#it's not too bad. just requires me to be Careful and try to contain the urge to Touch.

[orcelito]

What they don't tell you about having a nose piercing is that it feels like I have a dangly booger just in there and I have to just Leave It Be bc I'm not supposed to touch the area at all if I can help it

The face holes be itching today again, folks

[saintyveningstar]

Mama! Abby Headcannons !

No. 2

Mom! Abby Anderson head-cannons !

Abby is absolutely stern and/or strict. Not strict in the way that her kids aren't allowed to do anything but she's very adamant that her children show her the same amount of respect she gives them

Saying ma'am/sir is required in her household

When her kids act out she has no problem taking a traditional approach — bar of soap in the mouth, taking off her belt, spanking — but she will never go too far with punishments

She always makes sure that her kids know why they're in trouble and why they're getting punished

Abby does not tolerate disrespect or lies of any kind

The only person who's more strict than Abby is her father Jerry

Abby knows how to stop her kids in their tracks with just a look

Sometimes she won't yell and scream, but her kids see the poorly contained anger in her eyes behind her calm demeanor.

When she gets like this, she'll be eerily quiet — "Yeah?" she'll say, "Is that your final answer?" she'll shrug, cross her arms, and lean back, her kids will have unknowingly stepped into a trap. "Get up to your room, then." she'd say, and kiss her teeth. "I'll be up there to talk to you in a minute." — the only thing that'll be talking is that belt, though.

She loves to do her kids hair, especially in French braids

She loves to make tea/coffee for them

She loves to give her kids forehead/cheek kisses

Abby literally patches up their wounds if they get hurt playing or roughhousing, she'll kiss the scrapes and bruises.

Her kids call her Mommy

Her kids will dress up as her for career day, coming to school in blue scrubs, her stethoscope, her pens in the pocket, and her badge

She 100% curses in front of her kids and does not care, they just better not repeat it in front of her cause they know better

"But—" "But nothing!"

She does that gritted teeth mom thing

She finds out her kid did something bad because they told her themself — "You better be fucking joking, so help me, you better be."

She does that other mom thing where she's in the other room and calls for her kid but when they answer she wont respond and just wait for them to come — unless it's urgent:

"[Full Kid's name], get your ass down here! Now!"

"Do I need to take off my belt?"

"Don't lie to me."

"Do I need to call your father?"

"Did you brush your teeth before bed?" "Yes." — she'll just shoot a glare at them until they get it right, raising her eyebrow — "Yes, ma'am. Sorry!" "Yeah, thought so."

She has cute little petnames for her kid/kids — baby, sweetheart, doll, their first initial, dove, honey/hun, diva/sassy, bossy, bubba, love

She has asthma, so her kids have asthma too — she got it from Jerry

She will comfort her kid through their asthma attacks — "Deep breaths, baby. That's it, you got it."

"I know that's not a fucking hickey on your neck." — for teenagers

"Mommy, can you help me rearrange my room, please please please?" "Yeah, sure, hun." — she ends up doing all of the work.

If she has more than one kid, the oldest one is always trusted to look out for the others.

She'll pay for her kids to try any hobby they want, she has no issue with it

"You said you have a project due tomorrow?!" She's absolutely fucking livid, "And you only thought to tell me now?"

Everyone does their part with chores, including her

If she has a child who inherited her attitude she's able to humble them every time — "Don't dish it out if you can't take it, yeah?"

"Oh my god, you better clean up this fucking room."

She calls her kid up, "That room better be clean by the time I get back, or you're getting it. You hear me?"

"Do you understand me?"

"Look at me when I'm talking to you."

"Get all of that?"

"Think I'm playin' with you?"

She's very, very protective of her children

She will always hear her kids out, but ultimately she knows best

will always listen to their side of the story and take it into account, even if she's angry with them

Abby values honesty and integrity above all else

"You know you can tell me anything, absolutely anything, right?"

"Hey, can you make sure to take the meat out of the freezer? I'm planning to cook today." — but when she gets home, the meat is definitely still in the freezer.

She sets boundaries and expectations for her kids and expects them to be followed

"Go lay out your clothes for tomorrow."

"How was Owen's?"

When her kids bring friends around, she know's who's good and who's not. — "Yeah, I don't like that boy Kevin. Steer clear of him, maybe."

Abby can read her kids like the back of her own hand

"Baby, what's the matter?"

She does that nose bridge pinch

"Get your fuckin' act together, alright?" 

If her kid starts acting up in public, she'll give them that look and if they don't stop she'll grab their shoulder and pull them close. Abby would bend down, "Tread lightly, yeah?"

"You better straighten up, hun." she'd say, "Or you're in hot water."

"I'll tan your hide if you don't cut it out, now."

"Shape up, or ship out."

All of her kids look exactly like her with different coloring

"Is that the route you wanna take?"

"You have like, five seconds, to remove yourself from my line of sight before I reach out and grab you."

"Don't tempt fate, hun."

"Can you tell that you're pissing me off right now? Or no?"

(If you like Ellabs) They call Ellie Mama

She loves to read books to/with her kids

She carries her kids around on her back or to her chest with ease, no matter their age

"Watch your tone, Okay?"

"Watch yourself."

"Have you eaten today, love?"

"Who are you talking to?!"

she is an amazing mama

That's all I've got 

[writer-in-theory]

berry sweet on your lips

TW: Period-typical homophobia, Some Internalized homophobia, Implied abuse (Steve's dad is a pos)

When Steve was seven, his Mama caught him in her makeup.

He was sitting up on the bathroom counter, sloppily drawn eyeliner over his eyelids and trying to apply bright cherry red lipstick to his lips without smearing. The application process required so much focus he hadn't realized when the front door opened downstairs, or when his mom called repeatedly for him to come down to dinner. He did hear the surprised little yelp from her though, and the sigh once she realized which eyeliner he'd accidentally broken.

"Honey, those aren't toys to play with." His Mama's voice was tight like she was barely containing her frustration at the lost products. Dad always made her upset, and Steve didn't want to add to it. So it didn't seem like a good time to correct her, that no, he wasn't trying to play. He'd seen how pretty makeup could make people, and he wanted it. He wanted to be pretty.

Instead, he sighed and nodded, hopping down from the counter. "Sorry, Mama."

"It's okay, baby, that stuff just isn't for kids to play with. C'mon, let's get you washed up and we can get some dinner."

It wasn't the last time he'd thought about makeup, though it took years until Steve found the courage to try again.

--

It happened when he was fourteen in Carol Perkins's basement. He, Tommy, and Carol spent most nights together anymore. The Perkins' always volunteered to babysit Steve when he was younger and his Mama started going on business trips with his dad, and they always let Tommy come over so he wouldn't be left out. That basement with its bright tie-dyed blankets scattered around and posters of every attractive celebrity you could imagine felt more like home than his own house.

Maybe that was why he felt so comfortable suggesting it in the first place.

"Ugh, I need more girl friends, honestly," Carol groaned, flopping back onto the pile of pillows and blankets she'd acquired.

"What now? We're not entertaining enough?" Tommy teased from where he and Steve were playing air hockey. Steve's knuckles were sure to bruise tomorrow from the speed with which they were knocking the puck at each other but they hadn't stopped laughing yet. "Need to go braid Tina's hair and talk about boys?"

"You're not boring," Carol clarified, "but it'd be nice to do someone's makeup and talk about boys every once in awhile. A girl needs some gossip."

Tommy laughed, so Steve laughed too because it seemed the right thing to do. But really...it didn't sound so bad, did it? So when the laughter died down, he spoke up. "You could put makeup on me, I don't care," Steve shrugged.

He did. He did care so much. Even the thought of it made his heart flutter, threatening to fly away at any second.

"Really?" Carol raise one eyebrow, sitting all the way up and twisting around to face him. "You'd let me put makeup on you? The whole thing, I don't do boring makeup."

"C'mon, man, don't let her do that to you," Tommy groaned, but Steve just shrugged again and abandoned the air hockey table, coming over to sit down on the floor with Carol.

"It washes off, right?" As if he hadn't known how easy it was to swipe off red lipstick, though it would always leave a deep tint to his lips like he'd been eating berries. "It can't hurt."

It at least made Carol happy, and seeing her smile as she rushed off to retrieve her makeup bag made Tommy's grumbles about ditching the game worth it.

And you know, it was fun. Carol was actually gentle, and seemed to know what she was doing. Steve had his eyes closed most of the time while she brushed powder and liner on them, as she swiped mascara on and tried to perfect whatever glamorous look she'd seen in her latest magazine. She did talk about boys too, all about which girl had crushes on each boy that they knew, and why Eric Thompson was the most crushed on boy in Hawkins Middle.

"Eric Thompson? Get a grip, Perkins, you can do so much better than him," Steve told her, laughing at her indignant shout.

"Seriously. The guy's a total meathead," Tommy called from where he was sprawled out across one of the couches, idly watching whatever movie the Perkins' decided to rent for the night.

"You're a total meathead," Carol shot back in return. "Not Stevie here, though. No, I think after I tell all the girls about what a good guy you are, you'll be the new king of Hawkins Middle."

"Screw Hawkins Middle, I better be king of Hawkins High for this," Steve laughed, only because he had no idea how to thank her for it. By the time he'd left the Perkins' house the next morning, the bright eyeshadow and tacky lip gloss had been washed away but the feeling of pure peace it had brought him persisted.

--

Steve hadn't dared try again, not until he was sixteen and saw a guy wearing nail polish. It was one of the Seniors, the one who wore all black and who the whole basketball team called The Freak. And maybe he was a freak, Steve didn't really ever have a reason to talk to him and find out, but the sight of the swath of black over his nails left Steve breathless.

