#hopefully it is all coherent and/or interesting!! lmao

[chantillyxlacey]

i've seen a lot of takes (i am using the word 'take' absolutely neutrally here; and i'm specifying neutrality bc i have started to see that word as having inherently negative connotations in this context and i have no idea if that's just a Me Problem but i figured specificity couldn't hurt)

okay, that got away from me, let me start again

i've seen a lot of takes about The Damsel that have to do with idealization being another kind of dehumanization and how she's Like She Is because you/TLQ are projecting a fantasy onto her and sanding away any traits that don't fit into that fantasy and rendering her into little more than a vessel for your/TLQ's wish fulfillment

and i don't necessarily think that's *wrong* either-- but i think that's also not the complete picture, and that only looking that that half of the image does kind of tend to paint TLQ in an unfairly bad light

because the thing is, in The Damsel's route, TLQ is ALSO being reduced to an archetype just as much as The Damsel herself is! The Princess becomes the quintessential fairytale fair-maiden-in-distress that exists only to be rescued by a knight-in-shining-armor; and TLQ-- if you allow them to be guided entirely by The Smitten-- becomes that quintessential fairytale knight-in-shining-armor that only exists to rescue the fair-maiden-in-distress

The Damsel says over and over, explicitly, that "I just want to make you happy!" and The Smitten in this route is equally preoccupied with making HER happy-- he even says it directly if you start deconstructing her. every other part of his identity has been subsumed to revolve entirely around her just as much as the reverse is true for her.

(speaking of the Deconstructed Damsel, i've also seen Smitten's reaction to that touted as him not caring about her agency-- but again, i always read that as him being unable to see any flaws in her rather than being pleased with the idea of her being biddable, specifically. if you halt the deconstruction his reaction is "she's ALWAYS been perfect" -- he'd think that no matter what she did or said, because his identity revolves around her the exact way that hers revolves around him/TLQ)

even the actions that lead to HEA fit into this, i think-- i read that moment as less The Smitten lashing out at her because she didn't live up to his fantasy-- it still happens even after she's said "i guess we can stay, if that's what you want"-- she's giving The Smitten what he wants, but he's still distressed because SHE'S not happy

i think it's more The Smitten feeling that HE hadn't lived up to HIS half of their shared fantasy. if she's not happy with the idea of "all we need is each other" then it must be because HE failed somehow. if she needs or wants more than him, it must be because HE is not enough.

if he was just better at playing his part, if he just offered her more, if he was just clearer about his devotion--

"if we just showed her the contents of our heart, she'd be happy"

that's not to say that what The Smitten does in HEA isn't incredibly toxic for both of them-- it definitely is, and it clearly makes both the Princess and TLQ miserable. "everything she doesn't know she wants" is a bad mindset to approach a relationship with, whether that mindset is reached through controlling selfishness or a desperation to appease (and i definitely think Smitten is motivated by the latter-- it's no coincidence that we arrive at HEA through a literal and fatal act of self mutilation)

he's definitely the antagonist of HEA, in that he is what TLQ and the Princess and the player need to overcome, but he's not a VILLAIN (which i think is most clearly illustrated in the moment where the Princess admits she's unhappy, that she's never been happy here, and his reaction is to GIVE UP instead of lash out harder)

i never got the sense that The Smitten was ever putting any blame on The Damsel-- he always considered *himself* to be the problem-- he puppeteers TLQ just as much as he does the Princess, even if we can't hear him while she can, and he asks TLQ/the player through her "isn't this enough? isn't this what you wanted?"

which in and of itself is an unhealthy way to approach a relationship-- blaming oneself for every bit of conflict or lapse in synchronicity is just as harmful as laying all the blame on the other person. there IS no blame-- sometimes people disagree or have conflicting needs or desires, and that's not anybody's "fault" because that's just how people and relationships WORK.

...can you believe i wrote out all of this when my original intention was to lay out an entirely different point about a read on The Damsel/HEA routes that wasn't about relationships at all?

OKAY!

THAT GOT AWAY FROM ME LET ME START AGAIN

so i don't think that looking at The Damsel/HEA through a lens of "what does this say about relationships and expectations and respecting other people's agency" is incorrect-- clearly i have a lot of thoughts about that lens!

but i wanted to offer another one that i haven't seen yet:

The Damsel/HEA route as a commentary on what makes a satisfying narrative

if you play out The Damsel route just single-mindedly taking actions to free her-- it's kinda dull, isn't it? like-- it's not without its charms! The Smitten is silly and entertaining and the Narrator's exaggerated pettiness is very funny! but ultimately, that's about it.

potential sources of conflict are brushed aside-- if you took the blade with you, you just drop it and it gets forgotten; the Damsel's hand slips right out of the manacle with no effort or harm; when the Narrator locks the basement door, every 'choice' you make just magically unlocks it right away. and then you're outside, what you wanted to do from the start. ...so what do we do now?

nothing, actually. the chapter ends, and there is no chapter 3. the game itself continues, but that ending feels about as substantial as the Narrator's "Good Ending" where you follow his instructions without question and accomplish his goal immediately.

if you DON'T take either of the actions that lead to one of Damsel's chapter 3's, there's very little variation in The Damsel's story-- pretty much all of it comes down to slight differences in dialogue. there's no "the princess kills you" outcome. the closest thing to an alternate end to The Damsel is if you deconstruct her-- and even then, it feels like less an "alternate route" and more like-- a cheeky acknowledgement of the lack of substance, because that isn't a bug, it's a feature!

but if you introduce conflict-- either in the more direct sense by slaying The Damsel or in the more interpersonal sense by highlighting a mis-match in her and TLQ's desires-- suddenly the story opens up! there are a bunch of new possibilities and a bunch of new outcomes, and all of them are more interesting than "you achieve your goal with trivial effort, hooray!"

Even if you wind up finishing HEA on a note that is superficially very similar to the easy end of The Damsel's route-- you leave hand in hand with her, the narrator conceding defeat, and the last image of her before TSM takes her is a warm, tender smile-- it FEELS so much more like a genuine happy ending-- even though the Princess' face is still streaked and stained from her tears. BECAUSE of that.

it's one of the most heartwarming moments in the game, and one that has made me misty eyed every time i've seen it, and it's BECAUSE of the conflict you had to go through to get there.

conflict is what drives a compelling narrative, is the takeaway. it precludes PERFECT endings, perhaps, but not happy endings-- it's what makes those imperfect happy endings feel substantial and earned.

even the dinner and the board game contribute to the idea-- the description of the food is some really lovely writing, to the point where i sat through and listened to it all again even though i knew nothing really happens during it-- but *nothing really happens during it*. it doesn't move the narrative forward-- you're just as hungry as you were when you started. it just stalls the story in place, and every time you go through it again it's less satisfying until it's outright unpleasant. the description of the meal also notably gets simpler each time, and less detailed-- there's only so much that you can say about it before you run out of things to describe.

the board game is similar-- the way that it's described the first time you play even sounds like the description of an exciting story! and then the board resets, and you do it all again just the same. and so on. the game/story stops being exciting and the wins or losses stop feeling like they mean anything-- because is conflict really conflict, is a challenge really a challenge, if you're always tracing the same path, always making moves where you already know the outcome? it becomes "a slog towards the end"

and this is how i tie the idea of "what Damsel/HEA has to say about relationships" and "what Damsel/HEA has to say about narratives" together:

ultimately, the statements can be summarized the same way "whether in a narrative or a relationship, 'perfection' is unattainable, but you wouldn't actually want it anyway"

conflict, substance, variety

in a relationship there will always be differences of opinion, differing goals etc-- variety between the members of the relationship, knowing and sharing this substantial and non-superficial information about one another, navigating the resultant conflict-- that's what allows the relationship to grow and deepen, and what allows the people in it to grow as individuals as well.

in a narrative, or in Narratives, as a whole, conflict is what makes things HAPPEN, substance makes them feel like what happens MATTERS, like something is being communicated, variety means that you're learning or considering something new-- and those are what make a narrative capable of impacting a person, of changing them, of being remembered

[surreal-souly]

I was thinking about what the sage and Ena said about bodies. The sage said something along the lines of being present in multiple bodies/lives at the same time, and then Ena talking about the "bathroom" not being enough for their bodies.

Maybe they are connected. The Ena one is probably because it's like each one has multiple split personalities/minds in one body, but what if that's the case, along with also being part of Ena as a whole, as in all the Enas that exist or existed.

I was thinking of how each ena is ena but split into different enas. The more unstable or incompatible an ena has become from the original or from their original they split (probably unlikely the case).

probs it's something more like being clones/just being a species that's somehow connected with each other, because they can also very well be independent beings/entities (.....wait I suppose the split ones could also very well be/become independent. I confused myself now lol)

Also seems like the past, future, and present being the present/happening at the same time happens with Ena and maybe other characters/in this world in general. At the hub, we can already see a mannequin lying down. That ended up being the one that she burst out of after being trapped within the lonely door. Since it was there since the start, I think that would mean she has already gotten trapped while she was also just arriving to the hub to start her job.

