#dude is really complex in a good way but also oh my god why is it so hard to get this guy to want to choose life akechi WHYYY

[sammywolfgirl]

I’ve finally got a (maybe) name for whatever the fuck kind of thing I’m trying to write for akechi in this au oc persona thingy I’m developing.

I didn’t want to call it a redemption arc because that didn’t sound right, domestication arc neither.

I’ve been calling it a ‘goro akechi chooses to live’ arc and in fighting for my life getting this guy to a place where he would choose life by the boiler room.

Then in a discussion with a friend I kinda made a better connection.

It’s a goro akechi realizing his value arc.

As both like a person and in his skill set, dude realizes he’s been undercharging for his hitmen thing and ups the price and shido either has to deal with it or find other ways to do his thing because akechi is advocating for himself in a way that’s business savvy and when did this kid stop caring about him what the fuck-

It’s great, I feel like I’m trying to hit the breaks on a speeding train while akechi keeps hitting the gas because dude just does not chill and I’m sort of a perfectionist when it comes to getting character vibes right so

Uh yeah I guess I’ll doodle/ramble more once I get something more solid.

This does follow the main royal timeline (while adding Hannei in a pre game sort of thing) and I’ll generally be following plot beats but the small variations building up to the end will be fun to figure out

Uh anyways back to figuring out how the fuck to draw the black mask outfit

[envy-of-the-apple]

I'm 99% sure it was called "Forever Yours" and it was a yandere oneshot series basically of a ton of popular anime boys from the time. The ones I remember were the Tokyo Ghoul dude, there were some Death Note guy chapters, there was the ML from Kamisama kiss, OH and the white haired guy from Psycho-Pass. There were like 50 chapters. It had probably a million likes or something it was INSANELY popular.

Ryntymy also had some other ongoing fics (and a ryntymny/reader crack fic, god, love them for that), but god it's soooo hard to remember.

i DID find a post about one of the fics i knew of that was actually REALLY GOOD that you would have LOVED (it was very similar to saltburn although it's quotev so this yandere was ofc pretty tame):

https://www.reddit.com/r/Quotev/comments/1b652gu/trying_to_find_old_x_reader_fic/

as for what's still up... hm. i do remember parallel ink, and also psychadelic peanut (they had this really trippy izaya fic):

https://www.quotev.com/story/9754667/Unfortunate-YandereIzaya-Orihara-x-Reader/1

AH parallel ink wrote kingdom of possession, which i DO remember:

https://www.quotev.com/story/6759314/Kingdom-of-Possession-Yandere-King-x-Reader

and there was this one series that was ACTUALLY quizzes, which was neat:

https://www.quotev.com/quiz/8085561/Out-of-Sight-Out-of-Mind

this one was a pretty fun sort of mystery style thing:

https://www.quotev.com/story/11260294/Seesaw/1

and this one was like. formative for my longing for pathetic masochistic men. i wasn't super into it back then but THE SEEDS WERE PLANTED:

https://www.quotev.com/story/8901227/Then-Came-You-Sadistic-Reader-x-Yandere-Character-One-Shots/2

SEESAW????? I lovedddd that fic so so much ahhhh it was amazing!!! the fic put me in so much denial cuz i was like 'its him! wait no its not him? wait it IS him? no wait-' very very entertaining

speaking of murder mystery yandere fics...there was this one where the reader was isekaid onto a train and quickly pieces together that all of the passengers resemble ppl from this book they read years ago...except they cant remember the ending aka they dont know who the murderer is. pretty sure the author deleted it but it was good!

its so funny you mention psychedelic peanut cuz i remember they got canceled???? actually...pretty sure parallel ink did too...as well the rest of their clique....and thats why i zipped outta the quotev yandere community!

actually that one aot isekai i was talking about was hosted on quotev! pretty much the height of literature, there's no competition. if i dont find it im just tempted to just rewrite it.

Curse of a Broken Promise is still up there and i think it still holds up! its a yandere kaneki ken fic and the writing is so....whimsical? idk how to explain it but it whenever i read it i always felt so sad. good read!

Imperishable affection (yandere!mafioso x reader) is ALSO written by the same author. basically yandere mafia boss guy threatens you into loving him or else your family dies yada yada so ofc the mc does. for a quotev yandere fic its pretty dark actually.

You Need Me (Yandere Manipulator x reader) THIS was the fic that brought me into the yandere thing. and the author used to update EVERY day so this whole this was an event. and the TWIST i remember being 14 and gasping like 'omg he did EVERYTHING???' very very good

If you want a izayax reader fic whos author WASNT wierd might i suggest Twisted Obsession. Beautiful writing. Its better than most ao3 writing actually and wayyy above mine. I love the way this author characterizes Izaya in this and the backstory for why hes so strange is pretty believable. like i fully believe it should be canon.

Savior Complex is an aot isekai where the mc gets whisked into a yandere sim where Petra is the love interest and the rest of the aot cast is obsessed with her. but we can all guess what happens. pretty good tho!!!

BUT EVERYONE GO READ PRETTY its a gojo x LATINA READER AHHHHHH YESSSS. i just LOVE LOVE LOVE the way this author writes. its so poetic and there's so much left up for interpretation.

[teddie-bear420]

tier list

OPINONS UNDER THE CUT

warning this is super long and ranty but does have some silly doodles ill post else where :)

-teddie bear 420

I have had several dreams about vaggie and lute and alastor, they plage my every waking moment. one was me going to smooch city with alastor (very scary that man does not wash his teeth). the others vaggie just shows up sometimes

really liked vaggie in her angel flash back, her hair cut was so cute, not a fan she still has pink eye but what eves. I LOVE HER PONY TAIL THO, give my girl better hair styles!!!

do you think theyve explored each others bodies?

I hated lute at first cuz, just look at her. you could get snow blindness with how white that woman is oh my lord. but once the 8th episode rolled around with hot women fighting my brain kinda clicked on for our old second in command. i keep going back to her in my brain and slowly morphing her into a heart broken lesbian who has a superiority complex and bullies her crush and then moves on to having a sugar mama situation ship with Lilith.

alastor is just so fun and silly, and there's this one x reader fic that ive made fan art of, you've all seen it. i just love this guy but i like to imagine he's a woman just for me :)

i understand why he is a fan favorite

i love charlies look but i hate how childish she is, like girl you are like 24 kill your friends pimp. nifty molly emily are all so cute and i enjoy looking at them. cant wait for the nifty episode (delusional)

i do love nifty more than the rest of these ones tho. i see lots of folks talking about how nifty is alastors daughter or angel dusts little baby daughter SHUT UP

SHES 25 YEARS OLD AND MURDERED HER HUSBAND IN HER SLEEP. NIFTY CALLED ALASTOR OVER TO HAVE THEIR LUNCH DATE AND HIDE THE BODY!!!

OK maybe nifty lives in my dreams too

do you think theyve explored each others bodies?

mimzy makes me mad cuz the show hated having her there clearly, like why is she the only fat person in hell. dont worry girl, I'll appreciate you once again i have to make alastor a dyke for my own sanity

do you think they-

lilith and rosie are good to look at, i like how rosie talks and her showtunes, god i love her show tunes. pentious is the only yellow dude in hell. velvete looks like ass most of the time but I LOVE A BAD BITCH

like i said, no strong feelings

ok most of these dudes are too ugly or too annoying and i hate when they are on screen, lucifers pants are his skin, angel dust has the worst fashoin sense ever UGHS I HATE HIM WHERE ARE HIS TITS WAAAAAA

also i love that her name is sarah, thats such a basic name, like i can type alastor x reader and theres a bunch of results but if i typed sarah x reader, shes no where :(

also shes got that mlp horse face going on i love it

i despise carmilla carmine, i hate her dumb horns, i hate her unnamed daughters, i hate her skirt, i hate her song, i hate her blazed ass eyes, i hate her long hair

vox just looks bad i cant lie

OK ADUM MAKES ME SO MAD HE SHOULD HAVE BEEN JACK BLACK WE SHOULD HAVE SEEN HIM BEING A FAT BASTARD CUZ I WAS CONVINCED HE WAS ANOTHER SKINNY TWINK also i am an anti shipper when it comes to adum x lute cuz that shit is weaaaak. he is so mean to her and not in a hot way, adum is some incel and lute is a goddess

yeah, #adumisoverparty 2024 the most divorced man in heaven

i can not wait for season two dude, im so pumped

[cairavende]

Worm Arc 14 thoughts through 14.7 (there is too much for one post, I mean I could probably get four to five posts from 14.11 alone):

The team figures out Siberian's whole "is a projection" thing pretty quickly. Good for them.

I really want to know who ripped out page 325 for the "how horrible of a thing have I done that I don't want shared" check. I strongly lean Trickster but I'm not sure. I want more details on the Travelers and TiaV dammit!

