#i will never not be shocked with how the interaction has changed so drastically

[xhanisai]

Ah, you know what’s kinda depressing?

Obviously as you can see, fandom interaction has died down so much because of people wanting to avoid leaks and spoilers and are probably waiting till this season is complete before they watch it. People who create are getting less and less traction and are getting discouraged.

Imagine how much worse it will get for the seasons to come?

What made the ML fandom so fun is how it’s full of amazing fan-content and how everyone is so interactive and fun. That’s not gonna last if people are gonna have the anxiety of being spoiled and if people aren’t interacting with the posts they like. 

Such a shame.

[lovelyjj]

ok idea reader has kinda a thing w jj and she randomly decided to cut her hair (kinda drastically) and she’s nervous to show every one and when she meets up with the group he doesn’t say anything and she thinks he hates it but he’s just like amazed (if that makes sense)

haircut

jj maybank x reader

The idea for a haircut came to you when you felt ready for a change. You decided spontaneously to cut your hair. Your hair was really long so you felt like a big chop. You were kinda nervous what everyones reaction will be to your hair.

The salon you went to was nice. You told the lady what you wanted. She did what you asked and you were very happy with the results. You felt like a new woman. You felt like a weight had been lifted off you. You felt lighter.

On your way to the château you went over in your head how the interaction with your friends would go. You were really nervous especially for JJs reaction.

When you got there everyone was on the porch. You came into view and everyone looked your direction.

“Hey guys what do you think?” you asked.

“Omg your hair! it’s so short,” Kiara exclaimed.

“I love it,” Sarah commented.

“When did you do that?” John B asked.

“Today.”

JJ was remaining quiet so you were trying to gage his feelings. You thought that he hated it. He was staring at your hair with his mouth agape. You thought it looked good, now you were second guessing yourself.

JJ was amazed. He never thought a haircut could make someone look so good. You looked incredible and JJ was at a lost for words.

“You hate it?” you pouted at JJ.

“No I love it, it’s perfect. You look stunning. My beautiful girl. Come here,” JJ made a hand gesture for you to come to him.

JJ touched your hair and was in shock. He loved it. It was so soft and healthy.

You let out a sigh of relief that JJ liked your hair. Truth be told JJ loves you and he would love anything you do.

[princeasimdiya12]

Nyan Nyaight Love Continues? It's Time for Action!

I was genuinely suprrised that we're still getting more Nyan Nyahight Love segments. Given how conclusive the last segment was and how dark the narrative has become, I thought we wouldn't see them until the last episode.

And no lie, I was a little unsure if I should make this post. Other fans have made their own posts for this segment and they seem to get the hang of finding the symbolism in Bucchigiri's Greek Chorus. I tip my hat to everyone who put their critical thinking skills to use with this part.

That said, I would like to throw my hat into the fray and share my own thoughts for this Episode's segment. Hope you like it!

Episode 10: It's Good to be Popular. Right?

We begin our segment with the Customer who's jittery and excited to enter NNL while even sporting a gift bag for his beloved Jasmine. He goes in before he's spotted by Marito and his inner circle. The Receptionist greets him and goes forward with getting his usual.

But just before he can get the ball rolling, he realizes something. Jasmine has been booked and won't be available for a good while. But that's okay, the Customer can just wait. Right?

Then the Receptionist has more details on her schedule.

So as pretty much every other fan has guessed, Jasmine being booked parallels Matakara keeping himself busy with the other banchos and delinquents. On his quest to fend off the shadows per Ichiya's orders, he has to take on as many opponents as he can to boost his strength. Starting from the now powerless NG Boys to their former rivals at Siguma Squad.

As for how the Customer parallels Arajin here? Well here the Customer is showing genuine interest in Jasmine and is wants to pursue her. While Arajin isn't actively pursuing his Jasmine (Matakara), he is being more thoughtful of his former friend's situation and how he's changing. Even spending less time away from Mahoro (per her demand) so he can focus more on him and his current situation.

I would also say that the Customer's stupefaction of Jasmine being booked can serve as a parallel to Arajin's reaction to Matakara's change in personality. The Customer never expected that his beloved Jasmine would be involved with other customers despite visiting her so easily in the past segments. So it comes as a surpise that she suddenly became so popular and too busy to spend time with him.

And in regards to the main plot, everyone knows that Matakara was the least likely among the bad boys to pick up fights on a whim unless given a serious reason. Even Arajin knows that his old friend is too sweet-hearted to do such a drastic thing. But to his and everyone else's surprise, he's shown a change that none of them expected and is becoming "popular" for all the wrong reasons. And he's too busy beating up everyone that he won't even pay attention to Arajin. Which fits with how Arajin always had easy access to speaking/interacting with Matakara for some time now but took those opportunities for granted because of his quest to lose his virginity.

As for the Receptionist, I would like to point that he doesn't go back to being silly or whimsical after explaining Jasmine's busy schedule. Much like how the colorful bad boys who appear in this episode turned out especially grim after their run-in with Corrupted!Mataraka. His old friends are worried for his new violent urges and question if they actually knew him.

Hagure and Jabashiri feel utter disappointment in themselves for losing. Jabashiri, the scary one who was prone to anger and hostility, was crying for crying out loud!

And everyone is in shock and fear after Corrupted!Matakara vanquished Marito in combat. Normally there's applause and praise for another feat of brutal violence among their resident bad boys. But this time, there is no praise. Only silence and dread.

The bancho world is out of whack and is in no mood for carefree fun with these new developments. Much like the Receptionist lamenting to the Customer about Jasmine's new schedule.

Also, something I want to bring up is how this is the first time the Greek Chorus actually interacts with the main characters.

Not counting the first episode where Arajin goes to his new school, this is the first time where the Customer aka the Homeroom Teacher actually interacts with Arajin. He was grateful that he was the only one who stayed and actually cared about his studies.

But his words of hope end up having a different but much needed effect on Arajin.

Remembering Shigaraki's warning of how Matakara's life is on the line and how he doesn't have much time, Arajin gets some character development and rushes out to see his old friend to figure out what's going on. He even resorts to ordering Senya to come out and speak with him not just for trying to steal his body but also to figure out how to save Matakara before he loses his body. It's all proactive and a significant change from how Arajin normally acts.

And it's all because the Homeroom Teacher, our Greek Chorus, provided him with some relevant keywords to our designated hero on the crisis at hand. It can be speculated that HT being unable to see Jasmine the other day was what inspired him to say those particular words to Arajin. How time is of the essence and the important things in life can slip by if you take them for granted. And if he loses out and doesn't act, then he'll lose that chance until who knows when. And not wanting to let Matakara be lost, Arajin pushes on.

And those would be my thoughts on this segment. Looks like Nyan Nyaight Love has more stories to share and I'll definitely have some words to say about them. And I'd love to hear what you guys have to say about these segments too! As for any new readers, what did you guys think of this Episode's segment? As before, please feel free to reblog this if you agree with what I wrote, disagree or have another interpretation for this scene. So if you think of something, please say that you know.

“Do you know? Do you know? Do you know what this means?”

[thecarnivorousmuffinmeta]

What if the van incident in Twilight never happened? Would anything significant change?

What About the Van?

Well, let's look at what the van incident is responsible for in Twilight.

On Bella's end, it was sudden shocking proof that Edward wasn't human/had superhuman abilities. She sees him teleport across the parking lot, dent Tylor's car trying to protect her, and then sees his very cagey behavior in the aftermath as he tries to gaslight her into forgetting it happened.

Bella is intrigued. However, she was already intrigued, and did already mark the Cullens as at the very least unusual given their physical appearance as well as the weird shit Edward said and the way he reacted to her.

He just wasn't Spiderman yet.

On Edward's end, this is the catalyst for realizing he's in love with Bella. Edward saves Bella despite himself, acting before he can even think, and trying to justify himself in the aftermath while knowing his justifications were not his reasoning. He then finds himself having to defend her from his family (very torn as in ordinary circumstances he'd agree with them) and then Alice announces that it's all fine because Edward's in love with Bella and will turn her into a vampire (or kill her).

This is the catalyst for Edward realizing he is, in fact, in love with Bella and the start of his nightly watches over her as well as stalking her through the minds of others. His obsession blooms and he finds himself unable to leave her to her own devices and slowly but surely our pair come together.

So, what is the van then? It's a catalyst. But is it a necessary one?

No Van

Bella's not in the path of the truck and watches in horror as Tylor smashes into her beautiful red truck. Tylor is carted off to the hospital for stitches and Bella probably gets pulled into the waiting room and feels awkward about it.

The Cullens go to school where Edward finds himself surprisingly miffed that Bella's not in class today so he can't interrogate her again. He has no explanation for this, and finds himself petulantly blaming Tyler's awful driving. If he hadn't hit the ice too fast then it'd be a normal day.

Edward's obsession is still going to blossom and I imagine he's still going to start stalking her through other's minds. The difference will be that he won't try to keep his distance as he initially did in canon. That was a reaction to being told he'd turn Bella (or kill her), if he didn't interact with her then she'd be guaranteed a normal human life. However, here, he's not concerned yet that he'll take such drastic action. He finds himself really liking this strange girl who says the darndest things.

Bella, on her end, notices Edward's eyes changing color, how cold his hands are, how strange he is and theorizes that something is going on with him and finds herself as intrigued in canon.

Eventually, Alice is going to have her vision and is probably going to break the news to Edward.

Which means yes, anon, the van makes no difference.

Sure was exciting though.

[v3nusxsky]

Can I get a lady lesso X reader where the teachers are doing a group bonding as part of the unification of the schools (aka getting drunk). This leads to everyone sharing their stories of how they were in school and since most of the teachers are of similar ages they'd discuss shared iconic school moments. However since r is much younger than most of them only being 20ish they didn't attend with any of them so nobody knows how r was. This leads to much suspicion as r has been very silent and was very reluctant to talk about it. They get worn down and it is revealed r was secretly a very rebellious punk never student which is a complete 180 from them being a nerdy ever teacher in the present. Everyone is shocked by this especially lesso who wants to know why r changed so drastically and why they pretended to be an ever so confronts r later on when they are alone. R reveals that they have really strict parents who were both very powerful/well known evers and they ended up disowning r and all the people in their friends from when they were a teen ended up dying or in jail so they really don't have anyone so thought it'd be better to reinvent themselves because they know everyone judged them and their friends based on looks and being a never but anyone who actually knew them would know they were really cool people who just had a really fucked up life that for the most part was their fault. Lesso ends up telling r to be themselves for her if not for r's teen self and r agrees to the next day. Everyone is shocked by the transformation and lesso is just over here trying not to die from how hot r looks.

Who you truly are|NSFW

*Authors note ~ okay so this is an amazing prompt and so detailed. I am going to bace reader off one of my oc so it's going to link to queen Regina from ouat ever so slightly. I hope that's okay.*

Trigger warnings~ praise overstim kink mistress kink jealousy sex insecurities unable to be themselves alcohol usage

Prompt~see ask^^^^^

☾ ☾ ☾ ☾ ☾ ☾ ☾ ☾ ☾ ☾ ☾ ☾ ☾ ☾ ☾ ☾ ☾ ☾ ☾ ☾ ☾ ☾ ☾ ☾ ☾ ☾ ☾ ☾

Ever since the schools have merged, there's been tension on both sides. Learning to co exist in ways they hadn't had to before was hard. Some unwilling to try others not knowing what to say or do. That is why a new rule was passed for all professors. The Unification rule was probably one of the best parts of the merger. Strictly adults only and a lot of alcohol. You could quite easily see it becoming your favourite part of the month. Once a month you got to see everyone interact without the usual rivalry.

You were completely tipsy, half way there to that happy drunk state. Pretty much everyone was either drunk of tipsy by now, the conversations flowing effortlessly as you all chattered nonsense really. Clarissa decided you should all share memories of your time at school. The other teachers were a fair few years older than you so the versions they described were quite old fashioned. It was interesting to think of them with back combed hair and drastic makeup. The images your mind was conjuring up was making you giggle hysterically. That seemed to have drawn attention to you. They immediately asked what you looked like, how you acted, if you were always the nerdy Ever that preferred to be buried into a book.

You visibly pealed and tried to bluff your way through and of course Leonora called you out on your lie. Their suspicions looks told you that it wasn't only Leonora that didn't quite buy your tale. You then had to completely tell the truth. Truthfully, you were quite the memorable student in your school days, but not for the right reasons. The gasps of shock and questions seemed to poor from the others. Leonora smirked at your description of yourself and the glint in her eyes told you that she wouldn't be dropping it that easy.

The night trickled on and you were downing alcohol like it was tap water. Truthfully you were two sheets to the wind by the end of the night, slurring absolute nonsense. There was this one Never teacher, she called herself Isadora if you remember correctly, and she was flirting with Lady Lesso. The rage you felt at the sight was overpowered by the instant insecurities you felt. Suddenly everything that was you seemed average. The attributes you usually loved seemed to be nothing in comparison to Isadora. And the way she makes Lady Lesso laugh like no other, yeah you were definitely jealous. You didn't realise just how badly until Leonora placed her hand on Isadoras shoulder and leaned over into whisper in her ear, you were glaring daggers into Isadoras head. If looks could kill she would be dead. And that most certainly didn't go unnoticed by the dean of evil, she quickly dismissed the unaware teacher and made her way over to you watching as you rapidly blinked trying to disguise your jealousy.

"Come pet, you're absolutely out of this world" she purred leading you away from everyone else and back to her chambers. If you were sober you would've noticed however, you were absolutely out of your mind so you followed willingly. And that was how you found yourself tucked up next to her where you passed out instantly. She couldn't help but chuckle and follow suit after making sure there was some water at your bedside for the morning.

☾☾☾☾☾☾☾☾☾☾☾☾

The sunlight seeped into the room through the gap in her curtains, stirring you awake with a groan. God your head was pounding, and the sheets too damn comfortable. Wait. Your head was resting on someone? With a small peak from under your eyelashes you saw the one and only Leonora. A blush rose over your cheeks at the fact you were in her bed, the fact you remained in last nights clothes meant nothing other than sleep had occurred. A chuckle next to you roused you from your thoughts. "Awake now are we pet?" God her morning voice. You'd imagined it of course but nothing could compare.

As if she read your mind she reassured you, "nothing happened love, and I know just how badly you wanted it to. But i would never take advantage of such a pretty play thing. However, now you're more or less back to normal all you have to do is ask." You lay there in shock. No way was she offering what you thought she was. Right? "But what about Isadora" you whimpered, your insecurities showing. Her laugh was everything, "Isadora isn't my type darling. I don't want her I want you if you'll let me have you" was all it took for you murmur a simple plead.

