#how much does via know about the family? does she know the marriage was arranged? is it cowardice on stolas' part?

[sludgekludge]

What's your thoughts on Octavia?

she sure does exist

ok real talk, she's inoffensive, but not really a character archetype i care for, the moody goth teenager. i don't hate her though and her situation strikes a chord. brandon (i believe? correct me if im wrong) calling her a cockblocking bitch or whatever was like. kind of insane and offputting. she's in a really sad situation with a shitty dad but the narrative is so determined to defend stolas over everything and now she's in the wrong for being upset over it? gonna use this to jump off and ramble about stolas abandoning his daughter at every turn because i don't really have much to say about via on her own and i've wanted to complain about this like, forever

like 'stolas is a good dad!' when he:

actively has an open affair in front of her that seems to have kickstarted constant fighting between her parents. stolas does not seem to comfort or communicate with octavia over this whatsoever until she literally runs off crying over it in loo-loo land. even then, he's still fixated on specifically blitz protecting him. go look after your fucking daughter instead of whining about the bodyguard you don't need, dude.

tangentially, invites his affair partner (a stranger that is playing a part in actively disrupting octavia's life and relationship with her father) to what is meant to be a daddy-daughter day (ignores the fact she's not having a good time and then acts surprised when she tells him such) and flirts with him sexually in front of his (underage) daughter. seems to ignore octavia's worsening mood in favour of blitz until the aforementioned tears. has little to say for himself when confronted but assures her he won't abandon her. lol. lmao, even.

promptly forgets about something important to her and abandons her to once again in a foreign place to have sexual banter with his affair partner. is an all-powerful demon who could've pulled blitz away from funny sitcom shenanigans at any point to go look for octavia, but has to be reminded by blitz (sexily, for some reason) that they should go look for their daughters after the sitcom shit is cut short by accident. maybe via can't exactly be killed or hurt but literally anything else could've happened to her while she, a presumably quite sheltered teenager, was running around the human world for the first time by herself. she has to get a pep talk from a stranger (the daughter of her fathers affair partner, by the way) about how her dad might be a fuckup but totally loves her, despite having just spent the last afternoon fawning over blitz instead of worrying about octavia. this stranger is also the only adult bothering to look for her in any capacity. octavia would have spent the entire afternoon lost and alone if it weren't for loona being the only one to give a shit.

'what about my daughter', noticeably just kind of goes home with blitz after everything in mastermind and makes no effort to even call or text her. 'erm he was probably traumatised and exhausted-' literally everyone was just under the impression blitz was going to die. i'm sure they're all traumatised and exhausted. stolas lost his powers and his stupid ass house for a little bit, not even forever, over an affair he actively exploited a power dynamic to consciously have, not caring about how it effected his daughter, or the potential future consequences thereof. hitting the impeccable 'i wont abandon you my daughter who i definitely care about' then instantly forgetting she exists 2 seconds later because he of a hole he dug for himself. the point is he once again prioritises blitz over via. was it that easy to forget about her?

tangentially, if you want to believe that stella is an abusive mother (we haven't seen it in the show but i wouldn't be surprised if they wanted you to perceive it that way) then stolas is doing all of this while allowing stella to have octavia. alone, might i add.

via is objectively right to worry stolas is going to abandon her for blitz because he Does. she doesn't appeal to me as a character persay but her situation is miserable enough that i can't bring myself to really dislike her

[penkura]

last forever [4/13]

Summary: Zoro only offered to marry you to keep you out of an arranged marriage with a man much older than you. You agreed with the caveat of ending it via annulment once you received word from your parents regarding the original engagement, despite your growing feelings for your close friend.

Pairing: Zoro x Fem!reader, mentioned Sanami later (like epilogue later so chill)

Warnings: Marriage of Convenience, Fake Marriage, referenced sex (waaaaaay later on), mutual pining, Zoro is bad at feelings but what's new there, eventual romance I promise, mention of past attempted assault (I'll warn in that chapter), creepy older dude later on

Note: I DID IT, IT'S DONE IN TIME FOR MONDAY POSTING. This has been waiting to be finished for MONTHS. I feel so bad about that. uuuh but I'm setting up a little bit, introducing Reader's older brother, a few other things for later down the line. Hope you enjoy it.

[Ch. 1] ● [Ch. 2] ● [Ch. 3]

Arriving in Loguetown felt almost like a dream come true, finally being able to get off the ship and stretch your legs. You'd not seen such a busy, bustling town in years. It put even Shells Town to shame with how many people were going about. The stalls of food and trinkets, you were excited to go around and look at everything before you'd all board the Merry again and be on your way to whatever was next. Nami immediately took you to shop for clothes, but you ended up distracted by some of the trinkets at the shop while she got an employee to look at everything she tried on.

The main thing to catch your eye was a sword on the wall, wondering if you should go find Zoro to bring in to see it.

“Oh,” one of the shop clerks smiles seeing you looking at the blade, “That’s from Wano, allegedly! Dad says he brought it back from a trip, but he’s not gonna sell it. It’s just decoration at this point.”

Your jaw clenches and you flinch the tiniest bit hearing Wano, but the clerk doesn’t say anything if she notices. Quickly you turn it into a smile, thanking her for the information and simply stating your friend would like to see it, you’ll try to bring him by, slipping out of the shop before Nami sees you leaving.

You take a deep breath and try to shake off the dread you feel hearing Wano, pushing out thoughts of your higher up fiancé who had every intention of taking you from your family there after the marriage was finalized. You’ve done your best to keep it a secret, it’s not like you’d all end up there anytime soon, if ever, so there’s no need to worry your crewmates about something and someone so far away, right?

Right.

So no need to say anything.

You try to convince yourself of that while looking over the trinkets at a stall you’ve found, not like you really need any of the items you see, but there’s something about the box you’ve been taking glances at constantly that leads the owner to pick it up and bring it over to you.

“It’s a set of wedding bands,” the older woman opens the box, showing you the two silver bands that are obviously meant for a man and a woman, a husband and wife, “Bought them from a jeweler in the South Blue years ago, no one has taken a shine to them yet. Are you in a relationship?”

Blinking, you feel your face grow warm as you smile nervously and shake you head.

“W-Well, I wouldn’t call it a relationship but…I…I have someone I like…”

“Oh I see! What’s this person like then? Must be special if they have your heart.”

“Um, well,” scratching the back of your neck, you don’t really have to think too hard, but it does feel a little weird telling this stranger about Zoro, “He’s really strong, an amazing swordsman, he taught me a good bit of what I know now. He's loyal to all of us, he fought to protect our friend and he…he saved me, I suppose is the biggest thing…”

The older woman smiles as you speak, seeing a shine to your eyes she wasn’t fully expecting. Whoever you’re talking about seems to have more of a hold on your heart than even you realize, she believes. Almost reminds her of herself when she was younger. She doesn’t ask anything else, instead waving you over with her as she starts to package up the ring box and hands it to you in a small bag.

“I won’t charge you for these, I’ve had them so long. Please, give the one to the man you’re so smitten with, maybe some good will come of it.”

She all but forces the bag into your hands, refusing to take no for an answer, even as you offer to at least pay for the bag or buy something else. She makes the excuse that she’s closed now and won’t accept even one berri from you, turning you around herself and sending you off. You felt bad that she just gave them to you, but she was so persistent, you think Nami will believe you haggled with the woman until she gave them to you for free.

Once you’re far enough away from the stall, you stop to take another look at the rings that were essentially forced on you. You don’t know why you wanted to check the box so badly before the woman brought them over to you, maybe some strange sense of what the box was, some weird hopeful part of you just somehow knew what it was.

They were pretty rings at least. Plain silver bands, the thinner one having a small clear jewel on it, you wonder how no one had ever bought them before when the woman said she’d had them for years. Part of you wonders what it would be like to wear the ring and actually be happy about it, and not feel like tearing it off and throwing it in the sea.

Not like it matters, it’s not a real marriage.

Sighing, you close the box and slip it into your pocket, starting to walk back towards the Merry before you hear someone say your name, shouting it a few times with excitement in their voice.

Wait. Wait, I know that voice.

You quickly turn around and have to will yourself not to cry when you see the person calling for you.

+!+

Once Zoro finally has three swords again, his next plan is to find a tavern before you all take off from Loguetown. He’s passed several places that he assumed some of you would be at, but just ducking his head in and looking around briefly showed no signs of any of you.

Mostly he’s been looking for you, to make sure you haven’t gotten yourself into any trouble. Since the day you’d met, Zoro knew you had the ability to put yourself in less than ideal situations, your home life did very little to make you skeptical of strangers, likely almost having it beat into you that you should be ready and willing to help anyone who asked for it. The one and only time it took to get it into your head not help anyone without asking questions was when you’d nearly been kidnapped, if Zoro hadn’t shown up in time and dragged you away. You sure got an earful from him later that night, with the threat that maybe he’ll just let a human trafficker take you next time if you’re that stupid again.

Zoro does realize that’s probably why you stay by his side, clinging to him like glue, but when it was just the two of you, it was the best way to make sure you didn’t get left behind or taken from him.

Part of him wonders how well that actually stuck, now that he sees you on the other side of the road, looking like you’re near tears as some guy talks to you with a bright smile on his face. He looks older, definitely taller than you but still shorter than Zoro, but not by much. He’s almost as blond as Sanji, and seems like he knows you very well. The angle he’s at doesn’t let Zoro know if you’re happy or upset, just that you’re wiping at your eyes with your sleeve, and he feels the need to hurry over to you, especially once this new person pulls you in for a hug that you can’t seem to return.

This guy.

He isn’t your alleged fiancé…right?

No, he’s too young.

“I’m so glad you’re doing well, who are you with right now?”

You sniffle a bit and give a smile before responding.

“I’m with—”

“She’s with me.”

Zoro surprises you by speaking and putting his arm around your shoulders, making you look up at him.

“Oh, Zoro, where did you—”

“Zoro?? So this is him?!”

If it weren’t for his previous status as the pirate hunter, Zoro would be questioning how this guy knows his name. He doesn’t even look at this other person, looking down at you to make sure you’re okay, even when you smile at him.

“Zoro, this is—”

“Hey, nice to meet you finally,” the blond holds his out for Zoro to take, but your swordsman is still wary of him, setting his free hand on his swords to maybe scare him off if he’s upsetting you, “Thanks for taking care of my little sister, man.”

“…little sister?”

Nodding, you move from Zoro to beside your brother, still smiling.

“Zoro, this is Elias, my older brother. He’s the one who helped me runaway and gave me his sword. Elias, this is—”

“Your husband!” Elias gives you such a bright grin that he doesn’t notice how you turn red and start trying to correct him. “I know already, mom and dad were pissed when your letter came. They’re still not sure what to do, you know.”

While he laughs, you sigh a bit, figuring that was why you hadn’t heard anything from them. Your parents must still be expecting you to come home, to say you’ve ended your marriage and they were right the whole time, you’ll just marry the man they chose for you.

It's not going to happen, but you think that’s probably what they want from you. To be a good daughter and do as your told.

It makes you want to throw up, remembering how they treated you.

“You’d think they’d be glad you and I both found people we love, but, you know mom and dad.”

“Since you married Amaya, I thought they’d leave me out of it all but, mom and dad of course.”

You keep up conversation with Elias for several minutes, Zoro barely listening as he just wants to make sure you’re really okay. You’ve never had a bad thing to say about your brother, he knows this, and truthfully, Zoro is happy to see you at least had someone from your hometown who cared about you. He does make note of how you aren’t trying to correct Elias regarding your relationship with him, but it’s likely so he keeps thinking you’ve found someone to keep you safe and away from your parents, even though you’re whole crew has promised that at this point.

Eventually Elias notices Zoro still staring at you both, looking like he’s getting antsy and wanting to leave, and your brother grins just a bit.

“I should get going. Amaya and our parents are expecting me back home in two days.”

“Oh,” your happiness suddenly drops, but you still nod, even when Elias hugs you again and you’re able to return it this time, “It…I was happy to see you, Eli.”

“I was even happier to see you doing well, princess,” Elias ignores you protesting him calling you that, while he turns to Zoro after releasing you, sticking his hand out again, “It was good to meet you too, Zoro. Thanks for taking care of my sister. I’m happy to know she found you.”

For a second you wonder if Zoro’s even going to bother shaking your brother’s hand, until he finally does you feel relieved.

“Yeah, no problem.”

You wave Elias off until he shouts something about you two having a child one day and letting him know immediately, causing both of you to blush fiercely as he laughs until he’s gone, and you look back to Zoro.

“S-So…where do you wanna go now?”

“Let’s…let’s find everyone else. Or at least Luffy.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

Zoro turns and starts walking away from you, until you grab his wrist and start dragging him back the other way.

“No, this way.”

“…I knew that.”

He really didn’t, he fully believed that the best way would be back towards the docks, but when you giggle at him and start heading back into town, Zoro tries his hardest not to look at you too closely. Not to dwell on what your brother said, he was just messing with you both, since he doesn’t know the reality of your marriage.

So the fact Zoro’s suddenly wondering what your kids might look like makes him avoid eye contact, ignore the fact you’re still holding onto his wrist as you look for your crewmates. He’s so tired of this, of having people believe your marriage is real, and the thoughts that come with it every time someone brings it up.

Your annulment can’t come soon enough.

+!+

For all the time you’ve spent traveling and the people you’ve met, the strangers from Whiskey Peak were the weirdest ones. You should’ve expected something was up with how accepting they were of pirates, anything except them being Baroque Works members, so it was a shock when you found out that’s exactly what they were. You’ve only heard of the group once or twice from Zoro in the past, normally when you’d lost a bounty target by mere minutes due to their quick work.

