#how many people are going to watch it for the first time in its entirety cause i just know there are people who have never watched it

[todareistodo]

i have the interstella 5555 dvd and i can watch it at any moment whenever i want but there's just smth about watching it on daft punk's twitch channel with 30k+ other people like that's just so special and so so cool :')

[shiraoyagi]

hot take ??

the only reason people say that "mafuyu and tsukasa have nothing in common" when presented with mafukasa parallels is because they equate mafuyu and tsukasa being similar to "tsukasa has depression" because the fandom equates mafuyu's personality to being depressed and nothing else.

it doesn't help that people (primarily younger people in the fandom) who DO believe in mafukasa parallels end up making the mistake of portraying tsukasa as depressed because as of right now he is not (although it's possible he was in past because of his Very Unclear Middle School Backstory but that's irrelevant)

anyways, mafuyu and tsukasa are narrative foils because their core personalities are built off of the concept of wanting to make the people around them— especially their families— happy.

they both developed personalities at a young age based on someone they looked up to. for tsukasa, it was seiichi amami's performance that inspired him to be a star— a hero that could cheer anyone up. for mafuyu, it was her mother taking care of her that inspired her to be a nurse— and you can see the similarities from there.

for mafuyu, her identity would first come into conflict when her mother expressed her want for mafuyu to be a doctor— suddenly, "everyone's" happiness didn't match what she wanted to do, leaving her in a state of disorder and eventual depression.

for tsukasa, his identity was something he nearly forgot in its entirety at the start of the main story— becoming arrogant and fully absorbed in a hero persona, forgetting the kind person he truly is. furthermore, his current character arc seems to be foreshadowing that what "being a star" to him is going to be called into question— maybe it is something more than just being the main character that saves everyone.

their insecurities are incredibly similar.

in mafuyu's first mixed, mafuyu feels insecure towards ichika because unlike ichika, she feels as if her lyrics have no genuine meaning to be expressed to other people— despite them being her very real feelings. this is brought up again in her second mixed as well.

in tsukasa's third focus event, something similar happens. when watching seiichi's performance, he thinks that his acting is "real" and feels inferior towards him, which is ironic because tsukasa has been method acting this whole time. when tsukasa is acting out rio or bartlett or really anyone at this point in the story, it's not just those characters— it's a reflection of his traumas.

just like mafuyu, tsukasa undermines his passions he's poured his feelings into because someone else's work is more genuine in his eyes.

now, then, foils have many similarities and parallels (and i could honestly list a lot more), but how i define them is that they usually have some kind of major branching difference that MAKES them foils.

for mafuyu and tsukasa it's pretty straightforward.

mafuyu's people pleasing behavior comes from external expectations and pressures— her mother's demands.

tsukasa's people pleasing behavior comes internally, from himself— if he can't meet his own standards, if he can't be the perfect big brother or the perfect star, then he is nothing.

and even then, there's some overlap.

tsukasa's behavior was indirectly encouraged by his mother praising him for being a "good big brother" over the phone instead of asking him if he was okay while home alone.

mafuyu's terrified to be herself around other people because she doesn't want to worry or bother them— she doesn't want to be a burden— and projects her mother's expectations onto them, not realizing that they would prefer the real mafuyu if they knew the truth.

and the concept of mafukasa being foils is most perfectly and blatantly portrayed in these two cards.

mafuyu, the marionette, sitting limp on the floor— puppeteered by her mother's demands and donning a mask to hide her true self.

tsukasa, the jester, standing above everything else— puppeteering silenced plushies— his feelings. he's not being completely honest with himself, and he doesn't even realize it.

mafuyu has cut her strings and ripped her mask in half. she has acknowledged her true feelings and expressed them to her mother, even if she had to run away in the end.

tsukasa has not yet cut his.

[blarshwritezz]

Yandere King sadistic x male reader prince. He fell in love with you at first sight when you made a diplomatic visit to his kingdom, you are kind to everyone and he is cruel even to his nobility.

After a while, he proposed marriage but you refused, much to his anger.

He invades your kingdom and captures you, and forces you to marry him and guarantees that the honeymoon will be full of punishments for rejecting him.

Yandere King x Prince Reader

M yan x M reader

TW - general yandere behavior, manipulation, abuse of power

King!Yan didn't understand you. You were nice, even to lowly peasants and servants, and it didn't seem to be for your own gain. You would even give them rewards and assist in tasks at times.

But what confused him the most was how you made his heart want to burst out of his chest and place itself in your hands.

He's never felt like this, not even on the battlefield. He just lived the adrenaline rush he got when destroying another kingdom and taking it over, claiming it as his own.

He first saw you when your father and mother brought you along for a diplomatic meeting, attempting to gain his assistance in a war that seemed to be on the horizon. Who did they think they were?

It was when you were talking to one of the many maids in his palace. It wasn't much, you just told her that you were grateful for hers and everyone's hard work, saying his palace looked immaculate. But it was his palace, you should be giving your compliments to him.

He carefully watched you for the entirety of your stay. And over the week, he was certain. He wanted you.

And he always got what he wanted.

So, at the end of the week, he made a proposal to your parents. "I'll protect your measly kingdom...for your son's hand in marriage."

Not wanting to speak on your behalf, your parents brought you in. And so, after a moment of consideration, you gave him your answer: "I'm sorry, your majesty, but I'm afraid I simply can't. This is far too sudden, and I don't think we'd be a very good match, anyway." You bowed, giving him a kind smile as you stood up straight again.

He didn't like this...not one bit. He left the room without a word, a butler coming in soon after telling you and your family to go home.

For the next month, you worried if you made the right choice. Your parents were clearly stressed, as one of the neighboring countries has been preparing for war, threatening to act if they didn't get what they wanted. But that would leave your kingdom in a state of disarray.

So maybe you should have agreed, just for your kingdom's safety, but at the end of the day it might not guarantee anything. He could still come after your home, your family, and your people after you become his husband, if you were to agree. And that didn't even take into consideration your own safety...

You knew he was beyond cruel. Even monsters would fear him.

You sat alone in your room, pondering all this for the millionth time this month, when it happened. Your personal butler bist in, clearly in disarray. "Your Highness! The castle, it's under attack! Quickly, you must-" But he couldn't finish. Not before a double sided axe found its new home deep in his skull.

As he fell to the floor, blood staining your carpet, you stared in horror at the man who did it. The king had come for you...

"Come on now, my husband." He lifted you by the neck before slinging you over his shoulder and carrying you out. "I'll have to punish you on our honeymoon. I can't wait to see how good you'll look covered in bruises~"

I feel like this one was a bit rushed- sorry about that

[jmdbjk]

Traveling is my thing too...

I'm still marinating in my Are You Sure?! afterglow. I just loved every part of it, every minute of the episodes and behinds. There is one thing that's been on my mind and I know it might ruffle some people because of how it sounds at first.

Jimin and Jungkook spontaneously created "scenes" for Are You Sure?!. Prompted each other for the sake of making content. Another facet of being good entertainers...

They were trying to be content creators and not rely on others to tell them what to say or do. The total opposite of "scripted" which, of course, means the shows were unscripted and made up as the days' activities unfolded.

They both actively initiated moments they could play off each other. This is part of that now-becoming-over-used word we say to describe their dynamic... chemistry.

Was it fake? No. The moments they created were genuine interactions whether it was an inside joke of theirs or just talking about topics like cosmic horror or origins of slang words. Not any different than how we behave with our own close friends and significant others. We initiate conversation topics, we poke at each other, we talk about stupid shit, we sometimes have heartfelt and meaningful conversations.

In other words, we are authentic with our closest people. That's what humans do. And as we also are so comfortable with our friends and significant others, we can also have quiet time just being in the presence of the other. IT'S ALL NORMAL AND NOT FAKE.

Was it fan service? No. Again, they were being content creators, trying to create something that was purely them, purely normal interactions only they could have with each other.

Do they have off moments? Of course they do. When one or the other was not active in the interaction, the other was just being themselves, no faking, no fan service, just Jimin and Jungkook behaving as themselves, the only way they know to behave, in the presence of the other, nothing negative about it, just "being."

But they were on a mission to create content that they knew Army would enjoy while they were away. With a big smile, Jungkook said we'll really enjoy it. He said this before he got in that Jeep and drove away to Connecticut. He already knew before it started that he and Jimin were going to have fun. They trust us, their fans, to enjoy the things they give us. Those who do not enjoy it are not their fans.

I've seen people say they only watched a few clips and not the entire series of AYS and then conclude "its obvious (insert fave name) feels this or that." No Boo, you can't deduce those things from a 5 second slo-mo clip or a screen cap from a split second moment from an 8 episode series (9 hours of interactions between the members). What IS obvious is these people don't want to know the truth.

If you don't watch original content in its entirety, how could you possibly "know" your fave/bias? Especially this particular series. If you are a fan of Jimin, Jungkook or even Taehyung, if you did not watch the entire episodes, your opinion is meaningless. If you based your opinions on select snippets or screenshots with no context, your opinion is meaningless because you don't have the entire story. You have every right to say you don't like it and won't watch it because it doesn't align with your (false) idea of who Jimin, Jungkook and even Tae are. But in doing that, you should also remind yourself you are clinging to your own fantasies of who they are.

If you had access and were able to watch all of the episodes on Disney+, many thanks for helping to make this project of Jungkook and Jimin's a resounding success. Ranked #5 worldwide for 2024 TV shows on Disney+. This chart is sorted by popularity:

In his last live the day before enlisting, Jimin told us he was sick with the flu for a week after returning from Sapporo and only had another week before their enlistment. Maybe he was starting to feel the symptoms on that last day in Sapporo and it contributed to feeling so down.

The behind footage for Sapporo shows at some point the cameras were turned off in the car when they were driving to the airport to return to Korea.

It would have been easy for the show's producers to just edit the footage and write captions that totally ignore the fact the cameras were ever turned off at all. We would have never known. Them including that information helps us put everything in context. Jungkook and Jimin purposely turned the cameras off and they purposely informed us of that so we could understand that there was a lot of time without any recording whatsoever. Maybe they talked about stuff they didn't want recorded. Maybe Jimin took a nap because he wasn't feeling good. No matter, most would call that PRIVATE TIME. They had an abundance of PRIVATE TIME during ALL of these trips.

I feel strongly they will do a few more trips. They loved this so much, and they have a foundation to build on, they will do more.

And now, its been a few weeks after the last episode and we've got the behind scenes. It still sort of feels like a dream that these two produced this project for us. Yet it only made sense didn't it? Who else out of the 7 would do something like this? It's genius level thinking to create this, doing something they both have said they love doing, doing it with each other, the people they connect with the best, and giving us something at the same time. Brilliant.

And I want to say thank you to Jimin and Jungkook. Personally, this was the best of the best.

It is truly the work of the Universe that they have each other, to support each other during this period of time. In recent pics I've seen, they look well. I miss them so much.

And now we're just over 8 months away from having them back. Eight months and 15 days before all 7 are discharged and we look forward to the first group live and an ocean of tears of relief pouring from all over the world for them. 10 days until our Hobi is back. I'm so excited!

My Are You Sure?! photobook arrived the other day, I wasn't expecting it so suddenly because Weverse Shop still had it marked as "shipping soon" and then all of a sudden it was here. YAY!

I am going to scan a lot of it but the big postcard sized photos that were part of the early pre-order gifts are on my refrigerator. I also ordered the Are You Sure?! magnets but those won't be here until December. As you can see, I'm a collector of fridge magnets when I travel so it was a no-brainer to get the Are You Sure magnets.

Also, shout out to anyone in North Carolina trying to recover from Hurricane Helene. The Nantahala area was one of my most favorite vacations. I hope to go back someday. I know it's hard to rebuild, I've experienced the aftermath of too many hurricanes. Take it one day at a time and never lose hope. Normal will come back again.

[neonovember]

i watching civil war earlier and idk why but i had a random thought, imagine you and steve are dating or have a situationship but during civil war you choose tonys side instead of his, and he gets mad and you both end up arguing and don’t see each other til infinity war, where you guys both apologize and forgive each other🤭

warnings; reader and steve are both teetering on morally grey, mentions of violence, the goddamn accords, swearing, mentions of death, regret

authors notes; this has been sitting in my inbox for so long and I finally just wrote a little snippet of how i would want to write this request. If you guys enjoy it I'd love to expand! I'm thinking each part is at different times (fight on the tarmac and then post civil war).

divider by @firefly-graphics

You had met Steve right before the Avengers had been scrapped together with uneasy fingers.

There was a level of trepidation about the plan Fury had to gather a bunch of people who had enough power and strength to take down countries then. And despise how different you and the blonde soldier were, him being Captain Fucking America, the golden boy of the world and you being the recently cleared weapon the blossoms of fellowship sprung forth like a dandelion bursting through cracks of concrete.

There was an understanding between you both that came with navigating a new world for the first time. The loss and loneliness Steve had felt those few months following his waking, was something akin to how you felt, living a life now of normalcy. You didn’t know how to stand in line for coffee after so many years living in yellow ceilinged motels and abandoned houses off of highways. Steve could never sleep on the King sized bed Stark had fitted, the uneasy feeling sinking so different to the sharp jagged surfaces he was used to. It bonded you both, hell it bonded you with Bucky even.

Friendship had been just that for years, until it had morphed into stolen glances and feather touches. Until you both could finally admit to the longing that stretched between the space and waiting silence that lived between you both. You wanted to say that nothing had changed, but oh had it. 

You loved him with the entirety of your being, you felt it jitter in its iridescent reverie beneath your fingers each time you grazed them against his skin. It wasn't easy though, you both were so fierce, so mighty, there were times where you hated him just as much, where his steel unrelenting gaze made you want to wring his neck.

