#did i ghostwrite this? honestly

[swinging-from-my-cable]

You want me to choose between Shining Time Station, Wishbone, and Lamb Chop?

Edit 1: Also where are Kratt's Creatures and Zoom and Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego?

Edit 2: Reading Rainbow? Redwall?

Just saw a "What was your favorite PBS Kids show" poll but only one of them was old enough that I actually remembered it sO

Please note that this poll does NOT contain the Big Three PBS Kids Shows: Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, Sesame Street, or Bill Nye the Science Guy. It also does not include Barney & Friends or Teletubbies. This is deliberate on my part. (I may make a separate poll for them later.)

[brawltogethernow]

That reminds me. As a Spidey fan what's your opinion of the newspaper comic.

We as a society don't deserve the glory of the Spider-Man newspaper comic.

The post about creative teams reminding you is perfect really because a thing people overlook memeing on the newspaper comic is this was Lee/Romita! For a respectable chunk of years! Possibly their newspaper strip run accumulated to a more one on one collaboration than their iconic ASM run had? I don't feel like fact checking that; don't quote me on that.

I could call that era 616-lite, but honestly, in many ways it's more like concentrated essence of 616. It's like the essential oil of 616. Including how you should exercise caution before applying it directly to your skin.

It's really just fascinating to watch how their styles kept evolving after the main comic transferred to other hands. Romita Sr.'s later inking is just, unf, and it's really a privilege to get to see it in black and white because of the format. And even after he dipped Stan Lee remained insane in the newsprint arena for, even accounting for decades of ghostwriting, way longer than he ever wrote ASM itself. It's bizarre that the newspaper strip exists.

But it does! And it contributes to my understanding of the mainline characterization in a way other adaptations simply cannot (largely in ways that are charmingly stupid). Like I'm not going to tell the guy who made these characters up that they would not fucking say that, and more importantly I don't want to. Harry and Flash did not open a disco together in 616. But they WOULD HAVE, had shit ever stopped happening for five minutes.

[finnylemon]

John Dory introduces his ghostwriter to the family (goes wrong 🤣)

Branch: "FULL Offense John, Do you actually think ANYONE will want to read a book about you?"

Bruce: "Yea, Honestly John,"

Poppy: "That's a great idea!"

Clay: "This is not what I meant when I said Book Club"

John Dory: "Okay, FIRST of all, my life is very interesting. Second, I wasn't asking your opinions."

John Dory: "I was JUST trying to introduce my ghostwriter! Now you guys made me look like a total ass. Thanks."

Finny: Holy Shit what did I sign up for

The group is APPAULED to learn John even has the audacity to think any troll would desire to read about his life. John Dory- keeping most of his old life a secret from the family, knows they only see him as their boring eldest brother. Determined to get his name out to the public again, he hires a ghostwriter to write down the retelling of his stories and combine them into a cohesive Memoir. Having only read one poor excuse for a memoir himself, John Dory is convinced this will be a simple task.

Little did he consider, tapping into his past starts to bring up problems and buried feelings that begin to conflict with those around him.

Just a little summary for my John Dory's Memoir AU! I'm actually getting a TON of ideas for this concept 🔥 expect more hehe + bonus Finny sketch ;3

[freshwarrior757]

Played Class of 09 Flip Side last week...man, that sucked

I was honestly given high hopes for The Flip Side, and since my Class of 09 drawing that I made for Flip side is getting a lot of likes, I figured I'd make a post reviewing the game.

Pros:

The voice acting was incredible. Kayli Mills really gave her all in the therapy scenes, I actually felt heartbroken for her.

The FYE route was good up until the end...I'll talk about that in a bit.

The 7 seconds part was pretty funny.

Trody is still best boi

Emo Jecka

The Hatman

The Nicole Suicide route was one of the biggest requests for the Flip Side, and at least he listened to the fans on that. It was even more awfully crushing when seen from Jecka's perspective.

That's about all the good. Now the bad:

The foot stuff. That was like, a third of the game, and it was barely even funny the first time. If they were gonna do something like this, the least they could have done was not show the actual foot stuff taking place. In The Re-up, they didn't show Nicole having sex with men as a MySpace escort, and it honestly made the point even better (I'll talk more about this later). It's pretty obvious that SBN3 was just putting his fetish in to spite people.

The Dad was just tiring. I mean, his character was a good depiction of an abuser, but the joke honestly just got boring. It's like SBN3 saw how popular the "I WANNA FUCKING KILL MY WIFE" scene was, and decided to make that joke an entire character.

The jokes just felt off. The edginess was there, but it was all edge, no point. The "Flip a coin" scene was funny, as was the "7 seconds" scene and some others, but it kinda felt like SBN3 just got burnt out, or he fired his ghostwriter (I don't doubt that he wrote the game, but I'm pretty sure he had some help with some of the jokes).

The FYE Route had a bizarre-ass ending after all that good buildup.

Crispin did nothing but get insulted the whole game, even when he tried to help Jecka.

Mr. Katz became a pedophile because SBN3 didn't like the fact that Reddit liked him. He was one of the only male teachers who wasn't a pedophile, he was just a crackhead. But they had to massacre his character too.

The characters felt kinda...out of character. Nicole HATES men, like absolutely DESPISES them. She engages with men to manipulate them, and she only engaged in sexual acts with men when she was homeless, on drugs, and had literally no other options. She would never willingly try to have sex with a 50 year old man.

Also, she didn't get mad at Jecka for refusing to let her stay at her house when she was homeless, and she didn't get mad when Jecka refused to help her get revenge on Megan, or sell crack, or do some of the other stuff. But you're telling me she's gonna engage in sexual acts with her father because...Jecka didn't cut Nicole in on one of her jobs?! People may point to the Megan route in The Re-up, but Megan was a bitch to her for most of their interactions, whereas Jecka was Nicole's only real friend. Plus, she just asked Hunter for dick pics, she didn't actually try to have sex with him like she did with Jecka's dad.

To add on to this: The FYE Route had like, the weirdest and worst ending: Being sex trafficked by the Taliban. The other games were believable, even if the White Supremacist ending was kinda exaggerated. But holy crap, this made no sense.

Nicole gets kicked out by her mom and has to resort to selling her body? It's pretty fucked up, but it's really happened to people. Jecka finds out that FYE has a massive illegal porn stash they use to keep men in control, and gets sold to the Taliban as a sex slave to keep her quiet? It makes zero sense.

To add on to the last two things: The endings were not good. They were:

Jeffery OD's and Jecka becomes more toxic as a result of relying on Nicole

Nicole has "foot-sex" with Jecka's dad, and Jecka kills herself

Jecka drunk-drives and kills Ari

Nicole commits suicide, leaving Jecka all alone

Jecka gets sold to the Taliban, and Kelly fucking dies.

I mean seriously. Even the past two games had SOME good endings: Nicole becomes a YouTuber, Nicole becomes Valedictorian, Nicole graduates and becomes a better person, Nicole exposes a racist teacher...this game just felt like torture porn of Jecka.

I swear to God this anime better get picked up by Prime or Netflix or something like that, cuz I'll be damned if the series dies like this.

[potatogratins]

— love letter

꒰ summary ꒱ in high school, many students do their hardest to achieve their dreams. aimie, an aspiring writer, ghostwrites love letters for other people to earn just a little for her aspirations. when her friend and aspiring volleyball player, yuki, finds out just what kind of work she's commissioning, he's not too pleased.

꒰ genre ꒱ hurt/comfort, slight fluff, high school au ꒰ pairing ꒱ | ishikawa yuki/female oc ꒰ w.c. ꒱ 6,075 ꒰ published ꒱ september 4, 2024

꒰ a/n ꒱ i just have so many ideas for yuki fics that I honestly can't stop! i initially wrote this with the characters as adults, but i decided to make them high school students cause the situation seemed immature enough for teenagers to do. anyways, I can't wait to see yuki play once again this season! will be sleeping late for sure, but it'll be worth it, i know it.

Emilie,

Last night, I made up a string of lies just to ask my mom what she thought of you. I wouldn’t dare to write every word she uttered in this paper because it would be too much for the nib to handle. Allow me to summarize it for you to protect your heart: she did not approve of us. It hurt me to see that the woman I have looked up to for so long would go so far to insult you, even if the both of you have never formally met.

People may never approve of us, but none of it matters.

We have professed our love in the presence of God. If they say our love is false, then so is the God we all bow down to. Still if they prove that God is real and our love falser than false, then reality isn’t real and this world is a dream, and what a beautiful dream we’ve concocted for each other.

Tonight I will dream of you as every other night, and there we will meet again.

Your Eternity,

Rostom

As I wrote the last letter, I took the paper that held these contents and rested it on the table beside me. I wiped the black ink off my fingers with a worn-out towel, as I looked out into the horizon.

There were things in this world that I begged to know, like why we could barely see so much of the world when we looked towards the distance. But as I looked into the pink sky, raging into orange and then black, I realized the magic of distance: I can believe that there’s a whole other world behind the distance my eyes are capable of seeing, even if it was most likely filled with nothingness. 

“Are you done with my letter?” Jun, my schoolmate, asked, who crept up behind me as I was looking out the window.

“The ink is drying. I’ll put it in the envelope in a few minutes,” I explained to him.

 “Can’t you just use the Parker Ink? I swore you used that a few letters ago.” he insisted.

“The Parker inks aren’t dark enough for me.”

“With writing like that, I’m sure the receiver wouldn’t think about what ink you’re using. Elaine–Emaine–I mean Emilie–loves the letters that I send her!”

“Yeah, yeah. It’s a me problem. But I just think the presentation is just as important as the content, you know? Why do you think we judge people’s handwriting so much? Ink is also a factor in how we judge the writer,” I explained.

