#i have no way to know because i have no outside contact with fans beyond the comments and tags on this blog!

[mulders-too-large-shirt]

love posting a semi-hot take on my x files blog because i never know if i'll accidentally revive a 30 year fan war with my observations such as "scully seems bisexual" or "the alien baby pissed me off"

[neonovember]

I have a sort of angsty hurt to comfort idea for Carmy 😈 Okay but Claire coming back into his life and obviously you’re both dating, but maybe sort of feeling a little bit left out and feeling guilty for feeling a little insecure because you know Carmen’s loyal and Claire seems like a lovely person. Not saying anything because you obviously want him to be happy and you know there’s a part of you that’s being irrational. But THEN, maybe for whatever you also personally know Luca! Perhaps from something work related or had mutual friends and then maybe getting back into contact with him through Marcus and really hitting it off with him and having a respectable normal healthy friendship with him, but Carmy’s on the side going “What the cinnamon toast FUCK is this”. And it culminates in an argument which ultimately leads the both of you to opening up and discussing boundaries and airing out insecurities, and just being super vulnerable and communicating with one another

Love and War (I)

warnings; claire, arguing, threats of violence, anxiety, my writing

i had like 4 different versions of how this story was supposed to go, hope you enjoy the one i finally let see the sun

a/n: yeah...so shit hit the fan and kind of derailed my life for 6 months. I hope you will forgive me, i feel like an absentee father. (part two will be posting right after i swear!)

divider by @firefly-graphics

You aren't jealous.

You have never experienced the slimy green devil in any of your past relationships, so you shouldn't feel it now.

Your mind isn't fond of what it should feel however, and instead, you feel a burning ache begin to burst through your chest as you watch Carmen nod excitedly at Claire in the Beef’s front dining space. It disgusts you, how this feeling wraps around your heart like sludge. You've been trying to focus on prepping for the new menu, gathering different ensembles of compotes and sauces, but your eyes always finds it’s way back to them.

And her.

Claire had burst into Carmen’s life seemingly out of nowhere, and it took one exchange between you both to know it was different. Claire had something you didn't with Carmen, a past, and the discomforting feeling of being on the outside looking in was all that blared in your mind the past few weeks since her appearance.

It wasn’t like Claire was rude, no that would have made this feeling easier to bear. She was nice, for god sake. The only person in Chicago who it seemed had not yet gotten all their goodness sucked out, and she had to have been Carmen's old friend. And a friend was all she was, so why did you- why are you jealous?

She knows him better than you do.

You shake the thought out of your mind so furiously the container in your hand spills onto the cutting board. You weren't going to go there, not when Carmen hadn't done anything wrong.

 You wanted him to have friends, to broaden his circle from beyond just the Beef and Sugar, who you made sure to point out didn't exactly count. So you should be happy, ecstatic even, that he was able to reconnect with someone that had known him for so long.

But she had known him for so long. 

And you know you're being irrational and hypocritical and you know you can’t own someone else, but maybe there was a part of you that liked that you had him all to yourself.

Carmen was different. To your other relationships, your other friendships, everything. You and Carmen danced around your feelings for so long that when it exploded into heated kisses and confessions of love one night after a dazzling dinner service, it had already felt like you had been with him for years.

And Carmen was devoted to you, he sang it into your skin every chance he got. It was just that those chances had begun to dwindle day after day the more Claire came around, until you had begun to detest the sound of her name leaving his mouth.

Steeping your fingers in cold water, you wipe them hastily no your aprosn before making your way over to them both. Fixing your face from quivering lips into a tight smile.

You wipe your messy hands in your apron, steeping your fingers before making your way over to them both. Fixing your face, you pull your quivering lips into a tight smile.

“Hey, Claire. How are you doing?” 

“Oh hey! Good good, Carmen was just telling me about this cool hole in the wall down 85th.”

“Ruth’s Bar?”

“Yes! That’s the one. They really do saffron popcorn there?” Claire replies, eyes bulging.

“Yep, mix it in with a little alcohol and then pour it into the butter. Entertainment is almost too good that you forgot about how amazing it smells though”

“We should go out some time!”

“Definitely. Carmen, were you alright with Thai tonight?”

“Oh” Carmen replies, scratching the back of his head

He forgot.

“Yeah, sorry hun I promised to take Claire to-”

“This new fusion place! I saw it online and Carmen offered to take me.

You voice pitter and curls as you gulp down the innate urge to reply with a deadpan ‘What?”.

“Oh. Ah- okay. What’s the place?” You reply, your voice on the verge of shaky as you blink through Claire, watching to see if there was any semblance of guilt in Carmen.

There wasn't, he was taking her out on a night reserved for you to. As if they hadn't spent nearly everyday together, as if Claire hadn’t imprinted her ass on the bar chair’s sharing pieces of things you never could with him.

“It’s called Route Creale?” Claire replies, excitedly, obviously to the sour expression on your face as she butchers the name of the restaurant.

“La Route Créole” You correct, almost unconsciously. 

Practiced from the amount of times you had excitedly to Carmen about the Trinidan-French fusion place, looking through the menu together, huddled over your cracked phone screen in the early morning in your bed. Listing of dishes and dishes that made you squeal in delight. 

You had told Carmen how bad you wanted to go, how bad you wanted both of you to try it together, and instead, instead he takes her. 

He takes her.

“Easy, not everyone has spent months as the head Poissonnier in Port Of Spain” Carmen jokes, head tilting as you stammer, eyes focused on the floor.

“What the hell is a Poissonnier” Claire replies giggling

And as Carmen clarified to her, gripping her arm as he rambles on the importance of the distribution of fucking cooking stations your mind kind of skips.

It falls over itself like a misshapen piece of the sidewalk. Your eyebrows are screwed and you're looking at Carmen looking at Claire. For a second you are confused, wholeheartedly and entirely confused to the very marrow of your being. Who was this person in front of you? It couldn’t have been your Carmen.

Your Carmen who wrote you letters left on food packages and stuffed in your locker. Your Carmen who would follow you around like a lost puppy, enthralled by your every move. Your Carmen who sung you to sleep in horrible drunken renditions of “Livin on a prayer”.

Jesus he knew every part of you, every inch of yourself like a road map, forks and branched  roots across your skin. You hug your mid section tightly, fingers digging through the cotton of your button chef shirt.

No, no. Someone must have come in and taken his face, his clothes, his mouth.

But he smells like him, the same deep scent of cocoa and burnt cigarettes. You could press your lips to his, but you don’t know if he’d like that anymore. 

You know when someone is slipping away, you’re not one to guard your food like a stray dog. And no matter how hard you want to sink your teeth into him and not let go, you don’t have a choice.

The squealed sound of Claire rips you from your reverie, and your eyes shoot up to catch her grip Carmen's shoulder, her head tilted back and eyes squirmed shut in laughter. The ripple of jealous rage that bursts through every limb in your body causes you to subtly turn on your heel, rushing out of the suffocating stench of betrayal. 

Fingers digging to unlace your apron that feels as if like a vice around your chest, unheard to the inquisitive shouts of Richie and Syd, until you hear the slam of the backdoor behind you.

Your leg jitters as you walk around in circles, grinding your jaw as visions of Claire and Carmen flash in your mind. Fisting the washcloth in your hand till your knuckles turn white, you stuff your face into it, masking the scream of festered anger that rips from your throat. 

You’re pathetic, you don't get to feel jealous. Carmen would never even think of it, of betraying you. But he also wouldn't have taken the very restaurant you had been gawking at for the past month and taken someone else to it. Right in your face.

You don’t know if he even noticed your abrupt disappearance, your eyes shift to the door, waiting, hoping. Ears perked up at any sound of rushing footsteps to come find you. 

Angry tears gather at the waterline when all you hear is the rumbling traffic behind you and the flutter of shrikes above.

You’re not jealous, you’re fuming

You hate it, no, you hate him. You seethe as you're forced to sit in it pushing the adoration and love you have for him to make room for it in your mind. It takes over, overcrowding your brain till you can't hear anything else, where even the buzzing of your phone is unregistered till your thigh begins to itch.

Oh god you told him about those times before, you told him. And he had wiped your tears and kissed your eyelids, damning your past boyfriend who had left you forsaken.

Wiping a hand across your face, you reach down to grasp the metallic slick edges. And the image of Luca flashing across the screen stumps you frozen till it rings out. You hadn't seen him since Denmark, in fact it had been years.

The ping of a text shakes you from the memories of spending months on boats and pastry kitchens in Copenhagen, the gray bubbles appearing on your screen.

“Gonna be in Chicago for a bit, wanna test out if your Mille-Feuille is still up to standard?”

You want to say that you answered Lucas' text in that brief moment out of genuine curiosity. That you would have wanted to see him whether Clair had uprooted your life with Carmen either way.

But you’d be lying to yourself.

The slight drizzle drips down your screen phone, muddying and blurring the Lucas texts till you have to wipe your shirt across it. You hesitate though, you think the blurred messages between you both absolves you of guilt. That it was as if you were lookin through pane fogged glass. But you slide your hand across the screen and it brightens to your eyes, defying every word between you both. You want to see Luca, Carmen had no hesitation when it came to Claire, oh no, he wouldn't think twice before spending the day with her. 

Days like today, where you would usually be posted up in Carmens old beaten leather couch, the cushions weaning under your weight as you ate rice steeped in coconut milk and kung pao on plates.

It’s tradition, or it once was. So much of what you held close to your heart had been left to ruins, maimed and disfigured. Pulled from under you when you had thought it sacred, you should have expected this, it was too good. You’ve stewed in your deprecation look enough till it turned bitter, outpouring harsh streaks of anger from your heart instead.

You helped Sydney finish up the last of the next evening's desserts, waving her off with a smile when she had asked about your sudden departure earlier. She ignored the way your hands shook, and you reached for your things and rushed home before she could prod further.

You felt dirty.

Like Carmen was replacing you slowly, out from under you. Did he think you were too stupid to realise? You don’t want to imagine the things shared between them, and yet you do. Scrubbing your skin raw in the shower does little to scratch the memory of them out of your mind.

You’re resting on the edge of your bed, clutching your towel as you look towards your closet. Phone in hand at Lucas' text inviting you to dinner at his place, you turn Carmen’s picture on the dresser face down before reaching into your closet, and pulling out a dress you had forgotten existed.

When you slide the silk fabric onto your body, it feels anew. Like you were a different skin. It flutters at the edges of your calf, long and rich in colour in elegance.

Your hair is left in its natural state, running some products through with your fingers till the sticky crème is gone from between your knuckles. Carmen always loved your hair this way.

So did Luca.

Your time spent in Copenhagen didn't necessarily involve Luca, not at the start anyways. You were reviewing foods around Denmark, a long awaited food tour you had begun saving for before culinary school, and had made a pit stop at a weathered bakery. 

It wasn't on your repertoire for your trip, in fact you had thought nothing of it, a transitional spot to grab an espresso and maybe a danish.  It had seen better days. The wooden doors stained and creaking as you passed through, inside though, inside was as if you had entered the warmth of someone's heart and soul. Delicate paintings and familial photographs hang on the walls, low lamp lighting, a built-in fireplace that defrosts your fingers wedged in your coat pocket.

The most strange and endearing thing, however, was the bar attached on the same counter as the paned glass display of baked goods. In all your time in food, you had never seen a bakery that doubled as a..brewery? Distilled barrels hitched atop the caramel coloured walls, jugs and glasses perched atop the counter. You weren't necessarily a drinker per se, but the thought of filling your stomach with liquid heat pushed you to shut the door behind you and set your things on the bar counter.

“Now what makes someone as sunny as you walk into the most haggard bakery in all of Copenhagen?” A Brooklyn lilt voice calls from the small entryway into the back kitchen, a tall blonde man wipes his hand on a dishcloth, the tired features of cooking for hours you know to well etched on his face.

You stand right in surprise, you half heartedly expect the embodiment of Hagrid to walk out, and instead New York came bustling through. 

“You sure you aren't lost sweetheart? Lookin’ for Noma?”

“I’m told I can get a pint of something hard and dry with my croissant” You murmur, cockling your head to the side “Or does this fine establishment not know how to laminate dough?”

From that moment on, you had spent almost every day in Denmark being guided to the “actually” good food spot in the city. You wanted to deny it, holding your list of restaurants and bakeries you had died to try since your trip to your chest like a rare jewel.

But God did those alleyway Frikadeller’s taste like religion. You wanted to fall to your knees and pledge your devotion.

Still, after you had draine the last of your savings on cider and meatballs your craft was calling to you from the States. Luca had told you things you had not even read in the mountain of textbooks and ‘Pastry 2’ tutorials you were assigned as a student, marveling at the intricacy of pastry and the world of dough.

He had mentioned a Chef he admired, one he wanted you to meet yourself. You wondered all those months who could have bested Luca. 

And then you met Carmen.

Time and distance had feathered the brief but all consuming intimacy you and Luca shared. It wasn't like you had shared a bed together, no, it was far more deeper than that. You both shared the unraveling layers of your joint obsession;

Food.

