that just making a small problem bigger

tl;dr basically if Hussie makes it clear in canon that June Egbert has been a girl/dealing with a gender struggle all along in the way that they always have done by trying to downplay/ignore/compartmentalize it then yeah, Heir Maid gets a lot stronger legs to me, purely for the character symbolism of it all and the great message that would say about the gender construct of homestuck overall

but

if John Egbert remains the status quo, if Hussie never actually intended John to transition, if it never gets brought up in any way other than the authors saying out of the workd “I said so” Heir Maid as creation just doesn’t work without that Transition metaphor, so it fallbacks to the traditionally neutral Sylph/Maid as creation oriented

though, there’s also the fun question of what if through change of the characters themselves, their classes change with them? So through the power of Main Character June changes the associated traits Heir has overall OR stops being an Heir and gets a different class, both would be equally cool transition metaphors (which ironically would just reinforce Heir as a class of Change/Transmutation overall but lol)

[radramblog]

Halo 2 is the most Two

According to a semi-reliable source (TvTropes’s Halo/Funny subpage), Halo 2 was once described by a Bungie PR guy as, and I quote:

               “like Halo 1, only it's Halo 1 on fire, going 130 miles per hour through a hospital zone, being chased by helicopters and ninjas ... And, the ninjas are all on fire, too.”

2004 really was a special time, huh?

But I’d argue the thing that quote fails to mention is how much 2 is in Halo 2. Duality is a core theme of both the gameplay and story, and that’s something I’d like to highlight.

Not because it’s important. Because it’s fun.

Halo 2 is a game about two. Literally, in fact, as the story revolves around two protagonists, whom you switch back and forth between as the Campaign progresses. John-117, the Master Chief, hero of the first game, who spends 2’s opening moments being hailed for his achievements during the previous story. And Thel’ Vadamee, the Arbiter, background villain of the first game, who spends 2’s opening moments being publicly humiliated and tortured for his failures during the previous story.

This cutscene is very much intentional, it’s a cool parallel that sets up the twin stories of the game, but it far from ends there. Because Halo 2 is a sequel, it’s setting up a grander universe, one that began in the novels that released between the games. However, because the game is still a big-budget sequel to a smash-hit game effectively owned by one of the biggest companies on the planet, the game could never be as experimental or the story as interesting as the world suggested by said novels and lore.

So there’s a lot of twos. We see a second Halo ring in the second Halo game, which is confusingly named Delta Halo even though it’s the second one we see in the franchise. Also, it’s official Forerunner name is Installation 05, even though Delta is the fourth letter in the Greek alphabet, and the Halo from the first game was Installation 04…

Tangents aside. Twos. Ultimately the story is less two-ey than what I’ll get to in a bit, but there’s still some there. The second Halo comes with a second Monitor, and the first of the two Covenant Prophets that are encountered (and killed) over the story’s course. Two of Earth’s orbital defense platforms are obliterated in the first level, uhhh, two new major Human characters are introduced (Lord Hood and Miranda Keyes) along with two named Sangheili (Both the Arbiter and Rtas ‘Vadumee, as the Heretic Leader isn’t given a name in the game proper). There’s like, two real boss fights? I guess? Regret doesn’t fucking count.

I think I’m kinda grasping at straws so I’ll move into the gameplay, because boy howdy there’s where the twos really come in. While Halo featured both Human and Covenant weapons, Halo 2 was the game that defined them as two clear opposed factions- much like in a Strategy game, each has equivalent items to each other. The Battle Rifle and Covenant Carbine are both new weapons that add a mid-range option for each faction, as well as making up for the severe nerf to the Magnum. It’s now effectively paired as a sidearm with the Plasma Pistol, their deadliness largely confined to one half each of the Shields/Health divide the game uses for Multiplayer. The SMG replaces the Assault Rifle to better mirror the Covenant Plasma Rifle, and the Beam Rifle is introduced as the Covenant variant Sniper Rifle. The Energy Sword and Fuel Rod Gun are both now actually playable, serving as counterparts to the Shotgun and Rocket Launcher respectively. You get the idea. This somewhat carries over to the Vehicles, with the Covenant Spectre being introduced as a counterpart to the Warthog, though that’s the only new vehicle off the top of my head. Yknow, because I’m talking out my ass.

Oh, also this is the game where they put in dual wielding guns.

The campaign progression is also fond of its twos, if you ignore the first level. Two cutscenes (or, a cutscene and a tutorial+in-engine-cutscene+cutscene), the one we’re ignoring, Two Chief levels, Two Arbiter levels, Two Chief, Two Arbiter, then we actually alternate. Twice. Because why not.

Late into the game, however, there is somewhat of a shift in this dual natured game. The Great Schism occurs in the plotline, as the Covenant Civil War begins, and a second Covenant faction breaks off after having been betrayed by its leadership. There is, in fact, a third Prophet in the form of Truth, who survives the game (but not the sequel). There is also arguably a third protagonist for this extra faction, but not one we get to play as- the game’s final boss, Tartarus, leader of the Brutes, and head of the Covenant military once the Schism occurs. This third faction adds a new weapon, the Brute Shot, the sole weapon in the game not in the style of the gunmetal-black UNSC or the typically colourful and gleaming Covenant armoury- the Brute Shot’s dull muddied grays and browns and wicked bayonet a reflection of its wielder’s personality. The two story paths of Halo 2 run alongside each other before meeting and splitting off following the dramatic introduction of the Gravemind.

This is a reflection of the true nature of Halo 2, as the final product strayed farther from the initial vision than many are aware of. There’s a little known fact these days that the Halo trilogy wasn’t meant to be a trilogy, with 2’s planned story extending into what would become the majority of the third game. 2 was supposed to end at the Ark, with the death of Truth, with the revelation of the truth of the Forerunners and the end of the war.

But things change. Halo 2 spent a lot of time in development on an engine that wasn’t practical for the game they were trying to make, so much of the time was wasted. Add in a hastened Christmas release date, and you get the abrupt finale and cliffhanger that is Halo 2’s story. This isn’t to say that the game is bad, far from it, but it had potential to be so much better. Like the endgame of its plot, Halo 2 could have also been Halo 3.

I’m going to be honest, I thought I had a lot more tangible points to hang on to when I started writing this than I actually did. Much like my last Halo-related post, there’s a lot of grasping and chasing shadows in this. Maybe next time I should just talk about why I like these games or something instead, that’s a lot easier.

