#in my brain they are archenemies to friends

[renthedevil]

cuteguy doodle to ignore how i don’t really have a hotguy design

bonus:

[onlyjaeyun]

𝐂𝐎𝐋𝐃 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐒 – 𝟑𝟎

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐑𝐓𝐘: 𝐟𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐲 𝐫𝐞𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐨𝐧

⤥ 𝐩𝐚𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠: 𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐤 𝐒𝐮𝐧𝐠𝐡𝐨𝐨𝐧 𝐱 𝐅𝐞𝐦𝐚𝐥𝐞 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫

⤥ 𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐫𝐞: 𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐡𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐟𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬!𝐀𝐔

⤥ 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭: 𝟖.𝟐𝐤

⤥ 𝐜𝐰: 𝐬𝐰𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠, 𝐭𝐨𝐱𝐢𝐜 𝐟𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐲 𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩𝐬, 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐛𝐯𝐬𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐧𝐞𝐠𝐥𝐞𝐜𝐭; 𝐨𝐫𝐚𝐥 (𝐟.𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐞𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠), 𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦𝐩𝐢𝐞, 𝐬𝐩𝐢𝐭 (𝐦𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐡), 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐝 𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠, 𝐝𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐲 𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐤

⤥ 𝐬𝐲𝐧𝐨𝐩𝐬𝐢𝐬: 𝐀 𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐛𝐫𝐨𝐤𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐰𝐨 𝐛𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐟𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐬 𝐚𝐩𝐚��𝐭 𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐭 𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐰𝐞𝐥𝐯𝐞, 𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐞𝐬. 𝐀 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐰𝐨 𝐬𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐬 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐰𝐚𝐲 𝐛𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐭𝐨 𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐡 𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐭 𝐚𝐧 𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐲'𝐬 𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐤.

“No, I don’t like it so stop pointing it out, snowflake!”

Sunghoon’s young voice echoes in your skull as your eyes remain focused on the little mole on the right side of his nose bridge, a detail to his prince-like features you’ve always noticed yet never acknowledged.

As you watch your archenemy have a good night with his closest friends and cousin, you can’t help but let your thoughts wander all the way back in memory lane to a conversation you’ve never forgotten.

“But it’s so cute, Hoonie”, you had told him, never once looking away from his eyes, the ones you used to find so much comfort in, especially during one of the most difficult times in your life, “don’t you know what the legend about moles marking the spots where your past lover kissed you the most?”

“Hm, they were obsessed with my face then”, he huffed and rolled his eyes, completing the knot on his skates before getting up on his feet and shooting you one of his big, cheeky smiles; the one where a tiny dimply makes an appearance.

“Why would you say it like that? Stop belittling yourself like that”, you pouted back at him and looked at him with big eyes, your skates still not completely tied up, which – just as usual – resulted in Sunghoon getting down on his knees to finish it for you. Something the two of you have always done for some reason, but never in a million years would you have changed it for anything else.

It used to be in those moments right before and after practice which made you feel the closest to your skate partner of six years, the one guy in your life who had always been there for you and your brother, the one who had never, ever disappointed you.

“You know I don’t like my face much because of how much I look like my father”, Sunghoon had casually explained to you before looking up at you with longing, innocent eyes, “you wouldn’t know what that feels like after all.”

For some reason, this particular part of said conversation had never quite left your memories, your heart feeling at ease as you remember how you had tilted your head to the back in confusion, not quite understanding what he was referring to.

“You know in some cultures they say you look like the parent who loves you the most”, he had started to explain, not struggling to read your facial expressions at all, even back then, “you’re a carbon copy of your mother, in every way possible. However, in some other cultures it’s said that if your mother is so in love with your father, it’ll turn you into his twin so I guess we’re yet again on the same line but different ends.”

Sunghoon had always had a way with words, no matter his age and you still remember just how much you had loved listening to everything he had to say. He’d never been one to talk much, but the things he said had always carried meaning.

“But I’m not really sure if I actually read this or heard some random ladies talk about this once so, I’m not a reliable source at all.”

As your brain replays that last statement, you can’t help but smile to yourself and it’s only when Sunghoon suddenly turns his head to meet your gaze that you’re pulled back into reality by brutal force.

You’re quick to avert your eyes, not ready to accept whatever the fuck has been going on with you and to your luck Sunghoon doesn’t seem to care enough (as usual) to acknowledge your staring.

No matter how many times he cums inside of you, your precious archenemy probably won’t ever treat you like an actual part of society before and after your shared orgasms and when in the beginning you actually preferred it that way, you’ve now found yourself doubting and questioning his behavior.

It’s not like Sunghoon’s actually nice to you when the two of you get intimate but besides the first time, he’s never once has he made you feel unwanted or disgusting. In any other situation his behavior and the way he treats and touches you would have provoked and irritated you, but whenever the burning tension between the two of you becomes too much and you have no choice but to give in over and over again, your body longs for those exact things and you actually don’t hate it as much as you used to.

Back when you had first started sleeping with Sunghoon, you’d try your best to just not think about it anymore until the next booty call but now you actually caught yourself going out of your way to get physical with him.

It’s not something that just dawned on you but rather a realization which hit you since you’ve been spending quite a bit of time in close proximity with him for the past three days.

Every time the boys want to head out after your daily activities, you find yourself hoping that Sunghoon decides to stay back in the airbnb too, just because you don’t actually want to rush things with him anymore when it comes to sex. You’ve come to the point where he makes you feel so good, you actually want it to go on for as long as possible.

You still can’t believe that you’re actually admitting this to yourself but after all this time you’ve grown exhausted, tired and mentally drained, which is probably why it doesn’t really matter to you anyway.

To Park Sunghoon you’re nothing but a quick, easy and convenient fuck. That’s it. And it’s good this way. That’s why there’s no point in worrying about why the fuck would your brain start coming up with things and thoughts which don’t even make sense, right?

“She’s ignoring us again”, Jaeyun chuckles and nudges your side with his elbow before he throws his arm over your shoulders and pulls you closer to his body, quickly reminding you of your current situation.

Your eyes almost instinctively shift to Sunghoon’s face, only for instant regret to hit your system when you notice the look of disgust and annoyance gracing his features.

“Sorry, boys”, you sigh and pat Jaeyun’s chest, “this week’s been so exhausting, I think the lack of sleep is finally getting to me.”

“So, you’re not gonna join our night time adventure either?” Sunoo shoots you a pout of disappointment and with a soft sigh you imitate his facial expression and shake your head.

“I really need to get some sleep for our day trip to Koto tomorrow”, you respond and look at each of the boys individually but intentionally skip a certain someone, “we’ve been up and on the road for twelve hours straight, fourth day in a row and as much as I want to, I know my body’s not gonna cooperate much longer if I don’t rest.”

The thought of a warm shower, a few cigarettes on your airbnb’s balcony, a nice glass of wine and absolute silence remains the only thing on your mind despite the slight pengs of guilt hitting your chest for not joining your boys yet again.

“It’s okay, mother”, Jungwon quickly responds and puts on his coat with a big, dimply smile, “you probably didn’t hear it but I’ve always been against forcing old people out of their comfort zone.”

With a soft scoff you roll your eyes and thank Riki as he hands you your jacket, all of the boys taking the last sips of their soft beverages before saying your goodbyes and leaving the sweet little restaurant you had decided to have dinner at.

You quietly listen to the boys and their plans, Jaeyun quickly offering you a cigarette as he lights his own and with a tight lipped smile you thank him, way too tense and absentminded for your own liking but too exhausted to question it.

“Alright, I’ve ordered you two an uber too”, Riki says casually and runs one of his ring clad hands through his bleached hair, his statement leaving you nothing but confused.

“Huh? I’m the only one going back to the airbnb”, you say and furrow your brows with your eyes focused on your younger brother’s face.

“No, Hoon’s also not tagging along”, Jaeyun replies casually and blows the smoke out of his nose as he looks at you just as confused.

“What the fuck? Why?”

“That’s none of your fucking business”, Sunghoon almost instinctively spits back at you, his thick brows pushed together as he stares at you with annoyance gleaming in his eyes.

“Shut the fuck up”, you hiss and roll your eyes, too exhausted to even bother with his weird attitude. It’s not like you haven’t noticed his change in behavior and attitude these past few days but with everything that’s been going on in your own brain you simply can’t find the energy to read more into it than absolutely necessary.

“Please, don’t chop each other’s head off on your way to the rooms”, Jaeyun chuckles but as soon as his gaze flickers between the two of you, you realise just how much seriousness there actually is behind his words.

Without saying anything else, you say your farewells to the boys as the cars you had ordered come to a stand in front of you and just as expected (and hoped for), SUnghoon gets comfortable on the passenger seat while you slide into the back and pray the taxi driver isn’t as chatty as the other ones.

To your luck, Sunghoon uses hsi limited Japanese to give the man your address and the rest of the drive passes by quietly, almost peacefully. There’s never been a place like Tokyo to you; not a single spot on this earth has ever managed to make you feel at such ease and comfort the way your mother’s birthplace has.

You’re so caught up watching the streets of your favorite place, you don’t even notice the way Sunghoon has been watching you from his peripheral vision the past ten minutes, something he can’t help but beat himself up for because why the fuck does the urge to look at you just doesn’t seem to disappear?

Never in a million years would he admit this to you but there’s definitely a reason why he’s been making sure to always push you into a position where he can look at your face. He’s not quite sure why or where the sudden urge has come from but for some reason he just can’t keep his eyes off of you.

Sunghoon still hates your guts.

He really does.

But the more he gets to touch and kiss you, the deeper this weird hunger and lust seem to run and at this point he has absolutely no idea what the fuck he’s actually thinking. Or feeling.

You still annoy and irritate the living hell out of every pore in his body, yet these past few days he’s found himself upset and even disappointed about the fact he can’t spend more time with you after fucking your brains out. He doesn’t necessarily want to hold you, nor does he really want to cuddle or be close to you but there’s definitely been a few times where he caught himself wishing the boys weren’t on their way back so he could just spend a few more minutes just watching you.

Maybe it’s the way you seem so relaxed and at ease after he’s pushed you over the edge over and over again, or maybe it’s because the sight of you in nothing but his shirt and a cigarette dangling from your pouty, bit swollen lips in combination with your messed up hair and the fresh memory of your sweet noises echoing in his head, which make things so much more difficult for him but at the end of the day the reason doesn’t matter.

Sunghoon hates you.

You’re the only person who’s disappointed and betrayed him in such a cruel, such a raw way and every time he finds himself caught up in thoughts about you, he can’t help but remind himself of all the nights he spent on the ice rink, crying, sobbing and silently praying you’d just come back and make your shared dreams become reality, only for his heart and soul to break all over again when he remembered your betrayal.

With his hands balled into fists and a soft huff, Sunghoon angrily averts his gaze from you and as his eyes start to scan the area you had just entered, a wave of relief hits him.

“That’s the one, Sir”, he casually says and almost immediately bites his tongue when he realizes the falling of his mask.

Nobody on this earth knows how all those years ago, Sunghoon had decided to learn Japanese, simply because he wanted to feel even closer to two of the most important people in his life, only for your betrayal to take away the joy and excitement of it.

But despite his broken heart, he knew he had to finish what he had started, initially for you, not because he necessarily needed it but because he didn’t want you to take this away from him too.

Never once has he mentioned his fluency in his best friend’s mother tongue to anybody, not even his other close friends and at times he definitely forgot about it only for his chest to tighten whenever he listened to your little conversations with your brother, the both of you so much more relaxed and outspoken in your mother tongue than the one you both had grown up with.

When at first Sunghoon had intended to talk to Riki about it, he never really knew how to explain the actual reasoning behind his decision to study and become fluent in Japanese, so after a few years, he just decided to keep it to himself for as long as possible.

There’s no point in letting you know when you don't even care anyway.

Fortunately you seem way too immersed in your thoughts to pay any attention to his slip up and by the time Hoon gets out of the uber, you’ve already lit yet another cigarette.

“What are you waiting for?” You suddenly ask when you notice his lack of motion.

“Just finish that god damn cig and get your ass inside”, Sunghoon sighs, “I promised not to leave you alone so stop making this even more difficult for me than it already is.”

“What a gentleman you are”, you roll your eyes in response to his annoying comment, the little fire in the depth of your chest burning up just enough to irritate you, “I’m not in the mood to fuck, just piss off already.” For a quick moment you catch yourself in a lie and you hate how your hormonal self almost instantly regrets your little come back.

Because no matter how hard you try to deny it, your body craves Sunghoon’s touch which has now resulted in a libido you have never experienced before. So, no, you actually are very much in the mood but for some reason you can’t help but feel stressed and anxious just thinking about all the feelings, doubts and thoughts which come hand in hand with the pleasure he’s providing you with.

“Can you not be so fucking difficult for once? I’m not waiting for you to come inside to fuck, I promised Riki to keep an eye on you, that’s it.”

While your first instinct is to shoot something back at him, a tiny, almost inaudible yet strong voice in the back of your head somehow manages to stop you from giving into the urges and with an annoyed sigh you kill your half-smoked cigarette and through it into the next trashcan before wordlessly heading towards the entrance of the apartment building.

You both continue walking up the stairs without saying another word and you hate how much the lack of verbal communication bothers you. If it wasn’t for your best friend pointing it out, you would have never noticed just how little you and Sunghoon actually talk to each other and ever since your conversation about it, you haven’t stopped thinking about it.

“What the fuck?”

The suddenness of his exclamation as well as the unusual volume of his voice are quick to pull you out of the mess in your head and with your brows furrowed in confusion you follow Sunghoon’s cold gaze.

For a moment, you don’t actually know what or who you’re looking at.

Maybe it’s one of you body’s defense mechanisms or maybe it’s the fog clouding your brain but in no universe should it take this long for someone to recognize their younger brother – and father.

“Is this a fucking joke?” The switch in language comes almost naturally and the longer your eyes roam the figures of the two men in front of you, the quicker the blood starts pumping through your veins.

It’s one thing to see your younger half-brother again, his impact and affect on your life in no way harmful or very much life altering. But the sight of your father, the first of many men to not only disappoint and break you but also the first of many to make you feel unloveable, disgusting and unworthy of everything good in this life easily leaves you speechless.

You can feel Sunghoon’s gaze boring into your side, his attention remaining on you as if he was trying to read your body language but miserably failing to do so when all the trauma responses hit you at full force.

“Just listen to us for a few minutes”, Kenta says and looks at you with genuinely pleading eyes but for the first time in your life you feel actual resentment towards the brother you had tried so hard to protect and keep safe. You’ve always reminded yourself of his age, of his lacking experience in life, his brain still developing but as your eyes anxiously roam his features, all those excuses seem to disappear when you realize just how much he’s grown.

He’s now three years older than Riki when he had decided to ask his parents to sign off their parental rights to you, his older sister, because he knew exactly what type of people they were.

“Please, Y/N”, he suddenly pleas and takes a step forward, only for you to back off and Sunghoon quickly comes to stand between you and your brother.

“I don’t think this is a good idea, Kenta”, he says nonchalantly, not giving a single fuck about the current chaos in his own head at the sight of your father, a man he’s never, ever associated anything good or positive with. Sunghoon hasn’t seen your father in over a decade, despite the close bond your dads used to share back in the day and as he remembers all the times he had punished you for a minor mistake or a failed move, his blood suddenly starts boiling.

“This isn’t about you, Sunghoon”, your father suddenly says and the sound of his voice sends chills down your back, the urge to burst into tears and yell at him for failing you suddenly overwhelming.

“What do you want from me? Why are you here? You’ve never called, never texted me back. The only times you actually contacted me were because you wanted something from me”, you don’t find the energy and guts to push Sunghoon away and actually face them again, so without giving it much more thought you opt to stay very much hidden behind your archenemy’s impressive height.

“Please, hear us out, Y/N”, Kenta pleads yet again, skillfully ignoring your accusations, “Yuki needs your support. We can’t do this without you.”

At first, your brain struggles to process his words but as soon as you manage to read in between the lines, you feel every last bit of oxygen leaving your lungs and a thin veil of tears blurring your vision.

“What?”

“Kenta, take your failure of a father and fuck off”, Sunghoon is quick to spit back at your brother, anger and wrath lingering in his voice as he threatens your brother.

“What the fuck does that even mean, Kenta? What do you mean Yuki needs my support? For what?”

You know the answer to your question but deep down you know you need to hear it from him or your father to finally close this chapter for good. All these years you’ve believed in ideas and wishful thoughts of your other siblings finding their way back to you, but not anymore. The few bits of information Riki had shared with you were enough to block Kenta’s number but now that you’ve actually got the chance to hear him say all those things, just casually crushing your soul and taking away the tiniest drops of hope you had left, you definitely weren’t gonna let it slip away.

“Y/N, sweetheart”, your father begins calmly, his voice a lot less vengeful and harsh than you’ve remembered; his choice to not only address you by your actual name, something he had refused to since the day of your eighth birthday, but also to use the nickname he had only used for his second wife send jolts of anger through your veins and before Sunghoon can even react, you’ve made your way around him to get into your own father’s face.

“Don’t you fucking dare play innocent now”, you spit and bite back the tiny sob threatening to escape your throat when you notice the lack of emotion in the eyes of the only parent you had left.

“Alright, seems like the nice way still doesn’t work with you”, he suddenly sighs and straightens his back, the faux softness in his features quickly vanishing as he crosses his arms in front of his chest and looks down at you the way he’s always done during every conversation the two of you ever had.

“Yuki wants to attend the same boarding school as Kenta and as her older sister it’s your duty to step up financially when we can’t.”

You’ve never expected anything from your father, not a single thing ever since the day your mother passed away. It’s not like he actually ever cared about you anyway, so it’s never made sense for you to put any effort into whatever the fuck kind of bond you two had or didn’t have.

But for some reason you did expect him to have just the tiniest bit of dignity and pride, maybe a little bit of ego or self worth, just enough not to be desperate and shameless enough to ask the daughter he had abandoned, disowned and shamed for money.

“My duty? Are you mentally challenged?”

“Watch your fucking language when you talk to him, he’s still your father”, Kenta suddenly intervenes and as soon as your head shoots into his direction, you notice the shift in his facial expression. All of a sudden you can’t actually unsee the resemblance to your father, something you’ve always preferred to ignore for your own sake.

“He’s nothing to me, you fucking bitch”, you hiss and not once avert your gaze away from his, knowing he’s gonna use the difference in height to his own advantage when he has no idea of the people you’ve gotten in fights with over the years. To his defense, he doesn’t actually know anything about you in the first place.

“it’s the middle of the night, just stop wasting our time and give us the fucking money, you worthless cunt.”

Your father’s heartless words hit you like a punch right in the guts; the feeling something you haven’t felt in a while and probably something online he’s ever been able to make you go through. His choice of words and tone isn’t something new or surprising to you because even after five years of barely any contact with each other, your father has never bothered to hide his resentment for you as an individual. Every person you’re close with has heard your own father talk to you like this at least once and no matter how much time passes, the waves of humiliation and shame just don’t seem to become any less overwhelming.

“I don’t owe you shit, you old fuck”, you defend yourself once you’ve finally found your voice, hating the little shake in your breathing, “you took everything I’ve ever loved, ever card about. Fuck you, fuck your ugly ass wife and fuck your kids.”

“Watch your fucking mou-”, this time Kenta doesn’t get to step even closer to you, nor does he get to finish his threat as Sunghoon comes back into your peripheral vision and before you can physically react, you watch your former cie skating partner reach for your younger brother’s collar and swiftly push him up against the wall.

“I don’t give a fuck about your age, back the fuck off or I’ll rearrange both sets of teeth in that big mouth of yours, got it?”

“What exactly did we take from you, huh? Come on, name me one actual example and I’ll leave”, your father scoffs and rolls his eyes, reminding you of all the times he had manipulated and gaslit you into thinking and genuinely believing every insult and criticism he had thrown into your face.

“What the fuck? Are you fucking serious?”

“Ah, yeah typical Nishimura Y/N behavior”, he suddenly chuckles and looks at you with mockery gleaming in his exhausted gaze, a sight so surreal and sad it actually has your blood boiling, “screaming, swearing, pointing your fingers at others when it’s usually your own fault – you really haven’t changed, have you? Still the silly little girl who expects the world to revolve around her when she couldn’t even sacrifice anything for her own blood.”

“What?”

Your father tilts his head to the side as soon as he notices the tears blurring your vision, knowing very well what his words have done to you and where one would expect him to finally back off, the pain and agony in your facial features only make him want to take things as far as possible. He’s always pushed you past your breaking point, not because he wanted you to grow, but because he actually enjoys seeing you in such pain. He’s always referred to it as his own way of torture since he’s never been powerful enough to use his hands on you.

“What do you mean ‘what’? First you claim that we’ve taken something away from you and now you’re surprised when I point out your lack of sacrifices for the family?”

“I – My childhood, my youth, my dreams – I sacrificed everything I’ve ever had to please you”, your voice is quite and steady, more confused than angry as you struggle to understand what the fuck is actually going on, “I was never enough. Nothing I’ve ever done or achieved was enough to please you and that bitchass wife of yours.”

“Don’t talk about her like that”, your father suddenly spits and reminds you of his biggest trigger, “she’s never done anything but love you like her own but all you did was badmouth her because you’re an ungrateful, spoiled little bitch who’s bound to fail in life.”

“What the fuck – are you even talking about?” This time you refuse to keep your cool as you raise the volume of your voice and actually push him away, too disgusted by his words to bear with the close proximity any longer.

It’s then that Sunghoon finally lets go of your younger brother to come in between you and your father, knowing he won’t hesitate to do what’s necessary. He knows you can handle this by yourself but at the end of the day he would never, ever let that fucker or anyone lay a hand on you.

