#i know you don't go here so what matters about this polycule is that they were already in one fucked up trio 10 years ago

[19871997]

.

[widowshill]

do tell abt "oh—!" please...what an opener

wip title ask game! so ... this is part of the r/v/b cinematic universe that i share with @tortoisesshells, it's an au of the au where they're too late saving vicki from roger's sharp-toothed cousin, and after she's dead and buried she comes back knocking on the front door of collinwood as a vampire. roger and burke love much too selfishly to kill her, even if they should, so this is them soothing her and helping her get ready for dinner with elizabeth (roger's sister, the lady of the house), and to feel more like herself since she functionally ... can't get ready on her own. or at least, she's not used to it yet.

“Oh —!”

Vicki recoiled into Burke’s arms, and buried her face in his neck. He was unchanged, mostly, for all his months away; his face a little darker from the sun of the oil fields, his hair a little lighter. She'd spent her last day with him in the sun that she ever would, without even knowing it — seeing his eyes glow warm brown like a fresh pot of coffee, freckles peppering his shoulders, squinting without sunglasses because he was stubborn, stubborn, stubborn ...

When his wife whimpered, Burke raised his hands to comfort her, smoothing along the silk of a borrowed dressing gown, pressing down between her shoulders where she’d always liked it. Regular, rhythmic. Like the rock of a ship, or the pull of the tide.

“Vicki, it’s okay — we’ll take the mirrors down at home, eh?” 

Pressed up against his veins it was maddening, the thrum of blood — the way he smelled, rich, like rare filet mingon, a Cabernet Sauvignon, an after-dinner cigar. And a tang, metal. Or gasoline. She could open her mouth and bite into him as easily as she might a grape, and he’d flood into her mouth wet and warm and full of life. Her husband. She winced, guiltily, to think about it, but it didn’t make the hunger go away.

[welcometothejianghu]

Welcome to another round of W2 Tells You What You Should See, where W2 (me) tries to sell you (you) on something you should be watching. Today's choice: 山河令/Word of Honor.

Word of Honor is a 2021 adaptation of a novel by priest that tells the story of two beautiful murderers, their three kids, and their collective attempts to ignore the fetchquest madness that has taken over the rest of the jianghu.

Look, you know what Word of Honor is. Doing a rec for this is like doing my rec for Nirvana in Fire -- I am not introducing you to a new concept. Even if you haven't watched it, you've probably osmosed enough through the rest of Tumblr to have an opinion on it. At this point, if you haven't seen Word of Honor, I'm assuming it's for one of two reasons: either you haven't gotten around to it yet, or you haven't been sufficiently moved by what you've seen fandom do with it.

So I'm going to give you five reasons to watch the show, and they're probably not going to be the reasons you've seen already. Not to say that the other reasons are bad, but you've heard them already, right? What I've got for you are five somewhat more unexpected reasons that may just convince the fence-sitters that this nut-flavored morass of toxic relationships is worth your time.

1. No matter how gay you think it is, it's gayer

Okay, sure, you've probably been given the impression that this show is real gay. But I don't know if you know how gay it is. This show is so gay that we still haven't seen many of the other BL-flavored shows filmed around the same time period or since, because Chinese censorship gay-panicked and locked them all away before they could air, because Word of Honor was just too gay.

Zhou Zishu and Wen Kexing (L-R above) are in love. The story does not make sense if they're not. There is no story if they're not. Everything else in the show is set dressing to this incredible adventure story of two horrible people who fall for one another.

Oh yeah, did I mention that they're both bad guys? One's a fascist toddler-murderer and the other's a cannibal mob boss. These two deserve one another, in every possible sense of that phrase. In any other property, they'd be the villains -- and even here, they're still kind of the villains! It's just that the heroes are worse.

What's more, their two actors absolutely understood the assignment. They got the memo. They read the book. No one ever had to sit them down midway through shooting and explain their dynamic. They had it from the table read. When given creative freedom, they chose to double down and make the gay shit even gayer.

But the actors weren't the only ones who knew what they were doing! Everybody working on the production was pretty much in full-on Let's Make A BL mode. There are no gay accidents here. It's so gay that it's actually gayer than the version that aired. If you can do a little lip-reading (though beware of spoilers in those links), you can get at the original filmed version, which had a number of lines that were too homo and/or sexual for Chinese television.

No, they don't kiss. They don't have to. This is the TV version of the tweet about, what's gayer, gay sex or whatever these two have going on? The answer is, whatever these two have going on.

It's so gay that they're not the only gays. No, I'm not going to tell you who the other gays are, in part because spoilers. But trust me, they're there. Lesbians too! And a bisexual elderly polycule! And one pair of hets that we love love love, and most other heterosexuals are creepy and gross. And if that's not an accurate representation of how the world looks to queer people, I don't know what to tell you.

2. Go nuts!

You are not prepared for the product placement.

Word of Honor started off having a budget, so they went ahead and started spending that budget in the way you do when you're making a TV show. Unfortunately, circumstances changed, and their budget became much less, which meant they couldn't keep making that TV show unless they got more dollars. But where to get a sponsor for a fairly low-profile wuxia BL property?

Enter our hero: Wolong Nuts.

I have seen actors do bumper ads in costume for products from their various sponsors, and I have seen actors do bumper ads in character for the same. But the feeling of seeing a modern product diegetically hawked mid-scene by ancient fantasy characters is like none other.

Something like 40% of Word of Honor's total budget came from this nut sponsorship. And here the thing: It worked! It sold nuts! Hell, I’d buy them if they were sold anywhere near me; I like nuts in general, and nuts that support the queers in particular.

I'm including this as a selling point because, come on, it's funny as hell. But it's also a good place to warn you that Word of Honor has what we're politely going to call a spotty use of its funds. Some things, like everyone's outfits and the score, are lavish and beautiful. Other things, like some of the sets and a lot of the CG, are janky and sad. Crowd scenes are thirty humans and a bunch of Blender assets. I've never seen so many fake plastic trees together in one place before. There's a lot of visible hairnets. Like, a lot.

The show was originally planned as being 45 episodes long. It wound up being 36 + a tiny epilogue. That's a huge cut! I’ll say to its credit that you mostly can’t feel the seams; the production team did a heroic job killing their darlings (in many senses) while keeping the narrative coherent. If you know about the original vision, though, you can identify pretty quickly where the excised material should have been. Don’t be surprised when the last two episodes in particular smack you like a hit-and-run.

They blew a truly unwise amount of the budget on costumes in general, and Wen Kexing's costumes in particular, and thank goodness. (@canary3d-obsessed has done a noble job of cataloging everyone's wardrobes, and some of the details are just stunning.) See that red outfit he's wearing there, with the elaborate, delicate embroidery? That apparently took two people literal months to hand-sew. It's a terrible use of limited funds, and I am living for it. Even when Wen Kexing looks awful, he looks stunning -- especially when you put him side by side with Zhou Zishu, who is wearing the jianghu equivalent of slutty yoga pants and a thrift-store dollar-bin t-shirt that says IT'S WINE O'CLOCK SOMEWHERE.

So if, while you’re watching, you’re ever disappointed by the quality of the production in front of you, just console yourself by thinking: That’s nut money, baby.

3. The ghosts (and everyone else) doing the mosts

This is a show that somehow managed to accumulate a tremendous supporting cast of actual grown-ass adults, then had the wisdom to make them play a wide variety of balls-to-the-wall bonkers roles.

You can't throw a rock in a crowd scene without hitting a dozen actors with resumes as long as their arms, who have been acting since before you were born. Apparently they poached a couple veteran film and stage actors from other contemporaneous productions and had them come over to film bit parts on their days off. If you see a character played by an older actor who's getting more lines and face time than you think their character strictly deserves relative to their importance to the plot, and you're like, hm, I wonder if this older actor has a career that includes roles in several dozen other shows and/or stage productions, the answer is yes.

I've seen the tone of the show described as melodramatic, but I don't think that's quite it -- it's more operatic. People speak to the middle distance and play to the back row. Several actors have the body language and line delivery that makes it seem like they're always about three words away from breaking into song. Several of my favorites are downright camp. It's magnificent.

Statistically, everyone in this show is a bad guy. There are the respectable people who don't mean to be bad guys, but wind up being bad guys anyway because they support bullshit systems. There are the morally grey folk who are willing to become bad guys because they think they'll be the good guys when all is said and done. And there are the bad guys who know they're bad guys and are going to chew every piece of scenery in the vicinity about it, so watch out.

My favorite collection of scene-stealing weirdos is probably the clutch of freaks that make up the ghosts of Ghost Valley. They're not actual ghosts -- this is not a supernatural show. They are instead living people who call themselves ghosts because they've found themselves on the margins of society for one reason or another, and have created their own little society! With hookers! And blackjack! And also a little murder, as a treat!

These ghosts are so extra that they actually have a Top Ten List, where all the ones that have code names and specific costumes hang out. How do you get on the Top Ten List? By killing one or more of the people already on it, of course! I told you these guys are villains! They're not even the only villains! They're not even the only villain organization! It's wall-to-wall bad guys around here! And oh my goodness, the actors are clearly having a ball with it.

When the screenwriter came to adapt Faraway Wanderers (the novel) into Word of Honor, she realized that there weren't a whole lot of ladies in the book -- so she invented/adapted some for the show and made most of them sinister! (In fact, if you watch Legend of Fei -- and you should watch Legend of Fei -- you can see a lot of the inspiration for said ladies.) Some of the female characters in the show were men in the book, while others weren't even in the book at all. They all feel organic, though, and not like someone was trying to get Strong Female Character Points. It's the good representation you get when there's a lot of representation, so nobody has to be The Girl, and all the girls can just be people.

...Alas that another casualty of the budget cuts is that several of the lady characters did not get to live up to their full ass-kicking potential. But that potential is still there! The badassery may be implicit instead of explicit, but you don't doubt that many of these women would eat your heart at the slightest provocation, and you would thank them while they were doing it.

