#i seriously thought i had moved on!!! 🤡

[throwbacktears]

anyway

with me back on my 5sos wagon, im just really glad i didnt get rid of my old tour programs and my slfl shirt

[kathlare]

netflix & chill

Lando Norris x Amelie Dayman

Summary: During a lively event, Lando’s playful teasing about their offseason antics sparks laughter and light embarrassment for Amelie

Wordcount: 2.1 k

Warnings: none

full masterlist // request over here!

February 18th, 2025 - London, United Kingdom

liked by tracksidebabyy, georgefan42, and others

lnfour: HE'S ARRIVEDDDD

View all 31,932 comments

f1_queen_92: THEY’RE SO GORGEOUS 😭😭 this is the red carpet energy I needed today!! → racedaydreams: @f1_queen_92 Right?! Like they're both serving looks, and I love how she’s glowing next to him → softloversclub: @f1_queen_92 Amelie looks so stunning in that dress. They look perfect together 💖

lanmelielover23: Just when I thought they couldn’t get any cuter, they do this 🥺🖤

tracksidebabyy: Lando really said “I’m bringing my girl to the biggest event of the year and we’re going to steal the spotlight” 👏 → mclarenf1fanatic: @tracksidebabyy Not mad at all. They’re absolutely killing it, love the energy! 🔥 → mylandoheart: @tracksidebabyy He always looks at her like she’s the most beautiful thing he’s ever seen. 😭💖

f1hotstuff: SO OVERHYPED. 🙄 Are we seriously still pretending this is real? → lanmeliedreamer: @f1hotstuff Lol just admit you’re jealous of how cute they are, it’s okay 🤡 → trackfanatic69: @f1hotstuff If you’re not here for them, just move along. Nobody’s forcing you to look at them. ✌️

gossipgrider: This is a moment. A whole moment. 😍 I’m obsessed with them as a couple!

alexis_loves_f1: Why do they always look like they’re straight out of a fairytale?? 😭 → racinginmyveins: @alexis_loves_f1 I mean, Lando’s literally living his dream, and so is Amelie. What else could we expect? 😏

gridsideflame: When will people stop pretending like Lando isn’t completely in love with her? 😂 → lanmelieforever: @gridsideflames Like it’s so obvious, right? He’s whipped and we love it. 😎 → racedaydreamer: @gridsideflames If this isn’t the definition of “loved up,” idk what is 🤷‍♂️

racequeen43: You know Lando’s really happy because he’s smiling so wide. And Amelie just has that glow now 😍 → lanmelielovebug: @racequeen43 Yess, she’s glowing for sure. I think being with him makes her so much more confident 💫 → f1sweetheart: @racequeen43 Their happiness is everything we need right now 😩

-------------

The laughter and applause echoed through the arena as Jack wrapped up the interview, but Amelie could still feel the warmth creeping up her neck. Lando’s glance in her direction, that playful glint in his eye as he confirmed to the world—without actually saying it—that they'd definitely done more than just Netflix and chill during the offseason, had her cheeks burning.

She bit the inside of her cheek, trying to suppress the smile tugging at her lips. Lando, sitting in front of her with his back partially turned, was still laughing along with Jack, but she caught the subtle way his shoulders tensed, as if anticipating her reaction.

—You’re so dead, Lan,— she whispered into his ear as Jack stood up to leave.

Lando barely turned his head, the curve of his grin unmistakable. —Worth it, though,— he replied under his breath.

Amelie rolled her eyes, but she couldn’t deny the flutter in her chest—the mix of amusement, affection, and, admittedly, a little bit of embarrassment. The camera had caught her laughing, sure, but the knowing looks from the people at the nearby tables told her that everyone had caught the implication. Not that it was a secret they were together, but still… Lando had a knack for being just cheeky enough to get away with things.

As Jack moved on to the next table, the spotlight shifted away from them, and the buzz of conversation filled the air again. Amelie reached out, her hand finding Lando’s beneath the table. She gave it a quick squeeze—half warning, half affection.

—Honestly, could’ve just said you watched Netflix like a normal person,— she teased, her lips brushing against his ear as she leaned in closer.

Lando tilted his head slightly toward her, his grin never fading. —Where’s the fun in that? Besides, you do make Netflix a lot more interesting.—

She bit her lip to stop herself from laughing out loud, shaking her head as she pulled back slightly. —One of these days, you’re gonna say something like that and regret it.—

—Doubt it. You love it,— Lando shot back, squeezing her hand beneath the table before lacing their fingers together.

Amelie just shook her head, pretending to focus on her drink as a nearby photographer snapped a picture of them—Lando’s teasing smile, her affectionate smirk, their hands intertwined. She knew that photo would be all over social media before the night was over, accompanied by captions dissecting every word of the interview.

—You’re lucky you’re cute,— she muttered.

Lando leaned closer until his lips almost grazed her cheek. —I’m lucky you love me,— he whispered, the softness in his voice catching her off guard.

Amelie’s breath hitched slightly, the warmth in her chest intensifying. Even after all the teasing, all the playful banter, moments like this still had a way of making her heart race.

—Yeah, well... you’re not wrong,— she admitted, turning her head just enough to catch his gaze. Their eyes met, and for a moment, the noise of the event faded into the background.

Lando’s smile softened, and without hesitation, he leaned in and pressed a quick, tender kiss to her lips. It wasn’t for the cameras or the crowd—it was just for her.

—You’re still dead for that comment, though,— she whispered against his lips.

—Mmm, you can punish me later,— Lando replied with a cheeky grin, pulling back just as Amelie swatted his arm.

—Unbelievable,— she muttered, though the smile tugging at her lips gave her away.

As the night continued, Amelie couldn’t help but glance at Lando every so often, her heart still fluttering from both his teasing and the little moments of affection in between. He might’ve just confirmed a little too much to the world, but honestly… she couldn’t really be mad.

Because, at the end of the day, she wouldn’t trade any of it for the world.

-------------

liked by f1wagsgossip, amelieupdatesdaily, and others

landonorrisupdates: Lando just CONFIRMED he’s been Netflix and chilling with Amelie during the off-season 👀🔥

View all 29,321 comments

f1tea: Not Lando basically admitting they were Netflix and chilling during the off-season 😭😭 → speedyboi44: @f1tea mans forgot there were cameras on him 💀 → papayagossip: @f1tea "Netflix and chill" my ass, they were FULL ON shacked up in Monaco all winter 😭 → lanmelieforever: @f1tea The way he looked at her like “Yeah, you know what we did” STOPP 😭😭

lanmeliehater99: Y’all act like this is cute, but she’s literally just using him for clout 🙄 → ameliefan27: @lanmeliehater99 Babe she was famous before he even knew how to change gears, sit down 💀 → user72837: @lanmeliehater99 Also, she’s literally richer than him. NEXT.

lanmeliebabies: Lando really sat there and admitted he’s been Netflix and chilling with Amelie in front of the entire arena 😭 They are NOT subtle anymore, help. → papayagossip: @lanmeliebabies "I made the most of it" yeah we know, Lando, we fucking KNOW. → f1wags: @lanmeliebabies Amelie just sitting there smiling like she didn’t hear him basically say they spent the whole off-season fucking 💀

landoismybaby: Y’all are eating this up but it’s actually so cringe. Like keep your private life PRIVATE.

speedyboi44: The fact that Lando used to simp for her as a fan, and now he’s out here accidentally confessing to “Netflix and chill” on a live mic is sending me 😭 → f1besties: @speedyboi44 from fanboy to boyfriend, dreams do come true 💕

-------------

The hum of conversation and the shuffle of chairs echoed through the arena as the ceremony wrapped up, and the crowd began to thin out. Amelie stood beside Lily at McLaren’s table, absently adjusting the bracelet around her wrist while they waited for the signal to head backstage.

—God, I swear my feet are gonna fall off,— Lily muttered, leaning her weight onto one leg as she slipped off one of her heels to rub her foot.

—You and me both,— Amelie replied with a quiet laugh, glancing toward the stage where crew members were starting to pack up equipment. The night had been long, but the buzz of the event still lingered in her chest—along with the lingering warmth of Lando’s teasing from earlier.

Before she could dwell on it any longer, a member of the McLaren staff approached, clipboard in hand.

—Ladies, you’re good to head backstage now. Just follow me.—

Amelie exchanged a quick glance with Lily, who slipped her heel back on with a grimace.

—Finally. I need to sit down before my toes give up on me.—

—Don’t let Oscar hear that. He’ll think you’re too delicate,— Amelie teased, nudging Lily’s shoulder as they followed the staff member through the maze of hallways leading backstage.

—Please, he’s the one who complains more than I do,— Lily shot back with a grin.

The air grew cooler as they moved away from the main stage, the hum of the crowd fading into the distance. The staff member led them to a door marked with the McLaren logo, pausing just outside.

—They’re wrapping up inside, so you’re good to go in,— he said with a polite smile before stepping aside.

Lily reached for the handle, but before she could push the door open, a familiar voice called out.

—Oi! Ames!—

Amelie turned, her smile breaking wide as she spotted Charles, George, and Alex approaching—each holding a bouquet of flowers.

—What the hell...?— she started, laughter bubbling up as they reached her.

—Congratulations, superstar!— George said, holding out a bouquet of creamy white roses mixed with soft pink peonies.

—You’re officially an EGOT now. We had to celebrate properly,— Charles added, his bouquet bursting with vibrant red and orange tulips.

—Took you long enough. I thought I’d have to wait until next year to give you these,— Alex teased, handing over a bundle of deep purple irises wrapped in white ribbon.

—Oh my God, you guys are so fucking sweet,— Amelie said, balancing the bouquets in her arms as she hugged each of them in turn. —You didn’t have to do this, seriously.—

—We didn’t have to. We wanted to,— George corrected with a grin.

—Plus, it’s not every day one of your friends makes history. We’ve got bragging rights now,— Charles added.

—You’re gonna be insufferable about it, aren’t you?— Amelie teased.

—Absolutely,— Alex replied without hesitation.

Their laughter echoed down the hallway as Amelie adjusted her grip on the flowers, inhaling the soft, floral scent. Before she could thank them again, warm arms suddenly wrapped around her waist from behind, pulling her against a familiar chest.

—Took you long enough, love. I’ve been waiting for you.—

Amelie’s smile softened as Lando’s voice rumbled against her ear, his breath warm against her skin. His hands settled lightly against her hips, fingers grazing the fabric of her dress as he pressed a quick kiss just below her ear.

—Sorry, got distracted by these idiots and their flowers,— she replied, leaning back into his embrace.

—Oi!— Charles protested. —We’re thoughtful idiots, thank you very much.—

—Yeah, don’t lump us in with him,— George added, jerking a thumb toward Alex, who flipped him off in return.

Lando chuckled softly, resting his chin against Amelie’s shoulder as she shifted the bouquets to one arm, freeing her other hand to cover his.

—You alright?— she asked, tilting her head slightly to meet his gaze.

—Better now that you’re here,— he murmured, his voice low enough that only she could hear.

Her heart fluttered, and she resisted the urge to melt into him completely—not with their friends standing a few feet away. Still, she couldn’t help the smile tugging at her lips.

—You’re such a sap,— she whispered.

—Only for you, Ames,— he shot back without missing a beat.

—Gross,— Alex muttered, though the grin tugging at his mouth betrayed him.

—Alright, we’ll leave you two lovebirds to it before Lando starts quoting poetry or something,— George said with a wink.

—Hey, I can be poetic if I want to be!— Lando called after them as they started down the hallway.

—Sure, mate. Let us know how that goes,— Charles replied with a laugh, disappearing around the corner with George and Alex in tow.

Silence settled over them as Amelie adjusted her grip on the flowers again, Lando’s arms still wrapped loosely around her waist.

—You are a sap, though,— she teased, tilting her head to glance at him.

