#his interactions with others. because he is such a funny character

[hongjoongspoetry]

Just Another Night, Until You | Choi San

❤️‍🔥 Summary: Hectic nights at work is nothing out of the ordinary for you, but when a man is wheeled into the Intensive Care Unit with second degree burns all over his body and in the need of immediate medical attention, your life takes a turn as his body heals on his own by the mere presence of you. Shocked by the discovery, you stay by his side as he recovers and together you come to terms with your unexpected connection.

❤️‍🔥 Pairing(s): Firefighter!San x Emergency physician!Reader

❤️‍🔥 Genres/Tropes: Soulmate AU, non-idol AU, best friend's brother, oldest daughter and youngest son, slice of life, fluff

❤️‍🔥 Warnings/Tags: female reader, no use of (Y/N), brief description of burn injuries, medical setting, san is living up to his romance-cat title, pet names (darling, my love, love, honey), MC is a Jeong, a lot of physical intimacy, kisses gallore, san is down bad for the MC, brief description of motorcycle accident and fractured bones (not explicit), the fear of losing loved ones, emotional exhaustion, a few swear words, not beta read!

❤️‍🔥 Wordcount: 7.5K

❤️‍🔥 Author's Note: Click the image for a better resolution (Tumblr I hate you). Wihooo! And there goes the second to last instalment of the March Event ;-; im lowkey sad it's ending soon although it gives me more time to work on other stuff!! anyhow, this one was really fun to write and I hope you'll enjoy it, be prepared for a lot of love sick sannie 🥹 Btw I'm not a nurse/doctor or have any "proper" knowledge regarding how things go down in the E.R or hospital for that matter either, so this is all based on excessive research. Thank you for your understanding!

This is all fiction and not meant to represent any idols involved in any way or form. This work is rated SFW, however it contains mature scenes such as descriptions of serious injuries, medical procedures as well as adult language. Minors, please, read at your own risk and refrain from interacting or following my blog!

AO3 Masterpost Moodboard Event taglist

It was an exceptionally calm hour in Seoul National University Hospital. Most nights were bustling with life, whether it’d be residential patients abusing the call button, relatives refusing to leave after visiting hours were over or an incoming emergency putting the whole hospital in a fit. But not tonight. The clock hanging on the wall opposite of the nurse’s station in the emergency department recently struck midnight. You slumped down by your desk as Haneul, your roommate, best friend and fellow colleague, dragged her legs behind her and nearly toppled over her seat. You finished off the last rounds of checking in on the inpatients on your floor, yet your social batteries were already drained and the nightshift had just started. 

Haneul blew a raspberry before her head dropped onto the desk with a soft thud. She groaned and threw herself back on the chair, her arms extended and legs elevated. Her slip-on shoes barely hung onto her feet and she wasn’t faring any better.

“I’m so tired,” she complained and went limp in her seat. “I can’t wait to clock out and return to my boyfriend.”

You let out an amused huff, the pencil twirling in your fingers coming to a stop as you caught it mid air. “You mean your bed?”

“That’s what I said.”

“Ha-ha, really funny Haneul.”

“It’s a bit funny, admit it!”

You rolled your eyes at her, but couldn’t fight off the smile that spread across your face. It was never a dull moment when in Haneul’s company. You were certain that even if death were around the corner, she’d still find a way to make the situation feel light. That was probably why you two had hit it off at university. She was mostly, if not always, in a cheerful mood, while you walked around with a dark cloud over your head. Had it not been for Haneul approaching you solely because your shirt was similar to one of her favorite character’s outfits in a drama, you probably would never have become friends. A decade later and you were tighter than two peas in a pod, and even decided — after your first semester — to move into a flat together which was still your current home.

“Whatever… I can’t complain as it’s at least a quiet night.”

The unspoken rule of never mentioning the obvious flashed before your eyes and you cowered from the blazing look Haneul shot your way. The air was caught in your throats and neither dared to move an inch from your places. You slowly turned your head sideways, waiting for a patient to peek their head out or scream that their pillow needed puffing up. As the empty hallway continued staying silent and the motion sensor lights didn’t turn on, you exhaled in relief.

“You got lucky there,” she said and logged into her computer. 

As you parted your mouth to answer, a voice broke through from the radio placed on the wall-mounted brackets. A report concerning a handful of people who were hurt in a fire set loose in an apartment came through and everyone ditched their tasks to get ready for the newcomers. You and Haneul, along with other nurses, ran to the trauma bay and occupied a room each where you, hopefully not, would get a patient each. The sound of multiple sirens grew louder the faster the ambulances sped toward the hospital and didn’t stop until the flashes of red and blue colored the building. Despite being employed for two years and counting, you never got accustomed to the ear piercing noise or blinding lights.

“Nurse Kim, could you prepare the wound care kit? Nurse Hwang, bring the respiratory support system. We don’t know what we’re dealing with so we need to expect the worst!”

The commotion from the triage area reached your room as the patients were being rolled into the hospital and underwent the initial assessment of their conditions. The code red patients would fall into your hands and you, together with your team, would do your utmost to lessen their injuries. You put the other glove on and waited by the door of your room. The sight before you was jarring to say the least. The victims of the fire were all in different conditions. Some crying and wincing from the burnmarks while others lay completely still as if the burned skin wasn’t a painful inconvenience. The wonders of falling unconscious. An elderly nurse with a couple of years beneath her belt pushed a stretcher toward you and you hastily moved out of the way. 

Nurse Yeon quickly spewed the little information she knew of the unconscious patient, but you couldn’t focus on her words. Your entire attention was given to the man before you. He looked peaceful despite the soot smudged across his face and several burn marks littering the majority of his body. He was also handsome — very handsome. That, you couldn’t deny. His black strands fell over his closed eyes and brows. Most of his features were sharp and defined, red heart-shaped lips in a slight pout, a long nose with a prominent bridge, high cheekbones and a few beauty marks peeking out from beneath the smeared ash. But you knew that, out of everything, his most alluring feature was his eyes — even when closed. You could see the feline-like shape that reminded you of a panther in the wild and you found yourself wondering what color they were. A tingle erupted along the pads of your fingers, almost begging you to move his hair out of the way. 

“...He was found unconscious in the building after being caught in the fire. Red category. He has second-degree burns on twenty percent of his body, severe smoke inhalation and is currently in respiratory distress. We’ve initiated oxygen therapy. BP is low and bolus fluids were administered to stabilize circulation. He is unresponsive, likely due to hypoxia.”

Nurse Yeon brought you back to the present and you ignored the highly unprofessional thought. With the help of Nurse Kim, you connected him to a monitoring machine and proceeded with the remaining steps of the protocol drilled into your spine. You administered high-flow oxygen via a non-rebreather mask to address the smoke inhalation and to prevent breathing issues later on.

Facing away from the patient to grab a scalpel in order to cut his already torn shirt, you just about turned your head and called out, “Nurse Kim, give him an IV fluid with saline to prevent shock and maintain blood pressure as well as a light dose of morphine to relieve him of pain. Nurse Hwang, hand me the scalpel, please.”

The nurses wasted no time following your orders. While Nurse Kim stabilized the patient’s blood pressure, you drove the sharp end of the scalpel through the center of his shirt to expose the injured area and assess what else you had to work with. As expected, there were blotches of irritated, red skin all over his upper body. It didn’t look too bad but would scar if left untreated. Your main concern was the smoke inhalation, but the high-flow oxygen proved effective, as the pulse oximeter showed that the oxygen saturation in his blood was slowly improving and you could swiftly move on to treat his wounds.

“Nurse Hwang, hand me the antiseptic soluti–”

A horrified gasp cut you off mid sentence and your head flung to the doorway where a nurse — a trainee at that — stood with her wide eyes and mouth hanging open behind her health mask. The interruption crawled beneath your skin like electricity. You glanced down at her nametag.

“Trainee Park?”

The student didn’t budge nor make a noise of acknowledgement and you had half a mind to terminate the established contract between the hospital and nursing school. You understood the weight of students gaining hands-on experience in a hospital setting, but it was beyond the agreement for a student to interrupt a life alternating moment for the patient.

“Trainee Park I won’t ask you a second time, what is it?!” 

Antiseptic solution in hand, you faced the student again, though her focus wasn’t on you but on something behind you. A line formed between your brows as you followed her gaze, leading to what she was staring at. Your patient still lay unconscious, his chest rising and falling in rhythmic motion, but you weren’t caught off guard by his regulated breathing. The patches of glaring red skin that previously looked painful to the eye were replaced with a lighter hue as if his body was recovering on its own. It was inhumane and in all your years as both a student and a licensed doctor, you had never seen anything like it. However, everyone in the room knew exactly what it meant.

“Fuck…”

One of the male nurses found the patient’s ID-card in the cardholder neatly tucked in the pocket of his pants while changing him into a hospital gown, but it was the teary look on Haneul after seeing the man’s face that everything clicked in place. Choi San, the little brother of your best friend, was your soulmate. 

The realization didn’t hit you while standing in the center of the trauma room or when his injuries healed more quickly beneath the touch of your finger. The fact that you had found your soulmate dawned on you early one morning, as you were making rounds between the remaining victims of the apartment fire and came across his room — the last patient to be checked on. The thought of finding your soulmate hadn’t crossed your mind in years. It was locked away in your old high school classroom, along with your youth, when you used to fret over who your soulmate might be. Would they be a foreigner? A celebrity? A boy or a girl? Rich, kind, or rude? The possibilities seemed endless, and you often spent more time daydreaming about the different outcomes than focusing on your studies. It was a miracle you didn’t fail most of your classes.

