#if he has a stylist he needs to fire them. and if he doesn't he needs to get one.

[abetterscarletletter]

what the absolute fuck my dude

[ggidolsmuts]

Fire in the Belly (and the Womb)

A/N: This follows up from the previous story Sins, Hormones, and the Starlet's Boyfriend

"Hey Yunjin, wow, that looks a little too breedable, hope it's not too cold." Yunjin's head snaps at the stylist's comment.

"What? What did you say?" she asks tersely.

"Huh? I said it looks breathable, like I hope it doesn't get too cold out there."

"Oh, got it, yeah, should be fine, sorry stylist-unnie." The stylist looks at her oddly, but just shakes her head and leaves.

"Yunjin, are you ok?" Sakura lays a concerned hand on her. "You seem off."

"Ah yeah, I'm fine." She was decidedly not fine. Yunjin is horny, and just like someone with horns, she snaps out at people unexpectedly. Her nights have been muted but wet, her moans muffled into the pillow to not disturb her members. Regrettably her own self-pleasure has been unsatisfying. No thanks to him! Nothing felt quite as good after her evening at Somi's place. They did work together on some songs after, but whenever she ran into him with Somi he was nothing but polite. Like a puppy he was devoted to Somi, checking in on her, leaving her little notes in her studio, and never sparing Yunjin anything but a courteous nod and greeting. It bugged her, not that she was jealous of Somi, more that she was envious of Somi, because she knows what he was capable of.

That he could be a wolf at Somi's wishes, and that he could tear Yunjin's clothes apart and eat Yunjin whole. That he would make her scream in pleasure, and she needed to scream in pleasure, to let loose right about yesterday. She can't do that in the dorms! A dildo is nice and all, and Yunjin has one or two that stretch her pretty well, but not with the force he could drive into her. There's also a fire in her belly, or rather, fire in her womb, and no dildo could satisfy her raw desire to have potent cum pumped straight into her. So with a hand drifting between her legs, she taps out a message to Somi.

*Hey Somi, really sorry to ask this, can I borrow your boyfriend for a night?*

*Like last time? sure, I could use a break after last week, when do you want him*

Yunjin let's out a muted moan at that thought—she can only imagine what the two of them have been up to, how hard does he go that the energetic Somi needs a break? And when does she want him? Oh god like a month ago! It takes all of her self-control to not type "ASAP" into her phone, and instead Yunjin settles for:

*Whenever's good for him*

Even with a date set, Yunjin still finds herself surprised, yelping when she sees him come through her dressing room door.

"Shh, unless you want everyone to know."

"What are you doing here?" She hugs him, a friendly greeting.

"Somi wanted me to give you a surprise." The greeting turns intimate, and Yunjin's body is suddenly flooded with heat as he pulls her flush against him. His hand is daring, and through the mirror behind him she watches his hand dip under her skirt, and then—

"Ohhhhh!" The loud moan leaks unbidden as he squeezes her ass firmly, palming her cheek over the safety shorts. Fuck now she wants to take the shorts off, to have him squeeze her ass directly, maybe spank it even. Unconsciously she pushes her hips back, wanting him to feel more of her ass. Very consciously he pushes her hips back to him, and there is a different kind of flooding as he presses his hardness against her.

"Not so loud, you really want to get caught don't you?" Yunjin doesn't want to get caught, but it feels so good to be touched, to be handled roughly like the way he was doing right now. "You're looking mighty breedable." This time Yunjin's sure she did not mishear. If anything, he would want her outfit to be completely breathable—naked, specifically. To her delight he unbuckles his pants, quickly revealing his stiffness.

Yes! He smiles into her neck and Yunjin freezes, did she say that out loud? There's no time to think though as he pushes her down slightly, and Yunjin's mind goes blank, feeling his shaft even through the layer of her safety shorts. She buries her face in his chest, muffling her moans as he rubs his cock between her legs—she helps him by grinding down on it, as if she's trying to split her lips over his tool.

"Close your thighs." Yunjin follows his request immediately, and the two of them breathe a little heavier as skin meets skin, her smooth thighs rubbing against his raw hardness. He begins to move, thrusting slowly between her thighs and rubbing against her pussy, and the memories of their previous encounter come easily to mind. A large hand squeezes her butt again, and his fingers dig deep into her flesh, sinfully tracing between her cheeks. Yunjin's reminded of the way he grabbed Somi's ass last time, and intrusive thoughts start coming in, her mind going wild as she imagines how they fuck, influenced by the bits and pieces she hears from Somi.

I could use a break after last week

First thing he does coming home is to jump me

He just explodes in you

"Nngh fuck..." This was just supposed to be a little surprise tease, but Yunjin's so deprived that even this is enough to have her hurtling towards an orgasm. A playful smack on her ass, and Yunjin's world goes white. She bites her lower lip hard as she suppresses a squeal, legs going weak as she reaches a relieving climax. When she recovers her forehead is pressed against his chest, and looking down she can see his shaft shining a little, covered in her own slick, rubbing her pussy to extend her pleasure. It's hypnotizing, and Yunjin can't take it anymore.

"You can p-put it in..." she whispers.

"No, not today." Her whine when he pulls away is utterly depraved, watching him put his erection back in his pants. "Today's just a surprise."

"You didn't finish yet!" She wants to help him finish, she wants him. "Let me—" Yunjin drops to her knees, eager to take him in her mouth, but to her shock he resists, taking one more step away from her.

"Nuh-uh, today's loads are for Somi. I'll see you next time." He pats her head, and a stunned Yunjin remains on her knees as the door closes behind him.

Today's... loads? Multiple? For Somi? Somehow, despite her orgasm, Yunjin is even more aroused than before. Yunjin quickly stands up before anyone comes in and sees her kneeling on the ground, but as she does she realizes she has another problem—how is she going to explain why her safety shorts are soaked through?

"Fuck me..." she utters to herself.

The day arrives, but it is with simmering frustration that Yunjin waits in the hotel room, thighs crossing and uncrossing as she awaits his arrival. She checks her phone constantly—he's late, and yet no message! Surely he didn't forget? Or did he get the day wrong? Or did he skip out on her? Maybe he just thought "Eh, pass." The mere contemplation of the last thought sends Yunjin into indignant anxiety—how could he turn her down! Did he not have a good time last time? Should she have insisted on giving him a blowjob right then?

It is with such thoughts that Yunjin opens the door when he finally arrives, her expression prompting him to ask a patently absurd question.

"Is now not a good time? Should we reschedule?" As if Yunjin could reschedule her need to get fucked!

"No." She pulls him in and slams the door behind him. "You're late."

"By..." He checks his phone. "8 minutes? I just missed the train and had to wait for the next. What's wrong?" Yunjin's self-inflicted dourness lightens as she watches him remove his coat, the mere sight of him taking off clothing reawakening her arousal.

"N-Nothing, just frustrated, sorry."

"Well, that's what I'm here for." Any doubts she had about him or herself go out the window as he hugs her like last time, kissing her demandingly. His fingers run through her hair, his other hand firm around her waist—one strokes her hair, the other strokes her lower back. It is almost sweet, like the last time they had sex, but Yunjin's too horny for that.

"I need you to fuck me roughly," she breathes into his ear, and the stroking pauses.

"Roughly?"

"Last time, the way you fuck Somi, you said there was the intimate way and the—"

"The rough way, yes I remember." His expression hardens slightly, as if preparing to be rough with her, and Yunjin gets wetter. A thrill goes down her spine when he opens his mouth again. "What's your safeword?"

Safeword, oh my god, just how rough do they get?! Yunjin buys herself some time, trying not to think about how rough he and Somi get. "Do you and Somi have a safeword?"

"We did."

"Did?"

"We learnt our limits over time, and we eventually stopped using it." Yunjin isn't scared, but she also worries about biting off more than she can chew, or take, in this case. Nevertheless she bluffs, unimpressed by her own behavior earlier.

"No safeword for me then either, no limits, I can take it." He stares at her, and Yunjin stares back, willing herself to hold his gaze. He is the first to blink, and he clears his throat.

"Let's pick up from where we left off then, I want to use your mouth." He leisurely removes his pants, and Yunjin drops to her knees once more, eager to finally get started. He is in her hands, hard and ready, all for her! She tries to bring her head to his, but is stopped by a hand on her scalp.

"Ah ah, I want to use your mouth, not receive a blowjob. Get on the bed." His tone is commanding, and Yunjin doesn't dare protest. He pulls her to the edge of the bed, her head hanging off the side. "Open." The blood is beginning to rush to Yunjin's head, and she has no stray thoughts, her mouth hanging open upside down.

"Ggllhk, mmph!" It is the first time she takes him in the mouth, and his length seems monstrous in size, filling her oral cavity, and pushing into her throat.

"Breathe through your nose," is the reminder and the order, and Yunjin complies, breathing in oxygen mixed with his musk—intoxicating. "Relax your throat." Deeper he goes, and Yunjin has to strain a little to allow him to push on further. On and on, until his sack taps against her nose and upper lip.

Today's loads, all for me! is the only thought in her head.

"Good?" He asks. Yunjin dangles an arm behind her, feeling his muscular ass and squeezing it, trying to push him forward.

I'm perfect. "Ghhk!" Panic takes over Yunjin when she feels a hand on her throat, giving her a slight squeeze.

"Relax, trust me, let me take over, let me do the work." She breathes deeply through her nose, trying her best to relax her body. "Good girl." Rhythmically the fingers on her throat tense and slack, moving back and forth on her neck. His hips move slightly too—not quite thrusting, just enough for some friction. "Such a nice fucking cocksleeve."

The thought should have incensed Yunjin—her throat, her instrument as Le Sserafim's vocalist, now used as nothing but a fleshlight, a mere instrument of pleasure. Yet as he throbs inside her neck the idea only served to turn her on, to heighten her arousal. He wanted to use her mouth, and by God he was using all of her mouth. Her hands drift to her own body, diving beneath her shorts and between her spread legs. She moans as she touches her lips—she's soaked! However, Yunjin is swiftly admonished, the grip around her throat tightening.

