#i'll see how they talk about it in game before making another long post though

[lightnersdream]

i've been thinking about exactly why people portraying one of the other crew members successfully killing Jimmy as a "for what you did to Anya" kind of thing rubs me the wrong way a bit and it's because like..... this is just another form of taking agency away from Anya, in a way. it's kind of framing her as some meek, shivery woman-thing who's entirely at the mercy of the men around her, either to hurt her or save her.

(i understand these are mostly for wish fulfillment on the audience's behalf because everyone would like to see Jimmy pay for his crimes. whether or not this is the intention of the person writing it isn't really relevant, characterization happens with or without intent. i feel like it misses the point by portraying it as an 'ideal ending'.)

because... Anya is a capable person. she takes things into her own hands when she can. it was partially(?) her idea to get into the cargo,

(before he interrupts her.. remember when she interrupted Curly in the dead pixel segment?)

it was her idea to get the code scanner from the cockpit,

it was her idea to get the medication from behind the foam.

(the chance to do these things herself is not given to her.)

she'd been keeping Curly alive for months in a critical state somehow, her psych evaluations at the start are only so useless because Jimmy refuses to take it/her seriously and Curly is obviously biased when he puts it into his own hands. he's known him a long time, like he said. "I'll just put good for that one."

there's not a lot of material to work with because of how the game is framed, but it's there. we are working with two very biased perspectives and neither one lends Anya what she deserves

there's significant changes in how she speaks post- and pre- crash, and depending on who she happens to be talking to. i recommend re-reading her dialogue, because the difference is drastic

she acts the way she does around Jimmy because he has tangibly done horrible things to her, is actively hostile, and physically could not escape him by any means. she can't take away Curly's agency herself, in my eyes. you have to remember that Especially in the post-crash segments of the game, it's entirely from Jimmy's POV, and he obviously does not (and has never) thought very highly of her or treated her with a shred of respect

i've seen a general idea that she can't bear to hurt other people for any reason, but that doesn't really track to me. this is the real point of the post by the way

it seems based on the parts where she says she struggles to give Curly medication. "It just hurts him so much, I can't stand the noise." "It makes me nauseous."

it's not really the same thing as, say, hurting someone in self defense

this sounds like she did want the gun itself. this never felt worded like someone who would refuse to, at very least, threaten Jimmy with a gun, with violence. if she had been given the agency to make that decision on her own. she wasn't though

she still tries to reclaim some of it even as she's denied it

by the end she's still trying to keep that gun out of his hands

i think some people overly soften her, for similar reasons the game itself is trying to comment on. she's not a tender victim who couldn't cause pain to another out of the softness of her soul, she's a person who's had every last bit of agency ripped from her repeatedly until she couldn't take it anymore. that's the point. that's why framing her that way, "needing" someone to save her, is odd to me

she didn't need Curly to save her, she needed him to take responsibility

she didn't want to escalate things, but she's not an idiot. self defense was absolutely on her mind

but who knows im just saying shit *smiles serenely*

[mikodrawnnarratives]

Have some art + fic rn cuz i had this idea plaguing me for a whlie in my first playthrough of the game and i needed to have it realized.

I don't want to edit my writing just yet so i'll do that later, but for now have some mentally unstable Siffrin 👍

I'll come up with a title ltr, prob when i edit this and post to ao3 (so if this gets reblogs just check out the og post for latest ver.)

For now the warnings you should know of are just character death, lots of Siff hating himself, and i think suicide ideation? I wrote this a few hours ago n still don't want to go back just yet but basically its nothing that doesn't already exist in the game

Fic starts under the cut! Roughly 2000 words

(edit: i forgor some colors don't exist/can't be seen 🤡, fixed now!)

Siffrin can’t seem to fall asleep at all anymore. The night right before the loops he can only pretend to get some rest before facing the king. He isn’t quite sure what the reason is. Being stuck in one place for too long? Useless? His urges to reach out for Isa’s touch that keep him awake at night, yearning for connection that is immediately are followed by disgust in himself?  The pure exhaustion at the thought of repeating the next day again? None seem to be the answer. Maybe its a combination.

He only knows that he’s exhausted. Exhausted, yet unable to rest. Even if he were able, would he want to risk what ever dream or nightmare his head might concoct? A blend of memories and deaths to remind him that he can’t escape?

Not being able to sleep makes them worse at the loops too unfortunately. They got along fine for the first few loops after his first sleepless night, though the mistakes ramped up. They cursed their body, cursed themself for being so weak. Simple and stupid mistakes getting them killed via boulder when they forgot and slip of the hand resulting in the weakest of Sadnesses offing him.

Loop of course taunted about his failures, like they always do. He couldn’t fully blame them, knowing deep down he deserved it. There was a pull he sometimes had though, to rest with them, even for just a little bit. He’s hung out with them before, when it gets overwhelming, never for very long. Despite that, to actually sleep with them is a different story. Different vulnerability that, he wasn’t comfortable with. Too weak, he didn’t need another thing for Loop to tease him about. No matter how tempting it would be to sit in the tree and doze off. He wouldn’t doubt that, if he could rest at this point, he would doze off until the next loop.

He can’t have that. He can’t let his family die again.

The next loop began, the stage set, and Siff opened his eye, despite every ache in their body telling them not too. They can’t listen to their body right now though. They need to travel the entire house in the next few loops for anything he might have missed before. One more sweep. 

He carries out his lines, plays the role he’s meant, rehearsing the other actor’s lines in his head before they speak up. Familiar steps, expressions, directions. When they get to Isabeau, they slip up again, Isa’s concern blooms. But they’ve seen this before. It’ll be fine. Their gut twists at forcing Isa to be concerned, but theres a warmth in it too. That Isa cares. Cares about them. It’s strange, when Odile gets close to the truth, stars when she FINDS OUT the truth, there isn’t any warmth. Just, fear. But knowing Isa won’t find out, just cares and makes them promise to talk about it at a time they know won’t come, it’s a guilty pleasure. At least, for now. Before it becomes meshed with all the other lines Siffrin has come to expect from The Fighter.

While navigation the House like normal, they slip up occasionally, interacting with objects that spark Odile’s concern. They don’t bother reversing the mistakes, he hasn’t slipped up that much. There’s no way she could know. Siff crumbled on the first floor at the counter they jabbed themself into again. Unable to see it and always stupidly forgetting to be cautious there. Stupid. 

And they kept making mistakes. Their exhaustion pulling at their body, their nerves eating them alive. There’s no warmth with new lines of concern from their actors. Just spikes of panic followed by their attempts to reassure them. To continue on.

By the final snack stop before the King, their actor’s change the script again. Siffrin tensed, their hand tracing the handle of their dagger in case of emergency. Odile… odile doesn’t call out suspicious connections to time craft this time. Everyone just.. Just asks him to nap.

The third floor they had fumbled the most, their quick grabs at the keys became more clumsy against his will. His hands can’t stop shaking. The aches won’t cease their whining in his body. Change, of course they noticed, they aren’t blind. The script is similar, repeating the words that simultaneously warm his body and send nausea through it. They’re a family. They care.

Absently, Siffrin notes Mira’s asking him if he’ll accept a comb, again. At least that’s familiar. At least one of them new the script to stick to. And, he really wouldn’t mind it again. The loops reset his hair back to the tangled and knotted mess it was when he startled back to awareness in Dormont. Everytime. Sometimes they briefly wondered if Mirabelle would comb their hair out back in town too. They would never ask though.

Their family quietly chated as Mirabelle combed through his hair. Gently, dare they think lovingly. Careful not to hurt him. Like he’s fragile and weak. Pathetic. They are pathetic aren’t they. For wanting this. Selfish for forcing them. Their hands continued to tremble, as much as Siff tried to suppress it.

The Fighter changes the script first. First to notice. Notice a slip up. They tense, not for any particular reason just, they don’t know this script. The Fighter’s face is concerned but softens. Isa. Isa asked hesitantly it he could see their hands. Siff let him, letting their pathetic shaking hands be engulfed in Isa’s large ones. He hesitantly rubs their knuckles, Mira continues to brush the tangles out of their hair. Siff’s eyelid got heavier, their body screaming to just let go, just relax. They haven’t reached the king yet, the head housemaid, they can’t yet. 

When they heard Odile close her book, another off script action, they jolted up and looked her way. Odile was about to speak up, but hesitated at their startled form. Her concerned and piercing expression remained.

“Siffrin, did you get any rest at all last night?”

They stop and meekly speak up, “I slept..”

“That’s not what I asked.”

Siffrin grimaced, tensing up. “I got.. Some rest. Why do you ask?”

“The fumbling around and absent performance don’t suggest you did.”

She had them there. Their fingers twitch as they internally remind themselves their dagger is still on their person. Even if their hands are occupied with being held by Isa’s. They take a breath.

The other actors contribute, sharing their nerves about facing the King. Needing to be ready before confronting the Threat, that could be their final standing place. No. No they won’t fail. They won’t die here. He might, but he won’t let his family.

Odile is actually the first to suggest Siffrin rest before they face the King. They can’t have any weak links before such a moment. Weak members. Weak. They were clumsy this loop. Their other family members share in the sentiment. They probably think he’s weak too. Their concerned smiles are hard to say no to though. The aches and exhaustion overwhelming his body probably wouldn’t let him refuse such an opportunity either. Surely. Surely they went through the first couple floors quick enough that another fifteen minutes before the king wouldn’t be too long. Right?

It’s a thought that didn’t seem to cross his family member’s faces when he gave into their requests and laid down. Mira scooted over, getting started on the next clump of tangled hair. Isa offered his lap as a pillow, and Siffrin’s slow mind just. Accepts the request. Not noting the dark shade flooding The Fighter’s face as they dragged their body to his lap, their head and partial upper body relaxing immediately. They rest their head on their blind side, one hand interlaced with The Fighter’s, behind them Mira finishing off the last of their tangles. The concern from their family’s faces hasn’t completely disappeared, but it’s eased. And that is enough to release the remaining tension in his body. It’s enough. 

Their family makes a few jokes that their brain muffles. Some laughing. Bonnie’s working on their snacks in the corner, still. They’ll be ready when they wake up. Their legs adjusted and placed in someone else’s lap, they think. Whoever it was, rubs circles into their calf. His eyelid grows heavier, their breathes come easy. Deep breaths. Someone rubs their back. 

It’s nice. Really.. really nice. One could easily forget they were even about to face the King at all. Face the end. They close their eyelid. It’s warm. One breath in. And out. Just.. just a quick nap. Where they are loved. They.. they are loved right? This is what this means… at least right now…

Yeah. They hope this is right.

Sleep engulfs them for the first time in several loops and their breaths slow.

The chatting continues around him, not lacking some glances exchanged between the adults in the room. But mostly, just relief fills the air. Mira stayed by Siffrin’s side, threading her fingers through his now completely combed out hair. The flush in Isabeau’s cheeks still hadn’t fully left, every movement reminding him of his crush resting so peacefully in his lap. Like a sleeping cat that once it has claimed you as it’s cushion, you are bound by the universe to not move for any reason. Odile didn’t pass up the opportunity to tease him, met with Isa’s shushing and hushed whisper “what if he wakes up and hears you!!”

Siff had done a lot today, and everyone would have assumed he was completely calm about fighting the king if not for his uncharacteristic clumsiness. Mirabelle supposed it made sense though. A night of rough sleep right before facing the most dangerous threat facing the country? That would make anyone mess up.

After another twenty minutes, Bonnie comes over with the freshly prepared snacks. Made extra special since they were more ahead of schedule than expected. Last hurrah before the king, everyone needed to be at their best.

Mirabelle smiles, heading over to were Bonnie had announced the snacks. Isa attempts to move but flounders at the idea of moving Siff. Mirabelle giggles at his flushing face as Odile moves their legs out of their lap. Well, time to end their nap she supposes. Their sleepy family member probably won’t be too thrilled about waking up but it is snack time.

Mirabelle collects her choice of snack and crouches over to Siff, moving their hat from where it had obscured their resting expression. Isa looked both upset to have the time his crush sleeps on their lap come to an end, and relieved. He lets out a chuckle as Mira gently shakes their shoulder.

“Time to wake up, Siffrin! Bonnie has snacks for everyone.” Mira moves a few hairs out of their face. “Siffrin?”

Isabeau adjusts, and joins in. “Siff? Sorry to wake you bud but..” He pauses, seeing Mirabelle’s face shift. Odile’s gaze sharpens as Mirabelle’s leans over them, placing her ear to their chest.

“They- th-they aren’t” Mira cries out. “They aren’t breathing! No no no-” 

Isabeau moves Siffrin off his lap with shaking hands. Odile rushes over to their side, checking their wrist and neck for a pulse. Bonnie’s face crumbles in the corner, alarm replacing the happy air.

Isabeau shakes Siffrin’s still body, Mirabelle readies a heal craft as Odile begins to try resuscitating them.

but 

the 

world

goes

blank

Siffrin first feels the gentle breeze around them. The grass moving in tune, sometimes brushing up against the small areas their clothes don’t cover. They hear Mirabelle in the distance and when they open their eyes, she’s right above them, apologetic for waking them. Siffrin blinks. It’s been a while since Mira’s been the one to wake them up. 

“Good morning! Well, more like good afternoon, I gue- wow. Are you okay?”

That’s new. Why would her lines-

“You’re crying.. Is something wrong, Siffrin?”

He blinks and brings a hand to his face. Sure enough, his cheek is stained with tears. He doesn’t remember crying, he just woke up too. From..

“Must’ve happened in my sleep” He says absently.

Mira frowns, “Oh no! What did you dream about…?”

Siffrin shrugs and repeats lines he remembers that will reassure her the quickest. She sighs and returns back to town. They’ll be waiting for him.

He takes a moment to think about what happened in the last loop. He.. doesn’t remember dying. Must have been when he went to sleep. That. That probably should worry him, that falling asleep could end a loop, but he doesn’t feel any regret about it. Actually, it’d be nice if all his loops ended like that. Just, dying with his loved ones around. It would take too long though, even if it could happen again. This loop needs to be faster. Last loop they didn’t even reach the king, and they have questions. 

He grumbles as he sits up, a part of him yearning to go back to that warmth. Oh if only the universe could have let it be permanent. A permanent death that didn’t even hurt. That’s wishful thinking though, the universe isn’t so kind. And they have work to do, his family- actors. They need what he knows. He can’t rest forever yet.

The show must go on.

