#his ass does not know it's a different prophecy

[cutter-kirby]

underrated part of nerissa is her sense of humor. the girl gives an unsuspecting gregor a prophecy that has to be read backwards and says "so you can reflect on it sometimes :)"

[annwrites]

billy hargrove being in love with you would include:

at first, he'd be unbelievably irritated over it.

and he most certainly would not initially admit that what he feels is love.

no, it's just a stupid fucking crush.

you just happen to get his dick hard—that's it.

but why, then, can't he get you out of his fucking head—off his mind?

like, why does he want to hold your hand, & cuddle you, & say sweet shit to you?

admitting it is not something he would ever do up-front.

instead, he'd, quite honestly, prob be a bit mean to you over it. somehow feeling like it's your damn fault.

but, when he sees how his words hurt you, he fills with guilt & does what he can do undo it/dial it back.

so, he offers to start giving you rides to & from school.

maybe even makes invitations to hang out—just not at his house. he doesn't want his dad ruining whatever the fuck he has, or, at the very least, wants to have with you.

so, you guys go to the starcourt mall, or the movies, or hawkins video to rent something to take back to your place to watch, or to the hawkins arcade, etc.

he just needs an excuse to spend extra time with you that isn't strictly in a classroom.

and he buys you things: pays for your movie ticket & snacks, pays for the movie you rent for the night, buys you gifts from the mall, etc.

and by insisting it's not a big deal—kind of like a self-fulfilling prophecy—he makes it one by stressing how much it really doesn't matter. it's just a few bucks.

in time, he offers to teach you how to drive his car.

just likes that he'll get credit for being the one to teach you how to drive in-general.

the more time you spend together, the more intimate he gets.

he's been flirtatious & handsy the whole time, but being "sweet on you" is different.

it includes soft, nervous touches on his part with shaking, uncertain hands, waiting for you to mock him for it.

when you don't, he starts paying you nice compliments, like how he likes what you're wearing, or that your hair is really cute today.

starts holding your hand in public & around school, too.

speaking of intimate, he's usually rough when it comes to sex, to keep up that masculine façade, until he shyly asks you if you want to try "y'know, makin' love, or whatever the fuck".

and everything is slow and sweet and gentle & he lies in your arms afterward with his head resting between your breasts and he just feels so safe & loved & wanted & cared for.

is 100% the jealous type, so don't even think about hanging out with other guys. he needs that security in knowing you won't abandon him, too.

he, in time, tells you—begrudgingly—about his childhood & his mom. he tries to brush it off, but really wants you to give a shit. and when you do—hold him & tell him how sorry you are—he knows that's he's fallen entirely.

it scares the shit out of him, though. because he's not like other guys: hearts & chocolates (he's capable of being a sweetheart, but because he hates himself so much, he can't see it). he's terrified of becoming his dad. what if he's not the best thing for you? what if he hurts you? the list is endless.

but when he thinks of being alone again? of losing you? he can't let that happen.

so, he says it. those three words. and he feels like he might vomit when he does.

and then you say it back and he cries.

once the two of you graduate, he works his ass off to get you a nice home or apartment.

he wants to leave hawkins as whole & take the two of you out west.

and you get there.

and he returns to surfing & teaches you as well.

he loves sharing it with you.

and once the two of you are comfortable & settled, he pops the question.

he's a trembling, breathless mess while doing it, but he gets through it.

and once you've had some time to enjoy married life, it inevitably happens (he gets you knocked up)!

he promptly freaks out.

then spends all his free time working on a nursery.

snaps at you when you try and help put anything together.

"you need to be in bed with your feet up, or something. just let me take care of it, alright?"

he just wants you to be pampered, in truth.

but once your little one has entered the world?

dad mode all the way.

he's always holding it, helping change diapers (even if he bitches about them sometimes), changing its clothes, playing with it (loves this part—always a huge smile on his face, especially when the baby is smiling, too).

he becomes everything his dad never was: a good man. and he has the love of a good woman that he knows is his forever.

until death do you part.

[physalian]

7 Misused Tropes (And How to Improve Them)

Tropes in isolation aren’t inherently bad, but a lot of them are prone to poor execution. Each one of these probably could have a whole post by themselves. A few of these used to be good but have since fallen by the wayside as their original meaning has been lost.

7. Dramatic Miscommunication

You know the ones. I think it’s worse when the story is otherwise good, the writers just could not come up with a better way to get X alone or send Y off on the necessary side quest than the lowest of low hanging fruit.

Two essential ingredients for fixing this trope: Precedent and consequences

Precedent–have the character doing the missassuming already be prone to jumping to conclusions, already suspicious or insecure, or misled by a third party so this looks inevitable, instead of pulled out of your ass.

Consequences–usually these are big blow up fights that fizzle out without any impact on the plot once they fulfill their purpose, but if it’s a nasty enough fight, characters shouldn’t just forgive and forget. While they might not completely ruin relationships, it should have characters taking a step back and either second guessing where they stand, or using this blowup to fix an underlying issue in said relationship.

6. Love Triangles

Good Love Triangle for the first 3 seasons: Elena/Stefan/Damon (TVD).

Bad Love Triangle for the entire series: Bella/Edward/Jacob (Twilight).

The difference between them (besides time to flesh out both candidates) is that both brothers brought valid pros and cons to Elena’s life, both got the chance to be with her, and Elena’s whole arc wasn’t solely focused on the agonizing choice of which brother she should pick. Regardless of which camp you’re in, Stefan brought stability, that classic cliché high school romance, mostly all good vibes. He never challenged her or talked down to her or got aggressive with her. Damon did the opposite, for better or for worse, and we know which direction the show went.

On the other hand, Jacob never for one second stood a chance with Bella and the narrative wasn’t kidding anyone. They never so much as went on one date (unless you count the motorcycle ride) and it seemed like Bella was only letting him hang on for pity’s sake. Theoretically he brought pros to the table that Edward couldn’t (like, idk, being alive), but the narrative never explored what could be done with him. He just ended up being the Nice Guy friend who then decided it’d be hot to lust after an infant.

5. Agency-less Chosen Ones

These tend to be wish fulfillment characters that bring nothing to the story and have no discernible skills, yet are constantly in the middle of the action, have all the love interests fawning over them, and are Important and Critical to saving the world… because the narrative said so. They don’t make a single choice the entire plot except to move forward or stagnate, chosen by the gods or a prophecy or fate and destiny.

The problem: These characters walk with the crutch of “I’m the chosen one thus I don’t need a reason to exist in the story” and that’s just not a satisfying narrative shortcut. So? Give them agency. Even if they’re chosen by some ancient prophecy, you still have to convince the reader why the Universe wasn’t just talking out of its ass.

Good example: Emmet from Lego Movie literally says he’s useless and has no skills and cannot think outside the Lego box. He’s supposed to be as generic as painfully possible and when he does have creative ideas, they’re supposed to be asinine and stupid. And yet. He might be physically dragged around by the other characters, but he has plenty of choices, plenty of opposition to what’s happening, plenty to say about the state of his world, and his ideas do matter and his intimate knowledge of the instructions and playing by the rules is how they win.

4. Bad Boy Love Interests

These guys were supposed to be counter-culture icons, standing up to The Man for the little guy because he knows the system is broken and rigged. He’s an affront to the stereotypical nuclear lifestyle, he resents a robotic and soulless office job and wants to create art or music or in some way benefit his world and isn’t going to play nice just to get his way. He exists in contrast to the nuclear female protagonist: Conservative, demure, rule-following caged bird who falls in love with him because he shows her that life isn’t meant to be lived in The Man’s cage. He respects the authority that deserves respect, the teachers who actually give a shit, the janitors, the librarians, but probably not the principal or the police or the local politicians, because he knows they don’t respect him and respect is a two-way street. He’s probably a mama’s boy or at the very least loves his parents (if they’re alive) and while he might engage in a little property damage like graffiti, it’s for a good cause.

This dude is NOT SUPPOSED TO BE: Abusive, controlling, aggressive, or condescending to his love interest. He’s not supposed to be an overprotective stalker or plagued by insecure jealousy over any other man in his love interest’s life. He’s not rude to his friends or arrogant about his own smarts and doesn’t think he knows best about every little thing in the world. He’s not sexist or racist just to make himself feel better and he doesn’t pressure his love interest into sex because she owes him or whatever.

Ahem.

Please bring back classic bad boys. That is all.

3. Major Character Death (for shock value)

I remember the implosion of the Walking Dead fandom after they killed Carl, one of the very few characters who was supposed to make it to the end, for… various sketchy reasons and I could never figure out what was true. Some theorized that his actor was aging out of the ‘child actor’ payscale and they didn’t want to pay him as an adult and while I have no proof, it wouldn’t surprise me at all.

Carl died after getting bit in just one of those hectic moments where he got unlucky, while doing something noble and stupid. In isolation, it fits the nature of the “anyone can die” show but man did it just come across in poor taste.

Obviously “for shock value” shouldn’t be the reason you do anything in your story but there is still a way to pull it off without it causing a riot: Make sure they get killed in a non-contrived way. If you plan on killing off one of your heroes suddenly, either make it bitterly ironic, or make it a situation that this character would absolutely get themselves into. The more it “fits” the less likely audiences will see the hand of the author coming in just to break the character’s fictional contract.

2. The Power Inside You All Along

This trope is usually disappointing because it tends to melt a character’s whole arc down into something pointless—this whole adventure was apparently useless if they didn’t actually need to grow or change or challenge their conceptions of the world. They could have got up off the couch as joe shmoe and beat the villain day one.

While that’s probably not what their creator intends, ‘it was inside you all along *wink*’ tends to feel that way, as it discourages internal conflict. Usually, their creator is likely trying to convey the message that one need not change, that it’s what’s inside them already that makes them special.

I present to you once again Kung Fu Panda’s “there is no secret ingredient” i.e. “the power inside you”. The difference is. Po still has plenty of internal conflict: his own self-confidence. He begins the movie eager but inexperienced and a bit oblivious, fanboying it up around his heroes. He and Shifu both insult his weight and his lacking kung fu skills, and his arc is learning self-confidence, learning how to use his weight and the body he has to fight in a way that the villain isn’t prepared for, to where Po can shit-talk him to his face during the final fight.

Most failures of this trope don’t bother exercising their protagonist. They’re pissy and resistant for the entire story and only win when the narrative agrees they were right all along. Therefore, no change, no conflict, no resolution.

1. Strong Female Characters

So many of these read like "slapped boops on a male character". They don’t work for many reasons (usually being very preachy with their agendas), but they especially don’t work when by trying to be pro-feminist, they’re still reinforcing masculine standards. A lot of people, when Captain Marvel came out, said “you didn’t have any issues with Tony Stark being an asshole but now you do when he’s a woman” which. No.

Tony was an asshole, but being an asshole was the whole point of his character, and he got humbled right quick by getting blown up and held hostage. “Proof that Tony Stark Has a Heart” and all that.

Carol was an asshole with nothing to substantiate it, and never got a reality check. She had amnesia so we didn’t get insight into who she was before to understand this transition into dickishness and was so OP, she wasn’t ever physically or emotionally challenged like Tony was.

But the other thing is this: Slapping boobs on a male character with a slew of toxic masculine traits also says that to be a successful woman, you must behave like a man. It swings so far from the femme fatale sexy leg lamp that it comes around and eats its own tail. These characters are just mean and insecure and build themselves up by tearing down the men around them.

So. Calhoun from Wreck it Ralph is this exact trope done extremely well. She’s aggressive, arrogant, loud, rude, and cynical. For about 10% of her arc. The movie immediately throws her into a situation where her strengths are basically useless—she’s stuck in Candy Land and has to rely on someone who is the antithesis of her game and character to make it out. The movie also shows you why she’s cynical via her tragic backstory.

Not only that, she’s more than just a heap of toxic masculinity in a pixie cut. She laughs, she cries, she admits when she’s wrong, she has a soft side, a gentle side, a caring side, and remains a badass through and through.

Or, once again rolling out Tigress from Kung Fu Panda: Proud, aggressive, the snubbed chosen one, cynical, mean, and overconfident in her abilities. Tigress nearly gets her entire team killed in her arrogance. She’s allowed to be wrong, very wrong. She also has her soft moments and, like Calhoun, has a very valid reason for being jaded, and is still shown to be capable of softness and nurturing during the evacuation.

Third example to hammer home that I don’t hate badass women: Andromache. Jaded, overconfident, short-tempered, aggressive, and a little mean-spirited. Tragic explanatory backstory? Check. She is also caring and loyal to her team, allowed to get emotional, allowed to be wrong and fail and lose, and kind of the surrogate mom of the team, who can also laugh and joke around and have light-hearted moments.

Whether the character is a man or a woman, being an arrogant asshole who takes zero accountability and refuses to admit when they’re wrong and never loses, audiences aren’t going to like them.

[merlucide]

What’s their taste in music?

notes: playing around with sizing hehe-

characters: Barou, Sendou, Chigiri, Bachira, Reo, Oliver, Hiori, Otoya

barou shoei

classical music 100%

Cmon my dude mediates- how obvious does it needa be? I feel like piano would be his favorite but also really likes cello or other deep string instruments. He normally just puts on the default classical music playlists lmao. Though I do think he would like Red hot chilli peppers for some reason. Definitely hard no on metal or anything really with intense drums. He can’t stand the loud aggressive music, he thinks it’s unhinged and frenetic.

sendou shuto

sendou listens to rap cus he thinks it makes him cooler💀 I can see it so clearly omg- 

Listens to Eminem obviously, and his favorite song from him is rap god. His hype song is NEW ORLEANS by BROCKHAMPTON. He feels so badass listening to it lmao. Though what he really likes is pop, Brittney spears, Dua lipa, Lady Gaga, etc etc.

chigiri hyoma 

Okay I can see Chigiri liking a few types of music for like different moods yk.

I think he’d like XXXTENTACION, he listens to his more ‘intense’ songs when he runs. He likes YuNg BrAtZ, when he wants to listen to depressing music he likes Orlando. 

He’d like rock too, The white stripes and Nirvana would be his go toos.

When he’s getting really into his workout he puts on Disturbed and occasionally SlipKnot when he’s tryna push himself.

ALSO I CAN 100% SEEING HIM LISTENING TO SLEEP TOKEN?!? OMG YEAH???

(RIP XXX.)

bachira meguru

Hear me out okay.

Voicaloid. 

IK IK- I think Bachira would really like the fast pace and excitement in their songs. He just likes Hyperpop, it’s like an energy boost he don’t need anymore energy

His all time favorites are Rin Rin Signal and Poppippo.

ALSO THE LIVING TOMBSTONE. UGH HE WOULD LIKE THEM RIGHT???? Discord would be on loop 24/7 are u kidding me

mikage reo

I think that since he grew up classy n rich he’d listen to classical music and such. he really likes Violin/Viola. Listening to it brings him great comfort and peace. Reo really likes Jazz too. Obviously Reo explored other types of music to see what else there is .definitely did it as an act of ��rebellion’ lmao-  He isn’t really a fan of metal or rock but likes Alt. I can see him listening to The neighborhood or Radiohead. He also likes Adele.

aiku oliver

likes the more chill stuff, like Noah Kahan or Big thief. He’s a pretty laid back guy and doesn’t feel the need to rage through music lmao- Though I can see him liking Chase Atlantic. And I know for a fact if you put on any cunty music he’d know all of the lyrics to the songs. Ayesha Erotica, Chase Icon, or even porn-ish singerslike cupcakke he’d know the words to em💀

hiori yo

..

death metal.

..

Like we talking cannibal corpse, the fallen prophecies, and on calm days, SlipKnot.

he gotta cope somehow ig😶

Like you could ask him what he’s listening too and expect him to listen to like Drake or sum and he’s like ‘oh I’m listening to Murderous Rampage by Cannibal Corpse’. 

.. 😶

Like dawg wut😭

otoya eita 

he’d listen to Drake, Lil Uzi Vert and Kanye West without doubt. 

Pls he’s the most basic, generic, un-unique ‘frat boy’ ever, of course he’d listen to them. He thinks he all hot stuff jamming out to em, all dripped out in his basic ass fit, and ugly beanie, ew. Ugh I hate this hoe🙄 (jk he’s bbg 🤭) also I’m not hating on any of these artists, I like their music- DONT TAKS NUFFIN PERSONAL PLS

lemme know if u wanna pt2 or whatever mkay

made March 17th 2024

[michibap]

need to hear about hockey reader and schlatts first time.

yes yes yeah

she's finally here guys,

thank you user kiddiesmores for acting as a vessel of the prophecy

15k words because im fucking insane, sorry

TW: typical college activities, hetero sex

BEGONE TUCKER 🐑🩸

-if you think he's putting out ez you'd be wrong

-when you suddenly materialized into his life, he did some snooping, asking around about #23 on the women's hockey team

-if he was going to be seeing you four days out of the week, he should probably find out if you're secretly some kind of psycho freak

-but when he asks around, it seems like he's already kind of late to the party

-bc everyone he knows seems to at least know of you

-especially with the reputation you'd garnered on campus

-he'd learned a new word whilst asking around, conversation coming to a brief pause as he gives his friend a confused look

"What the fuck is a puck bunny?"

-charlie only glanced up from where he was tinkering with one of the robotics club's new projects with a coy smile,

"I'm gonna need you to take a look in the mirror, brother."

-the mischevious giggle that followed had schlatt sitting up straighter on his stool, reaching over to grab his phone

"Fuck you. What does that even mean? Fuck you." he spat as he rapidly typed the term, that he could only assume was offensive, into a search engine

-he presses his lips into a thin line and pegs an empty water bottle at charlie's head after reading the results

"I am no goddamn puckbunny." he huffed, crossing his arms over his chest, "And quite frankly, I'm offended that you've taken me for some common whore."

-charlie laughed again, bringing his hands down from where they had shot up to protect himself from schlatt's assault,

"I mean, I wouldn't blame you," he says with a shrug, looking over his friend as he squirmed, "You're telling me you would pass up that up, if you had the chance?"

-schlatt forced a scoff with a cocky shrug,

"Not 'round here, partner. I'm built different."

"You wouldn't know how to handle allat anyways." a voice pipes up from another table

-schlatt turns in his chair to glare at where the eavesdropper is biting back a smile, holding his hands up in defense when schlatt flips him the bird

"FUCK you, tucker."`

●・○・●・○・●・

-since the first time he heard it, the term had been haunting his narrative

-puckbunny?

-like... a groupie?

-surely not

-part of him didn't believe it

-despite it being the way a solid five of his friends had heard of you

-surely you weren't a puck bunny, you just didn't give off those vibes

-and he didn't even know if the women's hockey team even had groupies like that

-shit, he didn't even know that the university had a women's hockey team until this year

-that, and he just didn't think you were the hook-up type

-despite your cocky and aggressive nature on the ice,

-he's noticed that you don't talk much outside of when you're with your team or with... him

-he found it almost comical how every ounce of your usual rowdiness leaves your body the moment you were without a friend by your side

[he tries to ignore his inkling sense of pride, but it has him sitting up a little straighter nonetheless]

-with your reserved nature, there's surely no way you're out here hooking up with randoms

-however....

-there is evidence that suggests otherwise (aside from what he'd heard from friends)

-the first incident is only a handful of days into your comeback masterplan

-it's the morning after a successful game for the women's hockey team

-there's solid number of hungover students dragging their sorry asses to class after a long night of celebrating the win

-he almost wants to point and laugh at his suffering peers, feeling beautifully rested after a long night's rest

-having gone directly home after the game and crawling into bed shortly after

-some of his smugness is zapped from him when he sees a cute blonde walking in the opposite direction as him, an obvious pep in her step

-he thought that the fact that she was his only equal in a sea of degenerates was what had caught his eye

-but as he looks her up and down, he bites back a scowl when he notes the fresh bruises and teeth marks littering her neck and collarbones that were exposed by the baggy sweatshirt she was donning

-obviously not hers

-he'd been FOOLED

-yet another soul lost to the wills satan, damned for eternity for the sin of-

-his judgements (which he refused to admit were rooted in jealousy) came to a screeching halt

-his eyes darting back to the sweater the girl was wearing

-wait a damn minute.