Anyway does anyone wanna come play Firefight with me please do it’s been so long since I’ve done that with anyone other than internet randos

[asrasotherbottom]

I just got my nips pierced last week (they are SORE 😭 )... So that on top of my tongue piercing, I've been wondering the reactions the mains would have to an MC that has one / both?

OOF BUDDY. KEEP UP WITH UR WARM SALINE SOAKS!!! 

Main 6 x Pierced MC (~LEMON~) (LONG POST) 

Asra

Bold of you to assume Asra “knifecatface.jpg” Alnazar is capable of not thinking about MC’s nipple and tongue piercings for any extended period of time. 

If MC had to get them done post-resurrection because of the new body, he’s definitely on top of reminding them to do their piercing care.

Once they’re healed though, he looooves that MC has them, he’s always surprising them with new jewelry for them from his trips. 

He spends a lot of time with his mouth on MC’s nipples, asking how different bites and flicks and tugs feel, temperatures perhaps. 

Perhaps even begging for MC to go down on him more often than he usually would, because he like the feeling of their tongue piercing. 

He think its hot as hell and definitely on the list of reasons he thinks MC is hot as hell and he even gets some himself. 

Nadia

She thinks its extremely brave and endearing that MC would get piercings in their nipples and tongue. She’s aware of the phrase “beauty is pain” and is mostly worried that they might have hurt to get.

Oh? An event where she gets to design MC’s wardrobe? Nipples out or being able to see the piercings through the fabric is her choice. 

Loves being able to shower MC with new and cute jewelry for their nipple piercings (and tongue if she can find something that works). 

She loves the way she can accidentally brush MC’s chest in public and get them all wound up so easily. 

Gentle tugging on/flicking their nipples during sex would be the name of her game at that point. (Maybe inspiring her to get something of her own)

(As a side note, i think all of Nadia’s family would think MC’s tongue piercing is cool as fuck. (and nipple piercings if they know). Namar would ask if it helps MC taste stuff better. Navra is piercing her tongue as we speak. Nazali knew three men who’s nipples fell off from bad nipple piercings.)

Julian

Julian asks MC if it hurt but in a way where he’d be much more interested if the answer was yes than if the answer was no, yknow?

He thinks they’re fun and sexy and make MC even more unique than he already thought they were. They look like a real rebel, which he can assure them, is the hottest thing they can do. 

Surprises MC with one of these . Its a very self serving gift but he thinks they’d look stunning in it. When he sees it on them, he fully drops to his knees in front of them, barely coherent and bright red. 

If any of them ever get irritated, he goes into full doctor mode and is there with a warm saline soak in no time at all. 

MC’s piercings start him on his own piercing journey which he thoroughly enjoys for a multitude of reasons. 

MURIEL/PORTIA/LUCIO UNDER THE CUT

Muriel

He’s worried it might still hurt them because its still a hole yknow. 

“Why would you want to be in pain on purpose? You dont make any sense.” 

BUT once he’s satisfied they dont hurt anymore, he finds that he thinks the aesthetic is kinda nice. MC is kinda weird in a good way and tongue and nipple piercings he thinks are kinda weird in a good way. It tracks.

Listen i need to go and take a moment thinking about Muriel running a rough calloused thumb over MC’s nipple piercings. 

Deep breaths everyone. Deep breaths. 

He’s surprised the first time he feels MC’s tongue piercing on his body during sex but he resigns himself to the fact that he really likes that they have it. 

Portia

Portia is just awestruck. MC is a MAGICIAN?? AND NOW??? THEY HAVE PIERCINGS TOO???

She’s enamored with MC being so many layers of impressive and cute and adventurous. Piercings included. 

She’ll ask MC to stick out their tongue randomly just to giggle at their tongue piercing. 

As soon as she plays with MC’s nipple piercings she goes out and gets her own, she is like damn this is GOOD and i want IN. 

Loves pulling MC into secret passages just to play with MC’s nipple piercings for a minute to tease them before slipping back to her duties.

Lucio

Sexy! Daring! Brave! Unusual! Cool! Sexy! Are MC’s piercings gold? Because if not thats the first thing he rectifies. 

He KNEW MC could take the pain of getting such sensitive places pierced, it speaks to how strong and wonderful they are. 

He doesn’t like the feeling of MC’s tongue piercing clinking against his teeth so he and MC find a workaround for that. 

He LOVES playing with MC’s nipple piercings, sometimes at inappropriate times. He always showers them with clothes that show them off. Sometimes also at inappropriate times. 

He’s inspired to get his own piercing! He goes right for the prince albert and complains the whole time but at least he has “An experienced and brave partner by his side to get him through it” 

[unicyclehippo]

Your fics are glorious -- every one of them. For the fic prompt, perhaps #94 "What did you just say?" or #98 "I won't let anything bad happen to you." For Beau/Jes

‘Huh?’ Beau regrets, well, herself when she sees the way the loud word makes Jester grimace. ‘Uh. Sorry. What was that? I was working on my carpentry.’

She holds up this tiny figurine of wood.

‘A dolphin?’

Beau closes her hand around the figurine. ‘...Yes.’

‘So good.’

‘Thanks.’

‘It wasn’t meant to be a dolphin.’

‘No.’

Jester grins. ‘Sorry. It’s really - um - an attempt.’

Beau rolls her eyes. Shoves the figurine into one of her pockets, her knife into its sheath, and turns on the barrel she’s seated upon so that she’s facing Jester head on. ‘So?’

‘Hmm?’ Jester pulls at her necklace, twists the chain between her fingers.

‘You said something?’ Beau prompts. She looks hawkish, seated as she is. Shoulders hunched, piercing eyes fixed unmoving on Jester. ‘I’m listening now, I promise.’

It occurs to her that that might be the problem; that Jester doesn’t want to repeat herself to someone who is listening. But before she can offer an apology, a reassurance, Jester blurts out,

‘I won’t let anything bad happen to you.’ Her eyes flick above them, to the top deck of the Balleater. ‘I know—I know everyone is worried about it, and I know you don’t know a lot about him,’ she says, the Him holy on her tongue, and Beau can’t confuse that with anyone but the Traveller. ‘But I don’t think that this is a cult thing and really I was the one that suggested the volcano so I don’t think he’s going to ask us all to jump in and,’

‘I’d jump.’

‘What?’

‘If you asked.’ Beau’s eyes haven’t moved from her. Jester can’t find the smallest bit of hesitation in them, the smallest hint of teasing or mischief or a lie. ‘If you asked me to trust you. And him,’ she tacks on. ‘I’d jump into a volcano.’ Beau shrugs. ‘Could be fun.’

