#i'm probably gonna be annoying and reblog this post quite a few times

[enoughtotemptme]

call my name (it feels like home)

Chrissy wants to fuck her best friend and she’s kind of having a crisis about it.

(A story about prom and getting to happily ever after, or whatever.)

NOW COMPLETE.

Chapters: 10/10 Rating: Explicit Relationship: Chrissy Cunningham/Eddie Munson Additional Tags: Alternate Universe, Best Friends, Friends to Lovers, Idiots in Love/Idiots to Lovers, Mutual Pining, Humor, Fluff, Prom, Meddling Kids, Explicit Sexual Content, Alternating POV

EPILOGUE: HAPPILY EVER AFTER OR WHATEVER

Light and noise slam into Eddie like a wall the second he lets himself into his own damn apartment, and he nearly trips over a small mountain of shoes. They’re not his—he’d learned early on that he had to put his shoes away in the teeny coat closet or else he would trip on the damn things, just like now. And he definitely didn’t leave the lights on like this. He hardly ever uses them, just so he can save on the electric bill.

The noise—well, no one can accuse Eddie Munson’s home of being a quiet place, but it usually only reaches these decibels when he’s in residence.

“Bunch of heathens,” he mutters, adding his own work boots to the pile. He rounds the corner into the small room that doubles as a living and dining space and the source of the noise gets even louder when he appears. Mrs. Mangone even bangs on her ceiling in protest, but Eddie ignores it—she always forgives him when he helps her get canned goods down from her highest shelf in her kitchen.

“Eddie!” Henderson yells, followed by a chorus from the rest of their friends, and the smile he’s been smothering since he walked in the door finally escapes.

The kid goes for a hug and gets a headlock and noogie before Eddie finally lets him off with a slap on the back, only to be toppled by Sinclair, Little Wheeler, and Mayfield flinging themselves at him all at once. He’s not convinced Max was going for a hug so much as gleefully trying to take him down, but the effect is the same—a bunch of dumb kids he loves piling onto him because they love him enough to make the trek from Indiana to Chicago and see him play.

[read the completed story on ao3]

[crows-of-buckets]

finally deciding to make an about me post yippee yay!!

Hi my name is Crow! Most of what I reblog is fandom stuff, and I jump between fandoms quite frequently <//3 I have a few that I tend to come back to regularly however (Somehow I manage to have a dragon age obsession at least once a year. it is very consistent)

If I don't respond to something, it is either bc 1) I genuinely don't know what to say and social interactions terrify me, 2) I was too tired to respond to something when I saw it then I promptly forgot about it or 3) got anxious and convinced myself that the person who sent it hates me or something. Deepest apologies I'm just awful at stuff like that and have pretty bad anxiety I do try though <//3

I block very very generously! If you do end up blocked by me it may not be for any actually bad reasons, you could have just worded something in a way that mildly annoyed me, please dont take offense to it lmao. Me and the block button are madly in love, and I do not hesitate to press it. This is mostly just to curate an experience that is fun for me, and also to avoid me getting overly mad about random bad takes i see. Bigotry of any kind is not tolerated and you will be blocked.

I tend to ramble on about my ocs a worrying amount. As of right now, I am rather focused on my dragon age ocs, but i also have personal ocs and ocs for other fandoms

About tagging

Generally I try to tag things appropriately, although sometimes i am not the brightest and forget. If I do that's my bad I'll normally notice before too long

I tag all my art as "#my art". If you only want my art stuff, I have an alt that is solely for reblogging all my art. That is @bucket-of-crows

My rambling tag is "#crow rambles" half the time this is me yapping about my ocs, other half is me complaining about something lmao

I tag my ocs using "oc: *oc name*" as a way to organize stuff. I also use "worldstate: *worldstate name*" for dragon age worldstates, since I have a few. Any posts I make about my ocs/oc playthroughs is tagged "#my ocs"

While I don't tend to reblog sexual stuff, anything with excessive nudity is tagged as "#nsfw" just to be on the safe side

I tag all Dragon age: The Veilguard spoilers as "#dav spoilers" I will probably continue to tag this as spoilers for a while. I also tag anything critical of the game as "#dav critical" Anything critical of other dragon age games / bioware as a company is typically tagged "#bioware critical" or "#da critical"

About my ocs

Im gonna ramble about my ocs a bit, so I'll put this under a cut so this doesnt look too long lmao

I accidentally posted this instead of saving to my drafts so this section isn't done my bad

Aviae Surana

(she/her)

Aviae is my main dragon age origins oc, and I talk about her quite a bit. Shes specializes in spirit healing/arcane warrior/battle mage. Technically she also takes a little bit of levels into keeper, but I don't really consider it one of her canon class since I never use it with her like I do the others.

She romances Morrigan, and does the dark ritual with her. She puts Alistair on the throne due to her distrust of Anora. She feels guilty about it, but she would do it again in a heartbeat. Her closest friends from Origins are Zevran and Alistair, but she considers all of the people she traveled with dear friends. From the Awakening crew, Anders is practically family to her (they grew up in the Circle together, and shes always considered him like a brother), and Nathaniel becomes someone she ends up relying on. Her and Justice also get along very well, even if they butt heads on occasion.

For important decisions, she sided with the mages, made Bhelen king of Orzammar, made a truce between the Dalish and the werewolves, helped Redcliffe and saved Connor without Isolde dying. She kept Avernus alive (I'm still in the air about whether she allows him to continue his research), let the Architect live as well, and saved Amaranthine. Vigil's keep stood its ground with the upgrades she had provided it.

This is my girl! Sadly I don't have a better reference for her current canon outfit (she has an old outdated reference sheet though), so this will have to do.

In some of the older posts, I refer to her and Alistair as exes. Sadly, while this is a fascinating dynamic, it is not canon anymore. As much as I love Alistair, Aviae would not trust him enough to fall in love with him due to him having trained as a templar. Eventually they become close friends, but never more than that. She is part of my "Mage rights" Worldstate. I tag all of her posts as "oc: Aviae Surana"

Wolfe Amell

(he/him)

Lucio Hawke

(he/they) (probably) (its not like hes figured it out yet lmao)

Selene Adaar

(she/her)

Revari Mercar-Surana

(they/them)

Ena de Riva

(he/him)

Tyrian

(he/him)

Varamis

(she/her)

Other Ocs

Some ocs I either don't have a lot of content for, or dont post about enough to warrant me giving them their own section, so I'm going to put their tags down here. All posts about my ocs are tagged as "#my ocs". Some of these ocs may eventually get full sections if I get the motivation for it

Athiman Mahariel (he/him) (Dragon Age)- Morrigan romancer who made the ultimate sacrifice. Tagged as "#oc: Athiman Mahariel"

Veloura Mahariel (she/her) (Dragon Age)- Leliana romancer who got Alistair to do the dark ritual. Tagged as "#oc: Veloura Mahariel"

Viara Hawke (she/her) (Dragon Age)- Merrill romancer who sided with the mages. Tagged as "#oc: Viara Hawke"

Yvette Hawke (she/her) (Dragon Age)- Isabela romancer who sided with the mages. Tagged as "#oc: Yvette Hawke"

Zel (he/him) (Dragon Age)- Part of Selene's mercenary group. Has an au where he's Inquisitor, but that one isn't canon. Dorian romance. Tagged as "#oc: zel adaar"

Vashoth (she/her) (Dragon Age)- Part of Selene's mercenary group. Tagged as "#oc: vashoth"

Solmummer Adaar (she/her) (Dragon Age)- Josephine romancer. Tagged as "#oc: Solmummer Adaar"

Tyrian (he/him) (Pathfinder WOTR)- Tiefling, Daeran romancer, Lawful good turned Neutral good. Mystic path went from Angel to Legend path. I do actually have a lot of posts about him I just don't feel like writing a blurb about him <//3 I do adore him though. Tagged as "#oc: tyrian"

Uvara (she/her) (Pathfinder WOTR)- Dhampir, Arueshalae romancer, Chaotic Good, Azata. Tagged as "#oc: uvara"

Watcher Nyxtra (she/her) (Pillars of Eternity)- Pallegina romancer (the lack of a canon romance cannot stop me), tagged as "#oc: watcher nyxtra"

Arphae (she/her)

Grisvald (he/him)

Kaid (he/him)

Zayan (she/her)

[naniskys]

thanks for the tag @sollucets i loved reading ur answers !!! 🫶🫶 i've been a little ia lately + busy with irl things but i'm slowly trying to work through the backlog of tag games 😅

1. why did you choose your url?

it's from the french words "la monnaie," which basically means small change. i found the word amusing when i first learnt it a while ago and i've been using it as a username practically everywhere ever since :]

2. any sideblogs? name them and why you have them

technically no? i set up the ao3 feed for the dangerous romance tag on a sideblog pretty much just for my own convenience, but that doesn't rlly count lol

3. how long have you been on tumblr?

i've been lurking on tumblr since ~2015, when you could actually use the website pretty functionally even without an account, but i only made this account in 2020.

4. do you have a queue tag?

i do! it's just "q" (although it's empty right now because i haven't been on much 😩😩)

5. why did you start your blog in the first place?

i finally made a tumblr account after 5 yrs of lurking because of this one niche movie that had somewhat of a fandom on here and i wanted to interact lol

6. why did you choose your icon?

because fairy lights !! they're pretty :))

(i use this icon everywhere as well as my url, i think i've only ever changed it once on here)

7. why did you choose your header?

i had to go back and check my blog because i genuinely didn't remember what my header was 😭😭 but it's just a cute gif off of google that i picked coz i liked it :)

8. what’s your post with the most notes?

apparently this post about akkayan and raysand??? guess that answers the shitposts question as well LMAO

9. how many mutuals do you have?

quite a few !! is there any way of actually finding out the number? i have no clue, but if someone follows me i tend to check out their blog and if we have similar interests i'll follow back :] that being said, probably around 30-ish who i've actually interacted with beyond mutual liking and rbing hehe

10. how many followers do you have?

382!

11. how many people do you follow?

486 - definitely need to do a clean out tho because i follow a lot of random blogs from interests long gone by

12. have you ever made a shitpost?

yes lol

13. how often do you use tumblr each day?

it depends honestly, sometimes several times a day for several hours (😭), other times i'll go a day or two without opening it <//3

14. have you had a fight/argument with another blog?

nah, if i don't agree with something i'll just unfollow and/or block

15. how do you feel about ‘you need to reblog this’ posts?

very unnecessary, i get that there's good intention behind it but it's honestly just annoying to see and will actively make me not reblog it 😭 (or at the very least i'll go back and rb a version without the addition)

16. do you like tag games?

