#literally one of the biggest points of the game they showed literally doesn’t matter

[blueookashi]

A horror game has never invoked such rage in me as much as that zoo horror game

I think I genuinely made myself sick from it

[jamsterrr]

N. RIKI . . . MY BIGGEST HEADACHE ⭑.ᐟ

ni-ki. manager. headache proned. annoyance. teasing. “ just because you’re the assiastant doesn’t mean you can tell me what to do “. dickhead.

description. you grew up with your older brother heeseung playing basketball, so you knew much more than the next girl. but being the captain’s assistant isn’t easy when your your brothers annoying friend is apart of the team. when you get stuck riding with him on the way home. how will you do?

words : 2.8k

ni-ki x female!reader

contains. ‼️ ; sap , slight making out , tongue kissing ( ?? ) , cursing. ( let me know if i missed anything ! )

WARNING. : everything is fictional! and this is not how any of the enhypen members are at all! this is purely for fun and entertainment <3

part 1: my biggest headache | part 2: mbh: bet chapter

link to my masterlist . . . !

don’t take this serious. this is just a fanfic. tbh.. idk what this is.. i’m not even going to lie.. this kind of sucks.. and I feel like i should’ve named it something different but idk. it seemed to fit??! sorry if it’s so sappy, I was trying to at least get something out to you guys! 🥺 sorry it took me so long to put something out. i was sick for like the whole first week of august and i have a lot of stuff going on. but i have so many good drabbles! stay tuned <3 ( heeseung , jake , sunghoon drabbles soon ehehe )

⊱ ━━━━.⋅ εïз ⋅.━━━━ ⊰

You were fairly a good student. You didn't do much outside of school but volunteer stuff, and that's probably how you ended up here in the first place. At the gym at 6:00 on a Friday, watching the team you helped coach, score each time from the other team. You had been ripping and running all day. You were tired, hungry, dehydrated and felt like you smelt like the bottom of Shrek's ass.

Your eyes were bouncing all over the court, landing on your brother Lee Heeseung, captain of the basketball team. Since you could remember, he was always teaching you something about basketball. At a young age you came to love it. It was something you both held dear to your hearts and something you bonded over. You would've joined if your school had a girls basketball team, but no one was interested. Accompanying your brother on the courts were his closest and best friends, some you came to adore and know.

Others... not so much.

They were Jake Sim. His longest friend. Park Sunghoon. Typically, the quietest one. Park Jongseong. But people called him Jay. And Nishimura Riki. But he went by the name Ni-ki. He was by far the most annoying. Maybe it's because he was the closest to your age. Or maybe it was the way that he didn't listen to anything you said, no matter what it was. You could hand him a water bottle in the hot sun, and he wouldn't take it.

That happened. Literally last weekend.

Each time it was the same thing. He wouldn’t comply with you, he’s always knock you down during practice, though you weren’t scared to try and do it back, though his height advantage beat you sometimes.

You tried to keep your cool. For your sake.

Regardless, you always tried to be nice to him, over and over. Chance after chance. But your patience was running thin. During the remainder of the first half of the game, you continued to watch, seeing the score for your team go up. The crowd cheering with each dribble of the ball down the court, Jake shooting and scoring a point. Soon the buzzer buzzed, and the first half of the game was over. You finally took the chance to sit down, taking a small seat until Heeseung came over and you smiled, a wave of happiness coming over you as you seen your brother.

"Hey." He spoke to you out of breath, his heart lips showing his full smile as you handed him a cold washcloth. "Hey." You replied back, watching him. The male mumbled a small thank you and you waited for him to finish before continuing to speak. "You did amazing out there. It was like watching Lebron James" you joked, and he rolled his eyes, nudging your shoulder. "Lying is bad, you'll get lie bumps." he said, sticking out his tongue at you.

You grinned and replied back. "Must be why your taste buds are visible. The two of you laughed before spotting Jake, his hands resting above his head. "Hey, Y/n" he spoke, your name rolling off his tongue, followed by his Australian accent. "Mind rounding up a couple water bottles for us Seven?" he asked, and you nodded. Knowing Jungwon and Nicholas were going to be put in the next game. "Of course, I'll be right back." You said, excusing yourself from the conversation you were having before making your way to concessions.

The line was full, and you had approximately 18 minutes to make it back with water bottles for the seven. While standing in line you couldn't help but notice Ni-ki walking from out the double doors, you crossed your fingers hoping he wouldn't bother you. To your luck, he didn't.

That was a first.

Waiting what felt like hours but had only been a couple of seconds, you felt a slightly taller presence behind you, their hands wrapped around your body as you slightly tensed. "Guess who~?" they sung out and you laughed. It was your best friend, Sunoo. The two of you met in Middle school when he was in 8th grade, two grades higher than you back when you met. The two of you instantly clicked.

"I didn't expect you to be here, I thought you went on that date?" you asked, and he moved his hands, pouting his perfect lips. "They cancelled, but hey, it's their loss." he spoke, and you nodded, agreeing with him.

"What are you in the concession line for?" The male asked, the two of you in your own little world, ignoring the hustle of the outside world, anyone but you two. "I'm getting water for everyone on the team, though I'm annoyed none of them brought their own water bottles." You groaned, leaning your head back slightly. "Or maybe they did and just want to make your life harder." Sunoo grinned and wiggled his eyebrows.

You rolled your eyes as it was finally your turn to place your order. "Yes, May I please have 8 water bottles?" you say as the small child that was helping rounded up your total. Sunoo leaned over and whispered to you. "I thought you only needed Seven?" "Well, I want one too" you frowned.

After a small call over from the child, another lady helped them calculate the total, the little kid speaking. "That will be $16 ma'am, cash or card?" he asked, "Cash" you responded, feeling around in your pocket, patting your jacket *and* pants pocket, but not being able to find it nowhere. You leaned over to Sunoo, whispering slightly. "Do you by chance have $17 dollars? I'll pay you back, I promise you" said as he shook his head. "No, I only have 5, the ticket lady took my money" he frowned.

You couldn't even deal with the mountain of embarrassment that came over your body at the moment, your cheeks flushing red. Hell, your whole face. Until you saw a hand reaching across, and a $20 bill being handed to the small boy that started to count the change. You and Sunoo both looked over to see Ni-ki, his hair slightly sticking to his face, his side profile causing you to stare with a slight smirk on his face. You were slightly mesmerized by the males looks. He definitely wasn't the worst looking person you'd ever seen. If only his attitude towards you wasn't such a dickhead thing. Who knows, maybe the two of you would actually be friends. Sunoo and you collected the water while Ni-ki collected his change.

--

The three of you stepped out of line. "Uh, thanks..." you said, holding the cold-water bottles, before feeling Ni-ki take one from your hands. "Well, you were looking a little embarrassed in the line..." he said, sucking in air through his teeth. "I wouldn't have wanted to be you" he laughed, turning around. "I'll take my $17 in any form of payment" he said before turning around and walking back through the black double doors. Your eyebrows furrowed as you watch Sunoo roll his eyes. "Gosh, I don't know how you have the strength to deal with him. He's so sarcastic."

"To be fair, so are you" you laughed, and Sunoo rolls his eyes playfully. "Yeah, but I'm better" he joked, and you shook your head. "Okay, let's get these to the boys" you said, leading Sunoo to the boys, making their way over to you, thanking you for the water and smiling. "About time." Heeseung joked as you rolled your eyes and sat down.

Oh, weren't you ready to go home.

--

Once the second quarter of the game started you were back in your mode, making sure to keep look for any fouls. The people that were playing the game now was Nicholas, Jungwon, Jake, Sunghoon and Ni-ki. The quote-on-quote best players on the team.

Your eyes kept flickering towards Ni-ki. Trying hard to look away but the male was so captivating even though he boiled your blood with the things he said. As the crowd cheered, your eyes jumped to the score board. 42 ( — ) 24. Heeseung was on the 3-point line, dribbling the ball as he tossed the ball to Ni-ki who threw it back to Heeseung after distracting a couple of the opposing teammates that were near him at the time. Your brother shot the basketball, from the line. It goes in with a... *SWISH*.

The people on the crowd stood up, stomping and shouting, the cheerleaders performing and waiving their pompoms. The band performing. Total chaos in the school's gymnasium. A big smile on your face as you watched your brother get showered in the love he deserved.

You ran towards him, wrapping your arms around him, giving him a big hug. Feeling a sense of pride for your brother, for him to be doing something he truly enjoyed and getting credit for it along with the rest of the team. You couldn’t help but feel a sense of happiness. All those long weekends of practice and after school practice came in handy. The score flashing 45 ( — ) 24.

--

“Hey, can you get a ride from Ni-ki? I’m not going straight home and everyone else already left. I already asked him, and he said yes.” Heeseung spoke as you frowned. “I really don’t want to; you know me and him don’t get alone. I can’t promise you I’ll be nice.” You crossed your arms as you put your book-bag strap over your shoulder, after uncrossing your arms.

“Oh, come on, try and be nice? I will be home later but I’m sure you’re ready to just go home. It’s only like a 15-minute drive, you will be okay.” Heeseung spoke, leaning and pressing a soft kiss to your head. “Don’t wait up for me.” He spoke. “WASNT. planning on it” you said slightly annoyed, but you couldn’t even be mad at him. You sighed, searching the halls, calling out the male's name gently, getting louder with each call.

“Ni-ki!” You shouted, groaning as you looked around, screaming and raising your hand to hit the male once he popped out from the corner, grabbing your hand as he laughed. His hand holding your wrist, gripping it tightly. “God-! You scared the shit out of me!” You whine and gently took your wrist from his hand. The male let it go and laughed a little. “Yeah, sorry about that... not” he laughed, and you rolled your eyes. “You’re annoying. Take me home.” The attitude evident in your voice as he rolled his eyes at it, standing there for a second, his gaze burning a whole into you.

You took a deep breath before looking at the male and hummed. “Please...” you said, biting your tongue. You didn’t want to stall anymore, you just wanted to go home and that was it. Needing a hot shower, something to eat and relax yourself on your bed since it was the afternoon. “Yes, I can.” He finally spoke, him glancing at you before he started walking to the back of the school, the parking lot where every student with a car parked. It was quiet except for the two of your footsteps, the sound of the door opening as he held it out for you, a soft “thank you” escapes your lips as the two of you made it quietly to the male's car.

Not knowing whether it would be rude of not to sit in the back seat, you got into the passenger side of the male's car, placing your book bag on the floorboard in-front of you, buckling up your seatbelt.

Ni-ki did the same and started the car, turning on the radio as he drove off. The first bit of the car ride was a little awkward. You didn’t move much, causing you to get a slight stiff in your neck since you were looking out your window. Something came over you that made you ask the question.

“Why are you always such an asshole to me?” You didn’t know why you had the urge to say it right now out of all times, I mean you could have just easily did it at school when you didn’t have to see him that much, but you asked him in his car. “An asshole to you?” He answered your question with a question. Leaning back in his seat as he turned his head to look at you, his eyes roaming your body.

“Yeah, an asshole to me.” You replied firmly. “I’m not an asshole to you.” He answered, causing you to scoff. “Ni-ki, don’t play stupid with me. You know what I’m talking about. Ever since I started being the assistant you have gave me nothing but trouble. I want to know why, what have I done to you?” You asked, now starting to wonder what truly could be behind the male's mind. Ni-ki started driving, the car ride being silent. Filled with the awkward silence and the soft tunes of the radio. The time flew by. To you it seemed like it’s been at least an hour. But the 15 minutes was coming to a stop.

“I don’t know, I just think you’re fun to mess with.” He spoke, but you weren’t buying it. “Can I ask you a question?” Ni-ki asked, pulling up in front of your house, parking in the driveway, in the spot Heeseung normally parked in, but since he wasn’t home. Ni-ki used it. “What’s that?” You ask, slightly curious at the question you were about it to be asked.

“Do you and Sunoo date?” He asked, not looking at you, his eyes staring straight forward as he bit his bottom lip gently, putting the car into park.

Nothing could have prepared you for that question. You widened your eyes slightly at it. “What- no- Sunoo is my best friend. Why would you even ask that? What business is it to you?” You asked, - shocked - your lips slightly agape. “Good.” Is all he said.

“Good??!” You repeated and he finally looked at you, his eyes flickering around your face, clearly noticing your slightly distraught but concerned look.

What happened to the Ni-ki I know? The one that makes me want to ring my brain out. Why was he acting like this?

The male licked his lips and gently placed his hand on your cheek, biting his bottom lip as you felt your heart began to race. “Wh-what are you doing?” You question before feeling his soft and plush lips against yours. Your eyes closing as you let yourself melt into the kiss. it was like something snapped inside of you. After all these times, the feelings you couldn’t deny rushed into your body, butterflies fluttering with each sound both of your lips made smacking together.

Your body was turned, facing his as you ran your hands through his hair, his hands placed on your hips, slightly rubbing the skin there. His tongue poked at your bottom lip as you opened your mouth, allowing the males tongue to explore the inside of your mouth.

The two of you pulled away the only thing connecting you two was a single strand of spit that was soon gone, heavy pants playing loudly over the man that was speaking on the radio. “What was that..?” You questioned, licking your lips as your eye fluttered to look at him.

A soft smirk appeared on his lips. “Me saying that I’ll pick you up tomorrow, that we should actually get to know each other better.” Ni-ki smiled and placed his hand on your cheek, his thumb caressing the skin of your cheek.

“Can I see about that..?” You slightly blushed and he nodded. Taking his hand, you gently intertwined your fingers and placed a soft kiss on the back of his hand, getting out of the car and grabbing your backpack. “See you..” you said before he waved and returned it with a smile. “See you.” Once you were clear out of the way of the car, Ni-ki pulled off and made his way out of the neighborhood, you stood still for a second, sighing as you watched his car disappear. You touched your lips which were now a little swollen and a bit tingling from the kiss that still lingered on your mind.