"Not your turn yet." He grabs her arm, pulling it back towards her neck. "Stroke me." He plants a knee on the bed, pushing even deeper, as if trying to fits his balls into her mouth as well. Yunjin is made to choke herself, her own hand grabbing her neck. She feels his thickness inside her throat, coughing a little as it throbs. She runs a hand up and down her neck, smearing her own juices across her skin. "That's it, fuck that's good!" Liquid trickles down Yunjin's face, messing up her makeup—not tears, but her own drool, flowing the wrong way down her face. Everything about this is wrong, why is she choking herself? Why is she letting him pin her head against the bed, why is he dunking his balls into her face?

Why does it feel so good?

When his orgasm happens Yunjin feels it more than tastes it—the jump of his cock, tip hitting the walls of her throat, and then the burst of gooey warmth against it. His hand goes back to her neck, squeezing it like he's gripping his cock, milking it for every drop. Yunjin trembles beneath him, beginning to run out of oxygen as he continues to spurt. The saltiness hits her tongue as he pulls out, the last remnants of his peak glazing across her lips and nose.

"Now it's your turn. Let's make you squirt."

"I'm— Haah, don't, mmm! Squirt." He doesn't give Yunjin anytime to breathe, leaning over her, and plunging his fingers between her legs. There is an audible thump as Yunjin bumps her head against the edge of the bed, her body arching against him at the penetration—it has been too long! She opens her eyes when she realizes he's not moving, two fingers deep inside her keeping her stretched and full, but no friction, no pleasure. His face is at her hips, and he's looking back down her body, smiling back at her.

"You will."

"Mmm..." Yunjin lets her head dangle off the edge of the bed again as he starts moving, massaging her pussy from the inside. Maybe she's just incredibly aroused, but he seems to know just how to touch her, and the hot pleasure going through her body quickly becomes a boil. "Fuck yes, just like that!" She just needed that little bit more!

Then she feels it.

"Oh my god!" Her eyes open in surprise when he presses down on her abdomen, right over where his fingers are inside her. Together the set of hands seem to pin her g-spot in place, and he just works his fingertips against her weakness, prodding and rubbing at it incessantly. It's like he knows her body better than she does. Like he owns it! is the last thought before she blanks out.

"Oh fuck... FUCK ME!" Yunjin screams and grabs at his thighs, fingers digging into his flesh as she squirts for the first time, soaking her clothes like never before. She's too blissed out to even notice his hard-again cock bouncing against her face as she cries and shouts, smearing her pretty face with more leftover semen and newly made precum. When she comes to her head is lying on the bed, and he's caressing her cheek, or so she thought.

"Clean." He brings his fingers to her mouth, and Yunjin dutifully sucks them clean. "Do we taste good?" It takes a moment to process the taste—he had wiped her face with his hand, and his fingers were coated in her juices and his cum! The worst part is, they tasted good together, and Yunjin couldn't wait for their fluids to mix... Elsewhere.

He takes off the rest of his clothes, and Yunjin follows suit, peeling off her now sweaty and wet pieces. As soon as she does he's on her, and Yunjin finds herself facing the wrong way on her hands and knees. The breath is pushed out of her as she is unceremoniously filled. Is this what Somi means by being jumped, that he just turns her around and sinks into her? Does he also use Somi's throat like he did earlier—two of K-Pop's hottest starlets, and their throats and pussies are just wrapped around his cock like toys?

"Nngh... Fuck!" Yunjin doesn't have much more time to think about what he does with Somi as pleasure shoots through her body while he does her. Her cheeks clap loudly against his hips, his hands branding her milky skin with how tightly he's holding her.

"Such a tight fucking body!" he hisses, and Yunjin clenches around him in response, both from the praise and her desire to please him further. Each thrust jolts her senses, and Yunjin is slowly overwhelmed by the pleasure, her arms and legs going weak trying to prop her body up. He soon renders that unnecessary though by grabbing her wrists and yanking them back, pulling her upper body off the bed. He gathers her wrists behind her back, and with one hand holding them there Yunjin is powerless to do anything. 

"God deeper, h-harder!" Her arms are his reins as he rides her to one orgasm, and then another, like a stallion riding its mare. With her hands occupied there's no stifling her loud moans or cries of pleasure that fill the room, and as loud as she gets on Le Sserafim content, Yunjin is arguably even louder in bed. "Fuck I'm cumming! Oh fuck don't stop, please don't stop! F-Faster, more please— Oh my— Mmmmm!" Yunjin's tongue loosens as she finally gets the fuck she's been waiting for for a long time, and she's saying anything that comes to mind, shamelessly telling him how she wants to be plugged—faster, harder, deeper! She's fucked into another "hands-free" orgasm before he lets go, dropping her head to the bed. She finds herself in an even more compromising position when her mind is no longer blank with pleasure—he's still holding her by her hands, but now he's pulled them from beneath her body and between her legs, using it as a sling to hold her hips up.

"Ah..." Yunjin gasps breathlessly as he starts thrusting again. She tries to squirm and turn her head, to lift herself off the bed with pure core strength, but he simply pulls on her arms, forcing her head back to the bed with the see-saw action. She could touch her clit in the position, and Yunjin does so, adding a familiar pleasure to the more foreign pleasure of being fucked so thoroughly.

"Is this what you wanted?" he asks when Yunjin recovers from another orgasm, and she can only whimper and nod, rubbing her face on the bedsheet. "Do you want me to get rougher?" She nods again, and in short order he has her screaming—he plants a foot on the bed and grabs her by the hips, and the new position allows him to fuck her even more powerfully at an even better angle. Yunjin was getting fucked earlier, now she's just getting dicked down and loving it.

"Nnnngh! Oh my god, oh my god!" She has to bite the sheets in both pain and pleasure—her throat is sore from the "blowjob" earlier, her arms are sore from his yanking and pulling, and without a doubt her pussy is going to be sore with how hard he's going to town on her, but Yunjin would not have it any other way. Her head spins as a large hand pushes her deeper into the bed, and then—

Without any warning beyond a grunt, he simply sinks his cock all the way into her and explodes, filling her womb with potent DNA shrapnel. Each send of his hips sends even more cum into her, claiming more and more of Yunjin's pussy. She can only moan when she feels liquid trailing down her thighs—he's overflowing out of her!

"Y-You came so much..." Yunjin gasps, but he isn't remotely done with her. She finds herself on her back, and her fingers in her own pussy as he pushes them in.

"Clean yourself out before I fuck you again."

"W-What?! W-Wait!" Yunjin whimpers in overstimulation as four fingers are shoved into her, digging his load out from inside. Through thick and thin fingers does his load spill out from her, and the flow does not cease—so copious and thick is his seed that she finds herself on the verge of climax again just trying to get all of it out. "W-Why do you need to get it out? Nngh!"

"I don't want any sloppy seconds."

But it's your cum! Yunjin wants to cry out, yet it comes out as a wordless shout when he makes her clench again in orgasm, both his and her fingers fucking her roughly, forcing Yunjin to push his load out. What an image she makes right now—she lays sprawled out on the bed, fingers plunged deep in her own cum-filled snatch. It's no wonder he's hard again by the time Yunjin manages to piece a thought together. He rubs his tip against her messy and gooey entrance, and to Yunjin's shock he aims below her slit, lifting her legs slightly.

"I'm going to fuck your ass." A chill runs down her spine—whatever she had been looking for from him, it definitely wasn't that.

"N-No wait, not there!" Without responding he brings two fingers to her slit, gathering her slick and his cum before smearing it around her puckered ring. "Please, not there, I don't want it there!"

"What's your safeword then?" Her blood runs cold when she realizes her folly—she told him she didn't need one, and told him there were no limits! And now he's lubing her up, spreading her cheeks!

"No, please don't!" No no no no no no no! But he is unbudging, ignoring her pleas and making a show of prepping his thrusts. Once, then a second time does his cock seem to bump around her ass, as if "missing" his target. He makes a show of pulling his hips back, and Yunjin braces for losing her anal cherry—she could have pushed him off, or kicked him away earlier, but with his hands pinning her arms down her mind is going blank, and her hands grip the sheets, eyes tightly shut as she prepares for the pain. She can only manage one final whimper.

"Please—"

His cock sheathes inside her pussy with a smooth thrust, and for the first time ever Yunjin cums on the initial penetration. The relief and sudden pleasure instead of pain mix blissfully in Yunjin's head, and her legs wrap around his hips as she cums, locking him in, afraid he would actually take her ass if he pulls out again.

"And that's why we have safewords." He whispers in her ear, nibbling on her ear lobe and earning himself a whimper of "You're right." He unwraps Yunjin's legs from behind him and puts her in a mating press, hooking her knees with his elbows. Regardless of the position he chooses Yunjin is powerless, limp with pleasure as he begins plowing her again, stretching her sore pussy even more. For a brief moment Yunjin watches him, his hair mess and ruffled, wolfish... 

Wolfish? 

She's reminded of the fanfics she's read on her lonely nights, about alphas and omegas. She has no idea if he's ever read anything like that, or even aware of that concept, but he sure is fucking her like an alpha, and for her part, from the way she's yelping, she might as well be an omega in heat, her pussy molded in the shape of his cock. He kisses her, tongue demanding Yunjin's own tongue in return. The kiss is so intense, so ferocious, that Yunjin's head begins to spin, beginning to run out of breath. To the kiss he adds an unexpected move—with a hand he pinches Yunjin's nose, and between his kiss, the pinch, and the absolute pounding he's still able to give her, she starts to panic once more, quickly running out of oxygen, each jolt of her body unable to give her the air she needs.