It was only when you set a goal that you lost interest in who your soulmate was and dedicated more of your time to studying. Little by little, as assignments piled up, you pushed the thought of your other half to the back of your mind and forgot about it. Of course, there were instances when the topic would come up every now and then — meeting distant relatives for the first time in forever and having them ask about your partner, or going out to dinner with Haneul and watching her get so drunk she forgets her own name, but still manages to make bets. Looks like you’d be treating her to that BBQ after all.

You entered the room and stopped at the end of the patient bed staring at San’s sleeping form. The harmless jealousy seeped into your bones as he lay there oblivious to the turmoil wrecking havoc inside of you and you wondered if, despite his unconscious state, he could feel even a glimpse of your emotions. Because you could feel him throughout your entire shift. The change in breathing, eyes fluttering, the subtle rise and fall of his chest as if he was right there with you.

The joke you once cracked to Haneul when you first started working there, something along the lines of finding your soulmate while tending to their wounds, wasn’t funny anymore and left a bitter aftertaste on your tongue. You sighed and glanced down at the patient chart hanging off the bedside. His vitals were good. More than good considering he was being driven straight from a burning building. Doctor Jung ran some tests on him during the night and they confirmed that San suffered greatly until he arrived at the hospital, until he reached you.

The doors of the room were violently pushed open and the eldest Choi entered as if her brother wasn’t lying there unconscious. Her unexpected arrival stopped your thoughts from spiraling further and your heart from racing into palpitations. It was weird to see her lips pressed into a thin line and eyes void of light, replacing her usual dimpled smile that would brighten your day. 

“How is he?” She eventually asked and buried her hands in the pockets of her white coat.

You cleared your throat and mimicked her stance, both of you focused on the resting man. “He’s healthier than a newborn baby.”

Five hours of constantly being on your feet, moving around and not having the chance to take a five minute toilet break put you in a hazy mist. It wasn’t until now that you felt the weight of the situation sink in. Who would’ve thought your best friend’s brother was your soulmate?

“You know,” Haneul started and broke you out of your thoughts. “I’m happy it’s you. Someone I know and trust as much as I trust myself.”

The words were oddly warm and spread a branch of hope through you. While you were too caught up with your work and then your own feelings, you didn’t stop to think what Haneul thought of everything. Her two worlds were colliding and it could either be good or bad.

“Is it weird?”

“Not at all… It’s the best thing I could ask for. That my best friend and brother get along… Just…” Haneul gnawed on the side of her bottom lip and turned to you, “Just don’t hurt him, Jeong. San is a tough cookie, but he has a fragile heart and I really don’t want to ever choose between you. You are both very dear to me.”

“You won’t have to. I’m pretty sure I couldn’t hurt him even if I tried.”

Haneul chuckled despite the tears making their escape down her cheeks. “Is it really like how they say? Are you already… affected by him?”

You breathed out a laugh at that. The countless nights spent talking and making fun of other couples who had already found their happily ever after were sure biting you in the ass, because it was, in fact, exactly how they said it would be. The unexplainable pull drawing you toward him, the yearning to be by his side and feeling him everywhere. Every skip of his heart, harsh intake of air and twitch of his fingers were all transferred to you

“Yeah, it’s exactly how they say it is.”

Haneul eventually left to do her last rounds and finish writing reports until the sun peeked over the horizon, signaling the end of your second night shift that week. San didn’t wake up until a few hours later and despite being hooked to a monitor regulating his state and showing nothing out of the ordinary, you didn’t leave his side for even a second. The dread of another emergency report coming through squeezed your abdomen until you were on the verge of puking. Just the thought of parting from him almost sent you hurling your insides in the guest bathroom. You were lucky to have wonderful colleagues who understood the circumstances and reassured you multiple times not to worry about finishing your reports or doing rounds. Nurse Hwang and Kim even passed by with snacks and water before returning to work.

The clock struck early morning when your chin slid off your knuckles and you were unpleasantly awoken from your slumber. The fear of falling to your death had you jumping out of your seat and taking in your surroundings. The sun gently shone through the windows occupying the entire left side of the room and filled the space with auburn streaks kissing your face. The warm rays seeped through the cherry blossom trees planted along the outskirts of the hospital. You found the view to be exceptionally beautiful during the early mornings when the pink petals detached from the branches, swirling in the air like snowflakes and covering the boring cement pavement..

A laser like heat bored into the side of your head and you scanned the room to find the source, only to get lost in the eyes of your soulmate. A wide smile stretched across his face and you realized the dimple gene ran deep in the Choi family as an identical pair to Haneul’s popped on San’s cheeks. You couldn’t shake away the image of a content and well fed cat at the sight of him. 

San immediately shifted the blanket to the side and had one bare foot planted on the floor, ready to leap out of bed and wrap you in his arms. The man just about managed to stand on both legs when you rushed from your seat and gently pushed him back down.

“No, no, please, sit!”

San fell back on the mattress without much of a fight. The moment your hand made contact with his shoulder, an explosion of tingles erupted along your palm, spreading like wildfire through your arm and out to the rest of your limbs, reaching the tips of your toes and fingers. The air caught in your throat and, like magnets forced together, your eyes found his again. Neither of you had to vocalize the question balancing on the tip of your tongues, asking if the other felt that crackling fire. San sensed the twinge of worry squeezing at your heart and hummed in content, he reached out and grabbed one of your hands in his to ease the burden atop your shoulders. He smiled so hard his eyes turned into crescent moons and hadn’t you known better, you’d think he’d start purring like a cat receiving ear scratches. 

“I’m fine. I don’t need rest because you are here.”

You ignored the heat pooling beneath your cheeks at his rather flamboyant response and steered the conversation elsewhere. “What were you thinking running into a burning building?”

The words came out effortlessly, as if you had known him since your youth.

“I didn’t do it on purpose…” He began and jutted out his bottom lip. “My feet just moved on their own, call it an instinct. Besides, I couldn’t just leave everyone inside. I’d put shame on the entire fire department!”

“Curse you for being reckless and kind hearted, San.”

“Yet thanks to my recklessness, I landed in the hospital and found you.”

The cheeky reply nearly made you pop a blood vessel. You didn’t understand how he could be so calm after facing death less than eight hours ago. The monitor attached to him shouldn’t have been stable. Based on your past experience with burn victims, San should’ve been startled and shaken up, and in some uncomfortable pain. Instead, he remained unnervingly composed, his eyes fixed on you with an intensity that made you question your own knowledge. His calmness felt unnatural, given the circumstances. The heart rate monitor, which should’ve shown elevated readings due to stress, stayed oddly steady and only spiked up when you spoke, moved or looked at him for too long.

“San… we are soulmates. We would’ve met eventually,” you hissed, trying to mask the look of realization on your face. The soulmate bond explained his calm demeanor. As he said, he was fine now that you were there, while you just wanted to cover him in bubble wrap and not let him out of your sight.

“Yes, but not soon enough.”

You abandoned the conversation for now as it wouldn’t lead anywhere. San was deadset on his decision being correct even though it was a foolish one and you still had a job to do. Ignoring the way he followed your every movement, a polite smile and creased eyes never leaving your form, you adjusted his pillows and checked the IV attached to his forearm. 

“Do you need anything else?”

“Hmmm, just you.”

Had you met under different circumstances, perhaps in a grocery store where you'd bump carts together or on a packed bus where he’d give up his seat for you and stand by your side to shield you from the other commuters, his charms would’ve worked. But you didn’t. Instead San decided to search the burning building for others with no gear, just his strong will and hope clinging onto his back, and all his attempts at flirting were futile as you couldn’t get the image of his unconscious body out of your head.

“Too bad,” you settle on saying. “You can’t have me before twelve PM.”

The pout intensified and he even crossed his arms in retaliation. Seeing a man in his late twenties throw a silent tantrum wasn’t something you thought you’d ever find endearing, but there you were, suppressing a laugh and yearning to smooth out the wrinkles on his forehead. 

“Do you have to go?” He whispered and looked up at you through his lashes.

“Yes, unless you want me to be fired?”

“Fine! But the second that clock hits twelve, you and I are both getting out of here.”

“You can’t just leave, San, they have to run tests and–”

“I’ve never felt better and I think every doctor in the building can agree with me. What I will be if I don’t get to spend time with you is sick, and sad, and heartbroken and–”

“I get it, I get it!”

San lived up to his promise of spending time with you. In fact, he wasted no time running down the hallway the moment the minute hand switched to twelve, asking everyone dressed in white cloaks where Doctor Jeong was. The question left his mouth for the tenth time that minute just as you rounded the corner, ready to check out. San gave you all of three seconds to bid your colleagues goodbye before whisking you away. His plan of getting to know you consisted of lying tangled up on his sofa with a meaningless movie playing in the background, while his fingers caressed your back and his eyes shifted back to you every other second, as if he couldn’t believe you were real. 

You weren’t faring any better. Your head was neatly tucked beneath his chin, and your hand was splayed over his right pectoral, the tips of your fingers gently rubbing soothing motions beneath the curve of his collarbone. Had you known your soulmate would be a kitten with separation anxiety, you’d have stalled on meeting him for a little while longer. Although, deep down, you knew that was a lie. San was everything you needed him to be and more: attentive, gentle, sweet, kind, caring — the list was truly endless. 

