#it started as an experiment to see whether his nana would be more likely to call him a trans straight man or a lesbian

[iwanttobepersephone]

Incoming long and useless rant about my trans boyfriends family lol

So, my boyfriend is trans, and his family isn't very accepting of that, but in the manipulative way where they say they're accepting, and they call him his preferred name in front of people sometimes, and overall make him think there's a chance they'll listen when really they won't. At least, from my perspective, I've met his parents like 3 times (they hate me for some reason??? They say they "don't like the way I talk to him" loll).

Anyways, he's been trying to get them to call him his preferred name for a while, and he has recently resorted to trying to get them to call him any masculine name. He said he's gonna ask his mom today what masc names she'd be willing to call him, and asked me for name suggestions that I'd "be ok with calling [him]." I listed things like I listed things like Elliott, Oliver, Calder, just some names that I think he'd like and don't sound too terrible

To the point, though, I'm really just making this post because I have a feeling that she's either (1. Not gonna call him any masc names ever or (2. Choose the stupidest sounding one that's gonna haunt him forever, in which case I'll be updating y'all as to what she said loll

[quirkwizard]

The most annoying aspect is why didn’t AFO just give Tomura Overhaul? He could still kill his family by the surprise factor and turning his family to paste and would be more stronger and versatile for future plans. Like have Garaki teach anatomy to Tomura to master overhaul if it requires knowledge or heal up AFO after his fight with all might since Tomura is completely loyal. Plus it would make crime so much easier like overhauling walls to break in and out with no sign of damage or kill/torture someone over and over and not leave fingerprints, heal wounds since Tomura complained about no having a healer in the party. My only guess is that Decay would ensure the family dies. Honestly it feels like Hori knew people suspected that Decay was given, so he tried to add a surprise twist by having be from Overhaul but just ended up raising more questions.

AFO had access to Overclock and Overhaul and didn't keep either of these quirks, or at least a copy of them. These two alone would make for an extremely broken combo. That, imo, is just complete dumbassery on AFO's part.

Its still weird that AFO didn't have a copy of Overhaul because Garaki could make artificial copies of quirks starting with the AFO quirk itself. If Garaki had the quirk him he could have easily fixed and improved AFO after his fight with All-Might

I have a particular question regarding Kotaro Shimura. We know that he and Nana had a rough time after the death of the father and force to let go his son to being raise from foster family. Why didn't All For One track him and brainwashing him to thinking that his mother abandoned him? Why target Tenko, his son to be his successor?

I've already talked about the flaws of him taking "Overclock", that it's an extremely skill reliant power that needed a dedicated user to make the most of, so I'll just talk about everything else here.

I think you are overestimating how much "Overhaul" would by of use to All For One. Yes, I did say that All For One would benefit from "Overhaul" and I stand by that. However, that is my assumption that "Overhaul" is super easy to use. if I were to play devil's advocate, I could put forward "Overhaul" is a lot more complicated then it appears. It's only as strong as it is since Kai is equal parts competent and experienced enough to make the most of the power. This can be further supported if you go with the idea that "Overhaul" was a deviation, which are infamous for being dangerous and unwieldy for even trained users. Whether or not any of this was Hori's intention is unclear, at least to me. What I can say for certain is that "Overhaul" could not heal All For One. While "Overhaul" can fix injuries, it can't reserve damage. If anything is missing or too far gone, Kai can't fix it. It's why Eri is still scared from all the experiments that Kai did on her. The damage that All For One took is far more extensive then that, to the point that not even "Super Regeneration" could fix it. It's why we don't see it healed until he took the Rewind Drug. He needed something that potent to put his body back together.

While "Overhaul" is certainly a more practical power, there were multiple reasons "Decay" was given to Tomura. It prevented Tomura from being able to heal his family. "Overhaul" is meant to reverse any of the damage done, potentially giving Tomura an out from whatever destruction he caused. "Decay" is only meant for destruction. Second is that All For One didn't want Tomura to be too capable. You need to remember that All For One didn't want a true successor. What he wanted was a vessel that he could eventually take control over. For that, he needed Tomura to hate and for that hate to be strong. So he gave him a power that was a constant problem, risking destroying whatever he touched and was only applicable in destruction, further pushing his destructive nature. "Overhaul" would have been too useful to really work with that. Finally, it helped keep Tomura under All For One's wing. It made him easier to direct and influence. We see this all the way when they first interact. It's why he didn't use Kotaro. Going by the flashbacks, Kotaro was a full adult. It could have been that All For One had only just found him and decided to reoriented his successor plan to use Nana's family, engineering the whole scenario to make the successor he wanted.

[dantedeservedbetter]

I don’t think anyone understands just how much I want origin stories of everyone else in Mystreet like they all have really interesting backgrounds that are just tossed to the side of the main plot points (lol abt to be a really long threat again sorry)

Aaron- Didn’t actually get character lore OR a personality until S3 but like I want MORE because tbh I feel like his parents gave him a lot more trauma than what’s shown in the series, and even the stuff IN the actual seasons (the emotional neglect, his military schooling, the tense relationship w/Melissa etc;) are fixed and shoved off like no he might ACTUALLY need therapy bruh PLEASE

Katelyn- I think she was (?) in therapy in the beginning for her anger issues and the loss of her mother but like it was kind of forgotten about tbh. I think she needs more positive moments in the series honestly bc in the later seasons we’re shown she’s partially abusive towards Travis the first time they went out, and ends up being written off as prejudice towards werewolves bc of past experiences??? Naw the Katelyn I know would never do that. AND HER DREAMS OF WORKING IN THEATRE TOO HELLO??? Also, her mom quite literally used her in the Forever Potion experiments as a child?? I feel like that’s important to her character too :/

The Ro’meave Brothers- I don’t actually know where to start tbh because I feel like ALL THREE of them could use some kind of character depth aside from Dumb Blonde, Emo One, and the Forgotten One. Especially Vylad, probably having to witness this entire Lycan situation grow from an outsiders perspective with no contact from his family in forever. It’s shown that Zane is immensely interested in the family business too like hello??? Garroth himself is kind of just written off as a comedic effect most of the time, but he quite literally has no other goals (possibly because he KNOWS he’s going to inherit the business one day whether he cares to or not).

Laurance- He’s not really a character anymore, but from what we’ve actually SEEN in Mystreet he had enough development to become something outside of a potential love interest for Aphmau. He has a fondness for cooking and was seen to be EXCEPTIONAL at it, and I think he still carried an interest in baseball (or idk it was SOME sport asdfghjk the point is he was good). And he was also shown to still help out his family here and there (babysitting Caleb, his baby brother, in numerous episodes). Idk, I feel like there were so many pieces of Laurance that could’ve been explored and touched upon and we hardly got anything. Also… Garrance. Quite literally hate to be that person but it was literally the biggest piece of queerbaiting I’ve ever seen fr I wish it was explored as much as Aarmau was :( (willing to bet the popularity had something to do with what I call the ‘Heartstopper’ treatment but that’s just me tho)

Nana (KC)- The most under appreciated character in-universe I actually had to go and make a separate post about this LOLOL expect it in like five minutes from now bc I just save everything in my drafts.

Travis- Lol no surprise here but him too dude honestly I have no idea where to start with him atm, his entire family’s lore needs a full in depth analysis on themselves because Aphmau’s series just BARELY touches the surface of Travis’s character

Dante/Gene- Honestly BOTH of them were done so dirty I find it funny how no one ever talks abt it because they’re so beautiful to me. Gene already had his redemption arc so I can kind of see why they just tossed him aside but Dante literally had nothing tbh. He had a messy relationship with KC in PDH and then made that same mistake in LLP. Okay, cool, give us more of that. Let him learn from his mistakes and be self aware now. Or better yet let him grow without tossing love interests into the formula in order for it to happen!! Seems like his family life is pretty good though, worst thing abt him was the peanut allergy.

Lucinda- Queen actually has very little to no background that actually centers around her. We know she had a really bad relationship with Ivan but like I’m pretty sure that’s it.

[marunalu]

As to whether AFO had Izuku as an experiment or not, I still think you can make an argument for it. I mean maybe he did have him as an experiment initially then he got attached to Izuku after and so he let him live somewhere nice and provided for him while also maintaining his distance from his family so he can go do evil things. Also marrying someone doesn't mean you love them, he could've married her as a way to have more control over her via financial and legal means and as a way to have a mother to care for said experiment child.

You are not wrong and it could be the way you descriped it, still I dont see the point of MARRYING a woman, if afo can instead just impregnate her, promise her to marry her afterwards and then dumb/kill her, as soon as she isnt of any use for him anymore. He doesnt need to marry inko to gain control over her and we saw with tomura, its not beyond him to put a child into a room and manipulate said child from an early age without its mother around. So why didnt he took the same path with izuku? He could have raised his son himself, forming him the way he wanted, but instead made sure that said child is raised in a normal household by a loving and protective mother. And its not like as if inko cant find a job herself, espicially after izuku left his home to live in ua instead. Its not as if hisashi stopped sending money to his family after izuku startet to live in the ua dorms and afo knows about that. Inko lives on her own right now, only has to take care for herself, because izuku doesnt live with her anymore and her husband still sends money to her. The financial support never stopped, even after izuku left his home and afo was still not in tartarus at that point. What does stop him from pretending hisashi died, so he doesnt have to pay childsupport to inko anymore? What does stop him for a while now from kidnapping or killing inko? He had more then enough time and reason to do something to her to gain control over the situation with izuku, but instead afo completly left inko alone and never used her against her son. A man who is known for going after the loved ones of the past ofa users. Then there is the whole "40 year old macallan" thing (I know I use this example way to often 😅). The 40 year old macallan afo asked the aoyamas to bring to him, which he spoke about in a affectionate and soft manner (in the japanese raws). The 40 year old macallan he asked FIRST for, even before asking the aoyamas to bring izuku (the 16 year old macallan) to him. Then there are the hades and persephone parallels. Afo is called hades at least 3 times in the manga and that image fits him perfectly and where hades is there usually is a persephone as well, because they are two sides of the same coin. And while hades ways to make persephone his wife, were.... "questionable" to say it nicely, hades indeed loved her and their marriage was way more happier and healthy then all the other marriages between olympic gods.

And while I dont think that izuku was an experiment, I do believe he wasnt "planned" at first, because I also dont think afo original planned to marry inko or start a family with her at all. Who knows, maybe Im wrong about that, but afo who is so obsessed with "family" in generell and always targets the loved ones of his enemys, doesnt give me the vibe for starting a family out of fun or boredom. "Family" is something afo takes serious.

"Afterall, you are the only family I have." Afos words to yoichi, while the moment is focused on izuku.

I think IF someone was original an "experiment" for afo, then it was inko and not izuku. Because I believe in the inko shimura theory. You can read about it here if you want:

Because lets be honest, using nanas daughter against all might, would be something afo would absolutely do. I just think, things.... took a turn he didnt consider, because all of a sudden he was a married man and soon to be father and he enjoyed this kind of life and that was so not like plan. It would be hilarious and pure karma if afo original planned to use inko for his evil plans, but instead her loving and kind nature he wasnt prepared for, made him fall for her and his simple supervillain life got all of a sudden so much more complicated, because now there was something he loved and wanted to protect.

[bitchlessdino]

c.h.s. ; branding

“Branding” (brand·ing)

An act of marking an object or person, insinuating possession.

Pairing: gamer girl!reader X boyfriend!hansol

Genre: smut

Word count: 1k

BEWARE OF: body sucking, unprotected sex, body worship, hickeys, cream pie, lowkey possessive hansol

Series Masterlist

author note: When I say I wrote this so fast in a day, i mean it. I was in such a good mood, I fr imagine this man absorbed in his S/O's presence and I was daydreaming, I was that fixated writing this. I love this version of him, it feels quite similar to how I felt writing for my first chan pieces actually, it was a lovely experience. And so this brings me to my point, there's a lot of you guys were there reading from my first chan piece and a lot of new ones discovering me now in my smut series. If you'd like, let me know out of my works that you read, what lines or scenes stood out to you the most. Sincerely, Praise kink writer, Nana.

It all started with a single question. “Blue or red?”

Hansol looked like he couldn’t care less knowing you’d look good in just about anything you wore, but tonight was important. It was the first anniversary of your streaming career and your reputation has skyrocketed in such a short period of time. Being your tech guy and boyfriend, Hansol was proud and supportive of you all this time, seeing you flourish in success and confidence as your viewers showered you with support monetarily. However, that did not mean he accepted the way some of those viewers would send you sketchy messages, insinuating intentions more than of a simple fan.

He answered your question nonchalantly, saying you’d look good in either color, rather you’d be better in a mixture of both red, blue, and perhaps a deep shade of purple. This induced a rather clingy Hansol to latch his arms around your frame and lips suckle along the line of your neck. Hansol was not one to show much affection, whether it was public or in private, but he knew when he wanted it and how it wanted it. You liked that about him, his usual subtlety and spontaneous desire to act brass often left you breathless. It left you in all three of those colors, making them all of your favorite colors.

“Sol…I’m going live soon…” you lowly moaned.

Ignoring your pleas, his hands found home on your thinly cladded chest, pads running along with the texture of your stiff peaks, and at the same time taking his horny frustration out on collar bone. You bruise like a peach, and Hansol found that to be one of his favorite qualities about you. How he loved to see his marks kiss your skin like a badge of honor, his honor. And even after he’s done branding you, he gets to see them every day, constantly reminding himself how you were indefinitely his. “I don’t care…”

The warmth of his body embracing yours sent you soaring. Hansol embodied the same amount of desire you had for him, never ceasing to erupt the wet arousal in the fabric of your panties. “Are you really gonna be like this…on a night this important?”

“...what other night would better to show off the world how you’re mine?”

This enacted your submission to the comfort of your expensive sheets, gifted by a generous viewer from your P.O. box, often making you guilty how you filthy it so often with your boyfriend’s help. Hansol’s deep-set eyes viewed you like a bountiful meal, craving to take a bite in every vacant section of your body. He had big hands, all the more to hold you with. Thick and shiny brown hair, all the more to run your hands through. And pretty, soft lips, all the more to taste you with.

You had to worry about how your body would look after he was done, too absorbed in his magically gifted hands and hungry mouth as he brought you to a sensation of pleasure far beyond the stratosphere. The cock that pushed past your damp undergarments, fit inside you like a missing puzzle piece, slowly and steadily cherishing the comforting home around it.

“You’re so beautiful with my hickeys all over you…” he placed an unearthly purple on the flesh of your breast. “Wouldn’t your fans love it to see your skin all marked up by me? I can see the flurry of messages now…”

“Sol, you’re getting me all dirty, “ you whined, “cum in me already so I can go prep my set up…”

“Art can’t be rushed, babe,” he dug his digits into the flesh of your torso, the white crescent-shaped marks appearing once he let go, “this will only take a minute longer.”

His full length speeding along to the sound of your whimpers, sloppy wet sounds echoing your ears as Hansol left finishing touches to the underside of your jaw before he grunted, warning you of his final burst of energy before he plowed you until you were weary of your own surroundings. How often he was made fun of for his typical sloth-like pace, always proved contradictory when he’d throw your body around as he used your perfect body, staining you inside and out.

“H-Hansol…oh my gosh…I love you so much.”

Hansol gave you a tired smile, pumping his last round before you both soon mix the lasting evidence of his claim on your being. “I love you too…so so much.”

He filthied your hole finally, gushing a milky white, leaving your body as an array of colors, blemishing you to his perfection. You matched smiles, both feeling immense satisfaction in the aftermath of the damning dance of your bodies experienced. No other words were said for a moment as you basked in his sweaty glory, appreciative of how he manages to impress you every time. Hansol lowered his body to meet your lips, tasting you just a moment longer until your senses were reset, remembering your how you had thousands of people awaiting your appearance on screen.

“My stream!”

You hurried off of his body, not bothering to clean yourself up, and just threw on a big enough hoodie to hide the hickeys left on your body, but unable to conceal the ones on your neck. To which, this earned Hansol a sneer in his direction, where he only laughed it off. You frantically set up your OBS scenes before hitting the record button just in time for your announced streaming time, thousands of messages to pop up on your chatbox sporadically.

“Welcome guys! Hello, hello, hello to another stream! As you may know, this is a special one today because it is the year anniversary of the first day on the platform!” You spoke in that cheery, cute voice your fans were accustomed to.

Although you acted as if nothing happened, the viewers didn’t as they made remarks referring to the man-made necklace your boyfriend left on your body, urging a hand to creep on your skin and an embarrassed smile to fall on your face. In the corner of your eye, Hansol let out a light chortle. “Oh, these…I could lie and say I burned myself multiple times with a curling iron, but that’s overdone. So, let’s start the stream with a get ready with me! How many hickeys can I cover up on stream before we reach 10,000 viewers?”

[anaveragebibliophile]

All For Him

Young!Legolas x Thranduil x Wife!Reader 

Summary: Lord Elrond comes to Mirkwood to ask a favor of his oldest friend, Thranduil. However, the stoic, unyielding king isn’t as willing to follow through on the request because of the danger it will put his family in. 

Honestly, when you stumbled into your husband’s study that morning, you didn’t expect to feel so puzzled and flabbergasted. You didn’t anticipate Thran’s summons to be anything more than a request for information about Legolas (which you were happy to provide), a question regarding supper, or an idea for date night. So the last person you expected to see was Lord Elrond, the ruler of Rivendell, arguing with his trusted confidant and friend of many eons near the balcony. 

“Thran, what’s going on? Is everything alright?” you queried as you stepped into the room, incisors biting into your lower lip. 

“Queen (y/n), what a pleasant surprise,” Lord Elrond replied, consequently ending the argument, as he walked over to take your wrist and place a chaste, respectful kiss on the back of your hand. “My sincerest apologies for not seeking you out sooner.” 

“That’s quite alright, Elrond. You know that. I too wish I had known you were here earlier, but I unfortunately got sidelined. We took a short walk in the gardens this morning, all three of us, when Legolas ended up tripping on a very small rock. Thranduil and I tried to utilize the open--and what we thought was a safe--space as a way for him to grow more comfortable walking without our help. That strategy worked well for us. Until today. None of us had seen the ant-sized pebble roll over his tiny heel, making him lose his balance and unknowingly place his hand on a grounded bee’s stinger to stabilize himself.” 

“My goodness! How is he doing?”

