#it's such a treat visually too - the colored lighting is always a win

[littleragondin]

👀 So,,,​any new thoughts after your Grand Guignol rewatch? (I know you want to talk about this movie. I need to talk about it. Please kaksjsjs)

Truth be told, the more I think about that movie, the more questions I have lol. Which is not a bad thing, given how there was never any promise of a fully cohesive narration. So I guess I'm just going to give you some smaller stuffs I saw this second time around!

The Director and Nikishi (even Teshio and his cartoonish looks frankly) are SUCH caricatures that I remember it ticking me off a little the first time. But. We know the whole world cult is watching, and they are putting on a show for the viewers (the cult and us) so I guess it does make sense. Especially the director, she always feel like she is playing a role - the worst of it is when she is being "maternal" with the boys, she holds them and you can see in her whole posture, the way she moves so slowly and deliberately, that she is replaying a choreography and not being genuine.

I tried to track the red light and the red roses too, because at first I thought they linked to Teshio (who very often brings the red light with him) but there was no red light at all during the swimming pool murder. The roses always appear prominently when some sort of "depravity" happens (the first murder ofc, but also in the Grand Guignol club room, or when Homura masturbate, and when Minakami and Amagami have sex) but shit happens without them, too. So I am wondering if there was a strict intent there (which, probably, but I can't see it). I will take any thoughts or opinions about that!

When we talked about it previously, I said I thought the end meant that the demon had possessed Homura, and the last scene was him metaphorically killing the human part of himself. This time around, I am less sure about the supernatural part. The only moment that feels a little supernatural is when Minakami sees maid!Homura (who flickers and seems to disappear magically) and even that is very brief and could be either a lapse in the man's sight or a glitch in the cult cameras (I am not counting the final scenes I'll tell why). Everything else is just a bunch of murderers running around in a costume and killing kids. On top of that, one of the hallmarks of Grand Guignol was that it introduced horror grounded in reality - no ghosts or demons, but humans losing it horrifically - playing on panic and insanity. Consequently, I think the scenes at the end are Homura's hallucinations as his mind fractures entirely as he gives in to the violence within - and once there is no one to inflict violence on, he inflicts it upon himself. (Side note: the rest of the cast only appears as spectators after Homura slices his own throat, which feels to me like "proof" that he dies there.)

All in all, it's still such a fun watch! it's exactly what it says on the tin and I love it. My only complaint, really, would be that the few times CGI is used for blood (at the very beginning and when Amagami gets his back skinned especially) it looks pretty bad while the practical effect are usually really good!

Now, please, tell me what new things you spotted and what you think after your rewatch!

Also, I have now started tracking infos about Grand Guignol and its influence on horror because thinking about all of this makes me want to learn more about the 'original' products ^^

[respectthepetty]

So, I saw your post about the JoongDunk, PondPhuwin, ForceBook ultimate gym bros bl. And I had a very important question.

If, hypothetically, gmmtv were to actually make this a thing. What would you want their color coding to be like? Even, how would you want their color coding to change as the fall in love?

Feel free to be as specific or generic as you like! I'm just very curious about the idea 👀

I have eighty million things to do, Anon, yet here I am, excited to answer this question, immediately! *pushes all my responsibilities to the side* There are no pictures because I'm being wild today and doing this from my WORK COMPUTER!

First, the premise of my Gym Bros BL, tentatively called

Flex Appeal

*I'm using the actors' names, but this is about their characters, not them. Force owns a gym. He has trainers Dunk, Joong, and Pond. Book and Phuwin work together at a food marketing company, so they eat a lot of snacks throughout the day. Phuwin wants to start working out and drags Book along. Dunk and Joong are super competitive, but it's all really them flirting with each other. Pond instantly likes Phuwin, but Phuwin thinks he is nothing but a meathead until he realizes Pond is super smart and kind. Book likes Force and starts bringing him tasty treats from the office during the workout sessions since he notices Force never leaves to eat properly. We could have cameos from other people who workout or companies trying to market their food. We could have Force trying to keep his business open, and Book helping him with marketing. WE COULD HAVE GYM QUEERS!

Now for the colors:

Dunk and Joong - Red Rascal and Green Guy. Dunk has the Red Rascal look aka beautiful. His character would always be up to some tomfoolery, and Joong as the chill Green Guy would always be down to join in on the shenanigans. I call them my troublesome tykes for a reason, and I think their natural personalities would easily lead to characters who are the matchmakers of the group too. Like constantly setting up situations for the other pairs to fall in love while unknowingly falling in love themselves.

Pond and Phuwin - Pond is a Blue Boy in this imagined series. He falls quickly for Phuwin and is devoted to winning him over. He is good with his hands and very intelligent when it comes to building, like say for props for an ad that Phuwin needs help with. Phuwin on the other hand is a Yellow/Orange Oddity. He is creative and works in the visuals area of the marketing department. He likes to talk and Pond likes to listen even if Pond doesn't understand it all. He wears glasses.

Force and Book - Give them the dark versus light dynamic. Force is a Brooding Boy, in black most of the time because his life has been rough, which is easy since it'll be black tanks, black shorts, black car. Yum. Then, Book is the Happy Human in his cream and white cardigans with khaki pants or some basic boy attire. Force will teach Book to take risks, and Book will open Force's heart!

Cameos:

Mix works at the company with Book and Phuwin, but he is a higher-up who we see three times. He mentions his boyfriend goes to this gym nearby, which gives the boys the idea to try it out.

Earth is the boyfriend who shows up occasionally at the gym. He never speaks. I just need to see his back tattoos.

Fourth and Gemini can play baby interns at the company who just randomly pop in with the wrong orders of coffee and the wrong mail for people.

Neo is an asshole from another rival gym who is a meathead and Phuwin's ex (see what I did there people who have been around since Neo x Phuwin?).

Louis works in the IT department, and we see him exactly once when Phuwin has to go ask for help with his work computer, and Louis notices an old picture of Phuwin with Neo on it.

Papang is the guy constantly getting hit on at the gym. It's a running joke throughout the show, but in the second-to-last episode, his HUSBAND shows up to drop off his phone since he left it at home, and it's revealed to be Mark, who appeared earlier in the season as an up-and-coming baker who the company is trying to woo, which is why Papang works out all the time since he loves his man's baked goods. Neither wears the ring because rings should not be worn when working out or baking.

Book convinces Mark to come out with a line of healthy after-workout snacks, Force is used as the model, and his gym sees a rise in customers since his gym is the only place to get these snacks, and EVERYONE WINS!

I have spent a lot of time thinking about my gym bros bl. I need it like I need air. These men are too built to let it go to waste. Film them in a gym. Just let the camera roll and half of the footage would be just them bs-ing with each other. It's a win-win for everyone involved including the audience.

[ppersonna]

pick your filter - pjm | m

mix the colors in the palette, pick your filter. which me do you want? the one to change your world, i'm your filter - filter, bts

↳ summary- You love turning Jimin on, and you’re desperate to make him punish you for it.  Jimin loves punishing you while you listen to his music.

↳ rating- explicit / 18+

↳ word count- 5.1k

↳ pairing- jimin x reader

↳ genre- smut, this is literally just smut, there’s 1% plot and it’s pornographic too, there’s some fluff at the end but i repeat it is still smut. there is no god in this chili’s tonight

↳ warnings- buckle up pals.  established relationship, explicit descriptions of sex, penetrative sex, oral sex (m/f receiving), BDSM themes, spanking, belt usage, dirty talk, derogatory names, pain kink, daddy kink, face-fucking lol, unprotected sex, slight impregnation kink but like not really they just wanna have a baby together and talk about it lol, jimin is filthy and i cannot portray him as anything but filthy but then he has like cute babie syndrome at the end.

↳ a/n- hi i feel maybe 1% shame in how fast i wrote this but whatever.  thank you to @carly-bean-blog for sending the prompt in!  i loved it and went from a planned drabble to 5k words lolol.  one day i’ll be less verbose 🥴🥴 plus enjoy and feel free to send in more requests or just a message to say hi bc as you can see i love talking. also RIP to the wine glass i broke while writing this fic because i hit my table to hard.  wine glass 2020-2020

Turning Park Jimin on was a delicious challenge for you.

When you first began dating, all it took was a ‘come over’ text, and he’d be there in 5 minutes flat regardless of the fact that he lived 15 minutes away.

Now, a few years and a marriage under your belt, it took a bit more.

That’s not to say he wasn’t the same insatiable man you met at university; even after all these years Jimin could easily go 3 or more rounds a night.

But really getting him riled up, getting him hard and wanting and desperate for you was another thing.  Sometimes, you just wanted him to come home and take you right against the kitchen counter, so turned on he couldn’t even make it to the bedroom.

You’re determined to win that challenge today.  

To be truthful, the day was terrible for you, and you were seeking release in the form of your husband dicking you down until you were speaking another language. You were desperate to let loose, push aside the emotional and tender sex that seemed to be more commonplace in the bedroom recently (and you enjoyed equally) but today you needed to be treated like an absolute harlot.

The idea rolled through your mind while you were busying yourself with housework, laundry and dishes.  Options of how to get your husband to take you on the floor, rip your clothes off, make you beg for more, simmered in your mind and made the low flame in your stomach burn.  Lingerie could do the trick, Jimin definitely liked to see you swathed in delicate lace or creamy satin.  You had a nice deep red set that was dying to be used and discarded on the floor.

It came to you as you set your speaker to play some music as you flicked around the house.  Jimin’s sweet voice filled the rooms, causing you to pause as shivers raked your spine.

His music.  There was always something Jimin loved about having his music on in the background of your sex that made him work harder on you, fuck you deeper.  Maybe it was narcissism at its finest, but who were you to complain if it benefitted both of you.

You discarded all thoughts of cleaning the rest of the house as you stalked towards your bedroom closet, gathering the red bustier and panty set, with matching garter belt and stocking clips.  You purchased it rather spur of the moment, a huge sale at your favorite boutique, and you wanted to save it for something special.

It appeared the special moment was now.

You took care to curl your hair, a gentle wave with not too much product.  Jimin loved to tug his fingers through your locks, and grip them in a ponytail as you sucked his cock.  Any product would unfortunately get in the way.  Makeup was minimal, a dash highlight on your cheeks and inner tear ducts, light pink lip stain on your lips.  Jimin had been the test subject of many a lipstick, as you determined to find the most blowjob-proof one.  Needless to say, none of the lipsticks were 100% solid, but it was the best time Jimin ever had as a test subject. You preferred to stick with the stains, easier cleanup for the both of you.

You complete the visual as you swap your grubby cleaning day clothes for blood red lace lingerie, smirking at yourself in the mirror.  The cups of the bra molded against you, encasing your tits perfectly.  Jimin would surely lose his mind.  The panties were simple lace, and you had the inkling that they would not remain intact tonight.   Jimin’s propensity for literally ripping your knickers right off you was legendary.  But that’s what you wanted, isn’t it?  You wanted your husband to be absolutely feral for you.

Step two of your plan was now underway as you slipped onto your bed, perfectly made now, and snapped sultry photos.  You ensured your cleavage and smooth legs were in the shot, a finger on the mouth.  You took a few more, exposing more and more of your body.

me 2:56 pm- hi babe what you up to?

mini 2:56 pm- baby!!!! Not much, just waiting for hobi to get back from lunch so we can practice this new choreo.  

Mini 2:57 pm- what about you? besides being the world’s cutest wife :)

Me: 2:57 pm- oh not too much. I did our laundry and cleaned up the house a little.  Now im just relaxing and missing my babe :(

Mini 2:57 pm- baby :( i’m sorry.  I should be home in a few hours okay! I’ll order in pasta from your favorite place to make up for it

Me 2:58 pm- well, i was sort of hoping you could make up for it but… i don’t want pasta

Mini 2:58 pm- you don’t? What do you want? Pizza?

Me 2:58 pm- [picture attached]

Me 2:58 pm- no, I want you to fuck me until I can’t see straight.

Mini 2:59 pm- oh fuck 

Mini 2:59 pm- baby you’re playing a dangerous game, teasing me like this.

You nearly had him, he was sniffing at the bait and soon he’d bite and you’d reel him in.  You sent the next picture, showcasing your tits with one cup pulled down, nipple on display.

me 3:00 pm- you mean this kind of game?

mini 3:00 pm- christ

mini 3:00 pm- fuck babe, you’re gonna make me pop a boner at dance practice.  You know I can’t come home for a few hours.

me 3:00 pm- hobi still gone?  Go to the bathroom and i’ll send you a video.

mini 3:01 pm- holy fuck asdskadj okay

Time for the pièce de résistance.  Ensuring the speakers blasted ‘Serendipity’, your husband’s full length solo, you clicked the record button and filmed your hand sliding down to your clothed core, rubbing over the mound with a rough hand.  You breathed heavily, sighed, mewled a bit.  

“Daddy,” you gasp. “Come home.”

You end it with a hand sneaking under the band and insertion of one finger.  Leave him not just wanting more, but rabid for it.  The video file is sent before you've even pulled your fingers from their spot resting on your clit.

Minutes passed, you were sure he was watching.  The man lived for your exhibitionism.  

mini 3:06 pm- you better have your hands behind your back and be on your knees when i get home, little one. In the middle of the bedroom floor. 

mini 3:06 pm- i want you to listen to the music and think about me fucking you.  Think about how i destroy your little cunt so good.

mini 3:07 pm- but don’t you dare touch yourself.  Your pussy is only mine to play with, you got that?

me 3:07 pm- yes daddy 

mini 3:07 pm- good.  I’ll be home soon.

Congratulations, you smirk to yourself in the mirror's reflection across from you.  You’ve won the grand prize.  Please make sure you collect your prize from the man with the raging boner.

You idly realize that Jimin hasn’t told you when he’ll be home.  You know that on any normal day he’d be home at 5:30.  But was he leaving early?  Could you chance it?  As much as you wanted to disobey and face his delicious punishment, he also could just as easily punish you by not letting you cum at all. And the chances of that type of discipline tonight was high; Jimin would surely make you pay for teasing him at work by exacting torturous ache the same to you.

You’re spinning the pros and cons of preparing yourself now or later, when you are given your hasty answer by the sound of keys jingling in the front door.  Your heart rate spikes dangerously, feeling like the muscle would force the blood out of your veins with the pressure.  

You squirm off the bed and descend to the floor on your knees, resting back on your heels, and holding your hands behind your back.  You lower your head to the floor, knowing Jimin loves it when you avoid eye contact until he tells you when and where to look.  

His footsteps are heavy, slow and torturous because you know that he knows that you’ll be on the very edge of your sanity.  The warmth in your belly is torched with tinder and starter and is flaring high.  Jimin’s simple presence, just like this, is enough to get you to an incredible high.  Nothing brings you to your knees faster than when he turns from your sweet, adorable and gentle husband into the sadistic and powerful dominating owner of your body and soul.

It takes 5 deep breaths from your belly before you hear Jimin enter the bedroom.  He’s not saying a single word, but you can hear his soft footsteps on the hardwood floor.  Your knees are aching at the pressure of the hard floor, but you ignore it. You’d ignore cauterizing wounds for the man hovering above you if he asked. 

You’re trembling, you notice.  Your thighs are quivering ever so slightly and the grasp on your hands behind you is weakening.  You grip harder, determined to maintain perfect correct form.

Jimin is frustratingly silent.  He walks around you, and you feel his eyes rove your body intently, as if looking for fault or reason to punish you.  He seems pleased when he finishes his rounds, standing right in front of you. 

“Look at me,” he states with authority, but his tone is gentle. 

You finally tilt your head up to gaze at your lover and nearly gasp at the sight.  Jimin is, on an average day, the most ethereally beautiful man you’ve ever seen.  Today, he looks as if he descended from heaven mere minutes previous.  His pink hair is pushed back, eyes darkened with desire, and wearing the tightest shirt you’ve ever seen, making his toned dancer’s body ripple under the cotton.  Tight sweats that leave nothing to the imagination about what he’s packing between his thighs sit low on his hips and you spot just a hint of his lower abdomen, the v line of his adonis belt, and you’re sure you’re drooling.

“Look at me,” he corrects, a smirk on his face.  Your eyes snap to his own again, and he winks at you. 

“Have you been a good girl for daddy?” He asks, and it feels like a loaded question.  

You play it coy.  “Yes, daddy.”

He stands still in front of you, hand stroking his face as he watches you.  His eyebrow arches.

“Are you sure? You have done nothing to upset Daddy? Nothing at all?” His voice becomes teasing, and the smirk on his features is sinister.

You bite your lip. “I sent Daddy a video of me, touching myself to his music.”

“That’s right, angel,” he murmurs and circles you again.  You feel like his prey before he comes in for the kill. “You made daddy leave practice early.  Don’t you think that’s not being a good girl?”

“No, I did wrong.”

“I’m glad you agree,” he murmurs.  “I’m gonna make you regret getting Daddy hard and horny at work.”

He places his hands on your shoulders and you shiver.  His hands are smooth, warm.  You love the way you feel the cold steel of his wedding ring pressed to your skin, a tangible expression of his love and loyalty.

“Stand up,” he directs.  You’re quick, thankful to be off stinging knees.  He lets his hands glide down your back to meet at your clasped hands, pulling them apart and turning you to face him.

He threads his fingers through your hair and pulls you close, sealing your lips to his.  His lips are soft and taste of chapstick, a hint of sweat, and something just so simply Jimin that is addictive.  He’s gentle and tender in the kiss, the kind of kiss a husband gives his wife.  It speaks miles beyond the simple action, and you chase it, revel in it, knowing it’s the last time he’ll be gentle tonight.  

He breaks from the kiss, touches your nose gently and winks.  It makes your heart flutter in your chest.

The control seeps back into his face; it's physically present in the tight gaze of his eyes and the coolness of his impassive features.  It’s a stark opposite of who just kissed you, and you’re breathless at the sudden change.  

“Gonna spank you with my belt, baby,” he murmurs.  A hand slaps hard against your ass, surprising you and making you squeak out loud.  “Lean over my desk like a good little slut.”

You obey immediately, jerking your body towards his grand oak desk. It’s gorgeous dark wood that matches the decor of your room perfectly and makes for a delicious spot for your sexual proclivities without being obvious.  As much as Jimin wanted a sex swing, you would not cave to that.

You bend to fold your body over the desk, gripping the edge and pushing your hips back to allow for more access to your husband.  The speaker system by your bed plays music, and you recognize the opening chords as one from his latest album with his six best friends. A smile slips to your face as the volume turns up, quiet enough you can talk, but loud enough it’s noticeable. His smooth, melodic voice is ringing through your bedroom and through your entire body. 

He stalks in behind you and rubs at your soft globes.

“Mmm, you look so pretty in this,” he compliments.  “You know I love seeing you in red.”

You turn your head to gaze at him, smiling.  “That’s why I bought it, Daddy.”

“Good little bitch,” he sighs.  

As expected, he rips the underwear from your body with one clean pull.  You’re always surprised by the action. He never gives warning.  Your eyes follow as the useless fabric soars towards the ground. 

“Much better.”

He moves away from you, walking towards the closet.  You train your eyes forward, keeping locked on the wall ahead of you, rather than staring.  Jimin tells you when and where to look and you follow that.

The gentle clinking noise of a belt buckle causes your pussy to quake.  You’ve been slowly moistening since you sent the first text, but you were now starting to drip as if you were overflowing.  By the end of the night, you’ll be drowning in it.

He’s behind you again as quick as he left and he rubs the leather belt against your bare behind. 

“What’s your word?” He asks, soothing at the skin with the device that will soon maar it.  Jimin is ever careful, checking on your mental and emotional safety as well as your physical, and ensured a safe word was in place each time.

“Red,” you assert.  He hums his approval and kisses your ass once, one quick little peck, before he lifts back up to standing.

“Count for me, little whore.”

The crack of the belt spanking your cheek electrifies you.  You feel as if every muscle in your body clenches as the sting vibrates through your buttocks and down to your core.  

“O-one!” You’re shouting, distracted by the pain in your ass to care about your pitch.

Crack. The next slap lands on the other cheek now, and you hiss at the pain.  It bites at your skin, and it soaks your pussy. 

“Two!”

He delivers the next straight in the center, hitting both cheeks and letting the sizzle melt its way to a pleasure that’s reverberating through your core.

“Three! Fuck!” you gasp. 

SMACK.  It’s the hardest yet and tears well up in your eyes at the initial whollop, before your hips are writhing and desperate for friction.

“Four!” You’re wailing and you know it makes your husband go even wilder.

“Stay still or I won’t let you cum for a month,” he grits.  Your hips stay put, knowing he’s a man of his word and not wanting to face his wrath.

He continues his barrage, and you’re counting out 15 strikes before he stops.  You’re sobbing, the pain and pleasure surging so forcefully through your veins that your cunt clenches around nothing and you’re dripping onto the wood of the desk.

His warm hands are soothing at the reddened flesh of your ass, the sensation stinging at first, but oozes away to a relaxing warmth against the punished skin.

“Good girl, baby,” he commends you, hands rubbing all over your flesh. “Took your punishment like such a good girl.”

You sniffle in reply and he pulls you up, making you stand on wobbly legs.  He twists you around and pecks your lips again, a reminder that Jimin, your husband, is still there and loves you more than he loves life itself.  It soothes you more than any salve could and it steels your resolve to continue.  It’s easy to submit and thrill at the loss of control when you trusted the master with your entire being.  

“Color?” He asks, checking in with you.

“Green,” you smile. 

He’s pleased with your answer.  He pulls away from you and pushes you towards the bed.

“Lay down on your back.  Head off the side.  I’m going to fuck your throat, and you will take it all.”

You’re giddy as you saunter to the bed and notice that Jimin is proud of the blooming red of your ass.  It’ll be a literal pain in the ass to sit tomorrow, but it’s worth all the doting and affection you’ll receive in return for being such a good girl for him.  The music has changed, another sensual track featuring your talented husband.  It sends shivers down you, straight to your core.

You maneuver your body to lie on the bed, grateful for the soft blanket on your burning ass, and tip your head off the bed.  Your mouth opens complacently and Jimin shoves his sweats down to reveal his hardened length.

You’re licking your lips like his dick is the finest meal money can buy, and he chuckles.  His left hand strokes it, shivering at the cold press of his wedding ring mixing with the heat of his hand. 

“You want my cock?” He asks.

You nod, captivated with the motion he strokes the shaft.  You almost forget to speak, but his harsh gaze is like a whip.

“Yes! Yes, I want your cock Daddy!”

“Tell me what you want to do to me,” he hums.

Well, this would be too easy.

“I want to suck you dry, let you fuck my throat so I can’t breathe.  I’ll let you cum down my throat and make my face so messy from cum and spit that it gets in my eyes and messes up my pretty makeup, daddy.”

His strokes have become faster, and he sucks in hard for air. “Such a filthy fucking mouth.”

You open said mouth again, letting your tongue hang out like a welcome sign to your throat.

He growls, it’s guttural, and it feels as if it’s positioned on your clit, vibrating the nub.  Your bliss is cut short as he drives his thick dick into your mouth and directly to the back of your throat, leaving you no time to prepare.  You whine slightly around it, and he tsks.

“Don’t you fucking dare whine.  Take it all,” he sounds ruthless and your pussy quakes.

He sets a punishing pace, the tip of his dick ramming through your throat.  It doesn’t take long for it to become messy, saliva trickling from your mouth, falling towards your eyes due to the angle of your supine head.  Jimin sounds angelic, the moans that leave the dancer’s body should be recorded and played for an audience, you think.  You’d suffer through hours of this for the reward of his sweet voice crying out your name.

“Fuck, my little cock slut loves it when I fuck her throat, hmm,” he asks, breathy and harsh.  You nod as much as you can.

“Yeah, that’s right.  You love daddy’s cock, don’t you? You love it when I fucking choke the shit out of you with my fat cock, huh?”

The voice of an angel with the words of the devil himself.  The duality is intoxicating and you are head over heels for both Jimin’s inside of him, every aspect of the man you pledged your life to.

“Mmm, you suck me so good,” he’s groping at your tits through the fabric of your bra.  You’re surprised that it’s still on, but you trust he’s aware and always has a plan.  

“Are you crying, baby?” He asks mockingly.  Tears and saliva mix and your face is completely ruined by it.  You nod again and blink.  “Good, fucking choke on it.” he goes even faster and you’re moaning.  It hurts and the gag reflex is there, but the pain gets you off, and you know the second it became too much, your husband would stop in an instant.  

“Little sluts get their face fucked when they disobey daddy,” he chides, emphasising each word with a thrust.  

It’s as if you’re desperate for his orgasm, wanting nothing more than to swallow every ounce of what he spills into you, clean him up and ask for more.  He won’t have that tonight, it seems, as he’s pulling out of you as quickly as he entered.

“I want to cum in this tight little cunt,” he bites.  You slither up from your position and wipe at your eyes, resting against the pillow after he orders you to remove the bustier.  He asks that you leave the belt and stockings on, however. 

“Spread those pretty thighs for me, baby,” he’s discarded his shirt and is sitting ahead of you, watching you.  His gaze turns you on and opens you up like a flower.

Your thighs are spread far and you lean back further onto the pillows to put the star of the show on display.  You’re coated with your slick; it’s slathered up and down your thighs and dripping onto the duvet below you.  He breathes out in appreciation.

“I think my favorite thing about you is how fucking wet you get for me.”  He’s still not moving and you want to beg him to touch you, please do something, but refrain.  “You feel like a fucking dream when I’m inside you.”

“B-baby,” you break character and freeze, but he ignores it and allows you to continue as you sigh with relief. “I need you.”

