#even though they’re slightly problematic. it’s okay i love them

[threestargirls]

thought about gale today. thought about jacob in turn. i love them so much and they DO deserve better

I KNOW💔💔💔 they’re my babies i love them

[cal-daisies-and-briars]

🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟

210 for 🧟

---

Chimney watches them as they head out. He watches Eddie say goodbye to his son. 

“You be good for Maddie, okay?” He says  to the little boy, voice wavering like he’s trying to hold back tears. “What she says goes, alright? Same for all the other adults here.”

“Okay, Dad,” Christopher sniffs. His face is red and puffy. He has been crying. 

“I’ll be back soon, kiddo,” Eddie says, hugging him. “I promise you.”

Christopher tucks his head into Eddie’s shoulder. 

A few feet away, Buck is hugging Maddie goodbye. They’re speaking quietly to each other. An exchange Chim can’t overhear. 

Again, Chimney feels this displaced sense of envy. This green, lonely little monster on his shoulder that he hates. What a stupid thing to feel while watching people saying goodbye to their loved ones. There must seriously be something wrong with him. 

▪️▪️▪️

After saying goodbye to Buck - and Eddie, he supposes, though that didn’t feel nearly as significant - Chim goes to check on May. The teenager is recovering well. Chim thinks she’ll be feeling well enough to be moving around again soon. Which really is a miracle. He’s never heard of someone surviving being scratched by a zombie without contracting the illness. The fact that she did just that, and survived a secondary infection? Well, May Grant has good luck. 

“How are you feeling?” He asks her. 

“Okay,” she mumbles. “I kind of have cabin fever, though.”

“As long as it’s not an actual fever,” he replies. “Can I grab you any books? Something to entertain you?"

May blushes a little. “Anything paranormal romance?”

Chim chuckles. “You got it, kid.”

“No zombies!” She adds. 

“Yeah, that’s fair.”

It’s upon looking for young adult paranormal romance novels that Chimney runs into Maddie. She’s a couple of rows over, in the kid’s section, talking to Christopher.

“Can I play with Denny and Harry for a while please?” Christopher asks. The kid had clearly taken his father’s instructions seriously.

“Of course, sweetie,” Maddie tells him. “Just don’t go outside without an adult.”

“Thank you, Maddie!”

Chris leaves to join the other boys, and Maddie turns, pausing when she sees him. She looks at the stack of books in his hand. 

“Are those teenage vampires?” She asks, smirking. 

“Um, I think one is a demon hunter,” Chim protests. “And they’re for May! She’s bored, but still feeling crummy.”

Her smile softens. “You’re a good doctor.”

“I’m a paramedic,” he shrugs. 

“Well, there’s no med schools or boards anymore,” she reminds him. 

“That’s true,” he mumbles, a little awkwardly. 

Maddie makes Chim feel a little awkward, in general. Not in a bad way. Not through any fault or lack of social grace. It’s just… Well, how to put it? She’s beautiful. That’s the first thing. Even sunburnt, with broken ribs, and looking like she’s been on the road for months upon months, she’s absolutely beautiful. And not just, like, in a superficial way. Though there is that. She’s also just sort of got a presence about her. A warmth. Something that draws Chim in. It’s been under three days, but he can’t help but find himself wanting to be near her whenever she’s around. 

This is slightly problematic, he knows. For one thing, he doesn’t know anything about Maddie beyond what Buck has said about her. And that she’s sort of badass, to have made it here for Pennsylvania, just on the hope her kid brother was still alive. For another thing, Maddie is the first age-appropriate presumably heterosexual woman he’s encountered in months. He might very well just be feeling pent up. That doesn’t mean she’s as charming and wonderful as his brain is currently telling him she is. There’s also the slight problem of Buck being his friend. But that seems very much less pressing than it probably should, when Maddie is standing here smiling at him with very glittery eyes. 

Jesus, what’s wrong with him?

“Can I ask you something?” Maddie says. 

Chim nods. “Anything.”

God, see? It’s stuff like that. He could be a bit less eager, really. What if she asks for something ridiculously unpleasant?

“What can I do to help around here? Beyond Chris, no one has put me to work.”

Oh, so ridiculously pleasant and decent, then. Cool. Not helpful, Maddie. 

“You have a broken rib,” Chim points out. “No one expects you to do manual labor. We’re also not making May work.”

“Well, there’s no reason I can’t do something,” she says. “Like those security camera shifts? Or, Evan showed me his fishing stuff. Maybe I can do that while he’s gone.”

“Lifting fishing nets with a broken rib? Carrying buckets of fish up and down stairs?” Chim challenges.

“Evan says he does it with a kid!” Maddie laughs. “Come on, throw me a bone here.”

Chim smiles. Her laugh is beautiful. 

“Okay, okay,” he relents. “I’ll talk to Bobby about adding you to the cam rotation. As for fishing, I got stuck with it while your brother is away. So maybe you can help me out tomorrow morning? Within reason.”

Maddie smirks. “Okay. I will help you fish within reason.”

“I appreciate it, anyway,” Chim says. “I do not share your brother’s fondness for the ocean.”

“It was a bit different when I lived near it in Boston, so I can’t say yet,” Maddie replies. 

“Boston?” Chim asks.

“Where I went to nursing school,” Maddie fills in.

“Very cool.” Chim nods. “I always wanted to go to Fenway Park. Although now I guess… That’s not gonna happen.”

The fact that Chim will never see another new baseball game again doesn’t sit well with him. It’s lots of morose rewatches of Field of Dreams and A League of their Own for him from now on. 

“It’s a nice city,” Maddie says, but doesn’t elaborate. Something shifts in her tone slightly. Chim suspects Boston is not a topic she wants to linger on. 

“Well, hey…” Chim says. “I’m out in the gardens for the rest of the day, but I usually try to watch some movies in the evening after dinner. The library has a decent collection. If you want to join, you can even pick the film.”

“Oh, quite an honor,” Maddie says.

“It is! I don’t hand it out to just anyone. That’s how your brother ends up over-playing anything with Owen Wilson.” 

Maddie chuckles. “Well, I’d love to do that. I haven’t watched a movie in a very long time.”

“We don’t have popcorn or soda,” Chim admits. “But we do have veggies and clean water.”

“Perfect,” she grins. “I promise to pick something with neither Wilson brother.”

“Oh, well, hey. I won’t say no to Legally Blonde.” 

“Well, then good. I look forward to it,” Maddie tells him.

And to Chim’s delight, so does he. There’s not a lot to look forward to at the end of the world. Maybe Maddie being here will change that. 

▪️▪️▪️

Maddie does end up choosing Legally Blonde. 

“Well, you mentioned it!” She defends her choice. “Plus, lighthearted feels good, right now. And it’s not entirely inappropriate if Chris wakes up and needs me.”

Chim can’t argue with that. 

“Legally Blonde is perfect,” he concedes. 

They have a fun evening. It’s not that Chim hasn’t had fun evenings since the end of the world. He has. Lots of board game nights, movie nights, and card games with the gang here. They’ve found lots of ways to entertain themselves. Though he regrets the time he challenged Buck to a headstand competition. 

It’s not that his life has been filled with boredom at all. Lots of days, they work too hard to be bored. He finishes his days by falling into a dark, dreamless sleep. He isn’t lacking anything specifically. 

But still, having Maddie sitting in a chair next to him, watching a classic rom com, Chim feels like he’s gained something he was missing. He doesn’t know how to explain it. He just really hopes Maddie is here to stay. 

September 7th, 2018

Christopher, Denny, and Harry all join Maddie and Chim for morning fishing. It feels a bit more like they’re running  a summer camp than doing important food-collecting. Chim is used to Denny following Buck around like a puppy. It does make it slightly harder to focus on the task at hand. But Denny is helpful, and explains all the rules to Chris and Harry that Buck has given to him. With the air of authority that can only come from a child wanting to show they know more than his friends. 

Chim knows Denny usually helps Buck with the fishing nets, but this morning he is more interested in entertaining. The kids mostly play on the beach while Maddie and Chim do all the work. Which is good. He likes watching them get to be kids. Chim always felt that he had to grow up rather suddenly, after his father left and his mother got sick. It makes him happy to see kids being kids, despite the literal end of the world as they knew it. 

“So, I got added to light kitchen duty,” Maddie says as she wades in the water a few feet from Chim while he pulls up nets. “Which I feel like is still too easy. But I appreciate you all letting me help.”

Chim laughs. “Okay, you say that now. But wait until we start building the fence. Then you’ll wish you were on kitchen duty.”

“Fair point,” Maddie concedes. “When will that be?”

“We’re still collecting supplies,” Chim says. “Though this week has thrown us off.”

“Right,” Maddie replies.

“But I guess I’m making assumptions,” Chim says. 

“What assumptions?” She asks. 

“Well… I guess,” Chim sighs. “I mean, I don’t know what your plans are. Like if you mean to stay.”

“Oh,” Maddie says. “Well, yeah. I guess I haven’t given it a ton of thought.”

“That’s totally fair,” Chim says. “You had a long way just to get here.”

“I don’t want to leave my brother,” Maddie says. “Not after everything it took to find him.”

Neither of them says it, but Chim knows they’re both thinking it, anyway. She may not want to leave him, but he left her. Albeit temporarily. She will have a different decision to make if he doesn’t come back.

[chengfagshi]

I swear Genshin has the most obnoxious fans in the fandom. I usually tend to just block any “daily character” accounts because they’re usually run by antis. And guess what? I was correct

there’s a new npc who is regarded as a goth wolf man (his hair is slightly shaped like wolf ears) and he’s coupled with a smol cute nurse in the prison facility they both work at. The nurse belongs to a long life race of short and animal like beings called “Melusine”, though this specific character looks closer to a human than the others

people mostly ship her with the goth wolf because of her pastel like color palette that goes well with the muted grey/black/red colors of the wolf man. But because she’s short, this daily account and many others regard her as a child even though again, she belongs to a race that is much much older than the guy she’s shipped with. She also has a job and worked as a nurse much longer too

There are also 3 other characters that fit the trope, 2 of them have the same petite body size, 1 looks more like a 15-16 yo but shipping all 3 of them (or shipping the last one with a man actually) is considered “pedophilia”

and I’m tired that antis contribute to watering down pedophilia and force it to apply to fictional characters or short people in general

Kind of unrelated but interesting I got this ask about Sigewrio because I just answered an ask where I mentioned them.

But onto the topic, omfg, I know what daily account you're talking about. The person also goes onto say things "People who ship this should be behind bars" for shipping adults??? Or there's a SigeWrio acct I follow who made a post about m/f shipping and how people act like m/f shippers are shipping that purely out of spite for f/f, m/m. And someone was like "You had a good point but you ship an adult and child" and I'm fucking....SIGEWINNE IS NOT A FUCKING MINOR. Like antis love to throw around the harkness test as a gotcha for why 🔞 furry would be okay but 🔞 loli would not. But by their own logic, Sigewinne would pass the harkness test because she is an adult. Like I love SigeWrio because I adore the pastel/goth, bunny/wolf aesthetic. I always have. The size difference is just an added bonus for me. It's also frustrating that my favorite ships from Genshin end up having discourse over them even when they're not problematic at all (like Diluc x Venti and Neuvifuri omfg don't even get me started)

[yejiroh]

Pretty Boy

Inui is your pretty boy

WC: 1.4K

A/n: might be a little ooc, but oh well. Inui loves his pretty shoes. Gn reader.

- 18, NSFW, ageless blogs, and problematic people will be blocked.

TW: 'pretty boy' is used, Dom reader, mean reader, inui is dolled up, a little bondage (if you can call it that)

reblogs are appreciated <3

•••

Inui was always prim. Was always clean. You couldn’t find a speck of dirt on the man even if you wanted to, even if you tried.

But he was pretty. And you’d take every chance you’d get to ruin that for him.

And here he was, bed bound with his hands tied behind his back, a pitiful expression on his face. The skirt that he was wearing was layered, the tulle and ruffles adorning it, along with the delicately stitched roses all complemented his fair skin with their varying shades of pink. His thighs were closed tightly, pudging out slightly on the sides from the white translucent thigh highs, and his chest was hugged by a slim shirt with balloon sleeves, and a corset, pushing his cleavage together tightly with a matching pink bow.

“Do you think this is funny?”

“Not at all. In fact, I find you very adorable like this. My pretty boy.”

There it was. The special nickname you had given him. It made Inui’s heart race. He looked away from you, rubbing his wrists together as if to make some sort of friction that would help his escape.

“You manhandled me into this stupid outfit Y/n.”

“Oh, but did I? You seemed really excited about it at first, especially when you saw the heels that I got you. Didn’t you say that you needed help putting the corset on? Go ahead and admit it, darling. You like to dress up. And lucky for you, I like to dress you up.”

You crawl onto the bed, forcing him to lean back until he’s fully laying down, you straddling him. The ribbons were starting to get loose on the corset, and you tugged the ends lightly, smiling when you heard his gasp.

“Did you like that? When I made it tighter?”

Inui glared.”I’m not answering that.”

“Oh, c’mon baby, weren’t you just telling me earlier how thankful you were? Don’t go quiet on me now just because I won’t let you touch yourself.”

Tugging again, you leaned forward, staring Inui in the eyes, watching his pupils dilate the more you tug. He’s quiet, refusing to look away, as that would give you an answer immediately. Raising a hand, you trace over his arms, chuckling at the goosebumps that rose, carrying his blonde hair with them. Inui’s legs twitched, and your chuckle turned into laughter.

“You’re just a sensitive bitch! Oh, don’t look at me like that love, bitch is completely affectionate. So, what ever shall I do for my pretty prince- sorry, princess? Maybe I should see if you are the one, hm?”

Getting off of your fiancé, you go to the closet, grabbing a box. Smiling, you go to him, helping him get up.

“If you liked the heels from earlier, then you’re going to love these, Inui.”

You gingerly take the lid off, and you swear you can hear his heartbeat racing.

“Y/n? How much were those? They’re beautiful!”

The shoes in question were a pair of heels made to mimic the glass slippers from a certain fairy tale, but, like everything else Inui was wearing, they were whit and pink- and marbled.

Kissing his cheek, you take one out of the box, letting him examine it.

“They weren’t too pricey. But before you wear them outside, I’m gonna fuck you with them on, mkay?”

“Pardon?”

•••

Inui grasped your shoulders tightly, clawing at your back with his tied wrists rubbing against your skin as his heels dug into your skin. His face was flushed, and his skirt was ripped in a couple places, but that was okay; you’d stitch it up again later.

“Oh, my pretty baby, you’re taking it so well, you know that?”

The strap you had on almost kissed his prostate, the thrusts you put in going to work. He was breathy and whiny, and even though you couldn’t bottom out, he just wanted more. His cock was stiff, almost prodding through the pantyhose you didn’t let him take off all the way. Hands traveling to it, you pinch the base lightly, relishing in the whine he let out.

