#if we don't know each other and you're going in for a tee-hee

[thatdogmagic]

I block first and ask questions later, so if you're thinking of being a shitty little pedant in my asks/replies/reblabs, know that there's usually only one outcome to that, and it won't be 'continue on in dog's good graces.'

[absolutely-not-my-main-blog]

Writing this on my phone at work so a lil jumbled but one of the things that really does make Macdennis one of the greatest will-they-won't-theys in tv history and why it doesn't annoy me they haven't gotten together yet even this far in when I would usually be pulling out my hair in other cases much earlier on is that it doesn't fall into a lot of the common pitfalls of the genre because in most shows, you *know* the characters are going to be together from the start and they don't actually have a solid reason why it can't happen sooner, other than they need to drag it out for the show, so rather than use the tools they have and naturally play off the existing tension between characters, they almost always feel the need to throw in arbitrary, extraneous, and often frustrating external obstacles instead, like a series of random cardboard cutout boyfriends/girlfriends/wrong place/wrong times that last entire arcs over and over again for the *sole purpose* of keeping them apart and being like not yet tee hee, to the point where you're just like okay, okay, get on with it, already, but with Sunny, almost every obstacle is *internal* (or based on already built in external factors that affect them internally and haven't just been fabricated on the spot to create problems in the relationship): Mac's struggles with his sexuality and religion, both their parents' intense homophobia and neglect, Dennis' past experience of being sexually assaulted, and his fear of being perceived as anything less than perfect in a society he's learned he has to hide from/always be stealthy in, lest you be taken advantage of or hurt, in general that societal expectation, you will get married to a woman (Maureen), start a family, live a "normal" nuclear life, that's how the story goes, etc. etc. not to mention the culture of the time the show itself first aired, network tv of 2005, they didn't start with this endgame in mind, practically unheard of that they would ever get together in any official capacity even if they did, so they were able to grow separately from each other before starting to grow together, naturally inclined toward each other, yet just as naturally held back by themselves and the world that made them this way. But eventually... they outlived that world, and after being so used to standing still, now they're struggling to keep up, to find themselves, to find their place in an environment they no longer recognize, and to reconcile the fact that maybe they don't have to hide anymore, maybe they don't have to be miserable, to run away, it's okay it's okay, but it was not okay for so long, they need time. And I'll get into the parallels more another time because I'm obsessed with them, but in Waiting for Godot (and in turn Big Mo), there's the theme of "The whole world changes, only we can't," but Mac comes out, Dennis claims back his heart, Big Mo shows up, so maybe they can maybe they can, and that change is necessary before anything else can move forward. And god, do I have a lot more to say on *that* topic and theme of change, but I'm saving it for a full essay, god willing🤞

[all-pacas]

how do you feel about the park-chase friendship?

love it :(

It's a bit like the Foreman-Taub odd couple friendship imo; on the surface they are wildly different but they just kind of click. Park is awkward and weird but she's so honest and blunt that I think it kind of works; even though Chase is often kind of cringing at her, there's no mixed messages or signals. I love how she just goes up to him and tells him we are friends and ignores his standoffishness, and I think it's good for Chase, too: he kind of needs someone to push at him, he's way too good at being complacent and just drifting along in his comfort zones. At the same time, even though he's kind of dismissive of her, he also… shuts her down? In a positive way? Park sometimes gets a bit wrapped up in her overthinking and goes ten steps ahead, you know what I mean? And Chase is pretty good at stepping in and going "No, it's fine, cut it out." He ends up being a little protective of her, which is very sweet: I loved him in Chase, busy with his everything is fine and so am I facade, realizing that Park isn't okay and dropping his dismissive attitude to walk her through a procedure. I love how, maybe because she is so blunt, he starts getting more comfortable opening up to her: he admits he's lonely. He admits he's jealous of her family. They share custody of her grandmother! When he offers to let her move in, Park does her usual "overthinking at a million miles an hour," and he's just like, it's fine, there are no ulterior motives, I don't care your grandmother is here.

At one point in S8 he tells Adams about the Forbidden Retcon Sister Lore. Adams immediately tries to frame this as Chase, you're such a good selfless person, staying and raising her like that, which is well intended but sort of misses the point (as he stresses: he hated and resented them). By contrast, when he admits to Park he's jealous of her family, Park doesn't try to reframe it or give platitudes; she actually makes a joke about it, and that's sort of the right response, for Chase at least. They end up just being weirdly blunt with one another, and it works for them. They even manage to have a heartwarming friendship moment about sex dreams:

PARK: Well, [a sex dream] could mean the obvious, that you want some of this. [she gestures to herself; Chase looks faintly appalled.] PARK: When will you learn that that look is insulting? Or it could just mean that we like each other. I'm weird, and you're pretty, but we connect. We feel safe. We trust each other. CHASE: [nods] Maybe.

And that's really nice.

The one thing I don't like is the way the show frames Park's crush on him. It's always tee-hee how cringe, how embarrassing that the weird "ugly" girl likes the pretty boy, isn't it funny, isn't it pathetic. Chase's lack of attraction for her is played as a joke (see the above exchange), and like. It's fine! If he isn't attracted to her! But it keeps getting played as haha he thinks she's gross, haha she has a crush on him. Maybe I'm just so soured on that, but I really don't like them as a ship. Especially because they have such a good friendship, because or despite the lack of attraction (and as with Chase and 13, he keeps trying to frame all relationships as sexual/romantic, so I think it's actually nice when he has ones that aren't). So I don't want them to kiss, but I do think they have a fantastic relationship.

There's some real post series potential here, btw. Chase is now House, and Park is now Chase, the overly loyal employee who probably isn't going to leave until he fires her. Chase gets to be the mentor and actually be friends with her, give her the support he wanted/sought from House: Park very easily slots into the role of deeply loyal and protective (I love her in Nobody's Fault, ready to throw down to defend Chase because we are friends) underling. I can just imagine some new applicant picking on Park to try and win Chase's favor and getting fired, or Park being a little Chase-ish tattletale and telling her boss all the hot gossip. Honestly I think between the two of them, Diagnostics is in great hands. (And they absolutely continue to share custody of Park's grandma)

[bregee13]

Circi gets Adopted

Summary: Circi gets adopted by Mari and Jowee?? What?

(Also Available on ao3)

🚤

"Heyyy, Circi. Me and Jowee really need to talk to you."

"What is it, Mayor Mari?"

"Well, uh, we've been talking and um."

"We're gonna adopt you!" Jowee blurted.

"W-What??"

"Yup! You're our daughter now!" He confirmed.

"... WHAT?"

"I know it must feel strange for you," Mari comforted, putting her arm around Circi's shoulder.

'Strange?! I'm older than both of these bozos!!!'

"But this is what we felt was the right thing to do." Mari looked at Jowee. The two gave reassuring glances and nodded.

"You'll make a wonderful daughter, Circi." Jowee smiled. "We love you."

"Um, okay? That's weird." 'What the Rapo am I supposed to say to that?!?'

"It's not weird! It's perfectly normal!" Jowee said, unconvinced by his own words. "It's fine!"

"No? No it's not fine??"

"Circi, we just want to do the best thing for us. Please, give it chance." Mari pleaded.

'I can't just refuse! What if I blow my cover?!' "*sigh* I'll do my best, Mayor Mari."

"That's MOM to you!" Jowee corrected. "Y'know, what? Call me Mom too, why the fuck not?"

"Um, speaking of the Mayor thing..." Mari fidgeted. "There's something we have to tell you about that too..." She took a deep breath. "Now that you're our daughter... We were thinking... Um."

Circi grew wide eyed. 'They're going to train me to become the next Mayor!! Oh my Wilfre!! Once they teach me all they know, and they feel comfortable, I'll kill them! And lead this stupid town in your honor!!! Mwee hee hee!!!!'

"Mari's gonna retire!!!" Jowee blurted.

"WHAT!!?" Circi's jaw dropped to the floor.

"I know! I know! It's a lot at once. But you've done so well as my assistant. And I was never really that great at being Mayor... Rapo, I didn't even like it very much. But you? You'd do great."

Circi's eyes grew even wider somehow. 'Oh wow! I don't even have to kill anybody! Poggers!'

"Yeah, you'll gonna be an Awesome Mayor!" Jowee went and rolled out some travel luggage. "Which is like, super cool because we're getting the he'll out of this town!"

"WHAT"

"I've told you how much I always wanted to travel the world. Now that I'm not Mayor anymore, we can finally go on an adventure together" Mari and Jowee looked longingly into each other's eyes, and kissed. 

 "WHAT"

 "Well, we're headed off! Bye Circi sweetie!! Take care of Rapoville!" Mari waved, now wearing sunglasses.

 "WHAT"

 "Byeeee Circi!!!! Mommy is gonna send you SO MANY SOUVENIRS!!!" Jowee waved very excitedly. 

Mari and Jowee then got in a boat and sailed away like very very fast. They're never coming back lol

Circi stared at the water, dumbfounded. "WHAT THE FUCK" After processing all of that, an evil grin snuck up on her face. "Ha ha.... Ha ha...." Her face twisted into pure evil. "Tee hee hee hee~!" She marched her way back to the village hall. 'Those IDIOTS!!! They didn't have a clue who they've left in charge!!! Now I can get back to my plan to resurrect my sweet snookums~! AND NOBODY CAN STOP ME!!!!!!!! HAHAHAHAHSHAHAJAHAHAHAHAHAGAGAGAGAHAHAHAHA-!'

"Mayor Circi!" Isaac rushed up to her. "Can you tell Chef Cookie that this is a perfectly reasonable price for mayonnaise jars?"

"Uh, I'm a little busy here."

"Ze is a liar!!!" Cookie followed. "Zat Isaac is ruthless!!! Tell him!!"

"Uh.."

Suddenly, more and more Raposa swarmed up to her. "Circi, somebody stole my favorite coffee mug!!"

"Mayor Circi! Who's your heir gonna be?"

"Where did Mayor Mari go????"

"Mayor Circi, my brother is being annoying! Can you kill him or something?"

"Mayor, We need a public pool!"

"Mayor Circi! I want more beach toys!!"

"Mayor Circi! This town sucks!"

"Mayor!!! Hiiii!!!!"

"Mayor, look what Crazy Barks did to my yard!!!!"

"I'm hungry!"

"Mayor, kick out those pirates!!"

"Mayor Circi, can you tell me a story"

"Mayor, can we get a giant rocket ship?"

"Mayor! Mayor! Mayor! Mayor! Mayor! Mayor!"

"Noooooooooooooooo!!!!!" Circi cried, unable to continue her evil plot.