Based on the credit ending scene. The void containing mannequins is similar to that from the great runas. What if they are the same? Seems like each door is a gateway from different doors that were closed and ena got trapped in or corrupted in. Maybe the color of the void is like depth/levels. It was a darker in bbq but lighter in great runas. It could be the same void space but at different levels.

When Ena looked into the genie's memories of what could of happened she was experiencing the memories directly. I think that would mean she was experiencing the action of another ena that had completed those actions or was in the middle of doing those actions as our ena was experiencing the memories of those actions.

This reminds me of the power of potluck. At the start, Ena enters the door, but then at the end, it's like she never went in there and was instead experiencing a memory of another Ena or herself completing those actions coherently. Since Moony talked about why Ena didn't run after ringing the bell. So far, it seems like none of the enas even remember being there or technically they do, since they experienced it through memories? lol.

Something I found interesting is that bbq ena struggles with joy by not enjoying it, or at least it seems that way. The meanie side gets stressed by experiencing joy. While our blue/yellow ena struggles with understanding joy ....me thinks......

uhh I forgot what my thinking process was.... Hopefully this made sense .......to some degree even just a tiny bit lmao

Edit-

Okay idk why my mind didn't register moony saying not going in to the wrong place in potluck but the spiral scene still makes it seem as if Ena just stood there. Maybe it was like both things happening at the same time were Ena did go in the door for the many times she already went in but also Another Ena or herself was also just standing their experiencing the memories of the Ena entering the door.

[frogsinflannel]

Does it count as a make me write prompt if I just quietly beg you about the Incubus fic idea for awhile cause please please please please please please please please please please please pleaseplease-

yay 💚

This absolutely counts as a “make me write” thank you! I started banging this out while on my lunch break, so we’ll see how much I actually get to say lmao — and it’s later now so hopefully things are coherent?

-One teeeeensy snippet:

“It’s just the venom,” Tommy tells him. “You don’t really want me, trust me.”

No, there’s no way that’s true. Buck remembers seeing him as soon as he’d walked in the bar. He’d wanted to ask Tommy about his work-out routine. He’d wanted to arm wrestle, feel the weight of Tommy’s body as he tackled him to the ground. Those feelings might be confused now, when all he knows is this burning, aching fire inside him, an arousal like nothing he’s ever felt before, but he knows they were there. They were real.

“I do,” he says. He paws at Tommy’s shirt, trying to get his hands at the skin underneath. “I want you. I want you so… so badly.”

~

Lots of writing thoughts under the cut!

First, this is throwing out any and all established lore about what an incubus is. I am making my own rules, anything goes, etc etc. Like, the one thing I kept other than the name and the general “sex demon” vibe is the connection through dreams–although if this is a one-shot as I’ve planned then that probably won’t come up so it doesn’t super matter. There is an element of siphoning energy or feeding (and similar to what I think is kind of a “siren” in pop culture I think there’s an element of fantasy/shape-shifting, but I’m not terribly interested in exploring that in this story. I like the incubus!Tommy as Tommy with his face and everything, so).

Okay so the things we’re hitting in this story: OBVIOUSLY SOME NASTY NASTY STUFF, let’s not pretend it’s really about anything else, huh? Like PWP is the primary objective. And I want Buck absolutely lost in it, like he’s going to be under the influence of incubus venom and it’s going to make him desperate, sloppy, mindless with want, etc etc etc. And. This is a line I want to toe carefully, but yeah, the desperation of it all is important. Buck’s whining, begging, can’t keep that tongue in his mouth–but the narration’s going to be neutral about it. Not shaming or condescending or disdainful or you know, whatever, when you hear “oh they’re desperate” that’s typically painted as a bad thing, but in this case I want it to be more about. About the hunger. Like Buck has felt like he’s too much, he wants too much–and then here is Tommy, who says no. feel more. Be more. Want more. Basically this is giving Buck license to be as pleasure-seeking and slutty as his clingy little heart desires. It’s going to be in Buck’s POV, and stylistically I want it to feel very dreamy and hazy, really fluid, descriptive writing in a loose rhythm–like long, flowing sentences that pull you rather than short, punchy ones that propel. If that makes sense. But I have to balance that with a really grounded physicality–I’m normally maybe a little too up-in-the-air/loose with it when it comes to where exactly each body part is or what’s happening in sex scenes because I’m focusing on either something specific (like kissing, or or whatever) or the feeling is more important. But as gauzy as I want it to feel in Buck’s head, I want really specific and very, very physical detail, too. Nothing gross, but like. The texture of hair on an arm as your fingers brush across it. A twinge from kneeling. The smell of your partner’s body. Hair sticking to your forehead, maybe the shell of your ear bent weird when you’re laying on the pillow, like. I hope that makes sense. I want it to come a few steps from the line of being too much. I want it to be sexy, yeah, but I want the reader to really, really be aware of the physical, of the existence of Buck’s body in the world as a physical object.

But, ahem. Also with that. I’m really, really thinking that I want it to be… weird. Like if Tommy can shapeshift, what all can he do with his body? Multiple arms? Other appendages? Wings, tentacles—what??? So I’m still mapping out how monstery I want the monster-fucking. I know I want at least one scene with Tommy “drinking” (or feeding/whatever) Buck’s energy, and I want it to be like this really euphoric moment. Like Tommy head back, eyes closed, and Buck enthralled as he watches, maybe reaching up and touching the swell of Tommy’s bottom lip with two hesitant fingers. He feels washed out, cleansed, like he’s been broken up and scraped clear of gunk. That’s probably going to be the climax of the story, but right now I’m not sure exactly where things go from there. Gotta figure that out.

[trebuchet151]

If you’re up for it, I’d love to hear more about Corey! What kind of villain he is, what his goals are, anything you’d be willing to share? No pressure of course! Love seeing your art

Starting with a heartfelt thank you for your interest in them, I think my blog has gotten more attention today bc of your reblog than it has collectively since I made it lmao. I am a huge fan of your sidestep too actually, I've only recently quit being just a lurker on this site but I've always loved seeing Richard cross my dash.

I'd LOVE to share about Corey!!!

I'm not 100% sure on a canon route yet, but for now this is one of my favs

Under a cut for length

Back during the sidestep days, they were known as a vigilante, specializing in tech and tactics. Once Anathema and Ortega broke the ice, they really opened up and became very social (comparatively anyway, theyre still a homebody) and were very involved in their community in like a local cryptid way ("honey, the masked stranger that cut the boot off my tire is on the TV lurking in the background of a rangers interview"). Very stray cat affection style, went from "i hate you dont touch me" to being in Themmy/ Ortega's space constantly. They have absolutely terrible mental health that was somewhat on the mend thanks to the support of their friends until they went and got the "taste the metal"/"one more day" path during the heartbreak incident .

During Rebirth, they're much more withdrawn and dissociative. In the time since the heartbreak incident they have become much more cautious and try to avoid combat whenever they can, taking telepathic boosters and speed/jump-jets as their armor enhancements. They blow up the museum while maintaining a no kill status and take the villain name "Heartbreak" (i love the angst that one brings). Corey blames themselves for what happened to them and their friends (sidestep/past self nemesis), and their motivation is their anger over everything that's happened to them.

Corey changes nemesis/motives between rebirth and retribution. Their more social nature starts coming back as their relationship with the current rangers and mortem improves and they go to therapy, which mellows them out a lot. They begin to wonder if they're doing the wrong thing (current self nemesis) and change motivations to "show the world the truth". Heartbreak becomes an anarchist, dedicated to exposing corrupt politicians with the least amount of violence possible. Their irresistable urge to monologue about how fucked up things are makes both Ortega and Chen sympathetic and suspicious.

For now, Corey's got a mirror image puppet named Mallory. Ideally, the puppet would be a woman for maximum gender crisis, but I love the scene in Ortega's romance that has him call the puppet by sidesteps name, and that only triggers with the mirror image achievement.

I have played ALL the romance routes and adore everyone, especially Dr. Mortum (Corey's new best friend), but the friends to lovers with Ortega wins me over, so Ortega is winning the canon route by a very thin margin.

I'm having a very hard time figuring out Corey's gender issues, bc we have dysphoria in opposite directions. I *think* they're agender, but that might change over time who knows. They're gonna come out during the story whenever that gets addressed, so He/him and They/them are both applicable

My favorite retribution ending so far is where Corey goes to see HG themselves, crashes, and is revealed as Heartbreak, but Ortega breaks them out anyway.

Thank you so much for your interest in Corey! I love them so much and am thrilled to share <3

I'll put together a more coherent summary of their lore eventually, but hopefully this is good for now :)

[itsmistyeyedbi]

2024 writing roundup

Thank you for the tag @wayhavenots and @serenpedac! This was fun to do, especially since I genuinely forgot some of the things I wrote in 2024 lol.

words posted: 16 200

additional words written: 1 000 words of Zuri and Bobby finding a little comfort in each other after the events of book 3.

grand total of words: 17 200

fandoms: The Wayhaven Chronicles

highest kudos: the man in the mirror, the woman in the mask

highest hit oneshot: bare your teeth, blunt as they may be

*checking for these reminded me that I reminded me that I still need to post my Farah fics on there! Can't believe I forgot

new things I tried:

I wrote from Farah's point of view for the first time! Writing from Unit Bravo's point of view is always daunting to me. I can have plenty of thoughts on a character but when it comes to depicting in them in writing, I struggle - and that's without writing from their perspective. But I feel a little more confident about that now.