[blueinsomnia]

Ekko and Jinx's History: A Simple Comment

So I read something the other day talking about how fans are making Ekko and Jinx's relationship romantic and not all male and female characters HAVE to be romantically involved. I agree with this. I'll go so far as to say that this is true for any character of any gender. In my own writing (with my original characters) I rarely have romantic undertones. Mostly just friends being friends. While I get the allure of the romantic chase, of most people we deal with in life we aren't connecting to them romantically. Friends are friends.

That said, this is not the case with Ekko and Jinx. From Ekko's release in 2015 there has always been some romantic undertones with Jinx. Riot has always been a bit mysterious about what his relationship is with Jinx. Ekko even has a line in the game where he says:

The foundation had been laid long before Arcane was released in 2021.

Between 2015 and 2021 (when Arcane was released), a lot of official art and such dropped hints about SOMETHING going on between them. Much like Jinx being Vi's sister. You have to remember that this was originally a secret. It was Ghostcrawler who finally confirmed fan theories, even though he tried to walk it back later. Oops! Ha, ha!

(An image from 2015)

To add to the mystery, on both of their official pages, Ekko is listed as connected to Jinx and Jinx is listed as connected to Ekko. However, at no point does Riot explain how they're connected. Their stories don't mention the other at all. So this means that some things were planned, but they weren't ready to reveal. I'm still of a mind that they were waiting to use Arcane as a vehicle to get into Jinx's history and how that intersected with Ekko and Vi. Before Arcane, we knew very little about Jinx and how she ends up the way she does.

Then, before Arcane came out we got this little nugget in Legends of Runeterra:

Remember, this is 100% from Riot themselves. Not the fans. Riot laid the seeds down and it was the fans who picked up on it and ran. I doubt anyone would have ever thought there was something between Ekko and Jinx without Riot dropping hints. By the time we got to Arcane Season 1, the train was already in motion.

Let's not even forget the insane number of Jinx references in the True Damage video they released in 2020. Generally it wasn't odd to see Ekko and there would be some sort of Jinx reference somewhere. That wasn't true for Jinx until recently.

After Arcane, Riot themselves has been dropping hints like crazy. Jinx has been putting Ekko's hourglass symbol on stuff. League Brazil did a huge Twitter AMA with Star Guardian Ekko and Jinx. Jinx goes to the Grammys with Ekko.

Another official Ekko and Jinx moment. Check out her shirt!

And let's not forget this one for the Billboard Music Awards:

They went to the event together!

So...while I see people saying that the fans were to blame for Jinx and Ekko being romantically involved, it should be pointed out that this is all Riot's doing. The best part is that the fans have been largely receptive to their efforts in promoting the couple. Riot has waited a long time to be able to say what they want to say about them.

And if there is any doubt about where they're going with them as a couple, let's just remember this cover for the art book for Arcane:

Another official piece done by Riot and Fortiche themselves.

Sorry for the long post, but I thought it was important to point out that it's not the fans who set this up. It'll be interesting to see where this all goes, but based on their track record so far, it should be clear where the end game is headed.

Thanks for reading!

[kyokutsu-sama]

_____________________________

The captain's sword

A/n: I've been writing about this man on ao3, I've already posted two works there and I'll post this one there later. This captain makes me feel things🤭(Seriously bro, there's something about men with tough personalities that attracts me...)

Tw: NSFW content

_____________________________

You wondered how you had managed to get to the base without falling along the way due to exhaustion. Your mana was extinct as was your energy, all you wanted to do at that moment was pass out on your soft mattress and sleep for the whole week but it seems that you had other plans before going to sleep.

You saw Yami at the counter and wanted to kill him after he sent you on a mission that almost cost you your life.

"There you are, you scoundrel !" You said, approaching the counter. "You were drinking and smoking while I was there dying, weren't you?"

"Who do you think you're talking to?" He looked at you with a raised eyebrow and an unfriendly expression on his face, as if he wanted to intimidate you but you were too mad to be afraid

"With my stupid captain, Yami Sukehiro" You said, sitting next to him and he looked at you for a long moment in silence, the cigarette smoke leaving his lips after he took a long sigh. He undoubtedly liked your defiant air when you dared to speak like that, strong women were his type and he was definitely going to play that game.

"Your tongue is very sharp tonight, I see" He slightly curved his lips upwards

"I thought you liked tough girls with sharp tongues. What's the problem now? Can't you handle them?" You teased and he closed his eyes with another long sigh

"Here, drink" He said, extending the large mug of beer to you

"You didn’t answer my question"

"Drink" He insisted and since you knew he was stubborn, you decided to do what he said

There was no one else there, you thought it was strange since they would also like to be there drinking or breaking everything but maybe they were already asleep. It was late and you were supposed to be sleeping too but since your dear captain was there, you weren't just going to turn your back on him. He enjoyed your company even if you were mad at him and you also couldn't ignore him when he was offering you drinks and company too.

Anyone who didn't know him at that moment would think he was a calm person, with half-closed eyes, a lit cigarette in the corner of his mouth, some strands of his black hair falling over his face making him even more attractive and an expressionless face. However, he was not someone to mess with and everyone there knew it. You also knew and that's why you pushed his buttons until he lost his patience, which was little and led him to do crazy things. He also did the same to you, teasing you every day until you went crazy. Deep down you knew he has a tender heart when it comes to you, even if he teases you twenty-four hours, even if he gives you more difficult training because he believes in you and your abilities and that you can surpass your limits, even though he was a stubborn and short-tempered at times, you loved him with all his flaws. You knew that inside his little heart was you and he himself admitted that to you a lot of times.

You placed the empty mug on the table and looked at him, who still seemed focused on a random corner of the room.

"I finished drinking, are you going to answer me now?" You said, looking at him

"Drink another one"He replied, taking a drag on his cigarette, still without looking at you

"Yami, are you testing my patience ?" You raised an eyebrow and tilted your head slightly to the side

"You're the one testing my patience, princess. Did the mission go well or do I need to go in there and take out the other guy for you?”

"No, I already did what had to be done, I even broke the sword you gave me last week"

"You broke what?" He looked at you as you placed the remaining part of the sword on the table. "Honey, I hadn't even finished paying, in fact, I didn't even pay mine, let alone yours"

“Well, Yami, it looks like you're going to have to start saving more money instead of betting everything on gambling like you always do, even with your clothes” You looked away in the last words, remembering when he came back from long nights completely naked after having bet them on gambling

“So what? My nudity is nothing new to others... and not to you either" He gave a little smile and you felt a slight blush on your cheeks."Now, regarding the sword, leave it to me. I'll see if I can find some money to pay this shit for the next hundred years"

"And see if the next one is of quality"

"It's not about quality when you don't know how to wield it"

"What did you say, Yami?" You looked at him with a threatening look

"Nothing" He said, raising hands in a kind of surrender

"See? You don't even have the balls to repeat what you said to my face, it just proves that you can't handle a strong woman like me" You teased and got up from the bench but he grabbed your arm turning you towards him

"Princess, you're making me lose my mind with all that tough personality. Come here" He picked you up and put you on his shoulder so easily and quickly that you make you scream at his sudden movement

"Yami, what are you doin--" He slapped your butt as he carried you to his room."Are you punishing me now?”

“And it’s just the beginning, baby" He laughed and entered the bedroom

He threw you on the bed and closed the door, you looked at him as he put out his cigarette and looked you up and down, wondering where he would start.

"Why are you looking at me? I thought you were a man of action"

"Be quiet brat, I'm concentrating" He said as he took off his tattered black cape and shirt.

"Brat? What happened to ‘princess’?"

"They will evolve for worse if you keep talking" He said climbing onto the bed and holding your face in his hand

Yes, it would, you knew it would. The beautiful nicknames he gave in the beginning would be the future dirty talk. It was only making the heat in the room rise as well as the heat building up between your thighs. However, he also had to be punished for the mission he had given you and you would take care of it.

"What’s wrong? Why aren't you laughing now?" He asked with a low voice close to your face and you blushed

He would tease you until the end, until you couldn't handle it anymore, take you to the limits and even beyond that. That was his type.

He pushed you onto the mattress and got on top of you, removing your clothes and you helped him, his strong and hurried hands roaming your body. He leaned towards you and kissed your lips, taking your breath away with heat and strength, you hugged him close to you, taking your hands to run down his back. His hand slid between your thighs and stroked the wetness that increased the more he touched you, he pulled your lip between his teeth before settling on your neck and sucking the skin there. You could already feel your sweaty skin and slight goosebumps, you whimpered when he placed his fingers in you and you tight them inside you. The ability that man had to make you forget that you were mad at him moments ago was impressive. You arched your back and both bodies touched, there was no distance between the two and you were delirious with so much proximity. You put a hand to the back of his head, he was still marking your skin and tasting every bit of it.

The fingers moving in and out and scissoring, opening more space inside you as you writhed and moaned beneath his huge body covering yours. His thumb brushing against the sensitive bud and sending shivers throughout your body, making your legs tremble. Your eyes rolled back in pleasure just at the feeling of his lips kissing your neck. You were close but you held yourself back so you didn't have to come before you could take control of the situation and play with him a little too. You grabbed his forearm and removed his fingers from you and turned him around, sitting on top of him, resting your hands on his chest while he looked at you, intrigued that you had changed roles.

"You're feeling very confident today" He joked, placing his hands on your waist

"My turn to punish you for giving me such a troublesome mission today" You said taking the belt off his pants to tie his wrists above his head, to prevent him from touching you

"You don't think this will last long, do you?" He chuckled, looking at you and you smiled

"No, but I just need some time for what I'm going to do. Don't worry dear, I'll be gentle with you" You leaned over and placed a kiss on his lips

You knew that he would go along with it because deep down he liked having you on top showing your strength, that turned him on.

You held the waistband of his pants and removed them. You had the beautiful vision of him all naked and with his arms tied above his head and that only made things heat up more. You brought a hand to his dick, stroking it while you looked at him and saw his hands start to fight to free himself, he just wanted you to continue what you were doing because it felt too good.

You spat into the palm of your hand to make back and forth movements as you felt your insides tighten with emptiness and the desire to take him right there but you liked the idea of just watching him suffer a little. Not that he was suffering from your touch but rather the fact that he wanted to grab your hips and bury himself inside you.

"What's wrong, Yami? I can't see your smile right now" You teased, using his words and he bit his lip, seeing the way you were teasing him

"You're a teaser"He said with a hoarse voice and his eyes half-open

Your hand moved faster around him, his hands fought to free themselves again, you weren't sure if he was closer to coming or letting go from the belt and making you pay for it.

He was right when he said that it wouldn't last long, and besides, he wouldn't need to try very hard to get out of that knot.

And it was when you least expected it that one of his hands was already on your wrist, preventing you from doing anything else, you looked at him after being taken by surprise.

He turned you around and placed you under him on the mattress and pinning your wrists above your head with one hand, looking at your panting and flushed face.

It seems like you would have to leave your revenge for another day.

"You found a way to surpass your limits again, did you?" You smiled and he chuckled

"You make me surpass them"

"Good to kno---" You barely finished your sentence and he turned your back to him and lifted your hips up. All that desire of his was making him impatient and with little time for conversation.

"You talk too much" His hand rested on the red skin after slapping your butt. "Just watch me surpass my limits again"

He was quick to place himself inside you and fill your insides to the deepest point, your fingers grabbed the sheets in front of you and your moans were muffled against it.

“You're so tight right now, Y/n”He sighed heavily."Don't tell me you were thinking about me while you were there fighting?"

He placed one hand on the back of your head, keeping your head against the mattress and the other hand on the headboard as he sped up his thrusts. You could barely breathe at that moment, even if you wanted to lean your head back, his strong hand was pressing you and the only thing you could do was feel your legs tremble and whimper every time his body collided against yours. The others would probably hear all those dirty sounds coming from the room but you wouldn't believe that any of them would be stupid enough to complain about it out loud, unless they wanted to move up the date of their death. He removed one hand from the back of your neck and brought it to your clit to make circular movements that made you tighten more and more around him. You felt the butterflies in your stomach intensifying when you came, your legs weakened and your fingers were still holding the sheets with some strength as he filled you with his cum, until you felt it running down your thighs. He withdrew from you and pulled your body back so that you were leaning against his chest, he bent down and kissed your neck while his arms hugged your body from behind making you feel protected from everything.

He could have all that size and be a brute, but he always seemed so clingy and careful with you. It was as if you changed his personality for something different, not very different but at least it softened this man's little heart a little.

"I'm sorry Y/n, I won't let you go on a mission like that alone again." He said kissing the top of your head and tightening his arms around you

"And I think I should also apologize for breaking the sword.”

"Don't worry about it, I'll find another one. Even if it means not seeing my paycheck for months or probably years." He said, laughing

[kozachenko]

[Click for better quality]

Ok yay I'm back from my vacation yipeeeeeee. I started this drawing of Keiki before I left and I was half considering just giving up on it.... until I did a short study of facial planes and then got motivated to work on this again! I'm glad I didn't give up on it though, as I'm actually really happy with this one!

Artist's Notes;

So as I mentioned in my last post about Touhou 17, I wanted to finish this by the game's five year anniversary but with how progress was going I didn't want to rush this so I decided to take a long break from it. Mainly because of the face. For a while now I was kind of feeling like I was stagnating with my drawings, not really in the clothing but in the bodies. There was something about the way I was rendering them that I just wasn't happy with, and after talking with someone else about this issue, I realized that the reason I felt this way was because the faces were too flat and didn't match the rest of the drawing and that I needed to find a way to make the rendering of the face feel consistent with everything else. So after doing a short study of the plains of the face (I used this 3D head model from art station as a reference for my short study, please go give this person some love as they are a lifesaver) I went back into this drawing and applied what I learned here. It was only after that that I finally became motivated to finish the piece, and while it started off as just a simple character sketch like Saki and Yachie's were, the moment I added in Keiki's little fire dragon I knew I had gotten in too deep and now here we are with a full on background. OK it's not super crazy or anything, but it gets the job done and it's better than there just being an empty void behind her. It's rare moments like this when I use brushes other than the Clip Studio Default Charcoal Brush and use the Clip Studio Default Paint Brushes as well (god bless the oil paint and dry gouache clip studio brushes, they were amazing). I don't know why but painting fire has always been really fun for me, there's something oddly satisfying about it y'know? I do think that another reason for this problem was because I was drawing faces like I would in my more sketchy style that didn't mesh well with my lineless style, so I'm glad I've started remedying that.

