#he is a god awful person and i love him because of that

[gallusrostromegalus]

Now for the Gotei-13:

Ukitake has spent his entire life Sick. He has no memory of Not Being Sick. He is sick, all the time, unignorably so. Its exhausting, it's infuriating, it's painful and worst of all it's Boring. The Boredom is heinous, being flat on his back, sometimes too weak to even read, prisoner of his own flesh.

He is, at least, not alone.

Mimihagi has been with Jushiro for every breath as long as he can remember, and will be so until he dies. The Godling is just as trapped by Jushiro's flesh as he is. It's a bizarre solace, to have someone to grieve with, but Jushiro counts himself lucky for it.

He has also become not so much gone numb to the horrors of the flesh so much as blown right past that and found a strange sort of beauty and joy in the extremes of what the body can tolerate. He and Unohana are both regularly banhammered from the groupchat for posting unspoilered images of "LOOK WHAT THE FUCK NEW MEDICAL BULLSHIT I JUST FOUND OUT ABOUT!!".

-

Rukia is almost never sick, which is really good for everyone's sanity, but ESPECIALLY Byakuya, who gets trauma flashbacks to Hisana's slow and awful death every time Rukia so much as sneezes. On the rare occasions she does finally catch a cold or has an injury serious enough to force her to take time off, Byakuya is practically her shadow, with soup and cookies appearing at her bedside before she can even articulate the thought of what she wants. He reads to her, and often sleeps in the same room so he can hear her breathe.

Rukia was originally a person who wanted to be left alone to convalesce. Renji made her a rabbit plushie out of old flour bags and stuffed with heather when they were kids to act as a sort of token guardian when she'd kick him out of her bunk for hovering. These days he still hovers, but at a distance- he texts her memes and shop talk all day to keep track of her, and pester his Boss, who is in the same room.

Rukia has learned to deal with Byakuya's overzealous care because she recognizes it as an act of profound love and affection and she doesn't actually get to spend much time with him. Sometimes she'll pretend to be just a little more under the weather than she actually is so she can have another night of his attention, and then 'miraculously' look much better in the morning, so he stops worrying about the illness 'lingering'.

-

Mayuri vacilates wildly between praising the humble virus for it's ability to wreak havoc on such complex organisms as humans, what with out reactive immune systems and telling his colleagues that illness is a "Skill Issue".

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Nemu is probably the single most disease-resistant organism in the afterlife, both by Mayuri's extreme efforts in her creation, and the immense amount of work she puts into sanitizing the 12th division and improving her own form, two things of which Mayuri is entirely oblivious.

She wants to eradicate at least ONE serious pathogen before she presents her work to him. Not because she is particularly worried about him disassembling her- that's on the level of a hangnail for her. The reason is that she and Mayuri share a streak of Pride A Mile Wide and she wants to be able to flex on him.

It's how they show love.

-

Zaraki:

(Continued under the Cut)

As is befitting of a Kenpachi, Zaraki is incredibly resistant to both receiving injuries and spectacularly good at handling the consequences of injury when he does receive it. Most humans can lose about 20% of their blood without dying. Zaraki can push 30% and still be issuing effective commands to his men or attempting to continue the battle. 1000 years wandering the Rukongai have also given him a cast-iron stomach, not to mention the liver and kidneys of a God- At least, that's what Unohana said about them the first time she had a rummage through his abdominal cavity. He's been insufferably smug about it since.

Being of such rude health and one of the very few shinigami with O-Negative blood and the only shinigami with No Native Zanpakuto Spirit puts Zaraki in an unusual position- he is a Truly Universal blood Donor. Blood typing in souls works the same as in living humans, but Shinigami have to also contend with matching the elemental types of the zanpakuto spirits in a reverse Rock-Paper-Scisors-Lizard-Spock arrangement. Since he has no zanpakuto spirit, Zaraki can donate to anybody, and Unohana retains his services as a Living Blood Bag. He enjoys the work- he enjoys any attention from Unohana, and gets a kick out of how fast people improve with a pint of him in them.

As robust as he is, Zaraki does have one serious medical weakness: Since he almost never gets *sick* the extremely rare times a virus or other pathogen makes it past his initial immune system, it knocks him on his ass. Even a common headcold makes him feel like he's dying because that's genuinely the most ill he's ever felt. Naturally, Ikkaku and Yumichika give him endless shit about this, but they also don't leave him alone. Sure, maybe it's just a cold that got lucky this time, but one time he really did have Yellow Fever.

-

Yachiru endeared herself immensely to Unohana when the first met by being intensely curious about the 4th division hospital and one thing lead to another and within an hour of their meeting Unohana may have sort of let the girl help screw a patient's collarbone back together.

-

Ikkaku has just the WORST fucking hayfever in the middle of July and he has NO IDEA what is causing it!!

(Ikkaku is allergic to Bird Dander and is married to a man who has a Peacock for a Soul Being and is besties with a man who was raised by eagles and some of the features of both avians have magically transposed onto Yumichika and Zaraki respectively. Like the mid-summer molt.)

-

Yumichika's mothers were what passed for surgeons in the East Upper 70's and raised him to be persnickety as hell about sanitary conditions, but specifically, to always take care of his hands- if your hands go, you're fucked. Consequently, not only has Yumichika been walking around with a perfect manicure since he was seven, one of his primary was to show affection is to take care of the hands of those he cares about. Ikkaku almost always has at least one red nail to match his eyeshadow, Yachiru wears an assortment of colors but always at least one pink and Zaraki can't stand the texture of polish but he lets Yumichika see to it that they're clean and in good working order.

This actually caused Yamamoto to lose a rather large sum of money once.

There was a bet established about a week after Zaraki's arrival as to his age. It's actually something of a mystery-He has the haggard face of an old man or a young one with a rough life, emotional maturity that vacillates between "childlike lack of impulse control and emotional intensity" and "Sagacious shrewdness regarding the better and worse aspects of human nature", talks like he knew ancient historical figures personally but is known to wind people up with a shaggy dog story for fun, and still has all his teeth.

Yamamoto THOUGHT he had an inside track because he got a good look at Zaraki during the ONE kendo lesson he managed to give the bastard before the C46 got their panties in a twist and banned Zaraki from learning it. To Yamamoto's (very experienced) eye, Zaraki had the hands of a very young man- they were in terrific shape for the rough living and sheer number of fights Zaraki apparently got in to, and Yamamoto mistakenly chalked it up to The Resilience Of Youth rather than The Efforts Of Friends, and bet heavily.

He was apoplectic when he found out he had low balled Zaraki's age by about 1200 years.

-

Rangiku was actually on the fast-track for the 12th division when she got a look at Mayuri and decided she'd be safer in another dimension, and signed on with the 10th Division's Special Deployment Squad instead. Her special interest is cosmetics- the science of dermatology, color theory as applied to fashion, how to deceive with shape and shade, the history and sociopolitical causes behind fashion and makeup trends etc.

She also makes all her own soap, shampoo, conditioner, sunscreen, makeup, perfume, moisturizers, serums, lubricants and other little bottles of liquid illusion in her quarters, much to Hitsugaya's despair. Unohana has made no secret of the fact that if Rangiku had the ability to do Kaido, she would have not had the option of enlisting in any division besides the 4th. Rangiku takes as the compliment it is, and hands Retsu the 13-in-1 cream Rangiku developed specifically for her. Sometimes shades of Unohana's former life show through and the violently utilitarian approach the chief medic takes to cosmetic appearances. It's fine- Rangiku is actually really proud of the chemical exfoliant in there that ALSO removes blood, bile and other bodily fluids without harming the skin.

