#if you ever get the chance i highly suggest you go for it its so much fun bro

[retros-artandstuff]

rose godtier

[kujakumai]

would you like to elaborate on the "catastrophic mommy issues"? I'd love to hear what your thoughts are on that lol

Thief King is a child raised by a mass of vengeful tortured souls in the ruined basement where they all died, all of whom are in effect a stand-in for family/community/parents. They are all TKB has left, and they are highly protective of him; they seem not entirely within their right minds, not capable of competent childcare, and they give him explicit instructions on how to destroy and take over the world, which he follows enthusiastically.

I think about this a lot, like a lot a lot, and while we don't see much I think its gotta be a very tangled dynamic. When writing him I tend to use "mom issues" or general references to his mom as an emotional stand in because I think she's probably the most likely person he'd remember clearly when he needs a real face, but that's not necessary. All of Kul Elna is Mom for these purposes.

There is a lot going on here, for example:

>Kul Elna does not seem to leave the temple unless accompanied, or at very least they prefer to stay there. This means TKB probably spent a significant portion of his childhood in the same ruins and possibly the same room where he watched everyone die. Cool! Great!

>Kul Elna appears to be only partially corporeal, limited in their ability to do much besides menace, and TKB says they are "in hell" (unclear what that means). I do not think they are up to the daily tasks of feeding, bathing, or taking care of a small child. I think he probably grew up as an urchin mainly in squalor.

The closest real-life analogue to this is, probably, simply a child in the care of someone who is ill or disabled such that they cannot effectively take care of even themselves without support; so you have a situation where no one has done anything wrong, and this family loves each other very much, and the only real culprit is the society that failed them. But you're still going to end up with a kid who is not getting their needs met, is in a situation that is often stressful and sometimes scary, and that will lead to a rapid Adultification where the kid takes on the role of steward without ever having a proper childhood.

>The Zork-raising instructions were given to TKB by Kul Elna. He tells us this. I am less concerned by Kul Elna's obviously Zork-influenced plan to destroy everything than I am its effect on a 16 year old boy who loves them very much because they're all he has left in the entire world. When did they bring this up? Is it recent? Has it been an ongoing plan for years--has TKB effectively been raised on the idea that he is to be Egypt's own destined apocalypse maiden? How fucked up would that be?

Fandom is hesitant, I think, to ascribe anything malicious to Kul Elna or suggest that their relationship with TKB is sinister--which, for the record, I don't think it is, I think this fucked-up little family has nothing but love for this kid in the depths of whatever humanity they have left--because Kul Elna gets such an unjust treatment in canon it makes us incandescent. Yet the same would apply to TKB--if they want the world in ruins and him at the top, how could he even think anything different? After everything the pharaoh did to them, and to you, of the life they deprived you of? Impossible to suggest something different. You can't tell him they're wrong. What's that old softer world bit; I am a pacifist, and I will be a pacifist until I die, or someone threatens my mother.

>TKB does not need survivors guilt to be an unfailingly loyal Mama's Boy to his ghost family (Ghost's Boy?) but he's got to have it. A simultaneous immense guilt for getting out when no one else did; the immense loss of being left behind, like they all went to become this without him; the weight of being the only one left, the only one who can take revenge not only for you but for them, and if you fail then no one will remember any of their names, or yours. One chance. Avenge them or die a nobody. Don't fuck this up. It's your responsibility, like it or not, because no one else can help, and no one else can help because of what your enemies did to them, which is why you need to do it. It's almost self-justifying.

If you want me to editorialize, I don't think he actually cares much about ruling the world, nor does that goal make sense. I think in the back of his little brain he thinks that if he wins he finally gets to join them somehow.

tldr; I think TKB's relationship with whatever the hell Kul Elna has going on is way, way more complicated and nuanced than even he is consciously aware of and you can love someone very much and still fuck them up immensely (arguably a major them of ygo itself). TKB's has such catastrophic mommy issues he literally tries to end the world. We are talking literal apocalyptic mom issues. Cataclysmic.

[shoyastars]

Villain Ray Au

“Care for a dance?”

-

Mc and Ray at a formal party in celebration of the anniversary of the NAHA. Ray decided to sneak in to see Mc. Meanwhile Mc who is just standing idly by, seemed uninterested. So when asked for a dance by a familiar enemy, they decided to accept to see what he’s planning. Only to find out he only came to see them.

-

Please be sure that I am not the official creator of Binary Star hero, or Ray himself. I am just a simp for him. Therefore this is only a fanfic. Please be sure to support the developer Concreteparasite.

This scenario idea was suggested by: @themuffin2649

Let us begin.

-

“Let us celebrate tonight, for our many years of helping the innocent and punishing the the guilty!”

Everyone claps their hands after the long speech ending with the final sentence, as you only stood to the side. Not even uttering a single word of congratulations.

You weren’t exactly thrilled to celebrate a corrupt company run by a government that doesn’t give a shit about its people. No, it’s actually something more than that. You learned upon Ray’s background before his “betrayal” to the NAHA. The reason you say it that way is because well… you couldn’t fully blame him for leaving. The NAHA has to reap what they sewn after all. You wondered if he ever felt lonely despite everything happening to him. He probably did. You noticed a couple times before he became the villain he is today, that he would often seek you outside of work or ask if you wanted to go out anywhere even for coffee. You smiled to yourself at those times, however wondered if it was forced at times, such thoughts as those often soured you’re mood a bit. When he became a villain and mainly focused on you, despite your ability’s you couldn’t help but reconsider such thoughts. Especially….

You shake your head, did you really just think about those times? It doesn’t matter right now. He isn’t even here, all your thoughts seem to always wonder back to him. You just need to get through tonight, you didn’t even want to come but it was expected of you to attend. You don’t want to be bothered on why you didn’t go so here you are.

Ray knew what today was, despite the obvious warnings of going there. He wanted to see you, he really did. Even if they have mixed feelings about him, he isn’t going to pass on a chance to see you in person even if suspended of another one of his plans, not tonight. Just a night he wants to spend with his one and only star.

Some of the heros had masks on, along with others who weren’t even Heros themselves, probably in “honor” for their dear innocent heros… Sneaking in was easier than expected, typical shitty security. Walking through the crowd was annoying, just hearing how some of them talk so highly upon the NAHA, sickened him. Spotting someone familiar, seemed to wash away such annoyances. He recognized you with or without the mask on, and the formal attire you were wearing didn’t seem your style, perhaps because it was to stick to the hero persona. He still found you to be perfect even if you were supposed to be his enemy.

Moving his way through, eventually to reach you. He noticed how there were some people dancing, right now it was music to slow dance to. It was perfect.

“Now this isn’t good, you’re all by yourself.”

You immediately looked at him, however you didn’t want to cause a scene unless he was planning something tonight. You sigh in annoyance.

“What do you want?”

“Can’t I go a day or night without you accusing me of bad intentions?”

“Maybe when you don’t show up out of no where and try stirring shit up I won’t.”

Ray let out a light laugh. You found that as a bad sign. The music seeming to last forever.

“Nice music, fancy setting, fancy clothes and mask. Perfect setting for a date.”

He then offers his hand.

“Also a dance.”

Was this another one of his tricks? Perhaps a way to bargain something so he can cause more chaos again. You really just wanted to stand by alone and not have anyone bother you. Guess this is a change of plans.

The suspicion was clear on your face.

“Care for a dance?”

You didn’t know what he was up to, which only made this an even more difficult situation to figure out for you.

“Fine. One dance.”

Your goal now is to figure out what annoying plan he has for you.

With that the slow dance begun, a dance that seemed more romantic than tense. Some looked over and wonder who you we’re dancing with, you hoped that they wouldn’t notice it was Ray, otherwise they’d possibly jump the gun and risk things.

“Nice night don’t you think?”

“Huh? Oh yeah… sure.”

Ray noticed your distracted gaze, he gently moved your gaze you meet his.

“Keep your focus so you don’t trip and fall.”

“Oh yeah, definitely do want me to fall into you.”

You say with sarcasm, he only smiles.

“Wouldn’t be so bad, however it would be annoying because of people looking over at us.”

So he noticed them to, the gazes at you two was annoying as it is. You didn’t need to deal with the judging gaze of them once they realized who you we’re dancing with, or who they wish you weren’t dancing with. You felt his grip tighten with your hand, his look could kill if he wanted. You weren’t naive to believe his abilities weren’t dangerous. Once loved by the public, now criticized for such power. You knew they should have blamed the NAHA more. You heard him sigh, his grip softened yet again. His fingers locked with yours.

“They all really need to mind their own business, especially when it comes to relationships.”

Oh, so that’s what he’s thinking.

“Relationships… what make you think we had one?”

“Didn’t we have a good time dating each other while I was still with the NAHA?”

“I remember… you were only doing it for the fans. Herschel told me.”

“What?”

“You didn’t know?….”

“Why would I do that? I’m pretty sure I mentioned how I’m serious about our relationship.”

Herschel lied? No maybe under the impression, which caused misunderstanding, which caused you to distance yourself and question the relationship. Over a misunderstanding, you felt so stupid now.

“I- wha!”

Should have kept focus like he said, you trip and fell into Ray, causing a bit of chatter among the few watching. Your face pink a bit from embarrassment.

“Hate to say I told you so.”

“Shut up…. This is embarrassing enough as it is.”

Ray helped you back up, he kissed your hand. Causing you to cure at him mentally while blushing, flustered from his action.

“I enjoyed seeing you again Star, no worries nothing crazy tonight. At least not for awhile, see you soon.”

The music finally stopped as you just realized you were worried over nothing. Soon some people came up to you asking who you we’re dancing with. You didn’t give them the answer though, too embarrassed for worrying over nothing. You just shrugged it off as some random guy who was invited into the party. You adjust your mask, you could never get used to it. However the kiss on your hand he did remained in your mind.

‘God damn it Ray….’

[miniteezez]

19:27

C.San x Fem!Reader

Wc:5.3k

Warnings: readers aunt is a complete Karen. Body shaming. Shaming in general. Self conscious reader. San is whipped. Sea sickness (no physical sickness)

Synopsis: a few days in on your vacation, and you reunite with San, who once again comes to your rescue.

Part 1 Part 3

It had been a few days and you hadn't had the chance to meet San again. Honestly, you were bored. You could only sit around a pool doing nothing for so long. Sitting in a restaurant on the seafront, your family was making conversation but you just stayed quiet, looking out at the sea.

"(Y/n)? You could try smiling." Your mother laughed a little, sipping her wine. All you did was shrug. Across the table, your aunty clicked her tongue.

"She's ungrateful. Never happy with anything." That statement began a short argument amongst your family until your father decided to cut in.

"Well, why don't you decide what we do tomorrow?" He suggested, making you perk up slightly. Whilst they were still talking, you began to think about it. What to do?

"I still don't understand why you're wearing that." Hearing your aunt talk, you stared across at her and sighed.

"Its comfy. And warm. It gets cold at night." You reasoned for still wearing Sans hoodie. It really was windy in the evenings and plus, you enjoyed wearing it. You liked how it drowned you.

"I think she's making it up. I highly doubt someone gave it to her." Again, your aunty chimed in, much to your displeasure. Staring down at your hands, you chose to zone out for now. It wasn't worth listening to. All she ever did was make passive aggressive comments. A hand landed on your shoulder, causing you to flinch and look up. When you did, you were met with Sans kind eyes gazing down at you.

"Hey." He spoke softly, smiling as your face lit up.

"Hi." You responded forgetting everyone's former comments. When your mother cleared her throat, you jumped and looked at your family.

"Oh. This is San, the guy I met at the airport." You explained, happy that they could see he was actually real. Your dad smiled, shaking his hand and saying hello. San made sure to keep one hand on your shoulder.

"Oh, so you travelled with my daughter?" Your mother asked him, eyeing him up and down. He never faltered under her intense gaze.

"Yeah, we were both travelling alone so I thought it would be better."

"And you don't mind that she stole your jacket." Your aunty butt in and you cursed at her silently for embarrassing you. San chuckled, swiftly changing his view to you before looking back at her.

"I gave it to her. I hoped she'd be wearing it." He told her calmy, almost as if he could guess there was tension between the two of you. Your aunt huffed, rolling her eyes slightly. Tilting his head down at you, San spoke again.

"I was wondering if you wanted to come meet my friends? Once you're finished here." You nod immediately, wanting to get away from a certain family member.

"Great, I'll text you our location." He gave your shoulder a slight squeeze before heading off.

"Well now I understand." Your mother smirked lightly, giving you a look you couldn't quite pinpoint.

"He's quite handsome." She continued, making you blush in embarrassment.

"She's got no chance." Everyone looked to your aunt, your father looking angry.

"I know." Frowning, you agreed before turning your head away.

"Why would you say that?" Whilst your father took it upon himself to defend you, your mother reached over and got your attention.

"Go, catch up to him. Just let us know you're safe OK?" She smiled warmly. Relieved, you thanked her and hastily made your get away.

It didn't take long for you to find San walking along the street. Running up to him, you gently touched his arm in order to alert him. Surprised, San looked down at you and instantly began smiling.

"Well, that didn't take long huh?" He chuckled, but it faded as he saw your sour expression.

"What's wrong?" San stopped walking, turning towards you fully. Avoiding eyecontact, you looked down. Wearing a loose black button down with blue ripped jeans, you thought he looked good. But then you remembered your aunts words and frowned again.

"Nothing."

"No, what happened?" Sighing, you felt yourself relax as the man placed his hands on your arms.

"Just, my Auntie said something. It's not important." Not convinced, San reached down and took hold of your hands.

"Well, let's see if we can cheer you up OK? My friends are in a bar just up ahead." Even through he dropped the left, he kept hold of your right hand and began walking with you to the bar. You moved close to his side, allowing yourself to feel better by him. San pulled you into a bar and headed up some stairs until you got onto the roof. There, it was mostly empty, apart from a couple tables. Next to the balustrade, was a low white table with two black leather couches on either side. On the left sat a tall man with a blondish buzz cut and on the right a shorter man with longer black hair. The latter perked up at the sight of San before looking shocked. He leant over and slapped the others shoulder.

"Ow, what you do that for?" The taller whined before looking over. His eyes widened a little. San stood in front of them both, turning his attention to the noirette.

"Move over there." Quickly, he scampered over next to the other man. Sitting down, San pulled you down next to him.

"(Y/n), these are my friends. The short one is wooyoung and that's mingi." He informed you, making wooyoung huff in annoyance.

"Not short."

"Yes, you are." Mingi laughed, finishing his drink. Wooyoung then countered back, starting an argument.

"Ignore them, what do you want to drink?" San leant close to you, your shoulders pressing together. Ignoring your racing heart, you looking at the menu with him before pointing at a strawberry drink. He left briskly, before you could give him any money. After turning your head, you found both men opposite staring at you.

"Oh, hi." You smiled nervously, not confident in yourself. Narrowing his eyes, wooyoung scooted forward until his knees hit the table.

"You're a witch." Your eyes darted side to side, not quite knowing what to say to that.

"Way to go woo." Mingi rubbed his face.

"Why?" You almost laughed, crossing your legs and trying to get comfortable.

"Since arriving San has been really happy." Still muddled, you shrugged.

"OK? That's good, right?" Mingi nod at you, twisting him empty glass.

"Yes. Of course. But strange. San is a really moody guy." Now you were just surprised. You would never have guessed that, San seemed lighthearted.

"But, since he got here, he's been all smiles."

"And never off his phone." Wooyoung finished for his friend. You gave the men a confused look and they shared a look between them.

"Because he's been texting you." Now understanding, you blushed a little and shook your head.

"I doubt I'm the reason for his mood." You chuckled, only to be met by their bored faces.

"You definitely are. When he told us you met at the airport, we didn't think much of it. Then we noticed he didn't bring his favourite hoodie." Quickly, you shrugged it off and folded it neatly. Mingi laughed again, watching you place it next to you.

"He gave it to you huh?"

"I was cold. I tried to give it back." You reasoned, trying to relax your flushed face. Wooyoung waved in dismissal.

"No its cute. Of course he'd give a pretty girl his jacket. Very chivalrous of him. I think he's fully whipped for you." Feeling butterflies in your stomach, you swallowed nervous before shaking your head.

"No I'm not-" You paused, not wanting to be so self deprecating in front of these people.

"He's not. Don't be silly. I was just alone and nervous. And San was just being nice. He probably feels obliged to see me. Probably just to get his jacket back." In your mind, that was a perfectly reasonable explanation. Scoffing, mingi folded his arms.

"Seriously? Trust us, San isn't the type to do something he doesn't want to." For a second, you just blinked at them.

"That doesn't mean anything." With your mind fully refusing to think anything of it, Wooyoung piped up again.

"He thinks you're cute, (y/n). And you make him happy." Heat rose on your cheeks.

"No he doesn't. Plus, I've only known him a few days." Trying to laugh it off, you prayed San would come back with your drinks soon.

"Exactly. And in those few days we've sat and watched the boy grinning at his phone like an idiot." Mingi sounded so sure of it, it almost convincing you. But still, your head protested.

"He doesn't think I'm pretty." Quirking an eyebrow, Wooyoung placed down his now also empty glass.

"Have you ever looked in the mirror?" Whilst he was clearly joking, you tilting your head.

"I try to avoid them." They both looked at you with a hint of sadness, but you chose to ignore that. The hair on your arms had risen with the cool wind blowing, but you didn't dare think of putting the hoodie back on. Luckily, San came back and sat beside you, putting two drinks down.

"Hey, what about us?" Wooyoung pouted, upset his drink had ran out.

"Get your own." San laughed in return, making the boys groan and make their way down to the bar.

"So, what were you talking about?" Blushing, you looked up at him a gave a tight lipped smile.

"Oh nothing. Just, nothing." He looked skeptical but dropped the subject. A wind rippled through the air, making you shiver and close in on yourself. Noticing, San scowled and twisted to face you.

"Why did you take my jacket off?" Without looking at him, you swirled your drink around lightly.

"Well it's yours. Not mine. I thought you'd want it back. I felt bad wearing it." You told him honestly, putting your glass down carefully. Shaking his head slightly, San took the hoodie and wrapped it around your form, sliding it over your arms. Deja Vu hit you from the airport.

"I dont want it back yet. I gave it to you to wear, remember? Plus, you look really cute." You almost choked, eyes going wide and cheeks tinting red. San smirked, slipping his arm around your waist and tugging you into his side.

"Warmer now?" You hummed, leaning against the male shyly. Distant gouces grew louder as mingi and wooyoung took their seats again. Wooyoung looked down, smiling to himself as he'd noticed your position.

"So, (y/n), anything interesting planned on your holiday?" Mingi asked, smiling warmly at you.