“About to cum, darling? See if you can hold it for just a bit longer; I’m not done playing with you yet, okay?”

He nodded fast before his body jerked in your arms- you had finally bottomed out, his ass seemingly trying to take in even more, even if there was nothing left to give.

“You’re so greedy, Inui. And after all that talk earlier. Well, actually, you were more quiet then. But look at you now! You’re finally telling me what you want! Now we just need to work on those manners of yours!”

“F-fuck you, Y/-” He interuppted his own statment with his own scream as you pulled out, shoving him onto the bed onto his back. Once again straddling him, you take the strap off, instead going for his own dick.

“A greedy brat like you doesn’t get to get off. You didn’t even say thank you to any of the presents I got you! Look at your heels! You can barely keep them on your feet cause you got too dependent!”

Pulling the pantyhose off, you shove them into his mouth, kissing his ear before wiping your tongue across his neck one, pulling his dick out finally.

While Inui protested, shaking his head and attempting to apologize, his words were still muffled. Stripping down, you ease yourself on, wincing a little as you grab the lube from the bedside table.

“Look at you! We just got this bottle, but because of you, it’s half empty, and now I gotta use it for myself!”

Inui’s eyes went wide, watching as you tossed the bottle, having changed your mind, just going for it.

As quickly as he looked his eyes rolled back. Rolling your hips, you grinded roughly, chasing your own high, unknowingly getting Inui to reach one as well.

He knew he shouldn’t, but he spit the underwear out of his mouth, using what energy he had left to reach up, kissing you. This is what he wanted when he came home from the shop. More, more, and more.

Getting lost in the kiss, he hadn’ realized that you had already came, pulling off before pushing yourself upon him, taking his dick into your hand, the other in his hand,

Swiping your thumb across the slit, Inui sucked in a deep breath. He knew what was going to happen.

He broke apart from the kiss, suddenly scared, but you only raised a brow.

“Don’t what? Don’t do this?”

You swiped it again, and the head throbbed, the underside vein almost pulsating visibly.

“He hissed, shaking his head, blonde strands falling into place.

“Oh, but I thought you wanted more? Right? Isn’t that what you were chanting just a few seconds ago? ‘More, more, more Y/n! I love you so so much! Please, I need more!’!”

Your tone had turned mocking, and Inui blushed, hating the way it turned him on.

“At least you got some manners, what with all the begging. I’m only here to deliver sir. You wanted your own high, and I wanted you to look pretty. Imagine how beautiful you’ll be, fucked so stupid you go cross eyed, and not able to do anything about it because you gave yourself to me. Right? Can you imagine?”

The tears were streaming down his face now. He hated when you got mean, but it was with it.

Moving from his face, you looked at him, an angry frown on your face as you got him that one last push. Inui’s eyes crossed, just like you had said, and he laughed maniacally, his legs twitching under your own violently until the wave of the orgasm had passed him. Getting off of him, you untied his hands, rubbing his wrists before looking at his feet, smiling widely when you saw the heels were still on.

“Oh, pretty boy. You’d keep your damn heels on in any situation.”

[lightyakami]

our special boys light & L for the character ask!

our special boys!!!! i love them so much. 

light sexuality headcanon: i don’t have fixed sexuality headcanon for light (other than that he is unambiguously queer) but my default is bi with an extremely strong preference for men. 

otp: this is ofc lawlight they own my entire heart and soul. however i will pick a second one for drama and intrigue. i’m a big fan of matsulight.

brotp: their canon dynamic is atrocious but im willing some kind of healthy misa & light friendship into existence with the powers of my mind. keeping (slightly) closer to canon, though, i love light & takada. their dynamic is also atrocious but you don’t have to take a hacksaw to it to make it work. 

notp: this is so difficult. i can be sold on light dating just about anyone halfway reasonable. it’s a sickness. i’m sorry but i am simply too crazy to answer this question. 

first headcanon that pops into my head: i think he’s actually pretty chill when he plays videogames. inexplicably, it’s the one thing in existence that he’s not pathologically competitive about. he’d like to win but he’s not going to explode if he doesn’t. L finds this very disconcerting. 

favourite line from this character: ‘you’ve just told me everything i need to know’ re: ryuk telling him that there’s no afterlife. i’m obsessed with this, i’m obsessed with how okay he was with it and i’m obsessed with how it informs the remainder of the story. (runner up: the chorus of ‘everything is going according to plan’ because it absolutely never is.) 

one way in which i relate to this character: i am so fucking crazy irl, but if i had to pick a specific example: it is genuinely ridiculous how much i believe in my own luck & what random mundane things i will interpret as luck. a few hours hours ago i went to a coffee shop and when they had coconut milk (a normal milk they have 100% of the time) i was immediately like WOW surely a god is smiling upon me.

thing that gives me secondhand embarrassment about this character: where to even begin. i love him so much. his constant need to be right is probably the biggest thing — the cafe scene where he keeps insisting he got L’s puzzle with the photos right even though he did not makes me cringe but also i love it more than anything in the world

cinnamon roll or problematic fave: he is my problematic bff L sexuality headcanon: i see him as bi. i think he generally kind of prefers women but it’s not an especially strong preference and has more to do with the social norms around dating than anything else. otp: its lawlight ofc but lawmane is my very close runner-up. notp: oh god this isn’t as a hard a question as it is for light but it’s still hard. i’m not really into L/aizawa. i think they’re both too mean to each other and not in a fun toxic star-crossed romance way. first headcanon that pops into my head: i think his special interest is ladybugs

favourite line from this character: this is kind of cheating because it’s from labb but my all-time favourite L exchange is -- L: justice has more power than anything else. naomi: power? by power … you mean strength?  L: no. i mean kindness. one way in which i relate to this character: i think the amount of sugar i eat should be studied in a lab. also i intentionally ripped off every single one of his mannerisms when i was 13 so that too. thing that gives me secondhand embarrassment about this character: he really is very sulky and i like this about him very much but it also gives me secondhand embarrassment. 

cinnamon roll or problematic fave: he’s my problematic cinnamon roll. 

[astaroth1357]

Demonic Pregnancy (But It Makes the MC… Problematic)

Okay, so hear me out. I know the prevailing idea is that a human getting pregnant with a supernatural kid would sap their strength and what not… But what if the opposite happened? So basically, getting pregnant by the brothers would make the MC physically stronger, but more susceptible to their sin… Oh this is going to be fun. 😈

Trigger Warning: Pregnancy

Lucifer

First noticed something was up when the MC came into his office to bring him coffee and casually ripped the door of its hinges… with one hand… by the handle…

He didn’t even have time to be mad about it because he was already frantically texting Diavolo and Barbs that there was something very wrong with the human. They’re not supposed to do that.

Meanwhile MC is in the background marveling at the newly freed door in their hand… They hadn’t even thought about it! Is this what having power is like?? Are they actually dangerous now??? Better not let it go to their head…

*it is totally going to go to their head*

Lucifer learns two things pretty quickly, (1) The human is pregnant with his child and (2) They’ve just been given access to a whole lot of power and they’re mind is set on one thing: Domination.

The next nine months for him are spent practically having to leash the MC or else they’ll go out to pick fights with anything that moves to prove their “superiority”… His brothers and even Diavolo included!

It wouldn’t be so bad if their body wasn’t still very human and very breakable… and also they’re PREGNANT, so please STOP!!

This baby, honestly, could not come fast enough… Good thing demons don’t develop grey hairs… Poor guy…

Mammon

Noticed something was up when they were chatting out at RAD and they dodged a stray ball from Beel. 

They dodged a ball. From Beel. And he throws at, like, Mach 7 speed… And it didn’t even look hard!

… But being the dumbass that he is, he just thought they had gotten a lot better at their magic. It was Lucifer who saw something wasn’t right when the MC was actually holding their own against Mammon and Beel in a race.

Was thrilled by the news at first but then quickly learned that he must have infected them with Greed somehow…

They wouldn’t stop begging for new stuff! Sometimes for him or the baby, but mostly just whatever struck their fancy the second that they saw it.

He’d try to tell them no but then they’d look all sad or whine about hard it was to be pregnant and how they couldn’t do things like tie their shoes or stand for long periods of time or…

(Never mind the fact that they could bench-press Beel if they wanted to, no no, that didn’t matter.)

His nine months were pretty much spent pandering to Lucifer and Levi for more loans to keep his MC happy… and praying they’d snap out of it after the baby finally came because he CANNOT keep paying for their crap…! 😥

Leviathan

MC and Levi playing games in his room and one of their online matches got particularly heated… The MC may or may not be prone to gamer rage, but that night they got so frustrated that they snapped his controller in half like a toothpick…

They were too busy trying to frantically apologize to take notice of their sheer strength, but HE did. And he was thrilled!!

Like, sure, it sucks that he’d have to buy a new controller but that was So. Cool. Their strength was like something out of a shonen!! He was honestly fanboying too hard to question, “Wait a minute, how did they even get that strong??” The MC later went to Lucifer themselves to get it all got sorted out (really Levi was no help whatsoever) and man was he shocked by the news…

Though he was even more shocked by the sudden spike of jealousy that they seemed to exhibit afterward… Like, extreme “You better not leave my sight” level jealousy… 😣

One the one hand, he’s kind of into it because being alone with the MC is all he’s ever wanted!… but on the other hand, dude really wants some space… 

He tolerates the next nine months for three reasons: (1) He does honestly love the MC, (2) Watching them break (other people’s) stuff and fight demons with their bare hands will never stop being cool, and (3) He’s somewhat afraid of what they’d do if he tried to leave so…  😥

Let’s hope the effects are temporary…

Satan

Found out something was wrong when he and the MC went to the park. He saw an old acquaintance of his and left to go say hi but came back to find that the MC had uprooted an entire park bench to squash a nosy lesser demon…

Nothing, absolutely NOTHING, he’d ever read about humans told him that they were capable of that!

Figuring this has some kind of magic origin, he doesn’t bring them to Lucifer but to their resident human sorcerer instead, Solomon…

…and THAT bright idea ended up getting the MC magic tag-along throughout their pregnancy since Solomon wanted to make "a few” observations, the lying bastard… 🙄

Even more unfortunate though, is that the introduction of Wrath into their system also gave the MC an utterly monstrous temper which didn’t help their newfound strength at all…

Poor Satan gets saddled with caring for what amounts to a hair-triggered glass cannon… (though really it’s less protecting them from the world and the world from them 😣).

Needless to say, he’s lost quite a few bookcases over the next several months…

Asmodeus

It was another night with Asmo, so another night out clubbing. He and MC were together for most of the time, but they had left him briefly to get another round of drinks… and somehow got dragging into a straight up brawl in the process.

And they WON…

Asmo brought them right to Lucifer after that. Like, he loves you sweetie, but there were like ten lesser demons there and no way a little human like yourself could pull that off without something being up.

Oh he was overjoyed by the news, but the real test was yet to come… Who would give out first? The Avatar of Lust or a very, very, astronomically horny MC…?

In truth, no one in the House ever wants to talk about what happened for those next nine months ever again… The things they saw… The things they heard… Filthy, filthy things….. 😖

And more broken beds than anyone could care to count…

Let’s just say that they’re all happy the MC was already pregnant, otherwise they’d be dealing with a LOT more demon babies running around… What a hellscape that would be…

Beelzebub

The MC was helping him move some of his weights between rooms. They were only supposed to carry the lighter ones (which really weren’t that light) but they were carrying them so easily that the two got suspicious… They tried to lift one of his heaviest barbells and, to their amazement, they picked it up even easier than he could!

They both just kind of stared at each other for a few seconds before calmly agreeing to go find Lucifer. This probably wasn’t normal…

What pregnancy even was had to be explained to Beel since he doesn’t really understand humans and he only needed one thing confirmed…

So, they’re eating for two now?

And boy did they act like it! The MC’s appetite practically tripled as the months went on and he did his best to keep up for them. He even missed a meal or two for the first time in his life because he was so preoccupied making sure his MC had enough to eat… 😣

Their tastes also got weirder as time went on… At one point they asked for Solomon’s cooking which nearly had him “Nope-ing” out of the relationship right there. He stuck through it to make them happy, but he couldn’t watch them eat it… Even he has his limits, MC… 😟🤢

Wants the baby to come out already if for no other reason than he can finally go back to being the biggest eater of the House again. Having to work around two is a nightmare for everyone…

Belphegor

Would you believe he straight up didn’t know for weeks?

Like, they told him they were pregnant a while ago but all the pregnancy seemed to do was make them really sleepy…

Combine their naps with how often he’s dead to the world and it just never got brought up. 🤷‍♀️

That was until the day it was his turn to vacuum the common room and the MC was resting on the couch…

“MC, can you move? I need to get under there.”

“Hm? Oh, sure. Let me help.”

They then proceeded to get up and lift the couch with one hand like they were Beel or something!

He was, perhaps, slightly miffed that they didn’t think it was necessary to mention they had gotten a butt ton stronger for like a month, but you know…

Belphie has probably the easiest time managing his MC anyway because ALL they want to do is sleep. At most he just has to take on the responsibility to remind them to eat and move around a little.

Lucky bastard always gets off easy… 😖

[hanibalistic]

#67509E | HWANG HYUNJIN.

genre | fluff

word count | 1889

warning | appearances of vampire fangs, mention of blood sucking

tag | @fluffyskzclub​

note | i miss hyunjin.

hyunjin pouted like he was throwing a tantrum—well, to a certain degree, he was throwing a small tantrum.

he curled himself around the fluffy blanket that you two left on the couch from yesterday's spontaneous movie night as he pouted at you bitterly. he tried to fit his tall body within the blanket, but his long legs awkwardly jutted out of the end corner, unable to bend enough to curl himself into a tiny ball. his head poked out of the blanket he draped around his shoulder and over his head.

"must you open the curtains all the time?" he whined with furrowed brows, lightly kicking his feet against the couch. "i hate the sun, you know that!"

you rolled your eyes as you closed the curtains after being drowned in his mindless complaints about the last half an hour. you had opened them so the plants could soak in some sunlight. you even took into consideration that hyunjin would be asleep for longer like he always does, otherwise, you would have never let the sunlight into your shared apartment. but for some reason, he decided to leave his stupid coffin earlier today.

to listen to the birds' chirp perhaps. that's the kind of leisure activity a hundred-year-old would like, you bet.

the same thing happens every time you open the blinds, which is that hyunjin does not shut up about him disliking the sun and how it weakens his vampirism as opposed to it actually killing him. he would not stop until you close the curtains and turn on the lights, which often made you scoff. not only was he annoying, for a vampire who was supposed to burn under the sun, he sure does speak of it a lot.