Amy is having a bad day. Probably really a continuation of a bad few days. She probably didn't really need those fingers right?

Skitter criticizing Amy in her head for not being "creative" enough with her power is so on brand. Of course my daughter has already detailed out the complex ways she would use a power she doesn't even have. I love her.

I really wish the Undersiders/Travelers combo would stop splitting the fucking party. If they had just sent everyone after Siberian I bet the could have gotten the dude.

I do have have Skitter has gotten to a point where one of her "start of combat" actions is to just make a fuck ton of bug decoys. Almost without thought at this point.

Have I mentioned how much I love the "writing words in the air with bugs to communicate with people"? Cause I do. It makes sense. It would work. It lets her communicate long range. But it's also very silly to imagine. Very Silver Age in the best way.

Then it gets even better! Skitter makes a full blown animation to tell Amy that Siberian is trying to drop a building on her. Absolutely fucking perfection.

Tattletale maybe misjudged ever so slightly in what she revealed to Siberian. The combo of Siberian just flickering out of existence and everyone being like "oh fuck" was very good.

Amy trying to do her bullshit again and Tattletale having none of it, just destroying every argument before Amy even makes them until Amy agrees to come and help. More than makes up for any mistakes Tattletale made with Siberian.

The relay bugs are super neat.

Fucking high speed mutant dog/car chase. Absolutely fucking AMAZING. I loved every part of it. Ending with Sundancer just dropping a 50 foot wide sun on the road.

Tattletale trolling the shit out of Piggot and the heroes gives me life.

Also, Piggot's phone conversation with Tattletale was basically a villain monologue. For Piggot. Just all the shit about why she was doing it, why it was for the best, the coy little "sorry your teammates are gonna die, it's just an unfortunate side effect". All of it. This bitch is evil.

My daughter fucking tying up Crawler with spiderwebs. HOLY SHIT KID. God damn.

Very Mulan "Get off the roof, get off the roof, get off the roof" energy as they all run the fuck away from the bombing zone.

BUG HORSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

BUG HORSE BUG HORSE BUG HORSE BUG HORSE BUG HORSE!!!!

AMY MADE MY DAUGHTER A FLYING BUG HORSE I'M DYING!

TAYLOR CAN BE THE (BUG)HORSE GIRL SHE WAS ALWAYS MEANT TO BE!

It rescues her and she has to teach it how to fly and they form a bond and she saves it and it saves her and and and she gives it a NAME! EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!

She's only had Atlas for a day and a half but if anything happens to him I will burn the world to the ground. Then I'll find another world and burn it to the ground too.

Firebombs don't really do shit but destroy a chunk of the city, probably kill some civilians, and make the heroes lives pretty fucking hard as they have to rely on the randomness of Clockblocker's power.

Also weren't there supposed to be a bunch of Nazis also getting hit by the bombs? One of the only somewhat maybe kinda almost decent parts of the plan Piggot and they aren't even here!

Piggot's plan is terrible and evil is what I'm saying.

The only reason nearly every hero doesn't end up permanently trapped or whatever inside Cache's bag of holding is cause Skitter was there to keep him from being crushed by a car. Well, Skitter and her bug horse (BUG HORSE!)

Skitter got to shoot Mannequin in the back. Very satisfying even if it didn't do long term damage.

Sucks to be Cache. He's . . . probably fine? I mean at least he got everyone out as he was melting.

Really sucks to be Glory Girl. She is . . . uhhh . . . hmmm . . . not dead. I can at least say that.

I mean Skitter got her to Amy. And Amy did stop her from dying. So like . . . she's probably going to be fine. Yep. Juuuuuust fine.

(Look if Amy wasn't a bitch about giving Atlas a digestive system I might be willing to forgive a lot. My daughters (bug)horse comes first. But Amy didn't so I won't. At least Grue was able to help. He gets a lot of brownie points for that.)

Anyway, Victoria needed to take some time to heal the rest of the way so she left completely under her own free will. And it will never come up again.

Bombin' 2: Electric HOLY FUCK PIGGOT YOU REALLY ARE CRAZY Bombgaloo

Kill a few more civilians and maybe Crawler and Mannequin. Destroy more of the city (including the library!) in a way that will probably never be salvageable (I mean at least some of it is stopped in time for god knows how long). Jack, Bonesaw, and Siberian escape. And because of what was done Bonesaw is going to activate her bio-weapon.

Great job Piggot. Gold star. You fucking did it. You saved the city. You motherfucking idiot.

[vesemirsexual]

What is even more disappointing about how game!Ciri is written is that CDPR Can give us compelling and complex “ trauma and grief can cause you to repeat the cycle of violence” arcs for characters like Syanna and Lambert but apparently completely forgot what a huge part of Ciri’s character that is

the first time I played I thought she got amnesia as well because of how much of her fiery temper was toned down, and how her trauma is hardly mentioned ( and it's not like the characters in this game trauma are completely ignored it is talked about in some quests) I wanna see what she really would have done had she seen Emhyr again

I feel like game Ciri had two distinct groups they were aiming for: people who found Geralt even more appealing because of the fatherhood angle so they had to work his actual kid in AND hot girl fan service.

The thing is, if they gave her too much personality or depth, she wouldn’t have fit into these groups well and therefore people would’ve found her annoying and/or off-putting. People already do sometimes but not to the degree that they would’ve if they even BEGAN to touch on the absolute shitstorm that is Ciris psyche after everything.

Also realistically, they made the Witcher games centre about Geralt bc he appeals to their large majority male fan base: combatant, dark mysterious tragic past, ripped, attractive, fucks hot women, is a good guy while still also getting to do badass things and beat people up. If you look in depth at Witcher fans on different platforms when they talk about him, a lot of dudes are very much “oh my god he’s literally me”. Ciri could never be the focus because she wouldn’t appeal to that same group, and we know that every time a game is released people throw the weirdest bitch fits about female characters, especially main ones.

This is also why Ciri is made an attractive character, when realistically that tiny little facial scar they’ve given her is nothing, she’s spent her developmental years on the run/being attacked/under extreme stress so I honestly can’t imagine her being a tall skinny but also hourglass woman with one or two scars, and put her in a cropped shirt (such a bad choice it’s mildly hysterical).

I think Lambert and Syanna are also a really good example of how people handle angry traumatised characters too, because Lambert gets a lot more leeway than Syanna (and I say this as a big fan of both!) Like there are literally people out there and on this webbed site who say she is pure evil, one of the evilest people in the Witcher for being a fucked up mean trauma victim who hurt a Poor Little Meow Meow (Higher vampire with decades of life experience more than her, incredibly possessive, responded to emotional manipulation by violently attacking an entire city). Like Lambert literally brags about axii’ing a guy to shoot himself in the head with his own crossbow.

Ciri got done very dirty, but I see how and why it happened. Book Ciri deserves rights but unfortunately I think Games Ciri will always be how people perceive her, and therefore portray her in fic, art and other work predominantly (praying same doesn’t happen with TWN Ciri). We’ve been robbed of such a complex, angry young woman and I mourn it 🙏

Edit: I can’t even touch on the Emhyr thing because the fact she can reconcile with him is honestly mildly fucking horrific. Like even if they’ve removed the nasty ass incest factor, that man quite literally destroyed her entire world and was willing to do so further in order to get his way. The fact she can call him father in one ending is genuinely vomit inducing and so disrespectful to Ciri as a character (also the audacity to play down that Ciri literally sees Yen as her mama WHILE playing devils advocate for War McCrime is a whole choice).

[fangxin-guoshi]

Banana fish re-review ~

I did a rewatch of banana fish and oh my God I forgot how good this series was. Considering the original manga came out in the 80's in JAPAN, it was SO ahead of its time. One of the best depictions of gay characters I've ever seen in Japanese media, even by today's standards.

Some more silly thoughts:

Like yoshida just casually dropped a manga with an insanely progressive take on the bl genre by showing a complex queer interracial relationship with incredibly well-written characters. Honestly the fact that ash and eiji's relationship wasn't explicitly defined as romantic is a plus imo. Not being able to rely on obvious romantic gestures like kissing, hand-holding, romantic confessions, etc. actually forces the writer to develop their relationship without that crutch to lean on. That's why ash and eiji's relationship is so good, because it doesn't rely on surface-level romance to get across the fact that they love each other and instead use subtlety and little nuances in their interactions. It's obvious from the subtext and how much they're shown to care for each other.

Not to mention the great depiction of black characters (I know portraying black characters non-offensively is like, the bare minimum, but may I remind you this is the EIGHTIES in JAPAN, and there are so many CURRENT animes that have an issue with it).

I mean yea does it have its flaws? Sure. Ash's admittedly very lame "lynx" title that comes with many wildcat metaphors, eiji being a bit passive in the first half, sort of cringe portrayal of America, etc. but my God the way she handles the trauma and character dynamics is incredible.

