#it sounds like it could make good inspiration on some level haha

[mikunology]

Have you ever watched Symphogear your VOCALOID AU really reminds me of it it’s so good

I have not but I recently took a look into it because this is not the first time someone has compared Vocal Android to Symphogear XD (this is not a dig I think it's funny)

and....yeah I see the resemblance lmao

[gabriel-xander]

Don't Forget

[Sans x Female!Reader]

32: Are You Jacking off to Sun Tzu - The Art of War, Dude?

A/N: I fear I will be taking a long Hiatus now 🥲 I have a bigger project I need to work on and it’s like a legit job so all of my stories will be on hold. I’ll TRY to update here and there when I can, but I cannot promise anything. That said, I hope you can enjoy this chapter!

♪────✿⁠(⁠✧◕⁠ᴗ⁠◕✧⁠)✿⁠────♪

Swap-Sans lasts about… approximately 3 minutes of pure silence before he breaks. You’re not shocked at all since he is supposed to be this AU’s eager little man. He had taken a quick look back at Sans, asking for his name with skepticism. To your surprise, Sans doesn’t give a fake name and instead just tells his counterpart the truth.

This does not fly with the Royal Guard, no sir.

“HMM… BUT… I’M THE MAGNIFICENT SANS…” Swap-Sans snaps his fingers with a winning smile, “YOU CAN BE “OTHER SANS” INSTEAD!!”

“PPFT!!”

You slap your hand over your mouth, though it is futile to muffle your laughter. As said before, ever since Other Sans reverted to his original look, his expressions are so much more extra and dynamic.

And now Other Sans’ disbelief was the funniest shit you’ve ever seen. He groans at your laughter, hoping Swap-Sans doesn’t look at him to see his blush. That said, Swap-Sans is very proud to have made you laugh that hard.

“AND WHAT ABOUT YOU, HUMAN?”

“Ah-haha! Ahem–Uh, you can call me [Y/n],” You say with a few lasting giggles.

“[Y/N], IS IT? THAT’S A GOOD NAME!”

Huh. That gives you some major deja vu from when you first met Papyrus.

“Thanks,” You said, “I picked it out myself.”

You look into the camera with a knowing look. Ah, you appreciate a good call back.

Swap-Sans has very little interest in talking to his other double, so he puts his attention on talking to you. You think he might’ve forgotten that you’re a prisoner considering Swap-Sans has been asking you question after question about yourself. Other Sans might’ve told you not to give away too much, but how could anyone expect you not to entertain Swap-Sans? He’s such a good boy and he’s doing his best!!

You only tell him the surface-level things about yourself, the same crap you tell other people when you’re just being polite.

“It’s basically the gist of it. I just want to be a doctor and save lives when I can,” You tell him earnestly, “It’s going to take a long time before I can get to a skill level that will make a difference, but I’m willing to put in the time for it.”

Swap-Sans nods eagerly along with your words, “WHAT A WONDERFUL PASSION! YOU KNOW, IT SOUNDS LIKE YOU BECAME A DOCTOR FOR THE SAKE OF SOMEONE ELSE.”

You widen your eyes and stutter. “Wow… Yeah, I mean, How–… How did you know?”

“HOW DO I KNOW? WELL, IT SOUNDS PRETTY OBVIOUS FROM THE WAY YOU’RE TALKING ABOUT IT. THAT’S THE THE SOUND OF SOMEONE WHO DOES GOOD FOR THE SAKE OF OTHERS.

‘…Ueueueue…’

“I wouldn’t go that far, but… yeah. You got it.” You feel a little flustered, laughing awkwardly.

You get more engaged in the conversation with this AU’s Sans, your eyes and tone sparkling with merriment. Other Sans slows down just enough that he falls a few steps behind, letting himself walk at a pace to observe you and his other version interact.

That thing Swap-Sans said… Other Sans didn’t know that was the reason why you became a doctor, and it never really occurred to him to ask.

Ugh! How did fucking Swap-Sans pick that up before Sans did? That’s not something Sans would normally miss, so why–

Wait, could it be that it’s because when he first met you he was more focused on checking if you were good or not? Actually no, that’s exactly what it was. Back then, he wasn’t remotely interested in you (not in positive ways, at least) so it’s no wonder it went over his head.

It makes him wonder, who is the person who inspired you to be a doctor in the first place?

Other Sans can’t think of someone you mentioned who passed away in your personal life. From what he knows–from what you shared–both of your parents and siblings are still around, and you talk about your “bestie”, Elliot, with too much happiness for him to be a past memory. You mention all the time how “when you meet him, you’ll understand why I call us a gay duo.”

“When,” you kept saying. So no, Sans has no reason to believe Elliot has passed.

But what about… your ex-boyfriend, Kōrenki? You spoke about that guy only once, but you said you loved him and only had good things to say. Hm… No, maybe not him either.

It’s truly a mystery to Other Sans, but perhaps that’s a clue for Other Sans that he really needs to get to know you better. Despite you knowing a lot, you still go out of your way to ask him about himself and his brother. Even if you know it already or not, you make him feel like you’re genuinely interested in him and his past.

Man… What did he do to deserve someone as kind as you?

…Probably shouldn’t let his subconscious answer that, he might come up with answers he’s not ready for.

Other Sans is brought out of his thoughts when you three break clear of the forest. He’s not super shocked to see you’re all now close to Snowdin already. This AU is a direct copy of his own with the difference lying only in the monsters and their swapped personalities. Anyway, Snowdin Town is right there… right across the fucking bridge.

That’s not ideal.

Ever since he learned of your fear of heights, Other Sans will never let you use the bridge to cross. You never need to use the bridge when you go to work in Downtown Snowdin, and there isn’t any reason for you to use it otherwise. If it was absolutely necessary, then Other Sans would either give you a shortcut across, or Papyrus would just carry you over it.

To his surprise, you say nothing about it. He can’t see your face, but he can read your body language well enough to know you’re getting anxious and tensing up.

“HMPH,” Swap-Sans crosses his arms, “YOU’RE LUCKY I AM NOT ACTIVATING THE GAUNTLET OF DEADLY TERROR FOR NOW.”

You force a laugh that sounded way too obvious to your discomfort, “Ah-ha ha ha… Yeahhh…”

“UH, IS SOMETHING THE MATTER?”

“Whaaat? Nooo, nothing is-”

“-uh, no?” Sans cuts you off, “you’re afraid of heights, don’t start lying.”

“Bro…”

“WHY DIDN’T YOU SAY ANYTHING?”

“With all due respect, why would I?”

Swap-Sans almost pouts but his limitation to his facial anatomy stops him from doing it correctly. “WELL… I MIGHT BE CAPTURING YOU, BUT I’M NOT EVIL AND UNREASONABLE.”

Other Sans steps forward to stand next to you with a wink, “if it doesn’t rattle your bones, i can shortcut us all across. save us some time.”

“OH, WOW!” Swap-Sans looks at the Other Sans with wide eyes, “YOU REMIND ME OF MY BROTHER. HE CAN USE SHORTCUTS, TOO.”

“ha-ha, that’s so silly, ah-ha ha… imagine that…”

You snort, “Way to keep it subtle, Other Sans.”

Other Sans sulks his shoulders, “you’re actually calling me that?”

“NO TIME TO SULK, OTHER SANS! HELP US GET ACROSS, WON’T YOU?”

“yeah, yeah–whatever, just put your hand on my shoulder.”

Swap-Sans, not picking up the tone in his counterpart's tone, does so with an eager smile. You go to the other side of Other Sans, smiling at him while holding out your hand. His own smile eases as he takes your gloved hands.

Is he weird for liking the look of you wearing his stuff? He hopes it isn’t weird because he’d love to see you in his sweater one day.

The moment you close your eyes, giving his hand a little squeeze, Sans shortcuts you 3 to the other side of the bridge. His grip tightens on your hands when he sees you stumble a bit. Fuck, your body is still recovering from using the DJ earlier but he’d rather do this than make you cross that bridge.

“ARE YOU ALRIGHT, [Y/N]?”

“are you okay?”

“Yes, I’m okay,” You laugh at their overlapping concern, “Aw, you guys are so sweet in your own ways.”

Other Sans and Swap-Sans both feel pride in your praise but make the terrible mistake of looking at each other at the same time.

…

Eugh.

“Well, let’s keep going,” You sigh softly, already walking ahead (You haven’t let go of Other Sans’ hand yet so he was happily dragged along with you). “We’re here now and Other Sans and I need to be locked up.”

“R-RIGHT…”

Man, call him crazy, but Swap-Sans doesn’t even want to lock you up anymore. Other Sans though… meh. But you–You’re so funny and a pleasure to talk to. Swap-Sans saw you as a threat before but he’s gotten the chance to talk to you and you’re actually so chill.

Crap, you were right when you said you two could be great friends earlier. He accidentally gave you that chance and you totally proved him right!

You stop walking when you realize Swap-Sans hasn’t moved yet. You furrow your brows together and pull your hand away from Other Sans so you can cross your arms.

“Hey, you okay, buddy?” You ask him with concern.

“IF… IF I MAY BE HONEST, I DON’T WANT TO LOCK YOU IN OUR CAPTURE ZONE ANYMORE.” Swap-Sans huffs whole crossing his arms, “YOU WERE… UGH! YOU WERE RIGHT! I GAVE YOU A CHANCE AND I DON’T WANT TO CAPTURE YOU ANYMORE, BUT I HAVE A JOB TO DO. I AM TRAINING TO BE A ROYAL GUARD, I CAN’T GO BACK ON MY WORD.”

You grin widely–holy shit, your unmatched rizz actually worked! Look at you, stumbling ass-backward into victory! Other Sans is pretty impressed as well, but it’s to be expected with how charismatic you are (in his opinion, anyway). Other Sans isn’t very eager to get locked up, so he can get behind this.

“well, how ‘bout this?” Other Sans suggests, “we can be locked up in your house instead and we can still hang out that way while we wait for your human to arrive.”

“EHHH…”

You nod eagerly, “Oh, that’d be a good idea! Besides, I’m freezing out here, and I doubt the Capture Zone is gonna be comfortable.”

“YOU’RE ACTUALLY SO RIGHT, [Y/N]! LET’S GO TO… MY HOUSE!!”

Filled with new motivation and vigor, Swap-Sans starts marching into town, not even looking to make sure you’re both following. You give Other Sans a knowing look.

“Maybe you like me in every Universe, huh?” You say teasingly.

Other Sans blushes lightly, “yeah, well… i mean, who wouldn’t?”

“…Gay ass.”

“???”

With a laugh at his expression, you grab Other Sans’ hand again and drag him to follow after his counterpart.

Taglist:

@lemonboy011

@adriixboo

@fluffyart5000

@fetusbaconegg

[moochii-daisies]

- 18+, Minors DNI

Summary: The whole house is kickin' a nasty habit, but some are struggling more than others. After being "banned" for their antics and left with a bag of lollipops, MC and Yoongi have ample time to declare the winner of their "biggest menace" challenge.

Length: 4.3k words

Warnings-Content Contains: 18+, Cussing, wolf-biting, smoking mention, tbh MC and Yoongi are switch-y dramatic gremlins and i'm not sorry (i'm sorry), spit mention? (that's new to me), idk yoongi has a lollipop, good luck xoxo

Sidenotes: holy shit this was so fun to write!! i had jolly good fun (then got possessed) ok i hope you enjoy if you read it and thank you if you do <3 also, thank you so much @jung-koook for the kindness + permission + inspiration w this incredible gif - it's the entire reason i wrote the scene w mc + jk + yoongi haha (p.s. appreciate gif makers pls and i highly recommend checkin' out their page if you haven't already)

JAF Notes: You wanna read Tae's "Rain and Mistletoe" song?

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     The look on Yoongi's face had - really - started to piss me off. 

He looked -

     Pleased as punch.

     Swell, even.

     Just peachy fuckin' keen.

As if we were out there together by choice.

     I squinted at him with a scrupulous stare.

     "Did you get to choose what flavor? After bein' sucha good boy?" He rolled his eyes to look at me,  unimpressed with my attempt to taunt him.

     Didn't even lift his head up to do it either. Just raised both eyebrows with a face that said, "c'mon, you could do better".

     Goddammit.

I was already pissy. Would it have hurt? To show some solidarity? We were in this as a team...in a way.

     Instead of trying with words, I bounced a heel off the wooden floor of the front porch. Making a repeated, loud, and annoying, 'thunk'.

Yoongi was leaned back against the cushions - legs spread, arms crossed - and completely ignoring me.

Thunk.

Thunk.

.......

THUNK THUNK THUNK THUNK THUNK THUNK THUNK  THUNK -

     Twitch.

As Yoongi tried not to smile, the paper-white stick poking out of his closed lips wiggled.

     I was trying to disintegrate an identical stick with just my grip strength.

     The silence after my thunking was brief. Broken by a small 'pop', as Yoongi pulled a bright blue lollipop out of his mouth. He twirled it around in front of my face and "Round 1 Winner: Yoongi" gleamed in his smile before it became a side-smirk.

    

     I went with an expression that I hoped said: "Rage has morphed me into a weapon.".

     But we knew each other way too well. If I could go more than two words without saying some form of "fuck"- I wasn't Major Mad and if I wasn't on the verge of tears (or totally shut down) then it wasn't Super Serious. Which meant that the look I gave just made him chuckle, and look away.

     He gazed off into the distance like he was thinking of something very deep. Like, how to push every single button I had - for example. I could envision the thought bubble above his head so clearly it almost felt real.

     Yoongi - Rascal Mode (Level 3): It's Fun to be Dramatic and Annoying.

One big sigh.

     Then he turned to me looking perplexed, or, like he did when he cut onions without any eye protection.

     "Yeeeeeeeeeee-up."

Yoongi drew out the e and popped the p as loud as he could - completely deadpan. The sound ricocheted around in my brain and I felt a calmness settle over me.

     Personal Rascal Mode (Level 4): In the Zen Garden. Incapable of being disturbed.

     All right Min Yoongi, two can play at that game.

     I locked eyes with him, and gathered all the moisture in my mouth before slurping on my own lollipop. He wasn't bothered by mouth noises too badly, in general, but wet mouth sounds (outside of specific contexts) bothered him Immensely.

     Because, and I quote, "It's too wet.".

It was the perfect plan.

      However, it didn't occur to me at the time that:

- drooling and

- going to town on a lollipop,

could be taken as anything else but an annoyance.

     Trying not to get too proud of myself, I snuck a glimpse at Yoongi expecting to see disgust, annoyance, anger or even boredom. But I was met with shock, and a shy smile that was terrible at hiding instead. Premature pride was melted down into green-apple flavored confusion.

     Yoongi did look impressed though, at least for a second, until he turned to lightly tap his knuckles against the window behind us.

     They were muffled, but five (overlapping) voices started up in response to the sound.

   The laugh under Yoongi's breath came to an abrupt halt as I moved to wipe my mouth dry. My hand was caught by the wrist, there was the smallest tap of hard candy against teeth, and then Yoongi's thumb was gliding across my bottom lip.

     The fingers he had curled under my chin kept me steady.

     Back and forth, two times each way.

Smooth, sweet and still too wet to be sticky.

     Hypnotizing.

The gaze aimed at my lips was one bead of honey, suspended on the edge and close enough to taste.

     With the pad of his thumb, he wiped off what was left and pressed it to his mouth. Slightly parted lips and the dart of a pink tongue kissed the rest away. Two onyx stones sparkled, watching me watch him. Daring me to take a step further.

     I forgot why we were out there at all.

     "Told you! I. Told you. I told. You so." Jimin gloated out the front door as the five others joined us.

     "We're cutting back or quitting, as a HOUSEHOLD you two! This is TEARING US APART!" Tae was unusually (but understandably) short-tempered. The crazy straw in his mouth - that replaced his smoking habit-  had a toothpick umbrella taped to the end of it. His "Rain Instead of Mistletoe" (aka "The Umbrella Song") came to mind at the sight of it and I almost started to sing it to him. But Jimin Despised the umbrella phase with an almost maniacal passion.

     I can't say I didn't consider it though.

     Okay. So, yeah- as a household, we decided to collectively cut back or quit smoking entirely. And no, we didn't think at all about what that would actually be like.

     Yoongi, Jungkook and Namjoon had actually asked for a house meeting and arrived as a unit (held together through linked arms) about a week after it was brought up. In a clearly rehearsed speech, they informed us that they would only be cutting back. Because they could make their own decisions. And that they would not be taking questions.

     I knew what Tae was talking about (he didn't like the division among us), but I looked at Jimin - confused. His baby cotton-candy pink hair was swept back from his forehead and both eyebrows skyrocketed to make his eyes as wide as possible in response.

     "I told them. That you'd do something sexual. Unknowingly. And that it'd be the only way to get you to try the lollipop method." He spoke in staccato phrases.

Oops.

     Shiny, bright green glistened in my hand. Well, I felt less resistant to it now.

     Jimin didn't care about my response. Instead - a hand crinkled into his bag of coping candy and he sank into the couch between Yoongi and I. His favorites were the ones shaped like bracelets and necklaces. He'd even stained his forehead pink, blue and green once from trying to wear one like a crown which, coincidentally, inspired the change in hair color. After finding the last four (and with an alarming speed), he ripped the plastic off of one with his teeth and kept it in his mouth while sliding it onto a wrist.

     It dangled from the corner of his lips as he spoke. "I can't even enjoy my victory properly though, and do you know why? It's cause you two got GROUNDED at your big age. Unbelieva- okay no, totally believable actually. We need 47 bags of this, I'ma go to the store.".

     Tae swatted at me with the sleeves of his giant cardigan and grumbled about my being "banished to the outside world". Turning a nose up at my attempted response, he stomped after Jimin the entire way to the car.