-that sweatshirt was very clearly not hers

-he stops in his tracks, doing a shameless double take of what the blonde was wearing

-it looked oddly similar to a sweatshirt he's seen YOU wearing

-he's broken from his trance by another student bumping into him, grumbling at the brief scuffle before making his way into the lecture hall

-you make your way in around five minutes after the lecture begins, as per usual

-he raises a brow when he sees you shivering in a thin long sleeve shirt as you wordlessly shuffle past the other people in the row

-he pretends not to look at the way your biceps bulge against the fabric as you drop your bag and adjust in your seat

-rubbing your hands together for a moment before pressing them between your thighs in an attempt to warm them up

"Thought hockey players didn't get cold?" he teased quietly, grinning when you side eyed him as you try to suppress your shivering,

"'S fuckin' brutal out there," you grumble, using one of your hands to reach down and open your bag to grab your notebook

"That's what jackets are for, pleb."

-you only sigh in defeat, the cold having zapped too much of your energy to bother conjuring up some clever comeback,

"No dip," you hiss, "Couldn't even find my fuckin sweater this morning."

●・○・●・○・●・

-there was another incident not much more than four days later

-it'd been after you convinced him to move your session from the collaboration office to a nearby dining hall

-because according to you

"If I don't get something in my stomach in the next three to five minutes I'm gonna start throwing things. And I mean it."

-he follows you around as you load up your plate

-shaking his head no when you ask if he wants anything

-you were griping about some group project that you were struggling with, casually dropping that you were ghosting your group mates because of how bad it sucked

-he wasn't really listening, more focused on following you through the crowded dining hall as you led him to your table of choice

-but as the two of you were walking, you were interrupted by a sudden shout of your name

-you halted in your tracks, and he mindlessly walks into you, stumbling a bit after basically bouncing off of your back, your stance unmoving

-he peaks over your shoulder to see who had stopped you

-his brows shooting up at the sight of a cute brunette eagerly looking up at you over the rim of her glasses

"I'm so glad I caught you! I don't think you got my texts,"

-he watches your shoulders rise with a sharp inhale as you wipe your palms on your sweats,

-an anxious habit of yours that he'd picked up on the longer he's spent time with you

"Heyyy youu..."

-and he quickly puts the pieces together

-taking in your anxious tell and the girl standing in front of you, who had flagged you down in the middle of the dining area

-he has to rub a hand down his face to suppress a laugh

-there is no fucking WAY he's watching you get called out for ghosting you group project right in front of him

-this is simply too good to be true

"Yeah I, uh..." you pause and suck your teeth, glancing away for a moment

-and he can SEE the smoke pouring out of your ears as your primate brain kicks into overdrive

"My service is just... weird, I guess. I must not've gotten em."

"No, no, it's totally okay" she rushes out, her eyes shoot up and catch schlatt's and he quickly averts his own

-a little guilty at being caught eavesdropping

"Umm, are you busy right now?"

-he watches you stand a little straighter and glance over your shoulder at him

-something in your eyes shifting when you seemed to remember he was behind you

-and he shifts his weight from one foot to the other as he raises a single brow at you, obviously biting back a smile

-oh boy OH BOY

-here it comes!!!1!!

"Yeah, I'm actually here for tutoring right now, so..."

"Oh!" she chirps, "What for? I could probably help if you want-"

"Nahh, my tuition pays for him to be here." you insist, jabbing a thumb in his direction

-he watches as the girl's shoulder deflate, his own sagging as well

"Oh..."

-that's IT?

-where is the TEA? the DRAMA?

-he wants to see this girl crash out in a very real and serious way

-because he KNOWS how frustrating you can be in an academic setting, so he can only imagine what you'd be like as a groupmate

"Yeah, we should probably get going, actually. Time's a wastin'" you finish with an awkward laugh

"Oh, okay. I'll see you around, I guess..."

"Totally, totally... Later!" you call as you begin to walk away

-schlatt moves to follow, but you don't make it far before the girl reaches out and grabs your wrist,

"Hey, wait!"

-you look eyes shoot down to your wrist then back to her with a frown

-HERE IT IS

-he almost wants to applaud his fellow nerd for standing up

-there seriously does need to be some geek unity on this godforsaken campus-

-his train of thought comes to a screeching halt when he watches the girl look up at you hopefully, pulling her lower lip between her teeth before she continues, a little shyer,

"Text me?"

-when he watches your eye her up and down

-the corner of your mouth pulling into a little smirk

-he realizes that this interaction is going in a FAR different direction than what he had assumed

"I'll see you around."

-with that, you pull your wrist from her grasp and walk away

-and schlatt is hot on your heels as he follows you to a table in a quiet corner

-practically throwing his bag into the booth before sliding in after it

-the moment he's sat, his nosey ass is running his mouth

"What the fuck was that?" he rushes out with a bewildered laugh

-you chuckle and shake your head as you slide into the booth across from him,

"Shit was weird, right?"

"Weird?" he repeats, bewildered

-he turns his head to look in the direction where the girl had walked off in

-laughing when he sees her already looking in your table's direction from where she's sitting

"She wants you bad, bro."

-you only roll your eyes, corner of your lips twitching into a cocky smile

"Everyone wants me." you proclaim cockily

-schlatt laughs again, shaking his head

-usually he would make a comment to shoot you down a peg, but he'll give it to you this time, he supposes...

-game recognizes game

"So, what's the dame's name?"

-you hum, shifting in your seat so you can follow his eyes to where she's sitting,

"Honestly," he watches as you catch her eyes, one of your own dropping into a playful wink as you send her a little wave

he watches her perk up in her seat and eagerly wave back

"I couldn't remember her name if you had a fuckin' gun to my head," you mutter with a laugh

-you glance back over to him, expecting him to be laughing with you, smile falling a little when you see he isn't even cracking a grin,

-as a matter of fact, he's doing the opposite

-his face set firmly into a judgmental frown

"What's it to you?" you ask, a little defensive

“You don’t even know her name?” he hisses

-you roll your eyes at his tone, scowling

“Does it matter?”

●・○・●・○・●・

-it was a damn shame that your douchey tendencies tarnished the romanticized version of you that lived in his head

-because much to his dismay

-as your three week comeback plan continued to unfold

-he’d found that maybe you’ve grown on him

-just a little

-after the first week of awkwardly quiet meetings where the only talking the two of you did was him answering your questions and an occasional biting comment,

-the two of you had surprisingly grown fairly close

-you could call it forced proximity, but he has a feeling it’s a little deeper than that

-especially now that his friends have seemed to pick up on it

-he won’t even give anybody the chance to try and tease him 

-loudly groaning and interrupting the conversation the second anything that could possibly pertain to you comes up 

-maybe it was the way he was suddenly interested in tagging along to hockey games, but only for the women’s team

-or the way he’d print out all of your practice sheets ahead of time instead of emailing you the pdfs and making you print them yourself  like he does with all of the other students he’s tutoring

-it could be the way he’ll drop his conversations, coming to a hard stop when his phone goes off, anxiously checking to see if it was you

(and nobody believes him when he says it, but it usually really is you)

-there’s also the fact that he steps out of the room the moment he sees your face peaking through the small window of the workshop door

-you’d picked up the habit of stopping by if his bi-weekly robotics meetings are still running after your practice lets out 

-neither of you mention how the math and science building is well out of the way of your walk to the student athletes' housing

-but his fate was truly sealed the other day

-during your regularly scheduled session, you’d gotten a text from coach letting you know that practice had been canceled that day 

-pickles, his beloved frenchie, had managed to eat an entire large pizza and an order of garlic knots and was suffering the consequences

-he watched you cheer, celebrating your newly found free time

-and in a brief moment of confidence, he offered to let you tag along with him to his robotics meeting

“If you don’t have anything better to do, of course.”

-he really did think you were joking when you took him up on it

-only realized you were quietly tailing him about half way through his walk to the math and science building

-he only knew you were there when he heard the crinkling of you unwrapping some sort of snack from behind him

-whipping his head around and releasing a short shout when he sees you

“Jesus, they need to put a fucking bell on you,” he hissed, “Why are you following me?”

-he frowned when you looked at him like he was an idiot

“You told me to, douchebag.”

“What? When?”

-you click your tongue and give him another look, and he squirms a little, waiting for you to answer

“...When you asked me to come to your meeting… and I said yes?”

-he lets out a little “Ohhhhhh,”

“I didn’t think you’d actually wanna come.” he admits with a laugh

-you shrug and break into a light jog to catch up so you could walk beside him

“Nah, wanted to see that fat fuckin’ head of yours put to use.”

“I hope you know that I’ve reserved the right to revoke your invitation.”

-you only hum, lips twitching into a grin, 

“You won’t.”

-when he opens the door, all of the chatter that could be heard from outside came to an abrupt stop

-all heads turning to where you followed schlatt into the workshop

-you awkwardly cough into your fist when nobody says anything to you, just staring silently

“Uh, what’s good mathletes?” you awkwardly try to break the ice

-beside you, schlatt sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose while his friends chuckle,

“Robotics.” he corrects

-your tongue presses to the side of your cheek with an almost imperceptible raise of your brow, and he could tell that you were doing everything in your power not to laugh

-had you two been alone, you’d have made some kind of joke about how you’re itching to rob him of his lunch money

-but in a room where you’re significantly outnumbered by not just nerds, but your cute tutor’s friends?

-you decide to secede with a hum

“Right, right. Robotics team.” you correct yourself, glancing at him out of the corner of your eye before looking back to the rest of the small group, “My bad.”

“No worries, man.” Charlie pipes up with a friendly smile, “You’re on the hockey team, right?”

“Yup, Number 23.” 

-schlatt sends alex a dangerous glare from over your shoulder when he loudly coughs after choking on his water when he hears the number

-you give him a weird look before wiping your hands on your joggers, 

“Right. So, practice was canceled tonight, and he said it was alright if I crash your meeting,” you explained, jabbing your thumb back in schlatt’s direction,  “if that’s okay with y’all, of course”

-obviously, there was no protest

-schlatt rolls his eyes as he watches his peers push a few of the benches together

-eager to pick at the brain of the notorious #23, who seemed to be wrapping their usually introverted friend around her finger

-however, you seem a lot less eager to boast about yourself as they had been expecting

-sitting there quietly as they all settle into their tasks for the day, waiting for you to start talking

-you look around, a little unsure of what to do with yourself

-what the fuck were they building, a bomb?

-there were tools on the table that you had never seen before, and when you take a look at a paper nearby, it was filled with an almost unintelligible scrawl of numbers and symbols you didn’t even know existed

-he lets you squirm for a minute, occasionally glancing over to watch you fiddle with the fabric of your pants as you anxiously look at the array of parts and papers and pencils scrawled out in front of you

-maybe it’s a little cute to see you floundering outside of your element, sticking by him in an unfamiliar setting

-you manage to catch his eyes once, and you send him a pleading look

-he only raises his brow, smug

“Yes?”

-you sigh, knowing that he’s going to force it out of you eventually, 

“Where do you want me?”

-charlie freezes in the middle of twisting a prong

-glancing up at where you and schlatt are sitting across from him with wide eyes

-schlatt’s lip curl into a shit eating grin as he reaches for a ridiculously tiny screwdriver, 

“Oh, I’ve got just the thing for you.”

-he assigns you the most dreaded task he could think of,

-having you twist tiny little screws into the stupidly small threaded holes of the 3d printed box they planned to fill with all of the guts and wiring of their new bot

-but the task comes as a relief, giving you something to do with your hands as you listen to the idle chatter of him and his friends, occasionally chipping in

-enjoying hanging with the gaggle of geeks more than you had been expecting to

-you were dragged into the conversation again when tucker inevitably started going on about his most recent pump, 

“I see you in the gym all the time,” he says, getting your attention as he smiles at you from across the bench, 

“You’re fuckin’ jacked man, we’ve gotta go sometime so you can show me what’s up.”

-you only grin, glancing up from where you have the piece of machinery you’ve been working away at in your lap, 

“Oh for sure, I see you in there too,” and schlatt watches tucker light up like a goddamn christmas tree, “You’ll have to take it easy on me.”

-later on, the conversation takes a turn towards an upcoming competition that they had coming up, which you were eagerly invited to

“Wait, on the 12th?” you ask, deflating a bit,

“I’ve got a game that day, I won’t be able to make it.” you say with a frown

-there’s a chorus of groans from the team, disappointed both by you being unable to attend their tournament, and them not being able to go to your game

-you frown, crossing your arms and teetering back in your chair as you think for a moment

“Well, what’re you guys doing for your celly?”

“Celly?” Jaiden repeats, cocking her head

“Celebration.” you elaborate

“Right, well it’s kinda up in the air because we haven’t, y’know, won yet.” schlatt attempts to be snarky

-frowning when you only you nod at him before turning back to the others

“Nice, well when you guys do, Phi Sig is throwing for the team. You guys should pull up.”

-there are some excited reactions from the team, but schlatt crosses his arms over his chest, leveling you with a suspicious look, 

“You’re inviting us to a party to celebrate winning a game that you haven’t played yet? A little bold, don’t we think?”

-it wasn’t a popular take, for sure

-a direct invite to a Phi Sig party was a high honor around these parts

-and he remembers you saying something about the other team being “full ‘a fuckin benders” when he asked you about your upcoming game, confident in your ability to win

-but he remained weary, not wanting to risk getting the team’s hopes up

-but you disregarded any anxieties he had when your lips curled into one of your infamous cocky grins, a quick glimpse of your on-ice persona

“That’s one way to put it.”

●・○・●・○・●・

-the function already seems to be in full swing by the time they arrive

-there’s already somebody passed out in the front yard, surrounded by empty tweas

-you could hear the music and lively chatter coming from the house all the way from the street, windows lit up with colorful string LEDs

-schlatt sucks in a deep breath, following after his friends who are excitedly bouncing towards the house

-all of them proudly donning their matching windbreakers they had won at the tournament they had just returned from

-and part of him wants to turn tail and call it a night, just going back to his dorm after an exhausting day

-but he hears alex’s giddy giggle when they open the door, the riotous volume of the party now being heard at full

-he steels himself and ducks in, following the group to the kitchen, trying to keep a headcount as they struggle to navigate through the rowdy crowd

-it’s a relief when it’s a little quieter in there, only a handful of people in there chatting and pouring themselves drinks, the music slightly muffled

-he finds a corner to situate himself in as his friends geek over the selection of alcohol set out

-he grins as charlie hands him a red solo cup filled with sprite and something that burns as it slides down his throat

“Jesus, what the fuck did you put in this?”

“Shut up and drink it, pussy.”

-he won’t argue with that

-he makes the mistake of looking out at the rest of the party over the rim of his cup as he gulps down some more

-needing some liquid courage after seeing a small group of guys pointing at their jackets and snickering

-he averts his eyes, deciding that it wasn’t his problem

-instead choosing to look in the living room where a large number of people have congregated around a game of beer pong

-some others dancing to the music playing over the speakers

-his eyes travel along the back wall, where some partygoers linger on the outer hedges of the crowd

-of course, his eyes are naturally drawn to you

-he chokes on his drink as he watches you lean down so that a redhead in scandalously tight jeans can whisper something your ear, your hand planted on the small of her back as you pull her closer

-he splutters and struggles to swat tucker away when he comes up and firmly pats him on the back as he coughs

-when he recovers, he can’t help but look back to where he found you as he wipes his mouth with the back of his hand

-eyes going wide when he sees your eyes already on him as you lean in closer to whisper something yourself

-lips curling into a charming smile when she pulls back with a laugh and you gently nudge her away

-he watches as you push off from the wall and make your way through the crowd and towards him, the throngs of people parting around you as you wade through with ease

-dressed in your jersey, lazily thrown over a hoodie and paired with baggy jeans

-he can tell by your flushed cheeks and toothy smile that spreads across your face when you enter the kitchen that you’re already decently tipsy

“What’s good, mathletes?!” you greet excitedly, happy to dap Charlie up as you walk in

-one of your teammates pops her head in after you with a confused grin

“Not the mathletes-” she laughed

“Aye, that’s robotics team to you.” you correct her

-schlatt’s eyes go wide when come closer to him and reach reach out and grab his shoulder

-easily spinning him around and pointing out the back of his windbreaker

-his face gets hot when he feels your finger drag across the poor quality printing on his back

“State champs.” you read proudly

“Damnnnn,” your teammate commends, nodding in approval

“I can drink to that!” another one of them, who seemed to have materialized in the kitchen, chirps excitedly

-the rest of the party rushes by in a blur from that point on

-because the next thing he knows,

-he’s going shot for shot with the women’s hockey team’s captain while you cheer him on,

-your drink sloshing over the lid of your cup as your throw your arms up and cheer

-he doesn’t know why he thought he could go toe to toe with a carbed up athlete, but it makes for a good time either way

-he won’t remember tomorrow, but with some firewater in his blood he was able to let loose and enjoy himself

-the only evidence of it will be blurry photos he finds in his camera roll and sent in the groupchat the next morning

●・○・●・○・●・

-the next time he regains sentience, he finds himself out by the street, hunched over a trashcan and hurling up the big mac he had eaten on the way back to campus however many hours ago

-he doesn’t hear you walking up behind him

-nor did he notice you follow him out when you saw him stumbling towards the door, the friends he had come with too sloshed to notice his escape

“You alright there, big guy?” he hears you ask, an entertained lilt to your voice

-he only groaned and hung his head further into the bin

“You were goin’ pretty hard in there,” you tease

-and he raises his head to glare at you, bringing up a hand and using the back of it to wipe his mouth

“Fuck yeah I was.” he said proudly, swaying as he pushes himself to stand up again

“‘M not done yet-” he mumbles, and makes to walk back into the party

-unfortunately, he doesn’t make it very far

-your eyes go wide and one of your hands shoots out to grab a fistful of his shirt as a last ditch attempt to break his fall, but it doesn’t do much help

-he ends up flat on the ground with a stretched shirt, groaning up at the sky

-you, once again, aren’t much help

-still a little tipsy yourself, and cackling hard enough that you end up on the ground next to him

-he would have taken a moment to appreciate the sound if everything wasn’t spinning

“God, that was good” you sigh, wiping away stray tear

“I fuckin hate parties.” he grumbles

“Yeah, I’m sure you do.” you chuckle

-his chest goes tight when your face comes into view, looking down at him from where you’re seated beside him with a teasing smile, 

“You got somebody to bring you home?”

-he scowled, reaching up to push your face out of sight, 

“Don’t need you ta fuckin bring me home-”

“Brother, you are on the ground.”

“Fuck you.” he spits, moving to push himself off the ground, groaning once he’s sitting upright, “I can’t believe you let this happen.”

-you bark a laugh,

“Me?”

“Yeah, you.” he scoffs, once again wobbling as he gets back on his feet, “None ‘a this woulda fuckin happened if you- if you- if you jus'-”

-he pauses and presses his lips into a thin line, glaring at where you’re looking up at him from the ground

-conflicting emotions swirling in his chest

-caught between enjoying your company and wanting you to leave so he can let his brain shut off as he lies on the cold concrete

-you watch as he struggles to string together a coherent thought, laughing to yourself as you get off the ground with significantly less struggle

-and all of a sudden it feels a little too much like you’re laughing at him

-anger flaring in his chest as he thinks back to the guys who had been snickering about his and his friend’s jackets earlier

-fucking student athletes and their stupid egos

-you’re no better than him, with your stupidly toned body and captivating smile

-once you’re standing, the two of you are nearly chest to chest

-if his brain wasn’t short circuiting before, it definitely was now

-his eyes widen and his chest goes a little tighter when it finally processes that you’re looking up at him

-thanks to the combination of your lack of added height without your skates and the close proximity between the two of you

-he’s close enough to smell the liquor on your breath and the residual stench of pot mingling with your perfume

-it’s intoxicating enough that he doesn’t realize how hard he’s staring at your lips as they stretch into an amused smile

“You were saying?”