[faelapis]

red white & royal blue is one of the worst movies i've ever seen, but it was also just crazy enough to be watchable. i felt like i was going to die. here are some insane highlights of my viewing experience:

the presidents son (alex, one of our leads) is a beto o'rourke liberal who thinks democrats can win texas. everyone agrees to let him try despite having no political expertise. he never mentions the issue of gerrymandering. he's gonna do it solely because he has this brilliant, secret memo with some 5head strategy nobody has ever thought of before.

we never get to read the memo, or even know what his plan is.

it works. they win texas.

there's cameos from equally delusional libs like joy ann reid and rachel maddow.

stephen fry plays the king of england.

king stephen fry is initially homophobic.

but don't worry, the royal family eventually reforms and definitely doesn't need to be abolished :)

uma thurman is the president.

president thurman has dialogue educating the audience on the importance of safe sex & using condoms during anal.

there's a whole scene where they hear what they think is a gunshot. in a hospital. they use it as an opportunity to force the two leads together in a closet for some tee-hee involuntary closeness.

the fact that it could've been a shooter is basically ignored. the scene has no fear or tension.

they do the trope where there's a sassy female side character who is basically just there to tell the main gay couple they're idiots for pining after each other without taking action.

there are several Very Important Monologues about impostor syndrome and how coming out isn't mandatory and every individual queer person's choice uwu.

there's a sneaky reporter who everyone knows is sneaky but the main lead keeps sharing juicy details to anyway. surely he won't leak this. its off the record!

they pair the two leads' black friends together. said black friends have no personality or character arcs.

the main romance is only slightly less contrived.

i'm pretty sure they told hollywood at gunpoint that you're homophobic if you don't appear in this movie, so there's a bunch of other cameos i forgot about as well.

all in all an excellent movie for watch parties. especially if you want to experience the out-of-body dissonance of an extremely generic lazy hallmark romance, but with explicit sex scenes and overt centrist liberal politics. at any point i was expecting hillary clinton to show up for a 5 second cameo to wink at the audience & say that being gay is okay.

2/10, would watch again and again until i end up in a liberal fugue state where i, too, believe that dems will win texas any day now.

[icharchivist]

@haru-desune submitted:

Hello my semi annual "wth is gbf" ask But in all seriousness y'all look you're having fun 😁

DFKJDFMLFD HEY!!! Tee hee!

we are having a tone of fun over here yeah!! this year is the 10th anniversary of the game with new Triple A game coming out, so it's going to be a busy year and we've all been buzzing quite a bit. Though the way i ended up attracting a hive of anons discussing gbf is a mystery -- in the end the main game itself remains pretty niche -- but we're having a lot of fun bouncing out of each others.

Though to answer "what is gbf".... *looks at my blog* you will have to be more specific about what you want to know, because we don't even talk about the main story on here all that much---

Ok so for the fast crash course:

Granblue Fantasy is a browser game which can be played on any Chromium based browser at http://game.granbluefantasy.jp/ . It has a Japanese and an English version, running at the same time (it's not different servers, we get content at the same time as the Japanese fandom does)

It also has a Fighting Game called Granblue Fantasy Versus Rising, and will soon have a Action RPG coming out in February called Granblue Fantasy Relink. Those games are set in the lore of Granblue, though gbvs is slightly in another timeline/universe -- still those stories are stand alones meant to be different steps on the characters journeys

The gameplay is mostly Turn-by-turn RPG for the gameplay, and Visual Novel for the story -- and gacha to get the characters you get to use and meet. (note that today we just got 200 free pulls, and the opportunity to use those pulls will disappear in less than 2 hours, so if you want to play the game today is a good day for that)

For a crashcourse on the basic lore to know about + some vague Main Story Characters and spoilers information, you can go there to learn more about it!

but the long story short is that the world of gbf is a world of floating islands and magic, ruled by the absent God of Rebirth and Destruction known as Bahamut. (all the homies hate Bahamut.) Once upon a time Bahamut split into two, splitting the world as we know, and overseeing two types of people: The People of the Skies (The Skydwellers) who are mortals, and the People of the Stars (the Astrals) who are immortal. The Astrals tried to invade the Skyrealms centuries ago, but where pushed back -- but behind them they left Primal Beasts, immortal creatures who works as semi gods, dedicated to a purpose programed inside of them.

Our Protagonist, Gran if you play as a guy, Djeeta as a girl (you can switch gender anytime tho), was abandonned by their father when they were young as he went on a quest to find Eustalucia, the island of the Astrals -- and after years of radio silence, MC finally gets a letter about their father's whereabouts, and decides to go on a journey to find back their fathers -- travelling the skies and all of its perils.

accompanying them are Vyrn, the red dragon who raised us, who's memories have mysteriously been locked away, and Lyria, the Girl in Blue (well, with blue hair, but shh), a young girl who was held prisoner by the local Empire for her power to be able to control the Primal Beasts. As she attempted to escape thanks to Katalina, an ex soldier of the Empire who was so saddened by Lyria's situation she freed her and swore loyalty to her instead, she met our MC... and near death circumstances brought Lyria to connect her life to our own, connecting us together.

Both Lyria and Vyrn end up accompanying MC out of devotion and love, but also out of seeking answers about their own existence as well.

And on their way to Eustalucia, our MC becomes the Captain of a Crew, going from island to island, adding more and more people to their crew as it goes.

The Main Story follows mainly their struggle to go to Eustalucia, facing the Empire at the time, Primal Beasts going Bersek, and much more others problems.

But every months the game unleash an event story, which will pretty much be "a story on another island that isn't related to the main plot". Those events then disappear for a time before being added to the side stories.

And those events have their own casts. The overall lore builds to the main lore, of course, but each event stories will follow their own themes for instance. Sometimes the casts of those events crossover and spend time together.

On here we talk a lot about What Makes The Sky Blue: A Three Parter story about the first primal beast of creations and their quests to reexamine their purpose, their free will, and their connection with Bahamut as their creators turns out to be heavily linked to him.

wmtsb is also the doomed love story of Sandalphon and Lucifer, as Sandalphon was driven to madness and unleashed his anger on Lucifer, leading to strife when Lucifer tried to make things right no matter what. They're. so much.

(longer version with translation)

it's also the story that has Belial as a secondary antagonist, and it's the guy we talk about soooo fucking much on here because we're so unwise about him. the polar opposite of Lucifer, who yet was so dedicated to his creator he triggered various apocalypses and brought various issues to our protagonists to selfishly reunite with the man he loved.

Oh and, like, i'm not actually like, any type of hyperbolism about the LGBT+ stuff btw. Belial's feelings are explicitly romantic, and later Lucifer mirrors Belial's explicit words to address his feelings for Sandalphon for instance.

We also have various Trans rep (Ladiva and Cagliostro are openly trans women, Balurga is a trans man, Orologia is a genderfluid dragon who literally shift gender from one screen to the next and who use they/them, and the characters who, as a group, are named the 6 dragons, are openly nonbinary. There's also two others characters (Morilynn and Morgan) who use they/them pronouns. And also i'll include him but Lamorak who said he refused to be limitated to gender.)

We also have a lot of wlw and mlm, including a canon wlw kiss (but for that i direct you to my current pinned post, i love them so much they're so unwell) and a wlw engagement party. We're doing fine here.

Another story i'm particuliarly found of personally is the Dragon Knights saga, but it's a 10 parters so it's like. A Lot. But it's basically about four knights who once served the country of Feendrache together, working together to uncover the sins of Feendrache's past and make sure the current country is willing to atone for their crimes, as they're trying to rebuild a proper future, while avoiding the threat of Merlin, a victim of one of said crimes who have been planning Feendrache's destruction ever since.

Or the story Marionette Stars, about people suddenly getting wrapped into a conspiracy as they are being led to connect with powerful weapons connected to the Horoscope, leading them in the web of an organization who is making sure conditions are met for them to awaken their weapons to lead to nefarious intentions.... it's where the kissing lesbians are from for instance, but also fair warning this is the gorest of the saga so far and it has a lot of unsettling stuff going on in it.

And there's so much more characters and stories and anything for the eyes to see. All with gorgeous arts, and a lot of recent stories have very deep themes which really are interesting to sit through, though keeping in mind that the game has a lot of disturbing content and doesn't hesitate to have you sit through extremely disturbing and gore scenes. #SurvivorOfTikohFE

here's some arts samples of various saga to give you an overview of some goodies here and there

and if you want to get into it because of Seiyuu? you're in luck! there's so many characters in granblue that your favorite seiyuu can POSSIBLY be in it!

like i did a list of a3 seiyuus in it for example:

and some of them have songs! as pictured above with Sandalphon's (Suzumura Ken'ichi) song, but also like, the Dragon Knights (Seiyuu: Eguchi Takuya, Ono Yuuki, Ryota Osaka, Kazuhiko Inoue) or Grimnir's song (by legendary seiyuu Megumi Ogata)

or also absolutely bonkers songs as OST, like the infamous Parade's Lust, Paradise Lost, Zero, Existence, Peace and Quiet, The Watershed Moment, or a personal fav with For You.

So strap in, give it a shot, and if you want clarification on literally anything, don't hesitate ;D

[evereinefaust]

. . . ⇢ ˗ˏˋ 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐟𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧 ࿐ྂ

Pairing: Killua Zoldyck X afab!Reader

Sypnosis: It started as just a contractual marriage. However, as days passed by, their feelings grew. And one particular incident finally allowed them to confess their feelings for each other.

Word Count: 1,487

You laid on your bed, wearing your very thin nightgown, waiting for a certain silverette to return home from work. You heard the door opened and closed and looked at the male you married a month ago.

"He's late again."        

"Oh, you're still awake." He said as he noticed your presence inside the room.

"I was waiting for you." You replied.

"I told you not to wait for me." He argued. You didn't say anything back.

"It bothers me whenever you say that. Lately, he always comes home late and he never bothers to tell me why. It's only a month since we got married. And it might be too much to ask since we only married for convenience but I really hope that he'll love me the way I love him."

Killua took off his white shirt, put on a t-shirt, and lay on the bed next to you, but he turned on the other side. He didn't bother to look at you as he drifted to sleep.

"Hey, Killua, why don't you face this way? Why don't you hug me to sleep? Why don't you even say good night?"

You placed your arm in front of you as you stared at your husband's back, a small tear appeared at the corners of your eyes as you thought.

"You rarely kiss me. We don't even have a proper conversation. At first, I thought that was fine with me, as long as we were together. But I was wrong. I don't want us to be like this."

Your parents and Killua's parents sat on a circular table, they talked about random stuff. A smile is visible on your face as you listen to their conversation.

"I'm sorry I'm late." A white-haired male said to his parents as he rushed to take a seat, everyone looked at him.

"What took you so long?" His father asked.

"Traffic."

"Anyway, sit down."

Killua took the seat right next to you, you smiled at him as an acknowledgment of his presence. He returned the smile and both of you stared into each other's eyes while your parents talked.

"Now, we can talk about their marriage." Silva, Killua's father announced.

"Yes, I know this will be a perfect match." Your father complimented.

A blush crept on both of your cheeks as you both heard the news.

"We're getting..."

"Married?!"

DING!

DING!

Our parents have known each other since college. Both of us agreed to marry each other for our family. But when I saw him that day, I thought marrying him might not be a bad idea.

"Tee-hee! Let's give them some privacy." the woman with black-haired told her companion as they left the room for both of you.

You sat in a chair patiently, wearing the long white wedding dress that they made for you. You closed your eyes as you patiently waited, Killua standing near to you. He kept quiet as he stood.

"Are you really sure it's okay for you to marry me?" You suddenly asked him, looking back at him.

"Yes, Both of your families will benefit from this union anyway." He replied so casually, not showing any signs of emotion whatsoever.

"Is that your only reason for marrying me?"

"That's also your reason why you're going to marry me, right?"

"Well, I guess you're right."

"Let's go." Killua offered his hand out to you and you accept it.

That was how we got married. It was for the wrong reasons. But we can make our marriage work, right?

You woke up and saw a familiar face next to you, his hand snaked around your waist. You smiled at his sleepy figure.

"Did you know that the only time you embrace me is when you are asleep?"

"Okay! Time for a great morning!" You told yourself as you got out of bed, fist pumping in the air.

