#holy fuck i lost brain cells

[hungercityhellhound]

I just had the stupidest conversation I have ever had with a customer service person. Nothing will ever top this stupidity.

Me: I am calling about a loan that needs to be discharged due to my mother's death.

Them: Sure. I can help. She will just need to write a letter stating why the loan needs discharged.

Me: but she's dead.

Them: Well we need a letter from the borrower on file as to why the discharge is being requested.

Me: Nearly throws my phone in rage.

[dandelion-stuff-and-fluff]

It is endlessly amusing to me that in this year of 2024 the most stable and insightful Star Wars commentary I come across is on Tumblr dot com.

[closer-to-jungkook]

Hey, thief. | KTH

University au!

Pairing: Taehyung x reader

Genre: Fluff

Word count: 2.3k

Warning: curse words (as usual)

Summary: It seems Taehyung can't help but get roped in these late night adventures. This time though, he won't be coming back empty handed.

Note: something short and sweet! I hope you enjoy reading!! This is part of the BTS university series. This fic is connected to my other fic 'Little slave' and I would recommend reading that before, but it can be read as a stand alone too.

Credit: divider by @enchanthings

"Hyungggg can you even see anything."

"Shut up, Kook! I'm trying!"

"Hyung you're too heavy—Ow Jungkook! Stop stepping on my foot!"

"Shut up both you idiots. I think there's someone else in there too."

Yoongi hissed—from where he stood on Jungkook and Taehyung, bent over with hands placed on knees—trying to see inside the room they were spying on through the small window but was only met with darkness and shadowy figures.

"Jungkook stop stepping on me or else-"

Before Taehyung could complete his sentence, he misplaced his footing while trying to get his revenge on Jungkook, and the next thing he knew, they all fell down on the dirty floor, quite loudly.

"Ah ow," "Holy shit-" "Fuck!"

They all lay there in a mess of limbs cursing each other.

"You're so heavy Taehyung, get your ass off of me." Yoongi groaned.

"Now you must know how I was feeling carrying you on to of me." Taehyung mumbled from beneath Jungkook's legs.

"Why is Jungkook suddenly so silent? Did you hit your head kook? Lost those last couple brain cells?" Yoongi turned towards Jungkook but he was staring at the corner of the hallway like a statue.

"Guys. Run." Jungkook said and dashed, leaving the others confused but soon Yoongi followed him ina haste as well leaving only Taehyung behind.

Taehyung raised his head, confused what caused all his friends to book it so fast, but was soon met with the reason. Finally seeing the thing that made them flee.

You heard them before you actually saw them. It was dark, but you could still make out three figures two of them crouched with the third balancing on top of them.

They were all right outside of Professor Lee's office window.

Just as you were looking—trying to figure out what exactly was going on—they lost their balance and fell to the floor from where they noticed you. At first only one of them, who ran as if he saw a ghost, and then the second—both whose faces you couldn't see—leaving the third specimen behind.

He stood up and looked around in panic.

"May I ask what exactly you and your friends were doing right now?"

"I- we- nothing- I'll explain-" but he cut himself off when suddenly the lights inside the office turned on.

With the halway now visible through the little light filtering through the window, his face was more visible, and boy was he cute. But that's not important right now.

Before you could process what's happening the specimen was pushing you towards a dark corner and looking out to see if anyone was gonna pop out from the corners.

He only let go of you and gave you some space when the lights went off after ten minutes. All while he had a hand placed on your mouth, his panicked heartbeat practically audible.

"So, are going to say something or not?" You asked again after he had moved away. "Wait don't tell me you were here to steal the question papers for the next exams." He had been looking around trying to find a way to get rid of you, but the moment these words left your mouth, his head snapped up and his eyes went wide.

"I- No! ...look I can explain."

"Oh god, so you really were here for that."

In a second, his demeanour changed, as if a switch was turned off. He looked you in the eye and started walking towards you in slow, calculated steps. You started taking steps back until your back hit the wall. He looked at you with dark eyes and an intimidating expression. Was this the same person who looked like a lost puppy just now?

"Do you even know who we are?" He asked in a deep voice.

"No-" you replied.

"What our names are?"

"Um, no but-"

"Then you can't do anything. You have nothing to prove you ever saw me here. Ha ha" He dashed screaming behind his shoulder and began laughing.

Well, at least you knew his expressions could change really fast.

The next day Taehyung sat in Mr. Lee's class, clearly avoiding a specific friend's eyes who sat at the front. Although a little confused as to why Hoseok, the TA, was smirking at her. He had no idea. Jung was strange in many ways, so he decided not to pay him any mind.

He hurried out of the class the moment their professor dismissed them and made his way to the cafeteria, where he'd meet up with his other friends.

He went there to see Jungkook already there, chatting with another one of his friends. "So how'sthen we neighbor?" Jungkook asked in casual tone leaning back with his signature shiteating grin, which made her sputter out the juice she was drinking.

By the time she recovered and Taehyung decided to make his presence known to them both, he felt a presence behind him.

"Hey thief." Someone said right by his ear.

Startled, he looked behind and his eyes met with yours. You were leaning close to his shoulder and smiling innocently. He instantly recognised you. Looking back at the table where his friends sat, he decided to leave them out of this.

"Do you have a couple minutes to spare? So we can talk? Or if you want, we can talk right here." You gestured to the table where he was looking at.

He immediately took hold of your wrist in his hand and tugged you out of the cafeteria and in a secluded corner.

"What are you doing here!? And how did you find me?" He hissed, panic written all over his face. The campus was way too big for her to go searching around him without his name at the very least.

"You were outside of Mr. Lee's office, so it was obvious you were in one of his classes." You explained with a shrug.

"Oh. Wait, did you check each one of the classes that Mr. Lee took to find me!? I believe you didn't go through that much trouble just to say hi to me, did you?" He raised an eyebrow.

"Not really. I found you in his second class only so it wasn't that troublesome. And yeah I do have something I need from you." You gave him an easy smile.

"I wonder what that might be."

"I want to ask a favour from you. Just little one."

"And what makes you think that I'd help you willingly." He crossed his arms.

"Let's see, you were involved in the stealing of exam papers and I caught you red handed." You smiled innocently

"Is that a threat I hear in your voice? You can't go to Mr. Lee though since nothing is actually missing from his office and he won't believe you"

"But I'm sure the sweet TA would love to hear this piece of information. You know how much he enjoys gossip and how good he is at using them in his favour."

"You don't have proof." He scoffed.

You pulled out your phone, and there was a video playing on it.

"So are you going to say something or not?"

"Wait don't tell me you were here to steal the exam papers for next weeks exams."

Taehyung's eyes widened as saw his face, clear in the video playing on your phone.

"I- No!...look I can explain."

"Oh god so you really were here for that."

"Do you even know who we are?"

"No-"

"What our names are?"

"Um no but-"

"Then you can't do anything. You have nothing to prove."

"Now I wonder if that counts as a proof." You gave an exaggerated pout, "But I'm sure Hoseok would like to see that." You blinked up at him.

"So now you're blackmailing me?" He asked incredulously.

"Seems like it." You smiled, making your eyes almost disappear.

"What do you want?"

"This semester's question papers from Mrs. Choi." You said it with a straight face.

"Wh- what!? Are you crazy?" He asked, sputtering.

"Maybe." You giggled. "Now since you already have experience in this field, I thought I'd ask for help. Also, you ruined my chance yesterday. And if you refuse I already have that video."

He stayed silent.

"See you outside the school building, 11 p.m. Don't be late." You winked and shot him finger guns.

When you were out of sight, Taehyung groaned. "What have I gotten myself into."

You reached the school building exactly on time and saw Taehyung already standing there.

Coming up behind him, you whispered in his ear, "Hey thief."

Startled, he said, "Stop sneaking up on me! And my name is Taehyung, so stop calling me that." He said then immediately thought if telling her his name was a good idea. Eh, it's already too late.

"Ok, ok." You raised your hand in surrender. "Now, let's go."

You both made your way in and stopped in front of the office. Slowly pushing the door, you found it unlocked. Maybe the cleaning staff hasn't arrived yet.

Looking for places to search with your phone flash lights, you saw a locked cabinet and pointed towards it with your chin. Taehyung immediately started checking it and found that it was locked.

He took out a small screwdriver and started trying to pick the lock. "Wow, so you really are a professional, huh." You said, eyes rounded in awe.

"Shut up, " he rolled his eyes, and you grinned. Walking towards the door, you decided it would be better to keep a watch out while Taehyung worked with the lock.

While you were looking around, humming to yourself, you heard a clanging sound. At first you thought it came from the outside but soon it was followed by the sound of a door banging shut. Someone was definitely in the building.

You turned around to alert Taehyung,  "Taehyung! I think someone is coming-"

But at that exact moment he let out a groan, kicking at the table beside him.

There was silence, and then you heard heavy but quick footsteps coming your way.

Shit.

"You idiot! Someone is coming here you just announced our presence to them! What do we do now?!"

You both were staring at each other in panic, thinking of a way to get out of this.

You looked up—an invisible light bulb going off in your head—and grabbed at his shoulders, "Okay, don't panic and just play along."

"What-"

"Just pretend!" You hissed and closed the distance between you, your lips hovering just above his and heads tilted in such a way that gave the illusion that you two were kissing.

Taehyung immediately froze in shock. But when a flash light shined just outside the door, he panicked for real and took a step forward.

With that, the next thing you knew, Taehyung had pushed you to the desk and was kissing you—for real. His hands slid down your back, resting below your waist just above your ass. His lips soft and slightly parted as they pressed gently against yours. You were utterly shocked but immediately caught up on the act and put your arms around his shoulder just as the door swung open.

"Oi kids! What are you doing here?"

You both immediately parted and started at the guard, pointing his torch at you.

Your face was red, and your heart was beating loudly from the kiss, or was it from being caught? You didn't know, maybe both.

"You said no would disturb us here at this hour!" You said in false shock, turning towards Taehyung.

But he couldn't utter a word, too stunned by what he just did, just staring at you with large eyes and heated cheeks. After a moment, he let out a nervous giggle, and the guard just sighed in exasperation.

Soon you both were out of the building, walking side by side in silence.

"Well, that was an unexpected turn of events." You broke the silence, and Taehyung flushed a little. "But are you sure that guard won't say anything to the management about..." You gestured between you both with your hands, sneaking a glance at his lips.

"The campus is full of crazy wild kids, what we did was nothing. He probably won't even remember us in the morning. Want to know some of the crazier things that others have done on school property?" He asked casually.

"No, I'm good...but you'd still have to follow my orders, remember I still have that video." You said. Your hand going towards your back pocket to reach for the phone. Nothing.

You stopped in your tracks searching for your phone in your front pockets and jacket when you heard Taehyung speak up a few paces ahead of you, having walked a bit further.

"Looking for something?" He pulled your phone out of his pocket, waving it above his head. "Now now. It's not good to threaten people and blackmail them, don't you think?"

You were gaping at him, unable to form words. When did he even take it—oh, right. The kiss. Just thinking about it again made your face heat up.

"If you want your phone back," Taehyung spoke up again, breaking you from your thoughts, "meet me at the cafe on the fifth block, 8 a.m. Maybe I can even help you study for your exam so you don't have to steal the question papers. Don't be late."

He turned around and started walking away.

You were so shocked at the turn of events that you stayed rooted to your place. This thief stole from you too, huh? First a kiss, then your phone...

"Stop standing there and move. I'll walk you to your dorm. It's kinda late."

...and maybe a bit of your heart too.

A/n: behold, the appearance of a kiss scene for the first time in my writing lol. I'm trying to write something long now, preferably a series.

Thank you for reading!

Ps. If you are curious about what Tae and gang were actually doing in the beginning go and read: Little slave

[vidavalor]

Why does Crowley in season 2 have sideburns and Crowley in season 1 doesn't?🤔🐍

Because he's actually Elvis in S2. It's a theory I've been keeping to myself for awhile now because I was worried people might think I'd lost it but I feel comfortable enough now with all of you to share that I'm 150% sure that this will be revealed midway through 3.04, when Gabriel will return to tell Aziraphale that he forgot to mention it before he left for Alpha Centauri but he's had the real Crowley in a magical cell in Heaven since the end of S1. The one Aziraphale's been sleeping with since then is actually The King in disguise. (Elvis is supernatural so he can shapeshift, obviously, in case you were worried that I didn't think that bit through.)

Upon learning this, Aziraphale will pause, consider, then smirk and wiggle a little bit while making a dirty joke that involves the phrase "burning love", and then politely ask for his actual Crowley back. When Gabriel shrugs and says it's not his department because he doesn't work there anymore, Aziraphale's flaming sword will appear in his hand to match his rage. He'll slay Gabriel like Adam did the lion outside of Eden (because parallels, you guys...). The King-- who really didn't want to be a part of this and doesn't want to go on together with suspicious minds with anyone anymore-- chooses redemption, whips out his lethal banana (you gutter brains, it's an actual fucking banana...) and goes with Aziraphale to storm Heaven to rescue Crowley. David Tennant's really going to be stretched thin playing two characters at the same time in S3 atop all the flashbacks but we know he can make it work.