HELL YEAH, i love yapping about things 🥰🥰

17. do you like ask games?

yesss they're so much fun !!!! (that being said, my askbox is so wonky that it never saves my posts as i'm writing and then it'll randomly crash and i just the ask altogether????)

18. which of your mutuals do you think is tumblr famous?

hmm i have no concept of tumblr famousness but just looking through my moots there's quite a few who i feel are pretty well known???

that being said, gonna give a shoutout to dee @distant-screaming who is the most famous person ever to me because i love love love their fics so much 😭😭😭 like have i ever fully watched nlmg? nope. do i still constantly go back and read her palmnueng fics? absolutely.

19. do you have a crush on a mutual?

no i wouldn't say so :) i admire a lot of people on here and i love all my mutuals <33 (but in a platonic way hehe)

20. tags?

i feel like people have done this already (so no pressure + pls tag me in ur post if u've already done it !!) but tagging @dramalets @distant-screaming @winnysatang @hellswolfie @blackstar-gazer <33

[subbyfoxelf]

ships i ship the hardest

one of the things i've always loved about tumblr, and a big part of why i'm so happy to be back, is that (and yes i know i'm dating myself here) it feels like a spiritual successor to livejournal. and frankly, i fucking miss livejournal something fierce.

so it seems like a bit of a waste to just reblog stuff & write the same reviews of media i've been writing wherever my online presence has existed for the last half decade or so. it's about time i get into that really cringe bullshit that i always used to post on livejournal. and this seems like exactly the kind of thing I woulda posted on there back in the day.

cringe is dead, long live cringe.

now, just to set some limitations on myself so this post doesn't become totally unreasonable (just reasonably unreasonable), i'm going to make a genuine effort to limit myself to one entry per show/game/whatever (i fully reserve the right to just flagrantly ignore this limitation when i so choose). i will also mostly focus on couples rather than just putting all my favorite characters in a giant polycule. cool? cool.

(cw: some of these characters will have canon age gaps and/or are minors in some canons, just assume there's an element of au-ification or time skipping here. cool? cool.)

sontails

my profile on every social media site used to include "and yet, be it cruel or comforting, this machine unerringly writes sontails angst & fluff. that's what it does." so, yeah.

i also happen to believe that they're in a big ol' gay polycule with shads & knux, and recently i've especially had QUITE A FEW THOUGHTS about shadtails (do i share that fic here? hmm. i'll think about it.)

but yeah. for me, sontails has always been the central relationship of this franchise, even before I shipped it. i got super annoyed when the franchise did dumb shit like when sonic x gave chris almost exclusively emotional beats that should've gone to tails, or when sonic unleashed gave sonic a substitute sidekick (ok tbf i was already a shipper by the time i played unleashed), or just the games increasingly deemphasizing their relationship in general.

but, yeah. probably needless to say, this one is super important to me.

godzilla/mothra

godzilla is a bratty bottom, mothra smacks him around every now & then when he gets out of line. this is just canon.

riker/worf

a lot of this is just the fact that frakes' charisma is totally off the charts, and riker is such an outspokenly openminded dude that you can kind of imagine that literally every single conversation he has with a sentient, physically compatible, appropriately-aged character has a non-zero chance of ending with them in bed. he's like a non-predatory kirk. just total throwback pulp-inspired sexually adventurous explorer dude.

and as worf is canonically his best friend, and we see several instances of them sharing a deep, emotional bond, it's kind of hard NOT to at least see possibilities for shipping here.

what really cemented this for me was when we got to season 2 in our most recent tng rewatch. this is a season that early on features riker being extremely excited to serve aboard a klingon ship as part of an officer exchange (to learn about his boyfriend's culture!), and closes with the scene i screencapped at the top of this entry of riker making worf his first officer during the wargames. also somewhere in there riker joins worf on the holodeck for his klingon calisthenics program. they just do everything together, it's so sweet.

also worf dating troi towards the end of tng & riker having clearly had a fling with dax in thomas riker's ds9 appearance really put the icing on this polycule. it's basically just canon. if picard season 3 doesn't give these two some good moments together it's gonna have some 'splainin' to do.

catdora

yes, yes, i'm being boring and shipping a canon couple. here's the thing, though. i literally started watching this show because i knew the central protagonist & antagonist were canonically gay for each other and i'm sorry but i fucking love that shit.

every time catra captures or beats up adora i feel squirmy. and then catra shows up to princess prom in a messy tux and homoerotically/threateningly dances with adora culminating in dipping her??? and guys, my little gay heart can't take it. it's too yummy. HELP.

but then season 5 happens and there's that agonizing apology AND THE RESCUE??? where a swordless adora nevertheless transforms into she-ra THROUGH SHEER FORCE OF GAY WILL & GAY ANGER to protect her kitten???? and i'm sorry, THIS IS EVERYTHING I'VE EVER WANTED OUT OF MAINSTREAM MEDIA, PUT THIS GAY STUFF DIRECTLY INTO MY VEINS.

so yeah i kinda ship them or whatever.

adiray

yeah, yeah, i’m being boring and shipping another canon couple. but i'm sorry??? they're the first trans/nonbinary characters in the history of star trek??? and they're dating each other??? and they're part of a big queer chosen family???

also the episode where we first meet gray is just one of the best episodes of the whole damn franchise? the scene where all of tal's past hosts embrace adira is just so fucking wonderful. and then once gray is literally brought back from the dead he picks just the most epic, wonderful nurturing life direction.

i love these two so much and i want them to be so happy & safe. protecc at all costs!!

lumity

i mean yeah again they're canon but fuck you i only recently started actually getting canon queer couples in shit i watch!!

but yeah seeing these two bring out the best in each other and just being absolute badasses whenever they're fighting to protect each other and also they're powerful witches, just, YEAH this shit rules. and they're so dang sweet.

flick/cj

i'm not nearly as into cj as i am into my beautiful enby punk/goth lizard boy, but i gotta admit they're hella cute together and i want flick to have all the happiness their little gay scalie heart can contain!!!

karai/leo

this is basically down to the fact that in literally every iteration of the two characters, karai bullies the fuck outta leo, and as someone who used to intensely relate to leo because he’s got “the good kid” syndrome something fierce, obviously i always enjoyed seeing her be all femdommy towards him.

nowadays, i tend to relate to donatello more than leo, but i still really enjoy every iteration of karai playing with her food with leo.

also, honorable mention to karai & april from the 2012 cgi series. the episode where karai beats the shit outta april definitely made me feel feelings the first time i saw it. and every time karai defeats or captures her she always calls her “princess” & is all condescending in general, and it’s just, fuuuuuuuuck, it’s SO gay.

also also obviously i ship basically every combination of the four turtles. i mean, duh.

russian winter

i was shocked when rewatching babylon 5 a few years ago how upfront the show was about the relationship between commander susan ivanova & talia winters. in her last appearance on the show, talia slept with ivanova, and in a later episode when everyone on the crew has to tell a deep, personal secret ivanova says that she loved talia. considering we’re talking about the 90s here, that was pretty fucking explicit.

and yeah, there’s an unfinished fic sitting on one of my harddrives about ivanova rescuing her. maybe i’ll try to get back to that at some point, idk! i haven’t been writing much fic lately.

jake sisko/t’lir

jake sisko/enby vulcan, jake sisko/enby vulcan, JAKE SISKO/ENBY VULCAN.

aragorn/legolas/gimli

it’s that thing where you take a very homosocial book and add expanded roles for some of its female characters to make it less homosocial but you change exactly nothing about how emotionally intimate the homosocial relationships are and also both gay people & people who are more conscious of the fact that gay people exist watch your movie, so like, yeah this is kinda inevitable?

gashir

i don’t even give a shit about bashir when he isn’t interacting with garak. he might as well be a non-character.

i fucking love garak he is such an amazing bratty dom. i love watching him play with his food (his food being bashir).

milippa

i mean, burnham has more feelings about georgiou than she does about any of her actual on-screen romantic partners, whether it’s for her gentle mommy domme prime universe georgiou or her badass mean domme mirror universe georgiou. i like michael with book, don’t get me wrong, it’s just hard for me to get as excited for heterosexual relationships as i do for queer headcanons, especially when one of the two participants is a mommy domme.

jaydick

i’m not super invested in this one, especially since it requires dick to be a service top and i think he’s at his most natural as a bottom, but yeah their dynamic has always been pretty charged to the point that the first gay fic i ever wrote was about these two.

[plagueislost]

Hii, for the artist ask game: number 4 and 10 is something I'd love to know :3

i wrote A LOT for this ask, sorry! i wanted to do the questions justice, yknow how it is.

4. piece you wish got more love?

Ive found from experience that original art tends to not do very well on social media, which kind of makes me sad. It's not much of a problem for me (because most of the stuff i post is fanart anyways) but i can't help but think that part of the reason i rarely ever draw original pieces or make OCs is because of the lack of feedback i get on social media. I know tumblr is supposed to be the fandom website, and maybe id have a different experience on another site, but it is disappointing when i post something original that I'm very proud of and it barely manages to get more than 20 notes, whereas something i like less easily surpasses 100 just because of the tags i put on it. i think the most recent example of this is this piece, which admittedly did get quite a few notes for an original piece, but definitely would have gotten more had it been fanart of the same caliber. this is also not to blame anyone or make anyone feel bad about not reblogging original art (god knows im guilty of that too, and art piggybacking off the popularity of other works of art are of course gonna get more notes), its just something ive noticed from my time on social media.

