#i lored way harder than i meant to with this one | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

mixtapedoh · 3 months

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and it was all yellow | y.j.

welcome back to SVTU ! lost your way? refer to our campus map for directions.

pairing: yoon jeonghan x gn!reader with guest appearances from c. seungcheol, h. joshua, w. junhui, and more !

word count: ~5.9k genre: neighbors to friends to lovers warnings: language, intermittent Lore Dumping™ (i have to kick us off into svtu somehow), jeonghan is a little shit, light suggestive themes (heavily lampshaded and perhaps only occuring twice?)

☄. *. ⋆

olive's notes: these individual headcanon sets are going to be very ~stream of consciousness~, so bear with me, here. second, cheol and jeonghan are brothers (and there's a secret third brother i'll introduce eventually, don't you worry), also, thank you for stopping by <3. now here's the content you signed up for.

☄. *. ⋆

now playing... ılı.lıllılı.ıllı. ... ⌜ angel baby — troye sivan ⌟

AND IT WAS ALL YELLOW ☄. *. ⋆

— it all started when jeonghan realized that jun was loaded.

now, don't get him wrong. it wasn't as though he had befriended jun because jeonghan had been looking for someone rich and easily persuaded. it's not like jeonghan used his ineffable charm to win over the quasi-cryptid that was wen junhui because of jun's apparent legacy funds.

not that jeonghan couldn't have done — he clearly had the persuasion and cunning to do it — he just didn't. jeonghan wasn't in need of someone else's money. please. he was very capable of taking care of himself, thank you very much, he was just also, however, very good at knowing things.

especially those things that could be used to his advantage.

— and well... wen junhui was loaded. wealthy as shit. a classic trust fund baby. a walking dollar sign that just so happened to share classes with jeonghan every year since he started SVTU as a political science major (of arts, of course. he hadn't taken latin in high school to not absolutely crush the romance languages in uni).

— you see, SVTU had this fun little program for long-suffering students interested in the government and manipulating it to their will wherein if you took merger courses — lectures that ate up a hell of a lot of your time and money but gave substantial credit hours that counted for both applied and allied course credit — you could get a jump start on your degree, be offered more opportunities for internship, and explore a subject's "many facets" through "multiple lenses."

to jeonghan, it meant working faster and harder so that he might graduate early and get into the actual politics of pol sci quicker — at a more “genius” and “revolutionary” age.

(half of politics, after all, was being appealing enough to make headlines. there wasn’t time to waste, in the long run.)

to wen junhui it had to mean something different — after all, jun was a pre-law student with a completely different career path from the other party involved (though jeonghan had considered law at one point in time — something he’s not above admitting though certainly not pining after). merger courses for him likely meant an expedited process to law school. but that was truly beside the point. an aside.

— what mattered in the end, was that jeonghan and jun had more than enough shared merger courses to go around, and in the process of things, had gone from strangers to acquaintances, then study partners (blame it on the fact that jun — the altruistic leaning bastard he was — actually tutored in his free time. willingly. as in, not a joke.) to committed group project members, and eventually to that nebulous thing called friendship.

ask them both when that final stage commenced and you’d get varying responses — jeonghan always far more generous than jun in such regards, but almost annoyingly so, like he wanted to be the one leaning more on the ridiculous.

— yes, it was quite a ways into their friendship when jeonghan learned that wen junhui, his sweet jun, was loaded. like, living alone off of campus in his own two bedroom apartment on the wealthy side of the city that prospered from the University Living Aesthetic™, loaded. as in, so loaded he could have easily found more than enough willing bodies to become roommates with him and help pay for the exorbitant expenses but simply decided against it because he hadn’t, and i quote “thought about it before.”

“never thought about it? jun. how much does this place cost?”

and jun had to think for a minute. genuinely think about how much he paid in monthly rent. “i suppose for a month’s rent i pay around… [REDACTED].”

and jeonghan was no stranger to dramatics, to be sure, but anyone else would have gaped the same as him. “[REDACTED]??”

"[REDACTED]."

"...shit."

— yes, jeonghan finding out that jun was loaded, living in a (rather well kept) apartment with an empty room, no roommates, and an assortment of (dying) houseplants that needed care, was truly the beginning of it all.

— after all, while the chaos settled in a year after the fact when he and joshua would finally move in with jun because of circumstances that aren't truly relevant to the here and now, all true origins start a little before dramatic changes. there's always a gentle precursor, something soft that sets the stage. rumblings of change are necessary forefathers to the strength of revolution; jeonghan learning that jun was a walking line of credit with property to his name and a work ethic that would make any professor blush was necessary groundwork for the events that would follow.

and goddamn, if things didn't follow.

— but i suppose, if we're back tracking all the way to jeonghan and shua moving in with jun on one very ill timed sunday (jun had an exam in his special topics in deviance, crime, & the law course the next day), we are also brushing up against jeonghan meeting you.

another precursor to the chaos that would follow. another tremor that would shake the ground and cause things to tumble.

— you also lived in the terraces on 17th and attended svtu. you lived on the same floor as jun — two apartments down from his, no less — and his first week there, you showed jeonghan the campus shuttle routes that passed right outside the complex (he'd come to learn that the domino route was the one you took most often, as it led right to the heart of the university, but the pinwheel route was also a convenient option for evening courses).

— you and jeonghan weren't friends right away. no, you were always a friendly face around the complex and a decent conversationalist when stuck in the elevator together, but it wasn't as though you and jeonghan became fast friends. you were just neighbors for a while; just another person grabbing mail on monday afternoons, stopping at the in-residence coffee shop on bleak wednesday mornings, ordering pizza on saturday evenings and giving joshua a slice after he weaponizes his big, brown eyes.

— and then came The Series of Fire Alarm Mishaps.

— you see, at some point in the middle of the semester, someone new moved into the apartment building, in the same hall as you and jeonghan. at first, you barely even noticed the change, and then they started cooking.

— which wouldn't have been a problem. if they had been good at it.

the first few times the (incredibly loud and not unreasonably sensitive) fire alarms from down the hall had gone off, it had been unfortunate - a mild nuisance that disrupted what jeonghan had been doing, and nothing more. but then, the first few times became multiple, and from multiple, came a pattern. every other day, at least twice, the fire alarm next door would go off. and it would always be at different times - breakfast, the afternoon, early evening, even sometimes at 1:28 in the morning. the fire alarm would sound, and while it would mostly be no longer than a minute or two, it was still enough to be irritating.

you and jeonghan talked about it every time you saw each other in passing, or just so happened to be taking the same shuttle to campus (which happened quite often, anymore, since jeonghan enrolled in an extra course to help him graduate all the sooner). your neighbor and that damn fire alarm. your neighbor and their inability to cook, yet unnecessary dedication to the craft. you both joked about the inevitability of them actually burning the apartment down.

— and then, one day, the fire alarm went off at 2:19, waking jeonghan up out of a dead sleep (he hadn't meant to fall asleep at his desk, and his neck would pay for it all the next day). he heard it, and immediately decided to ignore it, knowing it would stop soon.

but then it didn't.

at about 3.5 minutes of non-stop alarms, jeonghan was annoyed enough that he left his room and staggered into the kitchen for some water, where shua and jun were already waiting around, likely with the same idea (though it was clear that shua hadn't ever fallen asleep, and perhaps jun was in the same boat, though he'd changed into sweats and a light t-shirt).

at about 6 minutes, jeonghan opened the door to see if anyone else was, well... concerned.

and at 13 minutes, he was standing outside in the brisk autumn air, agreeing with jun as he whispered that if there wasn't an actual fire but just their talentless neighbor attempting to cook in the middle of the night, he was going to kill the bastard himself.

— and there, in the middle of all this stupidity — sleepily rocking back and forth from one foot to another — and on the other side of him, was you.

— and, well, when you offered to buy him and the rest of his roommates coffee at the convenience store that was just down the street, not far, he couldn't do much beyond say yes. what was he going to do? decline your offer?

and so all four of you walked to the convenience store and aimlessly wound your way through the almost neon colored aisles. jeonghan used the opportunity to stick to you like glue and get you to open up — about yourself and your roommates, both of whom had gone home for two weeks for (separate) family vacations (not that you were jealous. clearly the superior option was to stay at the apartment, embroiled in course work and standing outside at 2:00 am because of some loser neighbor who can't cook a singular meal without burning the building to the ground, and yet refuses to have anything delivered).

— in the end, the fire hadn't been bigger than something contained in the pan ("thank god," you had said, shaking your hands in lackluster triumph, "i have a physics exam next week. i need those notes more than you know"), but at only 4 months of having a new neighbor, someone new moved in within 2 weeks at most. and, after being neighbors for almost 7 months, you and jeonghan were decidedly friends.

after all, you bought him a triangular gimbap, ice cream, and convenience store coffee. jun had slipped away with just a banana milk (which he promptly paid back the next day), and shua nearly bought out the whole store once the two of you got to talking about the best midnight (and hours after) snacks lining the walls. at the least, he was indebted to you, which could only be solved by more trips to the convenience store with more mindless conversation, and more time for the both of you to endear yourself to the other.

and the way jeonghan saw it, friendship at that point was inevitable. especially when, at the start of the next semester, you and jeonghan both had an early morning class and used the domino route to get to class via campus shuttle.

(and sure, jun had an early class, too, and drove himself to campus everyday, meaning jeonghan could have easily just gotten a ride, but he didn't. for no particular reason, really, he just never did; but one frost bitten morning after a snowstorm, when jeonghan was waiting at the shuttle stop and you stood beside him, bundled up in a thick winter coat and rubbing the tips of your fingers to keep them warm, you turned to him, the cord of the wired headphones the both of you always shared swaying from the movement (a streak of yellow against all this white, the sun in the middle of stark winter), and smiled, "i'm glad you're here with me." and maybe — just maybe — that was reason enough.)

— and thus, for reasons above explained, in the end, it all started with jeonghan learning jun was loaded. if it weren't for that simple knowledge, he wouldn't be anywhere near where he currently stood.

— which was the open doorway of jun's apartment, garbage in hand, falling in love with you.

"what?"

and you at least had the presence of mind to be flustered by it.

jeonghan could laugh, really. "is that my jacket?"

it totally was, and perhaps the way you fiddled with the sleeve of it and scoffed awkwardly, refusing to meet his eyes, was the true giveaway that you knew it most certainly was. "i don't know, is it?"

you were met with smug silence, so of course, you'd elaborate.

"i thought it belonged to my ex. i just chose what looked the warmest. it's storming out there — you might want something more than a sweatshirt if you're taking that all the way to cans." you gestured to the garbage bag — a detail jeonghan had almost forgotten at the sight of you in his clothing.

"you think your ex would have bought that?"

of course he wasn't going to take your bait in changing the subject. that would make things easy. you rolled your eyes, spinning your key ring and making it jingle. "hoseok has great style. it's just different from yours."

"and that jacket is more my style than his."

"it is," you conceded. under jeonghan's gaze you stuck one half of the jacket out, towards him. "do you want it now? you'll need it out there."

"i don't think i will. not when i'll have your sunny presence to warm me."

and for a split second your eyes narrowed. you had just come in from the storm — that much was plain to see from the wet of the jacket to the reusable grocery bag in your hand, full of pantry odds and ends. there was no need to go back out, and you and jeonghan both knew it. and not to mention that the invitation (thinly veiled) was unattractive — stay inside where it was warm or brave the stormy weather once more, all for a garbage run?

"race you to the elevator."

— and see, the truth of the fact was, it wasn't as though you made it difficult to fall in love with you (though even if you had, jeonghan would have liked the challenge, perhaps. there's fun in plenty of things). you were generous, a good conversationalist, you bitched about people with jeonghan but still tried to see the best in them, you were knowledgeable about the most random yet oddly applicable things, and for all of his teasing, you put up with him. perhaps enjoyed him.

— it certainly confused seungcheol, to say the least (but don't such things always confuse brothers).

"as someone who's had a lifetime to cherish your personality, there has to be something wrong with this y/n if they're willingly spending time with you. i'm trying to save my soul, putting up with you on the daily. they have no excuse."

"if i'm going to respond to that, you'll have to give me five minutes to run first."

and it ended with jeonghan quickly pushing away from the table, trying to duck out of seungcheol's grasp; but of course, the older brother and president of the boxing club would get him anyway, and through laughter, attempt to knock some humility into jeonghan (it wouldn't stick).

— but no need to focus on all of that, now. after all, this deep into the semester, jeonghan was busy enough without Crippling Thoughts of Romance.

— the worst damage you wrought thus far was making him choke that day you wandered into karaoke club and he was in the middle of a duet joshuji had managed to cajole him into doing on the spot (you swore up and down that you didn't know he was even in the club to begin with, but something about your flustered behavior and shua's glee at the whole affair made him consider otherwise); while it had been a (minor, he claimed) blow to his pride, it was easily pushed aside. jihoon, the bastard, might bring it up on occasion — the one (1) time angel voice yoon jeonghan chokes, and it's all on camera — but other than that, jeonghan? cool as a cucumber.

the last thing he'd do is be awkward around a crush. jeonghan was cool; jeonghan was suave; jeonghan was speaking in the third person because joshuji had been on a self-love bender a few months back and had said daily affirmations into the mirror every morning, and after finding out and teasing him relentlessly for it, jeonghan unfortunately picked up the habit.

AND IT WAS ALL YELLOW (CONT.) ☄. *. ⋆

— and now that we've gotten this far, i suppose it's time we bring up Jeonghan Habits™ because there were many, the closer you and jeonghan got to each other, strings of fate drawing you ever nearer, joining you at the hip.

— for one, it seemed that ever since that first unfortunately timed run to the convenience store at hours after-midnight, jeonghan felt comfortable just showing up at all odd hours of the evening, all messy hair and too-big hooded sweatshirts (most stolen from seungcheol, he'd reveal to you one day when you were confused as to just when jeonghan had picked up a love of coton de tulear puppy conventions — enough to get a commemoriative sweatshirt, no less), with the oh-so-enticing offer of going to grab a snack.

he even called it a date, once, when you were wrapped up in three blankets and your fuzzy house slippers, weakly try to convince him to just rummage through you're cupboards instead

"you're so cold you're going to cancel our date? and here i thought we had something real."

(you'd been so flustered by the whole exchange you simply ended up going to the with him, hoping that the act of Just Doing It would buy you time against his rapid fire machine gun comebacks — probably exactly what the fucker had planned in his 4d chessboard of a brain — and jeonghan took the opportunity to file away in his mind the cute expression that crossed your face in the split second that the words hit you fully in the chest and you floundered, wide-eyed into recovery)

— another, of course, was his habit of casually leaving things at your place whenever the two of you hung out; the first few times he left something — his jacket, a pair of sunglasses, necklaces that you don't ever quite recall him taking off to begin with — you promptly returned it with the naive belief that it was a one-off mistake not like to happen again. but it just kept happening, and so eventually, you just stopped returning.

if it were important, jeonghan would have texted you about it — he texted you about all kinds of random things, anyway, his lost socks would be no more strange than texts of ootds or how particularly sparkly his eyes looked that day.

and he never did...

until you started to wear the things he left, of course.