It tethered you to each other so finely that even now, after years of no contact, you knew you would fall back into the same rhythmic dance you once had those years before.

It shakes the nerves from your body when you finally rack your knuckles against Luca’s restaurant door.

“Comin, comin, don’t break down the door” Luca’s silky voice laments from deep within the restaurant, before the iron door opens and you’re met with golden streaked hair and a wine stained apron.

“Why is it that every time I see you, you've got something stained on your face” You smile

“It’s the Lucas charm, what can I say” or “Oh please, you eat whatever caused those stains.”

“You say this now, but you’ll be praying to these stains when you taste you’re menu tonight” Lucas smirks

You chuckle shaking your head, before Lucas pulls you into a hug

“4 years and you still smell the same”

“You know I'm a women of routine, like the same bottle of perfume and my eggs-”

“Over easy, yeah yeah.”

“You know me so well!”

“No I just can’t get the smell of sunflowers from out my nose even years later”

“I paid a pretty penny for it, it should be fucking ever lasting”

Lucas shakes his head in a smile, and flashes of stomach pained laughter in pebbled alleyways and chef’s kitchens lights up your mind.

“What are you doing over here Luca?”

“A friend who works in restaurant business asked me to help get one of his locations up and runnin’ in Chicago” Luca replies

You follow him through drywall and scaffolding poles, catching the beginnings of the seating area as you observe the paint swatches on walls . The menu does always comes first.

“And this is you up and running? Conducting mini-master classes for old friends” You joke

“Mhm, don’t think we can classify ourselves as old friends just yet. It was just yesterday the last I saw you.” Luca replies in ponder

“Right, that must be all the gas fumes from looming over sauce pans for eons going to your brain. You do know nobody forced you to make that 36 hour long creme brulee right?” You tease

Lucas fights a giggle as he remembers the dish he had slaved over two nights, “And that sauce earned me a damn near Michelin Star.” 

“Yeah, you probably should've been awarded a Nobel Prize for that” You admit, leaning against the stainless steel table counter of the central kitchen.

“Heard you started working with Carmen, he's good isn't he?”

The brick that had begun to dislodge from your throat slips back in, gulping down an uneasy breath as you give him a tight smile.

“It’s wonderful, he's really something” You murmur, thanking the gods that Lucas was too busy rummaging around the fridge to notice your features melting into malice.

“I wanted to keep this a secret, but who am I kidding. Come, I wanna show you something”

Lucas comes over, rolling your eyes as he makes you take off your coat. Hes eyes skim down your figure fast enough for you not to notice, but you feel him linger gently grasping the cotton of you fleece before hooking it onto a door handle.

To your surprise he pulls out a crisp chef apron, nodding with wide eyes as you stare at him baffled.

“Do you think my text was a joke? C’mon I know you, you would've been sitting there working yourself up not being able to get your hands dirty”

You chuckle sheepishly as you agree, cooking was your life. Even if you had gotten out of a 24 hour day you’d still sore your bones over a good meal. Especially with Luca.

You walk over to him, noting the papers scattered on the table counter and a laptop opened, the light streaming in. It’s opened to a leasing site, a run down appliance store who’s store wide sale had begun peeling off the windows.

“What's this?” You murmur, confusion in your voice as your eyes jump over the listing description quickly

“This is a home furniture store”

"Yes I gathered that from the block letters Luca, what does it mean?” You look over Luca whos grinning widely at you

“You know this used to be an old mill factory? The ones they'd make 7 year old work 20 hour shifts on?” Luca continues

“Have you turned into an anthropologist? Is this what this is? You takin’ a career change this late in the game old man?” You tease.

Luca doesn't laugh, he doesn't even roll his eyes, he just continues grinning ear to ear. You’re suddenly afraid he’s body has been tossed in a dumpster in Frederiksberg and this is his body double.

“It was practically a bakery, sweets. Who better than me to bring it back to its roots?” Luca replies finally as you were considering the best option to escape through the fire exit

You’re stumped before it dawns on you, Luca is gonna open his own bakery? Restaurant? You weren't clear as to what it was going to be exactly but you knew by the look of excitement on his face that it was his.

“You and goddamn rundown buildings” You shake your head, as Luca looks at you with a stupid smile, you can't help but let out a laugh.

“Tis only right I tell the person who saw me sweating in that furnace heated bakery in Denmark daring. It’s fate, and you know it” Luca replies

You chuckle, before bursting in excited laughter, oh you were so happy. You were, it had been his dream, to bring back some of heart that had been left in that flour room when he had come back to the States

You grab his hands, holding them tightly, reaching for his face and jaw and bringing him to your chest with adoration.

“Oh Luca, really? You did it?” You grin and he gazes down at you in sheepish resignation.

“Already put down the payment. Drained half my bank account so I’m going to have to DIY the architecture, and just engineer structure of the place but I dont care.” He chuckles

“Who cares about structural support when they taste that 36 hour creme bulee huh?” You chime, teasing.

You let go of his face but he grabs your wrist tightly,

“I want you to join me.”

You heart stills for a second, and you don't know if its the rush of nostalgia or the anger over Carmen that fights over your tongue to say

“Yes”

“I know you've got a good thing going with Carmen, and it won't interfere with that-”

Luca stammers before stopping abruptly, raising his eyebrows in confusion at your reply. He cocks his head to the side

“It’s fine, I can leave the Beef and help open it up with you”

“Woah woah wait a second, I didn't say leave Carmen-”

“That DIY job isn't going to be a one man job, besides I’m not that valuable there really, just help around here and there. Carmen could do without me to be honest, one less person to pay ya know? It's fine really” It your turn to ramble incessantly, slipping the resentment against Carmen and Calire through your jumbled reply

“Yeah? Is that why you're balling your fists?”

You look to Luca, whose eyes zero in on your shaking hands. You put them behind you quickly, self conscious as you bite your lip.

“You and I both know when you’re runnin’ from something. You really think you can hide things from me of all people?

“You don't want me working for you Luca? I just said I’d leave what I'm doing to do this with you”

“And I want you too, but I also know it's been a dream to work with someone as talented as Carmen”

“Yeah real fucking talented” 

Luca looks at you, squinting his eyes

“I’ve talked to him you know” He murmurs softly, eyes still strained on you

“What?” You scoff, shaking your head

“And the way he gushes about you tells me enough. He damn near sounded like he was going to jump through the phone and ring my neck after I had told him I knew you before. The way he says your name? Tell me you're not just an employee, and the menu I’m hearing all around the city? Lavender and hazelnut? Lime and pistachios? That's all you. Even if you don't know it, you've imprinted yourself into that place and every dish Chicago is raving about” Luca replies, and his voice is low and his eyes are wide as he looks at you can’t not ignore him.

“I know you don't give up easily, and I’m not trying to play mediator, but just- think on it okay? You're going to be a part of this, that is certain. But you're a part of a lot okay? Being the head sous chef is nothing to what they’d make us do back in New York and you know it.”

You're about to bite back a reply before Luca raises his eyebrows, as if he's already as an onslaught of resorts to everything you have to say. You resign yourself to the fact; Luca knows you damn near better than yourself.

“Okay, I’ll think on it. Having you suffer a little without me is a nice image anyways” You reply, rolling your eyes as you tighten your apron. 

Luca chuckles as he shakes his head, motioning you to help start making your dinner.

The sounds of sizzling pans and braised meat left your stomach full and your heart heavy hours later. The heated argument you had with Luca seemed hours ago when you both had let the food bring you back into synchronization. 

You both sat criss cross on the unfurnished dining room floor, a plastic tarp underneath you both as you gorged yourself on duck, potatoes and cheap wine. You regret ever hesitating meeting with Luca, and you suppose you should thank Carmen for that.

Luca knows it's weighing heavy on your mind as he eyes you across the kitchen, wrapping up some leftovers for you. You shake your head as you gaze at him, giving him a reassuring smile that you know he doesn't believe. 

“If it all goes wrong you know you can come to me, anytime anywhere” Luca whispers into your ear as you fall into a tight embrace.

“Getting pretty tired of running my whole life Luca, god I just want to rest.”

“Then let yourself”

The uber comes and you kiss Luca goodbye as he bundles you into the backseat, the shower earlier has now filtered into a slight drizzle and you watch the slow rain drops glide down the window languidly. 

You didn’t want Carmen to be home when you arrived, but the thought of him being out with her this late had you gritting your teeth. You didn't know what you wanted.

taglist

@hansfics @kpopgirlbtssvt @parmforcarm @nolita-fairytale

[cha-melodius]

firstprince hug prompt #30

(You sent two and I said I was gonna combine them, so I did. And because you said you were constantly adding "between spies" to the prompts in your head, that's what you get too. 😂 hug ficlet prompts)

30: The reluctant hug from someone who isn’t exactly a fan of physical affection; 13: The hug which tells you everything you need to know.

Alex is not ok.

He’s trying not to show it, of course, but they’ve been working together long enough for it to be obvious. They’ve been partners long enough, have seen each other at highs and lows, and this, Henry knows without a doubt, is a low. Maybe the lowest he’s ever seen Alex, and that’s saying something.

He doesn’t know what happened. Is too afraid to ask when Alex returns and doesn’t immediately start giving him a play-by-play. Whatever it is, it must be quite bad for Alex to have retreated into himself like this. He’s in pretty much the same place he collapsed on the sofa after he came back to the safehouse, answering Henry’s questions in single syllables, staring at a newspaper without reading it. He doesn’t even read the newspaper under normal circumstances. Henry’s the one that always picks it up, because he likes the idea of some things being true enough to print in indelible ink, even when he knows they’re not, and Alex makes fun of him for being an old man.

Henry doesn’t know what to do. He’s not equipped for this, not after so many years in the Service. He’s not built for providing comfort, not beyond making a pot of tea, which certainly won’t help Alex. But he wants, unaccountably, to make things better somehow. Needs to.

He won’t pretend not to know what’s behind it, even though he probably should. It’d be safer for both of them if he just let Alex be, let him handle whatever happened on his own.

Instead, he slowly lowers himself to the couch next to Alex and takes the newspaper out of his hands. Alex doesn’t fight him, just gives him a wary look like he’s afraid Henry’s going to ask more questions that he doesn’t want to—or can’t—answer.

But Henry slides a hand onto Alex’s shoulder and opens his other arm in the universal sign of offering a hug, and asks, “Can I?”

Perhaps predictably, Alex stares at him. “Are you sure? You don’t have to just for me. I’ll be fine.”

Just as Henry knows him, he knows Henry. Knows that Henry avoids most physical contact outside what’s necessary for his work, has pretty much since his father died and his mother withdrew and his sister disappeared, and no one hugged Henry for literal years. Knows that the demands of the job have only made it worse. Alex is careful with him, never asking too much, even though Alex is definitely the kind of person who thrives on casual physical affection.

Even with all of that, Henry wants to do this. He’s not sure it will help—not sure he even knows how to give good hugs anymore—but he’s sure he wants to try. “Yes,” he tells Alex. “I want to. If— If you do,” he adds, suddenly uncertain.

What if Alex doesn’t want a hug from him? What if he understands the magnitude of this, because there’s no way he doesn’t, and it’s too much? What if—

Alex very nearly launches himself into Henry’s arms, pressing in close as he curls his own arms around Henry’s waist, burrowing under skin and muscle and bone until he’s securely lodged in Henry’s ventricles. The hug almost hurts, and not because Alex is squeezing him so tightly, but because Henry’s chest is cracking open at the feeling of Alex shaking apart in his arms. Henry holds him just as tightly, murmuring soft words of comfort as he smooths a hand over Alex’s wild curls, and lets him stay as long as he wants.

(It’s all night—Alex stays in his arms all night, and Henry never once wants him to leave. Their partnership will never be the same. Henry will never be the same.

He doesn’t regret any of it.)

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

Do you know if Riddle, or Tray, ever stands up to his mother? I think i saw it in a Pinterest post once of teen Riddle being slapped by his mom and Tray taking him away.

His background is sadder than Shoto Todoroki from BNHA

We don’t really get to hear about how things are going back home with Mrs. Rosehearts outside of one brief instance. In 4-3, Riddle is leaving for winter break and mentions he intends on speaking with his mother, though he isn’t optimistic about her listening.

Trey states in the same part of the story that he isn’t allowed at Riddle’s house (because Mrs. Rosehearts has banned him). However, Riddle is still invited to visit him and Chenya at the Clover family bakery (though it’s very unlikely Riddle would be able to, since he hasn’t canonically seen Chenya again since the unbirthday party of book 1).

We never get a follow-up on how the conversation between Riddle and his mother went. It’s never touched upon again, and his mom isn’t really brought up beyond this case. (I did happen to write a short piece about Trey, Riddle, and Mrs. Rosehearts interacting though, if you were interested in seeing my own interpretation of this idea.)

