#he is very clearly an adult but it was never specified

[ultramantr1gger]

i calculated sparks age a while ago and i was like that intj picture as i did it

[daryascurse]

He Makes His Hot Roommate Suck Him Off!! ~ Eren Jaeger x Reader

In which Eren Jaeger is a pretty scummy roommate...

. . .“I think watching pοrn on the couch is a reasonable thing to bitch about,” you snap. “And yeah. I don’t need to see your dick out on my pillows.”

“I put your pillows on the chair,” Eren says with a short nod of his chin towards the other side of the living room. “You sure, though? I’ve never heard any complaints about my dick.” . . .

version one (scummy eren) || version two (scummy reader)

reader: POV second person, AFAB (*non-specified in part 1, will be specified in part 2), nongendered pronouns ⟡ content: modern AU, scummy sIutty roommate Eren, use of "bitch" as a verb, pοrn, oraI (male recieving), mentions of weed, mutual pining ⟡ wordcount: ~3.3k ⟡ ao3 link ⟡ recommended mood playlist: red velvet cake

ɴꜱꜰᴡ ᴍᴅɴɪ. I have a very strict adult-only interaction policy. Ageless, blank, and clearly minor-run blogs that interact will be blocked. If you have questions about what that means, please read the byf in my pinned post.

Author's note: This is my first time trying an AU as someone who usually is glued to canon..! It's a fever dream that hit me drifting off to sleep the other night and has consumed me since. I almost wanted to make it so Mikasa and Armin are the pοrnstars he’s watching but I don’t want it taken as an insult to them (just a fun little hey-there) so I did not.

“Ah! Oh my god yes – fuck – fuck! ”

The sound of it is unmistakable, embarrassingly unmistakable as you stand frozen in the foyer with shoes half-kicked off. You squeeze your eyes closed and wordlessly thank whatever cosmic force gave you the good sense not to invite your friend into your home today. Because your roommate, Eren Jaeger, is slouched in the corner of the sofa watching pοrn on his phone. 

Normally, he’s just a kinda bad housemate. He isn’t the worst you’ve had. That honor goes to that girl from freshman year who puked in your closet and wasn’t shy about bringing home guys from the bar on school nights. But he’s comparable. Eren drinks the juice straight from the carton and puts it back in the refrigerator empty. He lets dirty dishes soak a day too long. He takes over the common area like a second bedroom, scowling at the television as his thumbs scuttle across the controller. He’s asked you to leave the small lodging on multiple occasions for privacy reasons. But, all of that being said, Eren pays rent on time. And, on those sheepish occasions you’ve locked yourself out, he only rolls his eyes when he opens the door and quickly goes back to muttering into his headset. 

And up until now, you thought he made up for it enough by being eye candy.

“Oh - mmm- fuck yes right there - ”

The back of his head is to you, hair slipping from his loose knot over his hunched shoulders. His elbow is pressed in the back of the couch in a way that must be uncomfortable, but it’s the perfect angle to pinch his phone in one hand and hold it up to his face. The other hand is out of sight from where you stand. The glare on the screen hides whatever he’s watching so avidly that he didn’t hear you open the door.

Unless he didn’t mind you opening the door.

“Dude,” you say, and your voice stutters. What the fuck can you even say to - ? Your mind goes fully blank. You try again. “What the fuck are you doing?”

That works.

“Oh,” Eren says by means of greeting without even turning his head. “I’m not gonna jizz all over the sofa, don’t worry. Nowhere close yet.”

You push your shoes to the side with your feet. “Better not,” you say, with all the disdain you can muster. “But man - come on. Are you… actually doing what I think you’re doing?”

He lifts his phone up and waggles it, the visual jostling before your eyes. 

“Why?”

“‘S comfy out here.”

You stay, bound by your horror, in the foyer. “Do you do - this,” you say, almost stammering over your words, “regularly?”

“I don’t have a set schedule,” Eren says. “But yeah, sometimes, if you’re out of the house for a while.”

“Are you fucking kidding me?”

Your words are punctuated by tinny “mmm - yeah - ah!” sounds from the phone.

Eren sighs irritably, and finally turns his head to the side. His eyebrows are slack, his cheekbones only barely starting to flush as he fixes that heavy-lidded gaze on you. “Are you going to stand there and bitch all day?”

“I think it’s a pretty reasonable thing to bitch about,” you snap. “And yeah. I don’t need to see your dick out on my pillows.”

“I put your pillows on the chair,” Eren says with a short nod of his chin towards the other side of the living room. “You sure, though? I’ve never heard any complaints about my dick.”

It’s so absurd you snort. “Don’t be a dumbass,” you say. “Don’t joke around.”

“Not joking,” Eren says, and he lowers the phone. There’s a light clack on the screen as he mutes or pauses the video. He pushes his elbow further into the couch, angling to look at you straight-on past the thin slope of his nose. “C’mere.”

You realize you’re breathing out of your mouth.

This is not what you expected. Actually – it’s not what you expected now. Because the tension has been there. Of course it has been. Every time he slouches shirtless into the kitchen with a threadbare towel ruffling his hair dry over his shoulders, you pointedly stare at anything that isn’t the lean muscle of his stomach. At least once a month, he knocks on your door for a trivial manner when you’d pointedly announced you’re spending the night in the bubble bath. Sometimes girls stay over after house parties. You can’t deny pausing at the wall to hear how he groans. You wonder if the performance changes once you slam the front door shut on your way to seek refuge elsewhere.

All things you’d only admitted to your best friends over bathroom counters sworn to secrecy and vodka sodas. Things fantasized about in half-jokes, and nothing you would have thought come to fruition on this random afternoon.

Oh. He absolutely did this on purpose. You wonder what expression is on your face, because Eren just looks back at you with eyebrows lifting at the corner.

You’re padding across the carpet, stepping over the mess of his socks, the lid of the silver grinder. The rest of the contraption sits open on the coffee table with glinting spikes winking at you. You frown at the dirty pipe next to it.

“Oh, you’re just stoned,” you say dryly.

“I’m actually not,” Eren says, throwing your tone back at you in a mocking half-question. That’s another familiar little crack of tension – the conversations so automatically sardonic you can barely keep your thighs from trembling and lips from curving into a grin. You smirk back absently even now, despite the electricity shuddering through the room and you turn towards the couch.

Your eyes had been a little too fixed on the pipe, your brain chanting something about the ashes, the filth, the need to just soak the stupid thing in rubbing alcohol to get it back to whatever color it should be, and it takes a half-moment to register him. Eren’s hands are at the waistband of his forest green gym shorts. He looks up at you with those eyes deeper than a summer storm, a curve of hair falling in front of his forehead and joining those strands cascading around his neck as he hunches against the arm of the sofa. The hem of his black hoodie has scrunched higher up his stomach below his phone resting precariously, to reveal a snaking ribcage of hair branching down to where his thumbs meet the shorts. His forearms are tense, red aching at the tight cuffs of his rolled-up sleeves.

“Take it off, then,” you hear yourself say, and Eren’s lips twitch in a smile.

His thumbs curve, knees drawing up as he lifts his hips. He hesitates a moment, as if daring either of you to chicken out, and then it’s as if you imagined the pause because he’s pulling those green mesh shorts down. He kicks them off the cushions and you sway to avoid the motion as his heather grey boxes follow in a tangle. Eren pushes his hips down on the sofa, sprawling to take up the entire length. His foot braces against the back of the couch, and his other settles on the floor. He rolls his knee out, framing a perfect patch of rug for you to kneel on.

Well.

Your shitty roommate is right. Who could have any complaints about his cock?

Eren’s eyes burn on you as you hesitate between his sprawled legs, adjusting your knees on the carpet, your elbows against the couch. He doesn’t reach forward to guide you, to pump his already half-hard shaft in his palm. He shrugs his shoulders and picks up the phone again, tapping the screen again.

“Mmm- that feels so good, yeah!”

You lick your bottom lip. Eren has the phone lifted in a way that blocks his face from you, or yours from him. You pause another second and raise your hand to him.

When you wrap your fingers around his cock, the taunt muscles of his stomach tense. His Adam’s apple shivers in a swallow. Your fingertips squeeze at his firmness, your thumb slowly sliding hider as your fist rises up. You pause, running your thumb around the tip. A bead of slick precum slides where your skin meets his.

It’s that oily slip that makes this whole thing actually real at last, makes the breath hitch in your throat and makes some pressure beat hard bellow your belly. Your knees push into the carpet. You adjust your other forearm on the cushions for balance, leaning in closer as you flutter in a delicate circle again across his sensitive head.

“Fuck,” Eren says as if the word bursts from him.

“Ohh yeah!”

The air is cut with heavy breath and the cries from his phone.

Your hand is moving without thinking, your eyes hazy and locked on your first. His cock is actually fucking pretty, smooth, large, the vein fluttering under your palm rising with urgency. You bend into the couch, reaching forward with your other hand and stretching to support it, giving a brief dancing squeeze of your fingers. You withdraw your dominant hand and raise it to your lips, drawing a breath, and spitting messily.

“Mmm!”

“Oh – ” but the breath comes out of you as you bring your hand webbed with silver down to his cock again. Eren’s skin is silky under your touch as you smear up and down him, rubbing up to his head again and mixing your fluids together. And Eren groans, a low, musical sound that breaks at the end.

That’s an aching you haven’t heard behind walls and closed doors. You tense your hand and pump faster.

“Suck it,” Eren says suddenly in another strangled blurt, interrupting the moans of the pοrnstars.

You look up, and his phone has slipped in his palm, showing the darkening of his dilating pupils as he stares at you with a thirst. His cheeks are flushed high. Drool involuntarily pools over your tongue and you look down and hunch yourself closer, as his knee straightens on the floor besides you to open more space.

Kneeling before Eren, you can track the contours of his skin in a way more intimate than just roommates should normally know. His thigh muscles are taunt, strong, dusted with wiry hairs that gather closer and closer the higher they climb. The shadow of his hipbones flexes as he shifts into the couch. And you look up again, just as Eren reaches out with his hand not gripping the phone.

“Wow – wow oh fuck, I’m so close - !”

More hair has fallen loose from the bun, enough for his hair to be half-down and framing the strong angle of his jaw like a dark halo. His eyes are sunken deep, and staring at you, wide. You keep eye contact, leaning on your elbow, and sink your mouth onto his cock.

Eren’s hand closes at the back of your head, and your arm slides into his leg, a warm, strong barrier pushing your bodies together in this collapsed tableau of fallen angels. Your first stroke of your tongue is light and short, your second dragging a little longer, before your lean for the and take his head fully in a long, languid, slurping swirl.

He tastes sweeter, cleaner, than you would have thought.

The sounds suddenly cut off as the video ends, the last smack of your tongue loud in the abrupt silence. Saliva drips from your mouth as you drag your tongue down to his balls in a fat swipe, and back up.

“Fuck,” Eren mutters. His hand drops, shifts his back and hips rock into the couch as he takes the phone in both hands again. You adjust your fingers, sliding at his base and rubbing along the shaft neglected by your mouth.

There’s a muffled click-click-click and the volume rises. It sounds like he found a new video, this one full of a gruff masculinity and a gasping crescendo.

“You like that? You like how that tastes?”

“Ohmygod yes, yes, I love it mmm – ”

Your eyes slip down, demurely, and then with a breath squeeze shut and force yourself lower.

“Mmph,” comes from your lungs, and Eren moans in turn.

Your lips are dancing, tongue licking continuously in desperate sucks down his cock. Eren is breathing shallowly, little gasps coming from him. His elbow angles into the couch, dipping the cushion below you to the side, and you can hear the phone speaker almost directly above your head. He must be staring at the screen, his chest rising and falling rapidly that you can feel through him.

“Yes I love that - oh - fuck me harder - ”

And of your own body, cramped against the cushions and the couch frame? Every time you can tell Eren responds to your motions, you clench the delicate muscles of your cunt – and every time you can tell that he’s responding to the stupid video he’s watching, it makes you rush and pulse. Sweat prickles at your shoulders, across your forehead. Your body is tense with arousal, the groans slipping from your lips aching whimpers.

Actually, some of your sounds might as well be coming from the phone too.

Eren throbs in your mouth, and you force your head all the way down his cock. He hits the back of your throat and you clench your fingers into a fist that scratches at the rough cushions. You inhale, closing your cheeks into a hollow suck and bidding him further down your throat.

“Oh, oh – god damn – ” Eren says, and his voice is absolutely raw. “Oh, fuck.”

“You like that?” the man on the phone says again.

Eren’s thighs turn towards you as you pull yourself up, gasping for breath and trying not to cough. Water pricks at the corner of your eyes. His eyes are low, staring at the screen with a slack mouth and harsh breath.

You lean, lowering yourself again, running your tongue in light agitation over and over his tip again and again before widening your jaws and taking him in again.

“Mmmm,” you whimper in a suffocated tone around him, pushing your hips harder into the floor.

“Yeah, yeah,” Eren groans. “Yeah, right there.”

His other falls hand on the back of your head again – not to push, but, to brace, as you feel his hand steel himself. You take him fully out of your mouth again to lick his length and Eren’s hand moves with you with each dip and turn of your head, hesitating as you take another shuddering breath and then locking in again when you go back down.

You can feel it, you don’t need the cues of the video, or even Eren’s own beautifully desperate voice. He’s close, filling your mouth, your senses, as your hand slides up and over and over where your lips just can’t reach in these faster motions. Breathing is harder, the shallow reserves of air coming shorter and shorter.

“Fuck – I’m gonna cum – ”

The words were the woman’s, not Eren’s, but he groans a harsh, ragged, “fuck” in turn.

He tightens his stomach muscles, turning into a half-crunch as his hips thrust up pathetically, helplessly, in a primal attempt to fuck into your mouth. You’re so painfully aware of your own hips shifting in response, your neglected cunt wet in response as you choke and gurgle sloppily around him.

And then Eren cries out your name, your name so anguished on his lips –

So much sharper, so much louder, than anything you’ve heard come from his room –

The tears stream from your eyes as Eren gives one last thrust of his hips into your mouth. His hand is strong at the back of your head, the taste of him suddenly more and more bitter. It’s something you feel through him. You freeze, your hand holding him and lips sealed around as he comes, hot and sharp to the back of your throat.

“Mm,” you choke.

“Oh, almost, almost,” Eren groans, and tenses out another spurt.

His cock gives a last twitch in your mouth as your tongue gently washes around him as your lips release. You guide him out and swallow again, and again, every last bit of flavor dancing around your mouth.

“Fuck,” Eren says.

Your breaths are a cacophony together.

“Oh – oh – oh!” the artificial orgasm screams from his phone continuously. You clear your throat, and give an inadvertent cough. Eren hurriedly pushes at the screen until silence falls over the room again. He looks at you, and smirks his usual grin, but something about it lacks the familiar sass.

“You know, you look good down there,” Eren says.

A thrill goes through you, and you try to play off the shudder of glee.

“Ew. Cheesy. Stop watching so much pοrn,” you say with a not-too withering glare. You reach behind you, fumbling for his shorts to wipe your lips with one leg, your eyes with the other.

“No,” Eren says, and the word stutters short as he cuts himself off with a deep, sucking breath. You look up at him. And to your surprise he looks so kind somehow for a moment – some innocent yearning beaming in his eyes breaking down whatever walls he’s built around him; walls that you somehow hadn’t realized before now had been carefully kept high and strong.

“I. I want to – ”

And in that moment, the phone rings a shrill tone.

“Oh, shit,” Eren says, staring at it.

“Great timing,” you say as you feel your heart drop into your stomach. “Saved by the bell, you could say.”

“No, no,” Eren says with a sigh and a glare at the screen. “It’s my brother, and – I mean, if he’s calling, it could be important.”