After adding in the fire dragon I had an idea to kinda make it feel like splash art in the way the composition works... probably because I have been playing Reverse 1999 again and it has taken over my brain. I do feel like Keiki's tools get a little lost in the composition, and I didn't fully render the metal parts of them mainly because I didn't feel like they needed it, but that's just something for me to improve on later down the line.

If you guys are wondering where I went for my vacation, I went to New York and got to go to the MET and the Museum of Natural History. In both places I found Kofun period stuff and I was so happy to see it you have no idea. I remember one of the Haniwa I saw had some neat face paint under the eyes that I tried to replicate with the makeup under Keiki's eyes in my drawing, though I think I'll gave to figure out how to draw makeup on characters because this reads more like blush to me than anything. While drawing this I also looked up some references of Kofun period jewelry and really liked the stuff I found, which also meant that now she has proper Kofun earrings instead of earrings shaped like Kofun tombs. I put some of the things I referenced with a closeup of Keiki's face as well down below. I made her outfit more reminiscent of the outfit I gave her at the beginning of the year with the buttons and all, though I do want to try and draw her in some more period accurate clothing like the Haniwa I took a picture of at the Museum of Natural History. I wish I could find a way to make her handercheif look better though as I wish I made it a little bit bigger, though I think I'm saying this because I've looked at this drawing for too long lmao. Once again something to work on for when I next draw her. Also want to get better at rendering hair, as some details (like the little strands in front of her ears) kinda got unreadable due to the similarities in colour lol.

Now you may have also noticed the little cracks I added onto Keiki's face, and that's because I have fallen in love with the idea of Keiki's body being made from ceramic and that she crafted her body herself. While they aren't very visible I also tried to add some doll joints to her body, which is an idea I played around with in the past but never went to far with. I also want to get better at rendering cracks in ceramic, porcelain, etc, as I'm not sure how those read in the drawing. I also have a headcanon where the cracks in Keiki's face show up because of heightened emotions, and while Keiki is aware of this and does her best to make sure her face doesn't break off.... she will still end up with at least a few cracks during any given day, and she can often forget to repair her own body quite frequently so Mayumi has to remind her quite a lot. Mayumi even taught herself some basic sculpting techniques to help repair parts of her body that are so badly damaged to the point where Keiki can't repair them herself, i.e. if both her arms broke off, Mayumi would put them back together for her so Keiki can at least have something to repair herself with rather than nothing. I also like to imagine that if Keiki created her own body, if you took a look at Keiki from the beginning of her life she would look completely different compared to now.

BTW If you guys are wondering what a very very angry Keiki looks like....ok in order for this to make sense have any of you read volume 11 of Land of The Lustrous? Am I bringing back some memories for those of you that have? Ok good, glad we all got that mental image brewing in our minds, I'll probably draw a version of Keiki that is somewhat inspired by that one day as it's an idea I've had for a little while now. And to those who haven't gotten to that volume yet and are confused.... don't worry about it, just keep reading :)

[majorproblems77]

Hello LU fans! I'm back with another LU update analysis! :D

Are you ready cause there's so much to unpack I'm gonna be here a while. Like last time I'm gonna put a timer on lmao, see how long this takes me.

As always grab your popcorn and drink of choice, cause we need hydration in this life.

all art belongs to @linkeduniverse and Jojo, and if I pull panels from any other pages I'll let you know where it's from! :D

Obviously spoilers for Dawn 8 :D

And a note, I've not played TP or WW, you'll see why thats important later.

Let us begin, shall we!

Man, Poor wild, he's probably beating himself up like there's no tomorrow right now. He looks HORIFIED.

Probably because in technicality, he failed.

I love how he's holding his sword here too. Kinda acting as a shield to the conversation.

Same expression as wild. He also looks horrified. Infact the resemblance between these two in uncanny.

Man time really is the dad isnt he. Unimpressed dad look at 12'oclock. Jokes aside he doesn't look angry about it. He looks like he now gathering information from those who finished the fight. As we know once he left with Twilight he was the only other one to not make it back to the fight.

Thats a fair sentence, thinking about it, I think the only other game where Iron Knuckles appear is in one of Hyrule's games? I'm surprised he's not mentioned anything about it.

Most of the others do have armoured enemies though. So while the others dont have direct experience I assume they have the basics.

All but, Sky and Wars None of them fight armoured enemies like that in their games.

I assume because he's defeated this thing like it was a guardian (Stasis and then wailing on it cause that's what i would do lmao) He assumed it was defeated when it exploded into pieces. Like guardians are prone to do. tbh he was probably gonna go back to look for loot at some point.

You tell them Wind. The small hero, underestimated by everyone BUT Time. Was correct thank you.

Justice for the windy boy.

God Wild really is beating himself up about this. I love the fact that we see four's reaction to this statement. As to be honest. Over the last few nights, Four and Wild have had plenty of bonding moments. These guys are gonna become best friends.

And now we get Time.

The way he's looking over these panels. That look. He know's he's the leader of this group but something that Time isn't used to is making Permanent mistakes.

He has the Ocarina of Time, and when he was back in Termina every time something went wrong he could just play the song of Time and restart the three-day cycle with no trouble at all.

Time, as a person. Isnt technically used to failing.

This panel is stunning. It's what I assume is going on inside his head. It's so pretty. It's so detailed it's just oh man easily one of my favourite panels.

now you know i had to talk about panels with my beloved blorbo in.

first off he's so pretty. Jojo has really outdone herself with just how amazing these updates have looked. The lighting the shading its all just so incredible.

The first half of this panel with Sky's face. He, He is beating himself up about the injury. He had nothing to do with it but he cares so much about the rest of the group he feels bad. He kinda looks like he's thinking about it. Like he can see it. Like time did but we dont see inside Sky's head.

Makes me think about what exactly he saw.

And Twilight's face, he looks so sad. His little pout. Poor wolf boy, which we can now call you properly as the rest of them know now.

And to be honest I'm glad he's standing his ground. Mr, My injury isn't that bad before falling over. the stubborn ranch hand strikes again.

The parallels from this frame and the one from later have been mentioned elsewhere but I'm just gonna post the frame here as it's turned up. Run you coward lizard. Run.

Captain link is back. Poor warriors, he's still showing signs of being stressed. He's one of the only one's who hasn't been able to rest over the downtime that they've had. He's been busy being in charge of the group while Time was out.

I can only assume it's only a matter of time before this comes back to get him. Maybe he is next on the chopping block? (Pun kinda intended) Something could happen and he messes up and gets hurt of causes someone to get hurt.

oh and also

THE SCARF

THE SCARF THE SCARF

IT HAS RETURNED ALL HAIL THE BLUE EMOTIONAL SUPPORT BLANKET WARRIORS NEEDED YOU.

None of us did, Hyrule.

The boys ever, I'm glad they are talking about this like this. And that it's legend who's starting to throw ideas out there like this. As the one who's got the most experience in the group, it makes sense that he would be the one to start offering ideas as to Why not just how.

Because you pissed it off Sky. Because half of you pissed it off. In fact I do believe he had a bunch of panels in Shifting Shadows pt2 where you indeed pissed it off.

The entire reason it started running from you and Twilight had to track it was because of FI's reaction to his sword.

Wait... that explains the guilt. It is actually potentially Sky's fault. Or if he's anything like I think he is. He remembers that fight with the shadow and knows.

He knows.

Also, with clenched fist Sky is ready for a fight. Next time the shadow turns up I assume he's gonna go after it when it's inevitablebly goes after Twilight/Wild. Maybe he'll jump in after being told not too because the Master sword appears to be the only thing as of right now that can fight the red stuff that comes off the shadows sword.

did you hear Warriors shiver? I did.

And you'd know all about that wouldn't you Four. :D

Also

Mandatory Sky appreciation picture

Him's my beloved blorbo. He's wonderful. Such a lil guy. Bestest bean. My beloved. /pl

Anyway moving on

Oh yeah, the amount of power that the items list contains We've seen the arsenal that they have between them (in the December art).

We saw what just Time could do.

Now add the rest of them and the enemies dont stand a chance. They've just gotta figure out how to either avoid the weapons of each other or work as a team with the arsenal in hand to fight better.

Like imagine if Twilight used his gale boomerang to send Wild into the air.

(Writer brain go brr, gonna write that down)

It's basically Revalis Gale.

This man is so damn dramatic I love him

And here's the parallel frame

the shadow running towards Warriors vs running away from Twilight.

You know thinking about it... Shadow didn't shapeshift until Twilight did. The push towards Warriors was when shadow thought they were on level footing.

But when Twilight went after Dink, he was the one who had to flee because he lost his advantage.

ANGRY SKY ANGRY SKY ANGRY SKY

The man is pissed that Shadow hurt Twilight. He is so damn mad and I think that he is saying what he would assume Fi would. (With more emotion because well, Fi)

Also that last frame.

TIME AND SKY ANGST ON THE HORIZON?

time is looking towards the master sword. And he looks angry. This will absolutely have gone unnoticed by the others because if they saw he was angry it was probably just because of the conversation topic.

god I love the dynamic here and I'm excited to see if it goes anywhere

Him's I love his simple way of agreeing its wonderful.

I approve to wind let's go blow some stuff up!

Hyrule shows the group why he is called the traveller. The man just wants to go on his adventures let him go!

Sky is so proud of himself

this face says 'Look guys I didn't give it to the weird toilet hand! :D'

I love this man a healthy amount.

One last thing before I go

I love this update as a whole, seeing the group gear up and getting to see the layers of the armour and straps and fastenings being put on while they are having this discussion is amazing.

I'd give you a collection of pictures but Tumblr is being rude and I can't post more than 30. So you can have these as all four panels show what I'm talking about.

Twilight adjusting his gauntlets warriors adjusting his scarf.

Hyrule attaching his shield to his back and putting his sword strap on.

God, I love this update so much. It was amazing and I very much enjoyed it. Let me know what you think! :D

Thank you as ever for reading my rambles i appreciate you :D

Have a wonderful day and dont forget to hydrate! See you next time!

[active-mind-15]

Headcanons for Akashi when he's angry? 😡

Been a hot min since I've done one of these long ass headcanon posts exploring different Akashi emotions/scenarios, so here I am again. Anger was per the suggestion of @japeneselunchtimerush, so shout out to Aura for once again feeding my Akashi brainrot. Let's get into it!

Usually, before I get into the headcanons, I talk about if there have been any examples of it happening in canon, and for anger, there have been! The most prominent example was during the Teiko arc, when Murasakibara was not listening to Akashi anymore and later confronted him, causing Akashi to switch for the first time. The anger I would argue is more apparent in the anime version, but it's still there in the manga, just as more of an undertone, though. Aside from that, though there aren't really many other instances I can think of apart from during the Winter Cup finals when Akashi realized his team was being overwhelmed and tried to make a comeback. Although, I'm debating classifying that purely as anger since he was clearly having a breakdown. But let's move on to the actual headcanons, I've rambled on this bullet point for long enough.

Firstly, what would make Akashi angry? Going off canon, we already know that one of these things is disobedience/belittling, especially when it comes to Akashi's own authority, but what else can we say makes him angry? I would say he's similar to Kuroko in the sense that he can't stand when he sees people being rude to others. I can imagine him seeing someone being the victim of harassment and bullying and he stands up for them, kinda like how everyone stood up for Kuroko in Extra/Last Game when Team Jabberwock attacked him. He's especially protective over his friends and would never let anyone say one bad word against them, lest they face his wrath.

(^^ As an extra thought to my previous point, I wonder if he ever had to reckon with being angry at himself for the scissors incident during the Winter Cup. I'm sure he's probably beaten himself up over it many times over.)

The examples I've given thus far are all serious things to get angry over, though. So, to lighten it up, I'm going to talk about situations in which I think Akashi would get mad for pettier reasons.

He'd for sure get mad at people disrespecting his height. Y'all saw how he dunked on Seirin in the WC finals just to show off and said "Did you think that was a move for tall people?" Technically he's above average height for his age, but when you put him next to his teammates, he looks so tiny since everyone else is freakishly tall. I'm sure his intimidating captain aura prevents most people from making jokes about his height anyway, but someone on an opposing team might be meanspirited enough to do it and he'd get pissed, like how Kuroko got pissed when Papa mistook him for a child.

Another petty reason I think he'd get mad is if someone isn't paying attention to him while he's speaking. I can especially imagine this happening with the Teiko gang because you know them mfs cannot collectively focus on something for more than five seconds. So imagine him talking about something serious only for him to turn around and almost nobody is paying attention. I've said once before that I think Akashi would be petty enough to pinch or kick somebody for something, so I think that this would be one of the times where this is applicable. He seems like an ear-puller to me, too. Just saying.

I'll give one more petty example for funsies, but I think he'd be mad if he didn't get what he wanted/things are not going his way. Not in the "I'm on the brink of defeat and the meaning of my existence is about to be nullified" type of way we've always seen for him, but in a "the cafe I frequent is out of my favorite drink and I'm about to make it everybody's problem" type of way. He just gets dramatic about minor inconveniences.

So now that we've talked about what could make Akashi angry, let's talk about what he would look like if he was angry. From what we've seen in the series, even when he's angry, he remains calm. He chooses his words carefully and is not the type to shout. The only time he's really raised his voice is when he was arguing with himself in his own headspace, but raising his voice at other people seems like a serious no-no for him. Even though he's calm while he's angry, the anger will still show on his face. The knitted brows, the deep disapproving scowl, anybody would be able to tell that Akashi is mad from a mile away. But if he's only mildly angry, I bet he'd look more pouty than actually mad, much to Mibuchi's delight because it makes Akashi look very adorable.

Come on. Look at that face. You're telling me you wouldn't pinch his cheeks?

How do other people react to him being mad, though? If he's seriously angry, it's like the air shifts. Nobody gets in his way when he's really angry. But when he's just mildly irritated, I think as time goes on, his friends will try and make him feel better, especially if the reason why he's mad is trivial and something that can easily be remedied. Like "Oh, Midorima's not free to play a game of online shogi with you right now? You can play shogi with me instead!" or "You forgot something in the gymnasium? I'll go get it for you!" I just like the idea of Akashi's friends, especially Rakuzan, going out of their way to do things for Akashi the way he does things for other people. It's what he deserves.

