#like yeah sure project your personal story onto a character as a means to try and heal

[novantinuum]

continually annoyed by how every single post i've seen supporting the notion that "the journal pages in BoB were fakes" just feels like thinly veiled anti material

[ceaselesswatchersspecialboy]

Heyo! Got a question or two. (Or six-)

- Do you ship Mabifica? Or Dipcifica for that matter? I personally like the former more but I'm just imagining Bill's reaction to having to deal with the fact the girl who insulted Mabel is now dating her/her brother.

Actually, even if you ship neither, I just want his reaction the the Pine twins now being friends(?) With Paz.

Would he try to scare her off? Would he warm up to her?

(If you couldn't already tell, Pacifica is one of my favorite characters, just below Mabel.)

- Does Stan and Ford ever get as close as they did at the end of the show? I mean, Ford must be reeling, sure. But.. Do they ever get on that boat?

- Does Bill make an effort to reconcile with Ford? Even just a show of apology?

- And does Ford bond with the twins? Would he just see them as another thing Bill has tainted?

- Also. Are you planning to make fanfiction of this? Or a comic? Or any media that tells the story? It's now become an integral part of my life.

- Last one! What other bonding moments does Bill have with Wendy? We've got the bets, yeah. But is that all?

(I found your au an hour and a half ago, and I'm already this invested. That is absolutely amazing, considering I don't really latch on to things. (Thanks a lot, autism) I love the art, and I love the tidbits. If it ever gets too overwhelming, don't be afraid to take a breather!! ><)

Hello! I shall do my best to answer!

— I’m personally a Dipcifica enjoyer myself! I don’t see them getting together this summer, so it’s less of a dating thing, but Bill would be decent at recognising the signs of a crush forming thanks to Mabel exposure all summer. He’d be completely against it. He’s listing every reason why the Northwests suck to Dipper, all the times Pacifica has done something to make Mabel feel awful! He’s maybe a little dramatic about it, in true Bill fashion, and is taken aback when Mabel insists it’s okay.

Pacifica’s changing, they both say! Mabel fully intends to be Dipper’s wingman!

Bill finds that idea ridiculous. People don’t just change. Humans are known for staying the same once they’ve settled into their body — that’s just how it is.

Pacifica has proven to be the opposite of everything Bill has taught the twins, and so he sees the blooming friendship as a threat and doesn’t like it. It doesn’t help that it’s around the time his fear of changing is at an all time high, so he’s maybe projecting a little onto Pacifica.

He definitely tries to scare her off initially, and when that doesn’t work, he settles with threatening her should she ever make Mabel upset against. His threats are… very intense and it’s clear the issue runs deeper than just Pacifica. He really goes for her insecurities. Honestly, this may be one of his worst moments in front of the twins? Stan ends up having to intervene and try to figure out what’s going on in Bill’s head beyond just being protective over Mabel.

(Pacifica girl I am so sorry)

He doesn’t warm to her per se, not yet, as much as he learns to tolerate her sometimes being around. She does her best to avoid him anyhow.

— Still working out the exact details so I don’t have much to say right now, but yes, he does. A verbal apology from Bill is also kind of a big deal. Like Stan struggles saying Please, and Ford struggles saying thank you, Bill struggles saying sorry.

— Ford does bond with the twins! I think I mentioned in a post a bit ago that Dungeons Dungeons and more Dungeons is like a gateway for their relationship, and it helps Ford become more comfortable around them and vice versa. Though the general unease still lingers at times, Dipper starts to get comfortable asking him more and more questions about Gravity Falls, and Mabel knits him a few sweaters and tries to catch him up on all the pop culture he’s missed etc. Sometimes he snaps at them when he needs space, and he tends to hide behind Stan some days, but they do get to know this new Ford, and begin to get closer to him bit by bit before Summer ends.

I think he does see them as something Bill has tainted, but not in an irreversible way. If anything, it motivates him to try and get to know them more once the initial fear has settled, to try and re-instate himself as Ford Pines, and be their Great Uncle.

— I don’t plan on making a fic or a comic, mainly because I am busy right now and juggling a lot. It just isn’t something feasible for me and I notoriously don’t do well managing long projects. But, I am hoping to do art and maybe mini comics for it, once I defeat my art block and style crisis, perhaps some one-shots too if I can also defeat my eternal writers block. I’m honoured you think that way of it though!!

— They generally have a very positive relationship! Bill is seen as the cooler Stan by her friends, mainly because of the fact he doesn’t really act his age, and happily enables anything they want to do, and so whenever she needs something, she tends to go to him. (“No hard feelings Stan!”) And If Stan taught her how to shoplift, Bill probably taught her how to get away with murder, not that she’d really need that, the thought still counts. They also share similar music tastes, so when Bill’s around the shack, he’ll ask Wendy to blast some AC/DC while they work. He’s also taught her all the ways to get under Stan’s skin, because he knows for a fact she’ll use them.

I think this AU too, he’s the one who showed her the rooftop spot. He encouraged any form of rebelling against the system, even if that means slacking and getting Stan to shout at both of them.

Thank you so much!? That means a lot to hear and I hope you continue to enjoy it!! And I appreciate it, I’m trying to take it slow and answer whatever asks I can and when I can, to avoid getting overwhelmed.

[clanwarrior-tumbly]

Omg hey I woul like to request something ! Ken x Reader (male, if possible) where the reader teaches Ken about the real world and they're also very in love. Thank you very much !

When Ken returned to the Real World again, he had a vision similar to Barbie's--realizing his owner was nearby.

Instead of a child....it's you, an adult who (like Gloria) inadvertently projected your own insecurities onto him while looking at an unboxed Beach Ken doll in your attic.

When you were younger, you really wanted to play with it unlike other boys who had action figures and nerf guns...but you were sorta shamed into keeping it boxed, as your parents said it would be more "valuable" one day.

Similarly..Ken had been stuck in a box all his life, trapped in the role of Barbie's accessory until recently.

So there's an instant connection when you two meet.

To make a long story short, you're like "ohhh hey I guess I kinda fucked up your mental stability, bro...you wanna come over and we can talk about it, man-to-man?"

He was very eager to go with you and learn more about your world beyond all the patriarchy and toxic masculinity.

You tell him about using your "male privilege" for good, and one defining example was when a random woman taps him on the shoulder, looking terrified and almost in tears.

"H-Hi, um..this is gonna sound really awkward but can you two pretend to be my friends for a second? This guy has been following me-"

"Of course." You reassure her, before looking to the confused Ken and telling him to go along with it.

The creepy guy comes along and backs off when he sees you two standing there protecting this lady, and once he's gone, she thanks you with hugs before leaving.

"I think I did a good job." Ken turns to you for validation, eyes shimmering. "Was that good, [y/n]? I mean playing pretend is all I've ever done so-"

"Yep. You did great." You chuckle, patting his shoulder. "I'm glad she thought you were a safe person to approach."

He nods and is giddy the whole way back home, especially when you get into your car and show him the different mechanisms, with him clinging to every detail.

These life lessons you're teaching him, however, made him think back to the "Kendom"...and he admits to trying to reinvent patriarchy there and feels ashamed of how he treated the Barbies.

He didn't think he'd open up this quickly to you, considering he never had any "manly" talks with other Kens (besides beach-offs).

But besides you being his owner, there's something about you that just made him feel...secure enough to do so. Like he could tell you anything.

You listen and reassure him that acknowledging his mistakes was a great first step to unlearning those toxic mindsets.

With all of that finally hashed out, you decide to show him the simple pleasures of the real world. Like cooking, watching TV, playing video games, etc.

Just mundane things you regularly do, with Ken picking up on some of your habits/routines as well as having some independence of his own.

You two grow closer as a result over the next few weeks, and you began falling for him and his humor and his charming smiles-

Yeah, you're 100% smitten for this doll who crossed worlds to meet you.

But you're not sure if he felt (or even could feel) the same way, since he was made to love Barbie and was...clearly still getting over his "breakup" with her. So you left it be.

That changes when you show him some emotional movie where the lead male characters showed vulnerability (ie Good Will Hunting or Brokeback Mountain) and he unconsciously holds your hand as he stares at the screen, tears staining his cheeks.

While the credits roll, your heart melts as he looks at you with those pretty blue eyes, his watery smile persistent.

"Th-Thanks for showing me this, [y/n].."

"Of course, Ken. Now you know that us guys don't always have to pretend to be tough. We're allowed to have feelings." You rub your thumb across his knuckles, a sweet gesture which makes him blush.

On the subject of feelings, he realizes that the ones he has for you are...leaning more into romance than "bromance" (yeah you taught him that term and it's part of his vocabulary now).

He becomes uncharacteristically quiet when you ask him what's on his mind, before he leans in to kiss you on the cheek. Purely on impulse.

You're both flustered at what happened, yet he panics internally when you don't say anything, trying to get up to leave so you didn't see him cry over the stupid decision he made-

"Ken, it's okay." You take his hands, convincing him to sit back down. "I had no idea you swung that way, but I'm...actually glad."

"Glad? Y-You're not...mad or anything?" He sniffles.

"Of course not. I....was planning to come out of the closet sooner or later. I just didn't know when or how to bring it up, but....I guess I don't have to worry about that anymore, thank god."

"So...does this makes us boyfriend and g....boyfriend?"

"If you want it to be, sure. I wouldn't mind a handsome doll being the love of my life." You wink.

Ken mirrors your smile, relieved to know you reciprocated his feelings.

Then he gets stumped on something and his eyebrows furrow.

"Wait...what closet were you talking about?"

Oh boy.

You just chuckle and give him a kiss on the lips.

Falling in love with a Ken doll from Barbieland certainly wasn't on your bucket list....

But you're perfectly content with that.