‘That kills people, Beau.’

‘Allegedly.’ She grins a crooked grin when Jester stomps her foot. Lets her heart flutter at the way Jester’s curls swing at the angry motion. She’s stopped denying this thing she feels, stopped forcing it in any direction, just letting it be. So far, that has only served to have it expand, and grow, and deepen and Beau would be lying if she said it didn’t frighten her but. She’s lied about less. ‘If he wants you to jump into the volcano alone, though, I’ll kill him first.’

‘Well that doesn’t make any sense, Beau, either you trust him or you don’t.’

‘Then I don’t. Not really.’ She laughs when Jester starts to tell her off and, ignoring her assertments on how cool and really very trustworthy the Traveller is, Beau slides off her barrel, closes the distance between them. She leans down so their eyes are level. Tries to smile but doesn’t quite manage it. Jester’s reprimand slows, then stops. She eyes Beau, confused. ‘I trust you, Jester. I follow who you follow, I go where you go. Remember?’

‘I—‘

‘I’ll jump into a volcano for you. Not him.’

Jester’s brows crinkle into a furrow as she tries to parse the words for their meaning; after a moment, her attention slipping from Beau’s eyes to her lips, she says, very quietly as though surprised,

‘Oh.’

‘Oh? What oh?’ Beau recoils. ‘What?’

Jester smiles. Like a lantern hood being raised to show off more and more of the fire within, her beaming smile grows and grows. ‘You know, I was trying to be very nice by saying I wouldn’t let anything happen to you.’

‘It was nice,’

‘And then you go and say something like that,’

‘I’m sorry?’

‘You should be,’ Jester nods. ‘It was very sweet, Beau, and now I have to think of something even nicer to say! But also, I mean,’ she pulls a face, ‘I hope we don’t have to do that because yikes, am I right? But that is good. to. know.’ She taps her forefinger on Beau’s nose with each of those words, laughs at the way the other girl crosses her eyes to follow the movement. Scrunches up her nose. Jester takes a moment to memorise her like this—a little flustered, a little amused, a little, Jester realises, in love. With her. With Jester. She’ll have to draw her for the Traveller. There’s no way he’ll kill them all if he sees the way Beau is looking at her right now.

‘Beau.’

‘Mhm yeah,’ the girl replies. She’s fully flushed now, both from what she borderline admitted and also from Jester’s fixed attention. Her eyes flick down to Jester’s lips before, with visible effort, lifting to meet her eyes.

It’s every classic sign in every love book. The blushing. The eyes. The speech. Though the speeches usually are more along the lines of You’re so beautiful and precious to me than I’ll jump in a volcano for you. That’s very Beau, though, very them.

Jester steps forward. Lifts her hands to the side of Beau’s face. Her thumbs graze across cheekbones so sharp they could be weapons—have been, Jester has seen Beau headbutt people so hard they’ve died—and watches her eyes flutter closed in response.

‘Beau?’

‘Mm.’

‘What’s the figurine supposed to be?’

Beau snorts. Fumbles in her pocket for the little crappily carved figure. ‘It’s Kiri. I mean - it was supposed to be Kiri. I miss that little ball of feathers, and I was just, yknow,’

She’s not looking at Jester and she’s talking so it’s entirely the wrong moment but Jester surges forward anyway on the rush of adoration, of affection, and kisses her. For being sweet, and brave, and noble, and incredibly awkward, and Beau, Beau, Beau. It’s awkward, lips colliding with teeth and Beau’s grunt of surprise, but then Beau is recovered and tilts her head just so and the hand not holding the really genuinely awful carving is cradling Jester’s cheek so tenderly, swirling over the apple of her cheek and sliding back behind her ear, into the hair there, her fingers barely grazing her skin as though she’s not sure this is real, as though she’s not sure she’s allowed.

Jester drops down off her tiptoes, breaking the kiss. ‘I will keep you safe,’ she says again, so Beau knows she means it. ‘I’ll keep you safe, if it comes to that. And I promise to heal you.’

It sounds like a vow, like the one Beau had made. She wonders if it sounds like one to Beau as well, and is pretty sure it does, seeing the way Beau’s eyes light up. Her smile is small. A little shy, almost. Private, like something she wants to treasure, wants to keep all to herself.

Beau clears her throat. ‘Yeah?’

‘Yeah.’

‘That’s cool.’

Jester kisses her again. Pulls back. Memorises that look as well.

[totallypathet]

Episode Three

First of all...what the fuck was that challenge. And what the fuck was the logic to judging it?! I spent so much of this episode just being confused. I think it would have been so much better if they were allowed to come up with their own ideas and characters, instead of having this really narrow space to work in; that was bizarre to me. Like Just Jan could have done a really delusional, high energy character who was the worst singer in the world; that would have been funny! Instead they stuck them with these bizarre storylines that made no sense, and had very little humour in them. Idk whose choice that was but it was a choice. Anyway, let's get into the rundown!

1. Aiden Zhane

I am not living for Aiden at all. Her attitude in both episodes has let a lot to be desired for me. And also, that runway? What was that? I could buy that dress on Asos, glue some bows to it and have that look. The concept was cool, the bows falling on her? Cool idea. But if you're going to do that then you need to Do It, yknow? Like it would have been cool if she'd had a huge wig completely made of bows. Or if she'd had an umbrella and made it look like it was raining bows, or something, that could have been really cool! It could have been amazing and she took a really easy way out. Disappointing. And her performance was dull. She deserved to be in the bottom more than Nicky Doll.

The only thing I will say for Aiden in this episode is the way Brita and Redacted behaved towards her was really uncool. They did that whole "you didnt lead us at all", and then told her that they carried her? You know that if she had led them they would have totally thrown her under the bus and said "well we do this professionally and we wanted to do this, but she was the leader and she made us do that". It was totally a damned if you, damned if you don't; and that was really unfair.

2. Brita

Guys, I am Bored of Brita. I am over it, and I am underwhelmed. I haven't seen anything from her that I've enjoyed! Her looks have been dull, she's not that funny, and I dont like the way she behaves (like I said with Aiden). She wont be next to go home, but hopefully she wont be long.