"Well actually, I have to choose something for my family to do tomorrow." Interested, San thumbed at your waist lightly whilst speaking.

"Anything in mind?" Trying to ignore his touches, you cleared your throat.

"Actually, I was thinking maybe a boat trip."

"Yes!" Wooyoung yelled unexpectedly, making everyone jump. You looked around confused. Chuckling, mingi decided to answer you.

"He's been desperate to go on a boat. Wooyoung she's going with her family. Not us." Now pouty again, wooyoung sat back disappointed. Thinking it over, you smiled a little.

"Well, you three can come along? My family won't mind." That was only half a lie, as you knew your aunt would make some comments.

"Seriously?" You reassured San that it was no problem.

"I'll book it on my way back to the villa. Then you three can meet us at the docks tomorrow." Forming the plan, everyone agreed. You even dropped your parents a text to double check. They were more than happy to have them accompany you. Wooyoung was practically bouncing in his seat, chatting about how he really wanted to swim in the caves. Perking up, you started talking about that with him, getting into a deep conversation. A sharp laugh brought you both out of your discussion, turning to mingi.

"What's so funny?" Woo asked, once again finishing his drink.

"Nothing just Sans so w-"

"Anyway. Should we go book that trip?" Before anyone could protest, San stood up, took your hand and pulled you out of the bar. This left the others scurrying after you. Linking your fingers comfortably, San let you guide then over to a small stand by the beach. He watched as you booked in for the next day, paying the lady.

"Let me walk you back?" San asked politely, complicated ignoring his friends. Shyly, you nod and grinned. He simply waved off his friends before heading off to where you were staying.

On the short walk back, he swung your hands playfully and spoke about a few of his interests. You learned he liked to game and when you brought up animal crossing, he mentioned a friend who too loved that game. Sadly, your conversation was cut short as you came to the door of your villa.

"I guess I'll see you tomorrow?" He smiled, hand reluctant leaving your own.

"Yeah, I'll text you in the morning." Pursing his lips slightly, the red-head gazed downward.

"I'll probably text you in a few minutes." You giggled at his honestly and nod approvingly.

"That's better." For a second you both stared at each other, your heart hammering behind your ribs. Sans ears slowly turned red as he took a step back.

"Goodnight then."

"Night..." Smiling shyly, you waved him off before quickly stepping inside.

After getting up and taking far too long to get ready, you made your way to the living area. You had decided to wear a simple triangle, black bikini that had thin straps and two ties around your waist. On top of that you had a dark vest and some loose demin shorts. Everyone was waiting for you, your mother smiling upon seeing you. Going to her side, you helped pack a small bag for the day then set off to the Dock. Realising you hadn't heard from San, you pulled your phone out.

You: you better be awake ☹️

San: of course I am. Wooyoung Is still half asleep though 😭 we're almost there don't worry.

You: oh you might get there before us then actually.

San: don't keep me waiting 😊

You smiled down at your phone, trying not to show how his simple text affected you.

"I'm guessing that's San?" Your dad asked, walking beside you. Blushing, you shrugged and put your phone away.

"Young love." He joked, patting your head. Your aunt scoffed, making her voice known.

"They're not in love. She's never going to see him after this holiday." Your heart sunk at what she said, the reality that she may be correct sinking in. Hearing your mother say something, you blocked it out and continued walking.

"(Y/n)! Finally! San was starting to annoy us." Wooyoung ran over, grabbing your hand and tugging on it eagerly. You giggled, allowing yourself to be dragged.

"I was not being annoying."

"You were literally moping." Mingi chuckled, turning to greet your family with Wooyoung. Rolling his eyes, San stood next to you.

"The boat is here." He told everyone, pointing behind himself. Politely, he bowed towards your parents, making sure help the onto the boat. Taking your hands, he too helped you on and sat beside you. The driver began to explain how you'd go turtle watching, swimming in the caves and enjoy a lovely ride. Wooyoung smiled widely, shaking San with excitement as the driver started the engine and began the journey. At first, everyone was talking and getting to know each other. It was all going so well. Until it wasn't and you caught your aunt giving San a funny look.

"Why have you done that?" She pointed at her hair almost aggressively. Giving her a smile, San shrugged.

"I liked the colour." She just huffed, shaking her head.

"I'll never understand it." Seeing your expression, your mother was quick to redirect your aunts attention whilst you turned to the man next to you.

"I'm sorry, please ignore everything she says." San smiled reassuringly and placed his hand on yours. You felt those butterflies return and prayed you weren't blushing.

"Dont apologise. I'm not affected." Subtly, he moved closer, turning his head as if he were looking out at the sea. When, in reality he was whispering into your ear.

"Is that why you looked upset earlier? Did she say something?" Surprised he had noticed, you pressed your lips together.

"I'll tell you after." You mumbled, not wanting to be overheard.

"Excuse me, everyone." The captain got your attention, standing at the head of the boat.

"Turtles tend to poke their heads out here, look out and you might see one."

After wooyoung had gotten to see a turtle, the boat headed towards some caves. The boys all stood up, stripping down to their trunks.

"Are you coming swimming with us?" Mingi asked grinning, your eyes wondering over to them. However your focus was mainly on San. You knew he was fit, that much was obvious. But wow, you're sure you were heavily blushing by that point. Biting your lip, you looked down nervously. Whilst you really wanted to, you couldn't help but feeling insecure. San pulled you up, smiling kindly.

"Its okay." It was as if he could read your mind. Nodding, you slowly pulled your clothes off and went to the edge of the boat with the boys. The driver stopped the boat, letting down a ladder. Wooyoung ignored this however and threw himself into the water. You couldn't help but laugh, watching him cough as he came to the surface. Mingi jumped in too, much more graceful than his younger friend. Once climbing in, San stayed by the bottom of the ladder and helped you down safely. Wooyoung practically raced off into the cave, mingi hot on his trail.

"Hold on." San guided you onto his back then Swam off after the others. You held on tightly, chin resting on his shoulder comfortably. Miraculously, he kept your head above water as he swam into the cave. Wooyoung climbed up onto a rock, looking around in amazement.

"Its so cool." He gaped, beaming as his eyes wondered over the different colours and lights, reflected on the oceans surface. You had to agree, your arms still wrapped around San tightly. Reaching a slightly shallow part, San stood. Gently, he set you down and brought you to his side before pointing up. You tilted your head, finding there to be a gap in the top of the cave. Just big enough so you could see the sky.

"Imagine seeing that at night? All the stars, maybe even the moon?" You thought out loud, not realising the male has left his arm around your waist loosely.

"That sounds romantic." You made eye contact as he spoke, a small smile gracing Sans lips. Everything seemed to fizzle out for a few moments as you focused on each other. Swallowing down your nerves, you turned slightly in his direction and his hand tightened on your waist.

"Hey San!" Mingi yelled, disturbing your moments.

"Look at this shell we found!" Chuckling, San slowly let go and swam over to his friends. This gave you time to try and relax your accelerating heart. Your hand was patting at your chest in effort of easing your emotions.

"(Y/n)? Come here." Wooyoung quickly swam to you and took hold of your hand. Smiling, you allowed him to leaf you over to the others.

"Aren't they pretty?" Mingi smiled, looking through all the shells he'd collected. Agreeing, you let him show you his favourites. Suddenly, San came to your side, pulled wooyoungs hand away and nudging him slightly. Not having realised he was still holding it, San shook his head before standing close and playing his hands on your waist. Almost, protectively? You tried not to over think it too much. Wooyoung put his hands up in defence against his supposed best friends glare then hopped up to sit on the rock with mingi. You didn't complain, finding comfort in his hold.

Once back on board, San was quick to wrap a towel around you and sit by your side. The sun had began to set, creating a lovely array of cascading purple and orange hues in the sky. Faintly, you heard your family talking about that nights plans but chose not to comment. The captain informed everyone of the fact he was making the journey back. Which was good because, now that everyone was settled, less excited, you had noticed how rocky the boat had gotten. Now that it was setting into evening, the wind picked up slightly. Even if it wad miniscule, your acid induced stomach wasn't a fan.

"What's up with your face?" Your aunt asked with a bored tone, causing everyone to look at you.

"Just a little nauseous." You told her, only for the woman to roll her eyes.

"You were fine a minute ago. Honestly, I don't know where you get your dramatics from." She sneered, folding her arms. A lump firmed in your throat, the bottom of you eyes stinging. If it wasn't for the crowd, you would have been crying. Letting out an annoyed breath, you're sure you heard your father having a go but didn't care to look.

"Hey." Gently, San cupped your cheek and smiled softly.

"Do you trust me?" Nodding slightly, you sucked in as San carefully hooked his hands under your arms and lifted you. Skillfully, he turned you around, so you were facing the sea and slowly sat you back on the padded seat. Making sure you had one leg on either side of the metal pole that heald the railing, San sat himself behind you so your body was flush to the barrier. Your legs hung over the edge, his frame encasing your own. Bringing his arms to wrap around your waist, San held you securely. Each time the boat ducked, the water tickled your legs making you smile.

"I won't let you fall through OK?" Humming, you looked up at him, thankful for the distraction. He rested his chin on your shoulder, also happy with the closeness he had created.

"Dont listen to her ok? You're feelings are valid." Even though he was whispering, you heard San clearly and pressed your lips together. It was hard to believe it.

"What did she say to you, this morning?" Looking down at the short waves, you frowned deeply.

"Its embarrassing."

"That's for me to decide OK?" He chuckled, poking your waist playfully which did create a small smile.

"She just said I'd never see you again after the vacation. That's all." Your voice was low, cheeks warm as you told him. It was quiet for a moment, you half expected San to start laughing. So, when his grip tightened and his nose pressed to your shoulder affectionately, you were surprised.

"You think we won't see each other again?" He questioned, voice muffled by your skin. Blushing, you swallowed hard before shrugging.

"I don't know."

"Dont you want to see me? Because I want to see you, as much as possible." You could feel his grin against your back. San sat straight again, looking down at you smugly.

"You do?"

"Of course I do." He nod, lacing your fingers together.

"I was also wondering if you wanted to go get ice cream tomorrow? Just us?" Now you felt really hot, and not just because of the motion sickness.

"I'd love that." His smile grew, ears turning red. Simpering, you fully relaxed against his chest, dazed from both the movement of the boat and your happiness.

"I hope you enjoyed!" The captain waved you off as your little group left. Now it really was dark out, a few stars flecked across the navy sky.

"I guess I'll see you tomorrow then?" San smiled down at you, a hand resting on your shoulder.

"Well actually, I was wondering if you three wanted to get dinner with us tonight?" Your mum looked between the young men hopefully. Wooyoung practically gasped, hugging her suddenly.

"Oh you're so kind. Maybe I'll date (y/n) instead." He laughed, making San turn away in embarrassment. Luckily, your parents found it funny. You blushed, hearing him say that. After all, you weren't dating. Sure, he had asked you on a date. But even so, it was one ice cream date.

Your family returned to the villa, quickly showering and getting ready to go out to eat. Putting on a short, white sundress, you looked in the mirror and frowned. The waist was panelled, the bust ruched ans the skirt flowly. It was such a pretty dress, yet you felt so insecure. Deciding to push all that aside, you tied your converse then went to see if everyone was ready.

Arriving before the boys, everyone took their seats. You chose to sit at the end of the table, leaving a seat empty beside you. Getting the message, your parents left ut free and took a seat elsewhere. On the other hand, your aunty came and sat there.

"I think she wanted San to sit there." Your father said pointedly. Shrugging, your aunt didn't move.

"Well there's lots of other seats." She quipped, unfolding her napkin and putting it on her lap.

"Can you not just sit on another seat?" You asked hopefully, yet she just turned to you and whined. Just like a child would.

"No. He can sit over there." Deflating, you folded your arms on the table and rested your head on them. As much as you loved her, your aunty drained you so much. It was like she went out of her way to make you miserable.

"I dont know why you're being like this." She tut, looking at the menu but you ignored her.

"Its not like this means anything." Having enough, you looked at her almost angry.

"Maybe he likes me?" At that, she laughed abd looked at your parents with a funny look in her eyes.

"Oooh, yeah I'm sure he really likes you." Her voice clearly mocked your feelings. Why did she have to be like this? Could she not be supportive?

Hearing chairs move, you looked up to see they had finally arrived. San sat opposite you, looking concerned. Had he heard? Of course, wooyoung sat by your mother happily. Mingi sadly ended up on the other side of your aunt and you prayed she made no comments. You opted to stay quiet as everyone talked, only telling the waiter your order then returning to silence. At this point, your head was hurting. If you were to think too much, you'd problem cry. But that would just be embarrassing. You barely even touched your food when it arrived, just pushing it around your plate. After a few glances, you saw your dad and San deep in conversation. It warmed your heart to see them getting on.

"Why aren't you eating (Y/N)? Scared of gaining weight?" Laughing again, your aunty shoved you. Maybe it was playful to her but it hurt a little. Biting on your bottom lip, you inhaled through your nose deeply. Unexpectedly, San stood and walked around, taking your hand and walking out of the restaurant. Even though you were shocked, you followed San blindly. Once you were a few streets away, he stopped and brought you into his arms. Instantly, you relaxed and hugged back, your face in the crook of his neck.

"We can't just leave..." You mumbled, not wanting to leave his hold.

"Its OK. None of us wanted you sitting there upset." He pat your head softly, urging you to look at him. Even now, your eyes were slightly teary. Seeing this, san frowned and wiped under your eyes tentivley.

"I was thinking we could head back to where I'm staying?" You just nod, deciding to ignore every doubt in your mind and hugging his waist. He didn't mind, holding you close and walking back to the villa.

-----☆

Upon arriving, he guided you into his room and shut the door.

" I like your dress by the way. You look really pretty." San smiled, looking you over with a soft gaze. Blushing, you suddenly found the floor very interesting. He just chucked, coming to stand in front of you.

"How come you're not wearing my hoodie tonight?"

"I forgot, I was distracted." His hand came up, playing the the ends of your hair affectionately.

"Then I'll just have to give you something else." Now confused, you looked up and watched as he opened a drawer and pulled something out.

"Wear this, you'll be more comfortable." San handed you the garment before heading out the room, with some other clothes, to give you privacy. It was a white band t-shirt, clearly way too big for you. You put it on regardless and smiled once looking in the mirror. It reached your mid thighs, one side hanging off your shoulders.

"You look so cute." Sans voice startled you as he came in, a box in his hands. He too had changed, into a vest with loose black joggers. Settling on the bed, he pat the space beside him. Slowly, you crawled next to him and sat on the free side nervously.

"Am I making you uncomfortably?" Quickly, you shook your head.

"No, no. I just don't want to get in your way or anything." You explained. San scoffed lightly, reaching over and tugging you into his side.

"You're not going to OK? Don't you understand?"

"Understand what?" Confused, you tilted your head up at him. He carressed the side of your face almost lovingly, smiling till his eyes were almost shut.

"I like you. I really like you. That's why I asked you out. I want you close to me." Each word just made you blush more. Your eyes scanned his face and something told you he was being truthful.

"I feel the same." Finally saying it out loud, you felt the weight lift off your shoulders. Somehow, Sans smile brightened, practically lighting up the room.

"Then I better make sure the date is perfect tomorrow huh?" He chuckled, playing with your fingers delicately. You scooted closer and brushed back some of his Ruby hair.

"I just want to spend time with you. There's no pressure ok?" Grinning, he nod and brought you between his legs so you were resting on his back. San then pulled the covers over the both of you.

"Oh I brought chocolates. You barely ate." You smiled, opening the box and reading the contents. Behind you, San put something on the tv before throwing the remote aside.

"I need to text me parents."

"No need, it was your dad's idea. He wanted me to get you out of there." He informed you, rubbing your shoulders. Turning slightly, you curled up against him and hummed in content.

"I'm happy you get along."

"Yes, but only your parents. Your aunt? Not so much." San huffed, feeding you one of the chocolates.

"She's always been like that." You told him but he shook his head. Picking out a specific chocolate, he popped it in his mouth.

"I dont care. Next time I'm not going to be so polite. If she's going to act like that, I'll give her the same energy back." You blushed from his protective nature, reaching up to thumb his cheek soothingly. He looked down at you and broke into a smile. His right arm was holding you snug, the left feeding the both of you. Whilst watching the TV, you felt yourself eyes growing heavy. Instead of fighting it, you buried your face into his chest and wrapped an arm around his waist. San found himself blushing, carefully moving to lay flat and male sure the covers were over you. By that point, you were fast asleep, finding it easier to rest in his arms.

[chaoticcicadacryptid]

❄️ Invader Zim Amino Winter Contest 2024 ❄️

Hello, all my fellow Invaders, Extraterrestrials, and all those alike! Welcome to the Invader Zim Amino Winter contest of 2024!

I know it's been a long time since the Invader Zim Amino hosted an official event, but as we've noticed some new users on our platform, we’ve decided it was time to revive the contests and events for all the newcomers!!!

Now some might be reading this from Tumblr and wonder, “Why is this posted here when it's a contest on Amino?” Well, due to Amino not being as lively as it once was (and rather understandable as to why), the staff at IZA have decided to host the contest between both Tumblr and Amino, so we can reach as many users who may want to attend as possible! (While keeping it manageable of course.) Those who attend, will get a chance at winning the prizes and being featured as the winner for this Seasonal Contest!

This season is Winter! And the two themes all contestants will get to choose from are:

“Blizzard” and “Snowed In”!

Your entry can take many forms, whether it's writing, drawing, crafting, animation, etc! It just must follow one of the themes, and must take place in the Invader Zim universe! (OCS and AUs are welcome and encouraged!!)

All entries will be judged by a mixture of skill, appearance/structure, how it ties to the theme, and the overall effort put into it! The leader of the Invader Zim Amino, and its curators (as well as some feedback from the users and those observing the contest), will be in charge of going through and judging the entries and gathering them all together!

Now, we won't be able to find your post unless it has the special tag, #IZAWINTER2024

In Amino, all you must do is type it and place it somewhere in your post, and for Tumblr, you must make sure it is in your tags section before you post! This way the gathering process is just a tiny bit more simple! <3

The Contest will be closed on December 30th!

🎉The Winner Prizes🎉

🥇: A Fully Rendered Full body, a Fully Rendered Waist Up, and a Fully Rendered PFP piece of any characters of your choosing! Those who have an Amino account will also win 500 Amino Coins as well!

🥈: A Fully Rendered Waist Up, and a Fully Rendered PFP piece! Those who have an Amino account will also win 300 Amino Coins as well!

🥉: A fully Rendered Bust, and Fully Rendered PFP piece! Those who have an Amino account will also win 100 Amino Coins as well!