Now if only she could figure out something to deal with Hitsugaya's growing Teenage Boy Stank.

-

Hitsugaya does NOT have teenager stank, thank you! He is having more than a bit of a rough go with Puberty though, because most long-lived souls have normal-length childhoods and maybe slightly elongated adolescences, then prolonged adulthoods. He caught the slowdown EARLY, and now that he appears to be aging one year for every ten lived, Toshiro is facing down the prospect of mentally and anatomically being in middle school for upwards of thirty years.

"Tough titty Icicle jr." Yachiru grumbled when he attempted to commiserate with her as a fellow youth. "I'm not going to be an adult until 2403!"

-

Tousen has the opposite problem from Zaraki. Even relatively minor injuries (for a shinigami) can lay him up for ages- he's a profuse bleeder and extremely slow to heal*. How much of his sensitivity to perceived aggression is a reaction to trauma from the repeated attacks on his person by bigoted peasants in his youth versus a very proportionate response to the danger he faces from injury is debatable, but the latter is definitely a contributing factor.

*constantly being on anti-inflammatory meds to manage the pain of the 66 curse nails driven into his spine will do that.

On the other hand, Tousen can be Alarmingly Ill and still functioning "Normally". Tousen's previous Lieutenant warned Shuuhei to check the captain's temperature if he seems like he's in an unusually good mood. Last time he thought Tousen was recovering from his ever-present cloud of depression, he actually had a 103 degree fever. Tousen is a responsible individual who isolates when he feels sick, but his tolerance for discomfort and suffering is so high he thought the case of Whooping Cough he has was "a little bronchitis". Shuuhei has gotten very good at eyeballing his boss, sensing something is off and throwing the captain over his shoulder to haul him off to the 4th to find out what's wrong with him this time.

Compounding this issue is that Tousen's adopted mother was a famous Murder Mystery Author, and he her primary researcher and editor, so the man possesses a vast and disturbing knowledge of various poisons, weapons, environmental conditions, allergic reactions, venomous animals, industrial accidents and outright bizarre ways to die. Last time he was seriously ill, he decided to sit down at his typewriter and document his descent into Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever rather than seek medical attention, out of a desire to finally fill out one of the missing sections in his Encylopedia Of Death*. The seriousness of Unohana's lecture about how stupid he'd been was slightly tempered by her admiration of how thorough and detailed his documentation was and how it would be a helpful diagnostic tool-

*Also the desire to escape The Curse, even if it involved shuffling off his mortal coil.

-

Shuuhei has undiagnosed Obsessive-compulsive Disorder. Not because Soul Society doesn't know what OCD is- they're not THAT behind on psychiatry- but because Shuuhei thinks that being unable to stop thinking about something, especially an irrational catastrophe, is perfectly normal so he never talks about it. Also he'd rather die than admit he's having any kind of problem, at all, ever, to the vast annoyance of everyone around him.

-

Kensei is truly Red-Green colorblind. He has both Protanomaly (reduced sensitivity to red light) and Deuteranomaly (reduced sensitivity to green light), and sees the world mostly in shades of gray, yellow and blue. He's sometimes a little bummed about it, but mostly he's glad that the Shinigami Uniform is black and white, and not the totally-indistinguishable-to-him reds, purples, greens, oranges or browns that everyone else loves.

He is VERY annoyed to find out Komamura can see more colors than him though.

-

Mashiro is completely deaf in her right ear from a bad fever as an infant. She compensates for it with the distinctive curious-head-cocking-like-a-spaniel she does, and by making sure she's always standing on Kensei's left side because the man talks at a volume meant for stadiums so she might as well only expose the already-fucked ear.

-

As much as Shunsui drinks, he's almost never drunk. People with extremely high reiatsu also have ridiculous appetites because they constantly need to be throwing fuel on the fire, so to speak. Shunsui's favorite brand of Sake is a high-quality but far from the best out there, but it IS the one that gives him the most dissolved-carbohydrates-per-fluid-ounce-while-also-not-tasting-like-gasoline. The constant sipping from the bottle is him keeping his blood sugar up- the alcohol is digested and metabolized into sugars so fast it never gets to make him drunk.

-

Nanao is also in high demand as a Shinigami blood donor because she technically doesn't have a native Zanpakuto spirit, but can't be a true bloodbag like Zaraki because her actual blood type is A-, which she gets VERY strong feelings of inadequacy about.

-

Komamura has perfectly normal human color vision. Actually slightly better- he has excellent color acuity as well. He also has a humanlike liver that tolerates chocolate and alcohol, though he sometimes lies about the latter because he can't stand the taste or being around really drunk people.

Unohana has known he's a Wolfman since the first day he came to Seireitei at Yamamoto's invitation and the captain-general introduced them so he'd have a doctor who'd keep his secret, and she's taken extensive notes on him, because he's the only Wilderkin she's ever seen up close. She hypothesized once that Komamura is significantly more man than wolf- it's just that all the Wolf parts are externalized. Anatomically speaking, he's really quite Human on the inside.

Komamura still isn't quite sure how he feels about that.

-

Iba staunchy Does Not Believe In The Occult mostly because his mother is such a freak about horoscopes and also a huge bitch, but he DOES believe in Zaraki's Garbage Hell Tarot deck specifically because it predicted his lethal allergy to bananas right before bananas became available in Soul Society. They look and smell exactly like something he'd love, but at Ikkaku's urging, Iba got tested and found out that if he'd gone and eaten a banana he probably would be dead before anybody could find and administer an epi-pen.

-

Byakuya knows perfectly well what caused his Wife's Illness and Death was congenital and triggered by very specific circumstances that are easily avoidable now, but he still has a panic response any time one of the people he loves gets sick and he must fuss over them in his overgenerous, emotionally flat manner.

He will literally die before letting anyone know that HE is sick though. Emphasis on the Literally. He's been hospitalized for untreated influenza several times. Unohana got Renji's name in the seated officer Secret Santa one year and gifted him a long-range laser temperature gauge so Renji could check him from a distance. Renji genuinely treasures the device.

-

Renji used to be one of those idiots that showed up to work sick because of a misplaced sense of duty. Then he was visibly ill in Byakuya's line of sight and got the worst dressing-down of his career over contigation. He still has nightmares of Byakuya glowering down at him and growling about how there are Pregnant Women here Abarai, what if you give one of them Rubella? I expect responsibility from my officers!

Renji HAS learned this means he can take sick days whenever he wants and Byakuya will always grant them No Questions Asked, but he is certain that if he ever abuses the privilege, Byakuya and worse, RUKIA will find out and he'd rather be skinned alive than face being lectured by both of them.

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Aizen is a stickler for food safety rules and regulations. It's a bit agitating to have him suddenly loom over you because you almost put a dirty teaspoon back in the cannister without washing it properly, but the division has one of the lowest illness rates AND more than enough clean tea spoons.

-

Momo has a bizarrely high alcohol tolerance for someone of her shape, size and background. Rangiku has lost drinking contests to her before. She is the SWA's designated driver, and not just because she's the only shinigami with a valid driver's license.