Ok so I did have a uh... Not really a criticism but something that I noticed that got me thinking. I feel like some shows use dark subject matter as a bit of an easy way to evoke an emotional reaction from the audience. Sometimes authors give characters horrible backstories as a way to make the audience THINK the character is complex and interesting but in reality it's a bit of a lazy writing tactic. Low effort high reward kind of thing. Banana fish obviously does have brutal subject matter and ash is really put through the ringer, but I love that yoshida doesn't let that become the axis of his character. He has trauma that greatly impacts him, but he's also super developed on his own apart from that. When I think about Ash's character, I don't immediately think about the traumatic backstory parts. The balance between how significantly the trauma affects him vs making sure that's not the ONLY part of his character is extremely well-executed.

Scenes that stuck out to me (not including asheiji ones bc it goes without saying theyre all amazing)

- the interrogator playing Ash's tapes after being arrested ("later, movie star" was the most brutal line ever omg)

- max burning the photos of ash (underrated moment this was SO good),

- any and all interactions between sing and blanca (they're such an unlikely duo peak comedy right there)

- the convo between sing and yut lung in the last episode

- ash stabbing the guy in the dick with a fork

- callback to ^^^, ash stabbing the banana with a fork

- Ash's breakdown in front of dino (ep 19 I believe)

- the entirety of ash escaping from the "mental hospital" and then having to go rescue ibe and max lmaooo

- ash brutally murdering Abraham(?, the redhead guy) by blowing abt a thousand holes in him w a machine gun as payback for shorter

- ash shooting shorter

- running joke of max being Ash's dad

- everyone constantly manhandling yut lung by yanking on his hair (dude get a haircut)

- ash immediately going to shoot himself no hesitation after yut lung told him he wouldn't hurt eiji if he did so (technically asheiji but I'm keeping it since this was a yut lung and ash scene)

- "what does this picture look like?" "Your wife"

- eiji's cute stupid little outfit he wore when he went to go find shorter in Chinatown

I also have a confession:

I LOVE yut lung. Him being paralleled with ash, but instead of finding love he let hate consume him because he had no one unlike ash who had eiji was just devastating but in a good way.

So yea those are my messy thoughts after finishing it. I'd argue that it was probably one of the best pieces of queer media to exist at the time. In the world. And one of my personal favorite pieces of queer media ever.

[sunlightnmoonshine]

Okay so I've had time to calm down and think of ways to make eunseong eat dirt and so now to the positives of this episode which was completely overshadowed by those awful 15 minutes.

- baekhong, how far they've come. To me this was one of their strongest episodes, one because it was truly the most vulnerable we had seen of them together and that scene outside the hospital and then outside the church oof??? The way I could feel the pain, the way I could understand where each was coming from and the way it just hurt because you want only good for them, most importantly though it was the way they were finally communicating with each other and knew why the other was behaving the way that were and were making active efforts to be there for each other irrespective of what they felt.

- at first I had whiplash at how they kept going from tears to just casually hanging out with each other, but it just made so much sense? Like here they are, not walking away but are dealing with the pain together, hyunwoo still trying to convince her but also just being there for her, and haein not wanting to budge but also entertaining hyunwoo's antiques because this is how they work through things, they cry, but they still stay by each other, they try to understand, the effort is all.

- hyunwoo's reaction after the accident deserves special mention but lol what even was that accident, nothing but shock factor and the way they hired that one white dude to just casually be like oh my god lemme call an ambulance and then disappear (bad bad writing) but I couldnt care about any of that because did you see the way kim soo hyun acted his heart out that scene????? Did you see the shortness of breath, the on the verge of a panic attack, the despair then the relief in his eyes, the crying, the way he held her?? The way I could feel every emotion and personally while I think the accident itself was stupid I found it poignant that haein changed her mind when she saw hyunwoo like this and we all know it's not because of the "ooh he looks so sad some lady will come hug him when he's crying after I die" but because haein herself has never seen hyunwoo like this, she saw entirely how destroyed he looked and felt when he thought she died and that hurt her more than anything and oof I just love these two, it's the way they just love each other so much and just want the other to be happy, in this moment haein said I'd hate to forget you but I'd hate it more if my death destroyed you and I think that speaks volumes.

- every other baekhong scene was gold lol, in the hospital, them just being domestic and just talking, the words they say before haein goes in for surgery (poorly written surgery, poorly written illness), the way hyunwoo just collapses once she's in - (and that's it I can't talk about the last 15 minutes lol even though there's a lot of baekhong glory there too).

- special mention for aunt beomja who really is a little ray of sunshine and for soocheol and his little family (I have issues with their bad qualities just being disregarded by this writer but that's for a different post).

Anyway, the ep is flawed just like every ep has been, it's clear the writer has no idea how to navigate complex plot lines and really should have just stuck to baekhong, because that's truly been worth the watch and has been very well written.

[1moreoffkeyanthem]

Another OJV friendship that is my fav is Kenny and Kyle, I was wondering if you wanted to talk about them because I live for your Headcannons and tumblr extras 🤓

I ALSO live for the headcanons and tumblr extras and OK ORANGEJUICEVERSE KENNY AND KYLE LETS GOOOOOO!!!

So like, Kenny is EASILY styles closest friend other than each other. And OJV Ken is pretty much everyone’s go-to, like Stan running to him when he feels like he fucked up, Marj and Cartman knowing Kenny’s down with a scheme, but it’s a little different with Kyle.

Kyle is 100% the mom friend of the group. And the WHOLE REASON he’s like that with everybody is because growing up, he was the one to jump in as the voice of reason (especially when the Disaster Duo gets goin) and always took care of his people. And who needs taken care of the most? Kenny.

Kyle is CONSTANTLY scolding him for not taking care of himself, doing crazy shit, yes he’s amused by a lot of the antics, but when the logic takes the forefront, he’s all Sheila mode “DR PEPPER DOESNT COUNT AS WATER ESPECIALLY IF YOURE GOING TO A BLOOD DRIVE” “aw it’s fine Ky I got it covered” “no,” *throws a water bottle at him* “I’ve got YOU covered”

Kyle’s super supportive of Kenny’s career, too. That’s not only his bestie but also his metaphorical son. He is SO hyping up every new painting and sculpture, the first person Ken shows new work to bc not only is it gonna be a confidence boost, but Kyle will also have suggestions when he’s stuck.

Kenny, our darling chaotic comic relief friend who hides his own issues behind a grin and a joke and a guardian angel complex, is VERY protective of Kyle. Nearly as much as Stan is. OJV Kenny is a LITTLE GUY, even shorter than Kyle is, but he’s POWERFUL and has every creative solution to get the gang out of a bind, and he’s really friendly with everyone he meets, and people automatically open up to him. On top of that, he is REALLY good at reading people. Kenny’s super perceptive. He sees when someone in his found family has something going on, even before they say something. Ken was the first to be suspicious of what was going on with Ky in high school, brought it up to Stan, who said “I know dude. He’s stressed as shit but I don’t want to piss him off by telling him to relax”, like Kenny does people EXPERTLY; at 14 he knew it wasn’t his place to stage an ed intervention and knew he had to wait for Kyle to hit the point where he either hit rock bottom or came forward on his own.

On the note of Kenny’s emotional intelligence, I mean, come on. Artists in particular see creative solutions to problems, read the energy around us. And Kenny… oh my GOD that boy is a force to be reckoned with in strategy. Which is WHY he and Kyle are BANNED from teaming up in any game. They’re too powerful together. Poker? Fuckin forget about it those two are DESTROYING EVERYONE they are way too smart and between Kyle’s own abundant perceptiveness and Kenny’s people skills they’re not fucking around lmfao. I also find it extremely iconic that while both Ken and Stan are super smart, you put them together and they are sharing a singular brain cell, doing the dumbest shit, and Kyle is RIGHT THERE telling them off for it.

Kenny is so so incredibly thoughtful though too. He is absolutely the person you want to go to if you need a shoulder to cry on, and Kyle, who is the other person in the gang who gets relied on emotionally a lot, does go to him.

Thank u for the ask man live laugh love orange juice

[blazethecheeto]

ATLAS PARADOX RAMBLING

dude this book. i need to talk. about it. im going insane.

everyone who hasn't read it, PLEASE DO!!! it's a dark academia book about a bunch of gay silly magic people that join a society and try to kill each other. there's time travel, a big ass polycule, aesthetic scenes, the prettiest writing style in the world, science, philosophy, and fucked family. (opposite of found family).

(extremely chaotic unorganized long rant below, with spoilers. click at your own risk)

FIRST OF ALL WHY WAS THIS SO MUCH BETTER THAN THE FIRST ONE?!!?!?

i had to power through the first one, it felt long, and unnecessary and like trekking through a JUNGLE with the thickest and most intricate ecosystem that i had to peel back and unravel for hours and hours. only to like move the plot by an inch.