"Mistress darling, say it. Say please mistress like a good girl" she taunted you loving how eager to please her you were. "Mistress please I want you" you whined. That was all it took for her to straddle your hips and capture your lips in a possessive kiss. She was claiming you as hers and truthfully you'd never been happier than here and now.

Leonora was a diligent lover, she placed kisses all over your skin as she exposed it, paying almost worship like attention to every part of you. She murmured praises and reminded you just how perfect she saw you to be. The sweet one had to be when she placed her lips directly above your heart and whispered, "this is my most prized possession of you'll allow me to have it pet."

After all her worship like attention everywhere but where you were aching for her, she started to please you in ways you'd never been pleased before. Leonora made your past lovers seem like fools, you were use to one climax and done, but this women brought you over that edge time and time again. Not even stopping to ask for anything in return. Praises were constantly thrown at you as you violently fell over the edge for her. "Mistress! Please can't' no more!! Hurts so good please" you all but whined. You were a complete mess, and she was loving every moment of it. "One more pet, just one more like the pretty girl you are. So good for your mistress" she murmured before bringing her lips back to your clit. It was the feeling of her younger flattening against you that had you coming with a strangled cry. She fucked you through it before moving to clean you up. There you lay with half lidded eyes and completely fucked dumb for the very talented Dean of evil.

Word count ~ 1451

[themonotonysyndrome]

OK NOW WITH YANDERE!CASTIN TALK LIKEEE

I never made a head canon so give me some slack

So watch me write headcanons as they get descriptive each time

- Yandere!Castin will read every individual letter to the Baroness from a suitor or a potential threat in his marriage and burn the letter into the fireplace

-Yandere!Castin has made plans (IN EXTREME DETAILS) on how he’ll end Lord Reyes if the tables get turned

-We all know the Baroness can like handle herself during very tense interactions with Castin’s men or other soldiers (if they have that kind of beef) but when she comes home and rants to Yandere! Castin about the solider in question, BETTER BELIEVE the man knows who to ACCIDENTALLY break a hand of during training

-Yandere! Castin had gotten into full arguments with Rhett and others about how the Baroness is literally the most drop dead gorgeous human to ever walk the planet (which he isn’t wrong) and no other woman is superior to her (so that’s means anyone’s else’s wife counts 💀)

-Yandere! Castin DEPISES Lord Reyes and so while Reyes and the Baroness are having tea and yapping and Castin stops by, he’ll give the sloppiest, longest and most tongue twisting kiss to the Baroness while side eyeing Reyes the whole time

THATS IT SINCE MY MIND CAN ONLY GO SO FAR and I like yapping

-BYE M’LADY 😊🤞💗

You've fed us a meal, Dishes! NJDKNFDSF I'm obsessed with your headcanons!

Castin having mad beef with Lord Reyes and constantly marking the Baroness by giving her the most filthiest kisses WHILE IN PUBLIC IS INSANE AND I LOVE IT! Poor Baroness is taken off guard every time 😂

We gotta give credit to Lord Reyes, though - even to Rhett! I feel like they would try to warn the Baroness about how possessive Castin is becoming by the day. Rhett, in particular, is shock at his bestie drastic change. He knows how love can change a man - hell, he's a proof of it - but Castin's constant hovering and snarling around his wife is really concerning.

We might see them doing an intervention, actually!

That can go really bad if Rhett and the other men can't get through Castin.

The angst!

Have a good day, Dishes. These are awesome!

[inquisitornocturn]

≪─ ᴀ ᴍɪɴᴜᴛᴇ ᴛᴏ ᴍɪᴅɴɪɢʜᴛ: ᴄʜ. 7 - ᴅᴇᴀᴄᴏɴꜱ ᴏꜰ ᴛʜᴇ ᴅᴀʀᴋ ─≫

⋟ 𝐩𝐚𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠: Sebastian LaCroix/f!reader the Ventrue neonate

⋟ 𝐭𝐚𝐠𝐬: y/n etc is not used, rating - T, pinning, vampire bites, blood drinking, fluff.

⋟ 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲 𝐬𝐮𝐦𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐲: From climbing the corporate ladder to being told you need to feast on human blood - this is your new life, Fledgling. The world has changed for you so drastically, you know you will need time to adjust and your new so called "boss" is not making it easy. He's sending you on tasks that feel like they were designed to get you killed. It makes you furious: at Sebastian, at your vampirism, at your lowly position in this brand new society you just stepped into. Still, LaCroix is just the type to get under your skin with ease, and he does it well. Too well. You are not too sure if you can resist his pull.

⋟ 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭: 7,458

𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐞: at this point i see that i'm mainly fixing grammar in these edits, which is pretty good! good to see myself grow even within one work. either way, enjoy♡~

⋟ 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭: [link]

After you wake up the next evening you find yourself moderately excited for the meeting. First and foremost because you are going to see Sebastian in person again. Yes, the phone call was strained at points and you have some serious questions for him, but there’s a side of you that just wants to be with him. And that side is becoming stronger and stronger as time passes, no matter how many times you try to remind it that Sebastian isn’t exactly the romantic protagonist in some cheesy novel. He’s arrogant, egoistic, manipulative and even ambitious in evil ways, some of them you most likely don’t even know about yet, if you ever will. He’s controlling and possessive, but you would not admit that you like all those qualities just a tiny bit even if you were having your limbs chopped off. And you hope you will never be in that kind of situation.

Besides allowing yourself to ‘night-dream’ just a little bit, you eventually get out of bed, take a long hot shower that you found a passion for since your Embrace, and feed yourself on a blood bag. Then you notice you have three emails waiting for you.

One is obviously from LaCroix with the address to his mansion. It has nothing but the address in it and his usual sign off of initials. The second email makes you raise an eyebrow. It’s titled Be careful from An ally and the email itself just says: you are being watched.

You look at the screen for a little while, quite stunned and then sigh, relaxing your shoulders. You don’t know what to make of this, you don’t know who sent you this message but you decide not to let yourself become paranoid. Of course you are being watched, if not by some mysterious stranger then by Prince and Camarilla as a whole because you were spared when you were meant to be killed. That makes you a reasonable liability, so of course you are most likely being surveilled without you knowing. Just like in corporate life, Kindred politics are not so different from Kine ones, and since you all come from Kine after all that’s not some shocking realization.

Third message comes from an already familiar sender claiming to be A good friend. Email is titled ‘suicidal tendencies’. And the body of the message, just like the previous one, is short and to the point: your boyfriend is eager to get himself killed, watch carefully how Primogen interact with him. thank me later.

You try to not to feel too giddy at the remark of ‘your boyfriend’ but you allow yourself a moment of joy, a small chuckle. You don’t know who the person behind this email is either, but he seems to think, or possibly even know, that you and Sebastian are involved to a degree. Otherwise, why he would try to aid you and by extension Sebastian, especially if he wasn’t on your side? Maybe it’s some sort of game that you’re just not privy to, but you make a mental note not to become overly trustful of this unknown source and their advice.

However, the message itself causes you to feel a degree of concern. Since you’re done secretly gloating about the opener of the text, you shift your focus to the warning. You are aware that Sebastian is ambitious, maybe too much, but if this is about the Ankaran Sarcophagus then you actually see why he’s right, that the Sarcophagus should end up under the Camarilla protection. But obviously this anonymous friend, if you can even call them that, probably knows more than you do. Which is both concerning and something you can understand. There’s no reason for Sebastian to share any sensitive information with you, he’s not sure of your loyalty. Maybe that’s why he wants to integrate you into your shared Clan, so that he can be certain that you will remain his ally, at least to a degree, especially if he keeps helping you to achieve some status. If you owe him favors he’ll basically have you on a leash. And that’s something you haven’t thought about. But you can think about this later as you still have time to turn this over in your head before your private meeting with him.

What you need to do now is to dress yourself and leave for the meeting before you run late. You managed to waste couple hours earlier so now you have to get going. Heather is not here and you actually find that a relief, tonight is not the night where you want her puppy enthusiasm distracting you and disrupting your thoughts, no matter how endearing you usually find her. She has some errands to run for you and that will keep her busy until she’s done, however long it takes.

Earlier this week you had Heather go to your old place as low-profile as possible to retrieve some of your belongings. Yes, it probably would’ve been easier to just buy clothes and needed items since now you have access to your money, but you find it hard to let go of some pieces because they are just very well done articles that you came to cherish. Heather got almost everything you asked her to get and nearly entirety of your closet, which was a feat that left you impressed because you liked, and still do, having options, a lot of them. Even if those options slow you down sometimes, like tonight.

After spending solid 15 minutes picking an outfit, which is not the worst you’ve done in the past, you go for a tailored black pant-suit. You spend some time picking a shirt but decide to go for navy blue because Sebastian always wears white and you don’t want to match him. You don’t know if some people might interpret that as a challenge to his status or not, but you’re not willing to risk it and start any unfounded rumors. You make a decision to forgo a tie as well, leaving couple upper buttons of your shirt undone for a casual and relaxed look. Then you find your trusty black heels and feel confident that you picked the right outfit.

Suits make people take you seriously, to stop and listen when you speak, heels keep you looking feminine and less threatening to men in positions of power, and navy shirt is of color that speaks of royalty and high pedigree that usually means everything in circles of leadership. Yes, you thought it through carefully and you hope it will pay off. Again you affirm one thought to yourself - you’re done being everyone’s errand girl, it’s time they see your merit.

By the point it’s time to leave you hear a crack of thunder and decide to grab an umbrella before you go. Venture Tower is not far so you want to walk there and enjoy the feel of the night before you plunge head first into the politics again. And seems you are right to have an umbrella with you because before you even make it down to the first floor via the elevator it already has started raining.

When you exit the building, the heavy rain is washing away the filth from the streets. The smell is something you find intoxicating in the most positive way. You always loved the smell of rain on pavement. Maybe you’re a bred and born city dweller, but you can’t imagine a better smell than this. You inhale deeply, letting yourself enjoy the moment, then step from under the shelter with your umbrella over your head.

There’s not too many Kine or Kindred in the streets and you feel a type of serenity that makes you happy to be in this moment. The sound of rain on your umbrella, your heels on the pavement, a radio from a passing car, a dog barking somewhere in the distance. All of this you find working well for the city ambiance that you always loved, it puts you in a good mood. But unfortunately your walk is not long at all, maybe 15 minutes, and before you can really feel the joy of your walk, you are already at the Venture Tower.

When you enter, closing your umbrella and shaking it, you see Officer Chunk as always at his station. You approach with a smile. Usually you are not in the mood for his nonsense, but tonight you feel like you can spare a moment or two for a chat. Yes, indeed you are in a good mood.

“Seeing Mister LaCroix again?” Chunk asks with a smile and a face full of innocence. You nod to him and he continues. “Seems a lot of people are here tonight to see him. He seems to be working a lot lately. Sometimes I hear him yelling, I suppose he’s passionate about history because I heard him yelling about Sarcophagus of sorts. I think I heard something on the news about it but I’m not sure.”

“Yes, LaCroix is a big enthusiast of history.” you chuckle and Chunk gives you one of his soft smiles.

“Yeah, that’s what I thought. You can go ahead now, he’s expecting you.”

“I’m sure he is. Thank you, officer Chunk.” you smile and walk towards the elevator when you hear Chunk reply to you.

“Any time! Just don’t make trouble!”

Kine can be so innocent, you think to yourself as you get into the elevator and push the PH button to get to the Penthouse floor. While it takes you up, you try to calm your nerves that started to rise just a moment ago. Not that you are super worried about the meeting, but still, making sure you’re in control of your emotions is not only wanted but necessary, as expressed by Sebastian himself last night. Also, you don’t want to start getting uncontrollable anger that sometimes takes over you when you’re with Sebastian. Having an outburst in front of Primogen Council is not a very desirable option for you. If you want to be respected - you have to start acting like it: controlling your anger, controlling your arrogance too and playing your cards right, showing that you’re a valuable asset to the Camarilla and Ventrue Clan and not the opposite, acting like you belong. Because when you act like you belong - you end up blending in and being accepted. All the lessons you learned in your life are already coming in handy in your unlife.

When you arrive at the right floor you put your umbrella in a corner, making a mental note not to forget it later and then put your hands in your pockets. You stand still for a moment, with your eyes closed and inhale deeply, then slowly exhale. When you open them again you feel like your old self and less like a freshly Embraced Kindred not in control of your urges or emotions.

Finally you walk to the door and enter the Penthouse Office with a curtly knock. Before you let the door close behind you, you notice key players of tonight’s meeting: Prince, Strauss, the Nosferatu Primogen that you know to be Gary Golden, and two Kindred you know nothing about and never met before - a male and a female. And of course the ever silent Sheriff not too far from LaCroix, just in case.

As you walk towards the group that is gathered in front of LaCroix’s desk they stop talking and turn to you, the sound of your heels being an announcement enough.

“Good evening.” You say with a leveled and casual tone as you approach them. You’re slightly nervous but remind yourself that this is no different than a board meeting when you were a CEO. Except now you have less decision making power than you ever had before.

“What is this Neonate doing here.” The woman asks, her voice sounds like she’s perpetually bored and you find it hard to pin her Clan with no clues being present.

“I don’t know what she’s doing here but she’s welcome anyway.” The unknown man says with a smile and you immediately pin him down as Toreador Primogen. Who else would be so openly looking you up and down with an eye of an expert in fashion.

“I invited her because she’s been quite essential in pursuit for the Sarcophagus.” LaCroix says, his voice is arrogant, domineering, sounding in charge which he is. You’re seeing a Prince that you first met, the Prince that you feel quite weak in the knees for.

He is standing up like the rest of them, just behind his desk and keeping his distance, a show of respect and equality? You’re not sure. But you end up standing between Strauss and the woman who sounds bored.

“For the love of fuck.” She says and you realize that despite her tone she’s quite emotional, you pin her as Brujah Primogen easily now, happy with your observations so far.

“Now now, I’m sure Prince has his reasons for including the Neonate in this conversation.” Strauss comments, his voice is blank and he looks at you, something in his eyes making you wonder what he’s thinking about. “I, for one, am intrigued by the input she might provide.”

“I hope I can be of service.” You say politely with a respectful head bow to the group and notice the Toreador Primogen eyeing you again. While you didn’t dress to impress per se, you are nonetheless happy that at least someone appreciates the effort.

When you look at Sebastian you find his face completely unreadable and you try not to read too much into it. Of course he is cold and businesslike in front of the Council. He has to be if he wants to retain his authority among these Kindred. And it’s not like you really expected him to immediately tell everyone that he’s claiming you as his. That’s not how things work in real world. Though you can’t deny that fantasies you allow yourself from time to time have even sillier scenarios than this one.