She also doesn't get hangovers, which Rangiku thinks is straight-up unfair.

-

Shinji has exquisite dental hygiene because he is DEATHLY AFRAID of Dentists. Like, can't even watch movies with dentists in them. Don't even MENTION Little Shop of Horrors around him.

-

Hiyori had pica as a kid and intermittently gets it as an adult. She absolutely terrified Hikifune the first time the captain stepped out into the courtyard and saw her beloved lieutenant just. Eating a handful of dirt. Both Hikifune and Urahara have tried and failed to figure out what fucking vitamin she's missing that causes the occasional dirt craving, with Urahara going so far as to beg Unohana for help.

Unohana stared at the man for a moment, before casually leaning back in her office chair to stick her head out of the door and squint at Hiyori in the hall. "Do you ever get sick after eating dirt?"

"NO!" Hyori growled, exasperated. "I USUALLY FEEL BETTER!"

"Kid's fine." The chief medic shrugged. "Sometimes you gotta have that crunch."

That was the last time Urahara asked her for assistance.

-

Unohana:

Some people learn about WHY she got into medicine- to be able to heal herself and her opponents and continue battling indefinitely and assume she has an extremely high tolerance for pain.

This is Incorrect.

Zaraki is an adrenaline junkie and pain fetishist. Pain hurts for him, it just Hurts So Good-

Unohana is an honest-to-God, Biological Masochist. Pain doesn't hurt for her. It genuinely pleases her. Lacerations light up her pleasure centers and getting stabbed genuinely feels as good as getting the good dick.

The closest thing to pain she feels is "boredom". Unohana has severe ADHD and like Zaraki, her chosen dopamine replacement is Adrenaline. For her, any stagnancy isn't just boring- her brain stops making even trace amounts of the neurochemicals it needs to function, and rapidly descends into a black despair and can even become injured from stimulation deprivation.

When her lung became permanently compromised and she turned to medicine, it was a struggle and a half to study until she discovered the thrill of surgery- something done At Speed back then because it was also done Without Anesthesia. She quickly found that surgery fulfilled her desire for combat, and with little wonder- she now faces the greatest opponent of all- one who she might win battles with but never truly defeat, one who never backs down or gives up, one who will someday defeat her utterly and completely-

Death itself.

To fight The Great Inevitable, knowing the battle will continue until her personal oblivion?

What Bliss.

-

Isane Kotetsu has the single worst case of frequent Sleep Paralysis and Night Terrors Unohana has seen in her entire career. They first met when teenage Isane turned up in the emergency room against the express wishes of her family, because she'd been awake for eighty hours straight at that point and either the demon haunting her every time she tried to sleep needed to go, or she would.

Consequently, Isane is the first lieutenant of the 4th to actually live in the lieutenant's quarters. Unohana puts a lot of value on her privacy and personal space, and had 'agreements' with her previous lieutenants that they should live with their families, or elsewhere in the division. Isane is genuinely pleasant company though, and only ever demands Unohana's attention when the captain realizes her lieutenant's quiet snoring has stopped and she need to go poke the girl and send the hatman packing.

-

Gin Regularly pretended to be sick in order to get time off for his machinations. Never realized that all his little "I Am Definitely A Human Person" deceptions fell flat, but the fact he Apparently got the flu two or three times a year was the most convincingly Mortal thing he ever did.

-

Kira's body ought to be in much, much worse shape than it's in given the amount of drinking, caffeine pills, poor nutrition and other abuse he puts his organs through, but for all the other misfortune he suffers, Kira is inexplicably blessed with incredible toxin resistance and durable organs. He was in the fourth when he started as a shinigami before Gin poached him, and Unohana has quietly held a grudge about no longer being able to study him like a bug.

-

Rose has never actually been sick, or even hungover in his entire life. He too has exquisite toxin resistance, but he also regularly eats fruits and vegetables, hydrates and gets nine hours of sleep per night*, so he's basically going to live forever.

*...unless he hyperfixates in a new investigation or musical composition that he forgets that he has a body and doesn't eat or sleep or parties so hard he goes on a bender where nobody hears from him for two months, like that one time Shinji had to fly to Paris and hunt his ass down, whereupon he found rose half dead in a brothel because he'd had so much sex he'd forgotten to eat for two weeks.

**Unohana also wishes to study him like a bug.

-

Soi Fon is currently at the top of the leaderboard for "most cases of you-knew-better food poisoning", because between the combat training and weird family shit, she never actually learned how to cook, let alone food safety, and regularly eats extremely expired leftovers. She also has a bad habit of not sleeping when she's agitated about something which has caused Omaeda to acquire and learn how to use a tranquilizer dart gun.

-

Omaeda has hunted his boss down with a dart gun to get her to rest before. She was mad, but also slightly to impressed with his stealth, cunning and aim to punish him too severely. Just shoot her in the arm next time, got it? NOT the ass!

-

Yamamoto's hearing is immaculate despite his age, and he can eavesdrop on conversations in the first division from three floors away if he wants. He is developing cataracts and Myopia he's in denial about though.

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Sasakibe has gone to some fairly extreme lengths to conceal his age- partially out of vanity, but mostly because having a detail like that be totally unknowable drives snoops and spies INSANE and this amuses him. The Shinigami Women's Association runs much of the gambling in seireitei, and holds exclusive rights to gamble on certain long-term bets, including "at what age will any captain actually fucking die?" Where the mystery of Sasakibe's current age adds much speculation and higher wagers.

(the truth is that he is only fourteen and a half years older than Unohana and twenty-one years older than Zaraki. How old THEY are is an even bigger mystery though.

Since you're at the doctor's, medical headcanons. Who's afraid of needles, who's the biggest baby when sick, who insists that everyone just let them die, etc. etc.

Short answer before long one bc I have to drive but:

They're all deep, deep into the morass of the horrors and miracles of The Flesh.

---

The Karakura kids are weird because Ichigo's dad is an emergency trauma doctor and Ichigo's family loves above the clinic. Any time his friends come over there's a round of "so what wild shit happened in the ER since last time?"

(continued under the cut)

Uryuu's dad is also a surgeon, and the thing that gets him and Ichigo back on speaking terms again is more or less second-hand shop talk.

Orihime has been obsessed with emergency medicine since her brother died. She wanted to know what she should have done, and can do so it won't happen again.

Keigo has been carrying a first aid kit in his backpack since he became friends with Ichigo and Tatsuki in middle school. He's got an exceptional talent for patching someone up enough to get through English class without the teacher noticing the injuries after a lunchtime brawl.

Tatsuki started peeking over Orihime's shoulder at her notes on joint trauma and developed a talent for targeting her kicks and punches to deal maximum damage in karate tournaments.

Mizurio knows a suspicious amount about neurology and how pain works because his "uncles" keep telling him about techniques used by enforcers to extract payment or information.

Chad got heavily into Oxacan folk medicine because once he stopped getting in fights, he needed something else to occupy him, and his abuela decided to teach him how to cook. There is not a huge difference between good food and good medicine. He has an encyclopedic knowledge of chemoreactive plants and chemistry you can do on a stove.

Every single one of the Karakura kids has had something medical happen to them or a loved one, and every single one is now peering into the mysteries of the flesh about it.

---

The shinigami are worse.