“Do you now?” he banters, and you nod with wide, needy eyes.

“Touch yourself for me, then.  Show me how badly you want daddy’s cock in you.”

A hand flies to your cunt in record time and you’re desperately eager to spread the lips of your folds apart and rub at your slick and swollen clit.  A breathy, heady moan escapes you at the friction you’ve been aching for since you sent the sexy photo hours ago. 

“Fuck!” you shout, circling the bud.  Jimin’s eyes are glued to your hands, and he watches with awe. 

“Finger yourself,” he demands and you’re obeying before he’s even finished speaking, two fingers slipping down to enter your channel.  You arch off the bed and grip a breast in your other hand, flicking at the nipple for extra sensation.  

He coos at you as you fuck yourself with wild abandon, gasping his name as you slip deeper with each thrust.  

“Add another.”  His voice maintains its even quality, maintained and cool.  But if you opened your eyes, you’d see that he’s salivating at the sight, desperately restraining himself.  His cock is weeping pre-cum and he could explode in an instant watching this too long.

Your ring finger slips in with the other two and you’re keening at the stretch.  The pain is gone in a flash, just a pinch that simmers to a desperate pleasure.  

“You look so fucking good, baby,” he breaks his composure, momentarily.  He’s so in love with you, every single fucking bit, that he can’t help it.  “God, you’re beautiful.”

His words have you blushing, as if they’re the most lewd part of the evening and not the fact you’re fingering yourself in front of your husband while he watches and orders you around.

“Rub your clit with your other hand, love.”

The pressure of your added hand on your clit and the fingers thrusting into you has you soaring to your high and your throat chokes on the air.  “O-oohhh fuckkk!” You whine.

“You close, baby?  You gonna cum on those cute little fingers and get them messy for daddy?” He asks, voice violently serene.

“Y-yes! Please, I want to cum,” you beg.  You know the rules, he tells you where and when your body receives its pleasure.

“You wanna cum?” He asks again, and you feel a spike of irritation.  He’s already asked you that, haven’t you already answered?

“So badly, daddy! Please! C-close.” Words are escaping your mental capacity now.  You’re there, nearly there, just one little tiny string holding you back from the edge of euphoria.

“Too bad.”  

Your fingers are pulled from your cunt quickly and you’re crying.  Tears are forming in your eyes as you feel an ache deep to your womb.  You had been so close, so deliciously close.  Jimin knows this, thrills at watching you edge further and further through the night.  You won’t admit it at the moment, it’s pure torture then, but the buildup to the finale is indescribable.

“You don’t get to fucking cum until I tell you to cum.  Do you understand me?”

“Yes, yes! Yes, Daddy,” you babble, nearly incoherent from arousal and denial. 

He makes you writhe there, pussy so slick its soaking the blankets and you’ll have to change them later but the only thing you think about is your cunt, your weeping cunt that’s screaming to release. 

You feel your breath slowing and know that Jimin wants you to come back down to earth before he’ll bring you up again.

“Good fucking girl,” he kisses your belly, licking at the navel.  He whispers quiet words of adoration as he trails down your abdomen and end at the top of your mound.  Your legs are shaking, no, they’re nearly convulsing from need.

He spreads your folds, and it’s pornographic the way he spits on your pussy, as if it needs any more wetness.  It’s not about the wetness, though, and you know it.  It’s about the message, the ownership.  

“My favorite little fuck toy,” he murmurs, lightly tracing everywhere but the bud throbbing with need for friction.  “I can’t wait to cum inside this little pussy tonight.  Gonna flood your whole fucking cunt, babe.”

Jimin knows the way to your heart, and the way to your orgasms is through his words.  Gentle whispered ‘i love you’s’ in the day and disgusting filth at night.  It’s just another reason in a list of a million why you work so well together. 

“Should we get you nice and pregnant tonight?  You want to make a baby?”  

You nearly sob at his words.  He can fuck you harder with his words than his cock.

“Please!” You’re yelling, tears streaming down your face. “P-please! I want your baby.”

He leans down and smiles for a moment before speaking. “Well, my little wife will always get what she wants when she asks so nicely.”  His lips attach to your clit, suctioning it into his mouth and swirling his tongue around it.  It’s swollen and slick, and it feels like fucking heaven.  His plushy lips are working for it, taking you so desperately close to the edge.  

You’re gasping a symposium of his name and praising the ground he walks on.  You’re sure if you died now you’d die a very fucking happy woman.  The world around you is gone, and it’s just Jimin’s sinful mouth suckling at your cunt.

You’re close again, and Jimin knows it.  You’re begging, pleading with him, but it’s useless as he roughly pulls away.

The music continues on in the background.  It’s lighter, and Jimin croons in the speaker as he grunts in your ear.

He muffles your anguished cry with a messy kiss that tastes of you, and he’s thrusting into you.  The slickness guides him in easily and he’s whining against you at the feel of your walls accept him and hugging him tightly as if they’ve missed his cock swelling within them.

“JIMIN!” You’re seeing fireworks as your husband fucks into you, holding you close to him.  It’s as rough and kinky as it is intimate and sweet.  He holds you, cherishes you, while he’s pistoning his thick member into your loud, drenched cunt.  

“I love you,” he whispers, slipping a thumb into your mouth that you suck at eagerly, as skilled with his fingers as you are with his cock.  “I love you so fucking much.”

His eyes align with yours, yours full of tears of absolute unrivaled pleasure, and his with full and never-ending devotion. 

You’re both so close, and you pull him against you to kiss his lips.  You want to connect completely to him as you cum, as he spills into your womb and creates something, someone there. 

Your cunt flutters intensely, quaking in anticipation as it builds and builds and builds.  Jimin breaks the kiss to breathe and warn you, “I’m going to cum soon, baby, please cum with me.”  He’s gentle and sweet, the Jimin who cries at love stories and wears flower crowns now present inside you.  You nod quickly, gasping as the coil winds tighter and tighter.  

Your kissing is messy, passionate, and your hands grasp him everywhere.  You’re tugging at his toned arms and solid back, seeking refuge as the tidal wave grows impossibly high, higher, so so high,

And crashes into you at 100 miles per hour.  Your cunt is contracting and pulsing around him so intensely you nearly black out, crying loudly into his mouth.  He’s groaning with you, the feeling of your already impossibly tight walls clenching down on him demands the orgasm out of him.  He’s cupping your whole face in his hands as he spills into you and your walls suck him in further, so far he could disappear completely.  

It feels as if you orgasm for hours, but it's merely minutes later that you’re trying to catch your breath and slip back into reality.  You’re clinging to each other like last lifelines and the gaze between you is so intense it clenches at your racing heart.  

The silence between you two is long and speaks an entire conversation before your lips even open.  He’s singing so sweetly through the speaker, it sounds like he’s singing directly to you.  “I love you,” you’re whispering to him.

He rubs at your cheeks in his palms, wiping away stray tears of bliss that have slipped down your face.

“I love you.”

You settle into him, unwilling to move a single inch away from your husband, and marvel at the beauty that is your life, your future.  

Jimin holds you close, kisses you gently and sings softly along to the music as you fall asleep, and he adores the fact that he holds his entire world, his future, in his arms.

© ppersonna - 2020 - do not repost on any site, or translate without express permission from author.

[cosmiclatte28]

Butterflies and Brushes (YuTae)

a/n : this is a promise I made for the wonderful IG account yutae.0126

warning : Slight suggestive content, but nothing explicit (or yeah?) Romance, bxb proceeed to masterlist if you’re not comfortable and pic something else. Romance, fluff, flirty!yuta and cold prince! Taeyong

ARTSCHOOL AU! nude panting (nothing explicit though, safe to read for anyone mature enough)

My first Yuta x Taeyong or Taeyong x Yuta fic and I am excited to see how this goes!!

Here we goo!!! 

Oh yeah I attach a picture for the poses below because I am afraid the explanation is not enough and sorry for my failed attempt to draw. (I blotted it okay and failed still )

Every campus has that one hot guy everyone is afraid to approach and another guy with the total opposite appeal.

Well the same thing happens in this top college of visual arts, not only do they have talented artist in process of making visual arts, the students themselves have top visual points.

Meet Lee Taeyong, the campus' Aphrodite with a stoic face and a piercing gaze. Rumor has it, his beauty comes from the way he keeps his face poker whenever he walks around the campus. Though he rarely smiles, everyone believes he has his own reasons for being that. Afterall, no one dares messes up with Taeyong, not after the famous incident where he punched a bully so hard in the face after dissing a freshman's work of art. That freshman is famous here, he's called Ten. A sweet guy from Thai who draws amazing realistic drawings.

Moving on from the coldest guy, we have the warmest guy who always smiles. He wins the “healing smile fairy" nickname thanks to his gummy smile.

If Taeyong is the Aphrodite here, Yuta is Apollo. His smile is enough to defrost a thousand years of snow and with one wink, you're 90% guaranteed to have a good day.

The Japanese guy with long blonde hair -sharing similar traits as to that famous Howl character- is the one who always smiles no matter what!

Every girl has fallen for his smile, every guy envies his attractiveness. He is playful, cheerful, and flirty! No one walks away from Yuta without a smile or a blush, no one but Lee Taeyong.

Yuta has never personally encounter Lee Taeyong. He just knows the famous cold-hearted prince who shares the same painting class with him. Despite sharing the same class this term, Yuta has never seated next to him nor has he the chance to talk with him. Taeyong always comes into the class near the starting time and leaves first.

T'was until one eventful moment that the two opposite individuals are put together for their final Junior year project. The teacher insists for their final project to draw a realistic nude painting of their assigned partner. Nude painting is not something new to the students here, besides the teacher paired the students and asked their conscience about it. Yuta won’t turn the chance down, but when the teacher asked Taeyong if he is okay with his partner, Yuta can’t look into his direction. All the Japanese guy can do is fiddle with his hands while waiting for the teacher to call out his name and pair him with another student.

“Sure, I mean I don’t have any reasons to object.” Taeyong's deep voice resonates through the studio and believe it or not the whole class was holding their breaths. Yuta almost squeals when Taeyong accepts the partnering scheme. When the teacher asks him, Yuta immediately nods and gosh his silly smile over there was caught in Taeyong's peripheral view. Believe it or not, for the first time in forever, Lee Taeyong smirked in public.

Ten who sits close to Yuta secretly gives a sly smile to the Japanese man. Yuta tosses a questioning look and Ten mouths “Everyone is confused if they want to be in your shoes or Taeyong's"

Yuta blushes at his words, Ten sure knows how to tease him. Well, Ten is one of Yuta's best friends and he is the only one who knows about the secret mission Yuta has in his heart. Yes, Yuta aims to be able to make Taeyong falls for him like any other people. It is not an easy task, Yuta is aware of that, but because of that he is more than challenged to succeed.

“So, I guess I'll miss you,” Ten suddenly says this when they're packing up their books.

Yuta glances to the room and sees Taeyong is still there, unlike usual!

“What do you mean?” Yuta asks back

Ten winks, “He is coming here, maybe asking your number. I won’t bother, see you!” he taps Yuta's shoulder and flies all the way down the room leaving Yuta alone with Taeyong on his side.

“So… you are my partner for our final project, right?” Taeyong's secret voice greets Yuta's ear. He almost falls on the ground for realizing how good his voice sounds.

Yuta quickly nods his head and waits for the other to continue.

“I don’t want to flunk this class, so when should we start?” Taeyong goes straight into business.

Yuta feels a bit sad that the man in front of him is strictly stuck to business, but he is the best in masking emotions, Taeyong wouldn’t be able to guess.

“Yes sure, I also want to start early. Umm when do you have free time?”

Taeyong picks his phone out and goes to his planner, he scrolls and sees how busy he is. He sighs, not wanting to disturb the warm guy in front of him longer…

“Put in your number and I'll text you my free time. Also, sorry for bothering you.” He sheepishly gives a tiny smile! Microscopic but not to Yuta!

Yuta wants to jump right now, Taeyong is asking his number! How silly was he, thinking about so many ways to ask the latter's number without sounding too flirty or rude. He didn’t have to worry, Taeyong did it well.

Yuta quickly types in his number and saves the contact. He presses the call button and when his phone rings, he shuts it off.

“Cool. I got your number.” Yuta, who is usually verbose, only slips in efficient reply but his warm smile is always there.

Taeyong seems a bit taken aback by the smile; Yuta didn’t notice this. If he noticed, Yuta won’t let that go.

“Okay, see you then.” Taeyong shuffles in his place and finally leaves Yuta alone. The class is empty already and Yuta sits back on his chair.

He controls his heartbeat that is beating faster than a runner, and he hides his face in his hands as he feels his cheeks getting hotter.

“I MUST BE DRUNK HAPPY!” he muffles his scream to himself and Yuta elicits the brightest smile ever that day.

He walks through the corridors, tossing smiles and greetings to everyone he sees and that radiant look really energized everyone else.

“I wonder what's wrong with Yuta hyung, he looks really bright!” Renjun, a freshman from China, asks Ten.

Ten just smirks, “He won the lottery maybe. Come on! I want to learn how to do water color with you!” he pulls the younger away.

--

That afternoon, Yuta is seated on the edge of his bed with Ten sleeping on the soft mattress.

“Ten why isn’t he texting me? Should I send him my schedule first?” Yuta sounds like a nervous teenager who is confessing to their  crus.

Ten laughs out loud at his worries, “Yow! Yuta! You're the flirtiest guy here and you're nervous and confused about talking to Taeyong?! You know your rules.. because this is Taeyong you wait! You don’t want to look easy on him right?”

Yuta frowns “Well yes, but Ten I am so excited! Like I am afraid I cannot draw him nicely and I’ll hurt his feelings! Gosh Why does it have to be nude realistic painting?! If it's comic I'm sure he will fall for my drawings!”

Ten scoffs, “Silly because the class we're taking is realistic painting??? Come on you're good with your hands. He will like it.”

Yuta feels nervous, he is not the best in realistic drawing but he is not that bad.

Yuta suddenly turns his head to face Ten, “Hey!” he grips Ten's wrist.

“TEACH ME HOW TO DO BETTER REALISTIC DRAWING!!” he sounds so excited and nervous at the same time.

Ten grins “What will I get in return?”

Yuta rolls his eyes, there is always a catch with Ten.

“I don’t know?? I'll treat you pizza?”

“Nah, not interested. What about that model friend of yours,’ number??”

Yuta frowns for a while, trying to remember who is Ten talking about

“Johnny?” Yuta raises his brow

Ten bites his lips and nods, Yuta reaches out his hand and the other one seals the deal.

“Okay, you follow me to the studio tomorrow after 2? Bring a sketch book I'll help with the sketching first and then we'll go to the painting part which I know you do okay.” Ten jumps in surprise when he catches the light of notification in Yuta's phone.

They both crowd the screen as Taeyong's name appear in Yuta's message box.

“Best day ever…” Yuta shyly opens the message and replies back with his own schedule.

They talk for awhile and come to an agreement that they'll start doing it next week.

“TEN! WE NEED TO DO THE CRASH COURSE ASAP. I am not going to disappoint him.” Yuta looks so ambitious and Ten is just happy he's getting Johnny's number.

--

Crash course was not that easy. Ten is a strict teacher and he keeps on nagging Yuta to fix his way of sketching. Well Yuta's inattentive to small details, but Ten insists it is the most important thing.

“You're doing nude painting, every stroke matters! What if he ends up not having edges? You'll hate yourself.” Ten reminds Yuta his goal.

“Don’t you want to impress him? Plus I’m sure you'll get good finals if you follow my tips.”

Yuta ends up doing three more drawings, all from seeing Ten posing in front of him.

“Ten, you're just playing around with me right? You just want me to draw you?” Yuta slams his pencil down after the third time of renewing Ten's picture

Ten throws an apple he found at the table to Yuta “You think I'd ask you to draw me?! I'd rather ask Taeyong!”

Yuta shoots his eyes while rubbing his head “Hey! We agreed he is mine. Don’t you dare!”

Ten analyzes the sketch Yuta did and smiles “Now this, will make Taeyong interested in you.” He examines his friend’s work and compares the first two.

He just stays quiet and tosses three of the papers side by side to Yuta “See that? If I'm not your friend… I'd charge you a thousand dollars already for this class.”

Ten is not lying when he said that, within three sketches (and two hours of painful comments) Yuta's drawing significantly improves. He barely knows he can draw like that third drawing he made.

“Yoksi… Ten you're so talented! My best friend!” he hugs Ten and Ten just slightly coughs “Don’t forget the deal.”

Yuta just smiles and fishes his phone, he quickly sends a contact name to Ten and when Ten receives the number, Yuta takes his chance to leave the room.

He's now more confident in seeing Taeyong. He didn’t know what will happen on the day they'll meet but he sure wants to make a good impression.

 --

“Hey so, you'll directly follow me home? Or do you have to do something first?” Taeyong starts the conversation that afternoon after their painting class.

Yuta has not talked with Taeyong after they exchange schedules. They haven’t talked and discussed about their themes, but Yuta guesses they'll figure it out on their way home.

Yuta shifts his head from cleaning up his mess and looks at Taeyong, the stoic man has a tint of blush in his cheek upon seeing Yuta's radiant smile but he quickly hides it away.

“Pull yourself together Taeyong, why are you like this?” Taeyong speaks to himself in his heart.

“Yes Taeyong, I have nothing to do and i'm ready to go." The blonde man smiles to the red haired man and both of them are trying their best to keep their emotions low.

Taeyong slings his bag and nods his head “Hope you don’t mind walking, my apartment is only a 15 minutes walk.” He leads them out of the class and Yuta copies his long steps.

No Yuta doesn’t mind walking an hour if that is with Taeyong. Under the sun, the two angelic man of the school walk side by side… inviting by passer to stop and sneak a picture of them or just stand there frozen upon what they see.

Taeyong keeps his stoic face until they reach the outer gate, meanwhile Yuta is busy waving his hand to anyone he knows and just smiling to random students.

Taeyong snickers when they reach the outer gate “You really are kind to anyone eh? The rumor is true.”

Yuta widens his eyes “Rumor?”

Taeyong smirks and looks into the younger's hazel eyes “Well yes the rumor that you are the school's Apollo? Because they say your smile heals everything?”

Yuta doesn’t know how to react, well he knows that but what should he do? Saying “oh yes and you're the aphrodite that everyone fears….”no that is not good.

Taeyong suddenly shakes his shoulder and loosen down his tie. Well their school gives them uniform with ties, and Taeyong loosening it doesn’t help Yuta's red face. Gosh he looks so hot.

“Hufth glad we're far enough from school and cameras.” He gives a small smile. Yuta is confused, okay so Taeyong did realize the students love to take pictures of him… he also knows how to smile?

Yuta’s confusion makes him ask the red haired man “So you do know?”

Taeyong raises his brow, “Know what? Knows that my picture is secretly famous in the dark web? Being used for sketching references? Comics?”

Yuta gulps well yeah he did see some comic works having illustrations very similar to taeyong and him,… “You know how to smile.” Was the thing Yuta's unfiltered mouth let go.

The blonde Japanese man covers his mouth in fluster, he quickly bows while muttering “Sorry, I really didn’t mean to say that.”

Taeyong freezes in place when he heard that remark, he turns his heels around and faces Yuta who is now looking on the grounds.

Taeyong smirks, interesting, no one dares talk to Taeyong that way and Yuta just did.

“Say that again?” he smirks looking ten times hotter and dominant.

Yuta grins and scratches his head, “I didn’t say anything. Pretend you hear nothing.” He tries to hide his face away but Taeyong bravely brings his chin to face him.

“Well as a matter of fact, yes Yuta, I can smile.” He puts back his cold face and his eyes pierces through Yuta's weak soul. He turns his body away and continues walking… he smiles when he realizes how cute a flustered Yuta is. What he doesn’t know is that behind his back, Yuta has already level up his game.

If that is how Taeyong is going to play the game, he chooses the king of flirt. Yuta will not lose to Taeyong.

The younger shakes his thoughts away and pick up his steps. Once he is next to Taeyong again, Taeyong quickly puts back his stoic face.

“So, what is your theme Taeyong?” Yuta opens the conversation.

Taeyong has been sleepless for the week, trying to find a pose where he can capture Yuta's ethereal beauty in his oil painting. He went through a lot of illustrations references and even imagined Yuta posing for him. He cannot lie, that man really has his own attractiveness and Taeyong cannot pinpoint where.

“Well, as a matter of fact I've prepared several poses for you. Wait before that who is going to draw first today?” Taeyong asks the most important question. He is not spoiling the theme to Yuta right now, at least not in front of a kindergarten school they just passed by.

Yuta shrugs his shoulder “If you're ready to pose, I'll draw  firs… You're a better painter. I'd rather paint you first rather than seeing how great your work is and lose confidence doing mine.” He laughs and Taeyong giggles.

“No way, your drawing is good Yuta! I love your anime illustrations.” Taeyong slides a sincere praise here.

Yuta feels happy that Taeyong knows about his works, “But your abstract painting is wonderful! You're going to be a great artist one day!”

Taeyong feels flowers bloom in his heart, but his face isn’t showing anything.

“Okay then, if you want that… I can pose for you today.” Taeyong hates to admit he actually feels like losing a bet but there is no bet.

Yuta secretly smiles, so Taeyong is the first one giving up for Yuta eh?

Yuta claps his hands “Great! I have some ideas you can choose okay! Pick the one you're most comfortable with.”

“Okay… oh do you mind we walk a bit further and then go back?” taeyong pauses in his track.

Yuta doesn’t understand “Huh?”

Taeyong sighs and shakes his head, not believing himself for saying this outloud to anyone, “I need to feed some kittens there…”

Yuta softens his face “Sure! I love cats and dogs! Didn’t know a cold guy like you cares so much about animals.”

Taeyong can relax now, he feels better knowing that Yuta didn’t laugh at him “Thanks, they're too young to survive.” Taeyong walks into a corner and purrs. Slowly three cats emerge from the dark and meows softly while taking defensive stances when they sense a new presence of Yuta.

Taeyong giggles as he extends his arm to pour the cat foods he had prepared to the ground “Don't be afraid, he is my friend… he won’t hurt you guys.” Taeyong uses a nasal voice to baby talk the kittens and calls Yuta friend?! Oh gosh Yuta is ready to die, Taeyong is a totally different person out here! And he is more than eager to portray that emotion into his painting.

Yuta ends up squatting down beside Taeyong and plays with the kittens for a while. Both men giggling at the smallest action the clumsy cats made.

“Okay, we have to go, or we will end up not working.” Taeyong stands up and brushes his dust off, waiting for Yuta to follow him back to his house.

Yuta bids the kitten farewell as he catches back Taeyong’s long strides and they finally make it into their place for the afternoon.

“Make yourself at home, or at least like this is your studio.” He is glad he cleaned up his room last night.

Yuta nods his head, he sets his canvas up, prepares his pencils, and anything else he needs for the project.

Taeyong has to admit he is nervous, now that he realizes he should be the first one stripping.

The older excuses himself to bath first, earning a small giggle from Yuta, but since Yuta wants Taeyong to be comfortable he lets him go.

As the older finishes his shower, Yuta has pulled out his phone and opens up his choices of poses. Unlike Taeyong who cannot choose a pose, Yuta already has one in mind since the first day Taeyong came to him.

He wants the older to sit on one of the armchair he surprisingly has in his apartment. He’ll have Taeyong sit cross legged, posing as elegant as he can while staying in that position for hours. Yuta esitimates he’ll need six hours to draw, yes draw.

Then maybe they’ll continue the next day for the layers and coloring. He wishes they can finish before time runs out.

“Okay, so how do you want me to pose?” Taeyong comes out of the shower fresh with only a towel covering his lower privacy. Yuta almost chokes upon seeing his appearance, but he is professional enough to hold it back.

Yuta chooses to just show him what he wants and Taeyong easily agrees, “You want me to sit? That’s kind of you. Someone else asked me to stand and damn I got tired, but t’was okay since they paint me nicely.” Taeyong says as he takes his seat and sets his body to look like how Yuta wants.

In front of Yuta, sits Taeyong in his heavenly state. His armchair despite being super simple, looks like it is a throne thanks to Taeyong’s indescribable aura. The man in red hair is sitting cross legged on the armchair, leaning his head to the side supported by his left arm. His face shows the same expression that of a model. His eyes? They were soft minutes ago, but now they’re piercing through the air. Yuta can fall to his knees right now and follow every command this king beholds.

“Please tell me if you need any breaks,” Yuta says breathily.

Taeyong nods, “Oh before that, I haven’t asked you… Do you want any drink or special condition for drawing?”

Yuta thinks for a while, “Well, I can’t work in too much silence, so please talk with me while I start sketching you.”

Taeyong takes a good note on that and as the younger man ties his hair to a man bun and pulls his sleeves up, Taeyong is more than excited to be paired with him. He wants to know how great Yuta can draw him.

They talk about random things like where they studied before entering this school, hobbies, favorite foods, even ended up talking about cats and dogs.

“I’m considering buying myself some fish and put them in the aquarium. What do you think?” Taeyong asks while leaning his head more to his resting hand. Yuta lets one of his hand rests on the arm rest and his head is leaning to that hand. (Super ugly sketch I tried blotting is attached below)

Yuta still focuses on his drawing, “Fish? Their water maintenance can be expensive.”

Taeyong rolls his eyes, “That’s the least I can own in this apartment, they do not allow dogs or cats.”

Yuta just hums, “Okay then go with fish. I don’t see why you’re hesitating.”

“Because if they die, I’ll be super sad.” Taeyong answers in a heartbeat.

Yuta almost drops his pencil upon seeing this side of Taeyong, the soft hearted cute guy is hiding behind a cold mask.