This show is perfect food if you're the kind of viewer liable to get sucked up into the worlds of villains, NPCs, bit parts, optional side characters, and other narratives going on outside the main storyline. Because there's a lot going on outside the main storyline. I mean, that's kind of the running joke of the whole novel, that there's this whole complicated political plot happening, and yet our dudes are over here studiously trying to not know what the hell is going on. Obviously that's harder to preserve in a show, but it's still a key feature of the narrative. Most of the Big Power Play What-Not is always happening a few towns over from where the main party is at any given moment. I know people who've watched the drama several times and still can't explain whatever's happening with all that. That's fine. You roll with it for the sake of everything else.

So! Do you like gazing upon delightful character actors and having imagination adventures about the unexplored workings of a bunch of tantalizingly mysterious and often very sexy weirdos? Great! This will keep you busy for a good long while.

4. The juciest pining in the jianghu

I said I wasn't going to tell you about all the gay shit going on here, and I'm not. What I do want to cover, however, is how much gay shit isn't going on here -- and by that I mean just how much of the show's gay longing is unrequited. If you like it when the boy yearns for the other boy, friend, you will feast well tonight.

You have likely already, through fandom, been alerted to the existence of the biggest gremlin in the land and an understandable number of people's favorite character, immortal grandpa Ye Baiyi. What may not have been conveyed, however, is just how tragically gay this bitch is. The ultra-condensed, scrubbed-for-spoilers version of his backstory is that he was in love with a guy who got injured because of him, so he decided to stay and live on a mountain with that guy and the guy's wife and coparent their son with them, all the while never once telling the guy how he felt.

This is not me with slash goggles on. This is canon. Well, okay, the "in love with" part is only confirmed in the book, but Huang Youming, Ye Baiyi's equally gremlin-like actor, has also clearly done the reading and understands how to break your heart with it. Ugh, it's so good.

Shidifuckers, rejoice! Zhou Zishu has Han Ying, his devoted little dumpling who would -- and does -- do anything for him. Back in Zhou Zishu's regrettable (but very fashionable) fascist days, he had a bunch of little underlings; one of them was Han Ying, who still works for the same evil empire. Problem is, Han Ying isn't evil. He was never loyal to his job; he was always just loyal to Zhou Zishu. It's cute the way Wen Kexing hisses like a cat upon meeting Han Ying and immediately identifying him as a rival for Zhou Zishu's affections. If you like OTPs that occasionally roll in a service-top third, please consider that adorable muffin boy up there.

And speaking of quitting your job, have you ever had the problem where you had to orchestrate your own death to get away from your toxic boss who won't stop sexually harassing you, and that motherfucker still expects you to show up for your shift next weekend? Meet Prince Jin, who has refused to accept Zhou Zishu's resignation letter with extreme prejudice.

Zhou Zishu isn't even the only ex he's mad he drove off! But that's just a namedrop in the show; see my bonus selling point for instructions on how to get into that whole gay-ass story. [insert obligatory "Prince Jin is not Helian Yi" disclaimer here]

...Nope, uh-uh, we're not going to get into what's going on with Scorpy. Suffice it to say, this is one of those cases where the show can't outright call a thing gay (though uhhhh it sure can imply a lot of it!), but it can set up an unspoken Gay Bad Idea as a direct, textual parallel with a canon Straight Bad Idea and be like, see? see? Anyway, daddy's boy there has deliciously terrible taste. This is the one that'll have you screaming crying throwing up etc.

And then there's this handsome jackass, who isn't doing the pining, but is the unfortunately heterosexual object of the often confused and misdirected longings of his friends. About the first thing you know about Rong Xuan is that he died before the series begins, so you only see him in a few flashbacks. The precious few times you do, though, you're treated to scenes of him holding court among his besties (many of whom are the spectacularly cast younger versions of major older male characters) while they all wrestle with varying degrees of homo longing for his cocky dreamboat self. You ever wanted to fuck a straight guy so bad you got both him and his wife killed about it? Because somebody in this drama sure has!

I sense you think I'm making this all up, that I'm just a fujoshi looking at the world through rainbow-colored glasses and telling you about her favorite slash pairings. Friend, I am not. Okay, I am being a little cheeky about the last one, but I swear that everything else I have listed in this selling point is about as textual as the show could make it, if not outright straight (ha ha) from the books.

(I have a whole separate theory about how priest herself is a real-life queer, based on how basically everyone in her works is either queer-coded or a token straight who's on thin ice, but that's a subject for a completely different Tumblr post no one's ever going to read, so save us both the time and imagine I already wrote it.)

I cannot stress to you enough how much this show knew what it was doing with the queer stuff. I love how amazingly toxic so much of it is, too, because one of the big themes of the show is that secrets will destroy you and everyone you love. If you have gay longing in a society that forces you to hide that gay longing, yeah, you're going to be extra-vulnerable to making some shitty decisions because of it! You're either going to suffocate yourself by keeping silent, or you're going to open yourself to intimate partner abuse you can't reveal to anyone else, or you're going to do some murders about it! Or some combination of the three! Either way, it's not good!

Also, tell your partner about your chronic health conditions, whether they be Can't Remember My Past, Would Eat A Guy If I Had The Opportunity, Stuck Some Nails In My Chest And Am Now Dying And Also Can't Get A Boner, or Whoops Took The Nails Out Of My Chest And Still Can't Get A Boner. Oh, and tell your partner if you're about to run off and go confront your dangerous ex. And absolutely tell your partner if you're about to fake your own death. Just ... learn to have conversations with the people who love you, okay? Avoid huge amounts of narrative suffering with this one weird trick!

5. Putting his whole Zhang Zhehussy into it

See, Gong Jun (playing Wen Kexing) is not what I'd call a great actor. This is more of a case where you take a guy, you cast him as a character whose motivation can be summed up as "I want to fuck that man in half," and then you cast opposite him a man that the guy in question clearly actually wants to fuck in half. And you let the magic work.

Zhang Zhehan (playing Zhou Zishu), however, legitimately knocks it entirely out of the park. Whenever the camera's on him, it's hard to take your eyes off him. He holds his own in a sea of veteran actors. He can do comedy and tragedy with equal panache. It's lucky he's such a beautiful crier, because Zhou Zishu cries so much. I have never seen someone more perfectly portray the mood of "in love and absolutely furious about it."

As the story goes, when he auditioned, he actually wanted to play Wen Kexing -- but the director told him, look, while you'd be great at that, I can find another Wen Kexing, but I'm never going to find another Zhou Zishu.

Zhou Zishu is bad man who has done terrible things and resigned himself to suffering to atone for his crimes, and he is so mad to find himself at the end of his life suddenly having a reason to keep living. Zhang Zhehan does a pitch-perfect tsundere right up to the point where he breaks. I'm not going to call it an understated performance, because nothing in this show is understated, but it is often times subtle and always complex, and fuck does he have a good crazy grin.

One of the first things you find out about Zhou Zishu is that he's got just a couple years left to live, over which time all his senses are going to deteriorate. In fact, they've already started going. And as the show goes on, you can watch Zhang Zhehan play it so you can tell when he's missed something he should otherwise have picked up on, reacting to noises and touches a split-second late. It's a testament to what a thoughtful job Zhang Zhehan's doing, keeping track of how much of Zhou Zishu has already slipped away.

There are, if you've read the book, legitimate complaints to be made about the adaptation's interpretation of Zhou Zishu's character, and I get that. But you can't say that Zhang Zhehan isn't pulling off exactly what he means to here. I say this too as someone who loves the novel: I think it works. Given the constraints of Chinese television in particular and cinematic adaptations in general, the show made the right choices when it came to figuring out what were the more filmable, actable options, and Zhang Zhehan plays every one of those choices within an inch of his life.

Also did I mention he's like the most beautiful man to ever exist? Holy crap. You're going to be so mad about what they do to his face for the first several episodes.

Don't worry, it washes off eventually.

caveat: Kind of a bummer!

You may have been warned that this one's got a sad ending. Well ... yes and no. On the "no" side of things, there's a "secret" mini-episode 37 that rolls back one of the major points of tragedy. (It's also clearly the first version that got shot, and then they shuffled around and redubbed some material to make the aired end of episode 36.)

But oh man, not all of them. Plenty of characters we love do not make it to the end. Like ... kind of a shockingly large number. Some are dispatched offscreen, some have tragic onscreen deaths, some are probably dead given the circumstances we last see them in, and a couple aren't dead yet but are almost certainly going to be soon.

(It's also kind of a meta-bummer! I mean, I don't recommend falling down the rabbit hole of what happened with Zhang Zhehan's career after the show aired, but tl;dr, it's not great.)

So yeah, it's not an outright pain simulator, and if you've got the mettle for Nirvana in Fire or Guardian, you should be okay here. But hoo boy, don't just blunder on in expecting a cheerful romp from start to finish, because ... yeah. I said it before: This is a story about a bunch of bad guys. Bad guys don't live long lives, nor do the good people who get tangled up in their shit. Just be prepared!

bonus selling point: black and white husbands

Okay, I will tell you who one of the other pairs of gays is. You'll see the two of them show up near the tail end of the show, and then you'll decide you want to know more about what their whole deal is, and then you'll read Qi Ye, which is a novel entirely about gay pining, and then it'll be all over for you.

Ready to wander this way?

There's a number of ways to watch this one! Viki, Netflix, YouTube, and Amazon Prime all have you covered -- but Viki's the only one that has the epilogue at the ready, so I'd go there if you can.

And I get it, if you're enough of an aging hipster that you don't want to play in the same sandbox everybody else is playing in. Believe me, I understand that impulse on a visceral level. After all, this is not a small fandom -- 7718 works on AO3 (at time of writing) isn't Untamed levels of content, but it's nothing to sneeze at. Maybe you want to leave this one for a little while longer, until the hubbub dies down a bit more and people's attention is redirected by a different gay and shiny thing. That's valid. I get it.

But if you do, I still encourage you to get around to it someday. For all its flaws -- and yeah, it's got flaws -- it's a good, solid story that makes you feel lots of feelings about some fascinating characters in some beautiful costumes, running around being real queer (and okay, occasionally straight) to beautiful music. This, to me, is television.

Fun fact! There is also a Japanese dub, if you feel like taking it at that speed, and the guy who voices Zhou Zishu is the voice of Kaworu from Evangelion, and the guy who voices Wen Kexing is the voice of Victor Nikiforov from Yuri on Ice. See what I mean???

I'm telling you, everybody ships it.