When they finally get through Michael (this takes about 40 seconds), our scrappy gang of Az, Elvis, a pair of ragtime singer ghosts played by Nina Sosanya and Maggie Service, and Crowley's two most emotionally damaged plants find the real Crowley curled up in the fetal position singing "All Shook Up" to himself (he and Elvis are permanently psychically linked now but don't worry, it's not a big deal, just a callback to the fly) and the dramatic score swells as Aziraphale rushes over and finally lays one on the real Crowley.

Aziraphale then recaps S2 to the real Crowley, who just stares. The only thing he reacts to is learning that Elvis snogged his girl. In a fit of rage, he has the Maggie and Nina ragtime ghosts (who are also angels, it's complicated) make him holy water and then hurls it at the demonic King of Rock 'n Roll, who lives long enough to sing: "Lord, Almighty, I feel my temperature risin'" before being eviscerated.

We might expect Frances McDormand to return here for this but she doesn't. We will be left wondering why The Voice of God didn't even show up to respond to the dying King and what that meant.

Except remember when I said that Crowley and Elvis were psychically linked?! Yeah. Crowley starts to die and Aziraphale sobs because, really, this was all very avoidable. This is when we all get wibbly because "A Nightingale Sings in Berkeley Square" covered by AI replicating the voice of Elvis plays as Crowley begins to draw the last breath he doesn't need to take. He dies. We're all sobbing. But it's okay because, as the final credits roll, Lord Beezlebub then appears, looks at the ridiculous mess in front of them, just says "this is so dumb", and then zaps Crowley back to life.

I don't know about you all but that really seems the most logical explanation to me. Especially since the alternative is just: "because he felt like it."

[jinkieswouldyoulookatthis]

So I went to the Creation DC Con this weekend (which is why I wasn't posting much on here) and not only got my 45rpm of Eye of the Tiger signed by Jensen, but then the utterly wonderful @talltalesandbedtimestories invited me to join her for her J2 photo op AND offered to let me hug Jensen while she got a Jared hug. Never one to pass up an opportunity when it's presented to me I accepted (lavishing my thanks and gratitude on her) and we go in and the boys are, of course, insanely gorgeousbeautifulhandsomeprettytallperfect and we each go up to our assigned J and ask for a hug and, y'all, the eye contact with Jensen is intense when he's focused on you... holy fucking hell, but he says, "A hug?" confirming so I say, "A hug." again and then he stepped in and hugged me and I hugged him back and tried to remember to smile at the camera, the whole time hyperfocused on the fact that his thigh is pressed against one of my legs which I found completely (and delightfully) distracting from the fact that he's hugging me. But the photo is taken and we step apart, more eye contact, and I said thank you and smiled and he smiled and I turned and looked at Jared who smiled at me, eye contact, and said Hi or something, and I said thank you to him too. And then we're walking away but Chris Schmelke (photographer) is getting our attention saying he needs to reshoot so we get waved back around to the the front of the line again and, y'all... Y'ALL I got to hug him AGAIN and his leg was pressed against mine the same way again and I realized that it was, in fact, his inner left thigh that was pressed up against the outside of my right leg. Because, I think (brain cells? What brain cells?) he probably did that thing they do where they spread their legs to make themselves seem not quite as tall… I don’t know. But so yeah, I got not one but TWO Jensen hugs and may have lost a brain cell or two from the mental short circuit that caused.

Photo below the cut. (unless you're on my actual blog, then the cut won't work)

Also I swear I was smiling. I was just also trying to keep my eyes open and not blink.

[hellsingmongrel]

So, bit of ramblings on my Post-Trimax Wolfwood headcanons.

Man, one of my favorite tropes in media is a character who's spirit lingers on after they've died, but it's usually something you only see in fanfic, so I cannot get over how FUCKING FERAL I was when I realized that it was legit a thing in Trimax, and that Wolfwood was the one we actually got to see, legitimately talking to the people he'd left behind and confirming that ghosts in the canon weren't just hallucinations or something! Like yeah, we saw Tessla leading the boys to her body, but since her ghost was never mentioned again, it could have easily have been written off as a fluke, right?

NOPE. They are real and they linger after to watch over the people they care about or to send messages to the people who are still alive! And the fact that the character who had just wormed his way into being just as beloved to me as my favorite character (Which NEVER happens, I usually only have enough brain cells for one at a time!) and that we had just had our hearts ripped to shreds watching him die was also the one we got to know had definitely stayed behind to watch over the people he loved just makes me SO HAPPY! I rp that asshole from time to time, and I just love exploring the implications of it!

I play him like he's been there a LONG TIME. When he died, Rem was there, watching over Vash, but when Knives spent the last of his energy, she chose to move on with him, now that she knew Wolfwood would be there to keep watch over Vash, and he took it SERIOUSLY. He's been waiting so long, he's lost his sense of time, he thinks it's only been a couple decades when it's been CENTURIES. And the time has softened his own trauma, he's gone from being surly and angry and defensive to being at peace and finding comfort in the fact that its allowed him to see more of Vash's life than he ever would have been able to live long enough to see when he was alive. And it's given him time to notice just how unwell Vash is, how broken he is, watching over him when he thinks he's alone and lets himself break down.

But it's also made Wolfwood a bit unwell in his own way; as time went on and the people he knew in life began to pass away, too, his interest in paying attention to what the people around them were doing wained, and his dedication to watching over Vash until it was his time to pass on became a strange sort of dependence. He loses his sense of self, in a way, until the most important thing in his existence is being there for Vash, waiting for him, having long-since accepted that when the time comes, it'll be over and he's alright with that.

He's happy, but to the perspective of a living person, it would seem TWISTED in a way. He still thinks he's a damned soul, stealing more time than he's allowed and only damning himself further by doing so, and he just knows that when he gets to walk Vash into whatever comes after for them, they'll be separated again, for the last time, and there won't be any coming back from it that time, because Vash is too good, too kind, too HOLY to ever be damned. But it's fine. Wolfwood knew he was damned long before his death, and time has just given him the chance to make peace with it and simply be happy with the fact that at least he'll be able to be with Vash when he can move on to wherever good people go at the end. And yet when it happens, Vash feels the same way about himself, so certain that he's the one who's damned, and their reunion is wonderful and painful and terrifying for both of them in different ways.

He's even worse with interacting with people, once he's forced to interact with the living. I play Wolfwood in a game where he stumbles into revealing himself after spending centuries never letting himself be seen, and he worries that going "silent" again will upset people. He's spent centuries being a silent shadow, certain that letting Vash know he was there would only cause more suffering for an already unwell mind, so he's forgotten how to interact with tact, blurting out whatever pops into his head because he's only had himself to talk to for all that time. He hurts people without meaning to, begins to suffer from the crisis of worrying that no matter what he does, he's a burden to the people who mourn him, he doesn't belong, his existence is nothing but a constant reminder of what's coming and will only cause the people around him pain. He's both able to be the kind, caring, loving person he might have been if the Eye of Michael had never taken him from the orphanage, and also a HUGE, ANXIOUS WRECK.

And the thing that makes it all worse for him is the fact that when he was dumped into the game I have him in, he was separated from the Vash of his timeline, and now lives in constant fear that he'll never see him again, that he won't be there when he passes on and there won't be anyone to greet him on the other side, alone and never knowing that he was waiting for him. He made a promise to Rem that he'd watch over him for her, that he'd lead him to his final destination where he could be with his family again, and now that he's lost that, what purpose does he have? He's terrified to let go himself, worried he'll pass onto the other side when Vash was right around the corner, but the thought of lingering without finding him again, missing his chance to be there for him when it's his turn, leaves him in an almost constant state of almost-panic.

I also just think it's kind of sweetly poetic, if in the end, he chose to continue the role he'd been forced into; take Vash where he's supposed to be. Only this time, it's his choice, and it won't be to his death. He wants to guide him to where he knows people are waiting for him, where he'll finally be happy and be at peace. He doesn't mind the fact that he's going to Hell, so long as he was able to be the one that leads Vash to the place where he won't have to be in pain ever again.

[deadwhispering]

I fucking lost brain cells during that group project. That was the most pointless, stressful, overwhelming bullshit I’ve ever had to deal with in my entire 4 years of school this far holy SHIT

[imminentinertia]

(I added an image description to the gif)

Now that everyone's forgotten about it it's a great time to word vomit about Last Twilight, yes? But it was only recently I finally managed to finish the last episode of Last Twilight and I have Thoughts and I needed to digest.

I also have A Very Personal Frame of Reference for how I judge media dealing with blindness. What I have read about Last Twilight has been a lot of delight, a lot of disappointment with how the story went, analysis of colours and outfits and dialogue and narrative elements, but I haven't yet seen much about the depiction of vision loss. Soooo *cracks knuckles*

(I bet I've missed some posts about it, though. I'd like to be pointed to such posts)

As for me:

I had an older relative with severe vision loss thanks to untreated glaucoma (get your eyes checked regularly once you hit 40! Glaucoma is treatable).

I grew up with two friends who had lost an eye as small children - one also had severe vision loss in the remaining eye, the other had a well functioning eye. Actually I know more people my age who have lost an eye and I did then too, but I was close with these two and I guided the near blind one often.

I have a younger relative, someone very close to me, who gradually went from perfect vision to near blind. That's the most important person from everyone with visual impairment I've known, in this context.

Let's just say I had a beady eye (sorry) on Last Twilight when I first heard of it, since I have a fair bit of experience as friend, relative, guide and activist when it comes to visual impairment. I've tried moving about with a white cane and I've learned braille (I don't remember much, though). I've provided the audio commentary when watching films with blind people, more times than I can count (and I've explained several times, with various degrees of impatience, to seeing strangers that yes, blind people can enjoy the cinema). I know a fair bit about this, I believe.

Which means I'm rarely terribly impressed with media depictions of visual impairment and it's something I tend to focus on.

As for Last Twilight:

HOLY SHIT SEA'S AMAZING ACTING

(I added an image description to the gif)

If anyone tries to claim he's not doing a fantastic job, they're objectively wrong. One may argue that artistic quality is subjective as it's invariably judged against a set of agreed upon conventions rather than true objective measures, but if you hold Sea's acting up against any agreed upon good acting and find it lacking, you need to look again.

I noticed him slipping (eyes focusing when they shouldn't) twice. Slightly. In the gif above, if a seeing character was delivering that line, the actor would focus on Jimmy when he turns his head. It's natural, there's movement and seeing people's attention is drawn to that, especially when it's this close to us.

Sea doesn't. He fucking doesn't. He looks like Day is concentrating and listening and feeling and he fucking doesn't even glance Jimmy's way even though that's what every cell in his human body wants him to. And that's just one of a million examples of how instruction, coaching and Sea's talent and effort offers up a Day that seriously seems visually impaired.

Sometimes, when a seeing actor is playing a blind character, they get instructed to - or choose - to go so unfocused that they look empty-brained. Some plaster on a vapid smile and/or Stevie Wonder head movements (you should know that Stevie Wonder turned blind very quickly after his premature birth, and he has no idea of how seeing people move. Adults who go blind are unlikely to move like him). Sea, however, looks like his brain is focusing but his eyes do not.

Day is intelligent and goofy and angry and bitter and worried and snarky-funny and sad and delighted and all of it shows on Sea's face, while his eyes look the part. It's so well done, I'm in awe.

Sea also moves exactly like my near blind younger relative and it's fucking uncanny. It's like seeing them. The often hesitant steps, the slight lean forward, the way Day uses his hands and fingers to figure out where he is and what is close to him, it gave me goosebumps. The way Day uses the remains of his sight to look at things is so like seeing my relative that I literally gasped the first time I saw it.

All the awards for Sea, please. And quite a few for Aof Noppharnach and the visually impaired acting coach. By the way, I never caught the coach's name, so if someone knows it I'd love to know.

HOLY SHIT A NEAR BLIND CHARACTER GETS TO BE COMPLEX

(I added an image description to the gif)

That doesn't happen as often as one should think. When the story is about being/going blind, the blind character is often either a super brave little ray of sunshine, or terribly tragic. Day is neither. He is all of it. He is human. He's so well written it makes me need to chew on my fists, he has all the dimensions.

Mork is arguably a bit less rounded, but Mork wears quite a few masks, and he is absolutely a human being, not a pretty cardboard cutout.