“I get it,” you say, waving your hand and sitting back on the carpet, wrapping your arms around your knees and ignoring both the ache pushing at your cunt and adrenaline racing through your veins. “It’s okay.”

You toss the shorts in your hand at him, and Eren takes them in one hand, absently tucking the phone between his ear and shoulder. It nestles in his hoodie as he speaks a greeting into the phone, eyes settling somewhere in the middle distance. He sits up, feet on the floor, and begins to pull them on.

“Hey, Zeke. What’s up?”

You turn your head, giving him a moment of privacy that feels strangely appropriate, for all of that that just transpired. There’s a groan of the couch cushions as Eren stands. You see his boxers, abandoned on the carpet, and feel an involuntary grin break across your face.

What a turn of events.

You rock forward on your knees again. Eren walks behind the couch, his voice carrying the conversation into the kitchen. You reach forward on the coffee table, finding a mailer advertisement under the dirty pipe, a marker. Flipping the paper over to the blank side, you scrawl a quick message.

It’s harder to stand than it should be. Your bones creak as they unfold from that hunch into the sofa, your muscles and hips weak with desire. But you make it swiftly to the kitchen, where Eren has the fridge open. He leans on the door, phone still in the crook of his shoulder, one sleeve slumped down to his hand and the other still pushed up to his elbow as he unscrews a bottle of cranberry juice. He casts his eyes to you as he lifts the bottle to his lips and drinks, listening to his brother.

All you do is slap the paper to the refrigerator with the first magnet your fingers encounter, and walk to your room without a second glance back.

My turn next.

.

Author's note 2: So I actually wanted this to be MEANER! I wanted MEAN SCUMMY EREN! But I think it ended up being a little soft… and maybe for this, it worked the best? Please please let me know what you think!! If there's interest, I would absolutely do a part 2 in inverse where it's actually Reader being the naughty roommate? :)

[gabessquishytum]

Labyrinth AU

Hob's tutoring group accidentally wish him away to the Labyrinth, where Goblin King!Jareth happily works to seduce the pretty new addition to his realm, even as he can tell Hob is marked by the Endless Dream King. (If Morpheus can't take care of his toys well enough for them not to to wind up with Jareth........his loss.)

Moreover, since Hob's dumb students/friends don't realize Hob was actually "wished" to a real place, it not like they're trying to solve the Labyrinth to get him back.....Jareth has all the time he needs to seduce Hob (and get one over on Morpheus).

Dream was going to be a little late to his date meeting with Hob, so he sends Matthew to let Hob know. Dream promised to be better at communicating with his best friend.

Luckily for him, Dream told Matthew just to go to Hob and didn’t specify the New Inn, because that was the only way he found out that Hob was in the Goblin Kingdom(, being romanced by its king ~ I'll thank you kindly to stop editorializing Matthew.). Dream storms into Jareth's castle demanding Hob back this instant! (Trying not to look at how resplendent Hob looks in the clothes Jareth offered him to wear.)

Jareth scoffs and pouts, under the rules......Dream has to solve the Labyrinth to get Hob back, since he was "formally" wished away. And while Dream is off doing that (dismissive hand wave) Jareth and Hob will continue to get better acquainted (Hob-ian blush, sweet Jareth hand kiss).

Dream solving the Labyrinth, fighting for his man, and hot Goblin King seduction on an adult.

This is SO good, Dream and Jareth having a proper slut-off for Hob’s affections is truly something I would like to see. Let’s face it, Hob wouldn’t be to shy about flirting back with the goblin king. It’s not like Jareth can really harm him and if he’s going to be stuck in a strange realm for a while, he might as well enjoy himself,,, right?

Hob gets dressed up in a gauzy white shirt that doesn’t button up very far, and Jareth insists on giving him golden jewellery (to make up for the fact that he’s trapped, poor thing). There doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of furniture around the place except for Jareth’s throne, so Hob quickly finds himself sitting in the lap of the goblin king. It’s a bit embarrassing but Hob isn’t going to refuse the attentions of a gorgeous man. Jareth is so tall and powerful, he makes Hob feel small… and he likes it very much. Being someone’s pretty plaything is kind of a fantasy he’s had for a while, although he’d always secretly imagined that it would be Dream’s lap he’d be sitting on…

By the by, Hob has to no clue that Dream is in the process of solving the labyrinth to rescue him. So when Dream does (quite quickly, he is Endless after all) come storming in and demanding that Jareth give Hob back, Hob gets quite a shock! He’s sitting there in the goblin king’s lap, half naked and with his lips quite clearly swollen from kissing (hey, a little make out sesh never hurt anyone). It’s soooo embarrassing. But Dream’s eyes just turn predatory and he stalks forward to grip one of the gold necklaces adorning Hob’s throat.

Maybe it’s time for Hob to choose between the two kings. Or maybe he’s greedy enough to want them both. If they can manage to share their pretty toy, that is. Hob might have to lay out a few demands before he finally gets what he wants…

[ephemerasnape]

Hello! We don't know each other at all but you appeared in my feed, and I am sorry but I can't let you say people "conflate" a child and a minor.

Please take into consideration I didn't turn on the anonymous setting, because I won't hide my position just like you won't hide yours (And it's always better to know who you're actually talking to). Also english isn't my first language so I hope you will understand what I'm saying.

A minor is a child for a reason. The law created the notion of minor because even if you're a teen, like 16-17 yo, you can get influenced. You can get manipulated. And you can not realise it. At 17yo you don't have the ability to properly defend yourself against adults.

What I mean is : Adults are socially superior. We're all taught as kids to respect them. Going against them is difficult for some teens. And they know that, which is why preserving kids' innocence and teaching them about the possible adults taking advantage of their youth is important. With an adult, in an intimate relationship, their consent will be biased.

Cause no adult should be attracted to a 15 yo. No adult should have a relationship with a minor, who's a child thank you very much, because their relationship will never be equal.

Picturing a 15yo with a 30yo man is sick. That's what it is. She didn't even finish to grow up, she doesn't even have a mind of her own. Did I also specify that the human brain ends developing at 25yo ?

That you have traumas you need to deal with, fine. This could be your way to interiorise what happened to you, to feel less lonely about it and I understand it. Or maybe you're still young, picturing yourself with Rookwood because you like his face and don't realise how wrong this is. You could still write age gap with another adult, some BDSM child play for example.

but a real 15yo???? with a 30yo man???? This is clearly hidden patriarchy, teaching you that the younger women are the more attractive they get, that youth is purity and men should own it and corrupt it. It's completely and utterly toxic.

Do you realise this really happened to people and that they struggle with it now that they are adults ? There is no romance in it. Only sickness.

This is the internet. I guess no one will stop you from ever writing what you write but you have to hear it isn't right.

Hello @mianeryh!

First I'd like to thank you for your very decent message, and for coming to me directly instead of hiding behind anonymous sniping.

A minor is a person under the age of 18. Child has a different connotation to most people.

As you can see there are multiple definitions of "child." In this context I am using the first one.

I'm not saying an adolescent is an adult - far from it! I'm just saying they are not a child in the way that people are using the term.

Sixteen is a common age to legally give sexual consent, drive a car, and in some places they even want to give sixteen-year-olds the vote.

Obviously, a sixteen year old is not a child. But that doesn't mean they are an adult either. They're in a weird in-between state called an adolescent or a teenager.

Then again, I don't think an eighteen year old is really an adult. Hell, I still don't feel like an adult!

Regardless, in no way do I condone sexual activity or a relationships between an actual adult and an actual minor with more than a couple years between them. I am not young, but I myself was involved with a man who was 28 when I was 14, I met him in person when I was 16 and he was 30, and we had sex. I didn't feel like a victim at the time, but in retrospect I know I was.

I assume overall you are talking about my Victor Rookwood x MC fics and my Rookwood x Anne Sallow fic, but it seems you've made a lot of presumptions about them without reading them. In neither scenario have I presented the interactions as morally correct, wholesome, or even desirable. In the first scenario, the reader is MC, so you can be whatever age you want. No, I don't "age up" anything. If people want to age themselves up when imagining the scenario that's fine, but since it's fiction I don't see a problem. Nothing is presented in a positive light here.

If you'd read Devoutly, you'd know that romanticizing the relationship between Rookwood and Anne is the last thing I'm doing. I am presenting it as the nuanced, fucked up thing that it is. There is nothing glamourized there. Really. Please read it, because it's a very important fic to me.

There are two major points to be made here, and the fact that rarely are people actually glamourizing such relationships in their works is one of them. But even if you find a "Happily Ever After" scenario that involves rape or statutory rape or whatever, the important point is it's fiction.

What people write in a fictional context should not be presumed to represent what they want to happen, or what they support happening in real life. In the Harry Potter fandom, which I come from, fiction featuring underage characters involved with significantly older adults is common and rarely met with this kind of reaction. I am not sure when people became so moralistic about fiction.

Fiction is a place to explore our deepest, darkest fears and fantasies, and also to make things happen solely to be shocking or provocative (guilty as charged). We don't need an excuse more than "because I wanted to."

In the real world, I am (of course) very much against rape. I'm very much against sexually-exploitative relationships involving real people. I am even against eighteen-year-olds participating in pornography, the pornography industry in general. I could go on. In fact, I have spent much of my life being way too upset about these things, which is probably why I write a lot of fucked up stuff.

But even if you write fucked up stuff just because you enjoy doing so, it's not wrong. It doesn't make you a bad person. It's fiction.

The onus is on you, as a sensitive person, to avoid media that upsets you - it is not mine to avoid creating such media or to hide it from you, and I will not accept that responsibility.

As far as the patriarchy assertion goes - like it or not, I do believe that 95%+ of adult men would have sex with a sixteen year old girl if they wouldn't get in trouble for it. This is just my experience with men. Is it right? OF COURSE NOT! I hate that. Is it realistic though? Am I only allowed to write things that are aligned with my own values and the law as determined by any such government? There we disagree.

These are pixels on a screen - words on a page. No humans are involved. Even in its most gratuitous form, fiction is fiction. You can like it or dislike it - you do not have to embrace everything out there, but I do believe you should support my right to create it, and you should definitely not be assuming that someone's creative writing reflects their own values.

I hope this helps clear things up.

[cringecompanionapologist]

Some Interesting Stuff About the Development of Turlough

I was seriously tempted to call this post "Vis-lore Turlough". I am so fucking normal.

Anyway, I found a website via the TARDIS wiki that goes into detail about the concepts behind and making of Doctor Who episodes. For Mawdryn Undead, this means a discussion of how the character of Turlough was developed.

It started with JNT and Adric not going according to his vision. He was supposed to be a companion you couldn't quite trust, but that didn't really work with him, so it was decided that they'd try the idea again.

Honestly, the "untrustworthy" thing didn't work with Adric because of his age. He had an innocent vibe to him and tended to work best when the fact that he was just a kid trying his best was emphasized.

He'd often sort of go rogue, trying to save the day in his own way, often with some lying and stealing involved, but this seemed to confuse people. Adric became infamous for taking the villain's side, something he only did once. He pretended to take the villain's side in two other stories, but it was a fake-out. In Kinda, since the villain he pretends to side with is obviously insane, the fake-out is also quite obvious. I've seen reviews of State of Decay that don't seem to understand that Adric was supposed to be faking, however. There was also Castrovalva, where Adric was forced to work with the Master, and there's a scene or two where he pretends to cooperate willingly, but it doesn't last very long and it's always clearly a fake-out. Honestly, Adric is actually a pretty bad liar. I'm not sure if he was supposed to come across that way, but it's what we got.

Turlough was an attempt to start over and try the idea again, but with a clear story arc behind it that would make the writers keep that element consistent. Notably, for a character meant as a replacement for Adric, and a character who'd later be introduced as a schoolboy, the original plan for Turlough doesn't seem to specify his age. He's an alien working for the Black Guardian.

Unlike Adric, Turlough wasn't really meant to be a teenager. He originally wasn't going to be introduced as a schoolboy at all. The planned third story of season 20, where he'd be introduced, was The Song of the Space Whale, but the story fell through, eventually ending up as a Lost Story audio with 6 and Peri.

Since this was a last minute change, Turlough wasn't actually aged down. According to Mark Strickson, Turlough is supposed to look like he doesn't belong in the setting, and one of the ways he doesn't belong is by being obviously too old. It's never directly explained to the audience that Turlough is older than he was pretending to be, though it is implied. When given Adric's old room, he complains about it looking like a child's room, because he's had enough of children. So, the clearest answer we get to Turlough's age is "older than Adric".

Having Turlough be a bit older makes the more morally ambiguous part of his character seem more convincing. He's also given a more clear motivation for it. Adric had kinda sorta been an outsider on his homeworld who learned to steal things, but he stole because his big brother did. Adric sort of latched on to any role model he found, so simply traveling with the Doctor would change his moral attitudes to better match him. He's still young enough that his worldview is shaped by adults. Turlough is old enough that, even if he respects and admires someone, he's developed his own view of the universe through his own experiences with it.

Another reoccurring point in Mark Strickson interviews is that he wanted Turlough to be more independent than most companions. He's from an advanced civilization, so he knows how all the tech works. He's familiar with alien species. He doesn't need the Doctor to explain everything to him. But, the show kind of forced the companions into a simplistic role. JNT believed that at the end of the day, the companions were there to ask "what's happening, Doctor?" even in situations where they should definitely already know. They had to stand in for not only an audience of ordinary humans, but an audience primarily of children, so even things that a regular human adult could figure out would sometimes have to be spelled out to them.

Janet Fielding also had a problem with this for feminist reasons. Tegan wasn't supposed to be stupid. This led to a period of time where everyone was going rogue. You had two actors playing their companions as intelligent, independent adults when the script needed the opposite.

I'm calling attention to this because I think it's interesting that this was happening with Five's companions specifically. Five's main fandom characterization is as a dad with all these adopted queer youths. Five does often act like that, but it would be interesting to really look at that in the context of companions that probably wouldn't want to be treated that way. Adric and Nyssa were both introduced as teenagers, though Nyssa seemed to grow up over time. They sort of were his adopted children.

But, Tegan and Turlough enter the TARDIS as adults. The actors' frustrations could actually fit in-character. Tegan feels like she's being talked down to because she's a woman and Turlough had to pass himself off as a schoolboy but is sick of it. Why he doesn't change out of his damn uniform makes no sense with this in-universe. Out of universe, 80s Doctor Who characters were often given limited selections of outfits so they'd be more recognizable. In Turlough's case, he was dressed in black to contrast with the Doctor's white and beige and Tegan's more bold colors. It represented the personality of each character: The Doctor is mild-mannered, Tegan is bold and tends to stand out, Turlough is somber and cynical.

So, over time, Five's companions grow up. Nyssa is with him long enough that she literally comes of age while traveling with him. With Adric and Nyssa gone, we're left with Tegan and Turlough as two adult companions. Five spent years alone with Nyssa, basically acting as her adoptive father, raising her to adulthood, when she decides to leave home. He's not sure how to relate to his companions as adults. They haven't been in quite a while.

In comparing 5's companions to older companions, Adric and Nyssa are more like Susan or Zoe, very smart, but still kids. Tegan is more like Sarah Jane, limited in scientific knowledge by being a 20th century woman, but still clever and not fond of being talked down to. Turlough is more like Romana, another intelligent alien that the Doctor could communicate with as an equal. At least, that's how I would've thought of it if I'd been given these characters

This has devolved into rambling now. I just wanted to analyze 5's companions and "dad" status. I've run out of things to say.

[k7l4d4]

K Reviews and Rants: Miraculous Ladybug Season 5! Episode 23

Hello all, time to see the episode where the writers give up on making their writing believable in favor of cheap, uninspired emotional appeals!