Riddle spends most of his time at NRC since it’s a boarding school, meaning there are few opportunities for him to directly interact with his mother. Even if Mrs. Rosehearts were readily accessible to him, I highly doubt we would get to witness Riddle or Trey doing much to talk back to her. As we see in book 4, Riddle is still quite meek and uncertain when it comes to speaking with his mom. Trey, meanwhile, is generally very non-confrontational and may still be dealing with his own complicated feelings about interfering with what are family matters. (Recall that the last time he encouraged Riddle to be adventurous, it resulted in his friend being severely punished and Trey may harbor guilt over this occurrence.) I feel that neither of them would realistically develop the courage to talk back to Mrs. Rosehearts when only like half a year has passed since Riddle’s OB incident as opposed to like seventeen years of Riddle living under her rules.

***CONTENT WARNING: I will be discussing abuse at length under the cut, so please be advised to avoid reading further if the topic makes you uncomfortable.***

Regarding the comic you saw on Pinterest, it is fan art. That is in no way canonical; Mrs. Rosehearts may be very stern and have a temper, but she has never slapped or otherwise put a hand on Riddle. The closest thing we get to a slap is this panel from the manga adaptation, which isn’t even a slap. You can tell from the movement lines and the FWP sfx that Mrs. Rosehearts is just quickly pulling her arm away since Riddle is trying to latch onto it in an attempt to get her to listen to his protests. There is also no mark on Riddle or harsh slap sfx to indicate contact was made.

Now then 💦 There's something very serious and relevant to this ask I'd actually like to discuss, so I hope you'll stick around to hear me out on this.

I know none of us really like Mrs. Rosehearts (which is fair, she has done a lot of terrible things to her son). However, I think it's dangerous for us to speak about her as though she's a total monster and nothing more than a monster. I'm NOT going to stand here and advocate that she has done nothing wrong (she definitely has committed many wrongs). What I'm saying is that I don't agree with her being treated like "just" an abuser.

Let's say we do demonize Mrs. Rosehearts. We see only her negative traits and allow those to define her entire character. This creates a scenario in which she is alienated and dehumanized, left as a caricature of a woman that is solely known for hurting her child. But the thing is, this ISN’T how abuse really works. Few abusers are completely wicked people through and through. Part of the reason why it is so difficult for victims to leave their abusers is because abusers almost never start off abusive. They usually act totally normal, and the abuse often doesn’t come until later or specific situations arise. It creeps up on you in an almost insidious manner, and you don’t expect it coming. I’d also like to mention that abusers often don’t act with the intentional thought of, “Yeah, what I’m doing/saying is abusive”. Abusers typically justify their actions or convince themselves they are acting out of goodness. They don’t do bad things “because they’re bad people”, they do bad things because they think they’re GOOD people. Some abusers may even be victims themselves.

By painting abusers (even fictional ones) as cartoonishly evil, irredeemable, or always cruel, it makes it harder for us to believe the very real danger that we, whom we see as “good” people, could become “bad” ourselves. It makes it harder to believe victims when they report abuse because “oh, the abuse isn’t THAT bad”. It erases the idea that abusers are also human, and that humans have the capacity to be awful sometimes or to perpetuate hurt. It makes it so much harder to identify abuse because we’d only be looking for the most extreme examples of it rather than noticing the small, subtle signs. By “othering” abusers, it’s inadvertently denying so many nuances of abuse... which ultimately is counterproductive.

I would like to point out that even in the example provided of another abusive parent, Endeavor is portrayed with some nuance. He physically and verbally abused his wife, neglected the children he deemed worthless, and pushed the child he deemed to be his successor to the brink. However, Endeavor is also shown to remember a detail as small as his (arranged) wife’s favorite flower when she only told him about it once. He is notably much more lenient when training his first son, who didn’t have the ideal Quirk he sought. Endeavor at one point even confesses to pursuing being a hero in order to avoid the demands of fatherhood, which demonstrates a realistic insecurity and vulnerability… his humanity.

The same could be true for Mrs. Rosehearts. We only assume he is “just an abuser” because we see her in such a limited scope. There are valid reasons to believe why she is a “good” person outside of how we see her acting in Riddle’s recollections, and this may help to explain why Riddle feels so hesitant to “stand up” to her. I would really recommend reading this post, which goes a lot more in-depth about the complications surrounding Riddle’s relationship with his mother. Again, I am in NO WAY defending Mrs. Rosehearts; I am only pointing out that abusers—no matter how horrible their actions—have identities beyond the label of “abuser” that should be acknowledged.

[scrumptiousstuffs]

Hi, I would like to read your opinion about something... Do you think first and khao feel uncomfortable with each other when it comes to skinship? Cause both are very touchy people when it comes to friends and co-stars, hugging and kissing others but when it comes to each other, they can't even hug without panicking or wanting to let go as soon as possible. Overall, I see this behavior the most with first since it makes it even weirder since he literally is so touchy with EVERYONE, but khao. And for khao, i feel like he doesn't get close either , but he feels that first is not comfortable with it. Now we can see that he has somehow become a little more used to it, but it's still very noticeable.

Ok, firstly a disclaimer, whatever I say in this post are my personal thoughts. I know nothing about the boys personal lives beyond what we are shown either by themselves or their friends/colleagues.

But if you ask me, our boys (especially First) are actually quite selective to whom they bestow their physical affection or “skin-ship”, like you call it.

From the outside, First is super friendly, kind and appears affectionate. However, he really only initiate contact with people he is comfortable with off-screen. Now, whenever he is in working mode, First has no issue doing skinship with his partner (e.g with Gawin - the picture below, I’m pretty sure was while they were filming Not Me because First’s looks like he is in a hospital gown, presumably after he got shot)

Off-screen though, the only people he seems to hug or allow physical contacts are his inner circle (basically his bestie, Mix and Earth) or people he pretty much adopted as brothers (Tay whom he calls older brother and Pond his ototo. First also seems to have a cat-mouse brother relationship with Off, which is quite cute. Plus, I’m convinced both First and Khaotung have adopted Joong as their son 🤣)

Khaotung is actually (in a way) a bit “free” with his affection but because he is such an introvert, you rarely see him initiating it 🙃 - instead it his Nongs or Phis coming to him and pretty much baby-fied him - Tay, Lego, Nanon, Force, Earth, Sea, Perth etc. This was most obvious during the recent Musicon and GMMTV StarLympics 2023 Concert.

As for Khaotung and First, they do plenty of “skin-ship” but perhaps not the usual fan-service gestures that we are used to with other CPs (hopefully I and some of my moots here have convinced you that our boys brand of CP is not the norm ? 😅)

If you are asking me if they do overt skin-ship, fan-service-y gestures, then not really. I answered in a previous ask before that our boys are terrible at usual fanservice. With the same ask, I mentioned Khaotung seems to defer to what First is comfortable with (in terms of what to show on-screen). They are definitely better now and has settled into a comfortable equilibrium.

Now, when the boys emotion gets beyond them (like when they are excited or if they are super comfortable without the need to worry about camera or audiences), they treat each other like an extension of their own body (and those are my favourite moments of these 2 🥰). I swear Khaotung pretty much has “property of First” tattooed somewhere on his body...

[blissfulcrow]

Way Home is Through You

Chapter 3: Do Or Die, You'll Never Make Me

AO3 link here

First Chapter here

Second Chapter here

“Okay, so if you're technically dead, do you eat or drink?”

“I don't need to, but I can.”

“Do you want something to drink?” She said, walking into the tiny kitchen. ‘Going to need coffee to get through this’.

“I’m good, thanks.” He replied as he took a seat on her worn, brown couch.

She nodded, flicking the kettle on to make her cheap instant coffee. Bringing down one of her favourite mugs, she poured out what she needed. Entirely entranced by the complexities of making it, she was trying to get her mind to form a semblance of thought on approaching this. It’s not like there is a how-to on helping a dead guy go back to being dead. 

The click of the boiled kettle broke her from her thoughts. Pouring it out and stirring, she reached the armchair across from the broody man.

“Listen, I’m really sorry about what happened to you. Reading what I did, you’ve been through hell. That being said, how are you here?” She asked.

“Would tell you if I had a clue, all I know is that both times I’ve come back the crow is there. Last time I was here when the bird got hurt, I’d get hurt. I think it's my connection to the land of the living, but I don’t think it’s what brought me back this time.” He stated, gazing at the crow that had made itself comfortable perched on an old oak bookshelf in the cramped living room. The bird was transfixed on the woman, its eyes bore into her soul.

“Crows represent many things in many cultures. I guess it's not too far-fetched to say that someone was right about them.  In ancient cultures, some say they were revered for their association with death and beyond; they often felt they were guides for people through their journey to life after death.”  She replied, sipping her drink while maintaining eye contact with the bird.

“And you know this because..?” He asked, snapping her out of her cross-species staring contest.

“I enjoy mythology and am a fan of spiritualism.” She shrugged dismissively, feeling embarrassed about her answer. 

“Ah.”

There was a long silence between them, neither knowing where to go from here. She gazed over at Eric, trying to wrack her brain on what to do. Their only clue was a cloaked figure, which wasn’t much to go on. Her heart felt for him; so much happened to him, and he was lost and alone. 

The flapping of wings brought both of them out of their own minds and back to the present. The crow had made its way back to the window, looking over at the two and letting out a caw before motioning outside.

“I think your friend knows where we can start.” She laughed, rising to her feet to start gathering her things. 

“What are you doing?” 

“Getting ready? I am not about to go exploring the city in nothing but sleep shorts and a tee.” She quipped, throwing a pair of boots out from her closet. 

“Right, I’ll wait outside for you.” He moved briskly to the window, opening it wide as he started to raise a leg out of it. 

“Wait! You can use the front..!” She ran to the window as he dropped himself out of it, ignoring her exclamation. Sticking her head out, she gave him a look of concern. He raised from his landing and grinned up at her, almost amused by her concern. 

“Alright! I'll be down soon. You know, having to take the long way and all that!” She called down, pulling herself back inside to dress herself. 

After throwing on her jeans and a loose top, she grabbed her phone and keys to lock up. On the way down the stairs her mind reeled, just the other day she was working her mundane barista job and tonight she is wandering the city with a guy and his crow. How life takes us to unexpected places. 

Leaving the building, she saw him leaning against the opposite building, crow on his arm, almost looking like they were talking. Walking over, she clapped her hands together.

“So, where are we off to?” She asked, not sure if she was asking him or the bird. 

The bird cawed, taking initiative in leading the group. She looked over at Eric for answers, to which he cocked his head.

“This way.” Short and determined came the statement. 

As they made their way across the city. The woman tried to get to know more about him.

“So… That was a pretty big drop from my window. How are you, like not a moaning mess on the pavement right now?” She questioned.

“As long as the bird stays alive, I do too. Undeath gave me a few inhuman abilities. I can take quite a few hits and heal within seconds, which makes life easier. The scars, however, stay.” He replied, avoiding eye contact with her.

“Oh. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have asked.” She apologised, feeling like she had stepped over a line.

“It’s fine.”

The walk continued on with not much more said between the two, the night was quiet, save for the hurried footfalls and flapping of wings. After half an hour of following the crow, Eric came to an abrupt halt. His breath caught in his lungs as he gazed upon where the crow had stopped. The woman looked at him with an air of surprise. 

“Eric?” She pushed, worried.

His haunted green eyes never left the building before them, dilapidated and covered in graffiti. Boards that once barred the door had been ripped from their place and strewn carelessly onto the pavement. 

As if by the speed of light, he had taken off into the building, leaving her dumbfounded. She called after him as she bolted after him. Making her way up the twisting stairs, she called out to him. 

“Eric! You don’t know what’s… up here…” her voice faded as she caught up with him. Pushing her way into the run-down loft, she was alarmed at what was before her. The cloaked figure. Their voice broke the silence.

“I was hoping you’d arrive, but I do wish you hadn’t brought your pesky little mortal with you.” Her voice was deep and feminine, with a condescending tone that chilled you to the bone.

 The figure turned to face the pair, pushing back her hood to reveal long, curled black hair. Her features were as sharp as they were dark, contrasting her porcelain skin. She was elegantly dressed in a purple deep-cut slit dress, corset painfully cinching her waist.

“Why are you here?” Eric gritted through his teeth.

“Eric, my dear, is that any way to talk to the person who brought you back?”  She approached him, reaching her hand up to cup his cheek. He threw himself backwards as if her touch were electric, screwing his eyes shut and clutching his head as he groaned painfully.

“Hey! Get away from him!” His ally made her way towards him, only to hit an invisible barrier. 

“Now, that is quite enough from you.” Spoke the cloaked woman and, with a flick of her wrist, sent the other woman flying backwards into a wooden collum in the middle of the room. Her head bounced off the oak, dotting her vision and disorientating her. She ran her fingers through her hair and felt a slick sensation coating the tips; eliciting panicked,  hurried breaths from her lungs. The pain seared harshly through her body.

A loud, grating caw was heard with the vicious flap of wings.  Through slow blinks, she could see the woman flailing her arms to shoo the bird as it continued its assault on her. 

“Leave me, beast.” She sneered, backing towards the fractured stained glass window. The bird was relentless in its attack, the woman was frustrated with this and called out to Eric.

“I will be back for you, my love. We will not be interrupted next time we meet!” She promised as her form disappeared in a thick black cloud. 