"You taking photography this semester, Harrington?" The guy—something Munson, Steve thinks—asked when Steve hadn't stopped staring in the hallway.

"Huh?" Steve startled, looking down both sides of the hallway as if to check if any of his friends were seeing who he was talking to. "No?"

"Shame," Munson let out a little 'tsk' noise, the way Steve's dad always did when he was disappointed. "You could've taken a picture and made it last longer."

Oh, oh. Steve's face flushed red, and the second he saw a flash of another green and orange letterman he panicked. They would know, oh God they'd see him with The Freak and it would all be over, they would figure out that he wanted to paint his nails too and—

Steve wasn't proud of the words spoken after that. They lingered far after he'd said them, swirling in his head until it sounded a little more like his dad was repeating them over and over again, reminding Steve of just what kind of person he was to stay clear away from.

It was that guilt that finally convinced him to go to Melvald's, where the kind woman at the counter didn't question why he was buying the cheapest makeup products he could find. He didn't even know if any of it would look good together, he just knew he needed it. He needed a way to see himself like this before he messed up again where someone could see, where someone could figure him out.

And so began the careful ritual. Every night he'd rush home from practice, lock his bedroom door even though he knew his parents were away on another trip, and swipe the makeup over his eyes, cheeks, lips. He got better at it with every attempt, until the liner wasn't shaky and his lipstick didn't look like it had already been kissed off (and now, wasn't that a thought).

--

Except that was the trouble with secrets, wasn't it? They couldn't stay buried for long, not when Hawkins was so small and this felt so much larger than the town, than the state, than anything Steve had ever been apart of.

It was only a matter of time until his dad found out.

That night he'd been sloppy, unprepared for his parents to come home early. The light in the upstairs bathroom had gone out and instead of changing it he'd moved downstairs, where the lights had already been switched out to a cooler white that made it easier to see what colors he was painting his skin with.

Steve Harrington was pretty sure he would die that night, all over deep red lipstick and perfectly-drawn eyeliner.

He didn't know where he was running to, all he knew was that he couldn't stay in Loch Nora. He ran until he was near the edge of town, nothing but trees and the one road leading out surrounded him. Steve hadn't had his car keys on him, and there was no way he could go back for them without facing his dad's righteous anger. Steve let out a painful cry, finding nothing left to do but lay down on the pavement and stare at the stars. He was barely eighteen, no car, no money except whatever bills were stuffed in his pocket, no plan. Just himself and that damned red lipstick still lingering like berry-stained evidence on his lips.

He didn't move for anything. Not when the night grew chilly enough to freeze his joints and prick up goosebumps on his arms. Not when the rumble of an old car engine came roaring in the distance, or for the subsequent squeal of brakes and a loud horn.

"Shit, Harrington, I know you have air for a brain but what the fuck are you do—" The person cut themselves off, like from seeing the state of him. They'd probably hit him too, kick at him while he was down because why the fuck did he think he could get away with this shit in the middle of nowhere Indiana?

"Shit, Harrington," the voice hissed again, sounding as pained as Steve thought he should feel.

"Get on with it," Steve voiced, voice rough with tears and the violent yells his dad had hit out of him.

"Get on with what?"

Steve rolled his eyes, turning his head to meet Eddie Munson's gaze. He wondered if he still painted his nails. He wondered if it even mattered, because even Eddie Munson didn't do what Steve did. "I'm tired, man. If you're gonna get your revenge on me make it quick."

That startled Eddie, reminding Steve of just how expressive the guy was. It was almost humorous, the way his head reeled back and his eyes widened impossibly far.

"Get in the van, Harrington."

Right, if Eddie was gonna murder him he couldn't do it out in the open, not where anyone could be driving by.

So Steve picked himself up from the ground, not bothering to brush off his jeans before sliding into the passenger seat. They didn't talk the whole drive. No music played. They just sat in complete and total silence, punctuated only by the nervous taps of Eddie's hand on the steering wheel.

Eddie Munson must be stupider than he was. Most murderers wouldn't drive their victim to their own trailer before finishing the job. Though, Steve supposed all Eddie had to say was that he saw Steve Harrington wearing lipstick and it'd all be waved away. Upstanding citizen, that Eddie Munson was.

"Shower's back there, there's a first aid kit on the shelf," Eddie spoke, unable to stand still once they got inside the trailer.

And that, well that was just downright weird. Steve tilted his head to the side, eyeing the little hallway Eddie waved his hand at like it might jump at him. "What's happening?"

"What do you mean?" Eddie sounded tired, like he hadn't slept in weeks. Steve felt like he'd never slept at all, like he might never again.

"You...aren't you gonna...?"

"I mean, I could if you think you're gonna fall," Eddie said nervously, eyes also watching the hallway. "Just tryin' to protect your modesty, man."

"What?" Nothing was making sense, and Steve was beginning to wonder if maybe his head had hit the tile floor one too many times because this was supposed to be simple, cut and dry.

"Can you just go clean up, Harrington?"

"Why?"

"Because I hate seeing all that damn blood on you, okay?" Eddie snapped out, voice raising in pitch the more worked up he got. "I don't know what the hell happened, but I hate it."

Oh.

"You're not...you're not gonna...?" Steve repeated, including a lackluster air punch.

That seemed to make everything click in place for Eddie. He sucked in a breath and both hands flew to the top of his head, scraping through his unruly curls. "Shit, you think? Nah, man, I'm not a piece of shit like whoever did that to you. C'mon."

Eddie started walking down the hallway, and honestly this all felt so vaguely dreamlike Steve couldn't do anything but follow, wordlessly sitting on the toilet lid where Eddie waved for him to be. The other man was knelt between his legs, wiping off his face with a wet washcloth. His touch was gentle, experienced as he wiped away the blood and set to work rubbing antibiotic onto each open cut.

"Why are you being so nice to me?" Steve whispered out, eyes focused on the barest hint of eyeliner on Eddie's eyes. The other man clearly wasn't wearing it to be pretty though. No, this was drawn on with intentional haste, and made Eddie look so fucking badass that Steve didn't know what to do about it. "I sucked in school. I was awful to you."

Eddie's hands didn't stop, brown eyes focused on Steve's lips as he wiped at the split in the lower one. He could see the breath hitch in the other man's chest though, a quick collapse of Eddie's chest before his breath restarted at a normal rhythm. "You did suck, but that doesn't mean you deserve this."

Steve didn't say anything else, couldn't really. Not when the lump in his throat grew until he was sure he would never be able to breathe again, and the tears began to spill without inhibition. And Eddie, well Eddie let him. He just kept patching him up, never saying anything, never berating him or looking disgusted by the tears. He just sat with Steve while he let it out, eyes looking to Steve's every so often as if to check he was okay.

"I think something's wrong with me." The whisper sounded so loud in the tiny bathroom, echoing around and around and smacking into Steve's chest repeatedly.

"No." It was the first time Eddie seemed bothered by anything Steve said all night, fingers gripping tightly around the corner of the counter he was holding to keep himself steady. "There's nothing wrong with you."

Steve opened his mouth to say something, but Eddie cut him off. He looked Steve right in the eyes, a kind of fire lighting up in those dark brown eyes of his. "Steve Harrington, there is nothing wrong or broken or shameful about you. So you like to wear makeup, lots of guys do."

"I've never met anyone who does."

"Because you're in Bumfuck, Indiana," Eddie continued on, never sounding more passionate than he did now. It was intense, sure, but Steve had longed for someone, anyone, to say what Eddie was now. And of course it was the guy with the painted nails he'd been enraptured by years before. "Just you wait, pretty boy, there's a whole world out there with people like us."

Like us. Like us.

"C'mon, you need some sleep. We can figure out the details in the morning."

"Wait...what?"

Eddie laughed a little, shattering the heavy moment with a burst of pure warmth. He stood up and offered a ringed hand out to help Steve up despite him not needing it. Eddie's hand was cold in his own, but it felt right there.

"Try to keep up, Harrington," he teased. "If you don't mind sharing a bed, you can stay here. Us freaks have to stick together, right?"

"I mean...your uncle won't...?"

"Nah, Wayne'll love pissin' Robert Harrington off," Eddie answered coolly, "And he's cool with...everything."

And despite Steve's skepticism, he was. Wayne Munson was pretty much the greatest support anyone could ever have. His face had flashed dangerously when Steve admitted what happened, saying the world had no place for men who hit their boys (Steve wondered only briefly why the topic seemed to pain Wayne so much). And living with Eddie Munson, well, it was great. The trailer was small and Eddie kicked in his sleep, but Eddie also smiled from the second he was awake and the no place had ever quite felt like home in the way the Munson trailer did.

And the next time Steve found the courage to sit and do his makeup, it came with bright smiles instead of that old, lingering fear.

[ageless-aislynn]

I finished The Quarry! 8 hours for my first playthrough and I got 18/40 achievements along the way. To 100% it will require a few more total playthroughs (some of the achievements are blocked by getting others, so need their own playthrough) but I'm looking forward to seeing the other ways that everything can work out!

I made a few decisions that resulted in me completely not getting the results I expected, lol.

SPOILERS, if anybody cares 😉

I saved Laura and cured her of the werewolf infection but apparently didn't have as good a relationship with Travis as I thought I did so he locked her up at the end.