'should i get two of these?' the text came in while you were walking to your next class, taking your sweet time since the weather had cleared up nicely and the campus shuttles were running smoothly — not a single one hand been late all week, a sure change from usual. a moment later your phone chimed again, and jeonghan had sent a picture of a silver ring with a greek key styling. it was cool enough, and fit in nicely with jeonghan's usual style of accessory (not that you were particularly knowledgeable of such things... haha.)

'sure, but why 2?'

'so you can have one of your own instead of stealing it.'

'???!?'

'look at your outfit right now. you're wearing MY necklace. it's been missing for weeks.'

'YOU LEFT IT AT *MY* APARTMENT??????'

'you still have necklaces of your own; didn't have to be mine.'

'😑'

'so what's your ring size?'

'stfu'

— in your defense, you didn't think it was an issue, borrowing the things he'd randomly leave at your apartment. it had started off innocuously enough — seonghwa and momo (your roommates, bless them) needed you to go grab a few last minute ingredients for dinner (they were the ones cooking, so charitably you offered to do the grunt work) and when you couldn't find your own sunglasses, there were jeonghan's, just sitting on your dresser and waiting to be used.

and after that, well... jeonghan had nice style, okay? you were not immune to convenient and accessible clothing. if jeonghan wasn't so forgetful of his own articles of clothing, it wouldn't be the case that you steal his favorite sunglasses and borrow his usual rings and get a little too caught up in the way his cologne lingers on his jackets and night shirts, a smell all-too comforting and somehow tempting...

— you attempted to give the necklace back later that week when you and jeonghan met up to take the domino route to university, but he just shrugged it off and told you that you might as well keep it. he already bought himself another.

and besides. it looked good on you.

— and as for the last of Jeonghan's Habits™ (certified and trademarked, of course, everything jeonghan did was protected by common law)... well... the discovery of this one came later, at a time you weren't expecting it, and so perhaps that explains why it makes you as flustered as it does.

— see, it's of no surprise that yoon jeonghan is clingy in a very positive sense.

being friends with jeonghan is always being kept in the loop, having an ongoing dialogue about most everything, doing lot of Things together and always knowing that if there's something you're even thinking of doing, jeonghan has already cleared his schedule in anticipation of going to do said thing alongside you.

— what surprised you, but really shouldn't have (so perhaps the right word is simply astonished, flustered, made giddy by the realization of), was that he was also very cuddly. and very hard to be talked out of, no less.

— and like, okay, sure, it was kind of hypocritical of you to be taken aback when you'd been indulging jeonghan of his affinity for physical touch for quite some time, now.

the surprise hugs whenever he caught you waiting for the campus shuttle or simply Minding Your Own Business, his inclination towards taking your hand to make you walk a little faster when the two of you were going convenience store diving (yes, again), the quite literal poking and prodding whenever he was attempting to get you to change your mind and agree with his worst impulses... it was all pretty damning, in retrospect. but it never really fazed you: jeonghan's cuddly sort of behavior.

though you had gotten a smug kind of glee whenever you initiated contact and jeonghan's cheeks would warm to a beautiful shade of pink before he'd counter his own seeming embarrassment with a comment like "aaahhhh y/n, you're so familiar, what would others think if they saw you?"

randomly touch jeonghan's forearm, whether to pull him closer for some reason or another or just to softly massage the skin while you absentmindedly scrolled on your phone (instagram scrolling was sacred time you and jeonghan shared — then you didn't have to send him the reel with your comments, you could just tap him on the shoulder and show him). they way jeonghan would get all shy at the touch — like maybe he felt some of those butterflies that perpetually fluttered about in your stomach whenever he was around — was all the satisfaction you could ever need.

— so yes, you were quite used to clingy jeonghan. but cuddly? you had never quite strayed into full cuddle territory... until you did.

— that fateful night, you had lovingly been given notice via a very abrupt group text that you would not be able to return to your apartment for the evening (someone was going to have company over, doing... things that familiar company do) and when you had told jeonghan of your plans to join seonghwa in his trip to the computer rooms at crescent hub (they were open 24 hours and while it was based on reservation, you were almost always able to get a seat), he offered you come to his apartment instead.

either that, or i guess you could spend your time watching the gaming club host whatever tournament they had going on — apparently jun was planning to be gone for Quite Some Time (as a senior member of the club) and shua was there... for moral support? that part was unclear, to be quite honest, but it wasn't as though shua ever needed a reason to be Busy and Outgoing, so it didn't quite matter much, in the end.

"why aren't you at crescent hub with your roommates, then?"

"and encourage them? ah... don't make me look soft."

and you're sure that the way you roll your eyes can be heard through the phone.

"i had an assignment to finish." / "you had work to finish."

"but! it's all been submitted now."

"then i'll meet you."

— after all, it's not like you were a stranger to jun's apartment — you'd hung out there plenty of times as your bond with jeonghan deepened and your friendship to shua and jun grew — and they did have a rather comfy couch... you were almost certain jeonghan's offer implied and unspoken 'you can at least get some comfortable sleep on our vertiable cloud of a couch when i'm done prying at the finer details as to just who momo decided to bring home.'

you both, after all, had a deep-seeded delight for gossip.

— and when you got there, it was exactly what you expected: jeonghan had seemingly raided the pantry finding ingredients so the two of you could make dakdoritang — excepting the carrot, of course.

despite his seeming love for convenience store runs and general lazy attitude toward preparing his own meals, cooking together seemed to be something jeonghan enjoyed lately — or at least, that's what you surmised. to you, it seemed that one day jeonghan woke up and chose cooking as a new hobby.

if you were to ask jeonghan, he would brush it off, of course, probably saying something about his mom visiting and praising jun's affinity for cooking and there was no way jeonghan could let the bastard win — but really all it had taken was one (1) absentminded hand on his chest from you and a "hannie, can you pass me the garlic cloves?" for him to make cooking with you a new personality trait of his. go figure.

— and so the two of you made your stew while debating which movie you should watch when you were done. you ended up compromising on some drama that you'd seen people claim was so bad it was good, and it really was. the cringe,,,, the mutual yelling at the tv,,,,,,, threatening the lives of fictional characters,,,,,,, talking over whole dialogue scenes because you had a brilliant rewrite in mind and jeonghan simply couldn't resist the way you looked when there was an earnestness in your eyes and an opinion on your lips,,,,

it was quite late, indeed, before you even knew it. and when you switched the tv to a music video you really wanted to show jeonghan, the autoplay sort of took over, and your mind sort of shut down... drifted off to sleep.

— you woke up at some point in the early morning; the sound of the lock clicking and the door opening wasn't the sound you were used to, in your apartment two doors down, and it was just enough to snap you awake momentarily, still half in dream yet with one foot in reality.

it was just shua and jun, and they whispered an apology before padding off to their respective rooms (jun his own, shua his shared room with hannie), clearly worn out from their gaming activities.

— but that little push to semi-wakefulness was just enough for you to take stock of where you were, and you noticed belatedly that jeonghan had never left to go back to his room. you were both sleeping on the couch, legs intertwined; jeonghan was resting his head on your shoulder and your hands were reaching out, as if almost to give him a subconscious hug.

— the embarrassment ran through your nervous system almost instantly, and when you made to slowly and gently move your limbs so you were less... interwoven, jeonghan stirred and, still sleeping, pulled you back towards him. perhaps even closer than before.

you couldn't help yourself. a giggle escaped you; perhaps half nerves, mostly endearment. jeonghan stirred again and the sound and you covered your mouth, not wanting to wake him.

he stilled soon enough, and before drifting off again, you kissed him on the forehead.

— when you fully woke up the next morning, jeonghan had already began his day, but he didn't even try to hide the fact that the both of you had unwittingly unlocked a new feature in this friendship of yours. he sort of just... took the night prior as a confirmation that cuddling was on the list of approved actions and refused to let go of you, after.

not that it bothered you, of course.

it just seemed that the butterflies in your stomach were given wild energy at this new development; all your strategies for calming them suddenly ineffective.

AND IT WAS ALL YELLOW (CONT.) ☄. *. ⋆

— so.

if you had asked jeonghan at any point in his life if he were good at manipulating, his answer would be an unequivocable yes.

deceit? of course.

scheming? obviously.

lying? naturally.

blackmailing? most assuredly.

gaslighting, gatekeeping, girlbossing? undoubtedly.

changing criteria? yes.

moving goalposts? clearly.

hiding the apparent? well...

— see, the thing is... you get so good at the others that concealing the obvious isn't exactly necessary. everyone might know to be wary of the scheming, cheating, self-serving yoon jeonghan, but it didn't change the fact that he was so astute at the rest of it, image didn't exactly matter.

and besides, why save face when it was so fun to see people accuse him of what they were all very aware?

— so yes, jeonghan was quite skilled at all manner of deception. the one facet he was not so adept in was hiding his feelings toward the matter.

— thus, it should be no surprise that everyone and their mother knew jeonghan had a crush.

and it was only getting worse.

— don't ask jun when he put the dots together — he was more emotionally intellectual than he let on most of the time — and don't ask joshuji when either — that fucker had this quirk where he joked about something before it had real honest basis, but in some way only attributed to the gift of clairvoyance, he always seemed to be right. if you were to ask joshua, he'd likely recall the first time he had looked at jeonghan and wiggled his eyebrows and call that he knew then (he didn't; at least, not really).

— as for s.coups... well, don't ever ask cheol anything about jeonghan. he'd rather die than give it to you straight.

please. when he could embarrass jeonghan? seungcheol lives for that shit.

after all, what else are older brothers for?

— so yes, it was obvious to those close to him that jeonghan was in the long-suffering limbo of Having A Thing For Your Best Friend But Not Acting On It, and it had been apparent for months.

— after all, it felt like centuries ago that joshua had offered to play matchmaker for jeonghan and you — the veritable apple of his eye — and set the two of you up on a date.

it had been some lazy morning and jun nearly spit out his breakfast.

"you'd both love it! i'd get jihoon to play something romantic on the violin; well, maybe recorder—"

cue jun choking once more.

"and you could be there waiting in full suit and tie."

"with couples rings waiting in the bread basket." and joshua's eyes went comically and maniacally wide at jun's inclusion.

"ah, cheol would crash any date like that."

"but then y/n could get his blessing!"

— at some point, jun was at his wits end.

in his defense, it was him who had to see the two of you be all sweet and love-struck all the time, giggling and teasing each other on his couch in his apartment while all he's trying to do is eat a sorry excuse of a subway sandwich (eat fresh.) before jetting off to his internship again.

if you had to see that shit while eating soggy bread you'd be annoyed, too.

one more "aigoooo" while jeonghan squishes your cheeks, and you bat him away with a roll of your eyes and jun would take a knife out of the block behind him.

— especially when jeonghan started calling you "angel" at every chance he got. had jun's eye twitching, it did. never had he regretted getting roommates until jeonghan fell in love.

one day jun learned that the phrase "get a room" made at least one of you self conscious enough to at least tone it down, and he never stopped weaponizing it, since.

— of course, overtime jun's protests became background noise, but once, when your roommates and jeonghan's all went to the museum of fine arts together to celebrate the end of finals week (it was free admission so long as you had your svtu activities card), jun had deadpanned his new favorite phrase in the middle of the outdoor conversation area. jeonghan had turned to you grinning, like it was the excuse he'd been waiting for all day, and after a lighthearted "shall we?" you grabbed his hand and the two of you pranced off to explore the sculpture terrace.

jeonghan had raised an eyebrow at your choice of exhibit, but you pulled him over to a sculpture of a human figure with black wings and flashed a smile: “it’s not a private room, but i think it works.”

“if you’d prefer it, i’m sure there’s a custodial closet we could go to instead. i bet there's one right outside, even.”

you snorted. “and if i did kiss you? what would you do then?"

— you stunned him into silence. him. yoon jeonghan.

— right as he was about to recover and shoot back some smartass comment, you laughed — the sound clear and playful, bright and radiating with warmth — and then you wandered to where they showcased student work.

— umm... uhhh... WHATTHEFUCKWEREYOUDOING WHATTHEFUCKWASGOINGONNNNNN

“angel.”

you hummed absentmindedly, only half hearing jeonghan through the internal screaming reverberating in your skull.

“y/nnnnnnnnnnnnnnn…”

he was closer now, if you focused, you were sure you could feel him, inching closer, right behind you, just to your right…

— he kissed your cheek: half on the corner of your lips, half on the soft of your skin.

— you couldn’t help yourself. you turned.

“if you were bold enough to kiss me here, i’d kiss you back. then i’d be scandalized, ‘how forward!’”

your mouth opened: in shock, in delight, in laughter, in a heavenly mix of the three. jeonghan just stood there, all self-satisfied grin.

“you could waste your time finding a comeback, or you could be forward.”

“i think i have time for both.”

☄. *. ⋆

end of file .

SVT (sophrosyne; virtù; truth) University hopes you've enjoyed your stay !

#writing.svtu #seventeen x reader #seventeen imagine #seventeen x you #svt x you #svt imagine #svt x reader #jeonghan x reader #jeonghan x you #jeonghan imagine #yoon jeonghan x reader #still in that limbo of not knowing how to tag things but fuck it we ball ✌︎#if you want more svtu!jeonghan feel free to send in asks!!!!#honestly svtu has been eating at my brain for so long i have NOTES for this universe i'm so full of this story you could ask me any minute #detail and i probably have Reasons and Thoughts for it #all at once i had more planned for this headcanon set and yet nothing to add so we'll see what i end up doing with this headcanon set #also i think this reader deserves to have poodle jeonghan too that hairstyle lives rent free

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gffa · 5 months

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TALES OF THE EMPIRE wound up being a mixed bag for me, there was a lot I enjoyed but there was a lot that just felt really unfulfilled. Morgan's episodes were very pretty to look at but I couldn't help thinking--the entire time I was watching, even--that Filoni's not great at creating new characters that can carry entire episodes like this, none of this felt particularly necessary or like it was fulfilling a void that I wanted to know more about. It doesn't help that I still think her arc in live action was badly handled, that if she was meant to be a Nightsister from the beginning, her first episode should have dealt with that, instead of springing it on us later, so when filling in the background of her on Dathomir in TOTE, it brings all that up for me again.

Morgan's first episode was so pretty and it was interesting to potentially get more Dathomir lore (even if it's incredibly thin and I felt it was too close to the "we see others suffering in the galaxy, but we don't want to get our own hands dirty by fighting for other people or getting involved in helping others, btw we're morally better for that :)" trope for me personally) but everything on Corvus just felt superfluous to me and I spent time trying to figure out why I felt that way. If they had done her story this way or that way, would I have enjoyed it more? If they had included this or that, would I have thought it more necessary?

And ultimately I just kept coming back to that I don't really care about Morgan Elsbeth enough that I wanted three animated shorts dedicated to her, when I could have had so many other characters get fleshed out better. I appreciated that they were showing two characters on opposite journeys, that Morgan was falling into the dark step by step, while Barriss was slowly clawing her way out of it, but that's about all that I appreciated of Morgan's story (other than the beautiful animation).

But I'm not sure I feel like Morgan's motivations were all that well planned out. It's clear that she's looking for revenge and trying to find a new family at the same time, but it's not really clear why she's working with the Empire or how she thinks this leads her to her goals. Grievous is the one who murdered her village, how does working with the Empire (as the Separatists were folded into the Empire, too) achieve that goal? Who or what is her revenge focused on? Is it that she just wants the whole galaxy to burn, because if her village burned, so should everyone else? I feel like that's probably what they were going for, but that it could have been more coherently written.