“Very well then, let’s continue.” He says and your eyes drift to Gary, who you also catch eyeing you curiously, but not in a way Toreador is, it’s more of a dissecting kind of look, like he’s measuring you as an enemy or possibly a friend. But he soon stops and turns to Prince.

“I have been informed that the Sarcophagus is in police’s custody, it will head for the Museum of Natural History quite soon, but I don’t have the exact date yet.” Gary says and Sebastian listens carefully. Even from where you’re standing, you can sense LaCroix eagerness to get his hands on this ancient coffin as soon as possible and you wonder if others can also sense it.

“Any way to know the exact time of this transportation event?” He asks and Gary gives a small head shake.

“None right now, Boss. But if I come upon any information I will let you know through usual channels.”

“Right.” LaCroix says, obviously disappointed but showing very little of it, then he looks at you but not into your eyes. “Once the Sarcophagus is at the Museum I want you to go there and retrieve it.”

“Me?” You raise an eyebrow quite stunned, you feel like everyone’s eyes are on you now. It makes you feel itchy within your own skin in a most uncomfortable way.

“Yes, you.” LaCroix’s tone is sharp, commanding, there’s no arguing with him. ”I want you to be ready the moment I get information about the Sarcophagus. I don’t think I have to explain how essential it is that the Sarcophagus comes under the Camarilla protection.” He says and you hear the Brujah woman let out a small ‘tsk’ sound while you notice Gary’s completely stone-like expression as if he’s trying not to react at all.

“Are you sure you want to entrust this... Neonate with a task as important as this?” Strauss asks and LaCroix’s eyes turn to him, quite angry, his brows furrowed like he cannot believe anyone is questioning his decision.

“I am confident that she can handle the task as she has proven herself to be quite indispensable in earlier errands in relation to this Sarcophagus. I believe limiting Kindred with the access to Sarcophagus is appropriate at this time, we have to know what’s within it before we can take any further risks.” Prince’s words are sharp, measured, he doesn’t sound like a man who’s going to listen to any opposing opinions.

“If it’s so important then why not send someone more experienced?” Brujah looks annoyed at LaCroix’s decision and he gives her a look and a small smile, but it’s more of a grimace.

“And who you would suggest instead?” It’s a challenge and everyone knows it. The woman stares LaCroix down but in the end says nothing. You can’t read her well. Remembering the email you wonder if she’s just pissed off or if she’s conspiring against LaCroix.

“I would ask if we even need the Sarcophagus.” Toreador man finally speaks up and everyone looks at him, mildly shocked expressions all around. He pauses, oblivious to the reaction he’s getting for his opinion. “How are we even sure there’s anything of worth to us in that coffin?” he pronounces the word ‘coffin’ with disgust and shrugs, in your peripheral you notice Sebastian rising an eyebrow.

But before he can speak up, Strauss surprisingly does.

“Kindred all around the city are feeling a certain change in the night air. You can’t deny that. And how Ankaran Sarcophagus came upon our shores is also shrouded in mystery and death.” Strauss’ voice is even and calculated.

“Correct.” Sebastian agrees and everyone returns their attention to him. You finally notice that he’s trying his best not to make eye contact with you, which has you wondering why for just a moment. “I have received the ship log and it’s clear that this Sarcophagus is shrouded in some sort of supernatural aura. Our Fledgling over there even confirmed that Sarcophagus looked like it was broken from the inside. I’m sure I don’t need to be telling any of you why it’s quite concerning.”

You nod when Prince mentions you, confirming his words and Gary gives you a more curious look than the rest. You try to ignore it.

“So what do you think is even in there?” Brujah woman speaks up again, she looks like her patience is running out fast. “An Antediluvian?”

Silence.

Everyone looks back at Sebastian and he sighs, then gestures like he’s trying to be nonchalant.

“Perhaps. Although I don’t believe it’s anything like that. What I do believe is that it contained someone, possibly a Kindred, who could have been hiding in the Sarcophagus and trying to come here in secret. It could be someone powerful who is looking to wreak havoc. I believe that getting Sarcophagus and inspecting it’s contents is of utmost importance if we want to learn if this a threat to us or the Masquerade itself.”

Believable and rational, Sebastian’s reply seems to appease everyone. But you have your doubts. You feel like there’s something Prince is not telling to the rest but then again, maybe it’s just your imagination and suspicion that LaCroix always has an ulterior motive. And you are aware that your suspicions are not always correct.

“We have another issue to discuss.” Strauss speaks up, everyone’s attention on him now but he looks at you, very obviously thinking if it’s worth it to bring the issue up while you’re here.

“Go ahead, her input might be valuable to whatever problem you’re having.” Prince says and you hear Toreador Primogen scoff like he’s having a hard time believing that someone as young as you in Kindred years could have an opinion of any value whatsoever.

“Isn’t she a Prince’s darling.” He says in quite a mocking tone and you glance at him, shocked at his words.

“Excuse me?” You ask, but Prince is fast to interject.

“I’ll remind you that I make decisions that benefit all of you and the Camarilla.” LaCroix snaps back, seems his temper is also getting shorter the longer this meeting is continuing.

“So we’re not supposed to question you at all?” Brujah Primogen now speaks up, her face is quite angry and you feel the tension rising. What you’ve gotten yourself into? “When you invite a newly Embraced Fledgling to a meeting like this we’re not supposed to ask why?”

“Maybe she’s just that good, Boss.” Gary says with sarcasm in his voice and you glance at him just to see him give you a smirk that is hard to read. Does he know anything about you and Sebastian? Nosferatu are known to hoard all the little secrets, but you have no idea how he would know any of that, especially what happened at the Kine party.

“Good or not, I’m still yet to be convinced she’s of any significant worth to deserve to be here!” Brujah raises her voice and when you look at Sebastian you see he’s also smirking. What a dick measuring contest.

“Calm down everyone.” He gestures with his hands like he’s placating wild dogs. “While I do know that inviting a Neonate to a meeting like this is unusual, there are very good reasons I want her to be here. As I mentioned before she’s been quite essential during our troubles with Sarcophagus so far, I’m sure she will be indispensable with other matters as well if we just giver her a chance.”

The way Sebastian is basically standing up for you makes you feel a certain type of way, something between gratefulness and joy. You want to smile but you manage to keep your poker face on. This is not the time to be a fool in love, you know better than that.

Everyone falls silent, most likely thinking about what Sebastian said or deciding not to argue any further and Strauss clears his throat.

“There’s an issue with the Malkavian Primogen, Alistair Grout.” He starts and Prince nods, obviously in the know about this issue already. Of course he is.

“Yes, I have been made aware there is. He’s not present here, obviously, and he hasn’t been attending these meetings for a while. That presents a certain issue.” Sebastian elaborates to the rest.

“Indeed. I would very much like to know why he’s gone missing on his own volition.” Strauss adds and Gary speaks up.

“My... agents... two nights ago have told me that Grout is alive but hiding in his mansion. They don’t know what he’s doing behind those walls but most report hearing some strange things.”

Sebastian nods taking the information in, he props his chin with his fingers, deep in thought. After a moment he makes a decision.

“I suppose I should send someone to check it out, make sure that Grout is alright and that he contacts us again.” Then his eyes turn to you. Oh no. “Why don’t you do just that? Go to his mansion, make sure Grout reestablishes a connection with my office as soon as possible.”

“But-” You start and yet don’t get to finish, Toreador interrupts you.

“Her? She’s such a fragile thing, Prince. And Grout is a Malkavian! I heard rumors, you want her to be tied down to a chair with her scalp removed while Grout pokes at her brain?” The man sounds genuinely upset and even disgusted as he describes the scenario he just made up, but when you look at Sebastian he is smiling.

At last, he is looking you straight in the eyes and you feel the fluttering inside your stomach even though you know there’s nothing that’s alive there.

“I’m sure she has already proven herself to be more formidable than most other Fledgling. You can handle the task, can’t you?” His voice is silky smooth and you find yourself unable to question why he wants to send you.

“Yes, of course.” You reply and nod politely which makes Sebastian smile wider, fangs showing. What a sight of a man, you can’t stop yourself from admiring him even right now.

“Splendid. Then it’s settled. She will go solve our Grout issue and hopefully he will contact us soon.” Sebastian seems to be content with the outcome of this conversation. “Any other pressing matters?”

But there seems to be none and everyone denies needing anything else from the Prince. When LaCroix announces that the meeting is over the Primogen Council turns to take their leave. Except he calls out for Strauss, making him stop and turn back.

“Strauss. I’m quite sure you wanted to talk to the Neonate in private. I can offer a spare office for the conversation.” Sebastian says when the rest of the Primogen leave and while you expected Strauss to look surprised, he doesn’t look the part even if he is.

“That sounds acceptable. I hope you don’t mind us taking up space like that.” Sarcasm, it’s dripping from Strauss’ tongue and there’s no way Sebastian doesn’t hear it.

“Not at all. I would be happy to provide a safe space for you to have a private conversation. And you-” LaCroix’s eyes turn to you and you flinch a little, because you did not expect him to address you. “Come back here when you’re done with the conversation. There’s other things I want to discuss before you leave to find Grout.”

”Sure.” You nod and he smiles in response.

“Good. My employee over there will lead you to the office I mentioned for your conversation.” He’s smirking, it’s a play of power and you know that by forcing Strauss to have a conversation with you on Venture Tower premises is a victory of sorts. Maybe to show that Strauss cannot hide his little dealings from Prince.

But your thoughts get interrupted when a petite looking girl appears in the doorway and gestures for you and Strauss to follow her. After exchanging a quick glance you follow her. She leads both of you wordlessly and you can see that she’s a vampire but that’s all you can tell about her just from her appearance. When she opens the door and flips the light switch inside you enter first, then Strauss follows and the door closes behind both of you.

You look around, feeling slightly awkward but there’s nothing interesting in the office to hang your attention on.

“I’m quite displeased that Prince has intercepted my invitation.” Maximillian says and you turn to him, hands in your pockets but remaining alert. It doesn’t matter if you two are on Elysium grounds, you learned already not to trust Kindred too quickly.

“Wasn’t because of me.” You say defensively and he nods.

“I’m aware of that.” He pauses then walks deeper into the office, looking around just like you have done a moment ago. You follow him with your eyes, sizing him up, not sure what to make of him just yet.

“So why did you want to see me?” You ask and silence follows. You find yourself mildly annoyed that everyone is so dramatic lately.

“Do you think Prince sees you as a valuable asset, Neonate?” He finally asks and you get slightly surprised at the question.

“Perhaps. I suppose it depends. I would think it’s too early for him to see true value of my presence.” You admit and that earns you a curious look from Strauss, who decides to walk back to you to have this conversation face to face but with appropriate distance between you.

“Very self aware.” He comments and crosses arms on his chest. “How well do you know our Prince?”

“Not very I would say. But he seems to be the ambitious type.”

“Correct, Neonate. You will do well in this new... life, since you’re so aware already.” He eyes you up and down, like he’s measuring your worth, but there’s no hostility in him that you can sense or see.

“What do you know about the Sarcophagus?” You ask and he offers a mild shrug.

“No more than yourself. But what I do know is that LaCroix is much too focused on acquiring it. His obvious need for it reveals a weakness that his enemies one day may exploit.”

You take this as a warning, and a very serious one.

“What do you think is inside of it?” You ask, now curious about his answer and Strauss thinks for a moment, then gives a small sigh.

“I’m not really sure, but there’s no denial that Kindred of this city have been feeling uneasy since Elizabeth Dane showed up on our shores.”

“Whatever it is, I’m sure Camarilla can contain it.” You comment, remembering LaCroix’s theory that he proposed earlier and Strauss silently chuckles.

“Yes, the Camarilla is powerful, but some things are beyond organizations even such as this. And it might be beyond the scope of our Prince altogether. We just don’t know.”

“Not very confident in LaCroix, I assume?” You raise an eyebrow at Strauss and he offers you a small smile.

“My loyalties lie with my Clan and the Camarilla.” He offers politely and now it’s your turn to smile to him.

“In that order, correct?” You comment and Strauss chuckles again.

“You really will do well as a Kindred.” He says and you find some pride in the assessment because you do what to do well. After all you have bigger plans than simply remaining a delivery girl for every older Kindred in this city. “But I’m not surprised at that, you Ventrue types really know how to catch on quickly when it comes to politics.”

“So I have heard.” You admit with a small nod. “I don’t intend on remaining a perceived clueless Fledgling forever, after all.”

“Ambitious too, very appropriate for your Clan as well. And in toe with LaCroix, curiously enough.” Strauss says and again you take this as a compliment, though you don’t know if it was meant to be one. “A so called natural born leaders of the Camarilla, Ventrue do seem to step into positions of authority and power with ease, as evident from LaCroix. Which makes me quite intrigued by what path you will choose.” He adds like he’s reading your thoughts and now it’s time for you to make a dramatic pause while you think how to answer.

“I’m not sure what I want to do yet. Not fully.” You say and it’s a lie, but a convincing one at that.

“How about your loyalties? Does Prince LaCroix is in the center of them?” A raised eyebrow, you know he’s probing you.

“I would say that my loyalties are with the Camarilla.” You answer carefully and Strauss smiles just a little.

“And what if Prince of the Camarilla loses sight of values that represent the organization?” He asks and before you can even think of an answer he chuckles. “Thankfully it’s not a dilemma you have do deal with right now. But in the future - who knows? I am, however, quite pleased that you seem to already pick your loyalties with observation and intelligence.”

You feel tense, because you feel like you’re being interrogated. Strauss is exuding an aura of soft control and you sense there’s more to him than he lets on.

“So what do you think of LaCroix then?” You ask and he softly laughs.

“I think his ambitions can get the better of him sometimes.” Maximillian says and you again sense that it’s not the whole truth.

“And that’s it?” You press, but he just politely smiles and surprisingly, reaches out, grasping your chin with his fingers. You fall silent, shocked but manage not to show it.

“For now - that is it.” He says and he gently but firmly makes you turn your face to the left, then to the right, you have no idea why he’s inspecting your face but you decide to let him, because you still sense no threat from him. “You see, Neonate, you needn’t forget that if not for the infamous Mr. Rodriguez intervening that night, the Prince surely have had that hound of his separate your clever head from your shoulders.”

You think of this because in a sense he is correct - Sebastian did try to get you killed. But it was within rules of the Camarilla so you find it hard to feel like some sort of injustice has been inflicted upon you. Yes, you are glad that someone stopped him, but in the end, and with your loyalties to Camarilla growing stronger every night, you find it hard to make yourself be angry at Prince for that. Same rules apply to everyone, you’re not an exception, maybe even less so.

Strauss sees the thought process behind your eyes, though maybe not the extent of it and he leans to your ear as he lets go of your chin. You stand still, letting him speak.