Now, with this episode, I could take my time ripping into the show fixating on this fantasy in its head that Chloe is a genuine threat... but I'm not going to because that topic has been talked to death a hundred and one times. Instead, I'm gonna focus on the moral of this episode... and how it utterly falls apart.

Namely, the episode seems to be pushing the narrative that you can't wait around and rely on people to solve your problems for you, you have to do it yourself... or at the very least just reach out and let others KNOW you need help. Why does this fall apart? Because in addition to the fact that Chloe being a problem at all is forced by the writers blatantly ignoring how she has no real power and the police could just drag her out of office whenever they like... Adrien does literally nothing this entire episode to solve HIS personal problem about his dad forcing him to move.

He never mentions it to any of his friends OR his girlfriend (who he can hold down a long-distance relationship with if it DOES come down to him moving, as his and her video-chatting in the prior episode demonstrates), and the one time he bothers to acknowledge that there's nothing that can be said to his dad to make him change his mind, it comes off more as a lazy excuse on his part not to share how he's feeling. Throughout this entire episode, and all the episodes in which this plot has been leading up to now, Adrien takes the worst decision every time towards opening up and sharing his problems while also doing nothing on a personal level to help himself. He just... stands around, feeling sorry for himself.

How can you push the idea that people need to stand up to injustice themselves when you can't even have one of the two main leads stand up for HIMSELF?

I could add more details... but I think this gets my point across nicely. Thank you, and now, onto the review! As always, warning for any profanity on my part.

Episode 23: Revolution

Okay, and we get the opening scene of "Mayor Chloe" talking to Nadja that she has "Outlawed Chat Noir, Ladybug, and Monarch." Because outlawing someone who is already a terrorist that nobody can find and the only people capable of stopping him is SUCH A GOOD IDEA FOLKS!!! God fucking dammit. I'm not too pissed off yet, but the fact that nobody in law enforcement is dragging her out of that office and calling her out on her BS of being Mayor because her dad was Mayor is utterly stupid. If this is meant to be some kind of jab about "the rich are the new nobility/royalty" or something like that, it fails. Miserably.

Nadja asks if "this will last long" without actually specifying what "this" is, with Chloe having to be fed lines by Lila over an earbud so as to not blow it already. She also fumbles "democratic" TWICE. News flash Astruc, Dumb Blonde jokes have been in bad taste for a few decades by now!! Chloe then ends things while declaring that her new robots will be upholding "her law in Paris," never mind that not only is her position totally illegitimate, Mayors DO NOT HAVE THE POWER TO ARBITRARILY DECIDE WHAT IS OR ISN'T A LAW.

Now, we get to the heroes, with Chat pointing out that they have a moral obligation to stop Chloe, and Ladybug saying that they can't because she's not Akumatized... which is bullshit, as both the specials and incidents like the fight against the flying dinosaurs proved. Yes, they can't attack her... but why the hell would they NEED TO ATTACK HER? Literally just going in, marching her out to the ACTUAL police and having them detain her would accomplish literally the exact same thing. Saying "they'll look like the bad guys" is a completely bullshit non-answer.

Aaannnd... they passed the buck onto "adults, an authority figure" to handle the problem. Because clearly that's a good lesson to teach kids, don't stand up to what you see as a systemic problem in the world or an abuse of power, even if you have the means to oppose it, just leave it to someone else. THAT'S what you should be teaching kids, not that doing what is right, even if it's hard, is important.

Now they head back home, and Marinette is watching videos on the news reporting what's going on and citizen reactions. First up, a pair of ladies who I'm thinking that Astruc had designed to give off the same vibes of "smug, elitist, rich white person" vibes as Chloe is meant to give off, saying it's a good thing that Chloe is in power because she's a "young person, like us, representing us!" Next we get the racist cop who denounces superheroes as pointless due to not stopping Monarch yet, and then publicly airing a conspiracy theory that they are all in on it together. Then we get another adult, who points out how utterly stupid having a teenager declaring herself Mayor is.

Now it's on to Adrien, I wonder how he's doing? Staring at a picture of Marinette on his phone it looks like. And once again all that's going on is that he's angsting over telling his girlfriend that he's moving. After all, it's not as if he can HAVE A LONG DISTANCE RELATIONSHIP, or, I dunno, PRACTICE TELLING HER BY TELLING HIS OTHER FRIENDS!!! Seriously, do Nino, Alya, and the rest of his classmates mean NOTHING to him in terms of telling this info? Does he honestly believe they'd have no advice to share!? What is wrong with this guy!?

His answer on why he's not saying anything? He's hoping he'll be able to convince his dad not to send him... fuck that. Dude, FUCK. THAT!! For absolute FUCK'S SAKE THIS IS THE GUY WHO HAS DONE NOTHING BUT BE AN UTTER BASTARD TO YOU FOR YEARS, YOU AREN'T GONNA CONVINCE HIM!! HECK, HE MADE IT CLEAR HE'S DOING THIS TO SEPARATE YOU FROM MARINETTE!!! JUST RUN AWAY ALREADY!!!!

Okay, now we got Plagg, the guy the show has made repeatedly clear LOATHES and is annoyed by romance, shilling Marinette as "the most amazing girl in the whole universe." Please give me a moment while I hurl; it's not even over how utterly fucking CHEESY this is, it's how unironic they are at shilling the girl who has dropped the ball REPEATEDLY, and has routinely violated Adrien's boundaries without his knowledge. This is disturbing to me. At least he's stating the simple solution of asking someone for help... still fucking pissed that it's all centered around MARINETTE rather then exploring his OTHER FRIENDSHIPS that are a lot closer than whatever tangled mess he has going on with Marinette. You know, like his best friend that the narrative conveniently forgot about as soon as they could?

And upon a call from Marinette, NOW he decides that this is the right time. It's really fucking ironic that all of Adrien's scenes and relevance to the plot this season is all about Marinette, whereas Marinette's scenes actually DO SOMETHING towards expanding upon what's going on around them all. And it is immediately derailed by Marinette asking him to watch the news. So much for her call being "a sign." Now we get more reactions to Chloe's dictatorship, Hooray! First off is a guy saying she can't be worse than her father... yeah, she absolutely can, seeing as her dad was corrupt, but she's corrupt AND a literal teenager with no qualifications. And another guy brushing off any issues since they'll have an election soon. It's really, REALLY fucking stupid how these people are both taking her at her words, and ignoring how A TEENAGER DOES NOT HAVE THE ABILITY TO ASSUME POWER AT HER OWN SAY-SO!! SHE IS NOT EVEN AN ELECTED OFFICIAL!!!

"Someone's bound to do something." Nope, no one will, never mind the fact that CHLOE NEVER SHOULD'VE EVEN GOTTEN THIS FAR! Oh and Marinette interrupts Adrien's attempt to explain his situation by calling everyone to do something. Clearly this can't possibly go wrong and will have an actual meaningful impact! Surely it will. /s

Now we get a scene of Chloe playing with her toys testing the incredibly advanced "police robots" Gabe and Tomoe are bribing her with supplied to City Hall, once again having the narrative IGNORE HOW NONE OF THIS IS EVEN REMOTELY LEGAL!!! Oh, and Audrey is present too for some reason. She also fires that one butler that is more prominent than the rest of the staff because she's got robots now... whatever happened to her words at the Diamond Dance, what was it again, something about how the robots aren't as fun because she can't boss them around or something?

Gabe proceeding to layer the flattery on thick with Chloe... wonder how that'll go. Probably terribly. "All the superoffenders have disappeared." BITCH IT HASN'T EVEN BEEN A FUCKING WEEK YOU ASSHOLE!!! But that's also the perfect thing to say to Chloe in this scenario, she's too much of a self-centered idiot to spot the obvious fault in her decision. Oh, and it looks like Lila had Chloe recording the meeting.

So far, I'm mostly just banging my head against a wall over how stupid this entire plot is. THERE IS NO SITUATION IN WHICH A TEENAGER IS GOING TO HOLD THE POSITION OF MAYOR. EVER. Tomoe and Gabe proceed to plot about how they are going to use Chloe's incompetence as a Mayor (STILL IGNORING HOW SHE CAN'T LEGALLY HOLD THE POSITION!!!), and at least acknowledge that there isn't a chance in hell Chat and Ladybug are gonna ignore this for good, before Monarch personally visits Chloe... instead of, you know, sending the Butterfly and communicating with her directly, something he is FULLY CAPABLE OF DOING!!! Meaning the guy is deliberately waltzing into the lair of someone who has declared him an outlaw. Not as if she couldn't just have her robots capture him, take his Miraculous for herself, and establish herself as Queen of Paris in truth, but that would require the writers to think these things through and for Chloe to be allowed to have a brain.

Oh look, they actually had Chloe be smart enough to have her robots target Monarch! Now if only he wasn't LITERALLY STUPID ENOUGH TO SHOW UP IN PERSON. And we learn that as the creator of them, Tomoe has an override of the system... how in the world did she even see the screen targeting Monarch? She's supposed to be blind, right?? Can she hear them targeting through the screen or something!? And just as Chloe is about to do the smart thing and refuse Monarch's offer for an alliance (YOU DO NOT NEED TO BE THERE IN PERSON, IDIOT!!!), Lila tells her to accept... ugh...

This, this is just stupid. IT IS IDIOTIC!! IT IS BULLSHIT!!! NOTHING ABOUT THIS MAKES SENSE!! IS CHLOE MENTALLY DISABLED!? IS THAT WHAT THIS IS!? BECAUSE NO ONE CAN POSSIBLY BE THIS STUPID!! SHE IS NOT A THREAT, SHE IS JUST A DUMB KID DANCING TO SOMEONE ELSE'S STRINGS!! HOW THE FUCK ARE WE SUPPOSED TO TAKE HER SERIOUSLY AS THE "WORST OF THE WORST"!? WE CAN'T!!! FUCK THIS FUCKING BULLSHIT!!!!

And we learn the specifics of the deal is that Monarch will Akumatize her, yadda yadda yadda, make it look like she's not an Akuma, yadda yadda yadda... NONE OF THIS EXPLAINS WHY HE IS IN THE FUCKING ROOM WHEN HE CAN COMMUNICATE WITH PEOPLE!!! HECK, HE COULD HAVE GIVEN HIMSELF THE POWER TO COMMUNICATE AT A DISTANCE!!! The obvious answer is that they wanted an excuse to keep Monarch from learning about Lila feeding Chloe lines, but that if anything just shows how weak their efforts in making Lila a threat are. If she's only a threat when they actively keep the antagonist from knowing she's in the know, then she's not a real threat.

Oh, we also get the stupidity of Chloe's robots having multiple powers. Not even gonna get into that bullshit.

Now we are back to the school, and Adrien announcing his determination to tell Marinette everything... because obviously it's only Marinette that deserves to know that his father is forcing him to move to London, and not any of his other friends. (Rolls eyes)

Apparently Marinette, Alya, and Mylene came up with some kind of protest...? Watch and be amazed as it amounts to nothing when Chloe shows up in her "covert Akuma form," with once again NO ONE OBJECTING TO THE FACT THAT A TEENAGE GIRL IS NOT ALLOWED TO BE THE FUCKING MAYOR UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES!!! Oh, and Chloe also lying to the news about giving limitless freedom to the citizens of Paris... I'll be honest, I could actually see her doing something like that, not out of any kind of goodness of her heart but more due to just being too ignorant to understand the consequences of basically letting everyone do whatever they want, no questions asked, and doing so would make her own life easier as well.

And it turns out the protest is over Miss Bustier... because their fired teacher, who the Mayor NEVER HAD THE AUTHORITY TO AUTHORIZE THE FIRING OF, is the real issue over the fact that one of their classmates is illegally holding a position of power. Also, them calling her "Miss Bustier the Great" is pretty cringe. It's blatantly forced just to make the rhyme work.

And their big protest is... to refuse to go to class. Okay? That... is utterly fucking pointless. Seriously, "REFUSING TO GO BACK TO CLASS" IS THE BEST THESE IDIOTS COULD COME UP WITH!? WHO FUCKING CARES!!! IT'S NOT A COMPELLING THREAT BECAUSE IT'S NOT HURTING ANYONE BUT THEMSELVES AND ISN'T DISRUPTING ANY OTHER PROCESSES OR EVENTS GOING ON!! IT IS ENTIRELY PERFORMATIVE BS THAT AMOUNTS TO JACK AND SHIT!!!

WHY should Chloe CARE that none of you want to go to Class!? SHE DOESN'T!!! Oh, right, Lila is talking in her ear. Also, I don't know why Chloe singled out Zoe for "pretending to be her sister" since I'm pretty sure that isn't exactly public knowledge!? She didn't even CALL YOU her sister, so why are you bringing it up!? Also, them shoe-horning "libertarian" in there; that... amounts to nothing.

...She's seriously calling them willfully sabotaging their own education "holding the school hostage"? This is... this is moronic. That is the only thing I can call it, this is utterly MORONIC. Aside from her blatantly slandering Miss Bustier, her throwing shade at Damocles' obsession with acting like he's a Superhero is spot on as he's shown that he hasn't learned his lesson, and how it negatively impacts his work; her refusing to reinstate him (not that she even COULD) is one of her few smart decisions.

The protesters do point out how she's twisting the situation stupidly, but it falls apart since this ENTIRE FUCKING PLOT is held up by tissues and prayers by writers high off their own farts. Seriously, why is Lila even BOTHERING to try and manipulate Chloe? Chloe can't even keep up an act good enough to last TWO SECONDS when around anyone who doesn't enable her BS, this entire thing is stupid as fuck. What is the point? What is supposed to be going on!?

Okay, the one interesting thing going on is that Chloe tried to burst Marinette's bubble about what Adrien is being made to do... seriously, DO NONE OF THESE IDIOTS REMEMBER THAT A LONG DISTANCE RELATIONSHIP IS POSSIBLE!?

Mylene and Ivan disappear after having publicly stood up to Chloe, Hmm, I wonder if there's a connection!? We also see that Chloe SOMEHOW managed to get a gold statue of herself made. HOW!? WHEN!? WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS SHIT!? Oh, and Chloe literally having Ms. Mendeleiev prove to be a fucking disaster of a teacher by spoon-feeding her her own propaganda.

Chat and Ladybug doing nothing about the stupid as fuck statue because "Monarch had nothing to do with it," DID THESE IDIOTS LOSE THEIR FUCKING MINDS!? SERIOUSLY, CHLOE'S POSITION IS ILLEGAL!! IT HAS NO BASIS!! NO LEGITIMACY!! YOU COULD LITERALLY DRAG HER OUT "OFFICE" BY HER EAR AND IT WOULD BE JUSTIFIED SINCE THE POSITION OF MAYOR DOESN'T PASS TO THE MAYOR'S CHILD!!!! GOD FUCKING DAMMIT!!!

Yet another case of Adrien trying to tell Marinette only to clam up when she asks him to talk to his dad to get him to stop Chloe... it's funny how this episode is ignoring that Gabe is a fucking terrible person, ESPECIALLY MARINETTE!! Girl, HE THREATENED YOUR FUTURE IN DESIGNING AND IS A TOXIC CONTROL FREAK!! YOU KNOW THIS!!! WHY THE HELL WOULD HE EVEN CARE ABOUT STOPPING CHLOE EVEN IF HE WASN'T MONARCH!!!

"Talking to my father won't solve anything." That's the most reasonable thing anyone has ever said this episode. And just as he's about to elaborate, Chloe shows up in a helicopter and yells at the Ice Cream Idiot if he got his permit, which he said he doesn't need. THIS is one of the very few good things she did this episode; over dramatic or not, you shouldn't EVER have someone without a permit selling food, especially not out of a fucking pushcart!!!

"No one can ever prevent you from bringing so much happiness!" What happiness? He's an annoying idiot who is hyper-fixated on relationships and throws a temper tantrum bad enough to get AKUMATIZED whenever he's "wrong."