-his eyes dart back up to yours, face growing hot when he realizes he’d been caught

-if he were a little more sentient right now, he would articulate just how badly you piss him off

-how much it frustrates him that he is simply unable to dislike you, no matter how he wishes he could (and probably should)

-with your stupid cocky attitude and smug smiles

-and your frankly unfairly great sense of humor that gets the two of you weird looks when you have him cracking up in the collaboration office

-or how easily you’ve slotted yourself into nearly every aspect of his life

-somehow weaseling your way into his academics, his work, his social circle

-his entire goddamn psyche

-worst of them all, he hates how you toy with him

-and he hates how he lets you

-your eyes go a little wide when he leans in close, feeling his breath brush across your lips with the proximity

-you make no move to pull away

-and maybe that’s his final straw

“Fuck. You.”

-the two of you remain standing close like that for a moment

-he flushes as your eyes bore into his own, searching for something, but he stands his ground, staring right back

-he frowns when you laugh in his face, 

“Yeah, I thought you’d say something like that.”

-you suck in a deep breath and glance away, shoving your hands into your pockets and teetering on the balls of your feet, 

“Listen, you can feel… however you want about me,” You pause and meet his eyes again,

“The main concern right now is gettin you somewhere safe so you’re not sleeping on the turf tonight. Now c’mon, ’s fucking cold out.”

-you reach out and grab the sleeve of his windbreaker, and attempt to pull him along with you as you try to walk away

-but he remains firmly in place

-you frown a little and tug his sleeve again, 

“What’re you doing? Let’s go,” you insist, nodding your head in the direction that you were trying to lead him to

-he narrows his eyes at you

-caught between enjoying you tugging him around and being pissed that your entitled ass just assumes he’ll follow you just because you told him to

“Where’re you takin me?” he slurred

-you gave him a weird look, eyes darting from him to the front door of the house as another partygoer stumbles out and leans over the handrail to puke into a bush, then back to him

“Umm, probably my place-”

-you’re cut off by him scoffing and dramatically ripping his sleeve from your grasp,

“Fuck that, ‘m not going home with you.”

-you laugh a little, unsure of what he’s getting at, 

“Umm, well I don’t really know how to get to yours, but if you think you can lead-”

“No, no. ‘M not going anywhere with you.” he mumbles petulantly, crossing his arms over his chest

-you sigh, bringing up a hand to pinch the bridge of your nose before letting it flop back at your side,

“Why are you being so difficult right now?”

“Fuck you.”

-he watches as the last ounce of patience leaves your body, glaring up at him as you run your tongue over your teeth to keep from saying anything you shouldn’t

“Y’know what? Fine, be like that. Have fun with the raccoons, dickhead.”

-and with that, he watches as you walk away without as much as a glance over your shoulder

-and his brain is going a mile a minute as he watches you get further away, part of him expecting you to turn around

-when you don’t, something ugly stirs in his chest

-and he just can’t let you walk away with the final word

“I’m not some fucking puck bunny!” he calls after you

-he blanches when it comes out, but resists clapping an embarrassed hand over his mouth

-that did not sound as hard as it did in his head

-his face gets embarrassingly hot when he sees you stop in your tracks and look at him over your shoulder, bewildered

“...What?”

-and he knows he should just shut his fat fucking mouth

-but he’s drunk and he’s angry and you’re right there and once he starts he just can’t stop 

“I’m not just gonna do whatever you say jus’ for you ta fuckin pretend I don’t exist after you get what you want.”

-he stops when you fully turn around to face him again, thoughtfully looking him over before you speak, 

“And what is it that you think I want from you?”

-he doesn’t say anything, jaw clenching as he keeps his eyes firmly set on you

-he knows that you know what he’s talking about

-he couldn't possibly be the only one that feels the tension between the two of you

-you sigh at his lack of response, bringing a hand up to adjust your hair before you speak

“Listen,” you sigh

“If I just wanted to fuck you, I already would've. Plain and simple.”

-you watch as his face morphs from anger to confusion

-a small smile twitching on your lips as you watch the cogs in his brain turn before turning back around with a shrug and continuing on your way

-he stands there, watching dumbly as you walk away

-but he hears a quiet laugh before you’re calling to him over your shoulder, 

“You coming or what?”

-you shake your head with a smile when you hear heavy footsteps quickly approaching you from behind

●・○・●・○・●・

-the rest of the walk is spent in awkward silence

-well, awkward for schlatt

-you seem to have no issue with quietly walking side by side 

-but his mind is elsewhere, thoughts racing by too fast for him to pick one and stick to it

-you chuckle a little when you see him dazedly staring at the open elevator door in front of him, giving him a second to see if he notices

-when he doesn’t, you lightly push him with a hand on the small of his back before following him in 

-neither of you say anything until you enter your student apartment

-schlatt takes off his shoes on the doorway, leaning against the wall so he doesn’t topple over as he unties his sneakers

-you lazily kick your own shoes off before making your way into the kitchen, schlatt on your heels

-he bumps into your back when you stop abruptly

-he follows your eyes to where you’re looking

-finding your roommate standing in front of the fridge in her jammas, bag of popcorn in hand as she sends both of you a nasty glare

“Heyyyy Clair-”

“Who is that?” she interrupts, eyes boring into Jay’s soul

-he flounders, mouth falling open and snapping shut a few times as he tries to find something to say

-before he gets the chance, she’s turning back to you and heaving  a disappointed sigh, 

“I thought we agreed to no more groupies in the dorm.”

-you blanch as you now feel two sets of angry eyes on you

“He’s not a groupie!” you rush out, “Scout’s honor!”

-Claire only sighs, shaking her head as she turns to begin walking to her room,

“Just keep it down tonight, please.”

-after her bedroom door slammed shut, you turn to face Jay, who had been glaring at the back of your head, with a guilty smile

-and he would have given you hell for it if he didn’t feel his stomach churn, clapping a hand over his mouth

-your eyes shoot open and you’re like “Oh shit”, dragging him to your shared bathroom

-you stand there a little awkwardly, watching him wretch over the bowl for a moment

“Alright, ummm…” you scratch the back of your neck, “I’ll be right back. Don’t die.”

-he grumbles something indecipherable from where he’s hunched over and you take it as an okay to leave

-when you return a few minutes later in your jammas with a bottle of water, he’s seated on the floor with his back against the cabinet

-you nudge the side of his head with the bottle and he grumbles and snatches it out of your hand

-guzzling half of it as you settle across from him against the bathtub, just watching him

-he groans obnoxiously once he decides he’s had enough

-placing the now crunched bottle on the floor next to him and watching you back

-after a moment of silence you glance away and anxiously rub your hands over the fabric of your bottoms

-and he has to admit that you look awfully cute in your oversized t-shirt and flannel pants

“So…” you start awkwardly, “How’re we feeling?”

-he quirks an unentertained brow and presses his tongue to the side of his cheek before responding, 

“Why don’t you give me your best guess.”

-you give a quiet laugh before responding, 

“Well, you look like shit”

-he can’t help but roll his eyes and laugh alongside you, some of the drunken haze beginning to clear away as he sits on the cool tiles of your bathroom floor

“I mean, can’t be too bad if I’m here, right?”

-you only hum, pulling a knee up to your chest and resting your chin on it and looking back down at the tiles

-another beat of awkward silence passes

-schlatt is struggling to come up with another witty comment to make you laugh

-something charming and funny that’s sure to convince you that he’s worth your while

-and it’s on the tip of his tongue, but just as he goes to open his mouth, you’re looking back up at him

“I really like you.”

….

FUCK

-FUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCJ

-his eyes go impossibly wide and he claps a hand over his mouth hard enough that his head knocks back against the cabinet

-he does not know WHAT possessed him to say that

-but the humiliation only sinks in further when your shoulders shake with a quiet laugh

“Yeah, I know.” you wear another amused smile and give a coy shrug, “Cat’s outta the bag.”

-schlatt is significantly less entertained

-the hand clapped over his lower face drops to his side and his lips part to allow his mouth to hang open dumbly as he stares at you

“What?”

-he really thought he had been sooo cool and chill and subtle about it

-how the fuck did you know? 

-how long have you known? 

-did somebody tell you???

-DO YOU THINK HE’S A WEIRDO PERV FREAK?

-before he got the chance to spiral any further, you’re speaking again, 

“No worries, man. I like you too.”

-another pause

-he sits there for a moment, wide eyed and completely still

“WHA-”

-his shout is muffled by you shooting forward to cover his mouth with your own hand

-he groans when the force knocks his head back against the cabinet once more

“Shut the fuck up, my roommate is sleeping.” you hiss

-you watch as his eyes crinkle and feel his lips spread into a smile under your hand before he says something that’s muffled by aforementioned hand

-you laugh and remove it, wiping any spittle he had unintentionally left there off on his shirt

“So, you have a crush on me?” he confirmed aloud, grinning when you nod

 “That’s mad embarrassing.”

-his cheeks hurt from how wide he’s smiling at you as you roll your eyes

“Fuckin’ tell me about it.”

-there’s another beat of silence, significantly less awkward this time

-the two of you take a moment to breathe a little easier now that the tension that’s been plaguing both of you in the past weeks has finally been acknowledged

-Schlatt is the first to break it, still a little confident with his lingering buzz

“So…” he starts, “What now?”

-you sigh with another shrug, 

“I dunno, it doesn’t have to be like,, serious or anything.”

-he hums, nodding his head with a thoughtful expression as he shifts a little anxiously

-he’d been worried you would say something along those lines

-your promiscuous history nagging at him from the back of his mind

-no judgment or anything, but a “casual” relationship might actually destroy him

-especially with how off kilter you’ve had him with just a crush

-it’s a matter of self preservation, because he knows you have the potential to ruin his life

-and that he would let you

-you watch as he brings his his hands up and presses his fingers together as he struggles to find a way to articulate himself without sounding like an ass

-ESPECIALLY with his major fuck up earlier (even though it seems to have worked out in his favor thus far)

“I don’t think I’d be down for anything that wasn’t… serious.” he made sure to say it slowly, cautiously

-sure to articulate himself in a manner that wouldn’t disturb the serene atmosphere in the bathroom

-his face falls when he hears you suck in a sharp breath through your teeth, 

“Right, I figured you’d say something like that. Um,”

-he watches as you sigh and tilt your head back to look at the ceiling like it has the answers written on it

(ignoring how soft the newly exposed expanse of skin looks, muscles flexing underneath as you nervously swallow)

“I’m going to keep it real with you, this is one of the best seasons the team’s had in a long time,” you start, your eyes once again landing on schlatt who nods, urging you to continue 

“And right now, I’m not willing to risk having any new distractions to throw me off my game, especially with the end of the season coming up."

-he deflates a bit, cheeks heating up with shame as he begins to brace himself for the sting of rejection

"That, and the fact that I don’t want to end up disappointing you by making any… commitments,  that I frankly don’t have the time for right now.”

-Once it seems like you’re finished, schlatt nods again with an understanding hum

-despite not really understanding what you’re getting at

-ARE YOU REJECTING HIM OR NOT, WOMAN?

-GOD

-he watches you bite back a smile

-but it was hard to do with how braindead he looked as he tried to decipher what you were saying

“So what that means is that if you’re willing to hold out until the end of the season….”

-you pause and look at him expectantly, waiting for it to click

“Oh… OH!” and suddenly he’s sitting up a little straighter and bright eyed

-he catches himself getting a little too excited and reels it back in, leaning back against the cabinet with a totally nonchalant shrug, 

“I guess that could work…” he hums thoughtfully, stroking the chair on his chin, “But I’d like to make it very clear that you will be the one holding out.”

-now it’s your turn so sit up a little straighter, eyes lighting up as you sense the challenge in is tone

“Yeah?” you ask, tongue darting out to wet your bottom lip as you look him up and down

-he blushes but matches your energy, a rogue grin coming to spread across his lips

“Yeah.”

●・○・●・○・●・

-you would think that having that conversation would have cleared the air a bit

-releasing some of the tension that had been building

-but it most definitely did not. 

-as a matter of fact, it seemed to do the exact opposite

-it was brutal, really, being torn between wanting nothing more than to jump your bones the minute the two of you are alone and wanting to beat you in this stupid fucking challenge that he set

-this, combined with your sessions becoming less frequent with the end of the season growing closer and you deciding to make it your personal mission to make his life difficult, made for an incredibly long week

-but he wouldn’t deny that he was enjoying the newfound attention

-it was like the less he saw you, the more forward you became

-growing more determined to break him the closer you got to your final game

-admittedly, he was holding out a little better than you had initially expected

-holding strong when you decided to sit next to him during your tutoring session instead of across from him like you usually would

-pressing the strong line of your thigh snugly against his, the smell of your shampoo clouding his thoughts as he struggled to explain what a quotient was for the thousandth time

-showing up to sit in on his robotics meeting in a compression shirt that has him stumbling over his words every time he snuck a glance at you

-it definitely did not help that almost every time he did, he found that your eyes were already set on him, unmoving when he meets your gaze

-though that’s not to say that it was a cakewalk for you

-the dry spell was brutal, especially considering that beforehand you were getting laid pretty consistently

-the more time that passed, the more desperate you became

-getting to the point where even the smallest things left you reeling

-though you’d rather god strike you dead on the spot than admit it

-but that fucker was already onto you and you knew it

-you could tell by his self satisfied smile after he watched you squirm as he praised you for passing your most recent exam

-or hovering close enough to you that you can can smell his cologne and feel the heat that the warm mass of his body was throwing off

-he’d also stopped bothering to hide his brazen stares, only giving you a toothy grin when you turn and catch his his eyes firmly planted on your ass

-it soon became painfully clear that one of you had to break, and soon

-it’s just funny because

-neither of you expected it to be you

●・○・●・○・●・

-it’d been an unusually free day for both of you, with most of campus being shut down due to a snow storm rolling in

-you’d taken advantage of it, sleeping in until about noon and waking up to flurries of snow falling from the sky and the sound of your roommate watching jersey shore

-you grumble and roll over, ready to go back to sleep until you hear your phone buzz on your nightstand

-you sigh and sit up, running a hand through your hair to get it out of your face before picking it up, a sleepy smile stretching across your lips when you see who had been blowing up your phone

smartfella 🤓: hi 🧍🏻‍♀️

smartfella 🤓: hey lol

smartfella 🤓: u still down to study today or na

smartfella 🤓: a little snow cant stop the grind 💪

fartsmella 🍖: wtf r u talking about

fartsmella 🍖: collaboration office is closed 2day u fool

-you watch his typing bubble pop up and disappear a few times before you receive a response 

smartfella 🤓: since when is the collaboration office a concern

smartfella 🤓: we’ve only actually studied there like twice

fartsmella 🍖: what does this have to do with me

smartfella 🤓: 😐

smartfella 🤓: come over

fartsmella 🍖: k

-schlatt lets out a small laugh when he reads your response, a little surprised at how little convincing it took

-but stops laughing when the reality of you coming over sets in

-he panics and lunges out of bed, stumbling due to his legs being tangled in his blankets

-he hurried to make his bed before scurrying around his room to gather any trash he could find before rushing out into the common room, where ted was lounging on the couch

-his roommate’s eyes go a little wide when he sees how frazzled schlatt looks, shouting indignantly when he tears the blanket off of his lap before folding it and throwing it over the back of the couch, 

“What the hell, man?!”

-schlatt doesn’t even look over at him as he quickly makes his way to the windows, opening them up and making a desperate attempt to waft out any unpleasant boy smell that may be lingering in the dorm, 

“You need to leave.”

“What?”

-ted yelps when schlatt makes his way back over to him and tries to drag him off of the couch

-it quickly turns into a match of slapbox as the two bicker, 

“You need to get the hell out of here man-”

“The fuck are you talking about, I live here!”

“Just get the fuck out, please”

“Dude, you can’t just-”

-both of them freeze when they hear two sharp knocks on the door

-eyes darting from each other, then to the door, then back to each other

-before schlatt even has the chance to think, ted is taking advantage of the distraction and shoving him to the floor, sending him stumbling back into the coffee table and knocking his elbow before landing on his ass

-but he gets up impressively fast when he sees ted making his way to the door and hurdles himself after him, hot on his heels

-but he wasn’t fast enough, his eyes going wider when he sees ted’s hand turning the knob

“Wait-”

-but before he can continue to plead, ted is swinging the door open

-silence falls over the dorm once more when ted opens the door

-finding you standing in the hallway

-dressed in a pair of snoopy pajama pants and your team jacket, having just thrown it on over your jammas after rolling out of bed and leaving

-you give the tall stranger in front of you a weird look as he just stares down at you before glancing back to where schlatt was standing closely behind him, looking a little exasperated

-why do his friends always do odd shit like this??

“Uh, Hey.” you try to break the silence

-ted doesn’t respond, only slowly turning his head back to schlatt with a shit eating grin that has his ears turning red

“Just ignore him” Schlatt pleaded

-you only raise your brows, eyes darting between the two men in front of you,

“Right. So are you gonna let me in? Or…”

“Oh! Right, sorry.” ted secedes, stepping out of the way to let you walk in,

“It’s nice to finally put a face to the name, I’m Ted.” he introduces himself with a grin, holding a hand out for you to shake

-you take it, giving it a firm shake as you awkwardly laugh, 

“Haha…. what?”

-you’re about to make a comment about how weird the whole interaction has been, but stop when you hear quiet hissing and rustling fabric behind you

-you glance over your shoulder and barely catch schlatt aggressively mouthing something at his roommate before he realizes you’re looking at him and gives you an awkward smile

-your attention is brought back to Ted when he releases your hand, 

“Well, I was just about to head out, you kids have fun!” he chirps, before walking out into the hallway and closing the door behind him without another word

-you and schlatt are left in silence for a moment,

“... He didn’t put any shoes on.”

“That’s his problem.”

“That’s foul.”

-you take a moment to briefly glance around, grimacing a bit when you realize just how much nicer the student athlete housing is in comparison

“Damn ma, you live like this?”

-he can’t help but let a laugh slip, 

“Welcome to gen pop.”

“Is it legal for them to have you guys in here without heat??” you asked, briskly rubbing your arms in an attempt to warm up  after your cold walk to a colder apartment

“No, uhh… the windows are open.”

-both of you turn to look at the aforementioned windows as another cold gust of wind blew in

“Why?”

“Don’t worry about it.”

-you laugh before kicking off your shoes and taking off your jacket before making your way further inside 

-you make yourself at home, flopping onto the common room couch

-schlatt follows after you, remaining standing and looking down at you as get comfortable

-gulping when your t-shirt rides up and exposes a sliver your midriff as you lazily slouch

“So you invite me over to freeze and do math? That’s fucked.”

-he chuckles, shaking his head and doing one last scan of the apartment to make sure any embarrassing items are put away and out of sight

-you say something else as he does, but he doesn’t process it

-instead, his eyes are firmly locked on the awful anime poster he and ted ironically put on display on the back wall

-paling when he sees the grotesquely large breasts hanging off of the small anime girl on the poster

-you frown when you see him staring straight over your head, face pale and eyes wide, like he had just seen a ghost,

“Dude, what is your problem?” you ask, moving to turn to see what he was looking at, but pausing when he speaks again

“Weshouldgotomyroom”

-he blurted out the first thing that came to mind, desperate to keep your attention away from the humiliating poster

-he KNOWS you would tear him to shreds for it, and he's not mentally prepared for that

-part of him wants to breathe a sigh of relief when you turn back to fully face him, leveling him with a confused look,

“What?”

-you watch him flounder for a moment

-trying to direct you to his room, away from any chances of seeing the poster, without being suspicious

-any thoughts of anything vaguely suggestive had been completely cleared from his head, solely focused on the task at hand

-but you frown, cocking your head as you look up at him and try to figure out what he’s up to

-because it’s obvious that something has him antsy

“You…” you start slowly, “Want me… to go to your room?” you ask to confirm

-just to make sure

-bc not to be a horndog but like,,, why else would he be rushing you to his room after kicking his roommate out?

“Yeah, yeah, it’ll be uhhh,, less cold in there.”

-he wonders if he’d been caught when your brows briefly raise

-but you follow it with a shrug  

“Alright, lead the way.”