You saw Killua's long sleeve from the floor that he left last night. You picked it up in suspicion. Humming, you sniffed the cloth. The realization came in when you smelled a woman's perfume on your husband's shirt. You angrily went down to wash his clothes.

Killua slowly woke up and saw that his shirt was washed and folded and placed on the table near the bed. He smiled to himself and wore his office uniform.

"[Name]." He called on you inside the kitchen, your back facing him as you were making breakfast.

"[Name]." He repeated and went near you, though you didn't look at him as your anger still stayed.

Finally, you looked at him, [e/c] orbs glared at his sapphire ones.

"What's wrong?" he asked worriedly.

"WHO IS SHE?!" You snapped at him.

"What?" Killua was so taken aback by your sudden outburst that his eyes widened in shock.

"The woman you were with last night. And maybe the many nights before that!"

"I don't know what you're talking about." He reasoned.

"Don't lie to me anymore. I smell her perfume on your clothes! You were with a woman. Is that why you're always coming home late? Is that why you're cold to me? Is that why you can't love me? Tell me!" Tears streaming down your face as you close your eyes.

"That's not true, [Name]. That's not true at all." He said.

"Then what is the truth?" Your tears kept coming out.

"I was in a dinner meeting with a female client. She got too much to drink so I guided her until she got a taxi. She was clinging to me so I guess that's how her scent got onto my clothes." Killua explained sincerely, placing a hand on his chest.

"Is that true? Then why do you always come home late?" You dried your tears and also placed your hands on your heart, looking at him for answers.

"It's true. Do my clothes always smell of another woman?"

"Well, last night was the only time I smelled something like that but... but you don't love me." You hung your head as the tears started to come out once again.

"But I do," Killua confessed as he looked down, avoiding your gaze. "I always come home late because I have to finish all my work so we can go on a vacation, just the two of us."

Your eyes widened in surprise.

"But you are cold to me. You rarely talk to me." Your brows knitted upwards as you looked down.

"Because I thought you didn't love me. You don't say you do." Killua's brows also knitted upwards as he looked at you. 

"You didn't say it either so I..." You looked away as you muttered those words.

"[Name]! You're not thinking of leaving me, aren't you?" Killua asked angrily. He suddenly grabbed your arms. "I love you!"'

You stood there, shocked because of his sudden change of demeanor. You closed your eyes and smiled.

"I—I love you too."

"You should have said it sooner."

"We should have said it sooner."

Killua held you in his embrace as you looked up to him.

"Since when did you love me?" you asked him.

"Since the first time I saw you. I'm sorry if I didn't know how to show my feelings for the past weeks. I was just.... insecure because I thought your parents just forced you to marry me."

The two of you locked eyes and smiled.

"We are going to make this marriage work. We are going to be happy. We are going to talk more and we are going to trust each other." Killua muttered.

"Yes."

As you responded, Killua slowly leaned on you. You closed your eyes as his lips crashed into yours. This kiss is as passionate as ever and wasn't forced just like your first kiss with him during the wedding.

[theformerbastard]

Numbers 69 and 90, please!

69 - tee hee. It's a sex number. The thing is I love trivia but I'm shit with details. I'm pretty obsessed with the show QI and I'll get all excited about somethin' I've learned from there but I'll go "DID YOU KNOW THERE'S NO SUCH THING AS A VEGETABLE?! I don't...I can't explain WHY but...it's just...everything is fruit or whatever" and then people pat me on the head and tell me that I tried rull good. Point is: the wording of this one is tricky 'cause all of my fun facts come from snapple lids and QI. I will say tho that I used to be kinda known as the red velvet guy. People would tag me in red velvet recipes on fb and every time some new red velvet flavored thing would come out, I'd pounce. Then one day some jag was like "you know it's just chocolate and they get the red color by crushin' up beetles, right?" and since I don't rememer what jag it was, I guess that'll have to count as a fun fact I don't remember how I learned.

Bonus relevant fun fact: When I worked at the gas station and the number 69 would pop up anywhere, I'd make a big thing out of it. Someone's change, money drop number, etc...didn't matter what it was, I'd nudge whoever I was workin' with, giggle, and go "look". It got so outta hand that, by the time I left, even my boss was like "hey look...69" in this matter of fact tone that made it even better. It's still a thing between one of my old co-workers and me. We'll text each other when we see it in the wild. Now you're part of the fun!

90- ah shit what was this one? Luckiest mistake? I'm goin' cross-eyed tryin' to think of somethin' and I'm comin' up short.

[potatoesandsunshine]

for the choose violence ask game:

3, 6, 16, and 25 with critical role (either tm9 or vox machina)

3.screenshot or description of the worst take you've seen on tumblr: c1 you had like a stronger firehose of flat sexism which sucked but c2 takes the worst takes cake by far. look i was there for the beaujes schism there were many dark times. the post that made me the most mad that i still remember was someone calling beauyasha a lesbian ship designed for straight people - unlike beaujes, which would be real representation. why do i remember that. this website is a circle of hell created to torment me.

6. which ship fans are the most annoying?: unquestionably widomauk. i do not understand why that is a Big Ship and i think people were way to attached to an idea that was never as sexy as widofjord didn't have legs. this bled over into all the big caleb ships but never more annoyingly than it did with molly

16. you can't understand why so many people like this thing (characterization, trope, headcanon, etc): i genuinely feel like the vast majority of people invented a fanon version of mollymauk after he died and are in desperate need of a Return To The Source Material Refresher. i would like this character more if you could ever get a good fan characterization of him. i think i've liked one molly fic ever. i rarely read cr fic but when i do my first filter move is to take out molly i have no desire to see this frankenstein built from every imagined thing people think happened with him in the show. there's something potentially interesting to think about with how molly is present in the memory of the characters of c2 in this different and idealized way but unfortunately i will never sift through ten thousand bullshit headcanons to find it

25. common fandom complaint that you're sick of hearing: i'm really not that In The Fandom anymore but cr is genuinely propped up on the base of a bunch of parasocial stuff that fans don't seem able to let go of so. honestly if we could never again do the "they're not successful they're just friends running a dnd game, we're lucky to get to see it so we should never complain about anything that happens in it, fuck you if you ever do! Don't forget to love each other tee hee" post again i would be free. this fandom has crossed the size threshold for discussing things with any nuance at all and it feels like it always loops back around to don't forget to love each other as if that's a merch tagline. i could go the rest of my life never hearing it again

if i had to pick another one, I'd say it's wild when people then turn around and say a character was acting ooc just because they did something that the audience didn't like. like i can't fucking stand fcg but they're not acting ooc when they spit out some trite first semester psychology student bullshit. that's literally in character i just don't like the character, i don't get on here and make a post saying sam doesn't know how to play his own robot

[de-fright-ful]

ROCKETRETICULE asked for their sideblog, VICIOUSROCKET: mostly for shits and plain cursed kid : amity and Vicious

IF THEY HAD A FAN-KID ! | OOC MEME | ACCEPTING

TLDR. Send me a pairing name, and I’ll tell you what I think their child would be like if they had one!

TEE HEE - I gotta explain a bit first - so, like, the meme here is combining Amity's wasp-satan and Vicious's entire shadow-bound state, and I could've meme'd into it, but I had to make it tragic instead of birthing a new class of demon!

Also, full disclosure: I accidentally posted this early while trying to save the draft earlier, AND I remembered halfway through that this is all supposed to be the past tense cause he dies. So if you notice obvious errors: that's why! I promise I'm trying but this has been a battle against my own brainrot ADSJASDJASD

NAME: Resakk Joy; another name chosen by Amity from Saijikari tradition, though unlike in Kitty's case, Resakk's name didn't so much come from Amity alone as it did grow from a mutual idea.

You see - Vicious and Amity - (working from the backdrop of our discussions for a hypothetical; this is not a shipping thing, just to explain the fan kid scenario asdasd) They're not lovers; they're not family, and they're not exactly friends either. They're strangers with parallel interests - like a deer and an owl that feed from the same field.

Vicious comes down through The Passing (The Joy family-controlled mountain path that connects Sinnoh to Saijikara and is ideal for subtle civilian traffic); he pays his tolls, answers their pointed but short questions and makes pleasant with the matriarch and her family (especially her siblings, who he comes to feel a protective, uncle-like fondness for) before passing on his way. It's simple and empty, for the most part, two strangers having a glimpse into each other's life for half a second before moving on.

Amity doesn't know what he's up to beyond where it applies to her and her land - but, so long as he's not running Pokemon or People directly, she doesn't care. He doesn't care about the inner workings, why the passing is treated so vitally, and why they run their ship so tightly. Outside of their brief interactions and the foundation of their parallel interests, they are nothing to each other and are not shy about it. In fact, the inconsequential nature - it almost enhanced things.

When you're nothing to each other - or at least you TELL yourself that you're nothing to each other, what sort of false civility and tender-non-existent forced dynamic can constrain you? What and who are you trying to fool with false pretenses? Who are you saving? You can call it a bit bitchy and cold, but it's all so simple and easy, hi, goodbye - it's almost like a game - until one of you ends up pregnant, of course, and now you aren't parallel anymore, you're connected.

When Amity found out, she wasn't HAPPY, but it is what it is. She knew the risks, he knew the risks, WE know the risks. And bringing it up to Vicious - the answer about what'll happen next is easy. She'll do what she's always done, and he'll do what he's always done: exist separately. She doesn't expect him to be a dad or step up (and on some level she'd be more comfortable doing it all alone; at least alone, she only has to account for her feelings and prepare for the possible worst) and she says as much to him: but she says this, I'm not going to make you do anything, stay, go away, change your name, I don't care. I'll make it work for me - but if you want to be a part of this and name this child, you tell me now. I won't chase you, and I don't want THIS hanging over my head for the rest of my life.

Vic shrugged - I mean, like, no baby names on the top of his head. All he said was he wanted it to be a strong name - no cutesy, forever baby names, nothing like ABCDE or a boy named Sue. She could have the final say, whatever that may be. At the moment, Vic was washing his hands of things, and naming the child would make him attached. Subconsciously, you have to know that, but it inspired Amity. Not in the way he intended, but it did. She made a pact to herself, and though she never spoke the name, lest the spirits hear it, the boy would be Resakk.

When translated from Saihoken, the name refers to nothing, a lack of existence, an empty void. Again, it reads as harsh. Who could call their child nothing? It seems cruel and unconscionable, but in Saijikari culture, it's anything but!

The Saijikari hold a particular belief system around names and their meanings - you can never name a child after the deceased, never name a boat after a town. Never, I repeat, never give your children sweet, soft, enticing names that would endear a spirit or monster to want to take them (for instance, Amity is a bad name going by traditional naming rules). Enter nothing: to be named nothing in light of this superstition would be equivalent to, I don't know, sealing your child in the equivalent of a salt circle. Nothing is a deception, it's a maze of mirrors, leading the spirits in circles looking for a child that - to the universe and to their gaze, seems not to even exist. It is a name, and it is protection, at least spiritually speaking. It's a silent declaration of parental love beyond the physical world and caution against intangible powers. It would protect him, and ultimately? That's what Amity suspected both her and Vic wanted.