“We can talk about ink if we were in the 20th century, but we’re not. Aimie–letters have been out of fashion for so long that people won’t even tell what’s good parchment and what isn’t.”

“Yet you come to me asking to write old-fashioned letters with flowery words for a woman,” I said as I raised my eyebrows.

He scratched his head, tilting it while explaining, “She’s an intellectual. I needed to find a way to impress her.”

I shook my head. This dude was a pain in the ass.

“Alright, the letter’s dried. Now take this envelope and get out,” I ordered him, folding the letter into the envelope before I gave it to him. He placed a couple of coins on the table and left the classroom.

I tightly sealed the bottle of ink before wrapping it in a plastic bag. I stuffed it in the bottom of my bag before putting the extra pieces of paper inside my portfolio bag. For a brief moment, I continued to look out the window. Then, there was a knock on the door.

“Aimie,” Yuki greeted me softly before walking towards me.

“I’m surprised to see you here,” I told him. I felt spots of heat enter my cheeks. I looked away, allowing my cheeks to cool down, before turning to him.

“Why?”

“Don’t you have a bunch of girls waiting outside your classroom every day?”

He rolled his eyes.

“Or was there no one camping out for you today? Maybe they finally got to find out that you’d be a nightmare of a boyfriend,” I joked.

“I think I’d be a capable boyfriend. I would be a very good boyfriend… I think…” he boasted…ish.

“I know you always make your folks late to work because you take up so much time showering,” I sneered at him. I heard him huff, and he crossed his arms.

“Hey, at least I’m unlike you, lazing around, looking into the window all day. I know you always finish your homework while your teacher is asking the class to pass the papers to the front.”

“Shut up–”

“And you’re always obsessed with men… kissing each other…”

“It’s the 21st century! I am at the very least politically correct–”

“With a bed filled with nothing but stuffed toys because no one wants to hug her at night!”

“That’s mean! And to think I was supposed to take you out for dinner. Hmph! Leave me alone!”

He took a chair and dragged it beside me. He quietly put his bags on the floor and nudged my arm.

“I’m sorry,” he attempted to console me, “It was a joke. I won’t do it again…”

A smile began to creep up on me.

“…I’ll pay for dinner instead–” he slowly said.

“Exactly what I’m talking about!” I celebrated as I bolted right up. He scoffed as he watched me quickly gather my belongings. There wasn’t much left to put in my bag, but I wanted to be sure that I had everything together, lest I end up leaving behind something and be forced to think about what I left behind all night till the next school day.

“Are you actually going to pay for my food?” I asked him.

“Obviously not,” he retorted as a matter-of-factly. I whined and stomped the floor, crossing my arms. He smirked and quickly turned away, leaving me. I shouted and followed right after him.

We arrived at the restaurant not thirty minutes after I packed up. There was hardly anyone save for a few salarymen, tourists, and a woman speaking to herself. Loud rock music was playing in the background. We chose a table in the corner just by a window, where we would practically see none of them. The music was surprisingly quieter in this area. We sat across from each other.

“I would have said, ‘Finally, some peace and quiet!’ but you’re here,” Yuki hissed at me.

“Hey, you’re making me pay for your food and fooled me into thinking that I won’t be paying and now you’re making me pay again!” I complained. A “hmph!” came out of my mouth. Yuki slid himself closer to me and tapped my hand.

“I’m just messing with you,” he whispered, “I’ll pay for your food.”

“Really?” I pouted. He looked down as he smiled, and I could only get a glimpse of his sheepishness.

“Yes, now go and order what you want,” he directed me.

We both looked down at the menu. For a good three minutes, there was a circle of silence around us. I looked up to take a peek at him. He was so concentrated on someone who just needed to choose a meal for himself. Then he looked up at me, and I looked away for a moment.

I nodded, turned the menu towards him, and pointed at the two meals. Yuki shook his head, “Can’t you just get one?”

“Why? I’ve had a long day. Can’t I have two?”

Yuki rolled his eyes, showed me the side of the menu he was browsing at, and pointed at two meals.

“You’re not the only one who wants two meals,” he clarified, “The doctor told me to eat more so I could add some more weight.”

I sighed, “Fine. I’ll just get the curry.”

He didn’t reply but gave me a face. He pressed the button to call for the waitress and gave out our order. He pointed to the menu and asked for adjustments, to which I rolled my eyes and mocked him, then looked away.

When he had finished ordering, he called for my attention.

“Aimie, what were you up to in the classroom?” he asked me, the tone which almost felt like an interrogation.

I turned my eyes to him, but still kept my head towards the window, “I was just… writing some letters.”

“Letters?” He raised his eyebrow.

“Yes, letters. People ask me to write letters or translate them so they could send it to other people.”

He fussed, “Who is sending letters out these days? Can’t you just send them through mail?”

“I mean… that’s what it is…” I spoke slowly. He stared at me, then rolled his eyes.

“I meant mail as in online mail. You’re taking me literally.”

“Yes, I know what you meant. It was a joke.”

“It was not.”

“Is.”

“Not. And you’re changing the subject. Why are you writing letters for people?”

I crossed my arms and frowned at him. He tilted his stupid head, waiting for me to answer, but as time passed, he was disappointed to find out that I was not planning to respond at all.

“Aimie. I know you’re the best in our class when it comes to writing, but I think you should not be doing this.”

“Why not? It’s becoming a trend! Everyone likes to get letters 'cause they’re genuine.”

“Genuine? How can you call that genuine when you’re the one writing letters instead of them?”

As I was about to respond, the waitress arrived with our orders. We both looked at each other uncomfortably and began to eat in silence as if to forget the argument that was just about to transpire. He looked out the window as he ate while I slouched like a child, eating my curry as quietly as I could.

Later on, the waitress returned with another meal set on her tray and placed it between Yuki and I.

“A third one?” I quickly turned to him, “Is your doctor really making you eat that much?”

He shook his head and slid one of the plates towards me.

“It’s yours,” he told me softly, “Of course I’m not going to make you pay for my food after I just told you that I was going to pay for it.”

I nodded while looking down. My cheeks began to turn red, and from the edge of my eye, I could see Yuki slide the plate towards me even more. He continued to eat, looking out the window again.

I often wondered if we ever thought of the same things when we would look out the window. Does he judge others who pass by or think of them with kindness? Does he imagine the daily lives of the people that pass by? Does he see a woman and think she’s pretty? Does he think of me while he looks at a woman, as I’m before him? 

He then continued our previous conversation, “I just don’t like the idea of you posing as someone else–”

“I’m not pretending to be someone else–” I emphasized. A heavy feeling was growing in my stomach, and I knew that tonight was going to open fresh wounds.

“It could cause you a lot of pain. And confusion. I–It’s admirable that you–I mean, you’re writing what other people can’t seem to express, but a letter–it’s personal. The people asking to write letters for them should express what they feel even if they can only express it in very few letters. It would be a dishonor to those who receive it. They would be disappointed when they begin to know the real them and find that they’re not as honest as their eloquence,” he tried to persuade me.

“Come on, Yuki. Who are we to judge them? I’m just trying to help. I’m not harming them at all.”

Yuki placed his hands behind his head, squeezing his eyes and opening his mouth in frustration.

“You know, I don’t know what to do with you. I know you want to help, but–”

He looked around, bewildered, and then shook his head. He dug his hand inside his bag and took a notebook out, and rolled it took his notebook from his bag, rolled it, and slightly stood up.

“Kindness–”

He began lightly hitting my head.

“Starts–”

He hit my head again.

“With honesty. If you help people become dishonest, then you’re not really helping at all.”

I pouted and looked up at him. He blushed and sat back down.

“Finish up your food. I have work to do,” he breathed out.

I saluted in reply and took big bites of my food.

After we finished eating, we walked our way to the train station. I sat on the seat nearest to the door, while Yuki sat across me. I looked at him as he stared down at the floor. I tightened the grip of my school bag, eventually hugging it instead. When he turned his eyes towards me, I averted mine, and I tried to focus on the view behind him.

“Don’t you want to sit beside me?” I asked as I patted the seat beside me. He hummed and did so.

To the ordinary person, a stranger asking their friend to sit beside them was a normal occurrence. But when it came to Yuki, sitting beside him on the train meant something else. I had the privilege of looking out the window to stare at him through the reflection. It seemed desperate, and it was. When the boy you like was admired and ambushed by girls every day, spending your every minute with him had to be well-spent. I would do anything to sit and look at him, even if his reflection could only hold an ounce of what was genuinely worth admiring about him.

I turned my head to the real him as I allowed my hand to wander inside my school bag. I pulled out a ball of those expensive Lindt chocolates, and showed it to him. His head was pointed towards the chocolate, then to me. He looked down and shook his head.

“No, I can’t have any. I need to control my intake,” he rejected me and apologized profusely. I cleared my throat and looked into the window. I wanted to phase out. Even if I was in public. Even if he was right beside me. I could handle a rejection of chocolates from anyone but him.

“You alright?” he asked me, putting his hand on my shoulder.

I felt my hand shake a little as my fingers began to sweat. When I turned towards him, his brown eyes were looking right at me. I could drown myself in that sea of chocolate. I could count the times he blinked. One… two… three…

Then the train doors opened, and Yuki stood up, motioning me to get off the train with him. With a myriad of people, we tried to stay as close to each other as possible. I held onto the strap of his bag, so I wouldn’t lose him. Then, all of a sudden, he turned around and took hold of my hand that was attached to his bag strap. He held that hand and looked at me in the eye as if to tell me to hold on tight so we wouldn’t lose each other.

There was a part of me that wanted to swoon. But for the most part, I wanted to hide in embarrassment because that’s the thing with Yuki. When you thought you finally knew him, he does something completely out of the ordinary. But no matter how shocking the action was, it doesn’t actually mean anything.