—Mmm, maybe. But you love it,— Lando replied, dropping a kiss against her shoulder before finally stepping back. —Come on. Let’s get out of here.—

—Where to?— she asked, turning to face him fully.

The corner of Lando’s mouth quirked up into a familiar, mischievous grin. —Home. You, me... maybe some Netflix and chill?—

Amelie groaned, rolling her eyes even as laughter bubbled up in her chest. —Fuck you,— she shot back, shaking her head.

Lando’s grin only widened. —That’s the plan, love.—

—Unbelievable,— she muttered, but she still let him take the flowers from her arms, carrying them as he reached for her hand and laced their fingers together.

As they made their way toward the exit, the echoes of the night faded behind them—along with any lingering embarrassment from Lando’s earlier teasing. Because, at the end of the day, she wouldn’t trade this—wouldn’t trade him—for anything.

Even if he was a cheeky little shit sometimes.

[imcuriousokay]

You know, i've been woken up by a thought.

So let's say Bucktommy does get back together, and their going slow, communicate more, go to therapy together and yadda yadda!

They're happy and then Eddie tells Buck, he and Chris has resolved shit and Chris wants to move back to LA.

But they have trouble finding a house to rent.

Buck being Buck tells Tommy that hey maybe they can stay with him until they can find a place. It's not like they haven't lived inside each others pockets before.

Que to Tommy getting jealous *wink wink*

And does a 7x04 Buck in a Tommy way.

But Buck immediately clocks Tommy's bullshit and he's like

"Are you seriously jealous of my bestfriend?"

And Tommy's like

"He gets to live with you and be with you all the time! So yeah! I am jealous, and you do realize your bestfriend is like super hot right?!"

"I mean yeah Eddie's hot but he's not mine. You sir, you're definitely mine" he says with that cheeky grin he always has.

And they go back and forth because Buck is a nosy shit and at the Tommy just snaps.

"How 'bout you let go of your lease! And you move in with me! I love Eddie he's a great friend but i don't like sharing the love of my life!" Tommy freezes at his words and goes bright red, but GOOODDDDDDAMITTTT Buck is a giddy blushy dopey smily puddle.

"Are you sure you want us to move in together? I mean the last time..."

"Yeah.. yeah i know Evan.. and that's the biggest mistake of my life! But we're doing so good and we've been going to therapy, and what you said that night was so right... why do we have to be apart when we can be together?"

And Buck just has that Tommy smile and they kiss. And they made love and they immediately called Eddie after said love making session to tell Eddie about the lease thingy.

"I get it that your both happy! Congratulations on moving in together though, but I DO NOT want to know what you've been doing! I had enough of that during Buck 2.0 era!"

And then they live happily ever after...

If that happens then what?

It feels sooo good to be clowning🤡🤡🤡with my other fellow bucktommies again❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥

Stay clowning girlies ❤️‍🔥🤡❤️‍🔥🤡❤️‍🔥🤡

[hey-august]

Hello and welcome to the virgin!buggy brainrot 🤡

WC: ~500 Warnings: NSFW, mdni, virgin!Buggy x GN!reader, mentions of oral -m receiving and of buggy pegging himself, first time sex, insertion sex

Buggy thought he knew what it would be like.

Surely it had to be like that one pity blowjob he received as a young captain trying to make a name for himself. He even had decades of practice by taking advantage of his body’s unique abilities to fuck his own ass.

So Buggy knew how it felt to have his dick in wet, hot warmth. To feel someone else move around him, to feel pressure, constriction, pleasure. He also knew the effort it took to shove, thrust, hump. He was ready to have sex.

But the moment his overly sensitive head touched your entrance, Buggy knew he was screwed. He was in trouble. This was nothing like what he experienced previously. The pirate eased himself in and was terrified.

You weren’t warm - you were hot. Boiling hot. And tight. But soft, so deliciously soft. How did he make it this far into adulthood without this intoxicating feeling?

Buggy had watched his own body accept his length, so why did it look different when it was you? Watching himself disappear inch by inch in you was the best thing he’s ever seen. Wait, second best - the look on your face right now was better. But it was also distracting. He needed to concentrate. Fuck, he was starting to sweat and he had barely started.

Shit, the way you reacted to every little thing he did was wonderful and seriously messed with him. Every sound, twitch, contraction, pulse, even the way you fucking looked at him - it was impossible for him to find a steady tempo. He felt feral and nervous. He wanted to ravage you and bring you pleasure. He wanted to come. But could he even do all that?

Your hand moved fast, working to bring your own bliss. Buggy was enthralled and distraught. He wanted to do that, but he could hardly remember to breathe right now.

And then, you gave him the sweetest gift. A kindness that he didn’t understand at first. You begged for him to come on you. 

“Please, please, please, I want to watch you come on me. I need to feel it on my skin.”

So Buggy pulled out and fisted his slick length. This felt familiar, like a comforting hug. Any snide comments or anxious worries that you stopped him from fucking you were pushed away by the way you writhed underneath him. By the way your eyes darted between his dripping tip and blurred fist, up to his flushed and focused face. By your sinful praises, the way you begged, your decadent moans and groans as you chased a climax that arrived just as his own did.

He might have blacked out. Everything felt so good. Sounded so good. Maybe he died and went to heaven. Although heaven was sticky and damp. As his sweat soaked into the bed and then started to evaporate off his skin, Buggy moved closer to you. Closer to your warmth.

“Next time I wanna come in you.”

“It’s a deal, lover boy.”

Hopefully you didn’t notice how his soft dick tried to twitch when you laughed. What a wonderful sound.

Lover boy…maybe next time Buggy would try to make love to you. He wasn't sure how much it differed from sex, but he wanted to try. He wanted to love you.

[midnight1nk]

So, this week's episode...

[Spoilers below cut]

*GASP*

....chat. wha?

(the following is my live reaction:)

Ad time? ad time.

SMG4: "You just had to call them [the girls] yucky." *wheeze* 3 really?

*helicopter explosion* ← I did tell yall I have a terrible sense of humor. ofc I would laugh at that

now we can start :)

oh Karen, what's wrong? Uh oh, don't tell me...

GODAMMIT

I knew that second teaser had to do something with Mario going after Karen and/or her kids

YEAH FUCK THE POLICE, IT'S TIME FOR A MOM TO TAKE MATTERS INTO HER OWN HANDS

PFFT the profile pic I least expected to pop up (srs, last episode she had bootleg plush 4 as pfp) when was this pic even taken???

he really is a clown 🤡 *clown horn sounds*

...huh. 3 would do that, wouldn't he?

really? "Mario waits for the bus"? you didn't even get past that starting screen

:O

WOAH WOAH ok, everyone chill out.

3, you probably could've worded that better. did you really have to go that far?

and Karen, I was wondering: where were you before this happened? Genuinely, I'm blaming you for the situation but you're usually near your kids so maybe it was just a quick errand? WHAT HAPPENED BETWEEN THE LAST EPISODE AND THIS ONE?

BEEG4?! LET'S GOOOOO WE'RE SO BACK

dude, I seriously cheered. I mean, hey any chance to have the SMG4 kids for an episode is a win in my book

that's his boy!!!

🥹 he's so sweet oh my god

it's like he gave me hot chocolate and wrapped me up in a blanket, and this wasn't even directed at me

somehow my subcategory of fave characters fully has a "caring and supporting talk while getting a ride home from the airport" vibe

how can you hate 4? no, like seriously, how can you hate him? i don't get it

we gotta move on or else I'm gonna start chasing haters around with a bat

YES KAREN & 4 TEAM UP IS BACK (now with beeg4)

amazon? don't tell me the monopoly man is involved

they call him Uncle Mario? noooo don't do that to me

and the parenting episode came back for this *head in hands*

😦 we finally got a voice

Mario did it so Karen could relax from the stress? Hmm, while it would be something Mario would do, it still feels off. idk I just have a bad feeling something was done to Mario

yeah, it's not helpful, but aw 💙

GOTTA GO FAST GOTTA GO— *gets run over by a bus* OH C'MON

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! THAT TOY WAS RELEVANT?! *facepalm* omg I should've known

LET'S GO? OK TEAM UP

finally, welcome back "We Must Kill Mario"

HOLY SHIT THAT WAS TOTALLY WICKED

...ngl he kinda gives me Niles vibes

Mr. WPNZ, huh? 🤔 hmmmmmm

still don't trust any of this (probably insane)

😦 IT'S THE ORGANIZATION, IT'S THEM AND YOU CAN'T TELL ME OTHERWISE

(not that I'm Mr WPNZ is the boss, just that he's part of it)

ZACK NO

CORY NOT YOU TOO

NONONONONONONNONONO

*head in hands* I was afraid this would happen

listen, I remember clips of this shitty movie (idk how long ago), that basically these child soldiers were given VR headsets by this secret organization, being told that it's just videogame for training. The twist was that the children were actually killing real people. it's basically that here

it's going to be "oh, you thought that this was fun? wait until you do the real thing" *head in hands* Karen please get there on time

oh boy

Karen Karen, ik you're desperate and trying to find your kids but there's no need to interrogate Luigi like this

save that energy for the real deal

oh. well that was a quick scene

>:(

*sigh* It's the father. Like, I was thinking about it in the back of my mind palace and didn't want to say anything until now

Still polishing the analysis but I did suspect that the father was going to come into the picture again, in three ways to be exact: The Sacrifice, The Protector, or The Lost Cause. And it's unfortunately, that last one

it makes sense why the father would be here taking the kids. The secret organization already knows about the kids and Karen not taking any of their orders. So, they would have to take drastic measures to get Karen to do what they want, and why not send out the person related to the family? After all, they can't send out the boss with the scary voice to talk with the kids. Have a friendly and charming face, one that the kids could relate to and trust

But clearly, he's the absent father

NONONO WHERE DID HE TAKE THEM?

WHAT DID I SAY? I knew they must've had advanced technology based on the walkie-talkie alone, or at least what they picked for inspiration from informants (could be the government-level or something similar???)

Now, this is going to be me full-on hating on this dude, and totally believing that this is the actual father, so if you want to skip ahead, you can. I just need to get it out of my system: Oh right, listen here you piece of shit. You better not play yourself the victim here just bc "oh the organization brainwashed me", bc guess what? you did all that willingly. You chose to stay behind instead of running away with Karen or having the guts to go against the organization. You chose to accept the mission handed to you to go after your own kids and recruit them through manipulation. You chose to see you kids only when it's convenient to you and your boss. You chose to bash Karen when never once have you been an actual father in their lives. Oh, and what's more? You're clearly insecure and jealous bc Karen was the best agent the organization had, they went for her on that hit for Marty instead of you. Count your days, you and the organization have nothing against the wrath of a mother.

*flips desk*

ok, now i'm done. let's continue

Mario, it's best if you start talking or Karen's going to get the wrong idea

OH, the walkie-talkie! it should still be here, right? near the boxes? Karen did see Mario with it on the security footage, maybe she can connect the dots!

...WHAT? the end credits?! you can't end it there! AND no end theme music either?! TEAM YOU CAN'T DO THIS TO US

Let's see, Gianni Matragrano as Mr. WPNZ? Well, that confirms several of my suspicions. Though, I'm not familiar with the VA

Huh, apparently he's a VA for Glitch's Gaslight District series. Yeah, that makes sense. Still not that familiar to me tho, I'm sure other people will recognize him.

Congrats to The_StUpid_VeLL for your art being featured at the end credits! 🎉

.・-: ✧ :--: ✧ :-・.

Ok, first off, can I say the thumbnail did not need to go this hard? Ben, you REALLY cooked.

Ben: "Drawing blood on smg4 characters is my passion :3"

Yeah, I could tell, now more so in your new AU. but I also don't like the implications we're going to get from this and no, I'll try not to bring 4's left eye into discussion.