“Sorry if I sound rude, but you’re totally different in and out of school! What makes you act like that in school?” Yuta is glad about his sketch right now, at least his crash course with Ten is saving his face.

Taeyong smirks, “You want to know, or you want to know?” he teases the blonde man a bit, starting to feel super comfortable. Hey nothing beats being comfortable faster than being naked in front of them right?

“Just tell me. Everyone’s talking about you being a heartless cold man, but in real life you’re totally soft and I hate that people are talking about the wrong you.” Yuta blurts his heart out and gasps when he realized what he just said.

Taeyong seizes the opportunity, “Oh, you care about me that much? Well I did that because I’m tired of being the center of attention.”

Yuta clicks his tongue, “And you being like a cold bitch is just making you more into the spotlight.”

Taeyong giggles, now he is using bitch in his sentence? “Well thank me, I give you the spotlight of the good guy!”

Yuta wants to slap him hard if he is his long best friend, but not yet.

“You’re interesting Yuta, you really look astonishing when you’re focused. I wonder if you got a female partner, how distracted will both of you be.”

Yuta hums, “Well that didn’t happen, now I am here drawing you like one of my French guy.” His humorous side comes out.

Taeyong laughs heartily at that, “Okay sorry, I have to keep my expression.”

Yuta nods, “Thanks for realizing, I almost ruin the drawing with your big smile.”

Taeyong grins, “You better draw my cold face there, no one should see this side of me yet.”

“As you please, Your Majesty. Now you may rest, I’ve finished roughly and let me order us something to eat.”

Taeyong is thankful when Yuta tosses him back his towel and the red hair quickly runs to his room to fetch some clothes. Once Taeyong is inside his room, he runs to the mirror and checks how red his ears are actually. Gosh, did Yuta realize?

While Taeyong is changing clothes, Yuta orders them a meal and he keeps his canvas in a safe place.

They have a good time talking again through dinner and like a long best friend who met, the two click like puzzles made for each other.

“Thank you for the meal,” Taeyong says before Yuta leaves his house.

“Thank you for being a nice model. Don’t see my canvas yet okay. I’m not confident with what I have right now.” Yuta wears his jacket as he steps outside the door.

Taeyong nods, he knows that same feeling and he will respect Yuta for it.

“Great, I’ll see you tomorrow?”

Yuta smiles, “Yes! Let me know if I need to prepare anything.”

He leaves, walking down the road another five minutes to arrive in his small apartment.

They decided that they will take turn, tomorrow Yuta will be in Taeyong’s shoes.

--

“I hope you don’t mind lying in my bed,” Taeyong says as he explains the concept pose he has been thinking again last night.

Yuta shakes his head, “I’m down for anything! You’re one of the best painter in the class, It’s an honour to be your muse. I’ll do anything for a good result.”

Taeyong slyly smirks, “Anything?”

Yuta winks (hell he is not losing okay), “You heard me loud and clear.”

“Okay then, you… wow, that’s a nice tattoo! We should get that in the frame.” Taeyong runs his eyes over the toned abs and the pretty butterfly tattoo on his lower abdomen.

Yuta smiles, “Yeah I got a story behind it, I’ll tell you later.” Yuta makes himself comfortable between the white sheets Taeyong has prepared and covers his lower abs below with the thin linen. His butterfly tattoo is half peeking but that is exactly what Taeyong needs.

“I hope you’re not allergic to flowers,” Taeyong suddenly appears with a bag of flower petals. Yuta blushes, this man really prepares a lot.

“Absolutely not, just do what you need to do.” Yuta stutters a bit. Where is his confident flirty personality at time like this?! Taeyong calmly places the petals in different places, once he is satisfied with what he has the Aphrodite walks to his fridge and takes out one cold can of beer.

“I need some cans to draw,” Taeyong explains himself, though Yuta didn’t ask anything.

The drawing session begins, and they casually talk again, Yuta is facing the opposite side of Taeyong and from a lower view, he can clearly see how Taeyong frowns and how he bites his lips while concentrating on his canvas. Yuta can see each detail in Taeyong’s face from a new angle!

He loves the shade of red his lips have and his hair! His hair is envious. Yuta sees Taeyong pauses to sip his drink some time and when he feels like closing his eyes on the sheet, he doesn’t hear any warning from Taeyong and so the blonde angel falls asleep after watching the man he secretly likes.

Taeyong finishes not long after it and when he realizes the younger is no longer talking, he peeks over his canvas and smiles upon seeing Yuta’s calm sleeping face. Even in his sleep, he looks super kind and angelic!

“You really are son of Apollo or maybe Apollo himself,” Taeyong brings a strand of hair away from Yuta’s eyes. Gently, he pulls a thicker blanket over the younger’s bare skin and lets him rest for some more.

Taeyong leaves the room and controls his quickening heartbeat. When pulling the blanket over Yuta, he is close to his face and inches away from those plush lips. Taeyong feels his heartbeat increasing and he has to quickly walk away before doing things that he didn’t want.

Yuta wakes up feeling sorry for falling asleep, but Taeyong just shakes it off. Saying he totally understands, and he doesn’t mind. With that being said, they eat dinner together again before finally parting goodbye. To make things faster, Yuta brings home his canvas so he can start layering and do the basic stuff he can do without the model. Same thing for Taeyong.

That night, both men busy themselves in their own studios. Accompanied by one light, cups of coffees, soft music, and each other’s sketches on their canvas witnessing just how love struck both parties are. Yet both souls are too stubborn to fall on one knee and confess this big crush they have to the other.

Another week comes and this time they need to meet again. Yuta and Taeyong have already been comfortable with one another, to the point where Yuta can talk in the hallway with Taeyong. Something super rare to be seen! Not Yuta’s part but seeing Taeyong walks and talks with someone at school is the hottest news of the week.

--

Through hours and hours of staying together in the same place, stroking paint brushes, learning each and every flaws and beauty their muse have, it’s not surprising how comfortable and close they are right now.

Yuta knows just every detail of Taeyong’s face. He notices the rose print scar next to his right eye, the small mole on his lips, the way Taeyong’s eyes twinkle with stars, how his hair stays in place despite the hours of posing.

Taeyong is able to draw Yuta base on memory too now. He finds the perfect hue of his skin, the right yellow shade for his smooth hair, the way his eyes relax and the story about how Yuta’s butterfly ended up being printed in his torso.

Taeyong cannot deny the bubbly feeling in his chest. Is he feeling that dangerous chemical reactions in his body? Is he in love?

It’s already the last week from the deadline and the two choose to finish everything tonight. So, that afternoon Yuta comes into Taeyong’s house with a sleepover supply and they start their last journey of painting.

There’s a tugging feeling in Yuta’s heart as he finalizes his painting. A satisfied smile comes to his face when he sees his final painting of Taeyong. His eyes run from the breathing perfection sitting like a throne king waiting for his interesting part in life to start, and to the canvas he’s been working on for hours! A satisfied smile comes to his face when he feels his hours of blood, sweat, and tears of working being paid off with the portray lying before him.  He is proud with how he manages to capture the soft side of Taeyong hidden under his cold guy shell.

Yuta waits for the paint to dry, and while doing that he is now again, lying on the bedsheets of Taeyong’s room. The fresh linen once smelled like fresh laundry, the day when Yuta fell asleep. Today, it smells different. A slight hint of musk and mint, is this how Taeyong smells like? Did the painter across him sleeps on the same bed he is lying bare right now? If that’s true, this is hot.

Unlike Taeyong who shows his soft side to Yuta, through this painting course Taeyong realizes just how charismatic Yuta is behind his warm healing smile. The same guy who tosses hearty smile in public can hold an intense fiery gaze on sheets. Taeyong bites his lips as he runs his eyes one more time over his perfectly pliant muse. Yuta feels relaxed on that bed, and that makes Taeyong feels less guilty for asking Yuta to stay a bit more since he needs to finalize the tattoo and the details.

“Mind if I see that butterfly a bit closer again?” Taeyong excuses himself and bends to scrutinize over the complex lines.

Yuta holds his breath and hides his read ears, he can feel his face burning from embarrassment but Taeyong doesn’t seem to care. He even traces the lines to get the shape and returns behind his canvas.

What feels like eternity finally comes to an end and both heart secretly wish they have more time to enjoy the presence of the other, looking each other without being judged creepy, but everything has an end.

“And I’m done!” Taeyong sets aside his canvas to dry next to Yuta’s. They plan to add their names and signature later on tomorrow maybe to not ruin the colors.

“Do you want some drink?” Taeyong asks as he tosses Yuta a big teeshirt and his pants.

Yuta nods, “Let’s order some good food and have a bit fun tonight. This project is tiring, but I’m glad with my result.”

Taeyong scrolls his phone to order some foods and beers, he agrees with Yuta. This ending needs a celebration! As the two men sit on the dining table, chopsticks reaching over for foods and glasses being refiled with golden liquids, their heads slowly turn drowsy.

“I hate that this thing end actually…” Taeyong, who is a lighter head than Yuta has fallen to his drunk state, comments.

Yuta swears if he is sober right now, he will blush, but no. Now he is similarly under alcoholic control and he can’t seem to control his flirty side.

“Oh yeah? You like seeing me that much? My presence is enough to make you happy?” Yuta leans in closer and rests his chin elegantly on his right palm.

Taeyong furiously runs his hands over his face, “Gosh yes Yuta! You make me crazy! Being super hot on my bed with just one linen over you, not to mention I really want to bite that tattoo mark!”

Yuta giggles, drunk Taeyong is fun to play with. He bravely stands up and walks over to sit beside Taeyong. Daringly runs a hand over the tensed shoulder, “Guess you’re super tired already. You’re starting to speak nonsense.”

Although Yuta wants to hear more about Taeyong’s true feelings to him, he knows it is not polite of him to listen to Taeyong’s drunk rambles. What if Taeyong didn’t remember anything and it will make things awkward.

Taeyong pulls Yuta who is trying to walk away, and makes the blonde man falls into his lap.

“We’re both stubborn and our egos are too high. Fuck it, I’m gonna say this now.” Taeyong’s grip on Yuta’s slender waist tightens.

“I love you, I love you so much Yuta! It pains me every night to finish this painting without you in my room. I can finish it because I memorize your features, but it doesn’t feel the same when you’re here posing and breathing the same air with me.” Taeyong’s lower voice growls inside Yuta’s ear.

Yuta cannot think of anything else, rather than focusing on the glistening lips Taeyong has and it takes every ounce and angel in Yuta’s body to hold himself back from attacking that lips.

But the devil won tonight, and the blonde man sticks his lips into the red hair’s. Taeyong presses his neck deeper and lets Yuta takes control of the intense lips battle. No one is backing down, the two gods of the school have met and the opposite attractions have connected.

Just like North going South, butterflies looking for their flowers, and soulmates finding one another…

Taeyong finds Yuta and Yuta finds Taeyong.

Both separate souls finally become one, after years and years of waiting. Seasons of love months, and hours of portrait painting.

“I love you too, Lee Taeyong. And you drive me crazy.” Yuta breaks the kiss to whisper this right next to his lips and seals their bond back with a deeper meaningful kiss.

On the edge of the room, their painted portraits of each other glow under the moonlight.

 --

Epilogue

 “This is very nice! I mean Taeyong!!! I’ll definitely buy this at any price!” Yuta gasps and shakes his head when he sees the result Taeyong shows.

Taeyong shyly looks into his feet, after what they did last night somehow, he feels like he cannot see Yuta’s eyes this morning.

Yes both young men have woken up under the same blanket, bodies sticking to each other as the cold morning air tries to creep up their soft skins. Taeyong wakes up being under Yuta’s possessive strong arms and he knows he wants more of this in the future!

“I am not selling it.” Taeyong smirks.

Yuta’s face fell, “Not even to me?

He shakes his head, “No. I like that masterpiece I made.”

Yuta frowns and pouts, “Okay then… I am also not selling mine to you.”

Taeyong runs his eyes over the painting. He needs to admit, he didn’t expect Yuta to paint him that nice… but everything in that picture speaks a thousand words about Taeyong. Taeyong is dying to have that paint in his room too! But if this is how they’re going to do it…. Okay then no one will have their own portrait.

“Fine.”

“Okay, then when are you free?” Yuta suddenly asks

Taeyong sounds flustered, “Eh? Are you asking me out on a date?”

Yuta rolls his eyes and clicks his tongue, “I am booking you for a painting session. I need you to make my portrait but this time I will keep it in my room.”

Taeyong steals a kiss on his lips, “Wow, okay then the price is a portrait from you too.”

“Seriously guys? Infront of my salad?” a voice suddenly interrupts the two madly in love couple.

“Oh, sorry Ten, we forgot you’re there…” Yuta picks his tablet up and shows his face and Taeyong’s back on his screen.

This morning Ten video calls them wanting to see how their painting look like.

“Those are perfect. Why don’t you two live together and put them up in the same place. That way both of you can see it every day without actually selling it.” Ten rolls his eyes and grins.

The couple look into each other’s eyes and grin “That’s not a bad idea…”

“Okay I regret saying that, now go… Ew stop displaying affection in front of me.” Ten shakes his head and closes the call when the screen once again shows both of them sucking their faces off.

 end

    How is it?? cringe enough???

please give comments and inputs :”)) I really am looking forward for your opinion about the story 

Thank you for reading, sorry for the long post 

Have a nice day/ sweet dreams :*

xoxo

Cosmic

[kareofbears]

plainly in truth, chapter 2/5

“Without you around, it’s sorta like stuff is just kinda…bleh.“

—

Or: hiding, confiding, and misguiding.

read on ao3 or below the cut :)

Yusuke wasn’t too sure if what he was doing was of the right mind, but his heart is definitely in the right place.

There’s a lapse in time between Jails and hitting the road. Everyone is out soaking in the last of Sendai; Ryuji and Akira (and by extension, Sophia) are on a quest to buy any last minute supplies that they might need while the girls and Morgana are taking in the sights that they didn’t quite manage to explore as much as they’d like.

Well, the girls who like crowds and sightseeing are on a quest, at least.

Futaba and Yusuke are in the trailer by their own volition—he didn’t need to see anything else that wasn’t a timeless statue, and he learned early in his life that if you pace your spendings, you can then use that money to spend in the future. Quite the contrary, Futaba has had a little too much excitement these past few days and is more than happy to hide away in her top bunk with only her laptop charger peeking out from the bottom of her fleece blanket.

(A cartoon rendition of the Sendai temple is printed onto the fleece. Apparently Haru had yet to see Futaba purchase anything ‘tourist-y’ and action figures of various anime characters don’t seem to count.)

He tugs on her laptop cord. “Hello.”

“...What?” she grunts, voice slightly muffled. Through the thin fabric, he can see the illumination from her screen.

“I need help reacting to something.”

“And you decided to ask me?” she deadpans. “The literal shut-in?”

“The previous shut-in,” he corrects. “You haven’t been a shut-in in nearly a year. A marvelous feat, if I do say so myself.”

“Yeah, and this is my way of celebrating.” The lump on the bed seems to curl further in on itself. “Begone. Do a painting or something. This is my me time. The equivalent of guzzling down a boat load of Arginade. There’s barely any time to be by myself considering the whole group is treating this RV like a pimped out party bus, so shoo.”

J-pop starts playing from inside the blanket fort, and even Yusuke knows a dismissal when he hears one. That won’t stop him, though.

He tugs again, harder. “That is the reason I’m asking you now. I can’t have this be heard by prying ears.”

Had there been a cat on the bunk bed, its ears would have twitched. “Is this…?”

“Yes,” he nods sagely. “It’s a secret.”

Futaba’s head pops out, eyes wide and nearly glowing in excitement. If there was one thing that she liked more than recovering her energy, it's uncovering every nook and cranny of people’s lives, whether they want it or not.

“Inari, you should’ve said something!” She throws the blanket off herself, snatches her laptop in her arms and jumps down. Slamming it down on the booth, she throws herself on top of the smooth faux leather. “Tell me everything. The deets, the specs, all down to the last dirty drop of tea.”

He slides in to join her, albeit much slower. “Before you tell me that I misled you, I want to make it clear: I don’t know what the secret is.”

“What!” she slaps her forehead, groaning. “Yusuke, why would you do me like that? That’s false advertising to the max, and I do not appreciate you tricking me.”

“There wasn’t a trace of trickery. What I’m about to say really does have to do with a secret, but I need your help with how to deal with it.”

“I’m gonna level with you here pal,” she puts a hand on his wrist. “I’m not the right person for this, but I’d be darned if I let you walk away without telling me anything. So let’s hear it! I’m ready for some juicy goss. Oh! Can I guess? Is it about Haru?”

He frowns. “No. Is there something about Haru?”

“I don’t know, that’s why I was asking you!” she says, patting her hands rapidly on the table. “Come on, just spill the beans already.”

“There are no ‘beans’ to spill yet, and besides, that sounds like a waste of perfectly good food.” He leans back against the plush cushion. Only a pinch of guilt arises in him as he says it. “It’s about Ryuji.”

“Ooo, Skull himself. Gotta admit, I wasn’t expecting him.”

“It relieves me that you said that. I share the same sentiment—it wasn’t until I had run into him the night before when I had started to truly suspect something. And what I found was…” he trails off.

Her lips pull downwards. “That bad?”

“It was worrying, to say the least.”

She sighs. Most of the energy in her seemed to have filed out in the presence of a more serious topic. “Dang. I knew it was fishy when he left, but he’s always been able to just hash things out on his own.” Her expression changes as an idea pops into her head, and it morphs into one he recognizes. “Does���?”

“No. Akira doesn’t know, apparently.”

Futaba splutters, and he has to resist the urge to nod his head at her reaction. “He—Akira—wait, what? He doesn’t know? Oh, it must be bad bad.”

“My thoughts exactly. Initially, I had thought that whatever this was, it was manageable. Like that time he had spent his month’s allowance on a claw machine to win Makoto that light-up buchimaru.” Idly, he touches her keyboard lightly, appreciating the kaleidoscope of colors that emanate from it. “You know how I feel. We’re the Phantom Thieves; we can’t allow anyone to suffer alone, even if the one we’re helping is a Phantom Thief himself.”

Futaba raises an eyebrow. “And how do you want to help him?” she asks. “By talking to him? Let’s be real, you and I have the lowest social stat in this group. Combined, we can maybe reach the nerd student council president, and the guy who can and should handle this doesn’t even know about it!” Biting down on her lip, “Should we tell Akira?”

“Absolutely not. That was the one thing he had requested, and we cannot go against it. By extension, I don’t think we should tell anyone else.” A thought comes to him. “Wait, he mentioned that Ann knows of his situation.”

“Great! Someone who knows how to deal with people’s problems and isn’t us. What are we waiting for?” She reaches for her phone, and Yusuke proceeds to smack her hand out of the way. “Ow?”

“Don’t call her!” he hisses. “Ryuji said that she’s, and I quote, ‘part of the problem’. We can’t have her knowing that we know something.”

“Ann is?” Futaba exclaims, shoving her glasses up her nose. “This is getting too deep. We don’t even know anything yet, and it’s really starting to feel like we’re part of some conspiracy.”

“That’s right, we don’t know anything, and it is our largest road block.” Yusuke crosses his arms. “We don’t know what happened between Ryuji and Ann, or if something even occurred between Ryuji and Ann. What if they had an argument? What if they’re fighting, and it becomes irreparable between them? What if it begins affecting our Jail runs?”

“You really gave this some thought, huh?”

“But of course. I must nurture the few friends that I have managed to treasure.” He glances outside and sees the crowds clambering to see their tourist spot. “We may be different from most teenagers, but I don’t believe we’re immune to the nature of cliques or dramas or even insecurities.”

“God, what a good friend you are, it’s bugging me,” Futaba accuses. “So what the heck, Mr. Philanthropist? We’re stuck between a rock and our friend group here. This mission was doomed before you even dragged me out from my hideout,” she says, eyes drifting away to stare longingly back at her bunk bed.

“Stop making that expression. There’s a reason why I talked to you about this.” He leans forward. “What I’m asking is, to be frank, unfavorable, but I really do believe that it’s worth it to do this.”

She looks at him, and it only takes her a few seconds for realization to set in. Her jaw drops. “Oh Inari, that’s vile.”

“If you’re uncomfortable with it—”

“I didn’t say I was uncomfortable with it,” she cuts in. The grin on her face is wide; a woman in her element. “I just thought you’re the one who’d be all against this kind of thing.”

Futaba pulls her laptop towards her. “Sit back and observe the master at work.”

He watches as her fingers breeze through the keyboard, eyes inscrutable as light reflects off of her glasses. “So you can do it?”

“I’ve hacked into the Diet Building’s security cameras on a dare back when I was twelve,” she snorts. “This is Mario Kart Baby Park with the railings up.”

“I don’t know what that is.”

“It means—” With a flourish, she hits a key before glancing up at him, smug. “That this will be very easy. I’m thinking we can start with their text messages and work our way up to the big stuff.”

“Oh, right. You can go through our phones,” he grimaces. “You’ve stopped doing that, yes?”

“Of course I have! By the way, did you figure out what courses you wanted next term? I saw your advisor was bugging you about it, you should really email her back.”

“Yes, I’ve finally decided on sculpting as opposed to visual photography since it lets me focus on the anatomy of...” he pauses. “Wait—”

“Okay, looks like I got his text messages with Ann, so let’s all focus on this now!” she says loudly. “Scooch over, let’s go through ‘em.”

He does, and she moves to sit next to him. Yusuke peers at her screen. “Nothing out of the ordinary. There is a significant drop in the frequency of his replies, but that’s been the case for me as well.”

“Same here.” She continues scrolling up rapidly, so fast he wonders how she can keep up with herself. “Memes, memes, lots of ‘where you at’ texts, more memes…”

Something catches his eye. “Hold. Go down slightly, I think that link might be interesting.”

“‘How to treat knee pain: 11 steps with pictures’?” she reads aloud. “His knee is acting up again?”

“What’s peculiar is that I haven’t seen any sign of it.” He squints at Ryuji’s response to it—generic gratitude. “Even in Jails, he runs around without a care in the world.”

“What’s even weirder is that Ann is actually sending Ryuji wikihow links on how to treat his knee,” she snorts. “Let’s put a pin in this one and move on, Ann’s chat is chalking up to be a dead end.”

Rubbing her hands together, she straightens up like a professor in front of a lecture hall on the first day of classes. “Now Yusuke, when you’re looking to crack someone open like a tasty, moist omelette, there are two things that you must look into: their email and their bank account.”

After some clicking, Ryuji’s email pops up. “Email is obvious, since this pretty much tracks anything big. Delivery shipments, subscriptions to websites, acceptance letters. It’s all here in a neat little bow, ready for us to read.”

“‘Manga’s are 20% off for this weekend only,” he reads. “‘Anime convention next weekend’, ‘Pizza coupons’.”

“Ugh, he’s so boring! Next!” Clicking sounds through the RV, emphasizing how much they were snooping through their friend’s private life. “Bank account, show us your wisdom.”

“My word,” Yusuke gasps when the tab opens up. “That’s quite a lot of funds.”

“Inari, four thousand yen is definitely not a lot of money. How much do you have in yours?”

“I don’t have an account,” he admits. “I was on my way to the bank to open one, but I ran out of train fare. By the time I had gotten there, it was already closed. Quite rude, considering that it was only two o’clock.”

She levels him with a look. “Was it a Sunday when you did all this?”

“Why does that matter?”

“Never mind,” she shakes her head. “Okay, so nothing conclusive or even embarrassing. That means that whatever this is, he really doesn’t want anyone knowing about it.”

Futaba hops out of the booth and starts rummaging through everyone’s luggage. “That means we unlock the secret, classic, never goes out of style method of snooping—” with an expression of triumph, she showcases Ryuji’s backpack to him. “Going through their stuff IRL.”

Yusuke winces. “Don’t you think we might be going too far?”

“Hey, what’s with the cold feet? Where was your ‘justice’ from before?”

“I’m all for justice,” he watches her unzip the backpack, recoiling. “But even this seems a little excessive.”

“Look, we already went through his email, his bank account, his text messages. At this point, it’s kind of weird if we don’t find anything. Like—” she throws a pair of shorts behind her as she rummages. “What kind of teenage boy doesn’t have anything to hide? And also, it’d be kinda messed up to go through his stuff and come up empty-handed. If we didn’t find anything—” she pulls out several t-shirts and a crowbar and places them on the ground next to her. “Then we’d just be a bunch of snoops.”

“I suppose you’re right,” he reluctantly agrees. “Above all else, we need to find out what’s happened in his life to make him so upset.”

“Exactly. Oh man, wouldn’t it be crazy if we just found some porn mags or something? Retro to the max, but I can totally see him as the kind of guy to lug something like that along. Unless it’s of Akira.” She makes a face. “Ew. Funny thought is no longer funny.”

“Karma, if you will.”

“Shut it. Oh ho ho, what do we have here?”

“You found something?”

“It’s some fancy looking letter.” Futaba flops herself on the ground. She clears her throat. “'Sakamoto Ryuji. This letter is to inform you that…'” she stops all of a sudden.

“Futaba?” he probes.

“Um,” she blinks, and laughs nervously. “Um?”

He reaches over, and she doesn’t resist when it slips out of her hands. Skimming through the letter, only his eyes dare to move. When he finishes, he lets out a breath. “Oh no.”

“We shouldn't've read that,” she whispers, a perfect summation of what he was feeling. “We really should not have read that.”

—

There’s something to be said about the quayside in Sendai, in the way that it’s almost exactly like Tokyo.