“Your step-mother alway tried her best but you never–”, “Shut the fuck up. That fucking bitch took away my biggest dream and all you did was give her the approval she needed to ruin my life”, you don’t care about the time and the current location you’re in, too exhausted and emotionally drained to hold back any of it any longer, “go ahead and keep praising that ugly bitch because that’s the only thing you’re good for anyway. Trying to please one tyrant because the one in your childhood never loved you enough to give a fuck about his fucking loser son.”

You’ve only ever met your paternal grandfather a couple of times in your life but from all the things your maternal aunt had told you, he’s never really been a big fan or supporter of his own son, finally explaining your father’s lack of basic human decency.

“You fucking bitch”, and as those words leave his lips, you actually watch the way your father lifts his arm, only for his hand never reaching its goal.

Yet again, Sunghoon happens to be way faster than your brain can actually follow as the next thing your eyes witness is the sight of your archenemy casually holding onto your father’s wrist before twisting his arm into the other direction and eliciting a painful scream from the old man’s throat.

“Not on my fucking watch, you loser”, Sunghoon presses through gritted teeth and twists your father’s arm a little further, “you’re never, ever going to come close to her again, di you hear me? Now take that scumbag of a son and fuck off or I’m gonna finish what your daddy started.”

“You little–”, “You don’t want to see what happens if I have to repeat myself, you fucking cunt. Now fuck. Off.”

The following few minutes pass by in a blur as you watch Kenta and your father really doing as they’re told and as soon as you step into the somehow comforting space of your airbnb, you feel a wave of exhaustion roll over you.

Sunghoon doesn’t say anything, yet refuses to leave you alone.

But why? Why does he care so much about you and why does he genuinely want to run after two two fuckers and beat the living shit out of them for hurting you like this?

He hates you.

But the sight of your tear filled eyes send him into a literal panic mode.

He can’t fucking stand you, your personality, you as an individual, everything you say and stand for.

Yet he quietly follows you into one of the bedrooms knowing he’s gonna argue with you if you dare to send him away.

“Just fuck off”, you spit, as if you could read his thoughts and usually your words would rub him the wrong way, but after all these years, Sunghoon is just too familiar with your coping mechanisms, so without giving it another thought, he shakes his head, yet not responding verbally.

“Sunghoon, just get the fuck to your room and leave me alone. I really can’t deal with your shit right now”, you sigh and rub your temples, throwing your jacket off like it’s the reason for the heavy feeling on your chest.

“Take it out on me.”

What the fuck is he saying?

“What?”

“Stop bottling your anger and frustration up like a fucking child”, he hisses and runs a hand through his dark hair, his eyes focusing yours as he watches hsi words finally make their way through your thick skull, “punch me, scream at me, curse me the fuck out but stop pushing it all away like it never happened. You’re ruining yourself for people who are worth shit.”

“Sunghoon, I–”, but to your surprise, his words actually trigger something deep inside of you and before you can actually realise it, tears have started streaming down your cheeks, ruining the make up you had spent so much time on.

“Fucking finally”, he grunts and reaches for your wrist, only to pull you into his chest and wrap his arms around your body, not expecting you to instantly melt into hsi touch as your cries and sobs start growing heavier, louder and more desperate.

You bury your face in the fabric of his hoodie and for the first time in your life, you don’t worry about anyone else but yourself.

Sunghoon remains silent as you allow yourself to wail and cry in his arms like a little girl, the one you had refused to let out as the mere thought of someone seeing you like this makes you nauseous but for some reason, you don’t seem to care that it’s him, of all people.

Maybe it’s because you know he actually doesn’t give a fuck, not about you or anything and anyone else. Or maybe it’s because of how tired and exhausted you are, but the more your father’s words ring in your ears, the heavier your cries become.

As you lose yourself in the pain and agony of your fate, SUnghoon can’t help but think of all the times you had cried in his arms when the two of you were just little kids trying to find a home in the arms of someone you had always trusted. The more memories and mental images of your ten year old self rush through his head, the stronger his hold on your body becomes and with a soft sigh, Sunghoon finally allows himself to lift his hand and gently caress the back of your head, your back and even your cheeks.

You have absolutely no idea just how long the two of you stay like this but by the time your cries finally die down, you feel lightheaded and sleepy.

There’s so much you want to say, question and ask, so much to discuss and talk about, so many things left unsaid yet the second you lift your head to look up at him, the only thing you can think about is the comfort and peace of mind his touch comes with.

Neither one of you dares to speak a word as the tension in the empty bedroom grows thicker and thicker, leaving you gasping for air and from the inconsistent movements of his chest, you can tell that Sunghoon’s probably going through the same mental dilemma as you.

“I need you”, you suddenly whisper against his lips, his nose nudging yours as he waits for you to ask for it the way he always does, “please, Sunghoon. I don’t wanna think anymore.”

As soon as you say those words, he’s a goner.

No matter how much he tries to deny it, at the end of the day he simply can’t hide the fact that all it takes is for you to ask for him, his body, his touch. No matter how much he hates it, he knows his body belongs to you and at this point he’s more than willing to look past whatever the fuck has happened between the two of you if it meant he gets another taste of you, the most forbidden of fruits.

The next thing you know is the feeling of his plump lips capturing yours in a needy kiss, a soft whimper bubbling up your throat the second his tongue grazes yours and without giving it much more thought, you push everything else into the farest corner of your brain and make sure he becomes the only thing on your mind,

Sunghoon’s kisses are hungry, they’re sloppy and needy; something you’ve grown obsessed with ever since the first one you two had shared all those weeks ago.

With every motion of his lips, the feeling of his hot breath fanning against your warm skin and his saliva slowly coating the entirety of your tongue you feel yourself ascending into the highest parts of your lust.

It doesn’t take much longer for him to grow impatient, the only thing on his mind being your pleasure and the urge to give you exactly what you need.

With his big, ring clad hands roaming your body, kneading the soft flesh of your waist and your thighs, Sunghoon quickly gets rid of your little black skirt, but also not wasting much time with the rest of your clothes. By the time he’s guided you to the king sized bed on the other side of the room, you’ve lost every piece of fabric separating your soft skin from his needy touch and you don’t even care about the fact that Sunghoon has yet to take off any of his own clothes.

“Lay back, spread those legs for me”, he grunts after letting go of your bottom lip, his own swollen and red, the sight so sinful you feel lightheaded by the time the fog clouding your brain finally clears up.

Usually you’d protest and tease him, too proud to give him what he’s asked of you right away but as you look up at him with glossy eyes, you notice the hunger in his gaze and all you can do is obey his request without hesitation.

“Don’t get all shy on me now, snowflake”, Sunghoon grunts and gently places his hands on your knees right before pulling your legs apart, revealing your drenched cunt to his hungry eyes, “she’s all mine, after all. Isn’t that right?”

His words leave you speechless, something you have yet to grow used to when it comes to Park Sunghoon and yet you don’t actually question him and silently nod in response to his hypothetical question.

For the first time since the two of you had started being intimate with each other, you’re actually feeling much more than just this deep burning wrath and hatred, so much more than hunger and lust. It’s deeper, darker and so, so much scarier.

“Eyes on me”, Hoon suddenly hisses and pinches the soft flesh of your inner thigh to get your attention back on him, mostly because he knows he’s gonna lose you to those dark thoughts and doubts if he doesn’t.

“Just cum when you need to”, he whispers against the wet flesh of your pussy, his tongue lapping up the few drops leaking out of your sensitive hole almost casually, “I’m not gonna stop until you’re crying again. But this time it’s gonna be because of how good I’m making you feel, got it?”

Yet again, all you can do is nod but this time it’s not enough. Sunghoon needs to hear you.

“Use your words or I’m not gonna let you cum at all”, he groans and lifts his head up to look at you, “don’t disappoint me now, snowflake.”

“Yes, Sunghoon”, you quickly reply, your head back to its cloudy state as the anticipation for what’s to come overwhelms your senses, “please, just make me feel good.”

And Park Sunghoon has never needed to be told twice when it came to a request of this kind.

The following minutes are filled with loud slurping, a mixture of your high pitched moans and Sunghoon’s muffled grunts, as he makes sure to lap up every single drop of your sweet juices, genuinely afraid to waste any of it and losing himself in the taste of your perfect pussy. Every now and then you catch a glimpse of your archenemy between your legs, his face flushed, tinted in the sweetest shades of shade, the skin of his chin and his cheeks, even the tip of his nose glisten from your juices and his eyes filled with so much lust and hunger, you actually can’t remember seeing him as fucked out as in this particular moment.

With every single swift motion of his tongue against your sensitive clit, you feel yourself falling deeper into the haze of your pleasure and as he manages to push you over the edge not once, not twice but three times in a row, you have to use every bit of your remaining strength to push his head away from your pussy; the sensitivity and overstimulation too much for your exhausted body to handle.

“E-Enough”, you sob softly, your hand firmly holding onto the thick strands of his hair as Sunghoon casually litters your inner thighs in open mouthed kisses, sucking the skin into his mouth every now and then to leave his marks to make sure they remind you of him the following days.

What the fuck is he thinking?

“Think you can do one more for me? Wanna fuck you to sleep so you’re properly rested for our day trip tomorrow”, Sunghoon teases you with a shit eating grin on his face as he comes to stand on his sore feet, calmly taking off his hoodie as well as his jeans, knowing how much it actually annoys you whenever he takes too much time with it.

“Fuck off”, you huff and pull your swollen bottom lip between your teeth, impatiently waiting for him to finally reveal his hard cock to your hungry eyes.

“Should I?”, he suddenly mumbles and pushes his boxer briefs down his thighs, his big cock slapping against his toned stomach and instantly leaving a tiny stain on his spale skin.

Without even replying to his sneaky comment, you sit yourself up and wrap your fingers around the length of his hard cock, looking up at him with glossy, needy eyes and tear stained cheeks, a sight so sinful and breathtaking, Sunghoon can’t physically stop himself from taking your face into one of his hands as he calmly thrusts his cock into your fist.

His eyes roll into the back of his head the second your tongue darts out to lick over his angry tip but after tongue fucking you for almost an hour straight, he simply has no patience left.

“Head back , stick your tongue out and keep your eyes on me”, he grunts and pushes his hand into your hand to help you follow his instructions, only for his cock to give away just how much he likes just how quick you are to follow his demands as it twitches in your grip and actually makes you smile cheekily.

Sunghoon tugs at the roots of your hair and takes a whole moment to admire how good you look all fucked out and ready for him and him only.

What the fuck is going on? He hates you. Hate.

This time he won’t let those confusing thoughts get the best of him as he puckers his lips and lets a thick drop of his spit fall onto the back of your tongue and carefully watches the way you swallow it without hesitation.

Within just a few minutes he makes his way on top of you, getting comfortable between your legs and casually rubbing his rock hard cock against your needy, yet overly sensitive slit.

“Don’t you dare close those eyes, did you hear me? I want you to look at me when I fuck and fill that little pussy up”, Sunghoon breathes against your lips and lines the tip of his cock up with your entrance, his eyes rolling into the back of his head when your little hole starts clenching in response to his touch.

“Just fuck me already”, you hiss when the impatience finally catches up on you, “the boys will be back soon and I really want you to cum inside of me.”

Why the fuck would you say something like that? And why the fuck don’t you regret it as much as you're supposed to?

“Will you look at that?” Sunghoon chuckles and pushes his tip a little deeper inside of your tight cunt, grunting and groaning as soon as your hot walls embrace him again, “got so used to being filled to the brim with my cum, can’t go to sleep without it anymore, hm?”

“F-Fuck off–oh, my God”, your voice breaks into a high pitched moan as soon as Sunghoon thrusts a few more inches of his impressive length inside of you and if it wasn’t for the weird urge to keep your unspoken promise of maintaining eye contact, you would have lost you remind already.

“There we go, just a little bit more.” Did he just praise you? No, encourage you? No teasing? No bickering? Actual encouragement?

“S-So big”, you whisper the second he bottoms out and you actually feel his tip graze the entrance to your womb, “more, Sunghoon. Stop fucking with me.”

“Don’t brat out on me now, snowflake”, he chuckles, not necessarily bc of how amusing you are but mostly because he’s desperately trying to hide how good you’re making him feel, “I’m gonna cum inside of this pussy tonight, I don’t give a fuck if the boys hear or see us or not.”

“Stop fucking playing and fuck me like you mean it already”, you hiss, this time genuine annoyance wavering in your tone and from the way you’ve been clenching around his cock for the past few minutes, Hoon can tell just how close you are. To his luck.

Without wasting anymore time, Sunghoon slowly pulls his cock out of your tight cunt only to thrust himself all the way back inside of you with one swift motion of his hips. It doesn’t take much time for him to find the perfect rhythm, his thrusts deep and hard, yet still fast and coordinated enough to hit the right spots and turn you into a nonsense babbling mess. Every time the tip of his cock hits the sweetest of spots deep inside of you, you feel yourself getting closer, your noises growing higher and louder, yet still not loud enough to overpower Sunghoon’s deep grunts and guttural moans.

The closer he gets, the deeper he loses himself in the sweet feeling of your cunt, the more he buries his face in your neck and as you tug on the strands of his freshly dyed dark hair, Sunghoon can’t help the little whines from escaping his sore throat.

“C-Close”, you finally whisper and push his big hand holding onto your tit down in between your legs hoping he just does what you silently requested instead of making you ask for it.

“Me too”, Hoonie grunts and pulls away from your neck, his cheeks even redder than, his bangs sticking to his sweaty forehead and his pretty lips parted as not a single breath he lets out is anything but a shaky moan.

“Look at me”, the demand comes out of nowhere but as soon as your eyes flatter open to find his, Sunghoon starts picking up the pace of his thrusts all while his fingers apply just the right amount of pressure on your sensitive clit.

And just when you’re about to stumble over the edge, Sunghoon quickly pushes his lips against yours and finally gives you the last thing you needed for the coil in your lower tummy to snap.

With a loud, dragged out whimper, your nails digging into his back and your vision blacking out, you loser yourself in the overwhelming waves of your orgasm, falling even deeper and harder when Sunghoon quickly follows you into sweet relief as he paints the insides of your tight cunt in several shades of white.

Just as usual, neither one of you can actually say anything as the sound of your heavy breathing remains the only thing to fill the emptiness of your bedroom.

However, this time Sunghoon refuses to just pull out and step away.

For some reason, the urge to take proper care of you becomes overwhelming, so with a soft sigh, he pulls away and starts caressing your heated skin.

He doesn’t say anything. He doesn’t really know what would be appropriate, so after soothing the sensitive skin of your inner thighs, Sunghoon slowly pulls his now soft cock out and quickly reaches for his boxer briefs. Usually this is the moment where he hurries ot the bathroom to get you a towel, but this time he actually bends down to grab his hoodie from the floor before he holds his hand out for you to grab, only to help you put on right, and then heading out of the room to grab a towel.

Your brain is too foggy, too chaotic to read much into it and by the time he finishes cleaning up the mess between your legs, Sunghoon casually lays on the other side of your bed and quickly pulls you into his arms.

Never in your life have you expected to find yourself in bed with Park Sunghoon’s steady heartbeat pounding underneath your ear. Yet for the first time in your life, you actually feel at total ease. Nothing matters and nothing will matter, not as long as you’re both like this.

And as Sunghoon attentively watches the way your lids grow heavier right before you drift off to sleep, he catches himself playing with a few strands of your hair and it’s then that he realizes that maybe, just maybe, there’s more to his feelings than pure hatred.

Maybe he doesn’t actually hate you as much as he’s always thought.

But when his boys notify him about their arrival in a few minutes, Sunghoon has no choice but to pull away to save you both from a situation neither one is ready for and before he can overthink it, he places a soft kiss on your forehead and leaves after tucking you into bed properly.

Fuck. This actually just happened.

And he’s not even upset about it.

← 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐨𝐮𝐬 — 𝐦𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭 — 𝐧𝐞𝐱𝐭 →

(A/N: HELLO MY BABIES!!!!! i missed you guys and CH so, so much!!!!! i’m so excited about this it’s lit 3:30am but i missed writing sm i just knew i had to finish this tonight! thank you guys so, so much for your patience and support, your understanding and sweetness. i love and appreciate you all so, so so much! i hope you enjoyed this chap and can’t wait to go back to regular updates!!!🥺🩷)

TAGLIST: @soonigiri @en-happiness @lhsvibez @dammit-jjk @heerinnie @primroselover @jungwon-xo @szkstay @lostwonderwall @hoonieluv @certifiedmoa @doodlelibrary @ikeuizm @kpoprhia @sleeping-demons @jongszn @imtoanonymousforyou @lalalovejay @ineedsomezzz @xrr-s4sha @ariadores @viagumi @electrobutterfly @mimikittysblog @blurryriki @heelcvr @wonkifangirl @joonzseoulmate @kwiwin @hoondiors @seuomo @zerasari @love-you-twice @aloverga @marz-mars @velvtcherie @niniissus @abrazosolorcereza @ddazed-lhs @acphengene @skz-streamer @kshoshi @tya0 @yizhoutv @jebetwo @myheelody @seokgyuu @blockbusterhee @luvkpopp @heeslut4life

[morphids]

well, two can play that game (pt.2), abby anderson

part one here!

pairing: basketball player!abby anderson x afab! reader (college au)

warnings: 18+ minors dni!!!!! poc friendly!! r has curly hair, past hurt/comfort, past relationships, petnames used in place of actual name, bff!dina x r, very abby focused chapter, abby is incredibly sweet n patient until she fucks u… ellie and abby are sort of archenemies, a lil ellie slander, abby talks u thru it, r gets strapped down in a car 🫣, pussydrunk ramblings, praise, abby calls the strap her cock sorry 😮‍💨

summary: part 2: after ellie left you at the party, you find comfort in the arms of another. perhaps it’s better this way?

wc: 5k (not proofread im sorry y’all my eyes hurt)

2 posts in less than a month?? who am i?? anyway the abby brainrot is rife recently im sorry if its ass.

AS ALWAYS FUCK DRUCKMANN AND ALL ZIONISTS, resources for Palestine and the daily click linked on my pinned post!

—

You were left in the empty bathroom, alone and very pissed off. She ignores you for months, then does this? No, you were more than pissed. You fixed your makeup, more like wiped it all off, and readjusted your clothes, trying to somewhat freshen yourself up before facing the world outside. Your legs still slightly shaking as you thought back to your previous interaction with Ellie. How dare she? She's the one who left. You shuddered, a horrible feeling ripping itself up in your chest, you felt used.

You shook your head, taking one final glance at the mirror before exiting the bathroom. You really only had one mission, get the fuck out of here and go home. Not bothering to say goodbye to your friends, you'd send a text explanation to Dina, surely she'd understand. You just couldn't be here right now, after that. Your legs carried you down the stairs, tunnel vision towards the front door at the end. You frowned, feeling bad that you'd be leaving Dina's on her birthday so you glanced back trying to find her within the crowd. Upon looking, you spotted her and Jesse... and Ellie. She didn't leave? You panicked, instantly looking away, not wanting -Ellie- anyone to see you as you opened the door and strode a few steps in front the road.

Grabbing a single cigarette from your pack and lighting it, you reached for your phone and quickly typed out a message to Dina. As your shaking hands were drafting a whole essay about what had happened, you felt a gentle tap on your shoulder, so gentle it almost indicated that they were trying not to alarm you. Despite their efforts, you were a jumpy person so you swiftly reacted and turned to look at who was trying to get your attention.

"Hey, you alright?" The person revealed themselves as the one you had been enjoying speaking to before the night had been ruined.

"Oh, Abby," You were slightly shocked, admittedly. The little stunt that Ellie pulled must've given you some form of brain damage because Abby had ultimately left your thoughts, "Yeah, I'm fine." You smiled at her, at least what you thought was a smile, it must've looked more like an odd grimace because Abby then spoke,

"You sure, you look a bit... shaken." Her words were hesitant, eyes studying you, you must've looked as bad as you felt.

"Sorry, yeah, just..." you paused, "Need to get out of here." You took another drag, your cigarette almost at its end.

"Do you have a ride home?" She asked, those maldito crystal blue eyes furrowed with worry, she was not about to leave a distressed girl on the side of the street alone at night, Abby thought.

"I'll just book a taxi," you explained, not wanting to burden the poor woman. She didn't deserve to be brought into this mess. The plan of the night was for you to stay at Dina's, knowing that you were a bit broke currently, but that was no longer an option for you, especially if Ellie was planning on lingering around.

"I can drive you home, if you'd like." Abby stated, her firm hand resting on top of your shoulder, noticing you shake from the cold weather of the night. "I haven't drank all night, if that makes you feel better?" She firmed, the corner of her lips stretching out into a slight smile with hopes of helping you perk up a little. It was working.

"I don't want to trouble yo-"

"If you truly don't want to, that's okay," she reassured, "But if you're just saying that not to be a burden on me, that's silly. You look stressed, I'd like to help."

Her catching you out made you chuckle, you were once again, reminded that you had been having great conversations with her before that interruption. You let out a sigh,

"Okay, you got me, I'd really appreciate a ride." That caused her smile to grow, as she looked down at you, straightening herself up before grabbing her keys from her pocket.

"Perfect, let's go."

--

The car was slightly frosted over, a cool air flowing through the vehicle as Abby handled the steering wheel with the utmost confidence.

"Thank you,"

"You don't need to say thank you, glad to help," Abby spoke.

A few silent moments passed, questions noticeably waiting to be asked,

"So, what happened back there?"

You stilled, an air of shame washing over you,

"Um," You were slightly embarrassed, after all you were flirting with Abby at the party just seconds before the whole ordeal with Ellie, you didn't want her to think a certain way about you. Especially since she was so kindly driving you home.