This was a pretty cool episode, love how the Team brought back elements from the "We Must Kill Mario" and "Mario Teaches Parenting" episodes. Pacing on a few (very few) parts could've been better, like the Luigi interrogation scene felt too quick idk. But overall, pretty good! There were definitely funny parts, some were sweet. One was 3 going after Karen's neck like sheesh, that was harsh. And I know we're trying to guess who Mr. WPNZ is and how the plot's going to go, but man. The Crew cannot catch a break.

It's sad to think about Karen trying so hard to forget her past as her way to move on but that organization keeps bothering her, and now involving the kids in this. And the thing is the kids don't even know about her past, naturally they wouldn't know how bad this is going to get. Then, there's the father. From the way he's been, I'm 95% sure it's really him. I'll talk about this more in my analysis but I could tell from the captions alone. It simply makes sense. oops, all trauma!

I think the plot could lead up to the kids being used as leverage against Karen. The ultimate deal would be: the kids becoming future assassins or Karen giving herself up and returning to the organization. Them or her. Both options are bad bc either way, the organization would have the kids in their custody. Not sure how the Team's going to go with this, but I hope Karen doesn't forgive the father of her kids. Just let Karen kick their asses 😌↕️ It's all I ask.

And if I tell you this show's about all types of love, including familial?

Like I said, I'll be talking about it more in my analysis, and I'm still thinking about Marty and Karen needing a job, but this is what I have to offer for now! I'll see you all next time and remember: numbers go first!

.

.

.

.

.

.

hey Team, don't think I haven't seen that door. ever since we brought it up, it's come to haunt me every chance it gets.

fine fine, I'll work on the ref sheets. not now but soon.

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

leona in club leadership

Me: I’m safe after the hitman that was Epel’s Birthday Jacket jumpscared me with the “Leona is a reliable senpai” talk Broomquet Leona: Broomquet Leona: *slowly raises the broom for a bonking*

why Why WHY

THGiS KeEEP S HAPPENinQ GgGggGggGGGGGGggggggg OTL wW E KJEEPA GETTIGN FL*ONA BEING A Goo D CAPTaiN SENAPI MENT0oe ER tPO HIS CLUB mQME MBers AND UNdERCLASMeN I'T S' DRIVXINw fG ME UP THE qm FUCKKERIQQaqBG gg gnK d WALLLLLLLLLLL

I THOUGHT I HAD PUT IT ALL BEHIND ME BUT NO 😭 HERE COMES CATER BAITING LEONA TO TAL K ABOUT AMGIFT /SPELLDrIV3 CLBU IN THS BROOMQUET......... . . ........ .. . ... . . . .. . QHJEBIYslbiufadbadf TO GET THESE THOUGHTS OUTTA MY HEAD I'M GONNA RANT A ND RAVE A LIL' aboUT L*ONA AND HIS cLUB

Alright, so. 🤡 We all know that Leona's the captain of the Magical Shift/Spelldrive Club at NRC (moving forward, I will refer to this as "Magift Club", since that's the shortest phrase). What's more is, we actually get quite a bit of information about how he goes around running the club and training its members (although the information is scattered across various vignettes, so it may be difficult to piece it all together if you don't know where to look or don't read certain vignettes). THIS IS THE GOOD STUFF THOUGH, THIS IS A GOLD MINE OF LuONA CHA EARCTERiXATION AND I'M GOINOG TO POP of DFF ABOUT IT

Firstly! In book 2 of the main story, Jack tells us that he was impressed by Leona's amazing play in a Magift game three years ago. This would later become a part of Jack's motivation to attend Night Raven College--so he could become a great athlete, and, perhaps, get to play against or alongside that player that he admired so much. Even when Jack learns that Leona is playing dirty to eliminated Diasomnia from the interdorm tournament, Jack exposes that he believes Leona is capable of securing a victory by playing fairly. Maybe you could call it a freshman's naive beliefs, but Jack knows that Leona is better than this. What book 2 shows us is that Leona is willing to resort to underhanded tactics to come out on top--but he's also very skilled in his own right, both physically and intellectually, and even at his lowest points, he has people who trust him to lead them: people like Jack. But where does this faith and respect come from???????? For that, we'll have to dive into additional materials.

In many vignettes, such as Ace's PE Uniform and Ruggie's Outdoor Wear, we hear from other characters that the Magift Club members train rigorously (usually to the point of exhaustion). Ruggie, a fellow Magift Club member, confesses to his inexperience; he never played Magift before coming to NRC and he's not a born athlete. He seriously considered quitting the club due to their physically demanding practice and training. However, Ruggie credits Leona for the vast improvement he has made, citing that Leona would give him all kinds of assignments to hone his skills. More importantly, doing all of these assignments also taught Ruggie how to endure and persist in the face of adversity. Ruggie could have just lied here and said the training was easy to quickly and artificially inflate the numbers of new recruits he pulls in to please Leona (some of the new recruits would end up dropping out anyway) BUT HE DOESN'T. This leads me to believe that Ruggie is being honest about what it takes to be in Magift Club and is genuinely praising Leona's guidance as a part of why it's beneficial to join. "Leona makes every session worthwhile [...] He makes all the calls during our games, but otherwise lets us do our thing. Which means we can work out our problem spots for ourselves. He's a great captain!"

Epel, the other main cast member in Magift Club, has not yet joined at the time of the flashback in Ruggie's Outdoor Wear vignette. Upon hearing Ruggie's praise of Leona, Epel gets the impression that Leona is an incredible person. Post-joining the club, this impression continues. In his Birthday Jacket vignettes, Epel describes Leona as someone who is quick-witted, fierce-looking, and has a cool personality. He really admires Leona and wants to be like him someday, making him the second first year that has these sort of sentiments. Epel tells stories similar to Ruggie, saying that Leona has helped him out a lot during club and is generally good at looking out for others. He specifically mentions that everyone counts on Leona for his leadership during games and provides individualized advice to help each team member improve (details which supports what Ruggie initially told the freshmen). People outside of Leona’s reign also comment on this, such as Ace in Endless Halloween Night. He remarks that the first thing Leona thought to do was untie Epel; this leads Ace to conclude that Leona, does, in fact, look out for people despite how he usually acts 🤡

Epel also says that he "knows" Leona would help him study if he were on the verge of failing a class. AND YOU KNOW WHAT??????????? Leona actually DOES tutor Ruggie (who initially descibes his grades as being "in the dumpster") and gives advice and materials to him. Now Ruggie's grades are average, but passing. In his Labwear vignettes, Leona doesn't formally teach Epel, but he does make a voice-changing potion to help Epel out (although his own ulterior motive was to avoid Rook, who was the one that originally helped Epel). When Epel and Grim then beg Leona to show them his technique, he refuses and seems annoyed at their requests. In other words, Leona doesn't seem eager to teach others unless it serves a purpose for himself.

Leons is oftentimes pushing others to perform well, and in a way that serves a dual purpose of helping the individual out but also ultimately benefitting him. For example, Leona helps sand Azul’s contracts because he wants to as terminate an agreement he has with Azul. Additionally, he plots in book 2 not only to help his dorm mates be noticed by Magift scouts, but also to prove his own worth as a leader. In yet another instance, Leona shows students outside of his club how to efficiently mine for magestone so they can fulfill their goal and earn a Vargas Badge. This clears them out of the cave so he can nap there. Leona is working smarter, not necessarily harder. Relating this to Magift Club... As Ruggie and Epel have told us, Leona runs his members ragged during practice. As a rich kid and royalty, he’s said to have a natural inclination for being demanding and ordering others around—but there’s always some kind of compensation or reward for following orders well. Ruggie gets many perks from doing Leona’s errands and chores for him, so he willingly follows Leona. For the Magift Club, the intense training causes those unable or unwilling to keep up to quit, leaving behind the go-getters, the tough, and the willful. Not only are these the types of people most likely to do well in actually playing the sport, but they’re also the types of people Leona himself is seeking with play with.

When your players are willing and able to train hard and by themselves (knowing what their strengths and weaknesses are, as well as how to improve), it encourages… independence. It means less work for the captain to do. It means having a group of people who are obedient and obey your every word. It means Leona can get away with napping during club practice. He's working them hard now so they can take care of themselves later and he has to do less. That seems to be the implication in some instances, as Riddle had noted before that, “it has been a while since [he has seen Leona] sincerely apply himself to his club activities.” (That's because Leona has already trained his team to be comfortable train on their own! This is demonstrated in the flashback of his Beastly Garb vignettes, when Leona instructs his club to do cooldown exercises "on their own while he heads off to nap.) And believe me, when he’s “applying himself”, his talent shines through (just as his intelligence does when he wants to employ it). As Epel and Ruggie say in Leona’s Halloween vignette (flashback), 5 people tried to get the disc away from Leona for 30 minutes and still weren’t successful while Leona barely broke a sweat. Part of the reason why Leona is able to afford bossing his team members around is because he can walk the walk. His own abilities, then, also serve as a point of motivation for the rest of the team. They want to be able to perform on the same level as him, want the honor to play with someone like that. We see one prominent example of this in his Dorm Uniform vignettes. In them, Jack is being bullied by Savanaclaw (senpai) mobs because they're annoyed with his athletic abilities and righteous attitude. These mobs also accurse Leona of being unworthy to lead them because "all [he does] is slack off during practice". They quickly learn the true magnitude of Leona's strength when he defends Jack from 30 mobs at once, not only demonstrating that he is fit for the title of captain, but also someone that has earned Jack's respect.

Though the Dorm Uniform vignettes ultimately frame Leona as siding with Jack, there is a lot of strategic thinking and wisdom in the advice he imparts to both parties involved in the quarrel. He argues in favor of the mobs "skirting the rules", which falls in line with his willingness to disregard morality so long as he achieves an end goal (see: his actions against Azul in book 3, and his actions in book 2 against Malleus). In this case, Jack preaching about playing by the rules is getting in the way of their goals (which will resurface in book 2). That's why he gets put in time-out to "think about his actions", and how he sees the world as black and white, evil and good. To Leona, it's not cheating, it's just playing smart and within the rules specifically specified (the mobs still acted within the boundaries set by rules) or what isn't specifically outlawed (they can't lose to Malleus if he can't play to begin with) to get what he wants. To this point, Leona also sees no shame in strategic retreats and surrenders. This is illustrated by him willingly turning himself into STYX when they approach, and passing on temporary leadership to Ruggie while he's gone. Again, he's just working with what he has in the systems that are presented to him, and he expects everyone else to be able to play the same game. While Leona tells Jack off, it's also true that Leona does have some code of honor as it relates to his own interests; he tells the mobs they're acting embarrassing by "punching down" and being jealous of a freshman. This doesn't come from a place of concern for Jack, or from worry about their attitude, but primarily from irritation that he has to clean up after their behavior. As we see in book 2, Leona himself has no issue with playing Magift against freshmen who are new to the sport (Ace, Deuce, etc.) when they've come unannounced into his dormitory. It's Jack who has to intervene there and call Leona out for picking on the small fry. Even Leona warning the mobs for using magic outside of Magift is a ploy to serve his own agenda. It's against school rules to use magic unless instructed; Leona is, therefore, against his students wailing on Jack using magic instead of fists because it could attract undue attention from staff (and thus cause issues for him, as their dorm leader). This is also why Leona wants to take on the Heartslabyul detective group in a game of Magift instead of just fighting them then and there; it's to avoid causing such a ruckus right before the big interdorm tournament. Leona has a problem with people challenging his authority and making unnecessary trouble for him to fix. When it serves his interests, he'll turn, and/or he won't side completely with one party. He can easily see the pros and the cons of both sides. If Jack is black and white, then Leona is all grey.