Tony leans back, steeping his fingers as his eyes cut to the rest of the Avengers sitting on the office chairs. There is a silence, the team waiting for someone to speak up and Steve's disgruntled face twists into disapproval

“You’re insane if you think this could work, Tony”

“Steve, listen, I understand what you're saying but what are we going to do?” Tony quickly remarks, almost as if he has been waiting for the inevitable argument to seize

“I got a couple of ideas, but it all ends with throwing this” Steve cuts his eyes to the stack of papers centred in front of him, disgust fleeting through his features, as if he could cause the offending manila folder to combust with his blues. “Back into their goddamn faces”.

“Really?

“Yes, what are you thinking Tony? This is goddamn hearsay”

Sam and Bucky nod their agreement, and there is a slow ripple of sides that form, the team is split, and it's not long before a back and forth surges between steve and tony, both eager to assert their point of view, both feeling it is their righteous duty to promote or throw the accords out the window.

The incessant remarks that have begun to cause the office room to quickly turn heated leaves you shaking your head, falling into the palm of your hand as you sit back against the chair. All of these stupid arguments, it was simple in your head. 

You didn't like the feeling of being put on a leash by the government but the accords were not exactly as blasphemous as Steve was saying it was, and your silent agreement following Tony’s speech causes you to speak up without thinking.

“I mean, it’s not bad” The sound of your voice is even, devoid of indignation or anger the way steve and tony’s is, and a silence settles over the office as the avengers look towards you in shock. You didn't speak much, opting to sit and let the rest of them have their say, but with each inquisitive look you feel a new sense of purpose. This was right, this was good, this could help you.

Steve looks towards you quickly, cocking his head to the side as he regards you with new eyes.

Your name sounds foreign as it passes through his lips

“Steve”

The rest of the avengers watch on as you both stare at each other

“You don’t seriously think this is smart?” Steve breaks first, always. Relents.

“It’s good. It’s great actually. Tony’s is right. We don’t get to run off and jump into every goddamn crisis like kids on a playground.”

“Cmon, this will kill people!”

“WE'VE KILLED PEOPLE! I have. Me, Steve. Call me selfish, this is my retribution-”

“You know that wasn’t on you, how could you have known-“

“Enough. I’ve let it eat me away already alright? It’s the fucking goddamn truth Steve. And you know it.

Betrayal bleeds through Steve's features, it humanes him. softens out the jagged edges that came from this life and he looks decades younger. He looks at you like the sickly asthmatic child he once was, and you tear your eyes away from him.

Blink, and it was gone, his regality and cutting calculating air of pristine dominance overtaking every last bit of him, bleeding back into his cheekbones and the depth of his ocean blues.

“You're not stupid, you're the smartest person I know and you can’t see the liability we’d find ourselves in? What happens when they deport us into a goddamn war zone? Use us to fight their battles huh?”

“We destroyed a country Steve. Sokovia, New York, goddamn Wakanda! We’ve left our mark, we’ve saved a lot of people, but we’ve also displaced thousands, people have lost their entire lives, just wiped out with a fling of your shield, while we come back to this-“ You shift your gaze along the Tower walls

“This fucking concrete sanctuary, showering away blood and fucking alien guts-“

“Hey, I quite like this building, it’s got its charm-“ Tony chimes

And you tilt your face to meet his.

“Shut up Tony”

“What we do, we do because we know it’s right, I’m not saying we leave the fight without a care about the aftermath, but collateral is a given when you do the things we do”

“Right now, the power is in our hands, we all have the interest of the people in mind, these governments? They don’t care. They are going to make us fight their own battles, use us like goddamn military weapons for their own agendas. I don’t have to remind you of all people? What's it like to be used as the government's pawn?” Steve replied bluntly, the harsh words stinging you as you look up at him with furrowed brows. 

That was low, especially for him. The claws of his passion escaping into jabs at your past.

A newfound anger blossoms within you, and you try and steer it with a clench of your fists that wean the plush leather of your armchair.

“You wanna talk about being used as a test tube by the government? You wanna talk about a fight that gets the other side exactly what they want? Do you forget about what you left for Hydra?” You spit without thinking, wincing as Bucky turns to you in quickness, his eyes shifting as they look towards you.

“Fuck..this is getting out of hand” Murmurs Sam, Tony beginning to switch from being entertained to looking grim.

“You do this Y/N, and you sign a death-”

“You do this Steve? You fight this? I’ll put you in the goddamn raft myself" 

You cut him off with a blanch, the rest of the avengers stutter a breath, Tony looking towards you with raised eyes and you appraise them all with a disgruntled huff.

Steve looks taken back, the cool demeanour cracking as he remains dumbfounded. Did you truly mean it? Of course not, despite everything you had a level of trust bonding you to Steve in a way that just wasn’t with the other team.

“I didn't-”

“I know” Steve blinks, but you can still see the way he stares distantly

“This is surprising” Tony replies, leaning against the kitchen counter, the silence cut by his sarcastic remark.

You cut your eye to him, narrowing them as he puts his hand up in meek surrender

“No no it’s good, I’ve got two ex assassins on board, if you don’t agree they could probably just tie you all up and force you too” Tony chuckles, and you shake your head with a murmur.

“Don’t do this Steve, I get it, you don’t trust the government that was infiltrated by fucking Nazis, but- can’t you see there is truth to it? Between the fucking corporate lines and bullet points?

“You aren’t stupid, alright? This- this isn’t stupid. It’s the smartest thing I think we've done in years” Is your parting remark before skidding off of the too comfortable seat and walking out the office doors.

[valkyrie138]

A Court of Ice and Shadow - Chapter 1

Pairing: Half-Seraphim/Half-High Fae OC x Azriel

Summary: After the war against Hybern, Astrid, a young half-seraphim half-high fae, is struggling with a growing power with little to no answers of how or why it's happening. After an incident at her home in Cretea, Miryam and Prince Drakon send her to train with Rhysand.

With the threat of Koschei looming, Azriel has been running himself to the ground, trying to find more information. The search has been a helpful distraction from a certain Archeron sister, but what will happen with the new guest in the house of wind that he seemingly can't stay away from?

Overview: This is an 18+ series, angst, canon-type violence, murder, torture, smut, fluff, etc.

Note: Please be kind. This is my first time writing in a really long time, but I'm always open to constructive criticism. Also, if anyone wants to be an editor, send me a message!

Word Count: 2.3k

Next

»»————-　✼　————-««

Astrid loved this view of Cretea. Lately, it had become her favorite place on the island. She’d often spend her nights atop the Brightwater Palace, the home of Prince Drakon and Lady Miryam. The palace sat atop the most prominent hill on the island, the stone pillars tall enough that they seemed to touch the stars. She loved this view and how she could observe her home below in almost its entirety. Astrid watched as a half-fae left a tavern with flushed cheeks, their human partner struggling to hold them up. The young seraphim wondered how the couple met. Was it stolen looks in a tavern, or did they find comfort in one another after the war? Astrid sighed as her eyes continued to scan the city below her. She missed the nights when she was red-cheeked and giggling with Lucy and Kendra while they stumbled home. But sitting up here and making up stories of those she observed seemed interesting enough. Her eyes drifted through the island streets to the glittering Erythrian sea surrounding them. A small smile crept onto her rosy lips. She really did love this view. The sound of a person landing was what tour her eyes away from it. 

“They really should put a plaque here.” 

“Whatever for, Kendra?” Astrid drawled, looking at her sister-in-arms. Kendra, with sharp green eyes and auburn hair, was the captain of the Seraphim aerial legion. 

“So they can cement this as your spot, obviously. Your ass has made an imprint in the stone. That, at least, deserves a plaque,” Kendra was also a smart ass.

“I’ll make sure to tell Drakon and Miryam that you think my ass deserves such an honor,” she quipped before turning her gaze back to the city. Kendra moved to sit beside her, her feet dangling over the edge. 

“I’m heading to the taverns tonight. Would you like to join me?”

There would be so many people, so many thoughts, so many memories, and so many emotions. Astrid's chest tightened at the thought. She sighed, “Not tonight.” She could feel Kendra’s disappointment wash over her. The captain stared at her for a while, her face contemplative. “Have you told Miryam and Drakon that you’re struggling? If anyone could help, it would be them.”

Astrid, hearing the question, sucked in a breath. There was no real point in trying to lie to Kendra. Astrid may have the daemati power, but Kendra always knew what she was thinking. A small part of Astrid wished she could go back in time and take back that drunk confession from a few moons ago. The moment she told Kendra that this new daemati ability controlled her more than she could control it, Astrid knew Kendra would be on top of her to fix it. 

“No,” Astrid confessed. “Miryam suspects something is going on, though. I’m staying at the palace tomorrow. I’m sure she’ll ask.”

Astrid’s eyes lingered on the Cretea for another moment; she loved this island. But her eyes drifted to the other side of the palace, which looked out across a dark sea. Her mind often wondered what was happening across those blue waves. She had only left Cretea once, and it was to fight in the war against Hybern. No one on the island knew what was happening in Pyrthian for the past 52 years. Astrid felt that growing pain in her chest again, the warm air suddenly feeling like a small fire in her throat. The war had a cost, and the carnage still plagued her nightmares. But she still wondered what was happening in those faraway courts.

“I wonder what she’s doing, too,” whispered Kendra. She meant Lucy, the missing piece of their trio. The pain in Astrid's chest deepened, her heart aching. Lucy had lost her wings during the battle. Astrid was there when it happened,  saw the Hybern soldier shoot her out of the sky, and heard Lucy’s screams as she fell. The memory played in her mind on a loop, and her guilt festered somewhere deep within her. After the battle, Lucy decided to stay in Prythian and start a new life. Neither Astrid nor Kendra had heard from her since. Remembering Kendra’s comment, Astrid only replied with a slight nod. 

“Maybe the High Lord will know,” Kendra added. 

“I do hear that he has eyes everywhere,” Astrid noted. The High Lord of the Night Court would be coming to the palace tomorrow for what she didn’t know. Kendra stood up slowly, wiping her pants lightly. 

“If you aren’t joining me at the taverns tonight, at least get some sleep. You look positively dead,” the captain quipped. 

“You really do know how to flatter me,” Astrid replied, a smirk spread across her face. 

Kendra flew off with a wave over her shoulder. She watched as her friend flew above the streets and disappeared from view. Astrid’s eyes swept across Cretea, the rolling seas, and then settled on the stars above her. On clear nights, she used to sit on the roof of her family's home with her father, counting the stars, finding constellations, and listening to her father tell the stories behind them. She wondered if he was up there, along with her mother and sisters, watching over her. She wondered if they were proud of the female she had become. She felt the fissure deepen in her chest, full of ice and unyielding. She sharply swallowed the feeling, pushing it down, down, down. She couldn’t afford that cracking, the breaking. With a sigh, Astrid reached her arms to the sky as she stretched her back, her white wings fluttering behind her with relief. The hours spent sitting on the stone edge of the palace did nothing for her sore back. Astrid took one last longing look at the sea and the stars as she stood before gazing at Cretea below and flying home. 

»»————-　✼　————-««

The nightmares had plagued Astrid again that night. She awoke struggling to breathe, and ice covered her room, the temperature far below normal. She almost flung herself off the balcony in her room while trying to gulp down fresh air. Her dreams were full of the deaths of her family, and of her fellow soldiers she lost in the war. Their cries still felt like they were still echoing in her ears. The young seraphim stood examining her reflection. Her moon-white hair was pulled back high on her head, with intricate braids starting at her temples. Her midnight-blue eyes were stark against her hair and milk-colored skin. Her eyes drifted to her leathers. She probably should have worn a dress for the meeting with the High Lord, but her nightmares had left her feeling uneasy, the grip on her power slippery. The supple grey leather provided her a comfort that no court dress would. A knock on her door made her tear her eyes from the mirror.

“Come in, Dalia,” she said, turning toward the door. Dalia was a half-fae, half-seraphim like herself, who was well over half a century old but would never confirm her age. She was also positively senile.

“Astrid, you couldn’t have deigned to wear a dress today!” The old female exclaimed as she set down a tray of pastries. Most would take Dalia’s tone toward Astrid as rude. But the seraphim knew how the old hag felt about her. Astrid loved her; she was like an overbearing grandmother, with her braided grey hair and small, frail body. 

“You know I just like being prepared for anything,” Astrid winked at her as she continued, “I’m guessing the bat is about to land on our shores.” 

Dalia rolled her eyes and sighed exasperatedly, “You should mind your tongue. He should be arriving soon, and I pray to the mother that you don’t converse this way with the High Lord.” 

 Astrid smiled at the old female, her eyes dancing with mischief. “Oh, Dalia, I only reserve this way of conversation with you.” 

“You are going to send me to an early grave,” Dalia quipped as she sat before the fireplace.

“I keep you young, old hag.” Another knock sounded on her door. The smell of sea and hydrangea wafted in Astrid’s nose, “Come in, Miryam.” 

The dark-haired lady slipped through the door, her sage green eyes immediately falling on Astrid.

“I’ll have to tell Drakon he owes me thirty gold marks. I knew you would wear your leathers today.” She smirked as she crossed the room to sit across from Dalia, picking up a pastry as she sat. 

“I told her she should have worn a dress today,” replied the ancient female as she stood. “Now, I will see you later, and please remember to watch your tongue around the High Lord." With that, Dalia slipped from the room. Astrid could feel Miryam's emotions shift from ease to concern. With a small sigh, she sat beside the princess, her palms sweating. 

“I brought you something,” Miryam said as she pulled a rectangular jewelry box from behind her back. Astrid took it from her before resting it on her lap. The red velvet was smooth beneath her fingertips. Lifting the lid, a lump formed in her throat. In the box was a silver warrior’s diadem; it had carvings of feathers and wings sprouted near where it would meet her ears and a large sapphire shaped like a teardrop in the middle. The lump seemed to grow in her throat, an ache beginning to form in her chest, her eyes burning. 

“This was my mother's,” Astrid croaked. 

“It was always going to go to one of you,” Miryam paused while Astrid tried to shove this feeling of despair down till she couldn’t feel anymore. This diadem was going to go to one of her sisters, not her, if they hadn’t been murdered. If she hadn’t- “your mother would want you to have it.” Miryam finished as she delicately picked up the finery and placed it on Astrid’s head. She caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror; the circlet was the most ornate thing she had ever worn. 

