#i'd think a lot less of it would've happened though if we just like talked for a hot second lol.

[sunny-aster-dreams]

Year of the snake, year of the don't tread on me.

[stevesbipanic]

@steddieangstyaugust Day 27: "I thought we agreed it was over."

Eddie saw Steve's beemer pull up outside the trailer before he heard the knock at the door. The words were already leaving his lips as he opened it, "I thought we agreed it was over."

It had hurt, the break up, but Eddie had been expecting it. He knew Steve would never be his forever no matter how much he wanted him to be. It was all too easy for him to push back the tears and agreed when Steve said things like it was for the best and that they'd never work.

He had tried not to think about all the times Steve had said how much he loved how they were different, that it meant they got to share things with the other person. How Steve whispered love confessions when he thought Eddie was asleep weeks before he was brave enough to voice them in the daylight.

It was over, and that was that, so why was Steve here?

The sentence fizzled out though when he took in Steve's features. A quickly blackening swollen eye, a split lip, knuckles bruised and bleeding. Steve was trying to hold his side while also tightly gripping the backpack on his other shoulder.

"I'm sorry."

Eddie hadn't heard from Steve in months besides the occasional update from the kids or a glance at him from hellfire pick ups. The sound of those words made him realise how much he had missed Steve's voice despite how broken it now sounded.

All the hurt he'd felt melted away, stored for a later time when Steve wasn't swaying so much, when his face wasn't so pale. Eddie gently guided him inside, taking the backpack and placing it on the couch before leading Steve to the bathroom.

He methodically cleaned up his cuts and checked his ribs and tried not to think about the fact that the doctor said Steve shouldn't risk another concussion. He got Steve a change of clothes and sat him upright on the bed.

"Can't sleep yet, sweetheart, got to make sure your heads ok for awhile, alright?"

Steve's eyes became misty again, "Didn't think I'd ever hear you call me that again, Eds. I'm so sorry."

Eddie took Steve's less injured hand in his, gently stroking the back of it, "What happened, Steve?"

The question didn't help the tears that now seemed to flow freely down Steve's cheeks, "I thought if I broke up with you I could keep you safe, keep the both of us safe."

Eddie's grip tightened slightly, "Stevie."

"I was stupid I should've given the box of stuff from you to Robin or someone but I wanted to keep a piece of you close, and he, he found a picture of the two of us, the one Jonathan took at your birthday party."

Eddie knew the picture, it was his favourite, he still kept it tacked to his wall, didn't have the heart to take it down and put it with every other part of Steve that now sat in a box under his bed. Jonathan had caught the exact moment Steve kissed him while he cut his cake, they looked so happy, they were happy.

Eddie could infer the rest, "Your dad did this then?"

Steve nodded, "Kicked me out too, I'm sorry I would've gone to Dustin's but he's at his grandparents and Robin is at college and I just." Eddie pulls Steve closer, "I'm glad you came here, baby, you're safe here." Steve seems to finally relax at those words, like he'd been holding his breath since the day they'd parted.

"I didn't mean anything I said, Eddie," Steve cried.

Eddie gave Steve a sad smile. "I know, let's talk about all that later, just rest now I'll wake you up in a little bit to check your head again," Eddie said pushing Steve softly down onto the bed. They had a lot to discuss, a lot of hearts to mend but for now Eddie just needed Steve to be ok.

"Will you stay?"

"As long as you need me."

[bonny-kookoo]

Jungkook

𝐒𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐎𝐥𝐝𝐞𝐫 | Changes

What do you do when the person you once were becomes the person you miss being the most?

Tags/Warnings: Aged up!Jungkook, Younger!Reader, Age Gap (9 years, JK is mentioned to be 34/35), Angst, Mature romance, Jungkook's ex wife, mentions of past physical abuse, mentions of alcohol abuse, fluff, flirty Jungkook, no smut in this I'm sorry pls still read it :( there's some tension tho!!

Length: 6.5k words

There is no taglist for this fic.

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"Thanks for picking him up." Taehyung sighs, his son happily in the living room, taking a nap from school as he tucks himself in on the couch while his favorite show plays on the TV.

"I would've asked her, you know, but I feel like I'm relying too much on her again." The young father sighs. "I'm basically treating her the same as I did years ago, just without the pay."

"I heard about that." Jungkook says, drinking his coffee at the kitchen table where he sits across Taehyung. "She used to nanny while you lived separately from your wife, I think it was." He hums, setting his cup down. Jungkook isn't on bad terms with Taehyung's wife- but he tends to not say her name, because he honestly harbors quite a bit of distaste towards the woman who refuses to properly take care of her own child.

"Well don't you seem to know a bit about her now." Taehyung squints his eyes in suspicion. "What happened to 'she's too young for me anyways' huh?" He teases, and Jungkook sighs.

"Well, things.. happened. And we talked." He shrugs. "We're not.. really a couple, but we agreed to spend time with one another." He explains.

"So you're friends with benefits?" He wonders, drinking his tea while Jungkook leans back.

"No." He shakes his head, even though deep down, it does kind of feel like that to him, now that he thinks about it a bit more. "It's.. a bit more complicated than that. We're simply talking, seeing where it goes." He says.

"Hmhm." Tae nods. "Just don't break her heart. I still got basically nightmares from her last relationship." He mumbles a bit angrily to himself, clearly a bit irritated even just by the thought of it.

"I.. wondered what happened." Jungkook says. "Dae said he was a drinker?" He wonders, and Taehyung nods.

"Drinker, druggie, abusive asshole." He huffs, crossing his arms. "It's the main reason she moved away when Daehyun was younger. She wanted to protect him- make sure he won't get hurt."

"Was he violent?" Jungkook wants to know, because honestly, he has a hunch that that might've been the case. Taehyung seems on edge now, clearly torn between probably saying the truth, and respecting your privacy. "I was intending to ask her anyways. But she seems like the type to downplay her problems in order to make things seem less serious, so I thought you might be more honest." He adds.

"Yeah, she is like that." Tae agrees softly. "I'm not too sure what exactly went down. But I do know that she.. distanced herself out of fear that Daehyun might get hurt." He tells his friend. "Greg started to pick her up every time she'd babysit Daehyun at my house, even after I told him I didn't like that. He still did, still argued, turned up drunk multiple times at my doorstep." The young father remembers. "I kept her with me, of course. I'd never let her drive home with that alcoholic- but I guess something must've happened because she just.. suddenly cut contact." He shrugs. "Sent me a text, changed her number, moved out her old apartment."

"When did she come back?" Jungkook wonders.

"According to Yoongi, a few weeks before the aftershow party." Taehyung responds.

"So that's why you didn't recognize her?" He figures, and Tae nods.

"She changed a lot. Not just visually. She's.." His eyes lower to the cup in his hand. "..a lot more quiet. Cautious. Jumpy." He informs his friend. "And at the same time, she seems to mask a lot of it- get's irritated easily. She's trying to be who she was, but it's obvious that something changed, and whenever someone notices, she becomes defensive."

Jungkook doesn't really know what to think. Looking at Daehyun on the couch, he can absolutely understand your standpoint back then to get away from Taehyung's family in order to protect them- but that means there must have been at least some form of fear against your former partner to make you believe that he could potentially be a danger to the young boy and his father. It could also just be jealousy, of course- but Taehyung is right. You are a little odd sometimes.

And he doesn't know if he wants to know exactly why, or if he wants to let sleeping dogs rest.

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Jungkook leans back in his office chair, headache already almost too unbearable to him, especially considering the woman who's making her way up in the giant corporate building to see him.

She wants money again, he knows it. Evelyn only ever visits him if there's something she wants, after all.

"One might argue they'd know me by now." Evelyn huffs as she enters the office, hair a bit wet as she throws her coat over the chair in front of his desk, before she sits down. "How're you doing?" She wonders, and Jungkook doesn't look away from his laptop's screen whatsoever, still looking through his e-mails. He doesn't have to put too many thoughts into this conversation after all- she's most likely just here to leech off of him again.

"Cut it." He simply says. "What do you want?" He asks, phone on his desk vibrating and chiming with a new notification.

'I can just drop something off for you? I just got off work myself, so it's no hassle.' your message reads, an answer to a former rant from him about his headache, and the fact that he's 'locked in like a dog' in his office and without any proper food ever since this morning. It makes him softly smile a little, the fact that you want to bring him something to eat even though you're probably exhausted from your shift as well is something he's not used to. And he didn't even have to ask for it.

'Only if it's really not an issue for you' his answer reads, and you send a thumbs-up emoji as an answer, before you finish typing your proper answer.

'DW, is anything okay or do you want something specific?' you question, and he immediately types a response.

'Just whatever, really. Nothing too spicy though, please.' he offers, when a hand knocks on the table in front of him, the woman in his office dragging him back into reality with force. He signs, locks his phone before he puts it down, opening a chat with the front desk downstairs to let them know to bring you up when you arrive.

"You know, this was always the issue, Jungkook." Evelyn whines, leaning back in her chair with her arms crossed. "You're so consumed by your work, it's crazy." She shakes her head.

"That wasn't work, actually." He bites back with a monotone voice, not really offering her any emotion whatsoever- there's nothing left in him anymore he could offer anyways. She took it all, sucked it out of him like an insect, and now she's constantly upset that he's empty inside.

"Anyways, I got this letter recently stating that there was an issue with the bank transfer?" She says, giving him the letter to read- which he does, flying over it just to remember why that bank transfer did not go through. "I told them that they'll get their money by friday." She hums, leaning her face on her palm while he gives her the letter back.

"What do I have to do with it then?" He asks, and she sits upright again, tilting her head a bit in irritation. "You said they'll get their money by friday. Good. Why are you here then?" He asks, arms crossed, office chair squeaking a bit as he leans back into it.

"Well, it's your bank account!" She laughs a bit unsure. "I don't even know why there was apparently not a sufficient balance on it." She argues.

"I resigned the automatic transfer rights." Jungkook tells her, face not moving an inch as he breaks the news. "The letter doesn't mention an insufficient balance at all, Evelyn. It states that there's no bank account set for the automated transfer option at all." He informs her.

"What the fuck Jungkook?!" She barks. "And you didn't even tell me?!" She yells, standing up to slap her hands on his desk. "You can't just make these changes and not inform me about it! Do you know how expensive that was?!" She accuses, and he shrugs, noticing something move behind her, milky glass front of his office hiding what's going on inside and outside, only letting shadows be seen if someone's close enough. "I'll text you the invoice later, and you better fucking pay, you asshole!" She says, when she whips her head around, someone opening the glass door.

"Thanks." You tell the office lady having let you in, before your eyes widen, door closing behind you and instantly drowning out all noise except the very slight sound of the fan in the corner of the room.