This is another notable quality of Leona's: he can identify and understand people's strengths and weaknesses, sometimes even better than they do themselves. His own club members can attest to how Leona gives them specific advice to improve their skills. In fact, we get to see one instance of it in Leona's Beastly Garb vignettes. Epel asks Leona for advice on how to better control the disc, since he's been missing passes and dropping them a lot. Leona responds by telling him not to worry about it and then walking off. A lot of people might look at this and say "he's just being lazy and shirking his work again". But later in the vignette, Leona explains his rationale: Epel's strength is his speed. When he's handling a disc as he's flying, that significantly cuts down on that speed and hinders his overall performance. If Epel tries to get better at all these things at once, he'll neglect his actual strength and not be useful to the team. Leona reasons that since making objects float is a fundamental skill for a mage, Epel will naturally practice it more and improve with time, so in the meantime he should dedicate his time in club to what he's already got as an asset.

This discerning eye is not just limited to club members, either. Leona has shown that, time and time again, he can key in on people. It was Leona who recognized Ace's craftiness and how Ace planned to use Leona's presence to his own advantage in Endless Halloween Night. Leona doesn't worry about the potential harm a wayward disc could have caused Riddle because he knows Riddle could easily deflect it with his own magic (in Ace's PE vignette). He alone noticed that Jamil's eyes "always glare" and senses his malicious intent against Kalim (in Jamil's School Uniform vignette). This is WAY before the events of book 4 ever came out too. Then, in book 6, Leona points out that Ruggie knows how keep to the strongest people to make up for his own deficits, how Jack knows how to adhere to a hierarchy, and how even Kalim has strengths in how amicable he is, and the wealth he was born into. He knows when people aren't meeting their full potential too, telling Jamil that he keeps making excuses instead of actually acting.

What makes the whole conversation Leona has with Jamil so great is that a lot of what is said is relatable for the two of them. Leona, too, knows what it's like to be in a situation where others shun his talents in favor of another. That's why he's able to speak so pointedly on the matter. It's that connection that helps to move Jamil and motivate him to finally act on his own to fulfill a support role for Leona that he needs later on. There's a parallel here with how Leona acted in book 2; he tried and tried and tried, and when he failed, he sat down and gave it all up, blaming his team mates and claiming he played along with their game. Leona was a quitter before. But now he's seeing that same behavior in others and he's calling it out, bluntly posing the question of if they're going to continue to wallow or if they're going to pick themselves up and move forward. It's the same lesson that HE had to learn for himself. If you consider that his Dorm Uniform vignettes play out prior to book 2, it becomes even more fitting for his growth since he tells Jack back then: "[...] guys who own up to their mistakes are all right in my book. Keep at it and model that behavior for the rest of Savanaclaw." This is Leona owning up to his own mistakes. He never openly and formally apologizes what his wrongdoings or promised to "be better" (then again, some OB boys just don't), but he's making up for his past behavior by imparting the wisdom he learned with his peers, whether subconsciously (like, out of guilt) or consciously.

This all goes hand-in-hand with the high standards Leona has set for Magift Club. Cater asks him for the details of his club's training (in Leona's Broomquet), to which the birthday boy responds with a story about how a team member didn't have enough stamina for a game, so instead of training them to pass the disc, he purposefully chucked the disc as far as it would go. It's to demonstrate to the club member that was lacking in stamina that this is the distance they need to be able to go, and this is their current disparity. It comes off as perhaps too harsh (and certainly a means to quit the club), but as Leona puts it, he doesn't want nor need cowards with him. His team should be full of people who get frustrated when they cannot meet their goals and will actively think about how to be better, then come back and try again and again. Think of it like how Mulan found smarter ways to tackle the challenges put forth by the army, rather than training the conventional way. That's what Leona expects of his club members, and it's the same mentality that drives himself. Tackling the same problem using creative solutions--it's like a game of chess. qbkhldyuFVYOwovyifS ;fslh ihof Aana dnAn thEN MCaER T SAYS smsethbha TH LIKE "waaaah~ Leona-kun is such a cool leader~" AFSHYJASVYOIFADOS AND THANE THAT FUCKE R LONA ' JUST G oeaS "this is to be expected of every leader, it's the basics" UNM???????? ??? ??? ???? ? BITCH EXCUSE YOU???? ???? ??? ? ? ? ? ? 😭 IW ANS'T EXPEC TING TO BE FUCXKIGFN A ATTACKED LKIKE THIS, CA T MAN

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P.S. I'M SO SCARE D THAT HE'S GONNA OUTRPAVE ROOO K ON MY FAOVRIRTS LIST I'M SOC UFKC IUNG SCARED

[youraveragebtsstan]

My Buddie Babies: Let's Talk (Post 9-1-1 S7E5 Commentary)💕

First of all, Hi Girlies! How are we doing on this fabulous, fabulous day? After all, another day where BiBuck is canon is another day in paradise. Am I right? Of course, I am! 🥰🥰🥰

In all seriousness, I just wanted to reflect and comment on a few things I noticed on Tumblr after S7E5 aired. A few fellow Buddie Stans were a little iffy on this week's episode for a few reasons, but I wanted to touch on a couple. And I know no one really cares about my opinion, but as someone who's been ABSOLUTELY CHOMPING AT THE BIT for Buddie since Eddie joined the 118, I feel like this is warranted.

First things first: Marisol...

Now hear me out, I know Eddie's past relationships haven't been the best. (Hell, some might even say not entertaining)- but I really feel this season is more focused on Eddie's growth than the actual relationship between Marisol and Eddie itself. Does that make sense?

Like, as someone who loves to write, I see Marisol as a plot device- she's here to push Eddie in the right direction. (Now if that happens to be into Bucks arms, I sure won't be complaining.) But even if it doesn't, that's fine too. To me, it's clear Eddie's relationships have failed for a reason- and that reason being Eddie. This whole nun thing with Marisol, though funny as hell to me, was a realization for Eddie that he moves way too fucking fast. I mean, he asked her to move in, then wanted to shack up at Buck's place for a couple days to avoid seeing her at home! His conversation with Bobby proved that when he said it himself. He rushed things with Shannon, he rushed things with Anna and now he's doing the same thing with Marisol. Eddie needs time to get his shit together first, then we can make Buddie canon.

Now on to my second point: Buddie.

I know some people are disappointed Eddie hasn't expressed feelings for Buck yet, but I'm kind of happy he hasn't. I would HATE it if Eddie and Buck got into a relationship, only for Eddie to unintentionally rush things. We already know Buck has abandonment issues and I would be so floored if Eddie realizes he's moving too fast only to pull away. Our boys are precious and deserve the world- but only in due time...

Let's face it, Eddie and Buck are rather impulsive and with their job it makes sense- they have to be reactionary, quick thinking; but when it comes to this relationship shit, it hasn't benefited them in the slightest. The boys need time to figure things out.

Though I'd love to see it, we don't NEED Buddie this season. BuckTommy fulfills my 'Happy Buck' quota and any day Eddie is on screen is a good day indeed.

We've survived 6 seasons of the Great FOX Queerbait Slow Burn- so one more won't kill us. After all, 9-1-1 was just renewed for season 8! So, with Tim Minear as the show runner, I'm hopeful.

...So that's it. That's all the food for thought I've got for today. I just had to get that off my chest.

See you next time queers! Tootaloo 🤡

[theforgottenmcrmy]

live reactions to house of the dragon season 2, episode 5

as always, these are just my opinions🖤

(spoilers below the cut)

Oof, even the recap of the battle still hurts🥲

I have subtitles on, and I just love how the intro says “(epic theme playing)”

Lord Cregan and Lady Jeyne spotted in the tapestry?👀

Corlys pleaseee, I’ve tried to be strong for a whole week. Don’t do this to me.😭

I’m so conflicted with the fact that he might have stepped out on Rhaenys at some point, because it’s so evident that he loved her greatly.

Rhaenyra🥲

Such a dumb PR move by the Greens. Thats all I’ll say.

You can literally HEAR one of the small folk ask, “they killed a dragon?👀”

Rhaenyra WILL answer this 🔥

Meleys, you deserved so much more💔

And just WHAT do they think they will do with Rhaenys’s body?!?!?! (If that’s what’s in that cart)

The irony of Alicent’s favorite child now becoming something she can no longer control…

Oh shit, wait- is that…. Surely it’s not-

You’re seriously trying to tell me there was NO other way to get Aegon back into the castle?!?! Seriously? If you insisted parading Meleys’s head around for the small folk, you at least could have brought Aegon into the keep by a back gate or SOMETHING.

And now that I’m thinking about it, what the hell did Aemond say when he returned back without Aegon? What did he tell Alicent?

Wowwwwwww. I knew Aemond was cold, but I guess I didn’t realize HOW cold he’d become. Imagine dracarys’ing your brother, then coming back to gloat over his burned body and announcing the obvious that someone will have to rule in his stead,

They seriously just LEFT Sunfyre there?!?!?! And what the hell does Cole mean? Is he dead?😭

“Our largest dragon has been killed” yes BUT so was Rhaenys?!

GAG HIM, MY QUEEN🖤

Seriously though, all these men talk a big game about battles that haven’t truly occurred in DECADES.

I’m really hoping the swap the sacking of King’s Landing for Rook’s Rest. Quite frankly I don’t think I can take another emotional blow this season.

I love Jace and Baela’s dynamic so much.

Real talk though, would the Brackens or anyone else for that matter even be able to hear Daemon over Caraxes and the horses?😂

Mmmmm, Fried Bracken.

“I did not think they would be so eager to die.”💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀 Please, why is Daemon so unintentionally hilarious this season.

Not Daemon of all people making a decent attempt at ceasing a centuries long feud-

The Vale 💙 🕊️

Yep, Lady Jeyne is Rhaenyra’s kin alright.

Mysaria is right on point. And I’m loving seeing Rhaenyra putting her trust in others again🙌🏻

Go Elinda go go go

Why do I feel like whatever is going to happen with Corlys will not go well…

Oh Lordy, Alys is feeling creative tonight isn’t she…

My favorite WHAT?!?!?! 🤮🤮🤮

I wouldn’t be hungry either, the FUCK

“His family’s wealth” I’m sorry Ser Simon STRONG, is that not your family too?

I love their banter, that’s the hell😂

“The obvious choice is immediate successor, Aemond.” OH, so Aemond IS his heir? Almost exactly like I said on a tik tok i’d made, only for some people to argue with me that the Greens would have Jaehaera inherit before him? (Even though doing so would be hypocritical to their entire cause)

Ser Crispy, you can kiss any chance with Alicent you ever had goodbye 👋🏻

Aemond doesn’t miss a beat, immediately hopping to business. I’m weak as hell.

Alicent’s having a panic attack rn, isn’t she?

The dog😭💔

“What he has somehow become” girl be so fr. As if YOUR lack of investment and attention to him, and your willingness to ignore Aegon’s awful treatment of him for years (that you damn well knew plenty about) played absolutely NO roll in Aemond becoming what he is…

Cole’s been sipping some of Alicent’s delulu tea. He REALLY thought he was sparing her by stabbing her in the back to support Aemond as regent instead.🤡🤡🤡

What’s with the Frey’s and them ALWAYS EATING whenever they’re conducting business?

It’s realllllly fucking crazy to think that (show) Jace is bargaining away his OWN INHERITANCE and he doesn’t even know it like🫥🫥🫥

Even crazier for the Freys to think they were just going to be given Harrenhal without declaring for Rhaenyra.

If Daemon knows she’s a witch, why is he so keen to play buddy buddy with Alys literally every damn chance he gets? Sus.

Ugh, I hope Daemon has a moment of clarity. This change from FOB is NOT it.

I’m confused, I could’ve sworn Corlys was already named Hand.

Baela🖤🖤🖤 The icon, the legend. We love you.