10. how do you deal with artblock?

i dont get art block very often, but when i do, its ANNOYING. it mostly manifests in me having a bunch of motivation for a part of my process that i cant get to without doing the stuff i have no desire to do (does that make any sense?). like, ill have a strong urge to render an artwork, but no ongoing WIPs that are at that stage, meaning i would have to sketch and color and shade a whole new piece before i could satiate that urge, or do the steps out of order which could mess up the flow and end look of a project. when i get like this, i find its best to try and translate those desires into different activities and take a step away from art. for example:

if i want to sketch, but nothing comes out right digitally, ill find a scrap piece of paper and a crappy pen and make thumbnails until i cant think of any other iterations of the ideas in my head. if one of them turns out good, ill take a picture and transfer it into my software, but only go over it a day or so later so i can have fresh eyes.

if i want to color, but i have no sketches currently ready for coloring, ill go into my photo editing program, find some random old photos that i never edited, and post-process them until i get something im happy with.

if i want to shade, but have no colored artworks ready for that, ill usually do a study of a photo ive taken, because most of the time me shading is really me wanting to see how light and shadow interact in certain scenarios. i actually did a whole AP portfolio on that because i liked shading and lighting so much!

if i want to render, but ive got no pieces ready for rendering, i find its easiest just to find a tedious activity where i can be a perfectionist but also feel like im the smartest person in the world. this generally turns into me cooking some big meal because its constantly engaging but also not that difficult. i know its probably weird for it to not have anything to do with art but this is just what works best for me, and i get the bonus of a nice meal at the end of it!

if i get the more classic kind of art block where everything sucks and nothing i make is good, i find its best to go back to the media that inspires me to make art, and not worry too much about having made something by the end of it. generally the media that inspires me ends up, well, inspiring me, and i can remind myself that art is a voluntary practice that i do because its fun, not because i want something out of it. if it doesnt manage to inspire me, thats okay, i can just tell myself im taking a break and live life for a bit.

i hope that was helpful, and i really enjoyed answering these questions! if anyone else wants to ask a question, the artist ask game is here.

[riallasheng]

Thanks for DMing me, as my notifs once again failed me XD

I pinged you for the bingo card game: The show got it wrong); They should have done it on the show. TOS and TAG. I'm always looking forward to your insights!!! Honestly, I'd ask you to do the whole bingo!

Aw, I hope you get power back soon! (Also, hoping you are well) What I'll do is the Show got it wrong: TOS, 2004, and TAG then I'll doa reblog of EVERYTHING ELSE ... probably in a few chunks cause big XD

As promised, the start of big reply!!

My general plan is that each chunk will be one vertical row, and I'll be doing TOS, 04, and TaG for each. Let me know what you want me to do for the Free Space ^^

I'm tackling Should have Done It In the Show in this one Show Got it Wrong will be in the next one ^^

Readmore deployed!

-They Should have Done It In The Show

TOS: Hmmm... with this I'd say "done what the novels and comics did", where we got to see more family interactions, unusual rescues, and Gordon and John getting to get UP to more. But above all else, instances of IR / the Tracys FAILING. Sometimes just an initial loss that they recovered and rallied from, but sometimes just flat out 'we lost / we didn't succeed'. To me, having loses makes the victories that much better, because now I know that it ISN'T a sure thing, and that makes me more invested.

04: An odd one, but should have lost the silly sound effects, esp in the fights. The film actually has a lot of scenes where it handled things actually quite well, but the silly sound effects undercut every scene they're in, and the 4 way fight in the Villa REALLY suffers from it - the fight feels zero stakes, and the sfx is a huge part of it. (Oddly, I don't mind the big buttons and the like... as we see in the oil rig rescue, having the controls that big and clear was really NEEDED in the conditions they were being used in)

TaG: Hrm... I'm not 100% certain how to phrase this / explain what I mean. ...I wish they had, ach how to say it... committed? More often. Augh that sounds bad and I do not MEAN it that way. ...Like... I really like the subplot between Kayo and the Hood in s1 - easily one of my favorite things in TaG. But it just kinda vanishes post s1? Yes, the boyos now know about it, but it could have continued to receive the same focus and screen time it had before instead of basically being dropped? The whole THING with 'what even is the timeline for IR / Jeff's disappearance' between seasons... the way Virgil calls Scott out on the suicide run (though not himself or anyone else, hrmph) but then it kinda just... isn't focused on after that? There's a bunch of fun subplots and the like that just... are overall dropped? And I wish they'd held the course and continued to focus on it.

-Overused Tropes:

The Contrived Coincidence for all of them XD The way that coincidences need to stack up for the rescues to happen is just flat out ludicrous XD Both shows and the film are guilty of it (oddly the film is the least guilty of it )

-Too Much Screen Time:

TOS: Alan. It's really obvious that he was expected to be the darkhorse of the series, since pretty much any time he's in an episode / on screen he gets the focus (plus both og films are focused on him / Alan centric). Oddly this doesn't apply to the comics or novels for me. Alan both didn't hog the spotlight as much there, AND I like how he was written in the comics and novels FAR AND AWAY better than the show (comic/novel Alan is my favorite version of the character to date)

04: Alan again XD While I do like this version of Alan more than TOS, I still would have liked more time and focus to go to Fermat and Tin-Tin at minimum. It was nice to finally have John getting some time in the spotlight though.

TaG: Gonna be unpopular with this, but Max. I just really don't like that type of character (the innocent 'child' or childlike animal/ai). I don't HATE them, mind, I just find them either boring or annoying, with the number of times I like them being at best a handful of instances (and exclusively when the characters have dialogue and contribute to the plot and character interactions on the regular... like I like Joe from joe 90 and Eos from TaG). mitch, zoonie, oink, max... for me I'd much rather these characters didn't exist and the screentime could be given to other characters / character interactions. Doesn't help that I tend to dislike 'but it's a BABY' type characters in general XD

-Ship You Love

Prefacing this with "old Aro Ace is old and while these are ships I like, they ALWAYS take a backseat to platonic / familial relationships and I usually focus on the platonic elements OF said ship"

TOS: Scott and Penny. I came into the Anderson verse via the novels, then the comics and there are quite a few moments that read as 'ship' there between Scott and Penny, but oddly little to no 'ship' interactions between Jeff and Penny - I didn't know that was a thing until I eventually watched the show in my midteens XD I also like Alan and TinTin ^^

04: Jeff and Penny. I really love how they interacted and played off each other. Solid writing all around. I also, again, like Alan and TinTin ^^

TaG: Brains and Moffat. I flat out adore that relationship and think it's a crime that Moffet only showed up 2 or 3 times in the series. While they are unofficial, unlike Brains and Moffat, I do also like Rigby and Kayo and (and I'm sure Willow will be annoyed at me for this, buuuut) Ridley and John

-How Do You Feel about OCs?

ohhhh this one is gonna get me glared at....

but

I prefer for them to be support / secondary characters. I almost always dislike it when an OC is a main character, esp if the fic is focused on said OC over / above the canon characters. I don't mind if they're a romantic interest for a canon character (so long as said character does not have a pre-existing canon love interest. There are exceptions to this, but it's RARE). I also dislike when an OC is 'the absolute best' at something, UNLESS that is a skillset that a canon character does not have claim to / the slot was open as it were.

The one exception to this is when it's an OFFICIAL OC - ie instances like Kayo, where she is pretty much 100% a new original character being added to the cast and she's my favorite character in TaG and I VASTLY MASSIVELY AND UNDENIABLY prefer it when shows just have it be an OC with a new name to 'in name only' where the only point of similarity between the og and new character is the name.

So, basically I ***LIKE*** OCs, I just don't like it when they become the primary focus / main character(s). Heck, I actually have quite the long list of OCs myself, it's just they're all support / secondary characters.

I'm doing the ask game! Hit me up.

(I'll answer in character if you want the author lady send it to her)

[imthatchishiyasimp]

Loses and promises

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

hi!!! I'm back hehe

It took me a long time to wrap my head around this idea, but I think I like how it turned out. I've been busy with work and I didn't get to post anything this week, I'm sorry.

Also: BIG THANK YOU FOR THE SUPPORT, THE LIKES AND REBLOGS AND FOLLOWS!!! I didn't, in a million times, thought you would like this THAT much. I really appreciate it, love you so much.

Without further ado, enjoy the read!!

TW: Blood, death and injuries are both mentioned and described

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I knock on his door, hard and fast. Jumping in one foot, I try to keep my balance while I tie my trainer. I rest my back on the door to prevent the obvious fall, and I finish tying the shoe. Except the door suddenly opens and I fall backwards pretty fast with a little scream.

“What the fuck?” He says, catching me by the shoulders and stepping back. “What do you want?” The question rolls with scepticism as he turns me around to face me.

I arch my eyebrows and point my finger to my wrist, simulating the time in a wristwatch.

“Already?” Chishiya hums and crosses his arms. “I must have lost track of time. Have they already made the teams?”

“Yup, and guess who’s going to annoy you for the rest of the night…”

He makes a face that’s supposed to look bothered. And he sure is bothered, he hates having to deal with me during games. But I can see through that. He’s not the only one that hates pairing in games; I do too. Not only because he’s annoying and always acts like he’s the only one worthy of winning, but because I would hate to be involved in a heart’s game with him. I know he would do anything to survive, anything, even if it kills him. And I would too. And he knows it.

“We are leaving in a few minutes. Get ready, you lazy ass” I turn around and head to my room to finish getting ready. I hear his breathy laugh just as he starts closing the door of his room. I might need something to protect myself, or something to get rid of people. Who knows what we will be facing tonight.

The car is full of people and smells like alcohol, drugs and sweat. It’s disgusting and I try to get my face as far as it can go through the window.

“Will you stop moving? It’s pretty uncomfortable and I hate the smell as much as you, so either you make me a place in that window or I throw you off my lap” Chishiya says, calmly and quietly near my ear. My hair blows as his breath leaves his lips and chills run through my body, keeping me so still that it seems as if I turned into rock.

Indeed I am in his lap, and indeed I have been moving. But just because I want to breathe fresh air. Just because of that. Sure. No reason behind.

I laugh, in silence, but I laugh. There were too many people in need of refilling their visas, so we had to pair in greater groups. And I was so not gonna sit in the laps of the horny people overbooking the Beach. So , after a huge fight, I made Chishiya sit under me, in exchange of looking for white hair dye.

I move just a bit more to play with him and I feel him tense under me, his hands coming to my hips. “Okay, okay, I’ll stop” So I move to the edge and get comfortable on his knees, leaving him a small place on the window to put his face.

We watch as the city moves in darkness, leaving behind flashes of light holding game’s arenas. I can hear distant music and screams, gunshots and creepy sounds. Maybe it’s real, maybe it’s my imagination, but I would swear on my visa that they won’t stop when the sun comes up. It’s been so long that even when I close my eyes I can still listen to the people dying in their games. I try to silence them with other things, and sometimes it works, but I’m getting tired of it.

The doors of a forest garden awaits us as we arrive. It’s a closed part of the outskirts of the city, enclosing a private area huge enough to get lost wandering around.