BUT THIS. olivie blake found her footing because this was so good. i am aware the reviews hate on this book and some people don't like it, but personally i adore it and it's really well written.

CHARACTERS

bro they all had such wonderful voices, like they were distinct and unique from each other but not drastically, noticeably different I NEED TO LEARN FROM THIS. six of crows and the atlas six do multi povs so well <3 its like this book was made for me, each character was perfect and incredible and gay and silly and-

reina. love of my life. i look forward to all her povs because the plants are so silly and she's the best character. i said it. she's canon asexual now too YEES. i needed more of her because she was barely in the first one, and they DELIVERED. the juicy plot with her 'god complex' (ily callum) and her feelings getting hurt and learning she actually is lonely and wants friends? she's so wanda maximoff. next book better have her opening up and learning to love people or i riot (and also her killing people and being the badass she is)

parisa always my fave too, i do wish her character wasn't always talking about sex or romance, there were some great moments in this book where she showed off her telepathy powers (the prince in the tower!!) it was awesome. i'm glad they acknowledged that side of her with reina, (oh my god i ship them so much wait till i rant about them-) but dude i still HATE DALTON. SO MUCH. OH MY GOD. every time it's her pov i dread seeing dalton, i wish she could give that up. generic white men should die.

CALLUM. whatever turned him from complex, daunting, and a psychopath last book to janus from sanders sides this book- beautiful choice. he's literally the one sassy wine-sipping gay aunt that feels nothing and everything at once, also extremely mentally ill and depressed. he's SO FUNNY. his povs are fucking hilarious to read, and he quickly became one of my faves bc of how complex he is. i'm not smart enough to decipher and psychoanalyze him but god i LOVE CHARACTERS LIKE THIS.

i don't know what happened but nico is literally one of my faves now too, he's so silly and sweet and kind and i loved his relationships with everyone this book. like him trying to murder tristan in multiple different ways oml. he's my bbg. tristan was hit or miss for me, i did find him interesting but he's not my favourite. doesn't mean i hate him, he's so very british, i feel it radiating off the page. libby my queen my icon, her dream povs were so trippy i loved it- so so realistic to a real dream, that was the most surprising and unique part. also my bisexual queen seducing belen??

i did not like ezra and atlas was a little iffy here and there but tbh the cast was so well rounded and interesting and unique but paralleled each other so well?? THE RELATIONSHIPS. I DONT THINK ANY BOOK HAS THIS INTRICATE WEB-LIKE RELATIONSHIPS WITH EACH OTHER. they're one big polycule.

RELATIONSHIPS

nico and libby <3 i love them so much as siblings/queerplatonic partners. i don't ship them romantically, because i LOVE how they subverted the eye-rolling predictable ' YA academic rivals enemies to lovers' trope. when i started TAS, i immediately thought they were gonna get together and assumed the worst. but no, they still had the banter and importance in their relationship but without the romance? instead both of them were gay af. it's beautiful. i love subverting tropes so much. they're each other's 'other half' and they're hilarious together.

NICO AND TRISTAN. they were such a highlight this book, it was unexpected but so funny. nico trying to murder tristan and their little talks because 'they're not friends...just coworkers' yeah right, the best friendships start with creatively murdering each other. tristan being droll and chill af, and then nico bouncing off the walls my adhd king.

reina and nico broke me?? like that one chapter where they sparred and caught up with each other and reina was guarding her hurt feelings. DUDE THAT KILLED ME. made me stare at the ceiling for a good minute. their friendship is everything to me, they contrast each other so well. she deserves to be treated better- when they had that projection chapter and she saw that nico downplayed her skills...like she was good, but not good enough for him to care about her. AGGHGH.

REINA AND PARISA. NOW THIS. THIS HOOKED ME INTO THE BOOK. i ship them so bad guys. they parallel each other and are both hot and enemies to lovers and wlw slow burn and- look. reina is asexual, therefore the only person to truly see and understand parisa for who she is, and not be influenced by her body. like that one projection. she can help parisa understand HERSELF and who she is past her sexual desirability. how to love someone again. romantically. then, on the flip side, parisa can help reina see and understand OTHERS. reina only sees people as one trait, cut and dry- without any of the complex feelings. parisa is a telepath, she knows how to read others. THEY CAN BOTH HELP EACH OTHER AND LOVE EACH OTHER IN WAYS THEY NEVER COULD HAVE OMFDADJFLSKJADFL- also reina pinned her against a wall and they want to kill each other and every time they interact i scream into my pillow-

-

'You can't love anyone right?"

"I've met very few people worth loving."

-

*throws myself off a building*

now we just gotta play the familiar game "IS IT DELUSION OR IS IT JUST SLOW BURN" and find out whether their insane chemistry pays off in book 3.

the nico parisa scene was actually sweet ngl, even though i don't ship them. the whole callum and tristan thing was so bitter exes situationship coded and i ate every second up. especially that last conversation. AND OFC. GIDEON AND NICO?!!! AAAAA THEY WERE SO CUTE THEY'RE ENDGAME I SCREAMED WHEN THEY KISSED DUDE THEYRE SO-

PLOT

now for the actual plot. this book has so many interesting subjects and philosophies and debates i'm not smart enough for this. but past all the aesthetic glamour, it's science, time travel, dreams, multiverses, fate, reality, and the complexities of the human mind. and my god it's fascinating as fuck.

do i have any idea what they do in this society?? NO. am i entertained? YES. especially that whole explosion paradox to bring libby back to the future. the whole powering the connections via aurora borealis? the whole debate about being gods? i love it. i love it.

alright im so sorry for that rant, i gotta go now but DUDE I LOVE THIS BOOK NO MATTER HOW WEIRD IT WAS

[not-poignant]

Hi, Pia.....Do you mind if I ask your top 10 favorite characters (can be male or female) from all of the media that you loved (can be anime/manga, books, movies or tv series)? And why do you love them? Thanks if you want to answer...

Hi anon!

So... they change and tbh I'm going to forget a ton of characters I love and then scream in my head later like 'oh no but THAT character and THAT character and THAT character' but I'll do my best!

Kiriyama Rei from March Comes in Like a Lion - Probably my favourite character possibly of all time. Introverted, kind of ace-coded right up until the end of the manga when it changes (and since the anime never ended he stays ace-coded throughout that lmao), very human, extremely depressed, and I just think he's a very good depiction of like...what it's like to live with extremely repressive depression and post-trauma while not necessarily knowing you have those things.

Dazai Osamu from Bungou Stray Dogs - He's a brilliant intellect genius with too much ability to know so much about the world that he kind of ends up suicidal all the time due to his upbringing / some of the things he's done and also what he's experienced. I just enjoy him. (Notable runner up here is Nakahara Chuuya but dslkajf)

Felix Harrowgate from the Doctrine of Labyrinths trilogy - Angsty, PTSD, waspish, 'I'm going to hurt you because I was hurt and then hate myself and do very self-destructive things about it but keep that part a secret so I just look like a constant dickhead,' brilliant, very good at magic. Love this dude. Would walk hundreds of miles for this dude, like the song. Would definitely write a long-ass fanfic about him.

Daeshik from Love So Pure - I love this guy SO much. He's a side-story / secondary pairing in the manhwa but I LOVE him because he's so against type. He's dorky but not in a very cute way, he's overbearing, he's SO neurodivergent coded it's painful and sometimes hilarious, he's determined and ambitious, he's not 'hot' in any typical kind of twink way, and I know he's split the fandom between 'god he's so annoying' and 'Daeshik is the BEST.' The whole webtoon is fucking amazing anyway, but Daeshik has my whole heart in his journey from 'dorky annoying overbearing friend' to 'oh I just realised I'm gay and now everything is Pride Pride Pride and I'm definitely crying next to a dildo I bought that was too big for me.'

Presenting Daeshik:

You'll never guess what he's sitting on sdlkjfas (he fails abjectly and then cries about it in a way that's kind of hilarious honestly).

Dana Scully from The X-Files - I didn't know it at the time, but this was very much my bisexual awakening. I mean I'm pretty heavily ace now, but I'm mostly not into cishet dudes, and I had pictures of Scully up on my wall like how did I not fucking know. Anyway, scientist, smart, 'so done with your shit' and just wry and witty and *clenches fist* so short and tiny and powerful. I love her. (And Gillian Anderson).

Loki from the MCU - Not necessarily every iteration, but I do love how Tom Hiddleston plays him, and I appreciate the queerer representation. Adore this guy. Look at him, what an absolute dickhead of a god. 10/10 would read him in hurt/comfort fics and PWPs again.