[shizunitis]

Whats the worst SV take youve seen?

this has turned into something entirely too long, and the subject kind of got away from me, so i’m adding a cut. yapping king of shizun city, you understand. anyway:

a rather demoralising and shocking opinion i saw, when i first got into the fandom (having just finished reading and letting the story stew in my brain for a while) was the “luo binghe is selfish and hysterical”. two other ones which kind of baffled me were, “shen qingqiu is clearly stupid and short-sighted” and “shen qingqiu isn’t attrated to binghe.” and there were some rather callous comments about shen yuan’s internalised homophobia that i like to think were just worded poorly and i was being overly-sensitive at the time.

i never got into discussions over fandom wank, cause it’s a waste of time and energy and a brand of silly i don’t enjoy, but it was kind of like getting cold ice thrown over my head for no reason.

why couldn’t they understand who these characters fundamentally are? why was it so hard to empathise with the choices these characters made?

i suppose the main things is, i don’t really understand why one wouldn’t even attempt to see things from the characters’ perspectives, mostly. that’s what i usually try to do, and it was a bit of a culture shock to see how some people online engage with media.

like, isn’t that the point? to see characters different from us try to navigate their version of the world? to empathise? why do we have to be so cruel even when engaging with fantasy? why fight tooth and nail to bend the characters this way and that, just so it’s more palatable, so it fits certain tropes, so it’s more relatable? do you have to see yourself in something to appreciate it? i mean, yeah, kind of, i guess. but. at times, it feels like people are trying to distance themselves from the art they’re enjoying because one thing didn’t cater to them. if that makes sense. i hope it does.

just. why comment, with your real fingers, and project onto my real screen, vitriol for a character who 1) is not real, 2) cannot hurt you and 3) you clearly don’t care to explore and understand in good faith? why are you here if it doesn’t serve you? isn’t that just sucking the joy out of everything? you can always let it go?

“internet etiquette” is a weird term to me because i’m weird, but it does make things easier when you’re polite and curious rather than. whatever some people are doing. et cetera.

admittedly, that’s more of a me probably not understanding something. that’s always a very real possibility, and i can be uncharitable at times, especially when i’m tired. alas, it’s my blog, i very rarely am not tired, and i’m too many words deep to stop at this point. i get to complain how i want.

back to the main point: both luo binghe and shen qingqiu are characters that were written very well, and clearly have a lot of soul and thought put into them. their motivations are not hard to figure out. (especially in binghe’s case, but shizun’s aren’t that difficult to parse if you think for a bit.)

the comments weren’t especially vicious, save for some outliers which i suspect had more of a personal bias, and i did manage to eventually find my way to a corner of fandom that can, in fact, read. but i do wonder, sometimes, how some of these people would react to the actually toxic, one-dimensional yaoi filth i read.

just. you are reading a master-disciple fantasy romance, in the end. being shocked and horrified when the master-disciple fantasy romance has master-disciple fantasy romance tropes in it is a bit silly.

anyway. i hope the first people i encountered in the svsss/danmei fandom are well, and that they’ve since started reading/watching works with characters they enjoy seeing, rather than powering through something they clearly don’t resonate with.

also, that they’ve learned to be nicer, maybe. that would be good. would help them, i’d like to think.

i’m sorry if this was not a good answer anon, but you understand, surely. i’m very small and very new to things. trying to figure them out. thank you for the vent material

[jade-kyo]

Season 17 post restoration thoughts

Casually skipping 16 and going straight to 17 because lord knows I can’t afford to lose anymore braincells. I genuinely enjoy this season so I’m looking forward to the rewatch!

Ngl jumping straight from 15 to 17 really highlights how absurd this is like bro why is there gods and shit omg 😂

The fates are racist- that explains a lot

Donut my sweet baby boy

You know as much as I hate time travel stories this works way better for a “lets reference and call back to as many previous arcs and seasons as possible” nostalgia trip than Restoration did

Okay while I personally prefer the take that Donut is fully aware of all the innuendos he makes and is doing it to be a little shit I do think it being unintentional is really funny considering the ace Donut thing

“You have me all wrong” “I doubt it.” Donut the master at not getting gaslit

Donut knows Wash’s name is David- meaning Wash must have told all the reds and blues his real name

JESUS CHRIST DONT KILL JUNIOR

Felix is afraid of knives

Man I love it when Dr. Grey sounds like herself

We love insurance fraud

DONUT WASH TEAM UP MY BELOVED

Wash just silently shooting Donut again has me wheezing holy shit

The Wash and Carolina conflict is so freaking good man I love them

Man this season is just genuinely entertaining to watch despite everything- the way I wish we could’ve gotten this character writing with a better story

Oh what’s that a way to reference back to all the freelancers that includes Wyoming and the triplets. The concepts are wild again.

Also it’s just genuinely hilarious

WASH SCREAMING INSIDE HIS HELMET

DELTA OMG I FORGOT HE WAS IN THIS SEASON

I need to find the ost for when Wash and Carolina reunite and she’s saying how she trusts him and doesn’t know why bro this music is so pretty

Seriously I’m enjoying this as a nostalgia trip so much more than restoration

Oh I can feel my inner 15 year old desperately trying to take control of my body and send me down the carwash pipeline again holy shit- platonic or romantic. They’re good either way 🙂

OH GOD THE CABOOSE FEELS AGAIN THIS SHOULD BE ILLEGAL

Kai I love you with all my heart and soul but you do not disrespect Junior like that

STOP BEING MEAN TO DONUT HE IS DOING HIS BEST

Yes Caboose IS a genius and also my son

Kai messing with Tucker is glorious holy shit is that bit funny I love them

“Time is made of circles” what a nice, funny and succinct callback. Look at those concepts being wild.

Not Tucker dropping the “your mom” bit on Doc AGSKHAKS

HELL YEAH DONUT YOU FUCKING TELL THEM THATS MY BABY BOI!!!

PINK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wash might be a competitor with Church for number one Donut Stan

Or simulation headcanon: Church is projecting his liking of Donut onto Wash

Okay but Donut should be in the caves not under the pelican FR PEOPLE STOP FORGETTING ABOUT THE CAVES!!!

Laughs in Spanish

I love competent Caboose and Donut

“My testicles send their regards” has no right being as badass as it is

Love a good Tucker moment- sure wish it wasn’t just redoing his character development that never should’ve been undone to begin with

OKAY BUT TUCKER AND DONUT MOMENT THO???? So good- can’t believe Donut is the “angsty bitch”

WASH AND CAROLINA AKDHAKBSKSHSKDHK

Love them talking about the AI like they’re Carolina’s siblings

Holy shit the voice acting between these two is so good

“If he’s single there’s no hope for any of us” sargington nation rise

Sarcastic Donut my beloved

I said this last time but seeing Church impaled by a golf club, even if it is actually Genkins, is entirely unnecessary bro I don’t wanna see that

THE LABYRINTH!!!

GOD CAROLINA VS CAROLINA AGAJSHKAH FROTHING AT THE MOUTH

Sarges vision is further proof that the correct ending for him is retirement

OKAY I STILL HATE THE LOPEZ VISION LISTEN I GET HE COMES BACK BUT ITS JUST IN POOR TASTE

“Don’t say toodles” LOVE sassy Donut so much

DOC BADASS MOMENT LETS GO

GRIF SIBLINGS MY BELOVED

Grif enlisted reveal you will always be famous to me

I never actually thought about it too deeply before but now that I am holy shit do I love that detail it’s so good and actually reminds me of my own brother who enlisted for similar reasons and regrets it now- seriously Grif enlisting is so realistic, a lot of kids sadly think the military is the only thing that can give them structure and purpose. It’s a great addition to the anti military themes of RvB

And yet- despite all these good red team moments- THEY FUCKING TURNED SIMMONS INTO A PENIS JOKE???? AND A BAD ONE AT THAT?????? COME ON S17 I THOUGHT YOU WERE BETTER THAN THIS THATS SOME S16 NONSENSE

TUCKER CANONICALLY HAS PANIC ATTACKS- the fact they kept his visions so vague is truly a CRIME

“Still got my penis” “what-“ GOD DAMN IT THAT ONE WAS ACTUALLY FUNNY COME ON I WAS TRYING TO MAKE A POINT EARLIER

AND WE DONT EVEN KNOW WHAT HAPPENED TO CABOOSE- honestly I know they probably didn’t have this arc planned back then but they should’ve used the labyrinth for Caboose to find closure in Church’s death rather than the Time Machine nonsense in s15. I feel like that would’ve been infinitely more interesting.

Carolina vs Carolina MY BELOVED HOLY SHIT I AM FROTHING AT THE MOUTH

OH FUCK THE FREELANCER TRAINING ROOM IM AKDHKAHSKSH THIS SHIT IS SO GOOD

GIGGLING KICKING MY FEET WE LOVE THE POWER OF FRIENDSHIP

Caboose gets it!!

GOD THE SLOW PIANO COVER OF BLOOD GULCH BLUES I CANT

AAAAAAAGGGGGGGHHHHHH

Man what nice fairly satisfying conclusions to everyone’s arc- don’t we love wild concepts.

Sure maybe it’s not anything super poetic or perfect like 13 but at least it makes sense

Hell I’ve even warmed up to Donut leaving! Bro deserves some him time and it’s not like he said it was permanent or anything… doesn’t that just really hit you in the wild concept 🙂

You know what- this season is genuinely such a delight at times. Im thinking about adding it to my regular rewatch list along with 1-13 as just like a little bonus I can have at the end cause it’s just such fun. Glorified fanfiction! We love to see it- maybe Restoration sucking was a blessing in disguise cause it really gave me a new appreciation for 15 and 17 (but 17 especially). I probably won’t rewatch 15 as much cause being honest I don’t really enjoy it in its entirety as much as 17 but it’s got good moments I love.