"we will need sunlight somehow, hyunjin," you said as you turned around to glare at him. "the plants you stole, from outside, in the morning, will need sunlight."

you emphasized your words to make sure he knew of all the heinous frustrations he has caused you. the puppy pout on his face, as well as the pitying glint in his eyes, only deepened with each emphasis of your voice, his body flinching and shrinking when he could tell that you were upset with him.

watching him, there was a rush of conflict brewing like bubbles in you. you weren't sure if you felt more annoyed or endeared about the fact that hyunjin, a not quite literally ancient but old enough to feel ancient vampire, gained such comfortability from you that he was fine with throwing a childish tantrum in front of you.

he looks cute, surely! he always does. but sometimes, you genuinely could not stand another second of him whining.

"stop yelling at me! you know what the sun does to a vampire!" he retorted.

oh, god—blah, blah, blah.

"yeah, a vampire that doesn't have an accessory of the sigil," you said cleverly as you moved over to him. you yanked the blanket off his body, ignoring his protest, and you pointed at his neck. "like the necklace you never take off!"

"i only got this recently! the witch would have never sold me this if you hadn't come with me," he argued, pulling the blanket around him again. "i'm not used to the sun yet, just let me have a little more time."

you pursed your lips together, your neck turning sour at his poor mumble as you softened. he did only just get the necklace—by just, it was about two to three months ago. however, while that alone may seem like a long period, comparing that to almost a whole decade of no sunlight, perhaps he really just needed more time to adjust.

but! zooming past the streets, leaving normal people wondering where the sudden gust of wind came from, and hiding in the apartment that leaves no room for any traces of sunlight was not the way to go about it!

"how about just a little bit, hmm?" you said then, suggesting a compromise casually while you walked toward the window. "take it little by little!"

hyunjin widened his eyes in disbelief as you moved farther away from him. he shook his legs in protest, his body moving animatedly on the cushiony couch as he protested loud and clear. "hey! you better not open the curtains, [name]!"

you grabbed the hem of the curtains, your mind occupied with calculating the correct amount you would flip open. it has to be a very small amount, to a point where the sunlight could only hit one leaf of the plant on the window rail, or just one square of your marble floor. it has to be the form of sunlight that could not hurt even a fly, so you could show him just how goddamn dramatic he was being.

"[name], i swear!"

"oh, bite me," you muttered under your breath.

there was a gust of wind—a familiar kind. it blew at the tip of your hair, making it waft around, and the hem of your thin shirt also danced at the breeze of hyunjin's vampiric speed.

blinking consciously, you loosened your grip on the curtains and turned around. immediately, upon feeling the heat of his face, you flinched back and closed your eyes to settle yourself.

"jesus–what the hell, hyunjin?" you muttered with a hand on your chest before you slowly opened your eyes.

hyunjin was glaring at you; no malice, just alluring intensity. his hair fell over his face prettily. the sunlight that he didn't seem to care much for now shone a soft haze over half of his face, making him glow and glitter naturally.

"those are some reckless words to say to a vampire," he said lowly, tilting his head to the side lightly as he arched a brow, "don't you think?"

your heart pounced.

the matter of blood, or just his general nature as a vampire, like his need to feed off of human beings, has only come up once.

he mentioned it to you when he was applying to be your roommate, having a foul plan to erase your memories in case the truth was not well-received by you. he told you that he has been a vampire for a while so he knew how to control his urges, therefore you would not be in any harm, and the matter was never spoken of again.

he held up his words. he has never discussed blood with you, he has never shown any blood-thirsty behavior at all. he acted like any other roommates you have had; being too loud at night, eating cereal in the living room and eyeing your bed-head with a judgemental gaze, knocking at your door and asking if you wanted to pick a takeout place.

if he used his powers less, you would have forgotten about his vampiric side.

why was your heart thumping then? was he too pretty for your own good? or was he standing too close for familiar comfort? or perhaps both?

you scoffed, making your thoughts vanish. "you won't bite me."

hyunjin softened in a way you couldn't catch. deep within the tender wash of his eyes was a sea of wildfires he hid behind closed doors.

you were right, he won't bite you, but he wants to, especially because the smell of your blood happened to be more enticing than others because he likes you.

the art of blood sharing (in a sense) is done between lovers; consider it like leaving a love mark, of a sort. it is an act of claiming and reassurance, and hyunjin has been wanting to sink his fangs into your flesh for a while so he could leave a bite mark.

but he could never do that. that was a desire trapped in his throat, urging to be let out and to be voiced, and hyunjin would not allow it. there were too many risks of unleashing the deep-seated yearning in his chest. it lingered in his head in withdrawal, cautiously threading through his mind to keep his urges contained.

he puts his want elsewhere. his want to taste your blood, to kiss your neck, has to grow somewhere, so he has to put it somewhere, and he puts in it his daydream which that manifests gently when he is with you, and ferociously when you were away.

"i won't," he muttered under his breath, to which you relaxed at. but then he grinned, and he opened his mouth to speak first, "doesn't mean i can't, though."

you widened your eyes when black veins draped beneath his eyes and his sharp fangs appeared. it was a terrifying sight, but you were only shocked to see it than scared. rationally, you reached your hands up and slapped your palms against his cheeks, startling him.

"hmmm... " you grumbled, sounding thoughtful as you surveyed his shocked expression.

the veins under his eyes retreated and the colors returned to his face. the innocence flooded back into him, bright and boyish, and he dared not move an inch under the pressure of your gaze—beneath your touch hyunjin is but a gentle boy hapless in love.

"ah...aah...wha–" he closed his eyes slightly and opened them with furrowed brows, confused and helpless with his head slightly tilted up. his words were muffled but jot too hard to understand. "[name]–why–uhh–"

you pushed at his upper lip with your thumb and looked at his fangs, wondering why they did not retreat with the dark haze of his eyes. then, ignoring hyunjin's muffled questions, you carefully poked at the tip of his teeth—razor-sharp, but very real.

he was whining again. his hands reached out to the hem of your shirt and desperately, as well as timidly, tugged at it. meanwhile, he put on a defeated face. as much as he would with your thumbs poking his fangs, that was.

"ahh, please stop–[name], stop touching my fangs–why," he feigned a sob, shaking his head as a blush reached his cheeks, "they're just teeth."

"teeth that puncture," you commented when you let go. the way your thumbs briefly smoothed over his top lip was not lost on him.

seeing his pout, you pursed your lips with faint guilt. rubbing the back of your neck, you shrugged. "sorry about that, i just got curious."

"it's okay," he waved you off quickly, "i was curious too when i first got them."

hyunjin looked at you when you giggled under your breath; soft, hearty giggles that tried to conceal themselves without the anticipation for his vampiric hearing. gentle, funny giggles that never once questioned his problematic past. lovely, adoring giggles that are here before and after he revealed who he is to you.

he came to your apartment begging for a home where he could be himself, and you allowed him safety with you.

"alright," you said with a curt smile, "i'm going to go change, need to get grocery."

"i–i'll come with!"

you seemed shocked for a moment, accessing him like a trick question. then you relaxed and nodded with nonchalance. "yeah, whatever."

he melted despite the lackluster reaction. it was the excitement that counted. smiling to himself, he twirled and twisted his body shyly as the sun shone from outside.

yeah. hyunjin truly is but a simple boy in love with you.

[phoenixyfriend]

I’ve been trying to figure out the best obi wan ship. They all have one slightly problematic thing this way or that. I’ve landed on the idea of obi wan and an equal is pretty top tier. But then I saw a picture of Coran from voltron. Coran and Obiwan might be a disaster but also both are dad shaped, both are bad ass, both are ginger, both have an accent. I think it could work. But another part of me is like Coran is just obi and jarjar mashed together. At the very least they hooked up.

Hey I just had restaurant ramen and Starbucks and actually feel like a human being so let's do something unnecessary but funny. I'm taking this as a challenge, anon.

Also IMO Coran has more in common with C3P0 than with JarJar

So obviously, both of these happen in Big Space, but the difference appears to be density. We see about the same complexity of culture and species interactions, but Voltron covers more galaxies. It's vaguely implied that Earth, at least, is the only planet with sapient life in the Milky Way.

I think the way I want to play this out, culturally, is that the Voltron area of the universe covers a much wider, but much more sparsely populated area, while the SW-verse is just the one very densely populated (in part because apparently humans just went Literally Everywhere) galaxy, where they didn't necessarily bother with developing the tech to go to other galaxies (except Rishi, which only sort of counts) because they haven't really even charted out their own yet. It was never contacted by the Voltron side of things because [checks notecards full of excuses] it's really far away from Altea and all that, and the Force shielded the galaxy from Galra interests because Reasons.

All this to say that the two franchises didn't interact until after the Voltron plotline was already over. We'll say it went mostly canon, except Allura survived because uhhhhhhhhhhhhhh fuck that.

We'll say that this is mid-TCW, you know, before Obi-Wan is a bundle of repressed traumas and bad coping mechanisms that's lost almost everyone he's ever loved to the dark side through death or corruption. He's still (mostly) okay! Anakin's not dark (or at least, not as dark as he could be; Obi-Wan doesn't know about the Tuskens), and Ahsoka's still in good standing and most people are alive and--and okay the army is a massive ethical violation he hates with his very soul and he misses Qui-Gon and Anakin's keeping secrets and pulling away from him every day but He's Fine, Guys.

He's Fine.

In comes a ship from not Wild Space, but beyond that. Intergalactic visitors, from the direction of the deeply concerning Force bullshit they felt a few years ago. Translation tech is decent enough on both sides that they get to talking pretty quickly. The explorer is actually a member of the Blade of Marmora, who gets the absolute most basic info (approximately this many inhabited planets, approximately this many trillions of sapients in the recorded galaxy, basic structure of the government for the past however many years, most recent conflict, etc.)

BoM person is like "cool, okay so you guys are really well set-up so I'm just gonna head back and kick this up a few rungs of the coalition ladder because this is way above my paygrade, I'll make sure you get some diplomats who can maybe help out with the whole galactic civil war situation as neutral parties."

The Voltron Coalition does send a diplomat! They, uh, also send Coran, who isn't technically a diplomat, but he's high-level.

The thing is, okay, that Coran is mostly just... passably competent at things. He's a jack of all trades, master of none type. He knows a lot of things, actually, but his practical knowledge in high pressure situations tends to be up in the air. He knows how to fix the Castle Ship and various technologies, but all of that info is ten thousand years out of date. He was a competent fighter at one point but these days his back gives out. He's very knowledgeable regarding intergalactic politics but, again, that information is ten thousand years out of date. He's also a little prone to social gaffs in dicey situations (e.g. the inciting incident in the Voltron Show episode where he misses the single day with clear skies), but puts in so much goddamn effort to make things happen.

In this manner, he's like a warped mirror of what Obi-Wan is and could be.

THAT SAID

Coran is actually really good with teenagers, and specifically with training them.

And Obi-Wan... isn't.

Obi-Wan's snarky and snippy and sassy, and he's decent enough at teaching and he's great at being a jokey friend and all, but he's not necessarily very good at emotions. And unfortunately for Obi-Wan, the teenagers he spends the most time with are Really Full Of Emotions. He tries, bless him, but he's just... he doesn't respond well to emotional conversations at the best of times.

His son-figure saying "You're like a father to me" leads to a response of... radio silence. Guys. That's not the mark of a man who knows how to talk about his feelings with the people he cares about.

In swans Coran with the various other diplomatic envoys of the visiting extragalactic community. The entire situation is really leading to a lull in the war because nobody wants to risk pissing off this clearly well-funded, well-powered third party. As a result, many of the High Generals can interact with the envoys, even if they spend quite a bit of time eyeing the Separatist representatives on the other side of the room, because clearly Everyone Needs A Seat At This Table.

It's a very tense situation.

Obviously, Coran is exactly the weird uncle that goes around telling plausibly-exaggerated stories about Weblums and Yalmors and Balmeras. I'm going to say at least one former Paladin is there, maybe Hunk. Hunk's fun, and also very willing to help Coran make friends and seem Amicable instead of Distant by correcting some of the exaggerations. There's a nice, calm atmosphere in a bubble around Coran and his nonsense, and it's a weird situation but arguably just... you know. It's good. He's good at making people feel safe around him.

Cue the hissed argument between Skywalker and Kenobi. The actual cause of said argument isn't important, just the fact that, in a dark corner where they're less likely to cause a PR issue, Anakin and Obi-Wan are having it out. Anakin's maybe twenty, still a lanky ragebaby, all that fun stuff. Obi-Wan is a the endpoint of every too-young brotherdad. He's thirty-six but feels like he's sixty-three. He's tired, but trying so damn hard to still connect with Anakin and just--just--

Obi-Wan gives himself a few minutes to calm down before following Anakin. He doesn't even remember what they were arguing about, really, but he has to mend the bridge before it frays even more than it already has. If Anakin goes to Palpatine for advice again, he's going to... do something. Obi-Wan isn't sure what, but he just has to fix this.

What he finds is... well, Anakin did end up going to vent to a man of an earlier generation who acts like a slightly eccentric older relative, but it's not Palpatine for once.

The goofy, slightly abrasive but mostly charming, brightly-colored representative of the Voltron Coalition is standing in the little balcony that Anakin's made it to, listening as Obi-Wan's recently-knighted padawan vents. The man nods and makes noises at the appropriate times, and then asks questions that are... maybe a little too accurate.

"You said that you view him as a father, that he raised you after you left your mother."

"Well, yeah, but he doesn't think I'm ready, or--"

"No parent ever does."

"...my mom thought I was ready to become a Jedi."

"I can't speak for your mother," the representative says, "but the princess of my people, Allura... I half-raised that girl from the beginning, and after the destruction of Altea, we were all the other had left. I watched her lead battles and bring life to planets, trying to rebuild a universe out of the ashes of what we'd left behind... I saw the evidence with my own eyes, and I still, every time, I worried for her."

"Why?"

"I worried that she'd be hurt, that she wasn't ready, that she'd make a decision she regretted. Often, she did, and I had to help her back up, and while she's always come back, stronger than before... she is the closest thing I have ever had to a daughter, and I will always worry for her. Every parent does. Do you think, perhaps, that your own Jedi Master, that you consider a father, may worry because he looks at you like a son? That it's not that he doesn't trust you, but that he doesn't trust the world around you?"

Obi-Wan feels his heart in his throat.

The conversation continues in that vein. While Obi-Wan can't say he likes the fact that this stranger is putting words in his mouth, if only as hypotheticals, he can't deny that there's a part of him that relaxes as Anakin does, as every frustrated fresh-knight question gets a measured elderly-steward response that's angled to consider the interpretation that favors Anakin and Obi-Wan in equal measure. Every word encourages Anakin to talk things out and lay boundaries and express his frustrations to Obi-Wan in the plainest words possible.

There's a story in there, more than one. The representative tends to go off on tangents, ones that Anakin sometimes finds interesting and sometimes just resigns himself to. Mostly, though, it goes well, and Obi-Wan... well, he's always been 'a nosy little bastard,' according to quite a few people.