Hyunsoo Seo and Youngchan Baek from Perfect Buddy / XXX Buddy - Possibly my favourite manhwa of all time and I really hope that stays true because it's not finished yet. Idk how to describe these characters because they're both very complex as you get to know them better, but basically 'angry wet cat man with past trauma that he hides exceptionally well vs. Gwyn-dimensioned blond puppy dog who is just pretending to be a puppy dog because he knows exactly how threatening he is and is willing to be to protect the people he loves.'

Murderbot in the Murderbot novella series - I think all of us - or most of us - find Murderbot incredibly relatable and that's refreshing as fuck in any novel series tbh. (ART as runner-up though, love that fucker).

Sebastian Michaelis from Kuroshitsuji / Black Butler - Honestly there were a lot of kind of 'extremely powerful but kind of shitty fuckboys' I wanted to put in this category including Gojou Satoru from JJK, Reigen from MP100, and even Louis from Beastars, but Sebastian's gonna win out because I still don't know if he's going to eat Ciel at the end of that series and I very much love not knowing because he's such a devious fuckhead. Love that not-actually-a-man.

Yuurakutei Yakumo (Kikuhiku) from Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu - I just... *flails* Almost no one has seen this anime series and it kind of kills me because firstly the books were written by someone practiced in writing BL and even though this isn't BL you can still tell the vibes are there. Secondly, one of the most ace-coded characters ever. Gender-fuckery abounds, which is fun. Thirdly just, honestly, more folks should watch this?

There were a lot of characters I know I missed but I'm pretty satisfied with this list.

I've just given myself a bunch of stuff to rewatch and reread because of this anon! :D

[akaridream]

after dark pt. 3: stakeout (hawks x reader)

tags: hawks x reader

cw: cursing, hawks is a big fat flirt, afab reader, mentions of drugs/alcohol

taglist: @inkthgoat @pnsduck @animedreamworlds @melxdig @mizvaun @mysideeffectsofyou

masterlist

From the roof across from the Fukuoka police headquarters, you watched the sun drift lower in the gray sky. Your shadow was long and wind howled in your ear. In the other, you were being entertained by Hawks’ incessant singing.

“And all I am is a man, I want the world in my hands,” he sang, off-key and unabashed through your ear piece.

You pulled your hoodie tight around your ears. “Oh, please don’t ruin The Neighborhood for me too,” you laughed.

“Ruin?” he said, feigning offense. “You get a private karaoke session and this is how you thank me?”

Tired of pacing, you laid down on your stomach, chin on top of your hands, peering over the side of the building. “If I had my way, we’d be listening to an orchestral suite or something.”

“Orchestral suite?” He fake snored, making you scoff.

“Don’t be so uncultured, bird brain,” you sneered. “There’s one called The Planets, it’s actually really cool. Each movement was written to be the personification of the Greek gods they’re-” Hawks snored even louder, but you just talked over him. “It’s actually really interesting!”

He laughed. “Relax, I’m just messing with you. Tell me about-”

“Hold on a sec, I’ve got movement.” Your eyes focused on the door of the police station.

“Ugh, finally. Dude is supposed to be on patrol already, not cooped up in the office,” Hawks whined.

“Never mind, it’s not him,” you said, body relaxing.

“Damn. Is surveillance always this boring?” he asked.

“Not when I get to listen to the music I like,” you joked.

“Wow, so ungrateful! But you like The Neighborhood enough to know them at least, right?”

“Yes, I like some popular stuff. But I find long, complex pieces to be more mentally stimulating when I’m working, especially since I’m always alone.”

“So what’s so cool about this Planets piece?” Hawks asked. You could tell he was munching on a snack.

“I don’t want to put you to sleep.”

“You won’t, I like hearing you talk about stuff.” You could hear the smile in his voice. It made your heart stutter.

“Well… Okay,” you resigned. “So each planet has a totally different vibe. Like, Mars is the god of war and that movement is aggressive and bombastic, definitely sounds war-like. But then Venus is next and it’s this ethereal, soft piece with a dreamy feeling. All seven are totally different. So yeah, it’s neat.”

“Sounds cool. Do you have a favorite?”

“That’s tough. Everyone loves Jupiter, and for good reason. It’s bright and vibrant and the main melody is gorgeous. I also really appreciate Saturn, it has this solemn vibe but has this really pretty ending. And I really like the far away, mystical feeling of Neptune, it definitely makes you feel like you’re floating through endless space. But I also can’t overlook the dreamy, almost sleepy sense you get from Venus… Sorry, I’m rambling,” you chuckled, slightly embarrassed.

“No, not at all,” he said. “Like I said, I like hearing you talk. You’ll have to send your favorite one to me, I’ll check it out.”

“Really?” you asked. “You aren’t just making fun of me for liking classical music?”

“Hey, I may joke around a bunch but I promise I’m not making fun of you, angel. You’re smart, so I’m sure you have good taste.”

There’s that word again. Angel. Why does it make my heart stop like that? Wish I had the guts to ask why he insists on calling me that, you thought. But you were too scared to broach the line of flirting just yet, especially since you were on the job. How awkward would the rest of your contract be if he wasn’t interested? Plus, you weren’t kidding when you told him you were chronically single. You had no idea how to act in a relationship, and there was little doubt in your mind that Hawks was experienced. His confidence was proof that he knew just how attractive he was. You’ve never had trouble with emotions before, so get this little crush under control, you told yourself.

“So what do you usually listen to?” you asked.

“Pssh, I dabble in all sorts of stuff. Some pop stuff, some metal, whatever’s good. How about we go for some Local Natives next, they’re a little more indie.”

After the first few bars, you started tapping your foot. “Hm, good bass line,” you said, barely hearing Hawks humming along. “Did you say you like metal?”

“Oh yeah. But I won’t scare you off with that just yet,” he chuckled. “It can get a little intense.”

“Hey, I get it. We all need an outlet for that teenage angst.”

Hawks gave a full-voiced laugh. “For sure! Speaking of angst, you ever get into American Emo stuff?”

“Yeah, quite a bit when I was young,” you said.

“I’ll make us a playlist and we can serenade each other all evening tomorrow. Let me know your requests!”

“Will do,” you said, internally laughing at the thought of Hawks outside your bedroom window with a boom box like in the movies.

Your target finally exited the police station and headed for his patrol vehicle. Hawks turned off the music and switched your headsets to listen in to the police scanner so you could follow the target without needing to trail him directly. While Hawks’ wings were built for speed, yours were not. You followed as closely as you could, taking shortcuts across rooftops to rest your wings while keeping an eye on the streets below.

“Sounds like he’s going to do some detective stuff, probably a follow-up interview,” Hawks said.

“Yep, headed north. Any movement there yet?” you asked.

“Actually, my target just walked out. He’s with two others. Just regular office chit-chat.” He paused. “Seems to be headed to the train station with the others. He gets on at Hakata and heads south to Kasuga, so I’ll just fly there- Well, apparently he forgot something in his office.” He paused again. “But he isn’t going back inside, just standing around looking at his phone. Weird.”

“That is weird. Wonder what his deal is,” you said, thankful that your target had stopped for coffee so you could catch your breath.

“Okay, he’s on the move again. I’m suspicious now, so I might tail him to see which train he gets on.”

Hawks followed his target from the rooftops to the train station, then sent out a feather to discern which direction he would go.

“He’s heading north,” Hawks said, surprised. “That’s unusual. He must not have wanted his co-workers to know where he was going. I’m going to head up to the next station, see if he gets off there.”

Once he reached the next train station, Hawks carefully scanned the crowd, looking for his suspect from the Safety Commission.

“Must have stayed on the train. Hopping up to Hakozaki next.”

“That’s pretty close to where I am. They might be meeting up after all,” you said.

“I’ll be surprised. If they’re links in the Trigger supply chain, it’s pretty bold of them to meet up so soon. I mean, your guy just got caught about a week ago.” Hawks grew quiet in thought as you both flew over the city.

“Just made it to Hakozaki, and I already see him getting off the train,” Hawks said. “He’s heading east towards the river.”

“Shit. So am I,” you said. “You feel confident in getting a clear photo of him whenever he stops walking?”

“I took one of him already, just in the crowd at the station.”

“Really? That’s perfect. Maybe you know what you’re doing after all, Hero,” you said.

“You taught me well, and I may not be as dumb as I look at least.”

“You getting close? I’m across from a fried chicken place we might have to check out,” he asked, kneeling near the edge of the roof.

After tailing the police cruiser for a few more blocks, you spotted crimson wings ahead, despite the dying daylight. You drifted on the wind towards him, your silent wings aiding your stealthy approach.

You smirked and landed several feet behind him, your boots crunching the gravel giving away your position. He whipped around, slightly startled.

“Damn, your wings really are silent! You’d make for a bad-ass stealth hero, you know.” The way his bright eyes raked over your form made you self-conscious, but his smile told you he was pleased with what he saw. “The all-black outfit really suits you.”

You rolled your eyes playfully. “Oh please. You’re laying it on a bit thick, don’t you think?”