And now Alya's missing!! What could ever be going on- oh for fuck's sake, it's obviously Chloe!! Seriously, how in the world is it that hard to wrap their heads around the idea that Chloe is snatching up and arresting anyone and everyone who she dislikes!? Even without Akuma powers, she could probably get it done by just hiring some shady goons!!!

And apparently Chloe sent the Dupain-Chengs to Detention... whatever the fuck that's supposed to be, for the crime of expecting her to pay like everyone else. Why the fuck is that even a dealbreaker for her!? HER WHOLE DEAL NOW IS THAT SHE'S RICH SO SHE DOESN'T NEED TO WORK OR DO ANYTHING, SO FLAUNTING HER WEALTH SHOULDN'T BE A PROBLEM FOR HER!! Seriously, I'm pretty sure they only did this to ensure Marinette "got on the right track."

Honestly, I'm genuinely confused on what Chloe's end goal is even supposed to be. She's just getting rid of anyone that annoys her. What is she gonna do when there's no one left to make go away?

Now FINALLY Adrien catches on that something is weird, and it looks like everyone is missing by this point, and when he finally goes to confront Chloe... her big "threat" is just to tell Marinette that Adrien is leaving to go to London at his father's insistence, which, again, even ignoring how she has no way of knowing that Chloe couldn't possibly know that he's been trying to tell Marinette ever since this nonsense started, LONG DISTANCE RELATIONSHIPS ARE A THING!! I GUESS that the fact he's been lying to her would put a strain on things, but not THAT big of a fucking strain!!

Also, while it's meant to be mean-spirited mockery, Chloe is basically spot-on that Adrien's been acting like a spineless puppet for who knows how long by this point. Even ignoring the whole "He's a sentimonster" thing, he has been completely spineless and a wet blanket regarding Gabe and refuses to actually stand up to himself for real.

We get a look at what "Detention" looks like, and apparently she even sent Andre there. I can't tell if Chloe deliberately designed the place without an exit, or if she just forgot. She's been made so stupid I wouldn't put either one past her.

"How can Chloe pull this off?" SHE IS AN AKUMA!! SHE LITERALLY TELEPORTED YOU INTO A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT AREA!! HOW FUCKING THICK CAN YOU POSSIBLY BE!? IT SHOULD BE ABUNDANTLY OBVIOUS TO ANYONE WHO SHE HAS BROUGHT TO "DETENTION" THAT SHE IS AN AKUMA BY THIS FUCKING POINT!!!!

Honestly, it's a bit weird that Chloe would have her screens say "I'll protect you, you can always count on me." Like, it honestly sounds GENUINE when the screens say it. If I didn't know that it's meant to just be a sign of how EEEEVVVIIILLL she is, I'd say that it's a reflection of her own deluded belief that she's the good guy and is in the right for her actions.

Okay, ignoring how Chloe somehow has this weird facility just... IN PARIS for some reason. Not even gonna acknowledge how much of a blatantly stupid cop-out it is. I'm just baffled how no one collapsed from hunger if she's had them literally doing nothing but walking in a huge-ass loop for hours?

I'm sincerely baffled how anyone would buy that Chloe has made "Paris utterly better then how it was before." She's basically done NOTHING, and why the FUCK would Chloe think anyone besides her mom and her mom's cronies would actually BUY THIS!? FOR GOD FUCKS SAKE!!! THIS ENTIRE BULLSHIT IS RUNNING OFF OF EVERYONE IGNORING THAT HER ENTIRE POSITION IS BULLSHIT!! WHY THE FUCK HAS THIS EVEN LASTED THIS LONG!? GET THIS THE FUCK OVER WITH!!!

At this point, I think there won't be anything more of depth to be said, so to spare my blood pressure, I'm just gonna wait for when she's defeated and I can unleash my rage on the ending.

Never mind, already reached my breaking point, WHAT THE HELL IS THIS BULLSHIT!? CHLOE LITERALLY JUST ADMITTED TO BEING AKUMATIZED IN PUBLIC!! HOW THE FUCK HAS NO ONE COMPLAINED ABOUT THIS!? WHY THE FUCK DID IT TAKE SEEING THE INVULNERABILITY-ENHANCED SHELTERS BE WHAT TIPPED THEM OFF THAT MONARCH IS INVOLVED, SHE LITERALLY PARALYZED AND TELEPORTED THEM WITH ROBOTS!!! THIS IS UTTER FUCKING BULLSHIT!!!!! FUCK THIS ROTTEN NOISE!!! BURN IT ALL DOWN TO THE GROUND AND DANCE ON THE ASHES!!!!

Oh, and the entire plot of "we can't wait for someone else to solve this problem, WE should've been solving it from the start" doesn't work even remotely because CHLOE NEVER EVEN SHOULD'VE BEEN A FUCKING PROBLEM THIS EPISODE!!!!

OH AND NOW IT APPEARS THEY CAN JUST TELL THEIR DETRANSFORMATION NOT TO HAPPEN BECAUSE FUCK WHATEVER INTERNAL CONSISTENCY EXISTS IN THIS BULLSHIT I GUESS!!!

WHY THE FUCK ARE THEY EVEN DOING THIS STUPID SPEECH ABOUT "KEEP FIGHTING WITHOUT US" SUPPOSED TO BE!? WHAT FIGHTING!? THIS ENTIRE PLOT IS UTTER STUPIDITY BASED ON THEM ALWAYS DOING THE STUPIDEST POSSIBLE OPTION!!! FUCK ALL OF THIS!!! FUCK THIS PLOT!! FUCK THIS AKUMATIZATION!!! FUCK ALL THIS STUPID FUCKING NOISE!!!! THIS IS NOT SOME INSPIRATIONAL SCENE!!! IT IS STUPID!!! IT IS NOTHING BUT A WASTE OF FUCKING AIR!!!!

AND NOW GET THE POINT WHERE THEY LITERALLY FORCE THE DETRANSFORMATION TO REVERSE BECAUSE WHY THE FUCK NOT!? WHY THE ABSOLUTE FUCK NOT!? WHAT BETTER WAY TO TOP OFF THIS BULLSHIT SUNDAY OF A FIASCO BY GIVING THEM THE ULTIMATE WRITERS COPOUT TO HAVING BEEN SET UP TO FUCKING FAIL IN THE MOST RIDICULOUS WAY IMAGINABLE!!!! GET THE FUCK OVER IT ALREADY!!!

"I guess they must've grown up, Master." GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE WITH THAT STUPIDITY!! THAT IS NOT WHAT BEING A GROWN UP MEANS!!! THIS IS JUST STUPIDITY!!!!

AND IT LOOKS LIKE THAT WHAT LILA WAS AFTER WAS THE STUPID FUCKING LAPTOP TOMOE HAD, NOT LIKE SHE COULDN'T HAVE JUST HAD CHLOE ARREST THEM WHEN THEY WENT TO MEET HER!!!

"I'm sure the people of Paris would love to have a Mayor like you!" SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT THE ABSOLUTE FUCK UP!!!!

AND NOW WE GET TO THE UTTER STUPIDITY OF CHLOE GETTING VERBALLY ABUSED BY AUDREY WHILE ON THE WAY TO NEW YORK!!! THAT IS CLEARLY A FITTING PUNISHMENT FOR AN ABUSED CHILD!!!

"I'm going to take control of your life again, starting with your education." WORD TO THE FUCKING WISE, ASSTRUC, IF YOU WANT TO CLAIM CHLOE ISN'T ABUSED, DO NOT HAVE THE WOMAN YOU REPEATEDLY MAKE VERBALLY ABUSE HER IMPLY THAT SHE HAS ABUSED CHLOE IN THE PAST!!!!

Huh, they actually had Chloe show an extremely brief moment of regret and vulnerability when looking at Sabrina's photo in her phone, too bad that won't amount to anything, especially when she immediately starts flicking over to Marinette's contact! Speaking of which, why the hell does she even HAVE Marinette in her contacts?

And Adrien never actually manages to tell Marinette he's leaving, what a WONDERFUL resolution to this stupidity thus far! And once again Nathalie proves to be a spineless worm in her refusal to actually stand up to Gabe's abusive control of Adrien and enabling his crimes.

And we get to see Adrien having an argument with Gabe about him living his own life. Wow, it's almost as if he's both forgotten that he can have a long-distance relationship AND can just, you know, run away?

If this scene of him calling Marinette with tears in his eyes is meant to be sad, it's ruined by the fact this show has utterly squandered Adrien's character by reducing EVERY FUCKING THING IN HIS LIFE UP UNTIL NOW TO BE ABOUT MARINETTE!!! WHAT HAPPENED TO THE GUY WHO BROKE OUT OF HIS OWN HOUSE TO GO TO SCHOOL!? WHY IS HE STRUGGLING NOW OF ALL TIMES TO STICK UP FOR HIMSELF!? WHAT IS EVEN THE POINT OF IT ALL!?

I'm seriously baffled why Gabe's current plan requires Adrien to be away in a different country "to be safe," because it's not as if Adrien being safe has ever fucking factored into any of his plans prior to now!!!

And.... they kiss. Now. On the entryway to a plane, after WHO KNOWS HOW FUCKING LONG of teasing this bullshit. Also, HOW THE FUCK IS THE GORILLA AND A GROWN MAN STRUGGLING TO SEPARATE TWO FUCKING TEENAGERS!?!?

Now we are at the moment Chloe tries to tell Marinette the truth to hurt her, and it ends in Chloe crying alone on the plane when Marinette shuts her down by revealing she already knows (too late) and that she's fed up with Chloe's bullshit, despite having already said that in Season 1, and the entire thing ends on Lila trying to pry open the laptop she stole from Tomoe.

[footytea]

These are my thoughts and assumptions but here I go.

Look, it's not the same as listening to stories about escorts and all that from someone like Jude, first because (He presents himself to society as a normal and simple man who is very close to his family, and clearly from his Instagram followers we know that his sexual life is like anyone's) Now, the fact that it has been specified about middle-aged women escorts and even something as intimate as having a threesome with a childhood friend of his, that really seems strange to me because

I personally would never do it with a friend of mine and I would be like it was nothing because it is something intimate. Trying to downplay the issue doesn't help either because that will create more curiosity why, why it's about Jude in whatever country you go to. Jude is an example of a "gentleman footballer" because footballers aren't gentleman and in those countries specially Europe they don't spect these ballers to act properly they classify them as low moral people with money and them behaving like this is anything new . You would never expect someone or a guest from for example italy awards to expect someone like vini Jr to have manners in his private life because they don't see them like classy people or even worse people with morals when it come to private life even if they are millionaires . But a gentleman, even so, the majority of people think. Adults don't behave like that.

You always expect a gentleman to act like a gentleman in every area of his life ( women work privately publicly and when he parties ).

And I think that image of a decent gentleman is what makes rumors as small as this seem very serious. I am not a little girl and even less a fan of Jude but to anyone who has a healthy environment all of this will not seem normal. You have entered the world of gossip, for you this is normal, you are part of that life, nothing surprises you, you don't even notice the problem of that type of behavior and I respect it, but someone who is classified as a "mature man" does not act like that.

.

you're right that all of this might be surprising for someone who never keeps up with football gossip and doesn't know how rotten & toxic the football world really is, that's why this seems "normal" or just not shocking to a lot of us, because we've heard worse.

btw this gentleman image the general public has about jude was most likely created by his pr team, i'm not saying he's a shit person off camera or that he's a full 180 of what he portrays to the outside world, but it's obvious they're working hard to upkeep this clean, mature image for him. i also think it's a bit naive to think a 20 year old footballer will act the exact same on camera as off camera. what we see of him is usually in professional settings, we obviously don't know how he acts when he's just with his friends and when he's going out.

i think people just need to be a little more realistic with their expectations of footballers and especially at jude's age.

[seeker-of-stories19]

TW: This post discusses suicidal ideation of a fictional character

I’ve been rewatching Cobra Kai with my mom and I have so many thoughts about this interaction that I wanted to share because it’s this tiny moment I never thought about before but I feel like it has so many implications for Robby’s whole character arc.

So one thing that stood out to me specifically other than how much all the adults let all the kids in this show down was something Shannon said to Daniel while Robby was eating right before they called the police.

She says “he’s not right Daniel, he keeps talking like he’s gonna leave town or something” which struck me as odd for a few reasons which are all very speculative but whatever I’m sharing them anyways.

So first things first Shannon has been completely clueless and apathetic toward Robby throughout the entire show from blowing him off and leaving him home alone to completely abandoning him for weeks on end without power and getting mad at him for defending himself from one of her partners so it can’t exactly be said that she notices when things are bad with him.

Now it could be argued that going through rehab changed that behavior but she still chooses not to go after her sixteen year old son who is a homeless fugitive because her life coach said she shouldn’t look for him, if she’d wanted to actually do something for him that was her chance so she clearly hasn’t changed that much.

So it was weird to me that she suddenly seemed so much more worried after talking to him even though she had more information about where he was, think how wrong something had to be for her to notice and be that worked up about it. She literally begs Daniel to help Robby.

Then there’s the fact that she says “he’s not right” which is quite intense and comes across very dark in my mind like she’s not just saying he’s upset she’s saying there’s something seriously wrong and again she’s proven herself to be incredibly clueless so coming from her this statement is even more concerning.

Then she says “he keeps talking like he’s gonna leave town or something.” So the fact that she says like makes it feel like Robby didn’t just flat out say he was going to leave town he said something that made Shannon feel like he was talking about leaving town. This point is further highlighted by her saying “or something” at the end.

Between both of these uncertain statements it becomes clear that he didn’t say he was leaving town but said something about leaving and the rest of the conclusion Shannon drew herself. Technically he could’ve been just talking about leaving town but given the fact that it’s been weeks and he had a car previously it seemed like if that was his plan he’d have done it already.

So what we really have is a sixteen year old who was abused and neglected his whole life, who had been told every horrible thing you could be told by the people he trusted the most, has terribly low self esteem, has been abandoned by the only mentor he thought he had twice despite that person knowing he would be homeless, had been cheated on by his girlfriend and only friend, nearly killed someone, and has been living on the streets for weeks saying something along the lines of “I need to get out of here” and “I can’t do this anymore.”

Something that could be interpreted as wanting to leave town or wanting to leave something but he never specified what and his mom who is clueless about him in general is freaking out saying that he isn’t right. On top of this he has no one on his side in the world and has been through unbearable trauma.

You see after this how quickly he gives up fighting the cops is so out of character for him and thinking that he’s in this place of being so ready to just end everything makes so much sense for why he was willing to go with Kreese and join Cobra Kai. He’d already given up and the thought that he was in such a horrible place helps explain so many of his actions in seasons three and four.

So yeah that’s my thoughts on this, I’m super curious about whether this makes anyone else rethink this scene or the rest of Robby’s arc.

[grape-writes]

Adjusting to Frustrating Realities

A/N: Ah!!! I'm not as happy with how this pne turned out as i was the first chapter, but it's kind of a filler chapter, sorry

Masterlist

Warnings: Ocean content, there's a chase scene, cursing. [To be added to]

--

[Day 12]  

Yvette was beginning to hate the previous squads with a burning passion. Not only did they leave the place a god's damn mess, but they locked just about every door. Even the door to the reactor! Why would you lock the door to the main power source in the entire base!!!  

It took her a full week of scavenging through messy rooms, forcing doors open with a crowbar she found in the storage room, just to find the key to the reactor and laboratory. Only to then realize she could have just pried the door open with said crowbar in the first place.  

Speaking of, they left their rooms horribly kept, furniture tossed around, scattered clothes out of their drawers. They were in a hurry and did not care how they left the place. At least the kitchen and the bathrooms were clean, mostly; the messiest was mirrors that had been left open and items within the cabinets tossed about as they searched for supplies.  