Now- I know the logical thing for me to do is go back and watch 16 and then Restoration but here’s the thing… I don’t want to.

I genuinely do not enjoy those seasons. I don’t want to put myself through something that’s just gonna make me angry and bitter just for the sake of giving commentary on them- not right now anyway. Maybe one day I’ll feel like being a bit salty and do it but that’s just really not how I want to spend my time with my favorite show. I’ve already rewatched any clips from restoration that I cared to rewatch and I don’t think any of my feelings on it are gonna change. And I’ve seen 16 enough times to know my feelings won’t change.

Now what I am considering doing is rewatching 1-13 for the 20th time (<- accurate number, I’ve kept count over the years) and continuing to do these thought posts cause they’re good fun to do! So who knows whenever the time comes you’ll probably have to deal with more of my insane ramblings 😂

[lattedecoffee]

Finished Emio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club aka FMC3 or just Emio and holy shit that was a roller coaster.

Gameplay definitely feels updated from the 2021 remakes but not so much that it feels like a different game.

Those characters holy shit. Kamihara had frat boy vibes during his first scene but his voice actor was so good I started growing attached anyway and eventually started shipping him with the protag (Taro Ninten is the closest we have to a default name).

Taro has two hands: one for Ayumi and one for Kamihara. Anyway here's a break before I do spoilers.

Okay before I talk about the climax and especially the epilogue I want to call out Junko Kuze for trying to murder me and then stealing my fucking boyfriend. I love her and she's a fascinating character but she married Taro's boyfriend and I'm salty about it.

Okay so that ending. I had figured out that Makoto thought he was Minoru but I wasn't sure if he had some amount of amnesia or if Emio had fucked with his mind. Turns out it was mostly the amnesia but Emio certainly didn't help matters. Although it wasn't as intentionally malicious of a thing as I originally thought given...

When the game basically had Utsugi go "yeah the epilogue's gonna be real fucked up so make sure you're ready before you start it" I was concerned. The game hadn't provided a content warning before this point so I wondered what could be so severe that they'd provide one now. Watching it basically right before bed was probably a bad idea but somehow I had no nightmares (I did have an irrational "what if Emio's in the dark hallway" that made me use my phone flashlight more than I usually would but that's typical for me with horror games. Happened when I watched Markiplier play FNAF all those years ago but I handled it much better as an adult than as a child).

It was tragic and certainly extreme but the things that happened to Minoru never felt unrealistic. A child drowning as part of her effort to escape her abusive father, her older brother killing their father, and said older brother delusionally believing she was somehow still alive all feels like it could be a real story. The key here is that nobody ever stepped in to help Minoru. People recognized there was a problem all the way back when the father's abuse ramped up but nobody ever stepped in. The juvenile detention center heard him talk about Emiko as if she was still alive and did nothing. The Todorokis never pried into his personal life, which is generally a good and respectful thing to do, but we know he will open to people he trusts given he told Ayaka everything about his past. Ayaka was really the only person who tried but she was 17 and already going through a lot herself. She did seem to be helping him open up but once he saw she was being physically abused he projected Emiko onto her and only spiraled downward from there.

And yet despite all of this Utsugi reminds you what this guy actually did. He killed Ayaka after she freaked out at seeing him kill her abusive father (she also hated the guy but seeing your older brother figure kill someone with no remorse is understandably terrifying). He killed two more girls the same way simply because they were scared of him. He kidnapped a now amnesiac Makoto and told him they were both Minoru Tsuzuki and needed to find Emiko. He almost killed again 18 years later only to have his head bashed in by Makoto who had finally remembered who he was thanks to Junko's bookmark. I'm skipping over a lot of things but suffice to say the man ruined a lot of lives. His backstory is not an excuse nor does it mean he should be forgiven. It explains why he did these things and shows us how to avoid similar events.

As for Junko, I love her story. You can understand why she said she knew nothing even though it was in her and her brother's best interest for her not to lie. You understand why she makes Eisuke's suicide look like the murders from 18 years prior. You understand why she goes to the abandoned village alone. You understand why she claims to have killed Minoru. You understand why she threatens Taro's life for Makoto's sake. And yet all of those choices were awful. Had she not lied, her brother's disappearance would have been looked into for much longer as it was now a kidnapping. She stole a suicide note and hid it from everyone, including the victim's family and friends. She shuts Kami out of her investigation and leaves both him with doubts he doesn't want to acknowledge (hence why he lashes out at Taro for pointing out all the reasons Junko's behavior is suspicious). She threatens to kill someone who only showed up because he believed she was in danger. She knows all of this was wrong and it's clear the guilt has been eating her alive, especially after what she did to Eisuke's death. She apologizes through tears while holding Taro at gunpoint and after explaining herself to him still can't go through with pulling the trigger. She just wants her older brother back and was doing anything she could. And while she does have him back, he's going to need a lot of support through physical rehab, hopefully intensive therapy, and a reintroduction to society (he was going into town but pretty much only to do construction work and then leave). And she has to apologize to Eisuke's family and friends. And to Taro, though he doesn't seem to be holding a grudge. Also "I sincerely apologize for any inconvenience I may have brought to your lives" is the funniest way to genuinely apologize for almost murdering someone.

Many characters in the game have been through some sort of childhood trauma. Our protagonist, Ayumi, Junko, Makoto, Minoru, Ayaka, Megumi, Eisuke, Kohei, Mama Shoko, and more. Only Minoru ends up being a serial killer. Only Junko and Makoto do terrible non-murder things. All the rest of these characters do nothing of the sort. Some acquire the supports of both peers and the adults around them, others manage to pull through largely on their own, and some we will never know how their story would have gone as it ended far too soon (either of their own volition or not). The game never says that childhood trauma = doing awful things. The game warns that ignoring signs that someone, especially a child, is not okay will often end in tragedy. Someone has to step in. Only a few people are obligated to intervene, but if the people who are supposed to intervene don't or are part of the problem then someone else must.

Eisuke's friends believe he committed suicide until they're told the crime scene doesn't match that. And yet they were right. They were the only ones who noticed something was wrong, but neither of them were able to do anything besides ask him if he was okay (he'd lie and say he was).

One last thing before I stop writing because wow this post is long: I love how Fukuyama was genuinely just a good guy with negative people skills. I was so worried he was doing something to Megumi and finding out that his response to her confession was to try to turn her down gently while clarifying that he did care about her as a teacher is supposed to care about their students. He didn't succeed in explaining that to her and she ended up assuming the harshest possible interpretation, but she seemed to already have a very concerning view on love (someone doesn't return her romantic feelings and her next question is "do you hate me?") so I'm not sure even the best possible wording could've helped there. As for him and Ayumi, it's up to interpretation whether he's interested in her romantically or not, but I choose to see it as him seeing her as his first student to grow up. He never formally taught her, but he was her upperclassman in naginata club. So she's the first person who he helped teach that he gets to see thriving as an adult. And now they're functionally peers, with her being able to comfort him about how Eisuke's death is not his fault as he had no way of knowing how things would go and made the best choices he could (he also literally saves Megumi + the whole case about midway through the game).

[evelhak]

Feeling daring today - Haizaki for the character and ship bingo ;)

Your takes are much more interesting, so there may not be anything illuminating here but I tried. xD

*Non-sarcastically normal. Haizaki is a pretty neutral character when I think about him by myself, I just don't have that special connection to him.

*However I love him when you talk about him and I'm sure I would love him more if I just had an incentive to write about him. But I don't feel anything like that because you're already giving him justice. My brain doesn't really work unless I feel like I have something substantial to contribute, which I don't.

*Haizaki definitely still gets a lot of unjustified hate, because he was framed as a villain and people then interpreted his every action as coming from the worst place imaginable, while other characters' actions get understanding just because they can see those characters' sides but can't see Haizaki's since he wasn't written in a sympathetic way. On one hand, that's fair to me, if your fic needs a villain it makes sense to pick a character whose motivations were not discussed deeply, so you can turn him into as much of a villain as you want, because you have no need to think about that particular character so deeply. However, the rate at which this happens to Haizaki perfectly exemplifies how the same dynamic happens in real life, especially at schools. He has the outward characteristics of the person who is always the easiest to blame. Not that there isn't stuff to blame him for, it's just that when he gets blamed for more than his share, it becomes a vicious cycle. Not to say it would affect his likability to me even if he never grew less violent or got his shit together, because my like and dislike for fictional characters is not based on morality or whether or not I would like that character in real life. 😂 I didn't pay that much attention to him solely because I just overlooked his story as pretty been there done that. Any character depth he has is implied at best, because he's a side character. I would much rather see an actual depiction of the dynamics that get projected onto him. And you are doing that, so, I'm not complaining.

*I do think Haizaki is pretty silly, he's so macho but he's also kind of wishy-washy about it. Like, one minute he can be thundering on like any of the other macho characters but then his line for changing his mind and going like "you know what, not worth it, actually" is much lower. And somehow he gets depicted as pathetic for that, even though it may actually just be common sense and self-preservation.

*Honestly I need to remind myself that Haizaki exists, sometimes. I'm sorry. He just wasn't that compelling to me initially. I didn't demonise him (I'd like to think that I don't demonise anyone) I just wasn't interested enough. I knew there were reasons he acts the way he does but I didn't make actual effort to find out. You've done some good to me, reminding me that my perception is more limited than I would like, because I tend to pride myself for considering everyone's viewpoints. (Not 100% possible, but I try.)

*Well you said it, Haizadick is not an inaccurate term, no matter what way you look at it.

I didn't ship anyone with Haizaki because I didn't think about his life much before talking to you, so...

*Congrats, your Haizaki and his relationships are now basically canon to me. : D

*I just put that second tier text there because I imagine it's where the relationships that last a bit longer would go, and I think Haizaki just has many short relationships before maybe ending up with his end game.

*I mean I assume he has had fun short relationships with many girls.