“I’ll give you an advice from Tremere to a Ventrue: true power lies not in wealth but in the things it affords you.” He whispers and you know exactly what he means.

He steps back from you and crosses arms on his chest.

“I think you have potential. I have a task for you, if you want to prove your worth to the Camarilla after all. Are you interested?”

And you are. Rest of conversation goes casually where Strauss informs you about a sickness that’s plaguing Downtown. He suggests you make contact with Anarchs again as he suspects it might be their fault. And with that your meeting with Maximillian is over. You say your farewells and when you two emerge from the office there’s nobody around. Without another word he heads for the elevator and you head towards LaCroix’s office.

You knock and hear the usual permission to enter so you do and find Sebastian standing by the window looking outside. It’s still raining heavily and you finally feel relaxed again. He says nothing so you approach him and stand by his side but with some space between you. You notice that Sheriff is not in the room. Does that mean that Sebastian trusts you? He already exposed himself to you during the Kine party, so he probably thinks that even if you do pose a threat to him, he can handle it himself. There’s no denying that after all he’s still a very powerful Kindred.

As you look outside onto the panorama of Downtown the Prince sighs, yet still says nothing.

“Are you curious what I spoke about with Strauss?” You finally ask, feeling a little impatient.

“Not at all. Strauss is a Primogen, not an enemy.” He proclaims. “Consider it a lesson. You see, we Ventrue sometimes must take it upon ourselves to patronize the rabble and hear them out with a look of genuine concern, no matter how ridiculous or trivial their notions may be. I presume that’s exactly what happened during this conversation.”

“I see.” You add thoughtfully because you sense a lie, but decide to say nothing. Sebastian turns his head to look at you and you look back at him. He seems to be in a reflective mood.

“See, the Primogen are representatives of their Clans and they do belong to the Camarilla, but more often than not they represent their own best interests.” LaCroix says and you remember the exchange you had with Strauss and his loyalties. Prince continues. “They stay close to power, such as myself or the Camarilla overall, but they lack the backbone to lead. You had your first experience tonight in dealing with them, I can assure you there’s a pattern to such meetings such as the one you witnessed already.”

You take in what he says, but you also want to ask questions that are not about the tasks, the Primogen or anything else Camarilla related. You want to ask questions of the personal nature, but you know you have to wait for tomorrow night, when you arrive at his manor.

“I would like to postpone our meeting and make it in two nights time. I suspect you will need time to locate Grout.” It’s like Prince can read your mind. Can he? You hope not.

“Right, I was thinking the same thing.” You aren’t, but you won’t admit that your mind already have slipped into memories of that night at the Kine party just because you’re standing next to him again. You try your best to push the memory away and focus.

“I’m glad. It’s more important right now to placate the Primogen and figure out why Grout has gone into hiding. We can talk about other matters when that is solved.”

You feel a pang of disappointment even though you know he’s right. The rain pelting the windows now makes you feel a bit sad rather than relaxed, compared to earlier. You sigh.

“You’re right.” You are not willing to argue with him and look outside the window again.

“I hope I’m not disappointing you too much, but my duties are keeping me pretty busy in regards to private matters.” He says, but doesn’t sound apologetic, his replies feel distant, impersonal, rehearsed. What he said on the phone starts to ring true to you: My status requires that I don’t get myself involved with Kindred of your position in personal matters, especially physically like we have.

Yet you want more, you hope for more. A touch, a look, a smile. You try not to think about it and just remain silent, waiting for LaCroix to tell you you’re free to go, but instead you feel his fingers on your own.

You look down at what he’s doing and find that he gently took your hand while you were distracted. You raise your eyes to him and find him watching you. That strange feeling of fluttering inside of you returns.

“I realize you must be feeling like a pawn, being pushed around. But trust me that you are not only working for the Camarilla but also are working towards proving yourself to be a valuable asset.” Sebastian says and gently tugs on your arm, making you step towards him. You’re a little unsure what he’s thinking about in this moment, but that doesn’t stop you from feeling surprised at what he’s doing.

“Yes, I do realize that.” You respond and with another tug you end up in his arms, his right hand on the small of your back, his left one cupping your chin. Your eyes widen at that, you thought he would never touch you like this again, and yet it’s happening.

“Good. You’re proving to be very smart, my darling. Just don’t get too smart. Some don’t like that.” He says quite silently, his tone is seductive and you have issues thinking straight as your arms, as if they are acting on their own, rise and gently land on Sebastian’s shoulders.

“Is that someone is you?” You ask while looking into his pale eyes and Prince confidently smiles.

“As long as you’re with me and not against me - I don’t.” He says and there’s a warning hidden in this sentence, you can read it clearly. “But I don’t think you will betray me, will you?” He asks in a way that it’s not really a question but a thinly veiled statement.

And you don’t get to answer anyway. By your chin LaCroix turns your head to the right and you know exactly what he wants. And you let him take it, at this point you’d do anything for a moment of intimacy that you so deeply crave. Prince sees your submission and grins as he lets go of your chin, his now free hand finds its place on the back of your head. Without another word he leans in and pauses for a moment, you feel his tongue against your skin, slow and deliberate, and you exhale, partially moan, at the feel of it. This is exactly what you wanted, what you missed. And LaCroix can definitely sense it in how willing you are.

“That’s my good girl.” He whispers, making you feel lightheaded at the praise but then he sinks his fangs into your skin and this time you moan louder.

You cling to his shoulders as you feel him take your blood, it feels so good to give yourself to him, it’s even better than sex. You close your eyes and breathe slowly, Sebastian’s hands push you against his body even more, you don’t remember the last time you were held this tightly. It feels like love to you and somewhere, in your at the moment clouded minded, you still realize how dangerous it is to think that way, how dangerous it is to think that Sebastian can love you. Yet you want him to love you. You have an undeniable ache for his love, his affection.

You don’t know how long he takes but finally LaCroix stops draining you and pulls away from your neck, leaning his head back with closed eyes, his chin up. He lets out a long sigh of satisfaction, and when you open your eyes you see your own blood on his mouth.

“Oh how I have missed this.” He whispers, probably without thinking about it, and you feel encouraged by this.

You cup his face and lower it to you. When Sebastian opens his eyes to look at you there’s certain degree of fulfillment in his expression. And that’s all you need. You kiss him, passionately and eagerly. You wanted this since the Party. And Sebastian doesn’t hesitate to answer to your kiss. You taste your own blood on his tongue and you don’t care. His hands slip to your waist, holding you closely to him, his hips against yours while he explores your mouth with his tongue once more.

Then suddenly the phone on his desk starts ringing and you both freeze. He pulls back from the kiss and looks at the ringing device like it can give him any clue as to who interrupted.

“For the love of fuck.” You groan frustrated and Sebastian looks at you with a smile.

“Duties of a Prince never end.” He says and gently wipes away your blood from your lower lip with his thumb while at the same time he licks his own lips, tasting last bits of you on them. “Go now. We will meet in two nights.” He whispers and you want to kiss him again, should you?

You decide you should so you pull his face in for a short kiss and that makes him let out a soft chuckle. Finally you step back from him, feeling a deep kind of loneliness and craving when his hands slip away from your body.

“I’ll be there.” You assure him and he nods with a smile, then straightens out his tie and walks to the phone.

You’re dismissed, so you walk towards the door. Before you leave you hear Sebastian answering his phone in that usual tone of his that signifies his unquestionable arrogance. And when the door behind you closes, you find yourself with a heavy heart, even if it’s not beating anymore. Almost absentmindedly you retrieve your umbrella and head for the elevator.

While you’re taking the elevator down you realize that in the end Strauss did poke at a problem that you haven’t really thought about since the first time LaCroix shared his blood with you. A problem that you find yourself struggling with, problem of your loyalties between Camarilla and Prince himself.

Your heart wants him and to be with him, but your logical side tells you that he might be heading in a direction you cannot follow if you want to preserve yourself. The anonymous email warning about the Primogen, and Strauss’ veiled warning about Sebastian’s ambitions indicate to you that there are vampires who are very possibly conspiring against him. And what if LaCroix does lose sight of the Camarilla values? Do you stick it out for a man who you are not even sure has feelings for you instead of just manipulating you, or do you choose the organization that you strive to belong to?

A loud ping indicating you arrived at the ground floor snaps you out of your thoughts. You don’t want to think about those things, not yet, but as you walk outside into a rainy night with your umbrella over your head, you realize one thing very painfully: you have to make up your mind sooner rather than later.

Or else, you sense, that decision might be made for you.

[dteamain]

after everything I just feel totally shocked and short-sighted. Like, quackity always gave me the impression of a cc that cared a lot about what he makes, quality-wise and performance-wise. Like i cannot describe to you how far my jaw drops every single time ive heard abt the stuff hes been contributing to lately, its so drastically out of character for my perception of him, its nuts!

Like I knew that he had unresolved major controversies (like his brother), but like!!! This month I have watched this man alienate his previous friend group by encouraging the hate trains against one of his friends projects, ive seen him IGNORE the fact that his fans are sending gore and other horrible things to people who don't even interact with them, and NOW hes got this horrible racist mod in his server, something that he stated was a very important project to him, and hes barely able to get to taking the fucking mod out correctly, while only referring to it as "a little offensive" like???

AM I CRAZY? because this all feels like such a checklist of Things To Never Ever Do As A Content Creator, and its EASY TO NOT DO THEM?? Like hes completely fucking over his server, and viewership continues to drop without any major solutions to the mod OR to FitMC, who was a racist POS who BARELY addressed it, much less apologized.

tbh? QSMP is not even realistically competition or on the same level as the USMP atp, like its barely been out for a few weeks and it already is having a major major controversy. Quackity is killing his "passion project" and i cannot imagine WHY he would let this happen, as someone whose been online for EIGHT YEARS!

anyways how is ur day going Jenna :]

it truly is mind boggling like none of this adds up why is he acting like this? and i guess the answer is simply he is shitty. but after thinking you know him and his morals a little bit it's a slap in the face. i remember back in the day so many people talking about how he was and how he made offensive jokes how he dropped friends and stuff but i always assumed he changed. we never saw that side of him. so of course it's logical to look at that and assume he changed as a person but to sit here and see the reality of who he is has been insane and i still can't wrap my mind around it.

[sapphire-weapon]

ur last post about the tragic irony that is leon being saved by the cia makes me think about how, if not for them, leon wouldn’t have a ‘distraction’ for himself after racoon city. and like. can u imagine if they had just fuckin let him go. the thought of a freshly racoon city traumatized but not military traumatized leon running around looking for distractions seems like a whole new character to me

So this is probably a result of my original post being unclear, which is a huge my bad. But I didn't mean to say that Leon would have killed himself if not for the CIA. I mean that the CIA was both the cause of and the solution to his problem.

They pushed him to that point to begin with, but they were also the ones who saved him from it.

Which then only served to cement their hold on him.

Leon's life is shit, is what I'm saying LMAO

In a world where he'd never been kidnapped by the CIA, Sherry would've been his distraction. So, we would have had Actual Dad Leon instead of Suicidal Deadbeat Dad Leon.

But if the CIA had still taken Sherry but let Leon go... in that case, I'm pretty sure Leon and Claire would've fucking gone full traitor and waged war against the US government LMAO and you know Chris would be all in on that, too -- Mr. I Got Dishonorably Discharged From the Air Force for Fighting.

It does raise the possibility of Leon joining Claire for a co-op version of Code Veronica, too, and the thought of Leon and Steve interacting kind of makes me want to pull my skin off LMFAODBSK

But, either way, you're right -- he would've been a completely different character.

But I don't think that it'd be as bad as you're envisioning. In the scenario I proposed, the biggest motivating factor behind the suicide scare was ultimately Leon's overwhelming feelings of powerlessness and being trapped. If the CIA had let him go -- even if they'd still taken Sherry, he still had the freedom and the power to act on his own and do something about it.

So, like.

I remember when OG RE4 came out, and how shocked everyone was at Leon's characterization. But what RE4 did was take Leon's general disposition from RE2 and amplify it to an absurd degree. RE2 Leon was a nice guy, sure, but he was also stubborn, arrogant, and kind of obnoxious. So, in RE4, he's downright cocky and macho.

RE2make Leon had a more melancholic disposition, so that was what got amplified in RE4make.

But it was the training that did that to him. His exaggerated traits are a coping mechanism he used in order to survive the drastic shift in lifestyle that he was forced into, which is why OG Leon chills the fuck out more and more as the series goes on and he gets older. The more comfortable he becomes in his new life, the less he has to try to put on a performance or wear a mask.

So, without that combat training, he would have had a way more natural character progression. Imagine if RE2 Leon had been able to grow up as an unofficial third Redfield sibling -- because that's, ultimately, what would've happened. So, even if Leon had had a suicidal episode, one or both Redfields would've just beat it out of him LMAO

This would be a version of Leon whose confidence wasn't forced. One who still remembered how to smile and laugh from the heart. One with friends and a support group and who wasn't crippled by the ouroboros that is his loneliness feeding into his self-loathing, which in turn pushes people away and exacerbates his loneliness.

Because that's ultimately what's at the heart of Leon's character arc overall. Nothing that he does makes an actual difference in the world. Nothing in his life ever changes. He's chained to and trapped in a life he never wanted, and the same nightmare keeps playing out in front of his face again and again and again.

And he has to do all of it completely and utterly alone.

[mintys-musings]

okay so back on my anzu x idol bs. non thirsty ramble. more like. whod understand her when she opens up about her time in kimisaki and all the shit with the peace party/producer course/etc.

okay so no brainer trickstar gets her. but let's talk about others that might get her on a deeper level:

JUN. OH MY GOD. REIMEI ACADEMY IS LIKE KIMISAKI WHERE SLACKERS ARE PUSHED TO THE BOTTOM OF THE HEIRARCHY AND RIDICULED. at least that's how it was when anzu attended (getting through engirls main story still. things are. slightly diff as her brother is attending but also there are parallels with ! era anyway-) if she ended up absentmindedly talking about her past with him while they're having lunch during work or whatever, he'd be like "i'll drink to that." and it'd escalate. bc now he's hearing about how the producer course treats her and he's like "well what the fuck. this is what goes on in yumenosaki??" and he'd end up as part of her protection squad. no one can say shit to her when her guard hyena is around.