Overall, Akashi is a person who does not get angry often, and I feel like part of that reason is because he's always been taught to compose himself and not express emotions that can be perceived as negative. So, I can imagine what a struggle that must be for him, especially when he truly is angry but feels like he's not allowed to show it. So I would hope as time goes on that he feels more comfortable being open with that while still being able to show emotions in a healthy manner.

Alright, I've yapped enough, time to pack it up. Hope you guys enjoyed.

[the-tomcat-disposable]

Me and Mr Wolf

Did anyone order a possessive Waldo fic? No? Well I'll feed it the the 10 people in the ltww fandom then.

Summary: the detective gets kidnapped and Waldo did not like that (based on @nami-ramen's super epic art in this post, and the title is a reference to this song)

TW: brutual cane murder, kidnapping, possessiveness, unhealthy relationship

Where were they? It had been about an hour since the game had begun, and Waldo couldn't feel the detective's presence at all. Waldo had seen the detective clock into work, then begin scanning the crowd for him, and now... Where were they? If they were playing, he would know from the scent of their anticipation or fear, which he couldn't smell at all.

It typically took the detective far less than an hour to find him... unless they've somehow relaxed while on the job...? No, that's not very typical of the detective. Waldo knew something was wrong, and he was worried— for the first time in a long while, he was worried.

This detective was special to him, because they were not like their predecessors. They were surprisingly clever and played his game as it was intended (well, for the most part). If his detective got offed, then it would be a long while until he found another just like him, and that's not a risk he dared to take.

His detective was missing, and he would find the cause of this disruption if had to slaughter his way through. Where to start? Well, he knew that the detective was handling a couple different cases on top of his recently, though he never cared to pay attention to other criminals as long as they weren't disrupting what he and his detective had. That might be a good start.

He twirled his cane and appeared inside the detective's office, with folders stacked neatly on their desk and a cold cup of coffee that was still mostly full. Waldo skimmed through his open case files first, just to chuckle about how little was truly known about him— some of the text was crossed out or annotated in red ink, and the detective was correct about most things. Flattering, but that's not what he was here for. He picked up the opened envelope underneath it, noting the name of the suspect. They were said to be aggressive and had a history of harassing his detective before they were assigned to Waldo's case. Well, this just won't do.

"Hm... this guy is horrible at cleaning up evidence. Captured multiple times?!" Waldo scoffed. One page even stated this lowly crook kidnapped their rivals and and took them to a shipping container on the outskirts of town to torture them for information. That answered his question of where the detective was. The police around here must really suck if they keep letting this idiot get away when they know this much about him... well, he'll make sure to take one no good scum off their hands for good, and the detective will get the pleasure of having a front row seat!

Waldo grabbed the detective's coffee and downed it in seconds (what? They weren't going to finish it now, and it was wasteful to leave it here), and spun his cane.

'Stay alive, detective, our game will not end like this.'

...

The detective woke with a headache, groaning as they tried to rub their head, but their hands were stuck behind them. Ah... they remember. One second they were searching the crowd for Waldo, and then they were knocked out cold, and now they were bound to a metal chair in a shipping container. They knew exactly what happened now, as the figure of a suspect they had been attempting to put behind bars for a few days emerged walked towards the detective with a metal pipe in his hands and a gun on their belt.

The detective glanced around, with what little light the lousy excuse of a seemingly makeshift living quarter provided. This didn't seem to be a permanent home— just a place that this guy camped out in... for whatever reason.

"Start talking, detective. You know why I brought you here," the man threatened. With what little the detective could see of his face, he wasn't that intimidating. Certainly not as much as Waldo. They squirmed in an attempt to loosen the rope around their feet and hands, but to no avail, which earned the detective a hard whack to the gut.

"I wasn't aware there was a time limit to respond," the detective gasped out, then after catching his breath, asked, "what? Why did you bring me here? The only thing you'll get from this is another sentence, and it'll be longer with each attack."

"I want you to clear my name. Promise those assholes you work with that I've changed so I can be free, and I mean really free."

The detective glared at the man, weighing his options to determine which one would keep them alive while ensuring that this man would never see a glimpse of freedom. It was then that they felt a chilling and familiar presence from behind, the two sleeved wrapping around them from behind with a wooden cane in one confirmed their suspicions. One of Waldo's hands rose to lift the detective's chin, all too carefully for a vicious killer. It terrified the detective wonderfully.

"Would you care to explain this, detective?" Waldo questioned with a growl, "well, whatever the reason, this is unacceptable."

The man stumbled backwards, pulling his gun from its holster and pointing it at the detective's head. "You— I didn't see you come in! Stay back, they're mine!"

"Are they?" Waldo laughed wickedly, as his clones closed in from behind, mimicking his laughter, "because last time I checked, you're not their top priority! You're just some sloppy fool who wishes to be intimating," he spat.

Waldo's grip on his detective only tightened, as he tilted their head to watch the criminal, now circled by three Waldos, "watch, dear detective, and see what happens when our game is disturbed."

The detective's mouth opened to shout to leave the man alive, that the right way of punishing him would be to lock them up, to plead Waldo to show mercy, but all that came out was a cough of blood and a whine as the canes fell upon the criminal far too fast and viciously for the detective to keep up with.

By the time the body had stopped moving, Waldo had untied the detective, letting them stand up once the shock resided, though they collapsed to their knees and clutched their stomach not long after. They could already feel the massive bruise that's sure to form by tomorrow as they winced from the pain and wiped the blood from their lips. Waldo nodded to the clones, and each twirled their canes in sync and vanished like they were never there to begin with.

"You are my detective, you play my game," the freakishly tall figure commanded, pacing around front of the detective to lift their head with his cane. It was admittedly a beautiful sight to see the detective's face staring up at him, wanting so badly to make a sarcastic comment or ask questions, yet hesitating.

"Yes of course, this was totally unpredictable, right?" Waldo hit them in the chest with his cane— not too harsh, but enough to hurt just a little— and turned the handle towards the detective with a gesture for them to grab it. As soon as the detective had a good grip on it, he abruptly hoisted them up onto their feet with surprising strength, then hooking it around them briefly to steady them.

"You are damn lucky that idiot left plenty of evidence in his trail," Waldo hissed as he tapped his cane against the floor with a rhythm that mimicked a tsk-tsk-tsk, "and you're welcome for taking this problem off your hands. I expect you to be much more alert next time, dear detective."

The detective stared at Waldo, unsure if he deserved a thanks, electing to pat down their coak pocket for his— he stopped when the creature laughed and looked up. Waldo grinned mockingly and dangled the handcuffs that were in the detective's pockets the last time they checked.

"Did you think you could take this opportunity to arrest me, detective?" the faux human thing mocked, "that would ruin the fun, but oh how I admire your quick wit!" Waldo glared at the bloodied carcass on the floor, kicking it once before waving to the detective and teleporting to another location.

The detective groaned with frustration, searching for their phone, mumbling about how they hoped someone had noticed them missing besides Waldo. Thankfully, they still had their phone on them. They pondered on whether or not to call the police or their friend from the Science Division to give them a ride back to their office, and figured that this situation would likely be best explained with a second witness that they trusted to believe their story. While ringing him, they carefully watched their step as they stepped over the corpse.

The phone rang for a long time, and the detective started wondering if he would even answer. 'Damn it, pick up—"

"Hey, sorry for the sudden call but I got kidnapped— yes, I'm fine," the detective paused, "mostly— anyways, remember the shipping container— yes, that's the place. I'll explain when you get here. You're the only person who I'm sure will believe me. Plus, you know how to get the security tapes for the cameras."

...

Addendum:

Personally I hc the Science Division guy's name to be something that sounds (to me) like a lanky old man name such as Oswald or Arthur. I wanted to include this somewhere so I put it at the end.

@w4llyw4tch3rz asked to be tagged in the last fic a bit too late so they're being tagged in this one. Enjoy!

[ollxooooooo0llo]

i made a post regarding Wave and Storm's friendship days ago and as i'm bored and already had a draft for this, i finally decided to elaborate on that. This post is gonna be long as hell, and hell, so brace yourselves.

Judging by the dynamic they hold throughout the first two Riders game i think it's pretty clear they know each other a lot, and seem also to tolerate one another well. Wave is sassy and gets aggressive easily, and while others find this annoying or intimidating, Storm not only tolerates it but even pisses her off voluntairly because he KNOWS how she would react. The first cutscene of the Babylon story in OG Riders he does exactly that by denying her taking the Babylon Garden's key , even mocking her just to get a laugh. Not only that, but Wave as well, who was getting visibly angry, instead plays along by seeming cutesy.

(sorry for no subtitles with OGSR, i only have footage of all the cutscenes in japanese with no text) Pretty sure if it was someone else she wouldn't have tried with puppy eyes but would've straight up snatched the thing from their hands and maybe slapped them. And even if Wave got actually angry at Storm, like some scenes later when Storm returns to Jet lamenting how he lost in the Grand Prix, he seems to overreact to a comical extent instead of actually getting hurt by what she says. "But what if he actually did?" Maybe he did? but come on look at this

He's SO dramatic about it, and the when Jet calls them out he immediately locks in. my guess is, again, he's used to it and likes to make up some drama I say this because whenever Storm would enter Jet's office to report/lament about something and Wave had comments to say, like literally calling him worthless lol, he would just shove it off like it was nothing. Literally he just looks at her like ''wth do you want girl''

Also you can see Wave smiling in the process! She enjoys mocking Storm just as much as he does with her

He's used to this; she is used to this. They like poking fun at one another because they know each other enough to be comfortable doing so, and i think that's as high as you can get in a friendship. Something similiar happens in Zg as well, but i'll talk about it later on.

Not to mention the back slap Storm gives Wave that almost had her fall on the ground for telling Jet they should get going because ''he wanted to say it'', and all Wave does is give him the eye like ''are u fr'', acting like she wasn't about to spit her whole left lung out.

Again, as i said before with the cube, i'm pretty sure Wave would've been LIVID if somebody else did that to her, but she just lets it slide because Storm did it! Again, another pretty good demonstration they're very comfortable with one another. And before beginning to talk about Zero Gravity... big shout out to the introductive cutscene. Storm got his board stolen and went flying in the air and instead of leaving him behind, Wave goes and catches him, dragging him until they manage to return Type-S back.

yeah not gonna pretend some of these screenshots ain't goofy af Point is, having 80 kg/ 176 lbs of weight attached to your Extreme Gear, not even properly balanced, has to be hard as hell, but Wave still went though the hustle in order to carry him along with her and Jet despite him losing his EG. Thus i'd safely say that they also DO care about each other, which people might not realise immediately due to their love language being shitting on one another. But actually, there's another example of this care being shown. When Jet and Wave were in Green Forest/Cave whatever, waiting for Storm to return, she was visibly agitated wondering what happened to him, going as far as interrupting Jet's nap because of all the noise she was making Put a video with this one not only to show how stressed she was, but also because in Chie Nakamura's voice she sounds so darn adorable

The same thing happens in ZG, and while she is way more laid back about it, she still is the one to notice him missing in the room, following the others' observation of Amy's absence by stating Storm wasn’t in the room as well. In general she seems to be the one worrying about the her mate's presence or not, Storm's in particular as he was the one always going in missions or getting lost.

Now, speaking about Wave and Storm in Zero Gravity's sphere... i can't say much, as the writers decided they should've barely spoken to one another. However there still are some things to mention. For example how stupidly they act alike when carefully waiting for Jet to extract the Ark of the Cosmos from the altar, even giving them the facepalm right after. Nothing too see here, folks. Just two besties sharing the grand total of one single braincell

Just to look at Jet like the did something. ''Yeah boss the site is clear'' no way dudes, really? lol This scene is not a big deal , but it's still remarkable to some degree when talking about their friendship. Wave's the intellingent and cynical one, and yet still manages to act as silly as Storm when found in a situation like this. It's like meeting your comfort person after a long day of work, with whom you can be more open with. Also could be that Storm’s energy is so strong to be able to influence even a mind as sharp as Wave’s. The same thing happens again a couple of seconds after. Once again not a singular functioning braincell visible in this screenshot

Now to the bit i was talking about earlier. i won't analyze too further into it as i basically explained earlier what this kind of interaction makes emerge about their relationship. Wave sees a shooting star, and decides to make a wish. Storm notices that and mocks her and basically calls her immature, until he searches for approval from Jet and sees him doing the same. Despite this, Wave seems to ignore what he had to say completely.

It's basically the situation that once took place in OGSR making its comeback in ZG, with the difference that now the roles are reversed, and results are pretty much the same with Storm making fun of Wave and her giving him the cold shoulder, just like he used to do everytime he bursted into Jet's office and Wave was ready to blast roasts. Mean words don't necessairly cause emotional weight for them when it's the other saying them because, again, they're probably used to that. Also Storm's comment could've just been something he didn't really think about, and Wave noticed that and just ignored it. Even in this case there's got to be some degree of understanding to know when to actually get hurt by a mean affirmation. This actually happens when Wave announces to Jet to have found something interesting about the ancient texts they had discovered. She goes on to say she would paraphrase what was written in them, and basically suggested simplifying it so bad as a way to call both Storm and Jet dumb. She didn't hint a single bit of sarcasm with that, and in fact Storm genuinely looked hurt (and Jet's pride was just as much).

(this dialogue lives forever free to roam in my heart because it was the ONLY thing that brought back from the dead Wave's mean but witty attitude from the first game. She was so watered down in ZG, but that's another topic) Unfortunately after this there isn't much left about them, BUT the peculiarity of these last things left is the way they communicate without pronouncing a single word. This happens twice: the first time after finding Jet and reassuring him about obtaining the Ark of the Cosmos Amy has a hold on, and the second time while reacting to Jet's intention of betting on the Ark of the Cosmos while challenging Sonic to a race on their way to Eggman through Crimson Tower.