HOLY SHIT A NEAR BLIND CHARACTER GETS TO DO REAL NEAR BLIND PEOPLE STUFF

(I added an image description to the gif)

It doesn't happen as often as one might think. Fumbling somewhat, using a white cane (often in a completely meaningless way), wearing dark glasses all the fucking time - those are the staples of token blind characters, all too often. One of my favourite scenes in Last Twilight is actually when Day reads Morks contract, because it showcases a visually impaired person using his phone as a reading tool, perfectly real-looking. Well done! Kudos! Standing ovations! Now stop him there and don't let him do the stupid unnecessary breakup

Running with a seeing guide and using a phone for lots of text to speech/speech to text purposes. Going to events, libraries, bookshops, markets, parties. Going out to eat, watching a film. Day does all this with a caretaker's help for some, but not all of it. Blind people do things like this. They're not special little miracles for it, they're just people who hopefully have access to decent assistive products. Entirely too often main blind characters don't get to do many of these things. Entirely too often they're just vehicles for some inane moral of the "stay positive" variety, unless they're in a tragedy.

For the record, in the scene where Mork uses a white cane inexpertly, to put it mildly, it's quite obvious to me that Aof was aiming to show us Mork's sheer desperation. Mork's personality has extremes, and trying to put himself in a blind person's shoes and making it a lot of people's problem seems like something a distressed Mork could in fact do. The result is that he looks like a Bad Blind Character, but that's fine, just like the actors portraying those characters Mork doesn't know shit about what he's doing.

HOLY SHIT THEY DIDN'T MAKE DAY PERMANENTLY BLIND. WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT

(At this point it's probably no surprise that I added an image description to the gif)

Yes. Well. Day gets his vision back in order to live properly happily ever after. I was mad as fuck about that for a while, and about the incredibly stupid breakup and time skip. I'm still mad about the most useless breakup plot fuckery ever and the time skip, and the general clunkiness of the final episode, but I'm not mad anymore about Last Twilight not showing that blind people can have true happiness.

It's about the audience, eh. To an audience of almost exclusively seeing people (I assume), losing one's sight is a frightful thing and doesn't make for the happiest of happy endings, and Day's condition is actually treatable. So production gave him his sight back. It would have been a notch braver to not do that, but a sweet romance isn't necessarily here to be all that brave. They did a lot of good work with showing how Day could manage many things on his own, with the right aids, and when the vast majority of the audience can be assumed to be seeing, showing how near blindness isn't crippling may be good enough.

After all, people are ignorant about blindness and will offer to help only to grab hold of the blind person's arm and drag them along, which is BAD, but if you've seen that guy on Last Twilight do guiding right maybe you'll do that yourself, if your assistance is needed some day. Maybe you'll listen to what the blind person is saying instead of assuming they lost their brain along with their vision.

And it's always a hell of a lot more convenient to see than to be blind, so when you have a condition that can be fixed, go ahead.

Except for that one fucking doctor making it sound like Day had three months left to live while it was just another few months until his vision would go completely, and everyone in the room (Day, mum, Night, Mork) just accepting that, I think Last Twilight did a really good job of showing that while there are great inconveniences to losing one's vision it's not being sentenced to sitting at home and feeling helpless, like Day starts out. It did a great job of dealing with an overprotective mother and a terribly guilty-feeling brother, too.

I would have liked Day to stay blind and end extremely happy, and I think it's bit of a waste of a character to heal him from the very premise of the story, but I'm not angry. Not anymore.

Although I greatly disliked the happyhappyhappy seeing ending, I was annoyed with most of the dad arc and the speedrun Night/Porjai romance, I loathed the breakup part and I hated how Day never took responsibility for his own actions leading to the accident where he got the cornea damage (although I will grudgingly admit that it's actually something that lends a whole lot of realism to Last Twilight and to Day), all in all, I honestly loved this show. No show is flawless, and Sea's gorgeous acting alone is enough to make up for a lot.

I recommend this blogger on how to write blind or visually impaired characters, if you'd like to know (a lot) more.

[minorfamilysupremacy]

it is insane to watch bible's actions nowadays. i will say, even back in kp era, there were one or two things he said that made him deeply unlikable to me, but like most i just ignored it. but holy hell has the facade dropped. the only thing he is now is a professional victim and you can tell he is SO pissed that his little show failed. these interviews or rather fluff pieces are just for bible to be sad on camera because it's the only way to stay relevant and ensure his fans continue to attack and blame build for everything, because despite it all, his fans couldn't be arsed to watch his show so this is all he has left. they will continue to beat the dead horse of "it was a thing that happened between two people", because anything else would mean they had to admit they chose the side of the woman who was sentenced to prison. oh and btw bible, weird how you never faced any repercussions for your social media posts about underage girls, rape, and transphobia... sure has its benefits being close to ponf hasn't it. god I hope karma comes for all of these people.

yeah, as an ex-stan i know i personally handwaved away a lot of stupid shit as his being young and having been catapulted into overnight fame and blah blah blah, but no. we got played for fools. dude's a piece of shit through and through and it's honestly kind of horrifying to watch. like, really, dude? pond is the fading star you want to hitch your wagon to? i'm just embarrassed watching him make a bigger and bigger ass of himself in every interview. it's always someone else's fault, he's always the victim, bloo bloo, crocodile tears (even more embarrassing since a lot of these interview questions are sent in advance so he can practice his fake waterworks).

and i think in his warped little mind, it IS build's fault that 4m is such a shitshow, or at least he's firmly convinced himself as such, because he and pond are glued at the asshole now and he can't let himself go against the party line. i've always thought sammon deliberately turned in a subpar product -- after all, did BOC ever say boo about the plagiarism accusations? because i sure don't remember it. and poi was punching way above her weight class by dragging in a much more respected writer when she was just trying to have a petty grudge match against her ex. i lost respect for sammon in the entire debacle for other reasons (i draw a hard line with animal violence, and the very vague details i know make it just sound gratuitous and lazy writing), but i was shocked she even stuck around to give them SOME kind of script. pond must have the best lawyers in thailand when he draws those contracts up.

but 4m was a shitshow not because of build, but because of poi and, more importantly, because of pond. pond sat back and dithered about which nong (gag, dude) he could wring more coins out of and tried, unsuccessfully, to play both sides like the loathsome little quisling he is. he did fuck-all to protect his talent and then he gambled on the 4m name still having enough appeal to gawkers to be successful, when anyone with two brain cells to rub together could have told you the project should have been scrapped with a quickness. (besides, if the version of the show we ultimately got bore ANY resemblance to its original vision, i sincerely question what was so tear-jerking about it. but i have a feeling what it was originally envisioned as is a far cry from the steaming pile we got.) the fact that they couldn't get anyone to pair with bible for ages is yet another red flag pond ignored, because god forbid he admit to any fuckups, and the coping about how jes is actually So Much Better and Lovely and Wonderful and their chemistry is So Incredible is...well, it's fucking pathetic. it's clowns all the way down.

and pond further bears responsibility for that fuckup of a 'rollout' of the show. how many countries did it get aired in, officially? seven? eight? half of those were places where explicit gay sex (which, as near as i can tell, is a good portion of the show to make up for the limp writing) is banned. european and american fans got entirely shut out from official support. i suppose that's probably because when build was in berlin, he personally spoke with the german government and explained that they needed not to air this particular show as an act of revenge, right?

but bible is never going to fucking look at the dumpster fire his life and career have become and lay the blame where it belongs, because he and pond are in this creepy symbiotic relationship where pond pimps him out to keep the business going -- seriously, jeff fucked off ages ago and mile is MIA with schrodinger's girlfriend, so they have no major talent outside bible to rely on -- and in return, bible gets shielded from repercussions outside of some well-deserved social media jeering. and both of them constantly pat each other's asses and soothe each other's egos and keep each other from any kind of introspection.

bottom line is, pond thought build was expendable at the time, because he was rolling in so much KP goodwill he thought the gravy train would never stop. turns out build wasn't expendable, so now pond's gotta choke the life out of the other half of the pairing to make sure he doesn't give up the grift (his constant european vacations don't pay for themselves, do they?), and that other half is more than content to play his simple-minded lackey because it's easier than having to fucking put a modicum of effort into anything.

karma will get them -- of that i have no doubt. there's too many rumblings of discontent, too many oldheads who have turned anti, not enough new people to stem the hemorrhage. man suang, for all pond's windbaggery, sank without a trace. THC is more notable for its controversy and rigging than anything else. DFF and 4m both couldn't sustain themselves through their entire runtimes and even people with no axe to grind with BOC were critical about the latter. they keep scrabbling for relevance in idiotic ways -- a sitcom with bible? a sitcom?! with what fucking comedic timing? -- or are late to the party -- they're supposedly planning a GL, which, by the time it gets to market, will just be one of many. gap was a while ago. GL isn't as much of a novelty as it was. and i mean, let's face it: do you trust this fucking studio with GL? i wouldn't trust pond to take out my trash without ripping the bag open, spilling it everywhere, and then making childish vague references about how SOMEONE he used to know paid off the hefty bag company to make his (pond's) life harder.

pond's all ego, greed, and stupidity. he'll trip over his dick (well, harder than he has already) soon enough. i personally can't wait to see it happen.

[iamvegorott]

Meeting A Magical Man Pt. 14

Part 1: Link Prev: Link Next: Link

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Marvin packed his suitcase as calmly and organized as possible. He hoped that if he acted like everything was fine and there wasn’t a potential danger, he’d trick his brain into behaving the same way. 

But it didn’t stop his brain from thinking the same things on repeat.

Anti knew where he lived, and that man never knew how to keep his mouth shut for five seconds around Dark, meaning Dark knew where he lived now. Dark was better at not gossiping but would use anything and everything against anyone to get what he wanted. Dark’s patience varied based on what he was waiting for, and he assumed that if he was looking for him, it was a thin line. He would try to get him as soon as he could. 

Marvin thought about sending himself down to Paris on his own right then and there, using that thin patience to his advantage and waiting out Dark until he decided to go a different route that didn’t involve him. It would take a lot of magic to send himself that far away to a location he hasn’t visited enough to have left a magical essence behind. Traveling to Henrik’s or his favorite restaurant was nothing but to a random spot in Paris? He’d be out for days. 

He also wanted to avoid having Chase travel to Paris on his own. Chase had barely left this city, let alone the country, and traveling alone for the first time was worse if it was your first time traveling like that at all. Chase could get lost or distracted or end up getting kidnapped because he couldn’t help himself from helping someone because he’s always the hero and-

Marvin froze, eyes wide as he stared down at the shirt he was folding. 

Did he just think of Chase as Jackie?

What the fuck did that mean?

Maybe he needed to get to Paris. He was too stressed and wasn’t thinking straight because of it. 

Their flight was that night. Marvin pulled some strings and got them tickets for the next flight. They’d need to leave in only an hour. He was fine. Everything was fine. He just needed to calm down. 

“Hey Marv, I’m here,” Chase called out as he entered the house. 

“Bedroom,” Marvin called back, ignoring how hearing Chase sent a wave of relief through him.

“Do you need help with any last-minute packing?” Chase asked, popping his head into the room. 

“Would you mind putting the things on the kitchen table into this backpack, dear?” Marvin handed Chase the backpack he spoke of. Little did Chase know that it was a magical one Marvin would make invisible to others and not set off any alarms so it wouldn’t get checked. Potion ingredients always got weird looks, and there was the whole ‘can only have so much liquid’ and such and such.

“No problem!” Chase perked up and practically ran to do his assigned task. 

“Just like a puppy.” Marvin giggled to himself, placing the last shirt into the suitcase and zipping it shut. He took the suitcase off the bed and wheeled it into the kitchen. Chase sat the paper bag into the backpack and then picked up two of the jars, tapping them together and nodding when the sound told him they weren’t glass and placed them into the bag. Chase might be a himbo, but he had some brain cells in there. 

“Are you going to be making the potion in Paris?” Chase asked, putting the last jar in before closing the backpack. 

“That is the plan.” Marvin hummed and made his way over to Chase, wrapping his arms around his neck. “You know, we still have a whole hour before we have to leave, and I know exactly how we should spend that time~” 

“An hour isn’t that long.” Chase’s little chuckle had some pink on his cheeks. 

“Then we better get to it,” Marvin whispered and pulled Chase into a kiss.

x~x~x

“Holy shit, it’s the Eiffel Tower!” Chase exclaimed, pointing at the landmark. 

“Yes, it is.” Marvin giggled, lowering Chase’s hand. “And we’ll make a point to see it at night at least once before we go home.” 

“I don’t think my phone has enough space for all the pictures I want to take.” 

“Don’t worry. You’ll be able to take as many as your heart desires, darling.” 

“Hell yeah.” Chase looked around some more. “Oh! Oh, we should totally do the boat thingy with the person singing and pushing the water with a big stick.”

“Are you talking about gondolas?” Marvin asked, looping his arm through Chase’s and walking with him. He had a feeling if he didn’t have some form of leash on Chase, his ‘bodyguard’ would run off for the first shiny thing he saw. 

“Yeah! I’ve seen them on TV a lot, and it looks really cool.” Chase couldn’t keep his eyes on one thing for more than a few seconds. 

“Well, currently, they’re all private, and the first public one won’t open for at least two years, but-” Marvin sang the last word and snapped his fingers. “-something tells me we just got a booking.” 

