#except instead of going back to where we were before it was somewhere different

[sidereon-spaceace]

boy howdy that dream was a doozy

[xazse]

okay hear me out…. reverse hybrid au… with tigerhybrid!sukuna bc nobody else can handle him because he’s so aggressive and overbearing .. so reader is their last resort zoo caretaker and they’re is shocked at how it’s like reader has a leash on tigerhybrid!sukuna 😚

I’VE GOT IT?

Synopsis: You’re head of a completely different department so why are you being asked to help with an odd situation?

Warnings: Female!reader + Mean!Sukuna + cringe tropes (sorry) + Hybrid!Sukuna: ears and a tail + heat + cumming inside + doggy + NOTPROOFREAD!!! + obsessed!Sukuna

Pairings: Tigerhybrid!Sukuna x female!Reader

Notes: I’m really working to improve my writing for you guys!! Esp my non-English speakers

“Miss please you know we would never beg like this if it wasn’t urgent.”

“I don’t specialize in that field, how many times must I tell you?”

You were getting sick of these scientists coming to you more often than normal, there’s three right now begging for you to take on a case that you didn’t want to do.

“Sukuna is out of control, he’s already injured five of our best, now they refuse to work with him”

“And I should be the sixth?” You say with a quirk of your brow.

They all stop and stare at one another, you have a good ass point what makes them think that you’ll be the antidote for their beast they decided to keep.

“Like I said, my stance on this won’t change.”

Another voice in the doorway of your office speaks up: “I’ll upgrade your pay and have you transferred up.”

Your ears perk up at this offer, to go even further where you are right now means business and a fuck ton of money. On the flip side it means facing whatever they’re against but you’ve always been a little greedy for money so you oblige.

The scientists made sure to throw you in the thinnest garments: “to let him know you don’t have anything on you.” As they put it.

They also had told you no sudden movements and to talk with him in a calm manner, show him you aren’t afraid and find out what’s been making him so angry lately. Easy peasy except your life is on the line!

You disregard any negative thoughts of death and make your way into the place where they keep their hybrids, it’s like little apartments where they can do as they please in return for information on their biology, as far as you know they love it here. You’ve once met puppy!hybrids Satoru and Suguru they were very sweet men, needy but sweet.

Your first step into the apartment is met with a strong smell, a smell of something primal if that even has a smell. It’s warm.

You start poking around his place, checking his fridge and looking for anything out of the ordinary, nothing seems amiss though. It’s not until you come up to one of the doors and hear slight noises. You press your ear up closer making the noise more clearer: whining it sounds like whining.

Could he perhaps be In pain? You knock three times and announce you’re coming in. The door clicks and you start slowly pulling it open. You see the man in all his glory resting upon his bed, arms wrapped around his pillow and an unreadable expression.

Sukuna is big, he’s a big man compared to all the other hybrids, he’s brimming with pure muscle. Does he workout in here? Your thoughts are interrupted by slight growling: he’s warning you. Step any close r and he will have no choice but to harm you.

You pay him no mind, instead you step fully in and start looking around without a care in the world.

“You’re making trouble- why is that?” You say while looking through his dresser.

“You’re being extremely nosy, leave before I kill you.” He threatens harshly.

“If you harm me I’ll have you sent somewhere else, I know where you come from and I’m assuming you don’t want to go back.”

The room goes eerily silent like he’s making a choice, he opens his mouth to speak but a groan accidentally slips past his lips.

Oh… the big oaf is in heat, and top scientists couldn’t tell or try to track his cycle?

“You in heat big guy?”

“No-“

“Such a liar, I’m not here to make fun of you, I’m here to make sure you get proper help.”

“The only way I’ll get proper help is if I fuck someone.” So damn blunt you think to yourself.

He continues speaking: “I think you know they won’t allow that though.”

“Would you like some toys? I can request that for you.”

“Useless.”

You let out the loudest sigh and plop down on his fluffy bed. Bending your head in his direction you see he’s not looking at your face but your body, eyes fully trained on your pert nipples because of the cold.

You allow the poor suffering hybrid to mount you, putting a good bit of his weight on your back you can feel the outline of his thick meaty cock resting near your cunt and ass.

He’s hard, fully hard and probably has been for a while: you feel almost a little bad.

Sukuna doesn’t waste anytime grinding down against you, it feels so fucking good, his cock is accepting anything even if it’s the bare minimum. Everytime he meets your ass he whines, such a needy tiger you coo.

He’s ignoring all the dirty little comments you send his way too focused on the only good sensation he’s felt for a while, his hand doesn’t compare to your rounded ass. You reach between your legs and pull his shorts down, letting his cock bob free for a minute before he’s pushing up against you again.

He’s producing so much precum that youCan feel it through your silky garments.

“Smells so good… really good.” “Mhhhphmmm-“ he’s now being open with his groans too focused on the feeling of his tip prodding your clothed pussy. His swishing tail is within your eyesight, you grab it and rub it for extra stimulation.

You help him a little bit by bouncing your ass against him. He places his head in the crook of your neck and starts nibbling on your neck, you can feel how sharp his damn teeth are and pray to yourself he isn’t going to bite you: killing you in the process.

He doesn’t do any of that instead he just lightly bites, using no strength at all. While he’s busying tearing up your neck you slip your panties off, grabbing his fat length and teasing your wet hole. Just feeling it in your hand has your body burning up in arousal it’s been a while since you’ve had a cock, especially a cock his size.

You slowly start inching it in, the stretch is so damn unbearable and uncomfortable. When he feels what you’re doing he starts moving his hips already. An impatient thing such as him isn’t gonna wait. He gets about halfway in and you feel a thick liquid fill you, did this beast just cum? Already?

“Nhhhnn.. fuck-..” this doesn’t deter him because he’s sitting fully on his knees and pulling you flush against him, his entire length snuggly inside your pussy. He doesn’t wait to bounce you back on him, you can’t comprehend anything properly so shocked by how he just made you take every inch of him.

Your lashes flutter closed as he ruts into you like you’re the damn sex tox he’s been given, one he wasn’t gonna take care of properly. His hold on you is extremely tight so you can do nothing but take him fully, even when your walls threaten to constrict around him he pushes through it and keeps fucking Into you.

You allow him, allow him to thrust like a wild animal, mercilessly pulling all the way out of you just to slam back in. Drool is seeping down your neck where he’s latched on in droves. He’s far too gone, pussy has never felt this good.

By the end Sukuna is still rutting uselessly, he’s not even hard anymore he just can’t stop leaking cum nor has that good euphoric feeling stopped. He’s made a mess of your pussy, his cum and yours seeping down your thighs and onto his ruined sheets.

Hes licking at your face and you can hear a deep rumbling in his chest, this big hybrid is purring in content. Any attempt to move from under him is completely halted, he won’t let you move even an inch.

He begins sucking on your nipples, they’re definitely gonna be sore later but now it seems he just wants comfort and you fully give that to him. Rubbing his ears and whispering sweet nothings to him.

After that incident Sukuna is completely attached, he constantly whines for you to come see him including the scientists also calling for you to calm him down. He won’t let you have a moments peace.

Even when you tell him you’re extremely busy he’s having none of it, if he wants you to laze around and do nothing but rub him or praise/coddle him he completely expects it!

As his mate you’re meant to be with him all the time you should be grateful he’s even letting you leave the nest.

You were left fully shocked when he first called you his mate but the scientists explained that you were his first and now you are his last, they had all praised you because testing was made easier if you were there.

They’re all surprised to see him completely like mush under you, like one time when it was time for his blood to be drawn he made you come and sit in his lap while he had it taken. The doctors said he seemed to be completely smitten with you, in love and so possessive.

[helenabuu32]

This idea just popped into my head, I’m sure it’s out there somewhere already but I haven’t seen it so here we go, first hc post!

Bucci Squad with a stand user s/o or crush who’s way shorter than them

Bucciarati:

Mother must protect

He thinks you’re absolutely adorable, but does not make it super obvious because he needs to be professional as the leader of the squad

He’ll start leaving random, regularly used things around at a level where you can actually reach them out of habit. He feels bad that you always have to ask people for help and has noticed that sometimes you get embarrassed.

Sometimes he’ll use Sticky Fingers so you can grab stuff yourself because you think it’s fun and it makes you laugh

He doesn’t like to pick you up in front of the others because he doesn’t want you to feel like you’re being treated like a child. But if you’re dating, he loves wrapping you up in a hug and twirling you around before setting you back down

Loves kissing you on top of the head

Again, very protective, but also knows you’re capable of taking care of yourself. If you do need help during battle or anyone hurts you he will not hesitate to zip their heads off.

Mista:

You are no longer a land dwelling creature

He’s constantly picking you up and carrying you around, even if you’re not dating or express annoyance (if you ACTUALLY want him to put you down he will tho)

He picks you up in front of everyone all the time, he doesn’t care

If you’re trying to reach for something, instead of helping you he will literally just put you on his shoulders so you can grab it

Sex Pistols also like helping you out by grabbing small items for you and are always gushing about how cute Mista thinks you are. Sometimes he gets embarrassed, but usually just embraces it

If you’re dating, he’ll let you wear his shirt because he thinks it’s really funny that his crop top is a mini dress on you

He and Sex Pistols get really mad if anyone touches you during a mission and even if you’re able to take care of yourself, he often finds himself pushing you out of the way or the bullets will team up and fuck a bro up on your behalf.

Narancia:

Honestly he’s just stoked that he’s not the shortest anymore (Trish doesn’t really count since she’s literally 1cm shorter than him)

Not afraid of telling you how cute and small you are all. The. Time.

He doesn’t pick you up as much as Mista does, but he still does it kinda often and in front of anyone just to prove that he can

He loves running around with you on his shoulders

If you both can’t reach something, he’ll either put you on his shoulders or use Aerosmith to knock (or shoot) it down depending on what it is

If you’re dating, he’s always the big spoon. He loves feeling like he can physically protect someone

Good luck to the poor soul who lays a finger on you during a mission

Abbacchio:

Being the tallest in the group, you two have the largest height difference

He will never admit to anyone (or honestly even himself) how cute he thinks you are

He likes to grab things you’re trying to reach and lift them up over his head because he thinks it’s funny when you try to jump up and claw at his arm. Eventually he’ll give it to you.

But if you’ve been annoying him that day and you try to reach for something, sometimes he’ll grab it and put it up even higher and then walk away

Once you ate shit while you were balancing on a chair trying to reach something and he laughed so hard that he made Moody Blues replay it in front of everyone

Absolutely under no circumstances will he pick you up in front of anyone, and even if you’re dating, he doesn’t do it much. Only exception is if you get injured badly enough on a mission that you can’t walk. In that case, he will actually get overly protective and not let anyone else touch you.

If you’re dating, once he opens up and gets more comfortable, he loves to hold you and especially loves holding your hands and feeling how tiny they are in his own

Will literally kill anyone who even looks at you wrong

Fugo:

Kinda freaks him out how fragile and small you appear to be since Purple Haze can be so dangerous, but he does find it rather endearing

Oh that’s so weird that a step stool randomly appeared when you started coming around I wonder who put that there

He gets really flustered when you look up at him with those big eyes and sometimes will deflect by getting mad and storming off

Doesn’t like picking you up

Like Abbacchio, if you’re dating, he just loves to hold your hand, but won’t really do it in front of the others

Also forehead kisses

If anyone hurts you he goes feral. Sometimes the others have to reel him back in so he doesn’t accidentally hurt anyone else with his stand in his blind rage

Giorno:

Thinks you’re cute but definitely keeps it to himself

If he notices you trying to reach for something, he will gladly help you out. Sometimes he’ll even use Gold Experience to either animate the object or create vines with your favourite flowers to bring it down to your level. He loves the look of amazement that spreads across your face.

He doesn’t really like to pick you up, but likes putting his arm around you to make you feel safe. He’ll sometimes do this in front of the others, especially if you’re in distress.

If Abbacchio is messing with you by holding an item out of your reach, he’ll turn somethinng into a bird so it can grab the item from him and give it to you. This is partly also just to piss Abbacchio off.

Likes when you try on his jacket

Is protective of you during battle, but tries to assist in subtle ways so you still feel like you’re taking care of things on your own

Trish:

Being the official shortest before you showed up, she understands how you feel

But is also really glad that she’s not the shortest anymore

Like Narancia, she can sometimes help you reach things, but if you both can’t reach she’ll either get Spice Girl to help or she’ll make the floor rubber so you can use it as a trampoline and get what you need

…Once she did this and shattered a vase against the ceiling, so Bruno doesn’t let her anymore.

If you dress feminine, she likes sharing clothes/accessories with you when able. That one blouse of hers looks really good on you, even if the sleeves are too long!

Feels protective if you get hurt but would rather team up than just blindly defend you, though sometimes Spice Girl gets a little carried away

This was actually a lot of fun, hope you guys enjoy! If so, feel free to send in some ideas and I’ll think of some more hcs for them :)

[councilofcastamere]

DANGEROUSLY YOURS | AEMOND T. X READER

"An eternity without me. You will look into the faces of passers-by that will, for an instant, bring me back to you. You will find moonlit nights strangely empty, because, when you call my name through them, there will be no answer. Always your heart will be aching for me, and your mind will give you the doubtful consolation that you did, a brave thing."

Cesar Romero as Victor Morell - Dangerously Yours (1937)

CREDITS FOR THE AEMOND PICTURE TO ultravi0l3t on Pinterest!

You were foolish. Foolishly in love.

The moonlit lit up, and the hour of the owl drew closer and closer. And yet, no sign of your little brother Lucerys. With each breath you drew, your heart stilled more and more.

