#good luck figuring out who she is though because I'm definitely not telling

[vanesycho]

The chenle one has woken up smth in me so idk...Can you write smth w older Jisung where the reader cannot find her peace w boys her age until she meets jisung which is the "wattpad" kind of older man (ifykwim) caring and basically knows how to give reader the comfort that she needs

hi hii🤍 I would like to thank the person who wrote the request, I am not very satisfied with what I wrote, but I hope I was able to write something as you wanted<3

wc: 1,8k

You left the bar crying, your girlfriend was trying to catch up to you, you ignored her even when she called your name.

"Y/n stop! Stop!"

She caught up to you and grabbed your arm, turning you towards her, you didn't let her when she tried to hug you.

"You called me here even though you knew that boy had bad intentions."

"I swear I didn't know, would I have called you here if I knew he would touch you without your permission?"

You laughed hysterically through your tears.

"Really? Fuck it, I'm going home."

You couldn't stand listening to her anymore.You quickly left there and started walking home. Continued walking down the deserted street while crying, cursing everything, your friend, that boy, yourself. While you thought he was a different person again, he turned out to be no different from the other boys, they were all the same, each and every one of them.They would use you for their body, and if you didn't let them, they would throw you in the corner.

You were falling onto the pavement, tripping as you could barely see through your tears, until someone grabbed you by the arms. You looked up and saw a tall figure, the streetlight illuminating his face.

"Are you okay?"

You nodded, you didn't feel okay but did it matter? You freed yourself from his arms and regained your balance.

"I am good, thanks."

You were about to walk past him when you heard his voice again and stopped in your tracks.

"It might not be a good idea to pass through that street at this time of night."

You turned around, he was watching you with his hands in his pockets, you laughed hysterically.

"Anyway, what worse could happen to me today?"

He bowed his head slightly and walked a few steps towards you. You didn't back away, you were with a stranger on this street but you didn't have the strength to care.

"I was just warning you, you seem to be in a bad situation already, we wouldn't want them to take advantage of that, would we?"

You laughed, not because it was funny, you were tired, and this guy you didn't know cared about you?

"So? Like I said, I can't be in a worse situation, I can't trust your word either, who knows, maybe after you gain my trust, you'll try to take me to bed too."

He frowned, looking at a tear that was streaming down your cheek. You were definitely not in a good state, and he wasn't planning on leaving you like that.

"I don't know how you've gotten men into your life, but I suggest you don't lump everyone together.You're here all alone, you look weak and tired, if I wanted to take you to bed I'd do it now."

You kept quiet, you had nothing to say, you sat on the pavement, your high heels were starting to hurt your feet. You turned to him as he sat down next to you.

"I'm Y/n."

He looked at your outstretched hand and laughed, he reached out his hand which was bigger than yours and shook it, you just realized how cold your hands were at that moment.He had a warm hand unlike yours.

"Park Jisung."

'Jisung' you repeated that name in your head.

"Are you planning on sitting here quietly?"

You grinned and glanced at him.

"You expect me to tell you? I don't have anything else to do though, do I?"

You took a deep breath, watching the couple pass in front of you, smiling as they walked hand in hand.

"I don't know if it's my bad luck or my fate, but all the men in my life have tried to use me. They're all the same, stupid teenagers, all they think about is sex."

He put his hands behind his back and tilted his head up in thought. You watched him, his adam's apple moving as he swallowed. He caught your gaze and spoke.

"Aren't you young? Don't expect anything else from boys your age, we men mature late, unlike you girls.Either don't take anyone in your life for a long time, or forget about men your age and try people a few years older."

You thought about it, you hadn't thought about being with someone older than your age. You watched the man next to you, he was obviously older than you. He stood out with his suit and face. He smiled when he realized she was watching him.

"Like what you see?"

You turned your head away in embarrassment.

"No. You're just standing here in a suit. Where do you come from?"

Now he was the one who took a deep breath.

"I was at a party with my friends but I got bored quickly, it seems like those kinds of places are not for me, I prefer to stay here quietly and alone, until you come."

You rolled your eyes laughing when he said the last sentence with a laugh, he grabbed your wrist as you were about to stand up, you looked at where he was holding you, he wasn't harsh, but when he noticed your look he quickly pulled his hand away.

"Oh sorry. I was just kidding, it's nice to have someone to talk to."

You sat down.You looked at each other, an awkward silence taking over you. The wind caressed your hair,he brushed the few strands that had fallen into your face.You flinched when you felt his fingertips on your cheek, he quickly pulled his hand away.You were letting a guy you just met get close to you like that, maybe that's why you always experience the same things, but this guy named Jisung... He had awakened different things in you.

"You might as well go home now."

"What is it? You don't want me with you?"

He paused, trying to find the right words, you laughed and standing up.

"Just kidding, I know what you mean."

He stood up with you, you looked at him, noticing the difference in his gaze. You looked away as his eyes looked into yours without fear, what was happening to you?

"Well...See you then?"

"Wait!"

You stopped as you turned around, he cleared his throat and spoke.

"It might be unsafe there, don't go alone, do you want me to come with you?"

You didn't know what to say, you didn't want to say no, you liked talking to him even a little, After some thought you nodded your head.

──────────────────────

A few minutes had passed, you were walking towards your house, talking about your own lives.

"So you don't have anyone in your life? Really?"

You looked at him in disbelief, well he was handsome, you didn't know him but from what you knew he seemed like a kind person. How could someone like him live alone?

"Yes, it was my choice, but you never know who fate will bring to me. Just like it brought you."

You turned your head to the road when he said this with a smile, looking into your eyes. Damn, you shouldn't have been fooled so easily, but every sentence he said sounded so real and beautiful. When you finally arrived in front of your house, you turned to him.

"Thank you for coming with me."

"It's not even worth mentioning. I'd feel bad if I didn't do this, just take care of yourself, okay?"

You pressed your lips together and nodded in affirmation, talking before walking in.

"Good night."

"Good night Y/n"

Hearing your name on his lips made you shiver and soon you were inside your house.

──────────────────────

The rest of the week went by normally, you hadn't even left the house. You tried not to think about Jisung when your mind thought about him most of the time.It happened and it was over, there was no point in thinking about it anymore. But your mind was playing tricks on you and you cursed when you thought his face.

You threw yourself out of the house, you obviously needed to clear your head. You went into the cafe near your house, ordered your coffee and sat down. While you were busy with your phone and waiting for your coffee, the tall figure standing in front of you caught your attention

"Was this place empty, little lady?"

The voice you heard sent shivers down your spine. You laughed at the encounter with him at the cafe you came to not think about him, you wet your dry lips and nodded your head.

"Yes, it's empty."

He came across from you and sat down. When your coffee arrived, you took a sip and tried to calm down. Seeing him again made your heart beat faster, and you hated this feeling already.

"I hope you're...okay now?"

He placed his arms on the table and leaned towards you slightly, you swallowed nervously and turned your head away.

"I'm fine, thanks for your concern."

He smiled at your shyness, damn even his smile was pretty.

"Why did you come?"

"What do you mean?"

He frowned at your sudden reaction, well that was the last reaction he expected but he could understand.

"I was worried about you, you seemed really sad that day, and you...well, you've been on my mind for a while. I was wondering if you were okay now. And when I saw you here I wanted to come and make sure."

You listened to him as your eyes widened in surprise, meaning you weren’t the only one thinking about him. The thought of someone caring about you brought up strange feelings inside you.

"I see. I'm fine, I guess I shouldn't let anyone into my life for a long time like you said."

He coughed as he drank his drink, pulling himself together and looking at you as you looked at him curiously.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah yeah I just-"

He took a sip of his drink and took a deep breath before speaking.

"I mean, I didn't think you would make a decision like that."

"Well? You're the one who told me that."

He was the one who avoided your gaze, you frowned, was he embarrassed of you? You couldn't help but giggle at how cute he looked, he turned to you when he heard your laugh.

"Okay Jisung, maybe I should try the other thing you suggested to me."

You couldn't help but smile as you saw a small expression of happiness on his face. He hid his smile and tried to remain serious.

"I didn't say that, but it's your decision."

You continued to smile as you took a sip from your drink.

"Hmm...Yeah, definitely."

You looked at him when the silence intervened, you bit your lip involuntarily when you realized he was watching you, his eyes fell on your lips and he tried to collect himself by looking away.

"So...now, would you like to come somewhere else with me?"

"So...A date?"

He smiled as he looked away from you.

"Yes, yes, a date. I mean if you want?"

You stood up, he watched you, you turned to him and pointed to the exit.

"Let's go then, there's no point in waiting."

[crossdressingdeath]

I finally figured out why Vivienne rubs me the wrong way. To paraphrase she is a lottery winner telling the underpaid workers that capitalism works.

As throughout the Dragon Age series we see how circle fails mages (In Orgins there is books about blood magic in hopes of catching desperate mage in the act of a crime, Awakenings the templars setting a entrapment for Anders despite being a grey warden and then there is Kirkwall).

Then in the game in which mage independence is a big issue our only circle mage perspection that is a main character is Vivienne who is fine with the current system. As Vivienne will tell us the player that while the system has flaws overall is fine. Which is really ridiculous considering the last game.

What Dragon Age Inquisition needed was a Kirkwall mage who saw the worst of the circles to be a counter argument that the circles are flawed

And what I mean by Vivienne being a lottery winner is that her position is almost a miracle. As while a young mage in the circle she had to be powerful enough to be allowed to do her harrowing but also not too powerful to make the templars afraid (as I believe it is implied that mages that are too powerful are nipped in the bud in Orgins), then in a party she is charming enough that a noble takes a fancy to her which then allows her to charm the Empress and gain political power.

All of these aspects feels like sheer luck. So when Vivienne tells me the circle works I want to eat my face in frustration as I remember Jowan and Anders and Hawke's parents desperately trying not to be in the circle.

(Sorry for the rant)

I think Vivienne is ultimately a very notable victim of a lot of DAI's poor writing choices. Both in terms of character writing and in terms of the overall themes.

See, DAI doesn't want us to get any perspective that doesn't prop up the Circle and the Chantry. It doesn't want us questioning the necessity of either institution. It's not just Vivienne; think back on the mage characters we see in DAI, the ones that aren't in the Circle mostly just don't talk about it. Not even Quiz, and if Quiz tries to argue that the Circles aren't great the Circle mages go "Well you're wrong because it was great for me" and Quiz isn't allowed to say anything back. See also Minaeve going "Well the Dalish are shit and the Circle is great because the Dalish threw me away and the Templars rescued me and that doesn't contradict anything in the preexisting lore and also it definitely doesn't say anything about the Chantry that my clan couldn't support an additional mage in their life on the run and also I'm just going to blindly assume the Tempalrs were telling the truth" while Lavellan is forced to just stand there, smiling and nodding and not arguing back at all even though they logically would. DAI needed a counterargument to the "Circles are good" argument, it needed a character who'd seen the worst they had to offer, but we were never going to get that because DAI didn't want it to be a debate. It wants us to blindly agree that the Circles are good and mages wanting freedom is bad. Which is a wildly stupid decision but someone made it anyway!

DAI also does not like character growth. Not in the slightest. The most DAI's companions get is their character growth popping in all at once in Trespasser after a full game of them being completely static. Just like how Sera refuses to acknowledge how awful she's being to Lavellan until Trespasser where she suddenly asks how they're feeling about the Evanuris stuff without using it to make them feel like there's something wrong with them for having non-Andrastian beliefs or how Dorian defends slavery and then that's quietly never acknowledged again until he mentions in Tevinter Nights that "someone he met in the south" changed his mind on the subject or how Cullen... is Cullen, you're never allowed to challenge Vivienne on her beliefs because if you did that then she might change and grow as a person and DAI does not want to deal with that. Especially not when challenging Vivienne means challenging the argument that the Circles are The Best Option. Poor Vivienne gets hit hard by DAI's refusal to accept that the Chantry's bad and the fandom does not want to side with them, she's probably the single biggest piece of collateral damage to DAI's bad choices.

And the thing is it's not that Vivienne doesn't know she's lucky! It's not that she doesn't know the Circles fail people! She recognizes there's a lot of flaws, and she does genuinely want to improve things for her fellow mages! Her intentions are good! Plus honestly if you work to get her approval up she's actually one of the better companions in terms of how she treats Quiz (seriously, look at some of her high approval conversations, she cares so damn much) and she'll defend even companions she doesn't like from unjust attacks (she's got a very good banter with romanced Dorian about how she got a letter from a magister she knows somehow about how disgusting Dorian and Quiz's relationship is and basically told him to fuck off with that). Vivienne really does care and really does want to make things better, she's just been so poisoned by her life in a world very heavily controlled by the Chantry and the Templars that she can't see past their way of doing things. The problem isn't that she doesn't see how lucky she is; she knows she got a lucky break that a lot of mages don't get (although it's important to note that she didn't just get lucky, Vivienne absolutely worked her ass off to get to where she is), and she knows that not everyone could get to where she is even if they'd gotten as lucky as she did. What she misses is that you need to be insanely lucky just to be more or less content in the Circle, never mind happy or powerful. Lucky enough to escape the worst of the Templars' abuses, lucky enough to be in a decent Circle, lucky enough not to be too weak or too powerful, lucky enough to get a manageable demon in your Harrowing, lucky enough to be the sort of person who won't be completely miserable trapped in one building your whole life... The thing Vivienne misses is that she got out, she doesn't have to spend her whole life in the Circle praying the Templars are good to her, and that's not an opportunity a lot of mages get no matter how smart or skilled they are. It drives me nuts, because if we were just allowed to push her to see that her story would immediately be so much better. As it is it's a lot of potential and a strong start that never really get paid off.

[just-dreaming-marvel]

Are you team cap or iron man?

woah, loaded question lol

I believe that there were better ways to go about it from both sides.

I'm going to answer this with mostly Captain America Civil War in mind.

So here we go... (good luck)

I believe that Steve was incredibly selfish as soon as Bucky became involved and dragged people down with him. (Steve's actually a really selfish guy if you actually look at everything, but that's a whole other rant...)