I tried writing a fight scene, though it's mostly Zuri being thrown around more than anything. It's not a bad start to writing more action scenes in my humble opinion.

I started writing in the present tense lol. I've written in past tense for so long and it somehow didn't occur to me that I haven't really tried anything else. Hopefully I get to shake of the rigidity I didn't realise I had about my writing.

fic I spent the most time on: bare your teeth, blunt as they may be if I'm remembering corretly

fic I spent the least time on: of plants and dresses, a little something I wrote for the happyhauvillebday event!

favourite thing I wrote: It's gotta be pulse - I haven't written smut in a long time, and I think I this was the perfect way to get back into it. I adore Farah and writing her thoughts throughout made me kinda giddy lol. Here's an excerpt (nsft):

She watches all of it the way she asked her to, even though she didn't need to. She didn't want to look at anything or anyone but her. She looked for her when she wasn't around and couldn't tear her eyes off her when she was. And she definitely isn't going to miss a second of this. Not when she's teetering on the edge again, trembling and barely coherent. Farah leans down until her forehead almost touches hers, biting her lip as her bare chest brushes against her and her breath fans her face. “You're so beautiful like this.” Zuri’s heart skips a beat before continuing its loud and frantic pace. Her lips curl into a small smile, eyes shifting away before meeting hers again, pupils blown. She still gets shy when she says that.

favourite thing(s) I read:

There's so many, but I think I'll try to stick with 6 for this post. I'll be showing my appreciation for a lot of people's writing throughout the year.

father's eyes, mother's rage by @/thelionheartedo3 - what a heavy hitting exploration of the relationship between Ely and Rebecca. I don't even have the words for how much I love this, just brilliant.

featherstone by @/serenpedac - this was published on my birthday and it absolutely made my day, the banter and the mounting tension between Adam and Nate? Whew.

come apart and sweet tooth by @/nat-seal-well - their writing is gorgeous, they capture the years between Ava and Nat so incredibly well! A master at writing yearning and longing for sure.

The Debutante's Guide to Saving a Spinster by @/wayhavenots - I love Jenny and Farah! You can really feel the pull between them. I can't wait to see where this goes, it's already such an interesting regency au!

Always For The First Time by @/serially-wayhaven - I adore the dynamic between Kat and Mason and Nate. You can feel the history there, the tension building and the feelings bubbling up, and they are all so filthy together I love it!

writing goals for 2025:

I want to try out writing something other than one shots. I would have ideas for long fics and never be able to get past the first chapter lmao. Hopefully I can do that this year.

new works:

the man in the mirror, the woman in the mask

bare your teeth, blunt as they may be

late night courage

of plants and dresses

pulse

[cobralilyy]

MY YURI IN LAW MOOT LIKES SSKK??? PLEASE share your thoughts abt them I love my wlw but those shitheads happen to have a special place in my heart

HAHAHAHADJFIJSK YURI IN LAW, I LOVE THAT

YES YES I LOVE THEMM!!! much of my thoughts on them are endless screams but i’ll try my best to say something coherent about them!! hehe

soooo from their first few fights i was like ??? and then when they first started working together especially i was like ?!?!?!?? okay there’s something here!!! i’m a huge fan of the whole rivals-to-lovers trope thing, and they kind of had that going on, plus the juxtaposition of an ada/pm pairing and the whole “this is a temporary partnership; you’re the lesser of two evils” attitude (mostly in the guild arc and so on) was a cute way of having them together while maintaining that divide that would be so interesting to explore should a romantic relationship bud between them

THEN there’s the hunting dogs, ch88, all that good stuff… and OH that’s when i really lost my mind over them i think. i was absolutely devastated by akutagawa’s sacrifice; the fact that he did so at all, all the words exchanged, and the general tone of the scene. the manga was a few chapters past 88 when i started reading it so i was absolutely losing my mind thinking akutagawa was actually dead… and atsushi’s reaction to that omgggg

also just generally there’s a lot of little things about their relationship that i think are super interesting and would be nice together in a relationship, or just intriguing things to explore, like the obvious difference in their relations to dazai (which i won’t have to simply speculate on much longer probably, asagiri’s got me covered!!!) to me, they’re kind of like skk without such a deeply rooted reason for ill feelings. obviously they didn’t really start off on the right foot, but they’ve yet to abandon one another to that degree or spent years apart and at each other’s throats so harshly (and i do still like skk but like you get what i’m getting at hopefully lmao). I unfortunately forgot where i saw it, but i saw something once that said that skk is trust without understanding, fyolai is understanding without trust, and sskk is slowly shaping up to be both !!! and i really like that idea!!!!! i just think sskk has such great potential and i love love love seeing fan content of them and other people’s interpretations and everythingg

i absolutely get what you mean about loving the wlw but That One Ship… i think that might be fyolai for me actually, there’s something their dynamic and aesthetics and how they could work and how different they are yet how aligned their interests could be is just AUAAUGHHH but that’s a whole other rant :p

thank you so so much for the askkk and letting me rant about these stupid idiots!!!!! i really hope this makes sense and is coherent… anyways expect me in your inbox asking the same thing, i wanna know your thoughts too!! :D

[rata-novus]

soto started so strong and ended so. bland.

editing bc i actually really want to rant. hopefully mostly coherent rambles bc im going on like 5 hrs sleep lol

the base release was genuinely, while on the shorter end, good. interesting characters and intrigue, both from the kryptis and the (presumably skeevy) wizards/astral ward. fun lore collections. we learn about one of the astral ward who left, which shouldn’t be possible. the intrigue! (that’s never brought up again.....) the majority of zojja’s post-hot story was done thru text but it was!!! actually v good!! her ascension made me feel a mix of icky at her losing her memories and glad she found a new family - and then all that ~mystery~ and moral ambiguity surrounding the astral ward just *poof* gone.

the nayos patches started and we went from “fighting against the kryptis and also low key side eyeing the astral ward bc what they’re doing seems dubious at best and breaking some kind of moral law at worst” to “the kryptis are literally like any other group we’ve ever encountered and aren’t actually that bad and we need to overthrow their big bad the end”. oh and do about 5-10 events between story steps ty.

there were a lot of qol additions during the soto era, and i’m going to give the next xpac one more shot, but if its of the same calibre or worse (bc what’s going to be the big draw, theyve already pulled ledgy armor out of their back pocket), idk man. idk.

editing again bc i aint done lmao.

and eparch???? built up to be this terrible cannibalizing spider whom the rest of the kryptis wouldn’t dare to question (bc of the cannibalizing thing you see) and in actually he’s small with 2 lil toothpick legs and we fight him for a few minutes and he just. gives up and peitha assumes the role of king. okay. sure. whatever why not. but like..... no backstabbing? its really that simple?

sometimes..... at plot that’s straightforward. is worse. (bc its boring)

i literally could not tell you the story beats surrounding *looks @ wiki* labris, nephus, and the new kryptis general (?) at the end who isnt even on the wiki yet. what even happened? why add all these characters we’re supposed to respect and idk who they even are? build upon the new characters we already met in the base soto story. a small cast could have done wonders tbh. again: lost potential. what a mess.

[bibiana112]

Kinda weird question- do you have any links to people talking about Mira from ZTD and ableist stereotypes? I mentioned that I was uncomfortable with her portrayal but kinda fumbled it and made some other ND people in chat uncomfortable. I searched for various keyword combinations but most of what I'm finding is like "and not to mention the ableism with Mira" and doesn't elaborate lol.

Not weird at all! And uh, you see, there's a recent post I made where what I complain about is the very fact I've never seen anyone post too in-depth about her at all, I'd love to see posts that do elaborate on that but I do not have any that I know of right now, sorry :/ hopefully someone else who sees this can point to one? Okay!! After some tag searches I have found exactly one post who kind of gets into it I like this take still would love to see. more than just one but hooray

And like though I complain I couldn't elaborate much on it myself I don't think, I believe most of the posts people make about Saito from aitsf would apply since it's a different uchikoshi take on the very same trope of "emotionless characters who cannot function without killing others" I guess he's a worse portrayal though since she's at least not stated to get reward brain chemicals when killing people and I guess her case also has the added layer of "femme fatale" to it? Which either makes it less bad or worse depending on where you approach it from As I said I am not doing a good job of being coherent on this oh and also there's her being "redeemed" and "cured" in the epilogue which in on itself is kinda not great to imply it just goes away like that and honestly I personally don't even buy it I think she'd just be like oh okay Akane over here has like a thousand reasons to hate me after all that oh and what's that she's the leader of a super wealthy underground organization who's organized one of these death traps before yeah no I'm better off going to prison I'll be fine there lmao bye

But I'll say as an autistic person with relatively low empathy I usually see a character who just doesn't understand other people's feelings and wants to feel them too and is just trying to survive despite getting no help and I just kinda go hm. yeah. shout-out to roxas kingdom hearts shout out to mary from ib shout out that's why I started hyperfixating on media art helps me with understanding others a great lot and Mira is just in a story too badly executed for me to care or even begin to wrap my head around tbh like god she's so fucking terribly used as a plot device in every conceivable way that it makes it difficult to see past it and into what she could possibly be if it weren't for the stereotype of equalling low empathy with no compassion what's with her killing off screen in ways that wildly deviate from her stated m.o? why or how was she even in cahoots with Zero why was that a thing? Honestly her dynamic with Sean could have been better fleshed out could have done something interesting about robot child and his aspd big sis but we just kind of don't get any attention brought to the subject of emotions and the authenticity there of except for the "reveal"...