Shinigami broadly have better physical resistance, esp because they're reaping the injury stabilizing benefits Senjumaru wove into the Shinigami Shushako.

But they live in a feudal society that has only SOME of the benefits of modern medicine, and the few instances of disease-mitigating infrastructure are far between. It's COMMON for the souls of the rukongai and Seireitei alike to have a sibling who died in infancy or a parent who died in child birth or of an infection.

Societally, they are still in the very earliest phases of the war against pestilence and it gives one a very warped perspective on all things medical. Especially if you happen to be in the immediate sphere of influence of soul society's greatest warrior against death:

Retsu Unohana.

I cannot overstate the impact this woman has had, and you don't do things like "decimate the nationwide infant mortality rate" or "pioneer organ transplant surgery" without being a bit mad, and she has lived so long and done so much that the madness has clarified into a single extremely dense point of determination and she warps the reality of those around her. Woe and Blessings alike to those within her event horizon.

---

The Arrancar are even worse.

Hollow resilience to injury allows them to body much, much worse injuries than the humans and it has an impact on etiquette. Biting off a hand because someone won't stop bothering you is a normal way to establish a boundary. Limb loss and regrowth is common, and disembowelment about as serious as a bad cold.

The food situation is even more dire. Smaller hollows, ones that used to be plants or animals or human-hollows who have a modicum of self control are weak, but lucky. They can survive off the ambient reiatsu in the atmosphere of Hueco Mundo, or the naturally cleaving fragments of soul that fall off the living.

Everyone else needs to hunt. And the more powerful a hollow becomes, the more it needs to consume, and the richer it's prey must be. The only really rich souls are other sapient beings. Any hollow at the level of Shrieker or Grand Fisher or higher is trapped in a hellish metabolic cycle of cannibalism, and the only way out is through.

The primary killer of hollows is other hollows. They know what they're doing. They're looking their fellow beings in the eye, the ones who understand them best, and deciding that their own life is worth their friend's. For all their ability to handle the slings and arrows of physical trauma, hollows are worse at handling the emotional consequences of this cycle. Monstrous Egotism is a best case scenario for them.

In practice, this means that while it's perfectly acceptable to bite someone's hand off for annoying you, it would be rude of you to spit it back at them. At least eat it!

I realize this last bit is not, strictly speaking, medical, but you can see how the ability to survive being turned into an anatomical Venus and having to live on a diet of the flesh of others would completely recontextualize how hollows think about Illness.

---

I will do the fun individual headcanons when I get home, but this is a good broader framework to consider for now.

[hellishjoel]

a tit-bit nippy

1.1k / pairing: frankie morales x f!reader

← masterlist | notifications blog | seasons of life challenge masterlist

word: marshmallow

warnings/information: fluff, winter games, cold temperatures, alcohol consumption, my more casual writing style

a/n: in honor of completing the winter section of the seasons of life challenge, I thought I'd have a little fun with my favorite Delta crew! my banners are by @saradika-graphics. shoutout to @berryispunk and @lady-bess for putting this together on @fanfictionoverload!

It’s a really stupid game, like really fucking stupid. What started as a drunken dare during a bitterly cold January training camp evolved into a full-blown tradition among Frankie and his Delta Force buddies. 

If you’ve ever seen New Girl, it has the same nonsensical, chaotic rules as True American. But the Delta Force crew call it “A Tit-Bit Nippy.”  It celebrates endurance, chaos, and sheer stupidity in the face of freezing temperatures. 

The game combines random challenges, a heavy dose of trash-talking, and a complete disregard for frostbite as the players compete to be the last one standing.

Don’t get lost in the hypotheticals or the parentheses; this is how the game works:

All players (You, Frankie, Benny, Will, Pope, and Pope’s girlfriend Samara) strip down to their underwear and boots. You form a circle around an unlit campfire (which will come into play later), and one player is chosen as the Snow Emperor, who starts the game. 

Each round, the Snow Emperor assigns a challenge, and failure to complete the challenge results in being exiled (sent back inside the snow cabin where you must wear a loser sash.

This game is not for the weak, and if there’s anything you love more, it’s making these macho military men shiver in their boots. 

After a frozen beer is used for spin the bottle, it lands on Frankie as the Snow Emperor. 

He’s quick to dash around the group as everyone groans and complains, as he was a ruthless Snow Emperor last year. But that was before you joined the group, and you’re ready to give your boyfriend the added challenge. 

“Snow Emperor 2025, bitches! Strip!” He belts, chugging the slushie beer as everyone grimaces for their torturous time ahead. 

“Why did we agree to this?” Samara asks in a whisper as she sheds her black winter coat, a shiver already traveling up her spine. “You and I could be in town shopping, drinking hot cocoa, melting away in a sauna. But instead, your merciless boyfriend is going to put us through the wringer. Frankie says he’s undefeated, but he refuses to talk about that one year Benny bested him by eating yellow snow.” 

You send her a sigh and a shrug, slowly pulling your top up and over your head, Frankie’s eyes noticeably lingering on your figure. “Because… I think I Catherine the Great his ass.” Both of you snicker before exiting the cabin, ready for the challenges ahead. 

“Hey,” Pope reprimands Benny, whose eyes are lost on Samara’s gorgeous body. “Focus on the game.” He backhands his friend’s balls, forcing a grunt up Benny’s throat as he clutches his frozen grapes in pain. 

The challenges and eliminations are as follows:

Frankie hosts a snow angel relay, and the first person to make a perfect snow angel without screaming wins. Will won, the infamous Ironhead making a tall and broad snow angel with a mute expression. His brother, Benny, wasn’t so lucky, screaming after a minute and shivering all the way back inside. 

Next, the Snow Emperor has his loyal subjects guess the temperature outside. The farthest guess loses and, therefore, has to belly-flop into a large snow pile. Samara, bless her heart, is from a warmer climate and guessed far too low. She was thus sent to her execution (snowflop). 

Frankie won his icicle duel against Pope, and you won yours against Will. 

To warm up, you both took a shot of god-awful vodka. If it were tequila, you would have been fine, but this tasted like nail polish remover and bleach. 

“Second place gets the sled of shame,” Frankie smirks as he stares across the unlit campfire at you, both pale, cold, and shivering with the freezing temperatures. 

Despite it all, you’re smiling because this is the most fun you’ve had in winter since you were a little kid. “What the fuck is the sled of shame?”

“Runner-up gets tied to a sled and dragged around the frozen lake by everyone else while we all scream shame!” He laughs maniacally, putting his hands together and blowing warm air against his palms. 

You eagerly smack his hands away and narrow your eyes on the tyrant. “Quit the chit-chat. How do we end this, Morales?” A puff of warm air leaves your mouth and moves like a ghost in the wind, everyone watching from the window of the snow cabin to see who will come out on top. 

Frankie wears a wicked smirk and reaches down for a handful of snow. “Snowball sniper. One round, end-all. No blocking with your hands. First one hit, loses.”

This would be a snow war to end all wars. He would not win. You swore to Samara you would try, and try you must. 

You find safety behind a stack of wooden logs, readying up some preparatory snowballs as Frankie aims for your head and misses. You throw one, two, three snowballs, but he’s more agile than he looks. He chases you around the cabin, both of you breathless and panting. His fail was slipping on some ice, groaning in pain as he lay helpless in a blanket of fresh snow. 