I believe that Steve was too emotional and wasn't thinking fully since Peggy passed and Bucky became involved. He couldn't see past himself.

I believe that Tony signed the Accords due to all the guilt and he was honestly trying to make things better.

I believe that if they had ALL signed the Accords, they would have been able to negotiate and get the Accords amended over time as problems arose.

I believe that if they had all signed the Accords, the United Nations would have come to realize the mistake they made in the Accords and either amended or dissolved. Instead, Thanos came and the United Nations were still too busy hunting down the fugitive Avengers! (Ross, I'm looking at you...)

I believe that if they had ALL not signed the Accords, they would have been able to negotiate and figure out a new plan together with the governments. Though, I do believe that this way would have gotten them all in jail together at one point. (Can you imagine? All of them in Raft together? What chaos would that bring? Ross would have definitely retired after that.)

I believe that Steve didn't have any right to keep Tony in the dark about the truth about how Bucky killed Howard and Maria. (Like, when did he find out? How did he find out? Did Sam know too since he was helping search for Bucky? Did Natasha, Maria Hill, and Nick Fury know the truth? I hate them all if they knew and kept it from Tony.)

I believe that Ross was so against the Avengers, that he helped push the Accords and offered to be the one to break the news. I believe that he purposely reached out to Tony first, knowing that Tony felt all the guilt from every incident, and knew that he could get him to sign it. (Ross is the real bad guy here. He is the worst.)

I believe that Steve was right to not want to trust the government. (Who would after the fall of SHIELD?)

I don't believe that Tony fully trusted the Accords or the government, but understood that it was a step to making things right.

I believe that the Avengers should be held accountable and kept in check. (Even Tony agreed and he was the one to create Ultron!)

I believe that if Steve had gone to Tony before the airport incident with proof that it was a setup, things would have been different.

I believe that if the Civil War hadn't happened, Thanos would have been defeated in Infinity War.

I believe that Steve's viewpoint of everything being black and white (right or wrong), is not a good way of viewing things and caused a lot of this.

I believe that Steve doesn't feel enough guilt for the damage he and the other Avengers have done.

I believe that Tony feels too much guilt for the damage he and the other Avengers have done.

I believe that locking them in a room together until they figured it out, would have solved the issue. (Seriously, Natasha, why didn't you do this?)

I believe that Steve fully took advantage of Sharon and should have looked after her. She had to be on the run, alone, and then never got pardoned. (He also only kissed her because she was related to Peggy.)

I believe that in a real world scenario, Tony is the most correct in his believes. (Can you imagine if the Avengers were real and New York got demolished every other Thursday? Like, what would insurance look like? You cannot tell me that people would still be living in New York if the Avengers were real. Or living any place that constantly gets attacked like that.)

BUT after all that, I am Team Iron Man. Tony Stark is my main man and has successful character development. He truly changed where Steve remained selfish (to the point where he left!).

If you decide to respond to this, please be kind. We all have the right to our own opinions.

(I added this to my opinions masterlist...)

[misc-obeyme]

I'M ALIVE (BARELY) !! Work is kicking my ass. Also, lots of things went wrong for me this morning, but they all worked out in the end ?? Like I forgot to set my alarm, had to bring my mom's phone to her job bc she forgot it, my bus ended up running late because the doors would get stuck at stops. But I woke up on time, caught the bus after taking the phone, and made it early to work because the bus forgot to take the detour? My luck is insane (thanks Mammon.)

ANYWAY, i can no longer contain my thoughts about Mammon x Solomon x Mc. I'm just imagining my mc and Solomon who are both very curious, and love messing around with potions at purgatory hall, and finding alternatives to rare ingredients. This has definitely gone wrong a bunch of times (most days without a potion incident: 4)

and I'm imagining Mammon tagging along bc he misses mc and is jealous that Sol is taking up their time, but denies all claims - "I'm assigned to protect ya, ain't I?" "From Solomon?" "W-Well, he's a shady sorcerer!"

He sits on the floor by mc's feet, and will fetch them things because he can't say no to them. But he spends so much time listening to them brainstorm, he starts learning and will chime in randomly. Mc and Sol who are stuck on what to add, Mammon drops something in there, and they're both horrified until they realize the potion is perfect now. He just has a little database in his mind of what to add to something, and rare ingredients that the two wish they could get their hands on.

Thinking about Mammon doing a favor for a witch and she tells him to pick anything in her collection since she's low on money. He was about to be angry when he saw an ingredient that they've both been complaining is rare and hard to find. He asks the witch for that and then brings it to the two. He acts all nonchalant about it, trying to brush it off. Mc tackles him, meanwhile Solomon is in awe and staring with a twinkle in his eye.

Now Mammon starts requesting trades with witches, for a lower portion of grimm. Gets ingredients he knows they dream about, because the way mc and sol will get all giddy after he presents them with his earnings makes his stomach flip (he will never admit this)

"This is missing something" Solomon

"Yeah but I can't figure out what" MC

"Have you tried *insert seemingly common ingredient that doesn't work for most things*" Mammon

"But no one uses that, it's why we're always stuck with it" MC

"Couldn't hurt to try. See, watch." Mammon.

"WAIT, MAMMON DON'T- ... IT WORKED!?" Mc/Sol

----

"MAMMON HOW THE HELL DID YOU GET THIS, IT ONLY BLOOMS ONCE EVERY 100 YEARS" mc

"Dunno, got it from a random witch. Said she didn't need it. *spent two hours haggling with said witch*"

"...am I in love?" Solomon, reevaluating life

"Eh? What are ya mumbling about? If you're gonna thank me, I want it loud and clear!"

my crack ship <3 they mean everything to me. I caved and hunted down the plushies of them on ebay too. ALSO I GOT TWO OF MY COMMISSIONS BACK AND I'M 😭 they're perfect !!! I'm so so happy with them. Literally the lock screen is beautiful bc it's me and mammon cuddling (HIS MUSCLES CC!! IM DYING) and it looks like it was taken by like asmo or something who walked in to wake us up.

i think I'm also a hopeless romantic, I'm just scared of confronting my feelings lol (you're right in that it is worth it, I just need to figure out how to be brave </3). I throw myself into romance books and fanfics. Vaguely related, thinking about coffee shop au with barista!Mammon and college student!Solomon.

OKAY SORRY IM DONE RAMBLING 😭 HAVE A GOOD DAYYYY

- ✨ anon

Wow that does sound like a crazy morning!! I'm glad it all worked out, though~ Mammon is totally watching out for you!

OKAY but all of that sounds exactly like Mammon! I mean, he's super smart, he just doesn't usually bother to apply himself to anything. So it totally makes sense that he'd just pick up things because he's spending time with MC and Solomon. And then of course he's gonna end up seeing rare ingredients and being like, okay yeah I'm taking that. That all sounds absolutely adorable~

I'm curious about whether or not Solomon and Mammon would make a pact in this situation? I mean, if it's both of them and your MC that are in the relationship, do you think they would? Do you think Solomon would move past his obsession with getting a pact with Lucifer and end up in one with Mammon instead?

I always felt like Solomon doesn't really get Mammon, you know? But that doesn't mean he can't learn. And oh man, Solomon is such a tease and Mammon is so not good at being teased lol. That idea is giving me so many entertaining images, I can't even handle it.

Anyway, I'm totally here for it! It sounds really cute~

I'm so glad you're happy with your comms!!! They sound amazing!

And don't worry, you'll figure it out. I don't know how old you are, but I suspect you have plenty of time! It's a balancing act, you know? It's important to be honest with yourself about your feelings without letting them control you. But it's easier to decide what to do about them if you know what they are. Anyway, not to get all philosophical over here lol. I think the key is to find someone you want to be brave for, you know?

AUGH I love coffee shop aus sooooooo much!!! I was very obsessed with the idea of barista!Mammon for a while, mostly because of a daily chat where he was working at a cafe and then got into a fight with customer. He's good at finances, so I think he could be pretty business minded if he wanted to be. So I was thinking about a situation where he owns his own cafe, but when the customers get rude with one of his fellow baristas, he gets into a fight with them lol. I hadn't really considered who that other barista was, but it could be MC.

Anyway, I could ramble about coffee shop aus all day because I love them aklsdlkfjdfjkl

I hope you have a lovely day/night, too!!

[alicepao13]

Hudson and Rex S02E19 - In a Family Way

We finally reached the last episode of this Odyssey season. You know what? 16 episodes is a very acceptable number.

This is not an episode I'd choose for a season finale. Especially not when a few of the best of the season were literally before this one.

Oh yeah. The episode that they changed from murder at the golf course to murder at a ski resort because the golf course got covered by a huge amount of snow. Only in Canada. Again, we'd have postponed the filming here. For days and days. Otherwise people would have died.

The boys are skiing/snowboarding! Why do I always forget that?

"I was cool once". Yeah, yeah, Charlie.

I actually really like snowboard. I hate ski. At least when we're talking about trying them out, not watching them on tv.

Jesse, be normal for one frame so I can take a screenshot.

More ATV time.

"Where is my work wife?"

We shan't be deprived of flirting.

"Did that guy just... snowboard away from me?"

Because he might come up with a terrible line like this one?

"Cute? I'm a ferocious beast!"

This is a good look. Although I must say that the neatly combed hairstyle has left me unimpressed and I don't think that it really fits the character either.

"Just our luck. The dad's a lawyer". Well, it doesn't happen that often.

Impossible. We're in the middle of the episode.

Impossible. We're in the middle of the episode.

And now we have to bullshit him so that we can definitively prove that the confession is false. So much extra work just because he's covering for his son, who's covering for his father, and neither did it!

I hate that crime shows have to explain things again for those who didn't pay attention. Just pay attention!

Yeah, she is.

This episode had a decent plot twist.

I'm not going to mention how many crime shows I've watched, not because I think it's embarrassing but because at this point I've lost count. But this is the first time where someone uses a real life pregnancy as a fake pregnancy for undercover work in the show. And it's actually genius? I mean, you get to have one more episode with your pregnant actress. I don't know why no one else has thought about it.

Yet again, Sarah is The Only Woman in the Force, by the way.

Don't laugh, idiot. Don't you have any sense of self-preservation?

This is funny because you can see that Charlie is imagining it but Sarah actually wants to murder both of them.

"Charlie, what did you do? Am I going to be a big brother?" (I'm kidding. I know dogs can sniff out a pregnancy before even the humans.)

Sarah: "Do we have a name yet? For our... child?" Charlie: "Uh, yeah. You like Ella, and I like... Bella." You just lost any future child naming writes, buddy.

Her little smile is cute. Also, stop having people interrupt their moments!

This is why Sarah wanted you two to get your story straight, Charlie.

Dude! What are you telling her?

Sarah called Charlie "honey". I forgot that???

lol Diesel never managed to open the cabinet with that handle, did he?

"Rex was the first to figure it out". He usually is.

"I have an IQ of 160". And an EQ of negative infinity.

It's possible (unfortunately) that this case was based on an actual real case sometime back but I remember that a few months after it had aired, a new case broke in the news, I think that one was in the US, though.

I like the song at the end. Well, the next to last one, actually.

One for the Charlesse shippers.

And a wallpaper for me lol

Again, wallpaper for me.

And one more for the Charlesse shippers.

I might have forgotten to mention, but my screenshots are covered under the "who gives a fuck" and "no strings attached" license. Just use them. It will be good for you :P

[lazodiac]

ONCE MORE, we delve into the plane of Thunder Junction, in our attempt to figuring out what each plane each card is from.

Last time we finished all the monocolour cards, and you can find all of those here. I'll also been including a villainy score for Oko's gang, to see how much they count as villains... and in retrospect wish I'd done that for all the legends, since this is a VILLAIN set. Call that a project for another day...

For now though, let us enter into the wild, wild world of...

MULTICOLOUR

We open off with a big one- Akul the Unrepentant! The main antagonist of the story, a PERFECT black-hat western villain- he is fierce and evil and SMART but also you can bait him with the right words and at the end of the day he's just a right bastard with a gun. An honestly pitch-perfect villain for a villain set.

The way his scorpion mandibles make a cowboy hat silhouette, his gun-stinger tail and his fire breathing claws, he is a perfect example of what a Scorpion Dragon is and how strongly it fits the aesthetic of the plane.

But we've been told all the Scorpion Dragons are from Gastal, an obscure plane from Urza's Planeswalker novel, so they're from Gastal. I hope we go there one day and learn what that plane is like beyond its very sparse appearance elsewhere.

Annie Flash! Our first member of Oko's gang to rob Akul! She's Atiin so from the Atiin Plane, and is the only Atiin that shows up in story. We learn from her stories that her people are still out there wandering, while some settled in Thunder Junction.

Among them her nephew, who Akul afflicted with tuberculosis with his stinger (it's some kind of dark curse but given how it is described it's absolutely TB, a fitting disease for the time period). He left to join his people, because staying in bed all day half asleep from medicine is worse than suffering while awake.

At any rate, she's retired to protect the town she's ended up in... and is threatened by Oko into helping take down Akul. On the villainy scale she is a fierce 0/10. I wish she'd just shot Oko in the head.

Annie Joins Up is one of a cycle- all of the major members of Oko's gaing gets little pieces like this. They're clearly part of one singular mural but we haven't been shown it and it makes me sad.

Given the context, I'm counting these cards as Thunder Junction original.

A strange, fascinating card, it's a sherrif's sterling silver star, radiating various creature spirits out of it. Given the form of magic at play I'm gonna say this is from Alara, since it resembles the Nacatl totem magic.

Hellspur Mercenaries holding, unfortunately, YOU at knifepoint. Good luck friend cause I'm out of here.

... okay I'll stay long enough to say it again; Hellspurs threw away all ties to their home planes to become dyed in the wool magma mutants. They're from Thunder Junction now. The predominance of glowing purple and dyed hair could imply these individuals are from Kylem, but I'm sticking to my thunder-guns here.

This is the only real indication that the cactus folk are "new" to the plane, despite having lived here for generations as non-sentient cacti. I don't really like this, but whatever. Native to Thunder Junction.