     Okay look, we weren't really grounded or banished. Per se.

     But Yoongi and I were handling it the worst.

     We found him passed out multiple times on the front porch, trying to sneak them late at night (+3 burn holes in couch). And he was changing clothes so much to hide the smell that he started buying more with, "all the money he was saving from cutting back". When he didn't sneak any, he'd get so surly that we could feel the dark cloud that surrounded him, anywhere he went.

     And although Jungkook's competitiveness was helping him stay stronger than most of us, generally, he could Not say no if I asked him. And I was not strong enough, Not to ask him.

     After everyone realized JK's weakness, I started squatting down behind whichever car of ours was parked out on the street. Sneaking a couple puffs at the random times I could. It worked until Jin caught me, and snatched the last one I had out of my hands.

     I glowered at him as he ripped the paper, dumping the tobacco into his pipe.

     "The hypocrisy is truly astounding." I was dry with my comment, and then huffy as he flicked his lighter. A little too huffy.

     Jin lifted one arm so his pipe was up in the air above us, and the smoke lifted with it. In order to stop me from getting too close he simply...- he just covered my whole damn face with his hand.

     "Sorry Egg. It doesn't count in a pipe." Was the response he went with, and it had us bickering the entire way back to the house.

     A few days after that incident, Yoongi convinced Jin to go to a casino (so they could drink and smoke, "in a natural environment") and they did Not come home winners that evening. A final straw of sorts.

     It was that same night that Yoongs and I were "banished" to the porch at home (because we would argue so much) and "grounded" to sleeping on the living room couch. I wasn't allowed to be alone with Jungkook, and Yoongi wasn't allowed to be alone period (if we weren't at work).

    

     We were going into the second week of this arrangement at this point.

     With Jimin and Tae's absence, Jungkook flicked his lip rings with his tongue and got antsy. The second time we glanced at each other, almost broke us both. We'd spent years sleeping together most nights and the smidge of distance was excruciating. And we almost got bold enough to go for it, but Hobi pinched him on the back of the arm and gave a stern waggle of his finger at me - tugging JK out of sight. Namjoon looked a bit confused at being the last one left. He didn't say anything as he looked around in a stoned daze. Just gave us a small wave and dimpled smile, then stepped back inside.

     "Your puppy's upset," Yoongi snorted once we were alone, "Wait fuck that, hang on, why were you so against the lollipop method anyways?".

     The question hung in the air while I stared at my hands. Because in truth, I wasn't against it at all. My compulsive habit of biting at the skin around my fingers just replaced smoking. Like going back to a default setting. It happened every time I (tried to) quit.

      "Didja know they call it wolf biting sometimes because wolves will bite themselves when they're frustrated?" I hadn't responded to Yoongi out-loud and realized he was talking to my hands. Reflexively scrunching them underneath my thighs as he spoke.

     "Maybe wolves are obsessive-compulsive too." Got a smile and exhaled laugh out of him.

     "Do they hurt?" Got a grimace out of me.

     I swirled my tongue and covered it with sour apple.

     "Sure. When they bleed and stuff. I mean, I dunno, skin is definitely supposed to be there." I tuned myself out as I talked, anticipating one of the typical responses.

     "Lemme see." It was murmured low and in a gentle tone, but it definitely wasn't a question. Nor was it a typical response.

C-r-u-n-c-h.

     Sweet shards crushed between my teeth until the stick was clamped between them. I waited for an answer that wasn't "okay" to come to mind while he propped an elbow up on the arm of the couch. Resting his head on his hand with a patient smile.

     I marveled at his handsomeness initially, but my stubbornness flared when I realized that he already knew exactly what I was gonna do. And that he was waiting for me to stop denying it.

     The paper around the lollipop stick was getting soft to bite so I reached up a hand absentmindedly, to pull it out of my mouth.

     I personally believed that Yoongi played down how incredible his reflexes actually were at all times. And that he kept a certain level of speed and strength on reserve for when he really wanted to use it.

     Because I didn't even see him reach out to grab my arm.

     Shock may have been the reason for it, but when he opened his other hand toward me, I placed my free one in it without question. A smile tugged on the left side of his mouth.

     The "good girl" he murmured tried to send me over the edge completely, but the co-occurring inspection of my hands was keeping me rigidly in place. Frozen, with cheeks burning hot enough to steam.

     His fingers were long enough, and palms wide enough that he could cradle a hand in one of his own to look at the damage I'd done. Looking closely at each finger with a focused pout and knitted eyebrows.

     "Aren't you gonna tell me it's a gross and really terrible habit that I should quit?" It was making it difficult to breathe. To have him hold them so carefully.

     Sniffing in a sharp inhale, Yoongi set my hands in my lap with a squeeze.

     "Why? Are you doing it on purpose? Be right back." Was all he said before slipping behind the front door.

     I sat in a stunned silence until Yoongi returned with a lunchbox and bewildered Jungkook.

     The "wtf" looks we shot at each other went unanswered, and Jungkook let himself be (gently) pushed onto the couch next to me before Yoongi crouched down in front of us.

     "Hands." Was all that came out in his deep, calm voice.

     The tips of Jungkook's ears turned red and so did the tops of my cheeks. But we both put our hands on our knees obediently. Trying not to fidget as Yoongi flicked open the latch to the lunchbox, muttering to himself.

     It looked like it had been his since, at least 1998. The paint had worn down to reveal the shiny metal underneath but it'd been covered with stickers to hide most of it. I craned my neck to take a peek inside, seeing bits and pieces of what looked like a First-Aid kit and a shit load of Band-Aids.

     With an expression too serious for the words that were said, "Do you want characters or other?" was directed at JK and I.

     "Uhhh," Jungkook looked at me like I knew the answer, "Characters?" He sounded unsure.

     Yoongi had adopted the persona of an exhausted elementary school nurse. Tucking his chin to rifle through his collection, "Animals or superheroes?" he sighed.

     Jungkook chose superheroes.

Without looking at him, Yoongi began peeling open the packaging and carefully wrapped each of Jungkook's fingertips with a variety of Marvel themed Band-Aids. I don't think he'd own up to it but, I watched him realize that two of the same would be too close together. And how he shuffled back through the pile to find another one to take its place.

     Once Jungkook was done, Yoongi gave him a slight shove.

     "Beat it. You're not supposed to be around HER and especially not with ME." His voice was gruff but warm.

     Jungkook panicked. A small and frustrated whine came out of him as he whipped his head to look at me and then Yoongi. Trying to decide if we'd really get in trouble or if Yoongs was only fucking with him.

     "Love you." Flew out of his mouth and a kiss was pressed to my forehead before he scurried back inside to avoid getting caught.

     Yoongi sat down in his place and with an expectant look, pulled one of my hands to rest on his thigh.

     "You know, Jin's knocked out with that cold. The trouble twins are gone. Joon's probably stoned in his room and Hobes likely thinks that JK is still right where he left him. So you made him leave becaaauuusee..." And okay yeah, maybe I knew why he did but, being alone with Yoongi brought out an inner gremlin. One that acted independently, apparently.

     The stare I got back in return was anticipated but still maddening. One hand hovered over the lunchbox but the other held my own on his leg with a stable pressure. I dunno why I always got so insistent, about trying to make him lose his cool. Well, probably because he made me lose mine with an impossible and infuriating ease.

Fuck that, I'll out-"knowingly" stare at him back then, I thought.

     I caved in less than 10 seconds.

     And sulked out, "cute ones", while he quietly laughed at my defeat.

     As he wrapped a tiara'd Dalmatian puppy around my index finger, "It wouldn't be nice to make him watch this.", was grumbled out in a way that tickled my ear.

He was right.

     I squirmed on the couch, both appreciating the attentive work he was doing and trying to escape the pressure building in my chest.

     A small glimpse up at me, and then - "Do people really tell you it's gross?" was said with such concern, that I nearly flung myself off the front porch.

    

     Instead of doing that, and with incredible self-restraint, I contemplated the amount of honesty needed in my answer. Yeah, all the fuckin' time? Or maybe that was too aggressive. Yeah, a lot. Ok maybe that would be too abrupt? Is being abrupt bad? I dunno, isn't it gross? I thought people thought it was?

     The hand Yoongi wasn't working on floated up to my mouth habitually, but when I bit down - the wincing "ah", didn't come from me.

     Because Yoongi had stuck his finger in my mouth as a replacement.

     And I gotta tell ya, it was a weird way to realize something about myself.

Luckily, Yoongi and I were known for our emotional communication skills.

     Unluckily, we were not known for those skills being good.

     "You're like a baby shark. Haven't developed the ability to think thoughts yet." Yoongi smirked with a click of his tongue.

     Dumbass, I thought, don't insult someone while your finger's in their mouth.

     He realized his mistake as I bit down a bit harder. A pink glow flushed his face and a rush of excitement relieved the pressure I'd been struggling to breathe through.

     In an effort to look unbothered, Yoongi rummaged in the lunchbox with his free hand. But left the other between my teeth.

     A lick flicked against his fingertip, and there was a stutter in his movements.

Hmm.

     Fuck it.

     With the encouragement of my tongue, his finger slipped further inside my mouth - lips closed around it. It was, a practice of sorts. Reminiscent of another kind of oral activity, I dunno, maybe you'll know what I'm talking about.

     Not getting lost in it took concentrated intention though and at first, Yoongi's lack of response and complete silence helped provide that.

      At least, until I heard his breathing get heavier, and watched him bite his lip as he pushed another finger in. One that I accepted way too eagerly.

     The shuddering "hah" that he let out after I licked between the two gave an adrenaline rush. I grabbed ahold of his wrist with both hands.

     He let me get into the moment, until the pleasure I was feeling took audible form. Then he wrapped my hair around his other hand once before giving it a firm tug back.

     I should've been more embarrassed, that what I'd done had made me salivate that much, but the barely restrained want in his dark eyes erased it.

     "Yeah, people say it's gross." A small bubble of spit inflated and burst at the word, 'people'. I didn't try to wipe it away like I did before. Yoongi licked his lips before biting the bottom one, transfixed on the wetness of my own.

     With a sudden yank of my other hand, Yoongi redirected his focus and scoffed, "You are such an ass." under his breath.

     I wish I hated how proud of myself I felt.

     "We're two for two there Yoongs." I sighed.

And then it was quiet for a moment, Yoongi shoved the empty packaging into the front pocket of his hoodie and it made little crinkly noises as he worked. Once my other hand was done, Yoongi held it for a second and we looked at each other.

     "Thank...you..." I struggled to get the words out, voice soft and tapering off into nearly non-existence.

     One heartbeat.

     "Eh," Yoongi shrugged, "It isn't gross."

     One motion.

     My hand was dropped and another shot out to wrap around my throat. Squeezing just enough to make me go limp but still able to hear him.

     In a calm, nurturing voice he whispered - "I'll fix them up anytime you need. But don't fuck with me like that again princess.".

     At first, part of me wanted to nod along in hopes of praise. But what he'd said during his first show, that he "imagined me giving orders". That I was a "fake princess" - came back to me.

     I straddled his lap with a hand around his neck on impulse and couldn't swallow the pride needed to back down. In a teasing hiss, I whispered into an ear - "Excuse me, sir, and thank you for the help. But I'll fuck with you whenever I feel like it.".

     Yoongi had never looked that bashful in the entire time I'd known him and I would've gloated about it if he hadn't rolled us over so that he was on top of me.

      "Wahh Yoongs! You're fuckin' it up!" I spluttered into my hair as he smoothed it down over my face. My legs were trapped between his own. The width of his shoulders caged my upper body against the couch.

Fake a knee to the nuts.

     A tiny bit of room.

Both of my arms shot out to tousle his hair too.

     "Yaahhh! Cut it out!" Was whined out at me in a voice that made me giggle.

     We realized that we both had ticklish sides at the same moment. Our offensive stance of messing up hair paused and we huffed at each other. Trying hopelessly to hide what was going through our minds.

     Simultaneously, jabbing hands reached for sensitive places and turned offense into a reflex-dependent defense.

     Yoongi took advantage of his position, bringing one knee up along the side of my thigh onto the couch and sitting down on my lap - trapping me and one of my key weapons (a hand) underneath him. My fingers strained to smack at his (surprising) bubble butt, but succeeded only at kind of tapping against it.

     No reaction.

     And once my other wrist was pinned down against the couch, Yoongi relentlessly went after my sides with his free one. I was laughing so hard my inhales sounded like a donkey braying and the guffaws came out in shrieks. "Overall Winner: Yoongi" smiled down at me and sarcastic little comments like, "ooh, she's quick!" were chuckled out as he continued.

     After an unexpectedly loud yell, an ominous "heeheeheeheeheeheehee" (Jin's windshield wiper laugh: witch mode) drifted up from the ground beneath us.

     I was released instantaneously with a baffled "what the hell" from Yoongs. The disembodied voice had gone back to radio silence, and we scrambled around the front porch - searching for any place Jin could be hiding.

     "Aight man what the hell, if you're out here then that shit's just -"

     "HEY! Stob it!" Jin's stuffy nosed voice rang out clear as a bell. It was coming from the couch.

     We flung off the cushions before laying flat on the ground, blindly swinging our arms with a string of "ew, ew, ew, ew, ew"'s. My fingers grazed something plastic and I pulled out my cobweb and dirt covered arm triumphant.

     It was a fuckin' baby monitor.

     "Remember that line Jin? When we first lived together? And how it was always super sick that we NEVER CROSSED IT?" Yoongi snatched the monitor away to unleash his righteous frustration.

     He paced as he ranted while I fiddled with the Band-Aids wrapped around my fingers. Adding on, "House members consenting to such HARSH BANISHMENT should be AWARE of their PRIVACY being INFRINGED UPON!" .  

     Jungkook's voice came through next, "Guys seriously. Jin's sick, stop it." - and I bet all of my belongings that there was a shit-eating grin on his face as he said it.

     "Yeahhh you know? Even though I'm dying I still risk my looks to watch out for you two! So stob it!" Jin and JK were both starting to giggle.

     In unison, "S-T-O-P!....I-T!!" rattled through the baby monitor before the other two dissolved into a fit of laughter.

Click.

     Yoongi slid the power button off. Snapped the back piece of the monitor to separate it and removed the batteries. I stared at him, amused.

     "I think just turning it off would've sufficed?".

     "You dunno Nin that well yet then." Yoongi huffed. Slipping the batteries into his jeans front pocket and the monitor in his lunchbox, he finished by stuffing the Band-Aid wrappers from his hoodie on top of it. It clanged as it shut.

     Going against all natural instincts, I didn't argue. And reached into the bag of lollipops instead, fishing for the perfect flavor. A distant and elongated "YAH" was hollered out from upstairs, it seemed Jin had realized we were no longer listening.

     I looked over to Yoongi, the apparent holder of all Jin knowledge.

     "We've gotta 'bout a minute forty-five until he's here," His eyes went to the bag my hand was in, "Gimme my favorite one.".

     He didn't have to tell me what it was.

     Twirling the blue raspberry and green apple sticks in my hand, I knew it was childish but I hmph'd it out anyways - "How come you always get your favorite.".

     Yoongi hesitated before taking the candy from me, something we knew but couldn't say behind his eyes.

     Then he plucked the lollipop between two fingers and shoved its wrapper in the pocket he'd just emptied.

     "Don't you know?" He grinned and plopped back onto the couch, "I've been a Such a good boy.".

[kestgrey]

Odell Beckham Jr. + inspiration behind the character, Adonis, who appears in my MXM erotic short story called, "Scene Study". You can check it out and read here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CNHFN8QC I HIGHLY recommend this one!!

Plot: Meet Kyrie, an aspiring and burgeoning actor who's still fairly new in his theatre class. He's tasked with participating in an important two person scene project. It sounds simple enough, except he's paired with Adonis, a veteran in the class. Not to mention, he's the popular, alluring titan who all the girls clamor for. This not only sets some expectations, but also a wave of anxiety considering...their practice will be taking place in Adonis's home. Kyrie initially feels like practice is going well, but is suddenly deviated. Is it a possibility that something other than the scene work linger above both men?

Snippet below ⬇️

“…Beautiful,” Adonis responded, but did so in a low voice as his eyes remained on the video.

Kyrie squinted his eyes some as he noticed his scene partner not immediately meeting his attention, rather instead, engrossed in the phone. He couldn’t hear what was said, “Huh?”.

“Oh, my bad, yeah it’s really good forreal,” Adonis finally added upon snapping out if it, now meeting the look of Kyrie. “Come take a look at it,” he suggested as he waved him over.

Kyrie produced a small smile, internally happy to hear that. He casually strolled over, now sharing the same area as him. The thick index finger belonging to Adonis tapped on the screen and regressed the video player to the very beginning. Kyrie’s performance began to play, volume resonating through the speaker. Adonis stood close to him, watching again as if he hadn’t seen it from the start. As each second passed, the smile that had cultivated on Kyrie’s lips expanded. He was truly even impressed with what he was seeing, to the point where he was shocked. In class this wasn’t something he could achieve as easily; he was still learning. It seemed perhaps that the current environment he was in provided some level of comfortability that he did not expect.

“Wow, that’s actually me?” he said, adding a little chuckle to go with that smile.

“Hell yeah that’s you, you killed it,” Adonis affirmed, nudging the other. “It’s always been in you, Ms. Rey be a lil off sometimes,” he teased.

“Haha not you said she’s off, well thank you for that. I’m trying to work on it in class, but for some reason, you pulled it right out of me,” Kyrie vocalized his appreciation at the compliment.

“No problem at all,” Adonis simply responded. There was another pause hanging over the both of them, with him still looking at the video nearing its ending.