YOU KNOW WHAT that's probably one huge reason it feels so fucked up actually! Like the whole fucking game is written so you could experience it in whatever order you want and therefore Mira being a serial killer at all is something that though not very well hidden it also cannot be a topic of discussion or explored Ever ever because the player may not have seen the fragment where that is revealed yet- problem being the menu design of that game sucks so bad and practically everyone gravitates towards the same few more interesting looking thumbnails first and then the rest is kinda just there, I mean that is part of the reason A Lot of characters feel half-baked I think but also I think it definitely does impact perception of her character specifically probably The Most and then there's just the general not being given nuance not being able to see the minutiae of how that disorder manifests in her character aside from the killings about how she acts aside from being overly flirty trying to lure in Eric but that affects pretty much all of the new cast we don't have last names and in her case we barely have any backstory at all like Saito is a harmful stereotype sure but we get So Much Context for him that people still love talking about him and delving into different aspects of his life since we have that very well telegraphed in the narrative meanwhile for Mira all we can do is fill in the blanks guesswork that only highlights the worst aspects of the surface level portrayal we got and ultimately that people just don't care enough to dissect because there isn't much there character wise once you remove it

[creetchure]

are u willing to elaborate on ur jason fans want him to be jp(v? i assume?) post because im Not familiar with jp(v?) but im very interested (all fair if not lol big fan of ur blog ive been following since i was also a dsmp blog and ive purged my dash like two or three times since then)

jesus christ you've been here a Long Time (thank you!!! dsmp was sure a phase :DDD)

take this with a grain of salt, i'm Incredibly biased as JPV is like. My dc character. he's the Ultimate blorbo of blorbos. also, i'll sometimes switch between calling jpv jp or azrael, since they're a system, and sometimes the distinction matters.

but essentially, what you see a lot in fanon jason is: 1) relationship with bruce where bruce kind of. purposefully hurts him (on one end of the spectrum) 2) uncontrolable anger 3) a desire for bruce's acceptance like *really* bad.

it's my personal reading of jason ofc, but like. most of that just straight up isn't in the text. pit rage isn't canon, admitedly ignoring a couple of instances (cough rhato#25 and batman #138) bruce generally doesn't *try* to hurt jason and kind of tries to get closer to him, and jason like. it's changed throughout iterations, but his crusade began with the purpose of proving bruce wrong lmao. of wanting to be better than batman and spite bruce.

so just taking those, you look at jpv and you have: the fact that bruce only ever tries to either control or use him, the fact that azrael is usually a rogue agent (though not. azrael isn't murderous for Most of the Azrael title lmao. ppl look at knightfall and are like "oooooooh jpv killed so many ppl" when azrael literally Did Not) and is more violent than Batman tolerates, and the fact that JP KEEPS coming back to bruce because he really, really wants Bruce to care for him and accept him.

don't get me wrong, jason and bruce's relationship in canon is all kinds of fucked, but the specific way ppl write it (usually fanon ppl) is soooooo jpv and bruce.

also, like, if you want an incident with Tim in a place where he felt safe, Robin #7 where azrael chokes him in the batcave is Right There instead of taking Teen Titans #29 and twisting what happened there.

there's a post somewhere around of a powerpoint saying "why you should replace jason with jp in every fanfiction" and it's 100% a joke but also the way that some ppl write jason they'd honestly be better off lmao

was this coherent? hopefully! i'd like to state that i'm a jason fan also, and that this isn't a blanket statement etc etc

[earthstellar]

hey! i just wanted to let you know that i really enjoyed your post about the mutiny on the L.L and your deeper dive into the social dynamics and inner thought processes involved there. especially when it comes to megatron being put into the lost light and how it was done with absolutely zero regard to not only the crew, but to rodimus specifically. OP put megatron on a ship in a position of power over rodimus (noting the whole "co-captain" thing and it going back and forth on whether its an actual title) and the entire crew, and it's honestly somewhat of a miracle that the mutiny even had time to develop as it did. like you said, there were a hundred other ways it could of played out. your post was a very interesting read and i really enjoyed it, kudos!

i do have to say though that the mech in the post isn't hound- it's hoist. (i get them mixed up so often as well it's not even funny, both green bots with 5 letter names starting with 'ho-', smh.) but overall your point still very much stands that there isn't just a surface level unhappiness with rodimus- there are many other factors playing into why someone would be a mutineer or how someone who is already isolated and vulnerable can be nudged onto that path by an outsider force. again, very good read, thank you for sharing!

LOL YOU'RE SUPER RIGHT ABOUT IT BEING HOIST

This is what I get for trying to check Tumblr and write a whole thing at 6 AM while working and getting ready to move at the same time!! My brain is cooked!!

That's the funniest mistake I've ever made, thank you for bringing it to my attention. Genuinely this is the most I've laughed in like two months, thank you. <3 I got so into it and never even noticed. LOL

I'll edit the post to highlight that I fucked it up but I'm not going to delete it because honestly I'm proud of how almost-coherent I was while this severely exhausted.

Anyway, thank you so much for the lovely comment, and I'm so glad you enjoyed reading it anyway! :) <3

I definitely wanted to highlight the panel as a general example of other factors and how they play into what might motivate an individual to mutiny, so the general point hopefully still holds up despite my very sleep deprived character mix-up, lmao.

But I'm glad the first half of the post is a little more coherent, as I think the disregard Optimus had for the command and crew of the Lost Light is one of the first and most significant single decisions that contributed to issues that persisted and affected other outcomes etc. and it's interesting to see how it all cascades together to contribute to the circumstances that fostered a mutiny.

I'm happy to hear you liked it, thank you so much for reading through it even though I was clearly very tired when I wrote it and rambled on for quite a bit! :')

[chiarrara]

i genuinely think this second half of jjk is going to be so good animated (given mappa can get their shit together). i honestly think the story has usually been better on the screen than on the page save for a few pages, panels, chapters, and maybe one arc.

i think the main benefit the manga brings is the ability to slow down the pace, take in more information and process things vs the anime's breakneck pace. I think this works especially in the origin of obedience arc and somewhat in hidden inventory/premature death (though i still think the anime improved on this arc) and even during junpei's arc to an extent. I found myself dwelling on certain panels for a long time, flipping back through the pages to take in the story, and just generally reading slowly and thinking about the characters and the themes.

(I don't think it's a coincidence these are the most character driven arcs in the story. I also don't think it's a coincidence they came early on, or that they were in the old art style which I heavily prefer)

by the time we got to the shibuya arc however, i found myself breezing through pages, practically skipping over whole fights (don't get me started on that grasshopper) and only really stopping when something about the power system/magic system pissed me off. and I haven't really slowed down since.

megumi's section in the culling games arc was pretty good, the fight dynamics with his developed shadow technique were really interesting. yuuta's section was okay, but his opponents were boring or annoying, and the power system got even more fucked in this section. choso vs. naoya was visually cool and i liked choso's character development. yuuji v yuuta was an amazing fight, and i loved the my own private idaho scene right after + itafushi moments. yuki & choso vs kenny was nice and had good character moments woven in. i love higuruma bc im on tumblr of course i do. and sukuna taking over megumi's body was absolutely devastating and I'm never going to get over it.

but I don't think i really slowed down like I used to until gojo's death in "go south". which was such a beautiful chapter and really hit me across the face with how much it felt like old jjk, which only made me hyperaware of how much everything else didn't.

I feel like the sped up pace of the anime is gonna cover up for how much less deep the manga has become. when i slow down now, I'm only confused, pissed, or disappointed. but the hype shit is still pretty hype, and the fights are better in the anime anyway. since that's basically all the manga is right now.... hopefully that will feel a little better once mappa's animators get their hands on it. they did a good job with shibuya, i was so along for the ride. whereas in the manga, i kept getting bored and finding cracks in the writing that have only opened up so much wider.

unfortunately, I'm worried that the anime will only be able to cover up so much, and the loss of depth, meaningful character work and thematic development will still be apparent. I'm more worried that a sped up pace combined with the less coherent power/magic system developments will be confusing and distracting. and I'm worried problems with the studio will cause quality to drop (or worse it'll stay the same but working conditions will as well), but I'll hold my concern on that til there's actually something to be concerned about (which there is for working conditions, but anyway...)

empty spectacle still ends up feeling empty at the end of the day, even if the spectacle gets bigger, and that's what I'm really concerned about. but maybe my opinion is just changing bc i switched from binging chapters to reading week to week, and from anime only to caught up on the manga...... I don't think so lmao. but maybe.