You just knew it was him. You knew Aemond would. You had always known he'd wait for the right day to strike. The tears streaming down your eyes could've drowned you for all you care, but you wished for everything you had to bring Lucerys back.

And the one thing worse than that was the trust you put in him. You blinded yourself by love and drowned yourself in trust, all for him. All for the one-eyed prince you grew to both love and loathe.

You loathed yourself. You felt as if the world could have swallowed you up and no one would blink an eye. You had hoped for one day where you could look back at it and laugh, but at what point in your life could you ever let this go? A tragedy at your hands. You had not even attempted to stop him from departing to the stormlands.

Before you could bite back another sob, one feet stepped forward, and so did the other. Repeating the process before you could even register you were in front of the prince's chambers.

You didn't know what you would do first. Would you strike him, or would you cry into his shoulders? You wished for the former one, prayed to the Seven that you would be strong enough to shun him as he shunned your concerns.

Your thoughts were interrupted as the door opened just enough for his face to peek out. His hair was hastily brushed, as if he wanted you to see him in a different light. As if you ever could.

"Let me in." you simply uttered, not sure if you were speaking about his chambers. "Let me enter."

His eye scanned over you, over your purple nightdress and your hair undone. Even in the nocturnal hours, you looked as majestic as ever.

Your brown curls, so reminiscent of your father.

But he couldn't care less about your father, no.

Not your brothers. Not your mother. No. You.

And right now, he wasn't sure if he could face your tragedy-stricken self. He felt validated in the slaughter he committed, but your words could've alone made him repent for forgiveness.

He contemplated a few seconds, before ultimately opening the door wide. The room was neat, with the exception of his books sprawled out on his bed and table. You had never seen it before.

"Where is Lucerys?" you asked quietly, your voice cracking as your hands clenched at the side of your dress. "He hasn't come home. Mother won't tell me anything. She's still in Dragonstone, and I am here. I have been here for years, waiting to marry you."

His gaze was prideful, yet you weren't able to see his heart ache at your own grief. Whatever you felt, he felt. His feelings were dangerously yours, and yours were his.

"Stormlands." he answered, turning away as to not feel too much. "At least, if the sea hasn't swept him somewhere else."

Your head whipped up, and you swear you could feel your neck cracking if the rage hadn't consumed you.

"We both know he isn't in the ocean." you spat, the tears streaming down again. "What have you done, Aem-"

Aemond couldn't have it. He knew your last word.

'Aemond' instead of 'Aemy. He hated that you felt the need to use his full name. You had never used his full name, and you were not about to start now of all times.

His rugged yet soft lips were felt on yours, interrupting your words. The feelings in you dissipated, and you wanted to feel angry again.

How you wished to feel anger, sadness, anything.

But how could you when love overpowered it all for him. Only for him, by him. You loathed yourself for it.

"Get yourself dressed." he murmured against your lips, his hand coming up to cup your cheek. his nails gently scraped against your delicate skin.

"We'll be wedded by the end of this night. You and I. No one else."

[eomayas]

all the rumors are true • bbh

pairing: idol!baekhyun x f!idol!reader

genre: fluff & angst

synopsis: your secret relationship with baekhyun getting revealed, and what comes after.

warnings: none!

a/n: very self indulgent lmao i had this thought a few days ago and needed to get it out! the ending is a bit choppy i ran out of thoughts. heavily unedited and not proof read 🫣

“yes, i take care of all of them,” you laugh, nodding at the radio show hosts question about if it’s hard being a leader to a group of 4, including yourself. “especially our youngest.” you say, glancing over at sunny, the baby of your group.

“what’s the age difference between you and her?” the host asks.

“six years,” you say, making the host gasp.

“ah, so you’re 28… that means she was 16 when you debuted?” the host looks between you and sunny, both of you nodding. “wow, so you probably have had no time for dating since even before debut!”

you laugh, though it’s 90% true, which sucks. “yes, because she was so young when we were trainees—we all were—i was always with them to make sure they stayed out of trouble and weren’t around strange people,” you say, your eyes sliding over all of your members. “so, no, there hasn’t been a lot of time to date. but i’m not mad at that because i was taking care of my babies.” everyone chuckles at the last bit and mingwa puts her head on your shoulder.

“y/n needs somebody to take care of her!” heejin, the second to youngest member shouts. you smile and shake your head at her words, though they’re unbelievably true. if only the public knew that you were, though. that instead of laying your head on a soft pillow every night, you lied down on a hard chest and let strong arms hold you tight, while soft kisses on the top of your head lulled you to sleep.

“girl, i’m your candy,” sunny sings quietly. you don’t cut your eyes at her immediately, but the panic bubbles in your chest. nobody mentions her singing, or sings along, but sunny and mingwa share a quick look that freaks you out, makes you paranoid that in a few hours when the video recording of this session is posted, speculations will start.

you glance at sunny, hoping to catch her eye, but she’s engrossed in what the host is talking about. you can barely hear above your heartbeat in your ears, the blood rushing through so quickly it’s starting to give you a headache. you try to discreetly regulate your breathing, trying to remember those videos talking about square breathing that you found online. nobody seems to notice, except mingwa who taps your forearm and looks at you with concern that you brush off.

you manage to make it through the rest of the interview as normal as possible. you start talking a lot less, letting your members share more about themselves and the group, and nobody except for mingwa clocks that you were mentally somewhere else.

saying your goodbyes, the four of you get up and shuffle out of the radio station and into the outside world where dozens of cameras await. the shutters fly at rapid pace, and the flash on some of them are nearly blinding, but you and your group smile and pose, despite the chaos happening.

shuffling into the car, you let the three others get inside first. you take the last seat in the sprinter van and buckle yourself in, resting your head against the headrest. “y/n, are you alright?” mingwa asks, concern clear and evident in her voice. you let out a breath and sit up, turning around to look at sunny.

“why did you start singing ‘candy’, soojin?” you ask, using her full name. she looks at you with wide eyes at her government being called and holds her hands up in surrender. “do you know what people are going to say?”

“sorry, mom,” she shoots back, giving you an incredulous look. “all they’re going to say is that i’m acting exactly like how the youngest person is supposed to be acting—interrupting you and singing over everybody. nobody is going to say anything about you and baekhyun.” you press your lips together, stumped because she’s most likely right, even though you have an inkling in the back of your brain that somebody is going to take notice, and make something out if it.

“well, you don’t really want people thinking you go around interrupting everybody,” you chastise. sunny rolls her eyes at you and sighs dramatically.

“we are quite literally the perfect group—i don’t know why you are so worried about our image all the time,” she says. you decide that the conversation is over, and sit facing forward again. sunny doesn’t understand that everything, at the end of the day, falls on you. people look at you like you birthed these girls and raised them up yourself. if one of them screw up, it falls on the entire group but rests on your shoulders to clean up. your image is so important to uphold, because there has only ever been one scandal to your groups name at the beginning of your careers that you did everything possible to stop the public from shaming you and the girls. it’s not easy to do that.

the ride is silent, save for their nails tapping against their phone screens. you sit with your eyes closed and your head leaned back, ready to dive into bed and maybe call baekhyun. maybe.

“would it really be that bad if everybody knew about you and baekhyun?” sunny asks, cutting into the silence. you open your eyes, but don’t turn around. the hair on your arms stands up at his name being mentioned so loudly, somewhere that isn’t the safety of your dorms.

“yes,” you reply. you think about the uproar it would cause, and what it would do to your career. his would be fine, of course, because the dismissal is never the same for men as it is for women. your group would probably have to disband, or you’d have to leave. it would look terrible, especially since you are the leader, if this was public news. “it would be awful, sunny. i cant lose my career over a man.” and while a nasty pang of guilt rips through your chest, it’s the truth.

“but… you told me you think that you love him. that’s not enough?” when she says these words, it’s like she’s 16 again, asking you why the world was mad at your group for a rumor about heejin. her voice is small, naive almost, and it reminds you how far apart you two really are.

you can’t help that your eyes start to water. “soojin, can we talk about this later?” you ask, blinking back the tears. you swallow thickly and pull your headphones out of your pocket, turning up your music loudly to block out any thoughts of you and baekhyun, and the public finding out.

getting back to the dorms, you head straight for your room. you close the door behind you and pull out your headphones and sigh, your head pounding. flopping onto the bed, you bury your face in the pillows and close your eyes.

you’re disrupted by a knock only moments later, and you let out a breath before telling whoever it is to come in. “y/n?” sunny’s voice calls from the doorway.

“yeah?” you roll over and sit up on your elbows to look at her. she gives you a sheepish smile and comes over to your bed, crawling in bed next to you like she used when you guys were trainees and she kissed her family.

scooting over, you make space for her to rest her head on your shoulder, your arm wrapping around her. “sorry for earlier. i guess i’m just trying to see the positive side to it,” sunny says.

“it’s fine,” you sigh. “i’m just super paranoid.”

“is baekhyun?” she asks.

you shake your head above her. it’s amazing to you that he seems to have no qualms or fears about your relationship becoming public. he’s fine with it being a secret or being news, and it makes you feel like shit, like it looks like you’re afraid of being seen with him. though it’s far from that. “no, and i guess that’s what makes me more stressed out. because he’s too chill about it, and doesn’t seem to be worried.”

“he’s old,” sunny snorts and you chuckle. there’s only four years between you and him, so she’s technically calling you old too, but you don’t say anything. “are you gonna tell him you love him?” she asks after a beat of silence. you still against her and she lifts her head to look at you.

it’s a sensitive subject—you and baekhyun haven’t said it yet. you won’t say it, because you’re afraid it’ll open a dam of bad things starting to happen. like once it’s out in the open, the worst possible thing could happen to your relationship. “maybe. i don’t know. probably not,” you ramble.

sunny gives you a sad look and squeezes you into a hug. she doesn’t say anything, and neither do you, but enough passes between the two of you. i’m here for you, she says. i know, you say back.

baekhyuns hands are on your ribs, holding you firmly and pressing you flush against the side of his car as he takes you into a nice, soft kiss. your arms snake around his neck, your fingers playing with the ends of his hair at his neck.

his lips move slowly against yours, his tongue slipping into your mouth with ease. your chest burns with adoration and want, and him tugging you closer to him only makes you throb. pulling away, his mouth chases yours and you let him kiss you again, this time letting him tilt your head back so you’re practically lying against the car.

it’s risky to be out in the open like this, but the parking garage is secluded and for residents of his apartment only. you would see and hear anybody coming through, but so far you haven’t in the last seven minutes.

you pull away from him again, and stop his advances by gently pressing your fingers to his lips. “baekhyun,” you say softly. he kisses your fingertips and then your cheek.

“yes?” he says, looking into your eyes with an intensity that makes your knees weak, so much so that you rest your weight against the car.

“can we go inside?” you ask, your fingers dancing on his cheek. he nods and kisses your palm before grabbing it and taking you to the elevators. baekhyun wraps an arm around your shoulders and pulls you into his side, kissing your temple for a long time, all the way until the doors open, and then pulling you down the hallway to his apartment.

he helps you out of your coat and hangs it up. “what do you want to eat?” he asks as you step out of your shoes.

“bold of you to assume i’m hungry,” you tease, but you’re always hungry around him, and you are hungry right now. baekhyun rolls his eyes at you and repeats his question. “i don’t know. chicken? ramen? rice? whatever you want.” you say, kissing his lips. he holds you close for a beat before letting you go so he can get something started for the two of you.

you bound to the living room and sprawl out on his large couch, turning the tv onto one of the many shows you two have started watching together. you get comfortable and pull a blanket over you, snuggling into the cushions while he busies himself with the task of making dinner.

baekhyun comes into the living room with two bowls of food a few minutes later. you sit up and thank him as you accept the dish, crossing your legs and resting the bowl in your lap. “what did i miss?” he asks, and you catch him up on the show in between bites.

you two eat in a close and comfortable silence. he’d probably have his arm around you if it wasn’t uncomfortable while you two were eating. the close proximity is enough though, your knees touching and his right arm lightly bumping into your left.

you set your bowl on the table, ready to get up to get a drink but baekhyun gets up quicker than you, already knowing what you want. he goes into the kitchen and comes back with two glasses of water. it feels like the world is slipping beneath your feet, and you could cry because of him.

this is the taking care of that heejin said you needed. you finally have it—he’s always like this with you, feeding you, making sure you’re well rested and fed and just okay. he takes whatever worries you have and throws them on his back and just lets you be.

after dinner, you and baekhyun retreat to his bedroom. you lie on his bare chest, a hand resting on his stomach and your ear against his heart. baekhyun mindlessy plays with your hair, his fingers digging into your scalp soothingly. your eyes can’t help but flutter close—there’s no point in trying to fight sleep. you’ll wake up with him tomorrow.

the speculations didn’t start the next day. no, everybody thought it was so cute and funny that sunny blurts out random things while her older members are talking. there were compilations made from your groups content; interviews, your group vlogs, and more. it was funny, honestly, that they adored her disruptiveness.

the speculations started four days later. and when the news broke, the internet nearly stopped working because there were pictures and videos. so many pictures and videos, that it felt like somebody may have been stalking you. there were pictures of you and baekhyun kissing against his car, of you two in his car, of you two getting out of his car, of you two going for a late night walk near the han river.

and then there were videos—albeit, mostly can made—that served as proof that you two really are dating. there’s the longing looks shared at award shows, zoomed in videos of you two standing next to each other on stages, hands brushing. the other videos are just more reasons to believe that you two are dating; heejin saying you need to be taken care of, and then clips of baekhyun taking care of his own members. videos of you talking about your ideal type, and clips proving that you must have been referring to baekhyun, or jaír got really lucky that you found him.

it’s overwhelming.

when the pictures surfaced, you and mingwa were in the practice room dancing to your debut songs. the alert popped up on your phones at the same time, but mingwa grabbed hers first. you heard her gasp and ran over, thinking she might’ve twisted her ankle, but instead were met with her guilty eyes and her perfectly fine ankle.

you didn’t know what to do when you saw the photos. your heart stopped and your felt sick. your head started pounding, and it felt like a rug was being pulled from underneath your feet. you didn’t know what to do, so you started crying, falling to the floor in a heap. you weren’t sobbing, but your were audibly crying, and mingwa wasn’t sure what to do. you managed to get yourself together, and excused yourself to your room, avoiding any staff members on your way.

and now you’re on the phone with baekhyun, trying not to burst into tears as he keeps telling you everything will be ok. “baekhyun, this was such a bad idea!” you cry, pressing your forehead into your hand.

