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punkshort · 1 year ago

Text

Chapter warnings: smut (m masturbation), language

Chapter Three

Pairing: Joel x F!Reader, pre-outbreak and post outbreak

AU (the only thing I kept was the outbreak, Joel, and Tommy's characters. Joel's backstory is different, and the way he finds Jackson is different. I may include Ellie one day, I just haven't planned that far)

Fic Summary: You worked for Joel and Tommy a few months before the outbreak. The outbreak happens, and you and Joel get stuck traveling the country and keeping each other safe. Neither of you spoke about the feelings you had for one another pre-outbreak, and in a post-apocalyptic world, it seems like survival should be your only focus. But feelings can't be ignored forever.

Fic tags: Explicit Smut (18+ MDNI), Smut, Language, Canon-Typical Violence, Alcohol Use, Age Difference (Reader is 10 years younger than Joel), slow burn, mutual pining, angst, trauma, SA referencing later but I will put a big warning on those chapters

You were nervous about the office dynamic once you broke up with Justin. That following Monday, you walked into the department and risked a glance over to his desk. He was hunched over his keyboard, burying himself in some report, looking mildly panicked. You frowned as you made your way to your chair and slunk down, punching in your password while you waited for your computer to boot up.

Colleen popped up quietly behind you.

"Sooooo? How was camping?” she whispered with a huge grin on her face. "Tell me all the details!”

She propped herself against the edge of your desk, trying not to draw Justin’s attention.

“I broke up with him,” you whispered back, eyes wide. You needed to tell someone, your nerves were on fire. You knew you shouldn’t have told the queen of gossip, but people would have figured it out soon enough. Colleen’s jaw dropped.

"What?! Why?” she whispered back, but louder than the first time. You put a finger up to your lips, indicating she was being too loud.

"I don’t know, I just don’t feel the same way he does. He’s a sweet guy, but there’s no spark. I didn’t want to lead him on,” you told her, and turned back to your computer, opening your email program.

“Well, your timing couldn’t have been more perfect. I don’t think he’s got the time to be upset over it. He came in this morning to an email from Joel, with Heather cc’d, wanting a full breakdown on the 401K contributions for the past 6 months. Apparently, he caught some discrepancy, and he wants answers first thing this morning,” she said, raising her head a few inches to glance over the top of your cubical wall in his direction. “He must be shitting his pants; Joel never contacts any of us directly. I don’t think he even knows most of our names.”

You felt guilty as relief flooded through you. At least there was a distraction from the elephant in the room.

About an hour later, Heather came to collect Justin. He followed her out of the room with a folder tucked under his arm and nervously running a hand through his hair. As he walked by your desk, he gave you a tight-lipped smile, which you returned. At least he wasn’t the type of guy to be an asshole about being dumped.

It had been three hours since Justin and Heather left for their meeting. At this point, his absence was painfully obvious to the whole room, and everybody had given up on trying to be discreet.

The whole department had rolled their desk chairs out to the openings of their respective cubes so they could all see one another as they gossiped and speculated wildly. All except for you. You tried your best to stay out of it, but you kept overhearing everyone’s chatter, and it was incredibly distracting.

“They couldn’t possibly still be talking about a minor discrepancy, could they?” one person asked.

“No way, something happened by now. Oh my God, what if he was stealing from our 401Ks? I read a newspaper article about someone doing that last week!”

“Oh come on, Justin wouldn’t do that,” Colleen chimed in. “I bet they finished up their meeting a long time ago, and he and Heather are in her office doing a deeper dive into the numbers together.”

Everyone went quiet for half a second when the electronic beeping of the door keypad caught the attention of the room. Chairs were hurriedly being pushed back up against desks, and fingers furiously typed, trying to log back into computers that had been long asleep during the gossip.

Heather walked into the hushed room with an empty banker’s box in her hands and headed straight for Justin’s desk. She set it down on his chair and turned to address the room openly.

"Hey guys, I’m sorry I didn’t have the time to call a formal meeting, but I wanted to tell you all personally before the email from HR comes out... Justin quit this morning.” She paused when a couple of people quietly gasped and exchanged looks. “Now I know we are going to have some big shoes to fill, I may call upon some of you to help and do some overtime until we can find a suitable candidate to take his position. As always, if any of you want to recommend anyone you know, my door is always open. But for now, we will just have to make do. Does anyone have any questions? You know I like to be transparent with you.”

Heather glanced around the room of stunned faces. Everyone was wondering the same question, but nobody had the nerve to ask it, until Debbie spoke up from behind you.

"Why did he quit? Was it Joel?” She was standing outside her cube, frowning with her arms crossed, no doubt feeling some residual anger from when Cheryl quit just a few short months ago. Your boss sighed, and slowly nodded.

"Yes. Well, yes and no. Joel really grilled him in that meeting this morning, it went a full hour. I did everything I could to take some of the heat, but Joel was just dialed in on Justin today, I don’t know what got into him. He had a million questions, one after another, and it eventually got to a point where he was outright questioning Justin’s job performance and skillset. It finally got to be too much for him, and Justin announced he was quitting.” Heather paused for a moment and looked around the room at the team. She turned and pulled Justin’s chair from his desk, moving the empty box to the floor. She sat down, looking as if she was exhausted from just recounting the events from the meeting. She rubbed her pointer and middle fingers against her temples for a moment, and then continued.

“Joel didn’t say anything wrong; this is his company, and he has every right to ask those questions… he just has such a harsh way of addressing things. It is a lot to handle. I managed to grab Justin at the elevators and took him back to my office for a while. I tried to convince him to stay but he just wouldn’t hear it, he had his mind made up. I’m sorry guys, I really tried. I know this will put a burden on some of you, I will do my best to fill the position as soon as I can.”

The keypad that operated the door started chiming, and in walked Mike from the mailroom. He had his head down, looking at the pile of mail in his cart, bopping along to the music feeding through his CD player and into his headphones, oblivious to the awkwardness in the room. He stopped at your desk like usual and dropped a big stack of envelopes in your inbox, gave you a quick smile, and turned to leave.

Heather quietly began filling the box with Justin’s personal effects, looking like she desperately needed a cigarette or a coffee break. Or both.

You exchanged a quick glance with Colleen, one that said ‘we are definitely going to talk more about this when she leaves’. Then you noticed the envelope at the very top of your mail pile: Sullivan Agency, LLC.

Your heart thudded in your chest. It was a strange feeling – your body was waging a war within you: relief vs fear. Relief that you didn’t have to pay Mr. Sullivan’s balance out of your paycheck, but fear that you would now have to go to Joel’s office as he requested and tell him about the check.

You shakily opened the envelope and sure enough, as promised, was a check for the full balance due on his account.

You stood up, feeling slightly lightheaded as you made your way over to Heather. She jumped slightly when you quietly said her name.

"I just got the check from Mr. Sullivan. What should I do? Should I just email Joel and tell him it came, or do we really have to go to his office?”

You prayed she would tell you to just email him, but unfortunately, she said “We should tell him in person, I don’t want to make him even more mad.” She stopped organizing Justin’s picture frames and buried her face in her hands for a moment, trying to collect herself. She raised her head up, clasped her hands in front of her mouth in thought, then turned in the chair towards you.

“I really hate to ask you this… do you mind going up to his office by yourself? He’s had enough of me today, and quite frankly I’ve had enough of him, too. He seemed to take a liking to you, it won’t be that bad, it'll be quick.”

She looked at you hopefully, desperately, eyes begging, but followed up with “If you are really uncomfortable, I can go with you, it’s just...” her gaze drifted back to Justin’s desk, and the enormity of just how much work this put on her plate was likely hitting home. Updating a job description, meeting with HR, creating the job posting, screening applicants… the list went on.

You shook your head, always the people pleaser you said, “I got it, don’t worry, I will go up there right now and just get it over with."

You gave her a small smile as relief flooded her face. Heather asked if you were sure, and you promised her you were. Before your resolve broke, you turned on your heel and left, heading towards the elevator.

The moment the elevator opened and you stepped out onto the 10th floor, your heart lept into your throat. The nerves were finally catching up with you. You looked up and saw a small desk situated between two closed doors. Behind the desk sat a kindly looking older woman. She had hair so grey that it looked almost blue, and it was woven on top of her head into a conical shape. She looked up at you through her plastic pink framed glasses, which were adorned with a chain that wrapped around the back of her neck so she wouldn’t lose them. She smiled at you warmly, her bright pink lipstick somewhat smudged on her front tooth and beckoned you over. Your eyes flicked to her name plate - Ruby Potter - as you returned her smile and walked over.

“Hi there, dear, who are you here to see?”

“I’m here to see Mr. Miller," you said without thinking. Ruby chuckled.

"Dear, they are both ‘Mr. Miller’. Which one?”

"J-Joel, I’m here to see Joel. I have a check for him," you stuttered, your cheeks warming from embarrassment.

She picked up her phone and punched one of the buttons on her speed dial, lazily lifting the headset to her ear.

"You have an accountant here to see you,” she said. She had forgotten to ask your name. You tried to mouth it to her, but she waved you away, as if she did this all the time. You couldn’t hear the words on the other end of the phone, but you could hear the tone – it was sharp and aggravated. Ruby seemed unphased. Once the other end of the line went silent, Ruby said “So do you want me to send her in, or not?” She nodded with whatever Joel said in response and hung up the phone.

“Go right on in, dear. His office is that one.” She languidly pointed to her right, your left, and then turned her attention back to her computer. You took a moment to appreciate the elderly woman’s ease. She clearly dealt with Joel’s wrath countless times, yet she was completely collected. In fact, she sat before you, well past her retirement years, working directly for the man himself without a care in the world.

That gave you a small confidence boost. If Ruby could handle Joel, so could you. Afterall, it’s just words. You had a job to do, you did nothing wrong, you are here because he requested it.

You approached Joel’s office door and gently gave it three quiet knocks. You waited until you heard his acknowledgement to enter. You twisted the doorknob, opened the door just enough so you could squeeze through, and shut it behind you.