The Sterling Company's shiny leader, in the vampiric flesh. Given his style he's definitely from New Capenna. He doesn't show up in the story at all, but his presence is felt by the colonizing cops that he employs.

Big ol' Bonny Pall is our distaff counterpart to Paul Bunyan, the American lumberjack of old west mythology. She's even got a massive blue ox to help her out!

She's one of the giants from Eldraine, and if I could remember where I saw blue oxen on that plane I'd tell you to confirm it.

Everyone's favorite goblin-monkey, Breeches! A secondary member of Oko's gang, though in truth his loyalties lie with his captain, Vraska. His main goal in the story is blowing things up- as is his want- and showing us that he has more self control than Gisa does.

As far as villainy goes he's a soft 2/10. Nothing he does is inherently evil, the pirates of Ixalan (his home plane) are categorically the nicest faction present there, and ultimately he's only with Oko to help Vraska betray him.

Bruse Tarl! There's absolutely no reason he should be here in the villain set, but also he's a cattle rancher who is a fan favorite on a plane where ox and cattle are well known an aesthetic so of course he's here from Zendikar, having finally found some beasties that listen to him.

Fun fact; the four visible livestock on the card include Pillarfield Ox, Ox of Agonas, Vigor, and Bartered Cow. These cards won't add to the total, but are here and that's cool.

Also fun fact: according to the card crafting stories, this card was originally Strongarm from Lorwyn/Shadowmoor! Neat!

A cactus with a gun! Native to the plane, and my friend.

Gryff's are the wonderfully unique heron-hippogryffs of Innistrad, so this beautiful bird-beast is from there.

Who????? Who are you???? You have human hands but are otherwise completely just a bear man??? The only plane where ANYTHING like this even remotely exists is fucking Blobavia, in the Un-iverse? Who are you??? Why is there no legend article for this fucking set?!?!?

I have no fucking clue where this guy could be from, but the flavor text leans me towards Arcavios. This is some random bear druid man from Quandrix House.

Eriette, the Beguiler! She's one of the secondary members of Oko's gang, despite being ostensibly the first one recruited (or at least the first recruited on screen, by Jace-as-Ashiok). She is of course from Eldraine, and even has beef with Kellan, the newest member of the gang.

Beef that she puts aside! For the mission! Because her evil plan on Eldraine was "I will treat PTSD from the invasion by offering the chance to go to sleep forever, and will coincidentally get to rule the plane" which is like, not even THAT evil? It's misguided and kinda fucked up but not like, EVIL evil? And despite anger at seeing the DIRECT guy responsible for her defeat, she still buries the hatchet. This is like, a 1/10 on the evil scale.

Also there is the slightest, slightest implication she might have poisoned Oko at the end of the story. If she did she gets a "Nahiri did nothing wrong" modifier.

This delightfully cheery grandma is from Zendikar, and is doing what she does best: climbing stuff! She's a new character as far as I can tell so we know nothing about her otherwise, but she's survived the Eldrazi and the Phyrexians and is still smiling so she's okay in my book.

Notably, she does get some fun flavor text on other cards.

The flavor text feels at odds with the vibe of what formring a posse would be- normally this sort of gearing up of the locals would be to fight AGAINST the Sterlings coming in and taking the entire plane, but I digress.

The specific sort of decorations of the town and the people involved feel Atiin to me, but I think I've gotta give this to Thunder Junction proper.

Ghired is a fascinating character to me, because he's shown up before and despite doing so still has no real character and has not contributed to any of the stories he's in. Which is a shame because he's one of the best concepts they've ever come up with, from the best plane they've ever made; he's someone on Ravnica who left one Guild to join another!

This Selesnyan shaman turned to the Gruul Clans after witnessing Illharg, the biggest of the big pigs, rise from the primal earth of the plane! Despite joining the Gruul he still has a Selesnyan connection to wildlife, and on a fully untamed plane like Thunder Junction he is THRIVING. It's so cool! He should do stuff!

It's time for a controversial legendary! It's the Gitrog monster, freshly done being Thalia's steed during the Phyrexian Invasion. He's bullfrogged his way tot Thunder Junction, and now people want to turn this one cult inspiring hypnotoad into just another wild and wacky horse to ride.

I get it. I get why people find this to be a discrediting of the Gitrog from fearsome monster to funny creature, but it honestly works? Innistrad is a plane of horrors, and what happens to horror media when it recurs? It reduces, with each iteration. The best horror film franchises start and end at one, maybe two if you're lucky, and it only takes a complete and total revitalization and reimagining to fix it.

For now, Gitrog is a funny horse, but maybe one day he'll be the monster you remember from your nightmares.

A scam artist and swindler from Innistrad, Old Honest Rutstein is a surprising pull for the plane... and yet works perfectly, as snake-oil salesmen fit the old west aesthetic perfectly. Has many a fun flavor text in the set, and notably is NOT a hellspur. He's just got some fun glowy corn husks to play with.

Was the first card from the set teased as preview art before this story arc began.

The name is a reference to Misinformation Campaign, one of the best cards from Guilds of Ravnica, but mechanically it really is more like Dovin Baan's stupid planning and plotting card.

With that in mind, and given the... strange art, I'm saying this is from Ravnica.

Jem Lightfoote, with an e, is one of the Atiin, as her flavor text implies. This is all we know about her, other than her being delightful and probably fun at parties.

Jolene Jolene, please don't go punching my man into space. This... hilarious card showcases New Capenna's premiere boxing tough knocking a guy directly out of his boots, while her horrifically photo-realistic snorse niss's menacingly behind her.

Fun fact: her magical gauntlets, which she still has and you can tell because you can see them around her fists, lets her literally punch money out of people! Every hit knocks some gold out of them, made from their blood and life.

This is directly referencing a magical item from some actual play DND podcast that I'm blanking on the name of. Maybe The Adventure Zone?

Kambal, once the Consul of Allocation of Ghirapur, in Kaladesh, was ousted from his position following the revolution, replaced with Pia, Chanra's mother. Despite losing all of his actual political power, his underworld connections didn't consume him for failure, and he survived past the Phyrexian Invasion to go on to becoming the corrupt mayor of Prosperity.

The art of him makes it look like he, as the kids these day say, is "serving cunt" and I kinda adore it.

Kellan's join up card. Thunder Junction.

And here is Kellan proper! The erstwhile hero of the "omenpath" saga of magic story, this is the first time since Eldraine that he's actually mattered in any real capacity! Here, he finally manifests the last of his birthright, the fae magics of Oko's plane, but in his heart he's still the little shepherd boy from Eldraine.

Kellan's story honestly concludes so well that I'll forgive the somewhat lackluster middle portion. He's a sweet and innocent and perfect soul. 0/10 villainy score.

Kraum is Ludevic's Opus, his perfect creation, the pinnacle of his mad stitching science. He's like two dudes connected together who can fly through electromagnetic powers. Mad scientists are silly.

I adore that Ludevic cares this much about his apprentice though. Kraum never shows up in story, which is probably for the best, but it's really funny to imagine every scene Geralf is in just has a two headed lightning crackling Frankenstein just, off in the distance watching him.

Jaspar Flint is, apparently, a Hellspur, which I can kinda see from the mutations on his hands and chest, so I suppose he's from Thunder Junction. But also there's no Viashino out there that look like desert lizards, so I do wonder where he's from... my best guess is actually Gastal, for some reason.

Lazav, successfully convincing everyone on Ravnica of his death in defense of the plane, has decided to go solo mode. So much for him and Tezzeret's plane to take over Ravnica- not that that'd ever come to fruit given it's from a book everyone hates.

I really love the art for this card.

Lilah is the leader of the Slickshots, and notably while she doesn't show up in the story proper, the secret to her and her gangs success does; a magical tincture only she can make, that empowers her and her allies with a little extra oomph to their magic.

The best way to identify a Slickshot is through their magic, and thte specific green magic she's launching out of a strange, heart-shaped bottle, suggests to me that she's actually a witch from Eldraine.

The flavor text, plus the make and model of the thunder-gun on our would-be gunfighter's side, suggests this is Atiin to me.

And that's a total of thirty! So lets take a quick break and go to part 2 momentarily!

[mickimagnum]

Devin's Dude Ranch: Episode Eight

*the episode opens with a shot of Devin staring out of her bedroom window*

Devin (voice-over): "The Cocktail Hour is over and now it's time for me to make my decision. Which one of these guys do I send home? I can see reasons to give each of them a second chance. Honestly, this feels too early to send anyone home. Ugh, this sucks!"

*the next scene opens with the Rose Ceremony. all contestants are lined up on the platform in front of Devin and the show's host, Venessa*

Venessa: "Welcome, everyone, to the first Rose Ceremony."

Venessa (continues): "Tonight, Devin will choose who she wishes to continue seeing by handing out roses to those lucky four. Contestants, you can choose to either accept or decline her rose if you no longer wish to pursue a relationship with her. Anyone without a rose at the end of the ceremony must immediately pack his belongs and leave the ranch. This week there was also a poll where our viewers voted on who they thought should go home. Devin has received those results and had the option of considering the results when making her decision.

Alright, good luck, gentleman. Devin, it's all yours."

Devin: "I want to begin by telling you all how thankful I am that all of you took this chance to be here with me. I know this experience has not been easy, even though we're still at the beginning, but I want you to know how much I deeply appreciate the time we've gotten to spend together. You're all amazing men and the decision I had to make tonight was very difficult. But, ultimately, I do believe it is the best decision."

*Devin picks up the first rose*

Devin (continues): "This first rose is going to the person I have had a very...intense connection with from the start, and every time we're together, I feel our connection getting stronger. I definitely want to see where this goes, Houston."

*Houston hustles off the platform and over to Devin with a huge smile on his face*

Devin: "Houston, will you accept this rose?"

Houston: "Yes, a million times, yes."

*Devin laughs softly as she hands him his rose*

*the pair hug before Houston returns to his place on the platform*

Devin: "My next rose goes to a man that is so easy to be around that our connection feels effortless. We have a lot in common, he has a great sense of humor, and I just really enjoy our time together. I definitely need more time with you, Handra."

*Handra steps off the platform and strides over to Devin*

Devin: "Handra, do you accept this rose?"

*Handra smiles at her*

Handra: "Absolutely."

*after taking his rose, Handra then kisses Devin on the cheek before making his way back to his spot*

Devin: "My third rose goes to someone that I definitely feel a connection with, but we need to spend more time together to figure out if there's serious potential between us. I want more, and I think you feel the same way, Albert."

*Albert moves off the platform and swaggers over to Devin*

Devin: "Do you accept this rose and the challenge to spend more time together?"

Albert: "Yes. I'm all in, beautiful."

*the two hug before Albert goes back to his spot*

Devin: "And here we are, down to the final rose. This was not an easy decision, because I really like both of the men standing here, waiting for the chance to continue."

Devin (continues): "Milo, you are such a sweet person with big dreams, and I love that about you. But, we're not at the same place in our lives and, frankly, I think you may be little young for me."

Devin (continues): "And Stan, we always have a blast when we're together. Our connection is easy, but I've been worried that maybe it's more of a friendship connection than anything else."

Devin (continues): "Ultimately, I had to go with my gut. And the man I want to continue seeing is...Stan."

*Stan hustles off the platform and over to Devin*

Devin: "Stan, do you accept this rose and promise to work on the romantic side of our connection?"

Stan: "I do, and I've never been more ready for an adventure in my life."

*Devin and Stan hug before he returns to his place*

*Milo then steps forward to join Devin*

Devin: "Milo, I'm so sorry. You really are a great guy. We just weren't right for each other. I really do wish you the best and I look forward to your many platinum albums one day soon."

*Milo sighs*

Milo: "Thank you for the opportunity, Devin. I don't feel like I got enough of a chance, but it is what it is. Someone has to be the first to go, right? Best of luck."

*Milo then turns and walks away*

Milo, in diary room: "After the Cocktail Hour I had a feeling it was going to be me. And yeah, it sucks. But, I meant what I said. I don't feel like I got a real chance," *looks at the floor* "It just sucks man. I really liked her."

Stan, in diary room: "Whew! That was a close one! All I can say is, I'm very grateful to be standing after tonight.

My plan moving forward? Romance the heck outta Devin. She won't know what hit her." *winks at the camera*

Devin, in diary room: "It was a very difficult decision, but I do feel like it was the right one. Ultimately, the viewers were right and voted exactly how I chose. I'm just glad it's over. I'm excited to move on with my four guys!"

Houston submitted by @invisiblequeen Handra submitted by @bloomingkyras Albert submitted by @bakersimmer James "Stan" submitted by @natolesims

Thank you to @belsasim for submitting Milo. I'm so sorry things between him and Devin didn't work out. But, I think we can all agree he's a great guy. From everyone at Devin's Dude Ranch, good luck, and we wish you the best on your future endeavors!

*Relationship status shown is after the end of Cocktail Hour **Relationships are built autonomously after a few guided friendly and flirty interactions to get them started ***Rose order for this elimination determined by viewer poll results

PREVIOUS | NEXT

[olderthannetfic]

I don't know how many people kept up with this, but if you're on the internet you probably know about it, but there's a new Sam Levinson TV series that has been bothering a lot of people. It's called The Idol, and features Johnny Depp's daughter and The Weeknd, the former being this super popular singer and the latter as the cult leader who brainwashes Lily Rose into doing humiliating sex stuff with him with the excuse that it'll make her better at her job.

Now… the existence of this show bothers me a lot, and I know I'm not the only one, but while I can't attest to what others think regarding fiction, I know that I'm absolutely not one of those people who think that any depiction of sexual assault should be banned, or that kink has no place on TV, or that all sex scenes must advance the plot.

There's just something, in how those shows and movies are set up, that makes it all feel so exploitative and horrible in a way that, in fics, never seems to be.