I cured Max but got him killed by Werewolf Caleb by trying to swim to land. 🫤 Emma was killed by Werewolf Max and was the first to die. I let Ryan bleed to death rather than become a werewolf because I honestly thought he was going to be revealed as bad. I thought he had deliberately hung up on calling 911 early in the game and lied about it, which was a clue to his true nature. Instead, oops, the phone really had been cut right then? Sorry, dude. 🤷‍♀️

Werewolf Nick killed Jacob in the cages because at that point I thought I was inevitably going to get everybody killed and figured I might as well go for that achievement. So I let Jacob be killed and then eventually realized I had too many infected werewolves by that time and they don't die so... oops. Killed you for nothing, Jacob, my bad. 🫤😉 I accidentally got Kaitlyn killed by failing the shooting QTE and I guess that was Werewolf Caleb who killed her? (Or was it Werewolf Silas? I dunno, doesn't matter, my girl was werewolf chow and that made me so sad. 😭)

Dylan and Nick survived as werewolves. Abigail, Laura and Travis all survived as humans. Everybody else ☠️

Characters I came to love by the end:

Dylan

I thought he was going to be the sorta stereotypical wisecracking annoying guy the whole way through and instead you discover he has a heart beneath all of the wisecracks. I love him, your honor! 💖

Kaitlyn

Very similar to Dylan, she proved to have a lot more heart than I expected. I started playing her with her most sympathetic options and wow, my opinion on her completely changed from the initial one. I love her, your honor! 💖

Laura

My badass queen, right here. Love, love, looooove her! I knew we'd see her again in the game at some point after the start and she did NOT disappoint. I seriously wanted the ending where she and Travis work together as well as her getting to meet Max again after he was cured. Definitely going to try for that next! 💖

Max

I had a lot of sympathy for Max. He didn't want to disappoint Laura, he was devastated when he realized he had hurt her after turning werewolf the first time, and he generally was just trying to be a good guy going through some terrible circumstances. Love him and I love him with Laura. 💖

Travis

Yeahhh, it's Ted Raimi. I'ma love him no matter what, lol. And yep, I can quite easily get aboard the Laura x Travis ship right along side the Laura x Max one. I contain multitudes, what can I tell you? 😂💖

I was worried about the level of blood/gore and found it to be not nearly as graphic as I thought it might be. Granted, you get a lot of people ending up splattered in blood so if that's not your thing, be wary of that. The werewolf kills/attacks weren't as graphic as I thought they might've been, so that was good (Kaitlyn's was the worst but at least it wasn't all in-your-face torture p0rn or the like; I just hated it because I didn't want her to die 😭😭😭). Of course, everybody's tolerance for things like that can be different AND there might be more graphic attacks that I just didn't encounter in this playthrough.

Also, the werewolf transformation scenes were some of the most interesting, if, um, wet 👀that I've ever seen. Basically, the werewolf bursts out of the human. I also thought the werewolf design was unique, though they kinda looked like very angry hairless cats to me, lol. 🤷‍♀️😉

Something also worth mentioning is the fact that you can't manually save, it only auto-saves at certain points. The game is very insistent that you can't go back and change your mind on your choices in your first playthrough. After finishing it, you get the option to do 3 "death rewinds" in subsequent playthroughs, where you can get the option to try to undo a character death.

Since I'm somebody who can get stressed out by feeling like I don't want to make a mistake... I had to get over that right away. You also get chapter selects after you finish the first game, so I'm hoping to be able to be able to utilize those 2 mechanics to be able to get all of the achievements I want without having to keep restarting the game over and over. Maybe not everyone will be bothered by that but I thought I should mention it, just in case.

Once I got past my "But what if I'm making the wrong choice???" fears (hint: I probably was, lol), I appreciated having to just stick to the consequences and see it through. 😉

So, in summary: I found this to be a lot of fun to play, there seems to be a TON of outcomes that you can get, I still suck at Quicktime events but am a little better than at the start, and I'm looking forward to playing through again several more times! 😎👍

[triflesandparsnips]

So I was, as per normal, thinking again about Stede just collapsing into the cabin-kiss, and like-- we talk a lot about how Stede had just killed a guy, he was maybe not in the best headspace for sexy times, but--

in looking around for a kiss gif (AS PER NORMAL), I saw this one too:

...and I've been wondering and wondering about that face, right? Stede's face. A bit silly, kind of the embodiment of "smiling helplessly", a phrase that sounds bad out of context but usually appears when someone is just absolutely delighted by the existence of something-- or someone-- doing something ridiculous and amazing...

And it occurred to me that: Stede went to hide in his room so he could freak out, right? He's used to hiding, or trying to hide, how he feels when it comes to the childhood trauma stuff. And he's used to literally hiding in his cabin unless/until someone approaches that he has to mask back up for-- we see that all the way back in the very first episode of season 1.

But that night? The person who approached was Ed.

And not there asking him to be 'the captain'. Not telling him to 'man up' about the killing thing. Not even asking him to be the Romantic Lead or the Lost Love Return'd, roles Stede had been eager and wanting to play but just. not right now.

It could've gone wrong. Stede didn't say "come in"-- he didn't say anything at all, just opened the door, maybe expecting-- god, what he's gotten before, every single other time his entire life--

And Ed... changes the script.

He doesn't step in, doesn't break Stede's boundary, doesn't ask for anything from Stede. He just wants to see if Stede's okay. And more than that: By providing his own feelings about killing his dad, he's letting Stede know that, for the record? Stede doesn't have to be okay.

So... so for maybe the first time that Stede can remember-- or at least maybe the first time we see on-screen-- Stede is hurting, and. And someone comes to comfort him.

No ulterior motives. No quid pro quo. No requirement that he feel one way or another, be this or that kind of person.

Someone-- no, not just someone, Ed, who knows Stede, who's seen him and understood him and could ask so much from Stede if he wanted to-- just sees that he's hurting, and wants to help.

And like-- have you ever felt that kind of kindness? It's heady enough when it's a stranger. But when it's someone you know, someone you care about, someone you trust (hope, pray that you can trust) to hold the delicate, vulnerable heart of you--

Fuck, okay, that face, that silly face, that face that says nothing but looks like it's about to cry and to laugh and it's heartbreak for the past that never felt that kind of comfort and wonder for the person who made it possible in the present and it all adds up to just smiling helplessly--

Listen.

They say that in musicals, songs happen when a character's feelings are too strong for mere dialogue to contain.

I say that in this moment, Stede's actions aren't because he's addled from the kill, but because his feelings-- what love can mean beyond "romance", what it does, what it gives, what it allows, what it makes possible-- rise up and over and wash his hands against Ed's jacket and twist them both to the wall, and then, and then--

just collapse him into that warm embrace, where all the hundred thousand words he could try to find to explain what this love feels like can, for a short while at least, be transmuted into a form that can say them all at once.

[amaleu-antmat]

The case files of Jeweler Richard vol 8 spoiler!

Part 2?

(Continuing from where I left in the previous post)

After Seigi and Catherine finished buying the groceries, Richard and Catherine enter a little discussion about the treasure hunt again, as the air grew heavy Seigi interjected to lighten the mood "Uhm, I thought I'd make seafood stew for dinner. I got some really delicious ingredients, Bouillabaisse is from this place right?" After Seigi said that the two other people look at him with almost scared? Lol faces, they moved in sync with other indescribable intense emotions, and that scare the hell out of Seigi, the poor guy think <what did I say this time? Did I make a mistake with the menu? Or are they allergic?> 😂

Richard "Bouillabaisse....wow."

Seigi "Wow, what?"

Catherine "Oh, Seigi...Bouillabaisse is a dish from Provence, but it's very difficult..."

Richard "The shrimp and fish have to be dressed just right, and the vegetables require preparation as well. It also needs to be simmer for an extremely long time. At any rate, it is an unavoidable difficult path"

Seigi "Don't worry, I can do it, it's not a problem"

Catherine "Just the thought of preparing a meal that takes so much effort makes me want to pass out. You should rethink this, even locals don't make it, it's too much hassles"

Richard "You didn't come here to hone your cooking skills. I strongly suggest you save your energy for other tasks"

Seigi "Ah..."

Mother and son duo are preoccupied because of past experiences, I guess 😆 and don't want Seigi to go through it. Seigi catches on the fact that they are both incapable of doing basic chores. He said to give him 2 hours and to not peek under any circumstances.

While Seigi cooks, he thinks that he should feed Richard so that he'll have the energy to solve the mystery of the treasure hunt like Sherlock Holmes. He finished cooking and came out, Richard had found other marbles in the meantime, he asked where Catherine was, and Richard told him that she went to check if the pizza place was open.

Seigi "I appreciate having a backup plan, but I really don't think we're going to need it"

Richard "So it seems...." 😆 (dunno why, but this part made me laugh)

Richard set the tableware, etc, and Catherine returned with news that it's closed for vacation.

Seigi set the pot containing dinner on the table and pulled off the lid, he looks at them and see.... indescribable tension, the mother-son duo peer at the pot, <was it admiration? For me? No. For the Bouillabaisse.> 🤣

(Here's a food pic, just so that you'll feel the hunger I felt when searching for it out of curiosity)

Richard "What on...."

Catherine "C'est Magnifique! I can't believe it."

They approach the table with caution, unsure as if it was a crashed ufo...<I didn't put anything bad in it....> 😁 (I find it funny how careful he is acting right now, it's really like encountering your mother in law and trying to be liked by her, only, Seigi doesn't seem to realise this, for all this novel he is diveded between pleasing her and trying to make Richard happy at the same time? But when he is nice to her, Richard is a bit sulky)

Seigi began portioning the serving and encourage them to eat.

Catherine tells Seigi to say bon appetit, and when he does the mother son duo answer in unison "Merci" Richard pout, Catherine smiles. Seigi thinks that something of the sort must have happen in the past in this estate. Seigi ask what they thought about the Bouillabaisse, Catherine teary-eyed respond that it tastes like happiness itself.