GENDER: Cis Male

GENERAL APPEARANCE: IDK HOW EXACTLY TO EXPLAIN IT, BUT HE LOOKS LIKE HOW EVERYONE TRIES TO PORTRAY THE COMMON JAPANESE DELINQUENT ARCHETYPE BUT SOMEWHERE ALONG THE WAY, THEY GOT CONFUSED AND MADE A 6'6 TEDDY BEAR OF A GUY THAT JUST LOVES BRIGHT COLORS AND SUCH

credit to DJARN and this picrew here

PERSONALITY: Despite his appearance, Resakk was a sweetheart, a complete and utter sweetheart. Shy, but in the sense that he only liked to speak if spoken to and didn't enjoy being put under any sort of spotlight. He was a listener more than a conversation starter, but he enjoyed listening. Though that's not to say he ever was a follower - god forbid. Do you know those guys who watch people do something stupid and just go and fix it themselves while the others are too busy patting themselves on the back? He's that guy - he won't make a scene, but god, he doesn't suffer fools gladly, and he can't let go when he knows something is fucked up. 'Let them dig their own graves' okay, but he'll feel shitty if he lets them get buried beneath their hubris. You can walk away, but he's grabbing the shovel and digging them out for his own conscious. I will also say that while he's the guy that's commonly regarded as so chill and patient and laid back - he can be vicious under his breath when he's finally been pushed beyond his cool. He tried to keep it to himself, but dear god, you could feel the rage radiating off him in WAVES.

SPECIAL TALENTS: Nothing supernatural this time around; however, this kid is a whizz when it comes to math and has a peculiar ability to do highly complex math mentally. But being this is Resakk, he often chooses to use this ability by helping tutor his classmates and younger cousins in the family. After all, what's the point of a talent if not used? A waste of energy, that's what!

WHO THEY LIKE BETTER: Unfair question!! Because he loves both of his parents equally but in very, very different ways. Resakk grew up with his mom nearby—she was active and present, and well, he's a bit of a mama's boy and loved to help her and show his appreciation for her through the quality time they often spent together and helping her with the many jobs and hats she wore around Kiyose! But like - growing up Vic was almost more like an uncle, it wouldn't feel appropriate for him to want or push for that same closeness he has with Amity. It's not what their dynamic is, but he doesn't NOT love him; it's just different!

WHO THEY TAKE AFTER MORE: HONESTLY? Vicious, but more specifically, with all the positive traits that have been buried by the choices Vic's made and the way events in his life have shaped him. Would Vic be able to step back and definitively go, 'Yeah, my boy's just like his old man?' absolutely not, but it's there, it's evident. It's hard-coded. His patience, despite the brusk nature he tends to have - his kindness with children - his confidence and charm at times - his capacity for learning and thinking quickly, and his desire to love and genuinely BE loved & help/care for the people he cares deeply about? Yeah, that all came from Vic.

PERSONAL HEADCANONS:

(the softer, sweeter ones)

He had a decent-ish relationship with Vicious? It's hard to explain, Vic is closer with his older sisters, the twins, of course. He was visiting them as 'Uncle Vic,' long, long before Amity became pregnant with him, but Resakk couldn't say he felt rejected by him. He's not around often, but Resakk understood why, in his own way - this is just how things have always been! he knew it wasn't HIM, this is how things are. And with all of his uncles, the Coven and his older brother around, Resakk didn't exactly feel like he was starved of a connection with fatherly figures.

Of the Kids born to Rocket members, he may have had best relationship with his dad than any of them.

Still, Vic dropping by to see Resakk every month or so had this vibe to me

Doesn't call Vic dad, but only because his sisters, the twins, have always called Vicious 'Uncle Vic' and Resakk has always defaulted to following his older sisters! (he thinks the world of them and as a young kid thought they hung the moon)

Resakk broke his nose while rough-housing with Vic when he was around six - he and the girls were playing tag in the yard, and Resakk jumped into his arms - Vic lost his balance, and even though he tried to catch both of them, Resakk smacked into a decorative flag-stone. Resakk cried and cried, blood gushing and all the average horrors that come with a broken nose for the first time. But Vic? Vic seemed absolutely TRAUMATIZED. They started running on autopilot, trying to rock him but walking almost like a zombie straight to the first person who could trust passing the kids off to. Resakk was fine - his nose never healed right, but that's how it is sometimes! He was okay, just scared, and the twins, too, were terrified cause they didn't know why Uncle Vic seemed upset or how to help their brother - but given time and lots of comfort later, all were fine. However, the sheer frustration Amity felt at Vic throughout the entire situation could have fueled the city. Yes, his terror was understandable, especially given his trauma of losing his other son - but he had a kindergarten-aged kid and two little girls with him, and he couldn't say 'it'll be okay' to them? Eventually, though, all worked past it, and it became nothing more than a memory.

One of his fondest childhood memories was the time Vic convinced Amity to let him take the girls and Resakk on an adventure in the sidecar (just driving around the countryside together until supper) - it wasn't the most exciting or action-packed but packed in with his sisters, laughing and giggling and able to look up and see their dad so happy? It all lived rent-free in his heart until his final days.

Resakk was given a Pupitar for his 10th birthday from Vic, god only knows where Vic got it, to 'protect him' and Resakk fell. in. love with it - I'm talking 'would save his pocket money to buy him miracle grow' levels of love for that little cocoon

That nasty scar on Resakk's lip? Ironically enough, THAT WAS FROM HIS PUPITAR - they were training, and the Pupitar miscalculated its trajectory. Resakk got a concussion from that event but never held it against the Pokemon! That's still his strange, spiky metal dog!

OKAY I HAVE TO MENTION THE PINK PEACH FUZZ - man, rocked that since he was 16 - it looks so ratty, and it's not that Amity didn't try to teach him, but BY GOD HE'S BEEN COMMITTED TO THAT IMAGE

PESTO THE BABY PENGUIN SIZED, good lord, that boy was HUGE, just like his father—not only did he seemingly dwarf his poor mother left carrying him, but growing up, he was ALWAYS the back of the class pictures and always the one doing heavy lifting, reaching, and cleaning higher than any of his classmates could.

LOOOOOOVES HIS SISTERS. There’s a significant age difference between the three of them, with both of the girls being around 13 when he was born, and one would assume this mean they’d have no interest in a gross baby brother, but you’d be wrong! These girls spent so long as the youngest and only real kids around that they were over the moon when they learned they’d have a brother and didn’t leave Resakk alone for even a moment since he came home from the hospital!

Amity inspired Resakk to get all the piercings he did—not to copy her, though that's fun (and there are pictures of the two of them wearing some matching novelty earrings), but because he just thought they were beautiful. There's no deep struggle of rebelliousness; he just thinks they're pretty!

Actually, no, he felt one sort of way about Vicious: he wishes he'd offer to help Amity more. Does he owe her anything? Absolutely not, but it's just something in his gut that never really settles right. Though unknown to Resakk, Vic does offer, Amity always denies his offers because she's proud. Unlike Vicious, who ASKS, Resakk just comes in, and he does whatever she's struggling with. Amity is struggling with her one arm to pin a braid in place? Yeah, no, Resakk's taking the bobby pin and going, 'Hold still, oma,' She's grabbing the step stool? Nah, Resakk's got it.

Vic could and did wrastle with him, even in the months before his death. The boy may be two inches shorter than him, but the paternal urge to put that boy in a headlock and ruffle his slob-looking, overly long hair is POWERFUL. (As a sidenote, Vic keeps telling him to get it cut; he never did!)

OKAY AND NOW THE SAD BITS

SO

Vic's appearance and parts of his personality weren't the only things Resakk inherited from his father—no, the Shadow affliction, as it turns out, can be genetically spread, and it was.

Now, unlike Vic, whose Shadow affliction has a sort of consciousness, for Resakk, it was silent, directionless, and, well, cancer-like. No one knew, but it'd metastasized in his heart from the moment he took his first breath. And things were fine and normal for the first few years of his life - then he began getting tired.

They took him to doctors, but nope, he's a growing boy, a BIG growing boy, and it's okay. You're overanalyzing it, Amity. But he got worse and worse slowly in hard-to-trace ways.

It makes the memories all the more frustrating. What was a symptom? What if they had caught it sooner? What if they KNEW sooner?

But Resakk never really... saw himself as sick?

He sort of felt like he was living in another world. As he got older, he knew the others were more worried and desperate about him, but he felt fine, no different in any big way, and he hated making people so worried about him.

By sixteen, and countless visits to utterly useless doctors who hadn't seen anything like he had, it was when it finally began to sink in for all of them that maybe what was happening wasn't treatable. They didn't think he was dying though - it was more of an adjustment.

Then - well, he died - one moment he was there, and the next he was gone, dropped to the ground lifeless partway through a school day

After Resakk died Amity wasn't coping. Not well, at least. And she shocked herself - she had planned to give Resakk the family's traditional burial and have him sealed away with the ancestral ashes, as she did with her older sister, father and grandfather before him. But... Amity didn't - instead, she requested a private autopsy. She wanted... answers. She wanted something to feel like there was a cause and effect, not dumb chance that stole her baby boy from her.

She got her answers—she never talked about it openly, but she did, and after that, something broke between her and Vic that could never be repaired.

OH AND VIC? Yeah, he doesn't NEED Amity to tell him what she learned - he'd suspected it for a long, long time

[heongjoong]

"Sandy's Science Adventure."

Task #1: Unleash Your Creativity

goal: help sandy cheeks finish her cool science project for the bikini bottom science fair.

eddie were driving around the bikini bottom with his car and then meet sandy before his very eyes. eddie was surprised by her sudden appearance, as if the god has fated this meeting between them, because both of them were colleague in the high school.

"sandy! hey, it's me eddie! do you remember me? we used to have a science class together. do you need a ride to home?"

"eddie! how can i forgot an excel student like you. of course, i remember. how are you doing?"

"i'm good. thank you for asking! so, do you still need a ride?"

eddie still insisted to give her a ride to her tree dome, which makes sandy can't speak other words than a 'yes'. they're finally drive to her place. as soon as they arrive, sandy invited eddie to come to his tree dome. eddie who's clueless just following her without hesitations.

"so, eddie... i actually need some help. since you're good at both science and driving car, why won't you help me to find these ingredients?"

"oh? what are these, sandy? is it a new experiment for your personal purpose or something else?"

"no, no! i actually joined bikini bottom science fair, which require me to collect these items. it would be a great if you're willing to help."

jelly from electric jellyfish in jellyfish fields, shiny crystals from coral reef, and goo from goo lagoon.

"it would be easy to find them! do you want to join, or do you want to stay here instead, sandy?"

"i think i'll stay... just in case someone aka plankton is up to no good."

"plankton want to join the bikini bottom science fair too?"

"mhm. never mind! go, help me find all of those ingredients."

then eddie drive towards the jellyfish fields and catch several jellyfish while harvesting their jelly carefully to the jar.

"psst, just pretend that this is jellyfish jam. :]"

after he harvested the jelly from jellyfish, he proceeds to continue looking for the shining crystal from the coral reefs. he finds the shiny crystal and pick them from the coral reefs. it looks kind of bald.