Barriss' episodes hit a lot harder, where I'm glad that she at least got an arc, but I feel like it just missed so many marks, like why even have Vader there, I'm all for gratuitous Anakin cameos, he's my trash can man and I'm always excited to see him, but absolutely nothing was done with him, despite that he was looking Barriss right in the face there. Not even a moment of showing the audience, "Oh, his soul is so far into the dark of fear, hate, and rage that he doesn't even care about her anymore." Just nothing there, like there was no connection at all. How do you go to the lengths of putting Vader in a scene with Barriss and then treat it like there's no history between her and Anakin??? So completely unsatisfying!

And then it's another series where other guest appearances would have made sense--Barriss has a whole unfinished story with Ahsoka and you don't include her here? I'm as tired of Filoni putting Ahsoka in everything as anyone else, but here it would have made sense and would have brought that relationship full circle on-screen, Barriss' betrayal of her and her clawing her way back to the light after all the trauma and hurt, there's so much she and Ahsoka would have between them. And then nothing.

Or Barriss' relationship with Luminara, TCW never really got into how that must have felt for Luminara, to have her student betray the Jedi so profoundly, for her to fall to the dark, there's such a well of potential there and it's just entirely ignored. She mentions Luminara once and it was a lovely mention, but there's no sense of resolution or completion to that arc.

I did enjoy her story with Lyn and I try not to compare what the show wanted to do with what I wanted the show to do, but I couldn't help it. During all those scenes, all I could think was that this could have been so much more powerful and complete if it had focus on Barriss' established relationships and characters I already care about, because a new random Inquisitor is just not going to hold the same weight for me as my pre-investment in Ahsoka and Luminara. (On the other hand, with the way they butchered Luminara in the last season of TCW, maybe I dodged a bullet!)

For all that negativity, though, I really loved that Barriss found herself in being a healer again, that she found the light again. That's all I've wanted for my girl!!!! (That and put a headdress on her, ffs.) I legitimately took in a hard breath when she said, "Then you have one more Jedi to deal with." because Barriss is still working through too much to fully come back to clarity re: the Jedi at that point , but when it really came down to it, when she really saw what the dark side really was, part of her still was a Jedi. And the way she spoke of her time as a Jedi, once she had a clearer, lighter head again, was sweet, I was so surprised that we got that much from her, but I'm so glad because, if nothing else, Barriss herself deserves to be in the light again.

The way she was settled into her own skin by the time she confronted Lyn on the icy planet, the way she genuinely wanted to help her, but wouldn't let her hurt innocent children, the way she could sidestep Lyn's predictable moves and could stop the blade with just a hand held out, she found her path and what she wanted to do, and oh it was so lovely to see Barriss finding herself again. I loved so much that her unshakable compassion did reach Lyn, it was such a satisfying arc for Barriss to reach that place after all the people she'd hurt. I loved so much that Barriss getting back to this place does a lot to remind us that her foundation is a compassionate one, even if she was lost to the dark for awhile.

I just wish that there had been acknowledgement of those she hurt, the people that died because of her, the betrayal she stabbed people in the back with, rather than just "sees the dark side is bad, walks away, finds the light again", which goes back to that this feels like a generic story that's mostly impactful because I'm filling in the gaps myself because I already know Barriss as a character, rather than that it continues the story that was previously told about her.

At the end of the day, I enjoyed it and I recognize that I'm being a little unfair in how I'm saying I wanted this, this, and this, rather than digesting what the show itself wanted to do, but when you're crafting two stories that are specifically about showing us the journey of two characters that originate elsewhere, you're drawing on the stories from those other origins--except TOTE decided to only halfway do that. There's a lot to love in these shorts, the animation was incredible, the voice work was incredible, Barriss' emotional journey was incredible and I'm so thankful that they even gave her any kind of compassionate resolution. But the specter of how much the shorts ignored hangs over it too heavily for me to say that they were anywhere near what they could have been imo.

#lumi.txt #star wars #barriss offee #morgan elsbeth #meta #tales of the empire #tales of the empire spoilers

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couldyouimagine-that · 3 months

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Take a Moment

Genre; hurt/comfort, fluff

Word count; 1.8k

Warnings; description of reader feeling overwhelmed, reader having a little doubt as to why Gabriel is helping them so much.

Pairing; Gabriel (Supernatural) x Reader

Gabriel who is absolutely smitten with the reader sees they are feeling overwhelmed whilst researching a case and offers to take them somewhere quiet – comfort and cuddling ensues.

I’m back! I really enjoyed writing this one (I'm rewatching Supernatural at the moment and my love of Gabriel has been rekindled) and I’m considering doing something similar with Lucifer – let me know if that’s something you would want to read. Enjoy!

Masterlist

You didn’t even have to say anything for Gabriel to know something was wrong. Castiel was never likely to notice, but the archangel had to forgive him that. His brother wasn’t the most perceptive when it came to emotion. The Winchesters were very perceptive, but they were only human and you were covering your discomfort well. Your breathing was regular and steady, there were no signs of a tapping foot or a repetitive hand movement, or anything that would signal how you felt.

But Gabriel could actually feel how you felt, one of the perks of his true form being an enormous series of celestial wavelengths. It was incomprehensible to you, he was sure, but you understood enough about angels to get the gist. He watched as you sat at the end of the table in the bunker’s library, having put yourself there so that no one would sit down next to you. You had your legs crossed tight at the knee, your arms crossed where you leaned forward on the table. Your posture looked closed off, but there was a mug of coffee by your side and you had been reading lore for hours. The others would assume you had slept poorly or were bored senseless. What that posture really meant was that you were protecting yourself, consciously or not.

Nothing had happened to trigger it, but it was clear to Gabriel that you felt incredibly overwhelmed. He stayed were he had set himself up by one of the bookshelves, one hip cocked against it. He had seen you leave situations like this in the past, when things finally did get too much and you needed some space to yourself. Equally, he had seen you try to tough it out and pretend everything was fine more times than he wanted to count. He truly wishes you knew you didn’t have to, regardless of if that meant you wanted his help or not.

Sam and Dean were sitting far enough down the table that it didn’t seem to be affecting your clear need – or clear to Gabriel, at least – for personal space. Castiel was browsing books along the shelves on the other side of the room, so whilst Gabriel wanted desperately to intervene and help you, he was glad for a moment to think that he wouldn’t need to.

That was until the idiot brothers decided to open their mouths.

“Hey Y/N, did you find anything on that weapon?”

Gabriel would have liked to snap Dean’s mouth shut. You told him that you hadn’t with a small smile, short but not unkind. Gabriel could see the effort it took for you to regain your focus on your reading. Just a few minutes later and Sam was the one to interrupt you, asking for the title of a book you had mentioned to him the previous day. This time it was harder for you to concentrate on your task again. It was when Dean disrupted your work for a third time, asking if you wanted more coffee as he stood and made his way to the kitchen, that you couldn’t take it a second longer.

Your refusal was decisive and your chair legs scraped against the floor as you pushed back from the table. You left the room quickly with a muttered excuse about going to look for a different book. Gabriel took his chance and flew ahead of you, leaving the library without anyone noticing. He was leaning against the wall outside your room when you arrived in a flurry from the speed at which you had been walking. You jumped in surprise when you rounded the corner to see him standing there and promptly tried to push straight past him in an effort to get a moment by yourself.

“Sorry Gabriel, I just need a minute.” Your words were quiet and your breathing had turned heavy. He knew that he would be making things worse for you in the moment, but he also knew he could help in the long run.

“Hey, sugar…” he murmured, voice even softer than it normally was when he spoke to you. “You wanna go somewhere quiet?”

You paused, hand on the door to your little closed in space in the bunker. No windows, not much by way of fresh air, and a whole group of people in the library just waiting to interrupt your alone time. You trusted Gabriel, knew he would never do anything to hurt you. And you desperately needed a break from it all.

He could have jumped for joy when you nodded, but he kept his reaction contained. He offered you a hand, palm up, which you took hold of immediately. The bunker was gone in the time it took you to blink. Instead, you stood in the main room of a sunny villa-like house, all open plan and large windows. Orange sunlight streamed in from a setting sun and to your right, double glass doors led out onto a sprawling patio. Bright blue pool water glimmered from its centre.

Gabriel let your hand slip from his as you took a few steps into the room, looking around with a beautiful if not tired smile.

“Is this yours?” You asked, a hint of wonder in your words that made Gabriel’s chest swell.

“Just a bit of real estate I have over in Cali.” He gave you his classic playful smirk as you looked back at him, amused by his dismissal of such a nice place. “Make yourself at home, sugar. You want a drink?” You seemed to consider something for a moment, rolling the sentence around in your mouth.

“Actually, I – this is probably silly, but can we just sit down for a minute?”

We.

You wanted to sit down with him until you felt better. That was how much you trusted him, how safe you felt with him. Outwardly, he just gave you a smile and sauntered over to one of the couches arranged artfully around the room.

“Course we can! And don’t ever worry about sounding silly with me.”

He held an intense moment of eye contact with you to make sure his message sank in. You took a seat on the other side of the couch and Gabriel couldn’t resist stretching an arm out along the back of it, behind your head. Not touching, but the invitation was there. You smiled to yourself at his less than subtle antics. He grinned like a cheshire cat when you shifted further towards him and rested your head on his shoulder. He slid his arm around your shoulders and pulled you in close, resting his cheek atop your head. You in turn curled into him fully and wound an arm around his neck.

Gabriel didn’t bother to fight the warm feeling in his chest. He felt no need to deny to himself how fond he was of you, instead just enjoying the moment. He felt you relaxing against him physically, but he also felt your mind becoming calmer. His breath shifted your hair as he took in the scent of your shampoo. He had years of experience passing time in the company of humans, but this little display of trust you were putting on meant more to him than a lot of that put together.

His other hand alighted on your hip as you moved closer still, mindlessly seeking comfort. You tucked your legs up onto the couch and the movement allowed you to put more of your weight against the archangel. He wrapped an arm around your waist and you reached your own up over his shoulders. He smiled at you ever so warmly as you tucked your face into his neck, watching your eyes close as you let out a contented sigh. He began to card his fingers through your hair, lightly scraping his nails over the back of your head, and all but basked in the way your head tilted further forwards onto his shoulder.

“You know you can talk to me when you feel like that, right? Or any time. I’m always here if you need me to be.” You tightened your hold on him for a brief moment. “And you can come here whenever you want, just give me the word.”

You leaned back a little at that, catching his eye.

“Gabriel, thank you. Really, thank you, but… why are you doing all this for me?” He rolled his eyes playfully without missing a beat.

“Oh no, the big bad archangel Gabriel looks like he might actually give a crap about some human.” He waved his hands around for dramatic affect before placing them back on you. He then tilted his head forward, narrowing his eyes and raising a brow. “Seriously?” The half shrug you offered had him muttering heatedly to himself in Enochian. “Seriously? Is it really that shocking that I give a damn about you? Why is this coming as such a surprise?” You were planning on not answering that verbally but he refused to let you look away. “Come on, sugar. You must know I care about you by now.” Gabriel’s hand started on a steady path up and down your back, waiting for your answer. You stumbled around your words for a lot longer than you would have liked, still unhappy with what you settled for in the end.

“I – didn’t really realise.”

“You think I bring anyone else here when I can see they need some space to breathe?” He wasn’t mocking, or even upset, he was just being direct.

“I’m surprised you brought me here,” you muttered, very quiet. He didn’t deign to answer that in words, but the look he gave you said come on. You gave a soft sigh of your own. “Gabriel, look. I’m sorry, okay? I didn’t realise you cared about me so much, I really didn’t.” He went to hit back, likely with something disparaging, so you tapped his nose to get his attention. The self-righteous expression of how dare you had a grin pulling at your lips. “You can complain about me not realising later, alright? You were a much more calming influence when you weren’t saying anything.” He repeated that back to you, absolutely exasperated by your nerve, but you tucked your face back into his shoulder instead of replying. You felt him shake his head, even as his arms wound back around you.

You knew you wouldn’t have much time left before you needed to return to the bunker, but for the time being, you simply enjoyed your moment of peace.

#gabriel x reader #supernatural gabriel x reader #supernatural gabriel #supernatural x reader #archangel gabriel x reader #supernatural reader insert #spn gabriel x reader #spn gabriel #supernatural

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betweenlands · 11 months

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It takes exactly two seconds between Impulse looking up at the top of the Secret Keeper and him realizing what he's actually seeing up there to decide he is officially sick and tired of seeing ghosts.

There are seven entire ghosts around the thing today -- a couple appear to be tinkering with the secret delivery mechanisms. Impulse squints at them.

"What are you doing?" he says.

"Trying to figure out how to load more tasks into this thing," one of them replies, kicking one of the blocks with buttons on them. He's got a full beard and some weird green glowing mushrooms poking out of cracks in his face. It's definitely... a look, Impulse will give him that. Very Mycelium Resistance. "But whoever designed it used freakin' command blocks, and you can't even see the randomizer run."

"How many times did your randomizer break again?" one of the other ghosts calls from up on top of the Secret Keeper.

"Never!" the mushroom ghost protests, causing at least two other ghosts to crack up laughing. "It worked completely flawlessly except for user error."

One of the ghosts, someone who appears to have a floating cactus block for a head, snorts. "And programmer error."

"You shut it," the mushroom ghost responds.

"He's not wrong," the more normal-looking brown-haired ghost over by the command blocks says absently, purple eyes clearly focused on trying to trace the wiring back to the actual command blocks.

Impulse just stands there, bewildered -- both because the ghosts are actually talking to him, and also because these are extremely weird ghosts to be talking to who look nothing like anyone he's even vaguely heard of.

"Fine," he says, "you know what, I'll bite. Why are you guys here?"

"Checking in," a ghost sitting on one of the lower rocks says. He's wearing blue and yellow, looks to be a little more transparent than the others. "Y'know, new season and all that?"

Impulse squints at him. "No, I meant, why are you following me?"

"Ohhhh!" The ghost laughs. "Hadn't looked into what you were doing yet, and these guys wanted to see if they could get some of their tasks into the machine, so I just brought everyone along."

"That's not really a good answer," a ghost leaning inside the alcove under the Secret Keeper says. He's got a mask pulled up over his face, though his voice doesn't really sound muffled at all.

"What," the blue and yellow ghost says, "am I supposed to say something like it's because you're one of the people with no hard-and-fast thematic associations to stick to and therefore easier to facilitate a meeting with and freak him out more?"

Impulse squints harder. "Are you guys Watchers?"

The blue-and-yellow ghost snorts. "Hah! That's Martyn's lore, bud, not yours. Nope, nothing to do with the Watchers."

"Aren't you technically--" the ghost in the alcove starts.

"Tsssssshhhhhh," the other ghost replies by way of shushing him aggressively, "spoilers!"

"Alright," the alcove ghost says, spreading his hands in mock defeat, "fine, have it your way. He's right though. Not Watchers."

"Lowercase-w maybe," the brown-haired ghost still inspecting the redstone with the mushroom ghost says, "but otherwise, no."

Impulse is starting to feel like he's wandered into something way above his pay grade.

The alcove ghost snaps his fingers. Impulse notes somewhat absent-mindedly that he has, like, a lot of piercings on one ear. "Hey," he says, "come to think of it, we might be able to help you out with some stuff."