All artwork will be made by me, and it might take some time to finish but I promise I will send as many updates as possible to the winners as I work! I will finish first place’s pieces first, and then go down the line from there!

❗‼️Rules‼️❗

❗All entries must fit into, or under, a PG-13 rating.

❗-NO NSFW (excessive gore, sexual content, highly suggestive content, etc)

❗-NO COPYING OR TRACING (If an incident occurs we will do our best to get to the bottom of the situation.)

❗-NO A.I. EVER. If you are suspected of using AI, you will run the risk of being blacklisted and banned from this contest and all that will be held in the future. If you can't bother to put the effort into making something of your own, you don't deserve to attend a creative contest.

❗-If ships between aliens and humans are involved, both parties must be the same age or 18+. This way we can avoid as much drama as possible.

❗-Be Respectful towards everyone involved, including the contestants, judges, and host!

If you have read all the rules above, please add your favorite animal(s) to your comment below, along with which theme stands out to you! Thank you so much for taking the time to read, and have a wonderful winter!!!

[pinkpastelcalesti]

LANDSCAPING LOVE || Bakugou Katsuki x Reader || Chapter I.

SUMMARY -> Tired of bouncing back and forth between the U.S. and Japan after graduating college, you’ve finally secured the career of your dreams: You’re Japan’s first heroics cartographer, a title bestowed upon you due to your quirk and specialty, that creates geographic maps for hero agencies across the country. While your work is highly respected and sought after, you’re known for a more niche reason among your coworkers at the Dynamight Agency: the food you make is fucking amazing. When Dynamight himself inevitably gets word that you’re coming for his cooking title on his own turf, chaos ensues and you find yourself competing against your boss for not only best chef, but also to win over his heart.

CONTENT/WARNINGS -> Pro hero AU, agency reader, reader with a quirk, fem/AFAB reader, reader is originally from America, reader is bilingual (English and Japanese), strangers (more like coworkers that don’t get a chance to speak much) to friends to lovers, fluff & chaos, minimal angst, suggestive humor.

LENGTH -> 7.9K

MASTERLIST

Running late for your first agency project presentation was not on your bingo card this year.

Because of nerves and the constant fear that you were going to tumble over your words during your presentation, you pulled a semi-all nighter and stayed up until 3 a.m. rehearsing your slides and your speech for the Dynamight Agency’s meeting on your current geographic project.

You’ve been working for the company for 7 months now, and this project is the first large-scale assignment you’d been given since you started. You’ve worked on smaller, personal projects for Dynamight and other pro heroes, but this project was your pride and joy, seeing as it was requested by Dynamight himself.

Your quirk, landscape, allows for you to create an entire mental map, in very graphic detail, of the area around you within five miles. This includes the visualization and relative scale of buildings, sidewalks, roads, and alleyways. Your quirk works when you place your bare hands on the ground, which sort of sucks because the city’s grounds weren’t exactly the cleanest. In order for you to utilize your quirk correctly, you grew up practicing cartography of all sorts. One could say your quirk opened up doors to many different career paths, such as engineering or urban planning, but you had decided early on that the best way you would be able to help people is by utilizing your maps for heroes.

Heroes use maps for everything, and you were going to profit off of that no matter what. Your quirk could expand past the five mile radius if you kept bouncing around to different areas, drew their maps from your memory, and combined all maps to create one whole map of a specific city or town. During your time in undergrad, you majored in and graduated (Summa cum laude, may you add) with a degree in geography, your main focus of research being urban cartography. Heroics cartography didn’t exist, so you figured the next best thing would be urban areas.

Your undergraduate research consisted of said urban cartography, and because of your academic standing, you were offered a study-abroad program for geographers that was located in Tokyo, which you took without a second’s hesitation. You always dreamed that you’d be helping U.S. heroes, however, during your time in Tokyo, you fell in love with the entirety of Japan and the vast landscapes you got to visit and draw. Your research professor oversaw your projects, which consisted of city maps, data collection, and utilizing GIS software to create digital maps that could be used for multiple different areas, whether that be infrastructure planning, evacuation routes, or heroics, your main focus.

Your current job as a heroics cartographer is a first in Japan. While it’s not that well-known that you’re the first person to ever have such a title, the pro heroes around you seem to understand its importance. Your job at Dynamight’s Agency allows you to create maps for Dynamight and his sidekicks to use for patrol routes, monitoring high crime areas across the city, and visualizing the areas where property damage occurs most. Not only do you work for Dynamight, but your skills have been requested and used by other pros across the city, including but not limited to Deku, Shouto, and Red Riot.

You really got into this career out of sheer luck and fate. While you were drawing up maps for the city during your third year of undergrad, pro hero Red Riot had reached out to you after he accidentally destroyed one of your maps at the post office in Musutafu during a fight with a villain. He’d picked up the broken display and noticed your name in the corner and contacted you through your professor. Initially pissed off because you’d just finished that map literally a week and a half prior to its destruction, you gave him grace and told him you’d be in touch with the post office to create a new one.

He ended up paying you back for the damage, and upon realizing how detailed your maps were, inquired about your skills in cartography. It was quite jarring, sitting in Red Riot’s agency at the ripe age of 20, sweat dripping down your back through your blouse as one of the top heroes in the nation asked if you’d be able to draw up a map of a large electrical facility for him to use for an upcoming mission. He’d apparently been trying to find an up-to-date map of the interior, but had no luck. Within a week, you were being driven in a fancy company car to the facility so you could use your quirk and recreate the building’s interior infrastructure.

After you’d created the map for him, Red Riot, or Eijiro, as you now get to call him, had asked that you look into working for the pros after you graduated. He was under the impression that you were actually a Japanese university student, so you had to break the news that you actually worked in the U.S. Upon realizing, Eijiro explained that he would be more than happy to get you in contact with plenty of heroes that could use your work and give you a job abroad for almost double the pay you’d be receiving if you stayed in America.

Turns out that keeping in contact with a top hero in Japan that destroyed weeks of your work within 3 minutes of a fight was a good idea after all. Eijiro was the one who ultimately hooked you up with a job under the roof of Dynamight’s agency. Once you’d graduated, you decided that you’d work in the U.S. for a little while longer to build up your experience and resume before you decided to go abroad.

You ended up staying in America for two more years after graduation, traveling across the country and working with urban geographers in cities like Los Angeles, Detroit, Chicago, New York City, and Washington D.C. During this time, you were given full travel privileges to fly to Japan and help Red Riot and his pro hero allies develop brand new patrol map routes across different cities. You loved this part of your job most, and after finishing up your second year post-grad, decided to make it official and asked Eijiro if the job position was still on the table.

He would go on to give you one of the prettiest smiles you’d ever seen and excitedly tell you that yes, it was always available to you. Being friends with Eijiro meant not only a once-in-a-lifetime career connection, but it also meant realizing your potential early on.

You absolutely adore the work you do for Dynamight and his peers and wouldn’t trade it for the world. However, if you don’t hurry the hell up and get to your building in the next 7 minutes, your dream job might as well go poof. Dynamight absolutely hates when people are late, and you’ve had the pleasure of watching him blow up on company execs for showing up 15 minutes late and “wasting his fuckin’ time.”

Working for a man like Bakugou Katsuki was definitely a wakeup call the first two months you were at his agency. Turns out that while he approved your position that would inevitably change the way cartography was viewed in the modern world of heroes, Bakugou didn’t exactly care to look into what you specialized in, or so you thought. You really hadn’t had a chance to actually speak with him aside from filling him and his manager in on upcoming projects and maps you were in the process of making. After 7 months of working for the agency, you’d spoken to your boss a whopping four times, all lasting under three minutes.

This presentation you were about to give is the first one where Dynamight would be present, and fuck if you weren’t about to shit your pants from not only nerves, but fear that you might not get in the door on time for its start.

Racing past the front desk and haphazardly greeting the security guards before flashing your badge to be let through the agency gates blocking visitors from reaching the elevators, you managed to press the button for the remaining elevator on the ground floor that was being sent up.

You probably looked like an absolute atrocity in front of your fellow coworkers, with windswept hair and panting in the virtually silent elevator, save for the whirring of the machine as it took you up to the fourteenth floor of the building.

As soon as the doors of the elevator opened, you booked it down the hall to the meeting room, with 43 seconds to spare before the clock hit 9 a.m. sharp. “So sorry I’m running late! I was supposed to be here setting up earlier but some big stupid bitch tried hijacking the bus I was going to take-” you began in a rush, placing your bag and coat on your chair in the large room with a round table full of your team members and other coworkers from the analytics department.

Your team member Carl, one of only three others in the cartography department at the agency, hit your foot from under the table while calling out your name. “You’re speaking in English, we have no clue what you’re saying,” he whispered, with you quickly muttering out an apology. “Shit— sorry about that— slips my mind to switch back and forth sometimes. Apologies for not being here sooner,” you bowed to the ten workers in the room, suddenly realizing Dynamight himself nor his manager had shown up yet. Thank god, you let out a small breath of relief.

“Is Dynamight going to be in soon or should I begin without him?” You asked as your other team member Kanako grabbed your computer out of your bag and plugged it into the projector while you began pulling out your speaker notes.

“Said he’d be in soon, had to catch up with Red Riot about an ongoing police chase outside the city,” your last team member Naomi spoke out loud. Naomi was your resident work bff, and was also the one that regularly reached out to Dynamight for you to inquire about starting new projects or letting him know of recent updates. She honestly didn’t even like having to email her own boss that much, but she was more than happy to run into his manager and talk about the highs and lows of cartography if it meant staring at the poor man like he was on the lunch menu.

“Well that at least gives us some time to set it up. Sorry you all had to wait on me to get here to pull up the slides.” You felt guilty that your team had to sit in awkward silence with a department that rarely ever interacted with your own for probably a solid 20 minutes, but at least you got to the room before Dynamight so you didn’t risk a verbal ass beating in front of everyone.

As soon as you’d finished laying out the hand-drawn maps of your project out on the round table, Dynamight himself opened the large oak door and walked into the meeting room, glancing at you for a split second before sitting in the chair that was opposite of you, towards the back of the room and for him to be able to see everyone clearly. His manager trailed in behind him, scolding him for not slowing down and hearing his run down of how the meeting would go. Dynamight only waved his hand in the air at his manager before casting his sharp gaze back to you.

You felt a twinge of anxiety race up your body. You really hadn’t been expecting him to come to this meeting until Naomi filled you in two weeks ago that he wanted to attend. Guess it meant he actually did pay attention to what he hired you and your team for. Regardless, you bowed to him and began speaking, not waiting for him to tell you to start, as he wasn’t one that gave directions to grown adults.

“Thank you for joining us today, Dynamight. The project that my team and I have been working on recently is one you formally requested for us to start three months ago,” you clicked the presentation remote that flipped to the next screen on your slideshow. “As you requested, the cartography department created digital and physical choropleth maps of the districts within Musutafu and their relative crime rates within the past year.” You pointed towards the round desk. “The top map is the same as the map you see on our slideshow,” you spoke in a quick, easy-to-understand manner and glanced at everyone’s faces to gauge their reactions throughout your presentation speech.

The maps that Dynamight had asked for were so that he would be able to see if his patrol routes needed to be changed in order to monitor areas of Musutafu that were still unresponsive to patrols by heroes in terms of crime decreasing. If there was one thing your boss prided himself on, it was his patrol routes and his ability to cut crime and villain attack rates in his designated areas in half. However, recently there was an uptick in petty crime rates, and in order for him to not get shit on by the public for a “lack of appropriate response,” he put in a formal request for your department to create maps relating to recent data changes in crime rates across the city.

You and your team were more than happy to fulfill this request, as it meant working with real, recent data and meant you got to visit neighboring hero agencies and compare their patrol route crime rates with Dynamight’s. Any excuse to get out of your department’s office on the fifth floor was a godsend because your back really couldn’t handle anymore work days where you were hunched over the large workbench mapping out the city for hours at a time.

As you continued on with your presentation, you periodically glanced towards Dynamight to check his facial expressions for any annoyance or confusion at your maps. Seeing none, you internally LETS FUCKING GOOOO’d because you knew it meant at the very least that if he was understanding the maps, everyone else most likely could too.

Once you reached the last slide, you made a small noise of dissatisfaction. “When we took a look at certain districts, we did notice that the victims of the crimes committed were young women who regularly walked home by themselves later at night. They seemed to be around their early 20s to their late 30s.” Naomi nodded at you, a silent way of saying to continue on.

“I’m sure that you don’t like when many do this, and forgive me if I’m stepping out of bounds,” you began, feeling your hands sweat. “But please do take this information seriously. I know you’re a hardworking hero, so I trust your skills. But I sincerely hope the next time I check the data that the rates will have fallen. People deserve to walk home without fearing for their lives.”

Dynamight’s eyes seemed to bore into your skin, wanting to bark a clipped response back, but he managed to nod silently. You didn’t want to outright mention you yourself were scared of the trend in crime since you fit the statistic, often walking home by yourself late after all-day shifts, but it seems like he’d caught on by the look on your face.

You wrapped up the presentation and answered a couple different questions that the analytics department had about the data collection and resources you used. After your coworkers began packing their bags to leave, you noticed that Dynamight had gotten up out of his chair and walked over to you, who currently stood beside your bag, closing all the tabs you had open that were starting to overheat your little computer.

Glancing up, you nearly choked on your spit at the proximity between the two of you. He was in his winter hero suit, with the black turtleneck beneath his chest piece being pulled tight against his arms, making his muscles pop out unnecessarily in your face, but you definitely were not complaining. Bim..g… muscles… you thought, trying not to stare too long.

“Y-Yes, Dynamight sir?” You managed to sputter out, all too aware of your team members looking at the two of you now. Dynamight managed to grunt in acknowledgement before speaking. “Wanted to ask if you could make one of your fuckin’ maps for Deku. The shithead keeps begging me to ask, he wants one to hang up in his office of his patrol routes.”

Your eyes widened in surprise. Of course you would make him one, but you didn’t expect for Dynamight to ask you directly. Typically he forced his manager Atsuno to write out emails of requests he had. You managed to nod eagerly to him. “Yeah, no problem. I can email him later and ask about details. Thanks for letting me know.”

Dynamight only grunted once more before turning on his heel and leaving the room, leaving Atsuno to give chase to his boss as he bowed quickly at you and gave his appreciation for your presentation before leaving the room himself.

The only ones left in the room now were your teammates, and all it took was one glance between the four of you before you all let out a holler in excitement. “We did it! You did incredible up there girl,” Naomi slung her arm around you as you pulled her in for a hug. “I was shitting bricks the whole time, I don’t think I realized how intense Dynamight’s stare can be.”

Kanako and Carl high fived you as you all made your way to the elevator to take back down to your department. “Our first big project presentation and we didn’t get screamed at for a minuscule error? I think we deserve to celebrate tonight,” Carl wiggled his eyebrows towards you and Kanako, with Naomi agreeing excitedly.

“Bar or at someone’s place? Should we drink? Oh we’re totally drinking.” You couldn’t help but smile at your coworkers beside you. You were so grateful to have them beside you while you’d adjusted to the agency life the past couple months. All three of them had come from a specialized area in the analytics department that related to gathering information data on the public, which included things like crime rates and damage assessments.

When your job had been approved, Atsuno told you that you’d be working in a new department in your own section within the agency with some people taken from the analytics department, taking you off guard. You’d surely thought you’d be thrown into analytics too, seeing how geography and cartography could squeeze into it somehow.

Meeting your team for the first time, you were more than grateful to have them work with you as you’d expected to be alone in your department for a while. You helped walk them through the basics of cartography and digital mapmaking using current software, quickly realizing the talent each one had for different areas. While you were technically the head of your department, you felt like everyone pulled their weight equally and deserved to be held on the same level.

“We can go out or I can make us something,” you spoke out loud as the elevator dinged open. “I know you guys have been bugging me about cooking since I bring my own lunches everyday.” Naomi cheered beside you, agreeing as Carl and Kanako hummed in thought. “I’ll pitch in for ingredients if Carl and Naomi buy the alcohol,” Kanako said, casting a glance to her coworkers that were chanting, American food! American food! Over and over again to one another.

All in agreement, you quickly got off on the fifth floor and entered your department room. Located towards the right hand corner in the back of the large office floor, the department itself wasn’t noticeable to the general eye unless you went looking. You each had respective offices lining a small back hallway, with the room at the very end of it being your workshop that expanded into a large open-area space containing desktops, workbenches, and cartography supplies strewn around the place. Atsuno had been kind enough to order a custom nameplate to go above the awning of you and your team’s hall, with Heroics Cartography Department written out in beautiful gold lettering, contrasting nicely against the cool grey paint of the wall.

“Let’s lock in on the rest of the requests and orders today so we can leave at a decent time,” you said, closing the door to the workshop as everyone spoke in agreement. Carl called out your name as you were booting up the desktops to pull up emails from your clients. “We doing hard liquor shit tonight or going with something like wine? Need to pair it well with whatever you’re making.”

You hummed in thought. “We could definitely do cocktails. I was thinking about making gumbo since it’s still cold outside.” You grabbed your phone that was situated in your bag and opened up the Notes app to create your grocery store list. Luckily Japan kept up with their spices and typically had an American section in larger stores where you could grab some of the spice mixes needed for your food.

“Make it spicy as fuck girl, I wanna feel tears pouring out of my eyes to your incredible cooking,” Naomi said, sending you a dreamy look. “If I make it too spicy, Carl’s gonna shit his pants. We all know this man can’t handle spice to save his life.”

“Hey! Will not,” Carl scoffed in surprise. “I just got dunked on by my ancestors because they thought it was funny to give me no spice tolerance in a country that literally eats spicy food in almost every meal.” Kanako managed a laugh at that, sending Carl a sympathetic glance before speaking to you. “If it’s not too much trouble, you could always split it into one pot being spicy and one pot being milder.”

“Fair point, but y’all better eat every morsel of my food. Southern cooking isn’t for the weak,” you mentioned as you scrolled through your finished grocery list, checking for any missing items. Naomi sent you a questioning look before asking you, “you’re from the south U.S. right? Isn’t that like hella country?” You sighed as you nodded. “Yeah, but I lived in the city, not necessarily rural. Didn’t stop me from cooking all types of recipes though.”

“Well wherever you were, you managed to become a pretty kick ass chef on your own. Your lunch always looks god tier.” Kanako said as Carl and Naomi nodded in agreement. You felt your face heat up in embarrassment at the compliment. “Living on your own in college will make you think of some wild new recipes in the name of using up all your groceries to not waste food.”