So once you found that’s all that inhabited this place, you weren’t surprised to hear Zoro had already taken all of them down by the time you woken up from your nap on the Merry. You’d chosen to stay behind and watch your ship, your home, while the rest of your crew went to the island. You’d been woken up by their sudden return and new members on the ship in the form of Vivi and Karoo, who you’ve taken a quick liking to as you all make your way towards a place called Little Garden.

Although, you have noticed Sanji treating you differently from your other female crewmates.  While he openly flirts and falls over himself for the two, when it comes to you, he’s much more subdued and less extravagant, still treating you with respect but in less of a romantic way, it’s more friendly than anything.

But you still feel nervous when you bring it up to him, hoping you haven’t done something to make him like you less since you really do want to be his friend.

“Hey, Sanji, can I talk to you?”

“Of course!” Sanji gives you a grin while you sit at the table, smiling back, as he dries his hands and comes over to stand in front of you. “How can I help the lovely lady today?”

“Why do you flirt with Nami and Vivi but not me?”

You almost instantly shut your mouth when you finish speaking, biting your tongue before groaning over how you just blurted your question out. Sanji doesn’t respond right away, tilting his head as he thinks about it, and you continue to fight the embarrassment you now feel over even bothering to ask. It was a stupid question, Sanji could flirt with whoever he wanted, it didn’t mean anything. It didn’t mean you weren’t wanted, he just didn’t feel anything romantic towards you, that’s all, you reason.

It still hurts to think that though, you’re just making yourself more upset as you wait for Sanji to say anything.

“Well,” he scratches the back of his neck, trying to figure out how to word it in a way that won’t offend you, “I can’t rightfully flirt with a woman who’s heart is taken, can I?”

“��huh?”

That isn’t what you expected from Sanji, of all people. You expected him to apologize that you felt left out, fall at your feet because that’s what he does, groveling and begging tour forgiveness for not showing you the same attention as the other girls.

But this makes you feel better about it, really. You think it’s a testament to Sanji’s character, that he won’t go after someone who has feelings for another, even if you’ve yet to confirm to any of your other crewmates the feelings you have for Zoro.

“I’ve seen how you look at that mosshead of ours. I know you guys said your marriage isn’t meant to last forever, but you really like him,  right?”

Nodding slightly, you smile a bit as Sanji continues to grin at you.

“He might piss me off, but if you like him, there’s something good there.”

“I could tell you how we met one day.”

“Sure, might help me understand why you like that shitty swordsman so much.”

Sanji’s constant nicknames for Zoro actually make you laugh, and he keeps up conversing with you as he does the dishes, allowing you to help him bring drinks around to everyone a few minutes later. You two talk and laugh on your way out of the kitchen, you don’t even notice how it’s caused Zoro to watch you again, or how his jaw clenches after you bring a drink to him with a smile, before following Sanji back into the kitchen.

Now seeing you with the damn cook was making chest ache, what the hell is happening?

All of this needs to stop already.

[barbatos-sama]

oh also there was another song this episode as well, an octavia song which was surprising. i think it does a really good job at capturing her feelings, how she feels betrayed by her father and now she has intentions to cut ties with him. it's also essentially a reprise of the first ever song in this show, from episode two when her dad was singing her a lullaby telling her she would be okay after she had a nightmare. specifically it was about a nightmare she had where she couldn't find him anywhere, and he assured her that she would be okay no matter what happened to him. at the time he focused on assuring her she would be okay rather than "i would never leave you" because he's chronically convinced that he's going to die young for some reason, so he didn't want to lie to her by saying he would Never leave her because he Could die. i think that fact makes this song sadder because it's all about how she feels lied to by him.

i think some people are going to misinterpret this whole octavia arc, because it seems like some people Already dislike her because she's ~not understanding enough of stollas~ or whatever which is pretty bullshit. she's a teenager and she seemingly hasn't been informed that her mom and dads marriage was arranged, so she had no concept of how absolutely miserable her father was. so from her point of view, her father has ruined their family by betraying his mom and by extension her. even in her first appearance she's been shown as being nervous about her father leaving her, because she loves him but also because then she'd be alone with her mom aka the biggest fucking cunt in the whole show. she loves her dad so much and has always been more close with him than her mom, but once she found out he cheated it raised the possibility of him leaving her as well, not just his mom. it's also important to mention that via has hardly met bliitz, they've only spoken a handful of words to each other, so to her he's a strange man who's stolen her dad away. she doesnt know what kind of person he is, and was fearful her dad would run away with him and leave her behind.

so she made him Promise her that he would never choose bliitz over her, and he did, and he MEANT that because he loves his daughter more than anything, but this was the one circumstance where he really had no other choice. bliitz would die if he didn't make the choice he did, he didn't consider the fact that saving bliitz's life would mean being separated from via. and yes, octavia needs to realize that stollas really had no other choice in this, but it's entirely understandable why she feels the way she does. because once again, she is a teenager, and what she saw was her dad literally ready to die and leave her behind for the sake of this strange man he's been cheating on her mom with. like, stollas genuinely thought that by taking the blame during the trial he would be Executed and so did via at first (she was watching it live on television and looked away thinking her dad was about to be beheaded) so this wasn't even just "oh you saved this guys life instead of staying with me" it's "oh you literally almost got yourself KILLED for this guy" like she thought her dad was gonna DIE. it's entirely common for ppls loved ones to be mad at them after they do something dangerous that almost kills them.

she also found a box full of antidepressants and she didn't know until now that he needed them, she didn't realize the extent of how miserable he was. she looked sad upon realizing this, but because she was already hurt and upset with him, it also made her think about how this was technically another thing he'd lied to her about. when stollas finally managed to see her again, she confronted him about the pills, "was it my fault you needed these?" and that's not a bizarre thing to think because it's very common for children of divorce to wonder if the divorce is their own fault!! and he pleaded with her telling her that she was the only good thing in his life, but via was like "so you stayed miserable for my sake? was i some kind of obligation to you?" basically she is at a point where she's very sensitive and insecure, and she feels hurt and she will always have doubts. shes at a point where the way she's processing things is making her always come to the worst conclusion.

she's now left feeling like her dad was miserable because of her, that she wasn't enough to make him happy, and she's angry at him for it. it's really important to remember that she also blames herself for this, for not being enough for him, she probably feels like she tried her best to be a good daughter and loved him so much but now feels like her love wasn't enough, and hurt that her dad needed more than she could give him, and extra betrayed because it was a random little asshole imp that provided what he needed.

basically she's like yeah actually i WILL be okay, i don't need you just like you didn't need me, and you're a fool to think i'd forgive you for this.

[attackfish]

Hi! Do you have any atla fic recs?

Here are the seventeen best fics in the Avatar fandom, and I swear this list is totally not just the favorites of one person whose choices are completely subjective and entirely based on personal preference. Yeah so these are my personal faves, your milage may vary.

"Who by Fire" by Kaberett: [Link]

There was precedent, of course, for succession in the event of the untimely demise of the incumbent ruler. Between political intrigue, ambition and necessity - and these qualities have never been in short supply within the ruling classes of the Fire Nation - history contains no shortage of examples. Deposal in the absence of bloodshed, however, is another matter entirely: and more so when the Heir Apparent is the banished prince, who has, contrary to every expectation, found the Avatar and brought him home.

"Enslaved" by Sharkflip: [Link]

A triumphant war party returns with an exotic slave, a gift for the ruling house. Multi-chapter, Katara/Zuko

"Eight Principles of Yong" by Psocoptera: [Link]

The pen is mightier than the sword, or how Zuko saves the day via the power of good penmanship.

"Five Ways Toph Created Her Own Family (Whether She Liked It or Not)" by Lady Ganesh [Link]

The title is the summary.

"Tea with Destiny" by @awesomeavocadolove [Link]

After the shock of Lu Ten's death, Iroh makes a fateful journey into the Spirit World. The tea there is exquisite, but the company may give Iroh a run for his money.

"Without a Fight" and "Never Give Up" by @suzukiblu [Link] and [Link]

Thirteen years old and alone in the Earth Kingdom, thrown out of his life and family and destiny with the burn on his face still raw and new, Zuko does not want to go on. Song/Zuko

"Gilded Green" by @caelum-blue [Link]

At the end of Iroh's Siege, the Dai Li decide to test their brainwashing abilities on a Fire Nation soldier. They don't know that their guinea pig-rat happens to be a supposedly-dead prince. Multi-chapter and multi-part

"Til Death Do Us Start" by @loopy777 [Link]

Mai's parents arrange a marriage for her. The first problem is that she's been dead for fifteen years, and the second problem is that her husband isn't who anyone is expecting. Mai/Sokka

"The Airbending Master" by @liz-squids [Link]

Teaching airbenders is not the same as restoring the Air Nomads

"In Which Mai and Toph Are Not Remotely Ladylike" by @liz-squids [Link]

Mai and Toph drink too much, talk too much, engage in petty vandalism. Their mothers would be horrified.

"Drink Some Fucking Tea" by @unjapanologist [Link]

A parody of 'Go the Fuck to Sleep'. During season one, Iroh unloads some frustrations about his beloved nephew that he can't very well voice out loud.

"Red is the Color of the End of the World" by @sholiofic [Link]

Post-series, Katara is adjusting to the new shape of the world. They all are.

"Chromatism" by @glamaphonic [Link]

Ty Lee is soiled and unclean and bursting with color.

"Life Began With Waking Up" by @glamaphonic [Link]

It was a simple truth that Mai had never really thought about her children. Mai/Zuko

"His and Her Circumstances" by Lavanya Six: [Link]

AU. Two years ago, it's believed the Fire Lord exiled Prince Zuko to distance himself from responsibility for his son's subsequent assassination. Five months from now, a boy in an iceberg will awaken. Tonight, Mai runs across a masked criminal. Mai/Zuko

"Escapee" by @liz-squids [Link]

So you're a traitor. Now what? AU from "The Boiling Rock" where Mai and Ty Lee escape with the others. Mai/Zuko

Unnamed ficlet #4 by @liz-squids [Link]

The AU where Azula never found out Zuko and Iroh were in Ba Sing Se, and 16 years later, the Fire Nation has won the war, and Mai is the governor of Ba Sing Se, and she and Zuko have an awkward 30-something reunion. Mai/Zuko, past Jin/Zuko.

[harajuku-cookie]

IkeVil OC Profile: Dawn

The Angelic Dreamer “The dawn of a new day is a new opportunity for dreams to become reality.”

(I like using the IkeSeries avatars for OC design ideas, kind of like how people use picrew, and go from there. IkeVamp had eyes I really liked along with some other pieces, so I used their avatar.)

Name: Dawn Goulding Pronouns: She/Her Birthday: January 29th Affiliation: Royal Family (also becomes Crown later on) Curse: Sleeping Beauty: Sleeping Beauty Hobbies: playing the harp Skills: fencing, dancing Likes: cake Dislikes: needles Resents: entitlement Weapon: rapier Curse Ability: can manipulate people's subconscious via eye contact and touch. She can also access dreams if the person is unconscious and manipulate the dream. Orientation: pan Extra Features: freckles across her nose

More info about her under the cut!

Notes: •Daughter of a Marquis (who is part of the Privy Council). Her father isn't too fond of Crown and often speaks critically about them, unlike her who doesn’t think it’s right to judge someone without knowing them first. Her father does genuinely love and care for her, however he is overprotective. Her mother does allow her some wiggle room whenever it's possible. •Her curse first appeared when she was an adolescent. There were talks of arranged marriage and even though she knew that it was common in high society, she didn’t want that. She wanted to naturally fall in love with someone and marry for love, not for social connections or status. She noticed that she somehow managed to easily persuade all the parties involved when she communicated with them. She didn’t think much of it, but when she started seeing a pattern of people who would give in to her wishes with just a touch or looking into their eyes as she pleaded, she was wondering if something was up. The biggest shocker was when she was with a younger family member and was watching over them as they napped on her lap. As she softly petted their head, she unintentionally slipped into their dream. She noticed that the dream was starting to shift into a nightmare and she managed to manipulate the dream into a sweeter one. She secretly tested it a couple of times with other family members when they were sleeping to confirm what she had done. At the time she didn’t know that she was cursed, but she thought she had a unique gift. Since she’s lived a sheltered life, but always yearned for more, she sometimes uses her ability to do minor things like sneak out of her family’s estate and explore the city and get out of troublesome situations that she runs into. •Because of the nature of her ability being a form of mind control, she keeps it a secret from her family so no one can make her misuse it. •Her personality is kind, gentle, empathetic, and sweet to the point where people have compared her to an angel. However, she is not a pushover and refuses to let others control her. •She is a very popular and talented harp-player. People who get to hear her perform swear it’s like hearing music from the heavens. •Though her father wouldn’t be too keen about it if he knew, her mother (surprisingly) allowed her to take fencing lessons in secret and she became skilled at it. •Paired with Ellis. One night while out, she happened to accidentally stumble across him while in the middle of a mission. Normally this would be a death sentence, but she managed to use her ability to escape. Victor ended up finding out she was cursed and knowing about her family situation, he secretly recruited her. Upon first introducing her to the group, Ellis and her made eye contact and he felt a sense of déjà vu before realizing that she was the woman he came across a while back. While it was an awkward beginning, they do get along well. When they first started going on missions, he was prepared to protect her, but when she was given a rapier upon joining and he got to see her more in action (aside from using her ability), he realized that she could hold her own and now they protect each other (though he does tend to cover her more). When they’re not on missions and they both have free time, they love going out on strolls and exploring the city. She loves his soft and gentle nature, but she feels like there’s something hidden underneath that leaves her a little worried.