“Really? That’s super cool!” Chase slipped out of Marvin’s hold and went in front of him. “Did you take an empty slot or-” He stopped and suddenly took off. 

"Again, like a puppy." Marvin sighed and followed Chase, chuckling at seeing him at one of the food carts. Marvin knew the food was pistachio escargot, a rolled-up croissant dough with pistachio pastry cream inside and topped with pistachios. He also knew that Chase would likely enjoy it.

"Those look delicious!" Chase said to the vendor. The vendor said something back to him in French, and Chase froze. "O-Oh, I…um…"

"Pardon." Marvin stepped in and spoke to the vendor in French. Chase rocked on his feet awkwardly as he waited, not knowing any part of the conversation between the two, but was back to wagging his imaginary tail when he got handed one of the pastries. "Merci beaucoup." 

“Thanks.” Chase managed to say before taking a giant bite and moaning at the taste. Marvin giggled as he paid and took a pastry for himself. 

“Come now. We can’t be late for our gondola.” Marvin’s arm was back through Chase’s, not planning on letting him run off again. 

“Can’t wait!” Chase said, mouth filled with bread.

“Darling, don’t forget what I said about speaking with a full mouth~” Marvin poked the tip of Chase’s nose, laughing when Chase just blushed. “This next week is going to be so much fun.” 

----------

Tags: @brokentimewatch @bookwormscififan @d-structive @rainymae523

[rocknbolan]

kinda think you're living a lie there. baz will never really be your boyfriend. and if he is, he's cheating on axl.

Holy fuck, anon. that is the most close minded, ridiculous thing I've ever read.

Like, I barely graduated from high school and I think I just lost a few brain cells trying to make sense of what you just said.

Who cares! Go find yourself a nice spouse and a white picket fence and live your best life with 'em forever or something.

Whatever axl and baz decide they want, whatever baz and I decide we want, ain't your fucking business.

so fuck off, you get no chocolate with that attitude, bucko.

[bigtimebabey]

*almost forgets to post the second part bc my singular brain cell got lost thinking about Bulma*

Pt 2 to Zarusaiyans AU Arc (I think that's what I'll call it)

Also the green text about the story is my half awake attempt to write it down in my notes app lol

They bring the set back and are able to take Beet out of the balls bc he never belonged there. And for a bit Beet gets to adjust to life on Earth and modernity. Then King Kai is pretty much like "holy fuck Goku, by using the empty dragonballs they are going to blow up the entire universe if you don't find their rogue dragon and put it back in" (I haven't decided on a time limit yet tho)

Then the bois have to go searching around for the dragon, who is currently living happily and quietly in a remote village on some other planet I have no name for. Jiensui is the dragon's name and he traded places and assumed a somewhat human form bc he was too self aware of his existence as an ancient dragon made to grant wishes and wanted to live a free life as someone who could make his own choices.

Eventually they'll confront him there and Jiensui will refuse to go back even at the consequence of the universe. I'm thinking he'll transform into a big dragon beast to fight them, until he loses of course.

I'm not sure how I want to end it yet bc I've got a couple good ones that float around in my brain...

[heartfucksmouth]

just crying silently while holding a finally-sleeping baby (20 lbs and 2.5 feet tall baby) who refused to nap longer than 30 mins today and has emotional tantrums like a 2 yr old, complete with throwing their bodies backwards and biting lolol this poor kiddo just wants to be a big people

I think I'm just crying bc I'm so tired and feeling a lot of conflicting emotions about literally everything in life. like why does the world continue to spiral out in flames and I feel like I'm in survival mode when all I've wanted to do for 4 years is actually LIVE and THRIVE and, now, raise my child to be a good human but everything is isolating and a fucking battle to get done and I feel lonely and I can't even spend time with my partner or focus on myself I feel like time is constantly running out, money is running out, kindness is running out, and my brain cells can't even function anymore.

like. being a mom and being ill is really fucking hard. as if that's a surprise, but I'm so overwhelmed anticipating the next 3 months bc I've got 10 more appointments this month alone, plus an endoscopy and my pre-op is in MAY and I'm gonna have fucking hip surgery while I have a 1 year old who will probably definitely be walking lmao

also the world is on fire, did I say that? myles hours got cut at ups bc they're greedy fucks and we simultaneously lost our food stamps bc he made too much money during holiday season and I've been waiting over a month for my new application to get filed and I'm basically living on coffee smoothies electrolytes and whatever his mom cooks for dinner. at least I can kind of feed my kid tho even tho he wants solid food already bc on the inside he's a 30 yr old and WIC only pays for formula + purees.

day by day. hour by hour. it's all I can do. I'm so. fuvking. sick of burning out 2 days after I finally recover. I have so much more to say but no energy to form words anymore.

parenting is so fucking triggering it's wild. today wasn't even all that bad, either, but everything reminds me of my past right now. and I continue having to mask and play nice with a literal energy vampire that we live with sooooo

editing to add that I am still extremely obsessed with my son , he's beautiful and his laughter is like a drug I've never experienced and he looks like a literal cherub when he sleeps but holy shit let's start being honest about parenting too. this world doesn't make ANYTHING easy for most people...

[useless-bi-otch]

Cookies'n Cream - Chapter 27

Last chapter / MasterList / art by @aneenasevla

Chapter 27 - Queens and Clowns

Note: This chapter contains scenes only suitable for 18+ audiences (A.K.A. smut). You’ve been warned

.

Now that he and Tomori were together and knew each other a lot better, Okubo wondered how he hadn't noticed the signs before.

They've always been there, right under his nose. She had warned him about them herself, and he had chosen to ignore it long enough to be vulnerable. And now, he was in that situation, trapped between a rock and a hard place because of a promise.

All because she, in addition to being cute and sweet, was calculating, slightly manipulative and fully aware of the effects she had on him. If he had noticed these signs sooner, he would have set boundaries from the start. But now it was too late, and he was...

"... Wrapped around her little finger."

"Being held by the balls."

“Lassoed and ridden like the bald bull you are."

"You're good at thinking of synonyms, but not at helping me think of a way out, aren't you, you bastards?!," Okubo grunts, taking an angry bite of his pizza slice while watching Rihito, Himuro and Kaneda being complete assholes to each other during the most violent Mario Kart competition he had ever watched in his entire life. "I'm serious , that girl put me behind the eight ball!"

"Sorry to say that, Okubo, but you're the one who got yourself into this," Kaneda comments, ignoring the curse Rihito shouted in his ear when he throw him off the track with a red shell. "You shouldn’t have agreed to go out with her when you had a bruise too obvious to go unnoticed."

"Or you should've lied and said that it was one of us who did that to you during a sparring session- Rihito, you son of a bitch!," Himuro yells when Rihito throws a banana peel in front of him on the track and makes him spin. Rihito laughs out loud.

"Suck on that banana, you man-whore! And yeah, man, you should've said that. It was a lie, but it was for the greater good, right?"

"I thought about doing that, but I couldn't!," He gestures frustrated. "I don't know what's with her eyes, but I'm totally incapable of lying when I look into them! It's a mix between Puss in Boots from Shrek and a human version of Hello Kitty with the softest, most good smelling boobs in the world! It was a lost battle from the start..."

"You couldn't even put your foot down? Like, saying you won't take her to see a Kengan match and that's it, no more whining?," Himuro asks, grinding his teeth while trying to pass by Rihito without being hit by the green shells that surrounded him. Okubo shakes his head, shoving the rest of the pizza into his mouth at once.

“I wanted to do that, but I just couldn't. She was naked at the time, just out of the shower, all wet and smelling good," He can't hold back, smiling when he remembers, still chewing. "With her asking like that, there's no grown man who can resist."

"Holy shit, dude… now I understand why you took so long to fuck her."

"What do you mean?"

"You knew that your brain cells were all stored in your balls and that she would empty them without thinking twice."

"Fuck you, Rihito!"

"Too late, I'm doing just fine! Yes!," Rihito raises the joy-con in the air in celebration as he manages to pass Kaneda on the last corner and cross the finish line first. Kaneda moans, throwing his head back, while Himuro throws a small tantrum and throws the other joy-con onto a cushion. Good thing, because Okubo would beat his ass if he broke even one piece of his Nintendo Switch. "Gentlemen, I'm fuckin' unbeatable!"

"No way, this is just the first championship you've won tonight," Himuro snorts with a frown. "You were ahead of Kaneda by a measly four points."

"Which I intend to keep in the future. Now, go eat a pizza slice with Egghead, I have a lil' fucker to beat," Rihito dismisses him with hand gestures, to which Himuro gives him the middle finger before leaving the joy-con aside and walking away, sulking.

"Asshole... get his ass for me, Kaneda."

"Haha, I'll do my best. Anyway, Okubo...," Kaneda turned to Okubo while Rihito adjusted the game's settings. "Now that you promised her, there's no going back. Breaking the promise could be worse for you."

"I know…," Okubo scratches the back of his head, tired. "I wouldn't do that to her anyway. She's been honest with me, the least I can do is reciprocate."

"Yeah, but at what cost?," Himuro says while grabbing a pizza slice inside the box on the kitchen counter. "We already talked about the risks, remember?"

"I do...

"And you're still going to go ahead with that idea?"

"It's not because I want to, Himuro," He retorts angrily. "Don't you guys understand? She didn't give me a choice. It almost looks like an ultimatum," He sighs. "If I keep more things from her, she'll think I'm not being honest enough and conclude that it's not worth investing in our relationship. It's that thing about giving too much and getting too little in return... and I want to give as much as I get."

"Holy shit, that came out so wrong, hahaha!"

"Shut up, Rihito, I'm serious!"

"Okay, okay, you want to be serious, right? So let's be serious," Rihito forces himself to stop laughing, looking seriously at him while Kaneda chooses a cup. "You don't want her to know about the Kengan Association because it might be risky for her or is there more to it?"

Okubo immediately gets uncomfortable. "What are you talking about?"

"I don't know, you're focusing too much on something that can be easily solved," Rihito shrugs. "If your concern is with her safety, that's fine. She'll have you and us, if you're the one fighting, to protect her."

"Wow... would y'all really do that?"

"Of course. We like her too," Kaneda guarantees with a nod. "Not just because she's your girlfriend who isn't quite your girlfriend."

"Yeah. She's just a nice girl," Himuro shrugs.

"Yep! She's crazy and a little sarcastic and judgemental, but still cute," Rihito agrees. Okubo sniffs a little.

“Gee, guys… you really-”

"Not to mention that if I play bodyguard, she'll owe me one! Then I can ask for her friend's number as a payment without feeling guilty about it."

"Holy shit, you're the most self-serving jerks I've ever met in my entire fucking life," Okubo runs a hand over his face, grunting. "Okay, I'm glad you guys want to do this for her too. But continue your reasoning, Rihito."

"Alright," Rihito and Kaneda turned their attention to the match again, but the former kept talking. "If that was your only concern, you'd already know that it is very easy to solve. But there's more to it, right? Because when you mix Miss Uta and you, there's always something more. I've got your number..."

"Unf. Aren't you an observant motherfucker..."

"You're just that obvious, bro."

"Indeed," Kaneda and Himuro nod together, and Okubo glares at them indignantly.

"And you still agree with him! Ugh... okay, it's not just that," He finally admits. "It also has to do with moral issues."

"Moral issues?"

"Yeah, like... you're aware of how she's an avid martial arts fan, right? She's always watching the fights in the major leagues, even the lesser known ones," He takes another pizza slice from the box, eating it with a frown. "Only all those leagues are public, safe and full of rules. I don't know what she'd think of an underground league, let alone one like the one the Kengan Association maintains..."

"Look, I think she already guessed that you're involved with underground fighting, considering how you kept hammering this 'backstage league' thing," Himuro forms quotation marks with his fingers, to which Okubo shakes his head.

“But she doesn't know the full extent of the whole thing. It's something much more serious than a bunch of alley jesters getting together to beat each other to a pulp without much safety involved," He finishes chewing and swallowing, burping afterwards and continuing, "Rock bottom always has a basement. And I... I don't know, I'm worried that she might think this is wrong."

"But that's the thing, man… from a legal point of view, it's wrong ," Himuro arches an eyebrow, to which he snorts.

"Wrong to the point that she thinks our relationship isn't worth the effort! That she doesn't want anything to do with a guy who gets involved with that stuff. And the whole thing is very violent, much more than what she's used to seeing on television..."

"Oh... you're thinking she's one of those purist fans then... Damn it!," Rihito curses when a blue shell hits him, allowing Kaneda to pass him. "There'll be payback, mark my words!"

"I'm going to leave my change purse ready, haha ," Kaneda jokes.

“Either that or she became more adept at the concepts of right and wrong after she got over her delinquent phase,” Okubo muses, and Himuro frowns at him.

"Delinquent phase? What, just because of that tattoo?"