Vision slowly left the woman on the floor; she saw the crow land beside Eric. Squawking to get his attention and once it had it, it hurriedly hopped towards her as if to lead Eric to her. Her eyes met his, concern covered his features as he slowly made his way over to her. Tears slowly filling her eyes, she softly whispered.

“It hurts.”

He didn’t respond, only reached his hand behind her head and closed her eyes. A warm feeling stemming from her head before flowing through her whole body made her hum in comfort; the pain slowly dissipated from her head and brought her back to reality. Staring up at him, she touched the wound to find it wasn’t to be found. 

“How..?” 

“I took it.” He said softly as if not to scare her more than she already was. 

“Are you okay?” She asked, concerned. He chuckled gently.

“You certainly are a strange one. You just took a header into a thick wooden collum, and you’re asking me if I’m okay? I’ll be fine. Right now, though, we need to leave. Are you okay to walk?”

She attempted to push herself up from the ground, but her arms gave out, and she slammed back onto the ground. 

“I’ll take that as a no.” He huffed, wrapping her arm over his shoulders and hoisting her to her feet.

The action blushed her face. Her body was pressed up against his toned form, and she couldn't help but feel nervous at the sudden closeness. She chastised herself internally for thinking this way. 

‘This guy lost his fiancee. Don't get all hot and bothered because he’s helping you, ' she silently scolded herself. She needed to focus on helping him.

As they left the loft, she vowed to herself to put her feelings aside and not let them grow into something tragic.

Hey yall,

Sorry for the lack of updates, been super sick and had things happen in my personal life. Hope you guys enjoy this chapter, if you do please show it some love. Here is hoping I can get on a posting schedule.

With Love,

BlissfulCrow <3

[gabriellerudessa]

NSFW Alphabet - Norm Maclean

This man has taken over my thoughts, send help. Or not. Now to work on NSFW Alphabet for Thaddeus because he crept up on me like a lost puppy lololol

AO3

Word Count: 3.737

Warnings: ... This is a NSFW Alphabet, I think that's a warning in itself lolololol

A = Aftercare (what they’re like after sex)

Norm is usually very attentive, jumping to be the one to do clean up; once really in love and if a shower or bathtub available, likes to help his partner showering/bathing, and will melt if the same is done for him. Water and food are not the first on his mind, but if his partner asks, he gets without complaint. Beyond this, a cuddle-bug; already likes cuddles, but after sex it’s multiplied by ten. Norm loves how the physical contact feels after it, and wants to hug and feel his partner’s warmth long after. Adores if his partner plays softly with his hair during it.

B = Body part (their favorite body part of theirs and also their partner’s)

In his partner, he totally likes butts and legs in general. Can literally spend hours just looking and squeezing, during sex or outside of it; his partner can just straddle him or sit with their legs on his lap, he loves both because it means he can just stroke and grab and squeeze, it doesn’t even need to end in anything. Big fan of walking behind his partner, especially if they’re using tight pants or short skirts, because it means he can watch all the movements and flex of muscles. Not so big on just slapping their butt if walking around… Unless Norm is trying to actually start something.

What he most like about himself is definitely his mouth. With it he can kiss his partner, on the mouth and everywhere else, he can go down on them and wring as much pleasure as possible from their body. Also because once he gets the hang of what makes his partner tick, he knows what exactly to say to get them going and he will use this power with no regrets – once he gets over his own embarrassment at saying anything dirty where anyone can hear him.

C = Cum (anything to do with cum, basically)

Doesn’t have a specific preference on if cumming inside or outside, and goes as his partner prefers; however, once actually in love and in a relationship, acquires a fascination at seeing his spend dripping out of his partner. Won’t force it either way.

D = Dirty secret (pretty self explanatory, a dirty secret of theirs)

… Norm discovers himself as massively jealous when he falls in love. He guesses it’s because this is something only his, not because of the Vault or his chores or whatever; the feeling exists despite it all and anything that may threaten it makes him uncomfortable.

Still absolutely annoyed at it and does his best to not actually act on it or anything, but the thoughts still circle his head, ranging from deathly violent – tearing eyes for looking at his partner, cutting fingers for touching and so on –, to depravedly sexual – usually finding the closest place with a door, push his partner against the wall and go down on them until they’re screaming his name. Doesn’t want to be seen when having sex, but imagining the one that caused the jealousy walking by and hearing that he is the one causing pleasure scratches an itch he didn’t even know he had.

Usually just pulls his partner for a very possessive kiss where the person can see; if the person causing the jealousy is being obnoxious and not respecting his partner’s boundaries, then anger also gets into play and Norm will murder them with words; if in the Wasteland, he isn’t above threatening with weapons of some type.

Occasionally, after all is said and done and Norm and his partner get away, will end up in mind-blowing slow sex – he wants that reassurance that they’re still together and to make his partner feel good if the person made them uncomfortable. If his partner asks, denies to the death – me? Jealous? Pfff, of course not. Not even exactly a secret, because unless his partner is that distracted, it eventually becomes obvious. He will still deny.

E = Experience (how experienced are they? do they know what they’re doing?)

Pretty experienced, mainly regarding sex in itself, because of Vault’s 33 culture. Not so much about romantic intimacy, since there was some emotional distance needed most of the time, with how everyone was so closely related. There are things he may be confused about and that he haven’t tried before and so on, but he absolutely knows what he’s doing, how to satisfy his partner, and what he likes.

F = Favorite position (this goes without saying)

A big fan of missionary and any position that allows him to both keep his hands on his partner’s butt and legs while also allowing him to kiss their lips and see the play of pleasure on their face, to make sure he’s doing it right. Prefers a bed, but Norm will push his partner against a wall or table if that’s what’s available – and the height difference isn’t that big and uncomfortable if against a wall. Goes to heaven and back if his partner wrap their legs around his waist, the tighter the better.

If the day was a tiring one, he’s all up for being ridden, or to lying down facing each other with one of his partner’s legs above his hips. Both end up as very lazy and carefree sex.

G = Goofy (are they more serious in the moment? are they humorous? etc.)

Norm can be described a bit as a “bratty little shit”. He likes a humorous dirty back-and-forth bedroom talk, in the foreplay and during it all, teasing his partner about what he wants to do and so on. He can be serious, usually when both he and his partner are stressed about something and it’s harder to get into the right mindset to tease regarding sex, but he does prefer the teasing, the sarcasm and slight goofy way, especially if it’s a serious relationship, because it’s a way both of them get vulnerable and show more of themselves and what they like for him. It’s not up there as a kink, but Norm loves seeing his partner happy. And hey, if it helps along in making his partner a sobbing mess, why not?

H = Hair (how well groomed are they? does the carpet match the drapes? etc.)

Yes, the carpet matches; has a faint trail down his navel. Trims it all a bit, more to avoid any discomfort with the Vault-Suit or his underwear.

I = Intimacy (how are they during the moment? the romantic aspect)

This is something that really depends with Norm. If it’s all purely casual and blowing off steam, not that romantic, most only about mutual pleasure but that’s it, usually something fast and almost mindless, with no thought to romantic intimacy.

If in actual love, Norm is even a bit shocked at how much of a romantic he can be, desperately craving the romantic connection, in between all the teasing and dirty talk. It becomes all about the eye contact, doing things that makes his partner feel loved, wanting to be as close as possible. Will take his time in finding the best angle, speed and strength of his thrusts so they both enjoy it as most as possible, and sometimes it will be such a way that the intensity of the moment can be overwhelming. Usually by this moment his brain can barely function to tease and be a brat and he only wants to know that his partner is feeling as much pleasure as possible.

J = Jack off (masturbation headcanon)

Norm’s so glad that adulthood leveled his hormones in such a way that he only does it mostly when too stressed and needs the relief but can’t be bothered to see if one of his casual sex partners are free and up to it. In the end, it’s very rare that Norm actually does masturbate himself.

With a fixed partner and in love, however, if it’s all about stress relief, Norm prefers to masturbate instead of asking his partner to help him out, trying to be as fast and methodical as possible, which results in becoming more frequent. This is especially true if the relationship is recent: he feels weird if its about stress relief only, the romantic intimacy he comes to expect a bit off, as if he doesn’t connect right and is making it all about himself. It his partner offers to help him or interrupts him masturbating and moves to help, however, won’t deny, even if feeling extremely embarrassed.

As the relationship matures, however, Norm becomes more comfortable into asking his partner to help him before going directly to take care of things himself. Norm will have no problem if he ends up having to do all himself, but won’t feel embarrassed by the denial; and, if his partner accepts, he notices and learns that mutual masturbation can also be good for connection and romantic intimacy, as long as both are into it and enjoying themselves and each other.

K = Kink (one or more of their kinks)

Hair pulling is the main one. Pull his hair by the roots and Norm is done for, if he wasn’t turned on before, now he is; he effectively leans his head with the pull. Keep it for the whole session and it doesn’t take long for Norm to become glassy-eyed. Give tighter pulls and he whimpers.

It’s followed up by eating/sucking his partner. Norm will spend hours between his partner’s thighs if allowed, to the point of overstimulating them, moaning and groaning into it. In this case, while he’s ok with getting on his knees for it, he actually prefers if his partner sits on his face, and they better put their whole weight on it – he will wrap his arms around their thighs to keep it this way. Pull his hair during it and Norm becomes a mess – there have been cases where both resulted in Norm coming without having his cock touched. He was a bit embarrassed the first time it happened, but he came to appreciate it because every time it happened meant that he could keep focusing on making his partner scream for him without having to worry too much about himself.

If Norm ends up actually in love with his partner, instead of just a sexual relationship, and he doesn’t feel as if building a family and so on is just about “perpetuating America” and effectively MORE WORK, he may eventually find himself with a bit of a breeding kink, fascinated at seeing his spend dripping out from his partner and being tempted to push it back in. It will have to be unlocked from him and he will be absolutely floored at it, unsure if it actually equals to wanting to build a family; not something he will immediately discuss. Once Norm processes it and does bring it up, he will respect his partner’s wishes; if his partner is into it, things get messy fast. It frequently may lead to bouts of cock-warming, staying inside after all is said and done, enjoying each other’s warmth for as long as possible.

May also find himself in a position of wanting to worship the body of his partner and again, very floored at it, but finds it easier to deal with.

A big fan of hearing praise; it only gets worse after how the Council in the Vault talks about his “lack of enthusiasm” regarding his jobs in the Vault. He wants to know he’s making you feel good, that you appreciate him and so on, that he’s enthusiastic about something. He tries doing the praising and if his partner really likes leans into it, but thinks it doesn’t come naturally to him – he’s way more experience at teasing than praise.

A bit of seeing his partner absolutely overwhelmed with pleasure he caused, sobbing and moaning and glassy-eyed and an overall mess.

And finally, marking. Norm particularly prefers to scratch his partner and see the bruises his grip leaves on their thighs, butt, waist and hips. In himself, there’s no preference: hickey, scratches, bites, all fair game and all makes him a mess, no preference in location. If the marks, specially scratches, are made in the height of passion, not only it all makes him come hard, but afterwards Norm is so smug about it that it can be downright infuriating – only moment where he is not bothered if some blood is drawn, they all mark how much pleasure Norm brought to his partner.

If his partner uses lipstick, then one of the best things they can do is make sure to leave a ring around his cock and open mouthed kiss in places he can easily see. Norm goes almost literally insane.

L = Location (favorite places to do the do)

Preferably, any place he can lock the doors and windows so they won’t be seen or interrupted. Norm hates to be interrupted or have his personal relationships so out in the open, and living in a Vault where everyone knows about everyone, with occasionally being caught in the act when a teenager, it really made him conscious in adulthood to be careful.

If it’s a wall, a table, a bed or whatever else, it doesn’t matter, as long as Norm and his partner can’t be interrupted or caught in it.

Also please not the kitchen. Norm worked in one and has big no regarding doing sex in a place where one cooks and eats.

M = Motivation (what turns them on, gets them going)

Not that easy to get Norm going beyond “stressed, need to blow off steam or I’ll explode”, but there are some sure-fire ways, especially if in a relationship. Playing with his hair, sliding a nose and gentle kisses along his neck and shoulders, delicate touches against his skin, using lipstick and kissing him with it on, are all ways to make Norm become aroused enough to start thinking and considering actual sex.

If his partner really, really wants to get Norm going, tight pants and some strategic bends will have him pulling them to the closest room with a lockable door in ten minutes, tops.

On a minor note, jealousy also can get him going, as long as his partner is NOT doing it on purpose and it’s just some jerk making the moves on them and making his partner uncomfortable. Norm will make his partner forget anything but him the next time he gets his hands on them, so they both can forget all about the jerk.

N = No (something they wouldn’t do, turn offs)

Absolutely nothing skirting close to CNC; Norm likes to feel wanted, and wants that certainty that his partner also wants this as much as possible. CNC is the fastest way to make him flaccid. Also no degradation, towards himself or his partner; he feels inadequate enough in the Vault and he doesn’t want his partner to feel like this.

Also absolutely nothing that can actually hurt either of them.

Attempted choking once, on both ends, deeply disliked it. He wants to hear his partner praising him, and he likes to be able to talk and tease.

Also, because of how things are in the Vault, a big no on doing it in Public or Semi-Public.