“As well as can be expected. As he got himself up, he whimpered a little bit which isn’t normally like him. Even if he takes a tumble, he’ll usually still maintain his normal demeanor--sweet, timid, and smiley. But once we saw his palm start to swell up, we knew something was wrong. Thran rushed him to the healer, who was more than willing to keep an eye on him. Ever since then, he’s been given herbs to reduce the swelling and irritation at the site of the wound as well as water to keep him hydrated. Thank you for asking.”

Once you finished sharing that traumatizing experience, you looked over to your husband, whose face was devoid of color. Out of the two of you, he had been the most panicked over Legolas’ well-being. ‘Is he breathing?’ he’d asked. ‘What if he has a reaction to the toxins?’ he’d wondered. ‘What if we didn’t get him to the healer’s quarters in time?’ he’d said, voice cracking under all the emotions. Unfortunately, the man is an aggressive worrier who feels the most stress when he’s involved in a situation that’s completely out of his control. His son inadvertently getting stung by a bee? Yeah, definitely an event that drove your husband up a wall. 

“He’s doing fine, Thran. He and I cuddled in his rocking chair for about twenty minutes before he fell asleep. Before that though, he did want me to tell you that he loves you,” I said, trying to soothe him as best as I could given the circumstances. 

Even though Legolas is still quite young and not fluent in Sindarin yet, he does have a few sentences that he likes to use every now and again. His favorite though is ‘gi melin’, the Sindarian version of ‘I love you’. Anytime he’s reunited with you or Thran, he’ll smile so wide (with his one tooth showing itself off) and almost shout the words out (as if you won’t hear him clearly without that extra pizzaz). Both you and your husband agree that it’s probably the sweetest thing your little leaf has ever done (and Legolas is the epitome of sweet). 

“I love him too. More than life. Which is why I cannot allow Sauron’s ring and its company to enter Mirkwood. I am sorry, Elrond, but my answer is final. You will not be able to change my mind on the subject,” your husband said. 

“Sauron’s ring? So young Frodo is alive then, is he not? I heard about your daughter saving him from the hands of the Nazgûl but wasn’t sure of its veracity,” you mentioned.  

“Yes. He is recovered and wishes to continue on the quest to destroy the ring at Mount Doom. However, we are trying to avoid the company’s traveling in the open at night and are looking for places for them to seek refuge. I am trying to convince Thranduil to offer his kingdom, but it seems that that has been more difficult than I originally presumed. He fears for your safety and Legolas’ too much.” 

Speaking of Legolas, a soft knock on the door soon presented you with the little leaf in the arms of his nanny, Elva. 

“Legolas, darling, what are you doing up so early?” I asked, my lips perking up into a small grin. 

“Ada, Nana!” he blubbered, pointing to us. “Gi melin, gi melin, gi melin.”

“I apologize, Your Majesties. As you can see, the prince woke up a bit early from his nap. All of the maids attempted to keep him occupied in his chambers, but it was no use. He only wanted to see his nostairi (parents),” Elva explained. 

“That is quite alright, Elva. I have not seen enough of him today. Thank you for bringing him to us,” your husband responded, moving over as Legolas reached out for him, and, once in his arms, began snuggling into his chest. “Hello, iôn nîn. I hope you slept well.”

“How’s his hand, Thran?” 

Your husband took your question as an opportunity to lightly pull Legolas’ right arm out from where it was hiding in front of his stomach. “It is still a tad swollen but not too severe.” 

You let out a sigh of relief. “That’s good to hear.” 

“Nana, gi melin,” your son whispered behind your husband’s robes. 

“Oh, my sweet boy,” you responded, lightly running your fingers through his hair and down his back. 

Watching the interaction ensue, Thranduil softly smiled down at the two loves of his life. The first one--his wife--who taught him the beauty behind exuding kindness, positivity, and light. The one who guided him back to the meaning of life. And the second one--his son--who embodies all the genuine goodness that his wife bestowed upon him in their early years together. He’ll never know how he got so lucky, but that unknown answer will never prevent him from being grateful. 

“Ada, gi melin,” your son quietly hummed as he lifted himself up to kiss Thran’s cheek. 

“Iôn nîn, gi melin as well. Very much.”

But then the unthinkable happened. Your little leaf turned his body away from Thranduil to look at Elrond. “Gi melin!” he shouted, a smile creeping up his face (with his lone tooth on display). 

“Well, I cannot say I am not shocked,” the lord responded, just as confounded as the rest of the group. Although Legolas was a very empathetic elfling, the reality was that he only shared that sentence with two people: his parents. So his sharing that sentiment with another-- a person he doesn’t spend every day with, let alone see once a month--was very odd, yet exciting in its own way. In your mind, maybe this was a sign that he was feeling more comfortable around his parents’ trusted friends. Maybe he saw the camaraderie in the room and felt soothed by it. Maybe he was no longer experiencing such debilitating episodes of timidity.   

“It appears he has taken a strong liking to you, Elrond,” you responded. “And now that you know the depth of his affections, are you truly going to permit an evil, dark presence permeating Mirkwood’s halls?”

He pondered that question in no time at all before saying, “No. I will not be the one to put this child at risk. Perhaps Frodo and his company can stay a few extra days at Rivendell. It really is not a problem.” 

At that declaration, you and Thranduil humbly nodded (hiding your smiles as best you could because this was a serious matter after all). “Thank you, my friend. Your concern for our son is much appreciated and will never be forgotten.”

“I know you would have done the same for me had I been in your shoes. Legolas deserves to be safe and comforted in his own kingdom without his parents having to worry about whether the ring will wreak havoc and harm him in the process. Besides, I want to return to Mirkwood in a few months’ time and still be on his list of love.” And everyone, including Legolas, giggled at that. 

[komatsunana]

I really don't get all the Takumi hate, I mean, almost all the main characters in Nana are maladjusted adults. All of them have issues but other fans seems to gloss over that fact. I mean Nana O is selfish and possessive who treats her friends as objects and possessions to own and can be discarded (note what she said about Shin when he was arrested) but almost everyone forgives her and ships her with either Ren or Hachi, justifying it with her being abandoned by her mother. Ren is an addict, Shin is a victim of abuse, Reira is selfish and needy and is basically a child trapped in a woman's body. While most of these characters are viewed sympathetically, Takumi who is also a victim of abuse and neglect is vilified, when he is one of the most self aware of the bunch and seems to show growth in the future chapters.

I just find it unfair, is all. What do you think about the fandom's perception about this characters?

ok, so like I said on this post... I'm assuming you're the same sender and there is A LOT to unpack here.

So starting right at the claim that all characters in NANA are maladjusted adults... this is what we call false equivocation. Yes, correct. All characters in NANA (and frankly all people) have done some things that we would call "problematic." The thing is not all problematic things are equal and is frankly just a lazy way of saying "I know what's going on here is morally or socially wrong in someway, but I'm not going to think too hard about it and call it problematic rather than more specifically define it as racism, misogyny, homophobia, etc" and like tbh, even just defining something as misogynist as though all misogynistic acts are equal - making a sexist joke is a whole different thing than rape.

So, yes. Nana has done fucked up things. I would argue that Nana never really treated Shin as her friend and that if it had been in Yasu or Nobu who had gotten arrested instead, her reaction would have been VERY different but I digress. It's not a matter of "forgiving" her because as readers... we don't really get that right. We're just along for the ride and we get to make and form our own opinions. Whether we sympathize with the characters or not, or if we think their actions are right or wrong and what we think those characters should do as reparation for their actions.

Personally I sympathize with Nana and think her possessive, controlling traits are part of what makes her an interesting character. She's done fucked up things and I am very interested in seeing her make up for past actions and becoming a happier person.

And I do sympathize with Takumi. He's been through some shit, this is true. However, he's raped Hachi at least twice that we've seen as readers (again, chapter 29 and chapter 47) and I will not be posting panels of the acts because of the triggering content... But they are very explicitly rape, even if I don’t know how much Yazawa understands that herself even if Hachi calls it rape in chapter 48... But I feel it is important that Hachi herself very much connects both events, because after Takumi rapes her in chapter 47, in chapter 48 we see the events of what happened right after him raping her in chapter 29: her discovering the broken strawberry glasses and Takumi apologizing for “being forceful.” So on some level, Yazawa must know.

And I’m not going to get into how he emotionally abuses Hachi and to some extent Reira. Lots of people have gone through scene by scene at this point, I’m sure.

But the rape and abuse that Takumi does to Hachi are not at all comparable to anything Nana has ever done.  I think it’s fair and fine if we want to sit down and discuss the abusive natures of all the characters of the series.  If we find some dynamics inexcusable and others worthy of redemption, and like some of us are going to disagree.

I do want to quickly touch on the fact that I completely disagree with any and all statements that Reira is a “child in a woman’s body” or that Shin is the adult in his relationship with her or anything along those lines, which I hear very often in the fandom regarding Reira. I feel it’s very important to never lose sight of the fact that Reira *is* an adult, particularly when it comes to her relationship with Shin who *is* by all accounts a child. but this just a side bar.

Because I do want to talk about one aspect you said, which is that Takumi is a victim of abuse and neglect himself.  And I agree entirely and his situation is very sad and horrible.  And I think there is a lot to be said about the way media portrays abusers as being part of a cycle of abuse, as though all those who have been abused are doomed to go on to abuse others.  And this is something that is HIGHLY disturbing to see in much of our media.  

It would be very different if we saw more abusers who were never abused before as part of their backstory in storytelling, but we really don’t. And it has really horrible implications for abuse survivors who consume those stories, as well as abusers themselves.  Because it just lends to a narrative that we should be lenient on abusers, because they have been abused themselves. We definitely need more nuanced and interesting portrayals of abusive characters that are simply them being part of an abusive cycle that they were once a victim of themselves.

I sympathize very much with Takumi’s past, but nothing can excuse what he does to Hachi.  I remain very interested in his character and his possible growth in the future, to him apologizing for the wrong he’s done to other characters (and frankly, not just to Hachi but to everyone) and doing what he can to make things better for those he has victimized.

We all have our own experiences and we’re all going to feel differently about different things. I don’t think it’s entirely fair to act like being interested and invested in Takumi’s character arc is a moral failing and I think people are free to be interested in any character they want. But if people hate a character for raping and abusing well, that’s fair and no justification needed. 

Anyone feel free to reblog and add on, respectfully, please.

[dailyadventureprompts]

Adventure: The Unexpected Invasion

The outbreak of war is much like a birth of a child; when it wants to happen, it’ll happen, whether you were ready for it or not.

-  Brenna of Windspoke, Diplomat

Setup: After years of political tension, an invasion fleet heading for the kingdom’s capital was blown disastrously off course, half wrecking itself upon a beach of a town more than a province or two away. With their element of surprise completely ruined, the invaders have decided to make use of this impromptu beachhead and take the local fortress for themselves. 

What a shame then, that the party is IN that fortress on unrelated business, and are now being pressed into its defense, the first of many skirmishes they’ll have with this impromptu adversary. 

Challenges and Complications: 

With no time to study the terrain and develop a siege plan, the enemy commander is forced to use blunt-force tactics to establish her beachhead, landing as many troops as she can a few miles up the coast from the fortress and sending ships to blockade the harbor. Even disorganized and recently disembarked, her force is more than enough to overwhelm the local garrison, and the players can expect successive waves of increasingly dangers foes as she manages to unpack more and more of her warships’ holds. 

Disaster of disaster, the king’s brother was visiting when the invaders made land, and with the blockade closing in and troops mustering on the beach there are increasingly few opportunities to get him to safety lest he become a hostage. His young son is missing however, brought along to gain some valuable political experience and run off to play with some of the other castle children when politics got to boring for him not to sit still. The Royal guest won’t leave until his son is returned, possibly requiring the party to search the castle and town to find his whereabouts. 

As much help as she would have been in the coming battle, the town’s wizard has left several days ago to ride the winds of the massive storm and see how much lightning she could bottle. If the party can make it past the wards that guard her sanctum, as well as the guardians summoned in its defense, they may be able to find a few tools useful for the upcoming siege. 

Adventure Hooks: 

The Unexpected Invasion can make a great starting adventure for a campaign focusing on epic battles, forging a cast of castle servants and unexpected guests into their kingdom’s defenders and giving them the first bitter taste of war. After the castle falls ( and it will fall, for our party are not yet heroes with the strength to defend it) the characters are taken as captives. Months later, laboring in the hastily constructed enemy shipyards, the party goes through the motions of their captivity while counting the hours till the other captives’ plan for an escape is set into motion. A chance for things to go awry arises however when they overhear that a missive containing vital enemy intelligence has made its way to the head of the camp, something that could give the kingdom’s other defenders a fighting chance against this foe. Do they stick to the plan, or risk it all to strike back against their foe? 

With the keep taken and their surprise attack on the capital thoroughly derailed, the invaders disembark and begin launching attacks into the kingdom’s heartland, ceasing towns and treasure, and knocking the monarch’s bannermen off the board before they can ever muster their forces.  This leaves the kingdom a patchwork wilderness of battlefields and holdouts, a breeding ground for ghouls, bandits, and deserters that the party must cross if they are to seek allies. 

Periodically throughout their adventures in this wartorn land, the party will meet with an old woman who picks over the battlefields of the dead, seemingly perfectly comfortable as she fills her pack with bloodied spoils and pries rings from rot-bloated fingers. She refers to herself as Nana Nemain, and will cheerfully dole out directions and cryptic advice while she goes about her grisly work. In fact Nana Nemain is an aspect of the goddess Morrigan: spirit of war, death, magic and fate, who has taken an interest in the party’s doings and just how they’ll affect the outcome of this blunder born war. If the party heed her unsettling advice, things will turn out well for them, but if they scorn her humble scavenger persona she’ll likely turn to outright mocking them over time. 

[acompleteandtotalnerd]

A New Master

I’ve been slowly (and I mean /slowly/) going through the randomly generated scenarios from this post and decided to publish one of the ones a finished writing a short fic for as celebration of Plus Anima’s anniversary.

Cooro is a demon summoned by wizard Nana to do her bidding.

 His eyes opened slowly, being summoned to the human was always an exhausting experience. As his vision started to focus, he became acutely aware of the sound of sobbing in his presence. A girl. She looked to be a teenager and was the one who summoned him. His eye inspected her with curiosity, he’d only been summoned a handful of times and it was hard to say how much time in the human world had gone by between each. She was bruised and cut at, her humble floral dress having tears that were steadily growing deep red stains.

The room he’d been summoned in was clearly her bedroom. Without her even saying a word it told a tragic story. Though she’d torn and pulled back some of her carpet to have a flat surface to make the circle on he could still see the carpet next to her bed had two distinct spots of wear. She must have prayed for years for a more holy intervention. One of her ankles was swollen and nearly black with infection, whether it was broken when she tried to run, or it was broken to prevent an escape, it spoke a story. There were several angry drunk men pounding on the door, one of which claiming to be her father. Amongst all this storm, as tears ran down her cheeks that had lost all color from blood loss, her pale green eyes stared at him unafraid. He liked them. They reminded him of apples.

“What do you want me to do?” He asked, more out of formality than necessity. She hesitated for a moment before she spoke with a hoarse voice “…Get rid of them.”. He nodded, knowing that the men beyond the door had earned their fate. But as he stared at the girl clutching the wound at her side, he knew that if he only did as he was told she would not survive long. “Okay!” He said with a soft smile that clearly took her aback. In a swift motion his black wings enveloped her similarly to a hug, instantly putting her to sleep. She didn’t need to hear what would happen to those bastards.

 Nana woke up first groggily resisting consciousness before her brain woke up enough to remember this was no time to be resting. As she sprang to a sitting position, she became confused and somewhat frightened. This was not her room- it wasn’t even her house. Her dress wasn’t bloody anymore, nothing even hurt anymore. She had been sleeping on the grass under the shade of an apple tree and based on the surrounding trees it appeared to be an orchard. She wasn’t aware where the nearest apple orchard to her house even was; nor was whatever this was part of the deal. Had she performed the ritual wrong? Was she dead? As the questions and anxieties raced through her head, she spotted the boy.

When she had summoned him, she had been surprised by how young he looked, his body couldn’t have been much older than hers. What’s more is that he didn’t look especially demonic, at least not like she would imagine a demon would look like. No horns on his head, pale rather than any unnatural red or green skinned, the only thing that was unusual in appearance was his large black wings. She took a deep breath, mustering all the courage she had.

“Hey!” She yelled as she strutted towards him. “Where are we?!” She demanded. Her legs were shaking and she could only hope he couldn’t notice it. He didn’t seem especially fazed. He took another bite out of the apple he was munching on. “Relax.” He said while chewing. Raising his free hand he created a small window in the tree he’d been leaning on. She could see herself still wearing a bloodstained dress in her room, she had an odd glow around her. “You’re still in that house, and so am I…. You’re in my consciousness.” Nana stared through the window in wonder. “What? Why?” She asked furrowing her brow in confusion.

He shrugged nonchalantly ”It’s easy enough to get rid of people, what’s hard is saving them.” He studied the apple core in his hand. “I can’t heal you with my powers exactly- it’s more that by temporarily making us connected like this will let your body heal itself closer to my speed.” As he explained this the apple core miraculously regenerated itself, becoming whole by the time he finished his sentence.

Nana staggered a step back this, this entire night really, was too much for her. Her soul or mind- whatever- was connected to a demon. It just felt so much more intimate than a contract. Why do this? What does he gain out of this? She was certain she couldn’t trust him just because he has a cute face- he might only have that cute face because it’s the kind of face she would like! Before she could even ask why he would do that he chuckled.

“I wanted to see where we’d go next.” His chestnut eyes connecting with hers. “By the way- while you’re here I can see into your mind too.” He poked his cheek playfully “It’s good to know my master thinks I’m cute!” he teased. Nana’s cheeks reddened. Despite knowing she ought to be scared, all the trembling in her legs had stopped. Whatever she did when she woke up, she wouldn’t be alone.