"Mm, mm!" She grabs his shoulder, trying to tap him weakly, but her grip is loosening by the second, her consciousness fading. Her eyes open, and he has a lupine grin on his face—he might actually fuck her to death. He pulls away and says something, but she can only read his lips before she combusts.

Cum.

Yunjin's eyes roll into her head, the chemicals rushing her brain as oxygen flows back into her lungs. Yet again the mix of relief and pleasure is intoxicating, and her mouth hangs open, silently screaming as she squirts around him again. She jerks uselessly below him, her pussy contracting around his cock her only grip on reality anymore. Her limbs feel like jelly, and she has to whine and whimper to get him to throw her arms around his neck and hug her. Between the choking, the squirting, the threat of anal, and then the simultaneous kissing and choking and squirting she just went through earlier, Yunjin's brain is mush, intrusive thoughts entering and taking root. As far as she is concerned he is her alpha, and her lizard brain submits to him—if he wanted to take her ass now she wouldn't say no. But Yunjin wants something more.

"What is it?" his growl cuts through her orgasm-induced brain fog.

"Huh?"

"You've been mumbling, not moaning, spit it out." He thrusts harder, and Yunjin placates him by moaning—even now she doesn't want to reveal the depths to which her desires have descended to. The resistance is token though, and if her alpha wants to hear her needs, she would tell him. He asks her with his body, cock plunging in and out of her roughly; he actually wants to just hear her moan more, but Yunjin's omega-twisted mind treats it as delightful punishment, as if trying to make her speak, and the words begin tumbling out of her mouth.

"B-Breed... Breed me, please breed me." She finds his gaze, her eyes round and dilated, clouded with submissive lust. "Breed me like you own me." He slows down, and Yunjin immediately panics. "No, keep going, don't stop! Don't stop!"

"Say it again," he snarls, his voice low and dangerous. Yunjin does what her alpha wants.

"Breed me."

"The full thing, all of it." His next thrust is harder, and he pushes Yunjin's legs even further back, her ankles now near her ears. Later she would reflect on how she's normally not this flexible, but if he can fuck the kinks into her, maybe he's fucking the flexibility into her as well.

"Breed me like I belong to you."

"Louder!"

"Breed me like I'm your BITCH!" The last word is a shriek as he thumps solidly against her cervix. Yunjin's alpha leans over her, allowing him to pound straight down into her creamy warmth. Her ankles hook around his neck as Yunjin's folded in half, and she screams out in delirious joy at being ferociously, if not brutally, mated. Over and over he slams straight down into her, until he latches his mouth to her neck and sucks on her skin hard, marking her while he pumps her full of seed. The warm explosion rips through her womb and goes straight to her feral brain, and Yunjin cums with him one final time, scratching deep red lines on his arms and back, all while shredding her vocal cords as she lets loose her loudest cry yet. 

"YES YES YES YESSSSS!"

The silence after is deafening, and Yunjin's world goes fuzzy and fades to black.

She wakes up late next morning, her body blissfully sore from the night before. Every muscle in her body felt like it was on fire, but the fire in her belly had been quenched, and Yunjin nestles into the bed a little bit more until reality finally calls in the form of her manager looking for her. She comes up with a flimsy excuse, but she knows she has to get up. Disappointingly Somi's boyfriend is nowhere to be found, and after Yunjin showers and dresses again, groaning the whole time in soreness, she finds what he left her on the desk.

I hope I was of help to you. I greatly enjoyed last night, and hope you did too.

P.S. Just in case

Where the hell did Somi find a guy like that? Yunjin thinks to herself. How can he be so polite, so considerate (Her clothes were folded in a neat pile on the couch!) after fucking her brains out last night? Regardless Yunjin feels a small amount of pride, knowing that he had enjoyed last night too. She also finds the morning-after pills he had left next to the note. Intrusive thoughts from last night still linger in her head—unbeknownst to him, the date he had picked, last night, was actually one of her more fertile days, and a primal part of her wants to flush the pills down the toilet and let things take their natural course, to let her alpha breed her. Yunjin's hand travels to her neck, feeling where he had shoved his cock down her throat and then choked her... God even that mere thought is enough to warm her body, and her hand drifts down her belly.

But no, it's a new day, and Yunjin claps her hands to her face, trying to clear her head. She takes the pills and washes it down with a glass of water. And with that, the fire in her womb is satiated.

For now.

A/N: Le Sserafim's song titles are too fun to play around with lol, they all can be made to sound kinda dirty XD So have more of Yunjin, thanks for reading!

[wordy-little-witch]

I am now hip deep in the Edge of Midnight campaign from legends of avantris and lemme tell you some shit -

1) I would lay down my life for Jericho Sticks without any hesitation. Torbek and Jericho are my sons now, no takesies backsies.

2) Lethica and Marius are so perfectly aligned to be end game lovers but I personally adore the idea of them being queerplatonic if only bc it's funny to watch people be confused and I think Lethica would adore that.

3) you can pry the concept of Briggsy having a some kind of magical fantasy cellphone equivalent from my cold dead hands - sending stone or smth idfk - and he's been keeping his buddy/boyfriend Torbek updated on all this like "Becky you would not BELIEVE what happened today-" ((listen I know the flirting bit between them in the yuletide one-shot was a feycurse but leave me alone it's funny as fuck))

4) briggsy @ jericho in ep 24 appropos nothing: Jerry, maybe we have to kiss ((sad, silly twinks with Literal Darksides are his type /j))

5) I have a friend-crush on Nikkie and I will never recover

6) I have an unyielding NEED to have Jericho get a final hit on a boss and yell yeehaw

7) I know stylistically Jericho doesn't have "skin" but I personally hc that his clothes aren't effectively his skin, he has a burlap body - and he has "tattoos" in the form of embroidery. It started when he had to stitch up his own cuts and stuff and he just kept it up.

8) Only Yorgrim has any constant sense of cooking in an actual kitchen-like setting. Farryn, Marius, and Briggsy can do journey or on-the-road cooking, but it's never.... great. Lethica burns everything somehow or gets the bright idea to 'experiment', and it's never good - she's fine if she's got clear end goals. Jericho is understandably skittish around fire due to his body and straw, but he is the closest to being able to cook well and do so semi regularly.

9) Virgil is a weird mix of a hater and lowkey overprotective. He does hate being imprisoned, but also he's kinda bound here so he HAS to keep this disaster of a bard safe. He refuses to admit he might have a soft spot. He is Stressed.

10) Farryn doesn't get the appeal of Girls Nights, but Jericho does!!! They join Lethica for some fun relaxation. Briggsy once asked why Jericho was allowed since he's also a dude, and Lethica just responded "he's allowed to be there - on account of him being a scarecrow and not a literal man after all." It's an inside joke which later has to be explained - Jericho is nonbinary but doesn't rightly care about stuff like that.

11) Yorgrim is the group dad, no I will not explain.

12) sometimes after a battle, Lethica and Marius will help stitch up some of Jericho's tears. Farryn may also add in random flowers she finds around because it makes him happy.

13) Briggsy is small but mighty. The only person he has yet to pick up and carry is Yorgrim - he swears that one day that tombstone will be gone and he'll be able to do it. It's all the rock's fault, he's sure of it.

Spoilers under the cut (caught up to present)

OKAY so I am caught up completely and have decided that Canon is not important leave me alone

• Yorgrim did not die - he got wounded heavily but survived.

• Farryn almost got taken but they got to her in time. She is mute for a time due to injuries and trauma - idk if she ever talks again bc we could use more sign language in the world. Maybe it comes and goes, fuck if I know, idk and idc

ONWARDS TO SILLIES

• Lethica strong armed her way into giving Jericho The Talk after he revealed he had no idea what a penis was. Scarecrows cannot blush, but apparently his fiendish glow can ebb and flow and he glows much MUCH brighter when he's embarrassed - she tries so hard not to laugh.

• Adella and Jericho btw are simply besties. His "crush" on her is a friend crush and Phillip just finds it painfully cute. ((Also -> Jericho has mommy issues and Adella always wanted a son/nephew/little brother. Peaceful alignment))

• Dark Mode Marius is a colossal flirt but still a giant dweeb. He's cool and suave until someone flirts back - then he's a mess.

• Briggsy is very happy with his Kannon & makes "shooting my shot" jokes at every and any opportunity

• Yorgrim, with his reward, manages to finally lay many souls tonrest but he still carries the tombstone on journeys - just not constantly now. He still believes he must pay penance, but it's a little easier to share the burden.

• Farryn, with her own reward, has not chosen to activate it yet. Something tells her to wait, to bide her time and remain. She does, however, get a little more at ease with the others. She and Jericho have come to an understanding, too - that being they they are a package deal, no takesies backsies, and they refer to each other as twin, much to the confusion of many, many, many people. WLW and NBLM solidarity.

• Jericho is pining HARD for Marius, but he's absolutely terrified of damaging the friendship so everyone is watching two oblivious dummies look longingly into each other.

• POLYAMORY POLYAMORY POLYAMORY

• Marius grows rather fond of Virgil, and the sentiment is very much NOT reciprocated bc this angry knight vampire is not good enough for his vessel and he's mad about it.

• Yorgrim: I've only had my friends for a few days, but if anything happened to them, I'd kill everyone in Druskenvald and then myself.

• I fully expect for Jericho to somehow befriend an enemy in disguise, not realize, and accidentally fuck up the evil plan with the powers of puns, music and friendship (/j)

• the first time the party sees Jericho presenting more feminine, he's been lended one of Lethica's dresses after his own clothes got torn up and the rest are being washed. Marius has a nosebleed and faints. Briggsy is staring somewhat respectfully. Lethica is trying valiantly not to laugh. Farryn and Yorgrim regret not dying when they had the chance.

• Marius: i cannot have a relationship because I have sworn to follow the duchess of sin

Lillith: whoa hold up, Do Not use me as an excuse to avoid the cutie pie over there. Besides, he has a demon. I'm queen of hell. I can make a small exception.