The days spent cocooned together — San on sick leave to recover from the accident and you having the next two days off from work — made up for the thirty-something years you hadn’t been in each other’s lives. In just forty-eight hours, you created a bond that most lifelong best friends would envy. He shared embarrassing stories from his and Haneul’s childhood days — sweet memories of how his mother dressed him in Haneul’s hand-me-downs, despite her closet mainly consisting of flower dresses and cute skirts. In return, you told him about that one time you accidentally locked your parents out on the balcony and then hurled your breakfast back out from the anxiety and fear of never seeing them again. If only little you could have understood the wonders of spare keys and that your grandmother was already on her way to solve the issue. 

The first night was spent staying up late, talking about heartfelt stories and niche interests to the point where you both passed out and didn’t wake up until late afternoon the next day. Who knew your hunk of a fireman liked collecting sweet plushies and was adamant on learning how to crochet?

That wasn’t everything though. A week into your freshly established relationship and San hadn’t missed to stop by your workplace once to give you lunch, coffee, midnight snacks or a quick peck on the cheek. It was easy in the beginning when San didn’t return to work for an entire week. The soulmate bond proved that he wasn’t in need of resting as much as his company thought and he eventually had to return earlier than expected. It was weird to be glued to each other for hours on end to then not be able to see each other because of your hectic schedules that never seemed to align. When you’d return home from a long night shift, he was dressed and ready to leave. 

You voiced your worries to Haneul during a lunch break, saying how you were afraid of moving too fast, but now that you barely got to spend time together, it felt like you were moving at a snail’s pace. She mildly reassured you that it craved more than some social distance for your soulmate bond to break and that it would take some time for you to find your footing in the relationship.

However, working multiple shifts a week while running on little to no sleep left you too exhausted to plan an outing whenever an opportunity for the two of you to spend time together appeared. Date-night looked different in the Choi-and-Jeong books. Instead of glamming up and booking a reservation at a fancy restaurant, you decided to stay in and watch a movie that would sooner or later be forgotten as you’d be too enamoured with each other. Haneul walked in on one too many make-out sessions, and thus, you came to the decision to host movie nights strictly at San’s apartment.

Like many times before, you lay atop San, his legs parted, giving you the option to cage his left one between yours. One of his arms was bent and propped behind his head to act as a cushion, while the other was curled around you, his hand pressing against the small of your back in a comforting embrace. Your cheek was mushed against his chest and your hand limply rested on his bicep. A movie played on the big screen and a plethora of snacks were strewn out on the coffee table but left untouched. You joked about how, ever since San entered your life, your sugar cravings had dramatically decreased because he was bringing too much sweetness into it.

“Honey?” San broke the comfortable silence and spoke over the characters on the TV. You hummed in reply and he continued. “I want to ask you something.”

As you shifted to get a better look at him, he pulled you in a tight embrace and you immediately stopped moving. “Don't look at me, just… listen? Please?”

“Okay, Sannie, what is it?”

“How do you feel about… moving in… with me? Or me with you!” You could hear the blush attacking his cheeks and embarrassment clinging onto his voice as it grew higher in the end and the words came out in a rush.

Joy tugged at your lips and you couldn’t stop the light hearted chuckle from slipping out in the room. You broke out of his gentle hold and grabbed his hand in yours, and planted a chaste kiss on it.

“I think I’d love that.”

Without warning, he squeezed your cheeks between his palms and captured your lips in a tender kiss, leaving your insides warm and mushy. Despite having muscles the size of a watermelon and broad shoulders that could carry the entirety of Noah’s ark, San was a real softie. He had the habit of holding you as if you were the most valuable possession on the earth, a feather which could crumble at contact or a cube of sugar that would melt beneath the rain. The shared kisses were brief but left a tingle on your lips that you couldn't get enough of and nearly whined in retaliation as San withdrew to catch his breath. 

“I adore you, like really, really much,” he confessed and kissed you again, and again, and again. The peppered kisses were planted all over your face — nose, cheeks, mouth, chin, eyes, forehead. The endearing act of love pulled a string of giggles straight out of your tummy, cursing you with an ache that your grandmother would call remedy for the soul.

One moment he was on you and the next, he turned you over to lay against the couch while he  scrambled to his bedroom on the other side of the apartment. You pushed yourself up on your forearms with only your upper body lifted as you curiously watched San runoff as if his rear caught on fire.

“Sannie?” 

“Just a second, honey!” 

Rough shuffling reached the living room, but it was the loud crash of objects clattering on the ground that you almost headed to see the commotion yourself. San’s reassuring voice telling you everything was okay didn’t help you relax, but you trusted his judgement and remained seated. The eager wait was short lived as San returned with something tightly clutched in his right hand and stopped by the end of the couch, back uncomfortably straight and face pinched into a serious expression. Hadn’t you known him for a little shorter than a month, you’d assume he was about to get down on one knee and ask you to live the rest of your life by his side. 

San cleared his throat and extended his arm low enough for you to see his well manicured fingernails. You shuffled over closer to the end of the sofa and sat up on your knees. His fingers unfolded and exposed the trinket laying in the center of his palm. An apartment key. The spare key to his apartment to be precise.

“I know we haven’t known each other for that long, but I’ve never been sure of anything more than this and I really want to take this next step with you.”

“Are you asking me to marry you or move in with you?”

Red dusted his cheeks and he had to look away. Your own lips curved up as his eyes creased into crescent moons, a telltale of his dimpled smile making an appearance. San covered his mouth as if it would make his smile disappear. Testing the waters, he asked, “Would you say yes?”

“I guess you’ll have to find out.” 

San was sure he could pass out right then and there. His cheeks hurt from smiling too much, but it was the only pain he would ever welcome with open arms. You climbed onto the couch and jumped into San's arms and he effortlessly caught you, his hands finding their designated place on your hips and thighs while your arms slid around his neck like a koala. Your fronts were pressed against each other, but you continued pulling him toward you, as if the chance of becoming one entity was higher than inventing flying cars. San dipped you down princess-style and stole a long kiss, one that you were more than eager to reciprocate. Your fingers tangled in his black hair, nails soothingly scratching his scalp, and your heart swelled with so much love and happiness it felt like it could explode and fill the living room with colorful confetti.

It was a shame the human needed air every few minutes because all you wanted to do in that moment was feel him everywhere. Breaking apart, you rested your forehead against his, hot breaths fanning across each other’s lower faces, chests rising with fervor as your bodies desperately tried to reclaim the lost oxygen."

“I’d say yes a hundred times over,” you breathed out, “but let’s save that for after we meet the in-laws.”

“My parents have already scheduled a day for when we can go to Namhae,” he eagerly replied to which you hastily leaned back, nearly sending you both tumbling over.

“San! I swear you’re unbelievable.”

“Unbelievably in love with you.”

Lips swollen, eyes welling with joy and hearts beating erratically, the world paused as you looked at each other. The diploma neatly placed on your desk and the knowledge you had collected over the years seemed insignificant when the love you harbored for San could regrow burned forests, mend broken bridges and heal even the most shattered of hearts.

Living with San was nothing out of the ordinary, except that you saw each other more now that you lived under the same roof. Considering your shared apartment with Haneul was bigger than San’s, it only made sense for the Choi siblings to switch places. That way you kept your room and San took Haneul’s. You quickly realized you could’ve just moved into San’s apartment instead as neither ever went to sleep alone. More often than not, San would crawl into your bed, claiming it was cozier than his, but you knew even the ground would be a great sleeping place as long as you were in his arms. That was precisely what you wanted — to be in San’s arms. Instead you were working another night shift, the most hectic one since the fire incident a couple of weeks ago. 

A young man, no older than twenty, had been in a motorcycle crash, leaving him with severe pain and swelling in his right leg, which was pushed into an unnatural position. The skin was entirely torn off, exposing blood and muscle tissue. You had a suspicion about how severe the situation was, but it still called for an X-ray examination. As expected, the results confirmed multiple fractures of the femur and tibia, requiring surgery the next day at the latest. Changmin, as his driver’s license indicated, was in immense pain and even struggled with breathing difficulties into the night. This left you and your co-workers with no choice but to monitor him closely throughout the remainder of your shift. To say it was tiring would be an understatement. Your feet were so sore it felt like walking on a rug of medical needles and your back ached, begging you to lie in bed and not get up until the birds returned from Southeast Asia.

The only thing pushing you through the long day was the fact that you knew San was waiting on you at home. It didn’t matter if he was awake or not. Your tense muscles relaxed by the thought of burying your face in his chest and forget the world until your batteries were restored again. It became a routine for the both of you. When one had a more physically draining day at work, the other was ready to pamper them and make them feel completely taken care of. 

After a few failed attempts to insert the key into the door, you finally managed to unlock it. A stream of blue light illuminated the otherwise dark apartment and was accompanied by muffled voices coming from the living room. You haphazardly threw your shoes off, not bothering to neatly place them next to one of San’s hundred pairs of sneakers, and instinctively followed the animated sounds that belonged in a cartoon. 

The scene you were met with nearly brought you to tears. San was seated in the middle of the sofa, a fuzzy blanket thrown over his head and shoulders, with two mugs of hot cocoa steaming on the table in front of him. The bag slung over your shoulder slipped off and fell to the floor with a gentle thud. Your jacket — a gift from San’s closet — was at least two sizes too big, making you look like a bear ready to hibernate. The colorful scarf you had been wearing since your teenage years reached up to your nose. San whipped his head in your direction and his stoic expression softened into one of understanding at the sight of fresh tears coating your waterline. His lips curled into a small, reassuring smile that spoke more of compassion than words ever could. 

