#here i go again with the analysis shit sorry

[orbmanson7]

Going to expand a little further on some thoughts from this post, but with more focus on Logan and what we can learn from WTIT.

In WTIT, Logan specifically said to Thomas, "You are fixating on a situation that is making you feel especially insecure. And that situation is out of your control. Dealing with this messy apartment would make you feel more secure, but it's also stressing you out because there's a lot to do, and you don't want to do it. All of that is a perfect recipe for intrusive thoughts, which you are not particularly well-equipped to handle right now given your low self-esteem."

So, in essence, what Logan is saying here is that Remus is thriving because Roman is not. Logan has recognized both the problem and its causes, and knows (part of) the solution. However, Logan is attempting to resolve the whole thing on his own, when that simply won't work.

As he mentioned, Thomas can't handle Remus because of his low self-esteem, which is indicative of Roman being down in the dumps and unmotivated. Without lifting Roman's self-esteem, Remus will continue to bother Thomas and push him to stress. And the more stress Thomas endures, the more anxiety he has, indicating that Virgil may be out of control or having an immense effect on Thomas. This, too, cannot be resolved without confronting and trying to help Virgil, likely by listening and caring about what he has to say (his issue is currently more directed at Thomas than it is the other sides, though). Beyond that, Patton has been adding to Thomas' stress, as well, in a myriad of ways, and Janus has stepped in to get Thomas to care for himself, but Patton is likely to still make Thomas feel guilty about it, continuing to add to his stress and preventing him from properly resting or getting the help he may need at this time… Which, in turn, adds back to the stress, anxiety, and low self-esteem he's experiencing.

And then there's Logan. Like I've said before, Logan is attempting to fix all this on his own. He recognizes the others' contributions that can help Thomas and even utilizes them on their behalf to help Thomas, he uses his knowledge and research to help Thomas stabilize and keep calm, and he takes on the task of getting Thomas motivated and adhering to a schedule to get him back on track, knowing it is likely to increase his security, lower his stress, and help motivate him further. It is not an end-all be-all solution to what Thomas is experiencing, but it's a very good step in the right direction… if he could get it to work. The problem here is, Thomas doesn't want to do it, and this is likely a culmination of every other problem he's had up to this point.

Logan is dealing with the final boss before bothering to defeat any of the other mini-bosses that come before it, so, of course, he's bound to fail.

Unfortunately for Logan, failure isn't something he accepts easily, and he will only continue to find the resolution to all of Thomas' problems in similar ways, and continue to receive this same result because he's fighting this thing all on his own and not bothering to consult the others and bring a team, all equipped to help each other and defeat this thing properly.

We can infer this from Remus' little lyric change during WTIT, when he taunts Logan with his dunce cap, singing "can't fix this guy all by yourself."

Something that's been obvious for a while now is Logan's passion project of trying to keep Thomas punctual and to take on preventative care measures so Thomas can be more productive, more healthy, more available, and overall happier. But any time Logan has worked on scheduling with Thomas, he brings it up to Thomas and only Thomas. He doesn't gather input from the others, he just offers to help them schedule their time, too, which they likely feel hindered by and thus don't appreciate. But when it comes to later episodes like DWIT and WTIT? Logan is taking it upon himself to resolve Thomas' dilemma, with no consultation from the others, it's just him trying to keep Thomas calm, caring for him, debating cognitive distortions, and reminding him how to handle Remus…all while hoping to get Thomas on track enough to complete some overdue tasks that will continue to benefit Thomas in the future.

Now, he seems to be doing this because he is deeming it necessary as part of his function as one of Thomas' sides, filling a role that he believes is going unfulfilled, but why the hell is he taking on so much of this responsibility when clearly his own ideal scenario involves following his schedule and helping Thomas that way instead?

To be fair, even if he just went and asked for the other sides' help now, they wouldn't listen, and they would be unlikely to see why what he's doing would help Thomas, and they'd also be very unmotivated to do anything about it at this current stage anyway. Logan needs to work with the other sides to help resolve their issues first, then they can all work together. Doesn't seem efficient, but it's the only thing that will work. But he hasn't repaired the foundation that's been shifted and broken and he hasn't laid the groundwork to maintain or improve his relationships to the other sides, and that prevents him from improving anyone's situation, including his own. Logan sees that social requisite as inefficient, but fails to realize that he'll never succeed in convincing Thomas (and the other sides) to listen to him without it.

Logan will either continue to endure failure after failure, believing he is at fault for not utilizing better methods after each one, until he finally stops having the motivation to keep trying, or he will fully break, having already endured so much up to this point, and it will be ultimately dismissed as none of the other sides or Thomas have been made privy to Logan's personal struggles as he hasn't bothered to share them with anyone, effectively preventing him from earning that compassion and understanding from the others.

To truly defeat this final boss, Logan will need to reach out to the other sides, not only to help them with their problems but to explain and hopefully ask for assistance with his own. And that will probably end up being harder to do than fighting all these mini-bosses will have ever been. But it's the only way to get the sides and Thomas to work together as a team and finally help Thomas improve his way of life and relieve his stress.

[torchickentacos]

I'm reading poetry at 1 am and spiraling over like 45 emotions at once, which is how poetry was meant to be enjoyed, I think

[terriblyrenderedenigma]

On Transformers and Human soulmate tropes...

(i do personally attack starscream at the end, i'm sorry starscream lovers, i love him too, but he's just a sad, devious little guy.)

Just a little thought here, so, I love soulmate tropes. Depending on the plot, they can be really fun and take so many interesting paths as a medium used within storytelling, whether romantic or platonic.

But what i want to talk about specifically is Transformer x Human soulmate tropes. Like, you have this super sweet side to it where the bot can be like 'I have waited my entire life to find you, finally, I can hold you in my arms and we never have to part again'. Depending on the character/story/type of SM (soulmate, shortening it because I'm not gonna keep writing it out) trope of course.

Can I just say how...instrumentally fucked this is though? So you have this race of robots who live for, what is essentially millennia out in the wild unless they catch the smoke. Their soulmate ends up being this little creature that lives for 80, maybe 100 years tops before dying. -Unless we're going for some kind of mind switch body type thing, but we all know how that went with spike in g1.

Our beloved robo blorbos will eventually have to cope with the fact that their soulmate, the person or creature they're MEANT to be with via laws of the universe, will die a LOT sooner than they will.

This especially hits hard with the decepticons who, depending on continuity -- hate humanity already. Bots who've gone through so much, losing their home, friends, and their dignities; have to learn to put up with and accept this creature as their fated mate/spouse/conjux endura, whatever you want to call it- SOULMATE.

Then the decepticons just have to deal with the fact that they're going to lose this person too, just like they've already lost everything else and oh GOD. Maybe they choose to forget about them and move on, stay alone and mourn what could have been if the universe hadn't had such a fucked sense of humor. Maybe they choose to accept it, but never let their SM too close because they know they'll just be hurt so much more hurt when the inevitable comes.

Then you have to think about decepticons having to possibly protect their SM from other cons! From being taken and 'saved' by the autobots.

Imagine some bots or cons just flying off the handle, going crazy just to try and keep their human alive in any way they possibly can, afraid of running out of time.

(Starscream lovers forgive me for the angst)

And Starscream especially, Maybe he'd try. He'd have a great time, take a chance, and give it a go. But what if he's actually terrified? Maybe he'd also self sabotage a little, knowing the relationship will never last too long anyways; not in the short blink of time it would be next to his life. Maybe, he doesn't actually know what to do with himself in a positive relationship after being, i dunno, consistently dogged on by megatron and he freezes.

There's something actually good for him, and since he isn't sure how to receive or accept that fact, he's gone. And maybe he'll come back, but the cycle could repeat.

(Im sorry, unless you put a tracker on him and call his ass and really give him some therapy. get him some god damn therapy.)

But yeah. All around, the angst potential is immense for this stuff and it makes me sad to think about so I thought i would share it instead of just write about it in an actual fic because my character analysis and ability to comprehend my own thoughts is so shit.

Okay, CIAOOOOOO~

[kaiser1ns]

𝗶𝘁𝗼𝘀𝗵𝗶 𝗿𝗶𝗻 𝘅 𝗳𝗲𝗺!𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿

╹synopsis :: you can't play hide-and-seek forever, right? well, that's until someone discovers your secret.

╹contents :: fem!reader, fluff, secret relationship, softie rin, shidou being a menace as usual

╹notes :: i love rin so much<333 hope you enjoy it! sorry for any grammar mistakes.

The aroma of delicious food filled the air as the members of PXG gathered around a large table. Y/N, who had been tirelessly assisting Loki, their mentor, was surprised when the Frenchman insisted on treating her to dinner as a token of appreciation for her hard work. There was a rare moment of peace, and to the surprise of everyone at the table, there was no food fight as they enjoyed their well-deserved meal from the hard training.

Shidou couldn't resist teasing his favorite(and only) female friend. He turned to Y/N with a mischievous shit-eating grin and asked, "Hey Y/N, do you like someone from here?" The question caught her off guard, and she raised an eyebrow before responding, "It's none of your business." she replied, returning her attention to her plate.

But we all know Shidou Ryusei’s nature, you will be teased for the rest of your life, "Oh, come on! There's definitely someone, hmm?" Y/N rolled her eyes, replying with a hint of sarcasm, "The only thing I like is the money I'm getting from Ego, nothing more, nothing less." She finished her last bite of food and added, "Now, if you excuse me, I have more work to do. If anyone needs me, I'll be analyzing Bastard Munchen's players in the monitor room."

With that, the girl excused herself from the table, bid everyone good night, and disappeared into her work. The glow of the large TV screen illuminated her focused expression as she delved into her analysis, ”I swear if I don’t get more money in my paycheck”. Little did she know that, in the moment of her murmuring, someone was approaching her from behind.

She felt a pair of strong hands gently wrap around her waist, and a familiar voice whispered in her ear, "You work too hard, you know that?" Y/N smiled, recognizing the voice instantly. Itoshi Rin, her secret boyfriend, leaned down to kiss her cheek, putting his head in the crock of her neck.

“And you do that too, but at least I’m taking breaks, Mister Striker”.  The dark-haired boy didn’t say anything, his head still resting on his girlfriend's head. It's so nice — the feeling of peace when no one is looking at you, no teasing remarks from Shidou, no homework from Loki, and no high expectations — she's so nice.  

With his body relaxing and all his weight on her body, he can fall asleep right then and now, but he knows he can't do that. "Hey, sleepyhead," she said, nudging his head lightly with her finger, earning a groan from Rin "Go have some rest in your room, Loki said, not to tell anyone, but tomorrow's training will be even harder." Again, no answer. Still in his embrace, she decided to somehow move to the chairs with the 186 cm tall boy wrapped around her like a koala. "You are so cute, but you will break my bones."

What she didn't expect was Rin's sharp turn, as he sat down and y/n settled onto his lap, she couldn't help but feel her heart beating faster at the sudden turn of events. His arms tightened around her, securing her place, and she found herself looking up into his tired but vibrant teal eyes, blush coming up to her cheeks. "What got you so clingy, Rin?” 

“Nothing. I just wanted to be with you…” he admitted, his voice carrying a hint of vulnerability. Y/n's blush deepened, but she smiled back at him, understanding the unspoken words between them. Savoring any moment they can spend together. With a gentle laugh, she teased, "Well, next time you feel like using me as a human pillow, just ask nicely." 