Marius: shit

• Briggsy Bi Icon: OH if ONLY Jerry here had a DASHING KNIGHT to SAVE THEM from this PERILOUS INCIDENT

Jericho: captain, I'm just getting off of a horse??

Marius: no no Briggsy has a point, no maiden should be unaccompanied or unassisted. Allow me-

Lethica&Farryn: We Know What You Are

• Yorgrim is watching all this inter party flirting and is definitely wondering if he's gonna have to have an aside with everyone about flirting tactics and communication skills. Briggsy is making it worse by enabling everyone.

• Farryn gets some sweet, succulent healing, that is all.

[goldenmetstli]

General Headcanons of Seto Kaiba

I have nothing to say but that he has been on my mind lately lol ¯\(ツ)/¯

✮ Doesn't like being touched, and Mokuba is the only one who can hug him. When they were kids, Seto was more affectionate; they held hands while crossing the street; when Mokuba had a nightmare, they cuddled, etc. After being adopted and enduring Gozanburo abuse, Seto now has a hard time being physically affectionate.

✮ He's always extremely busy, so he doesn't get to watch a lot of movies, but his favorite genres are horror and sci-fi.

✮ He is running with 5 hours of sleep every day, eats only when he remembers (or has quick snacks like nuts and berries) and his mind is always running. Even with that, he tries to be healthy because he is one of those people that, when they get sick, they get knocked down for days.

✮ In his job, he is pretty innovative and willing to try new technology to improve his company, but in his private life, he has specific meals and drinks that he enjoys and rarely tries anything new. They also need to be prepared in a certain way; otherwise, he won't eat them.

✮ Not a fan of fast food and sweets, the complete opposite of Mokuba, who always has candy in his pocket and wants to eat out every day.

✮ Rarely cooks for himself, but he knows how to make basic meals and occasionally puts together a sandwich as a quick meal (with very expensive bread and meat, of course).

✮ Kaiba usually works on silence, but in his spare time (if he has any), he listens to rock and alternative music.

✮ Reads A LOT, primarily business-related. If he doesn't have time to read, he listens to audiobooks, usually in Japanese and English.

✮ He can speak english, chinese, korean and french.

✮ Until puberty, he had a stylist, but after becoming the CEO of Kaiba Corp, he fired them. He chooses what to wear for events and has even designed some of his outfits (his coat, for example). Needless to say, all of his clothes and shoes are very expensive.

✮ Even if he is extremely busy he would never ever spend more than a day without taking a shower. He takes great pride in looking clean and presentable. He has an image to maintain, so you bet he always looks his best and smells amazing.

✮ Does he consider himself good-looking? Yes, and not only that, but he knows he is effortlessly handsome, so trying to look hot is not a priority because he knows he just looks like that. Still, it is not like he flaunts his appearance; he is more proud of his mind and hard work.

✮ As much as he stays current with the latest technology and business practices, he is very far removed from internet culture. So yes, he only knew what a meme was when Mokuba told him, and now Mokuba helps in the digital marketing area.

✮ He's pretty much a jerk, but he is extremely professional and pays fairly to his employees. The work environment? Well, the higher your position, the higher the anxiety, but if you work at the desk, it is a pretty good job. But mind you, he expects you to give your best even if you are in the lowest position in the company.

✮ On days when he has had a lot of work and has not been able to sleep well, he has fallen asleep in his limousine.

[jae-bummer]

Good Hair Day

Request: For your request prompts, would you please do a Soulmate AU with Hoshi from Seventeen? I don’t find very many fluffy, happy Hoshi stories. That man has such beautiful eyes and I LOVE when he has plushy cheeks! It makes me want to give him a kiss and a cuddle. I was also very impressed with his humble attitude and manners when he was on Suga’s Suchwita episode. Sorry for rambling and thanks in advance. 😋

Prompt:

11) Soulmate AU

If you dye your hair, your soulmate's hair color changes as well.

Pairing: Seventeen Hoshi x Reader

Genre: Fluff

.

It was only 6 AM when Hoshi was forced to roll out of bed for his schedule. Rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, he eased himself from his warm blankets and made his way toward the bathroom.

"Nice hair," Coups laughed, emerging into the hallway at the same time Hoshi stepped from his room.

Headed in the opposite direction, Hoshi stumbled into the older member and grumbled a sleepy "shut up."

So what if his morning hair was a nightmare? That was the case for almost every single one of the guys in this group (Seungcheol included). All he had to do was throw on a hoodie and patiently wait for his turn in the stylist's chair.

Shouldering his way into the bathroom, Hoshi stood before the sink and groaned.

Not again.

Blinking hazily at his own reflection, he plopped his forehead against the cool surface. Out of all days, why did his soulmate pick TODAY to go cotton candy pink?

..

"Seize the day!" you cackled, smoothing on another layer of hair dye.

"You are unhinged," your best friend, Ash, laughed from her spot on the toilet lid. "And I kind of like it."

"This person," you continued slowly. "Has been dying their hair nearly every other month since I've known them."

"Well, you don't know them," Ash interrupted. "But go on."

"Oh, I know them alright," you muttered.

For what had been the better part of the last ten years, your hair color had changed as often as the weather. You were responsible for approximately two of those changes, and they were both out of necessity. Job interviews were a mandatory life occasion, and your soulmate would have to get over having brown hair for a few months. Mint green would not be getting either of you hired anytime soon.

Which made you wonder, what exactly did your soulmate do for a living? How did they get away with having such vibrant fashion colors in everyday life? Why did your soulmate seem to have the biggest commitment issues with something as simple as hair?

"I'm only giving them a taste of their own medicine," you sighed, finally setting down the tinting brush. Examining your work, you nodded in satisfaction. "Let's see how their boss reacts to this when they wake up tomorrow."

"Maybe they're a hairdresser?" Ash theorized as she watched your slow decent into madness. "Oooh, or maybe a clown for children's parties?"

"A clown?" you cringed. "I like your enthusiasm, but could we go for something more..."

"Aspirational?" she laughed. "Sure, Y/N. Maybe they're a famous musician and after you meet them, you won't have to worry about anything besides ugly hair colors ever again."

"If they were famous, I would have clocked them by now," you grumbled. "I haven't seen Harry Styles walking around with fire engine red hair."

"You haven't seen Harry Styles walking around in general," Ash laughed. "Give yourself, and your soulmate, the benefit of the doubt."

...

"I need an adult!" Hoshi screeched across the dorm. The sun had hardly risen, and he was already launching into panic mode. "Like an adultier adult! Someone who has a much better handle on adult life and adult problems!"

"It doesn't take much," Jeonghan croaked. Collapsing onto the couch, he rubbed at his eyes before glancing up at the pacing Hoshi. "Holy shit, have you ever seen the Trolls movie? Because your head-"

Hoshi stopped his pacing and pointed an accusatory finger at his member. "I am very sensitive right now. Choose your words carefully."

Jeonghan leveled a stare in his direction. "Fine. If I don't have something nice to say, I won't say anything at all."

"Well, we both know that's a lie," Hoshi muttered as he went back to pacing. "What do I do? How do I fix this?"

"Alright first, I need you to calm down," Jeonghan nodded. "Second, I'd like you to make me a cup of coffee."

Throwing a dirty look over his shoulder, Hoshi continued to stomp back and forth.

"Fine," Jeonghan groaned. "Get me my wallet."

"Why am I going to get your wallet?" Hoshi argued. "What is your wallet going to do for the disaster on my head? We have a shoot today and the concept is going to be ruined and it's going to be all my-"

"If you stopped to take a breath," Jeonghan interrupted. "I would tell you that I have a business card inside said wallet. On that business card is the information for a very talented hairdresser who takes hair emergencies very seriously."

Dropping to his knees, Hoshi clasped his hands together. "You are not the hero I deserve, but a hero nonetheless."

"I'm pretty sure that's not how the quote goes, and I'm mildly offended for some reason?" Jeonghan said, narrowing his eyes.

Already up and rummaging through Jeonghan's wallet, Hoshi yanked out the business card. "I owe you one."

"I'll take that one and use it for a coffee," Jeonghan nodded. "The hair can wait."

....

Strolling down the street, you felt a new sense of freedom wash over you. Your hair had been nearly every color under the rainbow (including the pink you were currently rocking) but nothing had ever felt as good as this. It wasn't as if you had something against your soulmate, it was quite the opposite. You were excited to meet them, whoever they were, but you also wanted them to be surprised by you for once.

Humming to yourself, you decided at the last minute to veer toward a cafe you spotted across the road. For such an adventurous new day, you deserved a little treat.

Just as you began to step off the sidewalk, someone walking in the opposite direction slammed into you.

"Hey!" you yelled, tumbling away from your assailant.

"Shit!" the stranger gasped, immediately leaning down to help you up from the sidewalk. "I was so distracted; I didn't see you coming. I'm so-"

Furrowing your brows, you looked up at the man who was now leaning over you. He was extremely handsome, albeit dressed oddly for the warm spring weather. He wore a black hoodie with the drawstrings pulled as tightly as possible around his angular face. You studied his features for a moment, trying to figure out exactly what was familiar about him.

As your eyes met, he paused and had suddenly gone still. No longer focused on helping you up, it looked as if his mind had gone somewhere a million miles away.

"Uh, hello?" you asked, waving your hand in front of his face. "Random stranger? Helping me off the ground? Did you glitch?"

"Your hair," he chirped. "When did you dye it?"

You could only blink in response as his question sank into you.

"Look man," you said, finally finding your voice. With a few grumbles, you pushed yourself to your feet again and stared down the man who was acting much too odd for your liking. "I'm not sure what your problem is, but-"

Wordlessly, he continued to stare at you as he pulled down the tightened hood of his jacket.

Pink. So pink.