3. Crystal Methyd

STOP TRYING TO CHANGE CRYSTAL METHYD! I'm so sick of them going "oh her makeup is always the same", when it has been different each time!! She has a style and a brand, but it's not the same face!! Aiden Zhane does the same fucking face, none of them have picked that out! Loads of queens come in and they only have one face! Not mentioning any names Silky Nutmeg Ganache and Roxxxy Andrews. They got away with it because they were beauty mugs and that's the type of drag this show is biased towards. Crystal Methyd is an artist, let her do herself! That runway look was ugly though. Having said all that. Her face was gorgeous, I loved her makeup, I just thought that look wasnt very her! It didn't suit her somehow, it wasn't right. But she tried really hard during the improv, and I think she did a passable job! She honestly should have been safe, fight me. I just really hope she doesn't change herself to please the judges bc she has such a great vision and point of view, and I don't want her to lose sight of how great she is.

4. Dahlia Sin

Dahlia, Dahlia, Dahlia. Speaking of being underwhelmed, am I right? I had such high hopes for Dahlia, but this week she just didn't pull anything out. I personally think the fruit sketch was really funny, but it would have been exactly the same if Dahlia hadn't been in the group. She was so focused on being ~sexy~ (which is tough in a broccoli costume), that she forgot about everything else. Plus her bows and buttons look was just...odd. from the neck up it had this very avant garde, couture feel, but the outfit itself just looked unfinished. And then to have this weird arse peekaboo thing? Really weird choice. She deserved to be in the bottom and, after that lip sync, she deserved to go home.

I have seen a lot of posts about Dahlia "storming out", and I genuinely don't understand what they're talking about? Like, okay, she didn't say anything before she walked off, does that really constitute storming off? If she'd walked off while Ru was still talking, or if she'd yelled/screamed/sworn, then sure, maybe - but from what I saw she was just upset and wanted to leave as fast as possible. Idk, also they haven't released Untucked on the UK Netflix, so maybe there was more I didnt see.

5. Gigi Goode

I live for Gigi so much. I mean come on! Her character in the improv was passed out half the time and still had presence! She's so funny, and she's not afraid to let loose and get ugly. I think she did a good job in the improv, especially for someone without all that much experience, and her look on the runway was incredible. Solid 8/10 for Gigi this week.

6. Heidi N Closet

Heidi was robbed. I bought everything Heidi was selling this week. I bought it, I didn't stream it, I didn't rent it from the Netflix, I bought it. She was so funny during the challenge; the flipper? She spat out? Iconic. She had me dying the whole time, her, Jackie Cox and Gigi Goode should have their own series, I'd watch the hell out of it. Then she came bouncing down the runway as glitter Pinnochio, and she told that story about when she was at school and I loved every second! Shes so charming, and loveable, and relatable, and Jaida Essence Hall must have been gagged when she was top 2. She was robbed, she should have won, and she should keep her name! That whole thing with "the mouth has to change shape and it's not satisfying to say"? Bullshit, utter bullshit bitch. Heidi N Closet 4lyf.

7. Jackie Cox

Jackie made me so happy this week! Their whole group was hilarious, but Jackie doing the bad ventriloquist act just sent me, I loved it. And she just seems like the sweetest person as well! Her runway look was gorgeous, I loved the reference, her makeup was absolutely stunning, Jackie Cox is seriously the whole package. Her and Heidi should have been top 2 together.

8. Jaida Essence Hall

Jaida came in looking like a pageant queen, but she seriously flexed her comedy muscles this week! Her "bad apple" was hilarious, and she really committed to it! She was a firm leader in the group, but she was a good team player in the scene, she let everyone else have their moment too, and it was a good performance! I was a little bit disappointed that her runway look was very very similar to her spring mini challenge look from last week, but it was still a good look, and honestly I probably wouldnt have noticed if it hadn't been one episode after the other. She has shown a lot of diversity already, I think she just set the bar so high last week that I was really expecting something incredible, and I got something that was "just" good instead. She's still one to beat at the moment!

9. Jan

Jan made me so proud this week!! She was really funny in the skit, she had so much energy and enthusiasm, I loved it! Her jokes were funny, she picked a solid character and played it well, and can we talk about the runway though??? I really expected her to come out in something cute, because her personality is so bubbly and instead she gave me horror high fashion, monster couture and she Sold. Every. Second. It was a total transformation from the challenge to the runway and that, at the heart of it, is what I love about drag; that transformation aspect is just art to me. For me, Jan has it all. She definitely should have been top 3 this week. I think she's served the best runways so far, and I cannot wait to see what she does next week.

10. Nicky Doll

Okay, you guys know I love Nicky Doll. This week was not a good week for her. I appreciate that improv must be so hard in your second language, but I think she suffered a little bit from Dahlia Syndrome: she was so focused on staying pretty that she didn't really deliver anything. I kind of wish her character had literally just been French and spoke no English - part of the joke could have been that language barrier and Crystal/Window not understanding a word she said and her getting more and more frustrated about it. That could have been really funny. Also, her runway look...I know where she was going with it, it was a cool concept, and it was executed okay, there was just something missing, you know? It felt a little bit rushed, and again there was this real focus on being ~pretty~. Maybe if she'd looked a little more Cinderella ish, like her makeup wasn't perfect, and her hair was tied up like she was actually sewing, it would have sold me a little more character. I'm not sure, everything was just a little off for me this week, but I still think she's fierce af, and we all stumble sometimes. I'm looking forward to seeing her get back on her feet next week!

11. Rock M Sakura

Rock M was picked last for the challenge, I could not believe it. She deserved better than that, I was shook. She definitely picked the right group though, she was really funny as the Orange! She looked like she was having fun, and that's what I love about Rock M, is that I have fun watching her have fun. Her jokes were great, she matched Jan's energy, and I think she did a good job. I loved her runway look as well, the Alice in Wonderland concept was great, and I love that she kept the dress pretty simple so that the focus was on her hair and makeup! Her makeup was gorgeous, and the detail of the buttons on her face was stunning! It was a great concept, well executed, this week was a great week for Rock M, and I'm going to be furious if she gets picked last again.

12. Widow Von Du

Widow is getting The Edit. The edit that queens of colour who are talented get, where they paint them as bitchy, or loud, or as stepping on the other girls' toes; so that the audience isn't too pussed off when they get eliminated. Widow is exceedingly talented, and funny, and filled with personality. She also serves looks and delivers incredible performances. I will not let this edit take that away from her. She did great this week. She delivered everything I ordered in the challenge and more, she completely transformed for the runway, and she sold me a great presentation. Widow is definitely one to beat.