Like... I'm a huge fan of Miss_Lv, who is definitely a "dead dove" author, and yet there's just something that makes me want to throw up at the idea that Sam Levinson shot a scene in which a bunch of guys (or maybe it was just The Weeknd, idk) come on Lily Rose's face and The Weeknd posts a pic of it on Twitter and makes it go viral with the tag #humancumsock.

I guess it's because it's acted out by real people, and there's a huge difference between "I'm imagining all of these characters doing these things in my head" and "These characters are played by actual people," but the amount of disgust the idea of seeing The Weeknd push an egg in Lily Rose's vagina and tell her that, if she cracks/drops it, he's not going to rape her is almost inexpressible while, if a fandom friend pitched me with this idea, I would simply reply with "That stuff makes no sense, but ok, I guess. Just good luck finding the tag for it."

My other best idea, as to why this whole series disgusts me so much, is that PR made Lily Rose go around interviews saying that she felt so empowered by the series, which is the usual crap that is pasted and copied from woman to woman whenever they act in a series in which their role is that of personality void human flashlight and doesn't really mean anything at all. It's that, and the fact that the series was supposed to be a feminist view on the world of celebritydom and Hollywood, but then the female director was fired in favor of hiring Levinson because The Weeknd threw a tantrum about the show being too focused on the female aspect of the question, rather than putting the spotlight on him.

I don't know, I feel like I'm the only one who's been conflicted about this series (which I have no intention of watching legally nor by pirating it, because it disgusts me to the bone) and wanted to know if someone else thought the same, or if there was no moral/interior conflict upon reading all the articles written by the exploitation of the female cast and how rape is depicted.

--

I hadn't even heard about it. I guess I haven't been watching much TV lately.

I think a lot of sexually transgressive media is made by people who, frankly, don't know how to execute something like that in a safe or self-aware way. You definitely do see examples where the actors say they were cool with it and I believe them, but the ones I can recall have mostly been indie movies or stuff from Europe with very different production dynamics.

I met a lady in L.A. who works as a... man, I can't even remember the term, but she's the person on set who works with the actors before a sex scene to figure out their limits and be a buffer between them and the director. For indie films, the usual procedure is to kick 99% of the crew off the set so the actors only have to deal with each other, the director, and the camera person.

I think live action media about weird sex stuff is harder to do safely and ethically than a written work is, but it can be done. That doesn't mean they did a good job in this case though.

[paradoxcase]

Chapter 47 of Harrow the Ninth

Commander Wake's last thoughts, I guess? It's interesting that she could have chosen to save her own life by killing Gideon and didn't, especially since in the last chapter Mercy was talking about how she didn't care about family and didn't want to be a mother, and she doesn't seem like a motherly person, anyway, and she literally refers to Gideon as "the payload" here. Was Gideon's mere presence on Pluto meant to bring the plan to fruition somehow? Mercy definitely doesn't seem to think that worked out that way, but I don't know what Commander Wake was expecting to happen after she died, exactly

I'm not sure if he's trying to say here that she was haunted by a literal ghost, or haunted by a metaphorical ghost, or that going through that much bullshit fucks everyone up and she shouldn't be so hard on herself. Because I'm very interested to know if all those experiences were just due to her being haunted by literal ghost, personally

This is fun to contrast to Cytherea's recounting of this story back in Gideon the Ninth:

She makes it sound like they had some deep Seventh House heart-to-heart and Dulcinea was totally fine with this plan and didn't object to being killed at all. I love that we get to meet the real Dulcinea and find out that she does hate Cytherea just as much as everyone else does

Also, Harrow doesn't tell her this for some reason, but her lying about who her friends were did help Camilla figure it out, I think. Just not before she'd killed a bunch of people and Palamedes had figured it out by a different route

Who is she getting revenge on in this particular scenario, though? I don't think she really has a horse in this race. Cytherea is not here, John is not here, she doesn't have anything to do with Commander Wake and I don't think anyone in this scene actually knows who the Sleeper is at this point. Or does Dulcinea think that the Sleeper is Cytherea?

Is all the blood in the River bubble not actually real enough? Yes, it's all just a fake environment made of spirit, but like, other things in the bubble have been real enough to use for necromancy - the animal fat candles, or Harrow's bone chips, etc.

Does Harrow not recognize the suit? Gideon at least remembered the suit, but since Commander Wake's death wasn't actually all that relevant to Harrow and happened before she was born, maybe she was just never told about it. Did Wake then just randomly possess a sword that happened to be in the Ninth armory, and just by luck that sword was requested for Gideon? Only, when they were going through swords at the very beginning of Gideon the Ninth, all of them were old and rusted and unusable, so it would be probably somewhat remarkable for an actual good one to wind up in there, so maybe it does have some special history? Commander Wake almost certainly didn't actually have it on her when she died, she very much seems to prefer guns to gigantic swords

And Harrow always sensed that the sword was haunted, but Gideon never did, Gideon thought it was the best thing since sliced bread. Is it just because Gideon has the necromantic ability of a brick, or did the sword being haunted by her mom actually draw her to it?

Is Harrow still interpreting her feelings about Gideon as just being like totally normal things to feel about you cavalier, and that's all that is, no romo, etc.?

It's definitely the sword

It's interesting that Wake calls them "wizards" and what they do "magic", you would think that BOE would really be playing up the evil necromancy angle here

So, I guess the ghosts can be killed permanently here, but since they're also imposing their own rules on the bubble, they can also survive things that should kill them in the real world with a strong enough belief, or will power, or something, like how Wake survived being shot multiple times by Marta?

This series sure does love long fights between people who technically can't die, I have to say it removes a lot of tension when so many people are immortal or otherwise unkillable

Can Wake actually exert her own rules on the bubble enough to make it possible to counter necromancy with guns?

I see. So Wake wants to take over Harrow's body, and presumably go kill John and end the whole war with a win for BOE. Or maybe she wants to resolve some shit with Mercy and Gideon the First as well, but I'm sure she also probably wants to kill John, and this book has been repeatedly promising that John will be murdered on every chapter header. I guess it was just perfect luck for Wake that the random sword she possessed wound up in Harrow's possession after she became a Lyctor and now she's on board the Mithraeum with everyone that Wake has unfinished business with?

I sense that Ortus is about to impose some hilarious new rule on the bubble, probably related to the Noniad

[cbsghostsmetasandtrevor]

Not A Dog, Bro!

AO3

When Jeremy comes to visit, Trevor's desperate to keep him around and the episode ends a bit differently.

***

“You can’t just kick him out, Sam.  Can’t he stay for a little while?” Trevor nearly pleads as they stand in the library where Sam, Jay, Hetty and Isaac are trying to figure out a way to get his brother to leave because he found a loophole with the points system.  

“Trevor, we can’t have a freeloader living here for a year without us making any money.  He’ll bleed us dry, and we don’t have the funds to keep us afloat,” Sam states.

“Come on, Sam, between the Ari blackmail, telling you about David and Kelsey, and earning you almost two hundred grand with Isaac’s money, can’t you just let him stay for me, please,” Trevor asks, attempting to give her his best puppy dog eyes.

“You have made us a lot of money, true,” Sam admits, “But he can’t stay for a year, Trevor.”

Okay, that’s fair.  “Okay, but you don’t have to kick him out today, right?  We can keep him for a month.”

“Not when we don’t have any other guests lined up for a while because of Carol’s death.”

Trevor used to be better at negotiations, but not when he’s at the disadvantage of not being alive.  “We can afford to keep him for a week, right?”

“You make him sound like a puppy,” Sam states before taking a breath.  “Fine, we can keep him for a week.”

“Yes!” Trevor yells, excitedly, doing his little T-Money thing as well.  

He turns to leave and ignores Jay’s complaining about having a freeloader in their house for a week and still having to figure out how to get him to leave once the week is over because he’s got his brother for at least a week.

***

Trevor’s annoyed.  It took all of a day before Sam went back on their deal about allowing Jeremy to stay for the week.  Which results in Jay challenging Jeremy to a video game matchup that Jeremy should have no problem winning, but somehow is losing.  

It’s right near the middle of the game when Jeremy asks, “How am I losing?  This makes no sense.”  He shakes his head.  “Whatever.  There's still time.  Let's see how you like this.”

Somehow, Jay manages to block the play, again, causing both of them to yell, “Come on!”

Jeremy continues to say, “There's six plays. You pick mine every time.”

“I guess you're just really predictable,” Jay offers.  

Jeremy’s shaking his head.  “That's impossible.  No one can guess right that many times.”

He’s right and that has Trevor looking around.  “That is impossible.  What's going on?”  He looks from Hetty, who’s standing behind them to Sam, who passes on the play number to Jay.   He stands up and stares at Hetty as he asks, “What the hell?  Are you cheating?” “No.  I swear.  I was just picking my nose,” Hetty denies, despite knowing she would never do that.

He scoffs, upset that she would do this to him even though they broke up.  “I don't even think we have boogers. This stops now.”  He covers Jeremy’s controller with his hands so that Hetty can’t see the play.  “Good luck cheating now, cheaters.”

Jeremy’s waiting for Jay to pick a play, but he’s definitely not able to cheat now. 

“Hey.  You gonna pick a play?” Jeremy asks Jay.

“Yes, I am. I'm just... thinking.”

“Trevor, you stop this at once,” Hetty states, firmly, expecting him to cave.  

Not this time.

“You can't make me.”

“But I can,” Isaac says as if sounding like he has any power over Trevor as he moves around Sam to face Trevor.  “Pachycephalosaurus charge!”

He runs at Trevor, who struggles not to laugh as he simply moves out of the way.  

Isaac seems surprised, and yells, “He moved?!!  Not fair!” as he falls through the wall!

Trevor grins, ‘cause he wins.  He looks from Hetty to Sam, “No more cheating.”

Jay’s frowning as Sam lets him in on it, quietly.  “Oh, it’s just me now…”

“What?” Jeremy asks.

“Nothing.”

***

The game continues, fairly now, and Trevor’s surprised that Hetty’s really getting into it.

“Oh, my God, this is tense.  Jay is up two points with one minute to go!”

“Is this more exciting than watching walking?” Trevor teases.  

“It is debatable.”

“You know, I got to say, you gave me a pretty good scare there, Jay,” Jeremy offers because he’s at the point where he knows he’s going to win.

“It's not over,” Jay counters.

“Isn't it?  All I got to do is get in field goal position, where I am automatic.”

Trevor grins, excitedly.  “My little brother's about to wipe your butt.  That's right, I'm sticking with it.  I'm making it a thing.”

“You know, there was a minute there where I thought I was actually gonna have to take over my dad's company, but now I can just keep living here,” Jeremy says with glee.

Trevor frowns since Jay never followed up with the ‘fired’ thing, he’s got no idea what’s going on.  “Wait, what?  Sam, what's he talking about?”

“I thought you said you were fired?” Sam questions.

“Yeah.  For refusing to take over his company.  I think Lenny was just trying to motivate me or something.”  

“I don't understand,” Trevor states because none of this is making sense.  “Why wouldn't you want to take over the company?”

“You don't love the lighting business?” Sam asks, trying to act curious so that he can get answers.  At least it’s less obvious that it’s for a ghost.

“Oh, no.  I freaking love lights.  When you find that perfect grouping and fill a room with that magical glow, it's a godlike feeling.”

“So, then what's the problem?”

“Because my dad's just doing it to be nice.  I'm not cut out to run anything.  Trevor was the one with the head for business.  I'd probably just screw it up,” Jeremy states, plainly. 

Trevor feels a wave of sympathy for his kid brother.  He knows that he always looked up to Trevor, but he never thought that Trevor’s abilities with business would make Jeremy feel… inadequate.  Even if he did know that their dad expected to hand the business over to Trevor since he was the oldest.  

“No, you wouldn't.  You're a smart kid.  You learned your haftarah in, like, a week.”

He wishes that Jeremy could actually hear him, see him, know that Trevor believes in him.  

The moment is interrupted by Isaac storming into the room.

“That was an exterior wall.  I fell two stories.  I mean, I know we can't get hurt, but why didn't anyone come looking for me?” he pants.  “What'd I miss?”

Clearly deciding that he doesn’t want to talk about it anymore since there’s no forthcoming support from Sam or Jay, Jeremy says, “All right, ten seconds to go.  Time to kick this field goal and end it.”

Trevor, though, can’t let his brother continuing hiding here when he would be a great business owner.  So, he needs to help Jay win (even if Jay hurts him).  

“No.  It's time for you to grow up, little brother,” Trevor states, even though he can’t hear him.  Then, groaning, he licks his finger and gives his brother a wet willy just in time. 

“No!” Jeremy yells.

“I won!” Jay yells.  

There’s cheering from Hetty and Sam, while Isaac yells, “Huzzah!”

Jeremy is shaking his head.  “What the hell just happened?”

“Your big brother just shoved you out of the nest,” Trevor states.  Then he does a little small T-money sign.  “T-Money.”

Sam’s grinning at him.  “Nice work, Trevor.” 

Everyone looks at her and she tries to cover, “Is what I would say if Jay's name were Trevor, which is a name that we've discussed a lot this weekend, hence the mix-up.”

Jeremy’s shaking his head.  “No, no, I don’t believe it.  Trevor’s here, isn’t he?  And you can see him, can’t you?”

Trevor’s looking at Sam, confused and uncertain about what she’s going to do in this situation. 

“I – why – why would you think that?”

“Well, for one, you’ve talked about Trevor a lot – you literally just said ‘nice work, Trevor’ a minute ago.  For another, you’re always looking at areas where there’s no one, but as if someone spoke to you, like earlier when you looked above you when Jay and I were plotting our game.  At that same time, there was a dinosaur book that was on the front desk facing away from you and yet, you were pulling the parts of it and flipping the pages.  And of course, the wet willy I just got which makes no sense unless it was Trevor, the way you didn’t immediately deny it and… should I get into the strange things that happened last year?”

Throughout his entirety of laying it all out there, Trevor’s gotten more impressed with Jeremy and Sam’s looking more and more caught and appalled.  

“Just say, yes, Sam,” Trevor states.  “It’s obvious.  Please say yes so that I can talk to him.”