He quickly lifted one side of the blanket and beckoned you over with a gentle command. “C’mere honey.”

That was the last straw for your tears to start rolling. You wasted no time shedding your outer layers of clothing and curling into San’s side. A sob that you had been holding in throughout the entire car ride home vibrated against his chest. San ran his hand up and down your back while whispered praises tickled your ear. He planted a kiss on your crown and pulled you over him as he fell back against the couch. You adjusted yourself more comfortably, both legs falling on either side of his hips so as not to fall, and he swiftly maneuvered the blanket to shield you from the chilly atmosphere. The minutes ticked by and you had no perception of how long you stayed in that position, but your sobs eventually subdued to soft sniffling. 

“How did you know?”  You whispered, a tremble hanging onto your vocal chords, and sat up. 

San’s hands travelled to rest on your waist, thumbs rubbing circular motions into your flesh. “I just… felt you.”

“Felt me?”

He hummed, “I still do. Happiness, sadness, fear, anger — everything, right here.” His hand hovered over your heart and you understood. You really did. 

There was no scientific explanation for the emotional connection that kept you in tune with each other’s feelings. The unexpected pressure weighing down on your lungs at even the slightest discomfort or worry he experienced, like when he stumbled upon a video of a duckling being separated from its mother. It was uncanny how your heart soared hours before he came home with good news about a promotion, or the unexplainable sense of pride you had been carrying all day — only to discover it was coming from San, who had helped a kitten down from a tree. You’d never forget the day the bitter taste of dandelion greens spread across your tongue, only to find San lying in bed, caving under the weight of his blue emotions. The best part of the connection, though, would be the buckets of love pouring into your bucket as he hugged, kissed and worshipped you. However, there was one emotion you hadn’t received any signs of.

Your fingers found purchase on the hem of his shirt that rode up his stomach and revealed a sliver of the toned skin beneath. “I don’t feel… your anger.”

San flashed you a blinding smile and spurts of daffodils curved around your heart. “That’s because nothing makes me angry, love.”

“Really? Nothing?”

“Nothing.”

A beat passed and you sighed, “I’m always angry.”

“I wouldn’t say you’re angry, just… frustrated.”

“It’s practically the same thing,” you argued and continued fiddling with his shirt. He captured your hands in his and halted your anxious picking.

“It isn’t, not by definition. We feel frustrated when we are unable to progress, while anger is the response to something we perceive as wrong or harmful… You’re not angry, my love, you’re frustrated and probably overworked too.”

Your bottom lip caught between your teeth as you mulled over his words. It made sense, and you didn’t need to voice the comfort it brought you; he felt it. The unruly waves quieted to a steady push-and-pull, letting you breathe as the knot of emotions slowly untangled to nothing.

“You know, I’m supposed to be the older one out of the two of us.”

A hearty laugh filled the previously gloomy room, immediately illuminating the four cold walls, and San caught your waist again as he shifted, the echoes of his laughter filling the space.

“Don’t you worry your pretty little head about that. It'd be my honor to make you feel like a teenage girl again.”

That he did. It was almost embarrassing how his sweet gestures had you leaping face first into your pillows and rapidly firing your feet against the comforter. One would believe you were closer to being fifteen than thirty, and while you had a mild crisis, you were still grateful San brought that youthfulness out of you again. 

“Was it a rough day?”

The sentimental moment burst like a fragile soap bubble at the slightest of touches. You took a breath of air and San slid his hand further up your wrists, placing his thumbs in the center of your palms while the remainder of his fingers wrapped around the back of your hand. It was grounding and kept you from re-visiting the gut wrenching thoughts that plagued your mind while tending to the young patient.

“A young guy was rushed to the ER… He got into a motorcycle accident and flew maybe a good ten meters from the crash place, and totally fucked up his leg. It was by sheer luck he didn’t suffer head injuries, let alone injuries to the rest of his body.” 

You still saw the image of his bloodied body and torn clothes, a sight that would leave you with nightmares for days.

“He was in really critical condition, San. We couldn’t leave him alone for even one second. I’m talking about twenty four-hour care… He’s going into surgery tomorrow. He’ll survive, but it’s just... He reminded me of you. How you’re literally in danger every time you go to work and– and how easily I could lose– lose– lose–”

The words caught in your throat as your voice grew higher in pitch. San gave your hands another squeeze and pulled you back down onto him. You wasted no time burying your face in his neck and his arms automatically wrapped around you — one finding purchase at the back of your head while the other securely encircled your back.

“I don’t want to lose you, San.”

“You won’t lose me, love.”

“You don’t know that!”

“What I know is that I always do my best to come back to you in one piece. To my home, no?” The hand that had been placed against your head wrapped around the back of your neck and gently massaged it.

Like a flower opening up to catch the first few sun rays of the day, you put your heart out and allowed San a glimpse of what was inside. 

“It just scared me,” you said between shuddering breaths. “Anything could happen, San, and I don’t know what I’d do with myself if you–”

“Honey.” His voice wasn’t stern, but it held a certain finality to it. As gentle as a newborn kitten, he carefully eased you back, pulling you away from where your face had been pressed against his neck. With a soft motion, he tilted your head slightly, getting a better look at your face.“Thinking of the what ifs isn’t good for anyone.”

You wanted to reply with an ‘I know’, but you knew better than to lie to him. 

He wiped a stray tear off your cheek and you nuzzled against his palm. “Look, I love that you think you need me, but it’s not true. We managed more than fine on our own and just because we’ve found each other doesn’t mean we can’t function alone anymore… I love that you feel comfortable enough to lean on me, darling, but at the end of the day, you’re strong because of who you are and not because I’m here.

“And if, but just if, anything were to happen to me, I need you to know that you aren’t alone. You’d still have Haneul there. My parents. Your parents. Nurse Kim and Nurse Hwang too. That’s eight more people than me.”

Your hand enveloped his cradling your cheek. “I don’t want to think of a life without you in it.”

“Good because you’re stuck with me forever and ever and ever and ever!”

A wet giggle sounded through the living room and San’s rough chuckle blended perfectly with your sweet hiccups. Overwhelmed by the affection filling your humble abode, successfully warming every corner of the apartment, you intertwined your fingers behind San’s neck and determinedly pulled him into a heart-searing kiss. Your mouths molded together in a perfect fit, much like the famous art piece by Auguste Rodin. The sculpture representing a pair of lovers destined to remain together forever, until parted by death.

San breathed life into you with simple gestures that could restore chivalry. His eyes finding yours in a crowded room, silently checking up on you as you were both tugged in opposite directions by your mutual friends. Walking the empty streets after a successful date night, the gentle brush of his fingers skimming over yours before slipping between the gaps and pulling your hand into the pocket of his coat with the excuse of keeping you warm. Slothing his front to your back in the solitude of your home as you’d be too busy for a long cuddle session on the couch. Not to mention the kisses spread throughout the day—morning, noon, and night. He’d see you off with a peck and welcome you with the same sentiment, wishing you a good night or day before taking off.

The memories you collected during your still-new relationship pushed you forward, giving you hope and belief that you were going to get through this. San’s promise of never leaving — intentionally or unintentionally — comforted you and the dreadful thoughts hadn't returned, and hopefully, they wouldn’t ever. But if they ever did reoccur, you knew San would be there to chase them away.

© HONGJOONGSPOETRY 2025. All rights reserved. Copying, editing, reposting or translating my work is not allowed.

[mariusrenathyrs-crashout]

#going back to my 'marius' vampirism is a metaphor for the lasting trauma of sexual abuse' idea#marius is my roman empire

So I did a funny joke post about Marius and this was one of the tags left on it and I'm so sorry prev but you've activated my trap card because I've thought so much about this topic, but have felt too afraid to talk about it unprompted lol. But I am going to spew my guts about how I feel about this symbolism so cw for talks about SA and victim blaming. Cause I have for sure thought about this a lot and gotten sort of heated about jokes about Marius just being a dumb horny knight when he's a whole ass victim of significant trauma.

(tag credit goes to @royhasissues, hope it's ok to post your tags)

So, I loove Marius and one of the main reasons for that is his relationship to trauma and what that both symbolizes for his character as well as how it determines his actions and emotional stability as of episode 32.

Marius Renathyr was someone who thrived off of structure, order and discipline. He was clearly a highly religious man and had followed his religious and orderly tenants to the letter for most of his life. A young Marius was focused on things like war, helping to defend his people and more specifically, protecting his king and best friend from forces that wished for their ruin. As such, I cannot imagine a young Marius really had any type of experience with relationships aside from platonic and brotherly relationships he had built with fellow knights or Victor. So already we have a young inexperienced knight going off on a quest where not only is he leaving the shelter of his kingdom for the first time, he's also on a time limit in which his success or failure could determine the future of an entire kingdom of people.

Then, vulnerable and half starved, he stumbles upon the Duchess who not only takes advantage of his physically weakened state; but also takes advantage of his emotional and mentally weakened state. Lilith as a temptress of course could tempt a young knight, and then to curse him with vampirism after tricking him into sleeping with her is back to back traumatic events - the vamprism something that could be interpreted as a punishment for failing his tenant of chastity. Something that I found interesting too is not only is his kingdom's symbol a rose, but it also is the same symbol as The Duchess - it brings to mind the idea of "deflowering" as a symbol of lost innocence.