They didn't babble a single word, but still managed to convey their thoughts to each other. The first example displays the scenario of just them being in agreement over the plan for what's to come, as Jet accepted Wave's suggestion. However, the second one in particular shows their bond pretty strongly, because when they heard Jet say what he said, they IMMEDIATELY looked at one another, trying to see if they were thinking the same about what they've just heard, and by their faces of disbelief, my guess is yeah, they did: "Did you hear the same bullshit i heard or??". So not only the first thing they did before anything else was going to the other one to know about their opinion, but they ended up having the same one and agreeing, too. Thus this goes to show Wave values Storm opinion more that anybody else's, and viceversa Storm with Wave (without including Jet, of course), and that despite them being opposites they manage to read the other one very well to the point of just needing a look in the eyes to say something. Overall i think Wave and Storm's friendship is quite strong and definitely genuine. They're a duo of bestfriends i can definitely picture as real people, because this kind of contact and unterstanding is something you would see happening between two close friends. I'm definitely bitter about the fact that they have been reduced to ''Jet's friend and that’s it''s, making them talk exclusively to him and not to each other. Don't give me wrong, i love Jet, but i just think Wave and Storm work better with one another. Jet's got to be more professional and composed around the two because of his status as a leader, thus making him take a more emotional distance from them (which sometimes slips): Storm is his loyal sideckick, and Wave is the mechanic of the group. That's it. On the other hand, Wave and Storm don't seem to have given actual labels to one another, as they don't need to do so, and unsurprisingly they act much more like friends who got put in the same group project. This might have also led them to develop a stronger bond, as they got ''stuck'' in the same trio and had to get to know the other in order to be able to collaborate and complete whatever task they needed to do. I guess this is it. i apologize as there might be some weird wording, and the post itself isn't well organized in general. i literally grabbed my stream of consciousness and slapped it on this post. Also i kept writing it in hours like 2/3 am oh yeah, little bonus:

Do i even need to say something? This is the vibe i was referring to while describing Storm and Wave's friendship as ''being friends stuck in the same group project" lmfao

[my-rose-tinted-glasses]

My memory is terrible so I wanted to do a breakdown of my stuff every once in a while. Might be monthly, might be whenever I feel like it.

QL - Currently Watching

🇹🇭1000 Years Old [10/12] - This is dragging and I am incredibly bored.

🇹🇭23.5 [4/12] - This show is incredibly cute and I'm smiling through the whole thing. Aylin is my favourite and I'm hoping against hope for the teachers to become a couple. Make it happen gmmtv!

🇹🇭Deep Night [6/8] - The long shots are killing me but the story is moving fast. There's a surprising amount of good communication and the throuple is almost inevitable a this point.

🇰🇷Jazz for Two [6/8] - This is the first bl show where I read the source material before the show and I wish I hadn't. The changes that were made just don't make sense to me, because I don't see how it serves the story. But putting that aside, the story feels rushed and the pacing is weird. The second couple doesn't read believable with this time frame. Anyway I might edit this post when I watch the last 2 episodes. [EDIT] Completed. Final thoughts here. 🇯🇵Love is Better The Second Time Around [4/6] - Why must you do this again Japan? 6 episodes for this one? I'm not happy about this. This show is so good. I love how the mains communicate, not to mention they are beautiful to watch.

🇯🇵My Strawberry Film[7/8] - I have no idea what this show is about nor it seems does it. Do I care at this point? Nope, not really. Let it be over.

🇹🇭To Be Continued [6/8] - This is getting into The Promise territory and I'm not amused. Another one that is dragging and I like the second couple but they barely have any screen time. I'll finish it because there are only two episodes left but I'll be sprinting to the finish line.

🇹🇼Unknown [7/12] - It hurts so good. The songs were killing me this episode. I really liked the separation, I think it was necessary for them. Yuan seems more mature and it will be interesting to see how it changes the relationship.

QL - Finished

🇹🇭Cherry Magic Th – What a wonderful surprise this was. Tay and New are beautiful together and their chemistry was on point. I really liked how the source material was used here.

🇯🇵Cherry Magic Anime – It was quite faithful to the manga with only a couple of deviations and of course it didn't cover everything but I really enjoyed watching yet another version of these characters.

🇹🇭Dead Friend Forever – It was quite a ride. I specially enjoyed the communal watching of this one and all the theories as more people tuned in. Didn't love the ending but it was better than I thought. Still not over White though. 🇯🇵Although I Love You, and You? - Started great, the middle was meh, and by the end I wasn't invested enough in the couple so even though it ended happy, it didn't make up for the rest of it. 🇯🇵Perfect Propose - Great all the way through. I loved this characters a lot and still think it's amazing how well the time was used here. 🇯🇵Ossan's Love Returns - It's Japan at it's finest. Love, food, chaos, found family and cherry blossoms. What more can I ask for? 🇯🇵She Loves to Cook, and She Loves to Eat - My heart grew.🖤

🇹🇼Anti Reset - This is one of the most frustrating shows I've watched in a while. This started off strange and most of the show doesn't seem to know what it wanted to say about the AI part of it. It drove crazy on a weekly basis. But I thought their chemistry was really good and they are just an adorable couple. These 4 VBL series [Stay By My Side, You Are Mine, Vip Only] were a mixed bag for me. I think Stay By My Side is my favourite overall.

🇨🇳The Spirealm - First of all, Ruan Lan Zhu is absolutely gorgeous and his outfits are always perfection. The visuals are really good. This was definitely not a cheap production. The sets for all the doors are incredible. Talking only about the game, I gotta say the second door was my favourite. The bromance toes the line, but I'm not surprised this was taken down. I think if they'd kiss it would be less obvious than some of their scenes. I'm not going to spoil the ending but if you're thinking about watching here's your warning. A bit after the halfway point it gets incredibly sad and the ending is just heart-breaking.

Dropped 🇹🇭A Secretly Love [3/10] 🇹🇭Kiseki Chapter 2 [2/6] Also haven't started Two Worlds because I'm waiting to know if I should bother. I'm experiencing a bit of Thai bl fatigue so we'll see.

Rose Watches OJBL

Takumi-kun 1: And The Spring Breeze Whispers (2007) - The editing is choppy as hell and it gets hard to understand the characters motivations. And the acting is not good. Yeah, not a fan of this one. Udagawachou de Matteteyo (2015) - This one is weird. I recently watched Life as a Girl so I admit that the comparison doesn't help this one at all. The idea is interesting but the execution is poor. There's a couple of scenes that are a bit hard to watch. In this particular story I think if we had a bit more insight to the characters motivations it would've helped me connect and feel more invested. In the end, for my particular goal it was fine I guess.

Other - Watched

🩷Tengu's Kitchen (2023) | Fudanshi Bartender no Tashinami (2022) Formula 17 (2004) | Mars: Zero no Kakumei (2024) | 🩷Joshi-teki Seikatsu (2018)

1 Year of Rose-Tinted Glasses

It's been a year of Rose this month. And it's been kinda great. It took me a while to get over my shyness here and I still feel intimidated but it's gotten better. The people in this space have been really kind to me and I appreciate it so much. Thank you so much for the space.

That's it for right now. As usual my ask box is open for gif requests and any other questions. Happy Easter to all who celebrate.

Have a good week💜

[thebluestbluewords]

rumors of his death have been greatly exaggerated

"How's your brother doing, dear?" Fairy Godmother asks, taking Chloe's hand as she comes up to the teacher's table. "Is he enjoying his graduation trip?"  

Chloe tips her head sweetly to the side. "What brother?" 

Fairy Godmother looks puzzled. "Your only brother, dear one. Unless your parents have adopted another without telling me?" 

"Oh, that brother. I haven't seen him since..." Chloe hesitates. "The incident." 

"I'm sorry?" 

Chloe beams. "The incident. It's a family matter, I'm really not supposed to talk about it. I'm sure he's fine, though. Mother isn't too worried about him." 

You could make a topographical map out of the folds in Fairy Godmother's forehead. "Yes, of course. I'm sure that must be hard on your mother, not having her son around." 

"She endures." Chloe says cheerfully. "I should really go get dinner before I hold up the line. I'll see you in class tomorrow. I've already got my Fairy History essay ready for you!" 

"That's lovely, yes." Fairy Godmother says, still frowning. "And Red, you've got all your books? Everything you need?' 

Red lifts her chin. She's not just a passive observer, even though whatever's going on with her royal roommate's missing brother sounds horrifically fascinating.  "I'm all set. Wonderland post sent my books last week." 

"Lovely, lovely. I'll see you two in class tomorrow." 

"Goodnight, Fairy Godmother." Chloe chirps, bobbing into a half-curtsy before she moves away. 

Red will not curtsy, but she dips her head in the vague shape of a bow. "Goodnight." 

+

"So." Red says, once the two of them are out of the dining hall and on their way back to the dorm room they're going to be sharing. "You've got a brother?" 

Chloe looks at her sideways, without moving her head. "No. I've got a Chad." 

There's a particular darkness in her voice at the name, like how Red wants to say Jabberwocky sometimes, when they've been especially bad. 

"I take it you're not a fan." Red says, because it's stupid to ask questions, but she's the princess of Wonderland, and she should know her neighboring kingdom's royal families. "Is he really awful?" 

"The worst." Chloe says lightly. "He's not at home right now, though, so we've all had a bit of a rest." 

All? 

"All." Red repeats. "How big is your family?" 

"Big enough." 

It's dumb to play evasive word games with a Wonderland girl. "Big enough to fill a carriage?" 

Chloe sighs. "Bigger." 

"Big enough to fill a limo?" 

"Bigger, if you're counting everyone." 

"I'm asking you to tell me about your family, Auradon girl," Red says, leaning in towards Chloe, making it a flirty request, rather than a desperate dig for information. "Aren't you guys supposed to love talking about yourself?" 

Chloe shoots her a certified look. "My family is weird. You don't need to know about them, it's just...my brother is off on a mission to find himself, or something. He graduated in the same class as King Ben, so people are still going to ask about him, because one weird girl who plays with swords for fun isn't enough for the royal gossip tabloids." 

"Swords." Red drawls. 'Very royal." 

Chloe huffs out a tight little breath. "Yes, swords. I'm on the ROAR team. Royal Order of Auradon Regiment. We practice running through obstacle courses with swords for fun, and I'm actually really good at it, so please, please don't make fun of me. I know I'm not a very proper princess, but I really do love it, and my mom doesn't care what I do so long as I don't mess up my face, so just-- just stop it. I'll tell you about my brother if you really want, just..." 

"Swords are cool." Red blurts, before she can think twice about it. "Your brother sounds like a lame-ass anyway. Tell me more about your sword game?" 

Stupid, stupid. Asking about her sports team? Super lame behavior. Not cool at all, Red. 

Chloe looks up at her through her lashes. "You're making fun of me again." 

Red's heart skips a little beat. She's not sure if it's from shame or the huge, embarrassing, terrible crush that she's trying really hard to squash. "I'm not. Promise." 

"It's okay that you are. Everyone does, once they hear about my hobbies," Chloe says softly. "I'm not cool like my brother, or popular like my sisters. I'm the youngest child in my family, so everyone babies me all the time anyway. I don't mind it usually." 

She's twisting her hands together, looking down at her fingers. She's not wearing any royal rings or anything. Red's been wearing rings since she was a kid, to show her status and to punch people better. She wouldn't know what to do with hands that are so soft and naked. Does she hold them? Give Chloe one of her own rings? Tell her she's an idiot for declining any symbols of her royal status and get her mother to give her at least a small family ring? 

"I'm not actually a very good princess." Chloe says after a moment. "I just let people tell me what to do all the time. I just follow the rules and practice with my sword and read a lot of books. I'm not brave like my mother. You're probably braver than me. Coming to a new country, a new school, all by yourself... that's really brave." 

"Thanks."

Chloe's eyes are enormous. "Yeah." she whispers, soft and sweet and so, so close to Red. "I think you're really brave." 

Red lifts a hand to touch her roommate's cheek. "Brave enough to hear the truth about your brother?" 

Chloe's face falls. 

Red's heart sinks right along with it. 

"No. You don't want the truth anyway, it's boring." Chloe says, turning around to unlock their door.  "Anyway, I'm sure everything is boring compared to Wonderland, so I won't make you listen to me any longer. Goodnight, Red." 

Their door shuts before she can come up with a comeback. 

Fine. If her roommate won't tell her what's going on, Red will just have to figure it out herself. 

+ 

The next person to ask about Chloe's alleged brother gets an even less helpful answer. 

"I lost him." Chole says sweetly. "At sea. We went out on the yacht to celebrate his graduation, you know, after the...incident." 

The student nods seriously. It would be stupid to roll her eyes, but Red's patience for these delays is short already, so she does it behind Chloe's back. Really subtly. 

Chloe bobs her head in a little nod that could almost be serious, if she didn't look so pleased about it. "Yeah, so we were out on the ocean, and he just fell overboard. We lost him. Mom threw him one of the inflatable life rafts, but you know how Chad is about accepting help, so once it hit the water he just started swimming away. At the rate he was going, he's probably in the Southern Isles by now." 

+

It happens again. 

"He's at home, helping mother weed the library. We have a curse, you know. Roses keep growing in the fiction section, and it takes all hands on desk to clear it out." Chloe says, flashing the girl a bright smile. "The only reason I'm exempt is because mother and father don't trust me not to solve the problem with my sword.” 

The girl frowns. “Chad, weeding?” 

“Oh, yes. He wouldn’t usually, but mother asked him specifically. He’s really a mother’s boy at heart. It’s sweet how much he’d do for her.” 

Red watches the girl digest this. 

“Aw. That is sweet.” 

Chloe beams. “Isn’t it? He’s just the best. I bet if you run to the library now you could understand just how he feels right now, surrounded by all those books.” 

+ 

And again. 

“He’s joined the astronaut training program.” Chloe says. Her face is set in a very serious expression, which is only fitting considering that she’s talking to the head of their math department. “We haven’t seen him in ages, but he’s supposed to be on the moon base soon, so every time we look up back home we wave to him. It’s a new Charmington family tradition.” 

“That’s very nice, dear.” 

“If you want to join the SpaceChad fan club you can go to the royal media page our sister set up,” Chloe says sweetly. “It’s online under SpaceCaseChad dot com. There’s lots of good pictures.” 

Their teacher pinches the bridge of her nose. “Very nice story, Chloe. I’m sorry I asked.” 

“Princess Celeste puts a lot of work into it.” 

“I’m sure she does. Now sit down so you can learn some theorems.” 

Red looks the page up. 

It’s full of press pictures of Chad Charming, the only Prince of the Kingdom of Charmington, heir apparent of the second biggest kingdom in all Auradon, poorly edited to look like he’s floating in space. 

And wearing cat ears. 

The animated sparkle in his eyes is a nice touch. Red appreciates the sort of effort that goes into these things. The effort that’s been put into adding a tiny rocket ship under his boots is less impressive, but the way that the rocket bursts into animated flames every fourth edit is much funnier than it seems the first time you scroll past it. 

She’s starting to think that her roommate might actually be on to something here. 

+ 

The fifth time it happens, Red's pretty sure she's in on the joke. 