“what was? dating me?” he asks, slight offense in his voice.

“yes!” you shout, but you don’t even believe yourself. “w-we shouldn’t have gotten involved.” you’re adding fuel to the fire, hoping he’ll just break up with you so you can say those photos aren’t real, and that you’re not longer dating so everybody can leave you alone.

“you don’t mean that,” baekhyun says, his voice soft on the other line. it makes you feel like shit. “do you?”

you shake your head, though he can’t see you. “no,” you say meekly. “but we- y/n, you knew this could happen even before we started dating.” he interrupts, shutting you up. you press your mouth into a thin line. “don’t try to push me away now, y/n.” the overuse of your first name makes you feel like you’re being scolded by an elder.

“okay, i’m sorry,” you say, sighing. baekhyun parrots you and you press your body into your mattress. now would be the ideal time to tell him you love him, but it feels like it would be a poor bandaid to apologizing for saying that you should have never agreed to date him. “i don’t know what to do.” you mumble.

“let our companies handle it. you just get some sleep,” he says. you chew on your bottom lip, wishing that he was here with you.

“okay. goodnight, baekhyun,” you say. i love you, you want to add.

“goodnight, y/n.”

when you wake the next morning, your group, managers, and baekhyuns team are all in the dorm lounge. you freeze when you see him, ready to jump out of the nearest window because you know exactly what is about to happen. “we need to release a statement,” your manager says, beckoning you over to everybody.

gingerly, you walk over to your girls, sitting next to heejin at the end of the sofa, the furthest you can get away from your boyfriend. “so, i assume it’s true? the rumors about you dating? you can say no, but i’ve seen the pictures,” baekhyuns manager says, looking over at you. you nod, and when everyone keeps staring at you, you pipe up and say “yes”, your voice hoarse.

“great. how long has it been?”

“seven months,” baekhyun says, his eyes flicking to you. heejin gasps beside you, grabbing everybody’s attention.

“oh, sorry!” she says, waving everybody off. “liar!” she whispers. you told her that it’s only been four months.

both of your guys’ managers read from what looks like a checklist of things, asking you questions and scribbling down answers so they can formulate each of your statements.

“are you happy?” your manager asks, not looking up from the sheet. it’s an easy questions, and you both answer ‘yes’ with ease. “are you in love?” the question lodges your heart in your throat, and the room gets eerily silent, so silent that you could hear a pin drop in the next room.

you don’t know what to say. you don’t want to lie, and look terrible, but you don’t want to tell the truth and further complicate your relationship.

you glance over at bakehyun, and find him already looking at you. you know what you’re going to say the moment your eyes meet, and you feel your stomach flip on it’s side. your heart melts like goo in your chest as you say, “yes”, admitting after many long months the one thing that’s been clawing at you in the back of your mind.

your manager scribbles down your answer and turns to baekhyun. “baekhyun?” he asks. his eyes never leave yours, and it feels like you’re the only two people in the room, despite the fact that there’s about 10 feet of distance between you two.

“of course,” he says it so sincerely that you drop your gaze to your lap, your face turning red and a smile overtaking your lips. your group members giggle and elbow you in your side, equally as happy to hear the news.

you feel over the moon, and your past paranoia is put away and shoved into a box that you choose to ignore for a moment. both of your teams curate statements, and they’re sent out less than an hour later. you and baekhyun take the rest of the day for yourselves, driving out far to the beach and hanging there all day until it gets dark, and your teeth start clattering because of the weather. and when you get in the car, he kisses you and you quite literally feel the love has for you, and your brain goes fuzzy to the point where all you can remember is his name, everything else being put to shame.

the responses you get to your relationship are much more positive than you expect, and of course there are negative comments, but not nearly as many as there are of the positive comments. people cnat help but gush at how you found your person, and are finally getting to get taken care of.

but, of course, cameras are on you more heavily than in the past. and now, when you go on variety shows solo, they want to know about your personal life before knowing about the group. you learn to get used to it, giving way to basically nothing, and sometimes sharing more than people expect, when you want to.

like, when you go on a variety show alone with a bunch of other idols, the same show baekhyun had been on in the past, they bring up an interview moment where baekhyun says that you’re the better dresser of the two of you. you’re asked the same question, and you answer baekhyun, and follow up with admitting that you’re wearing his clothes at that very moment. that makes the internet go crazy, searching high and low for pictures of baekhyun wearing the same item, comparing how it’s massive on you but fits him snugly.

or, when you attend the end of the year award shows and exo performs, the camera is on your group more often than you’d like to admit. there are fancams dedicated to your reaction of his groups performances, everybody focused on how you react to baekhyun specifically. of course, the same thing happens to him with you, and he’s a lot more shameless about his support of you.

you group responds well to your now public relationship. you’re able to get all five of you together more often, and they look at him like a bigger brother. sunny often tags along on your dates and asks about baekhyun and genuinely treats him like her uncle. she makes a lot of jokes about the two of you, mainly on camera. like, when you’re filming content for you groups vlog, she asks how baekhyun asked you out, and then sings the bridge of ‘blooming days’ by CBX, and does the dance too. the internet eats that up, constantly sharing the clip because it truly was funny.

despite the public news of your relationship, though, you and baekhyun manage to keep it private. besides what you choose to share, you can easily dodge questions about your private lives and keep the mystery alive. it does help your relationship now that more people know—there’s no threat of getting caught, or the constant feeling of breaking the rules. it’s easier now, and better than ever.

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

NSFW, s/h mention, smoking mention

AITA for not telling my boyfriend how I felt about something sexual that we did?

So, my (19f) boyfriend (22m) was in town visiting me over the summer. I live with my parents while I'm not at college, so he was staying with me, my parents, and my four younger siblings. The event that I'm talking about was at the end of his visit, the night before he had to head home back to his own place (different state, about a 7 hour drive from me).

Some important context for this before I begin is that I am somewhere on the asexual spectrum (he knows this and we have discussed it) and don't typically derive any sexual pleasure from anything that we do. This isn't to say that I don't enjoy it -- I'm typically very neutral on sexual things, but I like feeling close to him and I like the pleasure that it brings him. This is to say, I find enjoyment in what we do in my own way, and everything we do is with extremely explicit consent. He also has some issues when it comes to sexual acts from a relationship in the past, and while I don't know all the details, it's clear that he is hesitant specifically about making sexual advances towards me. We are both technically virgins in the strict sense. We both have histories of deep body image issues and self-harm (mine ongoing, his (mostly) in the past).

This particular day I was super overstimulated all day for reasons that had absolutely nothing to do with him (hunger, exhaustion, ongoing depressive episode, other unrelated reasons). We started messing around at night and, although I was not terribly in the mood, I was still enjoying being close to him (and wanting to be intimate before he left in the morning). It went further than I think either of us expected it to (again, EXPLICIT consent from both parties). Obviously I won't share details, but at the end of the night there was cum on me and in my bed.

Now, while all this was happening, I was enjoying it. Not sexually but sensually and romantically. But afterward, the overstimulation of being dirty and my bed being dirty hit me like a wave and I sort of internally freaked out. I made sure to reassure him that everything we did was good and that I wanted it all, which I did. He then asked if I wanted to shower together or separately. I said separately and went to shower. I took a longer time in the shower than I intended to and had a minor meltdown. I ended up self-harming (not majorly) to calm myself down and get myself out of the panic. When I came back to the room and he left to wash up, I smoked a little weed and nic while he was gone (he's a nonsmoker but knows that I do) to calm myself down more. When he came back I told him I didn't want to sleep in my bed because it was dirty, and asked if we could sleep on the couch in the living room instead (relatively isolated living room, both fully dressed and literally just sleeping, no chance of anyone stumbling upon us in the morning except MAYBE my 16-year-old sister). The rest of the night was fine.

Here's where I'm almost positive I'm the asshole. He was clearly upset with himself after what happened even though we had both wanted it, and he kept apologizing and telling me he loved me. He asked me to turn away so he could get dressed (which of course I did) which is a major change from usual. I think it was because I asked to shower separately from him and then expressed discomfort at my bed being a mess. Even though I reassured him almost relentlessly the entire evening that everything was good, he was obviously deeply upset with himself. He was also crying when he got out of the shower, but I'm 90% certain that was because he was upset about leaving the next day, since we were going to be apart for the longest we'd ever had to be due to his career.

So I just didn't tell him about the self-harming or the smoking or the meltdown. I knew he wouldn't find out because he was leaving the next day.

Why I am almost certainly the asshole: I wasn't communicating about something he almost certainly would've wanted to know about. The self-harming is particularly shitty on my part. We are both very open about our mental illness and relate in a lot of ways, so he knows I actively s/h and is not upset by it (apart from just like generally not wanting your partner to s/h). But he's so intent on communicating all of our feelings about everything that we do together that I know he would've wanted to know that I was upset, and actively hiding that I was hurting myself is a deeply deeply shitty move on my part. I know that.

Why I might not be the asshole: telling him would've done absolutely NOTHING positive for either of us. Everything we did was consensual and enjoyable, and it was only the mess afterward that overwhelmed me and just happened to be the straw that broke the camel's back after a really long day. There's absolutely nothing he did wrong or nothing he could've done to prevent it. I feel like telling him couldn't have brought about any positive results since he wasn't really responsible for it and it had nothing to do with him. It would've just led to more insane self-flagellation and self-hatred on his part.

I'm almost certain I'm the asshole here. It's been weighing on me like crazy since he left. But I almost feel like telling him would've been MORE of an asshole move on my part.

Feel free to ask any clarifying questions.

[sleepypanda27]

Lovers

Bucky x reader

Summary: You meet Bucky at a concert your friends made you go to and fall for him.

Words: 1,049

Your friends made you tag along with them to a concert. You tried to like the music, you really tried. But it just wasn't in your taste. Not that it was bad maybe if you'd been in a different kind of mood, you would like it more.

A couple of people danced, and others stood in their spots, swinging along with the music and singing along. Your feet started to hurt, so you decided to ditch your friends while they enjoyed music and headed to the bar instead. At least the concert hall was beautifully decorated for Christmas.

You ordered a glass of wine and went to find a place where you could sit. By the brick wall were placed benches. Almost everything was taken, except one.

"Is this seat taken?" You asked the man sitting on one of the benches close to the entrance back to the hall where you still could hear the music. He was buried in his phone, reading something.

He looked up at you, and you noticed a small smile on his lips. "No, please sit." He took his glass of amber liquid from the seat. You sat down, took your phone out of your purse, and browsed social media to pass the time.

"Don't like the concert, huh?" The man beside you observed.

"Not really my kind of music." You turned, facing the stranger. Undeniably, he was good-looking.

"Same here. I'm James by the way." He introduced himself with a smile. "But please call me Bucky."

"Y/n." You returned the smile, slightly blushing.

"So I guess it wasn't your choice to come here?"

"No. My friends dragged me with them. I didn't have a choice."

"Me too, I don't know why I even agreed to go, I have to work early in the morning. But now, after meeting someone in the same position, I'm not mad." He chuckled.

"Im happy my suffering brings you joy." You couldn't shake off the feeling you had seen him somewhere before. "Sorry, have we met before?"

"I don't think so, I would definitely remember if we had met." He assured.

"You seem so familiar." His eyes looked like he had experienced a lot. More than a man his age should experience.

"I get that a lot." He shrugged.

"Are you a singer?" He had a charm. An old-fashioned charm.

"Only in my shower." He chuckled. "But I'm not sure if I'm good at it."

"What's with the gloves?" You asked, noticing he was wearing black leather gloves.

"Bad circulation." He shrugged nonchalantly.

After talking a little, you both walked around and chatted about everything. You were so into the conversation you almost missed a step and tripped. Bucky caught you, holding your waist and arm. "Careful, doll. You alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, thanks." You blushed, holding onto his thick arm.

You found a place away from most of the people. Almost half of the wall was a window. It was dark outside, and it was slowly snowing. The low light outside was illuminating and making the snowflakes sparkle. You could still hear the music from the stage.

Bucky held out his hand for you. "Dance with me." The way he was looking at you felt like you were the only girl in the world. He made you swoon and you couldn't say no.

You placed your hand in his, and he pulled you closer to him, placing his other arm on the small of your back. It felt magical. The snow, the string lights wrapped around the window arch, the faint music, the man you were dancing with, it felt almost unreal.

Bucky pulled back a little to look at you as if pondering his next move. The lead singer announced the last song, bringing Bucky and you back to reality. You returned to the main concert hall.

Both of you stood in the back, looking for your friends. Since none of you could see your friends between the people, you stayed in the back by the exposed brick wall.