Kyrie did the opposite and suddenly turned his gaze to the other. He found himself getting caught up in his countenance. There was a question that he felt forming inside, inching its way to make an escape from his mouth. “Can I ask you something though? What made you want to help me with this?” he inquired.

Adonis finally dispelled his stare from the camera, meeting Kyrie’s look. “Well- “, a genuine smile constructed on his face before he continued. “To be honest, I had it on my mind since we got partnered up. I knew you were gonna be a good one ever since you stepped foot in our class. But based off how you carried yourself, I knew you weren’t aware of it just yet. I want all of us to win, especially you. Kyrie ya got some pure talent” he admitted.

Kyrie couldn’t help but widen the eyes on his expression. He couldn’t have predicted a confession like that, especially coming from Adonis. He was always under the impression that their connection was more surface compared to others. “W-Wow…I really can’t even fully come up with anything to say. Thank you. I had no idea that you were paying attention like that,” Kyrie answered, doing his best to speak through bewildered words.

“Yeah, I was. Like I said, I feel like all of us need to win and I couldn’t help but pick up on what you can really do. I was gonna make some way for you to see it. I wasn’t shocked that the camera loved you,” before continuing Adonis tailed his final statement with a lower register in his tone. “…You’re amazing,” he lowly spoke. The man amplified the smile he created, now emphasizing the shared glances between them. He unintentionally forced another standstill in the air to appear between them also.

Kyrie remained there as well, surveying the lightened, brown color that embedded Adonis’s skin. He never denied how attractive he thought he was, but due to the judgements he had already made, he never really thought about him in any other way besides someone to hang out with in the group.

“Um, wow. Well again I- “the words Kyrie desperately tried to muster up were completely halted by another shocking gesture, he seemed to be ridden with them quite a bit today.  

Adonis was the culprit who stopped his speech. There was something in the stout man that possessed him to reach down and plant a kiss on Kyrie’s lips. While genuine, it seemed to be chaste in nature. Adonis slightly pulled back, only inches away from Kyrie’s. It seemed like he did so in order to test the waters. When it was planted on the anxiety ridden guy, it spearheaded a warmth through his entire body. Despite Kyrie being surprised, it was a more on the pleasant side of the spectrum. His eyes trailed from Adonis’s pupils down to his lips.

Kyrie naturally felt some hesitation forming, however, there was something internally that had him combating it. This was rare in nature for him, but he took on an impetuous disposition and launched forward, returning a kiss of his own. Both men seemed to intuitively know how to operate as the kiss turned more passionate this time around. Adonis was able to seamlessly fall into it with him. Both of their lips now intertwined with each other more. Adonis was certainly pleased at the other’s follow through, considering he initiated it. It had been something he wanted to start from the moment his scene partner walked through the door. Now the fervor embedded in him now could be physically expressed. As they were both siphoning a taste of each other’s lips, Adonis instinctively reached down and grabbed at Kyrie’s lower back. It led to him utilizing his usual dominant nature and he proceeded with pushing him closer, now colliding their bodies into each other.

[supernovaa-remnant]

Hugs you gently!

Your words inspired me for today and the upcoming Monday, haha. To leave is an option, to stay is an option too. Appreciate characters more than cc is an option. Good point to thinking about.

Like... Thank you and other who sounds rational and wise at this hours. God bless you ✨

🫂 I'm so so happy my words could help <3

I understand that people are having a plethora of different reactions right now. I remember back in oct '22, I was so incredibly distraught, but those on my dash who were level headed made it so much easier for me. As it is, I'm happy to be that person, now, for those who need it.

There's a lot of possible ways to continue. You can leave now regardless of what happens, or you can stay and wait. You can leave after hearing everything regardless of what the outcome is, or you can choose to stay in some capacity. At the end of the day, it comes down to your own comfort levels and what will be best for you. You can take a break and come back. Also, it's not like you have to make a permanent decision. If you change your mind and decide to come back later or leave later, it's still your choice. This is fandom, not some life altering decision, y'know?

Admittedly, that's probably easier for me to grasp because, upon changing majors, I realized how much just isn't set in stone and, ultimately, things will be okay even if it's not what you imagined.

Also, you don't owe people explanations. You can give them if you want, of course. But if you decide to leave or stay, don't feel like you need to make some big post about it explaining every part of your thought process.

I'm still not sure what I'll do moving forward, and that's okay. For now, I'm here, and if any of you ever need anything, my dms and asks are open <3 if you wanna talk about this, great! we can do that. if you want a distraction? I can give you fun space facts, or I can recommend a game or a show or a book.

[petruchio]

i was lowkey tumblr stalking asks you’ve answered before (i apologize i just love how in depth u answer) and now i wanna know your tierlist (A/B/C/D/F) for the songs on GUTS. include deluxe pls bc imo the deluxe tracks are better than many main album tracks hehe

well first off you can ALWAYS stalk me and never apologize for it, i love answering stuff and i love that people actually read it HAHA! so please <3 stalk away <3 i love it

i LOVE this question. i was going to make one of those images like the youtubers do for tier lists but then i realized i would have to explain myself anyway so im just going to give each song a letter grade and a little blurb about why i think this... so here goes 🤓

i actually have to put this under a cut because it got so long that i am not going to clog up people's dash with my long and way too detailed thoughts on GUTS but please read this if it is of interest bc i would love to continue discussing haha

so first i'm going to say to me overall guts is like a solid A-/A for a sophomore album. i don't think it's perfect but i think as far as showing growth from the first album, expanding on themes and sounds that were explored in sour, and just maturing while still feeling like a natural progression -- i think it does all of that really nicely while also managing to carve out a unique niche for olivia in the industry. so like. YES! great. (i have been saying that while i see olivia compared to taylor swift a lot, i think it's actually a much better comparison to compare her to avril lavigne in the early 2000s -- avril was originally "discovered" via performing with shania twain (which in some ways we could argue for being a taylor/olivia situation but in the 90s) and a lot of her early work and songwriting is influenced by the country music scene, but, just like olivia, her first album smashed onto the scene and captured the teenage zeitgeist in a really unique and special that was really of the moment it was released and dug into rock inspired hooks and sounds that resonated with the audience of young teens. if "driver's license" is olivia's "complicated," i think we can easily argue that "good 4 u" is her sk8r boi. (and deja vu is her i'm with you, the best single and best song in both of their discographies I SAID WHAT I SAID!) anyway all that is to say i think that GUTS and under my skin ALSO share a lot of parallels both in how they were marketed and the way they dive deeper into darker themes while expanding on a lot of what made the first album great, if perhaps not spawning the level of radio hits as the first album. anyway it's just something i think about that i don't see talked about all that much and i find it really interesting. i could keep going but i know that was an insane digression so let's get to the grades.)

all american bitch - B+ i think this song is a great opener and it has some really great lines in it -- the sarcasm makes it so fun and tongue in cheek and i actually like the scream, my reason for not being able to give it an A is just that i do feel like it's very much "putting on a persona" of being a rock punk chick, which is absolutely cool and is extremely well done, it just doesn't feel 100% authentic to me. like, i like the scream but it feels more like an acting performance than a genuine scream of anguish, but olivia is such an appealing actress that i'm like, yeah girl go off

bad idea right? - A+ this is the deja vu of the album for me. it is SUCH A GOOD SONG and it has the best video by far of any of the singles, it's so clever and creative and i actually really love her vocal delivery, it's bratty and obnoxious but for some reason it DOES feel authentic to me in a way AAB doesn't, i think it takes its influences and manages to reinterpret and transform them into something totally unique and personal to olivia and it's just GREAT. (i think a great example of how good this song is is honestly the kelly clarkson cover she did, it was a really fun cover but you could just tell that olivia's version works better, it's a song that feels like it could only be done by her and i love it for that.)

vampire - B i actually thought i'd rate this lower bc it is my least favorite song on the album but like, okay it's FINE. my issue with vampire is that 1) it feels like the label said "write another ballad that sounds like drivers license and we'll use that as the lead single" which i don't like, and 2) i've written before that my main issue with vampire is that it DOES NOT COMMIT to the genuinely cool metaphor that it attempts. i actually love the line "you only come out at night" because i think it's really clever and creative to extend the "sucking me dry" metaphor of a vampire. i think following that up with "i used to think i was smart but you made me look so naive" is such a let down and so cliche that it annoys me every time i hear the song. like, if the song instead was like "i should have known it was strange, you only come out at night/you said i tasted so sweet til nothing was left in my veins" or something i would think it was a great song. but instead we get that clunky cliche of a line and it irritates me. the song has potential but it just doesn't deliver.

lacy - A- (tw: ed) so i think that this song is about struggling with an ed and i think it is really amazing if you read it through that lens. i don't even really want to say that much more about it because when i saw someone say that on twitter and i listened to the song thinking about that, it hit me really hard and i think it's brilliantly done but it's intense. i think olivia said that it came out of a poem she wrote and i think that lacy is the personification of that really personal struggle and i think it's a beautiful and deeply sad metaphor and the song actually does it really well. i also really love her vocal delivery on the recording and i think it's beautifully produced, the layered vocals at the end are really gorgeous.

ballad of a homeschooled girl - A- honestly i have the same comments as i do about all american bitch except i just think this song is slightly better and feels a little more authentic. i think the lyrics on this one are really clever as well and i love the little production quirks like "how to flirt" and the outro is SO FUN and i love the sort of fourth wall break of "can't think of a third line" and the la la la that just kind of smashes into the end of the song, i think it works so well with the concept of the song so yeah. great.

making the bed - B+ this is a song where i'm like, there's nothing WRONG with it i just don't think it's particularly special, like it's a good song and it has some really great lyrics i just think it's a decent song that accomplishes exactly what it sets out to do. it's good. no real notes. my favorite lyric is "they tell me that they love me like i'm some tourist attraction" -- i love when the pop girls talk about the complexities of fame, and olivia seems strikingly self aware in a lot of her lyrics and that one is really a hard hitter. (it reminds me of billie's getting older song, "the things i once enjoyed just keep me employed now" and "another thing i ruined i used to do for fun" which are both lines that i feel like really do a nice job of exploring how it feels when your art and artistic expression becomes a job and a persona. i think billie and olivia are doing so much cool stuff and they both just seem like such cool and interesting girls. they just give the vibe that it would be so fun to get dinner with them and talk about their experience of teenage fame because they both seem to have some really interesting and complex insights about it.)

logical - B- tbh this song is kinda boring to me. it's fine but i just think it's a theme that is explored better in other songs. the one line i really like is "if rain don't pour and sun don't shine" because i like to imagine that it's a reference to taming of the shrew act iv scene v.

get him back! - A+ SO GOOD COME ON GET HIM BACK IS SO GOOD AHHHHHH i get mad thinking about the music video bc the iphone lens makes it so weird and i think this could've had an even better video without the iphone gimmick but holy cow this song is so good. it's so clever, it's so fun, it ROCKS. (though this is the point on the album where i start to get annoyed by all the production quirks, i think they are fun on a couple songs but we don't need the "is this the song with drums" thing, just play the song. there's only so much studio chatter that makes a song fun before it gets a little grating to listen to every time i want to play the song.) but this is a brilliant song. I WANNA MEET HIS MOM AND TELL HER HER SON SUCKS. has anyone ever more perfectly captured how it feels to be nineteen. ugh this song is so good.

love is embarrassing - A i actually really like this song and i think it's a really nice spiritual closer to sour. it does such a nice job of reflecting but in a funny, tongue-in-cheek, self aware way that i think is so appealing and cute. i love "you found a new version of me and i damn near started world war three" as a callback to "another actress i hate to think that i was just your type" and i LOOOVE the outro with "i'm planning out my wedding with some guy i'm never marrying" which i think is a fantastic line. i love the vocal delivery on the outro as well. (also this is an example for me of a song with no studio chatter or production gimmicks, and it's GOOD bc it's like, it doesn't need that! it's just a fun song! and i like it for that!!)

the grudge - A- honestly a beautiful song that captures a very specific feeling. i love the melody and the way she delivers "how could anybody do the things you did so easily?" the second verse is an absolute gut punch of what it feels like to come away from a toxic love. it has a couple clunkers (i'm not a fan of "trust that you betrayed, confusion that still lingers" which i think is just a bit awkward) but overall it's a lovely song and so raw.

pretty isn't pretty - A again just a really solid work. i love the guitar sound on it. and i think it does a really nice job of capturing another specific teenage emotion. one thing i love on GUTS is that it feels legitimately balanced between songs about heartbreak and songs about personal feelings and this song is one that i think does that second part very well. i really love the second prechorus line "it's in my phone it's in my head it's in the boys i bring to bed" and i think this song is really insightful and personal.

teenage dream - B my issue with this song is my same issue with hope ur ok which is that it just feels so aware of itself as AN ALBUM CLOSER and i find it a bit cloying. i think the theme is interesting and has potential but the song just annoys me because it feels kind of overdone. idk. i just don't love it. i get it and i get why it's there but i think there was a better way of closing the album in a more genuine way.

BONUS TRACKS RANKING LINK (i have to link a new post here since i hit the character limit on this post. geez lol)

[humanpurposes]

how did your passion for writing come about? Do you write just for pleasure or also for work? Cause you're incredibly talented and i assume, since you have a degree in politics and International relations, that you worked in journalism. probably it's just an assumption but it's a work that may fit you, i believe :)

Hi :) This is such a lovely ask, thanks for sending it!

I've been interested in writing for a long time, it's something my mum really encouraged when I was a little kid and she'd buy me blank notebooks to make my own stories. When I was in school I started to think that maybe I was good at creative writing because it was one of the few things I got good marks in without really thinking about it. And I was definitely more confident writing essays in humanities subjects over maths or science.

I've only really come into my own as a writer since I started writing fanfiction. When I was a teenager I'd have all these characters and ideas in my head, or ideas for fanfics of movies I loved, but I was never able to get the ball rolling. I'd write a few lines of dialogue then give up. Whatever it was about House of the Dragon (Ewan Mitchell in the long blond wig) just clicked for me. I started writing my first fic in November 2022 which I ended up ditching because I didn't like where the plot was going and also because I started working on Karma is a God, and decided to focus on that instead as my 'main series'.

Sadly, I'm not a professional writer (yet) but I really want to turn it into a career! It's funny, I started uni thinking I was going to go into politics or the civil service, but then in my second year I was like "actually I hate the sound of that. I want to be a ✨creative✨". It’s kinda crazy to me how much indulging a hobby completely shifted my career goals and even the way I view myself. I've always been into books, films and theatre, but now it's a whole different level. I feel so much more eager to absorb all the information and inspiration I can, and I feel so motivated seeing other people pursue what they love.

I've not done anything too interesting with my degree haha, a few internships and freelance jobs in social media and marketing. Since graduating, I've mostly been working in retail and attempting to work towards a career in acting. Acting and writing are my true loves and I figured I might as well embrace the uncertainty and the lack of job security while I'm in my early 20s and just go for it? If I don't make any money from creative endeavours I feel like there is so much I could do, writing in some form, marketing, anything in theatre or around the industry would be cool. I could see myself doing a Masters in History or Journalism actually, funny you should mention that.

At the moment, the goal is just to work. Be in plays. Be in a period drama. Write a short film. Write a fantasy series. And some kind of emotionally devastating magnum opus novel.

I've talked SO MUCH about myself, sorry 😭 But this was a really cute ask to get on a Sunday night! Hope you have a lovely week anon ❤️

[osatokun]

Hello!

This is going to be a bit spontaneous, but I really love your OCs and art. Your passion for their stories is contagious, and your art gives really magical vibe (also you draw backgrounds. That's like extra level of awesomeness to your already awesome work). You're a huge inspiration of mine and I wanted to let you know that and thank you for your incredible work 💕💕💕

And after your post about some other characters you played I became curious about man with some sort of spiritual owl and bug on him :]

As far as I understand, his name is Juhani. I thought you might want to share some information about him? Maybe in form of answer to "⚽ Soccer Ball" from the ask game :D

Have a nice day!

Hello! Thank you very much! Charlie is the most important OC I ever had, his story is the thing that unironically helps me to survive on daily basis. To process a lot of feelings, to escape horrible reality, to think of myself better (because he totally have better esteem than I), to make my life a bit better and have hope for better future. So I'm always happy to know people likes how I picture his story, and it even inspires them, thank you <3

Juhani (Jussi) Hyljenen is a Ravnos vampire, embraced somewhere in 1975th. He is a grumpy, very shy and introverted IT guy, with the spiritus powers. The spider is a Weaver spirit who is both his teacher and provider of the connection with the spirit world. He is able to talk to tech, by hearing and internally "playing" the music (that is the voice the spirits inside). For example, to talk to the pc or a tv he starts from playing on noise on the monitor as it was strings. Of course no one but him can see it that way. Not sure I described it good and it sounds understandable haha For him and his sire embracing was a good contracted work. When he was a human his sight kept on going down and nothing helped. Rosemary (his sir) offered him to become her ghoul so he'll keep his eyes and in return help her to adapt in a changing world. She herself was a total 0 in a modern stuff. Later on she embraced him and showed him the world of spirits and occult magic. However she died in the Week of Nightmares in 99s, diablerised by unknown vampire. Jussi was safe, staked and hidden. The chronicle he was in took place in 2001 in Poland. He was still mourning his sire, the only one he was close to, he even slept in her fur coats. During the game he helped a fae creature, who led him and the coterie to the land of the old Tzimisce , who harmed the land with new and weird rituals. They were followed by a Ravnos who everyone but Juhani treated by foe. He said that Rose's soul survived diablerie and there is a chance that she won the body of her killer. So Juhani kept helping him during the game, secretly. In the end, Juhani talked local spirits (?)/ fae creatures to help them reach the final destination and they asked to free their sister in return. Turned out that the old Tzimisce kept a changeling in his prison (and a couple or weird vampires, I don't really remember them haha). The changeling lady could be freed only if someone take place of a fairytale prince and lead her to Arcadia (and probably never return to our world). So Juhani take the place of the prince. In the very end, when the coterie and that one Ravnos run through changeling plane of umbra to escape the Tzimisce's castle, the Ravnos asked Juhani if he wants to know who killed his sire. And Juhani finally gave up to his hopes to return the past and denied the offer. He never learned that his sire's soul really won the body of her killer and she was always there. She was that one Ravnos.