[f-nodragonart]

Could I get some feedback on my dragon species? They’re meant to be semi-aquatic (and I know gills would be unrealistic, that’s one flaw I’m gonna take for… the Aesthetic) and based on the newly discovered Spinosaurus - yknow, with the chonky eel tail.

If you wanna read some stuff I wrote up about them, you can do so here, but it’s also cool if you don’t want to, I’m mostly looking for feedback on the design.

Tysm in advance! I love this blog and have, real shit, followed you guys for actual years lol–

~~~

fun design! I like the trout coloring on the one featured here :)

(I’m ignoring the sail along the spine for the sake of focusing on the body, but it looks just fine~)

so the biggest thing that sticks out to me is the spine/torso. generally speaking (unless we’re talking abt a noodley animal like an aquatic snake, eel, etc.), aquatic vertebrates tend to have stiffer spines/torsos (esp perpendicular to their direction of motion, which I will explain more later). this is especially true for limbed animals, who require stability in their shoulders/hips. I’m not quite sure what ur dragon’s direction of motion is, but either way, this means that even the most flexible of aquatic vertebrates usually rest at a straighter, more horizontal position. aquatic animals also tend to be heavier than land animals b/c water holds their weight up for them, so a semi-aquatic dragon would likely require a stiffer, straighter spine to hold their weight up on land

I pulled the head forward/down to better follow the spine’s horizontal line of motion. unless the neck needs to be long/thin to serve some purpose (serving as an extra “limb”, sticking out of the water to survey an area, etc.), then the neck would also likely be somewhat stiff and thick/short to hold the head steady during snapping water movement, and smooth out the transition from head to body for hydrodynamics. I also made the head just a bit bigger b/c it looked a lil too small. I brought the tail up into a horizontal position for the same reason, and b/c it would actively have to be stiffer to serve as a proper paddle for the body

I made the legs much shorter b/c aquatic animals generally don’t require long legs, and longer limbs just cause more drag and hinder hydrodynamics. unless ur dragon is also a great land-sprinter, which would be an odd combination of abilities, but perhaps not necessarily impossible… I also made the legs thicker b/c of the whole “aquatic animals are heavier” thing

now something important to keep in mind for aquatic animals is their direction of motion– which direction they snap their bodies in order to move. aquatic mammals like dolphins and whales snap their bodies in the vertical direction b/c their spine is designed to flex more readily on the up-down plane. fish and aquatic reptiles like crocs snap their bodies in the horizontal direction b/c their spines are designed to flex on the side-side plane. your dragon’s main fin is along the spine, forming a vertical paddle on the tail. this implies that they flex side-side, yet their legs are designed after animals who generally flex up-down. I��m not saying that this is necessarily an impossible design choice b/c I genuinely don’t know. I just think it’s something to keep in mind when planning your dragon’s structure and water vs. land movement– despite the legs being based underneath the body, your dragon likely won’t move on land the same way mammals w/ similar legs would, simply due to their spinal construction

something that rly puzzles me are the leg and side-tail fins. reading your species information, I understand that you don’t want these guys to have webbed feet or use their legs at all for water movement, but most limbed aquatic animals do end up using their limbs for water movement, even if it’s only in small ways, like a quick directional change. I bring this up b/c there’s no reason for the tail to have horizontal side-fins to balance out the body in the water if the limbs are already there to do just that– those fins simply wouldn’t have a reason to evolve into the body plan. plus, despite the fact that you claim the legs aren’t used for water movement, they have fins on them? the only reason those fins would be there is if they were actively used for water movement, like those directional changes I mentioned. webbed toes would be the more evolutionarily viable option of course, but I could at least see fins popping up on the front legs instead of webbed fingers, if the front limbs were being used for dexterous tasks and needed free finger movement (though the fins themselves would still need a redesign)

as for the vestigial wings, more of the upper arm would likely be hidden under the flesh, esp since I’ve bulked the body up more. I also think it would be fun to have the skin on the trailing edge extend farther back on the body, as a nod to their origins being wings. this would also make them more useful as balancing surfaces for the dragon’s body in the water

the gills existing isn’t actually *that* unrealistic to me! sure, you’d have to do some evolutionary finagling to keep the gills while still giving the jaw/ears something to evolve from, but I don’t necessarily think it’s impossible. esp since this is a different world from Earth, where the genetic blueprints and evolutionary history could have very well allowed for both lungs and gills to evolve. the only real trouble is developmental energy constraints– why is energy being spent to develop two whole gas exchange systems instead of just one that behavior could adjust for? but that’s something I’m willing to hand-wave a bit

hope this helps!

-Mod Spiral

[insomnihan]

han’s Entire Thoughts and Feelings on Dreamcatcher’s “Deja Vu”

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

MY TIME HAS COME 2.0!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! FULL INSOMNIA MODE DONT. LOOK. AT. ME.

there are no read mores here so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

ALRIGHT SO-

THE SONG OKAY LETS JUMP RIGHT INTO IT i wasnt expecting something lowkey sad BUT im not mad at it!!!!!!!!!! i had conflicting emotions when i desperately wanted to cry but also headbang?????? HOWEVER thanks to force and air the tears in my eyes were drying as i headbanged- LIKE this song really PUT ME THROUGH IT like that chorus didnt have tO DO ME LIKE THAT™!!!!!!!!!!!!! BUT THEN THE VERSES AND THE PRE-CHORUSES WERE SLOW (and the bridge but bridges be like that in nearly all songs) WHICH IM ACTUALLY REALLY INTO it was like being in a roller coaster with the verses being the slow hill and the chorus was the fall THAT PIANO GOES HARD...................... but like in a soft way????? DONT ASK ME WHAT IM SAYING IS IM A HOE™ FOR PIANO THOSE DRUMS DURING THE CHORUS STOP IT I CANNOT I FELT THEM VIBRATE THROUGH MY BONES

like i DEADASS have nothing to criticize or change about this song its PERFECTLY FINE AS IT IS (except for like more gahyeon and dami????? pls??????)