Sam shakes her head and says, “Yes, you – you are absolutely right.”

“I KNEW it!  I mean – I didn’t exactly know because I didn’t really believe in ghosts, but my parents were talking about how Trevor thought the divorce was his fault and how weird it was at the end there, and – yeah, anyway – so ghosts are real – and Trevor’s here?”

Jeremy’s so excited and so’s Trevor, and Sam’s just like resigned.  “Yes, Trevor’s very much here.  Has been here all along.  And last year, we tried to get your parents back together because he was upset about the divorce and I said what I said because he was so sad… and anyway, he’s been very happy to have you here and really, really wanted you to stay – he kept asking if we could keep you –”

“What?  I’m not a dog, bro,” Jeremy says to Trevor.  Clearly, following Sam’s eyes to where Trevor’s standing.  

“I didn’t mean to make it sound like that.”

Sam rolls her eyes.  “Yeah, he didn’t mean it to come out that way, but it did.”

“Now that he knows, even though he’s going to leave – we can still keep him this week, right?” Trevor asks, giving his best puppy dog pleading look.  

“As long as you don’t put me in the middle of any butt or boobs conversation, we can keep him this week,” Sam says, relenting.

“But I won,” Jay mumbles, as Jeremy says, “Again, not a dog, bro.  And what’s going on?”

Trevor does his little T-Money thing as Sam explains, “Your brother kind of invested some money in the stock market and made us some money, that and the David thing and the Ari thing… he asked if you could stay for free this week and well, it’s… fair.  He’s probably made us the most money even though I really prefer if he’d stop getting into our accounts and doing things that could’ve gone poorly for us.”

Jeremy is staring at her uncertainly.  “I have so many questions.”

“Well, why don’t we sit down, and I’ll answer them.”

***

Eventually, Sam did tire of being the interpreter after explaining the long stories of what actually happened to Trevor, Sam’s fall, the Ari thing, the memorial, the David thing, and what had been going on so far.  Since Trevor has gotten better with his power, they gave him the iPad so that he and Jeremy could still chat without her.  

He tells him some of the ghosts’ stories and Jeremy fills him in on life without Trevor.  It’s both heartbreaking and heartwarming that Jeremy missed him as much as Trevor missed Jeremy.  But the important thing was that he could now talk to Jeremy whenever he wanted and now, he could tell him that he would be a fantastic leader of their dad’s company. 

I never wanted you to feel like you weren’t good enough, Jdog.  You were always great, and you’ll be amazing.  Dad wouldn’t give it to you just ‘cause I died.

Jeremy nods.  “I get that now.  I think I’ve always just been afraid.  You were a lot to live up to – even when you were gone.  I figured it was better not try.”

Every time I think about my death, I always thought I was dumb but at least it was just me that was affected – aside from you all losing me.  Figured you’d move on and be fine…

“Yeah, I mean – it was not knowing.  If we’d known all along – by the way, I’m totally going to go off on Ari now.  And you can’t stop me.  I always hated that guy.”

I would defend him, but Sass is glaring me at me for even thinking about it.  

Jeremy laughs and shakes his head.  “Nice to know you’re at least not alone here.  And yeah, he is the reason that we didn’t know you were officially dead for ages, so… yeah, I’m gonna go after him.  He was always an asshat anyway.”

Yeah, yeah, yeah.  Anyway, at least, it’s not too late.

“Exactly.  It’s not too late.  Anyway, at least now we have answers.”

Yeah, you do.

***

The week flies by given all of the things that they have to catch up on, but as Jeremy packs his car, he promises, “Don’t worry, we’ll still talk, and I’ll come back and visit soon.”

Trevor smiles.  “Yeah, we will.  Sam promises to let me have access to the iPad.”

“I didn’t actually do that at all,” Sam states, and at Jeremy’s confused face says, “But I will promise now that you can have access to the iPad as long as you don’t try to cat-phish anyone.”

“I never technically tried to cat-phish, it just kind of happened…”

“You still tried to sleep with Bela as a ghost!”

“But she KNEW I was a ghost – so, again, not cat-phishing!  Besides, she liked me, too.”

“That’s not the point, Trevor!”

“You’re ruining a goodbye moment.”

She rolls her eyes and says, “Anyway.  Yeah, he’ll be able to chat with you and your parents and you’re welcome to come back as long as you intend to pay next time.”

Jeremy grins.  “I promise that I won’t pull any scams next time I visit, but since Trevor did save your business more than once, maybe you should a) consider asking for his advice because he’s pretty business savvy, and b) buy him an actual bed.”

Sam looks from him to Trevor. 

“I didn’t ask him to say that, I swear!”

“Uh-huh, I totally believe you.”  She turns back to Jeremy.  “You make a good point whether or not he put you up to saying that.  I’ll think about it.”

“Good, well,” he sighs.  “It’s time to go.”

“You’ll do great, Jdog.”

Sam repeats what he says, and Jeremy smiles.  “Thanks, Bro.  Talk soon.”

“Promise.  Goodbye baby bro!”

Jeremy laughs.  “Bye, bro.”

With that, he gets in the car and takes off.  Trevor knows that he can’t be seen, but he waves anyway, feeling a lot better than he did when his parents left last year.  At least he can talk to them now, that’s far better than most of the other ghosts.

It’s perfect ending to his brother’s visit.  

[nkn0va]

200 post celebratory oneshot

So...this is gonna be my 200th post, so I decided to do a little something to commemorate since my 100th post was a meme. I haven't posted the last couple days because I was trying to fucking come up with something to do.

This time it's not a Six oneshot. This will be a hypothetical (non-canon like everyone else's, obviously) UNIST Arcade mode for my unib OC! Hope this new style of writing goes over as well as the last ones...

Please like and reblog this took fucking forever

The air was thick with a palpable, almost suffocating tension, a very familiar one. It was that time again already? I guess when you're as busy as I am the days sort of blended together. It had hardly felt like a week since the last Hollow Night. Was I perhaps wasting away my youth, too busy to enjoy the prime of one's life? Perhaps I was. If I let these thoughts out to Linne at least, she'd probably give me a very lengthy lecture.

It's not like I had much of a choice though. As a descendant of the Night Blade watching over the Night is a duty I was born into. Unfortunately that's come with some...unexpected duties. Such as watching over the newbie, Hyde.

He was...rough around the edges, but he definitely had potential, even ignoring the fact that he of all people ended up with the Insulator. Can't help but feel bad for him though, it's not like he asked to be given a legendary weapon and thrust into the world of the Hollow Night. That's a big reason why we've told him to hang back tonight. He was still inexperienced and he was being hunted by some dangerous people for the Insulator.

Paradox...

Ever since she appeared she's been nothing but problems for everyone involved, especially us. Amnesia's been getting too much power for their own good. Many of them have gone drunk with it now, Paradox herself even more so. As an In-Birth with Night Blade blood flowing through me, I have to be the one to disband them, by force.

If acting as an In-Birth as well as Linne and Waldstein's teachings have taught me anything, it's that you have to cut off the head of the proverbial snake if you even want to have a chance at throwing a group out of power. No one being able to do so in the case of the Night Blade is the only reason it's survived for so long. That leaves me with only one option.

It's time to put an end to this charade, I've waited long enough.

Placing my cloak over myself, I set out into the Night, passing through into the realm of EXS. Though silent, the air speaks volumes. Tonight's going to be one that no one will soon forget. For better or worse, that remains to be seen...

~~~

(Stage 3)

By now I've already dispatched a few In-Births. No one too powerful. A lot of rookies had started running around as of recently, though I suspect that luck's about to change. As a matter of fact, it likely changed a while ago. I stop in the middle of the street, raising my voice enough to be heard.

"You can come out now. You're not as slick as you think you are."

I hear footsteps behind me now, the stranger knew he was caught. A figure stepped out from behind a nearby tree in the park just on the other side of the road. As he came out of the shadows, I could see his face now. If the rumors were right I knew exactly who this was. I turn and narrow my eyes at him, though my cloak hides the expression I'm giving him.

"Bloody Chaos, the brains behind Amnesia."

My stalker only let out an exasperated sigh, adjusting the red-framed glasses on his face. "I use that codename one time on an operation years ago, and it's been spreading like a virus...just Chaos is fine, please."

"Alright, Chaos. Mind telling me why you've been following me as long as you have?" Despite meeting under the Hollow Night, and likely knowing how this altercation was going to end, Chaos could only chuckle. It was almost a bit unsettling despite his surprisingly affable demeanor. Not the attitude I'd personally choose to have, but sure.

"So you knew after all. I'd expect nothing less of the fabled Hydro of the Night Blade. Let's just say I know quite well why you're here already. That should be sufficient in answering your question."

Right, of course. Not like I was really expecting anything else. Though the choice of going for flattery was odd. Not like it was going to get him anywhere.

"I'd expect you to be a bit more on guard if you're here to try and stop me. If I were one of my colleagues you would've been cut down already."

"Oh, I'm quite aware of that, believe me. That's why I opted for stealth. Though that attempt clearly fell through quite embarrassingly."

"You must be quite confident, then. Clearly you're no fool, you have to be hiding something."

This only made Chaos laugh again. "You're not half bad yourself. Though if you'll allow me to be completely frank I'm a bit nervous. Direct combat's never been my forte, even if I give it my all I may not be able to defeat you."

"Then cut let's cut the talk, shall we? Let's see what Amnesia's fabled tactician can truly do."

"Now that's a sentiment I can get behind. I don't imagine I could convince you to give up your mission with words anyway." Chaos then brought opened up that odd book he was carrying about, which summoned a large beast. That...thing was easily three times the size of a large dog, and those claws and fangs could definitely mess me up if I wasn't careful. It's sheer strength along with it's master's quick wit and cunning would most assuredly make for my most difficult fight so far tonight.

I had no reason to hold back. Letting my EXS out in full force, orbs of water encased my hands before they took shape into twin wielding blades.

~~~

(Stage 6)

I was quickly closing in on my destination. The place where all In-births gathered, where my target lied. However I felt another presence, however faint it was. A strikingly familiar one at that.

In a flash I materialize a Hydroblade and strike, clashing with a curved dagger that was strikingly familiar. It easy to figure out who it was.

"Not bad, you almost got me that time. I'd expect nothing less of the Assassin."

Seth had struck from above, my deflection of his blade blowing him back through the air before he landed a fair distance away. "I suppose you've been getting better after all. However I'd suggest you don't let that get to your head. That could get you killed."

"That's supposed to be my line. I am technically your senior, as far as matters directly involved in the Hollow Night go. So I suggest you get out of my way, this is supposed to be my fight."

Seth could only close his eyes and scoff. Even under the high collar, it didn't take a genius to tell he wasn't in the mood. "I'm afraid you're mistaken. The sins of the Night Blade are mine to bear and mine alone. Even if an ally gets in the way, I won't hold back."

I can only let out a sigh. Despite his quiet, normally unassuming demeanor he was as stubborn as ever. "True that may be, it's still too much for you to bear. You've got some growing up to do. You and Hyde are more alike than you'd think."

"Me and Hyde? Alike? Don't make me laugh. I'm nothing like that inexperienced rookie. He's not ready for what the Hollow Night has in store for him. If he keeps going the way he's going, he'll only end up dead."

"You're not in much of a position to talk yourself, whether you realize it or not. Even if I'm not much older, I can still tell you have a lot to sort out. That doubt and grief you carry within you... you still have yet to cast it out for good. Only then can you call yourself a worthy successor of the Night Blade."

He stayed silent. It seemed as if my words had struck some kind of chord in him. One could only guess what he was reflecting on. Perhaps some point in his past that set him on the path he was on now?

"...Perhaps you have something of a point. That only makes my mission even more of a necessity. If I'm to truly overcome this strife, I must dispose of Paradox and free the princess from her curse myself."

"Well, then it seems we're at an impasse. We both know the rules, so let's cut the cheap talk short."

~~~

(Stage 9)

I've come across an increasingly dense amount of In-Births by this point the further down I'd gone into the Night. That could only mean I was getting close to the Abyss, if that along with the thickening EXS in the air was any indicator. Just a little more to go and-

Oh no...you gotta be kidding me...

"Hyde?"

Hyde froze at the sound of my voice. He knew he was busted. He slowly and nervously turned.

"Oh...hey...fancy seeing you here..."

"We've been over this. You were supposed to stay out of the Hollow Night. What do you think you're doing here? You don't seriously think of taking on Paradox."

Hyde, knowing he'd been caught, sighs in exasperation before recollecting himself. Surprisingly fast at that. "Yeah, I was heading to go do just that. I can't just sit by on the sidelines and let you, Linne, and the old man do everything for me. I gotta do something."

"I respect the sentiment, but have you forgotten what's at stake here? We can't risk her getting her hands on the Insulator. If she does everything we've worked for will be gone in an instant with nothing we can do about it."

"Yeah, I know that...but at the same time isn't it the best chance we have at defeating her? If we wanna take her down we have to go at her with everything we've got, Insulator included."

"Normally I'd be inclined to agree, but you're far from ready to take on the most powerful In-Birth on record. Charging at her as you are now is needlessly reckless, I can't in good faith let that risk be taken."

"If you're really gonna fight Paradox, why don't we just do it together? We'll be much safer than if we just did it alone. I might not be as experienced as Linne or as strong as the old geezer, but it'd better than no one, right?"

"I don't think you fully grasped it the first time we explained this to you, but let me say it again. Whether or not I win against her doesn't matter. If she beats me, nothing of value will be lost, but if she beats you and takes the Insulator, we lose everything."

Immediately this seems to set off Hyde, his voice raising. "Nothing of value lost? What the hell's wrong with you, man!? You are of value! To Linne, to Wald, to me! Think about what would happen if you died, how many people that would devastate!"

Even in the face of hostility from someone I call a friend, I have to remain calm. Getting angry won't solve anything. "In comparison to the greater cause of the Night Blade and fixing the mess we created, my life is a small price to pay. You might not understand, but that's fine. Maybe one day you will."

"No, and I don't want to! If you're really trying to face Paradox by yourself, then I'm gonna have to stop you."

"Funny, that was supposed to be my line. This night won't last forever, there's only one thing left to do."