Sure, the buildings here are definitely shorter—gone are the towering structures back home, and instead they’re replaced with shorter structures with cute local designs and colorful patio restaurants. The people here are different, too. Maybe it’s something to do with the water here, in how it’s cleaner and how you can actually see some fish down in the canals if you know where to look. Don’t even get him started in the air; jeez, do they infuse the oxygen here with something? He hasn’t stopped taking deep breaths ever since they got here.

But despite all of those discrepancies, the feeling of Akira’s hand in his is just like being home.

“And it’s actually really interesting,” he hears vaguely. “Because back in Leblanc, there used to be a couple issues about the temperature and stuff, but in my hometown there’s…Ryuji? Are you even listening to me?“

Akira’s telling him something. A story about Morgana? And Ryuji’s sure it’s very interesting, but he’s too focused on the way that sunlight hits his cheekbones.

“I’m listening,” he lies. “Keep going. This is just my listening face, I promise.”

“Sure, sure,” Akira agrees easily. “That’s just your listening face, rather than me and my wicked good looks, right? I totally believe you.” He wiggles his fingers. “Give.”

Ryuji offers him the caramel ice cream cone in his other hand, letting him bite into it like some kind of psychopath. “Done?” he asks, shifting the tote bag tucked into the crook of his elbow, careful not to rattle the eggs inside. Akira bravely offered to carry the groceries, but he had obviously refused.

“Mmm. That’s good stuff.”

“Right? I read about the ice cream here when I was younger, and they were really hyping it up on the ad.” He takes a lick, grinning when the taste hits his tongue. “And on a summer day like this? Unbeatable. It’s really reminding me of last summer when we hung out everyday in your room eating crap, taking naps, and playing games.” It also helped that hanging out with his crush was a daily thing, he thought.

“And I got to hangout with my crush a lot too, so that’s always a plus,” Akira adds.

Ryuji stops, and Akira turns around to give him a weird look. “What?”

“You get me,” he says in awe.

“I sure hope so,” he tugs him forward, and they continue their walk, their shoes rhythmically landing on the wood in unison. A comfortable silence takes over, but that’s no good. Ryuji wants to hear him talk.

“So imagine you get ten million yen,” he starts. “What do you do with it?”

It’s not the first time he’s asked this. They discuss it often, eagerly like the dreaming boys they both are. Akira considers it and Ryuji loves that about him. It doesn’t matter how stupid his questions are—he will always answer them with as if it were a serious question.

“For starters, Yusuke’s getting a place as soon as possible.”

“Duh,” he snorts. “Apparently, his roommate brought someone back to hook up with them. Poor guy got so traumatized he slept over at Haru’s.”

“We should be glad that he didn’t ask them for poses,” Akira laughs. “Next, I’m making sure that Sojiro has enough for retirement.”

“Obviously. Rest in peace Leblanc—you make fire coffee, but no one’s there to drink it.”

“And then I’m making sure your mom has the funds for retirement for sure.”

“I love you,” he sighs.

“I know.” Akira starts swinging their hands back and forth. “Then with the rest, I’ll buy us some new shoes for when we start training again together, and whatever’s left we can split it up with the rest of the Thieves and they can do what they want with it.”

“I bet Ann would go on a shopping spree in France,” he says.

“Haru would probably donate hers.”

“Makoto’s is going straight into university. I can see her going in to get a Masters with that kind of money.”

Ryuji refuses to let his expression fall. “That’s her. Big bookworm with a capital B.” Stop talking about this, stop talking about this. “How about you, Sophia? Any clue what you’ll do with a boatful of moolah?”

A harmonic beep rings through the air and Akira passes her over to him. “I would invest in cryptocurrency and turn ten million into one hundred million,” she says cheerfully. “Then I would take that hundred million and turn it into one billion yen.”

Ryuji coughs, sliding her into his back pocket. “You know what? That’s my bad. I should’ve expected that, honestly.”

Akira plucks the remainder of their ice cream cone from his hand and throws it in his mouth, munching. Wordlessly, he takes out a pack of wet-wipes from his pockets and hands it to Ryuji.

“Thanks.” Reluctantly dropping his hand, he thoroughly cleans through his sticky fingers. “You didn’t ask me what I was gonna do with my money.”

He nods in a go ahead way.

“After I give most of it to my mom, I was just gonna give the rest to you.” Ryuji kicks a stray pebble. It skirts off the edge of the boardwalk. There’s a tug on his arm. “Yeah?”

Akira covers his mouth with a hand, before making an incomprehensible garble of noise.

“Huh? My bad, I didn’t catch that.”

A few seconds of vigorous chewing, he swallows. “I said,” Akira says, eyes glimmering the way it does when he gets really excited. “I was going to do the exact same thing.”

“Dude!” Ryuji throws his arm around his shoulders, tugging him in close. “You understand me like no one else does. What the eff!”

“I’m glad,” he says softly. Wrapping his arm around him, Ryuji blinks at the unexpected hug. “It’s nice that we're on the same wavelength.”

Suspicion tingles across Ryuji’s skin. “Hold up.” Pulling away, he squints his eyes at him. “No.”

Akira immediately looks to the side. “What?” he says, defensive. “It’s nothing.”

“No freaking way.”

“I think I saw a cool arcade back there, it has cool prizes that I think you’d like, and—“

“Kurusu Akira,” he says sternly, grabbing his face between his hands. “Don’t tell me that you’re jealous.”

“I’m not!” he insists, pushing his glasses higher on his nose. “I’m not, you know I’m not that type of guy.”

“But?” Ryuji prompts.

“But…” he hesitates. “I’d be happy for you, if you find that it’s easier to talk to other people that aren’t me.” Akira straightens up, pulling out of Ryuji’s grasp but inspects his hand like it were something to be studied. How strange it was to see his long, elegant fingers grasp his brutish, blistered ones. “I’m relieved that I didn’t leave you alone. I just...miss being your go-to, I think.”

“Akira.” He says slowly. “My man. The love of my fucking life. You are never not gonna be my go-to. You’re my go-one.” Rapping his knuckles against Akira’s temple carefully, “Your hometown is messing with you up here, making you say weird shit like that.”

“I know, I know.” Running his index finger down his wrist, Ryuji can feel how cold he is. “You knew what you were getting into when you started dating an overthinker.”

“As a chronic underthinker, no, I did not.” He kisses Akira’s palm. “But it works out, so it’s all good.”

Turning them both around, Ryuji starts walking. “I know this is super duper impossible for a guy like you, but I’m gonna have to ask you for a favor.”

“Anything.”

“You have got, to the best of your ability,” he bumps into Akira’s shoulder. “Stop stressing out.”

He frowns. “It’s my job to stress out.”

“It’s our job to stress out,” he corrects. “You and me. Founding Thieves. We share the burden, bro. We got into this together, we’re getting out of it together. That includes you worrying about our relationship outside the ‘Verse, and extend it all the way to what dingy hometown you took the bullet train from.”

“I’ll try,” he says doubtfully. “You’re kind of enjoying this, aren’t you?”

“What do you mean? No way I can enjoy the most perfect person on the planet be a little jealous over his boyfriend getting attention, what kind of asshole would I be?” And before Akira can say anything, “I know, not jealous, but I’ll take what I can get.”

“I love you.”

“I know,” he flashes a peace sign.

“I know you know.” A group of middle schoolers pass them, chattering about nothing and pointing out random things on the quay, all enjoying their summer vacation. “You know that you can tell me anything, right?” he asks suddenly.

Unable to help himself, he ruffles Akira’s hair, pitch black and hot to the touch. “You don’t have to tell me twice.”

“I don’t?”

Gray eyes look into his brown ones, earnest and trusting. Just like that, the light feeling in Ryuji’s chest vanishes. “No,” he responds slowly. “You don’t.”

“Good,” Akira nods, and sees where they were heading towards. “Oh, you took that seriously?”

“You bet your crisp ass I did,” he says, pushing the glass door open. The arcade is bright, neon, and littered with claw machines. Add that to the list of similarities from Tokyo. “I don’t fuck around with arcades. I’m in the top hundred players in the Gun Gale in Shinjuku.”

“Was that with Shinya or without?”

“Not important.” He surveys the area. “There it is. Can you grab us some change? I’ll pay you back.”

Akira waves his hand, walking towards the coin machine. “Don’t. What kind of a boyfriend would I be if I let you pay for our dates?”

“A hot one!” he yells. When he turns the corner, Ryuji collapses into a bright red racing chair. “Fuck,” he hisses, heart beating too damn fast for it to be normal. “Chill out, Sakamoto, jesus.”

It only gets worse when a familiar beep rings out. “Ryuji, your heart rate is at 160. Is everything alright?”

“Sophia!” he wheezes out, relieved. “Can you—will—” he stops, scrunching his eyes closed. “I’m having a panic attack, I think.”

“Searching for how to treat panic attacks,” she says immediately, and he sags into the cool plastic gratefully. “Deep breaths will help, slowly to the count of ten.”

His heart is beating so hard that he can barely hear the jingles and the whirrs of the machines around him. “Count out loud. Hurry, before he gets back.”

She does, and he grips the side of the chair as he focuses on breathing. The attack passes by faster than he hoped it would. “Thank god,” he breathes. “Thank you.”

“No prob,” she says, before hesitating. “Akira—”

“Will not know about this,” he cuts her off, rubbing his hand over his face. “I’ll tell him eventually, don’t worry, et cetera. I know all this. Ann’s been hounding me non-freakin’-stop. Just don’t tell him, Soph. Please.”

Before she can say anything, Akira comes back, pockets full of change and that signature small smile resting on his lips.

—

The bright side about missing out on Sapporo’s snow festival is having its tourism as its lowest point when you visit it in the summer.

Even the shopping district just outside Susikino isn’t very crowded; there’s the usual street vendors and shops with bright pastries and cute clothes. But even having it right beside the Sapporo Tower, it’s still nothing uncomfortable. At least, it’s not uncomfortable when you get to observe the environment through a phone lens.

“This is nice, isn’t it? I don’t think I’ve had much of an opportunity to talk to you yet, which is quite rude of me.”

“No prob,” Sophia replies easily. She was swaying from Haru’s neck, hanging by a silicone phone holder that she had bought from a convenience store. Futaba had guffawed when she saw it, but Sophia’s happy about the purchase. It’s fun, and it lets her people watch from the perspective of one of her friends. “I have been meaning to talk to everyone one by one as to better understand each of you.”

“Oh, good! What better use of a nice chat while doing some shopping along the way?” Haru chirps, thumbing through a rack of out-of-season clearance sweaters as they pass. “I have to admit, I’m not the best when it comes to fashion and whatnot. Most of the time, I ask Ann-chan to accompany me.”

“I can try my best! Online websites are constantly updating in order to provide their readers with the newest trends.” Idly, she takes a peek. “Wide-legged pants are back in style.”

“That’s a relief,” she sighs. “I never pulled off skinny jeans too well. Long, flowy skirts have always been my thing. It just gives off such a nice aesthetic, doesn’t it?”

Sophia smiles. “I think you’d look good in anything. Have you considered going punk? You’d look very dope and intimidating with a black streak in your hair and a leather jacket.”

“Now that I can agree with, but that’s more Mako-chan’s style, I’m afraid.” She pauses. “Actually, I bet Mako-chan would actually like that. Sometimes I feel as though she isn’t willing to branch out of her circle of clothes past a pair of Oxfords and a deep-coloured sweater. A push might be what she needs.”

She considers this. “Is it possible to buy clothes for her? That can be a possible ‘push’, quote unquote.”

“Hmm, I don’t think so. She would never let us do such a thing.”

“One moment.” Pulling out a few files from inside her memory storage, she clears her throat. “According to my data analysis, Niijima Makoto has high difficulty straying away from well-mannered behaviours. Do you think that includes saying no to gifts given to her? That can be advantageous.”

Haru stops walking and pulls the phone up so that they’re at eye-level. “Sophia-chan,” she beams. “I have a feeling we’re going to be very good friends.”

They continue walking down the street when Haru gasps suddenly. “You literally can’t shop, can you?”

“Of course I can. I can get anything in the world for you,” she says proudly. “Anything.”

“Alright, we’ll have to test that later, but I mean you can’t use what you buy,” she frowns, eyes troubled. “Your sweater is adorable, but you’re forced to wear it everyday, right? Can you even do your hair differently? Is it possible for you to pin it, or even let it down?”

Sophia finds it endearing that she would let such a thing bother her. She doesn’t even have a social insurance number, but Haru’s worried about hair clips. “No, but I quite like it the way it is. It doesn’t get in the way when I do my work, and in the Metaverse, it gets completely hidden as to let me do my fighting,” she explains, karate chopping in her screen. “But I can understand the human desire for change.”

“Would you like that?” Haru asks gently. “To change? Um, change out of your clothes, and change mentally. Either one.”

“Change mentally, of course! I’d love to understand my friends better and understand how to help them. It’s a vast mountain of knowledge, but I’d want nothing more than to decode the mystery of the human heart,” she says eagerly. “But for clothes...I’m not sure. I haven’t tried it. I’m pretty sure I can’t try it.”

“That settles it,” Haru looks both ways before crossing the street, jogging slightly.

Sophia perks up. “If you’re heading somewhere specific, I can give you directions.”

“No need.” She has an intense, hungry look on her face, not unlike the one she had when the new axe Akira bought had finally arrived at their RV. “We’re just about here.”

They stop in front of a store, and she can barely read the sign from the phone’s angle. “‘Case in Point’?”

Haru pushes the glass door open, greeting the cashier. “It’s a phone modifier shop.”

There’s no effort to explain anything else, but Sophia can confidently add ‘anticipation’ onto her growing list of experienced feelings.

—

“Out of curiosity—” Haru begins as they exit the modifier store, the cashier still bug-eyed from the tip she had left at his counter. “Can you see everything inside Akira-kun’s phone?”

“Yes,” she replies. The environment that she lives in, and more specifically, Akira’s phone, is now a bright, perfectly polished shade of rose gold with a mint outline. A far cry from the matte black that it was before. “Why do you ask?”

“No reason.” Her voice is sweet as sugar. “Out of curiosity once again, is there anything interesting? Anything worth noting?”

She jumps as Sophia’s voice suddenly morphs into Akira’s without warning. “Nice try,” the phone plays. “But no.”

And just as quick, Sophia comes back to the phone. “Sorry about leaving,” she says. “Akira had asked me to play that clip if someone ever, and I quote, ‘tried me.’”

Haru giggles. “Just like Akira-kun to be so thorough. Impressive as always, leader.” She peers down at her watch. “I suppose it’s about time to head back, isn’t it?”

“We still have eight minutes to spare.”

“We do. Perhaps we should take a stroll around the park?”

“Cool,” she says. “Wanna ask Futaba and Yusuke if they want to come with?”

“Sure?” Haru blinks. “That’s very specific.”

“On your two o’clock,” she points out. “In front of the book store.”

They watch as Futaba and Yusuke stand across the street from them. Futaba is aggressively pointing her finger at the books on display, then slapping her fist against her palm like she was devising a war strategy. Yusuke shakes his head wildly, comically putting his hands in his pockets and revealing that there was nothing inside. She sighs and walks away, tugging along a dejected boy behind her.

“Aren’t you going to ask them?”

“In a moment.” Haru takes them to the front of the store. “This isn’t a bookstore, I don’t think. What’s it called Sophia?”

After a quick search: “‘Sapporo’s School Supply Store’,” she says. “The alliteration makes it fun to say.”

“Indeed it does.” Peering into the store, Haru makes an introspective noise. “Now isn’t this interesting?” she hums. “Do you mind if I make one more purchase?”

“Not at all,” Sophia says, thrilled to add another point she had learned: If Haru wants something, there’s nothing that will get in her way.

—

“So,” Makoto starts, and Ryuji has to hold back a groan. He knows that tone. He’s memorized that tone. All the second years can feel her tone from a mile away. Hell, Ann probably took an instinctive step back just now. “Have you started to think about university?”

“Nope,” he says, wiping the sweat off his brow as they jog around the corner of Odori park. Back before he had left for his hometown, Akira and Ryuji would be up at dawn to train. Lately though, he’s been using any free time he has that isn’t planning for, prepping for, or actively doing a Jail run to sleep in the RV. And hey, he has no beef with Makoto, and it’s not like she can’t keep up with his training (she can most definitely kick his ass in hand-to hand), but she has a tendency to push when it comes to this sort of stuff. “Not a single thought towards it. It’s been pretty good, actually.”

“I can tell,” she agrees. “It’s almost like you blocked my number.”

“I did not!”

“So you actively choose not to answer any of my texts?”

“Ugh, don’t set me up like that,” he winces. “You know I’m stupid enough to fall for shit like that everytime.”

“Hold on.”

Ryuji grunts as he feels a hold on his shirt, forcing him to stop. “Ew, don’t touch my back, it’s Nigeria there.”

“First of all, it’s Niagara.” She spins him around. He’s only a little taller than her, but something about her always seems to tower over him. “Second, do you know why I keep pushing all of you to go to university?”

“Because you hate us?” he mumbles.

Makoto glares at him. “Try again.”

“...Because you don’t hate us?”

“Because I don’t hate you,” she repeats. “You’re all rowdy and wild and sometimes I don’t understand the jokes you make—”

“You’re just mad ‘cause you fell for a deez nuts joke.”

“But I do, inexplicably, love all of you,” she pushes on, and that shuts him up. “I know what you’re all capable of. Amazing things! I understand you all believe that I’m the be-all end-all, and I appreciate your compliments, but there are some things that only Ann can do, or Akira, or Yusuke.”

Makoto continues running, and he reluctantly follows suit. “And you. You can achieve things that I can’t even dream of, Ryuji.”

He resists the urge to yawn. “Thanks for the pep talk, Niijima.” Looking left, the gelato is looking real good. “Wanna get something to eat? I’m starving.”

“You aren’t very good at hiding secrets, Ryuji.”

Now that grabbed his attention. “Whoa, whoa, whoa there, prez!” Speeding past her, he holds out a hand to make her stop. “What do you mean by that?”

She raises a brow. “Nothing in particular, but your reaction is showing me that I should have meant something by it.”

He gnaws on the inside of his cheek roughly. “Okay, but why did that come into your brain? Why do you think I have some kinda secret?”

“I live with a prosecutor everyday of my life, of course I know when something’s afoot.” Pushing her hair back, she squints up at him. “You’ve been more...jumpy lately, yet somehow more laid-back than usual. I wanted to talk to Akira about this—”

Blood pours into his mouth when he accidentally bites too hard. “You talked to Akira?!” he half yells, red dribbling from the corner of his lips.

“Oh my god!”

“Fuck,” he clamps a hand over his mouth. “Sorry. Bit too hard.”

“N-no! Don’t apologize!” she reaches into her pocket and pulls out a napkin, pulling him to a stone ledge. “Sit and take this so you don’t bleed all over yourself. I’ll be back.”

He doesn’t bother speaking, only nods as she turns around. When she comes back, she’s holding a water bottle. “Here.”

Taking it gratefully, he takes deep gulps before spitting it out. “Why the hell does this taste like the beach?” he splutters.

“I didn’t say to drink it! It’s salt water to get rid of infections!”

“Why would you do that to me?!”

“Because I thought you knew to do that from the second-year health class!” she shoots back. “Gargle it and spit. Near the gutter, mind you, it’s rude to spit in front of kids. They might get the wrong idea.”

As if kids are gonna see him and think that there’s something worth remembering. He sips, sloshing it around his mouth before gently letting it dribble into the grated sewer. “Blegh.”

“You’re welcome. Keep at it. And while you’re doing that,” she sits next to him, shoulder to shoulder. “Do you want to tell me what’s been making you anxious?”

He pauses. “Anxious?”

Makoto gives him a stern look. “‘Experiencing worry, unease, or nervousness, typically about an imminent event or something with an uncertain outcome.’ It was covered in your midterm.”

“Ah, right,” he mutters. Gripping the fabric of his shirt, his heart is beating too quick for it to be normal. Then again, when was the last time it wasn't? “You think I’m anxious?”

“I’m not sure. Keep gurgling,” Makoto chides.

He does, the salt water still red whenever he spat, and she continues. “All I know is when my anxiety gets really bad, I chew on my lip. Sae used to chide me when we were younger, but you know, she got busy,” she shrugs, as if he didn’t know how much it pained her to lose her only family member to a career of protecting the wrong people. “When I mentioned it to Akira, he took it upon himself to check up on me regularly during exam weeks.”

To prove her point, she takes her lower lip and flips it out for him to see—white teeth marks, but old scars instead of anything fresh. Letting go, her expression is smug. “He hasn’t felt the need to check in for a while now.”

Spitting, water finally running clear, he grins. “Good for you. I’m glad to hear that, dude.”

“Thank you, but that wasn’t the point. My point was that I was only able to get better because I told someone about it. Someone I trusted.” Makoto turns to him, her gaze serious. “I know that’s what Akira is to you. Habits like these are harmless at first, but they can turn into something else more dangerous. I won’t stand for that. My own justice won’t stand for that.”

Ryuji opens his mouth, before closing it. I’ll tell Akira, he wants to say. How many times does he have to repeat that line before he starts believing it himself? “Okay,” he says, because it’s the only thing he can say without hating himself even more.

“Okay.” She pats his knee before standing. “I can get us some gelato.” She stretches, wincing as her joints crack into place. “If you’re feeling up to it, start your cool down. Unless you wanna keep training?”

“I’m good. Felt enough blood rush for the day.”

She goes to the ice cream stand, and he stares up at the blue sky.

Makoto’s right, because of fucking course she is. She’s right, he knows she’s right. But she doesn’t get it. To her, Akira’s a friend. A guy who helped her out and changed her life, yeah. If he hadn’t met her when she did, maybe she would’ve become a scummy adult who didn’t look up from market pricing and hedge funds.

But Ryuji? Ryuji would be dead without Akira. That’s a fact and a half.

To Makoto, Akira’s a friend. To Ryuji, he’s Akira, and you can’t be on a higher pedestal in his mind than that.

—

It was Yusuke who took the first step.

“Ann,” he greets cordially. “How do you do?”

She gives him a weird look. “Kinda trying to focus here,” she says, gesturing at the scene in front of them. They, Morgana, and Sophia were in the B team as they watched the rest of them try and get rid of the remaining Shadows in Mariko’s Jail, tersely attentive and waiting on Joker’s word in case they needed a last minute switch. The Jail was environmentally brutal; the ice underneath the soles of their shoes makes them skid more often than they’d like. It almost makes the fights seem quicker, one notch faster than usual.

Yusuke pays her dismissal no mind. “I, myself, am learning many new things lately. Can the same be said about you?”

In the corner of his eye, Futaba pauses typing on her laptop to face palm.

“Are you...” Ann says after a brief pause. “Is this a threat? Are you threatening me?”

“No—”

“Panther!” Akira’s clear voice rings out.

Ann dashes forward without question, high-fiving Morgana as they trade spots.

Futaba marches forward, glaring at Yusuke like he was crazy. “You dolt!” she hisses. “What was that supposed to be? I said be slick and cool, not act like a fool!”

“While I admire the rhyme scheme, I don’t understand what you want from me. That was as ‘slick and cool’ as I’m capable of,” he furrows his brow. “I even opened with a question that seemed as though the conversation would be a normal one, but then used that to transition into what I actually wanted to discuss.”

“Stop looking so proud of yourself and—”

“Fox!”

“Back in a moment,” he says before he’s gone, Makoto taking his place, leather uniform still smoldering from when she took a fire move head-on.

“What was that about?” Haru asks, swinging her axe like a picnic basket.

“Nothing, Noir,” Futaba sighs, plopping back into place where Ann had stood. Carmen had kindly left a warm patch of concrete in her wake. “Just Inari became a big ole’ dumb-dumb.”

“I see,” she hums. “So this has nothing to do with what you two have been conspiring about lately?”

Her eyes shot wide open. “Con...conspiring?” she stutters out. “What do you mean by—”

A particularly loud scream rips into the air, and everyone turns their heads to see Captain Kidd slam his hook into the ground, purple arms erupting from the snow and wiping out a huge chunk of Shadows all in one go.

“Hot damn,” Futaba says, directing her focus back to her laptop and making sure Ryuji has enough health to keep going.

“He’s strong,” Haru observes, all playfulness gone.

“Too strong.” After Futaba gives everyone on the main team a good amount of health, something on her screen makes her pause. “Huh…?”

“Noir.”

Haru turns around to see Makoto waiting for her. “I need to discuss something with you.”

“Of course,” she steps closer to her and drops her voice. “Is everything alright?”

“I’d bring this up with Joker, but I don’t want to bother him if I’m not sure if there’s anything wrong yet,” Makoto pushes her mask up. “But have you noticed Skull's been acting strange lately?”

“Mona!”

He swaps with Ann, her pigtails covered in snow. “Ugh,” she grimaces as she shakes it out. “I could try and melt it, but it’ll just drip down my back and freeze later on, and I do not want that.”

“Panther, I’d like your input as well, if you don’t mind,” Makoto says.

“Sure. What’s up?”

“I was just talking to Noir about this, but did you notice anything strange about the way Skull’s acting lately?”

Ann takes a step back. “Well, what—No—I mean, that’s your opinion, I think!” she exclaims. “To me, Skull's acting is completely normal. He’s normal—actually, scratch that, he’s better than usual. Nothing about him is wrong, I think, and that’s pretty outstanding and impressive once you consider that he’s the one with the life-long injury. Not that that has to do with anything!” Ann yells. “I just wanted to point out how far he’s come, and how much he’s kicking ass right now. Actually,” her voice shifts to a stage whisper. “Don’t mention this because I don’t wanna cause drama, but Fox has been a little weird.”