You shivered at the cold gust of air that flowed through the doors. The dress you were wearing didn't do much in terms of keeping you warm. Bucky noticed and took off his jacket, draping it over your shoulders, leaving his arm around your shoulders.

"Thanks." You pulled it tighter around yourself. It was warm and had a lingering scent of his cologne on it.

"Would you like to have dinner with me sometime?" He asked, without thinking, leaning close to your ear.

"What?" You weren't sure you understood right what he said over the music.

"Would you like to have dinner with me?" He almost shouted.

"I would love that." You smiled. "Give me your phone."

He unlocked his phone and gave it to you. You added your phone number to his contacts and gave it back to him.

"I'll call you." He smiled, placing the phone in the pocket of the back of his pants.

The last song ended, and people started clapping and cheering as the musicians bowed and thanked the crowd.

"There he is." A blond-haired man who seemed to be his friend approached. "Hi there." He greeted you, a little surprised.

"Hi." You responded to the stranger. You had a feeling you also had seen him somewhere before.

"We have to go." Bucky's friend said.

“Do you see your friends?” Bucky asked you.

You looked around and saw one of them who was looking at you weirdly. "Yeah, I see them."

"Good. You'll be alright? Can I leave you?"

"Yes, Bucky, I am a big girl and can take care of myself." You chuckled.

"I’m just making sure.” He smiled. After saying goodbyes, he waved as he was pushed away.

“Wait, your jacket!”

“You can give it back when we'll meet next time!” Bucky shouted as he disappeared into the crowd.

"Do you know who you were talking to?" Your friend asked, surprised.

"You mean Bucky?"

“Bucky freaking Barnes.” She looked at you with wide eyes.

“That wasn’t…wait…that can’t be.” You looked the way he went and back at your friend who had googled his photo. “Oh my god, that was him!”

“Why did he leave you his jacket?” She asked, confused.

“He asked me out.” You grinned, barely containing your excitement.

[onceuponaneverafter]

Let's Talk About Jacks's Apples

...and especially their COLORS. I wanted to figure out what they could mean, so I made a spreadsheet!

First, DISCLAIMERS:

MAJOR spoilers for OUABH and TBONA + the Caraval series!

This post was written BEFORE ACFTL and does not contain information or spoilers from it.

This post is based on my interpretations and observations, all of them may not be perfectly accurate. The conclusions I make are my theories, not necessarily canon information.

When I reference page numbers, they're from my OUABH UK paperback and TBONA UK hardcover - it's possible they're a bit off for you if you have different editions of the books.

This is a long post, so grab a snack and get comfortable!

I hope you enjoy reading! 🍎

Table Of Contents

Introduction

Why Apples?

A Detailed Look Into The Apples (= explaining everything I say I'll explain later)

The Colors

Where Do The Apples Come From

Conclusions/TL;DR

This is a long post, so here you can see what's coming and skip over to what interests you most :)

Introduction

Throughout the OUABH series, there are 14 scenes in total where Jacks is holding an apple in his hand (sometimes eating them, sometimes not) while Evangeline is there to witness it. All of those apples are unnaturally colored. To look for connections between them, I made a spreadsheet:

For sake of clarity, I will be discussing 13 total apples instead of 14 - I believe the "undescribed" apple (its color is not explicitly stated in the scene) is the same as White Apple #5, but it appears in two separate scenes, so both are included here. I will get into this later.

The spreadsheet contains various details about the apples, such as what Jacks does while holding them, when he picks them up (or if he's already holding them when they're described), what happens to them (dropped somewhere etc.), how he feels during the scene, etc. I will discuss these later in this post.

Then I realized he also has some apples in Legendary and Finale, so I made another list of the ones he has while Tella is present:

Here's a summary of all the apples:

That would make 20 apples in total, half of them being white.

Now let's go over some relevant context! Then I will get to analyzing what these colors mean and what kind of connections I found between the apples, I promise.

Why Apples?

Before we do a deep dive into the details, let's go over the basics on why Jacks keeps eating the apples. The most popular theory (if it can even be called a theory, it's basically canon) is based on what LaLa tells Evangeline in OUABH:

"When we [Fates] feel, it's intense and consuming. It devours us and drives us. And the strongest of our feelings is always the urge to be that which we were made to be." –OUABH page 270

She proceeds to explain that when she sews wedding dresses, it helps her with that urge, and to say that for Jacks it's similar – he has the desire to find his true love, and supposedly that's the one person his kiss doesn't kill. So, according to LaLa's logic, the apples help him with that. It makes a lot of sense, and everything he physically does with the apples makes more sense in light of it.

When Jacks is first introduced to the Caraval series, he is described eating an apple. While I believe the theory above is true, it was also interesting to notice that he seems to already be holding the apple when he meets Tella practically by chance. In fact, there are only four times he ever picks up an apple during a scene, and they are all during the OUABH series. I will get more into it later.

In OUABH, Jacks is described to have countless apples and apple cores in his rooms and offices, so we don't know how many he eats and why when Evangeline isn't around him. However, I found that he almost never touches Evangeline while holding an apple. (With sort of the exception of the silver apple, where he touches his dagger to her lips, and the blue apple, which he was holding before stopping Evangeline from taking the luck stone back from Chaos.)

Now, this could just be for practical reasons, but he touches Evangeline in about 21 of the 25 (I focused on the apples so this may not be the exact count) scenes where he doesn't have an apple and only in 6 of the 14 scenes where he has an apple, and in 2 of them the touch is barely there or brief and initiated by Evangeline.

An interesting comparison is how he does touch Tella while holding an apple (like Blue Apple #1 and White Caraval Apple #2), so it definitely isn't purely about logistics. Maybe it's related to him thinking she's his true love, that's the greatest difference I can think of. It is also noteworthy that he doesn't eat any apples while in the Hollow, which Evangeline also notices (TBONA 284).

With the theory above in mind, the way Jacks touches his apples is pretty straightforward:

He tosses them when he's in a good mood or needs to distract himself

Him biting them is practically his version of self-control

He drops them when things aren't so fun anymore or there's a clear mood shift (I will discuss this a bit more later).

He stabs two apples in total: the Silver Apple and White OUABH Apple #4. the first time he tells Evangeline how Apollo would be eternally heartbroken if she called off the engagement, the second time he tells Evangeline that the Archer ends up killing the Fox. And what unites these? Great heartbreak.

A Detailed Look Into The Apples

Or in other words, let's get into everything I said I would discuss later. After this, we'll look more into the apple colors.

The Undescribed Apple

I believe that White Apple #5, the apple Jacks holds in his hand before he and Evangeline leave to LaLa's engagement party, is the same as the apple that he picks up in the next scene, in the carriage as they travel - its color is not described, but the narration leads to the assumption that this apple is already familiar to the reader:

"Jacks leaned back in his seat and picked up his apple" –TBONA page 184

13 is also a more meaningful number than 14 (and the total count of all apples would be 20 instead of 21), so even though the total number might be purely coincidental, it also could be a fun intentional detail.

Caraval vs. OUABH

There are some very interesting parallels between apples in Legendary/Finale and apples in OUABH/TBONA.

First, we have the blue apple (in Legendary) that Jacks ends up dropping into a fireplace (see chart below). The only other apple that he specifically drops into fire is the very last white apple in TBONA. Before he drops the blue apple, Tella says that nothing could make her fall in love with him. Before he drops the white apple, Evangeline suggests that maybe Jacks could find another true love.

Second, every apple is either last seen still in his hand or dropped on the floor/ground (or fire), except for two: the sparkling white one in Finale (in Tella's dream again) and the pink one in OUABH, which he tosses to Tella and Evangeline. He directly encourages Tella to taste the white apple, and he tells Evangeline that she might need a snack. In terms of color, the sparkling white apple is especially interesting – I will look into the sparkling later along with the colors.

"Jacks picked up his apple"

The main difference between the Caraval and OUABH apples - and the one thing that keeps messing up my theories - is that during the Caraval series, Jacks never picks up an apple during a scene, he is always already holding one when the scene begins (see chart above). However, during OUABH and TBONA, he picks up four apples in total. And they are all white.

White Apple #1: Meeting Evangeline for the first time

White Apple #3: Evangeline says she'd stab Jacks if she got the chance to

White Apple #5: Evangeline forbids Jacks from killing people at LaLa's party

White Apple #7: Jacks lets go of Evangeline and shuts off from her, he's about to tell her the truth about planning to go back in time

All of them are different in terms of why exactly he picks up the apple, but there is more or less a shift in tone/topic of their conversation during all of these scenes.

The Colors

White Apples

I think that white apples are the "default" color, and/or they represent focusing on what's important.

They make up half of the apples Jacks has, and all of the apples he spontaneously picks up are white. So, if something like his emotions or circumstances affect the apple colors (which I think is at least somewhat the case), it makes sense for white to be the basic color – and what would be a better "default" apple than the one who reminds him not to get distracted.

Even though the apple he tosses to Tella is sparkling white, I don't think the color represents her because he was holding a white apple before he met Tella. He couldn't have been thinking of her, but he most likely had plans that he was thinking over as he was hoping to take the throne from Elantine.

Black Apples

I originally thought the black color could mean bad intentions or regret, but I'm now quite sure it represents doing whatever it takes to get what he wants. The context surrounding the black apples highlights this:

Black Apple #1: Jacks offers his help in exchange for controlling Tella's emotions. He wants to find true love more than anything, and this is his last attempt to make Tella fall for him.

Black Apple #2: He's controlling Apollo in order to make him propose to Evangeline. He needs it, again, in order to reach his goal – only this time he's planning to go back in time. Still to find true love, though.

Black Apple #3: This one stands out a bit from the other two. Jacks brings Evangeline to Chaos' castle so she can be healed after Apollo shot her. Here the black apple might symbolize doing anything to keep Evangeline alive (he also needs her alive, so that checks out, but at this point I don't think it's just that), and possibly his reluctance to either ask Chaos for help or put Evangeline through being infected with vampire venom.

Blue Apples

Blue apples seem to represent happiness and success, because we tend to see them after something went just like Jacks wanted. This could also be connected to his eye color.

Blue Apple #1: It's the first apple we see after Tella didn't die of his kiss, and he's obviously more than happy about that.

Blue Apple #2. He got into Tella's dream, for the second time, and he had successfully tricked her into the "marriage thing" before.

Blue Apple #3. He is holding this one right after Evangeline agreed to open the Valory Arch, while the apple he held in the previous scene (only five pages earlier) was white.

The Golden Apple

The apples that there are just one of are the trickiest because there's less context to go by, but I think the golden apple represents Tella. It's the first one we see in his hand after the events of Finale, and Tella's hair color is close enough to it. She is also a princess now, which the color gold could also represent.

It's worth mentioning that it could also be tied to failure, heartbreak, or Jacks's own hair color (as it is often described as golden). He also lives in the North now, known as Lord Jacks, and he's "friends" (?) with Apollo, a prince, so it could be related to that as well.

The Silver Apple

I think the silver apple is like a "milder" version of the blue apple, in which case the apple representing happiness would definitely be intentionally the same color as his eyes: The Caraval Wiki describes his eye color as "silver-blue".

When Jacks has the silver apple, Evangeline has got married to Apollo just like he wanted, but everything isn't perfect yet. He's quite content, but it isn't quite as big satisfaction as when he has a blue apple. However, because Evangeline asked him to meet, the apple's color could also represent for example curiosity.

The Pink Apple

Because of Evangeline's hair color, the pink apple seems to intuitively represent her. Not only that, he's just spent the night holding her before he appears with the pink apple in hand, so it just makes a lot of sense to me. This is also the apple he tossed to her.

The Purple Apple

I've had the most trouble with the purple apple. It being the apple he holds after talking with Scarlett and the scene leading to Tella's discovery that his heart beats, and the only purple apple during any book and scene, I don't even know where to start.

While basic color symbolism is connected to the apple colors loosely at most, purple as a symbol for royalty, nobility, and power could make sense if he wanted to emphasize those qualities while talking to Scarlett. Purple is also associated with mystery, and with us and Tella not finding out immediately why he met with Scarlett, it could also be a storytelling element.

Bonus: Sparkling/shimmering Apples

There are some apples that deserve a special mention, and that's the ones that are described as sparkling or shimmering.

White Caraval Apple #3, "sparkling white": This is the apple that Jacks gives to Tella (in her dream), urging her to taste it.

Black Apple #3, "shimmering black": And this apple is in TBONA, when Jacks brings Evangeline to Chaos' castle to be healed.

The only similarity between them that I've found so far is that they both stand out from the other white and blue apples: the sparkling white apple is the only white apple that Jacks gives to someone else, and the shimmering black apple is the third one that stands out to me (see "Black Apples" above).

Where Do The Apples Come From

A very good and for now unanswered question is where Jacks gets the apples from. Does he pick them from a tree? What tree? What color are they, do they start off as natural apples or maybe white? What makes an apple something other than their default color? For these questions, I don't have solid theories yet, only speculation.

We're all obsessed with how intensely Fates feel when they do feel something (*cough* the end of TBONA *cough*), but I also think that it could have something to do with the apples, at least some of them. When Jacks feels something or spends a lot of time thinking of something, maybe it could somehow affect the apples' colors? Some of the apples seem to be connected to his emotions, such as the blue ones. No apples are seen changing colors and some apples seem to not have a direct connection to his emotions, though, so there is little evidence to support this.

Conclusions

To summarize everything I went over above,

There are 20 apples in total that Jacks is seen holding throughout every scene he is in, seven of them during the Caraval series and 13 during OUABH and TBONA.

What Jacks does with his apples (tossing, biting, picking up, dropping) is connected to his emotions.