Still, he warmed my heart every time.

“I’m fine on my own,” I insisted.

“No, Aimie. In my six years of knowing you, you always have the tendency to get lost,” he nagged me and held my hand even tighter.

My hands began to sweat, and I managed to pull away from his grip..

“I don’t… feel comfortable,” I admitted.

His eyes softened. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make you feel that way.”

“It’s not you, it’s me,” I stood firmly, “But I think we should get walking.”

For the next few minutes, we walked around in silence. A few cars would pass by, but the atmosphere between us was static. He would sometimes slow down to let me catch up. To my surprise, he would usually scold me for being so slow. This was not the case.

As we turned to our street, there was a man and woman arguing. The woman, high-pitched, kept on slapping the man as he kept on pushing her. Yuki and I stayed close to each other to the point that our arms began to touch. But as we were about to pass by them, the woman suddenly grabbed the collar of my blouse and pulled me in front of you.

“Are you Aimie?” she asked me.

I gulped and nodded.

Yuki walked beside me, “What do you want with her?”

“Get out of it, you brat,” she spat at him and pushed him by the shoulder. She then focused at me.

“Are you the one writing letters to Jun?”

I shook my head. I looked at Yuki, his lips pursed, and his fists began to turn white. She then began to shout at me, the words incoherent. I froze like a doll, allowing her to hurt me, till Yuki got in the way.

“No, I don’t think you understand,” he insisted.

“Yes, I do! She’s the mistress! She–She writes to Jun!”

“She’s not interested in him at all. And who might you be?” Yuki raised his eyebrow.

“His… his girlfriend!” she shouted unsurely before looking away. 

“You look too old to be his girlfriend,” he remarked. Can’t he be a little more careful?

“HUH!? And who are you to tell that, with that tiny voice of yours?” she shouted again.

“I’m her friend. And you’re misunderstanding,” he placed his hand out as if to calm her down. The man with her looked at the both of them the same way I was looking at them. We were clearly the most useless out of the four.

“Her friend… Clearly, you’re dating. And I can’t believe you’re… tolerating her. That hag is cheating on you!”

“She’s not my girlfriend,” he said calmly, “And she’s not the mistress. She’s just writing letters for other people.”

The woman was taken aback. She walked back slowly, though never turning back, and tilted her head towards the man behind her.

“Do you think he’s telling the truth?” she whispered to him. The man raised his eyebrow.

“I don’t think Jun dates high school girls in the first place–”

“He could, if he would,” Yuki interjected, “He’s a high school student after all.”

Quickly, the man walked away from the woman. He began to laugh at her.

“Did you just get tricked by a high school student?” he cackled and pointed at her.

“No, no,” the woman objected, “I’m just a year older than him. And… I thought we were in the same university…” She tried to convince him that there was nothing wrong when something obviously was, and it had barely anything to do with the letters at all.

“Well, he does look old,” the man said, to which everyone either looked at him in horror or shame.

“I’m sorry for my sister,” the man apologized and bowed in front of us, “She caught Jun’s letter on the table while he was at work. It seems like he puts your name and house as the return address.”

Yuki laughed lightly, and I stared at the floor.

“Do you actually write the letters?” the woman asked me, her voice softer.

“Yes, I do. But I put it in the envelope and well… I don’t write the addresses for them. I didn’t know he’s been putting my name and address the entire time. I apologize,” I explained.

She sighed, “Kid, try to get out of people’s other matters. Even if it’s just writing a letter.”

In embarrassment, I kept my head down. Yuki spoke for me, “Sorry for making you worry. I’ll bring her home.”

“Sorry for the misunderstanding. Have a good night,” the woman said and the siblings bowed.

Yuki and I walked back to my home, but before I could say anything, he stole the opportunity to break the silence.

“Don’t tell me you’re planning to write letters even after all that,” he looked at me in a distasteful manner. I shook my head as fast as I could.

“It’s just a misunderstanding. It’s going to happen from time to time, but I can–“

“You’re still going to do it!?” he blasted. I took a step back.

“Yes, but–“

“I don’t–I don’t understand the thought process here. If it wasn’t for me, you would have found yourself beat up the next morning. I mean–they’re not capable of maybe beating you to death, but you would have definitely still been in danger… Aimie, can’t you think straight for once?” he scolded me.

I began to warm my hands with my palms as my heartbeat grew faster. I felt a spot in my throat beginning to hurt. In hurried breaths, I could visually feel myself turning into a pot, ready to whistle for tea.

“No! I can’t!” I shouted, “I don’t have the luxury of doing that! Don’t you know that other people ghostwrite?”

“I know people ghostwrite. But do you agree? Is this unethical doing of yours okay with you?”

“It’s just a bunch of letters!” I screamed and stomped my feet. Yuki crossed his arms.

“It’s not! A letter is supposed to… to… tell people what they feel. To help the receiver understand the writer… in their perspective. You’re missing the point of this!”

“Well, you’re making a big deal out of this. I write letters for other people, love letters. For high school students. I’m not–I’m not going to fool… the Prime Minister into doing what the customer would have wanted him to do. I’m not blackmailing people.”

“No matter how young they are, you’re still fooling with other people’s feelings!”

“I’m not the one fooling them. It’s the person asking me to write for them.”

“So you agree? That someone is at the very least, lying?”

“Okay, fine. Yes. There’s dishonesty.. The person asking me to write the letter is lying. I’m lying, too. But I didn’t ask to be in this kind of position. I didn’t want to be writing letters, I wanted to be writing novels. But I can’t afford to be one. I’m not like you, living in a fantasy world where offers come right at me left and right, where people come flocking at me from all corners.”

Just miles away from us, we heard some lightning strike. Though we could have ran away, we stood there, arguing like children.

“You’ve worked hard, that’s for sure. But other people have, and they don’t get as much returns as you do, to the point that you’re privileged enough to continue to work hard with extra help along the way,” I added.

He wanted to interrupt me, but allowed me to continue talking:

“You have no right to talk to me about honesty, genuinity. How do you know if everything that you have is real? Let’s start with that first.”

Then, it began to drizzle.

I took a deep breath before telling him, “Those love letters those girls would give you? The ones that you would throw away? Most of them were written by me anyway. And if you–and if you ever bothered to read them, you’d realize that I’ve written what they’ve wanted, true, but every word was mine. Every love letter I’ve written, no matter who wanted me to write them, always had you in mind. You’re real to me.”

“Aimie–“

“You live a good life, and I know it’ll just get better. But that doesn’t mean you can bug me and tell me what’s good and what’s bad. I know… friends.. are supposed to tell you what’s good and what’s wrong. But these commissions–they’re the only thing I can do. We both know that.”

“I could help you–“

“I don’t need your help! I never did. I’ve been doing fine without you anyway. But you’re right. It’s dishonest. It got in the way. So I’ll stop,” I finished.

I dug down my school bag and got a foldable umbrella out. I shoved it in his big hands as he looked at me, puzzled. The rain poured even harder, puddles forming at the side of the road.

“Go home,” I demanded him.

Without looking at his reaction, I turned away and ran to my house. I felt his footsteps follow right behind me. I heard him calling for me. As I reached the front door, I turned around to find him gone. With a sigh of relief, I entered my home, where nothing could ever be capable of hurting me.

Two weeks had passed since the incident. I spent most of my days, running away from everyone, even Yuki. My feelings towards the conversation began to mellow, and I clearly saw what Yuki was trying to talk about. When I began to realize the grand scheme of things, my pride and selfishness immensely lowered. Since then, I stopped taking in requests for love letters, and spending my time in the library or the empty classroom.

But there were times when I had to walk out of my safe spaces and Yuki would happen to be there, and every single time, he would have his eyes on me. Every time he would stand up or even take a step toward me, I would run past him as fast as possible or even turn the other way around.

Eventually, my luck had run out because one day, after trying to run away from him, he attempted to chase after me.

“Aimie! Wait!” he called for me.

For some reason, I could have run as fast as I could. He was more athletic than I was, but desperation caused as much adrenaline. Yet I somehow froze, and he eventually caught up to me. I must have used up all my energy because I couldn’t seem to move.

“Can’t we just talk about it?” he asked me, slowly reaching for my arm. I quickly moved it away.

No. We couldn’t just talk about it. Because I didn’t let you talk the last time. And my mouth always took action before my mind does.

“Aimie, please? I’m sorry,” he nudged me. I scratched my arm and looked down, my lips sealed shut. I turned around to face him.

Fair to say, his eyes were red, and they widened when I turned around. I could see the sweat glistening on his palms. He was out of breath. 

“No. I should be sorry. I was too prideful,” I admitted.

“No, I should be.”

“You’re too soft towards this. You defended me, and when we were finally alone, I lashed out on you. Insulted you, even. Don’t apologize to a dishonest person.”

“You’re not dishonest,” he stated.

“Do you even know how many letters I’ve written in the past month before I stopped?” I questioned him. I could hear him whisper, “No, no.”

“You’re young. And you’re human. And wel… you’re different. You always have good intentions, but you never really… do them properly,” he acknowledged these as he took a deep breath, “You’re naive, Aimie. You always have been.”

“But I’m a bad person. A bad human.”

“It’s not a crime, is it?”

I didn’t know what else to say. So, I started crying. Wailing, even.

“I–I don’t know what I’m going to do without you. I felt so stupid without you!” I cried out to him, then he began to hug me, “I thought to myself, ‘I’ve lost Yuki! The human equivalent to my brain! My senses have left me! I’m stupid, I’m stupid.’”

He laughed, patting my back. We broke our hug as I took my handkerchief out of my pocket, to which he snatched from my hand and dabbed the tears out for me.

“You think you’re the only one going through a crisis? How am I going to live without my heart?”