Shit, maybe you should have left it cracked. Too late now.

Your eyes locked onto the back of his tall, broad frame as he stood facing away from you, one of his arms resting above his head against the window. He was overlooking the city through the floor length windows as he finished up a call on his cell phone.

You had no idea what he said on the phone, you were far more distracted with how large and strong his shoulders looked in his white button-down shirt. Your gaze slowly traveled down, taking in his dark grey dress pants and noticing how generously they hugged his backside. You only wished he had rolled his sleeves up to his elbows like before - you wanted to see his muscles twitching under that tanned skin again. You watched in a daze as he lifted his arm from the window and ran his long fingers through his dark curls, wrapping up the phone call.

Get it together, what is wrong with you??

He pushed a button on his cell and began speaking without even turning around.

"What do you need now? I already told you-“ Joel swiveled around to see you standing before him, eyes wide, nervously clutching the envelope in your hands from Mr. Sullivan. He stopped short when he realized you weren’t Heather, and his expression softened a fraction. You must have surprised him, because before he could catch himself, he was raking his eyes up and down your entire frame, sending a shiver up the back of your spine. You were grateful you happened to wear your most flattering light blue sundress today. You thought this morning when you put it on that it would give you the confidence to get through seeing Justin at work for the first time since your break up. You never thought you would need that confidence for this moment.

You meekly cleared your throat.

"I’m sorry, Mr. Miller. You wanted me to tell you when Mr. Sullivan’s check came…” you trailed off, your cheeks feeling warm under his intense gaze. You needed to look somewhere else. You glanced down at the now crumpled envelope in your hand and stretched out your arm to eagerly show him your prize. You were at least 10 feet away from him, barely inside his office at all. It looked ridiculous; he obviously couldn’t take it from you at this range.

He nodded, pursing his lips, and then showed mercy on you when he finally looked away to take the few short strides back to his desk chair. He sat down, glancing back up at you expectantly from across the room.

"Sit.” he ordered, motioning towards one of the two chairs placed in front of his desk.

You responded to his command quickly, and you thought you saw a twitch at the corner of his mouth, but it disappeared too fast for you to be sure. You sat down in one of the chairs, shifting uncomfortably in your seat as you waited while he scrolled through his emails, looking bored. Looking down at the envelope in your hands, you gently fingered the edges in order to focus your energy somewhere. Why did he want you to sit? This should have been a quick conversation.

Joel cleared his throat, and keeping his eyes on the computer monitor, he began to unbutton the cuffs of his dress shirt. First the left sleeve, then the right, taking his time. He began to methodically roll his left sleeve up, up, up all the way to his elbow, before he leisurely did the same to the right sleeve. You didn’t realize your eyes had snapped up when you saw him begin to uncuff his sleeves, so by the time he finished, you had barely blinked and your lips were slightly parted, breath ever so slightly quickening as he finished his task. You didn’t notice your reaction, but out of the corner of his eye, Joel certainly did. He fought to contain the confident smirk that threatened to spill across his face.

He was right, you had been checking him out in that meeting.

“Give it to me,” he said, turning his probing gaze towards you once again. You looked into his dark, beautiful eyes for a moment, not sure what he meant. Then it came to you. The check.

Wordlessly, you outstretched your hand once again to hand him the envelope. Without breaking eye contact, Joel reached out and took the envelope from your grasp, but in the process grazed two long fingers gently against the back of your hand, sending sparks through your entire body at the contact. You gasped softly, and clamped your mouth shut. You dropped your gaze, embarrassed, while you waited for him to open the envelope and hopefully dismiss you. The tension was too intense, you needed this to end.

Joel didn’t seem to mind the tension in the room, or even notice it for that matter. He slowly opened the envelope and pulled out the check within. He took note of the amount as a small yellow post-it fell out. You hadn’t seen that before in your rush to get up to his office, you had no idea what it said.

Joel picked it up and read it thoughtfully to himself. When he didn’t say anything after a minute, you finally spoke.

"What does it say?” you asked, your voice almost a whisper.

He swallowed before bringing his heated gaze back up to you.

"It says: Thank you for showing me such kindness during my time of need. I’m sorry for the late payment. It won’t happen again.”

You glanced down at your hands in your lap, a small smile threatening to tug at your lips.

“You were right this time, but don’t be naïve. Not everyone is always tellin’ you the truth,” he warned, sliding the check and post-it note back into the envelope. You nodded in agreement, still sheepishly looking down at your hands.

Joel gazed at the top of your head as you stared at your lap. He didn't want the conversation to end.

"You’re doin’ a good job," he told you, pausing to reflect for a moment. "Thank you for making that connection with my client. I’m not good at all that. Talkin’ about their personal stuff. That’s more Tommy’s side of things.” He reached across his desk and held out the envelope for you to take back.

You looked up at his outstretched hand, and careful to avoid touching him again, took it.

"Thank you, Mr. Miller,” you replied softly, and stood up from your seat.

You gave Joel a quick smile and turned to head towards the door. Halfway to the exit, you stopped and turned back around, finding Joel’s eyes had yet to leave your body.

“I bet you would be good at it," you said, then your eyes widened as you realized how that sounded. “I-I mean, talking to the clients, learning about them, their personal lives…” you rambled as heat spread across your cheeks.

He stared at you for an awkward moment, considering your words.

“Well, I should be getting back to work,” you said, hitching your thumb to the door behind you, but before you could turn away, Joel stopped you.

"Thanks, sweetheart, maybe I’ll try it sometime,” he said, his expression softer.

You nodded and forced yourself to look away from the uncharacteristically relaxed features on his face. You turned to leave the room, but the door suddenly swung open. You nearly lost your balance, but a strong arm shot out to catch you.

“Jesus, Tommy, would ya watch it?” Joel growled from behind his desk, his expression leaving no traces of the softness you had just witnessed.

“Sorry darlin’, didn’t know my brother had anyone in here.” Tommy eyed you up appreciatively and grinned. “I don’t believe we formally met, I’m Tommy,” he stuck out his hand, which you quickly shook and gave him a polite smile, telling him your name.

You hastily made your exit, squeaking out an excuse about work, and shut the door.

“Do ya ever knock?” Joel seethed, but Tommy was too busy staring at the closed door, still thinking about the way your ass looked in your blue dress.

“I’m happy for you, Joel,” Tommy said, ignoring his question, and strolled over to a small cluster of framed pictures on the wall that haven’t been updated since they started the business. He leaned in to examine them more closely. “You need to be gettin’ back out there. I won't even give you any shit for dippin’ your pen in the company ink, like you did to me.”

“The hell you on about?” Joel replied, taking the opportunity to adjust himself under his desk while Tommy’s back was still turned. The way you were blushing and squirming in his office had a bigger effect on him than he thought. And you hadn’t even been trying. Not like him, rolling up his sleeves on purpose to see your reaction. He shuddered to think what it would be like if you actually tried to seduce him. He would be a puddle on the floor.

“Nothin’ was goin’ on, she just brought me a check.” Joel stood and walked around the front of his desk, leaning up against the edge of it, arms crossed and surveying the back of Tommy’s head.

Tommy chuckled, still examining the photos.

“Yeah, right. She was blushin’ like a whore in church when she left. Ya know, you should really get some new pictures in here. Did ya know you still got this old picture of the bunch of us at that rodeo? It’s got Amy in it.”

Joel sucked in air through his clenched teeth, the rest of his hard on instantly disappearing at the mention of her name.

“Sorry, Joel. It’s been so long, we still ain’t allowed to talk about it?” Tommy walked over behind Joel’s desk and flopped down in his chair, which made Joel have to turn around and sit in the same chair you had just occupied moments before.

“What’s there left to talk about?” Joel sighed, rubbing his face with his hands.

“Do you still talk to her? Keep in touch?” Tommy asked, fiddling with a pen on the desk.

“No.” Joel responded harshly. “Why would I? Last I heard, she’s been shacked up with that prick somewhere in the Midwest.”

“It’s been five years, and I still haven’t seen ya go out on a date, coffee, nothin’. Why are you doin’ this to yourself?”

Joel shook his head and stood up, already missing the warmth your body left in the chair.

“I’m just busy, Tommy. Haven’t met anyone worth chasin’," he replied, grabbing a pen and pad of paper from his desk.

“Well, that little lady that just left is well worth chasin’, if you ask me.” Tommy stood up too, and joined Joel as they headed out of the office to the conference room for their next meeting.

“Nobody was askin’, just drop it.” Joel couldn’t have Tommy egging him on, it was already difficult enough to keep his mind off you.

Joel hardly heard a word all throughout their meeting with the Marketing department. He vaguely remembered the head of the department nervously working through a technical error on his presentation, which made IT have to get involved. But Joel barely noticed. All he could think about was you.

You: in that thin, blue dress. He remembered how your cheeks flushed with embarrassment, and how you bit down on your lower lip when you tried to hold back a smile. He thought about how soft your skin felt when he gently grazed it with his fingers. How your knees pressed together as you squirmed in your seat, waiting for him to turn his attention to you. But you had no idea that his attention was always on you, even when you weren’t around. It was all consuming, at times overwhelming, the way he constantly recalled images of you in his mind.

Joel was relieved when the IT department could not fix the technical error, and the meeting had to be rescheduled. Everyone in the room held their breath, Tommy included, for Joel’s inevitable outburst, but surprisingly none came.

“Check with Ruby and put it on my schedule,” Joel said, collecting his things and leaving the room.

Tommy stayed behind to chat with the head of Marketing while Joel made a beeline for his office. He shut the door quickly behind him. Squeezing his eyes shut, he leaned his head back on the door.

What was going on with him? Why couldn’t he get you out of his head?

This was Tommy’s fault, had to be. He kept bringing you up and forcing these thoughts into his head.

But it wasn’t Tommy’s fault when his cock jumped after he touched your hand and heard you gasp.

Fuck. This had to stop. He rubbed his hands over his face roughly, then something Tommy said came back to him. It had been a long time since he was with Amy. Tommy was right, he hadn’t been on any dates, he was just sexually frustrated. It was building up, and he needed a release. That would clear his head.