[welcomingdisaster]

2 and 25? 😁

2. a compelling argument for why your fave would never top or bottom

oh no my only weakness... i have to be real every single ship i write i imagine switchy. so take this as a "in certain circumstances" kind of thing. i have written fic that contradicts both of these. it'll be compelling (hopefully) but honestly i don't know if i'll believe it. buuut. maedhros is absolutely a control freak that doesn't like being vulnerable, and sleeping with people is already toeing the line a little bit too much. i wrote enemy of good in part about his control issues in bed and i think that fic kind of captures my headcanons about his general vulnerability issues. i'm working on a longer fic about him experimenting with trauma through kink, and the rush that having power over people gives him -- so i lean towards "maedhros has to be in a very good mental state to bottom, which, considering that he wouldn't recognize a good mental state if bit him in the ass, means he doesn't really bottom." also hmmm. miriel is equally a control freak in my mind's eye. she will bottom but she will never stop bossing her partners around. she has an artistic vision for this sexual encounter please stop interrupting her creative process with your leg cramps 25. common fandom complaint that you're sick of hearing oh man I do not know if I have a good answer for this. here are two weird ones i know that banning a language is a shitty move but i feel like. the level at which people talk about thingol is a person for banning quenya among his people is weirdly disproportionate to the action, especially considering it was prompted by him finding out he was lied to about the deaths of his own people. like it feels like people assign that action a worse moral value than all the murder. that being said that is such a feanorian assessment of morality i do kind of loop back around to admiring it. i'm also reaaallly over hearing arguments about what tolkien intended or wanted in terms of shipping (i think it's still an interesting question when we interpret some other parts of the text!). "tolkien was a catholic who would have hated your gay ships" has weirdly managed to make it on my dash several times and that is obviously the worst one. but i also kind of find the argument of "no i promise tolkien actually made x ship gay on purpose" kind of... tinfoil hat-y? i've never been convinced by them. and honestly, i don't really like the whole framework of applying authorial intent to ships. my current #1 favorite ship for the fandom was absolutely, 110% not intended, but i just... don't need jirt's permission or intention in this. i feel like the arguments about whether something like russingon or turleg (two ships i really like, mind you!) were intended by canon kind of imply that they would be less valid if they were not?

i have no idea if this makes sense & i do actually find the queer readings/analysis very interesting. but if anything i generally tend to assume that they leaked into tolkien from the (secretly queerer than we assume?) fairytales/myths/epics he was inspired by rather than being there by design. i feel like we can point out things like "hey, x plotline mirrors a romance" without needing to necessarily say "tolkien intended this and meant to hide gay stuff in his works." like i'm just over needing that old man's permission or intent.

this has been the rambliest response yet and i hope it's entertaining/coherent lmao. thank you for your ask!!

[basedonwha6]

I've never made an au before but heres a concept for one! Basic story line below the cut

In an ancient city, sun and moon were made by the gods to warn humans of famine, giving them a chance to prepare and prevent. Due to confusion and fear however, the people mistake sun and moon for spirits that bring famine, and they're cast away into a deep pit of ruins, where they are bound to stay for eternity.

In the modern time, Y/N is a college student who happened upon an opportunity to travel - which came with the promise that when they arrived, they'd be given a tour of a faraway ancient city. During the tour of the city, however, a siren call of sorts beckons them away from their tour group, appealing to their curiosity. Following the call, they slip away from the group and fall down into a deep pit, where they're met by what they could only call a monster. Barely slipping out of it's clutches in a stroke of luck, they run, being driven deeper and deeper into the pit - which turns to ruins as they run - by their assailent. Eventually, they reach an opening, an area from where the sunlight shines through a hole far above, and the beast stops it's pursuit and reluctantly turns away.

Confused but grateful for their safety, Y/N realizes they're lost and panics. They shout for help, try to get service on their phone, or even try to start a fire to alert someone with smoke, but nothing works. Totally lost and inexperienced with the wilderness, and after many fruitless attempts to get help, they allow themselves to curl into a ball and cry. They can't retrace their steps for fear of the monster, and they might be able to go deeper when they're stronger and ready to fight, but they need an emotional release - plus the sunlight was nice. The ruins were so dark everywhere else, and at least here felt friendly. They'd decide what to do once they'd gotten themselves together, but for now they needed to rest from the chase and release tension as much as possible...all while completely unaware of the gaze that had tracked them from the moment they'd entered the clearing.

Sun and moon, although having a relatively strong distaste for humans, have been bored and lonely for a thousands of years, where their only company was food and prey. Few sentient beings found themselves in the ruins, and even fewer made it to their clearing - now, the first human in centuries, was sitting and crying at the center of their territory. They decide to put aside their dislike for mankind and approach.

Beyond this point, Sun, Moon and Y/N meet. Y/N is initially scared and Sun and Moon are unimpressed, but press on due to lack of connection outside of themselves for years. Eventually, they gain Y/N's trust and they become their roommate of sorts.

Sun and Moon help show Y/N how to grow food with the limited resources in the clearing and Y/N tells them about the modern world. They find each other's company enriching, and that enrichment turns into a bond.

This is all mostly just 1 am word vomit and general ideas, so the whole story is very underdeveloped, but I wanted to put it out there in case anyone was interested in reading! It was really fun to type out lol regardless of grammatical mistakes (I wrote it on the Tumblr app and have not proof read it...hopefully it's coherent lmao)

If you made it this far, tysm for reading!! Hopefully you enjoyed the concept :)

[orossii]

I'm sorry if you're weirded out by my outslaught of likes, lmao. It's because I really, really am in awe and curious about how you developed such a critical and honest worldview. What was your journey like? And what kind of books + media did you consume? I consider myself a Marxist, but I'm horribly uninformed and I want to be better. I want to exercise my critical thinking skills. I don't want to be bogged down by social media cynicism anymore. I want to have hope

@claim-staker no no, not at all, i find it flattering! thank you :)

and man there's no quick way to answer this question and i'll try not to get too long-winded with it, but i am gonna put it under a cut to give myself a little more room to be thorough lol. i’m going to mostly reference modern marxist thinkers here because they require a little more digging to find, but for classic marxist theory i encourage you to work through a good marxist-leninist reading list, such as @inqilabi’s here. i have a list of largely non-theory documentaries, youtube channels, books, and podcasts that i found personally helpful here and keep a youtube playlist of things i find interesting here. hopefully this answers your question!

sooo around spring of 2020 i got so fucked up mentally during the height of the pandemic hysteria that i started doing some very surface level reading into some buddhist meditation concepts. it clicked with me in a very intense way, and started a radical reorientation in how i think. it was like becoming a new person in a very short period of time. i had been locked into an anxious, self-absorbed worldview for all of my life and suddenly started understanding the world and human society as a coherent interlocking system that i was a natural consequence of. i found out that reality is the result of contradictions between opposing material forces leading to growth, decay, and then transformation into something new, and that concept can be applied to all scientific disciplines as well as to human psychology

from there i was like 'wow i need to get into politics for real' sometime in like, late 2020. way back in 2015 i went from gender ideology to radical feminism and remembered how exhilarating that learning process was, but also how demoralizing and alienating it could sometimes be. that experience i think gave me the sense that sometimes while learning, i'd be in a position where pursuing reality without judgment or dogma would put me at odds with other people, and i couldn't be afraid of that if i wanted to really learn

after dicking around with ‘progressive alt media’ trash like the young turks, i started learning about noam chomsky's media model of propaganda and had another awakening of sorts. i realized that the way information was presented to us under western capitalism was being used to manufacture consent for military aggression against the third world, and that the US economy basically ran on this subjugation. i became very interested in the iraq and vietnam wars and how the media was used to promote it. getting really interested in that subject caused my faith in western media to bottom out completely, and i became more receptive to the marxist ideas i was seeing presented alongside noam chomsky's work

i started listening to a podcast called 'revolutionary leftist radio' that in the present day i find grating for various reasons lol, but the host had some excellent interviews with a variety of activists, and i found myself most drawn to the marxist-leninist position. i was exhilarated by descriptions of the dialectical materialist process, which fell directly in line with what i'd learned from reading about buddhist philosophy except applied to the study of human society. basically, marx said that society is propelled forward by contradictions that arise due to the unequal distribution of resources within a class society, and that it's possible to predict certain outcomes based on analysis of those economic contradictions. mao's "on contradiction" and stalin's "dialectical and historical materialism" explain this in more detail and in plain language

from there i found outlets like the grayzone, mint press news, and breakthrough news, that outlined the ways in which the US and its western allies were plundering and degrading the global south via a highly aggressive and extractive finance economic strategy called imperialism. i read imperialism: the highest stage of capitalism and the state and revolution, both by vladimir lenin. i got really into the work of modern day marxist economists and political theorists like richard wolff, michael hudson, vijay prashad, utsa and prabhat patnaiak. more recently i'm really enjoying the work of jay tharappel

having that economic understanding of imperialism gave me the tools to analyze existing socialist states in terms of what their needs were as well as what they were up against re: being forced to co-exist with a militarily aggressive sole superpower that necessitates the subjugation of the rest of the world to function. i started systematically going through mainstream articles condemning these enemies of the US state and checking sources, seeing how long it took me to come to a conclusion entirely divorced from the local economic and political context at best or coming from "unnamed US intelligence officials" or paid off ex-pats at best. people like brian berletic on youtube are great at outlining how this process is executed by the western media and NGO- and military-industrial complexes. i developed a strong value for national sovereignty as an essential foundation for the development of a truly democratic and healthy society, which made me sympathetic not just to existing socialist states, but to non-socialist states that were targets of US regime change for the crime of not handing their resources and human labor over to the empire