The tables at both sides of the door have the phones and some weapons. There’s no limit entry and it looks like there might be enough phones for the lot of us. There are five other people alongside Chishiya and I. I only know two of them: Hiro, the cook at the Beach, and Ume, a bookish girl that’s always lounging in the silent rooms. The rest look kind of familiar but I don’t remember talking to them.

I get off Chishiya’s lap with a hop and take a phone off the table. It beeps with the facial recognition and just says to wait ten minutes to close the entry.

“Want to bet on the game?” Chishiya asks, nodding to the doors.

“Probably a physical, given that we are so far from the city. So I would say a spade one” I guess. It looks like we will have a big arena, and probably something to run from, if we take into account the weapons.

“Looks like your brain hasn’t died yet” He moves before I can get him with a punch.

“REGISTRATION HAS CLOSED, THERE ARE A TOTAL OF 7 PARTICIPANTS. THE GAME WILL NOW COMMENCE”

All of us gather at the entrance, some of us already with weapons in our hands. I’ve chosen a blade big enough to protect me and some small knives hidden in my top and trainers. I don’t like guns and they run out of ammo quite quickly.

“DIFFICULTY: EIGHT OF SPADES”

“GAME: LABYRINTH”

“RULE: YOU WON’T BE ABLE TO CONTINUE IF YOU DON’T PASS THE TESTS. YOU MUST START ALONE, BUT YOU ARE NOT FORBIDDEN TO PAIR ONCE STARTED THE MAZE”.

“CLEAR CONDITION: FIND YOUR WAY AROUND THE MAZE AND SUCCESSFULLY OPEN THE EXIT DOOR. YOU CLEAR THE GAME WHEN YOU GET THROUGH THE EXIT DOOR”.

“TIME LIMIT: 2 HOURS”.

“AFTER THE 2 HOURS HAVE PASSED, THE MAZE WILL BE SHUT DOWN WITH NO EXIT”.

The doors open and we enter the maze. There are several “starts” written on the floor at the entrance of different passages. The walls are so high that I can’t even try to guess what’s at the top. It’s too dark to see more than a few meters from your hands, and the cold is starting to get annoying.

The seven of us position ourselves one next to each other on the central passages and we wait. No sound can be heard, no light can be seen. It’s creepy as hell. I look sideways and I spot Chishiya lowering his hood and lifting his sleeves. He totally hates running, but you can bet he’s gonna give it all.

“GAME START”

Without hesitation, I sprint into my passage.

I’ve been running non stop since the beginning, and this maze is big as hell itself. People always tell you to stick to the left or right and you will get to the end, and that I’ve been doing. But just when I could. There are so many traps around, it’s like they didn’t think we could survive this, so they threw everything they got.

From knife floors, poison ponds, holes… My feet are done for the day, my legs are bathed in blood from the knives and spikes, and I feel kinda dizzy because of the poison gas. But I keep running. The time is halfway gone, and I don’t think I’m even close to the exit.

I haven’t heard any of the other players since the start. I’m a bit worried, and I keep going back to their faces at the car, at the entrance and the moment I lost sight of them when I started running. Will I see them again? How many of them? Will someone make it?

I turn to the left and get thrown to the floor with a nudge on the nose.

“Holy fuck!” I scream in agony, holding my bleeding nose. I would bet my visa on it, it’s broken for sure. Oh God it hurts too much. My face feels heavy and it stings deep inside.

“Jesus, where the hell are you going without looking? Are you stupid? You could have met some kind of trap, idiot”

I look up and catch a glimpse of white hair. But just a glimpse, because the whole rest of Chishiya is covered in ashes. The bastard just stays there, looking down at me without offering a hand. Totally expected that, to be honest.

I get up and punch him straight in the chest. He howls and gets away looking angry. “You deserved that, you totally smashed your elbow on my face on purpose. You were just waiting there to punch me”

“What the fuck? Why would I?”

I study the situation and try to look for lies, but it’s a lost cause with him. “Shut up and start running, we have a long way to go”

So both of us pair up and keep on running together, helping each other in a few traps to minimize the damage. We still get burned and sliced, but we manage to stay together for a good twenty minutes.

Until we don’t.

We are on an empty corridor surrounded by bindweed. What I thought was going to be a calm and peaceful section turns into a nightmare. From nowhere, ropes start to come out and try to catch our feet, arms and trunk.

Both of us jump and get down to escape from the ropes, sometimes getting too close to the bushes and winning new bruises everywhere. The strength that these things have is incredible and intolerable. It feels as if my bones are breaking under the knots. I grasp Chishiya’s hand to keep from getting sucked into the wall, and he takes me out of it. His hand grips mine with a strength I didn’t know he possessed, and I dwell on the feeling of his cold and soft fingers around mine, enjoying the safety his presence gives anywhere he is.

Lost in his eyes, which are making sure I’m not caught into any ropes anymore, we get pulled away in an instant and Chishiya disappears from my sight into the wall, his eyes not leaving mine.

“No! You bastard! You don’t get to abandon me here! Come back!” I scream into the bushes. I slice the ropes with my knives and get away from that corridor as fast as I can.

My face still hurts from the nudge, and my arm feels funny. Both my legs are covered in bruises and cuts from the ropes and the falls. I’m a mess. Everything hurts. Everything is a mess.

I go back to the feeling of finding him. Maybe I didn’t dwell on it, but I felt safer, I felt relieved to have some company; I felt happy to have him there with me, to back me up and get me through difficult things. Will I see him again? Is he okay? Will he be there?

“Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. You better be there when I get off this fucking maze, or I will search for you to cut you into pieces” I whisper to the night, running again, looking behind me from time to time to check if he’s behind me, stoping just before a turn to prevent another hit. He totally did that on purpose.

I step into a two paths corridor. Both of them are covered in darkness and I can’t say which one looks better. Not wanting to lose any more time, I take the right one, although it doesn’t take me long to return. The blood covers the floor and gets sticky when I step into it. I bend over to see what’s in front of me and gulp down seeing the body of Hiro full of insects eating him alive.

He’s whimpering in pain and coughing blood, moving just a bit, probably paralyzed. I don’t know when he catches me, but his eyes get full of tears and he mouths a silent plea, tears streaming down his face and mixing with the blood. I remember when I met him, asking for a bite of something after a run through the city and hungry enough to eat whatever. He made me a simple sandwich, but I swear it was the best one I have ever had. He stayed in the kitchen with me, talking about his life and asking too many questions. Ever since then, he’s always been there when I needed to disconnect from the games, from the people, from the world. Always with a smile and a new recipe to try.

Now all that is left is pain and suffering.

Getting as close as I dare, I whisper a silent sorry and goodbye before ending his suffering. I run away and don’t look back at all, his face and pain engraved in my mind.

When I get to the exit I almost scream in relief. It’s a big door made of small bars with a big “EXIT” written in red above it. The time is almost up and I can’t see anyone here. The place where I came from is not the only way of getting here, there are three more corridors ending in this place.

The thing is, the doors are closed, and they have a huge key hole in the middle. I look around and I spot a key shining on the top of the door. It’s hanging by a thread, laughing at me from up there.

I scoff, tired as I can be, and I stop in front of the door. Guessing from the place where it is, I must need to climb through the door and it doesn’t seem dangerous at all, but I still don’t trust it. Checking the time I decide that I can’t risk it on trying to search for another way of getting the key, so I grasp the bars.

The heat burns through me and paralyzes me in the spot. I feel as if my hand is going to come off right now. I let go of the door and caress the palm of my hand, blowing air as kindly as I can, tears streaming down my face of the pain.

“FIVE MINUTES LEFT”

“I hate this. I hate it so much” Curses leave my lips as I get higher and higher, once again at the door and burning my hands and feet in the process. I can’t feel it anymore, I just know it’s painful and it’s going to leave ugly scars. I grip the key and rip it from the thread and throw myself to the floor, not caring to limb down properly.

The floor meets my back and I roll over. I would have stayed there, I swear. I was done with everything. My whole body was hurting, my mind was going blank and kept screaming.

“Tsk” I hear some rustling near me and then a foot nudges me on the back of my head. “Are you alive there?” I moan in response and turn over, glaring at the clever smirk of Chishiya. “Do you mind handing over the key? I’m in desperate need of a shower”.

“I don’t know, would you mind stopping hitting me on purpose?” I mumble through moans of pain.

He sighs and bends next to me, placing his face just above mine, our noses almost touching. I can feel his breath, the quick rhythm it still has, the cold and the smell of sweat and toxic reaching me.

“For the last time, I did not hit you on purpose” He whispers looking straight at me.

“How do I know you’re telling the truth?” I question. You won't ever know with him.

“Trust me, if I had hit you on purpose, I would have done it a lot harder”. His eyes hold that smart look, the condescending vibes all around him, but I think I can see worry and relief and…

“Oh fucking hell, yes! You guys made it! We are saved and alive and… Oh God, two minutes left, tell me you know how to open that door or I will kill myself right here” One of the guys we came with sprouts from a passage, holding Ume’s limping form and followed by another guy who’s gripping a tourniquet around his arm. I’m glad to see most of us are alive after that hell.

Chishiya takes the fey from my hand with caution to not touch the burnt parts of my palms and fingers. He quickly pushes the key into the lock and pushes the door hard.

I don’t know why, but I was scared of it not opening. Silly, I know, but after so many games with tricks at the end, I didn’t know what to expect. The phones beep immediately, and I struggle to get up to a sitting position.

“GAME CLEAR”.

“CONGRATULATIONS”.

Relief flows inside all of us, dropping to the floor and crying happy tears. Is it really a win? It doesn't feel like that anymore. I think I've lost some things inside those walls and darkness.

I thought I was hurting, but in just a second, all the injuries I have, start to really hurt and the pain makes me close my eyes and shake like crazy. I might need a whole week of rest after this.

Arms come from behind me and take me up. I’m lost in the sudden change of position and it takes me a while to realize Chishiya is holding me in a bridal style. He quickly gets ahead of the rest, not caring to check if they are following us, and heads to the place we left the car.

It’s a long way until we get there and I nod off a few times, resting my head and hiding in his soft tingling hair, taking his scent apart from all the other ones. I don’t dream at all, it’s all blank, but I wake up startled looking for Hiro or Chishiya, afraid they’re not here anymore. I get sad and I cry silently when I remember Hiro’s body and scared face, pleading for mercy; and I sigh with relief when I feel Chishiya holding me tighter after I wake up shaking, crossing our eyes and making me feel safe with just a look.