-you laugh, a little confused when he comes over and grabs your forearm to drag you off the couch, 

“This is new” you simper, and go to look at him over your shoulder once you’re standing,

-but he puts a hand on the small of your back and gives you a rough shove before you get the chance to see the poster, sending you stumbling a bit

“Jesus, I’m going!”

-you walk up to what you’d assumed was his door, and you were about to turn and ask to make sure it was the right one

-but he reaches past you, briefly trapping you between his broad chest and the door, before turning the knob himself and pushing it open, allowing you to walk in ahead of him

-you awkwardly stand in the middle of the room, waiting for him to do something

-you watch as  he makes his way over to his desk and comfortably leans back on it, crossing his arms over his chest

-observing you observing him

-something in his chest warms at the sight of you in his space, a small smile spreading across his lips

-you feel your cheeks warm under his gaze and look away, trying to find something to take your attention off of him

-because the longer you look at him the more you feel like you need to be chained to a tree like a goddamn werewolf

-he looks stupidly good for just being in sweatpants and an old tshirt

-the tendons of his forearms flexing where they’re crossed over his chest

-you can see a glimpse of the meat of his upper thigh pressed tightly against the fabric of his sweats with how he’s splaying them on the desk

-with that stupid little smile of his, some of his gorgeous curls falling over his falling over his forehead

-you wipe your palms over the fabric of your pants, hoping to quell the itch to reach out and touch but it doesn’t do much help

-you cough into your fist before matching his stance, crossing your arms as you make it a point to look around

-taking in the variety of band posters and trinkets he has laying about

“‘S cute in here.” you mumble, daring a glance back at him

-and it was a goddamn mistake

-you watch as his small smile curls into something cockier as he slightly tilts his head to the side

-maybe something about you being in his territory has him feeling a little more confidence in himself

-it has you swallowing thickly as he shamelessly eyes you before they slowly trail back up to meet your own

-it may also have something to do with how good he looks

-or how you haven’t gotten any in weeks

-or the cocky lilt to his voice when he speaks

“Yeah?”

-and that’s all it takes to finally crumble your resolve

-before he even has the time to process what’s happening, you’re storming towards him

-he’s looking at you with wide eyes as you plant your hands on the desk behind him, trapping him there as you bully your way between his thighs before crashing your mouth into his hard enough that your teeth clack

-he can’t do much more than groan into it and reach a hand up to squeeze your waist

-sighing as your tongue slips between his lips and one of your hands shifts to grab the underside of his thigh and drag him closer to the edge of the desk

-he gasps when the other comes up to cup the side of his face before slipping behind his neck and knotting into the hair at the base of his skull, roughly tugging his head back to press a trail of wet kisses down the column of his throat

-he brings one of his own hands up to bury itself in your hair as he tilts his head back to grant you more access

-releasing a startled moan when you sharply nip at the soft skin when he gives your own hair an experimental tug

-when he feels your hand begin to snake its way further up his thigh he’s pulling back a bit, 

“Hey, wait-” he tries, using his hand in your hair to pull you away from his neck, groaning when you surge forward for another kiss that he forces himself to pull out of,

-whimpering when you catch his bottom lip between your teeth before releasing it with a pop

“What?” you snap impatiently, but it’s awfully hard to take you seriously with your glazed eyes and swollen, spit slick lips

“T-The deal,” he struggles to get it out, chest heaving as he tries to pull himself back together, “What about the deal?”

-anxiety twinges in his chest when you look at him like he’s stupid, 

“Your deal?” you correct, clicking your tongue when he gives you a demure nod

“I could not care any less about that stupid fuckin’ thing.” you grumble before trying to lean back in for more

-you glance back up to his face when he shifts to bring a hand up to your shoulder to stop you, frowning when you see his smug grin

“You do realize that this means I win, right?”

-you only scowl, 

“Is that really what you’re thinking about right now?”

-he laughs, bringing both of his hands to grab your hips to try and pull you close again, 

“‘M sorry, c’mere” he murmurs, grinning when he sees a smile begin to spread across your lips

-despite you rolling your eyes as you allow him to drag you towards him

-this kiss is far less frantic, both of you smiling and sighing into it as his arms come to wrap around your waist, your hands coming up to cup the sides of his face

-you grumble indignantly when you feel him pulling away again, frowning when you feel him unwrap his arms from around you

-but you quit your whining when he uses the newly freed space to stand to his full height before leaning back down to plant another grossly wet kiss on your forehead and squeezing you to his chest in a tight bear hug

-both of you devolve into giggles as he attempts to shuffle towards his bed, struggling as you go limp in his arms to make his life difficult, along with attempting to weave through the laundry he had lying on the floor

-when you finally reach the twin xl, he releases you from his grasp,

-moving his hands to grab the underside of your thighs and hoisting you onto the bed before climbing up after you

-once he’s up there, you make quick work of straddling him, releasing a self satisfied hum once you’re comfortably perched in his lap

-you smile when you see him looking up at you, a little star struck as he takes you in

-blushing when he continues to shamelessly stare as you glare at him

“Dude, what is your problem?”

“You are so fucking hot.” he breathes without missing a beat

-you only nod with a shy smile, a little awkward

“Uh, Thanks.”

-he laughs before leaning forward for another kiss, and you’re happy to indulge him

-surging forward so that he can feel your chest pressed against his own and reaching one of your hands to bury itself back in his hair

-the other makes to grab one of his wrists, guiding his hand to your lower back

-happily sighing when he takes the hint and grabs a firm handful of your ass with a groan

-it isn’t long until the his free hand slipped under your shirt

-sighing into your mouth when he feels the strong muscles of your back shift under smooth skin as you grind into his lap

-you hum against his lips and grin into the kiss before pulling back, catching your breath with a toothy smile before reaching down to pull your shirt over your head

-you eagerly lean back in for more, glaring when he stops you with a hand to your waist

-he curses under his breath, and you feel him shift under you so he could lean back to get a better view of you

“Fuuuuck,” he breathes, running a hand up from where it hand gone to rest on your hip back up to your waist, grabbing it hard enough to bruise, strong fingers pressing into the firm muscle there 

-You laugh, slightly abashed at how openly he was admiring you

-but you don’t let it stop you from taking his wrist and using it to guide his hand to paw at your chest

-gasping when he shifts forward to press his mouth to the newly exposed skin, grinning at your quiet laughter as his facial hair rubs against you

-your moan harmonizes with his as he sinks his teeth into the meat of your shoulder before pulling back to admire his handiwork

-frowning when he sees that not too far from the angry red indents his teeth had left

-were very faint red marks that dragged all the way down to your lower traps

-he quickly pulls back and gives you a bewildered look, eyes wide

-your eyes get just as wide, if not bigger as you scramble to defend yourself

-having already known what the hold up was

“Hold on- Those are mad old, on my mother’s soul.”

“Don’t bring your mother into this,” he scolds before leaning back and looking at your other shoulder, finding similar markings there, 

“How old?” he asked cautiously

“Pre-comeback,” you promise, “And she was fucking crazy.”

he raises an entertained brow as he looks down at you, “Good crazy or bad crazy?”

-you paused, taking a moment to hum thoughtfully before answering, 

“A little bit of both?”

-he pulled away for a moment to narrow his eyes at you before grumbling a quick “‘s fine.” before resuming his assault on your neck and shoulders

-you laughed a little as you felt him sucking and biting new marks of his own into your skin to quell the jealousy churning in his stomach

-it wasn’t long before he was trying to slip his hand down the front of your pants, coming to a sharp stop when he hears you speak

“Wait-”

-he frowns when you grab his wrist, stopping him

-he looks up to gage your expression, releasing the breath he had been holding when he sees you eagerly looking down at him

“Can I take your pants off?”

-he takes his hands off of you, instead opting to recline back onto the bed and folding his hands behind where his head now rests on his pillow

-you gasp when you feel his bulge press against you as his hips shift while he readjusts,

-face reaching a quite frankly humiliating temp when you see his stupid cocky grin

“I thought you’d never ask,”

-you scowl as you crawl off of him, moving back to kneel between his legs

“Don’t do that again.”

-he goes BRIGHT fucking red when you move to grab him underneath both of his knees and momentarily push them up, making quick work of effortlessly removing his pants for him before tossing them somewhere random in the room

“The basket was right there.” he scolds you, a desperate attempt to regain some of his dignity

“Shut up.”

-he goes to argue, make a comment about how bossy you’re being,

-but his mouth snaps shut as you move to comfortably kneel on your haunches, muscles of your thighs bulging with the new position 

-you set him down on your lap, his ass planted firmly between your strong thighs with his legs hanging over your hips

-he gasps as you hum, running your hand from where it rested on top of his thigh up to the hem of his shirt, toying with it a moment before moving to pushing it up under his chin, exposing his chest

-his face somehow gets more red, and he resists the urge to bring his hands up to cover himself like some blushing virgin

-you let out another hum as you run your hands up and down his sides before bringing them to rest on his hips

-he bites back a whimper when he feels your one of your hands move down to paw at his bulge, cooing at the small dark spot where pre had leaked through his boxers

“This wet from a little kissing, baby?” you mock with a little laugh

-your head snaps up, brows raised toward your hairline when you hear him release a barking laugh followed followed with a

“What the fuck?”

-he can’t help but let it get away from him, devolving into a fit of laughter as he brings his hands to cover his face,

“Oh my god, what the fuck?”

-you laugh a bit as well, bringing your hands away from his crotch to rest near his knees, thumb running over the soft hair there

“What?” you urge

“Nothing, nothing,” he laughs, struggling to catch his breath, “Jus haven’t really done…” he pauses to motion to where he was splayed in your lap “this before”

-your eyes go wide and you take your hands off his knees like the skin had burned you

“Fuck, you’re not a virgin, are you?”

“Do I look like a virgin to you?”

-he scowls when you don’t answer

“Fuck off. ‘m not a fuckin virgin.”

“Sounds like something a virgin would say.” you tease, laughing when he glares at you, “Sorry, sorry. I think I know what you’re talking about.”

“Yeah, I just uh,, never been on this end before, I guess.” he admits

“Mhm,” you hum understandingly, hand coming to absentmindedly pet along the outside of his thigh as you observe him, “Do you like it?”

-he blushes, anxiously shifting his hips where they rest in your lap, dick straining against his boxers as the dark spot gradually grows larger

“I think I do…” he admits, a little shy 

-you hum again, hand rubbing a little further up his thigh as your eyes rove over his body, stopping to meet his sheepish gaze,

“I think you do, too”

- he feels his brain go gooey as your lips curl into a predatory smile as you move both of your hands to grab at his squirming hips

“I think you like it a lot.” you look back up at him through your lashes

“‘S a shame I thought you would’ve put up more of a fight, didn’t think to bring my fuckin strap.” you grumbled

-you gave him another confused look when he scrambled to pull himself out of your lap, eyes wider now

“Hold the fuck up- Your what?”

-you look at him like he’s an idiot before speaking again,

“I- What? My strap, what do you think this is?”

“I definitely didn’t wake up this morning thinking I’d be getting fucking pegged!”

“I mean, I didn’t think I’d touch a dick today but you don’t hear me complaining.”

“Oh, fuck you.” he scoffs, 

-you run a frustrated hand through your hair, angrily throwing your other hand in the air, 

“If you’d fucking let me.”

-he lets out a disbelieving laugh as you frown at him

“Well, what now?” you ask impatiently

“What’re you talking about?”

“I don’t really know what else you want me to do, so…”

-schlatt gapes at you for a moment, hands flailing as he struggles to pull his thoughts together

“I- You- I thought we were fucking?”

“Fucking how?” you snap

“I thought I was gonna fuck you, dipshit.”

-he bites back a laugh when he sees you malfunction for a moment, mouth falling open and snapping shut a few times as your cheeks heat up

“Is that okay?” he asks, a teasing lilt to his voice

“... I guess I can work with that, “ you start, “Hold on, here-” 

-you move to tug him back from where he had scrambled back on the bed so that he was once again sitting with his legs splayed out, and you moved to sit back between his legs

-one of your hands reaches for the band of his boxers, you glance up at him for assurance, continuing when he gives you a short nod

-he pretends not to be offended when you flinch back after his cock springs out of his boxers when you pull them down, 

-cooing as it twitches and drools more pre onto the skin below his belly button as you delicately run your finger from the base to the tip

“You have a condom?” you asked, looking up at him 

“You don’t have one?” he asked a little incredulously

“Not ‘round here, partner.”

-he dramatically sighed as he stretched to rifle through his bedside cabinet, tossing the condom he had thankfully stolen from the front desk of the health office the other day at yoy

-you catch it with ease

-bringing it to your mouth to tear the packaging open with your teeth before delicately taking the latex ring out of the packaging, looking at it curiously

-he sucks in a sharp breath when your free hand comes to grab the base of his cock a little firmer than he would have expected, watching the cogs in your brain turn as you intensely stare at it

“All good?” he asks

“Yeah, just don’t look at me,” you request with a laugh, which he returns until he sees your face drop and you look at him expectantly, 

“Oh, uh, okay..?” he says, a little confused, but willing to tilt his head back to the ceiling

-throwing an arm over his eyes when the urge to look grows too strong for him to resist

-he’s gasping, his hips jumping as he feels you fiddle with the condom on his sensitive tip, growing antsy the longer you seemed to just be fucking around

-he sits up with a shout when something, he doesn’t even fucking know what, pulls painfully, 

“Jesus!” He snaps, “The fuck’re you doing down there?”

-he glares when you laugh a little, holding your hands up in defeat as you look at him with a guilty smile, like you were caught in an act, 

“My bad, man” you laugh a little,

“Kinda used to, uh… working with a different set ‘a parts, here.” you admit

“Hold on-” he starts, quickly sitting back up to look at you with wide eyes,

 “What?” his eyes dart from where your hand is still wrapped around him, to your other hand that’s holding the now slightly unraveled condom, then back to you

-his brows furrowing, a little concerned

“Is this… not kind of a big deal?” he asks, a little unsure

-you narrow your eyes at him, lips twitching into a wry smile,

“Don’t flatter yourself. Jus’ put the condom on, big guy.”

-he laughs and thoughtlessly does as you say

-brain mushy as looks up at you as you move to straddle him again,

-eyes going a little wide when you reach back and wrap your hand around his length and moving to align yourself with the tip

“WOAH- Alright- Slow your roll there, no prep is fucking crazy. Especially if it’s your first-”

-he’s cut off by a short moan being punched out of him as he feels his tip just barely breach your impossibly tight heat, it taking every ounce of his willpower to keep his hips from jumping up

“Ffuuck-” he whined, throwing his head back and thickly swallowing, hands shooting up to dig his fingers into your sides hard enough to bruise as he tries to keep you from sinking down any further

-his grip doesn’t do much to stop you, ignoring his gasping as you struggled to sink lower, hissing at the stretch, thighs trembling with the effort of hovering over him

“Hold on, I need to- Fucking- Ah-!”

-you whimpered, leaning forward to plant one of your hands on his chest for leverage, essentially pinning him down in the process

-he gapes up at where you hover over him, cheeks flushed and brows pinched together, mouth dropping open with a silent moan as you clenched around him 

“Fuck, please-” he pleaded, no longer concerned with preserving his pride as he whined, his voice raising gradually raising in pitch the more desperate he became

 “You need to get off, please, fuck, I-”

-he’s cut off by your own whiney voice, 

“Fuck- Please, please, Jay,” you mewled, gritting your teeth as you struggled to take more, “Want it to hurt- fuck-”

-that damn near did the man in

-he’s left with no other choice but to use his grip on your waist to tear you off of his lap, ignoring your yelp as he suddenly slips out of you

-he took advantage of your brief moment of discombobulation, taking the chance to flip the two of you so that he was hovering over you, putting you in a similar position to the one you’d had him in earlier

-though now he was was caging you below him, hands firmly planted by the sides of your head so that all of your senses were completely overtaken by him

-his cheeks are flushed and he's glowing with a thin sheen of sweat, his hair going a bit curlier, a few strands sticking to his forehead

-and he is fucking glaring at you, chest heaving as he struggles to even his breathing back out

“You-” he panted, “Are a real piece of fucking work, you know that?”

-you grinned, breathlessly laughing up at him

-but it’s quickly cut off when one of his large hands darts up to roughly grab your jaw, squishing your cheeks to forcibly silence you

-making it a point to shake you a little bit, just because he could

“I’m not fucking laughing,” he gritted, leaning down so that face was close enough to yours that you could feel the puffs of his breath on your cheeks

“You’ve done nothing but give me fuckin problems, y’know that? I should fuckin’ kick you out and make you wait the last four days.”

-he falters when you let out a keening moan, looking up at him with bleary eyes as you press your thighs together

-he exhales through his nose, still glowering as he gives your face another shake, 

“Lucky you’re so fuckin’ cute,” he murmurs lowly, leaning down to plant a hard kiss on your forcibly pouted lips before releasing your face

“Now, ‘m gonna stretch you out, and you’re gonna fuckin like it,” he explains, before grabbing the base of his cock and teasingly tapping it against your mound a couple of times, grinning when your hips cant up,

“and then you’ll get what you want. That sound good, sweetheart?”

-his lips spread into another grin when you quietly whine, dumbly nodding up at him

“Yeah, ‘s what I fuckin thought.” he huffed cockily

-any concerns you’d previously had with the… competence of his dexterity were quickly blown out the window the second he brought a hand down, swiping his fingers through your slit

-your eyes go wide and you flush when he brings his fingers to his mouth with a groan, closing his eyes in ecstasy as he sucked the slick off of his fingers before dipping his hand back down for more

-running his fingers through your folds again, coming to swirl around your sensitive nub for a moment before gliding back down to circle your hole

-grinning when your hips jump and you bring your head up to watch as he touches you

-you release a guttural moan when he dips one of his fingers into you, throwing your head back as it curls inside of you, twitching as it presses up against your gummy walls

“Hands’re so fucking big, Jay, fuck-” you whine as he bullies another into you, releasing a hard exhale as he feels your stupidily wet heat squeeze around him

“So fucking sensitive, baby,” he coos as you convulse around his knobby fingers, “Wha’sa matter, those girls not taking care of you? hm?” 

-he only laughs as you whine up at him, free hand firmly planting itself on your lower stomach to keep you from bucking away as the sensation grows more intense

-he makes quick work of making you come undone, you being brought to the brink of an orgasm embarrassingly quickly as he worked you like a goddamn fiddle

-he moans with you, dick twitching where it lays against you as he feels you gush around his fingers, groaning when your trembling thighs clench around his hand, trapping it there until you’ve ridden out your high

-you go a little limp once the aftershocks finally leave you, humming when you feel schlatt press his weight on top of you as he descends to plant a few kisses on your chest and up your neck

“You here with me, sweetheart?” he asks, lightly tapping the side of your face as your eyes roll  back to the front of your skull

“Mmmh, ‘m here.” you mumble, squishing your cheek into the palm of his hand when it comes to rest on your face

-looking up at him with a dopey smile that he returns with a grin of his own

“You alright?” he asks, grinning when you respond with a noncommittal hum

“You think you’re ready for more?”

-now that gets your attention

-he chuckles when you surge forward fast enough that your heads almost knock together

“Can I get back on top?” you ask eagerly, seemingly to suddenly regain sentience

“I don’t know, are you gonna act right?”

“Probably not.” 

“Fair enough,” he laughs, but still moves to settle back on his back beneath you as you perch yourself in his lap once more

-he hisses as you use a hand to realign him with yourself, 

“Slow, baby, please” he pleads as you run the tip through your folds, enamored with how pretty the head glistened with your slick

-you only hummed, looking up at him as you fixed to sink down onto him once more, slowly, like he had asked

-taking time to enjoy the significantly less painful stretch this time, mouth dropping open and forming a little ‘o’ as you watched schlatt throw his head back with a strained moan

-he forced himself to bring his head back up to watch as you took all of him, cursing when your ass finally meets the top of his thighs and you take a moment to adjust

-you let out a shaky moan once he’s fully seated inside you, hands shooting to grab onto his shoulders the moment he shifts to sit up, big hands coming to rest on your hips as you adjusted to the intrusion

-he let out a pleased hum as you used your grip on his shoulders to pull him in for a needy kiss, whining into his mouth as you shifted to slowly drag your hips up before sinking back down

-it goes like this for a few minutes, sighing into each other as you both basked in the feeling of being connected

-but it wasn’t long until you were gently pushing him back down and planting your hands on his chest to pin him to the mattress once more, looking down at him with an eager grin

“Y’ ready?”