"I swear to God," another ghost says from on top of the Secret Keeper, "if you try to sell another person on your weird coffee god thing again-"

"I wasn't going to!" he responds. "Honest! I was just gonna say, it looks like there's a plains biome here, that means oxeye daisies, that means suspicious stew with regen if you can get a good source of mushrooms."

"Unfortunately," the mushroom ghost says, looking up from where he and the other ghost appear to now be trying to cram books into the ground, "the space for the hearts seems like it just kinda vanishes when people get hit. At least, if I'm not misunderstanding the programming."

"If you're misunderstanding the programming then we're both reading this code wrong," the brown-haired ghost says. "And I'm pretty sure I used something similar here for Dark Path stuff, so probably not?"

"Dang," the alcove ghost says, then tilts his head back towards Impulse. "Maybe make splash poison potions, then? That'll take out a good chunk of someone's health if they can't regen."

"He is green," the cactus-headed ghost says. "Why's he gotta make poison potions right now?"

A shrug in response. "Never hurts to prep early."

The blue-and-yellow ghost leans forward, squinting at him. "Alright," he says, "one of my wisps give you that idea or what?"

Another shrug. "I mean, what if they did?"

"Last time you started listening to his wisps," the brown-haired ghost says, "they told you to try and kill everyone just because I beefed it before the dragon fight."

"It would've worked if you hadn't warned them," the ghost in the alcove replies. "I can't believe you tried to sabotage my attempt at avenging you."

"I can't believe you listened to them in the first place," the blue-and-yellow ghost says. "They're bloodthirsty, they don't really give good advice."

"And I," Impulse says, having inched his way over towards the new task button, "am going to take my task and leave, because you guys are weird."

He hits the button and flips through the taskbook.

"End every sentence said to another player in a question?" he says, squinting down at it.

"You're already doing better than some of us were!" one of the ghosts on top of the Secret Keeper yells down.

"Oh my god, shut up!" the mushroom ghost yells back, and then turns to Impulse. "Hey, by the way, have you considered getting a pet parrot?"

"That's still a bad loophole and you know it," the blue-and-yellow ghost cuts in.

"I heard him just fine," the brown-haired ghost says. "Hey, hang on -- that's one of ours! It worked!"

Impulse decides he's not even going to bother trying to be polite about leaving. He has had entirely enough of these ghosts in particular.

#secret life #secret life smp #impulsesv #gilded hardcore #vikingpilot #this minific brought to you by: gilded is good go watch it #unlike last impulse fic i will not bother with a pretense of it being symbolism. this one is fully because it is funny to me #there's SOME stuff in there if you squint but it doesn't actually have anything to do with impulse #anyway sorting tags time:#yt #txt #solar scraps #solar scrawls #slsmp #gilded #you may have noticed i tagged the blue and yellow ghost. this is because i fear no man. or pronoun stealer for that matter #oh dunk wait i should also tag the others #devonsdesk #thefoolnse #avidmc #and then whimzee and trog are in the background (sorry guys i didn't have the voices down yet)#oh and fun fact about this one. the identity of one of these ghosts is Really Questionable #like just a little bit... it could be him acting weird or it could be something else entirely yknow? something more aware of certain things #but ehhhhhhhhhhhnnnn that's spoilers so who am i to blow up its spot #update josh got a new username so #codeneon

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rgbstatic · 2 years

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i think in both regards to story, and in terms of meta/real life

doomsday and the destruction of l’manberg killed the server.

whether people were for or against or apart of l’manberg or not, it was a gathering point that brought people together to talk. it was a place people would hang out. it was a place with lots of chests to steal food and supplies from. in new l’manberg so so many people spent their time their even if they were completely unaffiliated or lived somewhere else.

storywise when it was destroyed, the story just lost a central characteristic for conflict, and a very important thing. l’manberg wasn’t just a place. it was ideals it was imagery, it was a goal, it was safety it was so many things, and with it gone with no hopes of returning, no matter how many new places people built they were all empty and never the same.

and with it gone everyone literally had to go their own ways. everyone who gathered there went far far away to make their own homes.

on a meta standpoint, people like talk about how much they miss old dream smp streams and that’s because of the non serious lore streams. where walking down a path and bumping into someone could lead to goofing off or serious talks.

where tommy could build a pathway from manberg to pogtopia for prime and for the upcoming rebellion, and get caught by a vice president who decided it was his day off and he was going to roleplay as a mcdonald’s worker.

it’s how you have tommy and tubbo goofing off on the server not doing lore, only for schlatt to see and they go lore mode and have to make up a pregnancy excuse.

it’s how you got silly serious moments. it’s also just straight up how you had people interact. if everyone lived hundreds of blocks away, it’s harder to just randomly run into each other while building or running to do something, meaning you’re less likely to talk, and less likely for anything to happen.

when l’manberg acted as a central hang out spot, people built their homes in close proximity, they would stick around the area and things naturally happened.

destroying l’manberg was, in my opinion, the worst thing they could have done. doomsday did very very little narratively to the story. the community house gathering did more to the story than doomsday did. and it was awful because tommy rallied people behind him to fight in doomsday not for him, but because if they could do this to l’manberg what would stop them from doing it to every other group.

and everyone fought, and despite an entire server fighting it was pointless.

the only thing doomsday did was force people to hide. and you can make claims for ranboo who went to live with phil and techno- but ranboo’s character arcs could’ve had a very similar outcome by staying with almost anyone else.

no l’manberg ultimately just drove everyone away, and there was never any serious or successful move to make anything on that server take its place, to fill the hole, so there was nothing to actively pull things together. no driving force or motivation, nothing to supply passive roleplay, nothing to bring people together.

everyone lost on doomsday. that loss of l’manberg meant no one could ever win again. just think about it. after doomsday, it was loss after loss.

the final disc confrontation? tommy and tubbo lost. they were rescued, but they lost their fight, and it was a trap anyway.

dream in prison? well he has punz on the outside, doesn’t matter, and he can control ranboo, and he still got to kill tommy AND ghostbur. it was a loss. and he escaped.

every single fight after. quackity lost, wilbur lost, tommy and tubbo lost again, and again. the server for everyone ended in a loss.

there was not ever a win again. usually in stories, after losses, you want something good to happen to make those hardships worth it. just like when good things happen you want bad things to happen to make it worth it, you need a balance.

think of the revolution. the up and down rollercoaster. the freedom into war into loss and death into hope into loss into compromise into win.

the election was a nail biting race where depending on who you voted for, was lose and a win. for tommy and wilbur it was a loss, but they quickly gathered things up, they had hope, and they had energy, and a plan, and techno joined and they were confident. there were ups and downs up until doomsday, afterword no character seemed to get an up. any positive was immediately trivialized. for example tommy’s decided to try and heal and make a hotel which was immediately turned into a problem where people tried to fight him over it and then he died. or he got a pet that made him happen and everyone tried to set it free or kill it. he finally starts to feel safe no relax and dream breaks loose, and he is endlessly stalked the entire time, and he dies alone with his abuser and his abuser’s accomplice.

there is never an up after doomsday, and killing l’manberg that day killed the dream smp.

#tommyinnit #l’manberg #doomsday #rgb talking #dsmp analysis #long post #wbrst #2020-2024

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demonsfate · 2 months

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I'm so tired but at the same time I just wanted to write that... TK8 may truly be one of the worst stories in all the games lol. Not as bad as TK6 (solely because I'm biased and TK6 ruined my favorite character) but like... with each game, it feels like they're just making more and more of a mess with the lore, and TK8 just felt like they stopped caring completely about consistency. And really? It is actually getting harder to care about the story because of that.

But why exactly? You see, it's just hard to care about anything at all. It's hard to even know what's going to happen next, and not in a good way either. Not, "they're so clever, they're good at surprising and subverting expectations!" But in a "they will literally just do anything even if it contradicts previously established lore." Like there are zero stakes. If a character dies, it means nothing. That character is very likely alive, and we'll even probably see them soon.

It's hard to even really like characters when they can be completely altered on a whim.

Like Claudio, who was clearly being set up to be a bad guy in next game.

Only for... that to not happen lmao. In fact, he's very good now. Which also just takes away stakes of Xiaoyu being placed in a situation where she could be harmed, and Kin having another adversary that isn't just Kaz. which yes, a lot of ppl prefer Claudio being a good guy after all. But again, it's a thing they completely disregarded.

Devil Jin is another example of a character just being completely changed for no good reason. How he went from a murderous, cannibalistic, highly violent and sadistic person, to... being a force of good, someone that was always trying to protect Jin but Jin was just denying it? Like yes, those two examples I show from Tekken 6 are technically "non canon", but it's clearly what Devil's character was supposed to be. He wasn't supposed to like Jin, he was ashamed of Jin, he saw Jin as a weakling. He was never meant to be his protector - he wanted Jin out of the picture so he can be free to do whatever he wants, which usually involves killing, maiming, and gaining power.

But see? A character can go from a parasitic force that corrupts the host, to being a guardian devil just because the writers decided they wanted to do that. Disregard to previous canon. The same thing happened to Jin in Tekken 6. Jin was a complete good guy, but then he was suddenly turned into a ruthless, heartless, warmonger all because Harada thought it was "cool", again - disregard to what Jin was, what his story meant, everything his character was.

Or how Zafina had Azazel in her arm, could've potentially became a more important character because of this new power she possessed. Only... for Kazuya to take it away from her at practically the start of the game. A story for her character that went nowhere.

Because of that, it's just so hard to even become attached to a character because you just don't know when they're going to be completely changed into something they weren't... or when their stories will be dropped and they'll go nowhere. (Paul from being a comedic relief who had amazing feats of strength, to just becoming a complete joke with no wins and that nobody takes seriously. Or Asuka, obviously meant to be Jin's cousin and even hinted at possessing Jun's powers of purification. Only... for her to become Lili's sidekick and completely irrelevant to the story. Even Lili gets more respect than she does in TK8)

Then of course, with characters not being able to stay dead... not even for a single game. It's becomes more difficult to care when a character "dies" or is "about to die" when you know nothing is gonna happen. The character will come back, regardless of how they died, just because the writers want to use them again. Even if it means ruining the weight of the other games, or the developments characters had.

There's also the problem with the game itself becoming too saturated with jokes. I've spoke about this somewhat recently, but before, a lot of the characters were allowed serious endings or side stories. (Like check out Tekken 4's endings, I think almost every character had a serious ending with real character development in that one). But now the majority of the character endings are just either fluff or wacky shenanigans. Which again, makes you feel less invested in the characters when nothing serious is actually going on, and also makes it feel like the writers just... don't care as much anymore.

And I get that Tekken is a fighting game, but like... it still has a story it "proudly" presents. Therefore, it's still something people are liable to get invested in, and become disappointed when all canon is thrown out the window. It just makes you wonder what's the point of caring about what happens if it's gonna be undone in the next game. It makes you wonder why care about a character when their story, or even the character themselves, can be changed completely next game?

Of course, I love Tekken, and I am interested in seeing how crazy it can get. But I will say, I am becoming less invested with each game lol! TK4 had amazing writing and aesthetics, and I really wish the game could've kept following in TK4's footsteps rather than going completely off the rails like this. Really, TK's writing peaked at TK2-TK4, then it started going downhill from TK5.

#✏️ - ᴛʜᴇ ʜᴏsᴛ ᴡɪᴛʜ ᴛʜᴇ ᴍᴏsᴛ // (ooc)#// i forgot how ugly claudio was in tk7 LMAO #// anyway now i'm goin to bed FR #// i'll probs reblog this tomorrow morn or afternon 'cos i wrote it so late xD

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bonzosbunker · 8 months

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I’ve been getting a lot of love for The Scareiff recently, so I wrote down a lot of lore and ideas n’ stuff for you all.

HIS STORY:

The Scareiff was outstanding in his field of entertainment, enough so that he was the star of his own show. His show was called “Scareiff’s Saloon” which combined family fun with crazy spaghetti western action! The show was a hit, and he had plenty of fans. But then everything changed when someone, thought to have been a fan of his, got too close to him. His show and him started going downhill. He started messing up his parts, he made bad PR for himself, and he became a total mess. Shortly after C. Rook came into the picture, he was booted from Cathode Entertainment and his show was cancelled. Nobody knows where he is now. But he’s somewhere out in that desert, hoping an opportunity will come by where he can prove his worth again.

THE BATTLE:

They didn’t call him a sheriff for nothing. He was an expert with a pistol, and he performed all of his stunts. This expertise in the art of combat is why you most certainly need the Shadow Mantle. With such, you’ll be able to effortlessly deflect his shimmering bullets. Then you can find his whereabouts in Dreamy Desert, inside of a place called Ghost Town. Pacifying him grants you the Gleam Badge, a badge made out of pure hope.

Taking the more aggressive route makes The Scareiff impossible to find in Ghost Town. Instead he will try to hunt you down. He hopes that by turning in The Fun Gang to Tenna that that’ll get him his show back. As soon as you find the Shadow Mantle, he ambushes you. The battle with him is significantly harder in this route, even with the mantle aiding you. If you manage to strike him down, he still refuses to give up, as if his unwavering hopes are what’s keeping him going. It is this overwhelming hope that begins to turn him into a mess of TV static, withering him down until there is nothing left but his Shadow Crystal. In the process, he drops his gilded Fire-Arm, something you can equip to Toriel.

THEMES:

- Ghost Town

- Music that plays upon finding The Scareiff’s hideout

- Standoff

- Song that plays when The Scareiff is encountered

- DARN SHOOT’N

- Pacifist/Normal Route battle theme

- SERVIN’ JUSTICE

- Aggressive Route battle theme

- Cancelled

- Post-Agressive Route battle scene

QUOTE EXAMPLES:

* Y- Y’ALL’VE NEVER’RE SEEN MY SHOW BEFORE… ?

* WELL THAT’RE BE A DARN SHAME. Y’ALL’RE MISS’N OUT!

* Y’THINK’N SOME RAGGEDY OL’ CAPE’S GUNNA STOP ME???

* YOU SHOULD’VE STUCK’T TO YER’ GUNS INSTEAD!

* WELL I GOT MY OWN HOPE’S N’ DREAM’S TOO Y’KNOW!

* SO IT’D BE GREAT IF Y’ALL’D JUST’T. LET. ME. WIN.

OTHER THOUGHTS AND IDEAS:

- The Scareiff’s unwavering hope and refusal to back down in the Aggressive Route is meant to reflect the fight with Undyne the Undying.

- Continuing the theme of all the secret bosses being “trapped” in some way. Despite all of The Scareiff’s hopes, he is never able to overcome that feeling and return to normalcy. But he does try his best, and comes considerably closer than any of the other secret bosses in my lore for the game.

- There is no “friend” inside of The Scareiff. There’s only hope and straw in there. However, if you’ve been looking at any of my past posts, there still is a “friend” in my take on Chapter 3.

- The Scareiff rode a horse at one point that left him a long time ago. He misses him, but he does have a cool stick horse now!

- The Scareiff knows about the other secret bosses, much like how Spamton knows Jevil. He thinks the rest of them are a bunch of weirdos and suckers. He especially doesn’t like Spamton, who he thinks is lousy and incapable of doing anything for himself.

#deltarune #woody theory #the scareiff #deltarune chapter 3 #cowboy #undertale #secret boss

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haunted-xander · 10 months

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Hsr age headcanons except I also explain my reasonings bc I read everyones lore to get it more accurate.