Joel turned and headed towards his private bathroom, which was just a small pocket door in the wall, hardly visible when you first walked in. He went in and locked the door behind him. He unzipped his pants and pulled out his cock, already throbbing from the past hour of torture his thoughts have led him on.

Joel gripped the base firmly in his fist, and he squeezed his eyes shut, dreaming of you wearing that dress in his office. This time, when you squeezed your knees together, he imagined you were trying to create some friction to relieve the wet heat between your legs. You were just as turned on as he was in his fantasy. Joel lazily ran his hand up and down his cock, as his imagination kept carrying him away.

He wondered what kind of panties you were wearing under that dress. Maybe they were lace, or a thong. Maybe you weren’t wearing any at all. There we go.

He started running his hand up and down his shaft faster, his breath quickening as his fantasy took hold.

Now he was bunching your dress up around your hips, hitching your leg around his waist as he grabbed onto the back of your neck, bringing you closer so he could suck on the pulse point in your throat, making you moan his name. He pushed you on top of his desk, and you let yourself fall backwards, recklessly shoving papers and files off his desk.

He could feel his release bubbling to the surface now, as his movements became more frantic, and his other hand grasped the towel bar next to the sink for leverage.

Now Joel saw you bouncing on his cock, still wearing that pretty little dress, but your tits were spilled over the top. He pulled one nipple into his mouth, making you cry out and bounce faster, while his fingers brushed gently against the other one. You grabbed the sides of his face and dragged his mouth up to yours, hovering over each other’s mouths, gasping, but still not touching, as you bounced faster, faster, faster…

Joel groaned and desperately reached out to grab a tissue from the box next to the sink, right in time to catch his thick ropes of come. His hips gently thrusted forward as he came down from his high, breathing heavily, eyes squeezed shut.

He opened his eyes as his breathing returned to normal, glancing around the room to steady himself. He looked down, grateful he didn’t make a mess on his dress pants. He cleaned himself up, flushed the tissue down the toilet, tucked himself back into his pants and went to wash his hands.

He cupped some water from the sink and rinsed his face. Drying himself with the towel, he looked up at the mirror and saw a dirty, old man, who had just jerked off to the thoughts of a much younger employee. The shame was setting in now.

I hope you enjoyed it, you dirty fuck. She would never give you the real thing.

Joel dried his hands, and left the bathroom, feeling guilty, but couldn’t deny he had a much clearer head.

He didn’t see you for at least a full week. That whole week, he felt like himself again. He could see clearly; his thoughts weren’t all jumbled up and he was back to barking orders to his teams on jobsites.

He just needed to jerk off. That’s all it was. No big deal.

Early one morning before most of the employees started their work day, he made his way down to Heather’s office on the 6th floor. She had left him a voicemail saying that the company was being audited, and she needed to speak with him right away. This would require a lot of work from her department, and she needed him to approve the overtime, especially since he scared off your pretty little boyfriend, the department remained shorthanded. He walked off the elevator with his hands shoved in his pockets, sleeves pushed up to his elbows. It was quickly becoming his new look, just in case he ran into you.

He turned the corner towards Heather’s office but stopped short when he heard you laughing. He peered around a corner and saw you with some co-workers in the break room.

He was frozen to the ground, taking in your beautiful smile and laugh as you tried not to spill the coffee in your hand. You were wearing a knee-length flowy black skirt, with a V-neck light purple blouse. When you bent over to laugh again, he saw a glimpse of your tits bouncing under your shirt. He held his breath for a moment, trying to will himself forward, when you suddenly looked over and met his gaze.

Your friends didn’t notice him standing there, and you didn’t say anything. You just ran your eyes up and down his body, pausing on his exposed forearms. You gave him a shy smile and a little wave. Before he realized it, he was slowly lifting his hand up in return.

He was fucked.

Chapter Four

#joel miller fanfiction #joel miller #joel miller smut #joel miller x reader #joel miller x you #joel miller fic #joel the last of us #tlou hbo #the last of us hbo #joel miller x f!reader #joel miller x female reader #joel miller series #joel x reader #joel x reader smut #joel miller angst #joel miller fluff

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paperclipninja · 3 months ago

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Seeing everyone's reactions to the Good Omens news, I think I'm feeling some version of them all concurrently. And I know throwing my 2c into the basket is neither here nor there, but I've popped some rambling thoughts under the cut.

First off I want to be really clear: obviously the people truly impacted are the victims of NG's behaviour and that is first and foremost. This is not intended to erase or diminish that, I am distinguishing broader impact from impact on the show here intentionally, even though they are inherently entwined, but want to acknowledge that right off the bat.

This whirlwind of finding out about the allegations, to hearing that the show was paused, to assuming it was cancelled, to wanting it not to be cancelled but not wanting NG to be a part of it, to not being sure how that would happen, to being hopeful, to hearing it is back on sans creep but a movie, to hearing it's a series, to getting confirmation it's a 90 minute movie, to finding out that not even a month ago we were, in fact, getting nothing. It's been a lot.

And I managed to convince myself that if it's cancelled, well then the fandom will live on forever - creating, imagining and determined to continue this story and give these characters the varied and many endings and stories they deserve. Believe me, nothing binds a fandom like an unfinished story.

And then I heard that a movie, then a third series, was going ahead and took that to mean NG was no longer involved and thought ok, it's going to look a bit different probably but that's ok. We will still get a 6 episode resolution on screen, an ending that is canon and ties up all the things and we can enjoy that and all it brings and then, probably have lots of mixed feelings about how it's all tied up, then eventually, probably, start to move on.

And now we have actual confirmation that it's a 90 minute movie, NG properly removed other than some script contribution and it's somehow more than I expected and not enough, and a relief and heart-breaking all at once.

And I have been reflecting and thinking about it all morning and realised that for me, this is a funny, bittersweet kind of middle ground that sort of allows two things to happen: we get a resolution on screen, we get to see these characters we love so dearly together once more and for their story to play out to some kind of conclusion. But we will also have to create and imagine and determine what happens with all that we won't get to see now.

Am I sad that there will be many aspects of the story we will probably never get (thinking of more flashbacks in particular)? Absolutely. But the other thing that often happens when a show ends is that after a while, without the need to speculate or theorise or imagine what could have been, fandoms plateau (that's not to say people don't continue to create and love the characters and show, especially something like Good Omens, but generally, in my experience, the level of engagement will peter off over time without new content, especially if everything is wrapped up nicely with a bow). The compulsion to create endings and resolutions is often diminished once an ending and resolution has been established.

So I realised that we find ourselves in a rather unique position. We will get a resolution of sorts, but all those bits we will never get to see will become the source of speculation and stories and art and theories and what could have been, and it will become ours to imagine and create time and time again. I think that the collective experience of all of this, along with the need to fill in the gaps, might actually keep the many talented creators in this fandom inspired and the rest of us engaged and bound together in a way we may not have been otherwise.

This is obviously just my take and where I currently sit on all this - there is no right or wrong way to feel, engage or move forward from here. The beauty of fandom, especially one as big as ours, is that everyone can find their pocket, connect with those who bring comfort and validation, and proceed in a way that works for you.

I adore this fandom, the people I have met and the unbelievable content and fandom works that come out of it. It is truly unlike anything I've ever been a part of online and if nothing else, I am grateful for that. This was an indulgent little ramble, perhaps it might bring some solace or make you want to throw things at me, and that's ok. We're in it together.

#good omens #good omens season 3 #good omens rambles #my rambling thoughts

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raven-at-the-writing-desk · 1 year ago

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Do you think it is possible to adapt the events of Twisted Wonderland for manga someday?

As much as I’d personally love for the event stories to be adapted into a full-blown manga, I really don’t think it’s feasible outside of maybe one-off specials (similar to the anthology comic) or references (like how the Episode of Heartslabyul features Master Chef Riddle as he’s making an apology tart). There are many reasons for this (these also apply for why I don’t think vignettes would be fully adapted into “full” manga):

Firstly, event stories are purposefully limited time in the game; this is to induce FOMO (fear of missing out) and creates a psychological incentive to get in on the hype while the associated story and banners are available. This time exclusivity does not “translate” well into manga, which can be consumed at a far steadier pace.

To add to the last point, TWST is constantly coming out with new events, and at a rate far faster than the main story releases, even if each event is typically short in length. This means a hypothetical event manga may never be able to “keep up” with the new content (assuming the manga’s pace is 1 new chapter per month), unlike the main story which gets far larger gaps of time between major updates. If TWST were to start an event manga at this point, they already have 20ish events and counting to adapt compared to 7 books of the main story (and that’s not even counting minor ones like Master Chef/Culinary Crucibles) 💦

When you really think about it… not a lot actually happens in some events, which wouldn’t make them that exciting to read??? This is most noticeable in hometown events where the bulk of what happens is the characters going around and eating the local foods. Once we have that trivia the first time (via the game), it loses some of its impact in another format.

The stakes are not high enough (most of the time) to warrant dedicating entire volumes to a single event and resolving its conflict. (The main exceptions to this would be the Halloween events.)

There could be some confusion associated with timelines and/or could spoil the main story for som people. For example, events like Fairy Gala: What If have some ties to the ending of book 6.

Lastly… what would we do about the Yuus? The manga adaptation introduces a new Yuu for every main story episode; is there supposed to be a new Yuu for each event…? Do we bring back the manga!Yuus and distribute them among the events? But then what’s really the point when Yuu’s role is greatly diminished in the majority of events??? (Again, this is most notable whenever they visit a new area; Yuu just randomly pops up to each group of students and says/does nothing of note before walking away again. They typically also do not contribute to the resolution, whereas you can at least say Yuu is somewhat involved in the main story.)