Now Juhani exists somewhere in Arcadia (I hope) with his changeling wife. It was different storyteller, but I always end up with changelings haha

Juhani's abilities and appearance is heavily based on the character from Charlie's chronicle, Johnathan. However his IT powers comes from tremere path.

and Rose's character and appearance was based on Ellie, ravnos witch that Charlie met during the chronicle

[harddrive-softcore]

So for now the idea is that there has to be a stage on which I can bring a car and also in the best case a stage I can drive around on. audience should be seated around if possible, not frontal. it would still be cooler to have a stage than to do it outside due to light and sound, but like, doing it in a garage (like the place I went to change my tires a few weeks ago) could be a good alternative. there should be at least three performers, for now I haven't thought about the gender but I think it could be nice to have different genders, but have them all present as female and male in different scenes, to highlight the lense through which we always analyze movement and bodies. so there could be for example a scene where all three performers are moving and acting female, even though maybe one or two do not identify as female, same thing about acting male in other scenes, and it would be so fun to create a scene where gender is not important at all, but haha this is something I am working on in real life and it early ever works tbh. anyway, the costumes should be kind of functional working clothes but more inspired by work-out clothes, highlighting different body parts for aesthetic reasons while pretending to be the best thing to wear for the job. the body should become a bit of a product like it does in workout clothes. also I want them to look a bit brutal, maybe some metal rings somewhere or fake fur/fake leather/reflective stripes/ motor oil stains. and of course there have to be the statements, on the back or in the front of the clothes, they could say something like " I get turned on by danger" or "focus on me" or "I kill everything I fuck", but also softer things like "I want to be beautiful" or "too hot, too greedy". I am not sure if I can decide for three slogans only, maybe the dancers will have to switch shirts between scenes, maybe that makes sense on a storytelling level too at some point. So far there is not really a story, except that I am thinking of the piece as an all female car club, maybe even lesbian car club, but I want to focus on the gender stereotypes and not so much on lesbian communities (even though of course these topics are connected at some point). Because it will be about cars, signifying the body/extended body (analogy, e.g. of motor and digestion), symbolizing some kind of past reality where cars were not yet demonized. Cars as a symbol for gender stereotypes because a man with a car is wealthy and a woman with a car is sexy, because men know how to fix cars, women don't. so yeah an all female car club, the women are a bit aggressive at times, they belittle men who don't know how to fix their own cars and who can't park and who look like shit or never clean their cars. Also cars as a symbol of DESIRE (you can go anywhere, freedom, almost cowgirl epic), VIOLENCE (you can run people over with your car, status symbols and car races and all these things I mentioned about "men and cars") and PLEASURE (car as a symbol of wealth and car fairs with sexy girls etc). when it comes to desire especially the car is for me a bridge between the touchable and the untouchable, it signifies longings and stores memories, like a hard drive (hehe). So this could be the link to the digital media, cd players, headphones, iPods. there will be singing on stage and w3hat I also love about the headphones is that they instantly create a private space, turning the audience into observers of a scene that naturally only includes the person wearing the headphones. to be as specific as possible right now I think there will be a scene where everyone dances to wuthering hights around the car, I am now seeing it as some kind of "girlhood" scene, so quite pure and joyful and not sexualized, but I have no idea where in the piece it will be and how all the other ideas will materialize. I once tried something about behaving like a video game character, maybe that will happen too. I mean I guess I have enough of an outline now, it is time to get to work!!!!

[hmel78]

In conversation with Long Distance Calling ...

Very occasionally I come across a record that really stops me in my tracks. “TRIPS”, from Munster based “post rockers” ‘LONG DISTANCE CALLING’ [released April 29th], did just that. Appropriately titled - “TRIPS” - the bands 5th studio album, takes you on a journey through a soundscape of rock, pop, metal, alternative, and ... Prog!   Along the way, the band themselves saw a change of line-up (the amicable departure of Martin Fischer, and the addition of Norwegian vocalist Petter Carlson), suffered the deaths of 5 grandparents, and experienced the birth of a child - so on a number of levels, this record pushed them out of their comfort zones ; but ... ... ... they’ve created something that is truly stunning. When presented with the opportunity to speak to Jan Hoffman (bass) and Florian Funtmann (guitar), I wasn’t going to refuse!

HR :  As a band,  ‘Long Distance Calling’ were once described as ‘living in their own bubble’ - before you entered the bubble, who  or what inspired you both to become musicians?

Jan Hoffman : Wow, that´s a tricky question J Well, I always had a very strong connection to music. Not as a musician in the first place, I started playing an instrument pretty late - about 17 I think - But I always had a strong emotional connection to music since I was a kid; it made me feel good or made me cry. I always felt a strong bond. I guess that´s what made me become a guy in a band, so I could create and share my own emotions through music. I guess my first love was Michael Jackson, haha. Later I started to dig Pink Floyd, Metallica, Tool etc. I don´t really care about style as long as it´s good and it´s able to set me on fire in some way.

Flo Funtmann : There are lots of different kinds of music which inspired me to become an artist and musician myself.  My first contact with music was Cat Stevens and Bob Marley, because my parents were listening to them and I really loved it. They were also listening to soul and 70s rock. When is was 9 I got my first record, as a present, which was AC/DC. From that day on I was totally in love with rock music. Soon after that I discovered Guns N Roses which was like an epiphany: “This is what I wanna do :-)”.  When I got older I started to listen to different kinds of rock music and began to step into the world of death metal while still listening to all the other stuff I liked before.  Nowadays I consider myself more as fan of good music in general than of a certain genre. Though I have to say my preference is still rock music.

HR : “TRIPS” is ‘Long Distance Calling’s 5th studio album, and it would actually seem that you burst the bubble, stepped outside of the box, pushed the envelope ...  Is it very different to your other albums? Was it as challenging to make, as it sounds? What did producer Vincent Sorg bring to the process?

FF : The whole process of writing, rehearsing and recording the album was very challenging but fun at the same time. For this record we knew we had to do something different than before. We knew we had to get out of our comfort zone and Vincent was the right guy to do the job.  He pushed us to try harder and to question every idea someone came up with. He pushed us to work harder on arrangements, grooves and melodies.  He also was like an observer sometimes because we had so many ideas for this album that we needed someone to separate good from bad and ok from awesome.

JH :  I don´t think it´s very different from the last album, ´cause we also had about half of the songs with vocals there and we had one vocal song on every album so far in the past. But I think it´s the most emotional and diverse album we have done so far. Like you said, we pushed the envelope and tried to leave our comfort zone, and we are really happy how it turned out.

HR : For anyone who might never have heard your music until now - what should they expect from listening to “TRIPS”? Is it true to say that they may never have heard anything quite like it before? If someone said “Oh you sound like ...” - Who would you feel most proud to be compared to?

JH : It´s hard to say from the band´s perspective but I really think we have created something unique. It´s a trip through different sounds and styles, all under the LDC umbrella. I could live with the term “Modern day Pink Floyd” probably.

FF : I always say we sound a bit like an modern and heavier version of ‘Pink Floyd’, who spent a day in the desert jamming with ‘Kyuss’ while listening to ‘the Cure’.   Actually it’s not easy to classify our music and especially “TRIPS” in one certain genre. Of course it is rock music. Maybe atmospheric rock. HR : What is your favourite track on the album? JH : Wow, that´s hard to say!  It changes from time to time (which is good I guess) but I reeeeally like “Rewind” and “Plans”. All in all, I´m really into all the songs on the album and I am proud of it.

FF : Yeah that’s a difficult question because at the moment I like all of them very much. I can say that I like “Getaway” a lot because it´s something we have never done before and I totally love 80s Action Movie soundtracks.  Beside that I really like “Plans” because it´s split in two different styles - The first half is very chilled and dark, while the second half is just simply stadium rock.

HR : Have you started to think about a 6th album? How far are you prepared to push the boundaries of your own creativity as a band? Do you think you have found a working formula that you are going to stick with for a while? Will you return to just instrumentals,  or will Petter Carlson remain as vocalist? 

JH :We are not really thinking about it yet J. We want to enjoy the new stuff now for a while and we never plan in advance, we just go with the flow. And we try to avoid formulas!  Regarding Petter: definitely maybe J

FF : That’s true - for us every album stands alone.  There is this whole cycle with writing, recording, waiting for the release and touring for every album. After this is finished we start to think about our next album. I know that on our next album there will again be something different from the previous ones because we like to experiment and try new things. Like you said to push the boundaries of our own creativity. You never know what will happen. And I love to do it like this!

HR : You’re heading out on tour soon. In the past you have toured with some big names, and played at some huge festivals - what has been the LIVE highlights of your careers so far?

JH : Yes, we can´t wait to finally hit the road again soon! We were really lucky with tour supports in the past, that´s right. There are many highlights but for me personally maybe the show at Rock am Ring and the shows with ‘Deftones’ and ‘Dredg’.

FF : There were lots of great things to remember. For me as a music fan it´s always nice to play shows with your idols and to find out that they are really nice guys. When we toured in Russia that was very nice and special as well, because I just thought: “holy shit – I am the guitar player in a band - like 50% of the people I know are as well and I get the chance to play in Moscow and St. Petersburg and there are actually people coming to see me/us perform on stage!” In general I love to travel the world and see places that I might had never seen without being in the band.  I´m very thankful that I have the chance to do what I do, and people are interested in what I do.

HR : There’s a recurrent theme throughout “TRIPS”, and that’s time travel. There’s a great lyric in the song  ‘Presence’ that says : “We all have our time machines don’t we? Those that take us back are memories, and those that carry us forward are dreams”.If time travel was ever invented, and you had the opportunity to explore -  where would you go first? JH : That’s  very good, tricky, and dangerous question! I think it´s good that it´s not invented (yet?) because we are human, and humans tend to do stupid things. Maybe I only would go back to one day in my childhood just to see if this matches with my memories and to see my (now dead) grandma and grandpa in a good time of their lives.

FF :  I would go back to the late 70s to steal ‘Bostons’, “More Than A Feeling” and become rich as f@ck :-)

Jan Hoffman Flo Funtmann

Further musings with Jan ...............

LONG DISTANCE CALLING - BOUNDLESS

2018 is already looking like a great year for new music - starting with the forthcoming masterpiece from German post-rockers ‘Long Distance Calling’. “Boundless” once again finds the band as a 4 piece  - Florian Funtmann (guitar) , Jan Hoffman (bass), Janosch Rathmer (drums), and David Jordan ( lead guitar)  - and their return to producing a fully instrumental album. I will admit that it came as a surprise to me following the success of 2016’s “TRIPS”, which sits firmly in my Top 10 albums of all time, and incorporated, for me, a perfect balance of vocal and instrumental tracks. So, curious to know what prompted the decision to return to instrumentals, I caught up briefly with bassist Jan Hoffmann :-

JH : We just started writing last January without any plan behind it, but realised pretty quickly how easy and fun the writing process was with just the four of us in a room, like in the early days, so we decided to go on like this, and go a bit back to our beginnings as a band. As much as we like the last two albums, they were pretty complicated to write - but we needed to leave our comfort zone back then.  Now we feel well, and comfortable, to be back to the core of the band and let the chemistry between us do the tricks.

HR : For some people, it’s difficult to listen to instrumental albums because there’s often a need for lyrics that help to tell a story - what were you imagining when you were creating the songs?

JH : When we write songs (especially instrumental songs), we always want to create a soundtrack to a feeling and this topic was very important for the new album. It should be the soundtrack to the life and to a journey into the unknown, that´s why the album is called “Boundless”.

HR :  You know, they are soundtracks to feelings. I was drawn in from the first listen, and I think you capture emotion in a number of ways - which is almost impossible to try to explain to anyone who hasn’t yet heard the album, so we should let listeners know what to expect ... In three words Jan, can you describe the album? JH : Wow, that´s difficult haha but ok: DARK,  INTENSE,  BEAUTIFUL

And I agree entirely! I feel that the band have every right to be proud of what they have created with “Boundless”  -  it really is nothing short of phenomenal. It’s very thoughtfully composed and a compelling listen, from start to finish. If you’re particularly into soundscapes and soundtracks, then you MUST check it out - equally, if you’re a fan of prog, hard edged melodic rock, with maybe some electro thrown in, or if you just simply love the sound of soaring guitars, then I’m sure you will hugely appreciate this record too.

Judge for yourself on February 2nd 2018, when “Boundless” is released through InsideOut music. More info at www.longdistancecalling.de In the meantime, here’s their official video for “Out There”

[prezaki]

hello!! i saw your lychee light club iceberg and as someone who just got into it i was curious and wondering if you could explain the last two levels of the iceberg? i havent heard of those yet

Of course!

The Zera Handprint Jacket is this piece of collab merch, with which you can have Zera grabbing your butt every day of the week:

Raizou's blog posts used to be a cute feature on the now defunct LHC website - the news blog was run entirely from her perspective, with tons of emoji, and a few nice daily life anecdotes of the club. I wish I had saved those somewhere, I somehow didn't expect the website to go down. Maybe I will check for it on waybackmachine at some point....

The 80s play details... Well, Tokyo Grand Guignol performances were pretty raw and would probably not fly under current safety regulation standards etc. They had the actors fight with real iron pipes and they used genuine pig guts to display the gore parts. It was a very specific and involved type of underground theatre.

The iron dicks are... well, the plot of the original was a little different from the plot Furuya wrote for his manga adaptation. In the original, the boys had all sworn to chastity (eternal virginity as a way of not growing up) and the way of doing so was to replace their dicks with... iron pipe dicks. Which Jaibo at some point uses to fuck a TV.

Kazuo Umezu's manga I am Shingo was part of Ameya's inspiration for writing the original play. I am Shingo is about two kids interacting with an AI that slowly gains sentience and 'a human heart', so to speak. Kanon's 80s counterpart Marin is named after the heroine of this manga.

The Gender Pancake was not as much as an incident as I make it sound, haha. In 2014 there was a pop up limited time café offering various LHC inspired foods. One of the dishes was this:

It was called something like "Raizou's androgynous maiden heart" and since at the time the fandom was much bigger and the vast majority of fans used 'he/him' pronouns for Raizou, the trans allegory of this pancake was a piece of "evidence" in the other direction.

I lost what the actual kanji for the pancake were and I do NOT trust my 2014 era translation of it much though, so the pancake is not really to be taken seriously, it's just a wacky fandom memory.

The Russian Fan Stage Play is just as it sounds. Fans put it to the stage in 2012 and it looks genuinely awesome, it's fantastic work!

And finally.... irl Hiroyuki Tsunekawa, the actor who played Zera in the original 80s play, is deeply unhappy about the success of Furuya's version overwriting the Tokyo Grand Guignol version in public consciousness. He does not believe that the more fandomified version of Furuya (and especially its spin-offs like the movie or dance show) convey any of the spirit and artistry of the original.

No video recordings of the original play remain but he does own an audio only version that he would hold showings for while the movie was also in theatres, so he could bring the original closer to people.

(Meanwhile Norimizu Ameya one of the authors of the original play and TGG troupe leader is on good terms with Furuya!)

[thejustmaiden]

So out of nowhere I was tagged and quoted by a SR shipper for a blog of mine posted in August of last year. Talk about throwback but, hey, gotta appreciate that level of snooping. 😉

Back in the day I actually used to encourage discourse amongst Inuyasha fans- both shippers and antis alike- but I've since realized that it's a lost cause. But for you, @feministmetalgreymon , I'll grant this exception. Just 'cause it's been a while so why the hell not. haha

I want to assure you, however, that nothing you say will ever convince me that Sesshomaru and Rin are meant to be together romantically or that the story intended it so. Nor will you find any validation here. You can ship them for all I care, but please for all that is good and holy while I have your attention try- I mean really try- to understand why it is so many of us Inuyasha fans are so against this pairing in the first place (newsflash: it's not about ship wars), and why we believe a romance between the two of them is completely and utterly out of character.

For those of you interested in reading this, the blog of mine in question that the above shipper mentions in their counter-argument is here for reference. It's titled "Jaken = Rin's Dad?" I'm going to try and keep this short, but I'm also making no such promises. After all, I'm not exactly known for my brevity. haha Now let's get crackin'!

Like you, feministmetalgreymon, did for your recent blog here where you took screenshots of mine to address certain parts, I will be doing the same and dissecting yours accordingly.

[Snippet 1]

I worked with kids for many years as a teacher, and many people in my family have too or still do. Two of them happen to be just over 5 feet which is quite short for the average adult woman living here. I've also worked alongside many a women of short stature, and never did I hear any of them complaining of issues with their students having difficulty differentiating them from their own peers just because they were short as well. I'm sorry but that's just ridiculous. Kids are quite smart and pick up on a lot more than you seem to give them credit for. Height is not the only characteristic they look at to determine who's an adult and who's not, and it's foolish to suggest otherwise. So unless you're a babysitter who's still in their teens and/or who has very childlike features or behavior then I'm afraid what you're getting at is total hogwash. This is just another example of how you shippers offer nothing of real substance to your reasoning, it's only ever cherry-picking or strawmanning from you guys. Stop deflecting from the real issues please, because this certainly isn't one and only winds up being a complete waste of time for all parties involved.