-he smirks up at you, awfully cocky for somebody pinned to the bed, 

“Been waitin’ on you.”

“Fuck off.”

-he goes to make another snarky comment, but is cut off by his own sharp gasp when you begin to try and find a rhythm, hands shooting up to your waist in a death grip as you bounce on him

-his grip loosens when you slow down, finding a comfortable pace that his him throwing his head back and groaning, struggling to bring it back up so he could watch you ride him, unwilling to miss the view

-you were lost in your own world on top of him, covered in a thin sheen of sweat, head thrown back as your muscles shift and flex with the exertion

-yelping and leaning forward to hover over him when his hips buck up to meet your ass, and he moans at the sight of you

“Fuck, baby” he gritted, “Take it so fucking good, fuck”

-he grinned at your keening moan when he began to piston his hips up into yours, you fall forward to plant your face in the crook of his neck, panting and mouthing at the skin there as your hips stop, allowing him to take over for a moment

-he laughed breathlessly as you moaned into his ear, 

“That good?” he teased, mewling when you sink your teeth into the column of his throat, growing needy at the sensation

-his hands moved from your waist to your hips, digging his fingers into the meat there as he attempted to drag you up and down his length

“C’mon doll, ride it- please-”

-he watches as you sit back up on top of him, grinning wolfishly down at him with flushed cheeks before once again finding your rhythm, moans punched out of you each time he meets one of your thrusts

-he clicks his tongue disapprovingly when he sees you bring one of your hands down to toy with your clit as you bounce on him, making quick work of roughly grabbing your wrist and pulling it away so that he could do it himself, groaning when he feels you squeeze him hard enough that he was worried he might pop

-it was a race to the end from that point on, fucking each other stupid as both of you try to make the other finish first

-schlatt is the first to break, cumming with a long, low groan and a thrust up into you hard enough that it almost knocks you off balance

-you stop for a moment to watch him ride it out, mouth dropping into in ‘o’ as his brows pinch up together, back arching as his hands hold you still on top of him with a bruising grip

-however, his low moans pitch up into something higher and whinier as you start bouncing again, abusing his poor spent cock :(

-but it’s not long until you’re following his lead, lurching forward to sink your teeth into his neck to muffle your moan as your walls spasm around him, cock twitching and managing another weak spurt of seed as he whimpers

-both of you lay there for a moment, panting into each other’s skin as you both try to recover

-you hum and melt into him when his arms come up to wrap around you, squishing you to his chest as he sighs

“Y’good?”

-you don’t respond immediately, turning your head so you can look up at him from where your cheek is smushed to his chest “Mhm,”

-he groans when you plant a hand on his face and use it to push yourself back into an upright position, laughing when he nips at your fingers, 

“Can you pull out, though? I can feel it getting soft,” you say with a grimace

“Fucking- Don’t make that face??” he laughs a bit at your slightly sour expression, “And you’re literally on top of me.”

“Oh, right,” you laugh, moving to get off of him, gasping when he slips out of you

-you stay seated on his thighs, watching with interest as he peels the condom off of him and ties it off, laughing when you lean forward and look at it, your nose scrunching, 

“Eugh,”

-he rolls his eyes at the childish sound, 

“Didn’t seem grossed out when you were bouncin’ on it.” he grumbled, smirking when he sees your cheeks go red again

-you remain perched on his lap for a moment, unsure of what to do with yourself

-but he doesn’t leave you up there long, reaching up to grab your upper arm and drag you down beside him, smushing the two together on the twin xl

-you watch as he closes his eyes for a moment as he comfortably rests his head on his pillow, hair a mess, flushed cheeks, bruised neck

-he peaks an eye open when he feels you staring, 

���The fuck is your problem?”

-you only hum, eyes soft as they take in his features, bringing up a hand to brush some of the hair off of his forehead,

“‘M just lookin,” you mumble, grinning when his cheeks flush and he swatted his hand away, 

“Would you quit it? Shit’s freaking me out.”

“You’re freaked out? I just touched a dick for the first time and you’re freaked out?” you ask with a laugh, cheeks hurting as you watch his lips spread into a grin as well, 

“Sounds like a you problem, toots.” he laughed, yelping a bit when you reached out to twist of some the hair on his chest, “Took it like a champ, though.”

“I sure as sure as shit did.” you say cockily, looking up at him with a toothy grin, “You’re next.”

-he pulls back to look at you, furrowing his brow at the vaguely threatening statement, 

“What?”

-you only release a content sigh as you snuggle closer to him, comfortably closing your eyes once you’ve settled

“When I bring this season home, I’m taking my victory lap inside of you.”

-he only laughs, not taking you seriously as he drags you closer and plants a kiss on your sweaty forehead

“Yeah, we’ll see about that.”

-he pales when your eyes snap back open, looking at him intensely for a moment for sleepily drooping shut again, 

“Jus’ wait.”

●・○・●・○・●・

-a few hours later, you wake up from your nap discombobulated, phone being blown up by your roommate, who was worried you’d died after not coming home from what was supposed to be a two hour tutoring session

-schlatt grumbles when you sit up, blearily reaching out to try and pull you back down, whining when you swat his hands away, 

“Where’re you goin?”

-you sigh, turning off your phone and carding a hand through his hair, 

“I gotta go,” you murmur, a small smile stretching across your lips when he presses his face into the side of your thigh, 

“Nooooo,”

-you allow him to cling to you for a moment before gently removing his hands from you and moving to climb off the bed, 

“Claire’s separation anxiety is kicking, gotta get back before she has an aneurysm.” you explain as you gather your clothes off the floor

-he sits up to watch you move around the room, grinning when he sees you grab the sweatshirt hanging over the back of his chair and pull it over your head, leaving your own on the floor

-his raises a brow when he sees you grab his pair of pre-cum soiled boxers off the ground and shove them into the pocket of your sweats, 

“‘M taking these.”

“You’re fucking sick” he laughs, cheeks going bright red when you grin and make your way back to where he’s sitting in bed

“Mhm,” you hum, leaning in for a kiss which he gladly gives you, quick to grab the side of your face to pull you in deeper, tilting his head for a better angle when he slips his tongue into your mouth

-you sigh before pulling back, rolling your eyes at his petulant grumble

“I’m going now.” 

“Fine.”

-but he can’t maintain his pout when you lean in and give him one more chaste kiss, quickly pulling back before he gets any more ideas, 

“I’ll see you around, ‘kay?”

-he only hums, dragging his hand down your arm as you pull away, 

“Seeya.”

-he flops back into his bed when he hears his door clicked closed, sighing before pulling out his phone to give ted the okay to come back

-you walk past him lounging in a common area on his way out, biting back a grimace at the sight of his bare feet on the communal couch and sending him a polite wave

-his brows shoot up when he takes in your quite frankly inappropriate appearance

-hair mussed, swollen lips, bruised neck and donning a sweatshirt that he knew belonged to his roommate

“Learn anything new?” he asked teasingly

-you only grin as you continue to walk past,

“You have no idea.”

●・○・●・○・●・

That’s it guys. Sorry she took so long, was on my prophetic bullshit last night

also if you’re a podcasting white man who reached the end of this, GET BACK 🤺

i’d like to make it clear that this is more of a fantasy projected onto a random face on the internet, it just happened to be jschlatt. OOPS

alr have a good one and thanks for reading

 later. 

[atopvisenyashill]

why do you think jonsa is happening tho? jonerys is different bc they are going to be enemies, but i don’t see what jonsa does for the story

so let me first lay out roughly what i think is going to happen should jonsa become canon. I personally love going down meta and graphic spirals, so I'm including links to other people’s theories/explanations/graphics of events too - also I would like to shout out @istumpysk because half these metas and gifsets were stuff I found on their blog initially, and also was the one who really convinced me that jonsa is less of a crackship and more of a contender for an actual canon theory, and from there i really found my niche in this fandom. specifically this meta about jon being the mummer's dragon is what pulled me out of my "we're never getting twow and if we do it's just gonna be that stupid dany has jon's magical baby while tyrion watches, then they all die theory" slump and lit my brain on fire again. let's goooo:

The Ashford Tourney Theory - Something Shady goes down at the tourney Petyr has planned that requires Sansa to make a quick getaway, and likely causes her to run into Brienne while fleeing. This theory for me is about hinting at Sansa's romantic future, allies, and how she's getting the hell out of the Vale: both the dark haired, Not Targ Looking Targ Prince that is the son of A Great Prince That Never Was being her romantic endgame but also it's about Brienne (/Dunk) getting her the hell out of there and becoming Sansa's number one ally and protector (with Sansa's number two being Bronze Yohn!! But he's not fleeing with her - if he helps her get out of the Vale, it'll be to cause a distraction or a fight so Sansa can slip away unnoticed. Bronze Yohn is coming with the knights of the Vale later to help defend his girl!).

The Girl In Grey - Out of options on where to go, Sansa & Brienne makes a long, fast, and dangerous trek to the only family she knows is still alive: Jon Snow at the Wall. No, I don't think Alys Karstark is the girl in grey on a dying horse; I think she's a red herring, the same as the scene where Sweetrobin destroys the snow castle, and that the real girl in grey (who slays the savage giant) is Sansa. Melisandre says that she sees "Jon's sister" but doesn't specify more than that, or how she knows it's Jon's sister, even - why would she assume Alys is Jon's sister and not some random Northern girl? Why was she so sure that it was his sister? It's because Alys isn't the girl in grey, it's Sansa, her horse dying because she's traveled halfway across the continent with Brienne and Pod, desperately trying to keep ahead of the dozens of people hunting her down.

The Blood of Winterfell - Sansa and Jon will reclaim winterfell together. This one is similar to above; just like Alys was a red herring, the scene where Sansa rebuilds the castle has a lot of foreshadowing (imo) but that isn't the moment in the prophecy Arya hears. The Savage Giant is Littlefinger, the castle of snow is Winterfell, and Sansa is going to liberate her home alongside Jon and what's left of the Northern lords.

Stone and Snow Remains - THIS is where Sansa and Jon will fall in love while fighting for the North. This is also the part where you lose a lot of people, because they think the evidence is real weak sauce but like, I also think the Jonerys "evidence" is weak af too (and no wonder, we have at minimum 2k pages left to get through!!). There's several believed foreshadowing points to this one, bare with me for this weird ass formatting because I can't do sub bullet points on tumblr:

1. Sansa's linking of snow with love and affection - "drifting snowflakes brushed her face as light as lover’s kisses, and melted on her cheeks...She could feel the snow on her lashes, taste it on her lips. It was the taste of Winterfell. The taste of innocence. The taste of dreams." along with her snow maiden and snow knight.

2. Bael the Bard and the Rose of Winterfell - the chapter where Sansa gets her period for the first time, Cersei refers to it as “flowering” a dozen times, linking being a maiden (a young girl, not quite of age or just barely of age) to flowers and several people refer to sex as ~plucking. Also notice the one who stole her from KL is Lord BAELish.

3. Aemon the Dragonknight & Queen Naerys - Sansa compares herself to Naerys, Joffrey to Aegon, and wishes for an Aemon, among the many similarities between her life and Naerys'. Jon not only calls himself Aemon, he has a deep connection with a different Aemon Targaryen. And if you’re thinking “Sansa isn’t Naerys, X is Naerys” I would remind you that Sansa as a character existed first, George purposefully had her compare herself to Naerys, and parallels don't belong to just one character.

4. Jenny of Oldstones and The Prince of Dragonflies - there's honestly a lot of parallels between them but like the Aemon/Naerys parallel, the Jenny/Duncan one stands out to me.

5. Janos Slynt - I mean. Iconic. This was the scene that made me first think about what their relationship could be in the future and there’s a reason Jonsas fixate on it. It’s about Sansa being desperate for a hero and the hero she dreamed about being Jon the whole time. 6. Societal Alienation - There's the bastard parallels here, the "it would be so sweet to see him again", the "Winterfell belongs to my sister, Sansa." It's about how Jon, through circumstances of his birth, finds himself alienated from the rest of society and reconnects with his prim and proper sister Sansa, who finds herself alienated from the rest of society as well but for vastly different reasons.

Robb’s Will - Howland is going to show up in the North, along with Maege and Galbert, with some WILD news about why Jon can’t rule Winterfell. There’s a lot of contention around this. Bran probably shows up around this time too, and Arya gets to the Riverlands to discover Lady Stoneheart and give her the gift of mercy. This is where all the inheritance stuff is going to happen and I have no idea how it's going to go down besides it's going to be messy as all fuck.

The Pact Of Ice And Fire - Jon & Sansa get secret married bc they’re in love, not siblings, & jon is the only man she trusts not to steal her claim. This isn't the only possible foreshadowing instance of a marriage either - some believe the Sandor/Sansa scene during the Battle of the Blackwater is foreshadowing as well (personally I feel that's a bit of a stretch but I wanted to include it anyway).

Jon As An Envoy - I talked about this in my "what's Jon's ending" a little but I believe Jon will act as an envoy for either Sansa or Bran to Aegon VI, essentially playing out a similar story that he does in the show with Daenerys. By which I mean, Jon is not the King because the ruler themselves do not go as an envoy, that’s stupid and dangerous, but he goes as an ambassador for Sansa or Bran, to treat with a new claimant to the Iron Throne that is gaining support - Aegon VI & Jon Connington. They will probably clash, Jon will probably have yet another identity crisis, there had BETTER be gay incest subtext, then Aegon dies, and Jon has his sixth quarter life crisis in a row.

“King” of the Gift - again, something I touched on in my Jon meta is that I think he’s going to have a hand in resettling the Gift. Personally, I think it's likely that Jon leaves to protect the claims of his siblings (see: Duncan and Jenny) and goes to the Gift to help resettle it to keep out of the way. This ending is typically referred to as the "bael the bard" ending but i like to think of it as the "brandon's gift" ending instead - though he is not physically with his family, Jon feels fulfilled having confirmed his family loves him through reclaiming Winterfell and marrying Sansa, being reunited with Arya, and being given the Gift by Bran. Sansa claims her children were fathered by a wolf.

So…what does all this do for the story?

Well, in my opinion, several things.

I think the main barrier here is that most people in the greater fandom describe Sansa's story as ~growing past childish wants~ and Jon's as ~rejecting love~ and I do not agree with either of those takes even a little bit. This is where (imo) the dividing line between Jonsas and the rest of the fandom is. I don’t think the answer to Sansa’s question “will anyone ever marry me for love” is going to be “nah" - that's not just a sad story to me (wanting to be married isn't childish! craving intimacy and understanding isn't childish! it's also not wrong for a child to be childish!), I think the idea that Sansa (or Jon) will not find another love just doesn't line up with how George approaches his story. Who Sansa's husband will be has been such a big question, and her story is so heavy into the more romantic tropes like courtly love and chivalry and the line between politics and love and identity, that the question of Sansa's hand in marriage will be plot relevant. I also think it's kinda naive of people to pretend like George isn't very interested in the sexual dynamics of the characters he writes about (yeah, sure, no woman needs a man but "needing a man" is not what this is about. look at everything this man wrote in F&B and tell me he is going to write a female character that longs for sex and desire and doesn't get it!).

After AGOT, nearly every time Sansa thinks about marriage involves her longing for love but believing she will never get it because a man will only ever love her for her claim. Giving her a man - like Jon - who not only will not steal her claim and in fact has defended it twice over already, who will love her for who she is and not what she can give him, is a really important aspect of her story in my opinion.

As for Jon, I am even more firmly against the opinion that his story is about rejecting love; Jon’s story is about wanting to be a good man, to measure up to his father ~despite~ his bastard blood. When Aemon asks if Ned would choose honor over love and Jon stubbornly says yes, Jon is wrong and it’s important to not forget that. Ned has never once in his entire life chosen honor over love; he chooses his daughter’s life over his honor, he chooses his sister & her son’s life over honor, he chooses Arya & Nymeria over honor, and on and on!!! Ned chooses love at almost turn but none of his children know that just yet - look at Robb choosing Jeyne’s honor over his own and how upset he is at the idea that Ned would be disappointed despite the fact that Ned would have understand Robb’s decision! Jon's whole arc is tied up in realizing that it is not wrong or dirty to feel and choose love, passion, and desire and if he never has another romantic arc again, I think you lose the second part of that lesson which is "you are responsible for how you act when you feel love but that doesn't mean that simply choosing love makes you a bad person."

There's also the fact that George has talked a lot about "who lives, who dies, who gets married" and yet we have not one marriage at the end of the show AND there's not a lot of guesses at what "who gets married" means besides Jon/erys (and even if Jonsa doesn't happen, I simply do not see Jon/erys happening. they are not similar enough, they will not be in the same space for long enough, and they are on wildlly different trajectories for their story, they are not getting married let alone having sex). I think Jonsa fits that bill very well.

These various theories - from Sansa being queen, Jon living in exile, The Ashford Tourney Theory, the secret marriage, every one of them - are ideas and themes that I have really been thinking about for about 12 years now. I think Jon and Sansa's relationship could fit with the themes in their stories, the overarching themes in the books, and my own personal opinions. I think it gives George a great opportunity to delve into the courtly love aspects he enjoys so much, as well as delve into inheritance, legacy, legitimacy, honor, incest (yes, that too), and above all, what George himself has said the whole series is about - love. The human heart in conflict with itself is what I think Jon and Sansa as a romantic couple does for the series.

[syruubi]

Man its been weeks and I’m still soured by the conclusion to Fontaine’s main story. I'll just rant here

There were a lot of things I didn’t like about it (Arlecchino's altruism being played straight, Traveler being out of character, the lore exposition ass-pull with the prophecy slates, the weird logic about how destroying a Gnosis could potentially wake up the Heavenly Principles but not fucking destroying an Archon Throne when Celestia forced everyone to fight a GODDAMN WAR TO ESTABLISH THEM-) but the biggest offense to me was how Furina was handled. This was marketed as the grand finale of the arc, the climax with Furina at the center of it all. And she got shafted. Big time. Furina had no agency in the plot whatsoever, nothing she did had any effect on how things turned out, and she didn’t even have the dignity of fully understanding why it all had to happen that way.

(Also I will preface this with yes Furina and Focalors are technically the same person with the same origin, but after the split Furina lost all her memories as Focalors. They are two separate consciousnesses with different experiences, and therefore I will treat their individual choices as their own)

I’ve seen people try to argue that no, she chose to take on this role knowing she would suffer, that she didn't HAVE to go along with it. And she was even working by herself to solve the prophecy without relying on Focalors, she wasn’t a puppet/pawn! But the thing is she was essentially in a hostage situation. If she didn’t do things exactly as dictated by Focalors people would DIE. Like there is a reason why criminal punishments are lighter when it’s found the perpetrator was coerced into it! And her researching how to avoid the prophecy changed nothing about the outcome, she could have sat around eating cake and the story would have word for word turned out exactly the same. All that information served to do was highlight her suffering and draw the audience’s sympathy. That's what I mean about her not having agency, it's not about her ability to act as an individual but how her actions had an effect on the overall plot. None of her choices outside of the role designated by Focalors did anything to change the situation for better or worse.

And to top it all off she didn’t even understand WHY this all had to happen. Why do people dissolve in the Primordial water? How does her pretending to be an Archon play into solving the issue? Why can’t she confide in anyone? What the hell is Focalors even doing? She doesn’t learn the answers to any of these until after everything was over, and not even from Focalors’ own mouth, it was relayed to her by Neuvillette.