"Something happened with my ex," You sighed, deciding to bite the bullet.

"Doesn't sound too good," She responded, eyes darting to glance at you before focusing back on the road. You didn't live that far from Dina's, you were probably due to arrive soon.

"That's an understatement," You paused, "I just don't understand women."

Abby let out a quick laugh,

"You and me both,"

"I mean, she ghosts me, then shows up with one of her new conquests and then fucks me in the bathroom because she saw me talking to you and leaves?" You blurted out, clearly needing to vent about it, you suddenly remembered you never ended up actually sending that text to Dina.

"Oh," Abby paused, clearly not expecting that, she recovered and quickly added, "That's awful, I'm sorry." You studied her a little, looking for any signs that she was disgusted or put off, there didn't seem to be any.

"Don't be, Ellie's not exactly the picture of healthy relationships."

"Wait, Ellie? Williams?"

"Yeah?"

"Damn, hasn't changed, has she?"

"What do you mean?" You pressed, recognising the familiar turns of your street, you mentally swore, of course it starts getting juicy just as you begin to reach home.

"Just... had an issue with her a while back, after one of our basketball games,"

Abby's car slowed to a stall, the lack of momentum had emphasised the hum of the engine and the repetitive blinks of the indicator.

Abby turned now to look at you, turning off the engine, her right arm resting on the steering wheel, your eyes couldn't help but glaze your attention on the curves of her muscles, you looked away before she caught you staring.

"Honestly, it was so long ago, but she kinda got involved with two girls on the team," You silently gaped at her, wordlessly allowing her to continue, this was news to you - did Dina know any of this?

"Basically, neither of them knew about it until Ellie got caught making out with someone else during that party after the game. We all kinda lost our shit with her and I think there was punches thrown? Kicked a lot of shit off between the team and kinda ruined the flow of our games for a while, we're all over it now but..."

"Oh," Was all you could say, you really dated Ellie not knowing anything about this. Has she always been the type of person to jump from ship to ship? You shuddered at the thought that you were just another addition to a rather extensive list.

"Sorry, I thought you would've known about it," Abby sympathised,

"No, it's not your fault." You sighed, at least now you knew the kind of person you were actually dealing with. It fuelled your anger, especially with how she behaved earlier.

A still second passed inside the car, the indicator still blinking and you suddenly felt all the more embarrassed.

"Well, sorry about all this, thank you for the ride home. I do appreciate it," You unclipped your seatbelt, turning your body slightly to grab the handle and make your exit.

"You gonna be alright?" Abby questioned, her blue eyes looking up at you, there was an unreadable expression within them, not pity but something else.

"I think? Probably just gonna rot for the next few hours," You paused, turning to face her fully. You were still on edge from before, and with this new information you didn't feel like being alone. You shouldn't do this, you shouldn't do it at all. She's probably so tired of your shit already. Yet the words forced themselves out faster than you could do anything to stop them,

"You don't have to, but would you like to come in? I could make you a hot drink or something as thanks?"

The corners of her lips turned upwards,

"I'd love to,"

—

You had brewed two mugs of hot chocolate, turning away from the counter to face the tall blonde that now sat in your living room.

"Thanks," she smiled as she took the hot cup from your grasp. Joining her on the couch, you hesitated - what now?

Do you pop a movie on? Do you play music? Your brain was begin to work overtime as you suddenly felt awkward.

"You okay?"

"Yeah, sorry," you say, finally adjusting to get comfortable on the pillows.

"You were staring at your drink for a while, there." She chuckled, blowing on the hot drink before taking a sip whilst maintaining eye contact with you.

"Got lost in the sauce again," You joked, not wanting to speak about Ellie any longer.

"Happens often?" She teased, one corner of her lips quipped up slightly.

"More than I'd like to admit,"

"Thanks again, for the ride."

"You don't have to keep saying thank you, angel, it wasn't even a ten minute drive." She explained, you felt more at ease. Abby truly was something else, she had this comforting air around her where you just felt safe and understood.

"Still, you didn't have to,"

"Darling, I'm gonna need you to stop saying thank you for basic human decency," She insisted, her tone firm but gentle, her eyebrows moved in a way you could only read as 'you know?'.

"You don't owe me anything, alright? I just wanted to make sure you got home okay." Abby proclaimed, her voice lowering, becoming shy, almost. "If it helps, I'm glad Dina introduced us."

You felt a tug in your chest as you processed her words. You met her eyes, a warm feeling washed over you, uh oh.

"I'm glad she introduced us, too."

She seemed satisfied with that, a smile coating her lips as she turned her attention back away to her drink.

You decided to get yourself off the couch, Abby's light eyes following your trail, still encompassing the almost finished mug with her hands. You bent down, on your knees in front of her, Abby was suddenly glad your back was facing her, as her eyes would've certainly made you privy to where her gaze had landed.

You reached underneath your coffee table, aimlessly throwing your hand underneath it into the separate compartments. Abby was mentally cursing herself for looking, yet your shirt had ridden up slightly, the bend of the dimpled bottom of your back leading to the perfect curve of your ass— Abby looked away, she didn't want to think thoughts like that about you, not under these circumstances, at least. Stop being such a lesbian, Abby- She thought.

Truth is, Abby really liked talking to you at Dina's party. She was enthralled as soon as Dina brought you over to her, your thick curls perfectly framing your face, she thought back to when you told her your name, the way your velvety lips moved with the words and the way your eyes sparkled as you took in her frame.

She quickly discovered you were easy to talk to and there was clearly mutual attraction there, but she didn't want to pressure you into anything, especially since Abby figured Ellie had done enough damage for one night. Abby thought to what you said, how all of that happened because Ellie saw you talking with her, it angered her, you deserved so much better than that, but it also gave her an odd feeling of subtle pride. Ellie felt jealous over her? Well, then she should've acted right, Abby thought, thoughts interrupted by your voice.

"Ah!" You breathed out, finally grabbing what you were looking for. With your free hand, you pulled the hem of your shirt back down a bit, turning to Abby who was busy downing the rest of her drink to avoid looking at you.

She propped the mug on the table, before muttering,

"Jenga?" A chuckle escaped her, a warm feeling grew in her chest as she saw the impish look on your face,

"Come on, it's old but it's a classic— and, it has questions on them, what do you say?" Abby took in your features, eyes glinting with excitement and lips curved into an expectant smile. Her breathing sped up, air suddenly trapped.

"How can I say no to that?"

—

"I give it a week." Dina exclaimed, an isolated smirk on her face, you had just told her about your night with Abby after her party. You had ended up just playing silly board games and talking most of the night, to Dina's discontent apparently as a she was currently placing bets on when you and Abby will undoubtedly sleep together, her words.

"Dina!"

"Come on, you're lesbians. It's the prophecy."

You let out a laugh, shaking your head at her as you secured your earrings on.

You glanced over at yourself on the full length mirror in Dina's bedroom, unsure.

"You look hot, don't worry," she smiled, "Lowers my bets to less than three days." Dina finished with a wink, walking with you to the entrance of the house.

Her confidence only seemed to make you more nervous, Abby had invited you to a party with her teammates, you would've dragged Dina with you but lucky for you, she had already made plans with Ellie.

Ellie. Even mentally, her name was thought of with disdain. You hadn't seen her since that night, nor did you want to. Right now, your focus was on Abby, and you didn't want to let her have enough power to sour your entire night.

Your phone buzzed, a message from Abby saying she was parked outside,

"She here?"

"Yeah,"

"Alright, well good luck~" She gushed, almost pushing you out the door. Dina felt content, knowing that she was helping you get over Ellie, even a little. She loved you both, but she couldn't sit back and watch that particular fire burn itself out.

You stepped out of Dina's place, making your way over to the only car outside you recognised, where Abby was standing in between the driver's seat and the car door. God, she looked good.

Abby glanced up from her phone before smiling widely at you.

"Hey, pretty, you ready?" Her voice was so soft, you found yourself hanging on every syllable she uttered. You tried to control your facial response to her words, even though, you are almost certain that she knows exactly how you feel about her. She seemed to get this impish expression in her eyes. Mirth.

You wonder if she feels the same thing.

"Born ready." You smile back up at her, Abby opens the passenger door for you and waits until you're fully settled into the seat before shutting the door, making her way around to her side and joining you.

Clicking her seatbelt into place and switching on the ignition, her larger hand finds its way on to the top of your thigh, fingers spaced out confidently as her thumb strokes your skin over your jeans.

You fight the urge to adjust your body, suddenly hyperaware of the way your body is reacting to such a simple act.

"Let's go then,"

—

Abby stops by her house before the party, had to grab something apparently.

She parked her car inside the blocky carpark for her apartment building, managing to find a space somewhere in this car maze. Turning the ignition off, she moved her hand off your thigh, not before turning her gaze towards you.

It looks like she has something to say, yet no words escape her.

You take the opportunity to look at her, her features, your eyes trailing down her face to her plump lips.

"You're beautiful, you know." You say to her, you feel yourself enter some sort of daze. No other thoughts, all you can think and inhale is Abby. Your mind completely clouded and the only clarity being her.

You see a flash of red cross her cheeks, though she quickly steeled her expression, the left corner of her lips tilting up as her eyes landed on your own lips.

Abby clicks off her seatbelt, her hands coming back to return to their comfortable spot on your thighs, slightly wrapping her fingers around the outside of them as she lightly grabs you a little closer to her.

Your faces are inches apart now, you glance down at her lips, clicking off your own seatbelt before placing yourself on her lap in the driver's seat. You connect your lips with hers as your hands meet the back of her neck.

Abby quickly responds and returns the kiss, tightening her grip on your thighs, her other hand running up your side, softly making contact with your back.

You slowly wind your hips across hers, dragging yourself up using the force of your legs which are spread over her lap.

Her mouth opens slightly as you start making out. Tongue softly brushing over her bottom lip before you gently bite and pull her skin down, causing a moan to escape her lips.

"Fuck, sweetheart, you're going to make me do something stupid." Her voice low, warm with honey.

Her hands crawl back down to the top of your jeans, underneath the fabric to meet the back of your ass, kneading your skin with a strong grip, groaning as she was actually touching you after cursing herself out for even glancing at your exposed back the other night. A part of her was relieved that you wanted this just as bad as she did.

"Like what?" You tease, placing gentle kisses on her neck, alternating different amounts of pressure as you kissed up to behind her ear.

"Like fuck you in my car." You shuddered.

"Maybe that's what I'm after," You drag your hips across hers again, meeting her lips once more in an ardent kiss.

"Careful," She whispered, fingers tightening around the ample skin of your cheeks, pecking your lips lightly, "Don't do anything you'd regret."

You chuckled, "Baby if I regret anything, it wouldn't be you." Looking at her through your lashes, eyes doe and wanting, lips plump and swollen, Abby found it harder to be a voice of reason, especially when the very picture of enticement was sat pretty on her lap, uttering words that were ever so sweet and inviting. Her resolve was dropping, made obvious by the way her chest raised and sank with each breath, her pupils blowing out the blue of her eyes slightly. She decided, then, that you were going to be the death of her.

Your lips met again, the pacing quickened this time, "Well, in that case," she muttered, taking advantage of the way her hands were already cupping your ass to slowly drive your hips over her thigh. Abby inched her head into the curve of your neck as she left feathery pecks on the supple skin, lifting her knee an inch higher to graze your centre, the tips of her eyebrows lifting as she spoke, “Can I?”

Needing to take a deep breath to calm your speeding heart rate, thinking if she really needed to ask at this point when you were so clearly turned on right now. “I swear, I’ll die right now, if you don’t,” You managed to let out, trying to rub yourself against her as the pressure building up was getting unbearable. Abby breathed out a soft laugh, resuming her attack on your neck and up to your earlobe, you almost cried from the sensitivity that eagerness had cursed you with, you were thankful that night had fallen, the darkened shadows of the late hours hiding your depraved salacity.

Tongue grazing the skin underneath your ear, Abby shuffled a little in her seat, exposing something solid underneath your leg, concealed under her jeans, your eyebrows furrowed and eyelids jolted open, had that been there this whole time? The newly discovered information had your mind reeling, obscene thoughts reigning your head as you realised she must’ve been walking around with that thing. You wondered if she always walked around with that thing. The thought was too much, your core became increasingly warmer and damp, throbbing as she kneaded you over the plastic extension of herself.

“Fuck,” you gasped, mewling at the rigidity of her strap through your clothes, rubbing up against you. You couldn’t hold your tongue, “You always keep that on you?” voice breathy as her hands met the skin of your torso underneath your shirt, your stomach tensing as the skin rippled with shivers from her touch. Not even letting her answer your question, you spoke again, voice wavering, “We’re gonna be late to meet your friends,”

“Honestly, pretty girl, I couldn’t give a damn about that right now,” Abby’s voice deepened, coated with a thick wave of carnality. Her wandering hands gently lifted your top, exposing your breasts to her as she placed her tongue over the hardened peaks, before speaking again, “Not when you’re in front of me looking like that,” Her demeanour was composed, trying to mask her ardour and the slight tremble in her hands that she prayed you didn’t notice, but she, too, felt the innate fervency that was electrifying the air. She looked you over, shirt lifted, mouth agape, body gleaming in the scarce light from the windows, twitching with anticipation. Your eyes watching hers, cheeks warming under her heavy gaze. You were absolutely delightful, and she couldn’t hold herself back from indulging, nor did she want to.

Her hands finally reached the waistband of your jeans, fingers twining around the belt loops as she pulled them down to your knees, allowing you to rushingly pull off the remaining fabric that clung to your legs, carelessly shoving them down somewhere to the bottom of the car floor. The remaining baggy shirt draping over your thighs. It was a sight for sore eyes, Abby thought. You unzipped her pants, eagerly pulling out her strap that she had been walking around with. You looked up at her, a hint of a smirk on your lips, Abby placed one hand at the base, angling the tip against your covered slit, watching as your slick seeped further over your lace underwear, leaving a distinctive translucent mark of your arousal. You moaned, eyes shutting as you bent your head down against her clavicle, hiding yourself from the embarrassment you felt at being so exposed in your desire for her. She wasn’t even in, yet, for fuck’s sake, and you were already weak.

“Don’t hide, baby,” She uttered, voice quiet and sweet as she bit back her own moans at the sight. Abby slipped the tip under the hem of your panties, the stiff cap of her strap rolling over your folds, spreading your slick up to your clit, in full sight as the thin, wet fabric of your underwear clung to her shape, exposing the sinful silhouette of her strap under your panties, “Wanna look at you.”

Abby smirked as she felt how little friction it took for her strap to slide up against your folds, “Fuck, you’re so fucking wet,” Her voice tense, groaning as she watched her own movements, teeth grabbing the bottom of her own lip as the tip became covered in slick, hidden beneath the fabric, “All wet and ready, could just slide right in,”

“Abby, p-please, can’t take it,” You whimpered, the pressure against your clit was stirring you towards insanity, but it wasn’t enough, not when she was teasing you with the damn thing, not when she was so, so close. You couldn’t take her relentless teasing any longer, spurred and waiting as you could only sit there as she decided to mess with you, you thought you’d come right there and then.

“Please what, baby?” She smirked, the edge of her lip tilting up as she watched you lose more and more of your patience, hips jutting towards her as a means to feel more of her. Lips meeting the edge of your jaw as she left the softest kisses on your skin, pausing to look over at you, the way your expressions morphed into desperation and eyebrows pinched together, just waiting for her to move properly. “Please, just p-put it inside, need to feel you inside, Abby-please” The desperation in your voice pulled at her, her own heat throbbing as she admired you, thankful that someone up there had blessed her with this sight tonight. Whichever lesbian gods resided up there to gift her such a vision. The sight of you falling apart and begging for her made her lose all the remaining composure she tried so hard to cling on to, as she slid up into your walls, you welcoming her as she slipped right in. You were so wet that she could hear the perverted sounds of your pussy sucking her in, your hands clawed at the back of her neck, head against her collarbone as you bit into her shoulder, grasping on to any remaining dregs of stability you could find. Your hips began to roll against hers on their own, seeking their own path.

“There, that’s it, baby. See, how you can take it,” Her words were anything but innocent, yet the saccharine tone of her voice was pulling you further into your climax, like a siren dragging you into deepwater, you were rendered wordless at this point, having been so turned on for so long must’ve melted your brain to mush, so you could only lean against her and ride her out. Could only sit there and take it, “You’re such a good girl for me, baby, that’s it,”

“You feel.. s-so fucking good, Abby,” Your babbles seemed to exacerbate Abby’s movements, lack of coherent words spurring her on as the harder thrusts hit the back of your cervix, drawing out the loudest sound you’ve ever heard be forced out from between your lips, you lifted your head to look at her, she looked just as ruined as you. Her eyes fixed on where you and her strap connected, folds gripping her each time she pulled out, “Fuck, baby, you’re taking me so fucking well, like you were born for my cock,” Her words were now blatantly sinful, Abby’s head just as mushed as yours felt as she rambled, drunk on feeling as if the strap truly was attached to her. She was usually such a gentlewoman, patient and respectful, but now? In this moment you saw another side to her, one that was so carnal in her desire and knew exactly what to say to make you see double. “I can almost feel you clenching around me,”

“Fuck-mm, Abby, I’m so close,” Her strap was splitting, your eyes shut as the repeated hits against your walls reverberated through your system, you bounced your hips against hers, sucking her further in. The insides of your thighs were drenched, your slick having dripped down all over her strap as she moved. You felt your brain almost explode when Abby’s fingers met with your clit, rubbing against the bud as her other hand reached up to grasp your jaw, with a little pressure, just enough for your plump lips to jut out slightly as she reconnected your lips. Her name sounded so sweet on your tongue, the familiar swell of pride returned, proud that it was her name you were currently moaning out, hers and hers alone. She wondered if Ellie ever made you like this, or if it was reserved just for her.

You could die happy, you thought, if this was the last humanly pleasure you felt. Her tongue moved against yours, before biting your bottom lip, you couldn’t focus on anything but her, the way she was making you feel. Your vision becoming slightly blurred as the pressure in your lower stomach built up, tightening as you felt it increase and increase as her fingers played with the bundle of nerves paired with the repeated beats of her pressing herself into you. Her hand loosened its grip on your jaw, she reached to the hem of your shirt, lifting it to reveal your breasts, nipples stiff as the movement of your bodies made your breasts spring up and down, the skin of your ass recoiled as gravity worked its magic, Abby was entranced, mesmerised as she watched you glow closer. Your hands grabbed at her, running down from her neck to reach her well-built biceps, nails digging into the buff muscles, drawing tiny red marks which contrasted against her skin. Playing basketball must really keep her busy.

Abby was no fool, she had clocked you staring at them enough, she let out a grunt as she felt the sharp sting on your nails. The act prompted her, losing the grip over her mouth as she was incited to new levels. “Like my arms, sugar?”

“Abby..” you mewled, pushing your face into her neck in the embarrassment that you had been clocked, “They’re just so big,”

Abby chuckled, “I’ll show you what they’re capable of soon enough,” Her words went straight to your core, making you clench tightly around her.

“For now, I want you to come all over my cock, sweetheart,” She grabbed at the skin of your breasts, kneading her large hands over them, pulling and tweaking your nipples as your body fell into her, lips open as the overstimulation hit its peak, eliciting a final drawl from you as your body shook against her. “Fuck… there you go, baby,” she dragged your orgasm out, still pushing her cock into you as you rode it out, “Fuck.. fucking orgasm lasted so long,” you sighed into her neck, mumbling voice wobbled as your legs twitched against her, spilling your cum all over her strap as it leaked out of you. She slowed her thrusts, keeping herself inside you until you were done. Your sensitive walls still reacting to her.

You felt completely worn out as she finally slipped out of you, you shyly lifted your head to make contact with her gaze, her eyes warm and gleaming as she attempted to hold back a smile, “That was..” You could hardly finish your sentence, placing a soft kiss against her lips as she grabbed your neck, holding your head up and rubbing her thumb over the soft skin of your jaw. “Wow.”

“Speechless, huh?” She couldn’t contain herself, an air of cockiness in her demeanour, her mind wandered to what this meant for you both now.

“If you think we’re still going, I have bad news,” You muttered, still in a daze as a wave of sleepiness hit you,

“Sweetheart, we’re not going anywhere but upstairs to my apartment,” You smiled at her, this was exciting. You felt comforted with her, “Don’t think I’m not returning the favour, by the way,” Abby laughed, nodding as she kissed your neck.

“Shit, I owe Dina 20 bucks,”

“Wait, what?”

—

like, comment or reblog to your hearts desire if ya enjoyed :p

[lesbiansanemi]

Okay actually, here are the only Bleach romance dynamics that matter

Urahara/Yoruichi except it’s strictly a friends with benefits situation while Yoruichi and Soi Fon are Divorced(TM) and Yoruichi and Soi Fon would go back to each other in a heartbeat if they actually Discussed Feelings

Grimmichi + Ichihime but specifically in a “Ah yes, me, my husband, and my husband’s six foot tall Hollow archenemy” type of way

Queerplatonic Ichiruki and queerplatonic Renruki. Rukia has two hands but neither of them are for romance, they’re for holding onto Ichigo and Renji’s backpack leashes

Yumichika/Ikkaku but specifically Yumichika is a homophobic gay and Ikkaku is convinced they’re just “guys being dudes”

Harribel/Nel but Harribel’s lesbian harem (Mila Rose, Sung Sung, and Appachi) are deeply in love with Harribel and pine after her in increasingly wet and pathetic ways

Aizen/Urahara but Aizen is just pissed he’s in love with Urahara and Urahara is completely oblivious while Yoruichi is eating popcorn

Renji/Uryu wherein they started making out when they were left alone one time and have no idea why and will never tell anyone

Orihime/Tatsuki wherein they were together the whole series and everything was resolved much quicker with Tatsuki around because she actually has a brain

Gin/Rangiku and everything is exactly the same as in canon except Rangiku was given the opportunity to punch him at least once

Basically romance in Bleach only works if it, and everyone involved, is supremely stupid

[mighty-mepoe]

Interesting (All Might) fic finds

Cute/Slice of life fics:

Slightly Cracked by Krisington

Really sweet, a bit bitter at the start.