~~~

(Stage 10)

I finally made it. So this is what the Abyss looked like all along. It's...surprisingly grand, almost like a huge altar, though that's probably rather fitting. On the far side of the room was another gigantic door, no doubt the door to the Abyss itself. I'd have been completely alone if it wasn't for someone else standing there at the center of it all.

"My, my, it's about time someone showed up. And it's none other than the Night Blade's beloved Hydro. I unfortunately don't have anything to offer you, but do make yourself at home here."

God, that smirk...something about it just pissed me off. I can't let her get to me. It'd only make the situation worse. Under my cloak I take a quiet, deep breath. I needed to keep my head clear and my body light, so I could fight with everything I have.

"You can skip the shit, Paradox. We both know why we've been brought together tonight."

This only made the crazy woman giggle smugly. "My, my, such forwardness of you, Hydro. I'm quite flattered. Is this a-"

"Don't even think about it." I quickly cut her off, knowing exactly what she was going to say. She was trying to act smart and fluster me, but it's clear she had a long way to go before she could do it well. "I'm here to stop you. Nothing more, nothing less."

"Oh, but why would you ever think of doing that? We could be so much more together. With your skills and my soon to be power of the Re-Birth, we could be truly unstoppable. Aren't you tired of it all? Tired of bending to the will of the Night Blade, to that accursed princess? If you join my cause, you could finally be free, we can crush all our opposition. The Night Blade, the Licht Kreis, all of them. And in their place we can build a new Night in our own image. The way we see fit, and rule everything together. No one will be able to stand up to us. Doesn't that sound so exciting?"

She was talking to me like I'm another one of her idiot cronies that she can convince merely with the promise of supreme power. She's going to come to regret that.

"Cute attempt, but useless. I don't want power. Haven't you ever heard the saying? Absolute power corrupts absolutely. Your power even now has already driven you mad. You're not fit to run a children's science fair project, forget the entire world."

That seemed to understandably piss off Paradox. That's how you get in someone's head, if the soured expression on her face was any indication.

"Why you little... it seems you need to learn some manners. I suppose sometimes a child won't learn how to behave without a proper spanking."

The thick EXS in the air around the altar allows me to near instantly materialize a Hydroblade. This was it, it was going to be the toughest fight of my life. No backing down now.

"You're more than welcome to try. Now drown in the endless depths of eternity."

~~~

(Story END)

"Ugh...how...did you..."

Paradox was on the ground, having been blown back by my finishing blow, beaten and now soaking wet. I wasn't any better off though, her blades had proved quite the challenge. I was gonna need first aid as soon as possible after I got back home. At least all the cuts were covered by my cloak.

"Simple, really. You let the ego your power gave you go to your head. You didn't take me seriously, and that's going to be your final mistake."

Someone like Paradox didn't deserve any final words. With pinpoint precision I threw the Hydroblade in my hand straight through, instantly piercing her vessel.

"Sleep for eternity, Paradox. And may we never have to encounter the likes of you again."

~~~

(Play Good Mooning End for maximum vibe)

Finally. It was one long night, but it was finally over. The sun was beginning to rise on Kanzakai, the dawn of a new day, and new possibilities. No matter how many of them pass, each one is the opportunity for something new. I guess in a way such a universal constant was what kept Linne sane during her long years of cursed immortality.

Speak of the Devil, though...

"Hey, there you are, I was looking all over for you."

Now that the night was over, I could finally let down my hood. I take it off and let the first rays of sunlight hit my face, taking a deep exhale out. "Sorry about that. Wasn't too much trouble, was I?"

"Quite the opposite, actually." I could spot the tiny, yet sincere smile on her face. Not a common sight, indeed. "I sensed a pretty huge loss of power. I'm guessing that means you did it."

I nodded in confirmation. "It was a damn close fight, not being as experienced as you are, but I managed to pull through. Her vessel's been pierced, she won't be bothering us again anytime soon."

"You've done good, then. Glad all those hours teaching you hasn't gone to waste. You even managed to beat Paradox, and Hyde too by the looks of things."

I let out a sigh remembering my encounter with Hyde. "Stubborn as ever, he is. Thank God I caught him outside the Abyss when I did, or things could've went bad."

"You can say that again. Though he seemed to be in pretty sour mood when I found him. At least he's already gone home now, so he and the Insulator are safe."

"You do remember you still have to hold up your end of your bargain with him, right? He deserves answers after everything he's went through."

"Yeah, no need to remind me. When the time's right, the time's right. He'll know everything. One day."

Linne pauses for a moment, her face becoming one of thought. "I have to ask, though. Did you...actually kill Paradox?"

I open my mouth to respond and then stop myself. I didn't really stop to confirm she was dead or not. All I knew for sure was that I pierced her Vessel and cut off her EXS abilities. "I...don't know, to be honest. I know I pierced her Vessel, but that's it. Should I have killed her or...?"

"I won't tell you what to decide on that. Whether you chose to kill her or not was your choice to make. The important part is that her Vessel is pierced. If she survived, she won't be nearly as much of a threat. As a matter of fact, I doubt Amnesia will even accept her as a leader now without her powers."

"Yeah...I guess that's a good point."

Her face turned serious once more. "That doesn't mean we can afford to relax now, you know this. There's still a lot of unruly In-Births out there that are going mad with their power like Paradox all the time, and Licht Kreis showing up certainly doesn't make things easier."

I can't stop the sigh that escapes me at the thought of having even more work to do even after such a long, vicious night as the one I just had. "Yeah, yeah, you're right. You can be a real piece of work sometimes, you know that?"

Linne eased up, finding amusement in my exasperation as she giggled lightly. "Come on, 'Hydro', relax. You did plenty of good tonight, you've more than earned your rest for now. Speaking of which though, we should probably be getting home. It's already almost morning. Imagine the ruckus it'd cause if someone found Wald passed out on the road somewhere."

The image in my head of the old geezer faceplanting somewhere in the middle of town completely unconscious makes me let out a laugh of my own. "Yeah, no kidding. It'd be like seeing the Rake or something out in broad daylight."

The immortal princess' face turned to one of confusion. "The...the what now?"

Her confusion only gets another laugh from me. "Not important. Though maybe sometime I can teach you." With that I walk off back towards the city to head home. I could hear Linne sighing in exasperation behind me.

"I swear...you kids with your modern day gadgets and nonsensical stories..."

I can only laugh louder now as she jogs to catch up with me before slowing down to match my pace. It's only a matter of time before she's more gently laughing along with me.

It...was a nice moment. A rare moment of solace for the both of us, a kind of moment Linne had taught me well to cherish.

(Ending song: Heart Beat Breaker)

[ticklystuff]

hello! my genshin team is zhongli lyney and benny and furina! (pls don't do the kink for tickling one if that's okay ty!)

ask game is closed!

hello, thanks for sending your team! my laptop froze while typing yours out and didn't save and it's like 1 am i'm gonna scream alskdjf

who’s the most ticklish character

mmmmm it'd be a toss-up between lyney and benny! i think lyney would be slightly more ticklish, but benny always loses tickle fights so it feels like benny is the more sensitive of the two and he always attributes it to his bad luck and lyney is standing there like "oh ya, you're definitely the most ticklish on the team, can't relate"

who’s the character that most people would assume isn't ticklish, but actually is

zhongli because he's so much older and more mature than the other three that ticklish zhongli is not something that would really cross most people's minds especially when he's standing next to the other three lol

who’s the character that everyone gangs up on and tickles

FURINA especially when she's acting like a diva or being out of touch and just needs to be brought back down to earth but i don't think she would really mind the tickles and she might even like them also zhongli! the other three love to gang up on him sometimes and he can definitely throw them off if he wanted to but he just sits there and lets them have their fun

who’s the character that somehow knows everyone else’s tickle spots and reveals them to others

zhongli knows everyone's tickle spots but i don't think he'd go around revealing them. rather, he might be watching furina or benny getting wrecked by lyney and after the tickle fight is over, he might go over to them and subtly drop one of lyney's worst spots, just to give them a little edge over him in any future tickle fights also lyney is like an older brother figure to benny and furina and he just a good hunch when it comes to tickle spots. he can't get a good read on zhongli, though.

who's the character with one specific tickle spot that only one other person knows about

lyney actually tells benny that the back of his knees are super ticklish because he feels bad benny always loses aslkdjfkals but he makes him promise not to tell the others

who’s the most likely to win gang tickle wars

ok zhongli could win if he wanted to, but he just lets things slide and kinda lets one of the other three come out victorious. like he might put in some effort just to give the illusion that he's trying but then kinda just gives up for their sake. but in most cases, it's usually lyney. maybe zhongli will help out benny and furina by holding down lyney every once in a while just so they can be the winner for once ehehe

which character didn’t even know they were ticklish until another character tickled them

furina because of lack of interaction and having to put up an act for so long. she found out she was ticklish one day when she saw lyney tickling benny and she wanted to experience the same thing, but was too shy, so she went to zhongli and he offered to test a few spots for her

which two characters have tickle fights all the time

LYNEY AND BENNY like he would be so overprotective of benny and make sure he's okay after tickle fights and make sure he isn't losing too much breath while being tickled. also sometimes he lets benny win and it's really cute alkdwjskaljs also lyney and furina! initially lyney tried pulling the caring older brother act that he does with benny but furina took that as an insult like as if lyney didn't think she could hold her own in a tickle fight so she just gets wrecked all the time rip girlie

[dwaekkistar]

Chapter IV

Jade's POV

        I woke up to my bed empty, any signs of Felix sleeping in my bed long gone. I pouted still half asleep before carefully getting out of my bed. I picked my phone up off my nightstand, seeing a notification that I had an event added to my schedule. Upon further inspection, I realized the event was that we had a music video shoot today. I softly sighed out of anxiety because I didn't expect a video shoot so soon. The thought of having to record a video that I knew the entire public was going to see whether I liked it or not scared the living daylights out of me. What would happen if I messed up during the shoot, would the fandom notice? Would they drag me and call me an incapable idol, talentless like all those people back in school expected me to be? Or worse would the company void my contract and kick me out? So many negative what-ifs spiraled through my brain, my anxiety rising with each second.

         I tried to take a few deep breaths, which did help a little before deciding to stretch. I then opened my door, only to be met with a very sleepy and grumpy Minho.

         "We have a video shoot for Levanter today. Don't make us late," he said with a strong glare before walking off. I stared at him in surprise, wondering where the attitude suddenly came from when he was so nice on our day off. I then made my way to the bathroom which was not in use. I assume because everyone was already up and ready, as I heard distinct chatter coming from where the kitchen was. I quickly head in and shower, brushing my teeth while I'm at it. I figured straightening my hair was definitely out of the question as I most likely didn't have the time. I quickly placed my pajamas used previously worn garments into my designated dirty laundry basket, before quickly heading back to my bedroom with a towel wrapped around my body hoping to god I didn't bump into the boys in this state. To my great luck, I avoided everyone, locking my bedroom door behind me. While searching for my undergarments, I got a text from Sua, telling me to just wear a simple tube top and black spandex-like shorts, as the stylist was gonna style me in clothing very quickly, and having to undress and redress was going to take up to much time that could be used to shoot more content for the MV.

         I opted out of wearing a standalone bra, for one of my tube tops that had a strapless bra built in. I wasn't one to have gigantic boobs, but they were about a decent size thanks to my mom's genes saving my dad's, and filled the top out pretty well. I'm pretty sure my body type though, especially the bottom half all came from my mom as everyone always made it necessary to point out that had an ass bigger than the average native Korean woman. I quickly pulled out one of my safety shorts and to keep things still publically decent I put an oversized graphic tee on. I then put on some socks and slipped on my vans before walking out of my room just as Sua texted me that she and jun arrived.

        I walked to the front door, completely ignoring all the guys as they said good morning to me, which caused them all to slightly frown except Minho, who gently scoffed in response. I opened the door allowing Sua and Jun in, both smiling at me and wishing me the best of luck behind the camera today. I kind of needed that as I had been ignoring the feeling all morning, and realized the entire time the feeling was settling in my tummy. Their smiles and pep talk immediately made the feeling disappear. Jun headed to the rest of the boys to talk before the shoot while Sua stayed next to me.

        "Well how have things been since I last saw you?" she said sweetly, as her energy radiated from her. "Do you like things in the dorm?"

        "I mean besides sharing the bathroom with like 8 guys," I softly chuckled as I handed her my phone, " I think I'm good. The constant chaos might take some time to get used to though."

        "Ah, I can talk with Jun and see if we can have the company get something worked out with the bathroom situation," she said while chuckling along with me. I nodded in response, my brain immediately thinking about the shoot when I realized nobody had gone over the choreography with me, which made my anxiety come back tenfold. Is that part of why Minho was being so rude? maybe he thought I was gonna mess everything up. The weird feeling I had in my tummy returned and felt way much heavier than before. Sua then got a text message and she quickly read it before looking back up at me.

       "Uhm," she says calmly with a soft reassuring smile, "Jun says the reason why we're leaving so early today is because the boys need to go over the choreography with you."

       "oh.." I said feebly, my voice dripping with worry and anxiety, becoming even more anxious than I had ever been and my breathing becoming uneven. My body felt like it was violently shaking, although I'm sure to everyone else it looked like I was perfectly still. The last time I ever got this anxious was during my audition period for the company. It seemed like she noticed the worry in my voice so she quickly gestured for me to put my mask on and grabbed my hand as we left the dorm to head to the van.