Gosh, what did you do.

After you finally showered, feeling the freshest that you could, you sat down in your bed, hearing a bunch of iPhone dings coming from your notifications. It was a group chat filled with the basketball team, excluding your brother. A new one.

Y/N kisses Ni-ki. [ the bet. ]

Ni-ki: [ *sent 2 attatchments, picture & video* ]

Jake: I knew it was going to happen.

Nicho: Ha! Called it. Pay up.

Jungwon: SOOOO not fair. I thought it’d be at least 2 months.

Sunghoon: damn, I owe Sunoo $70

Jay: 💀

You widen your eyes. Was that what that was? Were you just a bet. To see how long it would be until you kissed someone apart of the basketball team. Your best friend even participating in it. You felt disgusting. Your head pounding after you left the group chat, tears welding into your eyes. Your head pounding.

“Fucking Nishimura. My biggest headache.”

[its-time-to-write]

three times ‘cause i’ve waited my whole life

I am apparently incapable of writing anything short. This has no plot. I think the only warnings are like swearing and innuendo. It is literally just Jamie and the reader being in love. I cannot stress enough how little plot this has. Enjoy.

three times ‘cause I’ve waited my whole life It’s one of Richmond’s biggest games. They’re facing Man City on their turf, an away game, and it’s a big deal.

It’s not important in that it really matters to their status in the premier league, but important because it’s Man City. Jamie has thrown himself completely into training, so you rarely see him except to eat dinner and then fall asleep, his arms around your waist as you watch tv, fingers combing through his hair. He’s awake before you are, but as soon as you hear him switch on the bathroom light, you make your way downstairs to make him breakfast. The team nutritionist had a strict diet for him, one modified by Roy to account for all the extra training. You rub sleep from your eyes as you brew a pot of tea, waiting for Jamie to come downstairs.

Arms snake around you as you wait at the stove for the tea.“You don’t have to do this,” Jamie says, kissing your neck. You smile and reach back to him.

“I know,” you reply, “It’s just the only time I really get to see you.”

Jamie pulls away and turns you around. You see that he’s frowning.

“I haven’t been a good boyfriend recently, have I?” he asks.

You smile, lacing your arms around his neck. “Jamie. This is just a part of life. You have a big game, you disappear for a while, I miss you and I adjust. You finish, win or lose, and we’re back. I knew what I was signing up for.”

He puts his hands on your wrists. “Yeah, but, like, we’re supposed to be talking to each other and shit. And I’m so tired all the time that I can’t think of anything to say. I also’ve been a shit listener. Can’t even remember what we talked about yesterday.”

You sigh, move his hands back to your waist, and then reach up to smooth the furrow in his brow.

“Remember when I had all that extra work last month and ended up working 60 hours a week because of everything that had to be done? I was up late every night, and all you did was bring me food and kiss me, then you left me alone. I think the longest we were together was when you let me sit with my legs on your lap for two hours. I didn’t hear you complaining.”

“Yeah but-”

You cut him off: “Jamie. It’s just life right now. It’s not forever. It’s ok.”

He looks like he has more to say, but is interrupted by the kettle whistling. You give him a quick kiss and then point to his breakfast on the counter. You sit on the kitchen island while he eats, with your head on his shoulder until Roy comes.

—

Here’s the thing; no one knows you and Jamie are together. Sure, Roy knows. But Jamie loves Roy. Keeley knows. But Jamie said you’d love Keeley. (You did). Ted and Beard know, but only because they saw you two walking around the Richmond green late, late at night. (What they were doing on the Richmond green that late is beyond you, but hey). It wasn’t long after that that Jamie put a picture of you two up in his locker, so then all of AFC Richmond knew. But you weren’t public public. You had yet to show up in a tabloid or be seen with Jamie at a game or public event. You went to his games, absolutely, but you stayed in the stands, not the box.

He always got you a spot as close to the field as possible, but you would always meet up with Keeley and Rebecca after games to rendezvous somewhere else later. 

You don’t mind. It doesn’t feel like Jamie is ashamed of you, especially because the people he cares about know. But you also know that you can handle it, and if he wants to go public and kiss you in the stands after a win, you would be ok with that. (You might be more than ok with that).

But as it is, no one knows about you. He knows where you stand on it, so the ball’s in his court. It’s been a year of this, but you just wonder how long it’s going to last.

—

Finally, finally it’s the week of the game. You had been staying in Manchester with Jamie’s mum, which was absolutely terrifying at first. It was not your first time meeting her, just your first time staying with her without Jamie present. You left a day before the team, so when they arrived Jamie sneaked away to come visit. You are sitting in comfortable silence on his mum’s porch looking up at the night sky, when he turns to you and says, “do you love me?”

You’re taken a little aback. “What kind of question is that?” you say. “Of course I love you.”

Jamie’s forehead is all scrunched up again, like it was that early morning. “What if I fucked my leg so badly I could never play football again?”

You laugh. “Not sure if you’ve noticed babe, but I’m not really a big football person. I’m more of a you person, so I guess there’s some overlap.”

Jamie is still weirdly nervous. “What if I play football till I’m forty, and you barely see me like it’s been? What if I’m always on the road and always training and all we get are dinners and shitty 3am breakfasts?”

He’s removed his arm from your shoulders at this point and you shiver, puffing out a breath into the cold air. He notices without saying a word and drapes his jacket around you.

“Jamie,” you reply slowly, trying to formulate your thoughts, “where is this all coming from? You know I love you. We’ve been together for a year, and this has never been an issue before.” As you’re speaking, you’re seized by a sudden, terrible thought: “Are you breaking up with me?”

The words tumble out so fast, you’re not sure he hears you until he’s looking at you, aghast. 

“No, are you breaking up with me?”

“No!” you reply. “But you’re acting all weird, and we’ve been together for an entire year and that’s the longest you’ve dated anyone and I just thought that maybe this was your way of letting me know gently that you’re over me.”

Your heart feels like it’s beating out of your chest.

Jamie breathes out a sigh of relief. “Oh. No. I’m not ending things. I want to be with you forever. I just get all freaked out in me head before games like this, and it’s been fuckin weird coming home, and I just want to win, you know, so that way all this time away is worth it.” He pulls you close to him again and you can feel his heartbeat slowing down to a normal pace, in sync with your own. 

You sit there till his mum comes out to remind him that it’s time to go get some rest, and it’s not until you’re half asleep in Jamie’s childhood bed that your mind replays his words:

I want to be with you forever.

—

It’s game day. You send Jamie a quick love you! text and then slip into your Jamie Tartt jersey. It’s from one of his old kits so it’s a little worn, but you always put it into his laundry pile so it comes out of the wash smelling like him. It’s not something anyone would notice, but you know, and it makes you smile. You get to be in the stands and know that Jamie Tartt loves you and you love him, and at the end of the day he’s the one you get to hold. You give yourself a shake, and open your phone to figure out where you’re meeting Keeley.

—

“And Richmond wins, 3-2 with a smashing goal by number 9 himself, Jamie Tartt!”

You’re screaming and jumping in the stands, overwhelmed by the fact that we won, we won, we won! The Richmond team are piling onto each other, Dani on Isaac’s back, Sam and Jan Maas jumping up and down like kids. You lose sight of Jamie in the mix.

“Well Arlo, it looks like Richmond has once again, exceeded all of our low expectations.”

“That’s right Chris, all thanks to Jamie Tartt’s brilliant goal. Looks like he’s having a good time celebrating with the Richmond lads. Wonder what they’ll get up to tonight? But what’s this? It looks like Tartt has broken away from his teammates and is running to the stands! He’s stopped in front of a fan and it looks like he is kissing a very lucky Richmond fan full on the mouth!”

“Have you ever been so caught up in a moment that you’ve made out with a stranger, Arlo?”

“Can’t say that I have, Chris. Can’t say that I have.”

It all happens so fast, that you don’t even know how to process it. One moment you can’t find Jamie and the next he is leaping over the stands, catching you in his arms, and kissing you in front of the whole stadium as if no one else is around. When you finally pull away, breathless, he takes your hand and helps you hop over the wall onto the pitch. Not usually allowed, but you suppose they’ll let it slide for football’s golden boy. AFC Richmond has caught up to Jamie, and you’re all on the field, screaming your heads off out of the sheer joy of winning.

—

“You’re coming tonight, yeah?” Isaac asks you as you wait for Jamie by the team bus. It’s the day after the Man City game, and you’re back in Richmond with a plan to hit the town yet again, as though the night before wasn’t enough for them. (You actually wouldn’t know, because you were in a very nice hotel room with a certain striker).

“Yeah, you know the only reason we invited him anywhere is in the hopes that you’ll finally be able come along,” Colin adds.

Any story of Richmond’s win had a somewhat fuzzy picture attached of Jamie kissing you in the stands with some variation of the title “Tartt’s mystery girl.”

You laugh. “Yes, we’ll be there. It’ll be nice to actually be out and about with you guys. Family dinners are fun, but there’s more to life.”

Once you found out that Jamie’s whole team knew you existed, you made him invite them over for dinner once a month. It’s one of your favorite things, especially because they all bring food to share. When it’s warm you do pool parties and when it’s cold you play bracket uno. It was nice to meet Jamie’s family, whether he’ll admit that’s what they are or not.

“You ready, babe?” Jamie asks as he slings his arm around you.

“BYE TED!” you yell. “Ok. Now I’m ready.”

— 

Sam closed his restaurant special for you all, and turned it into like a private club. You say like because it is, at its core, a restaurant. However, under Isaac’s supervision and creative design, he apparently has transformed Ola’s through rearranged furniture, dimmed lighting, and music into a place where AFC Richmond can celebrate their win without feeling crowded by strangers. You’re secretly grateful, because clubs are not really your scene. You’ll get all dressed up, sure, but you never know what to do with yourself once you’re there. 

Speaking of getting dressed up, you were feeling yourself. You had a light blue mini dress, with an asymmetrical neckline and a single puffed sleeve. It was more a-line than bodycon, but hey. You like a little bit of a twirl when you spin. Your absolute favorite part though was that you were wearing two-inch silver block heels, with straps around your ankles. The dress plus the shoes made your legs look magical. 

You and Jamie are in the bathroom getting ready, you fixing your makeup and him fixing his hair. He half-turns to you and points to his hair with a questioning look. “Lookin’ good,” you smile, and he smiles back.

“Oh, babe,” he says, tweaking his hair one final time, “I left my sunglasses back at the locker room, and I was wonderin’ if you’d be ok getting them with me before we head to the party? I just don’t want Bumbercatch stealing them.”

“Why would Bumbercatch steal them?” you ask.

Jamie shrugs. “Something about ‘no name, fair game.’ That’s how Jan Maas lost his favorite socks.” 

You shudder. Why Bumbercatch would want Jan Maas’ dirty old socks, you have no idea. They must be really amazing.

You reply, “Yeah sure, I hate being too early to things anyway,” as Jamie absentmindedly kisses you on the forehead with a “thanks babe,” as he heads downstairs.

—

You don’t live far from the Richmond pitch, so you’re walking across the dark parking lot in no time.

“Thanks for coming with me,” Jamie says.

He’s swinging your hands as you walk. He looks nice, the sleeves of his cream shirt rolled up. Nice pants, nice shoes. Nice ass. 

“Yeah, of course,” you say, momentarily distracted by the fact that this man is going to get laid tonight. 

“No, I mean you’re always down for what-fuckin-ever, and you just let things bounce off you. And you like me, for my personality for some fucking reason? And I think about you all the time, when I’m gone or when, like, I have early training with Roy. And you make laugh because you stopped being afraid to be yourself around me. I just like you. And I meant what I said the other day, I do want to be with you forever. Not to freak you out or whatever.”

He’s stopped right at the doors and he looks so uncomfortable and earnest in a way that you’ve never seen before.

“I’m not freaked out, Jaim,” you say. “I love you, and you know I’m in it to win it with you. Now, let’s get those sunglasses and for the love of god, please don’t act this weird tonight.”

This elicits a chuckle, and he nods in concession. “Alright. Let’s go.”

The halls are dark and quiet as you walk to the Richmond locker room. It smells clean, for once. Like lavender. There’s a faint glow coming from the doors and Jamie pushes open the doors to the most magical thing you have ever seen.

There are candles on the benches and twinkle lights strung across the lockers. There’s a bouquet of flowers in the middle of the room and as you turn to Jamie, awestuck look on your face, you see him kneeling behind you, small black box in hand.

“Jamie,” you say.

“Yes, love,” he replies.

“What are you doing.” It’s a statement, not a question, and it comes out more wobbly than you’d care to admit.

He cracks a smile. “Eh, I hope it’s pretty obvious what I’m doing.”

You can feel a fucking tear forming in your eye and you will it to go away. You refuse to have streaky foundation.

“Love of my life,” Jamie begins.

“Yes,” you say.

“Oi, you’ve gotta let me finish.”

“Right, sorry, as you were.” You think your face is going to split in half with the size of your smile.

He takes a breath then continues, “there’s no one else I’d rather have shitty 3am breakfasts with, no one else I’d rather beat at MarioKart, and no one else I’d rather do life with. Will you m-”

He’s cut of by you kissing him like you have never kissed him before. After a moment, he pulls away and asks, “Is that a yes?”

You can’t help it, the furrow in his brow gets you every time so you laugh and reply, “Of course it’s a yes, you dummy!”