*And probably many one-night stands.

*I literally just got it in my head that maybe he experimented with a guy once, while I was making this. He seems like a curious type even though I'm kind of assuming he's straight.

*Yeah, I theoretically get why these are ships but no I don't really get it, I would be lying if I said I truly deeply understood it.

I know my shipping tiers are a mix of "I actually root for it" and "I just sort of think it would happen" but that's what you get from me. : D

[blackfilmmakers]

I honestly can't get over the fact that people care more about Elemental than Soul,Soul is a far better movie,it features a black protagonist and many diverse characters, amazing animation that doesn't hurt my eyes, emotionally powerful and memorable scenes.I could go on but I'm not happy that some fans are saying how Elemental is a better movie than Soul or heck, even Turning Red.sorry but I can't stand Elemental for so many reasons i can't say other than the animation is not that good, especially the art style with the fire and water people and that I found the protagonists super annoying both Ember and Wade.

Well you're probably not going to be happy to hear this anon, but I hated Soul. Probably not as much with Elemental, but even for Elemental I'm more indifferent with it's existence

Soul on the other hand makes me actually upset. Partly because I originally did not want to watch another movie where a Black character is turned into an inhuman being for majority of the movie

When I expressed this, everyone convinced me that's not what happened, he is only a blue blob for a short bit, and you do get to see his human body for most the film from what I was told. So I watched it, believing all this like a dummy

And they were right in a sense. We don't see him as a blob for most of the movie. Because he was turned into a cat for most of the movie. An ugly ass looking cat. "Oh but you see his body for most of the movie," yeah we sure do as it's being stolen and taken away by some white person's soul like this is Get Out. "They aren't White, they are just a soul" yeah if the characters bring up it sounds like a white lady and everyone draws them White, safe to say we all saw this as a White person. Only we were supposed to feel sorry for the little white soul because the black character is too mean and angry with his body being taken away for some reason

And people got upset with me because I did not appreciate being deceived like this. Some were just typical Disney adults. Others apparently really didn't understand what the issue was, and tried to make me like this movie. I just don't

As for the story's message, it's fine I guess. It just doesn't stick out to me. The movie already showed itself to be an ironically soulless project

They try to advertise this movie as something for Black people. It's literally called Soul for a reason. But nah. It didn't really play onto those themes. Like what does Soul have to do with Black people? Why do Black people feel the need to outdo everyone and make something for themselves? Why is the main character's mom treated as the bad guy for wanting her son to fulfill his passion but also remain financially stable?

Does the character from Soul show how he is related to Blackness more than the water guy? Yeah. But barely so. It again doesn't help he didn't remain human for most of the movie

Also the movie just ugly

Anyways if you're looking for Black-coded blue blob characters, Osmosis Jones is literally your best bet

[estbela]

For the favorite character ask game, could you answer for Ro? :)

Of course!! Although, you mean all 50 questions or just specific ones? Because while it may take some time, I could answer for him all 50 because I love him so much <3333 and I'm insane enough to do it.

Actually nevermind I'm gonna try to answer all 50 because I am insane :]

Do you project onto this character?

Yeah and I think at this point everyone knows it!! Some of my headcanons for Ro are inspired by traits of mine, I guess? Also me making him AFAB trans genderqueer in modern times is kinda inspired by me, haha(although the way my gender works is different from my HCs for her). Some stuff that happen to him in my stories are also kind of inspired by myself, in a way? I mean, I kinda have an image in my head of how her childhood went, and in some ways I've made it similar to mine (although obviously it's pretty different too)

2. Did you always like this character?

Well, not exactly? When I first discovered Hetalia, I did like Ro, but I focused on other characters a lot more. But I guess I always did.

3. What first drew you to this character?

Well... the fact that he's the personification of my country, I suppose? I also like his design a lot, and his personality.

4. Did you initially dislike/hate this character?

Not really. I always liked him.

5. If this character were a woman, would you honestly still like them? Or in reverse, what if they were a man?

Well, of course!!! I think his character can work really well as a guy or a girl or whatever really(I love him so much I'm giving him all the genders lol). Sometimes I do change his gender/genderbend him depending on the story I wanna write.

6. Do you have any nicknames or pet names you use for this character?

Well, I do call him Ro. Sometimes I call him "lynxie" in my head, cause of the lynx being her national. I also sometimes call him "this fucker".

7. Does the character’s age matter to you?

Kinda?? I see him as being 24-26 physically in modern times, and almost 2000 years old in reality (i've got a post about my HCs for his age over the years linked in my pinned). I don't like it when people make him be born around the time Wallachia got founded, because I've already mentioned I see him as being far older.

8. Does the character’s looks/design matter to you?

In a way? While I do change the colour of Ro's hair (and his hair length sometimes as well), and the colour of her eyes, I do like his canon design. So I guess it matters?

9. Does this character remind you of anyone you know? Does that affect how you see them?

Y'know what. He does kinda remind me of one of my friends, which I have just realised now. It doens't really affect the way I see him, thought.

10. Do you see yourself in this character even without projecting?

In a way, I suppose I do. In his mostly cheerful nature and outlook on life.

11. How did you “fall in love” with this character?

Hmm...I had just gotten back in the fandom, and got really into Romania's history. And the rest is well...history lol

12. If you could write effortlessly and as much as you wanted, what story (s) would you write for this character?

GODDDD I would write so many stories. I would probably write about all of Romania's history, and his relations with a lot of different countries and so much serbro fanfic.

13. If you could draw effortlessly and as much as you wanted, what scene (s) would you draw for this character?

Honestly, not sure.

14. Are you physically attracted to this character?

Not really.

15. Are your thoughts surrounding this character usually sexual, non-sexual, or a mix of both?

Mostly non-sexual.

16. Have you ever cried when thinking about this character? Genuinely?

I...might occasionally tear up a little when thinking about Ro.

17. Have you ever felt physical pain over this character? (ex: physical heartache).

A few times. Maybe. Not sure.

18. Do you prefer to see this character suffer or know peace? Angst or comfort? Both?

Honestly, both. I like seeing him suffer then give her some peace.

19. Does this character serve as a stress ball/ security blanket for you? Something you run to after a bad day to feel safe or happier?

I'll be honest, yeah. Thinking about him gives me a lot of comfort when I have a shitty day.

20. Do you feel affectionate towards this character?

Yeah, I love her a lot!!!!

21. Are your feelings about this character platonic, romantic, or familial? All of these feelings at once maybe?

A mix of all three, maybe. Perhaps not romantic, tho.

22. Do you think you will always love this character?

I think he'll always have a special place in my heart, yeah.

23. Has this character permanently altered or impacted your psyche in a way you won’t forget?

...maybe? Yes? I'm not sure. Hetalia in general has altered my psyche in a way I won't forget.

24. Do you ever dream about this character? If so, describe a dream you once had about them.

I haven't dreamed about him (or if I did, I don't remember)

25. What kind of fan-fiction do you read about this character? If you don’t read fan-fics about them, why not?

All kinds, honestly. But mostly human AUs that seem interesting or historical fiction.

26. If you look for this character’s name on AO3, what tags are you including or excluding?

i dunno...I don't really include or exclude tags usually. Although I rarely read AU stories where he is a vampire, because I've read enough vampire stuff with Ro for a lifetime(not saying people can't write stuff like that, just that it's not my favourite thing ppl do with Ro but I think if it's written well I'll give it a chance).

27. Do you like to ship this character with other characters or do you prefer not to?

Well, yeah. I ship him with like a million characters because I find Romania's relations with other countries interesting to explore. Characters I ship him with the most: Serbia(my OC), Bulgaria, Hungary, Prussia, Greece (kind of), England (kind of).

28. Do you get defensive about this character? If yes, then why?

Well, it depends. But I suppose I do? If I feel like someone misunderstands him, I may get a little defensive and want to say something, but I end up keeping it to myself because there is no point in defending a character to someone who doesn't get him anyway.

29. Do you affectionately bully this character?

Yes <333 he's my lovable idiot who represses his emotions so much and has the worst abandonment and trust issues known to mankind

30. Are you especially sensitive about this character?

Sometimes.

31. Are you ashamed of liking this character?

Well, sometimes I feel a bit ashamed of liking hetalia, but I honestly don't feel bad about liking Ro.

32. If you could make this character a meal, what would you make them?

Honestly, I am not sure. I'd like to make him something that he'd like. Maybe cabbage rolls. I think she'd like those. Or something with garlic, as I HC that he really likes garlic.

33. Are you “blinded by love” for this character or do you accept any flaws they may have?

His flaws are one of the reasons I love him, actually. But sometimes I think I do think of him through rose-coloured glasses, haha.

34. Does this character inspire you with little things in your daily life?

Yeah. Inspires me to keep going even if life is shitty at the moment, for one day I'll be free.

35. Has this character ever prevented you from sleeping because you can’t stop thinking about them?

A few times.

36. Do you feel a spiritual/soulmate connection with this character?

Maybe? I feel a lot of affection for him, but that's mostly because I see myself in him somewhat, not because I love him like that. I guess, yeah, in some manner?

37. Is your love for this character a secret from people you know in real life?

In general the fact that I like hetalia is a secret I keep from the people I know, besides my friends who do know about my love for Ro <3

38. Do you tend to joke more about dying or killing for this character? Both? What causes the distinction?

Honestly, I don't really make jokes like that, well not for Ro. But y'know what, I'd probably kill for him.

39. Do you feel lovesick over this character?

Yeah...mostly when I think of ships involving him.

40. Are you very empathetic towards this character? When they feel a certain way in the story, do you feel those emotions too?

Yes!!! It's probably becausr I see myself a lot in him, but yes. When he feels things, I often feel it too to an extent. Probably why writing him is so therapeutic for me.