Extra Notes: she’s still a work in progress since IkeVil is still very new, but as time goes on I plan to add more info.

[sweetshelluvaau]

Idea Dump Session One - Stella's Motive of Hiring Striker

I wasn't sure to do this or not but being I'm always insecure about my writing but being I do want feedback, I thought I'd attept this:

I want to make some changes within my rewrite/AU (I mean this obvious) but unsure how to handle some things or unsure if they make sense so I thought, hey, why not post these thoughts on my blog and see what other's think. Constructive Feedback is welcome and encourage and feel free to share some of your own ideas.

Anyways, put this under Read More because it's a lot:

I want to change the whole assassin thing around where it was Andre who ordinally suggested kill Stolas to Stella and she's like 'Oh, what a clever idea'. Now, I'm not sure if this idea makes sense but that's why I'm asking:

So, why would Andre suggest the whole killing thing if she gains nothing in return. She hates him but they're getting a divorce right? I haven't decided if both of them are making that official or there was some talk about it due to the fact Stolas knowing both of them are unhappy and is very tempted to do so, not caring how it looks to the rest of the Ars Goetia which is the opposite of Stella. I plan on doing a rewrite bio for all the characters in the future including Stella so I won't go too in depth here but Stella is all about keeping appearances. She cares deeply about her and her families' image, which is something Stolas thinks too little about due later being how trapped he feels (again, elaborate more later).

So, why kill Stolas. Stella's reasoning:

A) Stolas slept with an imp and it made the family look bad and she's all about appearance

B) pettiness. A silly reason but ya know.

And C) Playing with the whole arranged marriage thing: While she may not necessary get anything if Stolas passes, Octavia does. She can easily live though her daughter. Idk how their relationship is gonna be in the show (likely being a one note bitch like she is now) but she does care and have a mostly healthy relationship with her daughter, even if she comes out more aloof compare to Stolas being openly affectionate with Via however my version of Stella is gonna play by the 'Gaslight, Gatekeep, Girlboss' playbook. Selfish, yes. Vile and cold, completely. But along she keeps the fact she was the one who hired Striker a and being in her daughter's good graces, what's the harm? I mean there is harm but sssh she's a rich bitch and horibble person.

Basically, she wants to play the whole 'poor widow' role and even though Stolas did cheat on her, she pretends that she still loves him because, appearances.

I also plan on making her relationship with Stolas less...dysfunctional? Is that the word? They never loved each other, let alone were happy in their marriage but they tolerated each other and tired to make things work in order to keep appearances (at least that's one of Stella's main reason) and for Via's sake. Yes, she's still a bitch at times to Stolas with backhanded insults being how he seems not care so much in how he looks suppose to her but otherwise attempted to act like a happy couple. It's only after he sept with Blitzo when she started to go off on him, which is completely valid btw BECAUSE STOLAS IT DOESN'T FUCKING MATTER IF YOU HATED EACHOTHER/WEREN'T IN LOVE YA STILL CHEATED YOU FUCKING ASSHOLE!! (I have it where Stolas does feel horrible about the whole thing later on and even apologizes her her post Ozzie's but I'll get into that another time).

Anyways...yeah, that's my idea...

[oblivions-dawn]

For the OC Ask game: 12, 16, G, and 💀!

Hello Moriche!! Thank ye for stopping by <3

✑ First time leaving their home country

I'll answer this for Wynn and Do'Shavir, as they have very different answers! So Wynnarwe left Alinor for good via pirating her own ship to get away from an arranged marriage she didn't want. For her, it was the ultimate freedom to get away from a life she knew she would've hated and find her own path, never looking back. In Do'Shavir's case, he wanted to travel and seek adventure--but he did so with a heavy heart, as he does love and cherish his family a lot. It was extremely difficult and he was homesick a lot, at first, but he persevered and writes to them whenever he can.

✑ First thing they remembered feeling ashamed of

Hmmmmmmm! I feel like answering this with my Falmer, Helthune. She doesn't remember much from . . . before, but I imagine she felt shame when she couldn't communicate with Gelebor. I mean, the first of her kind she's seen in so long who isn't twisted into, well, what they are now, and she can't even talk to him!! But with time they managed to figure it out, and now they communicate via their own sign language. Thank goodness for his endless patience and willingness to essentially adopt Hel <3

✑ First time seeing the other one sick/injured

For my girls, Vigdis is always getting fucking hurt LKNSFKGJKDFG. If she isn't covered in blood she isn't Vigdis. I want to say the first time Serana really sees Vigdis hurt isssss. Chapter XI, The Moth Priest? There's that very juicy section when Serana notices Vig's lip is bleeding, and. Well. 😏 Now . . . Serana doesn't get as hurt often, so it took some digging around for me to remember. There's a part in Chapter XVII, Darkfall, where it seems like Serana yelps in pain and it MOMENTARILY distracts Vigdis--which is detrimental BECAUSE SHE'S IN THE MIDDLE OF A FIGHT. But a reaction is a reaction all the same. These girls are gay. OH but I should say that, at first, Vigdis is very not accepting of help when it comes to injuries. Stubborn asshole. BUT SHE SLOWLY LETS SERANA IN . . . . . . SO SLOWLY . . . I'm not saying you have to read my fic to understand but [proceeds to violently foam at the mouth and collapse]

✑ First time writing character death, and how you felt about it

GASP. This is the part where I admit that I love writing DEATH. The amount of people Vigdis and Serana have murdered . . .augh. I crave it. I miss it. Man I really need to write my chapter because the death I want is, well. In this chapter. And I need to WRITE IT. Ahem. Let's see. Uhhh. Character death? Hmmm. I have . . .murdered one of two of my own characters. If I'm honest, it was euphoric. I LOVED writing their deaths. There's emotion involved and. sighs wistfully. I sound insane. I know I do. This goes for canon characters too--one which I'm about to get to . . . .fufufufu. mwhaha. mahwhaahhahahaa

[duggardata]

Were Jed + Katey “Betrothed”?

There’s a bit of a rumor going around Fundie Tumblr, saying that Jed Duggar + Katey Nakatsu’s Relationship followed a procedure known as ‘betrothal,’ rather than the Duggar–typical ‘courtship.’  Ultimately, I think the distinction is more–or–less meaningless...  Either way, it’s a parent–supervised, chaste, patriarchal method of ‘dating,’ as much as the Duggars despise that word.  But, honestly, I’m intrigued by the Duggars’, etc., odd relationship practices—and, I’d like to discuss the possibility that Jed + Katey were, indeed, ‘betrothed.”

After the jump...

First of all...

What is Courtship?

As Duggar Snarkers, we’re probably all familiar with the concept of ‘courtship.’  The Duggars (and Bateses, etc.) often discuss it.  Basically, they like to say it’s ‘dating with a purpose.’  You don’t date for the sake of dating; you only date if you’re ready for marriage and believe your partner is your intended spouse.  A Duggar–style courtship also differs from ‘secular dating’ in that there is a lot of parental involvement:  The man pursues the woman only after getting consent from her father, and both partners are expected to seek their parents’ counsel as the relationship progresses to determine if marriage is appropriate.  There’s also a slew of rules, which vary somewhat, but often include—

Strict Limitations on Physical Contact   Sex is always off–limits, as is kissing in most cases.  Certain types of hugs might be banned.  Hand–holding might be banned.  ‘No Touch’ courtships aren’t unheard of.

Constant Supervision / Chaperoning   Usually, the couple isn’t alone together, ever, until marriage.  Chaperones tend to be ‘provided’ by the woman’s family.  Sometimes phone calls and texts are monitored.

Entrenched Gender Roles   Generally, the man is in control.  He asks the woman to court, decides when they get engaged, etc.  His partner begins a sad transformation, wherein she starts looking to the male as her absolute ‘headship’ and leader....  It’s creepy.

Lots of Praying  Everyone involved prays a lot and tries to figure out if the pairing is ‘God’s will,’ or not.

Courtship is a commitment, but it is not unbreakable.  Sometimes courtships fail, and that’s by design...  The whole point is to figure out if you’re meant to marry one another.  You haven’t decided yet.  You’re trying to decide.

What is Betrothal?

So...  How does ‘betrothal’ compare?  First of all, I need to say:  There isn’t a 100% agreed upon definition of ‘betrothal,’ here, since the Duggars have not ever publicly discussed it or publicly engaged in the practice.  With that said, I’ve done some research about ‘betrothal’ in Duggar–y circles, and here’s the gist...

With betrothal, there’s no trial period.  From the start, the couple vows—often literally—to eventually marry their partner.  There’s no backing out.  (If you do, you’re breaking your vow to God.)  Basically...  You go from zero to engaged.  (And, really, it’s more than engaged.  With a typical engagement, there isn’t a solemn vow before God; with betrothal, there is.)  After the betrothal, the new couple spends a period of time getting acquainted and planning the wedding, and then they get married.  As with courtship, the rules of betrothal vary a lot; however, in my research, I did see some trends.  Here are the ways that, IMO, betrothal notably varies from courtship—

Solemn Vow to Marry w/ Little to No Trial Period   See Above.

Ceremony / Ritual Aspect   Often, the betrothal itself occurs at some sort of ceremony.  It’s solemnized.  Often, there’s a literal exchange of vows, similar to a wedding ceremony.  Contracts aren’t unheard of.

More Extreme Parental Involvement   Often, the parents—the father, specifically—is even more involved than is typical in a ‘courtship.’  He often takes on essentially the entire responsibility of vetting the young suitor for his daughter, since there’s no ‘trial period’ where she gets to know him before being betrothed.  Basically, the father picked out his daughter’s husband for her.  That’s the whole point.

“Arranged” Feeling   See Above.  It’s not unheard of for the man and woman to meet for the first time on the date of their betrothal.

(Note—I’m talking about fundie–style betrothal, here.  Betrothal is actually a long–standing practice of various groups.  Notably, it’s part of Judaism, and discussed in the Torah.  We’re not talking about that sort of betrothal or any other sort of betrothal, here.  I’m strictly talking about the bizarre concept of betrothal occasionally practiced on the fringes of the Duggars’ circle.)

More About Fundie Betrothal

What’s clear, at least to me, is that fundie ‘betrothal’ is a way to ‘one–up’ the more typical practice of ‘courtship.’  Apparently, rejecting dating isn’t enough for some families.  They’re not satisfied just to ‘court,’ like everyone else.  So, they take things one step further with ‘betrothal,’ which they claim is better—more biblical, etc.—than mere ‘courtship.’

Digging into this, Duggar Data learned that a few fringe fundies really pushed this ‘betrothal’ concept.  One was Vaughn Ohlman.  Ohlman previously ran a website called ‘Let Them Marry,’ which creepily encouraged young marriage.  Basically, Ohlman’s whole schtick—which he sums up in “True Love Doesn’t Wait,” an article that is basically his manifesto—is that young fundies should marry as soon as possible, since supposedly the Bible says so, and God.  In pushing this strange agenda, Ohlman naturally got to the topic of the proper way to select a spouse...  His answer was ‘betrothal.’  (See Also.)  Eventually, Ohlman traveled the country, teaching about betrothal and how it’s the ‘right’ way to find a mate.  Courtship is ungodly and unbiblical, yada yada yada.  (If you’re wondering...  Yes, he was nuts.  Absolutely nuts.  Thankfully, he ended up shutting down his ministry after receiving a lot of well–earned criticism.)

Vaughan married off his son, Joshua, via a betrothal.  Here’s Joshua + Laura’s Story, which is one of the best–known fundie betrothal stories.  Another well–known, and highly disturbing, betrothal story is that of Matthew + Maranatha Chapman.  (See Also.  See Also.)  Also, here’s a chart comparing betrothal to secular dating and courtship, which I thought was pretty interesting.     

So, What About Jed + Katey?

Why, exactly, do people think Jed + Katey were betrothed?  A few things drive the rumor—

The ‘Biblical Betrothal’ Post   There’s a mysterious, password–protected post on the Nakatsu Family Blog, entitled ‘Biblical Betrothal.’  Kory made the post in June 2018.  Its contents is unknown, since it’s password–protected.

The Vows at The Proposal   On the video documenting Jed’s proposal, which was posted on the Nakatsu Family Blog, Jed and Katey apparently exchanged vows when they got engaged.  These vows somewhat resemble the vows that might be exchanged at a betrothal ceremony.

Kory’s Speech At The Wedding   At the Wedding, Kory made a speech when he ‘gave’ Katey to Jed, in which he sort of implies that he personally selected Jed for her, and Katey had agreed to this.

The Wedding Vows   Overally, Jed + Katey’s Wedding just seemed very, very fundie, if that makes sense.  Their vows hammered on the wife’s submission, yada yada yada.  Gives the impression that this was a very strict relationship, and they’re deeply committed to the disgusting notion of biblical patriarchy—which is the exact sort of idea that betrothal advocates are into.

That said, there’s also...

Evidence Against A Betrothal—

During the wedding, the pastor referred to their ‘courtship, and made no mention of betrothal whatsoever.  (And it’s not like he held back, at all, in talking about those fringe fundie beliefs...  Just read their vows!)

According to Reed Roberts, and also Jed, Jed + Katey were together for about a year, prior to marriage.  So, if those vows at the proposal were a betrothal, it clearly wasn’t a ‘traditional’ betrothal...  Since they’d already been together for awhile, at that point.

Reed Roberts denies that Jed + Katey were “arranged.”  (Though, I think it’s also worth mentioning...  He didn’t actually say how they met.  Which I think is kinda weird.  It seems natural to tell the ‘how they met’ story, in attempting to dispel rumors of an arranged marriage.  But he doesn’t.)