(Also, a few things to note that will be relevant to my explainations: Some of these I'm not 100% certain of the age groups I put them in here, so some might not be as specific. Blade will be considered his age prior to being mara-struck for the sake of this post. Imbibitor Lunae is a stand in for Dan Feng.)

Let's begin, shall we?

Child (6-12)

Hook: I believe she's around 7-8. She's very obviously a kid, but I don't think she's like, a toddler or anything. She's smart enought to pull the clever little tricks she does, and has enough awareness to understand some harder topics (like Fersman's declining health and the reality of her birth parent's deaths).

Clara: I originally figured she was around 14 or so, but since one of her stories claim she's of similar age to Hook, and one of Hook's stories has her note Clara is a few years older than her, I think I'd put her around 11-12. Maaaaaybe 10, but that feels a bit too young for her.

Early to mid teens (13-17)

Arlan: Probably around 17 or so. We know he's younger than Asta, who met him when he was a kid and offered him a job for her family, and she also mentions that she took him in during her companion mission. Herta also says in her voice line about him that he's probably one of the "exceptionally gifted" kids Asta gave money to.

Lynx: She's much younger than Gepard and Serval, obviously, but she's also probably around the same age as Pela (who is confirmed to be 16) given how close they are and how they interact. Her companion mission also largely revolves around her trying to escape her older siblings protectiveness, which I feel is relatable to a lot of teens lol.

Late teen (18-19)

Silver Wolf: Tbh I don't have any solid justification for this, mostly just vibes. She's definitely younger than Kafka, but other than that I don't really have much to go off of. Probably 19, but I could see her maybe being early 20s too.

Guinaifen: I'm not completely sure about this one tbh. She's definitely a teenager, she says she's close to but not yet an adult to Bailu after we chase her and the Heliobus possessing her. She's also very close friends with Sushang, (who is confirmed to be around 16-17) so it makes sense for Gui to be a similar age too. The thing that's tripping me up is that one of her stories says she spent all her teenage years on the planet she lived on prior to coming to the Luofu, which would make her 19 at minimum. It could also just be exaggerating, or not counting 18 & 19 as teen years (that one seems unlikely though).

Young adult (20+)

Trailblazer: Well, obviously, Trailblazer is actually like a few months old at most seeing as we start the game by being "born" but, ya know. They're treated as an adult by everyone around them, not to mention they're clearly meant to be around the same age as March and Dan Heng, who are also depicted as adults (Dan Heng has been seen drinking in official art, for example). I think maybe like, around 20-22 would fit.

March: There's what I mentioned previously of course (being close in age to Trailblazer and Dan Heng), but the whole "girls like me/my age all like this and this" thing is a very typical mindset of late teens & very young adults. The way she talks about taking pictures of food in one of her stories also sound very much like how a young adult would explain it lolol. Like Trailblazer, probably around 20-22. Tbh I'm not sure how to explain my reasoning when basing it off of her behaviour without it sounding like I'm saying all girls her age do this, I'm not 😅 but it is common enough I feel like it adds to her feeling that age, ya know?

Asta: As mentioned with Arlan, we know she's notably older than him. I would say her position on the space station means she has a decent amount of life experience for her to do it so well, but this is Hoyoverse and anyone can do anything regardless of age, so that doesn't really work lol. That said, she clearly has had the position for a long time, so even if she wasn't an adult when she started, she definitely should be now. Probably around 23-24.

Bronya: She's been in the Silvermane Guards for long enough to be well-known and trusted for her skills, and with how easily she took up the position of Supreme Guardian, she has a lot of public faith and trust as well. She needs to have been serving for a good amount of years, to get all that. That said, I do think she started young, so I'd put her at around early-to-mid 20s. probably around 23-24 like Asta.

Seele: Canonicly around the same age as Bronya, so probably about 23-24 again.

Luka: Not much concrete to go off of, but he's probably around the same age as Seele given their interactions. He's also obviously an adult, or Hook would've dropped the 'honourary' part and just make him a proper Mole lolol. Around 23-24 again.

Topaz: In her voice line about Bronya she says they're around the same age. March also notes that she's pretty young for an executive, and her character stories explain that she started working for the IPC at a VERY young age. Probably around 23-24 yet again.

Adult (30+)

Sampo: He's a notorious scammer who's being doing his work in Belobog for a long enough time to become notorious, so him being in his 30s seems likely. I don't have any other reasoning besides that, really. probably around mid 30s, like 35-36 or something.

Himeko: She had already finished college when she found the express, so she was already an adult then. It's been many years since then, so she's definitely not some young 20-something year old lolol. probably mid-to-late 30s, like 37-38 or the like.

Gepard: Mid-to-late 30s. He's younger than Serval, so he's below 40 (not that I really thought he was middle-aged anyway) and he's probably older than Bronya, as in one of her stories he comforts her after the first death to happen under her leadership, clearly having already gotten used to it. Also, apparently he has a bachelor's degree? (According to the fandom wiki's trivia section). Anyway. Around 37-38 probably.

Luocha: I couldn't really find anything that indicates anything in particular, so I'm just gonna say he's mid 30s based off of vibes alone. Like 35-36 or something.

Kafka: Her age is only ever stated as "unknown" and, like Luocha, I couldn't find anything that indicates anything in particular. So I'm just gonna say she's mid-to-late 30s like Himeko and call it a day. 37-38.

Argenti: His character stories show a variety of different scenes throughout his journey as a Kmight of Beauty, so he has experienced a great deal. Mid 30s, probably. Like 35-36. I don't have much else to go off of.

Middle aged and beyond (40+)

Herta: We know she's like, really old. Like really really old. I don't know exactly HOW old, but old. I think she's still within a human lifespan though, so maybe like 70-80 or something. Physically speaking though, she herself states that her current puppet body looks "70% like I did as a child" so. Yeah. Baby grandma.

Natasha: She raised Seele and was the main caretaker at the orphanage she grew up in, so she ain't exactly young (despite what hyvs aversion to portraying older people properly will tell you). Probably late 40s to early 50s. 49-50 maybe.

Serval: Canonicaly the same age as Cocolia, who raised Bronya for most of her life. Bronya also recognizes Serval as Cocolia's old friend from when she was a child. Mid-to-late 40 probably. 45-46 maybe.

Blade: Yingxing is refered to as 'middle-aged' in-game at around the time it all went down, and he's shown with visible aging and with grayed hair (that is, assuming Blade's current black hair is his natural haircolor?). Probably late 40s, like 48-49 or something.

Canon age

Pela: 16, as stated by Lynx in her & Lynx's companion mission. People have pointed out that this is a plot hole due to other information we have about Pela, but 1) the only thing that goes against this is the claim she was a founding member of Serval's band, which I can 100% believe is either a mistranslation or a case of a writer not cross-referencing properly. (also, I don't remember where this is ever claimed in-game, so if anyone can point me to it I'd appreciate it.) And 2) her being a teen makes more sense with how she's written, imo, so I don't really care if it's actually a plot hole.

Sushang: One of her stories says she's "around 16 to 17 years old". Obviously, this isn't her REAL age since she's a Xianzhou native, but it is the age she is equivalent to for a short-life species.

Welt: 80+. He arrived in the hsr universe at the time of APHO, which takes place in 2025. Since Welt was born in 1947, this would make him 78. While we don't know exactly how long he's been here, he seems to have been here a quite a while, so, 80+ it is.

Long-life species

(equivalent to) Child (6-12)

Bailu: She's been described as a child many, many times, including by herself (multiple times). Although she's probably older than she looks, as both she and several others remark that she has trouble growing bigger for some unknown reason. I'd say maybe around 10-11.

(equivalent to) Early to mid teen (13-17)

Qingque: She reads to me like a 14 year old being forced to take up a summer job by her parents because 'you need to get experience so you can get a job easier when you're older!'. Actually I think that's literally what's going on except summer jobs don't exist on the Luofu so now she has a full-time job at 14 years old. Yeah I don't actually have anything else to go off of other than the level of control her parents have over her life.

Yanqing: His character stories say he is 1) not yet of age (so below 18) and 2) a teenager. Very simple. Not sure why people are arguing about his age so much when it literally says right there in the game that he is a teenage boy. Probably 15.

Huohuo: Honestly not much to go off of. Probably around 14, based solely on vibes.

(equivalent to) Young adult (20+)

Dan Heng: Depicted as a young adult of similar age to Trailblazer and March, as mentioned previously. Pretty simple. That said, I do want to note that one of Blade's stories describe him as a teen. But, based on the way it's written, this seems to be Blade's first encounter with him, so it's probably not accurate to Dan Heng's current age.

Tingyun: Her stories describe her as pretty young, but the way she carried herself and the sort of businesses she did makes me think she was at least 20. Like 20-21 probably.

Fu Xuan: Once again, not much concrete to go off of. Her stories give me the impression she joined the divination comission rather young, and I think she's been the master diviner for quite a while now. Maybe early 20s, like 22-23 or something.

(equivalent to) Adult (30+)

Dan Feng: We don't really know how old Dan Feng was when everything went down other than that he was older than Dan Heng is currently. I'd put him in mid 30s, solely on vibes. I mean, he got engaged and quite literally made a child, so I'd say 30 fits. Ignoring the fact neither of those things have much to do with his age at all. 34-35 maybe.

Hanya: Honestly I have no clue and her stories just confused me. She has the vibes of a 30-something year old so I put her here. My view on her age will probably change once Xueyi is out if only bc I might be able to figure Xueyi's age out better and Hanya would then be somewhere under that.

(equivalent to) Middle aged and beyond (40+)

Jing Yuan: Listen. He's seen shit. He has lived a long ass time. And it's canon he basically raised Yanqing, he's a dad ya'll. probably early-to-mid 40s, like 44-45 maybe. I don't know.

Yukong: She's old. Like actually old. Technically much younger than Jing Yuan, but since foxians lifespans are shorter than other long-life species, she's equivalent to a lot older than he is. She's 249 and foxians live up to 300. She's OLD. I'd say she's like 70 or something.

Jingliu: Also old. She's like, 2000 years old or something, she's a grandma. Probably equivalent to up to 80-something. Except she looks 30 bc Mara. And also long-life species don't actually age past a certain point, so she physically is not capable of looking above 30.

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linnetagain · 3 months

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Hi! I’m not sure if you’re comfortable answering questions about your fics here so please feel free to ignore this if you’re not.

I’m a russian queer who left a comment under chapter 3 of The Season and I’m super qurious why you decided to make Астарион :), Cazador and Halsin russian. In Good Men and Monsters you mention that Astarion has been called upyr, does he have Eastern European background in that universe as well?

I’m completely enamoured with and fascinated by your works and wait for new updates religiously. Thank you so much for sharing them with us, you’re a солнышко! 🖤

Hello friend!! I am slow to answer but happy to! I can't promise I'll be very eloquent or be able to provide a satisfying answer but I'll do my best.

First of all, I haven't specified Astarion's background in Good Men and I likely won't, so if you want to read him as Eastern European please do! I can absolutely see how it fits. In the context of that discussion it's the concept of Vampirism and the folklore surrounding it that is focused on Eastern Europe rather than he himself. I am absolutely not going to touch some of Stoker's vampiric lore because he was a xenophobic Victorian man (the boxes of dirt... goddamn, Stoker, what the fuck - the grave dirt of course is relevant in Good Men but it's 'the soil the vampire was buried in' not 'fifty boxes of soil from his homeland'). I could write a whole essay on the symbolism of the outsider as a threat and the crossover of the ostracized sections of Victorian society in Dracula (non-english, lower class, homosexual, the list goes on and fucking on) but this is already a long reply so I'll spare you and look at Season.

There are a couple of reasons that it fits, for me, and a lot of it is to do with the Russian history of competitive ice skating. Writing a modern AU Astarion who wasn't a vampire meant I knew I needed to find another way to have that aspect of his character where his life hasn't been his own, where it's been shaped by other people for their own purposes, and even as an adult and being 'free' to make his own choices, he's living with the legacy of who they made him, and working to be more than that. Competitive sport definitely has that aspect already, unfortunately, and ice skating even more so.

I also never wanted him to be the only Russian, because then of course you're risking tokenizing him. Cazador made sense for obvious reasons, but Halsin too. I considered him because he's the other high elf companion, but also because in game he's the one with a history of war. Transferring him to a modern day context was harder than a lot of the other characters, but I wanted him to have that similar ground with Astarion that he has in game, even if they never address it. Unintentionally, it means that in Season he and Astarion have very different experiences of their culture and identity, especially in context of the diaspora, which is something I really enjoy exploring.

Of course that then raises the question of the current geopolitical state of Russia and the wider Slavic regions. Having real world issues as a basis for plot is always somewhat fraught, but it's also something very close to my heart and that I want to write about. I also didn't want to make them all British to avoid any of that difficulty, that would be both unrealistic and uninteresting.

I think the ultimate reason is that fiction, even fanfiction, is our way of processing and reflecting on and exploring our world. It's less obvious in fantasy settings, but it's still very much there. The ultimate reason I choose to do anything is because it's interesting - and usually, in a real world context, that means it's fraught and complicated. I want to write about things that matter, to me and to anyone who might read it, and I want to do it in a way that means anyone reading from a different context might feel seen.

The reason I started writing in the first place, however many years ago, is that I didn't see any asexual rep in fiction and I knew that if I needed it, someone else needed it too. I do the same now. I have queer Russian friends who feel like the world has moved on from what's going on in Russia at the moment, or that all Russian people are being treated like they MUST agree with what the Russian government are doing. The nuance of the situation and their identity is erased by oversimplification. I suppose part of writing this is just me wanting to do anything I can to combat that. It's not much, but I hope it's something, to know that you're seen and still being thought about, and people still care.

Writing characters who have dealt with miscarriage, drug abuse, xenophobia, chronic pain, emotional neglect and all those kinds of things is because I have feelings about these subjects, I want to discuss them, I want to explore what it means to live through something like that and how it affects you as a person. Fiction is a space to do that, and to invite people into those conversations that we wouldn't have otherwise. Art has always been a starting point, and it's always been at the forefront of social and political change. I don't write fanfic thinking it's going to change the world, obviously, but I do write it with the intention of treating real life situations with the respect and consideration they deserve, rather than just using them for drama or brushing over them because it's a difficult thing to talk about.

I know that Season is a love story. That's the ultimate goal, and I presume that's why people are still reading. But it's also, to me, a story about what it means to be queer in our world today. What that looks like, how far we've come and how far we still have left to go. I want to give people a story that is real, in that sense. That takes in all the fucking awful shit that can come with being queer and out and open, and still have hope and a happy ending. It's not easy, and I don't ever want to pretend that it is. But fiction also gives us a place where we can imagine what a happy ending might look like, in a world that doesn't provide them as often as we'd like.

So. Sorry for the essay as a response, but. I suppose I made Astarion Russian because it made sense for his character, but also because I want to write with hope, and not manufacturing false hope by turning away from the world as it is. I want to write all the awful, difficult, horrible things, and believe that happiness and hope are possible anyway, despite, and including them. We don't live in an ideal world. Sometimes I want to cave to despair and think that things will never be better. I write because I don't want to believe that's true.