As I said at the beginning of this post, I think the events being relegated to short anthology chapters and/or cameos in the main manga, as these formats would resolve many of the issues I identified for a “full” event manga. The anthology chapters thus far do not feature Yuu and instead focus on the boys, and the chapters are short enough that it can cover multiple events in the span of one volume. The cameos would also allow for event outfits to appear without the focus shifting so much into events where not a lot may happen story-wise. Those are my thoughts! 💭

#twisted wonderland #twst #disney twisted wonderland #twst manga #twisted wonderland manga #notes from the writing raven #question #episode of heartslabyul #episode of heartslabyul manga #Riddle Rosehearts

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premamelody · 6 months ago

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quick lil song talk thingy about a letimotif in mcsm s2

ever think about how xara's theme not only reflects her getting back her life after several years, but also everyone's animosity of romeo blending together. it represents how everyone is working towards the one goal of stopping him. making sacrifices, such hard decisions, with one common goal.

literally her theme and its first appearance xara joins you once she learns jesse has been wronged by romeo too. then in the second one to feature her theme is when you learn to the full extent how much romeo screwed xara over. you get the full picture of how messed up he is even before you learn about the fact he killed fred (i may be misremembering lmk if im wrong). even when xara loses hope in the world, jesse and everyone else pushes on which motivates her. she lost the will to keep going after so many years, but the spark of motivation of those around her keeps that flame going for longer, and her theme follows that.

the theme plays again (and the last time if u gave xara her bed) at the rebuilt portal. everyone at this point has BEEN working together, even more people to the cause. the fight against romeo is growing bigger, so the next appearance of her theme is stronger than ever, not stronger in appearance but also having more that accompanies it. unlike prisoner x and the oasis, theres a lot more going on in dangerous eyes as if theres a lot more people fighting, fighting on. the theme pops in a bit further into the theme after the beginning but in the middle it melts into something else. synergy? hope? an uplifting and keep on fighting sort of theme. (2:56-3:45 on the yt posting if u want specifics). all of this sort of dies out in the moment where radar makes a sacrifice and u have to choose whether to let him or not, like how it is in the FIRST theme choosing between lluna and nurm. a reminder that contributions to the effort involved sacrifices too, those who felt strong enough to the cause to ENDANGER themselves to move it on. ok ik lluna didnt but nurm literally tells jesse he'll take the fall.

and don't think i forgot about if you didn't give xara her bed. while not having her theme play at all and instead a different song kinda fits as it lacks the theme at all like how attacked without anyone else but on her own, i think the scrapped "Xara in Beacontown" works better. in it, the theme is stronger than ever before but it is also alone. the theme is on its own. not in sync or synergy with other things, just on its own. a fight for herself, a last stand for herself. but to have an abrupt end that matches the first part of the song. while she did prevent champion city from falling apart, without others she couldnt stop him.

it took everyone working together to stop him. everyone contributing. i mean literally in the fight against romeo, w/o jack or petra, romeo would've likely won. even in the last fight, jesse needed others to beat him, not just himself.

the summary? xara's theme not only emphasizes taking back what was lost, fighting for herself...but also every fighting together. everyone working together. everyone united to take back everything that they lost to him, to romeo.

#mcsm #minecraft story mode #xara mcsm #cd randomy #im sorry if this is long #i didnt actually think it would be #i spelt like an hour typing this and going back looking through stuff #please please lmk if i got smth wrong like when the theme plays or smth #or even possibly other interpetations #!!!!#fun fact i had to double check bc i forgot xara in beacontown isnt in the final

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t-oppenheimer · 3 months ago

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In sad news for my audience of 20 or so, there is likely going to be a definite termination of my forays into fiction / hobbyist writing. I never cared so much that it never turned up dough. I had a fantasy in the back of my mind that once I got a degree of recognition, I'd give all my work the wings to fly in the world without my interference or litigation anyway. As it stands, writing (or my writing) is a craft which does not stand by itself without volume much, much greater than I can offer while taking classes contributing to a stable-ish career. I will not be sullen if my total reach is only some hundred in grand total, though I wish I could have seen the wonder on their face as they pieced through my ideas.

These are the plans as they stand:

You have seen me post essays breaking down the philosophy of Spray and Pray's design. I intend on releasing it together in one document and releasing it for free, along with releasing all rights to the OBE engine through Spray and Pray as a sort of 'system reference document'. I am still very proud of my working through the puzzle of it's design and I hope that people will iterate on it and maybe make sure those numbers are fun at all.

A friend of mine I will leave unnamed expressed interest in illustrating with me some sort of light novel featuring 'wizard babes in bikinis'. I have left it an outline as they hadn't gotten back to me about it and it would certainly not be the first time I had to shelve a whole lot of effort because I planned around someone who insisted that they could work pro-bono against my desires but never actually had the resources to meet the project. If the collaboration is fruitful, you will know.

I am going to do what is in my power to see the first 'part' of Journal's of Caer published. Writing a full gamebook around totally unproven rules is inherently daunting, and although I already have an outline, sudden expenses has hemorrhaged my commission slush fund. I believe I have enough material to go ahead with a somewhat less flashy version of the book now.

At some point when I graduated I intended on publishing some of my undergraduate philosophy essays because-- in case you're somehow not familiar with me-- I have incredible hubris and am convinced that I am often very right and have prescient things to say on everything. It will be as easy as formatting what already exists, only I would want to wait until my undergraduate course work is actually done.

If there is some project which utterly grips me which I know I can complete within a week's time, you may see some free projects similar to Hypnosis as a Social Theory pop up.

If the situation changes, my mind will too. But a constructive murder is being tightened around my neck by the week and by the end of 2026 I will have need to make a plan to either afford medicine, be somewhere I can afford medicine, or shrivel up and die in my own urine in a way which will inconvenience the fewest people.

Spray and Pray: Recorps Corps is already my damaged, fraying at the edges magnum opus. It's a lovely little clockwork devil I know can march proudly with a few tune ups I never had the resources to give it. Please do inform me by whatever means comfortable if you 'get it' whatever that will mean for you.

#i should open a writing blog #indie ttrpg

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zahri-melitor · 4 months ago

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The Joker War:

Yeah so: this was a good event. The stakes were high, it pulled in and tied off a lot of storytelling since Rebirth, and it reset the status quo for Gotham. Plus, I had a lot of fun reading it.

Sometimes you read an event and come out of it going 'well what was the point'. This is not one of those events; I can see how it sets up a whole chunk of the subsequent 4 years of stories.

It also had an absolutely banger set of writers working on it, supplemented with solid artists. It was very much James Tynion's event, but he clearly was talking to Peter Tomasi, Ram V, Dan Jurgens and Cecil Castellucci to pull the storytelling together. (Scott Lobdell also contributed a single issue but it was very much a tie-in of the 'Jason receives a call' type). Castellucci was the weakest link in that set and even she landed what needed to happen with Barbara during the event.

So. Joker reveals that he knows who all the Bats are, and that he's known that for a long time, as he proceeds to try and break Bruce by plunging the city into chaos, stealing all of the Wayne fortune, revealing Wayne Enterprises to be as 'corrupt' as any other multinational, and using all of the Bat equipment that the company has been manufacturing to cause terror.

Bruce, who has been isolating himself in the wake of City of Bane and Alfred's death, initially starts out trying to fight all of this on his own, and then spends even more time hallucinating Alfred, as Tynion gives him a chance to process what happened. He eventually gets to the classic 'call in the family' round up. But mostly, he's fighting Joker by himself. Harley, who is extremely irritated by Punchline's whole existence (and sewed up her own slit throat with a guitar string at one point), spends a fair amount of time helping Bruce, and eventually sets up a situation in the final Bruce v Joker showdown where she ties bombs to herself and to Joker, tells Bruce he's only got time to defuse one, and sprints away. Joker is VERY put out by Bruce's decisions in this situation, because they contradict what he's been monologuing about.

That's the main Bruce plot. (Oh he also gets to deal with Two-Face bringing Lincoln March back and then my least favourite fake Wayne getting blown up in a way that may or may not be fatal. The wikis cannot agree)

Dick's entire Ric plot arc comes to a head with a series of brainwashings. Joker gets his hands on the crystal that had previously brainwashed him into having no memories and then to thinking he was raised by William Cobb as a Talon, and deciding to join in the fun, rewrites Dick's memories as 'Dickyboy', who was raised by Joker after the circus. Yes. We do Joker Junior (but for Dick!) Most of the bad stuff done during this period is like...calling for help to trick Jason, Tim and Babs to turn up, and then curbstomping Jason. Tim gets to defuse a bomb about to blow up a hospital and is very proud of himself, while Dick's fatal flaw of 'extremely suggestible to redheads' pops up and a combination of Babs and Bea are able to talk him around and restore his memories to actually being Dick Grayson (Bea's purple dreads get her into the category, I think). Thank goodness, Nightwing is back.

Selina is busy playing everyone, and ends up transferring the Wayne fortune she originally set in motion to be stolen from Bruce to end up in Lucius Fox's Caymans bank account, setting up the whole upcoming Jace Fox stories. Also she moves back to Alleytown in the aftermath of everything to get back to her Brubaker roots.

Barbara gets attacked by Joker who wants to replicate A Killing Joke now that he can reveal he knows he shot Batgirl at that time, and hijacks her spinal implant. So Babs digs it out AGAIN, then once she's got away needs Luke Fox to help her fix it and reimplant the connections. The entire point of all of these fun and games is essentially to put Babs in a position where she knows she needs to stop relying on going out as Batgirl: she finally gets to come back online as Oracle, in green wearing glasses, where she seizes control of the city and does some proper Oracle work. There's a fair amount of talk about how she needs to start transitioning back to Oracle at least part time.

Also James Jr has developed a split personality and ends up throwing himself off a building to his death, while Babs as Batgirl tries to grab him, leading to even more extension of the "Jim Gordon hates Batgirl" plot that's been running since n52 and the last time James Jr threw himself to his death (off a bridge). Sigh. I'm bored of that one. There's a broken body at the bottom and we bury him this time, so we're pretty safe from another James Jr plot until someone decides to drop his corpse in a Lazarus Pit or get Superboy Prime to punch time or inject him with electrum or whatever.