From there, he has fought against his vampiric instincts which he viewed as a curse and a punishment for his weakness when in reality, it was not weakness at all. And the way some people react in a sort of joking or unserious way to his attitude towards sleeping with someone, his concerns of being trapped in a power scale imbalance with a strong and powerful woman also shows how his character reflects victim blaming both from others but also internalized victim blaming. It is why I think the scene of his friends trying to convince him to sleep with the Inquisitor only for Yorgrim to shut it down and back Marius up is such a powerful scene because it showed how some of his friends did not understand the level of trauma he had experienced despite how he bares literal physical reminders of the trauma he had experienced decades prior and how it still weighs so heavily on him.

Not to mention how Marius' bloodlust and how his aversion to getting too close to people - particularly Lethica who he shows clear romantic feelings for - is also symbolic of his trauma reactions. He is unable to allow himself that sort of closeness or intimacy with another person, even if there is no sexual motivation or undertones about their interactions, it's still a fear response of wishing to avoid any possibility of being harmed once again or lashing out due to that trauma.

And mind you, this is all worsening for him around the same time he comes to realize he's lost his connection to his God, his king and best friend he went on this quest for is dead, 2 of his closest friends are also dead, and many other awful horrors have befallen him and his group, it makes sense why his emotional and mental stability have started crumbling so drastically. And then, when he is at his lowest, who swoops in to whisper false promises and telling him he can be strong once more, protected once more, that this all can be worth it if he just listens to her? The one being who gave him this trauma in the first place. She swoops in and talks to him tenderly, who caresses him and tells him it'll be ok, that he can be what he was once more, that she will help him if only he listens to her and stays with her and loves her and nobody else. Nobody else. There's a lack of clarity, a lack of stability, of rational thought. Marius entrusts himself to her now because it's hard escaping from your abuser when they act like they're your protector instead.

[khaoala]

Forcebook got to make out with fkt once and they have not stopped thinking about them since the boys truly have that building whipped (I'm joking mostly)

Also Im so sad I wasn't around for of era fkt cause I saw some tweets during airing and wao they had full playlists and insane interactions (kt really called f nong kitty? Insane) if you have any of era lore pls share uwu

force was impressed saying just the other day how first was bigger than him now and book was bragging about kissing khaotung from day one, but do you know what never happened and i bet force regrets to this day? not kissing khaotung. you can just feel he really wanted to, he never got that treat unfortunately.

but you see, i can't really remember much only friends lore. compared to the production of the heart killers where we got at least one picture every q, for only friends, they were far in between.

khaotung recommended some great songs for sandray honestly. it's something i really had hoped he'd do for kantbison as well, but it makes sense that he didn't since kantbison aren't as connected to music the way sandray were.

if i'm not mistaken, khaotung said that his music taste was a lot like sand's, so to help first understand the character, he recommended none other than 505 by arctic monkeys (yes, the one that has lyrics that go 'i'd probably still adore you, with your hands around my neck' and 'in my imagination you're waiting lying on your side with your hands between your thighs').

khaotung recommended making love into the night by usher for ep. 2 of only friends (we all know what happened on ep. 2, smoke kiss my beloved) (and also posted this picture from that very same scene):

he also dedicated chris stapleton's tennessee whiskey to sand during ep. 11, and posted this part of the lyrics on twitter:

and as far as i know, these were the only two (or three with you count 505) that he recommended during only friends. khaotung also posted this video of hold me down by daniel caesar and while it wasn't related to any episode in particular, they did film this when only friends was being aired.

and about nong kitty thing, i didn't remember much about it tbh, but it's actually a little funny, because it's related to this picture:

but upon noticing that first was also in the shot, he recropped the picture to show off nong kitty's eye:

and khaotung, as a good cat slave, wouldn't waste the chance to show off his nong kitty first.

[fantastic-nonsense]

i usually don’t get into these discussions lol they’re too much trouble, but on your nightwing run rankings i honestly think it’s crazy to call devin’s run objectively bad when it’s kind of THE nightwing mythos, so many writers after were trying to do what she did. taylor’s run is entirely based off hers, some moments beat for beat, and watters is taking notes from her as well.

Also because of fandom and corporate misogyny most people hate her for reasons that are outright lies or exaggerations, so that adds to the stigma around her run with younger readers wanting to avoid it, but it is quite good

I think her Nightwing run is bad because I've read it. Her sexualization and fetishization of Dick is gross, her characterization of Dick was mid, her characterization of Babs is horrible, her approach to writing both Dick and Catalina Flores was incredibly racist, most of her plot was just trauma porn, and she spent nearly all of her 45 issues on the book destroying everything narratively that had been built up by the previous several years of writing. And this is not even touching the way she handled the rape and rape aftermath issues.

As I stated in the original ranking, there are redeeming features: her early issues with Rick Leonardi, before Catalina shows up, are much better than anything she wrote after he left the book. The transition from Dixon to Devin's run was handled well and she competently finished all of Dixon's plot threads before doing her own thing. The Renegade arc is not an objectively good piece of writing, but it's enjoyable to read and has some top-tier comedy in it re: Dick and Slade's interactions. The Wally-Babs scene after she and Dick broke up was lovely. She writes Dick and Tim's relationship well. None of those things outweigh how bad and genuinely unpleasant Devin's Nightwing run is to read overall.

As for the rest of your comments:

it’s kind of THE nightwing mythos, so many writers after were trying to do what she did.

"THE Nightwing mythos" as we concieve of it today was actually created by Chuck Dixon. Despite his other crimes (and there are many), Dixon remains the man who created Bludhaven, moved Dick there, and did the worldbuilding necessary to make a Nightwing solo work in the first place. Everything every modern Nightwing writer does ultimately goes back to something Dixon did in the 1990s when he had near complete control over Dick Grayson's character.

In fact, every writer since Dixon has struggled with the book in part because Devin Grayson spent her 45 issues on the book systematically tearing down the foundation Dixon built (Dick's supporting cast, his rogues gallery, his relationship with Barbara, his life in general, etc) instead of building on top of it, and no one's been able to properly been able to create a new foundation since.

Like, "so many writers after her were trying to do what she did" is a HILARIOUS statement to make considering that most of Dick's writers since then (excluding Tom Taylor) generally do everything they can to ignore as much of what she wrote as feasibly possible. Are we ever bringing up Tarantula again? NOPE! Are we ever bringing up the mob infiltration arc again? NOPE! Are we ever bringing up that Haly's Circus burned to the ground and his apartment building got blown up and he got shot twice and that he stood aside and let Catalina kill Blockbuster? NOPE! The list goes on.

taylor’s run is entirely based off hers, some moments beat for beat, and watters is taking notes from her as well.

Bringing up Tom Taylor's run is also funny because I've actually discussed at length before how if you read Devin’s run and Taylor’s run back to back, you realize Taylor is basically just rewriting her run "BUT I CAN DO IT BETTER!!!" Blockbuster's back in town and a big deal again, DickBabs are suddenly together again despite them having been broken up since Devin's run in the mid-2000s, Dick's trying to clean up Bludhaven from the inside again (though as a philanthropist instead of a cop), Tim and Wally are randomly popping up in guest issues…he basically soft-rebooted Dick back to the Dixon era so he could write his fun little self-indulgent fanfic of what could have happened if Devin hadn’t taken over the book and destroyed Dick's life.

Which is one of the many reasons I ranked Taylor's run significantly higher than Devin's run. I prefer bland mediocrity and Taylor's ignorant #resistlib attempts to address the roots of crime to dealing with the "absolutely worst year of Dick Grayson's life" arc, and if I'm going to get Babs character assassination either way, I'd rather her be a bland supportive girlfriend than clingy and codependent at best and actively hostile at worst.

As for Watters, per his own statements what he's taking from Devin's run is the fallout from Chemo nuking Bludhaven (which happened because of Infinite Crisis and was not actually Devin's decision) and the Dick-Babs dynamic from her issues with Leonardi (which. again. are her best issues because she was basically just wrapping up Dixon's run and hadn't had time to blow anything up yet). More relevantly, he said that Snyder's The Black Mirror, Morrison's Batman and Robin (2009), and Dick's tenure as Batman in general are much more influential in terms of how he characterizes Dick and that he loves what Sam Humphries did in his short run to add depth to Bludhaven as a city. That's not exactly taking notes from Devin lmao.

because of fandom and corporate misogyny most people hate her for reasons that are outright lies or exaggerations, so that adds to the stigma around her run with younger readers wanting to avoid it

Devin is not a uniformly bad writer. I genuinely enjoy her Titans (1999) run and the first few arcs of Gotham Knights (2000). She wrote a solid Stephanie Brown in the opening issue of War Games, and was apparently against killing her off. I think generally when she has to balance team dynamics and is not writing Her Personal Blorbo™ that she trauma dumps onto and self-therapizes through, many of the problems I have with her Nightwing run are largely mitigated or minimized. But she fundamentally cannot be trusted with writing Dick Grayson unless he's in a group title and not in a romantic relationship, and her Nightwing run is case in point as to why.

Anyway. I will never forgive and I will never forget her explicitly stated reasoning for why she wrote the Romani retcon ("Dick's from the circus, of course he's Romani" and "it gives him a reason to be all hot-blooded and alluring to people")! Die mad about it!

[just-a-queer-disaster]

Reasons why Sel is autistic, a sleepy rant(?) WARNING: MINOR SPOILERS

Note that I am tired, the books are not open In front of me,I haven't finished oathbound, and I am tired. And that Selwyn Kane is definitely autistic.