Hearing noise from outside, they looked at each other, fearing that someone would enter the room in need of Y/N’s help. The striker suddenly stood up, releasing her from his embrace. “I should probably get going. Have a good night, Y/N”

With a teasing grin, she replied, "Well, get some rest, Rin. You have to be fresh like a daisy tomorrow." tip-toeing to reward him for today - a little peck on the lips. “Love you.” With one last nod, he left the room with a smile on his face.

As he disappeared into the hallway, Y/N couldn't help but smile. Yes, their relationship is a secret from everyone—a game of hide-and-seek, it’s hard to manage but as long as no-one suspects a thing, everything is okay.

“I KNEW IT!” again a familiar voice called from behind her, and it’s no other than Shidou Ryusei himself. Y/N's eyes widened in surprise, turning around to face “the demon” and in a threatening tone said, "If you even dare to tell anybody about this, I will personally make your life a living hell - no more Chainsaw Man manga, no more yukhoe and a restraining order against you for Itoshi Sae.”

If until now Shidou was not afraid of anything, now he is definitely afraid.

©2024 kaiser1ns do not copy, repost or modify my work.

[toxicanonymity]

How much Joel react if Sweet Pea snapped at him, even just a little bit?

Like she has her period now, or maybe just its super hot or some shit or no sleep or something.

Would Joel feel bad that his sweet, well-trained girl was lashing out? or would he snap right back?

Couldn't sleep. raider master

850 words, raider!Joel x f!reader

WARNINGS: angst, light manhandling, dark fluff, spanking, choking adjacent moment, grinding, reference to FEDRA assault.

A/N: analysis here. calling it a hypothetical bc it doesn't fit neatly btwn hunger and the next part.

He grabs you by the arm and you won't look at him, so he grips your jaw and turns your head. His brow furrows as he searches your face. You still don't want to meet his eyes. ”What the hell’s wrong with you today?” he demands. You don't answer. “Hmm?” He prods.

“Nothing,” you mutter, but your eyes are welling up. He stares at your quivering lips, then your eyes as he awaits your answer. You finally look at him. “Sorry. I couldn't sleep. I'm tired.”

He lets go of your jaw and you start to pull away but his grip on your arm tightens and he asks, “That all?”

“Yeah,” you sniffle.

His jaw clenches then moves back and forth. His eyes are pensive, concerned. “‘member what I said after ya ran?”

You nod. “that you only want me if I'm good?” A tear runs down your cheek.

His face softens and so does his voice. “that I only want ya if you're–” he sighs and cups your cheek. “No, sweet pea. That ya gotta talk to me when somethin's botherin’ ya.”

You look down and away, then nod. He lets go of your arm and sits down on the bed.

“You're a good girl, sweet pea. c’mere.” He pulls you onto his lap. He strokes the nape of your neck with his thumb. “That day ya ran. . .” He brushes a tear off your cheek. “That was real bad.” It was bad. FEDRA had you on your knees, made you play Russian roulette, stripped you. "I didn't. . ." He searches for words and doesn't find them. He looks at you with his brows knitted. “we’re past that, ain't we?”

You nod earnestly. “It was stupid. I wouldn't–it was a long time ago. I'd never-”

“'S’what I thought,” he nods. “You're my good girl, sweet pea.” He kisses you on the temple.

“You're not gonna spank me?” You look at him with wide eyes.

His nose twitches. “That what ya want?” He pulls you further into his lap and when you feel his warm, hardening package, you get a rush of arousal. He slides you off his lap and uses his body to push you down on the bed face up. He pins you to it with his hips, arousal digging into your front. He wraps his hand around your throat, not too hard. He sees something in your eyes, and the serious look he gives you says youre not off the hook. “What ain't ya sayin'?”

You stammer, unsure what he means. You hazard a guess, “please?” Your hips lift into him.

He smirks, then it fades as he closes his eyes for a second. “No. why couldn't ya sleep?”

“I–” you sigh. “I was worried about the dog.”

He breathes out a laugh, then with his hands under your arms, he pulls you up further onto the bed so your legs aren't dangling. He sits back on his heels, straddling you with his knees. You eye the bulge in his pants. He asks, “That's it?”

“It's too cold at night,” you whine. “And what if he runs away. I can't believe all that time he was. . .” you start sniffling again.

Joel pauses, seeing the sincerity in your eyes. “Alright,” he nods. “we’ll make him some place warmer. god damn.”

“Really?”

He shrugs, then leans forward and plants his forearm on the bed. He hovers over you, then puts some weight on you again, his cock harder now, making you gush as he presses it against just the right spot. “Yeah, really."

“Thank you,” you whisper. “He's still skinny.”

“Hell, make'm a goddamn vest if ya want,” Joel murmurs, searching your face affectionately.

You laugh, which makes his eyes come to life with warmth. He asks, “okay?” He wipes a tear off your cheek. “see, all ya gotta do is talk to me, sweet pea.”

You nod, then start to explain. “didnt wanna wake you up. 'cause sometimes you're. . ." Your voice trails off, "kinda. . .mean.” wondering if you've gone too far, you second guess whether you even feel that way.

Joel cocks an eyebrow. “I'm kinda mean? Hmm” his lower lip juts out in contemplation.

“No. Well. I mean. . .”

He pushes himself up, then forcibly turns you over face down. His hips press his hard bulge into your ass, and he brings his mouth to your ear. “f’i didn't know any better,” he murmurs, then lifts his hips again for clearance. “I'd think ya were into it.” He pulls up your dress and smacks your ass. You grunt and your mouth falls open with the sting of his hand, making you twitch with need.

“Maybe,” you mumble into the pillow.

You sigh and push your ass up, seeking contact. You look back and he shakes his head in playful disapproval as he unbuttons his pants.

----

ty for reading.

So the answer is both - I think he'd snap back, but underneath that he'd be concerned that it's out of character for her. His concern or hurt often presents as anger or frustration at first and he's getting more emotionally intelligent to where he might realize it sometimes.

[sillyyuserr]

A longer, more in depth (9 parts all in one) terukane analysis, and/or everything i could find, compiled (one of my better pieces of work imo) ⭐️

Ok so it might be the fact that i ship them so i see alot of things they do as possibly romantic even when theres no romantic implications, but the amount of times it feels like AidaIro seems to be implying that teru likes akane is getting to a suspiciously high number. Like lets look at this from a non-shipper’s pov (or at least try😭)

Item A: teru looking at akane

Without the context that he’s looking at akane, he genuinely looks like he’s showing something of raw emotion, unchanged by his “fake persona” but a genuine reaction. Looking at this picture at face value one would assume he’s big time crushing. I mean i wouldn’t say “omg hes so in lovveee!!!” But considering he doesn’t really open up to like anyone, i think this is definitely something??

Item B: them going together on a romantic outing

Yes i did make it sound much more compelling then it actually is but cmon man. The school festival is considered a “romantic event” and these two spent the entire time hanging around the school together. Giving the excuse that "it's our job being in the student council" (which i guess it is) but in reality it was because no one wanted to come with them.

Which i mean they also did technically go on an actual date together

also nene looking like a hamster 😭😭

Item C: teru trusting akane more than anyone (?)

Teru likes talking to akane, trusts his intellect, and considers him someone he can rely on but doesn't like it when his whole world starts to revolve around aoi. My guy, that's jealousy.

He is shown to trust him and even show his back to him in multiple instances, knowing he wont hurt him, and he’s someone he can trust (lets ignore what happens on the literal next page)

Even literally being one of those “i fight alone” type of people but when akane’s there, he’s never fighting alone

Item D: not sure if thats whats happening here but im pretty sure he tried rizzing akane(?) even blushing n shit like ‘oh no mr judge im not guilty🥺💄💋’

And then got agitated when it didn’t work

Item E: akane knows teru better than we think

When kou and teru were fighting, the reason teru even walked out in the first place was because of the fireworks. And whos idea was that?

Akane’s. He knew he liked fireworks and that they’d lure him out of his room. And again, he was right they did it fact get him to leave

Item F: valentines day event

i dont think i even need to break this one down. Its a picture of JUST them TOGETHER posted on VALENTINES DAY. 2/14/24. THE ANNUAL HOLIDAY THAT CELEBRATES NONE OTHER THAN ROMANTIC LOVE. Also teru’s color being used as akane’s sparkles and akane’s color being used as teru’s sparkles kinda shows that AidaIro arent just showing us two characters, they’re showing us TERU and AKANE, TOGETHER. If it really could be anyone im sure they’d put them in a general setting, but with the paired colors i’d say that says otherwise.

some might say they’re looking at eachother

Item G: possible fruit symbolism

first off, this picture.

First lets look at hanako’s. We can see he has two drinks, both red + with strawberries, along with a red straw. While also being pictured near other red fruits.

In this picture, nene’s flower(s) are literally strawberry flowers, putting the association between strawberries + nene out there. Meaning the strawberries in his drink could be purposeful, along with the red undertones. (red being her eye color) (sorry for quality im doin this on iPhone)

Moving on to teru’s, he has one drink, being yellow-ish with pineapple on the side, and chunks in the drink itself. Whilst his straw is orange, while also being pictured around a ginormous pinapple

And this isnt the first time we’ve seen him pictured with pineapples

This god awful picture unfortunately exists so im adding it as proof/evidence for my argument. (Oh and not to mention akane has green pants on so everyone’s a lil funky igs)

notice how as soon they got to his house his outfit changed? This is him when they got to his house (clearly in a long-sleeve shirt, not the hoodie)

this is him with akane + nene going on a date

All within the same chapter i think, but him changing outfits i feel like says something. Like we’re supposed to associate that with something other than aoi (them talking ab how to save her at his house) or his family. Like aidairo are shoving it in your face ‘disassociate teru w aoi!!!’ He even straight up left when they started talking ab how they missed aoi at the karaoke place. (More or so when he left they started talking but ykwim) Since nene is being associated with strawberries it leaves the only other person to be akane, this also making sense also because of the straw color. (The straw being orange; akane’s rep color being orange, as nene’s is red)

also the fact that fruit is literally associated with the queer community

Item H: triangles + queer symbolism

Quick history lesson, A triangle has been a symbol for the queer community, initially intended as a badge of shame, but later reclaimed as a positive symbol of self-identity. In Nazi Germany in the 1930s and 1940s, it began as one of the Nazi concentration camp badges, distinguishing those imprisoned because they had been identified by authorities as gay men. In the 1970s, it was again, reclaimed as a symbol of protest against homophobia, and has since been adopted by the larger queer community as a popular symbol of queer pride. More or so, the upsidown triangle. and guess whos ALWAYS wearing a fucking upsidown triangle

My guy has one for EVERY OUTFIT 😭 he’s just ab the only character to have this. Aidairo finds a way to sneak an upsidown triangle in all of his outfits

Item I: extras

This picture. Him holding akane’s shirt and aoi’s bag really shows that AidaIro REALLY doesn’t want us to know which one he likes 😭 (if you’re confused, to sum it up AidaIro did a really good job keeping teru’s stance on the “love triangle” between akane, teru and aoi, ambiguous. If you are STILL confused go check out my other analysies i only have like 5 other posts, they go more in depth ab it)

Him looking at akane after he ate his “home made cooking” 😭 ALSO HIS EYES?? Dude they’re glistening. And the slight blush too

In the “kiss comic” part of the art book, not only are teru and akane’s on the same page, but they also look like they go together

Thats all i got for now (´-ω-`) MAN this took me like 5 different consecutive days. I wrote like 3 parts on one day, 2 more parts the next, and 1 more part today. 😭 hope you enjoyed and this re-gave you faith that terukane might be canon one day 😔 fake it till you make it

Feel free to comment and tell me ab anything i may have missed!! :3

[madockisser]

cardan/nicasia: why they’ll never happen again analysis/speculation

a while back i saw someone (or rather, a thread of ppl saying that they hope cardan and nicasia don’t get it on in the next book which is supposed to be nicasias book (supposedly) and i even saw someone say they WISH THEY DO ?!

so here’s your fun reminder of what nicasia put cardan through!