And don’t get her started on their lack of care when setting up the underwater cameras connected to the base.  

Not only were those flimsily installed (and she's not even a mechanic, it's just obvious), but they were exposed! On an alien planet with obviously sentient, and clearly very intelligent, life! That’s just asking for them to be tampered with! And they were! Several times! At least, according to the various files Yvette was able to download from the terminal and uploaded onto one of the data pads. 

Well, 'pad' was a stretch; it was a band that wrapped around the forearm and locked in place with a latch. FazTech had made it usable regardless of dominant arm, with the screen on the center turning depending on how you set it up. There were no buttons attached to the outer edge of the device, it was purely a touch pad; this made it easy to wear on either arm, but it was still a loss for when the thing inevitably doesn’t turn on by touching it. 

And goodness did the previous squads leave dozens upon dozens of files to sift through.    

Most of the camera feed had been tampered with; an animal hitting one offline (both purposeful and accidental), and by someone… deleting the files. The records connected to various files show a, 'David Miller' as the one responsible. It seemed he quickly deleted as much camera feed as he could about the same time they received the distress signal.  

That name again… something about it made her stomach churn.  

The other files were field work from the marine biologist and engineers; loose photos of the strange creatures that inhabited the planet, broken equipment, the other members of the squads interacting with various marine life, weird plants. There were even a few photos of Sun sprinkled in, often physically interacting with the members; it kind of reminded her of those photos of sharks cuddling with divers.  

There were even photos of Sun playing with... children. Two of them, a dark-haired little girl with the brightest green eyes and a dark-haired girl with pigtails and blue eyes; the files only named one, Charlotte, but never specified which one that was. There weren’t many photos, mostly of an adult monitoring Sun as he interacted with the two, a few of the images came with notes from the photographer about how the playdates went.  

And hey, Sun scored well in the eyes of the adults, good for him.  

What weren't photos were text files of information the group had gathered from their time in the area. Most of it was firsthand accounts of experiences and how they survived. Often it was an experiment, testing what could and could not be eaten or touched safely. Though the most concerning part was the various members of the squads getting a strange skin itch. The files on it were... hauntingly deleted. 

The text files provided a great deal of help when she would eventually have to leave the base to get food or supplies.  

Plus, it also informed her that Sun was venomous. Apparently one of the members, the navigator, had accidentally startled the Mer. They ended up pricking their hand on one of his spines, one along his back (that he apparently had?), and whatever was in the venom made them… euphoric? Giggling at everything, running around in sudden bursts of energy.  

Whatever it was, had made Sun so startled, he disappeared for a week and returned with a shell as an apology; he refused to elaborate and avoided the navigator if he could. Poor bud.  

A part of Yvette was glad they documented almost everything around them, but she was mostly annoyed at the sheer magnitude of what she had to look through. At the very least they organized everything into folders she could just press on at the top of the data pads screen.  

A surprising find amongst the scores of files, was in the same folder Sun was in, multiple other Mer listed right alongside the bright yellow Merman. Siren? It seemed not even the previous squads knew what to call them, simply titling the folder ‘mermaids’ and calling it a day.  

The most notable of the other Mer, was a deep blue beast of a creature, with lighter coloring around half their face and torso. They were lankier than Sun, tail ending with a fin reminiscent of a shark's tailfin, and clearly nocturnal. Their eyes were often dark pools with a red pinprick for a pupil, though on rare occasions they caught them as pure red with a white pupil instead.  

On the back of its head appeared to be a lure-like appendage that ended in a bulb, it was speckled with bioluminescent dots, as was their tail. When it was photographed from a distance, it was often in some underwater cavern, where the Mer glew beautifully in the dark. Though other photos didn’t include this glow, which could mean they had a level of control over their bioluminescence.  

Yvette had seen this Mer before, stalking her outside of her window at night. They weren’t very brightly lit, glow toned down to a simmer; possibly as to not startle her further than they had... Wait, no. They were trying to scare her regardless, especially considering their cackling and grin.  

Regardless, most of the photos of this Mer were either partial pictures, blurry, or photos taken with the flash to catch the poor thing off guard. There weren’t many photos, but the ones they had in the files were mostly dark, with only two or three where flash was used to capture the Mer’s image.  

Within the text files, there were a few encounters with the Mer, dubbed ‘Moon’ by the captain's right-hand man, mostly involving said right-hand man. Apparently, the Mer would stalk the windows at night, specifically the one that became Yvette’s room, and he wouldn’t leave until either a curtain was closed or the person within went to bed.  

 There was only one other Mer in the folder, no photos and only one encounter, and by the physical description, this one was bigger than the other two. One of the squad members had gone too deep into an underwater cave and the beast jumped at them. The account was vague, something about a haunting song in the dark and flickering lights; then they were being pulled up into the base by a confused engineer and concerned medic. The file was partially scrubbed and didn’t provide much of a description beyond ‘big’ and ‘toothy’. 

Most of the files related to this other Mer had been scrubbed, with a note on the folder that it had been ‘deleted by admin’. Which was honestly bizarre coming from a place like this, where no FazTech higher ups would dare step foot.  

Looking through files was... exhausting.  

The door to the docking bay opening broke Yvette from her mental debate on what she should focus on first, followed by a familiar chirp. Sun had opened the door, again. He'd realized she would get up to investigate when the door would loudly slide open and would do it occasionally when she hadn’t seen him that day yet.  

Or even when he had, but he decided she was spending too much time inside.  

 This instance was a case of the former, she’d ended up spending all morning going through files in the lounge, casually laying against the couch as she ate a ration bar. And clearly the yellow Mer was feeling left out, must’ve been waiting by the entrance of the cave for her to swim down.  

With a lazy huff, Yvette pushed herself off the couch and hurried towards the docking bay. She was suddenly glad she’d put on most of her gear before she decided to go through file after file, so all she had to do was slip the flippers onto her feet and mask over her face.  

Sun was where she thought he’d be, claws nervously tapping at the metal platform as he waited for her to arrive and pay attention to him. At least, that was what she could only assume he did this for, attention. He was like a dog at times, a gold retriever in fish form. She was far too endeared to really be annoyed for very long.  

The sound of her walking along the metal platform, flippers in hand, made Sun perk up. His chirp of greeting as loud as he could make it, “Shooting Star!!”  

 With a lighthearted eye roll, she sat onto the platform to fix her flippers onto her feet, form well within arm's reach for the much larger Sun, “Sunny, mornin’.” 

The Mer watched her slip the fins on with an awed look, “What... were you doing? Been here all morning.”  

Yvette softly groaned, adjusting the mask tighter onto her face, “Looking through what they left me.”  

“Bad?” Sun offered both the word and his hand to help her into the water, which she happily took. 

“...No, just... incomplete. Someone removed some of it before they left.” Yvette scowled as the water consumed her form. The water was becoming less and less... tingly every time she entered it. She wasn’t sure if that was a good or bad thing, but it felt less uncomfortable to swim in.  

Yvette wasn’t worried about not being able to hear Sun under the water; her mask was equipped with ear coverings that could (somehow) detect sounds beneath the waves. That, and there was a little speaker to allow Sun to hear her. These were typically used by groups of divers to communicate with each other back on Earth, but it’d do here.  

The corners of Suns mouth shifted downwards into a frown, opening briefly to reveal his teeth before he spoke, “That... does not sound like them... most of them...”  

“It was done by a man named David apparently, or his profile was used to clear everything.” Yvette offered as they slipped out of the cave and into the open water, schools of fish scattering when they swam into them.  

 Sun’s nose crinkled at the name. “Dave? Is that what... they called?”  

“Yes, Dave is a nickname for David.” Yvette confirmed, sighing, “Sounds like a real piece of work, if you ask me.”  

The two slipped down into the ravine, idly swimming amongst the brightly colored plants and scattering fish. Yvette didn’t really have much of a goal for the day, maybe trying to fix some of the cameras, but most of that was out of her expertise. This conversation was good for stalling until she had to work on fixing the mess left for her.  

“Dave... was not nice.” Sun confirmed, gliding in the water over Yvette to direct their path ahead, “Said... mean things to me and the guppies. Big-one's never... believed us when we told them.”  

“Weird... But not surprising. Adults tend to disregard things kids say a lot of the time, especially when they say an adult is acting weird.” Yvette began to ramble, tapping at her data pads screen with a huff, “because oh, ‘what do kids know’ and ‘they could be lying’. Morons.”  

Suns bubble of laughter at Yvette’s mockery of the adults she was upset with broke her from her anger. It was light, backed by a chirping sound, and it was loud on her ears; fitting for a colorful, friendly, being such as himself. It made the fire in her chest simmer into a comforting warmth.  

“Silly.” Was Suns only response to her rant, flicking a claw at her mask. It bounced off the protected layer, much to his disappointment.   

It seemed Sun liked being able to poke at her skin; the number of times he’d play with Yvette’s bare hands or poke and prod at her face when she’d remove her mask, was already more than she could count. The previous squads probably didn’t let him get this close often, safety concerns; that or he was just endlessly fascinated by humans. Or maybe he was just physically affectionate, like a dog?  

Gah, she should really stop comparing him to a dog. 

With an amused eye roll, Yvette swam ahead to match his stride, “I’m silly, or the adults are? Wait, I am an adult. Fu- ahem, Frick.”  

Sun’s grin widened, and his laughter can be heard in his voice as he spoke, “You! Silly words!” 

“What? You mean me doing the ‘dumb adult voice’?” Yvette did the voice for affect, chuckling to herself at it. Or maybe Suns laughter was just contagious.  

“Yes!! Did not know... you could do that to!” Sun chittered with his teeth. 

“To? You can change your voice then? That’s cool!” Yvette turned with the curve of the ravine, running a gloved hand along the rock. “Some people do it to entertain or mess with people.” 

“Yes! Most of... us? Can! Used to catch prey!” Sun beamed at the praise. 

“Oooh, that makes more sense. Some birds back home can mimic sounds, not for hunting, I think, but it's really cool.”   

Just ahead of them was one of the cameras, its lenses tilted downwards, and various wires ripped open and the rock above it was clawed at. Another one some creature broke intentionally, it seemed. This wasn’t the first time she’d had to come out and try to fix one of them, annoyed that her method of monitoring the area was taken from her.  

Though approaching said cameras afterwards was always nerve-wracking, especially when there were clear signs whatever had attacked the camera was doing it intentionally. Something wanted her attention, probably to kill her, and it was intelligent enough to understand what destroying the cameras does.  

And judging by the claw marks, she wasn’t sure she wanted to know what it was. 

Sun frowned at the sight of the destroyed device, chirping something to himself, “Ah... again?” 

Yvette sighed, tugging at a tool on her belt, she began fixing the destroyed wires, “Yeah... something out here is really out to get me, huh?”  

Yvette could see Sun in her peripheral, frowning as he scanned the water and kelp around them. It was smart of him to keep an eye out for dangerous creatures in the water when something was clearly trying to get her, especially when she was joking about it. Plus, he most likely knew the area far better than she did and would know if something dangerous was nearby.  

The previous squads' files were rather extensive about flora and fauna in the area, but she hadn’t yet read everything. Granted she was more focused on information about the obviously intelligent mermaid (merman? Siren??? What did she refer to Sun as??) that could easily open the docking bay.  

It was fortunate that he was both friendly and nervous about harming her; constantly pulling her hands away from his spikes or spines, careful not to accidentally nick her skin with his claws. She noticed that he’d even try to corral her away from areas that seemed innocuous enough, only to learn something was dangerous about the environment.  

This almost happened with one of the caves along the edge of the ravine; she was just exploring, and Sun pulled her up suddenly from her position by one of the caves in the ravine. But before she could yell at him, a snake-like creature struck at where she had been floating previously. The thing must’ve been twice her size, scaled with sharpened teeth that gnawed at the open water.  

Sun had tried to tell her what it was called, but she decided to just call it an ocean adder for now. It vaguely reminded her of an ambush snake back on earth that would hide in the sand and strike when prey got close enough. She just hoped it didn’t have the same deadly venom.  

It took longer than she would’ve liked to reattach the wires, nearly zapping herself a few times in the process. Once it was finished, she set to setting the camera back to its natural position, as well as briefly checking its connection to her data pad. This took a few moments of silence and loading screens.  

“See anything?” Yvette offered after confirming it was connected, glancing at Sun. She was both curious, and anxious about the answer.  

Sun seemed to get more and more anxious as time went on. He was rubbing his webbing on one hand with the other, tail flicking under him. His eyes darted amongst the foliage behind her, pupils slitted and small.  

Sun made a grumble, clawed hand slowly resting onto into her arm, gaining a tight grip against her gloved arm. His voice came out quiet, barely above a whisper, “...yes.”  

A turn back provided him correct, eyes glared at the two of them from the cover of the flora in the area, red and malicious. Yve couldn’t tell with the distance, but whatever it was couldn’t have been much smaller than Sun in size. And there were multiple of them, all watching from the shadows.  

Ah, shit.  

A lot of creatures here seemed to have red eyes, often the more dangerous ones. It was like a black widow spider with her red hourglass mark or those brightly colored frogs. A sign of danger. This thought wasn’t comforting, considering Sun had red frills all over, but at least his eyes were a calm blue.  

At least he didn’t seem to want to kill her.  

Yvette slowly put her tools back onto her belt, lowering her own voice to a whisper, “We go?”  

Sun merely nodded, hands latching onto her shoulders to push her further along the rock. His grip turned into a full carry as the sounds of other creatures came from behind them, pulling the two quickly down into the ravine to slip between the foliage and rock formations.  

Instinctively, Yvette curled around Sun as they swam off, twisting in his hold to latch her arms around his neck and her legs around his middle. Not the hold she would’ve gone for, but there wasn’t really any time for anything else. It at least made it easier on Sun to carry her with her latched on like a koala.  

From her new position, she could almost see the beasts following them; flashes of a deep red paired with lighter shades of red frills and fins and pitch-black scales following after their intended prey with such malicious intent it made her skin crawl.  

Suns frills made it difficult to really get a good look at whatever they were, just that they felt... out of place in the rest of the brightly colored fauna around the base. Of all the creatures Yvette had seen so far (that had red) most of them had the coloration as frills or accents, not a primary coloration. But these beasts were almost fully red, with black being their main accent color.  

It almost reminded her of deep-sea fish back home; having heard that many of them were red in color to blend into the darkness of the water. She'd heard that red was the first color to disappear completely while underwater.  

Had something from below decided to venture to the surface?  

Sun made a sharp turn into a cave as they rounded a corner within the ravine, swimming them deeper inside encase the beasts following them continued their chase into it. After a moment of them catching their breaths, flashes of red darted past the cave entrance at such a fast speed Yvette couldn’t even tell what the creature's silhouette was, much less if it was a Mer like sun.  

Sun glared at the cave entrance for a while, waiting to see if it was a trick, and the beasts were just outside. His fury presented itself as the spikes along his head slicking back against his scalp, twitching and flickering as he growled.  

Yvette hadn’t seen Sun this upset before; sure, he’d growled at things when they got too close for comfort, but never this bad. It was a deep rumble so close to her ear from her position clinging onto him, it almost made her want to shiver in fear at the proximity.  

Yvette had to crane her neck to watch the entrance of the cave they were tucked into; tall stalks of kelp set just outside of it, acting as an almost curtain for them. There didn’t seem to be any sign of their stalkers against the gently sway of the plants and the bobbing of the fish that passed the cave entrance.  

It was only then, that Yvette let out a sigh of relief, muscles relaxing in Suns hold. When she did break their tense silence, it was barely above a whisper, “Safe?” 

Sun flinched at the sudden noise, slitted eyes darting down to make eye contact with her, his muscles also relaxed. His own voice a bit louder than hers, but still a whisper, “Should be... but careful.”  