Richard "...Well, he always has been a good cook"

Catherine "Richard, you are being rude. Thank Seigi this instant"

Richard looks mortified for a moment and then looks at Seigi <This feels like a standoff between East and West, but that would make me his opponent, and I'd be knocked out before I even got a swing in. It would never occur to me to pick such a fight, I'd just wind up on my knees begging for mercy for all eternity> Seigiiiiiiiii 😆

Richard look at him a bit bashfully "Seigi, I've known for quite a while now that you are a talented cook, but it seems I must acknowledge your skills once again. Bravo. Perhaps you could open a restaurant if you felt so inclined. But I have to ask, when did you learn to cook this?"

Catherine "what an arrogant way to say that. Does that even count as a compliment?"

Richard "Stay out of this"

Seigi "Ahh uhm, thanks Richard. Where did I learn this? Good question"

Wanting to alleviate the tension he confess to them that it's his first time cooking this and he just followed the recipe, the mother-son duo doesn't believe him and tells him to stop joking with a wave of their hand in front of them and the same expression. They gives example about how cooking is hard like if you cook an egg in high heat it'll burn or about how it will explode in the microwave if run for too long, and that the odds of Seigi succeeding in that dish in the first try was too low. 😆

Catherine think for a moment that it's a japanese men skills but immediately turn down that theory as she had a friend who married a jap man who couldn't even fold underwear. Richard blatantly asks Seigi what tricks he uses.

Catherine "Can't you just say thank you, I love it?"

Richard " I don't know how many times I have to tell you, but you have no right to interject here"

Seigi the poor potato "Oh, it's fine, I'm uhm used to it! Yes! Let's eat!"

[morallygreyyn]

DAY TWO: CHRISTMAS SHOPPING FIASCO

description: you, hisoka and illumi hit the mall in hopes of scoring the perfect christmas decorations...

authors note: posted a little later than i would've liked but here is part two! i'll somehow try to manage this series and asks at the same time...wish me luck...

warnings: destruction of property (minor)

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Since you had become friends with Illumi and Hisoka, you had been the designated driver. You had stupidly let Illumi drive you once, and that was a mistake you weren’t willing to repeat. You still vividly remember clinging onto the seatbelt as though your life had depended on it, and when that didn’t feel safe enough, eventually you had clung to Hisoka. A ridiculous arrangement really, Hisoka was safe under no circumstances.

So that led to you three now: you in the driver's seat, Illumi in the passengers, and Hisoka in the back, feet up on the divider that separated you from the Zoldyck assassin.

“So, tell me again, why are we en route to a place that is bound to be overrun with desperate shoppers?” Hisoka asked, nudging the gear stick with the heel of his shoe.

You swatted his foot back. “Remind you? This was your idea!”

“Not exactly.”

“Yes, because breaking into a shopping mall at the busiest time of year is a swell idea.”

“That’s why we break in at night.”

“While I am usually up for a bit of theft, dodging the law during Christmas time would give me a headache.” You sighed as you pulled into the queue of cars, every one of you trying to find an elusive parking space. “Illumi, can you find any available spaces?”

“Hmm, not that I can see.” He said as he scanned the area, pupil-less eyes seeing nothing of value. Illumi’s finger pressed against his lips as he thought before pointing upwards once he reached an idea. “We could drag a car out of a spot?”

“That’s not a bad shout.” You hummed thoughtfully, fingers tapping against the steering wheel. 

It wasn’t a difficult task having Illumi knock a car aside while you slipped into the now available space. You just hoped that you would be back in time to avoid running into the poor owners of their now crumpled car. 

“Bring your wallet?” Hisoka grinned at Illumi as your trio began walking towards the shops, and the Zoldyck didn’t bother to answer. It was then that you were swiftly reminded that you three were still wearing the matching ugly sweaters Hisoka had bought you as every head turned in your direction. You folded your arms and met their stares. Honestly! It wasn’t that peculiar this time of year.

Luckily, you had plenty of options for Christmas decorations, although you weren’t the only ones looking to decorate their homes. One too many times did someone bump into you as you were perusing, only to be ‘tripped’ by Hisoka who had ‘accidentally’ stuck his leg out a bit too far. Not that you cared, it made room within the aisles as people very quickly learned that they would have to get through the three of you if they wanted anything that you were looking at.

“Right, I have decided on a tree.” You announced to the boys, pointing towards the largest one on display. Your apartment was big enough thanks to your job, and hey, you weren’t paying. 

Hisoka knew exactly what you were thinking, and a wicked glint appeared in his eye as he smirked and looked towards Illumi. “Y/n wants that one.”

“I heard.” Illumi hoisted the box containing your new tree up, carrying it effortlessly as you went back to choose the decorations. Hisoka and you spared no expense when shoving every bauble and tinsel within reach into the cart, themes be damned. A big tree required a lot of decorations, and that was something you both took to heart. A lot of lights was also a must; if it wasn’t a fire hazard, was it even a Christmas tree?

Throwing in a lot of festive home decor for good measure, along with the blanket and candles Hisoka had promised you, your Christmas decoration shopping had come to a successful end. Illumi didn’t even flinch when presented with the total, and your heart skipped a beat.

“Have I ever mentioned how much I love you?” You grinned as you began the walk back to your car to deposit the purchases before continuing. You still had groceries and presents to buy.

“Every day.” The eldest Zoldyck replied, voice betraying no hints of anything out of the ordinary. 

“Countless times a day, in fact.” Hisoka chimed in, shoving the tree into the car before stepping aside to allow you to load the decorations.

“I can’t help it, Illumi is the one for me.”

“What about me?”

“You’re the only pain in my ass that I tolerate.”

“My heart won’t be still at your words.”

Locking your car once more, you then went into the supermarket, hoping to find enough food to feed your two giant friends for the month. You had been grocery shopping with the two before in the past, and it more often than not ended in a petty argument between you and Hisoka over frivolous things; the last one being over the colour of fish meat. Illumi had quietly finished your grocery shop just as you knocked Hisoka to the ground, resulting in the two of you being kicked out. A small misunderstanding.

“Right, I want to make this quick, we still have presents to buy and I don’t want any frozen food defrosting before I can bring it home.” You briefed your friends as you grabbed a cart, thinking over everything you needed to buy.

“Shouldn’t we start with present shopping instead?” Illumi asked, head tilting slightly as he looked at you.

“I don’t trust this one not to sneak away to peek at the presents while we’re in here, so no.” You jabbed your thumb in Hisoka’s direction, knowing him too well. 

“Fair point.” The Zoldyck agreed as you began piling food together.

Thankfully, food shopping took very little time as you knew exactly what you needed. In fact, queuing for the checkout took longer.

“I’m bored of this.” Hisoka complained after twenty minutes of waiting, checking his nonexistent watch. “I have things to do.”

“We all have things to do.” You pinched the bridge of your nose. “If you’re that desperate, you can both leave and meet me later once you’ve finished present shopping.”

“Bye.” Hisoka was kind enough to bid farewell before he turned and sauntered away, looking for all the world as though he was going to cause all kinds of trouble. Illumi also left, leaving you alone to finish and bring the food to the car. It looked as though the owners of the crumpled car had not come back yet, and you briefly wondered if you would manage to finish your entire trip before they did.

Now, what were you to buy Illumi and Hisoka for Christmas? There wasn’t anything they particularly needed, and anything they wanted could not be bought. Perhaps you should have kept your house renovation a secret. 

With no plan or direction in mind, you wandered through the various shops, looking for a single spark of inspiration. In the end, you could only find hair clips for Illumi and a g string for Hisoka. Sighing in defeat, you began the walk of shame back to your car. 

Yeah, you would definitely need to think more about what to get them.

[twilightmalachite]

Shu Itsuki - The Beauty of Distance

Author: Umeda Chitose

Characters: Shu, Kuro

Translator: Mika Enstars

"Non! You mustn’t use such expressions in a public space! Watch your language!"

[Read on my blog for the best viewing experience with Oi~ssu ♪]

Season: Summer

Location: Café COCHI

Shu: (A cup of tea after returning to the country truly is good for the body.)

(The storefront doesn’t appear to be busy either, so I can stay here for some time��� Hm?)

(How come a shadow’s suddenly fallen on my table—)

Shu: !? Ryu~ku… I mean, Kiryu! What are you doing outside the window?

You’re pointing over at my seat… Do you want to come in and sit at the same table as me?

Ah, goodness, trying to converse through the glass will only bring attention. How about you just come on in?

Time passes…

Kuro: …Yo.

Shu: Quite the greeting you have there. You should be telling me what had you appearing outside the window out of nowhere.

Kuro: What’s the rush for? It’d be rude if I took a seat without orderin’ anythin’, wouldn’t it?

Shu: Hmph. Then hurry up and order yourself something to drink.

Kuro: I told you I’m choosin’ one now. Well, I suppose orderin’ ice tea would be a safe bet.

Shu: —Goodness. I was planning to take it easy for a bit, but to think you would show up.

Kuro: Take it easy and don’t mind me, then. Well, I’m the one who imposed himself onto ya, so guess I’m not one to speak.

Shu: …So, what do you need from me?

Kuro: Just spotted ya and thought to say hi since you’ve returned to Japan.

But well, there’s somethin’ I wanted from ya too. Or well, somethin I wanted to ask ya.

Shu: What do you want to ask?

Kuro: It’s about when I went to France with ya to film for a travel show. There was that incident involvin’ ya, remember? Y’know, the one with the erotic stuff appearin’.[1]

Shu: Non! You mustn’t use such expressions in a public space! Watch your language!

Kuro: …My bad. Didn’t know how else to describe it.

Anyways. Just was wonderin’ about that, if the incident was resolved, y’know. Since we sorta had to leave at a critical point.

Shu: …Sigh. I don’t believe you have the right to know, given you left me for dead at a crucial moment.

But it’s not like I’ve heard anything about the rest of your trip either. Did you get to finish filming?

Kuro: I heard the feature itself is still bein’ edited, but we should’ve gotten some good footage?