I’ve gathered together all the shit nicasia did to cardan: being the first girl he loved then breaking his heart w his friend, allowing cardan to catch them ON HIS BEDROOM FLOOR. (not entirely her fault but she totally had shits and giggles abt it when cardan confronted her) then when Locke screwed her over, she got CARDAN and his power as prince, to harass the girl(s) locke chose over her, one of which cardan liked, then later on was trying to manipulate him to marry her (which i think is when cardan realized they weren’t rly even friends anymore), THEN kidnapping and torturing the girl she knew cardan loved, AND befriending his abusive neglectful mother!

like damn. how u even fumble that bad, not just romantically but as a friend.

also I’d like to add her consistent entitlement, not just the whole “i bully girls bc I’m a princess and i can!” but the “cardan take me back even after i emotionally ruined you multiple times!” 😐

poor cardan

anyway, I’ve read lots of holly black books, and she is VERY mindful w abusive sort of relationships. and cheating relationships. she writes about them a LOT and each time they are pretty irredeemable.

note(the only exceptions):Taryn and hazel (darkest part of the forest) who sorta cheated on accident/ it wasn’t their fault-> but didn’t end well

add on note sorry: “but nicasia cheated on cardan on accident bc Locke was a gancanagh!” false! nicasia admitted that what her and Locke were doing was prolonged, the scene that cardan finds them is not their first time screwing around. nicasia KNOWINGLY cheated on cardan. then she was like “ok but i still care abt u! take me back” ?

now you can say that it could sorta be classified as an accident due to lockes natures (which are actually really disturbing if u think abt it) and that’s true, i never blamed nicasia for that relationship, but i do blame her for all the utter dogshit she not only put cardan thru, but Jude.

and this is cardan we are talking about. he who killed half an army for Jude when madoc tried taking his daughter back (sounds funny out of context).

we must remember that cardan does not want Jude hurt and humiliated and that’s exactly what nicasia went and did to Jude. through all the books bro. nicasia literally kidnapped and tortured Jude in the undersea so there’s 0 chance of cardan touching nicasia unless maybe to turn her into a tree again (but he can always just do that at a distance 😛)

anyway back to the cheating:

which is why i know that holly would never pull any sort of bull w cardan and nicasia, and you may be thinking (well that’s bullshit what do u know?) 3 separate books w cheating tropes, and 5+ diff relationships that involve cheating w no redemption. LOL

anyway black and i certainly agree on that front, and the way she uses the trope so consistently, and makes it so the cheaters are never endgame, or have a horrible death (Locke AND his mom, also Eva Duarte 😭the dude Ben dated from dpotf, and Kaye and that guy Janet was dating, Val and Tom and dave and lolli (modern faerie tales)) is pretty telling!

holly is great at writing healthy relationships, and she knows that tcp is her biggest hit w the media, so she won’t go and fuck that, not just bc she would never and it’s out of her writing style and character and literally moral compass when it comes to writing relationships, but also bc her publishers/editors would NEVER let that slide.

but i can’t wait for her book! i love knowing that nicasia will never have a chance w cardan again, it’s no less than what she deserves 😋

anyway sorry for ranting! I just feel so strongly abt this topic, cardan would never cheat on Jude, since he’s been cheated on before, and it was heart wrenching, and bc of his upbringing, he would never. if you haven’t, go thru my masterlist in my pinned and find the cardan /nicasia thing where i explain why he wouldn’t cheat far better there!

But feel free to add on, i probably missed a few things so lmk!! 🫶

[teekays]

hello! if memory serves you are the blog that talked about boy band pretty as a marketing tactic (or something to that effect? the search function does not work so if i’m wrong i’m terribly sorry) and i was wondering if you would be willing to find someone from each team (can include prospects if you want) to create the ultimate nhl boy band. this is not a necessary thing to do, solely shits and gigs and if you ever feel like it doing it. have a lovely day!

HIIIIIII that WAS me and you sent this at the perfect time because i am at the laundromat with time to kill and i LOVE to discuss this.... let's chop it up.... a few disclaimers: this is subjective so don't get mad at me and i will be including prospects and ahl players where i know its applicable BUT for most of these teams i will be going off the main roster + looks alone because if i did a full deep dive vibes analysis on every team's roster and prospects it would take me like two months to answer this ask... you understand. we are being SHALLOW here today in the true spirit of the boy band industry. let's go!!!

carolina hurricanes: i know everyone wants me to say sebastian aho but he is 1) too old 2) too unsettling looking. the elf on the shelf is not boy band pretty im sorry 😭 i do love him but he's just not the vibe here... i will say based on looks either scott morrow or jackson blake and his 90s heartthrob hair. i want to say seth jarvis because he's my special pop pop but that does contradict almost everything i have said previously so i will not be biased but know that if he was a pop star i would be his biggest fan i would kiss his poster. and that's my truth

columbus blue jackets: in the interest of journalistic integrity i went to their roster instead of just saying it's obviously kj as the intimidating aloof one in the boy ("boy") band but actually i do think it's cole sillinger.... teen heartthrob. also i didn't know that he was born in columbus because his dad was playing for the team and his brother is also on the team??? imagine having a whole destiny like that and its for COLUMBUS OHIO 😭

new jersey devils: jack hughes. open and shut case argue with the WALL

new york islanders: NOT MAT BARZAL. HE LOOKS 35. STAND UP LADIES!!! lowkey i do not know any of these dudes and this roster is kind of busted as fuck 😭😭😭 (NOT ANTHONY DUCLAIR who is too old to be a boy band boy but who i do love) bargain bin team... anyway isaiah george YOU! are the only cute person the new york islanders

new york rangers: matt rempe. those pictures of him lounging around on the phone??? wow. no words. diva heartthrob behavior. it's sad what they're doing to him what are we doing to our beautiful queens :(

philadelphia flyers: after much careful deliberation.... i think denver barkey is taking it. denver is such a deeply boy band name tbh he was born for this!!! i know everyone thinks it's jamie (who i still forget is a flyer 😭) but can you imagine him on a stage? singing a song? they are reinventing shoegaze for him. negative star quality (AFFECTIONATE!!!!!!! LOVING!!!!!!!!!!!!)

pittsburgh penguins: well NOW the obvious answer is rutger mcgroarty... not even worth going through that senior center roster when he's there tbh sorry pens

washington capitals: AGAIN. SENIOR CENTER ROSTER. i had to go to their prospects page to find someone suitable and my vote is patrick leonard he's a cutie!!! also im so sorry to say this but my jaw dropped when i got to this guy why are you playing hockey you need to make a children's album RIGHT NOW. i know he could do a banger cover of the We're going on a bear hunt song. but i digress...

boston bruins: matthew poitras is adorable and exudes star quality NEXTTTT. shoutout also brett harrison who looks like a long lost jonas brother

buffalo sabres: JACK QUINNN JQUIZZY HIMSELF partly for looks mostly for vibes... he has extreme "jack dylan grazer vape apology video" energy and also he has that boyish charm... either him or devon levi (hot) not miss owen power for the same reasons as jamie. she could never be a pop star 😔 ryan mcleod used to be the oilers popstar boy but now he's got too much competition he's a little niche for the title

detroit red wings: my gut tells me simon edvinsson but a look at the roster tells me there is some competition in the form of amadeus lombardi... if we were discussing this two years ago mo seider would be the obvious answer but he's too grizzled now 😔

florida panthers: 🙄 here comes another busted fucking roster... i guess denisenko??? panthers are not really representing here....

montreal canadiens: ARBER <3 he's like the bad boy hottie in the boy band. the one that makes your dad shake his head when he sees him on tv

ottawa senators: wow the atlantic division is fucking WACK this was another case of like. okay i guess ill pick one of yous but REALLY? so congratulations jorian donovan YOU are in the boy band

tampa bay lightning: seriously what is going on in this division. jack finley looks like he was the closeted one in a boy band from the early 2000s but he's aged past that now and he has a husband and a wine brand.... so we will bring him back for nostalgia points. welcome to the team. also i have to be honest i thought of myself as pretty well acquainted with the ahl but the SYRACUSE CRUNCH? that's crazy

leafs: JOSEPH WOLL! boyish charm out the ears on that one. a real cutie

chicago: obviously it's bedard. we all know it's bedard. on the surface he has no charisma but he does have a certain kind of shy boy charm and he IS adorable... he's the one in the boy band who makes your mom tut over him like "he seems like a nice boy"

colorado avalanche: wow huge props to matt stienburg for having maybe the single most boy band roster photo i have seen yet... THIS is the guy they get in the boy band because he's already had huge success with his hit single called like, Heart React Girlfriend or whatever. this is jacob sartorius if he played hockey. this is chase dreams. this kid is going places

dallas stars: it's obviously wyjo, joining the ranks with cbedard as The Nice One <3

minnesota wild: okay i was going to say brock faber because every group needs a kevin jonas (SORRY BROCK) but WHO is kyle masters and why does he look like knockoff brendan brisson. budget briss. diet briss. we have briss at home.

nashville predators: this just reminded me cody glass is a penguin now 💔 anyway the preds have some STRONG contenders here wow.... jeremy hanzel is taking it but i think luke evangelista could pull it off... now if you asked me to be really subjective it would be ozzy wiesblatt who would also be the subject of much poster kissing and rigged "which member of the nhl boy band should you date" tests so i get him as the result but that's just me....

st louis blues: jeremie biakabutuka your radiant smile has charmed me.... welcome to the band....

utah whatevers: MONTANA ONYEBUCHI I AM SO FUCKING SORRY THE SHARKS DIDNT APPRECIATE YOU. BUT WE WILL..... also matt villalta kinda giving off brand kj... you could build a whole off brand version of that umich team just with guys from other teams i bet

winnipeg jets: dylan coghlan you will always be famous to ME but i fear you are a little too old for our purposes here.... other than him they kinda don't have a lot going for them.... brayden yager it is your time to shine as off brand owen power ♥️

anaheim ducks: some strong competition here... tz is the obvious choice but i think we need to think bigger... olen zellwegger please step forward....

calgary flames: matt coronato i am free on thursday if you would like to hang out on thursday when i am free and also join this boy band

edmonton oilers: yet another old ass roster 😭 they're lucky they got so many sabres because matt savoie is saving their asses rn

los angeles kings: angus booth is smizing in every single photo i saw of him so. come on now

san jose sharks: it's so obviously will smith i don't even know what we're doing here tbh

seattle kraken: tye kartye looks like he would be into white water rafting so he can be the nature guy in the boy band.... strong competition from tucker robertson but he's just a touch too gay porn for this vibe

vancouver canucks: JETT WOO... HELLO.... but also shoutout cole mcward for having 2014 gay youtuber phenotype. a connor franta troye sivan type face if ive ever seen one

vegas golden knights: BRISS ‼️‼️‼️ my little tabloid queen... not only is he in the boy band but he's in the news and the media. he was born to be a star. natural ham. child actor energy. alex holtz is also a strong contender for this but i think he's off on his own doing his little pop star solo act thing

this took way longer than laundromat time but it was worth it i had so much fun!!!!! thank you!!!!!!