Yvette nodded slowly, pulling herself off Sun, “Got it. Let's go.”  

Sun helped her stabilize in the water, taking her by the hand to lead them back out of the cave and into the rest of the ravine. There didn’t seem to be any sign of their pursuers, not even a red fin poking through the kelp. Just small fish darting to and from and the occasional predator snapping at the easy prey all around them.  

It was a tense peace, but a tense peace was far preferable to the adrenaline rush that accompanied a chase.  

It didn’t take long for them to return to the camera, untouched and still repaired as they’d left it. A quick glance around proved that they were almost completely alone amongst the kelp and other plant life in the area. Honestly, the previous squads should have realized this was a poor spot to leave a camera, especially one so exposed on the rock.  

“Next time, I'm gonna just let the camera over here stay dead.” She muttered to herself, narrowing her gaze back to where they’d spotted their stalkers prior. 

Empty.  

Sun hummed along with her words but said nothing in response. Instead, he led them back the way they came along the edge of the ravine, cautious as they went. The water was still bright in the light of day, so they weren’t swimming back in the dark.  

Thankfully days on this planet were longer than they were on earth, as the planet was far larger than earth was. This completely threw off Yvettes sleeping schedule, often waking up to darkness outside or falling asleep while it was still bright out. It was one of the many things that changed how she went about things on the planet's surface.  

Gravity was stronger, meaning she had to put more effort into lifting things that would be easy to carry back home. The waters pressure was stronger, so she’d have to be careful going deeper, and take breaks more when traveling back up; wouldn’t want to get decompression sickness while all the way out here by herself. She wasn’t sure if the medbay had anything to even help with that, or what she could even do to help with it.  

Yvette was a reef diver for god's sake! Not a deep-water diver! 

While the vehicles in the base could help with that, acting as a decompression chamber, she wasn’t even sure if any of them worked anyway. Many spots where there should have been a vehicle were empty, meaning the previous teams likely took them to run off. That wasn’t the issue, of course, the real issue was whether or not they took the fuel with them from the remaining vehicles.  

Because of course they would take the fuel, they weren’t totally incompetent.  

Morons.  

Yvette almost missed the cave entrance to the base, had Sun not stopped her, pulling her along by the arm. Entering the number code to open the door and letting it pull open, she pushed herself onto the platform with a huff, falling onto her back.  

“Fuck, man.” she breathed, hands pulling her mask off her face to toss it somewhere by the stone platform, “We just out ra- swam a couple murderous fish.” 

Sun chittered out a quiet laugh, pushing himself top sick next to her, “We did. You did very well.”  

“I clung to you like a child, Sun.” Yvette turned her head to stare up at him, hand limply tugging at her braided hair to remove the band, “I hardly did anything.”  

“And we... escaped! Very fast!” Sun chirped, falling into his back to lay next to Yvette properly, “I swim better than you, you did the smart thing.”  

“You’re doing it again.” Yvette said with a deadpan, though endearment underlined her tone.  

“Doing what?” Sun asked, tone carrying genuine confusion.  

“Complimenting me when I say I did something bad.” Yvette couldn’t hold the deadpan, a teasing smile forming along her lips, “Might think you’re attached to me already.”  

Sun’s face shifted from confusion to a teasing grin of his own, “Well... maybe I am! What are you going to do about it?”  

“I... did not plan that far ahead.” Yvette admitted, cheeks dusting with pink, laughter bubbling in her chest. 

It seemed her laughter was contagious, as Sun began laughing too. The sound of it startled her, and she couldn’t help but stare at him. He’d lifted a clawed hand to cover his mouth, eyes shut.  

...Maybe being stuck on this planet wasn’t so bad.  

“Hey, it wasn’t that funny!”  

“It was!”

[box-architecture]

because my main focus right now is on them both as a pair I am rotating. This is your sibling who was born With You and Knows You and Loves You.

Lute is a Safe Person for Joy because Joy has a lot of anxiety over little stuff, but Lute hugs them when they get nervous and snuggles them even when she clearly wants to Zoom, because Joy is her Safe Person, even if she is Very Big And Strong and Never Scared Of Anything . She gets in over her head sometimes and things are very scary but Joy loafs on her and gently purrs and its going to be okay, because he won't let her get hurt.

And Joy sometimes finds aer a bit exasperating because Why Are You Doing This Dangerous Thing? You'll get hurt!! But he has a Job to keep her safe and he will do it, for the person who, even when she's exasperated by his anxious spiraling, will still take the time to sit with him and make him feel better

And I had a thing for this and I probably should have specified before rambling about it but Lute wants to Adventure and Explore and be super cool like she thinks Dream is, because her papa did manhunts and fought people in tournaments and won and she runs around with her wooden sword imagining her exploring the whole world and being famous for discovering cool exciting treasure. She is fully taken in by her parents stories and while Joy wants to write one, Lute wants to live one, and she's just a little cub so she doesn't really understand what it means yet. Very frequently Honeydew will be chasing after her trying to keep her from getting hurt, and Lute thinks her big sister is so silly up until there's a zombie and then Whoops!

Honeydew has Rules and Lute doesn't like the rules and its a point of contention up until they get older, maybe late teens early adults, and Honeydew becomes a little less stiff and Lute is no longer a hurricane of untempered wildness but a drizzling rain of temperance, and they find a softer ground, a meet in the middle

(Its not even that Lute doesn't have Rules, she just doesn't like Honeydew's, because they're always so strict and so unforgiving)

Honeydew's bluntness and lack of anxiety also makes her have a hard time understanding Joy, which leads to a lot of misunderstandings that have Lute bristling in his defense. You can't!!! Just be Rational!!!! You can't just say things and they work!!! Thats not how anxiety is and that's not how Joy is and you're not allowed to be mean to them ever.

Honeydew is never intending to be mean, which is often the escalating point. Honeydew wants to understand and fix, and she genuinely does attempt to comfort Joy, but there's always a chance of her saying the wrong thing

It's also important that you know what Lute didnt inherit the bobtail that Sam has. Sam's mother had a leopard tail and Sam's father had a bobtail. Lute has a long smacking tail that is very wiggly. I haven't decided on Joy's yet, but I'm leaning bobtail

Genetics are Weird and you do what you want

[avengerphobic]

Sorry for the spam. I'm reading the Fantastic Four stories from the beginning, and I gotta say I can support Johnny/Wyatt. I think Johnny in the 60s and 70s was really coddled. Even in later decades, he's always in a sort of weird stasis where he's reduced to the token child of the team, unable to mature or progress with his life. In the same decade where characters specified to be his age were getting on with their lives, going to school, getting jobs, maybe even getting romantic, Johnny dropped out of school, took up being a celebrity superhero full-time, and occasionally attempted arson when it seemed like his girlfriend would dump him. There's also moments when he acts entitled and demands Reed solve his issues when Reed is clearly overworked and stressed already. He's naive, inexperienced, prone to idealizing and wishful thinking, and tends to desire instant self-gratification. And he never really gets serious consequences because it feels like his family is insulating him from having to take responsibility for himself. His single most independent phase was when he and Wyatt was getting whizzed around by Lockjaw, and I want a story that covers those adventures he had with Wyatt in detail.

i think a lot of him acting like a child is because he gets treated like a child. like he is very much a spoiled rich kid who everyone just sorta brushes off and hopes will grow up but he cant because he is never treated like an adult. Which I think why his and Wyatt's relationship is so special because Wyatt never treats him like a child. They're always on the same level. Like they are always equal partners, wyatt defends johnny, johnny defends Wyatt. in the context of the f4 theyre all much older than him they all see him as either a son (reed and sue) or a younger brother(sue and ben). He'll never be anything but that to them so with Wyatt it's different. They met at the same point in life. Like yes Wyatt has gone off into the world, gotten an education, gotten professional jobs, but so has Johnny in a sense its just a different direction. Another thing I've notice is I think Wyatt is the only character that calls Johnny John. Everyone else its either Johnny (his nickname) or Jonathan (which is full naming like when you're mad at a child). idk i have a lot more i can say but I'm starting to lose steam today maybe another time

[jupiter-at3]

I wanna talk about this guy: (his name is Oaken)

The sauna specifically:

There's two adult looking characters in there, one presumably Oakens spouse, but you can't tell which one is his spouse.

My personal theory is that the blonde man is Oakens spouse, and the rest are his kids.

Some people would be like no the woman is very clearly an adult but he could just have an adult daughter, it's never specified how old oaken and his spouse are, and they'd have to be at least a little old having 4 kids.

Another theory I had is that the blonde man and the woman are both Oakens spouses and he's in a polyamorous relationship.

My main reason for not thinking the blonde man is his son is because the rest of his kids have the dark brown hair, which is many shades darker than Oakens potential spouse's blonde hair.

Anyway I just needed to get that out if y'all have other theories tell me

[simpslut1]

Ice Cream Kiss:- Part 1

*Sukuna in his human form, out of Itadori's body, started to hang out with the group. Itadori, Gojo, Nanami, Nobara, Yuuta, Inumaki and...oh so lovely, Megumi. His Megumi. No one knows his "little" obsession with Megumi. His one and only Blessing. The sneaky glances towards him when they all decided to have a little bonfire, the adults are allowed to have alcohol, why that was specified? Because for some reason NO ONE was giving our dear Ryomen alcohol. Not even a Breezer. That even made Megumi chuckle, which fluttered Ryomen's cold heart instead of shattering being a laughing stock by Gumi. As said, sneaky glances, or staring at him for a bit too long until his eyes start to burn begging for those eyelids to blink. Sigh, who could ignore or not stare at such a beautiful sight? Megumi in a huge black oversized hoodie, probably Gojo's he borrowed. That was enough to make Ryomen's hate towards Gojo grow. Gojo is the top of his hate list. Clearly. Back to Megumi, and with those thick pink sweatpants? With small bunnies printed on them? And white fuzzy socks? Below knee length? With soft peach colour flushed on his cheeks due to the cold weather? Ryomen could surrender. If he could change the weather to keep Megumi warm, he would in a heartbeat. Or...there's a different way to keep Megumi warm. Stop it Ryomen, behave.

Behave? And Ryomen? When all he thinks about pleasuring Megumi to the point no one in this universe can satisfy him anymore? So that Megumi would only want him? Even if it's just the intimate way? Though Ryomen won't disagree when asked that he doesn't thinks about Megumi as his lover as well. Boyfriend Megumi? Give it to Him. Husband Megumi? Give it to Him. Soulmate Megumi? Give it all to Him and he'll take it without any hesitations or doubts.*

"Here Suku try this kimchi! Have you ever tried this before?" *Said the annoying brat who's not Gojo.*

"No. And i don't want it." *The Curse sneered frowning as he crossed his arms.*

*But", *Itadori raised an eyebrow, before pointing at Megumi,* "Megumi made it. It's very delicious."

Sold.

Sold.

Sold.

*Ryomen WHIPPED his head towards Megumi who...was Megumi smiling at him? Was he high off of nothing? Is he daydreaming? Yes, he was smiling at him, at The King of Curses. And no one else.*

"You made this?" *Ryomen asked while he kept the eye contact with Megumi, he can get lost in his eyes within seconds, he probably did by now.*

"Indeed, last week i made it." *Megumi replied, also keeping the eye contact, the soft smile not disappearing from his face*

*Ryomen snatched the container Itadori was holding, container which had kimchi made by Megumi. Scooping a good chunk of the seasoned cabbage by his long black nail, he brought it close to his mouth, his nose, and sniffed*

"...why would you sniff that?" *Nobara frowned at that weird action of Ryomen's*

"Shut up brat, I'll do whatever i want with this food. Eat your own, this is mine." *Ryomen scoffed as he continue to observe, he never even heard of kimchi so....he's a bit spooked.*

*Meanwhile Sukuna was being a child with his food Gojo being another one of the manchild here teased Megumi to choose dare. Yes, they were playing truth and dare, so childish.

With the teasings going on, Megumi reluctantly choosing the dare, Gojo now thinking what to dare Megumi when a deep yet high pitched scream popped up from nowhere. Everyone startling, widened eyes and looked around to see who was that.

Turned out, it was Ryomen. The kimchi, was spicy for his liking.*

"THAT IS BURNING MY THROAT. WAS IT POISIONED? YOU TRICKED ME? THIS IS HOW I DIE? IT IS MY EXECUTION?" *Ryomen yelled holding his throat with both of his hands, his tongue sticking out as he exhaled the hot spicy breath. Sweat coating his forehead as his eyes watered.*

*Before anyone could help him, ignoring Gojos laughter at this scenario Maki whispered a dare to Megumi, which he HAVE to do it, or take a shot. Obviously if he took the shot both Gojo and Nanami will ground him. Maybe even Toji will spawn out of somewhere and scold his aLcOhoLiC son.

Megumi's eyes widened cause of the date, not Ryomen. Really? Why this kind of dare?

Megumi groaned before picking up the ice cream tub inumaki was munching on, stood up as he walked towards a frantic Ryomen with a sigh.*

*Ryomen could see Megumi approaching him, will he tell him to die? If so, then only he would without any trouble. But that will mean he can't be around Megumi ever again. Gosh, fuck death. But he was taken by surprise, Ryomen could not believe what was happening with him. What was Megumi doing with and to him. Megumi have no clue about his effect.

Megumi was kissing him. Megumi's soft tender lips was on his own. Ryomen was still, frozen. The spice that was on his mouth and throat burning was melting away. Literally. It was sweet, the kiss was pure magic. Almost euphoric. Is this the kiss of death? Or a new life?

The sweet taste was delicious, though it was cold, it was making his heart and soul warm.*

*Megumi scooped a spoon of ice cream in his mouth, placing the tub on the floor before carefully turning Ryomen towards him, just incase Ryomen's frantic side won't accidentally hit him. Pulling his face close to his, he pressed his lips against the King. His cold freezing palm was resting on Ryomen's cheeks, the end of his palms squeezing them so he opens his mouth, when he did, probably not even realising Ryomen opened his mouth, he slowly pushed that ice cream into his mouth from his, the ice cream almost already melted making Megumis tongue numb, but he was glad when he moved that into Ryomen's.

*Megumi's tongue twirled and swirled around Ryomen's, coating the top layer with this sweet strawberry flavoured cold ice cream, which was more likely a soft serve now. The sticky cream from the ice cream spilling out from the corners of both of their mouths, along with saliva, warm and cold mix very well. The warm saliva hugging the cold cream? Just like Megumi the warm one and Ryomen the cold.

Moan threatening to leave from Megumi's throat with this one sided make out, but he knows better. He'd be executed before they touch Ryomen.

As if Ryomen would let anyone touch his Blessing.

Megumi knows his cheeks has gotten redder, especially noticing Ryomen's reaction.

Ryomen was calm. Way calmer. He completely stopped moving as if he's scared, scared of the thought that if he moved Megumi will disappear.

Megumi opened his eyes through the kiss only to find red ones staring right back at him, gasping softly he pulled away, pulled away enough to part their connected lips, their faces were still close*

"Uh...", *Megumi swallowed before clearing hai throat, pulling his hand back down beside him. * "You weren't...poisoned..that was chilli powder in the kimchi...i guess you can't handle spice very well."

*Megumi said, explained why Ryomen had that reaction, while his words turned into whispers by the end of his sentence due to the intense stare that was given by the Curse.

He, Ryomen wasn't blinking, not speaking, not moving, hell was he even breathing? Who knows.

Megumi stepped back from him creating distance between them as he started to feel awkward cause of how Ryomen was reacting. Diverting his gaze from him he quietly turned around walking back towards the group, who was staring at them with their mouths wide open.