“You look so much like her,” Miryam smiled at her. “She and your father would be proud to see that on you.” She supposed they would. The circlet had been her mother's, but instead of a stone of sapphire, her mother's was emerald green. Her mother was a high fae from the Winter Court before the war, where she met her father. After coming to Cretea, her mother was Miryam's hand, which meant she was officially part of the royal court. Her parents would be proud if they were still alive. The burning in her chest only seemed to grow at the idea. She shouldn’t be the one wearing it; her parents should still be here, and her sisters should be too, and it was her fault they weren’t. Her skin began to tingle, her throat dry and hot. Astrid quickly took the circlet off her head, its weight feeling too much. 

“Astrid?” She looked at the princess. Miryam’s eyes were wide, and her feeling of worry was closing in on her. “We might not be blood, but you are part of this family. Whatever is going on in that mind of yours…let me help.” Her voice was soft and empathetic as if she were speaking to a skittish deer.

Astrid gulped. The knot in her throat slid down to her stomach, heavily nestling itself there. “I’ve been…struggling.” She couldn’t meet Miryam's eyes as she said it, the dread of admitting she didn’t have a handle on her power. She didn’t know how the princess would even be able to help, but she continued, “I can handle getting into other's minds and shutting them out, most of the time, but” she paused, trying to find the words, “I can feel everyone's emotions all the time, I can’t escape them. No matter how hard I try, I can’t shut them out. It’s honestly…suffocating. And it sometimes just becomes too much to control at once.” 

Miryam didn’t say anything at first, just grabbing the circlet from Astrid's hands and placing it back on her head. Light green eyes stared at her as a wave of reassurance and determination washed over her. 

“The High Lord, Rhysand, you know he is a close friend. One of the few who knew this island existed before Hybern. He’s a very powerful daemati, and so is his mate. If you're comfortable, we can ask him for some assistance during dinner.” 

Astrid sucked in a deep breath. It would be embarrassing to admit to a High Lord that she couldn’t master this dumb power, and not many were privy to the knowledge of Astrid’s powers. It was unusual for fae to gain new powers as they aged. The seraphim was young in fae terms, only seventy-six, but her power was growing and expanding to levels even the oldest fae on Cretea weren’t familiar with. She had spent hours in Cretea’s library with their oldest scholars, trying to find answers. Still, because her people found refuge here, their libraries were considerably less dense than those in Prythian. Since the war, her daemati abilities have grown to feel others' emotions. And after the war, none of the feelings were good. These past months, she had found herself drowning in it, the sorrows of those around her suffocating her. After a while, she stayed in her townhouse, never leaving unless going to the palace. She knew she couldn’t live like this forever; Astrid only nodded in response before she felt a slight panic snake around her chest, a foreign feeling, not her own or Miryam’s. 

           “I believe the High Lord is here,” Astrid replied, knowing the time for this conversation was over. Miryam only gave her a soft smile of reassurance before taking hold of her hand. Together, they walked down Brightwater Palace halls, the seafoam-marbled floors and tall white pillars surrounding them. Standing at the home entrance was one of the most handsome man Astrid had ever seen. 

[sophies-junkyard]

NOBODY ASKED but… Obviously Simon’s arc in adventure time solidified the series as one of greatest of all time (and I’m so hyped for this ice king sadness renaissance) but now I’m thinking of OTHER Adventure Time moments that rewired my brain as a kid. In no particular order:

1. “Once the strong guys got it how they liked it they said ‘this is fair now. This is the law.’ Once they were winning they changed the rules”. They really had the cartoon dog say that on tv in 2014.

2. “People get built different. We don’t have to understand it, we just gotta respect it”

3. The entirety of All The Little People. That shit was absolutely nuts for a kids show but also like…. I can’t articulate the lesson I just know there was one and it haunted me. The danger of the human ego. Hubris. Irreverence. Don’t play god bro.

4. Lady and Peebles. When PB ripped Ricardio’s leg off and bashed his skull in with it. And it was so hardcore they edited it out of the episode. Bro. I remember watching that after school one day and how my jaw just DROPPED at a PRINCESS being so brutal. They let her be so fucking angry and that was a game changer.

5. [Finn, about a horrific memory] “that one’s going in the vault. Aaaaaaaaaandd. It’s gone.” I quote that CONSTANTLY. It’s a great way to bring levity to a bad situation, but also forces me to go “hey wait a sec that’s not gonna work forever”. Things don’t stay in the vault.

6. Puhoy. He lived an entire life in that pillow world. He had kids. And then it’s just gone like a dream.

7. The deer. It was probably my first real introduction to horror. The hand wiggle. You all know exactly what I’m referencing. Were the candy people stuck in that well for 6 months???

8. What Was Missing!! Obviously now because it foreshadowed (and confirmed past) Bubbline, but back then just because it was so good??? IMO, this is the episode that defined WHO our main cast was, and how their relationships needed to grow for them to be content. It set up the next 6 years of the show! Plus it gave us 2 absolute BANGERS. Ugh i rewatched that recording so many times it wasn’t even funny.

9. Ghost Princess. Really just for the line where he sounds like he’s gonna shit his pants remembering his death and then in a clear narrator voice he’s like “I was a broken man.”

10. The pajama war episode. Now I’m doing this from memory so I could be wrong, but I think this really marks the start of Finn growing up. “I’ve really enjoyed just… hanging out with you.” The ability to start over with someone you’ve got complicated history with. The kindness. The growth from both of them!! It’s a direct parallel of episode 1 but their tones couldn’t be more different and I love it.

11. The slow and horrifying realization that The Mushroom War was nuclear Armageddon. Mushroom clouds. That went so far over my head as a kid even though they reference it constantly. It finally clicked during “I remember you”. Which I am NOT gonna go into because holy fuck that’s like 18 posts on its own.

12. Goliad! A child mirroring EVERYTHING they see, for better or worse. Seeing Jake in a bad moment screaming at the kids and goliad absorbing that behavior. Seeing she can use fear to control people. Also PB was Fucking Crazy! Her line “I’m not gonna live forever… I would if I could” is even more unhinged when we learn (like years later) that she’s already 900 years old. But she does physically age so I guess there’s that. The Suitor also falls into this category of episodes.

Ok getting into some of the more talked about moments

1. OK I LIED I have to talk about I remember you. I was 11 years old. I turned on the new adventure time episode like usual. 10 minutes later I was grappling with a grief I had never imagined before. Absolutely BAWLING not just for Simon and Marceline (the PLOT), but for what it showed me. The reality that every kid tries not to think about: your loved ones will leave you someday, even if they don’t want to. It’s an episode that becomes more powerful with every year I get older. To get a bit personal, dementia has completely taken my grandparents from me. I’ve seen sides of my grandfather that should never have existed, and I must constantly forgive him for what he does… now that he doesn’t remember me. And someday it’ll be my parents. That’s just the way of the world, ya know? Anyways, I remember my mom got home right as the credits were rolling and we had a long talk about keeping people alive with memory, mortality, and how the future was far away and we should decide on dinner lmao.

2. The Hall of Egress. I was almost 15. Life was changing. I was changing, and it was strange and frightening. That feeling where you know you’re losing your childhood but you just want to cling to it. Follow the same old familiar path, stick with what’s comfortable. But life doesn’t work that way. It took me years to really understand this episode and it’s symbolism. Honestly I still don’t think I could fully explain it. It’s like. How do I put this. I was so glad to be in the target age group in that moment. I was so glad that something I was growing up with was assuring me “you’re changing, but we’re changing too”. And isn’t that the theme of adventure time? Everything stays, but it still changes.

3. The absolute horror of Ferns existence. He��s Finn, but he’s wrong and warped. All those memories of the people he loves and they can’t stand to be in the same room as him.

4. Susan Strong. The introduction of a RUNNING PLOT. The show up to that point had really been so goofy and so monster of the week. I think the only really plot heavy episode before this one was It Came From the Nightosphere? And then suddenly they call into question the fact that Finn really is the ONLY HUMAN in all of OOO. And then… is he? It was SUCH a departure from the usual tone. Ending that episode with him reaching below her hat and gasping in shock, but never telling the audience what he found. And then she’s just gone. Which leads us to Islands!

5. Min and Marty. Second saddest episode in the entirety of adventure time, made worse because you know exactly how this family is gonna end up. There’s SO MUCH to dissect about Martins behavior in the series. A reformed con artist receives a traumatic brain injury while attempting to save his son. They’re both lost at sea, and he never looks for him. Was it the emotional trauma? Was it the physical damage? Meanwhile a mother loses her husband and her child in a single night and never EVER learns why. Nobody but Martin knows what happened that night. Also Finns fear of the ocean from season 1 is finally explained. 7 years of ignoring Finns origins and then they throw you THIS??? Watching it live was unreal.

Anyways I’m sure I’ll think of more. I might add on to this later for my own sake lmao, but I’d love to hear other peoples formative moments, quotes, episodes, etc. I really just needed to dump this information out of my brain so I can get on with my week.

[daydream-cement]

The Horror Movie

Captain Phasma x Reader

Phasma protects you from the horror movie

Author's Note: PHAS IS A SECRET SOFTIE BUT DON'T TELL HER I TOLD YOU. this is the third week of spooky season with @alexusonfire! the prompt for the week is horror movies!!!

“This is a ridiculous ritual.” 

The captain sat cross-armed on the couch, her face forming her usual scowl. You dropped down next to her, tv remote control in hand, and flicked between channels to look for the perfect Halloween movie. 

“Most people watch horror movies this time of year.” You explain, shifting your body closer to hers so you could lean your head on her muscular shoulder. “I think you would prefer this over a children’s movie. 

Phasma shifted in her seat, pretending that she didn’t enjoy the feeling of you snuggling into her side. She mumbled as she glared at the tv screen, “I am not most people, and yes, I do not want to watch a children’s movie.”

You snort at her words, knowing she was dead serious. 

Continuing to flip through the various shows and movies, you finally land on the opening credits of a horror movie. You hadn’t watched many horror movies since you were a teenager and even then you found them too scary to watch - but that had been years ago... surely you were over your fear of horror movies now. 

The preamble to the movie was filled with suspense for the death and torture to come. 

This wasn’t exactly what had you terrified. It wasn’t until the first person was killed that you found your heart beating a little faster. 

With every little moment you expected the antagonist to pop out, you felt your hands winding around Phasma’s bicep. You chewed at the inside of your cheek, eyes fastening shut as you anticipated various jump scares. In contrast, Phasma’s facial expression remained mildly disinterested for the majority of the movie. 

Midway through the movie, her hand dropped to your thigh and gave it a squeeze in an attempt to comfort you. She turned her gaze down at you, her nose against your temporal bone as she whispered in your ear, “Is this really too scary for you?”

You knew Phasma well enough that her judgemental tone was just her natural way of speaking. 

Rather than answering, you shook your head ‘no’ as you continued watching. The blonde extended an arm around your shoulders and she turned her attention back to the tv, speaking protectively, “This isn’t real and nothing bad will happen to you.”

As the gore and intensity of the movie increased, so did Phasma’s commentary of how ridiculous the movie was. “Are you kidding me? Being stabbed there does not result in that much blood. The creators clearly have no clue what they were writing about.” 

Her hateful words caused a small smile to tug at the corner of your mouth - only for the smile to fade as another round of suspense built as the murderer worked their way down the hall to try and kill the main character. 

Phasma’s voice spoke up again. This time it was twinged with even more venom, “They aren’t even holding the knife correctly. That is no practical way to stab another human. If anything they are going to hurt themselves by holding it that way.”

Her words brought the smile back to your face. 

“The killer is a fucking moron. Why would you announce yourself if you wanted to kill someone? Just go in the home and kill her.” The captain sank back into the couch cushions, pulling you to lean back against her chest as her arm wound around your front for her forearm to rest protectively over your chest. 

 “I suppose you could do better?”

“Damn right I could, but if it were me, this movie would be ten minutes tops.” Phasma smirked at her own comment, her cheek leaning against your temple. 

The blonde’s commentary continued through the rest of the movie causing you to smirk and giggle through its entirety. Only if you could have seen the clearly pleased grin on Phasma’s face at how she was clearly soothing your fears. 

It seemed as though Phasma knew exactly every twist and turn that was to come. Her thumb brushed back and forth over your collarbone and she knew exactly when to distract you with her own criticisms of the film. Eventually, you turned your face away from the tv, your forehead against her jaw as you listened to her speak - the suspenseful music only secondary to the soothing presence of your girlfriend. 

That night you never even had the opportunity to finish the movie - the lower register of Phasma’s voice ended up lulling you to sleep. 

When the credits rolled, Phasma squeezed your shoulder, shaking you awake, “Time for bed, little trooper.”

“Did she live? Or did the killer get her?” You mumble sleepily. 

“She lived, but there was no way she could have killed them by using one of their traps against them... Absolutely stupid...” The captain slipped an arm under your knees and braced one behind your back, lifting you up as she stood. “I still can’t comprehend why we watched this for your Halloween rituals. I’m assuming it is just as silly as a children’s program.”

“Tomorrow we can watch one about three witches, okay?”

“I don’t think I will enjoy that, but okay.” Phasma shrugged as she carried you to the bedroom and deposited you on the bed. “Is there at least something enjoyable about this one?”

“They try to kill all of the children in the town.”

Phasma nodded, stone faced, “I suppose I could find something enjoyable about that.” 