Final Thoughts

Duggar Data doesn’t think that Jed + Katey had a ‘true’ betrothal, thought I do suspect the courtship was probably stricter than most, and that Kory probably played a larger role than is ‘typical.’  I think it’s possible that Kory read about—or perhaps, even attended a seminar—about ‘biblical betrothal,’ which led him to making that post on his blog.  As for his comments at the wedding...  I take them to mean that Kory urged Katey to allow him to guide her in choosing her partner, and she agreed.  Maybe he even set her and Jed up.  But...  I’m not at all convinced that he chose Jed without her input, or that she and Jed actually agreed to a ‘betrothal,’ in the sense of vowing to marry as strangers.

Also, one last thing...  Regardless of what Jed + Katey called their relationship, I’m of the opinion that, honestly, it’s basically the same nonsense the Duggars have always practiced.  Betrothal or courtship...  It’s really not that different, in my view.  It’s all based on the same bullshit—namely. twisted gender roles and so–called ‘biblical patriarchy.’  Whether they were ‘arranged,’ or ‘betrothed,’ or whatever, we know the fathers always play a major role.  We know the women always defer to their ‘headship.’  Perhaps Katey + Jed (and Kory) were slightly more overt about it, but that’s it...  Call it Kool–Aid or call it Tang, it’s the same sugary nonsense.

[btsslowburnfic]

The Arrangement Ch. 15

Story summary: Desperately in need of money, you answered the questionable ad. AKA-Arranged marriage AU featuring Y/N and Yoongi.

Chapter Summary: Your attempt to help your brother move result in Yoongi meeting your family -_- 

Previous Chapter here 

TW: as previously mentioned, YN and her brother were abused by their dad. It is mentioned by her brother. Trigger will be labeled before and after by **  ** Yoongi’ song “The Last” is also referenced at the very end, which implies thoughts about self-harm/suicide attempt. But it’s a good, long chapter! There is fluff and humor in it too!

---------------------------

Late last night you received an email from your brother’s school informing you a dorm space had opened up and he could move in as soon as possible. You wanted to check and make sure there wasn’t anything else you should be doing today before you rented a van.  

You put on your robe and headed out to the main living area. Half the coffee pot was already gone and you heard light movements from upstairs. You wondered if Yoongi was prone to hangovers or not.  You poured yourself a cup of coffee and heard Yoongi pad down the stairs. 

“How are you feeling today?” You asked without looking up from your steaming mug.

“A little dehydrated but fine.” He passed you as he headed over to the sink for water. “Really? We’re just wearing robes around the house now?” 

You waited, slowly savoring the taste of the hot bean water in your mouth. You swallowed. “You were in your underwear the other day. I think the robe is fine.” You turned dramatically and looked at him.  “Unless you prefer just underwear?” 

“Aish, don't remind me.” He waved in your direction as though he could dissipate the memory with his hand. It was too early for flirting.

You laughed. “Hey, if it's OK, I'd like to go help my brother move today. A dorm space opened up for him and I'd like to get him settled in before school starts again tomorrow.”

Yoongi leaned against the counter, “Yeah, that's fine. You should do that.” 

“Great,  thanks!” You turned and went back to the bedroom to get dressed. 

When you returned to the main area Yoongi was gone, you didn’t bother checking by the door as you grabbed your purse and slipped on some shoes. You texted your brother to remind him what time you would arrive and then hopped on the train to the car rental place.

Fifteen minutes later you walked in, produced your driver’s license and payment and were then declined. 

“What do you mean? I already prepaid online.” You asked the attendant. 

“It’s not the payment, it’s your license. You rented the cargo van. You don’t have a license to drive that vehicle, it’s level one.” The man explained, gesturing to a garage full of vehicles as though that explained anything.

“Isn’t it just like a regular van but big?”

“No ma’am it’s more like a box truck. I can get you a regular van but I can’t refund your rental of the cargo van because it was a day-of rental.”

“I had to enter my license to rent the van. Why does it authorize licenses if they aren’t the correct type?” You asked, annoyed. It wasn’t his fault, probably, but that definitely seemed like a crappy thing for the website to allow.

“I understand that ma’am but the website will allow anybody to pay for the van and the driver’s license check is very basic and checks to see if you have one, not the level. Now, would you like to rent a regular van?”

You stood there for a minute weighing your options. “Give me a minute.” You walked over to the waiting area and took out your phone. You opened the BigHit employee portal and scrolled through the services. There were so many options: food delivery, laundry pick up, chauffeur, pet walking, but nothing about hiring a driver for other vehicles. You groaned and dialed Yoongi’s number. Normally you would text but you felt like there was too much to say. The phone rang a few times.

“Hello?” It was surprising to you how deep his voice sounded on the phone.

“Hey...I'm sorry to bother you. Does anybody at the company have a Level 1 driver's license that I can like request via the app? I didn't realize the one I rented is for a license I don't have.” You paused. “This is so embarrassing.” Silence extended from the other side, making you feel awful, like you had probably interrupted something important.  You began again, " I can maybe just do it next weekend. I can find somebody by then I'm sure. It’s fine. What’s one more week.”

"I can drive it." 

You felt awkward having Yoongi do it."Noooo. Don't worry about it. I can do it next week. I’m sure I can find somebody.” 

“Aish send me the address. I'll do it.” He replied, starting to sound irritated.

“Were you busy? You don't have to.”

“You know the company phones have GPS trackers in them? But it will be a hell of a lot faster if you just send me the address.”

You sighed, “Ok. Thank you.”

“See you soon.”  

You awkwardly waited at the rental agency, kicking your feet in your chair like a little kid waiting for their parents. After about half an hour you heard the door ding and saw Yoongi walk in. He had traded his sweats for jeans, but otherwise had the same casual shirt and expression. 

“Hello sir,” the desk attendant greeted Yoongi. “How may I help you today?”

“I’ve been told I’m here to drive a van.” Yoongi looked your way.

"Oh, are you here for that one?" the guy at the counter gestured at you.

Rude. 

Yoongi smirked, “Yep. That one’s mine.”

Your jaw almost dropped. Fucking brat. You walked over. "It's a good thing you're being so helpful darling." You gritted between your teeth. You watched as Yoongi handed over his license and had it scanned without any issues. 

“Here you go Mr. Min.” The attendant handed him the keys. You heard him laugh as he took them.  He started to walk out to the rental garage with you following. 

"’Thanks for coming. I do appreciate it."

"It’s no problem. I mean. You, once again, will owe me dinner. But other than that. It's nothing." He clicked the remote to find the right van. "Why are you renting such a big ass van?" 

"Because my family doesn't own a car and I'm an idiot. The website didn't make it look that big. I put in my license and it let me rent it. Don’t you think it should deny it if it knows you can’t drive it?"  The two of you stopped in front of the cargo van. It was big. But not that big, you scowled.

"Oh man. I used to drive so much music equipment around in my shit van. This brings back memories." He climbed into the driver's seat. You walked around to the passenger side and stepped up as well. "And lucky for you, I came prepared today." He popped in a CD he'd been stowing in his coat pocket. 

"Oh my God. You are the cutest." You said, somewhat accidentally, out loud. 

Yoongi paused, and looked over at you. "I am not cute." 

You smiled and pinched your fingers together. "A little bit." 

He shook his head and put his hand on the gear shift. "Nope. Cue up the GPS." 

"The tiniest cute." You typed in the address. 

"Feared rapper and music producer. Ice King. Loner. It's in the lyrics, you should listen." He turned the car audio on.

"OK cutie, I know you have stuffed animals in the loft area." 

He held a finger up to his lips. "Quiet woman, I'm driving." 

You laughed and relaxed into the seat. "I fell asleep on track 5."

He pushed some buttons and you settled in for the car ride. 

Yoongi was thankful for the excuse of looking at the road so he couldn’t see your expressions as you listened. He put so much of himself in his lyrics, it was like taking his heart and mind out of his body and showing it to other people. Which for some reason felt fine when it was complete strangers, but felt so weird with someone he knew. He tried to play it cool. He knew he was two songs away from his most personal track.

“Ok, turn in here. We can park here for up to two hours without a permit.” You guided him near an alleyway next to your Aunt’s apartment. You sent a text telling them you were here. “Thanks. You can wait here if you want. I don't know how much packing there is left to do. Sorry. I just got the email this morning. There are also some coffee shops around here or some restaurants. I’m not sure what---” 

Yoongi unbuckled his seatbelt and cut you off. “Hey. You don't have to do this by yourself. OK?” He opened the door and got out before you could respond.

You took a few deep breaths and exited the van, walking around to the front to lead the way to the apartment. “Ok thanks. Also I apologize in advance for my Aunt.”

“She won’t be the first Auntie I've met,” Yoongi smirked. “Don't worry, Aunties and Grannies love me.”

“Yeah, that’s what I’m worried about. Also sorry in advance for my brother. He seems rude, but it’s just because our family life was so fucked up. He’s a good kid.”

“Hey, I can relate,” Yoongi opened the door for you. “It’s fine. Really.” 

“Ack, I don’t think I can do this.” You turned and faced him.

“Do what?” Yoongi asked, perplexed.

“Have you meet my family. It’s. We’re all weirdos. The apartment is so small. It’s embarrassing. I already feel bad that you came and helped me.” You spew out everything at once, your anxiety levels suddenly spiking.

Yoongi sighed and put his hands in his pockets. “Hey. It’s fine. I was going to meet them eventually anyways right? Might as well be before the wedding,” He teased you.

You were surprised. This was the first time he had mentioned anything about the other part of your contract. It had always been you teasing him about it.

“I guess so.” You took a deep breath. “Ok. Just...please...Remember. We’ve been through a lot.” You suddenly felt so vulnerable as you pushed the elevator button. You led the way to your old apartment and unlocked the door.

“Aunt Vi, I’m here.” You yelled from the foyer as the two of you slipped your shoes off.

“Oh finally, I was getting worried, you’re over an hour late and you're usually so prompt and hello young man.” Aunt Vi stopped dead in her tracks as she arrived in front of the two of you.

“Hello. Min Yoongi, nice to meet you.” He bowed.

Your Aunt gaped like a fish for a moment and eyed you. “Yes of course, I’m Vi.. And this is…?”

“My boss, Auntie. He drove the van today. Apparently giant ass vans need a special license.” You smiled sheepishly.

“Do not use such language in front of your boss, young lady.” She scolded. 

Yoongi cleared his throat to hide a laugh. It was unusual seeing someone boss you around for a change. 

“Yes of course, sorry Auntie. I’m very sorry, Mr. Min.” 

“That’s better. Now come in. You, help Jihoon pack, Mr. Min come join me for tea.”

She turned around and you gave Yoongi a stank look while he silently laughed at you. You flipped him the middle finger while he acted offended.

Auntie Vi turned around, “That is of course if he wants some.”

The two of you pretended to be perfect angels once again, “That would be lovely Aunt Vi.” He responded, sounding like a boy scout. You rolled your eyes at him the minute your aunt turned her back. You left the two of them as they headed to the kitchen and you went to the living room.

Your brother was packing up some books into one of the boxes when you walked over.

“Hey. Make sure the books go into a few small boxes instead of one big one, or they’ll be too heavy to carry.” You said as you grabbed another empty box and started to pack some things.

“Yeah ,ok. Those other two boxes are books as well. There should be a bookcase in the dorm. I think all my friend’s rooms have one.”

“Ok great, I’ll label them.” You walked into the kitchen to grab a sharpie and briefly overheard Vi and Yoongi. Yep. She was in love, you smirked and headed back to help your brother.

You were surprised when you walked past the hallway and saw two blankets on the floor, slowly moving. You smiled and paused, “Huh. What strange moving blankets.” You heard a set of giggles and continued on your way.

Your brother and you continued to put items into boxes and the blankets continued to slowly wriggle down the hallway until they made it to the corner. Your sister and niece sat up and pressed their tiny bodies against the wall, straining to see who the mysterious voice belonged to. You looked over and smiled. 

Aunt Vi paused for a second and heard the faint sound of giggles and “shhhh”

“There better not be any little girls eavesdropping,” She said. Everyone in the apartment heard the sounds of stomping and running down the hallway, followed by a door shutting. Vi sighed and Yoongi laughed. 

You set down the roll of tape and walked back to the bedroom. "Come on out girls." You led the way for them down the hallway. They nervously stood in the kitchen in front of Yoongi and your Aunt.

“Mr. Min, this is my sister, Hayoon, and my niece, Sooah.” You introduced them as they bowed deeply, as though they had been preparing for this moment for their whole lives.

Yoongi smiled warmly at them, “It’s a pleasure to meet you ladies.” You could see your niece already blushing. These girls were boy crazy already and you were sure they would relive this moment over and over again. They managed to squeak out a “you too.” Before they looked around awkwardly about what to do next.

“Alright girls, either help move boxes or git.” You prompted them. They looked at each other and then scrambled back to the bedroom, giggling the whole way. You sighed and went back to packing. Fortunately since your brother was living on the couch, he didn’t have a lot to pack. In retrospect you probably didn’t need the van. Oh well. Better to be over prepared than underprepared, you mused. 

You walked into the kitchen, “Excuse me, may I have the keys please? It’s time to start loading.”

Yoongi stood up, “Yeah sure, let’s go.”

You looked at him, “Oh no sir. I could not expect you to carry the boxes. Keys please.” You held out your hand.

Yooongi scoffed, “I can carry boxes.”

Aunt Vi quietly cleared her throat, “That would be too much surely. Won’t you please sit down and I’ll make you some lunch.”