SPEAKING OF PARALLELS- SHU. I HAVE SUCH COMPLICATED FEELINGS ABOUT SHU ITSUKI BUT GODDAMN. DO HE AND ANZU PARALLEL EACH OTHER. let me list some things

both were considered odd by their peers and pursued more artistic outlets instead of social interactions (both ended up in fashion)

some gender shit- anzu has always been described as more tomboyish/less of a demure girl than others (hitting people when she's annoyed, more aggressive than passive, etc- in !! we don't see it much but i chalk it up to her trying to be more professional) shu's past with being a boy into fashion/dolls and having people not really support him follows this

suzu and mika respectively. i have certain feelings about the unhealthy aspects of shu and mika's relationship, but it certainly does parallel how suzu looked to anzu (even now.)

the mental toll it took on each of them when they were ridiculed (shu with his execution and anzu with being bullied so much she had to transfer) they both sunk their time into distracting themselves (shu with valkyrie and anzu with producing)

i could go on. shu x anzu isn't necessarily a ship i see, but i think if anzu were to tell shu her story, he'd be quite shocked at their similarities. shu could comfort anzu whenever she feels that built up guilt of leaving suzu, her one companion in such a cruel system. plus they're sewing buddies. beyond that, he'd listen to her complain about whatever is going on in the producer course and he'd subtly hype her up like "Tch. It seems as though they don't value insight from someone like you. I say, you are better off without them."

Rinne. HERE'S ME ABOUT TO EXPLODE. GOD. RINNE AMAGI. RINNEANZ FOREVER BABY. HE UNDERSTANDS THE PLIGHT OF NOT BEING TAKEN SERIOUSLY. HE UNDERSTANDS THAT OUTSIDERS LIKE THE TWO OF THEM DESREVE THE SAME LOVE AND RESPECT AS THOSE WHO KISS THE ASS OF WHATEVER SYSTEM THEYRE UNDER.

they both ran away from an old lifestyle and changed themselves drastically. rinne gained all his confidence and decided to be more loud and proud. anzu gained confidence as well, but is still learning to not doubt herself so much. But they have a common goal! uplift and support those who are overshadowed in the industry. Rinne with the bees and anzu with everyone else (including the bees as well) They both get each other though they have different approaches. rinne obviously respects anzu on a deep level and trusts her judgement. he's more discerning than he looks.

anzu probs wouldn't tell him anything. it probs would never come up. but if one day she comes to work after dropping off her brother somewhere, he can tell somethings off. he wouldn't pry, but he'd get it out of her. oh yeah also- younger brother issues. they both gottem. just. consider. consider the two of them confiding in each other. it's an odd sight seeing rinne look so calm talking to someone. he looks very handsome while he is serious though.

finally, madara. he'd honestly understand past her well purely bc he'd find the info. but he wouldn't say a thing. she wouldn't either. madara wants her to vent to him about the present goings on though. he wants to be a figure in her life. he LOVES her. enough to even put her at arms length so she wont get hurt. but sTILL. HE WANTS TO BE PRESENT. HE WANTS HER TO CONFIDE IN HIM. HE'S JUST NOT VERY GOOD IN SITUATIONS WHERE EMOTIONAL VULNERABLITY IS NEEDED.

god. she'd never open up to him about these things, but he'd subtly suggest things to maybe help her ease her mind. if she's wallowing in guilt over not being able to support suzu like she used to, he'd be like "oh im gonna go to a concert later. wanna come with?" and it'd be suzu's band playing. if she's having small disputes with some classmates causing delays in projects, somehow all the things that were missing from her classmate's end of the project are miraculously done. he'd also do things like be more huggy suddenly or give her rides to and from school so he can glare at whoever is giving her trouble. hell, he'd threaten mao to make sure she's treated like a princess in school. madaanz...

bonus: hitsugi and her shake hands in mutual understanding. anzu leaves every agency and becomes NEGI's sole producer. the two shake up the idol industry immeasurably, become a global sensation, and they live happily ever after.

[hysterotic]

𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦 𝐨𝐧 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐦 𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐤𝐬 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 :

ft: baji, mikey, chifuyu, kazutora, hanma.

thought this would be fun to do n it really was! if you want me to do other characters lmk!

𝐛𝐚𝐣𝐢 𝐤𝐞𝐢𝐬𝐮𝐤𝐞 :

-super private account, he has over 1k+ requests, feels like your the chosen one when he accepts and follows you back

-does not post, ever. sometimes forgets he even has that app until they tag him in photos

-when he does post (stories) it’s either about a cat or him a bloody mess after a fight (bruised knuckles hand pics, a selfie of him smiling with a bloody nose) and sometimes even the shit he burns

-he doesn’t know how to take photos or bothers to try so it’s usually blurry

-doesn’t pose, just stares at the camera with it angled down, sometimes his hair would cover his face so he pushes it back — that’s the most “posing” he’d do, and an occasional sexxxyyyy tongue in cheek. (i love how he’s unaware over how hot he is)

-if you really wanna see his face you’ll have to check mikey’s, chifuyu’s or kazutora’s posts.

𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐡𝐞 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐬 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐲𝐨𝐮 :

-the way he does it is so strange

-you would think he’s being nonchalant and his attention is hard to get but it’s not that at all

-you’d post just for him to see, anticipating to see him view your story or like it but he’s the last person to do so.

-and when he does interact it’s not the way you want it, not even a story like, at that point you’d assume he skipped it.

-he didn’t, he never did, he stared at you for 10 minutes straight, replaying your story over and over and over or just staring at your post without even liking it (he forgets that he can do that sometimes)

-he would reply to your selfie that you took ages to get a good angle with a “where are you” (where are you is a reach tbh he’d say “wya”, yea hes the type to type like that.) like is that genuinely all he has to say to that? 😭 and you’d respond with the location of where you were to try to start a convo with and he wouldn’t even see it.

-the man would leave you on delivered for DAYS but not on purpose, he’s just simply not on instagram, and it drives you crazy.

-y’know what’s crazy though? you’d walk past him / approach him the next day and he would bring up your selfie and how you looked in it.

“you look good with those dark lips you did yesterday.” he says as his finger circles over your lips, pointing out the dark lipliner look you posted on your story.

“really? i was trying out a new look, i wasn’t so sure about that one..”

“you should do that more often.”

-or maybe when you post about a new piercing you got or maybe a drastic change on your hair color, you’d check who viewed it and you wouldn’t even see him in there and it’s already been 24 hours.

-that is until he approaches you the next day as if he’s been searching for you.

-“didn’t think you’d have the guts to do that.” he says as he eyes your new piercing/hair dye. “thought my eyes were deceivin’ me when matsuno showed me those photos.”

-after that you realized that he does pay attention, he just doesn’t show it on social media.

𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐲𝐨𝐮’𝐝 𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐩𝐢𝐜𝐬 𝐭𝐨𝐠𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫

𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐣𝐢𝐫𝐨 𝐬𝐚𝐧𝐨 (𝐦𝐢𝐤𝐞𝐲) :

-private account

-posts so much that he floods your timeline, but it’s so worth it cause his posts are extremely funny.

-he doesn’t care if his pictures match with one another, if he likes it he posts it.

-you’d be shocked once you find out that he doesn’t take the pictures, it’s usually emma, takemichi or the twins.

-him (next to the twins) is hilarious to have on social media, you look forward to seeing his stories cause you know it’s gonna be chaotic.

-you’d find him under his friends’s comments, bullying or pointing himself out in the photo. “the mysterious guy that took the photo is reaaalll handsome, not you tho.” “who’s the sexy guy in the middle”

-often live streams on random occasions, gets excited when he sees you in it and announces it to the gang, “they joined!!” or secretly points you out to them, holding back a smile once he sees you in the chat, “look who joined” and angles the camera towards whoever’s next to him that knows about you (mostly draken).

𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐡𝐞 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐬 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐲𝐨𝐮 :

-you know you posted something funny or cool when he likes it, you’d lowkey feel proud of yourself.

-when you reply to his story or text him he responds with a video of himself (not necessarily talking or doing anything, just looking down at the camera and showing you where he is, most of the time he’s eating during those) or a voice note of him responding to whatever you said cause he doesn’t feel like typing.

-interactive if he likes you enough, you’d find him tagging you on your plushie that he stole from you, or tagging you on his hair when it’s you who did it for him. “my personal hairstylist.”, posts mirror selfies of himself in your room too.

-whenever he sees you posting that your out somewhere without his knowledge/without him being there he’d reply to your story with a “you went without me?” “how come i wasn’t invited” “guess my invite got lost in the mail, huh?”

𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐲𝐨𝐮’𝐝 𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐩𝐢𝐜𝐬 𝐭𝐨𝐠𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫

𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐟𝐮𝐲𝐮 𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐬𝐮𝐧𝐨

-public account

-posts the things around him more than himself = lots of cats and friends (takemichi & keisuke)

-the closest thing to him remotely posting himself is when peke j is laying on his face with the caption “an entire bed to himself and this is where he sleeps.”

-either that or a video of him facing the camera for 2 seconds then turns it towards baji doing whatever he does.

-reposts a bunch of cats for adoption.

𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐡𝐞 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐬 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐲𝐨𝐮 :

-you started interacting with him after seeing him post peke j, indicating that you LOVE cats, either that or he sees you post your cat.

-that gives him the chance to talk to you more, either sending you cat reels, helping you with your cat since you started using him for cat info or sending you a photo of peke j with the caption “he misses you.”

-he’d send a reel of a cat being stupid with the caption “reminded me of you.” “ok chifuyu.”

-your favorite is when he (rarely) sends you voice notes responding to what you said, you LOVED how deep his voice was and he? doesn’t? get? it? but entertains it for you still.

-will always like your stories no matter what you posted, when you do post a selfie he’d respond with a “hey.” “peke j’s a lucky son” (he’s so cute)

𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐲𝐨𝐮’𝐝 𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐩𝐢𝐜𝐬 𝐭𝐨𝐠𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫

𝐤𝐚𝐳𝐮𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐚 𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐞𝐦𝐢��𝐚

-public account

-his photos are genuinely so pleasing to look at, he doesn’t post much since he’s more of a highlight/story person. (also a tiktok person, i could imagine him being tiktok famous)

-you’ll see a lot of pre-shower pics or pics of his neck tatt that he loves to show off too much.

-has a special highlight for his friends (mostly baji) and a highlight for the band he’s in whenever they actually do preform, sometimes he’d post himself playing with the guitar.

𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐡𝐞 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐬 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐲𝐨𝐮 :

-and that’s what you slid up on, his guitar videos

-AFTER he started commenting on your selfies, cause who are you to be chasing over a guy who never interacted with you?

-“😵‍💫” under your comments.. like does he genuinely think this is flirting..

-they’re annoyingly subtle, keeping his nonchalant facade til he shows the crazy

-doesn’t take long for him to add you to his close friends where he actually posts way more often than you thought.

-sometimes when you’d post something funny he’d reply with that fuckass skull emoji

-then you started doing it back, interacting to his guitar videos, asking if he could play a certain guitar solo

-he made sure you knew that he’s only doing this cause it’s you, whatever that means..

-after a lil bit of subtle back and forth flirting he posted a photo of the band captioning that they’re gonna perform at a warehouse, then dms you asking if you’d like to come and see his very own guitar solo live.

-you would neverrrr say no to that type of offer, eye fucking the guitarist as he plays his solo? yes please

-then the day comes, you post a cuuteee outfit that you’re gonna be wearing at the warehouse concert before you leave. kazutora, chilling backstage on his phone, opening your story and seeing you in that fit.

-now he’s bold

-replying to your story “ima rip that off of you when i see you.”

-very much the type to be bold out of nowhere when he’s about to meet you, making you twice as nervous to see him now.

𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐲𝐨𝐮’𝐝 𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐩𝐢𝐜𝐬 𝐭𝐨𝐠𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫

𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐦𝐚 𝐬𝐡𝐮𝐣𝐢

-public account

-another only story/highlight poster

-posts consists of dangerous stunts or his bruises after a fight, he’d drop locations of gang fights for people to stop by and watch

-got banned from instagram multiple times

-how he managed to find you is by asking around for your @ after seeing you in someone’s posts/story

𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐡𝐞 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐬 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐲𝐨𝐮 :

-“seen it, you can delete it now.”

-“what are you doing wearing that out for?”

-“just send it to me if you want my attention that bad”

-the type to only interact when you post something related to your body

-acts like you two are dating already with the way he comments under your posts

-the type to steal your phone and posts himself for every guy in your following to see

𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐲𝐨𝐮’𝐝 𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐩𝐢𝐜𝐬 𝐭𝐨𝐠𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫

[mae-i-scribble]

Having recently gone through the beginning of orv bc i adore the webtoon, i really have to be in awe at the amazing way orv presents the character vs person argument in the first third of it’s story. Because I would say up until after the demon king selection arc orv is can be assumed to be an isekai/power leveling fantasy deconstruction. And as and entire novel, it is somewhat, but it moreso encompasses themes much broader than a genre deconstruction, along with kinda throwing out that typical story structure halfway through to do its own thing.

And personally how orv goes about presenting the character vs person argument is not only the best i’ve seen in an isekai context, it sets up a very nuanced interpretation of how kdj sees the “characters” around him that is not just “oh he saw [insert name here] as a character until [some event].” Nor is it “oh kdj refuses to understand the people around him because he only sees them as a character.” From the beginning kdj has been shown to realize that the people around him weren’t simply characters following a script, and out of every character who read the WoS novel, he’s by far the one who treats them with the most humanity, even if his assumptions on their behavior are flawed. I’ll only be talking about the beginning sections of orv in this because while the entire novel build on that character vs person conflict, this beginning section is where it is best presented as a deconstruction of genre tropes. It also is what is responsible for setting the groundwork for those big moments later on in the novel, and without this section of story establishing Dokja’s perspective on the issue those moments would lose their tension.

I’m not really going into this with any sort of proper essay format or organization of thoughts besides for vaguely chronological, so if things are all over the place I apologize in advance.

While orv begins with Dokja sort of “shell shocked” at the novel he’s followed for so long coming to life around him. At this point, he very much treats Namwoon, Hyunsung, and Joonghyuk as characters only. He kills Namwoon out of personal dislike and the belief that Namwoon would never change his psychopathic ways. Hyunsung he admires, making comments along the lines of “i never imagined i would be able to meet his character in real life.” Joonghyuk is a similar story only with far more disdain, because Dokja realizes just what a bastard Joonghyuk is at this point. I do think it’s important to know that while Dokja was ultimately wrong about Namwoon, he was absolutely correct in reading Joonghyuk’s intentions when they first meet on the bridge. So even when Dokja sees novel characters as being ripped straight from the pages, he is not completely right nor completely wrong in his understanding of them as people.