[herorps]

Hey flo do you have a guide to naming Chinese characters?? So I can be ethnically correct !

i apologize for how late this is. i’ve had a very busy work day and i’m only now getting some downtime to sit down and answer this the way i want to answer this. i want to start off by saying that i am chinese-american and that what i say and how i name my chinese characters is based on my personal experiences in my community growing up and what i’ve gathered through long-sought out research and diaspora twitter. 

i also want to say that of course your ethnically chinese character can have an western name, it’s very common that we do, especially in modern times and in immigrant spaces, however i think we should be able to normalize using ethnic names. also unless you are adopted ( see: leah lewis ), in my experience you 100% have a chinese name on top of having a ‘western’ name, so if you want to give your character a western name it’d be accurate to give them a chinese name as well ( see: natasha liu bordizzo/liu chengyu ).

if you find this guide helpful, please like and reblog the post, validate me and if you have any questions/corrections/add ons please let me know! 

i would have you start off by reading this really helpful guide. it’s a little long winded and you don’t have to read all of it but they do a great job with describing the different romanizations of names and how they’re different across different dialects/regions. you need to first decide what context your character exists in, whether they’re from beijing or taipei or hong kong, their full name is going to be spelled differently based on what background you want to give them.

my mother’s surname is actually a great example of this. her surname is 湯 which in mandarin chinese is pronounced “tang” but because my mother’s family is originally taishanese, her last name is romanized “hong” everywhere that uses an english spelling. alternatively, if my mother’s family changed their romanization when they moved to hong kong, where they speak cantonese, her last name would have been romanized as “tong”. 

another example of this is chou tzuyu. because she from taiwan, the romanization of her name is chou tzu yu but if her family was from, like, shanghai her name would be romanized zhou zi yu. same chinese characters ( 周子瑜 ), but because they are pronounced differently across different languages and because she is taiwanese, the romanizations are different. 

so after you’ve decided what romanization you want to give them, the next step is to actually choose a name. i personally begin with the given name with all of my characters because i like attaching a meaning to the given name over the surname. and also surnames are pretty easy to find/figure out.

here is a guide that discusses a little bit about naming conventions in china, particularly about gendered names. i really like what tangelotime had to say about the fact that gender doesn’t really matter when it comes to naming because, in my opinion and experience, it doesn’t. i would say that what would be “gendered” is possibly the way a name sounds. idk how to explain this but there are some names that sound “girly” but more in the sense that it’s like girly vs. butch. and i can’t think of a good example of this so you’re just gonna have to ... idk go with your gut. but for the most part, chinese names are gender neutral. 

what tangelotime also said about how giving a chinese name is intense is absolutely true because there are so many things that parents may consider including chinese zodiac and fengshui and radicals in a certain character and what it means---it’s a sport that i do not have the effort for nor the intelligence to properly explain. however, i think the guides that i’ve linked so far do a good job in explaining that in a way that i cannot. here is another extensive guide, but this one discusses historical contexts ( for all u historical rpers heh ) and more importantly imo, the list of themes that a parent might take in creating a name. 

8/6/21 edit: i came across these pictographs of characters from mdzs that analyze the etymology by the radical that gives you a lot of insight to possible name meanings and to the written chinese language. 

additionally, here is a video by avenue x, an amazing creator on youtube who reviews c dramas and gives a lot of in depth cultural context for some of the shows she watches, that explains the names of characters from word of honor and gives the poetry references that the writers may have used. 

so if you’ve taken a look all the guides i’ve given you, good on you, i really appreciate you putting in all the work. now let me give you some examples of how different things may be taken into consideration when giving a chinese name. 

my given name is 安儀, romanized “on yee” because my family speaks cantonese. the first character means “safe” while the second character means “appearance,” so together my name means “safe appearance”. but, my mom also took into consideration the radicals of the characters as well. the first character looks like it has a hat or a roof on it right? that is intentional. the character underneath the hat is the character/radical for girl, so my mom wanted to make sure that her daughter had something over her that would protect her. hence why she chose the character 安. the second character in my given name consists of primarily two other words/radicals, 亻+ 義. the first radical is a variation of ⼈, the chinese word for “person,” and the second radical can roughly translate to “righteous” which means when put together, 儀 can mean “righteous person.” however 儀 can also come to mean “the appearance of a righteous person” if you consider all of the meanings i’ve given so far. my parents thought heavily about what my name means, not only on a translation level but also on a structural level. 

if you’re writing a family with multiple children, consider having a generational name. in short, generational names usually have a shared character among a single generation of family members. both of my parents and their siblings are named in this manner. my mom and her siblings all have the 華 ( wah ) character in their names. my dad and his brother have the 少 ( siu ) character and his sisters have the 美 ( mei ) character in their names. my grandparents ( both sets ) thought to give their kids a generational link in their names. 

now let’s look at jackson wang’s given name, 嘉尔, which he explained was homophonic in meaning. this is a tangent but chinese people love homophones and it’s why we don’t trust the number 4 but love the number 8. his given name, romanized “gaa yee”/”jia er”  is essentially a homophone for “plus 2″. he said ( in a video that i cannot find anymore ) that his grandfather named him because he wanted the meaning to be “a king with two guards to protect him”. jackson’s last name 王 (wong/wang) means “king” so “king” “plus 2″ is the intention his grandfather had in naming him. 

but if you’re really not versed in things like fengshui or poetry or you don’t have someone with chinese literacy available to you, the next best thing is to honestly ... take a look at media. whether that’s celebrities or film/tv/book characters ( written by actual chinese people pls ) and see what their names are ( or at least the romanizations are ). this will help you figure out what sounds appropriate and what sounds like you’re just mashing sounds together ( see: cho chang is she korean... is she chinese?? who the fuck knows ). and then finding characters that give off a meaning ( like my name meaning “safe appearance” ) is just fine imo. 

and honestly sometimes giving a name doesn’t have to be so deep. like fan bingbing’s name literally translates to “ice ice” and i don’t even know what her brother, chengcheng’s name is supposed to mean, i think their parents just think having the duplicated character is fun and cute. so don’t stress yourself out. 

also a lot of what i’ve gone over has pertained to the common 3-character name ( 1 character surname, 2 character given name ) but you can also consider a 2 character name ( 1 character surname, 1 character given name ) ( see: xiao zhan ) or even a 2 character surname ( see: ouyang nana ). 

so finally, to get you started, here is a short list of characters and their romanizations that you can take a look at.

thank you so much for bearing with me, i know this is a lot of information to take in but it is great that you are seeking this information out in the first place. i also know that this may seem very daunting, and even for me it’s daunting sometimes, but if you have any more questions, please let me know and if you have anything you’d like to add, please let me know. 

[tiecladartist]

Okay, spoilers beneath the cut because I have some issues with Rise of the Titans.

Tales of Arcadia is one of my favorite series ever. It handled the "Kid is the chosen one" situation brilliantly, every character had depth (even characters like Steve, Eli, the teachers, etc). Theme was expertly handled with each part of the series. Destiny, heroism and sacrifice for Trollhunters; Family, duty and home for 3-Below; Legacy, prejudice and family (again) for Wizards. Every season brought me to tears, made me laugh, made me fear for the safety of the characters and want good things for them after watching them sacrifice over and over again. It is a comfort show for me and always will be.

Now, the movie...

So, I don't think it was bad. I also don't think it was good, unfortunately. The animation took a bit of getting used to after bingeing everything else leading up to this, but I can't deny it was incredibly beautiful. It was especially nice to see places other than Arcadia and Akiridion-5. It started off strong with the train fight, and admittedly there were a lot of scenes I quite liked during the movie. But, just the scenes. I liked moments, but overall it didn't come together quite as well as the shows did.

The biggest factor is likely time. I doubt making this a movie was the initial plan since I know production companies enjoy snubbing out strong series for various reasons. Honestly, I was surprised we got an "ending" at all based on the trends of recent shows being forced to wrap things up prematurely. Even Wizards felt rushed compared to the others and as a result a lot of interesting concepts were brushed over quickly. I mean, I for one would've loved to see more Camelot "filler" shenanigans since those less plot-heavy episodes that we had throughout Trollhunters and 3-Below helped us explore the characters and grow to love them, and we didn't get quite as much of that with Douxie, Archie, Lancelot, Charlemagne, etc. But I digress, this post is supposed to be about the movie, not Wizards.

So yeah, I think Rise of the Titans should've been a show rather than a movie. We could have more time before Nari is captured, focusing on the "where are they now" of all the characters after the year we skipped. Jim gets to cook and eat human food after losing that passion when becoming a troll, adjusting to being human again! Maybe him and Toby talk about Barbara and Stickler being together and how it's kinda weird (Toby could compare it to having conflicting feelings over his Nana dating an alien). Krel and Aja have a call about how it is being the Queen and Steve interrupts because he misses Aja. Perhaps we hear Eli in the background doing something related to the "Secret weapon" and the call gets cut off quickly because this leads to a small disaster on Aja's end that she needs to go fix. Claire is practicing her magic with the help of Zoe while Douxie is off with Nari. NARI AND DOUXIE INTERACT WITH EACHOTHER AND WE ACTUALLY GET TO SEE IT! (Like, I know that they were travelling together for a year and that that is why Douxie is sad when Nari dies, but it didn't impact at all outside of empathy because there was no emotional investment on my end towards their friendship). But yeah, we get to see what's going on with everyone, and then perhaps this first episode ends with the reveal of them being ready for a plan of sorts (luring the arcane order and cutting off their magic. That wouldn't be revealed though). Cut to the Arcane Order in their super secret clubhouse saying they're close to finding Nari and you get a decent cliffhanger.

Episode 2 would start with the train fight and go fairly the same way. We see Jim struggling with fighting with no armor. Or perhaps he has akiridion armor, but it's too rigid or keeps malfunctioning (doesn't fit, so to speak). Only difference is that Jim's arc wouldn't be about whether or not he's still the trollhunter, because we've been through that already and he knows. I could get having moments of doubt, but his full on denial was kinda out of place after everything he went through. Instead, it could be that he feels useless due to now being a burden in a fight. Or perhaps instead he's wrestling with guilt. He's blaming himself since the arcane order got the seals due to them trying to rescue him. Maybe both? Maybe he even misses his troll body and feels that he's too weak now. Yes, he's still the trollhunter, amulet or not, but he's feeling less and less capable of answering this particular call, and that bothers him. He doesn't want to be a burden after all. Fight ends with the train crash, arrest, Douxie swapping with Nari, all the same.

Now, this is where things would go very very differently. Have more time before Douxie and Nari switch back. Let the Arcane order monologue a little more. They want to reset the world because the balance has been shifted? Cool! Tell me more! Did they used to try to get along with the humans? Did they try diplomacy in the past only to fail due to the stubborn humans, and that's why they've decided to take drastic measures? Or if not, explore why they believe they're the ones allowed to decide the balance is off. Is it because they're powerful? Or how long they've been on Earth? Did they reset it in the past and thus know through experience? I don't mind not knowing, since not everything needs to be spelled out for the audience, but there was potential to make them characters rather than obstacles, and it wasn't really utilized to its full potential. Allow Douxie to pick their brains a little instead of immediately swapping him and Nari back and only succeeding in delaying things a few more hours. Hell, if it was a TV show I honestly would've had one or two episodes before doing that while we address how that initial failure (and the fact that magical creatures/aliens were revealed to the world) affected everyone.

Maybe I'll go through and like, actually plot out episodes and stuff, but since I only just finished watching, here's just some various things I'd change:

-Get rid of that whole Steve pregnancy. That was just out of place and rather than the "comedy" breaking the tension, it shattered it completely and distracted from everything. If you wanna explore his father-based character arc, maybe have him and Aja discussing the fact that now that she's queen, she'll need heirs. And maybe Steve isn't sure he could be a good dad due to his history with paternal figures. You could even have it that he's taking care of Nari while her and Douxie are switched, and that leads to a situation where he helps her out and realizes he may be a better dad than expected. Or perhaps Blinky gives him paternal advice. Or Strickler. Or even BARBARA AND JIM like, Steve couldn't be worse than Jim's dad, and letting Steve and Jim bond over that would be nice. There was so much potential, but instead, Steve was reduced to an out of place running gag instead of getting a resolution to his character arc. And hey, if you wanna keep the whole male akiridions give birth thing that's cool, but it's gotta be done in moments where it won't distract. Or, you could even have it be that it means Aja and Steve need to adopt because uh... she's inorganic and he's organic? His body likely isn't actually built for akiridion childbirth despite the movie glossing over this fact? And maybe Steve has mixed feelings about someone else being the dad of his kids, but Coach and him talk about how Coach isn't his biological dad, but that doesn't mean he loves Steve any less.

-GIVE DOUXIE MORE SCREEN TIME! Seriously, had this been a show he would have the most potential for character growth out of everyone. His series was the shortest, so really all he got was a confidence boost and moving past needing Merlin's approval. But there was so much to explore with him still. What was up with that extreme burst of magic after Merlin's death that was never brought up again? How has he been mentally handling singlehandedly guarding Nari against the Arcane order for a year? Once he and Nari switch back, does he feel guilt over not being able to protect her? "Merlin wouldn't have failed like that. He kept her safe for thousands of years, I lasted a little over one". Perhaps, in his constant desire to prove himself to the people he cares about, he takes risky moves to try and save Nari again and make up for his mistakes, similar to how Jim was acting in the movie. Eventually, when he and Nari meet up again when trying to break her controlled state, Douxie is apologizing and talking about how he wants to make things right. He sees Nari as a friend; as family, just as much as Archie, and he doesn't want to lose her like he lost Merlin. He doesn't want to lose anyone else (which would make Archie getting stuck in the other Trollmarket, and Nari's sacrifice even more painful later on if that still happened).

-Krel, Eli and Stewart also needed more time. I get it was a movie, so time was short, but still. Krel's entire thing is that he grew to see Earth as his true home, and we didn't get to address the fact that he was immediately at risk of losing it at all. Not to mention the sheer amount of stuff he'd built for everyone. Like, could you imagine an episode where, to break up the tension (in a proper way, not a weird pregnancy way), in the midst of everyone trying to figure out how to stop the titans, Krel has overworked himself fixing and managing everyone's tech. He has to spend a day resting and disasters ensue as no one knows how to fix any of the stuff he usually manages. Like the tech keeping Camelot afloat, for example. Stewart and Eli could be the ones that end up stepping up to fill the Krel sized gap for the day.

-And I know that these fillers would lower the tension a bit, but like, having the titans need to charge up after awakening (like, absorbing elemental energy or something), or perhaps making the Arcane Order have to collect certain things to break the seals in the first place that they had on their fortress but lost when that was destroyed , or any other kinda obstacle to give time between the train fight and the Titans waking up would give time for less plot-heavy, more character focused episodes. And even after the titans wake up, they were moving super slowly and walking across the planet. It's not like they'd be short on time despite the movie making it seem like walking from china to america was a short jog at most.

-Don't give Toby the amulet. Don't get me wrong, I love Toby very much and literally bawled out loud at his sacrifice scene. But like, it made no sense to give him the amulet? Jim doing everything again with years of Trollhunter experience would help solve a lot of problems from his first go around (and I'm not fully on board with the whole time reset in the first place. Resetting to the start of the movie, or even just the fight with Bellroc would be better). Jim knows the burdens of being a trollhunter first hand, and you really think he'd be okay dumping all that on Tobes? Toby, the guy completely content with being the wingman and helping the people he cares about. Toby, the guy who never worried about not having a grand destiny up until the movie. The guy who in his biggest dreams was a Duke, not a king. I think Toby was well aware of how important moral support is and wouldn't see it as a lame superpower. But even if he did, in a tv show they could explore that in a way where he comes to learn just how much that moral support does for his friends. And if you still want his moment of glorious sacrifice (because I count that as one of the well done moments), then do that! But rather than going back in time to save everyone, make it so they sacrifice the stone to turn back time a bit. Risk their victory to try saving Toby. Have them fight Bellroc together instead of it being just Jim, because it's trollhunters, not trollhunter. It always has been, always will.

-And if you're like "But if they don't go back then Strickler and Nomura stay dead!" Then how about they don't kill them for shock factor in the first place? Have Strickler badly injured instead, because by god Barbara deserves some happiness. And think of the potential scene of her treating his wounds, and the two of them think about how things have changed since that visit to trollmarket when they were both hurt. About how Strickler stuck around, and when Barbara thought she'd lost him it scared her. How she's sick of almost losing everyone she cares about. She could talk a bit about Jim's dad then too, and it could be revealed that Jim was outside because he was going to check on them, but stopped when he realized they were talking. And then later on, he asks about his dad, admitting he overheard, and we get that conversation they had in the movie. And if you keep the Nomura sacrifice, give her more of a moment ffs. Like, she deserved better! Have the death be a sacrifice to save someone else instead of just "oops I got caught and I'm in the sun now". Make it deliberate. Make it her decision after a life of serving others. Finally, she got to be the one in control of her fate, and she chose to protect the people she cared about.

There's so much more I could say about this and the potential that was killed by the lack of time, but this is getting long and I should probably try actually doing the work I need to do today.

Edit (Because this just popped in my head and I need to add it).

THEY WERE LITERALLY AROUND THE ROUND TABLE! THE NINTH CONFIGURATION (which like, screw that there are more than 9 heroes here to save the day) WERE THE NEW KNIGHTS OF THE ROUND TABLE. They were there to protect the world, and like... did the bond between Lancelot and Steve just not exist anymore? Did that get timeline erased too? Could you imagine Steve fighting to protect the world, doing his best to protect the people he cared about so that he never loses someone like he lost Lance again? He gets to keep his promise to carry on the legacy of the Knights even after they died. THE POTENTIAL WAS THERE!!! THE SET UP WAS THERE!!! BUT NO! WE GET MPREG STEVE INSTEAD!!

[five-rivers]

Long Night in the Valley chapter 14

“It’s Bakugo.”

“Old Bakugo,” said Todoroki.

“I don’t know,” said Uraraka. “He hasn’t sworn at us yet.”

“Wish fulfillment old Bakugo,” corrected Todoroki.

First contact, said two voices. Aizawa could recognize one as belonging to Two.

“Stop comparing me to the exploding brat,” snapped Two. He returned his attention to Midoriya. “I don’t agree with your philosophy,” he said. “But this isn’t the time or the place.”

Midoriya nodded even as he swayed in place, the edges of his body fuzzy.

“Your idea will work. Eight can take him.”

“What are you talking about?” asked Aizawa.

“Nine here just ran into that fire user.”

“Dabi,” supplied Midoriya, voice thin. “Thank you for letting me use your quirk, sensei.”

“Anytime,” said Aizawa.

“Is there anything we can do?” asked Uraraka.

“Stay back and don’t distract him,” said Two. “I’d send you on ahead to One, but I need to give him my power if he wants his ridiculous escape plan to work.” He crossed his arms. “Focus, Nine.”

.

The thing was, Dabi relied on his quirk to the exclusion of everything else. Which was fine. It was a powerful quirk, and his body really wasn’t up to quirkless fighting, seeing as it was literally stapled together.