Taglist: @charymobile, @bri-sonat, @weemswife, @smutuniversesblog, @opheliauniverse, @enchantressb , @renravens @scream-queenlover , @shyladyfan , @mcufanisme , @peanutbutterprincess , @larissaoftarthweems , @principal-weems09 , @imlike-so-gaydude , @emilynissangtr , @xuukoo , @brienneswife , @oculusalien , @giogwensversion , @milciak @gela123 , @thevillagegay , @katiemcgrathsbitch1 , @naomi-m3ndez , @salems-spaghettios , @imgayforwoman69 @bychrissi , @h-doodles , @alexusonfire , @weemssapphic, @hiiamkatana, @lilfartbox1, @mountain-bikingwitch, @willowshadenox, @aemilia19, @agathaandgwenslesbian, @gay-frogs08  

[eros-thanatos89]

It's 4am and I can't sleep, so now is as good a time as any to ramble about media, right?

I've been thinking about The Wire a lot recently. Probably in large part because @geitonas has recently been creating some truly wonderful fanart for it.

I've touched on this a little bit here:

https://www.tumblr.com/eros-thanatos89/754142518674882560/i-just-rewatched-breaking-bad-s1e6-crazy-handful?source=share

But for some reason, I was thinking about how when Breaking Bad first aired, there was so much discourse around comparing and contrasting it to The Wire. And for whatever reason, the big controversy seemed to be around "which show is better?"

But I think that's such a flawed way of thinking about it! They're both fantastic shows that tackle similar issues: drugs, the war on drugs, the effects that drugs and the trade have on people and communities, crime, greed, flawed institutions, etc...But they both have different focal points and ways of approaching those ideas.

Breaking Bad is of course, primarily a character driven show about Walter White and his downward spiral as his ego and greed draw him deeper and deeper into the violence and brutality of the drug trade and criminal life. And how his choices affect everyone around him. The show touches on some of the same things as The Wire, like what leads people to engage in crime, how drugs and the drug trade harm people and communities, and how the war on drugs was harmful to society. But the show is primarily focused on how the characters change over time due as they each "break bad" in their own ways. It is interesting that it's mainly focused on primarily white, middle class characters who choose to turn their backs on their "normal, respectable" lives and delve into the criminal world. So there is some explicit and implicit exploration of white privilege and the way law enforcement responds to some criminals and communities vs others.

The Wire, on the other hand, is primarily focused on the city of Baltimore itself and the many complex issues that lead to "urban blight" and issues like gangs and drug trade in the inner city. The first season is more or less a standard police procedural, albeit with much higher quality writing. But each successive season peels back another layer of the city (the docks and international involvement in crime, the underfunded and over-stressed school system, local politics and corruption, local media and media corruption, the gangs themselves and the issues caused by urban ghettos). I haven't rewatched The Wire in its entirety in a while (guess what I'm about to go do...) but it really is a masterful big-picture look at the war on drugs and inner city crime. I was in college studying sociology when Breaking Bad was wrapping up and all the drama and discourse was going on and I started watching The Wire out of curiosity to see what all the fuss was about; and I was so struck by what a sociological show it is. I think it's still the only show I've seen that really examines such a layered macro-level look at policies and institutions and urban life.

I don't know why at the time, everyone was so obsessed with pitting these two shows against each other! I like to view them as kind of in conversation with each other. The Wire is slightly older (premiered 2002, while BB premiered 2008) but they both offer a glimpse into the early 2000s and attitudes around crime and policing and addiction at that time. They're both prestige television at its best: incredible writing, acting, production...and they tackle so many similar themes and issues in very different ways, which makes them compelling to think about side by side.

I'm probably rambling and having a hard time articulating this...

But if you love Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, and you haven't seen The Wire, chances are you'd love it!

If you enjoy both, or you want to chat about both/either, come talk to me. I love blabbering on about this stuff. Clearly.

[mirefireflies]

listen okay hear me out ..

claudia is cassandra is a canary in a coal mine..

in new orleans claudia left. twice. she saw the patterns of abuse and tried to warn louis but he didn’t listen. lestat the vulnerable becomes lestat the irritable becomes lestat the controlling, you watch. she knew what would happen because it had already happened before. (the prophet cassandra was cursed to see the future and never be believed.) she tried again and again to warn her people and they refused to listen.

when simply pointing out the pattern to louis isn’t enough, claudia begs him to leave with her, to go to europe, but it isn’t until lestat attacks claudia and slams her into the wall that louis finally seems to wake up, and finally sees the danger they are both in. (a canary was an early indicator of dangerous gasses in a coal mine, when the canary passed out, the workers would evacuate) claudia is louis’ indicator, when she’s in danger, something is wrong

then, during the trial, not only is claudia ignored by the crowd whenever she tries to speak out, she is actively —painfully— silenced by the coven. her mind is fogged and crushed in a vice. her ankles are cut to stop her from running, or even standing at all, and though the allusion to slavery is clear, it’s also reminiscent of the way that birds will have their wings clipped to stop them from flying away.

and that’s not even going into how claudia is explicitly compared to birds multiple times. because you are built like a bird, because you are a mistake. the entirety of the baby lu play in all its awful foreshadowing. tweedily deedily dead.

but she goes out fighting, with her head held high. and she warns the audience that she will have her vengeance in one way or another. i now know all your faces. cassandra faces her own death calmly, secure in the knowledge that she will have her revenge, that agamemnon will be brutally murdered only moments after herself. and though she might not know it yet, claudia will similarly be avenged by louis. but despite her constant defiance, when the time comes, claudia too is calm. she comforts madeleine in the moments before the end, and she holds her even as she is burning too.

claudia and cassandra are alike in so many ways it genuinely makes me lose my mind. they are both raped and brutalized, mocked and ignored. they are both taken from their homes, turned into something unnatural against their will, given a blessing that is really a curse and then punished for being ungrateful. their makers are their abusers and the worst part of being cursed is that it turns them into a reflection of their maker.

the tragedy of girls who see too much.. whose warnings are forever ignored… who cannot escape their fate even when they see it coming.. who are killed for reasons that have nothing to do with them..

and claudia’s death is what finally, definitively proves to louis that he is in a dangerous situation in paris. of course, he also suffers at the hands of the coven, but he himself says that he was more worried about claudia, calling for her in the restaurant, desperate for any sign that she was alive when they first get captured, fighting not to be taken away from her at the end of the trial. in losing claudia, he loses his sense of danger, of self preservation. he goes mad in the graveyard, and plans his own death while planning his vengeance. she was an early warning sign, but more than that, she was his guiding light. and daniel sees this and invokes claudia to get through to louis, to finally make him see the truth about armand’s involvement in her death. you were supposed to die with claudia. if he doesn’t remember the realities of her death then he cannot see the warning signs and so once again, claudia saves him.

and, of course, she dies in a canary yellow dress.

[letmeapologise]

request for an angsty trent one shot about him enjoying/encouraging female attention whenever they’re on a night out so one day she leaves early. when he eventually gets home hours later they have a big argument about how he didn’t follow her, how his behaviour isn’t normal and how he can’t act like he did when he was single. but can it have a fluffy ending where trent realises he was in the wrong? perhaps after she goes out and does the same thing and gets jealous. please and thank you!!

❝ 𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐛𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐧𝐬 ❞

.ೃ 𝐬𝐲𝐧𝐨𝐩𝐬𝐢𝐬 ! 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐬𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐬 𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐛𝐨𝐲𝐟𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐝 𝐛𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨𝐮𝐜𝐡𝐲 𝐰 𝐚 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐫. 𝐬𝐡𝐞 𝐠𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐬 𝐡𝐢𝐦 𝐚 𝐭𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐨𝐰𝐧 𝐦𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐧𝐞 ✰ ´ˎ˗

⋆ ｡ ˚ ⋆ 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 ⌇ 𝐟𝐞𝐦 𝐝𝐞𝐩𝐢𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫. 𝐬𝐰𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠. 𝐬𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐧𝐬𝐟𝐰 𝐭𝐨𝐩𝐢𝐜𝐬. 𝐬𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐧𝐬𝐟𝐰 𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐬. 𝐬𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐭𝐨𝐱𝐢𝐜 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐧 𝐬𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐥𝐲 𝐭𝐨𝐱𝐢𝐜 𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭 ੈ✩‧₊˚

˚୨୧⋆｡˚ ⋆ 𝐩𝐚𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 ⌇ 𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐱𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫-𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐨𝐥𝐝 𝐱 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫 ✧˚ ༘ ⋆｡♡˚

ೄྀ࿐ 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭 ⌇ 𝟏.𝟎𝐤 !

↳ 𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫'𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐞 ೃ⁀➷ 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐤 𝐮 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭. 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞, 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭, 𝐧 𝐫𝐞𝐛𝐥𝐨𝐠 𝐜𝐚𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐢𝐭 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐩𝐬 !

YOU WERE CURRENTLY AT THE BAR, drowning one drink after the other that somehow seemed resistant to making you drunk and completely forget this night in its entirety. You had lost Trent in the crowds of people at the club, and not wanting to be submerged in arms and legs and drinks, you made your way to the bar; hoping he would think to do the same thing. Instead when you turned around you had seen a woman groping at his chest, at which your first reaction was to run and pull her off, how dare they harass my boyfriend like that?

Then he started lifting up his shirt. He was openly welcoming her touch, nails running across his chest as he smirked at her. You felt sick, disgusted, every negative word in the dictionary. So you didn’t run to him, you didn’t even do anything, if he was going to act like that with you staring at him from the bar – fuck, it didn’t even look like he was trying to find you, if anything he probably wanted to – why should you fight for him?

“Can I have a vodka, or summit’ strong?” the bartender nodded, cleaning a cup with a handkerchief. You glared down at the table, eyes threatening to drip tears down onto it, and you could already feel your nose snivelling ready for the flood banks to break loose. You wiped your face with a hand and sniffed, facing down in disappointment, and only looked up when the bartender returned again with a small shot glass which you immediately downed.

The liquid burning through your throat and you swallowed it deeply, coughing slightly, you looked behind you; and finally, for the first time in the night, Trent made eye contact with you and you waved him off with a hostile expression, making your way to the exit when a man stopped her, holding his arm outright, and slurring at her, “y’alright?” you just nodded, looking at his stretched arm.

You didn’t know if Trent was watching or not, in fact you didn’t care. “D'ya wanna dance?” he asked, arms already slinking around the small of your back, you nodded slyly and placed your hands on his shoulders, rocking both of your bodies slowly around, back and forth, round and to the side. Then another arm came into the picture and tore you away from the man, Trent, who almost shoved the stranger off of you and tugged you outside into the alleyway next to the club.

“What are you doing?” he questioned, his eyes narrowing interrogatively. You glared up at him, arms crossed over your chest, asking him a question instead, “who am I to you?” his brows furrowed. “My girlfriend?” you exhaled a hot breath of air, masking the rage you felt towards him, and then wildly pointed to the door to the club.

“That’s funny, ‘cause you’re acting like the girl over there in the club is, and however many more girls you’ve been letting rub you off!” you continued, despite him huffing, “who’ve you been dancing with?” his mouth opened, ready to reply and you just interrupted him, continuing your rant, “‘cause it wasn’t me! Not your girlfriend!” he put his hands on your shoulders in an attempt to calm your mood.

“Baby, it’s not that serious–” you laughed, raising your hands, “so it’s not serious when you do it, but when I do it that’s different, right?” you furrowed your brows at him, pointing an accusatory finger in his face. “At least I didn’t start taking my shirt off ‘n’ start letting him touch my chest,” you scowled at him. “You can’t go around doing shit like this, Trent, you’re not single anymore. Start acting like it.”

You made your way out of his arms and started walking across the pavement and to your parked car, pulling the keys out of your purse, Trent following closely behind you shouting excuses. When you reached your car he caught up to you. “Baby, please. It won’t happen again. I’m sorry. Please listen to me,” you fumbled around with your car keys, mumbling profanities before looking up at him.

“What d’ya want to say, Trent. What could possibly make this better?” you shook your head at him. “I don’t– please, just give me another chance, jus’ wanna be with you. I don’t love them, I love you ‘n’ I’m sorry, I understand, I didn’t mean to let it go that far, sorry f’ ruining your evening. It won’t happen again, I promise,” he looked down at you with sappy eyes, hands clasped together like he was praying, begging even and you scoffed.

“Pinky promise, ‘cause if you do that again you’re on the streets Mr. Alexander-Arnold,” he nodded vigorously, holding his pinky out. You shook his pinky with yours and he grinned. 

You then turned back to the car door with your keys and pointed them at the door, pressing the button, but it wasn’t working. “Here, let me do it,” and he took them off of you, unlocking the car immediately and then getting in himself.

“What’re you doing?” you asked, he smiled, “letting you be passenger princess f’ once.” You just rolled your eyes and made your way to the other side of the car, sitting down and doing your seatbelt off. “Where to, miss?” he joked, you thought for a second before eagerly responding, “Nando’s.”

He nodded, starting the car up and holding his hand out across the gear lever for you to hold. “Do all taxi drivers wanna hold my hand?” he laughed, shaking his head, “just this one, miss.”

“D’you think it’s still open?” he shrugged, looking at you through the car mirror, “better be.” Luckily it was, and you parked outside, quickly getting seated in a corner of the restaurant. “You having the usual?” he asked, looking up from the menu. “Mhm.” You bent over the table and pecked him on the lips just before the waiter arrived. “Love you,” he murmured, looking at you, “love you too baby.”

୨୧ @𝐥𝐞𝐭𝐦𝐞𝐚𝐩𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐢𝐬𝐞. 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐞𝐝. 𝐝𝐨 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐠𝐢𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐞, 𝐫𝐞𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐭, 𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐞 ୨୧

[hmserebusadjacent]

Finer details

Just a musing on Emmrich being described as intimate and sensual, and how that might manifest itself.

Emmrich x Trans Male Rook (Fluff, Established relationship, minor mentions of arousal, body worship of sorts)

Word count: 1,135

AO3

It was fascinating really, Emmrich thought as he stared at Rook’s finger pads and, more specifically, his fingerprints. All of these indelible little lines that swirled across the pads marked Rook as himself, as an individual person among millions. Not for the first time, Emmrich wished that his touch was more delicate, more fine so he could feel all of these little lines in close detail.

The lines and undulations would be like little valleys across his lover’s skin. But at that level of detail, Emmrich knew that every touch would be enough to render him almost paralyzed with the bliss that his lover's finer details would inspire.