#bloodweave #the season #good men and monsters

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wulvercazz · 9 months

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Do you think Grimm being an omega affected any of his relationship with the other Espadas before Ichigo arrived? Did anyone tease him over how obsessed he got with ALPHA Ichigo?

Oh I definitely dooo 🤭✨ I had several twt threads with some of these ideas so, if u followed me over there, some of these might sound familiar dasfdg

In an omegaverse setting, I headcanon most arrancar (specially the Espadas) to be Alphas. Simply bc it seems to work better for Aizen that way; less Omegas means less bothering with heats being an interruption, and also means more agressive/restless Alphas.

I think the only Omegas would be Ulquiorra and Grimmjow (and Nell too) and for very good reasons.

In my headcanons I usually have only the Hollows (Gillian and up) to be the only ones with a secondary gender, as I think it fits the canon lore that these Hollows are made up of thousands of souls. Aizen would only be posing as the role of an Alpha in his makeshift "pack".

Ulquiorra would make sense to be an Omega with how easily he becomes Aizen's most trusted Espada (+ it fits my own Ulquiorra being sort of infatuated with Aizen headcanons lol)...

But then we have Grimmjow- his role is a bit more complicated in Aizen's plan imo, because he's meant to go rogue and be disloyal. Him being an Omega means Aizen (w that alpha posing I mentioned, along with his canon reiatsu power displays and overall manipulation) can have a better grip on him while also letting him loose.

Before Ichigo- Aizen was already doing the canon play of giving them ranks to keep them competing against each other, making it harder for them to form alliances with each other beyond their own Fracción... but then, if we also push in the omegaverse into it- I can see such few Omegas (one being almost not an omega at all bc I can see Ulquiorra's emptiness fucking up w aspects his secondary gender too) not only affecting the Alphas, like I mentioned before, but keeping said Omegas in high tension environments. More aggressive/hostile, which would only make their necessary fights with Ichigo that much challenging and thus better and achieving the goal of driving forward Ichigo's Hollow. (And also it'd fit too with Nnoitra's sexist lil displays of aggression, attacking and injuring Nell, and then trying the same with Grimmjow).

When Ichigo doeS appear and Grimmjow becomes obsessed- it only helps along with Grimm's spiraling "out of control" and into his own destruction (not on Ichigo's watch ofc, but I can see Aizen meaning for Grimmjow to die there), that the Alphas he's constantly in competition with, start to show some disdain and judgement for it.

Maybe u wanted something more light hearted now that I think about it adsfdf 😅 but tbh I can see Espadas like Nnoitra, Szayel, Ulquiorra and Yammy (specially the two in higher ranks) to be kinda nasty- lots of "slut"-shaming and goading.

And then... if we go with 'Grimmjow actually having the hots for Ichigo' too-- oof- I can see his scent change stirring up things within the arrancar- for sort of good, bad and worst.

A competing Alpha scent all over Grimmjow (particularly after Ichigo 'marks' him with a scar) could make higer ranked Alpha Espadas to want to act on the "challenge", whether towards Grimmjow or Ichigo.

But also,,, I can see the change also helping along some of the arrancar that are not quite in with Aizen's whole thing, like Harribel, to start embracing that defiance even more. Grimmjow stops smelling like pack (like Aizen's overpowering reiatsu) and more like someone else (Ichigo's just as overpowering reiatsu) and this causes shifts along the whole little system Aizen has going on; specially with those at the top- Harribel and Starrk in particular strike me as the type who slowly start detaching from the "pack" and readjusting (if only Starrk wasn't offed when he was... I can see him choosing to quietly follow Harribel rather than wanting to lead himself u_u). Barragan and Yammy I can see as striving to take control... if only the culmmination of Aizen's plan and his defeat hadn't happened so soon after, maybe some more actual physical confrontations would've happened between the Espadas. 🤔

I can totally see these little things going mostly undetected too by Aizen simply bc shinigami don't seem perceptive to scent/ pheromones/ Hollow-specific body language, being more human themselves... although I say 'mostly' bc Ulquiorra would definitely fill Aizen in on the gossip.

#omegaverse #I'm rambling mostly lmao #I love talking about the implications of omegaverse being added to the canon :>cc #It's fun too when they're all affected by the secondary gender but differently depending on being human / shinigami / hollow etc #+ omega Grimm is always fun to think about #I should also make a ramble post again about Omegas being the natural pack leaders in an Omegaverse Bleach and how that affects Grimm #<333 nice thoughts #Omega Grimmjow #Alpha Ichigo #ichigrimm #一グリ

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what-gs-watching · 5 months

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"You guys are like a dead married couple on acid."

Y’ALL, I watched Dead Boy Detectives. Which really, should come as no surprise. Because of the whole Neil Gamain thing. But also because that kind of weird is right up my alley.

I have to say, I’m absolutely loving this trend of teen-shows-with-absolutely-wild-shit-happening. This was not a thing when I was younger, and I thoroughly appreciate it. Why did I only have Dawson’s Creek and Sabrina the Teenage Witch and fucking Boy Meets World? Don’t get me wrong, I love all of those but what I really would have benefited from was teen drama with fucked up situations. Gen Z is kind of lucky I guess? (LOL jk except for the entire state of the world, but at least they get good shows…)

Wherein two teenaged ghosts form a detective agency to help solve cases for other ghosts that would otherwise go ignored, while running from death lest they be forced into the afterlife and separated, making friends with a psychic and other humans along the way.

The thing is, you gotta let go with this show. It gets INCREDIBLY weird and you have to roll with it. Edwin’s death by accidental satanic sacrifice? Sure. Crystal the psychic purposely letting a demon possess her? Okay yeah. A supernatural entity that controls all cats in a small town, ridiculously named the Cat King? Harder to swallow, but I guess. A literal crow that gets turned into a boy who loves astrology? Confusing but, go on. Incredibly aggressive and vulgar sprites eventually locked up in a jar? Actually, that’s hilarious I’m good with that.

Truly, it’s absurd. And surprisingly violent. But also, and again no surprise, I was all about the underlying subtext between Edwin, who died in 1916, and his relationship with Charles, who died in 1989. I will always get behind a decades long ‘will they won’t they’ even if it’s between ghosts. Because I’m a fucking sucker for boys maybe being in love. And the entire trope in general. I love love, gang, even if it’s surrounded by horrible things happening. Maybe even more, if it is? I’m not sure what that says about me, but I’m WITH it.

Also there is a TON going on in this show, they cover an incredible amount in 8 episodes. I always appreciate shows that can carry an overall storyline and smaller ones in a good balance. Monster of the week slash lore smushed together is always so satisfying.

I’ve seen some reviews talking about the acting being less than stellar but like, they’re supposed to be kids. Everything is dramatic to kids. Who cares? They carried it as best as they could, and there isn’t anything really that stuck out to me as absolutely cringe worthy. Yeah they look older than they’re meant to but again, who cares. Let go, people.

AND how excited was I to see the actress that played Rowena in Supernatural as the Night Nurse? Absolutely perfect choice. If they get another season I can’t wait to see her relationship with the boys grow.

Thinking about it, maybe I like teen dramas that are absolutely not grounded in reality because it’s easier to stomach the allegories they want you to, that way. Edwin learns to confront his feelings, both about Charles and with the kid that inadvertently caused his death. Crystal struggles with her memory and the person she used to be versus the person she wants to be. Niko has to figure out how to have friends again after becoming a shut-in. Charles struggles with memories from his life and feeling powerless, choosing to paper a happy face over it instead. Jenny has to confront her distrust of literally everyone and her fear of love (even if that went horribly wrong).

I don’t want to be beaten over the head with life lessons (I still haven’t finished Dawson’s Creek, it’s just too much to take sometimes) but I WILL absorb them while characters fight off horrible witches and try to defeat sea monsters. Ya girl clearly needs to be tricked into learning things. Don’t we all? Isn’t it better that way?

I mean, you’re still getting force fed those slightly saccharine sentiments, for sure, but it’s easier to swallow. Gimme a little bit of spice with that sweet, please.

The point is: this show is adorable. Can a show that’s about ghosts and witches and general supernatural fuckery be adorable? I don’t care, it totally is. And it slightly quenched my unending Good Omens thirst for like, a minute, and that’s obviously incredibly hard to do.

So, I’m here for it. Gimme more Dead Boys.

#what g's watching #dead boy detective agency #dead boy detectives #charles x edwin #edwin payne #charles rowland

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darktapufifi · 6 months

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Felt silly so I decided to write up some lore/info for Billy :)

Space Riders AU (made by @onyxonline)

SillyBilly (Formerly; The Laughing Priest) - Average critter height - He/Any

(I haven't had time to draw my boy so have some temporary gacha versions)

In order:

Off duty uniform

On duty uniform

Underwater uniform

Casual outfit

Sleepwear

Gala events

Have I thought of their powers yet? Nah

will i eventually come up with something perfect and make it cannon permanently? Probably

SillyBilly's history below (its long)

For the longest time, as far back as they can remember, Billy was under the Prototype's control. He was a high bishop in his ranks, always successful on his outings to conquer and convert and spread the word of his god and the promised 'Joyous Heaven', spreading the 'Joy' and red smoke across many planets. He did this all because, at some point, he had grown reliant on the smoke and lost his sense of self; what he knew before of his life was gone, just a subservient pawn for the Prototype. His reign as the 'Laughing Priest' lasted years, with many outside of the cult referring to him as the 'Devil Priest' due to his horns and mannerisms when confronted; his twisted humor and malicious intentions for any Space Rider that drew near were normal for them; however, there was something odd about him: he would never kill.

Unfortunately, it was never meant to last, as one day a Space Riders unit managed to apprehend him and take him back into custody. He was devastated that he lost, stripped of his mask and the red smoke he so desperately needed and locked up for his crimes and for his own safety, as it was clear to everyone around them at that time that they were not of sound mind. He was given help, against his will at first, constantly preaching on about the Prototype and suffering through the withdrawals of the red smoke, but eventually breaking free of the cult mindset, though ultimately being left with nothing, no memories, no past, just his name and his charm—something from his past that reminded him far too much of his time spent under the Prototype's control.

Over the course of a few years, he grew to know himself better, showing improvement and growth, to the point where he openly expressed his desire to help others stuck in the situation he was in, actively wanting to redeem himself for his actions and to right the wrongs in his life. Doing his best despite the prejudice or fear he might face, especially from those who know of his past. He works harder than most and puts in effort above and beyond what is required for every task he does, even if he doesn't take breaks on top of that. He manages to always wear a smile while doing work and to keep a goofy and considerate personality about him, no matter the situation. He is an asset to any crew he joins, keeping the mood high and the tension low. Once the Prototype's pawn, he is now a loyal knight to the Space Riders.

Though that's not to say there aren't any lasting effects of his past, when going out on missions, he always has to wear his mask no matter what, as any consumption (inhalation, etc.) would not end well. Despite what many may think, his humor is a way to cope with them, naturally incorporating it into his personality without a second thought. He also suffers from insomnia due to nightmares of his past, which leads him to be an avid coffee drinker, not letting on to anyone about his situation or how he's doing; only a very select few know of his conditions, especially those of the medical staff that worked on his case, and he likes to keep it that way.

(Also additionally, SillyBilly from the past in his Laughing Priest fit for those who read this far <3)

(all of this additional info is being posted to SillyBilly's UnVale page as well)

#DarkTapuFifiWriting #space riders au #oc #smiling critters #SillyBilly

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romance-of-three-memes · 1 month

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Anyway I'm going to talk about the world-building and 'lore' for that story I mentioned about some of the people from the Three Kingdoms era who were historically men being women instead. I don't want it to be a reflection of modern values, women clearly have more autonomy since they can join the military but it wasn't because of an attempt at realizing gender equality, a lot of that was because everything was so chaotic and you had to drum up support on such short notice that military leaders started going 'fuck it, I need to fill out my ranks, I'll settle for women if I have to', and they're almost always a minority in the group.

It certainly is a way to potentially avoid scenarios you'd rather not deal with, like a shitty abusive home life... If you can avoid being tracked down, anyway, because if a guy comes along and says 'hey give me back my wife/daughter' it's just easier for the leader to do what he wants and lose one soldier, the only time there's really any push-back is if the woman has distinguished herself enough for this to be seen as a detriment, but even then it's a 'you're not like other girls' scenario, or to make it sound more like something someone in this setting would actually say, 'you're a woman but you have the strength of a man'.

And there's plenty of social ostracism. It's begrudgingly accepted, the wider sentiment is 'look at the times we're living in, even women must take up arms'. A lot of people think these women are there because they were so undesirable as wives/daughters-in-law that no one wanted them, so their parents either kicked them out or sent them off to the military so they wouldn't have to provide for their needs as much, and they could potentially bring their families back some extra resources if they survived, or their husbands want to get rid of them without an official divorce and has another wife or concubine he likes more. That describes some of them, but certainly not all of them.

They tend to come from poorer backgrounds since families with more security are less willing to risk the more reliable bargaining power their daughters bring with arranged marriages, with the exception being women who get their position through hereditary means, like Sun Ce.

And Sun Ce wasn't really meant to be an heir, Sun Jian just had no sons and started bringing her along around age 13, which was fairly common for boys expected to inherit military positions, and went 'oh you know she's helpful, but once I have a son I can have her marry a good guy and she can help me train her brothers and sons when she eventually has them, she'll never have to step on the battlefield again' (Spoiler alert, he never had sons or knew his grandchildren). People occasionally think 'well Lady Wu and Sun Jian only had three children and they were all girls, *clearly* they didn't try that hard, what did they expect?' but you see, Lady Wu also had three miscarriages. So that's a bit of a sore spot. Maybe don't bring it up.

But here and historically it was actually Sun Ce's cousin Sun Ben that immediately took over when Sun Jian died, but a few years down the line he seems to have voluntarily stepped down. Who knows why, he could've easily held onto it since his father was Sun Jian's older brother and he was older than Sun Ce, but I envision him as being deeply uninterested in leadership positions and happy to be rid of it. Maybe Sun Ce kind of talked him into it because she knew it would be easier to convince him to step down and let her take over down the line and promised him it wouldn't be for long, just until she hit age 20 aka the age of official adulthood. There was trouble over a woman taking leadership of the clan, but everyone involved quieted down considerably after she proved herself to be more than effective. It's a bit harder to complain once she's carved out a good bit of territory for them and raised their status.

#this idea has been fermenting in my head for like three years can you tell #and zhou yu is also there and also a girl. i may talk about her later.#necro talks #necro writes

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st4rrmii · 1 month

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Lucien's Lore/Timeline Up Until CT

TW//Substance abuse, Parental/Sibling deaths, Transphobia, Ableism, abuse, self destructive thoughts/attempts and Bullying-Please only read ahead if mentally okay to!

Disclaimer!!-Lucien's story does get dark at certain points, as I've stated before, I use OCs to vent about certain things, as well as base parts of them off my own life experiences. No part of his story is meant to be for shock value or "edginess", it all has a purpose. On top of all that, the show is for children, so of course it wouldn't be too dark with its themes, however I did want to delve a little bit more into the after effects of the trauma that would be being one of the campers. If this makes you uncomfortable, please do not read, I don't mind!

Now to it, everything under the cut!