“Laying what on thick?” He stood and drew near to you, flashing a coquettish grin.

“You’re such a flatterer, Hawks.”

He brushed away a strand of hair stuck to your hood. “What, I’m not allowed to compliment you?”

You blushed and couldn’t hide your smile. “We are co-workers, you know.”

“Yeah, for now.” His flirty tone made your cheeks flare to life further. No guy had ever shown you attention like this. He must just be this way with everyone. Can’t let myself think I’m anything special compared to the number three hero in the country.

You walked to the edge of the building together, peering over to the street below. Hawks’ target from the Safety Commission looked around, then spotted the police cruiser pulling over near the next intersection. He began walking with purpose.

“Think I should head down to street level and try to listen in?” you asked.

Hawks shook his head. “Don’t want you to get spotted. I’ll send down a feather.” He handed your digital camera over to you. “Try and get some pics of them together without going all the way down there.” Despite his typical lighthearted demeanor, Hawks’ tone was serious and his eyes narrowed in focus.

You nodded, both of you watching the man below. Without a word, he entered the police vehicle.

“Well, that tears it, huh?” Hawks asked, sending a red feather down to rest on the roof of the car.

You fluttered over to a lower roof to take pictures of the pair. Thanks to the street noise, you couldn’t make out any of their conversation. Hopefully Hawks’ feathers are as useful as they seem. Your camera shutter clicked away as they conversed. After taking a sufficient number of photos, you returned to Hawks’ side.

“They’re working together, and it’s definitely related to Trigger,” he said, eyes closed in concentration. “They’re surprisingly confident despite the report last week. Yamamoto- the PSC guy says he can supply more on Thursday. Officer Mori says that’s fine. They’re going to meet at Bay 7 at the docks, 10 pm. No correspondence until then.”

“Damn. You were dead on, then.”

Yamamoto exited the vehicle and hailed a cab. Hawks’ feather darted from the police cruiser to the roof of the cab, listening in.

“Sounds like he’s headed home now. Must be making serious cash if he can afford a cab for that distance,” Hawks said. He recalled his feather and stood, rubbing the stubble on his chin. You watched the gears turn in his mind and couldn’t stop the thought of how incredibly handsome he was. His large hands, strong jaw, glimmering eyes… He chewed his lip in thought, making you subconsciously lick your own lips. He is not making this easy for me… He’s too fucking hot.

As if he could sense your stare, he caught your eye. “You okay?” he asked, voice low.

Mortified at being caught, you shook your head. “Yeah, I’m fine, sorry. Just thinking.” Suddenly warm, you lowered your hood, trying to get the cool air to circulate around your burning ears.

“Yeah, I was too. Have to wonder if there’s anyone else in the PSC or the police department involved or if it’s just the two of them. We should try and figure out who Yamamoto is getting his supply from and when.”

“Yes, I agree. Perhaps we can dig up some intel tomorrow or Wednesday, then catch the hand-off Thursday night,” you suggested.

He nodded. “Yeah, good plan.” He sighed and shrugged. “Well, I guess that’s as much as we can do for now. But hey, I’m glad we got what we were looking for.”

You snorted. “Yeah, me too. Can’t believe it went so well, actually. I almost never get anything usable on the first night.”

“For real? Then we should spent the rest of the evening getting some dinner to celebrate our first success!” he said with a brilliant grin. “I think that fried chicken place is open til nine!”

“We’ve only been at it for a couple hours now and you’re already done for the evening? We could go back to my office and start looking for info,” you said, crossing your arms.

“Well, I’ve been doing hero work all day and I’m starving! And your office is aaaall the way across town. We’ve already made progress, so I think we deserve a little reward. So, what do you say? Join me?” he asked, extending a hand towards you.

“Have you forgotten that you’re super famous? I can’t be seen with you in public!” you said, more harshly than you meant it.

“Aw, angel,” he pouted. “You aren’t going to let me take you out?” He tilted his head like a curious puppy.

Had it been anyone but the ever-charming and undeniably attractive Hawks, you might have scoffed. Instead, you sighed and relented.

“Do they have takeout?” you asked.

Hawks beamed. “Sure do! What sounds good to you?”

“Whatever you’re having, so long as it isn’t too spicy,” you said.

Hawks started punching the restaurant’s number into his phone. “You know, my apartment isn’t too far from here. We could always take this back to my place to eat, if you get tired of eating on rooftops.”

Your eyes grew wide. “You’re trying to get me to go back to your place on our first night of work?” you chuckled, assuming he was joking.

Realizing how his words had come off, he stammered. “Oh shit, uh- That’s not how I meant for it to come out at all! I mean- Yeah, I’m placing an order for pick-up, please.” His cheeks burned a lovely shade of red to resemble his feathers. He rubbed the back of his neck and you laughed silently as he fumbled through the dinner order. So he finally breaks the confident persona, only to come off even more endearing. He’s so cute my heart might explode.

He hung up the phone and turned back to you bashfully. “Should be ready in ten minutes,” he said, swallowing hard and chuckling. “Sorry, I really didn’t mean it like I was trying to hit on you or anything.” He paused. “Uh- Not that I wouldn’t hit on you, I mean, you’re gorgeous! But taking you back to my place would be-”

You laughed. “Hawks, relax, okay? I’m not mad or anything.” He calmed down and laughed with you. He thinks I’m gorgeous?

“Good. Sooo, you don’t mind me hitting on you then? Just a little?” he asked, cocking a brow up.

Your heart soared and you gave a coy smile. “Oh, if you must. So long as we’re done working.” You met his eyes, bravely returning his flirtatious spark.

“Yeah? Like… Everyday when we’re done, or after our little contract is up?” he asked eagerly.

“Geez, you are so impatient!”

“Yeah, maybe I am.” He shrugged. “But what can I say, you really are gorgeous.”

You couldn’t maintain eye contact, so instead you raked your eyes over his body. “Oh, shut up. But… You aren’t so bad yourself, bird brain.”

A soft blush bloomed across his cheeks and he shrugged. “Eh, I try not to look like a total wreck at least. While we wait, you wanna show me that planet orchestra you were talking about?” he asked

“Yeah. I may not be the brightest bird, but I like to be open to new things.”

You smiled and pulled out your phone as you sat on the ledge. “I’ll play it through the headsets, okay? This one’s Jupiter, I think you’ll like it best.”

Hawks sat down next to you, his wings puffed up to block the biting wind. They were much larger than yours, but they didn’t intimidate you as they had upon your first meeting. Now, they were your shield.

The song began with a jovial burst of energy. The driving percussion and triumphant brass energized you, and you found it hard to sit still without conducting an invisible orchestra with your fingers.

“Sounds like a movie,” Hawks remarked.

You nodded. “Yeah! A ton of modern film composers have been influenced by this suite.” You closed your eyes, allowing your head to sway with your favorite passage.

Hawks was trying to pay attention to the music. He really was. But he was far more enraptured by you. Your excited heartbeat, your soft scent, your angelic wings nestled within his own. The elegant music only emphasized his infatuation with your beauty. He knew you would eventually open your eyes and catch him staring, but he just couldn’t take his eyes off you.

You sat in comfortable quietness, enjoying the music together. You felt Hawks’ arm gently resting against yours, pinky nestled against yours. Butterflies surged in your gut as you allowed yourself to lean into him. He provided warmth, deep in your chest and relief from the cool wind. As the lengthy song neared conclusion, you opened your eyes. Hawks’ golden irises sparkled in the dim light, his gaze soft and attentive. He glanced at your lips, but turned his head away.

Was he… Thinking about kissing me? Or am I totally misreading him? I have to be over-thinking it. He’s a flirt with everyone, right? Gotta keep this professional. Probably shouldn’t have said he could hit on me.

As silence filled the air once more, you opened your mouth to speak. Hawks’ stomach gave a noisy growl, sending you both into a laughing fit.

“Right on cue, as always!” he said.

He stood and offered his hands to you, helping you to your feet. Not letting your hands go, he pulled you close.

“Would it be super cheesy to say that song was almost as beautiful as you?” he asked with a cheeky smirk.

You giggled. “Yes, extremely.”

He laughed too and brushed his thumb over the back of your hand. “Guess I’ll just keep it to myself then. Back in a few with dinner.”

As he fluttered down to the street, your heart hammered against your ribs. You rested your icy fingers against your burning cheeks. He is such a dork. An absolutely adorable dork.

part 4

[lamentablequeen]

your ocs are so wonderful omg… if u don’t mind could u tell us more abt kelley? because reverse-werewolf-beast-cursed-to-be-human stuff is so insanely my jam i slather it on toast each morning.