"Ah, there you are." Jungkook sighs, suddenly feeling a lot lighter as he looks at you. "Come here- is it still raining a lot?" He wonders easily, taking the white plastic bag from you to set it on his table, before giving you a small hug to greet you. "I think that was all you wanted, wasn't it?" He asks Evelyn, who hasn't even gotten up from her seat, instead clearly studying you now.

"Actually, no." She tells him. "And it's kind of private, so it would be real nice if your assistant would leave." She tells you with a smile that reminds you of a snarling dog.

"Then come back a different day." Jungkook answers her however, offering to take your coat from you to hang next to his own on the wall close to the large windows. "Right now I'm really not in the mood for whatever it might be. Especially not with my girlfriend in the room." He bluntly says, and something seems to flash over her face at the mention of your alleged role in his life.

She slowly stands up to take her coat from the back of the chair, movements a lot slower now, a glare sent into your direction. "Don't get your hopes up, sweetheart." Evelyn tells you, slipping into the sleeves of her coat. "His first love will always stay his job." She almost threatens, before she takes her purse and leaves through the door, leaving a confused you, and a clearly exhausted Jungkook behind.

"Please, sit down." He offers, and you do so, watching how he leans back in his chair, hands running over his face before he sits up again. "I'm sorry. That timing couldn't have been worse." He sighs.

"Ah, here. Do you have water here?" You wonder, and he nods, pointing towards a water dispenser in the room. "Oh, fancy." You laugh, walking up to fill a cup to put in front of him. "I take them myself, they usually help really quickly. Not trying to murder you." You tease, and he chuckles, taking the medication and the cup for himself.

"Thank you, really." He sighs out before taking the pill, washing it down with half of the cup's contents before he closes his eyes for a moment. "God I hate her so much." He suddenly breaks out laughing, before he shakes his head, digging through what you've bought for him.

"I assume that was your ex wife?" You wonder, and he nods.

"I'm also really sorry for telling her you're my girlfriend when we haven't even talked about that yet." He tells you a bit.. shyly almost, while you pull the bag closer to take something out for yourself.

"It's fine." You shrug. "Got a nice ring to it, you know?" You joke, and he smiles, starting to eat.

It's quiet, but not oddly so. He enjoys this a lot, this company without any pressure, no eerie sense of something being about to happen. You're clearly here because you want to be, there's nothing you want from him, nothing you need, nothing you could gain from this. It's just what it is, nothing else, nothing to red between the lines.

"You can ask why she was here, by the way." He offers you, wiping his mouth with a tissue.

"I don't have to know." You say, however. "It's got nothing to do with me- right?" You ask, and he nods. "Then it's none of my business. You can rant to me about it, sure, but I can't really give you any opinions on it since I don't really know her, or the situation around you and her." You tell him.

Jungkook watches you for a moment, before he nods. "You're right." He agrees, letting go of the topic entirely for now. He know it's only fair to talk to you about it at some point- but right now is not the time for that, he decides. "Do you want me to drive you home later? I really only have to answer this one E-mail and then I can clock out." He tells you between bites, wiping his fingers before he taps away on his keyboard.

"If it's not a bother, sure." You shrug. "You said you got the weekend off, right?" You ask him, and he nods a bit absentmindedly. "Then how about you stay over?" You ask, and that definitely seems to catch his attention.

"Stay over?" He asks, just to make sure he heard it correctly, and you nod.

"Yeah." You nod. "It's, you know, what boyfriends do with their girlfriends." You tease, making him roll his eyes. "We could cook something, watch a movie. Oh, and one of the lightbulbs in my kitchen broke, so maybe you could fix that for me?" You chirp, and he suddenly smiles brightly to himself, clicking something on his laptop before he shuts it down. "What's that grin for, mister?" You ask, and he just shakes his head.

"Nothing, really." He tells you. "I'm just really happy." He confesses, and you smile the same, now a bit shy.

"Well, what's your answer then?" You wonder, watching him pack the leftovers back into the bag, before he walks to get both his and your jackets, helping you into yours.

"My answer is yes." He says, voice very close to your ear as he leans over your shoulder from behind you, hands on your arms for a second. "I'd love to stay over and fix that lightbulb too, of course.-"

"Since I heard that's what boyfriends do with their girlfriends."

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"There we go." He says, slowly climbing down the plastic kitchen chair you're holding onto just in case. "Anything else while I'm here?" He genuinely asks, and you shake your head, moving the chair back to the small kitchen table.

"No, that was all. Thank you, really." You say, before you move to open the fridge, taking out some things while he stands around with his hands in his pockets. Your apartment is pretty small- living in it together with you would most likely prove to be way too much, but he still thinks it's better than his own, in terms of.. quality.

His own home feels empty. There's nothing in it, it's way too big for a single person, and the view from so high up above the clouds has long lost it's charm to him.

He sits down at the kitchen table, leaning on it a little as he watches you wash some vegetables before you grab a cutting board and a knife. "Daehyun said you're a little lonely without your dog." He says, and you giggle a little, smiling to yourself. "Have you considered getting another one?" He wonders, but you just shrug.

"I'm too busy at the moment." You deny. "I used to bring him to work with me, since he was a very quiet and calm dog, which fit perfect into our office." You remember. "He'd always sleep under my desk, right on my feet. Always kept them warm." You softly say, and he notices that he might've struck a still hurtful topic if only from the sound of your voice becoming somewhat tighter.

"I can imagine. I always wanted a dog too-" He sighs, leaning back. "But.. Evelyn, the woman you saw today, she doesn't like them. So it was out of the question."

"Really?" You wonder, cutting up the vegetables. "I mean, I guess, if both of you were really busy then it probably was for the best." You hum, tension leaving you again. "Gotta look at the bigger picture."

"Yeah, maybe it was for the best." He agrees. To be honest, Evelyn would've probably fought over the dog as well, just like she did over the apartment, and other more petty things like fucking furniture. She wanted to ruin him, if financially then emotionally, and somehow, she somewhat did.

It's quiet again, when you, surprisingly to him, cut into a topic he did not expect.

"His name was Greg." You say, filling a small pot with water before you place it on the stove, turning it on. "You probably talked about him with Taehyung."

"I did." He admits. "But there's not much I know." He offers. "And like you said about my situation, I don't have to know about things that don't concern me. However-" He begins, getting up to now stand closer, find your gaze that's turned downwards onto the cutting board. "-I don't want to accidentally do something that might make you uncomfortable due to past experiences." He says.

"What a tactful way to ask me if I've got any trauma from that guy." You chuckle, moving to put the cut up vegetables in a bowl before you continue the preparations for dinner.

"I'm trying to be gentle here." He attempts to lighten up the mood, and you indeed smile at that.

"And I'm very thankful for that." You offer him, before you sigh, setting down the knife. "I don't.. think we're at a point where I should be dumping all of what happened onto you." You inform him, and he nods, accepting that. "I don't like yelling. If I feel uncomfortable, I'll probably try and get myself out of a situation by any means necessary-" you admit, turning a little to look at him. "-and that will probably include some nasty words thrown your way, if that get's you away from me." You tell him. "And I don't like alcohol. Even if you hand me full on medical evidence that you can't even get drunk, the moment I smell it- I just can't trust you." You say, and he nods.

"Alright, I respect that." He nods.

"I'll also get pretty clingy over time." You add on, making him nod. "And I can be annoying. I'll text you a lot." You continue, and a small smile sneaks itself onto his lips as he shrugs, crossing his arms. "The moment you invite me into your home I'll practically steal half of your closet contents-"

"Is that what he told you?" He wonders, and you grow quiet, eyes avoiding him. "I'm obsessed with my work." He begins his own rant, standing up to walk closer to you. "I never have time for anything else. I'm boring. Sometimes rude, and immature. I'm a perfectionist, but I'm also lazy. I snore, and I work out too much to the point where I'm sweating buckets. I'm a little messy." He tells you, hugging you from behind, though not very intimately- giving you a clear way out if you so want to.

"…is that what she told you?" You answer, and he smiles.

"Let's just agree on getting to know each other just the way we are, not the way someone else described us in the past." He offers, and you nod.

"Alright." You hum, before you push him a little playfully. "Now go and let me cook in here, boyfriend." You tease, making him grin impishly, his tongue running over his bottom lip as he does not walk away from behind you, hands now flat on your ass. "Hey!"

"What? I'm out of your way like this." He tells you almost innocently, hands moving to hold your waist now.

"Sit down there and let me cook!" You laugh.

"But we wanted to cook together, no?" He wonders. "Like.. boyfriend and girlfriend." He leans his chin on your shoulder.

"Well, boyfriends let their girlfriends cook in peace." You threaten, making him chuckle as his fingers squeeze your hips a bit.

"Not if their girlfriend is this attractive." He purrs, making you roll your eyes.

"Jungkook…" You wonder, suddenly way more serious, making his stand up straight again so you can face him. "Is.. that what we are now?" You ask, and his lips part for a second, unsure of his own answer. "I mean, it's fine if we're just playing around. Just.. I'm scared that we might end up in some.. unnecessary drama down the line if we're blurring the lines too much without properly discussing things first." You say.

"What do you mean?" He asks, and you sigh.

"What if you end up calling me.. your girlfriend just as a joke? But I start believing it at some point- thinking we are something serious when we're not. Or the other way around." You explain. "I don't want us to get hurt again. Neither of us."

Jungkook takes a deep breath, and from this close proximity, you can make out two odd dots near his bottom lip you're not too sure of. You might ask him about them some other time.

"Let me take time off of work. Next week, three days." He offers, catching you off guard. "Let's go on a trip. Together. Someplace no one knows us, and we don't know either." He tells you.

"I mean- I would've had friday and the weekend off anyways but-"

"Okay, great, perfect. I'll cancel my Friday meetings." He tells you, hands moving- at first, they seem to attempt to hold your cheeks- but it's like that feels too intimate yet, so he settles for your shoulders. "Let's get to know each other. The real you and me that got.. buried at some point." He offers.

"Why on a trip?" You ask.

"Because it's perfect." He chuckles. "Close proximity of the hotel room we'll share, stress of navigating the unfamiliar environment, the tension of not being able to just 'escape' any uncomfortable situation right away forcing us to talk things out as they happen-" He begins, and your mouth shapes an 'o' as you realize what he's talking about.

"It's a stress-test." You say, and he nods, grinning.

"Exactly." He nods.

"…to be honest you're already stressing me out." You jokingly reply-

Jungkook laughing, and you have a feeling he's not done that in a long time, with the way his ears turn red and his hand covers his mouth in embarrassment of that outburst.

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When Taehyung opens the door, he instantly greets his son who Jungkook has put down the moment he'd noticed the young father arriving at the front door to let him in.

"Oh wow." Taehyung laughs as Jungkook walks in, almost nervously running a hand through his hair. "Is the world ending? Apocalypse? Or am I high?" He jokes, making Jungkook roll his eyes. "No, seriously! I didn't even know you could still put those piercings back in!" He laughs, taking Dae's school backpack to take out his lunchbox so he can sort out the leftovers and wrappers from his snacks.