“That’s for sure, I lived off 20 different cup ramen recipes I created myself with random items from the dining halls I could snag before I got caught.” Carl muttered out loud while he pulled different sized calipers from his desk drawer to begin sketching up a project for Chargebolt.

“Food is food, for real,” you nodded in solidarity. There’s been one too many times where you felt too lazy to make full meals during school, which meant being stuck with random microwave food you kept for low energy days in your apartment kitchen. “Can’t wait to get shitfaced and discuss the existential dread of fucking up on expensive mapping paper,” you mused. Being an absolute geek over geography and cartography, you’ve caught yourself in too many drunken rambles about work-related topics when out with college friends after finals and papers were finished up for the semester.

“Let’s do our best so we can enjoy our Friday into the weekend!” Naomi pumped her fist in the air as she spoke, all of you cheering in agreement.

ೄྀ࿐ ˊˎ-

Later that night, after you all managed to finish up your progress for the day and headed out to grab your respective supplies for your celebration, you found yourself humming to a random 2010s playlist that Kanako had thrown on randomly while you cooked in the kitchen of your apartment. You lived not too far from the agency, a 25 minute walk or an 8 minute bus ride, in a nice neighborhood adorned with townhomes along the street, away from the major roads but still comfortably accessible. The salary you had now had blessed you with the opportunity to live in a nicer place, but you still opted for a more homey feel rather than all the modern bullshit that people were raving for. You really hated the idea of solid white walls and no color in your living space.

Your apartment was on the smaller side but it was just you who lived there. Naomi actually lived in the townhome across the street on the second floor. You both had found out early in your job at the agency, walking home at the same time and going from that awkward “going the same way, sorry” to “oh word you live here?” It meant that you had regular girls nights together and grew close, the friendship between the two of you falling into place naturally. Kanako and Carl were actually roommates in a flat that was a 10 minute train ride away. It truly was fate that all of you managed to not only work well, but vibe with each other outside the office too.

As you finished plating your dishes in bowls, you could hear the conversation flowing between your team in your living room. A couple drinks had already been thrown back and you were more than aware that drinking before you had food in your system was probably a bad idea, but you were about to eat anyways so fuck it. You were already two Moscow mules deep by the time you’d finished up the gumbo.

“Food’s ready!” You called out from the kitchen, the open floor plan making it easy for you to get the attention of everyone else sitting on the couch watching Love is Blind. That show was a debatable one, but you enjoyed watching Carl’s bewildered expressions at the absolutely heinous jokes Kanako would throw out about the men and women of the show and some of their horrible personalities.

“Girl get in here and tell me whether or not you think Gigi needs to up and leave ugly ass Damian,” Naomi said, helping you grab two of the four plates you were bringing out to the coffee table. “I can tell you right now that she does, she’s way too good for someone that looks like a chad version of Ed Sheeran.”

Kanako busted out laughing at your remark, agreeing at the resemblance. As you ate, everyone poured endless compliments into your food, making your chest swell with pride in your hobby. You absolutely loved to cook, and it helped you get through the more rough parts of life when you were struggling to keep up with the demands of school and research. Cooking was your safe space and you made sure you perfected staple recipes from home so you could share them with others, like you were doing now.

Kanako threw back another shot as she chased it with a can of Dr. Pepper before speaking your name. “You do know that your cooking could rival Dynamight’s, right?” You paused mid chew, throwing up an eyebrow at her to continue. You didn’t strike your boss as a cooking connoisseur, but you yourself didn’t look like one either, so you kept an open mind.

“He brings food to the potlucks we have during holidays sometimes. When I tell you that man can damn well cook, believe me,” she slurred slightly, the alcohol already hitting her. Naomi nodded in agreement. “Trust us when we say his cooking is top tier. He’d never admit it, but he likes cooking for others if it means feeding into his ego.” Naomi said, letting out a huff of laughter.

“I tried his signature mapo tofu once and it was so good but I literally had to call in sick the next day because I could not handle the spice he puts in his recipes,” Carl’s forehead thudded against the wood of the coffee table as he grimaced at the memory. “If he ever found out I nearly passed out on the toilet from what he called ‘baby shit spicy’, I think he’d fire me.” You barked out a laugh at that, imagining Dynamight drilling it into your teammate about not appreciating his food and getting sick from it.

Your team had been working with the Dynamight Agency for almost 2 years before you’d joined. It was always jarring to hear the stories of Dynamight from them. Your initial reactions to him early on were anything but pleasant, and still sometimes lean on the side of moderate annoyance. He sounded like a total dick at the beginning, but had apparently mellowed out after high school. You heard he’d bullied the hell out of the current number 1 hero during his time in middle school and a little bit of high school, which had made you livid.

You grabbed the handle of Tito’s sitting in front of you all and poured it into your glass before cracking open a new can of ginger beer and pouring it into the glass as well. You could feel the warmth of the alcohol spreading through you, loosening up your tongue the more you drank.

Retrospectively, you really shouldn’t have said the next thing that you did if it meant saving your ass in the workplace that following Monday.

“I could definitely kick Bakugou’s ass if we had a cook off, I mean I’m basically a god tier hobby chef at this point,” you muttered, missing the expressions of your coworkers, specifically the smirk Naomi had on her face. “You think so?” Carl nudged your leg with his own, casting you a tipsy glance. “Fuck yeah I could, I don’t think you realize how hard some southern cooking can be. If I can keep making the recipes without screwing them up, I’m pretty much a god in the kitchen.”

Naomi snickered as Kanako sighed out. “Don’t let Dynamight hear you say that. He gets competitive fast, especially when it comes to food. He was known in high school as the chef of his dorm, didn’t trust others to cook as well as he could.” You definitely could see that, as he struck you as the type to call his friends’ cooking skills trash compared to his own. You hadn’t had the chance to try anything by him yet but could assume it was pretty good if your coworkers spoke of it so highly.

“He can bring it on, I’m not scared of his ass, I bet he couldn’t cook a Cajun recipe if he tried,” Your mouth was moving before you had a chance to realize the words you were saying. “Yeah yeah, big talk for a girl that stuttered after taking one look at her boss’ biceps.” You nearly choked on your drink as Naomi absolutely obliterated you with one sentence. Damn, I really thought I was slick with the look. You sighed as Kanako simply whistled in your direction.

“Don’t tell me you’re falling for him already? His good looks are hard to miss,” she said as she handed you a napkin to wipe your mouth with. Muttering out a thanks, you tried to save yourself some embarrassment. “Oh please, if I wanted to torture myself by falling for a narcissist, I’d go for Shindou instead.” You shuddered at the thought of working for someone like him, suddenly grateful at the fact that you were working for Dynamight instead.

“Don’t deny yourself. I bet you probably had a Dynamight wall in your dorm room at some point.” Carl was an absolute menace when he got tipsy, clearly not skipping out on poking fun at you. You groaned at his comment, shaking your head. “Nah, it was a Deku wall, actually.” You weren’t lying if you thought about it, you did have a lot of respect for the hero as you’d learned more about him during your study abroad. He came from a humble background, what was there not to like about someone as sweet as the number 1?

“You always struck me as the type of person to go for someone batshit crazy though. I bet you’d probably like it if Dynamight was mean to you.” Kanako sent you a look that made you shiver. “How dare you accuse me of such nonsense,” you tutted, sipping on your drink before muttering a small, “I probably would.” Naomi slapped her hand on the table, yelling out, “I heard that you freak!”

You couldn’t help but laugh as your team members switched the topic to their picks for hottest heroes, with Carl sighing dreamily as he named Red Riot his number one choice, Uravity being a close second. During the chaos of the conversation, you forgot all about your quip towards Dynamight’s cooking.

You really should have remembered, because remembering would mean you could have prepared yourself more for your conversation with him later.

ೄྀ࿐ ˊˎ-

After the eventful weekend and nursing a massive hangover from the sheer amount of vodka you managed to drink together, your team trudged their way into the workplace again and began the process of uploading and creating new maps on ArcGIS to send over for clients’ approval. You were all lucky you got weekends off when there wasn’t a high demand of requests for maps and geographic data.

You were midway through a rough sketch of Deku’s patrol route, taking a small break to grab a water bottle from the vending machine on the second floor when you heard the first whispers.

“— she definitely wouldn’t,” a man from the finance department whispered to his coworker who was shaking his head enthusiastically. You recognized the guy who was speaking as Leo, a coworker you’d met early on that helped you budget out what was needed in terms of supplies in your current workspace. He often chatted with Naomi, who regularly contacted him to put in new orders of pencils and ink for the maps you all drew by hand. “I think she could. She’s from the west, they tend to take home cooking pretty seriously over there. No doubt she could beat him.” The other coworker beside Leo spoke. Now that caught your attention. It sounded like they were talking about you, but you couldn’t be sure. You didn’t know how many other people were in the agency that were also from the west, they could be talking about anybody, right?

As soon as they saw you, Leo nudged his coworker to shut up before waving at you with an uneasy smile. “What are y’all talking about over here? Something about cooking?” You said, walking over and greeting both of them. Leo nodded, slightly caught off guard. “Yeah, we— uh, we were talking about a cooking show we both watch! One of the chefs is from the west and she’s competing with other chefs to win a national title.” You raised an eyebrow at him, not really buying it but not really caring too much to think that hard about it. “Well remember that westerners can be pretty goated at cooking all kinds of food. She’s probably got a chance,” you shrugged before excusing yourself, waving at them as you walked back to the elevator once you purchased your water bottle.

You continued to flutter in and out of your workspace throughout the day, stopping for lunch and eating in your office with Naomi before returning back to work. However, you weren’t stupid; there were way more eyes on you today than you’d ever experienced, even more than when you first joined. You knew Naomi was sort of a gossip guru in the office, but you’d assumed she was probably flexing your cooking to anyone that crossed her path during the day.

You didn’t mind it, but the attention on you was definitely kind of concerning, especially because people kept whispering about something to do with an upcoming agency event that would include food. You figured you could probably whip up some good appetizers to bring to it, whenever it was.

As you were finishing up your sketches and scaling them correctly with the notes on your computer, Atsuno hurriedly burst through the door of the workshop, looking slightly disheveled. Your coworkers all glanced up at him at the same time before he coughed awkwardly and straightened his posture.

“New request sent in? Surely it’s not that important for you to have to run in here for,” You asked him as you wiped your hands on a towel to get rid of the ink stains along your palms. You definitely couldn’t risk messing up the paper now that you were this far along. He sighed heavily before shaking his head. “No, I uh— I had to come in here and ask that you go meet with Dynamight before you get off work. He wants to check in on the progress with Deku’s patrol route map.” You raised an eyebrow. Couldn’t he just shoot us an email? you wondered before nodding, asking if he was in his office. Atsuno nodded, offering to walk with you there, filling you in on the progress that’s about to be made with the maps your team had created relating back to crime rates along the districts in the city.

You missed the slightly concerned glance Naomi cast your way as you exited the shop.

After taking the elevator up to Dynamight’s office located on the 10th floor, you stepped off the lift and looked around the interior. You rarely ever came to this floor since it was mainly Dynamight’s office, the rest of the floor filled with smaller offices that were for his sidekicks, Atsuno, and his other head managers from different departments.

Turning right out of the elevator, Atsuno walked you to Dynamight’s office, adjacent from his own. Upon knocking, a gruff “come in” came from the other side of the door. Dynamight’s office was fucking nice.

It was as large as your own workshop, if not larger, and contained Dynamight’s desk, shelves full of memorabilia and other items, a couch in the center of the room, and what seemed to be an en-suite bathroom. His office overlooked the rest of the city, large window panes lining the wall his back was turned to. Along the rest of the non-windowed walls were frames of photos that contained Dynamight in his younger years, from when he was in high school to now. He was still in his mid 20s, but the photos along the wall told an interesting story of his life the past few years as he climbed the hero ranks.

Turning towards him, Atsuno cleared his throat before bowing to you and leaving, citing that he had to go sit in on a phone call with a sports clothing brand that was looking to sponsor Dynamight. He sure did clear out of here fast. You figured he was probably just busy, as all Mondays are.

Dynamight was staring into your soul again as you turned back to him and awkwardly shifted your weight onto your other foot. You began the conversation with, “you wanted to check in on Deku’s request, right?”

“Yeah. Nerd’s looking forward to it and won’t shut the hell up every time he calls me. Enjoys your work a fuckin’ ton,” he spoke, his gravelly voice sending a pleasurable hum through your body. If he wasn’t a hero, he could definitely be an ASMR YouTuber, you mused.

You gave him a small smile. “I’m surprised he’s heard of me. My work isn’t exactly groundbreaking,” you began to fiddle with your work jacket’s zipper. It was cold as shit in your office, so you had Leo sneak in an order for your team to have matching work jackets by Carhartt since they were durable and warm. “Yeah, well get used to the recognition. Your job is a first for the country. Constantly gettin’ questions about why I hired you.” You felt a small spark of annoyance work through your system. “Not sure you mean that in a good or bad way.” You huffed, walking towards his desk and sitting across from him in one of the plush seats. He eyed you with mild curiosity before explaining.

“Not a bad thing. People just don’t understand why yer work’s so important.” You nodded in acknowledgement. He wasn’t wrong. Cartographers are uncommon in the modern world now that technology has dominated the industry. You remember the times in college where people would always ask why you got into your field. You had to explain that cartography wasn’t just hand drawing maps; it related back to software and digital images too.

“I get to create anything I want on a map. My quirk’s a weird one, but it helps a lot of different people, so I’m not complaining.” You eyed the pack of pink sparkly sticky notes and glitter pens sitting next to Dynamight’s keyboard. Pinky probably brought him her new stationary set that launched recently, you thought to yourself with amusement.

“Speakin’ of, been wantin’ to ask you a question.” Dynamight caught you eying his stationary and scratched his neck in what you could assume to be embarrassment. “Shoot,” you replied, noting that the sun was finally beginning to set later in the day now that the winter solstice happened a month ago.

“Why didn’t you become like— a fuckin’ underground hero or some shit? Your quirk isn’t that niche. Could use it for raids n’ infiltrating places.” You didn’t know whether or not to take his commentary as a compliment or not, but you figured that if he was questioning your avoidance of the hero career path, it meant he noticed something in you that you didn’t.

“It wasn’t for me. My quirk is exhausting. Five miles sounds like a pretty small radius, but when I’m visualizing the area, everything is visualized. Buildings, roads, you name it. Drawing it from memory takes a lot out of me,” you spoke. “I take a while to draw and digitize my maps. It wouldn’t be easy to keep up with the hustle of hero work, let alone working within a time crunch.”

Dynamight hummed in acknowledgement. You really didn’t expect to be conversing with him about your life choices, but it was a nice break, and it meant you got to learn more about him, even if he was asking about your life.

“You still chose to work with heroes though.” You let out a small laugh. “I guess you’re right,” you began, meeting his stare. He was really pretty now that you were looking closer at him. “I figured if I couldn’t handle the stress of real hero work, that working behind the scenes is the next best thing. My maps are almost always accurate and to scale; I pride myself on it. Means that heroes can rely on the information for a multitude of things.”

He nodded, seemingly hesitating before speaking again. “Know we ain’t had a chance to talk much since y’started working here. Red begged me to put you in my agency because he figured you’d be easier to reach here and your name would get recognized if it was associated with my office.” You hadn’t really thought of that before, but he was right. Red Riot’s office was packed as it was, and you figured everyone else’s was too. It was a lucky shot that you got placed with Dynamight, since he was still looking for workers to fill in his office due to it being newer than most.

“I really appreciate Eijiro being able to start my career off like this. I never would have imagined moving across the country to start my dream job so soon, if at all,” you said, casting your gaze to the pictures on Dynamight’s shelves behind his desk. “First name basis, huh?” the hero smirked as you let out a small noise of shock. “Y-Yeah, we kept in contact a lot and he would regularly help me gain clients in different cities. Told me that we were friends and to stop addressing him by his hero name every time we talked.”

“That’s Eiji for you.” A pregnant pause followed before your boss let out a groan of frustration. “I’m not— I fuckin’ hate small talk like this. Don’t know how people do it,” Dynamight said finally, pinching the bridge of his nose before speaking again. “Couldn’t figure out how to speak to you without sounding like a dick ‘cause I didn’t do it sooner. Atsuno was grilling me about not even having a functional conversation with you yet, even though I’m the one that hired you.”

You let out a laugh at that. You had been a little mad at him for not even properly greeting you since you began your work for the agency, but you assumed that being the number 2 hero in Japan was busy as shit. “I get it, you’re a top hero. I’m sure you’re busy enough as it is, can’t blame you for not being able to talk to a cartographer of all people,” you shrugged as you spoke, Dynamight leaning back in his office chair and giving you a small nod.

“Yeah. Sorry for steering the conversation elsewhere. How’s Deku’s shitty map comin’ along?” He asked as you began going through the details of your progress.

After you explained the gist of it, he grunted in response before standing up. He’s tall as fuck, you realized as you hurriedly stood up as well, assuming your talk was over with. Dynamight walked you to his office door before stopping once you turned around to thank him again. “Thanks for uh— earlier. When you were complimenting my work. It means a lot, truly.”

“Don’t let it inflate yer shitty ego. Can’t handle another person that gets a big head after someone compliments them,” he spat. You could tell he wasn’t used to being given a sincere thanks very often. “Hey. One more thing.”

You raised an eyebrow at him as his face turned blank for a moment before he sighed and his signature scowl returned. You should have known the conversation you were having earlier was too good to be true.

“You would not be able to win against me in a fuckin’ cook off. My cooking probably beats yours by a shit ton. Watch your mouth next time you run around all bark and no bite.” You nearly fainted on the spot as your body ran as cold as ice. What the fuck. What the fuck? WHAT THE FUCK? You repeated in your head, eyes going wider than dish plates as Dynamight’s glare sent another chill down your spine.

“Shit.” Is all that came out of your mouth after he all but pushed you by your back out the door and closed it in your face.

It’s official, you think as you trudge your way to the elevator, the beginning of a migraine creeping into your skull. You were going to kill Naomi.

[madamegemknight]

I've finally watched the Muppets 2011 with my dad, and it was a blast!! I love its sense of humor (seriously, that Muppet man joke had me CACKLING), and it's so heart-warming in its simplicity and having a good time despite the trials the Muppets went through... I feel like I can't wipe this smile off my face (ehe)

Do you have any other Muppet or puppet media you'd recommend? I thought I'd ask you since you're the resident puppet expert, and I've been wanting to get into more puppet-related stuff :P

OH YAYYYY I’m so glad you liked it!!

And I do have other Muppet/puppet media I would recommend, thank you so much for asking (and gosh I am incredibly flattered you consider me the resident puppet expert). This is going to be LONG (sorry about that in advance), so under the cut it goes!