Norm will also feel very miffed if his partner attempts to provoke jealousy on purpose. Makes Norm feels insecure, as if his partner doesn’t really wants to be with him.

O = Oral (preference in giving or receiving, skill, etc.)

Likes receiving, loves giving. As mentioned, he goes insane if there’s lipstick marks on his cock, but in the end he really enjoys to have his partner’s thighs around his head as he goes down on them. Something in it, the sounds he can pull, the taste, the weight on his shoulders, how his partner can’t help but thrust and grind into him, how he can reduce someone to a begging and sobbing mess with his mouth really gets him going. And, as mentioned, if partner sitting on his face for it and pulling on his hair, there’s a good chance of Norm coming untouched, that’s how much he enjoys giving oral.

P = Pace (are they fast and rough? slow and sensual? etc.)

It depends on the mood and on the level of emotional connection. Casual partners and so on, things are usually faster, but not rough – Norm can’t actually be rough regarding sex. If in a relationship and in love, his preference is slow, deep, and sensual, trying to make it last and find the best way to make both his mind and his partner’s blissfully empty.

Q = Quickie (their opinions on quickies, how often, etc.)

He grew up from teenage to adulthood in the Vault. He had no particular trouble and would partake in them frequently, since it was the easiest, in between classes then work and any other chores in the Vault. However, the moment he starts being able to actually take his time for both him and his partner, he really started to grow a dislike for quickies: they rarely gave him the sight of his partner as a sobbing and moaning mess, and that’s a sight Norm really comes to appreciate.

R = Risk (are they game to experiment? do they take risks? etc.)

Surprisingly, Norm is quite a risk taker in the bedroom. As long as it isn’t public or can’t hurt him or his partner, he will try at least once. Tying his partner or being the one tied, orgasm denial, overstimulation, roleplays… And, occasionally, even if he didn’t particularly like something, but his partner enjoyed, he may do it again for them.

S = Stamina (how many rounds can they go for? how long do they last?)

One to two long rounds, and I mean long. Norm absolutely prefers to focus on quality; he wants to see his partner shivering and sobbing from pleasure at the end, and he discovered early that he really preferred to focus on one, at most two orgasms for himself, that are equally able to leave him a mess. He won’t change positions much, unless either him or his partner are uncomfortable.

T = Toys (do they own toys? do they use them? on a partner or themselves?)

Norm doesn’t own toys nor has had the opportunity to use them, it doesn’t sound as something that really made its way into the Vault in a way that’s widely available, but he wouldn’t be opposed at trying some and would, without a doubt, acquire a taste for them. Would enjoy learning some knots and tying his partner down. Absolutely accepts to be the one tied down and is the most beautiful mess, he won’t be above begging if it happens.

Also, the day Norm discovers vibrators is the day his partner loses any and all peace, especially if overstimulation is on the table; this man will use and abuse of them against his partner, with the bedroom talk going strong. Again, would accept to be on the other side of it, and would cry of overstimulation. Would repeat it without a second thought.

U = Unfair (how much they like to tease)

A bit unfair in the bedroom, but not much, just enough in the foreplay to get both of them going; no matter if casual or actual relationship, Norm can’t deny pleasure for long.

Outside the bedroom, unable to tease with touches and so on, too embarrassed to even try this type of thing where anyone can see. With words, not something that come naturally to him at first, because of the whole “anyone can see”, but once he learns what gets his partner going and it’s not easy for someone else to hear, won’t be opposed to whisper dirty talk, all about promises of what they’ll get up too once they’re able to.

Unable to deal with teasing outside the bedroom beyond something light and tame, and even then Norm will blush like crazy. Answer to his dirty talk with equal dirty talk outside the bedroom and this man will bluescreen.

V = Volume (how loud they are, what sounds they make, etc.)

Beyond the dirty back-and-forth of foreplay, Norm lets out A LOT of sounds of pleasure once things get going enough that brain power for dirty talk becomes a hard commodity: groans, moans, whimpers, all of it. Also absurdly easy to get him loud, and he will attempt to muffle himself on his partner’s body. At the same time, Norm won’t complain if his partner grabs his hair and keeps him from being able to do it, and with the hair pulling, well, he will be louder.

Absolutely mortified if he discovers other people could hear them and actually did hear.

W = Wild card (a random headcanon for the character)

Loves to sink his nose in his partner’s groin and smell them before going down on them/eating them out, it will effectively make him harder. Norm won’t steal his partner’s underwear, he thinks that’s a huge privacy invasion. However, his partner can slip some used underwear in Norm’s pocket or something of the type before they both go on their businesses for the day. The moment Norm finds the piece of clothing, he will hunt them down as soon as possible and go down on them and God have mercy on his partner because Norm won’t have: he won’t stop until they can’t walk.

X = X-ray (let’s see what’s going on under those clothes)

Average length, kinda thick. Knows how to use it and very well.

Y = Yearning (how high is their sex drive?)

Sits at a general medium, fluctuating a little depending on his stress levels. Not too horny on a daily basis, even when in a relationship as opposed to only casual sex. However, when he does get going, Norm is very much in an all or nothing mindset.

Z = Zzz (how quickly they fall asleep afterwards)

Not quick to fall asleep. In general Norm finds sleep hard enough, after sex it’s weird how most of the times he finds himself even more awake, even if tired. He may just talk and snuggle, but it’s not hard for Norm’s partner to fall asleep before him. Not bothered by it.

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

How do you feel about Felix?

Canon hasn't given Felix enough consistency or core elements for me to have feelings about him. Every time he shows up, he's basically a new character, meaning that I have no idea who he's supposed to be which makes it pretty hard to summon any feelings beyond confusion and occasionally annoyance.

I'm not the sort of person who delights in taking a drop of potential and shaping it into a full character in the context of fandom. I save that stuff for my original fiction. While I do a lot of fix it content, my main draw to fandom is still playing with the established characters/lore/world and so on. I want to create stories and takes on these characters that feel genuine to other fans. That's the fun and the writing challenge. I can't really do that with Felix. Canon has given me nothing solid to work with.

Let's quickly contrast him to Nino since I recently discussed how badly canon has handled Nino and how I had to do a lot of redesigning to make Nino work in my stuff. The core of my Nino redesign comes from canon because it's all firmly rooted in the fact that this guy is supposed to be Carapace, The Protector. Add in the fact that he's Adrien's best friend and Alya's boyfriend - two characters with pretty strong core characterizations - and I'm good to go. Those are strong anchors to work with!

If you removed those elements and Nino was just Adrien's best friend, then I'd probably have no idea what to do with Nino because that's a pretty nebulous role. This is Felix's problem. You can go almost anywhere with his character because nothing about him gives him a clear role in the narrative!

Does Felix care about Adrien? No idea! He's done nothing to help Adrien or make his life better, so my guess is no, but Felix is a good guy now so maybe???

Does Felix actually love Kagami? No clue, their romance is based on nothing of substance. As best I can tell, he just decided that all humans save for his mom were worthless and the show is heavily heteronormative, so he obviously wants a girlfriend and Kagami is kind of his only option unless he makes himself a sentigirlfriend. It's a very weird way to write their relationship. If I were writing this, he'd contact Kagami for some greater plan and fall in love as they worked together, but nope! We get deeply confusing insta love that starts with stalking leading to a kidnapping and ending with them together because this show is incapable of showing healthy romance!

Side note, but with how poorly they've handled Marinette and Adrien's crushes, can you imagine theses writers trying to write a setup where the male lead was actively trying to trick the female lead into loving him (which was the set-up when Felix was the lead)? I think that PV Felix would come across even worse than our current heroes do!

Is Felix okay with people using the peacock? I thought that the answer was "no," but he's happy to use the peacock for pretty mundane things, so who knows? I seriously can't tell you what Felix's attitude towards sentimonsters is. I thought that he was a freedom fighter after that moment in Strikeback where he apologized because I thought that he was apologizing to Strikeback, but now I'm thinking that he may have been apologizing to Ladybug because he was about to betray her??? I don't know, my new best guess is that he only wanted the peacock for protection and that he cares about no one outside himself and those he's deemed worthy. Most sentimonsters are just tools to him. He's basically lost all depth in this area because that would mean treating the sentimonster thing seriously and the show isn't going to do that.

Did Felix care if Gabriel destroyed the world? I don't think so. He didn't really help with Gabriel's "defeat". Felix spent the entire season knowing everything, but didn't tell anyone until it would personally benefit him. That benefit had nothing to do with a fear of Gabriel or even a desire to be a hero like one might expect since he's apparently part of the team now. We didn't even get Kagami making Felix want to be a hero who defends the world or even just a hero who helps his cousin. It was Kagami and Felix wanting to be together more openly and nothing else. Who cares about protecting the world or helping friends? We just wanna be able to go on dates and make out a bit, so can you fix that for us, LB? It's not like you've got anything else on your plate right now!

What a deeply selfish and unheroic motivation for both of our supposed heroes. Remind me, what has Kagami done to earn her miraculous? Because - as far as I can tell - she's really not suited to being a hero anymore. Season five made her look like a selfish, gullible fool.

While we're on the topic of how "heroic" Felix is, I'll also point out that, after this big reveal, Felix disappears. He doesn't help with the final fight or anything like that even though he has all the information on what was going on and a god-tier power set that could be used to free the people being controlled by the rings. Not sure if this is supposed to read as him not caring or just the writers pretending that Felix doesn't exist because letting him fight would undermine Marinette's role since Felix's powers are so much stronger than hers.

Is Felix some sort of genius mastermind? The show seems to want me to say, "yes" to this, but they've never actually written him as all that clever. Much like Lila, his plans really only work because the plot makes them work. For example, he didn't get the miraculous due to clever plotting. He got them because of shear dumb luck. Ladybug could have wielded the dog herself and he'd have been screwed. Same goes for her taking the dog back after he was done using it since he was by no means needed after they took down Risk. I still don't understand how Gabriel was able to open her summoned yo-yo or why Felix waited until the train to check if he had the real miraculous. Basically, the writers really had to warp the show's logic to make Felix's win work.

So who is Felix? No idea! The only thing I can say for certain is that he loves his mom and that's really not enough for me to work with if I want to write a Felix that feels true to canon. Almost any take on him feels true to canon at this point because he's a nothing burger. He has all of the substance of unset jello.

I was briefly excited about his character when I thought that his season four role was setting him up for something big in season five, but then he showed up in Emotion and my excitement died. What even was that episode? It's written like a mental breakdown, but it was foreshadowed in Destruction, so was it a mental breakdown or was this seriously the best plan that Felix could come up with after several weeks of plotting?

To put this in perspective, Gabriel came up with and created the Alliance rings faster than Felix came up with and created with Red Moon, a sentimonster that took him all of two seconds to create. I am unimpressed.

[itsmaferart]

Hey there! A little question: Why is everyone always accusing Loid of being gay for not kissing or doing all kinds stuff to Yor? I don’t think it’s as easy as they are making it out to be, even though both characters are a catch…..in a mixture of red/green flaggish kinda way. I actually prefer it that both characters aren’t lusting for each other as it makes their relationship more endearing but when they start developing feelings for each other, it’s beyond their attractiveness.

I ship the every living hell out of these two but if Loid does all of those intimate stuff Yor now, I don’t know, it feels less cute, rewarding, and heartwarming and more like a fulfillment of our personal desires. I don’t think Loid is a surrogate or self insert incel character to be like that. I’m sorry if I can’t put it into words, English isn’t my strong suit but that how it feels to me.

Hi, it took me a while to respond but here it is!!

I think it's the fans' rush for couples to consolidate and there's no way to blame them, because really Twiyor is one of the good couples! The Spy x Family universe internally moves in a slow-moving manner, where events are small and focus more on the development and formation of bonds between people. There is no great interest in big events, and getting a romance is not the focal point, but a part of the story.Endo's narrative moves under its own rules and some may like it or despair.

I have read dozens of comments that talk about how slow the story is and that there is simply progress at the speed of a turtle. And yes, they are right (in part).

But the truth is that this is more a conflict of fan expectations and what the story wants to tell and how it is told.The story is not badly written and not badly developed. But not everyone may like it if you are expecting more significant advances.

So, yes, Loid is very slow and Yor very naive.... But...

that doesn't mean there's no love or that it doesn't come to pass.

I understand the frustration of the Twiyor shipper, and it is the conflict of what we interpret as intimacy and closeness. In most conventional romances, intimacy is forced through physical contact, often exaggerated or convenient. Holding hands, hugging, trying to kiss, asking each other out. The story focuses on pushing the characters to get closer and with them to generate a closeness that leads to romance.

That's why most fanfic is about them being in love or having closeness, because that's what we most want to see between them… That's why many see this romance as insipid.

Endo's approach is more emotional, calmer, where trust between two people is more important than whether they are close or not. The times when this is forced, it ends badly. The fact that Loid respects Yor enough to not make her feel uncomfortable, or that Yor wants to be Loid's refuge, speaks of a very balanced mental and emotional intimacy.

It is a more mature romance, where the focus is not so much on passion. Because when they try to make it romantic, they're both fools.