Speaking of Neuvillette, I’m not gonna lie I’m sorta annoyed at his existence because it felt like Furina was shafted for him. Everything is very tilted in Neuvillette's favor. He gets his powers back, full control over Pneuma/Ousia, final say in trials, the ability to hand out Visions, and just straight up the ability to manipulate life itself. And okay all these things were his to begin with lore-wise, whatever, but he also becomes the "lore important" character after this at Furina's expense. Furina doesn't have her memories as Focalors, she can't tell us anything about how the world works, about Celestia, about what happened 500 years ago. Even though other Archons didn't give us much either for one reason or another, they at least HAVE that knowledge, and are therefore guaranteed to have involvement in future events with the Abyss and Celestia. Furina at the moment, doesn't. Neuvillette has it now. And all that talk about Focalors judging Celestia? Also Neuvillette's job now. And it feels like it was all stolen from Furina from a story-telling perspective because again, she didn't know of the plan to return his powers. She didn't even get to explicitly agree with her other self that he should have them back. The writers really seemed to go out of their way to place him on a pedestal at Furina's expense, which irks the hell out of me.

There are some opportunity for future interludes to turn the current state around, and they probably will since Furina is still being marketed as an Archon, but as it stands I want Fontaine to be over so we can move on to the next disappointment.

[thatdeadaquarius]

HELLO IT IS I AGAIN (Razor's mom /real)

So you know those imposters aus where characters chase the reader for being an 'impersonator'?

What if... It's a continuation from my ask (where we meet Razor first before everyone), and Razor is just confused at the patrolling knights near Wolvendom constantly asking him if he have saw 'the impostor'

Tbh he just shakes his head. Who tf is the impostor????? Wtf is an impostor???????

Many question marks later..

He had encountered an epiphany (not really it's just the Springvale ppl talking about someone copying the creator's looks).

The 'Impostor' they have been searching is you.

But you're not an impostor! Razor knows it! Andrius knows it! And with how the nature and the monster responded to you, Teyvat knows it too!

So like the good son he is, he sheltered you even more severely.

Ur not allowed to go out of his sights at this point (he'll still take you to places with many lampgrasses if you still wanna make a crown w it)

And my imagination ends there, do you think there's something else he'd do?

Ty for answering my last request btw, ur the best and I hope you get your favorite characters w one 10 pull and your desired artifacts w the best stats <3

Much love and sweets

-Razor's mom

RAZOR'S MOM!! HELLO aw im so glad u liked it :)

Srry about the late reply! 💜💜💜

Ok, so I think this is a good time to point to my shiny

Writing Requests/About Me Post I have pinned on my 👉 blog!!👈💅 taaa daaaa :) i did it guys here ya go

Yall have been GREAT so far abt keeping the requests chill and fun, and i dont have that many "Donts" that arent obvious (homophobia, transphobia, ableism,etc)

♡

Dont worry Razor Mom, i just wanted to use this as a way to talk about this!! /nm /gen

♡

About Imposter AU, there are plenty of other blogs/posts that write for that or posts under SAGAU tag! :)

I said wayyy earlier on in some of my first asks, but basically I really want to lighten up the Genshin SAGAU / Isekai tag and branch out from all these darker Imposter AUs :)

And also add more world-building posts or AUs <3

(language brainrot for example)!!

◇

TL;DR: I am not accepting hunting down/yandere/cult au/imposter au Genshin Sagau, only a funny or chill version of it.

Please check my writing rules post :)

Example: u look like Creator, but everybody's like, "oh lucky them wow rlly blessed, have a free drink, etc.

OR omfg where r they?? They descended to Teyvat oh fuck we lost our god-"

♡

Heres the Razor post !!!

If u wanna check it out :]

Cracks knuckles, Saddle up Baby, bc its time for my version of the Imposter AU 🤭😋😈

(and sorry for answering super late/possible scare Razor mom anon!! :'/ )

♡

So it begins rlly small right?

Like, Razor does not know the new knight patroling Wolvendom's borders

,, weird but ok, he thinks basically

And then when it was time to visit some domains a little closer to Springvale for grinding

(Or rlly just to get some of their tiny restaurants homemade food yumm)

He notices more Favonius knights lurking around than usual

Or at least widening their patrols

And hes like wtf?

Ur like, huh.

I'll ask Springvale ppl wtf goin on

The locals respond that the search for the Great Creator has begun.

...

...you and Razor: 👁👄👁 w h o m s t ❔️

◇

Upon further questioning

(which was apparantly weird that yall didnt know, but eh, u just used the whole "feral wolf child with feral blacksmith parent living in woods ignorance" excuse)

Admittedly yall, quite literally, live under a rock lmao

They explain theres a whole ass prophecy

Abt how the Great Architect would succumb to a long slumber somewhere else in the vast universe after making the planet.

And when the time is right, they will reconnect to Teyvat, and awaken, and descend in a mortal form

(like the archons)

◇

..but the kicker is nobody knows wtf they look like bc:

1. All that lore is hella crumbly and old, and very hard to translate

2. Mortal forms sometimes look different than god forms, so even if they did know some defining features of the Creator, that wasnt guaranteed to be them...

◇

(i.e. they will have brown eyes, well. Thats a fuckton of ppl with brown eyes innit? 💀)

♤

So thru certain signs, that this mysterious prophecy wooooo

Said would happen, the nations of Teyvat and their many supernatural inhabitants are aware the ultimate god has descended

(The crops flourished? Animals got more wily, many of the sick ppl got better for no reason, the Irminsul started regrowing/filling out its base- like how it looked like a lightning struck tree rn 💀)

So every country are now trying to find them to be the first to welcome them home

Needless to say its lowkey a competition

◇

Meanwhile you and Razor are just:

... (゜▽゜;)

"Haha yeah cool..."

(Andrius already told u what u r to Teyvat and explained to Razor)

Ur both immediately slapping a cloak on u and keeping the hood up all the time

Yall dont wanna be seperated :(

Ur both paranoid for diff reasons,

Razor's just scared his Lupical is going to be taken from him again bc there r better, more refined humans wanting to be ur Lupical ;-;

And ur like-

Omfg that sounds like sm work 💀

While its nice to daydream abt what itd be like to be famous, realistically,

U could not handle that shit.

People crowding you all the time?

U cant just look busted anywhere u go, like a midnight snack run

Ppl would also expect u be,

Responsible??

To act like a competent ruler maybe???

Hell no.

U just wanted to play a pretty gacha game and spoil ur skrunklies

(At least, if they do wanna call u that, they dont make u do anything political 💀 but u doubt it)

◇

Needless to say, Razor is glued to ur side everywhere u go.

A domain a half mile away? Oh he'll come with dw

Ur gonna go stop by that food merchant further up the road for ingredients? Cool he'll sniff the best ones!

Ur going to see Andrius??

Oh he needed to see him too-

😭😭🥺🥺 poor babe

♧

Surprisingly enough,

Or maybe not his house is right tf there

Diluc is the first person to actually recognize you.

Razor had been subtly steering u away from Mondstadt for 3 weeks now, ever since yall talked to the Springvale locals

An u cant say u didnt notice, but u werent rlly stopping him

You wanted to be like Venti, chillin among the ppl regardless of ur powers, not the Raiden Shogun :/

And maybe shock some ppl who dont know ur a god like him too lol

◇

Diluc had been looking around the lesser patroled areas of Mondstadt to search for the Architect

He didn't even need those incompetent knights to tell him their god had finally descended

He already saw the signs long before Mondstadt

Bc youve been in Wolvendom, the area has flourished over time, more fish in the water, more game to hunt and bigger, crows making circles in the sky despite there being no corpse

And one of the closest places to you,

Is the Dawn Winery.

Diluc's security against Venti began to hold up better, the staff didn't have to clean as much things like dirt or weather damage to the manor,

His hawk had never been faster delivering his letters, he almost thought the little guy had been drugged with something

◇

He patroled Stormterror's Lair, and deep in the woods surrounding the manor that the knights hadn't bother to go into

Afterall, he figured you'd never had a mortal form before, so u were unlikely to fend for urself for very long in the woods lol

so he wanted to find u quick (aww softy :')

He even made a trip out to the Thousand Wind Temple and Dragonspine (he did report that one to the knights, he didn't want Amber, Bennett, or Creator-forbid Klee, being the few pyro users to have to explore it)

Finally, after doing the further away locations, siginificant in history and rich with leftover magic

Diluc figured that's where you might land first, so he saved Wolvendom for last

It would at least let him check on that wolf kid and maybe get to talk to him long enough to ask him if he's seen anything unusual.

The lord of Dawn Winery manor heads into the Wolvendom woods, just as sunset colors the trees...

◇

It was a Friday evening, the sun was setting, the weather was pleasant and it was time for all of the Lupical to come together and eat a big feast!! :)

About once a month, Andrius will come out for a few nights and dine with all of yall

Hes an old wolf give him a break, he takes long naps

So u cook lots of Mondstadt favorites to eat on and a few Liyue dishes too

Razor, ur favorite helper, has helped u finish the last dish and is now romping around with the puppies bless <3

U guys have dragged ur coffee table dining table setup out to sit and eat at

Andrius lets out a not too loud, not too quiet howl, and as the wolves, Razor and you lmao join in

Yall dig in, bones flying everywhere, spagetti noodles flingling around, it would put toddlers to shame lol

◇

Diluc hears a howl that is too... big to be a regular wolf.

It filled the air of Wolvendom like no howl before it, as he used the glowing lampgrass to help light the path deeper

He sneaks past a hilichurl camp or two, all fast asleep

He scans the woods, and figures he'll search the woods besides the path after he gets to that old stone carved pit-

Food?

Diluc sniffs the air, and squints deeper into the forest

The black branches shade the way ahead, but just barely... he can see the flicker of orange and blue light?

He summons his claymore, bracing it on his shoulder, and creeps into the treeline to better hide him

◇

You swear to god (dammit swear to.. you??) someone is watching you.

You look around the piles of fluffy doggos, happy and stuffed full they r slowly forming puppy piles

Andrius is finishing his meat platter, also sitting on all four legs on the ground

Razor is splayed on his back beside you, eyes closed, his feet sticking out the other side of the table, u chuckle at him

But not a single Lupical seems to be looking at you.

Gulping down your last few bites, you scan the treeline

U refuse to be that bitch in a horror movie where their gut says smth is off and they brush it off or barely look at their surroundings

Turning around to the treeline behind you, u see something... red fur?

U sit up some more, peering over the bushes at the bottom of the trees

You meet a pair of warm brown eyes, widened like they're just as shocked to see you

As u notice his familiar red high ponytail (but also not?? Its weird going from 2D to 3D and still recognizing bitches)

U peer down at his chest, as he carefully stands out of the foliage-

That familiar star shaped button that u can press for the character menu screen, the same thats on Razor, on Benny, on Fischl, on Lisa-

Hovers over Diluc's chest.

◇

Diluc is in the bush, observing the human(???) stranger (he really doesnt want to attract the attention of that.. giant spirit wolf thing)

The figure sitting at a ... table?? (He can barely process all these absurdities at once, hes only got so much brain space)

Has sensed his presence, and as he grips his claymore, ready to demand answers,

Razor startles, and jumps up, smelling the pyro user, he summons his weapon-

The figure locks eyes with him, and all he sees is gold.

Diluc drops his claymore.

☆

♡

☆

Have a cliffhanger bc idk 🤷‍♂️ Also srry it wasnt exactly Mondstadt finding u, and it somehow turned into a whole scenario?? Idk man

🤧 welp i hope that was decent Razor mom! Tysm for ur sweet feedback abt our beloved son 🙏💜🐺

Feel free to always talk again, thru comments, asks whatever!! :D

♡

Cheers,

💀♒️

(guys im so stupid i coud've been signing off with this simple emoji combo the whole time,, 😭i didnt actually think abt emojifying my name, just making it look pretty with some of my fav emojis... 😔)

If anyone reads this u should let me know which one is better lol

💀♒️

OR

🌒🌧🌊Aquarius♒️🌌🌘

OR like a combo???

♡my beloved♡

@karmawonders / @0rah-s / @randomnatics / @glxssynarvi / @nexylaza / @genshin-impacts-me / @wholesomey-artist

[becauseimanicequeen]

4 Minutes Theories (Ep. 5)

In this post, I've compiled my theories from my initial reaction to the trailer and the teaser (which were kind of sweeping since the trailer and teaser didn't give me much to get super detailed about), the new ones I've written down after watching new episodes (episode 1, episode 2, episode 3, and episode 4), and some new wild-ass theories I've written in some scattered posts.

Just like last week, I will go through my theories one by one. Let's see how wrong I am this time, and how (un)likely the other theories are. Like last time, I might develop some of my theories and add some new ones as well.

Let's go!

Pre-premiere theory: The moments Great sees ahead of time are moments that might help him redeem himself from a past mistake/transgression. (Unconfirmed)

The first two episodes seemed to have a pattern where the 4-minute phenomenons (4MP) seemed to be moments for Great to do better or do "the right thing".

In the 3rd episode, though, it seemed like the 4MP pushed Great to tell Tyme that he could see 4 minutes into the future (with proof to make Tyme believe him). Perhaps it was to move things forward faster.

Then, in last week's episode, both 4MPs pushed Great to make braver decisions (offering to help Nan escape and stopping Samarn from shooting her), which made it seem like it was about character growth for Great.

His 4MP in this week's episode was a bit different than the previous ones. It seemed more forced than offering him a choice to do things differently. And I'm not even sure it was a full 4-minute jump (didn't it feel shorter?).

Interestingly, though, it felt like a self-fulfilling prophecy of some kind since Manee, who Great saved in his first 4MP, was behind the hired gunman who shot him (and his mom).

No matter what Great changed this time around, he would still end up at the hospital.

So...

As someone who believed Great's changes wouldn't have an effect on the outcome, I was pleased with what happened in this episode.

With that said, though, I'm keeping this theory for now since more info about this might come up in coming episodes.

There's a big chance I'll never get a real answer to this theory, but I don't mind marking it as failed if I don't. So, beloved show, prove me wrong... or right... or don't give me an answer at all... I'm fine with either.

Revised/developed pre-premiere theory: Korn will do some shady shit to prove to his dad that he can take over the family business. (Unconfirmed)

Korn is sinking deeper and deeper in the shit, and I'm waiting for the moment when he'll sink 6 feet under.

I've mentioned this in the previous posts; he's already done some semi-shady shit to keep his position in the family business, but I need more to mark this theory as confirmed.

I'm also curious to see what he will do now that he stormed out of his dad's office after getting slapped.

There's a dormant beast inside of Korn, I'm sure. I'm just waiting for it to wake up.

Pre-premiere theory: Title is involved with Korn. (Unconfirmed)

Before watching the first episode, I thought Title might've been a brother or that they had a boss/minion relationship (based on the similarities in their posters). But, Title is (most likely) not Korn's brother (but who knows how far Korn's dad has spread his seed...).

Since I got a hunch before the 4th episode that Title might be Fasai's brother and that his dad, then, is Police Colonel Warit, a connection might soon be revealed (especially if Title turns up dead). How will Korn react if Title is Fasai's brother and he shows up dead?

Should I specify something to make it harder for myself to get this theory right?

Well, why not?

Let's say that I will only mark this as confirmed if Title turns out to be Fasai's brother (which is his semi-connection to Korn) and if Korn gets involved in finding Title's kidnapper/killer (depending on what Tonkla does now that he's got his hands on Title).

So... I'm keeping this theory for now.

Revised/developed pre-premiere theory: Tonkla is at the center of it all. (Unconfirmed)

This theory was based on the background of the poster for Fuaiz/Tonkla. At first, I thought he had a target on his back (which could still be true considering he got his hands on Title now), but it's developed more into Tonkla being at the center of this whole thing.

After last week's episode, I felt like Tonkla might be the key to everything. What if his background is something like a spider's web rather than a target, and that he's at the center of it?

Perhaps because his timeline seems to be the real one, even though it seems like Great's changes started to merge with Tonkla's timeline in the 4th episode. But then there's also the cat that showed up at Tonkla's place (which was definitely killed way before Great started having his 4MPs).

So, unless that was a completely different cat Tonkla saw (because the one he saw didn't have the red collar on it, btw), perhaps Tonkla is the whole reason all of this is happening. I mean, he found the info about Title murdering his brother in some way (which might be through Win, or through talking to his dead brother, or because he has a time-traveling ability of his own, or... let's just stop...).

Anyway, I'm keeping this theory because Tonkla definitely feels like the key at this point.

Pre-ep. 2 theory: Tonkla will betray Korn. (Unconfirmed)

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: I'm rooting for a betrayal. I don't really care if Tonkla reveals all of Korn's dirty laundry to Win or if he ends up beating the shit out of Korn with a rock. I just want him to fuck shit up.

Pre-premiere theory: Win is battling some contrasting, opposing forces (internal and/or external). (Unconfirmed)

This theory was based on the background of the poster for JJay/Win. I solely based it on the red and green contrasting colors.

Ever since it was revealed that Win works for the police, I've had the feeling that the contrasting forces he's battling are his attachment/feelings for Tonkla and his duty to uphold the law.

He's already struggling, but I need more to label this theory as confirmed.

Pre-premiere theory: Den has a situationship with Korn. (Unconfirmed)

I'm not keeping this theory because I want Korn and Den together (Den is too sweet for the dude with the daddy issues and two situationships already on his plate).

I'm keeping this theory only because I want to see Bas and Job together. This is such a delulu wish of mine, and I will keep being delulu about this until I get it. (And probably still when there's not even a snowball's chance in hell that they'll hook up. I'm still on my "Non is alive" agenda, so I can keep this alive forever, lmao.)

Pre-premiere theory: Fasai is the other character with a condition similar to Great’s. (Unconfirmed)

This won't happen (since the character they talked about in the trailer, which was where I got this theory from, was Lukwa). The only reason I'm keeping this theory is because I need the show to prove to me that Fasai doesn't have precognitive abilities so I can label this as wrong and move on.

But, thank you for giving me more of Fasai in this week's episode. It was short, but it was sweet. Keep it up, because I need more of Natty on my screen!

Pre-ep. 3 theory: Tyme has a precognitive ability similar to Great’s (or might develop one). (Unconfirmed)

I've been dilly-dallying about this since I saw the trailer. That's only because I believe it one second only to not believe it the next.

(This is a good example of how this show is fucking with my head. I love it, even though it's annoying. But it seems like I love annoying, so I only have myself to blame, lol.)

And now that Great is shot and in the hospital, I feel like we're going to get Tyme's OOBE timeline (which I've been waiting for). The question is if he's going to go back in time and start this loop over again (I mean, that last scene with the camera spinning as he was running through that place with the blinking lights might've sent him back in time, right? It looked like he was running through a wormhole or something, lol.).

If that's true, we'll get to see things from his perspective rather than Great's (which might explain why there's a moment in the trailer when Great is asking Tyme if he's following him).

So, now that he has his OOBE timeline, will his "advantage" be a procognitive ability, or will he just keep his memories from Great's OOBE timeline?

Questions, questions...

Revised/developed pre-premiere theory: Great is having an out-of-body experience. (Unconfirmed)

I previously called this theory a "dream world" after watching the trailer and teaser, but an out-of-body experience (OOBE) is a much better description of it.

I think I'm right about this, even though it could be Tyme's OOBE the whole time as well. But I'm pretty sure it's both of them. So...

I'm keeping this until proven right or wrong.

Pre-ep. 2 theory: Great's visions of himself and Tyme are his present self's memories of their time together. (Unconfirmed)

This is based on the OOBE theory being true. But this theory seems pretty obvious to me if the theory about Great having an OOBE is true.

I need it confirmed, though.

Revised/developed wild-ass pre-ep. 2 theory: Tyme is having his own out-of-body experience. (Unconfirmed)

I've had the theory that Tyme also has a near-death/out-of-body experience since after watching the 1st episode, but I developed it last week while thinking about what Den's patients were saying.

I don't think this is any less true considering that last scene in this week's episode.

Based on Den's research and the different versions we heard his patients talk about, it could be that:

Great is having the OOBE with the 4-minute phenomenon (which is what Den called it in his research).

Tyme is having the OOBE with the people all dressed in white (even though he doesn't seem like a religious person like the lady who talked about this version).