Jamie smiles and then yells, “Lads, she said yes!” and the blinds go up from the coaches office as the entire AFC Richmond team storms into the locker room. Dani and Richard are spraying champagne in the air as people hug you and slap Jamie on the back. 

You find his hand amid the chaos and squeeze it. 

“Can’t believe I were so nervous about this,” he says into your ear.

“Can’t believe you think you beat me at MarioKart,” you respond.

“Oi, we are not getting into this again-”

“There’s only one way to settle this.”

Jamie looks at you, then to all your friends celebrating, then back to you. “Think they’ll even notice we’re gone?”

You shake my head. “Nah,” you say, “let’s get out of here.”

Jamie smiles at me as you slip through six different lynx scents out the door. “You’re going down, Mrs. Tartt.”

“Only one of us is going down tonight, Mr. Tartt, and I can assure you it is not me!”

“You can say that again.” Jamie sticks out his tongue and wiggles his eyebrows at you, and your laughter echoes up into the night sky.

[catholic-character-tournament]

Round 3 - Catholic Character Tournament

Propaganda below ⬇️

Gabriel

Well he's an angel so I'm taking him being catholic as canon. There are a lot of themes in the game that point to catholisism specifically.

He's so fucking funny. he listens to nine inch nails and quotes one of the songs in a fight basically "fight me like an animal". he and v1 kind of have this yuri thing going on. he has an official bodypillow. hes a metaphor for being excommunicated and no one gets him like me and my friends do

The *true* Catholic experience is leaving the church and having a gay awakening, ask anyone

its debatable if Gabriel truly believes he's "the one true savior" or is mocking the idea of it

ok im actually gonna write some gabe propaganda bc despite what you may expect from a game called ULTRAKILL theres a lot to be said about his character and how catholicism is represented

Gabriel is a genuinely caring person who struggles to square his desire to help people with his duty as an archangel. He's the only one in Heaven trying to make things better for those in Hell, but his faith is used to manipulate him into committing atrocities against the people he used to protect (see the "TRAITOR" mural in 4-2)

he only realizes his mistakes after losing everything and being sentenced to death, but he still decides with only a little time remaining to try and make things right. for the sake of spoilers i will just say that the measures he takes are... extremely drastic and very enjoyable. i just really like the idea that even facing the end of all living things, no matter how steep your crimes, it is never too late to fix your mistakes. you are never unworthy forgiveness.

hes also SO FUCKING GAY for this dumb little robot. it mauled him so hard he tasted his own blood and he fell in love right there. theres no way this guy has a normal healthy relationship to pain he is soooooooooo fucked. i love him. please vote for Gabriel "patron saint of gay lapsed catholics" Ultrakill !!!!!!!!

Shadow

In sonic destruction (the AI generated fan thing snapcube made a while ago) shadow was catholic or something which I think is reallyyyyyyy funny

Ok listen. I know this is a stretch but hear me out. He says “oh my God” in the Twitter takeovers so we know this is a possibility. I see him as a Christ-like figure because I saw his whole confrontation with Mephiles and was like “this is a thing that happened in the Bible??” and the pose Mephiles shows him in is literally like a crucifixion and Mephiles is meant to be a demon / false prophet reference. And also he’s called a demon in Shadow The Hedgehog 2005 then the guy who calls him that is like “I was wrong I’m sorry” and that also reminds me of a thing with Jesus in The Bible. But the biggest reason is his whole thing with Maria cause I think he’d come to earth and hear Ave Maria once and convert to Catholicism idk he’s like we’re comforted by a female familial figure named Mary sometimes called Maria?? And her color is blue????? Heck yeah I’m in because I Will Cry. Also feel free to share this as propaganda obv even if he doesn’t get in the bracket just. It’s funny.

I feel like he’d battle a lot with being seen or portrayed as a demon and how the aliens he’s related to very much look and act like demons idk lmao- and also I feel like confession would just be good for him I think he needs it for his mental health

There is a debate on the lovely website tunblr that Shadow T. Hedgehog is an allegory for Jesus Christ.

He is Jesus, idk what to tell you. He lived, he was sealed away, he was awakened again and deemed the ultimate lifeforms, he’s angry but not evil, does what he believes is best for people and the world at any given time. Total loser.

[mdhwrites]

Luz’s Character Finish Is Bad

“All I’ve ever wanted... was to be understood!” only works from a meta perspective. From the perspective that she is a nuerodivergent (though never stated in the show), LGBTQIA+ character. Groups that, yes, right now are struggling to be understood, accepted and shown love. Here’s the counterpoint: Who the fuck hasn’t shown Luz understanding in the past season and a half before then? And obviously, villains don’t count because they’re kind of, you know, evil. Unless Luz wants to say everyone in existence needs to show her understanding which is commonly a villain’s motivation as it doesn’t allow for other people to exist. Amity here is the second biggest (we’ll get to Camila when we talk about the actual scene itself) because their relationship is literally built on shared understanding and interests. This actually gets worse when you look at Amity’s character. She acts entirely ready to just live in the human realm with how excited she is about it. Obviously stops studying magic to focus more on studying human world stuff to prepare for it. She even goes as far, just like King does, to LEARN SPANISH FOR LUZ. Now... Can a brain refuse all of this? As someone with Avoidant Personality Disorder: Absolutely. Does that excuse work in the context of a piece of media? No it fucking doesn’t without some real exploration and deep dive into why/how the character dismisses ALL of it. Because otherwise, it’s the same as using magic to wave something away. They’re emotions, we don’t have to explain it. But if those emotions don’t make sense from ANY perspective within the show... It’s an audience’s right to call the show out for it. If a character who is very business like, to the point, and quiet suddenly goes on an hour long rant in front of the hero instead of just killing the obstacle in front of them like they have literally any other problem of theirs, you can ‘explain’ that as an author. Come up with excuses. It’s not the audiences’ fault for not believing those excuses though when the text actively goes against what is being shown. Which... Well, let’s talk about the potential excuse that Luz has never been shown understanding before the Isles? That until Gus and Willow, she had no friends and that King and Eda still did take half a season to start showing care for her and her interests. Okay. That’s all fair and technically works within the text of the show.

But Camila exists. And the first special detailed, pretty clearly, how much Camila has backed Luz up every step of the way in her creative journey. That Camila has never rejected her daughter and shown her as much understanding as is quite possible for a mom to show her daughter. She only held back on this ONCE. And I want to mention that the only time Willow and Gus ever ‘turn’ on Luz, is ONCE. Hell, rule of threes: Put the Bat Queen/Owlbert in there. And all three have the same complaint for Luz: You need to stop caring about your interests and goals at the point where they start hurting people. Now, actually, I do want to point out that if this were properly interrogated and a proper part of Luz’s arc, it would be an AMAZING parallel to how the Collector behaves. Make the two both characters who are so in love with their view of the world and excitement for their ideas and games that the rest of the world stopped mattering at one point. Only Luz has learned and the Collector has not. But then Camila, in the moment before Luz’s grand statement, apologizes for that bit of criticism. Apologizes for making Luz have to consider other human beings. Apologizes for the one moment that she has ever held Luz back on... And that’s dog shit. It frames this moment not so much as Luz wanting understanding as much as her wanting to be told there will never be consequences for her actions. That no one around her believes she even CAN make a mistake. The rest of Camila’s speech, and more problematically Luz’s response, or lack there of, only reinforces this concept. After all, Camila makes a very rousing, very real point about the mistakes people make. She admits to a lot of her own and ostensibly, THAT is the part of the speech that the majority of the first two specials have been building up to. Luz has been torturing herself over a mistake she believes herself to have made (which how stupid that whole plot point is is literally another blog I’ve made) so tackling that, tackling the idea that sometimes you just don’t realize the full picture of your actions and you need to know the difference, makes sense. And Luz ignores all of this. Blatantly and bluntly. She doesn’t react to ANYTHING her mom says until her mom reveals she’s a secret nerd. That she is actually one Luz’s kind which is... A problem and a half in and of itself and I’ve talked about Camila’s character too in the past. And Luz ignoring all of that begs the question of why none of that matters to her? She’s made such a big deal out of it after all. Acted supposedly near suicidal because of it. Unless... The problem wasn’t the mistake. Unless the problem was consequences she couldn’t guaranty she could fix or were too hard to fix. Too inconvenient and painful. One example of this is perhaps the cruelest thing Luz does: Amity quotes back to her about wanting to spend their future together before stepping through the portal. At that time, Luz knows that her plan is to not go through that door. To let it close with Amity on the other side. Supposedly, Luz loves this girl. There are pictures of them going on dates in the human realm despite Luz having had this question on her mind for a while now, If not the answer she came up with.

But she says nothing. She fully intended to not give Amity any sort of closure and let Amity, up to the very second they were separated, believe Luz still intended to spend their future together. The level of callousness and selfishness required to break up with someone like that, let alone abandoning ALL of her friends who would have to deal with that emotional turmoil while dealing with the new form of the Isles, is just beyond me. It’s not something you can excuse with being a teenager. It’s not something you should excuse with nuerodivergence and FUCK YOU if you do. It is simply a god awful moment for Luz’s character. Period. And outside of meta explanations, like the writers knowing Camila would go through and so knew Luz wasn’t going to abandon Amity and thus didn’t think about Luz’s actions, there’s no getting around what it says about Luz’s character. Let alone mixed with this. Mixed with her blatantly not caring about any lessons about mistakes or having a conversation about mistakes. She just wants to be told she’s special, act like she’s special and continue to believe she lives in a fantasy. That she is the hero and once she stopped believing that fantasy could come true, she was willing to let the entire Isles burn without even trying to help it.

Because understanding to Luz isn’t recognition of your ideas, beliefs, interests, struggles, etc. It is all of that plus not being critical of anything she does. That any amount, literally any amount, of push back, of suppression, means you hate her and just don’t ‘understand’ her. It’s gross, it’s bad and as someone who was born autistic and suffers from depression now... This isn’t how I want to be understood. And I would hope it’s not how most want to be understood. ======== I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join! I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead, If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat. And finally a Twitter you can follow too!

[nero1forte]

nero going insane abt The Fog from the ever iconic Persona 4 Dancing All Night performed by the also iconic Tohru Adachi (save me)

so idk if atlus actually puts any real meaning behind the dances or if they just go with Vibes. but one of the very first things i notice is how empty adachis dance stage is. like i know what it’s supposed to be based on, but it’s still so barren. also, if you play with the dance voices on, there is literally nobody talking. it’s just adachi talking to himself. even with the Yu fever time he doesn’t really say much to adachi specifically iirc. again idk if this is a purposeful choice or if atlus just didn’t wanna put the others dialogue in there. anyway, this is Important. it shows how isolated he feels i think… how no matter if someone reaches out to help (yu in the duet for instance) he just. doesn’t want it.

adachis dancing is, at first glance, not very good. but if you keep watching it (at least for me) it kinda starts to flow together(?) this was the biggest and most noticeable point for me. his dancing is all over the place and clumsy, but he juggles it and performs it well. slowly gaining better footing throughout. i think this also reflects on his character in the actual game- clumsy but secretly keeping it together. he knows what he’s doing… with his facial expressions and even in the way he’s dancing you can just tell he’s slowly getting more into it as time goes on, slowly “losing it” (lol) especially if you watch his face

i saw a post somewhere like a while back saying that adachi made the dance up on the spot and if that’s true i’m going to feel so stupid

i thought i had more to say but uh. yeah there’s that for anyone who reads this

[wander-wren]

How is it strange to apply human rules to the cats in wc when they are humanized to the point where they are basically humans in cat suits?? They don’t play by feral cat rules, they have medicine and practice law and operate on the same level as humans in terms of basic morality. I’m not really expecting an intelligent response from someone who unironically calls people “antis” but at least TRY and use some common sense here.

alright, yknow, that’s actually fair, anon, i wrote that post quickly in a state of annoyance so i wasn’t clear.

i was specifically referring to aging there (and a little bit to cats’ idea of family/incest, at the time, but given that wc canonically understand cousins/grandparents for the Kin of Kin prophecy that’s a moot point).

cats don’t age like people! this has been a topic of fandom discussion before! we generally decide to label kits as children and apprentices as teens, but those aren’t 100% accurate. i was trying to point out that you can’t compare something like brackenfur being a warrior when sorreltail was a kit to a human couple where one was already a young adult when the other was born, because of the way the cats age.

human age gaps are also often impacted by when the couple met—a relationship between two people who meet as adults on a level playing field, with ten years between them, is different than if they had known each other when the younger was growing up. but clan communities are very insular and, since relationships outside the clans are (or were) banned, by necessity brackenfur was going to be a figure in sorreltail’s life just because they lived in a very small camp together.

i hope i just explained that better for you. however, i want to be clear that i also made a mistake in my post when i didn’t make my main point clear enough. i didn’t expect anything to come of it.

it’s a fictional story. it doesn’t fucking matter. if you ship. something. morally objectionable. it’s literally fine. game of thrones is all incest and pedophilia and assault and was the biggest show in the world and, well, would you look at that. incest rates didn’t skyrocket, none of it became normalized.

also, to address the “unironically calls people antis” bit: i was not calling the people who get up in arms about warrior cat ship morals antis. i think some of them would probably call themselves that, and some of them have some ideas in common with the larger anti movement, but i dont know enough (or care to find out) about random people on my dash, so i won’t call them that unless it’s particularly egregious/obvious.

i was referring to the antishippers in fandom as a whole, and in the warriors fandom, and i know they do exist because i have run across them in years past. i was referring to that past in my tags.

and antis started the whole pro/anti thing way back when, so please don’t try to insinuate it’s a name the wider fandom community throws at them against their will or something.

[hermitduck]

💚💜💖 for the ask game?

💚: What does everyone get wrong about your favorite character?

