#i just got into this series I didn’t think a card like this exists

[rin-a-dingding]

Yaoi? In my rhythm game???

[nevernonline]

✧.* must love dogs; csc one shot.

✧.* synopsis: after a breakup (three years ago) your friend finally attempts to get you back on the saddle by creating you a dating profile despite your protesting, hooking you up on dates with some of the eligible bachelors of their choice, none of which impressed you. until one day you met the boy with the dog.

part of my seventeen movie series.

paring: seungcheol x reader (y/n uses she/her pronouns.)

genre/s: fluff, strangers2lovers

warning/s: alcohol mentions, swearing, cigarette mentions, swearing, some pg-13 jokes.

word count: 3.7k

note: im notorious atp for not editing, pls. I hope you enjoy my lil must love dogs inspired fic, its one of my fav movies!! xo.

“So how was bachelor number five?” 

With a roll of your eyes, you gazed at your friend Seungkwan resting his feet on top of your shared glass coffee table, ticking the tip of the city guide book and magazines rested on top. 

“Boring. He was nice or whatever, good looking, but he wouldn’t shut up about league of legends and his job. Other than that he asked me no questions about myself or what I do. A failure as most would call it.” 

“So I take it you wouldn’t want to go out with him again?” 

“God, whatever gave you that impression? I thought you could tell we were headed for marriage?” 

“Hey. I’m doing you a very nice thing, you don’t have to be so sarcastic about it.” 

“Look, I know. But just because Jun is getting married and I still haven’t moved on doesn’t mean I need to be dating all of the sudden.” 

The boy patted the seat next to him. Scooching over from his spot, making room for you on the couch. 

“ It’s been nearly three years since you ended it with him. At least fuck someone before you dry up.” 

“That’s fucking gross and what vibrators are for.” 

A small scream left your friend's mouth as he covered his ears trying to remove what he had just heard coming out of your mouth. 

“Y/n his wedding is in two months, we need to find someone to bring that’s not me. You don’t want to feel the embarrassment of his pity party and everyone feeling sorry for you.” 

“Why can’t you just be my date?” 

“Too obvious. Plus your whole family will be there, just do it or you know your parents will be in your case again. This ‘ secret man’ you’ve been seeing doesn’t exist and I think your Mom is starting to catch on.” 

He was right. Your parents come from a high status, as do your ex boyfriends, they were the reason you both had met and became friends in the first place. But, when your relationship ended you lied to them, it was working well until you got a call from your very upset mother telling you Jun showed up to your house with his family and a girl on his arm that wasn’t you. 

“Okay, then why can’t I choose my own date?” 

“The men you chose to quote on quote date are literally disturbing, I’m sorry but it’s the truth. Like that one dude you brought here last time? Whatever the fuck his name was literally was wearing a necklace vial of his own blood and claimed drinking your own urine and reusing water is the only way we can save the planet.” 

“Okay, but he was nice.” 

“He literally didn’t flush the toilet because he only went number one. That’s fucked, no.” 

“Can I at least, like at the very least have some approval over the men you match me with then?” 

“Maybe.” 

“ Kwanie, please. Come on, don’t make me use the what goes around card, it’s my turn” 

“No, it's absolutely my turn.” 

“Not true, you wasted it two months ago when I had to bail you out of that strange house party orgy thing by saying your dog died and coming in crying to a bunch of naked strangers. You owe me.” 

“Valid.” 

“How did you not realize what that party was anyway?” 

“This is not currently about my life failures, but yours my beautiful friend.” 

Laughing at Seungkwan's major mishap, you forgot to greet your dog, Lucky. She was waiting and crying at your feet, finally waking up from her sweet slumber to greet you. 

“Hello my baby, do we have to go outside?” 

“She went for a walk this afternoon, but after her dinner she crashed so she probably wants a walk. I can go if you want to change or shower.” 

“No it’s alright, I can take her, you're already in your pj’s and after my date I need a distress, want anything from the mart?” 

“Ice cream?” 

With a small nod you jumped up, taking the small curly creature in your arms and grabbing her harness before heading back outside into the warm spring air. 

Ten minutes into your evening stroll, you decided to sit on the green wooden bench overlooking the water, the same bench your grandmother always spoke about when you asked her the same story about how she and your grandfather got engaged. The gold plaque with their names rubbing off sitting behind your back. 

Suddenly you heard a man yelling from behind you, running through the green grass lit up with fluorescent lights. 

“Hey, Kkuma, no come back.” 

A small white dog came up behind Lucky sniffing her and starting to play, you noticed her cute hairclip and ran your hands through her fur. 

“God, I’m sorry. She normally doesn’t run off like that.” 

“It’s okay my dog lov-“ 

As you turned around to look into the round eyes of the owner, you were stunned with how beautiful he was. 

His dark hair pushed under a cap, a white t-shirt too big for his frame sitting beautifully in his toned shoulders, and his red sweatpants matching his shoes. 

The unfamiliar man was bending down now petting your precious pet and his own at the same time talking to them in sweet baby voices. 

“This is Kkuma by the way, and you are?” 

“Y/N” 

“Hi y/n, you’re so cute, you and kkuma can be best friends if your mom lets you.”

You let out a roaring laugh realizing he thought you had introduced your pet and not yourself.

“Oh sorry, did I say something wrong?”

“No, no. It’s just I’m y/n this is Lucky sorry my fault.” 

“Oh god, cool. Sorry Lucky, I’m Seungcheol. You can call me Cheol and this is Kkuma.” 

“Nice to meet you Cheol and Kkuma.” 

“You too. Look I know I just met you and all, but I’m new to the area. I was wondering if you’d want to get coffee and let the girls hangout sometime?” 

“Oh. Yeah, of course. Let me give you my number.” 

Seungcheol handed you his cell phone with a new contact page pulled up giving you full reign to type your name and number into his list. 

Handing the device back to him your fingers touched, creating an electric shock, to not like you to believe in signs, but for some reason it felt like the universe trying to tell you something. 

“Thank you, I’ve actually got to get going, but if you're free tomorrow would you want to grab coffee and hangout at the dog park?” 

“Yeah, totally. Just text me a time, we can just meet here. What kind of coffee do you drink? There’s a good spot by my apartment. I can just pick it up for us.” 

“Wow, that’s so nice of you. Just a black americano is cool or a cold brew whichever.”

“No fun I see.”

“How would you know that? Just because I don’t like sugary drinks doesn’t mean I can’t have fun.” 

“I don’t know, we will see.” 

“We will. I’ll catch you tomorrow girls.” 

“Nice to meet you.” 

“You too!” 

Seungcheol left the same way he came running through the grass with Kkuma on his heels, following him all the way back to their home. 

Strolling back down the pathway back to your apartment, you could help but feel butterflies in your stomach, you knew nothing about the man you just met other than his name and his cute dog, but there was a lot of unknown. 

Smiling like a Cheshire Cat, you unlocked the front door and watched Lucky sprint back into Seungkwan lounging on the couch, eating for the ice cream you had forgotten. 

“Where’s the snacks? Also why are you smiling like an idiot you’re freaking me out.” 

“We met a guy with his dog, a very cute guy might I add, who actually asked for my number and wants to get coffee tomorrow.” 

“ What the fuck, it’s late tell me he doesn’t live in the park?” 

“No he said he just moved to the area, he was clearly not a park dweller he had keys, and smelt amazing actually.”

“Smelling strangers? A new low even for you”

“Oh my god, fuck off.” 

Seungkwan pulled his phone out and opened various social media apps preparing himself for best friend stalking duties. 

“What’s his name?”

“Seungcheol, not sure about his last name, but he goes by Cheol and his dog was Kkuma.” 

“Great.. okay, found him I assume?”

“What the fuck, how? Let me see.”

“Eager aren’t we?”

“Fuck off?” 

Grabbing Seungkwan's phone from his grip, you scroll quickly through the new faces' social media.

“Yeah, it’s him.” 

“Okay, let me see. Wait, he's actually hot AND seems to have his own business?” 

“Oh my god.”

“Here, look” 

After the next few hours, you and your friend stumble on into your separate rooms preparing yourself for slumber, which never seems to reach you and before you know it dawn is creeping its way through your curtains, and your backup preparing yourself for a day with you and Lucky's new friends. 

Something about your energy was excitable and nearing frantic, you could wait to step outside into the fresh air with your pocket sized princess at your side, but it was still early. 

You had decided on pampering yourself for this morning, finding the need to make yourself up, you spread on your skin care with glee, drew perfect lines of eyeliner and strained your hair, pulling it up into a nice tight ponytail the hair tie matching the taupe tone of your sweat suit perfectly.  Before you knew it it was 9:45 a perfect time for you and Lucky to step outside the door. 

Placing her in her tote bag, you stepped inside of your favorite coffee shop, the light pink walls covered in photos and paintings, the smell of the espresso seemed sweeter. 

“Morning, y/n you look beautiful today. Would you like the usual?”

“Thank you, for me, yes. But can I also get a large americano, just black and he didn’t tell me iced or hot, so iced is good I think? Or maybe hot with a cup of ice on the side? If that’s okay?” 

“He? Did you finally start dating someone?” 

“Oh no, just a friend of mine. Seungkwan told you shit about me didn’t he?” 

“Yes. Sorry.”  

“No worries, can I actually get two of the plain croissants and two of the flower dog cookies too?” 

“No problem, it’ll be right out.” 

“Thank you.” 

Taking a seat next to the pick up counter you scrolled through the instagram of the boy you’re meant to be meeting, telling yourself it’s just to remember his face, but really it was to get a peek into what else he’s into or if he was single. 

“Y/N” 

“Oh shit, sorry. Thank you guys, see you tomorrow.” 

Picking up the paper coffee carrier and pastry bag, you waved goodbye to the baristas and briskly walked back to the bench you were at yesterday, your bench, spotting the back of Seungcheol’s head watching the water with his dog. 

“Hey. Sorry I’m late.” 

“Oh, no problem. I just got here.” 

Placing your items down on the bench, you freed her bag and greeted Kkuma alongside her before taking your seat. 

“Here’s your coffee, I wasn’t sure if you wanted hot or iced so I got you a cup of ice too just in case, a croissant, and a little treat for your girl too.” 

“Wow thank you so much, hot is fine actually. How are you?” 

“Good, nervous. I mean it’s not every day you meet a stranger for coffee.” 

Seungcheol laughed, tipping his head back slightly before taking a bite of his pastry. 

“Sorry. I know it’s weird, you just seemed like someone I wanted to get to know, and Kkuma liked you so I figured you’re good people.” 

“Well, thank you. You too. Lucky generally does not like men other than my friend Seungkwan, my dad, and my ex-boyfriend so consider yourself special.”

“I do.”

“So what brought you to this neighborhood? Work, a relationship?”

“No relationship, but actually my business partner is from here. We decided to open our warehouse and stuff here because it’s much better than doing it in the city. We have a spirit company and we’re planning on opening a brewery and bar, so that’s why I’ve been working late nights. I guess it served me well, I made a friend on my first day.”

“You’ve only been here for a full day? What the hell? You already know the best spot in town. What kind of stuff do you guys make?”

“Beer and soju mainly, we’ve been working on it for five years now and are finally at a spot to open up and start selling it to people, which is cool. But what about you? What do you do?” 

“I’m a medical student actually, my parents are both doctors, I used to really want to be one too, but I don’t know, I don’t really have the same passion for it as I used to.”

“Well what would you do if you had the choice?”

“I always wanted to design stuff for dogs, start a rescue, anything like that. I got so happy seeing Kkuma as an accessory girl.”

“Yeah, she’s very stylish. I think you should go for it, you know? Why waste time becoming something for someone else and risk being unhappy just for their sake?”

“Honestly I wouldn’t even know how to start a business on my own, let alone tell my parents.”

“Hey, I didn’t either and look where it’s gotten me.”

You turned back to the water, staring into the calm blue waters, trying not to go into your own head. 

“You’re oddly inspiring, I’ll give you that much.”

“Thank you, y/n. You’re oddly sassy, I’ll give you that.”

“Shut up, I’m not.”

“You already tried to clock me by saying I’m no fun because I drink black coffee and you said oddly inspiring like a back handed compliment. You definitely are, but I like it. 

“Good.”

You had continued your twice weekly hangouts with Kkuma and her dad for two weeks now, getting excited whenever the days roll around to see the two of them again, but you haven’t hung out once without them around, which made you wonder if your friendship or crush rather on this boy was only due to your dogs being friends themselves. 

Seungkwan tried setting you up on more and more dates with more and more duds, he was starting to lose hope himself, knowing that the one person he could set you up with was Seungcheol but he didn’t want to overstep. 

Strolling home from another failed connection, you decide to stop and have a beer before going home to give the dirty details to Seungkwan about who you had just met. 

Pulling open the tab of one of your drinks from your six pack, you took a deep breath and sat down, feeling your eyes welling up with tears. 

Another can opened as you went to take the first sip. A hand comes on your shoulders, whispering a boo in your ears. 

“What the fuck!” 

Jumping up from your seat the hand on your shoulder belonged to Seungcheol, the look in his eyes went from happy to concerned as he saw the small streaks of tears on your cheeks, you top now dribbled with spots of beer. 

“I’m so sorry, are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m good. Want a beer?”

“Sure, thanks. I’m sorry I scared you, I thought you heard me behind you.”

“It’s alright, I was in my own world anyway. You look nice, where are you headed?”

“Soft opening for my bar actually, I texted you, but I figured you didn’t respond because you were busy.”

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry, I would’ve loved to come. I was a bit preoccupied on an awful fucking date.”

“That bad, huh?”

“Worse.”

“Well the good news is you technically didn’t miss it, it doesn’t start for another twenty minutes and you’re dressed very nice. It worked out. 

“Fuck I wish I paid more attention, I could’ve got you some flowers or something.”

“Next time. Will your roommate be alright taking care of Lucky?”

“Yeah of course, he knew I would be out tonight. I’ll text him just to be sure.”

“Cheers to hanging out without our kids?”

“Definitely.”

With that suddenly your awful night and doubts about your relationship with the raven haired boy went out the window. 

“Shall we?”

“We shall.” 

Seungcheol lent his arm out for you to wrap your own around, and you both stayed out that way for a few moments, before discarding your cans and walking the way to his new venture. 

“Here it is, you ready?”

“When you told me you were opening this up I thought you hadn’t even started? But it looks like it’s fully ready.” 

“Ah, well we had planned to wait a bit, but we’re getting too antsy, so here we are.”

“It’s beautiful, holy shit.” 

“Thanks, sit here, I’ll be right back.”

You took a seat on the green leather booth, looking around and taking in the ambiance of the custom lighting and ribbon like wallpaper, when a blonde gentleman walked over sitting down across from you. 

“Y/n? Right?”

“Yeah, nice to meet you…”

“Jeonghan, I’m Cheol’s business partner.”

“Jeonghan, right. Nice to finally meet you, I’ve heard a lot.”

“Likewise, you’re so much prettier than Cheol let on actually.”

“Oh?”

Without a chance to interrogate the new face further Seungcheol walked back over to your table, setting down a few bottles of various spirits for you to try, including a couple of cocktails. 

“He didn’t scare you too much did he?”

“Not at all, he was just telling me actually how much prettier I am than you alluded to.”

“Jeonghan, don’t do that to her, come on. You know very well I told you she was pretty, I even showed you her instagram, you agreed.”

“I know, I just wanted to make you tell her yourself and my job is done, see you around y/n.”

“Nice to meet you.”

As Jeonghan left the table you felt your cheeks growing with heat, unsure if it was the alcohol or the fact that Seungcheols friend made him confess he thought you were good looking. 

“Sorry about him, he’s a menace.”

“No need to be sorry, I have my own menace at home and I don’t mean my dog.”

Seungcheol laughed, pouring you a shot of his very own soju to taste, filling with anticipation hoping you enjoy the drink he’s serving you, looking for your approval became a big part of his mind lately. 

Lifting your glass up to his and clinking them together, the liquor poured down the back of your throat filling your mouth with sweetness and warmth. 

“Holy shit.”

“Good holy shit or bad holy shit?”

“No, very good. That’s actually delicious. It’s so clean and fresh.”

“That makes me so happy to hear.”

“I’m happy you’re happy.”

“Okay, beer next. This is just a standard sour, some lime and sea salt, sort of beach vibes.” 

“Sounds amazing, okay.”

Tipping your head back you sipped at the foamy top of the glass, savoring the flavors in your mouth. 

“I hate you so much.”

“What? Why?”

“Seungcheol, you're way too humble when you talk about your business, this shit is amazing. I said I hate you because I’m going to crave this shit and I’ll have to see you all the time.” 

“I thought you liked seeing me all the time?”

“You’re okay.”

“I have to say it’s cool to be here with you without the dogs, not that they distract too much, but they definitely take away giving you my full attention.”

“I mean how could they not, they’re cute as fuck,”

“So are you.”

“Wow, two drinks in Cheol and you’re already calling me cute? I wonder what else you’ll say the more you drink?"

“Technically we’re four drinks in, but I guess I remember the time I spent with you more than you do. Did those drinks on the bench mean nothing to you?”

“Oh fuck, I did forget. I guess technically I’m five drinks in then, catch up, bitch.”

You and Seungcheol spent the rest of the night being greeted by his friends, most of them already assuming who you were, letting you know that Seungcheol talks about you more than you realized. 

Feeling your blood alcohol content rising, you decided to take a step outside and refresh. 

The bell of the door opened up behind you, putting you face to face with his cherry lips once again, watching them light up a hand rolled cigarette to his lips. 

“Doing okay?”

“Yeah, just wanted to step out for a second. Are you good?”

“Very. Want a cig?”

“No, I’m good for now. Ask me again later.” 

“So will there be a later? You’re not ditching me now?”

“I’d never do that.”

“So, y/n does this maybe get me a chance to take you on a date? I’m kind of drunk so I’m feeling oddly bold.” 

“Is this not sort of a date?”

“I was hoping you thought so. Is that a yes?”

“Absolutely. I thought you’d never ask.”

“Before we go on our date though, y/n. I have one final question?” 

“Yes?” 

“Do you still think I’m boring?” 

“A little.” 

Seungcheol grabbed your waist and spun you around, causing his perfectly rolled tobacco to fall on the sidewalk. 

Blissfully you were giggling and laughing under the red led lights of his bar. 

“Take it back.” 

“Nope.” 

“Please.” 

You looked into his puppy dog eyes and did something out of your comfort zone. Wrapped your hands loosely around his neck, placing a deepened kiss onto his lips. 

His mouth tasted of cigarettes and salt with a hint of vanilla from the lip balm he always had on him. 

“Is that a good ‘sorry I called you boring’ kiss?” 

“It’ll do for now.” 

“Good. They’ll be more where that came from.” 

“Promise?” 

“Pinky promise.” 

You and Seungcheol unwrap from each other, finding Jeonghan standing and  cheering in the window watching the two of you. 

“Can’t believe I got a hot date and a sister for Kkuma all in one.” 

“You lucky dog.” 