Shu: ? That’s quite the vague answer.

Kuro: …To be honest, what left the biggest impression on me was how the flight home was also really tough.

Shu: Good grief. Why don’t you just ask not to be given anything that requires you to be overseas, given you’re so poor with vehicles?

Kuro: ‘Cause we rookie idols ain’t in any position to selfish demands like that.

Shu: Don’t care, give your opinion regardless. You don’t want things like that to negatively affect your health.

Kuro: …Haha, how come your responses to me are always so snappy, Itsuki?

I felt we were able to speak rather peacefully all the way over there. Was it somethin’ about the foreign atmosphere?

Shu: Was it peaceful? Morisawa and Tsukinaga were there, I just have the strong impression that it was quite noisy. What did you and I even get to talk about…?

Shu & Kuro: ……

—By the way… (That reminds me…)

Shu: What is it?

Kuro: Oh no, it’s not a big deal, what were you sayin’?

Shu: Neither is what I had to say… I’ve got a favor for you since you’re here, but it’s nothing important.

Kuro: A favor?

Sounds good, lemme know what ya got for me…♪

Shu: Why are you so pleased? I’ve just figured to ask if you could carry my luggage.

I’m currently here at COCHI after leaving my luggage back at ES.

But my luggage contains my personal tools and such, so I’d like to bring them back to Starmony Dorms myself. However, with the luggage quantity, I don’t believe I can make it in one trip.

So I thought perhaps you could help me out, so I wouldn't have to go back and forth.

Kuro: That's all? No sweat!

Though…

Shu: Are there any concerns?

Kuro: It’s ‘bout our room. I haven’t heard anythin’ ‘bout Sena returnin’ to the country, so I’m assumin’ it’s more or less available, but…

Isara and I have been real busy, so we haven’t been able to give the place a good clean lately. Had I known you were comin’ in advance, I would’a gotten it clean.

Shu: Hm… That being said, you guys aren’t all too messy, right?

Kuro: Yeah. But if I knew ya were comin’, I could’ve taken the chance to hang and fluff up your beddin’ while cleanin’ up, y’know?

I’ll at least use the dryer to freshen it up for tonight. ♪

Shu: …As usual, you act as if you’re my mother.

Kuro: Hey, what’re you takin’ my bill for?

Shu: We’ve each finished our drinks, so it’s about time we leave. Though, I haven’t heard what you were going to say yet.

Kuro: I’m ready to tell ya ‘bout that anytime, but ya didn’t answer my question.

Shu: …As thanks for carrying my luggage. I’m going to go pay our for our bills, so you can wait outside.

Kuro: …And off he goes. He really doesn’t need to thank me for that…

Location: In Front of ES Building

Kuro: …That is a lot of luggage. Definitely not somethin’ you could’ve done in a single trip.

Shu: I’ll take the trunks, and you can take the suitcases… But isn’t it about time I hear about what you had wanted to say, Kiryu?

Kuro: Jumpin’ right to it, arentcha… Let’s start headin’ towards the dorms if you’re ready. …But it really ain’t that big a deal.

Shu: Still, it’s something you wanted to tell me. It wouldn’t be fair if you only had heard me out, wouldn’t it?

Kuro: ……

…A new shop opened on Time Street recently. It’s small, but they have a pretty impressive selection of stuff.

They carry those rare fabrics and threads you always seem to be orderin’ and buyin’, too.

So, I thought ya would like the place too, Icchan. I thought I’d let ya know, since I doubt ya hear ‘bout this stuff bein’ overseas and all.

Shu: ……

…Kagehira and others fill me in on things from time to time, you know… But this is the first I’ve heard about a shop like this.

Kuro: Really? Even I just found the place only the day before last.

Shu: I’ll head there right away once we drop off the luggage. This shop’s selection that you’re praising so much has piqued my curiosity.

Kuro: Jumpin’ right to it, arentcha… Wait, didn’t I just say that?

But well, ya don’t know how to get there, don’t ya? I don’t got anythin’ goin’ on after this, so I’ll show ya the way.

Shu: …I’m sure I can just figure out the way from others. But if you’d like to show me the way, then you’re welcome to.

Kuro: Alright. And ya can tell me ‘bout how that incident went while we’re at it!

Shu: Kiryu… Is that all you wanted to hear about in the end?

In that case, you can tell me everything you can remember about your trip, then.

We can try talking about what we’ve been up to in a normal way, can’t we? …It didn’t feel right hearing that we can’t interact peacefully in this country.

[ ☆ ]

story directory

Referring to the incident from Astraea’s Atelier. For context, uncensored paintings and statues began to mysteriously appear in Shu’s atelier from time to time, causing him a lot of stress. Shu, Chiaki, Kuro, and Leo theorized it was one of Shu’s artist fans and beneficiaries leaving their art throughout Shu’s atelier in hopes of having their art recognized by him instead after having been dismissed as “vulgar” by him.

[anamoon63]

Your TS3 gameplay really does inspire me to give that game another shot. Are there specific mods you use to make sure the game runs smoothly/is stable? What mods/cc are the best to use so the sims look good?

Hi, Marci! 😊

First of all, thank you very much for your ask. Knowing that my sims and/or my gameplay can inspire other simmers to play means a lot to me cause The Sims 3 is my favorite game in the whole Sims series. Plus, I love my sims, so this makes me twice as happy. 🤗💖

That said, it is my duty to warn you that The Sims 3 is not an easy game to maintain, it requires a lot of care and patience, even from the moment of its installation. You ask me what it takes to make it run smoothly and make it stable, well I'm no expert, but what helped me with that is all contained in this Steam post. I believe these tips you can follow even if you don't have your game on Steam. I followed all these steps when I reinstalled my game back in 2017-18, and I have never had a problem like lag or crashes since then.

It's thanks to the amazing person who wrote that post and to talented modders like @lazyduchess and Twallan (Nraas Mods), whose mods I consider indispensable, that I have been able to play The Sims 3 without problems for years now. I may have had a couple of crashes due to some wrong or corrupt cc, but that's on me because I download a lot of stuff. In those cases, it's a matter of locating the bad cc, taking it out, and that's it. The game runs great, even with a ton of mods installed. (I have a 9 GB mods folder, and I've had more than that at times, lol, but I try to keep in less than 10 GB always).

As for what mods and cc's to use to make the sims look good, well, that would depend on your taste, or as they say now, on the aesthetics of your game or your sims.

For what it's worth, I have always used Ephemera's E-WEAK skin as default. I also use some other Ephemera's like E-Skin Natural MIX, Asia and Fresh. I use some by Kurasoberina too.

I think Ephemera's site doesn't exist anymore, but the E-WEAK skins I use can be downloaded on MTS here. Kurasoberina TS3 skins you can find them here along with more of their fabulous content.

I'm sure there are other skins much newer, and super nice too, but these are the ones I use, cause they give my sims the look they are known for. 😊

Also I use Tifa N38 default eyes, as well as Buhudain's You Are Real body and face maps replacements to give some realism to my sims' skins/bodies. Neither Tifa's nor Buhudain's sites exist anymore, unfortunately, but you can still find Buhudain's archives on this SFS page. And those of Tifa in this other one in Mega. (I hope I am not doing wrong by sharing them, otherwise I will remove them).

There's also this stunning version of Buhudain's You are Real by @nectar-cellar named You are Hyperreal. :)

As for the rest, if I start listing all the other content I use such as hair, clothes and makeup I would never finish, I'd gladly share my whole mods folder, but I don't want to piss off the creators, or blow-up other players' computers, lol. I'm WCIF friendly, though, so feel free to ask for any specific content, of any type, CAS or Buy/Build, I got my custom content well documented, so I'll provide you with links to any of them.

For the time being, here is this link to my custom Content List on my Blogger. I have kept this list for many years, and I still use most of that content; it may be a little outdated of course, cause I have a lot of new stuff now, so my intention is to update the page soon when/if I have the time. Also, some of the links may not work anymore, if so just let me know and I'll fix them for you if I'm able.

I hope this answer has helped you. Sorry for taking so long to reply, but I wanted to make this post as detailed as possible. If you have any other questions about The Sims 3, I'll be here whenever you need me. Good luck and happy simming! 😉💗

[blossoming-sun]

So.... I made some pj mask AUs based off the prompt/trope people on pjmcord gave me (school au, angels and demons au, fae au)

School AU:

Premise: I know you probably meant just a normal school AU, but I'm actually incapable of writing something without fantasy elements, so its a school au: but they all still have their powers. In this au, the government knows about monsters and magic and stuff, and although the general population doesn't know about them, its not exactly "keep secret at all costs" information. So that nobody dies when the magical kids are too young to fully control their magic, they're kept seperated from ordinary kids in the education system until a certain age. So basically all the nighttime kids are in a class, and teacher is a new, human, teacher fresh out of uni and teaching his first class. These kids are a nightmare for him (/pos) and he struggles not to be killed every night.

Other stuff: There is a lot of drama between the villains and heroes, especially at lunch break. The main friend groups are the terrible trio and the pj trio, but the other characters have friend groups as well, and its not uncommon for everyone to just play nicely as one big group some nights and then all hate each other the next. The sidekicks do exist in this AU, but they're not allowed in the classroom because they're not students. This does not stop any of them: the ninjalinos sneak in to play with night ninja at break, Romeo is always making a machine of some sort, its very hard to keep moths out of the outdoor playground, octobella hides Percival in her bag, etc. The whole au would probably just be teacher being like: "Apophis, I'll put you in detention until the end of time if you try to trap bastet in a pyramid again!" "Kevin, don't put that in your mouth! No, I don't care what Howler dared you do to!" "Romeo, what did I say about stealing stuff from the maintenance room? You can't take over the world with the wifi router!"