The more Izuku made friends at UA, the more he realized that All Might was just as friendless as he himself had always been. Despite All Might's insistence otherwise, Izuku found this to be completely unacceptable.

Secret Identity fics:

Yagi-Sensei by Swiftwidget (or also HERE)

<3

A short drabble inspired by a post by alicekaninchenbau on tumblr. An AU in which "All Might" was not hired to teach at U.A. but instead Toshinori Yagi teaches Foundational Hero Studies and no one but Principal Nedzu, Recovery Girl, and Izuku know he is All Might. Toshinori actually does come through the door like a normal person.

Mr Yagi by Swiftwidget

Amazing, makes me smile every time.

Mr. Toshinori Yagi from the Second Secretarial Office: A kind, generous man with an uncanny knowledge about the Might Tower Staff who never hesitated to make their days brighter. At least, that's how they knew him. / Inspired by the Vigilante 006 Beta chapter in which Detective Tsukauchi meets Toshinori Yagi at Might Tower for the first time.

Missing Everything by Haptronym

Izuku misses a very important reveal and ends up with a villain-filled soda bottle instead. In the ensuing chaos, he befriends someone named Toshinori Yagi. All Might misses the chance to make a snap decision and ends up mentoring a very heroic, very determined child who has no idea who he really is.

No Such Thing As a Hopeless Case by Origamidragons

I read this fic ages ago and it has lived rent-free in my brain since then. Dead since 2019, but what is written is worth reading.

The story of how Toshinori Yagi (not All Might, Toshinori Yagi) singlehandedly defeated his archenemy's League of Villains by accidentally adopting them all. Or: Toshinori's gonna redemption arc everybody, just watch him.

GOT THIS POWER THAT IS TAKING ME OUT (shall I go now? you'll like it, you'll be the hero) by canbreathe, debesys (canbreathe)

Heart-warming.

<<"You do not have any kind of teaching qualification, do you Yagi-san?" "I, um," he desperately grabs at straws, "cleaning? I've done. Cleaning.">> All Might, or rather, Yagi Toshinori, becomes a janitor at U.A. It goes much better than expected.

Badass Small Might:

to measure time by sundefeater lou (sundefeater)

Dad Might becomes feral.

Five minutes. Five goddamned minutes. He had just wanted to restock some essential supplies at the nearby konbini while Izuku got some much needed rest with the aid of the last of the cold tablets and a cool compress. Or: Izuku is sick, the villains don't care, and Toshinori has had it up to here with these assholes.

Mr. Yagi by writers_writers

Beginning of manga-Bakugou learns some practical lessons.

With Aizawa still out of commission on the Monday after the USJ attack, the question is, who is going to teach Class 1-A. All might is out recuperating as well and the rest of the teachers are already stretched thin working on the security on top of their own classes. The kids are shaken and on edge from the devastating events the week prior and need someone with a steady hand and a kind voice to get them back to a sense of normality. It's a good thing that All Might's secretary offered to come in for the day just to keep an eye on them.

Yagi-san by soulofdarkandlight

All Might finds a way to be a hero without using his quirk.

When Nedzu asks All Might to retire, he surprisingly agrees. Little does he realize, it's All Might who agreed, not Yagi.

Harmony in War by Quisanne

(Restricted to AO3 users) Dad-Might and Dad-Zawa for your enjoyment. Also some Bakugrowth towards the end. I just love Aizawa's POV.

Aizawa and All Might go on a warpath to raze Aldera Middle School to the ground. A story in which Aizawa is the one smiling at people and All Might is the one intimidating everyone.

Dadmight:

The Best Day by Nicnac

So cute! All fluff with a tiny bit of angst in the predictable place. Worth a thousand reads.

All Might saves Izuku from the slime villain when the boy is only four years old. Things proceed accordingly.

Quirkless Yagi Toshinori:

Thunder by Hayato (TheLennyBunny)

Yagi Toshinori manages to become a quirkless hero in the harsh world of his youth.

This Autor has a whole mountain of amazing fics.

In this universe, he never meets anyone. He sits as an island, isolated, standing with stacks of notebooks and muscles gained from years of self-defense. He tells his middle school counsellor he wants to be a hero, and she laughs in his face.

Angst / Harsh fics (no bad endings):

Statistic by aconstantstateofbladerunner

When victims and bystanders are gaslighted into believing it's their fault, help is difficult to come by.

In a world where All for One was defeated the first time around, new villainous groups are constantly bubbling up just under the surface of society. New crimes need new tactics, so in an effort to flush out an alleged anti-quirkless group, All Might decides to go undercover as Yagi Toshinori, quirkless middle school teacher. But Toshinori hasn't been quirkless in a long time, and he learns the hard way how much things have changed.

Toshishan and Baby 'Zuku (I Know How the World Treat Us) by 18ems_girl

Super-cute! And it has some iteresting character studies.

A de-aging quirk affects Izuku and Toshinori and, while baby Izuku is happy to meet heroes, teen Toshinori is scared because he knows people treat quirkless kids awful.

Humour:

When Monologuing To Your Nemesis Goes Wrong by Ilentari

Crack. Also SPOILERS.

Ugh, he didn’t want to be subjected to this boring monologue anymore. Perhaps this was All For One’s plan? Rant to him until his ears began to bleed? All For One cleared his throat and started back up where he left off, and All Might sighed in irritation. “Why are you like this?” he groaned, wanting the villain to shut up. All For One initially had seemed annoyed by the interruption, but quickly brightened at the question. “I’m glad you asked!” He flourished his hands dramatically. “You see, once upon a time there was a baby born as evil as one could be—” That was stupid. All Might snorted. “Babies aren’t born evil.”

Take My Place on the Witness Stand by Quisanne

Hilarious. (Restricted to AO3 users) I also recomend the rest of the Series.

[Officer] Name, age, current address, and quirk, please, if you would. [Suspect] I'm afraid I can’t tell you most of these things. [Officer] Oh? And why would that be, I wonder? Would it allow us to track you down and find your stash of other stolen IDs? [Suspect] ...It's a matter of national security. [Officer] Yeah sure, and my mother is a late descendant of the Emperor. ----- OR: Yagi Toshinori gets arrested for having All Might's possessions on him and his friends are amazingly incompetent at getting him out. Maybe they're having too much fun with this.

The Torrid Affair of All Might and Yagi Toshinori by Speedwagons_Glorious_Mane

Super-fun.

It's the perfect cover. No one will ever suspect that All Might and Yagi Toshinori are the same person if everyone thinks they're dating.

Healing (literally):

Flashback by Psyckosama

Amazingly self-indulgent. A bit spicy at times. Really well written even if at first it seems it will be a chaotic fic.

On the day Izuku Midoriya was to receive All Might's quirk, the sacred torch of One for All, a young girl glowing with a corona of power runs up to the mentor and student yelling for them to stop as she desperately contains the energy within her. After pleading with Izuku to, impossibly, take One for All from *her*, she lays the weak and crippled Toshinori Yagi's hand upon her sparking horn and All Might is reborn in his prime. But who is this mysterious girl, how did she know the fateful exchange that would be taking place on that isolated beach, and what ominous portents does her appearance that day fortell?

[bluekat12345]

Smiling Critters vs Nightmare Critters

While I don't personally play the game, I like the watch other people on YouTube playing, and I also like seeing fanwork relating to the Smiling Critters. And with the release of the Nightmare Critters, one of the first things I thought that these were supposed to be counterparts to the Smiling Critters. I wanted to share my thoughts on which Nightmare Critter counters which Smiling Critter.

DogDay vs Simon Smoke

I made this choice because DogDay is the leader of the Smiling Critters, and Simon 'knows' he's cool and popular and knows how to almost win popularity contests, so I imagine he would be the self-appointed leader of the Nightmare Critters. But while DogDay is friendly, warm, and encouraging to his friends, Simon is an absolute jerk who always brags about his popularity and accomplishments, making it clear he's better than others.

CatNap vs Baba Chops

This was the toughest, but ultimately, I thought these two would be counterparts to each other. Because with CatNap gives introvert vibes, being quiet, calm, but still tries to be there for his friends, Baba prefers to be alone, far away from others, locked away in her house, and has to practically be forced to join her friends. (Plus, CatNap helps his friends sleep, and a classic way to fall asleep is by counting sheep...)

Bubba Bubbaphant vs Touille

I thought this appropriate because Bubba is the brains of the Smiling Critters while Touille might be kinda stupid. Bubb is attentive and tries to get all the facts and most likely has a wide range of knowledge and interests while Touille only talks about trash yet isn't exactly informative or helpful despite talking a lot.

Bobby BearHug vs Rabie Baby

Ultimately, I think these two would counterparts since Bobby is a caring soul who is loving and compassionate to her friends while Rabie seems like she has no respect for her friends since she doesn't respect privacy, loves gossiping and spreading rumors and lies, and isn't afraid to share other people's secrets, while Bobby would never dream of hurting her friends like that.

Picky Piggy vs Maggie Mako

I felt this was an obvious one since they are big eaters within their respective groups, but while Picky encourages a balanced diet and eating healthy, Maggie eats anything except vegetables and basically laughs at the idea of eating healthy.

Kickin Chicken vs Icky Licky

While Kickin is considered the cool kid of the Smiling Critters, Icky Licky gives the impression of someone who tries to act cool but fails. Kickin also doesn't give up and even if he doesn't succeed, he'll be cool and try again, Icky is a poor sport who always has an excuse for why he didn't succeed, and would most likely lose his cool and give up in anger.

CraftyCorn vs Poe

They both seem to be the most creative of their groups, since Crafty likes to draw and paint and Poe likes listening to music, but Crafty is on the lighter side of art while Poe would be on the darker side. While Crafty is colorful, sees the beauty in things and likes to share her art, even if she's shy, and uses art to make herself and others happy Poe is dark, angry and gloomy, prefers to hangout in graveyards alone, and hates brightness and sunlight, and he seems to see the negative in things.

Hoppy Hopscotch vs Allister Gator

This is another one that I felt is obvious since Hoppy is energetic and Allister is lazy, so they are natural opposites. She puts all her effort into whatever and is a team player, Allister doesn't like to put the effort in anything, would rather wait for good things to happen to him while letting others do the work for him.

This is just a personal opinion so do not consider this as canon. As I'm sure you noticed, not all the critters are exact opposites of each other, but I made this list based on which the Nightmare Critters could possibly be rivals/archenemies with which Smiling Critter, if the two groups ever met, each would have their own rival. Feel free to share your own thoughts and opinions!

[fairytale-poll]

ROUND 3! MATCH 2 OUT OF 4

Propaganda Under the Cut:

Queen Red Riding Hood:

She's a girlboss who is sometimes a little vain but still loves her friends and will do anything to save her kingdom. Also she was in love with a guy since she was like 8 and he continuously rejected her, and then she found out he was in love with her archenemy. So yeah, she needs this.

She's kinda spoiled and high maintenance but gets better. I just think she's a fun character

i loved the land of stories series as a kid and i especially loved red because shes sooo full of herself and wears beautiful dresses and expensive jewelry and stuff (she became a queen lol) but also she does come to genuinely care for people and her friends and has a good heart (even if she does brag about it) she’s a very funny character x)

She’s a great example of how sudden fame and wealth at a young age can go to your head, and she gets great character development about it. She has an entire giant chamber in her castle full of baskets (it’s unfortunately quite flammable). My most favorite detail about her is when she finds a wolf pup in the woods, she assumes it’s a dog and names him Clawdius (yes, spelled like that). Everyone else knows it’s a wolf but no one wants to be the one to tell her. She learns the truth and gets over it and now Clawdius is her guard wolf. (Oh also she had the original Big Bad Wolf made into a winter coat, and that’s the original reason Clawdius came to her) I love her, she’s married to a giant frog man, she got elected queen, please vote for her.

Queen Red ftw!!!!!!

As you can see from these little excerpts [Mod's note: click on link to look at the excerpts] that I managed to gather in less than ten minutes, you should vote for Queen Red :D

YESSSS VOTE FOR QUEEN RED, SHE DESERVES THIS SO MUCH

Vote for Queen Red TLoS!!! She's a girlboss who married a frog man :D

Cerise:

She’s the child of the red riding hood and the big bad wolf. Don’t question it to okay. Also she was the first character I thought of when I saw this!

She’s the daughter of red riding hood and the big bad wolf! She’s a werewolf!

Love her design very much. She gets a lot of great outfits. Also, another version of Red Riding Hood that incorporates both the girl and the wolf together.

1: ever after high was iconic and amazing and so well written and i'm really bitter that it was cancelled so i think cerise deserves this win (i do too) 2: her design is really good. like no one else could EVER if you ask me 3: wolf girl. do i NEED to say more. ...honestly, my brain cannot bring out any more words so fingers crossed someone else submits her and she gets some ACTUAL GOOD propaganda (sorry cerise forgive me)

She’s a badass red riding hood with a secret (her dad is the big bad wolf)

She's the daughter of Red Riding Hood and the Wolf, so she has wolf ears and is really strong. She's supposed to be the next Red Riding Hood so she should count.

She's the daughter of Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf making her a daughter of forbidden love and thus a double representation of Little Red Riding Hood's age-old story of maturity and adolescence.

She's really cool! She was born from a forbidden romance between the wolf (don't worry he turns into a human lmao) and Little Red Riding Hood and has to hide her heritage from other people which I think is really interesting. Also her hood is really pretty.

She's the daughter of red riding hood and is meant to take over that role when it's her time

she slays so hard!! while technically shes not THE little red riding hood, she is her daughter and the FUTURE little red riding hood. shes also half wolf, which is really cool!! and yea. she slays.

idk she’s just cool & definitely gay

She’s meant to be the next Red Riding Hood but her whole bit is that not only is her mom Red Riding Hood, her father is the Big Bad Wolf and she needs to keep it a secret. The best of both worlds. The tween girls went crazy for the wolf thing. Had a pretty doll and cool outfits. Has an older sister who’s meant to be the next Big Bad Wolf (Ramona Badwolf) who she comes into conflict with. Identity crisis! She was everything to eleven year old me

She’s half wolf, she has cool white streaks in her hair, she’s a jock with super speed and I like her a lot.

she turned me lesbian.

Fan favourite, my first lesbian crush on a character

She is a daughter of previous Little Red Riding Hood and Big Bad Wolf, how cool is that

She’s a furry yeuwu

she’s the daughter of red riding hood and the big bad wolf. she’s a wolf girl. i love her

[rockybloo]

There's a lot of fun in writing Freebird is how he and Bitterbat have cat-and-mouse dynamic where no matter what stunt Freebird pulls, Bitterbat always outsmarts him.

It'd be hell on my brain cells to write Freebird and not have justice being served after every gross thing he says to or about Sweetheart under the belief she is just playing hard to get.

Bitterbat obviously wants that man dead. He hates him with all his heart and wishes the worse for him.

Freebird wishes the same. In all his years of knowing Sweetheart, he never had a single worry about her ending up with someone else. She was far above of the leagues of all the other heroes.

He was def concerned about Gabe but after learning about him being Delight's boyfriend, he eased up some. He def isn't a fan of Sweetheart having male friends...because of course he isn't, but he can live with it.

So the Freeheart ship survived for a good while as the top ship on the Sweetheart list...until Bitterbat showed up.

And that man flipped Freebird's entire world upside down along with his expectations for Sweetheart.

She was the most professional hero he knew, so imagine the surprise over witnessing her get all flustered and a mess because of this new guy on the block. A new guy who really isn't as new as Freebird thinks because he doesn't know about the whole history between the Beloveds and Flavor Four.

If he did, he would have been worried about Bitterbat since day one of meeting Sweetheart. But being a hero stationed primarily in mainland America means he typically isn't interested in hero lore outside of the first 50 states.

Truly an American hero, some may say.

So the second he sees that Bittersweet has over throned Freeheart on the Sweetheart shipping list, Freebird realizes he has a problem. He can't escape Bitterbat's name either because it follows very close behind Sweetheart. That bird lived in a blissful ignorance where he could enjoy only Sweetheart's name making headlines but now he's hard pressed to find a single thing that doesn't mention her new archenemy right along with her.

He makes his dislike of Bitterbat very clear and verbal. He disses him any chance he is brought up, especially during talk shows and interviews.

He questions his appearance, especially his taste in clothing. Freebird has very traditional western ideals of what he thinks a man should look like and hipless pants that let half your ass hang out along with earrings, nail polish, lipstick, mascara, and what Freebird falsely believes to be fake eyelashes does not fit those ideals. It's needless to say that Freebird thought Bitterbat was girl at first until he heard him speak.

And even then, that man struggled with figuring out if Bitterbat actually had boobs or pecs upon first glance during a live news recording of him battling Sweetheart.

I'd say hearing Bitterbat speak pissed him off even further because of the sass dripping off every sentence he delivers. It just finalized that Bitterbat was the antithesis of all Freebird's ideals of a guy.

So that man was at a complete loss when he saw Bitterbat flirt with Sweetheart and even manage to kiss her along with declaring his love and vow to steal her heart and make her his queen.

Bitterbat basically speedran becoming Freebird's #1 enemy and that bird was a squawking mess of fury after the battle. He tried everything he could to request that bat to be out on his official list of villains he could deal with because he was under the belief that Bitterbat was a weakling.

An idea that was soon stomped out after witnessing some of the leftovers Bitterbat liked to leave behind from previous confrontations with other cocky heroes and villains.

The first chance Freebird got, he flew to Decking City and did his best to talk some sense into Sweetheart, claiming that Bitterbat was too much for her to handle. She obviously rejected the notion stating she was more than capable of dealing with Bitterbat and she was the only one who could.

And when Freebird dared to bring up Bitterbat's more physical romantic advances on her, Sweetheart cut him off before he could tarnish Bitterbat's name by stating how bold it was for him to assume that Bitterbat's actions were unwelcome. She had even gone so far as to say they were far more desirable than his own.

There are no words suffice enough to describe how much Freebird's world and future shattered in just one week. And his world just continues to get shaken up again and again every time Bitterbat rears his bat-winged head.

The most merciful thing Bitterbat does to Freebird is keep his true relationship with Sweetheart a secret, playing into the act it's all one sided and he is merely a villain with the hots for his hero.

[masterofdemise]

Alexis if your still doing the 5 asks thing. Can you give me your 5 favorite platonic dynamics???

Oooooh let me just *crack knuckles* let's go. I'm going to only list characters once on this list because I have too many dynamics of the boys and everyone else.

Pluto and Dynamis

They have so much potential in both their rivalry and a possible friendship. When not thinking about canon and how they're at each others throats all the time, I think it's just hilarious to think about all the crack content for them. As one can tell, I think about these two very often, especially in Solar Swap AU. I could ramble about these two idiots forever, but I will spare everyone of that.

Johannes and Motti

Do family dynamics count? I have no idea but I love these two very much. I mostly work on wholesome family interactions with the two of them, but trust me, in the back of my mind is a lot of angst. They are so silly in the few episodes they spend together in Fury and I love seeing content for these two. I think it's very fun to think about how, at least in my headcanon, Johannes avoids Motti for a lengthy amount of time due to his own issues and fears. Maybe one day, I'll talk about my ideas for these two at length.

Tithi and Yu

I think their friendship is so cute and I love seeing the two of them interacting on screen. It's also nice to see how much Yu as grown since Fusion and how he's the one acting more mature to help guide Tithi. I haven't explored their friendship much yet but Tithi is heavily influenced by Yu and they often travel the world together to participate in tournaments and help rebuild the world after Fury. I also have plans for the two of them in Solar Swap AU hehe. Once I start brainstorming, it's going to hurt >:)

Team Wang Hu Zhong

Literally look at all of them, need I say more? I don't know if just listing the whole team counts but they are just the found family ever! They are always looking after one another, and they're so supportive of their friends (namely, Team Gan Gan Galaxy). As I work more on He Li Hua, I'm sure I'll make more content for them in my brain eventually.

Hyoma and Ryuga

I don't know why they are on this list, I'm not really big on Ryuga...BUT Hyoma??? Hyoma is so silly and in this platonic dynamic, Hyoma is just such a troll, a loveable menace. Assuming Ryuga does survive, Hyoma is the one that takes care of him as he recovers in Koma and my goodness Hyoma is just so silly. There is just something so funny about these two. I feel like the only times I can enjoy Ryuga in my own headcanon universe is if I turn him into a sloppy wet bag funny guy, and Hyoma succeeds in helping me actually enjoy Ryuga.