The apples have different colors that I believe represent different things: white (10 of 20, focusing on what's important), black (3 of 20, doing whatever it takes), blue (3 of 20, happiness), gold (1 of 20, possibly Tella? multiple possibilities), silver (1 of 20, possibly happiness mixed with something else), pink (1 of 20, Evangeline?), and purple (1 of 20, power? nobility? mystery?).

The origin of the apples is for now unknown, as is the reason for each color (both the colors' meanings and how they take on the different colors).

With all that said, there is quite much room for interpretation, especially in terms of the apple colors. My theories aren't the only correct ones, and I do not wish to present them that way. As I stated in the beginning, I might have overlooked details or noted some down inaccurately. The purpose of this post was to share my findings and to have fun theorizing!

Let's hope that we get some actual answers for these in ACFTL and that the books treat us kindly <3 Please do not give me any spoilers, not on the topic of apples or anything else, I'm actively trying to avoid them!

If you read this far, THANK YOU SO MUCH!! I poured my heart into this research and this analysis, and I'm so happy if at least one person besides myself enjoys looking at my little findings. <3 Here, have an apple as a reward: 🍎

[angsthology]

“so much for identity keeping” — or an alt title: roo’s nighttime job

the grid caught roo in a different light, holding a different kind of instrument

a/n the title’s a bit ambiguous but bare with it 😭😭 (bare?? bear?? which one is it i genuinely dk)

thinking back, this is pretty bad so im sorry for that. still trying to get my mojo back.

THE KANGAROO(KIE) VS THE WORLD

“you think she actually hates us?”

the group of men were currently out and about exploring the night life. though, this time they decided to switch things up a little. instead of their usual glamorous clubs, they decided to go somewhere that offered live music. seb described it as ‘a change of pace’ and in return, lando said that his ‘age is getting to him’ (behind his back, that is).

the entire grid was there as they were all invited — except one.

“what? c’mon, why not?” lando made an expression of offense.

“not tonight. any other night is fine, but i already have plans. sorry, lan.” she shrugged before walking away towards where her car was parked.

that didn’t stop him from following her, though. the curly-haired brit fell in step right behind the shorter girl to—well, truthfully, beg.

“it’ll be fun!” he reasoned.

shaking her head, she stopped mid-step and faced the brunette, making him stop abruptly too.

“i’m sure it will. but i’ve had this plan since way before you probably planned yours.”

he pouted. she couldn’t help but roll her eyes at his attempt.

“next time, lan. i promise.”

remembering the conversation had lando still coated with bitterness. “not surprised if she does.”

max couldn’t help but laugh at his friend’s bitterness. he tapped his back (to which surprised lando), “no she don’t. i’m sure she has her reasons.”

as if on cue, suddenly they hear a familiar voice booming through the speakers.

the men’s heads never turned so quick before.

“oh mY GO—”

max was quick to snap his hand over lando’s mouth. and, on cue, not a moment too soon—

“EW!”

the dutch man immediately removed his hand off of lando’s mouth and wiped it on the british driver’s clothes, all the while holding an (overdramatic) expression of disgust.

he glared at the man and continued to talk (grumble), “if she didn’t tell you — or any of us, for that matter. she probably has her reasons.”

lando blinked. “okay? so?”

“so…” daniel walked up behind his teammate and rested his hands on both sides of his shoulders, “we should sit back, quietly, and watch.” he paused, lando still thinking with furrowed brows, “she doesn’t have to know.”

lando’s face brighten up as he finally catched up. “ah, i see.”

“but don’t you guys think—”

immediately, the older german man stopped his miniature, “don’t even try, mick. you know it won’t work.”

mick was about to say something else when he was suddenly cut off by lando shushing everyone. eventually he gave up trying to reason with anyone and sat down (in the dark, might i add) with everyone else as the stage lightings start to turn on.

there on the stage stood roo on the (audience’s) right holding a sticker-drowned plain white bass guitar. on center-stage stood roo’s friend they knew as daisy-mae holding her own red and white guitar along with an unfamiliar face sitting behind the drums.

everyone was surprised to see the stage lights turn on to a bright neon pink-haired roo rather than her usual hair color.

she wore a sleeveless white top with a big star design in the middle of her chest and a leather skirt paired with a pair of black thigh-high boots.

“interesting…” muttered lando with his chin resting on his interlaced hands. all the while the younger german driver across him tilted his head in an unreadable expression.

next thing they knew a tune starts to play and to their surprise, the once alfa romeo driver turned band geek leaned in the microphone, “angel… with a gun in your hand…”

their jaws dropped at the sound of her voice.

“she can sing…?”

“…she has a life outside of driving?!”

everyone’s heads immediately to the young aston martin driver, all with the same judging expression.

at that, the canadian immediately jumped ahead to defend himself. “what? she’s new! that’s how i thought of all of you when we all first met!” he said defensively with his hands (and voice) going up.

but, in truth was, no one really knew who she was. the closest thing they’ve figured out about her personal life was daisy-mae. and she was way more quiet about it than roo.

compared to the rest of the grid, she was probably the most private person yet. they seem to know so much about her yet also none at all. whether it was because she was new and still hadn’t warmed up to them like that yet or that’s just the way she is and they just haven’t gotten used to it yet. they—the media—would often compare her to kimi but that would just be wrong considering they’re nothing alike besides being tight-lipped.

watching her in another element was a new and interesting experience for them. very interesting. some might even be confident enough to bet it against her racing career.

with furrowed brows, carlos whispers to his teammate, “you think she would ever leave racing for this?”

“we’re not that lucky, mate.” charles mumbled, then shrugging, “plus you’d actually think she would leave mick?”

their moment of entertainment and amazement was cut short when she followed along the lyrics that escaped her lips.

“go on, replace me… when you’re cravin’ something sweeter than the words i left in your mouth… go on and spit me out.”

she. was. shameless.

it was almost as if the girl on that stage was not the same girl they drove on the track with, the same girl they do press conferences with, the same girl that was their co-worker and on-track rival.

that theory only furthermored when she switched instruments with daisy-mae and took over the entire stage with her presence, rocking her own solo riff.

they were seriously doubting this was the same girl as the kangaroo’s grid.

when the last notes were strung and the music died down, the girl walked over to the mic stand that once was occupied by her friend.

she started, “hi, everyone.” she was slightly out of breath — not surprise there — “we are: talking excessively. i’m your bassist slash occasional guitarist: autumn rolfe,”

the men collectively furrowed their brows in confusion, sharing glances with each other with words unspoken.

sure they doubted the rockstar was their co-worker and friend but they knew for sure it was roo. and that was not her name.

“joined by my beloveds—camellia gray,”— she pointed at daisy-mae —“on the guitar holding my bass, and finally our drummer rocky dilltogas.” she pointed at the unfamiliar new character — probably not his real name either after seeing a certain pattern.

strumming a few strings, the girl then continue speaking, “for this next song… i’ve begged and begged dai– cami for so long for us to perform this song. lucky yous, this was the night she finally agreed.” she smiles as she exchange instruments with daisy-mae—or ‘camellia gray’ as she said—once more.

then, an all-familiar tune starts playing. one that completely confirmed her identity.

“stacy, can i come over after school?”

a couple of more songs later (all the while the group of men continue to question their judgement) and the band bid their farewell after finishing their last song.

it was the three past rookies to show themselves — under the light that the girl would definitely notice them.

they saw as the blood draining from her face when she noticed their giggling faces. oh how she hated those three.

roo immediately said an awkward ‘thank you’ hurriedly and basically sprinted off to the backstage, leaving her two bandmates in confusion.

that is, until her best friend spotted the three giggling men. they waved at her happily, feigning innocence as her face dropped knowing exactly that they were the reason.

behind the stage, roo was still in shock, standing like she’s seen a ghost until her bandmates walked over to her.

daisy-mae was the first to walk over to her, a hand on her friend’s shoulder, “it’s fine.”

“i’m going to kill them.” she replied, her expression unmoved.

“i mean that’s one way to do it—”

“what happened?” asked the drummer.

before any of them could explain to him, they were interrupted by said explanation as they all approached them.

her face was almost in a permanent expression, hardening when she saw the three demons that held complete malice in their eyes when instead she was surprised with showers of compliments by her older co-workers.

but still, that didn’t stop the rest from existing and taking the big chance of absolutely mess with her. they would never give up the opportunity to pull a reaction from roo.

“so, autumn rolfe, was it?” george smiled happily with his arms crossed.

“shut up.”

“i think i’m co-workers with your sister: spring.” snickered alex.

“funny. anythin’ else?” she deadpanned.

“yeah—”

but before the mclaren driver could say anything, roo had already had her fingers clasped on his ear—cutting off his shits and giggles.

“what the hell! i haven’t said anything, why didn’t you do it when these guys were talkin’!” he complained.

“you’re the nearest one.”

“you and i are exactly the same distance as you and alex!”

“yeah, but he’s a whole electric pole, you’re a gremlin.”

“just say you hate me the most.”

“i hate you the most.”

he rolls his eyes, grumbling, “you’re not my favorite either.”

“lying? really? you know that’s my thing, right?”

their bantering was interrupted when roo heard her name being called. she turned around to see her bandmates standing behind her with another new presence with them.

her eyes widen and quickly let go of lando’s ear, running off to her friends.

“everyone! since i no longer have any form of privacy, i’d like to introduce you to my friends.” the drivers all crowded the group of four. “you guys know daisy-mae,” said girl waved and a string of familiar ‘hi’s and ‘hello’s greeted her, “this here is atticus,” the boy they recognized as the drummer smiled politely at them. roo then looked at the new girl standing beside daisy-mae, “and uh, this is nika, don’t know when or how she got here.”

“but she’s happy i’m here.” said girl stated happily with a giddy smile.

“sure.”

at her monotonous voice, nika’s smile dropped, rolling her eyes.

everyone then slowly dropped the topic and went on their own as another band take over the stage with their more upbeat dance worthy music.

she was left was now only left with alex, george, and lando. she sighed.

“anything else?”

george shrugged, “but seriously, i think it was pretty cool.”

the girl couldn’t help but feel the heat rushing to her face, she never expected a compliment coming out of his mouth.

“oh. uh, thanks?”

“i mean, by the looks of you i had a feeling you have some sort of hannah montana-esque secret somewhere.” alex mentioned, only making roo’s eyes furrow. “that was a compliment.” he clarified after seeing the look on her face.

then, lando leaned over to her and whispered in her ear, “don’t tell her this but i always thought she was really cool, this was just an upgrade.”

confused, again, roo turned to a goofy-grinning lando with her right brow raised. alex caught her attention when started again, “he’s had a few drinks.��

“well. we’ll see you on the dance floor, i’m assuming?” george asked, sipping from the drink in his hand.

she nodded as the three went on, lando lingered behind with her.

“guess you did ended up goin’ out with us after all!” he said before leaving her with a smile mumbling a ‘yeah’.

roo was about to follow behind him when a certain spanish driver approached her, putting his arm around her frame. he took a sip from his drink before speaking as they walked together towards the bar.

“ever think of performing at birthday parties?”

“whose?”

“mine.”

“your birthday’s passed, nando.”

“incase you didn’t know, they’re a yearly thing.”

she chuckled, “sure thing, pop.”

“oh, and nice hair, by the way.”

“thanks.”

taglist; @treehouse-mouse @disneyprincemuke @yansbolobao @leilanixx @judespoision @vellicora @bborra lemme know what ya think 🥰 & tell me if u want to be added

[phantoms-lair]

If you're still taking crossover roulette requests, 59 please.

Tim had he doubts about being Robin. About whether he was good enough to follow in the footsteps of Dick, of Jason. That's why he was in Paris, supposed to be training with an old acquaintance of Bruce's.

Except said old acquaintance was no longer here. And now Tim had to figure out what to do next.

"Yen for your thoughts?" A Japanese youth sat next to him.

"Who are you?' Tim asked.

The teen shrugged. "Just a guy who's down on his luck and hearing your woes will distract me from my own."

Tim weighed his words. "I was in training for a position that requires three things. Intelligence, stealth, and combat ability. The first two I can do, the last I need more training. I was supposed to meet a specialist here, but he's gone and now I don't know what to do. Going back home feels like admitting defeat. That I failed. And I can't, I promised..."

"And promises are important. I get that." he nodded his head and winced. "That guy you were sent here to find...it didn't happen to be Ramuh Lama or his grandson?"

Tim sat up straight.

"Of course," the Japanese guy muttered. "So I have a friend who's a little...spatially challenged. We say he gets lost easily but it more than that. Unless he's being led to a place, he sort of...teleports randomly. And he never believes it's as bad as it is as he always gets to where he wants to go...eventually. I made the mistake of following him instead of leading him and that's why I'm in Paris. We heard about Ramuh Lama and thought he'd be interesting to learn from. Our first meeting seemed promising, but my guess is Ryoga tried to lead them somewhere because all three up and vanished. So they'll show back up. Eventually."

Tim buried his head in his hands.

"Hey, maybe we can help each other out." the Japanese guy said brightly. "I don't speak French and I'm not very bright, but the one thing I know how to do is fight. I've never taught before, but if Pop's can do it, I can! Well, maybe not how Pops did it, but I'll figure it out! So I'll teach you how to fight, and you help me, like, get a place to stay without people asking for an ID. Deal?"

"You don't want a way home?" Tim asked.

The guy winced. "I did at first. But...gonna be honest, living rough in France has been way less stressful. So I don't mind prolonging it until Ryoga gets back."

Sounded like something for Tim to look into. Not just a bad home life, but apparently someone who only barely knew the warning signs of one. "Call me Robin."