"It was a bit tricky, I won't lie." He laughs a little. "But they didn't really close all that much since I had them for so long, so it wasn't a big deal." He shrugs.

"What's the occasion?" Tae wonders, throwing the wrappers of Daehyun's snacks in the trash. "You most certainly don't look like you're gonna go to a meeting like that. What happened to 'I'm not in my twenties anymore' huh?" He jokes.

"I'm honestly not sure." He answers, hands in the pockets of his pants. "Just.. felt like it. And I'm not going to the office- I took time off." He confesses.

"Okay, are you running a fever?" Taehyung asks, and Jungkook laughs to himself. "Are you gonna meet up with your.. friend?" He air-quotes, and Jungkook nods, checking the silver watch on his wrist.

"Yeah- we're meeting up later, she's currently packing her things last thing she texted me." He nods. "Our flight is in about three hours from now, but it's her first time flying, so we wanted to be there a bit early just in case." Jungkook shrugs.

"Oh, fancy." Taehyung laughs. "Why though?" He wonders, washing the colorful lunchbox of his son in the sink.

"Stress testing." Jungkook offers. "We just want to see if we can handle each other under pressure." He says, and Taehyung sighs.

"My god Jungkook, can you just once try and not make everything more complicated than it has to be?" He worries. "Just spend time with her. Go out for a coffee or something, watch a shitty movie at home and let her suck you off during the commercial break or something, you know, like NORMAL people!" He whines. "You're acting as if this is some million-dollar business discussion. It's really not." He huffs out in frustration. "Listen, I know Eve fucked you over bad, and honestly you've always had a shit-taste in women to begin with because holy fuck if I think back to Lucy-"

"Can you get to the point?" Jungkook complains, a little embarrassed as his friend brings up his admittedly terrible dating history.

"-yeah, sorry." He laughs. "But, trust me-" Taehyung says, drying his hands before he puts them on his friend's shoulders. "-she's honestly perfect for you. Once you help her get her confidence back up, trust me, you've got yourself someone who's not a raging cunt for once." He finishes his rant, and Jungkook takes a deep breath.

"You think?" He worries, and Taehyung nods.

"I do." He says, patting his friend's back before he leads him to his front door. "Be yourself. And I mean, your real self. Be that goofy dude who cries during disney movies and folds his laundry to Depeche Mode at 3 am."

"Why would I do that?" Jungkook cringes, thinking his friend is joking- but he's surprised to find Taehyung with a soft gaze instead, an encouraging smile on his lips.

"Because that's the Jungkook I know." He offers, a somber look on his face.

"And I miss him."

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"Let me take that." He offers, taking the suitcase from you. It's small, scratched up, and he can't help but notice the stickers on it. "You good to go?" He wonders, and you nod, closing the door before locking it, walking next to him out the apartment building towards his by now familiar car, his own luggage already in the trunk where he puts yours now as well.

The moment you sit next to him inside, is when you notice how.. different he is today. Not only from looks alone- but it feels different, oddly enough. Lighter. Not as serious as he usually is. "I wondered what those.. spots were." You say, looking at him from the passenger side, and he raises his brows while stopping at a red light, turning his head towards you, who points to your own lower lip.

"Ah, yeah." He chuckles, a bit bashful. "I.. got them done in my early twenties. Took them out though, because.. I don't know." He shrugs.

"You don't know, of do you just realize that the reason was stupid?" You giggle, and he sighs, with a smile on his lips however.

"Caught me." He confesses, changing lanes as he makes his way to the airport.

"Why'd you put them back in?" You ask, leaning against the car door a bit.

"Because I wanted to be myself." He explains. "I.. like I said. I want you to get to know me. And not the person I became to please others around me." He tells you.

"I assume your.. ex wife didn't like the piercings?" You ask, testing how far you can pry into his past and how much you can poke until he tells you off. But much to your surprise, he seems rather unfazed by the topic.

"She hated my tattoos as well. Wanted me to get them removed constantly." He chuckles, and you're intrigued.

"You've got tattoos as well?" You ask, and he nods.

"Maybe I'll let you see them later?" He flirts, and you grin to yourself, adjusting your legs a little as you stay quiet. "Either way, Evelyn didn't like a lot about me."

"Then why did she marry you?" You ask, noticing too late how mean that question could come off.

"Probably for my bank account." He simply laughs. "I was.. stupid. I thought she was fixing me." He shakes his head. "I thought she only had my best interest in mind." He says, setting his turn lights to enter the airport parking area. "But she always hated me. Still does." He sighs, searching for a proper parking spot.

"Well, I don't hate you." You tell him.

"Yet." He mumbles, before he finally parks the car, turning off the engine. "Do you have your passport and everything on hand? Don't wanna have to unpack everything in a rush later at check-in." He tries to change the topic, but you look at him with eyes so soft that he becomes scared of them.

"Jungkook." You say his name, and he hates how kind it sounds. "As long as you're not like him, I won't hate you. Honestly, I don't even hate him." You tell him, and he nods a bit stiffly, before practically escaping the car, instead putting on his jacket before helping you take out your suitcase and handbag.

Inside the airport, he notices your nervousness, hand constantly reaching out but never holding on to him at all, in any way. It makes him chuckle a little as he watches you fight with yourself for quite a while, before he helps you check in.

You're clearly a bit overstimulated by everything going on around you, looking around anxiously, biting the inside of your lips constantly, even as you both sit down to wait for your gate to open for boarding. "Hey-" He reaches out to tug your lip from your teeth with his thumb, before he smiles in reassurance. "Okay?" He wonders, and you nod, though you're not looking at him. "Come here. You can hold onto me, by the way, if that helps you." Jungkook suggests, and you move your arms to wrap around one of his, body scooting closer to lean your face against his shoulder, sweater soft against your skin. He moves his arm around your shoulders to keep you closer, hand offering itself for you to hold instead, and you do so, fingers cold. "What's that scar?" He wonders, thumb running over a faint scar over the palm of your hand.

"A shoelace." You say, a little quietly.

"A shoelace?" He repeats, and you nod.

"Yeah." You confirm. "I had.. I was in the midst of changing the laces of.. Gregory's boots, because the dog had chewed them. But he got mad anyways, and pulled them out of my hand." You remember. "It happened really quickly, but I remember that it hurt badly." You chuckle. "It was an odd pain. Like my body couldn't decide whether or not I was burned or cut."

Jungkooks hand on your shoulder starts to move a little in a soothing motion, fingers circling around. It's his first confirmation that something did indeed happen, and he's almost convinced that what you just told him was probably not an isolated incident, but simply one of many that went down during your entire relationship.

"I didn't want him to get mad at Yogi. He already hated the poor dog enough." You sigh, closing your eyes as you settle against Jungkook's side. He enjoys this close proximity, the domestic feel of this moment, even though it's out in public and for everyone to see. He doesn't care.

"You can heal with me, you know?" He says, and you look up at him from where you're leaning against his body. "I can't promise you that.. our time spent will be all smooth sailing, but I can assure you that it will be nothing like what you've experienced." He hums towards you.

And you smile warmly, sighing. "Don't worry-" you giggle, closing your eyes.

"-It already is."

♥━━━━━━━━━━•.♡.•━━━━━━━━━━━━♥

The hotel room is spacious, expensive looking, nothing like you've seen before.

Usually, you only really get to see things like these on vacation photos your friends show you- you yourself don't really travel, you technically don't take time off at all, rather always asking to have your off-days paid out instead if possible. You've got no reason to treat yourself with anything, be it time off or a full on vacation.

Your sense of self worth has shriveled up like rotten fruit over the years, now thrown out like the garbage it is.

Jungkook meanwhile clearly has a routine in him, as he walks through every room first to check if everything's okay, just to then place his bag somewhere near the bed, a big yawn escaping him as he opens the balcony door wide, letting the air of the seaside in. It's odd to see him dressed rather casual, simple but expensive sweater stretching over his broad back. His face still shows the clear stress he's accumulated, and it makes you wonder.

"Do you.. go on vacations often?" You wonder, and he shakes his head.

"No, usually I only fly out for business trips." He explains, watching you sit on the edge of the twin-sized bed. "I originally thought I should book two single beds, by the way. I just.. thought it might be more intimate like this." He tells you, leaning against the small balcony's edge outside, glass door open, as the wind blows through the curtains a little.

"It's okay like this." You nod, making him smile softly.

"Do you want to rest a little?" He asks, and you shrug, unsure. You only have three days- if you sleep now, it's probably annoying to him since he most likely planned something on this trip for you both to do. He at least comes across as someone who likes to have everything set out and structured- not like you, who dives in head first without any real plan. You don't want him to stay hidden inside the hotel room just because you're tired from the flight. "Hey." He asks, and you didn't even notice him squatting down in front of where you sit, his hands on your knees as he finds your eyes from where he's looking up at you. "Don't hesitate to speak your mind. If we want this to work, we need honestly, first and foremost." He encourages, and you nod.

"I'm tired- but I don't want to be boring." You worry.

"How would taking a nap be boring?" he chuckles. "I'm actually glad you're tired. I didn't want to come off as an old man who needs a break because he can't keep up." He laughs, standing up before he moves to lay down on the bed, patting the spot right next to him.

You lay down where he wordlessly suggested, taking in a deep breath while focusing your eyes on the collar of his sweater for a moment. It's when your gaze roams around that you notice something poke out on his wrist as he turns back around from removing his watch from the other arm. Your fingers curiously lift the fabric of the sleeve, making him chuckle quietly, before he moves to push the fabric up to his elbow, exposing different colors of ink underneath his skin.

What was Jungkook like when he was younger? Has he always been somewhat like this- or has he changed into this instead?

"Got them done in my early twenties too." He explains quietly. "Just.. lineart at first. Black and white." Jungkook remembers as he watches you trace some of the lines with your finger. "Then it got more. Over time, it looked a little messy- so I added color to it, this time actually going to a professional who specifies in forming sleeves." He tells you.

"Do you regret them?" You wonder. "Like.. your piercings and your tattoos?" You ask, and he shakes his head.

"It's not like I regret them." He denies. "I still like the look of them. The aesthetic of it. It's just.." He sighs, inked hand turning around palm up, and you put your own on top of his, making him move to compare your hand sizes palm to palm. "..they don't feel like me anymore." He shrugs.

"Maybe because they aren't." You offer, now holding his hand with both of yours, your eyes on the blurred ink underneath the skin. "Maybe.. you changed. Even though you didn't want to."

He did. He knows that he did- but what he struggles with, is the question if he can even go back now. He wants to, but at this point, he feels like he's crossed that line by now, too far to step back and take a different path. Most people around him nowadays only now this Jungkook, not the one he used to be. If he just reverts back to who he once was, will he lose every friendship and connection he's made after he married?