I will never glaze over the fact he literally went non-verbal. I'm not finished reading so no spoilers but that man literally just didn't want to talk so he didn't and we love that for him. I don't wanna hear "He was giving her the silent treatment" Maybe but I don't give a shit. He is VERY argumentative and if he wanted to fight he would've, and I think he does later so

His mother described him as always having a very reactive face.

His hands or fingers are always twitching or "flexing at his sides". Sir if you need to stim just do it its ok.

As a kid he definitely had an intense fixation on his mothers studies, or just aether in general. You can tell by the way he infodumps in those tunnels or something in the first book. Like, you cant tell me he wasn't at least a little happy to have someone to rant too, even if it was just world building. Also the thought of him as a kid carrying around his huge ass book and getting like 6 double takes is cannon to me. like Sir why were you 5 and under and sneaking into your moms room to read her books. It's giving me getting en encyclopedia for Christmas and being so joyful.

His sensitive hearing and touch and everything. I don't wanna hear "but all Merlins have it" yeah and you know what maybe they all have a little tism cuz of it too. On a serious note, The way he (don't quote me) clapped his hands on top of his ears when the bar door opened was so viscerally me its not funny. Having different (seeking or avoiding) sense and reaction to sensory input and it not being socially the norm or accepted is part of the autistic experience.

His little emotional support knife collection. How much you wanna bet he would get anxious as a kid and just start lining up his weapons and Nick would walk in and just stare in confusion. I bet if other people weren't there he would've began to organize them.

Bro struggles with social interactions. Left alone for 2 seconds and he started a fight. He often struggles to see the other side...dude read the books and look me in the eyes and tell me that man doesn't struggle

he has like…one known friend. And I don't mean Tor where he interacts,I mean friend. Other than Bree and Nick, He has William, one of the most understanding characters. And you cant tell me he found time to be a kingsmage and a student by having a social life, and he doesn't seem too broken up about it.

In addition to being argumentative, he reeks of the black and white mindset, even if he knows and is an expert in the gray, I feel like you can tell he is used on relying to if people around him or good or bad and such. Even in oath bound, while he knows all of the orders lies, when his mother questions him you can see the hesitation to call the organization he had classified as safe in his head as the opposite.

Bro takes perimeter a lot. And yes, he was trained to do so, but you cant tell me part of the reason isn't because he likes the separation from human noises, and the solidarity. Like yeah sir, go take your little sensory break I see you.

I need to reread the books, but I feel like he is put off by changes. I cant exactly pin point it though.

His heighten emotional response scream lack of understanding of his and others emotions. Its ok we gonna get you and your group in therapy

Do you hear the way this man talks?

He definitely learned to mask early on. Like this is just a fact love y'all

tell me if you want a version with actual proof and ignore all run on sentences, grammatical errors, and spelling mistakes.

[jazaspen4]

I love your take on wizard cookie! Could you maybe share more of this au? Like in text? Sorry if this is a bother

Aww Thank you! And I dont mind questions of my au🙏 infact i do love when others ask me about it🥰

Watch me ramble... Bonus art too!

Im still figuring out more on how I'll do my beastsitting au and the interactions the oven trio and the beast trio would have for each other and themselves. Since I'm still awfully new only to the fandom and only been playing crk and not the main one, I could overlook some parts of the lore but with me simply filling it with my own take instead.

The oven trio, Gingerbrave Cookie, Strawberry Cookie, and Wizard Cookie are quite the interesting bunch dont you think?

Wizard Cookie's character take in my au might be inspired more from Obanai from Demon Slayer, since with crk, kny had been my biggest hyperfixation until now, so I might also do that to the other 2 in the trio.

I'd like to think he's kept locked by the witch that baked him after finding out his sentience and accidentally being alive because they found him amusing. They taught him spells known mostly to witches and rarely by cookies, specifically ones that took more toll on his physical state, he's malnourished and underbaked, and frail to the core.

This plays part on him constantly wanting to make others assume he's far older than he is. After all, if he's already small in some way, got to make sure you don't get smaller further. (read this kind of behavior he has from wiki about his Ovenbreak character)

I'll add in more, since I usually just make this out from the very head of mine where I have not even written this at all or planned 😭

He's staff or wand in my au can take on a snake like form.. I'd like to think before the trio got assembled, their snake staff would be the one carrying them or letting them ride on when tired, as theh easily get so. I find it sweetly funny if the snake sees Wizard Cookie to that off their own offspring 🙏, Looks like Shadow Milk Cookie would have to go through an angry mama to het through the adoption process...😔

Oh and they can change size too, I'm pretty sure the Stolen Witch's wand would be far too big anyways..

[sk8-strawberrymilkshake]

I was able to watch the Sk8 OVA after all! I was squealing throughout the whole thing! I'm so happy that Miya and Koyomi finally met! She called him hot and their reaction when they accidentally brushed hands was too adorable. 💕 I will work on a drawing of the two that I'll post sometime soon.

It was also nice seeing Reki being carried for a change when he had to give his old friend a punch of piggybacks when they were little. Mixing that detail into the Kaoru and Kojiro storyline was a really nice touch. I absolutely love that they crossed paths back then.

I'm honestly a little surprised that those two didn't get into skateboarding until they were already in high school. Thought it was a little sooner than that. They definitely take competing to another level, but I loved seeing Matchablossom viciously flirt with each other. 😏

After watching the Morning Routine, I realized that I might kin Tadashi to an extent because he is 100% me when it comes to sleeping in late. I've done so before. And of course, Adam thought of the whole skate competition as a dog show. 🙄 That's how he sees everyone who isn't superior to him. Also, I didn't really need to see that scene of him in the shower. My eyeballs will have to be cleansed.

I've also always loved Shadow as a character, but now I love him even more. It's so funny that he's such a sweet guy to old ladies and little girls, but then will turn around and try to blow someone up at S. While it would have been nice to see Shadow finally luck out with his crush, I also like the idea of him and Oka. I'm considering having them interact in my story.

Overall, we have been blessed. I know I'm not the best at explaining my thoughts sometimes, but I think we can all agree that we have won and this was the best thing to have happened besides the new season being announced soon.

[dizzyhslightlyvoided]

Can Reimu Survive Castle Dracula

So there was this Tumblr blog called "Can Your Fave Survive Castle Dracula", and apparently it died, but it was about judging whether this or that character could survive the initial portion of Bram Stoker's Dracula where Jonathan is in the castle. Looking at the Wayback Machine, the rules were that you needed to address 1. the character's overall approach to the supernatural, 2. whether they would accept the crucifix from the old lady, 3. whether they would go exploring after being told not to, 4. ability to manage the whims of a Rich Jerk / hold Dracula’s interest, 5. ability to climb a castle wall without gear, and 6. whether they would choose to risk being eaten by vampires over the certain death of being eaten by wolves.

So.

At its core, the central theme of Dracula is love, and communication and keeping each other informed and keeping records, and misusing Catholic symbols for the purpose of vampire-slaying. On the other hand, Jun'ya "ZUN" Ota's Touhou Project, a series of bullet hell shmup video games whose setting is mostly explored through spinoff manga and in-universe lore-books, is a whimsical fairytale-story about man-eating monsters, and surviving in a world which is fundamentally hostile to the kind of person you are, and misusing Shinto and Taoist symbols for the purpose of knocking monster skulls (or at least bapping supernatural heads). There's not much in the way of thematic overlap, but we can find points of interaction!

The vast majority of Touhou characters are man-eating youkai who only ambiguously have blood or indeed any realistic internal anatomy whatsoever, so in most cases, the answer is a "yes, it'd be a genuinely on-the-level meeting between monsters of varying status", which goes against the whole premise, so we'd have to skip them. However, there are still human characters worth mentioning, so let's start with Reimu Hakurei, the series protagonist, the shrine maiden of the Hakurei Shrine which serves to support the existence of the magical realm of Gensokyo.

For point 1, Reimu's actual job is dealing supernatural creatures. Really, she and views man-eating monsters as just sort of annoying, the way you might dislike those guys from Accounting at your job. She doesn't want to fight them, either; she's technically working for Yukari Yakumo, the man-eating monster who created Gensokyo, and actually killing them isn't a mandatory part of her job.

Point 2, Reimu would not accept the crucifix from the old lady, but only because she has a small arsenal of other anti-monster weapons, including Shinto and Taoist symbols; however, they wouldn't actually repel the vampires the way the cross would, because they're not Christian symbols. They'd hurt, yeah, because that's what anti-monster weapons do, but they wouldn't scare them.

I wanna say Reimu ended up in Transylvania in the first place because Yukari wanted to get something out of Count Dracula, or because she wanted to invite him to Gensokyo or whatever (Yukari doesn't usually care, but in the case that she has some kind of history with Dracula, she does not let things go!). The count is just Unimpressed because Reimu is this rude little lazy jerk with zero respect for authority (that's point 4); however, in truth, Reimu's luck and intuition are off the charts, and she figures out that he wants to eat her within like five minutes of him deciding to do so, and immediately abandons all pretense of following the rules and staying where she's told. Dracula doesn't have time to pull the "disguising as his guest to frame them for vampire stuff" trick (though it would be funny to see him try that when his guest is an ambiguously-teenage girl dressed in an outfit which looks almost, but not quite, exactly unlike a Shinto shrine maiden's uniform) before she runs into the Brides ...

... who discover that Reimu can fly.

Yeah, in Touhou, everyone who isn't an unpowered NPC-type can fly, and Reimu's even better at it than other humans! So that's climbing the castle wall handled. Also the wolves, on the off-chance that she ever ended up in that situation in the first place, she could just fly over them.

