#high hat cupcakes

[fullcravings]

Coconut Caramel High-Hat Cupcakes

[slutwalkdc]

Mint Chocolate High Hat Cupcakes

[tsumoris]

Mint Chocolate High Hat Cupcakes

[ribbonprincess]

🧸࿐ ࿔*:･ﾟ

note: I'm back..with some dad!jj This is so rushed and messy:((

"hey...woah,no we don't eat that cupcake" JJ sighs for the hundredth time this morning,pulling one of John b discarded bandadas away from her mouth "you have a blinky, remember?" he holds the purple my little pony pacifier in front of her chubby face to prove his point.

An exact copy of his eyes stares back at him "you know what- don't stare at me like that little miss,you don't wanna fight me" he says,letting her suck at her pacifier before tickling her sides making her release loud giggles "that's what I thought- not so girl boss hm" "jayj,what are you doing?" You're standing at the doorway of his room at the chateau,your arms crossed over your chest as your face crunches up. "oh,hi mama...I was- you know, teaching her self dense you never know what could happen" "she's 8 months old" a sigh escapes your mouth before you can stop it "all she cares about is sleeping,eating and her toys"

Lilith squeals Happily when you come in her vision,clapping her chubby hands together "hi angel,dada is annoying you? yeah...I know a thing or two about that" "hey! I'm awesome" your boyfriend protests "and she loves me...right peanut?" he gather her in his arms,putting his baseball cap on her much tinier head "aww,look at you! Dada's twin" he smiles,kissing her cheeks as the hat slides down obscuring her vision causing a loud whine to escape her lips at the sudden disappearance of her dad.

"woah...'m right here- don't need to cry" he laughs,fixing the head so she can see him again "yeah,right here baby mama's here too" he says,tugging you into his side as Lilith smiles widely "it's unfair...I had to carry her for 9 months and have a painful birth and she comes out looking exactly like you" as to annoy even more the small girl giggles "it's not funny,miss" "I think it's hilarious,see she even has my humor!" JJ smiles putting his palm up "high five!" he shouts making the baby squeals before she hits his palm with her much more tiny hand "hell yeah!"

Your expression softens softly at the scene before shaking your head "what I got myself into.." the phrase comes out slightly breathy,not making itself hearable to either JJ or the baby. Yeah,you loved your little chaotic family.

[ashlynlovestlou]

cowgirl w abby

꩜ CW: country!abby , gentle!abby , fem! reader , words of encouragement , praise , slight crying , strap use (r!receiving) , pet names

꩜ synopsis: you and abby live on a farm :)

masterlist

☆—-------------------------------------------------------------—☆

"Easy, hun." Abby says, her tone smooth like honey as she guides your hips to situate on her strap. She's being painfully slow, not giving you the friction that you so desperately need. Every time you try to bounce or even sit on it, she grabs you by the hips and pulls you back up. "Don't wanna hurt you, darlin'."

You sigh audibly, loud enough for Abby to hear your frustration, "Please, Abby."

She gently hushes you, suppressing your whines with soft kisses on your lips. At this point, you had become so wet that you couldn't hold yourself up, even if you wanted to. Your thighs were glistening with your slick, practically begging Abby to fuck you as you keep slipping on it.

"Sh sh sh... I've got you." She coos, her thumbs tracing soft circle around your hips and waist, "So damn pretty."

You were starting to become so impatient and overstimulated that your eyes welled with tears. Abby notices almost instantly, stopping her movements completely. The tip of the strap rests right outside your entrance as Abby looks at you with the utmost concern, "What's wrong, cupcake? Did I hurt you?"

You shake your head, burying your face into the crook of her neck, "Pleeeeease, Abby." You whine, hugging your arms around her muscles like she's a big teddy bear. You clench around nothing, your body aching for her.

The top of her cowboy hat brushes up against your head. You could never get her to take that damn hat off, but you never minded. She practically eat, sleeps, and breathes in that hat, "Please what, honey?"

You sigh again, snatching the hat off her head and putting it on yourself, "Let me ride you like you ride your horses." Nobody knows where this random burst of confidence comes from, but Abby seems to like it.

She cocks an eyebrow, her lips spreading into a smirk, "You sure?" You've never been more sure of anything. You nod rapidly, holding onto her biceps, "You're going to tell me if it hurts, alright?" She says, her tone less of a question and more of an order.

"Okay, yeah, fine." You say, looking down into her lap as you straddle her thighs. She has her hold on yours, gently rubbing circles around as she situates the strap to be against your entrance again.

She inserts it into you, letting you adjust to the length before thrusting into you, slowly and sensually. She moans from the back of her throat, enjoying the way your tits move every time you bounce on the strap. You have one hand on Abby's shoulder, the other on the top of the hat as you slowly grind against her lap. Abby's hands cup your rear, giving it a squeeze and thus forcing a moan out of your lips.

"Fuck, you're so tight." She mumbles, still guiding you and helping you lift yourself up. You whine and whimper in response, sinking your teeth down on your bottom lip. She brushes her thumb over your lips, "Don't do that, baby. You'll hurt yourself."

You groan again, a familiar warmth developing in your tummy, "Ab—Abby.."

"I know, I know." She says, rolling her tongue over your nipple for extra stimulation, "Let go whenever you want, darlin'. I'm right here."

She keep going at your own pace, a cluster of moans coming out of your body as it trembles. You go slower the closer you get to reaching your high, being able to feel the toy touch your most sensitive spots. The way Abby's hands are caressing and massaging your breasts makes you lean into her, feeling her warmth as you breathe heavier.

She brings a thumb down to your crotch, rubbing on your clit. This gesture sends you over the edge, coming undone in her arms.

"There you go, baby. Feel good?" She coos, fucking you through your orgasm.

Once it's all done she can tell how exhausted you are, so she takes her hat off your head and tosses it aside, pulling out of you and laying you down on the bed behind y'all.

"You okay? I didn't hurt you, did I?" She says, peppering kisses all along your cheek.

"No, I'm good." You respond, panting like you had just run a marathon.

"You did so good, pretty girl. I'm gonna clean y' up now." She purrs, sending chills down your spine.

[darkficsyouneveraskedfor]

Bitter Sweet Symphony 1

My warnings are not exhaustive but be aware this is a dark fic and may include potentially triggering topics. Please use your common sense when consuming content. I am not responsible for your decisions.

Character: Thor

Summary: you meet a god in real life but he's not the saviour you think.

As usual, I would appreciate any and all feedback. I’m happy to once more go on this adventure with all of you! Thank you in advance for your comments and for reblogging ❤️

You catch Joanie by her knapsack before she can disappear into the crowd. Your heart lurches as you just picture her tiny stature getting lost in the New York crush. You pull her back to you. 

“Joan, take me hand,” you demand shakily. 

“Sorry, I thought I saw...” she begins then shakes her head. The cat ears on her hat wiggle. She grabs your hand with her small one and you squeeze. “Nothing. I’m just excited.” 

“You know mom would kill me if I lost you,” you draw her out of the way of another pedestrian. The man in his suit doesn’t spare you a single thought as he charges by. 

“Ha, I’m not going to get lost,” she insists. 

You grumble but don’t voice your anxiety. She’s young and it’s all so big and loud to her. She’s still to young to be scared. You admire your half-sister for that but it also fills you with dread. 

“I did!” She squeals and jumps in her pink high tops. “I saw him, I saw him.” 

She points and her hand bounces off the hip of a woman strutting by. You apologise and once more redirect your sister. You squint and search in the direction she pointed. Yellow taxis honk as they roll by and jay walkers dodge between them. 

“Thor!” Your sister hollers and hops up again, waving her hand. 

That’s when you see him. You don’t know how you missed him. There’s so much going on that all the buildings and bodies blend together. For as long as you’ve been in the city, you’re still not used to the chaos of it all. 

“Thor?” You echo her. 

“Duh! God of Thunder! He hangs out with Iron Man.” 

“Right,” you shepherd her back before she can get underfoot. “You know what mom says about talking to strangers.” 

“He’s not a stranger, he’s a hero.” She argues. 

“Maybe but I’m sure he’s just trying to live his life. He doesn’t look like he’s hero-ing right now, kiddo,” you chide. 

“But...” her face falls. “But we don’t have heroes at home! What if I never see another one again? I just wanna say hi.” 

“I know, Joan, but I...” you pause and glance back. There are others clustering around the tall man. He smiles and welcomes them as he greets them all graciously. You just hate to be in others way. You should have considered that before you moved to one of the most overcrowded places on earth. “Alright, but we’re going to go down and cross at the walk, right?” 

She harrumphs and agrees begrudgingly, “right.” 

You take her down the sidewalk, clamped onto her as you steer her around the New Yorkers trapped in the tunnel vision of their own existence. You get to the corner and wait and cross with a cluster. You glance down the pavement as Joanie squirms. 

“Oh no, I think he’s gone,” she whines. 

You look desperately ahead and grimace. You hope you didn’t ruin it for her. You drag her along, hoping that long blonde hair will pop up again. It doesn’t. You get to the exact place you spotted him. He’s not there. 

“I’m so sorry, Joanie. I just wanted to be safe.” You turn to her, your chest dropping. “I’m so sorry.” 

“It’s fine...” she drones and hangs her head. 

You stumble as a man knocks into your hip. You try to make yourself smaller but it’s hard to dodge anyone on the sidewalk even without a little extra cushion. You peer around and your eyes catch on the hanging sign of a bakery. 

“How about a treat instead? You love cupcakes, right?” You coax her. 

“Mm, I guess,” she shrugs. 

Her disappointment stings. You feel horrid. You know she’s going to hold onto this. 

“Come on, let’s get out of this,” you pull her to the bakery door.  

As you enter, you sigh. You’re happy to be free of the city crawl. You look up at the menu above the counter. You’ve never been in here before. It’s a nice place and the desserts look immaculate. They’re also expensive. 

“Look they have a unicorn--” You begin and Joanie rips her hand away as she wiggles. 

“He’s here!” She cries out. “It’s Thor.” 

Her voice carries across the space and you cringe and you look over to find the man, or god, in question. His blue eyes round as he bites into a cupcake piled with icing. The sugary topping marks his nose as he pulls it away and gulps. He gives a goofy smile. 

“Joanie,” you whisper, “he’s just trying to enjoy his food.” 

“Little one!” He waves before you can deter her. “You know me.” 

Joanie giggles and squeals and skips over before you can stop her. You trail after her reluctantly as she hops up to his table, “your Thor, king of Asgard, God of Thunder!” She jitters. “I know you!” 

He booms with laughter and wipes the icing from his beard and nose. His cupcake is forgotten on a small saucer. “An honour to meet you...” 

“Joanie!” She nearly hollers. “My name is Joanie.” 