Marriage. The moment he changed.

Love can make someone truly blind to a lot of things. He overlooked so many warning signs, pushed old friends and even family away just because they saw what he did not- or more so refused to. He's not spoken to his own parents in years, by now too ashamed to admit that he'd been wrong for the entirety of his past relationship, that his mother was right about her. What would she think about you?

She'd like you, he's very sure about that. His father would probably be a little suspicious of the age gab, and his brother would most likely tease the living daylights out of him, but he knows you'd fit right in. Do you have a good relationship with your parents? What would they think of him?

He wants to ask you, but the moment he becomes aware and snaps out of his thoughts, your eyes are already closed, breathing even. You're still holding onto him, and he realizes that he's never actually had a moment like this with Evelyn in the past, not even when they were just a regular couple, and definitely not after they got married. He feels.. free. No pressure on him, no obligations awaiting him, nothing needed or expected from him. You're simply sleeping, and yet the act itself makes his pride swell, because of your display of trust towards him.

He knows you've been hurt. He knows that he's been hurt-

And maybe, just maybe, together, you can finally begin heal.

Change once more, for a final time, into a happier version of yourselves.

[svtellify]

kotlc: unraveled review [SPOILER WARNING]

keeper of the lost cities 9.5: unraveled by shannon messenger ★★★☆☆ *parts of the review were taken directly from my goodreads review of the book!

“I tried,” he told the empty room, wishing it made him feel like less of a failure.”

see, if you told me a year ago i'd sympathize with alvar and not mind reading about him, i'd assume you were trying to start a fight.

that being said: this wasn't a necessary book for the series. is it going to provide some helpful context going into book 10? sure. definitely. would it have also been better served as part of a post series anthology of short stories (see: keefe short story, fitz short story, tam short pov) that didn't quite fit into the series elsewhere? yeah. was it a cute short novel about my favorite character that expanded on a lot of what i've been waiting to see explored? also yeah.

before i continue, i want to add that i'm not the target audience of this series, not by a long shot. i was ten when i picked up the series in sixth grade, when only the first three books were out and had to suffer the wait for neverseen. i'm twenty one, and will have finished my master's degree before book ten comes out. i'd like to think i've grown up with the series, but i know that also means outgrowing the majority of the fanbase, since this is a kid's series. i hope the kids reading this can still find some value in my words though!

i'd argue that unraveled shoots itself in the foot a bit in terms of the series as a whole. kotlc is best told through sophie's perspective, because it's limited and lets us see the lost cities through the pov of someone else who's also equally new to it. unraveled breaks up that rhythm and lets us see our own world through keefe's eyes, as someone unfamiliar with it. it works, and it doesn't.

what unraveled does best, however, is drive home that while kotlc is told from sophie's perspective, it's very much more than just her story. keefe has equal stake in it, at this point, and it's only inevitable that they'll share custody of the rest of the story because of what's to come next. it's a story about the lost cities, about the change that needs to happen there, even in a species that's effectively immortal. a change that we've slowly witnessed two warring groups attempt to bring about.

(it's rather fitting given current political events, but i digress. kotlc is not a modern day political commentary, and i stand by it. the series took shape in the early 2010s and has meandered its way through the 2020s. it's applicable, but not intentional, if that makes sense.)

i loved that shannon tackled keefe's abuse directly, along with his trust issues and myriad of trauma. it's been building up and needed to be addressed so i'm glad we were able to see that.

it's also evident in unraveled that shannon's ready for something a little more mature (unlike let the sky fall.) writing-wise, and like jjk before it, i'm curious to see what kotlc would've looked like as a YA book with more room to explore it's darker themes. she does a great job with it as a middle grade series, but there's tones throughout unraveled that show better writing, so i look forward to book 10 and whatever her next project will be!

onto the annotations!

i have been waiting for someone to talk about this. and while i'm not like. alvar's number one fan now or anything, i think he was kind of the perfect person to talk about this. he's directly responsible for some of this, starting with trying to recruit keefe on numerous occasions and the role he played in keefe's involvement with the neverseen.

he's also fitz's brother. fitz, who's been a general disappoint at best to cruel at worst when it comes to keefe and his mom and his familial abuse. alvar might not understand all of it, but i'd like to think that he gave keefe a bit of closure on the vacker-keefe front. and on keefe's general guilt.

this is here purely because it hit like a gut punch. it's so simply written but i think we all need to hear it sometimes.

keefe being down bad for sophie is the funniest thing ever actually, but this is written so cutely ;(

a south indian dish name drop in a kotlc was not on my radar. i love it though?

it's a short book, there's not much more i think needs to be mentioned. it's good, nothing mind blowing, and the characters shine when shannon doesn't have to juggle the whole ensemble and then some. it did what it needed to⎯fill in some gaps that the cast expansion got in the way of and draw us back in for book 10. and it worked.

i wasn't particularly looking forward to this or dreading it⎯i've been too busy for either lately, but there's something very special about reading from a series you've grown up with, something so heartwarming about finding magic in a book series that wasn't necessarily written for your age group.

i don't want to make this too long, so i'll just say: i'm looking forward to book 10! i'll be well in the middle of med school secondaries and hopefully interviews by then, but it's a lovely reprieve to anticipate.

3.5 stars.

(also wanted to drop the kotlc playlist here for anyone interested in a series reread. catch me rereading the series when i'm out of the trenches of finals 🫡)

[blueflamehellfire]

Run

Eddie was leaning back in his seat as he watched the party that was happening. Eddie still hated parties after his 356 years alive. He had never found the appeal in playing nice with a bunch of people who wouldn't think twice about shoving a stake through his heart if need be. He sighed through his nose and rubbed his leg as he caught a glimpse of a person that almost seemed to glide as he walked across the room to the table of treats for them. It was a party to promote the new synthetic blood, Ichor, said to be as nutritious as the real deal and as close to it as possible. Eddie didn't want to try it because he was a picky eater. He was startled from his thoughts as the same person came up to him, "You haven't tried a bag." he says brushing some of his shaggy brown hair out of his eyes.

Eddie looked at him and his eyes widened a bit, "What?" he asks and cringes at how dumb he sounds when a literally God was standing in front of him. The man was tall, tan, and beautiful. He had dark brown hair that he had parted to the side part of it curled around his cheek bone and his hazel eyes crinkled when he smiled. "Ichor. You haven't tried any. I've been waiting on you to try some so I would have a reason to talk to you." He says. "I'm Steve. Steve Harrington of.." "Harrington Enterprises?" Eddie asks with a slight smile, "I figured as much." he says leaning forward to rest his elbows on his knees. "Why does it matter what I think about the synthetic blood?" He asks, but takes the bag anyway. "Or did you just want to talk to me, pretty boy?" Steve catches his bottom lip between his teeth before he chuckles, "And if I did?" he asks deciding to actually let himself enjoy a conversation for once instead of pushing the product he worked so hard on. "Then I'd say pull up a chair and we can talk while I give your blood a try." he says watching him do just that as he opens the end of the blood bag container and took a slight inhale and drank some of it. He froze when it touched his tongue and looked at Steve in pleasant surprise. It actually tasted like the real thing and, if he was capable of it, he would've blushed at the other man's chuckle. Eddie pulled away from the bag to swallow, "How did you do that?" he asks "I don't want to bore you, but it was a lot of cellular work." Steve says shrugging watching the other eat, "Do you like it?" Eddie nods as he finishes it, "It's amazing. Are there different types like in people?" He asks curious about how it would work to satisfy the majority. "Yes. The one I gave you is Rh-null." He says, "you seem like the type of man that likes rare blood and that is the rarest on earth. Less than 50 people have it." he says proudly. "That's why it's called Golden Blood." Eddie says nodding. and looks at the bag that has a golden label. "It tastes like it could be used at a blood bank." He says and Steve seems to smile more at that. "That's what I was aiming for. It can't be, but I wanted it to taste as close to the real deal as physically possible." He says nodding. "I'm planning on releasing a sweet brand soon." "Well then I volunteer to be the taste tester." he says watching the other man's face as they studied each other. "Seriously though. Why does a human care so much about what us vampires eat?"

"My best friend and her girlfriend are vampires. I just want them to be healthy and they don't like any of the other synthetic stuff so I figured I'd use my science know how to craft a better one." He says shrugging. "My turn to ask a question." He says and Eddie motions for him to go. "You know who I am. So my question is who are you?" "Shit I was swept away by your beauty and forgot to tell you my name. I'm Eddie. Eddie Munson." He says and he watches Steve's eyes widen. "Eddie Munson as in the mysterious singer Eddie Munson?" Steve asks a nervous giggle bubbling up as he watches the other man. "Holy shit. I knew you were hot."

"You know my music, big boy?" He asks his knees brushing Steve's now. He smiles more as the human blushes at him, "What's your favorite song?" "Right now it's Figure You Out, but I also like One For The Money." he says with a nod as he smiles at him. "What's your favorite song?"

"Falling. I absolutely love that song." he says softly as if it's a big secret; which it is because that song is nothing like the rest of his music. It's a ballad instead of a heavy rock song.

"I can see why. It really shows off your vocal range and with the piano being the primary instrument on there it showcases your voice even more." Steve rambles before his cheeks tint pink again. "Sorry. I think that's one of your most impressive songs on the album."

Eddie smiles studying his face for a long moment, "I've never met someone who has actually asked me what my favorite song is." he says softly. "Well that's not my band of course."

"I have an insane question." Steve says softly. "Would you like to get out of here?" he asks looking at him leaning forward to take his hand with a gentle touch. He didn't flinch at the cold skin, but he did smile up at him. Hazel eyes meeting red.

"I thought you'd never ask, Sweetheart." He says and sholds his hand as he stands up. "Lead the way, Big Boy." he says before he follows him through the crowd and out a door.

Neither boy realized that this was the start of forever for them.

[ssasides205]

How do you think the cupid scene would've gone if Leo had been there?

in an ideal world, dear anon, the cupid scene would not exist at all.

instead, when looking for Diocleptian's Scepter, in Diocleptian's Palace, Jason and Nico run,,, into Diocleptian. I mean, the doors of death are fucked, yeah? and we already had the thing with Midas; this would've not been all that weird.

the encounter then would be more about Jason and Nico having to work together despite their jarringly oposing views, against Jason's favorite Emperor and probably an undead army. Fun stuff.

However, let's take it to this world you've proposed, which, I'm guessing due to what this blog is abt replaces Jason with Leo.

Firstly, since Jason does not actually get to the Palace, would he still contact Reyna? would they meet with her later than they do in canon? would she contact him instead, when she herself reaches that place?