Megumi sighed before he took a risk and glanced back at where Ryomen was, only to see it was empty. About to panic Itadori quickly calmed him down.*

"He's near, i can feel him. He'll come back soon, he always does that" Itadori said noticing Megumi about to start panicking at the fact the King of Curses suddenly vanishing and start destroying whatever he would see.*

*Megumi nodded slowly before rubbing his face, poked Gojo's shoulder to let him know he was done for the night and proceeded to walk back towards his room, to rest and avoid and ignore what just happened.

Stupid dare, Stupid insecurities, Stupid Curse.

With that thought he walked, shaking his head as he couldn't wait to sleep this all off, and completely and utterly oblivious to the fact, the same stupid Curse is waiting for him in his room.*

To Talk

[aita-verytired]

Hey, it is I, the anon planning sleepovers in the living room. Saw some questions and such, so I figured I'd answer some.

Myself, A, and B are all legal adults. Since it came up, I'm the oldest, followed by A, then by B, so it goes 24, 22, 20, then C who is 13 and juuust starting puberty. He hasn't even gotten to voice cracking yet, he's still in "my proportions look like a pubescent puppy with big ol' paws" mode. He is, however, taller than me and has been for months now, and I will forever make a stink about it <3 it should be illegal to be roughly half my age and already significantly taller than me <3

Since submitting this, I have confirmed that the Issue™ has been brought up to B. He just got pissed and slunk off to the shared bedroom. He has not made any concerted efforts to dial it back in the following weeks.

Why don't A and B share a room instead of B and C? Well, you see, A was diagnosed with Aspberger's at a young age. (Our parents (mid-to-late 50s, if it matters) are always very insistent that it's specified that he has Aspberger's, not just autism in general, when the opportunity to be specific comes up at all, even in the year of our Lord 2023. it's the autism speaks brainrot i think) This means that those of us who were diagnosed with some form of ADHD (myself and B) or nothing at all (C, who has not been officially tested for it yet to my knowledge) do not get away with nearly the amount of stuff A does, and A gets allowances to do things like "snarl threats at dishware that would be absolutely terrifying to overhear in reference to another human being" because he's "wired differently." Even though we're. we're all "wired differently" in this house. we all have different needs can we please stop catering to "Ideal Children™" and "A, who is Different but we Will Love Him Despite This (Or Else)" and acting surprised when treating us as A Monolith and The Other doesn't pan out please please please-

It also means that a massive rift grew between A and the rest of us "kids" and it shows no signs of stopping. A's an asshole for other reasons that aren't really relevant to The Sleepoverening, but I've had to tell B to stop making "jokes" about not saving any snacks/non-food treats for A or leaving A behind numerous times. I'm pretty sure there would be several fights/snide arguments a week if they had to keep bunking together without C there as a buffer who deserves better than being a buffer.

(Sidebar- I've noticed several symptoms in myself that, through serious research and not just a few Google searches, have shown me that I'm probably AuDHD, but since it was never officially diagnosed, I must always defer to A in things like "saving safe foods we both enjoy when we're running low" because Those Are A's Safe Foods, Why Can't You Just Eat Something Else? Remember how I said I have a separate room for gender reasons? My percieved gender regularly has autistic members go undiagnosed. I'm also 95% sure C is ADHD in some manner as well, in a "recognition of the Self in the Other" kind of way, but, again, no official diagnosis means any issues he has with school are Clearly His Own Conscious Decisions. Or, in this one specific case, a side effect of B keeping him up at night.)

Why don't our parents get involved instead of leaving us to our own devices? Well, again, three of us are legal adults, and then the fourth is Mature For His Age™. Allegedly, we should be able to figure it out without going to our parents like little children every night. Clearly, this is Not Working, but it Should Be, so We need to Make It Work.

Why do I fear the wrath of B? Well, I've had A chuck a heavy Thomas the Tank Engine suspension bridge clear across a hallway directly at my head before and then claim I attacked him (though this was years ago) and I've seen B punch multiple walls/fridges over the years with enough force to leave rather large dents, so I'm just assuming I have some kind of internal hangup over incurring the wrath of younger brothers. Don't particularly want to get Threatened Like They Do In The Movies ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I'm just trying to work around the cowardice at this point.

Why don't I just tell B to his face to quit this BS, screw the consequences? Easy- he'd escalate it into a loud-ish argument, our dad would wake up, and we would all get yelled at for…I dunno. Dad would figure out a reason to yell at us. Maybe he'd get pissed at me and B for ruining his chances at a good night's sleep (and myself again for not Being The Bigger Person All The Time) and miss the irony- he's good at missing irony irl. He may also put words in our mouths and get angry over those. Regardless, I don't wanna put C through that. Dad's yelling is still terrifying to me as a 24yo, even when you're not the target, and it sure wasn't any more fun when I was C's age.

Why can't C just say no? Well, I have no place to guess what goes on behind closed doors, as I'm told I am a bit of a known catastrophizer, but I have witnessed scenarios where B "asks" C to hang out with him, C either declines or doesn't respond fast enough, and B's voice just gets all low and threatening for a split second as he "asks" again, which gets C to follow him. I'm pretty sure this originated when C was still an infant, when we would all go "ok now say this word!" to help teach him to speak. It was adorable when C was 1, 2, and even 3 and 4 years old. It stopped being adorable several years ago, and it became worrying (to me, at least) when it started turning into B orchestrating whole conversations via "ok now say-"ing C. Then again A did the same to me when we were little so maybe I'm just connecting dots where there are none.

This isn't necessarily me answering a question, but…dang, I'm seeing multiple people talking about being close with their siblings. Plural. Yall don't just rally around the ideal of your youngest as the one (1) thing you can all agree on and would probably kill and die for, possibly to the detriment of those around you (including your youngest)? Can't relate, but God I wish I did. This family's dynamics honestly feel like a dumpster fire sometimes.

Anyway, with the response I've seen to this, I think I'm just gonna tell Dad to suck it if he sees me and C sleeping in the living room one of these days. If he doesn't want me going to Looney-Tunes levels of planning just so me and C can sleep, then he can be the one to get on B's case instead of foisting it off on me and expecting everyone to be fine with it.

B might still escalate to an arguing match and draw in Dad's ire if I try, though. Hopefully I'll be successful. Fingers crossed.

WIBTA for pulling my younger brother from his bedroom for "sleepovers" in the living room in the middle of the night?

I hate how clickbaity that is, but it really is the most succinct way I can try to paraphrase this. I have submitted here before for similar reasons, so this setup may or may not sound vaguely familiar, but this is pretty self-contained as a separate issue, I think. Quick preface- I am one of four siblings. Ages aren't particularly important for this, save for the fact that the oldest three are within a handful of years of each other, while our youngest is several years our junior. I was 11 when he was born, for reference. We'll call him C, and the two middle brothers A and B.

We somewhat recently (within the past few years) moved to a new house with a few more rooms, which shook up our previous sleeping arrangements. Now, instead of A, B, and C sharing the same room while I had my own for gender-related reasons, A gets his own space while B and C continue sharing a room. This means that my room no longer immediately across the hall from all three. A has a bit of a history of being loud in the middle of the night and getting mad when others ask, request, or tell him to be quiet, so this was a relief.

However, my new room is still just a few feet away from B and C, and now B is doing loud enough things to keep me awake- mainly playing video games and either not using headphones, constantly humming loudly along to the music playing, or saying something about the game. As a "bonus," he insists that C has to watch him play the entire time.

Even though this runs well into the early hours of the morning most nights.

And C still has early-morning school to worry about.

Previously, I'd just resigned myself to shutting up, jamming earplugs in my ears each night, and dealing with whatever weirdness is making one of my ears painfully itchy on a daily basis as a result. However, recently our parents started giving C flak for staying up late. They also made sure we knew they wanted B to stop keeping him up, but I'm not sure B actually knows or cares.

C and I did a bit of kvetching about unrelated topics today, this subject came up, C told me he doesn't enjoy being kept up that late either, and I had the idea that, should midnight come and go without B quieting down, I would interrupt whatever they're doing and "ask" C if he wanted to come sleep in the living room with me. I'm putting "ask" in quotations because I voiced this idea almost immediately, and C agreed this would be helpful just as quickly; me asking would serve solely as a way to have me interject into whatever B's doing and give C a quick way out.

At the same time, B can get touchy if he thinks C is brushing him off or I'm "butting in." I mean, C and I kinda will be doing both those things if we wind up needing to do this, but B seems intent on monopolizing as much of C's time and actions as he can get away with. I don't really think they need to fully stop interacting, but maybe B needs some time to himself instead of constantly wringing attention out of the baby of the family.

Then again, B is an adult. Like, legally. He'll be able to drink in a few months. He doesn't need to act like I'm interrupting his playtime with his favorite action figure whenever I remind him C isn't required to pay attention to him 24/7.

Idk. As far as sleeping arrangements in the living room would go, there's enough furniture to go around. I'm just not entirely sure if butting in would be an asshole move. Justified? Almost certainly, I think. An asshole move? That, I don't know. Whatever the case, I'm hoping these things work out quickly enough that we don't lose much more sleep. We're tired of finally managing to get to sleep at 3 AM.

What are these acronyms?

[wildfire-chronicle]

designed dream

Had another extremely long and intricate dream, most of the details of which slipped away from me before I could grasp them. Names in particular vanished immediately, but here’s what I pieced together from the fragments I was able to keep:

The dream was mostly in third person, occasionally slipping into a first-person-like perspective for dramatic effect. I was quite young—an age wasn’t specified, but the whole dream was painted in a style very similar to Made In Abyss, including the proportions of me and the other characters.

The dream began with me and a group of about four or five of my closest friends all staring down the Labyrinth, a tunnel with a mine-like entrance on the surface that led deep underground. No one knew exactly how far into the earth it plunged, but we were determined to become the first to find out. All of us were equipped for a long-term expedition and had experience that filled us with confidence. This wasn’t our first cave. 

It was going to be the most dangerous one we’d tackled by far, though, and as we looked on, a timid-looking girl with red hair expressed her doubts. The cave had to be forbidden for a reason. Maybe we should find a different one. But our leader—a blonde-haired and blue-eyed, headstrong, and endlessly confident kid, and my best friend—assured us that we could handle it. We’d spent our whole lives training for this day, and even though the adults told us we needed to wait before doing a full expedition, we were ready. 

That quieted the doubts, and we all took one last look at the sky, and then filled our lungs with a last deep breath of surface air and stepped into the cave. For the first part, it looked no different from an ordinary cave. We rappelled down small drops, crossed portions of uneven terrain, and the biggest challenge was occasionally having to hop over cracks that reached down into darkness. Thankfully, we never had to crawl, and this part of the Labyrinth had been explored enough before that the walls had wooden supports and the drops had ropes already fixed for us to use. 

After a while, we came to a room-like cave with a trapdoor and a warning sign. Turn back!, it proclaimed. Anyone that wanders past this point will be considered dead! 

Red tentatively spoke up again. Maybe we should stop here. No one will come to rescue us if we pass this point. I silently considered what she said, but my curiosity at what this cave held and my respect for Leader outweighed the concern. 

The rest of us looked at each other and then scoffed at the old sign to cover up the budding unease inside ud. We were experienced cave divers, someone blustered, and nothing had been a real challenge so far. Clearly this cave’s reputation had just gotten out of hand. Maybe someone had gotten stuck once and everyone was just too afraid to go in after that.

Leader stepped forward and put an end to the chatter. We keep going, he decreed. He squatted and pulled up the trap door, and from beneath it, an unearthly blue glow shone up through the hole. It took me a moment to recognize the source. Glowing crystals were embedded in the walls, giving an uneven outline to the path ahead. We lowered ourselves through the hole and got ready to go deeper.

As we walked, things started to get... weird. It started with one of us, a porkier kid with overalls, mentioning that there was a pit ahead and stopping. At first, I thought he was just messing with us. The path went on as before into the darkness beyond the lamplight. We kept walking, but Porky stopped and yelled at us, “you’re going to fall!”

“Fall into what?” asked the person in front, a brown-haired dauntless kid, with a laugh. He continued to walk down the tunnel, arms nonchalantly behind his head, and then his laugh suddenly became a sharp yelp quickly followed by a *thump*. I looked at where he had been a moment earlier, and now there was a yawning pit where there had been flat ground. We rushed to the edge and saw Dauntless sitting on the ground about ten feet below holding his leg, surrounded by sharp crystal spikes that he had somehow landed perfectly between. 

I realized with a chill that somehow, Porky had been the only one of us to be able to see the pit. Down here, we couldn’t trust our senses anymore. We all grappled with that realization for a second, but Leader didn’t let us dwell on it. He called down to Dauntless to check if he was okay, and the grunted responses made us all breathe a sigh of relief.

We scrambled to get a rope out and down to him. He was still clutching his ankle in pain—he must have landed on it—but he was able to grab hold of the rope. He held on tight as we hauled him back up, and then collapsed on the floor of the tunnel. The rest of us talked among ourselves, trying to decide how we should proceed when we couldn’t be sure if what we were seeing was real. 

We decided we would have to move in a line, calling out what we saw as we walked. The person in front would have to tap in front of them with a rod to make sure that the ground was solid, while the rest of us felt along the walls. As we discussed this, Dauntless got to his feet and gingerly tested his stride. After a few hobbling steps, he was able to walk a little more normally, so we formed up again. Despite the injury, Dauntless volunteered to take point, and we began walking with our new system.

It was slow at first as we tried to figure out how best to relay information, but after a while, we fell into a rhythm. Soon, we’d left behind the glowing crystals and complete darkness closed in beyond the lamplight once again. It seemed to press in all around, and the air was still and musty. There were no supports down here, though the cave was still relatively rectangular and flat like a mine. It felt like we were the first people to walk there in a very long time. The only chatter was our cadence of observations. More than once, one of us noted something off, and everyone else paused and looked harder until they were able to see it too so we could navigate around the obstacle.

After treading through darkness for a while, we came to a fork. Both sides were identical, so Leader picked one at random and led us left. The cave sloped downwards deeper, and soon all of us were huffing from the exersion of the descent. Porky stopped and fell to his butt on the ground, trying to catch his breath. The rest of us stopped too, and with a rising panic I realized I couldn’t catch my breath either. The air was too thin. We were slowly suffocating. 

Leader barked at us all to stay calm, even as he was heaving for breaths. He told us we needed to start climbing back up the way we had come. Porky and Dauntless were too tired and breathless to move much, but in the back of the party, Red drew on some reserves of strength and came to the rescue. She climbed up until she found a stalagmite to tie a rope around, and then threw the other end down for us all to heave ourselves up with. 

Slowly, we worked our way backwards step by step, pausing frequently to rest. The further up we made it, the easier it became to breathe, but it was still a battle for every foot of ascent. After an eternity, we finally made it back to the fork room, but after looking around, we realized something was wrong.

All of us glanced at each other uncertainly and described what we saw. All of us were seeing the same thing. There were more than just three exits to the room now, and none of them looked like the one we’d originally come from. I walked around the room, tapping the walls and wandering a few feet into each tunnel, and found that there were no illusions here. I returned to the group and shook my head.

Porky began to panic, yelling that we were trapped and would never escape. Red curled up into a ball and shook silently. Dauntless just sat there, rubbing the leg he’d landed on earlier. I felt my resolve harden, and told them that we weren’t going to just give up and wait to die. We knew this place would be dangerous; that’s why we were going to be the first to explore it and come back alive. If the walls had shifted, that just meant we had to explore the new paths. I set down my pack and pulled out some granola bars and began handing them out. Porky and Red looked up at me and the panic slowly lifted from their faces, and the spirited, determined look returned to Dauntless’ eyes.

All this time, Leader had been looking around the other tunnels. I heard a call from behind me, and turned to see him beckoning us. We gathered ourselves and formed up once again. This tunnel sloped gently down, unlike the sharp descent of the last one. Our party marched further into the depths, Dauntless leading the way with his tapping rod, the rest of us calling out to relay what we saw.