“My heart?”

“Yes, you’re my heart.”

I stood still and shook my head, “No, no. You’re my brain and heart. You’re my organs, I’m just a host.”

He cackled at me, “Aimie, think of yourself highly from time to time–”

“Yuki! We’re going in circles! That’s literally why we didn’t talk to each other for two weeks! Because I was thinking of myself highly–”

“Okay, okay. Let’s not talk about it. You’ve put out too many tears,” he interrupted.

When I stopped crying in such an ugly matter, he handed out a piece of paper to me.

“Can you do me a favor?” he asked me.

“It depends, what is it?”

“I want you to write a letter.”

“Oh no, no no. You just told me that you didn’t want to–”

“It’s worth it, I promise. It’s the last letter you’ll ever ghostwrite. It’s just a love letter I want you to fix a little while translating.”

“Translate?”

“To English.”

I glared at him.

However, I began to think of his previous actions and how they were never really as I predicted. Maybe he had something in mind. A terrible joke, even. So, I decided to play along with it, “Fine, fine. Look how biased you are…”

We walked back to my classroom and I sat by my usual seat near the window. He sat at the chair right in front of me as he crossed his arms and let them rest on the back of the chair. He placed his chin on his arms, and I could feel his eyes follow my every movement. I took out my pen and a fresh leaf of paper, and looked at the outline of his letter slowly.

I began to ask him a few questions, to which he responded with no hesitation.

“To whom is this letter addressed to?”

He smirked, “Keep it empty for me. I’ll write her name on the envelope.”

Her? My heart dropped. The worst thing he could do, after all this, was to make me write a letter to a girl. She must be a wonder for him to even ask me to write a letter in the first place.

“It’s a love letter?”

“Well, what else could it be?” he retorted, “Is there anything wrong with that?”

“No, no. Not at all,” I lied.

I took a deep breath and looked through the outline of the letter he wanted me to write. I looked at him, and he was still looking at me. I couldn’t tell what was on his mind–there was nothing written on his face. I gulped and began to write the letter:

A few days ago, my friend told me about this flower that is native to South America. It takes half a decade for it to grow, before it is able to bloom. Then it blooms again once a year, and it always happens in the middle of the night, before it closes in for the rest of the year the morning after. 

As he was explaining this lovely flower, I began to realize that the flower and my feelings were no different.

Like this flower, this love was nurtured and cared for. And it took me one night for my heart to burst and realize just how much I’ve admired you.

Flowers come alive at the sound of good words, and I would be just as alive at the sound of your voice and the sight of your words, our nonsense conversations, your laughs at my terrible jokes, and our bickering–which was very much like an old couple.

If it took me six years by your side and a night to realize just how much I like you, then I would say it would have been worth it. There is no greater source to make the flower of my heart grow than you.

If you’d return these feelings back to me, then feel free to write back a letter. Say these good words and everything in me shall be healed, and the flower in me will bloom for as long as both our feelings will live.

Yours,

Yuki

I capped my pen and I let the letter sit there for the ink to dry.

“Is she a foreigner?”

He put his shoulders up, as if to say, “I don’t know.” I slammed my hands on my lap and sighed.

“Are you sure you don’t want me to write her name?” I questioned him again, just to be sure.

He thought for a while. He pretended to scratch his chin like an old man, and hummed to himself.

“I changed my mind.”

“Alright. So what’s her name?”

“Aimie. Address it to Aimie. A-I-M-I-E.”

Aimie.

I froze and stared at him, my eyebrows knitted together. He looked at me, and a smile seemingly began to grow on his face.

“Do… do you want me to… to put it in an envelope and write the address for you?”

“You do that now?” he cackled.

“It’s a special offer, for the last love letter I’ll ever ghostwrite.”

“Sure. Do you have a piece of paper? I’ll write it out for you.”

I took out my notebook, ripped out a page, and handed it to him. He turned away from me and I could hear the pen scratching the page. There was a metaphor that began to form out of that moment, where every stroke of a letter began to scratch my heart. When he had finished, he turned around and showed the paper to me, pointing to the block of text.

“Address it to her, please,” he requested.

I moved closely to the paper, observing what he had just wrote.

It had my surname and last name, as well as the exact house number, street, prefecture, and postal code. I could feel my eyes beginning to itch, slowly being filled by water.

“What a lovely name,” I told him.

“Yes, and what a lovely person,” he smiled, “I’m always in awe every time I see her.”

“I’m sure she’ll love the letter.”

“I’m sure she would. But I’m hoping she’d return the feelings too,” he sighed, scratching the back of his neck and avoiding my eyes.

“I’m sure she will,” I laughed.

He looked up at me, his mouth forming an “O.” Silly as it both was, I still wrote my name and address in the English style. I could sense that his smile was permanently stuck to his face, and when I finished writing, he patted my head. I handed the envelope to him, to which he licked to seal it shut. We stared at each other for a good while before the bell rang.

“Can I walk you home later?” he offered me.

“You don’t have any practice later this afternoon?”

“No, I don’t… So, can I?”

I nodded. Overjoyed, he walked up to me and hugged me. When we looked each other, I was positive that we were equally red. He then began to leave the classroom and turned to me by the door.

“I can’t wait to see you later,” he said.

One by one, my classmates entered the classroom, oblivious to what had just happened. One, they didn’t know that the boy I’d liked for so long had confessed to me. Second, they didn’t know that he’d walk me home later after school. Third and most importantly…

They didn’t know that in a few days time, I’d be able to write my very first love letter. One that wasn’t ghostwritten. One that was written to someone I have always wanted to write to. One that had my name signed at the end of the letter. One that allowed me to express my feelings toward something that was real without any shame or embarrassment. One that would reply to the confession of a friend I’ve admired for so long, to no longer be a pair of friends but something more.

[brf-rumortrackinganon]

Which royal books/biographies do you think are the most accurate?

Honestly, I don’t think you can judge. They’re all problematic and it comes down to the author’s bias towards their subject.

Scobie and Morton are the worst. They let their subjects ghostwrite.

Tina Brown and Lady C are gossipy, but they have good society connections. Sally Bedell Smith also has society connections but I don’t think she’s as gossipy.

Tom Bower does good research and he digs up a lot of stuff, but it’s never as scandalous as he hints it is so it’s a bit of a let down.

Robert Hardman recaps a lot of popular stories with little new commentary or reveals. I haven’t read his new Charles 3 biography yet, though it’s sitting on my shelf.

I can’t take Katie Nicholl seriously because she coined “Waity Katie” and completely denies that she did.

[sweetkpopmusings]

long for you (interlude) | h. hyunjin <3

a/n: here's the interlude! only one more part of the fic left after this </3 this one is angsty, but i hope you enjoy it nevertheless >.< currently at work so i might make edits to it later lol if you want to be added to the tag list, you can reply to this post or send me an ask! pics not mine <3

♡ find all parts here ♡

content: fluff, romance, fake dating, angst, a happy ending | wc: 3.7k | warnings: mentions of food/eating, lots of crying | pairing: nonbinary!painter!hyunjin x gn!writer!reader | requests: open

synopsis: y/n is a writer with a long-awaited, well-deserved career opportunity. despite the excitement, there’s one major problem: the publisher expects a modern love story, equally romcom-like and authentic, but y/n lacks the inspiration to write something worth reading. through a chance meeting with mutual friends, y/n and hyunjin bond over upcoming deadlines and creative blocks. before the conversation ends, they discover that the ridiculous plot of fake dating might just work to solve their inspirational dry spell.

interlude: love untold

“y/n!”

a familiar voice calls your name. you look around the crowd, searching for anyone you recognize, not quite sure what you’re trying to find. when you see his face, you understand why the way he called your name sounded so much like home.

chan hurries over the second you wave to him, and you instinctively smile at his lopsided curls bouncing with each step he takes. you melt into his bear hug, warmed by the contact and the closeness of his bright smile. it’s only once you realize that he has run into you here that you feel a tiny wave of shock roll over you.

“wait, chan,” you tilt your head, “how are you…why are you here?”

he laughs, “i’m just as surprised to see you, y/n. i’m here interviewing for a new job.”

“oh wow! that’s great! how did it go?”

“i have the interview tomorrow, actually. i figured i’d get in a day early to feel out the area and make sure i like it.”

“and? what’s your review so far?”

chan’s excited grin is replaced by a soft smile, “seeing you makes it perfect.”

with a simple sentence, chan has you blushing the way you did as a teenager. it didn’t take much to fall into the old rhythm with him: easy conversation, light touches, inside jokes suddenly at the front of your mind despite not having been uttered in years. you two could have lost yourselves in each other’s presence anywhere, but chan suggests you migrate into a coffee shop to continue the conversation. as your agenda for the rest of the day is empty, you lead chan to a nearby coffee shop, relaxing into your seat with your favorite drink and the comfort of an old companion.

“so, tell me everything that’s been going on with you!”

you laugh, “chan. we haven’t seen each other in what, two, three years now? i hardly think telling you everything is possible.”

“i thought you said you had the rest of the night free?”

you roll your eyes, and chan giggles at his own joke. quietly, you prioritize what information to share, careful not to spiral and think about how much has changed since your last conversation with chan.

“i guess i can start with the fact that i got a book deal.”

chan just about drops his drink, “no way, y/n! that’s amazing! wow! i knew you’d do it one day. i know it has been your dream for ages. i’m so proud of you!”

“thank you, chan,” you pause to ensure he knows the depth of your gratitude, “it is a ghostwriting contract, so my name won’t be on it, but it feels surreal that someone’s paying me to write a book.”

“do you know when it’ll come out? i need to be first in line to buy it.”

“i honestly have no idea, but i’m turning in the manuscript tomorrow. the first draft of it, anyway.”