Oh and Steph and Cass switch costumes to be both be Batgirl in a short in the anthology issue, which has the most unfortunate art in existence and may possibly be the source of the confusion over their ages at the start of the Batgirls run (It would be fine if it was a DC Super Hero Girls imprint story; it's ridiculous for main universe).

It's fun! Quite a lot goes on! Pretty much everyone shows up at some point, including Kate Kane coming back to Gotham for the first time since the whole 'shooting Clayface' situation; the only big absences are Damian (stuck in limboland and only appearing on one cover; this is presumably due to all the back and forth going on as people try to work out what they're doing with him now that 5G is off the table); JPV, who I think is technically still in space?; and Harper gets namechecked as still working with Leslie, but doesn't show up.

I would definitely recommend it if you have read a decent amount of the Batman/Detective Comics/Nightwing/Batgirl/Catwoman comics between 2016 and 2020. I also would suggest it's a solid choice if you're simply interested in the set up for all the character direction changes spinning out after the cancel/relaunch of titles after Future State at the start of 2021.

This is definitely one of those events where, while there is a lot of Joker, he's actually being used for reasons that make sense, and there's a lot of other villains running around causing problems as well.

#z canon read throughs #The Joker War

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dorizardthewizard · 1 year ago

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Galactik Football season 3 rewatch, eps 16 - 18

Episode 16:

Nice levitation trick Simbai, but she's just allowed to use the Breath like that? Maybe because she's a flux society member? It does make me realise, since the wars were not so long ago, how many people are walking around who could previously use the the Breath all the time but now aren't allowed. That's kind of crazy!

I do like the idea of them actually learning how to use the Breath in more creative ways!

This soundtrack for Tia's training session is pretty cool

Well done Mei for wearing more weather-appropriate clothes this time!

Mice telling Mark to get it together kdjfskfd time for lover boy to get dunked on for once

FSJHDFKDSF ARTEGOR BEING A COMMENTATOR NOW I LOVE IT

Callie: Do you miss playing when you see your friends on the field? D'jok: Um, I- Callie: Certainly you must think they are still bitter towards you after beating them on Paradisia?

Callie those are some horrible questions leave the man alone 😭

I am once again asking for more Lun-Zeara action. Btw has she ever spoken a line? Fucking Stevens may have spoken more than her

I support the Snow Kids but I love seeing the Wambas winning and having fun <3

GOOOOOAL MICRO-ICE!

Artegor: Listen Barry, to be frank, I'm not a fan of your work

HE'S SUCH A BITCH LOOOL after my rewatch I want to make a compilation of Artegor's commentator moments

Lun-Zaera is CHILLING lmao, also I just checked the wiki for the spelling of her name and it's about as consistent as the Wamba's hair colour.

Why is Woowamboo being such a dick. She's trying her best!

Awwww D'jok cheering on the Snow Kids

Mei is carrying the defence in this match like the queen she is <3

Artegor contributes a more technical analysis of the game which is pretty cool

WOOWAMBOO FOULING?? I mean fouls aren't really rare but still, he's being far more aggressive than before? Sure, the Wambas aren't going to just be fun-loving when the GFC is at stake and they're as competitive as any other team, but when you combine this with the way he was talking to Lun-Zia it's just jarring?

Also WAIT. Woowamboo is ginger? So the player that switched to the Lightnings for the Paradisian tournament was just someone else? Fair enough as you wouldn't switch your star player, but yeah my bad. Actually wait, he literally has grey hair in the Netherball scenes in season 2. WHAT IS THE TRUTH

OK WHAT. SO LUN-ZIA TELLING THE WAMBAS WHERE ROCKET IS MOST LIKELY TO SHOOT IS PERFECTLY A-OK BUT D'JOK TELLING TEAM PARADISIA A LITTLE TIP ON HOW TO BEAT AHITO IS A BETRAYAL?? PLUS, in the last episode Aarch faces the SK in the holo-trainer and says he can beat them because he knows how they play, and that everyone else does too. WHICH IS EXACTLY WHAT I WAS SAYING WHEN I WAS COMPLAINING ABOUT THE AHITO BETRAYAL BS. WHICH IS IT, WRITERS?!

Well at least Woowamboo seems more accepting of Lun-Zia now that he's seen her give it her all. Nice to see her settled in with the rest of the team!

I just had a thought, where is Maya in all this? We've seen Mama-Ice pop up and check on (scold XD) Micro-Ice but we didn't see Maya interact with D'jok at all? Wouldn't she have gone to see him instead of only hanging with the Snow Kids?? And now that D'jok's “retired” and hanging out by himself at Genesis, isn't she gonna look for him? She knows football was so important to him, so to give it up is a big deal! Ah well, we'll see.

Episode 17:

Yaay more Tia and Mei being besties

NOT CLOVER GIRL DOING THE MARYLIN MONROE

Side note I like Kim-8's vibes, she's just cool

That scene in Ballow's restaurant where he's talking about leaving dirty business behind, all while henchmen are constantly coming up to him with dodgy items like stolen paintings is so hilarious jfdskmn

aww I love Artegor trying to convince D'jok to come back, especially with him telling him how hard the SK took it when he left. It's also interesting to see Artegor refer to playing with the Snow Kids as a responsibility - they're a symbol of hope for the people of Akillian, who didn't even want to go to their first match in the stadium due to the trauma from the glaciation.

He also reminds D'jok he's a Snow Kid, which reminds me of their conversation in season.... 2? Where Artegor tells him he'll always be a kid from Akillian. It's also nice that once he's voiced his opinion, he changes the subject instead of pressuring D'jok to answer. He's really developed from the demanding Shadows coach he used to be.

THE PIRATES!! CRUSH THE RED TIGERS!!!!

Poor Artie, he can never watch a full match LOL

FOUR GOALS FOR STEVENS!!! WOOOOOOOOO PIRATES BEAT A FLUX TEAM! TAKE THAT!!!

NO. NO NO NO NO NO. THE CYCLOPS CANNOT FREEZE PEOPLE. THAT'S THE XENON'S FLUX. TRY AGAIN. ACTUALLY WATCH THE PREVIOUS SEASONS. TAKE IT FROM THE TOP.

Do you ever watch an old video and get jumpscared by a comment you don't remember making? Because I wrote this on another upload 9 years ago and I still don't know how they messed that up LOL.

I mean yeah sure it COULD be a new ability they've unlocked like how the Snow Kids are finding new ways to use the Breath. But they don't show the Cyclop's hypnosis thing at all, the animation is exactly the same as the Xenon's flux, and Callie even mentions their "hypnotic" flux and how the players can barely stay on their feet, which doesn't really match what's on screen sooo yeeeeeaahhh this is just an animation error. A pretty big one though.

So team Paradisia have no problem using their flux? Which was a synthetic one to begin with? And the technology for it is no longer available? Or do they just get it implanted once and that's it? So what was up with them going into those pods to “charge”? How does this work???

sfkdgfkjdf Mark went too hard on the sauerkraut, I love this gag about Mark and food

YESSSS SONNY! FATHER SON BONDING TIME FINALLY. His speech about the Pirates always being by his side even in tough times is sweet, and makes sense for D'jok. He's been through a lot with the Snow Kids and they're basically family now, and family wouldn't truly turn him away if he was sorry for what he did. At least, they wouldn't stay mad forever.

BENNETT YOU LEGEND. But also a bit reckless of Sonny to stand with D'jok right in the middle of an open area

Sonny: We're trapped!

Um no you're not, there's a staircase right there

Poor Cyclops, always getting clowned on :( ARTEGOR IS A SAVAGE IN THIS MATCH

BALLOW OUTING THE CON ARTISTS FDKFDKJDF I'm sorry I know it's a tragic moment for Sinedd but THAT'S SO FUNNY

The way they animate Sidney rolling around is hilarious. Also Thran only thought of finding Harvey just now? Wow, talk about second-class citizens.

It's so funny how this is the last episode in the official playlist, like they just gave up uploading HD episodes 2 years ago. Unless it's a regional thing? I'm editing this in Austria rn and the official English uploads aren't available unless I use VPN, are the French eps all uploaded in HD at least?

Episode 18:

Aaaaand I'm back to 480p uploads from 10 years ago. Thank you for your service youtube user lykaon868

I do get to see the intro and outro now though yaaaay

Wait what? We ended last episode on D'jok wanting to talk to the Snow Kids and with this one we just skip ahead to him being on the team again? I mean... they were building up to that moment for sooo long and we don't even get to see it? What???

It seems Tia and Rocket have accepted D'jok back but Micro-Ice and Ahito aren't so enthusiastic. It's strange to see Ahito so resentful but it's a refreshing change to see him react like that.

Micro-Ice's reaction on the other hand isn't taken very seriously and it's presented as them squabbling immaturely but like... he's right to feel hurt! We could've had some good Micro-Ice angst topped off with a heart-to-heart between two guys who canonically consider each other brothers, but here we are.

Sinedd's parents were... I M P O S T E R S ?

Sharky why are you revealing this as a scoop when it just puts you into hot water for not doing a background check before inviting them on the show

OOOO SHADOWS SPEAKING HISTORIC MOMENT

This is the serious - silly contrast dynamic I had in my head for the Shadows LOL. Although it's sad this kind of implies the Shadows only care for Sinedd as a player and not a person, telling him to get a grip after something like that? Although maybe their whole thing is that they TRY to act tough but really they're all feeling like that one guy who ran out crying lol. It IS a bit weird to insert comedy like that into this kind of scene though, kind of undercuts it for me.

Artegor just having tea and biscuits 🤣🤣🤣

CALLIE ACCEPT HIS OFFER FOR TEA DON'T BE RUDE. He looks sad after her reaction fskdjfskds honestly Artegor is probably the best character this season

STOP HAVING THEM SCORE IN THE FIRST MINUTE SFJKDFSKS

Tia squaring up to Sinedd I LOVE HER

Also wtf Sinedd, but he was about to go to Mei so I wonder what he was gonna do? Taunt her? Or maybe he regretted it? I guess we'll never know

This is a match with the Shadows, the Snow Kids' biggest rivals, and yet the first half is over in a few minutes of the episode! The matches just aren't as interesting in this season and feel too rushed

TIA CAPTAIN MOMENT YYYEAAAAAAHHH SHE DESERVES IT!