[snekwritesstuff]

Take A Break (pt. 1 of ?)

Pairing: none in this specific part, but eventual BillFiddlesFord/Doomed Polycule/Cursed Love Triangle/whatever it is we're calling this Word Count: 1,251 Warnings: Bill's a little shit, will probably get worse as this goes on, but I'm aiming for as healthy of a relationship as this can be. Eventually. I'm also playing extremely fast and loose with canon, so don't think too hard about it. :)

these absolute buffoons have been plaguing my every waking moment. i HAD to write something. enjoy!

Winter in Oregon was unbearable. It didn't matter how many layers Fiddleford buried himself in, how close he was to the fire, or how much soup and hot chocolate he consumed. He was freezing.

Ford had been busy with the portal as per usual, and while he hadn't missed Christmas per se, the holiday was glossed over. Fidds had spent months on those gloves. He'd also gotten chewed over the phone so harshly for forgetting his wife's present (a mistake he needed to type into the memory gun soon) that the chill in his body wasn't solely from the weather. He had to figure something out with Emma May or he'd lose her, too.

Not that Ford was lost. He was just.. distant. Talking to himself in all hours of the night. Muttering about equations and theories and designs…and Bill.

Bill. What a character. Fidds had left his wife and children for Ford, and yet Ford would rather gallivant with a triangle (???) than spare him a second thought. Whether demonic manipulation had its role or Ford really was just that emotionally ignorant, Fidds was on the backburner. Had been for a while.

He heaved a sigh into his mug. It wouldn't be so bad if he could just get to know Bill. Ford trusted anyone that could stroke his ego, bless him, but Fidds was more calculated than that. That and, well, Bill was a demon. But surely not all demons are bad. Right? If Ford could put so much trust in him, then surely Fidds could give him a chance. 

That settled it. Fidds would march down to the basement and talk to that triangle. In the morning. When he felt like getting out of his bundle of blankets. 

~~~

Ford cleared his throat as he gave Fidds a worried glance. “You want to talk to Bill?”

Fidds could feel himself break into a cold sweat. “I-If that’s possible, then yes.”

“I don’t know if that’s a good idea…” Ford trailed, rubbing the back of his neck and looking towards the floor. His eyes fluttered closed for a moment, and when they opened again they looked almost pained.

“What’s the matter with you?” Fidds asked, crossing his arms. “You’re ramblin’ about this demon all the live-long day, but when I wanna properly meet ‘im, I can’t get a word outta you.”

“It’s not that simple, Fidds, he–” Ford shook his head. “I don’t want him to hurt you.”

“I can handle a few mean jabs, Ford, been doin’ it my whole life.”

“That’s not what I meant and you know it.” Ford’s gaze pinned Fidds to the floor.

“Talk to me, Ford.”

“I can’t.”

“Yes, you can!” Fidds exclaimed. “I’ve been–You–” With a harsh sigh, Fidds pressed a hand to his shaking head. “Y’know Ford, I’ve staked a lot to be out here with you. My career and my marriage for starters. But–”

“And I can’t thank you enough for that, Fidds–”

“Ford.”

The air went quiet for a moment, the pair stewing in the tension, before Fidds continued. 

“But…Here lately, you’re spendin’ all your time with this Bill character, and I don’t even know what he looks like! I just wanna know who the mysterious third gear in this machine is, so I can learn to trust ‘im, and everything can go back to whatever our definition of normal is. And if that don’t convince you, then, I’m sorry, Ford, but I don’t know if I can keep doin’ this.”

Ford’s eyes lit up in a panic as he rushed forward and took Fidds’ shoulders in his hands. “No, no no, Fidds, you don’t understand. I need you. I need you here, for this project, for my sanity. My Muse is patient, and I’m forever grateful, but if you don’t help me, then…then…”

At the pause, Fidds gently murmured, “Ford?”

“It’s nothing. Never mind.”

“Ford!”

The scientist straightened his posture and turned back towards the portal, his hand covering his mouth. With a shaky exhale, he dropped his hand back to his side and cleared his throat. Fidds just stood, baffled at his friend’s actions, mouth agape. The air remained thick with tension as Fidds nervously played with a loose string on his sleeve. He cleared his throat, turning to go back upstairs.

“I’m worried for you, Stanford. Maybe it’s time to take a good, long break from this project, come back to the real world for a bit. We can go visit Emma May,” Fidds’ voice caught on the name, but he cleared his throat to continue, “or maybe try to find out where your brother’s been. Just…don’t shut me out. Please.”

By the time Ford turned around to answer, Fidds had already gone up the stairs and closed the door behind him. 

~~~~

“Well, well, well, Sixer,” Bill cooed, kicking his feet behind him playfully. “You’ve got ol’ Fiddlesticks whipped for you.”

Ford had fallen asleep in the basement again, which was never good for his back, but he couldn’t bother to face Fidds after their conversation earlier. Maybe he was right. Maybe it was time to take a break.

“It isn’t like that,” Ford muttered, pouring over the pages in his mind that he would have to copy into his journal later. 

“Coulda fooled me! You should have seen the eyes he was giving you before he went upstairs. Talk about desperate.” Bill spoke as he folded his arms behind his head, swimming through the air. “And that speech you gave about ‘needing him,’ gross. You don’t need him. You need me. You can always find another–”

Ford snapped his book shut and slammed it on the desk. “He is just as important to me as any other part of this project.”

“Any other part?” Bill’s eye narrowed. 

Swallowing thickly, Ford tried to think of the best way to backpedal out of this bordering-on-dangerous conversation. “I’m not a machinist. You’re not…You can’t be here until the portal’s built. Without him, the whole plan falls to pieces.”

“I dunno, Sixer, it sounds like you’re putting that hillbilly hick on a pedestal far too tall for his own good.” The demon brought a hand up to Ford’s chin, grasping it firmly and bringing the focus back to him. “He’s not your Muse, is he?”

“Of course not–”

“Maybe I should pay him a visit. He’s sleeping so peacefully. It wouldn’t be hard. Maybe I can be his Muse, give you a taste of what it’s like to be alone since you seem to have forgotten what it was like before me.” With each sentence, Bill’s hold grew tighter. “As a matter of fact, Sixer, I think I will give him the conversation he so desperately craves.”

Ford clamped his lips together, his eyes pleading for Bill not to go through with it, but knowing better than to argue with his beloved Muse. The demon’s eye twitched in a way that meant he was smiling, at least as far as Ford could tell, before patting the scientist’s cheek. 

“I love when you look at me like that,” Bill murmured. “Like there’s nothing else in the world. Exactly as it should be. But! Very naughty pet human. I need to go see ol’ Fiddlesticks so you don’t get any ideas in the future.”

“My Muse, please, don’t hurt him.”

Bill pressed a hand to his bowtie and scoffed dramatically. “I would never hurt my pet’s favorite toy, and I’m offended that you think I would. Anyway, sleep tight, Sixer! See you soon.”

[harmonysanreads]

A shower thought I have because of the current sumeru event and the hexagon polycule (I haven't started playing it yet) :

All the participants trying 90000% harder not only to win, but also to impress you while Layla and Faruzan are just

"🧍‍♀️🧍‍♀️pls don't hurt us"

Wanderer also ofc wants to impress and win but his ego took a heavy blow after being listed in as "Hat Guy"

Alhaitham can't really participate but that won't stop him from making snarky remarks over them ( *cough cough* Kaveh and Cyno * cough cough*)

I was waiting for this event like a kid for their favorite cartoon show to air no kidding and it DID NOT disappoint<33 (I want either Kaveh or Layla to win so bad ☹️) And by the laws, brainrot is unavoidable :)

spoilers under the cut! [ au masterlist ]

I was thinking about Reader being chosen as one of the Commentators for extra spice actually— imagine how much harder the boys work to get your approval, this is the moment they get to show off, after all. No one can question it, you have abundant knowledge and capability from your travels, are eloquent with words, well acquainted with every contestant and can generally keep everything in euphony ; Nahida didn't even find any room for a contrary opinion as Alhaitham and Hat Guy brought these points forth (separately) so matter of factly. Having you there will just make this even a little (no, a lot) bearable for them, is all.

Faruzan is amused to a degree, ho, youngsters these can be so passionate! Though there slowly forms a concern for your future as she realizes that their efforts aren't just simple courting tactics. Layla's just... scared. She may or may not have accidentally looked through your constellation and it may or may not have traumatized her a little.

The fact that Kaveh wants to buy a place for himself with the prize money?? *chefs kiss* The architect has come to the realization that he needs to iron his backbone if he's to court you officially, he needs to show you that he can achieve way more than that insufferable cabbage (soon to not be) roommate of his. And when Kaveh is serious about something, you better know you're not going to have it easy anymore.

Tighnari is such a showoff in the first round, creating that butterfly show not only to catch potential students but to impress you knowing you have an affinity for pretty things. He didn't entirely lose in the second round either, as you rushed to take care of him, he savored all that attention more than the water he passed out without :/

Cyno is, well, ... Cyno. Don't get him wrong, he most definitely wants your praises and he does get them in the second round. On a side note, based on the Biryani factor joke he made I have a new headcannon that Cyno regularly tells you food puns — now whether you enjoy them is purely up to you :)

Though, things with him really get interesting in the final round as Wanderer takes him head on (or I'm assuming something similar since it's not out yet). Even the densest person can tell they're ready to tear each other limb from limb here, but honestly, who has the guts to stop these two? Not like you aren't mildly entertained by their duel either.

You're surprised when you heard that Wanderer was taking part, you recovered quickly though ; squeezing him affectionately like you usually do and even jokingly adding what else he was doing behind your back (not missing the way he tensed up). Whatever his true motives are, it's apparent he's determined to prove something to you. He's trying to better himself, alright. But old habits die hard, how can these mortals even compare to him? If he can (and he will) establish the fact that he's obviously the superior choice —to you only, of course as he doesn't give a crap about what others think— then taking that dent to his pride will be worth it.