First off, I’d recommend the sequel to Muppets 2011, Muppets Most Wanted! It’s about the Muppets going on a world tour after getting back together in the previous movie, only for a criminal mastermind named Constantine (who looks exactly like Kermit) to hijack the tour, sending the real Kermit to prison and pretending to be Kermit so he can hide from the law and use the tour as a chance to steal the Crown Jewels. It’s a really great comedy heist that’s also an INCREDIBLE musical, and it has the same humor and sense of heart that Muppets 2011 has. I haven’t seen it in a while, but I have incredibly fond memories of watching it with my sibling when we were younger, and I think you would really enjoy it.

I would also recommend the original Muppet Show! I haven’t finished watching it yet (I’m on season 4 of 5 at the moment) but it’s a really fun show that serves as a love letter to old vaudeville theater and is just consistently entertaining. There’s no overarching plot and you can pretty much watch any episode in any order, though I would suggest that if you’re interested in checking it out, you watch the Harry Belafonte episode first - it’s regarded by a lot of fans (including me) as being the best episode of the series, and gives a very good idea of what the rest of the show is like.

(Also I HIGHLY recommend you watch the pitch reel for The Muppet Show, which you can find on YouTube here. It’s not essential viewing by any means, but it’s very funny and gives a bit of context for what the field of entertainment was like at the time the show was pitched)

The original trilogy of Muppet films are also absolutely stellar. The Muppet Movie is the story of how the Muppets got together, The Great Muppet Caper is essentially an AU where Fozzie and Kermit are brothers working for a newspaper and trying to prove Miss Piggy innocent of a jewel robbery, and Muppets Take Manhattan is essentially an AU where the Muppets were all friends in college and are trying to put on a show in New York. The original trilogy films are really fun in my opinion because they play fast and loose with what’s real and what’s fake; Kermit admits at the beginning of The Muppet Movie that it’s only an approximate retelling of how the Muppets actually got together, and the other two movies in the trilogy are telling completely separate stories than the main Muppet timeline, with The Great Muppet Caper even having an entire song devoted to telling the audience that it’s just a movie and that it isn’t actually canon. They all have INCREDIBLE soundtracks, too, the songs from these movies are some of my favorite Muppet songs ever.

Fraggle Rock isn’t really considered a piece of Muppet media anymore, since when Disney bought the rights to the Muppets they didn’t bother buying it as well, but it was originally a Muppet production and all of the stuff I watched as a kid referred to it as a Muppet production, so I’m counting it as a Muppet production still lol. Fraggle Rock is an absolutely amazing show on all levels; the puppetry is great, the songs are all stellar, the characters are so well-written, and despite being a show aimed at kids it never talks down to its audience, handling serious issues like death and prejudice with the respect they deserve. It’s probably best to go into Fraggle Rock as blind as possible (unlike The Muppet Show, there is an overarching story, though you don’t really find out that there is one until towards the end of Season 1) so all I’ll say is that it’s probably one of my favorite Muppet productions ever and that the finale, without exaggeration, made me cry for 30 minutes straight. There’s also a Fraggle Rock reboot called Fraggle Rock: Back to The Rock, and while I personally don’t think it’s as good as the original series, it’s still REALLY amazing and you can tell that the team working on it really cares about the og series. If you do end up watching Fraggle Rock, I’d recommend the reboot as well!

Getting into a bit more obscure territory here, but Tales From Muppetland: The Frog Prince is very near and dear to my heart. It’s a Muppet retelling of the Frog Prince fairytale, with the twist that the princess has been cursed by the same witch that the frog prince has been cursed by! The relationship between Prince Robin and Princess Melora is really cute, and it’s clear that the two of them really care for each other. I love the changes that it makes to the original fairytale, too; I mentioned the twist of Melora also being cursed, which gives her and Robin the chance to bond and leads to a very sweet song about finding someone who understands who you are and what you’ve gone through, but the story is also altered so that Robin explains why he needs Melora to kiss him instead of hiding the fact that he’s a prince from her - she doesn’t believe him, but I’m glad they made that change regardless. The witch is also a really fun villain! She’s reused from a previous Muppet production (Tales of The Tinkerdee) that was meant to be a pilot for a planned show but was never picked up, and I’m really glad she got a chance to shine in something that was actually officially released.

Sam and Friends is the first ever Muppet series, debuting in 1955, and while most of it is unfortunately lost media there are a couple episodes you can find online! I really like Sam and Friends (I have a book all about the making of the show), and I would recommend it both as a way to look at how far television puppetry has come and as just a genuinely very entertaining show in its own right - plus, the episodes are only 5 minutes long, so you can get through all the available episodes pretty quickly. My personal favorite episode is “Powder Burn,” a parody of the show Gunsmoke.

Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas is probably one of my favorite Christmas specials ever, despite me only watching it for the first time this past December. It’s a very earnest and emotional story about a family (Emmet Otter and his mother Alice Otter) living in poverty after the death of Emmet’s father. Both Emmet and Alice want to be able to give each other a good Christmas present, so they both enter the local talent contest on Christmas Eve in order to win the cash prize without telling each other. The soundtrack is done by the same man who did the soundtrack for The Muppet Movie (Paul Williams), and is just GORGEOUS - it manages to be silly and heartfelt at the same time, and does some really interesting stuff with the instrumentals, like having a kazoo solo during one of the more somber songs which somehow actually works! Like Fraggle Rock, it it isn’t afraid of tackling serious issues like death and poverty, and like Fraggle Rock, it made me bawl like a baby.

Finally, I would recommend both the documentary Of Muppets and Men and the Jim Henson Hour episode “Secrets of The Muppets” (I sadly haven’t watched enough of The Jim Henson Hour to give a proper recommendation, but from the little I’ve seen it’s very good). Both of these tackle the behind the scenes of working on the Muppets, with Of Muppets and Men being about the making of The Muppet Show specifically and “Secrets of The Muppets” being a general overview of the stuff the Muppets had done up to that point. I completely understand if you don’t want to see the behind the scenes workings of the Muppets (my mom doesn’t like seeing that kind of thing either and I get why), but if you do want to see it I can’t recommend these two enough. They do an excellent job at introducing and highlighting the skills of the troupe of Muppet performers, detailing specific tricks of puppeteering, and showing how everything comes together.

There’s definitely more Muppet media I want to recommend, but if I did so we’d be here FOREVER, and I still haven’t gotten to the puppet media recommendations! This list does serve as a pretty good starting point though - if you like Frog Prince and Jug-Band Christmas you’ll probably like the rest of the Tales From Muppetland specials, if you like one of the original trilogy of Muppet movies you’ll probably like the others in the trilogy, if you like Sam and Friends you’ll probably like the Muppets’ appearances on shows like the Ed Sullivan Show or the Jimmy Dean show that they made during that period, etc. Most of this stuff is on YouTube or the Internet Archive, but if you’re looking for something specific and can’t find it, let me know and I’ll do my best to locate it 👍

AND NOW AFTER 50 MILLION PARAGRAPHS WE ARE ON TO THE PUPPET MEDIA IN GENERAL RECOMMENDATIONS

I have to start this list off with my favorite movie of all time, The Dark Crystal. It’s a fantasy epic done entirely with puppets, and it is utterly gorgeous. All of the puppets are so detailed (I had the absolute blessing to see some of them when a local museum held a puppetry exhibit and the sheer amount of tiny details you can’t even SEE in the film are incredible), the world is so richly developed, the soundtrack is absolutely top-tier, and the amount of innovations in puppetry that this film causes are mind-blowing. There are traditional puppets, people in suits, radio-controlled puppets…the list goes on! I cannot recommend The Dark Crystal enough, it means so much to me and is probably the reason I’m so obsessed with puppets in the first place. It also has a prequel on Netflix called Age of Resistance - like the Fraggle Rock reboot, I don’t think it’s as good as the og, but it’s still absolutely stunning and the team working on it clearly cares about the world of the original film. Sadly, the prequel was cancelled after only one season :( I still recommend it if you like the film, but just go into it knowing that it’s gonna end on a cliffhanger.

The Little Shop of Horrors movie has an absolutely AMAZING puppet in the form of Audrey II, the film’s main antagonist. There are multiple Audrey II puppets, as the character grows throughout the entire film, and the biggest one required over 50 puppeteers to operate. There are no opticals or blue screens used for Audrey II (except for one scene at the very end of the film that they had to reshoot), and the effect is mind blowing. Little Shop is an absolutely incredible film overall, too, and thankfully doesn’t use Audrey II as a selling point or a gimmick - the puppet is incorporated very naturally into the film, and you appreciate the puppetry much more as a result.

I haven’t watched Labyrinth, but my sibling has and they really like it! From what I’ve seen of the puppetry, it’s really well done, and the movie seems very fun. Sorry I can’t give a better recommendation than that lol.

If we’re counting stop-motion animation as a form of puppetry (which I personally do considering the models are typically referred to as puppets), then I absolutely recommend checking out the work of LAIKA, which includes productions such as Coraline and Kubo and The Two Strings. I also highly recommend Wendell and Wild, made by former LAIKA supervising director Henry Selick, as well as Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio. All of these films are stunning, and they absolutely deserve the hype that surrounds them.

This one is a bit more preschool-centric, but when I was very little I was OBSESSED with Johnny and The Sprites, and having watched a bit of it again recently, I feel it still holds up somewhat for older audiences. It’s a show about a musician named Johnny who moves to a house in the woods in order to focus on his music only to find that the house is next to Grotto’s Grove, where a species of fairy-like beings called the Sprites live. The series is focused on Johnny teaching the Sprites about human stuff and the Sprites teaching Johnny about Sprite stuff in turn. It’s a very cute and charming show :3

On the complete opposite end of the spectrum is Mystery Science Theater 3000, a show about a man trapped in space with 4 robot companions and forced to watch bad movies as part of an evil science experiment. It’s very goofy and very immature at times, and 99% of the time you need a guide to understand the stuff they reference, but it’s great regardless, and despite being very simple the puppets are really well-designed. Unfortunately, one of the characters is named after the ethnic slur used against Romani people in the show’s original run; it wasn’t done out of any intentional malice and the creators changed her name when the show was revived and viewers expressed their concern, but if that sours your opinion on watching the original show I completely understand.

Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared is a classic, and for good reason - both the original webseries and the tv show riff off of and play with the stereotypes of traditional children’s puppet shows, while still clearly respecting the art of puppetry and giving it their own unique spin. It’s definitely on the spookier/gorier side of things, so MASSIVE content warning if you want to check it out, but DHMIS is very good and I adore it.

And with that, this very very very VERY long list comes to an end. I definitely didn’t mention everything that I wanted to - there are some excellent pieces of puppet media, like Starkid’s Starship, that I just haven’t gotten around to watching and thus can’t properly recommend - but like with the Muppet section, I’d suggest using this as a starting point. There’s a TON of puppet media out there, and this is just scratching the surface!

I hope this list helps, and that you find something on here that you enjoy :D

[narwhalandchill]

(HEAVILY suspect genshin 4.2 AQ weekly boss leaks, massive spoiler if its legit etc etc but take with a Colossal grain of salt, also general 4.0 & 4.1 spoilers jic, i am going moderately insane)

i would like to formally apologize in advance for the person im about to become if childes whale (or 'it' more likely than not) is genuinely going to be the 4.2 AQ weekly boss what the fuck. What the fuck

Listen. Listen. Listen.

ive been saying for YEARS that this fucker is a bigger deal than just he hee minor miniboss turned neutrally aligned friendly rival on the fatui harbinger gauntlet. ive been coping ive been starving seeing him get literally no relevance or new abyss lore for years as fanon butchered his character beyond recognition. but i knew. i knew they werent putting those lore breadcrumbs in there for nothing and like. im trying not to lose my mind just yet its still highly suspect claims but. itd make so much sense. itd explain everything.

the oratrice was not wrong. if the primordial anti-french bathwater is connected to the whale all along its no wonder it deemed childe guilty as the one with 'its' traces remaining on him all this time especially as the latent yet-untapped power resulting from that past encounter has clearly begun to surface. theyre registering as one and the same to the oratrice. and for the whale to end up as a weekly boss its Very clear theres an explicit link there.

and like? if the whales been behind fontaines rising sea levels and tied to the primordial water all this time lurking somewhere just underneath the nation of hydro im just. was childes instinct to come to fontaine specifically due to his worsening mood rly much coincidence at all or was 'it' beginning to call for him due to sensing that hed soon be ready to awaken his potential? his stories suggest quite clearly that this was what happened when ajax was 14 as well - the abyss called to him as did he to it, frustrated as he was with his ordinary life, seeking the potential he had within. ready to nurture his trouble-mongering nature into a true force of chaos and a nexus of strife. isnt this just the same thing all over again?

and the celestial star-cruising whale is his constellation. that kind of link isnt giving me a "chance encounter you happen to get latent powers from". and for skirk to explicitly state that awakening 'it' was a feat unheard of before ajax. that no one had ever done it before. theyre deeply intertwined if not outright the same entity on some cosmic level - just different incarnations somehow. shits getting Real and i fucking knew there was something up YEARS ago

anyway hooooly shit i am going to fucking lose it i really really hope its real. and like sure sure knowing its coming is technically a spoiler but also not really? bc now its just the how and why and when. is skirk going to finally show up? is childe going to summon 'it' either on accident or on purpose? would he utilize the imminent threat the whales presence poses to force both furina and neuvillette into emergency mode given how abyssal creatures are literally kryptonite for dragons and celestia-approved divine beings alike? is that why traveler ends up having to face it instead? bc those 2 would literally get irreversibly corroded by the abyss from one hit?

alternatively, will childe want to fight it? bc ppl dont talk about this for some reason but hes always had a voiceline about what we now know 100% was 'it' and bro genuinely wants to go back to the abyss full send just to throw hands with the whale to prove hes surpassed the past terror that gripped him upon their first encounter and that hes overtaken it with his own power. which with the new lore drops of their deep connection definitely isnt giving childe replacing and becoming the new incarnation of the abyssal star-whale at all nuh-uh. surely. (i want it so bad)

anyway. holy shit. heres hoping this doesnt just age like shit DUFYDUGHFGDJSHDK i really want an AQ final fight thats not just harbinger of the week for the 4th time in a row. theyre fun and all and like yeah arguably childes ties to it kinda make it a harbinger fight but also not? bc this is about his abyssal links nothing to do with being in the fatui. and its the whale anyway not him per say

anyway heres hoping we get that 3rd final boss fight to the death with him in the celestia arc for once and for all when hes finally reached his peak. first we fight him at his incomplete level in liyue. then his abyssal whale. then 3rd time him in his final form thank youuu

but like. still emphasizing. this is NOT reliable leaks or confirmed yet so hold your horses. very sussy whisperings from some ppl who do have somewhat of a truthful track record but nothing concrete. i just went insane enough with the very idea that my brain made me type this madness out regardless

[riddle-me-ri]

Heyo everybody! HAPPY NEW YEAR! 

I have another wee update before the start of the new year! (and I have to pass out in order to be up and at work at 7 am rip)

First off, I just wanted to thank you guys so much for your support and for getting me out of a tough spot this last couple of weeks. A lot of stuff was going on and getting into my head. I'm getting better at it, slowly but surely…and taking it day by day.

However, there's something I kinda wanna get off my chest, in hopes that maybe it can alleviate some of my other anxieties of posting and creating content...

I've been mulling over how to make this post for a hot minute. And I think I'm ready to finally put it out there, especially in time for the new year where I have no doubt more requests will be rolling in.

I won't highlight or detail any specific requests in my inbox I have now, but I will just say I have unfortunately had to delete several requests in my inbox that I feel I wasn't able to get to or I feel like I wasn't able to fulfill properly. 

I know some of you wonder if it may or may not be yours, I don’t really wanna share the ones I didn’t do because I don’t wanna put anyone on blast (even if its anon, I don’t want anyone to feel discouraged) plus they’ve already been deleted so I couldn’t go back and find them if I tried. 

However, here’s some…I guess hints? To what type of requests may have gotten deleted? Or like what to avoid requesting me in the future? I dunno the best way to put it rip

I do ask you guys to refrain from things involving parenthood, pregnancy, or children. 

Pregnancy scares the shit out of me. I know to many it’s a beautiful natural thing, but all I can think about is the movie Alien and having some being sucking the life force out of me. I can get the appeal in some ways, but not enough to where I feel comfortable writing about it. 

I deal with kids on a fairly regular basis (I work at a pet store that some people use as a free day care) so it's hard for me to like...get in the mindset for them. I just can’t stand kids that have had zero discipline and coming home from work to try and work on a request with kids is just really difficult for me rip

I know I wrote one thing with the Riddler's being dads, and I had fun with the dialogue and the hilarious scenario, but that's as far as I want it to go.

Another type of request I’ve been struggling with, is requests dealing with mental health. I’ve gotten a couple requests for an autistic reader and I’ve tried doing research and asking around, but I’m worried that no matter how much research I do…I won’t ever be able to fully grasp it in terms of a character that has it. I can write about anxiety and depression cause I suffer from it, but I don’t wanna risk the chance of offending someone or being way off! I’d highly advise that you guys reach out to authors that are autistic and can write your neat ideas to full proper fruition! I have no doubt they’d appreciate the opportunity!  

One more thing, please when requesting, give me everything you can think of. The more suggestions, ideas, prompts, etc. you guys give me the more I can work with. 

It doesn't have to be anything crazy specific but something other than "*insert character trope* reader and riddler" would be gratefully appreciated. 

I do appreciate the creative freedom, but it’s also really easy to feel like I’m just a content engine meant to just pump something out from the bare minimum. 

I hope this helps!

 I just wanna apologize in advance to all the people who sent me a request that got deleted. The number was just getting too much for me and I wanna make room for newer requests in the future and alleviate some of the pressure of not being able to fulfill a certain idea or prompt.

Thank you guys so much for understanding, I hope you know that I still appreciate the fact so many of you trust me with your ideas but some of them I just couldn't find the inspiration for or couldn't get in a proper headspace for and just hope you guys can understand!

I love you all! Here’s to a happy new year! See you guys soon!

[glowupforever]

The 3 Daily Habits That Enhance My Skin - You'll Wish You Knew Sooner!

Like most of us, I'll admit that I agree to feel totally overwhelmed by skincare. There are countless items, practices, and tips available. However, after years of experimentation, I found three easy daily routines that actually improved my skin. And believe me, they're not as costly or difficult as you may imagine.