Already answered this one right here :3!

💜: Which character is hotter than everyone else seems to think?

imma say…Jeong Jeong. Or Long Feng. They both have very pretty/attractive/well-sculpt faces and nice deep voices -w-

💖: What is your biggest unpopular opinion about the series?

I don’t like how centralized K.ataang is, or how it’s somewhat of a focal point of the show.

Don’t get me wrong — I really like K.ataang! I find it to be a cute and intriguing ship with adorable and well-melded chemistry between the two characters!

I’m just not a big fan of how it’s a major thing especially with Aang’s character. This sort of opinion came about when I rewatched the Guru episode and when Aang was told to let go of his earthly attachments to activate the Avatar state, all that was show cased was flashbacks of Katara.

Now I’m not saying I hate or dislike Katara or that she doesn’t matter to Aang— I love her and I love and admire her character! And again, they care so much for each other, regardless if they were platonic or romantic.

I’m just saying. Katara is for sure one of Aang’s “earthly tethers” but what about his other friends — new and old? What about the remnants of his dying culture? Momo?? APPA???

And what annoys me the most about this is that literally episodes prior to the Guru, Aang went to hell and back looking for Appa and making sure he gets him back. They have literally have been the best of buddies since they were just lil guys!!

How is Appa not one of those “earthly tethers”??? Was it just so they can boost on about Kataang in the show that they just ignored everyone else — ESPECIALLY Appa???? Like idk man. Seems kinda meh if you ask me.

[nokillbananashelter]

Haven’t finished the game yet, so this could be disproven or something, but I’m doubting it. (Spoilers).

Anyone else find Sonia being so wickedly underused in this game to be like…. Emblematic of how much help these writers need?

Shes right there, next to rauru the whole ass game. All she does is smile, say something vaguely sagey a couple of times, and then dies.

Aint it weird n fucked. That there arent no Time Blessing Shrines??? Wouldn’t it make sense that, because the statues are clearly together, some of the blessings WOULD BE SONIAS??? isn’t she also the founder of Hyrule???? isn’t she also invested in the story???? isn’t she also someone who’s like transcended existence in some strange way??? isn’t she actually wiser and more perceptive than Rauru from what we’ve seen? didn’t she also matter a fuck load to Zelda??? wouldn’t it make more sense that Rauru’s blessings are THE LIGHTROOTS?? And Sonia’s are on the surface and sky???? wouldn’t that thematically be a beautiful and simple way to reinforce their marriage and how their powers are inextricably linked??

If the point of these shrines is to heal links arm, doesn’t time makes sense as an element necessary for healing???

They wouldn’t even have to reskin anything or make a new mechanics. all they would need to do is change the text around to support this notion. Also, it’s not like… they were afraid to add currencies in this game, because goddamn there’s so many currencies in bobbles you collect. They could’ve even made it where Sonia gives you stamina orbs, and Rauru gives you heart orbs!

I get that mechanically, they only wanted to give out one type of blessing, but like, we literally had 120 monks in the last game give us orbs generically you coulda done the same for them.

Not only that, with the two shrine “genres” they could’ve grouped the type of challenges a little differently. They literally wouldn’t have had to have done much at all.

Idk, it’s just one of the many ways this game shows that it’s not really interested in examining it’s biggest problems in writing or how easy it would be to fix them or how it treats it’s female characters. There’s so many paths they could’ve taken that wouldn’t of taken any more effort and would’ve been easy to support mechanically. They have all of the systems in place to make the narrative stronger and they just…didn’t because they were so fixated on Rauru as to completely ignore the efforts and importance of everyone else(Besides Zelda). And I really do believe this game’s biggest problems are it’s narrative. There’s so many things that feel frustrating  to experience that are directly tied into how they handled the writing in this game. It’s a little things like this, or how the Shiekah tech and divine beasts are SO THOROUGHLY MISSING AS TO MAKE IT SEEM QUESTIONABLE THAT THIS IS IN THE SAME TIMELINE AS BOTW.  Why do that? No one seems to like that this game has missing elements like that.

There are too many examples of underutilizing what you have for it to not be jarring.

[starseedfxofficial]

Volatility Index Mastery: 30-Minute Timeframe Ninja Tactics Revealed The Volatility Index & The 30-Minute Timeframe: Hidden Secrets to Dominate the Market The Volatility Index (often referred to as VIX) is the spice that keeps our Forex trading soups from being boring. But, let's be honest, sometimes it can feel like that hot chili pepper you weren't ready for, taking you by surprise when you least expect it. Today, we're diving into how you can use the Volatility Index to your advantage on the 30-minute timeframe—because there’s nothing like turning the tables on that spicy little market twist and making it work in your favor. Trust me, it’s a lot more fun than burning your mouth on a pepper you didn’t plan for. Here's a truth most traders won’t tell you: mastering the 30-minute timeframe using the Volatility Index is like learning to tame a dragon—once you've got the hang of it, you can unleash some serious power. In this article, we're going beyond the obvious. We’ll talk tactics that most traders miss, insider knowledge that will make you look like a market wizard, and a few trading moves so slick, they should come with a warning label: Ninja Traders Only. Why the 30-Minute Timeframe is a Game-Changer for VIX Enthusiasts Okay, before you throw your hands up and scream, "Why the 30-minute? Can’t we just go to the one-hour or the 15-minute like normal people?" let me explain. The 30-minute timeframe hits the sweet spot between enough action to stay engaged without the chaos of, say, a one-minute frenzy. Think of it like buying a fast car that’s thrilling but not a nightmare to drive to work. The 30-minute timeframe allows you to catch trends before they turn into runaway trains without needing to glue your eyes to the screen all day long. One of the biggest mistakes traders make is treating the Volatility Index like a hot potato—they watch it spike and panic. But when you understand the VIX for what it is (an indicator of fear and greed, two emotions that drive the market), you can plan moves on the 30-minute timeframe that feel more like calculated attacks rather than knee-jerk reactions. This is where real traders separate from those just playing around. Insider Trick: Watch for a VIX spike followed by a consolidation phase on the 30-minute chart. More often than not, the market’s next move will be a strong directional play. Remember, VIX doesn’t lie—when it spikes, big players are nervous. Wait until they chill out, then pounce. Volatility Index Hack #1: The "Boring is Profitable" Technique There’s a beautiful irony in trading: boring often equals profitable. I know it sounds counterintuitive—we’re all here for excitement, right? But the Volatility Index will frequently point you to opportunities in the market when other traders are either too scared or too busy being trigger-happy. Here’s the Trick: When you notice the VIX has moved significantly, it’s tempting to jump in. But take a breath. I call this the "Boring is Profitable" technique. Wait for two consecutive 30-minute candles that show decreasing volatility after a spike. This signals that the chaos is calming, and you can start planning your entries. Imagine it like watching a kid get tired after a sugar high—once they’re calm, you can actually reason with them. This approach helps you get in when the wildness is settling, and it’s not the kind of advice you’ll hear from the masses. But hey, we’re not the masses, are we? The Art of Faking Out the Market—Literally Ever had that heart-dropping moment where you’ve hit "buy" just in time to see the market immediately do the opposite of what you wanted? Don’t worry, we’ve all been there. It’s like picking the wrong lane at the grocery store checkout—no matter how much analysis you do, sometimes it feels like luck just isn’t on your side. Here's a Pro Tip: On the 30-minute timeframe, the market loves to fake out indecisive traders right after the VIX moves strongly. When you see the Volatility Index showing a big spike, don’t be surprised if the market decides to give us a little head fake. The real move often comes after that initial fake-out. When you’re eyeing a trade, wait for the market to break in one direction, pull back, and then show intent. The intent is key—once the market retests a level and doesn’t make another fast reversal, you’re good to go. You’ve just used the fake-out to trick the market into revealing its hand. Congratulations, you’re now the market magician—abracadabra, baby. The VIX-Triggered "Switcheroo" Strategy I’m going to let you in on a secret—sometimes the best trades are the ones that make you feel a bit like a mad scientist. The "Switcheroo" strategy is one of those. This is where you leverage VIX signals and change your approach based on how it moves in relation to your 30-minute chart. Step-by-Step Breakdown: - VIX Spike Identification: Wait for a significant VIX spike that indicates major fear in the market. - 30-Minute Confirmation: Watch the corresponding market reaction. On the 30-minute timeframe, look for the first red candle following a VIX spike. - Patience and Observation: Here comes the magic—don’t trade it yet. Watch the next 30-minute candle. If it’s also red but smaller, there’s a good chance that the market is overreacting. - The Switcheroo: As soon as you spot decreasing momentum in the red candles, start positioning for a reversal. More often than not, fear spikes fast and cools down faster than a guilty teenager caught sneaking out. This strategy works like a charm when you combine it with other indicators like RSI or MACD to confirm that momentum is slowing. It’s all about using fear (VIX) to see where the market is going to calm down, and then jumping in when everyone else is still scared. Myth-Busting: The Volatility Index Isn't Your Enemy A common myth that floats around trading forums is that high VIX means you should avoid trading entirely. It’s like saying, "The weather's bad, so never leave your house." Okay, yeah, you could do that, but you’d miss out on a whole lot of life. Similarly, if you treat high volatility as a monster hiding under the bed, you’re going to miss some of the best trades out there. The Reality: High VIX means high opportunity—if you know what you’re doing. On the 30-minute timeframe, volatility gives you a window into market emotions. When everyone else is running scared, you can calmly look for setups that make sense. It’s the difference between panicking because the elevator is packed, or just waiting calmly for the next one. Be the trader that waits, plans, and profits. Final Thoughts: Finding Humor in the Market Madness Forex trading isn’t for the faint of heart. It’s a constant dance between fear and greed, and nowhere is that more obvious than in the volatility index. But by mastering the 30-minute timeframe, you can step into that dance with confidence instead of hesitation. Remember, it’s all about staying a step ahead of the rest. And hey, if you ever make a mistake, just remember—at least you’re not that guy who accidentally bought $10,000 worth of ice cream futures. Trading is about learning, adapting, and having a little fun along the way. After all, if you can’t laugh at the times you hit "sell" when you meant "buy," are you even a trader? Ready to Take the Leap? If you’re looking to up your game and need more exclusive tips like these, join our community at StarseedFX for daily alerts, live insights, and elite tactics. Expand your knowledge further with our Free Forex Courses and make use of our Smart Trading Tool to automate your lot size calculations and order management. Let’s make the market your playground—fear not included. —————– Image Credits: Cover image at the top is AI-generated Read the full article

[lesser-mook]

DC HATES And Disrespects Superman

In contrast, they really REALLY want Supergirl to be relevant, to supplant him. Despite her just being a gimmick, a seasonal DLC. Every attempt to try to push her ends in a wet fizzle. Everytime.She's one of the most underwhelming characters in DC but WB can't keep her out of their mouths like she's deep or some shit. They'd sooner give us a "woman of tomorrow" movie than give Cassandra Cain or Jason, or Sodam Yat any time of the day.WE STILL haven't gotten Superboy Prime in a show, or a Starfire movie. Make that make sense to me. So on top of all of that, yea, they're going to neglect a superhero who represents the best of humanity, in an era where humanity is going to shit. And try their damnest to push the knockoff who in theory represents the same thing, just minus any authenticity because again, she's sloppy seconds, badly coped homework that the teacher wouldn't grade because it's so shitty. MOS was a mess, My Adventures with Lois-Chan was a fucking embarrassment. A rushed, wholesome piece of shit, New 52 with a side of Tumblr,  & some cameos because it can't stand on it's own two feet for obvious reasons, it's incompetent and it's garbage. *Just watch The Animated Series.* Superman & Lois, Smallville were decent. Red Son was trash. Injustice was a wet blanket. Somehow, the movie in some ways less insufferable than the comics. DCAMU had so much potential, and ended too soon. This new DC animated movie verse was basically non-existent for me, i don't give two shits. That man of tomorrow movie was a feverdream, the script had 3 things going on, didn't know what it wanted to be. Superman Returns is tricky, him leaving like that is out of character but the movie itself is more Superman than anything we've gotten since. As of 2024 *The most solid depiction of Superman in post 2000 DC, on-screen is the DCAU version.* The biggest issues there are the nerfs, but as for characterization? DCAU Timmverse pulled it off. Cause they definitely amped up his powerlevels as the seasons went on. Superman FOR TOMORROW by Lee & Azzarello. Good read. Also deals with Supes in a modern world where the old school boyscout shit doesn't always work. DC doesn't know what to do with Superman atm, because they forgot the point of Superman. Superboy prime was one of the earlier evil superman takes that worked because he was supposed to be a contradiction, a hypocrite, a glitch in the matrix. He should've been gotten a role as a game boss or something, surprised DCUO hasn't already done it, they're pushing Supergirl because they forgot that they have Superman already, you literally do not need her when Superman exists. They're trying to trivialize him by making him evil 24/7 and replace him with Kara BORE-EL or PowerTits, and no matter how hard they try and have been trying the past 10 years to do it. She'll never replace him. Never. She doesn't have the ability, and never will. She's a party trick. He's the ideal, the blueprint of modern superheroes. DC needs to remember that, they need to remember that they have THE Ultimate Superhero in their possession (until he's public domain & they might buy him again) So they need to put her lame ass to rest, and give love to better characters. Some of them queer, some of them not even humanoid. All they need to do to make Superman work, is just put him in a situation (like war world) where he's deprived of every reason to hope and through sheer will provide hope to the prisoners by never giving up. Like Gladiator but with Superpowers, Superman fighting his way back home, intergalactic action. OR? Just adapting the recent "UP IN THE SKY" story, that as a movie would be a narrative masterpiece for Supes, because that book perfectly embodies Superman. Perfectly. A race with Flash, time travel, inter-galactic battles, Superman going through hell to save one little girl, a serious question of how much one child's life is worth vs the rest of humanity- it's a good story. That is what should be a movie, that movie would fix the DC Superman problem, not entirely but it would be a reset, a needed reset.