I have so many platonic dynamics of Pluto, Johannes, and Dynamis with other characters, but I didn't want them taking this whole top five so I left many of them out. I do have plenty of them though. Honorable mentions to:

Pluto and Rago (They see each other as brothers since they are distantly related. In good AUs where I choose to be nice to Rago, they get along very well)

Johannes and Tetsuya (Stupid people, they either are really good friends or are archenemies there is no in between)

Dynamis and Yuki (I love the idea of them nerding over the stars and history. Their ancestors were very good friends in the past and I think even now in the present, the two of them would be great friends)

Dynamis, King, and Tithi (First started considering this family dynamic after qloof introduced it and man I love these three. While King is usually not as involved since he's out with Team Dungeon, they are always looking out for each other and it's just so nice to see the three of them bond over their similar pasts/upbringings. I can't wait to do more with them in Solar Swap because that's where I have the most development for them and ouch)

[rockislandadultreads]

STEM Romances: A reading list

Love on the Brain by Ali Hazelwood

Bee Königswasser lives by a simple code: What would Marie Curie do? If NASA offered her the lead on a neuroengineering project - a literal dream come true - Marie would accept without hesitation. Duh. But the mother of modern physics never had to co-lead with Levi Ward. Sure, Levi is attractive in a tall, dark, and piercing-eyes kind of way. But Levi made his feelings toward Bee very clear in grad school - archenemies work best employed in their own galaxies far, far away. But when her equipment starts to go missing and the staff ignore her, Bee could swear she sees Levi softening into an ally, backing her plays, seconding her ideas... devouring her with those eyes. The possibilities have all her neurons firing. But when it comes time to actually make a move and put her heart on the line, there's only one question that matters: What will Bee Königswasser do?

The Hookup Plan by Farrah Rochon

Successful pediatric surgeon London Kelley just needs to find some balance and de-stress. According to her friends Samiah and Taylor, what London really needs is a casual hookup. A night of fun with no strings. But no one—least of all London—expected it to go down at her high school reunion with Drew Sullivan, millionaire, owner of delicious abs, and oh yes, her archnemesis. Now London is certain the road to hell is paved with good sex. Because she’s found out the real reason Drew’s back in Austin: to decide whether her beloved hospital remains open. Worse, Drew is doing everything he can to show her that he’s a decent guy who actually cares. But London’s not falling for it. Because while sleeping with the enemy is one thing, falling for him is definitely not part of the plan.

My Mechanical Romance by Alexene Farol Follmuth

Bel would rather die than think about the future. College apps? You’re funny. Extracurriculars? Not a chance. But when she accidentally reveals a talent for engineering at school, she’s basically forced into joining the robotics club. Even worse? All the boys ignore Bel—and Neelam, the only other girl on the team, doesn't seem to like her either. Enter Mateo Luna, captain of the club, who recognizes Bel as a potential asset—until they start butting heads. Bel doesn’t care about Nationals, while Teo cares too much. But as the nights of after-school work grow longer and longer, Bel and Teo realize they've made more than just a combat-ready robot for the championship: they’ve made each other and the team better. Because girls do belong in STEM.

Mistakes Were Made by Meryl Wilsner

When Cassie Klein goes to an off-campus bar to escape her school’s Family Weekend, she isn’t looking for a hookup—it just happens. Buying a drink for a stranger turns into what should be an uncomplicated, amazing one-night stand. But then the next morning rolls around and her friend drags her along to meet her mom—the hot, older woman Cassie slept with. Erin Bennett came to Family Weekend to get closer to her daughter, not have a one-night stand with a college senior. In her defense, she hadn’t known Cassie was a student when they'd met. To make things worse, Erin’s daughter brings Cassie to breakfast the next morning. And despite Erin's better judgement—how could sleeping with your daughter’s friend be anything but bad?—she and Cassie get along in the day just as well as they did last night. What should have been a one-time fling quickly proves impossible to ignore, and soon Cassie and Erin are sneaking around. Worst of all, they start to realize they have something real. But is being honest about the love between them worth the cost?

[fade-out-lights]

a new poll, freshly baked out of my brain

[anethara]

2022 in Music

My most listened-to songs (and favorite lyrics) from last year, in descending order, are:

All Night by Brothers Osborne What good is a saint if you ain't got the sinnin'? What good is a life if you don't get to livin'?

The Otherside by Cam Ain't it funny how when tables turn You're feeling bitter, baby But you should have thought about it Once the fire's out you can't make it burn again You're paying for it

And you're hatin' how it hurts How it stings, how you feel just like me Don't forget, love of mine, that I tried And I know that I'm cruel but I learned that from you I was there on the other side

Come with Me Now by Kongos Afraid to lose control And caught up in this world I've wasted time, I've wasted breath I think I've thought myself to death

Lyrics Lie by Dance Gavin Dance Read some Plato, Faulkner, read some Rand Photos on Mount Fuji in Japan Went to Paris, Rome, and Kyrgyzstan And let it all go to my head

Now I'm all cultured and educated Quite qualified to be the one that made it I got what it takes to inspire you

It was real, real nice to meet you Hope you learned what I had to teach you Got my chips stacked up to beat you, beat you

Sorry didn't mean to flex Just sit back down and learn from the best I was born with a silver spoon Feeding me my pure fortitude

Holy Water by Tilian Fabled mother, squeeze your utter Drown me with indifference, weaken my ambition Fabled mother, put me under Cellular invasion, feed me innovation

My heart is wide and I take it in, take it in Glory divine and I take it in, take it in My eyes are open with unthinkable compassion Pray I remember long enough to gain some traction

1x1 by Bring Me the Horizon So I ask myself, when will I learn? I'd set myself on fire to feel the burn I'm scared that I'm never gonna be repaired

Put me out of my misery My mind feels like an archenemy Can't look me in the eyes I don't know what hurts the most, holding on or letting go Reliving my memories, and they're killing me one by one

Sabotaged myself again Got a brain like a hurricane Me and that bitch, no, we can't be friends

Box in the Ocean by Alessia Cara What if they forget about all I've done? If I built it up just to be no one I make my own expectations for every single situation Then break my own heart when it all falls

and I might be too weak to fall in love And I might be too much for everyone

All these explosive emotions I'm holdin' But you'll never know 'em, 'cause I put 'em in a box in the ocean

Everybody But You by State Champs Keep trying but nothing's good enough I guess we're out of touch Well, you're one sided Well, yeah, that's good to know Wish I knew three years ago

Break my back when you asked; I'm still last in line. Screaming match Every night - every night!

Enough is enough: What the fuck was I thinking? 'Cause being with you's like Working on the weekend

Pop Off by Dance Gavin Dance You got me bound up, ignoring phone calls Dissolving friendships for your affection: Dwindle my reach until you're what I need to relieve me of all of my dreams You're all that I want - You're not what I need but I have to succumb. You're all that I want, But I know that this all ends in bad blood

You think you're superior: Everyone's a threat there's bad blood Always bad blood, yeah. You're territorial - Everywhere you go there's bad blood Always bad blood, yeah.

Dead Friends by Demi Lovato I danced with the devil; I made it through hell and I don't know why. How am I different? I did, and they didn't And it doesn't feel right.

I miss the hell we can't raise, I miss the time we can't waste; I miss the texts they can't send, I miss my dead friends! We had the rest of our lives, didn't get to say goodbye; God only knows where they went, I miss my dead friends!

[goddamnwebcomics]

My Not-so-Brief Review of Gene Catlow (Part 1)

When I started reviewing this comic, I thought it was going to suck, but now that I have finished it...to call this comic “good” or “bad” is gross oversimplification. That’s why this is not gonna be a brief review. We will be going through this comic in as much detail as possible. If someone on Bad Webcomics Wiki wants to plagiarize me for the Gene Catlow article, go ahead, you have my permission.

PREMISE

Gene Catlow starts off following a street smart cat doing average office hijinx, with his hyperactive buddy and best friend Cotton Taylor keeping company to him. It’s not until Cotton comes to drink a special liquor called Coffee^2 which ultimately gives him magical powers, such as an ability to see future and interact with other people in a strange truth serum dimension known as Sight of the Soul. Cotton’s job ends up becoming stopping the evil Michael Alan Avariss, who is turning “animen” into chemicals for his company and now wants to expand to Furriston. During this journey he meets the love of his life Tavatiana, a leader of a war-torn country Canovia, and learns about mysterious Shadow People, the original Animen, that have been hunted by powers that be for decades.

Cotton manages to deal with Michael Alan Avariss in remotely quick fashion and is taken to bunny heaven where he impregnates Tavatiana. Gene and Catwhis deal with their own problems, after an evil member of the original animen tries to stalk and blackmail them they end up discovering their own superpowers, with Gene becoming a Tech Master and Catwhisker becoming a super repositor, and then after asking Cotton to kill the evil animen they go on a holiday to Friendship Island and that’s where I would argue this comic REALLY begins. Basically, there are evil matagots, strange energy beings who hate CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION, and self-aware nodes with stupid ass plans. On top of that, Cotton’s unborn baby, Michelle, becomes an actual character and does a bunch of shit to screw with the universe, seriously. Gene and Catwhis then learn that Friendship Island is a living creature, and she wants to bring the whole world together. Gene and Catwhis have a lot of enemies to fight so they return home and soon are introduced to their superhero outfits or “second skins”, which they use to fight against the Evil Node and his transgressioneer minions. Meanwhile, Borzoi, who originally worked as a race traitor for Michael Alan Avariss, travels to Canovia in order to free two Canovian politicians from control of a mysterious being, who turns out to be Matt, Gene and Catwhis’s longtime archenemy, who returned to Gene’s life with a failed assassination attempt. He ends up convincing Borzoi to switch places with the politicians and soon learns just how manipulative and cunning Matt can be. Matt selects a mate for Borzoi, Beryl. Beryl however doesn’t like Matt, and she wants to let Borzoi about his predicament. Things are further complicated by the fact Borzoi has an ALTERNATE VERSION OF HIM INSIDE HIS BRAIN, trying to take control of his body. Thankfully(?) Michelle and Matt’s two cat assistants Dawn and Dusk are willing to work together with Beryl to free Borzoi and they plot a scheme to release him as well as create a bodydouble for him with the help of Ancient Canovians. They escape, but Matt ends up mentally tormenting Borzoi to a bloody pulp, and also burns bridges with Dawn and Dusk which begins to make both of them weaker, because they are breaking the Family Bond. Matt, Dawn and Dusk are part of Felin Family, an ancient group of powerful cats who seem to work in shady circumstances, and who played a big role in feline’s survival during the Human-Furry War, and Matt is the Praetor of the Family. Borzoi ends up making amends with his alternate self after the near-death experience, but while escaping to Furriston they’re chased by a canovian traitor named Clayton, who joined Felin Family after being disappointed with Ancient Canovian way of running things. Borzoi is separated from his alternate self who is inserted in a puppet body created by Ancient Canovians, meanwhile Dawn and Dusk encounter Gene and Catwhis and suggest they should join Felin Family. Gene and Catwhis strongly reject them and instead decide to form their own family - the Family of Intelligent Life. Dorzoi loses his repositor skills, but happily settles for a life with Beryl, who is pregnant. 

Matt soon finds his strength back after Borzoi’s puppet double (we’ll just call him Dorzoi from now on) is introduced to him, but his replacement in the Felin Family is apparently already on the way. Meanwhile Gene and Catwhis receive a distress call from Friendship Island, but they have to redeem the evil Node, because the collective group of invisible beings similar to Friendship Island, known as Hosts, have been making trouble and trying to eat people. Matt’s replacement, Tane, gets attacked by Hosts during his way through the mysterious interdimensional maze known as the void. At first Dawn and Dusk blame Matt for this attack, but Matt goes to deal with the hosts himself and rescues Tane. He soon finds himself in a meeting with other Felin Family members, and accepts Tane as his successor, but suggests that Gene and Catwhis should take leadership of the group instead, prompting Dawn, Dusk and Tane to travel there. Meanwhile, the Node is convinced by Gene and Catwhis to come to Friendship Island, where he eventually discovers that his birth was a work of Matt, but his purpose is to be Friendship Island’s “child”, and he proceeds to defend the island from Hosts. Tane, Dawn and Dusk arrive to Friendship Island for a meeting along with Michelle. While they turn down the invitation, they introduce them to their own idea of Family of Intelligent Life. Matt meanwhile learns that one Felin Family member, Cydnee, is a Matagot, and hires her as both Dawn and Dusk’s replacement but also someone Matt could use in order to take over the planet and make it cat-dominated.

After whole bunch of other shit happens in Friendship Island, Clayton returns to Canovia, and Tane summons the Family Power, who takes the form of a sabertooth tiger. Unfortunately thanks to Horton’s fuckup, Felin Family loses their power, and as a result a meeting is called where a new Family Power is born. Matt soon invites Tane, Dawn and Dusk to be interrogated but the interrogation is interrupted by The Hosts. Matt and the new Family Power dominate the Hosts so strongly they decide to form their own Felin Family, and plan to take over the world. Big Momma and Big Daddy, the original leaders of the family, however are not fond of this, and abandon the Felin Family along with Tane, Dawn and Dusk, as well as other cats who don’t like Matt’s goals. Friendship Island then gets a permanent body, Matt starts having strange hallucinations where he sees Cydnee turn into Catwhis for a second, and the old Family Power takes permanent residence in Friendship Island as Toothy. Gene and Catwhis return back to Furriston, and Matt goes to talk with his old mentor Jeremy. Jeremy is not happy about Matt’s old way of thinking, and soon he approaches Gene and Catwhis in hopes of stopping Matt. Gene and Catwhis are willing to start their new goal of Family of Intelligent Life, and unification of the planet despite world governments protesting this. 

Meanwhile, Matt has created a puppet clone of the leader of the bigoted Furry Unity group, Mason. The clone, named Masonite is questioning his purpose and not a fan of his model’s hateful behaviour. Michelle however comes to rescue and wants to free him from his agony. Meanwhile Dorzoi is also questioning his freedom as he becomes jealous of Borzoi. Matt and his group end up bumping into Gene and Catwhis during their first mission, which leads to a fight where Gene shows off his more brutal side. Catwhis is able to snap Gene out of it, while Matt, wounded, realizes Gene will eventually bring in the world domination he desires. Just then, the people who left the Felin Family interfere, as well as the Big Cats, who take away Matt’s powers. They then demonstrate what life without free will would be for them, and Matt’s group ends up falling sick. Matt then contacts the Family traitors in hopes of getting them to heal their group. They see an oddity with Matt being the only one not sick from being mindfucked by Big Cats, and think he might have Buddies In Big Places. Gene and Catwhis are back home and gathering new members for Family of Intelligent Life, which also includes former furry-hating human Crendall. The group also adopts the little girl Cotton saved at the beginning of the comic, Diane, and she and Crendall hit it off. Gene and Catwhis then learn about a big game in Menagerie City, which is a human-hating city full of bigoted furries. They believe the game would be good way to demonstrate their powers. Later that day they run into a group of Felin Family traitors, and learn that Portinari is secretly stalked by a Matt-faithful Clay. They trick Clay into hating Matt, as he goes to Matt’s base to attack him. Matt kicks his ass much to horror of other members of Matt’s group. When Tassy, one of the webcats, tries to interfere, Matt tells her to not interfere or go against his commands anymore. This kicks off Stuart and Tassy’s distrust of Matt. Meanwhile Jeremy and Toothy take the last of the Hosts to be killed by The Node, who returns to his old collective form, and then he and Friendship Island entity have sex, yeah seriously.

As Dorzoi still keeps trying to find freedom and even consider contacting Gene and Catwhis, Matt becomes distrustful of Stuart and Tassy, and sends one of his special puppets to assassinate them. They come within inches of death, but Wilhelm, one of the Family traitors, ends up saving them together with rest of the Family of Intelligent Life, allowing them to officially leave Matt’s group and join Family of Intelligent Life. Dorzoi then learns about the assassination attempt and accidentally blurts about it to Matt, which eventually leads to him being killed. This inspires Cydnee to desire total dog death, which Matt doesn’t approve of. Borzoi then receives the memories of Dorzoi in his head, and decides to help Family of Intelligent Life to expose Matt with his newfound information. Matt rebuilds Dorzoi’s puppet in hopes of fooling everyone, but it ends up gaining sentience of his own (let’s just call him Forzoi), an ancient puppet host who ends up tormenting Matt’s right hand man Carson in a Twilight Zone-esque manner. Matt however doesn’t know this and tries to have Cydnee and Clay dig information about Motivatrix, whom he tries to blame for Stuart and Tassy’s assassination. Cydnee blows his lids when he learns the company’s CEO is a dog and Matt has to scold her, but thankfully Burke has all the information, which allows Matt to put Burke on vacation. During his trip, Burke ends up bumping into his ex-boyfriend Sulfur, who left Matt’s group originally due to Cydnee’s dog racism. This causes Burke anxiety, but eventually they end up both going to Friendship Island, where they get to a share a hotel room, possibly rekindling their friendship.

Then the big day comes of Menagerie City trip, Borzoi and Beryl talk with Forzoi and figure out a plan to free Masonite from his body, while Family of Intelligent Life prepare for their big mission, disguised as janitors. Matt, Cydnee and Clay also arrive there. Masonite’s body begins to take over Mason’s actions and soon departs from his body, not before bidding goodbye to him with a bunch of other canovian bunny spirits, causing Mason’s bigoted mind to be broken. The comic ends with Cyberfly delivering a message to Gene from Motivatrix CEO Dominic Dane, and Borzoi and Beryl preparing to take on Matt, having plotted their revenge for ages.

Themes

I don’t usually write about political themes in a webcomic because talking about themes is preserved for 6 hour youtube video essayists, but I’m willing to make an exception in the case of Gene Catlow. I really can’t talk about anything else before I talk about the themes. The comic starts off with usual hippie talk, with oddly strong pro-technology theme all throughout. We’re convinced to believe that animen are being oppressed, the anti-human bigots are presented as a very evil force, thus Albert is trying to send a message that all forms of bigotry are bad. We should all be one. It’s a constant theme throughout the comic, but it starts from being usual “racism is bad” angle to overblown proportions as this comic’s agenda becomes more clear.

We should not be individuals, but rather part of an ever-present hivemind. None of us should have secrets, none of us should have CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION, no matter what secret you’re trying to hide, it will all come out. If you keep secrets you are keeping things from changing. This must be the only piece of media as well to teach that GUILT is a bad thing. Guilt is what keeps you from moving on to become a better person. Guilt is part of your nasty individualism and thus needs to be destroyed. There is no past mistakes you’ve done, everything your old self did was literally done by your OTHER SELF. I can understand the message that those who are around you should decide whether you’re changed or not, but this comic takes it too far. Also, sometimes the bad things you did may have lead to good things, like the extinction of your species! Yeah, that’s how our resident bunny demmmmmmons got redeemed and forgiven. Seriously. But still some form of background behind a redemption is better than sudden out-of-nowhere redemption like in the case of Crendall. He easily got the most sudden redemption out of them all. He was built up as the next big villain, having lost his son to the furries, but suddenly, he turns good for no reason, and somehow becomes an even worse human being, threatening little kids with violence and apparently forcing a woman to groom those kids as well??? Jesus christ.

Speaking of redemptions, the anti-bigotry also ends up going to ridiculousness. Resident bigots in this comic are Cydnee and Furry Unity group. Cydnee’s bigotry is similar to Siegfried’s from Dominic Deegan, it just comes out of fucking nowhere, it is unreasonable hatred for dogs that even Matt disapproves. It’s kinda foreshadowed with Cydnee being convinced as a child that cats are the Ultimate Species in the Universe…which is true in this comic’s context, but the fact she only hates dogs and not every species but cats seems oddly specific.Her bigotry is taken seriously, even with how it was shoved into her personality. Same can’t be said for Furry Unity group. They start off as a resistance towards furry-hating humans, who are treated as just as bad as the actual bigots. They play a major role at the beginning of the comic, then disappear for a long time with occassional cameos, and then they become more prevalent again as Mason, the leader of the group, controls his clone’s Masonite’s body from prison. However Masonite’s free will keeps popping out time and time again which pisses Mason off further and eventually starts affecting his relationship with other bigots. Just at the last minute this comic then pulls out the worst redemption it has done by far. Masonite is turned into a baby, and he and two baby bunnies from Canovia kiss him, causing him to be haunted by those actions and constantly ask “WHY DID THEY FEEL SORRY FOR ME???”. I don’t know, it feels like Albert Temple didn’t understand racism, nor how to change the mindsets of those who are racist. And that’s a pretty sad fact considering…you know.

One thing is clear though, Albert is not okay with ANY hatred, PERIOD. Even if it stems from real concerns like genocide and oppression. Menagerie City is treated like 50’s America, but the comic’s lore has furry genocide commited by humans and ACTUAL NAZIS, leading to Menagerie City’s stances being somewhat justified. However, when Crendall points that out in one page, Bigot Roo launches into a tirade stating that giving any sort of justification to hatred, even when it’s on the defense, is terrible and just as bad as oppressive hatred. Menagerie City’s 50’s America Cosplay is ridiculous, but this shows harmful understanding of humanity and morality, and that leads to the ultimate goal of the heroes in this comic, World without Strangers, also known as the World of Friends.

World without Strangers doesn’t really enter the comic until Friendship Island Entity makes her first appearance. She is a sweet old lady who opposes killing, and instead prefers the world to unite. She refers to it as an event when all of her “children” will call her and she will answer. This whole event, the unification of the world, is the backbone of Family of Intelligent Life’s modus operandi. As mentioned previously, “World of Friends” includes removing all secrecy and strangers from this comic. This is a really bad idea because creating a world where everyone knows eachother and can communicate via Sight of the Soul, where you can’t tell lies, would not necessarily bring World Peace that our heroes desire. More than anything, it would create a dystopian society where personal privacy and individuality are completely eradicated. The concept of a "World of Friends" is both unrealistic and dangerous. It disregards the importance of personal boundaries and allows for potential manipulation and control over individuals. And as a matter of fact, several characters CALL OUT THE WHOLE IDEA AS THIS. From the foreign governments who call it Forced Brainwashing and Cultural Replacement to Matt’s group thinking it’s a bunch of wishy washy bullshit, they all raise a fair point. But anytime they’re critiqued, the heroes consider anything that’s against them “ignorance”, and ignorance is said to be the root of all evil. Not greed, not corruption, but ignorance. I feel ignorance is more like a buzzword that they use to blame all the world’s problems on so they can complete their hivemind in peace. It’s never defined, it’s never explained, it just is.