"I'm Hoshi," he said dumbly, a nervous smile playing across his lips. "And I think I need to sit down because I might pass out."

After a short discussion verifying when you had actually dyed your hair and a longer discussion based around your hair history, it was pretty much confirmed. It had taken a decade, but you had finally found each other.

"I never thought this day would happen," you admitted. You felt lightheaded and damn near giddy. It didn't matter if the two of you looked like bright pink idiots in the middle of the street. You had each other now.

"Me either," Hoshi breathed with equal amounts of shock. Seeming to come a bit more to his senses, a little crease formed between his brows. "Do you want to come with me?"

"Uh," you croaked, looking up at him in dismay. You still didn't really know him and didn't necessarily like how open ended his question was.

Shaking his head as if to correct himself, he smiled. "To the hairdresser. Do you want to come with me to the hairdresser?"

"The pink just not doing it for you?" you grinned.

Reaching up, Hoshi tugged playfully at one of your strands. "While I like the color," he nodded. "Very much. Like so much-"

"You don't have to explain!" you laughed. "I get it."

"No really, I love it. If I could be this color pink for the rest of my life-"

"Hoshi," you laughed, placing your hand in the air between the two of you.

"Okay, I have a semi-important work thing today and I need black hair," he smiled sheepishly. "Would you...maybe want to come with me?"

You pretended to think for a moment before nodding. "Of course I would."

"Great! I mean, totally, yeah," Hoshi stumbled awkwardly. "It's only a few blocks away, if you don't mind."

Watching Hoshi be so pleasantly overwhelmed warmed something inside of you. Nodding confidently to himself, he slid his palm into yours and laced your fingers together. "I'm holding my soulmate's hand."

"As am I," you confirmed, trying to ignore the heat rising up your neck.

"And now I'm walking with my soulmate to change OUR hair," he grinned. Glancing at you from his periphery, you could tell how your happiness egged him on. "Did you catch that, Y/N? We're going together to change our hair."

"I caught it, Hoshi," you laughed.

"And we get to do this forever," he said quietly, chancing a look your way. "Isn't that the coolest?"

"I honestly could not think of anything cooler."

[sapphic-agent]

GOD.... I will never be over Momo's design. She comes from a wealthy background, is polite, sweet, and dresses conservatively and Horikoshi sticks her in that. In the story, the excuse is "she needs more coverage" when we always see her using her quirk via her back. Like, it's just fanservice. Momo is 15-16, Horikoshi. GROSS. Hagakure. Mirio. Enough to say on that. Also, Midnight making Mina change her hero name from Alien Queen to Pinky. Fucking. Pinky. Alien Queen suits her because I thought her quirk was like bug or alien related, so it really does suit her. And even then, her hero costume doesn't even have any pink on it. You can do so much with that theme. Even if Mina only picked it "cause it sounds cool" it actually sounds like a legit hero name over fucking... Pinky. As for Shoto, he could have like shown a development them with him. Make his costume bland, and not much. Have his hero name be Shoto. But through out him developing, have him make more his own. Like have something to help regulate his fire and ice side. Two is a big theme for him, so you can much with that. For a hero name, I think Icy-Hot can work. Even though it does come from Bakugo insulting him. But I found some that can also work. Mercurial or Ambivalent. If you look up the meanings, I think they fit Shoto quite right. Also Ochako's costume makes no sense to me. She has like anti-gravity thing to help her not wanna feel sick? Why tf does she have to train herself not to get sick? MHA is 200 years in the future, get that girl some armor to help balance her out! Or get her some hero costuming that does look like an astronaut and not some cosplay outfit. Like, these kids are gonna fight really bad guys. Why is like Iida the only one who has like a suit of armor, for situations like that? Makes no sense.

Yup, Momo's costume is just awful. In the practical sense and in the stylistic sense. And you know her flap thingy is pointless because she just ends up ripping her shirt making things out of her back anyway. Giving her a backless outfit would have made more sense.

Todoroki's should have changed as he established individuality and agency. Visual characterization could have been very useful here. Unfortunately, he never does that so Hori doesn't bother :p

I agree Alien Queen was a lot cooler. Pinky is... dumb. It's also her skin color🙃

The space suit is supposed to be a play on Uraraka's quirk, I think, but is also a tribute to Thirteen. I don't mind it, could have been better though. Something like the space suits in Voltron would have looked a lot cooler.

Iida's hero costume is one of my favorites. Knights are representative of honor and valor and that totally suits him even without the inspiration from his brother's suit

[gascon-en-exil]

A Very Belated Octopath Traveler II Ranking

I had an anon asking me about Octopath Traveler II story rankings a few weeks ago. I'd been wanting to do one of those for a long time now, but between all my other projects I haven't really had the time. I can however throw together a quick summation. If there's any interest in longer versions I might be persuaded to explore that...but when I say "long" I really do mean it. Most of my notes at the moment go on for paragraphs for almost every traveler.

#8 Ochette

Knockoff Pokémon. Kind of shapeless thanks to the nonlinearity. Brings up heavy themes but can't really explore them in part because the beastlings are just handled weirdly. The villain only existing offscreen sucks.

#7 Hikari

Literally the standard Fire Emblem plot, only it doesn't work in the Octopath format because of geographic isolation and the travelers being handled oddly as a group like always. Has some pacing issues especially in Chapter 4 with its massive cutscene dump. Was pretty much exactly what I expected from start to finish.

#6 Throné

Fantastic opening and even better midgame, then dives off a cliff at the end because it has to escalate to the Final Story. Overall story can't accommodate such a bittersweet ending so it just kind of...doesn't. Still earns points for how it handles familial abuse and the perpetuation of the cycle of violence.

#5 Partitio

Man's dads get divorced, so he starts an industrial revolution to get them back together. Is as awesomely ridiculous as that sounds, and is enhanced by various unique stylistic flourishes. Succeeds as long as you don't try to bring any serious economic or political themes into it. Also extremely gay homosocial all around, soured only by the token female character...and not remotely in the way you'd expect based on how I'm describing it.

#4 Agnea

A low-stakes, feel-good romp that's exactly what you think it's going to be, and is wonderful at it. Begins leaning on the fourth wall in amusing ways by the end, and although it's also weirdly leashed to the Final Story it goes over better than it does with Throné's or Partitio's stories. Primrose was my favorite from the first game, and while the tone of this one is completely different I'm surprisingly okay with that.

#3 Temenos

A bit lazy doing another story with a Sherlock Holmes-esque approach to mystery when the first game already did one, but the stakes are higher from the start and Temenos is also doing most of the heavy lifting building to the Final Story. Crick provides some much-needed emotional stakes, even including his ultimate fate. Gets a bit lost in its own plot twists at one point, but that's mostly a minor nitpick.

#2 Osvald

Opening is constraining and atmospheric in just the right way. Appropriately dramatic at all the right points with a delightfully hammy villain, and pivots from revenge to the Power of Love adequately enough so as not to feel too cheesy. Spaces out its multiple flashback sequences much better than Hikari's story. It and #1 are actually helped by being narrative cul-de-sacs relative to the Final Story.

#1 Castti

Does pretty much everything the other stories do right. Deftly handles an amnesia plot with clever presentation and a strong supporting cast. Healeaks is devastating, the villain is hammy but also sympathetic (his turn being offscreen is the weakest note of the whole thing), and Castti is a solid presence throughout even if she never really stands out much to me as a character. Ending is satisfying but still allowed to feel melancholy, and it doesn't lead to mood whiplash like Throné's does.

[ertrunkenerwassergeist]

Out of curiosity - you've written Dreams au for Prompto and Ardyn kickstarting the Reunion, plus the Gladio version that became canon.

But what about Ignis? How would the verse where he finds Noctis first look like?

Not gonna lie. This one had me stumped. I never considered that Ignis might be the first to find Noctis (my mistake) and so didn't even have an incling about how it might happen. Until about half an hour ago, that is, when an idea fell from the sky. Or my shower head. Depending on the point of view.

(I wrote this really fast, so it doesn't fit stylistically into the Deep City verse. When I have time, I'll try to write a 'proper' version.)

***

You could say this starts around Noctis's 17th birthday. Ignis hasn't been doing well. Not at all. His friendship with Gladio is splintering like rotten wood and his uncle as been... distant lately.

Ignis does his best to bury his worries with work, but that's only helping so much. What with his work now being a glorified secretary for whatever ministry, board or committee will have him at the time. Still, Ignis does his best. What else can he do?

So, that one fateful day, on Noctis's 17th birthday, when the hurt is rubbed fresh and raw again and there is no work for him to do...

Ignis bakes.

He tries, once again his best, to recreate that one sweet pastry from Tenebrae Noctis liked so much and Ignis could never get right. Once he's done, he goes outside and somehow finds himself in a park in a working class area. Later, he will think is has been fate.

Right now, he doesn't care, strangely glad for being outside his usual haunts, and unpacks the pastries he has brought.

Their taste is warm and creamy and so sweet Ignis can practically feel his teeth rotting in his mouth. Was that the right taste? he wonders and hates that he will not get an answer.

"Yer usin' the wrong types of berry," an old, creaky voice says behind him.

Ignis whirls around and whom he finds fits the voice very well. It's an old woman, bent and with wrinkles deeper than he has ever seen. Her hands are bony and full of spots. Her dress looks more like it's been made from patches than proper fabric. The smell of freshly baked bread hits Ignis's nose.

"Excuse me?" he asks.

"Tha' pastry o' yer's," she says in the strangest accent Ignis has ever heard. "Them berries're too sweet. Yer'll need them from northern Ulwaat. T's colder there, so they need ta be more hardy. 'Too sweet' tha' prince o' yers would say."

Ignis feels ice cold dread creep up his spine. Does this woman know Noctis? Does she have soemthing to do with his disappearance?

"Now, now laddie. Get those thoughts outta yer head. Ah'm simply following the fire to where it'll lead me."

"What...?"