[urwelcomeforthis]

Alex’s tattoo shows up the day after she punches Marcus Hinkle.

He had been picking on Kara in the hallway, dangling her math book above her head, taking advantage of his summer growth spurt.

Kara still doesn’t know what possessed Alex – Marcus Hinkle had been a thorn in her side since she had landed on Earth and started school a year ago, but whatever the reason, today was the day Alex couldn’t take anymore.

Eliza had been furious. Jeremiah had been (not so) silently proud.

Kara didn’t know what she had felt, really. Especially not when she asked Alex why, and the older girl had just shrugged and said “You’re my sister. It’s what we do.”

Up until this point being sisters meant fights in the hallway over the bathroom and ignoring each other at the dinner table.

Apparently, things were changing.

Kara is just waking up when she hears Alex’s hushed “What the hell?”

“What is it?” She asks, groggily sitting up and wiping at the sleep in her eyes.

Her sister is holding her forearm up, frantically scrubbing at a spot right in the middle, her eyes frantic.

“I don’t…. I don’t know! It’s like a tattoo but I didn’t get a tattoo! Fuck, Mom is going to kill me.” Alex sounds panicked as she continues scrubbing at the spot, and Kara feels her heartbeat speed up.

“You had a tattoo just appear on your skin?” Kara asks slowly, her mind suddenly far away on a planet that doesn’t exist anymore, in a culture she had been forced to leave behind.

Alex stops scrubbing and looks at Kara with a piercing gaze. “Yeah. It’s some funny symbol too, like the way you used to write before you learned English. Did you do this to me?”

Alex leaps off the bed and crosses the room in two quick strides, arm held out like an accusation.

Kara shrinks in on herself a little but nods. “I think so. I didn’t know it was possible here, but well, on Krypton when your soul mate reveals themselves, a tattoo linking you appears. I should have one too, somewhere, if you do.”

Alex stops dead in her tracks, her eyes wide. “Soul mates? But we’re sisters! That’s so gross!”

Jumping up from the bed, hands held up in surrender Kara hastens to explain further. “No! Not like that, I promise! Back home, people had different kinds of soul mates. Sometimes it was the romantic kind like you talk about here on Earth, but other times it could just be a compatible soul, someone who was meant to be a part of you.”

Alex still looks wary, if not relieved, as she tentatively holds out her arm. “So, what does this mean? What kind of soul mates are we?”

Stepping forward Kara delicately traces the symbols on Alex’s forearm. “It literally means “sister of the soul.” Je shesur. The symbol after it is unique, the way we would know we were linked. If this had happened on Krypton it would mean we were soul sisters. Not from the same parents but family just the same.”

Alex nods. “And here on Earth? What does it mean here?”

“The same thing. At least that’s what it means to me.” Kara refuses to meet Alex’s eyes, not sure she wants to see what waits for her there.

There’s a long minute of silence after Alex takes her arm back. The clearing of her throat brings Kara’s eyes up from their place on the ground.

“Where’s yours?” Alex asks, eyes burning with curiosity.

Kara shrugs. “I don’t know. It’s not on my arms like yours is. It must be hidden. Can you look on my back?”

“Sure.” Alex nods. “Lift up your shirt.”

Kara turns and tugs her shirt up and over her head. It takes a moment, but she hears her sister gasp followed by the feel of fingertips against her left shoulder blade.

“It’s the same as mine.” Alex says reverently, and Kara closes her eyes against the emotion welling up there.

Who would have thought she would get to have this piece of home?

“So, I guess I’m stuck with you. For like, ever, huh?” Alex smiles once Kara has turned back around.

Kara grins back. “Yeah, I guess so.”

Alex shrugs. “Could be worse. But you have to tell Mom about this, because she’ll never believe me, and she is going to be pissed that I have a tattoo.”

“Sure, I can tell Mom.” Kara grins, a piece of her heart settling in place. She hasn’t felt at home on Earth, not really, but at this moment she feels like it isn’t all that bad.

--

The next person to get a tattoo is, interestingly enough, James.

It doesn’t come when they’re dating, or whatever it was that they were doing, no.

It comes after he has revealed himself to be Guardian, and he and Kara have the biggest fight of their friendship.

Kara wakes up the morning after tired, groggy, and more than a little cranky. Its as she’s stripping down to get in the shower that she notices it – the Kryptonese scrawled along the inside of her right bicep.

Throniv Shesur. Protector of the soul.

Kara heaves a deep, deep, sigh and grabs her phone.

She meets James at the DEO, both tentative around each other after the yelling match of the day before.

“So. I woke up with a tattoo. Kryptonese. Any idea what that’s about?” James looks smug, like he’s won some kind of battle with Kara and god, at that moment she wishes they were in the training room and she could just punch him.

“Yeah. I did too. It means “protector of the soul.” She crosses her arms against her chest, desperately trying to hold onto her anger from yesterday but the wide grin on James’ face is making it hard.

“I know. I asked Clark first thing since I figured you’re still pissed at me. He was a little surprised, but he translated it for me.”

“Where’s it at?” Kara asks, still pretending to be upset but truthfully it was hard given the glaring message from home telling her that James was meant to be Guardian. That they were meant to protect each other. Protect others together.

“I’ll show you mine if you show me yours.” James says with a waggle of his eyebrows and that’s what finally breaks Kara, a laugh ringing out across the room.

It wasn’t who she expected to have a tattoo, not in this way at least, but if it had to be anyone, she’s glad it’s James.

--

Mon-El doesn’t get a tattoo. Kara wishes she were more disappointed.

--

The last person to get a tattoo is someone Kara had desperately hoped both would and would not get a tattoo.

For a long time, she feared what that tattoo would be, if it were to happen. She feared having to explain it, having to explain herself.

She had checked with Clark a few times, when paranoia would get the better of her.

No, he always told her. Lex did not have a tattoo. They were enemies, yes, but it hadn’t been decided by destiny or fate. It just was.

That mollified Kara because she couldn’t stand it if she and Lena were to become Clark and Lex. She would fight against it, fight against fate to keep it from happening.

And then, well. It kind of happens anyways.

They aren’t enemies, not really. Lena just hates Kara and aims a few Kryptonite cannons at her and tries to mind control the entire planet, but really everyone is allowed a brief lapse of their sensibility, right?

And what matters is she came around, in the end.

It did take time, however, for them to build back to what they once had. It was different now, but in the way that things once broken and fixed usually are.

It was better, if anything.

They were back to shared lunches and dinners, quick breakfasts and coffee breaks. They were back to game nights as partners and movie nights as friends, and the occasional sleepovers as best friends.

Things were finally back to normal, so of course Kara had to go and absolutely, irrevocably, mess it up.

It was Alex’s fault, really.

If she hadn’t said anything, if she hadn’t asked Kara what was up between her and Lena lately, Kara probably never would have stopped to think about it.

She never would have stopped to think about the way her heart sped up when Lena entered a room, or the way her palms got sweaty when they hugged, or the way she just could not stop staring at Lena when she laughed at game nights.

But now she had thought of it and had come to the very scary conclusion that she was in love with her best friend.

Her best friend who didn’t have a tattoo.

She would, after all this time, have a tattoo, the tattoo, if they were meant to be together, right?

Kara mulls it over for weeks. It haunts her. She asks Lena about tattoos, and if she has any.

She learns that yes, in fact Lena does have tattoos and boy howdy one of them is on her lower back and it is seared into the back of her eyes now that she has seen it.

But she doesn’t have any kryptonian tattoos, which is really what Kara was aiming for.

Much like it was Alex’s fault that Kara even realized she was in love, it’s also Alex who reminds Kara of one important detail.

“Well I didn’t get my tattoo until after I punched what’s his face. Maybe you have to tell Lena how you feel and then she’ll get the tattoo.”

Kara feels dumb struck, right there on her own couch, because of course, Alex is right.

The tattoos always come after the person has already revealed themselves.

Then of course comes the true fear: what if she tells Lena and she still doesn’t get a tattoo?

That’s the question she’s mulling over the next night as she and Lena sit on her couch watching some documentary that had been put on Netflix.

Lena looks beautiful, face bare of makeup, hair piled on top of her head in a messy bun, glasses slipping down her nose.

She’s eating a piece of pizza, a rare treat after a long week of work, and Kara decides that it doesn’t matter if Lena doesn’t get a tattoo.

She’s hopelessly, desperately in love with the woman and she can’t let a tattoo that may or may not come dictate her life.

“I’m in love with you, you know.” Kara blurts out, like this isn’t a life changing moment, like it’s the easiest thing in the world to say. (It is.)

Lena chokes a little on the bite she was swallowing, her hand coming up to her chest as she sets down the slice.

“Excuse me?”

Kara laughs. She’s never felt more free than in this moment. “I’m in love with you. I just thought you should know.”

Lena looks at her, shock written all over her face. “Oh. I guess that’s good.”

“Just good?” Kara nudges Lena’s thigh with her knee.

Lena shakes her head. “I mean it’s more than good, considering I’m in love with you too.”

“Yeah?” Kara could float up to the moon, she thinks.

Lena smiles, nose crinkled. “Yeah.”

It’s the next morning that Lena calls and asks if Kara can stop by. She has this tattoo she didn’t have yesterday, right on her ribcage, and it looks like it’s Kryptonian.

Kara frantically searches her own body, finding the script on her hip, on the left side.

Zhao Shesur. Love of the soul.

It took them five years to get to this point, but Kara knows, this moment was more than worth the wait.

[dr-lizortecho]

Liz Ortecho for ask game

The love of my life <3

favorite thing about them: she’s got this huge heart that shows no matter how hard she fights it. She built this cage to keep her from being hurt, but literally everything she does and doesn’t do is for and because of love. Whether it be choosing Regenerative medicine as her focus, leaving Diego, staying in Roswell, curing Steph, etc etc. But on top of all of that she has this passion and genuine love for facts and data, I mean the joy radiating from her when she gets to test a sample in 4x03 *chefs kiss* Jeanine’s acting is flawless

least favorite thing about them: again the dumbass writer’s room using her (the lead of their show) as nothing but a red herring for other characters plot points and never addressing her (their fucking leads) traumas and motivations she struggles seeing other people’s big pictures, easily drowning herself in what she had determined to be the biggest risk and therefore the most pressing issues (however, I see all of her faults and love her… easily)

favorite line: “I chose regenerative medicine as my focus when you died. ‘Cause I was broken. And I wanted to repair the irreparable.”

brOTP: Liz&Rosa they’re so iconically sisters and always switching roles within their relationship unlike a lot of tv siblings, there’s no definitive line of who’s more mature and the protector

OTP: Echo!!! But also Kaliz both at the same time if that makes sense

nOTP: I ship Liz with everyone tbh

random headcanon: I’ve shared this one a million times, but I love it so, she watches whale documentaries (or really anything about seas creatures and the ocean) while drinking copious amounts of wine, usually texting Maria&Alex a live feed of facts

unpopular opinion: I think she was in the wrong in s2, even though I understand why she did what she did because humans are messy

song i associate with them: Start by Ellie Goulding

favorite picture of them: all of them 🥰

send me a character <3

[kkusuka]

HQ Middle blocker kinks <3

@xxxxtanaxxxx​ request  hq kinks but middle blocker version please 🥺

I'm gonna be honest i wasn't gonna do this buuut here it is 

i have a setter one in the works and here is the ace version!

here is the setter version <3

Characters:  Tsukishima Kei, Kuroo Tetsuro, Suna Rintaro, Satori Tendo, Taichi Kawanishi, Issei Matsukawa,  Takanobu Aone,, Shoyo Hinata, Lev Haiba Shugo Meian (MSBY captain), and Yutaro Kindaichi

Mentioned female anatomy, but mostly gn

content warning: consensual non-con, humiliation, public sex, exhibitionism, voyeurisms, degradation, bondage, sex toys, cockwarming, edging, soft priamal/prey, mentions of house break-ins, pegging, size kink, overuse of the word Daddy, face fucking, hickeys

i think thats all? 

buckle up, this is gonna be looooong.

Tsukishima Kei

Degradation

This is a given, my mans has a mouth on him, AND HE KNOWS HOW TO USE IT

He says the most vulgar things in your ears (and you love it)

His nickname for you is Cum-dump, and he calls you that so much that you’ve started to respond to it. “Hey, Cum-dump! Come here” “ok Tsukki”

And when he’s cumming? A slew of insults just come out

“You whore, oh, you fucking cum-slut, you’d let anyone do this to you won't you”

And it's not limited to this!

“You're just a hole”

“You only exist for me to fuck, Right? You're just a glorified fleshlight”

“You're only good for sucking my cock”

“I should just leave you chained to the wall so I can fuck you anytime I want, that's all you're good at so you should love it”

It won’t even be only during sex

You could literally be just studying with him and he’ll just lean over and say “ you want to be fucked right now don't you? In front of all these people, I bet you’d love it Cum-dump”

Humiliation

Goes with a dirty mouth

He’ll flip your skirt while walking in front of groups of other students

He purposely sucks hickeys where your uniform does not cover and then laughs at you because you're just such a slut.

One of his favorite things to do is have you wear a vibrator in school, only on days where you have to do something in front of the class

No worries he has the remote and turns it alllllll the way up during the middle of your presentation, you just look so cute all red!

He’ll make it better!!

You can cum in front of the class, let everyone know how much of a whore you are!

Purposeful neglect

He wants you so horny you can’t think

If that means not giving you attention for FIVE DAYS so be it.