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 410: Kacchan Fights a Baby

Previously on BnHA: Kacchan was born and then he grew up and murdered the Demon Lord.

Today on BnHA: Kacchan fights a baby. Tomura and Deku finally remember that they were supposed to have been fighting too this entire time, and get on with that once again. Tomura is all, “[literally just reaches out and grabs Deku’s face because Deku’s main character powers suddenly abandoned him in a fit of confusion].” Deku is all, “[chops off Tomura’s fingers which is somehow not even in the top twenty of violent things that have happened in this series in just the last five chapters].” Tomura is all “joke’s on you I still got your quirk :D” and fuck me he actually stole Danger Sense, what the fuck.

logically I knew AFO still had to be alive somehow because he’s too big of a villain to go out that easily without a proper sendoff. but deep in my heart, I’m still secretly disappointed

it just isn’t fair, lol. this guy has died more times than Rasputin and he’s still out here scheming his schemey schemes. when oh when will it end

sir you did not just say you had yet ANOTHER unused trump card up your sleeve??

(ETA: the translation isn’t fully clear here, but I think the trump card he’s referring to is the whole “I’ll just go back inside him and join the part of me that was already in there and we’ll take over Tomura’s body again together” plan that he was trying to pull off. I think. if not though, that’s certainly something worth speculating about.)

well as always the psychology in this series is unironically fascinating! he just wants acknowledgement at the end of the day, huh. just wants some love and attention. too bad he was born in a rat-infested hellscape and learned all the wrong lessons and turned into a crazed omnipotent murderlad

also he really did turn back into a baby sdfsdlkjfl oh no. I need to see Katsuki’s reaction to this immediately

oh my lord

(●__●)

lmao this is so incredibly fucked up

ngl though, this is karma at its finest. he tortured and killed so many people trying to earn everyone’s fear and awe and reverence, only to literally blip out of existence at the end with absolutely nothing to show for it

everyone please enjoy this series of panels of a deeply vexed Bakugou Katsuki picking a fight with this slowly melting evil baby

“you think I care that you’re a baby now. you think I won’t fight a fuckin’ baby. let’s do this you little punk”

also I’m sorry but it’s absolutely ridiculous that the gigantic chest wound Tomura inflicted on him got sewed up so neatly lol. AFO’s not the only one who stubbornly refuses to die no matter what

...

just once, it would be nice if Horikoshi didn’t immediately shred my plot nitpicks to pieces mere seconds after I write them

LMAO

BABY AFO DON’T CARE. BABY AFO WILL THROW HANDS WITH ANYONE ＼(｀0´)／

KACCHAN MY BELOVED FAVE OF ALL TIME, ARE YOU REALLY ABOUT TO LOSE TO A LITERAL FUCKING INFANT

WHAT HAPPENED TO “PERFECT VICTORY” LMAO. MOVING THE GOALPOSTS EVEN AS HIS CONSCIOUSNESS FADES. “EH, CLOSE ENOUGH”

-- OH FOR THE LOVE OF --

me: wow it sure is uncharacteristic of Katsuki to just pass out before he properly wraps up this battle

Horikoshi: oh yeah good point, sure would be a shame if someone... IMMEDIATELY ADDRESSED THAT CONCERN ON THE VERY NEXT PAGE

me: ఠ_ఠ

ldskjflaksdjfkds

fdsfsdkf. “SORRY ABOUT THAT, FOR A MOMENT THERE I ALMOST FORGOT TO BEND THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE TO MY WILL”

holy fucking shit. his body was all “um, just a quick reminder that you’re HORRIBLY WOUNDED and have lost like ten gallons of blood and all of your cells are about to call an emergency meeting to shut this thing down before you get us all killed.” and he was all “WHAT WAS THAT?!” and his body was all “oh my GOD, FUCK, OKAY just forget we said anything”

and meanwhile Baby AFO is just lying there all “(◉⌓◉)”

this six-month-old child is truly and sincerely still trying to kill Kacchan while screeching death threats in high-pitched baby talk

this actually would have killed him too, if he’d succeeded in passing out. all that just to be punk’d by a damn baby

you are actually shitting me right now

at this point I’m genuinely not sure which of them has the more powerful angry toddler energy

oh no ffuffkdsfk

meeeeelting. meeeeeeltiiiiiing!!! oh what a world what a world

jesus Horikoshi I am genuinely speechless

... welp

WAIT NO WAY, REALLY?!?!

?!?!?! WAS IT ACTUALLY THAT SIMPLE THIS WHOLE TIME

-- lkjf

three times. three times in the same fucking chapter. I give up. apparently I’ll literally believe anything this man says. does it feel good, Horikoshi. preying on your readers’ hopeful naivete

yeefuckinghaw lmao

GOOD JOB KACCHAN YOU DEFEATED THE EVIL BABY

awwwww

I actually had a theory about this! well more of a wishlist item, really. I can’t remember if I’ve actually posted about it yet or not. but it’s like. you know how Deku and Kacchan are always being really dramatic about holding hands? wanting to hold hands; not wanting to hold hands; being afraid to hold hands; holding hands via proxy, etc. etc.?

and you know how both Endeavor and All Might have each done their own version of the victory pose that Kacchan is referring to here? with each one using a different hand?

so you see, I was thinking that it might be nice. might be a little poetic and all that. if at the end of the fight, Deku and Kacchan did, in fact, hold hands. and then did the victory pose together. and it became like their iconic hero moment. them standing there together. having accomplished their goal and defeated TomurAFO through teamwork. realizing their shared childhood dream. and sharing that moment of triumph with each other and with the world, ushering in a new era of heroes

anyway yeah. I was thinking that might be a pretty good ending. but it looks like Kacchan maybe really is about to pass out here now, lol, so maybe not? anyways time to finally scroll down

-- okay I literally said awww again out loud

what a fucking nerd. I have never felt more fondness for a character in my life

every damn person watching this on the news better have leaped to their feet and started applauding, goddammit. those motherfuckers better be CHANTING HIS FUCKING NAME. all those nagging reporters better be bombarding his phone with calls. those fuckers who deleted his footage from the Shouto interview better be shamelessly leaving him dozens of voicemails acting like none of that ever happened and presumptuously asking when he can free some time in his schedule to visit their studio again. all the heroes who haven’t hugged him yet better be lining the fuck up. that one guy from the post-kidnapping press conference in chapter 86 better be writing a fifty page letter of apology!!

oh hey it’s a random pre-battle flashback mysteriously taking place in Troy “a few days before the battle” even though I thought they only moved into that place the night before the fight

I love how Katsuki immediately narrows his eyes (I assume. we can’t see for sure but that’s the vibe I get) at Jeanist and has to resist the urge to call the police on him for that pun

so Hadou’s wondering what Jeanist is talking about because they already evacuated the civilians, so what else are they trying to protect. and Edgeshot is all, “well obviously we’ve gotta protect everyone’s future,” which is a nice... rearshadowing?? for him saving Katsuki’s life later on lol

and now Mirko is all “get to the fucking point already.” which, same

so Jeanist says that Tomura is an even bigger problem than AFO, because at least AFO doesn’t want to murder everyone on the entire planet. and he concludes with “he’ll probably try to touch the ground and use his quirk.” which is a conclusion that I have to say wasn’t really worth two pages of flashback buildup for, considering that we all figured that out years ago

I’m guessing this is all just some sort of awkward transition back to Deku’s fight now lol

and now we’re getting two pages of exposition on how long it would theoretically take Tomura’s Decay to spread throughout the city, and then the entire country, yikes

damn. talk about stakes

and now finally back to Deku!!

shoutout to everyone who correctly predicted that Deku was once again talking out of his ass when it came to being out of Gearshifts. we all knew. unlimited supply

wow Tomura way to throw AFO under the bus

the way I recall it, AFO wasn’t the one who failed to kill him back then lol. but go ahead and talk your shit king

DEKU WHAT ARE YOU DOING

holy shit?!?!

like my first thought was “well last time he did this he just tried to steal OFA rather than Decay him, so he’ll probably try that again and it’ll be fine.” only to remember that the AFO inside Tomura is currently permanently(?) out to lunch, and Tomura himself doesn’t give two figs about stealing OFA. so, uhhhh >_>

(ETA: nevermind.)

but then this happened

Deku what the actual fuck

OH MY GOD??!?!

HOLY SHIT

okay. okay, fuck. lemme gather up my thoughts, and then we’ll wrap this up

they’ll never admit it, but you know the other OFA Vestiges secretly resented Shino a tiny bit for being the only one of them to not be gruesomely murdered. bet they all feel guilty for thinking that now

Shino and Banjou also seemed to have this cute little pseudo-rivalry thing going on, so I really feel bad for Banjou now. :/ he looks so horrified in that bottom right panel

gotta admit, I did not see this coming in the slightest. OFA has been this immutable “I do what I want!” quirk for so long that I never thought Tomura or AFO would actually succeed in stealing it, even partially. that shook me to my core

BUT, it’s also really exciting to me because it’s going to make this battle much more interesting if Deku can’t use his get out of jail free card. shit just got way more real and I’m here for it

lastly, so! let me tell you guys my prediction. I still can’t see Tomura being the final villain lol. I just can’t. it feels too anticlimactic. if I’m wrong, I’m wrong, and I’ve certainly botched MANY predictions in the past, but I have not yet learned my lesson from any of it and I will not apologize lol

so here’s what I think. Deku and Tomura battle it out for the next chapter or two, and Tomura snatches up more of Deku’s quirks one by one. we see all of the Vestiges disappearing and the mood gets more and more desperate. eventually we’re down to just Kudou and Yoichi. Deku is panicking, but for some reason Kudou seems even MORE panicked

Kudou/Gearshift eventually gets stolen too, and it looks like this might finally be it for Deku (I have no idea how he’d stop Tomura from Decaying the ground once Blackwhip gets stolen, btw, but maybe Katsuki or someone else interferes in desperation towards the end). but just when it looks like Tomura is finally going to take the last piece of OFA, Deku’s vibes suddenly do a 180, stopping Tomura in his tracks

cut to the OFA Moon Gorgeous Meditation Realm, where Deku and Yoichi are staring at the door -- yes, that door -- in shock. because it’s finally been opened (now that the other Vestiges are no longer there to keep it at bay). and just like that, enter AFO, for the THIRD FUCKING TIME :D :D

tl;dr, HERE’S HOW HORCRUX!DEKU CAN STILL HAPPEN!!! wait where are you all going. wait come back

anyway so wow that was a really bizarre chapter that I truly thoroughly enjoyed, which should probably be a bit concerning. on to the next two week break! (for anyone who’s not aware, Shounen Jump will be on break next week, so yeah.) I’m on chapter 391 now. so close but still so far. the end of the year has gone by too damn fast tbh

[teamfreewill58]

Atem Leaving Was Wrong

Like many other members of the fandom I have a lot of thoughts about Atem going to the afterlife at the end of the series and also a lot of issues with it. I watched it straight through recently and it’s just so clear that it was not the right thing for Atem and also a really shitty way for the story to treat him. Let’s for a moment ignore the weird sudden push of “it’s not right for souls to remain with the living” that Ishizu kept insisting on and then claimed that’s what Yugi was telling Atem through the monster reborn card (which by the way could have been taken another way but I’ll get to that later.) The main reason the story insists on Atem returning to the afterlife is because it’s supposed to signify that Yugi has grown up and grown into himself as a person and no longer needs to rely on Atem the way that he did for a good portion of the series. “If I don’t become stronger, my other self can never leave my soul”. (Yugi Episode 221 8:18)

But the issue with this is that Atem--just like Yugi--is a person and people don’t just peace out of your life because they’ve taught you an important lesson or helped you grow. Yes, Atem and Yugi taught each other and helped each other grow, but that’s not a reason for Atem to leave.

What they learn from each other isn’t going to suddenly get negated because Atem stays--if anything it would create a new growing experience for Atem and Yugi because now they have a different dynamic and relationship that they would have to figure out and try to navigate. 

So, back to Ishizu’s “it’s not right for the dead to stay with the living” and “that’s what Yugi is saying to Atem” by putting Monster Reborn in Gold Sarcophagus during the final duel. First off, this doesn’t apply to Atem because he didn’t die. His spirit was used to seal Zorc and as we’ve seen again and again throughout Yu-gi-oh a character’s spirit no longer being inside their body doesn’t mean they’ve died. Characters have lost their souls multiple times and had it put back in a body. Atem’s body is never mentioned and neither is the notion that his mummy is in his tomb. Second, Ishizu is making a whole lot of assumptions for people she hardly even knows. When Yugi reveals the card, Ishizu thinks, “Yugi is sending Atem a message. The soul of the dead must not remain in the world of the living.” (Episode 224 14:33) But no, Yugi isn’t sending Atem a message. And if he is, it's not the one Ishizu says he’s sending. He’s playing the game. “I knew you were going to do that, my other self. Because if I were you, I’d summon a God too.” (Episode 224 13:29) Showcasing how well Yugi and Atem know each other and have gotten to know each other and that Yugi has developed new skills. If we are to interpret it as Yugi giving Atem a message I’d say it’s Yugi saying what he’s said the whole duel, “I’ve grown and you’ve made me better and we both have been reborn”. But it is NOT Yugi telling Atem he needs to leave because Yugi and Atem have stated and showed again and again and again that they want to stay together whether that’s in separate bodies or the same one. In episode 52, right after the Millennium Puzzle got smashed and Yugi is home from the hospital Atem and Yugi talk:  

Atem: Thank you. You risked your life to assemble the Millennium Puzzle during the fire.

Yugi: It was Jonouchi and Honda who saved us.

Atem: You’re right. We have great friends.

Yugi: Yes.

Atem: What are you thinking about? (7:21-8:01)

Yugi: Who are you really? I want to know. 

Atem: Why?

Yugi: Why? Because….

Atem: I don’t know anything.

Yugi: Huh?

Atem: I knew you would ask me eventually. And I planned to answer honestly. I don’t know my name or where I came from. I don’t have any memories.I don’t know who I am. (13:07-13:39)

Yugi: Sorry. I should’ve never brought it up, so let’s not talk about it again. 

Atem: The one thing I know is that I only exist because you hold the Millennium Puzzle.

Yugi: That’s enough.

Atem: But I-

Yugi: I said enough!

Atem: I want to stay with you forever. I don’t care if I never get my memories back.

Yugi: I also want to be with you forever. I’m willing to give you all my memories. (20:27-21:11)

I do feel like its very important to point out here that Yugi is in a heightened emotional state. He was caught in a fire, the Millennium Puzzle was shattered, shattering his connection to Atem and based off how Yugi is sitting on the bed staring at the puzzle hugging his legs--in addition to the fact that he is thinking about reassembling the puzzle in the fire---he didn’t know that Atem was still inside the puzzle until Atem initiated this particular conversation.

Yugi’s clearly been sitting here also thinking about the fact that Atem isn’t another personality of his or anything along those lines because he says “Who are you really?” He then feels a mix of emotions when Atem admits he planned to answer honestly but doesn’t know anything about himself. He feels guilt because he apologizes and says he should never have brought it up and then tries to completely close the conversation “so let’s not talk about it again”. And then he gets upset when Atem adds “I only exist because you hold the Millenium Puzzle.” Because this drives home that if the puzzle had got destroyed or lost in the fire Atem would have really been lost forever and that scares Yugi. At this point in the story it scares Yugi to realize that Atem can leave or be taken away. I suspect that if Yugi hadn’t cut Atem off he would have said “But I do want to know who I am.” However he doesn’t finish it because Yugi cuts him off and Atem picks up just how distressed Yugi is which is why he doesn’t finish his statement and switches to reassuring Yugi that he wants to stay with him.

Atem wants to stay with Yugi but he also wants to know who he is but now he can’t talk about it with Yugi because he’s seen it upset Yugi and this is part of why he’s depressed in the following episode. Yugi mentions “My other self seems depressed these days. He won’t open up to me.” (Episode 53 2:48) 

Atem also confirms to Anzu:

“We both don’t know where we want to go. Who am I? Where did I come from? And I don’t know where I’m going. But it’s fine. I’m fine as is.” (Episode 53 5:28-5:49)

Atem: My dreams…But I can keep the status quo by not pursuing my dreams. 

Anzu: You’re really fine with that?

Atem: I want to know more about myself. I want to know where I should go. But if I keep the status quo, I can stay in his heart forever. And that’s also what he wants.” (episode 53 10:34-10:56)

Here Atem confirms that he wants to know who he is but that he also meant it when he said he wanted to stay with Yugi, for him it’s not a “I have to choose one or the other it’s I want both of these and plan to do what I can to have both.” He doesn’t say “I want to go where I’m supposed to” he just wants to know what that place is. He further confirms in episode 54 “My partner doesn’t know that I saw the tablet today. Can you keep the tablet and what Ishizu said a secret? Even if I get my memories back I don’t know if I can stay with my partner. I don’t want him to worry for no reason. We always build my deck together. His soul makes up half of this deck. When he truly understands me, this deck will unleash its true power.”  (episode 54 17.20)

Again Atem being mindful of Yugi’s fears and concerns that were brought up the previous night but also reaffirming that he wants to stay with Yugi. Then also adding that without his memories Yugi--and honestly, no one--- can truly understand him and that’s something that he wants. 

When Ishizu gives them the Millennium Necklace they have this conversation shortly after: 

Atem: You can’t sleep? (19:00 Episode 95)

Yugi: The other me.

Atem: What are you thinking about?

Yugi: Well….When we gather all the Millennium Items…I’ll eventually have to go to Egypt and place them in the tablet of memories. That’s my role as the vessel for your soul. When that time comes…Let’s go to sleep! Tomorrow is the finals.

Atem: Yeah. (19:38)

*Yugi then turns on his side so Atem can’t see him and cries.*

Atem: Partner… (19:40 Episode 94)

This scene in particular we can tell from Yugi and Atem’s expressions that they still don’t want to do this, Yugi looks incredibly sad about it and look at the shot of Atem when Yugi is saying “That’s my role as the vessel of your soul.” (12:20 Episode 94) he’s listening attentively but its just so clear in his expression that leaving isn’t what he wants. In their final duel it's mentioned that Atem's pride as a duelist won't let him just lose and Yugi does have some inflections here but unlike Ishizu Yugi does know Atem.

Literally spelled out right here, even on the day of the final duel, his "one chance" to go to the afterlife and Atem and Yugi both don't want him to go. Yugi picks up on this and also admits it in these pages.

The only reason they are doing this is because we have a character who keeps insisting that the dead shouldn't be with the living, that the Millennium Items need to be sealed away, and that if Atem doesn't go he'll be stuck there for eternity.

But the Millennium Items DON'T need to be sealed away anymore. When Atem accepts the Ring from Jonouchi he looks at it and goes, "There's no evil inside the Millennium Ring." (4:19 Ep 220) Zorc is defeated, that means all the Millennium Items are now just gold artifacts. They are EMPTY. Let's not forget the entire process Atem had to use in order to seal Zorc in the Milennium Ring, it isn't as though someone can come by and just infuse it with new darkness. Hell they still could have put them in the tablet, Atem and Yugi have the duel so that they can know Yugi and Atem have grown and are better and the place still collapses after Atem decides he doesn't want to go.