"No, she was absolutely deranged during her teens, according to herself. She almost got expelled from school once," He says, eyes wide; the fact still amazed him a little. Rihito lets out a mocking laugh.

"Give me a break! The tattoo thing I can believe in, but this?"

"If you're doubting it, ask her the next time you see each other. Anyway...," Okubo shakes his head. "She doesn't deny her past, but today she tries to distance herself from it. And if she concludes that I'm not following the same path, that the Kengan Association goes against the kind of life she's been trying to maintain... ugh, I don't know," He scratches his whole face with his hands, eyes squeezed shut. "I just don't want her to give up on us because of this!"

"Does that make you rethink your participation in the Kengan matches as a whole?," Kaneda asks, and Okubo needs to think a bit before answering.

"No… I mean, I'm just like you guys, I enjoy fighting without all the rules of the public leagues. Ultimate Fight has hardly offered me more challenges, I'm already at a much higher level-"

"If your ego inflates more, it'll replace your car's airbags."

"And the Kengan Association provides me with that," He continues, ignoring Rihito's comment. "I don't care about the businessmen's shenanigans, as long as I can fight strong guys. It's the same with you. I'm just worried that she won't accept it..."

There is a brief moment of silence while Himuro thinks and Kaneda and Rihito slaughter each other on screen. Himuro then asks the question he honestly didn't want any of them to ask.

"If she doesn't accept it, will you consider this a thing that's doomed to fail? If neither you nor she are willing to compromise..."

Okubo sighs heavily.

"I don't know, man. I don't want it at all. But if things get to that point..."

"If it gets to that point and you see that you are at an impasse, it means that she's not the right girl for you. It's that simple," Kaneda says. "And there's nothing wrong with that. Sometimes people just don't work together and it's no one's fault but circumstances'."

"I know. But it's been a while since I wanted something to work so much in my life," Okubo admits, a little embarrassed, but unable to contain himself. "You can say I sound like a sappy fagot and shit, but I don't think I'll find anyone like her anytime soon. And I don't want to. I just didn't want to have to give up one thing to have the other. It's so fucking unfair"!

"Maybe you don't have to!," Rihito says, leaning to the side when making a sharp turn. "If she really was that deranged like you're saying, maybe she won't think it's that wrong. Who knows, maybe she even likes it," He suddenly gives a mischievous laugh. "Maybe she'll get all excited with your performance in a match and wants to try some moves with you on the mattress, hehehe..."

"Rihito, what are you saying..."

“No, Iron Fingers might be right. This is an outright muscle eater we're talking about," Himuro says to Kaneda. "Like, I don't think she would like to see Okubo killing someone in the middle of a match-"

"I don't even intend to! I almost killed my first opponent in Ultimate Fight and I'm traumatized to this day...," Okubo shivers. Himuro nods.

"See? She wouldn't like it, but a fair, violent, bloody fight is something else. Some girls really get turned on with this stuff. If that's Miss Uta's case..."

Okubo blinks. And then he opens a huge stupid smile, even blushing a little.

"Jeez, gigolo, you really think so? Because man, if I win a Kengan match and it gets my Tomoh all horny for me, I'll be more than happy to crush other people's faces!"

"Fucking simp!"

"Fuck off, Rihito," He snorts while Himuro and Kaneda laugh. "The day you feel the softness of the right titties, I'm the one who's going to be laughing."

"Look, I don't know if they were the right ones, but I sure felt the softness of several titties a few days ago," Rihito opens the very same stupid smile. "There's no best way to celebrate Komada's first victory in months, dammit. .."

"Oh yeah, you went to celebrate at Ms. Rino's club on the same day as Okubo's Kengan match," Kaneda comments, and Rihito nods, his chest puffed out.

"We sure as hell did! The girls were so sweet with us. First time I went to celebrate with Komada and Ivan too, since my official brothel bro gave up on that life," He mutters in a sullen tone, to which Okubo smiles in the corner.

“Sorry for that, man. I liked the Golden Pleasure Club as much as you, but I wouldn't trade what I have now for anything."

"I know, bro. 'We're happy for you, you know that," Rihito nods. "And it's because we know how important this is to you that we're telling you not to expect the worst. Your chick is a martial arts lover. She's the type who knows that, sometimes, men only understand each other through violence," He laughs. "Just tell it like it is. If she knows you like she says she does, she won't be on your case."

Okubo smiles wider, his chest lightening considerably. He scratches the back of his head.

"Yeah, you're right. Thanks..."

"Yeah, you're so right I'm almost wondering if you're really Rihito," Himuro arches an eyebrow, to which Kaneda chuckles.

"Don't they say that even a broken clock is right twice a day? Well…"

"Why don't you go screw yourselves? Fuckin' bastards," Rihito grumbles, ignoring the laughter of the others. "You shouldn't even be surprised, I've been on a winning streak like no other lately. It's one win after the other!"

"You say that, but you're still behind me on that last lap..."

"Not for long. Go boomerang!," He screams, and laughs loudly when said boomerang hits Yoshi right in front of him. Kaneda lets out an indignant exclamation.

"Aaah! I could accept it if it was a shell, but a boomerang? It's too humiliating!"

"People do what they can with what they have, man! Hell yeah!," He celebrates when he crosses the finish line in first place, even getting up from the mat to do a little victory dance. "Another glorious victory for me, dammit! The other pizza is all mine!"

"Shit…," Himuro grunts, rolling his eyes while Kaneda scratches his headr tiredly. ​​"Now we're going to have to put up with this bullshit… can I go smoke on your balcony, Okubo? I'll close the glass door so the smoke doesn't get in, I just need to put nicotine into my system to withstand this..."

“Sure, man, go kill your heartache with some cancerogenous smoke,” Okubo jokes as Rihito does a victory dance in the middle of the room. Kaneda sighs and puts down the joy-con as Himuro marches to the apartment's balcony, looking pissed, ignoring Rihito's mocking laughter as best he can.

"Who said Superman's winning streak would be short-lived, huh? I'm kicking some major ass!"

"Yeah, just be careful not to fuck it up to the point of fucking your business," Okubo hands him another pizza box, still unopened. "Yamashita is sending you messages about your employees’ licenses issues. Better get that outta the way before it comes back to bite you in the ass, man."

Rihito moans loudly, throwing his head back.

"Damn, I hate these bureaucracies."

"It's annoying, but necessary, since you're a CEO as well as a fighter," Kaneda comments while turning off the Switch. "The sooner you deal with this, the better."

"Okay, okay, I'll stop by his office on Friday and sort this thing out, I promise," Rihito nods before turning to Okubo. "And you! You better solve this mess with Miss Uta sooner than later too. We can't wait for this soap opera to end and for us to reap the fruits of it."

"Bro, I swear to God, if you talk about her friend's phone number one more time...!"

"Nah, this time I'll be quiet. Unless, of course, you mention to her that we were the ones who pushed you in the right direction, and if she wants to thank us by being generous..."

Kaneda ends up laughing, and even Himuro, from the balcony, lets out a low, husky chuckle. Okubo just rolls his eyes, but he does so while trying to hold a smile back.

He was already kind of indebted to his friends for everything they had done to help him sort things out with Tomori, Rihito in particular. If everything worked out between them and she accepted this unconventional aspect of his life, why not bring the subject up? At least Rihito would stop pestering them like that. And he would pay off his debt.

"I hope your friend likes inconvenient idiots as much as you do, Tomoh..."

* * *

"So, what do you think?," Okubo asks while closing the door behind him, his tone a bit playful to disguise his shyness. "Is it as you imagined or did the typical masculine carelessness exceed your expectations?"

"What exceeded my expectations was the size. Holy crap...," Tomori comments, sounding impressed, as she walks around the living room of his apartment, even walking backwards so she can contemplate the place as a whole. "So this is how the luxury apartments in Tokyo's upscale area are from the inside!

"Eh, there are much more luxurious buildings around here, to be honest. For a guy who lives alone, this is enough," He decrees, hands on hips, to which she smiles a little mockingly at him.

"A guy who lives alone and has lotta cash in the bank, right?"

"Hey, I'm no saudi prince, but I deserve to have some luxuries with the money I earn working, right?," He shrugs, taking it in stride. "You could also have some if you let me spend a little on you..."

"Nah-ah-ah! You can stop right there," She raises the palm of her right hand to him like a traffic cop. "I'm getting enough luxuries just to be able to spend one night here with you. You sure there's no problem?"

"None! I cleaned the whole place to be worthy of your presence," He jokes, going to her and hugging her around the waist. "I even went to the market and stocked the fridge, all with your teachings in mind. We'll be able to watch Seki's fight in style!"

"Really? Such consideration!," She returns the hug, smiling at him. "Unless, of course, this is a very well thought out scheme to make me cook."

"Would you rather eat food made by me then? The guy who couldn't even get the shape of rice balls right before you showed him how?"

"I would help you! It would be a nice thing for us to do together."

"I'm up for it, but right now I'm thinking of something else for us to do together...," He bends down to reach her, exchanging a peck with her before going to kiss and nibble her neck, to which she laughs and shivers with the tickling.

"Wow, I really spoiled you, didn't I? Leave it for tonight, after Mr. Seki's match," She murmurs against his mouth, after giving him a longer kiss. "Then the gratuitous violence on television will have put me in the perfect mood."

"You're such a weirdo, Tomoh."

"Pot, meet kettle. I've got your number, mr. 'I-Get-Sad-And-Pouty-When-The-Woman-I-Like-Doesn't-Let-Me-Spend-Stacks-Of-Money-On-Her'."

"That just makes you even weirder," He smiles more, lifting her off the ground and making her scream. "And it makes me like you more and more..."

He kisses her again, and even though she starts slapping his shoulders, she doesn't protest in the slightest. On the contrary, she manages to encircle his waist with her legs, and Okubo concludes that it would be very easy to take her to the bedroom (or to the sofa, in case they concluded that the distance between the bedroom and the living room was too great) and get busy with her. The could leave the tour on the whole apartment for after they've satisfied themselves. They would have all day, after all.

It was so good to have fallen in love with a woman who seemed to have the same sex drive as him, or at least enough that neither of them ended up frustrated. Another of the many things they had in common, and he couldn't get enough of discovering more and more of them every time they were together.

It was what made him not want to believe what Kaneda had said a few days ago. That speech about her not being the right girl for him, in case their opinions regarding his participation in an association that promoted underground fights were very discordant. Where else would he find someone as amazing as her? Someone he was so in tune with? Where else would he find that warmth, that joy, that feeling that everything in the world was in the right place when he was with her?

He didn't want to give that up if he could help it. He wanted to get those doubts out of the way so he could commit to her, and not hide anything else. The opportunity had arisen when Sekibayashi Jun's next performance had been announced to be broadcast on a pay-per-view channel, and Okubo had offered his own television, with the combat channels already included in its premium subscription package, to Tomori, so that she herself would not have to pay.

"Is everything all right for you, Naoh?," She had asked, surprised and a little hesitant, after he had made the offer during their date a few days before. He had nodded with a laidback smile. "It won't be any trouble?"

"Of course not! Why would having you at my place would be trouble?"

"No, that's not it. It's just that... now I know that you get a little jealous of seeing me kissing up to other fighters, so I don't want to push your goodwill..."

She had looked embarrassed, and Okubo had felt bad for making her think he was the kind of possessive idiot who was jealous of even the celebrities his girlfriend admired. He reached across the table where they were both eating, in a small pub.

"You won't, I promise. I'd never ask you to put aside your love for martial arts because of my insecurities, Tomori. It's that dedication that makes you who you are, and I'll never want to change that."

She had smiled when he had touched her face, lifting her fingers to touch his hand as well.

"Great. Thank you..."

"And there's no reason for me to be jealous of that old man Sekibayashi, who's more like a grandpa on a national scale than anything else, haha!"

"He's not even ten years older than you, so your national grandpa status shouldn't be more than a decade away either."

"Hey, hey, how long are you going to make fun of my age? That says more about you than me, you old man lover!"

She had laughed out loud, holding his hand up to her face and turning her head to the side to plant a kiss in the palm.

"I'm not an old man lover! I only like one in particular..."

He would have kissed her right there if the place had been more suitable. And now that they were there, in his apartment, away from judgmental eyes and safe behind all those walls, he just couldn't and didn't want to stop.

If being completely honest with her had been easier and potentially less painful, he already would have been. He would have taken her to watch a Kengan match live, even. But the fear of losing all that was still too much, so he preferred to test the waters before being more open. A good start would be to give her a fun day, back at his apartment, which she's been wanting to visit for a while. Combining business with pleasure, that's what they called it.

“And if I can tame the beast with some sexy times, even better!”

The thought makes him deepen the kiss, whereupon she moans softly against his mouth and grips his shoulders through the top of his shirt.

"Hnnn... man, you really don't waste time..."

"I'm no broken clock to waste time. I like to get straight to the point, you know..."

"I know that well now. But I still want to see the rest of your apartment, you know."