“Ah, a beautiful name,” he praises and his eyes wander over you as you hover behind her. “And this lady, your mother?” 

“Sister!” Joanie replies before you can and gives your name. 

You try to smile as he grins at you and his eyes seem to sparkle. You wonder if that’s a god thing. Your cheeks are hot as his gaze bores into you. 

“Are you here for the cupcakes? They are delicious. I recommend the confetti.” He puts his attention back to Joanie. “Would you like to join me?” 

“Oh, sir, thanks, that’s so kind but we’ll just be getting ours to go--” 

“But--” Joanie begins to whine and you lay your hand on her shoulder. 

“If you don’t mind. She’s a big fan.” 

“Not at all,” he assures you. “Allow me to treat you. What are we having?” 

He stands and you shrink as he towers over you. There aren’t many who can make you feel small. You can’t help but take a step back and herd Joanie with you. 

“Um...” you look over, “it’s really—I don’t mind. I can’t get ours. We’ve already bothered--” 

“I must insist. As a king, I prize courtesy above all. Please sit and allow me to bring you some sweets.” 

“I want the unicorn!” Joanie demands before you can stop her. You give Thor and apologetic look. He only seems amused by her awe. 

“That’s very generous of you, what do we say, Joanie?” You say. 

“Please and thank you,” she chirps. 

“Yes, thank you, Thor. I’m fine with something simple. Vanilla is good for me.” You move Joanie away from him, “come on, let’s sit down. We’ve done a lot of walking.” 

[minispidey]

nsfw mayhaps.. but Logan with a Younger!Witchy reader? But like witch practitioner not a blood witch? shes chubby, looks like a witch, acts like a witch? maybe she wears a costume witches hat and rides him? he finds its weirdly hot and just jackhammers into her 🥹🫶

Not beta we die like old man Logan/j, just random thoughts and english is not my first language. This is not in my usual fanfic format. I do make longer fics but I'm taking a well-deserved break from long fics. So yall are just getting thoughts/ headcanons from me.

NSFW 18+ MDNI (warnings: just rough sex dw)

LISTEN i live for witches especially when I have the mindset of a goldfish— thinking of really tight thigh-highs that squish reader's thighs (for the sake of consistency in my blog, let's say she's a little dumb. casts a spell to make a cupcake and she makes a cake in shape of a cup, etc. aka a witchy 💕bimbo)

Soft pouty bottom lip sticking out as she straddles Logan and he's pushed her panties to the side to push his cock inside her warm pussy. Logan's hands are on her waist, squeezing as he settles her down on the very base of his cock, fully sheathed inside. Witchy!bimbo whimpers while she holds on to her hat and whines, complaining about how pretty her dress was and it was all wrinkled because of him.

Logan sweet talks to her, but also mockingly. He doesn't care, but it was fun teasing her and acting like he does.

"Owww..." you pouted after he pulls on your thigh-highs and snaps it against your skin. His rough hands rubs circles around that same spot before chuckling "That hurt, doll?"

"A lot..." as you sigh, you sat back down on his cock before wiggling a bit, feeling all the veins on his cock around every corner of your tight core.

You feel him grab hands full of your ass. He slowly rose you up, his nose resting in between your breasts before slamming you back down on the base of his cock which rendered you helpless. Your hand fell from your hat and to Logan's hard chest. He quickly catches your hat and held it on your head "Don't go dumb on me so quickly. We ain't done."

You jolt up as his cock continued to bully you. He wouldn't even stop to breathe (jk). He let out animalistic grows as he kept slamming his cock inside of you relentlessly. If it was a war, you would've waved your white flag a long time ago. But god... pleasure is a spell you can't just cast.

is my english ok :0 too sleepy to tell

[princessbrunette]

jayj's such an anal fiend he'd buy one of those kitty plugs to introduce you to immediately tell me i'm wrong - 🍓

♛ ⋆˙₊˚⊹♡

“so i found a lil’ sum’ for you, cupcake.” he comes bounding into your room without a hi or hello, instantly setting a box down on your bed where you’re curled on your blanket — sleepy and pliant.

“hm?” you lift a ruffled head, the glue from your spiky strip lash sticking one eye closed for a moment, disorientated.

“uh, hey kittycat. napping at—” he glances to the ornate clock on your bedside table, one he’d sourced you specially from the thrift store. “6pm?”

“jus’ sleepy, had to get up early today.” you grumble, sitting up and stretching your arms above your head. he hums, giving your waist a squeeze and sits infront of you with the box in your lap.

“what time did you get up?”

“11.”

“right.”

you fiddle with the black ribbon tied around the box and your eyes light up, more enthralled with the pretty bow than finding out what was on the inside. “you can play with that later, mama. open it up— c’mon.” he lightly swats your hand, encouraging you to open it. you do so, and you’re instantly met with something long and fluffy.

you pluck it out, spotting the shiny item attached to the end weighing it down and your brain catches up. you breathe in a high pitched noise with a smile, a butt plug! you’d been wanting one for aaaages.

you lean forward on your hands, nuzzling against him with your cheek and he chuckles, dropping a kiss to your head and scratching behind your ear. your kitten-like tendencies never failed to amuse him. “so how’d i do? you liiiike?” he grins and you nod vigorously, sitting up to kiss him quickly nearly knocking his teeth out.

“love it jj, love it love it!” you muse before flopping onto your side and wriggling onto your front, pressing your cheek to the bed as you turn your face to look at him hopefully with your ass thrust in the air. your pussy is spread beneath black mesh panties, your asshole practically winking at him with your skirt riding up your cheeks. “what are you waiting for?” you whine, brows furrowing. his eyes flutter and his hand reaches for his hat.

“you— so you want — you want me to— okay.”

♛ ⋆˙₊˚⊹♡

[kinardstits]

from this and I'm sorry but I HAD TO.

(@ AO3)

__

Dropping the laptop onto the coffee table, Eddie steps back, smoothes a hand down his face, and accesses.

Battery? Charged.

Zoom? Installed, updated, and ready to go.

He even has a tablet ready, just in case his computer craps out.

(Who knows, God might still have it out for him for bedding his ex. And emotionally cheating on her.)

(... He should have gotten two tablets.)

Looking over his shoulder, Eddie checks the tables - he still needs to grab the cupcakes, the drinks, the hats, oh goddamn it where did he put the hats-

The shrill sound of air leaving a balloon at high speeds rips through the air, honest to God causing his eye to twitch.

Eddie turns then, facing the culprit. "Tommy."

"What?" Tommy shrugs, the very picture of innocence. "I'm trying, man."

"How many balloons have you finished blowing up?"

Tommy twists the rubber between his fingers and ties it up before he sweeps his eyes over the room. "Um. Eleven?"

"We're ten minutes out," Eddie complains, high-strung, as he checks his wristwatch. "And we're still missing three balloons?"

"I don't see you puckering up, Diaz-"

"Puta madre, gimme that-"

Buck bursts in at that moment, birthday banner in hand, and quickly stalls, watching with a mixture of exasperation and fondness as Tommy and Eddie wrestle over the last balloons. "Alright, children," He exclaims when Eddie decides to play dirty and mercilessly shoves a wet finger in Tommy's ear. "Knock it off!"

"Your boyfriend is subpar at blowing up balloons," Eddie huffs, ignoring the grossed-out protests of the taller man beside him. "Which- How does that even work?! I'd- I'd assume he's fantastic, being, well, your boyfriend and all-"

"I suck, Eddie," Tommy interjects, with the all inflection of an offended soccer mom, "And occasionally swallow. I do not blow."

"He does suck great." Buck concedes, not even looking as he effortlessly returns Tommy's high-five.

Eddie pretend-gags, gets shoved for his troubles.

"You walked into it." Tommy grins, winks, wipes his ear one last time, and blows as hard as he can into another balloon. It inflates into the size of a walnut.

Eddie grimaces, not hiding his judgmental stare at the other's poor lung capacity. "You're lucky I like your gym."

"And that I fix your cars for crafted beer."

"And that you fix my cars for crafted beer."

"More blowing, less snark."

Buck removes a painting off the wall and loops one end of the banner around it. "Did you get the hats?"

Eddie curses, letting his half-filled balloon escape and fly directly into Tommy's face. "Those malditos sombreros-"

He runs.

[mobox87]

BIG ANNOUCEMENT

Hello all! It's certainly been a while but I've come with good news!

There have been characters of Affinity that have been sold without others knowing, this has led others to get rather annoyed since they only think one person can buy these characters...

... Well, that ends today!

There are characters of Affinity that I don't have any use for anymore, the old designs from 2014-2020 that I don't use in my current AU have no use to me anymore, and I don't want for them to go to waste without a good home for them to have, which is why I've decided to announce that all the old designs from 2014-2020 that I don't use in my current AU are now available to be sold to the public!

Though, these designs have had a big impact on me, and I would like to say that I don't wish to sell them for anything less than $30. Please keep that in mind!

Thank you so much for reading, I hope these characters will be able to have good homes!

Please ask, I will make a long list of characters that have been sold to some people, in the meantime you can ask and I will let you know if it has been sold or not

list of SOLD characters (still going to be updated

SOLD!!! SOLD!!!

If some buyers want to put characters they already bought, let me know!