“I am blood and fire. Driftmark must pass to salt and sea.” GODS could you be any more bad ass like-

Rhaenyra using See Alfred’s own subconscious opinion of her and her abilities against him in order to get him to do what she wants😂 you sure you aren’t a direct descent of Margaery Tyrell, ma’am?

Ser Simon’s probably thinking “would you like to regain control of this situation at any point, or…?”

Nice touch to have Rhaenyra with a lady (who is not the usual tone) who’s tugging a bit too much at her hair, since Elinda is busy off in King’s Landing.

Helaena KNOWS

Alicent sitting at Aegon’s beside, as she once did for Viserys…

Not the “mummy”😭💔💔💔

“Will you fly before Vhaegar as Luke did?” Ma’am, that was TOO COLD💀😭

So is Sunfyre really gone then?😭 What the hell, these changes are starting to irk me.

Did not miss that Rhaena had an off-screen attempt to claim a dragon.

If only Sam from GOT had a dragon😂

Dragonseeds, here we go…

Glad to see they didn’t cut the mob scene with Helaena and Alicent from the trailer, but I’m curious to see the context of it now since it wasn’t during Jaehaerys’s funeral.

VERMITHOR🖤🖤🖤🔥🔥🔥

[cebwrites]

grief and how (not) to process it

a/n: yeah i don't know what else to say other that my naruto era is making a resurgence 🤡

oc | gen word count: 1.3k

So, no one takes Jiraiya's passing well - Naruto's as he is in the series, Takashi isn't much better than Naruto but alot more emotional, Tsunade's just barely on the cusp of falling back into destructive habits if not for the fact that she's Hokage, Hyou's just trying to keep everything together as always, and Tae's currently in denial of his grief entirely, claiming that there's nothing TO grieve for a man he never knew. They're all miserable.

On top of his denial, Tae's also pushing people away and lashing out - nothing explosive, just small bursts he immediately regrets and makes himself spiral worse. Everyone else mentioned above has at least some support network to fall back on but Tae isolates himself and avoids anyone trying to reach out. It gets to where Shizune really wants to get through to him because no one else could up to that point, but when she gently reaches for his arm he yanks it away and tells her to just let it go.

Eventually Naruto pulls himself into a decent enough state to hand something over. They look at each other from a small distance away and they both look awful. Tae asks what it is, Naruto says he doesn't know but Jiraiya wanted him to have it in case anything like this happened. Tae asks what about his brother and Naruto says he doesn't know again but angrier, they part ways.

It turns out to be some kind of puzzle but Tae's in no state to decode it. He fiddles around with it for a few days, ignores it, then eventually throws it in the lake before he immediately jumps in to find the damn thing. He comes home soaking wet with it in a death grip. Parallels a scene when he was younger coming home from the rain after ditching a ceremony where Jiraiya was supposed to be given some sort of award.

When he does finally crack the code, it opens up to reveal coordinates. Tae requests time off to see it through and Tsunade grants it without a second thought, but Genma's out on a mission at the time.

Kotetsu and Izumo cut in and say that they'll go with him as he turns to leave, they all but beg Tsunade not to let him go alone - she agrees to these terms too and they're an official 3-man team for this temporary expedition. If Tae's disappointed or relieved it doesn't show, his face hasn't moved from the blank slate it's been since they were given the news that Jiraiya was killed.

The trip there is tense and quiet aside from the boyfriends trying their best to lighten the atmosphere to no avail, it's thankfully short. When they get there Tae recognizes it from one of the few positive memories he had of his father; it was very infrequent, but Jiraiya used to take him and his siblings to this waterfall in the summer.

What they're actually here for is behind the waterfall, a cave hidden by complex seals only two or more people could've undone. Kotetsu and Izumo stay near the entrance out of courtesy but they can see quite a bit inside.

It was almost like makeshift living quarters in there, only that everything was caked in dust and hadn't looked like there was a living visitor in years. Probably somewhere Jiraiya could hunker down and stew in his ideas for a while. Tae finds old manuscripts for his father's novels, notes for his travels, even plans for tracking Orochimaru's whereabouts to bring him home. This place was OLD old, then.

Just as he's about to leave, Tae spots something under the mess of papers and decades old empty sake bottles. He undoes the seal on the floor and a compartment reveals itself with a medium sized wooden box inside. In it, are two scrolls labelled "brats", and "mine".

Tae goes for the second one first, finding more of Jiraiya's unfinished drafts and cheesy writing - seriously, he doesn't know what appeal Kakashi sees in those books - but he also finds pictures of his father's youth, old photos of Minato and Kushina, of the Sanin Jiraiya couldn't quite bring himself to throw out even after all this time. It's all, predictably, very personal. Taeru puts everything back.

In the first, he finds yet more drafts - they're strewn in-between what seemed to be letters never sent and pages torn out of a notebook. The scene changes to Minato peering over his sensei's shoulder, jittery and giddy because he's just received news that he's going to have a baby. Jiraiya's almost as disbelieving as Minato is. The more Tae reads, the more scenes from the past we, the audience, get to see.

Kaoru didn't plan to have any more kids after Hyou but much like her first kid that's just how things shook out, Jiraiya was nervous but ready to dedicate himself to being a parent, he started planning to write a children's book for his nin on the way (and gets laughed at but it doesn't deter him), discarded manuscripts for this were among the contents in the first scroll. It sounded like Jiraiya really was excited for all of this.

After Kaoru's passing when the twins were just a few weeks old, the notes became scarce and haphazard. What few excerpts were chicken scrawl. Jiraiya was obviously in pain.

Tae read through his father's regrets, his fears, his conflict between staying with him and Takashi and potentially bringing more danger to their door or distancing himself to lessen the likelihood of another attack. The latter was what he picked but reading his father's thoughts at the time shifted his view on things a bit.

Finally, Tae got to the last untouched thing from the first scroll. A book with poorly drawn cartoon characters on the first page. It started out as a children's book, talking about how his father wanted to dedicate this to his unborn child, but eventually turned into Jiraiya apologizing for his missteps if the boys ever found this; regretting not holding them so much closer to heart and being too much of a coward to tell them how he actually felt. He couldn't bring himself to do it in person, but the least he could do was put down his feelings here.

Kotetsu and Izumo ran in at the sound of Tae's wail, finding him doubled over in front of that book and clinging to a picture of Jiraiya holding his newborn boys. Tetsu and Zumo stayed with him as Tae cried it out, rubbed his back while he screamed it raw and helped pack up when night fell and they needed to head back.

Tae was too exhausted to move but Kotetsu carried him on his back without complaint, Izumo guarded that wooden box and its contents like it held secrets to shake the five nations.

A few days later when Kotetsu and Izumo come to check up on him again, Tae's a lot more level headed and closer to what they're sure is "normal" for him; still flat faced and understandably upset, but no traces of that scary "autopilot" look he had the whole time. Tae invites them in and apologizes for his behavior properly with tea and cut fruit, the chunin tease him for being so formal, they're friends, aren't they?

Kotetsu does admit, however, that it was a little nice in a way since Tae hadn't needed their help that much since they were all the same rank. And even though he wished it could've been found through better circumstances, how he missed that. They both then resolve to be reliable friends that Tae could lean on more often again.

Tae takes a second to stare at his friends, then hugs them before either can get too skittish and change their minds or the subject. They're too busy fussing over the sudden gesture to comment about the smile Tae hides in their shoulders, along with more tear stains.

[libra-stellium]

TW: body image issues, weight

Saturn went direct in my 1H and the saturn return said “And we’re back this is news tonight on channel 7 and we’re talking and spiraling about body image issues that you haven’t thought about in the last 4.5 months”

This started last night for me while I was sorting through clothes. I’ve finally found the energy to go through all my clothes I’ve been hoarding for the last 10 years and make bags to donate. Las night I was going through clothes from 2013/14 so my freshmen year of college and it makes me so sad to see how small the clothes were!!! Not in a I’m sad I’m not that size anymore way but in a I can’t believe this version of me was constantly fat shamed by my family!!

Most of the clothes were Small and medium and from the 2010s when the sizing was way smaller than what a small and medium are today and I was walking around feeling like I belonged on my 600lb life. Baffles my mind! I used to suck in my stomach so much I would be in bed relaxing and I would suck it in 💀 and I heard my mother’s voice every time!

To quickly explain my mother I remember my 8th birthday party she put on these floral leggings that stopped right below her knee and they were kind of tight at the waist but she wore a big white flowy linen shirt so you couldn’t tell and then spent the night bragging about how she can fit into my pants when I was 3 years old and I can’t anymore 🙃

I’m pretty sure this is where my clothing hoarding came from bc whenever things don’t fit anymore I just hide it like it goes into a suitcase or on a hanger in the back of the closet or in a drawer I never open because no way am I going to give these clothes to anyone in my family that’s smaller than me bc that’s what they say when they get a hold of them!

I’m literally 28 years old and my 61 year old aunt somehow still had one of my shirts from when I was 15?? And she put it on and is like can you believe it fits me??? It didn’t fit her….that’s the delusion I deal with in my family bc the shirt is the type that was very loose and see through but it had a cami attached on the inside and it’s my shirt so I know how it’s supposed to look and how it used to fit me. My aunt was standing in front of me with the shirt tight and almost crop top length with another cami she added underneath telling me look your high school shirt fits me! 🤡

And I know they have their own body image issues honestly probably worst than mine but I get so upset when they talk to me like they pity me for being fat 😒 and their go to reason for why they are constantly body shaming me is bc they care soooo much about my health and don’t want me to get sick and here I am…..fat with no fat related health issues…and the look on my aunt’s face when I told her that my blood work came back normal it’s like she didn’t believe me 💀💀

But my issue is that things like eating healthy and working out are associated with them treating me like shit so how do I get over that?? Whenever I do any of it I do it in hiding bc whenever they find out it’s like “oh FINALLY you’re taking your health seriously to lose the weight!!” And immediately I’m turned off and I never do it again bc why tf would I do something to make YOU happy and validated in your fat shaming ?? You know what I mean?? 😩

For example I got a walking pad to put under my desk bc I work from home every day and I used to commute to work and school before 2020 and I was on the train and the bus every day so I wanted to have it to add some movement to my day but not to lose weight just to move. I literally would hide it in my closet whenever my mom or aunt would come over and it worked for months and one day I forgot and they saw it and immediately it was like “oh my god!! You’ve been working out to lose the weight I’m so proud of you!! I can see that it is working!!”……….I was literally the same exact weight…and I didn’t get back on the walking pad for monthsssssss and I’m using it now for 10 min in the morning but I haven’t been able to get myself to walk on it during the work day again bc I can’t stop thinking about the fact that they would be happy with this choice 🤮🤮🤮

Same with food like I eat regular food so meat rice beans veggies soups pasta sandwiches idk I don’t have allergies and I’m not a picky eater but whenever I would eat something “healthy” like a salad around them it’s like “oh wow you’re finally dieting??” But also if I ate something “unhealthy” like a burger it’s “every day all you eat is burgers burgers you need to watch what you eat you don’t see your arms???” And it’s like ???? So now most of what I eat I don’t tell them so unless we’re eating the same exact thing they don’t know what I eat on the daily.

And I was watching this TikTok and this girl was realizing in the moment where her ED stemmed from and it was from hiding Halloween candy and other foods and I’m like this is similar to me!

So logically I know like to get over it I just have to tell myself that I’m doing it for me and not for them but that doesn’t feel like it’s enough. If I could freeze the way I look right now in their minds and that’s how they see me forever and my body can change however it wants without them knowing I feel like that would be ideal…….mmmmm lol do I have to go no contact with my whole family? 🤣🤣🤣 bc I did go no contact with my mom bc she’s a narcissist. And I gave my aunt as an example bc she’s the most recent example of this but other women in my family are just like that too! Or do I just have to defend myself for the rest of my life??

Defending myself now is easy because I tell them that I love my body and sorry I don’t hate myself like they do 😂 but if I were to lose weight I would still be fighting them if they congratulated me on it bc how dare you!!!