You slowly cross over to the fallen soldier, the snow crunching under your boots. He looks at you with soft eyes, the sun setting behind the clouds for good as he grimaces at the sight of a large snowball in your hand. “Just… get it over with.”

“Shame to see it end like this,” you mutter. With respect to the Emperor, you fall to your knees and kiss him, purely a distraction to give the final blow: a snowball to his hat-covered head. 

Cheers erupt from the warm cabin, everyone sprinting from the warmth and wrapping their arms around you and Frankie as the men rejoice in a rendition of “War is Over.” 

“All hail the Nippy Queen!” Frankie proclaims, lifting his beer in a triumphant toast. The rest of the group cheers, now bundled up and gathered around the roaring campfire, where marshmallows crackle and glow in the heat of victory.

He turns to you with a teasing grin, his dark eyes glinting in the firelight. “What is your first royal decree, my love?”

The others lean in expectantly, smirking and elbowing each other, waiting for your answer. You can’t help but laugh, shaking your head at the absurdity of it all.

“My first decree,” you announce with mock authority, “is that next year, we celebrate New Year’s on a tropical island!”

The camp erupts into laughter, everyone already dreaming of sandy beaches and piña coladas—anything but another round of A Tit-Bit Nippy.

← masterlist | notifications blog | seasons of life challenge masterlist

[phightingheadcanons]

i compiled a bunch of subspace and medkit headcanons because they plague me. they plague me. they anyways . uhjjmmm subspace headcanons r. im not gonna lie i got some of these from deadplate. but. THERES!! a lot of these. be prepared 1. I don't think he can eat properly. Not only because of the rot, but because not being able to taste things irks him, so he has to make a smoothie out of it 2. I thuuink i think he already. was struggling with an ED before the disaster. and not being able to taste/the rot makes it. way worse 3. I think! I think he has bipolar and audhd. 4. He keeps his hair short on the side of the rot so it doesn't irritate it 5. hes. extremely touchy. not to be affectionate. he's just always in peoples personal space 6. Often chews on his fingernails and/or picks at his skin. bad habit of his methinks 7. i think he listens to like. metal. specifically freak on a leash and rotting in vain by korn really reminds me of him 8. scarring and burns. like. everywhere. coupled with the rot obviously. i think in his line of work he gets injuries pretty easily even when trying to be careful 9. EXTREMELY tone deaf. but also sometimes ignores social cues on purpose because he knows it annoys people 10. hates the rain. he hates the sound of it. he hates the water. it ruins his day. heres medkits ... 1. Also can't eat very well but its mostly from. after the disaster. he completely lost his appetite and also lost a lot of weight just because it was. really hard for him to find the energy to even get up let alone eat 2. generally kind of. not able to take care of himself very well. even if he can take care of others 3. extremely depressed. like. really bad seasonal depression + chronic (it gets worse when he sees snow though. reminds him of blackrock) 4. during his blackrock days he would straighten his hair. he can't afford to do that now though because its too expensive + too much energy 5. god AWFUL doctors handwriting. scythe hates it. nobody can fucking read it except for medkit 6. He has generalized anxiety, depression, and PTSD, as well as autism 7. hates being touched except for in very specific situations. he also hates being close (physically) to people 8. adding onto the last one, he HATES when people touch his back or his shoulders. IMMEDIATE fight or flight response 9. extremely bad posture. shrimp posture. im telling u 10. painted his horns teal because they were originally green. he doesn't like the color green very much. nor does he like that pinkish-red color (reminds him of subspace) 11. (somewhat canon? not the indie part) usually likes classical music. sometimes dabbles in indie music. he's not into the loud shit 12. violin and piano player .... 13. tried to sand down his fangs at one point. why? i dont know! 14. his sarcasm is crazy. if he's not being sarcastic its not him 15. loves the rain. he likes the quiet and being alone but when it's deathly silent it spikes his anxiety. so the background noise is nice. it also means he has an excuse to stay inside AND!! combined headcanons. things i have that i hc for. both of them 1. both of them have hand tremors. subspace's are a little worse though 2. even though they both have separated (and medkit really tries to stay away) they both still have habits that they got used to from being around the other. medkit still makes extra of things by accident because subspace would always steal it. subspace still keeps a blanket in the lab because medkit would always fall asleep at the desk. i could keep going on im so serious. they are so horribly intertwined in the worst way possible and even if they hate each other that red string is still there. its still there. do u get it. in this essay i will- anyways! thats it for today. sorry guys i needed to YAP

"Looking. Respectfully. Peak as always. This fits them so well that I can't even explain. I would yap more, but I'm tired, and my shoulder hurts from a shot I had recently, so another time TwT"

[emotionalhottiee]

Whole Again ❤️

Jimmy Uso/ Jonathan Fatu

This is the conclusion to Broken

DISCLAIMER: This is a work of fiction. Unless otherwise stated, all the names, characters, businesses, places, events in this fanfic are either the product of the author's imagination or used in a fictitious manner.

Warning: 18+ (This content may include explicit material).

Before i knew it we were back at Jon’s condo. And ever since we stepped out of his car, we have been inseparable. Our lips only coming apart to press elevator buttons and open doors. I know that this sounds crazy… But i feel whole again now that we are together. He was made for me.

We reached his door FINALLY. Our lips came undone to allow Jon to unlock his door. He seemed as if he was a bit nervous the way he was fumbling with his keys. It was honestly so cute to watch.

As he held the door open, i walked over towards his leather couch. As much as i missed him, there needed to be a conversation.

Jon was standing by his front door messing with something before he made his way over to the couch. Walking right in front of me, he bent down so he was literally hovering over me. He leaned forward to kiss me again, but i put my hand up abruptly stopping his lips from touching mine. A confused look arose of his face as he moved over to the right of me sitting on the couch, but turning his body so that he was facing me. “We need to have a conversation about the infidelity before we can just move on as if nothing happened.” I stated calmly. Trying my best to get through what was going to be an emotional talk.

You can do this.

“I hadn’t imagined being able to forgive you. Because watching you fuck someone else, in the same bed you fuck me. That killed me inside Jon”. I murmured avoiding eye contact. “And then where’d you go? Chasing a new piece of ass, instead of calling me”. “Your future wife” i threw my hands up doing a very aggressive air quote. Because that is what he always called me. “You cheated and then you moved on as if i meant nothing to you.”

I came undone. As much as i tried to hold back the tears, but they couldn’t be contained any longer as they were steadily falling down my face.

No longer being able to avoid eye contact Jon placed his fingers gently under my chin, lifting my head up until i our eyes met for the umpteenth time tonight. “What happened with that girl meant nothing to me”. My heart was pounding out of my chest. “I made a mistake that i have regretted ever since” he stated his eyes looked past all of my tears, deep into my soul. Sending a wave of chills down my spine.

It is insane how this man, can make me want to apologize to him for the things he did wrong.

I hate to admit that he had the kind of power over me. But he simply did. And then came those words that i had longed to genuinely hear for 5 agonizing days. “I’m Sorry”. He stated his voice deep, but soft for me. He kept lookin into my eyes, pleading to me without saying another word. Crazy how two little words can mean so much. Causing you to forgive even the most hurtful things imaginable. With a simple apology. The pain and hurt and betrayal i had been feeling for the last 5 days, slowly started to vanish.

God i hate how much i love this man.