"Ranma." the now named Ranma grinned. "Oh I know how to start this off!"

~

"What is this place?"

"Underground fighting arena." Ranma said. "Food and rent for me, and a menu for you."

"A menu?" Tim asked.

"There are as many different ways of fighting as there are fish in the sea. I'll enter, thankfully some of the organizers speak English, and you'll watch. Not who wins or loses, but how different competitors fight, so you'll know what you want to learn."

"Rent? I thought you couldn't find a place to stay?"

Ranma shrugged. "I can't because I don't speak French and a foreigner without reservations is weird enough people are going to look into me and then I get in trouble for entering the country illegally. But I'm going to need money for when you fix that." Thankfully fast food places were less discerning.

Ranma went to the fighter's area and Tim settled in among the betters. He had some ideas going through his head. A weapon to make up for his smaller size and reach. Probably a style like Judo where he could take advantage of his opponents being bigger than him. He noted different moves as he saw them, mentally cataloging asking Ranma to teach him. And then Ranma took the arena, four men set against him when previously that fights had been one on one.

And Tim felt something click inside him. Ranma was strong, that was undeniable. But he didn't fight like someone who was strong. He played with his opponents, matching their capabilities, but able to amp it up when he felt it necessary. He was fast, almost too fast for Tim to see. He played his foes against each other, maneuvering them in each other's way and setting them all up for a fall.

This...this was how Robin should fight. All the techniques and holds Tim had been cataloguing were discarded. And for a moment he felt bad that he was grateful Ryoga had wandered off with Ramuh Lama.