After a short time, Dauntless stopped and held out a hand. The rest of us blinked, and the tunnel ahead turned into a dead end. A pit lay in front of us, dropping down a dozen feet, and at the bottom, a pair of statues holding leveled spears glared sightlessly at the wall. Red moved up to the front and the cave was filled with clanking as she hammered a piton into the rock. When she finished, she rustled in her pack for a rope and tied it off, and Dauntless stepped up to be the first one down. 

One by one, we dropped down in front of the statues. They stayed motionless, and uneasily, we slunk between them. First Dauntless, then Leader, then Red, then me, and finally Porky. We breathed a sigh of relief and turned to keep going. Then, an explosive metallic *kashunk* and a sudden wave of something wet slammed into me from behind and nearly knocked me to the ground. 

I looked back and found myself staring at what had just seconds ago been Porky. In the wildly swinging beam of my lamp, it looked like something straight out of a horror movie. His head had been cleanly severed, and the body still stood there as though it was waiting for something. A line of blood split his clothes right down the middle, the saturated fabric peeling slightly but still held up by the overalls. All of us stared in shock, unable to process what had just happened for a moment. Then, Red shrieked and fell backwards, and the rest of us scrambled away a few steps and fell back in horror.

The body stayed upright. Then, a leg lifted, and it took a step forward. Then another. It stopped in front of us, the same distance away as it had been before. We cowered, waiting for it to attack, but it just stood there like a statue. 

Leader slowly got to his feet, his eyes never leaving the motionless figure, and gently gestured at us to stand up with him. All of us moved backwards one step at a time, and for each step we took backwards, the body took exactly one forwards. It seemed to be following us, just as Porky had been a minute ago. 

In a hoarse voice, I called out, “Porky? Is that... you?” 

No response. 

I tried again. “Porky? Can you hear me?”

Still nothing. 

We tried to back away again, but the body just kept following us. Leader was still shaking, but in as steady a tone as he could manage, he said, “It doesn’t look like it wants to hurt us. That might... still be him. We should see if we can help him.” 

While keeping one eye on the body, we looked for Porky’s head, but it was like it had vanished into thin air. Eventually, we were forced to abandon the search and just keep walking, the headless corpse trailing behind us. Maybe we would find some way to help him further down the tunnel, we told ourselves, but really I think everyone just wanted to get out of there in case whatever happened to Porky happened to one of us. 

As the second-closest to the back, I had to help guide Porky’s body over the uneven parts, and it was exactly as unnerving as it sounds. But even so, I felt a responsibility to take care of the body, just in case. It was still a part of my friend.

Shortly afterwards, the four of us and Porky’s body reached a much more open room and saw the first wooden structure we’d seen since passing through the trap door. It was what looked like a very old-fashioned platform lift. At the other end of the room was another tunnel that seemed to slope upwards. 

We circled and debated what to do. There was a lever at the top that clearly had to be pulled to activate the lift, and it seemed to drop down below the floor. If we were to take the lift, someone would have to stay behind to operate the lever. Though the thought of being left alone there filled me with dread, I volunteered to do it. 

The others piled onto the lift and said that they would be back within an hour to report, regardless of what they saw. Tamping down the dread I felt, I wished them luck and pulled the lever. With a clanking of chains, the lift ground into motion and began to descend. I kept my eyes on them until they were lost to the darkness, and then watched the chain spook out until it finally halted with one last rattle. There was a pair of shakes on the chain, followed a few seconds later by an echoey yell of “we reached the bottom.” I returned an affirmative, and then shuffled backwards to sit against the wall and keep an eye on the two entrances. 

Time passed. I ate and watched the entryways and tried not to think about something suddenly chopping off my head. I also tried not to think about my friends never coming back. It was taking them an awfully long time to return.

After what was certainly much more than an hour, I walked over to the pit and yelled down it. No response. I considered going down myself, but I had no idea if I would be able to get back on my own without someone to man the lever. All I could do was wait, and wait, and wait. 

No one ever came back.

Eventually, I suppose, I must have gotten low on food and lamp oil and decided to see where the other tunnel led. If it led to the surface, maybe I could fetch a rescue party. So I called down the pit, just in case anyone was listening, to tell them where I was going. Then, I gathered my things and left. 

I don’t remember the journey back to the surface, but it must have been much quicker and easier than the journey down. But when I reached the top, everyone thought it was a miracle I had come back at all. They refused to send a rescue party or allow me back into the cave. The main entrance was blocked up, to prevent anyone else from doing what we had, and the adults told me to forget about the cave and just try to move on. Anyone I had gone in with was almost certainly dead already.

Time passed. I pretended to work diligently on other tasks and to have given up cave diving. I had a normal life—a job, a decent participation in town politics, an income. I built up some money. Then, once I had enough, I got myself some equipment for a solo expedition and left in the night. I used the alternate exit, which I’d never told anyone about, and entered the Labyrinth once again, determined to find my friends or die trying.

I got to the lift with no problem. Once there, I set up a system of pulleys with a rope so that I could feed it down the pit and pull from the bottom to flip the lever. That way, I wouldn’t get trapped. I set the lift to descend, hopped on, and rode it into the black depths that had haunted me ever since I’d abandoned my friends to it all that time ago.

I didn’t know what I expected to find at the bottom, but I was suprised to find an ordinary-looking cave just like the one above. There was no gore-splattered walls, no rotting bodies at the bottom. Just another rectangular stone hallway leading deeper. 

I took a deep breath and prepared to set out. Knowing the nature of this place, I tied a thread to a post on the lift and let the spool sit on my pack so that it could unwind as I walked and lead me back. With that set up, I began to walk down the hall.

Within a short time, I encountered what my friends must have when they were here. A pair of shiny titanium doors blocked the path, completely at odds with the wooden lift and dusty cave. I stepped up to them and pushed, and they swung open easily.

Inside was a brightly lit lab. Large, empty glass cylinders sat around the room like they should have something growing inside them. A chair with restraints occupied one side of the room, and above it, a helmet of some kind hung from a tube in the ceiling. At the far end of the lab was a set of screens, and standing before them was familiar person.

It was Leader. He had grown up, it seemed, and his blonde hair stuck up in crazed spikes. His electric blue eyes were behind a pair of circular glasses. He hadn’t worn glasses before. Leader turned as I entered, and his face twisted in disbelief. A brief flash of joy flickered across his face, quickly chased away by a deep frown. 

“You shouldn’t be here,” he said.

I stood there at a loss for words. After all this time, that was how he greeted me? In the first place, how was he still here and alive? And where were the others? 

Leader strode over to me and laid his hands on my shoulders. He looked just as collected and in-control as he always had. He tried to push me back, but I stood fast and finally found my tongue. 

“You... you’re alive.”

“Yes. I am.”

“What about...”

“They aren’t here.”

“Did they... die?”

“Die? No, not... no. They aren’t dead.” 

Something in his reply gave me pause. “What do you mean? What happened to them?”

His face hardened. “You need to leave. You need to forget you ever saw me.”

I pushed back. “No, you can’t just... tell me to forget! I thought you guys were dead! I thought I’d... left you to die.” 

“You didn’t... leave anyone to die.” An emotion beyond words pulled Leader’s eyebrows together and pursed his lips. “Trust me. It is better if you just leave now.”

I broke his grip on my shoulders and pushed past him into the lab. It wasn’t until then that I really took in what I was looking at. The large glass tubes. The chair. The screens showing what looked like live video feeds of the town above. One of them showed the interior of a house. MY house. 

“You’ve been down here... watching? The whole time?”

Leader said nothing. He just stood by the door and stared at me.

The cold grasp of realization started to crawl up my spine, and I pushed it down. “The others. Where are the others? Porky and Red and Dauntless?”

Leader pushed his glasses up his nose until they caught the light and turned his eyes into bright, opaque circles. “They aren’t here. They aren’t in the Labyrinth. They never were.”

No. That couldn’t mean what I thought it did. He couldn’t be saying...

“It wasn’t easy, you know. Memories are difficult to get right. Too much detail, and they don’t match up with the present. Too little, and they aren’t believable. You were my greatest success. My best friend, truly. Remember all the time we spent together?”

A crooked grin flashed under those blinding circles. In that moment, the creature in front of me wasn’t Leader. It couldn’t even be called human. It was something alien, something *other*. 

And neither could I. I wasn’t a born human. I was... designed. False. A simulacrum in the shape of a person, stuffed full of memories that didn’t exist. I wasn’t real, and I never had been.

I broke.

I woke up.

9 October 2022

[grewlikefancyflowers]

‘Intrusion’ extra, what it says about Jiang Cheng’s role in MDZS, and how Wei Wuxian looks back on his past with the Jiangs

I said back in like June that I’d write meta on this and then put it off for a few months, oops! Here we are, finally!

First things first, both the ‘Intrusion’ and ‘Iron Hook’ extras are not just silly romps featuring married wangxian and fanservice, as some people seem to believe?? I’d say both of them clear up pretty neatly, for those that are still confused, points of contention in the fandom - such as Wei Wuxian’s heroism, and Jiang Cheng’s role as an antagonist. Specifically, if his actions were justified or sympathetic, and if he was punished unfairly by the narrative.

The first and most obvious statement made in ‘Intrusion’ is the parallel between the story of Young Master Qin (YMQ), and JC and WWX’s youths. I’ll summarise quickly the relationship between YMQ and the fierce corpse that has been bothering him.

They grew up together in YMQ’s grandmother’s house, since they were a similar age they played together

The fierce corpse (FC) was a servant in YMQ’s grandmother’s household

The grandmother took a liking to FC, and he was in some ways treated less like a servant, and more like a member of their clan, and was allowed to attend school with the other boys

YMQ specifically notes that his grandmother used to praise FC a lot

YMQ describes a story at the school in which someone answered a question, and FC incorrectly claimed he answered wrongly. When FC pushed the matter, the other students became annoyed and drove him out of the class

It is very heavily implied (to the point where ‘implied’ isn’t really the right word) that ‘someone’ was YMQ, that he had actually answered the question wrongly, and that he felt shown up by someone he felt should be below him proving so, and that he led the other boys in driving FC away

FC left the school and didn’t attend again

I probably don’t need to lay out where the similarities are…?

In response to YMQ’s story, Wei Wuxian (rhetorically) says this - ‘“Regarding the solution to that problem, in the end, who was right and who was wrong?”’

Aside from just exposing the kind of person YMQ is, in reference to a story wherein ‘FC’ is clearly a stand in for WWX, and YMQ for JC, MXTX’s decision to highlight specifically that it was FC that had the right solution to the problem is not insignificant. Nor how she specifies that he was the instigator of FC’s expulsion, while hiding behind the mob mentality of the other students.

Another interesting detail is that YMQ deliberately obscures the truth throughout the chapter, because despite his refusal to acknowledge it, possibly even to himself, he knows that between him and FC he is the one in the wrong. Similarly, JC obscures the truth about WWX, to the wider cultivation world during the period of WWX’s ‘downfall,’ (Ch.73) but also, more importantly, to JL after WWX’s death. JL believes that WWX ordered WN to kill both JZX and JYL (Ch.42). Of course, if JC did not have a guilty conscience, he would not feel it necessary to lie about these things. Or rather, convince himself that they are true, as he still blames WWX for the deaths of his parents’ and JYL and the end of the story (Ch.102).

YMQ’s attitude about servants is bad enough that it upsets Sizhui quite a lot, and shortly after their interaction with him, we have this exchange between LSZ and Wangxian.

‘Lan SiZhui thought about it, “I do not know either.” He responded with honesty, “He never did anything truly evil, but perhaps I find it difficult to deal with people of such character. I do not particularly like the tone with which he mentioned the word ‘servant’…”

He paused at this point. Wei WuXian was oblivious to it, “Typical, typical. Most of the people in this world looks down upon servants. Servants sometimes even look down upon themselves… Why are you two looking at me like that?”

Halfway through, he interrupted, not knowing whether to laugh or frown, “Stop—is there a misunderstanding here? How could I compare? Lotus Pier isn’t the usual household, after all. I’ve beaten Jiang Cheng up way more times than he’s ever beaten me!”

Lan WangJi didn’t say anything, but instead gave him a silent hug. Wei WuXian couldn’t help but smiled. He hugged back, stroking Lan WangJi’s back a couple of times. Lan SiZhui coughed. Seeing how confident Wei WuXian looked, not at all sensitive to the word ‘servant’, he was finally at ease.’

There’s a lot going on here...

Firstly, WWX definitely does not think badly of himself because his father was a servant, because WWX doesn’t think badly of servants. It is also true that Lotus Pier wasn’t so strict with hierarchy as other sects (Ch.51, Ch.71), and that WWX and JC sometimes playfully fought on equal terms in their youths. But WWX was also very clearly treated badly in the Jiang household due to his status, notably by YZY (Ch.51, Ch.56, Ch.57, Lotus Seed Pod extra), JC does also repeatedly enact real physical violence against WWX, that he simply brushes off (Ch.56, Ch.59). You could argue that the example from Ch.59 is under extenuating circumstances and therefore should not count, but the same excuse cannot apply to Ch.56.

Knowing this, Lan Wangji’s response to this, to hug WWX, does not feel casual at all. Instead it comes across as if he is offering comfort, which WWX accepts.

Finally, this exchange finishes with ‘Seeing how confident Wei WuXian looked, not at all sensitive to the word ‘servant’, he [LSZ] was finally at ease.’ To me, this seems to suggest that the entire purpose of this was not at all reader directed exposition about how good and equal the Jiang household was, but rather a WWX-typical veneer meant to appease LSZ’s concerns (taking a moment to quietly fangirl about how good MXTX is at ‘show, don’t tell’). Also suggests that WWX is aware on some level that he was treated badly, and LWJ is too - presumably, it is something that they have spoken about.

Continuing with the story of YMQ and FC…

YMQ returns to his home village as an adult wearing a jade pendant that belonged to his now deceased grandmother

FC asks to borrow it, YMQ allows it, thinking FC is missing his grandmother

FC returns telling him he has lost the pendant, YMQ thinks he has actually sold it, and has him beaten, it is very heavily implied that he breaks his leg

In the present, YMQ admits that he doesn’t actually think FC would have gone so far as to sell something of his grandmother’s

This is reflective of JC’s attitude towards WWX throughout his life, with regards to how he frequently comes to the worst conclusions about him, without having any real evidence, and lashes out at him for it. I spoke about this a bit before here. Most notable example is probably during their conversation in the demon-slaughtering cave wherein they discuss WWX’s defection, and JC decides that WWX is acting carelessly and playing the hero, though admits himself that WWX is following the Jiang Sect’s teachings, then declares WWX an enemy of the cultivation world behind his back.

The ambiguity of FC’s death, and YMQ’s role in it discussed in part 3 of the extra is referencing WWX’s own death, and JC’s role in it. In the end the conclusion is that whether or not YMQ was responsible, FC did not hold him to it.

In the end, FC is content to simply throw some fruit, and punch YMQ in the face in vengeance for his death, and even goes out of his way to avoid hurting LSZ when he is fighting him. He returns the jade pendant, that he really did lose and not steal, and goes back to resting peacefully.

WWX, LWJ, and LSZ’s views on YMQ’s fate are as follows

‘Lan WangJi gently tugged Lil’ Apple’s rein, his voice calm, “He was fortunate.”

Wei WuXian agreed, “Indeed. Young Master Qin has got quite the luck.”

After some time, Lan SiZhui finally couldn’t hold his words back any longer. Sincerely, he spoke, “But I still feel that only one punch might be a bit insufficient…”’

JC didn’t even get a punch to the face. I’d say he got off very lightly indeed.