"Oh, we can take a tour right now," He suggests, pulling his lips away from hers just enough to be able to speak. "Starting with my room…"

"Oooh, that's right. Your room," Her eyes suddenly narrow. "It's the place I'm most curious to see, to be honest."

He smiles, all mischievous. "Heh, I can imagine why. I assure you, my bed is almost as big as the one in that love hotel's room-"

“I still haven't got even for that day."

Okubo's smile dies a little, giving way to bewilderment.

"Even...?"

"Yup. Put me down, please," She asks, and he, even more confused, obliges. She marches into the hallway, as Okubo follows. What the hell was she...?

His question is answered when she reaches a door at the end of the hall. She turns to him, arching an eyebrow.

"Is this your room?"

"Uh… yes, it is," He nods, his brow furrowed. "Why? What are you...?"

And instead of answering, she simply reaches out and grabs the  doorknob, turning it and opening the door. Okubo can only stare, speechless, as she looks over her shoulder at him, gives him a petulant look as if daring him to protest, and enters the room without even asking permission.

Shit, he didn't know whether to be indignant or have a fit of laughter. He opts for a middle ground, chuckling softly as he rolls his eyes.

"Okay, I deserved that."

And he enters the room right behind her.

He watches her, from the doorway, walk around the room while inspecting everything with interest. He chuckles again when she places a hand over her chin, frowning.

"Disappointed?"

"Not at all. Your bed is really big, wow...," She comments, sitting on the huge mattress, and he smiles more.

"Now you can see why I want to get you there so badly. Just imagine how comfortable it is...," He pats one of the pillows, very pleased to demonstrate its softness. In general, his room was a bit plain, with the king size bed custom-made for him, the dressers flanking it, the closet and the bathroom with a huge bathtub that completed the suite. More personal things that denoted more of his personality and tastes were in his game and reading rooms, but banging her in those places wouldn't be nearly as comfortable as here. "And there's even a view of the city lights at night!"

He indicates the large window in the wall beside the bed, which gave them a view of the surrounding apartment complexes. Tomori smiles, lying on her side on the bed.

"Yeah, it must be very romantic..."

"That's because you haven't seen my lighting system yet! Check it out..."

He rushes to draw the curtains around the window, plunging the room into a soft gloom. And then he claps his hands twice, while throwing a mysterious smile at her.

"Open Sesame!"

Tomori lets out a sound that was a mix of laughter and excited gasp as soft lights come on behind the headboard and at strategic points on the ceiling, around the main source of light, giving the room a cozy atmosphere. She claps her hands as well as she sits back on the mattress.

"Beautiful! I'm going to love sleeping here tonight."

"Thank you, thank you very much," He gives a playful bow. "But you sure won't love it as much as I will!"

"We'll see about that... but look, Naoh, the correct phrase would be 'let there be light', right? ‘Open Sesame’ is for opening things, not turning on lights, haha.

"… If I say that what I wanted was to 'open your legs', will I be able to get away with being made fun of without sounding like a complete asshole?"

She laughs out loud, opening her arms to him.

"No, you won't. Now come here and kiss me before I change my mind and hit you."

And he goes, flushed but still as happy as he can be, climbing onto the bed and holding her close as he complies with her request with an excitement that has her giggling against his mouth. Soon they were lying on the bed, he propping himself up on his elbows so he wouldn't put too much weight on her, her hands touching his back over his shirt as her legs lifted, her feet brushing the sides of his hips.

“Hnnn… I kinda made a miscalculation,” she murmurs after they've both pulled back just enough to catch their breath. Okubo blinks.

"Miscalculation...?"

"Yeah. I should've explored the other rooms in your apartment before I decided to be petty and go into your room. I can see that we won't be able to get out of here anytime soon, haha..."

"And you think you won't have another opportunity to see everything?," He looks at her with a malicious smile. "Or to spend the night here more often?"

She smiles back, practically melting under him at those words.

"Now that I've heard it, I don't think so anymore."

And she then brings him for another kiss, already starting to try to take his shirt off by the hem. She loved to joke about how he was in a hurry, but he sure as hell wasn't the only one there who wasted no time...

He loved it when she didn't stall and showed ho much she wanted him. Promptly, Okubo removed the shirt she held by the hem, letting her help him, and promptly letting her caress his ego with her eyes. And her brown eyes, practically devouring him, made him feel like he was on fire.

"I really don't know how you can think you're ugly," She purrs, those avid eyes seeming to burn. "I think you're really hot, I always have…"

"I don't think men are hot, that must be why," he jokes back. "But you…," he kisses her neck, lifting her blouse.

She raises her arms to make his job easier, and soon, her breasts supported by her pale blue bra are visible to him in all their glory.

"I never get tired of hearing that, you know?," She murmurs, her tone desirous. "I used to get frustrated, thinking that you only thought I was cute. But now that I know you think I'm hot too... wow, that drives me crazy...," And she lifts her hips a little to rub herself between his legs, through the fabric of her skirt.

“Always and always,"” He pulls her bra over it this time, so as not to confuse where the clasp is, and he immediately buries his face between her breasts, purring contentedly with her softness, warmth, and scent. She giggled as she shivered at his breath on her skin.

"Your favorite pillow, right? Oooh...," She gasps softly with his kisses there in the middle. "Naoh..."

"More than that…," he laughs softly. "It’s closer to the heart of the one I love…"

The smile fades as her mouth opens in an O of astonishment, her brown eyes widening. He could see a very distinctive glow forming at the bottom of them, her cheeks staining with that shade of pink he loved.

"... Huh? Naoya, you...," She swallows hard, and when she speaks again; her voice seems almost choked. "It's- It's the first time you say that..."

He looks at her, big gray eyes peeking out between her breasts. "Hmm? Say what?"

"... You're really going to make me say it, aren't you?," She closes her mouth when her lower lip trembles a little. "It's the first time that you say you love me."

... Oh, fuck. Loudmouth was the perfect nickname for him, wasn't it?

He feels his face burning, his eyes widening, his stomach doing somersaults worthy of an acrobat. Holy shit, he had planned so much, rehearsed so many times in front of the mirror, had fantasized so much about the best ways to confess to her! But he had to blurt it out like that, on the spur of the moment!

“Well, there's nothing you can do about that now, dumbass! Just go with the flow and clear your doubts while you’re at it!"

"Oh..." he babbles, his face red. "Yeah… I said that. Do you like it?"

"… I do," She nods after hesitating, looking at him with an affection so intense it takes his breath away. "Because I feel the same way. I... I love you too, mountain. Uugh, you…!," She hides her face in her hands, as red as he is. "Making me act all sappy when I want to be naughty…!"

He blinks in astonishment, suddenly feeling all warm inside, smiling like an idiot, but not in a perverted way. It was almost as if his eyes had doubled in size, his breath hitching for a minute.

“Damn it, she loves me too!,” was all that ran through his head, like a wonderful movie that he would never get tired of replaying, over and over, until the idea sank in. He looks deep into her eyes, and in her flushed face, he sees no reason to doubt her words.

“She loves me too...”

Then his smile turns into something naughty. "And can't we be both? Here, I'll show you," he kisses her on the neck. "My beautiful, gorgeous, delicious brunette who fills me with hunger…!," and grunts against her skin between kisses. "Raaaawn!"

She squeals and laughs out loud, bucking all over beneath him, tears appearing in the corners of her eyes. He couldn't tell if they were from laughter, from happiness or both. All he knew was that she looked even more beautiful that way, damn it!

"Hahahaha! That's a low blohohohow...! My god...," She goes completely limp, throwing her head back, the smile seeming about to tear her face. "I'm so happy, I want you so much..."

"I want you too...," He lifts her skirt, kissing down to arouse her, and massaging her legs in the process, even kissing the inside of one of them to make her shiver with the proximity. And he succeeds, making her shudder all over as she bites her bottom lip.

"Hnnn… you really like kissing me there, don't you? Ever since that time at the love hotel..."

"A fruit like that is something I'll always want to eat," he surprises her by going straight to the middle of her legs, over her panties, biting the fabric. She arches her back into the bed, letting out a loud sound of astonishment and pleasure as she wraps her legs around his head automatically, making his face practically rub against it. Holy shit, that was a leg lock capable of knocking any motherfucker down, no matter how big he was!

"Aaaah...! Yeah, right there...," She support her hands on his head, her nails passing through his scalp, scratching lightly. He only gets a little space to run a finger and push aside her panties and kiss her, right there in the middle. And he opens her lips with his tongue to reach a very important part.

Her moan echoes in the room, her legs opening wider and letting him breathe as well as giving him more room to work. He sees her lift her head, staring at him from between her breasts rising and falling with her breath, her eyes almost black.

"Yes, I love your tongue, I love you, I- oooh, yes, yes...!," She closes her teary eyes tightly with his licks. If he wanted romance amongst the naughtiness, that's what he was going to get. He smiles and kisses her more languidly, loving the sounds she was making, squeezing her buttocks in his hands, lifting her a little higher to explore new areas.

Her toes twitch as she bites her mouth, hands cupping her breasts, her fingers playing with her own nipples. She thanked every deity that might exist that he learned so quickly, that tongue was devilish in every sense of the word. But the damn panties getting in the way were so annoying... she reaches out to cup his face, making him stop.

"Naoh, I wanna try something…"

He stops, looking at her and licking his lips. "What?"

She pulls away just enough so that she can take off her panties, dropping them on the bedroom floor. And then she pats the mattress with her hand, right beside her.

"Lie down for me, please…"

Okubo complies, smirking, curious as to what she's going to do. She notices that he was already quite excited under his pants. If he was like this with just tasting her… She really hoped he was only going to get even more excited about what she was going to do from then on. She smiles, climbing on top of him and kissing him, tasting herself on his tongue before stopping. And then she climbs higher, lifting her hips, until she's right on top of his face, her legs straddled and braced on either side of his head, her breathing faster with the urge.

“Wow, I've always wanted to try this… wanna try it too?"

He smiles. "Wow, if you always wanted to, then it's my dream," he pulls her to literally sit on his face, and sighs. "Nnnnh, thanks, ahahhah," and he laughs before kissing her again.

She can barely laugh along, already moaning with satisfaction and bracing her hands on the headboard for support, moving her hips back and forth slowly, following the path of his tongue.

"Hnnnn, you're- you're welcome... ooh, yeah, you're doing so great... I taught you well, didn't I? Hnnnn...!"

"Being hot is your natural talent…," he says while savoring, supporting her buttocks with his arms so that she can move more comfortably. And she gladly does, squirming in his face and loving it, shivering and throwing her head back every time his tongue goes over her clit, moaning loudly because she knew how much he loved to hear it.

"Oooh...! Naoh, this feels so good... I-I'm almost there, don't stop...!"

And he wouldn't be crazy to do that. He even sucked at her noisily, massaging her legs even more, taking a lick to catch her honey, and punishing her clit with his tongue.

The "punishment" proves too much for her, and soon he's tasting her, pure and concentrated, on his tongue, accompanied by those familiar pulsations and her moan that was almost a scream, filling his ears like erotic music.

"AaaAAAAH! Naoooh...," She bends forward, her legs shaking on either side of his head. "My- My god, you're too good for me, hnnnn..."

This softened his ego so much that if someone made a roast beef out of him right now, it would be the juiciest of dishes. He gave her one last kiss before making her come down and sit on his lap so he could appreciate her face, her messy hair, her rosy cheeks, her shuddering breath. She finds his semi-smug face.

"I'm just what you deserve me to be, Tomoh..."

She even shudders at the husky tone of his voice, as well as the place where she was sitting. The bulge brushing between her sensitive parts…she shivers all over as she bends down to kiss him, not caring that his mouth was all sticky.

"Hnnn... oh yeah? So you deserve me to be very good to you too..."

And she bends down to kiss and lick his broad chest, as he had done to her. He laughs a little, feeling a little ticklish, but still lets her kiss him, holding onto her waist, biting his lip as he feels her sway on top of him. He wanted to remove the rest of her clothes, but he let her play with him a little more. Things shouldn't be rushed, not when he wanted to enjoy every second.

Soon her hands were on the waistband of his pants, and apparently she didn't have much patience for teasing that day, because she was soon opening the button and unzipping his pants, licking her lips as she did so.

“Hnnn… you got that way just from licking me?," She asks hoarsely, getting rid of his pants and holding his cock by the base.

"And seeing you, smelling you… I have to control myself, you know? Hnm," he sighs when she holds him and starts massaging him. "And now, with you touching me, there's no other way I can be…"

"I can see that... what if I do this?," She looks at him as she licks the tip, circling it with her tongue before closing her lips around it and sucking. "Hnnn…"

He trembles, biting his lip and hissing. "I think… oh… I don’t think I need to answer, right…? Ooh…," he holds her hair, in a ponytail on top of her head, so as not to disturb either her job or the view. She responds by lowering her mouth further, circling it with her tongue and then moving up while applying pressure. And from there she said nothing more, letting her actions speak for herself, eyes closed as she moved her head up and down, her mouth making smacking sounds. Her enjoying doing it so much was something he was never going to get tired of, holy shit.