“Weird how?” Makoto whispers back, looking extremely lost.

“Just earlier, he asked me how I was.”

“...I’m not following.”

“No, Panther-chan has a point,” Haru breaks in. “I can’t say for certain, but I have a strong feeling that Fox and—” she points at Futaba conspicuously. “Are up to something.”

“Sophie and Fox?” Ann breathes.

“Panther!”

“Damn, again? That’s what we get for going into an ice Jail,” she grumbles, swapping with Yusuke.

Haru sighs. “Panther-chan isn’t the best with context clues, is she?”

“Hello ladies,” Yusuke greets. “What were we discussing?”

Makoto gives him a suspicious look. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”

His jaw drops, bewildered, but before he can say anything, Futaba waves him over. “Get your fox butt over here!”

“I...Alright,” he says, resigned.

“Look at them,” Makoto nods at the pair. “I think you’re onto something.”

“I think so too, but I don’t want to be too hasty. After all, the two of them are such good friends now; it would be unfair to assume negative outcomes without evidence, or at least confront them first,” Haru says nonchalantly.

She understands immediately. “You have evidence?”

“Something of the sort.”

“Noir!”

“Duty calls,” she gives her a thumbs up, before Ann comes back once again.

“I can’t wait for us to go to a really hot place again,” she kicks the snow with her heels. “Then I’ll be comfortably in the B team because all the Shadows have fire resistance to the max.”

“Oh good, she’s back,” Yusuke’s expression is one of relief.

“Fox—” Futaba warns without looking up from her laptop.

“Come here. There is something we would like to discuss with you.” Whether or not it was intentional, he rests his hand on the handle of his katana.

“Okay but before we start, I just wanna ask—what are you doing with Sophie?” Ann accuses. “It’s fine to be friends with her, but you have to be careful. She’s really susceptible to what we say right now, and if you try anything funny—”

“What are you even saying?” he says, offended. “I barely even talk to her!”

They all glance at Sophia, who had been standing perfectly still and silent. She gives them a wave. They all awkwardly wave back.

Makoto places a hand on Ann’s shoulder. “Panther, Noir meant Fox and Oracle.” Ann flushes red as she continues. “And while we’re all here, I wanted to bring this up with you as well. Have you all noticed something strange with Skull?” Futaba stops typing. “I’m not sure how to explain it, but I think he’s extremely anxious about something. You all know that I’m an overthinker, so I might have the wrong idea but…” she trails off.

Futaba glances at Yusuke. Yusuke glances at Ann. Ann helplessly glances at Ryuji, still fighting alongside Akira and the others.

“I know nobody asked me,” they all jump a foot in the air when Sophia speaks beside them. “But I can at least confirm for suresies that there is something strange with Skull.”

“Which is…?” Makoto prods.

“I don’t know the specifics.” Ann, Yusuke, and Futaba let out a breath. “But he did have a panic attack recently.”

“I knew it!” Makoto snaps her fingers. “He’s had signs of being anxious, but I wasn’t too sure about it.”

“Queen!”

She runs out, and Ryuji comes in, looking exhausted but pleased. “Hey y’all, what were we talking about?”

It was dead silent before Sophia steps forward. “Look what I can do!” she exclaims, changing the expression on her screen to be an emoji with a flower.

“Whoa!” His eyes bug out, and they all sigh in relief. “That’s awesome! Can you do more?”

“That’s super cool Sophie, but,” Futaba looks at Ryuji, skeptical. “Don’t you feel weak right now? Your health is way down.”

“Oh, I didn’t even notice,” he rubs the back of his neck. “Sophie, you mind?”

“Not at all.” She calls for Pithos and green sparkles fall on him. “Better?”

“Thanks, I owe you one.”

“Skull!”

“When the king calls, his knight answers,” he salutes, sprinting out as Makoto comes back in.

“So,” she glares at the rest of them. “What do the rest of you know?”

Ann groans. “Even if I did know something, I probably wouldn’t be able to tell you.”

“Wait,” Futaba points an accusing finger at her. “What do you know?”

“What do I know? What do you know? And for that matter, what does he,” Ann points at Yusuke. “Know? Noir said you guys are doing secret stuff together!”

“That’s preposterous,” he scoffs. “If it was secret, she wouldn’t have known.”

“That’s the dumbest argument I’ve ever heard.”

“How is it dumb?” he asks. “You can’t possibly think that just because Futaba and I are doing ‘secret stuff’ that it has anything to do with Skull’s situation!”

There was a pause. “Are those two connected?” Sophia asks. Futaba buries her face in her hands.

“That was...not the question I expected,” Yusuke answers weakly.

“Sophie!”

“God, I wish Joker would call for Inari instead,” Futaba groans.

Rushing out, Sophia high-fives Ryuji on the way. “Guess who’s back, motherfuckers?”

In an effort to bury their conversation, they all begin cheering overenthusiastically, Yusuke clapping politely. Bewildered, Ryuji instinctively gives them a thumbs up. “Thanks guys. Usually, my jokes don’t really land, but that made me real happy.”

“Uh, Skull,” Futaba raises an eyebrow. “How do you keep losing health? I didn’t even notice you taking a hit.”

“I’m low again? Damn, I didn’t even notice,” he groans loudly. “Queen, can you—”

“I’m on it.”

Just as Johanna heals him, Akira calls out once again: “Skull!”

“Joker really does rely on you, doesn’t he?” Yusuke observes.

Ryuji laughs. If they didn’t know any better, they would think it sounded a little nervous. “Well, gotta jet!”

High-fiving Makoto, he runs out. She stares at the remaining members of the B team. “You all know something,” she accuses. “And I understand if you’re all being loyal to him by keeping what you know close to your hearts. But remember this:” she takes a step forward, and they all take an unconscious step back, Futaba scooting from where she sat on the ground. “There comes a point where it’s actually more important to keep a person safe and healthy than to uphold a potentially dangerous secret.”

They all digest her words for a second, and flinch when a flash of blue flame appears, taking Akira’s Persona away.

“Finally.” He stretches his shoulders, satisfied. “That took awhile. Good work everyone, let’s keep going.”

Making their trek deeper into the Jail, Futaba half-jogs, half-speed walks to Ryuji. “Your health again,” she chides. “Seriously. I know I like to play around, but I always have my eye on you guys when you’re fighting. I literally have not seen you take a hit, but you’re getting drained like milk in a sink.”

He shrugs, unperturbed. “Whatever. You see my hits today, though? They were tough.”

“Yeah,” she agrees reluctantly. “But your health is still low. I’ll call Joker about that.”

Before she can turn, he grabs her wrist. “Nope,” he says. “I’ll ask Panther. Thanks though!”

Ryuji goes to Ann, and he can feel everyone’s eyes on him, watching him, surveying his every move.

All eyes except for the one that really matters.

[dharc16]

10 WAYS TO CELEBRATE THE AUTUMN EQUINOX

The Autumnal Equinox is the time of year when daylight and nighttime are equal. After the Autumnal Equinox, the darkness will begin to win the battle, gaining an extra minute or so every day as we progress towards winter. Now is the time when nature begins to slow and the harvests become less plentiful. Though the autumn equinox can arrive as early as September 20th or 21st depending on solar patterns, this year it falls on September 22nd. So get ready to celebrate!

Like most Sabbats that are celebrated later in the year, the autumn equinox is about reflection and letting go of that which does not serve us any longer. It's a chance to slough off the old and prepare for rest. We clean out that which piled up during the business of summer and store up that which we will need for our winter rest. The colors of the Autumn Equinox are just as rich and warming as the colors of autumn—deep crimson, vibrant orange, lustrous gold, and earthy brown. If you're planning a feast, make sure to include all the fall bounties as well as late summer fruits and vegetables. Pumpkin, squash, berries, nuts, and corn are all fantastic inclusions. Looking for specific ideas on how to celebrate the Autumn Equinox without costing a mint? You've come to the right place! Here are 10 wonderful ways to celebrate for free or for little cost!

MAKE POPCORN

What's more cozy than snuggling under a blanket with a big bowl of buttered popcorn? Of course, you could always watch a movie, but why not take your treat outside to watch nature instead? Inhale that fragrant autumn air. Really take a few moments to appreciate the breathtaking hues of the trees. Watch the birds and squirrels as they prepare for winter. Simply take in the magnificence of the season. And if you're in a generous mood, leave a few un-buttered pieces of popcorn for the critters.

BALANCE YOUR CHAKRAS 

The Autumn Equinox is a time to find balance in your life. But while we tend to immediately think of time constraints as a place to find balance (work versus family time, family time versus self-care), when was the last time you balanced your spiritual centers?If you're not familiar, chakras are points of energy on the body that have spiritual as well as physical impact. When they are balanced, life is good. When they are imbalanced, we have unwanted manifestations, such as illness and financial troubles. The good news is balancing them is as simple as taking a few minutes for visualization! Like any visualization, chakra balancing gets easier with practice, so don't feel discouraged if you have trouble focusing during your first go around or two. A nice, simple chakra meditation can be found on YouTube. Get a blanket, find a quiet spot under a tree, and take some time to balance your chakras this Mabon! You'll be glad you did. Bonus points if you plant your feet in the soil and get your earthing on!

HAVE A PUMPKIN SPICE LATTE

Admittedly, this suggestion is a little self-benefiting. But what's autumn without a warm drink laced with cinnamon and nutmeg? You can certainly buy one at your favorite coffee shop, but why not make one? I'm betting you already have the ingredients on hand. Take the time to really savor the process. Inhale the nutty aroma of the coffee before you brew it. Watch as the creamer turns your drink into a rich caramel color. Savor the first sip without scarfing down the entire drink. Life is a lot more pleasurable when we take time to relish the things we enjoy. Sit outside with your homemade brew, breathe deep inhalations of that luscious autumn air, and simply BE.

FOCUS ON GRATITUDE AND THANKSGIVING

With Autumn Equinox being a time of reflection and balance, what better way to celebrate than to make a list for all that you are thankful for? Take a notebook to the park and make a list of everything you appreciate—from big things, like your family or health, to small things, like hot cocoa and fuzzy slipper socks. Feeling crafty? Make a gratitude tree! Simply find a funky fallen twig that has lots of little branchy offshoots to hold your leaves. Place the twig (or twigs) in a pot of stones so it's standing upright, like a miniature dead tree. Collect fallen leaves or cut your own from construction paper. Write something you're grateful for on each leaf. Tape on a loop of string or thread, and hang the leaves from your twig! Beauty and function— my favorite!And remember, crafts don't need to be limited to children. Our children are grown and gone, yet we make a gratitude tree every year for Thanksgiving by adding one leaf a day for each day in November leading up to the big feast! Festiveness isn't just reserved for those too young to drive. Embrace life! Live it with all you've got! And don't forget to be grateful!

BRING IN SOME NATURE 

If you're anything like me, you're just itching to get something decorative in your home this fall. We don't really get in to decorating for Halloween with ghosts and goblins because we don't celebrate the way that most people in America do. We celebrate it the Christian way, not the pagan way. Why not take a nature walk and collect whatever beautiful, natural treasures you stumble upon? Colored leaves. Acorns. Gnarled twigs. Pine cones. Cool rocks. Bring a bag and collect whatever catches your eye. Arrange it on a table or counter top when you get home, throw in a candle or two (maybe gold and red) and you've got yourself an instant natural Mabon altar! You can even leave your natural masterpiece up for a few weeks as a spectacular (and FREE!) fall decoration!

WELCOME IN THE DARKNESS 

As the sun sets on the Autumn Equinox, we welcome in the darkness of the coming season. Grab a blanket, some lawn chairs, and allow yourself to be fully in the moment as the sun sets this equinox. Once the orange globe has dipped below the horizon, breathe in the darkness of fall and honor the tranquil introspection this season inspires. With tea, of course!

BRING ON THE COZY 

Having spent most of my life in Texas, what I miss most about autumn is the coziness. Soft sweaters. Knitted throws. Hot drinks. Crisp morning air. Chilly noses on rainy days. Envelop yourself in the coziness of autumn, even if, like here in Texas, you are still running the air conditioner and suffering in 90 degree weather. Whether that means decorating your home in autumnal flare, lighting a pumpkin-spice candle, or baking a cinnamon-scented apple pie, do something special that puts you in that autumn state of mind.

TAKE IT IN

The best part of autumn is undoubtedly the simplicity. Life seems to slow down just a little, following the graceful dance of nature herself. Take the time to slowdown alongside her. Treat yourself to a pumpkin latte, head over to your favorite park or even your own backyard, and just exist. Watch the passersby as you sip your drink. Observe the colors of autumn, the slight crisp that's beginning to blossom in the air, the chatter of birds as they prepare for winter. Breathe deep. Slow your mind. Just exist. It's something we don't do often enough, but fall is most definitely the time for it!

FIND BALANCE

 Whether autumnal or vernal, equinoxes are the perfect opportunity to find balance, just like nature! If you've been doing a little too much of anything—eating, working, worrying, whatever!—now is the time to take a step back and evaluate how to change your behavior in favor of a more healthy approach. Remember, anything in excess is damaging. Even drinking too much water will kill you.I know! Crazy, right?!If you find it difficult to disconnect from work. If your vice is copious amounts of sugar. If exercise has become obsessive. If spending has exceeded income, take the time to make positive changes. NOT to belittle and berate yourself. NOT to feel guilty and swim among the self-loathing waters. Objectively look at the situation, find a reasonable solution, and make changes. Shame doesn't fix the problem. It's a warning bell that alerts us to the need for change. Nothing more. Take a deep breath of that fresh autumn air and start again. You've got this!

CINNAMON FLAMES

Autumn seems to bring out the craving for bonfires and campfires. If you're lighting one up this Autumn Equinox, toss in a couple of cinnamon sticks for good luck in the coming season. Plus your backyard will smell heavenly!

Whether you use this time to reflect or to indulge, I hope you have a spectacular Autumn Equinox celebration filled with love, coziness, and an extra dash of magic! BLESSED BE!

[gothamopossum]

Fashion Rant: Alastor Edition

There are two characters that I find the most visually grating: Alastor and Vox (they can fight over who wins first place). But this rant is all about Alastor, as asked for by @ckret2

I love the characters, don’t get me wrong. But a rant is a rant. To preface this entire spiel, it’s worth noting that not all things that look good in real life look good in animation (and vice versa). Usually, though, the disparity between their visual appeal across both mediums isn’t that large. BUT THIS. It’s already hanging on by a thread in the cartoon. I cannot for the life of me imagine this ever existing in real life AND looking good.

I will try to break his outfit down and format it so that this is all easier to understand. Fair warning: in total, this is about 1400 words roasting our beloved demon.

Overall Issues

The Fit: Suits from the 1900s and the next several decades are looser and cut a boxier figure (I’m talking American fashion, specifically). I find fit just as, if not more indicative of time period compared to a lot of other key visual indicators (which can sometimes be shared by decades far apart)

The Color: I think we can all agree he’s too red. Too much red. I love the color red but damn. As elaborate suits were at the time, suits in that color family were closer to a duller red/maroon, with the brighter reds either being in the tie, pocket square, boutonniere, or other accessories. Borderline monochromatic suits also weren’t in vogue. More colors meant a more elaborate look, and a more elaborate look meant you were fashionable.

Too many fabric/color changes within the same garment (I’ll get into this in a later)

Lack of accessories: Although much of this is down to personal preference, the general vibe was that you had at least some bling on you.

I will say, however, that despite the excessive use of pinstripes in other characters, the one character they are bang on for is Alastor. Pinstripes were incredibly fashionable starting the 20s and I think tapered off somewhere in the 50s.

Specific Elements

The Collar & Coat

I’ll start with the collar. I’m treating this as a separate entity since I can’t surely say if it’s a part of the coat OR the shirt.

There are two options: Either his shirt has a bright red body that transitions into a dark red standing collar, or (this one is more likely) the coat closes up again at the neck, meaning there are two useless flaps of stiff fabric masquerading as lapels at chest height.

From the perspective of garment construction, lapels are meant to support and decorate the suit at the neck opening. The presence of ANOTHER method of jacket closure much higher up the neck make the lapels redundant and confusing, not to mention the fact that they’re in an entirely different fabric/color.

So to me, not only is this nothing but a glorified, decorated boob window (watch out, Angel Dust). But also a pointless one since we don’t even see his chest, but instead that thing, that shirt underneath.

The tattered ends of his coat seem to be a matter of choice since they don’t appear on any other character. So either the coat is incredibly old and it hasn’t been repaired due to possible sentimental value, or this is some thinly veiled nod to something we don’t know yet. The tattered bits, on top of the rest of his coat, are a lot.

The Cuffs

I thought at first that the bright red bits on the coat were the ends of the shirt, but then I found this reference image showing a smaller black cuff on his left hand and none on the right.

That means 3 things:

That the Ugly Shirt changes color AGAIN (from red to black) at the cuff (Why????)

That the jacket changes color and/or fabric at the cuff (WHY????????????. This makes me want to set them on fire. I can’t even find an example of a suit jacket changing color just at the cuff. That’s how bad it is. Even bad clothing designers in real life know NOT to do it. It makes your arm look shorter than it actually is); and

That the shirt cuff migrates to and fro, sometimes hiding under the jacket and sometimes showing, which is borderline a sin in menswear. Any tailor worth their salt keeps the cuff of the shirt showing regardless of the arm position of the person wearing the suit (conventionally by about ¼” past the jacket cuff at resting position, if my knowledge serves me correctly). Just imagine a guy in real life without the shirt cuff showing past the jacket – in some way he looks nakey.

So, a summary of the Hideous Coat: has two different closures (a standing collar AND separate lapels), a boob window, is made up of FOUR different fabrics (pinstripe body, plain red sleeves & collar, dark lapels, and bright cuffs), and a tattered hem.

A side note: Because I see people drawing men in suits with a lot of folds in it. A suit, since it’s conception, has always been meant to cut a dignified and elegant figure. Unless it’s made of light fabrics usually used in summer suits, like silk or linen, THAT MANY folds just means the suit is incredibly poorly made. (especially when you see the sleeve twist. That is the worst offender. Why waste gasoline when you can use that suit jacket to start the fire instead).

The Shirt

Several people have already mentioned this, but the shirt is UNtucked (I concur – unacceptable), has this cross emblazoned on the front, has said cross end in the middle of the shirt, and, as we have now established, changes color at the cuff. Now, differently colored shirt cuffs do work. But the only good examples that I know of are a more colorful shirt body (usually a pale pastel or another soft color), and white cuffs (sometimes with the matching white collar). Graphic elements in menswear like the cross also didn't really exist on garments until about the 50s/60s, but even then not on dress shirts, just sweaters and cardigans.

I saw someone mention the use of a dickey – which only works if Alastor has some sort of vest or waistcoat involved. But since we don’t see any indication of a vest, I’m just going to assume that the bits we see exposed are all parts of one shirt. *shudder*

All things considered, I think that the Ugly Shirt is definitely the lesser offender of Alastor’s Hot Mess Outfit compared to the Hideous Coat. I say lesser offender because if you tuck this shirt in and add a couple accessories, then immediately it’s already not the worst thing you’ve seen on this planet. That coat is a different story.

The Pants

His pants should be tapered at the ankle, not flared out. However, a loose pant leg of approximately the same circumference all the way down would also be acceptable.

On to the accessories

Monocle: its presence I don’t have as much of a problem with as I do its color. The metal bits I find are hard to see against the dark bits of his hair (not to mention that shinier metallics were more of a norm then compared to the duller finish we see on Al’s monocle). But also WHY would it be tinted?????? Hell already seems red as fuck. WHY do you need a red tinted monocle????

Bowtie: WHY is the knot a different color????????? Hand tied (hell, even pre-tied) bowties are made of ONE fabric all the way. Unless this is one of those artisan clip on bowties using feathers or other unconventional materials (but it doesn’t look like it).

Gloves: The closest thing I can think of for these gloves are modern driving gloves. Driving gloves have holes along the knuckles that either show skin or a different fabric. (However, driving/men’s gloves back then didn’t even look like that. Just short, solid leather gloves with seams on the back of the hand). I have no excuse for the tips. To me they look like those tips you have so you can use smartphones despite glove usage. But we all know Alastor would never.

Speaking of the gloves, there’s something going on between Al & Vox and Al & Sir Pentious. We all know Viv likes to repeat a certain theme across characters with connections, like hearts with Angel, Valentino, Cherri, and Husk. Alastor, Vox, and Sir Pentious all have the exact same glove design. We all knew they had beef, but this is just visual confirmation in the character design.

I almost forgot his hair: Sure, the undercut may have been popular at the time, but that was in tandem with slicked back hair. An undercut + that rag of a mane Alastor has going on is just so confusing to me. Again, WHY???????

His outfit confuses me to no end and whenever I draw his canonical outfit I have to actively shove away thoughts of “BUT WHAT IS THAT? WHAT IS THIS CONNECTED TO? WHY THIS COLOR?” otherwise I risk having an aneurysm.

[clanwarrior-tumbly]

Can we have the DRA kids playing Among Us?

Aw yes ofc-

......

Mitsuhiro

Mains blue/yellow/white with the backwards cap.

Only plays the game bc it's popular but has no idea what he's doing.

"Mitch faked a task he's the Impostor"

"Wait HOW--"

Teruya

Mains green or lime with a black suit.

Has all the pets unlocked. His favorite is the dog.

When he’s killed he cries more about how sad & lonely his pets look--he’s not even upset if he gets killed first.

Tsurugi

Mains blue with the police outfit.

Swears he's not gonna take this childish game seriously. Ends up taking it seriously the most.

"Tsurugi sus"

"WITH WHAT PROOF?!!”

Don’t let him play with randoms bc they’ll vote him off for being too bossy.

Camps at security cameras often.

Kenji

Mains white.

Adores the mini crewmates. They remind him of the children back at the orphanage.

He’ll do his tasks but when he sees a mini all alone, he’s compelled to watch over it.

Yamato

Mains white or cyan with the captain outfit and a robot pet.

You'd think he would hack the game, but nah he's not that mean.

Tries being helpful to everyone, esp Mikako.

If he’s the host he’ll have everyone on 3x speed and confirm ejects off. Chaos ensues.

Satsuki

Mains cyan, pink, blue, or red. But she’ll honestly go with whatever color she happens to get.

Wears either a flowerpot, elf hat, or plunger.

Tends to goof off more than finish tasks, and she'll only sabotage doors to troll the others as Impostor.

Haruhiko

Mains brown with the goggles. And he’ll take the UFO pet bc it’s technically an aircraft.

His favorite map is MIRA HQ.

He’ll vouch for Teruya and Satsuki a lot.

Kiyoka

Mains any light color, but mostly lime or yellow with a flower hat.

She’s a little too trusting of people, which gets her killed a lot in rounds.

But she’s still optimistic about helping her fellow crewmates win!

Rei

Honestly doesn’t care for the game. 

But since Teruya encouraged her to play one round she went with plain orange.

She somehow figured out who the 3 Imposters were just by observing how everyone acts.

Mikako

Mains brown or black. No special accessories.

She just does her own tasks, never talking in discussions unless asked a question. Even then she doesn’t type a whole lot.

Yamato vouches for her a lot but she won’t hesitate to kill him if she’s the Impostor.

Kanata

Mains lime or cyan with the doctor outfit and medical mask.

Somehow always gets a medbay task, much to her delight.

If she’s Impostor she always vents there.

Is curious about the anatomy of the crewmates and Impostors (”crewmates only have one bone???”)

Ayame

Mains red with a black bandanna. 

Gets distracted easily and may forget to finish the rest of a task.

Thought she would like the 3x speed setting.

Actually hates it.

Akane

Mains white, black, or brown with a crown or caution hat.

Acts like Kirumi who does all her tasks quietly.

Follows Yuki a lot (which makes him nervous sometimes but she just want to protecc).

Is a brutal Impostor.

Kizuna

Mains purple or yellow with a flower hat.

Like Kiyoka she’s very motivating and vouches for people when they’re doing visual tasks.

Usually finishes tasks first and is just running around the map the rest of the time.

Yuki

Mains orange or brown with a stem hat.

Tags along with Akane a lot.

His luck is kinda shitty but he did win one round as an Impostor and nobody suspected him at all so it’s not that bad lol.

Kakeru

Mains black or orange with a white suit.

Treats discussion times like a courtroom setting, laying out evidence to clear people’s names/narrow down suspects..

Only for someone to say “Kakeru sus” and vote him out bc of that.

It’s no fun.

[guyinlovewitheremika]

Oooh could you expand on why you liked the op?? I honestly don't know what to make of it yet, especially since it felt so different from other ops, but I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Absolutely will do!! This took longer than I wanted cause everytime I sat down to write I started getting distracted from the OP and just listening to it on repeat lmao

To start this off, I should add that throughout the week leading up to release date, I was following a couple of leakers on twitter who did drop some info on the OP; mainly that Shinsei Kamattechan were returning, the title, that it wasnt gonna feature any characters and instead be a metaphor for the “cruelty of war”. Knowing all of that had me pretty excited but also gave me the right expectations, so it wasnt too jarring to see at first. 

But, to jump into this, first of all, I just loooove the visual style in general. It mostly just being static shades of white and light grey, with these very washed out colors exploding and flowing onto the image...it’s absolutely gorgeous! Like I just really dig this color scheme. And it’s highlighted even further by the gorgeous, fluid animation...these explosions look so good! I’m also just a big sucker for familiar characters/entities being represented in a sort of timeless way...be it a portrait, a statue, a monument, whatever (think smth like this), so seeing Eren and the other titans at the end there was just an absolute treat. Whatever that thing is, I want some kind of print/purchasable piece of merch of it because that heap of titans looks amazing. 