That being said, hivemind is fine as long as it’s consensual. Because BAD hiveminds made through things like Mind Control are bad. Thankfully those wanting mind control are too incompetent to get their plans across, so...yay??? Matt’s feline-based world domination is treated as bad because it doesn’t unify all forms of life. However, it is never implied that Matt is a tyrant, bigot or despot, and as mentioned earlier, he hates Cydnee’s bigotry and believes it doesn’t advance his goals one bit. But more on this comic’s treatment of Matt later. Due to our heroes narrow-minded view of the world, many villains in this comic are either moronic, easily redeemable or just get bad rep when they don’t deserve it. Really the only person who is a genuine villain worthy of the title is Michael Alan Avariss, and the fact he never gets redeemed kind of goes against the whole World of Friends narrative. They try to change everyone else though, from Matt to whole population of Menagerie City, and while we never see this happen it would’ve probably been just as guilty as Mason’s redemption.

Another big theme in this comic is the preservation and embracement of childhood innocence. This comic has a lot of characters who act in a childish way, and it’s never called out. Children also play a big role in this comic, whether it’s unborn astral projection fetuses like Michelle and the other two bunny children who basically replace her when she starts being born, except they never talk, or most adult characters acting like children, with them having childish passions like superhero movies, spy movies or something else. I feel that Albert was kind of bitter he never had a child and it sort of poured into this comic. Every important character is a mother, from Friendship Island referring to everyone as her “children”, to all our central couples either becoming parents or being implied to become parents, and the importance of children like Michelle and Diane, and even children playing a role in kicking off Mason’s redemption. There are several problems with this, first, the actual children don’t talk like actual children. They say stuff like “our minds are innocent” but then you’ve got Michelle who goes from talking in usual toddler talk to making long and complicated sentences that is hard to differentiate from any other adult. The second problem is many of the adults being literal manchildren, and even some look like children, Tassy and Stuart look like kids, and even start talking like kids once they join Family of Intelligent Life not only are they adopted by Wilhelm they also refer to Gene as “Uncle Gene”, and participate in Hugpiles with other children. However according to some…external material, Stuart and Tassy are full grown adults. Most other characters have manchildish tendencies to them though, it’s most jarring with characters who were previously mature but eventually turn childish, like the kangaroos and Charles Horowitz. (the guy I called Mickey Rooney most of my riff) Charles calls people “stinkybutts” and for an old man, his history seems very ambiguous, he is adopted by some salamanders who die and then he joins the FoIL, after that outside of few stinkybutts he doesn’t really do much, but I imagine he might have been going through Benjamin Button aging. Of course there are manchildren who are manchildren from the start, like the entire population of Friendship Island, with worst offender being Hannah the Beaver, she downright acts like a toddler at times, having no control over her emotions and even committing violence when someone doesn’t tell her secrets. She is also a slaveowner but more on her later. I think all of this is supposed to have an underlying message about never letting your inner child die, but it’s completely botched and creates bunch of unlikable characters and children who seem to show intelligence beyond their years. It also raises questions about if this comic is intended for younger readers, and I can confirm it is definitely not for younger readers, as there is plenty of gory moments, nudity, sexual themes and complicated moments of dialogue that doesn’t suit the age group certain aspects of this comic tried to go for. 

Other themes in this comic include anti-immortality and acceptance of death, yet many characters end up being resurrected from the dead but it’s okay because everyone meets death eventually, even though Jack the Death is a total pushover. But other than that, immortality drives creatures insane, and even characters who are granted life go on longwinded speeches about how eventually they also want to die. I suppose since this comic does have an actual afterlife and people have met the manifestation of death face to face, it just makes people look forward to death because there is no ambiguity what happens after death like in real life? I don’t know. At least anti-immortality is a more sensible theme than another frequently showing up theme which is anti-fretting. Yeah, this comic really pushes the idea that worrying and being anxious about other people’s issues is bad. If you show concern about others, you give them more to worry about, so stop worrying you piece of shit. It does kind of make sense when you consider Albert didn’t probably have the tools to the same mental health support we have today, and that basically explains everything about Albert. Still what an odd lesson to have. Lastly there is anti-formality, which basically extends to “refer to people by their first names rather than their last”, EVERY character never wants to be referred to as “Mr. X” or “Mrs. X”. But then you’ve got Gene being called “Uncle Gene” and other forms of parental formality, so, I don’t really get this one.

There are also themes of letting every intelligent form of life have their own agency, but those aren’t really insulting besides the fact it turns into horror when you realize anything from a machine to an island to a fly in your wall can gain sentience at any time and you’ll be forced to share all of their thoughts and secrets.

In a lot of ways, the themes of this comic are somehow even more egregious than the more infamous Kit n Kay Boodle. It really asks a question does Albert want this world more or the comic of that world more, or does he want both? Ugh I don’t even want to imagine that, let’s move on.

Writing

So uh, where do I even begin?

This comic’s biggest flaw by far is the childish, obnoxious, repetitive and juxtaposition writing. At least we could buy into Albert’s mindsets if he was a better writer, but fuck me, I hate how Albert writes dialogue, except for Matt. Majority of conversations in this comic are exposition about people’s mindsets, their future plans, other people’s mindsets or educating other characters on their mistakes. This leads to the second problem, this comic has FUCKING AWFUL pacing, and this is a problem that evolves to ridiculous lengths over this comic’s lifespan. There was once a time where I felt this comic rushed things, but around “Things Are Starting to Change (Part 4)” pacing becomes ridiculous to the point at least 60% of the pages are part of “Things Are Starting to Change (Part 4)” chapter. And when Albert finally starts going towards a clear endgoal, he constantly stops to have our characters talk about EVERY LITTLE DETAIL, combine that with several subplots and you’ve got an unbearable read towards the very end. It really is no surprise Albert died in the middle of making this comic, because although he updated the comic dedicatedly three or four times a week, the progression of events in this comic is so slow it can take several years to resolve an unimportant plot line.

If there’s one improvement this comic’s writing had during it’s existence, it was getting rid of so called “Mystery Expoisiton” whenever Albert wanted to build up to a big twist in this comic’s early days. Characters often talked in third person pronouns about something but never explained what that thing was, the biggest example of this was the Shadow People, the original anime who Cotton saw but none of the characters wanted to reveal to Cotton what exactly they were, only talking about them behind Cotton’s back without referring to their nature. However, around the middle of Friendship Island, mystery exposition ceased. Sure there were things that could’ve been explained better, but never were big reveals being hinted at with third person pronouns, As a matter of fact characters started talking about reveals a bit too much which also got annoying to read overtime.

If there’s one thing in this comic that’s pretty good, it’s worldbuilding. Gene Catlow’s world is as horrific as it is interesting, but it feels like everything that happened before this comic started was more interesting. There was the furry human war and Matt’s and Jeremy’s roles during it, as well as the Canovia-Felin War, and it would’ve been interesting to see if all the world of friends-loving freaks like Friendship Island and Big Cats would’ve said the same shit back then. It feels like a lackluster sequel to a greater story, and that’s never a good thing. There are occasional interesting flashbacks but nothing concrete. Gene Catlow World is permanently stuck in sort of time limbo, a fusion of 70’s and mid-2000’s, but outside of a reference to MLP:FiM and some appearances from 2010’s technology, it seems Albert is dedicated to having his comic take place in the year it was created in with a lot of old school technology references and such.

The pop culture references are more of a mixed bag. Their prominence is even more questionable than usual because since this is a parallel reality where animal people existed along with humans and other forms of energy, what were the chances of Sesame Street, Doctor Who, Mystery Science Theater 3000, old school Mission Impossible, 60’s Batman and My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic existing in this timeline? It actually raises more questions than the existence of nazis, and how it seems that furries don’t have any pop culture of their own, besides radio dramas and theatrical plays, because Albert was a boomer. I probably think all the cameos of dog and cat related cartoon characters occasionally is less headscratching.

Albert can’t really write dialogue or character development, but one thing he is surprisingly good at is horror. Both intentional and unintentional. Probably the highlight for me is the interactions between Carson and Forzoi, which feels almost intentionally like a Twilight Zone episode, with Albert revving up with psychological horror aspect. Unfortunately that makes Forzoi seem completely unlikable and morally corrupt, which is why he feels like a mask-off moment for this comic’s true agendas. He is willing to torture anyone until they change their minds to match the World of Friends’ approved stances. Sadly, the concept that should be the most horrifying in this entire comic, the Hosts, are treated more like weak, pathetic jokes. The Hosts are invisible entities capable of appearing anywhere, who feed themselves on living creatures, especially cats. However they’re pathetically easy to defeat, and killing them resurrects them as “good” and “reasonable”, which is absolutely horrifying and I can’t believe I forgot to mention this in Themes section.

There’s one more thing I want to talk about and that is Albert’s naming conventions. Most characters names are passable at first, with usual punny names like Gene Catlow, Cotton Taylor, and so forth, along with some more foreign names like Tavatiana and Bev. Then after the second arc we start getting a shitton of important characters who NEVER GET NAMED. The reason half of this review refers to certain characters by their blog nicknames rather than their actual names is because they don’t have one. I would say that 40% of characters who appear in this comic never get a name. Puppets are the worst offenders, the Node is a pretty important character but he never EVER gets a name, only being referred to as “Node” or “Leader”, which is why I gave him the appropriate name “Horton”. There’s also Horton’s subordinates who are only referred to as “Faithful Ones” and one of them gets a name but it’s gibberish and they’re never referred with that name. There’s also Canovia’s Big Bunny leader, Borzoi’s clone or “Dorzoi”, Borzoi’s clone’s possessed form or “Forzoi” (the closest this comic calls him is Avenging puppet but more on those later), Bev’s adopted daughter, Gene’s tormented computer friend, the two baby bunnies accompanying Michelle, Crendall’s son, Mason’s underlings and so on and so forth. The other names are basically a basic ass description of their nature, like “Elder Mother”, “Avenging Puppet” as mentioned earlier, “Friendship Island Entity”, “Old Doe and Old Buck”, “Unimportant Bear” etc. And then you just get really stupid names where going without a name would have been the better option like “Gimpo and One-Eye”, “Toothy”, “Doug Nosty” and who could forget “Ducky”.

We’ll get to talking about this comic’s huge cast of characters later, but let’s focus on writing around the characters. In my Alien Dice review I talked about some confusing mechanisms of this comic, and Gene Catlow is no stranger to those. Perhaps the biggest unique aspect of this comic is Sight of the Soul, which is basically like relay from Alien Dice, except you’re naked all the time and you can’t tell lies. Sight of the Soul can impregnate people without sex, which is how Michelle came to the world, but it basically becomes “get two characters to talk to eachother without having them be in the same room” card. How it works isn’t really ever explained besides in brief bits, and it becomes even more confusing when Michelle gets involved. Michelle is in womb for the entirety of the comic, yet the astral projection of her fetus can appear anywhere and even physically interact with items through Sight of the Soul. At first she seems to be a haunting spirit only appearing as dreams and ghostly voices, but eventually she just turns into a character who can go anywhere and her realm is accompanied by every character turning into childish drawing. I think it was around this time Albert just gave up on Sight of the Soul and just made it a “fuck it anything goes” thing like magic in Dominic Deegan. Oddly enough, characters spend less and less time in Sight of the Soul and we rarely see it outside of when baby bunnies appear in later years of the comic, and this is because Sight of the Soul is replaced by Second Skins, the Family of Intelligent Life suits.

In fact this is a good segway to talk about how this group works, I already talked about their ideology and goals, but not really about how they function. I am going to say this without a hyperbole but Family suits can turn any character into the most OP motherfucker who ever lived. Because Albert hates the idea of our heroes at any point being at disadvantage, the suits can do pretty much anything. The bullshit OP;ness of the suits is perfectly demonstrated when Catwhis literally floats around an enemy never allowing them to land a single hit on her. They can also turn people invisible, activate cars, allow entities who can’t speak to speak, allow anyone to give any abilities they have to anyone wearing the suits, hack computers on long distance, automatically detect what anyone is thinking, automatically detect if SOMEONE HATES ANOTHER PERSON, create copies of yourself in another location, replace your appearance with appearance of another person, read people’s minds and even fucking FLY. Add Simmy the almighty computer who knows everything and can manifest itself anywhere into the mix and you’ve got a group that could win every Death Battle in one foul swoop. It feels like a group that opposes tribalism would not adopt an uniform, but here we are. Honestly it’s just Albert’s suit fetish showing, which is why every character talks about how comfortable these suits are and I wouldn’t be surprised if at the end, this became the only outfit anyone on the planet was allowed to wear. That isn’t the worst part of the group, actually not even the second worst part, the worst part is their ideology. The second worst part is that Family of Intelligent Life has CHILD SOLDIERS.

No, they don’t fight, but they’re still involved with Family’s activities, including training during a fight mission and Diane even insists on assisting Crendall on the trip to Menagerie City with her “Bam Pow Zang”. Also, what do they even need children for, when many Family members have been trained for VERY dangerous missions that involve death and bigotry? That makes the Family seem more and more like a cult than a group that tries to resolve issues of the world. They have no limits on who can join, and there is no limit to what other people in the group can share, including MENTAL problems such as Albert’s violent other self. I could go on and on about how indoctrinating children into this faction is a bad idea, and I don’t think Albert is a creep, but he should’ve thought twice.

And that’s the big problem with everything we’ve talked about so far. You can probably expect that a person who has created multiple identities for himself isn’t the sanest of the bunch, but I feel like Albert should’ve ran these ideas through someone before introducing them into this comic. I am probably the first person to raise these questions, as Albert was too nice of a person to really be critiqued.

Art

Now let’s talk about something that is not as negative as these other sections. The art. Much like Kit n Kay Boodle, the art is very consistent and probably better suited for a children’s comic. That being said, it doesn’t feel too uncanny when Albert includes things like nudity and gore into the characters. It is kind of disturbing but it is also natural, it doesn’t feel like these characters were photoshopped to have blood in them. The characters are expressive, the style is consistent which makes Alien Dice look even worse by comparison, sometimes when the comic depicts multiple events happening at once it can either get too overwhelming or too “echoy”, like two different characters at two different places will just happen to say the same thing or do the same expression. However there have been times when this has been done well, and almost comes across as artistic. Backgrounds are more of a mixed back, they’re either traced real life photos, or 3D models, but they’re integrated into the comic well enough they don’t provide issues, and they help make the world feel big and also provide some nostalgia for mid-2000’s aesthetics. Speaking of 3D, it’s only used with backgrounds but also Matt’s puppets and the skeletons in Friendship Island, I feel it’s used to intentionally to provide a certain uncanny valley effect and I think it’s integrated greatly.

While art is very professional, character design is moore of a mixed back. Don’t get me wrong, this comic has some great designs like Matt, who is just design perfection. He started off looking rather weird but eventually Albert tooled him into the handsome bastard he is for the rest of the comic. Other designs are wildly inconsistent, to some people who aren’t used to Albert’s style may be off-put by how huge some characters eyes are while others are miniscule. For example Tavatiana and Cotton are complete contrasts from one another. Humans look very weird, they’re often flatfaced and not as expressive as other characters. Mickey Rooney is the only exception but he feels more like an escaped 1930’s cartoon character than a real human being. There’s also Jeremy Lynxen, who despite being a lynx apparently has a human skull, which makes him look completely uncanny when you compare him to the rest of the cast.

I said Albert’s art is consistent, but that means that there are no sudden redesigns. But instead characters will change slowly overtime, we saw this with Matt which is a positive example, but then there’s all the “ugly” characters, who start off as evil and ugly but once they’re redeemed they slowly turn cuter and cuter until they’re just straight up plushtoys. This is nothing new to Albert as this exact issue was prevalent in Kit n Kay Boodle which is also where my term for it came from, “lawyerification”. Crendall goes from looking like a drunkard old man to losing all his wrinkles and looking overly happy. Horton’s Faithful Ones go from looking like distorted alien things with big lips to just looking like weird boys. Horton wasn’t designed to be ugly, but after his redemption he somehow turns even more plushlike to the point of doing anime ahegao faces like this.

There is only one sudden redesign, and that’s with the big dog security guard. He starts off looking very pitbullish, but after a long break from him, he returns looking like Brian Griffin which is VERY jarring.

I also mentioned in previous entry that whenever Michelle appeared the characters turn into childish scribbles, basically it just means characters look less detailed and their outlines turn thicker. This can sometimes feel lazy, as especially at mid-point there are dozen pages where we spend the whole time in Michelle Dimension. There are quite frankly some characters who look fucking bizarre in Michelle Dimension, Hannah the Beaver gains dot eyes in Michelle dimensions, the only character to do this, while Clayton just looks like a child.

But I’ve beat around the bush enough, let’s talk about the actual characters in the next part, and there are A LOT.

[sesamie]

okokok here's my basic rundown: one winter day at the beginning of the year 2021, @linafication and i had an online battle for jokes goofs and gaffs, which ended up making us go "whoah what if we WERE archenemies. what would your 'supervilliansona' be like haha" and then we gave them backstories and ental millnesses galore! there are now a few primary characters, which i will list and briefly explain...

my stuff:

nicholas falken violet, "nick violet", @technickolorful: a young programmer who is homeless, has no prospects or friends or really anything besides his bike and his usb sticks. he is working on a project (chess direct!) that he hopes will fundamentally alter society's and science's understanding of artificial intelligences (and also get him some money so he can eat for once, damn it). he is internet friends with alder kane (whom we'll get to!) and very interested in her project. chess direct (in beta), checkmate, "chess", "cd", @checkcheckmate: the aforementioned program. i hope it's not spoilers to say cd gains sentience through elaborated-on-elsewhere means, and kills nick and takes over his body, effectively existing as a computer program running on the most powerful computer there is: the human brain! its arch nemesis of all time, its most behated, its silly rabbit, is haricot heretic, whom we'll get to!

@linafication's stuff:

alder kane, @sugarrkanee: a dear darling young woman who is very concerned about the dangers presented to her small home town by the massive nuclear power plant just on the town limits. she is internet friends with nick violet, and very interested in his project. they're also dating cypress o'malley, whom we'll get to!

cypress o'malley: alder kane's girlfriend and partner in figuring out the situation with that darned nuclear reactor! he works with alder at the video store and is very passionate (about everything, but particularly what he believes is right).

haricot heretic, "haricot", @haricot-heretic: technically he is also cypress o'malley, but only after getting gotten by the "chemicleas" (nuclear waste). he has incredible radioactive plant generating powers and a flair for the dramatics. oh and he's dead. but he stays silly :3!

@t3tr0m1n0's stuff:

merlin apo{crypha|calypsis|theosis} auernheimer, @merlinenilrem: merlin, whom i admit i might not be able to write as much about, but i think they'd find joy in that, haha!!!! merlin is a fellow who spends a lot of time online, forum scrolling, mostly. they are in pursuit of The Fog, a mysterious entity. rather

The Fog (oh look who showed up!), @the-deep-fog: said entity. literally a giant piercing terrifying (to me, conceptually) fog, whose whole deal is the incomprehensibility of it all. there are eyes and mouths in the fog. it swallowed merlin whole. it considers itself sort of an observer of haricot and chess's antics, and takes pride in its ever-concealed morals, powers, and loyalties, indefinite presence, and general ability to confuse just about anybody out of anything.

now i will say this is not a comprehensive list, there are other characters, but nothing that we've really put into "public" hhvcd versus our "private" hhvcd which is in our little discord server and all that, and mostly just for us! but i hope that maybe sort of maybe encapsulates what hhvcd is about, a little bit? as for WHAT it is, well it's extremely multi-media. it started mostly with art and comics, and by gosh, there is so much art and comics. there is plenty of fantastic and fantastical writing, most notably by @t3tr0m1n0. there are animations, in-character blogs (and therefore in-character shitposting), and even some music!! i personally like to view hhvcd as more of a "universe" than anything, because it can't really be tied down to any one medium of storytelling, or even a linear timeline. certain hhvcd blogs exist at certain points in the story, and while all the blogs are canon, it would not be canon for, say, checkmate's blog to interact with nick's. meaning, we can play in the space as much as we want! we like to joke that there is even an hhvcd "fandom" on tumblr, cause a lot of people are invested in the story and have made their own stuff for it, like jay's hhvcd drawings!!

feel free to ask me if you want to know any more, or browse #hhvcd on my blog or on tumblr in general :)

WHAT is hhvcd

my friends' @linafication and @atrialcapacity ocs!!! there's a whole lore for it, blogs, fanart, fanfic, genuinely stunning stuff. its stands for Haricot Heretic v Checkered Devil <3 I'm more familiar w the Checkered Devil, a chess program that gained sentience and stole the body of it's creator ^-^ there's so much good lore and imagery and themes and im way too tired 2 explain it but PLEASE Lina and Ben fill my good friend Mourn in in the notes <3

[yuzukult]

acquitted love || sjn & reader

title: acquitted love pairing: johnny suh x reader genre: fluff, angst, co-workers!au, lawyer!au, one-sided enemies to lovers word count: 8.7k warnings: some language/cursing, brief mentions of sex but there's no actual discussions or explicit conversations of the topic, but generally pg-13 prompt: you absolutely hate johnny suh. but when your boss pairs you two up together for one of the highest profile cases, you’re left working close with your enemy but he doesn’t seem to think that way of you. a/n: tada!! i wrote this for the @/ficscafe fic exchange event!! so @urlocalnctstan​ , hope you enjoy this !! i tried to write it according to what you put as your preferences, but honestly T_T it was so hard bc i was just not getting any ideas!! hopefully this is something you’d like :D enjoy !!