[Snippet 2]

Okay, calm down now. I wasn't insinuating that relationships between parents and children can't change over time in terms of how they get along. Of course that's possible, as all families experience their fair share of estrangement and abuse. What I was speaking about was in reference to the overall dynamic between the two. Because a bad mother or father can still be viewed as a parental figure to their child even if say they're not in said child's life anymore. Since Sesshomaru and Rin share a healthy bond- and just a friendly reminder that in my blog I even said that he doesn't have to necessarily be labeled her father but that a romantic relationship later would still be inappropriate- I didn't deem it necessary to address what you brought up. Plus, it kinda, umm, misses the point?? Please, let's stay on topic. And it's not captured in the screenshot, but stop acting like there isn't a small part of them that idolizes their parents at some point during childhood. Just like you mention later on how it's normal for kids to have innocent crushes on adults that they eventually grow out of? Well, guess what, the same concept applies here. Kids eventually learn that their parents are far from perfect and make mistakes too. Rin is so damn young in the OG series though that we never even get to see her reach that maturity level.

[Snippet 3]

LOL! Alright, okay, so the "unbreakable bond" bit you're mentioning was actually me quoting you sessrinners. Did you not catch that? I literally spelled it out. *sigh* The whole point I was making is that shippers like yourself make hypocritical and contradictory statements all.the.goddamn.time. One moment you guys claim that Sesshomaru and Rin were essentially strangers and meant very little to each other, only to say in the same breath a few seconds later that they were destined to be together and their bond is like no other. I agree, their bond is special, but why must that mean they're going to fall in love?

That is the root of the matter here. Too many animes/mangas have romanticized this older adult man & young girl growing up falling in love trope that it's become way too normalized and widely accepted across the world- and yes, in some cultures more than others. Sadly, you lack the awareness to recognize how this all works. You know how we know that? When we see that you shippers are so desensitized to sexualized images of girls in the media that you share posts like this one below which *subtly* imply a future romance although one half of that pairing is still just a child in the pic and then try and pass it off as cute. That's like super fucking problematic and it scares me that you can't see that (or deny you do). 🤢

After all that's said and done, Sesshomaru leaving Rin in the village with Kaede is to me the strongest indicator more than pretty much anything else he's done for Rin that proves he is her adoptive father. It's so funny to me how you somehow see the exact opposite though. 🤔 What I think is happening is that you got yourself on some squeaky clean ass shipper goggles fresh out of your little echo chamber. Because I hate to tell you, but what you're fantasizing is what you want to see and not what's actually there on screen or was written into the story. I'm strictly talking about Inuyasha and the manga of course. [For the TL; DR version skip to the last paragraph.]

Parents looking after their kids is what parents are supposed to do. A good parent will do anything to keep their child safe and ensure they are cared for, so what he did for her by leaving her there was in her best interests clearly. Besides, as a babysitter, you more than most people should understand that parents aren't always able to be there for their kids so sometimes others gotta step in to help. Haven't you heard of the saying, "it takes a village to raise a child?" Which in Rin's case is literally true! 😂 Sometimes kids are even sent off to stay with grandparents and that's who raises them instead. Or maybe they have to temporarily live with an aunt or uncle because their single parent's job requires they work out of town 4-5 days of the week so they're hardly home. But that doesn't mean that the parents care or love their kids any less, and it's foolish to assume that Sesshomaru must have thought very little of Rin simply due to the fact that he made the decision to leave her in the village. Come on, y'all are acting like he abandoned her there!!

It's just given the circumstances Sesshomaru finally came to learn that Rin traveling with him was no longer safe. I also like to think it's because he wished for her to live a more normal life and to learn how to fully trust humans again. Plus, continuing to travel with him as young as she was would have proven dangerous and unwise. Now for you to know all this and still manage to turn his past actions towards her while she was just a child into a romantic gesture is what boggles my mind. Regardless of how you look at it, from my perspective or your own, Sesshomaru is in the wrong. Either he's a father figure who impregnates his daughter at the young age of approximately 14. OR he's this man she used to travel with who maybe isn't a father to her but who nonetheless basically rapes her since kids her age can't consent to sex with an adult. Idk about you but it sounds to me like nobody here wins with either scenario we're given. In other words, you should be just as mad as we are. If only one side didn't choose to forsake their morals they know we both have in common for the sake of a ship. Welp. 🤷‍♀️

I agree, incest is disgusting but that's not the only problem we have with this pairing. A romantic bond forming between Sesshomaru and Rin would also constitute as grooming.

You realize that over the years he visited her in the village that he brought her gifts too and essentially watched her grow up right before his very eyes, right? I mean, I know you do, but I really shouldn't have to explain further why pursuing a romantic/sexual relationship with each other is plain and simple wrong. And before you say it's not because he didn't have any malintent, please understand that considering their history and power dynamic up to then that yes this is still considered grooming even if Rin supposedly "wanted it" or "made the first move." Whether you consider him her father or not, as the adult who took on a role resembling that of a caretaker in her early life- a critical developmental time for a child- Sesshomaru is obligated to turn down any advances by Rin and most definitely should not initiate any himself. As the first close adult figure she's had in her life since her parents died, it's unfathomable to imagine how Sesshomaru could go through with taking advantage of this young girl who was under his care and supervision since they met. To think he could be capable of betraying that trust sickens me to the core.

This. Now THIS is how a parent/guardian or a similar adult caretaker (babysitter, teacher, etc.) talks to a child. And, in turn, this is how some young children talk to adults. You'd be insane and delusional to deny it! We see it in our everyday lives, do we not? From where else do you think our stories draw most of their inspiration? Yes, obviously these fictional universes have aspects of fantasy that don't exist in the real world, but so how then do you suppose we're able to relate to them? The reason for that being is because these stories are written by people for people, so naturally there are going to be real life aspects embedded throughout. Sure, a little escapism doesn't hurt as we don't need to take everything so seriously, but ultimately we all need to recognize that the messages in the stories we tell matter. Most stories possess a combination of both light and dark themes, but when it specifically comes to the latter we gotta be careful with how we tackle this in children's media since kids are far more impressionable.

So if at the center of a story we have two of the main protagonists whose mom is basically their same age and to top it off she knew their dad when she was just a girl and who just so happened to help raise her, wouldn't you say that's beyond fucked up or at the very least so fucking weird? Like why would we think it's even remotely okay for our children to watch this garbage?? Really think about it. Try and be objective for once and think about how it would sound explaining this storyline to an outsider who's never watched IY or HNY. Well, antis have tried this before many times and we always get the same reaction: Ewww!

Like I said earlier, if you wanna ship it then fine, but 1) please stop seeking our approval or trying to change our minds - your ship wish came true didn't it, so why do you need us to validate it? 2) even though it's not canon, respect that we don't support this sequel portraying pedophilia in a positive light. It's harmful af to not only allow but glorify the continuation of sexualized images of young girls everywhere. And I shouldn't have to say this, but just because this trope is popular as you say does not make it right. Lolicon themes in the media have been an issue forever and it needs to stop. Yes, even some people in Japan or "the East" would agree. Shocker!

We're pissed off and rightfully so because Yashahime's TV rating is 14, not to mention it airs at the prime time kids in Japan watch TV after getting home from school. That's Towa and Setsuna's age, true, but if Rin being the mom when she's like only a year older than them (please don't argue w/ me about the math- antis have so far been right every time with it) is straight-up disgusting and not something we should be supporting or endorsing. Rin's a whole ass child!! Please don't start with the "but times were different then so her having kids at 15 is acceptable" argument either, because we've already debunked that and every other single excuse you guys throw at us. Besides, how or why would you expect young viewers to know these historical "facts" anyway, especially if as you suggest fiction doesn't affect reality so what does it matter? Yet here we are, arguing over a fictional show in real life almost a year and a half into the "Sesshomaru fucks?" sequel being announced. My ass, your ass, hell all our asses fiction doesn't affect reality!

Look, I do apologize if the tone of this blog came off as snippy or condescending at times. I do not wish you any ill will, it's just I'm not really sure what you expected to get out of all this besides maybe getting on my nerves perhaps. haha A lot of you shippers have been desperately scrambling to interact with us, lurking in our tags, jumping onto our posts screaming canon and getting so defensive even though you sought us out first. We've been sticking to our tags, so how about you stay in your lane too. By the way since we're on the topic, have you seen Twitter or Reddit?! SR shippers there are the actual worst and many Inuyasha fans (not just antis) have complained of not feeling welcomed to engage in fandom spaces anymore. Shippers swarm them and scare them off simply because fans don't like your ship and refuse to accept it. It's pathetic, really. No one should ever be bullied or harassed just because they don't like something you might. We're all fans of Inuyasha, aren't we? So let's act like it. Yashahime on the other hand, you guys are welcome to that pungent heap of trash. Fans have a right to criticize it too, but if you like it then good for you, so keep on liking it and don't mind us.

I'm almost done, but real quick back to Jaken! Let's not forget about how the official Yashahime website- which came out after my blog, mind you- described Jaken. This translation isn't the best one available but it's the only version a fellow anti friend could track down. They do recall a better one done by a native Japanese speaker who was also an anti, and that member confirmed that Jaken is indeed called Rin's babysitter. So you see, I was right in my interpretation. In the original post I did compare Jaken to a brother, but after talking to others (some comments can be found under said post) I did acknowledge that he's more of a reluctant babysitter who's not related. And if he's not at least a brother to Rin, then he's definitely not her father.

At the end of the day, the creator Rumiko Takahashi has the final word. Which is guess what? Hogosha. 💖 Probably should've just started out with that and saved us all the trouble, huh? Good day/night to you.

Papamaru bids you adieu now. 🤞

[jkstompers]

just to study | jjk

pairing: jeon jungkook x female reader

summary: your seat partner asks if you’re free after class, just to study.

genre: fluff, college!au, established friendship, flirtationship, mutual pining, they go to a ‘frat’ party together, also yugyeom! a sweetheart<3 we love him.

warnings: mature!!, mentions of alcohol + alcohol consumption, mentions of sex, strong language, SEXUAL TENSION, mentions of dick sucking??, hints of a wet dream on oc’s end, very strong urges to kiss each other but no kisses today </3, that’s pretty much it!

word count: 7.4k (i...kinda went overboard)

authors’ note: hello!! this is a pt. 2 to sleepyhead! it’s based a few weeks after so yeah <3 also the pacing is kind of weird but… i don’t really know how being drunk is so............(＞人＜) i’m sorry about that! one scene was inspired by this post haha it was just so cute to think about i had to do it. ALSO i literally haven’t taken anatomy since high school so i just used random terms from quizlet T_T pls excuse that as well! but otherwise, enjoy!!!!!!!!! (っ^_^)っ

(if u see any typos...ignore them pls T_T)

side note: imagine jk looking like this when he goes to the party lmao classic fboy look with the camo bomber and his piercings ugh <3

banner pic creds here ! <3

you made it to class on time today, woke to your alarm and even had enough time to eat breakfast before you came. in a particularly good mood, you made your way up the stairs to the row jungkook was sitting in, hoping that the seat next to him was empty (you didn’t have to hope, jungkook always saved the seat next to him for you, no matter what.)

“good morning, ___!” jungkook’s voice greets you the same as always as soon as you appear next to him. he moves his bag out of the way for you to sit down.

he looks especially cute today. his long floppy hair framing his face, his sweet smile beaming up to you. you wonder how dumb you looked drooling over him for a minute before you replied, “hi jungkook, how are you?” with the same smile on your face that you show him every time he sees you. it never changes, but it never fails to make jungkook’s heart skip a beat.

“i’m doing okay, you?” he answers while you pull out your laptop.

you didn’t have a chance to reply before your professor starts talking. informing the class about the test that’s planned at the end of the month, finals in two months, and then dropping the bomb that there’s a quiz tomorrow about the things you’ve learned in the past week. a slight panic takes over you, although you didn’t know why, you understood what he was teaching and you were retaining all of the information well. but when the professor pulls up all the information on the screen to review it all, all of the words and pictures overwhelm you.

to make things worse, jungkook is to your left, not paying attention to a word your professor is saying. instead, playing some game where he has to click his touchpad an obnoxious amount of times. your attention is split between jungkook’s erratic tapping and the notes that the professor projects onto the screen, even though his computer barely made any noise, his incessant movement was distracting you.

“jungkook, you’re taking notes and playing a game?” your voice comes out as a rushed whisper. there’s a snort that comes from him before he nods. you couldn’t be mad at him. “there’s a quiz on all of this tomorrow, you know?”

“i know,” he continues to tap and click, the motion growing incredibly annoying. you didn’t know why you couldn’t have just tried to block it out, but he was just so close to you and admittedly, you looked at his hands, a lot. the way that his fingers tapped against his keyboard and his veins that accentuate his already beautiful hands, it was free art you could look at, how could you not? at this point, you’re contemplating holding his hand to make him stop tapping.

you were in the middle of typing when he finally stops, leaning back and stretching his arms up into the air. you let out a sigh of relief, until he starts again. apparently he reached the next level on his game, tapping even faster, if that was even fucking possible.

quietly, you groan. turning your attention solely on him. you place your hand on top of his, the tapping ceasing almost immediately. “please, jungkook, you’re distracting me.”

he looks at your hand before he looks at you, his chocolate doe eyes wide to the action. he gulps, “sorry.”

you remove your hand, focusing back to the presentation. jungkook feels the heat from his cheeks travel to his hand. the feeling of your hand on his wasn’t something he was expecting to experience today, but he wants nothing more than for you to do it again. he exits the game tab and changes his focus to the lecture.

or moreso, you focusing on the lecture.

you look so cute. your cheek pressed up against your fist. he stares at the way that your forehead creases in concentration. he taps on your arm that’s resting on the table, “hey, you look like you’re stressed out.”

you turn your head slightly to look over to him. “that’s because i am,” you send him a quick smile before you go back to looking at the projection.

he furrows his eyebrows, “why? you’re smart, there’s no need to worry about what you get on this.” you were an a+ student, never anything less than that. jungkook knows that you ace every test that you take, so he doesn’t quite understand why you’re so stressed.

“because jungkook,” you groan. you expected a lot from yourself, sure b’s were okay, but a’s and a+’s were what you wanted and what you thought would make you feel satisfied. there was no way you could explain this without sounding like an overachiever. so you just sigh, “i’m just not really prepared.”

jungkook thinks of the perfect way to spend more time with you, snapping his fingers before suggesting, “we should study together after class, studies show that studying with someone else will give you an a+, guaranteed.” the confidence in his voice makes you smile, and helps you ease up a little bit.

you raise an eyebrow, a laugh creeping up from your lungs. “source for that statistic, sir?”

he taps his right temple, the gesture making you snort. “no but seriously, i’ll help you out,” he assures. his laptop turns towards you to show you all the notes he took, different words highlighted and colored differently.

you act like you think about it, staying quiet for a minute or so. but you know the answer was yes no matter what. “just to study?” you tease. jungkook raises his eyebrows in surprise, an amused smile on his face, “just kidding, we can go to mine? i owe you for the ride you gave me like two weeks ago.” you tap your fingers against your laptop nervously, your teeth taking in your bottom lip as you ask. you haven’t had a guy over to your apartment, not since you’ve moved in. there’s a certain anxiousness that comes with the suggestion.

jungkook nods, “sounds good.”

“okay, again.” you brush your hair behind your ears, preparing yourself once more for another pass of the flashcards. the two of you have been at it with these cards for the past hour or so, you were determined to get these right no matter how long it took. jungkook knew you were gonna get it down, you only had three more cards, these ones specifically stumping you.

“aponeuroses,” he looks at the card and then to you.

“connective tissue that forms a broad sheet which attach muscle to bone or muscle to other muscles,” you speak confidently. jungkook nods, moving onto the next card of the set of three.

“endomysium,” he reads the card. you hesitate on this one for a second, he plays with the corner of the card until you snap your fingers.

“that’s the connective tissue surrounding the… the— uh, oh! muscle fiber?” your brain works extra hard. jungkook rewards you with another nod, flipping to the last card.

“fascia.”

“dense connective tissue,” you begin, pausing to think of the rest of the answer. you start biting your thumb nail, knowing there’s more to it but it’s not coming to your brain quick enough.

jungkook just stares, watching your facial expressions as you search for the answer in your brain. this could be the worst crush he’s ever had, he thinks you’re cute when you’re just sitting there, thinking. he doesn’t remember ever liking someone this much, most of the time his crushes went away after a few weeks or so. but it’s almost been an entire year since he’s started crushing on you, and it still hasn’t stopped. you still manage to find a way to make his thoughts surround you.

“separates and holds individual tissues? it’s the one that extends into the tendons, right?” you perk up after a minute or so. your brain finally coming up with the answer. you blame jungkook’s presence for slowing you down. maybe you shouldn’t have accepted this offer to study together, because how could you focus when jeon jungkook is sitting right in front of you?

“you’re amazing,” he praises, setting the flashcards down onto the table. you blush at the compliment, jungkook takes notice, but he doesn’t mind, he thinks pink is pretty on you. he’s never wanted to kiss your cheeks as much as he did now, and trust, he’s thought about it many, many times. “all done?” he asks after staring at you for the longest time.

you nod, “just gonna highlight these terms to review them later so i can get it down 100%.”

jungkook watches as you diligently reread your notes and highlight them. an apple on the table taking his attention away for a second when he realizes he hasn’t eaten at all today. he takes a bite, the loud crunch noise seemingly startling the both of you. it makes you turn your head and raise an eyebrow towards him.