The song also just bangs tbh. It’s such a weird agglomeration of instruments and vocals but I find it comes together really well. The childrens choir, the piano at the beginning, the distorted vocals and most importantly that E-violin!!! so fucking good! Honestly I just love the way this song sounds and Im more hyped for the full version than the ost release atm (even tho I love what we heard so far from that too). The combination of the visuals with the music too is great here...I’ve never seen a flamethrower used in combination with the beat of a song before (outside of mad max fury road I guess lol?) but goddamn its just such a cool fucking combination I cant get over it. 

I have some thoughts on the imagery and the symbolism and my interpretations of it all, and I wanna get into those too, but really, the main thing I absolutely love about this OP is how different it is. Just as the marley arc is probably the most different of all in the manga, just as the new studio has made a show that, in many ways, looks feels and sounds vastly different from the old Attack on Titan, the OP encapsulates all of that by just being this new thing and succeeding at it

I love WIT’s OP’s, I love Linked Horizon’s work on the show. But honestly, the “Linked Horizon hype OP” genre pretty much peaked with Guren no Yumiya for me. I still like all the others, but overall, OP 1, 2, 3 and 5 just feel a bit too same-y for me, especially given that I honestly don’t think any of the follow ups surpass the original. Heck all these other songs even reference GnY in some capacity--I cant help but feel like they could never let go of Guren’s success and never tried something else. Except for Red Swan of course, which is also my 2nd favorite WIT OP. It’s slower, it’s sadder, it’s melancholic, and vastly different from all the others, and I really appreciate that. It tries to be its own thing and it succeeded for me. And “My War” even more so feels like it has a very distinct, unique vision, goes all out in that way, and it just works beautifully.   

And it’s that distinct, unique vision that I wanna dig into lastly here, because, just as the marley arc does for this manga, I find that out of all the OP’s, My War most explicitely depicts and visualizes many of the core thematic ideas of Attack on Titan and brings them directly into the forefront. I’ve seen a bunch of cool interpretations of the song at this point, and someone may have somewhere already said all this, but I wanna throw it in here regardless

After countless battles, sacrifices, victories and losses, Eren and the survey corps were able to win the war against the titans that their walled world was stuck in for a hundred years. Their gigantic enemies were defeated, and freedom ought to lie ahead. But no, beyond the shores is just more...more oppression, more war, more death and more sacrifice. The history their king to from them is one of war and oppression, a never ending cycle of violence, spanning back 2000 years, continuing forward. One oppressive regime falls, only for the next to take its place. This has been the history of mankind since the dawn of man, and it continues on and on and on. 

This is what this episode shows us, another military battle around another walled encampment, and this is what this opening shows us...a world perpetually at war. Man’s hatred for one another leads to conflict, to war: it’s continued existence in history and continued technological advancements are the perfect visual representation of this. Man’s capacity for war breeds more war, and it takes lives and it takes freedom and it doesnt stop, it just keeps consuming. 

The Opening starts off with battleships, artillery fire, mortars, flamethrowers, nuclear explosions and a titan spine forming among them all, until the birds of freedom fall dead out of the sky. Neverending armies of soldiers march the streets, airships rule the sky, but all the soldiers, all the military craft, the marleyan military and the paradisian soldiers all fall to pieces and get destroyed. War and conflict rage on and all the pieces fall to the ground, littering the earth in nothing but death and destruction. And at the end, atop this mountain of corpses and mayhem, the titans arise, reaching forward, attacking. They are born from mankinds neverending cycle of destruction, the physical manifestation of our inner demons that lead us to kill each other. 

I thoroughly believe that this sequence of events most perfectly encapsulates all of attack on titan. Look at the marley arc: the years of their attempts to wipe out Paradis island lead the island and the attack titan straight to them, delivering a terrible blow to them during their declaration of war. 2000 years ago it was the warmongering, slave hording king fritz who had a girl hunted for sport who brought about the era of the eldian empire, creating a system to eternally maintain the titan’s ability to wage war and rule the lands that would wind up ripping humanity apart. Look at the final arc: all of humanities hatred towards the island devils birthed the final attack titan and his horde of demons who have come to trample the world underfoot. The titans have always arisen as the consequence of man’s tendency towards conflict and death. Eren’s titan first formed from inside a titan who just killed him, his last titan was born out of his own death yet again. Titans are man’s desire to kill given shape, and the more man kills and fights, the more titans arise. 

It’s a bleak and terrible look at the cruelty of the world, that I think the OP highlights immensly well. It’s a gorgeous looking and sounding 90 seconds, and despite its contents being essentially horrifying, its fun to look at and listen to. Isayama once said about Eren’s attack in marley that “what eren does here is the worst thing. but if you were able to feel just a little bit of excitement from it, then it was worth drawing manga all this time”. Somehow, one way or another, we’re drawn to conflict, despite how terrible it is. And I think this opening manifests this beautifully 

[cringeyvanillamilk]

Who are your top ten favorite black clover characters and ships? Talk about them.

YOU’VE BEEN WAITING FOR A LONG TIME AND I’M READY TO DELIVER 1/2 OF YOUR REQUEST! I’ll post my top ten ships on your other ask~! <3

Sorry for the long text! I kind of went overboard with my explanations!

My Top 10 Favorite Black Clover Characters!

1 Asta

Before I got into Black Clover, I always heard a lot of negative comments about Asta as a character. “He’s too loud” “He’s extremely annoying” “He’s just a generic character”. After hearing so many of these types of comments, I was curious to see if what people said about him was true. And now that I’m up to date with the manga and seen every episode of the anime (except the recent filler episodes), I can confidently say, “WHO THE HELL WERE THESE GUYS REFERRING TO AGAIN???”. Like… hello?? I don’t know if maybe I’m just not that critical as a person, but I found Asta’s character to be quite endearing! People hated his voice but I thought it was pretty fine! It may be because I watched the dub, but even his Japanese voice isn’t that bad. Asta is just seems like an overall solid character to me! He’s not generic because he has a lot of quirks that makes him unique. One thing I noticed about his character was how family-oriented he was. You can tell by how he played around with other kids or comforted them that he has a lot of experience with kids! It’s honestly adorable how great he is with kids! And even though he grew up in an orphanage, he was able to find happiness as a peasant. I liked how he dreamt big even though he was starting from the very bottom. He didn’t have magic at all but he still had the determination to fight against all odds and strive to be Wizard King. Do you know how inspirational that is? And he’s not just doing it for himself,  he’s doing for his family back at the orphanage! He said it himself, as Wizard King he’ll fix up the church and spread the message that it doesn’t matter if you’re a peasant or orphan, anybody can be Wizard King. Asta truly has a heart of gold because his goal isn’t just full of self-interest. I also like how he wants people to be held accountable for their actions. Asta is a very fair person and isn’t one to automatically kill the opponent to save the day. No, Asta wants these bad people to serve their time and make up for what they’ve done. Like??? Wow, Asta, you have a lot of mercy for a shounen protagonist. I think that’s what I love about Asta’s character. He represents hope for other people. And I’m a sucker for characters who fight for what’s right and not because of some heroic prophecy or selfishness. 

This is where I list out random things I like about Asta’s character: Asta’s crush on Sister Lily is hilarious because it truly represents ‘fighting against the odds’ in a comedic way. Asta’s short stature is so cute, I hope he remains short for the rest of his life and grows to be proud of it. I really love Asta’s character design. He’s short, his ash blond messy hair is cute and unique, his sharp green eyes are beautiful, his shoes are two different shoes sewn together, and his fashion sense is simple yet nice to look at!  A very distinct design! And his anti-magic and demon possession is a cool addition to his character! I’d gush more about him but I think this is already too much lmao.

2. Fuegoleon Vermillion

I’m going to push aside my thirst for this man and actually talk seriously about what I love about his character. I’m going to first talk about his character design. I really love how Tabata designed Fuegoleon. For one, I really love how he’s wearing eye makeup. I think it’s a unique family tradition for each of the kids to wear this distinct eye makeup no matter the gender. His eye makeup and burned symbol on his forehead really made him distinct from other characters! It’s subtle but visually pleasing! And ‘subtlety’ is a good word to summarize Fuegoleon despite how ironic that word is. When we look at Fuegoleon’s hair in comparison to his other siblings, his smooth hair tells us he’s more orderly and responsible but his curly bangs tells us that he isn’t completely cool-headed. His red eye makeup could also tell us that he has a fierce side to him, as if his eyes are glowing red with fire. And comparing his face with Nozel’s (both are around the same age), Fuegoleon looks older with his eye wrinkles, telling us that he’s more of an old soul and matured fast for his age. That and he probably overworked himself with a lot of responsibilities. His color scheme is also very attractive! He has a balance of warm and cool colors which makes him look… balance! 

Now as a character, I really love the trope he represents! He’s the mentor figure for Leopold, Asta, and Noelle! For a character who isn’t part of the main cast, I find it impressive how impactful his words of wisdom was to the major leads. But it makes so much sense after all the things we’ve learned about Fuegoleon as a character! Fuegoleon has a lot of strengths as a character that I couldn’t help but fall for. Firstly, his debut of a character was short but memorable for me. During the Magic Knights exam, he was the only captain who passionately yelled about the rules of the next test. That was such a character defining moment because those few seconds perfectly described how intense and serious he is. He could’ve calmly announced the next test but the fire within him told him to jump up and yell those words with all his heart. The next time we saw him, we finally got to know him a lot better as a character and man did he win a lot of respect from me. Despite being a royal, he stood up for Asta when no noble did. He was the first noble to treat Asta fairly right away. In comparison to other nobles we’ve come across, Fuegoleon was a breath of fresh air! He wasn’t discriminating or condescending, which made him a lot more likable! I liked how he came from a privileged background but his sense of justice was still a 5/5. You just can’t hate this guy! His visuals are not only attractive but also his personality! He charmed me even more when he was the first to act and became a temporary leader for the other captains! His leadership, inspirational words, and fairness makes him an overall respectable character! I found him even more endearing when we saw his socially awkward personality. Serious + awkward are perfect combinations for a cute character. I also find his fire magic, salamander, and fire arm to be cool as well! He’s just a great character to me!

3. Finral Roulacase

Okay I’m going to try and not write too much like I did with Asta and Fuegoleon lmao. I need to chill-. Finral is the type of underdog character I always loved in anime. The character people don’t think much of at first but then they undergo a lot of character development! I liked how we saw subtle changes within Finral throughout the series and the resolve he gained as an older brother to Langris. His character arc was overall satisfying to me, especially during his final clash against Langris! Finral just has that good amount of light-hearted times (mixers, casanova wannabe personality, cowardly moments) and family drama! I would never expect a lot of depth in Finral based on his character trope but here we are. Finral is such a likeable guy. I just can’t hate him. I also like how he isn’t a perverted character. He just wants LOVE. Also his spacial magic? I love how unique it is! He’s a walking taxi but the fact that he developed a new magic spell to use it during combat is amazing! I also love how kindness is a big part of his character! A very peaceful libra~! I think what made him above Noelle was that I found his character to be charming ever since the very beginning! That and the fact that he can be considered the ‘underdog’ of the Black Bulls!

4.Noelle Silva

Oh Noelle! You beautiful and frustrating character! I’ll be honest, I had mixed feelings about Noelle when I first got into Black Clover. I was never a fan of overly exaggerated tsundere characters and so I would get frustrated with her tendency to act this certain way in the beginning. It was the true definition of slow burn but it’s through this gradual liking toward Noelle that made me feel strong and positive emotions towards her today. Slowly but surely, Noelle began finding her worth as a person and magic knight. All her life, Noelle was put down by those she called family and other noblemen for her lack of control over her magic. And it’s through this understanding of her backstory where I truly get why she wears that tsundere mask with other people. She can’t take a compliment normally because not only had she never been complimented before, but she grew up in an environment that taught her how she should act as a royal. She was bound to be unlikable at first, but it’s through a lot of character development and understanding where I found my love for Noelle. Noelle to me is how most shounen female leads should be. She has a crush on Asta but that’s not her entire character. She has internal struggles outside of her love interest and went through so much development that she became one of the most powerful young magic users in the series. Like the power ups she went through?? HOLY SHIT. The fact that she made me forgive her tsundere tendencies shows how great her character was.

5. Magna Swing

Man, I’m also a sucker for characters like Magna! I just love the delinquent with the heart of gold! Magna appears like your everyday punk but he really is such a good guy! It’s fun to see characters that subverts expectations and Magna is no exception! It’s small actions from this guy that makes him so likable! I really love how aggressive and uninviting Magna was in testing Asta only to heart warmingly accept Asta into the squad once he passed! He does this again when he makes fun of Asta for having a very small room but then tells Asta to send letters back home so that his loved ones aren’t worried! LIKE HELLO?? Why are you so lovingly contradicting?! Magna really tries to uphold his tough guy image but does sweet things right afterwards!! Magna’s character said never judge a book by its cover! I also find his loyalty toward Yami to be so sweet! He’s willing to gamble his clothes for this man and I call that DEDICATION. Magna is that ride or die friend that I’d love to have in real life. His interactions with other characters are also hilarious and his presence always brings a smile to my face! 

I know I keep talking about character design but I can’t help it since Tabata’s character design is GREAT! Magna’s design… I LOVE IT!! He has the cliche leather jacket and skull motifs to bring his delinquent look together! And Tabata had to give him blue shades!! The perfect accessory to complete the look! I also love his hair style and color! Magna is this close to having a pompadour but stuck with a Mohawk look instead! I also like how his hair has two different colors! It tells me right away that people dye their hair in this world! Interesting information for subtle world building! Light gray and black is such an nice color combination, too! I like how he becomes more of a pretty boy when his hair is down! It’s a nice surprise~! And his most iconic character trait. HIS SMILE! I love anime characters with toothy smiles! We can literally count how many teeth they have- LDKAFJSA. Reminds me a lot of Totoro! 

I  JUST LOVE HIM SO MUCH.

6. Klaus Lunettes

Klaus… Santa Klaus… I think I may have a type because in my top three characters I’d date, he and Fuegoleon are up there together! Both are serious and high strung characters with a dorky side to them. These two truly captured my heart-! Klaus is overall a great character! Klaus is the straitlaced character who wants to be respected by others. Sadly nobody gives him that respect and I find that hilarious! I love how short-tempered he is despite how cool and collected he wants to appear to others! Everything about him is contradicting! His hairstyle and earrings are punk rock but his glasses clash with it. He seems disciplined and mature, but is the first to crack and get overworked by emotions. Klaus acts stern, but can be very protective and nurturing. His character did a literal 180 after Asta and Yuno saved them all from Mars. And when he gets worried over Asta and it always warms my heart!! Klaus is lowkey a tsundere but is actually subtle about it- wow! He’s so… comically dedicated. He doesn’t half-ass anything! Overall, he’s a solid character to me! I hope to see more from this nerd!

I’m just going to list out other things I liked about Klaus: I love how his character quirk is him readjusting his glasses. Like get some new glasses if they don’t fit you nerd. I bet he does it to look cool or something. Smh. I also love his outbursts! I mentioned that he reacts quickly and emotionally and I find these traits to be very charming! I like how he doesn’t make his worries towards Asta obvious. We only know this side of him through other characters! That’s so cute~!

7.Julius Novachrono

I deadass thought this man was shady af. I'll have to blame OP 3 and Tabata for clowning me like that but despite the initial suspicion, I really enjoyed his character! I really love how dorky and childish he is! I can never get tired of his fanboy moments in the anime! He's literally the strongest mage in the series but still gets excited over rare or unique magic! I also love how humble he is! He doesn't let his title give him a big head. Despite this quirky side to Julius, I liked how realistic and competent he is as well. He isn’t one to give hopeful answers to other characters. When he said in order to be Wizard King you must have merits, I respected his honesty. Having good morals isn’t all you need to be Wizard King and Julius made that very clear. When he killed off a few members of the Eye of the Midnight Sun, that’s when his character became more real to me. Julius has the experience needed to be a well respected Wizard King and his support towards Yuno and Asta made me like him more! Julius just has a lot of depth and I really appreciate that in a character! I found the path Tabata put Julius in to be very interesting to me! I’m actually glad he’s still alive but as a kid! The series isn’t ready to lose their Wizard King yet and there’s still a lot from Julius I’d love to see in the future! Julius truly brings a lot of humor and epic moments in Black Clover which is why he’s in my top 10 favorite characters!

I also love his character design! I think the short and blonde hairstyle with the royal king aesthetic is pleasing to the eye! He could’ve been a total snob like King Augustus but he strayed away from that trope! His name is similar to Julius Caesar in which represents his leadership and powerful authority as Wizard King, but subverts negative traits associated with Julius Caesar! Clever Tabata~!

8. Vanessa Enoteca

I’m going to have to shout out Vanessa’s arc for making her character be in my top 10. Like if it weren’t for the witches’ forest arc, she wouldn’t have made it in my top 10. I thought Vanessa’s character was a given for a shounen series where we have at least one sexy female character for fanservice, but I’m pleasantly surprised at how deep her character was! Who would have known that there was an actual reason for her to have a revealing design! I think it’s fine to have a character who wears revealing clothes for the heck of it, but I feel like Tabata went the extra mile to be pretty thoughtful about it. For one, she was always caged in (literally and figuratively) ever since she was a child. This backstory indirectly tells us why she wears such revealing clothing. That’s because it symbolizes her freedom as her own person. She went from the modest dress she wore when she was caged in to a sexy dress! I really understand this mentality!!

As a character, I found her lack of freedom to be very relatable. I also felt sympathetic towards her character when she didn’t receive healthy motherly love. I felt a lot of emotions for Vanessa and that made me appreciate her character more! I feel like her character started to leave a positive impression on me when she acknowledged Asta’s strength and determination as well as her helping Noelle as a proper older sister figure! Her arc solidified herself into my top ten when she gained the powers of red thread of fate because of her love for the Black Bulls. That power up shows how much she values the Black Bulls and it always makes me feel soft just thinking about it! Her magic ability is also pretty cool. Thread magic? There’s a lot you can do with that magic! I like how she had a prominent role of maneuvering Asta during the Veto fight, too. Vanessa is another female character with an incredibly strong magic power. It became so useful in so many moments in the series! 

Other comments I’d like to say about why I like Vanessa is her sexy witch aesthetic. I think she looks very pretty and her color scheme is beautiful!

9, Charmy Pappitson

OH GEMINI QUEEN. I love you so. What I like about Charmy was how many times she surprised me. When I first saw her, she looked like she’s a kid but she’s actually 19 years old. What? Then when I saw that she was the glutton, I thought she’d be selfish with her food but then she shares it with others. Huh? Then I assumed she was a harmless character but then she knocked out that witch when she mistaken her for stealing her food with her sheep magic. Oh? And just when I thought I saw everything I needed to know about Charmy, it’s revealed that she was a dwarf and has food magic. HELLO? Like what else am I going to learn about Charmy?! She’s such an unpredictable character and that’s what makes her so fun to watch! The thing is, she still remains the same after all these reveals! She doesn’t really go through a lot of character development but these surprises make up for it! Charmy is overall a feel good character. She’s not one to be taken seriously all the time and that’s okay! She’s just there to have a good time! She radiates good vibes and I like how light-hearted Charmy is! She’s also pretty badass, too, so great combination!

10. Gordon Agrippa

And finally we have Gordon. Gordon. is. such. a. good. boy! There’s no bad bone in this man! He’s so dedicated and loyal to his friends! And it makes me feel bad that he doesn’t get the love he deserves in the canon story! Everything about him is so pure and soft! I love how he’s very quiet and mumbles a lot but the words he says are very sweet! I’d love to listen to his friendship speeches all day! Gordon is the type of guy I’d definitely want as a best friend. His quiet voice and my deaf ears aren’t a great combination but I don’t care! Gordon’s personality is perfect to me! I really hope we get to see more from him in the future!

In terms of character design, I absolutely love it! His goth aesthetic contrasts so much with his actual personality. I love the Marilyn Manson inspiration behind Gordon’s design. His character design is so distinct from other characters which makes him stick out like a sore thumb. This is random but I love how thick his lips are. The black lipstick and eye shadow also looks great on him! His nose is also cutely big! 

Gordon is one of the best boi. No question!

[surveys-at-your-service]

Survey #293

“your head upon a stick would look really sick, but they would call me crazy for the way i spoke to it”