41. Do you prefer to interact with this character directly via self-insert/reader type content? Or do you enjoy seeing them mostly with other characters in the story and/or your OCs?

When I was younger, I used to enjoy self insert/reader stuff, and to an extent I still do, but it was kind of ruined for me (and I've tried to make self-insert OCs in the past but I always end up changing them so much they become their own full fledged characters pretty different from me besides some traits that remain). I do enjoy seeing him interact with other characters and my OCs tho.

42. If you could, would you write this character a song or poem?

Yeah. I plan to one day.

43. What type of weather makes you think of this character?

Windy weather. Snowing. Rain.

44. Which season makes you think of this character?

All seasons, but mostly winter and autumm.

45. Do you feel as if you are intimately familiar with this character?

At this point I probably am.

46. How much do bad interpretations of this character upset you?

Well, it honestly kind of depends on the interpretations. Whenever I see bad interpretations of him, I mostly get annoyed. If I were to see an interpretation of him that I felt was not only bad, but offensive, I would get upset then but I thankfully haven't seen something like that yet.

47. Does this character ever make you laugh sincerely?

Yeah a lot!!!!

48. What’s your favorite physical/design feature for this character?

I like his haircut, his fangs, his canon outfit, honestly most things about him!!!!

49. What’s your favorite personality trait in this character?

This isn't a trait represented in canon, and moreso a headcanon of mine, but I think it's maybe that despite it all the shit he went through, she never truly lost his rebellious attitude, and his hope for independence and freedom. Even if it made his life harder at times, he still tried to keep true to himself in a way, even if to survive she had to adapt and change a lot. He might have matured, but he's still a rebel at heart.

50. Link your fav song, playlist, aesthetic board, fan-fiction, reference pile, personal artwork, analysis post, meme, headcanon, or quote for this character.

My pinterest board for him: https://pin.it/3zyAqZ3OB

Song: techincally it's more related to serbro than to him, but Two Punks In Love is totally their song. For one song that reminds me of only Ro, that would be maybe "Home" by Passenger. Or "She Used To Be Mine" from the waitress. And many more songs.

i still kinda like this drawing I did of him even if my art style has changed since then.

Most of my HCs and analysis posts about Ro are linked in my pinned! :]

the ask game

[randomnameless]

I’m surprised at the amount of billy asks you get. Does it mean that they’re popular? All i know for sure is that they certainly seem to interest a lot of people. And i agree that they really do have the bones for a fascinating character, but the developers couldn’t be bothered to build something from those bones because 1) sim shenanigans, you can’t have your self insert react strongly if you’re meant to project 100% onto them, but billy does have traits that keep getting mentioned by more than one person plus the few actions they do choose and a backstory, which doesn’t seem like cardboard to me imho, but also 2) earl gray, and what invader added is the most damning detail of them all. Or rather, not a detail, but the anchor that sank billy. I know we’re meant to keep flamey and edelgard separate in our minds because edelgard is marketed as a poor sad waifu you must feel compelled to rescue, but it doesn’t erase her actions or flamey. When we have evidence saying that silver snow is meant to be the primary marketed canon route and so much of the conflicts across two games come down to the actions of one person plus a poorly thought out loptous stand in, all it tells me is that the main character was doomed to fail because the developers could not decide how to write a school mystery + romance of the three kingdoms sympathetic to cao cao so they tried to “fix” that or make it “gray” by turning it into a dating sim to artificially raise the emotional stakes. At least to me it says they didn’t have confidence in billy as a main character at all because so much of it hinges on centering edelgard and the players picking faves out of the rest of the cast, and to make it more insulting the compensation is being able to kill billy in the spin off? I myself don’t really have any big faves in the games because i only play them casually and read your blog, but what i do know is that it makes me hate edelgard for essentially being the gravitational center of the games like a narrative black hole and the developers being too cowardly to really cement her as a villain, and it doesn’t make me like warriors either because it doubles down on trying to explain her position instead of telling a story and because shez fans are extremely annoying and rude online, no surprise that many are also edelgard fans.

I'd say it's a cumulation of everything!

I think the fandom (myself included!) might have been a bit harsh on Billy because of their avatar status, even if I still think Rhea's S-support "aloneb4u" is shit and Seteth not giving any fucks about her and centering his support and convos on "we must find her so she will reveal da truth 2 u" is bonkers and both of those instances can't be only attributed to Hresvelg Grey but to "only the player is important", like the theory i came up with the self-insert scissors.

But yeah, I feel like at one point, Supreme Leader hijacked the "main character" or "character at the center of the plot we want to tell" spot, all gravitas went to "can u kill the student who loves u and bear with the sad uwus for the rest of your run ??" instead of, you know, the greater plot Nopes teased us with a Larva vs Sothis that never happened?

I compared FE16's story to many things earlier on, but the general thing is "why are we talking and following the least interesting parts of Fodlan", Supreme Leader's war of unification is meh, bias or no bias, I would have loved to see a War of Heroes game, or even a game set during the Sothis vs Agartha era (or the two why not) - but here we just have Ashnard lite with an uwu glazing, without even tackling a traditional or underlaying issue from the FE series about coexistence between people and acceptance and whatnot.

(the reason why AM is still, imo, a letdown because it ignores the dragon in the room)

What was Billy supposed to be? Supreme Leader's luf interest? A character that can conceptually fall (if they pick Tru Piss) thus can ascend in other routes? A self insert? The character you're supposed to navigate the world with?

I think Billy being a silent protag was a disservice to them - despite all of its faults, Nopes at least gives more light to Billy and it's refreshing, even if the game will never add 1+1 because Hresvelg Grey.

TBH I think Fodlan has its own share of fans being annoying regardless of the character they support - and while Barney is pretty chatty, ultimately Barney is the deviant art OC with two swords because why not, a sekrit past that is never explained and somehow stronger than everyone who is actually as empty as an oyster shell. We don't know what Barney wants, to be a merc? Yeah, but why? Is it because Barney is searching for somewhere to belong - just like Billy in a way - ?

As for the cardboard mention, it's most likely again in relation to Hresvelg Grey and Fe Fodlan's writing - the games don't spend enough time to build a sense of friendship and camaraderie between the cast to make the "betrayal" hurt or even the "y must we kill people we knew :'( " meaningful, so we only have the "wah sensei why didn't you pick me :(" or the general "i'm sad to fight against you" but like, mate, who are you? Why are you lamenting having to fight against Billy - someone who is opposing/invading your country and everything you stand for - like Billy and 12 months in Rhea's rocky mansion meant so much to you, much more than the 17 years of life (with acquaintances, friends, family, etc) you had?

But it's also in relation to Hresvelg Grey and the silent protag - why no one can give a reason - save for Supreme Leader "lizards BaD + MAGA" - to join this route, heck, not even Billy can say why they joined this route...

In French we have a saying that goes "comparaison n'est pas raison" more or less meaning you can't always compare things bcs context and all, but after TS's protag Serenor - who also has Gary Stu moments! - Billy not saying a thing about Supreme Leader's nonsense, frowning at Dimitri and being silent during Claude's monologues is... annoying.

But when Billy isn't in Fodlan games, they can talk and there's still the forbidden rule of not adding numbers - never ! - but they shine more.

[tathrin]

34. What aspects of your writing are inspired by/taken from your real life?

Oh, huh...that's an interesting one to think about, thank you.

Hmm...this feels trite, but the fact that I write so many characters who are stubborn af is like. definitely because of who I am in real life lmao. Because I am absolutely too stubborn for my own good and, oh hey, look at that, so many characters are too how strange... (The character I identified the most with as a kid—and still do, of course—is Rachel Berenson. The character I projected onto the most was Original Flavor (e.g. pre-AOTC) Boba Fett. So...yeah. That about sums it all up actually, I expect.)

Also a lot of the lack-of-romance/lack-of-smut in my stories is for sure a result of how there's an absolute lack-of-romance/lack-of-smut in my own brain, of course! I usually have to make a conscious effort to include those things when I'm writing characters who are in (or want) a romantic relationship with one another, because it's not what my brain jumps to naturally. (This probably also informs the fact that I actually love writing—and of course reading—action scenes and world building exposition bits.)

On a more tedious level: punctuation and emphasis. I adore italics, and I overuse them like crazy (I do try and resist this urge at least, but sometimes there's just no stopping myself) because I like to sound-out the words in my head while I write and then I want to make sure that I'm indicating the emphasis correctly so that when other people read what I've written, the put it on the right syl-la-ble lol.

And all the semi-colons, em-dashes, overabundance of commas, etc...that's all from both the fact that I approach writing as story-telling, which means I need to have the voice come through (if you follow me?) and the fact that I am very much a comic book person, to the point of having both majored in comic book art and being currently employed at a comic book store, and comics—especially slightly older comics; it seems to have fallen out of fashion in recent issues—are big on the visuals of the words in their balloons and captions, from little ordinary things like bolds and italics right on up to doing wild, funky things with the letters themselves. Also, I never actually learned grammar properly (see above mention of "too stubborn for my own good") so likely contributes to that as well, because I'm much less concerned overall with whether or not the language I'm using is correct versus how it sounds. And if you want it to sound right in the head of your reader, you have to indicate very clearly exactly how it's meant to be read, see?

This is probably a much more shallow answer than such a question usually merits, I apologize.

[a-tale-of-legends]

So uh. I put this in my drafts cause in mobile the asks are written funny when I try to answer them. But for some reason I can't go back and edit it???????? Which is. Weird. Good thing I took a screen shot.

Anyway.