siyeon starting the song.......................... thank you.............. I STILL STAND BY SAYING I WOULD LISTEN TO HER VOICE FOR LITERALLY FOREVER HER VOICE DURING THE CHORUS QUEEN OF SINGING CHORUSES OH BUT THEN THAT HIGH NOTE ARE YOU KIDDING ME??????? SHE DIDNT HAVE TO KILL ME LIKE THIS BUT THANK YOU SO MUCH I- and now....... im in the deja vu P L E A S E

gaaaaaaaahhhyeeeeeooonnnn her voice is so pretty!!!!!!!!!!! BUT I WANT MORE!!!!!!!!!! HOWEVER youre the second one to sing with this beautiful gentleness of a part and to be honest this part paired with siyeon starting it really eases you into the song and its quite the blessing to hear thanks- and then yknow this part right after handong........................... Heaven™

SPEAKING OF HANDONG LISTEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THE AMOUNT OF LINES SHE HAS MAKES ME WANNA CRY OKAY THIS PART RIGHT HERE............................. PLS.............. (i think its just me but theres a smaller voice singing like right under her voice????) HER PRE-CHORUS PARTS ARE LITERALLY THE BEST PARTS IN THE WHOLE SONG TO LISTEN TO pls believe me when i say this its NOT bc shes my ultimate bias like i genuinely like her parts the most

sua pls i was already prepared for softer vocals and you really gave that to me and then this is absolute perfection they were beautiful and amazing OF COURSE got me feeling like i was floating on actually clouds god TAHNK YOU AND THEN YOU JUST HAD TO HIT ME WITH YOUR PART RIGHT HERE???? i understand its just the chorus but I Felt That™ okay!!!!!!

JIU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i stand by saying how your voice be powerful as hell still even during these lines VERY short but VERY effective and very good leading into the chorus i love- and then your bridge....................... B I C T H really put me in my feelings but i welcome it with EVERY FIBER OF MY BEING and with open arms.......................

YOOHYEON AKA THE OTHER QUEEN OF SINGING CHORUSES I MEAN..................................... I LITERALLY DUNNO WHAT TO SAY!!!!!!!!!!! LIKE THEIR BEAUTIFUL SOUNDING HER VOICE GOES WELL WITH THEM like i really like the parts she sings after siyeon like................. Y O O F if a feather became a voice-

i need more dami too..................... P L E A S E like obviously with their other songs i was expecting dami to be in the second verse and with a smooth rap section and the former was correct HOWEVER to my pleasant surprise SHE SANG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! her singing voice suited this SO MUCH and im actually glad there wasnt a rap part at all in this song especially that SECOND PART.................. Heaven™ 2x

my favorite lyrics (x): i know i said handongs were my favorite to listen to but i like these lines dont hurt me

난 이 숨결이 허락되는 날까지 As long as I can breathe 다신 너를 놓을 수 없어 I can’t let go of you again 우린 모든 순간 함께 할 테니 We’ll be together for every moment 내 곁에서 beside me

THE DANCE OKAY IM GONNA DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT ill be referring to THIS PERFORMANCE can we pls talk about how loud the fanchant is im crying and really take it in and all of their talented glory ANYWAY OF COURSE the choreography F UKCING SLAPS just so many different position changes and just alwaYS SO IN SYNC WITH EACH OTHER ITS INSANE ill just list them briefly and keep the points short this is long enough:

THE BEGINNING AND THE END BEING THE SAME...................... CERTAINLY DEJA VU-

SIYEONS TUTTING THING THANKS

handongs majestic spin

this and this with how the formation changes and how their arms swing AND the kick

ALSO in those parts in the last bullet i dunno why but i like that move jiu does when she sings IT HITS

i recall sua spoiling literally the first move of the chorus dance in that vlive THE CHORUS DANCE ALL THOSE FORMATION CHANGES LITERALLY MESS ME UP and THIS most important move in the entire choreography and they line up and its SO COOL to look at

when they lie on each other doing yoohyeons lines

handongs part again when theyre in the line and how satisfying it is to watch

THE ENTIRE BRIDGE

LITERALLY THE ENTIRE DANCE FROM START TO FINISH

QUEENS OF STABILITY

sidenote: can we talk about how handong and dami?????? literally spin during their parts????? and they sounded super clear??????

THE VISUALS SO.......................... if you had asked me two days ago (maybe a little bit of yesterday) about how i felt about this video.................. i wouldve mentioned some unpopular opinions regarding the videos look............ i mentioned to gwen @loonapunk that i wasnt TOO into it............ BUT- after finally sitting down to do this long ass post i dont hate it!!!!!!!!!!!! i think bc i have to remind myself that this song (album???? well song-) is for that kings raid game and all the visuals AND story are based off that????? i dunno BUT WHAT I DO KNOW IS I LIKE TO WATCH IT

IM TOO BIG STUPID™ TO COMPREHEND THIS STORYLINE AND COME UP WITH MY OWN THEORIES EVEN NOW AND I WOULD L O V E TO EXPLAIN IT TO YOU BUT THIS IS LONG ENOUGH AS IT IS SO ILL REDIRECT YOU TO THEORY POSTS (TWO (2) FROM MY GALAXY BRAIN MOOTS) THAT I LIKED:

@highsomnia NITAS POST WHICH I PERSONALLY FOUND ENJOYABLE TO READ SO IF YOU COULD READ THIS YOU SHOULD ALSO READ THAT

@in-somnias ELENAS POST WHICH WAS ALSO AN INTERESTING READ RIGHT HERE

AND THEN THIS ONE THAT WAS ORIGINALLY FROM TWITTER i dont follow her so im not gonna @

AIIGHT IMMA GO CRAZY WITH THESE SHOTS (with only small one/two sentence captions this is LONG ENOUGH):

BICTH I SAW THIS AND KNEW I WAS GONNA GET GOT™ like its just super duper INCREDIBLY PRETTY TO LOOK AT

THIS WILL BE FOREVER ICONIC™ DONT ARGUE WITH ME

this is what the calm before the storm looks like

went back to the mv film making video and turns out they got slippers on under that table love that for them

how in the hell am i supposed to interpret this exchange

okay longer section i think im supposed to interpret this more as a sister bond than a romantic one?????? i remember being taken aback and believed this to be something gay BUT 99.9% OF INSOMNIAS say its gay subtext so ill just put it like that i dunno but like i just wanna say they have beautiful smiles and im love them!!!

a youtuber reacting to this mv saying it just looks like theyre shading each other.................... anyway-

i CANNOT i repeat I CANNOT EXPRESS TO YOU how Shook™ i was when i saw this for the first time i basically jumped out of my chair i couldnt i-

this mv really led me to believe jiu was the evil one.............................

POETIC. CINEMA.

THE WOMAN. THE MYTH. THE LEGEND. THE FIREBENDER. THE WOLF. LEE SIYEON. pls light me up

Symbolism™................ SYMBOLISM I CANNOT COMPREHEND GO TO THE THEORIES

MORE SYMBOLISM GO TO THE THEORIES

T H E M