I am not immune to some D'jok vs Sinedd action

Not Maya focusing on Sinedd when she hasn't interacted with D'jok this whole time 😭

Mei is such a savage, it reminds me of Stevens handing Sinedd the ball that one time when there was seconds to spare LOL also pls forgive the shit quality gifs, demonstration purposes only folks

Sinedd: Do like everyone else Mei, don't worry about what I do and just forget me. Mei: But Sinedd- Sinedd: I lost, Mei. I lost everything. Everything.

Oof Sinedd really goes through the ringer every season, huh

Mark is smooth as butter on the pitch but so incredibly cringe at flirting

Warren: The team. The group. That's all that counts, D'jok D'jok: Being a team player Warren, that's what I want to improve!

Sure D'jok, until next season. But it's also kind of weird to portray his arc as if he just needed to learn how to be a team player again, when a big part of why he left was the emotional turmoil from the breakup and him lashing out because of it. That's never really resolved, although I guess the season is trying to say that D'jok became obsessed with winning again, which is what drove Mei away in the first place, but again I'm just speculating here! They had the means for a really good arc for D'jok but fumbled it and decided to retread old paths instead.

Is Harvey alive after all?

I do love that Clamp is still working alongside Sonny. And yaaaay Thran gets to do something!

Wait Paradisia is a dead planet, it didn't blow up or anything. Harvey is a robot so is it that surprising he's still there? Why not look for him earlier?

#galactik football #dori watches galactik football #my posts

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scolop98 · 2 years ago

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VOTE JAKAPIL FOR DINOSAUR MARCH MADNESS

@a-dinosaur-a-day

No other contestant in the final four is such A Creature™️ the way that Jakapil is. Jakapil is simultaneously the ultimate being to exist from the perspective of a dinosaur-obsessed child and a fascinating, paradigm-shifting paleontological enigma. Literally the perfect dinosaur, what more could you want

Why vote for Jakapil?

the most likely scenario here is that this guy represents a hundred million year old ghost lineage of basal thyreophorans that we’ve never discovered before. The less likely scenarios are bipedal armored ceratopsian or a completely new kind of ornithsician, both of which have been genuinely considered by some paleontologists! Whatever the case, Jakapil represents a brand new, never-before seen lineage of dinosaurs unlike anything we’ve ever known before, and that’s SO COOL

Aesthetically, this is a bipedal armored dinosaur with tiny abelisaur-grade arms, estimated to be less than 5 ft long and 15 lb (or 1.5 m and 7 kg max). Literally perfect. I’m really bad at visualizing measurements but I’m pretty sure you could pick it up and hold it in your arms if you tried. Sure you could do that with Heracles or Caihong, but you don’t need a Time Machine to pick up parrots and shiny bird things - there’s nothing like Jakapil for you to hold and snuggle today

They’re so friggin weird. It’s got jaws like a ceratopsian or a heterodontosaur, a jaw bone that no other basal thyreophorans have, arm anatomy shockingly similar to abelisaurs, and THEY CAN CHEW. I know that chewing seems really normal to us humans but it’s so weird to see outside of mammals. Practically the only other dinosaurs that chew are ornithopods. Jakapil seems like it’s trying to be as many kinds of dinosaur as possible, which further supports my statement that it is the Ultimate Dinosaur

It’s armored and covered in spikes. ‘Nuff said

Also a friendly reminder that the only other known bipedal thyreophoran is Scutellosaurus, which was from Early Jurassic Europe. Jakapil is from late Cretaceous South America, so this guy just popped up across the world a hundred million years later with practically no trace of its ancestors. How did this happen? What the fuck were its ancestors doing in that time? Heracles may have given us neat answers to New Zealand-y questions, but Jakapil gave us questions we didn’t even know needed to be asked

I’ve said it once and I’ve said it again, South America’s fauna has been friggin' amazing since the Cretaceous and never stopped. Automatic points for being a South American dinosaur. This guy lived alongside Giganotosaurus and Buitreraptor!!

What about the other contestants, you may ask? Kholumolumo is only here for the meme. Outside of the funny name and it’s absurdly convoluted history to getting formally named, what do you actually know about it? How much does it contribute to our understanding of dinosaurs compared to the other contestants?

Caihong is basic. I’m sorry but I won’t back down from this (for another few months at least). I love dromaeosaurs as much as the next person, but literally all that Caihong has going for it is it’s ultra-inridescence. Any other Chinese dromaeosaur could provide the rest. Look past your instinctual love of shiny things and vote for something that breaks away from everything we thought we knew to become something truly unique!

As for Heracles... I actually have nothing bad to say about Heracles, I love New Zealand's fauna and giant flightless birds (especially on islands). But while I love Heracles for everything it stands for, I feel like Jakapil stands for so much more. Heracles is a wonderful addition to our knowledge of it's lineage and environment, but also... is it really that surprising to find a giant flightless bird in New Zealand that belongs to that a family endemic to New Zealand? Jakapil is just such a bizarre, fascinating, unexpected discovery from so many perspectives. It is truly the ultimate dinosaur, and we should honor it as such

As of the time of writing there's still four days left at the polls and Jakapil is a steady second place in all three of them. We still have time to win this for Jakapil and dethrone Caihong!

#dinosaur march madness #dmm rising stars #dmm final four #dmm finals #jakapil #dmm #a-dinosaur-a-day #JAKAPIL SWEEP #long post #hmm i should probably be tagging these as long posts shouldnt i

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reflections-in-a-critical-eye · 7 months ago

Note

"[Jimin's solo career] hasn't taken off as much as I would like to. Him being in BTS and doing his military service have had a contribution to that. Maybe it will change once he comes back. Maybe not."

That first sentence made me feel so sad, @reflections-in-a-critical-eye. Would you mind sharing why you think it hasn't taken off and the role being in BTS has played?

How much of it is because of Jimin, the company dynamics, the variables of the music industry. or just plain bad luck?

It's not as dramatic as it sounds, anon. But I'll talk about it, sure.

First of all, a solo career on a global level, an organic one, is not possible while one is still part of a group/band. That is, if that's the goal. I don't know exactly what Jimin wants. If he wants to tour the world on his own or not. But the reality is, it cannot take off if all the elements are not in place. Soloists who got big and were once part of bands used that as a stepping stone, but they removed themselves from that early on. Five years or so (like Robbie Williams or George Michael). Jimin spent his entire 20s with a group without given the opportunity to work on a solo album throughout that period. And now he's stuck in the military until 2025. Then followed by a BTS album and probably a tour or a few concerts. From that point onward, I have no idea what would come next.

But that doesn't mean the situation can't happen later in his 30s if he's interested in that and if everything falls into place.

This will always be a discussion that revolves around the artist's needs and what fans want. In this case, what I want. A lot of the times, I want more and more for him because I'm interested in his career. I may not even be right in my views on that career.

I don't need Jimin to be a global pop star. It doesn't mean he shouldn't have had the proper support of a label. And musically, he's tried a lot of things, but I don't see that as a bad thing. At least for now. Of course that having time and space to explore that would have a big contribution, but I don't think he got that actual encouragement up until he started working on his solo albums. He has gained experience in the last 10 years, he's not a rookie. But then again, I also don't think there should be so much pressure on him to deliver something spectacular given that he's only at the beginning of this road.

So yeah, me saying that his solo career hasn't taken off comes from a selfish place as well. Because I've seen a few years ago what his label is capable of doing when they want to support a group and the resources they direct towards that and to see that not happening to someone with actual potential is frustrating. It only makes me think of how it could have been.

Then there's the military service which would have happened anyway, regardless of any scenario. It just came in his case in a weird period. But that's life and things are never easy and they don't always go as planned. If we don't take variables into consideration, than this is a pointless conversation.

This is a topic that must be navigated between what we want, the reality of the situation, what Jimin wants and critical reception. Not all these elements fall into place and we might get tricked sometimes that they are all the same.

Whatever it is to happen, will happen. I'm still here and still interested to see how it evolves. If I were to think that there hasn't been actual potential, I wouldn't waste my time.

#m thoughts #jimin

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unohanabbygirl · 1 year ago

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Part two of four to my FMN hairstyles plus this verse’s canon hair facts thread because why not?

Just like Laena, Alicent is also a very simple woman when it comes to how she styles her hair. Its not that she’s afraid of change but that she’s simply content with her current style. This look has did her good two thousand years ago and it does her good now. A pretty brown that sometimes looks reddish depending on the light, a few nice layers and blown out bangs are all she needs. Alicent straightens her hair every once in a while but only because she likes the way it makes her layers pop out when she bumps the ends. Though she’s finding other heatless methods since Laena has been hassling her about using her blow dryer + flat iron too much.

Whenever she visits foster centers or spends time with her clients little sisters or daughters the girls love playing with her hair, happily allowing them style it in fishtail braids with little ribbons and bows.

Visenya has nearly given her a few panic attacks because her grabby little hands love trying to rip out clumps of her bangs.

She may or may not be contributing to Baela’s hair ties going missing.

If I had to use one word to describe Rhaena’s hair it would be fairycore. Bows, beads, barrettes and hair jewelry of all kinds have always been her friend. Sometimes they’re colorful while other-times they’re monochromatic but there’s always a pattern they take on. I imagine that if she were to go to the Renaissance concert that she’d wrap all of her locs in sliver hair string with shiny silver beads at the end.

Updos are her everything, her hair stays in ponytails or buns. Usually paired with a bang swooped to the side.

She cut bangs into her hair a few summers ago and reattached her locs with a crochet needle when she missed them because they’re such apart of her. But she’s sure she’s gonna do it again soon because its such a look. Not to mention that temporary hair color held such a special place in her heart in her middle school years. Especially pinks, purples, and blues. 12 yr old Rhaena used to take a few locs and go crazy with the color during the warmer months. Though she always made sure to use a vegan brand because their products washed out the easiest, two deep shampoos and she was back blonde.