( points to May/Brendan, Calem/Serena, Ethan/Lyra, Dawn/Lucas) Do they mean nothing to you anon /j Buuuut yeah, from the looks of it most protags are separate via timelines. I don't usually have a problem with this, since so far whenever there's an npc protag they aren't really doing....much. If you're lucky you get a Dawn/Lucas or Serena/Calem that tries to be very active in the plot, but outside of that they aren't much of a character. Calem/Serena tried to be buuuuut they failed imo. I think it really comes down the fact that if there's more than one protagonist in the game, one is gonna be less of a blank slate that the player can project on than the other. Which isn't a bad thing, I love giving the protags some personalities ( it's partially what started the Legendverse), but the whole point of the silent protag is for the player to project onto them. That, and Gamefreak sure doesn't make them as interesting as they could be. Lyra/Ethan are the biggest offenders of this imo. They. Really don't do much outside of tutorial stuff. You don't battle them, you don't fight with them, you rarely get any real depth from them like. I hate saying it, but if they weren't in the story at all it wouldn't have changed things, which really sucked to say cause I like HGSS. All of this is to say that this is why I have dual protags in my au. For granted,almost all of them are ocs, but they still share the protag title, just separated by "main" and "secondary".

Okay with all of that out of the way, to your ask anon. When it comes to hc about Juliana and Florian, it's...well it's not hard but it's annoying. Bc visually they're just Gloria and Victor 2. At least at first. Ironically I think the dlc art actually gives me a few ideas. This I'm treating these two as separate characters, so no genderfluid Florian/Juliana today.

Juliana: An excitable girl with a love for battling. Is known to throw rules away in favor of something more "fun"....whatever that is. She's generally very brash, and doesn't exactly think before acting. This bit her in the back Teal Mask, however. Afterwards she kinda.....lessened in terms of her usual energetic self. She became more serious and stoic faced- still Juliana, always Juliana, but the events of Teal Mask really brought her down. The last thing she ever wanted to do is to hurt a friend. In Indigo Disk she kinda adopts this serious, no nonsense persona which is admittedly, very weird, even for her. Seeing Kieran the way he is kinda makes it worse. She's a bit more....angry here. Whether it's at herself, others, Kieran, no one knows. She probably doesn't know. But through it all she just wants to make things right again.

Florian: The opposite of Juliana: a fucking nerd. Moreso wanting to focus on his studies than anything else, Florian is a skittish, rule follower to the T. Too bad the plot of SV ( and Juliana if we're doing dual protags) drags him into nonsense. But honestly it's a good thing overall. He becomes less rigid, a bit less fearful. He actually ends up enjoying himself more than he ever does and even makes some amazing friends to boot. Teal Mask was great for him! Until it wasn't. I like to think he bonded with Kieran very easily, both being somewhat shy, and an admiration of those who they deem stronger than them. When things hit the fan I think Florian was.....off. He was hurt. Very hurt. And he definitely beat himself over it. But he never let it show? In fact it seems that he's gotten more carefree as time goes on and a smidge more interested in battling. By Indigo Disk, Florian just seems like a brand new person. He seems more confident, more carefree, even leaning into Drayton's jokes a little. And yet, when he sees Kieran that mask sorta cracks. He's scared out of his mind. He doesn't know what to say or do no matter how much he thinks about it. But better do retreat, than face it head on, right? In the end, he just wants the same thing as Juliana, but is struggling to find an answer.

This post is getting long so I'm just gonna end it here. Sorry to anyone who wanted to see Gloria and Victor! But I hope you enjoy these hcs! They were fun to make!

[danieyells]

NO THAT'S FINE I'M FINE WITH REPLIES i just have it under a cut because i'm not trying to raise a huge fuss and i don't wanna put my complaining on people's dashes lmao

YEAH BASICALLY LIKE. . .IMAGINE YOU'VE LOST EVERYTHING AND ON TOP OF LOSING EVERYTHING YOU'VE BEEN SHIPPED TO ANOTHER COUNTRY WHERE THE ONLY THING FAMILIAR IS MOST OF THE LANGUAGE. You probably would not be doing half as well!!! No it's not supposed to be realistic necessarily but it's still supposed to be 'a story Just Some Guy entering extraordinary circumstances.' the MC is Just Some Guy. And if you aren't Just Some Guy? Proud of you! But she is!! Let her be Just Some Guy and do her best!! She must be completely haggard!

Also another part of the Mc as wish fulfilment is 'I am helpless and normal but everyone around is doting on me in their own way, even if they aren't always nice or safe about it', and my needs are all met. Kind of adjacent to the fantasies of 'i have contracted some mysterious new illness and i've been shipped to a government facility where everyone is working around the clock to look after me and they find out everything wrong about me and fix and resolve my problems and i come out of this with my life bettered'--I know other people have had that daydream, that fantasy, of round the clock care. Yes in those fantasies usually Everybody Is Nice but also they're not meant to be engaging stories with interesting characters. It's a lot like those fantasies! Or fantasies about being abducted and studied by aliens. You live in their world now but you're important enough to be protected. But the world isn't safe for you. Idk. Just. It's a story. A narrative. And you're supposed to see how she does things and lives her life and you can either read it as a story or project onto it. . .but it's still her story, with your inputs providing minimal change to the story. Her story, not yours. And she's doing her damndest

Like maybe she's not the most engaging character of the bunch but she isn't really supposed to be. She's Just Some Guy. That's part of what's interesting about her--she's an ordinary person in extraordinary circumstances and that in and of itself is interesting.

Idk if I would have died in her circumstances but I would probably be depressed and stressed and in a lot of pain unless I was introduced to anomalous pain management(which I'm sure they have.) She's being made to run around and risk her life! For the story! For the plot! For the entertainment! And, in character, for her life! She has to get their favor and get close to them so they will care enough about her to want to save her damn life! It doesn't matter if they're mean, the mean ones are the strongest and most capable. The kind ones are the closest thing you have to friends. You need everyone's favor, everyone needs to work together for her sake(and the world's sake) there are stories here and it just!

Annoys me a bit that people cannot conceptualize who and what she is as a character and a narrative entity haha just. MAN MAYBE YOU THINK YOU'D BE SOME BADASS IN THIS SITUATION OR HAVE GOTTEN THE GROUP OF PEOPLE CHOSEN BY DEMONS TO LISTEN TO YOU AND GET THEIR SHIT TOGETHER BUT I DOUBT IT. I REALLY DO. I DOUBT THAT IF YOU TRIED TO FIGHT A GHOUL YOU'D WIN. AND YOU'RE ALREADY DYING SO I DON'T THINK THEY'D CARE THAT MUCH IF THEY KILLED YOU. . . .

Just. Realistically she's keeping her shit together really well. She has fainting spells and zones out a fair amount but she's doing pretty well for herself since the school pays for all of her needs. And maybe that speaks to where she came from, maybe she had nothing to go back to. Maybe this is better than what she has at home. Maybe she's just focused as she can be because this is her life we're talking about and she's trying to live it while she has it, in case she's going to lose it in a few months. Regardless just. It's her. She's a different person from the player, even if she's meant to be easily projected onto for most of the target audience by design. And this is how she's doing it. And all things considered she's really doing great. No she's not some Badass Warrior Princess, yes she's getting dragged around on missions and at school, but what choice does she have? You really think she could do any of the investigations or missions herself? Untrained and defenseless? You really think dangerous artifacts(which, unless they're common artifacts, most of which you need permission to borrow, don't just listen to anybody they only listen to who they've chosen!) would be handed to her and easy to wield untrained so she could just try and go at it alone instead of trying to learn about her new world as best as she can in the time she has between working?

There are stories out there with strong, in control women I'm sure. And if that's what you want I think you'll be able to find it. But getting mad at this mc for being helpless isn't going to make the mc less helpless. I do think it'd be neat if the ring protected her a little--like how, pretending to be hera's snakes, it tried to whip romeo with tentacles in a pinch/emergency--but that would require more than two months of development to discover i'm sure! Like I know it's been six or seven months of the game itself but in game it hasn't even been three. Of course we haven't heard about previous ghouls and graduates' lives, she don't even know the people who're here yet. Of course we don't know anything about the ring and its powers yet, she's trying to figure out the world and the missions and hopefully a way to survive right now!

Just. It's a tiring thing to see a lot lmao. Idk if it's a media literacy thing or a genre familiarity thing or what but it gets kind of annoying to see lmao

BUT I'M GLAD YOU AND OTHERS AGREE HAHA like obviously i know i'm not the only one who thinks this way but it's like. Man. You see it a lot.

Venting about people complaining about MC lol

Is2g everytime i see people whining about 'why can't the mc do anything for herself!!! She should be badass uwu' it's like they don't. Understand her narrative role or function. Or that she's a regular human with an artifact that doesn't do anything for her and she's not allowed to have another one and cannot remove the one she has.

She is SUPPOSED TO BE DEFENSELESS. She is your window into the world and story as a regular ass person! 'i would pick up a weapon--' no the fuck you would not because they would not give you a weapon because regulations say one artifact per person and your ring is your one. 'they're so mean to her why doesn't she stand up for herself!!' because she is a human and they are several times stronger than her physically and she is from a culture where politeness conformity and not making a fuss is kind of the norm and is kind of expected of her 'why isn't she doing anything for herself!' what is she supposed to do. Literally what do you want Basic Bitch Human With No Defenses Besides The People Around Her Who's Going To Turn Into A Creature In Ten Months And Has No Way Of Investigating Or Progressing On Her Own to do. She goes on a mission with them every week she barely even has time to go to classes. She is probably extremely stressed and exhausted. She is completely helpless by design. If you don't like it write a fanfic or find another series or something. MCs like this are meant to be windows into the story, a place you as an ordinary person can project yourself into an extraordinary situation it's not badass wish fulfilment where you're in control, especially not this early on. If she got out of line they would probably put her in containment, or worse she would get hurt and be More Useless and then you'd bitch and moan some more.

Things are allowed to not be to your taste! Things are allowed to not appeal to you!! You do not have to partake of them if it bothers you!!! There are things out there for you and if they don't exist you can make them!!!