[spitblaze]

Mouthwashing spoilers below cut, played through it again today bc i accidentally nullified all of my achievements through the dev console. oops

Okay so the first time I played through it I was high and it was very late at night. Already a great start but it means I missed some shit my first time through and I'm already not exactly stellar at more abstract literary analysis. LUCKILY this site is full of people who are way better at that than I am (and im convincing my partners who are also way better at it than I am to play it soon too).

Luckily I'm better at lit analysis than whoever the weirdo on the Steam forum saying this game is bad because it 'doesn't punish Jimmy for his actions enough' as if this isnt a horror game primarily about his guilt-induced mental breakdown and if i have to see anyone else say that anya is a poorly written character im going to poorly write them out of existence because I'm inclined to believe that if you think that you either weren't fucking paying attention or have subscribed to the Joss Whedon school of feminist writing which is 'good writing of women is when they are girlboss'. like sorry shes too much of a depressed traumatized Fawn Response rape victim for your liking. jesus christ

Anyway the game being short DOES lend itself well to multiple playthroughs, which honestly is for the best because its really one of those stories that reveals a lot more on a second viewing. There's a Lot going on here but as far as I can tell, the biggest themes here are what it means to 'take responsibility' as well as autonomy and the loss thereof. The responsibility one is for sure the most obvious one, how many times in the game does it directly say 'take responsibility'? How many times does Curly say 'I'll fix this', how many times does Jimmy say he'll 'fix this'? And ultimately, how successful are either of them?

Curly's a good leader, sure, but how much does he just let slide for the sake of 'the big picture'? Daiske was a last minute addition. He's a good kid, but he didn't make a stink about it. Gotta think about the big picture. Anya has told him about what Jimmy did to her. Nothing. 'What would you do?' 'Anything.' But nothing. Absolutely nothing. I'm not gonna sit here and say that Curly is 100% every bit as evil as Jimmy, if someone is raped the blame falls squarely on the rapist- but it's completely on Curly for not taking action against Jimmy for the sake of the big picture. He really could've done anything. Fucking anything. It's not necessarily on Curly to foresee that Jimmy's stress response would be to end it and take everyone else with him. But it was on him to do something about a known violent assault and its perpetrator before anyone else got hurt. He's not a perpetrator, but he's an accessory. He may not have deserved the punishment he got. But he's nothing if not agonizingly aware of the consequences for not taking responsibility for the actions of his crew.

Jimmy, meanwhile, is obsessed with responsibility despite the fact that he's incapable of actually handling it, from the very start. It's not clear when exactly he assaulted Anya, but I assume it was after Curly broke the news to the crew. The moment even a shred of consequences emerge, the minute Anya tells him that she's pregnant, his first course of action is to deliberately sabotage the ship. Murder-suicide. He says he's sorry. That he made a mistake. As if there were not multiple, deliberate steps at which he could've stopped and realized what he was doing. After everything, he tells the crew it was Curly's fault so he could have more of that responsibility he desired so much. Not that anyone respects it except maybe Daisuke.

But he can't handle even the most basic of responsibilities there, either. A handful of menial tasks and he fucking snaps at the woman he hurt to begin with, even when she only ever acts the way she does around him to avoid further hurt. 'Take responsibility'. But he can't. Over and over he'll tell the vision of Curly he's made in his heads that he's sorry, that he'll fix things, that they'll all make it. And then he just keeps making things worse. And worse. And worse. Anya's going to hurt Curly, she's suspect and violent. Swanson won't let them into Utility. That's suspect, he's going to get out of here and leave everyone else behind. They both have to be stopped. Don't you trust me, Daisuke? Don't you trust your captain? That's why YOU have to go through the vent. He cannot fucking take responsibility, only goad others into doing things and handling things as underhandedly as possible. No wonder Curly laughs when he takes the gun. Anya spent all this time trying to keep it from him. And he got it anyway, because that'll all Jimmy knows how to do. Take and resent and hurt. His own twisted version of 'responsibility'.

It genuinely pisses me off how many people write off Anya as being 'badly written' or write her off altogether, especially considering the VERY OBVIOUS character she's based off of, being Wendy Torrance in The Shining (Yes I'm aware there's baggage around that particular character's strength of writing too, but I'm not about to go off on a rant about a movie ive only absorbed through cultural osmosis). Like...she's not a perfectly written character, no- her arc is less about her as a character and more about the things that have been done to her. Sexual assault used as a narrative device, nothing new there- it's at least less egregious in a horror story, where fear and trauma and terrible things happening to good people is kinda the whole thing. My big issue with Anya's writing is that we didn't get more of her- more exploration of how Jimmy's actions affected her, more exploration of how her and Curly are that much more alike after the crash- it's not a very long game to start, and given her character and the situation I don't necessarily disagree with her going out the way she did at the time she did. It just would've been nice if they'd utilized the nonlinear structure of the whole thing to explore her more, y'know?

Given Jimmy's PoV it makes sense that he's more fixated on the consequences of raping her than on the woman herself, but from the Doylist perspective, like...c'mon, give us SOMETHING more to work with. And like I said before, it pisses me off that people see a woman who doesn't immediately fall into the 'girlboss' role when shit hits the fan and then write it off, as if the premise of the story isn't about everyone's reaction to a hopeless situation spearheaded by a violent, manipulative, self-centered shithead. Swansea's the most capable person here outside of Jimmy and Anya, and I've yet to see anyone saying his character was weak because he spends most of his time drinking and raging instead of taking action. I'm mostly just upset that I don't have much more to say about her outside of her relationship to the rest of the crew. One could argue that most of what we are is defined by our relationships to others, and the nature of the game means that we don't really get a deep peek into anyone's psyche besides Curly and Jimmy.

I like how she invokes the metaphor of that dead pixel, the detail that sticks out like a sore thumb to her, always in the back of her mind, ever-present, that Curly can't see and never will because he's too busy looking at the big picture. I like how they establish the nature of Jimmy and Anya's relationship without being too direct, putting up that brave fawn act while he's there- she has to, the ship is only so big and they're so off course that rescue seems impossible- but she doesn't sleep in the same room as everyone else, she won't confide in Jimmy, and his mistreatment of her was what finally drove her over the edge. Jimmy's more concerned about what she might do to Curly that what she might do to herself, and he KNOWS that she's prone to mental breakdowns- often caused by himself, if not by Curly's state. The whole thing is tragic, but Anya's case is particularly saddening. Even after her death, she's paraded around like a puppet so that Jimmy can have his macabre little party. He doesn't care about her. He never did. And yet he's haunted by her, the 'sexual thoughts of cartoon horses' intermingling with his strange psychosexual hatred of the nurse just trying to do her job, haunted by the consequences of his actions because he's too much of a fucking coward to really, honestly and truly, take responsibility.

Swansea and Daisuke I have less to say about, ultimately. They feel a lot more straightforward in their narratives, at least from my perspective. Daisuke's a dumb kid with a shitty internship and he's so upbeat and positive that it genuinely pisses Swanson off, which means that he does ultimately care about the kid. A+ dynamic. Seems like a prick on an initial playthrough, but on the second run through I get it. He's old enough, he's seen enough, he knows exactly what Jimmy is and doesn't buy his responsible act for a second. He's not a captain. He's just some shithead who acts like he can handle it but flees in the most destructive way possible the second the consequences rear their head. He's a man that, even in the throes of substance abuse, does a better job of taking responsibility than Jimmy ever could, and arguably better than Curly ever did. Instead of just shrugging his shoulders at a last minute intern, he took him under his wing and started training him. When shit hits the fan, his instinct is to protect Daisuke- the one person who IS his responsibility. When he really, truly does not believe there is anything else that can be done, he puts him out of his misery. Maybe he was saving that cryo pod for him, too. It's hard to say, but the fact that he's the only one who stood up to Jimmy and saw him for what he was makes him that much more likable.

Daisuke...oh, Daisuke. He couldn't have known this was coming. He was doing his best, he just did what he could, he tried to be helpful and kind and be a good person. And for that, Jimmy used him and got him killed because he was too much of a goddamn coward to apologize to Anya, to see her as anything besides a nuisance at best. I get why Jimmy is so fixated on his death- as far as he's concerned, his first real failure, since Anya was such a non-issue that he didn't even have anything to say about her lifeless body. It wasn't just his inaction that got this kid killed, it was his actions. He had every opportunity to use even a single ounce of his brain and recognize that there are other people on the ship besides him and Anya, to recognize that these psych evals aren't just for the sake of the individual. And for that, Daisuke died. Way to go, hero.

The autonomy shit...god. Psychological trauma can be just as incapacitating as physical harm, can't it? Anya completely changing her demeanor after being assaulted, her body no longer just her own. I want to see the horror of that from her perspective, the invasion and the terror and revulsion of having something like that growing inside you. How sickening it must feel, how just the knowledge of its existence makes living that much worse. How the man who did it is still nothing but despotic. Curly, finally seeing Jimmy for who he truly is firsthand. It's all well and good to believe in someone, to trust them and want to help them overcome their struggles. But being choked and beaten and abused by them, day after day after day, because you had the audacity to sit a little higher on the totem pole than they did, because you had what they wanted, because they couldn't stand seeing someone better off then they were.

It's kind of mind-boggling, honestly. I've...kinda been there, with people who I know are still there, they're fully in there and aware and the same person they've always been, but their means to communicate with the outside world is cut off. I was fortunate enough to have been listening to a lot of disability activists around the time my aunt started losing her speech. It seemed a lot of times that the only people who really recognized that she was still there were me and my uncle. Even my mom, her older sister, inseparable for life, started treating her like she was suddenly a different person, not capable of really understanding her or wanting or doing things for herself.

So, like- not trying to be selfish or anything, just doing the autistic 'oh i can relate to this' bit, particularly about Jimmy projecting all of this shit onto the captain when he barely has the capacity to laugh or cry, let alone speak. His savior. His best friend. His bitter enemy. Beating him relentlessly while giving him his medicine for having the audacity to be an inconvenience. Let's eat some cake. I want to go home. Curly is just a man, and Jimmy regards him as helpless, antagonistic, and a god all at once. He'll thank me for this one day.

So uh. Many thoughts, head full. After the end of the bizarro sequence with Curly heading to the cockpit, the door is very small. A black pixel, the one stuck in the back of Anya's mind. A graveyard full of mausoleums, every one of them with the same epitaph as the bizarro one for Daigo in ch 14, and the one you can enter with his face on it. Not a single one for Anya. The Polle at the end having the same blue text as Anya, haunting the narrative just as much as Curly, just less overt. I'll fix this. I'll take responsibility. God. God jesus fuck damn hell christ son of a bitch. Fuck capitalism for putting their employees on such tight strings and skeleton crews that a collective pink slip can send people into this kind of spiral (or rather can give Jimmy a good reason to convince everyone else that all of them are completely fucked except for the captain and Daisukle) and fuck Jimmy. Fuck him. My one other complaint besides the feminist critique above is that theres some sequences that go on a bit longer than they really should (ch. 14 getting the mouthwash, most of the vent segments).