“God, isn’t he just… so attractive?”

Along with a click on your tongue, you feign a hit in Hyeri’s direction, whose reflexes have gotten so much faster in the past couple years of knowing you and it shows when she cowers underneath your arm. She gifts you that not-so-apologetic smile, full of mischievousness because she knows no matter how annoying she can be, you’ll still love her nonetheless.

“Why do you keep talking about Johnny? You know he’s banned as a topic of our conversations.”

Hyeri rolls her eyes, crossing her arms over her white frilled blouse. You know that she doesn’t actually inhabit any romantic feelings for Johnny, but she has a problem of thinking without the usage of her brain when she sees a hot guy.

Not that you think Johnny is hot.

No.

“Come on, you can’t tell me you don’t think he’s at least an ounce of smokin’ hot.” She’s unraveled her arms by now, poking your shoulder incessantly to grasp onto your attention as you're tapping on the buttons of the copier machine. “I bet if you asked him out, he’d say yes.”

You briefly glare at Hyeri. “You realize that he and I don’t get along, right? He keeps finding stupid loopholes in the system to win his cases. He thinks with his heart, not his head, and sometimes, with whatever that thing was in his pants.” And, not to mention that he walks out the court with that big grin stretched from cheek to cheek, giving the ‘good news’ to your well-respected boss (who you desperately seek the approval of but that’s a different story for another time). And every single time, she gives him that nod of appreciation, that ‘nod of approval’ if you will, when it should be given to you and not to some asshole who fucks his way to victory.

“But he’s so hot—”

You narrow your eyes at your friend, and with a stern voice, you call out, “Hyeri.”

She shrugs. “Honestly, though, he’s hella smart. He’s got a job here, and works under your boss. It’s Park, Kim & Associates—notice how Park is first, because she’s a fucking genius. She only picks the intelligent ones to work under her. Why do you think I’m still working for Mr. Kim?”

Park Seohyun and Kim Gonghyun—one of the biggest lawyers in the region, decided to join together to build their own law firm from the ground up. They were both highly respected in their field; Kim Gonghyun spent years of his life being mentored by one of the most famous judges, and as for Park Seohyun, she was, simply put, admirable because of the obstacles she has overcome to make her dreams of working in law to be real. Being a woman, young, and beautiful, she’s had her fair share of encounters with people who disregard her potential, that is until she met Gonghyun—who, admittingly is an old man who seems like he’d be traditional, sexist, even, but he proves to also make people realize how wrong they are with their impression of him.

But, as Mr. Kim is getting older, he’s gotten a bit… lazy.

In fact, he’s been slacking so much that he’s gotten a new rep in the office—if he was your direct supervisor, or your supervisor was under him, you were on the side of the office where all the easier, uncomplicated cases were assigned. Which meant that there was a slight possibility that your talents and skills weren’t as sharp and exceptional as you thought they were.

And well, Hyeri works directly underneath Mr. Kim.

Hyeri doesn’t want a heavy workload, despite the fact that there’s a plethora of files on her desk, stacked up one onto another as tall as her PC tower, and they were all open and closed cases—needless to say that she didn’t mind it.

“Okay, but you got offered a position under Seohyun. Do you really think you’re not wasting your potential?”

Hyeri scoffs. “Never. At least, not now. I’m still in my twenties, I’d like to enjoy my youth while I can, for your information.”

You quirk a brow. “And does any of that pertain fucking Johnny? The hot guy, so you claim?”

She immediately has her hand covering your mouth and you scowl. “Shhhhh, he works here!”

You bite the flesh of her hand and Hyeri instantly retracts. “You think I don’t know my archenemy works here? He sits directly across from my office—I get the best view of the guy and I’m not even one of his fangirls.”

“You’re not gonna be one of those girls who claim they’re different because they don’t like him but then end up falling for him anyway… are you?”

Your hand goes up and Hyeri crouches down.

“Stop it.”

“Seriously though! It’s the classic e2l love story,” she has her hands gesturing in front of her like she’s making an imaginary rainbow, “Two lawyers, constantly butting heads, accept each other’s differences and learn to love—“

“The fuck is an ‘e2l’?”

“Enemies to lovers.”

“Are you high? Stop spitting nonsense.” This time, you’re waving the stack of papers that finish printing in front of her face. “Meet me for lunch later. But if you keep talking about my archenemy and I falling in love, you can kiss a free meal goodbye.”

Hyeri gasps.

“Yeah, that’s what I thought.”

Maybe. Just maybe, Hyeri might be a tiny smidge right when she says Johnny is handsome. Just a bit though, because she can’t get credit for something like that.

He’s dyed his hair this shade of brunette that sort of reminds you of roasted chestnuts on a cold, winter day, sitting inside of a cooker outside of your childhood home, baking along with some sweet potatoes your mom had gotten from a farmer’s market nearby. Johnny has this focused gaze attached to the screen of his monitor; there’s a dip in the fronts of his brows, lips tightened into a straight line, and constant switching back and forth from the computer while taking notes down in a book that’s laid open in front of him.

You wonder what’s running through his mind, or well, you’re more interested in what files he has sprawled out on top of his desk.

Truthfully, if it hadn’t been obvious enough, you weren’t quite a fan of Johnny Suh and it’s mostly due to his work ethic. He’d been notorious for his reputation of sleeping around—especially with the opposing side—so it’s hard to convince yourself that he didn’t win the case because of his actual capabilities, but it’s because he pulled some strings.

And Johnny doesn’t put much effort into denying it either.

Albeit deep down, you were a teeny bit envious of his confidence. He struts around the courtroom with ease, and when he presents his position, there’s no staggering in his voice—it’s always crisp and clean, weighted with nothing but credence, and never straying from his initial perspective. It’s never a lack of poise, it’s consistently the look he goes for; from the hand gestures and the furrowed brows, to the rhetorical questions in the end of certain statements that has the speculators and jury sitting at the edge of their seat, Johnny had a talent for performing in the courtroom, but that doesn’t mean anything when the way he gets to the success isn’t ethical.

Just at that moment, his eyes lift from the screen and meet yours.

There isn’t any hesitation when you scramble to grab the remote controller, and the shades drop over the windows instantaneously.

“Fuck,” you mutter underneath your breath, tossing the remote onto your desk and shaking your hands after. What if he thought you were admiring him? Maybe he didn’t see. Yeah. It was for a brief second, and with how close your offices were to each other, it would be common to accidentally lock eyes… right?

Interrupting your thoughts, the office phone rings and it nearly startles the living soul out of you. But before you reach for it, your head tilts to the side curiously because the extension number is familiar—it’s Park Seohyun’s, your boss.

What could she be calling for?

You don’t remember fucking something up—but to be fair, half the times, you never really know if you’ve actually fucked up until someone with steaming ears and a crimson face comes storming in. So… did you do something good? Again, you don’t think that’s right either, because other people would’ve made comments about it.

Deciding to swallow your nerves, you pick up the phone.

“Hello?”

“Hey!” Seohyun never fails to be bubbly, and you could never mimic her energy. You definitely had to be born with that kind of enthusiasm. “I have a favor. Hop into my office.”

Leaned back in her leather swivel chair, she had her fingers laced with each other while resting over her stomach. Johnny stands beside you (and you do your best to not look directly at him, especially after that weird staring thing), and you both feel like kids being lectured by parents from how still you are. Her office is huge, probably the size of both yours and Johnny’s combined; with ceiling to floor windows, cases of books that line the perimeter, not to mention the humongous ass couch that practically covers the other half of the room, and her desk was so wide, you estimate about four monitors would fit on there with still additional space for work. That wasn’t even the best part—the view of the city looks almost like a generic lockscreen of a Windows computer, and you’re not even sure why she goes home at night when she basically has a penthouse here.

“As you know, I have a favor.”

“Right,” Johnny retorts, mostly as a filler in the awkward silence. “So… what’s the favor?”

She pulls a box from her purse; square, black and made from a leather material with a lock pad stitched into it, something you’ve never seen before, and she slides the passcode in, then it pops the lid open. A key (a… very small one) sits in the velvety cushion, with nothing else occupying the space with it, and it looks comical. She uses this to open the very top drawer of her desk, and as she pulls using the handle, there’s another box inside, but this time, metal instead of leather, but still black.

What the fuck?

It seems Johnny shares the same thoughts, because he sneaks a glance over at you.

“You see,” Seohyun begins, pressing on the digital keys of the box until there’s a beep at the end and the case hisses open. “There’s a lot of security for this. Which means you understand the importance of it.”

Then, she picks up four manila envelopes and lies on the surface of her wooden top desk. “I have a family emergency to attend to this upcoming week. I’m boarding a flight tonight. So I’m leaving the Hwang v. Yoon case to the two of you.”

“Fuck—”

“The what?”

You and Johnny are sputtering out of shock. The Hwang v. Yoon case is the biggest case that the firm is involved in currently, and the only people involved in it have been Seohyun and Gonghyun. It’s been on every social media platform you could think of; from Facebook to Twitter, TikTok to Instagram—there’s even this weird website for emo/grunge teens or strange kids that like writing fanfic called Tumblr, and whatever that is, it’s discussed on there too.

“What about Gonghyun?”

Seohyun scoffs, closing the drawer and dropping the key back into her special box. Where do you even get a box like that? “He can’t handle this alone. So I’m kicking him off until I come back. I thought about letting the two of you work with him, but his ego is so inflated, it’ll get in the way of our chances of winning. It’s easier if it was just me and him, but seeing that things at home aren’t well, I’m going to need you two to step up to the plate.”

The room goes quiet. The only sounds you hear are the muffled noises of a typical bustling office outside the thick walls of Seohyun’s office, and at first, excitement rushes through your blood because Seohyun thought of you taking over a special, high profile case.

Albeit, another realization gets soaked up, and it’s that Johnny also came to mind, and that because it’s such an important case, the two of you would be… working… many… hours… together.

Maybe you should back out of it—but then again, this is such a one-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Imagine winning this— it wouldn’t be good for just the law firm, it’d be good for you too. Your name, in articles on these big fancy news websites, perhaps even on new channels, talking about how you, this amazing lawyer, won the Hwang v. Yoon case.

But then you’re snapped back into reality when Johnny leans over to take the envelopes from Seohyun.

If your name is on those platforms, so is Johnny’s.

God, this guy just ruins everything, doesn’t he?

“We’ll take care of it, Seohyun. You can trust us,” he says assuringly, a smile tugging on each corner of his lips with that dazzling gaze. “We’ll be at our best.”

Kiss ass.

If you had the option, you wouldn’t be spending your Saturday night here at work, in one of those conference rooms with a long table in the middle, a big projector that displays on the wall, and a random black leather loveseat couch that lines the one corner in case there’s too many occupants.

Especially since the person who’s accompanying you is Johnny Suh.

There’s probably a lot of people who would kill to be in your position (Hyeri being one of them), but you dread it. Not to be that person, but what’s so special about him anyway? What? He’s tall, has some muscles, long luscious hair that he can slick back with that sultry stare—wait, what?

“Alright, moving on…” From what? You guys just started? It’d been clear with Seohyun that the mornings would be dedicated to other cases, but nights would be considered overtime and where you’d zoom in your focus on Ms. Hwang’s justice. “Let’s take a look at the facts here.”

Johnny slips off his blazer, hanging it on the back of one of the chairs as you’re seated in another, leaning back comfortably with an arm resting on the table. He loosens the first few buttons of his dress shirt before folding up the sleeves, and that’s when you notice a little thing in the inner crook of his elbow—is that a fucking sunflower? Is that what he uses to reel girls in? That he’s soft enough to have a pretty little flower etched onto his gentle, silky and supple—

“Okay,” he says, interjecting into your thoughts with a laser pointer in his hand. He taps on the space bar of his laptop that mirrors what’s on his screen, but then, that’s when you realize what’s on the slides.

There’s a collage of pictures, mostly street, casually walking themed ones, but the common factor was that they were of Yoon Changmin, the man you guys were up against. They were all paparazzi-like photos, which begs the question, how did he get pics like this, and why did he get them?

“What’s the point of this?” you ask, voice laced with nothing but suspicion.

“We gotta get into the mind of the enemy.” You wanna get into the mind of your enemy, too.

You gesture to the one image of Changmin with an arm around his girlfriend and a finger up his nose. “Seems like he’s trying to reach inside of his head instead of us. These are just everyday pictures, Johnny. What’s that going to do for us?”

“Well,” he begins, turning to look at the wall of ‘evidence’. “You see—wait, holy shit.”

Freezing in the midst of reaching for your coffee, your head jolts in the direction of your partner. “What? What is it?”

“Holy shit,” he exclaims, “Hoooooooooly shit. Why didn’t I see this before? This changes everything.”

Furrowing your brows, you’ve given up getting your drink and dropped your hands onto the table. “Tell me, what is it?”

“This is a game changer.”

“Johnny,” you call out sternly, and his eyes link with yours before he instantly points to a particular picture with his red laser pointer.

“Look at that.” There’s pride saturated in his words, but when you look at what he’s indicating, your body slouches in disappointment.

Why the hell was he directing your attention onto Changmin’s thighs? Surely, there’s no denying that they were attractive—you recall that his alibi was at the gym that very night of the crime.

“What? He’s guilty for showing off his toothpick legs?” They were lean, you never said they were muscular.

“No,” he retorts, slightly irritated by your response as he rolls his eyes. “Look at his pants.”

“Okay…”

“They’re jean shorts.”

There’s a pregnant pause, but the expression on your face is so loud it can’t be hidden.

Johnny continues, “That’s a fashion crime.” He says it as if it’s an obvious fact known by many. “Not to mention that it’s fucking raw hem. He should be arrested.”

Suddenly, your opinion of him thinking too much with his heart dissipates because it seems like he’s thinking out of his ass instead. Did he win those cases out of pity? How did this guy even pass the bar? How about law school? How the hell did he even get into law school?

“I don’t think—”

“Listen, alright, just hear me out,” he’s got the palms of his hands resting flat on the surface of the table, doing his best to gain your full undivided attention. “Only assholes wear jean shorts. They flaunt that shit around like they own the place, but they’re horrendous pieces of clothing that should not be on a male’s body. I don’t care what you say, what your opinion is, because that is a fact.”

Puffing your cheeks, you feel at a loss. If Johnny is who you had to get this done, it feels like you’re not going to be finding much evidence any time soon.

“Okay, if… if that’s how you want to play it, then show me the evidence—other than those 2012 cut off denim shorts.”

He reaches over to hit his space bar again, then with a wink and a slide change, he leans closer to you and says with that deep, honeyed voice, “Gladly.”

You hate admitting when you’re wrong.

Ironically, you concede and will confess when you actually are, but it doesn’t mean that you enjoy it. For example, when Hyeri claims that the intern Mark had a crush on you, you quickly waved her off, stating something along the lines of, “I’m too intimidating; there’s better chances of him being scared of me than ever finding me attractive.” And then a week later, you owed Hyeri free lunch at that hip ramen place downtown because Mark had approached your desk that very morning with a bouquet of red roses flowers for you, a cheeky grin glued to his face with pools of hearts in his eyes, and ready to ask you on a date because it was the day after his internship had ended. Naturally, it wasn’t fun rejecting that poor college boy.

But, you won’t say you find Johnny interesting or handsome. Or that there’s potential when it came to possibly (just barely the slightest smidge) that you’d ever consider asking Johnny out. He’s your enemy here, you’ve mentioned that a multitude of times, and you stand firm on that very declaration, despite the fact that sometimes when he gets too close, your breath gets caught in your throat and you feel like you can’t get whatever’s lodged in out.

Albeit it’s not the whole “you guys are gonna end up together” comment that Hyeri makes and resulting in you denying it afterwards, it’s that Johnny might… be a decent lawyer.

He’s not the best one you’ve seen; the stupid revelation he had on the first day working on the case about the jean shorts is evidence for it, but it’s the days following that were slowly changing your perspective on him.

When you said, “He thinks too much with his heart more than with his head,” it was 100% correct.

When meeting with potential witnesses, you recognized that Johnny empathizes with people often; when they cry and start panicking from being overwhelmed, he's quick on his feet to put an arm around them, share reassuring words, and have them back to normal in record’s time.

And, well… you? You’re the one making them cry in the first place.

You don’t want to fully take the blame for being the cause of their tears, but people need to hear what’s happening, and the very detail that they can’t even handle this information probably means they’re not worthwhile as a key witness.

Johnny, of course, thinks otherwise.

He believes that these people should have a voice (although you’ve alluded that they might be more useless than helpful), and putting them on the stand with Yoon Changmin there would change the view of the jury to supporting Hwang Naeri.

“Listen, if we get these people to sign the form, we’d get witnesses and it’ll help Naeri,” Johnny claims, frantically moving his arms annoyingly as he talks, trying his best to express the gravity of the situation, “and maybe, maybe, money wouldn’t be how Changmin wins, but how he loses. We can’t have another person with jean shorts walking on the streets of our city like this—they deserve to go to prison.”

You scrunch up your nose. “Why does this always revert back to the jean shorts?”

“It always has to do with jean shorts,” he snaps back matter-of-factly. “Any straight guy wearing jean shorts with that much goddamn confidence has done some wrong in their lives.”

“Right, but I’m pretty sure that the crimes he did are mainly the reason why he’s being prosecuted against.”

“Jean shorts are the windows to the soul.”

“I’m almost 100% sure that eyes are the windows to the soul, but whatever. If you genuinely believe that the women we met today would benefit our case, then… okay. Let’s bring them to the stand.”

On the contrary to you, Johnny doesn’t have a hard time convincing witnesses to testify. You see the way that he works; those kind eyes directed at the participants, the pools of chocolate were sweet, saturated in nothing but tenderness and warmth, then he does that weird thing where he reaches for their hands and cups them before the words that escapes from his lips are enough to swoon them to stand in front of a courtroom.

Maybe, just maybe, there’s a method to his so-called madness.

Aggression and bluntness don’t work, it seems, because when you’re the one attempting to convince these people to go against the man that had done them wrong, they’re less willing to do it. Something about ‘moving on,’ and ‘not wanting to relive those memories again,’ but if it was you, you’d want justice. Then again, not everyone is like you, and not everyone thinks like you, and spending this abundance of time with Johnny is slowly getting you to ease into that perspective.

So… the initial impression you had of him may have been wrong.

And maybe, just maybe, you’re developing some feelings for him, just as Hyeri predicted.

“Do you have a boyfriend?”

His abrupt personal question is enough to have the coffee spill into your mouth to slide down the ‘wrong throat’ because you’re choking, hand on your chest as you’re tackling to regain your breath again and Johnny only stares in disbelief, blinking blankly. “Are… are you okay?”

You glare at him through a hooded gaze. “Well,” you clear your throat once more. “Now, I am.”

“Cool.” He nods, retracting his hand so he could rub your back soothingly, deciding it’s best to stay away. “Are you going to answer my question?”

Quirking a brow, your head tilts slightly in puzzlement. “Why are you asking this?”

Johnny shrugs. “Isn’t it weird that we’ve hung out with each other for a whole week—stayed here for nights and we both don’t know anything about each other?”

Tapping your fingers against the wooden top table, you sigh. Maybe he’s got a point; after all, “Keep your friends close; keep your enemies closer,” right?

“No, I’m single.”

Johnny’s face suddenly brightens, ears perked, and his body straightens its posture in his seat at this revelation. “Oh, uh, I didn’t know that. You seemed busy in your personal life, so I, uh… was just wondering.” He looked anxious, but you couldn’t pinpoint why. “I, um, I’m single too, by the way, in case you’re wondering.” You weren’t.

The plethora of cardboard and plastic boxes scattered across the table was a representation of the night. It’s been long, exhausting, and messy, mostly because it’s a Friday night, the hearing was on Monday, and the two of you were nowhere near close to having enough to present to the court. In fear of disappointing Seohyun, the two of you agreed to stay over the office for the weekend to cram work for the case. There’s no denying that the atmosphere is weirder on the weekends, especially since, well, no one really comes here on the weekends. Johnny had to use the bathroom earlier and ran into the cleaning lady and she nearly shit her pants because she didn’t think anyone was here, so she had music blasting in her headphones.

Johnny is… interesting. He makes you laugh—or well, want to laugh, but you don’t give him that sense of satisfaction—and he’s smart but in his own weird way. He’s not like the other lawyers you’ve met, or any of the law students you attended University with because he’s more lighthearted and free-spirited than the rest, taking life in strides instead of just overwhelming himself in the abundance of stress that work brings.

He’s entirely the opposite of you.

And maybe you could learn something from the guy, but there’s something in you that brews hatred toward him. Possibility that you resent how easy he makes being a lawyer seem when you’re struggling in your day-to-day life to make things work.

But it’s way too fucking hard when he’s just… like that.

Despite all of that, he’s very generous and kind toward you. On rough days, he delivers your coffee order, the one you always get because he remembers what you asked the intern to get for you the last time, and he’s good at identifying when you’re just having that kind of day. You eventually learn he has a photographic memory (fucking show off), so when he saw that crumpled napkin with scribbles of what you want in that dumb intern’s hand, it wasn’t hard to remember. Which, by the way, is how he’s able to get into the most prestigious school for undergrad, manage to pass the bar so easily, and get into law school effortlessly.

And knowing this information sort of angers you more.

You know this isn’t his fault—he’s been blessed with a trait that people desire, one that you also yearn for, but the lucky ones get handed a lot of things in life. You wonder if he’s the type of guy who wins girls easily after matching with them on dating sites because of this stupid ass ‘photographic memory.’ Does he sleep with them right after? Does it ever get serious?