"i picked the crystal, don't worry! :3c"

and then the last but not least, the hardest and crucial part of looking for these items, that is going to dirt your whole body. not going to lie! here is sandy, spongebob, and mr. krab who's getting the goo all over their body! poor them. eddie didn't know it could explode along the way eddie bring them to the tree dome. tee-hee! >_<

"goo from goo lagoon ft. sandy and friends!"

as eddie apologized to sandy and friends, he tries to collect all the goo's and put them inside the jar, too. and then they begin to start the experience before their d-days of presenting it to public.

help with experiments and get ready for the fair.

eddie and sandy were gathering around the table, testing each of ingredients if they were qualified enough to use as their ingredients of creating a new energy source. first, they're testing if the jelly was powerful enough, and yes! it was. it stings both their hands even if they wore gloves at that time. second, they're testing if the shiny crystal was strong enough to break, and it couldn't even break after eddie try to bonk it to sandy's helmet, lol! and last, they were mixing it all together with goo lagoon and create a reliable energy source.

today is d-day! eddie and sandy were checking if their lab outfits already set and their speech was ready to be presented. however...

bonus challenge: catching plankton who's trying to ruin sandy's bikini bottom science fair invention.

sandy caught that plankton trying to hide and sneaking to take away the invention from eddie's pocket, but eddie wasn't aware of it, since plankton is too light and small for his sight. sandy trying to shoo away plankton by pointing her loved hands towards plankton.

"you can't take away those invention of us, plankton! you little-"

"HUH? plankton is on my pocket? since when..."

eddie trying to catch plankton and finally hold the antenna of plankton so he won't budge from his hand. and then eddie throw plankton and kick him away from the fair. now they're presenting in peace even with a little bit nervousness that can be seen within the naked eyes, but they do really well at presenting the presentations.

[theoptimisticpessimisticgabriel]

what would be the key to an abiding relationship? any tips?

i don't know if I'm able to answer this since my relationship with my love's very new (but it feels like years if I'm being totally honest), but i will try 😅. we're still trying to figure things out since we've only been together for months now; we're still learning new things from each other.

while we're still in the process of figuring things out, we tend to communicate since it's really important to voice out what you're really feeling. and it may never be that easy, and you may feel hesitant at first, but keep in mind that if you're partner wants to work things out with you, you'll never be afraid to let it all out. but make sure that you pair communication with understanding and proper listening. sometimes we tend to say the things that we want and want to be done, but if both of you don't actually listen and understand then there would be a huge problem.

another thing is compromise. you'll both learn how to compromise things if you really want the relationship to last. it would not always be easy, but you all will get past it (we're still going through it tee hee).

and the last thing i think is effort. remember that a relationship is not a one sided effort. a ship couldn't sail without the help of the other 🚢.

there you go, hun. hope that helps tho 😅.

[sporesgalaxy]

Hi! If you remember how the previous installment used to end, no you don't, I changed it, sorry! Tee hee :)

Also do consider reading the prev. installments by going to the original reblog of each. Readmores will keep the old version now apparently....and I fixed SOME of the typos....

ANYWAYS. My brain decided I need to haunt Philip's nightmares one more time before the finale so now this exists. I wrote it kind of fast compared to the others but hopefully it's still spooky. Enjoy

[A door. An opressive darkness. A lonesome child. Someone looms over them.]

[This time, an adult Signey stands behind a young Philip Wittebane, who is sitting on the dirt.]

[They are in a forest, again. There is neither enough light nor living plants to tell what color the forest is.]

[The memories they relived in the last dream-- their own and each others'-- feel fresh in their minds.]

[Signey's gaze doesn't move when they begin speaking to Philip. Almost as if they are addressing the empty air. Their voice is cold.]

S: You were a lot like me.

P: [huddles in on self, ignoring her]

S: ...scared.

P: [refusing to look] We are nothing alike.

[She speaks as if it is a self-evident fact.]

S: Lying is easy for me, too.

[Philip twists around to face her, looking up at her indignantly from the ground.]

P: It's not a lie!!!

[She doesn't flinch. Her expression remains dispassionate.]

S: I'd lie until I forgot the truth.

P: Shut up!!

S: I wanted to lie until it became the truth.

[Philip jumps to his feet. He still has to look up at her.]

P: STOP IT!!!

P: I'm not like you!!

[She pauses for just a moment, holding his eye contact silently.]

S: I wanted to be something I'm not--

P: You don't know anything!!!

[He's screaming at the top of his lungs at this point. She's as still as the dead forest around them.]

S: ...anything but me.

[Philip glares at her.]

S: ...That's when I started--

P: Are you deaf or just an idiot?!!

S:  --losing control.

[Her eyes are beginning to reflect what little ambient light there is around them in an eerie way. Her skin is visibly crawling in some places.]

P: I'm not listening to you!!! [He turns away again, covering his ears and squeezing his eyes shut.] I don't listen to WITCHES!!!!

[Her voice comes through just as clearly as before.]

S: Lying, changing-- it got easier than telling the truth.

[Philip presses his hands tighter against ears. He won't listen.]

S: I was scared that someday, I'd forget how to change back properly.

[Philip does not lie unless he has to.]

S: Small at first. A misplaced freckle.

[Philip does not think about his mask.]

S: Then bit by bit, I'd forget myself.

[Philip does not think about how little he remembers from before Gravesfield.]

S: Until there was none of "me" left to realize what happened. Nothing left to turn back to.

[Philip does not think about the way his brother has been changing.]

S: I'd be dead, but no one would know.

[Philip gives up on trying to block her out, hands dropping to his sides. He scowls at the tree roots ahead of him.]

P: [bitterly] I wish witches all died so easily.

S: ...I guess you're right.

S: There would still be something in my place.

S: Acting like it was still me.

S: I always imagined it as some kind of bloodthirsty animal.

S: Like a wild witch.

[Philip feels like he can almost recall something, but it's escaping him.]

[With no footsteps to warn him, her voice is suddenly quieter, but closer.]

S: Fear is good at lying to people like us.

[Philip won't let her win just by surprising him. He pretends not to notice his quickening heartbeat.]

S: It says that you can outrun it, if you're fast.

[Philip pretends he is not tensed to run away.]

S: And we want it to be that simple.

[Philip pretends he is choosing not to escape.]

S: So we sprint. Right into Fear's open jaws.

[Philip pretends that he is breathing evenly.]

S: And we were so fast. The thing tearing us apart can't be fear.

[Philip pretends not to listen.]

S: It must be anger,

[Philip does not think of green leaves rustling on a night that is too quiet.]

S: or love,

[Philip does not think of brittle old bones.]

S: or hatred.

[Philip does not think of that wretched gate]

S: We want to be unafraid.

[Philip does not think of fire.]

S: Want not to see the teeth in our skin.

[Philip does not think about an intricate pattern of glyphs.]

S: And we are both good liars.

[She's spouting nonsense.]

S: As it eats us alive, we hold fear closer.

[She said it herself...]

S: Until it's the only thing holding us together.

[...She's a liar.]

S: It hurts too much to let go.

[She's lying.]

S: To admit we sacrificed everything for a lie.

[A spike of adrenaline rage suddenly breaks Philip’s paralysis. He whirls around, hoping to attack the demon girl now that she is close by.]

[She is standing several paces away, exactly where he left her. She looks different in a way he can't place, and doesn't care to figure out. It is hard to tell if her expression is disdainful or pitying. The possibility of either infuriates him.]

S: We were both cowards.

[He is determined to hurt her. He tries to lunge towards her, but his feet are rooted to the spot, as though he is sinking into mud. To his disgust, her tone veers closer to pleading.]

S: But we don't have to stay cowards.

[He sinks further into the mud as he thrashes against it, slowly clawing his way in her general direction. He can’t seem to stop coughing enough to speak.]

S: If you keep lying...keep telling yourself it isn’t Fear…

[He smells iron. It is too dark to tell whose blood, but he hopes it is hers. He can’t figure out what he is drowning in on dry land, so he just tries to make the most of whatever ragged gasps he can manage.]

S: ...It eats everything. There won't be any of you left. We have to stop.

[He cannot form words with his mouth--or form much of a mouth at all, try as he might to grimace. But still, he glowers up at her horrible, animal eyes, and he thinks at her with all of the hate and vitriol he can muster in his straining mind--]

P: How dare you...

P: You don't scare me...!

P: You won't be able to hide from me much longer, wild witch.

[She finally reacts, flinching satisfyingly at his last two words.]

P: This connection goes both ways...!

P: No one will believe you.

S: [genuine confusion] Connection?

[They're long past playing dumb, and he doesn't have the energy to humor it.]

P: You can't prove anything!

P: ...Ah. How unlucky for you.

S: But... [growing more lucid & concerned] Why would I...? ...you're not real.

[His mouth as it begins to reform is an uneven dripping mess, but she can tell from his eyes that he is smiling.]

[he regains more strength, succeeding more in pulling his torso out of the ground.]

P: Too late now, child.

[His body is beginning to reform, and he is speaking aloud again]

P: There is nowhere you can hide.

P: My Coven Scouts will find you.

[He is choosing to approach slowly now.]

P: I will personally see to it that you are petrified by morning.

[He hauls himself upright, now above her eye level, in old man form wearing imperial robes.]

[He looks down at her.]

[Signey gawks up at him stupidly.]

S: ...on the Day of fucking Unity?

[Both wake up.]

[Belos' eyes widen. He was apparently unaware.]

Gee. You know. Looking at this? I am not eved making a comic this long. I've just kept slowly adding to this thing and it's too big to do anything with now. So. Uh.

3 part final version of my TOHsona dream sequences I guess? cw for violence and unreality

Part 1: (the pitchfork dream I posted a draft of a while back)

There is an old myth on the Boiling Isles that Humans, because they cannot cast spells, lack a heart.

This myth predates the discovery of the bile sac. In ancient times, it was understood only that the heart was the source of a witch’s magic.

This is the origin of the modern superstition that witches with round ears are heartless in the metaphorical sense.

--

[12 YEARS BEFORE THE DAY OF UNITY]

Philip watches as Caleb walks away from him, towards the figure of a witch silouhetted against an obscuring light, her hand outstretched.

Philip cannot move a muscle. He grips the rock he's crouching behind and his wooden mask so tightly that his knuckes are white.

Caleb reaches the witch, and discards his pitchfork. The loud clatter makes Philip twitch, but he remains frozen. He wills himself to stand, to shout, to do something, anything, but it's useless. His body simply refuses to listen.

The witch puts an arm around Caleb so gently that Philip wants to be sick. They enter the light slowly, agonizingly. Philip watches as their forms blur around the edges more and more, until at last the final hint of their shadow vanishes, and the door slams behind them.

Philip leaps to his feet, knowing he is too late. He jumps over the rock anyways, running full speed towards the door.

P: CALEB--!

Abruptly the door swings open again, and a new figure rushes out of the light, toward Philip, causing him to stop short and almost fall over from momentum. She leans back through the doorway to say one last thing--

S: --no thank you! Sorry!

-- then closes the door hurriedly and backs away from it nervously. Philip finds himself at a complete loss for how to react. This girl is not the witch who took Caleb, she's too short-- closer to Philip's height-- and her hair is too long. She shows no trace of the demonic pointed ears, either, but one can never be too cautious.

From behind the door, Philip hears the muffled voices of a few more young girls:

?: What's her problem?

?: You're missing out, scardey cat~!

?: She wouldn't've been much help, but it would've been fun...

?: C'mon guys, lets pick a doll!

[giggling]

The girl from the door sighs, staeing forlornly at the door.

P: [now weilding Caleb's pitchfork] Who are you?!

S: [jumps violently] Agh! Uh--!

She rubs her face and sniffles. Her cheek seems shinier, but it's not quite how tear streaks should look--

S: I'm Signey. Sorry! I thought this was...my room...?

She looks around, only now registering that she is in a cave.