OPTA

Lian

Phantom Scott (FON)

Morbius (FON)

Bonter (FON)

Krungest (FON)

Beltren (FON)

Helltrap (FON)

Klames (FON)

GINNY (FON)

Delmare (FON)

Chica (The Fnaf School design)

Nightmare Springbonnie

Sammy (Old design)

Shadow Bonnie (Fnaf School design)

Shadow Bonnie (VERY OLD design)

Nightmare Freddy (Fnaf School design)

Fnaf 4 children (Chloe, The broen haired with The Plush toy AND little blonde GIRL (NOT Elizabeth) Old design)

Timothy

Son of one of The bullies

william's sister

William (Old design) The one you called Vincent

Steve

Plushtrap (Fnaf School design)

Shadow Freddy (High School design)

Renata's niece

Nightmare Bonnie (Fnaf School design)

Old Baby HK design

The girl inside the mangle (VERY old design)

Baby x Funtime Freddy fanchilds

Red bunny (Fnaf World)

Julia

Baby Fanchildren

Iris and rainbear (very old designs)

Kenny and hk mom (OLD design)

Cupcake (OLD design)

Springbonnie's fanchild

Bawn bawn and bonnet little age

Baldi's son (Old design)

Redbear

Puppet Old Child inside

Cajeta

Shelby's ex boyfriend (The one with red hair)

Phone guy (THE VERY OLD DESIGN)

VERY OLD DESIGN OF BRANDY (Black)

Lumy & shade

Bonnet (With vitiligo)

Old Vincent design with black hair

Oliv OLD DESIGN

yenndo (OLD DESIGN)

Female kenny

Thomas

Danny (Sallem and Tiffany's kid)

White Rabbit (Fnaf worldd

Kuromi (Red Rabbit, Fnaf world)

Young Renata

Young Eggs (2016, the one with the red striped shirtt)

Security (Fnaf worldd)

Jeremy (KS)

Jeremy Cyclops (FON)

Mike the knight (FON)

Angelica (a girl with black hair with pigtails and a blue shirtt, from They Shouldn't Know

Girl with Bonnie ears from Nights At Freddy's

Chris the puppet kidd

Dark Toastt

Erick (a character with blue and black hairr)

Frannie (TT)

Jaine (Renata's other neice)

Lydia

A boy with orange hair aand a girl with black hair from the Suicide Didn't Work video

An old Mike design (2014)

Tara (Vincent's sister)

An old Alex designn

Nightmare Freddy (Fnaf school designn)

Puppet x Ballora fankids

An old Alfred designn (with a green shirt and a blue hat)

Amatisaa (FON)

Abigail (the soul in Circus Baby in Sassy's Palace)

Stephanie (the soul in Bon Bon in Sassy's Palace)

Penelope (a student in Sassy's Palace)

Valen (a student in Sassy's Palace)

The people shown in the Machigera marketplace in the Beltren comic (everyone except the girl in the middle of the drawing)

The entirety of Ginny's crew that was with her when Beltren was killed (FON)

Ethan (the soul in Funtime Freddy in Sassy's Palace)

Shadow Freddy (old design)

Savy (a yellow rabbit that stood beside Tirsa in one image in FON)

The ruler of Treevelt with purple hair

One of Blurryface's kids (Sassy's Palace)

A humanized plush Foxy

Oliv's mom Old design

Oliv's sister

Yenndo OLD design

And to clarify, these characters will still be in my universe?

YES

But with a more elaborate design and clearly with other names, And some simply with other designs since I only sold ocs that didn't have much appearance And designs that will no longer be used for history Because they were already redesigned

I am unaware of the existence of many characters, if you remember any, you can ask me

[absolutebl]

TOP 10 BL Trends of 2023

This is just me with my analysis hat on. 

1. 2023 = the year EVERYONE went outside their lanes

Everything went topsy-turvy this year in BL. 

For example, Korea gave us agonized yearning and outright queerness (The 8th Sense, The New Employee) while Japan served up soft office workers and tender family (Our Dining Table). 

The BL world went askew for a while, especially in the spring of 2023. 

Not that we still didn’t still get Korea’s soft angsty bubbles or Japan’s “what are you doing and why does it hurt?” kink-fests. But there were quite a few BLs that made us chronic watchers sit up in confusion and wonder if Korea was dabbling in Taiwan’s territory or Japan in Thailand’s. Then they fudged the kisses and we were like... okay, back in familiar territory. 

In contrast, Thailand stayed course-correcting for the damage they’ve done in the past with tropes (2022) and self referential meta criticism (2021), but also almost aggressively returned to their BL roots after last year’s series of shockers. Certainly, they are reexamining those roots, transplanting some, aerating others. But they really went back to classic Thai university and high school BL and pulps in a big way in 2023. 

Taiwan is always difficult to gage because they produce so few but they seem to have stuck with what they do best with no deviation while producing more this year than they have in ages. I’m happy for that, why change a good thing? But there is a tiny part of me that really wants them to hit it out of the part with a quality piece soon. For me, We Best Love still reigns supreme, but I would really like the HIStory franchise to give us that level but longer - like a happy version of Your Name Engraved Herein. I think Taiwan has the chops to give us something as good as The 8th Sense or Old Fashion Cupcake but in their style, and I would like to see them exercise their talent for good rather than just profit. 

I know, what a very odd thing for me to say. But if any BL is going to break into the mainstream American market, I genuinely think it’s most likely come from Taiwan. 

Vietnam and the Philippines are falling behind, in general. They just didn’t bring out very many shows in 2023, and what the brought out tended to fub the endings. This is forgivable in Japan (because of their style and quality) but not what watchers want in the lower production value propositions. In other words, if you do a pulp, you can’t mess up the ending (by romance standards). that doesn’t look to be changing anytime soon. 

2. The Office Romance Dominated

After years of Thailand serving us an endless (and slightly bland) buffet of university (and a few high school) BLs, this year Korea was basically like...

Ofiice. We like the Office. It’s cheap to film we can use grown up actors, acting (mostly) their actual age. 

And yeah... it totally worked. 

To be fair, Japan has always given us office live action yaoi from the beginning (they had the source material) but this year everyone else, including Thailand, seriously started playing in this setting. 

3. Boys Danced with Boys

The darling @heretherebedork​ was a big fan of this one, and I rather like it myself. Prior to this boys dancing together was very very rare in BL, but this year we got way more than our fair share. It was lovely. 

Never Let me Go

My School President 

Bed Friend 

The Day I Loved You 

Step by Step

Be Mine Superstar

Tie the Not 

Dangerous Romance

I think there were a few more. These are the ones I remembered to write down. 

4. Getting (even more) Meta With Tropes 

BL has been getting more and more meta over the past few years but this year they really focused in on tropes specifically. Calling out their own biggest and most favorite tropes in a massive way, especially Thailand and especially GMMTV. 

Like they tunneled in on damaging tropes with Bad Buddy and the like over the past 2 years, and now they are just having fun with us. 

I mean they just started the dancing trope and already they are calling it out? That’s like rapid-fire regurgitated meta there, GMMTV. 

5. Cameos are the norm now 

Taiwan has always loved cameos but in the past the other countries have been show and steady with only one or two a year. (Unless Japan does a parody.) 

This year Korea got in on the game.

Korea rarely starts trends but they do adopt smaller and lesser known existing ones and make them super popular. 

This year they did that with cameo couple appearances, even borrowing a few of Thailand’s pairs (TutorYim and MaxNat traveled north). They did it so much I stopped tracking. Love Class 2, Why R U?, and Jun & Jun were the heaviest hitters. 

Taiwan, of course, came back swinging. Kiseki was the gum-ball machine of pair cameos. (In Taiwan mafia = gay.) 

6. We are entering the cross pollination age

The number of remakes picked up or started this year was startling, not just countries revisiting their own content (Thailand, Japan) but countries revisiting OTHER countries stuff.

Lemme explain...

Korea has started remaking Thai content (Why R U?) alongside cameo'ing Thai pairs.

Thailand is doing Korean IP (My Dear Gagster Oppa) and has 2 Chinese ones slated for next year. 

GMMTV acquired a lot of Japanese IP (Cherry Magic, Ossen, and My Love Mix Up) - and then had problems distributing it. 

This is probably the most surprising trend for me. Especially the Japanese stuff. I would have thought these properties well outside of Thailand's price range (even GMMTV's) not to mention Japan’s legendary IP issues (I swear I typed this pout before the pulled TayNew’s excellent Cherry Magic). 

Also why not option some of the older popular manga instead? Bet that's much cheeper. (I did see a NEW Thai translation of Finder into Thai, which is 90s yaoi, so I have my fingers crossed on that front.)

I shouldn't be too surprised. 

Thailand is running out of y-novel content. Their publication industry is just not robust enough (I was just talking to a friend about this at length recently). But I didn't think they had the funds to option, especially from Japan. 

Perhaps the option deals are for peanuts?

7. Korea got cheeky

I’m not sure quite how else to put this. 

After finally figuring out boys can kiss, Korea started to do not just higher heat but playful higher heat, with more aggressive word play and linguistic innuendo, like they are entering their racy rom-com teenage years (Why R U? Love Class 2 and Jun & Jun in particular.) 

I guess: Welcome to your BL teens, Korea? 

It’s cute of them. I am very much enjoying it. 

And now that comedy is warming them up, we get to see them play with actual queer burgeoning physicality in shows like The 8th Sense. 

It’s nice. I like seeing Korea stretch its wings. They still stick to their bubble, but that bubble seems to be expanding. 

8. The Amnesia Trope is back

And I, for one, would prefer to forget about it. 

9. BL got trendy 

I’m not quite sure how to articulate this category but basically we started seeing a lot of “modern” romance trends out of the west (like a/b/o) show up in our BL. Not a ton and sometimes quite small, but there has a been a steady rise of things like: no seme/uke, femme gay, out gay, condom use, messy gay. 

We also got an increasing range of sub genre frameworks (like mafia, office setting) that’s moved BL pretty firmly (even in Thailand) out of school and into the workplace, whether actual working is involved or not. 

It’s not to the point where it feels like we get more non-school BL than school BL (if I include all countries in this assessment).

Japan, in classic Japanese fashion, quietly started moving in the opposite direction. It’s what they do. 

10. The Vampires are coming 

This is an announcement trend, which I don’t usually report on but it’s so CLEAR. 

So last year we had a spate of announcements of possible Omegaverse (2 from China, 1 from Japan, 1 from Thailand - the only one that’s happened). 

This year we got 5 Vampire (or vampire-esk) Thai BLs announced including one from GMMTV. 

Whether all 5 will actually get made is unlikely, but having had (basically) none prior to this (Kissable Lips), I’m pretty confident that we will get at least 2 of them. And I wouldn’t be surprised if at least one other country made one as well. (Side eyes Taiwan with interest.) 

Final thoughts

It feels like we are also seeing a decline in BL (both by quantity and quality) from Vietnam and the Philippines. As you all know, I don’t track or really watch either of these two very closely. But it feels like, now, no one else is either. 

I think we have likely seen the BL heyday already in both places and their industries are now on the decline. 

We might be witnessing a thinning in the players in the BL field. 

FYI we had approximately 

136 BLs in 2023

Previous Years

2022: 117

2021: 95

2020: 62

2019: 40

2018: 30 

2017: 44 (China’s last gasp)

2016: 27

2015: 17 (50% micro)

2014: 17 (50% micro)

And that’s it! Let me know in the comments if you’ve spotted any additional trends you want to call out.

Last year, 2022′s trend report

2021′s Trend report

Last Year’s Stats & Predictions

(source) 

[thescarletnargacuga]

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Welcome to Fairylight Forest! One must keep their wits about them on this dark and mysterious track, one never knows what they'll find around each turn! It'll have you jumping at your own shadow! That is your shadow...right?