Hey bitch, what's your fucking name? What a start, jc lmao. Brittany. What color are your nails? They're not painted. Last time you got some ass? Well this survey's gonna be a journey. Many years ago. Do your parents like your style/music choices? Yeah, at least most of it. Some music my mom really doesn't like or just hates, while I can't even imagine Dad's reaction to some bands I enjoy. Ever seen your parents make out? tbh would rather slam my ankle on a Razor scooter. What's your dream height and weight? Forget about my height, if I could just be at least 120 again... Do you put your hair up a lot or down? It's too short to put up. Most of the time do you straighten or curl your hair? Neither. What do you do when your house loses power? Light a bunch of candles and carry flashlights. What piercing do you hate? I'm not a fan of cheek piercings. Were you raised in a religious house? Yes. I grew up going to Sunday school and church, even though I hated both. Do your parents get mad when you're on the computer for hours? Gah... it was a very, very big source of argumentative fuel between Mom and me all the way up to my late teenage years when she just gave up; now, it's to be expected and is completely "normal." I always wanted to be on the computer once I was introduced to it; she tried to limit my time on it, and it was without fail what she would take away whenever I was grounded. I'd even sneak onto it when I wasn't allowed to if she wasn't home and Dad was in their room. My mom really did try to keep me from being hooked on technology, she really did, it just didn't work, but dear god I wish it did. I just about turn into a caveman without some form of it, and it's pretty pathetic. Dad meanwhile has never really cared much, but he'd make a comment here and there that would make me self-conscious about it. Have you ever been asked for a nude picture? No, and guess who would be ignored for the rest of their lives if they did. It's so fucking disrespectful and objectifying to me. If someone wants to send a partner something like that by their own volition, that's cool, but asking, that just seems incredibly rude to me and turns the person into an object of lust. Ever been so scared you pissed? Caaan't say I have. Can you watch scary movies at night and not be scared? Yeah, they've never really fazed me. Last reason you got your cell taken away? I actually don't know if that's ever happened, given the aforementioned computer thing. I was never hooked on my phone. Could you handle working on a farm? Nooooo, that is way too much physical exertion. Have you ever been attacked by an animal? No. Have you ever had to put an animal to sleep? ugh Do you have a favorite type of firework? Well, visually I really just like the big colorful ones, but I don't endorse the use of fireworks anymore. Some animals literally die from fear, they can be seriously upsetting to veterans with PTSD (you could have one in your neighborhood and never know you indirectly gave them a panic attack), and they're a large source of litter. Where would/did you get your first tattoo? My right wrist. What's your favorite kind of pet? Snakes. Favorite dinosaur? Spinosaurus is obviously the coolest. It's always been my fave. How many pets do you have? Sigh, just two. Our landlord doesn't want us to get anymore pets than what we came in with. What were two of your favorite Disney movies as child? The Lion King and Finding Nemo. They're still my favorite Disney movies. When carving pumpkins, how do you decide what you're going to do? I haven't carved a pumpkin in years... so idk. Do you own any art supplies? Some, yeah. Do you believe you have a higher IQ than most? Definitely not. What is the name of the doctor that delivered you? I have no clue. Mom knows him for sure because she's mentioned him from my childhood, but I don't. Have you ever seen a Lamborghini in person? Hunny, I live in rural North Carolina. You don't see that level of bougie here lmao. Shane Dawson: funny or annoying? I honestly think he's fucking hilarious. I just have such conflicting feelings about him after "the drama," hearing so many people's opinions (particularly from those who know him so well, like his fiance and Ryland's sister), fact checking, audio cutting and mixing, the whole "people change" philosophy... I don't know. When you have a container of Neapolitan ice cream, what flavor do you leave for last? I ain't touchin' strawberry. Gross. If you could choose to have any superpower ever, what would you pick? I'd wanna be a shapeshifter/druid. What would you be more embarrassed to buy: sex toys or adult diapers? Yikes, sex toys. Given my age, I'd say if I bought adult diapers, people would assume they weren't for me. I'm awkward enough with all things relating to sex to begin with, so. What’s the biggest animal you’ve ever killed? Yo wtf I never have and never will (intentionally) kill an animal. Well, correction: I've killed bugs before, the biggest probably being some spider or something, but I really try to avoid this now. Could you win the Hunger Games? lol hell to the fuck no, have you seen me??? For you, would getting amnesia be a good thing? ... Maybe? Not saying I wanna find out, though. Have you ever been punched in the face? No, plan on keeping it that way. Is morality universal or relative? I question this myself. Who is your favorite late night talk show host? I don't have one. Where do you put your keys when you get home? They stay in my purse. Do you prefer hot coffee or iced coffee? Neither. The sheer variety of questions relating to coffee and tea in surveys boggles my mind, always feel left out that I can't answer 'em lmao. What’s your phone background picture? My lock screen is this pretty, soft aesthetic screen that has "i am strong, i am loved, i am enough" written in the center. I've really needed it for my mental health lately. My home screen is some meerkats. I know, can you believe neither are currently Mark? Have you ever seen a snake in the wild? Plenty. How do you cope with anxiety? Deep breathing, mindfulness and grounding exercises, confiding in my mom, listening to music (usually my favorite calm, instrumental soundtracks, like from the Silent Hill franchise - particularly the second game! - or Shadow of the Colossus), try to nap, play a game as a distraction, watch my favorite YouTubers (typically something funny)... I'm lucky to have learned a lot. Now, if only I could cope with social anxiety... What was the last takeout food you ate? Oh Jesus, how embarrassing is this timing, seeing as it was one of my unhealthiest fast food orders: Son of the Baconator and Baconator fries from Wendy's. It was so fuckin good tho. Who makes you laugh the most? My friend Girt. What does a successful relationship look like to you? One with great communication and total honesty, and when you are able to build each other up and bring out the best in your partner. It's also imperative for you to feel safe being your authetic safe for me to consider it "successful." What do you like to put on your baked potato? "Salt, pepper, butter, cheese, bacon bits." <<<< That's how we do it, lads. What was the most memorable birthday you’ve had? My 16th, but not for good reasons. Would you rather go to the beach or the mountains? That's easy as hell, mountains. I don't like the beach. Do you look in the mirror before you leave the house? Yeah. Not gonna like what I see no matter what, but I'd like to make sure I don't look worse whan what's normal. Have you ever seen someone quit their job in a dramatic way? No. What do you like to dip your fries in? It varies between ketchup and honey mustard. What’s your favorite kind of museum? Science. Do you believe in alternate universes? Nah, I don't think so. Whose house did you last visit? My older sister's. What games do you play on your smart phone? Mostly just Pokemon GO nowadays. I haven't touched Dragons of Atlantis in a long time... Do you know anyone who is colorblind? Jason's older brother is red/green colorblind, I think? Are you the youngest, middle or eldest child in your family? Middle. What’s something you’ve been meaning to do but keep putting off? Ugh, I need to finish decorating my damn room... Got most of the stuff on the walls now, but it's still pretty skeletal in self expression. My motivation is abysmal. Have you ever flown a kite? Oh yeah, I loved to fly a kite with Dad as a little kid when the tobacco field just across the road was barren. Who was the last person you talked about sex/relationships with? My doctor. How many brothers does your father have? I'm almost certain he doesn't have one, just one sister. Do you think you act older or younger than your actual age? It depends on the situation. When it comes to "adulting," I don't have a fuckin clue what I'm doing. I doubt anyone would believe I'm a month shy of 25. In terms of general maturity, I think I act my age, if not older. When was the last time you swam in a pool? It's been years. What are your parents' views on your relationships? Mom is always very supportive so long as they treat me right; she's taken to all my previous partners very well and treated them like family, too. My dad is also supportive as long as I'm treated properly and happy. Is your best friend dating anyone? No. Have you ever babysat before? Twice, but not really willingly. Way too stressful. Do you delete pictures of you and your exes off of Facebook? It took a very, very long time, but all pictures with Jason are forever deleted. Ever had a huge crush on someone who still doesn’t know? Not a huge crush, no. Ever watched porn? No. You do you, but I don't see the appeal of watching some random people fuck. Ever performed in a talent show? No. Would you audition for a reality talent competition? Nope. How many celebrity crushes have you had? I'd say Jesse McCartney, Link Neal, and Mark Fischbach are my only BIG celeb crushes I've had. How many non-celebrity crushes have you had? I dunno, don't feel like reaching back and counting. Ever been compared to a celebrity? Not visually, but with my adoration of animals. Have any embarrassing pictures on Facebook? Oh, I'm sure. None that are horribly embarrassing though, or else I would have deleted them. Ever seen a therapist? I've regularly seen a therapist since the 6th grade. Ever purposely ignored a text? Yep. A Facebook message? Sure have, when I was beyond done arguing with a former friend. A friend request? No, I just decline or accept it. My page is private, so you can't see my activity, and it's not like they get notified if it's declined, Would you say you read into things too much? I am the fucking sovereign of this. If you turned out exactly like your mom would you be pleased? I love my mom to death, but no. I'd be disappointed. Ever had a credit card denied? I've never had one in the first place. Ever had the lead in a play? No. I do remember though in elementary school, I was real bummed that I wasn't Snow White for one we did for Music class. What about a solo in a concert? Never been in a concert. Would it bother you if you found out that your mother was pregnant? Well. One, she's long past menopause. Two, because of ovarian cancer, she had all those organs removed. So, that would be impossible. Have you ever had a threesome? No; I'm personally strictly monogamous and would feel it to be disloyal, even if my parnter was okay with it. What's the last game you used dice for? Not a clue. Are you interested in surfing at all? Have you ever been? No. What brand of bottled water do you prefer? Essentia. What is your favorite type of bird? Barn owls. What is your favorite chocolate candy? motherfuckin REESE'S Have you ever been called a racial slur? No, considering I'm Caucasian. Why did you last stand in line? I was at the doctor's office, I think? What is your favorite pirate movie? /shrug What is your favorite character from Orange Is the New Black? I've never watched it. What was the most unsettling film you’ve seen? Watching the ending to Paranormal Entity was VERY uncomfortable. It was a decently scary movie, but the ending was seriously intense. When was the last time you were snooping, and found something you wish you hadn’t? I don't recall. Which celebrity or band has the worst fan base? I don't know. What are you interested in that most people aren’t? The sheer degree of my love for meerkats would definitely be missed by probably most people. What smartphone feature would you actually be excited for a company to implement? I dunno. Anything I could think of, the most current products probably already have and I'm just uninformed of them. Like, I use a Tracfone lmao. What’s something people don’t worry about but really should? Their plastic usage and disposal. I'm certainly no saint when it comes to plastic either, but I try to do all I can. What movie quotes do you use on a regular basis? Hm, ARE there any? Do you think that children born today will have better or worse lives than their parents? This depends on what you consider "better" and "worse." Environmentally, I honestly don't think mankind can maintain itself for that many more generations at the rate we're currently at, so that's probably just gonna keep getting worse. On the other hand, advances in medicine and things like that will certainly continue to improve quality of life in that sense. Human rights are getting better and better. I do fear that we're becoming too comfortable with laziness and convenience, but I hope that's a decline we don't continue to venture down. What’s the funniest actual name you’ve heard of someone having? I had a college classmate named Apple. Which charity or charitable cause is most deserving of money? Oh, come on now. It's not a competition. What game have you spent the most hours playing? So. When you type /played in World of Warcraft, it will show you your total playtime, and mine is YIKES. Like, around a year's worth of time of pure playing since 2014, I think. What’s the most comfortable bed or chair you’ve ever been in? I don't recall. What’s the hardest you’ve ever worked? When I did WiiFit religiously and lost around 40 pounds in HS. I was in the best shape of my life. What movie, picture, or video always makes you laugh no matter how often you watch it? Oh, there's certainly something. Probably some Unus Annus clip. That channel was a fucking blessing and a curse all the same. If you could have an all-expenses paid trip to see any famous world monument, which monument would you choose? Oh boy, I'd have to think, but probably somewhere in Rome or Greece. What’s the coldest you’ve ever been? I'm unsure. Probably jumping in the pool as a kid. My sisters and I would nag Dad to put the pool up on like the very first day of spring, so of course it was cold, but as a kid, I didn't mind that. What’s the most ridiculous thing you have bought? Hm. What’s the most depressing meal you’ve eaten? Ha ha yiiiikes, struggle foods... I don't know, but I've had some. What outdoor activity haven’t you tried, but would like to? Herping, though I change my mind on-and-off about it. I'm not very into the idea of disturbing wildlife just because they're cool and you wanna check them out. I'd totally go exploring with a camera, though, and not actually pick anything up. If you were given five million dollars to open a small museum, what kind of museum would you create? Hm... I actually think something like an art museum for the mentally ill would be pretty interesting and educational? Even something that could build empathy. Maybe mix some psychology in there to understand conditions.

[mw-moriearty]

Superman III is an Anti-Capitalist Parable and Way Ahead of its Time

No seriously. Here’s the skinny.

Superman III came out in ‘83 and was directed by Richard Lester, who also directed the markedly inferior theatrical cut of Superman II three years earlier. Lester had a very different approach to the Superman series than his predecessor, Richard Donner: he insisted, ostensibly at the studio’s urging, on taking the series in a more camp comedy direction rather than the Old Hollywood epic movie tone Donner brought to the table. It makes sense, then, that audiences would push back against the goofier, lower-stakes tone of III. They were used to the (comparatively) operatic tone of the original Superman and, to a lesser extent, its sequel.

Superman III was a financial success, but it was negatively received by audiences and by critics, a negative reception that helped send the follow-ups Supergirl and Superman IV: A Quest for Peace to the bottom of the trash heap (not that they needed much help).

But, unlike those two installments, Superman III, when watched today with an unbiased eye, holds up much better than its reputation would suggest. The emphasized comedic undertones don’t stand out so much in this era of light, bantery Marvel films.

And, what’s more, Superman III is probably one of the most plainly anti-capitalist superhero movies of all time. Its maybe not “woke,” but its pretty damn close.

At the core of the film, and perhaps its most controversial element, is the comic relief character played by comedian Richard Pryor. Pryor’s character in Superman III may not be the most nuanced character of color in film, but he is also certainly not the Jar Jar Binks minstrel clown some make him out to be. What he is, is a naturally-gifted computer programmer so brilliant that he is able to hack into a government weather-controlling satellite while completely blitzed and effortlessly design a supercomputer so sophisticated it gains self-awareness. It is obvious the only reason that he lives on unemployment and can’t keep a job rather than being the next Bill Gates and giving the millionaire villain orders is the deep institutional racism upon which capitalism is founded.

The film is well aware of this racism, highlighting it in ways both big and small. Pryor is blackmailed into serving the rich white Trump-esque antagonist, played by Robert Vaughn, after being forced by his ridiculously small paycheck to commit embezzlement (the only victim of which being Vaughn himself, who is so dripping with surplus wealth that he has an artificial ski slope on the roof of his skyscraper). Their first interaction is full of condescending microaggressions on Vaughn’s part, such as cringe-inducingly calling Pryor “my man” in a manner that brings to mind the dad in Get Out.

When Pryor travels to Smallville, Kansas later in the film, he is visibly aghast at how eerily lily-white the whole place is, particularly staring in horror at a trio of porcelain-tinted mannequins in a store window. I’m sure his discomfort would be echoed by many black men taking their first step in rural southern America. Later, to infiltrate one of the businesses that he plans to hack in the small town, Pryor wears one of the awful suits worn by the aforementioned dummies and puts on an affected “white voice” to earn the trust of the drunken redneck that watches the place at night, a fitting commentary on how black men and women are expected to homogenize and “act white” to be above suspicion in white America.

And what happens when Pryor convinces Vaughn to give him the resources to construct his incredible supercomputer? Why, Vaughn and his sister appropriate it for themselves and put its unique capabilities to nefarious ends, shutting Pryor out of any control of his baby and leaving him out in the cold. 

Pryor is much more than a victim through all of this, however. I already mentioned how he took the initiative to bolster his paltry computer programmer’s paycheck by using a clever scheme to embezzle from his greedy millionaire boss. He also doesn’t let said boss kick him around, either. Though his circumstances leave him with little choice but to be a cohort in Vaughn’s schemes, when push comes to shove, he stands up for himself. He refuses to allow Vaughn’s order for complete control of the oil tankers to be irreversible, he fights for his fair cut of the loot when Vaughn starts profiting off of his brilliance, and in the end he stands by Superman against his bourgeoisie bosses. He even saves Superman’s life on multiple occasions, using both his computer smarts and eventually a fire ax to come to the big guy’s rescue. 

Given that Pryor has at least as much screen time as Supes throughout the picture, one is left wondering, who’s the real hero here? Why, its the guy running around in the frilly pink tablecloth, of course!

And Pryor’s not the only example of a downtrodden minority not being allowed to live to their full potential in a white supremacist patriarchal capitalist society. Perhaps the most interesting character in the film is the villain’s girlfriend, who is initially presented as a vapid, gold-digging bimbo until we learn that this is all an act on her part and she actually is a computer-wise, philosophy-reading secret genius herself. She only plays the part of the brainless trophy girl because life has left her few other options. It is a very fun subversion of the typical villain-moll dynamic, and it is a shame we don’t get more of this character, though she like Pryor is ultimately disturbed by Vaughn’s increasingly villainous actions and bails on him in the end.

But lets talk about Vaughn’s villain, and how he’s emblematic of the film’s ideas on rich white privilege as a whole. This is a guy who is so used to getting everything he wants that he sics a freaking hurricane on Colombia just because the country is competing with him in the coffee export industry. If that ain’t capitalism at its finest. He even repeats the tired adage “it is not enough that I succeed, others must fail,” misattributing it to Genghis Khan like an idiot. I mean seriously, who does this sound like?

This is the guy who gives us probably the most immortal line from the whole movie.

And that’s only the tip of the white entitlement iceberg. There’s also the running joke of the old white couple who win the Daily Planet’s vacation lottery and get sent off to Colombia, where we are treated to the wife saying things like, “look dear, a native wedding!” Cut to the most conventional looking church wedding ever. After this parody of cultural voyeurism, we have the couple later threatening to SUE Daily Planet Editor-in-Chief Perry White because A HURRICANE RUINED THEIR VACATION. What a couple of Karens.

The whole film is about the struggle between the working class and the rich. I’ll paraphrase one of the Smallville locals who, after seeing the chaos caused by the gasoline shortage brought about by Vaughn’s forced oil monopoly, says “I don’t know what’s going on, but I guarantee you, someone’s getting rich off of it. Someone’s always getting rich off of it.”

Oh yeah, and Superman is in this movie too a little. There’s a plot wherein Vaughn tries to synthesize an artificial kryptonite in an effort to kill Superman and prevent him from foiling his dastardly deeds. But, this being a kryptonite forged in the capitalist machine, its a lazy, half-assed copy that doesn’t even work right (leading to the above line).

That doesn’t mean that the kryptonite has no effect, though. Indeed, the symptoms of this knockoff kryptonite are fascinatingly similar to the effects of living under the crushing wheels of the capitalist regime. 

We actually see Superman, through this physical manifestation of the exertion of capitalist oppression, deteriorate into a selfish, depressed, bitter shadow of his usual self. As this happens, the colors of his costume subtly grown more dark, drab, and dingy. Superman becomes concerned only with doing what is best for himself without regard to anyone else, giving up the whole “saving people” thing and even letting himself be coerced by the moll into ripping a giant hole into an oil tanker in exchange for a little nookie (the subsequent disturbing image of a massive oil spill creeping across the surface of the ocean is maybe the film showing its hand a little bit). Many socialist and anarchist thinkers have raised the thought that this exact selfish mindset is the natural effect of being socialized in a capitalist society.

Let’s be clear, this isn’t just “evil Superman”. This is Superman so crushed by self-loathing and the futility of his actions that at the lowest point in his decline we see him looking like this:

Indeed, this sad, alcoholic Superman very deliberately mirrors another character in the film: the aforementioned drunken yokel, who is also the former star quarterback of Clark Kent’s high school graduating class. This is a character who found, after graduating, that his celebrity status in school translated to nothing in the adult world, leaving him woefully unprepared for a real life where he is a functional nobody. Cue binge-drinking and pining for the glory days.

This all culminates in the movie’s most iconic scene, wherein Superman crash-lands in a junkyard and splits into two separate individuals: the above Superdick, and plain old Clark Kent. They then proceed to beat the shit out of each other.

Obviously, we aren’t meant to read this scene as literal; it isn’t actually, physically happening. It is a clever visualization of the internal struggle between the character’s two halves: Clark and Superman.

In fact, this very conflict is the heart of Superman’s story throughout the picture. This is examined in the form of Clark’s re-kindled relationship with childhood sweetheart Lana Lang. After the always tragic will-they-won’t-they of Superman and Lois, Clark and Lana’s romance is refreshingly positive and healthy. The obvious reason for this is that, unlike Lois, Lana isn’t just interested in the Superman persona. She loves Clark for Clark. He can be himself around her. Indeed, any romantic incursions between Superman in costume and Lana are portrayed as downright toxic, as in the unsettlingly realistic scene where Superman, first beginning to feel the effects of the faux kryptonite, makes several forceful, sexually aggressive advances on Lana in her own home. The obvious fear and discomfort on Lana’s face during this scene is incredibly telling. She isn’t interested in an inhumanly privileged, aggressive thug in spandex. She likes Clark Kent, the regular guy.

So it is no accident that in this climactic junkyard scene, Clark comes to represent the character’s “good side” and Superman the “bad”. Because this is not simply a struggle between Superman’s good and bad halves, it is a struggle between Clark Kent, the spectacularly unspectacular working man, and Superman, the ridiculously naturally privileged enforcer of statist status quo. Proletariat vs. bourgeoisie. And Clark Kent, the proletariat revolutionary fighting his way out of the bourgeois Superdick’s corruption, wins.

Not that Superman then becomes a perfect champion of the working class for the rest of the film. He does defeat Vaughnald Trump and blow up the evil computer, but he also remains something of a parody of typical movie “white savior” figures. This is mostly clearly shown in the denouement where Superman, obviously thinking he is providing some great act of charity, drops Richard Pryor’s character off at a dirty coal pit far from his home and recommends him for an entry-level computer job there. Pryor understandably decides he’d rather not slave in a coal mine in the middle of nowhere for the rest of his life, and chooses instead to walk the nine miles to the nearest bus station. There is also the final scene where Superman (who in evil mode had straightened the Leaning Tower of Pisa earlier in the film in an extreme act of pettiness) returns to Italy and “fixes” the tower, smiling and waving in smug self-satisfaction at the locals below, oblivious to the poor souvenir salesman who has just finished making his setting up his new display of now-straight replica towers.

tl;dr, I think that Superman III deserves reevaluation not as the moment where the Superman franchise began its descent into crappery, but instead as a flawed but biting satire on privilege and capitalist corruption in America.

That’s my two cents.

[emperor-uncarnate]

My Top 20 Favorite Video Games

(Listed in the order in which I played them)

Pokémon Red Version - Along with my matching red Game Boy Pocket, this was the first video game I owned that was purely mine and not handed down from an older kid. I still go back and replay this every couple of years on that very same Game Boy Pocket or on the 3DS Virtual Console. I know there’s FireRed and a whole series of more modern Pokémon games at my disposal but the original Red Version easily gets the most nostalgia points. Sometimes that’s what it’s all about, no? Banjo-Kazooie - Similarly, the N64 became my first home console that wasn’t a hand-me-down and it came equipped with both bear and bird (complete with “screaming about it on Christmas morning”). After going back and replaying this almost twenty years later I gained new appreciation for how goofy and colorful it is. Treasure Trove Cove is so fucking catchy. Sonic Adventure 2 Battle - From its kickin’ soundtrack to its satisfying controls to its random-ass virtual pet simulator this game has it all. Multiplayer was always pretty exciting too, I remember many an afternoon trying to one-up a friend during a grind race. No 3D Sonic game compares to this if you ask me, although Sonic Heroes and Sonic Unleashed come sort of close in their own ways. What I wouldn’t give for a proper Sonic Adventure 3... Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes - I remember playing this at my local arcade in my youth before eventually getting a port of it for the Xbox 360. The look of its 2D sprites are phenomenal and - if it will help you understand why I love this game - I’m singing “I Wanna Take You For a Ride” to myself as I type this. Metroid: Zero Mission - This was the first Metroid game I ever actually beat, and it was the game that made me fall in love with the series. I love Metroid Fusion and Metroid: Samus Returns as well but I like Zero Mission’s visual style the most. I was so thrown for a loop when Samus lost her Power Suit towards the end of the game but it only made getting it back that much sweeter.  Metroid Prime 2: Echoes - I started playing this one in 2004 but didn’t officially beat it until way later in 2017. For a while I had a pattern I’d go through every few years of “start playing, enjoy it for a while, get lost, and start over for some reason.” Took me thirteen years to get serious about it but it earned its place as my favorite of the 3D Metroid games. I felt so fulfilled once it was complete, like I was achieving a childhood dream. Kingdom Hearts II - I don’t think I would’ve gotten into this game if not for my friend’s suggestion but I couldn’t thank him enough for it. This is another one of those games you only vaguely understand when you’re a kid only to realize how complex and intuitively designed it is in your adulthood. After the long wait, Kingdom Hearts III proved to be pretty satisfying but I just have too much history with its predecessor for it not to win a spot on this list. Jak 3 - Though my interest in this series burned fast and bright, this game still sticks out to me as one of the best I’ve ever experienced. I played the third installment before Jak and Daxter or Jak 2 but that’s fine because it’s the best goddamn one. Driving around in the desert, swapping out gun modules, and taking flight on some janky wings made of light were definitely the highlights for me. World of Warcraft: Cataclysm - I got into this game during the latter period of Wrath of the Lich King but I didn’t feel like an official WoW player until this fiery, grim expansion. It was the first real online game I’d ever played (if you don’t count Neopets and Adventure Quest) that I started as a Night Elf Warrior in a PVP server and ended as a Worgen Hunter in a non-PVP server. Because fuck the Horde, that’s why. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - I got Skyrim on a whim because I literally couldn’t think of anything else I wanted for Christmas in 2011. There was no hype for me, I knew nothing ‘bout no Dragonborns, but I thought “heck it” and dove in anyway. After originally playing it on Xbox 360 and replaying it more recently on PS4 (with a slew of mods) I can say with confidence this game continues to blow me away. I always seem to find something new even though I feel like I know it like the back of my hand. I did get involved in The Elder Scrolls Online later on but Skyrim is still where it’s at. Soul Calibur V - I was first introduced to the tale of souls and swords (eternally retold, of course) through Soul Calibur II and only because you could play as Link on the Gamecube version. Fast-forward to 2012 and I was still on board with its story and cast of characters but its character creation was really what kept me hooked. Soul Calibur VI turned out to be a little disappointing but I definitely got the most out of its fifth installment and I’m guilty of having played for hours and hours on end. Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward - What began as a free trial because I was bored turned into a years-long interest in yet another MMO. While the base game was okay it really picked up speed with Heavensward and I was hooked from that point onwards. After a certain point I caught myself not skipping cutscenes and discovered - oh hey - the story’s actually really good. Star Wars Battlefront - I loved this game when it came out on PS4 and used it often to get my insatiable Star Wars fix. Aerial combat was my downright favorite part of the game and I loved smoking some TIE Fighters in an X-Wing or in the Millennium Falcon. Its sequel Star Wars Battlefront II could’ve made this list but EA was being a real dirtbag about it and now I find it hard to look back on happy memories of it the same way. The 2015 game is thankfully unsullied by those sour elements, however, so I’d say its gotta be my favorite Star Wars game ever. Overwatch - This game came to me at a time when I only wanted to play games that had character creation. I was hesitant to get to know all the characters and lore but I’m overjoyed I did since they’re so rich in personality and fun details. Once I got the hang of characters like McCree, Soldier, Reinhardt, and Widowmaker I was absolutely sold and I still play it two years later. Sonic Mania - The delightful trailer for this game got me all riled up but I wouldn’t know just how great it was until I was playing it myself. I don’t think I could ever truly enjoy my previous favorite 2D Sonic games (Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Sonic 3 & Knuckles, and Sonic CD) ever again because this game just feels better than all of them combined.  The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - I didn’t really grow up with the Legend of Zelda, only ever playing A Link to the Past and Twilight Princess, but I immediately knew I was going to enjoy this open world take on the series. Just the sheer freedom of what you could do and where you could go was enough to reel me in and its aesthetic still amazes me with how great of a mood it generates. Final Fantasy VII - I still remember going into a GameStop when I was in high school and naively attempting to buy a used copy of this game for the PS1. It was an “epic fail,” as I would’ve said at the time. But over a decade later I downloaded it on the PS4 and went to town, getting my full FF7 experience at long last and loving every minute of it. Very stoked for the remake; it’s probably my most anticipated game right now. Marvel’s Spider-Man - What a surefire hit this was. From the moment the first gameplay footage was out I knew this was going to be the must-have web-swinging, wall-crawling good time. I love that there are so many ways to play the same character and everyone can really embody their own version of Peter Parker. I’m also from New York City so seeing a digital rendition of Manhattan was a real treat (even though they changed uptown a lot and my old apartment doesn’t exist in the game). Super Smash Bros. Ultimate - Nine of the other nineteen entries in this list feature a character who’s playable in this latest Smash game. I get that people like Melee for reasons and whatever but how can you not like SSBU, the game that has it all? I’m still riding the high of Banjo and Kazooie entering the fray and I absolutely cannot wait to see where things go from here. Never had more fun playing local multiplayer in my life. Red Dead Redemption II - Never cared for Grand Theft Auto and the first Red Dead Redemption was fun but damn, there’s nothing quite like its sequel. I’m still working my way through the story just because I’ve spent so much time out in the wide open world, taking my time and seeing the sights. I might be a city boy but I have a deep appreciation for the American West and if this game ain’t just the prettiest damn thing I ever did see... hoo-WEE! Top shelf.

[xb-squaredx]

B-Squared’s Top 10 Games of 2019!

2019 was a year full to the brim of GREAT games, and as is the custom at the end of the year, people love to rank their favorites, so…I’d like to do the same! Of course my own tastes might be different from yours so if you don’t see a thing on here that you liked, chances are I didn’t like it…or more likely, there’s just too many great games out this year, and I couldn’t get to everything. I’d like to stress to that the rankings don’t really matter all that much, especially the farther down we go. Everything on here is an easy recommendation. Without any further ado…let’s take a look at my Top 10 Games of 2019~

#10 - River City Girls

I love action games, but 2D beat-em-ups never really clicked for me. They were largely before my time and I was thinking that it’d be impossible to get me into one in the current era of gaming. And then I saw Marian’s redesign for River City Girls and bought the game. What can I say? Abs are a great sales pitch. But seriously, getting Wayforward on the helm of a beloved classic franchise is already a great way to pique my interest, and while there’s SOME aspects of this game that I don’t quite gel with, it’s a fun, colorful romp through a ridiculous universe that I’d LOVE to see more of down the line. Featuring a role-reversal, with the girlfriends saving the boyfriends this time, River City Girls has gorgeous pixel art, an AMAZING pop-synth soundtrack that’s worth the price alone, and it’s a game that clearly had fun with the concept and that fun rubs off on you. From the stylish animated boss intros, to the co-op fun that can be had with a friend, everything in this game is brimming with charm. Basic NPCs have great designs in their own right, being able to recruit enemies as assists is a neat idea, and it all adds up to a fun, bite-sized adventure with a bit of depth under the hood if you’re willing to give it a look. Can the character designers get a raise for this game, please? And let Megan McDuffie just do all the songs from now on. ALL OF THEM.