But there was a reason he had not faced Aizawa himself in the training camp, but instead had delegated that task to one of Twice’s duplicates. No matter how much his quirk hurt him, no matter how much it reminded him of that man and that time, he did not fare well in fights without it.

Toshinori and Izuku had picked up on this, and, thanks to the joys of partial telepathy and haunted quirks, had managed to come up with a plan.

It was, if Izuku was being honest, a sort of terrible plan, but Izuku and Toshinori were both injured and exhausted, and it was the best they could come up with.

Izuku would hang back and cancel Dabi’s quirk, while Toshinori beat him to a pulp.

This division of labor was decided upon through the observation that Toshinori had much greater experience in beating people to pulp and that Izuku probably wouldn’t be able to focus on using Aizawa’s quirk and fighting at the same time. But Izuku worried. Toshinori had been under so much strain today. His body was in just as bad a shape as Dabi’s. If Izuku blinked.

So don’t blink.

What a comforting consensus from the peanut gallery in the back of his head.

Nana chuckled, but she sounded strained. Not much else we can do for you right now, kid.

.

Toshinori was prepared to fight dirty.

As a hero and Symbol of Peace, he was often faced with the expectation that his fights be clean, straightforward affairs. Usually, he complied with the expectation. Few people could match his strength. Few enemies stood up again or kept fighting after he knocked them back, once. For those enemies who could match him, relatively clean fights were often still the best option to defeat them.

But there had always been exceptions, All for One being chief among them.

Toshinori could fight dirty. It was a skill he knew better than to let lapse.

He knew how much old injuries could hurt, and he had no scruple against going after them. Any weak point was fair game.

(This wasn’t even beginning to mention the others, still whispering in the back of his mind, who had maintained the thin line between the light of hope and the darkness of despair for so many years.)

His fist impacted the line of Dabi’s medical staples. Toshinori felt them bite into his knuckles, felt Dabi’s skin tear around them.

The man – the boy, really, he couldn’t be more than a handful of years older than Izuku – reeled back, shaking his hands as if he couldn’t quite believe his quirk was gone. Then he looked up, at Izuku, and Toshinori could give him this, at least: He caught on fast.

He snapped an arm out, clotheslining Dabi before he could pass him and attack Izuku. Dabi hit the ground, and Toshinori tried to follow up his advantage with a sharp kick to the head.

But, even with as much experience as Toshinori had, Dabi was younger and sprier. He recovered quickly, retaliating with comparatively clumsy but strong fists.

Toshinori was very aware of the time limit he was on. How long had Izuku kept his eyes open already? Aizawa could only keep his version of the quirk going for a few minutes.

He knew when Izuku started to waver, the concern of the past users going clear and sharp in the back of his head.

Dabi’s hands burst into flame.

“Touya!”shouted Izuku.

The man whipped his head around, apparently forgetting that Toshinori was even there.

“We saw your hair dye, you drama queen!”

Toshinori grabbed the sides of Dabi’s head, and tried to slam it into his knee, but Dabi pulled free. They were both breathing heavily, now, but Izuku had his eyes back open and fixed on Dabi.

Toshinori doubted they’d be so lucky to distract Dabi again. The others slid into place in his mind, their experience neatly complimenting his own. They needed to finish it before Izuku had to blink again.

They raised their fists.

“Visit your mom, you loser!”

They closed in.

“At least tell the police what happened to you, so they can get your siblings out!”

.

So, it turned out Izuku did have something else to contribute to the fight.

.

“Please repeat what you told me earlier,” ordered the HPSC president.

The hapless liaison with the DNA testing center flinched, then hid the flinch behind a cough. “Well,” he said, “our technicians ran Midoriya’s DNA through a number of databases, and Midoriya is related to the Scourge of Kamino, but, uh, I think it best if I let her explain the rest.” He stepped out of view of the camera, the coward.

The technician waved at the camera. “Hi, uh. So, I guess the first weird thing about the sample you gave me was how contaminated it was. There were, like, almost a dozen different people’s worth of DNA in the sample you gave me, which… usually Hawks is better than that? But then I remembered the nomu DNA, and the Scourge’s DNA, so in retrospect… Anyway, I sort of ran them all through our databases—”

“Which databases?” interrupted Mr. Brave. “The commission ones, the police ones, the public ancestry ones?”

“All of them,” said the technician. “I ran them through the old ones, too, because the Scourge of Kamino is supposed to be over a hundred years old, isn’t he? I’m kind of surprised he wasn’t run through the old databases himself earlier. You could have closed dozens of cases.”

“Get on with it,” hissed the offscreen commission liaison.

“But I ran them through, and, uh, one was All Might.”

A whisper ran through the room. “He stole All Might’s quirk?” asked one hero, traumatized.

“I don’t know,” said the technician, nervously. “I mean, All Might was there, so it could have just been contaminated in the normal way, but… No, I’ll come back to All Might’s DNA in a bit. Then there were three other heroes’ DNA, Skyrunner, Fidelity, and Lariat.”

“We’ll have to assume he has their quirks, too,” said the commission president grimly, for the benefit of the assembled heroes. “Continue.”

“Another matched to the vigilante Forewarning. Then one matched to what was labeled as a 99% surety DNA sequence from Tempest.”

“My god,” said Mr. Brave.

“Then there were some sequences that matched to samples taken from the scenes of various crimes and terrorist actions but are otherwise unknown. That left two DNA samples that could be Midoriya’s assuming he isn’t over a hundred years old. They both matched as relatives to the Scourge of Kamino.”

“What kind of relatives?”

“Uh, one was rather distant, and was actually had the least DNA present out of all the other strands… The closest possible relation would be half-brother, although cousins might be possible… The other was a parent-child relationship, and the most present DNA sequence, so I would assume that one belonged to Midoriya. The thing is…” She trailed off.

“We don’t have all day.”

“The thing is, all of the different people I’ve mentioned also are related to the Scourge of Kamino.”

Silence.

“Excuse me,” said Mt. Lady, raising a hand. “Did you say all of them? Like, including—”

“Including All Might, yes, though he’s probably more like a great-grandson or something along those lines,” said the technician. “Once you get more than a generation or two, it’s hard to tell, because the ratios of what you get from grandparents aren’t even…”

“Do you have anything more to add?”

“Yeah. After running them through the databases… Well, there are dozens of active heroes that are at least loosely related to either them or the Scourge of Kamino, not to mention villains, common criminals, and civilians who had to register their DNA for one reason or another. And the ShiHi cell line? The one that replaced the HeLa line in almost every drug trial after the quirked population got majority status? That’s a perfect match.” She laughed, clearly on the edge of hysteria. “I mean, I don’t know what we expected. He’s over a century old, of course he’s going to have kids and family members. And he’s – And he’s clearly into shady medical research. Wouldn’t put it past him to have donated to sperm banks, the sick—”

The commission president muted the technician. “You see,” he told the heroes, “why we must act to contain and neutralize Midoriya Izuku as a threat as soon as possible. So many heroes being related to an archvillain like the Scourge of Kamino would damage confidence in the hero system, perhaps irreparably.”

“Are any of us-?”

“I don’t think that’s relevant right now, do you?” asked the commission president, smoothly. “What is relevant is ensuring that Midoriya’s DNA family tree never gets into public hands.” He fell quiet, scanning the heroes with dark eyes. “Regardless of whether or not any of you could find yourselves in it, the fact of the matter is that the ensuing investigations would lay bare other things you may not wish to come to light.” He cleared his throat. “Now, Hawks is putting together a team to track down the League of Villains. In light of recent revelations, we believe they have been working closely with Midoriya…”

.

“Maybe you can use my quirk,” said Shouto. “If you’re fighting Dabi, ice would be the perfect counter.”

Midoriya shook his head. “You’re not related. Can’t.”

“What?”

Two sighed. “The trick he did with your teacher’s quirk only works on people related to him.”

Shouto blinked, then turned to look at Aizawa. “Sensei—”

“Absolutely not,” said Iida, loudly.

“You don’t know what I was going to say,” protested Shouto.

“You can’t ask people if they have secret love children! It’s improper! Let us simply wait quietly like, ah, I’m not sure we caught your name earlier, sir.”

“No, you didn’t,” said Two.

“In any case, let us wait quietly,” said Iida, not one to be easily put out.

“I’m related to Midoriya?” asked Aizawa in tones approaching despair.

“You are,” said Two. “I think you’re related to one of my younger siblings, like Six is. Possibly to the Shimuras, as well, given the secondary portion of your quirk.”

“So,” said Shouto, the gears in his brain turning, “Midoriya is related to all of you?”

“Some more distantly than others, but, yes.”

“So, he based you off relatives and people he knew in real life.”

Two sighed heavily. “Look. That was obviously a lie. Six only bothered with it because of that government bastard that’s crawling around.”

Midoriya had been right. Shouto’s conspiracy theories could be used as an interrogation technique.

“Then what’s the truth?” asked Shouto. “Or are you just embarrassed, like Midoriya is about how All Might is clearly his father?”

Midoriya made a very distressed sound, and Shouto realized that maybe this wasn’t the time.

“You have no room to talk when the pyromaniac currently trying to roast Eight is your older brother, you peppermint styled weirdo.”

“You really are like Bakugo.”

“Do you have some sort of death wish?”

“C-can you guys not? This is hard…” said Midoriya. Then, he gasped and fell to his knees. “He got him. Oh, gosh.” He took a deep breath. “My eyes.”

“Luckily, you won’t need them for this,” said Two, kneeling in front of Midoriya. “In the movement, I was called Shadow Dragon. One came up with the name. He named my quirk, too. Perception Filter. Wanted to name it Chameleon Circuit for a while, but that made no sense. He was such a nerd. He’s still a nerd.”

“Yeah?” panted Midoriya. “Guess that… isn’t a surprise. He used old manga to support his arguments with—No, it doesn’t make it better that you only used that argument once. I mean, sure, I’d probably have made the same—”

“Focus, Nine,” said Two, snapping his fingers in front of Midoriya’s face.

Shouto stepped forward.

“It’s okay, Todoroki,” said Midoriya. “I’m just… How did it work? The Perception Filter?”

“No idea. We didn’t have fancy tests and doctors on hand to figure out the mechanics. But I can tell you what it did. When it first came in—” Midoriya nodded at this, as if he heard something in the sentence that Shouto was missing, “—I could disappear from the senses of one targeted person, along with anything I was carrying. Sight, hearing, smell – that last will be the important one for you.”

“Gigantomachia,” said Midoriya, nodding again.

“Exactly. Later, I was able to affect more people at a time, and my range grew. The fewer people I was hiding from, the farther I could reach, up to about a mile. Sometimes, I could draw attention towards myself, too, although I could never keep it up for long.”

“Activation?” asked Midoriya.

“Don’t think too hard about being hidden. You’re blending in. Part of the scenery. No ripples on the surface of the pond. A shadow inside a shadow.”

“Okay,” said Midoriya. “I think I’ve got it. Were you… were you ever able to hide other people with you? Otherwise…”

“Sometimes I thought I did. When Three and I worked together, we were always way luckier than we should have been, and there were some incidents with cars… But it never happened in a way I could test. Your best bet is just carrying Eight.”

“R-right. Okay. I’ll try that.”

.

“Izuku, you can barely open your eyes. Or stand up. You aren’t going to carry me.”

“But Two said—”

Toshinori frowned deeply and hoped Two got the message. “Just focus on yourself, right now, alright? Gigantomachia will be looking for you, first, not me.”

We’ve always been thankful Gigantomachia isn’t the brightest of All for One’s minions.

Even if he is one of the most annoying.

I don’t know if annoying is the word I’d use…

Toshinori blinked and shook his head. “You’re shaking,” he said.

“I’m okay,” said Izuku, trying to get up. “T’many quirks at once.”

Toshinori put his hands on Izuku’s shoulders, silently telling him to stay down. What a time to forget where he had packed the blankets… Although…

He looked back at where he’d propped Dabi, unconscious, up against a tree.

Dabi seemed to have a cold resistance vestigial mutation… although how Toshinori knew that was a mystery for another day (one probably connected with how One for All manifested in Izuku) and he was a fire quirk user. He didn’t really need that jacket. Besides, Toshinori was a villain now. Sort of. As he and Izuku had discussed earlier, villains were veritable bastions of pettiness.

He stole Dabi’s coat and wrapped it around Izuku’s shoulders.

.

Miles away, trying to coordinate heroes over a video call, Hawks lost contact with one of his feathers. Specifically, the one he’d hidden in Dabi’s coat. He did not frown, twitch, stutter, or otherwise falter. He did, however, curse internally, using words he suspected the hero commission would have like him to never have learned.

Dabi must have found the feather and destroyed it. Hawks had thought he’d hidden it better than that.

This was going to be a pain to explain.

.

Giagantomachia paused for a second, then, with a howl, redoubled his attacks.

“Can anyone tell what he’s screaming about?” demanded Tomura.

“No idea!” said Toga, her cheerfulness more than a little ragged.

“Hey, boss!” said Twice. “If I made a double of this guy, do you think they’d fight each other, or – Dear god, who in their right mind would want two of these things running around?”

“LITTLE LORD,” wailed Machia, “WHERE DID YOU GO?”

“Say, Shigaraki,” said Mr. Compress, narrowly dodging a boulder, “you don’t – ha – think he’s referring to the little green haired – er, white haired – oh, you know what I mean.”

Yeah, Tomura did, actually, which meant the brat (who might be Sensei’s brat – don’t think about it) was around here somewhere, and they’d missed him.

(Like everything else about this situation, Tomura had mixed feelings about this.)

“So, maybe, if the boy and the giant are acquainted, the mother—”

“Do all of you idiots have a death wish? You don’t fight two bosses at once unless you want to be pancaked.”

“I was thinking she could perhaps calm the giant—”

“Yeah, right before they team up to kill us. What part of this are you not getti-?”

Mr. Compress didn’t quite make the dodge and was catapulted into one of the few nearby trees that were still standing. As he lost consciousness, all of the various marbles in his pockets ballooned and broke, disgorging their contents. This meant that Tomura had to rescue Midoriya Inko from being crushed between an entire bus stop shelter (why, Compress, why?) and several logs, because if there was even a chance that she was Sensei’s wife, Tomura didn’t fancy his chances at staying alive if she was unalived in his general vicinity.

As Tomura was in no way a goody-two-shoes hero student, had never trained himself to safely save people, and had a quirk that literally destroyed everything his touched, this went far from perfectly.

At least Midoriya seemed unharmed.

“Ah,” she said. “My shirt.” She shifted slightly. “And my bra…”

There was a shout of utter rage from Gigantomachia, and Tomura contemplated just letting Machia kill him. Surely, being stomped flat by a man taller than most five story buildings would be less painful than whatever Sensei would come up with.

“Oh, my, Machia, is that you?” asked Midoriya Inko, quite calmly, as if she weren’t standing half naked in the middle of a battlefield in winter. “It’s been forever.”

“MRS. LORD!” shouted Machia, his eyes tearing up. “I AM SO SORRY! I LOST LITTLE LORD!”

“Oh, really? He was here, then?” Her eyes were glittering. “I’m sure he couldn’t have gone too far. If we walk around a bit, I’m sure he’ll hear us calling. In the meantime… perhaps you can explain to me what, exactly, you do for my husband? Your role in his business seems to have been downplayed.”

.

“Is that better?” asked Toshinori.

Izuku nodded tiredly. Despite Two’s instructions, he couldn’t keep up Perception Filter and, well, do anything else, really. Toshinori wasn’t much better. Izuku could tell, through One for All, that he was also on his last legs.

“Alright. Let’s keep going the way we were before,” said Toshinori, pulling Izuku up. “Got to get out of Gigantomachia’s range, so you can sleep.”

He did not say that reaching the Wild Wild Pussycats’ camp was now out of the question, with how beaten up they were. They’d be sleeping outside tonight. Hopefully they had enough clothes and blankets…

Izuku shuddered as the pounding sensation in his head increased.

“I’m sure it’ll be fine,” said Toshinori, guiding Izuku with a hand on his back. “Good, you have the briefcase, good.” Toshinori kept muttering encouragement. Izuku really wasn’t paying attention, which made him feel terrible, but he had to keep Perception Filter going. He had to keep going. Just a little bit more… Aizawa-sensei and his friends were almost to One. One would get them out before he broke through.

He just had to hold on until then.

.

Midoriya’s form flickered and then faded. Two sighed.

“Is he alright?” asked Aizawa. “Is he safe?”

“As safe as he and Eight can be, wandering through a forest filled with All for One’s minions while the government tries to track him down in the middle of winter,” replied Two. “Which isn’t very safe, speaking from experience. Come on, let’s go.” Two walked out the hole in the wall, not waiting to see if Aizawa or any of the kids followed.

“You’re calling Yagi Eight, now?” asked Aizawa.

“That’s his number, yeah. Hurry up.”

“Yagi, not Yagi’s… impression, his copy in Midoriya’s mind.” Two didn’t answer. “You aren’t impressions or copies at all, are you? You’re real people, somewhere, that Midoriya is connected to. Why pretend otherwise?”

“Some of the others thought Nine could fix things with the government, if they didn’t know what was really going on. Thought it would be ‘worth it.’ So stupid, after everything…” They walked through the compound gate and into a living room.

“It seems awfully contrived, though. Why try to be dead heroes? Why pick people like Skyrunner and Fidelity to impersonate?”

Two snorted. “They weren’t impersonating anyone. They really are Skyrunner and Fidelity. Except for Eight and Nine, we’re all dead, otherwise we would have finished this by now. Eight almost did, all on his own.”

They turned a corner. Two young children played in a bedroom while a teen watched on. One child was obviously a younger version of Two. That hair was distinctive. The other child had a short curtain of white hair. They had action figures they were playing with, although Aizawa didn’t recognize who they were of.

First contact, said a single, young voice.

The face of the teen leaning against the wall was scribbled out, as if with a marker.

“Don’t look too closely at that one,” said Two.

“Who is that?” asked Uraraka.

“All for One. I suppose you’d call him the Scourge of Kamino.”

“He’s your older brother?” asked Todoroki, his eyebrows raised into his hairline.

“Don’t be disgusting. Biologically speaking, he was my cousin.”

Oh, no, thought Aizawa, don’t tell me... “Is he the one you have locked away? The one you don’t count as being ‘among your number?’”

Two sighed again.