(In his defense, the terms they'd used about Quinlan's 'investigative personality' had been quite a bit stronger.)

He eavesdrops to the end, and Anakin doesn't notice at all. Obi-Wan's not sure if he should try to address Anakin's lack of awareness of the world around him. He's not technically Anakin's master anymore. The comment may be taken as a criticism of his worth and capability, rather than a sincere desire to see his padawan not die.

He approaches the representative instead. He intends to introduce himself. Instead, the first words that tumble out of his mouth are:

"How do you do it?"

The man--older than he looks from a distance, more wrinkles than the bright hair would suggest, but not quite elderly yet--turns and lifts a brow. "Hm?"

"I'm sorry, I'm--" Obi-Wan grimaces. "I'm Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi. The young man you were just talking to is my former padawan, er, my former apprentice. I've been finding it harder and harder to speak with him over the past few years, and it seems that every interaction we have leads to an argument. How do you... manage that? I can't get him to listen to me at all."

"Ah, teenagers," the man sighs.

"He's twenty."

The representative pauses, and turns to him. "Are you the one he says raised him? The father?"

"Well... yes, I suppose that's one way to phrase it," Obi-Wan says, eyes darting to the side. He doesn't know how to explain the whole attachment situation to someone who barely knows what a Jedi is. He has even less of an idea of how to explain his own broken ability to speak of emotion, the parts of his mind that Bant clucks over and attributes to his own complicated relationship with Qui-Gon. "I had custody as his primary guardian from ages nine to nineteen and was the primary individual for handling his schooling, health, and general upbringing."

"That sounds to me like a very convoluted way of saying you were his father in all but name."

Obi-Wan grimaces. "I'm not exactly old enough to be his father, and I wasn't exactly the person he was supposed to learn from; I was the... back-up option."

"It seems he cares for you very much."

"He didn't have much of a choice," Obi-Wan says, with the kind of helpless smile and awkward shrug he's long gotten used to sharing with people when they ask. "And I assure you he'd have been happier with the man that was meant to teach him."

"I'd say that the 'would have' in this situation is much less important than what is," the representative says. Obi-Wan probably should have paid more attention to his name. "I wasn't in a position to define my relation to Allura or her father in the way that truly suited our situation, by... oh, tradition, social norms, public relations, take your pick. I was a very well-regarded official, of course, but I wasn't royalty, not even nobility, and I certainly wasn't wasn't legally or publicly part of the family. But for all the limitations there, I was still able to find ways to tell her and her family what they meant to me, and they in return. Your apprentice cares for you very much, and I'm sure you care back, but I'd hazard quite the guess that you've no idea how to tell him that."

"I... I shouldn't," Obi-Wan says. "I'm fond of him, of course, but I've no wish to smother him, and to simply say it would be undignified. I imagine he'd laugh in my face."

The representative raises one eyebrow and takes a sip of his drink.

"Master Kenobi," he says carefully. "Might I suggest you go find your young man, tell him you love him, and perhaps give him a hug?"

Obi-Wan's face flares red. It's been years since anyone short of Yoda has spoken to him like that.

"I'm not a child," he sniffs, trying to angle enough away that the blush isn't as noticeable. He's damnably prone to such things. "You're not that much older than me."

The man laughs, and Obi-Wan lifts his glass to his lips in a futile attempt to hid the embarrassment a little more. "Oh, not counting the stasis, I've well reached the age of six hundred and twenty-four, my boy!"

Obi-Wan chokes on his drink.

The man laughs a little more, but thumps him on the back until he's breathing normally again.

"Yes, most of the humans I've told have had quite the reaction!" the representative assures him. "But yes, even with the times adjusted to what any given local year is, I am significantly longer-lived than most species."

"No kidding," Obi-Wan manages. He wipes at his mouth with the back of his hand and looks over at the representative. He takes in the wrinkles and bright eyes, and says, "Well, I must say you look very well for a near-human of such an age. I can only name one person in that category that has managed better, and I haven't seen her since I was a child."

"I shall take that as the compliment it's intended to be," the representative says, twisting the edge of his mustache and beaming.

The man is... well, goofy, really, and quite a bit older than Obi-Wan had thought, but he's quite the charmer. Obi-Wan faintly compares him to a few different people in the back of his mind, but nothing quite fits. For all that the man is quite the jokester and--going by some things he'd seen from the corner of his eye in the main party--a master of physical comedy, the representative is actually more competent than he looks, and for all his visible age, not bad to look at. He is also, seemingly, an expert in dealing with teenagers and young adults, something Obi-Wan himself is... decidedly not.

He really should go speak with Anakin.

And there's a war to fight.

He doesn't really have much time, even with the recent lull.

He's in no place to be looking at the clean-shaven jaw and wondering what it would feel like under his lips, or to let himself consider whether this man would be the kind to have an hours-long discussion as to the narrative forms common in other galaxies, and whether they have anything paralleled to those in Obi-Wan's own, or if this man would show the same enthusiasm over teas that he'd shown over the hors d'oeuvres inside.

He should... really go find Anakin.

"I suppose it's time to find my padawan," he says, more to fill the air than anything. "Er... thank you, both for speaking with him, and for speaking with me."

"Not a problem at all, Master Kenobi!" the representative says, and Obi-Wan realizes that there's one last thing he may have... forgotten.

"This is terribly embarrassing, but I don't believe I caught your name?" Obi-Wan says.

"Coran Hieronymus Wimbleton Smythe, at your service!" the man says, with a sweeping bow. "As you can imagine, most simply call me Coran."

"Then I insist you call me Obi-Wan," he says, and before he can stop himself, "Might I bother you with an invitation to a shared tea time? You seem a knowledgeable fellow, and I'd appreciate the chance to... eh, pick your brain, shall we say."

It's not the smoothest come on he's ever put out there, or the most easily interpreted, but... well. Perhaps it's for the best. He's rather often found his tastes going in irresponsible directions, and it'll be much easier to brush this off without diplomatic incident if there's room for Coran to politely ignore the less platonic options.

Obi-Wan hopes he doesn't.

It's very selfish of him, but a dalliance with an older gentleman... well. He does, perhaps, make such irresponsible decisions, even now.

"I do believe I'd enjoy such a thing!" Coran enthuses, grabbing Obi-Wan's hand and shaking it in large, effusive movements.

Oh, this is a terrible idea, Obi-Wan thinks, even as he exchanges comm numbers and says goodbye.

Still.

He likes the idea of having at least a little fun, sedate or less so, while they have some time to themselves.

[criticallyacclaimedstranger]

Fic: The Talk

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences (I honestly don't know how to draw a line, there's mention of fucking, but no actual fucking)

Fandom: Triple Frontier (2019)

Ship: Francisco "Catfish" Morales/You

Summary: You initiate THE TALK with Frankie about wanting kids, which you don't. But does he?

Notes: This is for all of you who don't want kids. Not those who can't have them, but those who just don't want them. There's a lot of fluffy married-with-kids Frankie fic out there, and that's fine. Kids are a wonderful thing for many people, but not for all. I like reading those fics because I like reading about responsible, soft fathers. But sometimes it gets to me how having kids is written as the only way to fulfillment, to making the perfect family. We still live in a society where a Good Life features certain stops along the way - college, a steady job, marriage, a house, kids - and twosomeness is often seen as not enough. (I realize of course that the idea of twosomeness also is problematic, but one thing at a time.) Again, nothing wrong with getting married, having a house, and having kids. Do your thing. Be happy. But there are people who find happiness in other things. And those people are just as happy.

”We kickin’ Friday date night off already, mi alma?”

Your gaze, up until now fixed on your bare stomach in the full length mirror, moves to Frankie, who’s coming up behind you and pressing a kiss to your shoulder, never letting his eyes off the image of you in the reflective surface in front of you. You’re in your underwear, fresh out of the shower, and you are about to get dressed to go out to dinner when something had caused you to linger at the sight of yourself. Critically, you had pinched a chunk of belly fat between your thumb and forefinger, frowning at the mass of it. You had never been a petite girl but it was clear that for every year, your body gained another pound. You were comfortable enough in your body, but it sometimes threw you, just how the years changed it.

”We’re not missing our reservation,” you tell Frankie with a small smile as his hands move to cup your breasts. ”I’m hungry, and patience is a virt – hue!” The last syllable comes in the form of a small squeak when he pinches your nipples, both of them at the same time.

”Sorry,” he apologizes with his lips moving up your neck. ”I know they’re tender ’round this time of month.”

You murmur something and Frankie rests his chin to your shoulder.

”Penny for your thoughts.”

”I was just thinking about how fat I thought I was ten years ago,” you confess ruefully. ”And in ten years I will be looking back at pictures from now and wonder how I ever thought I was fat now, because it’s going to be so much worse ten years on.”

”You know you’re not fat, right?” Frankie’s voice is matter-of-factly but his eyes are filled with emotion. You two have been over this before.

”I know, Frankie,” you tell him softly, then, a hint of teasing in your voice as you obediantly repeat the lesson you’ve learned from him: ”And even if I were, it wouldn’t matter to you.”

”You better believe it.” He presses another kiss to your shoulder and his hands move to your hips, where the waistband of your panties cut into the flesh, creating the curves you had been so conflicted about just now.

”More for me to love,” he murmurs, now at your ear. Hands moving over your belly, he tickles the dip of your navel before settling his large hands, fingers splayed open, over your lower belly. You meet his brown eyes in the mirror.

Oh, damn.

He’s got that look you’ve seen on your friends’ faces when they talk about babies. That inward, dreamy, secret smile they display when they touch their growing bellies. That radiant, loving pride their significant others have when touching their pregnant women, making you want to tell them to get a room. It’s too private, it’s too intimate to show in front of you. And then, the brief look of pity in their eyes when they finally realize that you’re in the room. Poor soul, she doesn’t have anyone, she will never know this happiness. When Frankie entered your life, it got a little better, but it didn’t take long for you to notice how the language around you changed. You’ll know when you and Frankie have kids of your own.

Thing is, you don’t want kids. You never did, not really. You figured you’d maybe change your mind, but the older you get, the more certain you are. And although the topic had been touched with Frankie – who was okay with not having kids – you never really had The Talk.

And now he’s holding his hands over your lower belly as if there was something growing in there, something he himself put there with a deep, hard thrust, one of those plunges right into your core, the ones that almost make you weep with the sheer force and pleasure of it. Is that hope in his eyes?

”Frankie,” you say, realizing that this is going to be painful, and loath to bring it up today, on date night, when you’re about to go out and have fun. ”You know I don’t want kids, right?”

You gauge his reaction carefully. Is this the face of someone whose dreams were crushed in the blink of an eye? No, you mostly just read surprise.

”I know, mi corazón,” he replies slowly. ”We’ve talked about it before. You know my position in this.”

”We haven’t, though,” you insist, and now you take his hands from you and turn around so you can face him, see him directly and not just his reflection. His hands stay in yours and you like the way he grips your hands, as well: not too tightly, but enough for you to know that if you’d let go, he’d still have you.

”We’ve never really discussed it,” you explain. ”I’ve said I don’t want kids, and you said that’s fine, but that’s not a discussion.”

”I didn’t realize there’s something to discuss,” he confesses, a little perplexed. ”If you don’t want them –”

”That’s the point exactly!” You raise your voice a little, as you always do when you’re passionate about something. It took a long time for you and Frankie to learn each other’s way of communication: when you’re excited or earnest, your voice goes up and you talk with a lot of exclamation marks. Frankie used to read that as anger, on account of his own emotions always being expressed in a voice lower than usual, but with extra heat.

”It was not a discussion because you just agreed with me, but you never expressed what you actually wanted! If there’s some part of you that wants kids, you need to really think this one through, because I won’t be able to give you this. And one day, sooner or later, you might resent me for it!”

”I would never –”

”No, listen to me, I’m serious,” you interrupt him, another one of your bad habits when you’re engaged in something. ”You don’t know that. Really, you don’t know that. And I can’t expect you to know it because nobody can tell what’s going to happen in the future. But you know the answer to this question: did you ever see yourself as a dad?”

You stare, unwavering, into his eyes, unafraid whatever his answer might be. You have an inkling, anyway. Frankie, however, is clearly uncomfortable. He wets his lips and there’s a small frown between his eyebrows. A long moment passes while he thinks.

”Yes,” he eventually answers, his voice hesitant. ”I did figure I’d have kids some day.”

”Thank you for being honest,” you tell him softly, raising one hand to his cheek, drawing a finger over his patchy beard. He smiles weakly.

”You need to think about this, Frankie,” you tell him, the volume of your voice lowered. ”You need to be absolutely sure. Because I love you, and I don’t want this to break us up when, one day, you realize that you want kids more than you want to be with me. Not if you could make that decision now, and go start anew with a woman who wants the same future as you. I don’t want to take those years from you.”

He inhales to protest, but your forefinger is quickly at his lips, shushing him.

”I know.”

He looks at you for a long while, conflict in his warm eyes. You can only imagine what’s going on in that head of his.

”Okay,” he says at long last. ”I’ll think about it.”

”Thank you.” You lean in for a kiss, and his lips meet yours, in that way only he can kiss: first his lips are only slightly separated and he brushes them against yours, delicately, tasting you. Then he applies a little more pressure, closes his full lower lip around your upper or lower one, tastes a little more, releasing and doing it again at a slightly different angle, like he’s testing every approach he can think of. Then, finally, he slips his tongue between your lips, your teeth, to meet your tongue, and by that time you’re already a hot mess. He takes his time, savours you, arms sneaking around your waist to pull you in, pressing all of you against all of him.

You’re reluctant to put an end to the kissing, but you know where you’re both headed and however nice a good fuck would be, you’re still hungry, and you’ve been looking forward to going to this restaurant.

”Mmmfrankie…”

”I know…”

He traces his lips to your ear and whispers I love you in that low, intense manner of his, and you know that he’s really going to think about the matter just discussed, and you think you know what his answer will be.

And you’re right: a couple of weeks after, he brings up the subject again, and tells you that he’d rather be with you for the rest of his life and not have kids than have kids but not have you.

That’s enough for you.

[canary3d-obsessed]

Restless Rewatch: The Untamed Episode 06 (first part)

(Masterpost)(Episode 05)

Warning: This contains spoilers for All 50 Episodes

Bad Boys Bad Boys What You Gonna Do

Nie Huasang’s brought his nuts, and someone’s brought wine, so the boys are drinking in Wei Wuxian’s guest house. Finally he gets to drink some of the Emperor’s Smile wine that he’s been doing all those product placements for.

Boys, get a bowl or something for your shells, were you raised in a barn?

Wei Wuxian hits on waxes poetic about the wine, and Jiang Cheng tells him to shut up. 

Wang Zhuocheng’s raw-fish-eating face may have failed him, but his drunk faces do not disappoint.