"Tomori... hmmmm…," he murmurs. "Ooh… and you still talk about me… oohh… I'm loving this… hmmm… yeah, babe, just like that, oohm…"

She looks at him, not stopping what she was doing, but changing tactics a little by releasing him and closing her mouth around his cock, goingo up and down while holding him with one hand, the other resting on his thigh. That mischievous face, those eyes staring shamelessly into his... how could he ever think she was the epitome of innocence?

He had never been so happy to be wrong. Wolf in sheep's clothing, indeed. And what a wolf!

"Hnnn… I really do," She murmurs after releasing him to breathe. "Because I know you're as naughty as I am," And she keeps going back and forth with her tongue, from base to tip. He doesn't deny it, because it was the purest truth, and because that hot pressure rising prevented him from being very coherent.

"Uuhh… hnmmm… Tomoh… oh," he trembles. "I'm… hmm… I'm almost…"

She retraces all the way to the tip at that, closing her mouth around him again and sucking hard, massaging what she couldn't quite swallow with her fingers, her tongue punishing the slit, as he had done to her. He loved it when she got vindictive like that, damn it!

"Hmmm! Oohh… Tomo-ohhh!," he arches his back at his climax, trembling at the base, and upon feeling that he's locked, she quickly feels him spurt into her mouth, hot and plentiful. She sucked some more to clean it all up, enjoying his dazed face. She then lets go of him, taking a deep breath and licking her lips before going up, kissing his body all the way until she reaches his mouth, which she kisses even harder.

"Hnnn, I love the way you taste..."

He doesn't respond right away this time, just reciprocating, hugging her tightly, massaging her back, hips and buttocks happily, and then letting go of her mouth.

"Hnn... I can't find anything I don't love about you, Tomori."

She smiles, and this time, it was a tender, cheerful, adorable smile like only the ones she knew how to give. She gives him a peck and hugs him back, her head snuggled into his shoulder.

"If you think about it a little bit, you should find something, but I won't ask you to do that. Right now I can't think of anything I don't love about you too..."

He smiles, stroking her hair. It was so soft… he even closed his eyes in satisfaction, stretching out on the bed. He could feel himself light-headed, carefree…

"Naoh...," She calls out suddenly, her voice low, hesitant. "Did you… did you mean it when you said that earlier? It... wasn't it on the spur of the moment?"

"Hm?," he looks at her. "I decided to be honest with you, didn't I? So, yeah, I'm serious...," He didn't want to say how much he wasn't willing to let go of her at any moment; he still feared that it could be used against him, somehow. He loved her and that was undeniable, but holy shit, if that story about true love not making you blind wasn't true. She curls up in his arms, sighing.

“It's just that sometimes it feels too good to be true, you know. I don't know if you feel the same or if it's just me..."

"I have no idea how to compare it, Tomoh…," he sighs. "But I just know that I really care and I'm willing to prove it."

"… Then say it again," She asks, swallowing a little. "Please. Now that our heads are a little clearer..."

She sounded fragile, for some reason. As if she was afraid of something and wanted to be reassured, comforted…he didn't know what had caused it, or if for some reason she had trouble believing it. But if that was a trap...

“Is that what you expect from the woman you swear you love? Maybe you don't love her that much then. And you keeps accusing her of always jumping to the worst conclusions.”

Guilt makes him cringe too. And it's the desire to prove to his conscience how wrong it was that impels him to say what she wanted to hear, and honestly, what he's wanted to say for so long.

"I love you, Tomori," he smiles, and speaks a little louder. "I love you, Shortie."

She lets out a loud, pig-like snort and quickly covers her mouth to stifle her ridiculous laughter. He, on the other hand, laughs out loud without trying to hide it.

"What the fuck was that noise?!

"Shut- Shut up, leave me alone! You're the one who started with this 'shortie' thing..."

"Which is what you are!"

“Anyone is short next to you, you freakin' Ent..."

"If you knew half of my social circle, you wouldn't say that. Now it's your turn!"

"Me? Oooh, now I don't want to..."

"No, now I want to hear it from you too, Piglet!"

She slaps his chest, trying to look angry and failing. There's a brief moment of silence before she looks up at him, her cheeks flushed, a smile lifting the corners of her lips.

"I love you too, Naoya."

He kisses her, as if to reward her, but also tickles her just as a joke, trapping her. It works, considering how she giggles against his lips and squirms, trying to escape his arms but soon giving up.

"Uugh, you take advantage of me just because I'm a 'shortie'…," She whimpers after returning the kiss. "I'm glad I found ways to knock you down, haha."

"I want you to knock me down, that's why I tease you," He smiles mischievously. "How are you going to do it now?"

Her lids droop, her brown eyes darkening again. She lifts her head enough to brush her lips against his neck, tracing his Adam's apple with her tongue and slowly sucking the skin there as she wraps her legs around his waist.

"I'll do it with words," She murmurs in a hoarse tone. "Let me ride you like a bull, c'mon."

"Ooohh," he smiles at her, after shivering with her words. "So you want me to be your bull… hehe, I like that…," he holds her breasts. "But only if you let me move like one and give you trouble."

"Even better. I'm going to love to tame this bull," She bites her lower lip with his hands on her breasts, giving him a quick peck "Do you have a condom? I brought one in my purse, but it's in the living room and I'm too lazy to get out of bed and go get it, hahaha."

"Yeah, I do," he reaches out to get his pants, and from there he removes his wallet, handing it to her. "Right here!"

"Thank you very much. Now if you excuse me...," She kisses him, and with her hands on his shoulders, she encourages him to lie down again. She goes back to holding his cock by the base, stroking it with her hand in that up and down movement that made him a little dizzy. She even went back to licking and kissing the tip to make it easier, dammit... he couldn't stay put in bed after that. Or, just that specific part. The rest lay flat, while another grew larger.

"Ohh… I really can't get enough of this, Tomoh."

"I know, that's why I can't either," She gives him a wink before covering him up and getting up, positioning herself on top of him and biting her bottom lip as she made him brush against her, threatening to fit and not doing so, just to tease him. "Are you enjoying the view?"

"Yeah... it's the best view," he smiles, keeping his hands away from her, but placing them under the torso, his eyes narrowing with the near-contact. "I love when you tease me, I can't get enough…"

She lifts her hips just enough to position herself, and then she moans softly as she sits back down, shuddering at the warm, luscious feel of him slowly entering her. "Ooh, I can't get enough of that either…!"

He hisses low at the contact, but doesn't hold her legs this time. He starts to move his hips with her on top of him. "Now… hmm… it's your turn to ride the bull, he's moving..."

She gasps when he thrusts deeper into her like that, hitting a spot that made her nearly lose her balance. She leans her hands on the headboard again, moaning and trying to keep up with the movements of his hips as she lowers and raises hers, squeezing herself in the process so it feels even better for him.

"Oooh... Let's- Let's see about that... hnnn, Naoh...!"

"Hnmmm… Tomoo ohh…," he groans, moving his hips with her. "Hmm… I can feel you taking me all the way in, oohhh…," He looked at her, his eyes seeming to devour her, while he hissed and gasped with her grips and thrusts.

“And you're going so deep, I love it so much…” She gasps, her expression a little dazed, and he watches her breasts bounce as she rides him hard, sweat trickling down her skin, her full and wavy hair disheveled, wild. Hell, what had he done to deserve such a wonderful view? He didn't know but he was loving it and he wanted her wild like that whenever she wanted to ride him.

"Ohhh… Tomori…," he bites his lip, moving his hips harder. "Hnmmmm… that's so fuckin' good… but… I want to see you…," and he takes a hand to the middle of her legs, rubbing her clit with his thumb. "I wanna see you coming for me…"

"Aaaah! I- I will, I'm almost there, almost...! Na- NaooOOH!," And she collapses on top of him, shivering all over as she squeezed him hard in those rhythmic pulses, and it was so good that she was so much smaller than him, because it felt even better that way, holy shit...!

"Ooohhh… me- me too- hhnnNNNn!," he trembles as he collapses onto the mattress with her on top of him, instinctively holding her hips as he reaches his climax, panting heavily, even rolling his eyes back in delight. He hears, from somewhere in the distance, her breathless giggle. He feels her soft, warm, sweaty body lie over his, and soon, her lips are attacking his in a hungry kiss, her chest rising and falling quickly with his.

"Hnnn... there- there we go... a duly tamed bull..."

"Moooow!," he bellows playfully, laughing out loud along with her afterwards. She gives him one more kiss before lifting her hips, pulling him out of her, and pulling out the condom for him. And she even gives one more lick and a suck on the tip to emphasize, that miniature devil. He shudders and gasps, and she smirks at him.

"You clown... lucky for you that was so good..."

"You're invited to do it more often with me," he smiles, rolling over on the bed to face down. "Come on, let's see the bathroom and then we'll take a shower so we can watch Seki's match."

“If we fit in your bathtub together, I'm up for it. Carry me?," She asks, reaching her arms to him. "My legs are still wobbly, riding you demands a lot from me."

"Don't even ask twice," he picks her up and carries her, taking her to the bathroom. "hohoho, I'm carrying you like a princess! I love it."

"I'm the King of Combat's princess then?" I love it too," She giggles, resting her head on his chest and closing her eyes, smiling satisfied. "I accept the title with all the honors that come with it. Being carried is one of them."

"No, no, princesses are too cute for what you really are," He laughs. "If I'm the King, then you have to be the Queen."

She flushed with happiness, even swinging her legs as she hugged him back.

“Okay, a Queen, then. Your queen…”

He had to stop himself from bouncing with happiness as he carried her into the bathroom. He still wanted to retain a shred of goddamn dignity!

* * *

"Damn, Naoh… your bathtub is a dream come true!," Tomori sighs while she and Okubo leave the bathroom, steam following them through the door left open. He smiles as he closes it behind him.

"Did you like it?"

"I loved it! It was like walking into a private bath house where no one makes a fuss about my tattoo,” She smiles at him over her shoulder, finishing wrapping herself in the fluffy towel. His expression becomes insinuating.

"And where we won't be kicked out if we decide to play in there a little. All pros and no cons," He approaches and bends down, moving her wet hair away to smell the nape of her neck, making her shiver. "You can bathe in it whenever you want."

"Hnnn… and what is the fee?"

"Your cookies, your kisses... and whatever else you want to give me," And he takes a bite on her warm and fragrant skin, making her shudder and laugh, moving away from him by slapping his hand.

"You're very easy to please, aren't you?"

"Yeah, that's how lucky you are! Almost as much as I am..."

"Stop it, you...," She laughs and gasps when he grabs her by the hips, pulling her to smell and kiss her neck. "That way we'll end up in an endless sex-bath cycle, again and again..".

“You say it like it's a bad thing."

"It's not, but I really don't want to lose Mr. Seki's match. C'mon, don't make that face," She asks when he frowns. "I already told you that you have no reason to be jealous..."

"What? ... Oh no, that's not it," He shakes his head after a few seconds of confusion. "I was just remembering something and I got thoughtful..."

"Can I know what it is or is this another one of your secrets?"

"No…," He scratches the back of his head, looking to the side in sudden embarrassment. "​​I can talk about it, but it's just… it's kinda ridiculous, to be honest."

"Look, I think we've already reached the intimacy stage where ridiculous situations are part of the package," She argues. "We've moved on from there. I promise I won't make fun of it... too much."

He rolls his eyes, trying not to smile too much when she laughs.

"I would be worried about you if you didn't make fun of it. Anyway...," He shakes his head. "Remember that time when I was trying to win you back after my fuck-up? With the gifts and everything..."

She raises her eyebrows a little, nodding slowly.

"Kinda hard to forget. First the chocolate box, then half a flower shop's stock..."

"And you liked it, you can stop with the exasperated tone," He snorts. "But anyway, the chocolate and the flowers… they weren't the first gifts I bought for you. There's another one... and you can use one of them if you like. They're comfortable..."

"Huh?," She blinks, momentarily confused. And then her eyes widen a little when she understands. "Wait, you – you bought me clothes?"

“Uh… yes?," It was supposed to come out as a statement, but it came out more like a question, given the slight nervousness.

"In plural?"

"Yeaaaah...?"

"Aah… oh, Naoh…," She blushes a bit, scratching an arm. "I… oh, damn, I don't want to sound ungrateful, I swear I'm happy about it, but… how much did they cost?"

He frowns, a little sullen.

“Hey, hey, you don't ask the price of a gift given from the heart."

"I know, I know. I'm sorry, I...," She ends up sighing. "Anyway, why didn't you give them to me before, in that case?"

"Well… I was going to, but the guys warned me that it might be… inappropriate," He gestures uncertainly. "Under the circumstances, at least."

She blinks again. And then her eyes widened even more, her checks blushing even harder, and this time it wasn't hard for Okubo to read her expression.