[veinsandknuckles]

Reflect what you are, pt 2

Abed Nadir/Autistic f!Reader. In love and at a loss, Abed turns to self professed woman-expert Jeff Winger for advice with mixed results. Part 1 Rated: pg Warnings: casual ableism, casual sexism, autistic stereotypes, reference to the The Big Bang Theory. If I’ve missed anything, let me know. This fic hasn’t been BETA’d. As a disclaimer, I’ll say upfront that the reader insert’s experiences with and outward signs of autism are based on my own. It’s always impossible to write a reader insert neutrally enough to be projected onto by everyone and I think that’s especially true when portraying a disability that is at once so specific and so varied.  ——–

“...I think I’m in love.”

“Really.” Jeff didn’t look up from his phone.

Abed wasn’t sure why he’d picked Jeff as the right person to talk to. Perhaps it was just because Jeff had lingered in the study room after their last session, leaving them alone in the room, and if Abed didn’t tell someone, anyone, he might literally explode. “Yes. Definitely. I show all the classic signs.”

Jeff didn’t respond. Had his sarcastic, disinterested tone been more pointed than usual? It was hard to tell.

“Did you already know I’m in love?”

“With what’s-her-name, your new study buddy?” Jeff gave Abed a look. “Uh, yeah. I’m pretty sure everyone knows.”

“Oh.” Abed tapped his pen against the table and thought this over. “Do I talk about her a lot?”

“Not really, but we know you. It’s pretty suspicious if you take an interest in anyone who isn’t a fictional character.” Jeff put his phone down and leaned his elbows on the table. “Does this mean you’ve finally come to me for dating advice? It’s about time.”

“Normally, I wouldn’t need advice...”

Jeff’s eyes narrowed. “Because women throw themselves at you, for some reason.” He sounded resentful. “Yeah, I remember.”

“And usually I don’t really care either way.” Perhaps this wasn’t the best approach if he wanted Jeff’s help, but it was the truth. “I mean, the attention is nice, but it’s not important.”

“Well, if you’re ‘in love’” (here, Jeff made so many air quotes he threatened to sprain a finger) “that’s a whole different story.”

“Yeah. I’d be pretty upset if she didn’t like me back.”

“I’m sure. So what have you tried so far?”

“Hm.” What had he tried? Shockingly little, now that he came to think about it. “I’ve talked to her a little. We’re working on a project together for class. Oh, and yesterday I threatened to beat a guy up for disrespecting her.”

There was a long pause. “See, this is why you should come to me for inspiration instead of turning to the movies.”

“Yeah, but it was warranted. He’s a bully.”

“Yeah, but still. I never figured you’d go for the caveman approach.”

Abed shrugged. “I don’t really have an approach.”

“Yeah, we established that. So what’s this girl like?”

“I think she’s autistic.”

Jeff’s eyes widened and his mouth seemed to twitch. He didn’t make a face, but it seemed to take him some effort not to make a face. What was he trying to hide? Surprise? A lack of surprise? Amusement? Ridicule? Probably not envy, but what did Jeff know?

“Abed, that’s not a very nice way to sum up a person. We taught you better than that.”

Abed had it on pretty good authority that Jeff had pointed him out to strangers as ‘the robot’ and ‘just don’t call him Sheldon’ several times just this month, but for some reason, people tended to get uncomfortable if the spade joined in and also started calling itself a spade.

“Okay, this is clearly a sensitive issue for you. If I tell you she’s also beautiful and funny and attentive and kind and clever and beautiful, does that make you feel better?”

“That’s a pretty long list.” Jeff smiled. “Beautiful made it in twice, huh?”

It was a fair summary as far as Abed was concerned, repetition included, but Jeff needed to be brought down a peg or two.“I thought that would reassure you.”

Jeff stopped smiling. “Whatever. So if you care so much about her supposed personality, what do you guys actually have in common? Apart from, you know. The A word.”

“I’m not sure. We both pay attention in class, so we already have some similar interests.”

“Okay, so get her talking about those. Women love it when you pretend to care about their dumb opinions.”

Abed was very much convinced that this was not an uniquely female trait and he knew that if he chose to make a rebuttal, Jeff himself would make for an excellent exhibit A. But Jeff depended on his 90’s stand up comedian understanding of gender roles and it would be unfair to take that comfort away from him. Instead, he chose diplomacy. “If she has dumb opinions, I’ll lose interest. Even if she’s beautiful twice.”

“Yeah, you’re weird like that.”

“But I get shy around her, and I’m not used to being shy. I try to plan our conversations in advance, but then when I talk to her I forget everything I was going to say... And I don’t want to pretend to be someone else.”

“You’re overthinking this. Just go up to her and talk, ask more questions than you give answers and if she smiles and laughs at your jokes...” Jeff thought about it, then shook his head. “Huh. Yeah, I see the problem. You still can’t really read anyone. Even I can’t read you and I’m a master manipulator who’s known you for years. If she’s like you...” He seemed at a loss for words. “Don’t you have, like, a secret language or something? Bleep, bloop, Star Trek good?”

How should Abed know? It wasn’t like he’d been ushered into a secret society or subscribed to the local autism mailing list. Maybe there actually was a club and he just hadn’t been invited - that would be a fun, ironic twist. “Not one I know of.” The trekkie accusation he filed away for a later argument.

“Alright. So, when she’s happy or annoyed or on the rag, can you even tell?”

“I think so.”

Abed worried that Jeff misinterpreted the reason for his interest. He couldn’t tell if Jeff wanted to over or under emphasise the autism part, but he could tell Jeff didn’t get it. Sure, it was exciting to meet someone who functioned the way he did, but not because he expected or even wanted you to be a copy of himself. He wasn’t looking for the comedy staple where the weirdo, slash robot, slash dog’s love interest was played by the same actor, slash costume, slash dog in a wig or a pink bow. He was just as desperate to explore all your differences as your possible similarities, and the disability thing was just a small part of that. And he’d underplayed the “beautiful” part, but your mind really was not the only thing he wanted to explore. After all, you’d already turned his head months before he’d realised what you shared.

It dawned on Abed that he really would be just as excited to talk to you if the topics you chose made no sense to him - whatever you said would interest him, simply because you were the one talking. And if he ever accidentally tuned you out, he’d be happy just to watch your lips move.

How could he even begin to explain all of this? Or any of it? If Jeff had ever felt the same way, he would never admit to it.

“She emotes a lot.” By Abed’s standards, anyway. “I don’t think most people can really tell she’s autistic.”

“Why are you so fixated on this?”

“Well, in this case, I mean I think she’s more of a people person than I am. She blends in better than I do and that would take a lot of practice.” He paused. “I never really made friends before I got to Greendale, but...”

“You’re worried you might have some competition?”

Abed shook his head. If anything, competition would be reassuring. But why? “I don’t want her to like me because she has no other option. I want her to choose me.” If that was true, why did admitting it make his stomach feel so cold? Abed swallowed and voiced a fear he hadn’t even been conscious of before. “I’m worried I might be too weird for her.”

Now Jeff made a face even Abed could recognise, if only because he’d seen it so often over the years. It was a face of pained, awkward pity.

Abed was seriously starting to regret being so honest, especially with someone who clearly still expected him to be more ashamed of himself than he really was.  

But Jeff surprised him and his expression changed gradually into a less familiar smile. “Yeah... I think we all feel like that sometimes. I mean, not me, obviously.” Abed nodded and Jeff continued. “I hate to be a cliché, but if you absolutely have to be in love, I really think you should just try to be yourself. If she doesn’t like you, it’s better you rip the band-aid off quickly.” He reached out as if to give Abed a pat on the shoulder but seemed to think better of it and let his hand fall. “Who knows, she might like you better for being a bit weird - I know I get sick of hanging out with normal people all the time. Whatever that means.”

Abed nodded. Especially the band-aid argument appealed to him. Right now he felt that if he didn’t either get to touch you or let go of this obsession within the week, he’d just wither up and die. Wow. He might actually have to resort to a weekend of 80’s rom coms, either to look for inspiration for some big dramatic gesture of his own, or to do what most people probably did when they watched rom coms - daydream about his own crush and imagine you and him up there on the screen instead, kissing and holding on to each other for dear life while the music swelled and the rain pored.  This was so much worse than he’d thought.

[theminecraftbox]

Can I vent about something real quick

I don't think it's controversial to say that the way this fandom treats the subject of abuse is... not great. But something I don't see talked about as much is how a lot of fan works sand down the rough edges of survivors' personalities to make them easier to woobify and squeeze them into your run-of-the-mill H/C formula.

And to some extent, I get it. Fluff feels good to write, therapeutic, even. It's easier to love and pity the goid kid who cries softly and waits for a rescuer than the one who snaps at the hand that hurts them - or at the hand trying to help them. There's less there for "antis" to latch onto. And... yeah, some of the braided-hair-fluffy-sweater-cuddly-clingy-catboy designs are very endearing and sweet.

But these depictions usually aren't accurate to the characters in question. Tommy didn't just wait quietly in exile, he snapped out of the conditioning, killed Dream twice, and coped with imprisonment by screaming in autotune for a week. Quackity didn't sit around and cry in Manberg, he argued against Schlatt's policies and insults, put an arrow through him when dared to, and defiled his corpse. Even Dream, who had basically nothing on his side in prison, still talked back and tried to grab a weapon after two months of torture, and gave Sam the grilling of a lifetime followed by execution. And that ties into something I really appreciate about Strangling Fruit - that Dream doesn't completely lose his snark, his cunning, that he's still going to bite if it helps him stay sane, even if Sam sees it as proof that he's still dangerous...

Which leads into my last thought. It's easy to think that a victim can earn better treatment or a "savior" with proper behavior... but that's not really how it works, is it? It doesn't matter how "good" you are, because if somebody is determined to hurt you, they're going to find an excuse eventually.