Or is it a case of Zephyros giving them the info abt the scepter earlier, and they never go to Split at all? Unclear.

while I love valdangelo as much as any of us, Leo is even more of a stranger to Nico than Jason is in cannon. However, Leo has his own issues with Eros so what I think would happen, is that the god, affected by the double personality thing, wouldn't be able to settle on just one of them.

he'd be constantly having to change the script, and this is something that Leo and Nico could exploit.

this would also be entirely about the two finding a way to work together, but unlike the fix I mentioned previously, Leo and Nico are incredibly similar. So once they both reached the conclusion that they have to work together, they would do so far more easily.

actually, they'd make one hell of a team up and I'm getting mad that they never get to fight side by side properly. Fire and death sounds like the most obvious combo ever, come on!

anyways, no confessions happen, bc gods above is that scene fucked up. like, my man, there are much better ways for you to canonize a gay character.

I, for one, would've much rather have Nico choose to come out. for example, in this au I just made up:

Leo and Nico defeat Eros together, both taking a moment to breathe before they make the trip back to the ship, Nico with the staff still in his hands. And Leo, bc it would be Leo, breaks the silence by just starting to complain abt Eros, and his whole "confess your love issues" spiel, and Nico gets sort of annoyed and says something that gives a lot away, but only if you're also queer

like: "at least you could've said something normal", but like, worded more subtly

and Leo's all like, "no way, that guy totally wanted me to talk abt the Jay issue, which is totally uncool", bc Leo would come out like that to someone, that's who he is

I'm unsure if Nico would figure it out right then and there, or if it would take him until way later. probably the second though, the internalized homophobia is strong in that one.

once he does figure out, he would like confront Leo abt it, and it would become a whole thing I think. obvs if I were to write it I'd give that conversation a good resolution, but even a bad one would be progress vis-a-vis them coming to terms with their sexualities.

it could've given them reason to interact more, whether positively or not, though I honestly believe they would eventually work it out in the second case. and that eventual camaraderie could have then worked to get Nico closer to the others, probably starting with Jason, considering he was already trying to be his friend before the whole scepter thing.

we could've had Nico finally letting himself process the Percy issue, and Leo processing the Jason and Piper issue, while also both helping each other feel a lot less weird, and alone.

but that's just my opinion.

[icedragonlizard]

Let's talk about Ice Dragon

I mean.. this thing is literally my namesake! Let me give it recognition.

I know I frequently post about characters such as Susie, Magolor and Marx, and yet I have "icedragonlizard" as my username which would imply that I should be more all over this big chubby blue dinosaur.

Funny of me to be acting the way I do.

However... despite seldom talking about him, I do love this thing.

I chose this username for two reasons: 1.) to stand out and 2.) while Ice Dragon may not necessarily be my top favorite character in all of Kirby, it is however one of my very favorite designs in the series!

I adore the appearance of this big cute silly thing.

He's big. He's chubby. He's blue. He looks very squishy. I want to hug him even if he'd bite me or turn me into an ice cube. He just straight up looks like a dinosaur, despite having dragon in his name. This is like the perfect sort of kawaii dinosaur design you'd expect in Kirby.

He looks like the substitute decoy from pokemon, LOL.

We don't have much reptiles in Kirby. There's also Landia, of course, which is another dragon. And there are also Galbos, an enemy species with evolved variants such as Galboros. I've noticed the visual similarities that Ice Dragon has to Galbos. May they be related at all?

I think the biggest problem with Ice Dragon is that he... isn't much of a character. He's very under-utilized. As far as I know, all his main appearances are: a boss in Dream Land 2 where he debuted, he's a painting that Adeleine summons in Dream Land 3, 64 and Star Allies (the former two as bosses, the latter as playable), he's a hologram in Planet Robobot, and if I'm not mistaken he also shows up in the clash games. I've never actually played the clash games but I've seen images of him in it.

And the fact he sadly has little recognition in the fandom in general.

He's much less major than other boss characters like Whispy Woods and Kracko. At least those two show up in like almost every game.

He doesn't even have a mask of his likeliness in Merry Magoland!

At least he does appear in the anime, though. I think it was cool the way they handled him, where they gave him a small version and then he just grew really gigantic.

There's unfortunately just very little to work with or talk about with Ice Dragon. One can try to rectify this with headcanons, which I've tried.

I do have headcanons for him.... it's just not a ton due to how little and minor of a character he is. For one, I headcanon that he's the king of whatever is Popstar's main snowy/arctic area, whether that be Iceberg (from DL2 and DL3) or White Wafers (from RTDL). And I imagine he's friends with King Dedede or at least gets along with him well, since they both serve as kings in their respective lands. Adeleine and the animal friends may know him and get along with him well, too, since the former even has paintings of him that she can summon.

If Ice Dragon was more major than he is... if they made him a more frequent boss and did more with him, I'd be all over it. I'd talk about him a lot more. I'd develop more headcanons for him at that point!

I once thought about that if Forgotten Land was willing to include dinosaur-like creatures during its game, then a primal version of Ice Dragon would've been absolutely perfect for the Winter Horns section.

If they ever do a Kirby game that includes dinosaurs, whether they be the villain faction or something else, then I think Ice Dragon himself or a relative could show up, and the aesthetic of his design could be a great base for other dinosaur creatures that get added in the series.

^ Just an idea, more ideas could be made.

This could be said for a lot of other characters in Kirby, I know, but I think a lot of really cool and awesome stuff could be done with Ice Dragon if HAL were to utilize him as such. I'd love to see it happen.

Oh and by the way, I'm aware that a plushie for Ice Dragon exists... it's from the Roly-Poly Friends merch line, but it's extremely rare to find and also costs a ton of money. It's out of my luxury to get it, sadly.

I would love to see a Sanei plushie of this guy come out at some point. I did say after all that I'd expand on my plushie collection more when they introduce more Sanei plushies later down the road, didn't I? Hahahahaha. Although I have the feeling that may take a while. That's fine. No need to rush. But if an Ice Dragon plush from Sanei comes into existence, I'm going to get it in a heartbeat. It'll be great.

[dandyshucks]

realizing i wanted to ask - how did u first fall in love w/ guzma (irl) ? :o (@dmclr)

ougghh (/happy) Clara you always ask such good questions omg 🫶

umm... okay so. i should give a general "abuse CW" label i guess fjfkdl but I'll keep it vague and to a minimum of mention! also putting it below the cut because I RAMBLED SO MUCH, SORRY IN ADVANCE

tumblr kind of went crazy for the guy when the anime finally introduced him in 2019 (it took SO long to get to him, over 100 episodes in the su/mo arc 😭) and at first i didnt think much of him rly, but then somehow eventually (a few months later) i found out through osmosis that he's got trauma going on and my ears kind of perked up a bit LOL

(underwater just to set it apart from the rest of the post so it doesnt blend in and get confusing fndkdl) screenshot of the post i rbed where i first mentioned liking him fdsjkl

around the same time, i was having some realizations about my own experiences with childhood and family etc, and there was some other stuff going on in my life (also. the plague started so uh. that too.) that was just kind of culminating in like. A Lot of stress and fear and stuff. so seeing this character who has experienced somewhat similar things was ... comforting in a way? shared experience or something, idk. plus I've always been a sucker for misfit archetype characters, especially if they make a little family out of other misfits :')

another big part of the intrigue (because my crushes always start with a sort of 👀 phase fdsjkl, I have to think somebody is interesting in some way and want to find out More about them, and then feelings develop from there) for me was just the fact that he was Angry. like... the way I've personally learned to deal w abuse has been to always be meek and fawn. so seeing someone who went in the opposite direction, to become angry and strong and defiant instead, was SO fascinating to me and I was very curious to learn more about him.

so I looked into him more, loved what i found, related to him a bit, accidentally by some random occurrence stumbled upon some bf audios of him somehow??, wished he were real so we could hang out, thought about how I'd act around him and started to feel a little flustered about it ... it's all downhill from there once u reach that point smh 😔😔 (/silly)

for a long time i didn't really fully step into s.elfship territory w him - i dabbled a little but he wasnt The Focus™ in my brain yet. also we (as a system) have had a host change since then, so there was a previous juno that was not Me (even though we kept the same main name between us two parts), and they didn't like the guy as much as Current Me does djfkdl - theres also some ... relatively significant personality differences between the two versions of Juno, so I think Juno2.0 (me) meshes with him a lot better now than Juno1.0 did in 2020/2021

and then last year, i found and joined the s.elfship community and um. I absolutely did not mean for him to become The Main Guy and never would've guessed he would be, but... well,, we dont always plan things i suppose, feelings just happen 😭

anyways. it maybe seems kind of messed up but his ~tragic backstory~ is what drew me in initially bc it helped me feel less alone and scared when i was Going Through some pretty major shit lol. and then after that, i just kind of took the character base that pkmn had in place and ran with it to build on it and sort of make my own version of him that I could be friends with and eventually fell in love with ^^;;

TL;DR it was a mix of timing, similar history of abuse, intrigue bc of our opposite reactions to the abuse, and um... the way he is like,, strong and builds a safe place for other young ppl who feel unsafe or not accepted in general society fdsjkl

i get embarrassed talking abt it bc ppl seem to really hate it when abuse victims are weak in any way and need help, but ... i do really like that he is strong in some ways and would be able to give me a sort of safe place to let my guard down and receive help and care (as shown by the way he provides a safe place for the grunts, all the misfits and outcasts of Alola) ^^;;;; honestly kind of a Big part of it for me (and for pretty much all my s.elfship dynamics) is that he is able to protect me and care for me, because I have not like. experienced that ever. at least not properly. when your parents are the ones being abusive, you not only do not experience protection and care but you're also being actively hurt in some way by the people who are supposed to keep you safe. so to be freely given care and safety is kind of crazyyyy to me LOL, that is something i like a lot about him :')

OKAY RAMBLE OVER. i really tried to keep this as short as i could but,, brevity is not a strength of mine (esp when it comes to him) LOL. THANK YOU for the question !!! its fun to look back at how it all happened tbh :]

[v0rd1g4n]

The Thundermans Return - Review

All right, as I already stated in Part 1, I really liked the movie. It was great how fast it got released, after they officially announced it back in 2023, less than a year later. I could even enjoy it with the mexican spanish dub (with the same voice actors and everything), as soon as it was available on Paramount+, which by the way was awesome.

However, I think they had a few problems to work with all these characters in the same story, and this is what I think...

The art of nerfing

From time to time, they seem to be forced to nerf their powers for the story to go on and putting about 15 characters with superpowers in a movie like this, quite frankly, is not an easy task. We would expect to see the twins stronger and experienced than ever and probably they are, but its more likely that they tried to balance things up.

I think this is like creating a Superman game, which by the way, is something people have been discussing for a while. You could try to make it perfectly accurate to how powerful he can get to be, which is practically a god, but this is just a lot to work with and that's why they need to nerf, either his superpowers or the city. Otherwise, the game would be boring.

All right, let's get to it. These are my thoughts...