Alhaitham is the saltiest version of himself throughout the whole event (Nilou's sweating bullets throughout the whole time). Most of the actual commentary is done by you and Nilou as he just occasionally quips in to add a snarky remark or to do announcements. Doesn't waste a breath fleeing from the venue when a round ends and even whisks you along with him. At one point though, he asks who you support the utmost among the participants (no, ‘everyone’ isn't an acceptable answer), purposefully when they're gathered together. You aren't dumb, you know that despite the tone in which he delivered it, this is the pinnacle of this competition for everyone. If he was just fanning the flames before, he's poured out an entire barrel of gasoline in it now.

Oh, we cannot forget the Traveller and Paimon who are actually doing their job just...deadpanning by the sidelines as everything unfolds :>

(also, you're going on a date with dehya and candace sooner or later, no questions asked.)

[lanawinterscigarettes]

Can you do “do any of the clothes you’re wearing belong to you?!” from the poly prompts with the reader and non judging breakfast club ?

sure thing! thanks for the poly njbc request btw <3

(original prompt list can be found here btw in case y'all wanna request something)

Sharing Is Caring (poly Non-Judging Breakfast Club x gn reader)

Warnings: makeout session between the reader and Chuck, offscreen sex/implied smut, hickeys mentioned, fluff other than that

It wasn't always easy being in a polycule, especially one with four of the most well-known Upper East Siders there ever were, but if there was one perk to the chaos of it all it was you never had to worry about running out of clothing.

Take now, for example. You couldn't find any of your own clothes, so naturally you just scouted around the shared penthouse for something, anything to wear before heading out for the day. You were meeting Dan for coffee and didn't want to end up being late.

After what seemed like forever, you were finally able to get together enough articles of clothing to make an outfit, and with that you were off, not bothering to check who the clothes belonged to before leaving. You were sure your partners wouldn't mind if you borrowed their stuff. They never did, because to them it was just further proof you were theirs.

"Hey," you greeted Dan in a slightly breathless voice, having rushed out of the penthouse to the coffee shop so you'd make it on time. "Sorry, my alarm didn't go off. What's up?"

"Well, I see the maid forgot to get your laundry done this morning," he quipped dryly while his eyes flickered along your form, noting the mismatched clothing. Nate's pants, Blair's shirt, Serena's scarf, Chuck's jacket... "As a matter of fact, do any of the clothes you're wearing belong to you?"

"Haha, Dan. Very funny." You rolled your eyes lightheartedly at the question, though you took the moment to glance down at your outfit before realizing he was right. "Um... my underwear is mine, I think. Maybe, I don't know. I didn't really check before putting clothes on."

"Ew," he responded as his nose wrinkled up in disgust. "That was a little bit more information than I needed to know."

"Hey, you asked. I was just answering your question," you gave a casual, unbothered shrug as you replied.

"Whatever. I didn't meet up with you so I could talk about whether the underwear you have on is yours or not," he said before changing the subject to something else. The two of you chatted for a good hour or so, starting to walk down the streets together after getting your coffee. You were just about to point out the time when a limo pulled up alongside the sidewalk. It didn't take a genius to realize who it belonged to.

Dan rolled his eyes while muttering something about unnecessary wealth, which you just ignored. The window to the backseat rolled down, revealing none other than Chuck. "I was in the area and figured you may need a ride given how cold it is," he spoke in that smooth baritone of his before you could ask what he was doing there.

This time it was your turn to roll your eyes. As if he didn't already know about you meeting up with Dan from Serena. You knew you couldn't trust her to keep her mouth shut. "Oh, I'm sure you were just 'in the area'," you said as he got out, holding the door open for you while shooting Dan a smug look that said "I get to have more time with them than you do".

"I guess I'll just catch up with you later, then," Dan grumbled as he watched you disappear into the back of the limo, clearly not too pleased about his meet-up with you getting cut short.

"Bye, Dan," you called out once Chuck got back in and the limo started to pull away, putting the window back up so the car wouldn't be affected by the cold chill in the air. You spoke again after a moment or so. "We need to stop by the penthouse before lunch so I can change."

"Why do you need to change? I think you look absolutely delectable in what you're wearing," Chuck purred out as his eyes flickered hungrily up and down your body where you sat in the backseat, taking in your choice of clothing.

"Nothing that I'm wearing is mine, Chuck. None of it matches, either," you began, your next sentence getting cut off by a squeal of surprise as he pulled you into his lap.

"You don't need to change. You look fine," he insisted as his hands held onto your hips, keeping you in his lap as he pulled you in for a needy kiss. "Besides, I'm sure the others would agree with me."

"Blair wouldn't. She'd think I look like an unorganized mess," you pointed out between kisses, instinctively tilting your head to the side as he started to trail his mouth down your jaw to your neck.

"Well, she's just going to have to deal with it, because we're not stopping." Chuck was a man of his word. Rather than taking you back to the penthouse so you could get changed, he took you in the backseat instead before you met with the rest of your partners for lunch.

Ever the gentleman, he opened the door for you once you got there and wrapped an arm snugly around your waist so your legs wouldn't give out, knowing how weak they currently were from your earlier activities. You were just happy the scarf you had on was hiding the fresh hickeys on your neck.

Everyone had the expected response to seeing you wear their clothes. Serena thought you looked amazing regardless, Blair questioned your taste minus the shirt you had on (and that was only because it belonged to her), and Nate had to be told who's clothes they were by Serena after commenting on how familiar they looked.

"Why couldn't you just put on your own clothes this morning?" Nate questioned in confusion, his head tilted slightly to the side in a way that you all agreed made him look like a puppy dog. A golden retriever, to be exact.

"Because I couldn't find any this morning when I looked, and I didn't want to be late to meet Dan." Noticing the scowl on Chuck's face at your words, you added, "Oh, relax. And unclench your jaw before you crack a tooth."

Serena giggled at the interaction before reaching her hand across the table to rest on top of yours. "Well, I think our stuff looks good on you. After all, sharing is caring, right?"

You couldn't argue with her there. Sharing was caring, especially in your case. And given just how much you loved your partners and the dynamic you shared with them, you wouldn't have it any other way.

End notes: I know there wasn't a big section with the actual njbc but I'm always eager to write more for them if y'all want!

Likes < reblogs | comments are greatly appreciated | requests are currently open

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[prince-rowan-of-the-forest]

Part of the Team

The vigilante Duality gets hurt in a fight, Virgil goes to the only hero he can trust to help him.

It turns out that they might all know each other better than they thought.

----

| Ao3 |

Warnings: None

Pairings: Virgil/Roman/Janus/Logan (Analoroceit??)

Word Count: 1421

Notes:

My second fic for the @tsspromptmonth sleepy bean cafe event!!!

So Roman/Janus/Virgil/Logan is not a ship I would normally write and I actually intended this to just be anaroceit but then Logan inserted himself in so now we're here.

Written for @nonbinary-octopus

The Prompt: superpowers, secret identities, mutual pining, and ""only one knows their dating"" with a polycule of at least three

----

Virgil smashed the rock that had been launched at him mere seconds ago, it broke into shards that bounced off his costume easily. 

“Can you listen to me for one fucking second?” Virgil yelled at the superhero attempting to fight him, the hotshot in town, “I don’t want to fight you-”

“Of course you do!” Prince said, puffing out his chest as he landed in front of Virgil, who was about three seconds away from a panic attack as the most powerful hero in the city and also Virgil’s longest standing crush, “That’s like- our entire thing!”

Virgil, admittedly, loved their fights. It gave him an opportunity to both punch Roman in the face and also to get close enough to him to see his face, how his eyes widened and his pupils dilated when Virgil got too close, how his hair never looked messy no matter how many times Virgil landed a hit, it was fun to fight the hero. But not right now.

“Look - I just- fuck-” Virgil said, lunging to grab Roman by the collar of his shirt with an involuntary crack of electricity in his hand to stop him from zipping away with those stupid flight powers he had on top of the others, “I need your help.”

That seemed to strike a chord, as Roman practically went limp for just a few seconds before righting himself. 

“You need my help?” He asked, raising an eyebrow. 

“Don't make me regret asking you, Princey,” Virgil growled, choosing not to notice the blush that bloomed on a Romans face because of it, instead dropping the hero, “Duality is in trouble.” 

“Duality? The vigilante?” Roman asked, immediately getting up from the floor seemingly unharmed to Virgil's displeasure, “What- what's wrong with him? And what did you have to do with it, villain?” 

Roman had hastily added that last part to cover up the clear worry on his face at the idea that the vigilante who always seemed to pop up during Roman's operations to help might be in trouble. 

“I didn't have shit to do with it, you asshole,” Virgil hissed, the idea that he would've done something to get Janus hurt, “It was another villain he ended up fighting who could stop him from shifting - I had to drag him back home and I don't know what the hell to do- I just- you have healing powers so-” 

“Okay okay-” Roman said, reaching forward to take Virgil by the arms. The villain froze, “I'll help Duality okay? You just gotta take me to him.” 

Virgil took a deep breath and nodded, taking Roman's hand and dragging him off,  determinedly pulling him along until halfway there when he stopped abruptly, “Princey.” 

“Tempest,” Roman returned, raising an eyebrow at him.

“Look - he’s- he’s not in the best state right now, before we go in, and I wanna warn you - you’re gonna find out stuff that you can’t fucking tell anyone. Okay?” Virgil stressed, “Not even your stupid hero buddies.”

“Like I would tell them anyway,” Prince rolls his eyes, “They’d arrest me for talking to you like a normal human being let alone helping a vigilante, just shut up and show me what’s going on.”

“Right - well um- Logic is also there, so just- be prepared,” Virgil mumbled, going back to dragging the hero across town to a fairly nice apartment building.

“What- the hell is Logic doing there?” Prince asked, eyes wide. 

“They're my friends, and it's my damn apartment so I'll invite whoever I want, deal with it.” 

—

“Duality isn’t in costume,” Virgil told him firmly, “So just- nothing you see here leaves this room.”

“I already said yes,” Prince rolled his eyes as Virgil dragged him up the stairs. Virgil called out once they arrived at the apartment, fumbling to unlock the door and drag Prince inside. Prince came easily, pushing the door closed behind him and trailing behind into the living room, where Duality - or, right now, Virgil’s best friend Janus - was laying on the sofa. Currently he was being looked over by Logic, the notoriously hyper intelligent supervillain - which sure was a sight for the hero to behold… especially since he happened to recognise Janus. 