But he is my true weakness. How can i stay angry at the person, who brings me so much happiness? Why would i? Life is all about forgiveness right? Aren’t you supposed to forgive those who hurt you?

Throughout my internal conflict Jon never took his brown eyes off of me. I saw all the sincerity i needed to see in those eyes. He reached his finger up to my eyes wiping the last of my tears. Before returning his gaze to mine. “I never meant to hurt you Kenzi. I promise it was a terrible mistake that will never happen again”. He said lovingly while he pressed his forehead against mine.

Bringing my hand up to his beard in awe of those facial features that adorned his face. “I forgive you Jonathan” i said calmly again, because i genuinely did. Nobody will understand why it is so easy for me to forgive this man. And it’s simply because i need this man perhaps more than i need my own supply of oxygen. As unhealthy as that sounds my obsession with him is truly that deep.

We exchanged a few more passionate kisses. Whispering sweet nothings to each other in between. As Jon got off the couch first. His towering 6’3 frame bending down in front of me once again. But this time he was scooping me up into his arms as if it were nothing. Our faces coming back together as he carried me into his bedroom, with my legs wrapped around his waist.

I noticed the brand new bed set on his king sized bed. And a small smile crept up on my face. “Im glad he changed the sheets”, i thought to myself relived that he didn’t have those same sheets from his past transgressions.

He laid me down on the king sized bed and he placed a trail of kisses from my cheeks down to my neck. “I love you so much, little mama” he whispered into my neck know that would send me into a frenzy. “I love you too baby” i whimpered back softly. I wrapped my arms around his neck as he took his large hand gliding it down my body, until he came in contact with my the silver button of my boyfriend jeans.

Sitting up on his knees, he freed up his other hand to slide my jeans down to my ankles, before tugging them off of my body completely. He did the same with my crop top shirt freeing my bra-less boobs from them. I sat myself up on my elbows to watch him. As he stared at my almost naked body, biting down on his bottom lip allowing me to only see the top row of his pearly white teeth. Rubbing his hand over my Fenty boy shorts he smirked feeling the wetness he had cause through my panties. “You missed Daddy didn’t you?” He asked his smirk never leaving his face. All i could do was nod my head, as he inserted his middle finger into my center. I let out a whimpering moan. As he knelt down only nesting his face in my neck to slowly pick up the pace. “FUCK” i let out as my hands tried holding on to the sheets. He placed kisses on my neck knowing his was going to insert another finger. I squeezed my self ever so tightly feeling the added finger. He kept a steady pace as he bought his face up to mine. Telling me he loved me before placing a kiss on my lips.

He knows what he’s doing to me.

I let out a barrage of my moans, as i came on his fingers. He just looked at me grinning from ear to ear. As he pulled out his fingers now covered in my juices. He stood up from the bed, stripping himself of his clothes until he was left in only his boxers. He came back down to me kissing me as he slowly pushed my body flat onto the bed. Planting a trail of kisses as he made his way down to my thighs.

He was unusually quiet, which to me was a sign he was focused. He finally removed my panties after what felt like an eternity. Coming face to face with the pussy that belonged to him. He kissed me on the insides of each thigh before he kissed my vagina. My hands found their way to his hair that was brushed into a bun. Taking out the rubber band that kept it together, so that i could run my fingers through his beautiful curls.

He made out passionately with my vagina, moving back and forth between my opening and clit never missing a beat. At this point my hands embedded in his curly hair pushing his face into my glistening pearl, as i did that Jon took it as a sign to insert his tongue into me. Bringing one hand up message my clit while sliding his tongue in and out of me. feeling me near the edge. He removed his finger from my clit, going back to using only his mouth. He moaned into my pussy instructing for me to cum for his and i gladly obliged.

Making sure to clean me up, with his with tongue, he bought his face back to mine. Kissing me passionately with what was left of my juices that remained on his lips. He slowly rose back to his knees, then off of the bed to his feet to remove his final article of clothing, his boxers. Freeing that big beautiful brown dick of his that was swinging back and forth.

He climbed back in bed, coming down to me, until i felt his entire frame over me. Kissing me once more. All this passion he was giving me had made my knees weaken. He looked me in my eyes in between kisses as he inserted his fully erect penis into me. Both of us letting out of moan of pleasure. Him from feeling my warmth tighten around him. And mine from feeling the dick that i was in love with, enter me again after what felt like forever. I bought my legs up to wrap around his waist as my arms wrapped around his neck. As he feed my pussy stroke after stroke. I dug my nails into his skin as he move one arm to separate my leg slightly allowing him to dig his deepest so that his dick could kiss my cervix.

Trying not to make him bleed from my scratching i opted to move my hand back to his luscious curls, that were now all over the place. While my hands were roaming through his hair he placed his forehead against mine. Signaling to me that he was inching closer to a finish. As was i. He whispered another sweet apology followed by him confessing his love for me again.

Locking our eyes together again. Was enough for me to release all over his member as he groaned against my lips. Waiting for me to ride the last wave of my orgasm. He released his load inside of me mixing all of our juices together inside of me. While getting out his final strokes. He laid on top of me trying to catch his breath. I slightly turned my head towards his as i ran my fingers across his soft back.

He planted a soft kiss on my lips as he rolled off me. I took this as an opportunity to go to the bathroom and get myself together. Before finding one of Jon’s large tshirts to put over my naked body. Laying back in bed, he pulled me to him so that we were skin to skin leaving absolutely no room in between us. He softly let out one last “I love you little mama”, before shutting his eyes. I stared at him while caressing his face. Simply responding with an “I love you too Jonathan”. He smiled eyes still shut as we held each other before drifting off to sleep.

This is where i belonged.

[stupidlittlespirit]

Can you give me more examples of Alex disliking Ford? I’ve always kinda felt it, but I never really had much of a real grasp on it.

Okay so this is the part where I look crazy because I can't give you specific examples LMAO but I'll try to explain what I mean. It's more in what he doesn't say than what he does.

Alex doesn't ever come right out and state 'I hate Ford', but he implies his distaste for him through his treatment of him. The way he hasn't gone harder/more explicit on drawing lines about Ford's abuse, or talking about how Ford suffered terribly during the time he was alone, for example. The way he blames Ford inherently for a lot of stuff that Ford, while not blameless, isn't fully at fault for. It's little things, and I'll detail them below.

TW below: Abuse, discussions of victimhood and irl consequences.

He extends more sympathy to other characters whereas Ford is sort of an afterthought. I don't actually think Alex has fleshed Ford out very well in his own head. Remember when he said that he didn't even know that Bill was going to be the main villain? They were flying by the seat of their pants for a lot of the series and it's quite clear in some elements. Obviously, the series is wonderful, I love it, it's one of my favourite shows of all time and Alex is a true talent, but it's obvious which characters are more important to him. He favours Bill a lot, too, so when his disliking of Ford/being ambivalent about him meets his enjoyment of Bill, only one of those dogs is coming out of the fight alive and it ain't Ford.

I think Alex is a genuine talent, I admire his work and his writing. He seems lovely. But I do also think he lacks in skill when it comes to complex abuse depictions.

I see a running theme that he isn't very good at portraying it specifically via 'unlikeable' characters. I mentioned on a previous post that he did this with Pacifica until people expressed empathy with her, and then he decided to round her out. He stated that himself during an old interview; I can't source it but I remember it vividly because it flagged red in my head that he couldn't see she was just a product of her environment. She's a twelve year old girl, for god's sake, she isn't 'just a horrible person', it makes a person sound like Bill when they beef with kids like that lol.