As we are introduced to more novel characters with Jihye heralding Joonghyuk’s return, the most important thing to examine with the character vs person aspect is how Dokja interacts and interprets their actions. And for all purposes, there is not a single difference in how he treats party members like Sangah and Heewon vs Joonhyuk or Jihye. None of how he presents himself changes drastically, regardless of the status of the person. The only thing that changes is the fact that he knows what to say to poke and prod at them in the ways he wants to, whether to motivate, or to annoy, etc etc, because he has such extensive knowledge of them from following their story. And even then, even then Dokja has those assumptions shoved in his face when Joonghyuk occupies one of the hidden safe zones during the 3rd scenario. If he were any less resourceful then that assumption would have cost him his life, and he clearly recognizes it as such. When Hyunsung mentions how it seems Dokja has known him for a long time, Dokja doesn’t brush it off or treat it as a useless comment, he recognizes the weight of what Hyunsung is saying- of what he himself is doing by pretending to be a distant friend while knowing so many details of Hyunsung’s life, and it clearly bothers him a bit. Already, Dokja is moving away from the perspective seeing novel characters as characters only, because from the beginning all the novel “characters” are asserting their agency and personhood.

The next major moments come with the cinema dungeon, first up being the scene when the company is in the titanic movie. When Jihye moves to kill the simulations, saying that it doesn’t matter because they’re real and the simulation is just a character, Dokja is left looking on to think over her words. Again, his perspective is challenged and Dokja seriously considers the implications of such. When they get to the sea battle reenactment, and Jihye breaks down, Dokja doesn’t use his knowledge of her as a “character” to convince her to stand up again. He tells her his honest thoughts, the same attitude he’s shown to Gilyoung and Sangah and Heewon. That she isn’t wrong for wanting to survive. That she cannot atone for her actions with death but must live on. Frankly, I have a hard time believing that such an emotionally charged speech comes from any point of distancing the same way one would if they only considered a person to be a character who needed the right catchphrases.

Concerning the fight between Dokja and Joonghyuk in the cinema dungeon, I actually don’t think it has much to add to this character vs person argument orv is building, but it does go to show that even if it were true that Dokja sees all WoS people as being characters only, that perspective is not without emotion or humanity. Dokja wasn’t simply a reader watching over a story, when he read WoS he was fighting alongside these characters, urging them to keep going, to keep fighting for a better world.

Now, next up comes the most important distinction, and one of orv’s best ideas when it comes to expanding on this character vs person conflict: introducing other readers of WoS. Now Dokja is our baseline to compare to others in similar standing to him, and the results are incredibly telling. The apostles refuse to even acknowledge any novel character as human, let alone treat them with decency. When Dokja confronts them about it, they shrug it off, claiming its sad that these characters don’t even know they’re characters. When attacking Dokja’s station, they target Jihye specifically because she is a character, reveling in beating/humiliating her. This is what it means to only see a character as a character, and it is nothing like what Dokja has been doing.

After that, we get the other brilliant twist that when apostles reach a point past where they read, they become “characters,” complete with acting as if other character have always been a part of the world. This, to me, is when Dokja stops separating the people from the characters. In a world where a person can become labelled as a character under his skill, who’s to say what the difference is? Certainly not Dokja, who even when he did have that distinction changed very little about how he treated them. Now it’s simply people he read about in WoS vs people he did not.

A small sidenote here regarding Sooyoung, while being an author herself, she’s certainly much more scathing in her interactions with who she considers a “character,” and while not quite touched upon in the webtoon, she tends to deny the agency of those she considers characters far longer than Dokja ever did. Although the two of them end up in very similar positions later down the line.

Now, all of this is not to say that Dokja seeing Joonghyuk and co as characters first doesn’t impact his relationship with them, because it undeniably does. But none of that shows in how Dokja treats them, it shows in how he perceives their intentions, most notably with Joonghyuk. But considering that as the sole reason why Dokja does so is to ignore the fact that Dokja is not the best at interpreting any sort of positive emotion directed towards him, even more so in the very,,, roundabout way Joonghyuk goes about showing that he trusts Dokja and regards him highly. He has no idea how high a pedestal his little gang is setting him on despite spending literally all of his time around them. When people like Hyunsung and Sangah mention wanting to get to know him more he’s completely befuddles as to why they would even want to.

Additionally, citing the fourth wall as responsible for creating the distance between Dokja and WoS characters doesn’t hold up to me because the fourth wall creates a distance from anyone and everyone, regardless of status. It lets him perceive all of reality as fiction, not just the cherry picked portions. Thus creating another layer of non-distinction for him- equally distant from everything and everyone, the only person in the world who can see it quite the way he does.

Another argument that can definitely be made in more detail is that Dokja’s understanding of Joonghyuk as a character in the beginning is the key factor in letting their relationship blossom. Had Dokja not known what he does, had treated Joonghyuk in reverence like the other apostles do rather than the bastardy coniving way of his, Joonghyuk never would have opened up. What makes Dokja stand out to Joonghyuk is that he keeps challenging the regressor. Challenging him and winning. It’s the speech in the cinema master dungeon where Joonghyuk realizes Dokja cares about him far more than he realized, even if he cannot comprehend how or why.

Anyways, I won’t go any further than that, and if anyone made it this far, here have a cookie for your troubles thank you for sifting through all that. While I think a lot of what I’m saying is like, basic textual shit that doesn’t deserve such a long post for, it still means a lot to me to say it. I feel like the most common fandom interpretations of the character vs person argument and the fourth wall at the beginning of orv so greatly oversimplify and honestly ignore what orv is trying to say in a bad faith reading of the text. Whereas Dokja’s growth is far more complex and subtle than just “he stopped seeing people as characters.”

[yandere-writer-momo]

what you did with Jun Guevara....can you make a similar text like that with Hanayama?-

( i'm sorry i'm obsessed with him 😩 )

I will fulfill your desires. Because same. I want my sh*t rocked by him too… when he’s older.

🌶️ Yandere Baki Head Canons 🌶️

Hanayama Kaoru with a Good Samaritan darling. He’s 22 in this.

Minors Do Not Interact

Yandere behavior, loss of virginity, violence, oral (male receiving), manipulation, corruption kink, and possessive themes

Afab Reader

It was a chance meeting, one where Kaoru was bleeding out in an alley way and you were an angel for saving him. You staunched his bleeding by ripping apart the bottom of your dress for him and he’s hooked. How could someone tear apart their own clothing for a criminal like him?

You stay with him until the paramedics arrive and he’s absolutely intrigued by you. He wants to know who you are

Kaoru has Kizaki find out who you are. And he’s so happy to finally know your name. You’re a little older than him but he doesn’t mind. He loves it

Over his stay in the hospital, he comes to learn everything about you. You’re a model citizen and you’re a very active member in the community. You even built a community garden for the poor. You were a saint

Now Kaoru was a little upset to learn you were in a relationship but he could change that. He’s Hanayama Kaoru after all and no one would ever tell him no

As soon as he got out of the hospital, he went to find you and thank you. He found you gardening in the community garden. The slight amount of dirt on his face melted his heart. You were so kind…

Kaoru was shocked when you rejected him. Hanayama Kaoru has never been rejected before… it thrilled him. You told him you were happily taken so you had no interest in dating him.

But Kaoru persisted. He will not give up. It doesn’t matter that you return his gifts to him, he will get you something better. More expensive, showier. Don’t you see the life he can offer you? You’d never have to live so modestly again. Just pick him. Choose him.

Kaoru found out your partner is an ex con. They were a mooch (in his eyes). What on earth did you see in someone like that?

For months this game of cat and mouse continued and Kaoru’s patience was wearing thin. Why did you keep rejecting him? Why did you prefer that vermin over him? They weren’t strong nor were they a good provider. Hell, they probably sucked in bed too. Hanayama’s jealous was becoming worse and worse everyday. He felt like he was going insane

Kaoru had Kizaki sit a block from your home and watch you everyday. He even had Kizaki sneak into your home and wire it. It was then that Hanayama learned you were still pure. Still untouched. Still to be claimed. He would’ve done a backflip if he could in his excitement

It was then that he took drastic measures, he was a crime boss after all. It didn’t take much for him to find out your partner owed the yakuza a lot of money from the past so he decided to take it upon himself to personally get the money… but since they didn’t have it, he decided to take their pinky.

Kaoru threatened your partner’s life. Telling them to leave you or he’d do much worse than remove their pinky finger. So they did. Like the coward he always knew them to be, they left you high and dry. Moving out of Japan completely

Kaoru was there to console you, he pretended to not know why you were so upset despite being the sole force behind your breakup. The yakuza boss reveling in your small frame sobbing into his chest. The giant man insisting he didn’t mind your tears staining his silk dress shirt. He now had a piece of you… which only made him want more. More

With your fragile mental state, you were easy to woo now. But Kaoru was careful and more gentle in his approach. He was so happy that you accepted his dinner dates and allowed him to dress you for each occasion. You were so broken hearted, you didn’t even question how he knew your size or your address

Kaoru was able to slowly help you get back to your old self. He was so happy to see you smiling again, this time at him. Like you always should have in the first place

Hanayama Kaoru booked an entire restaurant out so it would be just the two of you. He even booked some musicians to play so this night would be perfect. It all had to be perfect because to him, you were perfect.

Kaoru had the smallest of smiles on his face as he listened to you talk and smile warmly at him. He had been waiting for this…

You were surprised when Kaoru proposed to you with the prettiest diamond ring you’ve ever seen… but at the same time, it was awfully early in your relationship to be getting married… but you’d feel bad if you rejected him. He’s done so much for you (and spent so much on you)

The moment you accepted, he almost leapt on you and ripped your clothes off then and there. But he was able to restrain himself by kissing you hungrily. The giant man pulling you tightly to his body and his body trembled in excitement

“How about we head back to my place?” You’ve never been over to Kaoru’s place before… so you accepted. Unaware of what Kaoru was implying.

The moment you entered his home, he locked the door behind you. His breathing ragged as his eyes searched your body hungrily. He was ready to harvest the fruit of his desires… he was going to take what was rightfully his, what has always been his the moment you saved his life and became his angel

“I want you…” Kaoru whispered, your head snapping back to look at him in confusion. “I want you so badly, it’s been driving me insane.”

“What do you mean, Kaoru?” God he loved the way you said his name. How you looked up at him with those innocent eyes… he was going to ruin you

“Will you let me have you?” Kaoru asked softly, trying his best to lure you into a soft blanket of false security. “Completely have you?”

You blinked before smiling at him. “Well I am going to be your wife soon so doesn’t that already mean you already have me?”

Kaoru shook his head and sighed. “I want this.” Kaoru reached forward and grabbed your hip, pulling your pelvis into his. Something large brushing against your stomach as you gasped. “I want to make you mine… I just want you to say it… tell me you want me as much as I want you.”

You gulped when you looked into his obsidian eyes that held a storm of brewing emotions in them. You could always tell what he was feeling through his eyes but right now, you were scared. Scared of how much emotion was in his eyes so you looked down.

Kaoru didn’t like that so he grabbed your jaw and turned you up to look into his eyes. “Look at me, (your name). Look. At. Me.” Kaoru took in a deep breath. “Tell me you want me.”

You sucked in a breath as your eyes watered a bit. “I want you, sir.”

Kaoru’s eyes widened at the pet name, his grip loosening on your jaw. “What did you call me?”

“S-sir…” you whimpered when Kaoru suddenLu picked you up in his beg arms and began carrying you to the bed. “Kaoru?”

Kaoru unceremoniously kicked open the door before shutting it with a loud slam with his foot. His large hands grasping the fabric of your evening gown before ripping it off your body like wrapping paper. His clothes being ripped apart in the same manner.

“I want you to call me sir through this entire experience…” Kaoru whispered huskily as he stroked his large member. The angry red head staring back at you. There was no way something like that was going to fit… you didn’t think everything on him would be so big. “You are to do everything I say and say ‘yes sir’ or ‘thank you, sir’ to whatever I am to tell you. Am I clear?”

“Yes, sir.” Hanayama smirked before guiding his cock towards your mouth with a smile.

“That’s a good girl, now open your mouth.” You obeyed, an immediate gag escaping your lips when he shoved himself in halfway. Your tongue not used to the musky taste while your mouth was unprepared for the intrusion. “Just keep your mouth open for this.”

You obeyed as Kaoru gently thrust in and out of your mouth. The yakuza boss careful not to pull your hair too hard or bruise your throat despite his growing desire to. He knew he needed to ease you into his darker perversions later on

You felt your eyes water, the mascara running down your face as Kaoru used your throat like a flesh light. It was so hard to breathe when something that thick was in your throat

Kaoru eventually stopped his assault before flipping you on your back. A smile on his face at the mess he made on your face.

“You’re such a good girl… now I’m going to give you a reward.” Kaoru’s fingers began to gently stroke the small bud between your glistening slit. A smirk on his face at the tumultuous lust that was building inside of you as your back arched from his touch. “I need to prep you a bit before the main event… what do you say?”

“T-thank you, sir.” You whimpered when Kaoru stuck on of his fingers in you. A sharp gasp escaping his lips.

“You’re so tight… I’m going to ruin you.” Kaoru whispered as one of his hands began to stroke himself to the pace his finger was thrusting in you. “When I’m done with your hole, no man will ever want you other than me…”

“Yes, sir.” You cried at the pressure building inside of you. Your fingers digging into the sheets for some sort of way to ground yourself from the new sensations. A strangled cry escaping your lips when Kaoru added another thick finger in you.

“It’s time…” Kaoru whispered before removing his fingers from your hole. A string of fluid coating his fingers as he guided them to your mouth. “Suck.”

You obediently put his two fingers in your mouth, tasting yourself on them. Kaoru’s breath hitched at the sight, the yakuza boss guiding himself to your entrance. “You’re such a good girl. I’m going to claim you now. You’re mine.”

And with one swift thrust, he sheathed himself inside of you. A loud scream ripping through your throat as you felt yourself being torn. Your nails digging into his back as you began to stop. Kaoru throwing his head back in ecstasy at how tight you were.

“So fucking tight… Jesus.” Kaoru gasped as he began to slowly move. Kaoru pulling all the way out before shoving himself back into the warmth of your bleeding cunt. “You’re mine… you’re finally all mine.”

Cries and moans spilled from your lips as he began his assault. His thrusts were hard and deep. Deeper than anything you’ve ever felt before, you swore you felt him rearranging your guts from how big he was. Your stomach bulging from his intrusions.

Kaoru chased his high as he watched your expressions. He was high off of them. How he was the only man to ever be inside you and how he would be the only one to ever see you like this.