Prince stopped in the doorway, staring at the two of them, before grabbing Virgi’s wrist and dragging him back.

“What the fuck are you doing?” Virgil hissed as Prince shoved him back into the hall. 

“That is my boyfriend-” Prince said in a whisper-yell, Virgil’s eyes widened. 

Janus was Virgil’s best friend - they knew each other’s civilian identities, and because of that Virgil knew that Janus was dating two people, and one of them was already in his apartment with Janus. 

“Holy fucking shit,” Virgil mumbled, “You’re Roman Kingsley.”

Roman went pale, before flailing a little, “What? No- no of course not- why would I ever be-”

“Roman shut up,” Virgil said, shaking his head, “This is so dumb - I’m Virgil.”

“...Oh,” Roman said, blinking at him, slowly his eyes widened, “Oh! Virgil!”

And Virgil found himself swept off of his feet and spun around by the hero, and Virgil struggled to get out of his hold.

“Shut up - what the hell-”

“Virgil! Oh this is wonderful! We’re all together now! Thank you for telling me what was going on-”

“You’re welcome-?” Virgil said awkwardly, blushing despite his attempt to quell his own feelings - they were all in a relationship, apparently, which meant even his crush on the stupid superhero was even less attainable, “Can we - can we just go inside-?”

—

It took almost no time at all for Janus to be patched up with both Roman and Logan helping out. It was odd to Virgil to see both a notorious supervillain and hero working together to help someone they both clearly cared about. Virgil meanwhile was steadily keeping watch, both on the two of them to ensure they didn’t try anything in his apartment. 

At some point, Logan’s identity had also been revealed and the two had comforted Roman on the fact that he was dating a supervillain, while Janus just snuggled up to Roman’s side, mentally and physically exhausted from the day. 

“Here,” Virgil says, carrying a pile of blankets and pillows into the room, placing them next to Janus, “I’m guessing you guys are gonna want to stay here, so um, here’s some blankets and stuff, you guys can stay on the sofas and stuff? Unless you’d rather take my bed and I’ll sleep out here-?”

“Why can’t you join us?” Roman asked, tilting his head, looking a little disappointed as he held a pillow. 

“I-” Virgil started, looking around at the three of them, who all looked at him the same way, “Why would you want me to stay?”

“Why wouldn’t we want to spend more time with our boyfriend?” Logan asked, looking confused, “Especially when he’s done so much for us today.”

“I- I’m sorry, what?” Virgil asked, “The hell do you mean, boyfriend?”

“You’re… our boyfriend, aren’t you?” Janus asked, looking confused. 

“Not as far as I knew!” Virgil cried, confusion and fluster alike squeezing his chest tightly, “You guys - you guys think we’ve been dating?”

“Well- yeah! We kept inviting you on dates and you kept coming-” Roman said, shaking his head, “We thought you knew!”

“I thought they were just hanging out!” Virgil said, fidgeting with his sleeve, he’d changed out of his costume into a more comfortable hoodie since they’d gotten back. 

“Oh - no sweetie-” Janus said softly, “‘m sorry if our advances were unwanted-”

“What advances??” 

“Virgil… we’ve been flirting with you for months…”

“Oh my god…” Virgil groans.

“If you don’t want to date us that is alright-” Logan piped up, “Apologies that we misinterpreted this relationship-”

“No no-” Virgil said quickly, “No- I mean- I do want to date you - fucking hell I’ve had a huge crush on all of you for like years - but I just-”

Janus offered his arm on the opposite side to Roman, and with a look at the other two, Virgil hesitantly walks over and sits, letting Janus pull him in until Virgil is more comfortably curled up to his side. 

“Since we never made ourselves clear enough before,” Logan says, walking around the sofa to stand before them, “Virgil, would you like to be part of this relationship?”

“I- Yes - yes I would,” Virgil nodded. Roman grinned and took one of his hands, bringing it up to his lips and kissing his knuckles. 

“Then we are incredibly happy to have you, darling stormcloud.”

----

Tags: @full-of-roman-angst-trash @your-local-random-dino @cutebisexualmess @glacierruler @roseianxiety @bella-bugatti-frogetti-baguetti @scalesfeathersnfur @oatmealdaydreams @littlerat2 @goldnskyart (if anyone wants to be added, let me know!)

[deeply-unserious-fellow]

Vox and Velvette continuing to work with Valentino confuses me. Like, not even from a morality standpoint or "oh he treats them like shit", it's just a weird fuckin business choice. That man almost ruined one of Velvette's shows because he was throwing a tantrum, Vox regularly has to prevent him from causing scenes in public, he ACTIVELY ENCOURAGES VOX TO CAUSE A SCENE IN PUBLIC, he just seems like more trouble then he's worth, y'know? And on the surface it really does seem like he'd be pretty easy to get rid of. Since Vox could ABSOLUTELY kick his ass to kingdom come(like c'mon he can hold his own against ALASTOR-), and Vox and Velvette combine control literally all of the media in Hell(sans radio), they could kick Val out, or even straight up kill him, and then flood Hell with propaganda painting themselves as Good and Correct for this(which to be fair wouldn't be hard...). So then like. Why are they still working with him.

And then I remembered ~soul contracts~ and was like. Wait nvm that makes sense.

Right out the gate gotta make it clear that I do NOT MEAN THAT VAL OWNS THEIR SOULS OR ANYTHING that would be stupid. I mean like, social/political/whateverthefuck overlords got going on power works differently in Hazbin Hell then it does in any other setting. The Vees don't just have their reputation, they also have their soul contracts. And Valentino owns a LOT of souls. So, no matter how much propaganda the other two throw out there, no matter how low they drag him, Hell even if they kill him!, Vox and Velvette would lose a LOT of power by getting rid of Val. No matter how much damage he could do to the brand, they keep him around because he's better off as an ally then he is as an enemy, and he just. Hasn't done anything either consider egregious enough to outweigh any possible benefits of working with him, I guess. Small, fixable incidents that may damage the brand VS losing all those souls? The answers kinda obvious. There also might be a contract going on between the Vees but that's less about their souls being bound or whatever and more about like. Business. So. Not particularly dangerous for any of them I don't think.

Also there are two smaller reasons I'd like to discuss before I stop rambling: 1; Velvette probably uses Val's spit to make the love potions and 2; emotional connections with the other Vees.

The love potion thing is kinda obvious. Without Val, Velvette wouldn't be able to make her roofie juice, and since this is. Hell. Where all the sexually deviant freaks go to rot. Of course that's gonna be a popular item. And while I think the Vees would probably be fine if they took it off the market, that would still probably take a sizable chunk out of their profits, y'know? They can't really make it without Val's weird, disgusting pheramone spit.

And reason number 2: emotional connection. The Vees are a horrendous toxic polycule and we all know it. While I, personally, don't think Velvette and Valentino are dating(I still don't fucking trust that man and it's bad enough that he's involved with Vox), they do both have chemistry with Vox, and probably are at least on decent terms since they like. Sit together sometimes. WHATEVER THIS ISN'T A VEES RELATIONSHIP ANALYSIS(Im saving that for later)- basically what I'm saying is that Vox and Velvette probably, on some level, do care about and trust(?) Val, and vice versa. How much do they care? Unclear. Val's capacity for love is still TBD and Vox and Velvette's relationship seems a bit shakey at best, like they don't *fully* trust eachother, but there's still affection there!!! The Vees are exactly why we don't let villains discover the power of friendship, people!!!!!!!!! Like their part in the Finale is all the proof I need. You don't dance around like that with your business partners/fuck buddies lmfao, there's gotta be some genuine feeling there. So, at least a small part of why Val is still. Here. Is because Vox and Velvette do care about him. And, despite the fact that the three of them are entirely morally bankrupt and will probably die next season(god please don't let Vox die he's so silly :(), I can't help but find it sweet that they do kind of care about eachother. Like it's nice <3

(Genuinely though I am still worried for Vox and Vel's safety like idc how bad those two are idc if they're on decent-ish terms with Val most of the time he is still the most realistically dangerous character in the damn show besides *maybe* Alastor's serial killer ass and anybody within a 10 foot radius of him should be considered At Risk)

[blackbirdffxiv]

A lengthy ass-post about poly-shipping no one asked for

So I'm gonna go ahead and choose passive aggressive violence, in the form of an informative, lengthy as fuck post I think some folks need to read.

I won't be adding the post here, as I don't wish to direct potential harassment to the original poster (no matter how heinous I found a majority of the list), but if you're on twitter/"X", I'm sure you've seen a lengthy notepad list of RP "hot takes".

While I agreed with some of the points made, I feel it necessary to clarify some things, particularly about the points regarding polyamorous shipping.

If you don't want to read the blurb between here and the actual point list, just scroll down until you see green font.

Most know that I myself play a polyamorous character; I ship my character with other characters belonging to different players. I've been poly-ship for YEARS, so I feel I have some experience and can say some things about it.

Some points made in the "hot takes" list alluded to people using polyamorous shipping/multi-shipping as an excuse to just ERP and mess around with multiple people without consequence.

Sadly, yes, this does happen. It's unfortunate that selfish people only looking for specific things use it as an excuse for their behavior, but the only thing people can do is be aware of what to look out for when it comes to polyamorous shipping.

So rather than allow a negative light be painted on a valid means of shipping and roleplaying your characters in relationships, I think a quick lesson is needed.

Disclaimer: these are just my personal opinion on how I feel polyships should be handled, and some red flags I have seen during my time being a polyamorous OC player. By no means is this a rulebook, more like a guide so new and veteran roleplayers alike can be aware.

What a responsible poly-shipper will do:

Introduce you to their other partners - Communication is key in any relationship, this is not just for monogomous ships, but even moreso for polyamorous. A poly OC player will be open to introducing you to their other partners; while no one expects you to be best friends, it's good to be aware of just who else you'll possibly be regularly seeing around.

Share time and effort among your partners equally - A polycule relationship should be even across the board; one partner should not be treated better than the other. Treating one or more partners better than the other(s) is just a recipe for people getting hurt, both IC and OOC.

Be open and up front at the very beginning of IC interactions - A poly OC player will be up front and honest about the nature of their character if they have an interest in possibly shipping with you, or in case the possibility of it happening is there.