“Are you doing that instead of swearing?” asked Todoroki. “The sighing, I mean.”

“I told you to stop comparing me to the explosion brat! I—” Two tsked, then frowned. “Something’s not right.”

“What is it?”

“This isn’t a safe memory, just a quick one. One should have been here to pick you up by now.”

“What do you mean, it isn’t safe?” asked Iida, before Aizawa could. “No matter how immersed we are here, it is only a memory, isn’t it?”

“You did hear the part where he’s breaking in, didn’t you? And the part where we’re all real people? Are those glasses just for show?”

“The real All for One is trying to break into Midoriya’s mind,” said Aizawa.

“W-wait,” said Uraraka, “but… Izuku… That wouldn’t mean that the commission was right…”

“Of course not. Nine would probably cut off all his limbs before betraying his friends. Even if I don’t agree with him, and think he shouldn’t… I can still see that. But where is One?”

“Why are you telling us this?” asked Aizawa. “You’ve told us why the others didn’t. But you have no reason to say anything, yourself, do you?”

Two turned slightly, to gaze at Aizawa out of the corner of his eye.

“As long as we’re waiting, I might as well collect as much information as possible, right?”

“It’s insurance,” said Two, finally. “It’s hard to see how this will turn out. Eight wants to take Nine out of the country, but even if that works, All for One will still be here. Someone else needs at least part of the story.” He turned more fully to face Aizawa, lips pressed tight against his teeth. “You have to understand. I want Nine to… do well. I don’t want this on him. He’s a kid. So are you.” He looked at the students, then back at Aizawa. “You’re all kids. If I can get someone else to take care of this for him, while he and Eight are somewhere safe…”

“All for One is in Tartarus,” said Aizawa.

“You think something like that’s going to stop him? I’m not entirely sure death would stop him. It didn’t stop us, and he’s at least as stubborn.”

Well, wasn’t this an impossibly heavy weight to set on Aizawa’s shoulders.

“I have no sympathy, you lazy caterpillar lookalike. You’re an adult, aren’t you? Get help if you can’t do it yourself. If I find out you pushed it onto children, I’ll kill you.”

“Wow, he’s secretly soft, too, just like Bakugo,” said Todoroki. “Are you sure you’re not related.”

“There is legitimately something wrong with you. Do you—”

.

The hinges of the vault snapped, and the door crumpled outward. Another well-placed kick sent the door tumbling outward with a crash.

Shaking his hand, All for One stepped into the mindscape and smiled.

“Well,” he said, dragging his gaze over the assembled One for All users, his sworn enemies and the closest thing he had to family, “isn’t this a lovely little reunion?”

[otonymous]

A Bolt From The Blue (MLQC Shaw - NSFW) - Part I: A Matter Of Convenience

Description: An extraordinary man arrives to shake up your ordinary life Warnings: NSFW/18+: Explicit/graphic language & mature themes — reader discretion is advised.  Potential trigger warnings: robberies and mentions of firearms, physical violence, mild depictions of bodily injury, blood and masturbation, profanity Word Count: 1650 words (~8 mins of action, drama and the start of a slow burn 🔥)  Author’s Notes: This multi-chapter fic is dedicated to the lovely @op-peccatori​​​, one of the winners of my Follower Milestone Celebration!  Thank you so much, Nana, for requesting a mafia AU story starring everyone’s favourite lavender-haired man 😆 This is actually my first time writing an AU fic, and the experience thus far has been incredibly eye-opening and lots of fun!

For this piece, I wanted to localize the AU to better fit the world of MLQC, so instead of using a traditional mafia setting, the events take place in the milieu of the triads and “black societies” that are more likely to be found in corresponding parts of the world.  For those who are interested, Wikipedia has an incredibly comprehensive article on triads and organized crime.

This piece turned out to be much longer than I anticipated and is still ongoing as of the time of this post!  That being said, I hope you’ll join me on this wild ride 😂 As always, wishing you all a very happy read 😊

Jump to Chapter(s): Two | Three | Four

“Put the money in the bag and no one gets hurt.”

A black duffel bag is thrust onto the counter before you, panels wide open like a gaping maw.  You look up at the man in the bomber jacket and the only things you can process are:

One: his nostrils are flaring.

Two: why bother trying to be nondescript by dressing in all black if you’re going to leave your face uncovered during a robbery?

“I ain’t playin’ around, little girl.  Put the goddamn money in the bag right now or else I’ll shoot—”

WHACK!

The man’s eyes widen in the split second before his face crumples, teeth yellowed and uneven protruding in an ugly grimace.  His hand flies to his head, trying to stem the blood already streaking down his face when he collapses onto the counter, taking out a display of collectible miniature keychains next to the register as he does.  They scatter, some rolling across the floor before being stopped by a pair of purple Chuck Taylors tapping out an impatient rhythm on the linoleum.

You look up from those sneakers in a daze, eyes following the silhouette of a pair of jeans so worn in places you doubted the rips and tears were purely for aesthetic purposes.  And if you’d had to guess, you’d say that purple was your saviour’s favourite colour, given the lavender hair that fell over his eyes the moment he pulled back the hood of his sweatshirt, also in a shade of violet.  His other hand — clad in a fingerless leather glove — gripped the skateboard that had just connected with the head of the would-be robber, still groaning before you.

Pop!

You startle at the sound, heart slowing only when you see the pink bubble deflating between the young man’s lips before the gum is pulled back by the tip of his tongue.  And from where you stood — glued to the spot behind the counter — you swear you can detect the hint of cinnamon.  

He crouches, picking up the gun that had slid out of the thief’s hand when he was unceremoniously hit from behind, and when he chuckles — the sound dangerous and cocksure — it ignites something deep within you.

“Tsk, tsk.  Can’t very well go around robbing people with toys guns, now can you?  Especially not on my turf.  Piece of advice: don’t mess with Boss Li’s territory or else I’ll be doing more than just breaking your head the next time around.  Don’t let me catch you here again.”  

Letting out a pathetic whimper, the robber snatches the empty bag from the counter, running for the doors in such haste he almost trips over his own feet.  The electronic refrains of the door chime still ring in your ears when you realize the man has already made his way to the beverage dispenser, one long finger pressing the Pepsi button before switching to Coke, both drinks mixing in the same paper cup.

Smoothly stepping over the mess on the floor, he places the drink on the counter right next to a smear of blood.  Mind still reeling, your customer service instincts take over.

“H-hello.  Just this?”  

He nods, popping a purple straw through the plastic lid before fixing you with his amber eyes as he pays, a hint of a smirk on his face.  And that is when it hits you that he is actually…actually…

…incredibly gorgeous.

An intense wave of heat washes over your face and you can’t help but look down.  By the time you’ve worked up the courage to lift your head again, he is already at the door, merging with the dark night beyond.  He throws up one hand in goodbye, not even bothering to look back when he says, “Relax.  That guy won’t be bothering you again.”

You hear his skateboard hit the pavement, listen to it rolling away.  Only when the sound completely fades do you remember to breathe.

There was a certain tranquility in working late-night shifts at the 24-hour convenience store — aisles empty save for the occasional customer breaking the monotony: high-strung lovers grabbing last-minute condoms and overworked salarymen buying the beer and discounted meals they subsisted on.

And though your coworkers complained bitterly about the graveyard shift, they were more than happy to pass them on to you, making up every excuse as to why they were unable to show up during those times.  It was unnecessary, really.  You didn’t mind it, even preferred the solitary calm it afforded.

Until now.

Your peace has been shattered, replaced by something that made your hands ball into nervous fists — fingers gripping at the hem of your polyester uniform and wondering for the first time ever whether blue stripes made you look ridiculous.

Because for the first time in a very long while, there was something, someone, to look forward to.

Night after night, it’s the same.  Repeated glances at the clock above the magazine rack, your breath growing shallow to see it approach 1:30.  Heart leaping into your throat to hear the automatic doors slide open followed by the scuff of purple sneakers, tracing a path through the store.

Since the night of that foiled robbery attempt a month ago, he has visited like clockwork and you still haven’t figured out how to remain calm.  So you find contentment from behind the safety of the counter, watching the man with lavender hair — soft, even when lit beneath a harsh fluorescent glare as he stands at the drink dispenser, always filling a cup with Pepsi first, then Coke.

Only ever buying the same thing every time.

This strange ritual lasts all of ten minutes, fifteen at most.  And it takes just as long after he leaves for the hairs of your body to cease standing on end, as if electrified by the intensity of his eyes on yours.  

That gaze of molten gold stays with you even when you return home in the early morning hours, pulling blackout curtains across your window before falling into bed to pretend your hands were his: tracing the outline of your lips, caressing the swell of your breasts, dipping between your legs.

And when your breath falters in a quick succession of shudders, you wonder at your own sanity.  Because in spite of your suspicions about the guy with the purple hair, the warning signs that pointed to his obvious involvement with the triads that extorted money from local businesses as ‘protection fees,’ you still couldn’t help but think about the man who visited you every night without fail.

“You’re hurt—”

“I-I’m fine.  Just…just ring this up, will ya?  I’m…in a rush…”

One arm crossed over his abdomen, he places the cup onto the counter as if it took all the concentration in the world — his efforts squandered anyways when his hand spasms at the last minute to send dark liquid sloshing over the lip.  He hadn’t even bothered to put a lid on.

“…Emergency responders have just arrived on scene and are dealing with scores of injuries.  Eyewitnesses describe what appears to have been a violent clash between rival gangs in a longstanding feud over contested territory.  The police are seeking help from the public in locating several key suspects believed to have fled the scene.  Please do not approach them under any circumstances as they are considered armed and dangerous…”

The news anchor’s face on the wall-mounted television is replaced by another: that of a youthful man with lavender hair and multiple piercings on his ears — challenge exuding from amber eyes.  You scramble for the remote on the shelf behind you, mashing the power button until the screen goes black.  And in the eerie silence that descends upon the store, all you can focus on is the laboured breathing of the man slouched before you.

Skin pale, beads of sweat dot a face drained of colour save for the crimson protrusion above his left eye — soon set to transform, ironically, into his favourite shade of purple.  He tries to suppress a cough but it is too late: you’ve already caught sight of the blood spreading out from beneath the palm pressed to his stomach.

“It’s on me tonight.”

The words leave your lips without second thought as you make for the storefront, flipping the light switch even as you reach to turn the lock on the automatic doors.

“No, don’t…don’t get yourself involved…”

Ignoring his protests, you gingerly place his arm over your shoulder, doing your best to support his weight as you make an awkward attempt to hobble together towards the back of the store.

Suddenly, the darkened interior is lit by flashes of red and blue and you are pulled in the direction of the nearest pillar, a strong arm flexed as it tenses around your waist, holding you to him in an intimate embrace.

He is close…so close that your senses are flooded with him: the heartbeat thunderous in your ear, leather and sweat tickling your nostrils; the scent of blood thick enough you can almost taste it on your tongue.  The hand on your hip — grip firm in a way it almost seemed possessive, and you are ashamed to find that you can become aroused even in a situation like this.

When you finally gather the courage to look up at his face — seeking a sign in the tension dissolving from the firm set of his jaw that the police cruiser had passed — you are shocked to see his pale lips stretched into a smirk instead.

“You know...I’ve been coming here every day…for weeks now…and this is the most you’ve ever said to me.”

He is still smiling when he passes out.

Thanks so much for reading!  Hope you all enjoyed it and please stay tuned for part 2!  Check out more of my work here! 📚

(Updated): Jump to Chapter(s): Two | Three | Four

[nooneelsecomesclose17]

Robron week - day 5

I'll try to love you, best I can

Just made it! This wasn't originally what I was going to do for today but the Paddy story might take a little longer, so have another little look into the world I've created this week. I think most people have done a redo of the scene in the woods in SSW16 but here's mine anyway! I've also played a little fast and loose with the prompt and it's more hidden love than forbidden but close enough ;)

(AO3 link)

The door to the flat slamming behind him had a horrible sense of finality to it. He could've stayed, could've tried harder but he couldn't see the point any more. There was just no way around the elephant in the room.

He keeps walking to his car, head down, hands stuffed in his pockets hoping no one tries to talk to him because he’s not in the mood.

“Aaron! Aaron wait!” He doesn’t, keeps walking because he’s afraid he’ll end up saying something he’ll regret if he turns round. “Aaron come on, this is stupid.”

“Go home Robert.”

“No. We’re going to sort this now.”

“Go on then. Go tell your sister about me.” Robert doesn’t say anything just stares at the ground. “That’s what I thought. Go home Robert.” He’s not sure whether he’s relieved or disappointed when he does as he told him.

It’s an old argument, well a good month anyway even if it feels a lot longer. He’s fed up with sneaking around. At first it had been fun, new and exciting but now he wanted everyone to know how happy he was. His Mum had noticed and he’d been fobbing her off, even people at work were remarking on it, but he couldn’t tell them why because Robert was being so stubborn. He wouldn’t even talk about it so he had no idea if there was a reason behind it or if he was just being bloody minded.

He doesn’t see him for the next day or so, he’d taken on a double shift to earn some extra money and he’s about ready to drop when he gets home. His Mum collars him into having a pint because ‘it’s been too long since we had a chat Aaron’ so he’s propping up the bar while she flits around serving the customers, the chat looking like it’ll never happen.

He’s about to leave when Robert walks in with Vic and he can’t help but look at him, sees him avoid his gaze, making a point of checking on Seb at his side. So that’s how it’s going to be.

“Mum I’m going in the back.” He’s nearly through when Seb slams into his legs and whatever his problem with Robert he won’t turn him away. “Hey monkey.”

“Will you eat with us? We’re having chips cos we’re moving!” He hates how his heart drops at the words. Robert hadn’t mentioned anything and it feels pretty clear in his mind that it’s the reason he hasn’t told anyone about them, that it wasn’t going to last and now they were moving away.

It’d been six months since that night in the hospital, not much less since they went out for a drink, what turned into their first date, and he’d thought everything was good, that this was finally a relationship he could get right. Looks like he was wrong.

“Not tonight Seb. I’m really tired. Ask your Dad if I can take you to the park tomorrow and you can tell me all about it, eh?” He runs off happy enough with the excuse and he watches as he whispers to his Dad, Robert’s eyes finally meeting his. He wonders if he looks like that. He probably does, but there’s nothing either of them can do unless Robert makes a decision. He’s hidden before and he’s not doing it again.

He’s barely in his room when Robert’s there, looking sad maybe a little annoyed.

“Robert I’m tired. I’ve just done a double shift.”

“You should quit.”

“Not this again.” If the argument about them hiding was old, this one was even older. He’d only mentioned an old dream in passing and now Robert had taken it upon himself to bring up a change of career at every opportunity. If he could be stubborn about telling people then Aaron could be stubborn about this.

“You could be getting the experience you need to get the job you want, not wasting time pushing people around in trollies.”

“I like my job.”

“No you don’t. You do nothing but moan about it. What are you so afraid of?”

“What are you so afraid of?”

“Aaron…”

“Were you going to tell me you were moving or was I just going to turn up at the flat one day to find you gone?” He looks taken aback and Aaron gets a fizz of satisfaction. “If you didn’t want me to know you shouldn’t have told Seb.”

“It’s not…he overheard me telling Vic. It only happened today.” He scoffs. “I didn’t want to say anything unless it was a done deal.”

“Well good luck. I’m sure you’ll be happy. I’d say send me a postcard but…” He really hopes he’s hiding how hurt he is.

“What are you on about? We’re moving here. To Mill Cottage. I was going to surprise you.”

“Why?”

“Well…I thought, one day, that maybe we’d all live there.” It’s surreal but he’s sure Robert just asked him to move in and yet at the same time they’re still mid argument about being in the closet as a couple.

“And I’d be using the back door would I so no one saw me come and go.”

“Now you’re just being bloody ridiculous!”

“No, I don’t think I am. You won’t tell anyone about me, about us, so what else am I to think? I’ve been patient but I’m sick of hiding, and you know what, I think you are too. So unless you’re going to change that I don’t have anything to say.”

“So you’re blackmailing me into coming out?”

“No. Of course not. Robert you and I are never going to have a chance at a proper relationship if we have to pretend to be mates. You’re talking about moving in, is that as flatmates, or am I the nanny? It’s not going to be as boyfriends is it?”

“I don’t know what to say.”

“Then don’t. I’m going to bed. Night Robert.” He feels awful as he shuts the door in his face but he doesn’t have any energy left

He knew he was falling in love with Robert, had been for a long time and he adored Seb, but he wouldn't hide, not again. He wouldn't force Robert to go public but he couldn't stay hidden so they were at a stalemate. The house thing had thrown him though, clearly Robert wanted them to stay together, but how could they. He just didn’t understand what he was thinking.

He doesn't sleep a wink, everything whirling around his brain all night. If Robert had given a reason for it all then maybe he could understand but he just clammed up.

He doesn't hear a thing from Robert for days and he takes it to mean he's made his choice. His Mum keeps asking him why he's in such a mood all of a sudden and he can't answer her without a whole heap of explanations that he can't get into.

Even work isn't making him happy, his usual banter with patients is missing and he feels like he's sleepwalking his way through his days. He should do as Robert said, quit and try and fulfil his dream of being a play specialist or something along those lines, but he couldn’t quite convince himself to take the risk.

"Aaron!" The chair he's pushing comes to an abrupt stop as a familiar voice rings out across the orthopaedic department. He swings round to see Seb sitting on one of the chairs all alone.

"Hey monkey. where's your Dad?"

"He's talking to the doctor.” He answers legs swinging back and forth.

"Want me to sit with you?" Seb nods. "So, how's school?"

"Boring. Aaron, do you know why my Daddy's so sad?"

"No mate. Why do you think he's sad?"

"He's not smiley anymore. And you haven't come round for tea and he always smiles when you're there. I want him to be happy again, I don't want him to be sad." it all comes out in one big breath and it takes him a minute to work out what he's saying.

"Well everyone gets sad sometimes."

"But he wasn't before. Why don't you come round anymore? Don't you like us now?"

"Oh monkey, of course I do."He's beginning to realise that Seb is far more observant than either he or Robert gives him credit for.

“Will you help us, like you did before? Daddy says he doesn’t know where he would be without you so you must’ve helped. You can do it again, can’t you?” He can’t resist the pleading eyes and he hates how his and Robert’s problems have clearly started to affect Seb.

"Tell you what, I'll wait here with you and when Daddy comes out me and him will have a chat, eh?" Seb nods.