(There might be a possible third character who might have the OOBE where everything is black and they don't feel, see, or hear anything. Maybe Korn? Or Win? Or perhaps even Tonkla who also sees things that he "shouldn't" be able to see?)

This theory could be possible, so, perhaps it's not that wild after all...

Revised/developed pre-premiere theory: Fasai has a connection with Korn. (Confirmed)

Two weeks ago, I wrote that I would only confirm this theory if I could guess what kind of relationship they have (or half-confirm it since they clearly have some sort of connection).

I was right that they weren't engaged or married.

My guess was that they had a situationship going on. Fasai got the pleasure of power/domination (perhaps something else as well?) while Korn got access to a higher standing, more money, more support, more prestige, etc. Considering they basically confirmed that Korn comes to her when he has problems to solve, I could confirm this theory and be done with it.

But, should I? Do I need more confirmation? Should I keep the door open for this to potentially fall apart?

To confirm or not confirm, that's the question...

Fine, I'll confirm this theory and be done with it.

Pre-ep. 3 theory: Fasai (and/or her father) is in league with someone within the police force. (Unconfirmed)

This was actually confirmed a couple of weeks ago as I was double-checking the name of one of the characters on MDL.

It turns out Fasai's dad is the Police Colonel Warit. So, I'm kind of right.

But!

I won't confirm this theory until I see him abuse his power by, for example, making sure the police do something in his favor. Perhaps it will happen now that Title (who I believe is Fasai's brother and, therefore, the Police Colonel's son) is kidnapped/soon to be killed by Tonkla.

I need to hear about it or see it happen. So, I'm keeping this theory unconfirmed for now.

Pre-ep. 3 theory: There are different timelines at play. (Unconfirmed)

Well, this one is pretty obvious, right? I've also written a long ass post about my thoughts on the timelines that I keep adding to each week (or whenever I feel like it).

To summarize, I think there are:

The present timeline

The 4-minute timeline (previously called the OOBE timeline), which is where Great changes the events based on his precognitive ability

And the real past/Tonkla's timeline

I'm also super excited to see if we're going to get Tyme's OOBE now.

I probably won't confirm this theory until the show ends because I want to keep speculating about it. And I might not confirm it until I have at least the majority of the options above confirmed (the present, the 4MP, the real past/Tonkla's timeline, and Tyme's OOBE timeline).

Let's see how wrong I am about this (even though I'm pretty sure I am, at the very least, onto something).

Pre-premiere theory: Great’s (Bible’s) tattoos have something to do with the story. (Because I refuse to believe otherwise! lol) (Unconfirmed)

I don't think this is true. However...

Just like I wrote last week (and the week before, and the week before that): I swear I'm keeping this theory because it hasn't been confirmed (or denied), yet. That's the only reason I'm keeping this theory.

I swear I'm not keeping this theory to add this image to at least one post I write each week...

Pre-premiere theory: Great becomes Korn’s target because he can see ahead of time. (Scrapped)

I will scrap this theory because I don't think it will happen now that Great is shot and in the hospital.

Pre-ep. 2 theory: Great has a cardiac arrest/near-death experience at 11:00. (Unconfirmed)

This probably won't be confirmed until Great wakes up in the present (if he wakes up) or if we get another glimpse of the present as he's flatlining.

Unless I've been wrong about this the whole time...

In that case, I'll gladly move this theory into my failed/scrapped category (where most, if not all the others, will end up, lol).

Also...

Pre-ep. 3 theory: Great has 4 minutes to wake up/get his heart to start beating again. (Unconfirmed)

Great has 4 minutes (well, after the 5th episode, it's only 1 minute left) to wake up/get his heart to start beating again in the present before his brain gets damaged.

The interesting thing in this week's episode was that it also seemed like Great's flashback, as he lay there shot, indicated that the clock was progressing the more involved with Tyme he got.

It started at 11:01 after he gave Tyme his Line account.

Then 11:02 after their claw-machine date.

And 11:03 after they had sex.

Did he seal his own fate (his death) the closer he got to Tyme? Or was that inevitable while it's now up to Tyme to make sure Great wakes up before he dies?

Questions, questions...

Revised/developed pre-ep. 3 theory: Tyme is looking into the illegal gambling sites because his family fell victim to either them or Great's dad. (Confirmed)

We can call this confirmed now, right? Considering what Tyme told Great about his past.

Even if this just happened inside Great's head during his OOBE, he must've found this out in the real past as well, right?

Anyway... I'm marking this as confirmed.

Pre-ep. 3 theory: Tyme is getting close to Great because of Great's family and their connection to the illegal gambling sites. (Unconfirmed)

You know, this depends on what timeline I'm looking at. It probably happened in the real past. Perhaps that was Tyme's initial intention in Great's 4MP timeline as well. And perhaps it will be his intention if he is sent back in time now that it's his turn to (what I believe is his turn to) have his own OOBE timeline.

I don't know...

Maybe I should keep this a little longer just to make sure.

Pre-premiere theory: Someone will die/fake their death. (Unconfirmed)

As I wrote in the previous posts in this series on my 4 Minutes theories, this theory was pretty obvious from the start. Sammon kills characters all the time, lol.

But, I also mentioned in one of the previous posts that I won't confirm this theory until one of the major characters dies. And that's excluding Great and Tyme.

Technically, Dome has already been killed by Title. It's even been confirmed now that we've seen that he is Tonkla's brother and was killed (in the real past). But, I need more.

I've previously speculated on who would be killed and wrote Dome, Title, and perhaps Korn, which I still stand by.

Title might/will be axed soon. As soon as he is (or Korn is), I'll mark this theory as confirmed.

Pre-ep. 4 theory: Great's actions during his OOBE won't change anything in the present. (Unconfirmed)

I want Great to wake up and face the consequences of whatever he did (or didn't do) in the real past.

I would much rather have Great's OOBE be a learning experience for him and/or give him some information that will be vital for the future than have his OOBE magically change his current situation.

Pre-ep. 4 theory: The note saying "Can you forgive me, Great?" is written by the mystery woman in the gallery. (Unconfirmed)

I had this theory last week.

Did I base this on the tea being red and the woman (who we now know is Lukwa) sitting in a red gallery? Yes. Am I really admitting that I'm crazy like that? I mean... there's no point in hiding it.

Pre-ep. 5 theory: The bodies the police find are the people who died in the real past. (Unconfirmed)

Before the 4th episode of 4 Minutes, we saw two murders (if we exclude whatever Tonkla did in that cold opening in ep 2); Dome and the shareholder with the red umbrella.

Before the 4th episode, they also found two bodies.

Then we saw Samarn kill Nan in the 4th episode. Will the police find another body by that lighthouse soon?

Wild-ass pre-ep. 2 theory: Great will get Tyme's heart (after Tyme is shot). (Unconfirmed)

This is not the Transplant I want, btw. But it might be possible.

(Disclaimer: I'm not a medical professional. I have no idea if this is medically possible considering where Tyme was shot and how far he might be from a hospital (since I know a body needs to be hooked up to a ventilator to be able to keep the organs alive if organ donations are to be possible). So, excuse my lively imagination, lol.)

I will develop this theory in a separate post (hopefully). I just have a feeling that we're sometimes getting a Last Christmas kind of thing, and I have so much to say about it (even though most of it will never happen, lol).

Wild-ass pre-ep. 3 theory: The number 4 marks a character with death. (Unconfirmed)

The number 4 (which in Cantonese is pronounced very similarly to the word "death") marks characters with death. Either actual death or something like a cardiac arrest (which can be saved).

Those characters are:

The patient at the beginning of the 1st episode who has a cardiac arrest. (I still believe this is Great, even though the bandages are on the same places where Tyme was injured.)

Great, who is surrounded by the number several times during his OOBE.

Manee, who is lying in room number 4 at the hospital.

View, Title, and Dome who are near the 4 on the trashcan in the 2nd episode. (It might just be one or it might be all three, my guess is all three.)

The elderly lady in bed 4 that Great had intubated even though Den said it might've been more humane to let her die.

And Tyme who is around the number several times at the hospital and on the escalator when he and Great were at the shopping mall.

Also, since I clearly believe the show is playing with several timelines, the number 4 might signify the characters that died in the real past/present:

Great, who was shot in this week's episode and who flatlines in the 1st episode (even though that might technically be in the present)

Tyme who was also shot

Manee, who Great hit and left to die

View, who might've been killed by Title if Great hadn't helped her escape from him?

Dome, who would've been killed if Great hadn't stopped Title

Title, who still has time to die (most likely murdered by Tonkla)

And the elderly lady in bed number 4 who will, most likely, die because of her illness

Let's see how wrong I am about this.

Well, that's it. I don't have any additional theories this week. At least not right now...

Results so far:

Total theories since the trailer: 36

Confirmed theories: 4.5

Unconfirmed theories: 24.5

Wrong/scrapped theories: 7

New theories after ep 5: 0

[andi-dromeda]

New all caste au

To explain the all caste and Jason being a god thing, Ducra stated Jason was the first human in a thousand years to have survived the cleansing process. That’s cannon. Now I know he canonically fulfilled a prophecy about killing the devourer of young souls before he even left the all caste so at MOST he was 18. Obviously he canonically resurrected too, has the all blades which can only hurt true evil, is primarily known for challenging Bruce’s morals and was the ‘magic’ Robin. Resurrection in lots of different religions is associated with gods. Him being a god isn’t like, the craziest thing to happen. Especially for a bat I mean come on, I’m pretty sure Duke’s a demigod or at least close to being one thanks to his dad.

Anyways Jason, Tara and Grant are all new avatars of a Justice god trio. I don’t think I’ll use actually mythology so I’ll have to come up with names for them but anyways to unlock their full powers they’ll have to ascend. To ascend they have to first live a human life, suffer and then right the wrongs that have harmed them. For Jason that’d be killing the Joker and forcing Bruce to get his shit together, for Tara it’d be kicking her dad’s ass and everyone who experimented on her probably also revolutionising her kingdom, and for Grant it’s dealing with his parents. However, since Slade is the closest thing Tara’s got to a good dad and she does really care about him you can see why they might have issues.

Jason doesn’t want to ascend because he feels his morality is heavily influenced by his human experiences and if he were to ascend he would loose his humanity which made him moral in the first place. Mostly because he’s seen what someone who’s privileged and virtually untouchable can convince themself is right *cough cough* Bruce. This means he can’t kill the joker because otherwise he would lose his humanity. Therefore in his attempt to not become Bruce, he still has just in a different way. Killing the joker is Jason’s one line that he can’t cross. That and sticking up to Bruce.

Tara somehow has even more complicated feelings on the matter. She comes from a family that supposedly had the divine right to rule. Due to her being born because of infidelity she was kept from that divine right. Markovia believes their royal family were granted powers by the gods who then punished them for their greed. Tara was taught to believe that the gods favoured her father and his legitimate sons over her just because she was born in different circumstances. She got powers from people who experimented on her and tried to turn her into a weapon. What with the dark side club taking away her agency and using her for her powers, she comes to really value autonomy and sees her powers as almost a divine punishment. The gods didn’t give her powers because she was illegitimate. When she got powers anyway, she was flung about by fate and forced into fighting for the wealthy patrons’ entertainment. So now to find out she was a god herself and all her suffering was prophesied and necessary for her to be truly just… let’s just say it’s complicated but she is most definitely pissed. When it comes to her opinion on ascending, she doesn’t exactly have the most positive view of gods. Combine that with a bit of pre-existing self loathing and an intense need to be recognised as human and not just a powerful being to be puppeted around by patrons/fate, she doesn’t really want to ascend. So she’s forced to watch her brother buckle under the weight of all of Markovia on his back and see her home be ravaged by tragedy. Because if she did intervene she’d no longer be Tara. She’d be a powerful being who’s only good so long as she’s useful, again.

Grant is totally down for getting rid of his parents and ascending because he’s always wanted to be stronger, he doesn’t care about losing his humanity and has no issue with getting some revenge on his parents. This then gets complicated by his parents having changed. They aren’t entirely different people but Slade especially treats his kids better. Tara’s willing to fight for Slade and once Slade finds out his son’s alive he tries to rebuild their relationship (granted in his own way but it’s certainly a surprise to Grant). Grant is super distrustful (VALID) but decides he can leverage the situation over Slade to get him to do things. However, then Joey gets involved. Whereas Jason was taking a more subtle and patient kind of redemption for Grant (Jason’s original more bossy approach didn’t work so he decided to be more patient and lenient) Joey has no qualms with forcing Grant to confront his own misdeeds. Joey’s not as mad about Grant leaving as he is that Grant came back to life and didn’t tell anyone. Joey is pissed and now Grant’s more focused on apologising to Joey than he is torturing Slade. Well at least for a little bit.

Also I’ve been thinking about their powers. I see like two different options. Since Tara has earth powers and she died under rubble I’m thinking of either giving them all elemental powers or giving them all powers relating to how they died.

1) Tara has rock powers. Jason has fire/light powers (because his all blades). Grant has ice? Or some other element.

2) Tara has rock powers. Jason has explosion/smoke/fire powers (because of his death). Grant has poison powers (because the serum poisoned him).

3) Tara has rock powers. Jason has explosion/smoke/fire powers (because of his death). Grant has mind powers because when he died Raven was messing with his head. [Added bonus of Grant getting the lamest power in his opinion.]

4) Or classic sky, land, sea trio. Tara is the land, and the other boys get one. Idk what way around though.

5) other 🤷

[lo-shouldve-been-an-email]

So remember my post about ranking different Thanatos across media?well I’m doing it again.(just with Hermes this time.

Also spoilers.

Percy Jackson(I know this is movie Hermes but I couldn’t find a good illustration of book Hermes.):

8/10

Better than the other gods in this series,at least he stuck with Luke until the whole May thing.also he does genuinely seem to care about Luke.so he gets better rating than I would give the others.

Lore Olympus:

7/10

He doesn’t get much screen time but I wholeheartedly think he’s the second best character in this entire comic(you should be able to guess who’s my favorite)

So yeah,he’s pretty dope.(unlike other characters in this comic *cough cough* hades)

Hades:

10/10

I can’t even describe how much I love him.

When I think of Hermes this is the characterization I think of because it’s just so good.

Like,speedy?here,have +30% speed.trickster and liar?hmm,I wonder where Persephone is,also what Hermes is doing.merchant?well,just ask his associate!(also side hustle)

Also,he has some really good boons like side hustle,rush delivery,the automatic god meter one,plus dash,and side hustle.

And the lambent plume is really good.

Another thing,I just got the prophecy where he bets you to beat up Charon twice in a row and he really just said “hey so I made a bet with my boyfriend that you could kick his ass could you,like,go do that?”

Osp:

9/10

Cool lil guy.

He’s fast and mischievous and a little shit in more ways than one and I love him for that.

Also his design is cool.

Digimon:

7/10

Does this guy count?Only in name.

But anyways,I’m just gonna take this time and tell you to go watch Digimon savers(sub,I wouldn’t say the dub is terrible persay but it just takes away at a lot of nuance that I liked in the Japanese version)

If you like series where the main character saves the day with the power of friendship and this orange/yellow dinosaur they found(and a healthy dose of kicking ass)you WILL like this series.

But,going back on track I like him.doesn’t feel like a Hermes but still cool.

The thing with rating Digimon like this is that they tend to vary between games/anime,my main example being alphamon in world ds vs cyber sleuth(both of which you should play btw).

But thankfully he only appears in savers and I like him a decent bit there if only *spoilers*

Punderworld:

8/10

Okay,you might be wondering:Moxe,why is punderworld here if it wasn’t in the Thanatos post?

First of all,I forgot about him,sorry.

Second of all,literally the only thing to note about him was the torch thing which I found pretty cool.

So back to Hermes,I really like him.

His interactions with Alecto were fun.

I don’t really have much else to say.

[heyo-428]

ACFTL Sneak Peak (Well, now I guess it’s a leak) Chapter Thoughts:

Spoilers below!!

This isn’t proofread if something is confusing please ask me in the replies for clarification

- The dedication to “anyone who ever wanted a second chance” is… almost ominous. On one hand it seems it’s like just a normal dedication but on the other it’s almost as if it’s a warning. Like Stephanie’s trying to warn a person who wants a second that it’s not always gonna end well.

- The story from the beginning about doorknobs was told before I believe and I think emphasizing this again is to allude to her ability to open doors with her blood. Will she figure this out again on her own? The doorknobs to what is rumored (The rumor’s probably true) to be the Valor children’s rooms in Wolf Hall spoke to her.

- Evangeline being absolutely lost is actually so sad to me. While I was reading the second page and it said she was feeling as if she couldn’t breathe I actually started to cry a bit. She’s in an unfamiliar location with no clue how she got there, when she got there, why she’s there.

- Her last memory is her father dying. 😭

- She doesn’t remember anything about Apollo but does remember there was something important she needed to say to someone. She doesn’t remember but it’s that she needs to tell Jacks she loves him. She slightly remembers Jacks even though she’s not able to attach a name to it. (I’m latching onto any hope I can)

- “Your memories were stolen by someone who’s been trying to tear us apart” Apollo if you don’t shut your ass up.

- “…and over his heart was a vibrant tattoo of two swords in the shape of a heart with a name in the center: Evangeline.” I CACKLED. THATS SO BAD 😭 IM DYING FROM SECOND HAND EMBARRASSMENT. She doesn’t really want you Apollo please give up.

- Apollo says that the marks on his back was the price he paid to return from Hell. Also the price Evangeline payed for your stupidity when you decided to get tortured😐 Who even tortured him? Or was it like done on purpose to have a story for why he came back. Doubt it’s the ladder because the curse wasn’t having him thinking right.

- Okay so Apollo’s not lying when he says Jacks put him in a suspended state but, Apollo, PLEASE calm down it’s not that deep. AND STOP LYING JACKS WOULD NEVER INTENTIONALLY HURT EVANGELINE

- Out poor boy Jacks is gonna have a difficult time in acftl 😭

- “You’re looking at me differently” he’s acting like she shouldn’t be…

- No Eva :((((( you didn’t trade your memories to be with him :(((( HE STOLE THEMMMM

- He makes her go back with him and then almost instantly leaves her. She is left as a shadow of herself because of him and he leaves her in her room to go handle matters. Like PLEASE how does Evangeline think this is okay.

- I- Stephanie please stop with mentions of arrows it reminds me of the fact Jacks is the Archer and what he’s been through (this is obviously why she’s doing this and i love and hate her for it)

- Wonder which door handles belong to which of the Valor children’s rooms. If what the rumors say is true. Feel like the one shaped like a dragon is Dane because he was a shifter and the one story LaLa told about him picking her up as a dragon or something. I’m not sure about the fairy wing one or wolf head with crown (maybe Aurora??) because we don’t know a lot about the Valor’s besides the basics. I am very excited to learn more though, they have a very interesting story.

- The fact Evangeline’s having to relive the grief she felt over the death of her parent’s because she doesn’t know it wasn’t very recent (thanks to her memories being stolen) is so tragic. I feel terrible for her :( It’s terrible having both your parents die but to have to deal with the grief twice?

- The door handles speaking to her is crazy because if I remember right known of the others ever did. I wonder why they do that. Probably because they’re old and from a family of people with magical gifts lmao. Plus Eva is literally a part of a prophecy connected to them. It’s gonna have some importance (hopefully)

- Really looking forward to learning again (or hopefully remembering) that she can open doors with her blood.

- Wait crazy theory, what if Stephanie’s making references to things from ouabh and tbona throughout the whole book? Like important things Evangeline forgot? That’s a bit of a stretch but I am writing this at 1 am so

- A few things have happened that are almost like deja vu/repeating history moments. If you think about it, it’s happened a lot throughout the books too. I’ll make a more in depth post on this at a later point.

- The maid Martine seems important. I don’t know what yet but there’s something. How could he just have moved so quickly from the Meridian Empire?? Something isn’t adding up especially her pause in speaking.

- “Her heart still hurt as if it had been broken” This is so sad Stephanie will be expecting many therapy bills after this book.

- It’s so upsetting that Evangeline can’t remember anything like our poor girl :(

- I don’t like this doctor but the helpers are odd

- Wait Evangeline is 17. I guess it makes some sense but like wow that’s crazy.