Ah the intersectionality of age and class rank here were making your head spin, but you knew that he couldn’t turn down lunch from your Aunt, even as she turned around and he placed the keys in your hand while making a very strange face you couldn’t quite identify. You raised your eyebrows. Taking the keys, you pulled out your phone. 

YN: She’s a good cook, don’t worry. Sorry this is taking so long.

You and your brother each grabbed some boxes and started to move them out by the elevators. After about fifteen minutes you checked your phone.

YG: I feel weird not helping 

YN: You did help, you drove the van

YG: That doesn’t count

YN: Yes it does

You returned to the apartment where you saw Yoongi had somehow inserted himself into the kitchen and was cooking alongside Aunt Vi. That’s it, you thought, she’s never going to not mention him again. You sighed. Grabbing the last few boxes you and Jihoon began to fill the elevator and slowly move the items closer and closer to the van. An hour later it was all packed up.

“How was your soup?” You asked as you came back into the apartment, ripping off your sweatshirt. You had started off cold, but were now glistening with sweat.

“Really good, thanks again Auntie,” Yoongi looked over to Vi.

“Oh please, he’s the one who ended up doing most of the cooking. Are you single Mr. Min? Are you allowed to date your employees?--------”

Oh God it was happening, you were shocked it had taken this long honestly.

“Because even though YN isn’t much to look at, she’s a very hardworking girl.”

“We gotta go. Time to leave. Is there any leftover soup for Jihoon?” You asked as you cut her off and started scrambling around the kitchen for a takeaway container.

“There’s plenty of soup, grab some for Jihoon. Not for you though, you don’t need the calories.”

Oh God she was going full blown Auntie on your ass. Help. You looked over to Yoongi, mortified, but he was just standing there, the tiniest smile playing on his lips. He briefly flicked his eyes in your direction, causing you to feel flustered.

“Anyways, you should keep her in mind. Our family is unlucky, but we do try to make up for it.”

“I have the Soup, can we please leave now?  We have to return the van.” You grabbed your purse, sweater, soup, and coat.

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Yoongi said calmly. “Thank you for your hospitality Auntie. I hope to see you again soon :] .” He walked over near the door, put on his coat and took the soup from you.

“Put your coat on.” He chided

“I’m sweaty.” You responded

“You won’t be when you get back outside.”

You huffed but complied anyways. The poor man had suffered through an hour and a half of your family, you weren’t about to argue with him.

Your brother was waiting in the van with his headphones on listening to music. You climbed into the middle seat.

“Oh my God I am so sorry.” You said the minute the door closed.

“It’s fine. Like I said, not my first Auntie. She’s nice.”

“She called me ugly and told me not to eat.” You whined. “Hey...speaking of you called me ugly too the first time we met.”

Your brother took off his headphones; apparently interested in this conversation.

Yoongi rubbed the back of his neck. “Did I say that to you? That doesn't seem like something I would say.”

“Well, no. But you didn’t disagree with me when I said it.” You side eyed him.

He laughed, “I think you know you’re not ugly. You don’t need me to tell you that.” He pulled out onto the main street.

“I don’t know. Having heard it every day of her life growing up, it might not be a bad thing to not say to her.” You heard Jihoon say from next to you.

You tensed up briefly. “Jihoon, it’s a joke. Everyone else at the interview was literally a supermodel. Everyone.” 

“Sorry. People calling my sister ugly doesn’t seem very funny to me.” He said and moodily turned to face the window.

This was the kind of awkward you were worried about. “Sorry. Jihoon is a little protective. Also he doesn’t understand jokes.”  You tried to lighten the mood by teasing. It did not work.

“Jokes are supposed to be funny. I understand that.” He said snidely from the passenger’s seat.

You sighed, “Anyways, thanks again for driving. You’ll turn right here and then there should be signs for the school in about 4 kilometers.”

Yoongi was very quiet. He didn’t want to piss your brother off again. You pushed play on the audio, welcoming a change of pace from the quiet. To your shock, he hit the pause button. “Let’s listen to it later.” He said quietly to you. He didn’t think the lyrics would put your brother in a better mood and he also didn’t particularly feel like sharing the vulnerable side of himself at the moment.

“Is it normal to tell someone they can’t listen to music in a car? Asking for a friend.”

“Stop being an asshole Jihoon. Mr. Min was nice enough to drive the van for us today to move you into the dorm. And to give me a job to pay for the dorm. You need to be more respectful.”  The phrase came out of your mouth before you could even stop it. It was a triggering phrase for both of you and you instantly regretted it.

**************

“Right.” Your brother said, his voice dripping with sarcasm.  “Be more respectful. Just because someone’s older than you they deserve your respect no matter what. That’s what dad always said while he was beating us, remember?”

***************

You rolled your eyes, unable to keep your cool. “Oh my God. You’re supposed to be working through this shit in therapy not in a fucking moving van with me and my boss. I am so sorry.” You said to Yoongi who was trying very hard to pretend he wasn’t in the van at that exact moment.

“I didn’t ask to be in a moving van with you and your boss and I didn’t ask to be moved into the dorms today.” He argued back. 

“You’d rather still be on the couch at Aunt Vi’s? I can unload all this shit and cancel your room. I can totally do that right now.” You snapped at him.

Jihoon huffed angrily. Such a moody teen. 

“I’ll take that as a “no”,” you responded. “Yoongi, I am so sorry.”

“For the record, does your boss know our dad's a fucking psycho?” Your brother said in English. You had done terribly in English and hadn’t touched it since High School. You understood the word Fuck though and were getting ready to scold you brother 

Yoongi didn't want to overstep his bounds, but at the same time, your brother was being a rude little shit. The whole reason you had agreed to marry a guy you didn’t know was to take care of this ungrateful child. Before he could help himself, he responded in perfect English, “Yeah, I heard you dad was an asshole. And I'm sorry that happened to you. It shouldn’t have and it really sucks. But your sister works her ass off for you.”

Yoongi was pissed. You could tell that much by the tone. You understood sister and that was about it. Or maybe he said sweater. But it was probably sister. 

Your brother was clearly surprised by whatever he heard and also mildly irritated. “What do you know about any of that?”

“I know that in her job interview all she talked about was you and your little sister and how she worries about the two of you and that’s why she took a job where she is on call 24/7 and why she’s worked 2 jobs for the past 7 years.”

You understood the number 2. That was it. This was a passionate discussion on Yoongi’s part. You were getting ready to speak after several seconds of silence filled the van. 

Your brother twisted his body and looked at Yoongi. “---Do you….do you like my sister?””

More silence. What the hell were they talking about?

Yoongi cleared his throat and shifted uncomfortably, continuing to look straight ahead at the road. “I do. And we’re being rude by having a conversation that she can’t understand. So please stop it.”

Your brother paused for a moment before replying in Korean ”… Yes, hyung.” 

“If he's being rude let me know and I'll take his lunch money. I will literally untransfer funds.” You said, eyeing the two of them suspiciously. “I know how to say “fuck” in English and I definitely heard it.”

“It’s fine. It’s fine.” Yoongi replied. “Here, we can also listen to the word ‘fuck’ some more.” he turned the music back on. Since everyone else was having free therapy in the van, why not join? One song played before you all arrived at the dorms. 

“Go round up some strapping young men to carry these boxes. I have to find your RA.” You told your brother as Yoongi parked the van. He hopped out quickly, all too eager to escape. You rested your head against the headrest and pushed your hands against your eyes. “I am so sorry. Today has been a total nightmare. Worse than I even imagined.” You said, feeling like you might cry.

Yoongi sat there for a few seconds, reliving the afternoon. It had actually been mostly fun for him. “I had a good time. I got to meet your family and I got free soup.”

You looked over at him slightly bewildered. “We need to raise your standards for what a good day should look like Yoongi, because this was a total shit show.” 

“Hey, don’t cry. I hate it when people cry. Your brother has been through a lot. It’s fine. Really. I too was an angry rude teenager and I didn’t have nearly as good of a reason. Come on, let’s finish this shit and get the van back.” He unbuckled his seatbelt. 

You followed suit and entered the dormitory, following the signs. You introduced yourself to the RA, got the keys, and found your brother and two other guys standing outside the van. You recognized the one kid.

“Hey Noona,” He waved. You liked that one. 

Yoongi had apparently started unloading the boxes while you were meeting with the RA. You picked up one of the smaller boxes and headed up to the dorm. With the 5 of you, it didn’t take long to move all the boxes into the dorm.  You placed the soup into the mini-fridge. You sighed and looked around at the mountains of boxes, “Ok. Do you want me to stick around for the unpacking or….?” 

"No. We'll get it." Jihoon responded and walked with you out into the hallway. Yoongi was leaning against the wall near the elevators, scrolling through his phone. 

"Thanks. And I'm sorry about earlier." He said looking down. 

"It's OK, come here." You pulled him in for a hug. He was taller than you. When did that happen?  You squeezed extra tight and then pulled away, "Make sure to answer my texts or else I'll show up here. And I have your RA’s number. Got it?” 

"Yeah yeah." he looked around. 

You looked up at him and brushed some invisible dirt off his shoulder, "OK. I love you. "

" I love you too. "

With that you turned and joined Yoongi by the elevators." Let today end please. " You said, crossing your arms in front of your body. 

"Nope. Not yet. You still owe me dinner," he commented as the two of you entered the elevator. 

You sulked , "You got soup."

"You haven't eaten yet."

You shrugged. It was true. But you were upset and when you were upset you either wanted to eat everything or nothing. Today you felt like nothing. 

The two of you climbed into the van one last time. You rested your head against the window and listened to the music. Yoongi gripped the steering wheel tightly as ‘The Last’ began to play. 

He glanced a look over at you. Your jaw was firmly set and he saw tears rolling down your cheeks. Shit. This was not a good day for this. He paused the music. 

"Sorry, that's pretty heavy for today isn't it?" The car came to a stop at a light and the silence was palpable. 

You breathed out, trying to keep it level. "Sorry, just. You and my brother have that in common." You wiped your eyes as you tried not to cry. You took pride in generally being pretty stoic and good-natured. 

The light turned green. "I guess we're all just fucked up, huh?" 

You sniffled. "Yeah. It just hurts my heart to think about a world where you or my brother don't exist." 

Yoongi felt like someone had hit him with a ton of bricks. He swallowed through the lump forming in his throat as he managed a response, "Well, we're still here. That's what matters. Right?” He tried to sound positive.

“Yeah. I’m glad for that. Turn left.” NEXT CHAPTER @lidda  @anpanman-sonyeondan   @firefairy1  @cuteipat  @sugaslittlekookies  @janeelizabeth1216 @deeepvibes @gxldenhunny @livelyjay @niniita-ah​

[orsuliya]

... the evil cousin in the book tried to "seduce" Xiao Qi even before the arranged marriage in Hulan? What was exactly her plan? Did her and her evil mum really think Awu could accept this shit?

Anyway I'm happy that Awu here is more aware of her own insecurities. She already knows about her health problems and deals with it with her own terms. Qianer's affair made her more frustrated and conscious about her own position. She is really jealous but jealousy isn't the real problem here.....she knows her husband isn't interested at all about Qianer, she doesn't doubt on his fidelity but this doesn't change the reality. Xiao Qi can accept to have a wife who can't give him sons, but the society can't. Her enemies won't never stop to use this weakness to ruin their peace or to try to usurp her position, and she can't live like this.

It's not because she doesn't trust her husband, she knows his heart but her fears are still realistic.....She even feels guilty towards him because he's giving up to have precious heirs! And no other man would do the same. (She includes even Zitan, lolololol)

That's why she tried everything to get pregnant, not only because of maternal instincts *_*

(So sorry for the long post‼️)

Hey, that plan wasn't so bad! In fact, I propose it was far more sensible than their drama shenanigans, which had little rhyme or reason. But then, that's what you get when you accept drugs from Xie Wanru.

The book establishes two things. One, Awu's aunt has an axe to grind with the main branch of the Wang clan as Wang Kai, her sole biological child, died while Turnip Wang survived and thrived. This made her resent the main branch in general and Awu's other aunt in particular. And what an excellent revenge would it be to see her own Qian'er - a daughter from a concubine no less! - lord it over the oh so high and mighty Wang Xuan in her own house! Two, childless women are vulnerable. So much so that Awu's aunt sees nothing wrong with giving Pei'er, Qian'er's sickly elder half-sister, two maids with the express purpose for using them as breeders, should Pei'er have trouble with bearing children for her new husband. Huanmi, also not a shining example of health, came to her marriage accompanied by four concubines, although we don't know the exact reason for that.

What's more, there's nothing to suggest that book!Qian'er was the toast of Langya. In fact, the aunt's total lack of resistance to the idea of marrying Pei'er off to another province - which Awu notes as somewhat suspect - combined with her general behaviour and what she says about her hometown, makes me wonder how good their situation really was. They have their name and that name is exactly what nets Pei'er a marriage into one of Jiangnan's preeminent clans... But would she rate this match if it wasn't for the pressing need to patch up political relationships with Jiangnan aristocracy via a double marriage: Turnip to Shen Lin, Pei'er to Wu Jun. Why, Pei'er is furnished with the title of Xuanning Princess, which screams of a peace marriage. Unless another peace marriage comes along, what kind of match might Qian'er expect for herself?

Well, I can tell you what kind of match she wouldn't be expecting and that is one to a man of Xiao Qi's standing, at least not as his main wife. By the time this whole mess happens he's the single most powerful man in Cheng. A glaringly childless one with no women other than his main wife. No other women = no competition. By the local standards this is not something that happens very often: Turnip's concubine count is in double digits, Song Huaien takes some at the first opportunity, I mean, who doesn't have a few concubines in their family? Well, except imperial brothers-in-law whose previous ones died in exceptionally tragic circumstances.