Wei Wuxian teases Jiang Cheng about his list of standards for a chick: She should have natural beauty, be virtuous and caring, from a good family, not too talkative, with a gentle voice, and not too capable. Also she should not spend too much money. Drunken running ensues.

Cue Maple Leaf Rag by Scott Joplin

(more behind the cut)

Much of the fandom has decided this list is a good fit for Nie Huaisang himself, and it sorta is. But he is both talkative and unvirtuous, what with all the current sneakiness, and all the eventual murders. 

This also definitely doesn't fit Wen Qing because she's capable as hell.  

This list is, however, a 100% a match for Jiang Yanli. Not in a weird, Jin Guangyao way--a lot of men want to marry a woman like their sister.  In a gender-divided and generation-divided society, a man’s sister might be the only woman he’s ever known well. Jiang Cheng adores Yanli and she’s his ideal model of a woman, as opposed to his mother, who...isnt.  

All these robes and talismans over the door do nothing to stop Lan Wangji from strolling in.  

Okay so - Lan Wangji is the senior disciple of the Lan Clan, yea? There is no way that patrolling the guest area is in any way his job. He is just walking around here at night specifically to see what Wei Wuxian is doing.

I already did a gifpost of the boys and their totally nonsexual horseplay, over here. I’ll just add, for sad factor, that Jiang Cheng is play-choking Wei Wuxian when they’re all on the bed, and later in the running-and-crying episode he is gonna for-real choke him. Foreshadowing! or maybe just coincidence!

One fun thread running through the young-cultivators episodes is that Nie Huaisang is legit terrified of Lan Wangji while also having a major aesthetic crush on him. Look at how flustered he is here, trying to act sober while also checking him out. 

Lan Wangji is shocked and visibly upset - what are you guys doing? This is not his busting face, this is, for a moment, his vulnerable and disillusioned face. He is super not used to what normal people are like. 

Wei Wuxian doesn't lie or otherwise try to get off the hook, which has got to have Jiang Cheng and Nie Huaisang grinding their teeth in frustration. He invites Lan Wangji to join them for a drink. LWJ cites a the “no drinking on campus” rule and WWX tries to convince him to chill. 

Then we have this lovely coordinated faint by the boys, to get out of going to get punished. Nie Huaisang has been practicing fainting in front of a mirror just in case he ever needs a skill like that in the future. 

Wei Wuxian keeps trying to turn this into a date. Eventually Lan Wangji is so upset he admits he can’t take all three of them by himself. 

Then the boys run away fake-barfing and Wei Wuxian hits Lan Wangji with a talisman. 

Steal His Agency That’s What You’re Gonna Do

What Wei Wuxian does to Lan Wanji here is definitely wrong. But it's not entirely a disaster.  It allows some crucial information to be shared between them, and it results in Wei Wuxian getting the utter shit beat out of him and never doing this again. I mean, he continues to mind-control his enemies and their eventual corpses, but he doesn't intentionally violate a friend or ally's autonomy in the future. Uhh not counting that whole golden core surgery-without-consent situation. And probably some other situations I’ve forgotten. He improves slightly, okay? 

It’s important to note, incidentally, that the Lan rules about drinking and other “vices” should not be viewed through a Christian lens. The Lans are neither puritans nor ascetics (look at their clothes, furniture, and jewelry, for starters). Being drunk is forbidden probably because it’s a loss of self-control. 

Speaking of self-control, mad props to Wang Yibo for being able to have zero physical reaction to fingers snapping in his face.

Drunk Lan Wangji

Under duress, Lan Wangji knocks back a cup of wine and promptly passes most of the way out. 

Wei Wuxian puts Lan Wangji into bed not unkindly, but pretty much like a sack of potatoes. Compare this to how tenderly he handles Lan Wangji the next time he’s drunk. 

WWX tells LWJ to call him Wei Gege, and giggles. Is this a term of endearment in this context? So far the various boys are calling each other -xiong, not -ge or gege.  In Western media, men calling each other “bro” is basically saying “no homo,” but brotherhood and sisterhood in C-Drama is often a way of indicating stronger love than friendship, without saying whether it's sexual or not. 

They finally start to have a conversation, and when Lan Wangji explains that no-one can touch his headband except, etc etc, Wei Wuxian stops trying to touch it. So at least he's not a handsy bastard in addition to all his other faults. 

Wei Wuxian tells Lan Wangji that his clan is boring and women won't want to marry him. Lan Wangji says that's fine. On one level this is the show acknowledging that he's gay, but I think he's responding in a gender-neutral way; he doesn't want to marry anyone. Marriage, from his perspective, is the literal worst. 

We don't know how he felt about his father, but he definitely loved his mother deeply, and she had a profoundly unhappy marriage, in which her husband did not provide companionship and her children were taken from her.

A note about all that: The dynamics of heterosexual marriages in The Untamed are not based on contemporary companionate marriage. Sex and reproduction is a wife's job in this world, and giving a gentry woman the option to choose her husband is radical. Wei Wuxian is the only one who dares say that Jiang Yanli should have a choice when Jin Guangshan casually tries to give her to his son in front of everyone.  

OP made this today but will totally reuse it when episode 23 rolls around

So Lan Wangji’s parents' marriage was extremely problematic but not necessarily for the reasons it would be in contemporary terms. Having signed on to marry Lan Dad, Mom would have expected to live together and get laid regularly (important for health, in some traditional views, regardless of love/no love) and to have the company of her children. Instead, she was isolated. Lan Dad wanted to have it both ways and so even though he loved her and apparently hooked up with her sometimes, he didn't do his duty by her. She didn't love him but she did her duty. 

Wei Wuxian continues to not get it, calling Lan Wangji dull and babbling about Lan Wangji’s parents until he realizes that LWJ is an orphan like him. 

A nice shift happens here. Once the penny drops, Wei Wuxian doesn't ask a single additional question - he just sees - by reading Lan Wangji’s face - what the deal is, and shares his own story to show he understands. 

This is the first time Wei Wuxian mentions being chased by dogs, which is kind of a big deal, because why was he left all alone when his parents died? 

Why didn't anyone take him in before Jiang Fengmian found him? How isolated are independent cultivators in this world? 

Tea Time

Lan Qiren and Lan Xichen are having tea, and the Lan Clan is so uptight they don't touch each other's teacups. I don't know what this thing is called so I'm going to call it a tea speculum. 

Lan Qiren is back from the cultivation conference and says the red crack plague is happening over in Qinghe where the Nie clan lives.  Lan Xichen fills him in on the water demon, specifically saying Wei Wuxian figured out the connection to the red crack dudes, and explaining who WWX is, as if Lan QIren hadn't already thrown stuff at him and threatened to eventually kill him. 

Fun fact that I just noticed this week so didn't make it into earlier posts: In Episode 46, when Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian are in the Jiang ancestral hall, WWX says he was often punished to kneel there, and LWJ said that they heard about this in Gusu.  

So when WWX came to Gusu he already had a reputation as a troublemaker, and the Lan brothers were aware of it.   

Busted and Beaten

A Lan snitch comes in to say that Wei Wuxian has successfully corrupted Lan Wangji, which really shouldn’t cause as much surprise as it does.

“Wei Wuxian got drunk”

“Lan Wangji got drunk”

Lan Xichen takes a moment to consider carefully whether Wei Wuxian is a good friend for his little brother and whether perhaps he was too hasty in throwing them together. Ha ha ha no he doesn’t. 

On the punishment porch, Lan Xichen tries to lecture Lan Wangji in a calm way, but Lan Qiren wants to beat him and Lan Wangji wants to get beat. Wei Wuxian can’t understand why Lan Wangji doesn’t let him take the blame for the drinking. 

Lan Qiren goes way the fuck overboard with this punishment because he's angry--losing control and losing his sense of proportion--and Lan Xichen is shocked. The drone camera watching from above is also shocked.  

Lan Qiren has a few (very few) redeeming qualities, but his extreme rigidity and chronic resentment of anyone he perceives as bad are serious problems. His nephews are both struggling with complex moral quandaries as they get older, and he is absolutely no help to them in resolving their conflicts.

This is definitely...a style of parenting & teaching, but you can see how poorly it works, with Lan Wangji straight up saying “fuck it” after many years of conformity.  Lan Xichen is devoted to the middle path and tries to be obedient. But he is actually not walking anywhere near the middle path, as he gets pulled into colluding with a murderer at the same time as getting dragged onto his brother’s carnival ride. These men need parenting that isn’t so, uh, fucking stupid. (Yes, grown adults still need good parenting; watch Go Ahead if you doubt me) 

Wei Wuxian initially yells and falls down when he gets hit, but then he sees Lan Wangji is taking the beating without any reaction and he tries to do the same. 

Aftermath

Jiang Yanli gently lectures the boys, blaming Jiang Cheng for Wei Wuxian's drinking.  Jesus Christ, he's the younger sibling, could you just NOT, Yanli?  

Both boys ask Yanli not to tell their parents. The boys bicker about who's at fault and then Wei Wuxian shifts to baby voice and starts whining to Yanli about the pain. 

Yanli tells him to suck it up, and says after school she'll -- ok and I know this will be a surprise for everyone -- make soup for them. The boys immediately get back on the same team, which is team Please Put Meat In the Soup.

There's a nice character building moment for Wei Wuxian here. When he sees Lan Xichen he initially turns away to avoid running into him, but then he adults-up and goes to face him and greet him, giving him a half of a bow because of the pain, the pain. Rather than complaining about his punishment he meekly asks if he's broken another rule. 

Lan Xichen tells him that he did wrong but that Lan Qiren’s punishment was too harsh, and then in what is one of my favorite Lan Xichen moments, invites Wei Wuxian to use the cold spring to heal, but doesn't invite Jiang Cheng to go with him even though Jiang Cheng also was beaten. Lan Xichen, Matchmaker Auntie Extraordinaire. 

Then he answers Wei Wuxian’s question about his mom by saying she was just like Wei Wuxian and drove Lan Qiran up the wall. Jiang Cheng's reaction to that is really sweet. He does enjoy Wei Wuxian at the same time as being constantly irritated by him. 

Lan Xichen does his patented “breaking off in the middle of saying something and leaving out a chunk of the story” maneuver, although this time he doesn't include a flute solo. 

OP is mildly obsessed with Xuan Lu’s shoulders in this outfit. Also Yanli has an interesting sword, that's got some wood carving similar to Subian, but without the organic look, which OP only noticed because of screen capping Xuan Lu’s shoulders.  

Club Ruohan

Wen Qing continues to be pretty and slightly evil at this stage, sending magic fire notes to her boss using this talisman that is definitely floating in the air and not just hanging from a string. 

Wen Ruohan is in the mosh pit with his zombie groupies while he reads Wen Qing’s extremely vague status update and says "it all makes sense." 

Reach out and touch faith

Soundtrack

Maple Leaf Rag by Scott Joplin Personal Jesus by Depeche Mode

Writing Prompt

How did Wei Wuxian’s parents die?

Admin Notes

I’m going to start spacing out my “first part” and “second part” posts by a few days.  I’ll update this post to link up the second part once I post it, and my masterpost is always up to date. 

Also: if you want more of my original content but don’t want to follow my whole blog (not following is fine!), I keep a pinboard of fun stuff at the top of my blog. I try to post original content at least once a week.

Continued in the second part later this week!

[mc-critical]

Hi darling, Idk if you talked about this before, but what do you think about Rumeysa (Mustafa's concubine)? Do you think they planned to make her Mustafa's wife untill the actress was changed? And also, if she would've become his wife, how do you think she'd act in comparison to how Mihrunnisa (queen) acted? We didn't really see a lot of her but I wanted to know what do you believe they wanted to do with her character

Hey, dear! 🤗 No, I haven't talked about Rumeysa in here. I'll cover the S03 one and the S04 one separately, because in practice, they're both very different characters.

I strongly dislike S03 Rumeysa as a character, to be brutally honest. She goes all good, nice and innocent, when secretly she's sneaky and even manipulative in order to fulfill her goals. The thing that annoys me the most is not necessarily her fixation on Mustafa and how she wants to get him, because after all, it's a harem and everyone wants to get him, but how nearly inexplicable her whole motivation is, in spite and outside of that.

I feel Rumeysa's arc could be split in two almost separate halves - her set-up in the harem (pre-E93) and her as a favorite in the harem. (post-E93). The most interesting things about her were precisely her set-up and backstory. The way she was sent to the harem, the way she was tied to signora Gabriella, the way both of them were about to reunite and when that happened, Rumeysa was just confused more than anything... The idea of sisters finding each other within these harem walls was fascinating, but that was seemingly dropped. I feel even from this point on that the show tried to make a case of a person who's been long in the harem and has lost the touch of a free life to the point of being afraid to leave, but her confusion on the signora and her refusal to go with her was the only part they pulled off. (not to mention they executed that concept much better with Sümbül!) Then begins the second half of her arc that went in another direction the writers didn't succeed to make me get. I didn't get why she wanted Mustafa so much. She said she wanted and appreciated Mustafa a lot and that was why she wanted to leave and this trainwreck began all of a sudden! That doesn't make any sense! She had no (or at least not pivotal) scenes with Mustafa before E93, she neither experienced a desire to get Mustafa, nor was it shown to the audience in any way before the convenient moment. Her build-up was never about Mustafa before then. Her arc was never about Mustafa before then. And yet Mustafa became the center of her character, to the point it's as if they were like: "let's have another woman for Mustafa, but this time with an even more overexaggerated you might think it was Turhan Hürrem-esque arc, so we can make her his full on woman!". She was paving her way through sneaky methods to the point of hypocrisy for no reason, she didn't even have much of a threat, either. Ayşe Hatun put pressure on her once in a while, but it felt understandable when she had a child from Mustafa and that, Rumeysa started acting this confident just like that. I get that in the harem you have to be sorta like that in order to survive, etc., but with Rumeysa that wasn't enough of a motivation! She seemed just fine under Mahidevran and taking care of Nergisşah before then, she could calm people down, what happened? And notice how in the second part of her arc these scenes were lowered to the minimum, or recontextualized, at the very least, so you can't buy anything with her anymore.

But wait, what if she always wanted Mustafa when she arrived? Then every moment of kindness she has shown, even to the little child, becomes even worse in retrospect, because it would either just suit her interest, either become a jarring contrast with what she has shaped up to be. But wait actually, that effect is achieved even without her arc being split in two halves! I would've sympathized with her much more if there was some additional motivation, like everyone else basically, but honestly, the harem excuse is all we could use with her and in her case, that just doesn't suffice, especially for such a big shift in storylines. And then after building up to a halvet, we had the halvet and it was over and left me very unsatisfied. (okay, that's probably because of the actress, but still)

She was screwed up spectacularly at best and downright horrible at worst. Her early concept was way too good to be left out like that and since that leaving out was maybe inevitable for the writers, they had to do this transition better and have the first half of the arc be focused on Rumeysa, as well as Gabriella, instead of making this whole line with her being Gabriella's sister she was searching for more of a plot twist than an organic build-up, because Gabi was the one click baited to want Mustafa! This character ended up being defined by her goal she was trying to fulfill and nothing else, not any redeeming quality whatsoever.