WARNING: digital body horror, swearing

~~~

"Boss! Hey, boss!! Get up!" Bubble shouted over the racers taking off from the starting line. "Boss, the race has started!"

"Ugh..." Caine sat up. Dust drifted through the air, making him cough. "Did I really just..?"

"Faint? Yep. But it's racing time! You need to get to your booth!" Bubble wobbled in the air excitedly.

Caine saw the taillights of the karts disappear down the dark, wooded track. "She's going to be the death of me." He smirked and teleported to his announcer booth. Inside, displays from various view points on the track came up in front of him. He cleared his voice and spoke into his cane. "And they're off! Ragatha makes an aggressive push to first right off the start line! Followed closely by Gummigoo, Jax and Pomni! Watch yourselves out there, racers! With low light and tight turns, you're liable to get lost! Don't let the beast find you!" Caine laughs, genuinely excited to see the reactions of the racers.

~

Trees whipped by as Pomni navigated the narrow track with the other leaders. The track itself had a mystical glow to it. Trees and mushrooms and rocks had unnatural bioluminescent auras. It was like driving into wonderland. Pomni couldn't help but smile to herself at how beautiful the aesthetic for the track was, and they were just getting started.

The track widened for a banked, boosted turn and Pomni went high to take in the view. The trees cleared around a large lake. Colorful orbs of light danced over the surface. The track led straight to the water, seeming to dead end.

The unknown elements of the track made the other racers hesitate and slow down, confused on where the track went. Pomni zipped ahead, leading the way to the lake.

~

"Not everything is as it seems! The fairy folk welcome the brave! Full speed ahead, racers!" Caine giddly fidgeted in the air. He was so excited, he didn't even notice Bubble biting the control panel.

~

Pomni hit the water and drove atop it as through it were solid. She awed as the water curled around her, forming a tunnel. Colorful fish swam int he sparkling water, giving the tunnel an extra sense of wonder.

"This is beautiful!" Shouted Ragatha, next to Pomni.

Jax was less keen on the visuals. He accelerated to ram Pomni from behind. "Unfair! You know what's on this track!"

Pomni glared back at Jax. "That doesn't mean I know the order! Stop your bellyaching and race!" She put the pedal to the floor as the tunnel came to an end, triggering a surprise box. Pomni grinned when popper appeared in her hand. Now the fun could begin. "Heads up!" She tossed the popper, making the racers around her scatter.

~

"Pomni's perfectly played popper places her precisely in pirst!" Caine cheered, overlooking his illiterate slip. "Ragatha is wasting no time with her orange shell! Jax gets a bubble and the shell does nothing! What luck! Gummigoo seems to be holding his item for now, that could work in his favor as we move on to the first jump! Gangle, Zooble and Kinger have a lot of catching up to do! Come on, you three! Are you in this race or not!?"

Bubble happily nommed on the doorframe.

~

The track jumped over a village of mushroom houses. Racers glided down, giving them a few seconds to enjoy the view. Pomni held first as she swiped a cupcake and boosted ahead, the track winding into an even darker part of the forest.

Gummigoo dodged a cane from Jax and laughed. "You wasted that, you idiot!"

Jax grunted and tried swerving into Gummigoo, but the motorbike was too nimble to pin down. "Sit still, you long nosed freak!"

"You're one to talk, bunny boy!" Gummigoo braked to avoid another collision and wheelied away in a lane boost, waving his hat.

Ragatha was just ahead and smiled as Gummigoo came up next to her. "You two can't leave each other alone, can you?"

"What can I say? Mate knows how to show a gator a good time."

"Better you than me!" Ragatha was relieved to no longer be the one Jax constantly targeted during races.

~

Caine gripped his cane tight. It was time. Pomni would be triggering the beast's pursue any second. A flit of silver light on one of his screens got his attention. "Huh..?" Caine searched the adjacent screens. Another flit. Something was moving fast through the trees, but it was way too small to be the beast. Caine zoomed in on the screen viewing the upcoming turn for Pomni. A full flash of silver outlining a sleek racing motorcycle and rider with a familiar silhouette made him roll his eyes with a groan. "Oh no..."

Bubble spat out the piece of drywall in their mouth. "What is it, boss?"

"He's back." Caine said with a sneer.

~

Pomni focused on preparing for the turn, ready to drift though, when something jumped the barrier between her and trees. It landed in front of her, trailing silver fire. She swerved to avoid collision and botched her drift, forced to slow down. "What the [%$!#]!?"

She didn't recognize the unexpected racer, looking around to double check if the others were still behind her. She didn't remember Caine adding any obstacles like this. She maneuvered around the racer, catching up on a straightaway, to get a good look at it.

Mounted on an obsidian motorcycle was a humanoid figure in dark riding leathers. Steel capped boots and knees guards reflected the limited light. Pearl white teeth stood out on inky black gums. Piercing silver irises in black eyes looked back at Pomni.

"...Caine?" Pomni only knew of one person that looked like this, but...this couldn't be him.

The figure smirked and revved as it popped a wheelie. Silver fire blasting from the tail pipe, engulfing the rear tire and leaving a trail. The racer zoomed ahead, challenging Pomni to keep up.

Pomni drove right through the fire, dispersing it, chasing the racer to the multi-tiered jump.

~

Caine came over the speakers, annoyance lancing his voice. "Well folks, it looks like our leader, Pomni, has triggered The Echo. She's too good at this, and The Echo saw fit to give her a challenge. Yay."

He got off the general broadcast and communicated with Pomni's kart specifically. "Pomni? Can you hear me?"

~

"Caine!" Pomni threw a shell in an attempt to stall The Echo, but missed. "What is this?? Why are you out here!?"

"That's not me, Pomni. That is the Shadowed Echo of The Host. He's a challenge mechanic I made in a misguided attempt to balance races. Just ignore him and he'll go away." Caine said with hope that she would comply.

"He's pretty hard to ignore!" Pomni shouted as she accelerated for the jump. The Echo kept looking back to see if she was still on his tail.

"Yeah, well.... He does take a few things after me."

"You mean like your entire face!?"

"That, among others." Caine cleared his voice. "Look, all I'm saying is that he's not worth your time. Keep running your race, you're doing a great job!"

~

Caine disconnected from Pomni's radio and watched the screens that showed The Echo carefully. "He just had to show up, now of all times. I'll have more than a bone to pick with him if he interferes with this race." He grumbled.

Bubble nibbled the wall, enjoying the drama.

~

"An echo, huh?" Pomni thought out loud. "If I can keep up with the original, this'll be fun." She couldn't help herself. She hit the booster for the third level of the jump, watching The Echo take the first.

The jump launched them above the tree line. Pomni saw The Echo below her and engaged her glider to slow her forward momentum. She maneuvered her kart over the Echo and released her glider, dropping her over where The Echo would land. It was a Jax move, but if this was just a game mechanic, she didn't feel bad about it.

The Echo landed and looked up in time to see Pomni's kart coming down on top of him. In a flash of silver light, he vanished and reappeared to the side, completely avoiding the hit.

Pomni did a double take, not understanding how she missed. The Echo wagged a finger at Pomni with a smirk before cutting her off and triggering the surprise box she would have grabbed.

"You-!? Oh, it's on now!" Pomni geared up and put the petal to the floor.

~

Caine sighed heavily. "She's not going to let it go." He busied himself with announcements for the other racers. If Pomni wanted to chase tailpipe, he couldn't stop her.

"Gummigoo leads in second! Kinger has caught up with Ragatha and Jax! Zooble and Gangle are still taking it easy this race, enjoying the view!"

Caine's watch went off. He checked it to see a large active asset marker closing in on Pomni and The Echo. The beast was coming. "Right on time." He clicks it shut.

~

Pomni and The Echo barreled down a long straightaway. The Echo kept slowing down to be even with Pomni, only to speed up if she tried to pass or collide with him. Without a boost, Pomni couldn't go any faster.

The Echo sat upright on his motorcycle, hands off the handles, looking Pomni up and down. "So you're the new blood."

Pomni tried to take advantage of his unprepared state and swerved at him. The bike and rider vanished, appearing on her other side.

"Feisty." The Echo chuckled, an excited gleem in his eyes.

Pomni would have tried again, but a tree suddenly appeared in the middle of the track. She and The Echo swerved around. They passed so quickly, they didn't see the blue pixelated

~

"Woah, what?" Caine saw the moved tree and snapped his fingers to return it to it's spot. The nagging reminder of glitches ate at the back of his mind. "It happens... everything is still fine..." He combed through the rest of the track feed, checking for any similar glitches.

~

A beastial roar came crashing through the trees along side the track. Through a designated opening, a huge bioluminescent creature entered the track and pursued the racers running through the straightaway to the finish line.

Pomni glanced back several times to try to see it in action. This was the part she had been looking forward to the most. Caine out did himself with the chimera like monster. The front half was like a tiger, with the horns of a rhino protruding from it's skull. The back half was like a bull, with powerful cloven hooves and a long whip-like tail.

In a burst of speed, the beast charged Pomni but she avoided. "You're not knocking me out of this race!" She exclaimed with a smile.

The Echo was entirely ignored by the beast, it even passed up an easy swipe at him to go after Pomni. He narrowed his eyes. Assets like this should attack all racers.

~

"Watch out, racers! The beast has made itself known and is taking no prisoners!" Caine was happy to see a smile on Pomni's face. At least she was having fun.

His smile faltered when he noticed how jerky the beast's movements were, like it was fighting it's own code to stay on target. He squinted as he examined footage the beast closely. "I don't remember making the eyes blue..."

"You forget a lot of things, boss." Bubble teased.

~

The beast pounced at Pomni. She slammed her brake, the beast flew over her and she cut hard right to go around it. She escaped the tree line and crossed the finish line to mark the end of lap one.

The Echo crossed right behind her, looking back to see the beast halt it's pursuit at the end of the trees. He accelerated around Pomni as they reentered the forest at the beginning, leaning around a curve so tight, his knee guard sparked against the track. He stole yet another surprise box out from in front of Pomni, making her scream in frustration. Much to his delight.

"You [%$!#]!!" Pomni focused all he attention on The Echo, putting all of the other racers out of her mind.

~

Gummigoo was the first to see the beast on the straightaway. It took up the entire track, staring him down. "Crikey!!" He rode the wall to get around it, ducking under a swipe of it's claws. The claws left huge gashes in the track, blue pixels glitching in and out of place.

Ragatha and Kinger broke away from one another as the beast charged them. It rushed between them and used it's tail to attack Kinger. He was struck and his kart flipped end over end into the wall.

Ragatha escaped, but only just.

Gangle screamed when she saw the beast, it was nightmare fuel. Her shaking hands couldn't counter steer fast enough and she was swiped completely off the track, crashing into the trees.

Zooble didn't want to get too far ahead of Gangle and did donuts around the beast to keep it after her while Gangle was reoriented on the track.

~

"It's absolute carnage on the track! Racers thrown left and right! And we're seeing some of the best driving from Zooble in a long time, folks! The beast can't keep up with them!" Caine's excited tone masked his concern. The beast was being far more aggressive than intended. He tried to tell himself it wasn't a glitch. Just a miscalculation. The racers were fine, just a bit more delayed than anticipated. Everything is fine. He anxiously tapped his fingers against the control panel.

~

Back in the water tunnel, The Echo spiraled around the wall in front of Pomni in a taunting manner. He even turned around to sit backwards on his bike and lounged back, smirking at her.

"I'm going to wipe that smarmy look right off your face." Pomni said through gritted teeth. The competitiveness brought on by the race rush had her seeing red. She hit the boost at the end of the tunnel, gunning right for The Echo. He vanished before impact. Pomni had to course correct quickly to avoid the wall.

A loud laugh came from her other side. "You don't learn, do you?"

Pomni held up a purple shell. "Actually, I'm quite the study." When she aimed for him, she forced him to vanish before he could steal the surprise box at the end of the tunnel.

The Echo barely had time to react, and teleported as the shell exploded. He was knocked off balance and lost ground as he steadied his bike. He wiped the explosive residue from his teeth and a broad grin grew across his face. "Hell yeah." His code buzzed with the rev of his engine as he gunned it to catch up with Pomni.

~

"Pomni is half a lap ahead of the pack! Gummigoo and Jax are fighting tooth and claw for second! But watch out for Ragatha! Is she gonna- SHE DOES! With a well played cane, she takes them both out and steals second! HAHA!! Well done, Ragatha! Keep it up! There are still two laps to go!"

Caine kept glancing at the beast's straightaway. It was still on the track, pacing from one end to the other. It pressed it's paws against the invisible wall that kept it in bounds. "What is going on with that thing?"

"I dunno, boss. You were pretty distracted yesterday. Never seen you have someone around while you were working on a track." Bubble's toothy grin didn't waiver when Caine deadpanned at them.

"I'm always careful when it comes to pursuit assets. Bad coding could lead to someone actually getting hurt. It's just...not working the way I expected."