“Don’t ever disappear like that again. Don’t even dare. Promise me” I angrily say after one of my nightmares. He doesn’t say anything, and I don’t need him to. He just needs to know. I pretend I don’t see the almost imperceptible nod he does once I return to put my head on his chest.

The ride back is a blur. We have more space now that two of us are missing, but it’s heavy inside. I keep next to Chishiya, him holding me while I rest and sleep in between nightmares. None of us has said anything since we left the forest. We are all relieving our paths along the maze, the things we saw and the hopelessness we felt, the fear of being left there forever.

The sunrise marks our arrival at the Beach. People there are waiting for the cars still gone and they welcome us with joy and worry. We are rushed to the medical room to get checked up on, and although I try to walk there, pathetically I must say, I can feel Chishiya is ready to ame me in case I fall. He leaves once An puts me on a bed and starts treating my wounds.

But I know he will be back. He always comes back. He promised.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hope you liked it!! Give me some feedback and love if you might, I would love to hear from you.

As always, I'm still open to requests and comments. If you want me to tag you on the next post, do tell me!

Be safe and take care!!

[candlewaxandp0lar0ids]

Check-In Tag

I was tagged (a lil while back!) by the awesome @underthejoon!

1. why did you choose your url?

It's a Taylor Swift lyric, a line from New Year's Day, which is probably my favorite song from Reputation!

2. any sideblogs? if you have them name them and why you have them

Nope, don't have any yet! I'm kinda considering doing a fic rec blog though but knowing me it will take me an eternity, if I do ever get around to it.

3. how long have you’ve been on tumblr?

Well, this blog is quite recent, I've had it since November 2020, but I had another blog, when I was active in a different fandom, that I'd had since May 2018.

4. do you have a queue tag?

I don't even use the queue lol. If I want to reblog something later I save it in my drafts. And then forget it there for a while.

5. why did you start your blog in the first place?

To share the fanfiction I was writing, mostly!

6. why did you choose your icon?

Because it's Folklore era Taylor and I love her 🥺

7. why did you choose your header?

The one real bangswift interaction. A cultural reset.

8. what’s your post with the most notes?

That would be I don't like a gold rush

9. how many mutuals do you have?

Not many at all lol

10. how many followers do you have?

459 at the moment!

11. how many people do you follow?

62

12. have you ever made a shitpost?

I don't think I have?

13. how often do you use tumblr each day?

Wayyy too often. But most of the time it's just checking my dash and seeing nothing's happened.

14. did you have a fight/argument with another blog once? who won?

I had a few arguments when I used that other blog I mentioned (I'm making it sound very mysterious but it's really not lol) but it was mostly very civil. I also got blocked by people once or twice bc I guess they thought I was annoying lol. But other times they saw the point I was making and ended up agreeing with me so like. There were a few wins here and there. Haven't had any fights since I got here!

15. how do you feel about “you need to reblog this” posts?

Contrarian. (but more seriously, I reblog them sometimes. Others I don't. It just depends.)

16. do you like tag games?

I do! I'm just bad at getting to them in a timely fashion.

17. do you like ask games?

Yes! I'm just also bad at getting to them in a timely fashion. I just don't know how to talk to people and so it takes me a weird amount of time and focus to do it.

18. which of your mutuals do you think is tumblr famous?

Nice oxymoron.

19. do i have a crush on a mutual?

Not really? They're real cool people though.

And I'm gonna tag, uh, @elidebrey @gukieater if you guys want to do it!

[mypunkpansexualtwin]

Here we come with day two of pegoryu week, and it's gonna be the last one I post on time. I'll still be trying, don't get me wrong, I'm just not the kind of person who can write a fic I'm happy with in one day.

Yet.

As always, bulk of the fic is under a cut, link is in the reblogs, and I will daydream of baking you cookies if you share it.

“I did warn you.”

“Not even an arcade, dude?”

“Not unless you wanna get on a train for forty minutes.”

“Ugh. Laaaaame.”

After nearly a month of planning, Ryuji was visiting his boyfriend for Golden Week. One whole month of bargaining with all of their parents, putting aside every last yen they could spare, studying their asses off to earn the trip, and, of course, long phone conversations that were probably about eighty percent “I miss you”s and “I love you”s and “I can’t wait to see you”s. With Akira’s help via video call study sessions, Ryuji even managed to get into the top thirty percent of the class in their latest exams; a new record for him that effectively guaranteed the visit. But they’d been so busy celebrating and planning getting him out to the country that they may have completely forgotten to figure out what they were actually going to do when he got there. So now they were on the Kurusus’ living room couch, Akira cross-legged on one end and Ryuji stretched out across the rest with his head on his boyfriend’s lap, trying to scrape together a date idea.

“I’ll say it again. I warned you. Several times,” Akira repeated while he ran a hand through Ryuji’s hair. “There’s nothing to see here.” Ryuji caught Akira’s free hand, tangled their fingers together, and kissed the back of his hand.

“Yeah there is. You’re here, so I say it’s worth it.” Ryuji grinned as his boyfriend turned pink at the tips of his ears and wrinkled his nose.

“Sap,” Akira grumbled like there wasn’t a smile tugging at the corner of his lips. Like they both didn’t know full well how much he liked hearing how happy Ryuji was that they were together, in every sense of the word.

“You love me,” Ryuji said, his grin widening just a little further. Akira’s expression melted into something almost embarrassingly soft as he went back to playing with his boyfriend’s hair. He curled and combed his fingers gently through the short strands, and huffed out a quiet laugh as Ryuji went boneless when he grazed his nails over his scalp.

“Yeah. I really do,” Akira sighed happily and got another kiss pressed to his knuckles. “You’re kind of my hero, you know.” It was something he’d tried to make a habit of telling his boyfriend, even before they were dating. Ryuji still sputtered and objected like it was his first time hearing it.

“You-- I-- that ain’t…” He sat up and shoved a pillow into Akira’s face with a groan. “Now who’s the sap?”

Akira draped himself across Ryuji’s shoulders and planted a kiss on the side of his neck, then smiled against his skin at the shiver that got. “You just have that effect on me, sunshine.” Ryuji grunted in response. “You like it.” Another grunt. Akira blew a puff of air at the back of Ryuji’s ear and laughed when he got swatted away. “Don’t pout. You were right, a date sounds nice. But you gotta help me figure it out.”

His boyfriend sprawled back out on the couch after pouting for a few more seconds, then looked up at him with those big brown eyes he’d been a sucker for since day one.

“Aight, what kind of food you got around here?” Akira could have been exasperated at his boyfriend’s predictability, but a dinner date was more feasible than a movie date, and a lot more pleasant than a gym date. He may have loved Ryuji Sakamoto with all his heart, but he didn’t plan on running again on the regular unless it was for his damn life.

“There’s only like ten places total around here. We’ve already visited three, two of them won’t serve me because the owners don’t like me anymore--”

Ryuji’s head jerked up at that, knocking Akira’s hand free. It was ridiculous how cute the guy was when he was offended. “What?! Why the hell not?”

Akira shrugged and went back to petting Ryuji’s hair in an attempt to soothe him. “Didn’t exactly bother to ask, but probably my record. Cleared of charges or not, my reputation mutated while I was gone and I haven’t really been able to fix it.” Not that he’d tried very hard when he didn’t plan on staying for even a second longer than necessary.

The frown that wrinkled Ryuji’s features was almost comical, but he probably wouldn’t appreciate being laughed at while he was already agitated. Especially when it was on Akira’s behalf. “Ugh, this town sucks, can’t wait to get you out of here. Wait, only probably your record? Why else would they dislike you?”

Akira huffed out another laugh, wry and joyless this time. “My uncle’s a pretty conservative guy, I heard he didn’t react well when he found out I was dating some guy from the city.” Quite literally heard it; he’d been getting ready to visit his cousin and could hear the old man shouting inside the house from the sidewalk. He’d opted to text Yuuta to meet up somewhere well away from their house instead when that happened. And, naturally, the news had mysteriously spread to the rest of town by the end of that week.

Ryuji sat bolt upright and twisted back around to face Akira with a scowl. “Your own effin’ family won’t serve you? What the hell?!” His expression was thunderous, made worse by the doomcloud over his head when he asked. Ryuji almost never got pulled into fights these days and was very proud of that fact--they both were--but Akira was certain that he was ready to deck the old man on sight on his behalf. He’d never encourage it, but the thought still made something in his chest swell a little.

“Just my uncle when I try to sit in. If it’s my aunt or my cousin taking delivery calls, they’ll still take the order. Plus a discount and extra desserts, if Yuuta’s the one who answers.” Akira shrugged, then tugged at Ryuji’s shirt to coax him into laying back down in his lap. He did, albeit begrudgingly, and Akira went back to running his hands soothingly through that remarkably soft shock of bright blond hair. “Anyways, the other five restaurants in town are fast food that you could get back home. So…” He trailed off and watched Ryuji’s scowl soften into an annoyed frown.

“Yeah, pass.” Ryuji closed his eyes, either to think or soak up Akira’s touch as he played with his hair, then cracked one eye open after a moment. “How ‘bout a picnic? You’re a pretty good cook and I bet we could find us a nice spot to just chill.”

That... was a pretty solid idea. Actually, that sounded perfect, and Akira knew exactly the spot for them to set up. He opened his mouth to agree, but was cut off by a low rumble of thunder outside. “...Maybe later this week? The weather should clear up before you have to go,” he said instead. Ryuji pouted up at the ceiling, or more likely up at the sky beyond it for ruining his brilliant plan. Then it was Akira’s turn to pout when Ryuji abruptly sat back up out of reach, but not for long.

The next thing he knew, he was being crowded up against the arm of the couch by one blond bombshell of an ex-track star. Ryuji was suddenly determined to pour himself into his boyfriend’s lap, all mischief and heat as he crawled across the couch towards Akira. He couldn’t think clearly while facing down that wicked grin curving across Ryuji’s face like Haru’s favorite battleaxe cleaving through the air. It wouldn’t be the first time they’d made out. It wouldn’t even be the first time Ryuji had taken the initiative and left Akira a flustered wreck when they did. But since it had been over a month since the last time he’d seen that look face to face, it was having more of an effect than usual, and Akira was left frantically trying to cling to his cool.