Another thing is in TBoB, there's a really horrendous page where Ford is tortured. It is visceral and awful, and tbh I wish I'd have been able to ask Alex what his top 5 horror movies were when I saw his talk because the scene is very reminiscent of a lot of my fav horrors.

But anyway, it is literal torture and it is also communicating about how helpless Ford is. He's a victim and a 'weak one' at that. Nothing he can do will stop Bill's abuse, he's stupid for trying, he's pathetic, he deserves it.

Now, that is a take I see with Ford a lot. He deserves it. He's asking for it. And it's a really upsetting one. It's also a common narrative told by people who blame victims for the abuse they suffered.

Not once have I ever seen Alex defend Ford. Not once have I ever heard him say 'Ford didn't deserve this', 'Ford suffered as much as Stan'. Not once.

Considering that he said he took 'inspiration' from his friend's 'toxic' relationships (I also think this is a strange and slightly perverse thing to do btw), I would have thought he might feel more strongly about pushing away this narrative about victims deserving their treatment.

I, obviously, also don't know for sure that he did take inspo from friends; he could well be describing his own experiences and just not feel comfortable saying so because men do suffer a different kind of stigma around being abused. That's fine, he doesn't have to out himself or anything, that would be horrible. But it's just the way he reacts to fans and speaks about the victim (Ford) that makes me think he's a bit more removed from this specific experience than it being personal.

There are many types of abuse. Ford's experience is familial, relationship-wise (platonic, because nothing about his relationship with Bill is romantic in the most basic sense of the term, if anything you can liken that side of things to sexual abuse) and personal. Ford then abuses himself as a reaction to outside abuse. Not his fault, again, but it does happen and it's a common thing for victims to do. I did.

Ford does nothing but suffer.

I truly don't believe that if you loved and cared for your character, you would be willing to watch your audience tear them apart like that after they had already been through so much and were not actually a villain themselves.

Especially if you had, or knew other people who had, experience with that kind of abuse. He doesn't let it happen to Stan, he came down hard on people when they did it to Dipper, and to Mabel, too.

It would kill me to let my OCs be bastardised like that by an audience and I'd be damned if I did a disservice to victims everywhere over something like this.

I think his lack of care is displayed in his treatment of Ford, as opposed to him outright saying he doesn't like him.

I also understand that this analysis also comes from a deeply personal point of view and my own experience with this topic, too.

This is a TV show, it isn't real and I don't need to take it so seriously, but what I do take seriously is seeing the real world reactions of other people. That does hurt. It hurts to see someone who is (very inelegantly and heavy-handedly, btw) depicted as a victim of abuse be laughed at and made into a joke, or flipped on their head and made to be romanticised with their abuser just to make a ship happen.

Fiction doesn't need to be taken seriously except when the lines begin to blur over into real life. We know people are cruel to irl victims and we can see where these lines blur quite obviously.

I think abuse and uncomfortable topics should be depicted, but I also think that as a creator, if you use them, you have a HUGE responsibility to teach and guide your audience into understanding why these things are bad/what makes them so. You shouldn't make jokes about the topic or encourage other people to go off the rails with it.

You can't control people, of course you can't, but you can hold their hand a bit and show them towards the light. If they choose not to follow it then they're probably not bright enough to pick up what you're putting down and that's on them, but you have to try.

Maybe if I hadn't (and my friends and other victims hadn't) been subjected to exactly the same reaction, we wouldn't feel so strongly about this, but it really does feel like a kick in the teeth to see a large number of people behave so grotesquely about abuse.

And just as an aside: I am a victim, I have been/am an unlikeable one, but it does not mean that I deserved what I got and that goes the same for every other 'unlikeable' victim out there.

*deep breath* but other than that I'm totally normal about Ford and not at all mentally ill :)

[whumpchester]

Sam whump fic recs p.3

or, sam fics that made me go Ourghhhhhh 😭🙏

→ wincest, sam rarepairs, sam/others. check archive warnings and tags

→ part 1 / 2

Broken Prayers by withthekeyisking ❤️ [sam/chuck, E]

Sam is someone who prayed all his life. He always believed in God, always had faith, even if Dad and Dean sneered at the concept. He just never in a million years ever thought he would actually meet God, not even after meeting all His angels.

And he never imagined meeting God would go like this. [11x21, sam + faith]

172a - countdown by ani_coolgirl ❤️ [wincest, T]

Sam Winchester purifies his blood. It may be a pointless exercise; the problem has never been what he's done, but what he is. [8x23]

Bunk(er) Buddy by withthekeyisking [sam &/ lucifer, M] ❤️

It took Sam a long time to feel like the bunker was home, and now it's ruined. Because Lucifer, the person responsible for the nightmares that still wake Sam up screaming, is not only living in it, but living in his room. [11x22]

growing pains by apex__predator [wincest, E]

The way it happened— the way Sam remembers it happening— is laughably mundane. All you understand when you’re that young is what you’re told by the people who are supposed to love you. [extremely underage, dean!whump as well]

screaming birds sound an awful lot like singing by withthekeyisking [sam/tim/reggie (hunters from 5.03), E]

Sam has done his best to move past what Tim and Reggie did to him, pretending it never happened at all. But running into them again makes that very difficult—especially when Dean gets involved.

143 - stupid b ani_coolgirl [wincest, sam/other, M]

Exhaustion makes Sam stupid and desperate. No (good) solutions are found. [7x17, wincest + sam/the dealer]

I used to scream ferociously by angelszn [sam/lucifer, sam/cas, sam & jack, E]

Lucifer brings Sam back for Jack. Lucifer brought Sam back for Jack. [13x21–22, first part of 3 work series]

Don't cry baby, day will be dawning by merle_p [sam/bobby, E]

Sam breaks down, and Bobby is there to pick up the pieces. [post 3x16]

Like A Girl by angelszn (artbabe) [wincest + sam/bobby, E]

Bobby wants Sam, but he knows Dean would never let him just take him. So he uses a little potion to get his way and give Dean a bit of a treat too.

[rockwgooglyeyes]

It's been over a month, but I’m back to talk about reincarnation AU:

We haven’t talked about the setting of this AU, but I’m thinking of just putting the characters in a world like ours so that they can process what has happened to them in their previous lives away from the Segyein and what they put them through.

Previously you brought up the idea of Till running away from Ivan when he finally finds him because he doesn’t want to intrude on Ivan’s new life. I like this idea, especially if Till has come to realize how much of Ivan's previous life revolved around him, so he’s like, “Even though I want closure, I would rather Ivan be happy this time around, even if that means we don’t resolve what happened between us before.” I think that would be an interesting development for him, especially if he started out his quest of trying to find Ivan headstrong and maybe even a bit mad at him. Of course Ivan goes and confronts him, though. He’s been making sure that he’s out of Till’s way this time around, so there's no way Till being here is a coincidence.

The dynamic gets turned on its head like you said before, with Till trying to leave Ivan alone because he thinks Ivan is trying to move on completely from his past life and Ivan trying to get to Till because he thinks Till wants closure for what happened between them (although his idea of closure isn’t Till trying again with him but instead Till cutting the tie between them properly instead of the avoiding Ivan’s been doing).