Fuck you, Jimmy.

I hope that gunshot hurt.

[clockwayswrites]

Like Betta Fish Do- Part 3

Masterpost of ao3 link and all parts. wc: 1263

“Sorry for intruding on your haunt! Total accident. Please don’t disembowel me. Sorry again,” Dick read off the card that had been tucked into the gift basket. He glanced from the card, to the rest of the assembled batclan, and back to the card in confusion.

Of course Dick had insisted on coming with Jason to check over Crime Alley. Of course when they found the basket Dick had insisted on bringing it back to the Cave to be tested for poisons—

“They’re bathbombs, who’s going to fucking poison bathbombs.”

“We’ve seen weirder, Jaybird.”

—and so of course the whole family was there now.

Before Dick had even let them move the basket, he checked it out for basic booby traps. (To be fair, this was the first thing Jason did too.) Once the basked had been to the Cave, it was checked over, again, by various Bats. Then, Tim had taken all the contents to run a chemical analysis on the chocolate and bathbombs (seriously, who poisons bathbombs?). And finally, Bruce gave the all clear on examining the basket itself.

Dick had snagged the little card out of it’s little envelope before Jason could even make a grab for it and read off the message. “’Please don’t disembowel me’? What the fuck, Jason.”

Jason raised his hands up with a shrug. “Don’t ask me. Sure, ‘please don’t behead me’ I could get—” he ignored the slight flinch that caused from Tim and Bruce— “But pretty sure word has gotten around that killing isn’t really my sort of MO anymore.”

Thankfully the computer beeped before they could get into all that.

Again.

Tim read over the results before announcing, “Report came back clean on everything.”

“Huh.” Dick seemed actually surprised by that. Jason was feeling really fucking done with his family.

“Perhaps a chemical inside the bathbombs that will explode when exposed to water?” Damian suggested.

Really fucking done.

“We do all get how messed up it is that your brains go there, right?” Duke asked. (Duke might be Jason’s favorite at the moment.)

“Can’t be that,” Tim said, ignoring Duke’s comment about their mental stability with practiced ease. “I took a sample core all the way to the center. It really is just a basket with bathbombs and some chocolate.”

“Sweet,” Stephanie said as she made a lunge for the box of chocolates. Jason quickly pulled the basket and its contents out of reach.

“Back off, it’s my gift,” Jason said with a snarl that was only half for show. As much as he had calmed back down, he still felt tense— like there was a heavy weight in the center of his chest.

Damian gave him a wholly unimpressed look. “Why? Do you deserve it for, and I quote, not disemboweling someone?”

“I mean, I haven’t,” Jason said with a shrug as he grabbed his helmet; the gift basket was tucked securely under the other arm.

“Jason, we have to talk about this,” Bruce said in that tone of his; the one that implied Jason was making a stupid mistake. The one he always seemed to have—

Jason shook the thoughts away. He didn’t need to tempt the Pit today by doing down that path. He could feel that green tinged anger lurking on the edge of his mind already. He kept heading to his bike. If he got out of here, the temptation to pick a fight would go away. He knew that. He just had to make the choice to walk away from the fight. “Fuck no. Look. I’ll check my system and put up new cameras or some shit, okay?”

The footage on every camera he had up around the exterior of his apartment had either shown nothing at all or had glitched out into a fuzz of static. There had been someone at his door— a slight person, dark clothing— but that's as much detail as they could get. Which was, sure, concerning, but seemed like no harm no foul. (Not that the rest of the family agreed with that assessment.)

“I’ll bring over some better cameras in a few days and check through your system,” Tim said, already turning his attention to the task.

Jason didn’t want that.

He didn’t want anyone else messing with his system. But he was starting to understand that having his hands on the information of his family was Tim’s way of showing he cared. Jason hated it, but he understood it, so he’d allow it. He owed Tim more than a little acceptance. He owed Tim so much.

“Sure thing, Replacement.”

-----

Jason spent hours going over every inch of his place when he returned. None of the traps or markers had been triggered to show that anyone had actually come inside his space. The feeling he had experienced at dinner hadn’t come back. All that he felt was a slight unease and that was easy enough to dismiss as lingering feelings from earlier in the day. It wasn’t any worse than a Pit hangover.

Finally, satisfied that his place was secure, Jason sank down onto his couch with a huff of air.

The gift basket mocked him from where it sat on the coffee table. He’d dumped it there when he first came in, ignoring the odd present in favor of making sure that his place was safe. It would have been convenient for someone to break in and set up a trap while they were off dealing with the basket, but no one had. Now both him and the Pit were settled and the basket was still there.

Who the fuck gave bathbombs for not being disemboweled?

Leaning forward, arms resting on his knees, Jason plucked out the card. It was a simple thing, just a bit of cream cardstock in a little envelope. No logo or distinguishing features. The writing was a scrawled, half cursive— just this side of legible. Distinctive, but not any handwriting that Jason recognized. It wasn’t signed.

That would have been too easy.

That was the real issue of it all, wasn’t it? Who would leave a note like that for him? Jason Todd shouldn’t be getting a note like that. Red Hood, sure, he could understand getting such a message. He hated it a little, now that he was further away from the worst of the Pit Rage, but he got it. But him as Jason? Reclusive, miraculously returned son of Bruce Wayne? Jason shouldn’t have anyone afraid of him like that.

It spoke to someone knowing of his life as vigilante turned crime boss turned vigilante again, and that was dangerous. It was dangerous for him. It was dangerous for his family. It was dangerous for Crime Alley.

It was just another fucking thing he had to deal with. As if it wasn’t enough to having only recently, officially, returned to the living. There was also the work he was trying to do as Red Hood, the work he was trying to do for Crime Alley as Jason, and the effort of trying to spend more time with his family (preferably without stabbing anyone). Now he had this mystery too.

Maybe the bathbombs actually were a good gift and didn’t that idea make him scowl. When was the last time he’d actually taken some time to just relax? It had to be a while with the size that his ‘to read’ pile had grown to was any indication.

He could use one. They were just bathbombs.

He could run a warm bath, relax, crack open a book, eat some chocolate… and just try not to worry for a bit. Nothing was going to be solved tonight. Bruce had ordered him off patrol— which normally wouldn’t stop him, but Cass had given him big worried eyes too. There were no other pressing matters. His apartment was secure…

Fuck it. He grabbed the little basket and headed to the bathroom.

Time for some self care.

-----

AN: We'll likely get a Danny scene to cap chapter 2 off, but I though this was a nice little bundle to post! And my poor migraine is going to get even worse with the Artic front so wanted to get this posted~

Thank you all for such a lovely response on the other parts! This will be going up on ao3, but I want to get at least three chapters done first to get a little buffer. Everyone who asked should be in the tag list (as of yesterday), but if I missed you, or you want to be added, just let me know in the replies!

Stay delightful my darlings!

@fisticuffsatapplebees | @thegatorsgoose | @wolfeyedwitch | @lazy-bouqet | @confusedandghostly | @glomsk | @kailithiel | @bahfev | @d4ydr34min9 | @claudiashq | @someonebored0100 | @pastalavistamf | @samgirl98 | @angelheartgamer | @lehana37 | @spiteismymiddlename | @rosecinnamonbun | @demon-cat-goes-woof | @violet-catsarelife | @trickerdi | @avelnfear | @undead-essence | @basilf1res | @amillionandonefandoms | @stealingyourbones | @sarcastic-yami | @bun-fish | @aconitewolfsbane | @dontfightmecauseillcry | @omgnectarina

[cdroloisms]

read your post about how the atmosphere in dreblr feels a little tense nowadays. honestly when i first joined this fandom i was excited to share takes/meta but i dont do it much anymore cause of how intense ppl get when they disagree… wasnt prepared for that level of intensity

i have to say that my experience with this fandom and your experience with this fandom are ... probably pretty different 😅 (not that i know for sure, of course, so sorry abt any inherent assumptions to when you joined the fandom, i've just been here for damn near forever) and that that'll color my perspective on this, so. fair warning in advance.

to be honest, disagreement in dreblr is not a new thing. when dreblr was created there were two main "camps" of c!dream apologism that disagreed on pretty much everything to do with c!dream after novermber 16th and would write essays debunking each other's takes pretty goddamn often. here's an old post by red responding to a lot of opinions on both sides of the line which i think illustrates this well -- note the difference established between "c!dream apologists" and "c!dream enthusiasts," perhaps better known now as the "trauma interpretation" and "strategist interpretation" of c!dream back before the confirmation of staged finale during the prison break, which shows how different people's opinions of c!dream ranged at dreblr's very conception. and this disagreement ran pretty damn deep, too, lmao--some of it was reserved to debating each other in semiprivate discord servers, but plenty of it was made of vagueing each other's takes or directly debating them on each other's blogs.

i think that a source of friction, to be honest, is that dreblr started as a much more analysis- and meta-focused community than it is now. the entire dsmp fandom was very analysis-heavy in 2021-2022, and dreblr definitely reflected that culture; since the dsmp ended, the amount of active discussion about it in a meta sense has also waned, and as such dreblr and many other areas of dsmp fandom have been more focused on other kinds of fanwork. this isn't a bad thing, of course! but it has led to a shift in etiquette, and while i think meta etiquette and fanwork etiquette are very. very different things, obviously the amount of fanwork and the amount of meta that's around in dreblr spaces influences how people interact with all parts of dreblr etc etc that's just how people and communities work

but back to my point. disagreement has always been a part of this fandom, especially in meta spaces (which used to be pretty much all of dreblr, but has kind of become more of a small part of it in more recent times) and intensity with those disagreements also is kind of ... on par for the course? i mean, personally, i think disagreements ran more intense in dreblr in 2021 on average--it's not like dreblr has been as sharply divided with different "versions" of c!dream apologism since--and when it comes to the general fandom, well, any look at the inbox of anyone posting c!dream positive analysis and the formation of dreblr as a whole speak for themselves. also IFUADA and the whole attempt to like, lmanburg us out of our own house. which was hilarious btw that shit was awesome

like, at the end of the day, meta is made to be a place where people are gonna disagree. and a lot of people in meta spaces find it fun to disagree, even; there are more than a few people who will devil's advocate an argument they don't even agree with just for the sake of disagreement and debate. fandom analysis is just ... like, fandom academia lite, and it's also far less beholden to the rules of professionalism in real academia (not that real academia is free of conflict, obviously. including extremely petty conflict, as anyone who has read enough passive-aggressive as shit academic papers will tell you). this isn't to say that things don't go too far, because again, the history of this fandom proves it LOL. but while we all want people to feel comfortable in meta spaces, we also want meta spaces to be a place for people to be passionate about their opinions and to disagree about them fervently and to debate to their heart's content, bc that's kind of the point of fandom meta, yk?

in my post, i mentioned that i think more open disagreement will be good for dreblr, and i do stand by this point; i think that there's no real point in trying to stamp out disagreement in a space meant to be a free place for people to disagree and express their disagreements, not that that's what you're saying or anything just as a general thought. i also think that more disagreement will help with there feeling like there's less of a "correct" way to think about c!dream and the server, which i think raises the barrier of entry for people who want to post meta but don't want to be eviscerated bc they said something "wrong." of course, i can't force anyone to post meta nor do i want to--hell, i want to post more meta but am limited in time, and i know we all live busy lives 😭 (which is part of why this ask is being answered so late, sorry!) -- my point is i dont think, idk, one person being passionate abt a take or disagreement or whatever is necessarily the problem as far as upping the tension in dreblr as much as like. there's a lot of general discomfort and a lack of willingness to rock the boat in a place which should be a safe waters for everyone to take shots at any ship (er, ship to follow up with the rock-the-boat metaphor, but the secondary meaning does apply here as well) they want. we're shooting with water guns, not real bullets, and there's no fun in a splash fight if everyone's too scared of getting someone else wet, i guess.

that being said, anon, i understand that not everyone wants to participate in the free-for-all take pvp that is inherent to meta spaces...to which i say that, honestly, there's no requirement to participate in analysis spaces specifically to just, share your thoughts on the server. i think that in general, if anyone posts their thoughts on the dsmp and adds a disclaimer to the top like "not really analysis, just miscellaneous thoughts that i would prefer not to be vagued/argued against," i really just don't think that most people are gonna go out of their way to argue with that? you have every right to just yap while opting out of the possibility of being vagued or debated with, but you might have to make it clear beforehand bc vagueposting and debating is just the culture that exists in meta/analysis spaces, especially dsmp meta/analysis spaces that have been a part of dreblr since dreblr was made. and if there's anything else that can be done to make everyone feel more comfortable, i think that's worth discussing!