I think Rumeysa was the least suited woman for Mustafa, yes, even less than Fatma. Because if Fatma had some love for him and was genuinely trying to calm him down after Efsun at first, with Rumeysa we simply had steps to get him right from the start and an entire ordeal that wouldn't sit well with Mustafa. We didn't even know not only why she wanted Mustafa, but also what was it she had with Mustafa - was it love, was he just a vessel for her to rise in the hierarchy (that's probably it for me), what was next when he was all hers etc. We have no feelings, no insight here and Mustafa himself was only slightly intrigued at best. And even if she were there for the battle of the throne, she would definetly scheme even more actively than anyone else and that would seriously clash with Mustafa's desires. I don't think she would suit S03B Mustafa's level of maturity, either.

Yes, I would say S03 Rumeysa could very well be the endgame for Mustafa and become his wife if it wasn't for the actress leaving and stuff, because of how she was framed to succeed. This part of Rumeysa's arc existed in a vacuum, it was a tiny victory after a tiny victory due to sly thinking that she was always allowed to get away with somehow. Again, the way she was slowly, but surely getting her way reminded me of all the Hürrem-esque arcs in the series that did end up with these women becoming the total favourites and I wouldn't be surprised at the least if they kept that pattern of success with Rumeysa, since it was very present in her arc.

[While we're at it, I didn't get why Mahidevran believed her so much. On one hand, yes, character development, because, as seen with Mihrünnisa later, as well, Mahidevran no longer gets suspicious of the nature of these women and only intervenes when she sees a decision of Mustafa's regarding them that could potentially be dangerous for his future, coupled with the fact that Mahidevran values loyalty a lot and she has seen nothing but that with Rumeysa. But on the other hand... Mahi is usually so perceptive when it comes to women that could actually be problematic or dangerous for him and Rumeysa being the only exception then was as much character development and the chance of lowering her guard because of the calmer environment as it was.. way too convenient, since we saw Rumeysa was playing a game behind the curtain. Especially the situation when Rumeysa provoked Ayşe Hatun on purpose for Mahi and Musti to see and Mahi not listening to Ayşe or Fidan's warnings about Rumeysa, along with her fully adapting to the harem laws she was previously against and taking on her role as a Valide in Mustafa's harem, was almost like Plot Armor for Rumi similarly to how Hürrem acted accordingly when she saw SS listening to her in the candle mirror in E44, albeit in the opposite way. I view that as a clear recipe for narrative favor and I was appalled that it had to be with such a character.]

If S03 Rumeysa became his wife, I don't see her acting much like Mihrunnisa. First off, due to how her arc was framed, Ayşe Hatun would have very much stayed as an antagonist of hers (even though Rumi wouldn't view her as one in their confrontations) and would try to eliminate her in a secret, subtle and cunning way. While Rumeysa would definetly try her all to keep Mustafa safe and would try to win Mahidevran's support for the marriage the way Mihrunnisa did, Rumi would have more of an agenda of her own she would follow. I won't be surprised if she tried head down on the path to overpower them all in her influence of him, either. Mustafa and Mihrunnisa were partners more than anything, with the same ideals, aspirations and desires. They were very close in their way of thinking and how they would approach problems, that's why they had such a deep bond. S03 Rumeysa would get further and further away from Mustafa's personality as his wife and if the other S04 events are canon, she would probably indeed go and reveal Bayezid's marriage with Huricihan the moment Mustafa refused to and act herself instead.

S04 Rumeysa is barely there, but I like her a bit better. She is an entirely different character with her consistent worries for the future, her more caring and protecting nature and even Mahidevran's more "I'm fed up with all this" attitude to her. Even if we add S03 Rumeysa to the mix, we get at least more feeling out of her and what was she all about and we get some other contrasting facets of hers as a bonus: in contrast to Rumi calming Mahidevran down when Mustafa disobeyed SS's order in E91/2 (my favourite S03 Rumeysa scene, but it was also kinda ruined post-E93), now Mahidevran tells her not to worry so much. Thing is, S04 Rumeysa could very well work without S03 Rumeysa both because of the different actress and the different characterization that could only loosely recontextualize S03 Rumeysa at best, and since there was a time skip, some random concubine and favourite Mustafa slept with and she became pregnant wouldn't be out of the question at all. Yes, her death would probably have less impact that way, but nor could I ever bother with S03 Rumeysa, nor would it be weird because of her different dynamics, which made her look almost foreign in comparison. (that's not on the actress, both Rumeysas were great!) And it would be as impactful as it would've been for Mustafa and Mahidevran, because the loss of the child would be just as devastating for him and was still tied to the mirror of sin.

If S04 Rumeysa didn't die and became Mustafa's wife, I think their bond would be focused more on their future child than anything. Rumeysa would probably act similarly to S03 Ayşe Hatun, only in a more secure position, I see a lot of similarities there. I don't think their bond would be as deep, but they could have the chance to get close for a little bit. I see Rumeysa refraining from acting so much, because of her worrying for the consequences, but when that fear gets the best of her, she could take desperate measures.

[olivia-anderson-fanfic]

Soulmarks, Part 17

First part

Previous

~~~

She swung her gavel idly as she jumped from gargoyle to gargoyle.

Even if she didn’t have a grin stuck to her face, she’d be smiling so widely that Joker would be jealous.

What a productive night she had been having! She couldn’t remember the last time she’d had so much go well for herself!

Lila would never hurt anyone again! Alya would be more cautious! Adrien and Tim would understand what it was like to have no one believe them! Joker and Harley were likely on their way! She was even on track to give Master Fu and Hawkmoth their just deserts!

And all she’d had to do was get a bit of a powerup and lose her morality!

Her eyes traveled down to the streets, where a crowd was slowly forming. A few of them were pointing up at her hostage.

She watched Bruce sway slightly in the wind. He was being careful not to move in the ropes. She didn’t know why. She’d secured him pretty well, the only way he’d fall was if someone broke the rope above him. Even then, they’d given Kaalki some bread. Tim would save him if he fell. And, if he missed, the bats were all waiting on lower towers to catch him.

Good. They couldn’t try to stop her if they weren’t closeby. Sure, it had taken holding Bruce off a ledge precariously to get them to do it, but at least she’d gotten all the bats distracted...

Well, that wasn’t completely true.

She found her soulmate, who was standing beside the stairwell with a frown on his face.

She giggled, leaning on her gavel.

“Cheer up! They’re about to get what they deserve!”

~

He sighed and closed his eyes.

He really didn’t know what to do.

Using a text-to-speech app to talk was difficult. Explaining everything that had happened to the bats had been hard enough, but even the idea of trying to have this kind of conversation with an app was enough to get him frustrated preemptively.

He had to try, though…

But how do you convince someone without morals that what they’re doing isn’t okay?

He pulled out his phone and took a seat on the ledge beside her. He was careful to stay out of view of the people below as he typed.

“Nette --.”

“Inamovibi-Lady.”

“-- they don’t deserve whatever ironic justice you’re about to give them. They deserve to spend their lives in jail like everyone else.”

The akuma shook her head slowly. “I wish it were that easy, Cheval, but they’re never going to face consequences. They keep getting out of going to jail by getting marked as insane and going to Arkham, then getting out of Arkham by letting psychiatrists find them sane. It’s happened a million times before, it’ll happen again.”

He sighed lightly. “You don’t know that.”

“Don’t I?”

“Please, I know you’re doing this for me, but I don’t want this.”

She stepped off her gargoyle and strode over to him, leaning down until she was at eye-level. “You’re not the only reason why I have to do this. I have to think about the civilians, too. He’s a serial killer. He needs to be punished.”

Fine. Time to try the Disney approach. He didn’t know what else he could do.

He was glad he had to type to speak, now. It was difficult to look her in the eyes. But he had to. There was no way to put any inflection in his voice when he wasn’t speaking, so he needed to look completely earnest to get his point across.

“Nette, I know you’re in there. You need to fight back. What you’re doing isn’t right. You have to know that. Please, let’s just deakumatize you and go home.”

She shook her head slightly and carefully brought a hand up to cup his cheek.

“She’s in here alright, but that doesn’t mean she’s against doing this.”

“That’s a lie.”

“Are you sure about that?”

And then she pushed him.

~

She felt a twinge of… something other than anger or satisfaction as he fell. Even as she watched Barbara catch him, she couldn’t seem to shake the feeling.

It had been necessary. The moment he realized exactly what her punishment was going to be, he’d try and stop her. She couldn’t have him close enough to do so in time.

But still…

She tightened her grip on her gavel and turned away from the ledge.

Someone was in the elevator. She watched the number beside the doors slowly increase, climbing higher and higher…

Ding!

Joker and Harley stepped out.

She pointed her gavel at Harley’s hammer. “Hey, lookie! We match!”

The woman didn’t seem as amused, hefting her weapon onto her shoulder. “Aren’t you the bat’s newest kid?”

Inamovibi-Lady shrugged calmly and morphed it back into her yoyo. She’d just wanted to mess with Harley by pointing out an easy similarity, now she should at least prepare for the fight that was sure to come.

“No, that’s my friend. If he adopted me it’d be pretty problematic.”

“What do you --?” Began Joker, and then stopped and started laughing like he’d just heard the funniest joke. “I know who you are! You’re Robin’s soulmate!”

Harley’s eyes travelled to her yoyo and she joined in on the laughter. “So, that’s what this is about. Here for revenge, are you?”

“I prefer ‘justice’, but yes.” She gave a tiny, sarcastic bow. “Cliche soulmate, at your service.”

“Don’t you know that revenge is against the bat’s code? Just ask Jason Todd.”

Inamovibi-Lady didn’t know who that was, or how they were relevant, but she found she didn’t care at that exact moment. “Then it’s a good thing I’m not trying to join Batman’s little crew, don’t you think?”

“Okay. You really are new, aren’t you?” He sighed and pulled a gun from a pocket of his suit. “Since you are new, I’m only going to say this once: I’m the only one that gets to kill Batsy over there.”

She giggled and started toying with her yoyo. “Called dibs, have you?”

“They have a special bond,” said Harley with just a hint of annoyance.

Inamovibi-Lady raised her eyebrows slightly. “Sounds cute, but if you want rights to kill the bat, you’re going to have to fight me for it.”

Joker made a gesture with his hands, a ‘well, what can you do?’, and then raised his gun.

Tw: murder

She spun her yoyo in front of her idly and watched the bullets ricochet away.

Joker emptied his gun before he seemed to realize that none of his shots were hitting. Then he stared at it with confusion. “How is that possible?”

She giggled. “Who knows. Love it, though!”

He seemed to consider this for a second, then he grabbed Harley and practically threw her at Inamovibi-Lady. “Get her, poo!”

“Wow, great boyfriend you have,” the akuma joked. “Really seems like he loves you.”

Harley hefted her hammer and ran at her.

Oh, a sore spot?

She dodged a swing of the hammer and her eyes widened slightly as the ground around it exploded. Hm. That was a bigger problem than she’d thought it’d be…

Whatever.

“Honestly, though? You’re a smart lady, got a degree and everything, so… why the Joker?”

Harley swung again and Marinette had to do a back handspring to avoid having her head popped clean off. “We love each other.”

“Cute way of showing it, he has. He tossed you in chemicals.”

The hammer and yoyo connected, sending them both back a few steps.

“I mean, you’re a psychologist. The man’s got so many red flags he might as well be speaking in semaphore.”

“Shut up!” She yelled, slamming the ground in front of the akuma.

She went flying, skidding across the rooftop until she hit her head on the edge.

Harley walked towards her, mallet raised over her head for a finishing blow.

Inamovibi-Lady looked around wildly and her eyes locked on Bruce. This was meant to be something she did later, to distract the bats when she was killing Joker, but…

She hooked her yoyo around the rope holding up Bruce and pulled tight.

“NO!”

Bruce dropped.

Harley paused in front of Inamovibi-Lady, her mouth open wide in shock as she stared at where Bruce had been.

The akuma grabbed the hammer. “I’ll be taking this, thanks,” she chirped, before throwing Harley over the side. She watched her fall for a few seconds and sighed in relief when none of the bats went to save her, too distracted with getting their father to safety.

Harley splattered on the pavement.

She strapped the hammer to her back and turned on her heel.

She advanced on Joker slowly.

She knew his major weapons. He didn’t seem eager to try using another gun after the first attempt, so those were out of the question. Besides that, she could only see his acid flower. No cane, no cards…

He’d come wholly unprepared.

“Wow. You really didn’t think I was a threat at all, huh? Rude,” she said, twirling her yoyo idly.

“You killed him! You fucking killed Batman!”

Inamovibi-Lady rolled her eyes. “Please. The bat kids saved him.”

Joker looked slightly relieved, but it didn’t last long as she looped her lasso around him and pulled tight enough to start digging into his skin and clothes.

“Now, I wanted this to be long and painful, but I’m on a time crunch here, so… any last words?”

The man stared at her for a few seconds before breaking into laughter.

She would have frowned if she could. She glanced over her shoulder, half expecting a bat to be looking at her disapprovingly, but there was no one, so…

“What’s funny?”

“You. I was going for snapping your little boyfriend, but I got you instead! That’s hilarious!”

She narrowed her eyes in confusion. He got her? Snapped her? Was her translator working right? She was perfectly fine. He’d lost.

But he was still laughing. And she couldn’t stand it. His stupid, high-pitched laugh and that wide, ever-present grin and he shouldn’t be looking like that! He was finally getting what he deserved, this was payback for all those people he’d killed and tortured! Why was he amused? That wasn’t right!

She pulled tighter and tighter, but he wouldn’t stop. His acid flower malfunctioned and spilled acid over him, his bones were cracking, his blood was slowly leaking from his wounds… but he wouldn’t stop laughing. She pulled tighter. He had to stop at some point. She’d make sure of it.

And then her yoyo sliced clean through him.

He’d stopped.

Finally.

Tw over

By the time they’d gotten there, she was sitting in front of one of the craters Harley’s hammer had made. She thought it was pretty cool. Maybe she could start using it...

“Nette?” Said Dick hesitantly.

She looked up and waved. “Hi! Inamovibi-Lady. But hi!”

Barbara looked like she was going to be sick as she stared at what was left of Joker. All the bats looked a little green, actually, now that she was paying attention. Whatever, they’d thank her later, when the amount of deaths the city had per year went down.

She caught Adrien’s eyes and flashed a thumbs up.

To her surprise, he looked horrified. She’d thought that, even if the bats would have disapproved, he at least would have understood. It was for the greater good. They always worked towards the greater good. She’d done well…

Right?

She felt something drop on her and jumped slightly, only to realize it was just a coat.

She gave Tim a slight smile and mumbled her thanks. He only nodded and took a careful step back.

Inamovibi-Lady drew it tighter around herself. Had she always been shaking like this? Why was she even shaking? She should be happy. They’d gotten their justice.

Her gaze found their way to the yoyo in her lap. To the blood slowly dripping from the string...

She felt a weird pressure in her chest and brought a hand up to rest over her heart.

She’d killed people before, but that was different. They were always soldiers of akumas, she’d always be able to fix it at the end. But now everything she was doing was permanent, and she had murdered two actually sentient people. Terrible people who would have done the same to her if they were in her shoes, had even tried to do so, but people all the same.

God, what had she done?

Those people are gone.

Because of her.

She was only fourteen.

Why was this her responsibility in the first place?

Her grip tightened on her yoyo and she found Tim again.

“Master Fu’s house, please.”