IF YOU DON'T MIND….. you have no idea how much joy this ask brought to my extremely boring day (i have been bouncing around from library to library all day trying to work on my term paper). oh my god. literally you have made my whole day. i think about kelley constantly. 

so the thing about him is that like. he adjusted surprisingly well to being a human person, and he already had a little bit of background knowledge (because he was a search and rescue dog before) so it always catches people COMPLETELY off guard that he didn't live his entire life as just some guy. he's like, nebulously early 20s. easily excitable. very affectionate. he's really into watching baseball so sometimes on his time off he'll drive down to one of the civilian towns to go watch the game at whatever bar reliably has mlb. yes there's mlb in the wizard future… it being my sandbox and everything. he's got kind of a fratty dress sense but he never gets to dress like it because of the uniform thing, but in his truest form he would one hundred percent be wearing a backwards hat and socks with sandals. 

the other thing about him is that he is like. fundamentally kelley is a radar type without anyone to be radar for because maggie (the team lead) is actually really good at her job, so she doesn't actually need someone to be ready with whatever she wants before she wants it. this is one of the many things that gives kelley Some Kind Of Complex: he wants to be useful so bad and he wants to help people and he gets kind of weird and guilty about not being able to do as much as possible. i think personally he has kind of a thing about the fact that he's a person now. like, he's definitely got some kind of guilt complex about like. why him? what did he do that made him any more or less deserving of being MADE A NEW KIND OF CREATURE? he's also the youngest member of the team. he's been able to be human for more than a few years, so it's not like it's his first day on earth or anything. but also he does sleep with a stuffed animal if he's sleeping alone. 

kelley and the harbinger become best friends pretty much immediately. i think they have pretty similar music taste, kind of 90s alt/dad rock type stuff, but they're also gym buddies. the harbinger was a firefighter so they're BUFF AS FUCK and kelley immediately is like. oh my god. teach me your ways. i think he definitely looks up to them a little bit, but he's also the harbinger's closest normal friend (i say normal friend to differentiate their friendship from whatever the fuck is going on with the harbinger and BOWIE). after (plot spoilers) bowie leaves, kelley takes to sleeping on the harbinger's bed sometimes because their nightmares get so bad they really can't sleep alone anymore. he's gay but has absolutely zero game. i do think there's probably a guy he likes in their larger base camp but theres no way he is planning on doing anything about it. he's easily flustered. he DOES call himself a werewolf despite technically being more of a were-dude. he has kind of a surfer boy accent.

[lihikainanea]

I am picturing Bill having this specific hobby/thing he likes (a book, a game, an album, etc.) and Tiger knows about it. it's not really Her Thing but she can dabble into it (learn it, experience it). and then one day Bill talks about it and Tiger just simply agrees with him, says a few points of her own about how she's grown to like it, and Bill is just a bundle of emotions. because it's a lot of things at once. she took the time to see what it was about? and then as he listens to her talk about it more it's all OF COURSE she'd get it. OF COURSE she understands the joy he gets from it, why it means so much to him, and so on. it's just a simple moment, but Bill feels so seen and it hits him like a truck. he is so in love. they end up snuggling. :'D

oh god, what if it's something so completely out there and something so not-on-brand that he's actually a little bit shy about it? What if it's something so absurd like....like crochet, nani.

IT'S CROCHET ISN'T IT.

And I'll bet tiger thinks it's real sweet right? Because maybe Granny taught Bill how to crochet. Maybe they'd kind of spend hours together over tea and madeleines, Bill would be holding the ball of yarn while Granny's hands went a mile a minute, and eventually Bill just kind of...well, he picked it up too. And tiger thinks it's so sweet, this big dude with these huge clumsy hands, but the thing is...Bill is kind of really good at it. Like, really good. So tiger also appreciates having all kinds of warm socks and mittens and toques all custom made. And Bill is pretty damn talented, so he crochets all kinds of fancy patterns with all kinds of colours and every once in awhile when a mutual friend compliments tiger's new cute mittens, Bill just sort of smiles shyly and lets himself be a little proud.

And like, he's also super into it, you know? Once he lets go of the initial embarassment. Maybe once tiger points out that literally thousands--if not millions--of people have seen his ween (And literally the ween of nearly every male in his family) on a big screen so a little crafty habit is nothing to be ashamed of. He's part of groups. Facebook groups, online groups. One is for troubleshooting, which he turned to when he couldn't figure out why his current project was just getting wider and wider or when his chain was too tight or he was only crocheting in the front loop. One is for inspo, all kinds of things he wants to create. And one is a legit little support group in the area that meet up every so often, and Bill wishes so badly that he could go but he just doesn't want the visibility. He knows he's the only man in the group, and he's...well, he's him. it would cause a stir.

So my girl tiger--ever the one to indulge her Big Dude in all of his adorable weirdness--maybe there are like, CONS for these things. A Crochet-Con. And she gets wind of one happening about 2 hours away, way in the country side. There's only about 100 people or so who attend, it's so niche, and after some careful creeping tiger realizes that the average age of the participants is like, 80.

Nobody will know who he is there.

It's a whole 2-day event. There's discussion groups to troubleshoot common issues. There's a workshop on crocheting complex patterns. There's a small trade show area where you can sell some of your goods. So tiger gets two tickets, prints them out, and gets all giddy.

Maybe she wanted to keep it a surprise for longer, but when she bounced into the living room she saw her big dorky dude there on the couch, his thick rimmed glasses on, a foot propped up on the coffee table. His tongue was poking out the side of his mouth in concentration as his gaze was fixed on the small crochet hook, the ball of yarn, and this dainty, intricate pattern between his huge hands.

"I have a surprise for you," she smiles, plopping down on the couch. Without missing a beat Bill passes her the ball of yarn and she instinctively unravels some of it as his little crochet hook bobs and weaves at an impressive speed.

"Oh yeah?" he smirks but doesn't look away, "What's that?"

She puts her hand on the small pattern he's creating but he squawks.

"I'll drop a stitch!" he shrieks, then inspects the little piece of fabric thoroughly. Tiger just quirks a brow, and waits.

"Crisis averted?" she chuckles.

"Barely," he snarks, then he softens. "What's up kid?"

Tiger pulls the tickets out from behind her back and hands them to him, and he adjusts his glasses on the bridge of his nose.

"Hooker Con?" he asks skeptically.

"Keep reading."

He scans the rest of the writing, and then his eyes light up.

"It's a crochet con?" he asks excitedly. She nods, smiling.

"It's two days?" he continues reading, "Troubleshooting, discussions, workshop--oh my god, the Jasmine stitch?! that one's impossible to do!"

"It's in two weeks," she says, "I thought it might be fun."

But then suddenly, his face falls.

"Tiger, what about--"

"They won't," she answers his silent question, "I creeped a few past...Hookers. They're all in their 80s bud. I don't think it'll be an issue. And if you're worried, we can glue a beard on you. Slap a wig on."

He smiles at her, leaning over to kiss her.

"There's two tickets," he mumbles, "You're going to come?"

"Of course," she chuckles, "I'd love to."

"But it's crochet," he says shyly.

"It's you," she tells him with another kiss, "And I love this little hobby of yours. I think it's sweet."

"You do?"

"Of course. And I want to...FOTH and frog and HOTH all weekend with you."

Bill laughs boisterously.

"I love it when you talk dirty to me," he chuckles.

[originemesis]

hc musings - character dive ; //

Judging from season 1, I think it's safe to assume Adam does not like be without his helmet/mask. Sure, he's dressed up for his meetings/in court/for the final battle, which is just about everywhere he pops up in the season. However, he's also briefly shown just hanging out with Lute in heaven and he's still in uniform while she isn't. This is likely their down time, and yet he's still lugging around his massive robes, fully decked out for battle like it could happen anytime when clearly they're in heaven and it can't. So why is this?

Well, when the mask actually comes off (it's forced off and smashed apart just to get to that point), Adam is just 'some dude' under the menacing, manic act he's been putting on the whole time. An act as in when he crawls out of the hole without his safeguard face, he literally just has a melt down in front of everyone where his previous 'cunty charm' and 'idgaf' attitude are gone in place of some caught on the spot, seething human looking dirt bag who's only 'gotcha' is to call the group that's put an end to his reign of terror 'losers'. Just losers (baby ~). If he's not insecure with what he is under that mask (and how could he not be when not one, but two people who were literally created to be his perfect match dumped his ass? Oof.), then he absolutely has an inferiority complex of sorts and its in his 'break-down' moment on screen where it's on full display without the glowing grin and the horns.

To scratch further at that thought- imagine how Adam, the first human/man was essentially created in God's image. He was created to be perfect by heaven's definition, and though he didn't stay that way, he got a taste for what that felt like. Literally anything he does after that point when Eve and him have to leave Eden is (unironically) 'mid' or worse.