No touching yourself and if he finds out you did he’ll ignore you for longer and you don’t want that do you?

You will wait for him to touch you.

He’ll also just ignore you.

No begging, he doesn't care, he doesn't want to hear it.

Don't touch him, stop being a brat or you won’t get off for a whole week.

Bondage

It's all about control <3

Having you tied up and immobile is the best way to show how little you are.

He’ll tie you up and put you on the couch with a vibrator and just watch movies, unable to rock your hips

This seems cruel but he’ll tie your hands up and make you eat dinner with just your mouth <3

He’ll make you watch tv with a ball gag in

He’ll have a riding crop in his hands when you study and he’ll hit your little clit/silt with it every time you get a question wrong

Kuroo Tetsuro

Pet names

Literally any kind o endearment, but mainly switches between Kitten and Baby Girl/Boy(i am swooning right now)

He WILL call you these in front of people and out loud in public

He’s called you them in front of your parents in front of Kenma in the middle of the grocery store.

So you're wondering, why does that matter? People do that all the time!

Well, he calls you them so you remember how he completely ruined your little body and how his cum is still dripping out of you <3

And its cannon that he has a sexy voice, and it drops and gets deeper when he calls you them.

Thigh highs

It doesn't matter in you have the biggest thighs ever or just a bone, if you wear any kind of thigh highs (bonus points for Cat ones) he will be ready to bust a nut

It's not only him that gets off on them, especially when he takes them off

He’ll climb over you and use his teeth to pull them down to your feet and he’ll kiss and bite his way back up to do the other one.

He also will sometimes leave them on to rail you into your bed, when this happens he puts your legs over your shoulders and squishes his head between them.

(kuroo loves thighs, and that's that)

Caregiver

He's taken care of Kenma all his life, and you bet your ass he’ll do it for you

This means he gives the best aftercare you could imagine, I’m talking bubble baths

He’ll cook for you in nothing but an apron, and he’ll tease you when you get all flushed and cute!

You had a bad day? He’ll eat you out for hours until you’re all cuddly and tired.

He’ll fuck you slow where you need it and he’ll kiss all the pain away <3

He just loves having you dependent on him makes him so happy and thankful to have you!

Threesomes

Mainly for Kenma, but he let bokuto have a turn and even convinced Tsikki to give it a try!

He really just wants to show off that you’re his what better way to show you off then let some of them get a taste of something they’d never have.

Favorite position for this? Split roasting/ Eiffel towering

He's the one who you're sucking on, and he’s so far down your throat making him suck you deeper and deeper until you’re drooling all over his balls like a good Kitten

Whoever he sharing you with would be in you following whatever Kuroo tells them to do

Rub your clit? Yes Sir.

Faster. Yup

Slowdown Kittens being bad so she doesn't get to get off <3

Suna Rinatro

Purposeful neglect

Just like Tsukki, he wants you hot and bothered all the time

He will just sit around and scroll on his phone while you’re whining :(

Just let him watch this video and he’ll get you off!

Will never tell you but you just look so cute, all needy and horny for him.

Sometimes he’ll slip you a libido pill and just watch the world burn.

He will wait until you have ruined whatever shorts you’re wearing (and he’ll take them) and THEN he will help his poor needy baby

Cockwarming

Almost every time he games, he puts you on his dick

you already know it’s happening when he takes the controller out

He says it's because he doesn't want to “leave you out”

No moving on him though, if you8 move it could distract him and you do not want him to lose, losing means being pounded into the floor until you can't think, then being ignored the rest of the day “horny sluts can sit on the floor until they need to be used”.

But if all goes well, he’ll go soft in between rounds and will suck on your neck and will let you cuddle into him during the rounds

But when Suna if feeling a bit more adventurous he will put his headset on you and fuck you with all of his friends listening

And if that's not bad enough they all clearly know what’s happening id Osamus soft coo’s and Gin’s little comments (but it's not like they want it to stop anyway)

Edging

Will literally just do this out of nowhere

You thought you were finally gonna cum, then nothing

HE WILL just do things for hours to see you cry and begging or him to just let you cum

He’ll stick four fingers in you and bring you to your climax and just leave you on the edge

He won't even have a reason, you were being good, you let him play his game and he does this?

Que pouty bby

Video/Photography

We all saw this coming-

But he takes it a step further than just having a photo collection of you

He has a personal private story with just you in it where he put videos of you riding him or sucking his dick fo you to “see how slutty you are”

 that's not even it,  he sends you a picture of you naked in the middle of work, with no shame either

Thus one time you were showing a coworker a shirt you had bought and he texted you and the picture showed up. It was awkward for the next few days.

But these don't even compare to how he has an entire Instagram account (private of course) of your nodes and videos of the two of you fucking.

One extra little thing is that you both watch porn together for ideas.

Satori Tendou

(i could make him a post of his own-so so many kinks for Satori)

Humiliation (mentions of pee)

This can range from calling you names to making you touch yourself in public

He’s called you a pillow princess in the middle of class, in front of your teacher

It had gotten so bad they Ushijima had to ask what a “cum-dumpster was” because Satori had called you that in front of the team.

He doesn't even introduce you as his S/O, hw=e would call you an escort or that you were just his personal fuck toy.

This kink goes so far that when you were on a double date with Semi, under the table Tendo had his hand literally in your pants.

**One of his favorite things is to make you hold your pee in until you are almost peeing yourself, isn't that embarrassing that you're a grown adult who’s about to wet yourself?

Overstimulation

He wants to see you a complete mess all over him

The main goal of all of this is to make you squirt or begin to have dry orgasms

He will not stop until he’s happy or you say your safe word (which is rare)

One orgasm just isn't enough for him :/

And it's a big boost of confidence for him!

he‘s proud to know he can make you cum so much you cant even think!

Dacryphilia

This AND overstim?

Good luck

He can't even explain why it turns him on so much.

You just look so beautiful with tears streaming down your face all fucked out

It always hits him at the worst times too, you crying over a bad grade? A pretty tear falling over your soft cheeks. Hard.

Just watched a sad movie, he’s ready to pound you into the couch.

Anal

Oh ho ho

This can be one of two things, he does it because it feels good

OR

He does it as punishment

That means no lube

No adjusting to his dick

And no extra pleasure to help you get off

He’s so mean </3

Taichi Kawanishi

This man screams pornstar

Public sex

This man is unstable

You could just be walking in public and he just decides he wants to fuck.

Who are you to stop him?

Just let him get this out real quick you can shop later.

Exhibitionism

The thought of being in the open? This man loves it

And you don't really have a choice but to love it

Every time you go to the beach he just has his dick in you, in the ocean sitting in his lap while eating lunch

He doesn't even care who sees

Children? Who cares, look away or whatever

Getting caught

It doesn't even matter who it is

If someone walks in when you're doing it he’s cumming

It's just hot

He doesn't need to explain it to you

he also makes u take nudes and had them as his homescreen for a while

Issei Matsukawa

I’d let this man kill me-

Leather/ latex

LEATHER GLOVES

He wears them when he fingers you so he can make fun of how wet you made them.

He dresses you up in these pretty little pastel dresses (gender to heel, he doesn't care, you look hot weather your a boy, girl, or not) and he wears all black (goth daddy Mattsun) and his gloves to fuck you in his leather-covered fist.

That's not even it

He has an entire bin of different colored chokers and leashes just for his pretty baby

Along with that, he has a shelf of latex thigh highs for you to wear and even has an entire outfit for you to wear and show off to him.

Ddlg/b/n-Lifestyle

This is why he has a lot of things that you wear!

He loves to take care of you all the time!

He loves to make his baby food and love to watch movies with you

And you love him so much too!

You would do anything for Daddy!

And he takes you shopping and to restaurants, and if you want literally anything big or small all you have to do is look up at him with puppy dog eyes and a “Daddy, please!!” and boom his credit card is already out.

Size kink

Big dick Mattsun-

This all comes back to the fact that you are so beautiful

And big dick little hole, who doesn't love that??

He sure does, don't worry though he always makes sure to prep you

Except if it's punishment- he doesn't like it he swears! He’d never want to hurt you!

And you’d believe it until your crying on his cock and it throbs ://

But if it still hurts, and it does, he’ll let you go your pace and sink all the way down onto his cock<3

Fun fact the first time he went into your ass he tried to with no lube and you couldn't sit for DAYS

Voyeurism (receiving)

Makki Makki Makki

I would say he was into Cuckolding but its always him doing the watching while Issei fucks you

And Makki loves it too if his constant praises and coo’s said anything about it.

And Mattsun just gets off on the fact his best friend is watching something he’ll (maybe if you're not into it) never fully have

Mattsun also likes having you tied up an watching him fuck a fleshlight of just jerking off

You look so pathetic :)

extra for big dick mattsun, he Shows all of his friends <3

I am a whore for the Seijoh 4

You bet Makki has an entire folder of pic of you, whether they are of you dripping cum or just with your legs open.

Even if he says he doesn't save them, you know Iwa has gotten off you a recording of you moaning and asking for Daddy’s cock

And Oikawa is always asking for more (the little manwhore), he says they are “references” for him, liar, he jerks off to them in his bathroom.

Takanobu Aone

It's always the quiet ones-

I just gotta get these first two out-

Consensual non-con

I can just TELL he like to pretend to break into your house

Pretend you're so scared and you don't like it

Tying you up and listening to your little cries, awwwwweeee

You were just too pretty to ignore

Just let him have a taste, stop crying he knows you want it just as much as he does

Primal/prey

He wants to feel like he earned his reward

A perfect little trophy for him to use as a toy

His dick in your tiny dripping hole is all the reward he needs

It's like you're a pretty innocent bunny and he’s a big fox just waiting for the right time to strike :)

Soft sex/ praise

I know what I said up there

But none of that means he doesn't love just setting you down on the bed with candles and rose petals and just making love

Soft music in the background and worshipping every inch of your skin

You need to be vocal though!

Tell him how pretty he is when he cums, and how perfectly his dick fits in your hole!

Tell him how soft he looks and how he is making your nipples feel like heaven.

Aftercare- bc I am also soft for aone and he is a good guy

Bubble baths and chocolate

Movies and cuddling

All of this makes him so glad that he found you

Especially when you cuddle into him all sleepily and tired.

Shoyo Hinata

oh he is so pretty-

Mutual masturbation

It's the perfect way to experience pleasure

He can see you in all your glory

All of the faces he sometimes misses when he’s fucking you!

He also learns from it!

He sees the angle your fingers go to hit that sweet spot so the next time he’s in you he knows where to aim!

(he is so precious-)

Pegging

You wanted to try it so he almost immediately agreed-

But it felt good!

The two of you reserved what one you wanted so the one he picked was almost made for him.

Plus, you look ridiculously good with the strap on-

And he voices that as much as he can!

And sometimes when he rides the strap he just watches it going in and out and in and out

(you also think this is SUPER hot but won't tell him :/)

Riding

It doesn't matter if it's you or him

Watching you fall apart on his cock without him doing a thing makes him cum harder than anything

Sometimes he gets so excited that he comes before you and makes you stay there until he’s hard again, which doesn't take long at all.

when it's him?

he’ll go for hours just to hear you tell him how good he is and how pretty he looks

Lingerie

Especially pastel babydolls

But nothing you wear could ever make you look bad in his eyes

Ok he likes it when you keep the lingerie on too like he’s fucking you and you till have a little nightgown/crop top on

Lord he will BUUUUUUSSSTTT

Lev Haiba

Size kink

Unintentionally too

He didn't even know it, but he did know that he liked that you were so much smaller than him.

He likes to put your hand to him and just look at the difference and before he knew it he was painfully hard

On the occasion, he makes fun of you saying his dick is just too big for you and you can't handle it, but then you get on your knees and he shuts up real quick

Praise kink

A given

He wants to know how good he makes you feel at all times

It doesn't have to be words either!

loud moans explanations of pleasure all drive him to move faster and faster!

Even yelling “oh god!” gets him off

He makes you feel that good huh?

Wall sex

Just playing on the size kink thing

He loves to just pick you up and fuck with reckless abandon

Gets a way better angle too- bet you didn't think he would realize that

He also likes to watch the combination of your juices drip to the floor-

Shugo Meian (MSBY captain)

Sexiest team-

Daddy/ Captain kink

Just look at him, he screams Daddy louder than you do when he’s fucking you

He takes pride in being Captain meaning he’ll fuck you for hour if the word even falls from your lips

And yes you have said it (daddy) front of the team and he did get hard, and the both of you did fuck in the locker room of the gym for an hour before you got kicked out

Even in arguments you better call him daddy, he will stop and fuck you into the ground for it

Angry or not you WILL use his title

Spanking

Will threaten you with this almost everyday

He just uses it as an excuse to touch your ass

He makes you count after each one and makes you thank him

It would look a bit like this

“Five! Thank you Daddy!” “Good Baby, five more”

But that doesn’t mean when you really deserve it that he won't unleash the wrath of god onto your poor ass

But after he’ll kiss it all better and Daddy will reward you for taking your punishment well

Controlled orgasms

By this i mean that you wont cum unless he says so

And you have to ask

Aka “Daddy please let me cum, I really want to”

And depending on what he’s feeling maybe you’ll get to cum then

And if not you’ll have to wait like a good Girl/Boy and cum when he does, which could late literally forever.

but its better than disobeying his orders, which could lead to him completely pulling out and just jerking off to cum on you :((

Deepthroating/ Face Fucking

Nothing is better to him than coming home to you on your knees and mouth open and ready

But when he’s all pent up from practice and he sees you?