I think Endo is just trying to put his own idea of romance outside of what everyone expects, and that can bore some people.

-

I suppose Endo will develop his relationship in his own way. But his main priority is the development of his people through a more everyday and chaotic life, above the spectacularity and action.… until we can finally be together

[inlovewithgreta]

Afterparty — Wanda Maximoff x Fem!Reader

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

Synopsis: Both you and Wanda escape a lively party to have one of your own.

Warnings: Praise, cunnilingus, etc…

Word Count: 1.3k

© Do not copy, repost, or modify any of my works.

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

The streets of New York were bustling with celebrations as your team once again saved the city from yet another catastrophic event.

Fireworks were booming, music was playing, and people of all ages were running along the streets surrounding Stark Tower. It was like something out of a movie.

You were all out on the balcony, admiring the celebration happening just because of you and your team, and were having fun watching an already drunk Tony try to get everyone to take another round of shots.

You were almost too caught up in the scene around you to notice that a certain red-haired 'friend' of yours had walked away from the group to head back inside.

You and Wanda have been having 'relations' for a while now but never put a name to it, as you were waiting for her to be fully comfortable with you, knowing she was beyond scared of losing another person she cared for.

It had been a bit since you last talked to her but you knew she wasn't a people person. Wanda was never a fan of large crowds and loud situations.

"Wanda!" You call out to her over the noise, stopping her in her tracks. "Where are you going?"

"It's getting a bit rowdy out here. . ."

"Want me to join you inside? We can hang out. Just the two of us. It's quiet in my room, and I know how much you like the peacefulness." You offer her with a smile. "And I know how much you like me too." You bring your hand to her own, playing with her fingers.

"If you wanted me in your room so bad, all you had to do was ask." She playfully rolls her eyes, returning a smile, and fully taking your hand in her own.

"I know, but you know you love it when I say cute little things to you."

She chuckles in response, knowing it was true.

You lead her back into the building and down the long corridors until you reach your bedroom, opening the door and allowing her to enter first.

The fireworks outside were nearly inaudible, all that was left was just a quiet vibration through the walls around you.

"Better?" You ask her as you lean on the closed door behind you.

"A bit. . ."

"Good, that's exactly what I wanted to hear."

"You know what would make this even better though?" She glides a finger along the edge of your mattress.

"What's that?"

"If you would come over here and we put this bed to good use." She makes eye contact with you as she pulled her bottom lip between her teeth.

"If you wanted to fuck me so bad, all you had to do was ask." You imitate her line from earlier, unable to hide your smile as your body presses against her own, and interlocking your fingers with hers.

You lean in as if to kiss her lips but quickly dip to her jaw, peppering slow kisses along her jawline and across her cheek until you finally work your way to her rose-colored lips.

Pure happiness was bubbling inside the two of you as she cupped your cheek as your lips met in unison in a sweet kiss.

"I never want to let go of you, Y/N." She admits, pressing her forehead against yours. "You're the only one that ever makes me feel special like I'm not just some monster with my powers."

"You will never be a monster in my eyes, Wanda. I'm here for you. . . always." You touch her cheek gently, brushing your lips against hers. At that moment, it was like lighting a match from a flame.

You tug at each other's clothes, fingers clumsily taking each particle of clothing off until you're both naked.

In one swift movement, Wanda pulls you onto the bed, hastily climbing over you and straddling your waist. Her soft skin pressed heavily against you as her mouth crashed into yours.

She sends wet kisses along your jawline, desperately wanting to kiss every inch of you. Wanda slowly makes her way down your body, making sure to spend time on your breasts, then nipping at your hips, and teasing you by skipping where you wanted her most to kiss down your legs.

"You're such a tease."

"You know you love it." She places a tender kiss on your calf before spreading your legs and deliberately kissing back up to your inner thighs.

"Be mine, Y/N." She hesitates just as she hovers between your legs.

"You have me. All of me."

Her cold breath ghosts over your core, making you shudder before she brushes the tip of her tongue over your sensitive clit.

She licks teasing lines between your legs before swirling her tongue deep. You clutch the back of her head, desperate for more. She elicits a drawn-out moan from you as she alternated between flicking at sucking at your cunt.

This time, Wanda wasn't as tentative and gentle as she usually was, as she didn't hesitate to devour you. Her hands wandered your body mercilessly, teasing and playing at every limb, making you desperate for more.

She reaches a hand up to cup your breast, squeezing it before pinching your nipple between her fingers. Chills ran down your spine at the pleasure.

You couldn't help the clutch you had on her, pulling her head as close as you possibly could. You moved stray hairs out of her face and tucked them behind her ears.

Without thinking, and with a desperate whine from you, Wanda pulls herself on top of you, lips passionately meeting yours. Every inch of her body was heavily pressed against yours.

She pulled your bottom lip between her teeth before swiping her tongue along your own, deepening the kiss. One of your hands joins hers, interlacing your fingers together as your other hand traced down her side to land on her hips.

You helped guide her hips, grinding your needy cunts together while squeezing your hand. Moans of ecstasy couldn't help but escape either of you. Your nails dug into her flesh, creating crescent moon marks along her porcelain skin.

Both of you were panting messes, moans escaping here and there, and you were glad nobody else was inside as neither of you were being quiet and discreet during your activity.

Wanda's breasts pressed heavily against yours as she used her mouth to attach to your neck, nipping and sucking at your sensitive skin below your ear, ensuring to leave a prominent mark for her to enjoy seeing later.

She had never been this feral before, and part of you was proud that only you could see this side of her compared to her usual quiet self.

Nobody had this effect on her, except you.

The increasingly frantic mess of Wanda's hips let you know that she was just as close as you were. Both of you quickly spiral out of control.

You had both held onto each other's hand for dear life as you both became undone at the same time, both moaning each other's name.

Her forehead pressed against yours as she rode out her high before bringing her movements to a steady halt. You felt her wetness along your flesh as you both sat there catching your breath.

"You're perfect, Wanda Maximoff." You remove your hand from her hip to squeeze her cheeks, pulling her into a sweet kiss.

Heat rose to her cheeks after you broke the kiss and the two of you couldn't help but smile at each other.

It was unsure how long the two of you lay there in each other's arms until a hasty knock on your door pulled you two out of your bubble and back to reality as you had to quickly clean yourselves up and make yourselves look presentable again before an impatient Thor broke down the door.

[kisskissbanggang]

Trick or treat!

I’m thinking of dream stalker jeongin vs undead changbin vs Chan with a chainsaw

Think Freddy vs Jason vs Ash from Evil dead but more crack smut

It’s a weird combo, I’m sorry 😅

TRICK OR TREAT

((Omg I love this OKAY)) Take a look! What did you get? 🧡

[Dream Stalker!Jeongin x Undead!Changbin x Chan x Fem!Reader - NSFW/Smut - Surreal Horror and Dream Logic]

This Ikea was fucking huge.

Like, this was an impossibly huge furniture and home goods store, the likes of which you'd never seen outside of your dreams.

Maybe this was a dream. You remembered Chan showing up out of the blue and saving you from the unseen monster in your house, but you didn't remember waking up. This was quickly becoming the most probable scenario, as you realized you didn't even remember entering this gargantuan store to begin with.

"Chan!" you cried out, trying to get him to stop running with you in tow as you rushed through staged fake bedrooms. When he finally stopped, you did a double-take as you realized this looked just like your room... Just in an Ikea. Your bed, your decorations; the floor was even the same. You were thoroughly skeeved out by all of this, just as much (if not more) than the first time you woke up in one of these unsettling dreams with the unmistakable sense that someone was after you.

Chan took your plea for him to stop as a good excuse to take a break, nonchalantly standing in the off-putting replica of your bedroom and setting down the chainsaw he'd inexplicably shown up with.

"Can you finally tell me what we're running from?" you panted, exhaustedly resting your hands on your knees. You had to admit: despite all of this, Chan looked really hot in this battered hero look he had going on, with the shotgun slung over his shoulder and the ripped shirt.

"Can you?" he retorted. He peered at a map on a pillar just outside of this display version of your bedroom, trying to get his bearings. "I'm still not quite sure how I even got here. I went to sleep and the next thing I knew, I was trying to get us the hell out of your house."

"Not a fan of that," you frowned. "I was hoping you had any idea what the fuck is going on. Have you been having weird nightmares, too?"

"For two months," Chan stoically answered. God, he was so hot, even in your nightmares. You shook your head, ridding yourself of the distracting thoughts.

"I wonder how we wake up. This is the longest I've been aware I'm in a dream," you wondered.

A loaded silence passed before you looked at Chan, wondering what he thought. His expression nearly made you jump when you saw that he was staring at you.

"I have a crazy idea," he flatly offered. "Only because, you know, this is a bit of a crazy situation." He waited, even beyond your silent nod of permission to continue.

"... Yes, Chan?"

"I know this is weird, because we're coworkers and stuff... But, you know, dreams always end before the best part."

You made pointed eye contact for a solid beat. "I... think I know what you mean."

He flashed you a sly grin. "Do you?"

You rolled your eyes, exasperated. "Shut up and try to wake us up."

Chan shrugged, as if this wasn't his suggestion in the first place. "As you wish."

Your hot coworker all but pounced on you, easily tossing you on your own bed in this weird-ass dream replica of your room, kissing you just as ravenously as he drunkenly did at that Halloween party not long after you first met. This was almost a decent trade-off for falling into another nightmare, even if it wake you up.

If it would wake you up.

When kissing didn't seem to do it, Chan simply kept going, taking it further and further until you were literally just going all the way in this bizarre dream-Ikea.

"What do you think?" he panted on top of you, your legs slung over his shoulders so he practically had you folded in half. He'd tried all manner of things, all of which you actively encouraged, including every position he could think of. The poor guy was getting exhausted.

"I dunno, maybe you need to spice things up a little," came a voice from across the aisle of the infinite Ikea. You and Chan both jolted, startled now that you knew you definitely weren't alone. Chan sat up properly, swinging the shotgun back around to load a couple more shells from his pocket, a heavy ask considering that his jeans were currently pooled around his ankles. Craning to see better from under your coworker, you were finally able to see the shadowed figure emerging from the staged bedroom set across the aisle, revealing itself to be...

Jeongin? The new assistant to yours and Chan's boss?

"What the fuck?" Chan crassly wondered out loud. "Jeongin, you're in this nightmare, too?"

The young assistant shrugged, before unfolding his crossed arms to reveal an almost comically huge scythe. "You could say that."

"I knew there was something off about you!" Chan accused, helping you shift your pajamas back into place and nearly pushing you off the bed.

Jeongin was too fast, however, holding fast onto your wrist and herding Chan back onto the plush mattress. "What was off about me, Chan? The way you couldn't stop dreaming about me after that first time?"

He had a point, you hated to admit. Jeongin was another exceedingly hot person at your job, and apparently Chan thought so, too. Chan looked at you again, trying to suss this out.

"I think I have a crazy idea," he repeated from earlier.

"I think I'm on the same wavelength," you nodded.

Jeongin's eyes darted between both of you, apparently not expecting this. "Wait, what--hey!"

This one appeared to do the trick. The dream didn't end the first time Chan kissed Jeongin, but something did happen when you did the same. Overhead, the lights in the dim Ikea flashed. Chan helped you in beguiling the shifty little dream demon with pleasure, Jeongin quickly reduced to a babbling mess begging for you both to slow down as the dream world flashed and pulsed around you, and soon fading in and out of focus. You almost didn't want it to end, but the first time Chan even got close to feeling up your boss' assistant, everything stopped.

You sat up with a start, breathing heavy like you'd just been doused with a bucket of water. This was still the work retreat. You were all still in the greenhouse behind the idyllic cottage in the woods... everyone but one. Chan groggily roused beside you, and Jeongin on the other side of him. You'd tried telling your boss that this retreat was a bad idea, that it was too soon after your boyfriend, Changbin, died in that freak copier accident, but he'd assured you it was fine.

Except a hand slithered around your waist where you'd all apparently passed out in the greenhouse after one too many beers and shots of tequila, judging by the scattered bottles everywhere. This wasn't fine. You screamed and whirled around to see Changbin, still handsome as ever despite being undead.

"Changbin!" you shrieked, trying to scramble back up to your feet.

"What did I miss?" he grinned slyly, grasping your hips and reeling you back in. "Sounds like you all were having fun without me on the other side."

Chan wavered, trying to figure out what to do with his hand on the pull of his chainsaw. Jeongin was beside him, holding his scythe aloft.

"No need to be prudes all of a sudden," Changbin slurred. You hated to admit it, but it still felt amazing when he kissed your neck, even as a zombie. "I just didn't want to miss out on a good time, that's all."

Jeongin almost swung his scythe to get some momentum when Chan stopped him, pressing a hand to his chest to make him pause.

"You know," Chan started once again. "I have a crazy idea."