"It's not lingerie or anything like that!," he exclaims, alarmed, and she immediately relaxes, taking a deep breath in relief.

"Oooh, good… but what else would be considered inappropriate, in that case?," She asks, and it's his turn to blush. He wets his lips and turns to his closet.

"Yeah, I think you'd better see for yourself..."

He opens the door, allowing her a brief glimpse of the various shelves drawers, the hangers and the items of clothing they hold, the shoes, the baseball caps and various boxes containing sporting equipment before he closes the door behind him. He leaves about half a minute later, carrying a pile of T-shirts, looking a little mortified.

"Okay... first of all, promise you won't get mad at me?"

“I… I don't know if I can promise something like that, so I'll just promise I'll try,” She says after hesitating, to which he sighs.

"Fair enough... here, they're all the same size, so if they don't fit... oh no, the refund deadline has already expired, so it doesn't even matter," He sighs again, more dramatically, and Tomori just can't contain herself.

"Damn, now I'm more curious than worried! Let me see this..."

She picks up the top T-shirt from the pile and unfolds it. She is expressionless for about a second. Then her jaw drops.

"Oh, God..."

"Yeah…," he pouted. "I bought some shirts printed with my face from the store, because well, you're my fan, and I thought if I gave you some… but the guys said…," and he stopped, looking at her. "What's with that face, Tomoh?"

“… It's- It's just that I…,” She starts to say, not seeming to know how to continue. She turns the T-shirt over, checking the back of it and showing him his own face, in profile and smiling, stamped there in a scale of white and gray. She clenches her mouth, holding back a farting sound. "I… I kinda already have one of these, hahaha!"

"... Oh," he sighs. "Okay, I didn't see that coming. So does that mean you like it?"

"Of course!," She exclaims, clearly more relaxed, and that was a tremendous relief. "I mean, if you'd given me that back then, I would've found you very audacious," She admits, but without stopping smiling. "But now… damn, why I wouldn't like it? You gave me the entire collection!," She leaves the shirt aside and goes to inspect the others, excited. "Do you want me to wear one of them, then?"

"Well, they are kind of tailored for you, I think," he says, without much idea in his head. "I hope I got the size right and it's not too tight."

"Let me see…," She removes the towel, allowing him to have his favorite view for a few seconds before putting on one of the shirts. She opens her arms, smiling, showing his own face on her chest. "Yeah, it fits! How do I look?"

"Just like Donald Duck," he laughs. "Wearing a shirt and nothing else."

“Uh… aaah, you jerk!," She hides the middle of her legs with her hands, turning red again, while he bursts out laughing. "If I knew how to make a Donald Duck impression, I'd tell you everything you deserve to hear in his voice!"

"Hahahah, and who said I didn't like it?," Okubo smiles. "You look great in it. If it was up to me, you'd watch the match like this. It would make my job easier later..."

She puffs out her cheeks, still flushed.

"Pervert... I'll wear at least one pair of pajama shorts. Can you imagine me jumping up and down and screaming while my lady bits are ventilated? No, thanks!," She lets him have one more fit of laughter before continuing, smiling knowingly. "But you sure don't play around, huh. Wanting me to watch another one of my idols fight while wearing your face on my chest... they call it 'marking territory', right?"

"Oh, come on," he laughs again. "It's not like you're making a fool of yourself for wearing my face on your clothes… except if it was in front of an audience."

"I know I'm not. But I'd only wear it in front of an audience if you were also wearing something like that, so we can even it out," She jokes.

"Hmmm…," He has an idea. "I think I know exactly what I can do! Wait a minute," he walks into the closet and closes the door. About a minute later, he speaks from inside. "Ready, Tomoh?"

 “I have no idea what for, but sure,” She nods, looking curiously at the door.

"Okay, there you go!," he walks out the door, and there he is, dressed from head to toe as a clown. "Ta-daaaa," he waves his gloved hands, smiling, joking around.

"Uh- Ooooh, my God!," She scratches like a crow, laughing and then pointing. "It's a Kuidaore Taro costume! I can't believe you have something like this, hahahaha!"

"Well, this is a new version, but yes, I do," he scratches the back of his neck. "I wore it in the last tournament I participated in, the guys even encouraged me… but nobody recognized me and that sucked," He sighs. "But it's fine, at least my number one fan recognized it and that's enough for me."

"How could I not recognize it? I baked a whole batch of cookies with his face the second time you visited the bakery, remember? Oh, my Gohohohod...," She bends over herself, still laughing. "All that's missing is the little drum and the drumsticks! Oooh man, I have to take a picture, wait!," And she runs out of the room, with her ass still out.

"Okay, now I'm feeling kinda weird watching you run with your ass out like a nutcase. I want to see more, but I'm dressed as a clown and it's distracting me from my cosplay! My God, that's so fucking perverted, ahahhahaha," He stifles a laugh.

"Dude, control yourself, you have to maintain the character! Come here, the lighting in the living room is better," She calls, and when he goes, she's wearing tiny silk shorts, her phone already in her hand. "Okay, can you concentrate better now?"

"Awwww…," he pouted, and in that costume, it looked like someone had hurt the clown's feelings. "Now I'm bummed, I wanted to keep this mental image of you being cute and sexy in my living room…"

"Naoya, look at the size of these pajama shorts! Only the complete set can be sexier than that," She slaps her own ass, laughing. "You'll see for yourself later. Come on, you don't want to appear in the photo with your 'circus tarp' all set up, do you? Hehehahaha!"

"Damn, that'd be one hell of a weird porn… but I'm not going to do that. Okay, if you're taking a pic, what pose should I do?"

"The classic 'playing drums' pose would be perfect, but I don't think you have the drum or the sticks... Oooh, I know, do a super sentai pose, it'll look funny!," She puts the phone horizontally. And relax, I won't" show it to anyone, it'll just be for me to keep as a souvenir. You look so cute, my God...!," she coos, and it didn't sound mocking. Hell, what had he done to deserve that woman?

He smiles. "Okay then, how about Ultraman's pose, like this?," he raises one arm and flexes the other, leaving his legs apart. "Then I'll open my best Kuidaore smile, just like this…," he smiles.

She laughs out loud and snaps the photo. And then another one hits. And other. And yet another, all of it non stop laughing, varying angles, herself seeming to strike poses in her excitement.

"That's perfect! Now flex your muscles... yes, just like that!," She was approving, and then she runs to him, hugging him from the side. "Wow, I can even see 'em through the costume! Lookin' gooood..."

"And it's all yours," He smiles. "Well, how about if I do this…?," He flexes his arms downwards, making them appear under the costume, and still looking smiling like an idiot, to Tomori's delight. "Yeah, now how about a-," He cuts himself off when he hears the doorbell ring "Oh".

She stops laughing, looking a little startled at the door.

"Oh, are- are you expecting someone? Who is that-"

"HEEEY, IS ANYBODY HOME?!," A thundering voice is heard from the other side of the door. "Is this where someone ordered a half margherita, half Florentine pizza, to match the owner's egg head?"

Tomori's eyes widen. "Rihito?"

"What the…!," he blinks. "I didn't invite him over…," He goes to the door and answers it. "Hey, Rihito, you could've told me you were coming, man!," He stops halfway to open the door when he sees Himuro and Kaneda. "Oh, you guys came too…," and he opens his mouth in astonishment when he notices the seven feet tall man right behind them. "Agito?!"

"Huh?," Tomori frowns, approaching to try to see behind Okubo's body. She could see Rihito, Himuro, Kaneda and... holy crap, who was that giant man right behind them?!

"Can you believe it, dude? Rihito ran into him when he was leaving Yamashita's office and…," Himuro was about to say, but he was interrupted as he looked him up and down, making a slightly perplexed expression. "What's with the costume?"

"And… Miss Uta? You're here?!," Kaneda widens his eyes when he notices Tomori, right behind Okubo. Rihito widens his eyes too, looking from her to the bald man, stopping to analyze the situation... and then making a face that was a mixture of horror and disgust.

"Holy shit, what the hell were you two doing in here?!"

The couple turns extremely red. An awkward silence falls over the group for a few moments. And that's when the huge man right behind the other three idiots, with slicked back dark hair, sunken eyes without eyebrows and wearing biker attire, finally speaks.

"Hnnn… is this what Narushima Koga calls 'bad timing'?"

NEXT CHAPTER

[mousmoula]

my thoughts (and prayers) on shadow & bone season 2:

(spoilers ahead, mostly about the crows, also i haven't watched the last 2 eps yet, i'll reblog with anything else when i do)

i LOVED wesper but holy fuck did they rush the fuck out of their relationship

i'm too lazy to retype it but i summed it up adequately here earlier:

the other tags i wanted to put here aren't in english so tldr: in the books, wylan and jesper's relationship is founded in their mutual respect for and admiration of each others' strengths, intelligence and genuine trust that they can do so much more than they allow themselves to. this type of relationship takes time to build, time which this show absolutely did not give them. that being said, again—i doubt the creators thought they would have the time to begin with (see tags above) and i don't really blame them for rushing it.

also... so many iconic scenes from soc AND ck lost 😭 i liked how they recreated some of them in the context of the show but some others i'll miss forever

on the plus side, we may not have gotten "just girls?" "no, not just girls" but we did get jesper recognising wylan only after he's on top on him,,, other stuff so i can't really complain lol. i enjoyed it!

wylan felt quite underdeveloped to me, plus he was reduced to his relationship with jesper, barely existed outside of it and didn't interact almost at all with anyone else. it HURTS me soul, last 2 eps better fix this.

i loved matthias making friends with his cell mate 😭

pekka rollins was a good villain in the books but they made him truly horrible in this one like jesus christ there was NO reason for him to be that bad. not complaining though! i like a good villain. i also want to see him crucified

KAZ BREKKER AND HIS LOVELY, BEAUTIFUL, INCREDIBLE BRAIN

no but i love how, once you learn enough about kaz, he's so... easy to read? as a character? every single plan of his so far this season i've been able to predict and it brings me such joy every time. this isn't me saying he was predictable, in fact i think they got his funky little brain very correctly and i loved that. they didn't get everything perfectly with him but i think his plans were super well-thought through and it reminded me how much i adore this asshole (affectionate)

where the hell was jesper's gambling addiction during this season.......... i was so happy with how they dealt with it during s1 and now 6 eps in it hasn't been mentioned in the slightest

his conflict with being a durast was also handled a bit badly, mainly because there was hardly any conflict at all 😭

overall sad with how jesper's character was dealt with, he's one of my favourites and i'm pretty frustrated lol

KANEJ<333333

i could write an essay on why i love and adore every single one of the crows basically

GENYA LOVE OF MY LIFE

i love her so much she didn't deserve all this crap i'm SO upset with her backstory with the king ew

how tf do people like alina and the darkling together lmao there's no romance there 😭

NIKOLAI IS EVERYTHING TO ME ACTUALLY i haven't read shadow and bone but i loved his character so much

think i've said this before but when he appeared in crooked kingdom i pictured him in my head as the duke of weselton (or however tf that's spelt) from frozen. make of that what you will.

TOLYA AND TAMAR'S INTRO WAS THE COOLEST FUCKING THING I'VE EVER WATCHED i rewatched it so many times 😭 absolutely incredible characters, i love them

i feel so bad but among everything else i really couldn't care about the whole darkling and alina plot... mal being the firebird, nikolai's crew, baghra's sacrifice, genya trying to redeem herself etc were all very interesting arcs and i cared very much about them but the main plot about alina and kirigan and the problems between them. i just. Do Not Care

tolya and jesper's "friendship" so to say was lovely

i'll genuinely clip tolya and tamar's intro and tattoo it on my forehead i'm listening to the soundtrack now and i'm losing my head it was so GOOD

kaz better mention van eck by the end of the season i NEED them to set this plot up for when (if) we get s3 or a soc spin-off

the fold was such a good world-building part last season but we barely saw it this time. i fucking miss the fold. what's life

the whole season felt very,,, transitional, maybe? so we better fucking get another one. netflix i'm watching you and you better fucking prove me wrong

where the fuck is fedyor 😭 and (because i care about fedyor's happiness) where the fuck is ivan

me: damn i hope vasily dies he's annoying as fuck

vasily: *dies a good 10 seconds later*

overall: generally happy with this season, upset with what they did to the crows, still hyped to finish the last 2 eps and share more thoughts (and prayers)

if you watch the series with the mindset that it's a completely separate thing (from six of crows/crooked kingdom) and just to have fun, you're guaranteed that much, in my opinion. it's fun and i can ignore the stuff i'm upset about because i can re-read soc anytime so yeah!

[tacticalgrandma]

I love in Crimson Flower how Edelgard is gobsmacked by the idea that Claude had plans in place in case he lost the battle, and then Hubert talks about him in glowing terms afterwards. Hubert not even caring that they were on opposite sides just like holy shit, someone else here has more brain cells than self confidence. Finally some good fucking food.