P: Well, you don't belong here! Begone!

P: A-and bring my brother back! Or...or else!

He points thrusts the pitchfork toward her threateningly, with much more confidence than he feels. She lifts her open palms in front of her to mime surrender, and leans away from him for good measure, back pressed against the door.

S: I didn't see any boys on my way here! I just came down the hall!

She points unhelpfully at the door.

P: I don't care!! Get out!!!

She reaches for the doorknob as if to heed him, but then pauses and stares nervously at it, chewing her lip.

S: Uh...can I stay here for just a minute, actually...?

Shw turns toward him a little, but doesn't make eye contact. She is wringing her hands.

S: I just...don't want to be in there during the conjuring spell...

P: Spell?! [gasps] Caleb!

Frantic, Philip runs toward the door, and fhe stranger has the good sense to swiftly step out of his way. His hand hesitates over the doorknob for just a momwnt. He takes a deep breath, barely manages to steel his resolve, and throws open the door.

On the other side is a hallway, apparently inside of a house. He hears girls giggling around the corner and runs toward the sound

He's met a circle of witches that look a little bit older and are dressed even more strangely than the last. Candles are arranged throughout the room, casting everything in an eerie, flickering light.

P: [wielding pitchfork at them again] Where's Caleb?!

The witches look at him with confusion, disdain, and annoyance.

??: Uh.

??: What the hell?

??: Get out of here! No one invited you!

??: Cool witches only.

P: [voice shaking] Just-- just tell me where my brother is and I won't hurt you!!!

??: Oh my Titan.

??: We don't know who you're talking about, weirdo!

??: Seriously!

Signey shuffles timidly around the corner behind Philip.

S: Uh...Sorry. He's confused, I think...Sorry...

?: Whatever. Just get him away from us.

Signey walks toward Philip, lifting a hand as if to touch his arm, but stopping short.

S: Hey, come on--

He stumbles backwards a couple of steps, twisting to face her.

P: Get away from me!! I can't allow these witches commune with the Devil, or-- or whatever it is they're doing!

S: [raising her voice to match his] Can't you just leave them alone?

S: You're ruining the conjuring! [she steps toward him]

[Philips shakey grip on the pitchfork tightens]

P: What is wrong with you?! That's clearly dark sorcery!!

?: Ugh, shut UP.

?: It's not a big deal. It doesn't even count as Wild Magic. Everyone knows that.

S: Yeah! It...it doesn't count. Just let them do whatever they want!

?: Yeah!

?: Yeah!

P: But...You don't really think that!!

S: !

P: I saw you earlier! I know you can tell this is evil! You're terrified of it!

S: No! I just...I'm nervous, 'cause...!

[The other witches are all staring at her silently. Signey cannot meet their eyes]

S: I just am! I'm a coward! It's me, not them!

P: How could you defend them?! They took Caleb! They're evil!

S: SHUT UP!!!!

[Philip is shocked into silence]

S: NO ONE CARES!!!!

S: No one cares about your stupid brother!!!! He's not even here!!!

S: No one wants YOU here, either!!!

S: So GET OUT!!!!

As the witches shout their approval, Signey suddenly lunges for his arm-- he elbows her away. She reaches for the pitchfork instead, managing to grab the handle. She tugs on it hard, and nearly wrenches it out of his hands. He needs to act fast, or he's going to be defenseless. In a moment of desperation, Philip twists the pitchfork out of her grip and swings the sharp end towards Signey, succumbing to the childish impulse to squeeze his eyes shut. He feels the pitchfork catch.

The room falls dead silent. The light seems to change. Signey, who had flinched reflexively, looks down to see the prongs of the pitchfork sticking into her chest.

Philip stares, frozen with shock. The direction he'd swung in and the place she was standing should have made this impossible.

Signey is not moving, barely even breathing. The two children stay stone still for a moment that seems to stretch on for ages.

Then, the witches behind them start laughing.

Philip whips his head around to look at them. They are shrouded in shadow, their facial features becoming unclear and their grins seeming to stretch to uncanny extremes in the dim light. They take turns jeering between fits of giggles.

?: Wowww!

?: Seriously?

?: Don't just stand there!

?: Suck it up!

?: Use a spell!

Philip's skin crawls.

P: Stop laughing!! This isn't a joke!

Laughter roars again.

?: Yes it is!

Pointing a shadowy finger toward the pitchfork’s prongs, she continues, barely stifling her own laughter,

?: Look! There’s nothing in there!

When Philip looks again, he realizes it’s true. It’s as though he’s poked through the shirt of a scarecrow. The fabric puckers inward, but there’s no indication of flesh or blood underneath.

Despite everything, the unnatural sight gives Philip a rush of vindictive courage.

P: She’s a witch, like all of you! It’s sorcery!

His comment renews their laughter a bit too well. The lead witch says, as though it is the most obvious thing in the world,

?: Yeah right! She can’t even handle a moonlight conjuring!

Signey is trying desperately to speak, but her jaw will not move far enough, and her vocal chords refuse to cooperate. She can't even will herself to look up. She is helpless. Still, Signey hears the wide smile in her sister’s voice as she continues:

?: Don't you get it?

?: You’re both human!

Philip's blood runs cold.

?: And he still hates your guts.

The witch erupts into hysterical giggles. Philip’s eyes reflexively snap to Signey, and he regrets it. Her wide-eyed, desperate terror reflects his own too closely.

Philip steps backwards in a futile attempt to separate himself from what he’s done. The fire encircling them, dancing with derisive glee, prevents him from getting very far. When did the flames get so tall? Philip feels the bloodied knife slip out of his weak grip.

Signey's skin prickles. It's forming scales that dry out and catch on her hair. She presses a forearm against her stab wound, which is feeling strangely cold. Her breaths are shallow.

With no one around to impress, the things Signey said come crashing down on her. Of course he hates her.

She wants to let herself collapse. She wants to cry. She wants to apologize. She can't form the words. She wonders how it feels to burn to death. She wonders if his poor brother will be okay.

Philip's blood feels like ice. He can’t doubt himself now, not after he’s come this far. Not when there is still so much to do. His opponent is only a silouhette against the flames, curling in on itself pathetically. He can't indulge the pity or the grief. It's too late for that, now. “You’re not human,” he mutters desperately instead, shaking his head, “Not anymore.” The figure staggers, struggling to hold itself upright. His dread and panic, allowed a tiny foothold, now refuse to release him; Philip feels himself teetering on the edge of sickening, unbearable uncertainty.

Eager to drag him deeper into terror are the hundreds of grating, childlike voices that swiftly flood his mind. They bury all coherent thought under a shrill cacaphony of accusation and animal distress. Philip feels his muscles slithering painfully beneath his skin, spasming more violently when he reflexively tenses them, only ceasing after they’re stretched taut by aching, malformed bones. He shifts his weight, fighting the burden of his own greusome anatomy.

A round, golden mask snaps loudly beneath his heel, and he lurches backward, into an unseen abyss.

Too shocked to control the transformation, with nothing to support his weight, Philip falls backward--

In two very different places on the Boiling Isles, Signey Shale and Emperor Belos jolt awake from a nightmare.

[matchstickdolly]

Lucifer 5B: Cutting off Touch to Spite Your Fans

Spoiler warning: This post assumes you've watched all of Lucifer, season 5, part B.

CW: There's plenty I like about season 5, but this is a negative post. I know not everyone is up for negativity about the things they love. I also generally avoid it and (try to) keep my mouth shut about things I don’t like in most spaces. It’s good etiquette. But this is my space, and I have thoughts specifically about purity culture and the treatment of sexuality and trauma in fiction. You’ve been warned!

---

I'm a professional writer (not in TV). I've worked with enough bad clients, editors, and other writers to recognize some hallmark behaviors in how both Fox and Netflix gave Lucifer's writers incredibly difficult, unfair, and frankly weird situations to create through.

Fox did them dirty, interfering and ordering too many eps in S3. Netflix did them dirty, ordering 10 eps for S4 when it clearly needed ~13. Then Netflix ordered 10 "final" eps for S5—then, just kidding(!), 6 more after they'd done their writing for the 10. (What the fuck?) And then Netflix ordered 10 more for a "final-final" S6 after the writers had done their best to tell their whole story in S5. (MORE what the fuck.)

Talk about whiplash for creators, and half of those who consume content don't even care to understand such creative pain.

So, there are problems on multiple fronts. There's much I'll forgive writers, accordingly. I go into most shows expecting plotting/pacing issues. I look, instead, for characters and relationships that will triumph over those issues.

Heart is what the show Lucifer has always had in spades, both in its characters and in the immensely committed, wonderful ways the actors have tried to realize the characters' humor, love, trauma, and—most importantly—struggle to find healing. Yet, when given the opportunity to show health alongside another in a relationship, the writers/directors of 5B chose to remove most sexual humor and physical intimacy from their female lead and bi/pan characters to, I feel, sanitize them and troll fans. What happened?

Well, for one, say hi to showrunner Joe Henderson bragging about how the writers decided to be colossal dicks to the fans who helped secure their jobs:

From CBR's 'Lucifer Showrunner Joe Henderson Dissects Season 5B's Chaos'

Have we not suffered sidelined/repressed female characters, "bury your gays," and, oh, Chloe fucking a serial killer enough? Must we also say hello to neutered relationships once characters find stable love (whether same or opposite sex)? The result of withdrawing more sexual humor and physical intimacy from paired characters is an uncomfortable suggestion that they're reformed by "pure" love—more chaste and aloof, more acceptable in polite society. This is only done to end-game committed relationships.*

The writers seem to think they're edging the viewers, but the reality is they're taking traumatized minority characters who rejoiced in sexual freedom, but lacked and craved an emotional connection, and showing they can't have both, or, if they find both, it will never last. They've taken hypersexual characters and said, here, even they can have the love and commitment they desire, but some physical intimacy, especially sexual intimacy, is what they must trade for it.

There's always one more case, phone call, or coincidence interrupting intimacy. Traumas or deaths deserving emotional and physical comfort go on to receive none or only one aspect. Done sometimes, it's fine. Done always, it's sick. Dan dies, and there's no hugging? Really?†

Don't craft characters who crave a full range of emotional and physical intimacy, only to rob them of related scenes every chance you get. That's not complexity. That's bad writing. To even achieve this in 5B, they must squash banter and sideline their female lead yet again.

What a gift to purity culture, which tells us to be more palatable by bottling and buttoning up. That sex should be taboo, but violence glorified. That there is no heated desire among "Good Women," that sexual minorities of all genders shouldn't experience it much at all.

5A is so good. At the very least, it's on the right path (clearly, since the plot payoff from 5x01 to 5x16 is great). It shows a couple working through difficulties and trauma, toward each other emotionally and physically. It even pokes fun at people who think an established relationship means the death of romantic and sexual appeal (a tired and hugely sexist trope). And then... And then 5B reverses that, pretending established relationships are barely physical during emotional struggle and that the honeymoon phase doesn't exist. It robs characters of joy and comfort through physical intimacy when they need it to move through or push beyond trauma.

It's telling that so many fan wishes for Deckerstar are about healing touch and existing in each other's spaces: amending Chloe's spicy PDA history with Cain, Chloe caring for Lucifer's wings, soft family scenes a la Monopoly night and shared meals, morning-afters, etc. Reasonable fans aren't asking for porn; they're asking for connection and humanity. They're asking for writers not to forget characters (and, yes, including hypersexual characters) on their way from Point A to Point B.