Kaoru threw your legs over his shoulders so he could go deeper. The fat bulbous tip slamming into your bruised cervix like a fist as you cried out his name. Your blissed out expression only egging him on

“You belong to me. Only me.” Kaoru whispered as he began to press kisses onto the bare skin of your shoulder and neck. Kaoru deciding to silence your cries and screams with his mouth. His tongue tangling with your as he continued to pound you into the mattress. He was getting close… so close…

You took in a sharp inhale as your walls tightened around him, your body spasming as a powerful orgasm rocked through your whole body. Kaoru’s muscles going taut as he came inside you not even a moment later. A loud grunt escaping his lips. His eyes dark with lust as he began to gasp and pant above you. He was going to have to have Kizaki buy a plan b after this…

Kaoru slowly pulled out of you, his absence of warmth leaving you cold and feeling empty. Your fluids and his leaking out of you and onto the silk sheets. Kaoru marveling at the sight. He staked his claim… you belonged completely to him now

Kaoru scooped you up into his arms as he pressed a kiss to your sweaty forehead

“Let’s go run you a bath, okay? I’ll clean you up.” Kaoru smiled at the blissed out expression on your face. He was so happy you enjoyed it… there was so much more that was yet to come… “I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life with you, my wife.”

[visionofhope04]

Hii I was lowkey wondering if you would do something maybe like a one shot of neglected where reader is older (18-20) and dipped out of the house and became a singer and one of her songs basically exposed them for how they treated reader and in like an interview she full on tells them how she doesn’t even talk to them and like only Jason

This is literally perfect. I love this idea! I was planning on making a singer batsis reader anyway so here you go! I'll be making this part 4 of the series instead of a one shot. There’s a bit of angst. Btw, thanks so much for your support everyone! I'm glad you enjoy this series! Feel free to request anything you'd like besides smut as well!

This is the longest thing I have ever written so there will be a part 5. I planned on this being the last part but it's just so much. It’s not proofread and neither are all of the other parts because I post at 1 am most of the time lol. Hope you like it!

f/n = friend name

Y/G/N = your group name

N/S = news station

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 (Current) Part 5

---

You were sick of it. Sick of how even after confronting them about how you felt and almost dying because of it, they still neglected you. You couldn't wait to move out at the age of 18, even if it proved to be a struggle. You had taken mini jobs since you turned 15 and saved up since then. You just couldn't see them anymore as it would remind you of how they treated you that day at that hospital. None of them apologized either. They just pretended it never happened and continued to ignore you. The media had a field day with speculation of what had happened but eventually stopped because Bruce had claimed it was “just a bad case of the flu” which they believed.

Jason was always the only one that would talk to you. He was the only one that actually cared enough to make sure you were taking proper care of yourself and that you wouldn't have a repeat of what happened. He took you places, spent time with you and gave you advice. You even had a tradition where you'd always meet up at the manor's library every week at the same time that same day every week and just have a mini book club together. He always made time for you and never bailed on you.

So on your 18th birthday, he helped you move out. You managed to rent a small apartment in Star City with the money you had saved up. It wasn’t that close to the manor which was a good thing. The neighborhood wasn’t good but it wasn’t as bad as Gotham’s neighborhoods so you would be fine. You could handle yourself with your assassin training if needed. You also managed to get hired at a cafe which was about a five minutes walking distance from your apartment.

It had taken a while but eventually, you had packed all of your belongings into color coded containers and moved them into Jason’s car with his help. You didn’t say goodbye to anyone as you had no friends to say bye to and you knew that your so called “family” couldn’t care less about what you did with your life. ‘This is it, hopefully the last time I’ll ever be near this place.’ You thought. You didn’t plan on stepping foot in Gotham ever again after you left. It would bring back too many memories you prefer to keep buried away deep inside your mind.

The car ride to Star City was entertaining. You and Jason conversed the whole time, telling jokes and listening to his funny tales with the radio playing softly in the background. Eventually, a song you both loved came on and you both started yell-singing along to the lyrics. You wished those moments could be permanent. You were both so carefree and nothing else mattered besides having fun and enjoying yourselves.

You now stood in the doorway of your new apartment, admiring your new home. Jason and yourself had just finished unpacking all of your belongings. You really liked how it looked and thought you both did an amazing job at designing the place perfectly according to your style. Jason, unfortunately, had to leave in order to avoid raising suspicions. Once you both said your byes, he left you to your apartment.

Jason drove back home in silence. He hated to admit it but he would miss you dearly. You were always there for him and helped him with anything. You tried your best to always comfort him and make him feel better on his darkest days and it would always work. Somehow you seemed to always have the right words to say or knew exactly what to do to help him. Out of everyone he was closest to you. He assumed it was because he could relate to you the most. More so how you felt. He’d felt like the black sheep of the family before you came, and he was. When you came, you took that role from him. It pained him to see how much their insults would affect you, even if you were good at hiding it. He could just tell.

Jason made it back to the manor after a while and went straight to the library. He didn't want to deal with the others. After the whole hospital situation, he'd never really bother interacting with them. He hated how they treated you as if you didn’t exist and hated how much pain they had caused you and that they didn’t even care. He guessed that they'd probably be doing something for Damian's birthday and forgot that you were his twin. They probably couldn’t even remember that Damian had a twin.

He made it to the library and pulled out one of his favorite books. He’d read it so many times you’d often joke that he could probably recite the whole book by heart at this point. Sitting down in a chair, he started to read. However, he couldn’t bring himself to stop thinking about what it would’ve been like if they treated you how they did Damian. The both of you were Bruce’s real children. You both even looked like clones of him! At first, Jason thought you would’ve been the favorite twin due to your personality. Even though you were twins, your personalities were polar opposites. You even refused to kill! You were trained by the League so why didn’t you kill as Damian did?

Jason knew you would benefit them greatly if you joined. You had self control, didn’t kill, could act perfectly, lie perfectly, do well under pressure, and not to mention your skills. Being raised by the League may have been torture, but you managed to gain incredible skills out of it. You could take on at least ten guys who doubled you in size and beat them within five minutes. You even bested Damian in spars and he was supposedly dubbed the “better twin” by Talia, so why hadn’t they let you join their nightly crusades like they had let Damian when the both of you first arrived?

Damian passed by your room but noticed something was off. He decided to take a look. He twisted the doorknob and pushed. The room which was once occupied by you now looked extremely plain and bare, stripped of all of its accessories. The only things left were the bed itself, multiple dressers, and a vanity. It looked as if it had been vacant the whole time. It might as well have been. Damian couldn’t really remember what it had looked like since he’s never paid much mind to it but he could tell there was a drastic difference. He knew that you disliked just leaving your room plain unlike himself and wanted at least something to make it look less boring.

He couldn’t help but wonder what had happened. Had you finally been kicked out by Bruce? Did you get shipped off to a boarding school like he had been suggesting to your father for years? He decided to go ask. He exited the room and closed the door behind him, taking off for Bruce’s office. Walking down the hall, he suddenly remembered that he had seen you leave with Jason. This meant that you were not at a boarding school like he had originally thought. But then why was your room vacant?

Instead of going to see Bruce, he decided to go see Jason and bring up the matter with him instead. He changed directions and headed to the library where he knew he’d find Jason. It was no secret that Jason was a book worm so Damian had a fifty percent chance of finding him there.

He entered the library and was immediately greeted with the sight of Jason sitting comfortably on a chair, legs crossed with a book opened in his hands. Jason didn’t bother to look up from his book as he spoke.

“What do you want Demon Spawn?”

“I’ve come to obtain the whereabouts of my sister.”

“You mean my sister?”

“She’s not your sister!” Damian exclaimed.

“Well I act more like a brother than you do.”

“Where is Y/N? Her whole room is bare.”

“That’s for me to know and you to find out.”

“Just tell me, you imbecile!” Damian said, growing increasingly frustrated by Jason’s blunt answers.

“She’s not here.”

“Then where is she?”

“Not here.”

“Just tell me already Todd, I have no time for your foolish games!”

“She moved out.” Jason said, giving in.

“What?! Where.” Damian demanded.

“Why would I tell you?”

“Because I demand to know!”

“Okay and?”

“Tell me!”

“No.”

“Why not!”

“Because you don’t even care.”

“And you do?”

“Yes, I actually do Damian! I’m there for her when she needs me the most. I’m there for her while she’s watching you live the perfect life that she’s just a background character in! While you and the others ignore that she even exists! I’m there for her when she breaks down and has panic attacks! And what were you all doing to try and help her? Nothing! Absolutely nothing!” Jason snapped.

“Y/N’s fine, I know my twin!” Damian screamed.

“Do you even know what her favorite color is?” Jason questioned in a harsh tone.

“...” Was Damian’s reply.

“Exactly! You don’t! You and the others have never cared about her, so why all of a sudden do you care now? You don’t know anything about her so don’t act like you do!” Jason then stood up and walked out of the room in a fit of rage.

Damian stood there, shocked. Had Jason just refused to answer his question? He was about to follow him but decided against it. Why was Damian going to chase Jason down just for her? She was just an annoyance, a mistake, imperfect. He had been wanting to get rid of her for so long, so why doesn’t he feel relieved? Why does he feel guilty? He decided to stop dwelling on it and get on with life. He figured it would happen eventually if it hadn’t happened then.

---

It had been a year since that day. The day you left your old life behind and started a new life, a better one. One where you weren’t constantly ignored. One where you actually had more than one person care about you. Instead of seeing yourself as a failure and disappointment, you now saw yourself as an amazing person (which you always were). You had been going to a community college in Star City. You made many friends there and started up a music career with three of them.

Their names were f/n, f/n and f/n. You all started off by taking random gigs anywhere you could. You performed covers of songs and would receive standing ovations all the time. Seeing as your group was well liked, you decided to write and produce your own songs. At the age of 19, Y/G/N released their first album. It went viral within a day and everyone was talking about it. After a week, several articles were posted, praising your work. News Stations talked about all the records Y/G/N managed to break. People started to stream it like crazy, and you couldn’t be happier with all the positive feedback you were receiving.

You had been a Wayne once, meaning you had experience in dealing with the media. Since you had already been used to it, you knew you’d all eventually be invited to interviews. So, when you had received an email stating how N/S wanted a one on one interview with you, you weren’t sure how to feel. You weren’t looking forward to interviews with your whole group, let alone one where you would be alone. You knew how unfiltered interviewers could be and didn’t feel comfortable with it.

However, you decided it would be best to go. So here you were, sitting in front of the interviewer in an uncomfortable chair preparing for the interview to start. You had somehow managed to keep a smile plastered on your face the entire time while you were a nervous wreck on the inside. You hoped none of the questions would be sexist as they usually were towards women. However, you had no more time to think about that. You heard clicking, signaling that you were about to go live. Once you heard the last click, you knew you were live and the interview had begun.

“Hello everyone, welcome back to N/S. My name is Jerald Tangleberry and I’m here today with songwriter, singer, and celebrity, Y/N Wayne! How are you?”

You waved to the camera and then answered, “Hello everyone! I’m doing good, how about you?”

“I’m doing great, thanks for asking! So by now I’d assume everyone knows that you’ve released an album with your group. How does it feel to gain more fame?”

“It doesn’t feel any different. Fame wasn’t our goal when we released the album. It was to express ourselves.”

“Mhm, well Ms. Wayne, what inspired you to write songs?”

“Well we know people may be in a tough spot in their life right now and want them to know they aren’t alone.”

“That’s so true. Some fans have been speculating that every member has three songs that specifically relate to them since there are twelve songs in total and three of the songs have the same group member as the introduction part of the song. Is this true?”

“Yes, it is true.”

“So all three of your songs relate to family issues of some sort. Is that hinting that you have family issues?”

“Yes, actually. My family isn’t the best. They ignored me all the time, even when they weren't busy. The only person who didn’t was Jason.”

“You’re saying it in the past tense.”

“I moved out about a year ago. When I was around 14, I suffered from anorexia. My family would always ignore me since they were either busy doing work or hanging out with each other. The only family member that acknowledged me was Jason. I assumed it was because there was something wrong with me. I started to hate myself so much to the point of starvation. One day, I passed out right before a gala and my oldest brother Dick found me passed out on the floor. They took me to the hospital and when I woke up, Bruce, Dick, Tim, and Damian started fussing about how I’d ruin their image if the media knew what actually happened. They started to yell at me and told me how I was a useless burden. I started to have a panic attack so I kicked them out. Jason stayed behind with me and comforted me. Ever since then I made a planed to save enough money so I could move out when I turned 18, which I did.”

“Oh, wow. So Jason was the only one who interacted with you?”

“Yeah.”

“Looks like the Wayne family isn’t as perfect as they seem.”

“No family is actually perfect.”

“Did your family try contacting you at all after they found out about Y/G/N?”

“Not yet. They’re probably too busy or don’t care.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.”

“It’s alright, I got over it. What’s the next question.”

“Oh-” He cleared his throat and continued the interview. (So basically I don’t wanna bore you all lol)

---

Jason had woken up late into the afternoon that day. Patrol that morning had exhausted him. There was a huge breakout at Arkham they had assisted with. They successfully locked up every escapee, so today, Jason just wanted to relax until it would be time for patrol again. Even though he was exhausted, he knew he couldn’t take a break. The others wouldn’t and it would be unfair to them if he did.

He headed over to his couch with his phone and a bowl of popcorn in hand, ready to watch random movies the entirety of the day. He set down his phone on the coffee tables and grabbed the TV remote. When he turned on the TV, he almost dropped the popcorn and remote. You were sitting on a chair, giving an award winning smile while you politely answered the man’s questions. He was baffled. He didn’t know why you were being interviewed, let alone on TV at all! You made it clear you didn’t want to have any relations with your family any longer and you couldn’t stand publicity, so what were you doing?

He placed the bowl down and snatched his phone off the table. Unlocking his phone, he quickly dialed your phone number. However, he realized that the interview was live and that he would be interrupting it if he called you then. Deciding to wait, he placed his phone back down, picked up the bowl, and then got comfortable.

---

Tag list: @fake-id-69 @pepelachanel @loxbbg @what-0-life @yoongi-holland @omnivorousfangirl @cawcaw-pretty-thing @sexysamsungl @iceddonuts @buginetye @portrait-ninja @azazel-nyx @alculai

[carito-dorito]

This is probably the crackiest ship I've ever shipped (how redundant lol) in my whole life but chubby girlboss+emo malewife won my heart (this also includes spoilers btw) so *deep breath*

Yuri:

He's demiromatic/ace, he really isn't interested in sex, romance for him is such a heavy and hard subject for Yuri. First it'd be a big risk as it could expose him, second one is that it's a distraction.

Often in his childhood he idealised his parents' relationship, thing he regrets by now.

This also affects the view he has towards relationships too, often disgusted when seeing multiple cases about failed marriages filled with toxicity or codependency.

There is always a small hint of fear of damaging others with his flames, he knows how to control them perfectly. He just doesn't wants to repeat history again.

He burnt down the 'cancel the buddy pairings' to allow him to keep working alongisde Agnes. She proved him that she was right after all. Even when it wasn't perfect.

Deep down Yuri loves gifts, his parents (specially Mr. Legend) always filled him with presents. This is why he tends to reject them as he thinks it's a good way to avoid getting closer with someone.