“wooooow,” chan leans back in his chair, “i’m so impressed. you’re like a big-time author now.”

“okay, don’t get ahead of yourself,” you scoff, still complimented by his pride in you, “but what about you? what brings you here for a new job?”

“eh, nothing as exciting as your news. i just want something new. i haven’t been feeling inspired with the work i do now, and i need a change of scenery. i moved back home after we…you know. it was great to go back to my roots. it’s time for me to move forward, turn a new page, start a life where no one knows me. at least that was the plan until i ran into you.”

you both laugh, and you reply, “if your interview tomorrow goes well, i can act like i don’t know you, so things can go according to plan.”

chan laughs boyishly, the way you always remembered it, “i appreciate your support, but i’d hate nothing more than for you to forget about me.”

you nod. you’d often caught yourself wondering whether chan still thought about you, whether he remembered any details of you and your life together. the space between you two was never supposed to grow this vast, but you figure that’s just how these things go sometimes. you feel a pang in your chest, sitting across from him, aware of how much he still means to you, despite it all.

“not to draw attention to the elephant in the room,” chan starts, feigning confidence over the redness in his ears, “are you seeing anyone?”

“please,” you laugh dryly, “you know i’m not.”

chan hums, observing you for a few extra seconds, “something’s going on in your love life.”

“chan!” you gape at him with disbelief, “based on what evidence?”

he leans closer to you, elbows on the table and eyes focused, “come on. i know you better than most people, especially when it comes to this stuff. who is it?”

you frown, hoping you can get him to believe that nothing is happening. predictably, even after years of separation, chan waits patiently. silent, stubborn, supportive.

“fine,” you sigh, spinning your cup a few times to delay your admission, “i was involved–well, not really involved, per se. there was…someone. we had something. at least, i thought we did, and i thought they thought so too. then, they ended things without warning. i can’t say they were in the wrong because being able to end things was a part of our…agreement…but it still hurt. i felt–feel–blindsided and delusional and stupid for getting my hopes up. i don’t think there’s anything to do now except move on, which sucks because it felt special. but hey,” you laugh sordidly, “i’ve been wrong about that before.”

chan smiles, some sadness peeking through, “we both have been wrong about that before.”

you nod, coming up empty on what to say next. chan watches you to ensure you’ve shared everything you wanted to before he speaks again.

“i’m sorry, y/n. i don’t know what they were thinking, and i won’t ask you to dredge up every detail, but i don’t need to know the whole situation to know that they made a mistake. you are so special. loving and being loved by you is the greatest gift i’ve ever known. you deserve someone who recognizes that, and i’m sorry that they weren’t smart enough to.”

you clear your throat, overwhelmed by chan’s words, “thanks, chan.”

“of course,” he smiles, “i’m what you could call an expert on this subject.”

you both laugh again, and chan continues, “all i wanted to do was give you the best. i still want to. i always thought if we saw each other again…” chan pauses to ensure he’s caught your gaze, “i would love to be the person that gives you what you deserve, if you’d let me.”

oh. 

“chan…”

“you don’t have to answer right now. besides, i wouldn’t ask for your time if we still lived as far apart as we do now. i just mean that, one way or another, i’d love to be back in your life. i still love you, and i always will, regardless of what that love looks like.”

a smile spreads across your face. chan, as you always remembered, never fails to surround you with warmth. you tell him so as you both say your goodbyes. you promise to call, much to chan’s excitement. he promises to tell you how the interview goes, and you can’t help but hope that he gets the job in the city, this city, your city. 

later, while you muscle through the final edits of your first manuscript, jisung stops by to confirm that you’re eating and drinking enough. against your best efforts, you mention chan right away.

“chan’s here?” jisung’s eyes are wide, though you can’t tell with which emotion.

you nod, “yeah, he’s interviewing for a job tomorrow.”

“oh wow, good for him!” jisung pauses his celebration for chan to ask the inevitable, “how did it feel to see him after…everything?”

you sigh, wondering how far down memory lane you were willing to travel, “it felt…good. we were comfortable right away, and, though it was clear time had passed, we were as connected as we had always been. he actually…i think, if he moves here, he wants to give us another shot.”

“whoa,” jisung looks arguably more shocked than you were when chan made his abrupt confession.

“yeah. i was surprised too. but i don’t know…i felt surprised in a good way, i think. obviously the whole hyunjin situation is fresh, and i’d be lying if i said i was over it. yet running into chan randomly for him to admit that he still wants to be with me, in some capacity at least, maybe that’s happening for a reason. i’ve felt so cynical about love for a long time. what if chan is the happy ending i’ve been craving all along?”

“i’m glad that seeing him went so well,” jisung chuckles, “i know when you two were with each other, you constantly talked about building a future together. you were happy with chan, there’s no denying that. but…”

“i know, i know,” you cut him off, so he doesn’t have to be the one to bring up the uncomfortable reminder, “he was my first love, and my first heartbreak. i can’t forget that he ended things because i distanced myself from him. i was scared, jisung. even though, or perhaps because, we were so young, our relationship was so idyllic. everything seemed to line up perfectly, and yet there was a pit in my stomach because i always worried that something was missing. could it have been that i found what was missing by growing up?”

“you sound like me,” he teases, a bit impressed, “it genuinely could be that you needed time apart to figure yourselves out before you could make it work. you and chan were great together; anyone could see that. if giving that relationship another, more mature try, is the right move, then you have my full support. but y/n…is chan the one you want to be with?”

“i…” you glance over at the poem hanging on your fridge, briefly feeling the way hyunjin’s words had moved you that night not so far in the past, “i’ve been feeling cynical about love and relationships for a long time. seeing chan made me feel hopeful again.”

“was it really chan that changed your mind?”

you roll your eyes and scoff, “whatever hyunjin made me feel doesn’t count. we weren’t even together anyway.”

jisung sighs, “just because you weren’t technically together doesn’t mean you didn’t build a relationship. the way you felt about hyunjin is what changed your mind on love, if you ask me. and, as we’ve already established, i have earned my wisdom when it comes to love.” 

you both laugh, relieving the tension. jisung definitely knew what he was talking about, and you know that he wouldn’t say anything regarding your love life if it weren’t important.

“what do you think i should do?”

a sweet and sympathetic smile appears on jisung’s face, “you know i can’t answer that. what i can say is i hope you chase after what’s right for you now. the younger version of you deserved real love, and who you are now deserves real love. that love might look different, whether it comes from the same person or not. it’s probably the romantic in me, but i think you’ll know if you’ve found that love. i hope you trust your gut, and i’ll support you no matter who or what you choose.”

with that, you thank him and remind him that you have a novel to finish, which means you don’t quite have the time for an existential crisis about love tonight. he laughs, wishes you luck, and heads home. you sit at the table for a while, quietly thinking to yourself about the events of the day. you never thought you’d be in a position like this, but you guess that signing up to live out one fanfic trope makes you more susceptible to living out other ones too. with that in mind, after finishing your edits, you decide to add one last line to the ending.

after all that had happened to us, and in spite of whatever would come, the center of everything was this: i have longed for you since the moment i met you; therefore, i will always love you. 

before you can second guess yourself, you send it to your publisher and close your laptop. unable to resist the tears, you sit at your kitchen table, full of relief and sadness, and cry. regardless of what tomorrow brings, one love story has ended. in chasing toward your tomorrow, you have to live with saying goodbye. 

˚ʚ♡ɞ˚

“hyunjin!” jeongin looks up from his desk, face composed but eyes wide with surprise, “i wasn’t expecting to see you so soon.”

hyunjin approximates a smile to the best of their abilities, “i figured i should hand the final piece in directly.”

“as always, i appreciate the personal touch,” jeongin grins and points to the large canvas leaning against hyunjin’s body, “is that it?”

“yes,” they gaze down, peeking at the image, “i finally finished it.”

quiet, hyunjin places the painting on a work table in front of jeongin. jeongin examines it, thoroughly dedicated to appreciating every brushstroke. the compliments on his artistic choices are personal and detailed, but hyunjin barely registers them. they’re sure they will be able to hear the precise, sincere feedback a different night, maybe when the exhibition opens, so hyunjin only feels a twinge of regret at being spaced out yet again. jeongin must have been able to tell that hyunjin was only half there because he quickly transitions his praise into a goodbye. hyunjin gratefully accepts the exit plan.

“oh, and hyunjin?”

hyunjin pauses near the door, facing their friend with their full attention, “yeah?”

“take care of yourself, yeah?”

“of course.”

hyunjin makes it only a block before the tears start streaming. hearing those words from jeongin, the type of friend to refrain from casual sentimentality, breaks hyunjin’s thinly veiled detachment. the facade they barely maintained in the past few weeks lacked resilience. how could there be any solidity to him when hyunjin spent the recent past floating away?

they walk aimlessly for some amount of time, landing at a park bench. the afternoon sun would usually deter them from this spot, but the overcast sky makes the place feel less visible, less connected to the rest of the outside world. hyunjin hadn’t been outside for more than a few minutes at a time since the conversation at the restaurant, so they melt into the bench with hopes that vitamin d will cure them of their self-inflicted heartbreak. cure is perhaps too strong of a hope. hyunjin doesn’t believe anything could undo the hurt he caused, but he wants to believe that the suffering won’t last forever. 

in case the sunshine can’t clear all their problems away, hyunjin calls minho. they feel selfish and stupid and hate that they could be interrupting someone else’s good day, but he can’t think of anything useful on his own. all the time in the studio, all the distancing from friends, all the nights spent writing in their journals couldn’t remove the pit in their stomach, the rock in their chest. the guilt weighed so much more because your name was written all over it.

“hyunjin,” minho answers on the third ring, “how can i help you?”

they laugh through the tears, sniffling, “your customer service knows no bounds.”