         When we finally got to the van the driver automatically opened the door from his seat as I quickly headed into the farthest seat in the back, my anxiety constantly nagging at me as I tried to hold back tears. Sua followed in after and handed me a box of tissues she had in her bag insinuating that she wanted me to have them in case the tears building up at the corner of my eyes decided they did want to fall. I quickly take one and pat my eyes dry not wanting all the boys to see me so vulnerable, and it's bad enough I let Felix see me that way last night. The boys eventually came downstairs to the parking lot and filed into the van, confusingly looking around until they spotted me in the back. I'm sure my eyes were somewhat red and puffy even if I didn't give myself the chance to cry because I knew that was how bad my anxiety tended to become. They all sat in their usual seat in silence as Jun slipped in the back with me and Sua and the driver began to drive to the shoot location. I gently poked Sua and asked for my phone remembering I asked her to hold it as I had no pockets on my outfit. She carefully handed it to me, and I carefully grabbed it going to play some random games as I tried to take my mind off Minho's attitude and the anxiety for the shoot.

Small Time Skip

          The driver eventually reached the location which was a modern industrial-looking building, Jun and all the boys rushed out of the van to go in. Sua got out once the van was empty of the boys following Jun and I quietly followed behind them. Our bodyguard was quietly waiting for us at the door making sure we all carefully got in. Everyone then got into an elevator and went upstairs to what looked like a small dressing room with stylists already waiting in it. I quietly followed everyone inside pulling my mask off like everyone else, when a Stylist just as tall as me walked towards me gently grabbing my wrist and pulling me towards the area where she and a few others were already set up. They pulled out this garment bag that contained various pieces of clothing and accessories in it prepping to dress me in. I tried to get a better look at it before when one of the stylists spoke up.

        "Hi, we're your stylist for the shoot, could you put this on for us so we can see if we need to make a quick alteration before we start makeup?" She said with an energetic smile.

"Yeah," I quickly nodded and responded grabbing the bag and pulling the clothing out as I stopped paying attention to my surroundings. It was a pair of brown jeans with a leather belt, a brown cropped shirt, a white/cream cropped sweater vest, a brown beret, platformed boots,  a necklace with a cross pendant, a black and silver bracelet, a channel bracelet, and pearl earrings. I quickly removed my graphic tee and current shoes and slipped everything on quickly, all the stylists smiling as everything seemed to perfectly to their liking. They then led me to a chair, one of the stylists swiftly pulling out a Flat iron. Had I known they wanted me to have straight hair for the shoot I would have done it myself, but that would have been a bad idea seeing as time wasn't on my side when I woke up. Minho and the words he said and the face he held replaying in my brain a few times when I shook myself out of it deciding to focus on what was currently taking place. It seems in about the few minutes I zoned out the hair stylist was almost done. She finished the last section of my hair when another stylist zoomed to my side and started applying light natural makeup. She began to finish up, carefully applying this soft pink lip tint before gesturing her hands away from the chair to let me know she was done. The hairstylist then came back and carefully placed the beret on my freshly straightened hair before applying a decent amount of hair spray.

     When I finally got out of the chair, my attention was brought back to the room, Changbin and Han were already done and sitting on a couch going through their phones as they waited for the others to finish. Changbin looked up from his phone to see I was done and softly smiled as he took my appearance in.

     "You look really cute Jade," He said with a soft chuckle, " I see they put you in platform boots...How does it feel being the shortest member of the group now."

     Han slapped Changbin's arm in laughter causing the other members to look over as some of their stylists fidgeted with the accessories of their outfit. All I could do was stare with my mouth agape in amazement at how boldly he said it. 'Two could play at that game' I quietly thought to myself. If he was gonna roast my height, then I would just have to use my baby face visuals to my advantage.

     "Meanie~," I said as I softly pouted with puppy eyes and tried to walk opposite the couch, but before I could even get anywhere someone grabbed a whole of my wrist.

"Noona, please don't ever do that again," Hyunjin said visibly cringing and furrowing his eyebrows as I turned around, realizing it was him holding my wrist, " I understand you're cute but that was so...no."

"Okay I won't do that again," I said as I softly giggled at his reaction. The other members minus Minho were smiling at me at our shenanigans and quickly joined in. We got deep into joking around when Minho harshly grabbed my hand and pulled me out of the dressing room, causing me to wince in pain. He pulled me to a small empty room before closing the door behind us and looking at me with a deep scowl.

"We're gonna go over your moves in the choreography," he said as he turned towards a wall and rested his phone against it playing a practice version of the song, " you're mostly going to be in the back since you joined very last minute... But you better get it right other I'm just going to request to have you removed from the group."

What actual hell was his problem? Why was he treating me like this, I softly furrowed my eyebrows as I stared at his back, but quickly changed my face deciding to put it behind me. I wasn't going to let Minho down my mood before the music video, it would just negatively affect my performance, and prove him right and everyone else right. The music started and he started demonstrating the dance moves that I was gonna be doing, and to his surprise, I was picking up on it very quickly and attentively following behind him. His eyes furrowed the more he continued to watch me as I followed him, doing the choreography with the same energy, mannerisms, and passion as he was. The song eventually came to an end as we finished the choreography.              "How did you get all of that down so quickly ?" Minho said softly as he furrowed his eyes in confusion.

       "Dude I know you didn't just ask someone who auditioned for a dance position..." I started sarcastically, "How they're able to keep up with a decently complex choreography.."

        He looked down at the floor, softly pouting, as he seemed to regret being so hard on me. I know he wanted our comeback to do good, but to act like that to me with no logical reason was uncalled for.

       "That my honestly my fault." he said sincerely with slight guilt as he stepped closer to me and gave me a soft hug, " I know Chan chose you to join the group, but he never told us your positioning in the group... we all just immediately assumed you were mainly a vocal position and I didn't want the music video to go bad.. I'm sorry. " I quietly accepted his apology by hugging him back just as tight before we left the room to join the rest of the boys. 

         Minho held my hands and quietly led us back to the managers and boys, and it was quite a feeling. I couldn't help but blush as he somehow managed to make me feel 180 from just a moment ago. The stylists swiftly stepped in front of me when we finally got back to everyone while Minho let go of my hand and headed to the others, double-checking that I still looked good before they ushered me to head to the set. When I walked closer to the boys, the director quickly instructed us that the specific set we were on was for the performance version and that some parts of the recording would be used in the main video.   We were then told to go to our marked starting positions, and upon reaching our spots the music was cued and the director yelled action. We passionately danced until the song was over, and relaxed a bit while the director and staff team at the shoot went over the footage.

       "That was a good take but I think I wanna do another one just in case." the director spoke out through the speaker. We all returned to our spots as before when the music started. Despite remaining in the back and barely being seen by the camera due to Felix being taller than me, I was still somewhat very happy because it oddly felt like I finally belonged somewhere. I know I barely knew most of the guys, but while we were going through the choreography once more for the camera I couldn't help but get this strong instinct that this was where I was meant to be, that these boys were who I was meant to spend the next few years of my life and hopefully more with.

      The directors congratulated us on the first part of the shoot, and then told us to get changed because we had to get ready for the acting part of our music video. All the boys began cheering in response as they were finally able to be unserious for the first time today, their usual chaotic energy exploding everywhere.

       The boys began playing and joking around as usual as we headed back to the dressing room. Han jumped on Changbin's back earning a loud help from the latter which made us all laugh and chuckle at his expense.

       "We barely got through a third of the shoot, and I already feel like I've been hit by a massive truck." Chan jokingly blurted out as he held his back with his right hand.

       "Chan hyung is an old man" Seungmin spit out in response with a chuckle causing everyone to laugh.

        "YAH I'M NOT OLD!" Chan yelled at him as he began to chase after the younger. They both ran back to the dressing room, Chan on Seungmin's tail. Suddenly Felix took it upon himself to slide under me and lift me onto his back essentially giving me a piggyback ride. We all continued joking with each other.         When we got to the dressing room finally, Seungmin was accepting defeat as he pleaded with our leader who was currently sitting on top of him. Our stylist soon followed in pulling out 2 more garment bags per each person in the group. They told us to pick out scene 1 outfit, and upon doing so I pulled out a garment back that contained a black and white blouse, skin-tight black leather pants, a different pair of black boots again, and a velvet choker. I quickly slid out of the outfit I had on, as Jeongin waddled over to me with pleading eyes.

       "Noona I can't see behind me to put the necklace on," he said pouting gently before turning red in the ears at the sight of me in just the small tube top and safety shorts, " the necklace keeps unclasping somehow."         "Aw, come here my little Innie, I'll help you," I said with a smile as I took the necklace from his hand and carefully put it on him. He turned around once more thanking me as he blushed even harder than he was a second ago and ran off across the room to one of the other members. I carefully and swiftly put on the leather pants with minor struggles as I had to do little hops to get it past my ass. However, once it was on- the fabric was super comfortable to move around in. I slid the blouse over my head and quickly went for the choker and clasped it around my neck carefully, not wanting to experience Baby Bread's distress from earlier. I chuckled to myself as I thought I would have to call him that from now on because he truly did resemble a human personification of bread.  I fixed my hair once more before putting the shoes on and walking towards Hyunjin, Minho, and Chan. They all lifted their heads to look at me as they heard me approaching, Hyun-jin and Minho watching attentively both biting their lips in slight shock at my outfit, when Chan spoke up.

     "The stylist seems to know what they're doing if they've got you walking around like that." he softly chuckled, his little dimple making a sudden appearance at the moment.

     "Chan! What does that mean?!" I said with a slight whine not appreciating his sudden flirtatious teasing. The boys all laughed at my response and I blushed heavily. Knowing how shy Chan was back when I was training, his boldness at the moment had genuinely caught me off guard. As the boys continued to laugh and joke about other things Jisung, Changbin, and the maknae line joined us. I sat in a corner near Chan as I was starting to feel somewhat self-conscious, and it seemed like Chan took notice of it. He turned towards me and gave me a soft gentle hug, squeezing me to give me extra reassurance.

     "Don't be so nervous cutie pie," he softly whispered in my ear, " you got this, I wouldn't have picked you if that wasn't the case you know." He gently rubbed my arm as he held me resting his head on top of mine as he continued to try to calm me down. I took in a deep inhale, catching a whiff of Chan's scent, noting he smelled strong of sweet fruits like strawberries and such which only added to his attempt at calming. It helped as I was able to get my thoughts back to normal. I took a quick look around the room, noticing that all that time some of the members shifted from talking to going on their phones, even the stylists and our managers were using theirs.

      A staff member eventually came in and told us the director was ready for us, so we all quickly headed out. If I was being honest, now that I've taken everything in, the boys all looked pretty hot in their current outfits. For some odd reason that gave me a big wave of reassurance, because if they looked hot, I must have looked hot as well. And that's when I noticed my and Chan were slightly matching as we both had stripped shirts on.

     "Channie," I said tenderly, tugging at his sleeve as I walked next to him. He looked down at me in response, "Did the stylist intend to make us match?" that's when he took a step back and assessed both our outfits. When he finally looked up, he wore a huge grin on his face.

      " I guess so," he said as he gently held my hand as we continued our way to the set.

       "Why are you two matching ?" Changbin said his eyebrows creasing in confusion once Chan and I caught up with everyone else.  The boys all turned to look at us upon his words, realizing he was indeed right about our outfits.

        "Did they do that on purpose?" Jisung added his voice taking on a mischievous tone, "Cause that would honestly explain Jade's ass in those pants."         Everyone including me groaned in response to Jisung's taunt, which earned him a thwack on the back of his head from Hyunjin. We honestly should have expected it from him sooner or later but we got our hopes up thinking maybe he would quit it for one day.

       The boys and I eventually got to our instructed spots and the rest of the shoot went by in a blur, as we constantly acted out scenes and changed outfits a few more times. I knew that being an idol was gonna be stressful, but I honestly didn't take into account this much work had gone into the outfits, all the small things that were usually taken for granted. We quietly finished up and headed back out of the building to go home.

[elegyofthemoon]

Hsr for the ask game thing! Or if it's been asked then hi3 :)

YAAAAAAAAAAAY RAMBLINGGGGGGG

the first character i ever fell in love with:

sampo :) i actually started playing hsr because of sampo! he just seemed like a silly little dude and i do tend to like the "goof but has some big lore potential going on". it took like a day of resisting to actually download the game lmao

a character that i used to love/like, but now do not:

Himeko..... I was actually really excited to get to know Himeko more when I had first started off. I mean come on: she's so beautiful! But laksjdfh I think overtime she eventually stopped standing out for me that I lost interest. That plus now that I've played HI3, the reason why I like HSR! Himeko feels like it's only because of HI3 Himeko and the importance of Himeko in the HI3 plot and for many characters' developments 😭 Sorry Himeko

a ship that i used to love/like, but now do not:

I guess KafHime tbh? I think aesthetically they're a very very pretty couple, but I just can't get behind it at all. Or I just have no reasons to get behind it since I'm not exactly invested in either characters. Though Kafka is definitely growing on me because I built her (accidental pull) and she's been doing such massive damage so like you know.