I've learned the following, which explains why these routines are so effective:

1. The Morning and Nightly Gentle Cleaning Ritual:

Honestly, I used to believe that cleaning was only about getting rid of filth, but it's actually much more than that. Why it matters: Impurities that clog pores are left behind by improper cleansing, while over cleaning can deplete your skin of its natural oils.

What I do: Apply a mild cleanser that is sulfate free, particularly one that contains moisturizing components like ceramides or glycerin. For around 60 seconds, concentrate on massaging it into my skin; this will help get rid of buildup. To prevent the skin from drying out, rinse with lukewarm water.

To be honest, this practice has almost immediately improved the texture, health, and irritation of my skin. I really suggest trying this if you've ever neglected to wash at night; you'll notice a difference.

2. Applying moisturizer, even if it seems optional:

I had believed that moisturizers were intended for people with dry skin. Actually, any skin type even oily ones can feel out of balance if this step is skipped.

Reasons for its importance:

Maintaining adequate hydration strengthens your skin's protective layer, lowers sensitivity, and gives you a radiant, healthy appearance.

I apply a mild, gel based moisturizer containing hyaluronic acid first thing in the morning.

It never feels oily and is refreshing. To help restore my skin while I sleep, I use a thicker product at night, such as a peptide or ceramide cream.

Trust me, My skin has become more robust and plump as a result of this habit, and I no longer have those bothersome flaky spots.

3. Sunscreen: The Routine I Would Like to Have Adopted Early

The power of sunscreen is something I truly wish I had known sooner.

Why it's revolutionary:

Sunscreen shields your skin from hyperpigmentation, early aging, and potentially skin cancer in addition to preventing burns.

My approach is to apply a broad spectrum SPF of 30+ or higher.

Apply it generously every single morning, even when it’s cloudy or I’m staying indoors (yes, UVA rays can sneak through windows!).

Reapply during the day if I'm spending time outside it's worth it, trust me.

Apply liberally every morning, even on overcast days or when I'm staying inside (yes, windows may let UVA rays in!). Trust me, it's worth it to reapply during the day if I'm going to be outside.

Honestly, it has changed my life to make sunscreen a must. Now my skin appears more even toned, smoother, and brighter than before.

Why These Behaviors Complement Each Other:

The wonderful thing about these behaviors is that they reinforce one another:

Cleaning prepares your skin to take in all the benefits.

Your skin remains peaceful and content since moisturizing moisturizes and improves it.

Sunscreen keeps UV rays from undoing all of your hard work.

I've really been able to maintain my schedule without feeling overburdened by keeping it this easy.

Final Thoughts

Now it's your chance to give it a try and comment! These behaviors may not seem like much, but they have had a significant effect on my skin.

I highly encourage you to start here if you've been searching for a doable regimen that actually works.

Have you previously tried any of these? Or do you follow your own skincare routine?

Your opinions would be very appreciated; let's share ideas and gain knowledge together!

"We're Building This Together"

Healthy, glowing skin feels more meaningful when we achieve it together, with each shared routine and learned tip. This is more than just sharing skincare advice it's about building a supportive community where we can openly share experiences, challenges, and encouragement.

Your skincare journey could truly encourage someone else who is struggling to find their way!

Remember, each of you brings unique value and respect to this community, and I'm really grateful to have you here. Let's keep learning, glowing, and achieving healthier skin together.

Your shared experiences, with all their ups and downs, encourage us all.

Together, we're not just a community; we're a family, always standing by each other, no matter what comes our way. 😊

Best of Luck 👍

[thegnasticious]

‘Ghosts’ by Nine-Inch Nails

So it’s Halloween time again, and I’ve found another creeper feature. This time it’s Nine-Inch Nail’s ‘Ghosts’. I originally heard about this album around 2009 but did not want to check it out at that time, it took me about thirteen years to coincidentally see it again, and I decided to find out what it was all about.

I will start with saying that my knowledge of Nine-Inch Nails is fairly limited. This is the only full Trent album I have in my library (otherwise is various singles from David Lynch productions.)

Well this album is put simply, creepy. It is at its core a soundtrack for fall, and the setting in of leaves. It highlights the omniscience of a coming death, which renews spring through usually, a frozen winter. Many different times seem to single a sense of alarm (sirens, deep bass tones, strangers flutes/horns) it truly sounds like a soundtrack taken from a dreamscape, rather than a major 90’s electro metal band. You would not think this album came from Nine-Inch Nails simply put.

Driving to Wisconsin was the way I was introduced to this album, and it fit the drive perfectly. At many moments the music sounds more like something from the score of a Lynch flick than anything else, the album is instrumental and it can go from something you’d sleep to, to something that would clearly wake you up in a heartbeat. Some might call this pacing schizophrenic, but when you look it as a whole, it’s quickly realized it is fundamental to understanding the album as an experience, not a single song in any way.

This makes this album highly atypical of its time, and in some lights it’s like modern Beethoven. I say this because it holds back in no way, and charges forward blindly. It is an angry bull, and it’s set on goring someone before it’s over. In this way Ghosts shows its true colors, and how behind every ghost is a horrible horrible death (after all they wouldn’t be ghosts without that, would they?)

I wouldn’t go as far as to call it Avant-Garde though I would assume it’s falsely labeled as so. In a way it’s like classical horror music. It leaves you hanging, provides resolve where it’s not needed, and drops it off where you would not usually expect it.

Driving and listening to it was an ethereal experience. I imagined the composer was not Trent, but some shadow in my studio. And now that I was leaving, it was having at this beautiful sounding album all in an empty space; an album wrote by and for nothing. If that didn’t define this album, I don’t know what will, honestly.

If Lost Highway 2 ever has a reason to exist (it doesn’t don’t worry) it will likely be scored with this music. Something about the music, is highly alike to driving at night on a country highway. It feels almost extra-terrestrial, as if the music itself is gliding above, looking down on you. This is something that seems to be hard to find in modern media, and in all honesty, I think it’s a damn shame.

David Bowie wrote highly of Nine-Inch Nails, and I couldn’t quite understood why, until I truly gave this album a chance. The versatility in this album, shows harmonic capacities which go far out of the accepted pop spectrum. It sounds more like a dissected ‘Prisoners’ score than an album at points, and that in my opinion works much in its favor.

For ten bucks, you’ll get around 34 2 minute tracks, if you decide to take the dive. I’d suggest doing so, but plan a nice drive for the experience

4.8/5

[jozigist]

The Inside scoop: What ‘Jay Jay’ told me about Alex Iwobi

It feels like just yesterday when fireworks burst into the evening sky, exquisitely decorating the Lusail Stadium scenes as Lionel Messi lifted up the World Cup.

The first of its kind in the Middle East was a colourful football feast reminiscent of when passionate fans gathered on the shores of South Africa for the 2010 edition. Golden memories of the sound of Vuvuzela’s reverberating through the Ellis Park Stadium and the excitement in the inner cities will forever be cherished. Topping my personal list of memorable highlight’s of the 2010 World Cup was meeting one of football’s greatest ever dribblers – Jay Jay Okocha for the first time!

It felt like a dream. That I would actually see Jay Jay in person in the hallways of the Southern Sun Roof top bar in Hyde Park, Johannesburg was unbelievable! Was I dreaming?! It took me a little while to drink in the fact that he was not on a Television screen. This is actually the living legend, the fabled footballer, the talented dribbler, the playmaker, the free-kick specialist, the magician, the midfield maestro, the myth….

This is Jay Jay Okocha… My heart rate increased and my head was covered in beads of sweat as I politely asked to get his autograph. He obliged and scribbled his signature on the famous green Jersey I had placed in his line of sight. Fast forward 12 years later, and the news suddenly broke that Jay Jay’ will be among a stellar line up of experts, analysing the recently concluded World Cup games at the Supersports studio in Johannesburg. As a Sport’s journalist residing in the City of Gold, meeting this National Treasure again was a career defining moment I knew I would never forget. After a few phone calls with his representatives, I was elated to land the exclusive interview. ‘Jay Jay’s cool, calm & collected yet charismatic character as an analyst on Supersports, ignited my hopes that our pending interaction will be one for the ages. As I revelled in the exciting prospect of probing my childhood hero, it suddenly dawned on me that the highly sought after star may yet still cancel my ‘big moment’ due to his congested work schedule. The day of the interview had finally arrived. Non-functioning traffic lights on William Nicol Drive caused unforeseen traffic jams. The ‘apocalyptic’ chaos on the road was as a result of roadworks and nationwide power cuts. Panic started to set in - I was running late to one of the most important interviews of my career! Fortunately, my smartphone app, Waze navigated me out of the traffic congestion to keep my date with destiny. I arrived at the Sandton Sun 5 minutes beforehand. This gave me just enough time to inform the receptionist, go to the bathroom, gather my thoughts and take a few deep breaths before I met ‘Jay Jay’ again face-to-face. As I patiently waited in the lobby, I couldn’t help but notice the large marble columns and glittering crystals in the beautiful ballroom chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. The entrance foyer was adorned with natural lights and unique furniture pieces. The elevator doors to my left suddenly slid open and here comes ‘Jay Jay,’ in a navy double-breasted blazer on blue chinos and a pair of black leather loafers by Ferragamo. Words refused to form as I walked up to the Super Eagles legend. From reading his facial expressions, he knew he had seen me somewhere before, but he couldn't quite place where. The old saying, you only get one chance to make a first impression is not always true as this was my second shot! The 1996 Olympic gold medallist had a kingly air around him as we conversed. Despite retiring from the round leather game as far back as 2008, the former PSG shooter and Ronaldinho’s skilful mentor still keeps possession of a jam-packed diary that allows little time for anything else. ‘Jay Jay’ was on his way to back-to-back meetings so he graciously suggested that we reschedule our interview for the following day. Our mismatched schedules spelt the end of our chat for the time being. I drove home feeling slightly disappointed. However, it suddenly dawned on me that this was the universe giving me a chance to do more research on the seven-time Nigerian Footballer of the Year. I stayed up well into the early hours of the morning, watching You tube videos of ‘Jay Jay’ humiliating some of the biggest names in world football. The two time BBC African Footballer of the Year is fondly remembered for that sublime solo goal where he dribbled past four defenders and left Oliver Kahn dazed before smashing the ball in the back of the net. This is arguably the brightest highlight of Okocha’s illustrious career. He was the heartbeat of the star-studded Super Eagles team that competed at the 1998 World Cup in France. Jay Jays sublime skills were instrumental in Nigeria surprisingly topping their group ahead of Spain, Bulgaria and Paraguay. Even in the teams disgraceful 4-1 fall in the round of 16, one man stood out – and that was ‘Jay Jay’. At this stage of his career, the Fenerbahce ace had the world at his feet. 30 goals in 62 appearances in the Super Lig and his electrifying France 98 performances earned him a lucrative contract with PSG worth £14 million, making him the most expensive African player at the time. Thrust into superstardom at such a young age, I was curious to find out how he handled all the fame, money, and attention. Did Jay Jay’ live a wild lifestyle like other African footballers with a similar ‘rags to riches’ story? Did the pressures of fame become too much for him at any stage of his career? Who is Jay Jay when the spotlight is not on him? These are some of the questions that lingered in my mind as I continued to fine-tune my interview questions. I woke up the next day with only one mission on my mind – and that was to have a memorable and insightful conversation with Jay Jay. Like the previous day, I arrived at the Sandton Sun just on time. I spotted the man I came to see standing next to one of my favourite TV presenters, Mozez Praiz in the parking lot. On this occasion, Jay Jay was on his way to work at the Supersports studios and profusely apologized for forgetting about his appointment with me. His apology was immediately accepted as he struck me as a sincere person who didn’t mind doing the interview but legitimately had too much on his plate. He assured me that my patience would finally pay off if I came back to the hotel the next day. The Super Eagles legend rewarded my leap of faith by keeping his word. He waited for me at the hotel reception, wearing a pair of shorts, having just come back from his ‘glorious triumph’ in a game of tennis with Ghanaian striker, Asamoah Gyan. With a cap covering his face, he hoped he would go unrecognized, but it is hard to miss arguably the greatest ever natural talent to grace a football field. He cracked his signature smile as two fans approached us, demanding selfies with their idol. We then hopped on a moving escalator taking us up to a secluded board room at the hotel. Finally, it was happening! I started our interview by asking Jay Jay about when he realized that he had ‘magic in his boots’, I was expecting a cliché answer to the question; We have all heard the typical answers; "I just knew it", "I just felt it”. Interestingly, Jay Jay was willing to open up and share intricate details about his humble beginnings. “I started my love affair with football on the streets of Enugu. That is where It all started for me. I remember running around barefooted as a child, playing with tennis balls, water bottles, anything round that was kickable. We use to make use of old plastic bottles, giant stones and even bamboo sticks to create goal posts. I realized in these times that I was more skilful than the other kids around me and this is around the time that even my parents were starting to notice that I had a special talent,” Jay Jay recalled. From shining in 5 aside matches on uneven dusty roads with notorious potholes to representing Enugu Rangers in the Nigerian Professional Football League, Jay Jay was on the rise! From local football to the international stage, he was left with no choice but to overcome homesickness. “Moving from Nigeria to Germany was very difficult. That transition of leaving home to an unknown country was a bigger challenge than the ones that awaited me on the pitch. I was leaving my family and friends behind and I could not even speak the language. I initially struggled to adjust to the cold weather but I quickly realized that this was a big opportunity for me and if I made it, my life would never be the same. This thought alone kept me going. I also wanted my family back home to live under better circumstances,” recollects the former Frankfurt phenomenon. Branches from Jay Jay’s talented family tree of footballers extends to his son Ajay who currently plays for Eintracht Frankfurt, proving that the apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree. Everton’s Alex Iwobi is another member of the clan who has blossomed in Europe. The 2017 FA Cup winner is often unfairly compared to his globally lionized uncle, so I asked Jay Jay to share the advice he gives Alex, having played in the English Premier League for four years with Bolton Wanderers. “Alex is a very good player. I always remind him to never ever forget how good he is. I want him to be his own man, he doesn’t have to play like me. All he needs to do is to work on his weaknesses and showcase his strengths ever so often on the pitch. I advise him all the time to try and be as consistent as possible. It is very important for a player to be consistent” Jay Jay’s consistency, confidence and creative flair made him one of the most revered players in the Premier League. Bolton’s player of the year in the 2004/2005 season often set the Reebok Stadium ablaze with his trickery, technique and trademark turns. His brilliant partnership with French World Cup winner, Youri Djorkaeff kept the Trotters out of scrappy relegation battles. Okocha’s style of play was just the sparkle that Sam Allardyce’s side needed. The Super Eagle star enjoyed a profitable manager/player relationship with Big Sam.The pair garnered attention with their hilarious on-pitch dance routines that was evidence of their truly special working synergy. “Sam Allardyce became more than just my boss - we became friends. I loved his philosophy. We understood each other very well. When I signed for the club, Big Sam told me that he believed in me and that my influence will take the club to the next level,” Jay Jay recalled. “Bolton was like a family. It was shocking to see how close the fans were to the team. They made me feel so welcome. I fell in love with the club,” he avowed. After scoring 14 goals in 124 appearances and helping the club to 43 wins, the midfield maestro picked Senegalese striker, El Hadji Diouf as the greatest African teammate he ever had in the English Premier League “He was a special talent. His life off the pitch was very controversial but as a footballer, he was superb” Okocha disclosed. I was then curious to find out who Jay Jay considered his toughest opponent,” I don’t want to sound arrogant because I believe my greatest opponent is me. However, if I have to pick anyone else, I would say Cameroonian right-back, Lauren who played for Arsenal was very tough to play against,” the 1994 Afcon winner admitted. Like Samuel Eto’o after hanging up his boots, I wondered if ‘Jay Jay’ nurtured ambitions of heading his countries football federation. This was his response to my last question: “I cannot rule this out in future but at the moment, I am focused on my roles as a brand ambassador for different corporate companies. I am busy with several business ventures and I am just concentrating on being a successful business owner” After closing our interview, I turned on the flash settings on my phone camera to take clear pictures and videos of myself with the legendary footballer. These images were not just bragging rights for social media platforms; they were credible evidence for my future grandkids. As we both posed for the flashing cameras, I still could not believe I was standing next to the footballer that I often tried to imitate as a child, chasing down soccer balls in the hot sun with friends in dirty school uniforms. I still could not believe I was standing next to the footballer that made households in Nigeria erupt with screams of ‘IZ A GOOOOOAAAAALLLLLL!’ as Jay Jay scored an unbelievable free-kick in the last minute of a game. Such was the magical moments that he created. I could not believe I was standing next to the man so good they named him twice. My late dad would have loved to snap a picture with Jay Jay too. Dad was a raving fan. Read the full article

[evilminji]

Probably some legit moonshiners? He could find? Like... just visiting his Aunt. They are about a couple miles "that'a way, but don't tell the cops." Etc. Good summer project!

But the QUESTION now is? Halfa's! Drunk or Nah? Is it by form? Does CHANGING form abruptly cause it to cut out? That would be absolute hell on the body.

Going by the logic that The Zone is a backwards reflection? That? Would LIKELY, mean THEIR booze is an UPPER and not a Downer? Like, Alcohol is a depressant. It's why you should ABSOLUTELY never drink when already sad or depressed. You WILL get worse.

But! Ghost booze?

It... my brain is legit suggesting it might be liquid Speed. You would get inebriation AND an energy rush. Like one of those espresso martinis but with death wish coffee. And the hangover would be from when you crash.

Whole body hurting, you picked fights you shouldn't have, ran marathons, rearrange half your haunt, tried to fight phantom AGAIN. Now you feel sick and your ectoplasm can barely move, its been so overstrained. Like a full body pulled muscle.

Their coffee shops etc might be the opposite, too. Alert but SUUUPER calm. Chill.

Of the things you gotta wonder? Is do those fruits? TASTE right? Cause you CAN find alien fruits. Extinct ones. Is it even a mango? Danny out here with piles of plants and a notebook, trying to figure out what tastes like what.

He just wanted some Illicit Booze, man. He didn't know there'd be HOMEWORK.

But? He's come too far to give up now. Sunk cost fallacy and him are planning a summer wedding, damn it! They'll be honeymooning in Rome! His parents raised a feral racoon child, not a quitter! *bits into what MIGHT be a cucumber and winces... that was not a cucumber. His mouth is full of bitter slime.*

Best part? There is no way in hell? Those moonshiners even do more then blink when he shows up with glowing, radioactive lookin', ghost plants.

I DO like? The idea that Zone reflections of something cancel each other out though? Like Matter and Anti-Matter meeting. Deeeeefinitely not something you want happening INSIDE you. Danny would probably be fine. Highly Limnal folks would be... deeply uncomfortable.