~~~

Next part

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[blogsanscontext]

A Closer Look at: Momoe Sawaki’s character arc; by a nonbinary (trans) viewer.

CW: Major spoilers for Wonder Egg Priority + mentions and discussion of sexual assault, transphobia, lesbophobia, self-harm; please proceed with caution.

Wonder Egg Priority came as a relatively pleasant surprise for me; I heard about it some time after the first few episodes aired, but I never actively went out of my way to ever try to watch it myself until, that is, a few days ago. I must say, I’m glad to have taken the initiative to experience such anime on my own.

With a stunning animation to accompany the heavy subjects this work touches on, I quickly fell in love with it; all the characters feel very grounded in reality, with their struggles (even someone like Neiru’s, who is a literal genius and CEO of her own company) feeling relatable in one way or another. Episode 7 became my favorite due to this very thing, Rika’s problems were things that not only have I seen in other works before, but that I know exist because of the stories told in the news every so often. It only helped, in my opinion, that they gave a character with her background such a hopeful ending.

That being said, Wonder Egg is not a perfect anime, and though I didn’t expect it to be in the first place, I do think talking about why some of the ways it handles a specific character of the main cast are problematic are worth the time. When I mentioned that “all the characters feel very grounded in reality”, I actually only meant three of them, a.k.a.: Ai, Rika and Neiru. The reason Momoe is not included in this group is what I will be discussing in the next paragraphs.

This anime lets you know, right off the bat, that it will not stray away from heavy subjects throughout the duration of its runtime; the show deals with suicidal idealization (and actual suicide as well as its aftermath; in fact, “female suicide” is at the very core of the show and is what essentially moves it forward), self-harm, sexual assault, same-sex relationships, transphobia, and being a gender noncomforming person in a society that punishes you for not adhering to the roles it has imposed on you since childhood. The last points are the ones I took issue with, however, and though they are mostly the show’s fault, they also took it upon themselves to make Momoe be at the center of all three.

See, when we are first introduced to Momoe, we can guess by context that she is a girl, however, the other characters aren’t aware of this fact yet, and so they seemingly go out of their way to call her a boy, which makes her deeply uncomfortable, and this (ie. her reaction to be treated or perceived as a boy) is a running theme throughout her arc. This, in itself, isn’t really the worst creative direction to take with a character, it’s a story that has been told time and time again, but there is a problem with the way Wonder Egg Priority specifically deals with it: Momoe is cisgender, and so far, there hasn’t been a sign of this changing whatsoever, so she will most likely remain cis until the show ends. Normally, a story about a gender noncomforming cis person wouldn’t be seen as anything out of the extraordinary, as I’ve mentioned before, but it seems that they wanted to… “innovate”, so to say, with her character. And it’s this innovation, in my opinion, that which makes Momoe’s struggles miss the mark for me.

Momoe is perceived, almost ridiculously so, as a boy by whoever even so much as stumbles upon her; her followers on Instagram most likely worship her because they’re under the impression that she’s a bishounen, and yet the show goes out of its way to deal with just how uncomfortable this makes her. This is the issue I take with her and her arc: the show has a keen awareness of AFAB people’s issues, and treats them with the respect they deserve (which is not to say some jokes at their expense aren’t made, but in general this tone is kept throughout the duration of the story), and yet the tone-deaf manner in which they deal with her issues feels… disappointing, to say the least.

Momoe’s struggles, though they are valid on their own, are not a societal issue, no matter how one may look at them; if she were a trans person (either a trans girl, boy, or nonbinary), the strong emphasis on her discomfort at being misgendered would have made so much more sense. The reason why ‘switching around’ the stereotype of a tomboy falls flat on its face is that there is no real pressure from society to present feminine, it’s what they want you to, or more accurately, force you to do if you’re perceived as being assigned female at birth; however, this is not where my issues with Momoe’s arc and character end.

At first, I imagined a variety of (albeit vague, still reasonable) reasons as to why this show couldn’t have just made Momoe be trans, and semi-understanding of this decision; that was, of course, until I watched the actual episode mostly focused on her struggles, and that’s when I got slightly mad. Being honest, I still think it was a good episode, and it definitely made Momoe seem way more sympathetic than any of her past appearances, but it also perfectly highlighted my problem with her, and subsequently, the show itself: using queer people’s actual, realistic, problems in order to push her, a cisgender character, forward.

The thing with Wonder Egg Priority is that I love how, despite all these girls literally risking their lives to save a specific person, they still seem to have conflicting feelings about them (ie. Rika’s mocking of Chiemi, Ai’s frustration towards Koito, etc.) but I also take issue with this when it comes to Momoe specifically; Haruka is very much intended to be seen as gay, yet when push comes to shove, we are supposed to be taking Momoe’s side in this conflict. We, the audience, see these events from her point of view, and are therefore made to feel, in one way or another, uncomfortable with Haruka’s attraction for her. Yes, Momoe has worked hard to bring her back to life, but the fact that she’s cis and heterosexual stands; this isn’t just exclusive to Haruka, however, but every egg she’s had to save in order to get her friend back. All of them express a clear attraction for Momoe, “despite her being a girl”, and it’s just very easy to read these attitudes as wlw-phobic, extremely so.

My biggest issue though lies within the very existence of Kaoru’s character, the trans boy she has to protect in the episode mainly focused on her; while he is an endearing and sympathetic character, and I like that despite him presenting ‘majorly female’, Momoe never misgenders him. The thing is: he’s made out to be almost a “parallel” of her own gender-related issues, and this is just a very tone-deaf statement to make; trans people fighting not to be misgendered, fighting to be called their chosen name (something Momoe, while being cis, can just freely enjoy) - trans people’s pain is very much real, which the show is aware of, but Momoe’s is very much an individual’s problem rather than the way society actually works, which Wonder Egg is seemingly unaware of, for whatever reason.

Before I arrive at my last point on why this comparison doesn’t work, I would like to quickly point out the fact that most, if not all, the eggs the girls have had to save until this point were specifically meant to be girls, in one way or another. Therefore, taking this into account, Kaoru makes me feel… a lot of things, the more time I spend thinking about it; the show acknowledges he’s a boy, though not cis of course, but still very much a boy, yet also places him in this very much ‘female’ space; no matter how I looked at it, I could find explanations both for an opinion in favor of this decision (the way a lot of trans men’s problems are defined by our patriarchal society seeing them as women) as well as some for an opinion against this decision (the fact that it could be read as the show ultimately deciding he’s ‘female-aligned’, etc.) and though I won’t be discussing this decision in-depth, I still possess that it’s an event worth examining from different lenses.

Now, onto the actual element that got me heated about Kaoru serving as a parallel to Momoe’s struggles: Kaoru was not only sexually assaulted by a man who’s always thought of him as a ‘pretty, delicate girl’, his death directly relates to the fact that he was abused and then impregnated by this man for not living up to his gross ideal of what a man and a woman are; contrast this to Momoe, who pretty much gets the treatment Kaoru would love to have: she’s pretty much right off the bat seen as a guy, she’s fawned over by women because of this fact as well, they literally call her ‘Momotaro’, etc. Taking all of this into account, it’s simply impossible for me to be okay with a comparison that ultimately decides a cisgender person’s discomfort is, in any sort of way, on equal grounds as a (might I remind you, dead) trans person’s basic human rights.

All in all, though her episode made me take a bigger liking to her character, it also served to almost perfectly highlight the very problem of her existence, as well as the “struggles” she’s intended to represent; I don’t hate Momoe in any sort of way, and though I know there must be someone somewhere who relates to her, I also think that they could’ve done something way more meaningful with her had they just made some changes that made her more realistic (as in, make her at least be LGBT rather than just cis and heterosexual); I will be patiently waiting for the finale, and who knows? Maybe something does change about her in the end, that would be even more of a pleasant surprise.

[slytherinbangchan]

Sunshine☀️ Chap33 (Stray Kids!Social Media!Au

🡲Chap1 here🡰

Blog’s Masterlist

Sunshine Masterlist TagList: @princewonwoo​ @freckledquokka​​

Chapter 33: Bungee 0012 0033

You meet Jisung's eyes for a second as you all sit on the floor in front of the fireplace in the living room. Next to you is Hyuck at your right and Mark on your left. You wonder if it'd be okay for you to just go back to Jisung's arms instead, which is where you were not that long ago. If you could only leave the guys alone without them almost burning down your place... You saw the video Seungmin took while the others were lighting the shots on fire and still you don't understand how they managed to burn the curtains. At least now you're not that nervous about the drinking games as you were before.

“Okay everyone, as you all now it's time to play some drinking games.” Minho announces as he pours shots for everybody. You feel a bit more nervous now that reality is hitting, but you're okay. “I thought of starting with Never Have I Ever so our new friends get to know us a bit better.” He says, looking at Mark and Hyuck and everyone agrees. “Kay, I'll start. Never have I ever had a crush on someone in this room.” Minho says, drinking his shot right after and everyone follows. Literally everyone, but you don't give it much thought at first. You know the guys have had some stories between them in the past so you're not really surprised. But then you notice that Hyuck and Mark drank too. Who are they crushing on? They only met your friends earlier today, who could have caught their eye so soon? But well, it is just a crush, right? It doesn't have to be anything serious so it could be anyone.

“Minho? Who are you crushing on?” Chris asks and Minho laughs. “Well, that's a secret and also I didn't say I'm crushing on them right now specifically.” He says as he refills the shots. “Okay then.” Chris chuckles. “I will go next~. Never have I ever had a crush on someone here in this room, currently.” Chris drinks his shot but you don't pay much attention to it either, you already know how he feels. Your eyes drift to Jisung instead automatically as you gulp down your shot. His glass is empty too. Did he drink it?? Or maybe Minho never got to fill it again? Who is he crushing on?? There's no way he's crushing on you after the conversation you had the other night, right? But also you've been feeling this weird vibe these couple of days...

He's looking at Minho as he smiles. What is this? Does Jisung like him then? Your heart hurts thinking about it. “Minho, I thought you didn't like me like that anymore.” Jisung says jokingly and the guys laugh. “Please, that was so long ago and it lasted like a second.” Minho says and everyone laughs again but you're trying so hard not to freak out right now.

“Guys if we keep asking who is crushing on who we'll only play for like 3 minutes.” Seungmin says. “But I want to know stuff.” Minho whines. “Let's play something else then. Like truth or dare.” Hyunjin suggests and Minho's eyes shine with anticipation. “Okay, I want to start that one.” Seungmin asks and everyone agrees. “Jisung? Truth or dare?” Your heart skips a beat when you hear his name. “Uhm... Dare I guess?” He chooses and the others laugh. “Someone is afraid of telling the truth huh?” Innie says making the guys chuckle. Mark and Hyuck look a bit lost but honestly you feel the same right now. There's a weird vibe between the guys, like if they had an agenda. “Seungmin tell him what to do already.” Binnie whines to hurry him and Seungmin smiles kinda devilishly. “Okay. Jisung, I dare you to kiss y/n.”

Your heart stops completely for a second as you meet Jisung's eyes before he looks away. “W-What?” He says. “Don't ask me to do stuff like that. I'm not going to kiss y/n cause of a game.” He sounds a bit annoyed but nothing serious. Someone who doesn't know him wouldn't be able to tell. But you can. Your eyes look for Minho who seems a bit shocked at Jisung's answer and then you feel Chris and Hyunjin sitting next to each of your sides, pushing Markhyuck aside and making Hyuck whine cause of it. Chris holds your hand and Hyunjin pecks your cheek. “Are you okay?” He whispers and you nod but there's a knot in your throat as you think of what just happened.

In the meantime the others tell Jisung he has to give up a piece of clothing for refusing the dare.

Minho looks pissed for the rest of the round until it's his turn again. But you're not paying much attention anyway. You were so stupid thinking there was even a remote opportunity of an scenario where Jisung drank that shot cause of you. Whatever. You don't want to feel like this anyway. It's not his fault that he doesn't like you that way and maybe it's not too late to try and throw your feelings away before they become even deeper.  “y/n.” That's Minho calling you. “Truth or dare?” What? Why is he asking you? He's not going to try that again, right? “Uhh... Dare?” You say almost automatically. “Go 7 minutes in heaven with Donghyuck.” Minho says and you tilt your head and smile trying to understand, cause you didn't expect that at all. “Okay?” You laugh softly. Hyuck is chuckling too. You can only imagine what's going on inside Minho's head but you're not so sure sending you there with your childhood friend is going to work as good as Minho expects.

You walk in the room closest to the living room and Seungmin closes the door as he sets the timer. Hyuck sits on the bed and smiles. “Your new friends are a bit weird.” He says, making you smile. “Right?” You ask and he nods. “But these games are fun. Hadn't played them since high school though.” He says as he offers you his hand so you hold it and walk closer to him. “Yeah, me too kinda... By the way, who are you crushing on?” You ask and he smirks. “Mark, who else? And what about you?” You sigh at his question. You want to ask about Mark too but you're too heartbroken right now. “Ah, that guy that rejected me.” You say as you pout. “Yeah? We should make out then.” He suggests. “Are you serious?” You chuckle. You always thought he looks really good and everything but never imagined kissing him before, even if you had a tiny crush on him a really long time ago. “Of course. This is 7 minutes in heaven after all. And it will help with that idiot you like.” He says as he pulls from your hands so you come closer. “You think he'll get jealous? That's what you mean? How is that helpful?” You ask and he clicks his tongue. “Okay, whatever. I just want to kiss you.” He confesses. “But I really think it would help too.” You chuckle but sit astride him. After all, Jisung just rejected you. Maybe it's a bit childish but you really hope he does gets jealous.

Your hands on Hyuck's hair combing it back so you can see his pretty face clearly. “I didn't know you were this problematic Hyuckie.” Your forehead against his as you tease his lips. “Of course you did.” He smirks before meeting your lips again. “I don't think I'm problematic though, just a bit naughty.” He says and you chuckle. “Right.” You peck his lips and he kisses you until Minho knocks on the door to bring you back to the living room.