"Fire, laddie. It knows ye got to play a part in the storm ta come, and it likes ye. So Ah'll make sure ye know wha' ta do once the time is right."

"I'm afraid I do not know what you are talking about, Maselle. Excuse me, I have work to do."

Ignis turns around, intend to leave the obviously mentally unstable old crone behind him, but her next words make him stop.

"None o' tha', Ignis Scientia. There's no work waitin' for ye today. Yer uncle is teachin' yer cousin Paxil in the hopes he'll not be a disappointment, an' yer friend'll not get a diagnosis fer his sister t'day."

Slowly Ignis turns around. "Are you threatening me?" he asks, low and dangerous. One hand his inconspicuously reaching for the dagger he never goes without these days.

"Ye can leave tha' dagger where it is, laddie. Ah'm not threatening ye, simply sayin' things how they are."

"How do you know all this?" Ignis finds himself asking through the fog in his mind.

"The fire, laddie. Once ye know how ta listen, it'll never stop tellin' ye things," the crone says and waves her hand in a way that makes it clear that she wishes for him to follow. "Come," she says. "Ah'll show ye."

And against his better judgement - and the usually so large, but now tiny rational voice in his head baring warnings at him - he follows.

Nearly three years later, he stares at the fire burning between his fingers, and follows it's call deep into the ancient bowels of the city.

[td-frog]

thoughts on dcas e6:

the songs

honestly wasn't expecting much (tho i didn't think they'd be bad) but those were actually really good

stylistically i think magenta was my favorite but they were all really good

tom+jake+aiden

this plot is so so funny to me. *tom voice* if i avoid my problems for long enough they definitely won't become infinitely worse

also theater kid aiden going "i need to think about it because i do have a boyfriend, but stage kisses are a thing and we don't have feelings for each other so i can be okay with it"

while tom's like "ah fuck. i really should've talked to jake by now. nothing i can do i guess!" and then afterwards is like "wait do you think he was mad at me?" comedy GOLD

like to be clear so much of the humor for me here is that aiden is Not Interested. literally the entire problem is that tom is not communicating and therefore jake has no reason to know any of that. and especially now that aiden's started picking up on drama it's like. how long can you run from this? maybe you should stop running? oh, no. no he's running faster.

magenta team

i really like ally/ashley friendship. very easily could've been an us vs. them thing even with hunter out, but it makes sense that ashley wouldn't go for that.

also i really like that ally doesn't miss hunter. i think a lot of the problems with their relationship they've been hinting at so far is that ally struggles a lot with personal identity outside of other people, and hunter didn't understand or accommodate that. regardless of whether they stay together in the end, they very much needed a break so she can figure out who she is without him again and whether she actually wants to be there (and i wish her luck).

yellow team elimination

connor vs. yul as the elimination makes sense, and the fact that it was connor also makes sense (especially since yul is now getting production help with his image)

i really really like the detail that alec betrayed connor for his own good. their alliance concerned me because i like the friendship, but with the villains alliance it seemed really dangerous. and alec going "i like this man and i want him around, but being here is bad for him" is actually a really honest and mature approach.

(i also can't be assed to check handwriting, but i did notice it wasn't confirmed riya betrayed him- one vote wasn't read and it could've been against yul- but also i don't expect that to really mean anything)

rest of yellow team stuff

grett :( baby :(

she does not deserve this treatment and i know yul's going down in the end because he is so intentionally designed to be so so terrible but in the meantime :(

riya fucking up was telegraphed so hard (not a bad thing) and i appreciate how it a) makes her the obvious boot from a single challenge perspective and b) has no actual effect on the elimination.

other thoughts

don't really like what they're doing with trevor and derek. i'm sure it'll work out fine in the end but for now i'm largely ignoring it out of mild squick.

predictions

cyan team is due for elimination, although idk that they'll get it. if they do i'm guessing ellie or tom- either because ellie villain plot finally goes down against her, or tom if the love triangle plot plays out. i could see others but tbh i think this team drama works better with them making it to the merge.

if it's magenta team it's probably fiore, which makes me think it won't be magenta team.

yellow team as always is such a dumpster fire of drama. if they lose it's probably yul vs. riya but they both could have plot armor protecting them so idk.

don't have much else rn because i need to leave but hopefully e7 is able to come out on time, and even if not that the difficulties the team is facing re: leakers aren't too devastating.

[lixenn]

Hiiiiii~!!! These questions are really fun but lemme try to not overwhelm you lmao and give everyone else a chance to ask questions! °˖✧◝(⁰▿⁰)◜✧˖°

For Chief:

"Does your character have a favorite material they like to wear?", "Has your character gone through major stylistic or physical changes?" and "What is a childhood meal your character cherishes?"

for Cilmi:

"What food or drink does your character consider a treat?", "What element best represents your character?" and "Does your character believe in myths and fairy tales?" [I'll probably send more Cilmi asks later. ( ‾́ ◡ ‾́ )]

Momooo!! Decided to clean up my inbox a bit, so it's time go get you some answers, luv! Thank you for your patience 🙏🥺💜✨

Chief

"Does your character have a favorite material they like to wear?"

I actually answered this question here. It took me a bit to find it because I didn't tag it correctly (thanks for that past!Lix) but digging through the archive got me a hit 🫡

"Has your character gone through major stylistic or physical changes?"

The only change Chief went through is me giving him grey hair I think. Dan is actually not that old at least compared to other OCs I've read about here, he only really became a thing after I started posting the first few chapters of the Guide in March. I had some Guide chapters written down for ages in my phone notes but never posted thim until I went fuck it, but in my notes the one writing the Guide... was just supposed to be some guy lmao I never intended for the narrator to become an OC but it ended up happening anyways and I'm so happy for it.

"What is a childhood meal your character cherishes?"

Chief has a special fondness for Carbonara. His Mum made it regularly when he was a kid and it' still one of his favourite meals. (But only when his Mum makes it, everyone else just messes it up <- not really Chief is just nitpicky as hell).

Cilmi

"What food or drink does your character consider a treat?"

You already know because I needed your help to pick but for everyone else: Cilmi considers bajiya a treat! He doesn't really get traditional food when he's at the Varia compound unless he makes it himself (which he often doesn't like to bother with) so he looks forward to eating it when he visits his family.

"What element best represents your character?"

I'm not quite sure what "element" means in this context since there are a lot of different definitions for this word. My science side wants to get out the periodic table but since there are a lot of elements on there (and I don't know the properties of most) I'm going to make my life easier and chose the ATLA route aka water, earth, fire and air.

Out of those four earth represents Cilmi best. He's steady, grounding, not easy to shake and firm in his beliefs. He's patient but if you hit the right spot he will erupt (seriously don't harm the books, it won't end well for you).

"Does your character believe in myths and fairy tales?"

Okay this is difficult to answer because it varies. There are a lot of unusual things wandering around in the world and Cilmi is aware of all the craziness. He believes in ghost and spirits because he's seen them, he knows something weird is going on with the Castle itself and honestly the things that R & D can cook up are sometimes even more unbelievable than an actual myth, so he tends to give most stories a benefit of doubt. I wouldn't call this belief because... it's more clinical than that. Cilmi is first and foremost a scholar, so his interest in myth and fairy tales is mostly centered in collecting them for the archive, to store them for the future because these stories can tell a lot about the culture they came from.

[pandorasword]

Chaeri as the 8th and youngest member of BTS.

「 Chaeri's Masterlist on my blog 」

꧁ Chaeri's Team

⋆ 007 Oppa | Bodyguard

We know that the number of bodyguards assigned to BTS over the years has increased at the same rhythm as their success, reaching an estimated number of almost 200 hired by the company. At the beginning of their career, however, there were very few people assigned to provide security for the band members. To this day, almost all of them still have a contract with Big Hit.

Among them, someone who has always been noticed by fans is the one who became Chaeri's personal bodyguard over time. His identity was never revealed to protect his privacy, which is why he always wore a mask to cover half his face. However, this didn't stop him from being widely known for his special bond with the youngest of the BTS, to whom he seemed to devote all his attention during work hours (and often further). Indeed, the two seemed to have developed a genuine friendship rather than a straight professional link as time went on.

Chaeri even asked him to stop being always in uniform and to wear what he liked whenever they didn't have to be at some formal event. She started referring to him as 007 Oppa as a joke, when one day they ended up watching the famous James Bond movies together, which is why the Armys refer to him by the same nickname.

Being an indispensable part of her life and a close friend, Chaeri has never been too hesitant to post him on her social media as well.

They had many years to get to know and to care about each other, so much so that they considered themselves family, at least until Chaeri fired him shortly before the year 2019 began. It seems it was actually him who told the company's wrong people about her affair with Jungkook, destroying her relationship and the trust she placed in him after spending almost every day with him for five years. When she saw him after finding out what he had done, in a burst of anger was about to throw hands at him, but Namjoon stopped her in time.

They have not seen each other since then

Bonus* Posts uploaded by Chaeri when he was still her bodyguard + How he took care of her

⋆ Jung Dae-Hyun | Bodyguard

◌ Her new bodyguard; ◌ She trusts him but has decided not to create any emotional attachment, recovering from her previous experience; ◌ Extremely professional and mature in his work; ◌ An absolute gentleman.

⋆ Kim Sena | Manager

◌ Her personal manager; ◌ She is 40 years old but looks the same age as Chaeri; ◌ She is always seen dressed in a white jacket, it's her trademark; ◌ Her life mission is to ensure that Chaeri is respected in the same way as the male members of the group; ◌ She looks like she could kill you and indeed she would, except if you are her beloved Chaeri; ◌ She doesn't let anyone mess with her, just like her protected; ◌ They radiate the same energy.