Sidebar: in each Touhou game, there's six main stages, plus one even-harder Extra stage that usually isn't connected to the main plot. Dracula is obviously the final boss of this adventure, and while there's multiple precedents for the final boss showing up as an NPC at the end of stage 5 as part of the introduction of the stage 5 boss, there's never any sign of the final boss before then, so we're clearly at the end of stage 5 at this point. (This also implies that Reimu fought betwen 4-6 other weirdos on the way to Castle Dracula, depending on the number of mid-bosses who aren't also end-of-stage bosses. Non-lethally, of course, because that's also part of the Touhou formula; there's an in-universe set of rules which you can invoke to avoid lethal combat, but that's not how Can Your Fave Survive Castle Dracula works, so Reimu's life is at stake here, no pun intended.)

So Reimu takes on all three of the Brides at once. The danger with the Brides is if they mesmerize her; on the Dracula side of things, I can't really see how she'd survive if they manage to do that. However, in Touhou terms, getting mind-controlled or whatever is only allowed if at least one of the following things is true:

it's a gameplay gimmick, or an aesthetic framing/implementation of conventional gameplay;

it serves to establish the plot and/or gets the protagonists involved at the beginning; or

it's funny and inconsequential.

So she'd probably be able to handle it. In Dracula, neither the Count nor the Bloofer Lady ever successfully mesmerize anyone on the Crew of Light once they're in full vampire-hunting mode, and Van Helsing is able to shrug off the Brides' influence with Mina's help, so I think that Reimu's luck and skill will carry her through here.

So, Reimu tears through the Brides -- again, non-lethally -- and then goes on to have a dramatic fight with Count Dracula himself. She wins, because she's the player character, and none of his instant-kill win-buttons work, and his unlife isn't actually on the line here. Reimu goes home satisfied regardless of whether she accomplishes her original goal, the Count is alive (if a bit ruffled), and Yukari may or may not actually be satisfied. Reimu Hakurei would survive Castle Dracula.

I also don't know who the extra boss is.

[ikajo00]

Non-alien human alien #10 Convergent Evolution

Keeping her expression under control, Anna made certain to thank the Zoid leader for allowing them to visit the Zoid homeworld. She even managed to shake the claw extended to her with minimum reaction. Only once they were safely aboard the shuttle to take them back to Helios did she allow herself to laugh. Much to confusion of the rest of the contingency from the Intergalactic Federation. She didn’t even bother to explain.

Because the Zoid looked exactly like the character Zoidberg from the ancient cartoon Futurama. Even the name of the species were near identical to the character. How could she not find it funny? Anna had nearly cracked when the leader had sounded almost like the character in question. Thinking back to her interactions with the Zoid leader, she couldn’t help but laugh loudly.

“Human?” a being looking like a giant shrimp asked primly. “Are you well? Are you having some kind of medical issue? I’m told some of you can be around my kind.”

“I’m fine, I’m fine", Anna said, getting her laughter under control. “I was just laughing?”

“Laughing? That hacking sound?”

“Yeah, it means I find something funny. At least in this case.”

“I... see... well, if you are sure...”

Anna calmed herself, for now, and let the quiet in the shuttle be. Not that she sat idle, instead she sneakily used her screen to create a compilation of her interactions with the Zoid, so she could show the Helios crew later.

Laughter filled the cafeteria as the human crew members roared and hooted. Eyes tracked on Anna’s screen. Rodrigues lifted his hands and mimicked claws, scuttling.

“Popopo", he pushed out, making his voice higher pitched.

Kaneeshaa stared at the human merriment, feeling completely out of her depth. Even though Anna was usually a human she could understand, at the moment, the woman was in the middle of this chaos. Humans were throwing around phrases that apparently held some significance to them, as people seemed to know these references. Even Captain and Vice-Captain Vance were participating.

“Girl, how in the world did you managed to keep you face straight?” a female crew member cackled to Anna, who surprisingly grinned.

“With immense effort”, she said. “I broke in the shuttle, and the others thought I had some kind of medical issue. Especially that one who looks like a giant shrimp.”

“Ugh, don’t remind me of the Mrepers", Engineer Yang said. “For some reason, seeing them always makes me feel hungry.”

“Woah, Yang", Slakov said while grinning. “Are you trying to be a cannibal?”

“What, I never said I was going to ear a Mreper! But come one, they look like shrimp, I love shrimp, so I get super hungry when I see a giant shrimp!” Yang shoot back.

“I don’t like seafood", Anna noted. For some reason, several humans froze, looked at her, and did something on those rectangles the humans carried around. Muttering about dangerous food.

“But that raises an interesting question, doesn’t it?” Vice-Captain Vance said. “How is it that so many sentient beings in the known galaxies looks like bigger or smaller versions of Earth animals? We have birds, reptiles, crustaceans, and even some insects.”

“Oh, I think I know the answer to this one", Anna said, holding up a hand. “I heard about in documentary. It is called Convergent Evolution. Something something about traits repeating.”

“Convergent Evolution is when the same or similar trait develops independently in two unrelated species”, Biologist Virtanen followed up. “We see it in animals on Earth. That would actually explain why we see so much similarity.”

“We haven’t seen any primates yet, though", Captain Vance mused. “Or any mammals from Earth. Heck, pregnancy like mammals do it seem quite uncommon in and off.”

Kaneeshaa had seen a pregnant human, once. The idea of carrying an egg in your body for that long seemed mind of crazy. She couldn’t understand what humans could gain by having offspring that way. Eggs were more economical. Especially when you could just use heat lamps and the like instead of sitting on the egg.

Eventually, the humans had to return to their duties and drifted away. Some of them still doing strange things.

“Popopo", Rodrigues still pretended to snap his hands like claws and scuttle while making weird noises. Moreau slammed her fist into the man’s head so hard Kaneeshaa was prepared for Rodrigues to have to be transported to the morgue. Instead, he let out a loud noise of pain and clutched his head. Letting out a series of words whose meaning escaped Kaneeshaa, Rodrigues narrowed his eyes at Moreau.

“That hurt!” he barked.

“Don’t be a baby, I’ve seen you intentionally hit your head against the wall much harder", Moreau sniffed. “Besides, you were being annoying.”

The two headed out alongside most other humans. Kaneeshaa waited until it was fairly empty on the cafeteria before she joined Anna’s table. Her friend was smiling, but looked a bit tired. Anna played the footage again, giggling to herself.

“That was... unexpected...” Kaneeshaa said carefully.

“What was?”

“You, in that group. The whole thing.”

The human sighed. “Kaneeshaa, I might not be similar to the extroverted training nuts populating this star cruiser, but I’m not some kind of human outcast", Anna said. “This is just a case of me having something in common with my colleagues, and that something was funny.”

“I fear I don’t understand the funny part. The Zoid is just being a Zoid, no?”

Her human friend looked at her unblinking for a long moment. Then her lips curved. Taking out her larger rectangle, Anna fiddled with it and then handed it to Kaneeshaa. There was a drawing of a Zoid in human clothing.

“That character was created nearly two thousand years ago, by a human”, Anna said triumphantly. But the Shrieeshka couldn’t help but feel a combination of dread and fascination. Who knew some humans had the ability to see the future? They had to be special, prophets even. What if there were prophets living among the humans right now?

Better not to think about it....

[mittenlady]

klavquill is fun not only because of how they would interact with each other but also because of how their relationship would affect others. hear me out

• klavier and athena have more excuses to interact. this is so important actually. athena gets a rich uncle and they are both so silly and listen to taylor swift and gossip in german together (usually about simon right in front of him) and simon is mildly annoyed — but at least athena knows he’s finally moving on, connecting with others, living instead of waiting to die. + simon forced to go outside because of the blue-eyes freaks (people who care about him) that refuse to leave him alone

• aura finding out simon is dating a famous (former) rockstar when she gets out of prison and pulling out the robot army during family dinner to give him a talking to. awww so cute :) she has an initial and fervent hatred of the blond-haired Jezebel of the courtroom (she did not go to prison just so her baby brother could have his heart broken by some blond twink) but upon discovering they share a mutual pastime (annoying simon) she grows to accept that maybe klavier gavin can live another day. + there’s something to be said in the differences in how klavier and simon’s respective older siblings treat them. damn imagine having an older sibling that DIDN’T use you and actually cares about you that’s insane

• ema once being able to find hater solidarity within simon only to discover that he has joined the dark side. once she was able to endure klavier’s swooning with the knowledge that her hatred had company, that she was not the only one who wanted to behold the downfall of the glimmerous fop. she lived a peaceful lie: that simon blackquill, her ally, would not be swayed by the fop. now there is no peace. + she totally was forced to aid in their mutually pathetic courtship attempts because let’s be real. neither of them are normal and working near them would be intolerable. she had to play matchmaker for the sake of humanity

• imagine u r apollo justice pulling up to the courtroom and then the prosecution’s bench is a slut who won’t stop speaking german and playing minute long guitar solos and an ex-convict who is not only british but could also kill you with his bare hands and both of them find amusement in tormenting u. imagine. could you imagine

[the-judicial-assistants-notebook]

the Klavier-Edgeworth parallels of I Don't Care How You Feel, the Truth Is the Only Thing That Matters™ are very interesting, but the Klavier-Phoenix parallels of nothing bad has ever affected me in my life idk what you're talking about that didn't mean anything I'm not talking about it I'm not thinking about it I'm not acknowledging it they may not be dead but they're dead to me and that's how I like it I'm never looking at them again because they're dead they're gone they're a ghost and this is a perfectly healthy way to live look at me I'm thriving I'm thriving I'm thriving are also very interesting, do you get what I'm saying.