“sorry,” he chews, “hungry.”

your stare lingers a little longer than you wanted it to. his cheeks are full of apple, you can’t help but laugh a little. “there’s still the sticker on it,” you point out.

he turns the apple around to see the blue sticker. peeling it off, he holds it on his fingertip, an idea sprouting in his mind to see that sweet smile of yours again. so he places the sticker on your cheek, your gaze moving from your screen to him and then to the fruit sticker now stuck onto your cheek. “get it? ‘cause you’re sweet like this apple is,” he smiles.

oh my god. you blush embarrassingly, your entire face flushed pink as you hide your cheeks behind your hands. he laughs at your reaction. jungkook was feeling bold today, so he moves forward, gently taking your hands away from your face to see the cute pink tint he caused. he sits back, admiring your pretty face.

you feel yourself burning hotter and hotter the longer he stares, looking everywhere but his face, too scared to make eye contact. you look back to your computer screen, “um— there’s pasta in the fridge— if you’re hungry, i made it last night.” you offer, but he declines politely, telling you that he has to leave pretty soon because his friends are expecting him to join them today.

begrudgingly, you watch as jungkook packs his things up. he thinks about how content he felt hanging out with you today, and how he wanted to do it again, as soon as possible. a thought pops into his head before he opens the door to leave. he turns on his heel.

you weren’t expecting the sudden turn, accidentally bumping into his chest. “oof! sorry.”

“it’s alright,” he laughs, helping you steady yourself by holding your shoulders. “i just wanted to ask— uh, my friends are throwing a party tomorrow night, do you— do you wanna come?” his words come out jumbled, jungkook never fails to trip on his words whenever he’s near you.

tomorrow night...it’s a friday tomorrow, the quiz is tomorrow, why the fuck not? a stress reliever from all the studying you’ve done. “sure,” you answer after a minute or so of deliberation. you look up at him with a smile, suddenly realizing how close the two of you are.

your eyes flicker between his eyes and his lips, the close proximity makes you hold your breath. “great! i can pick you up? be your DD?” he quirks his head, a smile that matches yours on his face.

you nod, “yeah, i’d like that.” with that, jungkook takes a step back, widening the space between you both as his right hand goes to hold the strap of his bag.

“okay, i’ll text you the details.” before he turns around, turning the knob of your front door and letting himself out. before the door closes, he sends you a wave, one which you reflect as he pulls the door closed. you move up and lock the door, your forehead resting against the cold metal slab.

you wonder if this crush will ever advance into something more. neither of you really push the agenda, most of the time just cutely flirting with each other and only talking to each other during class. maybe this party will be a chance to further the bond the two of you have. you could only wish that you could drop this nervous shield that pops up everytime you’re around him, but jungkook is just so cool. the campus heartthrob, everyone wants to be him or be with him.

for the rest of the day, jungkook seems to occupy your mind, as he always does. when you get to sleep, the fantasies of jungkook’s lips on yours drift you into a deep sleep, one that eventually leads to a dream that has you rubbing your thighs together. his hands were all over your body, his cologne that you were so familiar with tormenting your nose, it all felt too real. so when you woke up to the sound of your alarm, sweat beaded at your hairline. you took deep breaths, cementing the fact that he isn’t here, and he certainly isn’t doing those things with you right now.

it was not helping that you dreamt of him sexually on the day of your quiz, the one that you were immensely stressing over. now, you’re gonna have to walk into class, act normal around jungkook even though your brain produced pornographic images of him, (it’s not the first time, but it’s the first time you’ve had to face him right after it happened) and ace this quiz.

you tried almost everything you could to have cleared your brain of your dream sequence. taking a shower, eating breakfast, studying once more, etc. but when you’re walking into the lecture hall, flashes of the dream and the sound of his imagined moan echo in your mind.

you walk up the stairs with your eyes down, not sure if you could make eye contact with jungkook without turning red. “hey, ___, good morning!” the familiar voice greets you.

“morning,” you reply, dryly. taking the seat next to him and silently taking your laptop out, waiting for the professor to start the quiz. jungkook seemed a bit taken aback by your cold answer, but he took into account that you’re probably just super nervous and stressed out because of the quiz, so he doesn’t take it too personally. instead, just sitting back in his chair and waiting patiently to take the quiz as well.

at this point, you were psyching yourself out, swearing that you already forgot all of the terms. if you were quizzed on the parts of male anatomy, specifically jungkook’s, then maybe you could ace it, but the terms that you were working oh so hard to memorize yesterday slip from your mind. when the professor tells you to separate and start the quiz, you start to bite your thumb nail again.

jungkook takes a look over at you, noticing the bad habit of yours. he gently takes a hold of your arm, pulling your thumb away from your teeth. the action causing you to make eye contact with him and his big doe eyes that hold so much love and light. you find yourself a bit speechless then, too many thoughts running around in your mind.

he whispers, “you’ll do great, okay?” the statement soothing your nerves. his voice somehow makes your body relax, even though you thought you would freak out if you made any sort of contact with him.

“you— you too, good luck,” you mutter. a half smile on your face. you were grateful that jungkook broke you out of your trance, his words of encouragement suddenly placing you in the testing state of mind. the images from last night's dream seem to put themselves away for now.

the next twenty minutes are complete silence. everyone focused on the questions before them. of course, you zoomed through the quiz, prepared for the trick questions and the harder ones that come up. jungkook finishes after you. it wasn’t a surprise, jungkook didn’t even have to try, you swear you’ve never seen him stress out before. nobody was perfect, you believed that, but jeon jungkook was the closest to it.

“okay, class! the quiz will be graded by tonight hopefully, you’re free to leave,” your professor alerts the class. jungkook waits patiently until you’re standing, following you down the stairs and out the door.

you decide to speak first, since you greeted him with such a dry response this morning. it wasn’t his fault that you dreamed of him on top of you, so why were you punishing him for it? “how’d you think you did?” you asked, turning to look at him.

he shrugs, “good i guess, i think i fucked up on one or two questions.”

“was it the striation part? i think i messed up on that one too.”

he shakes his head, “you know you aced that, don’t lie.”

you stay silent, the two of you walking to the campus parking lot. neither of you engage in conversation as you usually do. the images of last night’s dream slipping into your consciousness once again. you try to shake your head, to rid yourself of the thoughts. nothing else to distract you from them because jungkook was oddly silent the entire walk. you fear that he can actually read your mind and see all of your thoughts. if he could, he doesn’t mention it. not saying one word to you until he walks you to your car, greeting you with a ‘see you next class!’ before leaving to go to his car. not even mentioning the party to you, you start to wonder if he regrets inviting you. up until you heard your phone ring when you parked in the lot of your apartment complex.

[10:24 am] jungkook: hey! forgot to remind u about the party 😫

[10:24 am] jungkook: ur still down to come, right?

[10:28 am] you: hi! yeah :)

[10:28 am] you: is there a dress code or smth? haha

[10:29 am] jungkook: not that i know of 😂

[10:30 am] jungkook: u can wear anything u want

[10:30 am] jungkook: ur cute whatever u wear

[10:31 am] you: oh stop it jeon ur making me blush

[10:32 am] you: but tell me :( should i wear something casual? pants? a dress?

[10:34 am] jungkook: 😂

[10:34 am] jungkook: it’s kind of like a frat party…

[10:35 am] jungkook: so anything is okay

[10:37 am] you: ah okay

[10:37 am] you: i’ll surprise u then ;)

[10:40 am] jungkook: alright :)

[10:41 am] jungkook: i’ll come by around 9 to pick u up? sound good?

[10:42 am] you: yeah! gives me enough time to nap and get ready lol

[10:44 am] jungkook: great :) see u then cutie

you wake up from your nap around one, you had more than enough time for you to get ready for a party. so you decide to clean your apartment first, little chores to waste time before you get yourself dolled up. when you finished, it was around seven thirty. you washed your face, brushed your teeth, all that good stuff before sliding on a simple black bodycon that you got last summer. styling your hair and spraying on your favorite perfume before looking at yourself in the mirror. this wasn’t too much, right? lots of people wear stuff like this to frat parties, so you didn’t find it too fancy. the notification sound from your phone goes off, you move to check and see if it was who you were expecting.

[8:54 pm] jungkook: i’m here :)

[8:54 pm] you: ahh gimme a sec i need to pee haha

[8:55 pm] jungkook: take ur time cutie

[8:56 pm] jungkook: i’m right in front

jungkook only really had to wait about five minutes. the visual of you walking out of your apartment doors, looking the way you did, was breathtaking. his jaw drops, mouth slightly agape as he watches you walk up to his car through the passenger window. you are so gorgeous. it’s probably the first time jungkook’s seen you in clothes that really compliment your figure, most of the time you show up to class in hoodies and sweaters. so greedily, he takes in the way the dress hugs your curves deliciously. he shakes the thoughts from his head to get out of the car and open the door for you.

“what a gentleman,” you tease, getting into the car.

he joins you soon after, “you look...gorgeous.” jungkook doesn’t seem so shy now, his eyes taking in your beautiful self.

“thank you,” you blush under his stare. “is it too much?”

“no! no— not at all, all eyes will be on you tonight.” he smiles, turning the car on. now you were able to gawk over him. a simple outfit, all black with a black and white camo bomber. his side profile is perfect, his long hair draping over his face so gracefully and his piercings somehow sparkling in the dark of the car.

he doesn’t drive too far, somewhere in the suburbs where the big houses are. a huge iron gate in the front, seemingly too fancy for a frat party setting. jungkook rolls his window down to greet someone waiting in front of the gate with a couple of other guys.

“jeon! you’re late dude,” one of the guys gives him a handshake through the window.

“sorry man, i’m here now though,” jungkook laughs. the guy giving him the greenlight and opening the gate for him, jungkook parks inside on their stone driveway, decorated with a fountain and a beautiful garden.

“your friend lives here?” you inquire, impressed by the look of the place.

he nods, “fancy right? his parents are ceo’s.” makes sense, and it would also make sense as to why they were throwing a frat party here, rich sons always seem to stir up trouble whenever they’re bored.

he steps out of the car to open the door for you, always a gentleman. he takes your hand and helps you out, the two of you walking to the huge open double doors. as soon as you walk in, the smell of alcohol hits your nose, you try your best not to cringe. the blare of the speakers is the second thing you notice, along with the shouting of jungkook’s friends greeting him. “who’s this?” one of them asks, referring to you.

jungkook seems to hesitate at first, not really knowing how to introduce you. he settles by saying, “this is ___!” not attaching any ‘friend’, ‘classmate’, or anything to the introduction. his friend holds his hand out to shake yours.

you take it with a smile on your face, “i’m yugyeom, it’s nice to meet you!” a smile that reflects yours is on his face, it made you feel welcome. you were never really the type to go to parties, your time is spent working and/or going to school, but this interaction helps you ease up a little more.

“hello, yugyeom!” you reply, shouting over the music.

“do you wanna take a shot?” he asks. pointing to the enormous kitchen where they’re housing all the alcohol, you look to jungkook first who’s paying more attention to his phone rather than the conversation you were just having.

you shrug, “why not?”

yugyeom leads the two of you to the kitchen, jungkook following behind you blindly. he looks up from his phone, done with whatever business he was dealing with to ask, “where are we going?”

“taking a shot,” you answer, pointing to yugyeom who’s already pouring three shots.

“dude, i’m not drinking, don’t pour three.” jungkook tries to stop him before he fills up the third shot glass but his arm knocks yugyeom’s in the process, the bottle spilling the clear liquid into the third shot glass.

“i’ll take two,” you suggest, feeling a bit wild and down to venture out of your comfort zone.

yugyeom smiles at this, “i like her, jeon.” he hands you the two shot glasses full of vodka, jungkook stands next to you and watches as you down the first shot. your face cringing as soon as the alcohol touches your tongue.

“you didn’t even give her a chaser,” jungkook notices, scolding yugyeom who's already downed his shot and is sucking on a lime. “here, suck,” holding a slice of lime up to your lips. his choice of words disorienting you, especially since he was holding the lime up to your mouth instead of just handing it to you. your eyes flicker between the lime and his face, but nevertheless, you suck. sinking your teeth into the sour fruit. jungkook’s eyes zeroed in on how your lips wrap around the slice, slightly grazing his fingers. it’s not long before you’re making a cute scrunched up face from the sourness. “good,” he praises. you don’t deny the slight burn your lower belly felt when he said that to you. you swear he was making sex eyes to you, but you couldn’t tell. he broke eye contact with you soon after, throwing the fruit into the trash below the table that the alcohol was perched on.

yugyeom hands you another lime for your second shot, this time no jungkook to hold the fruit for you. the second shot burning down your throat with the lime chasing after, both yugyeom and jungkook cheer, congratulating you for being a trooper (even though two shots were their warmups).

the next hour or so, jungkook brings you around. he introduces you to his friends and making conversation with them. one certain group, you didn’t really enjoy. a group of five girls, clearly swarming jungkook as soon as he turned around from talking to another one of his friends. the girls ask how he’s been doing, all of the basic conversation starters. when jungkook tries to introduce you, they all turn to you and give you a little head nod before turning their attention back to jungkook. he stands there, conversing with them longer than he had with any of his other friends, and you found yourself getting, hm, jealous.

so you search around the room crowded room, looking for some way out. your eyes spot yugyeom in the backyard through the huge sliding doors, sitting on one of those lawn chairs with the one next to him empty. you decide to leave the group you were currently getting pushed out of and join yugyeom. he notices you when you step onto the grass, trying your best not to sink into the dirt with your heels. “you doing alright? where’s jungkookie?” he asks, sitting up.

you plop down onto the lawn chair next to him. “he’s in there,” you point to the house, “with five girls.”

the last bit of the sentence makes him laugh, a cackle where he holds his stomach because he was laughing so hard. “do you want a shot?” he offers after he recovers from his fit, pulling a tequila bottle out from nowhere.

but you agree, “two, please.” he fills the two shot glasses, but not completely like he did with the vodka earlier. there were no limes, or any type of chaser for you to take around, so you take the two shots like ripping off a band-aid, quick.

“you’re a funny girl,” yugyeom compliments when you’ve downed the shots.

“thanks?” you cough, the feeling of the alcohol still burning your nose and throat, “what did i say that was funny?”

“i think it’s because i’m tipsy, but that joke you made about jungkook being with five girls was hilarious.” he slaps his knee, almost making himself laugh up a storm again, but you weren’t laughing.

you raised an eyebrow, speaking with a serious tone. “it wasn’t a joke, he’s in there with five girls.”

yugyeom tries to collect himself, sitting properly on the lawn chair when he asks you to clarify, “you mean he’s fucking them? or he’s talking to them?”

you’re silent for a second before replying, why did you say it like he was in there fucking them? maybe it’s because he might as well be, so engrossed in whatever the hell they were saying to even notice that you were gone. “just talking to them,” you reply.

“that’s what i thought, jungkook isn’t like that anymore,” yugyeom nods his head, pouring another shot out for you.

“anymore?” you ask. he hands you the shot, you hesitate this time, starting to feel the effects of the first four shots you took. he doesn’t push you to take it. he just leans back onto the lawn chair as he sighs.

“you could say he’s retired,” he shrugs.

the term makes you laugh, “...a retired fuckboy?” you sit back into the lawn chair as well, looking up to the night sky. the shot glass forgotten on the table next to you. your body feels like it’s floating.

“yeah, he hasn’t really been doing stuff like that recently,” yugyeom spills. you stay quiet after he feeds you this information. yugyeom offhandedly telling you that you shouldn’t be jealous makes you feel guilty. why were you even jealous? jungkook was technically still just a friend to you. just because the two of you flirt every now and then doesn’t mean you’re together. of course he would be surrounded by girls, just look at him!

“there you are! i was looking all over for you,” jungkook interrupts your inner monologue. his voice comes from across the lawn, you look up to see him walking over to you and yugyeom.

“hi, jungkookie,” you smile up at him. the alcohol having more of an effect on you the longer you let it sit in your stomach.

he almost freezes up at the nickname, looking over to yugyeom and asking, “did you tell her to call me that?”

yugyeom holds his hands up in innocence, “i didn’t tell her to do anything, she’s like five or six shots deep though.”

you take the shot that was forgotten on the table and down it. “six,” you clarify.

“alright, slow down, iron liver,” jungkook jokes. yugyeom stands from the lawn chair, receiving jungkook’s telepathic signals to get the fuck up to he could talk and hang out with you.

“play beer pong with me later, ___! i’m gonna go look for eunwoo,” yugyeom points to you, giving you a thumbs up before leaving the backyard and moving into the house.

“feeling okay? think you might throw up soon?” jungkook asks, replacing yugyeom in the chair next to you.

“feel like i’m surfing, you know? like wavy,” you answer. the feeling was hard to explain, you weren’t dizzy but at the same time your brain was telling you to stop moving, even though you were completely still.

“ah, you’re getting there,” jungkook snorts. you didn’t have much willpower to answer, so the two of you sit there in a comfortable silence before a group of people coming towards, all greeting jungkook and you. they offer you a red cup, despite your current predicament. leaning against the chair and your droopy eyes, telling them that you’ve taken too many shots. a lightweight at her peak.

jungkook tries to deny it for you, but with a smile, you accept the cup. it was filled with the fancy mixed alcohol juice they had. “thank you,” you place the cup onto the table, “i’ll drink it.... later..” your words begin to draw themselves out. jungkook somehow finding a way to make the entire group leave, making it just the two of you again.

“give it to me, you’re starting to slur your words.” his hand is open, laying on the table and waiting for you to surrender the cup.

your eyes flicker from the red cup, to his face, then to his hand. a smirk on your face when you hold the cup up to your lips, tilting it back and drinking the cursed juice. you weren’t able to down it all, it was too much, you drank maybe ⅔ of it. you cough, taking in a deep breath as you try to steady yourself.

you weren’t sure if it was because you were drunk, but the way that his face looks in the moonlight was so pretty. so you just had to tell him. leaning forward, you speak, almost a whisper, “you’re so handsome.” you drag your finger across the expanse of jungkook’s hand. “did you know i have no gag reflex?” you smile, not your typical sweet smile that he’s used to, but a devilish grin.

jungkook’s eyes widen, his cheeks flushing immediately at your remark. “alright, you drank way too much.” he takes the red cup from your hands, dumping it out onto the grass in front of you both.