Since there's no competition, the only thing that Qian'er would need to do is to get with child. She bears the heir, her status goes sky-high. Especially since it doesn't look like the main wife is going to procreate any time soon. In the book it's been years and years and still nothing. And really, why should Awu be against this whole enterprise? Better a Wang girl than a stranger, right?

That Xiao Qi is Xiao Qi is another matter altogether. By the way, while in the drama his insistence on monogamy seems motivated solely by his love for Awu, it is not the case in the book. Or rather it is, but not quite, see: his tragic backstory. His aversion to having children with anybody but his main wife dates from before their marriage and is motivated by his childhood. Seeing as his mother was from a disgraced family and didn't even rate the status of a concubine, which made Xiao Qi's birth something of a disgrace, and that he ran the moment his father breathed his last... Yeah, I suspect life in the Guangling Xiao clan wasn't exactly all rainbows for a boy of comparatively low rank. Our general is simply too smart to replicate a losing strategy!

And yes, Awu's fears are entirely too grounded in reality. Sure, she believes Xiao Qi won't be faithless and it's clear that in the absence of the Re-do Wedding he must have made some sort of announcement, otherwise how come the whole country knows that their Regent doesn't accept concubines? But still, he's not the one that will feel the societal pressure and not the one who faces the rather bleak prospect of becoming a childless widow. Awu is the one who will be branded a failure if this situation persists any longer. But you know what, there is every possibility Xiao Qi might have enough power to shut everybody's mouths. Except.

Except that in the book there is one other factor that makes having children a must. Xiao Qi has been gunning for that throne for years and he's just a few steps away from his goal. The problem is this: how does one establish a new dynasty with no heirs in sight? Childlessness rather invalidates this whole enterprise and Awu is just as invested as Xiao Qi; why, at one point he gives her an out and still she tells him to go for it. This whole desperate trying for children is less about maternal feelings and more about building legacy. Which, taking their imperial ambitions into account, rapidly becomes a matter of national stability. It's already a miracle that Xiao Qi got away with abolishing the imperial system of six palaces with only a single male heir; I suspect it was nowhere near painless nor widely accepted. Without that male heir? Ooof, it simply doesn't bear thinking about!

[meganechan05]

I'm gonna just list off random stuff I came up with for my version of the story (because the idea varies person to person).

Read this at your own discretion because there's heavy spoilers and it will be in chronological order.

The Roommate Agreement has the two splitting chores but Rita does most of the cooking since they find it a good stress reliever. But Himeno does insist on packing their lunches if Rita takes up too many cooking slots.

They also find the process of making coffee and tea calming. They have a whole coffee setup in the kitchen deemed the Rita Corner because they don't let anyone else touch it 😂 They love the process so much that they're usually in charge of the coffee counter at Toufu Eatery.

Despite working part-time, Rita's position at the coffee counter made them very popular with high school girls since they give off more bartender vibes and rarely talk when working. (They tie their hair back into a low ponytail at work to up the ikemen factor)

Himeno loves having plants in the apartment. So much that Rita ends up clearing the living room of their mess just to appease Himeno wanting to spruce up the place. She's in charge of tending to them, but does teach Rita how to after catching them staring.

Himeno learns about Rita's giant Moffun early on and placed him on the straw chair she found at the thrift store and placed in the living room.

Rita was not happy and kinda exploded on her but did apologize the next day when Himeno apologized. Rita ended up allowing one of their smaller Moffuns to stay in the living room. Eventually, Himeno's thrift store chair ended up being filled with them.

Yanma first met Rita at the Eatery but they didn't know they were from the same guild in a game until a fellow member (Shiokara) decided on a meet up. Rita found out simply because Yanma called Gira "takomenchi" like he did in the games, but didn't say anything until the meet up.

Despite both being the very few foreign students in their year, Himeno and Jeramie didn't get along at first. Both kinda cursed each other out in their different dialects of French when Jeramie said Himeno "couldn't read between the lines" in class. They only got along after being grouped together with Gira and Yanma for a group project.

It was actually because of Jeramie that Himeno got a part-time job at the nearby conbini to maintain her budget; one of his friends worked there and willing to hire on short notice.

YanJera often like to tease Himeno about Rita as a way to push her closer to them. Having the rest of the group join in on trying to push them together only made her more suspicious of the situation.

Rita had been against trying to get with Himeno from the get-go even if they only had a few months left before their 20th birthday.

Now this is heavy spoiler territory:

Rita reveals their adoption after being confronted and the conditions set by their grandmother. It's also revealed that their parents couldn't conceive a child which was why they adopted despite Karras's parents' protests.

Rita being nonbinary only made fulfilling the condition harder as it made potential partners via arrange marriages back out. Also didn't help that Rita wasn't really interested in romance and wanted to focus on their studies at this age rather than finding a relationship. Law school can be hard enough while balancing a part-time job. Adding a relationship was at the bottom of Rita's list.

Himeno didn't like the conditions and pitched the idea of the two dating to appeal to Rita's family so they can back off if they do approve of Himeno as a potential partner for Rita.

This is revealed later on Instagram where Rita hides their face from the camera with sunglasses but can be recognized by friends and family from their earcuff.

Himeno does meet Rita's family after the IG photo circulated enough for Karras and Shiron to be asked about it at work. They wanted to double-check if Rita really was dating and if Himeno was willing to dive right into engagement within the next month. Even willing to compensate her if the relationship didn't work out.

This pisses off Himeno

As in she stands up and tells the two off about how dumb these conditions were as they were unfair to both Rita and whoever Rita ends up with just so Rita's grandparents would accept them into the family.

She then proclaims that within the next few months they have left until Rita's birthday, she will make sure Rita would feel loved and cherished regardless of how their relationship ends up. (A spur of the moment proclamation really)

Both students end up freaking out to their respective friend groups after this 🤣 ("I can't believe she said that." "I can't believe I really said that!")

To make sure their feelings come out sincere, the two perform "small" acts of kindness. Usually regarding information they observed about one another rather than what they've already shared with one another.

Like Himeno would learn how to make coffee for Rita in the morning or replace it with tea depending on their stress level. Rita would buy an indoor planter for herbs and learn how to cook western dishes for Himeno (maybe some pastries for Himeno's afternoon tea)

Himeno encourages Rita for a haircut to boost their confidence. This is where she learns about their heterochromia and gives Rita the first compliment they've ever heard about it that wasn't from people they grew up with. Rita still covers it with their hair but gradually begins to allow Himeno to see it whenever she wants in the privacy of their apartment.

Morfonia learns about this and rushes over to have a full fangirl freak out moment with Himeno since Rita never let's anyone see it. This only makes Himeno more flustered upon learning how much trust Rita has in her to let her see it.

Their first real date is a picnic at the park.

They have their first real fight when they finally meet Rita's grandparents who have a problem with their "granddaughter" dating another girl. Himeno chastised them for even putting Rita in such a position, claiming their selfishness is only causing pain to the person begging for their acceptance.

Rita tries to end their relationship, claiming it was of no use anyway and believed Himeno's acts of love and kindness was to prove her point to their family. They tell her to pretend none of it happened and to just going back to roommates while their grandparents find a suitor. (RITA, NOOOOO 😭)

Morfonia is the only one who overheard everything since Rita always preferred to have her around when they're anxious around family. She then tells everyone else in the friend group and is often messaging Rita to reconsider (often left on Read bc the messages make Rita feel sad at the reminder of their feelings)

One month is left and the team decide to take drastic measures: The Fireworks Festival.

Team College Freshmen drag Himeno along with their group while the Eatery team drags Rita. Both groups would "coincidentally" meet up in the middle of the festival and walk around together.

Both know exactly what they're planning, but couldn't find themselves leaving upon seeing each other.

The two groups try whatever they could to get the two alone but often backfires as they somehow manage to catch up.

When the time for the fireworks to start drew closer, the groups became restless where they had to take extreme measures. Suzume fakes a call from her parents and drags Kaguragi and Racles away, claiming they need a ton of help at their booth. Yanma trips Gira and Jeramie makes him pretend he twisted his ankle so they help him to the med station. Morfonia also fakes a call and runs off with Shiokara before they could even explain what the call was about, leaving the couple alone.

Himeno notices the crowd forming around them and Rita growing more and more uncomfortable from it. Deciding she's had enough of pretending, she grabs Rita by the hand and takes them uphill to a more secluded area that Yanma had mentioned in passing.

Rita tries to fight her off but she continues, not noticing the uneven steps. She trips which makes Rita dive forward and catch her before she could hit the ground (in a dip formation bc I love these cliches!)

Both awkwardly pull away from each other after regaining their footing on the steps, only for the fireworks to start and illuminate the darkness around them. Both gaze at the bright lights and Rita could only look at Himeno when she commented on how pretty the fireworks are.

Rita begins to apologize for what happened, only for Himeno to cut them off and apologize as well, feeling she may have pushed too far when told she was wooing them for the wager and not their actual feelings.

Rita apologizes again for their hurtful words and reveals they got a call from their parents. While unhappy, their grandparents decided to change their mind after being scolded by their friend groups who watched their relationship develop. Rita claimed they really didn't care by that point since their parents already approved and wanted to fight back. They didn't say anything because of the guilt from what they told Himeno when they broke up.

They try apologizing again when Himeno pulls them into a kiss.

She then calls them an idiot and confessed she never started conversations because she thought they needed space to think about everything. Then laughs and calls the others even bigger idiots for the stunts they've been pulling to get them to talk. Something which made even Rita laugh at the reminder of it.

Himeno brushes Rita's hair from their face to see their right eye, only to compliment them again and give another kiss before they continued watching the fireworks.

All while the others watched with binoculars at the bottom of the hill, sharing high fives and drinks in victory.

Skip forward to the night of Rita's birthday where they're being dragged to Toufu Eatery by Himeno, both wearing matching rings on their right hands. They're then greeted by a small party by the friend group.

Gira then asks what happens now but Rita tells them that the condition was off and they don't need to be engaged to be accepted by their grandparents anymore (not like they needed it, anyway). Himeno then teases she will be joining Rita at the next family gathering and will be taking them to visit her own grandparents for New Years.

Their life at the apartment is well and Rita begins joining Himeno for afternoon tea (as in she drags them out of their room when she sees they're on the brink of collapse). Himeno allows herself to be spoiled whenever Rita refuses to let her in the kitchen for meals. Both sharing coffee and tea while studying the hell out of their majors.

Happy Ending ♪(*・ω・人)

Imma write this down in case anyone wants to write a fanfic on it bc I know that if I do it, it probably won't be finished or see the light of day.

HimeRita Fic based off of Beauty and the Beast.

The Cast and the roles:

Basically the story follows Himeno, a college student who recently moved to Japan after living with her grandparents overseas to become a doctor there like her late parents.

Finding it hard to live in the dorms, she goes apartment hunting and finds a posting of another college student looking for a roommate. In comes Rita Kaniska, a law student minoring in political science at the same school. Himeno takes the opportunity since the apartment is a short commute and decides to reach an agreement with Rita and moves in.

And the apartment is a total mess with the only clean parts being designated Himeno spots. But considering rent was within her budget and most of the apartments she found were a further commute or out of said budget, she had to force herself to suck it up.

Not like Rita's closed-off attitude is any better.

A story where a young woman finds herself while living in a new country and the law student who has to find a way to open up to their new roommate.

And have I've mentioned that Rita also has to look for an engagement partner before their 20th birthday?

And joining our lovely duo, we have:

Kaguragi Dybowski - Rita's senior since middle school who often calls them to help work at his family's restaurant when they're short-staffed. Often teases Rita about potential engagement partners if they talk a little too much with a customer. He would later then join the others in trying to get Rita and Himeno together. Rita often punches his gut whenever they pick up his intentions.

Yanma Gast - One of Himeno's classmates in general classes who once tried flirting with her but learned they weren't each other's types. He works in the IT Department as a Student Assistant so he's often seen walking around with tech equipment of faculty laptops that need fixing. He's in a video game guild with Rita so the two are rather courteous around each other on campus. He and Jeramie are often teaming up when scheming how to get the roommates together.

Gira Hastie - a fellow freshman majoring in political science much to his displeasure while minoring in theater. Himeno first meets him and learn they have Humanities together while also learning he's an acquaintance of Rita's. It's then revealed he and his older brother also attended the same middle and high schools as Rita and Kaguragi.

Jeramie Brasieri - A fellow overseas student in Himeno's Humanities class majoring in Literature and minoring in Political Science. He lives with his older cousin while attending school and is very curious about Rita and Himeno being roommates. Moreso after learning of Rita's search for an engagement partner.

Racles Hastie - Gira's older brother who is a Political Science major and works part-time at Toufu Eatery. While curious of the others' schemes, he tends to stay away from them knowing Rita wouldn't hesitate to give him the same treatment they do Kaguragi for even mentioning their situation. Often quite stern with his brother, but can be seen tutoring him when needed since Gira hates his major.

Morfonia - Rita's childhood friend and former roommate who transferred schools closer to her hometown. She actually transferred because of the school's heavy workload and wanted a change of pace. Rita still keeps in contact with her to check up on her.

Suzume Dybowski - Kaguragi's younger sister who works at her family's restaurant as a waitress while also attending culinary school. She can often be seen flirting with Racles despite her brother's protests.

Shiokara - Yanma's childhood friend and roommate. While he's also very curious of the group's matchmaking schemes, he often finds himself trying to cut in if he thinks it's a bad idea.

...yeah.