[manikas-whims]

Under Deepspace

Chapter 01: To Begin, Story 02: Mysterious Light

From the first moment I saw him, I knew he'd be the one.

i had thought of playing it as unbiased, enjoying all the love interests interactions n such but right from the beginning Xavier began growing on me..

Another silver haired guy with a gorgeous face?

Ah shit! Here we go again..

the way he doesn't wake up when you pat him but he does when he hears the sound of the watch?

i think this is about how he'd rather deal with the mess himself than get more people involved/in danger..

He's also like: WHO THE FUCK DISTURBED MY PEACEFUL SLEEP!?

Ngl y'all the annoyance looks HOT 🥵 on him.. y'all can call me smitten or whatever but I'd love seeing more of this Xavier..

the second long gap where his expression goes from 🤨 to 🥺

you can see your face slowly registering in his suddenly roused, sleepy and addled brain..like OH IT'S YOU

I think (just my personal belief) that Xavier didn't intend to make direct contact with you. That his intention was to keep tabs on you from a certain distance. Like he found out you were preparing to become a Deepspace Hunter, and himself decided to work here a few years earlier on..even living in the same apartment complex as you but thats likely cuz most hunters live there..

And I think he would stayed low and kept watch over you from a distance but then on your very first mission, you encountered him by chance. I'M SORRY I'M A SUCKER FOR FATED ENCOUNTERS 😩✨

And then, he had no choice but to make direct contact/interact with you (and fall for you all over again..cause thats something he's incapable of controlling..)

Notices imminent danger!

✨STRIKES✨

y'all by this point, I was swooning 😩

the way he flinches due to the collar restraining his evol 😢

he may be used to it but the pain does affect him..

it must hurt a lot 😭

this is the expression of a man who's being targeted by innumerable organisations, wanderers being sent after him, he's probably surviving on take-outs and cup noodles, hasn't properly slept in days..

Add to that: you appearing out of nowhere so now he has to make sure to protect you, even though he trusts you can fight and protect yourself quite well..

And on top of that the collar on his neck is being a bitch!

So yeah..he's just going through it 😮‍💨

Right! Well. All good now.

Let's go and deal with that wanderer together.

Infold introduced this man right in the beginning and expected me to not completely be taken by him 😩

i’m trying to replay the story chapters, so expect more such posts about Xavier..these aren't gonna be entirely in-depth analysis but more of my commentary on how I felt when I played these chapters for the first time..

[cooking-with-hailstones]

The Legend of Zelda: stats of the kingdom

A Statistical Analysis of Popular Fanfiction in the Legend of Zelda Fandom on AO3

I like numbers and stats and for some unfathomable reason I find it calming. So over the past couple weeks, I’ve been making this spreadsheet!

DISCLAIMER: This is not a judgement of the quality, value, or merits of any of the fics on this list. It's just me being curious about what's popular with the Legend of Zelda fandom on AO3.

Feel free to go explore the spreadsheet. My own observations and analysis under the cut.

TL:DR, Link has a lot of kinky sex. Sidlink and Zelink are vying for who’s the most popular ship. Also, this fandom has a shit ton of sub categories that are truly islands unto themselves and have their own conventions.

Methodology: I'm including all fics from the first page of AO3 results (20 fics per page) sorted by:

Hits

Kudos

Comments

Bookmarks

Anything tagged under the Legend of Zelda and Related Fandoms tag that was in the top 20 most hits, kudos, comments, or bookmarks made it into the spreadsheet. This ended up including 51 fics in total.

I put all the fics into one single spreadsheet in order to compare the differences between fics that are really high on the kudos count but not the hit count, or what has a lot of comments but fewer hits. Basically, I'm throwing a lot of things together to observe what gets engagement and looking at patterns that emerge!

Popular fandom subcategories:

Botw (41 fics tagged as such)

Linked Universe (9, including one mostly set in the world of BOTW)

OoT (2)

(I do wonder what it would be like to run these numbers on other fanfic sites, given the popularity boom of ao3 over the last 15 years or so. But also, Botw was an insanely popular game even by Zelda standards, so… who knows?)

Tags:

Character tags: Obviously, Link was by far the most popular character, but here are the characters that had a minimum of 3 appearances per category. Yay champions!

Zelda

Sidon

Mipha

Urbosa

Revali

Daruk

Story tags: Again, just going by sheer numbers, here are the story tags that appeared at least 3 times in every category:

Slowburn

AU – canon divergence

With honorable mentions to fluff, angst, double penetration, anal sex, amnesia/memory loss, and mute or selectively mute Link, who all cracked above 3 instances in 2 separate categories.

Relationships:

This was a tight race, but shoutout to Sidlink for eking out the win for the most highly rated ship in the Zelda fandom with 13 fics qualifying in my ranking. Zelink is close behind at 10 fics. (That being said, Zelink takes it by volume: 7,797 fics tagged as Zelink vs Sidlink’s 2,193)

Other popular ships:

Revalink (8) (this one surprised me! I didn’t realize my beloved birb was so popular)

Miphlink (3)

Link/Monsters (2)

Sidon/Reader (2)

Ganzelink, Ganlink, Malink, Miphzelink, and Miphzel all made single appearances.

(Pls don’t start ship war discourse in the notes kthanx)

All right, let’s deep dive into the numbers!

Fics in all 4 categories:

Interim - starkraving

Sands of time -tirsynni

Congrats you are officially the most popular Loz fics across all of ao3! at least according to my particular scope of analysis.

Fics in 3 categories:

Displaced - socksock

Drown In Me - bacchanalia

Alone We Fight - SilvermistAnimeLover

Blood Moon Rising - MarquesGillette

Popular authors (people who show up more than once in multiple categories sorry comments georg)

MarquesGillette

MaryDragon

SilvermistAnimeLover

ObakeAri

Hits:

Top 5 most popular fics by hit count:

Displaced - socksock

Interim - starkraving

To Save Hyrule - orphan_account

Sands of time - tirsynni

Drown In Me - bacchanalia

First page by hits:

Min: 117,917 – Sidon’s Epic Pining Adventure (ObakeAri)  

Max:  189,622 – Displaced (socksock)

Average: 145,385

Average wordcount for fics with the most hits:

140,909

Kudos:

Top 5 most popular fics by kudos count:

Excuse Me While I Kiss This Guy - Icka M Chif

Interim - starkraving

To My Dearest Friend - surveycorpsjean

26 Minutes and 42 Seconds - T_5Seconds

Blood Moon Rising - MarquesGillette

First page by kudos:

Min: 4917 – Finding Link (Umbreonix)

Max:  10321 – Excuse Me While I Kiss This Guy (Icka M Chif)

Average: 6981

Average wordcount for fics with the most kudos:

41,136

Comments:

Top 5 most popular fics by comment count:

Carlos from MarvelandZeldaFan's Children of the Heroes - KR5

This is an Adjuration - notfreyja

My Art - KR5

Sidon's Epic Pining Adventure - ObakeAri

Priestess of War - KR5

Woohoo! You all get to meet KR5 aka Comments Georg. Comments Georg has long conversations and RPs in the comments of their ao3 posts, which are usually fanart. TO BE CLEAR, THIS IS TOTALLY FINE AND COOL! I think it’s quite delightful! However, it does completely bork my ranking system because outside of comments, these posts do not have a lot of engagement (like, less than 100 hits and less than 20 kudos) and I don’t think they count towards my analysis of “what is popular in the Zelda fandom writ large”. But they qualified based on my criteria. Which I think speaks to the weakness of my criteria more than anything else tbh…

Anyways, shoutout to Comments Georg for truly showing off what it means to be a statistical outlier.

First page by comments:

Min: 1568 – The Quiet River Rages (MaryDragon)

Max:  43808 - Carlos from MarvelandZeldaFan's Children of the Heroes (KR5)

Average: 4131 (which goes down to 2042 if we exclude KR5’s impressive max, which is a full order of magnitude more than notfreyja in second place with 3470 comments. Very much demonstrating the power of a statistical outlier!)

Average wordcount for fics with the most comments:

275,593

Bookmarks:

Top 5 most popular fics by bookmarks count:

Interim - starkraving

Excuse Me While I Kiss This Guy - Icka M Chif

Sands of time - tirsynni

To My Dearest Friend - surveycorpsjean

Alone We Fight - SilvermistAnimeLover

First page by bookmarks:

Min: 973 – Expatriate (thehoyden)

Max:  2984 – Interim (starkraving)

Average: 1468

Average wordcount for fics with the most bookmarks:

70,027

Fic Ratings:

G: 3 (literally all fanart from KR5)

T: 22

M: 8

E: 17

Unrated: 1

Observations:

I ran this twice. Once including crossovers, and once excluding crossovers. This filtered out a lot of large drabbles and things like “flash fiction fuckings” which, no judgment, you do you, they just weren’t super relevant for what I was looking for. If you wanna see these stats including all the multifandom stuff that shows up, here’s the link for that:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1DXDKXutIzVC-Iac93fFSDohAkphrn67yV-DmRt9xXmU/edit?usp=sharing

(I’m going to break academic professional analysis here and get on my soapbox for a sec – please don’t post big multifandom one shots where you tag like 20 different fandoms and every single kink that gets written about across 103 different chapters. This is literally what series are for. These kinds of things just clog up the tags, and it also makes it harder for people to find the things you’ve written that they want to read! I know this was a convention on ff.net, but this is not ff.net! We can make authors' lives and readers' lives easier!)

There were 38,427 fics in the tag “Legend of Zelda and Related Fandoms” (including crossovers, that goes up to 41,634). I manually added one back in though because it was entirely a botw story, just loosely inspired by another game.

Linked Universe fans comment a LOT. Strong correlation between high comment and Linked Universe fandom subsection. Y’all are very involved and active, and you show support to your authors. I salute you!

Sidlinkers, y'all are horny and I respect it.