But that legit sounds like "call an ambulance!" Territory? Because the Ghost Booze would meet normal Alcohol and? Both would be removed from your system. With NO CHANCE in hell that the process was gentle and slow, either. There would be tiny VACUUMS of space. Energy released. Damage to the surrounding tissue.

Danny's body probably just? Doesn't deal with it. Because it's constantly in a state of half and half. So one goes over THERE and the other is shunted over HERE. Problem solved. Hangovers for miles. Regrets had, mistakes not learned from.

Others? ICU. Possibly the morgue.

God, this is fun to think about. Because now I am wondering if there is a Ghost Vineyard. Raging debates on why MY Ghost booze is a Work Of Art(tm) and YOUR style of getting drunk is SWILL!

Does Danny accidentally open his mouth at some Booze Convention, while looking around, only to have basicly ever head in the building snap around to lock onto him? Ha ha, he's in danger? Run boy! RUN! They smell NEW BLOOD and WILL convince why THEIR Art is the SUPERIOR one!!!

Can you make Ghost Booze?

No really, serious question.

If Danny hit, say for legal purposes, 21 and TOTALLY not like 16+ with an internet connection and a dream, and looked a Zone Plants? And Wondered?

COULD he?

We know, basically, if it's Fauna it boozer. Gods bless the natural kingdom etc. BUT! While he maybe be looking at some sweet, FREE, neon day-glow fruits and veggies? They...are ectoplasm.

That Ectoplasmic Grape cluster? Ectoplasm. The neon purple mango? Ectoplasm again! These starchy tubers? From the fridge. But THESE tubers? The orange glowing ones? Ectoplasm! It's all goo, all the time, baby!

And DOES ECTOPLASM FERMENT? Is the question!

Cause we aren't ASKING IF there is ghost booze. Of course there is. But THAT may just form fully developed, bottle and all! So? Can they? Do we need Ghost Yeast? If it DOES ferment, does it even release ALCOHOL or something else? Like radioactive by-product?

Does it make sludge?

What does the illicit Ghost Moonshine Danny DEFINITELY hasn't made in the OPs center, TASTE like? Paint thinner with a hint of battery acid? Floral after taste? Is it fruity? Could it kill a man? Does it still GLOW?

The people demand ANSWERS!

@hypewinter @nerdpoe @ailithnight @the-witchhunter @hdgnj

[jaylaxies]

WORK FOR IT

PAIRING : dom!secretary!heeseung x ceo!fem!reader

GENRE : smut, oral (fem receiving), fingering, unprotected sex, angry sex, jealousy, uses of nicknames (doll), office sex, mentions of laziness, lack of professionalism, boss secretary relationship, making hee work to prove that he's not lazy.

WC : 2k words

SYNOPSIS : lee heeseung is probably the laziest person you've ever come across, and coincidentally, he's also your personal assistant. to get him to work, you pull out the you're fired card, that's when he shows you how efficient he actually is.

WARNING : 18+ content, minors dni.

A/N : hihi! i'm back with a hee fic! all likes, reblogs and comments are highly appreciated! i love to get feedback from y'all <3

this fic is a part of collaboration with @enhoesnetwork for the theme: 7 deadly sins, my topic being 'sloth', i hope you guys enjoy it! <3

"he's late, again." your voice boomed inside your empty office, complaining to no one in particular. it was important day for your company, a meeting with your potential future shareholders at that. the problem? your secretary was nowhere to be found during the meeting. meaning: the presentation lacked a myriad of important information, the information that your secretary had in the files he kept 'safe' with him.

that was your last straw. lacking in his work? fine to some extent, everyone needs to rest but, missing out on important days as such today wasn't and will never be acceptable to you or to your company.

"i found him in the bar all drunk and wasted, ms. l/n." park jay had told you when lee heeseung had taken an off for his apparent 'bad fever' which wasn't fever at all. you let it slide once.

and then, it went on, "he forgot the files at home.", "he slept during the meeting.", "he showed up in the wrong attire.", "he forgot to send in refreshment meals.", and you've had enough.

being a secretary was a job that specially required people who are diligent, enthusiastic and zealous. your secretary on the other hand, was on the verge of getting fired for being the opposite.

yes, the staff loved him. his lazy smile, his nonchalant attitude, his attractive face and melodious voice. but is that what it takes to be working at a top tier company? no.

you once heard your employees betting that heeseung came to work only to see you, that he wanted to get in your pants, or skirt since that was your work attire. they may have been right. you never missed the longing stares he sent your way, or the slight brushing of your fingers together as he handed over the file. he, indeed, wanted to fuck you. the flirty comments proving it further.

yes, you admit that he was a fine specimen to look at and maybe to go a base up or two. but workplace rules said otherwise and maintaining your sanity then became your topmost priority. you didn't want a big article on the news saying: ceo found fucking his sectary during the work hours. no, absolutely not.

a sudden slam of door broke your train of thoughts. lee heeseung, the man himself, stood there panting, as if he ran all the way towards the office, his face morphed into that of a horrific one. he knew.

"i'm so sorry, ms. l/n, i–i didn't mean to be late–"

"you're fired." your tone was calm, collected, everything opposite to what heeseung seemed in front of you.

his eyes went wider, wider than his usual big doe ones. he shook his head firmly, trying to understand the depth of the situation. he needed this job.

"mr. park will be your replacement." you finalized as heeseung stared at your red lips.

"please give me another chance, ms. l/n, i promise i'll work harder and better." he announced oozing sudden confidence.

you looked up at him, finally taking his appearance in. hair disheveled, tie barely in its place, specs perched on his nose, shirt sleeves rolled up and breathing rigged. after a second of scanning him, you bore eyes into his.

"work for it then, mr. lee." you suggested.

he raised an eyebrow, taking a step further, still unsure, "how can i work, ms. l/n?"

"work hard, mr. lee, show me that you deserve to be my secretary and not mr. park." you urged him.

another step forward.

"show me that you're worthy enough to be here, working with me."

another step. his tall, slender frame towered over yours. your gaze challenging him further. his big hands grabbed your waist, his face inches away from yours, and placed you on your desk. the intensity of the gaze only increasing as he spread open your legs, standing in between them. his clothed crotch area touching yours, making you gasp lowly.

he bent down to come to your level, "i'll show you what im capable of, ma'am."

you bit your lip as heeseung attacked your neck with kisses, slow and agonizing at pace. "is that hard working, heeseung?" you had never called him his name before. not once. it rolled off your tongue perfectly. he decided he wanted to hear more of it, and so he would.

the soft kisses soon turned into harsher ones, the kind to leave marks behind by the next day. his large hands holding you in your place as you lost yourself in the pleasure he was willing to provide. your hand on his broad shoulder to support you further.

he unbuttoned the two buttons of your blouse, your matching lace bra on display along with your tempting cleavage. he stared at it, licking his lips before diving right to fondle with your breasts, fully removing the blouse along with the bra in the process.

the lights were dim, the curtains closed, yet heeseung's face shone brightly as he expertly licked your sensitive bud while massaged the other boob. the sensation heightening as his hand moved south to rub your clothed clit. you sucked in a deep breath, feeling his big fingers circling you expertly, you wanted them inside you.

"heeseung–" that made him speed up further, pushing your panties aside and rubbing on your slick wet cunt.

you threw your head back as his slender finger entered you, curling inside you. a mess, that's what you looked like now while he worked with expertise on you. soon, another digit was added, hitting you deep in your g-spot as his mouth sucked soon to be hickeys on your clavicle.

he then kissed you, rough yet soft, haste and passionate, like he had mastered this particular art of kissing. you gasped into his mouth as he added his third finger, stretching you out good. his pace never slowed down, even for a second. his mind telling him to keep going on. why? cause he's hardworking. not lazy, not slow, only hardworking and passionate.

"still wanna fire me, doll?" a cocky grin plastered onto his perfectly sculpted face.

the door wasn't locked, anyone could just walk in on you two doing the deed yet you didn't mind, your mind was foggy as heeseung serenaded your lips. with a bite on your lower lip, he pulled away, a string a saliva still connecting you both. he worked further, getting down on his knees to replace his fingers with his tongue.

his grip on your thighs tight enough to leave bruised handprints later, he left butterfly kisses all over your inner thighs, your breathing rigged and shaky now. you moaned his name as you felt his mouth against your core, licking and sucking on your sensitive bundle of nerves. you hand guiding his head as you gripped his already messy hair.

he groaned against your cunt, sending shivers all over your body. you've been eaten out before, but never this good, it felt as if all your senses had heightened up to max.

his perfectly sharp nose brushed against your clit as he continued to please you. the stimulation too much for you to hold in, your climax building up with him inserting his tongue to fuck you. he didn't allow down, not for a second. he loved this too much.

'lee heeseung' the only name on your mind, it's like you had forgotten the existence of other beings all at once. and so you screamed his name as you came all over his pretty mouth, legs trembling.

"good girl." he praised, before licking your juices clean, humming for, he loved how you tasted, how he wanted to taste you for so long. dreaming about tasting your boss was one thing, implementing it? a whole new level.

your sheer blouses, skirts that hugged your figure perfectly, and that red lipstick. he wanted to ruin you since the day he started working here, he didn't know his laziness would get him here though.

his voice sent your brain into a frenzy. deep yet melodious. the one with authority dripping off it. he didn't waste a second before picking you up and throwing you on the couch, a gasp leaving your mouth at the impact. he pulled your skirt down along with your panties and leaned back to look at you.

hair a mess, chest rising up and down, fully bare with nothing but your pencil heels on. he smirked, biting his lips and whistling lowly.

"tell me, ms. y/n." another boundary broken, he called you your name. "am i not hard-working?' he feigned hurt, loosening his tie and unbuckling the belt, finally letting the pant fall down to show that he, indeed, was hard.

"heeseung–" you started but were interrupted with him rubbing his now fully free cock on your still sensitive core, his mouth near your ear, the sound of his breathing causing goosebumps to rise on your skin.

"can mr. park do this?" his tip was now placed at your entrance, slowly and barely sliding in. his soft hair fell near your shoulder, softy brushing, tickling your bare skin.

"n–no, he cannot–" you were yet again interrupted as heeseung pushed his dick inside you, filling you up as whole.

you had no clue how you were able to accommodate his size, large veiny dick all inside you, stretching you out pleasurably. without further delay, he started fucking you into the couch. each stroke powerful and proving a point. soft whimpers leaving your mouth as you clenched around his thick cock.

"y/n." heeseung groaned near your ear, your back arched with pleasure as he fondled your breasts with need. he was angry and had a pretty human to fuck, someone who he wanted for a long time.

he put your leg on his shoulder, giving him more access to fuck you. his thrusts now sloppy and strong. you cried as your felt another knot in your stomach, your nails scratched his back, marking him in a way.

"louder, i want everyone to hear you." he ordered with a raspy voice, his own dick twitching inside you. as he pulled out and switched you to be on your fours, ass up.

breathy moans left you both as he entered you again, slamming into you faster than before. only if the walls weren't soundproof, the whole building would've definitely heard you both. he grabbed your ass to support you further, not stopping once in the process.

"heeseung please." you were too close.

"go on, doll, cream my cock." and you did, gasping for air as he kept ramming into you for his release.

he pulled out and spilled all over your back, moaning your name in the process. after a breath or two, he grabbed your chin.

"go and ask jay if he can work this hard and you'll see for yourself, miss." his face so close, as he whispered against your lips.

he pecked you once, harshly at that, before cleaning you and helping you dress up and asking you if you're alright, demeanour fully changing. a knock at the door pulled you back to reality as jay entered the room, confused about heeseung still being here.

"mr. lee will continue working as my secretary, i'm sorry mr. park." you announced and jay turned to see heeseung smirking without any shame, rather, throwing daggers from his eyes at him for being the snobby complaining snitch.

"but, ms. l/n–" jay started, your still slightly smudged lipstick telling him exactly what went down between you two.

"did i not make myself clear, mr. park?" you lift up your eyebrow. and he sighed.

"yes ma'am." was all he said, gritting his teeth, before storming off the office, angry.

"shall we continue working then, ms. l/n?"

little did he know that the next time he'll lack/laze around, he won't be the one proving himself but, he'll be the one who'll get punished instead.

"we shall, mr. lee."

taglist : @en-cityzen @iamhae @sunghoonsworld @itsmeelily @softforqiankun @ye0njunzp1xie @solovelylovelyz @eunoia-kth @lix-freckle3 @woniebae @baekhyunstruly @heenotes @sungniverse @shinramyeonz

PERMANENT TAGLIST OPEN!

© jaylaxies

[jeptwin]

It’s been so long since I had an actual reason to post, but here we go!

I want to talk about Dead End Paranormal Park.

And no, contrary to what my previous posts may suggest, I’m actually not going to be focusing on the-frankly awesome-rep of all kinds. Still, it’s worth a mention! I mean, come on! Our main characters are a trans gay jew and an autistic bi pakistani girl!!

But that’s not what I’m going to focus on here. Instead, I want to take the chance to focus on how well Hamish Steele uses highly underutilized tropes in an absolutely brilliant manner.

Spoilers ahead! Be warned, if you see anything you regret, just keep it to yourself darling!

Now for the big stuff: The usage of a Lawful Good antagonist and the morality shift of a protagonist whose ideals have been so challenged and so hurt by those they thought they could trust, that they instead turn on the so-called ‘good’ to fight with ‘evil’.

Now, before I get into details on that last one, let’s start strong with the Lawful Good Antagonist! Like I said, very underutilized, and very hard to do well. The problem with the concept of a ‘lawful good’ antagonist is that they genuinely have to have no ulterior motives to their good; their only goal is to achieve a ‘good’ thing, at any cost. In this case, that’s eradicating the Demons, even at the cost of Humanity, whom they have sworn to protect—after all, what cost is the Neutral Plane if it means the threat of Demons is eliminated? Absolute order must be maintained, and the demons’ very existence threatens to break that order with their Chaos and Evil.

We have seen, too, that it’s not so simple, hence why Hamish Steele does such a good job with this concept. After all, Fingers has selfish motivation, doesn’t he? He’s not Lawful Good. But he is a servant of it, which ultimately means that his actions are meant not to show that the Angels aren’t as good as they seem, but instead to show the lengths they will go to in a character who isn’t as pure as the rest. He, like the Watcher, serves as a foil to the Angels as a whole, showing their sinister side—whereas the Watcher shows their absolute devotion to their cause, and the lengths they will go to to achieve it.

Seeing how well it was done inspires me, because it shows that it can be done, and it can be great. I mean, Angels?? As the villains?? Let’s face it, we can all probably count on one hand how frequently that works out.

And now, for the second trope done well. Or, rather, possibly done well. We haven’t seen it play out yet! But I will say, this is not only a new trope, I don’t think I’ve ever actually seen it executed before: A protagonist on the side of good turning to ‘evil’ in order to get justice. And I’m not taking Red Hood style evil, or justice. Norma turning to the Demonic Royal Family is a smart move, and totally in character for her. More than that, it makes sense. While it’s true that it could be viewed as her becoming evil, that’s not actually the case. She’s become an anti-hero by siding with dark forces with potentially terrible goals, because she knows that the Angels need to be stopped. And more than that, she wants to hurt them like they hurt her. So, a little Red Hood I guess! But still, if we do get season 3-and I’m really hoping we do-we have a chance to see a massive reversal in a manner I can genuinely say that, in all my years as a film and tv studies major, I have never seen executed well.

If done right, Hamish Steele could create an entirely new genre of storytelling, and I for one truly hope that we can see it in all its glory.

[elysianslove]

secrets that you keep; iwaizumi hajime 

synopsis; in which his best friend is secretly a camgirl. part 1, part 2 

pairings; iwaizumi hajime x fem!reader

genre; smut

trigger warnings; i highly recommend reading the first two parts before this. they’re only drabbles that introduce everything! anyways, this is absolute filth. don’t read this if any of the stuff mentioned could trigger you, please! masturbation, camgirl stuff, one mention of the word ‘daddy,’ self choking, degradation, humiliation, dacryphilia, unprotected sex, creampie, a lot of choking, accidental breathplay, not proofread unfortunately 

she knows. 

does she? 

it’s an ongoing inner battle he’s been having for weeks now, ever since he’d been directed to that trending video of yours. he sees you in his dreams, hears you loud and clear, moaning and crying for him, and worst of all, he feels you, so perfectly, against his, around him, and it’s overwhelming in the worst way possible. even maintaining eye contact is tiresome at this point. 

but he does wonder whether you know or not, more often than he should— were you deliberately calling out for him, in hopes that he’d find this video somehow? or had you said it because you’d assumed this is your safe place, that there’s no way he’d be able to find these videos? had it been a slip up? or, more accurately, multiple slip ups? what were the chances anyways, that it had been an accident, or unintentional, or intentional and he had been losing sleep over it, or that he wasn’t the hajime you were crying out for? 

his heard hurt. awfully. there’s already the constant worry of regulating his breathing around you and cleansing his thoughts of anything he’d seen of you the moment you meet, but this added dilemma is in no way helping. every day that you text him for a coffee date, or a night out after a rather stressful week, or a night in at your apartment, and he agrees, his mind diverts immediately to where it shouldn’t as soon as he lays eyes on you. and the worst part of it all is how aware he is of how wrong this is. he knows it’s wrong to choose the revealing shirt over the other when you ask him for his opinion, just because he wants that effortless glance at your cleavage. it’s also so wrong of him to give a higher rating to that obscenely short dress than that other, knee length one because of the way your thighs squeeze when you sit. it’s definitely wrong of him to offer clasping your anklet, the one he’d gotten for you, the one that had been the dead giveaway to your secret online persona, just because your legs feel so soft against the rough pads of his fingers, when he resists the urge to trail upwards, upwards, upwards—

it’s fucking ridiculous. 

he can’t believe just how deep of a rabbit hole finding one of your videos is, how it’s impossible to climb out and away, and even worse, how he keeps falling deeper. the one time he decides to jerk off to porn. it’s really ridiculous. 

about a week ago, three weeks after finding that video of yours someone had uploaded— which had been taken down because of copyright, and hajime personally thinks that’s fair, considering there’s a reason you pay people to watch your videos and look through your photos, otherwise you would’ve taken the liberty to post everything for free yourself— hajime gives in, and subscribes to you. it’s with a randomized account name, something he tried his very best to make as anonymous as possible, so that it would in no way lead back to him. he doesn’t check in on your account as often, also having taken the time to turn off notifications and not have anything sent to his email, and it’s mostly out of shame. he already feels dirty enough having seen this much of you, even more that he’s fantasized about you. he’s not about to make it worse for himself.