Rip your throat, you aren't talking for a few days

He’ll literally fuck your face no question

He’ll put his dick so far down your throat you could feel it in your stomach

Yutaro Kindaichi

Hate sex 

He just makes everyone angry

And he gets off on it

You look so fucking delectable all red faced and angry

Makes him want to just slam into right then and there

Dom/Sub

Clearly he wants to be in control

Controlling someone is just such a  turn-on for him

Looking all pretty doing exactly what he wanted you too <3

Hickeys 

Wants to show off that you are his 

What better way than marking up your neck with pretty bruises

Plus he likes how you get all shy when people look at them 

[ijwrsmff]

yooo can i plz request strawhats hcs with a dumb/humorous and energetic f reader? if u have characters limit then ignore!

Of course! My character limit is 9 so you can request aaaaaall of the strawhats! I love writing for these babies XD I hope you enjoy!

Luffy:

He absolutely loves...LOVES when you match his energy

He’s a very hyper boy, so finding you and seeing that you can be just as hyper as him if not more?

He loves it

He always invites you to play on the deck with Chopper and Usopp

He especially loves playing tag

You better run fast…

He’ll catch you in a tackle and have you both rolling across the deck

Sanji will scold him for being too rough with you, but you eat it up

You catch him similarly

You know he can take it when you tackle him

With his devil fruit you know nothing you do could hurt him

Every once in a while you’ll take his breath away...literally

But other than that, he loves when you both can play off each other’s energy

If you’re worried about seeming dumb to him...don’t even think about it

He’s not the brightest himself so he doesn’t even notice if you seem dumb

He also loves that you can make him laugh

“Tell another joke y/n!”

He will listen to your jokes day and night

Zoro:

At first...he found you annoying

He thought you were just as dumb as Luffy

But you were nakama

He would still come to your aid if ever you needed it

But after a while...he starts to see past the intellect

Your kindness, your humor, your drive

He falls for you fast once he starts to pay attention to you

His love language is quality time

So often he’ll have you sit in the room with him while he trains

He often won’t say anything, but he will often look your way to make sure you’re watching him train

If you wanted to train with him...he can barely contain his excitement

“I’m not going to go easy on you.”

Except he does

Every...single...time

He likes to laugh, so hearing your jokes is always a good time for him

He likes to nap with you, but you’re often too energetic for that

He understands, but he’ll nap close to you

Even if you can only cuddle and sit still for a few minutes

It doesn’t take him long to fall asleep, so a few minutes is all he needs

He doesn’t care that you leave to play with the crew

Just being around you for a short period of time is enough for him

Nami:

She didn’t pay much attention to you at first, since intellect is something she looked for in a partner

She’d befriend you, but didn’t think it would go anywhere

But she slowly fell for you as she watched you and the crew play

She didn’t participate, more than content to just watch with Robin

But every once in a while she’ll play with you guys

The crew noticed immediately

She never played with them…

But that all changed once you came around

You asked her so sweetly to join and she couldn’t say no to that face…

She gets a bit frustrated when she just wants to relax and cuddle but you can’t sit still

Eventually, she learns to cope with it

After all, your energy is something that had her fall in love with you to begin with

Still, she would often try to cuddle you

Luckily you get to sleep in the same room, so she usually keeps cuddling reserved for bedtime

Though most nights you stay up later than her, always trying to use up all your energy for the day before turning in for the night

Once you’re ready to sleep, you know she’ll always be there to cuddle each other to sleep

“Silly y/n...you’ve worn yourself out, huh? Come here...let me cuddle you to sleep.”

Usopp:

Honestly...you exhaust him sometimes

You’re more energetic than he is, but he tries to match your energy which leaves him exhausted

It’s nothing against you, he just needs a break sometimes

He likes to play with the others on the crew, but he has his limits

Once he starts getting to exhausted he breaks away for a nap

If you wanted to nap with him...that’d be nice

But he knows you might not be ready to take a nap when he is

He knows chances are, no matter how long his nap is, you’ll be back to playing with the crew when he wakes up

And then starts the whole process again

He likes to fish as well, but oftentimes you have too much energy for it

You like to tell jokes, and Usopp will always laugh at them

“Haha, that was a really good one y/n! Now how do you like THIS one?”

Will swap jokes with you for days

His arsenal of jokes never seems to run out, so you better have a lot prepared

Sanji:

He adores that you’re so energetic

Intelligence doesn’t matter to him, he’ll flirt with any girl so at first you had no idea he had feelings for you

You can be rather oblivious...so you didn’t notice when he stopped flirting with Nami and Robin

They pointed it out to you

That’s when he confessed

He would love if you would help him cook, he thinks it will be a good outlet for your energy

And besides, you both loved spending time with each other

Why not while doing something you both can enjoy?

He can be energetic, but much less so than you or Luffy

Your jokes always make him laugh

“Y/n-swan, that was hilarious! You’re so good at making people laugh. I really enjoy that about you.”

He will pout if he wants to cuddle but you can’t sit still, but he understands you need to get that energy out first

He’ll take up sitting and watching you play on the deck

He won’t participate unless you asked him veeeeery sweetly

When he does play with you guys...he gives it his all

But he always...always lets you win

Chopper:

He plays off your energy...and you play off his

Creating an endless circle of hype

He loves that you’ll play games with him, Usopp, and Luffy

You bond as friends that way

Sometimes you’ll play teams, Luffy always gets Usopp and you have Chopper

It’s an unspoken agreement

Though if you and Chopper win too much...the other two will accuse you of cheating

Somehow

He hops around in excitement when you begin to play

Equally...you hop around seeing him hop around

You always sit next to each other a dinner

While you’re all nakama...you’re his best friend, and he’s yours

While playing hide and seek, you find Chopper first

Always seeming to know where he’ll be

You find him under a gurney in his office, and you find him asleep

Seems like he was really tired after all

You smile and pick him up, taking him to his room

“I’ll always protect you, Chopper.”

He mumbles softly in his sleep “I’ll always protect you...I love you y/n”

“I love you too buddy.”

Robin:

Opposites attract much?

Where you come across as dumb...she radiates an air of intellect

Where you’re always bouncing with energy...she’s calm and collected

She didn’t believe in opposites attract until she met you

You contrast each other well, and she adores getting to see you play with her crew, the people that mean the most to her in the world

You become part of that, becoming someone special to her heart

She knows very early on that she’s developing feelings for you

She’s not only booksmart...but emotionally intelligent as well

It might catch you off guard when she confesses, but when you reply with a smile and affirmation that the feelings were returned she gives you the biggest smile you’ve ever seen on her

She enjoys watching you play with her crew

Though she would never join in, content to watch from the sidelines

She honestly likes that you aren’t knowledgeable about some of her favorite topics

It means she gets to teach it to you

She’ll sit down with you, books in hand

If you expressed not wanting to learn, she wouldn’t push it

However it makes her happy to teach you, even if you are pretty slow to learn

Franky:

Oh boy...oooooh boy

He returns your energy 10 fold

He’ll start by telling you jokes, and you return with your own

Overall some of the jokes are...terrible

But you both laugh until you cry

It’s good to have a connection like yours

He doesn’t care if you’re smart or not, he just enjoys spending time with you

You’ll find him either repairing the ship, or inventing something new

You’re always his tester

“Hey look y/n! I made something new, care to try it out with me?”

It ranges from new weapons for the crew to new games he made on the fly

He loves to spend time with you, it’s always filled with laughter and smiles

Every once in a while you’ll convince him to take a break to play with the crew

He gives it his all, and shows no mercy

Despite the fact that he loves you

It makes you laugh knowing you never have to worry about him holding back

Brook:

He can’t match your energy. He just can’t

He’ll often find himself watching you play while sitting with Nami and Robin

He’ll play music to set the mood when you play, knowing a wide variety of songs

Some are upbeat, some are intense

He’s become your designated mood-setter

Luffy, Usopp, and Chopper LOVE this

It makes the games you play even more fun!

He also likes to play you quiet songs to help you fall asleep

He loves that he can express himself to you via music

“Oh y/n, I love watching you play with my own eyes! Ah! I have no eyes! Ahaha.”

He likes to teach you songs on his violin, and doesn’t care if it takes you a while to learn them

He had plenty of time to practice on his old ship, so he knows how much work you need to put in to master a craft

Quite frankly...he lost count of how many hours he spent on that ship

But it was...a lot

Many years he worked

He plans to spend the rest of his undead life with you, so in his eyes he doesn’t mind spending hours upon hours teaching you

It’s something he loves, so he enjoys that he gets to spend time practicing with you

[c-is-for-circinate]

As promised: let's talk Hades, and how acts of abuse can create toxic environments for everyone around them, and also how people react to those environments--and to them being disrupted.

(For reference, I have just kicked Theseus's ass for the first time, it was exactly as satisfying as it was intended to be, and then I got predictably slaughtered a couple of chambers into Styx. Spoilers for everything through that point, but please no spoilers in reblogs/comments for anything after that!) Also, TW for a whole lot of discussion of abuse, particularly verbal and emotional abuse, and abusive familyworkplace dynamics.

Okay, so. To start out with, Hades is an abusive parent. He engages in innumerable acts of verbal and emotional abuse towards his son, because yep, that's what you call it when a parent constantly berates and belittles their kid for every perceived failure, including the ones the parent themselves could have prevented. Sometimes especially the ones the parent could have prevented. Zagreus failed at his office clerk job because Hades refused to teach him how to do it and then blamed him for not already knowing how. Cerberus tore up the lounge because Hades, who was actually there, chose not to stop him. Hades created, possibly deliberately, and then took full advantage of every opportunity he saw to insult and demean his kid, and the clerk job flashback shows us that he was doing so even before the escape attempts started. I'm pretty sure we're all on the same page here, but: yep, that all constitutes abuse, even if they're gods. Even if Hades has reasons for Being Like That. Even if you think Zagreus seems okay and unharmed by it (which: repeatedly throwing yourself into a gauntlet of violence that inevitably ends in your own pain and death because you're so desperate to escape home, not actually an indicator of someone who's okay). We all good on that?

Cool. Because I'm not really here to talk about how Hades' abuse directly impacts Zagreus right now (although there's for sure an essay in that too). I'm thinking about how it impacts everybody else.

Hades isn't as obviously unreasonable with anybody else in his kingdom the way he is with his kid. When we see him lecture somebody else, it's usually for an actual failure to do their job: Hypnos for literally falling asleep on the job and not doing anything that was assigned to him, Megaera for letting us past her so many time, Orpheus for being a court bard who refuses to sing. His attitude is super confrontational and unpleasant, but on the surface it doesn't necessarily look as fucked-up. Thing is, though, whether any individual act of aggression towards an employee/family member is justified or not (I would generally argue 'not', because aggression towards employees/family members is, y'know, not justifiable)--it's not about the individual acts. It's about the entire cultivated atmosphere of toxicity and abuse.

One of the very first things Meg ever says to us is, "I'd rather be on your bad side than his." Up until that point, we've got no reason to believe Meg has any history whatsoever of fucking up at her job. In fact, we've got plenty of reason to believe she's good at it. She's fiercely proud of it, she's frequently Employee Of The [Time Period], and we've apparently never even met her sisters because she handles her shit herself. But she's still scared of Hades. Dusa, who is an anxious wreck at all times because oh god what if she gets fired what if she gets fired what if she gets fired, in spite of apparently being absolutely exemplary at her job, is scared of Hades. Every single shade in the Hall is clearly terrified of Hades, and it's not because of what he's done to each of them. It's what they've seen him do to other people.

Which is how toxic environments work, whether they're work environments or families. The Court of Hades is of course both, always, with the bonus hell layer of you can't quit even if you DIE. An abuser in authority doesn't have to target you in order to make you feel scared, cowed, and desperate to please them. Humans (and gods who are basically extra-powerful humans) are good at learning by example. The residents of the Court get the picture.

So this Court is a minefield--and everyone except Zagreus is very good at tiptoeing around mines. We see it in Meg, so desperate to do her job well. We see that Hypnos very clearly does not give a shit about anything, but he still makes sure to have a list of excuses ready if/when Hades ever confronts him about failure to do his job, just in case. We see it when Achilles tells us that my ability to help you is constrained by the authority your father gives me, or whatever the line was sixty runs ago when he couldn't let me into locked chambers. The system, such as it is, works, and if Nyx talks to Hades as little as possible, if Thanatos avoids the Court entirely, if Achilles treads very carefully and knows how to keep his head down--well that's just the system, right? That's just how things are.

Even Zagreus seems to have had a role in that system as the court fuckup. He's the kid who didn't have a real job or purpose. He could take the focus of Hades' generalized, day-to-day ire off of everyone else, without triggering some of the more direct and violent ire because the work he was doing didn't really matter (a LOT of Hades' rage-triggers seem to be related to job performance, which means that the people with real jobs are of course the most at risk). And he could do so "safely" (big emphasis on the quotation marks there) because he alone of the court is Hades' actual kid, who's Prince of the Underworld no matter how much he fucks up. If one of Nyx's other kids gets something really really wrong, she might be able to protect them from some consequences, but Hades doesn't have any layer of supposed parental affection holding him back from getting violently furious about it. Zagreus gets a nice bedroom and the abuse is limited to words rather than divine power, and Hades is a dick to everyone but he only occasionally condemns people to eternities of torture, and only for good reasons like refusing to sing when your job is to be court bard, so it's fine, everybody's fine, everything's totally fine, right?

Except it's not fine when everybody is so clearly worried about anything going wrong. And it's especially not fine for Zagreus, who's the person to finally say no. He's leaving, for his own sake, because he deserves better and he's finally convinced he can have it. And that turns the whole system into disarray.

I am endlessly fascinated by the ways this game portrays different characters reacting to this upheaval in their carefully-mapped minefield. It's different for authority figures and peers and servants, different based on how people are positioned in the house under Hades' rule, and it's so spot-on and I love it.