“Having fun?”

Emmrich looked from Rook’s hands to Rook himself, quickly catching the smile that creased his lover’s lips.

“Just enjoying your finer details, my love”, Emmrich replied honestly, wanting Rook to know that every detail of his body was fascinating to him. The gentleman necromancer might be a master of handling the dead in their many forms, but Rook’s live body was the most fascinating thing he had ever been allowed to study.

To anyone else, Emmrich suspected his actions would be odd, or creepy to say the least. Most people didn't get lost in the fine print of the body or the soul, only interested in the larger print that pleasure could bring. But to Rook, who folded paper into fine, detailed little structures, Emmrich knew his words would be more akin to something like poetry.

“Explore away to your heart's content, Emmie. What's mine is yours”, Rook promised, his sincerity robbing Emmrich of his breath for a moment. To be so accepted so completely and utterly was a wondrous thing, and Emmrich would never take that for granted.

“Thank you.”

He pressed his thanks onto each of his lover’s finger pads with a kiss, tender and soft. Rook watched the actions fondly, giving his lover one last smile before closing his eyes and allowing himself to rest. He wasn’t quite asleep, but the implicit trust of letting Emmrich have access to his body like this was a beautiful thing.

The next thing Emmrich did was to place his left hand on top of Rook’s left hand, delighting once more in the size difference between the two. Where Emmrich’s hands were soft and old, Rook’s hands were young and battle scarred. Little scars from practice fights with daggers and callouses from hours of practice were just some of the marks of time on the rogue’s hand.

Emmrich thought his hands were beautiful. He himself had helped to teach Rook that his hands were more than weapons, that they could also give pleasure and comfort when needed. That Rook had also started shaping his nails rather than cutting them haphazardly also made Emmrich glow with pride, knowing that his lover was finding out more of his personal preferences every day.

His hands didn’t always have to be a mark of survival, or indeed always be a tool for survival. They could be warm and soft, just something else to show off who Rook really was. The ring that glinted back at Emmrich was further proof of that, and further proof of the fire of Emmrich’s affections.

The mage pressed a kiss there too before gently flipping his love’s hand over and placing his pointer finger on a specific mole there. From there, Emmrich gently traced his way from one freckle and birthmark to another, taking him on a journey up his lover’s arm, all the way to his shoulder. These marks were part of a wider constellation on his lover’s body, a unique sky map that he hadn't traced in its entirety yet.

There was still time for such things, as well as so much more. Rook had confirmed his wish for their relationship to be a long one, for them to go to Nevarra City when all of this was done. So Emmrich felt safe in the knowledge that he had time to truly enjoy all of the secrets of the body beneath and around him.

His fingers traced over the faded bruise of a love bite that Rook had been given in a moment of unbridled bliss. It was a delight to have a lover who accepted all of his love languages, even his ones where gently nibbling his lover's skin seemed the only appropriate way to share his affection.

The mage’s own skin was littered with similar bite marks, so all was fair in love and war anyway. And Emmrich enjoyed that so very much.

Next his fingers walked their way down toward the patch of skin that Emmrich adored above all others. He hadn't adorned this place with love bites, wanting to leave the space perfect, just the way it was. When he arrived, Emmrich placed his entire palm over the space and shivered in delight at being able to feel Rook's heartbeat. 

His love's very life force raged underneath his palm, beating out a rhythm of life, love and quiet intensity. Emmrich would happily admit that hearing and feeling Rook's heartbeat aroused him at the best of times, his own spirit rising to bask in the glory of the man who made him feel well and truly alive. 

The man whom he loved above all others. Who went above and beyond his wildest fantasies of what close friendships and deep relationships could be like. In his younger years he had longed for enduring affection, for someone to want him to the brink of death and beyond. And with Rook, Emmrich knew he would be treasured for the rest of his life and beyond.

He was an incredibly lucky man.

In fact, Emmrich turned his face towards his love to tell him just that when he took stock of his lover's breathing. The relaxed expression on his face coupled with the sleepy set of his mouth made the mage sigh with content.

Rook had fallen asleep after all. Emmrich couldn't blame him, honestly. The man did so much for all of them and didn't spend nearly as long on himself and his health. 

Oh Rook.

Emmrich adored him. Loved him. Treasured him. Wanted to marry him and be buried with him.

But for now, Emmrich just wanted to bask in his love's presence.

So, being careful not to wake him, Emmrich clambered out from between Rook's legs and scooted up the bed. Once he was lying down next to his love, Emmrich stilled himself and relaxed, reaching out to lay one hand on his lover's chest. 

For now, they would both sleep.

And then when they woke up, Emmrich would wax lyrical about his affections for Rook until Rook likely kissed him senseless.

What a wonderful life they both shared. And it could only get better once the world had been saved.

[omegalomania]

fall out boy live performances i think about Often

the reunion show medley. how many goats do i have to sacrifice for you guys to do this one again.

disloyal order of water buffaloes, specifically the version that opens with the piano and the rest of the band comes crashing in at the second verse. my GOD man what do i have to do to make you do this version again

death valley live. thats all.

the time they did their stayin out all night remix live with wiz khalifa

the thriller aol sessions version is so good that i thought it was the studio version with mild reinstrumentation at first lol

the medley they did in 2015 where they mashed up all their hits and even managed to sneak in the uma thurman riffs at the end

can i link the entirety of the knights of columbus set? i'm gonna do that. go watch it. it's glorious.

i feel like not enough people talked about how good church sounded live. i actually kinda like it a little better than the studio version. patrick drops down an octave for some bits of the final chorus and i always love hearing his chest voice.

obviously i have to link one of the few times they've played headfirst slide into cooperstown on a bad bet live. they did (coffee's for closers) at this show too and i think about it always.

they didnt do where did the party go live that often because it is MERCILESSLY heard to sing live but my GOD. when they did it. my god.

that one performance of the kids aren't alright where pete screams alongside patrick for the entire last part of the chorus ruined me in ways i have difficulty articulating.

the way way early version of sugar we're goin down they played live in 2004 before they changed all the verses

anytime they'd do just one yesterday live and patrick would do the bridge and kill it every time

the acoustic version of sophomore slump or comeback of the year they did for a private show in 2007. (they did this acoustic again in 2013 and i love that version too)

that one time they segued seamlessly from the chorus of alone together to my songs know what you did in the dark

MISS MISSING YOU LIVE YOU ARE EVERYTHING TO ME

any of those rare rare times they would do yule shoot your eye out live

when they did patron saints of liars and fakes at one of the reunion shows. don't touch me.

the acoustic session of tttyg songs (grenade jumper, chicago is so two years ago, saturday) they did that's on the my heart will always be the b side to my tongue dvd. they are so so so SO small!!!!!

save rock and roll live is like. so important to me personally it never fails to bring me to my knees. but specifically the time they did it for the mda telethon in 2014. joes backing vocals come through sO clearly and its SOOOOO AAAAAA

also the time they did save rock and roll live for vevo. BIG ouchie.

okay also the time they dedicated save rock and roll to bowie after he passed because pete gets VERY VISIBLY EMOTIONAL OVER THIS and i can't handle it.

we don't take hits we write them literally Only exists in live format so i have to give a special mention to that. what i would give for a studio version though...

it's hard for me to pick a favorite moment of the time they played wrigley field during mania tour. i was lucky enough to catch a livestream of most of the show and it was frankly magic. someathing has to be said for the energy in the way the show began...and for the way it ended.

im incapable of not bringing up the immortals acoustic version they did during boys of zummer. i cant NOT. joe and patrick sound sO GOOD TOGETHER VOCALLY, OKAY

i'm like a lawyer with the way i'm always trying to get you off, acoustic sessions.....im okay.

remember when they opened some of the monumentour shows with THIS IS THE TAKE OVER, THE MOTHERFUCKING BREAK'S OVER cause. i do.

if youve never seen the stripped-down piano version of young and menace and only heard the studio instrumental i beseech you to watch the live version. i will never forget hearing this live. the whole stadium got so, so quiet in what i could only describe as reverence.

you know that one text post that talks about patrick getting all emotional during a performance of what a catch, donnie and then just sniffs a little and says "i'm a loss for words...which is a good thing i have a microphone, right? so i can keep talking." well this is that exact performance.

[cabinofimagines]

Cryptozoology Ver. 1.2. [FULL]

Happy Birthday Danny!!!! This is the FULL version of both Cryptozoology and the newly written additional content. If you've read those before- there is like 200 words extra in here, if you haven't go ham! This is a LONG fic (for our doing on this blog- I'm assuming nobody will read this because you never do read the bigger fics)

Pairing: Leo Valdez x gn!reader, this is a solangelo fic at it's heart Request: That's between me and Danny's chat, as many things. Word count: 7.5k Warnings: None!

-Asnyox

Will Solace cared for his friends, making sure that they ate enough, slept enough, and were happy. However, to Will’s chagrin, there was only one thing that at the moment would get Leo Valdez to eat, sleep and be happy. It was the exam period and Leo simply was not listening, unless Will would get him a significant other- something that Leo thought would only happen after pigs learned to fly, but Will had other plans... 

“Leo, I promise I will get you a lover soon enough!” Will waved his hands, “You just have to trust the genius that I am!” “Sure thing,” Leo scoffed, “And how will you do that?” “I have a plan.” Will assured his friend, “I simply need an appropriate candidate.” 

And perhaps he already had one. He didn’t even need to try too hard to stage the first meeting and start Leo’s infatuation. Will passed you on your way out, went straight to Leo’s, and forced him to take a break. While Leo was out he watched the first meeting through the window of Leo’s dorm.

The first time Leo Valdez met you was at two in the morning.

It was mid exam season, and you had decided that maybe you should take a walk to clear your mind a little. Nothing crazy- maybe just around the dorms, take a deep breath outside and go back to your room. The lights outside of the dorms were broken, so you just found the closest tree and stood against it, facing the door towards the dorms.

Suddenly a Latino boy walked out, looking like he had not slept for the entirety of exam season. As he stretched, he spotted you from the corner of his eye. However, you were not feeling like interacting with the Leo Valdez, who was known to be able to keep a conversation going and you sort of were ready to go back to bed. So, as he squinted into your direction, trying to identify you, you quickly took three steps back and hid behind the tree. You had never actually held a conversation with Leo, but that did not mean you didn’t think he was cute, and you did not want to meet him like this. Hence, you did the only logical thing that your sleep deprived mind could think of. As Leo slowly circled around the tree you were standing behind, you circled the other way and dashed for the door when it was in sight.

Leo was certain only moments ago there was someone underneath this tree – he could have sworn¸ but as he circled the tree, his earphones still blasting music, there was no one. Leo was disappointed, whoever this person was they looked good- and he thought that maybe it was that one person that always managed to slip away from his conversations. There were only about 5 people on the floor he had never talked to, and he wanted this to be his chance, what better moment to meet his possible love-of-his-life than two in the morning? Leo sighed sadly as he removed his earphones, just in time to hear doors close. He quickly stumbled backwards, tripping on his own feet as he tried to catch a glimpse of whoever was there. Looking up from the leaves on the ground, he stared at the treetops, wondering what he just met.

 And Will felt very content with what just happened. The target acted just as Will had suspected, hiding away from Leo, and Will could not wait until Leo’s sleep-deprived brain would start acting its magic. Sure, Will might’ve been unaware of their name, but he had seen them around in the cafe where he worked and he just knew they would be a good fit for Leo.

“Dude!” Leo stormed into his room, “I think I just met Mothman!” 

All according to plan.“I swear to you! There was something else outside!” Leo exclaimed as Jason slowly petted his arm.

“Leo, you were outside in the middle of the night, you might have just been sleep deprived.” He tried to console his friend.

“I am not, and I will find this cryptid- even if it’s the last thing I do!” determination flooded Leo’s face, as worry filled Jason’s.

“Please don’t,” Jason pleaded, but Leo had already stood up and embarked on his mission. Jason sighed and looked at Piper, who was distracted with her phone.

“Why did you not try to stop him?” Jason asked and Piper looked up.

“Stop what?” She blinked once, “Uh, where did Leo go?” Jason sighed.

“Piper please just ask the girl out so you can finally be present in the moment,” Piper glared at Jason, “Leo is on a mission to find the ‘campus cryptid’ he saw last night at two in the morning.” Jason explained and Piper laughed.

“They could be anyone, well, good luck to Leo. This will be great.” Her laugh got just a bit louder as Jason tiredly sighed into his hands.  Leo spotted you with headphones on, sitting underneath a tree in the shade. He had to do a double take, because he was unsure whether you were in fact his campus cryptid. The world fell away as Leo heard his own heartbeat in his ears. He wanted to approach you, yet he felt scared that he would bother you. Leo was not even sure whether you were his cryptid or not- however as he watched you grabbed an apple, eating it in only 5 bites, core and all. If you were not the person who was standing outside yesterday, you were definitely a different type of cryptid. A cute cryptid at that. Leo had not realized how long he had been standing there, but he realized he should do something soon. As he took a deep breath, being lost in his feelings, he stepped forward … and you were standing up. How could he approach you now? You were worth a shot though- except you were walking in the direct opposite direction from Leo. Dammit. Leo’s day progressed rather well- his test did not go horrible, however he was running late for a seminar he had to attend. These people standing in the hallway were not helping him. 

“Ah- coming through- I am in a hurry- let me-“ he stopped his apologies as he spotted you at the centre. You were holding a lizard, carefully in cupped hands and the students crowding you were each taking turns looking at the lizard, not touching it for every time someone tried you scolded them. 

“Don’t reach for my buddy! You will dry his skin!”  This was the first time Leo had heard your voice- and his breath stuttered. He wished you would say his name- but you two had not yet properly met so that would only be a dream. 