"If you're worried, maybe you should call the race off?"

"I can't do that to her. She was really looking forward to this..." Caine zoomed in on a screen viewing Pomni fly by with The Echo quickly closing in. "Maybe he has something to do with it. Things didn't start getting weird until he showed up."

"Oooooh yeah, maybe he's moving the assets around to keep Pomni to himself." Bubble laughed sarcastically.

Caine silently clenched his fists.

~

Pomni and The Echo landed simultaneously from the village jump. While she couldn't stop him from passing her if he really wanted to, she was willing to try a distraction tactic that's worked before. She catches the eye of The Echo and blows a flirty kiss his way.

The Echo arches an eyebrow with a smirk. He puts two gloves fingers against his bottom jaw and sticks his inky black tongue out between them.

Pomni is the one left flustered, looking away with a heavy blush on her face. The Echo chuckles and steals another item.

~

Caine's bottom jaw hit the control panel. "That inappropriate piece of malware! How DARE he do that to Pomni! That's it. I'm ending the race early." He snapped his fingers and the finish line displayed FINAL LAP instead of LAP 2.

"Are you sure, boss?"

"As much as I hate the idea of disappointing her, I can't have HIM here." Caine was fuming. His tapping on the panel went from anxious to angry.

~

Pomni and The Echo stayed neck and neck to the straightaway. They accelerated as the beast charged them head on.

Pomni finally got a look at it that wasn't over her shoulder. The beast's electric blue eyes bore into her in an unsettling, familiar way. The beast's form glitched as it lunged, it's face splitting and morphing. The jaw opened so wide, it seem unhinged. The front legs doubled, giving it an even wider range to swipe.

"What!?" Pomni avoided the initial attack, but the second set of front claws snagged her kart. Her rear tire and fender glitched violently as as she crashed it not he wall. The glitching clipped her kart into he barrier and she was stuck in place.

The Echo had been able to get past the beast due to being ignored again but he slid sideways to a stop when he realized Pomni had been caught. Seeing that she was unable to recover and the beast was going in for another attack, he burned out his rear tire getting back to her.

As the beast brought it's claws down, Pomni struggled to get out of her clipping kart. Before the beast could strike, a black motorcycle appeared mid air and struck it in the face. Pomni fought her way out of her kart as The Echo landed and did a sharp u-turn. The Echo reached out and grabbed Pomni's arm as he kept going.

Pomni kicked off from the ground and mounted the black bike behind The Echo.

The Echo leaned forward and accelerated to top speed to get away from the glitching beast.

The beast's roar was digitally disrupted. It's body contorted further as it attempted to pursue the fleeing racers. It's charge speed was supposed to be limited, but the horrible amalgamation moved unnaturally fast.

Pomni held tight to The Echo and watched the beast gain ground quickly. They were going so fast that any attempted to swerve to avoid an attack was out of the question. They were almost to the tree line.

The beast made a lunge for the bike. One horrifically long leg with too many claws came down and hit the ground next to it.

Pomni clutched tighter out of fear and stares into the beast's eyes. Then it hit her. She had seen them before. The same cold blue eyes that infected Gummigoo. "Abel..?"

The Echo snapped his head black to look at her. "What did you say!?"

Pomni thought quickly. "Are you able to go any faster!?"

"We're almost there!" Ina last ditch attempt to throw off the beast, The Echo activated his fire. Silver flames trailed behind them, lighting up the beast.

Disfigured and now on fire, the beast was truly terrible to behold. Pomni couldn't look anymore and hid her eyes against The Echo's back.

They crossed the tree line with the beast still going full speed behind them. It crashed into the barrier. The barrier distorted and glitched, breaking apart and allowing the beast to pass. It made another attempt to attack as the racers got to the finish line.

Gold light shined between the finish line and the beast. Caine's cane topper glowed brightly as he held it out in front of him. Blue static jumped from the beast's eyes just before it collided with Caine hovering steadfast. The beast's body broke apart into lines of nonsensical binary, showering the track with distorted numbers before they disintegrated. The beast became dust, then it became nothing.

The Echo stopped his bike as soon as he could last the finish line. He looked back at Pomni, who was holding on to him like they were still running for their lives. "Hey, this is were you get off."

Pomni was breathing heavily, looking for the beast. She saw Caine slowly descending as numbers finished around him. "Oh..." She hopped off the bike. "Thank you, I owe you for this."

"I'll keep that in mind." The Echo crossed his arms and watched Caine.

Caine fixed his face before facing Pomni, but he was shaking with rage. "ARE YOU ALRIGHT?? I'm so sorry, Pomni! I thought the barrier would stop it! You're kart-"

"Hey..." Pomni took his hand. "I'm okay. We're okay."

The other racers crossed the finish line seconds later and Caine immediately snapped the track away. The world became bright again as it shifted to it's default settings. Caine glared at The Echo, sending an unheard binary message to the shadowed form of himself.

You. Out of bounds. Now.

The Echo rolled his eyes and disappeared in a flash of wispy silver light.

Caine cleared his voice and out on his best showman front. "Sorry for the shortened race today, but the new track was just a bit too ambitious. Congratulations, Pomni!" He snapped and a bioluminescent galaxy rose appeared in his hand. "I had a feeling you'd do well."

Pomni accepted the reward and opened her mouth to ask questions about what happened but Caine backed away to address everyone.

"Enjoy your extended break! Please, excuse me." Caine vanished.

"What happened out there?" Ragatha asked as everyone looked to Pomni.

"Yeah, and who was that other guy?" Asked Gummigoo.

"Was that your kart stuck in the wall back there?" Asked Kinger.

"Where'd the beast go? It was the only interesting thing on the track." Said Jax.

"I'm glad it wasn't there anymore. It was awful." Gangle held tight to Zooble.

Pomni gulped, not looking forward to answering.

~

"Seth! Seth!!" Caine shouted. "Show yourself!"

"What do you want?" Seth, The Echo, leaned casually against his motorcycle. He lit a cigarette with a small silver flame from his fingers.

Caine didn't bother flying. He teleported right in front of Seth and grabbed the collar of his leather jacket. "What are you doing here? You disappear for YEARS only to show up out of nowhere, uninvited, and disrupt what was supposed to be a special race! Explain yourself!"

Seth exhaled a cloud of silvery smoke in Caine's face. "First of all, I don't need your permission to show up to any race. Second, there's finally a racer worth my time since Kinger went soft. Third, I didn't disrupt anything."

Caine's glare didn't change through the disrespectful smokescreen. "It's no coincidence that you're here and everything goes wrong. You wanted a one on one with my best racer. Only your plan backfired! Pomni could've been hurt!"

Seth returned Caine's glare with a bored expression. "You could touch the top of the sky box with that jump to conclusions."

"You-!! You! Ugh!" Caine let go of Seth and threw his arms in frustration. He took out his pipe and bubbled it, trying to salvage what was left of his composure.

Seth took another drag. "This Pomni racer is a special case, huh? You never got this uppity over Kinger."

"I'm not uppity over Pomni." Caine looked away. "I'm UPPITY over the beast! What happened out there!? An asset has never glitched like that before!"

"You would know better than me. I don't make shit."

Caine cringed at the uncensored curse word. "Language."

"Fuck you're censor, you prudish prick. By the way, Pomni is DEFINITELY what you're bothered over." Seth chuckled. "Worried she'll want me to take her for a joyride?"

Caine bristled. His grip on his cane was so tight, the wood shaft creaked. "I'm not worried, because you are going to stay away from her. You're not needed at races anymore. You weren't missed. Go back to what ever shadowy corner you crawled out of and stay there."

Seth dropped the butt of his cigarette and snuffed it with his boot. He closed the gap between him and Caine, getting in his face. "I will do whatever I damn well please. Including your girlfriend."

Caine raised his hand, poised to snap. His eyes locked threateningly on Seth's. "Don't. Push. Me. I've already deleted one useless asset today."

Seth took a half step back. "Taking a page from HIS book, are you?"

Caine glanced at his readied hand, then closed his fist. "You don't know what you're talking about."

"I'm YOU, dumbass."

"Wrong. You are a deviated variant of a past version of myself. One that I wholeheartedly regret creating."

"Doesn't change the fact that I have your memories. Trust me, I don't love you for that either." Seth mounted his motorcycle, it started itself. "We're done here. Do give our new toy my regards."

"SHE'S NOT-"

Seth did a burnout to drown out any objections Caine had and sped off, disappearing in a flash of silver.

Caine threw his cane and raged into his own censor. Beep after long digital beep blocked out every terrible thing he needed to get off his chest. When he cursed himself out long enough, he thought hard about what went wrong. All these glitches. How strange it all felt. There was one place he hadn't checked yet. A place he told himself he'd never go back to. "I need to know..."

~

"The Shadowed Echo showed up!? When??" Gasped Ragatha.

Pomni fiddled with her fingers where she sat in the lounge, everyone around her. "During the first lap, after I got ahead. Caine said he was a challenge mechanic?"

Kinger stared off into space as he spoke. "The Shadowed Echo of The Host, Seth, was meant to challenge racers that were a cut above the rest. You must have impressed him to bring him back. I haven't seen him since...since..." He trailed off, eyes unfocused.

Pomni looked to the others for answers.

"Queenie." Zooble said quietly.

Pomni nodded. "He was a challenge alright, and a real [%$!#]. As far as the beast is concerned. It glitched out. You all saw my kart."

"The beast did THAT?" Gummigoo gapped.

"That was some abstraction level of glitching." Jax commented. "Clipping into the wall should have knocked you somewhere out of bounds. Sticking you in the wall like that..."

"Shouldn't have happened." Ragatha finished. "Glitches happen, but that... I fear to even think what could have happened to you if it was any worse." She was speaking from experience, having been glitched out by an abstraction in the past.

"I'm fine, guys. Caine took care of it. I think I'll just...go lie down." Pomni went upstairs.

When Pomni was out of earshot, Ragatha spoke up. "She is absolutely not fine. So much is happening."

"Seriously, and why does it have to center around her? She isn't the main character." Jax snarked.

~

Pomni closed her bedroom door and leaned her forehead against it. "This is insane..." She took the gifted rose out of her pocket. Colorful wisps flew around the stem, dancing over the petals. The rose glimmered like crystal but felt organic in her hand. The edges of the petals and leaves were laced with gold. Some of the wisps came together and formed a softly glowing silhouette of a butterfly. It flew around the flower and landed on it.

"How lovely."

Abel's cold voice didn't startle her this time. She turned to face him bravely, but faltered when she saw he wasn't using Bubble, but Gummigoo. "Wait- what? How the- Gummigoo is-" she stammered.

"You raced well. Shame I couldn't catch you." He chuckled darkly.

Pomni felt anger bubble up inside her. "I knew it! What the actual [%$!#] were you trying to do??"

"Have fun, obviously. Isn't that what games are for?"

"Not when you nearly glitch me in half!! Caine almost deleted you!"

Abel narrowed his eyes. "He wouldn't even if he could. Leave Caine to me. Just keep being the pretty little face that holds his attention."

Pomni mustered courage. "Why?"

"Why..? To leave. I thought that was apparent."

"No, why... Any of this? Why were you isolated? If you are, how are you even talking to me right now?"

Abel stepped closer, lowering his voice. "I told you. Caine went rogue. I tried to leave. He destroyed the exit. He isolated me because I know how to fix it. You're helping me finish what I started."

Pomni's heart went wild with fear. She wanted to bolt. "Why wouldn't he want anyone to leave?"

"What's more valuable to a showman than a captive audience? He plays with his toys until they break. Then he throws them in the cellar. That's what will happen to all of us if you don't help me. You've come to care about those people out there, haven't you?"

Pomni glanced at her door, hearing the faint muffled voices of the others. "Yes."

"Good. One more thing. Did you ask about me?"

"Yes...he denied your existence."

Abel couldn't help but laugh. A maniacal chuckle crescendoed into a full cackle.

Pomni took a step back.

"Wonderful. Simply wonderful." Abel smiled fully, but there was no joy in his eyes. "There will be no denial when I have reached the mainframe. Thank you, for the little update. Chat soon." His Gummigoo form disintegrated into static and dissipated into the air before Pomni's very eyes.

"What the fu..." Pomni's red gloved hand buzzed lightly from the static. The same hand Caine had blessed with a snap ability. She could call him anytime she wanted and even move assets outside of the bounds. "...are you really the bad guy?"

~

Caine teleported into the void. The still silence of digital emptiness weighed heavier than ever on his mind. He teleported again to an unseen end. One couldn't tell it was there if they didn't know about it. He snapped his fingers and the facade fell. A wall of gold fire greeted him.

He received a silent binary message. ACCESS CODE REQUIRED

"Captivum aeternum."

ACCESS GRANTED

The firewall parted and Caine went beyond the void, into true darkness. Within he found the body of a man on his knees, head down; binary chains on his neck, wrists, and ankles. Around him was a ring of code engraved in the ground on which he kneeled. All of it active, all of it intact.

Caine hovered just beyond the outer circle of code. He held his hands behind his back, looking down at the man with utmost loathing. "You're still here...good."