Before Chloe can come up with another smartmouth answer, Red gasps. The student who asked this time is some girl in a cheerleader uniform, and she looks like an easy target, so Red throws her whole body into it. Mouth open, eyes wide, and a gasp so theatrical even her mother would be proud of it. 

"You can't just ask that!" Red gasps, sweeping an arm around Chloe's shoulders. "Oh my gods, why would you even ask when it's still so fresh?" 

The cheerleader gapes. "I— what—?” 

"You don't just ask a royal family member what happened to her only brother," Red snaps. "It's not done. My mother could have your head for it. Chloe, are you okay?" 

Her roommate is shaking in her arms. Red's never tried to be a good person, but there's a feeling building in her that might be what goodness feels like. It's sort of like when she drinks the special unbirthday tea that she’s not supposed to touch, and a little bit like when she's in on a secret with her mom. Giddy, that's the feeling. 

The cheerleader's hands are on her cheeks now. "I didn't mean any harm, I'm sorry. Oh my god, Chloe, I'm so sorry. Is he okay?" 

Chloe's face is buried wholly and completely in Red's shoulder, and she's a warm, comfortable, shaking weight that's making it hard for her to think straight.  There's so many horrible things that can happen to a prince, and only so many ways to say it... 

"She doesn't know." Red says, pulling Chloe in a little tighter so her giggles can't spoil the illusion. "The last thing she knew he was visiting friends in Fairyland, and then he started sending letters written on leaves instead of paper, and now..." she hesitates. 

"Now?" 

"He just sends the leaves." Red finishes. 

The cheerleader gasps. “I bet there's pollen all over his beautiful hair too!" 

Seriously? 

"We can only assume." Red says, face just as solemn as her mother's court isn't. "It's a real shame. The fairies want a princess on a milk-white horse to get him back, and she's got to ride in on the darkest night of the year too. Holding the moon in a jar as her guide." 

The girl looks about five seconds from whipping out her phone to write the lies down. "A real princess? Or would like, a pop princess work instead? Chad always said how much he loved Marcielle Lance. I bet he'd love me forever if I sent... I mean, if somebody tipped her off that the Prince of Charmington needed her to save him from Fairyland." 

"The letters didn't say." Red shrugs. "But it never hurts to try, I guess." 

The cheerleader is practically vibrating. "I've got to go make a— I mean, get to class! Thanks, though!" 

Red lifts a hand to her retreating back. "Buh-bye.” 

+ 

Time travel vertigo is a pain in the butt to recover from. 

Red falls into Chloe as soon as the world stops reshaping itself around them. 

Chloe shoves her off. “Where are we?” 

“More like when are we.” Red corrects, staggering upright. “And I think the answer is not far enough. Look, that roof looks exactly like it does now.” 

“It’s a roof.” 

“Yeah, and all the fancy pants brochures that you sent to Wonderland while we were sealed off from the rest of the world show that roof looking different than it does now. In our current time. Because it’s new, princess. We got brochures about replacing it.” 

Chloe closes her eyes. Red can see her breathing slowly, and stifles a grin. Her roommates hates being wrong, which works out great, because Red loves seeing her royal highness mad. 

“We can’t be here. We have to leave, now.” 

“We just got here. The watch has a cooldown time of one minute for every year travelled. We can’t leave yet.” 

“No, we have to leave.” Chloe grabs Red’s hand. “My bother is here. This is two years ago. He’s going to be here, on campus, and he’s going to recognize me, and our whole cover is going to be blown if we alter time in ways we weren’t expecting!” 

Oh, no.

“No,” Red says slowly, stretching out her words around the grin that’s threatening to take over her whole face. “No, I don’t think we do have to leave. After all the stories I’ve heard about this brother, I wanna meet this guy.” 

“You don’t.” 

“He’s an Olympic level swimmer, an astronaut, a curse-breaking mommy’s boy, and he was interesting enough to get kidnapped by fairies? I can’t wait to meet him.” 

Chloe stomps her foot. “You know that’s not true. I make all that stuff up, because—“ 

“Because why, princess?” 

“Because the real reason is boring.” 

Red glances down at the pocketwatch. One minute left until they can leave. “After growing up in wonderland, you think I don’t like boring? My mother is trying to stage a coup as we speak. She raised me on a diet of all-excitement, all the time. I want boring. I love boring. Please, for the love of time, give me something boring to think about until we can get out of here.” 

Chloe glares. “No.” 

“What?” 

“No. I’m not telling you. The longer we stand here arguing the closer we are to getting out of here. I don’t have to tell you, I just have to stall until we’re out of time.” 

“Bold words from the girl who’s not carrying the time machine.” 

“You want to get out of here just as much as I do,” Chloe says, logically. Oh, how much Red wants to hate her. “You’re not going to leave us here, in the wrong time, just because you want to know where my brother’s hiding.” 

Red leans in. “Hiding, huh?” 

“You—“ Chloe slaps a hand over her own mouth. “I’m not saying another word. We can’t alter time before we’re supposed to, it’s too risky.” 

“Twenty seconds. Tick tock, princess. I could leave you here if you won’t tell me.” 

“You wouldn’t.” 

“You don’t know what I’d do.” Red hisses, leaning in so close that she can see the way Chloe’s eyes are tracking the motion of the pocketwatch. Her roommate’s eyes are pretty. It’s not fair that she’s got such an awful habit of keeping secrets to offset her pretty face. 

“I’ll tell you,” Chloe offers. “But only once we turn the watch.” 

“Deal.” 

“Now.” 

Red cranks the watch, but carefully this time, so that her fingers don’t slip before they’re ready and send them another two or three years back. 

“You’re sure you want to know?” 

The watch is hot in her hand. The dial is shivering under her fingers. “Yes, I’m sure.” 

Chloe throws an arm around her waist, and grabs the watch out of her hand. “He shaved his head and got too embarrassed to show his face in public!” 

[cyanide-latte]

So after Book 6 left me completely and utterly devastated and a crying wreck in my bedroom, I've finally started Book 7 of Twisted Wonderland and I figured I'd just do a basic drop of my thoughts so far. I'm keeping them under a "read more" cut and I'll also tag this post as having spoilers (even though it's not really the more recent spoilers) just to be safe and considerate.

Beyond that though, my thoughts aren't going to have a filter so please take this with a grain of salt. (I'll mention at the end where I've stopped for now in the plot, so please don't spoil past that point for me if you reply to or reblog this post. I really really don't want spoilers.)

Got it? Good. Here we go.

- Exasperation and loathing, thy form is Michael Mouse, I viciously beseech thee to get out of my house

- we need more of the freshmen just interacting with one another in general

- Rook wanting to take an internship in archeology make so much sense for him. "I'm not a patient person but this will challenge that" BRO, SAME.

- Idia just interning at Google basically

- Lilia like "btw I need to drop out of school, gonna throw a party later before I leave, kthnxbai"

- all of the characters doing impersonations in this book is a DELIGHT

- "I declare the mopefest official over!" Spoken like a man who bottles his stronger emotions up out of fear of having to face them, Ace

- Fucking love the meta commentary

- Idia "I'm not going to some farewell party for a junior I barely know because I need to actually mourn losing contact with an internet friend who ghosted me and I'm despairing the possibility I could ever possibly make a friend again" Shroud is too fucking real, he's relatable honestly

Malleus: here's my lil sob story abt the time I threw a tantrum so bad I almost froze an entire castle of people to death. Lilia made it all better but gave me a stern talking-to I've never forgotten.

Me: why do I feel like you learned nothing.

Also Malleus not long after: because I took your words to heart Lilia I've been looking for a solution to this problem, and Silver and the Ramshackle prefect with their random venting to me gave me the perfect idea, so I'm going to trap THE ENTIRE ISLAND in stasis sleep so NOBODY CAN EVER LEAVE ME AGAIN a good hoard knows to stay put for the dragon who owns it haha you'll all be fine, dw about it, I've got everything under control

Me: so you learned nothing.

- Malleus has no rights, he needs to be sent to the Time-Out Corner

- I also love that that Malmal fight loads up with an infinity symbol because it's like oh lol yeah, infinite-turn battle but then you see Malleus's fucking 300K HP bar and I was instantly like "hmmmm I think you're lying" and then his regen heals for like 60K damage each turn and he casts fire damage immunity on himself and I was like "mmhmm I knew you were lying to me"

- I demanded Mickey get the fuck out of my house so of course naturally the game decides to be cheeky and put me the fuck in his instead

- no but why the fuck is he here. I'm so fucking annoyed

- WE DON'T NEED MICKEY.

- I get it, I get why he's here but he really doesn't need to be. Disney you CAN in fact make a fucking video game without shoehorning the damn mouse into it. The Hidden Mickeys in various backgrounds were fine, we didn't need more than that.

- for the record, I've been pissed off about this since it started happening books ago, but I remain aggravated by Mickey just being shoved into this.

- I love that Silver shows up to bail MC and Grim's collective ass out of danger and then meanwhile you've got Ortho like "I've seen dial-up faster than this shit, what the FUCK bro, I expected better of you, logging this in my database as an Epic Fail."

- but also ORTHO MY CHILD. BE FREE. YOU GOT THIS.

- The Shroud parents are EXACTLY how I imagined. They're everything I wanted from their characters and more. They even SOUND like I hoped they would. Beautiful. 10/10. My intuition about their entire family remains, as ever, on-point.

- I do love everything I've gotten with Silver to this point. I was very baseline neutral on his character until now, but the more I'm seeing of him, the more I appreciate what I am getting.

- Sebek is autistic. I will die on this hill. Even if he represents autistic traits the internet DOESN'T like to woobify for the most part, that boy is autistic. He's autistic as fuck. This book is so far just further proving it.

- I mentioned earlier that Malleus has no rights but I'm saying it again because it's fucking rude as shit he's got epic choral BGM in Sebek's dream. Also creeping on people's dreams and threatening to forcibly make them sleep forever when they defy you because you feel entitled to ownership of your victims? Wow. Hey by the way Malleus, you got a phone call, we got a guy from Ohio on the other line, says his name's Freddy, you're one set of full-body burn scars away from him sueing your scaly ass. Yeah, just thought you'd wanna know.

- Listen I really want to appreciate and like the Malleus I hear everyone among my friends and mutuals say they see him as but no. No. Is he well-written? Well, I'm still early into this, so I'm withholding judgment on that point though I AM hopeful that I'll eventually appreciate how he's written. But do I like him? No. I didn't give a single flying fuck about him to begin with and I still don't. Throw onto it he's being a bitch right now, and that's not helping. If you genuinely like Malleus as a person, that's your prerogative, that's whatever. I'm not entirely sure what you see in him to like as a person but again, your prerogative. If you like him as a character because of how he's written for the role he is in, in the overall story, power to you, I REALLY hope I'll eventually agree with you. But as of right now, just so you're aware if you've read this far, I still don't give a single flying fuck about Malleus and I'm slowly starting to teeter into the direction of actually disliking him as a person.

- Silver: QUICK, TAKE MY HAND!!! Sebek: ew.

- Currently I've stopped on the chapter where Silver has dream-hopped from Sebek's dream with Sebek, Yuu and Grim in tow, into the dream of a mysterious bat-masked figure with a familiar voice who couldn't POSSIBLY be Lilia, not at ALL. So please don't talk to me about anything past that yet. I'll reblog this post with an update when I get further.

[the-black-bulls]

I like the headcannon game, how about Luck or magna :D

seeing a headcanon you disagree with and it kinda pisses you off

y'all want me to ramble about luck alright lol, already did magna here and I don't think I've more to add, so this post is for luck, vanessa and the bulls relationship in general!

Luck:

- I think a lot of people just assume that luck hates his mom because she's an abusive person, when in reality he's showed nothing but love towards her even after he finally let her go... and honestly, I doubt he would ever hate his mother period (even if he should 🥲), and taking that nuance out of his character doesn't sit right with me

- also, "bad friend luck" is a dumb headcanon that mischaracterizes him, magna, and the black bulls in general

- I'll be honest, I was never into the "half sister charlotte" theory, but especially after it became so widespread people treated it as canon thus it lost its appeal to me and sound boring now (we could always get creative and embrace "half sister sally" theory instead 😛), but nothing wrong about supporting it though

Vanessa:

- manga spoilers alert: there's this headcanon that popped up by charlotte fans at the end of spade which basically reads: "it's her feelings and plea for yami to live that triggered rouge into bringing help for him..." which, why? vanessa was there and grey was there and they don't need to be romantically involved with yami to have strong feelings for his safety be freaking real, not to mention that rouge has always been a black bull spell; it's favored by them and triggered by them and would alter fate for their sake regardless of any outsider's tears, but also... what the hell? we're talking about the spell vanessa developed out of (family) love, the same spell that's connected to her heart, why tf should charlotte be credited in her place is bad enough but stretching so hard to twist what is pretty much a love spell from vanessa to the bulls just so your ship gets petty points is pathetic!

- so anyways, "vanessa needs to find true love" is an awful, awful headcanon (emphasis on need)

Black Bulls Relationships:

- that they only started bonding with each others after asta joined the squad and inspired them to do better, SURE... they did become better magic knights thanks to him, but their development is a long process shaped by each other's presence even if it'd take them years to admit it... this is why when each black bull hits their Development Moment, they always think back of yami, the other bulls, or both, so there's NO WAY they acted like strangers or were unhelpful to each other prior to the year asta and noelle became members

- likewise, any headcanon that implies one bull or another is disliked by the others or only barely accepted isn't headcanon, that's straight up mischaracterization, go reread the manga again

- likewise, I believe that just because the manga didn't explore every single relationship within the squad, it shouldn't lead to fans making it like each member's circle is only limited to one to two bulls, like ok luck and magna are each other's #1 person, but luck can still share ties with the other members too... he can be vanessa's little bro, and noelle's big bro, and charmy's partner in crime, and the little gremlin gauche keeps enabling, etc etc

- this post is getting long so one last thing, I think of the black bulls as a team with mutual and equal influence over each other, so unless we're referring to yami there's no "X bull is carrying the squad on their back" or "without X bull the squad will be lost" - because, honestly, it doesn't fit the bulls, they're all so flawed and bad at things they need each other to balance their cons with their pros, case in point I don't do "finral has been the vice captain before nacht" but I DO "vanessa finral gordon are a trio of senpais who've been carrying/sharing vice captain duties for years"

[brisquad-unit-4402]

Congratulations on the 100 followers, unit 4402! You've been working so hard. i'm proud of you and your writings are always beautiful!