“What did you name the little guy?”  Leo overheard one of the students say, as he was slowly begrudgingly making his way away from the crowd- the seminar was mandatory, and he could not afford to be late-

“Little Lizard Leo,” you laughed, “He was just walking around here so I picked him up, he needs to go back outside.”  Could you read Leo’s mind? He had turned abruptly at hearing his name, being sure now that you were at least a cryptid. Leo glanced at his phone for the time, hoping he might have a minute to spare, but alas, he cursed as he ran the rest of the way towards the seminar. 

During a small 15-minute break in the seminar, Piper smiled devilishly at him. 

“Jason told me about your crush,” Leo’s head shot up. “I have a crush? No, no way-“ He felt his face get warmer, a crush on who? The cryptid? His heart skipped a beat as he thought about the concept of having a crush on you- your hair and eyes and laugh and - 

“I mean, he said it was the ‘college cryptid’ or something, but given,” Piper gestured at Leo, “Your reaction I am guessing you do in fact have a crush on someone.”  Leo shook his head. “I barely know the cryptid,” he shot back and Piper’s smile widened, “Besides I am not sure whether they would be the cryptid,” “Well, ask them, it’s not creepy at all to just go, ‘Hey, were you outside last night? At two? Me too! Wow, we have so much in common!’ And then bam- you are dating.”  

“Thank you for the suggestion, but I will not.” Leo told Piper off, Piper’s smile never dampening, “You are by the way only allowed to tell me to ask someone out when you finally ask her out. You have been pining for a good two months now!”  “I don’t even know whether she likes girls!” Piper exclaimed and Leo rolled his eyes. “She does, believe me.”  He comforted Piper, as she looked doubtful. “Fine. I will confess if you can prove that your college cryptid actually exists.” Piper challenged him, “Because maybe we can help identify your cryptid if you have a picture of it.”  The day after your chance encounter with Leo Valdez (where you heroically ran away from him, after hiding behind a tree, and then a second time in the hallway), you ranted to your friend about it, much to his dismay.

“I mean how embarrassing! I named a lizard after him!” You pouted, “What is the chance? I wasn’t even aware he was near until I saw him bolt away!” “I’m sure he’ll not mind that,” Nico said, “If he’s as idiotic as you paint him to be, he might even find it endearing. What’s his name anyways?” “I’m not telling.” 

“And why won’t you tell me the name of your crush?” Nico was exasperated. “Because you’ll try something!” You squint your eyes at him, “I know you will.” “So we’re calling him fireboy? Because he is hot?” Nico teased, and you laughed, but Nico was not deterred, “Okay, tell me the name of your lizard then.” “No.” 

From the look in your eyes when you talked about Fireboy, Nico knew that he needed to figure out who Fireboy was and how to get you together, if he were to enjoy a calm lunch ever again.

What Nico wasn’t expecting was having to fend off another guy. 

He had stared at the blonde barista in the past (for no reason at all) and didn’t like the interest the guy was showing in you. Of course, he could believe that you didn’t have any interest in the barista, but the way that, since entering the café, the barista kept staring at you intensely, rubbed him the wrong way. Clearly this guy had an interest in you that went past you as a customer. Yet, it was busy and Nico was keeping your seats occupied while you stood in line. He glared as the barista handed you more than just your coffee.  

“So you’re saying you won this ticket?” “Yes.” “From the barista just now?” “Yes.” 

“And you’re sure he wasn’t just hitting on you?” 

“With the way he was eyeing you, I don’t think so?” “What is that supposed to mean?” Nico, unwillingly, felt his face warm. You simply shrugged as you smiled at your friend teasingly, and Nico sighed, “Guess I’ll get a ticket and we can go to the movie together.” 

So, a few hours later, you were sitting together in the movie theater. You were pretty sure you might have switched up the seats, but did it matter? You both had the tickets for these seats anyways. Nico had gotten the popcorn, and the ads had just started, all was good. 

Except, all was not good for Will. While Leo had just told him that the ‘cryptid’ had named a lizard after him, it took Will a moment to realize that his ‘cinema date’ had failed. Someone was sitting in the cryptid’s seat, and Will didn’t like that. He had invited Leo, and the plan had been to get Leo and mothman to sit together. If this black-haired guy had not been sitting in the wrong seat, it would have been a date! Basically! The worst part was that now he had to make sure Leo wouldn’t see Mothman, otherwise the whole ‘cryptid’ mystic would stop and Will’s efforts would be all for nothing. 

Fine, Will Solace resigned himself as he quickly pushed past Leo so he would get to sit next to the black-haired boy, fine, Will Solace would have a ‘date’ with this kid. Fine.   

Nico, on the other hand, felt triumphant as he noticed the big ass glare on the blonde’s face. Clearly this had been some kind of setup for a date, and he managed to fuck it up. (Y/n) was not even aware that the barista had entered the cinema and sat next to Nico, all for the better. Nico made eye contact with his seat neighbor, and stuck out his tongue, to which he saw the blonde tense up. Take that, barista boy. 

Will Solace felt his heartbeat speed up, as he realized a second flaw in his strategy- he might have started crushing on the enemy. 

Will was not giving up, and a few weeks later the perfect opportunity presented itself. He found a very good sale on fresh fruits and filled his arms with them to use them as a matchmaking ploy. The plan was simple- give you the cold fruits, tell you to hand them out to Leo, and bam! You would get talking, get a hamster, get a house- but first… 

“Hey, do you like mandarins?” “You’re that barista, aren’t you?” you looked at him suspiciously. Will nodded. “Look, as a promotional bit I need to hand these out,” Will lied, “but if you just take them off my hands, then I will be free to have a lunch break!” Will pushed the fruit in your hands and started backing away. Flabbergasted, you made sure not to spill any as you looked at the blonde. “Why would I need this much fruit?” You looked like you really wanted to hand the fruit back to him, so Will had to act quickly. “Just hand them out if you don’t!” Will turned around and took a small sprint. He quickly rounded a corner and not-so-subtly spied on you. With only a bit of luck, you would instigate a conversation with Leo, who was sitting alone, within the next five minutes. And that would mean-

Oh no. Will glared at the black-haired boy who approached you, the same kid that had prevented you from sitting with Leo. His ‘definitely not a crush’. Why was he putting the fruit in a bag? Goddammit! You walked away with your friend, and Will knew he couldn’t keep taking this (cute) boy's interference. Something had to be done. Will wasn’t sure what yet- but murder was still on the list. 

Meanwhile, Nico smiled to himself. He saw the blonde glare, and he felt great having meddled with his plans again. Sure, Nico had to admit that the blonde looked cute when giving away the fruits to you, but there was no way you would fall for someone who was simply giving out fruits, instead Nico subtly walked you into the canteen, spotted your Fireboy (he stopped caring about the name now that he had a face), and nudged you to hand out the fruits there. You might not have put together that Nico knew what your crush looked like (although he did not know his name), but that would all help Nico’s plans. You would never figure out that he was playing Cupid (all in order to get you to shut up about Fireboy during your Mythomagic games, certainly not to rile up the blonde barista who is trying to hit on you). 

Which went pretty well. Leo was getting antsy. It had been almost two weeks since he had spotted you- the last time he saw you, you were just handing out cold tangerines from your bag. You had walked up to the table he was keeping occupied for his friends, said “You’re with three, right?”, put three tangerines down, said and walked away as he nodded. Leo had been working on his essay, and he got out of the essay brain fog a moment too late, for you were gone again. 

“Whatcha looking at?” Piper had asked five minutes after you had gone and Leo just responded with a hum as he returned to work on his essay. The deadline was later that day- last deadline of the semester luckily - and he could not be bothered to be made fun of because of his crush. 

Nico was a little proud of his plan- and the next step of it. Earlier, he overheard Fireboy’s friends mention a party happening, and Nico had to find a way to get you to the party, although he would be the last one to go, he had a foolproof plan. Of course, you still weren’t invited but he guessed that it would matter little to you if you found out the real catch at the party. 

“There are cats.” Nico deadpanned, and he immediately saw you crack. Sure, you weren’t planning on going out today, but how often does an opportunity like this present itself? “But they’ll be inside!” “With that amount of sound? I don’t think so, but your loss.” Nico picked up his Switch again, continuing his Hades run. “Why do you even want me to go?” You sounded a little suspicious, as you squeezed Nico’s Blahaj. 

“So you’ll stop trying to steal my plushies. Just go, nobody cares you’re not supposed to be there!” And that stinky Fireboy would be there, which is why you should go. Of course, Nico didn’t really want to miss out on hanging out with you, but he had to keep his priorities. 

 “How many cats are there?” You considered your options. “Four.” “Fuck.” and there you went. 

Meanwhile, as the exam season was finally over Leo found himself at a party. This one was at a different dorm from his own, but he was excited to see new people. Maybe the cryptid would show up. He hoped so, he would finally find the courage to talk to you or something. 

As Leo walked around the party- lights flashing, the music a little too loud for a conversation, and a beverage in hand - he was disappointed to not spot you in the crowd. Piper had already left to be with her own crush and Jason was having fun in another corner of the room. Leo sighed, the music and sadness getting to him as he went outside for some air. 

The full moon was out, and Leo took a sip of his drink. Suddenly, he heard sounds coming from the tree line. The bushes rustled and Leo carefully stepped closer. He was about to ask whether there was someone there when a blur shot out of the bushes and into a low-hanging tree. Another bigger blur quickly followed, and when Leo finally gained sight within the moonlight, he saw you petting a cat in a tree. 

“What?” Leo said out loud, staring at the sight before him. You were still crouching on the tree stem, the cat slowly sitting down on your knees. Your back was leaning against the bark behind you, as the cat finally accepted your affections. Leo wished to be that cat. Wait- that’s a weird thing to think. 

You had frozen in mid pet, but started again when the cat headbutted you, demanding your affection. You were staring at Leo Valdez, in the flesh. He sounded surprised to see you, almost happy. The darkness of the night was enough to make sure you were unable to make out his actual face. You decided to do the best thing you could think of- ignore the situation and keep petting the cat. However, as you saw Leo slowly get out his phone from his pocket, your head shot up. You did not want a picture of this, because it was not the most normal position to be in and you did not need your crush making fun of you. This movement resulted in the cat quickly jumping out of the tree, and you quickly tried to follow, only to see it running inside the dorms. 

“Fuck,” was all you said. Leo had forgotten his initial plan because of your sudden movements. You were about to just turn around and be sad about losing the cat, but you were interrupted by Leo. 

“Why don’t you follow it inside?” He asked and you squinted at him. “I wasn’t invited to the party.” You shrugged, looking at Leo as he cocked his head. 

“I was, we can get your cat out together if you want.” He suggested and you considered it for a second before nodding. You grabbed his hand and tugged him towards the dormhouse. Leo struggled for a second to get his footing, as he kept staring at your hands. He smiled dumbly, liking this feeling of your hand in his. He felt happiness in his chest as he realized he had talked to you- was having a conversation with you to some extent. 

As the two of you entered the building, Leo wanted to get you to his friends- proof you exist. However, you seemingly had other plans.

“I go left, you right. Be back in 20 with or without a cat. Good luck, detective.” You let go of his hand, on your mission of finding the cat. Leo smiled as he started looking too, stumbling upon Jason in the progress. 

“They are at the party!” He yelled into his friend's ear. Jason looked at him confused. “Who?” He yelled back. “The cryptid!” Leo responded. “Cool! Where are they? What’s their name?” Jason looked at Leo, as Leo’s face changed into one of realization. 

“Fuck! I don’t know! I will be back! Tell me if you see a cat!” Leo started moving through the crowd, trying his best to spot you. You hadn’t disappeared on him, right? He passed an empty room when movement caught his eye. As he looked inside, he saw you with four cats all cuddling you. Leo slowly made his way into the room. 

“I see you’ve found some cats!” He yelled over the music, and you looked at him surprised, before a smile filled your face as you nodded excitedly. Leo sat down next to you, keeping a little distance between the two of you. Your shoulders brushed as he leaned back, letting one of the cats climb on his lap. He started petting the cat, as he looked at you, being fully captivated by the cats. 

Leo wanted to talk to you, but you seemed so content with your activity and he dared not interrupt this time you had. He just wished to be able to scooch a little closer, to know your name, to be able to open his mouth a tell you how good he thinks you looked like this. His courage once again failed him. He figured that in a bit, if you stood up, he could strike a conversation. 

An alarm sound rang from your watch, and you looked at it in shock. “I have to go, thank you for the cats, detective,” Is all you said as you put the two cats that were on your lap on Leo’s. “Wait- Let me!” But you made a run for it, “Shit!” Leo exclaimed. Why did you have to leave? He looked at the cat in his lap, who purred against his chest. Leo pouted as he pets the cat. 

“Your campus cryptid was a cat?” Jason walked into the room. Leo shook his head. “They just left.” Was all he said. Jason sat down next to him. “Did you get their name?” He asked and Leo once again shook his head. Jason looked at his friend worried. “You alright, buddy?” Leo leaned against Jason’s arm. “I just- I couldn’t get myself to talk! They seemed so happy with the cats and-“ Leo yelled a little, “Jason, I am in deep shit and I don’t know how it happened.” 

Jason smiled as he petted Leo on the head. “It happens sometimes, Leo. You better catch your cryptid before you regret it.” Leo nodded, still petting the cats on his lap. Unbeknownst to Leo, Jason had spotted you on your way out and he knew exactly who you were. Jason figured he could ask after the weekend though, for now he had a friend to comfort.

Besides, Jason didn’t know but you had a show to catch, so you wouldn’t have stuck around anyways. When you finally arrived back at Nico’s dorm you knocked on his door, just in time for the both of you to catch the newest episode of the show you were watching together. Yet, you seemed a little fidgety to Nico and it only took a little prodding from Nico to figure it out. 

His plan had worked perfectly. Take that blonde barista! He would never stand a chance against the power of cats and your weirdness. 

Yet, Nico’s plan seemed to work a little too well, for one of Fireboy’s friends had spotted you and put the puzzle pieces together.  Lucky for Nico, the friend who spotted you was not Will Solace, unlucky for Nico, Jason Grace was a noisy bitch when something had to do with his friends. 