She’s currently considering dying her whole head a light plum color and Is definitely the reason so many of Baela’s hair ties go missing but returns them secretly whenever her sister gets box braid or faux locs because she’s 100% gonna keep them in a ponytail the whole time before cutting them out.

Aegon iii AKA 🥚

He’s a lil emo baby and I truly love that for him. Very much into the dramatic, editorial sort of hairstyles which are veryy unconventional but is kinda scared of what Rhaenyra would think if he went that far because his mother’s approval means everything above all and is scared shitless she wouldn’t. Instead, he chooses to cut himself some choppy layers and dye the ends jet black with cheap box-dye. His bangs are way too overgrown and don’t even really qualify as bangs anymore. It’s to the point where he kinda can’t see but doesn’t make them shorter because he’s too committed to this specific look.

Doesn’t care too much about maintaining health so he’s rough with his hair and uses the crappy three in one shampoos while hardly conditioning (yes, his hair is dry asf but we love him anyway)

Will likely go fully jet black with blonde highlights one day.

Aegon’s hair is…lets just say it looks cool which is great!

Its not ugly at all, most people like the messy almost mullet look he’a got going on. However, the real problem is that it’s somehow even more dry than Egg’s. He washes it ofc, but never conditions because its too much work and lets be real here; Aegon would 100% not even bathe if it were socially acceptable to be musty. (Plus Jace is all about good hygiene and Baela will literally punch him if he comes in her face smelling like old socks so it serves as encouragement.)

Aemond has tried to get him going with a proper haircare routine several times but it’s more difficult than training a dog to do sign language so he’s given up completely.

#FMN #Hair thread

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ohthehypocrisy · 1 year ago

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Meowth for Pokemon Unite...?

Since the release of Pokemon Unite, we've seen many new pokemon join the fray, all lovable and favored in their own right. From the awesome and mighty Mewtwo to the cute and cuddly Comfey, fans of pokemon haven't needed to wait long to play as their favorites, what with a steady flow of updates promising to add more pokemon.

Of course, all of these pokemon have 1 simple rule to follow. If it can evolve into its most powerful form, it will. That's because Pokemon Unite makes the playable pokemon feel as powerful as they are mirroring their capabilities and potential from the mainline games they come from. It's why Machamp is decidedly a grappler, or how Dragapult is a shooty-shooty ghost dragon of death. A pokemon's max potential is the main draw for how their gameplan works, and why each playable pokemon is at their most powerful once they're fully evolved...

...unless you're Pikachu.

Now, I understand why Pikachu is in the game over its contemporary evolution Raichu, as it is the main star of the anime and some games. It's objective fact that Pikachu has more fans than Raichu, a privilege it abuses in promotional pieces.

However, this does mean it stands out as the only playable pokemon in Unite that doesn't evolve, even though it could. Though, being the mascot means its allowed to be the exception.

...but what if another pokemon got the same treatment?

Pikachu isn't the only popular pokemon from Gen 1. You've got other familiar faces popping up in media from that generation. From Clefairy to Poliwhirl, Scyther, Lapras, Eevee, there are loads of lovable little creatures that also like to share the spotlight with Pikachu.

Meowth being one of them.

While it can evolve into the much stronger Persian, Meowth is in a similar boat with Pikachu in that it's also more popular than its own evolution. In fact, it's almost in just as many episodes of the anime as Pikachu, if only for the fact that it was the mascot for the villain of the week (which was always Team Rocket's Jesse and James but, eh, details shmetails).

Here's the thing though. Eventually, we'll be seeing the entirety of Gen 1 represented in Pokemon Unite, which means we'll have to wonder what Meowth's License would look like, if it doesn't evolve into Persian. As Persian, it boasts a high speed which it used to foster an insanely high critical hit rate with Slash, all the way back in Gen 1. But as Meowth, it lacks the speed and power to pull off the same trick, but it does have access to tricky moves like Fake Out and Pay Day. It may not be as fast as Persian, but it could confound the enemy with dirty tricks, just like a Supporter would.

And so, I ask the readers the question. Eventually, Persian, OR Meowth will join Pokemon Unite as either a Speedster or a tricky Supporter. The question is, which one would you prefer?

Personally, I would go for Persian since we always need more Speedsters, but now isn't a good time, what with Meowscarada literally releasing tomorrow as of this posting. As for Meowth, I'm not a fan of the idea of a fragile Supporter that can only contribute to the team by distracting them with spare change, but eh, to each their own.

Though, that doesn't mean you can't change my mind. Let me know what you think in the comments, and come back next week for the results.

#Pokemon Unite #Meowth #Persian #Pikachu

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kamil-a · 2 years ago

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fuzzy feelings

Happy valentine’s exchange, @indigosees !!

Here’s some clock tower trio for youuu :3

You asked for platonic or poly or Ace/Julius or Alice/Julius and so I put them all in my bubbly cauldron and got you, uh, pre-poly? Nobodys dating........ yet. There’s some feelings of competition and jealousy but yknow. Alice is nervous.

In anniversary you can’t actually romance Julius from the castle, which makes it a beautiful fresh blank canvas for me to work on.

Normally, it is Alice who complains about the inane things as Julius works, but this time he seems almost desperate for a conversation partner.

"Do you know what kind of things I have to put up with here," he greets her. He grabs a teddy bear- yup, she’d know that thing anywhere, the letter still clasped in its paw and the poorly done stitching still marring its leg despite the rip long having healed- by the scruff of its fuzzy neck, and shakes it in her face.

She was hoping maybe he’d be cheered up, intrigued, or at worst bored.

Instead, he’s... extremely not pleased with it.

Oof.

"It was outside my door when I got back from doing some work outside.”

She knows. She had watched Ace put it there.

"Oh, wow..."

"A "secret admirer", he scoffs. "Idiot thinks I'll fall for it."

He sighs, anger deflating.

"Supposedly, whoever wrote it is from your place. If they even exist, tell them they should've at least let me eat a chocolate for all the trouble."

"I’ll let them know," said Alice, who was half the team responsible. She tries to defend it, just once-

"But, I don’t know if you should necessarily be angry? Maybe someone really wanted to..."

He gives her a look that she can't possibly finish her sentence under.

"Please. I know when I’m being made fun of. Bet you within the next 10 time periods there'll be another note telling me to meet them somewhere so they can pop out with their friends and laugh."

He collapses into his chair, starts fixing a clock with the viciousness of someone stopping one. Alice is left to try and not look guilty as he works, bury her face in a book and pretend to read in silence for a little while before-

"I like that you don’t go places much!" he mutters. “The nerve...”

She doesn’t trust herself to make a sound. Alice is glad he's quoting Ace's contribution to the letter, at least. If it were her own words being spat out like that she probably could never face him again. As it is now, she presses the book against her scrunched up eyes, tries not to say anything.

He hates it, she should’ve realized that he’d hate it from the start, and when he finds out who it’s from this little friendship they’ve built up will be over, and, and....

I can’t believe I let Ace get me caught up in this.

Alice herself would feel like she could call it “a few days ago”, but really there's no way to check- so it is “a bunch of time periods ago”, then, when a longer break in her work found her walking to the tower, getting hungry while she was out and about, and knowing- certainly - that she would not eat well at Julius' place, that's for sure. She ducked into a grocery a few blocks away from the tower, and figured she may as well buy extra food for him, while she's there. There had been a lot of trial and error involved. She has had to withstand horrors (watching him cook things in the fastest and 'most convenient' way, devoid of any spice or taste or making sense). She's got it down to a science now: Deli meat (sliced). Cheeses (sliced). Bread (sliced). Fresh fruits, and- someone's hand brushed hers over an apple.

"Ace!"

"Oh! Alice!"

At that point she did not yet know the knight particularly well- technically, they’re coworkers, but she mostly does housework, deliberately kept away from the grisly bits a knight would be in charge of. She knew him just enough to know he's got a dazzling smile and a cheerful air and a terrible sense of direction.

In fact-

"Just checking, but you aren't thinking this is the castle kitchen, right?"

He threw back his head and laughed.

"Well, now that you bring it up! I did at first, but then I got told off for eating things from the shelves. So I figured out I must’ve taken a wrong turn somewhere pretty quick!"

Ah... Of course he did.

"And what brings you allllll the way out here instead of the kitchen at home?", he asked Alice, which was a question she was a little bit dreading. “Did you get lost too? It’s a pretty confusing trip from the personal rooms to the kitchen, right?”

“Only for you.”

“Don’t be embarrassed! We’re lost... but we’re together.”

“I told you, I’m not lost.”

“So why are you here?”

Good question.

It wasn't that she was.... hiding.... her frequent visits to Julius. It's just that she's been.... not really saying anything about them.

And worrying that she'll be banned from going if she's caught.

And worrying that if she's caught taking too much food from her current place of residence to feed an different territory's leader, even being an outsider might not save her...

Well, if she had to get caught, Ace certainly seemed like the sort to be less bothered than Peter or the Q- or Vivaldi, remember to call her without titles or you're toast.

"I was, uh, visiting a friend who lives around here-" she hoped she hadn't taken too long to answer.

"No way, so am I!" said Ace.

"-And I figured I'd bring some food so we could make sandwiches while we..."

Her defensive babbling was still running automatically as her mind caught up.

"Wait, you too?"

"Well, I do a lot of journeying! Of course I'd end up making friends from lots of places."

"That's..." she couldn’t look straight at that beamish grin of his. He pulled something out of his pocket and laughed again.

"So anyway, my friend wanted me to pick him up some supplies while he was busy- and, I'm a knight, of course, so I'd always offer help to those in need! But, it’s a little bit difficult, because..." and he held out the note to her.

If she were looking at him, instead of the note, she would have seen something in his eyes- questioning, testing. She missed it. The note just said: you know what i eat.