Zelinkers, dear god we do love a slowburn.

All the most highly kudos’d fics are very low in the comment count. It’s almost an inverse correlation.

Excluding crossovers increased the correlation between hits and kudos quite dramatically.

There were not very many au’s other than canon divergence. Only one modern au as far as I could tell from a cursory examination of tags.

Lots more clustering, far less disparity between min and max numbers than when I ran this with A:TLA numbers.

Far less consensus on a vibe. Way fewer big writers, but lots of little writers doing their own thing.

Truly a lot of E fics. We are horny bastards.

We need more stuff written for games other than BOTW!!

There aren’t as many fics that are like “oh everyone in the fandom has read these fics”. There are probably those fics in each subcategory of the fandom, or within the specific ships, but there aren’t as many general fics that have entire fandom-wide appeal.

Thank you for reading! This was a lot of fun, and I hope you found it interesting. Shoutout to the Hateno Hangout discord for helping me refine this mess :P

Further shoutout to my partner who helped with writing some SQL to help with tag analysis. Truly partner of the year.

If you want more of this kind of egregious nerdiness, I did this with the top fics in the A:TLA fandom a couple weeks ago: https://www.tumblr.com/cooking-with-hailstones/751749202663669760/statistical-analysis-of-the-most-popular-atla

[sanjoongie]

ᆞAᆞᆞlᆞᆞpᆞᆞhᆞᆞaᆞ

ღ @pirateeznet 2nd anniversary Fic~

ღGenre chosen: sci-fi, with prompt: a lab-engineered [unspecified] has broken out of the lab, and you/a member find you/a member hiding in an alley

ღPairing: Scientist! Jeong Yunho x Hyena Hybrid! Reader (f)

ღGenre: smut

ღau: sci fi, hybrid

ღtrope: s2l

ღword count: 2,698

ღsummary: when yunho gets fired from his big corporation job as a scientist, on his way out, he finds you in an alleyway and brings you home. what he doesn't see coming is exactly how much more of the animalistic side of you there is...

ღspecial thanks to @downtoamagicalland & @mejuii for helping me iron some details out

ღsmut warnings below cut!!

ღwarnings: toxic male moment!, futa, dom! Reader, sub! Yunho, oral (f), fingering (f), cock stepping, degradation, Mommy nickname (f), baby boy nickname (yunho), praise kink, degradation kink, orgasm denial

ღmood board inspiration by daeeun @daemour for inspiration:

Yunho was having an absolute shit day.

Yunho worked in a top-class, corporate funded lab. The problem was that he was stuffed into an absolutely useless department. What the fuck was Developmental Analysis anyways? So Yunho felt like his academic mind was rotting away in a basement suite.

So what if he drank sometimes at work? It was boring. He didn’t actually do anything. He could be studying and breaking down genetic makeup, but noooooo he just filled charts and wrote up papers that he was pretty sure weren’t getting read.

His boss, some frou-frou higher up that probably didn’t know the difference between an atom and an apple, looked at him distastefully from across their desk.

“I’m sorry to inform you, but we’re letting you go.” Except for this man, Yunho squinted at the name plate at the desk, Park Seonghwa? Yeah, this guy didn’t look sorry at all.

“Here’s a box to put your things in and leave the premises immediately. I’ll have Jongho escort you for old times' sake.” Seonghwa put on the most half-assed sympathetic smile and then waved his hands to show he was finished with Yunho.

Yunho hiccupped while he put his framed text photo of Every disaster movie starts with the government ignoring a scientist that his best friend Mingi had bought him when he first got the job. Yunho didn’t need this job. This job needed him! Yunho sent a glare around at the open concept office, and everyone ducked their heads.

“C’mon, Yunho.” Jongho gripped his upper arm rather roughly. “This hurts me more than it hurts you, big guy.”

“I’m the one that got fired. How are you hurting more than me?!” Yunho pointed out but nonetheless grabbed his box and let Jongho tug him towards the elevator.

Jongho turned his head away and, with his free hand, wiped a finger at his eyelashes. “You’ve the best work friend I’ve had, Yunho.”

Yunho rolled his eyes and dropped his jaw, making a face. He was so over this place.

Jongho didn’t let go of his arm, even as they reached the rotating doors to the upper level. “Seonghwa says I’ve got to take your lab coat too, Yunho.”

Yunho sent a look of disbelief at the security guard. “I paid for this out of my own pocket!”

Jongho shrugged his shoulders. “They’ll remove the charge from your severance pay anyways, bro. Just do it.”

Yunho squared his shoulders stubbornly. “I may be fired, but I’m still a scientist. They can’t take that away from me.” And with that final sentence, Yunho twirled around on his heel to leave. He overestimated and did an extra half twirl, facing the wrong way to leave. He put his converse-covered feet in front of each other, heavily crossing his legs, but eventually, he made his way out of the building forever.

“Stupid corporate bigwigs,” Yunho mumbled under his breath.

Where did he park his car again? Yunho instinctively turned down an alley. He was pretty sure he jaunted down it on his way to work this morning. Who fires someone on a Monday anyway?

Something pushed a can into the middle of the alley, and Yunho stopped. No object moved without a force behind it. Was it an alley cat or a homeless person?

Yunho started to dig into his box. “Uhhhh, if you want something of worth, I suppose this pen might be good for a few bucks at the local pawn shop, but I can’t make any promises,” Yunho muttered.

“Help…me…” A raspy voice says from behind some garbage bags.

Yunho took a step back from the rustling bags. “Listen, you don’t want a piece of this, buddy.” Yunho dropped his box and brandished his old letter opener.

“...please…”

Yunho grabbed his phone from his back pocket and turned on the flashlight. You blinked up at him, dark eyes reflecting back the light. Yunho shook his head. Didn’t only nocturnal animals have that feature?

“Who are you?”

You whined, hands in between your legs, that sprawled out on either side of you. “...I…escaped.”

“Me too! I’m so glad I never have to go back to that place. You know what? We should celebrate! At my place.” Yunho pulled his flask from his box. “I’ve got more where this came from!”

As it turned out, Yunho’s car had gotten impounded from its less than auspicious parking spot in front of a computer café. Yunho lugged his box to the nearest bus and paid for both your fares.

“A little early for Halloween, isn’t it?” The bus driver shouted.

Yunho pouted as he sat down on the bus. “I’m a real scientific man!”

You hesitated at the front, arms wrapped around your body. Yunho patted the seat beside him, and you scurried over. You tucked yourself into his frame and shivered. Yunho instinctively put his arm around your shaking shoulders.

“Hey hey.” Yunho patted your shoulder in reassurance. “We’re better than that place! There's no need to cry.”

Yunho stumbled off the bus steps, missing his bus stop by several stops later. But that was okay. Because he had his flask and he had you now as company.

“So, what do you go by, fellow escapee?” Yunho giggled, tipping his head back and taking a shot of his whiskey.

“Fi--”

Yunho hiccupped, interrupting you. “Fi, huh? That’s cute. I’m Yunho.”

“Yu--” Yunho shoved the flask at you. “Yu?”

“Yuyu!” Yunho giggled again. His nose and ears were red. “I love it. Yuyu and Fi!”

You sniffed the flask and then growled at it. Yunho shrugged and took the flask from you. “More for me then!”

How Yunho managed to drink, balance his box, and make it back to his apartment is a mystery, but the fired scientist does, in fact, do everything AND unlock the door to his place.

“You stay as loooooong as you want,” Yunho says, throwing his hands up in the air. “I’ll never kick you out. I’m not mean like that horrible place.”

“I--” You take a long look at the bachelor pad. “Do you live alone?”

“I used to have a roommate, but he got a girlfriend.” Yunho rolled his eyes. He landed on his couch pretty heavily with a huff. “San, the romantic.”

You tug on the beanie over your head and the long jacket over you. Yunho squinted at you. Did you have those on earlier? What did he care? “Make yourself at home.”

Yunho spent the rest of the night drinking any liquor he could get his hands on. He bitched and whined and complained about his job and his place of work. You listened to him, preferring his babble to the thoughts in your own head.

Eventually, Yunho laid down on the couch, mumbling under his breath about the idiocy of the 1%, arm outstretched to the floor. Tentatively, from your position on the floor along him, you reached your hand to brush your fingers to his.

“You and me, kid,” Yunho grunted from under his breath. “We’re gonna take over the world.” His fingers curled into yours before you both fell asleep.

When Yunho woke up, he groaned, slapping a hand to his forehead. “Oh fuck.”

The toilet flushed, and then you came out of his bathroom. Yunho was too busy rubbing sleep from his eyes. “I need water,” he noted to himself.

“I hope you don’t mind,” you said sweetly, “My clothes were…dirty--”

Yunho shouted and jumped on his couch. “What the fuck?”

You winced. “I’m sorry, I’ll take the clothes off immediately!”

Your hands grabbed the hem of Yunho’s t-shirt and began to yank it off. Yunho’s eyes ran over your soft thighs, your tummy, your underboob and then covered his eyes. “No no, it’s quite alright, you can wear it!”

You chewed your bottom lip nervously. “You don’t remember last night, do you?”

“Well, by the way I’m fighting nausea, and a half naked woman is coming out of my bathroom, I can make assumptions.”

You shook your head vehemently. “I knew this was a bad idea.”

“Bad idea to fuck me? I’m sure others told me I'm better when I’m drunk…” Yunho scratched the back of his head in confusion.

You whined in the back of your throat. “You didn’t fuck me, Yunho. You helped me escape.”

Yunho chuckled dryly. “Oh right,” he said mirthlessly, “I got fired.”

“I really appreciate what you’ve done,” you said in a worried tone. “Not a lot of people would have stuck their necks out for me.”

Yunho waved his hand. “It’s nothing, Fi…” Whatever else was going to come out of his mouth was gone as you pulled your yellow tail around your body and anxiously pulled at some black hair at the tip.

“Oh, I’ve fucked up.”

“Please, Yunho, don’t kick me out,” you begged immediately. “You said you’d never kick me out last night!”

“I also said I’d solve the majority of Einstein’s theories!” Yunho yelled back.

You winced, curling your shoulders forward to make yourself smaller. “Please,” you whimpered.

Yunho zoned in on the black tipped yellow ears on your head. Oh he was so fucked. He had heard rumors about the Genetic Experimentation level, but he just thought it was other scientists razzing him.

Adrenaline rushed through Yunho. He grabbed your arm roughly, akin to the way Jongho escorted you out of his old work and started towards the door. “I’m taking you back before I get sued. What the fuck was I thinking? A million dollar investment in my apartment? I’ll tell them I found you and I brought you back as soon as I could!”

“No, you can’t!” You struggled in Yunho’s grip, digging your feet in, but still the man pulled you to his door.

“The hell I can’t!” Yunho snapped. “This is my house and my life. You will listen to me.”

Something snapped in you. No one ever out ranked you. You were the strongest, the fastest, the better one in this situation. Who the fuck was Yunho to tell you what to do???

You growled, deep in your chest, and planted your feet. You broke the grip. Yunho had you by hitting his hand off you with your fist. Yunho yelled in surprise and held his wrist to his chest. You placed two hands on Yunho’s shoulders and dug your fingers in cruelly to his neck muscles. Yunho whimpered and was driven to his knees. “You weak-minded man,” you sneered.

“Weak minded?!” Yunho gulped as he stared up at you.