i was in a supposedly marxist-leninist communist party for about 8 months before their dogmatic liberal leftism got the better of me and i stepped down. after the overturn of roe v wade i was disgusted by their complicity in the alienation of women, and it made me start to notice the ways what we in the US understand to be 'leftism' promotes dogmatic, anti-marxist thinking and contempt for the working class. i see the job of marxists to be firmly rooted in material reality at all times, and that means learning to find a synthesis between tradition and progress that comes from the will of the people and not from the top down. we can have our own personal beliefs, but when they're used to push the uninitiated away from the revolution the masses are supposed to be at the helm of that becomes unacceptable to me. if our position is truly materialist we should be prepared to defend it in such a way that bridges gaps, not entrenches them

we also have to reject cultural liberalism and recognize the ways much of what we understand about 'progressivism' to be an imperial export used to justify US imperialism in the modern age now that the patriotic marketing campaign used during the bush era is no longer viable. this article outlines what i mean well. there's a grain of truth to much of it in that racism and patriarchy are absolutely massive social problems in need of serious consideration, but the conclusions reached by this milieu are often individualistic, aggressively dogmatic, self-perpetuating, and rooted in the creation of new markets (cosmetic surgeries, drugs, diversity and inclusion consultancy programs, book sales, etc etc) as opposed to dedicated to the destruction of the economic systems that perpetuate inequality. racism and patriarchy can't be fought solely in the domain of people's minds, nor can their solutions be foisted upon a society that hasn’t been given the space to wrestle with them from the bottom up. hassan ali on substack has some good articles on this, and his wife brigid o'coileain hosts a fantastic gender critical and anti-porn marxist feminist podcast called ‘probably cancelled’ that hits on a lot of topics relating to patriarchy as well as the cultural domestication of the western left

the absolute best starting point for anyone interested in the anti-imperialist position is michael parenti. he’s been the gateway for thousands of english-speakers looking to learn more about scientific socialism, he’s a genius public speaker and very accessible. i also really love garland nixon’s videos on youtube for current day geopolitical analysis. i’ve yet to hear him describe himself as a marxist, but he’s a fantastic materialist thinker regardless

if you find yourself clicking with any of the people i mentioned above be sure to check their references for further reading!

thank you for this nice message and feel free to message me any time if you have questions. i’m honestly still very much just getting my feet wet with this, but would love the opportunity to talk things out with someone else who’s also interested in learning about imperialism!

[seasonal-writes]

How much worldbuilding do you have? Not because I love it or anything- (I've already noticed some of the bits you've sprinkled in regarding architecture and clothing but I would love to hear more if you want to share!! More on these or language or food or trade exports or-)

ooOOH WORDBUILDING. my beloved. especially for Golden Rings. i have some (?) that's fully fleshed out and fully coherent, absolutely! Pulling from some of your suggestions, so starting with trade, the Nether and the Overworld are obviously in constant contact and commerce with each other. That much is kinda obvious, since The End is actually sorta..limted access only? Compared to just poppin' up a Nether portal, at least. Most of the exports between the Nether and overworld areee typically building materials at a massive level, meaning that things like quartz, blackstone, all those fancy materials are constantly being traded and paid for and brought through. On a smaller level, though, the nether is also known for its apothecary-related materials for potion making, which is obviously based on gameplay. (Blaze rods, magma cream, etc.) so shops and other people also find trade sources within the nether for those sorts of things. hopefully that makes sense haha i also LOVE that you noticed my architecture lore. because god. i don't know a ton about it in technical terms— but if i've learned ANYTHING from this fandom, it's that a building can have a LOT to say and a lot of meaning. And you mentioned the gates the other day in your ao3 comment, but there's more! Like, the windows for example are pretty obvious, but they definitely have such open windows because the Overworld Royal line has 1. always had winged beings in it, so it was built for easy take off and landing's sake and 2. their entire thing is about being open and having access to the rest of the world. Whereas in the Nether, they're very iron-clad and defended. Mostly because they live in a place with many hostile beings that can do real damage (ahem. GHASTS.), but also because i think they have more of a protection priority and want that impression to carry through into the castle :) so you can see how their ideals and defenses might definitely clash in something like,, war. which i need to try and expand on sometime because i'm just flying by the seat of my pants with what they were actually fighting over lol.

BUT! one thing i can also say is that the Overworld's army is much bigger than the Nether's. This being because the Nether, who takes pride in defense and such, trains their soldiers and knights to be multi-faceted. They can handle a lot that is thrown at them, and they're very diverse since they technically have to consider fighting on multiple kinds of landscape/in different weather/etc. So, while they may lack in number, they make up for in a really intensely strong and adaptable force of soldiers. But the Overworld doesn't really have that, not as much as the Nether. So, they have power in numbers and larger, oddly complex weaponry. uhhHH i haven't thought TOO much about language aside from a few things that are not at all coherent in my brain! but here's one thing, i suppose! :D People from the Nether or the End will often use "Void" instead of "Gods" like people in the overworld do. Obviously language is fluid and exchanged, so this isn't a fixed concept. but depending on how close you are to a town/village with a nether portal, there will be lots of different languages/slang the closer you get, because it's likely those who live in that town have visited/lived in the nether at some point and have picked up a few things while they were there. i just thought that was kind of an interesting lil tid bit. annnd i'm gonna shut up now before i write a whole ass essay in your ask response LMAO dude,, you really know how to get me goin' with this story,, woooughh but thank you for asking!! i really love talking about it and answering the questions so sfksj

[chateautae]

flirt | pjm. (m)

➵ summary :  park jimin is a notorious flirt, but so are you. when you both meet at a party after weeks of back and forth, it’s a matter of time before somebody gives in

➵ pairing : jimin x reader

➵ genre :  college!au, sexual tension, smut, pwp

➵ rating : 18+

➵ word count : 4k

➵ warnings : super suggestive flirting, alcohol consumption (both parties able to consent), swearing, light dom and sub themes, soft dom!jimin, brat!reader, little bit of brat-handling, dirty talk, praising but also degradation? it’s hot i promise, use of slut, slight body worshipping, mentions of oral, jimin is hot and yes that’s a warning in itself, breast play, unprotected sex, penetrative + rough sex, bit of angsty sex, creampie cause i seem to not like it any other way

➵ a/n : and my first jimin fic is here!! dear god i love this boy to the moon and back so i got a bit carried with him lmao, hopefully this isn’t terrible cause i still need to edit it but your support and feedback are always appreciated!! <3

2 hours.

2 hours since you first came to this party. You’ve bumped into at least a hundred people, danced your legs numb, God knew how many and what concoction of drinks were inebriating your system and still, you hadn’t seen Park Jimin the whole night. 

The only reason you even dragged yourself to this party was because of him. You were initially bailing on the annual ‘one-last-hurrah-before-midterms’ party because you, like everyone else here had midterms haunting them Monday. It was Friday night and as the ever diligent student, you were planning to study over the weekend.

Though your nagging best friend Hoseok had other plans, threatening you to come with every piece of dirt he had on you until he finally sprinkled Jimin’s name into the mix. You couldn’t lie, it was the only reason you decided to hell with your education, wiggled into a barely-there dress and waltzed in with Hoseok ready to take the night on.

But when you hadn’t seen Jimin at all, you were left annoyed, pissed off and with a headache raking your brain.

Seeing him was a selfish desire, one you’d develop after realizing you had met your match when you first encountered Jimin. You were always fairly notorious for your flirtatious habits and touchiness, a sort of trademark of yours and the same was always said about a ‘Park Jimin’ unknown to you, sometimes described to be an even bigger flirt.

It automatically intrigued you, curious of what kind of rival you secretly harbored until one day, you chanced upon Hoseok who just so happened to be with Jimin. 

At first, you didn't think Jimin could be a daring flirt. He had this sweet smile and disciplined way of speaking that screamed innocent to you, his mannerisms and demeanor shy and introverted. He didn’t make big moves and so you wrote him off as just that. 

But it wasn’t until you started seeing him outside your class’ building, alone, and multiple times after that, enough for you to realize he was anything but shy or innocent.

You ended up observing that a) he was sex on legs, b) easily flipped between the persona of an angel and a demon and c) anything he did could seem flirting. 

You two hit it off without a hitch, your flirtatious tendencies meeting to form a relationship of mutual interest. It was clear as day, both your actions almost always held some sort of unknown intentions behind them, your every saying a double meaning. 

It became the norm between you two, anytime you met turning into a conversation riddled with innuendos, suggestive lip-biting or eyes that couldn’t help but wander. And you weren't stupid, you could tell he wanted you just as much as you wanted him. You two were dangerous, testing the limits of either’s control, hoping someone would give in and only left disappointed when nobody did. 

So when Hoseok mentioned this party, and graciously added Park Jimin’s name to it, you knew this was your chance. A party with buzzing bodies, loud music and copious amounts of alcohol was bound to set him off, especially if you were dressed scandalously and felt bolder with liquid courage pumping through your system.  