NOT ONLY IS THIS VIDEO SUPER AESTHETIC™ BUT THE SEVEN (7) MOST BEAUTIFUL WOMEN IN THE WORLD BLESSING US ONCE AGAIN WITH THEIR PRESENCE AND ALLOWED THEIR ROYALTY VIBES SHOOT INTO THE MESOSPHERE INTO REAL LIFE KILLING ALL OF US

THE DANCING SCENES WITH THE TEASER OUTFITS...................................... AT EASE.....................

LITERALLY NO COMPLAINTS MOVING ON:

JIU

L I S T E N KIM MINJI YOURE A FULL PRINCESS this pink fluffy dress with the flower crown in this picture............................ i may have cried- like a lot of people were trying this look to persephone and im HERE for that concept for her and like the white outfit AND black outfit is probably super symbolic again im too Big Stupid™ anyway when i saw that black outfit in the teaser........................... i was attacked jiu with a sword is just EVERYTHING i wanted and more

SUA

LITERALLY I CANNOT- her hair being wavy looks SO GOOD on her THIS BLACK DRESS WITH THE FLOWERS she is always a Serve™ WE KNOW THAT but her visuals just HIT DIFFERENT this time lighter colored hair really suits her and then of course she looks FAN-FREAKING-TASTIC in the dance scenes in the white and the black that low pony tail pls

SIYEON

purple on this woman just shoulders and collarbones out being Beautiful™ ALL THE WHILE staying ON BRAND with herself and was wearing pants good for her G O D i just love the way her hair looks in the white and gold outfits like it just LOOKS PRETTY to me i dunno how to describe it also her with a pony tail WHAT ARE YOU SO PRETTY FOR-

HANDONG

i just................... want closer shots of this.................. CLOSER SHOTS IN GENERAL OF HER ACTUALLY like LOOK HOW BEAUTIFUL™ SHE LOOKS HERE I WANNA SEE MORE OF IT??????? PLS??????? nothing gets me weaker than her hair being styled exactly like in the picture i just love that her royalty and regal vibes and looks were FINALLY realized and WAS BROUGHT TO THE FOREFRONT

YOOHYEON

THIS MV MUST CONVINCE ME SHE IS EVIL BY SHOWING HER FOREHEAD first of all the first outfit turning her into an Actual Entire Princess™/Queen™ that red one i dont really understand SHE MAKES IT WORK THO THEN THAT BLACK OUTFIT LISTEN yo it was like getting hit by a whole truck full speed i wasnt ready and i just wanna admire that yoohyeon and gray colored hair is an actual match made in heaven i just have to say-

DAMI

i love this suit and the patten on it so much this outfits color (what is that teal????) and her hair color is such a GOOD PAIRING and on her SHE JUST KILLED ME WITH HER SOLO SCENES i wish i had more to say about her and her outfits but what else can i say other than that she is INSANELY ATTRACTIVE AND I WANT HER TO STEP ON ME???????

GAHYEON

she really broke my neck when i saw her the first time LIKE DEADASS LOOK AT THIS PICTURE i had fallen for her and i cannot get up when i saw this outfit in the other shots like the black top and the see through sleeves but her skirt is like different colors she really Served™ in this outfit bangs usually look cute but in her solo parts she was coming for my heart like miss lee gahyeon pls-

BONUS TIME: B-SIDE TRACKS (just short thoughts and point out specific parts i liked lmao)

Intro:

their intros always slap are you kidding me-

The curse of the Spider

i wasnt ready for this bop to slap me in the face on my spotify that chorus didnt have to do that to me THAT GUITAR DIDNT HAVE TO DO THAT TO ME i love the way dami and handong sound in this song i mean wrow-

favorite lyrics (x):

소름이 끼칠 만큼 It’s chilling 도망치고 싶어질 it makes me want to run away 그런 두려움일 테니 such is this fear

Silent Night

B I H C T i knew when i heard this in the highlight it was going to be my favorite one IT REALLY WOKE SOMETHING IN ME these lyrics i cant- gahyeon and handong hurted me with their lower registers Y AL L YOU KNOW WHAT ELSE HURTED ME THAT D R O P DID

favorite lyrics (x):

겨눈 칼 끝은 a blade directed at someone 결국 돌아오게 돼 eventually returns 더 다가오지 마 don’t come closer

Polaris

this song is as if i was wrapped in the thickest blanket i got and im resting on the softest bed in the world with a fireplace going nearby and i could finally rest peacefully bc the lord knows i need it- i really cried a little bit listening to this pls leave me be i legit cant pick a specific member i liked the most for this song i just love it and everything it got

favorite lyrics (x):

그게 너라서 행복해 I’m happy that it’s you 그 많은 인연 속에 Among those numerous connections 수많은 사람 중에 Among those numerous people

LIKE im so completely satisfied with every song on this album and im completely in love with it!!!!!!!!!! the only ‘issue’ i really had was with the mv visually but as you read i warmed up to it lmao LIKE IM JUST SO PROUD OF THESE WOMEN AND HOW TALENTED AND HARDWORKING THEY ARE like i have to say the japanese release?????? and this????? being so close to each other????? you telling me they learned TWO (2) different choreographies one after the other???? i absolutely love this album and i desperately desperately DESPERATELY want so much more success for them bc ITS WHAT THEY DESERVE!!!!!!!!!!!!! this is supposed to be just about the overall mv and deja vu but i might as well just type what i feel lmao

IN CONCLUSION: MY INSOMNIA ASS IS BOTH ALIVE AND DEAD BUT MOSTLY ALIVE I LOVE THIS IM STREAMING

i have to bring this back its relevant again:

[jungwoomusings]

barista!jungwoo

jungwoo has been working in his local small town cafe for a few months now

it’s his first job since starting college and he absolutely loves it

but the poor boy still can’t make a decent drink to save his life

he’s always mixing up recipes and measuring ingredients out wrong

one day a caramel macchiato is a caramel overload one sip and you get fifty cavities but the next day the coffee is so strong you’ll be up for days

his supervisor taeil always tries to teach him new drinks when business is slow

but everything he makes ends up tasting like burnt coffee grounds but he serves it with a wide smile so taeil always takes an extra sip and tries to be encouraging

taeyong hypes him up for not spilling anything this time and he just smiles so shyly at the ground

taeil makes sure he’s always on cashier duty for this reason

he always greets everyone with the warmest smile and draws cute doodles on the cups along with everyone’s names

always gives cute kids that come in a free cookie or treat but he makes sure it’s okay with the parents first in case of allergies or diet issues and the mom’s swoon

and everyone loves him too because he’s so genuine when asking the customers how their days are going and how they’re feeling

he’d probably want to find out their entire life story if doyoung wasn’t yelling from the back for him to keep the line moving

he always remembers the regulars names and recommends his favorite drinks to new customers

which is how you two meet

it’s a particularly slow saturday morning at the cafe and jungwoo has been banned from attempting to make drinks for the rest of the month after he accidentally spilled burning hot coffee all over his hand