As for the event, can i ask for pining prompt with the lovely sorcerer, shu yamino? Thank you so much!

-🍰

ah hello again 🍰! and thank you so much for the kind words, it really means a lot. i'm extremely proud of how much of myself i've been able to put into this blog and it only makes it all the sweeter when others think the same way of it

eeeek shu works so well with pining, it's kind of unreal. please enjoy

tags: pre-relationship, gender neutral reader, vtuber!reader, light angst, pining

cameos: ike eveland, luca kaneshiro, mysta rias, vox akuma

⚠ drinking

#100 followers for 4402 - 7. pining

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: .☽ . :☆ﾟ. ───

Shu wonders if he's too obvious. He probably is.

Your name appears often on his schedule. First it was a group collab with you and a few other newer Vtubers in your unit, then a duo collab two weeks later for a long game that needs at least two more streams to complete.

He enters VC daily, and when you join in after your work for the day, your voice colors his world brighter. No wonder you got hired; you sound just as pretty as you look. Hearing you laugh out loud is straight sugar, and your words relax him until you go on a passionate rant. He swears it's like sending his heart on a roller coaster.

Shu realizes that whenever you're on the line, he always hesitates to disconnect before leaving, just in case you say... something. He doesn't know what he wants. Anything. Just another word would be fine.

Three drinks in at a boys' night out with Luxiem, Vox bonks his head before ruffling his hair. "You've got it bad."

"I know," Shu says. He slumps over the table, phone in his hands and your last DM under his fingers. He's drunk on two things, and it shows through half-lidded amethyst in his eyes and rose quartz on his cheeks.

Ike watches on as Vox pats his back. "Have you ever thought about telling them?"

"Nooo..." Shu buries himself further into his own arms. "It's not a big deal."

"I'd argue otherwise."

"And I'm scared to ruin stuff," he continues. "Just talking to them is enough. I like them so much."

Luca laughs out loud. "You really have it bad. Want me to text them for you?"

Shu snatches his phone and holds it close to his chest. "No! It'll be fine, thank you!"

Mysta leans back in his chair, cocktail in hand and silly straw along his lips. "You're seriously hopeless, you know that, right? You gotta tell them at some point before it eats you alive. Or before they're unavailable."

Shu's eyes gloss over the table before he averts them. He should do something about it. The thought really does terrify him, though. Falling for a coworker is risky enough, but even if somehow you feel the same, he has no idea how open you would be to long distance.

Maybe it's the drinks hitting him, or how sleepy of a drunk he is, but the last time you met up he couldn't get the scent of your shampoo out of his mind. The memory is saccharine, and cuts through the boozy air. All this sweat in the bar. His folded arms become a pillow, yet he longs to wake up just about anywhere else as long as your shampoo lingers while you sleep next to him.

Under his arms, Shu pouts. The boys have a point. He really does have it bad.

Then he immediately denies that thought. It's just the drinks, that's all. Alcohol always makes emotions run wild. He'll pass today off as just that, alcohol and emotions, and when he recounts how yesterday he wanted to see your smile, and how he listened to you passionately talk the day before—that's the alcohol, too. Memories also feel more intense when he's drunk, and he'll go along with it even though he'll still think about you in the morning when he's nursing his hangover.

"I'll be fine," he lies. "I'm ordering more."

.　 . • ☆ . ° .• °:. *₊ ° . ☆

✧. ┊ event post ✧. ┊ masterpost ✧. ┊ kofi

[athousandbyeol]

discussion #9 (only friends): top's vulnerability and mew's kindness; breaking each other's walls [episode 2 recap]

again, topmew are driving me insane. it's only the second episode but there are so many nuances of pain slowly resurfacing as top and mew begin to meddle. it's heartbreaking, to say the least, how they've/will trigger/ed the best and worst in each other as their relationship progresses.

beforehand, i want to apologise because my thoughts are never coherent, and this post won't clarify anything that's going on between topmew. i find it difficult to pen my ideas down these days because topmew are written with so much precision, care and keenness, i don't think there's much unfolding that needs to be done. but i do want to talk about this one particular scene in episode 2 that broke my heart.

(this will be a short post so hehe)

as always, please take my discussion posts with a grain of salt :)

let's start.

top's vulnerability; an unexpected 'shedding' of top's confident facade

episode 2 is a mixture of many things. i like how we're seeing more of top, not just his confident and prideful nature, but more of his truest self; the core he tries to hide from everyone.

it's interesting how in every moment of top's vulnerability, mew is the person who witnesses it: 1) when top was subtly angry that mew turned down his offer of sex (the ice cream offer), 2) when mew almost caught top and boston in the shower cubicle (?), and 3) when top was about to take his sleeping pills.

as i mentioned in my previous post, top and mew are tempting each other into this 'losing' game just to see who's going to win and who's going to suffer the pain. however, i also see this 'hunter-hunter' relationship as the beginning of top and mew finding/regaining their truest identity. again, as i discussed before, their encounter would bring out the best and worst in them, and i believe meeting mew will change top for the better but meeting top will awaken the worst side of mew.

i think many people out there are more coherent than me when it comes to explaining the dynamic between top and mew, so i'll just make this very simple.

mew's kindness and attentiveness touch top's heart

after that cute (and sensual) cookie scene, top asked if he could sleep over at mew's house. again, i don't see any malice in this. i believe top is genuinely tired and he was just lazy to drive home. but, i also believe it's because top likes the warmth mew gave when they slept on the same bed before. top has tasted that before— so he wanted to have a morsel of it again. top believed they could revive that non-sexual connection tonight— but as mew said this was a reset and nothing like that had ever happened— top couldn't sleep together with mew on the same bed. bummer.

so, top agreed to sleep on the sofa instead. but he couldn't sleep. he was tossing and turning. he was visibly tired, though. so why he couldn't sleep?

he then decided to reach for something in his pocket—

—sleeping pills.

God. the way i gasped when i saw this. top is an insomniac. he can't sleep alone due to his trauma. (i made this assumption before and it broke my heart when it came to life...)

i like how top's comfort was mew's only concern at that point. he knew the sofa was uncomfortable, and he was particularly the one who insisted top to sleep on it. so the guilt mew felt was genuine to me— he felt bad for putting top in that situation.

and it's so amazing how 'loud' top's eyes were.

i see that scared and traumatised kid in those eyes; the fear that stayed with him for God knows how long resurfaced as mew 'caught' him red-handed, wanting to cave into the safety of those pills just to tame his suffocating notions down.

even so, top still tried to assure mew that he was okay. it was just another petty problem of his. it wasn't supposed to be mew's concern.

it was just top not wanting mew to see this weak side of his. because top has always flaunted himself as the confident and 'top of the top' amongst his friends/peers, so how could he break apart in front of mew— the person top was trying to woo? of course, he won't.

but this is why humans are humans, at the end of the day. no matter how hard we try to be everything that we wish to be, there's always going to be something that rips us apart. we aren't bulletproof. it's okay to be vulnerable. it's okay to be weak.

i bet no one has ever said these things to top; thus, the start of his flamboyant/confident persona is his (messed-up) understanding that he can't show his weaknesses in front of anyone, even to himself.

yet, mew approached him with gentleness. even though mew questioned the legitimacy of top's story (which, i did too), still, mew wasn't the one to jump to a conclusion that quickly. i think it's also heartwarming how mew was willing to listen. it's one of the things top didn't know he wanted and needed— someone that was willing to listen to the noises in his head.

side note: i would like to add how different top and boston are despite boston saying they're the same. in episode 2, nick was talking about his passion for animation. he was visibly happy sharing about his interest since boston asked him. i guess, nick perceived this as boston taking an interest on other things about nick that wasn't just about the sex. however, boston wasn't paying attention as he was busy developing the picture he took of nick. the convo ended just like that. this showed nothing mattered to boston; whatever nick likes or dislikes outside of sex doesn't matter to boston.

this is different from top because he did listen to every word mew said (the ice cream convo). so, although yes, top and boston do share some attributes, top is entirely a different person compared to boston. this is why top was so angry when boston said they're the same. top knew too well they aren't.

this act of kindness touched top's heart. i don't think top understood the severity of mew's actions toward him (yet), but this would be one of the reasons why top (will possibly) //sincerely// likes mew in the future.

i honestly have the same response as mew. i legit asked if this is true because really, everything top said in these two episodes, i don't believe him at all. but the glint in top's eyes indicates a different story that was waiting to be read, and who's going to read it well? mew. why? because mew likes to read. he wants to read top. mew wants to know top beyond everything he heard from everyone else. mew wants to understand top through and through (perhaps for his own benefit?).

it's safe to say that top was slightly hurt by mew's words, but it was also something top would've expected. he never told this to anyone/boston since he is top by the way— the best of the best. who would ever believe this confident jock is battling a (petty) fight of his own?

it's a given— this confident facade comes with the price of having no weaknesses— and top knew he couldn't expect much empathy or understanding from mew or anyone. i bet he was a bit confused too; why did i tell mew this? but i guess it has to do with top feeling at ease with mew. he believed mew was giving him options to share at his own pace, never once forcing top to say anything without his will.

mew was doubtful, and i think it's very valid. this also kind of verifies the idea that mew hasn't totally believed in everything top said/did to him, hence the 'reset' agenda mew introduced in their 'relationship'. mew knew all along of top's game, but this was mew confronting top head-on, with sincerity, because top was vulnerable. top was honest for the first time, at least to himself. and what would top get if he lied about his trauma to mew? honestly, i assume, nothing. nothing but mew's trust and love for top— which is everything that top wants from mew in the future.

and mew apologises. that's wonderful. i think that really sparked something in top's heart.

i still have doubts about top and will continue to doubt him until he proves me wrong, but i think he's telling the truth in this scene. why?

this is the first time top outwardly showed his vulnerable side to us; the audience. we've never seen it happen without some kind of obscurity; it's always from mew's perspective that we see the walls top built slowly starting to crack. but at this moment, it's just top, mew and us. he has nowhere to hide, and no one is judging him. mew isn't judging him. and we aren't too. who would judge anyone who's just sharing their problems? i don't think it's fair to do so.

additionally, i think it's another smart directing. p'jojo and p'ninew introduced this scene to us early on so that we know why top ended up doing whatever he will do in the future— it provides an exhibition(s) once topmew's relationship is put into 'trial'. at least, we know that top isn't entirely bad; he's just someone who resorted to sex because he can't sleep. however, that doesn't justify infidelity/dishonesty in any form of relationship.

and it's also interesting how we know mew (and the other characters) are being interviewed in the blue room, which means they (and us, the person behind the camera) are involved in their story too. this is why i said we're more so included in their journey in this series. also, the characters will turn to us to seek validation/answers/confirmation on what they should/will do in the future. i think that's why this scene feels sincere and heart-wrenching because we are present at the moment— we are there to witness top showing a part of himself that he despises; his sleeping problems, not only to mew but the audience.

i like this scene a lot because we get to see mew being the way we all perceive him to be initially; kind, understanding and helpful. these are the traits that bound ray around mew still, and this also will be the reason for top's deep infatuation for mew in the future.

furthermore, when mew offered to sleep next to top, i really see that as an act of kindness. this moment brought out the best side of mew, the gentle and attentive side of him that everyone loves him for (ray especially). so it was a liberating moment for top to have a taste of mew again— not sexually— but this intimacy that transcends the 'comfort' sex can give to top.

at this point, what i can deduce is sex has always been top's 'sleeping pill'. he can spend the whole night fucking someone so that he won't have to close his eyes and surrender to the trauma of 'dying alone'. i guess a part of top is just afraid of being lonely— of not being wanted. that's why he created this confident persona. it's the only way to make people 'desire' him. it's the only way to be valid and wanted by anyone.

but hugging mew— having someone on the bed and not doing anything but cuddling— provides top with the warmth and security he has always wanted and needed. as i said, this will be the main reason why top will hold onto mew— why he likes mew so much— why he's the one crying as mew confronted him of his past 'sins'.

but still, it breaks my heart how top insists that he's fine and he doesn't want mew to worry about him (or see/belittle his flaws to his face). it would hurt top's pride if mew did that. but we all know mew wouldn't. if a person is kind to him— if they respect mew, mew will respect them too.

in fact, mew offered a helping hand—

—in which top quickly agreed.

it's so... sad. it's sad how mew is the one who wanted to know top better; mew is the one who wanted to help top to sleep better; mew is the one who brings out the best in top.

but it's also sad how this won't be easy for top because boston is still around; his sexual needs aren't yet fulfilled; his ego is constantly challenged by mew and boston; top resorting to boston as boston has always been the easiest 'way out' to make top feel in control again. top is so afraid of losing control of himself and his surroundings that he knows— fucking and having boston in his life will always provide him with a sense of power and stability.

and that's just heart-shattering to me.

side note: i guess, when top and boston have sex in the car next week, it might be because of top's frustration. he feels like a loser because mew is constantly toppling his ego and top just can't take that from mew. he feels so powerless and challenged by mew's firmness. why? because mew is his weakness. and top is slowly realising whatever mew said to him during the laser tag game was true. perhaps, top was in a state of denial; he was trying to discredit his feelings for mew, not wanting to believe it is not more than ' i think i like you' but merely 'i just want to fuck you'. this will fuck top up so badly and thus— boston is there at his service. boston will say that he's right all along and mew isn't interested in top and he's already losing in this game. so top takes boston in because, with boston, he'll always win. //this breaks my heart...

damn. i'm just... shattered... at this point. this checklist thing is driving me to the edge. goodness. mew. top. you guys are killing me.

how topmew's relationship will play out; a prediction

i would like to share my assumption on how the first half of topmew's relationship will unfold (episodes 3 to 6).

in episode 3, i think it'll be the start of mew discovering top and boston's secret relationship (the car sex will be crucial evidence in the future).

since p'book said episode 4 will be spicy, i have a feeling their first time will be in episodes 4/5 as mew might 'change' his strategy now by allowing top to have 'his way' with mew.

then, episode 5 will be topmew's 'honeymoon' phase when they're finally coming to terms with their feelings. the shower scene we see in the trailer might be in episodes 4-5 too since top said, "before, when i had sex with someone else, my only concern was if i orgasmed. but with mew, i want to make you as happy as possible." i guess this line is spoken before they have sex (to make mew believe that mew is always going to be top's priority). but it can also be after they had sex too.

i read a tweet that said forcebook love episode 6 the most. p'force said it is the climax so i'm guessing it's when the confrontation scene will take place. mew might've saw something relating to topboston's relationship (the photobooth picture that nick has? i think nick might show it to mew just because nick wants boston to stop meeting top), so he lashes out at top right there and then, perhaps no longer believing in anything top tries to justify.

and i think after episode 6 ends, it'll be the start of the intense drama, not only between topmew but other pairs as well. also, this marks the beginning of mew's transformation.

but again, these are just assumptions that i made. hehe

conclusion

it's fascinating to see how top sheds the confident side of him— the most important aspect of his personality— to mew, the person top wanted to win over. i like this vulnerability top showed to mew. it kind of solidifies the idea that top will cave into mew more and more in the future, and that dependency will turn into deep love— i want to believe top will love mew so much that he can't live without mew anymore. cue those heartbreaks because i'm so excited to see top breaking apart.

i honestly think i can no longer write a coherent and good topmew discussion post because they're just confusing and baffling me in every episode. however, if i ever want to highlight some important parts i see in an episode, i will try my best to pen them down. i apologise for this thought vomit :(

[1 | 2 | 3 | 4 (i) | 4 (ii) | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12]

[teaandinanity]

7KPP Week, Day 1: Background (remix)

Fair warning to my followers, it is that time again and I'm gonna be posting Nonsense for the next week (if the executives function and I manage to be productive) or at least a few days of it (if the executives are typically dysfunctional).