Even then I don't have anything to say about either characters aslkdjfa

my ultimate favorite character™:

surprise to no one it's Dan Heng ALKSJDFAKLSJH I can go on about why I like him, but tldr: I just got attached to him at a very very crucial point in my life and he's just a nice comfort character to me ^u^ I loved being able to get to know him further on the Luofu and all things about the High Cloud Quintet ! So... yeah :> also I miss him --

prettiest character:

IM STUCK BECAUSE I THINK DAN HENG IS SOOOOOO PRETTY BUT ALSO ARGENTIIIIIII ARGENTI IS SO BEAUTIFULLLL RADIANT KNIGHT WHO COMES WITH HIS OWN SPARKLES AND OURGHHHHHH

it's hard T _ T its very hard to tell T _ T

my most hated character:

I don't really have a character I hate. Just more disinterest towards. Dr. Ratio is definitely up there though (I ramble about him later lmao)

my OTP:

listen.... i know it has been a while.... but I still really love Serval/Cocolia. I rarely read fanfics aside from if its written by my friends but Servalia had me clawing through AO3 and Tumblr just to search for more fics for them. No one posts about them much anymore but I sure love them so much okay.

my NOTP:

i'm not going to say which ship but its one of the dan heng ships.

favorite episode:

I'll write this as "favorite update". Penacony has been suuuuch a fun ride honestly. So I'll say that entire section has been tons of fun. As of now I still haven't finished it in its entirety, but I can sense 2.2's story will probably be my favorite because I've been waiting to get to know Robin more and the Watchmaker!! But 2.1 has been fun because I just love seeing Acheron's section of it heheh :)

saddest death:

UHHH as of now, I think Aventurine's death in 2.1 was really sad :/ Hoyo did a really good job writing Aventurine and his story that once you get to the finale of the 2.1, I found myself kinda torn on how it ended. Aventurine who placed his bets on his own death because that is what his good luck is good for - winning against all odds. The epilogue scene with Aventurine walking off into the Nihility's shadow kinda got me too. And this is coming from someone who is like very.... meh on Aventurine? I can't really bring myself to get super invested in him but objectively, he is a really well thoughtout and well created character. I just have no feelings towards him.

favorite season:

I'll write this as "favorite area". It's still Penacony askldjfahlsk There's sooooo many things happening in Penacony and I loved being able to put the pieces together to figure out what's going on. It's also the first area that I had nearly read all the readables in because I'd make it my goal to finish reading every readable and 100% every area before the next update in Penacony :> I want to better understand the area I'm in and give myself ideas for where the story can go. The second area would have been Belobog because it's the only other area I was trying to 100% and read all the readables for (are the readables important in Belobog? no but some of them sure made me cry a bit LMAO)

least favorite season:

"Least favorite area" Honestly... Herta's Space Station. But that could also be because when I first started HSR, I was still orienting myself to the new world, so the space station is the least i remember. It's not that I hated it; it's trying to orient you into the new world and I was just confused for majority of it. I just don't remember enough about it nor about the people within it to care for it.

character that everyone else in the fandom loves, but i hate:

Objectively: I'll say he's interesting and I am interested to see his development. But Dr. Ratio. I don't get it. I've seen people talk about him wanting education to be accessible to ALL which is GREAT but personality? Can't stand him.

my ‘you’re piece of trash, but you’re still a fave’ fave:

Ruan Mei my most beloved. I want more of her and I feel like we didn't get enough of her. She's just so interesting as a character and while she may not be the most caring of characters - and reasons why people shit on her - I still feel like her view as a character is interesting. And even her motives of wanting to become an Aeon. I want to understand her better. Why? What drove her to want to become so? I WANT TO UNDERSTAND YOU MISS

my ‘beautiful cinnamon roll who deserves better than this’ fave:

not a beautiful cinnamon roll but she sure is beautiful but i love Jingliu 😭😭😭 one reason why i don't like interacting with majority of the fandom is because of their viewpoint on Jingliu's companion quest. I had way way clearer thoughts on the quest when it was fresh on my brain, but I actually liked it a lot more than the fandom let on about it, and I know that people were kinda shittalking about Jingliu afterwards and that made me Mad on her behalf because I think she's a really nicely thought out character. But then again, if you know me: white hair character who is defined by mourning and grief. you know the deal LKAJDHFALKJD

idk. I just feel like she deserves better than how the fandom treats her.

my ‘this ship is wrong, nasty, and makes me want to cleanse my soul, but i still love it’ ship:

I mean whatever the hell Rondo Across Countless Kalpas had going on, Black Swan/Acheron sure kinda has me feeling a way (in which i'd risk wanting a dance with Acheron. me too Black Swan LAKJDFALKS). Also in a way Servalia too I mean. You know.

my ‘they’re kind of cute, and i lowkey ship them, but i’m not too invested’ ship:

No one asked but I actually kinda lowkey ship Firefly/Robin. Like very very lowkey. My only reasoning is when 2.0 was fresh and i was in Mourning over Robin, I once sent a very giant and long essay to my friend N about me late night perusing and overanalyzing Firefly and Robin's deaths. like why specifically them ? Why did they have to die?

I took it in a very symbolic matter. I thought too much about Firefly's monologue about her answer to "Why do people slumber?" and her answer being "Because people are afraid to be awake" or something like that. And about how it was "If I can stop one heart from breaking" that played in the background of all this - a song that praises the comforts of a dream in the face of bleakness. In both cases, in my view, it felt like having both of them die at least in that update, the deaths also seemed to signal the idea of ceasing this concept of a dream and to face reality etc.

And that's something I'm super excited about based on where i am with HSR with arguing with Sunday over the concept of comfort vs freedom.

BUT BACK TO THE POINT OF THIS QUESTION: this concept and me fixating on their meanings, it gave me a reason to kinda put Firefly/Robin together. It's kinda nice parallel with each other in a way haha

[nogenderbee]

♡˗ˏ✎*ೃ˚ 𝔹𝕒𝕜𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕗𝕠𝕣 𝕥𝕙𝕖𝕞 ₊˚ˑ༄

*ੈ✩‧₊˚ not a request

*ੈ✩‧₊˚ Happy Birthday to my dedicated idol!!

Passt I used Google translator to translate the cake because I suck at it... hope it's not too visible...

*ੈ✩‧₊˚ fluff

Affiliation with @virtualbookstore

Minori and her loads of training because of upcoming concert... she always liked to sacrifice her health and well being if it meant being a good idol and making sure everyone will have smile on their faces during the show.

You were thinking for a long time now you could make her day a little better. She was already planning to make sweets tests on birthday stream with her group so she'd most likely eat a lot of chocolate... most likely many fancy and hard cakes too... so maybe it's better to go for something more classic this time? You though that cake with orange jelly and foam, and sponge cake could be your way to go!

And when you were in the middle of making... you got a call from your trustful helper. The one who knows Minori just as well as you if not a tad bit better! Haruka!

"<WHAT DO YOU MEAN STEAM IS OVER?!>"

"<Yeah... she said she'll make the dance practice a bit shorter today because she wants to spend time with you...>"

"<Well that's really sweet but nonetheless... it makes it harder on me...>"

"<I'm sure she won't mind if you tell her to wait?>"

"<No! It's her birthday! I'll not risk making it a bad day!! I'll figure something out... thanks Haru.>"

"<No problem. Good luck there, I'm going back to stream.>"

You put your phone down on table and quickly got back to baking. Maybe you had most part done since you had to start this night to make it be ready by the time she comes... so now, cake is in fridge, while you wait for jelly to thicken and making packaging for her, just to make it a bit more fancier!

You checked on the cake again and it was still not done... it may be ready to eat at night in this tempo... and yet box is ready... you just accepted the fact you won't manage to finish cake before your girlfriend arrives, and ironically, in the same moment you heard doorbell.

You sighed and opened the door disappointed... it was supposed to be special day for her!! And yet... you forgot how long jelly actually needs to stay in fridge for... So as soon as you opened the door, knowing exactly who it was and immidietly turning into panicking puddle.

"Minori! I'm really sorry... I wanted to make a cake for you but then I had troubles with jelly and now it turns out you won't be able to taste it untill tomorrow and-"

"You wanted to make me a cake?!"

But your monologue was interrupted but excited high voice of your girlfriend. And when you looked up, you saw how her eyes sparkled~ She didn't seem mad at all, if anything she looked happy!

"Yeah but it turns out it won't be ready for today and-"

"Don't worry about it! I appreciate the act and there won't be any harm if I eat my birthday cake on the day after my birthday! I'm happy as long as you're willing to spend time with me today!"

"Of course I do! I promised you just dance and movie night and..."

"Mhm! That's enough for me! And if you still feel bad, we can make cupcakes and put a candle on them!"

"I guess you're right... would you really be alright with that?"

"Definitely! As long as it's from your hands, it gotta be good! No matter what you bake or cook!"

You were overwhelmed by how sweet and comforting she was. You literally messed up the cake for her birthday and she was still trying to make YOU feel better, and even came up with solutions! So not wanting to be a bother and spoil the mood further, you decided to wipe that worry off your face and replace it with a bit of optimism!

"Awwh... Minori I swear you're too sweet for me... Alright, let's do it! But before that... I just want to do one more thing."

You finally came closer to her and gave her a warm hug along with gentle kiss on cheek.

"Happy Birthday, Minori~"

You expected her to be happy but instead she... turned into blushing mess... that kind of reminded you of how she acts around Haruka... did you really turned that switch in her just now? Well... it only shows you're good lover, right? So might as well accept it as it is and use this day to fullest to make up for little mess up~

﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌

@bleachtheidiot @yulikesminori - come get your Haruka lover!

[thehitchhikerguide]

Season 1, Episode 3: Split Decision

Finally we get to an episode I remember watching back in the day. Even though I knew what was going to happen in this one, I was still very excited to re-visit it as I remember it being kind of bizarre.

We start with the opening theme music and then, wait what's this?

Who is this guy? We've spent all our time establishing a relationship with Page and then we see someone else?

Oh so he does exist! I guess this was one they couldn't re-shoot with the new Hitchhiker so they kept it as is. I knew I had seen a version with him in it, so it must have been this episode.

They actually used to play this one quite a bit in syndication despite the fact that it's a totally different guy. I honestly don't know why they bothered to re-shoot the other ones when they couldn't do this for all of them, but whatever. I was curious if somehow the Hitchhiker ends up more integrated with the plot.

This episode actually takes a different approach and instead of starting with the main character driving, we see him in his office. This is Jake, a down-on-his-luck real estate agent who has some interesting vintage phones on his desk.

I guess instead of having a phone with multiple lines, he just has two different phone lines? At first he doesn't seem like your average Hitchhiker protagonist since he's pretty dorky and you can't really imagine any sexy situations with this guy, but this is HBO after all.

I'm not sure he's actually talking to anyone on these phones since he happens to accidentally hang up the phone with the other receiver, yet the caller is supposedly still on the line.

How is that possible?

Anyways, it's time for driving so we can figure out how the Hitchhiker fits into this plot. Wacky music starts playing when we see this character's crappy car. I guess this is to establish that he is indeed very desperate and bad at his job. Hearing this music I expected a bunch of clowns to start coming out of it. But instead it looks like the car is about to burst into flames.

He meets the Hitchhiker while Jake is lost in some suburban neighborhood. He approaches him to ask him if he knows the road of the house he's trying to visit and he just points.

I guess this was why they couldn't re-shoot this because the editing would probably look pretty bad. My main question with this scene is, is this guy hitchhiking in some residential neighborhood? Isn't that a bit creepy?

The Hitchhiker seems to know him after he drives away since he tells the camera that Jake seems to think he's charming sort of a guy. Wow this hitchhiker sounds really Canadian and much friendlier than the one we are used to. I definitely prefer the creepy vibe that Page gives off more, but this was interesting. Anyways, charm can sometimes fool the charmer, or so the Hitchhiker says.

Jake drives up to the house he's been asked to sell. This guy really doesn't look like a Jake, more like a Herman or a Norman or some gross dorky name. We meet sisters Frances and Priscilla Packard played by real life actress sisters Audrey and Judy Landers. Now here are some actresses that look familiar. I know Audrey from singing that Tits and Ass song in the A Chorus Line movie. Judy Landers was in that Stewardess School movie which I caught 10 minutes of on Comedy Central back in the 1990s. Audrey actually went to Julliard and somehow she is still in this show. Both had made a number of television appearances in the 1980s so they are very familiar character actresses. Both are very good in this episode playing dumb sexy blondes which is basically their M.O.

They also like to dress as magician assistants around the house. This is because their father who left them this house was a famous magician.

Jake was very subtle when meeting these bodacious babes.

Get a good look Constanza?

He also says to one of them "You should have a sign that says 'beware of bush!'" Considering what happens to this guy in this episode, I think he should maybe take his own advice.

He also comments on how he likes the mounds in the garden. Real smooth.

There is some wackiness where he thinks both sisters are actually the same person until they appear together.

Of course being a classy guy he says "Stereo blondes! This is going to be delightful." I guess due to the unfreezing process he seems to have no inner monologue.

As he moves through the house we see a lot of cutlery imagery. One uses a chain saw, he runs into a hand saw, there is a random guillotine in the living room. Very curious.

There is also a bear in the closet. Oh Canada!

After the house tour, we learn that the sisters have trouble sharing. They had a doll someone gave them once and they had to split it down the middle so they didn't have to share it.

You can see here this doll is perfectly in tact with not even a seam down it, but somehow...

Jake is back in business as he gets to show his two new clients each a new home they can buy after they sell the home they are in.

This lady seems to be the only person to realize how disgusting this guy is.

The first sister gets shown a nice modest house. She gets horny when she finds out it has a fireplace and immediately strips and seduces Jake. Good Lord.

The second sister is shown a condo complete with creepy mannequins. He turns on the fireplace and we find out that fireplaces turn this sister on too.

There is a weird jump cut with this scene. My guess was the actress was too disgusted having to pretend to have sex with this guy and they had to cut out a facial expression.

At some point he does say the line "Let's slide into escrow together." Yuk.

I have to say the score on this episode with the wacky music is really distracting. Jake goes back to the house sometime later because he finds out the girls are not going to sell the house. Both sisters are just hanging out in their underwear.

Oh and one of them is making a sandwich. I'm sure this is doing it for someone right now.

They let Jake know that they both like him and they can't share him so they are not going to sell the house. He does seem more concerned with the fact they won't sell than the fact that these sisters are both after him. They both want him for some reason so his solution is that both of them can have him. They decide to take a photo to commemorate this moment.

There seems to be something happening behind him. Watch the birdie!

Wow that's a perfectly sliced sandwich! Ta-dah!

This scene has weird blocking, I couldn't tell how they got to this spot. And why is there no blood?

We end with the sisters walking through their garden talking about what new things they were going to plant in their mounds. The Hitchhiker has a voiceover, but we see his reflection in the door meaning he has been creeping around this neighborhood the whole time. He informs us that Jake would do anything for a sale and now he's a permanent fixture in the house.

Wait a minute...mounds in the garden? Are all those mounds other bodies of people they have done this to? Who is supposed to be the villain here?

I did like this episode. It was still crazy even without any supernatural elements. And it's nice to see that Nicholas Campbell wasn't completely erased from existence.

This is the last of the first season that was shot with the first Hitchhiker. The next one is the start of season 2 where I think they have finally figured out how the Hitchhiker fits into the series. I can't wait to find out what happens next.