"Julius..." she groaned, because it's so obviously him-

But- but that means-

"So you know him too!" Ace cheered, and did a delighted little clap. He threaded an arm through hers, (an action which Alice was not the biggest fan of), and peeked in her basket.

"So, you’re the one buying him the deli meat lately. It's good stuff! I should thank you too, huh!"

She couldn’t help but feel a little annoyed- it felt like when she would find squirrels eating out of the bird feeder Lorina sometimes liked to set up. She laughed at the image as soon as she imagined it. She’s being stupid. Julius was allowed to have other friends- in fact, considering the things she’s seen, she should have been glad Julius had more friends than just her, who’s only shown up very recently and may not be in his world much longer. What was she, defensive of her status as Julius' singular friend?

Well... she had to admit, there was sort of a pride in thinking she had the Clockmaker all to herself. Like when she’d visit a friend back home and they’d say “My cat hates everybody, but here he is on your lap! Wow!”

"I'm surprised you're on such good terms with another territory's Roleholder," she mused. "Is it because he's neutral?"

"I'm on good terms with him because I like him," Ace said. Friendly enough, but she felt his grip on her arm tighten. "I don't really care where he's from. Same as you, I guess!"

"Um," Alice said. Most things she could say would probably get her in trouble, one way or another. He smiled that smile at her again.

"Don't worry, Alice. An outsider like you doesn't need to worry about taking sides. Love who you love!"

Love? Love?? She wouldn't go that far!

"You’re all red," Ace teased. "You liiiiike him?"

Look at the time. It was already roughly-shove-Ace-off-of-her o’clock, yes! He giggled and took her hand in his, instead. She thought about Julius and began to wonder how in the world Julius could possibly be friends with this guy.

“You wanna kiss him?!”

"I don’t-"

He swung their entwined hands, ever-cheerful. She tried to pull away, but he had too firm a grip.

"Oh, okay. Yeah, a lot of people think he's not the best looking, or his job is too creepy- I mean, no judgement if you were into him, of course! I would be so happy for him! But, what was I saying? Oh, yeah, if you find him ugly that's not really something someone can convince you otherwise about-"

"I didn't say he's ugly! Stop putting words in my mouth."

"I just meant to say I wouldn’t judge you for it! Lots of people find him unattractive."

"I never said anything like that!"

"Ohhhhh, sorry, sorry, I see, so you are attracted to him, but you don't like him romantically."

He wasn’t dumb, Alice realized with horror. He has never been dumb. He was messing with her, and every previous time she's given him a pass for being annoying cuz he's dumb he was actually also messing with her - and ugh, he was stronger than her, too, and he still wouldn’t let go of her hand.

"I'm right, aren't I?" said Ace, wrongly.

Whatever her feelings for Julius were- and she had an awful creeping suspicion of what they might be- she was not going to figure them out here, in front of a box of apples, in public, with an annoying knight who had only right that moment finally let go of her hand.

"You're wrong. Shut up."

"You just need to tell him how you feel," Ace said, and pushed a fuzzy teddy bear into her arms. There was a pile of them next to the registers. They had a bouquet of roses and a little blank card, one in each paw.

Oh god no, thought Alice. No no never no do you even know how embarrassing that is-

"Cmon, Alice, you know how Julius is. We both know he’ll never realize you’re in love with him if you don’t tell him directly.”

"There's nothing to tell-"

"And if you're too embarassed to go face to face, that’s why you’d write-"

"I'm not writing any-"

"You could say something like “Dear Julius, your hair is so pretty, I have a huge crush on you, let’s kiss, all my love, Ali-"

THWACK.

Primal instincts kicked in. She smacked him with the bear, hard as its squishy fuzzitude would allow.

That finally, thankfully, shut him up.

"That was a strong hit! It’s a good thing I’m used to getting hurt while fighting!” he said, rubbing his upper arm. She placed the bear back in the display, but he called out after her.

"Wait, you can't just put broken merchandise back on the shelf, can you? It doesn’t seem very nice..."

She hadn’t realized the poor little leg she had held it by to commit violence now dangled by a string. Stuffing was spilled across the floor.

So they were stuck with this bear, now.

Julius seems content to put the bear in the garbage and the matter from his mind after a little while, and Alice is more than happy to let it go. He works at a calmer pace and she actually begins to stop panicking and absorb a few words of her book.

Stupid of her to expect any other reaction from him- but she can beat herself up for it later, not now when Julius might ask her what's wrong. He's gotten pretty good at that. It doesn’t come naturally to him, it's something she’s watched him pick up slowly over the course of their growing friendship- You look upset, are you feeling bad? You can tell me about what’s bothering you as I work, and I’ll make sure to listen even if I don’t talk. It's deliberate in a way that makes Alice feel... whatever that emotion she feels about him sometimes is. She glances at the fuzzy ear poking above the lip of the garbage can. She looks away.

“You never mentioned you knew Ace,” she says before she can stop herself. Julius jumps like he’s been caught doing something wrong.

“You know him?”

“I work with him. I didn’t speak much with him until recently, though. We both tried to visit you and bumped into each other, but you weren’t home, so...”

She is about to say “So we gave you what we brought and left”, but the bear was one of those objects. Best not to do that math for him.

“Oh.”

Julius fixes another two clocks before he speaks again.

“I was just... worried.”

“About what?”

He leaves her to her own worries and does not answer.

So there they sat, on a bench outside the grocery, considering the bear.

"I’ll need to fix it, of course."

"It'll fix itself, won't it?" Ace shrugged.

She could just hit him.

“Then why the fuck did you say-”

It’s her fault, she’s the one still unused to living with things self-repairing.

"Suit yourself", he shrugged, and handed her a needle and thread from his pocket (A knight needs to be prepared for anything!, though she noted his own coat had been torn so many times the world itself seemed to have assumed he wants it like that on purpose and given up on all repair).

Whatever.

She’s nearly made it. The time period changes and wouldn’t you know it she has work coming up soon and really must be getting back, and then by next visit the garbage will have been tossed and he’ll never know and things will be normal and fine forever.

"I can’t believe you didn’t leave earlier,” Julius says as he walks her to the door of his office. "The way I was acting..."

“Don’t worry.” It was her fault. (Partially).

“No, I’m sorry I was in such a bad mood." He adds with a pained smile, "You can see why the only love letters I’m getting are from people like that."

“Oh, you read our love letter?” Ace’s voice calls out behind them.

Alice whirls around, face hot. Leave it to him. At the very last second, unexpectedly-

Something changes in Julius’ face.

“Both of yours?”

“Yeah, we wrote it together,” Ace says. Alice could be confused for a new Mouse, the way she squeaks.

“Don’t get Alice involved with your schemes.” Julius steps in front of her more protectively than she deserves.

“You need to lighten up! Telling your friend you love him isn’t a "scheme", Julius....”

If she’d just thought about how Julius would react this wouldn’t have happened. If she hadn’t panicked when Ace confidently said he’d just write his own love letter.

If she hadn’t done things by halves, if she’d either not written at all or put her name to it.

If she wasn’t selfish enough to think that telling Julius how she felt from a safe distance was more important than how it’d make him feel-

“Julius, I’m so, so sor-”

“It was her idea, though?” Ace says.

She could just kill that knight.

Julius doesn’t look at her.

“You’ll have to tell Ace what I said about it yourself. I’m not doing that whole performance again.”

“It was not!” She at least has to set the record straight on that. “I just said we should leave it anonymous because-”

“I get it, I get it.” Julius holds up a hand. “It’s only a made up person who’d like me. It’s the kind of joke I’d expect from Ace, but not...”

“What?! No! We didn’t mean it like that at all!” Well, she didn’t. “Did you, Ace?”

“I did kind of expect him to take it that way,” Ace shrugs. “Julius can be a little gloomy like that sometimes!”

Alice runs across the hallway and smacks him mid-aaaahahahhahah!!

She thinks, if she’s not mistaken, she hears Julius laugh.

“He’s not used to people sincerely saying they like him,” Ace whispers to her. He was unfazed by the hit. “I’ve tried telling him before and he just rolls his eyes, thinks I’m pulling his leg. No self esteem, poor thing...”

So, she’s kind of stuck now, isn’t she?

“It’s real, okay?!” she yells down the hall to Julius. Her face must be as bright red as Ace’s coat. “I meant everything I wrote, I just got too embarassed, and Ace was already writing in it, so we compromised and...”

Julius looks stunned. Doesn’t say anything, just looks back and forth between the two of them. Then he sprints back into his office at high speed and slams the door.

Ace nudges Alice and winks. Alice frowns at him. Ace nudges her again and gives her a thumbs up, which she returns with a much ruder finger. Julius, after a while, pokes his head out.

“You’re blushing!”, Ace says.

He ignores that.

“I still think you should’ve sent chocolate instead. That’s my final word on the matter.”

“But I see you put it on your desk,” Ace coos. “Alice, look at his desk, it’s our fuzzy little baby-”

The door slams shut again.

Dear Julius,

I’m from the Castle of Hearts. I've brought you a few clocks to repair on occasion. Sometimes, I even bring them on behalf of other people, so I can see you more often. I always feel better when I see you.

Don’t worry about being depressed or gloomy! I like that you don’t go places much! I feel so secure knowing that when I visit, there you’ll be. But, I still want to take you places myself, sometime. I bet I could make you like fresh air.

From here, the handwriting changed:

I know not everyone thinks the way I do. It makes me really sad when I see how most people treat you, and when I hear what people say about you. I wish I could make everyone understand what a kind person you really are deep inside. I can’t yet fully describe how you make me feel, but I do know I love spending time with you.

This line was crossed out and barely legible:

When I know for sure, I want to tell you. Is it stupid to think you might

And then signed,

-Your secret admirer.

In the first handwriting, again:

PS sometimes when I hand over clocks our hands touch and

(The sentence cuts off, as if someone suddenly grabbed the pen from the writer’s hand.)

#hnkna #hnkna valentines 23 #OKIE im gonna stop poking at this fic and just POST IT.#immediately after this if we follow route events alice finds the ring #and has even more stupid worries to wrry about. lol

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