Idk. I guess there's nothing wrong exactly with wanting to woobify and project on a character, but it always makes me a little antsy. Because as soon as those trauma symptoms start to look "ugly," everybody is going to turn on them. I've seen it happen all too often.

Like you say, I would emphasize that there certainly isn’t anything wrong with woobifying—transformative fan works are meant to be transformative, it’s in the name. In general there should not be judgment attached to wanting to depict a fictional relationship or response to abuse a certain way, no matter if it deviates from canon. No one can be the arbiter of what is the Right way to interact with stories and what is the Wrong way; every writer and every reader has different wants, different needs, different ids, and different relationships to the source material.

But I get what you mean, and it’s something that can bother me too in the wrong context. It’s why I prefer to gravitate towards works where victims are prickly or harmful or downright cruel to other people. What bothers me even worse are works with the premise that the person suffering is now ~ sorry ~ for wrongs they’ve committed.

Suffering can be transformative, but suffering sure as hell isn’t redemptive. Abuse can never be earned. And either way, these characters are still themselves.

[lollypopsx]

Flatmate!Harry: I'll Make It Up To You - Part 2

Please like if it’s not too shabby, reblog for anyone who may enjoy this and follow if you want to see more! Any suggestions are happily taken for future writing! I love you all! be safe and be kind x

Warnings: Hints of depression and anxiety

Part 1 - Part 3

—————————

Days had passed since the audition, and while you were sat on your laptop every hour searching for new jobs, new projects, more auditions and pure hope of some miracle, you couldn't help but starting to feel like you were failing slightly.

You liked to write happy songs and create stories using your music, but you were finding it harder to find the inspiration. Usually you and Harry would sit and talk ideas for hours, but since he made you miss your audition, you were distant from him, it was only the last day or two that you had been getting slowly back to normal.

Every day since the incident when Harry came home after working at the studio, he would open the curtains to make sure you had fresh air and daylight after cooping yourself up on the sofa all day, in the dimly lit living room. Not only that, he would check the cupboards, fridge and the sink to check that you were eating enough. He had seen you stressed and upset before. He had been there through some difficult moments in your life, and had always been your rock throughout the years, especially when your mental health was struggling during these times. But this time was worse. He couldn't help being concerned for someone he loved and cared for.

"Hey pumpkin..." He whispers softly, settling himself down beside you after completing his daily routine "Have you done much today?" he gently combs his fingers through your hair before dropping his arm round your shoulders.

You just sigh softly, looking ahead blankly at the quiet TV, simply shaking your head. If only he could see what was going on in that pretty mind of yours then maybe he could make everything better.

"I see you used the piano and the guitar today though..." he states, although it came out more like a question.

Minutes of silence filled the room until out of the blue, some words left your lips. "...Adam came to get the ring today" you whisper, feeling the tears brim your eyes once again, for what felt like the millionth time today.

"Oh darling" He frowns, pulling you into his chest tightly, just like he did the night you found out your (now ex-) boyfriend, Adam, was cheating on you. Unfortunately, you happened to find out minutes before he proposed to you, in front of all of your friends, including Harry. You didn't know what to do, so you took the ring, said you'd think about it and you left him standing alone. This all happened months ago, and you really thought that you was totally over it.

"Everything that's happened this week...I-I just...I feel like such a failure Haz. It just feels like I...I-I'm falling...falling apart and nothings going right! Why isn’t anything going right! I can’t even write one stupid song that makes sense" you let out hard sobs as your hands fisted his clean white t-shirt.

"No...no, no, no don't say that...please don't ever say that." He frowns, pulling away from you, but still staying close. His warm hands press against your cheeks as he lifts your face gently "hey, hey look at me" he whispers, begging you to look at him.

Your sad wide eyes flickered up into his, gentle tears falling down your face. "I know...I know it's hard at the moment. But everything happens for a reason. And everything will get better...I know it will. Do you trust me?" He whispers, his eyes gazing deep into yours, almost like if he looked hard enough, he could read your mind.

You give a hesitant nod as he pressed a gentle kiss to your forehead before wiping the tears dampening your cheeks. Being affectionate together wasn't anything unusual for the two of you, you really were the best of friends.

"I'll go make some dinner okay? Pasta sound good?" You just nod your head gently at him as he leaves your side. You let out a deep sigh and head over to the living room window, watching the sunrise beginning to set over the busy London town. "So...how's the studio going?" You ask him curiously, your gaze still at the window.

"I erm..." He clutters around in the kitchen. His job was a topic he had been avoiding for the last few days. He didn't want to rub it in that he was busy writing an album for millions of fans, who would be screaming his lyrics back to him all over the world in years to come. "It's...good. I mean, its tiring but I...yeah. It's good" He nods.

"H, you don't have to avoid it. I forgive you for what happened. I know you would never have done it out of spite...and you deserve your life style, you work hard!" You say as you head into the kitchen, re-filling the water in the vase on the table, your vibrant roses and lilies still looking as beautiful as the first day Harry bought them for you.

"You work hard too!" He frowns softly "Harry I don't think moping around on the sofa, drowning in my sorrows, is the definition of working hard" You let out a gentle chuckle.

"So...how's it really going?" You hop up onto the stool beside the kitchen counter.

"Well, we have 4 songs so far...and they are...different to the last album. I mean they reckon three of them will be on the pop charts...maybe even a number one slot there" He sighs softly.

"Oh wow, that does sound different to before...and you...don't want that?" You ask curiously, judging by the lack of excitement. "Well...it's not that. I just...it's hard to write another album when the last one did well, and you have to make sure it's better than the last one." He sighs softly as he cooks. "They want me to write some slower, more emotional songs. I just can't...well the words don't fit right. I'm just not feeling emotional about anything, so I don't know where to get the emotion from"

"Well you can't put a price on emotion Haz, you can't just go and buy it in Gucci. You have to really feel it. Even if you aren't thinking about something specific or direct to you. I used to find that sometimes when I was trying to write, I'd create these characters in my head, and I'd give them all these different stories and personalities. And I...I used that to really help me write music. It's not easy." You explain while getting two of the plates from the cupboard and pouring two drinks for the table.

"You used to? You mean you don't use that method anymore?" He asks curiously, while giving the pasta one final stir.

"I...I think I've decided that I'm not going to write music anymore" You shrug softly, your eyes unable to life to his. "I need a proper job. And things aren't going well with auditions lately and I make a total fool out of myself every time I go into a meeting. It's time I looked for a proper job. Besides, the price of bills in this house keeps going up and up."

"What?! Y/N you're so good at writing songs and music! You can't throw it all away now! That is your proper job. And I love hearing what you write, it inspires my own stuff!" He frowns, his brow furrowing, trying to understand you. "Think of all the songs no one will get to hear"

"No one hears them anyway...It's different now. The entertainment industry is changing more and more by the day. Maybe the stuff I write just isn't as trendy anymore." It was difficult for you to admit, but you knew you had to accept it.

"There's a fine line between us Styles, because the difference is, you're already there. You have the whole world in your hands Haz, you can go anywhere and do anything. You could sing a song to a fish and the whole world would be adored by you still! If I did something like that...I'd be laughed out of every interview, audition and meeting for the rest of my life. But we’ll be alright" You smile and shrug, your mood had certainly been hit and miss the last few days, but you knew you had to carry on with your life.

—————————

“Hey Y/N come here!” Harry calls from the living room. You were currently in your room, scrolling through your Instagram, while in a pasta coma after dinner. You rush over to the living room “What’s up?” You ask, seeing him sat at the gleaming white piano, which as always was sat under the window.

“What do you think?” He starts to play a few notes on the piano, looking between the scruffy paper notes cluttering the top of the piano and his hands. 

“Can’t put a price on emotion...it’s something that you just can’t buy...you...you’ve got my devotion...but....but” He sighs softly, playing around with the notes and the wording on his notes. 

You smile softly as you recognise his acknowledgment of your earlier conversation “...but man, I can hate you sometimes” you sing gently, testing to see how it could fit.

“Hey that’s mean! Why would you say that!” He fakes a pout up at you “I thought we- hey actually...you’re right! That really fits!” He chuckles, pulling you onto the stool beside him. “Can you try a G chord, B chord and....lets try a C...” You nod and smile as your fingers gloss over the keys effortlessly, while Harry fits the verse together and tries to find the right tempo.

“Wait...it doesn’t sound right. Maybe lets try a D instead of C?” You suggest as you re-try, playing those three chords over and over again.

“You...are...a genius!” He grins and wraps his arms around your waist. ”Keep going!” He smirks, pushing more lyrics in front of you. Sometimes having a fresh pair of eyes really helped...or perhaps he just wanted to prove that you had talent.

You peer down at the pages upon pages of words flooding your view. “...I don’t want to fight with you....and I...and I don’t like to sleep in the dark...we’ll get the drinks in...I...I can’t stop thinking of her...” 

Harrys fingers join yours at the piano “We’ll be a fine line....We’ll be a fine line...”He smiles softly as he taps on a few random keys. 

You pull your fingers away gently “It...your song sounds...really good H. It’s beautiful actually.”

 “You mean our song...” He whispers.

“Harry no, it’s your song, all the pieces, I just put your jigsaw together” You smile. “I know how it is writing songs and the first draft is never the same as the final version. You might decide to change it all completely” You whisper.

“Not with your lyrical genius ability and words of wisdom...your name will be all over this track” You felt a shock of electricity ripple through your veins as you felt his eyes burning into yours. His lips pressed gently against your forehead, lingering against your skin longer than usual. That sort of affection was normal from your best friend...so why did it just feel like something completely different? And what did he mean about my name being all over the track?

—————————

Tag List: @harryhoney-bee - @sunandherflores - @sad-capuccino