Keith has showed him John and JohnJohn and Yuri loved them so much, though he's allergic to animal fur.

As a kid Yuri was a very physically and frail boy, often getting sick or injured, he has a very skinny frame. That would also explain why he prefers attacking from distance than actual body fights.

He wonders how life could have been if only his father never became an abuser more than he wants to,

Agnes:

She comes from a family of immigrants, her father was french canadian, while her mother was french.

A personal headcanon I have and I see very plausible is her having face assymetry frm birth, this based on the comments from the character designer as he made one eye larger compared to the other one in purpose. But as she grew older she made sure she could hide it or at least it didn't look so obvious, either with makeup or some facial surgeries and her left eye is something it never corrected 100%

Agnes has definitely been put through a lot of stress and that caused her to gain weight, and also she's in her mid 30's. People tend to get older and sometimes your body changes drastically.

Of course this brought her a lot of disgust, from being the ugly duckling to the pretty swan to then again being seen as an ugly duckling again. She's not stupid, she knows when people look at her shocked at her new appearence or when they talk behind her back. But it's at least a good chance to be finally taken seriously by others. But that also means you lose all that pretty privilege stuff, time to say goodbye to all of those nice party invitations and some of those nosy tv shows that mock her.

Her first romantic relationship was an affair with an old man in his late 40's when she was in her early 20's, she regrets it even when that rich man helped her get into her current job position. A reason why she's only seen as a pretty face it's because of that dark past of hers.

She doesn't have a really clear sexual/romantic orientation, besides her affair all what she focused was on her job, besides she really didn't want to hurt others feelings in the process.

Both:

I like the idea of Agnes being slightly older than Yuri and having more of a motherly role in their relationship as she grows to be more protective when she realises she's dating Lunatic

She really didn't understand what protecting someone else meant until she realised it.

Lunatic/Yuri follows her after her job shift ends without her realising (creepy I know, but what do you expect when you have a pyromaniac emo bf)

They first started interacting when both got their jobs, though their more closer encounters started when Agnes was promoted to be as a producer

One of their first dates *cough, it was not a date but it was a professional meeting in a coffee shop, cough* Yuri didn't mind sharing some of his treats with her, as he knows a coffee mug is not a meal

They rule at makeup, they DO RULE at it. From Agnes knowing how to hide her soft chin and making and knowing how to apply eyeliner in seconds with Yuri knowing how to hide his burnt scars

When it's time to go to bed, hey tend to brush each other's hair.

They are also very careful with boundaries, specially Agnes when it comes to Yuri. I personally think he might be autistic and has PTSD. But she nails it at non-verbal and more physical communication and affection. There is no in betweeen as he tends to speak too much or doesn't speak at all

Yuri loves holding Agnes' softer body as it really feels comforting, admiring her love handles to her round face, caresing her eyelashes too. More than once he has compared her to a renaissance painting.

Agnes LOVES humming french songs when alone, though she only does it in front of Yuri. He also likes humming songs in russian.

They both love board games, Yuri loves puzzles and Agnes goes more towards chess. She won a few times

They both are aware of how their actions are often morally incorrect and have discussed about that topic too.

Him revealing his powers was merely accidental as one time Agnes was putting too much pressure on the heroes and also herself causing him to really feel helpless at one point.

[mountain-man-cumeth]

What Went Wrong: An In-Depth Analysis of Muriel's Route

*Youtuber voice*

Below are the opinions of an uneducated individual on what could’ve left the majority of The Arcana audience dissatisfied. I will explore the plot, tropes, themes and morals of the Muriel route and try to explain what may have gone wrong. I will be treating the game as a novel since it's advertised as one.

1. Consistency. If you are unfamiliar with the chekhov's gun; it's a story writing principle that dictates each element you introduce should come into play (foreshadowing). Now let's start with a few story beats that were later abandoned or concluded in an underwhelming manner:

Muriel's blanket

Muriel's magic mark (on his back)

Forest spirit (spirits in general)

Lucio's upbringing

Circumstances of MC's death

Figurines/whittling/charms

Muriel's blanket is teased to be a tapestry, which would tie in with his later fascination with them later on, as it had been the only thing he had left from his past. MC neither sees nor comments on the blanket, we only know it exists thanks to other playthroughs and short stories.

Magic marks are an important point in the game. Every main route emphasises on how it affects the chosen LI. It's reveal is important in a way that it serves as a passage to a new act where the reader explores magic and Arcana pantheon as they are a monumental part of the overall worldbuilding. This exact point applies to the Heart of the Forest and how spirits interact with the world around them as well.

Whittling and Charm making are the only hobbies we get from Muriel's isolated life, their introduction helps the reader humanise the character by giving us a crumb of his everyday life. It's never mentioned again after the scene where MC asks him what he does. He doesn't idly whittle during their journey and charms only come to play in an offhanded reference during reversed ending.

The other two are also ignored but I will touch on Lucio later on.

Why do these matter? A few abandoned plot points don't make or break the story but on a grander level it hinders the audience investment. When we read, we like to think the details we notice will come to play eventually, we like recognizing references that were introduced earlier. I'm sure I don't need to give examples on this one, I don't think anyone will disagree.

2. Themes. Thematic influences this story utilized are all over the place, and it seems to me like it stems from the improper application of certain tropes;

The Hero's Journey

Home Sweet Home

Shell-Shocked Vet

Last of His Kind

etc.

Some of these tropes tackle themes such as;

Slavery

PTSD

Survivor's Guilt

Genocide

I'm not going to try to explain How to Write any of these topics. I'm not remotely qualified. I think it's better if I just give examples from popular media because whether you know how to write it or not, you can still understand when it's written well;

AtLA deals with genocide and survivor's guilt. It's in the name; The Last Airbender. Aang is the sole survivor of a culture he'd only had an opportunity to engage in for a handful of years. He left them with a childish tantrum and now they're gone forever. I can't think of another mainstream series that shows the gruesome reality of war and genocide better than this one.

When Muriel realizes his true heritage and loses Khamgalai is the point of the story where Luke sees his family's farm burned down, Aang goes back to the air temple, Treebeard walks in on the demolished part of the forest. (The inciting incident)

(Could also have been forest spirit’s death but it was too early in the story so I don’t consider it a missed opportunity.)

Up until this point the hero has their doubts, they're going through the motions but they are either underestimating the enemy or they're a passive protagonist. Either way, this is the point where the hero has to take the reins of the story. What purpose does this serve in Muriel's route instead? It simply validates Muriel's beliefs. He's useless, he isn't strong enough. We as the reader need a point to see where the hero takes a step to drive the story forward or whoever takes that step will steal the spotlight, it will be their story. As it is, this is the point where it ceases to be Muriel’s story.

PTSD got the worst end of the deal. Since Dragon Age fandom has a huge overlap with the Arcana I will use Fenris as an example; for those who are unfamiliar with the character, Fenris is an escaped slave. After the sex scene he vividly describes an experience that most people can easily identify as a flashback. The game never tells us that he was abused, it doesn’t show us him having a panic attack but it shows us that whatever transpired between him and the player character clearly triggered an unpleasant memory.

Arcana tries and initially succeeds to do something similar. We see that the character is untrustworthy, sensitive to touch, easily agitated, can’t sleep outside of his perceived safe environment… It introduces us the cause later on and the story has two options, each will drastically change the moral of the story:

Remember these as they will be important later on

Portray Muriel fighting as a bad thing; You can’t fight violence with violence angle or the fact that the villain’s forcing him into a situation where he’ll have to fight again makes the villain all the more intimidating.

Portray Muriel fighting as a good thing; He has the means to defeat the villain and he just needs encouragement. With great power comes great responsibility. By not fighting he willingly condemns everyone to an awful fate and that he is selfish.

I’d like to take a second to explore the 1. Option, I feel like the game may have intended to implement that idea but failed because of the implementation of Morga and choices presented for the player character: Morga is an Old-Soldier, these characters are often push the hero out of their comfort zone in an aggressive way towards complacency, they are a narrative foil to the mentor. For the first option to work the story had to show Khamgalai acting as a mentor and having the protagonists challenge Morga’s teachings(see Ozai-Iroh). As it is, Morga’s actions are never put under scrutiny (narratively) and her death feels hollow as a result. She didn’t sacrifice herself for the heroes due to her guilt, she died because she felt a moment of sympathy for her son which wasn’t explored before, she showed no intention to change nor any doubt.

It is clear the game choose 2. Option, it is a controversial choice given Muriel’s mental condition and the game is acutely aware of this, which is likely why Muriel’s PTSD will get carefully scraped from the story from here on out. (I won’t address other instances where his trauma wasn’t taken into account, I feel like this explanation should cover them as well.)

3. Morals. Every story, whether the author intends it or not, has a moral. The Villain most often acts against that moral and in turn can change the hero's perspective. Morals are not ideals; the morality of Killmonger isn’t that marginalised people should fight for their rights, it is that vengeance is just. Whether it’s right or wrong can be debated but what makes an ideal the moral of the story is in the portrayal. How the narrator depicts the events, how people around the heroes react... all are a part of portrayal.

The story choosing “Muriel fighting is a good thing” earlier puts in the foundation of a moral. The story tells us Muriel has to fight, it’s the right thing to do. He has to be brave for the people he loves.

This choice affects how his past actions will be perceived; now, him escaping the arena to save himself is cowardly, abandoning Morga is cowardly.

The story tells us it wasn’t, but shows us that it was. This is the end of the midpoint of the story, at this point we need to have a good grasp on what we should perceive as wrong or right for us to feel invested. If we zig-zag between the morals we won’t know which actions we should root for. But more than that, the conclusion will not feel cathartic as it will inevitably demonstrate the opposing ideals clashing at its climax.

Villain doesn't necessarily have to be sympathetic and Muriel's route makes no effort to make him as such, but they need to be understandable. What danger does Lucio pose to the status quo, what makes him a compelling villain? Whether he conquers Vesuvia or not doesn’t drastically affect Muriel’s way of life, he’s been in hiding for years. He doesn’t threaten to steal MC’s body, Muriel is not compelled to pick up arms to save his beloved. He wants to protect the people from going through what he’s been through, right? That is what the story wants us to think. But what has he been through? Fighting was his choice, Lucio tricked him into it. Lucio later tricked Morga, his own mother, to save his own hide. This tells us that Lucio is a manipulator, but he doesn’t manipulate his way into Vesuvia, he barges in with deus ex machina monsters. He doesn’t demonstrate his skills as a tactician by making deals with neighbouring kingdoms to get their armies. We don’t know his strengths therefore we don’t know his weaknesses. If he seems to be losing he can just conjure a giant dragon to burn everything down, we just can’t know. That is why the application of deus ex machina is highly taboo, the victories don’t feel earned and defeats feel unfair.

4. Tone. Playing with the genre is not uncommon and a game such as Arcana has many opportunities to do so. It is a romance story, everything else is the back-drop. The tone works best when its overall consistent but tonal changes act as shock for the audience to keep them engaged and keeping one tone indefinitely gets us desensitized. We can’t feel constant misery if we are not made to feel tinges of hope in between. Good examples of dramatic tonal change (that I can think of): Mulan - arriving at the decimated village, La Vita e Bella - the father’s death, M*A*S*H - death of Hawkeye’s friend. Two of these examples are mostly comedy which is why this tonal shift affects us so, it was all fun and games until we are slapped in the face with the war going on. There are no one liners in those scenes, the story takes a moment to show appropriate respect to the dead, it gives its characters time to digest and come to terms with loss. Bad examples are the majority of Marvel movies.

In Muriel’s route there’s never such a thing, Muriel has a panic attack and MC kisses him. This unintentionally tells us, the genre being romance, that the panic attack only served to further MC’s advances. It tells us that he’s never had the control of his life and it’s yet again stripped from him by the decisions of player character. This is not the only instance this happens. The story shoe-horns in multiple cuddle sessions between important plot beats. And it does the exact opposite during a moment where he is having a heart-to-heart with the person he loves by having the ghost of Morga appear to give an ominous warning/advice.

When he runs off during masquerade it’s built up to be an important plot point. Muriel will finally face his past, he’s been running away from it all along, and he will have an opportunity to be accepted back in. MC is supportive but ultimately, it’s meant to be Muriel's moment. But as I mentioned above this is not his story anymore so he’s not given any time to address his problems, instead a ghost appears to tell him what he needs to do, again. Because we need to wrap the story up, we don’t have time.

Remember how I said the 2 Options will be important later on, well here we are at the very end. Upright and reversed.

“Portray Muriel fighting as a bad thing”

This suggests that the triumph of Muriel won’t be through violence. Maybe he will outsmart Lucio in a different way, he won’t play his games anymore. This option suggests that Lucio will not be beaten by his own terms.

“Portray Muriel fighting as a good thing”

This option concludes with Muriel finally overcoming his reservations on violence and doing what's right to save the people he loves. And bringing justice to people who Lucio hurt.

If you are wondering why the upright ending feels random, this is likely why. The ending plays out as if the story was building on the 1st option while we spent chapters upon chapters playing out the 2nd one. It is unearned.

(The reversed ending, being reversed, also uses Option 1 path but in which Muriel can’t achieve his narrative conclusion)

The Coliseum is filled with people who are on their side against Lucio’s shadow goons. Because we can’t have people being on Lucio’s side without addressing the duality of human nature, even though it’s an important part of Muriel’s story. The people who watched and enjoyed Lucio’s bloodsport are no more, they are all new and enlightened offscreen. We completely skipped the part where Vesuvia comes to terms with its own complacency and Muriel simply feels at ease because the crowd is cheering on him now. This is what happens when you give the character a chance to challenge those who have been complicit in his abuse (masquerade scene) and completely skip it to move the story along.

Muriel doesn't get justice, ever. The people only love him now because he's fighting for them instead of his own survival. Morga or her clan doesn't answer for the massacre of Kokhuri, Vesuvia doesn't answer for the sick entertainment they indulged in and Lucio doesn't answer for Muriel's enslavement. It is not even acknowledged, nowhere in the story (except the very end of reversed ending, and even then it almost gets him killed so its clearly the wrong thing to do on his part) is a choice presented where Muriel has an opportunity to get any sort of compensation where he instead chooses to move on.

I don’t intend to straw man anyone but this is a sentiment I’ve seen a lot; “It’s a short story, a dating-sim, what do you expect?”

I expect nothing, I’m simply explaining why some people feel how they feel. It is a short dating-sim but it seems to me like it was aiming to be something more by borrowing elements that were clearly far above their weight range to tease something more and under deliver. It is okay to feel content with the story, and it’s okay to feel let down. If we had a unanimous decision on literature we would never be inclined to write our own stories.