“I have an idea, babe.” Ryuji said lowly and Akira’s mouth went dry. Hands bracketed Akira’s hips on the couch as his boyfriend crept closer. “Y’wanna hear it?” Akira nodded and felt heat flare across his skin when he realized Ryuji was keeping that hooded, heated gaze fixed firmly on his lips. “Since your folks ain’t supposed to be back before tomorrow afternoon,” Ryuji’s tone was as light as his body was heavy as he straddled Akira and looped strong arms around his neck, “I was thinkin’ maybe… we could…” Akira was desperately trying to focus on the words being whispered into his ear over his boyfriend kissing his way up his neck and leaving his skin prickling in the wake of every touch.

“Y-yeah?” He couldn’t help the nervous flutter in his stomach. If Ryuji was implying what he thought he was implying... They hadn’t done… that... yet. Even with the house to themselves all day, they hadn’t actually talked about it, in part because Akira hadn’t even thought about it seriously yet. That nervous flutter hadn’t subsided and was starting to feel a little more like an anxious lurch.

Ryuji continued, oblivious to his boyfriend’s nerves with his face tucked against his neck. “We could maybe…” Akira’s hands flexed involuntarily around Ryuji’s hips. He didn’t dislike the idea, just-- His unsteady train of thought was thrown off again when soft lips brushed over his ear. “...watch One Piece together?” After a beat where Akira was left blinking stupidly for several seconds, Ryuji sat back on his legs with a grin that had gone from sultry to shit-eating on a dime. Oh. Okay, he could handle that. “I gotta get you caught up to me, plus I wanna see how much we can get through in one sitting.”

“...you’re truly a romantic for the ages, sunshine,” Akira responded flatly as his heart rate slowly returned to normal. He was teasing back now, because honestly that idea sounded just as good as the picnic, with a lot less effort to set up.

“I know,” he answered confidently, but his smile slipped a little. “Is that a no? I just thought maybe I could buy us dinner from your shitty uncle, and we can cuddle while we take advantage of that big TV with the fancy sound system.” Ryuji gestured hopefully to the flatscreen behind them that was nearly as big as Akira’s bed back at Leblanc.

“Sounds good. Netflix and chill, it is,” Akira declared. When he caught the way Ryuji’s smile and shoulders tightened slightly, he added, “y’know, in the most literal sense.” It wasn’t as though he was happy to see Ryuji nervous, but when his boyfriend relaxed at the reassurance, he couldn’t help but feel relieved that the two of them were on the same page as far as that was concerned.

---

Aki hadn’t been kidding when he said his cousin would hook them up. There was probably double what they’d ordered plus desserts in the bags the guy handed off.

“So, you must be the boyfriend, huh? He talks about you a lot. Y’know, for him.” Yuuta asked as he leaned on the doorway. Ryuji just grinned, because yes, that was him, he was The Boyfriend. Akira’s boyfriend. Akira’s boyfriend. It’d been months and Ryuji still got all giddy about it like it was brand new. Yuuta interrupted his thoughts when he called out past Ryuji to where Akira was sitting and watching TV, “Man, talk about punching above your weight!” Ryuji blushed and opened his mouth to object before Akira could start bragging on how amazing Ryuji was.

Apparently Akira had other plans, because before he could, two sharp whistles rang out behind Ryuji and he reacted basically on instinct. It was the signal Akira had always used to mean duck or you’ll get hit in the Metaverse, and Ryuji’s knees buckled with almost no input from his brain. He had just enough time to worry if he’d spilled the food--thankfully he hadn’t--when one of the couch throw pillows whiffed past his head and nailed Yuuta in the face.

“ACK! The fuck, dude?! See if I give you free dessert again, jackass,” the guy yelled and hucked the pillow back--and missed, from the sound of Akira’s laughter. Ryuji straightened up with a grin as Yuuta turned to him. “How the hell did you two even do that?”

“We’re just cool like that, I guess.” Ryuji shrugged. No need to explain how many times he’d accidentally taken a Lucky Punch or whatever in the back of the head because he got signals mixed up. “Seriously though, thanks for hookin’ us up, dude.” He held up the food and then added a little more quietly, “and, uh, thanks for havin’ Aki’s back while he’s here. It’s easier to not worry if I know there’s at least someone here talkin’ to him besides that damn cat.” That got a snort of laughter out of the delivery guy.

“No problem? I’d say obviously, ‘cause he’s family, but… Well, I’m sure he told you. Our family kinda sucks sometimes.” He frowned, shook his head, then brightened back up. “Anyways, sweet of you to worry. He really did luck out when he found you, huh?” Yuuta said as he stepped back from the door.

Ryuji shook his head. “You got it backwards, man. I’m the lucky one.” He turned back to where his boyfriend was watching TV, now fully absorbed in the show even if he didn’t really look like it. Ryuji couldn’t help the contented sigh that escaped him; he had his boyfriend again and he was going all in on one of Ryuji’s favorite things just because it was one of Ryuji’s favorite things, and it looked like he was actually enjoying it, too. When he turned back, Yuuta was halfway to his scooter, still loaded down with bags of food.

“You really believe that, huh?” He called back. “You keep that attitude, Sakamoto. Even when he’s bein’ a menace, alright? ‘Cause he’s a menace, but he’s my menace, and I’ll serve you up as dumplings if you hurt him!” The scooter rumbled to life and Yuuta added over the noise of the motor, “And you tell him the same thing. I like ya, so he’s gonna be the next lunch special if he’s an asshole to you!”

Ryuji waved in acknowledgment as he sped off, then closed the door and dropped the bag of takeout next to Akira. They paused the episode long enough to sort through the food; a double order of dumplings, pork miso for Akira, spicy vegetable ramen for Ryuji, ginger pork with rice that he was pretty sure they didn’t order at all, and half a goddamn cheesecake for them to split. It was an impressive spread that Akira was already calculating how much was going to be crammed into the fridge at the end of the night.

“Well. Anything we don’t finish tonight can go with us on the picnic?” He suggested as he started on his soup and turned the show back on. They hadn’t made it very far in just yet, and definitely had an uphill battle ahead of them.

Ryuji nodded, mouth already full of noodles. “Shoundsh good to me, dude.” Akira made a face at him like he always did when he talked around a mouth full of food, and Ryuji washed it down with some of the broth. “Family recipe?”

Akira hummed a confirmation around his own food, but paused to actually finish his bite. “Yup. Not as good as the place you took me, but I could just be biased.” Ryuji could hear the smirk in his voice that always cropped up when he was thinking about saying something sappy. Ryuji cut him off before he could, though. Butterflies wouldn’t leave much room in his stomach for ramen.

“I was thinkin’ the same thing. The Ogikubo thing, not the bias thing. Didn’t wanna offend, though.” Ryuji said and took another sizable bite. Even mediocre ramen was still pretty good in his opinion.

Akira chuckled. “Nah. Actually, the ramen there’s always been a little lackluster. I could’ve offered some advice to improve it once I got back, but now? Fuck that guy.”

Ryuji tried not to choke on his food with the laugh that threatened to escape. Scalding, spicy broth shooting out of your nose kinda sucked, especially if you got a noodle along with it. That was an experience he wasn’t keen on repeating. He swallowed down his bite and rasped, “could always pass it on to your cousin. He seems pretty cool when he ain’t threatenin’ to cook us.”

“Ah, you got the shovel talk, then--wait, us?” Akira nodded, but then froze partway and whipped his head around to Ryuji, who nodded in return after clearing his throat.

“Mhm. Said he likes me, ‘n if you break my heart you’re gonna be a lunch special,” Ryuji grinned.

“Asshole. He knows I can’t stand most of what’s in the rotation.” Akira grumbled and pouted into his soup. “What’d he threaten you with?”

“Dumplings.”

Akira’s eyebrows disappeared up into his bangs at that. “Damn, I think he likes you better than me. Uncle’s place is famous for its dumplings,” he explained as he picked the last bit of pork out of his bowl.

“I’m… honored? So is all your family this weird, or is it just you two?” Ryuji asked around another mouthful of noodles. The broth was definitely missing something, but the vegetables were pretty damn good; still pretty crisp but not undercooked. Good flavor on their own, prolly locally grown, too. “Also, how is a place in the middle of nowhere famous for anything?”

“Hey, we still have several other towns nearby, and folks will come here specifically for those dumplings. So you should be honored.” Akira huffed as he popped one of said dumplings in Ryuji’s mouth. Shit, it was pretty killer. Leagues better than his ramen. And of course his boyfriend looked as smug as Morgana when he caught the look on Ryuji’s face. “As for the weirdness? No idea. Around here it’s just me and Yuuta, but I don’t really know much about the ones that don’t live here. Might be because we’re in the middle of nowhere, might be because the ones who live here make a habit of cutting off any undesirables.” Aki shrugged and leaned up against Ryuji. “Maybe I’ll see if I can find any of them when I leave. I dunno.”

Ryuji leaned right back into him and planted a kiss against Aki’s temple, earning himself a pleased little hum from his boyfriend that he felt more than heard. “I’ll be right there with you if you do. I always got your back, babe.” Akira finished his soup and curled up against his side, tucked under one arm. It was nice, even if it meant now Ryuji had to figure out how to eat his ramen one-handed. Eh, he’d figure it out, it’s not like there was much left in the bowl anyway. “So, uh, earlier. You seemed a little tense when I was teasin’ you? And not like usual. I didn’t, like, push too much, did I?”

Akira had suddenly gone very still under his arm. Not the best sign.

“No. But, uh don’t take this the wrong way or anything, I was definitely glad you just wanted to watch One Piece with me. For a second there, I thought you wanted to…” He buried his face against Ryuji’s shoulder. God, his boyfriend was stupidly cute when he got all shy. “...y-y’know. Anyways, I was relieved when you seemed just as nervous about it? Not to be an asshole, but I’m kinda glad it isn’t just me who isn’t ready.”

“Right.” Well, that was that question out of the way, but now he’d paved the way for a new one that’d been rattling around in his head for a while now. God, best case scenario, Akira was probably gonna laugh in his face. Him? Ryuji Sakamoto, of all people, not interested in that? “What if…” He hesitated and tried again. “Well, how long would you be okay with that?”

“What do you mean?” Akira tipped his head up to look Ryuji in the eye. That really didn’t help things, ‘cause even on a good day Ryuji tended to feel small when Akira looked at him like that.