Oh and to note: KaguRac are both 3rd year college students. Rita, Morfonia, and Suzume are 2nd years. Everyone else are 1st years.

[jezy]

Here's a post of information so you don't get confused (if you had seen my fanfic Ben 10 Reboot Chats but if you aren't its fine, this is just my headcannon/theory thingy for Reboot!Hex) :

Hex had seen and went through hell before he even got to the world he's in right now.

Before he got the whole...look, he was a brown man with curly brown-black hair that was always a mess.

He's demisexual, he doesn't really get sexually attracted to someone (or even romantically) fully. He only had a full romantic relationship towards Libra who's been with him since kids. But that changed when the First Cataclysmic War begun.

Heather (or Charmcaster) and Hex have a very distant relationship but Hex actually cares about her and Heather thinks he's the only one who understands her problems (which in fact, he does understand).

Heather teaches him a thing or two about the modern world and helped him with his hair. In exchange, he teaches her magic and gave her an amulet he hasn't used anymore.

Hex cares about the other villains but doesn't show it.

Because if he shows it, people would find this as his weakness and they would exploit it or use it against him (i.e. kidnapping them or threatening to kill them). To which he doesn't want to, because it reminds him of failing to save Libra that one day.

Hex's hair turned white either due to severe stress or the fact he was slowly aging when he descended from his ascendance state and the fact he was trying to find the Eye of Wotan along with the Well of Light before he dies of old age that time.

Hex met Steam Smythe before but he doesn't know its the redheaded kid who praised him for his magic skills back in the 1900s.

Hex had rejected all of the villains who had a crush for him either by roasting the crap out of them obliviously or just plain cold "No". Except for Zombozo, he's a persistent bastard who annoys him with compliments and flirting.

Before he became the guy he is today ; He was neglected and abused by his father and he doesn't get to eat much so he's skinny and lanky when he was a child to becoming a Sage---

Hex was blamed by his father, Isaac Yvette, for the death of his biological mother, Yuna Igraad who died giving birth to him. When Hex was birthed by his mom, Isaac was disgusted when he opened his eyes for the first time while Yuna only complimented it before dying.

Since that day, Isaac named the baby "Hex" (means curse) because he thinks Hex's the reason why Yuna died and the other reason is the god Yuna believed and prayed for, who he thinks cursed the child with yellow and red eyes and killed his wife.

Yuna was a believer of a god whose name was long forgotten in time while Isaac is a magician who makes money from potions, spells and curses that he sells.

Hex has mixed emotions about him being the reason for his mother's death. He was mad at himself, sad for his mother and empty deep down inside.

He got even more mixed emotions when Libra died. Mostly blaming himself because he thinks he wasn't strong enough to save her. (To which is a lie, because the Handmaiden's Shield spell is indestructible and only a God can break it).

Hence why, he tries his best not to actually kill Ben because it reminds him when he still had Libra in his life, a young lad determined to do anything just to protect them to which he (thinks) he failed at before. (Till he snapped at him in the Ben Gen 10).

His father, with a baby Hex in hand, fled the world of Cairn and went to another world named Ledgerdomain via rifts.

While still in Ledgerdomain his father met Morgana, who was the heir to the throne at that time, fell in love and got remarried. And that's how Spellbinder was born folks!

Hex & Spellbinder has a 4 ½-ish year age gap. So Hex was only 8 ½ and Spellbinder was only 4 when they were children.

He was the black sheep of the family, which makes him jealous to Spellbinder who was treated like a golden child while he, even though his father stopped abusing him, doesn't even get recognitions, praises or even compliments from either his half-mom or his dad for his very hard works.

When he heard voices in his head that tells him things that he should do to his brother, he didn't gave in, and after a while he and Spellbinder became actual brothers.

That is until, Hex accidentally burned three people who were beating him up in a corner.

It happened one day when he was told (ordered) by his half-mom to run errands to the town's markets and see what he could find for his 9th birthday gift. Which he happily obliged since he thinks it was a way for his half-mom to gift him. But then some older children started to follow him on the way back to which he ran in panic. They cornered him to an alleyway and started to beat him up.

Hex snapped when he saw the only gift he had be burned by the older children as they mocked his eyes and skin. To which in retaliation, he sicced on them. Very very harshly.

Since that day, the people in that kingdom despised Hex and would occasionally call him slurs and throw rocks at him. If Hex has someone with him, they would distract them long enough for them to throw a rock or cast a harming spell at him.

But one night changed everything, Hex and Isaac were strolling near a pond. Isaac embraced Hex to a one-armed hug, which he thanked for.

Till he saw a sacrificial knife on his father's other hand. He escaped the embrace before he was stabbed but got a scar on his back because of that.

What's worse was when he came home his father was there with a shocked Spellbinder and an angry Morgana, he got indirectly disowned by his father saying he was just a child he picked up a few years back.

That was the day he ran away from the kingdom and to a pond where he cried.

But it was also the day Hex met Libra Renov, a princess from another kingdom.

He and Libra are like glue who can't get separated that easily. And are clingy to each other. Very clingy.

Libra let him live secretly in their kingdom to learn more magic and hang out together. He enjoyed it while it lasted.

Hex basically eloped to Cairn with Libra when they were 18 years old. It was only because she got to an arranged marriage to his brother, which she didn't like at all and neither does he.

Both joined into a Faction named only "The Sages". There they met Disa Jónsdóttir, an icelandic-swedish woman who trained very hard.

Hex reached his ascendance when he was 34, Libra reached hers when she was 30 and Disa reached hers when she was 28.

Hex didn't liked it when Spellbinder followed them to Cairn and joined the Sages. He especially didn't liked him when Spellbinder forcefully kissed Libra on the lips to which caused his brother's (Spellbinder's) life to go dissaray. But he didn't snapped from that.

The only thing that made him actually snapped was when the cataclysmic war begun, which caused Libra to die. When he found out who actually caused it, he bashed their head forcefully till their head was just...smooshed.

The people found out he killed someone, not knowing it was their fault who caused the war between gods to broke out, so they captured him and burned him alive.

Hex only survived that due to an artifact named "Totem of Undying" (Shh, yeah, Ik. IK.), but he was severely injured. He forced himself to create a rift to the world (he's currently in) and dragged himself there.

Since then, he got angry to the world and became the guy he is today. But with more muscles since he trained nonstop since then.

But now, he's the guy with conflicting thoughts about stopping on ruling the world or keep going. Like, he doesn't know if he wants it anymore or not.

That's all for now!

[recurring-polynya]

Do you have any more RenRuki fanfics with the same angst vibes as the one you recently recommended? Just curious!

I assume you mean Recall, the Renji-amnesia fic I was talking about this weekend. The angst vibes of this story are not necessarily unique, but they are of a certain flavor that you don’t see a lot of in Renruki fic, which is a Damn Shame because I, for one, would like more of it (a ton more, please and thank u).

Renruki angst fanfic is often just reflections on their canon angst moments, or there’s a lot of Renji-gazes-wistfully-on-what-he-cannot-have. There are a few sad Academy times fics, which are blessed, but not exactly what we want here. I’ve read a few Rukia-gets-jealous fics, which could potentially have this kind of angst, but I can’t think of an example that really does.

The Fade to Black movie has the potential for this, except that it’s so waffley, it can’t decide what it wants to be. I’m still mad that it utterly blew the opportunity to add in some heretofore-unseen Inuzuri gang stories. It has a couple of heart-stopping moments, (1) the part where Rukia remembers Renji instantly and he stands there like a doofus going “who is this?” and (2) the big where they go to see Byakuya and he’s...like... real melancholy and says “My wife was born in Inuzuri” (I think this line is just a mistake since we know Hisana died, but it’s weirdly compelling??) and you can see how Byakuya is just... incomplete without Rukia. Anyway, I think about re-writing Fade to Black all the time, except that a) it would be a ton of work and b) I think it would make a Certain Subset of People mad at me and I do not need that.

There are lots and lots of fics where Renji gets injured because that’s a thing that he does habitually in canon, and maybe that’s why they fail to be all that angsty. A lot of times, this is just slapped onto the end of a fic, and Rukia feels briefly sad, and then they get together. Alternatively, there’s less angsting, and more of Rukia just yelling at Renji for getting hurt. I dunno.

Anyway, this is a long-winded way of saying that I don’t have any that perfectly fit the bill, but here is what I could think of. I beg you readers, if you know of one I missed, please reblog or chime in via the comments.

The author of Recall, meglee06 has another one that’s pretty good, Shadows Surround Us that has a lot of the same vibe, except that it’s reversed, in the sense that Rukia is in danger and Renji is Very Worried about her. There’s a lot of the same hanging around at the Coordinated Relief Station and giving the medics grief. It’s very long and Renji wears a shirt for almost none of it.

Noble Hearts is an AU where Ichigo and Rukia get put in an arranged marriage, but Ichigo secretly has a disease that makes him Hollowify. Renji is Rukia’s guard and he ends up getting the Hollow disease, too. Even tho Ichigo and Rukia are engaged, this is very much an IchiHime and Renruki story. It’s incomplete, but the ff.net version that I’ve linked to has a lot more than the ao3 version.

Roots of Heaven fits a few of criteria-- it’s an amnesia story, and there’s definitely angst, but it never really leans into the amnesia angst in the way that I hoped it would. In part, that’s because it’s an adventure story and the characters got stuff to do. Also, it’s IchiRenRuki, and it never goes too hard toward any two out of the three characters because of the gravity of the third one. I am not criticizing the lack of amnesia angst, it’s because it’s a well-written story and not the thirsty soap opera that I crave. It is incredibly good tho, and if you haven’t read it, and you can tolerated the OT3, you should.

Speaking of soap operas, By the Sword doesn’t really have an angst-y vibe, per se, but it does have that theme of Rukia feeling like she’s losing Renji. It starts off after the Winter War, and Renji has some Renji-specific angst in that he got demoted for deserting and also Izuru and Momo died in the War. The Great Families are trying to do a bunch of Soul Society reconstruction and Rukia foresees getting stuck in an arranged marriage, so she’s trying to wrangle a way she can end up with Renji (she does not bother to tell him this). Meanwhile, it seems that Renji is the secret son of one of the other noble houses?? All of this is revealed through some A+++ Byakuya flashbacks??? It sounds bonkers and it is, but it’s great. What it is not, is finished, I am sorry to say, and once again, there is more of it on ff.net than ao3, once again.

That’s all I got, I wish I knew more. Like I said, if the hivemind knows of anymore, send ‘em along.

[mogsk]

So I watched an anime called “Violet Evergarden” recently, the elevator pitch of which is basically “feral girl is taken in by military man, turned into a child soldier, military man dies, but not before telling her ‘I love you’, but she doesn’t know what that means, so after the war she becomes a ghostwriter with the ostensible aim of figuring out what ‘I love you’ means through other people’s expressions of love via letter-writing.

It’s a good little concept, and while I enjoyed it, it’s also stuck in my brain as being profoundly odd from a storytelling perspective.

Like, the initial premise is v strong, Violet’s driving objective is to understand the last thing she heard her father figure, “The Major”, say to her before she blacked out and woke up with no arms. She was a feral orphan child with little grasp of language or expression, and so she is burdened with not understanding what this very important person to her was trying to convey before they parted ways. Good shit.

And it seems to carry this fairly well at first. Each episode varies in how much it advances the central plot, but each boils down to Violet having to learn a lesson about how people express their feelings for each other, how they express love through words, or how they fail to do so, and so slowly she goes from only being able to produce very precise and terse letters which read more like military reports, to being able to swoop in and fix people’s interpersonal problems with the power of a well-dictated love note.

Where it kinda falls apart for me is about halfway through the series, where we see that Violet has more or less grown into her role as protagonist in an anime about the power of letter writing and the meaning of love (-ish). She’s gotten so good she’s tasked with facilitating one half of a romantic correspondence between the nobles of two nations whose relations are still tense after The War (which Violet fought in), and so have decided to arrange a marriage between their noble children -- a 14-year old girl and a 24-year old man.

Now up to that point, the messaging around the central theme felt odd, but it made sense, like, Violet is growing to understand love, and so how the show does this is by giving her a lot of weird and fraught situations around that theme: we have a woman who is in love with a man, but she wants to play hard to get which Violet ruins by writing a letter that just directly states ‘I have no feelings for you, please stop calling on me’. So then she goes to letter-writing school where one of her classmates has an alcoholic brother who she wants to express her love and thanks towards, but doesn’t know how to pierce the barrier of grief surrounding him due to the death of their parents in The War. 

It keeps on like this p consistently, the central question “What is love? What does someone mean when they say ‘I love you’?” is addressed fairly cleanly, but then, once the issue of Violet’s struggle with being able to convey people’s emotions becomes effectively resolved, we kinda start to leave the rails!

Back to the mid-point episode, so, through trying to properly convey this 14yo princess’ feelings, Violet learns what her true feelings are. No, it’s not that she is discontent with being forced to marry a man ten years older than her because, you see, they already secretly met at a royal party when she was, like...10?? And he found her crying and was, like, “Hey kid, you okay?” and that was the first genuine expression of human emotion outside of her dutiful maid she’d ever gotten. You see, what her discontent is is that she knows the man she met, with a heart so simple and pure he feels compelled to comfort a crying child, would never write these letters, and so Violet conspires with the prince’s ghostwriter to allow them to have a more honest correspondence (which is then reprinted in all the newspapers around both countries.)

What got me about this episode is how it, like, throws all these different narrative threads in the air around this central theme of “What is love?” -- the concept of arranged marriage, the idea of confusing appreciating someone’s kindness for having other feelings for them, the MAID who is, like, the princess’ closest friend and confidant, but who has to explain that, once she’s married off, they will have to part ways because she doesn’t serve the princess, she serves the royal family and there’s this great scene where the princess is weeping after she says that and the maid is like “I cannot accept that command, I will continue standing here right by your side” and it’s really intense!