[chussyracing]

F1: BEYOND THE GRID Charles Leclerc: chasing the ultimate dream with Ferrari

(a not so short summary in my own words, all typos are my own)

the whole show starts with bits of commentary from Monaco GP

he re-signed with Ferrari to win the WDC with Ferrari and wouldn't do it if he didn't believe in the project

having Lewis in the same car as the most successful driver in F1's history, will be amazing for him

he still didn't find time to climb mountains with his brothers or get a pilot licence like he wanted to, because the season is getting way too busy

he still cannot sleep on planes although he has taken piloting lessons and learned how everything works

he always had pets in the family and none of his own, so he got Leo (who was around 6 months old back in August when they posted this) but Leo is still a puppy and keeps peeing everywhere although Charles tries to teach him to go to a peeing pad

the Leo/Roscoe photoshoot was very random because they both walked their dogs in Silverstone and since their motorhomes were close to each other, they met

the triple header where they struggled was a sacrifice from him because they learned a lot of things for future development and will be bringing upgrades based on that but he cannot say when

he cannot basically remember the Monaco race, just the last 10 laps which were very emotional and about three laps till the end he let his emotions overtake him for the first time of his career

he knows to the outsiders you are only as good as your last performance but he is not letting it get to him and uses both the bad and the good results as a learning curve to be better

every race Sunday he wakes up 100% confident that he can win the race, which is important especially in this ground effect era of cars which demand drivers' full confidence to be fast

he always had a good relationship with Carlos and knows it is getting over-analysed by fans/journalists but he can admit he hated him sometimes inside the helmet too

he gets on with everyone and never had a bad relationship with a teammate before (not even before F1)

the best thing about Lewis coming to the team is the motivations he is brining with him

lately Lewis is the driver he speaks to the most in the paddock, but they do not have shared events outside of it yet so he is looking forward to that next year

Lewis also likes ice cream

Charles is very pleasantly surprised with how well LEC sales are going so far

the culture in Ferrari is changing with Fred but it is not easy since there are some core values that need to stay (like their passion)

people in Ferrari tend to be more affected by emotions but he doesn't think it is a bad thing, because it can be positive too

Fred is emotionally flat and motivates team a lot, so Charles is 100% confident in him and in getting his WDC with Ferrari

"what else are you good at?" - "not much" - "i don't believe you."

the Taylor Swift concert wasn't planned, but he always liked Taylor Swift songs and his Alex sees Taylor as an idol, so when she wanted to go to a concert, Charles said he is obviously coming with

if he got stuck in an elevator with a driver, he wouldn't want it to be Pierre or Carlos because they are "messy", so he would take Kimi Raikkonen, because he likes him and after talking for some time, they could also be quiet together

people say he looks like Timothee Chalamay [however you spell the twink's name], but he cannot see it

his most famous phone contact is "my mooom.... my brothers... [laughter] the prince of Monaco"

he would take Tom Clarkson as his first guest if he had a podcast, but otherwise he would take must, because he thinks his message is that nothing is impossible "but in reality i know nothing about him" (yeah, clearly)

[draftingteacups]

I understand that Special Events are non-canon in The Eternal Blooming Flower. But say how would you let Glorious Masquerade play out in your What if?

I love the Glorious Masquerade event, but the way that the event would play out in my What-If goes like this:

The first thing that would happen in this universe is the fact that Soni would definitely look around the City of Flowers and go, "This feels very similar to old Kalosian architecture." Makes sense since the movie was based in Notre Dame, which takes place in France

Obviously, she does a little bit of research into the city before she goes there, mostly because she doesn't want to do a social faux pas in a place that really reminds her too much of Kalos. Either way, Soni looked at the city itself for half a second before she gets dressed in an ensemble that would definitely remind her of her more formal attire as the Grand Duchess of Kalos.

I like the idea of a mixture of dark blue and gold accents with black-purple being the main color of the outfit itself. I feel like Soni wouldn't get a mask (mostly because I can see her just taking it off and not putting it back one because she's not a huge fan of masks in general) and get something like a circlet instead (looks like Xerneas' horns with clear crystals on top of it).

Happiny gets taken along because Deuce can't bear to leave her alone for a few days, which means she gets her own little outfit! A small pink mask with little beads that look like Oval Stones and a small hat that allows her little ponytail to stick up. As much as I would love for Happiny to have a little scarf, it'll definitely drag behind her like a little cape.

I could have Sobble here as well as Morpeko, and they would be wearing something similar to what Azul and Ruggie wear respectively. Obviously, the first half of the day plays out similar to the event itself: invitation, gets shown around the city, and then meeting Rollo makes Soni just feel a little uncomfortable, especially when Rollo himself looked into the students themselves to the point of getting Azul's eye prescription because I'm sure that's looking into someone medical history and I'd be wondering why anyone would do that much and even lightly comments on Soni's lack of information in a roundabout way that set off alarm bells.

Rollo: "When making accommodations for all of you to enjoy yourselves to the fullest, I noticed that Miss Monet has made no additional requests beyond what was stated in the itinerary, despite being the sole magicless person of your group. Do you truly not have anything else to add that you may have forgotten to write down beforehand?"

And even when Soni says that she doesn't, Rollo says, "If anything comes to mind, I do not mind making time to discuss any details with you on anything you wish to say."

Soni finds it weird that he points out that she was magicless when most people outside of NRC didn't know that, but that itself could be chalked up to her shared student status with Grim as a two-in-one student. Also Grim might just say that Soni doesn't have magic from the get-go because "the Great Grim ain't a familiar!"

However, that last bit poked at her the most because it implied that Soni withheld information that she didn't want written down.

Which is exactly what she did, but for the reason of her privacy and safety because people looking into Soni would potentially use it against her. Not to mention, she listed any needed information (i.e. medical, emergency contact, etc.) and the like on the papers themselves, so it's not like she needed more than that for Rollo to see. To imply that she still had more to say when she didn't and that Rollo was subtly pushing for more information about Soni while disguising it as a gesture of goodwill makes Soni think of all the verbal maneuvering that she had to do as Grand Duchess with many businessmen doing the same.

When the dance in the city happens, I like to imagine that Soni is made to come along with the others, awkwardly following along to the steps with Grim just spinning around like he does in the rhythm game. Happiny is being danced with by Riddle and Deuce, bouncing around cheerfully in the process.

That's when Rollo appears with a specific look in his eye when he sees NRC using magic alongside the other magicians:

"When you first came here, magic was truly a baffling mysterious force as a magicless person, was it not?"

Soni looks at the guy, her tone neutral as it could be, "It was, but who am I to tell people on how to live their lives?"

"Does it not trouble you? With how dangerous it is?"

Soni shrugs, "I've dealt with worse."

Then comes the night where all the Crimson Flowers are basically everywhere. Students are falling over because their magic is being drained out of them.

Cue Rollo's big reveal, and suddenly Soni understands why he mentioned that. She very much dislikes the fact that everything looks like it is on fire.

When they all fall downwards, Soni releases Dior and Charlie, the former teleporting everyone within reaching distance to the ground and Charlie snatching as many people as possible.

If we want to do the non-Championship Team, Nimbus, being a large puffy cloud bird, basically released a whole lot of fluff from using Cotton Guard as a cushion. Honestly, the idea that everyone just falling from a huge height, only to flop onto a cloudy-like fluff without having to use any magic was very nice.

When the others have to deal with the Crimson Flowers and pull weeds, Happiny is very enthusiastic about it because Happiny picks wild flowers all the time, so this isn't very different from what she normally does.

Ruggie, yanking Crimson Flowers with dirt flying everywhere: "Put your backs into it!"

Epel veins popping out of his head: "I can pull these weeds faster than you can breathe!"

Happiny, literally pulls off an entire cluster of Crimson Flowers with her bare hands: "Hap Hap!" This is fun!

I imagine that Happiny's given chores in Heartslabyul, and one of them is weeding the garden. It certainly comes in handy now that there's a magic flower that's trying to take people's magic away.

Then comes the plan to storm the tower and ring the Bell of Salvation.

Obviously, everyone's got an entire plan, but Soni goes, "You're all forgetting that I've got no magic. Those flowers can't do anything to me. And from what I've observed, they don't effect Pokemon either."

And what they settled on was for Soni basically leading the charge with her Pokemon taking down as many of the Crimson Flowers as possible. Dior using Psychic to physically pull as many Crimson Flowers away as well as assisting any passerby in the process. Charlie obviously uses his Flamethrower to burn away the Crimson Flowers in larger areas and even provides aerial assistance with Epel when the Crimson Flowers try to capture them both.

And Happiny doing her best to weed as many of the flowers as possible. Obviously, she stays behind with Deuce when he gets hurt and basically starts ripping apart the flowers even more when they start trying to hurt him.

And while it would be more heroic for Soni and the others to try climb the tower like they did in the original game, they could just teleport up to the top with the help of Dior or fly up there with Nimbus and/or with Charlie.

And in the process of catching their breath from the few fights that they engaged with on the way to the top, they stumble into the private area where they find the diary of Rollo.

And of course, they still go up against Rollo in the process, covered in flames and all. Hearing Idia's speech is certainly one that Soni understands the core meaning, but it could've definitely been handled better.

Soni looks at Deuce when seeing Azul use Deuce's UM to punch Rollo: "You did what? When did you do that?"

Deuce: "Back in the main area..."

Soni: "I looked away for five minutes-"

Deuce gestures to his leg: "I wanted to hit him, and Azul offered!"

Soni: "And I would've done it for free. We are talking about this later when we aren't at risk of falling off a tower and being roasted alive."

Malleus dealing the final blow with his lightning magic left the thickest smell of ozone in the air with Soni's arm hairs standing up on end.

And skipping to the song that happens during the party, Soni has her time to dance with the others again, although she's not all that good with it. In the background, Happiny and the other Pokemon are equally enjoying their time together at the party.

Side Notes That I Couldn't Put In:

A comical Pokemon for Soni to bring along in this particular event is her Skiddo because one, it's a little goat and they would see such creatures around. Two, it can eat the Crimson Flowers as a free snack. I cannot confirm whether that the Crimson Flower is fit for Pokemon consumption.

Soni using Kalosian and basically finding little to no difference between French and Kalosian; funnily enough, I like to imagine that Soni manages to get better deals this way from people at stalls because she's getting souvenirs for the others (Ace would complain if he didn't get something; Soni bought him a mug that Milcery uses to sleep in).

And that's the general gist of the Glorious Masquerade event!

[asordinaryppl]

A3! Main Story: Part 4 - Act 15: PAINFUL RE:BAKE - Episode 6: Breaking Out Of The Shell

Taichi: – Then, in that case, there’s something I’ve always wanted to try achieving!

Taichi: I… wanna try my hand at a lead role outside our company.

Taichi: I was able to stand proudly as the lead for Mantou Fist because I had all of you supporting me.

Taichi: But if I wanna work on my “individual growth”, I have to aim for something beyond that.

Taichi: I want to play the lead without the Autumn Troupe to support me, so that Taichi Nanao the actor will evolve and gain confidence.

Taichi: And also… I wanna try facing the world I once gave up on head-on again.

Azami: The world you once gave up on…?

Taichi: I didn’t have much luck as a child actor, so I wanna try doing TV dramas and movies one more time!

Sakyo: So, the film industry, huh…

Taichi: I was beaten down by the overwhelming presence of Ten-chan, who’s the same age as me, and gave up on the idea of ever becoming anything like him…

Taichi: But now that Ten-chan recognizes me as his equal and rival, I might be able to do something.

Taichi: I want to try to overcome this wall that’s existed before me for so long, improve as an actor, and contribute to our troupe!

Taichi: … Thaaat might be all talk though, ‘cause I’ve got no idea where to start from.

Banri: If you’re aimin’ for an audition, how ‘bout asking Tenma?

Banri: Generally speakin’, rather than auditioning for ‘em, leading roles in the film industry are offered to actors. The Sumeragi Agency might have some connections, though.

Banri: That’s how I got the offer for Handsome Detective, too.

Taichi: Oh, that’s true!

Juza: Handsome Detective… That was damn good.

Banri: Shaddup.

Taichi: Alriiighty! I’ll give consulting Ten-chan a try!

Azami: If that’s what we’re doing, I also got something I’d like to try.

Sakyo: I also have something I’ve been thinkin’ of challenging for a while now.

Omi: …

Taichi: Omi-kun? Are you okay?

Omi: Yeah– I need to find something to challenge myself with, like you all.

Omi: (I can't stop thinking about that that incident… I need to focus on myself.)

Banri: Then, with that said, we can split for–

Sakyo: I’ve got a suggestion I want to make.

Sakyo: Taking on challenges separately is all well and good, but we have the sequel to think about too. If we want people to come watch us perform live and on stream, we’ll have to raise our popularity as a group.

Sakyo: It’d be good for us to find something we can do as a whole, as the Autumn Troupe, in our spare time.

Taichi: Like what…?

Juza: Something like the Spring Troupe’s beginners workshop?

Sakyo: Yeah.

Azami: Lots of people participated in that, not only fans, but also people from all different walks of life. I’m sure it was a good opportunity for them to gain an interest in theater.

Juza: Should we do that too?

Banri: Nah, havin’ a bunch of rough-looking guys hold a beginners’ workshop would be crazy… We’d scare the participants off.

Azami: It’d probably be better if it had something to do with one of the Autumn Troupe’s strong suits.