“i expect a tip.”

hyunjin laughs again, grateful for a fleeting lightness in his chest before confronting everything that’s crashing down, “minho, i messed up.” 

minho sighs on the other side of the line, “do you want to talk about it?”

thankfully, minho doesn’t rush hyunjin to respond. hyunjin, overcome with just about every emotion they’ve felt in the past few weeks, feels another wave of tears emerge in the presence of his friend’s patience and understanding. they’re not sure what they’re looking for, but being able to admit their mistakes feels like the right place to start.

“i really cared about y/n. like…deeply. more than i’ve cared about someone in a long time, if ever. i miss them, and it’s my fault. it’s like a sick joke. this whole arrangement was built around us finding inspiration for our work, and now, because i got scared, i learned what yearning actually feels like. i feel it in my body, like the urge to reach out for something–someone–that isn’t there anymore. it’s so cliché, and i used to make fun of people for saying it when they went through a breakup, but i look for y/n in everything i see. they’re gone. the feeling of them beside me is like a phantom limb, but i am responsible for the amputation. i feel like i can’t even be sad about it because i’m the one who left. i can’t even say i don’t know what went wrong because i ruined it. i regret it. minho, i don’t know what to do.”

“hyunjin,” minho sighs, “you need to be kinder to yourself. yes, you made a mistake, but you don’t deserve to tear yourself apart for it.”

“don’t i though? what i have–had–with y/n was so special. they deserve so much more than what i gave them, what i was giving them and then immaturely ripped away. they were so kind to me, so honest. and i threw that all away without so much as an explanation.”

“okay,” minho lets out a breath with a hint of frustration, “i really think you’re taking this self-flagellation thing way too far, but i won’t waste time arguing with you if you don’t want to believe me–”

“where did you learn ‘self-flagellation’?”

“hyunjin, seriously?” minho deadpans.

hyunjin can perfectly picture the annoyed look on minho’s face, and he laughs, “sorry, you’re right. we were being serious and vulnerable. i shouldn’t have interrupted with a joke.”

“exactly, you shouldn’t have interrupted the vulnerability.”

“are you talking about you or y/n now?”

“a little bit of both, but mostly y/n. you got scared because you two were so open with each other. you felt seen in a way you hadn’t before. that’s rare. all of us would be or have been intimidated by something like that.”

“not everyone runs away though,” hyunjin frowns, kicking a rock by their foot, “i did the thing you’re not supposed to do when you find someone as…perfect as y/n.”

“do you want them back?”

hyunjin bites his lip, scared even now to be honest about their desire, “it’s not like they would give me a second chance. they’re smarter than that.”

“that’s not the question i asked,” minho replies, kind yet firm.

panicking, they reply, “you know, even though it was a fake relationship, we kissed once. it was my idea, sort of as a joke. we did it anyway, ‘for the plot,’” hyunjin chuckles, “there was this clarity, in the seconds after we kissed. i realized then and there that i was far more tied to y/n than i ever expected or could have hoped. i know it sounds dramatic, but it’s like, with them, my heart and soul were…now they’re…life isn’t…i just thought that things would have turned out a completely different way, and maybe i was romanticizing things–i probably was, i always do–but that doesn’t change the fact that…” 

hyunjin pauses their rambling to take a deep breath, knowing there are only a few words left to say, “i want to be with y/n.”

for a brief second, the weight of everything falls away into sweet certainty. hyunjin wants to be with you, plain and simple. their stomach twists at the fact that you weren’t together because they ran away, but his heart leaps in hope that maybe things could still change.

“do you feel better now that you’ve said it?”

hyunjin sighs, relief rather than regret, “yeah. i do.”

“good,” minho pauses, and hyunjin imagines he’s cracking his knuckles in preparation for the nitty gritty advice he’s about to drop, “i think it’s important to point out that, just because you were fake dating each other doesn’t mean that you two didn’t have a relationship at all. you shared a connection, and the bond you built together was real, even if you weren’t earnestly trying to be romantic partners.”

oh.

hyunjin stays silent, so minho continues, “like i said, running away from someone, something special, because you’re scared of how much they mean to you is a mistake we all have or will make. don’t keep beating yourself up for it. also, don’t keep being dumb by avoiding y/n. if you feel the way you say you feel, then you owe it to yourself and to them to be honest, even if it’s coming a little late. take a chance. you’re already hurt, and you’ve already hurt them. what else do you have to lose?”

“i can’t believe you called me dumb while giving me the most insightful advice i’ve ever heard.”

minho laughs, “life’s about balance, hyunjin.”

hyunjin rolls their eyes, “i guess you’re right. about both things.”

“mhm. i usually am.”

hyunjin scoffs, “okay, if you’re going to gloat about being wise, i’m going to hang up.”

“good!” minho sighs the way one does after a long day’s work, “it’ll give you time to figure out how you’re going to get your person back.”

“you’re so annoying,” hyunjin huffs, “thank you. i’ll tell you how it goes.”

minho hums in agreement, rushing out a don’t forget to stop being dumb! as hyunjin ends the call. hyunjin sets their phone down next to them on the bench and takes a deep breath. the late afternoon is already melting its way into the evening. as hyunjin stares at the setting sun in the distance, they think about the beloved painting above their desk. out there, somewhere in the same city, there’s a chance you are at your bedroom window, saying goodbye to another day with hyunjin on the outside, a part of the world not welcomed into your home. what they wouldn’t give to change that.

˚ʚ♡ɞ˚

tag list: @velvetmoonlght @tirena1 (<333 tysm)

[unbotheredalwyn]

Everything makes sense now. I mean rumors of her possibly having ghost writers, her dad buying over 100 000 copies of her first album to boost her sales, streaming farms.

I mean her dad definitely did buy 100k that's not a rumor. He bought stake in the company and pushed out other girls to make room. I wouldn't be surprised if her team is still mass buying to boost sales. With the amount of plagiarism she does too, I would reckon those are the only songs that don't have ghostwriters. Buying her way to fame is 100% true fact checked and every other shitty thing she's done that's just a rumor usually ends up being true so I mean...

There's so many things that's coming out now thanks to reddit and it's genuinely disgusting things I didn't even know about the Kennedy guy she dated ☠️

I'm truly so so over seeing her everywhere man she does NOT deserve the platform swifties give her honestly.

[itsbansheebitch]

here's the thing. the ghostwriters and The Heart.

im not saying yall are defending drake by saying he has ghostwriters or whatever, but i AM saying that drake look at this song, sang it (probably did multiple takes) and decided that this could EVER see the light of day. that this wasnt a straight up biohazard to the public.

he did that and RELEASED it.

if it was me (which i never would, but whatever, im built different) i wouldnt do it with a gun pointed at my head. I would honestly rather die than insult someone's mother's trauma (or call it theirs for some reason???)

like ????? i have so many questions ????

[stabbydragon]

*clears throat* Can we just talk about how unfair it was that Cordelia was the one who got to kill Tatiana? Like there were a million other people who were way more qualified.

I’m pretty sure most people, like me, were rooting for Grace. After all, she was the one that Tatiana hurt most by physically abusing her, making her into a weapon, forcing her to brainwash James which made everyone she cares about mad at her, etc. Not to mention that Christopher, one of her only friends, the only person who defended her, and the one who encouraged her to pursue her passion for science, had just been MURDERED by Tatiana! And like, Grace was RIGHT THERE with a knife to Tatiana’s throat! Then CORDELIA had to come and ruin everything by summoning Lillith! WTF!?

Jesse was another person who had been hurt by Tatiana. This bitch, who he thought cared about him despite her flaws, as a mother should, SOLD HIM TO BELIAL so he could be possessed and forced to murder people which he would never do under any circumstances of his own free will! The guilt the poor boy must have gone through because of this bitch! Although personally, I don’t think he would be capable of murder, but it would have been better than fucking CORDELIA.

Also, the idea of either Jesse or Grace doing it to avenge their sibling? 😭

My second choice after Grace would be Lucie, who would be furious both because of Jesse being possessed, and because she had just found out that Tatiana had been the one to ruin James and Cordelia’s marriage, causing both her brother and parabatai a lot of pain. It would have set the scene for a fascinating conversation between her and Jesse regarding how they both felt about Tatiana’s death (the same is true for Grace) because I need more Ghostwriter scenes. Also, if she killed her partially on Grace’s behalf, it would better showcase what could have been a beautiful dynamic that desperately needs to be explored further. I need these too to become besties immediately! Lucie, unlike her boyfriend, totally deserved to be a morally ambiguous character. She had so much potential for stabbiness, so where’s all the stabbiness? It’s so unfair that she never gets to stab someone ONCE because she’s a main character and therefore needs to be morally perfect even though people who grew as rich as she did are the ones most likely to be evil. Besides, she could have ordered a ghost to do it while Lucie herself was far away, giving her an alibi, and any witnesses would not have seen the ghost. Honestly my preference would be if Lucie and Grace teamed up to do it together in Jesse’s name.

EVEN FUCKING JAMES a would have been a better option, not that I would like it much. He was the one who was brainwashed since he was fourteen after all. He was the one who kept on accidentally breaking his wife’s heart because of the gracelet.

While Cordelia was still hurt by Tatiana’s actions, she was farther removed from the situation. But because sHe’S tHe PrOtAgOnIsT, she had to be the one to do it. Not even of her own volition, but because she was being manipulated by a greater demon. Imagine all of your protagonists being so heroic and morally sound that they can’t even neutralize someone as twisted and dangerous and inhumane and this bitch without being physically magically controlled by Lillith herself. Is there anything more boring?