It's no more than five minutes when one of the doors opens and Robert comes out. His steps falter when he sees Aaron but he plasters a smile on his face and comes over to them.

"Hey." Aaron nods. "You ready to go Seb?"

"You said I could have a cookie. I want Aaron to come."

"Aaron's working mate. Come on, we'll make some cookies at home. Nana’s recipe, the ones you like."

"No! "The little boy sits back and crosses his arms and at any other time he'd laugh but right now he just feels awkward.

"I've got time for a coffee if..." Robert sighs, looking defeated. "It's up to you."

"Fine. Then you and me are going home, I mean it.”

Seb runs off to the little play area the hospital coffee shop has set up once he's all but inhaled his cookie and juice, leaving the two of them in silence.

“So..."

“How was his appointment?”

“All clear, it was just a final check up to make sure there’s no lasting problems with his leg and stuff.”

"He's noticed you know, that I don't come over anymore."

"Don't."

"I'm just saying. He told me you were sad. It's affecting him Robert. Probably far more than knowing the two of us are together would."

"This isn't the time or the place.”

"It never is though is it? Why am I bothering? Tell Seb I said goodbye.” He pushes himself up from the table, telling himself he tried, feeling bad for letting Seb down.

It's later that when there's a knock at the back door of the pub as he’s heading to bed and he just shakes his head when he sees Robert.

"I can't keep having the same fight over and over Robert."

"I just want to...explain I guess."

"Fine. Mum's upstairs though so... come through the front." He leads him into the darkened pub. "So what's changed since this morning?"

"Seb. Having a six year old pretty much tell you you're being dumb gives a different perspective."

"I didn't tell him..."

"I know. I did. Asked him how he'd feel if you came over more, maybe stayed over."

“And?" He feels like his heart is beating out of his chest, that maybe this is the start of them getting back on track.

“Apparently Tommy has two Daddies, Daddy. He reckons its fun and they do all this cool stuff. You were right. he's more clued in than I gave him credit for. Told me I should let you make us happy again.” He slumps back in the seat. "I wasn't just... being stubborn, it’s more than that."

"You can tell me you know. I was never pushing you to come out or have a parade Robert. I just didn't want you to be a dirty little secret again."

"I don't understand.”

"When I came out, it was tough, for a lot of reasons." He'd never told Robert about his childhood, maybe one day he'd find the courage to tell him how he'd taken Gordon to court, but not now, "And I didn't want to be gay, told Paddy I'd rather have no life than live a gay one."

“Aaron."

"Sorry, I didn’t...I was just trying to say…I do get it, but,"' he sighs, "Once everyone knew it was like...a massive weight had lifted off my shoulders. Then I met Ed and he wasn't out. You know he was a rugby player, it wasn't so easy for him, so we kept it hidden, even in France. That wasn't what broke us up, but it didn't help, there was all this added pressure. I promised myself then, no more hiding. I told you I'd not push, but if we're going to be anything then it can't be secret. Not again." It was too hard. He wouldn't do it again

"You won't have to. I want you, us. I meant it when I said I bought the house for us. I moved for Seb, so he could have a proper house with a garden and that, but when I saw the house I saw us living there. I wouldn't have got through the last few months without you and when you walked out that night I thought that was it, I'd ruined it all again.”

"Again?"

"I'm not good at relationships Aaron. I was married, and that crashed and burned because I slept with her sister, among others which is how Seb came to be. I mess everything up, always have. I don't want to do that to us."

"So what now, because we can’t carry on like this, it’s hell for all of us.”

"I... need to tell Vic first. She deserves that, and...can you just give me a bit more time." Aaron nods. They'd made progress. actually managing a conversation rather than Robert just staying silent. It was a start.

"Yeah, course. I just needed to know that I wasn't just... a passing phase I suppose, that I meant something and I know you said it, but everything else said otherwise. Um, have there been...I mean am I the first..." Aaron asks him, not sure what he wants the answer to be or even why he asked it.

"No...I promise I'll explain but, you look like you're going to expire. You should get some sleep.” Robert tells him when he lets out a yawn.

"Yeah, another double shift."

“Quit. I mean it Aaron. You’re running yourself into the ground for peanuts when you could do so much more.”

"Yeah yeah. Can we fight about one thing at a time?" Robert laughs. "I...I love you Robert". He hadn't meant to say it but he couldn't stop himself.

"I love you too. "

They stay there a bit longer. reluctant to part but another yawn has Robert pushing him to his feet, a promise to call his only goodbye. He falls asleep with a smile on his face for the first time in ages.

It's another few days before he catches a glimpse of Robert in the village, in the graveyard of all places, one afternoon, and he doesn't look himself. Maybe he shouldn't interrupt but he started in that direction anyway. They'd called and texted a lot since the night in the pub but as far as he knew Robert hadn't spoken to Vic yet and he meant what he said, he’d give him time.

He can't walk by though, there's something about his expression that has him hurrying his pace. He catches the end of what he's saying as he nears him.

" ... almost lost the best thing to ever happen to me." Aaron glances at the headstone. Jack Sugden. Robert's hardly ever spoken about his Dad but Aaron knows he was well respected in the village, but he knew as well as anyone now appearances can be deceptive.

"Rob? Am I interrupting?" He doesn't think he'd noticed him even though he'd got quite close. He looks awful. "Rob?"

"No. Nothing left to say to him."

"You look like crap."

"Cheers. You look a million dollars too." He follows as Robert starts walking away.

"So... just saying hello? Your Dad." If anything he looks worse than he had at the grave. "Come on." He leads him to the pavilion, flopping down onto the steps. "Come on, you can talk to me."

"Spoke to Vic."

"And?" He didn't think she would react badly, it'd be pretty out of character.

"Told her I was bi. She was great."

"So? What's got you as this state?" He's relieved at Vic being supportive No one else really mattered.

"She wanted to know why I hadn't told her before. kept on and on, you know how she can get. So I did, told her that Dad..." He stopped, staring down at the floor and Aaron slips an arm round him, an inkling now at what it's all about.

"He knew?"

"Kind of. He caught me. There was this farm lad. we had extra help on summer. This one year.."

"One of them caught your eye." Robert nodded. "And you two..."

"Yeah. In my room. Dad was out, or so I thought. He caught us. Sacked him on the spot, leathered me..."

“Oh Robert..." He doesn't know what to say, just holds him tighter.

"He reckoned it was for skiving but me and Andy skived all the time. I wasn't stupid, I knew what it was for. I was the disappointment. Andy was the perfect son, a mini Dad, Vic was the baby, and I was just not who he wanted."

"I'm sorry. I've been pushing. I didn't realise.”

"Why would you? I've been with men before, but it's always been one night, and then I'd push it to the back of my mind, be the son he wanted." He finally looks up at Aaron. "I don't want to do that with you, I don't want to feel like we should be ashamed or a secret. I never have, I just had to get my head on straight."

"And now?"

"Now...Vic knows…and the world didn’t end. I don't know how she feels about Dad. I never wanted her to know, to see him as anything other than her amazing Dad."

"She's a big girl, She'll cope. You're her amazing brother and she knows how amazing you are now, that's more important." He gets to his feet. "Come on, no more thinking about him, he’s not worth it. What do you say we fetch Seb from school and have a movie night, forget about everything?"

“But..." Robert stops and looks at him in surprise.

"What?"

"I thought you'd want to go to the pub, tell everyone?"

"All I wanted was to know that you were serious...that I wasn't just a distraction from all that you had going on. Let's face it when we started out you didn't know which way was up and I helped I know so..." It's daft, Robert's never made him feel like that but his insecurities had started to get the better of him the last few weeks and it had spiralled into this big thing. “Stupid huh.”

"Never. I love you, for you, not because you helped me out." He gets up, kissing him softly. "Movie night sounds amazing by the way. Although once we tell Seb I doubt we'll hear much of the movie."

"I don't care."

"While we're talking about stuff...have you thought any more about your job?" Aaron sighs loudly as they walk down the hill. "You could do it Aaron, I know it."

"It could take years." He knew, he'd looked it up years ago. It meant years of study, of placements and he didn’t know if he could do it, he didn’t have the confidence in himself.

"Planning on going somewhere?"

"Haha. And what do I do for money if I'm not working?"

"That's not...look I know you'll hate this but I could help."

"You need your money for Seb.” He knew Robert’s job paid well but he wasn’t rich by any means and now he had Seb full time there was a whole load of expenses on top of anything else.

"His Mum left him a fair sum, for uni and that if thats what he wants.” He stops, looking right at him. "I mean it. I want to help and I know you want it. You could be good Aaron. look how you helped Seb?"

"Yeah well, I had ulterior motives there."

"Oh yeah?" He grins, looking happy for the first time that day.

“Mmm." He feels lighter now they’re joking around and Robert looks more back to his normal self.

"Just think about it. You can study at Leeds, there’s no need to go away anywhere.”

“Been checking have ya? Fine, if it'll shut you up, I’ll think about it. Come on let's go home'.'

"Home now is it?"

"I didn't... I just meant..."

"It could be if you wanted? I meant what I said in the pub.”

"Really? You want me to move in?" Aaron feels like he's on the waltzers, everything is moving at lightning speed all of a sudden.

"If you want. I know it's fast but...I feel like I've already wasted so much time, I don't want to wait any longer. So what do you say?"

"Seb's going to burst in excitement.”

"Is that a yes?"

"Yeah, why not? Better than a room at the pub I guess.” Their laughter carries on almost the whole way to the house and Aaron feels like he doesn't stop smiling all day.

He's never been so happy and maybe Robert is right. He's made a hell of a leap, maybe Aaron should too.

[radiorenjun]

 I Don't Need It

• Pairing: Na Jaemin x Reader

• Genre: Angst, Comedy, Fluff

• Na Jaemin despised the idea of soulmates, he wanted to fight against fate for choosing his soulmate for him. Even if it means his stubborn childhood best friend wouldn't stop trying to make him accept about the similar tattoos on their wrists.

• Warnings: mental breakdowns, heartbreak, mentions of blood, science (ew), mentions of death, major angst, arguments, flashbacks, physical injuries, fighting.

• Wordcount : 9.4 k

• Masterlist here!

• Chapters: IX, X

• Song rec of the chapter : Start Over Again - New Hope Club

“Shit, I didn’t think it would be this bad.” Hyuck exclaimed as they finally managed to drag Jaemin out of the arcade. “Why was his wrist glowing like that?!” Chenle exclaimed as Jaemin gripped his wrist tightly, trying to make the burning sensation subside. “Idiot, didn’t you pay attention to Science class?” Hyuck replied as they watched Jeno (who had ran off to the nearest  run towards them with a small packet of ice cream mochi in his hand.

“This was the only thing nearby, put this on.” Jeno handed Jaemin the cold packet, who thanked him softly and carefully placed the packet on the burning skin. “What’s happening to him?” Jisung asked, looking at his seniors as Jaemin leaned his back against the wall, slumping against it with a heavy sigh, trying to ignore the searing pain.

“I’m fine, really. It’s just a little wrist pain. It’ll go away sooner or later. I-” Jaemin muttered under his breath before Jeno cuts him off with a strict tone. “Shut up, Jaemin. You’re not okay,” he spoke sternly before running a hand through his hair in distress. “Hyung, what’s going on?” Jisung asked, in a more serious tone, truly concerned for their dear friend.

“It’s his tattoo. It’s burning his blood.” Hyuck explained, his usual teasing tone was now replaced with a serious one. His eyes staring straight at the glowing red skin as the younger boys stared at him in shock, Jaemin’s head shot up in surprise, eyes wide to see if Hyuck was messing him or not. “Hyuck, that’s not funny.” Jaemin let out a strained laugh, letting out a sharp hiss when Jeno pressed the cold pack harder onto his skin. “It’s not a joke, Jaems.” Jeno scolded softly.

“How is that even possible?” Chenle asked, baffled. Jeno rolled his eyes as he released his tight grip on Jaemin’s wrist, causing the younger boy to glare at him, pressing the ice pack against his wrist gently. “Guess someone never payed attention to Science class,” Hyuck muttered under his breath, receiving a punch on the shoulder from Jisung. “Get to the point, hyung.” he frowned.

“From what I remembered, that tattoo is connected to your emotions. It’s like the old red string soulmate theory. It’s the only thing that connects you with your soulmate. if you found your soulmate but they reject you or hurt you in any shape or form, the brain registers emotional pain of heartbreak in the same way as physical pain.” Jeno explains briefly, as Jaemin’s eyes widened at the new information. How come he’s never heard of this before?

“When the tattoo appears, it turns into some kind of blood vessel that connects to the emotional part of your body. And when you experience some form of heartbreak that’s caused by your soulmate, the tattoo somehow produces bacteria that burns your blood on your left wrist, hence the bright glow.” Jeno adds on, sighing, a hand going back to scratch the back of his neck. Hyuck nodded, “I knew this because Jeno gave me his science notes when we had that science test,” Hyuck exclaimed, putting a hand on Jeno’s shoulder who gave him a deadpanned look.

“There are some cases that the pains were so bad that they had to be removed.” Hyuck added on. “And let me tell you, it’s not a fun process to do so. It’s pretty rare, but they say if you’re not careful, removing it might mentally break them.” Hyuck unconsciously rubbed his own wrist, wincing at the mere thought of getting a part of his skin peeled off.

“So all this time. All the chest pains, all the wrist pains I’ve been enduring, was because I was feeling emotionally hurt by my own soulmate?” Jaemin asked in a rather hesitant tone, his pupils filled with disbelief. “Not hurt, per say. More like jealousy.” Hyuck concluded with soft shrug. “Jealousy?” Jaemin gaped, his mouth opened in disbelief. He didn’t know what to say. Or if he could say anything at all. It was all too much to take in.

“Yep. I don’t know if you noticed, but every time you see Renjun and Y/N together these days, you often glare at them as if you were going to have lasers shooting out of your eyeballs into Renjun’s skull.” Jisung joked, a small smile appearing on his face, trying to ease the awkward tension around them. “You need to seriously stop lying to yourself. If the world set you up together, you’re bound to develop feelings whether you like it or not, that’s how this fucked up soulmate system works.” Hyuck groaned in annoyance.

“You’re more stubborn than Jeno when his mom told him to not get a cat because he’s allergic to fur.” Jisung nodded in agreement. Jeno turned his head to the younger boy, letting out a soft, “what?” 

“Very funny, you two.” Jaemin rolled his eyes.

“Honestly, hyung, this wouldn’t have happened if you weren’t so stubborn bout going against fate.” Chenle huffed, leaning his arm against Jaemin’s left shoulder, looking at the older boy with sympathy in his eyes. “Wait, does this mean,” Jaemin paused as his mind drifted back to you, his brows furrowed in confusion and a slight tint of horror.

“All this time, y/n felt this excruciating sensation for two whole years?” Jaemin gulped. By the way Jisung and Chenle gazed at their older friends curiously, he assumed they didn’t know any of this. A part of him didn’t want to talk bout this in front of them. Yet, another part of him was too curious yet nervous to find out the answer, for his friends’ reactions had said it all. The two boys looked away sadly, bowing their heads to avoid eye contact with their best friend. Jaemin felt his heart drop into his stomach, your innocent smile flashing through his mind, causing his guilt to fill him up even more.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Jaemin asked, guilt filling his veins like a running tap filling up a jug with water.

“We wanted to. At first, we thought you knew. That’s why we were rather hesitant when talking to you since that day,” Hyuck exclaimed with an exhausted sigh, biting his lip nervously, referring to your birthday. “Then when you said you almost failed science back then because you didn’t bother reading the notes we shared, we were about to tell you,” Jeno continued hesitantly, his own eyes filled with guilt, remembering how Jaemin hated the ideas of soulmates so much, he didn’t even want to listen to the teachers explanations when it comes to the soulmate system that he purposely didn’t study for the soulmate part of the topic for the test.

“But then,” Hyuck cut him off.

2 years ago

“Dude, you barely passed Science, what’s up with that?” Jeno gaped, seeing Jaemin’s low score displayed on the pin board their school had set up beside every entrance to each class for event posters and test scores. Jaemin shrugged nonchalantly, his eyes filled with disinterest. “This was like the easiest topic of the whole semester, how in hell did you get a 72?” Hyuck exclaimed in disbelief.

“I didn’t bother to study with this one,” Jaemin shrugged, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “Dude, it’s about the soulmate system. The only interesting topic in the whole school year, it’s all basic knowledge.” Hyuck deadpanned, nudging Jaemin’s arm with his elbow. Jaemin rolled his eyes, groaning in annoyance. “So? I don’t want to know shit bout that lousy system.” Jaemin replied with pursed lips.

“Shit, man. That’s kind of mean. I bet you didn’t even know that if you hurt your soulmate you’ll-” 

“Haechan! Jeno!” 

The three boys turned to see you smiling widely at them, though the smile didn’t reach your eyes. You quickly jogged up to the two boys, grabbing the, by the elbows in each hand, gripping onto them tightly. “Hey Nana!” you greeted, giving your soulmate a loving smile who just sent you a small friendly smile and a small wave. “Sorry, do you mind if I borrow your friends for a bit? I got something to say to them,” you giggled nervously, tugging them backwards to say it’s urgent so that Jaemin couldn’t catch on.

“Where did you come from?” Jeno asked, raising a brow at you. You frowned slightly, “through the wall.” You replied in a sarcastic tone, causing Hyuck to let out a soft chuckle. “It’s really urgent. I really need to talk to you guys,” you spoke seriously, tugging them back as Jaemin raised his brow at you suspiciously. “What’s so urgent that you got to take my friends away from me, huh?” Jaemin teased, causing you to let out a soft laugh.

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” you winked, giggling. “But we have class in less than-” Jeno was immediately cut off by your desperate tone as you tugged them back quite roughly. “It’ll just take a second!” you said nervously, eyes pleading at them to go with the flow. Hyuck and Jeno shared perplexed looks before letting you tug them away from Jaemin.

“See you in Chemistry, Jaemin!” Jeno waved at his friend, who waved back with a soft smile before turning to the other direction to get to his locker. You pulled Hyuck and Jeno around the corner, looking back to see if you were far enough from Jaemin. “What’s up with you Y/N? You look like my little sister when she told her teacher that I ate her homework.” Hyuck asked in a concerned tone.

Your smile from before dissipated into a rather exhausted expression, sighing as you leaned back against some random student’s locker. “You guys have to promise me to not talk to Jaemin anything related to the soulmate system.” you frowned, eyes boring onto theirs seriously. Jeno frowned, confused. “Okay. Why though?” he asked questioningly.