This morning during your lecture you had been approached by Jason Grace. You had worked together with him on projects once or twice, but you never took the energy to become good friends with him. He was just a guy you sat next to sometimes, however today he seemed to be in a chatty spirit. 

“So, you know Leo?” He side eyed you and you nodded, opening your laptop to take notes, “He has been obsessing over this ‘campus cryptid’ as he calls it.” Jason tried to gauge your reaction, however it was nine in the morning, so there was little emotion on your face except from ‘tired’, “And I think that you might be this cryptic crush he has.” That woke you up. “Me?” You gave Jason your full attention, “Cryptid?” “That is what you focus on?” Jason laughed, “You should talk to Leo, I fear he cannot approach you even if it was life or death, (Y/n).” You shook your head.

“I do not think I should approach someone who calls me a cryptid, Jason. Besides, I also do not think Leo can physically have a crush on me.” Jason looked at you, begging you with his eyes. “Look, he probably just wants to find the cats we petted or something-” You sighed, “Okay, I won’t run away from him next time I see him.” Jason nodded approvingly. “You were running away?” He smiled and you looked at him tired of the conversation. “Shut up, Grace.” Lucky for Nico, Jason Grace was not Will Solace, unluckily for Nico, Will was also a noisy bitch, who worked at a café. Will slid Jason’s favorite drink towards him. 

 “Hey, Jason, can you do me a favor?” Will intensely stared at Jason, his hand still on the lid.

“I don’t know, can I?” Jason looked from the drink to Will, who nodded as he moved the drink a little closer. “Yes you can.” Will said as Jason picked up the drink and examined it closer. On the side of the drink, Will had scribbled ‘for the best dude I know’ with a very badly drawn sun on it. Jason didn’t like the prospect of the favor being bought out of him, but he wasn’t complaining. He could always feign forgetfulness and not do it. 

“I need you to figure out who the cryptid is. Name, address, age-” Will paused, “It sounds like stalking, but you have a class with them, so maybe you can talk to them?” 

“Oh, I know the cryptid. We did a project together once.” Jason squinted at Will, “Are you trying to get (Y/n) and Leo together?” “Pfft, what? It’s not that obvious, is it?” Will laughed curtly, before going back to being serious, “Their name is (Y/n)?” “You didn’t know their name?” Jason sighed, “Of course not- either way, Leo’s obsessed with the cryptid simply being a cryptid.” 

“Good, all according to plan!” Will smiled, “I need you to approach (Y/n)’s friend and ask whether the cryptid is interested in Leo at all.” Will shrugged, “Not sure if the magic is working from that side.” 

“You mean Nico?” Jason asked

“The cute black-haired boy?” Will asked. “No.” Jason said, “I will not ask your crush whether he likes you.” 

“He’s not my crush,” Will shook his head, “He just keeps intervening with my plans for Leo and (Y/n)!”

“I suggest you just talk to him yourself, Will.” but as Jason suggested the normal thing to do, Will shook his head again. 

“Pretty please?” Will looked at Jason as he lifted his hand, clearly indicating that he would push the drink off the table if Jason did not agree. Jason shook his head as he gave in. Will did make his favorite after all, and perhaps he could befriend Nico on the way. He would probably be a little less weird than his current friends- and even though Jason could tell Will how you reacted to his probing this morning, he figured he should take the chance the approach Nico. 

“How do you know Nico’s name anyways?” Will asked after a moment. 

“He and Frank play Mythomagic together sometimes,” Jason looked at Will, “You sure you don’t want me to find out whether he likes you?” 

“No” Will blushed, “Not until Leo and (Y/n) are together! Then I can focus on myself. Who’s Frank anyways?” 

“Dating Nico’s half-sister,” Jason explained as Will seemed relieved, “Not that you would care, as you don’t have a crush” Jason laughed, while Will glared at him. 

It took a bit for Jason to find Nico, but he eventually got word from Frank that Nico would be at their usual place for Mythomagic. When Jason got there, Frank hadn’t yet arrived, but Nico was going through his deck. Jason felt relieved that (Y/n) didn’t seem to be anywhere near. 

Jason sat down opposite of Nico and cleared his throat. Nico looked up from his deck.

“You’re Jason Grace, right?” Nico asked, “You finally got a deck?”

“Not yet, maybe you can help me though.” Jason looked at Nico, whose poker face was all too good. He could not make out what Nico was thinking, so he simply continued, “I have a friend who’s interested in you and was just wondering if-” “Not the Fireboy, right?” Nico interrupted him. “What?” Jason took a moment, “Who?

“Small, curly hair, petted cats with my friend yesterday,” Nico sounded a bit disappointed in his next sentence, “you know, ‘Fireboy’, as my friend will not give me his name.” 

“Oh! No, not the cryptozoologist. Any reason why you’re asking?” “For said friend, mostly. Would be disappointing if Fireboy fell for my charms while my friend swooned for him. Anyways, cryptozoologist?” Nico asked and Jason grinned.

“He thinks your friend is Mothman.” Jason elaborated, and Nico nodded. “He’s not wrong.” 

“Sure, anyway, you’re single then? Not interested in the cryptozoologist yourself?” “Pft, I’m not that pathetic.” Nico laughed, “Why are you interested?” “Asking for a friend.” “Toucheé” Nico shrugged, still taking the boy before him in. He had never really spoken with Jason before, but he seemed friendly enough, and if there was something he needed, it was more friends (especially if you were to ever start dating the cryptozoologist, who would entertain him then?). Besides, perhaps he could actually get Jason involved with Frank and his Mythomagic games. They needed more players, desperately. 

“Either way, the cryptozoologist is going to the library later today–” 

“Why tell me?” “No reason.” 

“Well, so are (Y/n) and I, we’re studying together today.” Nico answered shortly, “Look, Jason, great conversation we’re having, but I only engaged in it because I thought you were going to get into Mythomagic.” 

“Oh!” Jason hesitated, looking at the cards, “I mean I would love to, I just really do not know where to start.” 

“I have an extra deck,” Nico started going through his bag, “I can explain the basics in a duel now, and then you can try it against Frank when he shows up. I think Frank also has a more beginner-friendly deck with him- so you won’t be annihilated too quickly.” 

“Uh-” Jason was not prepared for Nico to start talking so fast, or so much.

“Of course, you’ll eventually have to find a deck structure you like,” Nico kept going, “or invest in something more competitive, but just for getting the hang of the game this should be enough.” Nico laid out some cards and grabbed a few figurines, “let’s start with the kind of cards that you can encounter, before going to the phases of your turn.” 

“Firstly! On a different topic, would you know if (Y/n) (L/n) is interested in Leo?” “No” Nico glared at Jason, he didn’t know this Leo kid but you only had one crush and that was your little cryptozoologist. Jason, in the short span of their conversation, blown away by the sudden development of Nico’s talkativeness,  had forgotten that Nico mentioned he didn’t know Leo’s name (or maybe, he simply figured that Nico was joking. Nico could joke, right?). “Okay,” Jason seemed disappointed, “Alright, let’s get into this game” Nico started enjoying the conversation a lot more after that. 

After a few hours and some intense Mythomagic games (Jason won once with Frank’s beginner deck! Nico seemed proud), Jason encountered Will on his break, drinking tea.

Jason leaned down, next to Will’s ear. 

“So the good news is, Nico is single.” Jason told Will, who spit out his drink and then quickly turned his head. “Why did you ask him that? I gave you a simple-” “I can see the way you eye him.” Jason cut Will off, “Also, be quiet, or do you want people to approach you on your break?” Will grumbled a little before continuing. “It’s because he keeps messing up my plans!” Will watched his tone, “I eye him in disdain, not longing.” “Yes, I see the romantic tension is to die for.” Jason feigned drama as he moved on, “The bad news is, I’m not sure whether (Y/n) is interested.”

“That’s a lie.” Will looked Jason in the eye, “Ask (Y/n). For me?” “I’m not a messenger.” “I will get you more staples.” “I will be a messenger.” Jason agreed, “You better get the staples, because I asked them this morning-” Will looked at him in surprise.

“I only asked you to check at lunch?” Will raised an eyebrow, “You knew already and kept me waiting?” 

“I didn’t know whether Nico liked you, buddy.” Jason shrugged, “(Y/n) seemed like they’re interested, but Nico gave a definitive ‘no’ when asked. Maybe he doesn’t agree with the pairing, maybe (Y/n) simply got flustered at the thought of someone liking them. Who knows?” 

“You’re supposed to find out!” Will exclaimed, “I’m not sure whether this information is worth the staples.”

“Well, perhaps if you would talk to Nico you would ‘find out’ that you have a lot in common!” Jason bit back. 

“I don’t think I can, Jason.” Will quickly took another sip from his tea, definitely not out of nervousness.

“He’s going to the library today with (Y/n)- and Leo is too. Who knows what he will be planning?” Jason offered, “He might try to put Leo in a bad light, I don’t know.” Will glared at Jason. 

“And what am I supposed to do? Be a distraction?” 

“Yes.”

Sadly, Will needed to make sure that Nico didn’t intervene with your study date. He needed to talk to Nico, and he needed to get back to work as his break was over. He only had two hours left- hopefully he would be at the library in time. 

“We should study in the library today.” Nico said, as if he didn’t overhear Fireboy complaining about wanting to do that. 

But right as he was about to walk into the library, the blonde barista was in his way. 

“Nico di Angelo, we need to talk.” “How do you know my name?” 

“I’ve been trying to get Leo to date someone for weeks now!” 

“I don’t know this Leo guy, but I was matching (Y/n),  and if it wasn’t for your meddling it would have worked!” 

“Well if it wasn’t for you, (Y/n) would already be dating someone. Leo, for example.” “I don’t care about your plan, just leave them alone!” Nico scoffed, “You need to understand that (Y/n) only has the hots for that weird cryptozoology guy anyways.” Will glare dropped, and after a moment, he started laughing. 

“What’s so funny?” Nico was filled with confusion, but Will just kept laughing. Nico realized he kind of liked this laughter from his opposition, especially as Will's face got a little red in the process. Could he make Will blush like that too? Before more thoughts could develop, Nico half-heartedly hit Will on his head, “Answer me.” Will looked at Nico, realizing that Nico’s pout was pretty cute. 

“Leo is the cryptozoologist.” 

“Oh, oh.” 

From here on out they needed a plan, together. 

Luckily things were already moving in the right way, because during the time  Will and Nico talked, Leo and you had interacted. Not a conversation, of course not, but an interaction nonetheless. 

Because while they held their conversation, you were sitting in the library, not looking forward to having to confront Leo. Alas, you promised Jason and perhaps you would actually become friends with Leo in the end. You had liked hanging out with him last weekend, petting the cats. You just hoped that Leo did not actually think you were weird enough to be a cryptid. You had already figured out your plan- you found a book on cryptozoology in the library and put in some paper with your name and number on it. That would be funny, right?

Anyways, the book was to your side as you worked your way through various papers you had to read for next class. You were so consumed in your work that you had not noticed Leo grabbing his phone, not so subtly pointing it your way, and taking a picture of you. However, Leo had kept the flash on, and you did notice that. Your head shot up and you looked straight at him, staring into his eyes. Unblinking you watched as he stumbled on his words, quickly putting away his phone.

“Sorry!” Leo exclaimed, putting his hands up and he quickly turned. You blinked twice quickly and realized you messed up. Maybe this was slightly cryptic.

Leo on the other hand was panicking. He messed up massively, how could he ever approach you now? You just caught him taking a sneak picture of you like some fucking creep.  He cursed himself for messing up this badly. He should just, run away, change his name and never set foot on campus again. Yeah, that seems like a good one. On his way out he fully missed his friend Will being right down the hall. Will didn’t miss Leo bolting though, and he nudged Nico to join you in the library. 

“You don’t want (Y/n) to become too suspicious of your absence,” Will shrugged when Nico questioned him, “Besides Leo just bolted out the door, so I do not think you can ruin this study date anymore than Leo just did himself.” “We’re on the same team now, Will,” Nico deadpanned and Will smiled. “Doesn’t mean you can’t ruin Leo’s chances, buddy.” Nico flipped Will off, as he turned around to join you in studying. 

“You’re late.” You stated as Nico sat down in front of you. “So?” Nico shrugged, “Mythomagic took a little longer than planned as we got Jason to join.” 

“Grace?” You asked, and Nico huffed. “Clearly, I meant Todd.” He stated “I fucking wish,” You sighed, “Either way, Fireboy just took a picture of me.” 

“Seems like me being late is the least of your issues.” Nico opened one of his textbooks, “Maybe you should just talk to Fireboy, or I don’t know, leave a note written in code and see if he figures it out.” 

“I won’t, what do you care anyways?” you sighed again, as you looked at Nico. “I care about getting a good grade on the next exam, which I will not get with your fireboy-complaining,” Nico glared at you. 

“If you played less Mythomagic and Hades you wouldn’t be complaining about my complaining,” You stated and Nico rolled his eyes. “We’ll see- maybe you’ll run into Leo again soon.” Nico focused on his books, and you figured he didn’t want to continue the conversation. You also figured that Nico finally found out who Fireboy was- but you didn’t know how. Maybe it was an accident, or maybe it was the blonde barista you’d spotted talking to Nico through the windows just now. They would look cute together.

Yet, before you could get on your plan to get Nico and Will together, you had to face the music, which sounded a lot like Leo Valdez. Therefore you decided to put together a little something, and wait for Leo at the place where you first ‘met’.

Which means that the next time Leo saw you was the next day, right outside of the dorms. You were just standing there looking at your phone. The sun had set, and Leo had stayed behind in the library to work on his essays. Leo had wanted to apologize for taking the picture, and maybe he had also thought you would have been there because he knew he had seen you there yesterday. He was disappointed that you weren’t there, but he sat down and kept working on his essays until it was well past dinner time.

However, now you were standing underneath the same tree where he first spotted you, and before Leo’s brain could put anything in, his legs had carried him towards you.