Ugh omg I feel like this is so backwards! Bc I did have a body weight that I was happy with in like 2018 and I wasn’t skinny then but I really loved how my body looked and I don’t think it would be hard to get back to it but whenever I start I just get upset and quit 😩

This is self sabotage 🙂 how do I stop it lol do I gaslight them and if they comment on my body I’m like “what are you talking about??? I looked the same last month….” 😂 I’m jk but like 👀👀

[xiuminsmygrandpa]

If My Life Were a TV Show Season 2025

January

1. Freeloaders aka I Help You Out One a Time and Now You Won’t Leave

2. WTF or Is Today Really Thursday??

3. Finally a Day to Myself, Oh Wait Here Comes the Loneliness and Existential Dread

4. First Deep Clean of the Year

5. I Can Fix It (but I Might Also Burn a Hole Thru a Lampshade)

6. Authority Figures Hate Me But What Else Is New

7. Is Today My Last Straw? No Because I Can Yap With The Girlies

8. I Wish Today Could’ve Been an Email But I Had Way Too Many Things to Do Featuring Painfully Obvious Either Gay Bestie or BF at Plato’s Closet in Palm Beach Gardens

9. I Didn’t Have Time to Pee Until 2pm Because I Really Was THAT Busy

10. The Last Showgirl Hit a Bit Too Close to Home Even Tho I’m Not a Middle Aged Vegas Showgirl

11. Reasons I Hate Being an Adult- Grocery Shopping

12. I Contemplated Running Over An Obnoxious White Dude with a Sports Car That Should Be Illegal but I Was On the Clock 🙄

13. My Knees Really Said Have Fun Walking Without Me 🤡

14. Knees Are Even More Fucked and Now Both My Bosses Are Mad at Me and There’s Not Nearly Enough Time to Get Everything Done But It’s Fine This is FINE 🐶🔥

15. Janice Once Again Tells Me I’m Not Doing Anything and I Shouldn’t Be Stressed Because I Basically Do Nothing and I Obviously Don’t Value My Life Enough to See a Doctor When I Actually Don’t Have Enough Time 😮‍💨🫠

16. I Came 👌🏻 Close To Quitting My Job and Then My Roomie Has a Date Over My Life is Honestly A Joke Also Somehow My Knees Are Fine???

17. My Therapist Thinks I Need to Check Myself Into the Hospital Because a Grippy Socks Vacation is the Only Way I’m Getting a Day Off Work

18. TikTok is Actually Getting Banned, the Monkey Man Movie Actually Made Me Cry, and I Vented to Tara

19. Made it Through the Workday Without Jumping Off the Roof of the Library and They Switched Mufasa and Babygirl

20. Rainy Day Spent Watching September 5, Dissociating World Events, and I Actually Need Help for My Eating Disorder

21. Too Busy to Think About Janice and I Went Off On A Pro-Trump Patron

22. I Tried and Failed to Explain Trauma Dumping to My Coworkers and it was Somehow Warmer Outside than it was on the Fourth Floor

23. Told the CEO of the Library Foundation that I’m Turning My Life into a Sitcom and I Realized Only One Person Has Thanked Me After Six Months of Hard Work Gotta Love Being a Woman 🫠😮‍💨🤡🥺 Featuring Lady in an 80s Tracksuit Who I Helped Open a Shop in Facebook Marketplace for a Solid Hour

24. Thought it Would Be a Good Idea to Try The Higher Dose of My Antidepressants and I Couldn’t Stomach Food for the Entire Day 🫠😮‍💨🤢

25. I Depression Cleaned My Room Hoping that It Would Distract Me From How Lonely and Depressed I Am (It Didn’t) Feat Doomscrolling on the Apps Not Controlled by Trump

26. Wrote A Four Page List of What I’ve Accomplished and I’m Pretty Sure Janice Will Still Say It’s Nothing Also I Helped A Canadian Apply for a Visa to Sail Their Boat to the Bahamas

27. I Expected Today to Be The Worst But I Actually Felt Appreciated and That I Made the Right Choice Becoming a Librarian Also I May Have Convinced Someone to Become a Librarian Feat Me Unlocking Rage at Not Being Taken Seriously

28. My Last Every Tuesday Night Shift Got Me in the Feels

29. Spent a Good Hour Planning on Setting Up a Room and a Bunch of Other Stuff

30. I Officially Hit Rock Bottom and Somehow Worked Through It

31. It’s Time to Get Out of Dodge and Maybe Move Back in With My Parents 🤡

February

1. Somehow Survived the First Month of the Year Without Dying From Malnutrition Feat. Laney Having to Nurse Herself Back to Health (Again)

2. My Coworkers Try to Convince Me to Stay and I Start to Pack Up My Shit Because the Writing is on the Wall Also My Coworker Showed Me a Plaque for a Coworker Who Hanged Herself After I Said I Was Suicidal

3. Spent the Day Walking on Egg Shells Hoping I Don’t Piss Off Janice

4. Had to Meet with the Library Director and They Added Another Condition to My Probation On the Day I’m Wearing the Most Restrictive Clothes (the symbolism)

5. The Horrors Persist, Yet So Do I Feat. Laney Drinking Copious Amounts of Soda and Hating Having to Work Wednesday Nights

6. The Longest Workday Ever and I May Have Helped a Cop Find a Runaway Teen?

7. Had to Convince Three Therapists That I’m Totally Fine 😮‍💨 and My Life is 100% Not Falling Apart 🤡 I’ve Actually Never Been Better 🫠 Thanks for Asking 🙄 No I’m Not Crying 🥺 It’s My Eye Cream (it actually was my eye cream)

8. I Start to Feel Well Enough to Think About Alternate Realities Where My Life Doesn’t Suck Maybe I’ll Get Lucky and Die At Work But Probably Not

9. All the Crazy Things Happened and It’s Probs Because It’s Super Bowl Sunday Feat. Laney Driving to Two Grocery Stores for Eggs Only to Cook Using a Rusted Cast Iron Skillet

10. So Much Crazy Shit Happened I Can’t Fit It All Into One Title But It Was Comedy Gold

11. Laney Realizes the Only Reason This Week Has Been Okay and Productive is Because Tara and Janice Are Gone

12. Laney is Humiliated by the Probation Mandated Counselor then the Library Director but Vents About it to Her Coworkers She Wants to Scream SOMETHING NEEDS TO CHANGE AROUND HERE

13. Thought My Week Was Ok Then Janice Brought Up Her Future Plans and I Fumed About it All Night

14. Laney Spends Her 30th Valentines Day Alone Just Like Every Year (Paddington in Peru was Worth the Hype)

15. I Try to Be Productive but Spend Most of the Day Rotting in Bed

16. Tara’s Back and I Think I Was Able to Toe the Line and Not Mention I’m SO CLOSE to Quitting

17. Laney Realizes She’s Truly on Her Own and Isn’t Sure She Can Face It But She Also Knows She’s Always Had Her Own Back

18. Somehow Survived the Day I’d Rather Die than Confront and it Was as Brutal as Anticipated but I’m Still Here

19. Laney Hates Filling Out Contracts and W-9s But She’s Also Damn Good at it Plus She Was Too Busy to Contemplate Death or How Much She Hates Her Job

20. My Brother Says I’m Definitely Getting Fired and the Only Good Part of the Day Was Acquiring Target’s Easter Birds

21. Laney’s Therapist Spends the Session Writing to HR and Laney Goes to the Movies to Unwind Only for the Movie Theater to Have a Power Outage and She Also Accidentally Crashes Her Roomie’s Date 🤡🫠

22. Laney Wastes Most of the Day Not Doing Much and Fails at Cutting Her Bangs But At Least Her Sheets Will Be Clean (Long After She’s Fallen Asleep)

23. Laney’s Pretty Sure She Got Stuff Done at Work (Debatable) But the Memes and Office Decorations Were Her Proudest Accomplishments

[scentedstrangercreation]

An Indecent Proposal

Absolutely self-indulgent fluff. Fake proposal trope 🤡

---------------------------------

The wrench slipped from Garrus’ hand, bouncing off the thanix’s compressors and sliding beneath the cannon.

“Dammit.”

He crouched down and sprawled onto his back to slide under the battery. The opening was too narrow for his carapace, so he could only lean against it and stretch out his arm. His talons just barely grazed the tip of the wrench, spinning it hopelessly in place. Garrus sighed, tapping his head against the cannon’s base. His omnitool pinged on the opposite arm. He turned his head and watched the red light blink in its slow, deliberate rhythm. There was no point in checking who it was from. He’d only just spoken to his father yesterday, and the message had been clear: It’s time to stop playing mercenary and come home. There was a position ready for him on Palaven, a good service role. One that would make his family proud. The past few years would be forgotten—the Normandy, his time on Omega, Cerberus. Even the battle at the Citadel was becoming a distant memory everyone wanted buried. The bottom line was that the council wanted to move on—and Shepard was becoming a liability. The light pulsed again. He wasn’t sure why he bothered putting off his response. Turians didn’t make requests. Garrus was being given an order—an opportunity—and there was only one answer. Yes, sir. The door to the battery hissed open. “Garrus?” Shepard entered the room and the door shut behind her. He tried to sit up, forgetting his arm was still jammed beneath the Thanix, and slammed into the steaming pipes, “Spirits,” he grunted, extracting his arm. “Sleeping on the job?” Shepard crouched down beside him. “We didn’t all get a palatial suite.” He squinted up into the light as Shepard came into focus above him. “How’s the face holding up?” she gestured around her jaw. Garrus sat up, touching the bandages around his face. “Don’t worry. I’ll still be pretty.” “Thank god.” She offered her hand and he pulled himself up, “Wouldn't want you scaring the children.” He should have laughed, said something quippy back, but he was out of practice. Instead, he just stared at her for a minute in silence. He still wasn’t used to it—to her. Shepard was here. She was alive. He didn’t like thinking about it too much. Part of him was worried that if he wasn’t careful, he might wake up. Garrus shook the thought from his mind and cleared his throat, “What do you need?” Shepard held up a data pad, “Just wanted to go over—” Garrus’ omnitool pinged three times in quick succession. “You need to take that?” “At some point.” he dismissed the messages without looking. She looked at him curiously, but didn’t say anything. “It’s—nothing. Just…” he’d have to tell her eventually. He just wasn’t sure when…or how. She tapped the data pad against her leg and tilted her head slightly. He could tell she wanted to say more. But at Miranda's request, she had been practicing her…restraint. He smiled. It was like she had to physically restrain each word before they bullied their way out of her mouth. “Actually, we can do this later.” She gestured with the pad, “Want a drink?” He waved her off, “I should probably get back to—” “If you say calibrations, I’ll vent the battery.” “Well, I won’t say it then.” “Come on, don’t make me beg.” She turned around and started walking as if he’d already agreed, “have a drink with me.” “It’s actually been more threatening than begging.” “Oh, good. Then you’ll take it seriously.”