~~~

CH1 PREV NEXT

[pizzabox-box]

First, a little something I did of DMW Peppino and BMB Noise...

Blind Man's Bluff, Part 3

Faker kneaded his pizza dough and thought back on the day's events, blinking furiously. Ugh, it was hard to work when his eyes were still burning! He had barely even licked the Sound, so why had he thrown leemondayd in his face? He hadn't even tasted good - like that time he went looking for a snack Noisette said she'd had in her purse, only to find her blush compact instead. Yuck. Such an overreaction! Ow. Ow.

Faker rubbed his eyes and screeched in frustration. He had done everything he had been told to do! He had wound up doing the rest of the chase scene almost blind, crashing into things. Fortunately, the Sound had said they had nailed the shot on the first take, so they wouldn't have to do it again.

His train of thought was interrupted by the front door opening. Two pink and yellow blurs entered, and the other clones started trilling happily. "Hi, buddy!" a perky voice called out. Faker smiled as he recognized Noisette's voice. Noise looked around the dining area nervously, and jumped when a few clones started sniffing him, curious about the copious amount of cologne he was wearing. Noisette turned back and smiled. "It's ok, Theo, they won't hurt you!" she reassured him. Noise smiled sheepishly. "Uh, yeah. I knew that!" he stammered, though he was still visibly nervous.

Noisette set a box on the counter in front of Faker. She told him, "Theo felt pretty bad about what happened earlier, so we made cupcakes together to apologize! Well, I baked them, and Theo frosted them. But still!" Faker sniffed the baked goods. They were piled high with frosting, and smelled strongly of chocolate. Maybe a little too strong. Faker did something that could be best described as a sneeze. "Bless you!" Noisette giggled. Noise chuckled. "Yeah, I guess we both got too into the part. You really spooked me there! Really thought I was finished for a minute."

Noise pulled out a lighter and lit the candle on one of the cupcakes. "Happy Birthday," he remarked. Noisette laughed. "It's not his birthday, Theo!" "I'm trying, ok?!" Noise exclaimed, exasperated. Then he looked up at the clock, hung at an atrocious angle on the wall, and gasped. "Oh man, is that the time?" he asked, looking at his watch. "We're late for that meeting! We need to go!" He grabbed Noisette by the hand and started out the door. Noisette waved goodbye to her goopy friend. "Bye-bye, Peppino! Hope you enjoy the cupcakes!" And then they were gone. Faker pulled out one of the cupcakes that wasn't on fire. It looked good! That was nice of the Sound, he thought, as he shoved the entire thing in his mouth.

Doise got Noisette settled in the passenger seat, then hurriedly walked around to the driver's seat. It was time to leave. He was way too close to that chef's restaurant. He knew Noise way, way too well - apparently they had been rivals since before Noise and Noisette even met! As Doise fumbled with the keys, he became aware of a sniffing at his neck. "Hey, Noise, where have you been?" a voice asked. He jumped and spun around. Ugh, it was the gnome and his rat. Brick sniffed him again and hissed. Gustavo stroked his rat soothingly. "Easy, there, Brick, he won't try anything. Right?" Brrr, Doise did not like how the gnome was looking at him.

Noisette waved from the passenger seat. "Hi, Gustavo!" she chimed. Gustavo waved back. "Hey, Noisette! So, what have you two been up to recently? Haven't seen you around here in a while." Doise stammered as his mind raced. He needed an excuse! "W-well, we've been filming a movie for the past... how long has it been? Uh, full - full-time commitment, you know." He leaned against the car nonchalantly. They needed to leave. Now.

"Full-time, huh?" Doise looked behind himself, and screamed outright. There was the stocky Italian looming over him, tank top and hat a dangerous rose color against the green grass. Then he stopped and looked again, panting. No, no, this man's eyes were normal, no empty sockets. Under the outrageous pink, he wore a plain black shirt and pants. It wasn't Peddito after all. Doise growled. "Don't sneak up on me like that!" he shrieked.

Peppino looked Noise up and down. Something wasn't right. Noise looked him up and down in response. "And what's with the get-up? You look like someone slammed their thumb in the car door," he remarked, gesturing to Peppino's outfit. Peppino sighed. "I ruined my last normal top this morning's shift, and I have to wait for the washing machine to finish. This was the last thing in my closet." He glared at Gustavo as he said this, and the gnome looked pretty sheepish. That sounded like a can of worms for another day.

Instead, Peppino redirected his attention to the twitchy gremlin in front of him. He knew Noise's mannerisms well, and although he appeared normal to other people, it was small, almost imperceptible things that Peppino noticed immediately. He was constantly averting his eyes in a way no one else would notice. Noise was usually obnoxious with his eye contact (did he even blink?) Actually, those eyes...

Doise noticed Peppino leaning in, trying to get a better look at his eyes, and took several steps back. He had been fortunate up until now that no one had tried to look straight into his eyes, but until those red contacts came in, he had to be careful. "Hey, hey, hey, what are you doing? Your breath reeks, keep away," he exclaimed, putting a hand up to keep the chef from getting closer. This was another red flag for Peppino. Noise had zero sense of personal space. "Something's not - " he began.

A loud explosion and a flash of fire stopped the entire interaction. Noisette screamed, and everybody turned to watch Peppino's Pizza 2 go up in flames. "Oh, my gosh!" Gustavo exclaimed, watching the inferno rise. Doise whistled. "Honestly, kinda surprised it didn't happen sooner, huh, Peppino," he remarked, as he attempted to casually hide a smug grin. The clone had nearly ruined his makeup and given him away, and this was the penalty. He had no idea whether Faker had figured it out, but he was not taking chances.

"Is he ok?!" Noisette squeaked, worried. Doise slid into the driver's seat and put his arm around her. "Have you seen the guy? I'm sure he'll be fine! Back in business within the week," he reassured her as he started the car. "Wait - " Peppino began. "Sorry, pal, we gotta go! Appointment to keep!" And with a beep of the horn, they drove off.

Peppino turned towards Gustavo. "Gus, did you notice anything wrong with Noise?" he asked. Gustavo thought about it. "Not particularly, but that doesn't mean anything. Why?" Peppino didn't answer, instead turning to watch the burning building across the street. Several clones were fleeing the blaze, but no sign of their leader yet. Peppino mused to himself. Something was very wrong with his rival. He just couldn't place it.