Encourage communication and prioritize problem-solving - This isn't just for poly ships, but ships in general. A good writing partner will encourage and WANT you to tell them about how you feel with the ship, especially if it's a problem with an easy solution.

Always make it known if they wish to bring another partner into the polycule & pose an introduction OOC - This is the most important part of being in a poly ship, making sure EVERYONE knows if there is someone new who will be joining the ship, and making introductions before a ship is made.

What a responsible poly ship player wouldn't/shouldn't do:

Hide the status of their ships - If your partner is hiding who they are shipping with from you, in my experience, this just means a person is going behind their partner's back (and is possibly cheating on them).

Brush off any possible issues you may be having with one of the partners in the ship - A responsible partner would aim to mediate the situation, and listen to all sides.

Discourage their poly partners from seeking other partners - Not every poly OC is monogomous with their poly partner, sometimes one poly OC will be shipped with another poly OC. Your partner would not expect you to drop your other ships to be with them while they continue their own, they should respect your decision to ship with your other partners.

Keep attempts to ship with other characters a secret - A responsible poly partner will make it known when they are attempting to or want to ship their OC with another as soon as intentions and wants are known. Not after a ship is already established.

Discourage those in the polycule ship from associating with each other - A partner in a healthy polycule would never discourage their partners from associating with each other; intentional separation more than likely is a means of hiding something, such as blatant favoritism, or even to keep ships a secret (in my experience).

Anyways I'll get off my soap box. I apologize for the lengthy post, but some things I've been seeing regarding this hot takes list were so blatantly heinous, I just felt like something should be said.

Have a good evening y'all; hug your pets, tell your friends you love them, and don't let jaded people online project their problems onto you.

Stay golden

[isa-ghost]

do you have hc's for death duo?? if you just have more q!phil hc's i would enjoy them as well!!

Previous qPhil headcanons

YES HELLO these took me a hot second, I wanted to do Missa justice bc the fandom tends to just reduce him to nice wet cat in love with Phil. Unfortunately he gets on so little, I don't have a lot more than that to run with, so what you see is what you get and they're more Phil-POV'd. 😭

Also these are platonic bc you asked for Deathduo rather than Pissa!

Listen man. Missa's place in Phil's silly polycule? It's not strictly romantic (if at all) and not strictly platonic, it's a secret third thing. I don't hc Phil or Missa as aro but what they've got going on is def smth some aros would enjoy. The best way to explain it is Kiss The Homies. Except there's a massive crush on Missa's end.

Phil loves doing literally everything with Missa. Exploring, egg care, goofing around, whatever. Quality time and gift giving are his love languages no matter the type of love. He just loves hanging out.

Phil can do no wrong in Missa's eyes. He's this amazing (and very pretty), smart, caring and powerful guy. He cares so much about people, how could he possibly do wrong? Missa is the #3 Philza Minecraft defender (he concedes that Chayanne & Lullah are #1 and #2).

Missa doesn't understand the whole Bolas thing but he's happy it seems to make Phil happy. He thinks? (The word he's looking for isn't happy, it's manic /lh)

Being away so often sucks, but Missa loves coming back and getting stories from Phil. ... The good ones, not the [lore] ones. Those scare him.

They love exaggeratedly rping nuclear family to tease Chayanne. Holding each other making kissy noises like OoOoH MiSsA I LoOoOvE yOu! OoOoOh PhiLzA I LoOoOvE yOu tOoOoOo! And then Chayanne starts (lovingly) hitting them

The rare times Phil is doing something that doesn't require him to move around, Missa gets a free lap pillow. Phil's good at playing with hair, Missa knocks right the fuck out

And Missa likes putting little braids n stuff in Phil's hair. Actually he looks damn good with those little side ones tbh.

There's something funny about the Angel of Death and a reaper being so close. When the kids are asleep, they swap stories about Missa's past reaping jobs and Phil's,, adventures

Speaking of Phil's past, Missa hasn't doubted him for a single second about what little of the hardcore gods Phil has shared with him. El Ender King es una pequeña perra. >:(

Actually he REALLY wants a full-on lore dump from Phil. The stories sound so fascinating. He wants to know more.

One of Phil's favorite things about Missa is how easy to startle he is. Missa screeches never get old.

Dependable as ever, Phil is the first one Missa goes to when he's missing information or scared. Phil always has answers and he can always protect him!! (*is heavily implying angst here, no Phil can't :)*)

Usually it happens when Phil is 100% alone but he does genuinely get a lil depressed when he misses Missa badly. He wanders to distract himself

Idk man if I was Missa I'd get a little 😳 seeing Phil spattered in blood after a battle where he obliterated whatever the fuck it is he's up against. Scary crow man being a badass motherfucker and then his bloodied ass's first question is if you're okay?? HOO. Would not blame Missa for acting unwise about it

[sexhaver]

Howdy friend! I feel like that meme with doctor eggman that just walked in on rouge and shadow having a spirited discussion on something I have no pretext about. But it sounds important and I do wanna educate myself if there's a lacking somewhere, genuinely. From what I understood from scrolling down to a screenshot poll and other screens, it's trying to figure out if people are automatically taking frat boys (the classic stereotype kind, btw, genuinely players) in good faith by queer-ifying them because they have been fortunately unfortunate enough to not have the life experience of being used by this type of person that will take their good faith and hurt them?

Because I do think that there *could* be a cishet aro man out there, if it's defined very explicitly as: a man (born with a penis and identifies as he/him) and likes women (including trans women) and is aromantic. Face value wise, that is.

Because the question wasn't if the hypothetical man was superstraight (and don't count trans people at all) or just pussy-seeking (i.e. looking to have sex with ciswomen and trans men who haven't had bottom surgery, is explicitly Not transphobic). Or if this hypothetical man wasn't also, say, a "friend" met at a party/tinder/hookup/through mutuals/etc that is really just an acquaintance with little of substance genuinely known...or if this man was actually what one would consider a genuine friend. Or if this hypothetical man was poly (and/or if you were poly honestly, this feels like this is being framed in a mono mindset, which is okay! But poly adds extra details to account for). Also if he was out as aro.

The point is, I am aware of cheating. I am aware of using terms to get around cheating. Or trying to justify it. But aromantizim by itself isn't cheating. Poly by itself isn't cheating. FwB by itself, or hooking up by itself, or sex work by itself, isn't cheating- if there is informed consent on both sides with all affected parties, which includes all other partners. Wanting to sleep around isn't a crime, regardless of who or where or what gender.

I know there's plenty of men that aren't allies, that are homophobic or transphobic or sexist, but that wasn't the question. You aren't making that distinction or posing a scenario, just a screenshot without any added distinction other that the consent (after it was asked for by voters). It's taking the assumption that practicing genuine safe sex ( not that bullshit abstinence thing schools and "god fearing Christians" teach), is limited to only cishetero men... And not something to practice with everyone.

It shouldn't matter my gender or background or beliefs or sexuality, since these are simply opinions and all opinions come with grains of salt, but I know if I don't add context of me being the one giving these opinions, I'll be discredited.

I'm a cis-women (so very petrifiyingly aware of that Fear/wariness of being approached at night by strangers, or followed. I don't like ANYONE strange coming up to me, regardless of gender, a woman can stab me as much as a man can rape me, but I feel like I know the mindset extreme examples being presented here so there were go).

I'm demi-omnisexualromantic. Everyone's free game once I get to know them on a genuine emotional level. We HAVE to be besties (or we have to never ever see each other again if I'm gonna sleep with you and you're not a friend, oh gOD WHAT IF I FART OR THEY'RE A SERIAL KILLER OH GOD).

I'm poly. The first thing is with my girlfriend and our paramour, since we are the "oringal polycule" is had a sit down discussion about what we agreed upon what being in a relationship is like (we happen to be romantically and sexually attracted to each other btw). It was Poly from the start and Open from the start. We are all okay and open to each other going out to bdsm clubs or kink parties or sleeping around, or if asking out cute people..... BUT we have to ask permission/inform the other partners in our polycule. There's nothing to hide and they consent. They can say no, and that's okay!! Because then!! We can have an open and honest discussion as to why (lonely, conflicting plans, insecurity, safety worries, etc). Also also, anyone new that's meant to become a fwb or a pet needs to know about and meet our polycule, and it's a one-no situation here. If *anyone* is uncomfortable, nothing goes forward.

Sex is nice, sex is great if you're a freak like me and into that sorta thing; and sexual safety awareness and stranger danger awareness and informed consent awareness is MAJORLY IMPORTANT AND CRITICAL AND EVERYONE SHOULD BE TAUGHT THIS IN SCHOOL OH GOD but in my humble opinion the execution has spiraled into something messy with rampant misunderstanding and accidental invalidation of aro-spec men, poly people, and our allies,,, as well as anyone trying to be open-minded even if they dont understand.

Telling people that they're naive and ignorant isn't going to teach them a lesson you appear to feel strongly that they need to learn, it only shames and makes them not likely to actually follow the good advice (?) that's being presented in a not-clear format.

And it also earns you a buncha people getting angry because they don't understand the question actually being asked because the context wasn't clarified or what the actual answer is in a no patronizing manner/delivery,, and I'm sure you're feeling very much harassed and exhausted for answers that have little to nothing to do with your actual question, and I'm really sorry for that because I've been there and I hate this for you because it's exhausting and dispiriting to find people who never got taught how to keep themselves safe... But I'm also happy that they haven't had to learn it the hard way *yet* and that I can still help, or even that the people I was so stressed over not having the lesson... Actually DO know the answer but just misunderstood the question or that I just asked it confusingly!!