“hey, i wasn’t done,” you pout, but jungkook didn’t give you much time to mourn your spilled drink before he was holding your arm, lifting you from the lawn chair you were sitting on. “where are we going?” you ask, trailing behind him with your hand in his.

“gonna get you some water and something to eat,” he answers. the two of you move through the house, jungkook pushes through groups of people and makes sure you’re safe behind him.

“i have to pee.” you tip toe to tell him your emergency in his ear. he stops at the stairs, knowing a bathroom where no one else goes. his friend specifically telling him to use that bathroom when they have parties because the other ones get way too gross.

he brings you up the stairs to the guest bedroom, opening the door to reveal one of the biggest rooms you’ve seen. “the bathroom is there,” jungkook points to the door on the left. you nod, your wobbly legs making their way to the toilet.

jungkook sits on the bed patiently, waiting for you to finish. he hears the flush and the sound of the sink running, the door opens and you’re coming out of the bathroom, pulling your dress down. “are we gonna have sex?” you utter, slurring the end of your sentence. your alcohol poisoned mind taking over your ability to speak.

his eyes widen at the question. “no! no— oh my god, this is just the room with the cleanest bathroom, we’re not—“

you’re next to him now, “you don’t want to?” you pout. glassy eyes looking into his.

“no! i mean, yes, i want to but— fuck, just— just not now, yeah?” jungkook stumbles over his words, his face blushing a blood red. your pretty face peering up at him makes him even more flustered, his hands start to sweat.

“okay,” you nodded. your drunken brain deciding to stop the interrogation of jungkook’s desire for you. to which jungkook lets out a sigh of relief, taking your hand and bringing you out of the room, down the stairs, and out into the driveway. he brings you to his car, opening the passenger door for you. “wait, are we leaving already? yugyeomie wants me to play beer pong with him,” you complain, wiggling your hand from his grasp.

goosebumps appear on your arm when you make it outside of the house. jungkook notices when he turns around to look at you. without a second thought, he takes his jacket off and places it over your shoulders. the newfound warmth shielding you from the cold night. he didn’t mind the breeze, especially since he was still recovering from the stunt you pulled in the guest room.

“we can come back later if you want, let’s just go grab something to eat first so you won’t regret this tomorrow morning.” his explanation is pretty solid according to your drunken brain, so you oblige, moving to sit in his passenger seat.

he joins you in the driver’s seat not long after. “can we get mcdonald’s?” you ask as soon as he sits down.

a smile appears on his face as he starts the car, “sure.”

the drive made you feel a little dizzy, it makes you laugh. “you okay?” jungkook asks, but you nod your head. he’s so sweet, always asking if you’re okay, making sure you weren’t feeling too awful, etc. it only makes sense that you were falling head over heels for him.

“totally fine,” you look over to him with a smile on your face. he’s so fucking pretty, his side profile is something you could rave about for days. as he’s pulling into the mcdonald’s drive through, he’s talking into the intercom, ordering the two of you something to eat when you’re suddenly mumbling, “mcflurry, kookie, oreo mcflurry.”

he looks back to you, an amused smile on his face, “oreo mcflurry?” he repeats. you nod, “okay, anything for you.”

he reiterates the request into the intercom and the server gives him the greenlight. he drives forward and waits until the next car moves up, in the time being, he looks to you. your head laying up against the door and your eyes slowly blinking, warning him that you might fall asleep. so he reaches into his backseat, his arm looking for the water bottles that he usually keeps in his car.

“hey,” he taps your arm gently, “drink some of this first.” he hands you the water bottle, you blink slowly, trying to figure out what he was handing you. once you realize it was a water bottle, you take it, opening it and gulping some of the water down. jungkook is grabbing the food when you’re screwing the cap back on. he parks somewhere in the parking lot and tells you to start eating.

you grab your mcflurry first, the feeling of the cold ice cream on your tongue soothing your dizzy brain. “yum,” you think out loud.

jungkook laughs, taking out his hamburger while he takes out your chicken nuggets. “make sure to eat some of this, yeah? don’t want you throwing up and hating me.”

the thought makes you smile. jungkook was taking such great care of you. sure, he let you down the alcohol like it was nothing, but you never opposed to it, always taking the shot because you wanted to. now jungkook is here, taking care of you, because he wanted to. you knew that if it were anybody else, they probably would have left you at the party, letting you fend for yourself. the sudden warmth in your chest makes you want to tell jungkook everything.

with his jacket wrapped around you instead of him, you can see the bulge of his arm muscles peek out from the short sleeved shirt he was wearing. even drunk, your brain seems to travel back to the images from your dream. “you know, i had a dream about you, a reeaaaallllllyyyyy dirty dream, jeon jungkook.” you blurt out the confession before your thoughts catch up with you, the alcohol still very much blocking off the common sense part of your brain.

he tries his best not to overreact, but you had a dream about him? a dirty dream at that? it awakens something in jungkook, but he pushes it down, ignoring the feeling as he asks, “you did? what was it about?” he curious as to what you meant and what your dream entailed, but he didn’t want to push too far. especially since you were drunk and most likely just spilling everything because your brain doesn’t have the willpower to hold it back.

you stick your hand into the bag to steal some fries, stuffing them in your mouth. “oh, you don’t wanna know,” you chew.

jungkook quirks a brow, “well, was i good at least?” he jokes.

you scrunch your nose, nodding nevertheless. “too good, couldn’t even focus during the quiz because of it.”

jungkook is silent for a second. the conversation making him hot even though he wasn’t wearing his jacket anymore. so he clears his throat, trying to change the subject in a subtle manner. “is that why you were so mean to me this morning?” he pouts, connecting the dots.

you laugh at the question, “sorry, i didn’t mean to, i swear.”

with that, the rest of the time is spent eating. jungkook makes sure that you ate enough and drank enough water, the empty water bottle in his cupholder as proof. “do you want me to take you home now?” he asks, the two of you finished eating and now a silence takes over the car.

“are you going back?” you ask, fiddling with your fingers. he thinks you’ve started to sober up, or maybe have gotten to the point where you just want to sleep.

he shakes his head to your question, “honestly, i’m kind of tired, but if you want to go back, we can go.”

“no, i’m okay,” you decline the offer. jungkook laughs, starting the car again and driving back to your apartment complex.

you take this time to try to get yourself together. you know you’ll regret confessing to jungkook that you had a wet dream about him in the morning. but in the moment, it felt right to confess, (to your drunken brain of course). you tilt your head back, pushing your head against the headrest, and suddenly, you’re reminded of the stars jungkook has on his ceiling. you were silent as you admired the lights, jungkook takes a look at you when he’s stopped at a red light.

so cute, he thinks, staring up at his ceiling like it’s the real night sky. when he pulls up to your apartment complex, he wishes the night could be longer, that he could spend more time with you. he parks the car in the front, exactly where he picked you up. you’re looking to him now, your hands in your lap and your heart seemingly beating three times as fast as it usually does. it wasn’t the alcohol.

“did you have fun tonight?” he asks. his voice never fails to make you melt.

you nod, “i did.”

“i’m glad,” he smiles. there’s a small silence before he speaks once more, “also, y’know, you don’t have to stress yourself out so much, i know you might have expectations for yourself and stuff, but you should give yourself a break from time to time.”

the alcohol’s effects fading slowly from your brain when you start to realize that the entire reason jungkook invited you out was to help you destress. it makes you fall even harder, he was so thoughtful. even though a party wasn’t your scene, he invited you to give you a glimpse into how he has fun and hoped that it would help you loosen up a bit. you were grateful for the mental break he provided you.

you didn’t reply, purely because you were thinking about how much you want to kiss him right now, but it wouldn’t be right. when he speaks up again, there’s a nervous lilt in his voice, scared that he’s overstepped. “if you need anyone to help you— i don’t know, let loose? you can— you can always call me.” he scratches the back of his neck.

but you try your best to reassure him, smiling at the offer. “i will, thank you for tonight, jungkook, i really enjoyed it, despite being a lightweight.”

he laughs, staring at the way your face cutely scrunches when you giggle. he too, is fighting the urge to kiss you, because right now isn’t a good time. he wants to do it right. he doesn’t want to fuck it up with you. so instead, he hops out of the car and moves to open the door for you. helping you out of the car and walking you to your door, your hand in his.

“i’ll see you in class?” you turn to face him, squeezing his hand.

he nods, “yeah.” his signature bunny smile coming out to greet you a goodnight. “text me before you sleep?” he requests. you give him a thumbs up before he’s letting go of your hand and you’re sticking the key into your door, it’s then that you realize that you’re still wearing his jacket.

“oh!” you exclaim, taking the jacket off and handing it to him. but he holds his hand out to stop you.

“keep it, you can give it to me the next time we hang out, or something,” he suggests. you try to hide the growing smile behind a nod.

you hold onto his jacket, “goodnight, jungkook.”

he sticks his hands in his pockets, sending you another grin, “goodnight, ___.”

jungkook drives home, his empty apartment welcoming him. he plops down onto his bed, not even bothering to change out of the clothes he was in because he was that tired. the events of today running through his mind.

he hopes you don’t think he was doing anything with those five girls. he saw you walk away when you did, he tried his best to escape the conversation, but they kept pulling him back. he gave up after ten tries of trying to get away, standing there for a good fifteen minutes listening to them babble about how much they missed him. jungkook had never rolled his eyes so many times in a conversation.

the talk the two of you had after was another thing taking over his mind. your dirty flirting and your dream you mentioned in the car had his imagination running all over the place. he didn’t want to push you when you explained, but he was very curious as to what he did in your dream, and how good it was for you to have it run through your mind all day.

his phone rings next to him. he turns and opens it, a smile on his face when he reads your message.

[12:32 am] you: hi jungkookieeeeeeeee

[12:33 am] you: im sleeping noww

[12:33 am] jungkook: alright cutie

[12:33 am] jungkook: goodnight! again 😂

[12:34 am] you: goodnight <3

he turns his phone off after that. looking up to his ceiling with a dumb smile on his face. his mind thinking of you and only you.

[lexpressobean]

I've been thinking about these 3 alot...

... and how much they seem to really respect Shino. I know it's a filler, but, like... Why does it seem like Shino has a knack for finding children who have wondered off away from school? Like, he's just taking a walk, making his way around the village or surrounding forest, and then there they are. Kids playing hooky or some shit. And Shino just takes it upon himself to approach them and steer them back to where they should be, while getting them attached to him somehow in the process??

But honestly. If this was just one of many times this had happened, I'd say Shino does this not out of his knack for teaching or having a way with kids. Rather, he developed a way with kids and easily applies that to his teaching because he has a strong desire to simply protect children. And it's not even from some paternal instinct as much as survival, because I think it stems from the developing trauma of losing Torune to Danzo. And I don't think it's all subconscious either.

Like I know the novel and anime frames his desicion to teach as a sort of a new goal in life as the war has ended for a couple years already and a noticable Peace has been achieved by the Blank Period and well... He's an Aburame.

Like, the Aburame are literal living, breathing, walking bioweapons. With no fight to utilize that, what else is there? Well, much like the Nara have the Nara forest and Pharmacology specifically, The Aburame most likely have a historical stake in the area of Konoha, perhaps it was simply in their Ancestral Home. Idk, but they're here to stay, they ain't budging. They're Clan Culture is very Martial and I'd argue Spartan in nature, but otherwise, they do other things too. I think they'd do well as major players in the conservation and research of native species of animals and plants, but definitely insects too. I bet they play a huge part in the general area's ecosystem, especially due to the fact that the Kamizuru clan attacked with a whole clan's worth of non-native Hymenoptera that could very well have become and still are an irritatingly and consistent problem as invasive species tend to be. And as a far as goods go, why not put some of them to use and handle an apiary? Honey is a great good to sell. All of this is great as a clan that no longer needs to fight. But, what about individual members in general, and so Shino?

Well Shino is the Heir of this clan. This Noble Clan. This "ready to throw hands at any moment" clan. It's future is in his hands, so to speak. So I doubt Shino would completely sever his connection to Shinobi life all together. And so, teaching at the Academy would be a great way to keep that connection. Teachers have to know their stuff, after all.

But what if in order to ensure teaching was his calling, Shino did his absolute best to make Jounin ASAP so he could take on a Genin Team. And. And by chance, it ended up being these three?? And they are absolutely STOKED!!! And they also pass Shino's genin test, which... would probably be a feat in it's own right. But they already know Shino, and Shino has bestowed upon them some wisdom they actually took to heart! Yeah, well, in reality they might be just a tad too old to be Shino's first official genin squad, but they were still his squad one point in a sense, right?

Kon Nohara, Tano Ikemoto, and Aoki Kobayashi

I even gave them names help Imagine these three are already chuunin at least and decide they want to pay Shino a visit and even volunteer to help Shino during class time on a collective day off because they admire him so much (T~T)

But even then if not these three kiddos, maybe these three li'l shits lol

Even in times of Peace, Shino's special set of skills seem too useful to waste, and being a Jounin teacher would definitely have been a way he could still go on missions, but also definitely commit to becoming a Sensei at the academy once he was 100% sure and got older. Kurenai became a Jounin/Genin Squad Leader in her late twenties, but in comparison I see Shino doing that more mid-20s. (He needs some time to travel and find his big bug friend and generally live a little?)

Kurenai was a Genjutsu Specialist who manned a Tracker/Sensing based team. This sounds like it was a highly beneficial combination, even if she ended up being somewhat sadistic lol. Asuma was bound to Team 10 by Tradition as InoShikaCho and Sarutobi have that Pact together. Kakashi's team was literally Cherry Picked for him specifically by the 3rd Hokage. And Gai, a Taijutsu Specialist, had a team that Specialized in Taijutsu and Physical Offense.

Of all four teams, Kurenai and Gai were very suited to their teams, Gai in a complimentary way and Kurenai in a Challenging way. In that same vein, I think Shino would imitate Gai. Shino as a Shinobi himself has a general set of skills, but the way he goes about them are very niche. But, he was always very stealthy, and could sneak up on nearly anyone. Gags aside, he could go unnoticed as long as he wanted too, and by the time he was noticed or was ready to attack, he has you quite literally surrounded. Honestly I can see why Search and Destroy would be an Aburame's forte, but when there's no need, a person with a personal skill of high quality stealth could probably man a team with an emphasis on Reconnaissance and/or Surveillance, even Bodyguarding. I feel like Shino would probably put an emphasis on Stealth and Tracking too, utilizing his insects as sort of assistants that keep tabs on his students (Stealth Test) as well as to encourage just enough fear during too much down time in his students to inspire quality training opportunities, so maybe Kurenai rubbed off on Shino more than they all realized haha

(Plus I'm sure his students would be be smart and thoughtful enough to eventually understand what Shino and his bugs are: a complete unit. They realize just how strong and dedicated Sensei really is to be the way he is, and they all learn more in depth about Kikaichu and it's like WOW SENSEI YOU REALLY ARE RISKING BEING EATEN ALIVE EVERY SINGLE DAY, AREN'T YOU? But he's still here, because THAT'S how strong he's become over the years and the confidence to manipulate the Kikaichu while having to think of current chakra level, the most efficient use at any given time, how many he actually needs, how long usage will last, ect. They are high maintenance, man!)

Shino would no doubt produce highly skilled Bodyguards and Masters of Stealth. Maybe the type that would end up being in high demand for the eventual Celebrities that start to pop up as times change, but still very much needed when it comes to Criminal Activity, like in Sora-Ku?

But as time passes and he decided to teach at the Academy, he'd feel very at ease to do so. He'd be happy to be put in charge of all these children, because he would be able to help teach them things they need to know to defend themselves and others in a world where adults like Danzo had and will continue to exist. Maybe while he's at it, he'd use his stance as a Noble Clan Heir and accomplished Shinobi to push for changes in government with Sai's help and with Naruto and Shikamaru's cooperation? Like, the truth does come out, everyone on the Council were actually horrible and had too much power. So HERE are some ideas and REASONS why these ideas should be implemented because Shino's not going to let his brother's life and death be in vain!? HELL no, we WILL make some changes around here. Shino sees his students and just wants a future where no kid ever has to live in fear of being completely taken advantage of by the very system that was supposed to keep them safe and they pledged allegiance to.

I cannot help but think of the quiet but absolute fear little Shino was harboring for the years to come after Torune was taken by that strange man and Father Shibi didn't even attempt to stop him. His own father didn't dare beat the shit out of this strange man who came looking for him, and the only solution for Shino to stay was for Torune to make himself look more desirable as an asset and be taken instead. I bet there was a lot of misplaced resentment there for a while, and talks that just didn't happen. Maybe a classmate doesn't show up to class one day and Shino is IMMEDIATELY stressed out and just... takes it upon himself to look for them after class. And he's relieved when he see they're simply at home with a fever. Shit like that just fucks with Shino, because theres people taking kids and no one is doing anything about it?? And then as Shino grew older he realized exactly what happened and how slimy the machine of Konoha really is and it was never completely Shibi's fault that Torune had to leave. He grows mentally at a faster rate than most of his classmates, and knows more than a kid really needs to know.