Nyx, for instance, is absolutely calm about the whole thing, because Nyx has power. Hades can't hurt her. Hades can't even really do much against her children, not when Hypnos and Thanatos are gods in their own right. Yes, Hades rules the kingdom, but Nyx owns the land, and she gives no shits about his rages. And it's interesting, too, to see the lines she doesn't draw. The deal seems to be that Hades doesn't fuck with her, and doesn't outright threaten her kids (because Hypnos is bad at his job, demonstrably so, and Hades hasn't ruined him yet), and she doesn't interfere with the way he treats the people around him. She gives Zagreus advice and support and the mirror, but she also doesn't take a direct stand against Hades. He can't hurt her, but he could make life...difficult. She's protected, her position in the minefield is more of a safe viewing platform than slogging through the middle of it, but the mines are still there.

And then we have Achilles, who is one of my favorite characters in the whole game because of how he reacts to this whole situation. Achilles, like Nyx, is so supportive. Every single time you see him he has something encouraging to say. He gives us his Codex, secretly finds us weapons, trained us for years, clearly wants us to succeed. And still he's limited, not necessarily out of fear for himself (though he has to be scared for himself, he knows what Hades does to people who anger him), but out of concern that if he gives Zagreus too much help in one way, he won't be able to provide help at all later. He's still so careful.

Achilles and Nyx are so fucking important to this story because they're the only authority figures Zagreus really has in his life except for his father, and they are so supportive. They're what keep this story from being a nightmare of psychological horror and depression. They can't stop the pressure from Hades and this life in his house being miserable for Zag, but they can give us hope, remind us that Zagreus is still loved. And they have such an incredibly important role when it comes to guilt, which is one of the biggest ways toxic systems maintain themselves.

If Zagreus leaves, what happens to everybody else? Who takes Hades' wrath then? Who becomes court scapegoat if he's not there, and also, who gets punished for his escape? These questions matter, and we see him worry about it! He asks Nyx and Achilles both, is it going to be okay that you're helping me, are you going to be alright, will my father hurt you for this? And they are both so firm about telling him no. No, I will be fine. See, here's the list of reasons about why I'm going to be fine, why my position in this minefield is secure. They make a point of telling us that it's fine, that we do not need to hold ourself back from getting out of this abusive situation for their sake. That is instrumental in Zagreus's ability to keep making these escape attempts without feeling too guilty and worried and selfish to go on. (Another thing that's actually really important in setting up that dynamic--we see that Hades cares about Cerberus, even if he's using him as a pawn against us, and Cerberus seems to be the one figure in court who Hades doesn't get mad at. The dog isn't at risk, and that is really essential in keeping the story from getting too grim.) These people who we care about refuse to let themselves be held hostage to secure our good behavior.

It's also really useful for raising the stakes later in the story--we see Hades arguing with Nyx once or twice, and we see Zagreus feeling guilty about it, but it's also a sign that we're making enough progress to piss him off. After I finally made it out of Elysium on my last run, I came home to find him furious with Achilles in a way that actually makes me nervous, because Achilles does not have nearly as much security in his position as he says he does. (Achilles is such a good teacher/authority figure, because he knows goddamn well what Hades could do to him, and still refuses to let fear for his own situation stop him from helping the abused kid under his care escape his. And no, not everybody has the capacity to do that, but it matters so much coming from the guy who helped raise us. It matters so much. I do not even have the words for how much.)

It's also no mistake that many of the people we find supporting us along our journey are either the people with the most power in their immediate environment, or the least. Sisyphus helps us because what more could they do to me than this? Orpheus is a little wild around the eyes and somewhat disconnected from reality, and he wishes us the best because someone should get what they want and also he no longer gives a single fuck what happens to him. Eurydice has her own cozy little corner of Asphodel, as safe from Hades' rage as anybody anywhere in his realm because she's tucked in such an out-of-the-way middle place she's outside his notice. Dusa is so scared of everything anyway that, crush aside, she isn't any more threatened by us escaping than she is just by her everyday life here. Charon is unfathomable and unstoppable; Skelly literally exists to be a punching bag, and yet he also seems basically immune to pain, no matter what we do to him. There's no threat from Hades there.

So the people most at risk when I flip the world on its ear are the ones who have so much standing that they have something to lose, but not enough to protect them from losing it. Which of course brings us to Than and Meg--who are, of course, the two people who also seem by far the most upset by my attempts to leave.

As authority figures, Nyx and Achilles are constantly reinforcing the message that it's Hades' fault, not ours, if they or anybody else get caught in the crossfire of his wrath. I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing, and it's not my guilt to bear. From Megaera and Thanatos, we get the opposite message--I am fucking with things, I am hurting people, and I need to stop. Zagreus isn't just abandoning them, as a friend or brother or lover or all of the above they're Greek gods who even knows. He's betraying them. They were in this together, as friends or lovers or whatever, but now Zagreus is sending earthquakes through the minefield they both still have to stand in. He is about to capsize this boat in the middle of a thunderstorm, he is fucking with the system, and they're the ones who are going to get most hurt.

I'm so curious how this is going to work for Than, who out of everyone we meet holds the closest role to Nyx's in terms of being sheltered from Hades' wrath. He's the guy who gets to leave, after all, even though he always has to come back. I've seen the least of him out of anybody so far because it took forever for me to get to Elysium, but two things really stand out and I'm so interested to see where they go. One, he really genuinely does care about Zagreus. He wants us safe, he wants us unhurt, the accessory he gives us only grants its bonus if we clear a room without taking injury, he keeps showing up to help. And two, he wants us to give up and go back and recognize how good we had it. Which is SO fucking interesting, considering how miserable Zagreus so clearly was, and how legitimate his reasons for being miserable were.

It makes me wonder so much about Than's standards for comparison. Does he know something we don't about what's waiting for us on the surface, something that might theoretically hurt Zagreus even more than staying down below? Has his life, which apparently allows him more freedom than anybody else in the Court, sucked horribly in ways we haven't seen, and that's why he spends so little time there in the first place? Either of those things is plausible, both of those things are plausible, and yet either one leads to this sense of patronizing, because he refuses to simply tell us. If something terrible is awaiting us, don't give us vague warnings, tell us what it is and let us decide for ourself! If you're fucking jealous because we might get out entirely and you're still stuck coming back here, say so. If you're worried about your mom--and he does bring her up, how could Zagreus turn his back on her like that, does seem to worry for her--then let's have an actual conversation about how many times she has insisted I do this and also how much I love her.

And, right, it's clear that a lot of Thanatos being upset is simply, you were going to leave me without even saying goodbye, you want to leave ME, which is understandable! But, like, he is demonstrably the one god who gets to visit the surface. He's the one person we actually COULD expect to see again. And he is absolutely also upset because there's an Order To Things, and we're fucking it up. We used to be his careless callow reckless friend who could talk back to Hades and get away with it, and now we're not, and everything is changing and we might leave him altogether, and we might leave him alone in that court without us, and he hates it.

Is it a short-sighted, selfish fear on his part? Yes, absolutely. Even if he's not scared of Hades on his own behalf, he is still frightened by what happens if we upset this system--and maybe it's the sanctity of a much bigger system than the Underworld that he's worried about! Maybe it's the whole divine and cosmic order. Whatever system he wants so badly to protect is enabling the abuse Zagreus has been dealing with for however-long he's been alive. Whatever system he wants so badly to protect OUGHT to be overturned, or at least shaken up. But this is what toxic systems DO. They convince the people within them that they have to be maintained, that a broken system that hurts the people within it is far better than no system at all, that changing the world is too scary and too dangerous. And Thanatos wants his whatever-Zagreus-is-to-him to be there, because he loves him and also because that's how the world works, and those things are all tangled up in one another, and that is how relationships are in a messed-up family like this so therefore I love it.

And Meg. Meg, the best for last, my dear, beautiful, furious, bitter, scared angry tired girl. I adore her. I am absolutely never going to date her, because the thing Zagreus needs most in his life hurts her, more directly than anybody else in the story, and that sucks, and it's not Zag's fault but they still shouldn't be together. Meg has taken more injury from this situation than anyone, quite literally as well as metaphorically, and it's not her fault any more than it's ours, but oh boy it has made her lash out and it's awful and it's perfect.

Meg's place in the Court of Hades is unique because she's not dead, not a mortal, not anything other than a god--but she's also not family. Nyx is not her mother. She's very much part of this system, she and her two sisters belong to Hades-the-realm and therefore also Hades-the-king, she can't leave, but she also doesn't have that protection of Nyx watching out for her in the same way. She's not royalty. She and her sisters (if you ask Hesiod instead of Virgil, which seems to be the interpretation the game's going with here) sprang from the blood of maimed Uranus at the same time as Aphrodite, but fuck knows Aphrodite isn't claiming them as siblings. And she can't be fired, exactly, but she sure can be demoted, and she sure can be made miserable in her job. Meg is vulnerable in a way very few people in Hades' employ are. She's a lot harder to do away with than any one random shade, but she's also a lot harder to miss blending in with a crowd.

What's more, she's the one person in this whole mess who is specifically tasked with stopping us from leaving. Hypnos isn't ordered to put us to sleep and keep us in our room. Thanatos can't be compelled or punished if he doesn't hunt us down. Achilles isn't told to lock us up and keep the keys. Meg is the one stationed at the doorway to Tartarus to keep us in. Meg is the one who gets in trouble when we leave. Meg (who Hades knows goddamn well Zagreus cares for, or cared for, who he absolutely knows we used to date) is the one who has to fight us again and again and again. And she's the one who keeps dying.

Again, it's this incredibly fucked-up guilt/hostage situation deliberately designed to keep people from fleeing abusive situations. Meg's insistence on fighting us now puts Zagreus in the position of having to hurt her himself again and again. Now suddenly we're the ones sticking a sword in our ex-girlfriend. Now suddenly someone can point to our desire to leave, to flee, to escape, and say, how selfish. How cruel. How terrible of us to want to go, when we're even willing to hurt the people we love to do it.

Except, right: Hades is the one who demands Meg stand there and stop us. Hades is the one who puts both of us in that position. Meg is also in an abusive situation, and she's willing to hurt us to protect herself. "I'd rather be on your bad side than your father's." It's easy to blame her at the start for being complicit, for being a tool of our father's abuse, for being on his side. It gets harder as the game goes on. I've killed her so many times. There's no way for her to beat me. She knows at this point that she can't beat me. She still fights, every single time, still throws herself upon that spike, not because she thinks she has any chance of stopping me but because she is so damn scared of what will happen if she doesn't try.

In fact, Meg's the one person we have actually seen face consequences for our actions so far, instead of just facing the threat of them. Her sisters are here. Her sisters, who she clearly does not want here, who are wild and violent and who she does not want in her life or anywhere near her, let alone near the job she takes so much pride in. She gets to deal with them now. (Hades doesn't have to deal with them. They're still not allowed in his court. But Meg does.) She gets stabbed, and bludgeoned, and shot, and lightning-struck, and poisoned, and every other thing we do to her. Thanatos doesn't. Nyx and Achilles and Hypnos don't. Bug Meg? Oh yes. Meg pays.

And yes, ok, she is complicit in this system. Everybody is complicit in this system. Zagreus who's trying to escape on his own behalf instead of overthrowing his father for the sake of everyone he'd otherwise be leaving behind is complicit in this system. Pointing fingers and pulling strings of who's more at fault? and who do we blame for this? is exactly how this sort of system perpetuates itself. Your sister always talked back at the dinner table and put everyone in an even worse and more violent mood. Your coworker refuses to work more than forty hours a week so now you have to take overtime to pick up their slack. You're enabling your dad by asking your sister to shut up, you're enabling your employer by working as hard as you do so you don't get fired, everyone's at fault, everyone's to blame, everyone is--

It's not everyone. It's Hades. It's Hades at the root of everything, and probably something big and institutional and fucked-up even beyond him. But even if everyone down in this Underworld does have to be trapped here forever, even if he's trapped here forever, Hades is neither challenging the system that put them here nor trying to make that fate better for anyone else stuck with him. He's just created an entire kingdom of backbiting and misery and people who can either go along with his whims or suffer the consequences.

At this point in the game, Meg is so fucking tired. Every time we run into her in the lounge, hunched over a table, the venom in her voice when she tells us "Do I look like I have anything to say to you?" is so bitter and so exhausted. There was a system, and she knew her place in the system, and it was a system divinely ordered by the gods themselves, and sure it was cruel but that's the literal will of the universe as far as she knows it. She had a role, and her role was vengeance and punishment and violence against those who'd committed the most egregious of sins in life, and there was a point to it, she was the divine deterrent to convince people not to do those things, and that was just, and that was right. The GODS THEMSELVES said so. How do you argue with that? You can't possibly argue with that!

And Zagreus is arguing with that. In trying to leave, he's questioning the unbreakable rule that nothing in the Underworld ever gets to leave it. In disobeying his father to do so, he's questioning the unbreakable rule that what the gods say is LAW. He's breaking everything.

And of course he's not trying to do any of that. He's not trying to destabilize the system at all. He's just trying to get himself out of it, to a place where he feels like he belongs and maybe a parent who's slightly nicer to him than this one. But toxic systems like this one break when the people within them have access to another option. When the kids find a way to actually leave, and not answer the phone, and not come home for holidays, and not deal with it any more. When the employees have the economic freedom to quit. When opportunities granted by education, money, social support, etc etc etc, show up and give people a choice. Even if the option is only ever for Zagreus--he's demonstrating that an option exists. Which is, of course, the one thing the system cannot ever allow.

I really like this game.