Anyway, sorry for the extremely long ask, double sorry if I misunderstood anything you were trying to say or explained anything that you already know. But if you could clarify in your own words and time, I would be very grateful! If not, that's still okay and I hope you take care of yourself out there, friend! Also, I'm on anon less because I'm ashamed of my opinion, and more because I don't want anyone else randomly messaging me back because they don't like me for my views online and I happen to really like this account dghjfedhjfdsjk

oh my god i thought there was a character limit on anons. what am i even being asked here? i literally just woke up and opened my inbox and made this face

[scarefox]

This is a whole ramble but there is a theme in there (for fun and giggles)

I sometimes have to think about the whole "petplay" / master-servant game Gun has going on with some of the GMM guys (Tay and Joss, officially but he probably has some of the others joined too). It's just so damn wild and funny. And everyone is pretending like that's just the most normal thing besties do. I mean sure why not but also 😏 Just them taking turns in being the others obedient cute pet-servant for one day, while he calling him "his pet" and treats him like a pet (and that outside of cameras and fanservice stuff, they do that in their private time mainly. just dragging it out in the open occasionally). I love that for them 👌

OG Fun Night S1Ep3

-

-

-

... hmmm 😏

yea that's more likely

-

THE WHOLE ENTIRETY OF FUN NIGHT S2EP7 is just damn wild where they compete to be Guns number 1 pet, winning a freaking collar of all things! While talking about the drama "3 Will Be Free" (which is literally a canon polyamory drama with Tay, Joss and Mild)

-

-

also that TayGun date special

But Off is always like "You guys have fun but leave me out of that nonsense" 🙅‍♂️ whenever Gun asks him to join the pet poly circle....

BUT isn't he basically Guns first "pet" before Tay even?! Guns nickname for him is literally Papii... which I first thought means "dad" (or daddy if you will 😏) but someone once educated me that it means "puppy". Because of their first drama together "Senior Secret Love: Puppy Honey".

So what I am trying to say here is: Off you lost that fight already years ago!! You have been Guns doggo all along!! lol

(but that's fine, he just doesn't want to mingle with the others 😌)

It's tragic, there once was a compilation of all the Tay and Gun pet moments (+ trust falls) with parts of an interview where Tay explains his side. And the MC was shook like "And you just let him treat you like a pet??" and Tay all shy and giggly "Yea, it's just a thing between us. I don't even know why. I went with it" 🤷‍♂️ And that he thinks that Gun is the most powerful guy in whole GMM. (A+ video.. why did they take that from us)

Yall don't understand how neat the whole OffGunTay(New) and Gun swinger / poly dynamic is. Alone for the fact that they don't care for the strict exclusive ship rule where they can only be touchy with their on-screen partner. But Gun is touchy and playful with every GMM guy and that's fine and neat af (even tho they all mainly stay in their official ship constellation as well). Meanwhile there are still so many couple themed ship war fanvideos from fans out there about which couple would be most likely real and which one will sink: OffGun or TayGun 🙄 Like bruh, everyone is Guns pet or cuddle buddy, what are yall not getting? OffGunTay(New + others) love and cherish each other (in whatever way that is does not matter). And Tay AND Off and even New encouraging Gun getting cuddly and kissed by other guys. Off and Tay are literally that "You are doing great sweety" meme when Gun has fun with others. Off being jealous is literally just a playful running gag.

I swear most BL fans are way too innocent and stuck with the oldschool relationship style for this awesome GMM (friend)ship dynamic they are playing with here...

Like look at this pile of TayGunNew while Off takes a photo

I don't know why this post turned from the petgame thing to OffGunTay & GMM polycule but it's basically the same ven diagram. Just everyone gets kisses, flirts and cuddles. As they should.

But it does not have to be the one ship over the other. Each of them literally has two hands 😌

holding hand throuple style 😌

Thanks for coming to my TED talk

Anyways.... A poly drama with them when?? Didn't P'Jojo say he wants to do a drama with Gun but doesn't know what theme? (P'Jojo who did "3 Will Be Free" with Joss and Tay already). Here! This? ✨

EDIT: I had to ad this

[karlachismylife]

Since Soap has already been done, I'm requesting Karlach ❤ for the ask game plz <3

Yesss my babies gonna be together in an ask game ^^ Thank you love, it's so nice to be able to yap about faves :3

If anyone else is interested, I'll be glad to talk about someone else from COD and BG3. The game itself is here if someone wants to reblog!

Soo, Karlach Cliffgate, the devil woman after my heart, eh?

favorite thing about them

Damn, I can't go with "everything" again, can I? Would've been even truer than with Soap, honestly...

But it's actually easy to choose one thing about her: it's the whole jorney of her relationship with death. From the starting point, where she's angry, blazing hot, ready to fight with no clear understanding where it'll lead her, through the whole fragile hope of fixing her engine and growing determination to have her revenge and take back what's been stolen from her (a whole separate additional path with the romance and the evolution of her love expression), to the deepeest pit of despair and defeat after even her relentless optimism can't defy her mortality; and finally - the acceptance of it and the newly solidified will to live to the fullest, no matter how short. (And the happy end epilogue, obviously. Her finally regaining that autonomy, but not through the path of a one on one revenge, but in a fight next to person/people who have her back, with Karlach in the center of it, opposite to how Gortash was kinda the focus at some point.)

Karlach is unique and so precious to me in the sense, that while she accepts her non-existent chances of survival (to the point where she's fully ready to go and you have to CONVINCE her to go back to Avernus), it's neither defeatist nor calm. Her flame stays blazing hot even when she stops fighting her own death directly, it does not get tamed into some inner peace. She makes peace with her situation, yes, but she does not stop being her passionate flammable self.

This is actually why I absolutely do not accept the ceremorphosis ending for her as any kind of compromise. She describes her flame feeling calmer, less hot in the dialogue you can have after, and to me it signals the most that there is nothing of Karlach left in that creature. Karlach knows peace and calm, but they are not cool for her.

At least in my opinion, of course.

least favorite thing about them

Apart from the horrible fact that we had to wait for HOW LONG to get at least somewhat a happy ending with her (still not the full package unlike some other companions)???? Hm. That's actually tough. Uhhh... uhh...

That she seems to be reluctant towards polyamory?.. I mean, no other character (and only one person irl) made me feel as ready to go into an exclusive relationship as her, so it's not even bothering me that much; but I am too much of a poly ass to not want to have a huge ass polycule where Karlach would be at the centre of all big cuddles and absolutely showered with love LIKE SHE DESERVES.

is it obvious that i am biased towards my faves

favorite line

"It isn't fair. I don't want it like this."

The whole monologue is the best. Probably the best moment in the whole game to me. But this line is the one that makes my tears flow every fucking time. I can watch the monologue on x2 speed that takes away half of the performance. I can hear it alone with the rest of the scene cut. I can fucking read the words and hear her voice in my head.

And I will always cry. It's not just about Karlach alone. It's too much how I have felt about the world for years.

brOTP

Karlach x Wyll, I guess?... Them and Karlach x Astarion are my top-2 origin ships (bloodspawn in first place because it seems to be less popular and I am that bitch that wants to be nOt lIKe oThErs. in reality, simply because the most popular ones are usually the most obvious ones and there's not too much to study, so I love them, but am not as hooked by them. does it make sense?), and I guess if I'm making Karlach kiss a Scottish mutt, the closest Wyll can get to her heart is being her bestest friend. There is no world where they aren't together in some form to me, though, are you kidding me, this whole game is about them fiercely loving each other BEYOND death. If your friends aren't what Wyll and Karlach are, are they even your friends, hm?

She deserves to have such a friend after 10 (more, since we should count the years she thought Gortash was her friend) years of having no friends/backstabbing cunts close. He deserves to have such a friend after he literally gambles at the highest stake instead of following through with his pact. They deserve each other and no less.

OTP

Karlach x Soap, the rest is secondary. I know what my heart wants.

nOTP

Once again, I reject the cocept of nOTP, however this is the easiest answer. Karlach x Gortash and other toxic shit like Karlach x Zariel or smth. No. No amount of interestinig to explore complicated dynamics can be enough to fully submerge myself and go unbiased into a work on this ship. Sometimes I can let go of my gruges for a short time and look into stuff with no bias, this is not it.

random headcanon

She's actually really good with mechanics. Can understand the principle of work of an unknown invention just from a few looks and if you give her some suitable details will be able to fix shit real good. Maybe not the one to invent her own stuff, but she can construct and deconstruct quite complicated things relatively easy. However, can and will get frustrated easily if something doesn't go smoothly, so maybe keep an eye on her so she doesn't smash your precious one of a kind invention in a fit of rage...

unpopular opinion

Uhm. Uhhhh. I really don't know?? Oh my god no, am I actually gonna be the one to say "she's not all sunshine and rainbows" when I scrunched my nose like a rat at spoiled milk when someone said this about Soap... but really, I don't know what's popular, but maybe people aren't paying that much attention to her trauma and the serene and sad parts of her? Compared to Astarion, for example. There's so much shit she's carrying and if some people see her as JUST a golden retriever (which she totally is, but also more), that's what I don't agree with. But I don't know if it's unpopular, I'll be glad to know that I'm wrong.

song i associate with them

It's between "Little Girl Gone" by CHINCHILLA and "Fortunate Son" by Creedence Clearwater Revival. Variety much?

A separate shoutout to "Chalk Outlines" by Ren and CHINCHILLA, because this has some Karlach x Astarion feel to it. Love both live and studio version to death. But like, a lot of punk/angry/old rock songs remind me of her. She's forever in my heart.

favorite picture of them

Still the commission of her and Soap i got :)

However, in game it's the whole Avernus ending scene. CIGARS THAT SHE LIGHTS UP WITH HER FINGERS?? That nose wrinkle and a little nod before she takes off to a badass soundtrack? The contrast between this and the heartbreaking scene just before? The happiness of her finally having an ally who's willing to go to hell for her? Yeah that shit's cathartic.

Hehehehe now both my sunshines are together, thank uuuu, this was fun!!!

[still-a-morosexual-help]

Here's MY thoughts on the love island the game's seasons, for no reason other than I want to:

Also because the majority of the people following me are here for OM! & I want to drag more people down into the litg hell with me :)

Season 1: why is everyone so bitchy for no reason????? Talia & Jake are okay but other than that it's meh... don't really like the art style either

Season 2: Immaculate. Chef's kiss. They hit a high they never reached again. Somehow managed to balance the drama & the found family aspect and created a dynamic where you can actually believe everyone is friends and having fun even if sometimes they try to kill each other. Characters are flawed but generally decent people who are allowed to grow throughout the season. You get the option to make MC a bi gym-bro who can devour an entire cake in one sitting and bench press her partner. There's a reason this got two sequels.

Season 3: It's fine ig. Short and kind of boring. Nothing much happens. AJ is so cute though she almost makes up for it.