The Atem being stuck there for eternity if he doesn't do it now. Why? What lore says he'll be stuck there? This is an additional arbitrary rule that just got thrown in so that he'd have to leave. When they have the final duel Atem and Yugi split and Atem clearly has a body. His soul is no longer attached to the Puzzle because the Puzzle is in the tablet. Even if he can't have his own body it's clarified that Yugi IS Atem's vessel so why can't Atem and Yugi just share the same body and switch as they have been? It's incredibly unfair to Atem who not only barely had a childhood because he became Pharaoh at 15 AND got sealed but his time with Yugi is very very short, its like a year to little over a year? Yes Atem probably misses his family and friends from Egypt but he also deserved to have an actual life and it's just cruel and fucked up that he gets taken away from the people he loves twice. The first time he had a say and it was his choice but the second and final time he was literally forced by the narrative and it is just such a bullshit way to treat such a good character.

[michaelceraifhewasagirl]

I accidentally assaulted Clarisse

NEW SERIES ALERT

summary: A new girl at camp, but…. She’s different..

warnings: minimal swearing

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ow. “Ow” is a onomatopoeia, I think, but it didn’t matter if I was grammatically correct, because I had just hit Clarisse La Rue in the head with a rubber axe during practice with the Stoll brothers, and she was now sitting on the ground in a fetal position, holding her head in agony, and staring at me with anger in her eyes.

“Oh my God” I muttered under my breath, as I slowly backed away. “Avery, come back, she’s, she’s not going to hurt you!” Connor Stoll pleaded, but then Clarisse began to get off of the grass and I sprinted towards the strawberry fields. I looked around frantically, trying to see if Clarisse was still following me, but then I caught a glimpse of Beckendorf scolding Clarisse, and I visibly relaxed. 

Okay, quick Backstory: two days ago I nearly got killed by a big bear-wolf thing. A goat-child told me that my mom fucked a Greek God and I’m the offspring. If that makes sense. I thought my mom was Hindu, can multiple Gods exist at once? Anyways, the goat guy brought me back to this cool camp and I got to talk to a horse man and a LITERAL GREEK GOD but he was an asshole so I don’t really care about him to be honest. Fast forward to now, this is my first day training, and I somehow managed to injure 5 people, including myself. 

I was sitting down under a tree, trying to catch my breathe after running a fricking marathon trying to not get stabbed by Clarisse, when I noticed one of the Stoll brothers coming up to me, Connor, was it? “Hey, Avery,” he greeted 

“My name is Aikaterini”

“…Can I call ya’ Avery?”

“No”

“Fair enough,” he nodded, “Are you okay?”

“Yeah” I responded “She’s just… She’s terrifying” and Connor chuckled.

“She’s not that scary, give her a chance, she’s tolerable” he said, and gave me his hand to take to get up off of the dirt, and I took it and dusted off my pants when I was off my butt, “She wants to kill me” I retorted and Connor grimaced. “Stay outta trouble, okay? And be careful”, I nodded and he offered a hand on my shoulder as comfort before heading off somewhere to scold an Ares kid, or kill a small child, one of the two.

I awkwardly walked to the Hermes cabin, in which I was staying in, since my father hadn’t claimed me as yet. I hope he does. I heard a lot of undetermined kids get stuck at the Hermes cabin because their bitch-ass parents didn’t claim them. Anyways, I was like, an Inch away from the cabin, before the boat goy came up to me, wait, no that didn’t sound right, anyways, he came up to me, “Chiron needs to talk to you” he said and he practically dragged me by my arm towards a big building “Who’s Chiro- woah! Okay, so I guess I don’t get to say no”

We arrived inside the building and I paled at the sight of the old horse guy. “Aikaterini Balakrishnan, how are you? Getting along well with the rest of camp?” I could tell that he was trying to make conversation, but I couldn’t focus when there was a 7-foot centaur standing infront of me “I… uh… yeah” was what I managed to choke out before glancing around the room, and noticing that the asshole of a Greek God was sitting at the table, with a irritable look on his face and I rolled my eyes.

The centaur sat down on his hind legs and offered me a seat at the table, where I noticed that they were playing a card game “You’re playing Pinochle.” Chiron raised an eyebrow “Why, yes, do you know how to play?” “Yeah, my mom taught me, well, actually, she taught me Bezique, but I taught myself how to play Pinchole” Chiron nodded in approval “You know how to play Bezique as well, that is quite impressive for a girl your age” I blushed in embarrassment, “Yeah, I guess, why did you call me in here?” “Ah,” he put down his pack of cards and looked at me.

“Do you know what tomorrow is?” He asked

“Friday” I responded confidently

“Yes!” He clapped his hands excitedly and I squinted my eyes “Huh?” Mr. D groaned and stepped out of the room, and Chiron waved him away “Don’t take him on. Tomorrow is Friday! Which means we are playing capture the flag!” He explained and I pursed my lips “You guys actually do things in this place besides trying to impale people or set people on fire?” And Chiron grimaced, “Now now, girl, what happened yesterday with Sanya was a mistake, she was just trying to make a sword and her hair caught on fire, it was a, what is it you children say now-a-days? No biggie” I raised my eyebrows “So why don’t you go find a group to be apart of, huh? Get out there, make some friends, I heard you were training with the Stoll brothers, cheeky bastards, aren’t they?” I furrowed my eyebrows “No, no, they aren’t cheeky, they seem really nice” I said and Chiron chuckles, “That is until they steal a family heirloom from you” “Why would they steal from me?” Chiron seemed suprised I didn’t know about these things, “Aikaterini, their father is Hermes, the God of thievery” “I thought he was the God of messengers?”

Chiron looked at me with a thoughtful look on his face, “Has your mother not thought you anything about your roots?” “Not really, I’m Hindu, I grew up believing in Hindu Gods, now, I don’t know what I believe.” If my mother knew that, that Greek Gods are real, and not just fiction, then why would she grow me up with a religion?” “I am sure your mother had her reasons, that of which, I do not know, but you will come to find out anyways, now, I’d like you to meet some people, if that’s okay with you,” I nodded. Chiron called the goat boy, in which I learnt his name, being Grover, into the room, “Yes?” “It would be appreciated if you could kindly locate our respective leaders, those being one for Team Blue and another for Team Red." Grover nodded and came back into the room shortly with a two girls, a pretty one, with long box braids, and then Clarisse.

“Ladies, we have a new camper joining us, I’m sure you have seen her around, I am going to be making a public announcement soon, tomorrow, before the tournament, but for now, you can introduce yourself to her, and maybe recruit her to your team,” Chiron smiled and I looked at them and awkwardly waved, “Hi, uhm, hi Clarisse, sorry for hitting you, uhm, at- at the uh, the axe throwing thing, sorry” I swallowed nervously “My name is Aikaterini, it’s long, I know, you can call me, Kat, or whatever” my voice cracked and I made a mental note to hit myself in the head with a bat later.

“Hi, I’m Annabeth, I’m blue team leader” “You’re not joining the red team”

“Clarisse.” Chiron butted in, “Atleast see what she can do before you make a decision, now go on, bond, I want to finish this game of Pinochle.” We left the building and Annabeth made conversation “So, do you have any special training? Or any training at all?” “Uhm, I can do kumon?” Annabeth looked at me, a puzzled look rested on her face “What is that?” “It’s like… maths” and Clarisse snorted, Annabeth glared at her, “I mean, physical combat. Do you know any form of self defence?” “I, I can dance?” Clarisse butted in “Yeah, no, Annabeth, you can have her on your team.” I looked down in embarrassment, God, I wanna go home. “What kind of dance can you do? Ballet?” “Kuchipudi,” “Okay, I don’t know what that is, how hard do you have to train for that?” “Not as hard as ballet, probably, but if you saw me do it you would be terrified” “You can’t be any scarier than any monster I’ve ever fought, if you put the same energy that you put into dancing into training, then you’ll be a pro in no time” 

I smiled at her, she was nice, unlike Clarisse, who was walking away, I didn’t mind though, being on the blue team seemed like the better choice. I guess we’ll see how the tournament goes tomorrow, but for now, I’m going see if I’m any good at hand-to-hand combat.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ hey guise 😁 I hope you enjoyed the first part of this Pjo fandom seriesssss 💗💗 nones of the characters in this stories except my oc’s (Aikaterini Balakrishnan) that were used in the story so far are mine. I wanted to add a Desi character to this story because they don’t get enough recognition 💗💗 Please lmk what you think about this in the comments and lmk what else you would liek to see in this series 💗 idrk where I’m going with this but I am not gonna let this story go to waste, I’ll try to get it done but I got school and stuff so 😪😪 thanks for reading 💗

[chitty-chitty-bang-bang-bang]

“Remember that one time with…”

Age Restrictions: 16+ (vulgar language)

Author’s Note (1): The reader is human here and all stories exist separately from each other.

Author’s note (2): I’m not crying because it’s the last season of wwdits, you are. But in all seriousness, I am literally so depressed over this, so I wanted to write something feel-good to celebrate the end of the series. Bye bye wwdits show!

__________________________________________

Nadja of Antipaxos

Ah yes, the wild 50s that you spent in New York city were absolutely magical. You were just a small street musician tap dancing your little heart out for a few cents, when Nadja, the Nadja of the famous Rat Pack took a liking to you!

She took you under her wing and supported your passion like nobody else ever did. You spent a lot of time together, dancing, talking or creating music. She was charming and even if sometimes her straightforwardness could throw you off, she was never outright mean. On the contrary, you grew incredibly close.

Suddenly, you became the cream of the crop, getting recognised on the streets, invited to exclusive parties and being written about in the newspapers. The fame was so unexpected and unpredictable, that you had real trouble adjusting to the constant pressure of being observed in the public eye. It felt, like your every move was constantly watched and observed, trying to find any small imperfection that could be ridiculed by the masses.

On one night, when the stress of it all started to really get to its boiling point, you had an accident onstage. During your big number, you just fell down and couldn’t find it in you to get up. Was it the clearly broken ankle or the lack of inner motivation, but you just laid there, limply observing the flashing lights of photo cameras in the crowd.

That’s when Nadja sprung into action.

You’re not sure how she did it, but she convinced everyone to never mention this accident ever happening and escorted you off the stage. Nadja stayed with you the whole time, before ambulance could arrive and comforted you in what seemed to be one of the worst moments of your life.

You expected to see your face in the papers next day with some disgusting headline, but there was absolutely nothing. For some reason, the journalists actually complied to Nadja’s order. And Nadja herself? Well, she was in your life for a couple more years, before disappearing without a trace… You tried to find her, but it’s like she never existed at all. Still, you hold memories of her close and dear.

Laszlo Cravensworth

Working as a dealer in a casino led you to have quite a few ridiculous and interesting stories to recall from your job. All kinds of people are swept into casinos daily and nightly and not all of them are alright in the head. Some of them were huge dicks, flirty assholes and self-proclaimed lover boys, while others were funny, charming and rather unconventional idiots.

From the last ones, your favourite story to remember is meeting an Englishman, who was dressed in some goth-ish clothes, velvet, silk and wore fake fangs, seemingly pretending to be a vampire, which you found hilarious. The best part was just how committed to the bit he was.

Laszlo Cravensworth was how he introduced himself. The whole time he sat at your table, you couldn’t really tell if he actually had no clue how to play poker or if he was just a very good actor. Nonetheless his outrageous playing strategies (or an evident lack there of) deterred anyone from sitting at this particular table, but he didn’t seem to mind.

Out of boredom you just started showing him magic tricks with cards, that you learned in your free time, in response to which he showed you his own and they were quite impressive. So impressive, that it actually made you think that it was magic for a second. When you tried to get him to show you the way his tricks are performed he got a bit nervous and came up with a thousand and one excuse on why ‘magicians never reveal their secrets’.

He just kept you busy with random talk about his wife, about his roommates, about his adventures, about his heritage and you just couldn’t stop listening. Not because you were obligated to, you could’ve easily told him to leave the table if he wasn’t going to play, but you didn’t. Your whole night was spent at that very same table with the conversations drifting from small talk to deep philosophical debates on topics, that you had no relation to, but still wanted to discuss.

At the end of the night, he admitted to you, that he was a vampire. Of course, you laughed it off and didn’t believe him. A vampire? That’s ridiculous. And after that he finally left.

A few days later you saw a report in the news about several people going missing in the hotel, where you were working and the last time they were scene is in one of the rooms, booked by four people. To your shock one of their names was indeed Laszlo Cravensworth.

To this day, you’re not quite sure who you met.

The Guide

College was a tough time for you, since student debt is no joke and it’s not like you could really work during the day, because you were way too busy with studying. So you decided to get a side hustle as a night guard at some small business centre in Staten Island, not far from your place. It wasn’t ideal, but it fed you, so that was enough.

You weren’t too familiar with anyone working in that place, because by the time your shift started, most people were already leaving. The only ones who seemed to remain in the building for quite a while were some kind of weird gothic club, that worked in the basement and called themselves “The Vampiric Council”. You’d found it rather funny, but didn’t think much of it, because they seemed nice enough. Especially one lady, who seemed to spend most of her time there.

You could quite recall her name. Was it Gail? Gaia? Guinn? But she often came to your desk to just chat when she had nothing to do. Even though she seemed to sometimes look down on you a bit, presumably because of how young you were, she still always gravitated to your desk, because both of you were very lonely in that building.

Sometimes you didn’t even talk about anything in particular, just told each other stories or played games like “I spy”. She was one of the only reasons you didn’t just blatantly fall asleep at your desk every single night.

One particular night, however, you felt like absolute shit. It was the exam period and you studied throughout the whole day, but still couldn’t write down certain crucial parts in time, so you continued your shift with your nose buried in books and your own notes. Naturally, by 1am, you were asleep, because your mind and body completely shut down for the day, no matter how much you tried to fight against it.

When you woke up, your first instinct was to panic, because you clearly recalled not finishing your notes. But contrary to your belief, the notes were completed perfectly in a handwriting you didn’t recognise. You figured that only one person could’ve done that. The woman from “The Vampiric Council”. You remembered to thank her for it on your next shift.

After you stopped working as a night guard, you didn’t see that woman anymore, no matter how hard you tried to find her. But memories of her still leave a pleasant warm feeling in your heart.

Colin Robinson

You still vividly remember your first job at a visa center in New York. It was better than you may think. The pay was great, the schedule was pretty much perfect and the work itself wasn’t too complicated. Everything suited you, though there were some complications with the coworkers.

The whole place seemed pretty much dead and you had no idea why. People looked exhausted and uninterested in holding a conversation for even a second. It’s like all of their energy was completely sucked out of them. Though, one person was different. A middle aged man named Colin Robinson. You remember him well, because he was a walking stereotype of a white guy.

But the thing is, as much as you thought you could never get along with someone like him, you did. Sure, sometimes it felt like he was purposely getting on your nerves, but other than that, he was fun. He always had something interesting to say like a fun fact or a dumb story. He made stupid impressions of people and for some reason seemed really surprised and even mildly annoyed that you found him fun to be around.

One time you were feeling sick, but still came to work, because you had no sick days left. The longer you sat in the dusty old space, the more you felt your consciousness slip away and your body get hotter. You sat in the break room, drinking some cold soda to try and chill your body down, but it didn’t work.

Colin walked in on you slowly breaking down, because of how horrible you felt from the fever and told you to go see a doctor. You tried to argue, but he didn’t budge and told you that you were being annoying for sulking around the office, since usually you’re the only happy person there.

You left work at lunch and visited a doctor. Turns out you had a temperature of forty degrees and thankfully they were able to lower it just in time. But if you stayed at work that day, who knows what could’ve happened to you?

You took Colin out for a coffee as a gesture of gratitude and a few months later he got fired from your company, but you still text each other from time to time. It’s nice to have acquaintances.

Guillermo de la Cruz

The 2010s was probably the least exciting time of your life. Actually, it was rather miserable. You had just moved into New York, hoping for an amazing career, loads of new opportunities, parties, celebrities and so on. But what you really got was a tiny apartment in Brooklyn, a very reclusive roommate and a job at Panera Bread fifteen minutes away from your street. Just what you hoped for, right?

But, of course, there were upsides. You still made new friends and one of them was your colleague. A cheerful young man named Guillermo, who hated this place just as much as you did. You just immediately clicked together for some reason, talking about dumb customers, vampire movies, celebrity drama. And all of a sudden coming to work wasn’t as bad, because at least you got to spend some time with a person you relate to.

Though not all days could be recalled as pleasant.

One time, a person came in with their young daughter and stood in front of the cash register to order. You were the cashier but also simultaneously helped out with some orders and you were taking just a little too long to get to the register for this person to take. So while you were taking their order, they threw a couple of petty jabs at you along the lines of “how do they even hire people like you”, but you decided you don’t care enough to make a whole deal out of it and just moved on.

Unfortunately, a whole deal was made out of it later and not by you. A couple of minutes passed after you handed out their order, when they came back and in a rather agitated tone asked for a manager, because they wanted to file a complaint on you. When you tried to ask why, they just dismissed it and kept insisting that you bring the manager. Obviously, you didn’t want to do that, because the manager will kick your ass for this even if you had nothing to do with it.

Thankfully, you and Guillermo got a pretty good system for this kinds of situations, so you went up to him and gave him a quick rap of what had happened. He went back with you and you presented him as the manager, which he was not, but it’s not like anyone would check right now. The person started giving him a whole speech about how they were convinced you spat in their mac n’ cheese, because it tasted weird and you seemed upset after they scolded you a few minutes back.

Guillermo tried to have a reasonable conversation with them at first, but that clearly didn’t seem to work, because they kept demanding refund. So he just gave them back their money and they left feeling delighted at their little victory. Only later did he tell you, that the money he gave them was the fake money you used to play poker during the breaks. He just happened to have them in his pocket from the unfinished game that you had that day.

Even now, as he’s not working in Panera Bread, you’re still close friends and often recall this silly story.

Nandor the Relentless

Oh to be a traveler, touring around the world, seeing all kinds of amazing places and sights. You were one of these lucky people in late nineties who had enough fortune to let yourself just explore the world and its bounds. When you were in America, you had the chance to visit the legendary Woodstock festival! You would be a fool to not take that opportunity, so you did. Naturally.

You weren’t sure if the festival was supposed to be this crowded, but it was indeed full of life and a load of very interesting people. On the first evening you met a very nice man named Nandor from some country Al Qolnidar, that you didn’t know much about. You pretty much spent the whole night with him, getting high, singing and dancing. He was a lot of fun and seemed to really take a liking to you. By day he disappeared and you couldn’t find him anywhere, but by night he was with you again.

The conditions of the festival seemed to be only worsening with time and you felt yourself getting more and more sick after each interaction with the chaos and the lack of food and water. On the last day, people went absolutely apeshit and started to burn stuff, tear down the stage, assault each other and frankly you were terrified. So when the whole ordeal started to get completely out of hand, you spotted Nandor in the crowd, took his hand and started to sprint as far away from the crowd as possible.