Shepard’s cabin was garishly large. He knew she agreed. The fish tank held nothing but water and the entire back half of the room was left untouched. He suspected she didn’t even use the bed, with its corners pulled taut and undisturbed. The contrast against the couch was almost cartoonish. It was clearly a hive of activity, dwarfed beneath a mountain of clutter. There were signs of small, abandoned projects strewn about: stacks of tablets, an omnitool’s motherboard exposed and connected to a desktop by frayed wires, her sniper disassembled and half-polished. His gaze continued about the room before settling on Shepard, rustling around in a small cabinet. "Look what I’ve got.” She retreated from the cabinet, two glasses and a bottle of something dark in her hands. She tossed it to Garrus. He caught the bottle, twisting it in his hand to see the label and released a low whistle. “Guess working with Cerberus has its perks.” He joked, flaring his mandibles and holding the bottle out to her. “Guess so,” she took it back and filled up a glass, passing it over before filling her own. “To the perks,” she said, gently knocking her glass against his. Not hard enough to spill it, but enough to make a sound. A ‘cheers’ she’d called it before. It always surprised Garus how many casual little rituals humans had. They enjoyed the first sip in silence. She released a groan and sank back into the couch, “Don’t tell Chakwas, but this is so much better than brandy.” “Your secret’s safe with me,” he walked over to the empty tank. Even without fish, it was relaxing to watch the light move through the water. He almost forgot what he’d been trying to ignore when his wrist pinged again. He could feel her watching him. Now or never. “My father reached out yesterday.” She made a noncommittal sound behind another mouthful of wine. “There’s, uh…” he struggled to find the phrasing, “He asked me to come home.” “Is everything okay?” she asked. “Yeah, everything’s fine.” He cleared his throat, “He just thinks…it’s time.” He knew he sounded foolish. He wasn’t sure how to explain it to a human. There was so much context she couldn’t understand. He watched her reflection. Her expression was carefully neutral. She seemed relaxed, but her eyes had a slightly unfocused, calculating bearing. “Is that what you want?” She asked like there was an easy answer, missing all of the complexities that seemed so obvious to him. “My father—,” he turned to face her. “I don’t care about your father.” He laughed, “You two have something in common.” “You know what I mean,” she rebuffed his joke. “What do you want?” “It’s…complicated. It’s not about what I want.” “Why not?” “Because...Turians—,” He paced a few steps away, releasing a frustrated sigh and rubbing his head. He wasn’t going to explain the intricacies of Turian culture to her. He wasn’t sure he even could. “Garrus, this isn’t some teenage rebellion.” He didn’t understand the phrase but he let it go. “This is for the galaxy. Your people should be rallying behind you.” “The way your’s have rallied behind you? Shepard, we're working for a literal terrorist organization.” “With” she corrected, “...But your point isn’t entirely lost.” He could see she wanted to argue more, but had decided on a more tactical route. “So what’s the situation exactly? You go home or you’re what? Banished?” He laughed a little, “Not with quite so much flair.” It was hard to put words to norms he’d always just accepted, “I don’t know how to explain it. To put yourself before the family, before the colony, is…You just don’t.” “This is the opposite of putting yourself first.” He wished he could say that was true. That if it weren’t for her, he’d still be out here fighting the good fight—but he knew better. Sure, he believed in what they were doing, but he was here for her. And they both knew it. “This isn’t Blasto 6, Shepard. I can’t just ask the Turian Hierarchy to just ‘go with it.’ Even you know how crazy it all sounds: ancient machines culling the galaxy?” He paused but she didn’t counter. “As far as they’re concerned, humans have been the biggest threat to the galaxy since the Geth.” “How flattering.” She gulped down the rest of her wine. “And then, after the Citadel, after…you—you know…” he stumbled over his words, refusing to make eye contact. “Well, they gave me time to grieve, and now it’s time to get back to reality.” “Glossing over the fact that this,” she set her glass down and tapped on the table, “is reality. So, what? You don’t go home and it ruffles a few feathers?” He ignored the turn of phrase.

“It’s more than that. We’re a collective, going against the Hierarchy is…egomaniacal. It goes against everything my people stand for.” She still didn't seem convinced.

“It’s not even really about me.” He sighed, “I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but I’m...not exactly a model Turian.” 

She raised her brows and tilted her head. He could tell she was fighting a small mirk, but she didn’t say anything. 

“I was a lost cause long before teaming up with the illustrious Commander Shepard—but my family?” Her brows furrowed and he tried to think of an example, “Say a Turian is demoted. It’s not really his fault. The disgrace lies with whoever promoted him in the first place. It’s the same principle in a family. They’re responsible for my actions as much as I’m responsible for theirs.” He thought he spied some semblance of understanding, “and since I’m not married, that means my father and sister would be—,” “Wait,” she held up her hand, “what does marriage have to do with it?” “It’s—,” He exhaled, annoyed by the tangent he’d introduced to the conversation. Shepard’s eyes flickered with a teasing curiosity, and for the umpteenth time since they’d met, he was grateful Turian’s didn’t blush. He rushed through the explanation. “Every Turian is completely tied to their family from birth. Your name, your reputation, your accomplishments and your failures. Everything is shared. That doesn’t change until you’re married. Then it sort of…” he searched for the right word, “transfers to your spouse?” He watched her carefully, trying to gauge her understanding. “Then, when you have kids, they’re tied to you and your partner until they marry—and so on.” 

He caught a flicker in her expression and stopped, “What?” “So you’re saying you’re twenty-seven years old, you’ve no money and no prospects. You’re already a burden to your parents and you’re frightened.” her words sounded strange. It took him a minute to realize she was using a different accent. He wasn’t sure what purpose it served, but he figured she was making a joke he didn't understand. “I guess?” He shrugged. She dropped it. “So if you were married—,” “It was a bad example.”  “No, no, listen. If you were married and your spouse—hypothetically—requested that you fight, I don’t know, the Reapers, you’d have to listen?” “Have you taken a psych eval lately?” She ignored him, “Then, even if the Turian Hierarchy comes knocking, it’s just about you and your partner? No kids, no dad, no sister to worry about.” “How romantic.” “Is that really how it would work?” She pressed. “You’re glossing over a lot of nuance and context—but on a basic level…yes? I guess.” He crossed his arms. How had the conversation gone so off-course? “Regardless, I still need to—” he stopped, “is something wrong with your leg?” Shepard was crouched down onto her knee. “What? No. This is how humans do it.” “Do what?” “Propose.” She said it so matter of factly he almost felt absurd for asking. “Shepard—” “Garrus—” “Shepard, don’t—” “You can just call me Jane now.” “Stop.” He pulled her up, doing his best to ignore the uncomfortable fluttering in his stomach. She wore a calm, level expression that frustrated and excited him. “I’m not joking.” Her eyes left his and began to drift across the room as she seemed to consider her words. “Listen. I…need you.” She let the words hang for a minute, as if testing the waters. Her eyes finally settled on a point just over his shoulder, mercifully avoiding his gaze. “We’ve been in this together since the beginning. I trust you and I can’t imagine doing…any of this without you.” She finally turned her eyes to his. Her expression serious. “You're my best friend, and if I’m going into hell, I want you at my back—If you’ll have me.” She added.

“Now you’re begging.” She grinned but continued to push, “I’m serious. Nothing has to change between us. You just get a Turian hall pass to come save the galaxy with me.” It wasn’t that simple, but there was something there. “I feel like this conversation has gone from zero to 100.” He rubbed a hand over his face. He felt like he was watching himself, standing dumbly in front of her.  “Time’s kind of a luxury these days,” she shrugged. “Shepard, I don’t—this is crazy.” He shook his head. She stepped towards him and took his hand, “Garrus Vakarian, will you marry me?” He sighed and she laughed. He was confused, flattered—a little annoyed—and something else he couldn’t quite put his talon on. “I’m not taking your name.” He said, finally. She laughed again, and this time he smiled.

[tunaafishyy]

Genshin 3.6 Livestream — quick notes

Uh oh… purple and white…

I’m kind of focused on other lore shennanigans right now so I don’t have much to say on the livestream (for once), but here’s a few random thoughts for funsies.

Pari

Oh hey, Sorush looks like the door at the sanctuary… kind of…

Pari seem similar to a Seelie… like how the sanctuary door seems similar to the dragonspine domain’s floor diagram…. I wonder if Pari, Seelie, and Devs (abyss monsters) will turn out to be 3 variations of the same source.

Devs/Abyss Monsters: festered dream (chaotic jnana energy… the “unseelie”)

Seelie: grounded dream (cast out of heaven, trapped on earth. Regular transient dream energy)

Pari: ascended dream (maximized Jnana energy)

Anyways, that’s really it on that topic for now. Wiki Links I haven’t really looked into yet but seem related:

Peri — Sorush — Perispirit (the last one is unlikely, but since we don’t know much about Pari/Sorush’s purpose yet… and I’ve apparently had the tab open on my phone on Perispirits since Oct 2021… dropping the link in case maybe it finally matters 😅)

Abyss

The portal is a triangle in a circle at first… familiar much? Yes, yes it is. (Think darshan logos and iron coins)

Red + Blue = Purple… yay color coordinated triangle

More seriously (but only a little), the stars in the portal look closer to the starry pattern seen when walking on the eternal oasis water than anywhere else… imo.

Speaking of portals… is the dendro energy holding the portal shut? Hm…

Apep

I’m not going to go over the helix and spiral moves because I think we all get the point that spirals and helixes matter.

Instead…

LOOK AT THE SHADOWS ON THE WALL

Is Apep in the wall? In the ball? Does Apep exist at all? … 🤡

LOOK AT APEP DISSOLVING MATERIAL FOR SUSTENANCE

This part could actually be more important than it seems because it isn’t sucking the life out of the plant like the withering would. Instead, itseems to be dissolving the plant for the material it is made out of… which per theory of forms, is elemental energy… which makes sense for an elemental dragon originating from the pre-ordered elements era…

Ok yeah that’s all I got right now… thanks for reading!

[hoonfever]

Friends Of Friends!

12. i’ll be there (written)

wc: 660

WARNINGS: swearing

yeonjun and beomgyu barged in as you opened the door, not bothering to even bid you a hello. taehyun did. that was nice. all three of them had snacks of some sort. the three of you sat down in he living room, which had cushions scattered across the floor for seating. the room was silent, other than beomgyu complaining about being fatherless. taehyun didn’t look at you, nor attempted to talk to you. his focus remained on his phone screen.

you hear a knock at your front door and stand up to answer it. you open the door to yeji’s smiling face and can’t help but smile back. she has two full bags of snacks and sweets, just like she promised.

“hey yeji!” beomgyu calls from the living room, as he and yeonjun switch on the tv

“hey!” she responds before she walks in and you close the door behind her.

she doesn’t help much. she mimics taehyun and focuses completely on her phone. probably talking to her girlfriend again. you can’t help but envy her. you hated to admit it, but yeonjun was right. you did have no social life. you had to keep yourself entertained all the time, and it was getting exhausting.

soobin and kai arrived 10 minutes later and you finally start the movie.

god, did you forget how messy your friends were. soobin seemed quite regretful, but continued to slowly but surely mess up the place.

a long night of cleaning awaits.

you watched howls moving castle, one of your favorite ghibli movies. your friends all seemed to enjoy it as well.

“bye y/n! bye everyone!” yeji was the first to leave, claiming that her parents needed her for something.

“bye guys!” kai and soobin were next, leaving because they were tired and needed the sleep for tomorrow.

“bye y/n!” beomgyu left as well, leaving only taehyun, you and yeonjun.

“i also need to get going-“ you look and yeonjun with a look of concern.

“you want me to be alone with taehyun?” you mouth to him and he tilts his head in fake confusion.

“sorry, y/n, but i have no clue what you’re saying. i’ll see you soon though!” yeonjun left in quite a hurry. leaving you and taehyun alone.

“jeez. they really left a mess in here, huh?” he breaks the silence suddenly.

“yeah, i’m gonna be cleaning for a while.” you say, already feeling exhausted.

“well, i have nowhere to go. i could stay here and help, if you want?!” he offers.

“no! i couldn’t let you help me clean. i knew what i signed up for when hosting everyone.” you refuse.

“i seriously don’t mind helping. just see it as a favor from a friend.” he persists.

well, it would make things a lot quicker and easier.

“okay. you can help. let me do most of the work though. it’s only fair.” taehyun nods.

and so you get to work. what would’ve taken you two hours took only 50 minutes. the two of you rest on the couch tiredly.

“thanks again for this, taehyun. i really appreciate it.” you say with a smile which he returns.