Also, the heroes are monsters in this au, so owlette is a harpy, an yu has more dragon features, etc

Angels and Demons AU

Lore: Angels and demons usually hide which one they are, their wings and stuff can dissapear at will and they don't have to use their powers. Furthermore, its a contemporary!angels and demons au, so while everyone has angel or demon blood, some have the full features (horns, slitted pupils, angel wings, halos, etc) when they show their true forms, others merely contain some angel or demon blood and no affects from this (which is most common). There are also powers, which can be pretty much anything. Physical features aren't required to have powers, but they're usually hand in hand.

Other stuff: Amaya is the only one with wings and a few extra eyes, while connor has a halo, and greg has a few small feathers (not enough to fly with or form wings), but has the power of strength. The villains are all demons. Luna has wings, NN has horns (like an oni) and romeo hasn't shown his true form yet. However, Armadylan and An Yu are also demons! The PJs didn't trust armadylan at all at first because they're racist you can't trust demons, but after they met an yu, realised that maybe not all demons are bad and didn't choose to be like this. Also: pharaoh boy is a fallen angel, but bastet refuses to talk about what happened to make him lose his light. The rest of the power heroes are all angels. And for the characters I haven't talked about yet:

Wolfies: no features or powers, except their werewolf powers(werewolf blood dominated the demon genes)

Armadylan: 4 horns on his head that stick out from his helmet, as well as a tail beneath the armadillo tail on his suit. Canon powers

An Yu: Black and red scales, slitted red eyes, fangs, claws. Canon powers

Ice Cub: Has three halos, no powers until his exposure to the asteroid though

Newton: two sets of wings, four eyes (haha), canon powers

Speedy twins: demon tails

Bastet: small wings behind her ears

Octobella: gekko swears she's a demon, but she's not (she's a cecaelia)

feel feee to ask me about the other characters, i was too lazy to write them all (rip)

Fae AU

So, in this AU lilyfay is the only fae. She's from an alien race of space fae, idk. The problem is, she's the first of her kind to visit earth in hundreds of years, and nobody really remembers the rules of the fay anymore, or that they exist. Which means that there are many shenanigans.

Lilyfay loves to clean, but unfortunately power Q is already pretty clean because of PJ robot, so except for when gloop attacks, she needs to find other places to clean. She occasionally just shows up at the flying factory to clean it (romeo is not good at keeping his lab tidy). And Romeo freaked out the first time but he got intrigued after that. When Romeo disrespected her the first time she refused to take that shit and turned him into a fawn (fae will sometimes transform humans into creatures if they don't like them), but only for one night so that he would learn his lesson. After this, Romeo takes up some of the Creideamh Sí so that he won't get deer'd again, which starts with giving Lilyfay milk when she shows up and progresses to the two of them having tea parties together. The duo kind of become friends, but lilyfay will not hesitate to kick his ass if he lies to her or offends her in some other way. Nobody else knows about their secret.

Lilyfay also has a garden in power Q, that has a ton of hawthorn saplings among other things. She and An Yu tend to the garden, but An Yu isn't allowed to touch the hawthorn. Lilyfay would love to drag the gang back to the land of the fay, but she's enjoying earth a lot and figures that she'll stay, for now at least. Also, her true fae form is hidden behind a human disguise (I don't think that lilyfay would be a changeling, but i'm going to incorporate some elements of changelings in for funsies) she can also play instruments and loves to dance, but she and her friends only ever play just dance and take turns so that she doesn't have to (by law) drag them away forever.

[swagbexrtrash]

My YanSim FC: Cherī Sekitan

Hello, I was bored today and I decided show you my yansim fan character, hope do you like it :)

Obviously I was lazy too to even open the photoshop and make a decent draw lol

Her name is Cherī Sekitan, she is from the class 3-1 and fall in love with Geiju Tsuburaya, the leader of the art club.

Since kid she didn't feel emotions, and she even didn't try to pretend she had. She just exist and didn't care of the others looking at her as a "weirdo". Even with all, this wasn't an impediment for make a friend: Kuroko Kamenaga.

They meet each other when they were in the elementary school because the teacher made the teams. Since it they were friends because Kuroko liked how serious and silent Cherī was, just like her :) (Obv Kuroko isn't yandere, lol, just to clarify). Kuroko know Cherī is a yandere.

A day Cherī was making a homework with a cardboard than required a cuter. She went to the Art Club for one but she accidentally cut her finger. Here is where she meet Geiju.

Geiju, shy as always offer her help, she accepted and gave him the cardboard with the cuter, their hands touched a bit and Cherī look at him helping her. She falled in love because... Because that weird connection the animes had because the character look focused the other and the background is pink with glitter and shine, lol.

After it, Cherī was focus on him all the weeks. She gave him gifts, food and letters than contain more draws than letters on his class table. She spy him in the way and followed him to his house without him notice her.

(❤⩊❤)

Now, we start with her rivals.

This was made with Milanote months ago in like ten minutes don't ask me more thx

I won't put the lore of the eliminations because it could be another tumblr post by the long they are lol

Efude Nurimono: Week one, Elimination Method: Matchmaking

Kiba Kawaito: Week two, Elimination Method: Rejection

Sakura Hagiwara: Week three, Elimination Method: Robot-Chan

Akane Toriyasu: Week four, Elimination Method: The Yakuza

Gema Taku: Week five, Elimination Method: Befriend

(I will share the lore of the eliminations in another post :v)

(❤⩊❤)

"Cherī" is Cherry on japanese and "Sekitan" is coal. This name don't have any sense, I know. I tried follow Alex lazyness on names but I think I did it worst.

Fun facts:

.-She joined the Light Music club not because she was too interested, just because the club was alongside the Art club.

.-After Sakura incident, she decided befriend with more people for don't raise suspicious.

.-She entered to the fanfiction world when she fall in love and wrote a spicy fanfiction about her and Geiju but with other names. She also had a Sims 3 world where she and Geiju had a son.

.-Even if in the past she hadn't emotions, she had a bit sentiment of love for her father.

.-She was happy because Geiju wasn't watching in a pervert way Mida Rana.

.-She bought lingerie in case of "emergency" (She is horny let her have hobbies)

.-She won't doubt in k1ll1ng Kuroko if she saw her commiting a crime, but she would feel bad for her friend and maybe she would k1ll herself in the moment.

Well, this its all :v I will upload a post of the eliminations, and maybe I do a silly comic about this... maybe one day :3

[oculosadvocum]

I'm curious: What's the story with your RAM!Vox? Answer at your own leisure though, no hurry.

Is this about the whole story between Alastor and Vox? Or just the more RAM side of things?

The cool thing about me and Lee—my affiliate and writer for both voxxisms and staticgcne—is that all of our AUs involve the same background with a change here or there to push the story in a particular direction.

So here’s the rundown of how we got here and where Vox ended up:

Vox met Alastor almost immediately after he came to Hell. They became fairly close, and Vox fell hard and fast within months. Alastor helped him set up his business and get his foot in the door. They even lived together—like our flipped dynamic—but this didn’t last long because Vox knew he was in too deep and needed a step back.

The frequency was also created by Alastor here, but with a twist. Alastor told Vox it was a way to keep in touch over great distances, but in reality Vox’s every thought is broadcasted to him. Vox is unaware of this. After a certain point, he likely wouldn’t care, honestly.

Their friendship was easily kept up. Vox would do most of the work, inviting Alastor out or, when things were at their best, on weekend trips. Progressively treating Alastor more and more like a partner, which just led to a stronger obsession. Alastor never reciprocated, instead getting more “playfully violent”, which Vox took as the way that Alastor showed his love.

His business hit its peak during the mid to late 1990’s, with the tech boom and dot com bubble. Only getting more and more intense after Y2K, since he had control over the television networks and could parrot whatever narrative he thought would win over the masses. This caused a lot of distance between them, because Vox wasn’t putting in nearly the level of effort and attention to Alastor that he was used to.

It sort of culminated when Vox missed a long standing appointment with Alastor. Vox’s assumption was that he didn’t ask to meet so it wasn’t happening—Alastor showed up anyway. Neither of them discussed it after the fact, and Vox carried on with the new normal. Getting busier and busier but still canceling anything and everything for the sake of seeing Alastor when given the chance.

In 2017, Vox finally asked Alastor to join him. Alastor agreed, but only if Vox could beat him in a fight. Vox actually won, all the while confessing his love and obsession right to Alastor’s face and demanding they do this dance forever.

In RAM, Vox went far enough to subdue Alastor, and in a moment of gloating and rambling, used his hypnosis on him. Alastor took the moment to recover and grab him, and start the Ordeal.

During the Ordeal, Vox would have fought every single part, leading to a lot of unfortunate consequences.

His mind—brain—soul—sits beneath the glass on his head. It can be separated from the TV itself, and is mostly projected into it. As if the television is the skull containing it.

Getting to it from the screen is nearly impossible. Vox has created the equivalent of crumple zones on his body and his face is no exception. Sugar glass on top of glass on top of bulletproof glass. All can be affected by his power so that he has a proper “face”, but he’s built to be brittle in a lot of places so that nothing does lasting damage.

Accessing his brain from the back of his head would be easier, but would require basically ripping him apart to do so. Disrupting connections that would do a lot of damage to him in any circumstance, but especially here, in a situation where he couldn’t resolve it himself.

Because he was doing everything he could to stop the process during, Alastor did a lot of unnecessary destruction to his body and his brain. Causing him to break down very often, become increasingly violent, and even forget who he is.

On the physical side, Vox suffers a lot. Living with a constant migraine so bad that he will bang his head against the walls to try and get rid of it. He’s also lost almost all of his sight. Having to resort to outside cameras and infrared sensors to see the world around him. He short circuits and shuts down often.