- I still really hate that reporter guy he’s annoying.

- Who is Yrell really because like why did they shut Telma up? There’s gotta be some reason.

- Okay okay the reporter guy just… disappeared? Like it was super quick too. wtf? How? Probably reading too much into this but how does he just disappear. It’s not like it would take a while to read that card there was nothing on it practically and then he just is gone.

- “He would carry her through more than freezing water” Eva darling that’s not Apollo that’s Jacks please remember 😭😭

- Apollo you are a monster not Jacks so stop lying. You removed Evangeline’s memories, you literally hunted her down and I do not care if you were cursed Jacks got over it before.

- He makes me SO mad. How can he so easily lie??

- APOLLO HAVING DADDY ISSUES

- He’s selfish to think a ton of people would make him monuments and stuff. Apollo you haven’t even done anything grand to help the people (that we know of) why would they do that?

- Who else knows Apollo took her memories? He says that someone does but that he won’t have to worry about them soon. No one else was right there and able to know? Right? I thought they were all in the Valory. It can’t be Jacks because it goes on to talk about Jacks directly after and it’s in a different manner.

- Crazy idea, what if because Apollo knows the Valor’s are out he thinks the one who’s able to see the future (Think his name is Vesper I don’t feel like looking right now) knows what he did 👀 I doubt it but.

- Apollo’s really upset over Jacks being better that he’s making reporter guy make his crimes uglier until he’s caught. He wants his name synonymous with vile, Apollo, you are synonymous with vile please shut the fck up <3

- Was it previously mentioned that the Great Houses have a council? I don’t think so but that makes sense I guess.

- Them talking about Luc attempting to steal the throne and calling him a whelp 💀 Where’d he run to? Back to Chaos’s? Kinda doubt that they have issues because Luc won’t listen to him or something. Wonder where he’s at and if he’s gonna be important this book.

- So funny to me that Wolfric Valor just shows up and is under the house of “Vale” like whose idea was that? It’s like the worst disguise ever Vale and Valor sound the exact same.

- How does Apollo know the Valor’s aren’t really dead? Unless it’s a secret that everyone in the Arcadian family line kept because Wolf Hall used to be the Valor’s.

- Am I the only one who doesn’t like Wolfric that much? I get bad vibes.

- Plus the whole betrothing his daughter to a dude named VENGEANCE

- I know he didn’t exactly know his name before betrothing her but you think he would’ve been like “uhm maybe not” HIS NAMES VENGEANCE I MEAN HE CAN’T BE GOOD

(Sorry had to rant about that because that whole story is absolutely wild to me)

- Who tf is Byron Belleflower. Like I know who he is he’s some lord but like who tf is that??

This whole thing probably doesn’t make sense I’m sleep deprived

[silawastaken]

I'm SO sorry and I feel like such a loser for it sometimes but I really do just want to talk about the technical stuff behind the things I write sometimes. Both fanfic wise, poetry wise, and more recently music wise, but I always want to talk about the attention to detail, the foreshadowing, the way things change in the process of writing, the original concept vs the final product.

I really really hate it but my brain really is wired for literature, and there's nothing that can have me talking for as long as asking about the detail behind my fics. The only one you can really ask about without it becoming a nit-pick of all the flaws (which is never attention or compliment seeking, I genuinely don't like most of what I write or make) or talk about foreshadowing aspects without major spoilers is the (not so) perfect pair as it's complete and well thought out (in my opinion).

The music I'm working on currently, when the lyrics are written out they read as a love letter, which is intentional!!! but also you could ask about the specific ties that each lyric has– for example in 'Prophecies of the Morning Sun' the lyric "a single witness as heaven comes down" the implication is that (as the song is written as if from my perspective) my lover is heaven, and I (or, whoever was listening to the song) was the only witness to their arrival, or the only person to see them as they are.

And then, in the final verse "facing you to see heaven in your eyes" is supposed to tie back to the idea that in my (or, again, whoever was listening's) eyes, my lover is heaven to me. IT'S ALL INTENTIONAL (or maybe not, but it all connects in the end regardless).

Anyway I'm sorry, slight word dump over, I just really wish I had more opportunities to properly talk over what I do. I would love to write a long ass essay dissecting the (not so) perfect pair bit by bit but also. There is no audience for that lmao.

As the gold bleeds into grey is where I'm going insane over this specifically, as there is always some detail which I am trying to point out without having to explicitly state it, but I feel the need to make sure people know what I'm doing. Especially with the most recent chapter (chapter ten – spoilers) where Chuuya is leading Dazai through Yokohama while it's busy, and he doesn't want to show his concern that Dazai was still following by looking back to check on him, but he does so anyway because he loves him.

This is a reference to Orpheus and Eurydice, which is why the chapter is titled 'Orpheus and denial', because in this Chuuya is supposed to represent Orpheus, but he also refuses to admit he still loves Dazai (whether to himself or to Dazai is up for interpretation– he's complex enough that even I don't know) and it was driving me insane that I couldn't explicitly state 'Hey! This is a reference!' because that's not what I want to do!!!! Ugh. Sorry. Soooo not worth this but I am constantly thinking about it lmao.

I'm always adding little details like that, I'm always referencing canon and making decisions about certain numbers to use for things (such as their room being number 15 on floor 3. They met at 15 in canon, and knew each other for three years before the split at eighteen. There's also another reason for it involving 15 and 3 years which would be Spoiling It but there's another reason behind that choice too).

If you ask me, I can tell you what characters who are never even mentioned in the main story of tnspp were doing at different points in the story. My au's are SOOOO carefully thought out most of the time.

Anyway. Yap actually over this time. Sorry I should really talk less lmao

[triglycercule]

I need to ask the mtt expert, do you think any of the murder trio would be religious?

ooooof this is a hard question to answer because personally i dont practice any religions specifically so i cant exactly offer the best answer to this DXXXX but i'll TRY. take everything i say with the fattest grain of salt. imagine the grain of salt is a salt lamp because i genuinely dont know that much about religion and belief

so i guess the first thing to consider is sans undertale since he's the one that all the mtt originate from. i dont think sans canonically is religious like at all. so if i wanted to take the easy route i COULD just says sans doesn't worship anything so its unlikely that any of the mtt would. but i wont because i have honor. i doubt that any of our surfaceworld religions wouldve made it into the underground since theyve been seperated from humanity for a long ass time. and i think undertale has its own belief based on the delta rune anyways so im gonna stick to that since it seems more plausible than just saying that dust is a hardcore buddist or something

for horror my answer like hell no. he mightve prayed for the angel described in the delta rune to save horrortale or something but i think those are just like desperate times call for shitty tries for ANYTHING to work. he literally describes horrortale as "living in a place like this is like living through an eternal hell" and i think that being in a place like horrortale would kill anyone's hope for some sort of angel to save them. plus i think he's too aware of the issues going on in horrortale to try and put his faith into something that doesn't exist AND also he wouldn't use religion as a moral guide. considering that he literally said in the horrortale flash game that he's "given up on figuring out what's right and what's wrong" (my king with an absolutely terrible moral compass LET'S GOOOOOO) (i love the horrortale flash game. i even have the quote saved because its such a good and important line for horror)

as for dust i think there's more of a possibility of him being religious (undertale delta rune based religion not any of the real world ones). the delta rune says that an angel who has seen the surface will descend from above and bring us freedom OR a harbinger of destruction as the angel of death, waiting to free monsterkind from this mortal realm. mostly gerson's words i stole this from the wiki because i cant be bothered to play undertale more than once. when translating dust's canon fics SPECIFICALLY the one called "a true hero appears" the topic of dust "liberating" the monsters of the underground and "granting their wish" to be free (even though he himself doesn't believe in the underground ever being free especially while hes in the middle of his "mad time") comes up. i dont think dust views himself as an angel at ALL like described in the prophecy but he could view himself as a "savior" type of person. it could be a really coincidental coincidence or it could be dust deciding to take up the role of the angel except a really really shitty one out of a desperate try for something to help like i mentioned with horror earlier. if we're going this route then him taking up the role of the angel could provide a sense of comfort that religion does and also shape his moral compass (i keep bringing these 2 things up because idrk why people worship. so i researched why so i can better support my arguments!!) with all the salvation liberation bullshit. personally i dont think that dust would exactly believe in himself as THE delta rune angel but more of just some sort of rouge savior but the possibility of going in a more delta rune religious way IS there

killer is in a completely different situation than dust and horror here (i'm not like the rest of yall ahh. get back in the original fishbowl you goldfish fuck) because he's AWARE of what arguably could be considered god in an utmv context. and obviously that's US the creators (players in his eyes. smh dont you know i havent played undertale in forever. i needa go back and do a true pacifist run. i did neutral because im shit at dodging attacks. but call me a CREATOR you second dimensional FUCK. you are a lower concept than me call me by a name i DESERVE) because for some reason and i completely forgot why he's aware of the creators. i think this could go in maybe two different ways where since killer is very much so aware that there are millions of gods(/creators. every one of us that creates something for utmv is a god in their multiverse LMAOOO) out there that he could completely just avoid religion itself since the usual reasons of comfort and moral alignment are completely debunked and pointless once you know that the gods that you could believe in just view you as code or characters to play around with. no comfort or morals to align with there. OR it could go in another direction where since killer is aware of the creators that he actually does end up worshiping SOME sort of us-based religion??? (what would that be called. do you think that theres a religion for all the self aware utmv characters who believe in creators. creatism. creationism. idk but would ink be the leader of that??? prophet type ass guy for creatism. this would be a cool concept someone else steal this from me and make a cooler story with it.) anyways i got side tracked. doesn't killer already believe that he has to do things that the creators want or something??? which COULD provide the moral compass part of religion. its definitely not a good moral compass but whatever killer believes his god wants of him he'll do. and also it might provide some sort of nihilistic depressive comfort knowing that everything is out of his hands and predetermined by a higher being. he already has that whole "lowly servant who'll do whats ordered of him" type shit going on. not unlikely that that could apply to the creators (or chara possibly. that relationship would be interesting if killer viewed them as a god and worshipped them as such. HM.)

anyways those are my thoughts on if i think the murder time trio would be religious. this was actually way longer than i expected but maybe thats just because i ramble a lot and have a lot of side thoughts. PERSONALLY i dont think any of them would worship a god just because i dont practice any religion and it makes it easier for me to characterize them without the religious barrier there. but also i do think there are possiblities of the trio all believing in a god (with horror maybe hopelessly believing the in the delta rune, dust becoming a delta rune esque figure, and killer's entire schtick with knowing about creators) but everyone has their own fanon interpretations on these characters!!! so if you wanna make them believe in religion or something then go then ahead and do that. maybe those possible points i brought up where they could worship a god will inspire someone or something idk. triglycercule OUT (off to reread horrortale for the 20th time today)

[an-aura-about-you]

wait. why are you sexy gengar

Oh, so this is some kinda story! And I guess now y'all are gonna hear it.

The truth is I've been holding out on most of you because back on my birthday @zerozeroren gifted me with an incredible piece of art that is going to require a bit of explanation.

So here we go.

Being a lover of So Bad It's Good Media and a watcher of Booktube videos, it was inevitable that I would hear about the supposedly spicy, supposedly deadly fantasy trainwreck that is Lightlark by Alex Aster. For anyone who might not have seen the liveblogging I did of that, I thoroughly enjoyed the book for a bunch of reasons Aster never intended and had to pause listening to the audiobook several times because I had to stop and laugh at the ridiculously poorly thought out shit going on. For anyone who's the sort to indulge in So Bad It's Good media, it gets my recommendation. (The sequel Nightbane does not; that was both utterly stupid AND horrifying in its unintentional implications. But I digress.)

Anyway, this piece of art came about from talking to Ren about some of the characters, particularly our main character Isla Crown and her love interest Oro.

There's been a lot of confusion on how to say Isla's given name. Before I listened to the audiobook, I would have assumed it would have had a pronunciation similar to island with a silent s. But no, according to the audiobook narration, her name is pronounced Ice-la. Upon hearing this, Ren declared that a "Pokemon-ass sounding name." And that's when I realized that Isla is implied to be humanoid but it's never actually specified. The people of Lightlark are divided into six different types of beings, and Isla is a Wildling. But the only actual descriptions we get of her are that she's got brown hair and she looks like her mother. So in defiance of the obvious setup to picture her looking like an ice-type Pokemon, I chose to picture her looking like my favorite purple ghosty boy Gengar.

But that's only the part of the picture I've been using for my icon. I haven't shown most of you the other part of the picture that has Oro. Oro is a Sunling. (I swear these names are killing me.) The big conflict of Lightlark is that all of these fantasy races have been cursed and they're trying to complete a ritual according to a prophecy in order to undo them. Sunlings in particular are cursed by being harmed by the sun, the very thing that would normally give them power. Oro is also something called an Origin, meaning he has powers from the other fantasy races, though the primary one we see him use besides his own power is the Skyling ability to fly. Between being harmed by sunlight, the implied nocturnal existence that comes with that, and his ability to fly, Ren and I decided he was basically a vampire. And I was like, "We need to pick a dorky vampire to represent him. I know! He should look like Alucard! Not sexy new Castlevania animation Alucard but like what Alucard looks like in Captain N: The Game Master!" (For the record, they are technically the same character. Alucard in Captain N is the same Alucard from the Castlevania series. But the character designs in Captain N: The Game Master are...questionable.)

And that led to this:

Take it in. It is a thing of cracktastic beauty. I couldn't have asked for a better birthday present. What else can I say but Ren has done it again.

[butterflydm]

wot rewatch 1x7: the dark along the ways

spoilers for s1 of WoT and through Knife of Dreams in the books; minor spoilers for one of the s2 character blurbs

Aaaaah, my angel Tigraine is here to kick ass and have a baby. This cold open floored when when I first saw it and it still floors me. It's amazing. I'm looking forward to more Maiden action in s2 so much. Not just the fighting here, but the emotion -- how frustrated she is that they won't just let her have her baby in peace, how she finally has a moment to herself and then this new potential threat shows up and we hang in that moment. Fantastic episode opener and it really makes me excited about what we might get in s2 for the cold opens.

So... given that she left Andor to chase a prophecy to save the world and has found herself on Dragonmount about to give birth... Tigraine could probably guess who her kid was going to be at this point, I feel like? She was very well educated, first in Andor and then in the White Tower, so I'm sure she would have known the Prophecies (maybe she even figured out when she learned that the female warrior society of the Aiel was called the Maidens of the Spear?)

The Emond's Field people want to get Mat but Moiraine must refuse because he's literally in recasting limbo right now. I love how Rand just instantly lost all trust in Moiraine the second she refuses to open the Waygate. She won him to her side by helping Mat, then immediately lost him once she stopped. Rand (and Nynaeve) are so protective & defensive over Mat in this episode and I really love it.

Of course, Rand is now probably also about, like 75% sure that he's actually the Dragon and so there's no need to worry about Mat anyway. But Moiraine is absolutely not sure who the Dragon is and it very well could be Mat (imo if she wasn't worried that Mat was a potential channeler, it would be pointless to send the Red Ajah after him).

Rand's little despairing looks back at the closed Waygate and his instant defense of Mat against anyone who says a word against him (even Egwene): catnip to a newly-minted Cauthor shipper.

Yeah, Mat is 100% Moiraine's least favorite child -- she 'knows' what choice he would make, she says (the wrong one). So, there are actually two different ways that the show could go with Mat -- Moiraine could be either right or wrong that Mat would make the wrong/evil choice and it depends on how they've decided to handle the Seanchan. Because if they follow the same storyline that the books did, Mat does essentially choose to embrace evil along that path (even if Jordan never admits it) when he decides that he's okay being married to an unremorseful and unwilling-to-change slaver. If Tuon stays the same way that she is in the books, then Moiraine was right about Mat. If Mat and Tuon's storyline gets changed/updated to be less... awful, then Moiraine will have been wrong about Mat.

Lan tries to tease Nynaeve to cheer her up but fails, so he tries to reassure her instead, telling her that Mat is safer where they left him. It's a sweet little moment.

Both Egwene and Rand are more open in this moment than they were in episode 2 and are able to share a snuggle as they sleep (but Egwene also checks in with Rand first this time and waits for him to essentially nonverbally give her a 'yes' before snuggling in). Rand is also a lot less raw about the breakup and they're hovering in a weird 'maybe we're not broken up after all' space.

People's worst fears clawing at them is a lot more informative kind of existential terror than just gore-whispers.

Honestly, given how on-edge everyone is put by the Black Wind, it would more surprising if it didn't lead to tensions and arguments. That was a rough experience for them all.

Lots of Lan backstory in this episode! His title, people from his past, etc.

Poor Moiraine looks so exhausted. Pretty much now until the end of the season. This is also when Moiraine has the message sent to the Red Ajah about Mat, which Lan is not around to hear, I note.

Perrin engages in some Fainspotting!

Oh, I notice that when Min serves drinks to the ta'veren, she keeps her eyes down. To avoid seeing all the viewings maybe? And I'm pleased to say that show!Min remains likable on rewatch, despite my bad experience with book!Min in my reread! She actually is a world-weary and well-traveled woman who has been through Too Much and is Tired instead of feeling like a tweenager cosplaying as one. And Moiraine literally has to blackmail her into sharing her viewings about the EF5.

And reading the new s2 summary about Min also tells us why Moiraine threatening her with exposure is enough to make her crack -- she was forced to be a carnival act! Yikes, Min's aunts!

Also that does look like the same baby from Rand's vision in the next episode, at least to me, so I think that's what she was seeing.

The EF5 all confronting Moiraine. I do wonder if it was the whispers of the Ways that made her decide to open up to them about how the non-Dragons will die when the Dragon faces the Dark One. And though the group does fracture into an argument after this discussion, they do present a united front against Moiraine here.

This argument also does a good job in laying down Egwene's philosophy and her reasons for wanting to do this. And we get another passionate defense of Mat from Rand.

It's fascinating how quickly Nynaeve jumps the conclusion that Rand and Perrin are 'fighting over' Egwene (something that both Rand and Egwene find initially baffling). I wonder how long Nynaeve has been expecting this to come up as an issue between them, that she goes there so quickly. Back in ep1, she sends Perrin away from Egwene's celebration to spend time with his wife and then in this episode, she notices Perrin noticing Egwene and Rand snuggling together. She is on "Perrin->Egwene HIGH ALERT" at all times and it's just kinda fascinating. If she'd just let them argue, I sincerely doubt that Perrin would ever have let anything slip.

Perrin's staring at Rand's mouth while saying "only woman I ever loved was my wife" moment. With a single shot, Perrin comes across as infinitely less heterosexual than his book counterpart.

We get some more good Lan content in his scenes with Moiraine and then Nynaeve. It's nice to get to see a piece of Lan's culture and for him to share it with Nynaeve. All the scenes that he has with both of them in this episode are really good. Lan comparing his devotion to Moiraine to Nynaeve's protectiveness over the Two Rivers' kids; I like it.

And this scene with Egwene and Rand is his last stab at denial. He wants to pretend that he can still be Egwene's husband/Warder. But if he doesn't give up on his denial, he might be condemning Egwene, Perrin, & Nynaeve to a painful death. What Egwene says here (that she will stand by Rand if he's the Dragon) is also related to why he goes off on his own and pretends to be dead imo -- he knows his friends wouldn't abandon him and so he has to abandon them for their safety.

And we reach the point where everything is at a crisis point and Rand can't keep denying every strange thing that's been building up since the night the Trollocs attacked.

This scene with Rand and Min is very good. Again, show!Min is doing a lot better than book!Min. Also, Min, I'm holding you to that "three beautiful women" viewing.

Aah, the kindness of how the show did Rand's birth really gets to me. The story is so much... colder in the books. That show!Tigraine gets to have a last moment of connection before she dies, and gets some assurance that her kid will be taken care of. It was an incredibly compassionate change to make.

lol, the poor awkwardness of the three Emond's Fielders (before they realize that Rand has disappeared with Moiraine).

Moiraine's thoughts, probably: "shit, it's one of the boys. Well... at least it's not Mat".