“no problem. next time you host us all and need help cleaning, i’ll be there.” he smiles at you, his eyes lingering on you longer than usual.

you also can’t help but admire his features. taehyun was definitely an attractive guy, you couldn’t deny that. you just never got to see it up close-

taehyun clears his throat suddenly and jerks up.

“i- uh, i need to get going. i’ll see you soon!” taehyun rushes out the door awkwardly, leaving you alone in your thoughts.

i was just looking at him because he’s a naturally attractive guy. i don’t like him or anything. i haven’t even known him that long. i barely know him!

you fell asleep to these thoughts, and awoke with a conclusion.

“shit. i like him, don’t i?”

previous « masterlist » next

a/n: i thought i had this queued for yesterday but apparently not 🤡 also I HAD TO MANUALLY COUNT EACH WORD IT WAS SO PAINFUL google docs didn’t listen to me 😭

taglist: @pr0dbeomgyu, @ox1-lovesick, @sunarintoes, @yeonkang3

SYNOPSIS: yeonjun realises that his best friend, y/n, has no social life whatsoever, and therefore a very slim chance at a relationship; so he figures he's ought to speed up the process by introducing you to his friend, taehyun.

[pianostarinwonderland]

same non as the one prior!,listen I love hearing people ramble about the things and characters they like it nice to see someone go off about their favorite characters so yes im serious please go on n release the rot!!

[Reply to here!]

damn y'all 😭 HAHAHAHHAHAAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHA YOU REALLY WANT THIS SO BAD y'all gonna regret this horribly

Brainrot under the cut because this WILL be a long boi

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Į̸̮̪̗̝̭̦̭̕͝ͅ ̴̰̱̥͒͊̉ṣ̶͔̂̇̅͝ẽ̵̳̥̞̦͈̱̊̈́͊̀̓̎̆̚e̷̛̱̜̤̓̈́ ̵̝͎͛̈̋̇͗̀͜y̵̙̜̻͂̍͐ǒ̷̲̬̺̦͎͍͚̺̔̌ͅṵ̶̢͍̹̄̈́̏̆͒̒̚'̷̭̼̞̱̗̦͙̥́͐ͅṛ̴̛̉̏̿̋̓̄̚̕͝è̴̡̡̗̰͕͎̝̣̌́̾̊̈́̒̃͆̽ ̵͔͇̻͓͉͖̕h̸͈̙͈͚̯͈̱͛e̶̪̙̲͐͐r̸̛̲̜̟͍̯̟̭̔́̅̊̎̕͘͝ĕ̸͔̗̮͕̭̗̄͒̈́̕͘͠ :)

Ok first off, I do have some thoughts listed down here already, but we'll have the screaming version of them here.

so now, let's pull up a pic of Azul's full sprite, bless be to alchemivich for this

I guess let's start from the top then work our way downwards~ (just how I like to do it ;) bricked)

SO let's talk about Azul's glasses, as they're a hot topic now

We've always known Azul with his rectangular frames. I myself have always wanted to see him in round frames, but now that we have them, well,,, time for an explanation WHEEZE.

So when you choose your glasses, you have to take into consideration how well they complement your face. Lots of places will tell you to consider the shape of your face, how long or short it is, even the width of your face and the nose bridge, etc. There's a reason why Azul's usual glasses really work on him—there are several factors, but the one I will talk about is his face shape, which seems to be on the softer and rounder side.

Rectangular/square frames work well with rounder face shapes because of contrast. Rounder frames will further emphasize the roundness of the face, which well if that's the effect you want, then hell yeah go for it. But it can also feel a little off, especially if you aim to balance out your looks.

Azul's round frames emphasize this roundness. But the thing is, the specific thing they emphasize is not his jawline or anything but his forehead LJADLKSJKSLSFJ like, it really doesn't help that he pushed back his bangs inside his hat because there's more skin showing aka there's more of that bald feel.

Am I saying that the glasses don't fit him then?

... not at all. HONESTLY IN FACT, THEY FIT HIM 🤡 it gives Azul this old timey wizard vibe, especially paired with the rest of his outfit. And idk, he always had a knack for those types of glasses that have the chain, like it really just fits his character. They're on the more mature side.

Onto his hat, one of Azul's voiced lines has him saying that he pushed his bangs back because the hat itself is so fancy and very elaborate. And you know what? THAT IS SMART OF HIM 😩 because true, his bangs would add a little too much to the visual aspect. The hat itself is so nice though. I always imagined him having a similar hat to that along with a feather, so seeing this coming to life really satisfied me so much 🥺 It's one of the many things I've asked for. I didn't expect the coral design in front, though! That one, I find pretty neat.

ngl though lowkey hoping for a groovy where he doesn't have the hat though 😳 and we get a view of that SLICKED BACK HAIR— bricked

no like . seriously though, imagine we get something like THIS wonderful gorgeous godly sight right here??? for a groovy??? Yana Toboso, I am currently demanding right now.

Anyway, let's move o—

. hold on.

what is this I see?

... let's get a different image just to be sure

. . . . . .

SO WE HAVE TWO THINGS TO DISCUSS HERE

Number 1. That nautilus shell.

It is about TIME that they gave Azul that nautilus shell necklace that is not in his overblot form AND ALSO LIKE, LOOK AT HOW FANCY IT IS!!!!!!! IT'S SO 😭 it's so pretty like,,, uhuhuhuhu after 2+ years of waiting, I finally got this

Number 2. We all know what it is. :)

look at that. look at that fucking s H E ER RRR R R R 🧍 I was peacefully scrolling through Twitter when I saw that crop + a JP user's caption about how they're like IT'S SHEER???? AND NOW I'M LIKE HO FUCK IT'S SHEER?????????? AZUL ASHENGROTTO, THE MAN WHO COVERS UP EVEN HIS NECK, HAS HIS NECK AREA PARTIALLY VISIBLE???????????? I finally know how victorian men feel when they see a woman's ankle.

And I get why the tweels' favorite food are octopus dishes. 🧍 We'll leave it at that .

Sleeves design! Honestly, I find it interesting how the fashion designers in-universe thought that Azul really fit the NRC robes to the point that they thought oh we should make his outfit similar to the robes. And boom, here we see sleeves and gold decor that is as intricate as the robes but still a little different. Honestly, seeing the entire outfit in general reminds me of one of Robe Azul's lines: "These ceremonial robes do wonders as something akin to a business card. Just wearing these off campus will gather admiring glances." (taken from @/mysteryshoptls) It's such a nice nod to that line 🥺 and I'll be honest, the art for Robe Azul isn't one of my favorites, so to see him in this outfit and as an SSR is so rewarding because like #DESERVED

onto the . whatever you call this, the collar?

There's a point where you gotta wonder how Azul really feels about this outfit in general. Like, he was already disturbed that Rollo knew him and where he came from, he was also disturbed that they knew about his eyesight. But that collar design, that resembles the suckers on his tentacle arms, I don't think you can just brush it off as "oh they're meant to be bubbles underwater". It's not a bad design, it's just how does Azul really feel about the outfit with its under the sea motif and even this kind of pattern? 😂 Is he trying to hide the discomfort about this out of politeness? Or is he so private about this kind of insecurity that he dares not voice it out unlike the way he's clear about his discomfort about how they know about his eyesight?

wow ok we got serious there. Don't worry, though...

We're just getting to the exciting part

So of course Azul would have a belt on his outfit. He needs that cinched waist after all 😩 ughhh I have a special weakness for slim waists because the way a slim waist feels in my arms is so , ,,,, ,,, u uu uu u you get this deep primal urge to protect the person you're holding that holding any other waist just cannot give you. at least, that's just my brain being coocoo wwwwwwww

Something even nicer is that the belt adds so much more to the silhouette that the overall outfit gives. It's cinched at the waist,, but then it flairs out with the TAILCOATS

OH MAMAS THOSE TAILCOATS ARE GOING TO BE THE ABSOLUTE D E A T H OF ME

I mentioned it already. I always loved tailcoats. They give that classy and authoritative aura. AND LOOK AT AZUL MF ASHENGROTTO WITH SIX OF THEM

They also look like they're made of a really really good material. Like, just look at the card art. That material looks so nice and sturdy.

AND THE WAY THAT THE FRONT AREA OF HIS TOP ENDS LIKE THAT, LIKE ,, ,,,, , HUHU HUU HUH UHU you know I always always wanted to wear an outfit like that ever since I was a kid? Ends short at the front but there's a trail or a tailcoat at the back, and it's BLACK TOO like u u u uuuuu uu just seeing that on Azul makes me so oughohouohodfoghodf it's everything I wanted and it's really like Disney saw my childhood imagination uwehhhh waddafak !!!!

and ughh hh h ok can we like . talk about the ribbons too and tailcoats and how they just accentuate his legs so fucking well

Like come ON MAN

whoever drew Azul's live2D was thinking with their dicks because why the FUCK did they decide "hoho what if we draw the ribbons in front such that it creates the illusion of Azul's legs being slimmer and then flaring out at the bottom aND THUS MAKING HIS LEGS LOOK EVEN MORE APPEALING TO LOOK AT" LIKE COME ON,,,, THEY WERE DEFINITELY ON SOMETHING WHEN THEY WERE DRAWING THOSE RIBBONS LIKE . THAT . AND THE GOLD TRIM AT THE END DOESN'T HELP AT ALL LIKE FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK

please like . those pants . those pants look so nice like hello I like those pants. I want to steal those pants. I want to eat those pants.

but most importantly, I hate hate hate the way that those pants make Azul's legs so so so s os os os os oso soo so ooo so 🤡

. ok speaking of legs, we can establish that the tailcoats + ribbons resemble Azul's 8 tentacles underwater (he really isn't getting a break from being his octopus self wwwwww). But I want to talk about the design in the tailcoats themselves??? Like, it's so delicate and really pretty 🥺 it's not like the design on the collar, but it looks more floral ish. It sort of gives the same hypnotic feel as the Fibonacci sequence or even the golden ratio in some way. It's so delicate and pretty and just huh uh u hu hu

Lastly, shoes , ,, ,, shoes. Those are nice shoes. I love that he has heels. . . WAIT HEELS I JSUT REALIZED HE IS WALKING IN HEELS HELP NKFJNKJDNSNSDNFS HOLD ON HE HASN'T BEEN COMPLANING ABOUT THE HEELS ???? HE'S ACTUALLY BALANCING ON THOSE HEELS?????? HE'S DOING OK IN THE HEELS?????? ok granted though, they are wedged heels, but like, even wedged heels are hard to balance on if you aren't accustomed to heels (flashbacks to the first time I had to wear heels when I was 12 yrs old and wobbling on my own feet when the heels were 1-inch high and wedged).

last but not the least, you can watch the Midnight Masquerade here. At the Goofy part starting 13:27, the dancers' costume vaguely reminded me of Azul's silhouette that his outfit gives him. Makes me wonder how much Twst team took inspiration from this performance honestly.

SO ANYWAY UH GOODNIGHT I'M HAPPY WITH THIS EVENT FOR GIVING US GOOD GOOD SHIT ABOUT AZUL 🤡

[daphnedauphinoise]

Its been one fucking year and I still cant get him out my head. Do you have tips?

You tell me. I am in the same boat; I like this guy- he has a girlfriend. I thought I got rid of the crush but no, he had to get back to me and now I stalk him everyday :):)

But in all seriousness, depending on what kind of crush it is, just let yourself feel. I haven't felt this giddy in so long and having a crush is really nice. If they are unrealistic or it is seriously hurting you or you are getting too delusional ( I wrote him book reviews in the height of exam 🤡) then I say its fine.

But, if you do want him out of your head then cutting off contact and moving on is the best thing. Attachments are harder to cut the longer you leave them and putting yourself through a cycle of high and lows [of attention] is not really good.

Lemme know more deets though, we can lament together,

Daphne