Losing a lost battle

First of all, when the family go to stop Blue Flame, the Thundertwins didn't even use telekinesis against him. Only close range atacks like heat breath from a long distance, which has no sense. Especially for someone like Phoebe.

What about Max's gadgets? All we saw was the jetpack but none of his new inventions, maybe a repulsor gauntlet or something like that. I know the Thundermans were meant to fail on this save, but I just think it could've been better executed.

A lost opportunity

Also, when Max and Phoebe get caught by the V-Team, I would've liked to see an intense fight between them, maybe not as good as the one they have, later in the movie and then get defeated by a bad decision from one of the twins, for example.

Besides, they could've left a huge mess all around the headquarters, for President Kickbutt and her team to find and start to investigate the V-Team.

A missing fight

During the Thundermans house break in, again, it would have been cool to see a small fight before they show how Max and Phoebe were being tortured. Maybe even turning Dr. Colosso back into a human, to help them out or something.

The amount of destruction inside of the house with all those powers, would've been amazing. By the way, did you notice how Chloe walks out of the scene, right before the V-Team get in the house?

Prison break

Near the end of the movie, we learn that the V-Team had broken their parents out of prison, and again, a security camera shot of them taking a few guards down and breaking out of prison together, would've been enough for me.

We've only seen Metroburg Super Jail from the outside and the cells area, but that building looks massive. Also, did you see they forgot to add the Metrobug Superjail sign at the top of the building? This screenshot is from "Tunder In Paradise".

The band and the mothers hunter

Other things I would've liked to see, is Max and his band playing a song at Splatburger again and not only talking about rejoining the band. Maybe even having Gideon still dating Sarah, instead of trying to become the next Paul Finch, still obsessed with his friend's mother, I mean... come on dude, chill out! 🤣

Weird relationship

And of course, how could this be a Nickelodeon show/movie, without the mandatory awkward scene? Dr. Colosso, a grown ass man turned into a rabbit, had been using Max's old suit as a sooting blanket. It was funny though.

I think sometimes the writers jut forgot that Dr. Colosso was not a talking rabbit. Oh, and by the way... what happened to his son, Balfour? They didn't even mention him.

Interesting origin but bad executed

And last but not least important, I'd like to talk about the reason I said in Part 1, that the Power Plant was a terrible idea.

But don't get me wrong. The origin of superpowers was interesting, but if Hank and Barb had this source of powers at home all along, then why didn't they use the blue seeds to go stop Dark Mayhem after Max took their powers away with the power-sapping orb?

Obviously, this was years before the movie came out, but still, it kind of ruins the moment, now that I look back and know what was really there.

Budget and filming

Now, I don't know if the budget was pretty low for the movie to last only 1 hour and 10 minutes or if it was filmed in a short span, but maybe that's what happened, because I remember people saying the filming was over in less than a month, so that may be the reason we didn't get to see more cool stuff, but I don't know.

I'm just speculating.

Music

As for the music, I gotta say I really liked it, except for the V-Team's song. It was funny, but not my thing. The new version of the theme song played during the closing credits, was so cool and I don't know if you're gonna be with me on this, but the song we could hear during the final battle against Dark Mayhem, was great.

I even turned on the subtitles while writing this and look what it says in the background. Damn! I thought the movie was for kids 🤣

VFX

And finally the VFX. I did have in mind that the movie was family friendly, so the special effects we see during the entire movie, are practically an improved version of the ones we've previously seen on the TV Show, which is cool most of the time, but sometimes... it doesn't.

Thundercest

Did you really think I wasn't gonna talk about Thundercest here? Well, guess again. It would've been awesome to have another big hug between Max and Phoebe, just like the one we saw in "Thunder in Paradise", but we can't have everything, right?

It's weird, because Max and Phoebe share a lot of screen time together, but something feels different than the tv show vibes. Don't you think? Anyway, here's a couple pics of them together.

Errors

I wasn't sure if I should share these two errors I found while writing Part 1 and Part 2 because this is not a movie rant, but it's kind of funny now that I think about it. So here they are:

Did you notice how they changed She-Crab's claw from one arm to the other?

Or how Phoebe's footage was duplicated while blowing freeze breath at Dark Mayhem Jr.?

And as Forrest Gump would say: “That's all I have to say about that”.

Colosso, the skater

Oh, wait. I almost forgot... All of the promos and posters had a small picture of Dr. Colosso on a skateboard. Is a deleted scene or something? I guess we'll never know.

Look at that. I wanna see Dr. Colosso performing a few tricks on a skateboard.

#SpingarnCut

Ranking

All right, I rank this movie 8/10.

And this is it, guys. I hope I'm not forgetting something important. I've been writing Part 2 and this post for the last three days, so please tell me what you think about the movie, about my review and if you'd like to see more of The Thundermans soon.

How would you rank the movie?

Let me know all your comments.

[mysticsparklewings]

Obscutober 2024 Day 25: Lacuna 🫥

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Lacuna (n.)

a blank space; a missing part; gap

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#Obscutober 2024 Day 25: Lacuna 🫥

This one didn’t get nearly as much time as I would’ve liked since I spent most of today on a very different art piece…In vain since it’s still not ready to post. 😅

But I am still happy with this one & you’ll get to see that *other* art later! 

Click the "Keep Reading" and we'll talk a bit more about my general thoughts/process. ✨

⭐️ Like My Art and Want to see more of it? Here's All My Links! ⭐️

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I'm going to keep this description short and sweet tonight Sparklers both because I feel I don't have that much to say, but also because I spent most of the day trying desperately to get a different piece of art ready to post today too...But couldn't quite manage it, so you Sparklers will find out about that tomorrow. Point being: I'm about typed out...But I also can't stand the thought of uploading a third Obscutober piece in a row where I have to come back and type out the description later. 🙃

Likewise, I didn't have as much time as I necessarily would have liked to play with different ideas for the mandala on this one. In another timeline, I might've tried to do some kind of motif with a book with a clearly ripped page or something of that nature, since this definition is supposed to be, "Especially in a book or other piece of writing, including music." Or, thinking about that, maybe something that plays on sheet music would've been cute.

But since I was pressed for time, I opted instead for what I thought was a much cheekier option: I played on the idea of the mandala being unfinished, and therefore having lots of lacunas—missing parts—and in some areas looking like maybe the template for the mandala was still showing.

I do promise that unfinished-ness was intentional and in fact very deliberate. I've used the circular mandala templates when making mandalas traditionally, but I haven't bothered with them or any other "proper" tools beyond Procreate's symmetry capabilities for these digital ones this month. It's arguable there are some days I should have because it would've made things easier, but for the most part I've felt pretty comfortable without them.

The background was partly recycled from a rainbow swirl I made several days ago and ended up not using. And I'd tell you which Day that it was almost for, but I genuinely cannot remember for the life of me at the moment. 🫠

But you can see that I went over it with white in a lot of places. I had originally thought about making the whole things just plain black and white, about as unfinished looking as possible, but the idea of having it partially colored in a very unfinished way seemed like the more visually interesting way to go.

I stand by that assessment, though the whole thing did come up looking unintentionally a lot more like stained glass windows that I intended. 😅 Oh well!

I did also add one final, subtle touch; Just a little glitch effect over the coloring. I don't get many opportunities that feel fitting for a glitch effect like that, even though I really enjoy playing with what it does. Somehow that felt appropriate, like maybe the mandala itself glitched out at some point and that's why it's so unfinished. (Thank God that's not actually a thing that happened, though!)

Is it amazing? Probably not really, but y'know I think I could've done much worse, all things considered. I do think it's pretty in it's own unique way; I didn't expect to like the half-finished elements so much, but here we are! 😊

As usual, I'm not looking forward to cross-posting—especially after having done it once already today!—But I do feel at least a little better knowing I've got a super-obvious choice for the music pairing on Instagram...Here's hoping it'll actually cooperate with me when I attempt to add it. 🤞

That said, I best be getting to that now. See you Sparklers in hopefully less of a rush tomorrow! 😵‍💫

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See the Prompt List

Artwork © me, MysticSparklewings

Obscutober Concept Inspired by nikolas_tower

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⭐️ Like My Art and Want to see more of it? Here's All My Links! ⭐️

[bithegai]

Hey this might be stupid or not helpful but idk felt like saying it

I've followed ya for a long while, ya were one of the first blogs I followed like what? 3ish years ago and am in shambles as well cause of. Well. All that. And just wanted to say that if ya will leave, I'd suggest not deleting anything permanently. I can't say much specificness cause I can't remember that time well but I do remember yr blog was always nice to check, wish I would've interacted more when stuff was good. Idk. Like at the end do whatever n all but I've liked the stuff ya put here and idk. It's a nice place. English isn't helping me much right now but I just wanted to say that I really enjoyed following ya, I didn't really know ya but you were cool. Wish you the best during these difficult times and just. Thanks for everything

Aw thank you.... that's very kind of you to say ❤️ and reassuring considering the thousands of blogs that come and go. I always just used this as kind of a rant blog for all HC stuff so it's v sweet hearing at least someone else got some joy out of it too lol. Feels like it's just another speck in the abyss, so genuinely it's very sweet that you remember it anon. Even crazier that you've been here for all these years too.... Would've been awesome having another friend to enjoy the wild ups and downs with

And honestly I'm not final on what I'm gonna do, just very.... lost like you. It just feels so weird right now cause like, pretty much my existence here is bc of Stress? (And yes, even though those involved have said all the issues were only with the other person 1. she still left and 2. the vast majority of her content involved him) Like I started this blog and made a twitch account for her. I learned how to archive vods bc of her. My first HC fanart is of her. The first "big" post I made was a list of recommendations for Stress episodes. And even though I talked abt her less recently compared to back then, personally she was such a big part of my enjoyment here that now I'm just ......?

Like I haven't posted about this, just bc I agree the focus should stay on those hurt by his actions and amplifying their stories. But god there was so much more I wanted to see from Stress. I was looking forward to the completed "Sentimental Stress" base. Possibly a revival of the Allium Alliance, and maybe even one day a 5/5 hermit gals collab. But it's never happening now. And honestly? I think I could've been fine, moved on. But it's the fact that there's nothing left to look back on either that hurts me the most.

In the past, when something grim happened, I would just play an old HC episode or a funny vod to cheer up. But all those videos I turned to, always feature either one or both of them. Not to be a stereotypical stan, but they were rlly my safe haven on those dark and dreary days. ......and now here we are. Not only is there little to look forward to, but it feels there's nothing left behind either. Cause tbcfh? My favorite part about HC is the history, seeing how long these friendships took to develop and how much stronger they are for it. So I loved those older, cringy series like Hunt the hermit or Foolcraft. And ofc I also downloaded a bunch of vods to watch back. Like the first big vault after co-op crystals were introduced, or that one 2021 twitch rivals with the two and False and Impulse. Hell I even have Ren's old MC dungeons vod of the three of them from when the game first released. But what's the point now? Everything I used to look forward to now leaves me sick, so what is there to turn to?