You looked back, making sure Jaemin was nowhere to be seen before hesitantly speaking. “He doesn’t know anything bout the soulmate system. Like, literally nothing.” you started, rubbing the back of your neck in distress, letting out a pained sigh. “He’s been that way ever since we were kids, you know that, Jeno. And it’s best if we keep it that way,” you explained.

“Y/n, no. You know full well what’s going to happen. You’re gonna get hurt, like physically hurt, y/n. We need to tell him,” Jeno shook his head, refusing boldly with Hyuck nodding in agreement. You sighed, smiling softly. “I knew you were going to say that. But really, I’m going to be fine. It’s nothing I can’t handle.” you waved it off with a light smile.

Hyuck and Jeno gave you uncertain looks. “I’m serious.” you huffed with a slight pout, “I appreciate you two caring bout my well being but I’m really going to be okay. Trust me,” you held up two crossed fingers from your left hand, grinning sheepishly. Hyuck and Jeno eyed the sore mark around the tattoo on your wrist, identical to Jaemin’s which was red as if it had been gripped tightly by someone. 

“Y/n, you’re gonna get even more hurt. You need to tell Jaemin, what if he stops being stubborn if you just tell him?” Hyuck tried to reason, feeling his own wrist sting by the sight of yours, wondering how painful it could be to feel such an awful sensation. You let out a soft shrug, “I don’t want to see him sad like that. I am his soulmate after all, soulmates are suppose to keep each other happy.” you smiled, though Jeno and Hyuck could see the sadness through your pupils.

“What’s the point in that? You’re just gonna keep him in the dark so he can be happy while you suffer in pain every day? That isn’t fair, y/n. It isn’t fair to you nor to Jaemin,” Jeno furrowed his brows, feeling frustrated with his stubborn friend. Why couldn’t he just get over the whole ‘I’m going against fate because this whole soulmate system sucks’ bullshit?

You gigged softly, looking down at the sore mark around your tattoo, caressing the balloon doodle with your thumb. “You two don’t fully understand. I want him to love me, but I don’t want him to love me just because he’s forced to.” you sighed, taking your two friends aback slightly. “Maybe one day-” you shook your head profusely, trying to shake the negativity out of your head.

“No, I know one day, he’ll love me back the way I love him. I just need to be patient with his stubborn ass. I’ll never stop trying until that happens. And when that happens, maybe none of us will be sad anymore.” the sad yet hopeful smile you plastered across your lips was enough to break Jeno and Hyuck’s heart. They wished you and Jaemin could have an easier plot to your story, wishing that you wouldn’t have to go through such a painful process just to make your soulmate happy. But love makes you do crazy things, and they knew they should respect your decision.

“How are you so sure? It’s been months, y/n.” Jeno asked rather hesitantly. But he needed an answer why you couldn’t just tell him. Hyuck nodded, he couldn’t find the courage to speak. Hell, Hyuck didn’t even know what to say to you, not when you were looking at him as if you were clinging on to your last hope of life. You gave him those sad smiles you only see in movies when a main character knows they’re in for a long painful ride through life.

“I’m actually not.” you replied shortly, putting your hands into the pockets of your jacket, “But this is what love does to me. It makes me feel as if I gave up on this, I’m going to have the whole world turned upside down. I guess I’m just that whipped.” you shrugged simply, kicking a crumpled ball of paper someone dropped earlier. “Love? What is love, really?” Hyuck asked in a rather bitter tone, recalling the hurt expressions you would always have whenever Jaemin wasn’t looking.

You paused to think bout it for a moment before looking at the two boys with a knowing look, “I don’t know myself. But it feels amazing to be in love, I want it to last as long as possible. Even if it might not work out for me in the end, I just want to at least cherish it while I can,” you grinned, giving them enthusiastic jazz hands.

“So, can you promise me that you’ll both keep this between the three of us?” 

“So you both actually kept it from me all these years?” Jaemin exclaimed, feeling anger overwhelm his whole body. Hyuck’s head shot up, “she looked tired enough, we couldn’t say no, you asshole!” he shot back defensively, jaw clenching tightly. “Telling you would be like taking her last bit of hope, she didn’t want to burden you with the thought, so she kept it to herself, you ungrateful douchebag!” he spat, his face red with anger as he stared back at his friend in disbelief.

“Oh, so you decided to let her suffer internally so I can feel like shit about it later on? Sure, Donghyuck!” Jaemin shot back, pulling the frozen pack to clench his fists by his sides. “Oh, so it’s y/n’s fault now, is it? That’s what you’re implying?!” Hyuck growled, letting out a groan of annoyance at his best friend’s stubborn self.

“You ass, you really can’t see how fucking stupid you’re being? She’s your fucking soulmate, for fucks sakes! Get your head out of your ass and wake up, if you just showed a bit of interest with the whole soulmate system then this wouldn’t have happened in the first place!” 

At this point, things were getting a bit too intense for the two boys, Jisung had to step forward and grip his senior’s shoulder, in case Hyuck tried to do something to Jaemin. “Shut up, Hyuck. You don’t even know what you’re talking about! You’re just one of those people who follows this fucked up soulmate system, you just don’t get it!” Jaemin took a step forward towards the older boy, jaw clenched tightly in anger.

“Yeah, sure, if this system is so fucked up, then what bout you, huh? What about you, Na Jaemin?” 

“What about me?”

“If this whole system is fucked up, like you say it is. Then what about you? Don’t you think it’s fucked up that you keep hurting your own childhood best friend for your own selfish purposes, you prick?”

“Hyung, I think thats-” Jisung attempted to coax Hyuck to stop before he did some permanent damage to their whole friendship, only for the older boy to shrug his hand away with a harsh scowl on his lips. “Shut up, Jisung. I’ve had it with this bullshit, it’s time he opens his fucking eyes and stop acting like a fucking brat.” Hyuck spat back at the younger, causing the poor boy to sigh in defeat.

“What the fuck is that suppose to mean?” Jaemin felt his heart ache, not in the way whenever he would see you or Renjun. It was a different kind of ache, it felt as if tiny sharp objects were slowly piercing through his heart. And Jaemin was afraid that he didn’t know how to make it stop.

“It’s funny how you just tossed away her feelings for your own for two whole years. You didn’t even know that she was hurting, right? You treated her like shit for two years: throwing away her cookies, her gifts. Taking her kindness for granted, rolling your eyes at her whenever she was in the room. Not to mention talking shit bout her behind her back.”

“I do not talk shit about her behind her back-”

“Oh, really? What about those times you complained how clingy she was? How she was suffocating you with her presence? How she was getting annoying day by day, huh? What do you call that?”

“I was just-”

“You were just what, Jaemin? You were just pissed off? Or was it because you didn’t think she was right behind you listening? Or is it gonna be another of your petty excuses?”

Jaemin couldn’t respond, he didn’t know want to say. He admits that what he’s done in the past wasn’t the nicest things, but he was just upset whenever he said those things. He froze in his place, unable to find the right words to respond. Or rather, he couldn’t respond at all.

“Oh, so now you have nothing to say? Just admit that you’re being irrational about this whole situation, Jaemin. It’s not that hard to admit that you’re wrong, you bastard. No wonder Y/n replaced yo-”

Before Donghyuck could finish his sentence, Jaemin pushed Donghyuck by the chest harshly in anger. Hyuck took a few steps back at the harsh impact, his scowl turning into a smug grin. “Shut up, Donghyuck.” Jaemin growled, shrugging off Jeno’s hand when Jeno stepped forward to gently coax Jaemin to let it go before they both do something that’ll get them in trouble.

“Did I hit a nerve? You know it’s true, Na. You just won’t admit it!” Hyuck growled, causing Jaemin’s blood to boil under his skin. Both of his fists were clenched tightly, ready to punch something. Or rather, someone.

“Stop it, Hyuck.” Jeno barked, his tone getting an octave lower. At this point, Jisung and Chenle were eyeing their elders cautiously, ready to drop their snacks to the floor in case a fight breaks out. “What? I’m not lying, aren’t I? It wouldn’t take a genius to know that Y/n basically replaced him with someone clearly better for her. I mean, Renjun’s would be a way better soulmate than your selfish ass, anyways.” Hyuck taunted with a proud glint in his pupils.

“Hyuck, stop it before you’re gonna regret something,” Jeno barked once again as Jaemin clicked his tongue, his jaw clenching tightly as the atmosphere thickens between the three boys. “If only Y/n wasn’t cursed to be soulmate with an asshole like you, then she didn’t have to put up with your ungrateful ass for all these years!” Hyuck exclaimed, raising his hands up dramatically to rile Jaemin up even more.

It all happened so fast.

In a split second, Jaemin launched himself onto Hyuck, grabbing the younger boy by the collar. “Take it back,” Jaemin spat in his face, tone laced with anger. Hyuck still had a proud smirk on his face, provoking the boy even more by his smug expression. “I’m happy she didn’t have to get stuck with you for the rest of her life despite being cursed for having the same tat-” 

Hyuck didn’t get to finish his sentence when Jaemin’s fist collided against the side of his face. “Jaemin! Hyuck!” Jeno ripped the two boys apart, holding Jaemin back before he causes a ruckus. Jisung and Chenle held Hyuck back as Jeno began to scold the younger boys, “Fuck off, Jeno!” Jaemin tried to shove Jeno off of him, but Jeno tightened his grip on Jaemin’s shoulder, holding him back tightly.

“Jaemin, stop it you’re making a scene.” Jeno hissed as Hyuck let out a cocky “Ha!”, getting out of Jisung and Chenle’s grip. “No, Jen. Let him go, maybe if he beats me up, he’s gonna realize how shitty of a human being he’s been.” Hyuck taunted with a sinister laugh, causing Jaemin to let out a harsh growl at his friend. “You little-”

“Hyuck, stop provoking him. Jaemin, calm down before someone calls security!” Jeno struggled to keep Jaemin at arms length from Hyuck, Jaemin’s pupils darted at the people around them staring, whispering and crying out for someone to get security. He felt anxiety crawl up his skin at the countless of eyes glaring at them, but one that truly caught his eye was your own figure walking out of the arcade.

You had a skip in your step with an enthusiastic smile on your face as you stared back at your friends, pointing at the nearest food court as you looked back at your friends. His eyes widened slightly when he saw one of your friends pointing towards the crowd around them, anger soon being replaced with a strong surge of panic.

Jaemin masked his panic with an incredulous scoff, shoving Jeno’s hand off of him with an annoyed huff before bumping his shoulder against Donghyuck who gave him a death glare as he stomped off to the parking lot as fast as he could, ignoring the eyes of strangers as he leaves his friends behind. 

“Son of a bitch!”

Jaemin couldn’t be anymore thankful that his parents were away on a business trip for two weeks, they didn’t have to see their son experiencing a mental breakdown right before their eyes. Jaemin slammed the door shut as hard as he could, hitting his fist against the door in anger, swearing loudly as he vents his anger out on the white wooden door.

His fists were red with pain, but at that moment he couldn’t find it in himself to care. All he wanted was to block out the pain he was feeling deep down inside of him and let it out before it exploded inside him. Before the pressure broke him inside and outside.  

Eventually, the sound of his fists hitting the wooden door stopped. Jaemin took a step back, panting, his hair messy, his blood boiling, his heart racing in his chest, exhaustion filling his entire body. He collapsed onto the mattress of his bed, sighing out. Jaemin felt exhausted, mentally and physically. He felt like being stuck in his room for the rest of his life. He felt like he wanted to just disappear.

Jaemin turned over to his stomach, burying his face against the soft fabric of his pillows. His heart ached even more, his wrist wasn’t burning anymore but it still left a dull ache in it’s wake. And for once in his life he wasn’t covering his soulmate tattoo with his watch or wristbands. Jaemin’s glassy eyes stared at the small tattoo that got him into this big of a mess in the first place as his mind keeps spinning in his head.

The tattoo that was once a bright doodle of a small red balloon floating in the middle of two clouds had now transitioned into  a dim crimson red, the white color in the clouds and the bright red color in the balloon were barely visible. Jaemin assumed that was probably the side effects of either the pain killers he took or the tattoo releasing bacteria from the emotional pain in his chest.

Jaemin chuckled to himself, turning his head to see the half empty bottle of pain killers standing innocently on his desk. Laughing lightly to himself at how frustrated he gets whenever the pain wouldn’t stop despite taking the maximum dosage. “I’m so stupid.” he mumbled to himself, rubbing his face with his palms in frustration.

On second thought, he couldn’t remember the last time he saw your tattoo. Jaemin’s brows furrowed, at the thought. Come to think of it, you had been covering your own tattoo up these past couple months. Either with the matching friendship bracelet he got you for your 16th birthday, joking how you should cover your tattoo with it, hours prior to when your tattoo appeared. 

You wore it all the time since then. The charms on the bracelet were large enough to cover the small tattoo on your wrist. Were you using the bracelet as an excuse to cover the marks your tattoo left on your skin from everyone else? Was your cheerful demeanor a facade all this time to cover your pain from Jaemin so that Jaemin wouldn’t feel guilty for hurting you?

Everything was a mess.

Jaemin wanted this whole problem to just disappear.

He groaned as he sat up from his bed, eyes examining his bedroom. The distant nostalgic sound of both of your laughter echoing in his mind as he recalled the times when you two used to joke around and make each other laugh so hard you had to hold your stomachs. The memory of him flicking your forehead whenever you do something annoying to make him laugh. Pupils staring at the small pebble that sat at the corner of his desk, his mind fluttering back to the time when you were 15.

 “So I have a present for you.” you giggled, barging into his room and dropping your bag carelessly in the middle of the room. Jaemin looks up from his phone, raising his brow as a smile stretched across his face. “Is it food?” he asked, an eager smile stretching across his face as he watched you pounce on his bed with your arms stretched out like a starfish. 

You turned to your best friend, giving him a bittersweet smile before letting out an evil, loud, maniac laugh, leaning you head back for a dramatic effect, abruptly turning to Jaemin with a deadpanned expression before letting out a cold emotionless, “no.” 

Jaemin frowned, his bottom lip jutting out as he whined. “And here I thought you’d finally pay me back for all the peanut butter sandwiches I sacrificed every recess.” he complained under his breath, smacking your backside with one of the pillows behind him. You giggled, sitting up as you watched your best friend pursed his lips at you.

“You wish, Na Jaemin. That’s never going to happen, that I can assure.” you giggled, shaking your head as you snatched the pillow from his hands to lay it on top of your lap. “Then what did you get me?” he asked, a confused frown forming on his lips, leaning his head to the side in curiosity. You smiled simply at him, “close your eyes, first.”

“Why?” he eyed you suspiciously, watching as your right arm reached for something inside the pocket of the peach coloured hoodie you were wearing. “I swear if you get me one of those strawberry infused tea that the 6 year old girl from across the street constantly forces innocent bystanders to buy, I’m going to-”

You let out an incredulous scoff, putting your hand on your chest with an offended frown. “Preposterous!” You gasped dramatically. “I would never make my best friend suffer by buying him a disgusting drink made by a 6 year old who eats play doh for a living!” you exclaimed with an offended tone.

Jaemin gave you an incredulous look, leaning back on the bed with his arms supporting him as he raised a brow a you. “You literally made me try her special oreo, milo, peanut butter and jam, ‘expresso’ a few weeks ago.” he said, wiggling his index and middle fingers when he said ‘expresso’. 

You gave him an innocent dorky grin in response, “no regrets.” You hissed with a smug smile. Jaemin rolled his eyes at you, “I’m serious, I’m actually concerned. Knowing you, you probably hired some weird psychic witch to make a voodoo doll of me.” he frowned jokingly. Actually, he was half joking considering you were weird enough to convince him that you were secretly a witch from another dimension.

You giggled, putting the back of your hand on the top of your head as you wailed out dramatically like those people in theaters and soap operas. “Oh dear God, Na Jaemin has no faith in his oh-so-amazing best friend! What have their friendship become!” you cried out, scrunching your face as you pretended to cry in front of him, causing Jaemin to reach his hand out to pinch your cheek gingerly.

“I don’t think ‘amazing’ is a word I would use to describe this whole experience of being your friend since diapers.”

Now it was your turn to purse your lips, causing Jaemin to send you a charming wink, rolling your eyes in response. “Is that so? I think it’s time to finally terminate our friendship.” you sniffled, wiping an invisible tear as Jaemin let out a laugh your statement. “I’m kidding, Y/n.” he cooed in a high pitched voice, putting both his palms against you cheek and squishing them together to pucker your lips.

He snickered as you smacked his hands away from your face, “get your hands off of my face, you peasant.” you giggled before sitting up straight and giving him a serious look. “Now. Close your eyes!” you frowned, booping his nose jokingly. Jaemin raised his brow at you, pushing your finger away from the tip of his nose. “Fine,” he sighed, closing his eyes slowly.

He felt you tug down the hood of the jacket he was wearing over his head, feeling your palm pat against the fabric against his eyelids .”No peeking, Jaemin!” you exclaimed eagerly, your hands moving to pull his hands out from behind him. He rolled his eyes with a small chuckle when he felt your fingers pry his own open to spread out his palms. 

“Did you get me those old squishy stress balls you keep gazing at whenever we go to the mall?” he asked with a soft giggle when he feels you place something small and smooth in his palm. “I’m too broke for that, you know that, Jaemin. Now, open your eyes!” you giggled, he felt the bed sink, signalling you probably moved to lay down.

Jaemin placed the object in his hands in his left hand, his right moving to pull the hood over to the back of his head as he slowly opened his eyes and looks down at what you have placed in his palm. His brows furrowed in confusion at the grey object you had placed in his palm, his head shooting up to look at the cheeky grin displayed on your face. 

In his palms was a small pebble.

A fucking pebble.

He squinted his eyes at you to see if you were joking, but you just kept giving him the same cheeky grin. You weren’t joking in the slightest. You two stared at each other for the next 15 seconds. Your eyes wide as if daring him to speak and complain while his dared yours to explain what level of degeneracy your weirdness has come to. 

Jaemin clicked his tongue at you. 

“You got me a rock?” he deadpanned after a pregnant pause. You were on your stomach, gazing up at him with your face in your palms with a chesire grin spread across your face. “First of all, it’s a pebble. Second, it’s not just a pebble, it’s a pebble with-” Jaemin watched you lean over to flip the pebble in his hands around. 