“Like…” Ryuji took a deep breath and steeled himself. “WhatifI’mneverready?” His stomach clenched. There it was, he’d finally said it. Years of wondering if his friends were just exaggerating what they wanted to do with the girls in their class; months of internet research and arguing with himself even when it was the only answer that made sense and trying to backtrack or minimize it with ‘well maybe I’m only kinda like that, maybe I’m that demi thing, maybe I’ll find someone’ to try and soften the blow; a whole year of slowly coming to the realization that that just wasn’t something on the table for him, no matter how attractive Ann was or how close him and Akira got, he just wasn’t wired for wanting that kind of thing, even if he wanted the rest of the sappy, romantic couple shit for as long as he could get it, ideally the rest of his life. All of that had built up to one rushed confession that could make this trip out to the country really effin’ miserable when he still had four more days of crashing at his boyfriend’s place.

“Didn’t... quite catch that?” Akira said after a moment of trying to process what Ryuji had just blurted out. Goddammit. Of course he didn’t.

Ryuji took a deep breath and tried again. “What if… I’m never ready for that? Would that be a dealbreaker?” His heart was hammering as he forced the words out a little more slowly this time. And Akira already looked annoyed. Shit. Shit. He couldn’t look him in the eye and instead stared down at his feet, trying desperately to swallow the queasy feeling in his stomach that threatened to bounce his lunch back up onto the floor in front of him. Ryuji opened his mouth to backpedal, to assure him that if he really wanted to then Ryuji would try for him even if the idea was kind of completely terrifying--

“Of course not!” The sharpness of his tone was what registered first and Ryuji was already braced for a breakup when the words actually hit him. It wasn’t a dealbreaker. It was okay. They were okay. They were... actually okay?

“Wh-- forreal?” Ryuji’s voice cracked embarrassingly and Akira shifted against him, one hand coming up to his chin to make him look at him.

“I already told you, you’re my hero. You…” Akira opened and closed his mouth a few times, like he was looking for the right words and couldn’t find them. One hand cupped Ryuji’s jaw and ran a calloused thumb across his cheek, and Ryuji couldn’t help but press into the touch. “You’re everything to me. I could write books on all the things that make you amazing; your compassion, your kindness, your loyalty, your smile, all of it. So what if we never…” Akira blushed a little, but he seemed determined to power through the embarrassment. “So what if we never have sex? What do I care? I love you, Ryuji Sakamoto, I’m not giving up my sunshine, the best thing that ever happened to me, for anything.”

Ryuji swallowed hard around the lump forming in his throat and buried his face against Akira’s neck. Even away from Leblanc, he still smelled like coffee and curry, still smelled like home. Akira had called it home too, and had told him once that he made Boss’ recipes whenever he was homesick for the cafe, or his team, or… Or for Ryuji. Ryuji wanted to believe him so badly. “It’s easy to say that when you still ain’t ready for it, but--”

“I won’t change my mind,” he insisted so vehemently that no part of Ryuji could even think of an argument. Even the part of him that had been certain for months that even admitting he was asexual to himself would ruin everything. “It’s not like I can’t take care of things myself. And that just means more time for everything else.” Akira paused and pressed a kiss to Ryuji’s forehead. “More time to cook your favorite foods,” kiss, “more time to cuddle,” kiss, “more time to watch our favorite shows, all of it.” Akira dropped one last kiss on his temple and went back to running his fingers through Ryuji’s hair. Then he added, almost too quietly to hear, “for the rest of our lives if you’ll let me.” Let him? He’d fuckin’ beg him if he had to.

“Babe, you’re gonna make me cry,” Ryuji said thickly, as if they couldn’t both feel the wet spots forming on Akira’s shirt from where tears were already streaming down his face. Part of him was still scared he wasn’t going to be enough, and it probably always would be for one reason or another. But for now it was easy to relax into his boyfriend’s embrace and trust that he planned on sticking around a little longer.

Akira kept playing with Ryuji's hair the way he knew he loved and wrapped his other arm tightly around him. He pressed a few more kisses to the top of Ryuji’s head and then asked, “do you need me to stop?” Ryuji shook his head and got another kiss. “Alright. Take all the time you need, sunshine.”

“Thanks, babe.”

“We’re gonna need to restart the episode after, though.”

[silver-wield]

Okay, as requested a few days ago, a Cloud and Aerith analysis. I feel like I've spent a lot of time in chapter 8/9 today lol 

Ok, spoiler warning for ppl who haven’t played – do I still need to do this? Eh ok, (I tag FF7R spoilers as final fantasy 7 remake spoilers) and it’s gonna be reasonably long.

Also, this is one person’s interpretation of the scene, so if you disagree that’s cool and we’ll agree to disagree.

You’re also gonna have to excuse the janky quality on some of the screens, I’m grabbing them from Youtube and it’s frustrating af trying to get the exact moment I want.

Other analyses if anyone’s interested.

Shinra HQ vision scene (Cloti/plot analysis) 

Chapter 3 (Cloti reblog) 

Tifa character analysis 

Aerith Resolution (plot analysis/theory – I should probably update this since I’ve had other ideas since then) 

Train graveyard (not really an analysis, but I got some sweet screenshots of Cloti) 

Clotiscrew tunnel analysis 

Cloti reunion analysis 

The Promise Analysis 

Andrea’s approval (Cloti ask response) 

Leslie analysis (not mine, but a good read) 

Cloti action touching 

Aerti friendship analysis 

Cloti body language chapter 3 

Cloti healthy disagreement 

Cloti post heliboss battle (chapter 15) 

Clerith playground scene 

Cloti body language plate fall 

Cloud and Barret friendship 

Resolution scene analysis (A) 

Barret character analysis (chapter 13) 

Cloud character analysis (Honey Bee Inn) 

Cloud character analysis (Barret's death) 

Now, strap in and enjoy the ride.

Recap time!

Okay, our delightful heroine (I will rein in the sarcasm, but Aerith aggs me when Cloud says no and she ignores him. No means no.) and our moody af hero have finally got done with the flowery side quests, kiddos, Rude and the giant hands of crash crash boom oops there's an invisible wall there minigame trip through sector 6 to reach sector 7.

Aerith says “let's take a break.”

Cloud says, “No.”

They take a break anyway.

(I've already done the slide analysis, link above)

Back down from the slide and it's time to go. Aerith opens up the underground link into sector 7 and we're venturing into awkward goodbyes.

So, we're starting with Aerith being chipper and cute with the quips. Standard stuff. It's possible she's feeling regretful they're parting, but I've said plenty of times that of everyone in this, Aerith has the best poker face. There's very few times she lets that mask slip and lets us see what she's really feeling and it's usually in times of intense stress. This isn't stressful, although she was feeling down a few moments ago while talking about Zack, so maybe that'll make her a little easier to read. For now, though, she's fronting like a boss.

Hmm interesting. He's definitely thoughtful here. So, I'm gonna have to put together some possibilities.

He's clearly mellowed his attitude towards her – he was proper stroppy at her house the day before, shouting and so on – so this isn't negative. We could say he started feeling more positive towards her through their interactions over the day or maybe when he saw the whole Rude bit and realised she's not quite what he first thought. Or it might have been when he saw her looking downcast about not high fiving or it could've been their chat on the slide that finally thawed him out towards her.

And Aerith's the same. Her smile falters just a bit and she can't meet his eye. Maybe she knows they have no reason to meet again or that her mother told him not to see her. We don't know for sure, but it's possible, otherwise why is she disappointed? She could expect to see him again. They could make plans. It could be meta!Aerith knowing that Cloud is probably better off not getting to know her.

Eugh dammit. Does anyone know how hard it is to analyse people's motives when you can't see their faces clearly? I bet this was on purpose, thanks Square.

I mean, having to go by the above data I've mentioned, they could both be feeling the same lingering regret intuitively. You know like how you just get the sense how someone's feeling? That.

Their poses are identical, and coupled with the slightly awkward intonation on “so” I'd look at this and say this comes across like a couple of teenagers who kinda like each other and don't know how to take the next step. You know, that kind of immature I have no idea what I'm doing with my life kinda deal. That's not to say it's romantic, especially not from Cloud. He's an awkward introvert. Aerith has no social skills. They're not friends and up until five minutes ago Cloud was annoyed af at her. That'd make for an awkward goodbye.

Aerith laughs, Cloud doesn't, and she moves aside so he can leave. Looks like the moment’s over.

Before going, Cloud turns back to ask if Aerith can get home ok. This looks like polite concern, which I'd expect considering they just came through an area full of monsters, mech and bandits. If Cloud wasn't concerned, I'd call him a douchebag. His eyes widen a little as he speaks, but it's not that same kind of expression he pulls whenever we're suspecting a visit from real!Cloud. This is SOLDIER!Cloud asking. 

(I've said that typically Cloud's eyes go very wide as a hint that his real self is reacting to things, but widening eyes on their own do not indicate real!Cloud. It's something about the way he does it that shows it's not quite right for the SOLDIER persona we usually see. I can't explain it properly, but it's likely something the devs have done to his microexpressions on purpose to differentiate between the two and without knowing exactly what I can't put a pin in it. All I can say is when it looks like real!Cloud is expressing himself and when it isn't because there’s a difference that I’ve picked up on.)

This is flirting. Plain and simple. Head tilted, little smile, crinkling eyes. She's amused and teasing him in a flirtatious manner and her dialogue backs that up, although at the same time the tone she puts it in also sounds quite matter of fact, like she's genuinely asking what if she wasn't ok? That likely does appeal to the protective SOLDIER side of Cloud. He wants to be known as the hero. Still not romantic.

That's what I like to call a shit-fuck-bollocks moment. The realisation he should take her back home and make sure she's safe, but then he's also got to get back to sector 7, and this is all SOLDIER!Cloud's debate. There's no sign of real!Cloud and there's a quick decisive result that he should do the right thing, which is why he says he’ll take her home.

This is nothing like in the honey bee inn later when you see the clear back and forth of his eyes darting around as he argues with real!Cloud about dancing to get Andrea's approval.

And Aerith laughs again because I think she's aware how ridiculous it is that he'll walk her back when he needs to get home. She was teasing the entire time, but it looks like it went over Cloud's head – colour me unsurprised.

I mean, there's no romantic undertone to her expression here. It's genuine amusement and I'd definitely say friendship towards Cloud.

Ah the image that certain people hang their hat on. Let's get this one done.

Aerith says she has a backup route for emergencies that's safer than the one they used. You can hear Cloud start to speak—- ask a question because the sound is a “W” -- then cuts himself off and smiles. That smile is a mix of bemused and amused. 

For anyone who doesn't have a stupidly large vocabulary and thinks those two are the same thing:

Bemused

adjective: puzzled, confused, or bewildered.

Amused

adjective: finding something funny or entertaining.