“Look, I want to apol-,” Leo started but you quickly cut him of with an abrupt hand movement. “Wait!” You took three steps back, “Here!” you finished your sentence, and you ran towards your dorm. You quickly grabbed the cryptozoology book from your bag and ran back. Luckily, Leo was still standing there, looking bewildered. “Uh-,” You alerted Leo of your presence, as you held out the cryptozoology book to him, “Jason said you uuh- were into cryptids and-” You felt your impromptu courage deflate as you started to stumble over your words, “so I found, uh, this book- it’s from the library but you should- look inside!” you finished your sentence, looking uncomfortably at Leo. He hesitantly grabbed the book and was about to put it away when you grabbed the book and made him open it.

Leo looked down at the loose page of white A4 paper, which contained a shitty drawing of what could resemble moth man. Underneath was written ‘CAMPUS CRYPTID a.k.a. (Y/n) (L/n)’ and a phone number.

“This is-” Leo felt a smile on his face, “You?” he laughed. You smiled awkwardly in return. “Jason told me that you called me the campus cryptid and you know,” you vaguely gestured towards the book, “I thought this would be smooth enough for a cryptid.” “It’s awesome, I love it,” Leo had almost said ‘you’ but that would be too soon, “Would you maybe get some cryptic coffee with me?” He asked, nervously looking you in the eyes. “Only if there are cats,” you smiled at him. Leo laughed “You sure like your fellow cryptids,” “Pft, whatever, cryptozoologist.”A few weeks later, Nico invited you for a double date. You found the date alright- but Nico was nowhere near, nor was his apparent date.

You wondered why Nico had stood you up. He was normally really punctual, but somehow he was not in front of the café, and after a bit he messaged you, asking you to just go in and sit somewhere. It was as if you were out of luck- every table was taken, and there were not a lot of free chairs. You figured you could get a coffee to go if nothing else, so you made your order with the blonde barista, who was smiling brightly. He pointed you to the only empty chair in the cafe, where your boyfriend sat. You were a little hurt that Nico hadn’t introduced you to Will yet, but if anything you appreciated that they were still trying to get you and Leo together. You both swore Jason to secrecy and he just shrugged as he kept working on his Mythomagic deck. 

“Will recommended I visit the cafe today, and get an employee discount on the drink.” “Nico stood me up on a ‘double date’.” You smiled, as you tried to spot the blonde in the cafe, “Did Will just leave?” “He didn’t actually have a shift today,” Leo laughed, “I checked with his coworkers, it’s wild what they do to get us together.” 

“When do you think they’ll figure out we’re already dating?” You asked, as you purposefully kept your awkward distance from Leo. “At the marriage ceremony, most likely.” Leo laughed. “Ours or theirs?” You asked, as you joined his laughter. 

“Whichever is first…” 

From across the street, Nico and Will shared a fist-bump as they noticed the awkward banter between the two of you. “Well, job well done,” Will sighed, “I guess it’s time for our date!” “Our what,” Nico blabbered, as Will simply smiled and grabbed his hand.

[quijabored]

OKAY SO I JUST FINISHED WATCHING LIKE THE ENTIRETY OF S3 FOR BSD SO UH SPOILERS FOR A LOT OF IT BUT ESPECIALLY THE ENDING CUZ HOOOLYYY SHIIITTTTT

I JUST

I CANT PUT MY THOUGHTS DOWN INTO COHERANT SENTANCES SO LIVE LAUGH BULLETPOINTS ((o(^∇^)o))

OKAY SO AKUTAGAWA AND ATSUSHI???

THEYRE GONNA WORK TOGETHER ARENT THEY I JUST KNOW DAMN WELL DAZAIS GONNA LIKE MAKE IT SO THEYRE COINCIDENTALLY PAIRED UP TO BEAT THE SHIT OUT OF A GUY

ALSO THE PROMISE ATSUSHI HAD AKUTAGAWA MAKE??? FYM AKUTAGAWA CANT KILL PEOPLE HES IN THE *PORT MAFIA.*

Just realizing I don't know how to do the whole colored text or different font thingy BUT ANYWAYS

STILL I LOVE ATSUSHI FOR THAT AND SINCE IT WAS MADE WITH A GOAL IN MIND, I REALLY HOPE I GET TO SEE AKUTAGAWA DEVELOPMENT

AAAAHHHH HES SO SILLY I LOVE AKUTAGAWA HES MY SON

SPEAKING OF SONS

IVAN??? HES SO ME LIKE HE IS SO ME????

ASAGIRI WAS SPYING ON ME WHEN MAKING IVAN FR

Funny thing when I first started getting into the fandom bit for bsd and I saw Fyodor being simped on I was like "eeehh I mean I guess hes cool but I dont really get it. Like sure hes an interesting character but..." AND THEN I SLOWLY STARTED BECOMING A FYODOR SIMP AND I JUST SKDHKSJD I HATE THAT MAN I HATE THAT MAN HES SUCH AN ASSHOLE

please I love him so much hes such a bitch I hate him I love him so much

"If Fyodor told me to cut my skin off I would" FUCKING SAME

ALSO AAAAAA THE ENTIRE TIME LIKE I WAS JUST STIMMING LIKE IM TELLING YOU IT WAS AJSHSKDJSJ

I HAVENT HYPERFIXATED ON A SERIES LIKE THIS SINCE THE PROMISED NEVERLAND (Specifically the manga. Miss you Yuugo)

AAAAAA ALSO THE FACT THAT CHUUYAS JUST STUCK IN POES STORY??

AND POE BEING LIKE "But if Ranpo were to die what would be my reason for living..." LIKE HELLO??? I LOVE MY OTHER SON (Poe)

AND AND AND FYODOR???? AHHHHHH HES SUCH A BITCH I LOVE HIM

THIS MOTHERFUCKER WAS REALLY COMMUNICATING QITH MUSIC??? ALSO THE SURPRISED AND SHOCKED LOOK AT THE END WHEN DAZAI FOUND HIM??

I KNOW WE SEE MORE OF HIM LATE BUT FUCK

ALSO FYODORS ABILITY?? From what I saw it seems that it's just kill by touch but if Dazais like "welp, idk" then I'm guessing it's a bit more complicated than that AND I AM SO EXCITED TO SEE WHAT HAPPENS AAAA

Also Mori and Fukuzawa did the sskk punchy thingy they did in the end of S2!! I'm not sure if people ship them (I refuse to take in any content about Mori) but if people do then win for them :D

Also Im extremely excited to see Nikolai cuz hes me minus the Ukrainian terrorist bit BUT AAAA I HOPE I GET TO SEE HIM SOON

JUST SEARCHED IT UP ITS S4 EP 5 AND AAAAAA

I can't watch BSD until tommorow now cuz I wanna have a minute to process everything BUT AAAA I CANT WAIT TO WATCH S4

Fyodor made me feel so many ways I love him

AAAAAAA OKAY SO MY FAVORITE BOY (Akutagawa) IS ALSO SUPER SILLY THOUGHOUT THIS WHOLE THING LIKE

THE SCENE WHERE ITS LIKE "Are you sure youre the real Akutagawa?"

"Yeah."

"...And youre not gonna try and kill me?"

"Yeah."

"What did you have for breakfast?"

"Yeah."

LIKE I LOVE HIM SO MUCH

Live laugh love Dazai but FUCK MAN AKUTAGAWAS TRAUMATIZED

Like don't get me wrong I love Aku how he is and I'm gonna love him more when I learn more about his character, but god damn it hurts to watch him seem so reliant on Dazais praise and Dazais approval like akdjkajsdj Ive been there my boy :(

ALSO I FEEL SO BAD FOR KUNIKIDA LIKE HE HAD TO GO THROUGH SO MUCH THIS SEASON

I PROBABLY HAVE OTHER THINGS TO SAY BUT AHDKSJDKWBD I LOVE BSD AND I CANT REMEMBER WHAT ELSE I WANTED TO YAP ABOUT BUT AAAAHHH ASAGIRI WHEN I CATCH YOU ASAGIRI- ASAGIRI WHEN I CATCH YOU-

Twas talking about this scene earlier btw :3

AH ALSO WHEN FYODOR GOT SMASHED WITH A WINE BOTTLE??? HELLO??? I LOVE HIM BUT I STARTED LAUGJING AT THE SCENE

[twwings]

Big Festivids Recs Post!

Last weekend was the big Festivids GoLive, which meant the release into the wild of 160 brand new small fandom vids (aka fanvids, edits, etc.) Right now the collection's anonymous, but tomorrow is vidder reveals, so I wanted to write up a recs post for some of my absolute favourites from this year's collection. If you know Yuletide, well, Festivids is like Yuletide, celebrating small/weird/underappreciated fandoms! It's an exchange fest, so people ask for the small fandom vids of their heart and, then, receive one.

Honestly the collection this year is SO high quality, you should really go and browse the works yourself in their entirety; there are so many vids that I absolutely loved that I didn't put on this recs list, because I was trying not to get carried away (and also trying to get it done). But just to get you started, here are a smattering of my favourites. I tried to represent a bunch of vid genres and source types here, but ultimately it's just my taste.

RECS RECS RECS!

Andor: Level Up

AHHHH this is a vid about Andor and fascism and collective action and One Way Out and it's so gorgeously done. Perfect song choice, perfect vid, makes me cry and I will rewatch it many times.

Andor: be ready and be brave

Focusing on Ferrix, its history, its people, and its revolution. Absolute chills. Also I'm SO happy whenever I get to watch a vid to a Mountain Goats song.

Mosquita y Mari: como siempre soñé

Such a sweet, soft, slow romance vid. I ACHED for these two. Like reading a 300k slowburn but in three and a half minutes.

Dropout TV: Nothing in my Head

The Dropout TV vid of my DREAAAAAMS! (largely Game Changer but with lots of stuff in there!)

Taskmaster UK: Blood in the Cut

UHHHH. IT'S AMAZING??? It's hot and raw and kinky and hardcore. the vidder has the delicate, precise touch of a bloody scalpel. Yes, this is a vid for Taskmaster, the UK show where comedians do silly tasks. Because yeah, it's that show, but it's also this show.

Slash/Back: Uja

This vidder KNOWS how to vid horror. The way this vid cuts the most terrible images to make them barely-there, more horrifying for being rough slaps against my consciousness . . . yikes. Amazing vidding, super cool and scary, while also maintaining the uplifting, kickass, hopeful tone you want from a collective-action horror movie.

Janelle Monae: I Like That

Glorious, joyful, sexy celebration of being a free-ass motherfucker.

Star Trek: Lower Decks: Hard Times

Boimler vid about how he's essentially a redshirt who is just slightly too sweet to actually die. Absolutely adorable and hilarious.

Woman King: Upside Down

Absolute BANGER of a vid, great cuts, great movement, great character arc and great Dahomey women being amazing.

Romeo + Juliet: Magnetic

We all agree Harold Perrineau is the best Mercutio, SO, with that in mind, here is a flawless celebration of the best Mercutio.

Knives Out/Glass Onion: 'Til You Hit a Nerve

Brilliant comparison vid putting Marta from the first film together with Helen and Andi from the second one, drawing out the similarities and dissimilarities in a visual feast and with a badass powerwalk. Nothing not to love!

David Cronenberg's Films: body

This one is phenomenal. It takes David Cronenberg's entire filmography and condenses it into a vid about all the sexualized body horror. It is deeply horny and deeply disturbing and deeply fascinated by every single finger going into a hole in a body that shouldn't be there. It's soft and tentative and it's very graphic and violent, all at once.

The Wheel of Time: Velodrome

Tower politics and circularity and being bound to one another in every good way and every bad way; what a beautiful vid. I love how this is about a place, and about how that place draws these people together over and over in their shared experience and love and trauma.

The Midnight Sky: The Laughing Heart

Absolutely gorgeous vid of the film to a spoken word + music rendition of Charles Bukowski's "The Laughing Heart" (there is a light somewhere). I have not seen this film but I found this vid deeply moving.

Moby Dick: Queequeg and I

There are four (FOUR!!!) Moby Dick vids at Festivids this year, and they are all amazing combinations of a huge smorgasboard of sources, I heartily recommend them all, but I'll specifically rec two. This one is Queequeg and Ishmael to "Wouldn't It Be Nice" and it is the sweetest queerest thing ever. Queequeg and Ishmael get a happy ending shhhhh they do shhhhh yes this is how it happened they came out of the water they're fine

Moby Dick: a vulture feeds upon the heart forever

This vid is a fucking masterpiece. It is a huge archival multisource Moby Dick vid that weaves all these incredibly different visual together to make a coherent, tragic narrative. And like. The BOOK is not a coherent narrative! This is such gorgeous and amazing fanwork. Don't miss out on it.

Women's 100m Sprinting: Didn't Come to Play

This is GORGEOUS, I don't know anything about sprinting but I know I love these beautiful joyful powerful women running really fast and hugging each other and being amazing. The editing on this is so tight; the vid never stops for a second. Like a sprint?!?!?!

The Golem and the Jinni: סיפור הגולם

This is another book vid, but since this book doesn't have any adaptations, it's using entirely archival source and probably some documentaries and films to construct the story - or, really, construct the vibe of the book, construct the metaphors of the book, and the result is beautiful and powerful and meditative. It's about survival, and making life.

Jesus Christ Superstar: Hope on Fire

This is another umbrella vid, where the vidder is taking a bunch of different productions of the play and mashing them together. This vid focuses on Judas and Jesus/Judas, and it all feels so inevitable and tragic and real and cruel. I really loved it.

Jordan Peele's Films: Goodbye, Honey, You Call That Gone

This is such a wonderful mashup of Jordan Peele's three films, exploring all the parallels and differences and just the rich tapestry of his imagery.

猎罪图鉴 | Under the Skin: Put It On Me

I don't know this source but this was just so gorgeously put together; there's a focus on art and art objects, on hands moving and creating, that's just mesmerizing.