And what really makes me angry is that she finally gave in due to the death of one Christopher Lightwood, a character with whom she had no established dynamic. If this was CC’s plan all along, she could have made it so they had at least one single fucking conversation alone??? If the main catalyst for Tatiana’s death was Kit’s murder, then practically ANY OTHER CHARACTER a would have been better. Cecily and Gabriel and the others were in Idris but, once again, there’s Grace, Lucie, James, Thomas, Anna, Matthew, etc. Hell, even Rosamund Wentworth, who arrives pretty soon after Kit’s death, knew him longer than Cordelia!

*Ahem* Thank you for listening to my PSA

[wikitpowers]

Your most unpopular shadowhunter opinion

matthew and lucie should have ended up together.

that's all i gotta say

no but honestly no hate to jesse bc he is a good character and i actually think him and lucie are really cute at times but just idk hmm,,, i can't really tell u why but their ship just didn't stick out to me like the others in all the other series did.

i think matthew would have made a much more interesting match for lucie. not to mention, i'm a sucker for some childhood-friends-to-lovers and brother's-best-friend type tropes, like it would have been SO good. plus we don't get a lot of extrovert x extrovert vibes from cassie i feel, so that would have been hella fun. additonally though, i also think they would provide with the angst; like lucie helping matthew with his addiction, him trying to assure her about her powers, them stealing glances at every event and not knowing whether to tell james etc. i think they had a LOT of wasted potential!

but yeah ghostwriter shippers pls don't come for my throat :')

[anonymoushouseplantfan]

Ultimately I think Harry choose to come with out Meghan and I think she's pissed off about it but the public won't hear about it until the divorce. I think they honestly believed they would get an apology and that they had allll the ammunition to get anything they wanted this time around. Part of that would be to include his children more frequently for birthday posts, and photos and such. [I 10000% meghan wanted a birthday acknowledgment on the day of- she is THAT crazy]

The thing that's changed is shes learning she can't play all her cards at once, it hasn't happened very often but theres been a few articles that mention her mistakes (the jubliee last year with the booing) or rules for Harry around his family, there is an element of humanizing going on that I haven't really seen with her. It's always been shes the best at everything ever. She doesn't need to be taught anything shes just naturally good. This viewpoint has consistently come across as fake and it's a problem she desperately needs to solve if she wants to see long term success in Hollywood.

And it somewhat looked like she was addressing it, until she leaked that damn letter story. It made waves for 24 hours before falling off completely and that's bad news bears for her. That was a story she was keeping in her back pocket to keep her name in the news and she tried the same formula she used on her dad and with everything that's happened over the last 6+ months it failed miserably.

And since then shes almost entirely distanced herself from anything royal related. The page six leak referred to her as 'markle' and highlighted her wanting to move on.

I don't think the letter worked out the way she expected. She didn't think people would realize it was the same tactic she'd used on her dad.

They did think they would get more. Remember when they were asking for a "summit" with Welby and Geidt as negotiators? And they wanted an apology and public "acknowledgement" of wrongdoing by the royals? LOLOLOLOLOL.

I don't think she's learning. I don't think she's capable of it. She's now forty and she is who she is. Her press is acknowledging mistakes because they don't have any other choice. By now it's clear that it's not the racist royal family and it's not the racist British press.

They've had THREE years with tons of money, piles of contracts and the best consultants unlimited money can buy and they have nothing but tawdry family gossip to show for it. They had a prize-winning biographer ghostwriting Harry's book and the result was "frozen toddler" jokes. They had another prize-winning creative helming their documentary and got phone camera footage of Meghan in a towel. There's no big charity project. There's no big activism movement. There's not big political platform. There's nothing. They have to acknowledge that. There's only so much lipstick you can put on this pig.

Yes, now she's distancing herself, but it's not because she has any creative ideas or projects up her sleeve. She's distancing herself because she blames the family for her failure. It's always someone else's fault.

[theglamorousferal]

The Halfa King and His Court

So this is a fic that I started at the beginning of the pandemic that I kinda just hit a block with. I really like it as a starting point, but I’m not sure what else to do with it. I had a sort of bullet point outline but it seemed more like I was just tossing in every different DP fic plot line all together so it wasn’t going to make much sense. I was going to have there be a field trip into the GZ where the Trio judge whether the a-listers and Val have changed enough to have them join in with Team Phantom, there was going to be a reveal to his parents of him and then later on after Plasmius had been helping out then Vlad as well. It was gonna be this whole thing, but anyway. I’m not sure if I will continue this, so feel free to add your own spin on it or take it for adoption, I’m not sure how to do that exactly.

*****

“No.” Danny said, in a tone that rang with finality and a general sense of “I am so done with this whole situation.”

“Danny, I know this is hard to believe, but technically by the laws of the Ghost Zone Frostbite gave to you-” Sam started, only to get cut off by Danny's glare. She sighed. “Seriously Danny, it says right here in the text he gave you.” Sam shoved the scroll at Danny who scoffed and passed it off to Tucker.

“Oh man Danny, do you know what we could do with this? The new laws you could put in place?” Tucker laughed as he read what was written.

“The protections you could put in place for Amity and the Earth?” Sam hinted at poking Danny in the shoulder. Danny sighed.

“Guys, I get it, I could use this to my advantage, but there's so much more responsibility to go with it. I'd have to take over the general affairs from the Observants and Walker, though I guess Walker would have to do what I say wouldn't he.” Danny seemed to think about it.

“Let's say I did do this, what would I do? I don't have time to take care of the whole Ghost Zone! I'd need to pick advisers and establish some sort of method for figuring out small disputes, some way of checks and balances. Guys, you know I'm failing History and Government, and this is basically saying that I'd get complete control over the Ghost Zone and have to set-up an entirely new system!” He gripped his hair in frustration and panic. And it caused his friends to sit and think some solutions through.

“Well,” Sam began, “you could start with getting a few people you know that do know about this kind of stuff together and getting their opinion about it. Frostbite, Dora, Clockwork, Pandora, maybe Ghostwriter from what we know of his library and... maybe... Vlad?” she added the last person hesitantly. Danny shot a look at her of surprise and confusion, dropping his hands from his hair to his lap.

“Vlad? Why the hell would I ask him for anything?” He was honestly baffled as to why she would bring him up.

“Besides the fact that he has more knowledge of modern government compared to the others I listed, I think he would relish the idea of being able to mentor you at something.”She paused to consider something. “He seems to have calmed down a bit after his last scheme almost got your mom killed instead of your dad. He almost seems to realize now that your mom is completely dedicated to your dad and finds him a bit creepy. I mean, last time he was over, he actually asked Jazz some stuff right? Doesn't he usually ignore her completely?”

“Crazy-man acting less crazy?” Tucker snorted. “I'll believe it when I see it.”

Danny thought about it for a second and realized that Sam was right, he hadn't needed to fight the Fruit-loop since his last scheme put his mom in the hospital. She was fine, just had a concussion and a fractured leg, but it still had shaken him. In fact, Danny hadn't seen any sign of Vlad as either Masters or Plasmius since the incident except for when he visited when Mom first got out of the hospital.

“Yeah, maybe you're right, I should go and pay Uncle Vladdie a visit.” Danny stood and paused. “Should I bring the scroll with me to show him as proof? I doubt he'd believe me if I just told him.”

“Yeah, probably should. It's not anything that he can modify to fit his own needs anyway, just a list of laws.” Sam rolled it up and handed it to him. “Want either of us to come with?” She offered.

“Nah, I should be good to visit the cheese-head on my own. You guys mind covering for me until I get back?” They were supposed to be having a study-sleepover at Sam's.

“Sure thing, we’ll just cover our electives while you’re gone and tell my parents you went to get pizza.” Sam fished out some cash and handed it to Danny. “Actually, while you’re out can you grab some?”

“Sure, the usual?” Danny put the scroll and the money in his pocket.

“Yup, a large all veggie vegan cheese for me.”

“And a large extra meaty supreme for me!”

Danny laughed, “and a large extra cheese for me. I’ll place the order as I’m leaving Vlad’s. I’ll be back as soon as I can.” With that he transformed and took off through the ceiling.

Tucker turned to Sam. “Do you really think going to Mayor wack-job is a good idea?”

Sam sighed. “Tucker, you weren’t there that day, the look on his face when he saw Mrs. Fenton take the hit instead of Mr. Fenton…” Sam looked away thinking. “He looked devastated, and not just in the ‘the love of my life will never love me’ way but more in the ‘my actions are hurting those I love’ way. He looked like he realized that if he continued the way he was going that he might just accidentally kill either Mrs. Fenton or Danny and I think that would hurt him more than anything.”