But it’d been 2 hours, and you hadn’t seen him all night. You were taking another shot in the kitchen, sulking by yourself and reflecting on the fact that you’d been duped by Hoseok. This party became useless to you, a mere waste of your time as you quickly discarded your cup and began stomping out of the kitchen.

You ventured further into the house to look for Hoseok’s 5’10 ass, tell him he’s the worst best friend for lying to you and that you were leaving this disappointment of a party.

You stepped around people mindfully, dodging them until you rammed smack dab into someone’s back, scrambling for an apology before looking at the unaffected victim.

Park fucking Jimin.

“Y/N!” Jimin beamed, holding a drink in his hand as he smiled widely.

“Jimin, hey! I thought you didn’t come tonight.” You attempted biting back your smile from finally finding him, shouting over the bass of the music as you met him on the dance floor.

“I just ran late. You know me, of course I’d be here!” Jimin raised his drink to his plump lips and sipped, stepping side-to-side in rhythm with the music. 

You couldn’t make him out that well, the disco lights of whatever lights system the only means of seeing him in the dark, but you swear the smirky grin on his face as he scanned you over wasn’t just a figment of your imagination, ecstatic that you already seemed to be reeling him in. “Do you want a drink?”

“No, I already had-” You didn’t get to finish your sentence as someone’s raging body stumbled into yours suddenly, sending you off balance until Jimin reached out for you cautiously.

“Woah, easy there.” Jimin’s arms quickly held you, flashing a scolding look at the person who bumped into you and pulling you towards himself. “Are you here with someone tonight?”

“Yeah, Hoseok! I was looking for him.”

“Why’s that?”

“I.. wasn’t having fun, so I wanted to leave with him.” You swiftly masked the real truth, your voice becoming less of a shout as Jimin encased you, just a few centimeters between your bodies as you peered up at him, cheeks flushed with heat and alcohol.

“Leave with him? Damn, didn’t know you two were like that.” Jimin flashed you a suggestive look, raising his eyebrows.

“Shut up, you know we’re just best friends.” You both erupted into a fit of chuckles as you hit his chest, your hand smacking against his jacket and now that you were close, registered what a meal he looked like tonight; ripped black jeans, plain white t-shirt underneath a distressed jean jacket, all pulled together sexily by his tousled hair, small hoop earrings and a Chanel necklace decorating his neck.

Dear God, how many times you’ve ached to kiss that pretty, pretty neck.

You internally groaned, habitually drawing closer to him as you enjoyed the warmth of his body, nostrils filling with the familiar scent of his intoxicating cologne.

“So I hear you wanna have some fun.” Jimin perked up, eyes amused and hands smoothing over your sides slowly after faltering from your arms.

“Are you suggesting I’ll have fun with you?”

“Of course, gorgeous, but up to you how we do that.” Jimin stepped dangerously closer to you as his voice lowered, your face tucked into his chest as his body blocked other people from touching you.

Excitement shot to your center at his use of a pet name, a common occurrence during your exchanges though his choices of which always an added thrill. 

“And what if I just want to leave and eat at a diner instead?”

“Then I’d definitely take you, food and you? A win in my book.”

You cocked an eyebrow, crossing your arms. “Adding me to the mix suddenly makes it a win? I’m not the one on the menu, Park.” 

Jimin’s eyes seem to blow out, leaning down as his plushy lips ghosted your ear as he spoke, tone darkened, “We can change that, princess.”

A thrill shot throughout your body, hyper aware of his lips mere inches from your face as your heart began to race, turning towards him expectantly.

You began advancing slowly to decrease the gap between your mouths, feeling him inch forward in response, letting him hover just above your lips for a tease before you stopped, “I’d like to see you try, Park.”

Then you abruptly turned out of his hold and walked away, making it through a few people into a hallway, allowing yourself to breathe. You loved teasing Jimin, it was an incredibly entertaining pass time but dear God, did it knock the fucking wind out of you. 

You were mentally recuperating from the fact that he almost let you kiss him, distracted as you stepped away until someone suddenly snatched your arm and pinned you against the nearest wall. You were honestly shocked to see Jimin, surprised he actually took your bait and stayed on your trail to stop you. His dancing eyes held nothing but greed, evident even in the darkness of the party.

“You know just how to test people, don’t you?” Jimin warned as he narrowed his dangerous eyes at you, holding your hot-skinned wrists against the cool wall. 

“Of course I do, it makes things fun and last time I checked,”  You brought your face to his and left only an inch between you two, “that’s just what I want.”

Jimin visibly grew less tamed, glancing down towards your lips as he tried breathing controllably, “Careful what you wish for, princess. It might come true.” 

“And if that’s what I want?” You titled your head expectantly, licking your lips as you watched Jimin bite his own. He eyed you the whole time, making it a statement to drink you in every inch of you. 

You could smell the alcohol on him, assuming liquor was the only driving force behind his actions but then contemplated his level-headedness, his coherent speech and clear judgment in this moment.

Jimin was choosing to chase after you, choosing to not let you go after weeks of incessant back and fourth and you knew you were finally getting closer to exactly what you wanted. 

Park Jimin giving in. 

“You’re fucking hot.” Jimin commented, eyes eating you up hungrily.

“You’re hotter.” You grinned and leaned back against the wall, cleavage unintentionally popping out for him and Jimin’s look immediately shifted, bringing his body closer against yours.

“You look submissive as hell right now, is that what you like? To be dominated?”

“Only if you like to dominate.” 

Jimin could feel the reigns on his control snapping, biting down to contain his raw desire to fuck you. He’s been holding himself back, knowing you seemed willing on your end of the interactions but never wanting to take the leap in case it was all just an act. 

But as he watched you go along with his every comment, staring back at him with the same devious eyes and practically offering yourself to him in his hold, he knew you weren’t acting at all. 

“You talk a big game, but can you put your money where your mouth is?” Jimin leaned his hips against yours, ensuring you could feel his growing hardness. 

“My mouth can do a lot of fucking things, Park.” You jutted your hips into his.

Jimin shut his eyes frustratedly before he re-opened them, a downright obsidian colour taking them over.

“Go the fuck upstairs.” 

“Wh-”

“I said, go the fuck upstairs.” Jimin demanded, looking at you with conviction so searing you in fact did become submissive. 

“W-which room-” You didn’t complete your question as Jimin’s deft hands encased you and lifted you off the ground, bridal-style.

“Jimin-!” You exclaimed.

“Say another word and I’ll make sure you feel me in your throat.” 

You immediately swallowed your mouth shut as Jimin cluthed you to him, core alighting with desire as he carried you up the stairs. Jimin arrived at the second floor and rushed towards the first room with an ajar door, shutting it with your feet after entering.

He made towards the bed and practically threw you onto it, stepping away to lock the door before leaning against it, arms crossed and serious. 

“You sure you want this?” His voice came out considerate, no haste or pressure.

“Yes, Jimin.” 

“You’re completely sure?” 

You nodded incessantly. 

“I need your words, Y/N.”

“Yes.” You affirmed, unintentionally becoming submissive as you awaited him, and Jimin couldn't resist you, not any longer. He made towards your smaller figure on the bed and immediately crashed his lips onto yours, knee sinking into the mattress as he leaned over you, splaying you onto the bed.  

He held your wrists against the sheets, kissing you open as his plump lips worked tirelessly against your mouth. He continued to swallow you, opening up to catch all of you as he sank further downwards to feel your body arch into his.

His wet tongue glided over your lips and you welcomed him in lightspeed, letting his muscle entangle with yours hastily and you instantly loved the taste of him. 

Jimin’s kisses began deepening, exploring your mouth like he was dehydrated and your mouth was fresh water. His thigh began pressing against your core and you moaned into his mouth as Jimin disconnected from you, panting for air. 

“Don’t fucking do that.” He voiced frustratedly, his full lips swollen and pink as he tried to contain himself. 

“Do what?” 

“Fucking moan, it does shit to me.” 

“Sucks for you, I’m responsive as fuck.” You snipped as his sudden confession made you hot, squishing your thighs together. Jimin took notice and he flashed a look at your core. 

“Responsive, huh?” Jimin let go of your wrist, sliding his hand down your body before pressing his fingers to your heat through your dress. You instantly gasped, arching as you felt your walls clench around absolutely nothing. 

“J-Jimin.” you warned him weakly. 

“Mm?” Jimin paid no attention as he lowered himself to your neck and began kissing, tonguing, sucking at a spot that had you cowering and squirming underneath him. 

You groaned as your free hand tangled into his hair, hugging him to your neck as you basked in the glory of his plush lips devouring you. He was laving and nibbling at your skin, continuously kissing the area of your carotid all while rubbing his hand against your clothed cunt. Jimin began rutting his body against yours, the tip of his cock prodding you the more he moved.

“Fuck you, Jimin. This isn’t fair.” You moaned breathlessly

“As fair as it gets, princess. You wanted to see my try, yeah?” Jimin suddenly stopped his movements on your core and slid his hand up your bare thigh, only to shift your stained panties to the side and glide his fingers all over your bare pussy. You gasped Jimin’s name and tugged at his hair harshly, the alcohol hazing everything over with sensitivity and trying to sustain the sheer amount of pleasure he was rewarding you.