When it comes to mental difficulties, Vox has no sense of self at all. Picking names and identities from whatever signals pass through him. He’s so paranoid due to the loss of his eyes and will lash out at anyone, most of the time without reason. He’s convinced that he’s being followed or chased more often than not, because he can’t actually see a threat, but knows it’s there.

In his time in the Tower, it was hell for anyone involved. My Vox actually had his Vees contracted to him. It likely took Velvette over three years to get him to break those and sign over his contracts to her, because every time she got close he just attacked. Valentino might have had some better luck with him, but Velvette would have been hard pressed to let him be alone with Vox for very long.

He would have been locked up and confined like a wild animal the majority of the time, only allowed out when they made their attempts to fix everything. Which never worked. Once or twice they managed to get his eyes working again, resulting in him being a bit more relaxed, but it wasn’t permanent and he actively got worse over it.

When Alastor came to get him, he recognized him immediately and acted like a kicked puppy at his feet. Begging Alastor to get him out and let him stay. Arms wrapped around Alastor’s waist while on his knees most likely. Clinging to him like he’s the only safe person in the world.

At the Hotel, he’s still volatile and a complete mess. But he knows Husk and Niffty, only through their connection to Alastor, so he’s more comfortable knowing this is “Alastor’s space”. He still can’t fully process the world, the people around him, or even himself, but he doesn’t pick fights as much.

It doesn’t help that Alastor is constantly making “adjustments” to try to fix him the same way that the Vees did. Sometimes they help for a while, but most of the time they just make his paranoia worse for a few days. He’ll self-implement his own imprisonment if it was a particularly bad one. Falling back into habits he doesn’t even know he has.

Bad days involve him destroying his own head, trying to attack Angel or Vaggie, and shutting himself in his room as the circuits fry in the Hotel.

Overall, on good days, he has a tendency to become a different person depending on who he’s interacting with. Committing aspects of personality to memory that work with certain people. An example of this is being more positive and bubbly with Charlie.

The only person he’s consistent with is Alastor, who he will attach to if given any opportunity. He’s whiny and desperate and looking for comfort from him at all times. If Alastor is in the room but not directly interacting with him, he will start to spiral.

If he ever managed full lucidity—he would absolutely lose his mind.

He would be horrified that he attacked Valentino and Velvette unprovoked, and furious that they didn’t kill him on sight. He would despise everyone at the Hotel for the crime of seeing him like that. He wouldn’t even know where to start with Alastor, especially if Alastor made it clear that he liked him better broken.

It probably wouldn’t go well for anyone.

This ended up longer than expected, but there’s the story for his RAM verse.

[decepti-thots]

as we're talking about how tarantulas views prowl re: his behaviour towards others, this is going a little off on a tangent so i'll put it in its own post, but i was thinking the other day about the positive reinforcement prison and what it tells us about mesothulas and prowl in terms of what they were doing together.

mesothulas got told to make a perfect prison. so he created a perfect prison. the positive reinforcement prison is clearly a fucking fantastic way to ensure you reduce the likelihood of escape to near-zero. it completely disincentivizes any resistance. it keeps a threat pretty close to perfectly contained. it's clearly horribly immoral, for a start it LITERALLY brainwashes people- but prowl asked for a perfect prison and he got a perfect prison, courtesy of mesothulas.

prowl's objection to the prison is notably not like his objection to the noisemaze; it's not one of ethics. no, mesothulas mentions offhandedly that prowl felt that it was an issue because it didn't punish the prisoners enough. it rendered them completely harmless and secure, but that wasn't what prowl wanted, apparently. what's the point of punishing prisoners who are at no risk of escaping and therefore need no dissuading? well… prowl presumably just feels they 'ought' to, because they 'deserve it'. his sense of morality is one where you punish people who 'deserve it' regardless of whether it serves any actual purpose.

mesothulas has absolutely no moral compass. but the thing is, that really is no moral compass. he will do what he wants to do and it does not matter if it hurts other people doing it; but he doesn't have any active desire to hurt other people either. they're just irrelevant. he'll torture roadbuster if it gets him what he wants, but he doesn't tell himself roadbuster 'deserves it', even just in the sense of 'he's beneath me' or whatever. he just sees it as a way to get from point a to point b. hence the positive reinforcement prison: it's not that he wants to spare anyone suffering, he just wants to find the most efficient solution to the problem.

prowl has a moral compass, unlike mesothulas. he thinks that evil exists and must be defeated, he thinks harm to others is bad in the abstract, he thinks he has a righteous cause, all that. this pretty much universally results in him doing much more harm than mesothulas overall, because no moral compass is bad, but a sense of morality and therefore drive which is turned to bad ends in the name of 'justice' is often worse. mesothulas doesn't care about the war and never gave a shit about making weapons to fight it. prowl, in his desire to end the war at any cost, gets him to make a bomb and nukes a refugee city. mesothulas didn't care about that, but it never would have occurred to him to do that if prowl hadn't incentivized it. mesothulas doesn't care about 'bad guys' getting what they 'deserve', so he's happy to make a perfect prison that doesn't punish anyone if that's not a required part of making it work. prowl, who needs the 'bad guys' to be punished to satisfy his sense of morality, insists upon shelving it in favour of something less inadvertently merciful. (spark extraction doesn't seem to be torture, but it's clearly not actively pleasant.)

and mesothulas makes stuff! he doesn't do it for altruistic reasons. but he makes things; he makes a whole person, in fact, just to do the making part. he makes ostaros! and sure, his original motivation there was almost certainly pure fascination… but that doesn't change that fact that he is capable of creating something wonderful just because he wants to do so.

meanwhile, prowl tosses mesothulas in the noisemaze because his sense of moral injury gets too great… and then that sense of guilt doesn't stop him from trying incredibly fucking hard to kill ostaros, the absolute most innocent person it's possible to be. he KNOWS he shouldn't, and so he tries to get around his own inability to do so by sending impactor. it's not a. subtle difference between them.

it makes me think of that bit in OP #25, the epilogue issue post-Unicron... where prowl talks to shockwave about how he understands now that it's not what you think that matters ('our hopes'), but what you do. prowl thinks of himself as inherently more moral than mesothulas no matter what he does because he has the ability to feel the way you're 'supposed' to about things. sure, he only ever destroyed, whereas mesothulas could make things. but mesothulas is selfish, and prowl cares about other people. sure, prowl did terrible things that killed people, and mesothulas in large part only helped because prowl enabled him to. but prowl feels bad about nuking that city, and mesothulas only wouldn't have done it on his own because he doesn't care. sure, mesothulas also, you know. wouldn't have done it. but prowl thinks that an important part of being Good is following a certain set of moral rules as dictated by society, and he sees himself as achieving that where mesothulas fails, so he must be better in a moral sense. that's why he thinks getting rid of mesothulas will fix what he's done, stop him doing bad stuff. he thinks mesothulas is just fundamentally a worse person because there's something wrong with him, and prowl is fundamentally a good person because he has what mesothulas lacks, and when it turns out to be more complicated than that he has no idea how to fix it. and he cannot conceive of the idea that he made mesothulas more dangerous at least as much as the reverse is true, because he can't imagine anything being worse than not having a sense of morality.

[laxmiree]

[CN] MLQC Lucien’s Summer Heat ASMR translation

⚠️ SPOILER ALERT!! ⚠️

This post contains a detailed spoiler for an ASMR that has not been released in EN yet! Feel free to notify me if there are any mistakes in the translation~

This ASMR accompany Distant Similarity MQ. Contain spoiler of the MQ because it happens during the MQ.

[Warning]: The content of this MQ is pretty explicit and may not be  suitable for individuals under the age of 17 (CN server). It is recommended that those who do not meet this age requirement refrain from proceeding beyond this point.

Transcript under the cut

Mung bean smoothie is ready.

Do you want to add some sugar to your portion?

Do you need my help?

When did I arrive?

Perhaps when you're unfolding it from your side softly muttering “I think he should like it, right?”

You look cute when you talk to yourself.

So I couldn't help but watch for a while

I wasn't teasing you.

I genuinely feel that way.

Your guess isn't wrong.

Indeed, this is the style I like.

I should say the things you choose always align with my preferences.

But I remember

Don't you like the original bedsheet

Why suddenly want to change it?

Touch it and I'll know?

(rustling noise as he touch the sheet)

(chuckle)

I see.

It has a cool texture.

If I'm not mistaken, this, just like the mung bean paste, is a special care for a patient.

I really like it.

(kiss)

I just suddenly feel heatstroke doesn't seem entirely bad.

Let's spread the bedsheet together.

(chuckle)

Of course I can do that

I have almost recovered

And, I also enjoy the feeling of decorating the room with you.

Um, then I'll take this corner and shake it to unfold it.

(sound of bedsheet get shaken)

Like this?

(chuckle)

Mm, this way, the creases will unfold.

I also think that doing household chores together is much faster and less boring.

Let's press it down with the mattress, and consider it done.

(footsteps)

Mm? Do you want me to lie down on it and try it out?

(bed creaks as he sit on it and chuckles)

But it's not just me who will be using it, your judgment is also important.

(rustling noise)

Come on, lie down next to me.

(bed slight cracking noise as she joins him in lying down)

(Lucien breathing noise)

It's very comfortable.

Mm, the texture of ice silk is indeed delicate.

I remember you also have a negligee with the same texture.

The way you looked in it that day....

I remember it very clearly

(rustling noise as Lucien's hand wanders wherever your imagination goes)

The fabric of the negligee, had a slight coolness to it when touched.

But when I feel underneath it...

(chuckle)

...your body feels warm in comparison.

(kisses)

(more rustling noise as his hand feels her)

With just a little touch, it trembles uncontrollably.