[make-me-ur-aphrodite]

guess who finally finished chain of thorns over a week later 🤩 my completely unorganized thoughts for the general public anyways chain of thorns spoilers ahead bros

- ghostwriter is the relationship i love them more than i love my life it's just like the cute little moments between them like when lucie was nervous before her parabatai ceremony with cordelia and he was holding her and comforting her i melted

- i honestly think james and matthews relationship was dealt with really well we know nobody is ever gonna top jem and will but i think they were written really well and them in edom together was so emotional to me

- tell me why i was so heartbroken when christopher died but i only cried when grace sent that fire message and wrote that it was created by kit 🥺lol i'll tell you why it's because we got zero real reaction about it

i wanted anna's pov as her baby brother died in her arms

i wanted cecily and gabriel seeing their sons body taken into idris and realizing what happened

where was sophie and gideon who also lost a child comforting them?!?!?

honestly i think that since christopher did die there was a lot of potential there

-i hated the love triangle and felt awful for matthew the entire time cause like didn't we all know jordelia was endgame i meannnn

literally love jordelia tho and i we'll never not think of james saying "sod that" and shooting the door open like sir 🫣also them traveling is something that is so personal to me i am in love with the idea of james and cordelia going all around the world and then taking their kids with them 😍

-after this book i feel like grace is a lost kitten and i want literally nothing more than to adopt her also did anyone else catch at the end when they said that grace doesn't talk much idk but i would like to give her a home

-the thomastair content 🤩🤩🤩 i love them so much i love that they're moving in together i love alastair with his baby brother i love eugenia saying she's gonna renounce her family if they don't accept thomas when he came out. every scene with them was a masterpiece

also alastair's personality like my boy is sassy and sarcastic and i would die for him

-i think the anna and ari's storylines progressed really well and they've come so far since we've first met them 🥺

-anyways my #1 ship matthew x sobriety came true and i could not be more thrilled

the moral of my rant here was that i really loved it and i think it's just cause im so in love with each of the characters but i loved almost every second of this book and didn't want it to end my only complaint would be how christopher's death and other potentially emotional topics (will and tessa crying when they found out the kids were stuck in london) were kind of just glossed over but overall i was in love with them all and i don't think i can accurately describe my feelings so that was my jumbled mess of thoughts

also can we talk about the fairchild twins please

[akajustmerry]

would LOVE to hear more about your tabitha and naomi headcanons!!!

and yee shall receive !! idk these are probably silly n basic because we know SO LITTLE about both, but whatever it's free real estate!!

considering we meet tabs at the underground rich ppl party, its a fair bet she's probably a rich nepo baby like everyone else in succ, but she seems pretty chill about it. she's just vibing, wooing her hot rich peers.

tabs has the laidback vibe of old fuck off money. older than the roys or pierces, i think. probably in property or land which is why she has no interest in the Roy trust or the pierce's or politics. we know that makes her more attractive to rome but probably to naomi too. here's someone so rich they really are only in it for you!

i imagine naomi and tabs crossed paths and hooked up occasionally in the past, but grew closer during/after naomi's accident. naomi told ken in the show she was struggling cos of press, trust, trauma, addiction, etc, during that time. from what we see of tabs with roman, she is a pretty patient and understanding person, at least to a point (everyone has limits). i imagine after her accident, naomi would have appreciated having someone like tabs in her life who isn't after anything and is relatively non-judgemental and chill.

don't really count this as a headcanon cos it's just true but tabs and Naomi were hooking up that whole weekend at the Pierce estate. I know it's framed as the "Ken and Roman attempt to get Some" weekend but we know neither of them got any lmao but u know who did?? my gorls <3

for what it's worth I do think naomi and Tabs both genuinely liked kendall and roman. i don't think there were any ulterior motives on their parts. as we saw, neither naomi or tabs had any power or insight to sway the deal in any way. equally, tabs and naomi really gain nothing power-wise from dating these guys so u gotta assume it was genuine on some level. like they really just saw these human shaped messes of men and went "hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii <3" kinda very bisexual of them both really. I felt v represented by it I must say

i dooooo think in the immediate aftermath of naomi and Kendall break up, the next time she hooked up with tabs, they defs had a little "what IS wrong with them?" convo where they probs just showed each other roman and Kendall's lame texts, had a laugh, and then washed their hands of the roy boys

when it's announced tom is ceo of waystar, naomi calls tabs like, "isn't that literally the guy who swallowed his own load because you told him to 😂" and she's like yeah turns out he never stopped and idk they probably start dating seriously again after that.

after naomi gets her share of the money from the sale to the Waystar I like to think she uses it to start some overpriced rehab centres or something. eventually, her and tabs get engaged. nan pierce never acknowledges the relationship and passively refers to tabitha as a friend of the family, even at their wedding because she honestly seems like that kind of bitch.

honestly they probably just continue living cool beautiful bisexual women lives. maybe naomi has some rough patches here and there cos you know addiction isn't easy, but tabs is there for her. they just become this quietly classy wealthy lesbian couple who throw great parties with other philanthropic influential gays and closeted wealthy folks. I'm imagining something like what the kindness blind items say sandra bullock does with all the Hollywood lesbians gays.

shiv invites them both to her baby shower because they're honestly the closest thing she has to friends who are women after everything. they don't go though cos they assume shiv is just inviting them to mess with the boys. they send a very precocious expensive gift though like literal gold and silver baby cutlery or something

tabitha becomes like an insanely successful ghostwriter or something. idk why I just have the impression she's kinda been a wallflower in all these insane wealth spaces and eventually tells all those stories somehow

I feel like if I don't stop I'll just be writing fanfic so I'll stop but idc if it's just projection I jus love that there's 2 beautiful aloof bisexual women in this show and the only thing we really know about them for certain is that they were both way too good for the Roys <3

[walkingaftermidnight07]

Chain of Thorns: all my main thoughts

yes hello, i wanna make a large post abt this bc i just need to list everything out since i have A LOT of thoughts

MAJOR SPOILER WARNING

SERIOUSLY

DONT READ FURTHER UNLESS YOUVE READ THE BOOK

Things I Liked:

basically every moment where we got to see Will. I was laughing at so many things that Will said and I missed having that, since I will never get enough of Will's humor.

Seeing Jesse interact with the Merry Thieves. It made me so happy and I love seeing Jesse's dry humor mixed in with the Merry Thieves; he fits in with them so well.

Just human Jesse in general. Everything about him made me so happy. He was so kind and brave and quite funny.

Getting to see more of Anna/Ari. During the first book we got almost nothing of them, partially because of Ari being poisoned but also because Anna was kind of not in the main circle yet.

Christopher visiting Grace and them getting to know each other. It made me so happy that there was someone who could see past what Grace had done and could give her a second chance, and their bond over science was so sweet.

Thomastair. That's it. No explanation needed.

Ghostwriter I thought was pretty well done, but the whole "them kissing would cause Lucie to see demon stuff" was kind of unnecessary.

Jem being there for Grace and talking to her to help her through

The Watchers were a really cool plot twist I wasn't expecting

honestly the james turning on the lamp on pg 127 caused a lot of pterodactyl screeching which was fun

the Herondaisy scene in chapter 23 hehe

Effie every time she opens her mouth

Also Bridget who is my queen. she is my love, my life, my star.

Eugenia Lightwood just existing was fabulous.

Esme being the most random plot thread ever which caused a lot of unexpected laughter

"Alastair why are you so stupid I brush my teeth dont tell anyone" LMAO

Alastair with the baby

Again, Thomastair.

Matthew's eventual acceptance of Alastair into the group

Cordelia outsmarting Lilith with her deal

Belial having a weird obsession with being crowned prince of London or whatever

Also Belial's weird bird demon friend made me CACKLE

Bridgestock blackmailing Charles. if i'm honest, i think it was a great part of the plot bc it did kind of give Charles a slight redemption (but also him being kind of outted is also really bad) but i think it was great in kind of allowing Flora be able to accept Ari without fear of Maurice

Lucie and Cordelia talking abt Cordelia's boobs lmaooo/The Wicked Queen Cordelia

Grace's entire arc through this book

the different meanings behind "cordelia ran"

Things that made me sobbbb:

Will becoming a sort of father figure to Jesse

The Merry Thieves helping Matthew with his drinking

Cordelia and James when they finally confessed for real

Matthew's entire arc with his drinking and telling the truth

Christopher's death

"you are my unfinished business" IM SOBBING STILL

Christopher's death

The scene where they see that Kit's dead

Kit being dead

Intermission: Grief

the fact that kit was in fact dead and not going to come back at the end (i was in denial for the entire second half)

Matthew and James while in Edom

Thomas coming out to his family

Alastair telling Cordelia that he's always afraid for her with her being the wielder of Cortana

Again. Kit's death. (i cried a lot ok its been an emotional couple of days)

Things I didn't like:

The whole love triangle. I still don't think that Matthew truly loved Cordelia and i never believed it would be an actual love triangle

the fact that the truth about the bracelet had to be kept secret for so long. it felt kind of unnecessary. there were other ways to draw out the plot than that.

the fact that tatiana exists

Kit's death. I feel like it's so unfair that of all people, he's the one to die. it didn't feel well written, it felt like it had to happen bc she couldn't kill the queer characters and Kit was the only main character left that she COULD kill.

Grace's entire plot being kind of left without an ending.

The lack of mourning/a funeral for kit. (since we didnt get enough mourning, i think im going to write it bc i want to suffer for the purpose of completing the loose ends)

the pacing. the entire plot felt so oddly paced, and it wasn't as much of a mystery like choi or chog.

again, why christopher? i feel like matthew would've been a better choice, or perhaps sona.

magnus kind of getting written out so early

though i love our gay couples and their accepting families, it is a little bit unrealistic. i get that the point is that this particular batch of the families are very kind people in comparison to what their families become a little farther down the road(ie Robert, maryse, etc), but it still feels a little bit unrealistic.

i felt like the whole lucie and cordelia struggling with their friendship thing was a little bit too much to add into this already very full book. (although i loved the wicked cordelia reveal that was fun)

i feel like we didn't fully get the wrap up at the end that we needed. we didn't see enough of them after the battle, as they came to terms with their losses and their wins and how they would continue their lives.

also we never really got to see jesse meeting his cousins/aunts and uncles and i wish we'd gotten that.

Questions I still have:

bridget? whats going on with her? theres a throwaway line in the coda mentioning something is odd abt her, but thats it??

grace. what is going to happen to grace? i wish we could perhaps see her and figure out if she's alright.

im still confused abt the lightwood line. i guess they're trying to say that alexander is going to continue it? (that actually kind of makes sense, genetics wise tho, cuz alexander looks like cecily and alec and izzy are supposed to inherit that)

will we ever get a revised family tree?

blackthorn line???

Rupert's ghost?

fairchild line? am i correct to assume that its going to tie into charlotte's pregnancy reveal at the end?

I'm sure I have more thoughts but I can't remember them at this present moment and I didn't write them down but these are all the ones I wrote down.

lmk what y'all think abt this book