Pre-Camp Cretaceous-

Lucien was born into a family of three, his mother(unnamed), father(Brian), and older brother(Landon, 9 years older than Lucien). The four lived a very normal life, as far as Lucien was aware, Lucien's little sister(Mia) being born when he was 5. Both his father and Mother worked for Jurassic World as scientists. Shortly after Mia's birth, their mother went missing, there was a search for her but she was never found. Unfortunately this cause Landon to fall into a depression that ended up with him hanging out with the wrong type of people, people who taught him that the best way to cope was with drugs.

Everything after that seemed to start on a slow but steady downhill, Lucien's father was a loving man, but he needed to continue to work to keep his family afloat, Landon did try his hardest to keep a stable job despite everything, but as time went on his addiction made it harder to do that, this all left a very young Lucien to do most of the parenting for Mia. This was also around the time Lucien started to realize he was "different", he hated being called a girl, he knew it was 'technically' what he was, he knew his body was that of a girl's, but it all just felt wrong. Despite not knowing what this meant, he was lucky enough to have a supportive family, Landon and Brian referring to him with more GN/Masc terms and pronouns to see how that felt, which as expected, felt right. Brian knew Lucien was trans, he always had a feeling, but at that point in the game, with how young he was, he never really told him what that was, not wanting Lucien to feel like it was something weird that would make him too "different", instead just going along with the terms that made him comfortable until he reached a certain age. The unfortunate part of this however, was that with Lucien entering school it was somewhat- difficult- to explain to children of the early 2000s, on top of his disabilities(both physical and more mental, ie. Autism/selective mutism), with this, kids were quick to judge, and unfortunately he became an outcast in his schools due to bullying.

The three siblings had to move in with their grandparents after their mother disappeared, which was okay at first, as despite their grandmother being strict with them, as well as somewhat.. bigoted- towards Lucien, they did have a loving grandfather. Unfortunately things went south when he passed, his passing causing their grandmother to spiral, her transphobia towards Lucien becoming so much worse. I won't go into detail, but to say the least, Lucien is absolutely terrified of that woman, even as an adult. Sometime around here was when Lucien's grandmother did something absolutely vile, which I once again will not go into detail on, but it ended up with Landon and his friends beating a man that had hurt Lucien, unfortunately for Lucien, this man was one of his bullies' fathers, which caused the bullying to become worse.

Things continued like this until Lucien was 12, which is when Landon unfortunately passed away, this tore Lucien apart, as Landon was his best friend, and on top of that, their father became sick not long after (quite possibly triggered by stress) and was forced to come home on sick leave, which at least got Lucien and Mia out of their grandmother's house and home with their father. Lucien had to become a major caretaker of both his father and Mia while very young and in mourning, causing him to fall into a deep depression, and on top of all that his bullies took Landon's death to fuel their bullying, telling Lucien it was his fault, because of this, Lucien ended up dropping out of public school, getting homeschooled which was luckily funded by JW.

It was all of this that made Brian start to look into the Camp that would be launched in a few years, he knew they'd be looking for campers to give everything a test run, so he used a few of his connections to have Lucien selected as one of said campers. Lucien had always loved dinosaurs, and always wanted to go to JW, but due to his father's work schedule he simply was not able to, so his father thought now that he was home he would finally let Lucien go, even if he couldn't be there with him.

Lucien was unaware of this until mere weeks before he would be leaving for Camp Cretaceous, and while part of him was excited to finally go, it was very quickly drowned out by the worry that his dad and Mia wouldn't be able to take care of themselves while he was gone, but Brian did assure him it would only be for around a week and they would be okay. Unfortunately, that did not happen.

Camp Cretaceous and the Downfall of Jurassic World-

The first person Lucien met at CC was Ben, both of them docking at the same place as they lived close to each other, they ended up talking a bit before the boat arrived, Lucien learning the Ben knew asl which was very helpful considering it was Lucien's main form of communication due to his selective mutism (The nerves and everything of the trip were making it act up, and he would end up not talking verbally until around the 2 month point of being stuck on Nublar)

Lucien ended up clinging to Ben the entire time they were at camp, the same way Ben clung to Kenji. In all honesty, Ben didn't mind it, it was nice having someone that would hold back with him even when the group went forwards, he also could not lie, having someone cling to him for protection definitely made him feel a little cool (especially when that person was so pretty) they ended up growing pretty close, Ben even letting Lucien use his inhaler at some point after his went missing in the chaos (yes, ben did have to coat it in sanitizer after but its the thought that counts). One core moment of being on the island pre-monorail was when, at one point, Ben fell, cutting up his hands pretty bad and getting them dirty. This, plus all the stress, triggered a panic attack on Ben's part, Ben panicking that his hands would get infected due to the dirt and kill him. Lucien, both having struggled with panic attacks, as well as knowing how to dress a wound (his dad worked on the medical team on JW, and shared a lot of his knowledge with Lucien), quickly did what he could, using the bandage wraps and alcohol wipes in Ben's 'dork pouch' to clean him up and dress the wounds, doing his best to help calm him down as well as constantly signing to him "You're okay, I've got you, you're gonna be okay." (Something Landon used to tell him when he would have panic attacks). This acted as one of the first moments Ben realized that he may feel more for Lucien than he had originally thought.

The monorail incident definitely fucked Lucien up hard, having tried to help Darius save Ben but it just- didn't work. Lucien shut down after this, Brooklynn physically having to pull Lucien off with her when they all jumped off the monorail. Lucien ofc wanted to go looking for Ben, which everyone (but Kenji and Sammy) objected to; in hindsight, he understands that it wouldve been stupid to spend time looking for someone who was probably long since dead when they only had a certain amount of time to get to the boat, but at the time this cause Lucien to lose any sense of trust for the group (He wasnt AS mad at Kenji and Sammy, but there was certainly a bit of distain for them not fighting as hard) and he became even more shutaway from them than he had been before.

The month where Ben was missing was horrible for Lucien, and he could not lie, that plus being stuck on the island brought back the suicidal thoughts that he thought he left on the mainland, he never acted on them, but there were a few times while running from dinosaurs he considered just- stopping dead in his tracks, acting as a distraction so the others could get away, but he didn't, always being pulled forward by Sammy or Kenji, he owed his life to him honestky, as much as he hated how egotistical Kenji was or how- weirdly optimistic Sammy was.

Lucien was ecstatic when Ben came back, of course, it was hard to tell through all the sobs, but he is sososo relieved to have Ben back, even if he has- changed. This is the first time Ben hears Lucien's voice, the first time any of the campers hear his voice, and its the first time Lucien says anything verbal, telling Ben "I thought I-..we- lost you-" and Ben would be lying if he said that one second slip up didn't make his heart run laps (HOW did it take them so long to realize they loved each other CHRIST). It took a lil bit to get used to Jungle Man Ben, but it wasn't too hard since Lucien was just relieved to have Ben back, ntm having Ben actually protrcting him at times, even putting him on Bumpy's back whenever they had to walk/run somewhere, not wanting him to trigger a pain flare up, definitely had Lucien questioning if he only liked girls (spoiler, he doesn't, thanks Ben).

He is able to grow more confident once Ben is back, kinda looking up to him and his growth for 'motivation', he's able to start talking with the campers, as well as helping out a bit more. His first major moment where he's able to step up and take some form of control over a situation is when Sammy gets hit by the Scorpios' spines, Lucien has knowledge in venoms and how they act, not only has he been bit by plenty of venomlus things (he does not think before he grabs) but he's also seen his father's studies (some of which did include the secret hybrid). He was able to take watch of Sammy, staying back with Brooklynn and Kenji to keep track of her symptoms, as well as help slow down certain ones. This was definitely the first time him and Yaz ever really spoke to each other (put two closed off ppl in a room, theyre probably gonna sit there in silence until you give up and let them out) Yaz thanking him for helping save Sammy, even hugging him in her emotional state (which very much caught him off guard).

Everything from there was somewhat normal,(Lucien even finding out Ben was also transmasc like him in this time), just them trying to get off the damn island, until Ben dropped the bomb that he didn't want to leave, this all sent Lucien back to the monorail, he knew what it was like to lose Ben, and that was back before they were as close as they were now, he just couldn't do it again. It got to the point where he threatened to stay on the island if Ben was, which Ben absolutely could not let happen, having Kenji physically drag Lucien onto the boat when they left. Ben would be lying if he said Lucien didn't have a big part in why he came back to the boat, yes, all the campers did, and more than anything, realizing he already found himself and didnt need to stay did, but the idea of never seeing Lucien again and letting him deal with losing him again definitely played a huge part in it.

MantahCore and Island 2, electric Boogaloo-(this one may be the shortest because, quite frankly, I forgot half of what happens in s4/5)

The second island is certainly a time for Lucien, the fact that he thought they were finally going home just to end up on another goddamn island sending his mental state crashing all over again, absolutely horrified he was never going to see his family again. The night where theyre all around the campfire is where he's able to break down. Of course at first he doesn't want to, he doesn't want everyone to know how scared he is, but when he doesn't get up to yell with everyone else they all turn their attention to him, trying to get him to join them, and he does- in a sense. At first it starts as just the most bloodcurdling scream, but quickly turns to him venting out all the emotions he's held pent up for the past god knows how many months, yelling about how sick he is of being stuck on random islands and being terrified that by the time he does get home his father is going to be long gone and his sister isnt going to be lost somewhere in the foster system, or worse, with his grandmother. He screams about how guilty he feels leaving his little sister alone, fearing that she's going to lose the only two people she has left. He screams about how he's sick of fearing for his life and not being able to trust anyone, he screams about how he's so sick of not being able to sleep because the RARE times he feels safe enough to actually fall asleep he's riddled with nightmares, whether they be about his own death or the deaths of those he loves. He fully breaks down once its all out, just crumbling completely. Darius is the first to hug him, the part about his dad hitting hard, and it eventually turns into one group hug, which they quite honestly all needed.

After they find Mae, and realize the island is not as it seems, Lucien is able to calm down a tiny bit, he doesn't trust Mae fully, but he can also smell the autism on her which helps a little bit. This is also around when he gets the scar on his face, courtesy of a brad. Mae is able give him the stitches he needs, as well as cleaning and dressing the wound, Ben and Sammy not leaving his side for a second, which is exactly how Ben gets 4 tiny scars on his palm from Lucien digging his nails into his hand while he gets the stitches witjout any form of anesthetic or pain meds.

When Lil Eatie gets injured, Lucien immediately goes into caretaker mode, not caring about his safety and doing whatever he can to make sure she's okay. Of course Mae tries to stop him at first, but once she notices that Lil Eatie has started to trust Lucien, still acting like a literal trex, but also not trying to kill him when he brings her untampered food, she calms down.

Another dino Lucien bonds with on the island is Firecracker, immediately clicking with her and loving her in a similar way to Ben with Bumpy. Everything was fine until he saw Nash controlling her, seeing how scared and in pain she was seemed to flip a switch in him, all his bottled up emotions turning into anger. This is what started him on the path he's on now, where he's willing to do anything to protect dinosaurs.

Anything.

From that point on he just does whatever he can to bring Nash and Daniel down, refusing to let them proceed with controlling dinos and their dino fights for their own enjoyment, or anyone's for that matter. Lowk forgot what happens atp but he helps take them down with the others, joins Ben to get Kenji and Bumpy back, helps with the plan to get Daniel off the island, yeehaw.

And then they're rescued.

Returning to the mainland and aftermath

Lucien is absolutely terrified the whole ride back to mainland.

Everyone else is excited, happy to go back to their families (except Kenji), and Lucien is alone, not even sure if his father is alive, if his sister is okay, if he has a family to go home to. Ben does try and cheer him up, reassure him that his dad is okay and everything will work out, but ofc, Lucien is too afraid to really listen.

When they return to the mainland, his father isn't there. Everyone's parents are there to reunite with them, and Lucien is alone, hell, even Kenji gets invited into the Bowman family hug. This does cause panic on Lucien's end, but Ben quickly takes notice, introducing Lucien to his mom and asking if Lucien can try calling his dad with her phone. She ofc says yes, recognizing Lucien as one of her coworker's kids, and Lucien is able to call his father, who is alive, but in the hospital as his health has deteriorated due to Lucien being assumed dead.

Ms.Pincus ends up giving Lucien a ride to the hospital, as it's very close to Ben's home anyways, Lucien sees his dad and sister again, breaks down, introduces Ben to his family, all is well.

Lucien and Ben continue to see each other nearly daily, Ben visiting him and his family in the hospital whenever he can, as thats literally where Lucien and his sister live now.

Everything is okay for just under a year, then Lucien's father passes.

Lucien is a mess after his father's death, his mental health completely deteriorating now that his father is gone. He blames himself for his death, wondering if he never went to that camp, never caused him so much stress, that he'd still be here, but its too late, he went and his father is gone.

Luckily enough for Lucien and Mia, Ms.Pincus did make arrangements with Lucien's father to take Lu and his sister, as his father did NOT want them ended up with their grandmother or in the foster care system. Thankfully for them Ms.Pincus had always been interested in adopting, as Ben's birth took a toll on her health, but she was afraid that whoever she adopted could hurt Ben, so taking in two kids who she knew loved her boy and would never hurt him was easy.

(TW FROM THIS POINT ON FOR DRUG ADDICTION)

Lucien resorts to using after his father is gone, it's the only thing that can keep him from feeling so many emotions, from thinking about the what ifs and the fact that his father is dead. It keeps him numb. This is what leads him to his current place of work, the sanctuary kept him in check, not allowing drugs and keeping him busy, keeping him distracted. Was it the most safe? No, but neither was using.

It doesn't help that he and Ben get into an argument soon after he starts using, Ben getting mad at him for clinging onto him so hard and ending the argument with "Sometimes I wish you never moved in!"

This is when he disappears for 18 months, yes he lets everyone know he's leaving, but him going no contact definitely scares people, especially Ben. This is what leads to Ben going to the island with Mae, as he cannot handle going home to a house without Lucien.

Post leave of Absence, Pre CT, The birth of Luciben

Lucien comes back after 18 months, finally feeling okay enough to see those he loves again, ntm he misses them like crazy. Ben is relieved to see him but god is he pissed, pissed that Lucien just up and left him and Mia behind, pissed that he did nothing to let them know if he was okay, or even ALIVE. Ben doesn't know WHY he left though, and that does cause arguments, Ben nearly breaking down when Lucien tells him why he left. The fact that his words were the final straw makes him feel so guilty, the fact that he made Lucien feel that way when he was already going through so much absolutely tears him apart.

The n7 aren't as close anymore once Lucien comes back, and it takes a lot of getting used to, Lucien even trying to get them together only to be shot down nearly everytime, so he just- gives up. Ben notices that Lucien stops asking tk hang out, and while he was one of the ones guilty for shooting down plans, it does worry him that Lucien just stopped asking. Ben tries asking to hang out only to be shot down himself, leading to an argument where Lucien breaks down and admits he feels like he doesn't belong here anymore, and that he almost regrets coming back because it feels like no one wants him around anyways. This breaks Ben's heart as he was part of the people shooting him down. From this point on Ben makes it his mission to make plans whenever he can, trying desperately hard to get everyone back together at least once for Lucien's sake.

Luckily Brooklynn does come around, she travels the most and she's felt that loneliness before, so she does what she can to visit Ben and Lucien whenever she can, which is when Lucien starts bleaching his hair with her help, making it somewhat of a tradition that whenever she comes around they redo his roots.