That 5B lacks these things isn't a "tee-hee frustrating" slow burn or a cockblock. It is, in so many scenes, excising from characters a core part of what nearly every human and fictional monster craves. And it's a slap in the face to the "found family" trope. When you remove or tamp down a casual physical intimacy that was previously there, characters and their relationships fall flat, even if only partially. They become blunt weapons creators wield against watchers or readers begging for scraps of warmth.

Minorities shouldn't be killed off with ease, and they shouldn't be stifled with ease, either.‡ And maybe there shouldn't be deep trauma driving a wedge in a romantic relationship if you're not going to explore it through that relationship, too—physical intimacy included.

I'm still reserving some judgment. I loved the family drama and the end. (Although, again, where was the physical intimacy? No intimacy when Chloe or Lucifer return from the dead? Really?) I see where they could do awesome things, and could have done more if not for network BS.

But I no longer trust Lucifer's writers and directors. They thought S5 was the end. And what they gave us of Deckerstar, of the relationship that symbolizes health and healing in their fictional world, is this: cold distance. And they got a kick out of doing it, apparently.

If this is a "love letter" to me as a fan, I'm burning it. I can only hope S6 course corrects. If not, the writers who made these choices shouldn't write sexual minority and/or traumatized characters again. If you don't understand most of us, you should stop fucking using us.

---

* If you don't believe me about the differences between casual/short-term relationships and end-game relationships in Lucifer, go back and look at how Lucifer and Maze are with strangers in all the other seasons. Look at Chloe's sex dream, her propositioning of Lucifer in a library, her sex with Pierce in the evidence closet. Look at how much physical intimacy there is between Lucifer and Eve, and then between Eve and Maze (if only as a ploy). Across seasons, there are sex/kink jokes and scenes galore.

Compare this to how these same characters are portrayed when with their end-game loves. Notice the gentle pecks on the lips and the huge general drop in sexual humor between 5A and 5B. How boring. Where's the spice these characters had? Also, give me a damn break. Buttoning up in a relationship is contrary to four and a half seasons of emotional character work that's been communicating security in our relationships is personally freeing.

† I'm not just talking about sexual intimacy in this post, though that is a big part of it because of the characters. 5B lacked crucial found family scenes, too.

Chloe should have been at God's family dinner, but being so would have prevented more ham-fisted angst. Chloe never even has a one-on-one with God, probably because that would demand a straight answer about her miracle status, which I would guess will be used to drive yet another wedge between her and Lucifer next season, but we'll see.

In multiple before- and after-work scenes, there was no reason for Lucifer and Chloe to be apart more, even, than they were in S1 and S2. Monopoly night was in S3, for crying out loud. Most horrifying of all? No one touches Chloe after Dan's death, but Trixie. Meanwhile, Linda, Amenadiel, Ella, Maze, and Lucifer all receive physical comfort. No wonder Chloe's tired of being strong.

‡ If you don't think it's offensive that they stuffed all their wlw content for two hypersexual characters into a few clunky, irrational, and chaste scenes that rushed I love yous, a marriage-like proposal, and the mention of soulmates, I don't know what to tell you other than get off my lawn.

[radioromantic-moved]

so here is that long list of ship questions. i know the post said to do it in the reblogs but i usually like making my own thing better just so i don't get Perceived by every person who happens to see the post. anyway i'm gonna answer these questions with a couple of other guys (definitely bernie, probably the sour candy triad, maybe some other characters depending on how i feel) but sure whatever we'll start off with‏‏‎ ‎frank because he's the guy with new content and i haven't talked about him or the ship in a while so a lot's changed. so here's your annual entrepreneur lore, aka. uh. fryx? pricethorne? actually pricethorne fucks we'll go with pricethorne

* Tell us about the S/I and F/O(s) you’re discussing! Name, source, job (if it applies), personality, or other information you think is necessary! frank is the proprietor‏‏‎ ‎of‏‏‎ ‎toy‏‏‎ ‎zone, the tiny town of‏‏‎ ‎hatchetfield's‏‏‎ ‎largest (and possibly only?) toy store. hf!nyx works at the store, and moonlights as machin3gh0st, a semi-famous twitch streamer among lgbt+ nerds. fun fact! my s/i's last name is hawthorne, which is because at one point they used to be related‏‏‎ ‎to‏‏‎ ‎linda‏‏‎ ‎and‏‏‎ ‎i‏‏‎ ‎read a fic where her maiden name was hawthorne. then it was revealed to not be hawthorne and she was pretty heavily implied to be an only child but i kept the name because it was cool.

* How did your S/I and F/O(s) first meet? Did they know of each others’ existence beforehand? they first met when hf!nyx filled out a job application, lol. i feel like they went to the same high school but were a couple years apart so they interacted very rarely if at all. maybe they were in a play together once.

* How did they behave in the beginning of they relationship? What did they think of each other? What do they think of each other now, & how do they currently behave? when they first met they hated each other. tee hee. hf!nyx thinks frank is a loser capitalist and frank thinks hf!nyx is a lazy slacker. if you're talking about the beginning of their relationship...it was weird because neither of them had really dated in a while and they were thinking it would be a casual thing and then they both got. erm. invested.

* Were there any huge turning points that changed how your S/I or F/O(s) saw each other, or was it gradual? Describe it to us! i don't know how to say this without making it incredibly sad in some way but um. when frank first started showing actual vulnerability i guess. much like his employees he is genuinely just trying to survive. i feel like once hf!nyx learns about basically. any of the things in daddy that are revealed about frank (amazon hater, dog owner, genuinely passionate about toys) they start to kind of soften towards him. for frank he just spent more time around them and realized that they actually did care about stuff, they just show it in an atypical way. they care a Lot, actually.

* Tell us about a defining moment in the self-ship lore (for example - the most impactful moment, a moment your S/I and F/O reminisce over all the time, a moment that fans of the self-ship would see as the “ship’s iconic scene”, etc.)! the coffee scene that i wrote into that one fanfic. if it was canon people would be all over that. (he buys hf!nyx a drink as payment for them working an extra shift. there is more to it than that but it's the basics of it. they smile a real genuine smile in his presence for the first time.) ERM. now i think they need to have a moment where they bond over their passions for stuff they like and agree with each other on the great online shopping debate. you need to see the stuff for real!!

* If discussing a Romantic F/O, who confessed their feelings first and where/when? Did it go smoothly? frank does probably. it's not a big affair they're both hanging out as we close up shop and he asks if they want to go on a real date with him at some point. hf!nyx sort of chokes a little and think he's playing some mean prank at first but then he seems genuinely hurt and they realize he's for real about it. it's a little awkward. they recover.

* Do your S/I and F/O(s) have any nicknames for each other? What are they? erm. i don't know if they have pet names exactly but i feel like frank uses like "babe" and "sweetheart" semi-ironically (he's more likely to use them sarcastically than in a genuinely romantic moment) and they both refer to each other by last name sometimes in an affectionate way.

* How did their first time hanging out/going on a date go? What did they do? they didn't call it an official date at the time but they went to see a shlocky alien invasion movie together one time after work as a Casual Platonic Hangout Thing. the movie was kind of silly but it got hf!nyx talking about about famous alien movies and their common tropes and frank wondering about the special effects they used so in the end it was a bonding experience.

* Has your S/I had any slumber parties (or in general late nights out) with your F/O(s)? How did those go? i don't know if they ever saw each others' houses/apartments before they were dating though they may have walked each other home before. after they become actual friends they might spend late nights together. maybe at miss‏‏‎ ‏‏‎ ‎holloway's diner, maybe just sitting in the mall.

* Do your S/I and F/O(s) live together? If so, where? probably they move in together pretty soon after dating because owning property is Expensive and it helps to have someone else paying rent. in the main storyline (daddy never happens) they just buy a slightly bigger apartment (2 bedrooms because they feel awkward sleeping in the same bed for a little while. and they are both vicious blanket thieves). in the post-daddy universe frank lives in the youngs' mansion for a little while but he can't really get comfortable there so he sells it and they both move into a nice but regular-sized house.

* What love languages do your S/I & F/O(s) have? hf!nyx is a words of affirmation kinda person which is unexpected of them because they basically communicate almost exclusively in sarcasm to people they don't know well. so affection for them almost always comes through very genuine words. frank likes quality time probably. it doesn't matter what they're doing as long as they're doing it together yknow. also what they consider quality time is usually mocking a shitty tv show while curled up on the couch. true romance.

* Did your S/I or F/Os make any friends from each others’ friend groups (like, does your S/I have any friends they met through F/O, or vice versa)? they all know the same people‏‏‎‏‏‏‏‎ ‎‎‎hatchetfield‏‏‎‏‏‏‏‎ ‎‎is a small place. but hf!nyx met lex through working at toy‏‏‎ ‎zone‏‏‎ ‎does‏‏‎ ‎that count. they are mutual friends of‏‏‎ ‎miss‏‏‎‏‏‎ ‎holloway‏‏‎‏‏‎ ‎and‏‏‎ ‎she‏‏‎ ‎ships them. she isn't subtle about it.

* What does your S/I’s family think about your F/O(s), or what does your F/O(s)’s family think about your S/I? i feel like hf!nyx's family thinks frank is surprisingly Normal? while‏‏‎ ‎hatchetfield‏‏‎ ‎below the surface is deeply fucked up a lot of its residents are kind of just some guys. hf!nyx's parents are definitely very average in that regard which makes their kid who never grew out of their freaky goth phase just seem weirder. they kind of thought they would bring home an equally weird partner. but this guy is like. relatively unassuming for the most part. they like him and they're happy their kid is happy but it's a shock to them. i think frank's family is implied dead but i think their reaction would probably be the reverse of this. actually maybe not he's already a rebellious child apparently this is just an extension of that.

* Is there symbolism/an aesthetic that you associate with your self-ship? it's a little bit about nostalgia now that i think about it. nostalgia, the fixing of old things, the new in package smell of something you just bought. ALSO THIS SONG. something about the diverging timelines and hf!nyx being able to see them but still having faith that everything will be okay for them in the end. i have specific thoughts about specific lines but i won't get into it all.

* Are there any tropes that apply to your self-ship? enemies to lovers of course :) and idk boss-employee but those two together make this sound like an awful trashy romance novel so let me make it clear that other than job position-wise frank is Not the dominant party in this relationship. i mean we are equals and we communicate and all but he is my malewife. this is a constant for all of my ships with men.

* Free Space! Just gush about whatever part of the self-ship you’d like! okay uhhh i know i goof on him a lot and i will continue to goof on him a little but god i'm very emotional about the fact that frank is actually a good guy??? still don't know what the fuck was going on with him in most of‏‏‎ ‎black‏‏‎ ‎friday‏‏‎ ‎but he just wants to keep his dream alive!!! and he cares about lex too and he really does believe in her despite it all and he even cares about some guy he met in sheila's dungeon who he barely knew!!! and all of this is to say that both sides of this ship can technically be "aww you DO have feelings who knew haha" (is secretly flattered they get to know the other person like that) and um. um. um. AUGH. look he's still oren principle because i can't just make him Not oren principle but okay okay okay maybe this ship can be a little soft. as a treat.

i was going to link this description of the oren principle so newer followers know what i'm talking about and help he Barely applies anymore. IT'S FOR ORGANIZATIONAL PURPOSES...