Honestly tho you're right anon. For preservation's sake I'll keep everything here even if I do end up going. With tumblr how it is, things get a lot more difficult to reach once someone deactivates. And I forgot I have things that False and Cleo (for the short time they were here) reblogged that I'd like to save. But we'll see. I hope you've been doing alright with this too anon. I mean hey, we've stuck around here for over 3 years now. All this time with the hermits has taught us that the best thing we can do: is to listen and support each other to build a brighter, kinder tomorrow

[theood]

Yo that’s crazy your middle school wouldn’t let you have water bottles. We were allowed to but it could only be water and they had to be see through because they had too many students sneaking alcohol into the school and getting drunk

Also in high school apparently a girl to came with a vibrator inside her and her friend had the remote and would use it on her randomly during the day. The teachers and admin knew about it but couldn’t do anything because they couldn’t prove it without major violations and probably worse

My middle school was fucking crazy. I had a math teacher who told me and all my class that we would never amount to anything and we we're all going to be homeless living in cardboard boxes and nothing happened to her 🤗. Because she was retiring the next year or something. They talked to about every kid in my class and we all said Yes That Happened.

They were also extremely detention heavy. Along with write-ups. It was an ongoing joke amongst me and other students they had a certain number of those they had to give out daily. I'm not joking when I say one kid got a write-up for forgetting a pencil.

I've been out of that middle school for years now. I met up with some kids before I moved at the playground who went and they STILL told me it was bad. My mom worked at a corner store and she also had kids always telling her that that middle school was fucking HORRIBLE. So it wasn't just Me

Also. Oh my God?? This is like when I hear people talk about kids masturbating in class. How are you guys doing that??? I guess whatever gets you through the day...

I have less highschool stories because. Well. Softmore year through senior year was COVID but once one of the principles in my public hs misgendered my friend who was out to the entire school (teachers included) and when I corrected him he went "we'll deal with that later". It's a situation that if I could go back in time I would've fucking chewed him out more for that.

Also, once, me and my friend Freddy before our last period (a study hall) were in the bathroom for ~10 minutes. We got out and went to class. The next day we both got called into the office with the principal because the bathroom "smelled like vape" and we were in there the longest. He then searched both our bags.

My dad was PISSED about this. It was for a lot of reasons but one of them was the fact they searched us without a female present, and he was also pissed off they searched us at all without anyone else in the room.

I had less to say about it. Again if I COULD go back I'd probably have doubled down and said they couldn't search my bag and that if they're going to I want one of my parents there. So that my mom or dad could rip them a new one because I've never even fuckin' TOUCHED a vape.

Also I got suspended for 3 days for something. I don't remember what. My parents called the Highschool over a detention I got that was such a bullshit excuse and they went "um well either he does the detention or we suspend him" so. I got suspended. As though that's like some law that a kid HAS to do the detention and it isn't their choice.

My online highschool has no stories because I was so depressed in that and I don't think I really actually Learned Anything. My grades TANKED and I had an insanely low GPA. I genuinely think I only graduated because they didn't have a GPA requirement

[boombrothersasks]

Redoing the question "Eclipse, your brother seems stressed for some reason, you should help him relax" sent by @livingthewritelife-things bc I misread it AGH

"Hey Shadow...!" Eclipse sat beside his older brother. "Uh...SO! Some person said you were stressed out or whatever...crazy, right? You? Stressed? Couldn't be, amiright?"

Shadow simply looked up at him, then looked away again with a huff.

"Okay, not the best choice of words. Um...y'know, I'm not very good at this. I can talk, A LOT, but listening? No go. I'd LIKE to help you and all that, but I also don't know if I can do that? Just blows my mind in a weeeeird way."

"Yeah, I can see how you don't shut up. It would help if you left me alone."

"Maaaaaybe, but if something's up, shouldn't you...I dunno, talk about your feewings?"

"I won't be doing that, thank you."

"Well...can I at least help you chill out? I can do whatever, BESIDES leaving. Because I know you were going to say that. Not that one, big bro."

"Don't call me that."

"But that's what you aaaaaaaaaareeeeee!!"

Shadow sighed. "Look, you want me to relax? You want me to 'chill out?' Then how about this. You just sit here, in silence, and let me have my quiet time."

"Fine, I guess."

And so they sat for a little while, just staring out at what was outside the mouth of the cave. It didn't take long before Eclipse started getting antsy and impatient, though. He didn't like silence much.

"But what is it, really? What's the reason you need quiet time right now?"

Shadow glared.

"I promise I'll leave you alone after this! Just answer me this one thing?"

"...I suppose its just...everything, really. All that's been happening all at once. The whole situation with Doom, what happened with Starline, and the chip, and running into Rouge and Omega..."

"But all that stuff passed? What makes it still stressful?"

"I'm not really too sure...it just is. Maybe the best word to describe it all is overwhelming. I don't think you would understand."

"Hey, all that stuff affected me too! More than you, probably! But like I said before, we have each other, at least! Maaaaaaybe that'll make things a little easier than they would've been otherwise."

"If it had been otherwise, none of it would've happened, Eclipse."

"Yeah, but where's the fun in that? Boring."

Shadow really had to hold in the urge to smile a bit this time. It was getting harder all the time, and he hated it. But...having Eclipse to talk to about it did help, even if it was just a little. He huffed again instead. "Perhaps...did you just trick me into talking to you?"

"Twas my plan from the start, big bro." He stood and took a fancy bow, like he had just discovered or done something incredible. Though, helping Shadow feel less of his negative emotions, and far quicker than normal? This darkling was doing something to him...

[spiritsncrystals]

Thomas Arclight, Jim Crocodile Cook.

Oh boy double whammy but sure I can do both lol

[WHAT I LIKE ABOUT THEM]

IV is a piece of shit at times but that's kinda what makes him so enjoyable seeing him make such unhinged faces though I do understand why he's like that lol

Jim on the other hand god I like a lot about

His personality, his dynamics with the others even his bursts of English but especially his bond with Karen/Shirley it's so sweet especially when you learn his backstory and how he literally lost a functioning eye to save Karen from a poachers trap they're such good friends

[WHAT I DISLIKE ABOUT THEM]

It's hard to say I actively dislike much about either

Like sure Thomas is a two faced asshole but he's an enjoyable one. I guess you could say I dislike the fact he couldn't be honest with Shark about what had been done until they duel in the WDC since he actively says "I didn't mean for that fire to happen to your sister that part was on tron" but I'd say it's got something to do with his ego and that he kinda enjoys antagonising Shark at the moment of introduction

Jim you could fault for not having the foresight to not leave judai alone in 136 right after sho runs off but in both his and O'brien's defence that boy had been way too reckless and not staying put anyways when he'd SPECIFICALLY been told "don't go rushing on ahead" so I'd rather not because A they did come back for him and B it's not like they knew he was going to become Haou.

I could also say this is less something I dislike about him and more just a "I wish" but the fact that he's not in S4 does sting a bit when he was such a central character in S3 like you have Saiou, Johan and O'brien coming back in that season and he's the only one truly missing minus Misawa. I think it was more something to do with his VA exiting the scene but still if we had gotten an expanded S4 It would've been cool to see him again

[WHAT I LIKE ABOUT THEIR APPEARANCE]

Definitely the colour scheme for IV it's hard to imagine him in any other pallette, but definitely his scar, too, considering how recognisable it is kinda a shame they didn't give Rio any too but hey that's what the fans are for

Jim's I enjoy a lot for the Australian cowboy aesthetic but his face I really enjoy what with the hat and the bandaged eye to eventually reveal that he has a stone in the socket honestly seeing the eye of orichalcum revealed for the first time really was cool.

[SUB OR DUB NAME PREFERENCE]

I'm pretty flexible when it comes to Thomas's aliases IV n Quattro but I tend to use IV a little more

Jim there's no difference unless we're talking the manga but they're fundamentally different people in terms of personality anyways

[FAVOURITE CARD]

Would Gimmick Puppet Machina Fantasix be cheating in IV's case since it's a recent thing and it was never in the anime but I have a fascination with the cards that look like their archetypes user (Bujins too but they're different) bc I find it Like a funny display of the person's ego but the fact that he has one that looks like his public face and one that shows his freaky side is just really amusing to me because it just means his fanservice ego goes two ways (you could also see it as him viewing himself as a puppet on strings too)

Jim's would be Fossil Knight Skull Convoy especially with how it actually gets used as transportation in Dark World

It's just a really cool design

[OTP(s)]

Gonna be real I don't really ship IV with anyone as much as I get the appeal of Hellshark I don't really view them in that light

Jim on the other hand I adore Orichalcumshipping (Jim x O'brien) they're the ones really looking out for the gang and it really shows the Haou arc especially really proved how good their dynamic is

Fossil (Jim x Kenzan) is also another good one

I would say even Cowboy, Savior and Tomorrow are great options too

[NOTP's]

Wouldn't say I have any exactly for either but I understand why something Like IV x Rio can be kinda off for people

[FAVOURITE SCENE/LEAST FAVOURITE SCENE]

It's hard to say with IV because most moments he's on screen are great but I like the scene right after he's beaten by Shark in the WDC where he's finally being vulnerable to not just Shark but Yuma Astral and Kotori behind the charming front and the freakyness and anguish is a middle child genuinely expressing that he wishes for his father to go back to being the one he once knew

Jim I could honestly say the entirety of his duel against Haou it's so good. He may of lost (along with his life) but you can really tell how earnestly he was trying to save a friend from his darkness

Least favourite scenes

If I had to select one I guess it would be the reveal that he's the one Shark was facing back then when he was disqualified from that tournament for cheating more so because it gives us a reason to hate him as much as Shark did

Jim's case I'd say that one scene in 114

Its less because of him and more just my issues with the whole life for a life going on in that duel and the fact that Asuka needed saving in the first place like cmon ygo don't have the woman nearly drown dangit but I am glad he saved her from drowning regardless

[Fuck marry or kill]

Yeah I could kill IV lmao throw him in a ditch lol

I'd rather just be Jim and Karen's friend though

[haus-mom]

8, 9, 16 :)

UNAAAAAAAAAAAA THANK YOU SM <33333

8. Common fandom opinion that everyone is wrong about

Gonna get my ass kicked for this, but Mizuki is not confirmed nonbinary and their arc is actually very far from being about that. "But they use they/them pronouns!" In the English translation, sure, but I feel like the translators have gotten themselves in some sort of loop they can't come out of. I understand that their gender is officially "?" but others referring to Mizuki with they/them doesn't make sense, since they're fem presenting.