It later turned out to be the right decision, when you could see people basically burn down half of the sound equipment as well as set pieces of the stage on fire. It all went up in bright lights by the middle of the night. You two spent the rest of the night sitting in the mud, as you munched on half a protein bar that was left in your pocket, and just talked about anything and everything. Soon enough, police and ambulances arrived, taking people away and you guys just turned out to be lucky enough getting out of there at the right time.

After Woodstock ended, you kept in touch with Nandor over mail. He preferred the old fashioned way of communicating by letter, which, you had to admit, was very romantic. But with your constant travelling, one day you both just lost each other’s address and it was the end of your story… But those legendary three days stayed with you for the rest of your life.

[brighter-by-the-daly]

Millie Bright x Reader

Around If You Need Me

Part of the Beth McCarthy mini series

Omg Did She Call Him Baby?

Did he fuck it up again?

I know that she needs a friend

But I want to be more than that

He's her type, he's a ten

When he messages I bet

Unlike me he doesn't get left unread

“Hey! What ya doing tomorrow, I haven’t seen you in ages?” you asked as soon as Millie answered the phone. “Oh hey (y/n/n), I’m out at the moment, can I call you back later?” her reply full of distraction. “Of course, yeah.. that’s fine, speak soon!” There wasn’t a reply as the line abruptly hung off after that. Flopping back onto the bed disappointed, Millie never has time for you anymore and you’re starting to wonder why you keep trying. Going back to mindlessly scrolling TikTok and playing games on your phone while murder documentaries played out on the TV in front of you. You hadn’t left your bedroom in days and had taken the plunge to ask Millie for a coffee after not hearing from her in weeks. She was your best friend but you felt like you weren’t hers anymore. If she needed anything you’d drop everything just to be there for her but that was rarely reciprocated lately. You pretended to understand, she is an international footballer these days and you just have a boring 9-5 in an office, leaving you loads of spare time to miss her.

Drawing your eyes away from your phone and towards the clock you were shocked to see it was midnight, you’d been so focussed on your phone and waiting for a call back which never happened. Again. Feeling deflated you brushed your teeth and got ready for bed, even though you’ve been laying on it all weekend.

The next morning you still had zero notifications from Millie, you know she can be forgetful so decided to text her. After writing and deleting several messages before settling on “be good to catch up x”, pressing the send button before you changed your mind again. With a mouth full of sandwich on your lunch break you were starting to feel a bit forgotten by your best friend come ex. Oh yeah, you used to date but it was only for a month. She was experimenting and let’s just say that that experiment didn’t go the way you had hoped. It wasn’t an experiment for you, you’d known you liked women from an early age and Millie kinda took advantage of that. No sooner after she called it off she got with her now boyfriend who’s she’s been with for about six months. That’s when she started to distance herself from you. You used to hang out all the time but now your messages get left on read and when they are replied to, it’s always days.. sometimes weeks later and every time it’s - “sorry I forgot”. Fair enough, she’s a busy lady but you don’t just forget your best friend exists do you? Millie is everyone’s friend yet she was your only friend so you’d been clinging on to the threads of the friendship that was left, always over thinking if you were being naggy or possessive or wasting your time, should you just let her go?

Weeks passed and you’d still hadn’t heard from her, you’d started to come to terms with that fact you’ll never be as close as you once were. Every year she always messages on your birthday so when you received a 10 second phone call of “hey, can I come over?” you literally ran home from the restaurant where your family had taken you to celebrate.

Answering the door excitedly to see her face didn’t feel like you’d imagined as she immediately started ranting about what her boyfriend’s done wrong. She wasn’t there to wish you a happy birthday, she was there because she needed someone to moan to. Nevertheless, you made tea and listened to her for hours until she noticed the cards on the window sill. Picking one up to read it was addressed to you and quickly glancing at her watch to look at the date. “Oh my god, I completely forgot!” she gasped clunking her tea cup onto the table and scooping you into a hug. You knew in your head that a hug shouldn’t make up for forgetting your birthday, but it made your heart a little happier.

Millie cleared her schedule to spend the rest of the day with you, it felt nostalgic watching films and playing with the dogs, drinking tea in the garden and listening to her sharing all the gossip. That was until she received a text from her boyfriend apologising for his earlier actions and inviting her on a date. Running to your wardrobe and flying the doors open to look at the clothes you had hanging there she started to unhook the hangers, look at them for two seconds then chuck them onto the bed - making a huge mess you knew she wasn’t going to tidy. That was until she found a dress you’d been saving for a special occasion and before you could say ‘no’, she’d already stripped out of her trackies and slipped the slinky black number over her body.

“This is perfect!” she exclaimed admiring herself in the mirror. Sighing at how good she looked, you didn’t have the heart to tell her that dress was off limits, even though you knew you’d never see it again. “Can I borrow your make up? Can you straighten my hair?” shoving your straighteners into your hands without giving you a choice in the matter. Reluctantly helping her get ready because you just wanted to make her happy, the voice in the back of your head knew she was taking the piss but your heart just didn’t let you stop. Gazing at her through the mirror as she applied your make up to her face, she paid no attention to your wandering eyes as you longed for her to feel the same way you do. The way her hair falls in exactly the right place, the way the dress clings to her curves perfectly, the way the colour makes her skin glow. You knew what her lips taste like and you’d been searching for that flavour in every woman you’ve kissed since.

“Do you have shoes to go with this?” she asked, snapping you out of your daydream. “Mill, you outgrew my shoes in year 7, don’t you remember?” you said putting your size 5s next to her size 8s. “Hmm, that’s annoying… I’ll just have to make these work” slipping her £400 trainers back on to her feet before leaving your bedroom like a bomb site. “Do you think he’ll like it?” she asked admiring herself in the mirror, “of course he will, he’s not blind Millie” you said trying to hide how deflated you were. Following her downstairs she bought you in for one last hug, “thanks (y/n/n), I can always count on you” as she walked out to the car parked up outside your house. “Oh! Happy birthday by the way!” she waved as she was driven away from you.

Watching her leave you knew, things had to change. You can’t carry on being so available and dependable to her every time she calls. A friendship isn’t a friendship if it’s one sided.. but how many times have you told yourself that before?

[mamashenanigans]

Quick thoughts on recent MHA chapter 410.

-AFO was always going to die to the Rewind. Bakugo didn’t kill him. He held him back from Izuku just long enough for Rewind to finish.

-It’s disappointing that Hori showed us Yoichi looking sad at the end of the prior chapter, but didn’t include him anywhere in this chapter. It’s a strange choice.

-As is always true, the current rough translations are strange. The first page initial translation has AFO remarking that, with how Tomura looks, the AFO vestige has “died”, so he lost his trump card, but he can still win this? WTF does that even mean? It’s AFO’s POV so is he saying he can still win in another way?

-AFO actually says “Yoichi, I need you”. That’s very different than how he’s spoken about Yoichi prior. It seems to be more about how he knows he’s about to die and wants his twin. Not a “I have to have you”, “You need to be mine”, “You’re mine”, but an honest “I need you because I’m about to die”.

-Why the FUCK couldn’t Hori just add a quick panel of Yoichi when AFO says that? Why isn’t Yoichi shown in this chapter at all? Drives me nuts.

-I like how AFO’s final thoughts align with the backstory we got. He had a fucked up childhood and never made any good memories, so he wanted everyone else to feel as he did. He wanted everyone to look at him(nod to wanting to be the Demon Lord from the comics) and needs his brother. His true feelings and he can’t stand it so he goes out screaming about how he can’t handle all the emotions.

-So, the AFO vestige is “dead”, but Tomura still has the Quirk? That doesn’t add up to literally anything related to vestiges we’ve seen thus far. Stars and Stripes was able to destroy vestiges within AFO and then those powers were lost. AFO ate vestiges so they wouldn’t go against him. So, is the AFO vestige really gone? If the Quirk is still being used then the vestige of that Quirk is still there.

-So, Tomura was able to take Danger Sense INCLUDING the vestige associated with the Quirk. Again, this contradicts the whole “AFO’s vestige is dead, but Tomura still has the AFO Quirk” thingy.

-WHERE THE FUCK IS YOICHI?

So, yeah. I’m a fan of AFO, but I always knew he was going to go out with Rewind. It’s just disappointing how he went out. Having Yoichi there, especially after the “Yoichi, I need you” would have made it better. I mean, don’t fucking show me Yoichi looking sad watching the end of Bakugo and AFO’s fight and then not have him around when AFO blips out of existence. Huge let down.

Obviously, we’re getting a Tomura redemption thing because of course we’re going to use AFO as the entire excuse as to why Tomura mercilessly killed hundreds of people throughout the series WITHOUT the AFO vestige and WITHOUT remorse.

Yeah know, I’ve still always wondered about the vault door in the realm of OFA. The shots we’ve gotten of it has always felt ominous and it begs the question as to why the door is there, all chained and locked up, in the first place. I’ve always thought that maybe there’s an AFO vestige or will be and the door is holding him back. It isn’t a stretch that AFO could now exist in the OFA world either through the twin thing or that a vestige pops up since he originally had the stockpiling ability that he gave Yoichi. I dunno. I think it would be kinda funny.

I’ll never not be salty at the lack of Yoich interacting with original AFO. So bad.

[biscuitblinkeu]

Cards and the Sony Handcam [3]

Park Chaeyoung x Fem!reader

Word count: 4111

A/n: The slow build up is killing me, and it’s probably killing you readers more since I didn’t even give y’all a summary… Why does the word count get bigger every chapter 🗿

Chapter not proofread yet

……………………………………………………………………

“You really like coffee, don’t you,” you muse, having watched Roseanne the moment she got her drink inhale the aroma like it was a lifeline; your lips quirked into a fond smile.

In fact, she had made a beeline towards the café table closest to the entrance where she sat and promptly fell into the cushioned chair with a heavy sigh, as though all the energy was draining from her body in that instant. She gave you her exact order as you offered to get it for her, and stayed slumped there while you got the drinks.

She takes a sip of her coffee, sighing contentedly. “Yes, but I like it even more when I actually need it.”

“Tiring day?”

She nods, “And it’s not even over yet. I might need an iced coffee to-go.”

“Or, you could take a nap. I don’t think that much coffee is healthy.” 

Roseanne gives you a look, as to say, ‘caffeine is what every college student functions on.’ She sighs, “I wish I could be able to, naps don’t exist for me.” 

“You can’t sleep?” You ask, and Roseanne confirms with a nod. “Have you tried melatonin? That usually helps me.”

“Yes I have, it doesn’t work.”

“You're an insomniac?”

“Afraid so,” she says. You talk a little more. And despite being insomniac, she still gets that iced coffee. (And as she’s walking out of the café with it, she thinks everyone makes poor choices every once in a while. In hindsight, she shouldn’t be drinking another cup.)

You and Roseanne went your separate ways for now, as you would see eachother again in a few hours when you were moving in. Lisa had committed to the task of helping you move your things from your current room to Roseanne’s, along with the help of some of the Dance majors. 

“I’ll be out of your hair in less than an hour, so stop the whining, please.” You say, irritated. Your roommate has been nagging in your ear about all the garbage bags with your clothes, shoes, and other things all in front of the door. Krystal huffs in response, rolling her eyes and smacking her gum as she plugs her AirPod back into her ears. You wish it stayed in her ear and she would stop taking the thing out just to bitch about something else.

It's not long before a pattern of knocks sound at your door; a familiar series of taps and you open your door to Lisa, Hyunjin, and Yeji. 

“Hey!” Lisa greets, hugging you briefly before sliding past you as she whispers, “Ready to get out of this hellhole?” You make a dramatic roll of your eyes before looking at the man and woman in front of you, smiling mischievously. “How are my favorite twins?” Simultaneously, they groan and start a rant about how they only look similar and have the same last name but aren’t related in any way.

You laugh, letting them in and they make quick work of taking the bags and items you had lined by the doorway and putting them into a cart provided by the University. All your stuff is in the cart in fourty or so minutes, and you’re given a half-assed goodbye from Krystal as the door shuts behind you with a click.

“Thank you all for helping,” you say, trailing behind the Hwangs who push the cart, Lisa at your side.

“It’s no problem,” the Hwangs voiced at the same time. 

“Why do you keep copying me?” Yeji, whined. 

“I’m not!” Hyunjin shouted, irritated that they’re not really fighting the stereotype of twins. You and Lisa laughed, watching them babble on.

Lisa nudged you in the side, “Roseanne’s dorm is near the English Arts building, and it’s on one of the higher floors so we have to take the elevator.” Lisa tells you as you turn another hallway.

“That’s pretty convenient for her then, being next to the building most of her classes are all in. I usually have to take a short subway trip or walk across campus.”

“I know right? But if you think about it, after you move in, you won’t have to go out of your way for transportation since the Arts buildings are close together.” You hum.

After wheeling the cart through multiple hallways, walking across parking lots, and through a few doors you were in Roseanne’s residence hall. Like Lisa informed, you did have to take an elevator to the higher floors. When you got out on the fourth floor, you all walked along the numerous doors till you reached the end of the hallway.

It was one door, with no others adjacent to it, confirming that Roseanne had one of the bigger dorms. The bigger dorms were available for the top students who got in with their academics or accomplishments, the university even held raffles for the nicer dorms whenever a spot opened to the general population of students. (In short, if you were smart you had a higher chance of getting a bigger dorm.)

You and the two Hwangs jumped when Lisa started knocking very aggressively on Roseanne’s door. It was a succession of sharp blows, slaps, and thunks. The door was thrown open a few moments later by an agitated Roseanne. A few hairs were out of place and she looked very humorless, staring at Lisa with narrowed eyes and a tight smile. 

“You totally ran all the way here,” Lisa stated, pointing a finger at Roseanne as a sly smile painted her lips. The blonde huffed, eyes drifting to the cart behind Lisa, to you, and then back to Lisa lazily. 

“Yes, I ran. But do you have to do that every time?” She grumbled. Lisa grinned widely, nodding her head. She turned around and gestured to you. “Ready to have a new roomie?” 

Roseanne smiled before nodding her head in the direction of the room and said, “I am. Come on then.”

Upon walking in, you observed, if anything, that your university definitely had a large portion of its budget go into the dorms. Roseanne’s dorm was very nice, almost the size of a small apartment or studio. And that’s not to say your previous dorm wasn’t nice, because it was, but right off the bat there were significant differences between yours and Roseanne’s.

Her dorm was like a suite, it was very clean and minimal. She had enough space for a small living room, and across from that there was a small kitchen, which she had extra appliances and things. There was a hallway, with a room on each side and at the beginning of it, a bathroom. 

Roseanne led you to what would be your bedroom. “Here it is, there’s a closet over there, and then you can decide if you want to move that dresser or not…” she informed. “Let me know if you need any help, but I’ll be in my room doing assignments.” 

“Thanks, Roseanne.” You tell her as she disappears into her room and you enter your own room, taking in its appearance. It was smaller than your shared dorm room with Krystal obviously; it had a bed (no sheets or anything), the dresser Roseanne spoke about before she left, and a closet. it was perfect, though, because you had your own space.

(Little did you know that that “own space” of yours would be almost nonexistent in the untold future.)

It was a team effort taking your stuff out the cart, out the bags and into its respective spot. You decided to use the dresser still in the room as you had a lot of clothes. You helped with the lightweight things and planned to help with your heavy items like your I-Mac and clothing bags, but got shooed away. Now you’ve just been observing. (Observing the rippling arm muscles and hard earned bodies of the dancers, that is.)

“Are you okay?” Lisa approaches with a laugh, eyeing you. She’s detected your perverse notions, you thought, that’s the reason she came over here. You pull your bottom lip from where it was caught between your teeth and look away from the dancers, smiling at Lisa innocently. “Just fine, but I can’t get over how attractive they are, like, it should be a sin.”

Lisa gasps, “Am I included? You know I’m the hottest, right?”

(I’m the hottest, okay?)

“Yes, you too,” you roll your eyes playfully, poking her in the rib. Half an hour later, they finished up and you were walking them out the door. You smiled at them. “Thank you guys so much, I appreciate it.”

“No problem.”

“Of course.”

“See you soon,” Lisa said last, walking with the twins down the hallway. You closed the door with a sigh. What to do now?

…

Roseanne has left you to your devices for a few hours, and you’ve been somewhat quiet, so she flinches when she hears a knock on her door.

On the other hand, you, having reached the point of borderline boredom, caved in and decided to bother your new roommate. You had shuffled down the hallway to her open door and stood in her door frame, dressed similar to earlier except now wearing a baggy tee. “Hey, wanna watch a movie?”

Roseanne looks at the mess of papers in front of her, then back to you. “Sure, I could use a break.” 

It’s funny that you fell asleep during the movie despite being the one that asked to watch it. Roseanne can’t even watch it though because your snores are snatching her attention from the movie every few seconds.

She bites the inside of her cheek, deciding to lightly tap on your shoulder. “(Y/n), hey, you’re snoring and I can’t hear the movie.” 

You turn your head slightly, eyes still closed. “Then turn it up…” you murmur, pulling the cover over your shoulder.

“So you can yell at me for waking you because of the volume?”

You huff, dragging yourself upwards and throwing her an unamused look. “You woke me up anyway, so I don’t think that matters.”

Roseanne hums to herself, looking to the clock on the wall before turning her gaze to you again. “You look tired, why don’t we call it a night? You can take a shower.”

“Yeah, sure, that’d be great.” You agreed tiredly, hoping that when you’re under the shower water you don’t fall asleep. You take a quick shower, change, and brush your teeth before waking down the hallway to your room. Roseanne’s door was open so you yelled goodnight before shutting your own. Once in your room, you plop onto your bed face first, burying your nose deep in the pillow. Sleep comes quickly.

…

beep! beep! beep!

beep! beep! beep!

Roseanne’s eyes snap open in alarm at the screeching sound. Her body stilled, and she waited maybe seven seconds before she allowed herself to calm down. She remembered now; she had a roommate; someone living with her, and just in the room a little ways down and across the hallway. 

beep! beep! beep!

She assumed that horrid noise was just your alarm going off— really loudly, at seven in the morning on a Sunday. Roseanne tossed around to lay on her stomach, pressing her pillow to her head. She screwed her eyes shut, planning to fall asleep again, knowing you’re probably awake now to turn it off.

“…”

beep! beep! beep!

Any second now, she tells herself, you’re going to turn it off.

beep! beep! beep!

“Are you serious…” Roseanne murmurs, sliding out of bed groggily. The beep!..beep!..beep! was harsh on her ears, as was the sunlight seeping through her half-open curtains. She runs a hand through her tangled hair, knowing if she were to come across a mirror it’d resemble a lion’s mane. Bedhead wasn’t kind to her, she liked to toss and turn in her sleep.

Roseanne shivered as she stepped into the hallway, the draft of the air conditioner creeping across her skin. She padded to your door, her pajama pants which were pooling at her feet slid against the carpet with each step. She knocked thrice, and when you didn’t answer she knocked twice before coming in, and just as she thought, you were still asleep, oblivious to your alarm going off and still dead to the world.