The guys are mostly catcalling you two as you walk in the room. You go back to sit with Chris and Hyunjin but mostly between Chris's legs as he and Jinnie play with your hair a little. Soon everyone is tired of games for some reason, so you go back to just chatting while you drink. “By the way guys, you know Mark is a rapper too right? And Hyuckie's voice is so beautiful. Maybe you could work on something together.” You say and Chris and Changbin ask more about it so you show them some of their cover videos. “Hannie, what do you think? Maybe you could use Hyuckie for one of your songs. He's amazing, really. I love listening to him.” You say and Jisung sighs. He looks so pissed. You don't understand why though. “I'm gonna go grab another drink.” He says. But he walks outside once he gets it. You look at Chris and he sighs. “Go ask him.”

You feel a bit dizzy even if it has been a while since your last shot. But luckily you still can think clearly. Only maybe you won't be able to keep your thoughts for yourself but it's not like you care a lot about that right now.

When you come outside and try to find Jisung you spot him sitting next to the pool. “What's with you and that kid? He's so whiny.” He asks right away as you sit next to him. “Who? Hyuckie? What do you mean? He's my friend.”  You say and he chuckles lightly. “Where did those two even come from? They came only for your birthday? They happened to exist just for your birthday?” He asks and you laugh. “What are you talking about? I know other people apart from you and the guys. I don't see them that often but they exist.” You chuckle but he's looking away now. “Why are you pissed about them being here anyway? They get along with the guys and we were having a good time, weren't we?” He sighs after you say that. “I'm not pissed.” He says. “Clearly.” You scoff as you smile. “Did you kiss that guy..? And I thought you weren't dating Chan or Hyunjin anymore by the way. They were all over you.” You blush as your heart skips a beat. What are these questions about? He didn't even want to kiss you. What is he playing? “I'm not dating them but they're still my friends, and yes, I kissed Donghyuck.” He scoffs loudly and you realize he's being serious which gets on your nerves a little. “What? Don't pretend now that you care or something... I noticed how annoyed you were when they dared you to kiss me so don't act like you care if I kiss someone else.” You sigh slightly frustrated and he tuts still a bit annoyed. “Well, I wasn't gonna kiss you cause of a stupid game.” He blurts out making your heart ache as it never did before.

After a short silence you stand up trying to keep your tears in line. “Okay. Good night, Jisung.”  You walk away and he watches you. It looks like he wants to say something else but you can't stay cause your tears won't wait.

Damn why are feelings so stupid? Why did you have to fall for your friend? You could have just stayed and dated Hyunjin if you hadn't fallen for Jisung along the way. But he was always so sweet and caring. And why keep lying to yourself now? He already had your attention that night in the studio before you even broke up with Chris. He slipped inside your mind that day and never left as much as you tried to see him as just a friend. And now that fact simply hurts so much. Why does he make it so difficult to tell him how you're feeling? Why does he act in such a confusing way?

When you go back inside the guys are cleaning up a bit. Chris sees you and takes you to a corner to chat. “What happened?” He asks and you bite your lip trying not to cry. “Nothing, he's an idiot and so am I.” You say and Chris tries not to smile but he kinda fails since he agrees with your premise in this case. “Chris I'm... Gonna go to bed, is that okay?” You ask and he purses his lips then sighs. “Of course. I'm sorry y/n. We really wanted to make you happy on your birthday.” He says, and you tilt your head. “It's not anyone's fault, really. Much less yours, dummy.” You hug him. “I had fun anyways and we'll have fun again tomorrow, I promise. I just need some rest.” You soothe him before saying good night to the others too and leaving for your room.

✫*ﾟ･ﾟ｡.☆.*｡･ﾟ✫*   Skz Social Media Au! ↳You met Chris at high school and have been dating since. You love him with all your heart but maybe not in the same way that you used to. You’ve talked it out with Chris a couple times before but you both always end up deciding to try and save the relationship cause you love eachother so much and it simply  hurts when you think about breaking up. But, how long can you keep this up? Prev - Chap32 /Sunshine Masterlist/ Next - Chap34

[radramblog]

On Pokemon Difficulty Hacks

When romhacking Pokemon first got big, you saw many an attempt to make proper fresh experiences and truly new games. Naranja, Quartz, Ruby Destiny and the like. The ambitious attempts of people who didn’t know just how much effort would be required to finish anything remotely resembling a finished product, though in fairness. Romhackers didn’t have teams, usually, maybe a couple helpers for spriting or beta testers, but the majority of people just wouldn’t have the time, energy, or lasting ambition to make something like that work.

In this era, where tools were limited but popularity was growing, it was perhaps unsurprising that many other hackers went for the “386” style of hack. Because, frankly, one of the first things someone is going to think of when it comes to making a Pokemon fangame is “what if you could catch all the Pokemon in one game?”. And from there, the train of thought naturally continues- if the player isn’t as restricted in teambuilding as the usual Regional Pokedex system makes them, why not have that for the NPCs as well? And while I’m at it, the games are usually really easy, and everyone playing them is going to be an enfranchised Pokemon fan, so why not pump up the difficulty a bit? Hence, the difficulty hack was born.

I suspect you can attribute much of the root of this to one man- Drayano, easily one of the most well-known romhackers around. The creator of Sacred Gold/Storm Silver, Fire Red Omega, Blaze Black/Volt White (and BBVW2), and of course, Renegade Platinum. I don’t well enough know if Dray popularized this kind of hack or just followed an existing trend, but (with the exception of FRO) the versions he created ended up being, and probably still are today, the definitive difficulty romhacks for their respective original titles. They weren’t just difficult, but they had a level of effort put into tuning their difficulty that most were unable to replicate- especially considering how difficult DS hacking was at the time and especially in Renegade Platinum.

Dray’s hacks were the only real hacks of their kind that I can think of getting major attention. They’re difficult but fair, making for a good gameplay experience, and thereby a good watching experience as youtubers, let’s players, and streamers flock to do playthroughs and catch ‘em alls and Nuzlockes. The nature of this kind of project means that only one version is really going to stand tall- sure, you could play Bloody Diamond or Obsidian, but why would you when you could just play Renegade Platinum? I will acknowledge that Obsidian was possibly the best Platinum hack before RenPlat, but its age is showing. The only exception I can think of is Fire Red Omega- owing to Gen 3 hacking being significantly easier and better explored, it had competitors, such as Yet Another Fire Red Hack by DoesntKnowHowToPlay or Fire Red Advanced by Z-nogyroP, among many others.

For the record, I have no doubt that with DS hacking becoming easier and better understood, SGSS, BBVW, and even RenPlat will be replaced in time. Possibly even soon- the scene got much bigger last year on account of breakthroughs and also people being stuck inside.

I would have thought, in 2021, that difficulty hacks would likely have died out, that they would have been replaced as resources such as disassembly/decompilation and the CFRU make more complex projects significantly easier. I was, surprisingly, wrong, though the nature of the games has changed a lot. Previous hacks in this discussion served as more difficult versions of existing games, with more freedom in teambuilding and some added features. But the modern “difficulty hack” is another beast entirely. The two I’d like to highlight in particular are Radical Red and the Kaizo games.

RadRed is the culmination of the aforementioned CFRU (Complete Firered Upgrade), a demonstration of its capabilities in porting both the entire 2021 catalogue of Pokemon into a game from 2004, but in showing the advances in AI and modern Pokemon mechanics (with refinement) to push the limits of how hard a Pokemon game could be. Every major fight plays like a competitive match, with the average playthrough necessitating frequent team rebuilding, and dedicated EV training and IV breeding. Radical Red (aside from basically stealing the best name I could ever use for a Romhack) is extremely difficult, requiring both a tactical mind and a bottomless well of Pokemon knowledge to play well.

The Kaizo games, by one Sinister Hooded Figure, are difficult in a different way entirely. Blue and Crystal Kaizo are actually getting older by this point, both of them releasing in 2014, but 2017’s Emerald Kaizo is the one that is getting the most buzz as of late. The Kaizo games (named for Kaizo Mario World) are crushingly difficult, built to be Nuzlocked and make you suffer doing it. An accelerated level curve, NPCs featuring legendary Pokemon that you have no access to (including Blue Kaizo giving your Rival a Mew from the very first battle), and the earlier games having extensive edits to maps necessitating fighting every battle, churning through dozens of Wilds in extended endurance segments, and fighting bosses and accessing resources in extremely inopportune ways. Emerald Kaizo has less of this but adds difficulty in the form of expert-level AI and the game forcing you into loads and loads of treacherous double battles. In addition, while Radical Red adds future additions and competitive-style gameplay, the Kaizo games lean into their rage game roots, with many a trainer using high-variance moves or items like the Quick Claw. A Critical Hit is problematic in a normal game, in Kaizo they’re ruinous. RadRed is the culmination of the years of Fire Red development, while Kaizo presents vanilla mechanics pounding you as hard as possible.

It may come as some surprise that I’m actually not a huge fan of either of these.

As much as I love difficulty, the experiences these games present just fall on the level of unfun for me. Grinding is boring, and they often necessitate that, and I’m not a huge fan of every single opponent being a significant enough threat that I need to pay serious attention in every single battle. It’s frustrating, because I want to like them, but they’re just too much.

But these games remain popular, and I think a large reason for that is simply because watching other people play them is quite entertaining. Streamers and Youtubers have flocked to these games, challenging their might, and often failing to conquer them. They’re an experience best had while slightly removed, it appears- the approachability barrier broached by having a proxy.

I’m sure people exist that are superfans of this kind of hack. I know they do, since I’ve seen folks who’ve done multiple playthroughs of Radical Red, and those who’ve stuck it out to actually complete a Nuzlocke of each and every Kaizo game. But they aren’t for me, and that’s okay. I am not surprised that these hacks continue to stay popular, and I expect them to continue and stay relevant as long as Pokemon Romhacking continues. With that in mind, I think I’d prefer more Dray-style hacks at this point.

You can find all of Dray’s hacks on his Drive here. Radical Red can be found at this link, and here’s Blue, Crystal, and Emerald Kaizo. And….fuck it here’s YAFRH and Fire Red Advanced, they’re both classics at this point.

[emiefaunwrites]

One of the class reunions? (preferably the one where Hiro and Byakuya sneak off to make out)

Hey anon!

Hahahahaha absolutely! I'd be more than happy to divulge more on the reunions (that one in particular).

I'm so glad everyone seemed to be okay with this pairing, since I know Hiro is a problematic character when it comes to ships. I'm guessing the fact I had them both aged up and the attraction one-sided during Hope's Peak (since crushes are harmless) made it better. And I think they're such a cute couple - the dynamic between them must be chaotic most of the time with hidden, soft moments.

Can I also say - how his Togami taller than Hiro?! Not by much - like 1 inch. BUT STILL! Though Hiro was taller. Whoopsie!

Yep. I'm there. Lets go! Thank you for your ask and I hope you enjoy!!

(Sorry for the delay on this one. My phoned glitched and deleted my original poat so I sulked all day.)

***********************

• The class reunions were started as a means to keep everyobe in touch.

• The class were friendly but it was definitely going to be tough for all 16 if them to keep in touch after leaving school.

• There were people who stayed in touch more often (Taka, Leon, Mondo, Chi, Hina and Sakura).

• Whereas most others only really saw each other at the reunions.

• Of course, Byakuya was the ONLY one able to fund such an event (even if everyone was mostly chill about it being just a pub crawl).

• It ran the risk of being too snooty though so everyone agreed to some fun things that Byakuya had to adhere to.

• First - there has to be booze.

• Second - there has to be 'proper music' as defined by Hiro (which ALL know Byakuya couldn't refuse,).

• Third - there HAS to be an awards ceremony.

• Just a fun little thing where they all vote a couple of weeks ahead of the event on made up little titles - nothing ever that serious.

• 'Best Laugh', 'Biggest Name Drop', 'Nicest Booty'.

• Every year a different set of things to keep it fresh.

• But 'Most Loved Up Couple' ALWAYS made an appearance.

• It varied from year to year who'd win it.

• Taka and Leon often battled against Hina and Sakura - losing occasinally to Sayaka and Mukuro and some of the other couples.

• But one year, a new couple appeared - especially as the votes were rigged.

• Apart from Taka, Leon and Chi, no one else knew about Byakuya and Hiro's blossoming romance.

• Naturally Byakuya was trying to take it slow (first serious relationship for him after all).

• Hiro...not so much.

• Not that he was actively bragging or anything - but you know. Byakuya's name was often mentioned.

• And Leon, still slightly bitter from all of the guy's torment, decided to pull one final 'prank'.

• Despite winning the 'Most Loved Up Couple' that year, he put Byakuya and Hiro's name in the envelope.

• And sat grinning like a Chesire cat as the results were announced - making Taka hella suspicious.

• 'What've you done?'

• 'Nothing.'

• 'Yes you have.'

• 'Nothing.'

• Well it was obvious when the results where announced - Leon smirking behind his hand at the look on Byakuya's face and decidely ignoring Taka's glare.

• 'HEYYYY KOOYA! WE WON BABE!'

• Hiro's voice rings out through the confused silence - Byakuya's face turning a deep crimson as he's scooped up bridal style for a kiss.

• Naturally, the whole room squeals in excitement at the 'new' couple (even Toko who's actually gotten over her obsession).

• And naturally, Byakuya is livid - yelling at his dumb boyfriend (who's grinning at him like an oversized puppy) to put him down at once.

• The questions come flying in ans Byakuya is desperate to escape but can't since Hiro is holding him tight while he gushes.

• Taka eventually saves the day by getting the DJ to start the music again and gets everyone up and dancing.

• At this point, Byakuya's free to flee - heading to the bar.

• And his dorky boyfriend comes bounding out about ten minutes later - holding a plastic crown whilst wearing another.

• 'What on earth are those?'

• 'The crowns for the Loved Up Award! Leon bought them! Aren't they cool?!'

• 'No.'

• 'Awww babe, c'mon! Pleeeeeeaae?'

• Literally unable to stop him, Byakuya is then stood pouting in a fancy hotel with a cheap crown on his head.

• And with Hiro's happy smile shining at him like a ray of goddamn sunshine, the relief of his secret being out and just general fond gushy feelings, Byakuya gets a sudden surge of bravery.

• He drags the man outside, hiding them in a shadowy corner before Hiro gets the picture.

• 'Ooooh, Kooya!'

• 'Shut up.'

• 'And here I thought you didn't like PDA, babe!

• 'I said shut up. Just kiss me, Yaz.'

• 'Gotcha!'

• Leon spots them a few minutes later - grinning at Byakuya's look of panic before giving a reassuring thumbs up and walking away.

• And he's decent enough to cover for them until they're back.

• Although their kiss bruised lips KINDA blows their own cover!