[maburp]

Hu Tao and Alhaitham parallels…

Grandparent that left them a line that they live by (“May my child Alhaitham lead a peaceful life” and “Live in life, die in death. Follow your heart, do what you can.”)

Both are highly competent at what they do

Neither care for outsiders’ perception of them, thus considered to be eccentrics

To an extent, both enjoy solitude (Alhaitham obviously does, Hu Tao character story 2 - she likes disappearing for periods of time)

Both stick to their ideals (Alhaitham’s rationalism, Hu Tao’s ideas of life and death as seen with how she first perceived Qiqi but changed her views later)

Both seen as vaguely annoying by their friends lmao (Hu Tao’s pranks, Alhaitham direct way of speaking)

Both have an appreciation for literature (Alhaitham more so all knowledge and books in general, whereas Hu Tao loves poetry…. Lowkey they’d probably bond over music too)

[quirinah]

log

[dooblez]

thas his emotional support animal right there

[another-goblin]

SPOILERS for 2.2 and Aventurine's message

So his stone was completely destroyed, and the IPC knows about it. I've also got the feeling that he wanted to free himself from the IPC. So why, at the end of 2.2, does he act as if most of 2.1 didn't happen? I mean, why would he expect a rise from Diamond? He clearly still has full support of the IPC too.

Can you even be Aventurine the Stoneheart without aventurine the stone? Is Diamond going to give him a new one? 

I hope he's up to something. Otherwise, it doesn't make much sense.

I'm also a bit confused about this. Didn't it all happen exactly according to his plan? How was it foiled?

[thedrotter]

Re:Kinder Fun Facts of the day☺️!!! Have you ever wondered who talks the most from the main cast in Re:Kinder?? Well, I did😊. Today I'll be answering this question with some graphs and as a bonus telling you what words each character uses the most! I will warn you, this will be a bit long and I don't know how to be less verbose so, yeah!!!

First, I've made some basic rules as to what I counted regarding how much the characters speak. Not all lines really count as speaking, after all.

Any of the incoherent screaming lines don't count. There's a lot of screaming since the characters die a lot (as expected for a horror RPG game), but I don't really count that as speaking unless they're saying proper words. In that same vein, I didn't really count any of the panting or sniffing and such that are conveyed through words. Again, I don't really see that as a character actively speaking their thoughts!

If I cannot tell who a line belongs to, I will not give it to anyone. This happens for certain lines, so I felt this rule was important.

I won't be counting repetitions of the same line if it's on a variation of the same scene. This may sound a bit strange, but when a character dies, the game goes on to the same next scene it would regardless (unless the scene that follows it is an ending), with variations and new lines here and there to account for the dead character, but a lot will be reused and placed in the exact same beats it normally would have been in originally. So, this rule is here for that. Oh, and also the scenes with bits of Yuuichi's backstory that appear in Shunsuke's head won't be counted twice, because some appear twice line by line.

Of course, the "..." lines won't count. I am so sorry Aya!!!!😞

Now that the ground rules have been set, there's just one thing I want to mention. Though I will count all the total lines for Takumi and Yuuichi like any other character, I just want to mention that first I will have two separate counts for them! Takumi | Takumiel and Yuuichi | Yuuichi's Heart respectively.

Takumiel is separate because I was curious about how much Takumi spoke as an archangel compared to when he was alive. Yuuichi's Heart is because he speaks so much he feels notable enough to be given his own division, even if he and Yuuichi at the end of the day are one person

(I count the silly mind telepathy where Shunsuke is being directly spoken to [and being told things normal Yuu would avoid saying at that point] and the comical theater as Yuuichi's Heart. I clarify in case one assumes he only starts being counted the moment he's directly labelled as Yuuichi's Heart. Any line that can't be distinguished between Yuuichi's Heart and Yuuichi will be given to Yuuichi by default.)

With nothing else to be clarified let's get to the numbers!!!😊😊

First, the line counts with Takumiel and Yuuichi's Heart counted individually!! Here are the rankings:

Shunsuke (With a lead of 535 lines over second place!!)

Yuuichi

Rei

Yuuichi's Heart

Hiroto

Ryou

Sayaka

Aya

Takumi

Takumiel

You may be thinking— woah, does Shunsuke really speak that much?! You could say that, for a good chunk of those lines are from how he describes interactable points around the map and his inner thoughts, so they aren't all exactly said out loud. The benefit of being the protagonist, I suppose ww

Funny enough, Yuuichi's Heart has almost as many lines as Yuuichi does for not having that much time in the game, being on the higher end between the characters that don't get the benefit of being a protagonist (lol)!

Admittedly I had expected for Rei and Hiroto to have a more similar amount of lines given their nearly equal amount of presence, but for what it is Rei surpassed Hiroto by 51 lines! I also had expected for Takumiel to speak a little bit more than Takumi but turns out the opposite is true.

While the lack of lines of Takumi and Takumiel are to be expected due to their short time on the game, what stands out is Aya not even reaching triple digits between her other peers who are in there for most of the game. This is because a good chunk of Aya's lines in game are silence!^^" And thus weren't counted. If ellipses were a word, she surely would have reached triple digits, but unfortunately they're not.

Now the line count with combined sums of Takumi | Takumiel and Yuuichi | Yuuichi's Heart!!!

In here, the ranking isn't affected, with Yuuichi remaining second place and Takumi being last place. But the disparity of everyone's numbers compared to Takumi's feels a bit more clear to see when Takumiel isn't individually counted.

With Yuuichi's line counts combined, Shunsuke remains 318 lines ahead of him, but it also means Yuuichi has a 59% the amount of Shunsuke's lines; and impressive feat for someone who doesn't get the benefit of being the point of view for everything you press... Although he does also have an upper hand over everyone by essentially being the plot of this game ww

But maybe line counts do not suffice to tell how much a character speaks. Yes, Shunsuke has a bunch of lines from everything he interacts with, but is it really reliable to say he speaks all that much in all those lines? A good chunk of those could easily have 3 words each! So with this in mind, let's do a word count.

Even in a word count, Shunsuke has the lead, having a lead of 2,247 words over second place. But we'll see about that when we combine Yuuichi's numbers. Anyway, here's the ranking!

Shunsuke

Yuuichi's Heart

Yuuichi

Rei

Hiroto

Ryou

Sayaka

Aya

Takumi

Takumiel

This time, Yuuichi's Heart is the one at second place!!! It's pretty funny that he speaks more than his physical counterpart ww. I genuinely didnt think he'd out yap himself that way when I chose to count for him individually 😭!!! He has a lead of 63 words over himself, but a lead nonetheless.

In here, Rei and Hiroto are more even than in the line counts, with the difference seeming more minimal when put into words. But it also showcases that despite Rei having more lines than Yuuichi's Heart in the line count, those only get to have a bit over half of the amount of words he talks (To be fair he does get to infodump a lot in his section of the game).

And here's the combined word count!!! Suddenly Shunsuke's lead is only by a mere 55 words! So Yuuichi speaks about as much as he does with 318 less lines.

I must admit that I genuinely did not expect it to be that close. When I chose to count the lines for when you interact with things for Shunsuke, I thought he was granted to speak an absurd amount more than anyone else. But turns out that Yuuichi speaks about the same amount out loud when most of Shunsuke's are his own thoughts ww. But it does make sense! He is still the plot of this game.

So, after all those charts, here's the average/middle point of lines and words for characters to have, because why not, it's fun.

Average Line Count (YH and Takumiel counted individually): 197 lines

Average Line Count (When combined): 247 lines

Average Word Count (YH and Takumiel counted individually): 1,333 words

Average Word Count (When combined): 1,666 words

So there it is. That's how much the characters in Re:Kinder speak!

But wait!!! I am not done. I will share with you an additional fun fact... Did you ever want to know what word each of these characters said the most?! This one will be quicker, I do promise.

When it came to counting these words I did not count stop words, that being common words that are used all the time by everyone in English. "I, you, me, the, to, a, my, your, yes, no"... Words like that! Otherwise everyone would have one of those as their most said word and it'd be rather boring to look at. With that said, here are the words these characters say the most!

Shunsuke: Yuuichi - said 40 times! (this genuinely confused me so much im sorry he uses interjections so much I had expected it to be something like "huh" or "um" but no i dont know how this passed by me as i was rounding up all the lines he says or proofreading or writing all of those lines WHAT?!?! its been two days and it still takes me out)

Ryou: Shunsuke - Said 14 times

Sayaka: Murderer - Said 7 times (All in one sentence!)

Takumi | Takumiel (counted in one for how little he speaks.): Takumiel - Said 3 times (That name is so important, he said it thrice.)

Aya: Sorry - Said 5 times

Rei: Hell, gonna, look, Yuuchi - said 8 times (Most of the repeated words she says are stop words for she doesn't tend to speak about the same things repeatedly.)

Hiroto: Shunsuke - Said 17 times

Yuuichi (separate from YH): Problem - Said 17 times

Yuuichi's Heart: Mama - Said 24 times

Yuuichi (Overall): Mama - Said 31 times

So that is finally it. That is the fun fact of today.😊😊 Use this to woe your friends at parties!!!

I am aware Mami speaks about enough to be counted in, but this is pretty time consuming to do and I'm not sure anyone is invested on her enough to count her in. But if there's enough curiosity regarding that, I'll try counting her in. But for now this suffices.☺️ Thanks for reading!