he’s currently doodling all over the bandages covering said hand

when you walk in timid in your oversized hoodie and even bigger backpack

jungwoo takes in your slightly frazzled state and giggles to himself when he notices your bag is almost bigger than you are

you’re still scanning the menu when you step up to the counter so you don’t notice the boy with the bunny teeth smiling down at you until

“hELLO! my name’s jungwoo, what’s yours? what can i make for you? but don’t worry i won’t be the one making it!” :D

the voice is way too chipper for it being 7 am on a saturday and he definitely said more words than you could even manage before noon

you finally tilt your gaze down slightly and notice the giddy orange haired boy who looks as if he’s already had his daily caffeine intake

“uh” *clears throat* “yeah uhm can i have a sec please..?” you manage

“of course! you’re new here huh? i’ve never seen you here before and you’re definitely one i’d remember. what do you usually drink? we have all the basic stuff”

“oh well i actually don’t drink coffee... ever...”

jungwoo cannot believe his ears

he guffaws to which you shoot him an inquisitive (almost annoyed) look that has him thinking you’re actually serious

“so what are you doing in a cafe? where we sell yknow coffee?”

“ordering coffee?”

that’s when jungwoo remembers it’s finals season and that would explain the slew of new people around his age who have been coming in for the past week trying to hurriedly and confusedly order drinks they’ve never even heard of

“well what flavors do you like?”

“uhm, i dont think i can do straight black but i don’t like anything overly sweet?”

jungwoo’s smile never falters once while taking this in trying to find a drink that meets in the middle of these preferences

“do you want to try something with mocha? it’s chocolate so it’s not all just coffee but it’s a little more bitter?”

“sure?” you answer still second guessing the reason you even came in here in the first place

“great! i’ll have doyoung make that for you right now! can i have your name?”

jungwoo practically exclaims this, excited that he thought of something for you

“oh right it’s y/n” you mumble shyly, always finding it slightly awkward giving someone your name

jungwoo refrains from commenting how cute your shy exterior is and gets to work carefully writing out your name making sure to not misspell it

his writing is taking longer than it should and you’re scared he’s completely butchered your name but you can’t help but to smile at the look of concentration on his face

he has his tongue slightly poking out and eyes wide open as if he’s afraid of missing any details

“it’ll be ready in a couple minutes!” jungwoo exclaims, breaking you out of the trance you didn’t realize you were in

you quickly look down hoping he didn’t notice the way you were admiring his face

“how much do i owe you?” you ask trying regain your cool exterior

“oh i couldn’t charge you for this! you don’t even know if you like it yet!” jungwoo says not even missing a beat

“wait no i couldn’t i’ll feel bad” you say finally looking back up to meet his gaze, his eyes never once leaving your face

“ahh too late, cup’s already going” jungwoo says turning around quickly to call doyoung from the back before he says something embarrassing

like how he doesn’t actually give new customers a free first drink or how he thinks the way your nose scrunches when you’re thinking is cute

jungwoo hides beside doyoung the whole time he’s making your drink but quickly steals glances at you sitting at a nearby table every couple of seconds

he can already picture you sitting here every evening occupying a whole table with your study materials

he’s in the middle of wondering if you chew on your pen while concentrating when doyoung is shoving the hot cup into his hands

“dude next time you ignore me i’m spilling a whole pot of hot coffee down your pants” doyoung pouts casually turning to see what or who has his attention

“bring them their drink, and don’t spill it on them if you plan on taking them on a real date” doyoung sighs

jungwoo scoffs but doyoung is already behind the swinging door before he can come up with a retort

leaving him alone with you and a piping hot cup of coffee

jungwoo prays silently that he doesn’t trip while he makes his way over to where you’re stationed

you’re pretending to type on your phone as a distraction to keep you from looking at the rather cute cashier when a cup is being shoved into your face

“i hope you like it! i asked doyoung to go easy on all the syrups for you” jungwoo says feeling even shyer now that he doesn’t have a counter to hide behind

“thanks” you say timidly blowing on the cup before taking an even more timid sip

“it’s good?” you say surprised “i think? it might still be too hot to tell”

jungwoo is relieved that you don’t completely hate it because that means your chances of coming back again (hopefully soon) are a little more likely

“not too sweet?” jungwoo asks, the flutter in his voice matches the flutter in your heart

you take a moment staring at how his eyes shyly peak through his orangey bangs and how his teeth slightly dig into his plump bottom lip

“not too sweet” you muster, wondering if anything could ever be sweeter than the wide smile he gives you in return

jungwoo notices that you’re finally smiling and his heart starts to pump a little faster as if there’s caffeine already pumping through his system

you can’t tell if the warmth is coming from the steaming cup in your hands or the way jungwoo is looking down at you

so softly as if the two of you are in on some secret of your own, the kind only two strangers who are already comfortable with each other can have

your little world is invaded by the ding of the door opening letting in a man who already looks annoyed that there isn’t someone behind the counter immediately ready to take his order

“well the morning rush is about to start, i better get back there” jungwoo says, rubbing the back of his neck hoping the pout isn’t evident in his voice

“yeah i’ve got some studying to do so i better get going too..” you say wanting nothing more than to sit here and study this boy some more

“thanks for the drink” you offer finally standing up as jungwoo makes his way back to the counter “see you around”

jungwoo’s heart perks up a little bit at your last statement hoping that means what he thinks it means, but you’re already out the door before he can say anything

and he’s back behind the counter taking orders once again hoping to catch glimpses of you walking across the street before you get too far out of view, afraid he completely dreamed you up

and you’re outside braving the morning sun when you look down at all of the little hearts and smiley faces that decorate your name on the cup

you smile to yourself, maybe you do like coffee, but only if it’s coming from the sweeter than sweet orange haired barista