“A picture of Doraemon!” you exclaimed cheerfully. Jaemin stared at the small cheap sticker of Doraemon winking at him, then stared back at you with a blank expression. He bit his lip to keep himself from bursting out laughing, watching you bite back your own laughs. “You got to be joking me. Please tell me you’re joking,” Jaemin threw his head back laughing, placing the pebble on his bedsheets in front of him as he applauded and laughed at the same time.

You shook your head as you wheezed, laughing loudly as you smacked your fists against the pillow you were laying on. “Oh you WISH I was joking. Hell no, dude, you’re gonna keep a rock as a momento of my iconic existence.” you shook your head, wiping the tears from your eyes as Jaemin stared at you incredulously.

“What the hell am I suppose to do with a rock? Also what’s with the sticker? It looks like some weird omen.” Jaemin snickered, he really couldn’t stop laughing at how stupid this situation looks. You shrugged innocently, giving him a teasing grin. “The sticker adds flavor to the pebble. I couldn’t find any permanent markers to decorate it with.” you shrugged, causing Jaemin to bawl out laughing, throwing his head back.

“Remind me why I’m still friends with you?” he chuckled. You puckered up your lips gingerly, “because you just married me.” you winked, causing Jaemin to furrow his brows in confusion. “Have you been eating to many candies again, y/n?” he asked, placing the back of his palm against your forehead. You huffed, slapping his hand away, eliciting soft giggles from your best friend.

“You accepted my gift, that means we’re married!”

“How so? What kind of weird nonsense have you discovered this time?”

“Hush, this is actually a really cute fact.”

Jaemin sighed, nodding his head as he gestured you to continue on. You grinned gingerly, “Did you know that when penguins propose to their mates, they give their mates a pebble? Like some sort of wedding ring!” 

There was a pregnant pause. Jaemin just giving you an incredulous smile, his cheeks flushed pink as he wonders how adorable this moment could possibly get. “Is this your way of saying you want to marry me or is this your way of calling me short?” Jaemin teased, his sweet wide smile never leaving his face as he leaned over towards you.

You raised your brows in surprise, a bright pink tint appearing on the soft skin of your cheeks. “Welp, this clearly backfired.” you muttered under your breath, causing Jaemin to let out an amused laugh. “What were you even trying to do here?” he exclaimed, stretching his arm out to gingerly pinch both of your pink cheeks as you whined out in embarrassment.

“I just want to pull a little harmless prank to make you blush. I clearly didn’t think this through.” you said, gripping his wrist as you try to pry his hands off of your cheeks. Jaemin giggled, his heart fluttering. “You’re getting weirder day by day.” He mumbled to himself, shaking his head profusely at you.

“Shut up, I thought it was cute and funny at the same time.” 

“Would you marry me though?”

“What?”

Jaemin gulped, shaking his head when he realised he said that out loud. “Would you marry me though if we had the chance?” he asked shyly, rubbing the back of his neck shyly with a bashful smile. You leaned your head to the side, pondering for a small moment, attempting to ignore the heat rushing through your cheeks. “Would you?” you mused, chuckling at your best friend who just gave you a dopey grin.

Jaemin shrugged, “I don’t see why not. It’s better than marrying someone you met because of a stupid birthmark.” he smiled innocently. You rolled your eyes at this. “Your resentment towards the soulmate system will always be an unattractive point. I hate to be the person who blows a candle, only to have the same lame soulmate mark as you.” you joked, causing Jaemin to smack you with the pillow beside him.

“Rude!” he exclaimed with a laugh. “What if you were that unfortunate soul?” he asked with a giggle, causing you to frown. “Well screw that, I’ll peel the damn mark off of my skin.” you shot back, giggling in between words as Jaemin pouted at your words, pursing his lips in response. “Wouldn’t that be ironic, though? We’ve been friends since diapers, I’d be damned if I have to spend the rest of my life with you.” you commented.

Jaemin stopped laughing, leaning back on his arms as he took a moment to think about it. “But wouldn’t it be better that way though? Like, you wouldn’t have to go through that awkward introduction phase when we could just move on to the honeymoon phase.”

You scoffed. “I’d rather barf in my cereal.”

You let out a loud ‘oof’ when Jaemin tackled you against the sheets to smack you with his pillow repeatedly.

Jaemin chuckled to himself at the memory, smiling sadly at how ironic yet cliche this whole ordeal was. He walked over to his desk, picking up the pebble from the space in between his books and stationary. He tossed the pebble in the air, catching it in his other hand. His eyes pausing at the old Doraemon sticker on the pebble, half of Doraemon’s face had disappeared. (Jaemin’s weird desires to peel things off had kicked it when he was tossing around the pebble in boredom)

His thumb glazed over the sticker, causing it to fall off of the pebble and to the carpet floor. “Shit!” Jaemin cursed, kneeling down to find the Doraemon sticker. ‘Y/N’s gonna kill me,’ he thought to himself with a chuckle as he picked up the sticker, it took him a few seconds for him to realize that you two weren’t friends anymore. ‘Right, she probably doesn’t care about some stupid sticker anymore.’ he frowned, sighing heavily.

He gently placed the sticker back on the pebble despite the fact that it couldn’t stick anymore, placing the pebble back on his desk as he stood back up on his feet, He looks back down when he felt his wallet slip out of the pocket of his jacket when he stood up. His heavy heart weighing down on him when he looks down at his wallet.

His wallet had fallen open, revealing the photo of you two when you were still kids slipped into the transparent pocket of his wallet. Jaemin picked up his wallet in between his fingers, his heart dropping to the pit of his stomach as he collapsed back on the mattress of his bed. He tucked his arm under his head as he turned over to his side, never keeping his eyes off of the picture in his wallet.

The picture was slightly blurry. Baby Jaemin was attacking you with his latest transformers action figure, his lips puckered to make dramatic sound effects. Baby you had your face scrunched in laughter, a hand outstretched to shove him away by his shoulder. You had a barbie doll in your free hand, protecting your barbie from his transformers figure.

Baby Jaemin’s cap was floating in mid air, having been knocked off of his head when you threw your doll’s hairbrush at the perfect moment. The one who took the picture was your grandmother, who truly believed that you two were soulmates since the dawn of time. Jaemin’s frown deepened at the thought of your beloved grandma. How she would use any given time to take at least one picture of the two of you together. How she would walk in the middle of your play time to five you two some cookies or treats she made.

 “Grandma, what’s a soulmate?” you asked in the middle of your play date with Jaemin. Your grandma smiled simply, sighing as she leaned her cheek against her palm. “Soulmate, huh?” she repeated as Jaemin sat beside you in front of her with a cookie in his between hands. “A soulmate is like..” your grandmother paused, eyeing the two of you as you sat side by side with cookies in your hands as you obediently listened to your grandmother’s words.

“To me, a soulmate is like a best friend. It’s the one person who knows you better than anyone else.” she explained briefly. “More than your own family?” Jaemin asked, chewing in between words, causing your grandma to chuckle. “Almost more than your own family,” she winked, grabbing a cookie of her own out of the container filled with chocolate chip cookies.

“It’s also someone who makes you a better person in life, because most of the times, they inspire you to be a better person. A soulmate is someone you can carry with you forever.” 

“Forever? Wouldn’t they get bored?” You asked with an innocent tilt of your head. Your grandmother smiled briefly, “well, would you get bored of playing with Jaemin, Y/n?” she asked, causing the both of you to look at each other. You shook your head with a bright smile, “never! Jaemin is my best friend!” you exclaimed, causing Jaemin to let out a loud cheer. “And y/n is mine!” he exclaimed, wrapping his tiny arms around your figure as he gingerly pressed his cheek against yours, causing you to giggle. 

“That’s good. Though, a soulmate will always support you and believe in you. They will stay by your side no matter what. They’ll always be there to make you smile.” your grandmother explained. “Does that mean a soulmate is someone who can make you happy all the time?” y/n asked, eliciting a soft chuckle from your grandma who just nodded simply. 

“Exactly my dear!” she exclaimed. “Gross,” Jaemin teased, scrunching his face in disgust at the thought. Your grandma chuckled, leaning down to fondly ruffle Jaemin’s hair. “Jae, you shouldn’t say things like that. I’m sure you’ll understand and change your mind when you’re older and more mature.” she spoke gently, making Jaemin scoff lightly, crossing his arms stubbornly.

“No I won’t! Just you watch, Grandma! I’m not going to have a soulmate when I grow up!” he exclaimed with a huff. You giggled as you hugged your barbie doll to your chest, “well I do! It sounds like a forever friend!” 

Jaemin raised a brow at you, tilting his head in confusion. “A forever friend?” he asked. You nodded eagerly, pulling your barbie doll away from your chest to play with it’s bendable arms as you continued to explain. “A friend that’s going to be with you forever and ever like Mr. Snuggles!” you exclaimed, pointing at the big teddy bear leaning against Jaemin’s power ranger action figure.

“I wish I could meet my soulmate now!” you exclaimed with a bright giggle. “I’m sure they’ll be the nicest person ever!”

At this point, Jaemin couldn’t hold back his tears. His heart aching like never before, but this time he didn’t bother grabbing the bottle of pain killers near him. He puts his wallet on his nightstand as he sniffled, his heart overwhelmed with different emotions all at one. Guilt. Anger. Regret.

Jaemin furiously wiped the tears from his face, his frustration growing by the second. “Fuck!” he cried out, sobs coming out of his throat as tears continuously cascade down his cheeks. He turned over to his stomach, burying his face in the soft fabric to muffle his cries and sobs.

They say karma hits back at the best of times. It was no different with Na Jaemin. Like what your grandma had said, he’d change his mind of his perception of this whole soulmate system. There was no point in fighting against fate. How could he be so selfish as to let the people he cared about get hurt? How could he be so foolish to take your kindness for granted?

Jaemin’s eyes screw shut tightly, trying to stop the flashbacks going through his head. He knew he couldn’t stop the nostalgic memories from flooding through his mind. After all, you two shared every moment of your lives with each other that it would be preposterous for the world to not make you two soulmates. This is what he wanted right? He wanted you to go away.

Now, he just wanted his best friend back. He wanted you to give him cookies again every week. He wanted you to sit next to him during every class you had together and make weird jokes or express abstract opinions of a certain topic. He missed those times when you two would go to the arcade to get the biggest stuffed animal in all the crane games you could find and play some Mario Kart afterwards.

He missed how you would sneakily wear his hoodie in the middle of class because you ‘were cold’ or ‘forgot to bring yours’. He missed blasting music loudly from his car radio as he drives you both to school, headbanging aggressively to the beat of whatever song was playing on the radio. The way you would comfort him by buying him desserts or cookies from the nearest bakery whenever he received a scolding from Coach or the former Team Captain.

Jaemin paused, remembering your bright smile when you stood in front of Renjun. That genuine smile you always used whenever he was in your line of vision. He sighed at the vivid memory, He moved so he was laying on his back, sniffling back his tears as his mind spun even more as he couldn’t help but think that maybe Donghyuck was right.

Whenever he was a jerk, Renjun was always there to comfort you. He was always there to help you whenever you were on the brink of failing a certain subject while Jaemin would always ditch you for practice or to hang out with Jeno and Haechan. Maybe it would be better if Renjun was your soulmate instead of Jaemin.

He’ll make you way more happier than he ever could. Jaemin’s heart clenched against his chest at the thought of you being in a romantic relationship with someone else. Though, who was he to complain if you and Renjun were secretly into each other? He knew it was very unlikely for a someone to fall for someone else that’s not their soulmate, but it wasn’t completely impossible for one to do so.

All that you ever wanted was to have someone by your side for the rest of your life to make you smile when you’re at your worst. Jaemin couldn’t even do that back when he broke your music box. What was the point in asking you to forgive him now if you wouldn’t even look him in the eyes without giving him an expression equivalent to what an injured puppy would at their owner?

You deserved someone like Renjun. 

Maybe Hyuck was right. You were cursed to be born with a soulmate like him. You were cursed to have the same stupid tattoo as he did on your wrist. You didn’t deserve to suffer that much emotional pain for such a long time for his sake. You didn’t deserve all the pain he put you through. And he knew he didn’t deserve to have you in his life.

Jaemin spent the rest of his day crying his eyes out. Finally letting out the pent up emotions that his actions had caused him, letting his heart scream out in pain as it tries to release the tension that came with longing for the feeling of holding your delicate heart in the palms of his hands. At that single moment, he never wished for anything so bad as he did when he wished he could start this whole soulmate ordeal over again.  

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[collecting-stories]

Artwork - JJ Maybank

Request: Hey! I've read your entire masterlist 😶😬😂 I was wondering if you could do something with jj x reader and she's an artist. Idk I was painting and thought of it, maybe a paint fight or something

A/N: I incorporated the pandemic a little lol. 

Outer Banks Masterlist

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Eyes closed, JJ was laying on your bed, an old quilt stretched out underneath him. It was nearing the 100s outside but inside the air was kicked up and your fan was on, blowing cool air across the bed. JJ was on his back, shirt off, muscles tensing and then relaxing again each time that your brush ran cold paint over his tan skin.  

Quaratine had eaten up most of your summer plans but you had made an entire list of ‘at home’ things that you’d seen on pinterest and tiktok to occupy your time and naturally, you’d roped JJ into most of them. He’d made stickers with you and redecorated CD’s and painted your bedroom. Today’s activity was painting. It had started on regular canvas but had somehow moved to JJ’s back being used as the canvas.  

Bright yellow sunflowers, hints of blue in the background, covered JJ’s skin from the base of his neck to just above his swim trunks. You sat straddling him, a small paint brush in your hand as you finished the last few details. JJ whined at an especially ticklish swipe too close to his side and you bit your lip as he pressed his mouth into his arm to stop from making any more noise.

“I’m almost done.” You promised, careful of the wet paint on his back as you leaned forward to kiss the part of his shoulder that was decorated.  

“Good, I get to do your back after this.” JJ replied.  

“Uh...no.” You shook your head as you grabbed your phone off the bed beside you to take a picture of your handiwork. “I hate to break it to you babe but you aren’t exactly Picasso.”

“I’m assuming that’s some art dude.” JJ said, turning his head slightly, eyes still closed. He smiled like he knew you were taking a picture and you tapped your phone, the flash flickering over him for a second.  

“It is some art dude, yes.” You laughed, climbing off of him as carefully as possible, trying not to smudge your handiwork.  

“Yeah well I could totally paint better than him.” He replied. JJ got up off the bed, stretching his arms up over his head and you bit your lip watching him flex, the muscles in his abs tensing and then relaxing. The artwork on his back was beautiful but you’d argue that nothing compared to actually looking at him. JJ was his own artwork.

“Fine.”  

“Seriously?” He grinned.  

“Seriously. I’ll let you paint on my back.” You conceded, knowing it was pointless to argue. There was no way you had the will power or discipline to say no to any of JJ’s suggestions, even if that meant your back ended up looking like a three-year old’s finger-painting experiment.

“Alright, you know the drill...strip.”

You rolled your eyes at him but pulled your shirt off over your head. Your sports bra went next, dropping it beside the bed before you laid down, getting situated. “You know how lucky you are, you can just lay down you don’t have to like readjust your boobs so they’re not squashed.”  

“You could sit up,” JJ suggested, climbing on the bed, his knees settling on either side of your hips, “then I could paint and have a nice view at the same time.”  

Even with your eyes closed you could tell that JJ was no doubt looking at the mirrored closet door that sat across from the end of your bed. “I’ll stay laying down. You’ll see enough of me when I wash this off later.”

“Wash it off? Please you’ll be begging them to do a living art piece in the MoMa.” He replied. “That’s what it’s called right? The MoMa?”  

“Yeah...it’s called the MoMa.” You smiled knowing that he had remembered. God knows that you had sent him an onslaught of photos sneakily taken inside of the MoMa when you went up to New York with your mom last summer to look at art colleges in NYC.

The first brush of paint ran across your skin and you couldn’t help tensing, the coolness of it shocking you slightly. JJ’s free hand pressed into your back, just above your ass, thumb massaging your skin gently as he continued to paint.  

Your talent in art was as good as JJ’s was bad. While you were thinking of pursuing a degree in art and had been taking private lessons since you were ten, JJ could barely manage a stick figure. That didn’t matter though, whether he could actually draw or not he could appreciate your art. He was an antsy person by nature but he’d sat almost perfectly still for hours at a time for sketches. Everytime you took part in an art show, even if they were just small, local fairs, he got excited about it.  

“What are you painting?” You asked, trying to tilt your head to catch a peek at what colors he was using. You’d done sunflowers on his back because if anyone reminded you of the flower it was JJ. It helped that they were his favorite, something he’d mentioned in passing once when you first started dating. Followed defensively by ‘guys can like flowers too’ not that you had said anything to contradict that.

“You’ll see.”  

“It better not be a dick or something!”

“It’s not a dick! I’m a serious artist here and I am offended that you would even suggest that to me.” JJ replied, sounding offended.  

You hummed skeptically. JJ dipped his brush in the blue, mixing it around on the palette board with the white. It was messier than yours usually looked but he ignored it, running the brush over your back and smiling a little at the actual picture coming together.  

He took his time, just like you had, mixing different shades of blue and adding detail, shading, all the pieces of technique that he had watched you incorporate when you painted. When he was finally finished he grabbed his phone to take a picture, the same way you had taken his picture.  

“I think it looks fucking awesome, if I do say so myself.” He mused.  

“Can I see it or are you just gonna keep sitting on me?”  

“Tempting but...I’ll move.” He climbed off of you careful of the paint.  

You climbed off the bed, holding your arms in front of you as you turned to look in the mirror. JJ had painted waves across your back with a bright sun over your shoulder. You couldn’t help smiling at his handiwork, better than you’d thought it’d look but also, being islanders there was nothing the two of you loved more than the beach. It’d been there that you’d met and there that you’d had your first date.  

“I think you’re right, I might end up putting myself on display in the MoMa.” You said, looking over at your boyfriend and smiling.  

“Not to shabby huh? I’ll be stealing your scholarship soon.” He teased.  

“Oh definitely.”

“You know what we should get?” He asked, moving your art supplies off your bed and over to your desk to be washed later.

“What?” You asked, skeptical.

“Those edible paints.” He replied, “we could do some finger painting on each other.”

“Oh god you are...” You shook your head at him, already knowing where his mind was going. “You better buy me sheets to cover my bed...I’m not washing that shit out afterward.”  

“So that’s a yes.”

“Unbelievably, yes.”

-

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