After they reconcile and Till makes it clear that he’s missed Ivan and has always cared about him, Ivan starts trying to go back to his old ways or, more accurately, tries to be more like the person he was before.

He doesn’t like his old self. He doesn’t really like himself now either, but he definitely doesn’t like his old self. But still he tries to go back because he feels guilty about not being the person Till’s been looking for all this time. He very much still is the same person and knows that in a self-hating kind of way, but also he thinks he’s changed too much from who Till remembered him being, and he doesn’t want to disappoint him.

Ivan’s goal up until Till came back into his life (besides avoiding him) has been to live as comfortably as he can, but he’s willing to trade that away to be the person Till needs/wants him to be. Till’s always known him to have short hair, so he’ll cut it! (He likes having his hair long.) Till thinks he should start singing again and even wants to perform together. Great! (He’s fine with singing, but he wouldn’t say he’s passionate about it.) He’ll even go back to that old awful schedule he had so he can try feeling like who was before!

Till will realize this eventually and confront him about it, and they’ll have to finally have that nice long talk about Ivan's willingness to throw his life away for Till (Till probably tried to have this talk with Ivan when they first met again, but Ivan can be very stubborn, so they probably didn’t get far with it).

Geo oh my god Geo I am so sorry it has taken me this long to get to this, life was just very hectic for me the last few weeks and this slipped my mind :(. I definitely agree on the idea of them being reincarnated into a more "modern" world, or a world that's akin to ours, simply for the ease of plotting and distilling their experiences down into something more translatable to the story we're trying to tell :D

The idea of TIll seeking out Ivan and then backing off after realizing that Ivan's life used to only be about Till, more or less, and this time around, Ivan has a life outside of him and Till is thoughtful enough to not want to mess that up, I love that because it shows a kind of depth to his character that doesn't really get touched on that often, I think. Additionally, since you mentioned Ivan being the one to choose to confront Till in the end, it does put the ball back in Ivan's court and gives him the ability to choose whether or not he wants Till back in his life, even though he was originally self-isolating for Till's sake.

Man oh man . . . Ivan giving his life up for Till despite living comfortably and while he wasn't happy before Till arrived per se, he wasn't miserable, and he makes himself miserable by drowning in the past, for the sake of being the person that he thinks Till wants him to be. It's funny I was actually thinking about this kind of concept last night, Ivan giving up all of these things for Till without ever asking Till if he even wants them, Till not realizing at first what's happening but once he does, he's horrified (specifically was inspired by the song Two by Sleeping at Last, "I just want to build you up, build you up, 'til you're good as new, and maybe I'll get around to fixing myself, too.") Till doesn't strike me as the type of person who would even think to try and change himself completely for another person, not necessarily because he's uncompromising (like he might try to grow/change a little bit for someone he loved) but more because I don't think he would view changing himself for someone as something that you would do out of love? Like he never tries to change for Mizi or become more palatable for her, nor does he do that for Ivan. He subtly changes, adapting to them, but that's subconscious rather than Ivan's conscious adjustment.

To be honest I think Till confronting Ivan about him changing himself for Till (to his own detriment) would honestly be a good chance for Till to be like "I sought you out because you were the guy I remembered but I stuck around because you're Ivan and I want you in my life" or something along those lines, especially because Ivan was changing to be like the person from the past, whereas Till isn't really *as* fixated on the past (just, like, as a person) and he's probably more confused as to why Ivan would try to change to be like the version of him from the past at all. But I dunno fully, it's one of those difficult things where I do feel like Till would have to corner Ivan/force him to talk about it because Ivan wouldn't talk about it willingly lmao

I adore the way you touched on Ivan's self loathing and how he would be like "I'm too much the same person (in a bad way) but I'm not enough of the person he remembers so I have to change myself" which is just so utterly Ivan that it fuckin hurts, as well as the parts where you note on the things that Till thinks are innocuous requests but Ivan takes as pledges, promises, things that he needs to "fix" about himself so that he can make Till happy OUGH gets me in deep in there like ouch owie my bones goddamn

[zero--sugar-bambi]

Told him I wasn't happy and I never was and he laughed in my face and said well I'll always love you so it doesn't matter then goes on and on how I'm a piece of shit because he's going to jail for DV and I just feel like an awful person god I wish I'd never been fucking born

[puffpal7]

Hey guys new fav what do we think

[lilithofpenandbook]

Seriously how can M*r*uders stans like random Slytherins (who tf are Evan Rosier, Pandora (is that Luna's mum and why tf is she Evan Rosier's twin in half of these), and I don't even want to discuss Regulus) and make them Actually Misunderstood Good People Who Were Forced Down That Path when at least one of them *coughreguluscough* was obsessed with Voldemort

And then turn around and make Snape an awful person?

[skrunksthatwunk]

hey you ever think about how okuyasu probably had to see (if not help) his brother try over and over to like maim and dismember their father in an attempt to euthanize him, something that clearly hurts and distresses the guy despite his immortality?

do you ever think about how the boys were beaten "for no reason" (existing around their father) and then when their father turns keicho says that if he beats his dad enough he can be obedient but he never stops scratching around in that box and it makes him murderously angry. and then it turns out that their father's been trying to scrape together some reminder of the family they used to be this whole time. he's doing something innocuous and mildly obtrusive that pisses keicho off so much despite the fact that he would understand if he just looked a little closer, at a different angle, that it was his father seeking love and connection in the same way he was as a child, and that he is reacting in the same way his father did to it?

or how okuyasu (who was young enough to not Quite remember the abuse in the same way as keicho) was the one to want to shift gears towards curing him over killing him, to restore his memories and mind so they could heal their relationships - break the cycle? how you might think it's his distance from that contributes to his ability to want that in a way keicho can't, until keicho dies and okuyasu still chooses to focus on the scraps of good within their relationship (while acknowledging that keicho was Not a good person) despite how directly he experienced abuse from keicho? and how that speaks so much to okuyasu's deep sense of loyalty and love (even to his own detriment)?

or how it's josuke (with the power to heal, to fix, that kind power) who is able to start those relationships mending through his emotional curiosity and empathy? and how it's josuke okuyasu clings to in the wake of his brother's death? someone so different from the men he grew up with who only ever hurt each other because they were hurt and someone who proves that kindness and love are like. sustainable? how josuke didn't change him into being a loving person but finally answered it to form a healthy relationship? buh

[camellcat]

WTFFF I thought thirteen would be my new girl crush love of my life heart eyes wife you-came-after-twelve-you-must-be-better-than-they're-all-saying bbygirl and then I had to sit down and watch as she told a man who (if he were not a murderer, of course) literally every regeneration before her would've LOVED and FULLY SUPPORTED that "the systems aren't the problem. how people use and exploit the system, that's the problem. people like you" </33333 !?!?

[formulatrash]

Why's Alex Lynn the second most iconic Jaguar driver?

I mean it's not going to be Nelson Piquet Jr is it?

[horsemage]

I think we should bring back basic etiquette lessons such as shutting the fuck up when you’re watching a movie in a group that is not exclusively your friend group 🙂

[featherymainffins]

Now this might be because I have issues but is it just me or does Slay The Princess feel like an allegory for a relationship?

[karmaphone]

I can see some of y'all are deep in the colonial romance fantasies re silna 😒😒😒