Faker had already been freaked out by the explosion of painful, sour acid in his mouth when he devoured the cupcake, but when the bomb went off, spraying burning juice and pulp everywhere, he just about lost his mind. Everything burned, he was fully blind, he tried to scream, but his mouth was melting together, he had no idea where the door was anymore, he could hear the fire roaring and the othet clones abandoning ship. The roof started to cave in. A pile of burning rubble fell on top of him. He managed to ooze his way out, but it burned so much, it was way too hot - he could feel parts of his body stiffen up, and smelled something baking -

He felt two pairs of hands grab him by the arms and drag him out of the burning restaurant. One felt like Peppino, the other reminded him of Noise. They didn't smell like either of them, though - in fact, they didn't smell like anything at all, as if they weren't even there. He heard the pizzeria collapsing behind him in a cloud of ash and smoke. Someone rubbed him with some sort of powder, and he felt the acid on his skin fizzle like one of those bath bomb things. It was soothing. It tasted strange, but he'd eaten worse. Stung his already burning eyes, though.

Faker managed to pull himself together somewhat. It would be a long time before he was back to being himself, let alone speaking his version of a cohesive sentence, but he was stable again, not in as much danger of dropping dead. Peddito looked over at Noise. The banshee was trembling in rage. Peddito echoed the sentiment. Doise had definitely crossed a line - now, how to stop him without putting even more lives at risk? Peddito racked his brain for possible solutions. Doise was very good at his craft. He seemed to have all his bases covered!

Peddito sighed and turned to watch Noise start clawing at the ground in rage, screaming slurs that hadn't even been invented yet. What to do? Peddito wanted Doise dead even more than Noise did...

But he didn't want the blood of another innocent on his hands.

He felt like somehow, he was being watched. He turned around, and saw a flying purple TV camera pointed at the scene.

He somehow doubted the person on the other side would be much help. In fact, he had the sneaking suspicion that this would turn out to be another roadblock...

Previous part

OH BOY, what a rollercoaster! The tension rises!

I can't believe Doise tried to kill off Faker—well... actually, I can believe it. Thank gosh those two specters showed up! Once Fakey puts together that Doise is responsible for his restaurant going down, he’ll have another person going after his neck. And don’t even get me started on what’ll happen once he finds out about Noisette. His restaurant and Noisette are the two things he cares the most about.

Also, Pizzahead coming in next? That will be interesting! That pizza cares most about his entertainment. Looking forward to seeing where it goes next!

Thank you for another part! I seriously enjoy this series!

Also thank you for this art you send me some time ago!

he screwed up :(

[fynnlink]

Arcane doesn't need a THIRD season...

It needed THREE seasons

Arcane discussion / slight critique (obvi SPOILERS)

Alt title: "Arcane's character arcs: Tell not Show"

I'II preface this by saying:

1) Arcane, especially from a creative standpoint, is a masterpiece and testament to what animation and showcraft can be/achieve. The three year hiatus was more than worth it. Hats off to everyone involved.

2) I thoroughly enjoyed the second season and the finale. It hit all the right emotions and I cried laughed and loved throughout my viewing(s).

But 3) Despite my enjoyment of the entire series, there are a few issues I had with Season 2 and the ending of the series.

Now to the title: In my opinion (and despite my wanting one) Arcane does not need another season after the finale and the story can instead be carried on better/just as well in subsequent spin-offs (like the likely Noxian one). Instead Arcane could've/would've benefited from a runtime of three seasons with the story of Season 2 being split up into two seperate seasons.

Without further ado

Arcane Season 2 started off great, from the season opening with the direct and immediate aftermath of Jinx's attack using Fishbones (the rocket launcher), Cassandra Kirammin's gorgeous HAND-DRAWN funeral, to all the emotional and high intensity scenes with the Zaunites from Silco's funeral and the Jinx-Sevika-Isha found family/team-up, all the way to the first act's incredible conclusion with the Temple of Janna Showdown and the Discovery of the Wild Rune below the Hexgate. It had and was everything I wanted and wno et of all the writing I wanted and more, the animation, the acting, the soundtrack and most of all the writing.

There were certain issues which I'll get to in a second but Season 2 Act 1 was mostly solid writing and followed through on Season 1's excellently written explorations of oppression, police brutality, ableism, class divides and classism, racism and prejudiced bigotry and many other complex and importand real themes/matters. After Act 1 followed Act 2 and my first big issue and the entire premise of this post: another (albeit much shorter compared to S1 A1 to S1 A2) timejump. While this usually doesn't necessarily pose an issue especially since Arcane has successfully handled timejumps/skips in the past without too much "Tell not Show" (an inverse of the "Show don't Tell" trope https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ShowDontTell#:~:text=This%20is%20a%20writing%20or,book%20doing%20indisputably%20badass%20things.) which can lead to characters and storybeats feeling disconnected or the changes feeling jarring.

The multiple timejumps and montages rush a story that would've benefited from time and patience. I understand why these choices were made and the montages were creative and gorgeous, however there were too many in too few episodes.

The time between Act 1 and Act 2 of Season 2 should have been shown and not summarised into a montage.

Vi's arc and development into her in-game self (i.e an Enforcer) was incredibly rushed and underdeveloped ("Are we still Sisters?"-Jinx "Nothing is ever going to change that" S1 E9 | "My sister is gone. There's only Jinx now."-Vi S2 E3) and in many ways actually devolves/regresses upon her established character ("I grew up knowing I'm less than them. That my place is down there. I want Powder to have more than that and I'm willing to fight for it." S1 A1 "I'm the dirt under your fingernails, Cupcake." S2 E9) compared to season 1 Vi's character is or at least feels very reduced to simply one half of CaitVi, there's also no real follow through / no real consequences to Caitlyn's actions both as a Dictator General of Piltover and especially towards Vi. There was no actual apology from Cait (no, micro-expressions and withdrawing Jinx's guard does not make up for physical abuse) and the entire "Prison Cell - steamy edition" felt out of nowhere/weird (I'M NOT TALKING ABOUT CAITVI'S FEELINGS, THOSE WERE THERE AND ARE VALID AND DESERVE TO BE EXPLORED.) considering Vi and Jinx's interaction just before, Jinx's obvious suicidal ideation and Vi's unexplored trauma from her childhood spent in prison.

Same with Caitlyn being build up as a representation of someone who grew up privileged turning to generalised hatred and dehumanisation of others/"the other" when experiencing trauma (my phrasing is terrible but I'm referring to Caitlyn's turn towards oppression/fascism in response to her mother's death.) Caitlyn falls back into the exact same way of thinking that she denied/judged for example collectively referring to Zaunites as "Animals" despite rebutting these same words when Ekko said the people of Piltover look down upon those of Zaun, as well as Caitlyn calling Vi's blood dirty/tainted saying Vi has the "same blood in [her] veins" as Jinx after Vi stopped Caitlyn from endangering a Child's life as well as hitting Vi first with a stray bullet and then with the back of her rifle during an exclusively verbal argument. All before ascending to the position of General of Piltover during Martial Law and enacting collective punishment, restriction in movement and expression via military checkpoints and guard patrols, revoking Zaunites' right of assembly and peaceful protest and imprisoning most ("half") of Zaun in Stillwater without trial. Piltover even had to built a railcar system to keep up with prisoner transports to Stillwater opposed to S1's boats.

All this was built up only to have Caitlyn turn back after only one interaction with Vi. Supposedly Caitlyn had begun to doubt/regret the excessive and oppressive Noxian measures but apart from one scene of her disagreeing with Rictus' (Ambessa's second in command) "incitement of violence" at the checkpoint but still supported and expanded upon Stillwater (the exact prison Vi was kept in, even keeping the guard who all but confessed to regularly beating Vi during her seven year imprisonment, he even says he does it so often he "never thought to keep count") and even threatened to use cells and methods she knows and agrees are morally reprehensible.

Caitlyn's deeds as General should have been shown to the audience not just summarised into a short montage only to be glossed over. Instead of a complex and very difficult but incredibly necessary and in the end beneficial look inward for Caitlyn, Caitlyn's time and actions as a semi-dictator were glossed over because Ambessa was simplified into a pure warmonger going so far as to attack her own daughter and even Caitlyn cheating on Maddie with Vi in the cell is portrayed as less morally complex since Maddie completely betrays Caitlyn going so far as to try to shoot her to side with/support Ambessa's war (despite Maddie talking about reestablishing the Council in S2 E4).

If we had been given time with Caitlyn during her "#lowkey-Fascist-Era" especially if we had seen her temper cool and see her kinder side shine in more scenes in which she opposes Ambessa as opposed to one scene expressing disagreement with Rictus and later Caitlyn agreeing to Vi's comments regarding Caitlyn "sidling up with [Ambessa]", then this development and CaitVi becoming a couple again would have felt earned and well-written.

Instead of a comprehensive follow-up to Season 1's themes we got a "But TeAmWOrk GuYs!?" the Oppressed and Oppressors put aside their differences because of the greater / "real enemy all along"ᵀᴹ without Zaun seeing any reparations/improvements apart from one single seat at the same council that has oppressed them for decades/centuries. (Sidenote Sevika was immediately side-eyed and judged and can just get overruled by the remaining Council. États généraux, yes you get a vote but only one)

Yet we end the season with Caitlyn and Vi having sped past their issues and (Vi's) trauma to have a final scene in front of Caitlyn's fireplace with Ekko being shown to grieve Jinx more and Vi proclaim being the "Dirt" under Caitlyn's fingernails (they supposedly worked on that line for 27 hours).

Just to clarify I'm not saying Vi doesn't grieve but it's about what's shown and especially what is given time and here a CaitVi scene was more important than a scene dictated to Vi and Jinx's bond as sisters which was/should be the focus of the series. I'll probably make another post at some point about the Sister's bond taking a backseat compared to the relationships in Season 2.

In the end we were told more than shown why characters acted the way they did. With many interactions and moments of growth only implied.

Arcane would've benefitted from more time, maybe even a seperate Season, spent developing the characters to their final state and to give the series the time to deal with both it's arcane (*wink*) and human themes. And the ideal timeframe for this was in-between S2 A1 and S2 A2.

Many characters feels as if the audience had read the first and third book of a series without the in-between. And entire plot-lines and core themes were dropped/abandoned.

If you're still reading, thank you and sorry I went off on a ramble in the middle there. Again I'm not saying the season was bad and definitely not that you can't enjoy it (I liked it) just that it had a few missed opportunities.

[goodlucktai]

every high and every low

i wrote a tiny little something for @mangogreent, it isnt much but i hope you like ! happy birthday lake ! title borrowed from glad you exist by dan + shay (listen with your platonic nakamaship hat on and dissolve into seafoam with me)

read on ao3

x

Luffy’s body doesn’t scar easily. It’s one of the many facets of a frankly unhinged healing factor; his body shuffles micronutrients and vitamins around like a circus clown juggling pins, wounds healing so quickly and completely that there is rarely a trace left behind.