⋆ Lee Ha-Neul | Vocal Coach

◌ Softness personified; ◌ Since Chaeri's debut, she has been her vocal coach and has helped her to improve so much in her singing skills; ◌ She is a mama bear; ◌ Whenever they are in the studio, before they start on their work, she asks her how her day went and if she feels like chatting for a few minutes; ◌ Her daughter is Chaeri's biggest young supporter.

⋆ Choi Mi-Hi | Stylist

◌ Her trusted assistant, they spend most of their time poking and joking with each other; ◌ This woman fully understands Chaeri's need to dress maturely, and hell, she creates drool-worthy outfits for her; ◌ She loves to see her rebellious behaviour against the other members and laughs about it under her breath, she is so proud of her little girl.

⋆ Park Hayoon | Nutritionist

◌ If Chaeri claims not to be afraid of anyone, well there is one exception: HER; ◌ This woman is her nightmare; ◌ Chaeri has lost count of how many times she has been scolded for not following the diet on which she spent so much time and dedication in shaping; ◌ No personal attachment, she sees the bare minimum.

Credits to the owners of the pics/gif

[delxenofic]

watching cardinal west's latest video on furry literature sent me down a rabbit hole, and i've gone and found probably one of the earlier examples of an animal story in the perspective of a fly: stephen jones's "the life and adventures of a fly: supposed to have been written by himself." yes that is the actual subtitle. and from the good 'ol year 1797!

i had to go through my university to find an online copy of it and the quality of the scans along with the very odd stylistic choice of replacing a lot of s's with f's made it difficult to read, but i was so excited that i got it and read it through in one sitting. strap in, i am going to yap about this a lot.

overall it was... ok. :) i can definitely see the influence from a similar popular work from that time (dorothy kilner's "the life and perambulations of a mouse") because the narrative is framed basically the same: some guy writes the story told to them by a little animal. this fly is spontaneously able to write and literally says, "i'm not sure how i can do this but don't worry about it!" and leaves his story to be found about its various adventures traveling from home to home.

our fly is mostly a witness to what the humans are up to, traveling around in pursuit of knowledge (kind of like my fly oc melody! wow!). and also much like melody, it gets into danger a lot—stuck in a honeypot, caught by a web, snatched up by humans, captured in a box. and in all those situations, the compelling thing is that it gets rescued by various human characters. every time there's a character who extends an act of empathy to the fly, for a number of different reasons, from "what if this fly has a family or a sick child it wants to go home to?" to "this fly feels pain just like we do." and this is all coming from children too! it's really heartwarming.

then there's an instance when the kindness is too strong, and this girl kisses the fly who worries that it could die from it because her breath has the same intensity to it as a "great kitchen fire." love that.

i will say i found it a little strange why the fly only pursues children to hang around and watch, but i would like to see it as the fly recognizing that children are in a pivotal learning stage of their lives, so it's better to stick around them and learn the same things they do. also, since this is a book intended for younger readers to teach morals about empathy and being good for God or whatever, it may be targeting that audience by focusing on both good kids and bad ones.

what disappointed me most is that there really isn't an ending. the fly's narrative has no conclusion, and we get pulled back to the guy who gets the fly's story published who then shares the dream he has about encountering some of the children grown up. good for the message of the overall book, and bad for someone like me who only cares for the life of the fly. we'll never know what happened to it!

the fly doesn't have much of a character itself too; it's like the living framing device who leads the story wherever it needs to go more than anything, and the only real trait it has (wanting to learn all that it can) serves that same purpose. and it acts in a way that it has human morals, which i understand for the purpose of this being a moral tale but realistically would not be the case, like when it notices a maid not doing her work and buzzes and tickles her nose to be like, "stop slacking!" little buddy, why do you care? it's not your house!

despite everything, this book was a great find for me! maybe sometime i'll need to go my university library and seek out the physical copy. then i could hopefully take better scans lol.

[heavensbeehall]

"The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes," Chapter 11

Part 2: The Prize

Chapter 11: ... and we enter a new part! Lucy Gray having saved Coryo gives her a bit more leverage in making him listen to her. She says "we" will come up with a strategy not him, for example. And I am like, "yes, girl." Coryo has to find a guitar and the thought of singing cheers Lucy Gray up. Then the mentors have to endure more crazy from Dr. Gaul. She wants them to write papers about what they liked about the war. Coriolanus goes to Pluribus Bell to get a guitar. Pluribus mentions that Highbottom and Snow's father were friends, which is news to Coriolanus. Interviews happen. Lucy Gray sings. Coriolanus is jealous.

Thoughts:

-- Okay if we were doing Capitol Draft Kings, who would you bet on at this stage? Several tributes are out. I think Reaper or Jessup would be strong picks at this juncture.

-- I was thinking. Gaul was an area in Europe that was eventually conquered by Julius Caesar, right? Does that imply that Coriolanus--who becomes the dictator later--defeats her in some way? Or does that analogy fall apart because the first Emperor was Augustus? I don't know that much Roman history.

Quotes:

“Enduring horrible things is one of my talents.”

*whispers* she is alive. enduring is her talent.

Coriolanus couldn’t help admiring his pluck. Of course, Sejanus didn’t know how dangerous Dr. Gaul could be. He might end up in a cage with a pair of parakeet wings and an elephant’s trunk if he wasn’t careful.

Early on in this book, Coriolanus often uses terms like "admire" to describe Sejanus' outbursts. Sejanus, of course, doesn't think much before saying or doing--like Katniss in the future. Even though he was never Sejanus' friend, I feel like he respects him less as we get further along?

Coriolanus wished he’d kept quiet. He noticed Dean Highbottom giving him a quizzical look and busied himself by opening his notebook and uncapping his pen.

Highbottom thinks Snow is just like his father. Occasionally he does things that aren't in line with Crassus, but he usually regrets them immediately.

“Let’s consider for a moment that the war is a constant. The conflict may ebb and flow, but it will never really cease. Then what should be our goal?”

Gaul is talkinga bout a perpetual war. She does work in the War Department, yes? So having a forever war is good for her business. Coriolanus says they control it. While the Quarter Quell envelopes Katniss sees in Catching Fire are almost certainly fake. It does seem true that Gaul wants the Hunger Games to go on forever.

Tigris had provided an old dress of hers, saying that if Lucy Gray was willing to trust her, she could wash and iron her rainbow ruffles for the broadcast. Lucy Gray hesitated, but when he gave her Tigris’s other gift, a small cake of soap shaped like a flower and smelling of lavender, she had him turn his back while she changed.

Tigris is the first stylist in the Hunger Games! It's not much but it's more than the other tributes have to make them stand out in the interviews. (There is also makeup given later.)

... said Coriolanus, adjusting a hot pink rosebud in her hair. It matched the one on his lapel, just in case anyone needed a reminder of who Lucy Gray belonged to.

I hate this "belonged to" crap.

[real-sun-wukong-fan01]

fav hc is that wukong has thousands of hobbies but baking/cooking are not any of them because he's afraid of the stove and cant read instructions

He's probably scared of the smoke and fire of the stove, not the object or the hobby itself, plus it happened multiple times he ended up blind because of the smoke, even if a small one, bet.

And, he doesn't think he needs it! He doesn't even eat cooked food, and he's a monkey. Most of the human food is off limits for him, he can get diabetes from a banana for Buddha's sake! Imagine eating a cake!

so, he never looked into it.

He knows how to draw, and likes it too, he loves painting random stuff, sometimes he paints his friends because he's afraid of forgetting their faces.

He likes playing videogames, he even made one.

He likes listening to music, his favorite thing to do when painting, it helps him concentrate (he definitely listens to marina.)

he likes writing, he himself likes writing fics about random things, he likes hiking, he likes walking, he likes helping animals, he likes helping people. Sometimes he disguises as a doctor because he finds fun doing surgery, and always succeeds.

He likes learning math, he likes learning chemistry, he likes learning biology, he's a science guy, he has even a medical degree!

he likes to illustrate, he likes to dig up bones and figure out again history and remember it, he likes inventing things, stylist his hair and clothes, likes to color his hair, likes to make clothes himself.

But cook? Nah.

he either eats fruits, which are good for him, hair food in the firm of normal things like cake or pastries since he can't eat too much sugar because of diabetes, but he likes ordering stuff too.

Noodles are his favorite, he always orders from pigsy (secretly because pigsy reminds him so bad of bajie, he isn't even sure it's his reincarnation.)

sometimes he buys vegetarian food, like meatballs but in a form that even vegetarians can eat, so he can try and do some special meals from other cultures.

Italian, Spanish, french, german, English, and so much more.

he always..has to go directly to the country itself to try them out though.

but that's fine, he has fun visiting places, he had nothing to do for 500 years.

But in the end, he never learned how to cook.

But knows everything else. Even acient Greek and Latin. But cooking? HAHAHAHAHHA

[of-hopes-and-daemons]

I see ask game, I ask questions:

Al - How has their hair changed over time? What is their favorite hairstyle? Charlotte - 12. Are they hot-headed or even-tempered? What frustrates them the most? An’Hangra - 8. What will always make them smile? What will always make them cry? Shanakay - 7. What are 3 foods they can’t live without?

I am gleefully rubbing my hands together, those picks are just so good, you know? [ Those were taken from THESE QUESTIONS, and at the moment I am accepting more! ]

Al(pharius, but not that one)

I think that for the most part of his life he had a pretty similar hairstyle or a small selection of those, ranging between clean-shaven head and short hairstyle we, here in Russia, would call "shaved a-la hedgehog". This, however, is not accounting for wigs and like, hair extensions he was using as parts of disguises. I firmly believe that this man, given enough prep time and data, can put to shame most stylists out there and his range is impressive. His least favourite ones are probably Space Wolves, because you also need to smell the part and ugh.

His current hairstyle, that he kept after assuming his main public identity of a Blackshield from a destroyed Chapter, is short-ish, roughly cut hair, which might look like it was styled under heavy fire with a tactical chain-spork... and is in fact styled with a tactical chain-spork under heavy fire, because Al likes being authentic.