You weren’t even all the way on your bed, she noticed, you had one leg hanging over the side with one fuzzy sock on the foot outside of the covers, the other leg bent, and your arms sprawled out in different directions. 

She has to feel around your bed for your phone, and the task was harder than she’d like to admit. You would roll over and toss and turn, shifting your phone’s position multiple times or burying it underneath your back or covers. 

How can someone sleep like this? 

Finally, Roseanne managed to find the damn phone and turned off the annoying alarm. You mumbled something incoherently  before turning over in your bed. She put your cover back on you before leaving the room, deciding to “fake sleep” for a few more hours since she didn’t want to face the responsibilities of the day yet.

Unsurprisingly, you woke up half an hour later, completely aware you didn’t wake up with your timer. You yawned, stretching pleasurably before leaving the bedroom. It was quiet as a mouse, the only sounds coming from outside the dorm and the air conditioning. You tiptoed to the bathroom, failing miserably at washing your face and brushing your teeth quietly. 

You hung out in the living room after eating a few pieces of toast and fruit because you can’t cook. If you really think about it, you’ve been surviving off of simple meals, microwave food, takeout, and Lisa’s cooking. (That’s embarrassing.)

Roseanne enters the kitchen three hours later, toothbrush in mouth as she pulls out a carton of orange juice. She entered so silently you were startled when you finally noticed that she was awake. “Jesus!”

“Good morning?…” She says with confusion, voice muffled by her toothbrush.

“Good afternoon,” you say back. It was twelve-something past morning. She slept till the early afternoon. 

Later in the day, after lounging around the dorm with Roseanne you were called by Lisa, who said her, Jennie, and Jisoo were coming over. 

Due to this, you and Roseanne had to go grocery shopping for snacks and other things low in her fridge. You got the essentials: milk, bottled water, bread, cheeses, more fruits, etc. (You would both pay for the total by splitting it as it was more convenient.) Then it was time to conquer the snack aisle, and bicker you did; over Oreo flavors. 

“The original is the best kind, it’s a staple, it’s what everyone gets. Therefore—” 

“Therefore you should try new flavors. Look,” she pulled a few boxes off the shelves, “they have some new flavors, there’s swedish fish, mint, s’mores, rice crispy, red velvet, birthday cake. What about mint?”

You physically recoil and Roseanne gives you a weird look. “Out of all the flavors you just listed, you picked that one?”

“What’s wrong with this one?” With a frown she holds up the Mint Oreo box, genuinely confused.

“What’s wrong with it is that—”

“Ladies,” a man interrupts. The smile on his face looked so incredibly strained, almost like a stretched rubber band. It’s then you realize he’s been standing behind the two of you to get a Oreo box himself since you’ve taken up this section of the aisle. He wrings his hands together, eyeing the number of Oreo boxes you both hold, and through his teeth he says, “Why don’t you just get both?” 

“Oh.” Roseanne said dumly, heat creeping up her neck. She turns to you, “Well, let’s get both then.” You agree wordlessly, feeling mortified as well. 

After that experience, shopping for snacks was smooth sailing and you were out of the store in record time. You went back to your dorm and put everything in its respective places and Roseanne took care of the snack platters. 

And as she took care of the snacks— putting them in organized bowls and arrangements, you watched her with difficulty. She was color coding the candies; lining up the Oreos in rows; making sure no kernels fell in the bowl. When she shifted the charcuterie board’s position for the nth time, you flopped back onto the couch and let out a whine. “Roseanne, that’s the 6th time you’ve arranged it! I swear it looks fine.”

She gives you a withering look, not quite believing you, and her hands fidget at her sides for a moment more before she gives up, plopping into a chair. She only gets like this when she needs something to do. Never does she not have something to occupy her, and when she does it’s so incredibly difficult to relax.

You affirm that the board looks fine once more before unpausing the tv, though a shiver induced by the AC passes through you and you instinctively reach for the cover laying folded across the couch next to you. 

“That’s not a blanket,” Roseanne speaks up, making you pause and pull your hand back and look her way. “It’s not?” you question, staring at the soft checkered pattern.

“I mean, it is. But it’s not supposed to be used.”

You blink. “What’s the point of the blanket being on the couch if it can’t be used?”

“It’s for decoration, of course.”

You throw your arms back, amused but slightly exasperated. You’re cold!

“I’m joking,” she says. (She’s not. Its only real purpose was to sit there and look nice.) “You can use it.” 

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah.”

An obnoxious pattern of knocks sound at the door and you flinch. You’ve come to know that it was Lisa becuase of what you heard earlier. Roseanne gets up to answer the door.

You hear the voices of Lisa and Jennie along with a new voice and sit up, smiling as they walk in. “Hey guys,” you greet and they return. You tilt your head at the brunette. “Jisoo, I presume?”

“Yeah, it’s nice to finally meet you, (Y/n).” You just about say the same before falling into conversation with them.

“You won’t believe what we saw in the hallways on the way here— some guy was running around butt naked in desperate need of something to cover up. I bet he got locked out by some friends or something.” Lisa says, plopping down next to you. 

You grimace. “I would be mortified. I wouldn’t show my face ever again.” Roseanne scrunches her nose up, agreeing with you. “Well, now that we’re all here let’s eat snacks and play some games. And by games I mean Poker and whatever else I have.”

You’re all seated around the glass coffee table in front of the couches, snack bowls at one end of the table up for grabs anytime and cards laid in front of you. You’ve dragged a beanbag chair into the room and occupied it. Lisa and Rosé sit adjacent to you on opposite sides of each other and Jennie and Jisoo sit with their legs criss-crossed on the other end.

Uno turns out to be a disaster. Everyone was making up their own rules and confusing the reverse and skip cards. Charades was the funniest thing you’ve ever witnessed. And Poker, it turns out, was fun. 

It turns out to be much easier to understand than you anticipated. Three cards are face up on the table, followed by another and the following, as explained by Roseanne. Jisoo and Lisa chime in with some pertinent facts and other oddball observations. A stack of plastic chips is placed in front of you when you demonstrate that you have a reasonable grasp and pledge to ask for assistance if necessary. They all promise you that betting is far more enjoyable. Lisa appears delighted that she won't run out of chips first. Lisa is quickly running out of chips and Jisoo and Roseanne have exhausted all of their chips, you all turn to look at the large stack in front of Jennie.

"Shark! She's a shark!" Lisa gripes, folding her arms and throwing her cards down on the table as she loses another hand.

"I haven't played before!" Jennie protests. "It's not exactly hard!"

"How are you winning then?" You whine, being in the same position as Jennie as a newbie. She’s a much better poker-newbie than you.

"How the hell do you do that?" Lisa asks exasperated.

"Math," Jennie says simply.

"Math?" Jisoo wonders aloud and Jennie turns to her.

"Yes, math. It's all a matter of probability. Isn't that how you do it?"

Your jaw has fallen to the floor, much like Lisa’s and Roseanne’s.

Jisoo looks at her with drawn brows. "Poker...and math?"

“Hah— you voluntarily do math outside of anything school related? I’m not surprised, smartass,” you say exasperated. Jennie is a law student after all, she was probably the smartest person in the room. Jennie laughs at your comment, quieting down when she feels a brush against her knee.

“That’s actually amazing to me Jen,” Jisoo says, smiling at the cat-eyed woman. “I really admire that about you, you know.” 

“It’s really nothing,” she replies, grinning sheepishly. At their prolonged eye contact, Jennie blushes, and just knowing the rosey color was blooming on her cheeks, she looked down, letting her hair fall like a curtain over her face. That grin of hers transformed into a wide and gummy smile.

“Another game?” Roseanne says, eying Jennie with mischief. Jennie looks up and meets her eyes and the mortified expression she made was comical to Roseanne. She wasn’t subtle at all, that was something Jennie knew— something everyone knew…except Jisoo.

 …

“Bye guys! This was fun, let’s do it again sometime.” You say sending off everyone.

After everyone leaves, you and Roseanne have the unanimous decision to clean up. It was a comfortable silence, you and her shuffling about with the low hum of her speaker’s music. You took the liberty of packing up the poker chips and cards into its box and clearing the table of any dishes. Roseanne was in the kitchen wiping down the counters and throwing away empty soda liters and takeout containers. 

After you fixed up the pillows and dragged the beanbag chairs back into the closet you met Roseanne in the kitchen. 

“Need some help?” You asked, eyeing the amount of dishes sitting in the bubbly water. You make a mental note to buy paper plates and cups.

“That would be nice. I could wash and rinse them and you could dry? Or vice-versa.”

“I’m cool with drying,” you say, moving around her to the other side. You leave out the part that you’re terrified of soggy food underneath your fingernails. It doesn’t look like she has any gloves either. You both begin the tasks then, and after she washed you dried the dishes she handed to you. Occasionally, your arms and elbows brushed together. 

You finished drying while Roseanne hopped in the shower. You were startled awake, having fallen asleep on the couch, by a tap on your shoulder. Your roommate gave you an apologetic smile. “You can get in now.”

You nod, dragging yourself up. This was why you weren’t a night owl. The drowsiness you felt at night was a crazy difference from how you were at the crack of dawn.

You get out of the shower, towel hanging around your neck, and Roseanne slides past you. “Goodnight,” you say, stifling a yawn as you stumble to your room. You lean on the doorframe as you wait for Roseanne to finish brushing her teeth. She comes out and heads to her own room, pausing in the doorway much like you. “Good night, (Y/n).” 

Your doors shut with a click and you plop down ungracefully on your bed, lazily kicking your sweats off. You're out like a light in five minutes. On the other side of the hallway, Roseanne is at her desk, where she pulls out her ragged camcorder. Sleep doesn’t come easily to her and when it does it isn’t the peaceful kind, hence why she stays up as long as she can. That is because she is afraid of her dreams.

She sets the camcorder on the surface in front of her and simply stares at it: the gray, nineteen-eighties camera her stepdad gave her for her twelfth birthday that still works till this day. It was the camera that saved her once, and in the end it will be what kills her.

Would you like to continue?

[xxvalkyriesxx]

Sorry I tried to reply but it got wordy. So because of her mother Nesta was trained and told she would marry to raise up the family’s social status and she received scars as a result of that training. But she also watched her father dote of her sisters knowing that she would not get that affection from him. We see that it was very isolating for her and something she struggles to overcome as an adult( also something she uses to punish herself) but she also is a romance reader. Part of her wants that but knows she can not have it and doesn’t think she deserve it. And while I kind of understand what Cassian was doing after the war his way of interacting with her just enforced those ideas. With her childhood I just felt she wanted someone to choose her sharp edges and all but also felt like she wasn’t worthy of someone choosing her. The lines that really sold me on it being her song were

“ I got cursed like Eve got bitten. Oh is it punishment” her views on being turned.

“Don’t want money just someone who wants my company” she mentions that Eliane never comes to her other then to try and convince her to come back to the river house. And we know Feyre didn’t either. They judged where she spent her time but didn’t spend time with her in places that made her feel comfortable.

“cards in the table my played out likes fools in a fable” we know Nesta Gambled and the literary reference to a fool in love.

“ Still I dream of him” obviously this line feels like it’s about Cassian.

The references to witches and wolves in the bridge that they refer to Nesta as in cannon. Mentions looking unstable and just the desperation to have someone tell you it’s okay. to me the song seems very Nesta after the war when there was probably still hints of hope in her. Before her mind destroyed it.

NOT ME SOBBING OMFG. I DIDNT EVEN THINK ABOUT IT LIKE THAT. OMFG 😭😭♥️ BABY GIRL NESTA WITH THE PROPHECY 😭😭😭💔♥️

I’m in awe of all the details you just went through holy crap!!! I love it!!!! Now I need to listen to this song 500+ times and think about all of this 🥲😭♥️ honestly if Nesta was a TS album, she would be TTPD (the vibes !??!?)

Anyway I know I mentioned how I saw this song connected to Rhys so I wanted to explain my reasoning! Before going forward I don’t remember everything from the series as well as I’m not the biggest fan of Rhys either however he does have moments I really do love him .

With The Prophecy I see it as a long time from when Rhys was younger up until a few months before he met Feyre.

“Hand on the throttle / thought I caught lightning in a bottle / oh, but it’s gone again”

-How his only experience with love had been familiarity and that was all taken away from him in a second. How he settles more or less into being high lord but there’s something missing (or someone one ;)).

“I’ve been on my knees / Change the prophecy / don’t want money / just someone who wants my / company”

-He watched his parents have a loveless bond. And now he’s alone (yes the IC are there however it’s different kind of intimacy that he can’t share with all of them). It could been seen as this how it is for the High Lords of the Night Courts - go through centuries of existing before meeting someone, but is there even someone for you out there, or are you destined to be alone? I think Rhys always wanted to have someone by his side. He had power, money, influence, magic - everything. And yet he didn’t have this one thing. It was the one thing he couldn’t get/find.

“Oh, I still dream of him” (her for Rhys’ case)

-I believe Rhys had dreams/visions of Feyre at some point. I can’t remember how long ago they happened before he met her and how often they were either. But let’s say for my case he did have multiple dreams of her. He dreams of this woman with no real connection to him. Maybe just maybe this woman is meant for something maybe even bigger than him, but he doesn’t know. All he knows ideally is a few physically traits. But she haunts his mind. Would she change his prophecy?

“I’m so afraid I sealed my fate / no sign of soulmates / I’m just a paperweight / in shades of greige”

-UTM when Rhys decides to play into Amarantha’s back pocket. Every year he could’ve lost hope as he waited for Tamlin to break the damn curse. There were no signs of soulmates. He was just a body, a toy, a number to Amarantha. He offered himself to protect the ones he loved but also to try to know her every other move. Near the end of the 49 years he might have believed his fate was sealed. There was very little hope then.

“A lesser woman would’ve lost hope / a greater woman wouldn’t beg”

- Since his birth Rhys has always been tested. He was always meant to be the best version of himself at all times. He was the heir to the night court and then began high lord. He’s supposed to be the greatest. It’s huge burden of an image he has to uphold. He shouldn’t be begging for something that probably his father saw has trivial. Something that we don’t know for sure Rhys felt for anyone before Feyre or even witnessed from a couple in love. But I can imagine he grew lonely, very lonely.

Anyway that’s all I can come up with haha. Like I said not a Rhys girlie so any Rhys girlies who wanna chime in please do! I would love to hear your thoughts and such.

Hopefully this kinda makes sense 😅😅😅

[coolcattime]

What types of series do you most find yourself getting into? Do you prefer the more fun-with-friends type series, a more lore-focused, something that is a specific genre, etc...

So, my investment in any series kinda comes in two waves of:

Characters I can get invested in

The ability to emotionally devastated me

The character one is important to actually get me into a show, like I can’t think of any series where I’m not invested in at least one character, and I think a lot the times I don’t like something it’s because I don’t get a shit about any of the characters (best example I can think of is Telltale’s The Walking Dead: The New Frontier - in a game series where I can name nearly every single character from all three other seasons, I could not tell you the names with certainty of some of the major players in this season. AND I remember nothing about it other than being so frustrated that me and my friend who I played with didn’t play Season 4 - a season I ended up loving - for over a year).

I cannot think of a single form of media that I have gotten into where I’m not somehow invested in the characters. Basically as long as I enjoy the characters, it doesn’t NEED to be emotionally devastating. For example Spy x Family hasn’t emotionally devastated me yet but the silly vibes of these characters somehow still believing they are not a real family despite their love for each other and THEIR VERY REAL LEGAL TIES has gotten me so into that silly world (note: I am only part way through season one - like right after where the seasonal break would’ve been - so like there’s still potential for me to be emotionally devastated but it’s the best example I could think of of just a pure silly show because even fecking Bluey is fully of emotional devastation in a /pos way

To get onto Point B - basically everything I get obsessed with has Moments™ that wring my emotions through a grinder in like a /pos way. This is tv shows, this is youtube series, this is books, this is anime, this is musicals, EVERYTHING.

This doesn’t mean the shows can’t be silly, Oxventure Deadlands managed to really fucking get me because they’re silly TTRPG people surely nothing serious will happen and that lead to being genuinely shocked by a moment and the most tense card moment of a playing card being turned that I’ve personally experienced in media.

Hell, I got really into JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure which is typically an extremely silly show, but is the only media besides Your Turn to Die that has made me feel very emotional for the death of a character I didn’t actually like very much. 

Like I think everything I have any sort of hyperfixation on has emotionally devastated me, there is a reason I have a playlist called Sad Vibes that has at least one song from every musical I’ve ever been into (and two video games - though being two of three songs on my whole spotify not from musicals or musical based content). If it wouldn’t be the most spoiler filled list in existence I would make a list of the examples from everything I can think off (though if you want to know, I would be so happy to make one), but for now I’ll just say there is a reason I became absolutely hooked on Capsize and Redbeard as characters and it’s that the Mianite Season One finale got its hooks into my mind forever.

[blueeyeswhitegarden]

Day 14: Halfway to Heartland Tower @arcvmonth

While I think that the Xyz cast tends to be put on a bit of a pedestal among fans, I still like them too. I like the contrast between Yuto and Shun in their initial appearances. Yuto was set on trying to protect Yuzu, thinking that she was Ruri, and while he was set on getting information from Sawatari, he was also willing to stop the duel once he knew that Sawatari didn't know anything about Academia. He only finished it because Sawatari was still set on winning the duel himself. Even when he dueled Sora, Yuto deliberately held back from winning because he didn't want to even make his enemies suffer. Even though he was forced into this Dimensional War where he has to protect himself and his friends, Yuto still was pretty gentle underneath it all.

Shun by comparison was much more aggressive. He targeted LDS members, carding them to get Reiji's attention and hoping to have a hostage exchange to get Ruri back. He was much more set on fighting back than Yuto was and full of more anger. Not that Yuto himself didn't have his own anger problems, but that Shun's anger was much more on the surface compared to Yuto's. Both of their earlier appearances in season one really helped to make them more mysterious and unique.

I also like Shun's development. I just like seeing him become less of an angry bird over the course of he series and I think it works pretty well. While his anger is understandable, I think not willing to trust anyone outside of his hometown was a big issue. Granted, he said his after he found out that Dennis was a spy, so that made him even more defensive. Becoming friends with Crow was his first real step in letting down his walls a bit. The Bird Bro Fist is also just amazing. He seemed more comfortable and willing to work with the rest of the Lancers afterwards as well. I like his friendship with Yuya as well. I liked their chemistry during their duels and just seeing Shun being a bit happier with him was just really nice too. After seeing Yuya's duel against Jack and how it brought the City together, I could believe that made Shun trust Yuya more as well.

I actually like Arc V Kaito quite a bit as well. Maybe it helped that I'm not a huge Zexal fan to begin with, but I kind of liked the changes they made for this version of the character and I think he generally worked for the role he was given too. He felt more like season one Shun in terms of being aggressive and hostile, even towards his allies, and that's why their duel worked. It was to show how Shun had changed over the course of the series up to that point, while also laying the foundation for Kaito's change, and I think it worked well. .I also really liked his Cipher deck, to he point where I wish we got to see more cards for that archetype, and his new Galaxy Eyes ace monsters were really cool too. I really liked that he got to duel in his black coat. Kaito's design never looked good to me with lighter color schemes, including his Photon Change Mode back in Zexal, so seeing him duel in his default outfit was nice. I liked his teamwork with both Ed and Shun during their duels near the end of the series as well.