HC wise (out of my own musings so don't mind the canon divergence here since s2 is likely uhh...twitterjokes2027-) I'm leaning into the idea that the first two human souls are weighty in the sense that they can't both be in the same after life or it'll upset whatever balance there is between heaven and hell. So at the time of their deaths, it was decided that heaven wanted Adam and so hell would have Eve by default (also she was the one they blamed most- typical fandoms @ female characters amiriteeee). This means Adam who knows he's not perfect anymore, hasn't felt so in a long time- goes to a plane of existence that exudes perfection. They have 'the brightest, the polite-est of the lot and everyone is hot'. And then there he is- just some dude who is none of those things (hates math, innately rude, and well...'just some guy' isn't exactly heaven-scale hot guyyys).

This cumulation of always realizing nothing he does is good enough (because he knows this) and yet being treated like it is because he just happened to be first leads Adam to a state that even Lucifer comments on in their battle in the form of 'oh haha, you really let yourself go-'. Which I take to mean in the sense Adam is up in heaven, holding zoom-style holographic meetings while he probably barely even leaves his room (and never without his gear on), neglecting the 'womanly' deemed things like cooking and taking care of himself, gaining struggle weight for it all, and worst of all...he's in heaven and he's essentially in a depressed state (that let's be real he'd say doesn't exist like the dwightyouignorantslut he is) and that is plastered all over his real face in the form of baggy under eyes and that gross chin stubble he got going on too. And since heaven is full of happy, not depressed- never have a hard day, and HOT people, he essentially stays covered 24/7 in public because people would definitely question why he's there and heaven really doesn't need more people questioning decisions that'll create more Lucifers.

While wearing the mask he's like a kid that won't take his Halloween costume off because it makes him feel cool, and he does get a lot more animated and forgetful of his true insides. He's almost like a school mascot in a way, using his 'angelsona' to amplify his attention-grabbing antics. Take it away and he's very likely much more identical to Lucifer in terms of the whole 'take THAT, depression!' bit. Except for Adam that just translates to him being far less animated, grumpy, electric-guitar to acoustic pipeline, passively aggressive and likely tired, being the source of all humanity and all (man needs to be sucking down that G-fuel hourly).

Additionally: Angeldust and Adam would have the same theme of 'putting on an act' (or in Adam's case- putting on a show) and not letting the real person behind the façade show through. (Though in Angel's case it's for his own protection. In Adam's case it's because man can't cope with his insecurity.) And how Husk sees through Angel's bullshit, Lute does the same with Adam.

Adam's helmet glitched out the same way that Vox's did, so it could very well be a hint that Vox and Adam may have something to do with antagonism in the next season. If Adam came back w/o his mask and this all was applicable ofc, he would definitely team up with or make a deal with Vox in order to get him to fix the helmet (assuming he can based on the idea he might know how it works when put back together since his own tv face has been shown to glitch out like Adam's did) since it would be a necessary competent to bring back the actual 'Adam' he's become after living in discomfort with the one he became after experiencing real perfection.

[h5eavenly]

Why are they mad YN slept with Heeseung? Dude like what? Poor choices on her part but honestly same...who wouldn't want to sleep with Heeseung?

Also...I appreciate Heeseung being MORE involved. He always seemed like sort of a complicated character on the side but thanks for letting us look into his past more. That was SO heartbreaking for him ugh I just want to give all of them a hug.

YN & Jake need to communicate better for sure but I don't blame ANY of them. It seems like Jake is really trying to be the better person, even if he doesn't realize it, he doesn't want to hurt her so that's incredible character development. I just wish YN could see him pushing her away is his way of caring and looking out FOR her. And I wish Jake could see YNs overbearing side & kindness is her caring FOR him...sigh...I just hope they can admit to themselves they're in love with each other and want each other. They're both deserving of love

Sleepy Anon

oh my god anon i wanna kiss you so bad rn thank you for saying this you got everything on point🗣🤍🤍

putting feelings aside at this point and time yn and jake are not exclusively together and my girl has been feeling like shit for so long i think she deserves to feel good 🤧

and yess i was excited for this part too just bc it revealed more of heeseung's personality and past (btw almost every character in fallen story has a backstory 🧐)

yn and jake are both very complex and they're both struggling w self hatred in different ways, where yn still goes back to smth that hurts her despite knowing shes in love w jake and despite knowing that being fwb w him is only gonna be bad while jake prefers to detach himself and run away from situations instead of fixing things just bc he doesnt think hes worthy of anything.

which is why im so excited for you to see even more of their character development!! 🤧🤍

[autisticempathydaemon]

Hi, if you're still doing the matchups, I'd love to see what you have in store!

Song fixations

-- Currently, I've been listening to MARK CHAPMAN by Måneskin. The first lyrics that came to my mind was the end of the first verse and the chorus.

Ma se soltanto avesse La possibilità Ti seguirebbe al quattro angoli della città Nascosto fra la gente Senza un'identità Dice che mi ama ma lo so che mente

Si muove a piede libero Vestito come un incubo Vuole tu sia in pericolo Però'ti chiama idolo

Translated as: "But if only he had the possibility, It would follow you to the four corners of the city. Hidden among the people, without an identity. He says he loves me but I know he's lying. He moves freely, dressed like a nightmare. He wants you to be in danger, but he calls you an idol." I'm not entirely sure why these lyrics stand out to me in the way they do, but oh well. I've also been listening to READ YOUR DIARY from the same album.

The Redacted Part of this Ask

-- I absolutely love Hush's introductory video. The sound design and overall ambiguity surrounding his character at that point was so absolutely intriguing on its first release, and I still listen to it regularly.

I never was able to get into Asher, unfortunately. I know that there's probably so much more to his story, but it's just never clicked with me.

I would completely and absolutely love to befriend Huxley. I am a total Plant Slut, and I have (quite frankly) a concerning amount of house plants. Having someone who is not only Chill as Fuck to hang with, but could also help with the plants? That is a friendship that I need.

Book/series/tv show

-- Just solely by the volume of it that I watch, I could probably recall any given episode of Dimension 20. I watch it while crocheting, and so when I'm just chilling and have time on my hands, dice time it goes. I could probably name every insane Nat 20 Ally made in FH:FY and every intimidating Evan Kelmp line in Misfits + Magic.

Various other info (Sleepy time, Enneagram, etc)

-- My go-to way to fall asleep is, unfortunately, staying awake until I physically cannot keep my eyes open any longer. When I do get sleepy, I talk about stationary. It's something I've been into for a long time, and when I simply do not have the filter to not talk about my interests, I unleash everything about pens and notebooks that I know on the poor soul who is near me.

I'm a type 5 on the Enneagram and am currently pursuing a degree in Mathematics. Ideally, I want to go to grad school. I just really, really, fucking love maths. It is the best subject.

Gas Station. I normally do a water, a monster zero ultra, and kettle-cooked salt and vinegar chips.

Other than all of this, I'm just a dude. Just a silly little guy, if you will. Teehee. Have fun!

So this one was both so fun but so hard. You’re so interesting, you’ve got so much going on- a typical Type Five. Not to make you sound like a Manic Pixie Dream Boy but god, James could use you in his life.

By that, I mean Type Five’s are characterized as thoughtful, unique free-thinkers prone to philosophy and complexity. I think James respects and admires these qualities in you in addition to your pursuit of higher education. (I don’t think he knows a ton about math, but I do think he likes to hear you talk about it.) Complementing that, he loves the more unexpected, chaotic parts of you. Like, can you imagine listening to your thoughts and the cognitive dissonance of theorems versus Riz going up a corn monster’s butt? You keep him on his toes in the best way.

Another reason James strikes me as a good match for you is how easy, I think, it’ll be for him to take you with him to ETS. He could listen to Dimension 20 when he misses you, deeply confusing his coworkers who can’t picture him as a DnD guy. Like, I don’t think you would have had time to crochet him a blanket before he left, but maybe he’s got gloves, a scarf, socks, something you made for him that he can touch. Also, can’t you imagine sending him on his work trip with a little plant? The bonding opportunities for James and Anton to take care of their plants and miss their lovers write themselves!

Song:

Gonna soften the blow, soften the blow and give it up/ I saw the surprise, the look in your eyes, I gave it up/ Gonna be who I am, be who I am, and give it up/ I traveled the way/ Wait for me, wait for me/ It's all better now, it's all better now/ Wait for me, wait for me

James strikes me as an indie, alt rock kind of guy, so Kings of Leon would be a good fit for him. I like this song for y’all for that reason and the fact it’s got a sweet, longing kind of feel. Also, “wait for me” when he’s on that business trip a little incel motherfucker made that much longer just hits.

Runner-ups:

Anton is obviously a runner-up; like, he came to mind first. However, James strikes me as more interesting and therefore a better match for someone as interesting as you. Lasko is another runner-up because I think y’all would really share interests and hobbies. If I were doing platonic match-ups, he’d have been at the top of list.

note: thank you for waiting 🧡

Read this post and send me an ask if you’d like a match-up of your own! 💌