He was looking down at the Robin he wanted to be. And thankful he had him as a teacher.

~~~~

Notes on this:

Ranma can speak English because the Chi Vampire is an excellent motivations to excel in class.

Tim gives Robin as his name because that's how he identifies himself to Chuck in the comics this is taking place during

Tim WILL learn the Umi-Sen Ken

Tim offers to bring Ranma back to Gotham. Ranma declines. Catwoman lives there.

Yes, they're both going to run into Lady Shiva and get some training

Shiva is very impressed with Ranma, and at one point while fighting in his female form comments that if he had been closer to her age, David Cain might have approached her for birthing a weapon for him.

Tim and Ranma add tracking down Cassandra Cain to their to do list.

Tim shows back up at Wayne Manor several months late, with very scary fighting skills and two dark haired kids he's adopted as siblings(Ranma caved on coming to help with Cass and the assurance that Catwoman only came out at night).

Alfred is now concerned that Tim is FAR more like Master Bruce than previously thought

[luimagines]

Father Time

Another commission!

They asked for father figure! Time who may or ay be their actual dad to a kid who joined the group of heroes. It’s just a sweet little thing. I hope you all enjoy!

Masterlist

Content under the cut!

“Dad!”

“Here we go.”

“Dad! Dad. Dad. Dad. Dad. Father! Papa! Dadd-”

“Yes! Yes! What?” A laugh tumbles out of his before he can help it. “My, my. You are persistent.”

Giggles follow soon after before a smaller force collides into his back. Time shakes his head, putting his hands over the smaller arms that wrap around him.

Multiple heads turn their way, before snapping back in a failed attempt at subtlety. Time takes a mental note of it, although he’s not entirely sure if there will ever be a moment where he could properly attend to it. 

“I have a request.” The younger one popped their head from around his side. A newer addition to the group. They’ve seemed to have taken a liking to him and Time to them. Something about them was enough to loosen his nerve and façade. 

They smile and let go of him, instead using the opportunity to hang off of his arm and swing it with wild abandon. They can’t be much older than their Sailor, perhaps by a year or two, but they act younger than the other ones their age. It’s stunning, seeing the difference their adventures mark on the heroes. They don’t claim to be one of the chosen, at least. They were just at the wrong place at the wrong time and now they’re traveling with the group.

Time shakes his head, letting them do as they please with his arm. He can still feel lingering stares from the boys. “What is it?”

“Why do you only have cute nicknames for the Rancher and the Champion?” They pout. “Seems a bit unfair, don’t you think? I’d like one too.”

Time trips over his own foot for a second before he takes his arm away. Before the kid can get the wrong idea, he wraps it around their shoulders and pulls them into a headlock, ruffling their hair. 

“H-hey! Let me go! That’s not part of the deal!” They cry, trying to push him away.

Time laughs, letting them go. He gives them a beat so that they can recover from the onslaught before he replies to their question. While they hold the top of their head in exaggerated defeat, Time guides them back to keep moving forward. “The Rancher is an exception and the Champion’s name was chosen for him by said rancher. No one else has nicknames.”

He smirks. They pout harder.

They cross their arms and look away from him now. It’s as if he has offended their very existence. “I still think it’s blatant favoritism. How come I don’t get one?!”

Time doesn’t think he’s winning this one. Somewhere in the group he can hear a snicker from one of the boys. Hidden, breathy mummers about him being a pushover reach his ears, but with the kid standing in front of him with a finger to his chest, there's little he can do to address it. 

He puts his hands up instead. “Alright. What would you like to be called?”

“Noooo!!!” They groan, tossing their arms over their head. “That’s not how this works!”

Time snorts, ruffling their hair once more for good measure. “Am I supposed to come up with one for you then?”

They don’t try to fight him this time. “...Yes...”

Time nods, purposely walking away from them. “I suppose you’d want it to be all your own.”

“Yes! No copying others!” They seem to brighten, happily following his footsteps.

Putting his hands behind his back, he tries to think of something that would work. Given that this seems to be important to them, he doesn’t want to brush it aside. Even if he wants to give them a hard time for a little longer.

“How about Honeybee?”

“No way!”

“Pumpkin?”

“I’m not a little kid.”

“Sport?”

“Come on!”

“Champ?”

“Dad!”

Time snorts, covering his mouth. “Ok, ok ok.”

They huff and puff, trying to keep up the act of their pride. But when they think he’s not looking, they let a little sliver of a grin peak past their defenses. They’re just as much fun with it as he is.

“I say you can call them Honey Bear.” Wild breaks the silence. “With their sweet tooth, I’m surprised they haven’t shortened my supply.”

“Honeybee would be a little more accurate with how they never seem to sit still.” Warrior laughs to himself. “Busy as a bee as they say.”

“I like Honeybee.” Time mutters, still thinking about it. He looks over to the kid to get a reaction but instead they seem a little red in the face and they seem to be biting their lip. “How about that?”

“It’s cheating because the Captain thought of it first.” They grumble, even as their cheeks darken.

Warrior lets out a small cry of victory while Time knows that he has to think of something else.

“How about I just call you Honey from now on?” He leans down to look them in the eye. “Is that ok, Honey?”

They finally struggle to hold eye contact, even as a blinding, if shy, smile adorns their face. “It’s ok…”

“Our turn!” Wind cheers, bounding up to attach himself to Time’s other arm. “We all get nicknames too, right? Otherwise it’s blatant favoritism.” 

Time gets caught off guard. “Um- well.. I… sure? I don’t see why not but I didn’t think that-”

“Awesome! Then it’s time for all of us to have one. Except Twilight and Wild since they already have nicknames.” Wind puts Time’s hand in his own hair. “And Honey, of course.”

The kid on his other side blushes. “H-hey! Only dad can call me that! You just call me by my name!”

Wind sticks his tongue out, still holding Time’s hand hostage. They stick their tongue out in return.

Time sighs, ruffling both of their heads as he looks to the rest of the group. They all seem to be looking at him expectantly. 

So he gives them names and his is Dad.

[bts-multi-stan]

Jeon Jungkook- Soulmates

AN: Not me literally posting in 2021 and then disappearing, LOL. I hope you guys like this one! xoxo

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

“Y/N how are you feeling? Only 5 minutes until you get your soulmate tattoo!” I glanced over at my friend Soo-ah, who was sitting up on her knees while staring at me excitedly. It was the night before my 21st birthday, and we were staying up until midnight so I could see my soulmate tattoo for the first time, right when the clock hit 12. The tattoo appears somewhere on your body, and it’s supposed to help you find your soulmate, the person that the universe fated you to be with. Some tattoos were a direct match of each other, but they could also be two different tattoos that compliment each other. Take my parents, for example. My mother had a bumblebee on her ankle and my father had a sunflower on his ankle. When two soulmates touch for the first time, their tattoo starts to tingle, and then glow, indicating the match.

“I would say I’m nervous, but I’ve been so nervous all day that now I’m just tired and want to get it over with and go to bed. I had a horrible night's sleep last night in anticipation. I’m exhausted” Soo-ah nods sympathetically. She had a similar experience the day before she received her soulmate tattoo. Except, unlike tonight, she ended up falling asleep right before midnight and didn’t see her tattoo until the next morning. So this time, she was determined to stay up with me, “to live vicariously through you,” she said earlier in the day. “I’m just gonna take a 5 minute power nap to rest my eyes, let me know when it’s midnight.” I shut my eyes and we sit in silence for the next few minutes. As Soo-ah’s alarm rings, I start to feel a tingling sensation on my right shoulder blade.

“Y/N it’s midnight!!!! Oh my god what’s your tattoo?! Where is it?!” I winced while opening my eyes while sitting up in her bed.

“It’s on my shoulder, help me up to your mirror please?” I reach both my arms out, and Soo-ah pulls me out of bed and towards her floor length mirror. Shrugging off my sweatshirt and turning around, I gasp. The tattoo is fairly small, but incredibly detailed. It’s a line of the planets in the solar system, in striking black ink. But what stood out was the sun and the planet Venus. Instead of the black ink, the two were outlined in purple, and had a slight shimmer to it. Reaching awkwardly around my back, I traced over the tattoo with my finger.

“It’s so beautiful, far more exciting than the jar of peanut butter on my wrist” Soo-ah said, causing me to laugh. “Here, let me get a photo of it,” I nodded and moved my hair to the side, while Soo-ah snapped a photo, and texted it to me. “Are you planning on posting it on any of the tattoo forums?”

“Probably not, but I’ll definitely join some to see if anyone has posted a photo that seems to match or compliment mine” I sat back down on the bed, forwarding the photo to my parents, who had already sent me happy birthday messages. I would’ve spent the night with them, but they were both in Europe for some work trip, hence why I was with Soo-ah. Suddenly, there was a knock on the door.

“Happy 21st birthday Y/N!! And happy soulmark day! Let me see” Soo-ah’s mother entered the room, holding two pink velvet cupcakes and handed them to Soo-ah and me. Soo-ah’s mother was like my second mother, always stepping up to be there for me when my parents were away on business, which was often. When we were little, I would stay at their house, sometimes for weeks at a time. She worked as a producer at the HYBE Corporation, helping write and produce songs for BTS, Seventeen, and several other kpop groups and idols. Although, no amount of begging from me and Soo-ah would convince her to let us go to work with her.

“Thank you Mrs. Lee” I took the cupcake from her and turned around so she could get a good look at the tattoo, while I devoured the cupcake in a few bites.

“Hmm, this tattoo looks familiar to me” Her mom said, while whipping out her phone to snap a photo of it. I swear, I’ve seen it before” Soo-ah and I’s heads whipped around to look at her, while she typed on her phone.

“Really mom? Do you think it was from one of your friend’s kids, or maybe from someone from church?” Soo-ah asked. Her mom shook her head.

“I texted it to one of my colleagues. I think it’s from somewhere at work” My eyes widened, and Soo-ah and I shared a look with each other. My soulmate could potentially work at Hybe? Could it maybe be a trainee, or an idol? Soo-ah’s mom continued to observe my tattoo for a few minutes, when suddenly her phone rang. Who could be calling at this hour? She answered, surprisingly, “Hello? Ahh really? And it’s confirmed that it matches his tattoo? All right, I’ll let her know, thanks, see you tomorrow. Bye.” Soo-ah and I had moved towards each other, clutching each other in stress and anticipation.

“What was that all about? Did you find my soulmate that quickly?” I asked her. Her mom shook her head in disbelief.

“I just got off the phone with that colleague I told you about. He said that your tattoo is a 100% match for Jeon Jungkook’s tattoo. HR and their manager have already confirmed it.” Soo-ah and I’s mouths drops and I stare at her. I stare at her for so long that she starts waving her hands in front of our faces to snap us out of our trance.

“No. Way. So what happens next?” Soo-ah asks, while grabbing one of her plushes and pulling it close to her. She also throws her panda plush to me, which I am grateful for. I need something to squeeze in stress.

“Well, if you’re comfortable with it, HR wants to set up a meeting with you to talk about the situation. My guess is they’ll probably pull in some of BTS’ management team, PR, and some other professionals. Jungkook is currently in Japan promoting their comeback, but I’m sure he’ll be notified in the morning, alongside the rest of the guys. They’re thinking of having the meeting tomorrow. Are you okay to go in?” I nodded silently, still trying to process the whole situation. “Soo-ah, you can come too, since you’re now in on the secret. Y/N, hold off on telling your parents for now. I’m sure you’ll get all your questions answered tomorrow. And I’ll be with you the whole time” Soo-ah’s mom took my hand and squeezed it gently. “Try and get some sleep. I know how tired you are. In the morning we can write a list of all your questions over breakfast. And don’t forget, it is your birthday. We won’t forget to celebrate.” Throwing the panda plush aside, I wrapped my arms around her in a big hug.

“Thanks so much Mrs. Lee. You and Soo-ah’s support means everything to me.” She hugged back, and then got up to retire for the night.

“Good night girls. If you need help falling asleep, don’t forget there are melatonin gummies in the bathroom cabinet.” The door shut behind her, and Soo-ah and I stared at each other for a few moments. Then, she spoke.

“I think we’re going to need those melatonin gummies.

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

The next morning, Soo-ah’s mom woke us up from our deep slumber for breakfast. As we sat down to eat, she let us know that the meeting was set for a few hours later in the day, and what to expect. We also brainstormed some general questions for them, mostly regarding privacy concerns, and other stuff. She also told us that Jungkook and the rest of the boys had been notified of the situation, and that he had already asked to send along a message for me.

Happy 21st birthday, my soulmate. I’ll see you soon, my love.

How is this man so damn perfect?

“I must’ve saved the country in a past life for the universe to reward me so generously” I said, while applying my makeup. Soo-ah snorted.

“Not just save the country. You must’ve saved the world. I’m so jealous of you. But I'm happy. I’m so happy for you. You have a heart of gold, and Jungkook is a lucky guy to be your soulmate.”

“Ahh, don’t make me cry! I just put on my eyeliner!”

“Oops, sorry about that. I’ll stop with the sappy talk now. Are you ready to go? We still have to drive to the building, so we should probably head out soon.” I nodded, standing up and adjusting my jeans. “Allright, lets go!”

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

“Is this what Soo-ah’s mom does everyday? This is a horribly redundant meeting” I thought, while sitting in the conference room. For the past 2 hours, Soo-ah and I sat listening to employee after employee discuss their department’s plan for when the members started to find their soulmates, and how to move forward. I’ve already signed what feels like 100 non-disclosure agreements, and provided all my personal information so the company could have it on file. This was the first time a member had connected with their soulmate, so I guess I’m the guinea pig for the company response. Hopefully it gets less painful for the rest of the soulmates when they’re found. Finally we finished everything on the agenda and were allowed to leave. I was quickly brought down to HR, where my photo was taken and my ID badge was printed, giving me all access to the building. Then Soo-ah’s mother gave us a quick tour of the building before heading to her studio for the day to work on some music. Soo-ah and I headed back to her house to chill out and process the events of the past 24 hours. As we lay sprawled on her bed, she turned to look at me.

“What do you want to do for the rest of the day y/n?” Soo-ah asked me. I bit my lip while contemplating how I wanted to let off some steam. I was definitely tense from all the information that had been thrown at me.

“How about some fried chicken, beer, and karaoke?”

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

One week later, I sat patiently in the private airport terminal, awaiting the arrival of BTS’ private plane. A few hours after the meeting at the HYBE building, I had gotten a text message from Jungkook, who had gotten my number from his managers. After the initial nervousness wore off, along with being starstruck, we quickly became quite comfortable texting and calling each other. We talked almost every night, getting to know each other, and catching up on years of information. I had already received a package from him, a beautiful bracelet with two small charms of Venus and the Sun, a reference to our shared tattoo. I also received another package full of BT21 Cooky plushies and decorations. Jungkook had found out during our first phone call that I was a big Chimmy lover, to his disdain and Jimin’s delight.

“I will not let my soulmate love Chimmy over Cooky. I will convince you Cooky is far superior” I remember him saying. I thought he was joking, but I guess he took it as a challenge. I’m quickly starting to realize how he got the reputation of being the most competitive in the group. Before I fade off into deep thought, footsteps pull me out of my thoughts. I look up to see Jungkook full-on sprinting towards me, with the rest of the members and staff not far behind him.

“Y/N! You’re so beautiful, how did I get so lucky?!” He grabbed me by my waist and picked me up and spun me around while laughing. It was truly a fairytale moment. He set me down, but didn’t let me go, continuing to hold me in a tight hug, while everyone else caught up to him. I felt the tingling of our tattoos connecting for the first time, but all I could think about was Jungkook holding me tight. As I pulled away slightly, he looked down at me and giggled, placing a soft kiss on my forehead, and then my cheek. Before he could capture my lips, I turned my head away shyly, my face getting hot, and feeling an intense blush creep up my cheeks.

“Jungkook, there are people watching us.” I hid my face in his chest, while he softly stroked my hair, pushing it out of my face. Taking my chin and tilting my head up to meet his face, he softly said to me,

“My love, I’ve waited my whole life to hold you in my arms, and now that you’re here, I have no intention of ever letting go,” and bent down to press his lips against mine in a soft kiss.

[meteor752]

The Double Life Kids headcanons 3

A whole lot has happened since the last of these headcanon posts, like, a whole lot. The last post was before the kids even went to the Empires server

So, I thought I’d do one of these again, cause I like making headcanon posts

All the kids except Liana share the same birthday, since Liana spawned as an egg and hatched like, a month later. They wouldn’t usually celebrate their birthdays in anyway, especially after their parents deaths, but when they were separated it became a tradition on both ends to get a cake and blow out their candles, celebrating both them and the ones on the other server, counting down the years until they could see them again. Liana gets a cupcake on hers

Zee (The Lizzie + Skizz child) uses She/He pronouns

Skim uses They/Them

Liana, Jekiv, and Gertrude are girlbosses while Johnny, Novo, and Jassy are boylosers. Wes is somewhere in between

Johnny brought Lily the Warden with him to Empires, and later to Hermitcraft, and then back to Empires. She’s his little sister, and where he goes, she goes

Gertrude bites in her sleep. It’s not always aggressive, usually it’s just lil love bites, but if she’s having a particularly vivid dream or is very stressed out, then she can leave pretty extreme chomps. It’s usually just her pillow or blanket, but sometimes Novo falls victim to her sleep biting. He doesn’t mind

Johnny hates using a bed to sleep, and exclusively sleeps in a hammock.

Through trial and error, and many years of work, Wes, together with Jassy, BDubs and one of his many steeds, managed to overcome his fear of horses. He even got his own, an Ardennais named Dweller

Jekiv also got his own horse, but instead of breeding one he kinda, made one. Virgil was his first successful resurrection, that didn’t just crumble into dust immediately. He’s not very friendly and struggles with obeying him, but he’s (mostly) fully alive which is all that really counts

fWhip was the one who made Liana’s prosthetic, and Doc later made improvements to it so it would hold better and be more comfortable. She has many stickers on it, just for funsies

In the good ending, where the kids all got a happy ending together, Gertrude and Jekiv were finally able to meet their other dads. Jek was thrilled to get another chance to bond with his dad, and Gert was just happy to have her dad back

Jassy also got to reunite with her little brother, Hermes

Johnny is very face blind. It usually isn’t a problem since everyone around him dresses and look very distinctively, but in Empires where everyone he knows wore entirely different outfits in varying aesthetics, he struggled a lot. It just became a habit of the kids that if you wore something different than you usually wore around him, you’d immediately tell him who you are and let him inspect you for a bit

Wes has little control over his volume. It’s kinda strange for him, as he doesn’t really take notice of it himself. When talking to him, he can go from almost whispering to straight up yelling without even realizing it. The rest of the kids are used to it, but it’s usually a surprise to any new people

Liana drinks exclusively expensive whiskey, Jassy loves tequila, Novo is a huge fan of cheap wine, Gertrude likes rum cocktails, Jekiv drinks straight Vodka, Wes sticks to cider, and Johnny makes his own moonshine. Drink nights are a mess

Speaking of which, Liana is the messiest drunk to every messy. She has absolutely zero filter, and for some reason loves to spit out random pretty miserable and dark facts that she’s read about. She tends to clonk out after like two hours though, so it’s just to put up with it

Nobody ever calls Johnny Johnathan. Nobody, except Keralis

Liana and Jassy’s first wedding was less because of love and devotions, and more because they were 14 years into life on the double life server and everyone was fucking miserable, so they thought an event could help cheer people it. It did, but like barely

This is why they remarried, to have an honest chance to express their love for each other. Also an excuse to wear fancy clothes

Jekiv and Wes, in the good ending, got married shortly after reuniting with each other on their new server. It was a very quaint ceremony, but still lovely

Gertrude and Novo are still waiting for the other to propose, and they will just keep on waiting

Also, since this will be posted on the two year anniversary of my first ever post about the kids, I thought I’d share some scrapped ideas and other bts stuff. It’s not a lot since I’m one person using Hero Forge and posting stuff on Tumblr, but there’s some things lol

Jassy was first meant to be a set of twins. It was scrapped for many reasons, one of them being the “one child per couple”, but when I was still working on their first designs I had two wips. The original idea was that one of them was going to take inspiration from some other Naruto character, I think Hinata is who I settled for, and the other was going to have more of a fantasy vibe, to fit the theme of Shrek. This was another reason this was scrapped lol, but for a short while the idea of twin sisters Hinata and Princess Fiona excited