I also really liked Yuya vs. Shun. I thought it was a good matchup and a solid last duel for Shun. I also think that it gives Shun better closure than fans tend to give it credit for. Shun was lashing out at Yuya after hearing Leo's theory about the other counterparts being erased, and he was going to accept that they were gone if he lost. But he didn't even after he lost. He felt Yuto's presence in Yuya, which made him realize that both Yuto and Ruri were still alive in Yuya and Yuzu respectively. Unsurprisingly, Leo was wrong. The counterparts weren't gone forever or erased from existence like he said earlier. The whole point of the match was to give Shun hope, something that I don't think he ever really had despite fighting Academia for so long. He knew that they both live in Yuya and Yuzu and he had hope that he'd see them again, which he did in the finale. This is a huge reason why I've never liked the notion that Shun is sad and alone forever post-finale. It always felt like adding unnecessary angst to his story while also ignoring the resolution to his duel with Yuya. Admittedly, it might also help that I've never agreed with the fan interpretation that the counterparts are dead after they merge. I understand why fans treat it as such, but it always felt more like fan interpretations treated as if it was canon to me. This is also one reason why I don't have a problem with Yuya and Yuzu being permanent fusions with their respective counterparts. Even if we go with that interpretation, Shun still has friends like Yuya, Crow, Kaito, Allen and Sayaka, so he wouldn't be dealing with any grief all on his own anyway. This is also one reason why I feel mixed on Shun's Duel Links event, but I'll cover that more for that prompt later. My point is that while it might not have been an ideal happily ever after ending, I still think that Shun feeling genuine hope for the future instead of being full of anger or sadness over not being with Yuto and Ruri again does end his story on a hopeful note.

[izunias-meme-hole]

My Top 10 Favorite Movie Villains (Outdated)

Number 1. Palpatine/Darth Sidious (Star Wars) - In retrospective, Palpatine is easily the best villain in cinematic history. In the first two movies of the original trilogy, he never appears once, he’s only mentioned as “The Emperor,” and based off what we heard from Vader after he chopped Luke’s hand off, The Emperor sounds like a bigger and scarier dude than Vader. Then Return of The Jedi happens, and we see that he’s just a frail old man, yet he somehow manages to not only have Vader under his thumb, and based off what we see in the climax of the movie, it was primarily based off manipulation and not the force lightning he shoots out of his fingers. Then the Prequels happened, and The Clone Wars happened, which is honestly the exact moment that young me liked him more than Vader, and the moment current me rediscovered just how well written Palpatine is as a pure evil, card carrying dark lord, and as a politician. Sure he’s one of the strongest sith lords in the series, but that alone isn’t what makes him scary. It’s his careful planning, and the best part of it is that he rarely appears onscreen, yet his presence can be felt 24/7. I am not as much of a Star Wars fan as I used to be, but I will admit that I LOVE Sheev Palpatine and I’m not afraid to say it.

Number 2. Bowser (Super Mario Bros Movie) - Bowser here is as accurate to the source material as he’s always been, with one small tweak. He’s still goofy, intimidating, and a simp for Peach, but the biggest difference here is that this take on the Koopa King is much crueler than he is in canon, which makes sense because he ain’t a father yet. He casually kills his own koopas, intended to dunking his prisoners into a pit of lava during his ‘wedding’ with Peach as TRIBUTE to her (Bro that ain’t how that works!), threatened to DESTROY the Mushroom Kingdom if Peach didn’t marry him, and almost went through with it if it weren’t for Mario! Also Jack Black KILLED IT in this role! THIS is how a video game villain should be adapted into a movie. 

Number 3. Green Goblin (Rami Spider-Man Trilogy) - The MCU can try all they want, but they ain’t surpassing Willem Dafoe’s Green Goblin. Norman Osborn here is pretty much portrayed accurately, despite being more pitiable in the trilogy. He’s a bad father, and the owner of a big time corporation, who’s more focused on securing his own success, that just so happens to view Peter Parker as a son. Then he drank an experimental super soldier formula, and got super strength and advanced agility at the cost of his sanity. Now he has two personalities, the “bad but not that bad” Norman Osborn, and the downright devious Green Goblin, who Norman is AFRAID of but also entranced by. The Goblin in these movies are honestly the best take on him to ever exist because he’s the perfect amount of dark due to his actions, fractured mental state, and every last word he speaks being so vile, but at the same time Gobby looks really ridiculous and is a meme machine. I also like the Jekyll and Hyde situation here, where instead of it being a “Normal guy”and his “impulses,” it’s a bad man and his own evil. What can I say other than best comic book movie villain ever.

Number 4. Death/The Wolf (Puss In Boots) - The best take on The Grim Reaper. Inevitable, terrifying, enigmatic, cruel to those who try and delay the inevitable, etc.

Number 5. The Riddler/Edward Nashton (The Batman 2023) - I expected Matt Reeves to make the Riddler an egotistical manchild of a serial killer with a Zodiac Killer design, a very high intellect, and saw style puzzles. I NEVER expected a catholic, terrorist, cult leader Riddler that looked up to a young and angry Year-Two Batman. EVERYTHING about him screams “The Lord will wipe these heathens away and Batman will help us,” yet at the same time it works so well. Sure, he has this whole chaotic cult leader vibe to him, but at his core, he’s still egotistical, he thinks he has all the answers, when in reality he’s just a pissbaby who’s lashing out at the world. Despite how different this take on Riddler is, Paul Dano and Matt Reeves did this character justice.

Number 6. Dr Robotnik (The Sonic Movies) - Jim Carrey’s traditional over-the-top nature works so well with Robotnik that it’s criminal. And the best part is that it doesn’t take away how much of a threat he is in the slightest!

Number 7. Sauron (Lord Of The Rings Trilogy) - Despite appearing in these movies as just a flaming eye, Sauron has a firm grip on the entire narrative through this flaming eye, and The One Ring. No matter where the main cast goes in Middle Earth, Sauron’s shadow is always looming. An accurate adaptation of Tolkien’s biggest evil. 

Number 8. Judge Frollo (The Hunchback of Notre Dame) - One of the 3 Disney movie villains that I enjoy, and LOATHE. Frollo is a monster who sees himself as some pure and noble figure, and this is evident through his actions and beliefs alone. This guy tried killing a baby Quasimoto because of how hideous he was, and the only thing that stopped him was the fear of not being “pure,” so he raised the boy in the Notre Dame Cathedral’s bell tower and basically pretended to be his friend. Also lets not forget about his hatred of the Romani and the fact that he LUSTED over Esmeralda, while also hating her! BRUH YOU HAVE PROBLEMS! Well thankfully karma slaps him directly in the face as he dies falling into literal hellfire of his own creation, looking like a complete and utter devil. He was a great villain for the movie, but aside from that GOOD RIDDANCE YOU PIECE OF HUMAN GARBAGE.

Number 9. Colonel Muska (Castle In The Sky) - The only pure evil villain Hayato Miyazaki has written, and I can easily say that he sticks out in a way that a good villain should, while also being a huge steaming pile of shit.

Number 10. Koba (Planet of The Apes Trilogy) - Making a Bonbono a tragic, yet downright heinous villain is pure genius.

[third-half]

2023 Self Check

Honestly, having an overall middling year where most of my troubles were my brain’s fault was kind of a breath of fresh air. Being out of commission for most of last year with a fucked up knee at least got me thankful every morning I can get up and walk around without a brace or cane. I don’t really agree with the doctors and my Dad that I’m “young” but I’m apparently still young enough I can heal. That said, I’m kind of let down in myself for letting depression and laziness get the best of me like, worse than usual this year. It hit kind of hard when sitting back and going through old archives of content and realizing that:

Sketch-A-Day was 2015 Eishi and Dixie was before that Revolver Knight ran from 2005-2008 or 2009

Meaning I’d basically failed to really deliver on any of the series/game/etc ideas I’d pitched from 2016 onward with the arguable exception of the dungeon crawler card game’s first version. If anyone was curious as to whether I’d touched on some of that stuff in the meantime the status of my Things right now is:

Angel Dust (The Gatty Thing)- Pretty much axed, as much as I love the character, it was kind of turning into edge for edge’s sake. The thing about Gatty Ling is I’ve had the idea of an erratic, destructive but adorable and well meaning character kicking around for ages but she’s kind of just a blank slate beyond those traits and I’ve tried to plunk her into like three completely unrelated settings with different origins. I was also attempting to kind of do a distinct art… sub…style with her stuff closer to a moe VN look, really pump up the cute to make the dark stuff pop, but well, Madoka already exists and the last iteration was basically Madoka with Robots. I probably wouldn’t rule it out forever but I’ve kind of been using some bits and pieces of the setting to flesh out the Plane Girls Thing

Revolver Knight Reload- I got like three pages into drawing a complete remake of my old webcomic, but kind of got cold feet from a combination of things. I didn’t think I was ready to take on another gigantic long form story, though I promise that the new version was *MUCH* more refined. Like Gatty, I wouldn’t say it’s *impossible* I mess with this, but I think I might look into something closer to a light novel with spot illustrations than a full on comic in the interest of like, finishing before I die.

Critical Heaven (The plane girl thing)- Still active, but having a bit of an identity crisis. It began as a ‘skirmish’ tabletop wargame then I got to thinking about it as more of a shmup-inspired duel game. The format of tabletop/print is also kind of iffy because I know people would be more likely to play it digitally and I have like, zip experience putting a substantial game project together. There’s also a more or less complete ‘campaign’ jotted half in my head and half in my notepad (putting it in a game with multiple endings would save me from deciding which ending to give it, hmmm.) But in short, yeah this is still being picked at.

Irrgarten (The Dungeon Card Thing)- I know I lead off with kind of the downer limbo thing but I’ve actually not totally abandoned this, definitely not the setting. Surprise, Radona is from this world! Really, I could probably bring this back pretty easily by revising the original game rules, the biggest issue we ran into play testing was that items didn’t ‘feel’ very valuable- characters were strong enough on their own not to need them. Maybe I can bump this up in priority.

There are probably other story ideas I’ve mentioned over the years and not followed up on, but characters from axed stuff do tend to surface in other projects if I’m attached enough to them. If there are any particular things that you enjoyed my work in or reading about in the past, do let me know. I’ve had a hard time motivating myself, so a nudge wouldn’t be a bad thing about now. Next year, I would really like to put more effort into having a regular “thing” to work on, maybe I’ll bring back some gag comics. Definitely plan to do more drawing in general because drawing one decent thing then going radio silent for two weeks leads to needing to de-rust like, every time. I’m a creature very vulnerable to inertia.

So, no promises here, but my goals going into 2024:

Put some time into practicing more ‘dynamic’ content like simple animation and game design since I have like three game making programs sitting around

Regular art posting, with a focus on improving quality and speed

Minding my health more since it’s easier to be active when there’s less of me to move

Establish a more regular streaming schedule since it helps me trim down my backlog

This kind of turned into more navel gazing than I had planned to be doing, but I thought this was a good time to touch base on some things since I’m back to posting here… well, okay, ‘regularly’ is a stretch, but there are a lot of things I’ve brought up before and not followed up on in a long time. If anyone has still been reading this- thank you, truly. I hope that with a bit more focus and less dwelling on the gnawing darkness in my gut, we can have some fun here again.

Oh, yeah, by the way- also been kicking around a top X games list I may get to posting soon, but may save for New Years Eve.

[of-some-variety]

Yugioh And The Heat Death Of The Universe: Mourning The Best Deck I've Ever Played

Chapter 1: What The Fuck Is This

Hi, hello. This was originally supposed to be a video, but my mic exploded before I could even start recording, so, I’m just posting this here. This is an edited version of the script, removing mentions of visual gags and the sorts and reformatted to better match a text post.

Let me explain a few things.

This past year, I’ve gotten back into yugioh. Like really, really back into yugioh. I liked it as a kid but never wanted to put money into it, and basically fell out of interest with it once the game hit series 5. But, last fall I decided to give it a try again. There’s the official online client, Master Duel, and I spent a lot of time with it, before eventually falling off and moving on to play the game elsewhere. But before I did I got to witness the rise and fall of the best deck in Yugioh’s history: Tearlaments

 We’ll get into the specifics of what they do and why that’s good later. For now, just understand that these are some of the strongest cards ever printed. And that didn’t click for me until I actually got my hands on them. I want to talk about what I’ve realized about these cards because, for all the discussion I’ve heard about them from people in the community, I don’t think I’ve really heard people actually talk about the specific aspects I’ve noticed that I feel really pushes them over the edge. I want to try to make it as accessible as possible considering this is mostly going to be seen by my friends (hiiiiii ^_^), so lets hit some keywords, specifically about monsters:

Extra deck: a set of 15 special monsters that can always be accessed and summoned, provided you meet their conditions. The following monsters are all extra deck monsters

Fusion: A type of monster that must be summoned by a fusion effect, using specific material (ex. 1 specifically named monster + 1 type of monster)

Synchro: a type of monster that is summoned using 2 or more monsters, 1 of which is a “tuner” type monster, who’s levels all add up to the level of the monster you’re trying to summon (ex level 3 tuner+ 2 level 3 non-tuners= level 9 Synchro)

XYZ:  Slapping two monsters of the same level to make a monster with Rank, with the monsters used to summon it resting under the monster to be used as fuel for their effects (ex. 2 lvl 4 monsters= a rank 4 xyz monster)

Link: Monsters that can be summoned using 2 or more pieces of non-specific material (ex. “2+ effect monsters”)

Oh and, last thing, Tearlaments, as its described here, no longer exists. The deck has been nuked into oblivion. This is a retrospective, and a memorial.

So uh, strap in, we got a trip to go on.

Chapter 2: Okay, But Who The Fuck Are These People, For Real Though?

The Tearlaments are a people of mermaids that reside on the Primeval Planet Perlereino, living under their tyrannical leader Reinoheart until the arrival of Visas Starfrost, a man scouring the universe for the lost shards of himself. As it turns out, Reinoheart is one of these shards, and he takes on a monstrous form when Visas arrives to try and defeat him. But with the help of the other Tearlaments and their leader, he’s able to defeat Reino and absorb him… then a bunch of bad shit happens that isn’t important to what we’re talking about.

In the real world, they are jpegs printed onto cardboard. 

In my hands, they are tools of destruction. The guardians you find barring you from the next horizon, when you had sworn that the last was truly, the last.

In game, they’re a deck focused around two things: milling and fusion summoning. Each of the three main deck mermaids, Havnis, Scheiren and Merrli, share an effect that says that when they’re sent to the graveyard by a card effect you can perform a fusion summon using monsters in your monsters in your hand, graveyard and field, placing the cards used in this way to the bottom of the deck. Each of the mermaids also have a unique effect. Upon fulfilling certain conditions you can summon them, and then send the top three cards of your deck to the graveyard. 

Merrli is the simplest to activate, all you have to do is summon her by any means and she mills 3.

If your opponent activates a monster effect on the field, Havnis can summon herself from your hand (represented by this phrase, quick effect for my friends), and then mill 3. 

And lastly, if you have Scheiren and another monster in hand, you can summon Scheiren and then send the monster in hand to the graveyard to mill 3. 

Reinohart, as a weird not-a-mermaid-living-with-mermaids, has neither of these effects. Rather, if he’s summoned in any way he can send any Tearlaments monster straight from your deck to the graveyard, triggering triggering the mermaid’s fusion effects. Oh, and if he’s sent to the graveyard by card effect  while you have a tearlaments card in your hand you can summon him and send that card to the graveyard. Each of these effects are, thankfully, once per turn, and so are basically all the rest of the cards we’ll be talking about in this video.. So, even if you haven’t played yugioh Since Fusion was originally cool, the Tearlaments game plan should be obvious. Send as many cards from your deck to the graveyard as possible, and use our mermaids to go into powerful fusion monsters. Speaking of, the deck has three extremely powerful fusion monsters that they specifically can go into, but any fusion monster that has generic components are also fair game. We can talk about those later though. For now, lets focus on Tear.

Chapter 2.2: Mermaids+

We should open this discussion with Tearlaments Kitkallos, one of the single strongest monsters ever printed. I’m not joking. It can be fusion summoned with any Tearlaments monster and an aqua monster (which, every tear but Reinoheart is). Once per turn if this card is special summoned you can add one tearlaments card from your deck to your hand, or send it to the graveyard. So by default it’s a better Reinoheart, giving you flexibility where you otherwise wouldn’t have it. But it gets better. Kitallos lets you target one monster you control, special summon a Tear monster from hand or grave, then send that card to the graveyard. And lastly if it’s sent to the graveyard you mill 5.

This card should not exist. Its only the first of the three Tearlaments fusions, but while our other two serve as big boss monsters, Kit is a pivotal part of the deck’s comboline. Here, let me walk you through the most basic combo Tear can do, by just using Reinoheart.

So, we summon the Reinoheart, sending Merrli (you can send any of them in a pinch but Merrli’s preferable.) Activate Merli’s effect to return her and Reino to the deck and summon Kitkallos. We then activate Kit’s on summon effect to add Merrli to our hand, and follow up with Kit’s second effect to target herself, summon Merrli, then send herself to the graveyard. We can then activate Merrli and Kitkallos’ effects in sequence to mill eight cards. Eight, nearly a quarter of your deck. This combo is known by many names. That’s a lie I’ve only seen one name for it, The Yoinky Sploinky. That’s funny so we’ll be referring to it as such.  In masterduel, all the mermaids are limited to 2 copies per deck instead of the standard 3, but you’re still almost guaranteed to get something good into the grave to continue your combo plays with the sheer quantity of cards Kit can send.

Tearlaments Kaleido-Heart is Reinoheart’s fucked up monster form, and serves as the deck’s first boss. He can be fusion summoned with a Reinoheart and two aqua monsters, and has two powerful effects. First, if its special summoned or an aqua monster is sent to your graveyard by card effect, you can target one card your opponent controls and shuffle it back into the deck. This is a powerful form of card removal, most things in the game aren’t resistant to getting returned to the deck, and not only can you use this to get rid of your opponent’s big boss monsters, but also to get rid of some particularly annoying floodgates they might have on field. Which is just wonderful, cuz I love fun interactive yugioh where both players are allowed to play the game. 

His second effect is basically just an upgraded version of Reino’s effet; if he’s sent to the graveyard by a card effect, he can revive himself and then send a Tearlaments card from deck to grave. So he’s an incredibly sticky monster to try and contend with, who’s effect is can be activated by his revival or just doing our combos normally, and any monster his effect can’t deal with can usually just be punched over with his massive 3000 attack. He does have one downside though this little stipulation that he can’t be used as fusion material. So if your opponent can actually deal with him, its really hard to get him back into the extra deck to be summoned again.