Charlotte, the precious little Scion

I would say, that Charlotte contains multitudes. She is as recklessly brave and eager to ride to war as hundreds of generations of her family watching over from the Throne Mechanicum inside of Adder-Nidhogg. At the same time, she is keenly aware of how well-placed trap or single cog falling out of the place can bring down entire operations and mighty god-engines, so she is not without the appreciation for manifold intricacies of planning and carefully biding ones time to strike at the perfect opportunity. It appears to me, that it would be a good fit with overall somewhat sad bit of Charlotte's life (able to play the part and relate to many groups, but doesn't feel really belonging to any identity) to say that she is both and neither in that regard.

What frustrates her... Well, continuing the thought, I will say that her inability to really relate and feel belonging to any of the groups she is somehow related to frustrates her to some extent. Especially with being a Scion of House Illvia. She was born for this, she passed all the trials, she follows the traditions of her House, she rides to war alongside ghosts of her ancestors. But why, after some point, she can't bring herself to call say "Charlotte of House Illvia"?

An'Hangra, the tiny ball of bloodthirsty rage

Oh, this one is easy. Her flesh hounds are always able to make her smile. She has an unreasonable amount of those and the howling pack follows her into battle, but in-between they do leave at her place and just do dog stuff. Yip, yap, chase tails, climb on couches, chew things. You know.

As for crying - probably chopping onions. Even Warp can't protect one from chopping onions. Also sad dog movies, but I haven't told you this.

Shanakay, fan favourite perfectionist menace

Now, being a daemon, she is not really required to eat conventional food, but she does it anyway, because she can and she likes it, and because she deserves little hedonistic pleasures coming with the job. Her actually needed source of nourishment is emotions and among those she is particularly into passionate need to create, admiration and a side of desire to live. But any strong emotions would do in a pinch, really. Now in terms of physical food she likes, I would say there are few notable ones. There is this particular kind of space "pomegranates" she adores and will go great lengths to acquire. Unfortunately, it is mostly cultivated by aeldari. There is her homemade hot sauce, which she eats with pretty much anything you can somehow cover in sauce. In a pinch can be used as a weapon. And also there are sad soggy fries from McNurgle, which are reserved for a particular mindset of sitting on the sidewalk at their parking lot and staring in the distance, while eating them.

[berlinini]

Hey listen I've been following ur blog for a while and Ive come across ur povs about the whole larries, Louis and Harry situation and I agree with it but FOR THE MOST PART. See, I get u thinking that Larry broke up and Harry isn't the angel that his fanbase makes him out to be and he's money hungry and very calculated etc etc, I can see all that but I genuinely don't get why he would try to sabotage Louis' career or even care about his ex bandmates for that matter.

Like we could all have our own opinions so I'll explain where I'm coming from, like H strikes me as a very cutthroat ambitious and selfish individual who doesn't really care about harming anyone UNLESS IT BENIFITS HIS WORK, he looks like someone who would like to keep his rep squeaky clean and stay out of tiring drama and not make any enemies. My observation is that he's intelligent and you gotta give that to him, he's good with people, super diplomatic (even fake to an extent), surrounds himself with a very tight group of upper class A listers and nepo kids and old people holding power in the industry, and he forms close bonds with them to ensure that they don't go against him and to keep his life private and not involve too many people who could make things complicated in the long run cause Hollywood is weird asf.

His whole "mysterious and kind" brand is all for the sake of ensuring that his fans know minimal things about him and he can control what those things are with the help of his competent management, also he is a big name but also somehow very detached from most oversaturated celebs with any messy history to make sure that nobody in the industry goes against him and has a single bad word to say about him, because most people know him surface level and he knows it's for the best, he makes sure to be on the good side of important people and the ones he dislikes, he cuts them off entirely (Simon, a bunch of his previous bandmates who he fired and the 1d tour stylist etc).

He's not the sort of guy to publicly brawl with anyone and he even dates older people and after a breakup he tries to ensure there's no bad blood ALL FOR THE SAKE OF HIS STAINLESS IMAGE. He doesn't want people saying bad shit about him, he knows he's not Taylor and he can't profit off of his controversies but more than that, he wants to look like the "underground indie artist" who's "different" and for that he needs to not get involved in the Hollywood dramatics. He can't handle that, like have you seen him?

I'm saying all of this to put forth the point that unless the downfall of Louis' career would heavily benefit him (btw he wouldn't come up with this on his own, he doesn't seem like the person to jump to twisted ideas like that, not 'cause of morals but just because he seems like he's just good at networking, and then he simply sits back and agrees to everything as his manager's figure out most of the stuff in his career, the strategies and the business part 'cause he doesn't wanna take that load. All in all, he doesn't seem super opinionated, he just seems like a very goal oriented guy who wants to get stuff done and only throws people under the bus if it's necessary but likes to avoid it because that takes a lotta work).

Now lemme be honest, nothing Louis is doing rn seems to be threatening Harry in any way. There genres are different, and they're not even rival superstars or anything. A feud like this between rising stars like Billie with Olivia R or even people at the top of their game like Harry with Taylor(their careers aren't equally established, but they both have HUGE fanbases and you can't deny that) would make sense because they're at the same scale and one losing popularity would make the other one get more free space on the charts.

I'm not saying that Louis isn't popular, but he likes to stay more underground and he said that he wants to do whatever he likes and not care about commercial success and while H said the same thing, I don't believe him that much. Just because they were from the same band doesn't mean anything...like then why isn't Harry focusing on Niall and Zayn when their albums literally charted so well and earlier than L even released anything...Zayn was sooo popular during his solo debut, I don't think Harry tried anything on him. HS1 released around the same time, he should've gotten the Azoffs to try to tear Z down, right?

And Niall, he isn't super star studded but he's doing really well actually, but he and Harry are clearly still friends and went out last year to hike or sumn so why didn't Harry try to sabotage him? Like Harry seems pretty chill and clinical to me, very unspecial, just another sell out superstar who is talented but will rather chase cash, kinda like TS in 1989 era or Liam when he had super underrated great vocals but decided to release Strip That Down to seem edgy which made money but people hated him for it then.

Harry just does things what his manager tells him to do and in turn makes Jeff money, it's all so easy for him.

He doesn't seem like someone who's gonna go so far to take revenge on an ex to burn their career down or to continuously try to push his ex bandmates to the background for no specific reason. That's all, sorry for ranting but you gotta tell me why you're so convinced about your theory.

That's a lot... Feels like you have so many pieces of the puzzle, just need to put them together. Here's a bit of perspective.

Look no one is saying that Harry woke up one day, called Rob Stringer and said: "let's sabotage Louis' career". I think a series of choices made over time and for different reasons led to the present situation, in which Harry is Sony's golden boy, with the industry behind him, and Louis fought for years to have a career. Were these choices made voluntarily, under false promises, under constraints? Were the choices made all by Harry, by Louis, by both, by some men in suit at Sony? Who knows.

You have to look at a series of event that happened over a few years. Quick recap: Louis was one of the most loved members of 1D when the band went on hiatus, Louis' first "solo song" (JHO) was extremely popular, both Louis and Harry were signed to Sony for their solo careers (Zayn too but that was before the hiatus and Zayn was never in direct competition with H as they represented different market shares), HS1 and HSLOT didn't meet Sony's expectations in terms of commercial success, Louis' promised album and tour in 2018 was scrapped, Louis somehow decided to postpone his first album by appearing on the X-Factor instead, pre-Walls songs were mainly pop songs that could've had commercial success and establish Louis as a serious pop star.

Walls was released in 2020 - FIVE years after the hiatus. Pinned at the top of his twitter account is Louis saying "Can't quite believe I'm finally saying this"... If you read what he says about releasing Walls and touring it, there are always so many references to "finally" doing it, to being relieved, underlying that he fought really hard to it to happen.

Louis' famous note app tweet about turning away from pop and assured commercial success in favour of his own sound is so bittersweet. He turned a page because he had to. He couldn't release LT0, which we assume was full of bops like Miss You and Always You. He moved away from pop, while interestingly enough, Harry moved towards it - his trial at being the new soft rock star didn't quite work with HS1 so what did we get? The most inane pop single that charted for weeks after intense promo and even got a Grammy. BTW Louis never said he didn't care about commercial success or charting. He said it was no longer the main purpose behind the songs he was writing.

"Now lemme be honest, nothing Louis is doing rn seems to be threatening Harry in any way. There genres are different, and they're not even rival superstars or anything."

Nothing Louis is doing right now seems to be threatening because he was pushed back so much that it's a miracle he even got a career today. The point is that Louis represented a threat to Harry's career years ago. Their genres are different because Louis couldn't go the pop route. They're not rivals because Louis' career was buried, unable to release music for years, losing the post-1D momentum, focusing on his private life instead.

Rapidly, re: Zayn and Niall. Niall is signed to a different label under a different major. Zayn was signed under RCA/Sony. As mentioned, his genre is wildly different from Harry's, his debut album was released long before HS1. I think Sony thought Zayn would be cash cow (amazing voice, amazing looks, established fanbase, potential to expand the fanbase) but Zayn's refusal to work within the rules of the industry led Sony to let him do his own things. NIL barely got promoted. Latest rumours are that RCA dropped him.

Harry's fans from 1D probably represent an important part of his fanbase which is why he still has to appear cordial with some of his ex-bandmates. Let's just note that he's not exactly out there showing they're still friends - unlike Louis/Niall/Liam who have appeared together publicly to support each other's solo careers. On the contrary, Harry doesn't seem to mind letting the world know that he's won the 1D Hunger Games. He's above a simple boyband, you know.

To conclude, I'll say this: we all make choices. It's clear to me that Harry made his decision a while ago to become a superstar. Was he personally 100% involved in all the subsequent choices that had to be made for his career to become what it is today? We'll never know. But as the saying goes, the end justifies the means.