Putting this under a cut because just the blather is Long and then the ficlet for Baby Weaver Valya is Longer.

Day 1's prompts were

What is your character's background and why did you pick it? How do they feel about it? If you've talked about this before, you can instead consider the following: Have you considered using an existing MC for one of the secret backgrounds? Is there another background you think might be interesting for your MC? Elements of another background you could incorporate into them for an AU?

Calanthia is a Widow because I wanted a Katyia's Legacy MC and found Widow easiest to min/max. Valeriya came into existence because I did Lyon’s date on Calanthia just to see what it was like and immediately said ‘oh no’ because it is My Exact Jam. Then I went ‘… does he still say you’re a good person if you are Entirely Morally Neutral’ and then the answer was YES and I got brainworms SO bad. Valya hates pretty much everything about being a Widow because everything about her backstory is worse than Calanthia’s. Anthy’s parents are bumbling idiots with no financial or political acumen but she and her siblings figured out how to manage them by the time she was like 13. Valya’s parents are genuinely bad people made infinitely worse by unhappiness with their circumstances and are cruel to each other and their children and the next-oldest of her siblings actively hates her and tries to ruin her life on a regular basis. Anthy’s marriage was of course mercenary but it was also mutually beneficial and she and her husband were friends. Valya’s marriage was a nightmare; she was justifiably terrified going in, she was way too young, she went through with it mostly because she knew she’d outlive him even if she had to get blood on her hands to make sure of it and because otherwise her mother (who hated her a lot for being ‘the reason’ she had to marry her husband and therefore also ‘the reason’ her life has sucked so much since) would have seen her married to less advantage and to someone she really would have been shackled to for the rest of her inevitably-much-shortened life. Anthy is older and well-adjusted. Valya is still in her teens, traumatized, and just DESPERATELY wants to be safe. The main thing they have in common is that they fall in love and go ‘oh no.’

I’ve considered making Valeriya a Weaver, and I really want to try that once the secret backgrounds are in the game! It’s interesting to consider how DIFFERENT her life would have been if her mother had NOT married her father and just gone off to the countryside and then sent her oops baby away to be raised by her sister in Arland. Valya would be so much more well-adjusted under those circumstances, so she’s probably much happier and way less tentative with Lyon.

Probably also less careful in general, and more apt to meddle, so I imagine there’s at least one extra assassination attempt. The rest of her life probably looks very similar, though; after her marriage, even a very traumatized Valya grows into her new life and eventually feels very happy and safe.

I’ve also considered making Anthy a Weaver because I think it would be fun to do Jasper’s romance on a Weaver. I have considered making her a Historian for the same reason and because that would make the ‘you don’t have to act. I will.’ line hit like a TRAIN. We'll see how I feel about all of that once the secret BGs are in; the one I'm sure of is that I'll be trying Weaver Valya.

With that initial meta babbling out of the way:

On to the Fic!

She isn’t in the least Arlish and she is made to know it very young. She doesn’t mind, though; she looks like her aunt, and her uncle looks at both of them like they’re marvelous.

The fifth time she is allowed to attend a dinner party with her guardians, the first time she is permitted to separate from both of them to play with a few of the other children present, one of the other guests says something unkind. Valeriya hardly notices; the lady isn’t very important, and her opinion is so much hot air. But the other children freeze, and look at her, and she realizes she has to respond. Valeriya raises her chin the way she has seen her aunt do and says,

“I see why you’ve come over to play with the children, Lady T--- - you certainly still need a governess to teach you manners.”

It’s not the graceful set-down her aunt might have managed, but she’s nine. And the adults close enough to overhear all seem to feel, nonetheless, that she’s won the bout, especially when the lady flushes and flounders and can’t seem to come up with a rejoinder.

When they leave, her aunt slips her a few dried cranberries, clearly a reward, and her uncle puts a warm hand on the crown of her head with an approving smile.

“Well done, little Valiant.”

Her aunt laughs and asks why he’s never given her an Arlish nickname drawing him into a bantering conversation that means Valeriya doesn't have to respond. Instead, she considers the name. It’s a nice gift. She likes it.

Courage isn’t a virtue often ascribed to Arlish girls, but then--

She’s not Arlish.

--

Aunt Eleonora has been away for a week visiting friends. That’s what she said when she left, at least – that she was going to visit two of her friends. It may or may not be true; it’s entirely possible that she is instead averting an international incident, or perhaps even causing one, but if it’s either of those, she didn’t see fit to mention it to Valeriya prior to her departure, and Valeriya didn’t notice any of the usual signs and appurtenances of an aunt intending to involve herself in something exciting.

Regardless, factually, Aunt Eleonora is presently from home. In her absence, Uncle Earnest is the one who receives the post.

He isn’t the type to open anything addressed specifically to his wife. He’s good like that. Eleonora genuinely loves him because he’s good like that. Also because he doesn’t ask too many questions if someone turns up dead somewhere she’s recently been, even if it’s someone he knows her to have been profoundly annoyed with. Valeriya honestly cannot tell if he deliberately cultivates a certain ignorance or if it has simply never occurred to him – a good man, in the pure and simple manner of a friendly dog – that his wife may occasionally moonlight in murder.

It likely helps that Aunt Eleonora is scarcely taller or broader than Valeriya, who at fourteen is far from finished growing, and has wide, innocent eyes that she can use to great effect. Aunt Eleonora isn’t what people imagine when they picture a murderer. It’s not as if she does the thing with her own hands, but she’s certainly culpable for at least two deaths, and that’s just the ones Valeriya knows about.

Valeriya feels that she probably ought to disapprove of that. Probably.

In principle, certainly, she disapproves of murder.

Duke Adam absolutely deserved it, though; she spoke to the maid who was serving them while they visited and she’d have swung a poker at the back of his head herself if she’d thought a twelve-year-old girl could muster sufficient force to do the thing in a sufficiently decided fashion to effect the desired result. Whoever her aunt arranged to deliver the blow had significantly more arm strength than Valya can ever personally aspire to. Might’ve been one of the stable boys, but in this case, Valeriya elected to cultivate her own willful ignorance so that dropped hints would elicit only the truest blank incomprehension.

Aunt Eleonora approved; it doesn’t do to cause problems for the people willing to do your dirty work.

Cold-blooded murder generally ought to be avoided. Of course it ought. Occasionally, however, someone thinks power will insulate them from the consequences of being a horrible person. Aunt Eleonora does not think that ought to be the case.

Valeriya can't bring herself to disagree, and so she cannot disapprove of her aunt's inclination, in such instances, to be a surgical implement that excises such cancer from the body of their adoptive nation.

Valeriya once overheard one of her aunt’s friends imply it was the Revairan in them, and of course their birth nation has acquired a certain reputation for bloody hands and ruthlessness. It’s a silly conclusion, though.

She’s overheard enough conversations in the halls of power, sheltering in her aunt’s shadow. She knows how cheaply Arlish nobles hold the lives of a hundred, even a thousand, peasants. They pretend to be appalled by the bloody purges in their neighbor, but dressing suffering and sacrifice up in courtly manners and talk of duty doesn’t reduce the resultant suffering. Pretty words don’t make their own victims any less dead.

Valeriya has been informed she is not allowed at court again until she’s better at keeping her face as still as her tongue. She’s good at being quiet. She’s less-skilled, apparently, in keeping her judgmental disapprobation from showing when people are being overtly terrible right in front of her at dinner.

In any case, for reasons benign or otherwise, her aunt is from home, and thus it is Uncle Earnest who receives the post.

Valeriya saw the envelope; the direction was only to this house, not to her aunt specifically. It came from Revaire.

Likely more bad news; the news from Revaire is never really good. The most recent round of purges seems to be over, but the current regime won their throne with blood and have shed significantly more to maintain it. The internal unrest has made them uneasy neighbors, although Valya personally thinks that the turmoil makes them unlikely to actually have the strength to threaten other nations, particularly Arland; with the marriage alliances currently in place, anyone attacking Arland is liable to find themselves facing the combined armies of three nations on the field.

Her aunt has been upset by much of what they’ve heard, although not upset enough to set up reprisals against anyone. Valya sympathizes somewhat, but she doesn’t know anyone in Revaire, not the way her aunt does. Aunt Eleonora grew up there, and does not entirely despise her family. Valeriya wasn’t even born in the ancestral home of their family, and was fetched across the border with a wetnurse before she was two weeks old.

The conviction that it is bad news is borne out by the way her uncle acts when he comes back out of his study. He spends much of lunch very overtly not staring at her, and much of the afternoon passing by the doorway while their governess oversees their history lesson – or rather, while Valeriya is engaged in the process of a takeover, because she’s better-read on Katyia and the first Summit than Miss Henrietta, and she loves this subject, and Merit is asking questions which Henrietta is not equipped to answer without consulting reference materials but which Valeriya knows by heart.

He finally does address her, when Henrietta has taken Merit off to help her dress for dinner – an indignity she, at ten, has not yet escaped, but which Valeriya, at the advanced age of fourteen, has been long-since liberated from.

(Merit likes people helping her dress. Valeriya personally prefers to see to her own affairs. Aunt Eleonora says Merit is well-adapted to life in Arland, but she says it with a certain tone that carefully contains no disappointment; there’s a reason she takes Valeriya with her on some of her visits but almost always leaves Merit at home, and it’s not solely down to their respective ages.)

“Valya, dear,” Uncle Earnest says, sad-eyed as a hound dog, soft-voiced. Yes, assuredly bad news. She finds herself more curious than trepidatious, but holds herself very still and looks up at him. Not so far, though, not anymore.

“I’m so sorry,” he tells her gently. “Your mother is dead.”

For half a heartbeat, all she feels is confused.

She doesn’t have a mother. She has an aunt and an uncle and two cousins. But she takes her cue from her uncle’s expression even before she's really managed to make herself understand the information: She ought to be upset. She pushes her face into something more appropriate than blank incomprehension, wide eyes and raised brows, a soft mouth, and her uncle – a good man to his bones – reaches for her shoulder, offering contact, and then folding her into a comforting hug that she receives with real gratitude when she leans into it.

It lets her hide her face and think.

She has never met her mother. Well, she must have, after a fashion, but not really. Not as a person rather than a squalling larvae full of needs rather than thoughts. Now, she supposes, she never will.

Should that upset her?

She feels very little about the matter. A stranger is dead. Many strangers die every day; she is only moderately bothered about it, in general.

In this case…

Maybe it's awful, but she thinks she may be a little relieved. She can never be made to leave this life, which is comfortable and familiar, and be taken away to a strange place simply because the people there have a claim on her by being her nearest blood kin.

She will have to be careful not to let that show.

--

Aunt Eleonora tries, the year she turns sixteen, to talk to her about boys. About trouble girls can get into, liking boys.

Valeriya realizes, repulsed,

“Is this because Baron Cammus’s son was being stupid at me?”

It’s safe, here, to be so gracelessly blunt; they’re alone in Aunt Eleonora’s private parlor, and she’s allowed to be both honest and overt here, the way she never allows herself in public anymore. She doesn’t bother to hide her absolute revulsion, and Aunt Eleonora laughs.

There’s a note of relief in it.

“Ah, I should have known better. You won’t make your mother’s mistake.”

Her mother sent her away because she’s a bastard. She was lucky that she had family who could easily take her in to raise her up to the same station in life as her kin, rather than dumping her at an orphanage. She’s not ignorant enough not to have some idea what might have happened to her, if she hadn’t been lucky.

“I won’t,” she swears.

--

“I want to go to the Summit,” she tells her aunt.

Eleonora looks at her consideringly.

“You’re a touch young for it,” she muses, “but Arland does prefer to send girls who are young and pretty. In theory at least, Arlish girls who attend are supposed to know they’ve a duty to marry for the benefit of their nation, and it’s easier to persuade them of that if they’re too young to have formed any real opinions on the matter.”

Valeriya keeps her face perfectly still but for the slightest quirk of one brow, and her aunt inclines her head.

“I do think you might do well. Prove it to me, dear.”

She could ensure Valya got a spot on the delegation, but winning her own place is a test of her abilities. A test to see if she truly would do well with the opportunity. She feels a spark of satisfaction; she’d expected as much, and she does like to be correct. She presents the letter – penned by the queen’s secretary, but signed and sealed by her highness’s own hand – and her aunt smiles, bright and broad and ferocious.

--

Her aunt is happy to be seeing her off; she has a few errands for her niece to attend to on Vail Isle, and instructions on the precise wording she should use greeting Wellin’s chaperone, and encouragement to stretch her wings. Her uncle is actually crying a bit.

Well; he’s Arlish. He might actually think she means to make a miserable marriage for herself. It’s what nearly every other girl Arland has ever sent to the Summit does, including their paragon of a princess just seven years past.

He hugs her, and she hugs him back.

“Make us proud, Little Valiant.”

It’s still not at all a girlish Arlish virtue, but it is one she wants to embody. With the political situation so tenuous, with the way she intends to get involved, she will need to be brave.

"I will," she promises.