Shino doesn't want that for any other child. Shino is the kind of person who hears kids screaming outside of his house and he can't tell if they're playing or being murdered and it's stressful to the point he'll check through his window and he sees them for himself. He get stressed out seeing a kid in public unattended and WANTS to approach them to help if need be but also maybe he's overthinking it and the parents are there somewhere and he'd just end up looking suspicious. Like, that's what I kind of figure for Shino. He's so hyperaware of the power dynamic between kids and adults and seeing a kid so ready to fall victim to that makes Shino feel ill the more he thinks of what could happen. And he wonders if watching the kid in the market until they finally reunite with their parent so he could move on with the rest of his day causes him even a fraction of the the utterly disgusting flurry of nerves and fear that Shibi must have felt all those years ago. It goes along with his desire to spare every single little insect's life he can. It goes a long with the fact he only gets violent unless absolutely necessary. Like he wants to be strong but he doesn't want to go mad with power either, less he becomes the very thing that hurt him and his family in the first place.

Originally Shino wanted to become strong to be able to defend himself because at a very young age adults failed him and Torune. But then that changes to defend not only himself, but others as he grows on a team, and realizes trust is important. And then he figured if there must be adults out there that would hurt a child, it's only logical that he should become one that would only nurture and teach one to be strong as well.

Anyway, yeah. Had some feelings. Thanks for coming to my TED talk.

[sugurugetos]

I think the reason so many people are being super reactionary and nasty about rings of power is because, for me, I’d probably really like the show if I watched it. It has good cinematography, the characters sound interesting (not touching on ooc-ness), the casting looks so cool, even the costumes look interesting

But tolkiens works were literally… idk. life changing for me in a way I can’t really describe they are so important and dear to me and that same level of enjoyment for rop isn’t there for me. It’s like sure it’s kinda cool but it’s not my beloved piece of media and it seems like it never will be and it makes me sad and angry that we could have had something so much more meaningful and poignant and instead we got a mildly intriguing kinda cool fantasy series

I almost would’ve preferred if it was an entirely new slightly tolkien inspired but otherwise unrelated series, I would be all over it obsessed in that situation I think

Sorry for dumping this in your inbox haha

oh hey!! thanku for sending this in!! in a way i do agree with you, because there's just something so special that separates tolkien and his fantasy works from the rest of the genre that followed (asoiaf for example!) and even for me the books are my favourite books ever and even the pj films are super beloved by fans everywhere! so it 100% makes sense that a new show in 2022 (esp since entertainment these days is so 'sanitised' and crafted if u know what i mean) doesn't really hit for everyone!

i think my only issue is with how people are reacting. now i don't speak on behalf of hardcore shakespeare fans but there are countless works and productions that are def NOT faithful but they never receive the constant barrage of hate that rop is getting. like so many books/comics are adapted into shows and if you don't want to watch the adaptation, don't watch it 😭 some reactions are so nasty and childish and immature!!

personally i loved 9/10 aspects of it and even tho some parts had me 🤨 questioning the creative choices, i just separated it from the books and enjoyed it as a show anyway but yeah i do hope the vitriol dies down!

[gallavichthings]

This week I interviewed someone who, despite being really new to the fandom, has already made for themselves: Arrow aka Arrowflier/ @arrowflier. Aside from several short stories here on Tumblr, they’ve also written Marriage, Mickey, and Milk of the Gods, Eighty-Seven Percent (Anatomy of a Heart), Burn Out the Sun and several others, including several on-going projects.

Also, I found out what a spectrometrist does.

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A: I'm 30 years old, though when I go out I'm often mistaken for much younger. I got my PhD in analytical chemistry about three years ago, and moved from one midwest college town to another (where I currently work as a mass spectrometrist), both only hours from the city where I grew up. So you could definitely say I'm a homebody, and I like my comfort zone! That said, I've had some amazing opportunities to travel over the years, and love exploring as long as I get to go home after. 

GT: I’m sorry but I have no idea what an spectometrist does. Could you explain it a bit to us and also what made you choose this career? It sounds so interesting! What was your favorite place to visit?

A: I won't get into the nitty gritty, but basically I use really expensive instrumentation to identify, detect, and quantfify trace levels of contaminants like pesticides in a variety of matrices: crops, soil, water, etc. When I first decided to major in chemistry in undergrad it was on a whim, and since then I've focused mainly on environmental applications because it's so important to the health of not just people, but everything else too.

So far I think I have to say Germany in general; I really love it there. It's also the only other country I've been to more than once--first in high school as part of a trip with other young musicians throughout my state, and then again for a three month internship in undergrad. People tend to think this is odd, but one of the things I miss the most is the public transportation...and the bakeries on every corner, of course! I lived right off the Duesseldorf Altstadt, and it was absolutely beautiful there with festivals all the time.

When I am home, I cycle through hyperfixations on several hobbies: reading, writing, and crafting, mostly. Before I decided to dive into this fandom, I spent most evenings knitting or crocheting in front of the tv, and even joined an internet-based crafting competition (reward: bragging rights).

GT:  I' A crafting competition? That's cool! Have you ever made anything fandom inspired? 👀

A: Well I haven't made anything Shameless related just yet--though I've talked about making some little Ian and Mickey figures recently--but I've made things based on other fandoms. Here's a pic of one of the things I'm most proud of, my first double-knitting (reversible) project from a few years ago:

GT: That looks great!

A: What else...I have pretty major (but medicated) anxiety and am extremely open about it, like being by myself, and adore my dog (who lives with my parents a few hours away) more than anything.

GT: If you've read these interviews before you know I'm about to ask for a picture of that dog...

A: My furry baby:

Unfortunately, I just found out about an hour ago that he has a very aggressive oral cancer and won't be with us much longer, but right now he's feeling pretty good and happy.

GT: Awn, I'm so sorry about your dog. He's a cutie and I'm sure he gives you a lot of love.

Tell about your relationship with fanfiction. When did you first come across it?

A: I want to say middle school, maybe about 2005? I'm pretty sure I tried to search for something specific I was wondering about a book, and instead of a canonical answer, I found a fic and dove right in. I would sit at the family desktop in my parent's room and browse ff.net and LJ while I was supposed to be doing homework; thankfully I always cranked out assignments fast so it worked out, haha.

I read for a lot of little fandoms at first, and loved discovering that other people had some of the same thoughts I did about the characters. Back then I was mostly in it either for closure or because I wasn't ready for something to end. Now it's an immediate instinct: see or read something I like, then go see what other people have turned it into.

GT: Ah, FF.net and LJ, those bring out memories!

What was the fandom? Did you write for it too?

A: I want to say the very first one was Good Omens, back when it was just a book, but fics for video games were some of my first as well, specifically Skies of Arcadia: Legends and Tales of Symphonia because I had just discovered my ongoing love of JRPGs.

While I've had ideas for other fandoms, Shameless was the very first one I actually participated in, much less wrote for--my first fic ever was only posted on April 25th this year!

GT: I am reading Good Omens right now! I've already seen the show though.

Wow, you write a lot for someone so new to fanfiction! What made you want to start?

A: You know, I'm honestly not sure what was different to make me finally go for it! I periodically work on originals but hadn't written anything at all for a pretty long time--over a year I think.

But there's so much in Shameless that can be expanded on, and I just wanted to try! Besides that, I was lurking here on Tumblr and seeing what a great community it was, and figured writing was my way to become a part of it.

GT: The fandom is pretty great indeed, and very large nowadays. When did you start watching Shameless?

A: So that's kind of funny too...because I also started watching just this year! I don't know exactly when, but probably around February? I caught up just in time to watch the very last episode the night it aired.

GT: Good for you, you didn't have to suffer through our trials and tribulations lol

Did you binge the whole thing? What was your favorite episode?

A: I binge watched the hell out of it, haha. Totally obsessed once my coworker finally convinced me to give it a try. My favorite episode is definitely the gallavich wedding--I knew most of their story already, at least in general, so I totally cheated and watched bits of that one in between angstier episodes as a palate cleanser. I really needed that to get through season 8, especially.

GT: Is the wedding your favorite scene?

A: Hmm, favorite individual scene is much harder! I'd say it's a tie between the wedding, Mickey coming out, and "Holy fuck".

GT: What would you change in canon if you could change one thing?

A: I'd definitely get rid of Terry walking in on them and the following events. I get the place it has in the story, but it was just too much. While other things are difficult or don't seem to fit, that's the one thing I just can't handle.

GT: Who are your favorite characters aside from them?

A:  That definitely varied throughout the series! Kev and V always had a special place in my heart for being such a constant even when they were struggling. But by the end, Carl was pretty high up there--I think he showed a lot of growth while still being himself.

GT: Do you write them as well or just Ian and Mickey?

A: So far they've only shown up as brief side characters, mostly because I find it harder to write them in a way that feels authentic yet. I'd like to get more into other characters though, and tentatively plan to do character studies for them at some point in the future.

GT: Do you ever include original characters in your fics?

A: I do! They mostly just spring up along the way; I start writing them and see what happens. But most of the characters in my outsider POV series (Meet the Neighbors) are original, and I started a kid!fic that will have OCs as well.

GT: What do you base them on?

A: Nothing in particular, honestly. I don't base them on real people or other characters, at least on purpose. I just start with the basic background that I think makes sense for the story, and let them grow from there. It mostly turns out ok I think, though sometimes they turn out a bit different than I expected!

GT: What inspires your stories?

A: Just about anything and everything! Lately I've mostly been letting other people inspire me with prompts, because there's something really special about writing something you know at least one person is really looking forward to. And a lot of it has been in the vein of "missing scenes", things I wish we had gotten to see on screen, or fix-its. If I can't think of something but want to write, I just sit for a bit and let my mind wander until something sticks.

I also have about a million crossover/AU ideas, because I like plunking my favorite characters into established situations and seeing how that twists it. Because most of the time you can't just merge stories like that and expect them to come out intact--it's sort of a character study on its own to discover how different stories will bend around different people.

GT: What kind of fics do you write the most?

A: Oh gosh, there's so many already I'm not even sure, haha. I'm thinking the majority of my ficlets are post-canon scenarios, which I really do enjoy, and either fluff or hurt/comfort. Because Mickey and Ian deserve good things, but they're not always great at letting themselves have them.

Most of my longer ideas are AU though; I'm just working much more slowly on them.

GT: Which fic you've written are you most proud of?

A: I think I have to say my very first one: F*ck the Stars. It's not that it's my best or my most popular, but it was a really big deal for me to put out there. I still kind of can't believe I actually did, and that I keep doing it!

GT: Which fics and authors in the fandom are your most favorite?

A: Does it sound like a cop-out if I say I can't pick? Really though, I can't--there's just so much talent, and I haven't even made my way through all the fandom classics yet. That said, whenever I see a fantasy AU it shoots right to the top of the list.

Two of my current fantasy favorites came out of you hosting Gallavich Week this year: Bad for Business by Ravenheart [@sunoficarus] and Lest They Say, Here Be Dragons by RageSeptember [@gallavictorious​]. Then there's a witch in wicker park by horror_business [@damnnmilkovich], another taste of divine rush by kissteethstainred, and on a slightly different note Thicker Than Forget by @wehangout.

That doesn't even scratch the surface of works (or authors) I adore, and my to-read list is so long it's scary, but it's one little niche I'm very fond of that doesn't always get a lot of attention.

GT: You're right, it doesn't, so thanks for sharing your favorites with us!

So, fantasy is definitely one of your favorite themes/tropes, right? What else catches your attention when you're looking for fics to read?

A: Absolutely! Fantasy is all I read anymore outside of fic, so I love it when those things cross.

I'm also a sucker for just about any fic centered on misunderstandings, as long as there's a happy ending, usually where they both fall for each other and think they're the only one. It's my not-so-guilty pleasure.

Other than that, I love lots of description, things other people would probably consider purple prose, and familiar stories with unique twists. In general though, I'll give anything a shot if I'm in the mood for it, especially if it comes recommended.

GT: And what annoys you when reading?

A: Hmm, I think the biggest thing might actually be in formatting, not the work itself. If I see huge blocks of text, I tend to hit the back button pretty quickly. Likewise, if I can't tell when a scene shifts or when a flashback starts, it pulls me out of the story as I try to figure it out. I can overlook a lot if a storyline is compelling, but obvious inaccuracies--I'm talking things like physically impossible actions or timelines--throw me off as well. I do avoid some fics (not all) with medical or scientific plots for that reason.

GT: What has the reception been to your fics?

A: So much better than I expected! Sometimes I can't believe people aren't tired of me yet, honestly. The weird thing to me is that ficlets I don't think are very good (here on tumblr, I don't generally put my speedwrites on ao3) sometimes seem to be among the best received! But that's encouraging in its own way, and I think tends to reflect general interest in different topics.

GT: What kind of comments do you just love getting?

A: All of them, even though I'm terrible about replying! But I think it's really special when someone picks out a phrase or passage that spoke to them, or that they related to.

GT: What's your writing process like?

A: Never the same twice, haha. But I'd say that once I have an idea, it's usually immediately followed by a line or two that I fall in love with, and I go from there. For longer fics I attempt to outline, but if I try too hard to stick to that I tend to fizzle out very quickly. So instead I try to apply something I was originally taught for public speaking/oral storytelling: know the bare bones. Stick to those couple of impactful moments that the story wouldn't be the same without, and let the rest fall where it may.

That's easier said than done, of course, and I still struggle to self-edit and keep the bullet-point key moments manageable. I also tend to edit as I go because I'm a perfectionist, but I've started forcing myself to just leave blanks and skip around if I don't feel like I'm getting it right. I skip around a lot, in fact; instead of trying to write up to the point I just had a random idea for, I go ahead and write it and fit it in later.

For my tumblr fics it's a little different though; they're short and fairly stream-of-conscious, and generally unedited as a way to force myself to just put things out there and stop worrying about it.

GT: Do you have any writing rituals? How do you motivate yourself to write?

A: It changes from day to day, nothing concrete except an endless supply of tea and either silence or instrumental music.

When I really need motivation, I like to use my hourglass, and tell myself that I have to at least try to work on something until the sand runs out. More often, though, I try to sit outside--albeit that only works for me in a very narrow temperature range--or I get set up in the spare room that serves as my little library. Sometimes I'll hand write in a pretty journal to type up later. Atmosphere can make a big difference, as can a comfy place to sit--no desks or tables for me.

In a pinch, I take a shower--shower thoughts are creative thoughts--or go to bed extra early and type ideas on my phone, since things always seem to come to me when I shouldn't be thinking about it at all.

Also, not gonna lie, I sometimes bribe myself.

GT: Oh, bribe how? It never works for me.

A: I mean, I never said it worked well, haha. But it can be the last push sometimes. "If I finish this passage, I get to open that bottle of wine." "If I spend 30 minutes at least trying on this, I can leave the laundry until tomorrow." "If I actually post tomorrow, I can splurge on take-out as a reward." That kind of thing.

GT: Hahah, I wish that worked for me too!

Do you have a preference for writing Ian or Mickey pov?

A: In the beginning, I was more comfortable writing Ian. I can really relate to both his mental health struggles and the way he seems to think about and deal with things sometimes, so it came more naturally.

Now though, I find myself writing as Mickey more and more. I probably make him a bit more introspective than would be true to character, but there's so much depth and development there to explore. Beyond that, it's sort of cathartic to write Ian through his eyes, because he's blunt and can put things in perspective and obviously cares very deeply for all of Ian, not just the easy parts.

GT: What's the most difficult thing about writing them?

A: For me, I think it's not being too self-indulgent and keeping them in-character enough that it doesn't throw other people off. That, and dealing with their individual issues and traumas respectfully. It can be nerve-wracking to try and tackle something like bipolar disorder or child abuse from an outside perspective, because it's important but getting it wrong could be hurtful.

GT: And what's the best part?

A: How well they fit together. They've been in each other's orbits for so long, and know each other so well, and it's a pleasure to write about a couple that has their problems but keep coming back to each other to work it out. Because any kind of personal relationship is work, but it's worth it for all the fun, silly, and completely-in-love moments we didn't get enough of in the show.

GT: What are your headcanons for their future?

A: I think I'd like to see them move back to the Southside, and really make it their own. They might not have kids of their own, but their nieces and nephews hang around with their friends at the "cool uncle's" house all the time. They're the honorary parents of the neighborhood, too, and kids know where to go when they need a nonjudgemental adult or a protective force. And I don't care if they keep the same jobs, but whatever they do they find a way to do together.

GT: What are you working on right now?

A: Oh, so many things. I currently have...6 official WIPs? One is a fluff piece of them taking a delayed honeymoon and should go quickly once I get back to it, but the others are more intensive and need some worldbuilding still. There's a Jurassic World AU, a twisty sort of Snow White AU, an alternate meeting AU where Mickey is basically a survivalist, a post-canon fic about them picking up some strays, and my outsider POV series.

I'm trying really hard not to start anything else big until I at least get further into those, but I have a handful of other chaptered AUs planned for sometime in the far future, most based on fairy tales. And I'm still enjoying doing my little ficlets, too.

GT: Wow! Looks like we have a lot to look forward to!!

Ok, last question: why arrowflier?

A: Good question, no good answer haha. Arrow comes from a class I took in undergrad, where we were encouraged to choose our "storytelling" names to use for the semester. It's a character (sort of) in an original work I've been not-writing since high school.

But Arrow was always taken on other websites, so I had to add to it. In trying to think of modifiers, I think I was looking at my books and saw "Arrow's Flight" by Mercedes Lackey. So now I'm either Arrowfly or Arrowflier depending on availability!

GT: Hahah, no, it was a good answer, thanks!

Well, best of luck with all your WIPs and thank you for providing us so much content in such little time. I love seeing new people come into the fandom, it's always a boost of motivation.

Leave a message to the readers now.

A: Thank you for this opportunity, and for all you do for the fandom!

For everyone else, thank you for being such an incredibly supportive community; I'm so glad I chose this as my first real fandom, because I couldn't have chosen better. And if you ever think, "I wish I could write, or draw, or gif, or whatever," just go for it! You'll have an amazing audience, and it's absolutely worth it.💖