Juza: Strong suits… Action?

Taichi: I see! That way, we’ll also be able to teach the basics! Sounds good!

Sakyo: We can get Yuzo-san to supervise the training menu.

Banri: We’ll need to speed things up if we’re goin’ to put a plan together and settle on it before our performance…

Omi: How about leaving the management details to me, then?

Omi: I did some planning and event management back when I worked for the photography studio.

Omi: And a while ago, Zen-san told me...

-

[Flashback starts]

Zen: If you guys want to use the space for any action-oriented practice, all you gotta do is let me know.

Zen: I’ll lend it to you whenever it’s available. Let your Director know too.

[Flashback ends]

-

Omi: So I can contact him as soon as possible.

Taichi: What good timing!

Sakyo: He’s as soft on us new guys as always.

Banri: I’ll leave that up to you, then.

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[gaiaxygang]

The Too-Long PerthChimon Review: Part 1

In this part, I will be covering the three (!) shows both Perth and Chimon were in. One is a non-BL where their characters do not interact, but the other two (which you've probably watched, if you're reading this) are BLs and feature them as a couple!

(I segmented them for readability. If there's a better way to do it please lmk oops)

Please… Siang Riak Winyan aka Please… Soul Call

I only watched 4 episodes, because that was all that was available with subtitles. The other two are online somewhere, but I wasn't very inclined to continue.

'Please' is a short horror series where Win (Chimon) and his classmates encounter… ghosts, or something. I don't remember much about this one, if I'm being honest. They accidentally contact some ghosts in a school bathroom and they suffer because of it for 6 episodes. It's not particularly memorable, and the horror elements weren't super good but I am willing to cut it some slack in that aspect.

-

What I did find interesting is Perth's character, Breeze. Breeze is a transfer student who is later revealed to be the younger half-brother of another character, Be. The two aren't close, but their interactions in the show are quite heartfelt.

However, this whole half-siblings subplot kind of comes out of nowhere…? And neither does it really lead anywhere. Be and Breeze aren't part of the main friend group in Please, and don't have much importance outside of this.

The only purpose this storyline serves is to explain the origins of the main ghost that's been haunting Win and friends (this is an assumption. I did not watch episodes 5 and 6 but it's heavily implied in the earlier episodes so I will stick with it).

-

Please is rather unremarkable as a series, but as an actor fan it really makes me want to claw at the walls.

First, this is where PerthChimon met. They've mentioned talking a little at the workshops in some of their interviews.

Second, this is Perth's first TV series as well as Chimon's first lead role in a series (he was the lead of a movie I'll discuss in another part).

Third, this series is likely where director New Siwaj started picking favourite actors. Alongside Perth, Mark Siwat and Sood Yacht (I am so sorry if I got his name wrong I'm not familiar with him) are also in this series. The three of them would get cast in Love By Chance not long after, with Perth and Yacht appearing in several of New's shows after that.

Lastly, Perth and Mark Siwat (who plays Be) became friends on this set! Mark was Perth's first friend in the industry, and they're still good friends now as far as I know. I enjoyed watching them work together, but I'll get into that more when I talk about The Stranded. This paragraph is already longer than it should be.

Never Let Me Go

This is a show I have opinions that I struggle to put into words about. Never Let Me Go is a series about the heir to a prestigious family, Nuengdiao, and the bodyguard assigned to him after his father is shot and killed, Palm. Perth plays Nuengdiao's cousin Chopper, while Chimon plays Ben, a classmate of theirs.

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I did not like this show. The storyline is messy at times, the characters (with the exception of Chopper) are often underwhelming and don't reach their full potential.

It has an interesting premise, but fails to deliver at almost every turn after the first few episodes. I will be focusing on Chopper and Ben but one thing I particularly disliked about Palm and Nueng is that Palm is a very bland character.

We never learn much about him beyond his protectiveness and his existence as The Love Interest, and he lacks a distinct personality. This is a problem with Mork in Fish Upon The Sky as well (sorry Pond) but it's more noticable in NLMG due to it's more serious tone, which requires better developed characters than a romcom like FUTS would.

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There were some things I enjoyed about the show! It's very nice to look at. The visuals are good! The cast being pretty also helps. I loved Perth's performance as Chopper, it is by far the strongest performance in the cast.

It's not that the rest of them are bad actors, rather strong actors like Chimon and Pawin were dragged down because they aren't given very much to work with. When good actors are given subpar scripts or underdeveloped characters, they'll try their best but their performance will Not be as good!!! Which is unfortunate.

-

Chopper is the only well-rounded character in this series. I assume there were rewrites along the way, since Chopper is quite different from the novel that was written alongside the series and ChopperBen were likely added in only after Perth joined the cast, to promote PerthChimon before Dangerous Romance. I personally have a soft spot for Ben (I have a big gay crush on Chimon) but Chopper is my favourite character overall in NLMG.

NLMG feels very much like a PG-13 Kinnporsche that misses everything that made KP… well, KP. This is probably a coincidence but I watched them one after another so NLMG's flaws were more obvious to me. By episode 12 I was only watching for ChopperBen and I had no interest in PalmNueng, which rarely happens even if I favour the side pair. NLMG just feels lacking in many ways, to the point where I enjoyed FUTS more (despite being equally bad) just because it's funny.

-

There are a few things I wished the series took from the novel. The ChopperBen epilogue set shortly after they move overseas together is something that I think the series desperately needed. It makes Ben's storyline (which the novel has a heavier emphasis on) more complete, and considering we didn't get ChopperBen in Our Skyy 2, it would have been a good conclusion to ChopperBen as a whole.

I also liked the PalmNueng rooftop scene but I understand why they left it out of the series. The novel also kills off Kit after the final confrontation in episode 12, but I assume the series didn't want to deal with the implications of Chopper patricide.

I didn't finish the NLMG Our Skyy 2 episodes but the slightly lighter tone definitely helped a lot. A bit of a weird choice to give bully kid whats-his-name a boyfriend out of nowhere but as a MarcPawin fan I respect it.

This series was… a mess. But I love ChopperBen dearly! They're something special and I spend a much longer time thinking about them than I show. They're what got me into PerthChimon and I'll never regret watching NLMG for that alone.

Dangerous Romance

Finally, their most recent work, Dangerous Romance. I was waiting for this one for months and definitely not disappointed, even if it wasn't what I expected! (Just a warning. I will be criticising DR a bit here.)

The character relationships are the strongest part of DR. KanghanSailom's development over the episodes, navigating how to love eachother and growing as people together, was incredible to watch over 12 weeks. The way it all comes together is amazing.

GuyNava and NameSaifah, although lacking screentime, were super interesting to me. They managed to sell us (even View and June, who referred to them as another couple in DR on Live House) on NameSaifah in around 3 episodes total somehow which I find hilarious. PimfahNabdao didn't get much screentime but they were cute and I hope we get a continuation of their story!

DR also looks VERY good. Some of the visuals are amazing. The windmill location is gorgeous and I assume it looks even better in person (I HAVE to visit someday… A few Japanese fans I know flew to Thailand and visited it. I wish I were them).

-

However, DR often struggles to get from point A to point B. This isn't a huge problem because the A and B in question are well-written, but it really feels like they had a few scenes planned but couldn't figure out how to connect them. They knew the direction they wanted to take KanghanSailom and GuyNava, but had difficulty writing the 'to' in 'enemies to lovers'. This is evident with other scenes too but it's very obvious when it comes to the main couple and the primary side couple of a BL.

Some of the direction is also a bit questionable. I personally don't like the overuse of flashbacks and OST (it reminds me of Double Savage and that's not a good thing) but I've accepted that its just a DR thing.

I like what the costuming team has come up with, bless whoever managed to make Pawin look 10 years younger than he is and the same age as actors 4 to 6 years younger than him. The details in how the wardrobe of the friendgroup, down to the colour of their uniforms is a nice touch too. This crew definitely has a lot of love for the series and I like that!!!

-

DR is hurt a lot by what it sets itself up to be. When viewed as a typical BL with interesting romantic storylines, it's very good.

However, the promotion tends to frame it as something darker than what we ended up with, a unique storyline that happens to be BL (similar to Only Friends in that sense). The pilot trailer also doesn't help, since it promised a darker overall feel with meaner characters. The themes of poverty and class differences aren't handled very well but people who think more about DR's themes than me have discussed this. I was here to watch KanghanSailom be cute after episode 3.

This difference between what was expected from the pilot and trailers and the final product is what I suspect causes people to view DR as worse than it is. Looking past that, DR is a flawed but great BL series, one of the better shows to come out of the GMMTV2023 lineup.

I'm also one of the people who were skeptical about the difference in the feel of the pilot and the official trailers. The pilot trailer occupies a good 15% of my brainspace and I will always miss all it gave us (the rain kiss!!!!! THE VIBE OF THE BACKING SONG!!!!!!) but DR is something that exists separate from that now and as it's own thing, I adore it.

-

What I really love about DR is how PerthChimon it is. It's a very significant show for both of them in so many ways! It's their "official" return to BL (Perth hasn't done BL since 2020, Chimon not since 2018) and I don't think there would've been a better show for this.

Kanghan and Sailom have a lot of Perth and Chimon in them, and I don't even know if it was intentional. Perth and Chimon both relate a lot to their characters (for reasons they have mentioned in interviews) and when listening to what Perth said when he was asked what Kanghan wants to say to Sailom I wanted to run around in circles and scream because you could really tell it came from his heart.

It's also the first time Chimon has released a song, and the first time Perth has sung a duet.

You can see the PerthChimon in some scenes like when Kanghan is feeding Sailom in their studying montage, and one entire postcredits Oishi segment (I don't remember which episode, I think it's the open house one). As a PerthChimon fan Dangerous Romance is incredible because of all this!!!

There's also a line before they perform Sunset at the open house that stuck out to me. Kanghan's line about how Sailom is talented but rarely has the chance to showcase his talents is just a little awkward by itself but it gets me very emotional because Chimon has talked about how he turned down singing jobs in the past due to trauma and still gets nervous on stage, something which Perth supports him through whenever they sing together.

(Since I first typed this, a clip has been posted where the directors talk about how a lot of the sweet KanghanSailom scenes were improvised. Incredible work from PerthChimon, 10/10 no notes.)

DR is filmed in the same campus building as several other Chimon shows like Edge of 17 and The Gifted which is a whole other thing I think about sometimes. Especially Edge of 17, his first BL series with Pluem Purim. Comparing Sun and Sailom, you can really see how much Chimon has grown in those SIX?! years.

-

I also love seeing PerthChimon work together. They're very comfortable with eachother, and Perth has said that Chimon is the partner he's felt the most comfortable with (knowing Perth's acting history, this is a very bold statement but I believe he means it). I hope DR is just the start for PerthChimon and they continue working together for a long time.

(Similarly to NLMG, I responded to an ask about DR's flaws recently. I talk about the pacing issues here as well!)

And that's the end of part one. Thank you for reading!!! You can always drop me an ask if you have anything to say, my inbox is open. The next parts will be uploaded slowly.

Intro / Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4 / Part 5 (I'll edit to link them when I get these up!!!)

[captainsupernoodle]

reading the books of the raksura is an experience full of so much cognitive dissonance which probably isn't helped by the fact that i gulped down the first three books in under a week i think and therefore had minimum higher thought engagement involved beyond "hey i'm. not a fan of reverse sexism as a trope."

the way it ends up feeling is like wells really wanted to play with the concept of a fully nonhuman race based off of colony insects (which is cool! i'd really love to see more delving into species that function drastically differently from humans from their pov instead of from an outsider pov!) and then did not fully engage with the fact that uuuuuh a biologically mandated caste system has some really fucked up implications when carried over to a sentient species! and a biologically evil species is also fucked up!!

(also between the way raksura courts work and handwaving mensah's planet in murderbot as a utopia i'm feeling an overarching tendency towards "this one place is a great place where everything works well all the time because of reasons.")

from a reader's perspective it really grinds some of my gears (let moon actually fight a queen already!!) but from a writer's and worldbuilding perspective there is So Much fascinating, juicy stuff to play around with. (also frustrating stuff. how come everybody is afraid of shifters because fell and nobody has ever seen raksura but raksura can't convince anybody fell are real and very dangerous and also how has nobody heard of raksura when there's a whole bunch of them in that forest and they have enough regular friendly contact with other species to speak the trade language but have no concept of how valuable gemstones are and??????????)

BUT FASCINATING. courts seem to be technically run like large extended families. my memory is not the best and i've not done an actual analysis but i'm pretty sure courts only have like a few hundred people in them?? except they live in trees so huge they support platforms the size of islands? like every court is an independent small town. everybody knows everybody else. they're all more or less self-sufficient, apparently. there's no over-arching government between courts, just allies. how big are the reaches? how many courts are there? it seems like the populations of fell and of raksura are actually pretty tiny, but why? hey, is the narrative ever going to engage with the fact that the only non-fell descendants of the forerunners are in a tight symbiotic relationship with a totally different species where they're always on top of the political structure and don't contribute to the running of the court except as scholars and a "better" warrior class?