Cloud's bemused because back at the start of the collapsed expressway he literally asked if there was a better way and she avoided answering. So, he's caught her in a lie and what can he do about it? Nothing. That's why he's all "of course there's a safer route".

And then we're back in control and moving onto the next part of the game.

Conclusion:

Well, they're awkward. Both of them. Cloud is an introvert with mental issues and Aerith has no social skills and a terrible personality flaw in which she bosses everyone around and doesn't listen.

I wouldn't say they're friends, more like comrades. Cloud's still very resistant to her company even after she helps him save Tifa.

[sassylav]

I posted 29 times in 2021

22 posts created (76%)

7 posts reblogged (24%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 0.3 posts.

I added 42 tags in 2021

#harry styles - 11 posts

#one direction - 6 posts

#hslot - 4 posts

#oneshot - 4 posts

#love on tour - 4 posts

#niall horan - 3 posts

#zayn malik - 3 posts

#hazza - 3 posts

#instagram - 2 posts

#louis tomlinson - 2 posts

Longest Tag: 29 characters

#my 2021 tumblr year in review

My Top Posts in 2021

#5

Claustrophobia || N.H.

As someone with worldwide fame like Niall, coping with Claustrophobia is hard. Especially when you get mobbed. 

The first time you noticed his claustrophobia was during one of your dates. You had decided to go to a carnival. Everything was going smoothly until the peak hour. You knew it would be bad if you were caught in the crowd just not how bad. In the first few seconds Niall gripped your hand and held you close to him. Slowly his hands started sweating and you could hear him hyperventilate.

"Niall, are you okay?" You asked him giving his hand a light squeeze.

"(Y/N)-" He tried to continue but he was breathing way too heavily to speak properly. You navigated through the crowd dragging him along with you. Finally when you got out, you grabbed a bottle, opened it and handed it over to Niall. You led him to a chair and let him sit down. You didn't speak letting him collect himself. You both sat in silence for about 10 minutes before he finally said something.

"(Y/N)? I should've told you earlier. I'm claustrophobic. Before you start fussing, I'm okay now." You kinda saw it coming. Niall always got a little paranoid in plane rides but you didn't say anything. You didn't want to make him uncomfortable.

"You should have," You agreed, " but I'm glad you told me. Next time no secrets, okay?" The boy agreed and smiled at you. "Can I hug you?" You asked, to which he opened his arms wide gesturing for you to hug him. 

He took a deep breath and muttered an "I love you" in your ear.

"Love you too, Niall." 

God knows how for how long you hugged each other for. The only thing that you did know was that you two felt safe in the other's arms.

1 notes • Posted 2021-12-06 12:05:12 GMT

#4

17th November 2021

3 notes • Posted 2021-12-09 02:39:28 GMT

#3

Apparently, Harry does have a puckered lips picture

3 notes • Posted 2021-12-13 10:27:59 GMT

#2

Fake date || Percy Jackson

Percy and (Y/N) are high school mortals

Percy's POV

"So you're gonna ask me out on a fake date, just so that all your fangirls leave you alone? It'll never work! They know we're BEST FRIENDS!" (Y/N) screamed, flailing her arms dramatically.

"I know, but pleeeaaasseeeee. It's worth a try!" I argued back.

"Fine" (Y/N) grumbled.

"So meet you at school tomorrow."

"Goodbye" (Y/N) sighed dramatically. Jeez someone should create a crown for Miss. Drama Queen...

She looks so hot.

Yup folks, even if I've asked her out on a fake date, I have fallen for my best friend.

-----Next day just after school----

I and (Y/N) locked eyes and headed towards my "secret" admirers.

We started our act "(Y/N), I've been meaning to tell you this for quite some time...I like you...like really REALLY like you...so will you go out with me?" I asked with a faint blush on my face.

"Yes..." (Y/N) had a tinge of red on her cheeks too. Did she like me? Nah...she probably has good acting skills...

"Meet you tonight at 7, Imma pick you up...and wear something nice," I said getting out of school boundaries with (Y/N). The fangirls seemed to hear every word we said.

"Oh, so my usual clothes don't fit your description of nice?" She joked.

"(Y/N)! You know what I mean, just wear casual stuff" I grumbled as I lightly smacked her arm. She suppressed a giggle. Even her suppressed giggle was so cute!!

----Time skip to 5 o'clock----

(Y/N)'s POV

"Oh, my gods! Oh, my gods! Oh, my gods! Oh, my gods! OH MY G-"

"(Y/N), calm down!", Annabeth, one of my BFFs, was seriously annoyed.

"But Annie..."

"Don't call me that"

"Fine...BUT PERCY ASKED ME ON A DATE!!!" I paused for a moment after looking at her expression, "I mean, I know it's a fake date, but gotta make it count, eh?"

"C'mere", she opened her arms wide, signaling for a hug. Was it that obvious I was disappointed? I hugged her. "Let's get you ready"

The door burst open and I let go of Annabeth. "Piper?", Another one of my BFFs (I know, I have a lot!)

"Yup! I Heard Percy finally asked you a date!!!" Piper burst my eardrums.

"But it's not a real date! He doesn't love me like that!" I argued.

Piper's POV

I and Annabeth shared a knowing glance. She gave (Y/N) an apologetic smile.

See the full post

9 notes • Posted 2021-12-08 13:08:31 GMT

#1

HSLOT 3rd October 2021

31 notes • Posted 2021-12-08 07:02:57 GMT

Get your Tumblr 2021 Year in Review →

[discoursecatharsis]

Please can you explain Victor and the f**kin' dishes and why somebody considers it problematic. I've only been around the YoI fandom for about a month and I've stayed very much on the edge (I'm in the VLD fandom - that's enough drama for me and then some), so I've missed a lot of the discourse and I just don't?? Understand?? This??

You’ve only been in the fandom about a month? Oh you sweet summer child. You’ve missed some interesting drama lol. (though to be fair what I’ve heard out of the VLD fandom, this may be nothing compared to some of the crap the VLD had done.) This explanation is gonna require some backstory. This may be long-winded, I’m sorry. 

First of all, there are a couple ant/ blogs that have the phrase “without the shit” in the url. Two blogs in particular, an art one (so “y0i art without the shit”) and a fic one. (More recently a general blog and a gif blog have popped up, but they’re not important to this story.)

On their blogs, they only reblog “safe” art and fics. That’s their entire theme and purpose. They only reblog safe and pure fanworks. Of course, this means no 0tayur1 (or YP/JJ, or any ship with “minors and adults” aka any Yurio ship because these people don’t like shipping him with anyone). They don’t reblog works that “sexualize minors.” Etc. You get the gist. 

They won’t even reblog fanworks from people who are guilty of those things. Even if the subject of the post itself wasn’t a Bad Ship. This artist drew a cute, pure, fluffy v1ctur1 piece? Nope, they won’t reblog the v1ctur1 art, because that artist drew 0tayur1 making eye-contact once upon a time, that artist is now forever tainted as a gross pedophilic shipper. Even if they have problematic ships in other fandoms, they won’t reblog from them. “This artist supports a sha/ad1n ship? Nope, they’re a nasty artist and will never be reblogged on this blog. They like KS or capt1v3 pr1nc3? They’re a Bad Person too.” 

The two blogs are run by two different people, so they have different lists of what is and what is not allowed. Ranging from “no 0tayuri” to no stripper AUs to no omegaverse to no genderbends to no“problematic or homophobic tropes.”

These Bad Tropes include such hits as:

“Yurio Calling V1ctur1 Disgusting” (for being all lovey-dovey and flirting with each other I assume… apparently Yurio being grossed out or annoyed by them having PDAs is homophobic)

“Yuuri Being Cold to Viktor”

“V1ctur1 Having Sex at the Banquet”

“Viktor Trying to Get Yuuri Drunk”

And my personal favorite Bad Trope: “Viktor and the fucking dishes.” 

There’s been a running gag since early on in the fandom, that, once they start living together, V1ctur1 will get into small arguments over dishes. Like Viktor will forget to do the dishes, and Yuuri will get annoyed with him and tell him to wash the dishes and like hold a kiss over his head until the dishes are done. Just a stupid, harmless joke about being domestic. Right?

Welp I’ve legit seen people argue that this is heteronormative. (Do same-sex couples not wash dishes? I didn’t realize arguing over whose turn it is to wash dishes was a straight couples thing. I guess college roommates all over the country are straight couples.) And according to ant/s, it’s homophobic somehow too.

So the dishes trope is problematic because it’s… idk, I guess v1ctur1 isn’t allowed to have normal silly domestic spats over chores? 

I guess, according to ant/s, it’s unhealthy to sometimes argue over chores and couples should never argue at all…even though they’re human beings and misunderstandings happen no matter how in love you are with someone because no one is perfect, and so long as you communicate and talk after an argument, it’s healthy and normal. To ant/s and their purity culture, v1ctur1 are too superior to have something as mediocre as the occasional disagreement in their relationship.

I can understand why people are annoyed with the dishes thing. It’s a tired, unfunny joke. But it’s nothing to call a “problematic trope.” It’s annoying and dumb at worst, but it is not problematic or homophobic. Like come on people, please go outside.

So yeah, that’s where “Viktor and the dishes” comes in. Sorry for the novel.

Some further backstory to complete this saga though. 

Around May, it came out the the fic blog had a “shitlist.” A private list that they shared with other ant/s so they would know which writers to block. Someone posed as an ant/ to get their hands on this list, and released it, and exposed the fic blog for having a “shitlist” of writers in the fandom.

That little incident brought more awareness to these “without the shit” blogs, both the fic and the art blog. Some people were aware of their existence, but not many until this shitlist came out. 

Some people had a field day with this drama and were more amused than anything, trying to create art/fics to get onto the shitlist, like some badge of honor. Others were understandably pissed at these blogs for quite literally calling certain fanworks “shit.” People work hard on their art and fics. It’s so wrong for these ant/ blogs to call their work “shit” just because they don’t like the ship.

Now I can imagine running a blog with a complex tagging system, that way people can blacklist things that trigger them and also easily find art and fics that will suit them. But that was not the case with these blogs obviously. I hate to use the word “discriminate” so lightly, but they were essentially discriminating against 0tayur1 shippers under the guise of “this blog is a safe space and only reblogs safe works!!”.

After the shitlist was released, the fic blog password-protected for a few days (probably because they got an influx of asks from writers begging to be put onto the shitlist lmao) and then came back later. And now these blogs are continuing to reblog only “safe” works, while deeming all other works as “shit.”