Season 4: Honestly a close 2nd favourite. We get a lot of character backstory and like s2 it touches on some serious issues. The season with some of the funniest moments/lines of dialogue - multiple moments where I just laughed out loud. I'm still only half way through it but the "villain" is just straight up mean for no reason and doesn't get any character development like the characters in S2 but makes up for it by having some of the funniest interactions with other characters and I was so sad to see her go. Also the season where I desperately wish MC was allowed to be in an open relationship till the very end and finish off the season in a polycule with every other islander who was in the love "triangle"s of the the season because this was the hardest season to pick a LI - Najuma is just all around amazing, Bruno is sweet & funny, Tom is so pathetic* MC & Thabi's friendship is also the best thing? It's great seeing a platonic relationship that is as loving (if not more so) than the romantic relationships. It's literally:

Season 5: Psychological horror. The producers said 'hey wouldn't it be funny if we torture this woman on national tv' and then committed to the bit. My memories are hazy because even though I only played it earlier this year it upset me so much I did my best to block most of it out but also I'm 100% sure there was actual galighting happening. Don't know why MC stuck around till the end because all she's gonna be able to use the money for is to pay for her therapy. Anyway I think MC should have been allowed to brutally murder everyone, she deserved it <3

Season 6: I liked the concept but I think they should have utilised it more. I'm still right at the very beginning (around ep 9) and I KNOW the general consensus from everyone who has reached the last eps seems to be that Amelia sucks MAJOR ass. But look, this is the first time a game has given me a MC with a canon family member who is also part of the game so in my opinion Amelia could commit war crimes and she's still be the most precious little uwu ever because I'm activating MC's insanely overprotective oblivious to all faults ""big"" sister mode

Edit:

*I just played more of S4 and holy shit someone needs to get this man away from his parents and also maybe get him some therapy jfc

Edit 2:

** youcef, mc & valentina helping tom figure out he likes flowers and pink and tie-dye clothes and makeup and being complimented and called pretty and getting hugs is getting to me okay his parents better watch the show and see their adult son finally discovering himself and what he likes instead of what they think he should like and finally being able to let loose and have fun without worrying about what others think of him and finally being happy and they better get some sense knocked into them OR he should go to therapy and realise that no matter how much he loves his parents their love and regard being so conditional to the point that he's hidden his entire personality and is now so extremely self-conscious of it whenever it does manage to peak out, that he nearly cries on national tv after a practical stranger compliments those hidden bits is not good. Also the man has some of the most insane repressed queer vibes???? What do you mean he sees a canon nonbinary person wearing a floppy hat and is reminded of the floppy hat he loved as a child that his father threw away and replaced with a baseball cap and then when he "lost" the baseball cap his father bought him the exact same one again

Edit 3:

*** i was 100% sure i was going to get mc to stick with najuma (dorky mischevious goth who is so so bad at flirting hello!!!?) but i got caught by "sad & shy with serious self-worth issues hidden badly behind an overconfident exterior (who blushes & gets flustered easily because he so rarely receives genuine praise/compliments) experiences postive regard for the first time and loses his shit" for the third fucking time

Edit 4:

Okay but why does Dylan get (rightfully) called out by everyone in S4 for all the bullshit he does to MC from blatantly lying to her to not listening when she says "No" But in S5 when Suresh (admittedly, more subtly) pulls off the same shit no one says anything, even MC's "friends" don't believe her.

In S2 when Luke/Henrik gets a little too forceful after MC says no, he gets called out by MC's partner and immediately apologises

In S4 when Dylan does the whole "stop pretending you don't want me" routine after MC rejects him multiple times, the rest of the islanders band together and basically chase him off the island

In S5 when Suresh pulls literally the same thing from the very first episode itself but none of the other islanders believe MC, and Suresh keeps getting to do this until almost the very end while also managing to constantly play hot & cold with MC and chase away all of MCs other romantic interests

[not-too-many-eyes]

5, 8, 13?

(For this ask game)

5. A female villain you love?

This question is strangely hard cause I have to debate with myself if morally complicated conservative women count or not, because a lot of the complicated women I like AREN'T placed in an explicitly adversarial position to "the heroes" (nor do the things I like tend to create that explicitly dichotomy of "hero" and "villain") and I still haven't been able to determine the answer to that-

But like- Plutomon Digimon Survive is a villain no matter how you slice it so uh- her. I can't say too much on her for Spoiler Reasons but Plutomon Digimon Survive is a Character of All Time can I get an Amen!

(I Mean I'd Love to put a character like Natushi here but I'm really hung up on the definitions here as you might notice.)

8. A minor female character you love anyway?

I was going to jokingly say that none of the things I like have women as Just minor characters but then I was thinking about it and I was like "Wait.....what media do I like (That I think about often) that has women in minor roles?" so I settled on Reverse 1999 Eagle since she is a minor character in story and has Very Little Going On outside of her ancedote focus:

I bet anon was asking for a character with actual like- 2 minutes of screentime but the truth is I simply just don't think too much about characters like that in general. If I do I tend to turn them into OCs since like...at some point they do just become my OC and I''m not going to be like "Oh this is the actual canon version of the character" when I've just written them as OCs. Plus my memory is shit so I really do need something to latch onto.

Keiko RGU might count though?

I find her really fun and interesting in the Black Rose arc since she's coming right after the most emotionally involved of the Black Rose Duelists (Wakaba) so you have a really nice duality there of Wakaba being Utena's best friend while Utena doesn't even know Keiko's name.

Oh and Rei!

She's great as well! I love whatever horrific situationship she had with Muu and how Muu thinks of her as like- a beautiful hero and puts her on a pedestal while simultaneously hating her for "not saving her." Okay maybe I do have more options for this than I thought-

13. An interesting femslash ship? (Canon or otherwise)

I was going to put a Yuri is my Job ship here and then I realized that I don't....consider any of those "romantic" ships like- to me Sumika and Kanako is a QPR, same with Yano and Hime- like those are complicated and nuanced relationships and I love them but Sumika and Kanako are textually Not Romance.

While for Yano and Hime it seems like Hime doesn't feel romantic attraction but a genuine sensual and sexual attraction towards Yano like- aro but not ace. Does that count for the purposes of this discussion?

The definition rests unclear, and I generally just ship situationships forever, but I do have one that isn't horrifically complicated- which is my friend keeps on telling me that apparently Eva and Natushi from Umineko have toxic yuri going on and Im like-

THESE TWO???

THESE TWO HAVE TOXIC YURI?????? THEIR IN LOVE???? THEY DONT JUST HATE EACH OTHER????

So now I need to know what's going on there. I want to know whatever the fuck is going on there. I'm still in Episode 2 and I'm like "Okay. What is their deal"

Alien Nine Yuri and Kumi are also good:

Same with BiY Touko and Yuu (I have not finished this either):

(EDIT) I went to edit this again not just for formatting reasons but because I needed to include my beloved We Know the Devil and Heaven Will be Mine Polycules:

And we also have!

Utenanthy! (I made this a month or so ago and dont want to fix it up at all)

Redraw of this:

[justarandomhelluvablog]

alright it's official I'm rooting for Ozzie/Fizz/Blitz/Stolas polycule 👍

"You've lived rent-free in Fizz' head for years, so I can't help feel he values your take on things." - Ozzie going to Blitz for backup

"Well, my special skills are killing things without giving fucks and pointing out people's flaws... alright, count me in!" - Blitz being Blitz

"Come on, it's just like old times. I'll make sure no one gives you shit today." || "You mean besides you?" -Blitz & Fizz banter gives me life

Fizz covering Blitz' ass after Blitz insults Mammon, love that

Also another Fizz-Blitz banter moment: "He thinks he's funny." || "Offended." (Fizz & Blitz, respectively)

the ATTITUDE. Blitz coming in with the comeback and Fizz changing up his posture/attitude to match Blitz', just. Them.

He protect 🥺 but also the fact that he didn't kill this guy right here for everyone to see after seeing Fizz' expression hh

Blitz is so gentle with him now that they've made up I love him. We all know he's a softie underneath but ya know, ya love to see it

Don't have a screenshot for this bc it's a whole scene but can we talk about how before, Blitz claimed Fizz didn't have to try for anything, but in this episode Fizz is saying how he needs to do this to prove he's still good enough and Blitz (as well as Ozzie) are telling him he doesn't need to prove anything? Just. Ugh, THEM.

(also Fizz finally calling Blitz "Blitz" and not "Blitzo" I'm hhhh)

"That guy is a fucking dick, and he's USING you for everything, 'cause you're likeable, and he's a fucking trashfire."

Blitz' absolute worry when Fizz runs.....

Unrelated to Blitz and Fizz' relationship, are we gonna. Uh. Talk about how Fizz' scars aren't pure white? Blitz' are but Fizz' aren't (Blitz' scars are the same color as Fizz' foundation). I assume it's a stylistic choice to show that he hides his "undesired" markings here (the makeup comes off and shows his original markings, and having the area around it be different from his makeup better shows what's going on) and they're actually the same color but I thought it was interesting. Also the black of his horns is super faded out so...

And of course that whole scene with Ozzie was heart melting but enough people talk about that, so moving on-

FIZZ' SONG. God it was so good. And Mammon just dancing along... beautiful. Fizz quitting so publicly, YESSSS KING.

Anyway this

I hope we see more of them honestly. Blitz becoming Fizz' go-to bodyguard/Blitz just sitting in the rafters of his shows waiting for someone to be Weird™ would be so fun actually. But also probably the first time Fizz has been so DELIGHTED to see Blitz kill someone they are everything to me.

Again I would need a whole video but Fizz ripping his clothes as he goes as he sings his "I fucking quit" song, I hope it means we get to see him out of the clown costume/persona (tbh it would delight me if he ditches it for good, ripping it up isn't very good symbolism if you're just gonna put it back on again). I want to see more of who he genuinely is <3

VERY sad it took Fizz so long to finally see/understand what Blitz saw immediately. Wonder if things would have been different if Blitz had just... told Fizz what he really thought of Mammon when they were younger. If Blitz' opinion mattered so much... of course, maybe he did. It would explain why if Mammon was the one to separate them.

just them <3

"So, uh.... who tops?"

This is so funny but also Ozzie's smile I love that. They all know the answer.