But then...it all gets dropped in the interest of the final note being...yeah sometimes you have to marry a guy in his twenties when you’re just a teenager, but love’s just funny like that ig!

Which sounds ungenerous, and like, I wanted that to be the case, I wanted it to be setting up something, like, “Despite Violet gaining proficiency in letter writing, she still is struggling to understand the more nuanced dimensions of love and so her shortsightedness will come back round to bite her in the ass” (it does not, we even get a montage of all the people she’s helped including the newly married royal couple smiling happily at the camera.) 

We then get more episodes like this, where Violet’s done learning about Love and is now in effect teaching it to others. She does this by...sitting and looking pretty with a guy while they wait for a comet to go by, imitating a playwright’s dead daughter so he can be inspired to finish his play, and...writing a bunch of letters on behalf of a mother dying from anime mom disease, but who wants to be able to speak to her daughter as she grows up through a series of pre-written birthday letters.

And, like, in isolation, it’s all very moving! Each story has a very touching emotional drive to it, but it seems like the question of “What does ‘I love you’ mean?” p much falls to the wayside, even after we get the big 3/4s of the way through reveal that the Major is dead and Violet didn’t know! So we’re treated to flashbacks of their relationship, including the moment where he repeats that damning phrase!

But then we really don’t pick it back up again? It kinda superficially grows in relevance as we approach the conclusion, but it’s never again properly addressed until after a sudden spat of military drama breaks out with people trying to reignite The War and Violet suddenly having to put down her typewriter and pick up her combat knife, but now, for some reason, she refuses to kill people because...she isn’t just a tool?

And I think this is what ultimately frustrated me, is that those are two great themes “Discovering what it means to love” and “Can a person conditioned to fulfill a specific purpose ever be free to choose their own path?” but the problem is, the series really has centered itself on the former while kinda sorta implying the latter, but in the final scenes, we are suddenly given a resolution to the latter (which is basically Metal Gear Solid, “You are not your DNA”, “Just live Snake” that’s been done beautifully and with more thought already by, well, Metal Gear Solid) whereas the former, what was the entire driving force behind Violet’s character development is kinda sorta hand-waved off as “What is love? I still don’t think I know, but maybe that’s just how it is!” which is fucked up coming from someone who by the midway point is basically counselling or facilitating love between people!

So, like, I enjoyed it a lot, there were some great moments and the supporting cast, while mostly one-dimensional save for Violet herself, made for at least nice scenery, but I’m just so blown away by how they seemed to manage to forget (or ceased wanting) to tell the story they laid out in the beginning in favor of some p uniform military drama that suffered precisely because most of the series was dedicated to developing the central theme that it ultimately seemed to abandon, or perhaps came across as being burdened with having to carry into the conclusion.

Also it was super fixated on dads, like, The Major is basically Violet’s dad, his best buddy who goes on to hire Violet as a ghostwriter has a big reveal in the end that he’s been writing letters to his hypothetical future child, the sad dad playwright with the dead daughter -- I dunno what to do with all this besides the usual base level of suspicion I have for all dead-heavy content, but yeah!

There’s two movies, a side story from mid-way through the series and a sequel, and I feel like I almost have to watch them at some point, just so I can tie a neater bow on how I experienced this whole story, but yeah, Violet Evergarden, come for the cool metal typing hands, stay for the heartfelt explorations of what it means to love people, shift nervously in your seat when dads suddenly become involved!

[justanothermaniac]

random thots on the demon birbs because i'm post booster shot, have slept through the fever all day and after so many hours of neglect the brainworms are trying to wiggle free.

personally i can't see stolas' and stella's marriage as anything but arranged.

even the way stolas tried to explain himself to via back in loo loo land:

"she's always been -! i haven't been...ha-"

(wanting to say happy)

"we weren't in-"

(love. they've never been in love.)

i know this is just me interpreting what he wanted to say but i do think it makes the most sense.

like, whatever floats your boat but from what we've seen until now, it seems to me that the reason stella resents stolas for cheating isn't the fact that he cheated at all but that he cheated with an IMP. she seems to take pride in their status and duties, as opposed to stolas who's very passionate about his hobbies, like gardening, astronomy, spending time with via and yes, spending time with blitzo. from stella's point of view (which i am forcing on her right now because we don't know for sure) having her husband sleeping with one of the lowest ranking demons in all of hell puts the family, puts her in a horrible light.

granted, we haven't seen much from stella yet but from what we have seen, it doesn't seem like she pursues hobbies much. probably because she doesn't get the chance. stolas seems to be basically dumping all of their royal responsibilities on her and i feel like that's part of why she resents him as much as she does. he's out there having fun and leaving her to keep up the facade of the picture perfect goetia family, while he's seemingly doing everything he can to sabotage that (he's obviously not, he just doesn't think about the consequences his actions have). i love stolas with all of my heart but no matter how you look at it, even aside from cheating he seems like a shitty husband. tho as i said, i don't think he realizes - we've seen how self-aware the ditzy owl boy is. i don't think he's ever wanted to hurt stella. he's just very impulsive and driven by his emotions and doesn't think shit through.

overall i don't think stella was ever too fond of stolas. sure, could be there was some sort of mutual understanding at one point, maybe even a friendship but honestly, i doubt it. and i really look forward to seeing more of stella, she's such an interesting character and i'd love to see her point of view on the whole thing. also her relationship with via cuz right now, it seems like the two of them aren't as close as stolas and via are and if that's the case, that could be another thing for stella to resent stolas for.

also i feel like i need to clarify, i absolutely fucking LOVE stolas but lbr pretty boy fucked up big time lmao he and blitzo got a lot of shit to figure out.

also love via. and stella. want more of themmmm.

EDIT: i realized i haven't even mentioned stella literally hiring a fucking assassin on stolas' ass lmao that's a whole other situation we're all gonna have to deal with

[catty-words]

Why Not Just Anyone Will Get Their Own Narration

Or, the narration meta no one asked for.

Never Have I Ever shifting the POV to Ben Gross for an episode was a pleasant surprise for most viewers—certainly was for me!—and, as a result, I’ve seen/heard the other cast members get asked who would narrate their own POV episode. And as much as I love the speculation, I’ve noticed a pattern in the narration that makes me a) think not just anyone will get a breakout POV and b) appreciate the way Ben getting his own is, not forecasted, exactly, but highlights an internal consistency in the universe that I really enjoy.

To start, let’s take a look at how McEnroe discusses Kamala—the best example of what I mean from the first episode.

Intro: That’s Devi’s cousin Kamala. She moved in after Mohan’s passing to complete her PhD at CalTech. Devi is not a fan.

Later in the Ep: Kamala was expected to have an arranged marriage after she finished her studies abroad, but she felt less than enthusiastic about that idea.

The intro is similar to what most characters get in the first episode—a brief rundown of why they’re in Devi’s orbit and a hint at their main personality traits. And, in addition to this intro being framed in how Kamala relates back to Devi, we get the bit of insight that Devi doesn’t like her. It’s all very much grounded in Devi’s head.

McEnroe popping in during the Vishwakumar family dinner, on the other hand, deviates from Devi’s perspective. Even though Kamala is clearly sarcastic about finding the potential-husband news exciting, it’s also clear that Devi is too self-involved to pick up on this. Instead of frowning sympathetically at Kamala’s clear frustration, Devi excuses herself from the table because Kamala “[doing] nothing and [getting] a full husband in the mail” niggles at her insecurity about being undesirable.

Contrast that with the Ben-centric narration from the episode.

This disgusted reaction, belongs to Ben Gross, Devi’s nemesis. … Ben Gross’s father, Howard, whom he idolized, was a top entertainment attorney in Beverly Hills. This allowed Ben Gross to dine out for years on the fact that Blake Griffin was at his Bar Mitzvah. And he and Devi have been vying for the number one spot in the class every year since first grade.

We learn of his relationship with Devi, but we don’t actually get additional insight to his thoughts and feelings. The fact that his dad’s a lawyer and that Blake Griffin was at his Bar Mitzvah are both bits of common knowledge around the school. If anything, the slightly mocking tone in which this information is delivered makes this bit of narration even more grounded in Devi’s POV rather than Ben’s.

Kamala goes on to get a couple more moments of character-building in the narration that go beyond what Devi notices about her cousin. 1.04 is a prime example (As the aunties praised her, Kamala had a sinking feeling. She didn’t want to get married, but she put on a happy face, like I did at the trophy ceremony when I lost the French Open to Ivan Lendl in 1984).

McEnroe also gives us insight to Fabiola’s inner life—insights that Devi couldn’t be said to know because, even though she concedes that it makes a lot of sense in 1.07, Devi’s clearly finds Fabiola’s coming out to be a revelation.

1.03: As a scientist, Fabiola was used to a clear-cut, data-driven life. Which is why she was struggling with these new, complicated emotions.

1.05: We’re gonna jump ship and check in on Fabiola, who has much more interesting things going on. Fabiola had told no one she was gay, except her robot, Gears Brosnan. She knew the next logical step was to come out to some humans, specifically her family.

McEnroe even makes it explicit that we’re leaving focus on Devi to tune into Fabiola’s life in the episode-five narration.

The narration over scenes involving Ben in these episodes, on the other hand, goes like this.

1.03: What made Devi most sad wasn’t seeing Paxton all over the hottest girl in her grade. It was that she let herself believe she actually had a shot with him. … Drunk and rude, Devi was indulging in what I would call self-destructive behavior.

1.05: Years ago, Devi and Ben split all extracurriculars down the middle, except for sports, which required too much locker room nudity for either of them. // Devi was panicking. How did Ben find out about her lie? Simple. Her friends told him.

In 1.03, even though Ben is present, the narration over the scene is all about Devi. If anything, Ben interjects into/interrupts the discussion of Devi’s mental state, and she promptly ignores him in favor of being “self-destructive.”

And even though we get the insight that Ben isn’t comfortable with locker room nudity, it’s—again—something Devi obviously knows/intuited because of the pact.

The second bit of narration I included from 1.05 tells us something Devi doesn’t know—that it was her friends who told Ben about her lie—but rather than being a special insight to Ben’s POV, it’s simply expository. An in-case-you-forgot bit of narration.

The only other bit of narration involving Ben after 1.06 comes in the final episode of the season, where McEnroe sets up another in-case-you-forgot exposition flashback, which makes me curious to know how McEnroe-provided narration involving Ben might evolve for season two.

Eleanor and Nalini land somewhere in an ambiguous middle in terms of McEnroe knowing their inner thoughts and feelings.

For Eleanor, the only bit we have to go off of comes in the second episode.

Devi strode off, confident her friends had believed this bullshit story. Fabiola and Eleanor were confident their friend had become completely unhinged.

This line obviously steps outside Devi’s POV, but it’s also not solely Eleanor’s moment. Everything else that would be—involving her mother—is the same expository, facts-Devi-would-know style of narration. Therefore, I think Eleanor’s still totally in the running for her own POV episode.

As for Nalini, we get these moments in 1.04.

Nalini was a little on edge. This was the first puja they had gone to since Mohan’s untimely death and Devi’s paralysis.

The day had been a long one for Nalini, and she needed a win, even if it was a small one.

They’re grounded in the isolation Nalini feels and one of the major conflicts of the season is that Devi doesn’t have access to the fact that Nalini’s struggling as much as she is. So, we can probably call this a step outside Devi’s POV. It’s simply not as dramatic a break as for Kamala or Fabiola.

Of course, for episode ten to have the emotional impact it does, it makes sense we wouldn’t spend the season discussing Nalini’s heartbreak. It has to be more subtly communicated to the audience via Poorna Jagannathan’s acting and the flashbacks we’re given. Therefore, I think it’s unlikely that Nalini would get her own episode, but definitely not out of the question.

And, finally, there’s Paxton. As the object of Devi’s desire, so much of the narration revolves around Paxton—far too much for me to compile here or discuss individually, since I’m looking to wrap up this meta in, like, a hundred words.

So, here are the bits I’ve pulled out.

1.02: Whoa, Paxton speaks Japanese? Guess his last name makes more sense now.

1.09: Even though Nalini was talking out her frustration more than anything else, Paxton was stung by these little digs at his intelligence.

In 1.02, our narrator is actively surprised by new information, which makes a pretty solid case for the fact that McEnroe doesn’t have access to Paxton’s inner-life. And that makes sense because, when I call him the object of Devi’s desire, I’m putting a lot of emphasis on object. Devi doesn’t fully let herself acknowledge that Paxton’s more than a fantasy, so of course McEnroe—the voice inside her head—wouldn’t be super concerned with his personhood, either.

The line from 1.09 seems to throw a bit of a wrench into the works, since Paxton being insecure about his intelligence has every appearance of being a special insight. And I’m not going to go all the way and say that’s not the case, but I will bring up Devi’s line from 1.05: “Paxton’s not dumb, okay? He’s just…consistently bad at school!”

Obviously, Devi’s at least semi-aware that intelligence is Something to Paxton. On the other hand, she’s saying the line to fend off criticism from Ben, so it could just as easily be posturing as protectiveness over Paxton’s insecurity rather than actual knowledge the insecurity exists.

In summation, I still think Paxton’s the most likely candidate for a breakout POV episode in season two—boy desperately needs some interiority, so this is certainly high on my s2 wish list—with Eleanor a close second and Nalini a potential third. I think it’s unlikely that the show will (or would even consider) writing one for every character, though.