Lastly, in terms of our bosses, we have Rulkalos, Kitkallos’ stronger form she takes on after defeating Reinoheart (or… while fighting him? Its confusing). She can be made by a Kitkallos and a second Tear monster, and has 3 effects. First, she protects her fellow aqua monsters from being destroyed by battle, which, while useful on paper, really only comes up when you’ve begun engaging in truly monkey unga bunga yugioh. Her second effect allows her to respond to your opponent activating a card that special summons a monster; you can negate the card, destroy it, then send one Tear card from your hand or field to the graveyard. Lastly, like Kaleido if she’s sent to the graveyard by a card effect she can revive herself. But she has her own little stipulation: “If this fusion summoned card”; to simplify, once a card is revived from the graveyard, it “forgets”  how it was originally summoned. So, basically, her revival can only happen once, but at worst it means that you can activate her negate effect for no cost by sending herself, then reviving her for the next turn. Whew that’s all the monsters done… don’t look at the run time. 

We’re not done. Not even close. The Tearlaments monsters on their own already represents an incredibly powerful gameplan, but they also have a bunch of spells and traps dedicated to supporting them, that are essential to cover

Chapter 2.5: Reverse Card Open!

So, listen. There are a good handful of Tear spell/traps I won’t be talking about. This is because while not bad, the benefits they have for the deck just aren’t better than other cards. This will mostly be based on what I play in my deck, what I’ve most commonly seen in others, and importantly off the decks people were playing when Tear was viable in the tcg. That said, we’ll kick this section off with a card that is a little nontraditional, but I think is essential in specifically master duel. All these cards will mention Visas Starfrost, because like, lore reasons, but we’ll be basically ignoring those parts of the effect. Also, each of them have two effects: an on field effect, and an effect that activates when they’re sent to the graveyard by card effect, like our mermaids. Anyway

Tearlaments Heartbeat is a quick play spellcard, which, for my friends, means it can be activated like a trap card by setting it face down on the field.. It lets you target a spell/trap on field, shuffle it back into the deck, then send a card from your hand to the graveyard. And if it’s sent by a card effect, it lets you add a tearlaments trap card from your graveyard to your hand. This card, in my opinion, is essential for Tear decks in master duel for a very particular reason. See, its, strange, uh spoiler, but I think Tearlaments is actually a pretty fun deck. But, some people don’t play yugioh to have fun. They play it to make everyone miserable, including for themself, and so suddenly they feel really threatened when a good deck comes along and dedicate their lives to devising the perfect deck list that ensures no one, nowhere gets to actually play yugioh.

They accomplish this with cards like skill drain, that negates monster effects, or maybe something more targetted at Tear like soul drain, which negates effects in the graveyard and banished zone. For these monsters, I like to play one or two copies of Heartbeat so that I don’t try to choke my opponent through the screen. Plus its pretty good to be able to add back your trap cards that you accidentally milled. 

Next up is Tearlaments Scream, a continuous spell card that has two on field effects. First, if a card is summoned to either player’s field and you control a Tear monster, you get to mill 3. For free, yeah. Afterwards every monster your opponent summons loses 500 attack, just to fuck with em. And if it's sent to the graveyard you can add a Tear trap to the hand from the deck. This card is, uh, insane. If you add a scream to the kitkallos combo I mentioned earlier, suddenly you’re milling 11 cards, over a quarter of your deck. I know, three cards may not seem like a lot but trust me, you want to increase your chances of milling the mermaids as much as possible, otherwise you can’t do anything.You play 3 of this if you can (I played 2 because I don’t spend money on this game), since you also want to mill it over the course of the combo in order to add one of our trap cards to the hand. 

Tearlaments Sulliek is a continuous trap card, that so long as you control a tearlaments monster you can activate. Its on field effect allows you to target an effect monster your opponent controls, permanently negate its effects then send a monster you control to the graveyard. And if its milled it’ll add a tearlaments monster to your hand from the deck. Ideally, you’ll always have the card set at the end of your turn one combo, its insane. Permanent negation isn’t something you see often, and the fact you can use it once every turn means if you can keep feeding it bodies your opponent will be forced to find an answer to it. And, its grave effect lets you either extend your combo by adding a Merrli, Schieren or Reinohart, or set you up for your opponent’s turn by adding Havnis. Now, all that said, you play one of this. Heartbeat lets you get it back if something goes wrong, and we really would rather search this through cards like scream and kitkallos than hard draw it or open with it. Also they ended up limiting this card white I was making this video which, is funny cuz this isn’t the card that breaks the deck, like its good really good well get into that later but, really funny. 

Tearlaments Cryme is a counter trap card, a trap card that can only be responded to by other counter trap cards. While you control a monster, you can just, negate any card effect, and shuffle that card back into the deck. Any card in the game,, besides stuff like super polymerization that specifies that it cannot be responded to. Then you send a monster from your hand to the graveyard. And if it's milled you can add a banished tear monster back to your hand. Thiiiis is the a weird one. Objectively, its really good; its an omni negate thats really easy to get to in our hand. On the other, its graveyard effect is just mid. We don’t banish anything as a part of our strategy, so its only useful if our opponent’s banished our monsters (and we have other ways to make sure they can’t). You play a copy of this to search, and generally I would pick sulliek over it if you can only grab one. Unless, unless, you think your opponent is on board breakers, like evenly matched that can banish your whole field. Then you add cryme to protect your board.

And lastly, we have our the Tearlament Field Spell: The Primeval Planet Perlereino. When you activate this card it lets you add a tear monster from your deck to your hand. It gives every Tear and Fusion monster you control a 500 attack boost, and if a tear monster is shuffled back into the deck (aka when the mermaids fuse) you can target and destroy a card on field. I know I keep saying this, but this card is insane. It gets you whatever you’re missing. It fucks with your opponent’s board, or if you’re feeling cheeky (read: want to lose) you can pop any mermaids you have on field to get their effects off. And also, I realize that 500 attack boost may not seem like much, but that boost pushes Kaleido-Heart and Rukallos to 3500. Most deck’s strongest monster caps at 3000 flat. I would say play 30 of this if you could but, from release it was limited to 1 copy. So play this and pray. 

Whew. And that’s all the Tear cards we gotta talk about! I know we haven’t even really gotten into the “why” of these cards yet, but I felt it was really important to make sure we’re all on the same page for these cards, and also to help us focus in on a more “pure” tearlament’s strategy. You see, some people are seeing success combining Tearlaments with another fusion based deck, Branded. And While I’m no stranger combining decks with Branded, I don’t really see the appeal, for a couple reasons. Still, these are builds people are encountering, so its worth mentioning. But by really just talking about the Tear cards here, I think we’ll just get an overall better look at What makes the deck so powerful. And man, just look at what we can do. Our mainline combo is super accessible, the Merrli/Kit play is unbelievably strong for us, and Rukallos and Kaleido-Heart provide powerful forms of interruption and negation, along with our spell/traps backing them up. Of course, all of that in a vacuum means absolutely nothing. In order to grasp Tearlaments’ power we need something to compare them against, and for that, I’ve chosen a very special deck

Chapter 2.78/3 Days: Funny Birdies 

Floowandereeze is a deck full of funny birds. That’s it. Where Tearlaments is a deck focused on milling and fusion summoning, Floo is based on banishing and normal summoning. I’m talking about Floo for a few reasons: 1. Before Tear, it was my favorite deck in the game. Floowandereeze is a very interesting deck that has a lot of gameplay I find lacking in other decks I’ve played, which we’ll expand on later. 2. While Floo is a unique deck in its own right, it has more in common with other decks in the game than Tearlaments does, and I want to use it as a reference point that I’m personally familiar with. And 3. The deck was competitive in the same format as Tearlaments when that deck was at its strongest, tenuously holding the position of third best deck at that time, is just meant to show I’m not comparing Tear to like, garbage that has never seen play, but to another competitive meta deck (at the time of release). We’re not spending too much time here, I just want to give a basic rundown of its gameplay. Basically, the deck is divided into its level 1 winged beast combo pieces and its high level winged beast boss monsters. Each of the level 1 birds has 3 effects, two archetypal and one unique to them that activates on normal summon. They all banish themselves when they leave the field face up, and can return themselves from the banish zone to the hand if a winged beast is summoned. For their individual effects each of them has something unique, like Robina who searches level 1 winged beasts. If they’re able to successfully do the first half of their unique effect, they can then immediately normal summon another winged beast monster. This gives the deck an interesting playstyle: its combo pieces recur themselves every turn, it has access to powerful bosses like Riza the Megamonarch that returns cards to the deck and hand, and with its field spell and trap card it can normal summon, and therefore combo off, on their opponent’s turns. And look I realize that normal summons may not sound that different than special summoning, especially the way Floo does them but its big. It means Floo can fly under (ha) the radar of power cards that are meant to limit special summoning, like any of the barrier statues that lock special summons to a specific attribute, or Vanity’s Fiend that just straight bars special summoning entirely, or, y’know, Rukallos, who’s basically useless against Floo considering her effect is based on negating special summoning.

In the next section of the video, I’m gonna be talking about just what I’ve noticed that makes Tearlaments a powerhouse in a way few decks have ever been. I’ll obviously be using Floowandereeze as a comparison point, but because yugioh is a game with like, a billion cards in it and you would have to kill me before I stop going on tangents, expect me to mention a bunch more along the way. That said, lets start with.

Chapter 3.1: Cost/Effect Analysis

So a very basic idea in yugioh is separating a card’s effect from its cost. Basically if a card has a phrase like, “discard 1 card” followed by a semicolon, the discard is the cost of activating the effect, which is whatever text follows after the comma or colon. This has, historically, caused confusion, because yugioh is a bad card game. The darkworld archetype of monsters have special effects that trigger if they are discarded as a part of a card effect, but since a lot of cards discard as a part of an activation cost, they don’t get to do shit. Now some decks can utilize a card’s cost to their benefit, and it should be noted that if a card says that it just has to be sent to the graveyard its effects can be activated regardless of whether it's sent for cost of effect, but it's something you have to plan and build around. Floo can actually make pretty good use of the costs on some of their cards, particularly with “advent of adventure”, which banishes a floo monster from your hand or field to activate its effect. Paying this cost can actually help the deck in a very particular way that I’ll get into later, but I just want to establish that costs, usually, aren’t massive penalties on cards, and by playing with them in mind you can get some pretty interesting combos as a result. Tear doesn’t have to do that though, because everything in this deck sends cards to the graveyard as a part of its effect. Schieren, Cryme? Effect. Sulliek, Kitkallos? Effect. Kaleido’s send from deck? Oh baby, there’s not a cost in sight. Tearlaments is maybe the only deck I’ve seen who’s every interaction is, in some way, beneficial to them. Your opponent attempts to activate a monster effect? Well just send the Kaleido you have on field to negate it with Sulliek, then use Kaleido’s effect to return itself and send a tear monster to the graveyard, then activate his shuffle effect, and the fusion effect of whatever you sent to the graveyard. So, over the course of limiting your opponent’s gameplan, you’ve  strengthened your own board, with whatever new boss monster you can fusion summon with what you’ve sent. This is not how a normal yugioh deck functions… at least, not to this extent.

Chapter 3.2: Playing on Your Opponent’s Turn:

See when you get down to it, nearly every competitive deck can manage something resembling this, it's kind of a necessity for the modern game. You have to be able to interact with your opponent on their turn, otherwise they can set up their board and kill you instantly.. Let’s look at some examples. The Branded archetype allows you to play Branded in Red, a quick play fusion spell that allows you to perform a fusion summon on your opponent’s turn, something the deck uses to summon either archetypal or generically powerful fusion monsters that act as card removal on your opponent’s board. The Mathmech combo exists practically just to facilitate plays on your opponent’s turn: the deck reliably makes monsters like i;p masquerna that lets you summon on your opponent’s turn, and the deck’s trap card, superfactorial, lets you summon a powerful boss that lets you send 3 of your opponent’s cards to the graveyard.These are powerful plays from both these decks, allowing them to summon singular, high impact boss monsters to interrupt their plays. This is what most decks are capable of… but then there’s Floo. Floo’s spells and trap cards facilitate a single normal summon on your opponent’s turn. So you summon your little bird, activate their effect… and then normal summon again. This single summon allows you to perform a full combo in the middle of your opponent’s turn, potentialy allowing you to end on any number of the big bosses the deck has at its disposal. Of course, interruption at a pivotal point in the combo could end it immediately, which would mean you couldn’t get nearly as much on board as you’d like, meaning that Floo’s plays aren’t ironclad… So Tear.

Let’s look at an example here. Let’s say you got unlucky. Your mills didn’t work out, and the only thing you have on board is a schieren, a set sulliek, and a Havnis in hand. Your opponent start’s their turn and normal summons a monster to begin their combo, activating its effect. First, you respond with Havnis, then respond to the havnis with sulliek, which lets you target and negate your opponent’s monster, and would you look at that you send schieren to the graveyard. You can use her effect to  fusion summon Kit, get its search and mill 3 from Havnis’  summon, and suddenly your whole game plan is online!

It's kind of impossible to prevent Tear from getting to play on your turn if they have anything resembling a board up when they pass it back to you. Even in worst case scenarios for the deck they can usually find their way to a Rukhallos, and her negation isn’t anything to sneeze at by itself. Plus, the sheer existence of Havnis allows the deck to access the incredibly rare, incredibly silly tactics known as the turn 0 combo. If you’re going second and you happen to have Havnis in your opening hand, you can activate her the moment your opponent activates something to summon and mill 3, and if you do, congrats, if you’re lucky enough to hit a mermaid then you could have a Rukhallos on your field before your first draw. Of course, its only 3 cards, with every mermaid being at 2 there’s a decent chance you won’t hit much. Still I consider it good, since it helps thin out the deck. Oh and I really do think that Havnis specifically just gets exponentially better your first turn onward. You mill so much random shit over the course of your combos that by the end of the game you’re hitting the good cards pretty consistently, provided your opponent can’t stop you.

Chapter 3.3 Literally Unstoppable Combo:

Modern yugioh as the concept of the Handtrap, a card you activate straight from your hand to fuck with your opponent’s plan. They’re very powerful cards, and often a necessity given what a deck can do if its allowed to go uninterrupted. Let's look at, by far, the most ubiquitous handtrap in the game, Ash Blossom and Joyous Spring.

 This card can be activated from your hand, discarding it to negate any effect from your opponent that moves a card from the deck to anywhere else, like adding it to hand or sending it to the graveyard. This is, how you say, a very good card. Almost every deck does something this card negates, and some decks can even lose to just a single ash blossom if they open a bad hand. Floo fucking loathes this card. Since ashing your starting monster instantly ends your combo… usually. So, if you would have multiple effects activate at the same time, you get to choose the order they actually activate in, and your opponent can only respond to the most recent activation. This is why banishing a bird for advent actually can help the deck: if you summon a bird and have its effects activate first, then activate a banished bird second, then your opponent can only respond to the banished bird. This helps the deck insulate against your opponent’s interactions. Tearlaments can do this too. But better! Lets look at the yoinky sploinky again, you have kitkallos on field and a merrli in hand, and your opponent has ash blossom. You activate Kit’s effect to send herself and summon merrli, activate kitkallos’ effect first, and Merrli’s second. This means that your opponent now has to make a choice: do they use the ash to negate the mill 3, instead of kitkallos’ mill 5 like they wanted to, or do they save it for another point in the combos. This applies to a shit ton of effects: if you hit multiple of the mermaids in the same mill then, you can decide the order the activate in order to protect the ones you really want to resolve. Okay, okay, lets say your opponent is smarter. Instead of even letting you get to the point in the combo where you can mill 8, they use ash blossom to stop you from adding merrli to hand with Kit’s first effect, preventing you from sploinking your yoink at all. Well shit, goddammit, son of a bitch that’s it! My combo’s over!... except I can just use the Havnis I have in hand, or this second Reinoheart that’s basically dead weight, and would you look at that, I can still mill 5. The result is almost identical! Tearlaments just isn’t weak to handtraps, save for incredibly targeted ones, or the new bystial monsters that banish dark monsters, and like we discussed cards like “cryme” help protect it from board breaking cards, so it's really hard to deal with a tearlaments player. It’s a deck that if you let it have an inch, it’ll take the whole game, unless you’re playing something that can appropriately counter it.

…

I don’t have a good transition to the next section.

Chapter 3.4: Restrictions: 

This is gonna be a bit of a doozy, so bear with me. But if you ask me, I would absolutely call this one of the most compelling reasons as to why Tearlaments is such a dominant deck. See uh, the developers of yugioh usually, with mixed results, actually try to stop decks from being insanely powerful. Let's look at Floo, one last time. Every monster in the deck has this little text stapled onto their effects: “cannot special summon during the turn you activate either effect.” Since the deck is focused on normal summons, it cuts you off from special summoning entirely. And I realize that it may not seem like a lot, considering how many summons the deck has, but that’s missing the point. Without access to special summoning, that makes the extra deck, where all the strongest cards in the game are, completely inaccessible. And its good! The floowandereeze cards would be way too powerful if you could use the extra deck, as well as its maindeck combo pieces and boss monsters. Plus, considering at the time the deck came out, one of the other best decks in the game was also entirely based on level 1 winged beasts, it was a good call to not let the two decks mix much.  The devs just don’t like it when certain cards become too ubiquitous or generically useful, and to prevent that they place certain restrictions on powerful cards. Branded fusion, the staple card of its archetype, locks you into just using fusion monsters the turn you activate it. Several key cards in the mathmech deck lock you into just summoning cyberse type monsters for the rest of the turn, stopping you from accessing generically strong link monsters the deck would otherwise utilize. HERO, a deck I'm normal about, has all of its strongest cards enforce a strict, “HEROES only” limit on the deck, or hell even more restrictive in the case of Fusion Destiny, which also slaps a Dark attribute restrictiong.  They’re, usually, very careful with this!...

Usually.

So, I could just say “Tearlaments has no limitations, and can thus access generic boss monsters” but, but that wouldn’t get the point across. We’d get to the top of the mountain, but you wouldn’t see the horizon. You wouldn’t understand. So, lets so do this. Here’s my extra deck. We’re going to talk about every card here that isn’t a Tearlaments, plus a few others. Strap in, we’re going to hell.

So first we obviously have to talk about generic fusions. Big daddy of them all in terms of our deck is Predaplant Dragostepellia, made using a fusion monster and a dark attribute monster. You may notice. Its extremely easy to get those types of cards on field. So if you already have a Ruk and Kaleido and you have two mermaid activations to spare, just make kit, then make this asshole. What’s he do? He’s a monster negate… that’s it.

Next we have the synchro monsters. But, you may have noticed, we don’t fucking play tuners to make them. To which I say, yes we fucking do. 

Every Tear deck I’ve ever seen plays at least one diviner of the herald, which can send a fairy type monster to the graveyard to increase its level by that amount. Why do we play fairies? Don’t ask! Because once diviner is summoned, if we can get any level four monster on the field we can make one of the strongest Synchro monsters ever printed, Baronne De Fleur! What’s it do? It’s an omni negate!... once. Oh also it can destroy cards on field. Oh also it can return itself to the extra deck to special summon just, any monster from the graveyard, for some reason! But wait, there’s more! If we can get a level two monster on field, which we do SO FUCKING EASILY you can make Draco Berserker of the Tenyi, which can banish a monster that activates its effects and also- I’m, I’m kidding no one, fucking else plays that card in their deck.