[monsoonblooms12]

In Sunshine & In Shadow: Chapter 1-Love & Laughs

Summary of the Series: Let's set out on the walk of life. Pack up for embarking on an adventure of a lifetime with our favourite residents. A series of love, friendship and travel. It is all about fuelling your wanderlust❤️

In this chapter: Pooja and Ethan spend some cute moments and the talk of the trip begins.

A/N: This has been sitting in my drafts for a long time as I figured out the storylines I wanted to do for the various pairings. Now that I have planned everything, I can finally start posting. This chapter is Poo & E. We meet the others in the next chapter💛

If you enjoyed the story, please like it, leave a comment or reblog. Your feedback keeps me going💕

Thank you so much @jamespotterthefirst for prereading. Love you💛💛

Pairing: Ethan Ramsey X f!MC (Dr. Pooja Sharma)

Word Count: around 2.2K

Rating: General

Prompt :- @choicesaprilchallenge2021 Day 6: Sonder

Derry Roasters was abuzz with enthusiasm, but it didn't seem to act on her. To her, it felt like someone had turned the hourglass of her life, let the sand flow and forgot to turn it back. Her time had stopped there on its tracks.

Around her, people rushed through their day, not waiting for anyone. She felt like the still picture amidst a fast-motion video. Sonder was the word Pooja would use to describe the way she felt. Sonder, for her, is Surprise and Wonder intertwined in a single word. Wonder, at how life changes every minute of every moment. And Surprise at how, even after so many afflictions, tribulations, one will find the happiness that destiny had in store for them.

The thoughts in her mind swirled and asked for all her cognizance. Transfixing her mind in them, she let her emotions engulf her with leaden steps.

Ting Ding Ding

Pooja's eyes tardily broke contact with the empty bone china coffee mug as she picked up her phone.

Brookline Rejuvenate sent you an email.

But for her, it manifested being a testament that all of it was happening.

That she was not tumbling around in an atrocious daydream, which would vanish the instant, she fluttered her orbs agape.

Yes.

Edenbrook, the nonpareil hospital in the entire States, was closing down.

Every day of operating there, felt like she was relishing in the will-o'-the-wisp of her aspirations.

The thoughts of Edenbrook made her mind travel to the day when it all began. The elegant calligraphy on the envelope with the Cerulean and Lime Green Logo that bore her name. The message that turned her life upside down forever.

Then the Diagnostics Team. The extreme cases they had solved. They saw its end too. They were working their free hours at the free clinic or in the ER. Everything, every day, seemed to rush around her.

The days seemed to fly past, and so did the time remaining for Edenbrook.

Everyone had started looking up places to carry on with their medical careers & residencies. But no one wanted to leave Edenbrook before it closed down. They wanted to cherish every day before the ticking clock struck midnight and supply the last of their best healthcare to as many people as possible.

The thought of leaving everything behind was painful for Pooja. You are taking away the most valuable of things, she convinced herself. You are taking away memories. Beautiful memories. Painful memories.

But there was another nagging thought that piqued her time and again.

The Gala was everything she ever imagined. But the most memorable of the moments was The Kiss. He had kissed her.

In front of everyone.

Her mind went to the embedding touches Ethan left on her that night.

Now, as Edenbrook's time came to an end, and she planned about the rest of her residency, she thought of her and Ethan's relationship.

Were they meant to be? Were all those feather-light touches, the kisses in the rain, the tears they shed together, going to end in vain? Were their lives only connected till here?

Was it the beginning of the end?

"You're here."

You will live a hundred years, Ethan Ramsey.

Tearing away from the colossal reticulation of her thoughts, she turned towards him. His summery blues, meeting her ambers.

"Hey You"

Ethan came over and sat in front of her.

"You didn't tell me you were coming here. I had to ask Alex and Sienna to know about your whereabouts."

Pooja let out a tiny laugh. "Whereabouts? You are making me feel like a criminal."

Ethan chuckled. "If so, then you would be the most beautiful criminal I have ever seen."

This made Pooja giggle harder. "You are talking as if you have met hundreds of criminals."

"I will never win any debate with you. So let's just...let it be?"

"Accepting Defeat, Dr. Ramsey?"

"If it makes you smile that, then I will always accept defeat for you."

A blush crept up her neck as she said, "Okay, too much. Now stop"

Ethan let out a last chuckle as his order arrived. A Vienna, a coffee and black forest cake for him and a butterscotch one for her.

Taking her piece in hand, Pooja said, "All I need is you."

"Hey, what about me?"

"Ah, you know you can never win the battle against this" She held up the cake.

"You're ridiculous."

A subtle tee-hee, and they were surrounded with a perfect silence as they got lost in each other's world.

A world where all the hustle-bustle inundating them evaporated. There were no questions asked, no side looks given, and no stops in the world of their love. In this world, their coffee, cake and their memories were their sole companions.

There were no catechisms, no side looks given, and no obstructions in the world of their love.

"So…umm..." Ethan began.

"Yeah?"

Oh, C'mon Ramsey, it is obvious that you have fallen real deep for her! Alex's usual tease came ringing in his ears.

Oh Lexandra, why don't you leave me alone?

But she is right.

Ugh! Since when did The Ethan Ramsey, the man who could make an intern tremble with fear, start to fumble?

He took a deep breath, centred himself and began again.

"Can we go on a tour? With all of your friends or the Invincibles as you all ridiculously like to call yourselves.

"Wait. You Remember That?"

"How can I forget when you are singing the name in front of me every 10 minutes or so?"

"Or maybe you need a membership to the Invincibles? Which, I should make clear, you are not getting."

"You are ridiculous-"

"-ly smart. Ya, I know, Thank you very much. And speaking of the trip, I would go on a trip at any time, anywhere, you don't need to ask. Just tell. I will be ready in 10 minutes."

"You know I am not talking about a trip from here to Brookline. We could go on, you know, an international tour. To a place of your choices."

Pooja's face became Stoic, expressionless. A sudden flurry of anxiousness spread through Ethan's Heart.

Then he remembered. A tip Alex had given him "free of cost" as she would like to say, a few days back.

"Anytime you are asking Poo to go on a trip to one of her favourite places, just count till five after placing your point."

"Five? Why?"

"Just do as I say, and you will see for yourself" Alex winked and left.

So he did.

One, He saw Pooja's eyes widen a bit.

Two, Her Amber eyes were full of joy and excitement.

Three, A light blush and the faint dimple on her left cheek appeared, adding a shimmer to her beauty.

Four, Her lips crept up in a faint smile.

Five, Her face and expression fully express-

"YAY! YAY! YAY!" Her cheer came along which earned her side-glances from the other customers. But who cares when it's an international trip you are talking about?

Of course, Ethan thought, Lexandra was right.

"That is a Thantastic idea!!!"

"I am sorry, but Thantastic?" Ethan couldn't help but chuckle. She was a source of his never-ending amusement.

"Gawd Thanie! Thantastic is just an Ethan version of Fantastic. Duh!"

She bent over the table.

Deceiving him to think that she was going to kiss him. In front of the entire coffee shop.

Only for her to smack his forehead lightly and comedically.

Since when did you become a sappy idiot like that? Ethan mentally ridiculed himself.

"Stop making a comedy show out of me in front of the entire coffee shop."

"Stop acting comedically, and I will stop too" Pooja shrugged and flashed that one dimpled smile that he had come to be a fan of

The things the girl does to me! And I thought love didn't exist. Even Ethan's mind was satirizing him.

The snap of two fingers brought him back from Ethan-land to the Derry Roasters, Boston, Massachusetts.

"I thought Ethan-land doesn't exist. Glad to be proven wrong." Pooja's mocking giggle was a melody he wanted to record on a vinyl and play on a record player time and again.

He thought of presenting a counter-argument.

You still won't win.

So instead of wasting his energy in vain, he decided to save it for later.

"Hmm. Coffee done. Now let's head home. We will ask them to pack the cakes."

"Buy a few more."

"Hmm?"

"You know trip planning? And I am pretty sure I said that you can bring along your fri-"

"I think you mean The Invincibles?" Pooja cut him off, cocking her right eyebrow.

"Whatever." Rolling his eyes, Ethan didn't let his amusement seep through his features.

They both got up. Ethan bought a bunch of cakes while Pooja giggled, nearly tripped and sprained her left ankle lightly, and finally succeeded in texting her mates to join them for trip-ing plan.

When Ethan came out of the coffee shop, hands full, he saw her slight limping as she walked towards their car.

Shaking his head, and having a mental peal of laughter because of her clumsiness, he went to the car. Opening the rear door, he kept all the goodies on the back seat.

Then he turned towards Pooja. She still had all of her attention transfixed in reading something fascinating on her phone. She didn't even notice him.

In a quick motion, he went up to her, and before she could process the whole thing, picked her up bridal style and seated her in the front passenger seat.

The next minute, he was behind the wheel and was driving them home. More specifically, The condo of the Invincibles.

Mental eye-roll.

"Ahem, Ahem"

Of Course. She was yet to speak something.

"So what are you now, Super Ramsey? Picking me up in the middle of the pathway?"

"You were limping, Poo."

"You know I can manage myself just fine."

He stopped the car. The condo was still a block away.

"Why did you stop? This is not where we live. You know that."

Ethan turned towards her and caressed her cheek softly.

She melted into his touch. Her eyes closed momentarily, her beautiful eyes and alluring shadowy eyelashes reflecting the serenity her heartfelt.

"Poo. I know you are a strong, independent woman. You like to be self-dependent."

He paused a short breath. Taking her hand in his and kissing the top of it, he continued,

"But I cannot see you hurt, be it a slight limp or a broken arm. I will always take care of you."

"I know you will. You always do. But a limp, a broken arm is faint compared to what I have been through. You don't need to worry about me all the time."

"I will always worry about you."

"Eth-"

He placed a finger on her lips. "No more ifs, or buts. It is something I wanna do. Not something I have to do."

And with a look of assurance and care, Ethan started to drive again. His features were calm, his blue eyes had hues of red and golden of the traffic in front of them.

The unsaid string of words that dangled between the two of them was what had tied them together so strongly. Which made him believe she was meant to be his and her to believe that he was meant to be hers.

Pooja waited for that day, impatiently, when he would be hers and she, his. Angst in fiction was her love, but angst in her real life? Not really. At least, not with Ethan Ramsey.

Stop being melodramatic.

She snapped at herself.

It took them an additional five minutes to reach the condo. Once there, Ethan was the first one to get out of the car. Pooja followed. She stood next to Ethan, who was now taking out the pastry boxes.

His senses called out to him, informed him of her presence. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the exact spot where she stood.

Then, as if it was a second nature to him, he swept her towards him by the waist and kissed her in four steps.

First, He kissed her dimpled cheek, earning a gasp from her.

Then, he kissed her forehead and left silent praises for her heart to hear.

Third, His suck on her neck felt like the touch of a feather to her.

And Lastly, His soft pink lips meet her rosy moist ones, full of passion and a love so pure that threatened to overpower their senses.

Slowly, he turned her around in the rhythm of a dance, and hugging her from the back, he sensually pulled at the tip of her ear as his soft words warmed her heart.

"Shall we?"

Not what she wanted to hear, but the feels in her heart didn't let her feel disappointed.

"Of Course." A reply she made with an unvoiced wish that the next time he kisses her like he did today, he says those words which will make her, his forever.

PS: Here's to hoping that this was not an utter mess and you enjoyed it. Thank you for reading and have a good day ahead🧡

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