It's so incosistent too! Kanade uses she/her for Mizuki to herself ONCE and then resumes using they/them

I think I've mentioned this a few times, but I would've done it very differently. N25 is not aware of Mizuki's genderfuckery, and they're fem presenting, so it's likely they'd use she/her. Same with people who are vaguely acquaintanced with them, like Tsukasa, Shizuku or Emu. Akito is aware of the rumours, but him not telling Ena means he couldn't care less, so it's likely he'd use she/her too.

What about An and Rui, who are aware of Mizuki's identity? That's the complicated part, since they'd give away Mizuki's gender. I guess I'd do my best to avoid using gendered pronouns? It'd be kinda hard, but at least it'd MAKE SENSE. If they're talking about Mizuki to other characters, they'd probs use she/her too regardless.

I haven't really read the new JP event, but they probably don't clear anything up when it comes to Mizuki's gender. I was hoping Mizuki's sister would say something like "oh mizuki's my sister/whatever" but in the summary I've read, as sweet as it seems, we're still kept in the dark. Oh well.

"But that'd be misgendering!" YES! THAT'S WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU DON'T TELL PEOPLE ABOUT YOUR GENDER! PEOPLE TEND TO ASSUME! Plus, if Mizuki's not a trans girl not saying pronouns = gender, that's not what i'm going for here or nonbinary, and they're just an otokonoko (unlikely, but they can still pussy out, even though they had Mizuki singing villain, but whateeeeeeever), wouldn't they/them be misgendering them too?

It's frustrating, like, if you hc Mizuki as nb that's fine, but can people please stop going for the throats of those who use she/her for them? Not that hard, I promise!

9. Worst part of canon

Canon seems to be hellbent on having some duos as default, with little to no deviations. Leo/Need does this the least, but sometimes they do fall into Ichika+Saki/Honami+Shiho territory.

WxS also doesn't do this often, as it's very well balanced, but when it comes to mix events it's... Not that great. Rui+Emu is surprisingly lacking in content as well, I feel like they're in the background, which is a shame because I like them a lot.

MMJ is truly neutral. We have fun interactions all around, but Airi+Haruka is even worse than Rui+Emu. Please they are THE STRONGEST!!!! give them an event together. I'm sure they'd crush it.

N25 sucks so bad, like so, so, so bad. Most of the time it's Kanade+Mafuyu/Mizuki+Ena. I think they're trying to fix it, but since Mafuyu and Kanade are now roommates, it's... Not really working. Last Kanade event barely had Mafuyu on it, and that's something I really don't like about canon? N25 is overreliant on Mafuyu and sometimes it feels like the other member's problems take a backseat because Mafuyu's are more important. And that sucks. Kanade has it the worst of all because even in events where she miraculously gets away (? from her, she's still thinking of saving her. I get Kanade is very goal-driven and is determined to save her, but... Just Mafuyu? Like in Spojoy when Minori tells Kanade she should take time to herself because she's also important and that she'll be there for her, Kanade instantly thinks "Of course... I want to see Mafuyu smile!" and canon portraying this as a good thing and Kanade improving as a person SUCKS. SUCKS SO BAD. Thanks Kaito for telling her to snap out of it. Samsa is one of the greatest comm songs imo but it's about Mafuyu. The whole event was about Mafuyu's story.

I get it, but they've left Kanade's dad's plotline untouched for TWO WHOLE YEARS, it's what i said about the other member's problems taking a backseat. Mizuki I get, running away is their thing and they seem to be doing good by relating to Mafuyu, but... Augh.

VBS is the poster child for duos. They're the only group where the members don't all use their first names. Just look at their card cameos. And their mix events too... Free them please...

Once I saw someone say "VBS isn't just duos, they have dynamics!" and they sure have them! Wish they got moments to develop them besides card stories and area convos!

16. You can't understand why so many people like this thing

Unironically? Akito x Toya. They're the most milquetoast, boring ship imaginable and nothing interesting ever happens with them. Sometimes you need fluffy ships and I get it, but you can get the same dynamic better within the game itself. To me they're that kind of friends who are super close and thought of dating but they're just so close dating just feels out of the question lol

The way they met doesn't make sense. Like, Akito saw Toya singing and went "oh i want this one", even though he was doing street music just to piss his dad off. Then he sees Kohane and goes "i want that hamster OBLITERATED", because she "wasn't taking it seriously", it just doesn't make sense! If it was called out sure, but Akito being a hypocrite is never brought up ever again. Their conflict in the main story was pretty dumb too. And from then on they just. Go with the flow. I love Toya and Akito separately so please let them be apart.

Whoever has talked to me about proseka for more than 5 minutes knows 2 things: I love Tsukasa Tenma and I really, really dislike Kanade x Mafuyu. The fact that they're the most popular ship for one another evades me. Kanade and Mafuyu aren't good for each other AT ALL.

"But Kanade is doing her best to save Mafuyu!" That's exactly the thing! At the beginning of the game, Kanade was constantly trying her best to save Mafuyu, and Mafuyu in exchange worried about Kanade... Because she's trying to save her. Kanade saw Mafuyu as a big wall, something to prove she's capable of saving others with her music.

"They got better! Kanade sees Mafuyu as a friend now!" ... And Mafuyu is still the same. Ena told her that the least she could do is thank her in Carnation Recollection, but did she? No, she but she was nicer... To Emu. Mafuyu, at least up until Ena's second focus, still wants Kanade to keep composing for her sake. I know she's been bending over backwards to please others since forever and N25 is her safe place to rest, but Ena is right. The least she could do is thank her.

"Since they're living together, Mafuyu is taking care of Kanade!" ... Is she really? She just cleans around a bit, but as for eating and having a better sleeping schedule, Mafuyu is just as bad. Does Mafuyu have to take care of Kanade? Not really, it's not her obligation. But Mafuyu never does anything to stop Kanade from indulging into her unhealthy habits, including overworking herself. Some people keep talking about toxic yuri and... There it is! I have no problem if it's being portrayed like that, but most portrayals have it be wholesome and good, and it isn't, not at all.

Like with Akit-ya I can see why people ship them! They're cute! Kan-mafu though... That's another story.

[lisacameron99]

the one with the jenna thing part 1

warnings: (some but not limited to) death, implied death, sex, lying, swearing, angst, smut

The five of us were sitting around The Grill. There weren't many people there, just an older couple, and a few waiters and waitresses standing around. Even then, we still weren't talking loudly.

"Why was Jenna there?" Aria asked the question we were all thinking.

"I guess she's back," Spencer responded.

"I don't like it." I said, and they all stared at me. "What? With her around, we have something to lie about. Something to be guilty about. We ruined her life."

"That cop acted like we were suspects or something." Hanna stated, and she wasn't wrong. He totally did.

"Do you think we looked guilty?" Emily asked, panicking a little.

"Why would we?" Aria asked her. "We haven't done anything wrong."

"Ugh, except you know, we ruined Jenna's life." I snapped. Aria acting like we never did anything to Jenna made me mad. Yeah, Jenna wasn't my favorite person and never would be, but we were all there that night.

"Except lie about "The Jenna Thing"." Hanna defended me and made the point to Aria.

"We promised we'd never bring up "The Jenna Thing" again. Remember? It never happened." Spencer told us.

Emily, who was sitting to my left, reached over and grabbed my water, and took a drink. "This conversation is making me paranoid."

"I'd say I'd order us another one but we're talking about things that we promised never to bring up." I glared at Spencer and Aria.

"Have you found a way to forget? I still wake up sometimes in the middle of the night - " Aria told us.

"Aria, it was an accident." Spencer told her, trying to make her feel less guilty about the situation.

"Was it though?" I whispered, but only Emily and Hanna heard me.

Emily looked down at the friendship bracelet that Alison had made each of us. They were identical . Hanna took the opportunity to dump the rest of the alcohol from the funeral in her soda. The old man stared at her, judging.

"It's medicinal." She told him, but he clearly didn't believe her. "Cramps!" I had to stifle my laugh as the man finally looked away.

"I don't get it," Emily said.

"Don't get what?" I asked her, because there were a lot of things that I didn't get.

"How does A know something about me that only Alison knew?"

"Ali knew all our secrets, but," Aria started, she took a breath. "We never knew any of hers."

"I knew some." Spencer told her.

"Me too." I said quietly. I didn't like knowing Alison's secrets.

"Go on," Aria prompted us.

I looked at Spencer and all but pleaded with her to talk. I did not want to.

"I can't," She finally admitted after our staring contest.

"I'm not sharing what I know until you share what you know!"

"She'd kill me if I told you." Spencer told the girls.

"She's dead." Hanna deadpanned.

Spencer thought for a second before she blurted it out. "Ali was seeing someone that summer."

"I knew she was keeping something from me!" Emily said, upset. I chose to ignore the fact that Emily liked Alison because I knew she would tell me when she was ready to. "I mean us." She added quickly.

"Well, why didn't she want us to know?" Aria asked Spencer, also ignoring Emily's comment.

"He was an older boy." Spencer admitted. "And he had a girlfriend."

"Who was it?" Emily pried.

"Can we at least have his initials?" Hanna asked her.

"She never told me his name." Spencer responded.

"That's only half a secret." Hanna deadpanned again.

"It's more than you ever got from her!" Spencer defended herself. "Well, except for maybe you, Lily. But you would've told Hanna."

"True, and I did tell Hanna. But... I think Ali knew what she was doing that night." I said slowly. "I think Ali wanted to hurt Jenna. And I know she said that she didn't know that Jenna was there." I said quickly, taking a breath. "But part of me thinks that she wanted to hurt both Toby and Jenna that night. She didn't care who was in the garage."

"And you know this how?" Spencer asked me.

"She made a comment the next day about how Jenna had it coming."

The girls were quiet for a moment before Aria spoke up again. "How is it that Ali told us nothing, but we told her everything?"

Emily hit the nail with the hammer with her comment, "Because she made us feel like we were a part of something special."

"We were." Hanna and I said in unison.

"I miss that," Aria sighed.

"Me too," Spencer agreed.

"I miss Ali," Emily told us.

Hanna glanced at Emily's wrist to wear her bracelet from Ali sat. "I can't believe you still wear that."

"Ali still wears her too," Emily defended. "Wore." She said quietly, realizing her mistake.

Spencer filled the gap of silence. "When Ali didn't come home that night, I knew something terrible must have happened, but there was always some part of me that imagined someday she'd just show up."

"Yeah. I used to think that maybe she'd just...Run off with some guy." Aria told what she wished for Ali.

"She was laying on a beach somewhere." Emily added wistfully, nodding along.

"Or getting a tan out by the pool with that hot lifeguard." Hanna laughed, making me giggle.

"Oh, yeah. What was his name?" Aria said smiling.

"Who cares?" I asked, laughing.

"Save me!" Hanna said dramatically, pretending to pass out in my arms, making us all giggle.

Next thing we knew, Jenna was tapping her way into The Grill. We glanced at each other before quietly making our escape.