(chuckle+kisses)

It's as if you can melt in my arms at any moment.

(rustle as his hands grow more restless)

Alright, I'll stop talking, just as you wish,

and focus to truly feel the experience.

(rustling noise+ kisses)

However, I heard that the material of ice silk

is very suitable for direct contact with the skin

(kisses)

Perhaps,

we should have a more comprehensive experience.

How about we take them(our clothes) off?

Too bad

my ulterior motive has been discovered

But,

you're willing to indulge me, right?

(kisses and rustling noise as his hand begin to undress-)

Let me help you.

(kisses + more rustling noise as more fabrics is taken off with his help)

(wet noise)

This experience

(more kisses and rustling noise)

I'd love to

continue go deeper with you.

[luffythinker]

Alright, Ojiro/Deku hows that for a rarepair? It all started with the Shinsou thing at the sports festival when Ojiro said when this for me. After Deku won Ojiro was really happy and Deku looked at him like "Huh....he's actually really cute" i don't think not a single person ships this but me they could be cute together. Ojiro training with Deku and Deku getting his ass folded by a martial artist but also Ojiro getting folded by Deku cause he's literally the strongest ever. Can we call the ship plain boys cause apparently in the mha universe Deku looks plain, has been called plain and Ojiro's room is plain as well apparently lol. They probably fell in love training together you can't convince me something ticked in their heads when a fist or foot collided with the others head or stomach. Ojiro is bad at cooking, he can only make simple things that don't require a lot of actual cooking.

Deku: "We are having katsudon"

Ojiro: "We had that 3 nights in a row."

Deku: "it's that, white bread or TV dinner"

They go shopping together always end up in the exercise section. Deku likes cuddling with Ojiro's tail it keeps him warm on a winter night. Ojiro is actually super shy when it comes to romance, Deku sort of is too so it's blushing covering their faces in the first part of the relationship but they slowly learn to contain themselves. They hold hands alot. They are a couple that rarely has any problems or arguments besides Ojiro asking Deku to please take care of himself but it never turns into a argument. Deku never would have guessed clothes shopping with Ojiro was this interesting, he's in on everything, he's asking questions. He's watching the people at the store prepare the pants with a tail hole for Ojiro or a sleeve and it's like the most interesting thing in the world to him. Ojiro is just looking at him cause this is normal. Don't know how they confessed but it had to be Ojiro who casually asked if Deku wanted to go out sometime.

Deku: "Oh! me?" and he's pointing at himself.

Ojiro: nervously laughs. "You're the only here."

Everything is just so natural for them to fall into, including each others habits. One time Ojiro is drunk at a part with Deku who hasn't had a single drink since he got here cause somebody told Ojiro he needed to relax and have fun at the party (probably Mina) and Ojiro said.

Ojiro: "i want to do taxes and laundry with you"

Deku: "What does that mean?"

He never answered him but he found out via Tsuyu like months later that it means he wants to get married, he freaks the fuck out cause he didn't even know he's married material. He brings it up and Ojiro says.

Ojiro: "Midoriya i was drunk!" half thinking it's funny half trying to understand why that's the take away Deku got from that time.

Deku: "Obviously! but did you mean it?"

Deku just takes somethings too seriously but Ojiro thinks it's cute.

okay I asked for a rarepair and you really delivered, let's get into these two

I like the idea of them bonding over fighting together, cause very different styles but it would help both of them. And the idea that Izuku is plain is just absurd to me like this boy is beautiful but i digresskjdfjkdfk the people in the bnhaverse are crazy

them both not knowing how to cook byeeeekxjcdkfj them living off instant ramen and take-out and the one dish Izuku can actually cook

wait i think it's kinda cute that deku could sleep hugging the tail or it's just there for warmth during the night; i also think they would be a very chill couple, like nothing to complain about

okay you kinda sold them to me, cause this shit is cuteeee, like they would just be so sweet and cute together, can see them having romantic dates and everything. it would be an easy safe thing for both of them

[there-was-a-hole-here-itsgonenow]

MEAT above Melvin

@howtobecomeadragon and I have been exchanging a variety of ideas about what this sign could mean and we reached some interesting analyses!

This is such an intriguing shot because of that word alone. It’s directly, perfectly centered above Mike and El—perfectly centered in-frame (with the ‘S’ cut off) too. It’s a purposeful shot.

Obviously there’s the flesh monster as a present, looming threat that can be correlated here, but the monster itself isn’t a literal threat that poses to meaningfully separate Mike and El. It’s not like the shot of the very obvious #1 hanging right above (in-between if you imagine a frontal shot) Will and Mike specifically, in the same episode no less.

From this shot, I gather that One aims to get between and separate Will and Mike for his own purposes. Mike is constantly involved with thwarting One’s plans throughout the series, a big one being Mike’s interference with Will’s possession. Will opened up to Mike about feeling the Mind Flayer, and Mike said ‘maybe that’s good’ because Will was like a super spy. Mike later knew Will needed to be sedated when he was possessed because Will had able to open up to him previously. It was also Mike’s “it was the best thing I’ve ever done” monologue that got Will to break through enough to communicate via Morse code. All this to say that these interferences highlight the problem for One: Mike’s bond with Will. Henry is aware of Mike’s power in this bond, and so this analysis of the above shot holds weight.

But then there’s MEAT. Dragon mentioned that Mike and El could’ve been placed in an area where there’s health/nursing/pharmaceutical significance to represent taking care of their relationship, but we don’t get that. And unlike the #1 sign that points toward an outside force wanting to separate Will and Mike for a Henry-specific purpose, we can’t grab a similar analysis from MEAT/ the flesh monster. What can be understood is that Melvin’s relationship is compromised by themselves; Mike especially when breaking down what is about to happen after we see MEAT. One conclusion howtobecomeadragon and I came to is the concept of butchering/spilling blood in the way meat is prepared. It’s a messy, bloody process. ‘Butchering,’ by definition as an alternate description, can mean to spoil something completely by performing or dealing with a situation very badly.

Cue Mike. Howtobecomeadragon describes Mike as having ‘butchered’ not only his apology to El but also his messy attempt to say “I love you” to El. And of course, we have this very telling choice phrase from Mike (along with “Dustin, you’re breaking up”):

Mike and El have been going way too fast in their relationship and aren’t taking the time to understand each other (El is perfectly in-shot by Mike’s head when he says this, emphasizing that point). This truth is further emphasized by this next shot howtobecomeadragon pointed out to me:

A divider is between El and Mike, revealing a divide. The divider itself is not set perfectly between them either, once again depicting how El and Mike are not on the same page. Mike is placed further away from the divider, indicating he is not anywhere near resolving his issue. El is placed near the divider, and, though she isn’t on the same page as Mike, being close to the divider is indicative of her trying to listen/understand. Overall, it’s easy to notice the very clear divide within the divide represented here.

So Mike is butchering his words to El, dealing with their situation badly and even ‘performing’ the role of a boyfriend badly to his girlfriend. Of course, this goes deeper then just being a bad boyfriend. Pair the action of butchering with ‘spilling blood,’ a requirement when cutting meat. Blood is our force of life and, as such, contains our essence. Our essence is within the core of our beliefs, personality, and sense of identity: all that encompasses you. If you know the phrase “it’s in my blood,” this is part of your essence. It means you simply are the way you are/ are born the way you are.

Once again, cue Mike. It is my belief that because Mike says “blank makes you crazy” to El in this scene, Will is automatically bound to this scene due to “crazy” being a word in ST used synonymously with “love.” We know “love makes you crazy.” We know “Crazy together.” We know many examples. It should be clear that “blank makes you crazy,” and Mike’s inability to say “love” himself here, is all you need to understand that love for him is found naturally with Will but not with El. Regardless of your stance on Mike’s sexuality, the fact that Mike can be in love with and attracted to Will/to men is part of what makes Mike… Mike (“born this way”). Tie this with the spilling of blood—the spilling of your life’s essence, which is tied to truth. Your truth. Mike cannot spill his truth here. He cannot profess/‘spill’ “love” to El because that is not his truth. Bring this back around to ‘butchering,’ to spoiling something completely by dealing with a situation badly. Mike tries to force the word “love,” and so makes the situation more confusing (made infinitely worse in s4).

To further expand on this, puberty is a clear theme in s3. Puberty is a messy process. Howtobecomeadragon referenced Mike’s previous assertion to Will, that they aren’t kids anymore, and compared that to Mike trying to get El to say ‘love’ (as he clearly can’t say it himself) during this scene: “it’s what old people say to each other.” Dragon says Mike’s idea of romance stems from aging, which is correct because the presence of puberty in s3 is laying out what Mike believes getting older entails: having a girlfriend and leaving what’s believed to be ‘childish’/not ‘normal’ [in the process of growing up and assimilating into society] behind.

Additionally, he and El can only be physical (kiss) without proper communication. Physical -> Meat -> Flesh -> Puberty, the process in which your physical body begins to change. More than just physically, you are expected to change. While Mike and El are in the convenient store, trying to communicate/figure out their issues, MEAT hangs above them while a flesh monster is out to get them [more symbolically than literally]. The physical truth is out to get them, looms over them, and the truth behind their issues—Mike’s hidden issue particularly (perhaps even expressed through the MEAT sign, as the ME part falls perfectly over Mike and possibly represents a ‘me’ issue for Mike + an abundance of Mike’s blue lighting takes up the center-aisle shot)—is the threat to their relationship. This hidden issue of Mike’s that ‘threatens’ to break Melvin up is not meant to be a bad thing for them (no longer being a couple is the best outcome for them both). It is, however, Mike’s truth that is a threat against him having the norm. His truth is a threat to what is socially expected of him, causing Mike to continue this [butchered] heteronormative performance.