The kids were originally going to go to Hermitcraft. This was before we knew the portal led to Empires, so I was planning of having them enter the portal and exit in Grians base. The main reason this got scrapped was of course that we found out that the portal led to Empires, but also because I knew next to nothing about the Ren The King storyline during season nine, which I was planning to have be a big part of it, with Gertrude and Liana taking center stage as the main characters

To piggy back of the last one, I was planning to make a part two to Logbook, Jekiv’s fic where he wrote journal entries throughout their 20 year stay at the Double Life series. The premise of the sequel was that Liana was to have found the journal before he left it behind, and that she was going to keep on writing in it during their time on Hermitcraft. I even started a rough first draft of it, but as the Hermitcraft storyline was scrapped, so was the journal entry sequel.

Novo and Jekiv are both based off of dnd characters I’ve used in the past, a Bard who can’t play any instruments, and a character who picked up and slowly mastered necromancy halfway through a campaign. It wasn’t planned at the beginning, but it felt fun to pay homage to it, even if I would be the only one who understood the reference.

Some scrapped design ideas is that Liana was gonna be part Vex (Scrapped because it was too messy), Novo was gonna have more of a purple shade in his hair (Scrapped because it didn’t look right, but his signature colour is still purple), Johnny was gonna have a blue fire motif (Scrapped because I like the red fire vibe more, fit him better), Jekiv was gonna have red hair (Scrapped because he just looked exactly like Cleo that way), and Jassy was gonna be entirely green (Scrapped because it looked weird and didn’t fully fit since Joel isn’t green and like no one designs him like that, she does still have some green to her tho).

I mentioned this in a previous post but Liana went through many names before I settled on Liana (The first one I came up with lol, it just stuck). These names (Sharina Ace Sage Aurelia Francesca Octavia Monroe) along with Xelqua and Jellie became her middle names

Not a fucking day goes by where I don’t regret having Jassy constantly change her hairstyle. I painted myself into a corner for that one, and by god am I suffering

And, as a final little thing to celebrate my two year anniversary of not knowing peace because of these fucking kids, I thought I’d show you all a little comparison of the first ever hero forge design I made of the kids, and the most recent one, both to show how they’ve grown but also how I’ve gotten better at using the site lol

Ah, my babies

The funny thing is, that while yes they have changed and evolved over these two years, they canonically have not grown at all lol

Anyways, happy two year anniversary kids

[aphrmoosun]

The Umbrella Academy Finale [S4] (3.5/10)

I would never imagine that I wouldn't like a TUA season like I did with their very last one. I don't know how to start explaining it. Well, for the first two episodes, I really enjoyed these two. The second one has, for me, one of the best scenes of the whole TUA saga that it is the one where the siblings travel on Diego's car. I really laughed with that scene and I liked the second episode except for one thing that I didn't find too much sense where the next character introduction made no much sense or better said, the reason why she, Jennifer, decided to go with the umbrellas instead of staying with the people she has known since she was little and the man who she described as her dad practically... I didn't quite like that. But for the rest, the first two episodes were ok. I wouldn't say I dislike Episode three but it was the start of the ending where I started to understand that this season didn't have the level of the previous ones.

To finish I will say why I give it a 3.5 and why I suspended it this season. The ending. I must confess I expected something more, maybe a happy ending, maybe something related to the comic, maybe some madness where they travel as family through the lines or somewhere where the time does not affect them. Something different than just killing them. I felt like I lost my time watching this season but worse, they say to my face you lost time watching TUA because all the characters they have developed through all these years and they have made us love are dead and they don't have a happy ending. I really hate it very much. But instead of taking this season so seriously, I will rewatch the other season and think how much I love this show, how season two is one of the best production even made for streaming, how the casting is so great that they made us love them and their characters. I will ignore that S4 even happened and when I want to watch my favourite streaming show family, I will rewatch my comfort episodes.

I will start speaking about what I dislike the most for this season. The first thing I noticed was that this season has not the scenographic level that the rest have. No dance scenes, no choreography x soundtrack scenes, no artistic transition except the beginnings... It didn't feel like TUA when we speak about the creation of the scenes. The story either makes much sense. It does explain little about the problems they introduced in other seasons like WHO is Reginald, or their mother. Where they come from and why they could create this marigold but they have no special abilities more than transfiguring into other person appearance. They are other species (?? Why did they decide to make the umbrellas or the special children ??? Where are the other special children ??? Where is Slone ??? Why the fuck Luther doesn't care too much where is his wife ??? If there are other people with the marigold their sacrifice wouldn't make a difference???? Why are there other Fives and not other Umbrellas ??? Why do other people remember other lines ??? If they can continue traveling in time why don't they try to make Ben never meet Jennifer?? Why do the Umbrellas have different powers ???? Why Lila and Diego decide to create such a big family if with one kid they already felt fatigued 😭 and I won't say I would judge anyone who likes Fivela but it isn't one thing that I was expecting nor I wanted it. I would defend it if their story makes sense but it does not, it was quick because the writers did not have more time to make a Romance with Five from zero, that it was what they wanted... For me it destroyed the point of both characters and more they didn't feel like the Five and Lila we met before. For Luther and Diego, I liked a few of their scenes together even though I don't understand why Luther again has that appearance if it isn't his power (??? Diego deserved better... For Ben I will just say that I wanted Umbrellas Ben back, not this Sparrow one 🥲

And for my favourite part of the season and the reason why I don't give it a 0/10 is this trio of Klaus/Allison/Claire. I didn't expect to see this Klaus who is scared about everything but having the support of his sister and his niece was really good and I loved THEM SO MUCH. I also liked the symbolism of the inverted Umbrella but I didn't find this arc very interesting nor the two "antagonists", even though I liked their presentation.

Ps. If the season explained some of the things I didn't find an answer and I don't remember it, maybe it didn't explain too much or didn't make too much effort about it.

[dozing-marshmallow]

I looooooooove the chris x wife! reader fic that you wrote!! It got me kicking my feet and blushing 😊 By any chance, could you write a chris x wife! reader going on their honeymoon?

Awww this is such a cute idea, thank you so much, I’m so happy to hear that you loved the last one! ⋆˙⟡♡  I had to get something out on the man’s birthday as soon as I could and this request was the one I was fixated on finishing the most, so do enjoy reading and McLean’s bday ~💗!

CHRIS MCLEAN X WIFE! READER ON HONEYMOON HEADCANONS

Most newly wed couples go to just one location for their honeymoon.

Yet it was very poor of you to think that standard would apply to Chris.

You didn’t realise until he informed you that you were gonna go to two countries per continent(apart from Antartica, cuz what the hell): Barbados and Costa Rica for North America, Brazil and Colombia for South America, France and Italy for Europe, Thailand and (The) Philippines for Asia, Morocco and Tunisia for Africa, French Polynesia and Australia for Oceania.

The only reason why Chris cut it to two instead of four was because he suspected you would get sick of travelling, and didn’t want you to be complaining on holiday.

“Chriiis, we don’t need to, you know!” you’re verbal about your humble take on the honeymoon as Chris made his long list based on the notes he wrote from his and your opinions,“This is all so costly! We could really go to two continents instead!”

“Huh?” he looks at you, confusion scratching into the space between his eyebrows,“(Y/N), this is literally nothing. You seriously wanna spend our whole two months of celebrating marriage in one place like working class people?”

Harsh, but it’s fine because it’s Chris.

Before you left, he took you on a massive shopping spree where it had not even been the beginning of him pampering you with all the jewellery, the swimsuits and the candies.

This guy doesn’t need to book reservations: the best hotels, air BNBs, holiday homes, you name the one you want to stay at the country and baam. Availability opens a door and charm hands over the keys.

He also hired a chaperone for each country, but most of the time, only for the arrival and departure; he wanted more alone time with you.

At this rate, you wondered if he needed to pay to enter the countries asides from paying the fuel and landing runway.

That’s right. You were getting there by his jet -he ended up upgrading- to each location.

Since it wasn’t meant to carry fifteen contestants this time, Chris abolished the loser and first class section in the new version of his plane to be furnished completely into his headquarters.

During each jet ride, you and Chris would review helpful phrases and attractions that would enhance the experience.

“So in France, we will have to remember to say “bonsoir” from 6 PM onwards.” you reiterate.

“That’s doable.” Chris comments, leaning back in his chair.

“And they don’t like smiling a lot.” you add, doing it yourself.

His relaxation ended,“Bummer. D’you think they can make an exception for me? My resting face is a smile.”

They did- in every place.

The honeymoon was an epoch for Chris to meet his fans from all over the world. If you had a dollar for every autograph he signed the entire getaway, you would have enough money to have your own jet.

Weirdly enough, Chris lost genuine pleasure to greet his global admirers and increasingly rushed the interactions.

“It’s okay to be more attentive to your fans, Chris.” you insist, with your head on his bare body, laying around somewhere on the warm Tunisian beach.

“Nah.” he differs with his hand scrubbing sand on your back,“I came on holiday with you, not them. I couldn’t leave you by yourself.”

Aw. You love your husband,“You’re right. I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.”

He bought you anything that caught your eye. Clothes, hats, rings, ice cream, souvenirs.

Chris had also bought five cameras. He wasn’t letting a single moment of a scenery or pose go to waste.

Be prepared for the day when he eventually gets them all printed out and stuck in fresh albums and wants to reminisce with you.

He took you to the best restaurants, never settling for one less than five stars (maybe four if you persuaded him enough).

“To another exceptional night of our honeymoon!” he raises his glass of happiness.

You copy, both clinking and declaring cheers.

Going back to your accommodation, Chris would have you carried until the first descent onto the fine duvets.

Let’s just say that, by the time you do get back to Canada, both husband and wife’s necks have never been more wine red.

[mumms-the-word]

A random thought I had about the whole illithid soul thing. It's totally possible you touched on this somewhere in one of your posts and I've forgotten about it lol so sorry

So if we think the special tadpole that turns tav/karlach/whoever into a mindflayer at the very end is some kind of advanced tadpole that allows them to retain their souls, or at least a little bit of it, what do you make of Omeluum? He's the exception of course but he comes across as caring, empathetic, etc. He cares about Blurg and the society and the citizens of the Underdark. And he's grateful to tav for saving him in the iron throne and wants to help them defeat the Absolute. I just wonder how much of his original personality/soul is still in him. I guess it could be the same as Balduran. The emperor says his personality was just so strong that he retained at least part of it.

ANYWAY a follow up question: do you think when someone turns into a mindflayer they IMMEDIATELY lose their soul/any sense of their nonillithid self? I'm thinking specifically about the cut scene in the final battle where civilians start turning into mindflayers and immediately eating brains. Are they just following this new unfamiliar instinct while their former self is still somewhere in there thinking wtf is going on? Or like, soul gone, evil now, eat brain, previous self destroyed completely?

Excellent questions! I actually avoided talking about Omeluum because I felt like it was too much side lore but I love him and I’m delighted to talk about him

disclaimer that this isn't like...super well-thought-out or amazingly organized because the brain isn't functioning that well today but I didn't want to make you wait 2-3 business days while I dug up screenshots and crafted a whole ass deep dive. so the thoughts/theories below the cut are my Best Guesses lol but there are plenty of thoughts/theories!

First it’s worth thinking about how Omeluum was able to break away from being enthralled to an elder brain. Omeluum explains that he was able to break away because he was a spellcaster, probably a sorcerer who studied to become a wizard:

Player: How did you escape your colony? Omeluum: I was born with a propensity for arcane magic my people despise. It gave me the strength to resist the elder brain. Every waking hour, I pushed back against its dire hold. My wizardry empowered me. The moment its control shattered, I fled before the colony discovered I had defected.

So it sounds like he has some memory of who he was, or at least what he was capable of, before his transformation. But it's also a smidge unclear. For example, is "my people" the mind flayers, or his original race? Because mind flayers also hate arcane magic because they think psionic magic is better. But perhaps he comes from an anti-magic people group and is referencing them instead.

That said there’s no way of knowing whether the personality we see in Omeluum right now is the same one he had pre-transformation. There are hints in his dialogue that suggest he’s been around for a while (he's certainly not a brand new mind flayer) and I do think over time mind flayers change and adapt who they are, whether or not they’re enthralled to an elder brain. Whether this is merely a product of time (everyone changes over time), or because they consume and retain memories, or it’s an intentional choice they make, it’s not entirely certain, but I'm sure mind flayers do change as they mature and develop.

But I think his caring, empathetic qualities are genuine. It’s possible these qualities were part of his original soul/personality but it’s equally possible these qualities are ones he learned by interacting with Blurg and other Society members. Mind flayers aren’t emotionless, they just feel…differently. They might have a smaller emotional range, and typically every emotional thing they express appears muted or subtle (we see this especially with Karlach, who loses a lot of her usual exuberance, and even Blurg is like "Omeluum isn't given to strong emotions" when discussing him), but as long as they’re not enthralled, they’re capable of care and empathy. It just might look different.

I mean, even Omeluum phrases his relief and gratitude toward you in distanced terms when you save him from the Iron Throne. He says stuff like "It is...pleasurable to see you" when you talk to him at the Society of Brilliance and when you say that you like him, he responds with "I too feel some...warmth at your presence." He picks both words with hesitancy and there's a kind of distance there, but he does feel those things.

There are other hints in his other dialogues, but I don't want to clog up this response with tons of screenshots. But from the datamined dialogues we see that he is capable of joy, warmth, pleasure (words literally written in dialogues and narrator observations), as well as empathy, concern, and good-aligned morals (he actively tries to make the world a better place, wants to help stop the Absolute plot, and is even trying to research ways to eat fewer brains to sustain himself).

But whether all of that is due to his prior personality, I doubt even he knows. I'm sure there is a pre-transformation influence there, but he doesn't pretend he's anything other than a mind flayer. For example, if you tell him about the nautiloids, he says "What a brilliant experience. To feel one step closer to my ancestors is a fine gift indeed." Elsewhere he talks about the illithids being his people and while he doesn't group himself with their goals, he still talks about them being his collective people-group. He'll say stuff like "our warships" and "the gith rebelled and ended our dominion" when talking about mind flayer history, but then in act 3 he'll say "Given my kind's involvement in creating this evil, it is only right that I do my part in helping you defeat it" to explain his actions in helping you and say "I do not share my kind's opinions on the value of other living beings. I would have seen them all saved, if I could." when you point out he could have just looked after himself and not the Gondian hostages and Ravengard.

So basically, while I think there might be some prior influence or some of his original soul/identity still lingering in him, I think he's just a genuinely empathetic mind flayer. My theory is some of it existed prior to his transformation, but he nurtured that empathy while living as a mind flayer. I don't think he's empathetic because he's got more of his original soul still lingering around than most other mind flayers, I think that he's just...genuinely nice. An outlier for a mind flayer, for sure. Anyways I'm hoping that all makes sense.

As for your second question, I think normally yes you lose essentially most or all of your original identity the moment you transform (some memories typically linger, but not always) but you don't suddenly go feral. Normally you lose your soul/identity because a normal illithid tadpole literally ate your brain matter, so what’s left, essentially, is a blank slate (whereas for your soul my theory is that it morphs and transforms). You'd be hungry and instinctively you'd crave other brains, but I don't think you'd suddenly go about killing hundreds of people in your path. But you'd also not really be thinking independently, since you'd be connected with an elder brain who is issuing commands to you. So normally, just after you transform, you’re basically a mindless puppet at the start, though I’m sure as time goes on mind flayers grow a little more autonomous (as we see with Omeluum). But they don't suddenly go evil and attack everything on sight...at least, from what I understand of normal lore.

The cutscene you're referring to is not at all a normal situation. The people in that mid-battle cutscene are infected with Netherese tadpoles which only transform a person at the express command of the Netherbrain. Also, in that specific moment when they transform, the Netherbrain is actively shouting commands for everyone to destroy each other. So I think for those people, the sudden transformation would have been overwhelming because it came completely by surprise, and then their brains (which theoretically should also be capable of retaining more personhood like Tav and Karlach do because everyone's got the same kind of tadpole) is literally filled with the irresistible voice of the Netherbrain who is very loudly like “TRANSFORM. DESTROY.” over and over and over again.

Like, seriously, if my "the Netherese tadpole makes you special" theory holds any water, then anyone with a Netherese tadpole could potentially retain their soul/personality after turning into a mind flayer so long as they have access to the Astral Prism's shields to get them through the battle. Unfortunately for the city of Baldur's Gate, the Emperor is extremely picky about who he lets in.

The only reason we and our companions don't end up the same mindless, destructive mind flayers as the Baldurian citizens is because of the Astral Prism, and even then, we get close. If you trigger forced ceremorphosis (using Gale's orb in act 2, trying to go back to act 1 after killing Ketheric, attacking the Emperor in the Astral Prism without having a way to free Orpheus, etc), then you see how helpless we are to resist the Absolute's command to transform and then become her thrall. But also, if you get Orpheus to transform you into a mind flayer by him reducing his mental shields around you, there's a hint there too:

Narrator: With the withdrawal of Orpheus' power, your mind is rushed with the full force of the Netherbrain. You feel a compulsion unlike anything you've ever known - excruciating and exhilarating in equal measure. You wish nothing in the world but to evolve. Then - complete silence, as you are once again closed off from the Netherbrain's mind.

I'm sure that's more or less what is happening to the people in the streets too. But since they're under the Netherbrain's command, they're also getting commanded to kill and destroy. I doubt they have time to get their bearings or even understand what's happening because they're just reacting to commands at that point.

So it's kind of a unique case for them too. I think when they transform, they don't have the mental capacity to think beyond what the Netherbrain is forcing into their minds. If they survived the battle and were conscious when the Netherbrain went silent, maybe there was a chance they could have remembered something of themselves, but we'll never know, because they were all being killed in the streets.

Theoretically, those people could also have retained their identities (because again, Netherese tadpole) so there's a chance they might have "watched" their horrible actions from afar without having the power to stop themselves from acting. But there's also a chance that everything was just completely overwhelmed by the Netherbrain's voice and any chance at keeping personhood was taken away, first by the Netherbrain's incessant voice, and second by the very quick culling of mind flayers after the Netherbrain was defeated.

So...TLDR, normally the transformation would be like you waking up and being like "who am I? I'm hungry. That voice seems sensible. I'll listen to that voice." But the mid-battle Netherbrain transformation would be more like "OH GOD PAIN--The Voice says I must destroy, I must kill, I must eat, I must destroy, I must kill, I must eat" and maybe there's the original person deep down inside going "wtf is happening" but also maybe not.

So...maybe that helps?? Happy to chat more or clarify if I need to!