“You are below me in every single fucking way,” You spat. “How dare you try to evict me when you promised me safety. Are you that scared of the world that you can’t stand for your own words? Pathetic.”

Yunho licked his lips. What is going on right now? What happened to the pleading woman who he could have sworn was smaller than him just a few minutes ago.

“I’ll show you who’s boss, little man,” you threatened.

Yunho watched with fascination as something rose from under his t-shirt that you still had on. “I bet you’ve never seen a clit as big as mine, huh, sissy boy?”

“clit?” Yunho’s eyebrows shot into his fringe.

“Wanna see?” You said practically giddily.

Science made Yunho nod his head.

You tucked your fingers into the waistband of your panties and tugged them down your legs, and neatly stepped out of them. Then you raised the t-shirt to reveal that your clit had indeed engorged itself until the point where it appeared like a… Yunho’s eyes became as big as saucers.

“I… You have a cock…” Yunho whispered almost reverently.

You shook your head. “No, sweetums, that’s my clit. It’s ten times more sensitive than your pathetic cock.”

“How sensitive?” Yunho asked.

“Why don’t you suck it and find out,” You said sweetly.

Yunho nodded his head to himself. His mouth was watering. Something about your domineering attitude was honestly luring him in. He wanted to wrap his lips around your clit. He wanted to feel what you felt like in his mouth. And most of all, he wanted your approval all of a sudden. What would it take?

“There’s a good boy,” you cooed as Yunho licked the tip of your clitoris.

His eyes glanced upwards to your encouraging, smiling face and then his lips encompassed the head of your engorged clit. He sucked on it and it caused your head to cast backwards. “Fuck, Yunho, that feels amazing, baby.”

Yunho looked nervous as he bobbed his head down your length, gagging as you hit the back of his throat. Except that it felt wonderful and you needed more of it.

“Drop your jaw, sweetums,” you cooed some more. “Let Mommy fuck your throat, hmm?”

Yunho managed a tiny squeak in agreement and then you were shoving your clit down his throat. Yunho moaned in between breaths, your slick-covered clit gliding over his tongue and down his throat. Being used like this was making him hard.

“What's this?” You sang, and Yunho felt his stomach drop out of his ass.

The hard bottom of the ball of your foot pressed down on his semi-hard cock. “Are you getting turned on by this, Mister alpha male?”

Yunho whimpered as you continued to step on his cock. His eyes rolled into the back of his head and you sighed in disappointment. “More like a sweet baby beta, hmm?”

You pulled out your clit and grabbed it by the base. You smeared it against Yunho’s cheek, watching as his ears got red in embarrassment. “Stick your tongue out, Yunnie,” You commanded.

Yunho did, looking debauched and delicious in the process. You tapped your clit on Yunho’s outstretched tongue, enjoying the feeling of the roughness against your sensitive organ.

Your other free hand gripped the back of Yunho’s head and you shoved your clit back into his mouth.

“That's it, take my clit in your mouth, just like that,” You moaned.

This sensation of having your clit sucked like this was making your pussy lips wet with desire. “Put your pretty fingers in me, Yunho, make me feel real good.”

Yunho stared up at you, your clit pushed into the soft flesh of the inside of his cheek, as he put one, then two fingers inside of you. You moaned at the dual sensation. It was nothing that you have ever experienced before; it was mind-numbing as Yunho penetrated you and sucked on you.

“Make mommy cum, Yunnie, oh fuck yes, that feels so good baby boy, give me what I want. Come on, swirl that tongue around me. Suck me good. Curl those fingers into my rough spot, that's a good boy, yeah yeah!!-”

You let go of Yunho’s head as you rode your orgasm. Yunho coughed, wiping his lips with the back of his mouth. “...what was that?” He asked.

You opened your eyes and stared down with a lust-lidded look. “That was my pseudo-penis, and that was me dominating you, Yuyu. But you liked it, didn't you, big boy?”

Yunho swallowed, his Adam's apple bobbing nervously. “I…”

You gripped his chin harshly and began to growl. “Say it, Yunho. Say it for Mommy.”

Yunho whined, biting down on his lower lip. “I like it, Mommy. Yunho likes being your baby beta.”

“Much better.” You let go of Yunho and pushed the t-shirt back down, your clit having become normal sized again. “Now you know what happens when you try to pull rank on me.”

“You're just going to leave me like this?” Yunho called out dejectedly.

You waved a hand. “I'm gonna shower. You take care of yourself, big boy.”

Yunho watched as you sauntered to the bathroom and wondered how exactly he had gotten himself into this mess. And why exactly he was DYING for another chance for you to fuck his throat.

Yunho sat in thought. You had a pseudo penis. Your genes made you dominate him. Your tail and ears were yellow with black accents…

“Wait, you’re a hyena hybrid?!” Yunho shouted out to the closed door, and he swore he heard a cackle just like a hyena on the other side.

[vampiric-succulent]

OUAW EP 26 (shorter bc I started writing this halfway thru):

FROST BECOMES A PROUD NUDIST AND DEREK’S COMMITMENT TO THE BIT I CANNOT

Oh god Gideon’s fey curse is so sad bc I was really hoping he’d play it no different but bc Richie played it no different Kremy is still in love w Gid and he’s gonna go through such a rollercoaster of emotions and events in the next bit oh no oh no

Ykw actually because Mace is playing it as physical attraction and bc of the “I like how you looked before” comment im gonna say this is Gideon being attracted to Summer Eladrin Kremy but still being in love with Kremy, which doesn’t necessarily make it less complicated but does change things

Where was this level of analysis when I still had to write papers for English classes?!??? Come on

“I am just so glad we are married” “oh the whole ironic thing! Right!! It’s totally ironic” NO GUYS COME ON KREMY IS SAYING THE IRONIC THING TO NOT BE HURT AND GIDEON IS GIDEONING SO MAYBE THATS THE SAFER OPTION

“We should probably get rings” AAAAAAAAAAA

“God I love you” HOLY SHIT HE SAID THE THING

“oh like ironically! You’re my best mate!” SAFEST OPTION SAFEST OPTION OH MY LORD

“Ironically, literally, there was a ceremony…” “ironically, just best buds right”

AND NOW MACE ISNT PLAYING IT ANY DIFFERENT. HES. HOLY SHIT HES JUST PLAYING IT LIKE IT WOULD BE IF GIDEON ALSO LOVED KREMY. AND MACE IS SCOOTING NEXT TO RICH I am going to cry

EVERYONE IS STRIPPING AGAIN WHAT IS GOING ON (atp this is just another Tuesday for these guys but THE CHARACTERS AND HISTORY INVOLVED SPECIFICALLY)

This is so well engineered to happen like this. It’s moments like these when I think the dice know.

Somehow Chuckles being here is not the most chaotic thing right now.

“Kremy. Kremy, lemme just say, I *loved* your previous form” SCREAMING. CRYING. HEAD IN MY HANDS. THROWING UP. SCUTTLING AWAY TO HIDE IN A CORNER.

He’s still trying to say it’s ironic whAT WILL IT TAKE. WHAT WILL IT TAKE FOR THEM TO BE HAPPY.

Gideon trying to protect Kremy from the “were-Twig.” That’s all.

Chuckles is becoming the most chaotic force again, the balance is returning

TWIG BEING THEIR DAUGHTER

Back to your regularly scheduled chaos :)

LIVE GRICKO REACTION TO POST NUDIST FROST IS GOLD oh I love these guys

Wow Mikey that is a Face to make

Love when Nikkie just forces them together she’s literally taking the characters and going “now kiss”

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

COALECROUX DOMESTIC BLISS MOMENT WAHOO 🫵😮🗣️🗣️🗣️‼️

Derek’s little face aww

KREMY. IT IS NOT IRONIC. KREMY SHUT THE FUCK UP AND CONSIDER THE POSSIBILITY OF BEING HAPPY

Love and hate how Donkey Torbek is just Eeyore. Poor little guy :(

Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope.

“You feel your consciousness almost leave you with the force of Torbek’s growth— oh that sounds awful” “SOMEBODY QUOTE THAT RIGHT AWAY” on it 🫡🫡🫡

Not the shants 😭😭

No come on keep the Gideon love come on please Nikkie :((((((

Seriously tho it’s very sad that Frost’s robe is gone. That was his old master’s robe and I’m pretty sure the only memory Frost had left of him. Damn.

“You have made……no progress.” Sorry Nikkie :(

Frost’s robe!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And Bag of Holding :)

Andy’s donkey bit is so fucking perfect I love that it’s infecting others. The donkey mnemonic contagion spreads

Oh no, they have to go over a water crossing. That historically has not gone well.

The RagnaRoss and RagnaRachel fanart request…………… guys 👀👀

Love Derek being salty about his roll

Not the frog heads 😭😭

Okay I’m really hungry so I am gonna stop typing now if anything else happens there will be another one

[zomboivex]

Have some unprocessed thoughts about Leo.

Aha here I am with a fucking MICROSCOPE going to dissect this man and his entire being (aha I used to do character analysis for funsies on other platforms). And man-

Can I just say he has all the signs of a character who’s fucking Tragic™ tbf all the ghouls are

But dude is literally on a fucking self-destructive path and I’m here for watching this shit show unfold.

I mean he literally was called out by Alan to take better care of himself, to stop taking the easy way out, and that he’ll be the one to suffer in the end.

Not to mention bro was UNPHASED when Alan threw him against a wall. He was more thrilled to have gotten under his skin, if even for a moment.

Then there’s his opening line about getting revenge or whatever (I’m running on 4 hours of sleep so sorry if I misremembered it).

And then when you pick up Sho’s affinity lines about him, you sort of start to paint a picture of someone who’s reckless and does shit that gives him a thrill in the moment (ie. fights in the club and whatever the fuck he’s doing with fireworks that has Sho hard pass on it ever again).

I’m sure there’s other instances too.

But!

I come here to say this-

Whatever the fuck happened to this dude to make him this way- man.

Here are some of my predictions with no facts just feels

- Sho will eventually have enough of his shit and cut him out of his life if he doesn’t change (they’ll rekindle the friendship probably because Sho does care about him otherwise why put up with his bullshit? He’s just worried about his buddy who’s literally self-destructing)

- He’s going to lose his followers and the little bit of validation he gets

- He’s going to have Vice-Captain stripped from him

- He’s gonna get humbled

But- ALSO yeah I’m not done here

Here is a wild theory for you.

I think that because he was on a self-destructive path BEFORE Darkwick (aha fights in the club etc) he was def miserable af and

Someone ‘slipped’ to him about making demon pacts (that someone I have a feeling was Hyde).

He did it and survived his shit and tells Sho what Hyde told him (and drags Sho into it maybe?? Idk man I’m tired LMFAO)

And this is why Sho is icy af towards Hyde because he just made his friend exponentially WORSE

Anyways ANYWAYS

And- and listen-

Leo is such an interesting character who definitely has a lot of flaws. Idc if you don’t like him because he’s an ass and tried to have MC killed so did Taiga

I’m just excited to see how his character unfolds. Because so far, he’s presenting himself as a character who is very complex but on the surface level is a fucking ass.

He’s self-destructive and I really hope we can see that play out.

But hey- maybe I’ll eat my words in a year or so.

Guess it depends on how ever the game decides to take it which I’m cool with whatever route they go because I have 0 expectations anyways and that’s what RP and FanFics are for