“N-nothing’s fair about this.”

Jimin smoothed the pads of his fingers over your slick core, eliciting your incessant gasps, “Fuck with my ego and I fuck with you, baby.” 

He was leaving purple marks all along your neck and chest, moving down to the valley of your breasts and you whined headily, hating that he had such an advantage in this position. 

You immediately grew bold enough to push him off by his chest, detaching him as Jimin looked at you confused. “Y/N, what the fu-” was all Jimin could get out before you stood up and gripped his cock through his pants, his breath immediately hitching. He looked at you with surprised eyes, growing weaker in your hold as you walked him back against a vanity in the room.

You had no clue who this room belonged to, but you could care less when you were minutes away from getting fucked by Park Jimin.

He let out breathy little moans as you palmed him, shutting his eyes in bliss as he turned harder by the second, leaning back against the counter. You planted your lips to his neck and mouthed fervently, making sure you embellished his skin with your desire for him. “F-fuck. Y/N, this isn’t fair.���

“Fuck with my ego and I fuck with you, baby.” You mocked him and began rubbing at his shaft, sucking hickies onto his pretty neck and licking over the areas your teeth grazed. Jimin continued groaning, hugging you close to him as he fisted his hands against your body, trying everything to cherish the pleasure he felt. 

The person he’s been desiring ever since he heard about you, his every nerve thrilled by your ability to counter him, match his energy of constant flirting and testing the waters, venturing further than him sometimes.

You were just so tempting and Jimin wanted every last bit of you. 

That sentiment increased when he felt your hands snake towards the belt of his jeans, unbuckling harshly with need so apparent he wanted nothing but to stuff your walls, now. 

“No, fuck off, getting inside you first.” Jimin denied your hands, capturing them in his hold.

You instantly whined, “But Jimin, want you to fuck my face.” You pouted into his neck, kissing along his collar bones as you rutted against him. 

“Fucking God, I’m destroying you for that.” Jimin wrapped you up in his arms and switched the positions, shoving you against the vanity, your ass on the edge of the counter as Jimin stood in between your spread out legs, lips meeting yours again. 

Jimin lifted the skirt of your dress up and over your backside, pooling around your waist as his hands slid over your fleshy thighs to the band of your panties. He pulled only to snap them back against your skin, the contact making you gasp.

“Why the fuck are you still wearing these?”

“And why the fuck are you still wearing clothes?” You chastised, hands greedily shoving his jacket off him even with your mouth attached to his.

Jimin didn’t allow the action to compromise your kiss either, practically ripping his jacket off and breathing hard against you as he threw it away. He then pulled his t-shirt over himself, revealing his toned, lean body underneath and only leaving his Chanel necklace hanging over his bare chest. You licked your lips at the sight of his smooth and pretty body, the outline of his abs like a work of art.

You reached out to touch him, his face and skin flushed with lust as he watched you. “You’re so hot, Jimin, so pretty.” You praised, eyes ogling him.

Jimin smirked proudly before speaking, “Your turn.”

He searched for the zipper of your dress and unzipped hastily, peeling away the top to reveal your naked breasts and now it was his turn to ogle at you.

“Fuck me, you’re prettier.” He huffed out, eyes blown out entirely.

“Probably not as pretty as your cock, let me suck.” You pouted playfully and pulled him closer to you with the back of your shins, hands greedily feeling up his bare chest.

“Only good girls get to suck my dick.”

“Excuse me?”

“You heard me, you’re a fucking brat and a half.” Jimin started kneading your breasts, licking his lips as he watched you spread your legs wider for him and lean your head back out of pure bliss.

“I am not a brat, you just fucking take 10 years to get it on.” You snapped back, moaning in between at the way he groped your breasts, rolling the buds of your nipples with his fingertips.

“Sorry I was a fucking gentleman, didn’t know you were such a cock-hungry slut.” Jimin bit as he planted his thick lips to your perched nipple, eliciting curses from you as his tongue began swirling around, sucking teasingly.

“You just can’t fuck, isn’t it? All bark and no bite?”

Jimin scoffed darkly at that, sucking harder on your sensitive nipples before letting go with a pop. “I’ll fucking break you is why I kept holding off, you’ll regret this, princess.”

“Break me then, Jimin, please. Fuck me like you say you will, I need you.” Your arousal became unbearable as you grew hornier, rocking your hips against him for friction while he laved at either of your nipples.

“I will, baby. Get these off and I’ll fuck you so good.” Jimin tugged at your panties and you lifted your ass for him to discard them.

You unhooked Jimin’s belt and shoved into his pants, pulling his boxers and jeans down until you finally freed his leaking length, thick and throbbing to be treated.

What you always thought was right, his cock was pretty just like him. You graciously pumped him, spreading his pre-cum over the head as you watched him lean his head back, kissing under his jaw.

“So pretty, Jimin, just like you.”

Jimin stopped caring about any and everything and instantly grabbed one of your legs, spreading you wide open for him and situated himself before your entrance.

He brought a hand over yours pumping his member and moved you quicker against his hot flesh, looking down at the lewd scene and your pretty pussy aching for him.

“Look at you soaking, baby, so much prettier.” 

You moaned needily, the back of your shins urging Jimin closer to you again as you whined. “Jimin..”

“Raw?” he breathed impatiently. 

“Fuck yes, birth control.”

Jimin didn’t even take a millisecond before he was pushing against your hole, placing the hand that was pumping his member now against your pelvic bone, pressing down to feel himself sink inside of you.

You instantly careened, moaning out so loud that if there wasn’t music blaring in the house, everyone would know how stuffed Jimin made you feel.

“Fuck-Jimin! Stop doing that, it feels too fucking good..!” You nearly cried, the pressure of Jimin’s hand making you feel any and every ridge, vein and hardness of his thick cock, your walls drinking him in.

“Fuck you, this is what you get.” Jimin blurted as he buried himself to the hilt, groaning satisfyingly at your warm walls hugging him before plunging to make out with you.

Jimin began fucking you with conviction, determination to drive you insane for him as he spread you open. He thrusted fast and hard from the get-go, neglecting to set a pace knowing how much of a cock-loving brat you were. His thumb resting just above your clit dipped down to lightly play with your bud, tease it, all the while licking into your mouth and thrusting into you.

You gasped hard, so much that Jimin’s name was the only thing coherent within them and he swallowed all your sounds with his lips. Your body was on fire at the drag of his cock, shocked at how wet you were when he hadn’t even fingered or eaten you out, his cock doing all the work, leaving you only thinking of Park Jimin’s sheer power.

You wanted all of him so badly, wanted him to ruin you, destroy you like he said he would, fuck you open like he always insinuated he would.

“Jimin, please, harder! Fuck me like the brat I am, teach me a fucking lesson.”

“Princess likes it hard, huh? Want me to fuck this pussy up? Make it all mine?” Jimin’s words were so filthy they had you clutching onto him tightly, arousal gushing from you as Jimin impaled you harder, snapping into you.

His thumb continued its onslaught, your walls convulsing to his every stroke as you gripped his shoulders and kissed him, biting his plushy bottom lip as he fucked you harder.

“Mm, Jimin, fuck!” Your tits bounced as he pounded into you, taking his every thrust like a champ and he damn well shook the entire vanity, continuously drilling your hole as he gave no room for mercy. Your hands snaked into his hair and tugged, making him groan in approval and he only pushed you open wider in response.

“You pretty brat, look at you getting what you want. Fucked like the cock-loving princess you are.” Jimin breathed against your mouth, his skin slicking with sweat as he worked tirelessly against your opening, battering your pussy with an unforgiving speed.

“You would’ve gotten your dick sucked, but apparently-” you shuddered breathily, “I w-wasn’t a good girl.” You felt weak from his repeated onslaught, the bubbling pleasure in your gut keeping you going. 

“Yeah, so fucking behave and maybe I’ll let you choke on my dick.”

“Y-you stop playing games and maybe I’ll let you eat my pussy.”

Jimin only ticked his head to the side as he chuckled darkly, starting to propel his thick cock into your gut and raging at your clit so roughly, you gasped as you carved your pleasure into his skin. Jimin did the same as he bore his fingers into you, a hand squeezing your thigh harshly as he held your leg and your walls fluttered around him, moans growing higher in pitch.

“Jimin! I’m gonna-“ you didn’t even complete your sentence as your walls clamped around him, orgasm washing over you so quickly you barely realized it came. You clenched him like a vice and panted hard against his mouth, Jimin finally coming undone as well, spurts of cum painting your insides and filling you to the brim, certain he’d leak out of you for hours.

You felt stuffed, so full of him you were hazed over with post-orgasm bliss, mind unwinding from any trifling matter on Earth. Your forehead slacked against his shoulder as you both panted for air, sweating as Jimin held your weak body in his arms.

His cock remained shoved inside you, the throbbing letting up on both of you as your highs settled down.

“You..” Jimin swallowed dryly, breathing. “took me like a good girl. Maybe you can suck me off next time.”

“Next time?” You breathed labourly, turning your face towards his.

Jimin peered down at you resting against him, biting back a grin. “Of course, there’s always a next time with flirts like us.”