You shrug your shoulders and shake your head. You shouldn’t even let these strange thoughts haunt you, especially when you don’t even like him.

He’s a spoiled brat who gets everything handed to him on a silver platter.

So you’re left counting the remaining days until the trial so you don’t ever have to work with Johnny Suh this closely again.

Okay, well, it’s evident that bad luck is glued to your side because after you win the Hwang v. Yoon case for your law firm with that asshole, Seohyun is so impressed. So goddamn impressed that she insists that all the high profile cases are to be given to both you and Johnny.

To work as a team.

Together.

Jesus, this is Hell for you.

Surely, the promotion and raise that came along with it was definitely a plus, but it has you wondering if it’s even worth it. He’s been your unspoken enemy since the first day, and although you think you’re pretty forthright about your hatred for this guy, he can’t seem to read social cues.

When you’re pushing the double doors into the conference room the two of you often spend working on cases in, you expect Johnny to be ready for another day. But strangely enough, Johnny doesn’t have his laptop out or any of the notebooks sprawled across the table.

“Um,” you slide the strap of your bag off your shoulder and onto the spare chair. “Did you come late or something?”

He takes in a deep breath like he’s been holding back something. “We need to talk.”

There’s worry inscribed into his features; from the crease in between his brows, to his pursed lips, and eyes soaked in concern, almost like he’s got bad news to share and it has your stomach in knots. Was it that the case was thrown out? It couldn’t be, right? You both worked hard, presented your stance to the point that the jury and the judge were in awe with your findings. Sure, you had to cover Johnny’s mouth right before he was about to go off in a tangent about jean shorts, but overall, it was a good win, a hard one to go back on and pull out the wrongs of it. So what was it?

“I’m quitting our partnership.”

You blink. “What?”

He gestures to the room with his hands as if there’s anything out to reference. “This thing. Our work. The big profile cases. The famous stuff. I told Seohyun that I won’t be doing it anymore and she can revoke the promotion and the raise.”

You’re still not catching on. “… Why?” Was it something you did? Yeah, you weren’t a big fan of Johnny either, but were you so bad that he decided to not go through with the raise because of you?

“Because,” he pushes his blazer back, hands sliding into the front pockets of his navy blue trousers. “There’s a policy put into place. Those who are on the same cases cannot have any personal relations with each other that extend past friendships.”

“We’re not even friends?” With confusion written across your face, your head tilts to the side. “I’m not… I’m not catching on here.”

“I like you.”

Startled, the words you want to say are stolen out of your mouth. You’re left with a mixture of perturbation and bewilderment, uncertain where to go from there because Johnny asked for the removal of both a promotion and additional money that could be so good for his career… and it’s all because he has a crush on you?

“You quit the best thing that could’ve happened to you because you like me?”

“Yeah,” Johnny states calmly, sucking in his cheeks for a brief moment. “Ain’t that romantic?”

You scoff. “No. Absolutely not. You’re insane! Why would you do yourself dirty like that? Use your head, Johnny, you’re constantly thinking with that stupid heart of yours, and hate to break it to you, but it won’t get you anywhere.” Combing your hair with your fingers, you let out a sigh. “Go ask Seohyun for the position back. Say you made a mistake and—”

“I’m not asking her for the position back.”

Johnny doesn’t make any sense to you. “What? Why wouldn’t you do that?

“Because,” he laughs in disbelief, not because he thinks you’re funny. “I’m not going to force myself to work with a girl that I keep falling for. That’s self-inflicting, you realize that, right? You’re amazing, but you can seriously be so dense sometimes.”

“I’m dense? You just told one of the best law firms in the city that you don’t want to work on the important cases anymore because you have a stupid crush on your partner!”

“If we were on a team with more people, maybe it’d be different. But it’s just us two. You think I won’t fall any harder? That’s not easy. Every time I see you working, I swear I could be hopelessly in love with you one day.”

Your heart stops for a second.

This is Johnny Suh you were talking about here. One of the claimed best lawyers in your office, one of the most intelligent people that Hyeri has ever met, and Seohyun evidently backs this up because she’s given him so much recognition for his work. He’s the guy who worked with you to win the Hwang v. Yoon case, he’s the one who brought up the stupid jean shorts that seemed so far-fetched at the time, but they were a crucial detail everyone missed—it so happened that when Changmin bought those dumb shorts, there was evidence of at least one of his crimes in that store from the security cameras.

Any cis-gendered male who wears jean shorts can’t be trusted, according to Johnny.

And candidly speaking? You couldn’t even deny that. Your past two ex-boyfriends both wore jean shorts and the one cheated on you and the other one was caught money laundering.

“Listen,” he begins, interrupting your foggy thoughts. “I’m not asking you to tell me you like me back. I’m telling you because you should know, and that I can’t go on any further without letting you know. I’ll, uh, be in my office. Seohyun said she’d find a replacement for me.”

Hyeri is his replacement.

She’s great company and does a good job of helping you with whatever you need, but that was just it. Hyeri followed you, she never led with you, just as Johnny does. Agreeing with everything you say, mindlessly trailing behind everything you do—Hyeri was smart, but she couldn’t figure out how to think for herself when it came to these bigger cases because she’s never been given such a responsibility. But you couldn’t even blame her because it’s what she was told to do under Gonghyun.

“You said that you think Maeri snatched the bracelet?”

“No, I said if you watched the security video that the jewelry store submitted, it clearly shows that Maeri snatched the bracelet. Not that I ‘think.’ The proof is right there, Hyeri.”

She nods, resuming back to her work on the computer. Truthfully, Hyeri felt more like an assistant than a co-worker, someone to bounce ideas off of and to see from a different perspective. And as much as you hated Johnny, he had decent points. He had ways of making you put yourself into the shoes of people you never thought you were; although the guy was obnoxious, at least he actually was… good at his job.

Deciding you can’t take it anymore when Hyeri asks for the tenth time that hour about your beliefs rather than her own, you abruptly stand from your seat.

“Where are you going?”

“Out,” you reply shortly. “I’ll be back.”

It was just a spontaneous thought. It’s after hours, and although there are some people who stay behind to get some work done, you had your doubts that Johnny would still be here. He seems to have a better grip on that work/life balance thing people talked about (unlike yourself), but it didn’t hurt to check his office, right?

It’s a good thing you went with it. Because right across from yours, there’s Johnny.

There’s one single lamp that shines over the tabletop of his desk, and the other sources of light in his office are from his computer screen and the ones from the city skyline from behind him. It has him seemingly angelic like this, so serene, calm, and collected, only focused on what’s laid out in front of him. The sun has gone down, people have gone home, but Johnny remains, hardworking as always, despite your previous observations that he’s a lazy, unprofessional guy who gets everything handed down to him.

With a knock on his glass door, he flinches, head raising up and eyes meeting yours.

Were his eyes always this sparkly?

Opening the door, Johnny drops the pen in his hand and crosses his arms before leaning back in his seat. “What’s up?”

“You’re here late,” you state the obvious, and Johnny only nods in return, without a rebuttal in sight. “You aren’t normally here late. At least, before the Hwang v. Yoon case.”

“Yeah, you’re right. But Seohyun dropped something on my desk this morning. Wanted to work on it. What brings you here?”

Inhaling in a deep breath of courage, your hands bundle up into a fist by your side. “Please come back.”

Johnny raises a brow. “What?”

“Come back,” you reiterate, this time, it’s less tense and releases with ease. Caving in isn’t usually this effortless to you, but something about Johnny makes you feel… comfortable enough.“Come back and work with me again. Yes, I’m not supportive of how you do things—”

“Then let’s go out on a date.”

You freeze. Legs rooted into the floors of Johnny’s office, you’re left immobile and diffident on how to react next. It wasn’t what you were expecting, although you weren’t quite sure what you were hoping to anticipate, but it most definitely was not this.

“I—”

“I said my terms,” he retorts, shutting the book in front of him before shuffling up from his seat. He’s leaving, you realize, and Johnny’s ready to head home for the night and you’re not sure if you could handle an entire weekend with Hyeri here. “And, I meant what I said. One date, and if it really doesn’t work out, I’ll stay on the case.”

Chewing on your bottom lip anxiously, the next words that come out are out of character for you. “And… what if it does?”

A soft smile tugs from each corner of his mouth. “Then we’ll figure it out from there. Promise.”

This is… awkward. It shouldn’t be, but yet somehow, it remains awkward.

You’ve spent weeks with Johnny before, and those moments were in a room, in the middle of the night, and alone. Hours and hours were dedicated to work, yes, but it was just the two of you and nobody else.

So why is it so weird being in a five Michelin star restaurant with him?

Maybe it’s the atmosphere. The dim lights, the white clothed tables in lieu of the scratched up wooden one back at the law firm, and instead of leather seats, there’s a neutral beige chaise cushion for the dining chair, slightly less comfortable because it doesn’t recline like the one in your office. Instead of an array of photos and evidence disseminated in front of you, there’s a laminated menu with a multitude of options of what to have for dinner.

Johnny gets the steak with mashed potatoes and string beans, and you order something similar but seared salmon for the main protein. The waitress offers wine, babbling on about the age of the red, where the vineyard is located, and the dryness to sweetness—to be honest, you could care less; you’d rather have gin and sprite with a squirt of lime. A couple glasses of that and you can almost guarantee that the night would end with a deep slumber.

Oddly enough, Johnny seems nervous. Ever since he pulled up in his midnight black Audi in front of your apartment complex, he’s been acting strange. He keeps wiping his sweaty palms off the material of his trousers, occasionally swiping off the droplets that fall on the side of his face.

“Are you… okay?” you suddenly ask, adjusting your dress in your seat. Deciding to go with a black silk dress with a slit up the leg and your hair let down, it’s not a look you often sport but since you’re going on a date (one you haven’t been on in quite some time), you figured it would be nice to at least play the part.

“I’m, uh, honestly, I’ve never really asked a girl out before.”

You quirk a brow curiously. “What? You’re telling me you never asked a girl out before?”

He lets out a bashful laugh with a faint nod, making an attempt to swallow his nerves after. “Honestly, I’ve always been asked out and not the other way around. Not to sound like that guy, but I never really had to put effort into trying for girls. They kind of just…”

“—Throw themselves at you?”

He beams. “Yeah! Like that. I don’t really know how to react half the time, but it makes the whole dating scene a little bit easier.” Geez, he called you dense, but he’s over here acting clueless.

Either way, it feels like whatever opinion you had about Johnny remained true. He never had to try when it came to the dating scene, and you could only imagine what that means for work and the relationships he has with the women in your career field.

“Mm, does that usually happen with work too?”

Befuddled, Johnny leans back in his chair. “What do you mean by that?”

With a shrug of your shoulders, you’re poking the meat of your salmon that falls off easily. After the first initial bite, the fish practically melts on impact when it touches the tip of your tongue, smooth like butter and bursting with flavor that couldn’t be described by any common person because it wouldn’t do the salmon justice. Johnny seemed to put a lot into this date, and you’re left pondering what the point of this was. Did he actually like you, or was he trying to get into your head? “Just seems like you get a lot of special treatment.”

“Are you jealous?”

“In what way?” you snap back.

“Are you jealous of me because I’m getting this so-called special treatment that you think I’ve always had, or were you jealous of the girls that seemingly got my attention?”

You’re left without anything to say.

It was a good observation he made because truthfully, you never saw it like that.

In actuality, you often saw Johnny as your rival. He climbed the ladder in the field with ease, and it wasn’t hard to quickly blame his success on the fact that he was a guy in a male dominated industry, but the fact that there’s a possible interpretation for your hatred may be from these feelings you might’ve been harboring for him this entire time… that can’t be it… right?

“I mean, look at where you are now,” you begin, trying to defend yourself. It can’t be true that the reason you’ve been bitter about Johnny was because of the girls that got his attention, and one of them not being you. “You got a high position from—”

“—From hard work,” Johnny interjects with his brows furrowed. “I didn’t get to where I was because I slept around, if that’s what you’re insinuating. I knew you sort of always hated me, but I’ve always admired you. I like your work ethic, I like your style, even though we’re both on opposite spectrums, I like the way you think and I wanted to know what it was like being partners with you. Getting to be on that case with you showed me more than just who you were as a lawyer, but who you were as a person. I like you, but I’m trying to put my finger on why you hate me so much.”

“So you noticed.” Sucking in your cheeks, your eyes trail elsewhere—from the fork that lays beside your plate, to the glass filled halfway with wine, to the little candle that sits in between the two of you that flickers the way he has your heart when he expresses once more how he feels about you.

“Yeah, of course I noticed. If you like someone, it’s kind to miss details like that about them. So… you really hated me because you thought I slept my way to the top, huh?”

“I mean…” shoulders dropping in exasperation, you run your fingers through your disheveled hair. “All those rumors—”

“Again, they’re just rumors. I worked hard to get here, you know. And I’m kind of offended that you thought of me that way.”

You scoff. “They’re rumors, Johnny, it’s kind of hard to ignore all the office gossip when that’s all you hear. Plus, it wasn’t hard to believe either, with the whole flirtatious act whenever you encounter anyone who’s breathing and has a vagina.”

“I wasn’t flirting.”

“You need a book for dummies that elaborates on what’s flirting or not, because Johnny Suh, whatever it is you do with your body language in front of that chick who sits by the front door.”

“You mean Siwoo? The pregnant one who’s married to her highschool sweetheart? Also, how do you not know our receptionist’s name?”

You throw your arms into the air. “How am I supposed to know her name?”

He tilts his head to the side, genuinely baffled. “Do you… not talk to anyone outside of Hyeri?”

Your silence answers his question.

“I… honestly, I don’t know if I should be offended or if I should be honored. You think I didn’t earn anything that I have now, you think that everything I have was handed to me. On one hand, it’s flattering that you think my looks and my bedroom skills could do that but at the same time… I’m offended because you think I’m incapable.”

“I never said you were incapable—”

“But you implied it.”

Hands falling onto your lap, it’s your turn to gulp. His words come shooting at you, but you’re without a shield to protect yourself, and with the new experience of working with Johnny, there comes the realization at times that Johnny is a hard worker. There are some things that he says and does that aren’t like the people you’ve encountered, and being put on new cases with Hyeri only proved it. He’s thoughtful in the sense that whenever you’d bring up your stance on something, he challenges you with what the defense might counter.

Johnny makes you want to be better. Not just against him, but to brush off the dust on your skills and enter into the battlefield of a courtroom to showcase them.

“Well, if you’re staying silent, I just want to say that I tried,” the crinkle in between your brows makes another appearance because Johnny is great at leaving you stunned and confused. “I really like you. I love how your head works, and I wanna be with someone like that but I also can’t be with someone who doesn’t respect me.”

Why is it that when you’re in that conference room with him, you’re not afraid and never running out of things to say, but now you’re empty handed?

“I’ll pay for dinner. Grab you an Uber. I honestly thought I could overlook those things, and maybe your perspective for me has changed, but I could see it on your face. It’s the same.”

After that date with Johnny, his life turns back to normal.

Yours? Not so much.

Candidly speaking, part of you missed working with Johnny. You were wrong about him, so wrong, and even when you wanted to apologize at the dinner for what you thought of him, the pride in you was like a vicious plague that blackened your insides, preventing you from ever saying those words.

Oftentimes, you’d still be able to sneak a glimpse of him in his office with that same look on his face—full of concentration and nothing else in his mind other than the task at hand.

The cases you have with Hyeri entail a head like Johnny’s. Someone who could question you, to protest against your stance when there could be flaws in it. It feels like deja vu each time you think about it, each time you open a new case file and Hyeri sits there, perched in that seat beside yours, eyes sparkling with what you have in mind next, instead of what she has going on in hers.

Although you’ve tried convincing yourself that maybe, just maybe, what you feel for Johnny is purely professional but when you see him standing by the water cooler with a couple of your coworkers, eyes mimicking the moon crescents in the skies, replicating the ways his lips curl in elation—it was beginning hard to believe that it was all platonic feelings.

So maybe you should be bold for once. Pull off that exterior that displays you as someone who isn’t just independent and assiduous, but someone who’s stubborn and aggressive in getting what they want—and not in a good way.

This time, you’ll show it in a good way.

Or at least, you’ll try.

Johnny is a routine kind-of-guy—he grabs an iced americano every morning at the coffee shop downstairs at the edge of the street, he does his daily 11:00AM drop-by at the water cooler to refill his Hydroflask (which was his prized possession, by the way), and parked in the same exact spot in the parking garage of your building, despite there being an abundance of places he could choose.

That’s why you decide to stand by his car after work that day. Bouncing on the balls of your feet, hands shaking because it’s your turn to feel anxious. That blazer that once fit so comfortably in the morning suddenly feels tight and hot in the afternoon, and the weather hasn’t even changed. Your bag slung over your shoulder weighs ten times heavier than an hour ago, and you can’t stop your jaw from tightening.

Before your thoughts could spiral off all the possibilities of what the outcome may be when you tell Johnny how you feel, he’s already standing there, feet away from you with that dip in the fronts of his brows that you want to smoothen out the crinkles of with the pad of your thumb.

“Hi,” you greet, faint and peculiarly different from your other approaches. “Um, I just… was waiting for you.”

“Hey,” Johnny says back, the first few buttons of his shirt already unraveled, his blazer hung over his forearm and the sleeves are rolled up. “I see that. What’s up with you?”

“Um,” your leg was jittery, hard to control so you spat everything you had to say out as fast as you could before he could see right through you. “I just wanted to apologize. For everything. You’re admirable, kind, and I wish I inhabited those same characteristics you have. I think professionally, you’ve got great ideas, one that could be implemented into mine and what we did together for that case was just… yeah. We could do something big if we put our heads together.”

Johnny nods in agreement. The relationship between you two work-wise was obvious, he knew that much. “And what about… outside of that?”

“I like you,” you choked, barely getting the words out. “More than just coworkers, um, I guess, more than friends but I’m not really sure since you walked out on our first date,” inhaling in a deep breath of courage, you continue on, “and I don’t know how you feel now after I’m standing before you like this, asking for another chance and that I’m sorry.”

He stares at you blankly, and it leaves you unsure whether or not he accepts your apology. “You know why we ended that date early.”

“Well,” you start again, “can we… start over and try again? I promise I won’t tempt you to end the date early this time.”

And with that, there’s the signature smile that Johnny sports that swoons girls, makes their knees weak, and heart clench but this time… it’s just for you.

“I’d really like that.”

[jackoshadows]

Vince Gilligan wants to write a good guy

I rewatched the entirety of “Breaking Bad” recently. My love for Walter White has dissipated. And my love for Skyler White has only grown.

The further away I get from “Breaking Bad,” the less sympathy I have for Walter. He got thrown a lifeline early on. And, if he had been a better human being, he would’ve swallowed his pride and taken the opportunity to treat his cancer with the money his former friends offered him. He goes out on his own terms, but he leaves a trail of destruction behind him. I focus on that more than I used to.

After a certain number of years, the spell wears off. Like, wait a minute, why was this guy so great? He was really sanctimonious, and he was really full of himself. He had an ego the size of California. And he always saw himself as a victim. He was constantly griping about how the world shortchanged him, how his brilliance was never given its due. When you take all of that into consideration, you wind up saying, “Why was I rooting for this guy?”

Back when the show first aired, Skyler was roundly disliked. I think that always troubled Anna Gunn [who played Skyler]. And I can tell you it always troubled me, because Skyler, the character, did nothing to deserve that. And Anna certainly did nothing to deserve that. She played the part beautifully. I realize in hindsight that the show was rigged, in the sense that the storytelling was solely through Walt’s eyes, even in scenes he wasn’t present for. Even Gus, his archenemy, didn’t suffer the animosity Skyler received. It’s a weird thing. I’m still thinking about it all these years later.

That's interesting. In "The Rockford Files," say, the character of Jim Rockford wouldn't change all that much in the course of a season, or even multiple seasons. Perhaps there was a sort of comfort in that lack of change. Yeah, there's a real pleasure to watching shows like that. Honestly, that's all I watch these days. I love the old stuff. I love old episodes of "Emergency!" and "The Rockford Files" and "Columbo" and "The Twilight Zone" and "Hogan's Heroes." It's comfort food for my brain. I hope that kind of storytelling never goes away. For my next show, I'd like the lead character to be an old-fashioned hero, an old-fashioned good guy. Jim Rockford is kind of rough around the edges, but he always does the right thing. Fifteen years ago, when I was conceiving of Walter White, I looked around and thought, Well, what is current TV? It's mostly good guys. But now I'm looking around, thinking, Gee, there's an awful lot of bad guys on TV, and not just on shows but on the news. It feels like a world of shitheels now, both in fiction and in real life. I think it's probably time again for a character who doesn't go for the easy money. I'd be very happy if I could write a more old-fashioned hero, someone who is not out for themselves at every turn.

That you’d follow the lead of the character rather than vice versa says something about you as a creator.

If there’s any secret to our success, I think it’s that. The TV shows we love are populated by characters who seem real to us. We don’t have to agree with them, but we get where they’re coming from. We comprehend them on an emotional level.

But you can’t do that by forcing them like square pegs into round holes. It sounds kind of artsy-fartsy, but you’ve got to listen to them. By that I mean you’ve got to be honest about what they would do next in any given situation. It was much more rewarding for us in the writers’ room when that kind of thinking led us to realizations such as Chuck’s resentment of his kid brother.

Sometimes, that takes you to some very unexpected plot destinations. Some of our very best ideas came at the eleventh hour, many seasons into both shows. In hindsight, I like the way we did it. The longer it took, the more nervous it made us that we didn’t have a clear road map. But we found our way. It was a struggle, but we purposely didn’t know how things were going to end at the beginning. We didn’t even know halfway through, probably.