Things start to get better, Ben and Lucien hanging out like they used to, this however brings up buried feelings for each other, and a few months after Lucien comes back, right before Ben's about to go to uni, Ben confesses that he loves Lucien, and ofc Lucien returns those feelings and bam, gay rights.

Everything is good for a while, Lucien and Ben are happy together (minus the fact that Ben is still in the closet so no one knows about them), and eventually Brooklynn finds out about them (its kinda hard to make an excuse for why you were caught locking lips with your "homie") and she's super supportive, leading to their lil "BBL" friend group.

This just makes Brooklynn's death so much worse.

Lucien relapses after Brooklynn is pronounced dead, even showing up at her funeral high (he couldn't do it otherwise), this causes issues of course, it getting to the point where Ben doesn't feel okay leaving Lucien alone, leaving uni in order to be with him constantly, afraid he's going to do something stupid. Not long after he gets the messages on dark jurassic, leading to him and Lucien lacking up and heading out to get the others, leading to the events of Chaos Theory.

Really quick CT rundown go read Secret for more details

Tl;dr, Ben fucks up by saying he has a gf instead of coming out, the events of Secret happen, Lucien goes with Kenji and Darius, they find out that Lucien also left messages for Brooklynn when he relapsed, he breaks down, Kenji and Darius help him calm down, then the rest of Secret happens abd they get on the boat, yeehaw.

This ended up being lowkey poorly written near the end cause I just wanted to get it out, but I will most likely be releasing more detailed fics to kinda give insight on the parts where it feels like there are missing details. I just need to finally lost this cause its been in my drafts for a month LMAO

#lucien jwct #lucien jwcc #he STILL NEEDS A LAST NAME #ben pincus #jurassic world chaos theory #camp cretaceous #jurassic world camp cretaceous #camp cretaceous chaos theory #jwct #jwcc #jwct oc #jwcc oc #oc #original characters #original character #oc lore #brooklynn jwct #brooklynn jwcc

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themildlyanxiousmage · 6 months

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Loredas at Denny's

Characters: Reader insert, Erandur, Taliesin, Gore, Lucien, Miraak, General Tullius, Elenwen

platonic, but could be read as romantic with Miraak if you want

No plot, just breakfast

GN reader has social anxiety and is shorter than Taliesin and Miraak. Lore accurate heights, so everyone is shorter than Taliesin and Miraak. Reader is vegan. Just suspend your disbelief or pretend you're on a diet or something sorry.

This is my first fanfiction, so I apologize in advance. Also, I started it while drunk, but I feel like the drunk parts might be better, so sorry about that too.

And sorry about how I wrote the custom follower characters. I had a harder time writing them.

Not a modern au, there is just Denny's

Words: idk I wrote it on my phone's notepad

After successfully stopping Potema for the second time, your adventuring party decided to splurge for a celebratory breakfast at the Solitude Denny's. You hadn't been the biggest fan of eating out, but you had hopes that this could be a fun experience for the group. Erandur, the most mature out of your band of weirdos, led the group through the large wooden doors, followed closely by Lucien, Taliesin, Miraak, you, and finally Gore.

Erandur approached the entry counter and greeted the lone server, an argonian woman whose name tag read "Waits-Many-Tables."

"Good morning, my daughter. We would like a table for six, please." Erandur requested in his usual calm, comforting priest tone.

"BOOTH!" Gore shouted from the back.

The exhausted, overworked employee quietly sighed with a gentle eye roll and grabbed a stack of menus. She gestured for your group to follow and led you to a booth clearly meant for four. You could hear a quiet sigh come from General Tullius, who was seated at the booth next to yours. He was not very pleased to have such a large group seated so close.

"Perhaps we should request a table for six instead" Taliesin remarked.

"No tables for six available" Waits retorted.

"Not even in the back room?" Asked Erandur.

"Back room's reserved."

"This will be fine then. Thank you, my daughter."

"I'm calling a window seat." Taliesin said hastily as he slid into the booth connected to the back of General Tullius's.

"I would also like a window seat, please." Erandur politely requested. Everyone unseated quietly gestured for him to take the open seat, so he slid into the space opposite Taliesin.

"I will be on an outer seat." Miraak demanded in his deep, booming voice as he moved to stand next to the booth Taliesin was sitting in. General Tullius side eyed Miraak as he sipped his coffee.

"I wouldn't mind sitting between you two!" Lucien cheerfully stated as he stepped forward to slide in next to Taliesin, only to be stopped by Miraak shoving him away to the other side of the table.

Miraak grabbed your shoulder and pushed you in next to Taliesin. He slid in, sitting half way off the booth, pinning you between the two towering men. They both let out an uncomfortablely annoyed exhale as you scrunched your shoulders to try to make yourself smaller. Lucien quietly slid in next to Erandur, followed by Gore sitting with one leg out of the booth. Waits-Many-Tables placed menus in front of each member of your party, giving Erandur the senior menu and you the children's menu. Before either of you could protest, she was off tending to another table. You realized your hood was still up, and next to the two giants you're seated between, she must have mistaken you for a child. You glanced at Erandur and noticed a slightly disappointed look on his face.

"Are you going to ask her for a normal menu, Erandur?" You asked in a low tone, trying to keep quiet enough to not disturb the general sitting directly at your back.

"No, my child. I was intending to order from this menu when we came in." He responded priestishly. "But, I would have preferred to request the menu myself." he added with a short chuckle, trying to hide his pain.

You didn't want to go through the trouble of asking Waits to bring you a new menu, so you decided to see if you could find anything to order on the children's menu. Unfortunately, the only thing that would meet your dietary needs was a bowl of pre cut fruit for four gold. Disappointed, you thought that maybe you could look over Taliesin or Miraak's shoulders to read theirs. Taliesin was almost as scrunched as you were, so his menu was almost closed. No use trying to read his. You stretched your neck a bit outward to the side to get a better look at Miraak's without moving your torso at all. Miraak let out a mildly irritated sigh and held the menu closer to you, and you gave him a quiet thanks. Unfortunately, none of the meal options were vegan, but you did see a few more side options that you could use to build a nice breakfast. Maybe this meal wouldn't be so bad after all.

"Is that Elenwen?" Lucien asked, looking over his menu towards the entrance of the diner. Taliesin inhaled anxiously as he quickly buried his face deep in his menu. You heard the general nearly choke on his coffee, and you carefully turned as much as your neck would allow to see Elenwen and a party of five other thalmor gather in the entry. Out of the corner of your eye, you could see Tullius trying to lower his head and carefully cover his face with his hand. To the relief of both Taliesin and the general, Waits-Many-Tables led the group of thalmor past both of the booths, and through the archway of the back dining room.

"Why are they here?" Taliesin hissed in a whisper tone. Gore leaned out of the booth a bit to try to get a better look through the archway far behind him, but saw nothing unusual. Just a group of thalmor sitting down during the Loredas breakfast rush.

"They're just sitting there, but they're at a pretty big table. Could probably seat a large party." Gore reported as he turned back to face the table. "Hey Blood," he whispered as he leaned towards you, resting his elbows on the table "Maybe the general would know."

All eyes from around the table shot at you like arrows, waiting for you to ask Tullius what was going on. You let out a dreading sigh, not happy to have to be the one to disturb the general during his breakfast, but resigned to the fact that you had the best shot out of anyone in your party to get an answer out of him. You carefully shifted and turned as best you could, slowly spinning around between the two giant men on either side of you until you were seated on your knees. You looked down at the back of General Tullius's head and quietly cleared your throat, hoping to get his attention. When he did not respond, a pain in your stomach grew as you realized that you would actually have to disturb him.

"Excuse me, General Tullius sir?" You asked quietly, voice shaking slightly. The general heard you. You know he heard you. But he did not respond. He took another sip of his coffee, slowly lowering his head even lower to try to deter you from talking to him.

"I'm sorry, General, may I ask a quick question?" You asked a bit louder, but still with a quiver in your voice. Again, no response. You started to shift back around, but you felt a strong, gloved hand grab your shoulder and hold you firm facing the general's direction. Miraak was not going to let you back down. You took a deep, shaking breath and gathered your strength. You shouted down dragons with barely any effort. You could ask General Tullius a simple question. You breathed in, and one more you inquired, "Excuse me general!"

Your voice made a sad, cracking squeak as you spoke. You heard a couple of quiet chuckles from your friends as you prepared to turn back around. But whether from pity at your feeble attempt to be assertive or just from a hope to get you all off his back, General Tullius sighed and turned around to face you, resting an arm on the back of the booth.

"Yes, dragonborn?" The general asked with an extremely apparent annoyance in his voice.

"Sorry to disturb you sir, but I was wondering if you knew why the thalmor were meeting here?" You asked in an anxious, hurried tone, visibility uncomfortable from the feeling of inconveniencing him. The general's face softened as he let out a sigh.

"No, I don't." He responded in much more understanding tone than the group was used to. "I was wondering myself, actually." He looked down with a deep pondering expression. Everyone sat in thought for a brief moment until Waits-Many-Tables brought over the general's grand slam.

"Okay. Thank you. Sorry, to disturb you, sir." You said as you slowly shifted back around to face your table. The general gave a quiet "no worries" nod and hand wave as he turned back to eat his biscuits and gravy.

"Is it possible they're just enjoying breakfast like we are?" Lucien asked. You all exchanged looks as you considered the possibility.

"More thalmor!" Gore warned. Taliesin buried his head again, and you heard the sound of choking from behind you. Six more altmer in thalmor robes walked past to join their comrades in the dining room.

"Taliesin, if you're worried about being noticed, why are you still wearing your old uniform?" You asked after the thalmor had cleared the archway.

"It's not my fault all of Skyrim's clothes itch and don't breathe!" Taliesin fired back.

Before anyone could discuss the new additions to the back room, Waits-Many-Tables walked up with her note pad to take orders. She looked at Erandur and waited for him to give his order.

"May I have the strawberry yoghurt with granola and a cup of canis root tea please?"Erandur asked politely. Waits wrote his order with a confirming grunt. She looked up towards Lucien, and you felt your chest tightening as you thought about how you were going to have to order.

"May I please have a French toast slam with scrambled eggs please? And just water is fine, thank you." Lucien asked in his polite, cheerful tone. Waits took down his order.

"I'd like a lumberjack slam, please. And a coffee and a glass of milk too please!" Gore stated. Waits took his order, then looked at Taliesin. You felt yourself jump with nervous anticipation as you prepared to ask about your order.

"May I please have the apple cinnamon pancakes, with a large glass of apple juice?" Taliesin asked in his song like tone. "And may I substitute the horker bacon for potatoes please?"

"No substitutions."

"I'll eat your bacon Taliesin!" Gore exclaimed.

"It's two gold to split a plate." Waits added.

"Then just keep it on my plate." Taliesin said with an exhale.

"We're out of large on the apple juice."

"Don't you just pour it into a glass?"

"We're out of large glasses. Slips-Often broke the last one this morning."

"Can you put it in two smaller glasses, please?"

"No."

"Okay." Taliesin said with confused acceptance. Finally, it was your turn. You felt your heart race as Waits's eyes met yours.

"Hi, I'm sorry, I was wondering if the hash browns were made with any animal products please? Sorry." You asked nervously as you heard a sigh come from both Miraak and the booth behind you.

"No."

"Okay, thank you. Then may I please order a side order of hash browns, a side of fruit, and a side of sourdough toast with no butter, and ice water please?" You asked quickly with a high pitch and hurried tone.

"We're out of sourdough. We have honey wheat."

"Then, uuuhhh, no thanks on the toast... please. Thank you." You sat back with an exhale, sinking back into the booth.

"Country fried steak. Side of fruit. Black coffee." Miraak asserted as he handed his menu to Waits. She wrote down his order and collected everyone's menus. As she left Gore's eyes turned to Taliesin.

"How're you going to hide now?" He asked. Taliesin's eyes widened at the realization.

"Miraak, may I borrow your-"

"No."

You gently patted Taliesin's shoulder. You stretched your neck a bit as you tried to get a better look through the back room's arch. You couldn't see much, but you could see Waits-Many-Tables taking the orders from a large banquet table. If orders were already being taken, then everyone was probably already back there, and hopefully you could enjoy a bit of peace. Maybe even be finished and leave before they left the back room. You sank back a bit and let out a quiet, content sigh. Yes, you were a bit squished, but you were safely tucked between two of your friends. And in Skyrim's cold, it wasn't so bad to be this close sometimes. As Waits came to set out your drinks, you started to feel a bit calmer. Maybe this meal would turn out okay after all.

"Elenwen." Miraak stated in a monotone voice as he brought his mug up to his face. Taliesin began to panic and tried to look down. Miraak ripped his mask off and passed it over to Taliesin, his arm almost smacking you in the face as Miraak reached across. Taliesin rushed to put it on, and then sat perfectly still, waiting for Elenwen to approach. Miraak calmly sipped his coffee, not looking up as she made her way over to your table.

"Dragonborn, what a pleasant surprise to see you here too." Elenwen spoke in a diplomatic, but assholeish tone. You knew she didn't mean a word of it.

"Nice to see you too." You said keeping your response short, trying not to shift nervously in your seat.

Why she was coming over to greet your group, you had no idea. You watched as she eyed everyone, making mental notes on each of you, stopping with surprised eyes as she made eye contact with the giant atmoran to your right. She did not expect to be met with Miraak's face, with skin almost translucent white from thousands of years of no sun exposure and dark green, glowing eyes that glared back at her. It would be amusing to see her caught off guard and confused if you weren't currently worried about Taliesin's own mental state right now. Her eyes drifted away from him before finally regaining their composure and locking back with yours.

"Dragonborn, it was a pleasure to see you." Her gaze shifted to Taliesin sitting stiffly in the corner. "Oh, and a pleasure to see you again, - "

A crash rang out, drowning out Taliesin's real name, much to the disappointment of everyone but him. You all looked over to see who you could only guess was Slips-Often on the floor surrounded by a pile of broken plates scattered about with some unlucky table's food. When you looked back, Elenwen was gone. Taliesin slowly pulled Miraak's mask off and quietly passed it back to Miraak, not looking at anyone as he sat silently.

Waits-Many-Tables came walking up to your table with a black tray full of plates. As she passed them out, Gore reached across the table to grab the bacon off of Taliesin's plate. Looking at his own plate of food, Lucien commented on how delicious the hash browns looked.

"They are good. They're made with horker fat. Very flavorful." Waits responded.

You put your fork full of hash browns back on the plate. Waits was gone before you could respond. Gore slowly reached for the small plate of hash browns, quietly asking if he could take them, and silently thanking you when you nodded.

As you contemplated whether you should try to order anything else to go with your tiny bowl of fruit, Miraak assertively pushed his side of fruit in front of you. He grabbed your horker grease covered fork from your hand and replaced it with his unused one.

"But Miraak, you ordered this specifically as a side for you. I can't-"

"Eat, dragonborn." Miraak commanded. You looked up at him and saw him look at you with much softer eyes than he usually displayed.

"Thanks, Miraak." For a second, you could have sworn you saw the corners of his mouth almost smile. Maybe eating out isn't so bad, as long as you have your friends with you to help you out.

#sorry about this #the elder scrolls #elder scrolls #tes #skyrim #skyrim taliesin #skyrim gore #lucien flavius #miraak #skyrim erandur #erandur #general tullius #elenwen #bad fanfiction #reader insert #skyrim x reader #skyrim fanfiction

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