#9 - Astral Chain

Most people assumed if we were going to get a Switch exclusive game by Platinum this year, it’d be Bayonetta 3 but instead Nintendo surprised us with Astral Chain, the anime cop action game we didn’t know we wanted. The game boasts great visuals and is probably the most content-rich Platinum game ever made for starters, but for me the true draw is in the combat. Playing as your police officer in tandem with an alien creature known as a Legion, this tag-team action game is unlike pretty much anything else on the market. While the game starts off very simplistic, the Legion itself moving and attacking with no input from the player, over time more and more options unlock and things get considerably more complicated. By game’s end, you’re drowning in options, and once things clicked, combat was always a treat. With plenty of enemies to practice with, Legions to master and a gigantic post-game filled with challenging encounters, I had more fun with the combat in this game than I did with a lot of other games this year. That said, I do feel that Astral Chain could have benefitted from trimming some fat or rethinking its overall structure. For being a new IP with some bold ideas, I’m willing to accept these as kinks that can hopefully be ironed out in a sequel. Oh, and add Lappy to Smash already. You know you want to, Sakurai.

#8 - BABA IS YOU

Puzzle games are hard sells for me, since I don’t like the frustration that often comes from being stuck. You feel dumb, you get embarrassed and turn the game off in shame, or at least that’s my experience. But then sometimes you get a game so clever, so…weird, that you can’t help but be sucked into it. BABA IS YOU is a block-pushing puzzle game, with the twist being that the “rules” of a particular stage are often physically present in levels and are in fact blocks that can be pushed and manipulated by the player. ROCK is PUSH, WALL is STOP, FLAG is WIN and BABA is YOU. But what if you can’t touch the flag because the wall is in the way? Well, make it so WALL is PUSH to move it aside, or maybe make it so that BABA is WIN and you become the win condition itself. As the game goes on, more modifiers and rules are slowly introduced and absorbed into your own internal logic of the game, logic that increasingly has to be broken and remade to suit your needs. It’s a very empowering experience when the solution clicks and the results can often be hilarious and surprising. This game also GOES PLACES the further you go in, and I’d rather not ruin that surprise for anyone who might be looking into the game. Definitely one of the most innovated titles I’ve played in a LONG time. BABA is GOOD.

#7 - Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid

OK, so…hear me out. Power Rangers was a franchise I was obsessed with as a kid, and while I don’t follow it anymore, there’s still some love for it flowing in my veins. So when a small, no-name studio puts out a Power Ranger fighting game that takes the simplified controls of Smash Bros. and the tag-team craziness of Marvel vs. Capcom and slaps it all together for a cool twenty bucks or so? Well you got yourself a purchase and it ended up being WAY more fun than I expected. Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid is far from the best looking fighter on the market, it’s single-player content is lacking, and it’s roster, while interesting, isn’t as big as a lot of the competition, but damn if it isn’t fun to play. With characters taken from across the franchise’s long history, from the live-action movie reboot to the comic books, each choice has been inspired and resulted in an incredibly varied cast. With no crazy inputs for special moves, combined with a tagging system that lets you cycle through your three-Ranger team quickly, the game is the best kind of chaotic fun, but true masters can command that chaos and channel it into cool combos that make you want to say “Morphinominal!” Considering it’s a budget title, it’s also received a fair amount of updates throughout the year to pad out the roster with both free and paid DLC fighters, a full story mode and improvements to the netcode and overall presentation., so if you passed on it at launch, it’s much improved now. It’s not gonna be a fighting game on everyone’s radar, but I’d rather support it than the grind-heavy slog Mortal Kombat has become…Now just hurry up and add that monster that baked the Rangers into a pizza!

#6 - New Super Lucky’s Tale

If your name isn’t Mario or Sonic, 3D platformers are effectively dead. That said, there’s been a few up-and-comers in recent years that are trying to revive the genre. Hat Kid from A Hat in Time, the duo of Yooka-Laylee, and now Lucky from the folks at Playful Studios. The cute fox has quite the history, starting from the Oculus Rift title, Lucky’s Tale, to a full-fledged platformer on the Xbox One X, Super Lucky’s Tale and now the enhanced port/reimagining New Super Lucky’s Tale on Switch. Halfway between a full-blown sequel, and enhanced edition, the game takes assets from the Xbox original game, tweaking and refining everything from visuals to controls to level layouts. The result is a game that is incredibly well-polished. It looks great, Lucky is a treat to control as he moves from jumping, burrowing and sliding around fluidly, and the variety on display keeps things interesting. We’ve got full 3D levels, 2D levels, auto-runners, and even some marble maze levels and puzzles thrown in for good measure. It’s not a hard game, but it IS incredibly fun, and well made. We don’t get many 3D platformers these days, so cherish what little comes of the genre. I hope Playful and Nintendo continue to collaborate, as they really seem more at home here. Just…maybe don’t add more words to the title of the next game, guys.

#5 - Katana Zero

There’s no nice way to say it: there’s too many pixel-based, side-scrolling indie games out there, so the ones that DO stand out deserve to be celebrated. Katana Zero has a real ‘80s flair for starters, using bright neon, TV and VCR visual effects, and a synth soundtrack to give it some real style. When a game kicks off with you slowing down time and reflecting a bullet back at an enemy with your katana, you make a good first impression! Add in the trial-and-error that is planning the perfect route through a stage, the satisfying slicing and dicing of enemies, the unique, challenging boss encounters, and you have a game that was on my radar for a while, before I finally got into it at the end of the year. Its storyline is pretty interesting too, with some slight variances in how events unfold depending on your words and actions, though it ending on a bit of a cliffhanger is a bummer. That said, when a game leaves you wanting more, there’s worse problems to have. At the very least, there’s some DLC hinted at that might be interesting, as well as the implications that this is the merely the first in a trilogy, and at this point I’m game for whatever developer Askiisoft has in store.

#4 - Luigi’s Mansion 3

The GameCube was an odd era for Nintendo, as they attempted to innovate and try new ideas rather than rely purely on their old standbys. Case-in-point, rather than launch the console with a new Mario platformer, his second-banana brother Luigi got his first starring role in what would become the Luigi’s Mansion series. While not making QUITE as big of a splash as maybe Nintendo hoped, it’s garnered a decent fanbase, and when a sequel was announced for 3DS, people ate it up. Considering the gap between the first and second games, I think many people were surprised at the relatively quick turn-around for the third installment. I was also surprised at the overall quality and how much I enjoyed digging into it. For starters, Luigi’s Mansion 3 is easily one of the better-looking Switch titles, boasting some great lighting and particle effects, with some fun physics implemented for just about everything in the massive mansion. Luigi and company are animated with a lot of expressiveness that never gets old, and the music sets the tone perfectly too. From a gameplay standpoint, the toolset Luigi gains gives him ample options to poke at every nook and cranny, with the slimy doppelganger Gooigi being the clear stand-out. Some of the floors of the Last Resort hotel that Luigi must ascend are particularly massive and intricate too, some floors feeling like Legend of Zelda-style dungeons. While not a particularly challenging game, it’s still really satisfying to poke and prod at everything in sight, sucking in all the coins, gold bars and stacks of paper bills you can handle, not to mention slamming the ghosts around like the Hulk does to Loki. There’s also multiplayer! That I…haven’t really touched but…hey! More bang for your buck, surely!

#3 – Dragon Quest XI S

I don’t consider myself a huge fan of JRPGs. Or at least that’s what I thought before I tried out the Dragon Quest XI demo on Switch. I ended up falling for the game hard and bought the full release, carrying my demo data over and not stopping until I hit credits. Despite having never touched a Dragon Quest game before, outside of an hour or so of VIII, I was overcome with this feeling of nostalgia when it came to this game. That’s because Dragon Quest is THE quintessential JRPG game, the originator of all that we take for granted today. It was nice to feel right at home with a simple, effective combat system, rather than having to watch games re-invent the wheel in an attempt to stand out from the pack (sorry Xenoblade), and the story itself, while predictable and a little basic at times, was told well and told earnestly. It really nailed the feeling of going on a grand adventure, with enough twists on the formula to keep things interesting. The turn-based combat was elementary, but always presented me with fair challenges and lots of ways to solve the encounters laid before me, with enough quality-of-life features added in to minimize grind and make things more convenient. The Switch version of Dragon Quest XI featured a bunch of new content on top of a game that had more than enough going for it, and it’s clear a lot of work was done to make this port as faithful as could be, and it stands out not just as a great port on a system known for some shoddy ones, but as a title that’s brimming with as much polish and quality to rival first-party Switch titles. Don’t ban Hero in Smash and don’t miss out on this game if you haven’t taken the plunge already!

#2 – Devil May Cry 5

The Devil May Cry franchise has had its share of ups and downs over the years. For every game that’s considered a success, you have another game that doesn’t quite measure up. For years many thought the franchise was dead in the water after the attempted reboot, DMC: Devil May Cry failed to grow its audience, but when Microsoft’s E3 2018 show revealed to us a new installment, fans were ecstatic. Devil May Cry 5 boasts crisp visuals, deep combat and trims the fat, removing the wonky platforming and puzzles of earlier games to create a high-octane action experience that ultimately exceeded fan expectations. Its storyline firmly plants Devil May Cry 4’s Nero as a main character in his own right, wraps up the story of the Sparda brothers neatly, and if this ended up being the last title in the series, I think it’s that rare ending that ends up being totally satisfying. Combat is the real draw here though, the game giving players three distinct characters to learn and master. Nero’s robotic Devil Breaker arms allow him a decent amount of variety, while having a balanced, beginner-friendly combat style for new players. Dante remains the king of variety, having more weapons than ever before combined with his signature style switching, though the game is actually designed with all these options in mind so he doesn’t end up breaking the game like he did in 4. Newcomer V ends up being a breath of fresh air, controlling up to three demonic summons at once, forcing players to really think more strategically. The music is incredible too; Nero’s own theme, Devil Trigger, has been stuck in my head since last year and I don’t see it leaving any time soon. All things considered, Devil May Cry 5 might be the best game in the franchise, and a worthy contender for game of the year personally. Now if only we had a special edition with Vergil and the ladies playable…

#1 - Fire Emblem: Three Houses

I got into the Fire Emblem series with Awakening and really liked it a lot, however Fates, the next installment, left a bad taste in my mouth. I couldn’t really get into Echoes, itself a remake of the second game in the series, and I began to wonder if this franchise was really for me. I was willing to give Three Houses a shot, but I was not prepared for the game to blow past all my expectations. Fire Emblem: Three Houses isn’t just a good game, it’s a game that’s redeemed a franchise that’s stumbled a bit in recent years, and it likely cements Fire Emblem as a core Nintendo franchise for years to come. It has class, depth and real heart...with only minor creepy or pervy elements! Making a grand return to home consoles after more than a decade on handhelds, it goes big and it ultimately paid off, on track to become the best-selling entry in the series. The school setting might seem weird at first, and I wondered how well I’d adjust to it, but being able to instruct your units and influence their growth in battle was worth the learning curve. Things are introduced slowly enough that the flow of the game becomes relatively easy to manage, if a bit time-consuming overall. With four distinct storylines you can explore, TONS of character interactions and some interesting tweaks to the strategic gameplay the series is known for, I’m confident in saying that Three Houses is well-worth a purchase for newcomers to the franchise. Divine Pulse is a great quality-of-life addition that lets you undo mistakes, rather than force you to start over from scratch, and overall the UI and layout of the game gives you enough information to make informed decisions without overwhelming you. Makes me wonder how we survived before the games showed us who enemies would target on their turns before now. Admittedly, some aspects of the progression have some issues, especially at endgame, and visually the game really is not up to par most of the time, but these end up being tiny blemishes in the long run for me. They certainly weren’t bad enough to prevent me from starting a new path the instant I finished my first route. If I have one request…just make Claude a gay option. Give the people what they want, Nintendo!

Honorable Mentions

I’d like to add on some honorable mentions here before we close things out, though most of these are things I didn’t even get a chance to play, but they certainly might have made this list. For one, Resident Evil 2 Remake seems like a high-quality reinterpretation of the survival-horror classic, but I can’t do horror so I’ll likely pass it up. It’s also for that reason that I might not get to Control but I might try jumping out of my comfort zone for that one. The confusion surrounding both The Other Worlds AND The Outer Wilds is funny, but they’re both space-based games I’d be keen on getting to at some point down the line; the former is a great Western RPG by the folks who made the GOOD Fallout games, while the latter is an interesting space-faring puzzler with some interesting mechanics I’d rather not spoil for those not more in-the-know. Indie titles Sayonara Wild Hearts and GRIS definitely caught my attention with their great visuals, and in the case of the former, its soundtrack, even if the gameplay wasn’t quite there for me, and the weird fighting-game-but-kinda-RPG that is Indivisible demands my attention sooner or later. Bloodstained is the Castlevania follow-up I keep forgetting is out, and I hear great things about Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair. The team behind the Yakuza series recently made a spin-off of sorts, Judgment that hit the West this year and while I like the Yakuza series for its quirky tone and fun combat, there’s still six other games I’d have to sift through, so going with Judgment, which is set to possibly begin a new franchise, seems like a good alternative. And how could I forget the likes of Shovel Knight as we finally receive the last expansion that’s been years in the making? I haven’t touched the King of Cards expansion yet, but I have the upmost faith in anything Yacht Club makes, so that’s surely a game of the year contender. 2019 was crazy good! Glad to close the year out with so much quality, and tons of great stuff to add to the ever-growing backlog.

Hope you had some good gaming memories made this year!

-B

[ausblack]

Tattoo Artist! Taehyung

Back at it again with them headcanons because who doesn’t like them am I right

Let’s just imagine Taehyung with messy hair and a god-like visual.

He always wore black jeans and shirts with short sleeves, that could let you see all his tattoos.

He started being interested in art when he was in his twenties and decided to learn how to draw because he wanted to be like Vincent Van Gogh sunbaenim.

All his tattoos where colorful and based on paintings that he loved to admire every day

Opening a shop by himself was a huge accomplishment for him and it became like a little hideaway; a place where he could stay whenever he was stressed or bored

He left school because school ain’t shit and after a while his bestfriends Jimin and Jungkook decided to work in the shop with him.

They were both going at drawing as well so they usually did sketchs.

Imagine how hot these three boys would be with tattoos, piercings and stuff oml

Back to Taehyung,

He loved to talk with his costumers and became friends with almost all of them because he was extremely friendly and a true social butterfly

The girls drooled in front of him because he was flirty as fuck (with boys as well) and tried to get his phone number multiple times, but he never went out with them.

He probably fucked some girl in his studio but for him relationship weren’t that important.

Taehyung could be a bit of a fuckboy sometimes but it wasn’t that bad for those girls, because at least they could get a good fuck and a free tattoo.

You actually went to his shop because you wanted to get a piercing in your ear, while your friend tattooed her arm.

She decided to get it for her eighteenth birthday and you went as well because she needed moral support.

You weren’t exactly a tattoo person, but piercing were could and you could take them off if you grew tired of them.

Taehyung’s studio was actually pretty famous in town and you’ve heard rumors about how good he was, but when you saw his sketchs hung on the wall, it was something else.

The designs weren’t dark nor grisly, but colourful and artistic, as if they were taken from an art book.

When you first got inside, you were welcomed buy a guy with a big smile and sweet eyes.

Who could it be?

Jimin has blonde bleached hair but they didn’t look damaged or anything like that

His hair was lucious as he touched them continuously with his right hand.

“What can I do to help these beautiful girls?” He looked at you leaning on the counter; you could feel from miles away that flirting with costumers was not odd at all for him.

“Damn” you elbowed the side of your friend at her comment making Jimin laugh.

“She’s here to get a tattoo.” You said looking at your friend’s face, red as a plum.

Apparently all she needed was a pretty face in front of her to get so flustered.

“Kookie is already preparing the tools, you can go to the studio after signing a couple of papers.” He gave her a wink and she almost choked on her own saliva, making you laugh out loud.

“What about you? Wanna keep it classy?” Jimin (as you red on the table) asked you with a raised eyebrow, looking at your plain skin.

“I just came here for her, but I won’t mind getting a piercing or something.” You said and he nodded.

“You sure you don’t want a tattoo? Tae is free at the moment.” He insisted but you refused with a smile.

“I’m good. Just a piercing will do.” You smiled politely at him and he nodded.

“I’ll call Tae.” He said before going out of the room. You sat on a couch, waiting for the famous and legendary “Tae” to come out, expecting a huge guy full of tattoos and a mean look in his face; but the guy that came in front of you was completely the opposite of what you were expecting.

A guy with a bright smile came in greeting you as politely as he could.

“Hi I’m Taehyung, are you the girl that wants the piercing?” He asked you shacking your hand and you nodded smiling back at him.

“Come with me.” He pointed the room at the end of the hallway and you followed him.

The room was apparently his studio, painted of black with colourful drawings all over the place.

“Wow these are pretty.” You muttered looking at the papers on the table.

“Do you want one? I can give you also a tattoo.” He said leaning the tools that he was going to use for the piercing.

“My parents don’t like tattoos so I guess getting one right now it’s not a great idea.” You explained sitting on the chair next to him.

“So you’re a good girl that listens to the her parents.” He said to you without looking away from the small needle in his hands. You scoffed at his comment.

“Until I move out of their house, yes.” You talked back looking at your shoes.

“Don’t worry princess, I wasn’t judging.” He replied making you blush. He said the nickname so instantly, he was probably used to say it to the other costumers, you thought.

“Where do you want it?” He asked you holding the needle with gloves on.

“Here.” You pointed the tip of your ear and he nodded, cleaning the spot.

“I guess parents like yours wouldn’t like guys like me.” He said out of no where, probably to distract you from the tiny bit of pain that the needle in your skin was going to provoke.

“Who cares what they think.” He smiled at your comment, putting a strand of hair behind your ear, caressing your cheek lightly while doing it.

You looked back at the drawings on the wall, mesmerized by one in particular.

It was the painting of a flower that bloomed with differents shades of colors from red to light blue.

The bottom of the flower was kept inside of a small bag, closed with a red string.

He had finished cleaning your ear and he started to talk once again.

“So they won’t mind having their good girl at home with a bad boy?” He asked smirking at you.

You felt your cheeks getting redder once again and you thought that maybe you weren’t so different from your friend.

“As long as that bad boy treats me right.” He smiled and you did the same.

“I would feel bad with someone as angelic as you.” He said under his breath, making your smile grow wider.

Damn he knew how to win the heart of a girl.

“I guess you shouldn’t judge a book from it’s cover.” You said smirking lightly while looking at him.

He smiled back putting the piercing in your ear, before letting you stand up.

“Wow that was quick.” You said and he nodded quietly.

“I guess I should go to my friend, she’s probably cursing in every language she knows right now.” He laughed and you felt your heart miss a beat, watching his beautiful smile.

“I understand..To bad We won’t see each other again.” You gave him a small smile but he didn’t reply this time.

He looked immersed in his thoughts.

“Too bad, I really wanted to make art on your skin.” He said with a serious expression, surprising you.

You looked at him thinking about what he had said before.

He was right. It was art so who cared if your parents were against them?

“When are you free?” You asked him and he widened his eyes.

“You want a tattoo?” Tae asked you and you pointed at the drawing that you were watching before.

“I’ll get an appointment so that you can do it.” You said going out of the studio but he stopped you when you reached the waiting room, where Jimin was.

He wrote quickly something with a pencil and you realized that it was his phone number, written in a small piece of paper.

You smiled at him, taking it from his hands.

He smiled at you scratching nervously the back of his neck.

“Call me whenever you want me to give it to you.” He said and you nodded, not hearing the gasp that Jimin had made when he saw the two of you.

Was he dreaming?

It was something that he had never saw before.

The Kim Taehyung was giving his phone number to a girl.

[i-am-regular-scenarios]

NCT U/127 At First Sight

I don’t quite know how this came to mind but I started noticing certain things that reminded me of each of the members and figured I’d share them with you guys. 

So here is what the members remind me of at first sight and how they are connected. 

~

Taeyong 

ROSE 

He’s exceptionally beautiful. 

The most sought after flower, he symbolizes passion and desire.

He can be as sweet as his cherry pedals or as mysterious and dangerous as his sharp thorns.

He is dark, sleek and sexy. 

He drips with the water of a fresh rain and glistens as the beads slowly glide down the soft flower. 

He is truly a sight and a delicate piece of art and deserves to be treated that way. 

Jaehyun

CLOUDS

He is soft and fluffy. 

He protects you from the harsh rays of the sun, and is pure and simple in his own ways. 

His beauty is mesmerizing and appears so delicate. 

Don’t be fooled though, he can turn dark in no time. 

He may seem fluffy at first glance, but he holds his secrets too. 

His appearance can turn rough and dark capturing your gaze differently. 

No one is able to turn away once his brightness is gone. 

Everyone wants to know what he will do next. 

Johnny

CARAMEL CAPPUCCINO 

Sweet to the taste, and hot to the touch.

He looks like one thing, and is something completely different underneath. 

He looks like coffee, smells like coffee, but upon first taste, the sweetness attacks your tongue and you are left blindsided. 

He’s warm and comforting but also fresh and chic. 

He’s pleasant and refreshing. 

He fills you with an energizing buzz that is addicting. 

Smooth and thick like caramel. 

Ten

GRAPES

He’s soft, and tastes just as sweet as he looks.

Perfectly blending with other fruits, however, his overpowering flavor is easy to pick up on. 

Grown from sunshine and tender care. 

He can hit you a little sourly sexy at times, something you never expected, but you’ll always come back for more. 

You can never have just one because of his sweet taste and beautiful appearance. 

Taeil

CASSETTE

Oldie, but totally a goodie. Not even that old...

He holds tunes just for your listening pleasure. The music comes out soft and subtle but enough for you to hear the mesmerizing sounds. 

His sleek appearance gives off a proud and confident appeal. 

You don’t expect it, but once you’ve heard him, you’ll never forget him. 

You cherish your favorite tape and take good care of him. 

Just one glance at him brings you a prickling happiness.

Doyoung 

APPLES

Bright from the outside, yet sugary sweet on the inside.

He can be bruised easily from mishandling and deserves to be cherished with care. Protect NCT

Whether as juice, sauce, or as himself, he knows no limits.

Beautiful from the outside, desirable from the inside. 

You can only pick one like him, and you must climb to the very top to do it. 

Win Win

SODA 

Syrupy sweet, thick, and smooth. 

He can be refreshing and delicious. 

He bubbles with excitement and fizzles with anticipation and hard work.

Under rated *cough cough* and deserves to be recognized for his versatility. 

Sprite singing, Coke dancing, Dr. Pepper visuals, Root Beer personality...He has it all

He leaves you with a happy feeling and looks great in all colors. Seriously he can wear anything. 

Yuta

SUNGLASSES

Chic from the outside.

He protects you with bits of his confidence. 

He reflects his light onto anyone passing him by, and he’s usually cool to the touch. 

Completing almost anyone’s outfit, he’s essential for a good time out. 

He brings peace and protection. 

He brings comfort and style. 

He bring happiness and confidence. 

Mark 

SUNSHINE

Blinding, yet warm and inviting. Raps like a Boss, is actually a fluff ball.

He brings comfort and protection, doing all he can to help others.

Clears away any gloominess there may be.

He is beautiful and can be captured beautifully in most pieces of art.

Every rainbow needs sunshine. 

He can bring the heat, and usually is associated with fun and happy times. 

Everyone needs sunshine. 

Jungwoo

WATER

Refreshing and smooth.

Like Mark, he is essential to life. 

He quenches your thirst.

He is soft and usually cooling on your burning skin. 

He can be heated or cooled but most people appreciate him for his selflessness and ability to reflect so much light. He’s a literally ball of sunshine.

He moves fluidly, and everyone wants to hear even just a tiny bit of him. 

No conch shell can capture his beautiful and powerful voice though.

Lucas

LIGHTNING

Most people are confused by his dark appearance. 

Mysterious clouds and cools winds. 

However, he can crack at any moment and brighten up in front of your eyes. From beautiful and mysterious to literal meme in .005 seconds

Rippling across the sky in beautiful and unique patterns.  

Voice as deep as a roll of thunder, and it causes you to shiver and your house to shake.

He is sought after. 

Don’t get too close though, you may get burned. And by you, I mean your bias list. If he hasn’t already burned it that is...

Haechan

ORANGES

He can be sickly sweet, but yet sour at the same time. 

Oh how he loves being sour. 

Vitamin C with his beautiful Vitamin D, his color is alluring and mesmerizing 

Perfect on a hot day, and used to zest tons of desserts.

Always improving those around him yet amazingly refreshing on his own. 

Nothing beats that smell that fills the air as you peel an orange. Nothing beats all of Haechan’s amazing qualities.

I hope you liked it. I do not own any of the pictures used and all rights are reserved to the proper owners.