. Our deck plays like, a million level 4 monsters. Ignore the fact I’ve only discussed two level four monsters. So we get access to one of the most powerful generic toolboxes in the game, the cavalcade of randomly incredibly powerful rank 4 xyz monsters, and it’s fucking annoying! If you do, somehow, get interrupted enough that you can’t end on a full board, don’t worry! Just get two fours on field and you can make Bagooska, which, in defense position, is just a massive fucking floodgate that prevents you and your opponent from activating monster effects. This guy sucks, I hate him! But hey, at least his floodgate is two sided. Unlike This Asshole, Abyss Dweller. You may have picked up on the fact, by y’know the premise of the essay and your massive fucking brain that Tearlaments is a good deck. Mirror matches are not rare. And I really, really like the Tear mirror, but any time someone gets this asshole on board they can use its effect to immediately shut their opponent out of the game. Oh, and its a quick effect! Why, why is it a quick effect! So yeah this does the same thing as bagooska in the tear mirror, except if you’re too broke and don’t want to go through the effort of getting this guy (like me) you get hit by some weird non games in the middle of stuff. At least you can just punch over it though. CAN’T SAY THE SAME FOR THIS GUY. 

Time Thief Redoer is unique among xyz monsters. Uh, I promised myself I wouldn’t get super super basic in this, but let me explain something. When a xyz monster is summoned, the monsters used to make it don’t go to the graveyard. They stay under the card as material, which the xyz monster can send to the grave as costs for their effects. Time Thief Redoer, is one of the very, very rare xyz monsters, that detach for effect. So, y’know, if you had a schieren attached to him, that's another way to randomly start a combo in the middle of your opponent’s turn. Is this just me complaining about a bunch of very expensive cards I will never have because I’m broke, and don’t want to craft them? Yes, that’s like half the reason I made this video.

G! You cry out! This is already the longest part of the essay! Surely, we’re done! But no, no we have to talk about the worst, most powerful summoning mechanic in the game, link monsters! So what do we have? Donner, dagger fur hire is just a generic monster that can destroy anything, so there’s no reason not to play it. The primary link monster we use is Spright Elf, a generic link that just requires one of the monsters used to make it is a level 2 monster. You may notice, again, we sure do have an easy time getting exactly the level 2 Merrli on field. It has two effects, one of which protects monsters it points to from targeting effects, and the second, as a quick effect, lets you summon a level 2 monster from the graveyard. So, one more way to play on our opponent’s turn by summoning Merrli back, lol, maybe, just maybe, even lmao. Oh but we got some more. There’s one that’s uh, really, really funny in the Tearlament’s mirror match, Dharc the Dark Charmer, guess what the fuck she needs a as material to be summoned, and uh she just lets you summon a dark monster from your opponent’s graveyard. So you can do this really funny thing, where you can steal your opponent’s Merrli and activate her effect if you wanna, or really any of the tear monsters sans Reinoheart exactly. Uuhh it doesn’t actually come up too much but like, what if you destroy your Opponent’s Kaleido Heart twice and wanna fuck with them? 

OH I LIED BY THE WAY WE’RE NOT DONE WITH FUSION MONSTERS. Because, BECAUSE, halfway through writing this they released an update to the game that added a stupid as hell card. Garura, Wings of Resonant Life, is a silly fucking card. It only requires two cards who share a type and attribute, which describes most archetypal cards in the game. It deals double damage for, some fucking reason, and if it’s sent to the graveyard for like anything you just draw 1, draw 1 card for no reason yeah that’s not busted even a little, Christ what do you even say to a card like this?

Sigh, well, that’s it! We’ve talked about basically every reason Tear is powerful. We’re done. We, we don’t have to look, any further. 

Chapter 3.??:

… What? This, was supposed to be the conclusion. I, I talked about every card, shit I talked about a bunch of stupid cards I don’t even play there’s no way I missed something. Surely, surely, I haven’t been blindly ignoring the problem, the final missing piece, the key that will open Pandora’s Box. Surely, I’m not afraid of what’s beyond it. The realization of the inevitable; that this game will ascend and ascend, creep it’s way up this mountain until it can see it, finally, its next horizon. No, no, surely not! There’d be no going back! No way to return to the world I knew before. To before I realized, that it will find its way across, to that next horizon, again, forever, until time is a forgotten dream and all that remains is dying stardust and smoldering cardboard… Before I realized that you can’t forget what you saw beyond the horizon. No matter how awful.

Surely, no one, would be cruel enough to inflict another with that kind of curse. Condemned to the climb, forever, ‘till even the black holes burn out. Just for a chance to see something as beautiful as that first horizon again.

…

Fuck.

Chapter 3.5: Yugioh and the Heat Death of The Universe:

Ishizu Ishtar is a character from the Yugioh Duel Monsters anime. She’s the older sister to one of the show’s antagonists, Marik, and tries to involve Yugi and his friend into a scheme to save her brother from the darkness within him. She duels at multiple points, playing a deck focused around earth fairies. This leads to the creation of Mudora, Agido, Keldo and Kelbek.

These are four cards that do nothing and are very bad. But, in the year 2022, a demon came to the konami dev team, and foretold to them the inevitable death of the universe. They realized all was lost, that the horizon would never, truly, be crossed, and lamenting their woes they vowed to try, anyway.

So they made the cards again.

This is how we got Mudora the Sword Oracle, Agido the Ancient Sentinel, Keldo the Sacred Protector, and Kelbek the Ancient Vanguard. These are the last cards we're really gonna talk about in this. So let's get started.

Two things, one, all of these cards mention a card called exchange of the spirits, a trap card that I do not play. The trap modifies their effects slightly, but I’ll just be talking about the effects I actually resolve in a duel.

Second, these cards are split into two unique groups: the millers, and the shufflers. Let’s talk about the millers first.

Agido and Kelbek have similar effects, but not quite the same. If your opponent sends a card to their graveyard from the hand of deck, you can summon one of them and activate a unique effect: agido summons an earth fairy from the graveyard, Kelbek returns a monster on field to the hand. Alright, but that’s not why we play them. If these cards are sent to the graveyard from the hand or deck, you and your opponent just mill 5. Yup. Yup. these cards are, uh, insane! If you can hit both of them over the course of a standard Tearlaments combo, congrats, you get to mill at least half your deck, maybe more. Near guaranteed access to everything you could ever need.

Mudora and Keldo also share a summon effect. They can both discard an earth fairy to summon themselves, Mudora also sets a gravekeepers trap (a trap card I don’t play) onto the field, and Keldo adds another earth fairy to your hand. These effects are, also, good, but we play them for the one they share. As a quick effect, while they’re on the field or in the graveyard, you can banish either of these monsters to shuffle 3 cards from the graveyard into the deck… which is really good to have, when everyone is trying to fusion summon with monsters in their graveyard.

Chapter 5:  Tear 0

When talking about a deck’s viability, its ranked into tiers . Most of the time in any given format of the game, there’s a couple tier 1 decks that stand as the “best decks”, as the decks most worth playing. Very rarely, a deck with be tier 0. So represented, so definitively “the best deck” that, there’s no arguing it. Tier 0 means that if you want to take competitive yugioh seriously, you have to play that deck. With the release of the Ishizu monsters, Ishizu Tearlaments was born, the first tier 0 deck in years, really to my understanding. It’s kind of funny, the rise of Ishtear was happening just when I was getting back into yugioh. I was watching creators in the scene talk about the deck, complain about the deck, complain about it a lot, really. People don’t like tier 0 formats, and reasonably so. People don’t like it when there really is a “best deck” with no variation between what people are playing, people don’t like it when they can’t play their favorite decks competitively anymore. People don’t like staring down the fact, that we are looking at a new horizon. People just didn’t like the deck for all the reasons I’ve just spent, who knows how long talking about. They complained about how powerful it was, about its ability to play on both turns, about, well, everything it did. In the tcg, it got hit into oblivion, and in master duel the deck was slowly torn apart. Shit in the middle of making this they limited each of Ishizu’s monsters to 1 copy per deck, making it a lot harder to get chains of their effects going. Earlier this Fall they just straight up banned Merrli, severely weakening the deck’s game plan. But even before it was full torn asunder, I didn’t really see people playing Tear much, at least, not as much in comparison to other decks. Do people just not like the deck? Did they get frustrated by the asshole stun players making decks to just counter Tear? I dunno, I dunno. Though, I’ve run into like, 5 different people playing that branded tearlament pile deck, maybe, maybe I should take a look at it at some point…

Sigh

Y’know, I played against a tier 0 deck before.

So, Spyral, was an insanely powerful deck back in 2017. Don’t worry I’m not explaining what the cards do, just, know they were good. So good that they dominated the game for months, it was really the only thing worth playing for a while, and people hated it too. The deck got eaten by the banlist hard, but in Master Duel it’s at full power. Not only that, but cards have been released that are just stronger than what were available at the time. So, a person playing Spyral in master duel today is actually playing a stronger version of that tier 0 deck… 

And that’s what I went up against.

I was still new, playing a janky brew of HERO because, well, wanting to play HERO was why I got master duel in the first place. I’m not claiming to be like, superb at the game, but I’ve made it to diamond playing Floowandereeze and Tearlaments, I think that’s a far cry better than how I was when I started. Anyway, I was going second, no idea what my opponent was doing, I had a single ash blossom that they played through like it was nothing. And I sat there. For… like, 15 minutes. While my opponent did a bunch of combos that just left me sitting there lost and confused, and by the time they passed the turn over, finally, they had a board with 10 negates, and I had nothing good in my hand. I was hit by the crushing realization, that I could not win this duel. I tried in any case, and in just 3 negates they ate all the resources in my hand, and I conceded. I sat there and thought about how I had wasted 15 minutes of my finite existence, just to lose at a card game. I play this game to have fun. I did not have fun. Did my opponent have fun? Did they enjoy the time they spent, building an impossible board with their expert combos? Did they feel happy when I conceded, proud? Did they realize, that they spent 15 minutes, of their finite existence, comboing off on some jackass playing HERO? For me, it was an interesting experience. I’m not gonna sit here and pretend it like, radically altered how I viewed the game. I knew stuff like that was possible from what I saw, but its always something else to really see it up front. I had been forced to find a new horizon. And I did, time and time again, playing decks I had fun with, getting better with, and I managed what I thought was impossible: diamond, in breathing distance of the highest rank available at the time. And I was glad, because I got in just days before Tearlaments came to Master Duel, and I really wasn’t sure if I’d want to be playing before they got banned. But, I was curious, and I did…

Floowandereeze, was, my favorite deck. Despite everything I’ve said here, I want to be clear: I like Tearlaments. I think it’s a fun deck. Does it suck that its head and shoulders stronger than the other decks in the game? Yeah, obviously. But I’ll tell you what, some of the most fun I’ve ever had playing yugioh, was the Tear mirror match. It’s a thrill, it’s insane. The Ishizu cards add such an interesting dimension to the games that just wouldn’t exist without them: the fact that the millers hit both players deck means you and your opponent can easily just keep turning your card effects on, same for theirs, and the shufflers allow for really interesting games of hitting mermaids trying to fuse and forcing out shuffles from your opponent at bad times. You and your opponent interact with each other constantly, regardless of who’s turn it is. And once I had built my deck properly I rarely felt outmatched by my opponent, except in matters of pure skill. Luck obviously plays a factor with random mills, but the combos are so consistent it's nearly impossible to never have something in your back pocket to use on your opponent. This, this is what was actually waiting on the other edge of that horizon, something so fun I… really, can’t go back. I played Tearlaments until it was rendered unusable. Since then, I’ve just been bouncing around decks None of them grabbed me the way ishtear did. And I’m just left here  to hope that this isn't the last time we see a deck Like Tearlaments. Konami, generally speaking, is not a company known for its good decision making, and I’m worried they’ve taken the wrong message from the responses to Tear. If you ask me, well, I don’t know if the game should have ever gotten to this level of power creep to begin with, but lord if you’re going to print a deck so obviously, blatantly busted you could at least have the decency to print other decks around its level. Then maybe people wouldn’t have complained about fuckin, merrli set sulliek pass. 

Conclusion: Staring Directly Into The Sun

So, why, the fuck did I make this? Well like I said at the beginning I just wanted to talk about it, because it interested me. And then, over the course of this project, it stopped being just intellectual curiosity. See, for as much as people talked about Tear, how strong it was, its place in the meta, I never really saw anyone sit down and explain why, exactly, this set of 55 cards was the single best set you could be playing. Could it be that these were just, apparent to everyone involved, and that I’m either too stupid or too new to really understand? Maybe, probably, but I’m really not one for leaving things unsaid. Uh, learning this game from basically scratch has kind of been a nightmare. Constantly, consistently, I’ve looked at cards and strategies that I thought seemed really, really powerful, only to learn that no, actually, these cards are just bad. And while now, I’ve learned to intuit why some cards are just bad, it took a lot of frustration and confusion that just, could have been avoided if someone explained why in plain terms. So, be the change you want to see, eh? Not only that but, iunno this came to be a matter of preservation for me. I thought about reworking it to take the new banlists into account, but ultimately decided that I wanted to capture the image of the deck at the time I was first writing this. And, damn I’m gonna be pissed at myself for a while for not getting a picture of my actual decklist from back before the big limits but, what can you do? I just hope that this weird essay could actually explain what it is that makes these cards so powerful, and allow people like me to get these concepts into their head to keep in mind when considering future cards. I… really, really hope we get another deck like Tearlaments again. Yugioh will not stop its power creep, not the way it’s currently run. Deck’s will continue to get stronger, get more powerful tools, and I’m worried about eventually things getting to the point where it’s basically just not even fun to play. Until the last few months, the arguable best deck was Kashtira, which main gameplan is… sitting behind a giant fucking floodgate. That's just not the kind of yugioh I want to play. I think Tearlaments was genuinely a good example for how the game could progress in power level while also staying interactive for both players. Do I want the game to just, keep getting stronger? Not really, I’ve actually started getting into low power versions of the game. But if they’re going to drag us, kicking and screaming over that next horizon,  can’t they at least make it fun? 

That’s where the original essay ended. I’m mostly keeping it intact for posterity’s sake but, I do want to say, I think somehow Konami did something right. I still haven’t found a deck that’s grabbed me the way Tear did, but a lot of the decks played nowadays are allowed to be as free form and potentially insane as Tear was at the height of its power. Which, I’m happy to see, and I really hope to keep seeing this in the future.

Forgive the melodrama

Have a nice day

[ran-orimoto]

But why would you put Junpei in the fire group with Takuya? They never interacted in the series. But I support the idea of Junpei and Izumi as a couple mixing fire and light and their children being a mix. Bye

Because I hardcore ship them.

And because ATLA teaches us the danger coming from lightning and fire together.

Jokes besides, I’m not really saying the teams have got no logic, but I don’t like how Junpei’s speech about balance doesn’t really mirror the Fire group’s conformation: Fire is the only element acting as the powerful one needing to be dominated; Wind and Ice exstinguish it. If you take in consideration the Light group, instead, Thunder is supposed to generate light (for a second ,though, so it’s kinda…Forced🤣), while darkness turns light off. It works a little better, even though Junpei’s element should have been called Lightning and not Thunder. Isn’t thunder only the sound energy, after all? And why should I ask myself these questions to make my life more complex than what it already is?

Next.

Returning on the main topic, thunders can trigger fire and playing the destroyers role in the team would have been perfect for Takuya and Junpei, since they hold the most dangerous and untamable elements of the six kids, along with Izumi, I guess? Still, fire and thunders will always bring along risks, whereas wind can also blow in the shape of a kind and innocent breeze. So on a side you’d have Junpei and Takuya’s might knowing no control, on the other you’d have Tomoki or Izumi controlling that fire. In my opinion, it would have worked better if both groups had had a similar scheme. They should have originally picked an element that could have grown in might along with Fire, like, idk, something related to Sun since the Moon had a pretty important presence in Frontier…Again, mine is just wishful thinking.

I also find it interesting the Agni God from Hinduism, the one from whom Agnimon’s name (and concept too?) derives can assume three forms; On the earth He is fire, in the sky He is the Sun and in the atmosphere He is Lightning.

Moreover, when it comes to these teams, -which could have never existed in the story and we all would have been fine-, I would have loved it if the logic behind them had been based on relationships too, you know? I would have loved it if the kids in each group had been in that specific group because of a special development going on between them and the “leader”. Pff. Taking in consideration the elements thing didn’t really make that much sense, they could have taken this route, I suppose.

I frankly believe Izumi had more chemistry with Kouji than Takuya, not only because the very first drama and Izumi’s VA did make us understand she had a crush on Kouji, but also because Izumi and Kouji/ Lobemon and Fairymon had a history of collaboration behind them. I can think about Izumi’s infamous first battle where Kouji rescued her (…….) or the moment Fairymon convinced Lobemon to hold her hand. And, besides the fact Light and Wind were sealed together by Seraphimon (I remember?), even the movie seemed to like playing about hinting Izumi and Kouji were a team still missing its third member, while Junpei, Takuya and Tomoki were another one, already settled, with their dynamics playing in both directions:

-Junpei/Tomoki, who have always been considered as a duo even in cards.

-Takuya/ Tomoki sibilings bond

-Takuya/Junpei.

And here comes it: me disagreeing with you about the fact they have never interacted and showing you Junpei would have been a great member for the Fire team.

Both have had very intense moments of fights and arguments. Junpei has always buttheaded with Takuya because, like I was saying before, their tempers clash and explode when they enter in contact XD, and also because Junpei has always been bitterly envious of him, kinda feeling inferior than him and utterly useless from the very first episode.

(Ahh the flavour of the first Frontier half🔥⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️🔥🔥🔥🔥).

This can also be applied to Junpei/Kouji, but their development limits itself to that moment when Kouji rescues him (unnecessary trash I can ignore) or to the one before the Kerpymon fight, but at the end of the day that scene was focused on Junpei cheering both Takuya and Kouji up. That was the testament of someone who had started off as an egocentric kid and had had to gradually accept to be a shadow in a show he believed it was his (main love interest lady *cough* included💔⚡️).

You see, Takuya’s and Junpei’s growth as people who respect each other but still retain their bickering had more potential than Junpei/Kouji. A friend of mine also reminded me how similar they are, which is hilarious because Takuya asks Junpei if he’s an only child, but he himself has always acted as such as well, a spoiled kid, no matter he has got a younger brother.

In a certain sense, despite how much I dislike some writing choices thrown in there, the Dark Blitzmon episode also played a very good job at showing they had arrived so far in their relationship.

So I would have loved it if their development had had a good outcome, featuring Junpei, the one who has always refused to obey Takuya from the start by acting as an anti-leader, trusting him his powers. It would have been much more meaningful to me and that’s why Junpei will always be a member of the Fire group in my heart🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️.