every once in a while, though, especially days where he’s sure he’s completely free of responsibilities, he logs on, and finds your page. it just so happens that tonight, you’re hosting a live stream. swallowing his pride and shame, literally so, he shifts on his bed, sitting up straighter, and clicks to join. 

he’d been a little late apparently, because you’re already bare, sitting on a chair. your legs are lifted up, knees bent and hooked over the chair’s arms, the camera angled to show everything, from your cute eyes to the flesh of your ass. there’s a vibrator in your hand, buzzing lightly as it hovers by your clit, dipping between your folds, sliding back up again to rub lazily at your clit. beneath you, on the chair, is a small damp spot, leaking from your cunt. hajime stops himself before his jaw falls slack at the sight of you, and instead, he clears his throat, gritting his teeth and watching carefully. 

you’re not so talkative during your videos, just exclamations of pleasure and (the most beautiful of) noises, so he hadn’t expected you to be during your lives. to his surprise, you are, and it’s filthy. 

whimpering lightly, you press the vibrator harsher on your clit, your other hand traveling up to squeeze at your breast. “m’so needy,” you admit with a soft pout, adding, “want you to tell me what to do, mmh.”

he’s assuming the ‘you’ is the audience, whoever’s willing to speak up, and it’s then that he notices the chat option. his eyes flicker curiously to it, hands twitching where they sit fisted at his lap as he sees the chat explode with orders and commands and suggestions for you. 

one writes, stuff urself full, and hajime gapes. 

another commands, wanna see u cry tn, and hajime privately agrees. 

someone else writes, gonna squirt princess? 

hajime’s hands twitch again, and he frowns, digging his nails into his palms. you’re ignoring all the suggestions, and it’s obvious because you’re reading through them, mouthing some of them, giggling at some, curiously gasping, ‘oh,’ at others, eyebrow quirking. the vibrator trails down to your hole again, and you experimentally dip it inside slightly, shivering visibly as the vibrations rush through you, and the moment he hears you moan so loud, he thinks, fuck it, and his hands reach for his keyboard. 

choke yourself. 

fuck, fuck, fuck, he did not just do that. 

his heart is racing embarrassingly fast beneath his ribcage, loud and pathetically deafening in his ears as he watches your eyes read through the rest of the messages, and you’ve stopped mouthing them, your eyes are widening— which one are you at now? are you just going to ignore him? why wouldn’t you? of course you—

“you’d like that, huh?” you teasingly slur, a lazy, cheeky grin painting your lips, your teeth biting down on your lower lip and your hand— your hand— 

it’s trailing upwards, upwards, upwards, until it finds its way around your throat, resting lightly, and just as he sees your fingers squeeze at the sides of your neck slightly, carefully, you pout at the camera, looking straight at him, and asking, “like this, daddy?” 

a low fuck wheezes past his lungs, and his hand quickly presses down at the bulge in his sweatpants, squeezing and rubbing at his clothed dick as he watches you, entranced. people watching you with him have taken to thanking him for the idea, and to praising you, calling you a good girl, cursing, rapidly typing out something along the lines of you’re so hot i wanna fuck you so bad, and god, hajime hates that he relates to something as stupid as that. 

your hips roll and your head falls back, hand not once leaving your throat. if anything, your grip tightens. you click on the vibrator, and the buzzing becomes louder, your moans with it, as if you were competing. you cry and gasp and sob, writhing in your own hold, your thighs tensing and your hole clenching around nothing as you harshly rub the vibrator against your clit. your cunt gushes and drips as you bring yourself closer to your orgasm, as you cry out a string of, “m’gonna cum, so close, so close!” and a mixture of lewd curses, until finally, you cum. you’re sent over the edge, legs swinging on the chair, high pitched squeals falling from your lips— which hajime can’t decide are real or not, or whether he wants them to be or not. you thrash and cry, tears, as promised to some other watcher, dripping down your cheeks. 

the last straw however, is your comedown from your high, sobs hiccuping and muscles twitching, eyes half closed and body limp as you mewl out, “hajime, hajime, hajime,” like you’re not even aware you’re doing it. like it’s subconscious. 

hajime swears again, a deep, low, “fuck,” and looks down to find a damp spot on his lap. he really came from barely any friction, all because of you. this really is as ridiculous as it gets. 

the next time he sees you, there are the faintest of bruises on your neck. it’s not so obvious that just anyone would notice, but ever since becoming hyperaware of everything that is you and everything that you do, it’s hard not to have them be the first thing he sees. to ensure that the atmosphere between the two of you remains easy, he flicks at your neck and tuts with a smirk, asking you jokingly if you were in your hoe phase. 

“so vulgar, hajime,” you sarcastically retort, teasing him. “you like calling me mean things?” and he has to avert eye contact because all his walls crumble so quick. 

it’s just the two of you tonight, in his apartment, all your other mutual friends having cancelled at one point or another. it’s not an unusual occurrence; more often than not, the two of you are alone. however, it’s been a while since you’d been alone, privately. a while meaning ever since hajime had discovered your side hustle of a sort. he hadn’t been purposely avoiding this— no, maybe he has, but to be fair, he’s still yet to recover from the initial shock. 

it also doesn’t help that since today had meant to be a relaxing night in, you’re dressed casual, but in the hottest fucking way possible. he hopes he hadn’t been blushing as hard as he thinks, and feels, he was, when you’d first stepped into his home. on your hips is a short, black skirt, flowing out to your upper thighs, where just above your knees start a pair of dark thigh highs, squeezing at your thighs and accentuating your legs as you strut around his apartment, feet bare of any shoes or slippers. he can’t decide whether it’s cute or just plain hot. somehow, with you, it’s both. your shirt is off the shoulder, a dark, navy blue bardot, and beneath it, peeking out to rest at your collarbones, is a black bralette. he can barely just see the intricate lace designs, but it disappears and dips beneath your shirt before he can see more of it. 

you’re spread out on the couch, laying along it on your stomach, a pillow tucked in your arms and beneath your head, your clothed legs bent and swinging up in the air. he sits right by you, thigh right by your head, his body as tense as ever. it’s impossible not to be you, not with you in such close proximity to him when only a few days ago he’d watched you make yourself cum, and had heard you whimper out his name after. who can blame him, really?

with your eyes trained on the screen, he hadn’t been expecting you to speak up. 

“iwa, what type of porn do you watch?” 

he nearly chokes, eyes widening as he spares you a glance. your legs continue to swing innocently, your eyes unmoving, your voice unwavering. the suddenness of the question certainly threw him off, but it’s your nonchalance that really shocks him. but, considering everything, it really shouldn’t have. 

“uh, what?” he offers weakly, wincing slightly at the barely there crack in his voice. 

you sigh, shifting to sit up. you plant yourself on your knees, spreading them apart slightly to get comfortable, and shrugging at him. “i’m just curious,” you say. “or,” your eyes squint cautiously, your head cocking to the side slightly, “do you not watch porn?” 

challengingly, his arms lift up to cross at his chest, and he doesn’t miss the way your eyes momentarily glance at the way his biceps bulge. it makes his confidence spike slightly, nervousness ebbing away. “what type of porn do you watch?” 

you gasp dramatically, joking, “take a girl out to dinner first, my god.” he laughs, relaxing lightly at the banter, before his eyes fall back to you. you inch forward curiously, cautiously, still on your knees. now closer to him, you ask again, “seriously, i’m really curious! confirm my suspicions for me.” 

“oh?” he quirks an eyebrow. “so you think you know?” 

at this, you offer him a knowing smile, eyes slightly half lidded. you’re somehow even closer now, leaning towards him with your hands resting on the small space between you and him in the couch, helping you in lifting yourself up slightly on your knees as you say in a low voice, “baby, i think everyone knows.” 

at the sight of you by his side, he feels himself shiver, and an idea invades his mind before he can even process it. “oh, do you now?” he’s not sure where this boldness is emerging from, especially with how cautious and shameful he’d been and felt for weeks now, but he accepts it either way, because the way you’re staring at him like that, he never wants to let it go. and although he wants to drag out this intense eye contact even longer, in order to do what he wants to do, he has to break it, reaching for his phone instead. unable to contain your curiosity, you peak over, watching with confusion as he types out a link. 

the blood drains from your face when you recognize your page on his browser, and he’s logged on— he’s subscribed. 

“what type of porn do i like to watch?” he wonders rhetorically. the phone is pushed aside, and he sits up straighter so that even on your knees, he looms over you. his eyes are skimming over you, along your body, up to your neck, to your lips, to your shocked, wide eyes. and just as his hand trails up to your throat, his palm resting at the base and one finger tapping lightly, he says, “the type where my favorite girl cries out my name when she cums for the world to see.” 

the hand around your throat—

“you,” you breathe out, and finally, finally, when your brain makes sense of everything, your body relaxes, sags against him, leaning more into him until his hand’s properly wrapped around your throat. 

with your mind hazing over, you reach over, and kiss him. 

he meets you halfway, as if having expected it, lips pressing harshly against his. his hand tightens as he pulls you closer, lifting you up slightly and bringing you closer to him as his mouth parts, breathing you in, and kissing you deeper, lewder. you shiver and gasp, hands grasping at his wrist and forearm, not to push him away but rather to urge him closer, as you kiss him back just as eagerly. it seems like hours, with his hand around your neck, tight and a daunting reassurance, and your lips wet and hot against his, but eventually, his hand slides down, the other mirroring it, finding their way to your waist, squeezing and bunching at the skirt as he, with complete and utter and shocking ease, lifts you up off the couch. 

you gasp as he stands up with you, your legs quickly wrapping around his waist as he pulls you to him. as he blindly walks the two of you to his bedroom, he breathlessly asks in between your kisses, “is this— you sure this is okay?” 

with a sharp tug at his hair, you jokingly spit out, “iwa shut up.” 

he tosses you onto the bed, allowing you a minute to strip yourself of your shirt while he slips out of his own, before quickly falling above you, caging you in with his arms as he kisses you again. “not iwa,” he quietly asks of you. 

for a moment you’re confused, before everything clicks again— your slip ups— and your legs lift up, wrapping around his waist and pulling his hips closer to yours just as you mewl out, “hajime, please.” 

god, he is way easier than he thought he was. 

his entire body shudders above you, one hand lowering to push at your skirt to grind his hips down against yours until his clothed crotch meets your bare cunt and— holy fuck, holy fuck. 

“fuck, you slut.” 

you gasp at both his words and the feel of his bulge pressing down against your clit, his lips meeting your neck instead. “you do like calling me mean things,” you say, and he scoffs, his hand traveling upwards to squeeze at your breasts instead. 

“you like me calling you mean things,” he notes, and you let out a muffled moan as he pinches at your nipples through the bralette, lips biting and sucking at your neck. 

“i do,” you pant, arching up into him. “i do, i do.” his hands are fumbling at your chest, and god, they’re so large, so big and warm and harsh, it’s fogging up your brain. 

“yeah, yeah, fucking whore,” he growls, pushing himself slightly on his knees, hands tugging at the bralette. his fingers dip past, gripping the fabric tightly, and as he says, “can’t fucking— take this shit— off,” he tears through it, knuckles whitening as he pulls it away from your body, or what’s left of it. the frills of the ruined bra fall off the edge of his bed, and he watches your wide eyes and gaping mouth follow it, so he grabs at your jaw, twisting your gaze away from it and grunting a low, “shut up.” 

you pull away from the kiss, breathing heavily as you say, “that was so fucking hot, hajime,” before kissing him again. he parts his mouth as you lead him to you again, tongue easily meeting yours. 

it’s a messy kiss as he slips himself out of his sweatpants, taking his boxers with it and discarding them somewhere in his room. his cock slaps against his stomach, a single string of precum messily staining his tan abs. your eyes are quick to gaze down, lips painted a dazzling grin as his hand finds his cock, squeezing at the head and smearing his precum along. 

“knew you were fucking big,” you gasp, eyes trained on him as he strokes himself above you, and he is. he’s so big, thick and heavy, and veiny and your mouth waters at how that’s going to feel when inside of you, stretching you out so good, so much better than any of the toys you had at home. “i thought,” a squeal hiccups out of you as both of his hands grab at your hips from beneath your skirt, one sticky and warmer than the other, “about you all the time.” 

your confession draws his attention, and when he’s pulled you close enough, two of his fingers trail to your cunt, quirking an, “oh?” just as he dips his fingers inside. the lack of resistance he’s met with is surprising, and he chokes out, “did you stretch yourself out before coming here? fuck yourself on some fake cock?” 

tightlipped, you moan, brows furrowed and back arched into him. god, his fingers were not enough. “yes, yes,” you gasp, head falling back. despite not needing to, he still fingers you, his thick digits fucking into you slowly, driving you insane by the second. “yes, i— pretended t’was you,” you whine loudly. at your words, he curls his fingers inside of you, twisting his wrist and pressing his palm directly on your clit. 

“do you always?” he lowly asks, dipping closer to you as he fucks his fingers deeper. his fingers were inside of you, the cunt he’d spent over a month marveling at through a screen, the pretty pussy his dick had drooled over for hours. you’re real, as real as ever beneath him falling apart, making a mess of your black skirt, drenching it with your arousal. 

you moan out a hum, nodding dumbly as his fingers vibrate with the intensity of speed inside of you, your toes curling in your thigh highs and face twisting to press into his mattress. “always,” you cry out, like a promise. “always think of you— hajime!”

it’s an unexpected orgasm, hitting you so fast and quick that it’s outright dizzying. it has you lifting your hips up into his fingers and palm, grinding and trembling, your legs falling and spreading open, shaking wildly by your side and above you as he fucks you through the orgasm. 

“hajime, hajime, hajime,” you chant, words trailing off into tiny sobs and shuddering breaths as your hips slowly fall back onto the bed, body still trembling with aftershocks. 

you’re fucked out beyond words already that you genuinely don’t feel a thing until he’s pressing inside of you, the fat head of his cock stretching you out. he’s really no match for your toys, and if seeing him hadn’t been enough confirmation, the feel of him pressing inside of you definitely is. he doesn’t ease himself in slowly, urgently grabbing the back of your thighs with either hand, keeping your legs spread for him as he bottoms out. 

“fuck, fuck, knew you’d feel so good,” he grunts, brows furrowed harshly as he digs his fingers deeper against the flesh of your thighs, forcing your legs closer to your chest, and somehow pushing himself even deeper within you. you whine and mewl, toes curling and uncurling and legs trembling. “knew it the moment i saw your pretty pussy creamin’ around that thick cock.” 

at the reminder that he’s watched and witnessed you, multiple times, that he’s subscribed to you willingly and curiously, you clench down around him. you feel him twitch inside of you, groaning loudly as he falls closer to you, your legs falling to his waist. 

“you like knowing i was watching you?” he sneers, his hand reaching up and gripping at your face, squishing your cheeks and forcing a pout on your lips. your eyes nearly fucking cross as he rams into you, his fingers digging into your jaw. “you like that i fucked my fist every night to you? to your pretty cunt and your pretty noises and your pretty face— yes, good girl, that one.” 

your eyes do cross this time, spurred on by his words, your tongue peaking out through the small gap he allows with how harsh he’s gripping your face. he’s pushing out little mewls and cries from you, but otherwise, you quite honestly feel braindead. 

“fuck, you’re a gorgeous little slut,” he gasps. “all mine to fuck and use.”

you’re quick to nod rapidly, whining and moaning for him as you grip at his biceps. you’re choking on your breath as you struggle to keep up with him while he fucks you into the mattress, so fucking hard and rough that you’re sure there’ll be an indentation of you once you leave. you can feel your cunt gushing, and you can hear it too, squelching loudly with every thrust of his hips, every time his cock fucks into you. your skirt feels sticky and gross, and so does the rest of you, but you’ve never, never, felt this euphoric, this blissed out. 

your stomach tightens impossibly, the tension gradually increasing as your walls tightly squeeze and clench at his cock. slowly and surely, the pressure within you increases, your hands flying to hajime’s arm, the arm whose hand grips your face, which quickly moves to your throat at your simple gasping warning that you were close. 

“gonna cum, gonna cum, hajime, fuck!” 

he tightens his grip, pressing harsher on the sides of your neck as your eyes shut tightly, your head falling back once more. 

“yeah, come on, show me how pretty you look cumming on a real cock,” he whispers by your ear, using the hand that’s around your throat to lift up your head, before roughly pushing it back down, squeezing tighter. “you like it this rough?— shit, shit, you’re tightening.” 

you scream, voice cracking and broken as he slams into you again, his hips grinding against yours momentarily, pelvis hitting your clit— and you’re gone, thrashing in his hold, fat tears streaming down your cheeks as you sob and heave, your body shaking uncontrollably beneath him, hips shaking as your orgasm rocks through you. it’s not a few seconds later that he’s spilling inside of you, accidentally pressing his palm down against your throat as he cums, blocking your airway momentarily. 

“hngh,” he gasps deeply, cock twitching inside of you as he cums, hips barely grinding. you’re gasping, a little painfully, struggling to take in any air as he blinks dazedly, before he finally takes notice. “shit, shit, i’m sorry.” 

his hand flies away from your throat, and you inhale sharply, coughing lightly as air fills your lungs all too suddenly. the strength of this man, holy fuck. 

“i’m so sorry; are you okay?” 

chest still heaving, you fall onto the bed, body relaxing as you try and regulate your breathing. “s’okay, i’m okay,” you reassure him, hands reaching up to pat at his cheeks and comb through his messy, sweaty hair. 

he leans forward, pressing a kiss to your forehead, and it’s so endearing that you nearly forget he’s still inside of you. but you feel the shift of his cock, feel his cum slowly start to ooze out of your cunt, and he winces from the oversensitivity, shifting away to instead pull out of you. his soft cock falls from your cunt, a steady flow of his cum following. hajime has to physically resist from reaching out to fuck it back into you. 

“i’m sorry i wasn’t careful ‘nough with the—“ he makes a gesture with his hands around his neck, “—the choking.” 

you laugh lightly, tiredly, hands slowly caressing at his sweaty biceps. “stop apologizing,” you reassure him again, shrugging with a small smile as you add, “just be more careful next time.” 

his breath gets caught in his chest, and he only softly exhales when he falls on the bed, to your side, carefully repeating, “next time.” 

from beside him, you lift yourself up on your side on your elbow, palm cradling your head, trying your best not to wince in pain. “hajime?” 

he spares you a glance as he mumbles, “hm?” opting to stare at the ceiling and contemplate whether what had just happened was real life or not. 

“do you wanna do a video with me?” 

he all but chokes. 

end note; please this took me like 4+ hours. please please please don’t flop, and more importantly, i really hope i don’t disappoint. i know this has been a long awaited piece, so i’m praying and hoping you guys love it. 

love you all, mwah <3