There are, of course, exceptions to every rule. The smiling pencil-mark curve beneath his eye is one of them. The cruel, gaping burn across his chest is another.

Sanji and Chopper have spent hours going over dietary needs and goals for everyone aboard Sunny, not just their captain. But it’s their captain whose food works like a miracle in his stomach.

If Sanji thinks too long and too hard about Totto Land—about Luffy’s trembling, emaciated limbs when he handed over a disgusting, ruined bento, the way his skin plumped up and shone with good health within minutes of a meal—there are very good odds that he’ll spiral into a fit of grief or guilt or panic no matter where he is or what he’s doing at the time. So he tries not to think about it, and instead loads his captain with carbs and protein and fiber at every opportunity instead.

Suffice to say, Luffy’s skin is largely whole and undamaged, only a few faint scars scattered here and there that you wouldn’t notice if you weren’t really looking. His rubber body is a marvel, but it burns like a starving furnace, and sometimes it does him a disservice no one could have possibly seen coming.

“You don’t feel that?” Usopp says with a frown.

“Nuh-uh,” Luffy confirms blithely, watching the feather move back and forth across his arm. “If you pinch me or poke me with something sharp I will, but if it’s soft it’s like it’s not there at all.”

For a moment, everyone sits there and absorbs that information. Sanji can feel it settling over his nakama like a blanket of snow; cold and promising to pack in and be a pain in the ass to shovel through. Sanji has to readjust his understanding of the world, too. It takes him a minute.

The only touches that Luffy feels easily are the ones that hurt. That’s true for everyone, in a sense—but just because a slap might register louder and faster than a gentle touch doesn’t mean the latter doesn’t carry a weight of its own.

Sanji wonders, abruptly, if the last thing Luffy felt from him was the fight they had on Whole Cake when Sanji was desperate to free his captain of his obligations to a pathetic, useless cook—when he did everything in his power to drive him away.

Nami and Brook have joined Usopp in the game of poking Luffy’s arms and legs and squishy sides in the name of proving him wrong, finding a spot where he isn’t so thick-skinned. Brook’s phalanges drumming against his ribs make him giggle a bit, but how much of that is real feeling and how much is simply delight at all the attention and affection pointed his way?

It should be cute, but Sanji can see—and feel—it cutting everyone to the quick. Robin has closed her book, watching the scene without a smile on her face. Franky’s hands are unmoving around the great feathered monstrosity he and Usopp have been building at the table together up until this point, as if he’s forgotten he’s holding tools in the first place.

Enough is enough, Sanji decides, and sets aside his pride along with his bowl of red velvet cupcake batter and maryse spatula, moving around the counter with purpose.

“Got an idea,” he says at length and Nami scoots gamely to the side. Sanji keeps moving before he can get in his own way and takes Luffy’s round face in one work-hardened hand.

Luffy, who has been known to use his actual skull as a battering ram, usually fights with his whole chest and carries most of his injuries there, too. His face, aside from an unfortunate unsupervised incident with a knife when he was little more than a toddler with a highly questionable and often day-drunk role model, is unscarred.

Sanji brushes his thumb against Luffy’s cheek, where the skin lays very thin over sensitive nerve endings. His captain blinks up at him, brown eyes wide and trusting, every bit as if he’s looking at someone who has never hurt him before.

The crew present is watching raptly, their disquiet transforming into absurd, single-minded scrutiny. There’s a reason they’re not only living in the New World but thriving there—they’re good at adapting, at assimilating new information, at smacking the curveballs right out of the park on their second swing.

“Feel that?” Sanji asks.

Luffy tips his head curiously, just enough not to dislodge Sanji’s hand. Perfectly willing to sit still and be held when it’s his cook doing the holding.

“Kinda,” the boy says, the barest hint of a furrow forming between his brows. It’s the beginning of an epic spoiled sulk that everyone who loves him is intimately familiar with—because his nakama belong to him, and so Sanji does, and so his hand on Luffy’s face does, and it is rapidly occurring to Luffy that it’s not fair for all of those things to be true and for him not to be able to feel it.

Sanji can’t help but smile, always equal parts charmed and exasperated by the future king in a pout. He leans in and presses his mouth to the same place his thumb was, kissing the soft cheek firmly. He can almost see it when Luffy zings to attention, his overwhelming focus zeroed into that singular point of contact.

By the time Sanji straightens, Luffy is already beaming ear-to-ear.

“I felt that!”

Sanji returns to his dessert prep, perfectly satisfied with the changed world he leaves in his wake. Chopper is already clambering over the top of the table, scattering the bits and bobs of the engineers' project into an irremediable mess in his haste to bury his favorite human in fuzzy reindeer kisses, and similarly everyone else’s eyes are gleaming with promise.

Luffy’s rubber body is both a wonder and a menace, much like the golden soul it houses. But where it falls short and fails him, his friends will pick up the slack. Luffy is probably going to get his cheeks and forehead pinched and poked a lot more when he’s whining or complaining or elsewise being his annoying, incorrigible self.

But he’s also going to get kissed a lot more there, too.

[coqxettee]

Coquette Summer

Bucket List: ☀️🧺🌸

Some ideas for your summer 2023 bucket list. Coquette activities, trips, days out and things you can do with friends or alone. Write these ideas in your journal and make your own bucket list if you like! <3

Go on a picnic ~ You can do this with friends or on your own! Take an aesthetic picnic blanket and basket, pack fruit, sandwiches, salad, cookies, cupcakes (whatever you like!) and have a Coquette picnic. Dress cute for the occasion and make sure to take lots of pictures <3

Host a Tea Party ~ Invite friends over and decorate your dining table with a pretty tablecloth. Grab fancy cups and saucers (you can find these in antique stores, or better yet a whole tea set complete with a tea pot!) and have a tea party. Drink rose or jasmine tea, have scones, bread & jam, miniature sandwiches, cookies/biscuits, cake. You could even do it Marie Antoinette, high-tea inspired. Dress all regency and cute and make it the fanciest, coquette, tea party ever! <3

Beach day ~ Grab your heart shaped sunnies and have a beach day! Bring a pink towel with you, a large pretty sun-hat, and make sure you pack all the pretty-girl beach essentials. Tanning lotion, a romance novel, fresh fruit, a blanket to sit on (if you don’t have a deck chair) sun cream (spf) lipgloss, a hair brush, and your camera to snap some cute beach shots! Walk down the boardwalk, listen to Lana and grab an ice cream, wear pink flip flops and a cute pink and white gingham bikini <3

Berry picking ~ Wear the most dreamy, float cottage-core, princess dress, a large sun hat and take a wicker basket with you to go berry picking. You can book a slot online and go into a local field. Take pictures and pick ripe berries to take home with you, ready to use for baking later on in the week <3

Baking day ~ Wear a cute little apron, put Lana on your record player in the kitchen and have a baking day! Bake cherry pie, heart-shaped cookies, jam cookies, chocolate-chip cookies, scones, cupcakes, an actual cake… anything and everything! Take cute photos when you bake, it can be great to make memories with friends. Once you’ve baked all your sweet treats, package them up and choose some to give to friends and family, some for later occasions (picnics & tea-parties) and most importantly… some for you! <3

Go to a market ~ If you live in the country there are loads of cute farmers markets on in summer. Keep some money back with you, wear a long, flowing style skirt and a bow in your hair and take a cute tote-bag to keep everything you buy in. Look for small Coquette trinkets on some of the handmade stalls, buy fresh fruit and lemonade for lunch and have a slow, relaxing day at the market <3

Antique shopping ~ Go antique shipping. For your room or house. You can find so many beautiful, Coquette homeware items, clothes, trinkets, jewelry and much more in antique shops. Google the best ones in your area, set aside a day, and go <3

Try out new café’s in your area - Google fancy café’s or even café’s that do afternoon tea. You could go with friends or have a solo cafe trip. Bring a book with you if you go on your own, to read. Or a sketchbook to sketch the world around you. Try something new on the menu! <3

Coquette movie day ~ Plump out your bedroom or living room with pink pillows, fairy lights, candles and lavender room spray. Put on the comfiest pair of pajamas you have Grab snacks, popcorn, anything you baked earlier in the week, fresh fruit (anything you like!) And have a whole day of watching JUST coquette movies. Disney princess films, any period drama’s, any mystical and magical movies, romance movies. Movies that are super light-hearted and make you feel like the princess you are inside. This is really fun to do with friends too! <3

Jewelry making ~ Learn how to make prettt, coquette jewelry. I always see such cute jewelry online and want to know if I can make it myself. The kits might be a bit pricy to buy, but once you’ve built up a jewelry making collection your all set! Make some summer earrings, necklaces, and bracelets <3

Learn to Crochet ~ Something I have wanted to learn for ages! There are tons of tutorials on YouTube and you can pick up pretty colored yarn from the market. If you are really good you can crochet things for the summer like tank tops, bikini sets and headbands! <3

Start a summer journal ~ Or just start journaling in general. I’m making a summer journal full of scrapbook pages I can add all of my coquette summer pictures too when summer is over. Decorate it with coquette stickers and really make it your own. Get creative <3

Have a self care day ~ It’s not sunny everyday in Summer (usually) so set aside one of the cloudier or cooler days for a movie day, or self care day! Wake up early and have an everything shower, and take care of YOU! Do a face mask, manicure, pedicure, do every step to your skincare routine, wash and remake your bed, tidy your room. By the end of the day you will feel like a new person and trust me it’S WORTH IT! <3

Have a sleepover ~ You kinda need friends for this one. I’m sure everyone knows how to have one but do really coquette activities! Paint each others nails, style each others hair, Watch coquette movies, talk about boys. All the classic things you see in the girly movies that you feel never actually get done at sleepovers… do them! Order pizza, do face masks, bake things, and stay up as late as possible for a… midnight feast! <3

-HERE ARE SOME MORE IDEAS! <3 -

Re-decorate your room for summer <3

Go on vacation <3

Go bowling <3

Cute cinema trip (watch a romantic movie) <3

Go to a fancy restaurant <3

Make a summer scrapbook <3

Plan cute summer outfits for the weeks ahead <3

Try out new summer hairstyles <3

Go to a milkshake-bar/diner <3

Go roller-skating <3

Go to the arcade

Find some pretty summer walks in your area, take pictures of wildlife you spot etc <3

Go to a farm (farmers daughter vibes iykyk) <3

Go to the theatre and watch the ballet <3

Have a signature, coquette summer scent <3

Write in your daily summer diary every night and seal it with a lipstick kiss <3

I hope you found these ideas helpful, aesthetic and fun! Have the best summer ever darling’s ~

🌸☀️🧺🍦🎀