#look this isn't even all the thoughts I have on this upcoming game

[kayhi808]

I know u had an ask about Bucky adopting Abby (Bucky asks to adopt Abby). How about Abby asks Bucky to adopt her? Like its Buckys birthday and Abby writes him his letters asking for him to adopt her? However, instead of asking her Mom to help her write her letter to Bucky she asks her uncle Steve for help. So they write the letter and Abby draws her pictures and only puts her best stickers on thr letter and then they frame the letter. Bucky reads it. Mama is shocked and so happy. There isn't a dry eye in the house.

I know I'm rambling. It just that I see so many tik toks like this and it made me think of bucky and Abby.

Hi my patient Nonnie! 🥰 I know it took me forever to get to but I didn't know how to work it in to their story, but it kind of coincides with the Proposal Ask. I hope you like it! And I'm sorry it took me so long to answer.

Steve's on the couch watching a baseball game, "Uncle Steve?" Abby is with Steve while you and Bucky have date night.

"Yes?"

"Bucky love Mama, rights?" She rests her elbows on his lap with her chin in her palms.

"Of course he loves your Mama! That's why he asked her to marry him. He loves her very much."

"Um...do you...uh. You know what's?"

Steve smiles & lifts her onto his lap, "No, tell me."

"I saws this movies. Um, the little girl has no families. Only a puppy and she live in an o'panage."

"Orphanage?"

"It's what I says, o'panage." Steve nods.

"Did you watch Annie?"

Abby's eyes light up, "Yes! You sees it too?" Steve nods. "Do you tinks Bucky loves me big much or widdle much?"

"Definitely BIG much!" Abby sighs with relief. Her little hands are clenched in her lap. Steve takes her hands in his, rubbing them. Relaxing them out of little fists. "What's the matter Abs?"

She stands to whisper in Steve's ear, "I wants Bucky to 'dops me."

"Oh!" Abby's scared big eyes meets Steve's soft, kind blue ones.

"He loves Mama & he makes her family. Maybe...maybe if he loves me, he makes me, too?

Steve's throat tightens up, "C'mere." He hugs Abby tightly to him & Abby rests her head on his shoulder. He needed a second to gather is thoughts and composure. "I think that's an excellent idea."

"Yea?" Abby pulls away to look at him, "He's want a daughter likes me?"

Steve coughs to clear his throat, "I think he'd love it. You'd make him so happy." Abby covers her mouth and giggles.

"Cans you helps me draws him a letter?"

"Absolutely," he drops a kiss on the top of her head.

Steve and Abby work on her letter. She used all her best stickers. Steve convinced her to wait until Bucky's upcoming birthday. Steve said he'll get her letter framed so she can wrap it up and give it to him as a present.

******

Bucky didn't want a big birthday party or anything, but you insisted on celebrating, so gathered up the Avengers who were not on missions and went out for dinner. Steve, Sam, Natasha & Bruce. Bucky had to admit it was one of his best birthdays. Surrounded by friends, you & Abby. He really enjoyed his evening. They returned to The Tower for cake and ice cream & to open presents. You notice Abby and Steve whispering all evening & you know they are up to something.

"I'm scared-ed Uncle Steve."

"Why? You have nothing to be scared about."

"Um, what if he no wants me? And tells me no?" Abby's lip puffs out into a pout.

"How can he not want you, Abs?? You are smart, strong, so loving, so sweet, so kind."

"But I tricks him a lot. And maybe he don't wikes it."

You walk up to them, interrupting their deep discussion. "What's going on here?"

Abby stands up ram-rod straight, "Nuffing!" Not at all suspicious.

"Nothing huh?"

Steve picks Abby up, "We're going to get Buck's present, we'll be right back." He takes your baby and leaves the room.

******

Steve and Abby return with a wrapped gift, "We got one more present from Abs." Steve places her down and gives her the present. She walks towards Bucky but stops to look back at Steve. He can tell she's still afraid so he smiles and nods reassuringly.

"What's this?" Bucky opens his arms to Abby. She leans against him and hands him his present. In a soft voice, "I made it. Uncle Steve helps me."

"Oh, yea?" Bucky opens his gift and takes out the frame. It takes a second for him to realize what Abby is asking. CAN I BE YOUR DAUGHTER? Is printed on her drawing. He frowns trying to hold back his emotions. Bucky already embraced the role as Abby's father, excitedly so, and Abby wants to be his daughter. Abby drew a picture of them both with flowers and balloons. Steve wrote the words and drew a little scroll of paper that says adoption. And it's surrounded by Abby's stickers.

Abby sees his frown & her terrified gaze goes to Steve. "Oh nos! He no wants to 'dop me!"

Bucky quickly puts the frame aside and wraps Abby in a big hug. His voice is rough and gravelly as he whispers to her, "Nothing in the world would make me happier, baby. Yes, I want you for my daughter." Abby wraps her arms around Bucky's neck & he pulls her onto his lap.

You grab the frame to see what's in it & you gasp. Steve comes up and gives you a quick squeeze. You sit beside the 2 most important people in the world to you. Abby has tears running down her chubby cheeks, "Mama! Papa wants me to be his daughter! He 'dops me." Your close friends cheer & you'd swear that Bucky's eyes are glassy with tears. Abby claps for herself.

You wipe away her tears, "Of course he would. You're the best daughter ever!" You pepper her with kisses as Bucky grabs your hand in his and gives it a squeeze.

@waywardhunter95 @wintrsoldrluvr @rebeccapineapple @ordelixx @onceithough @thezombieprostitute @ilovetaquitosmmmm @julvrs @unaxv @s-a-v-a-n-a-34 @winterslove1917 @mrs-bucky-barnes-73 @mrsnikstan @hisredheadedgoddess28 @itsteambarnes @otterlycanadian @purplecolordeer @samsgirl93 @buckitostan @littleredwolf @mcucatlady @silas-aeiou @hzdhrtss @florie1 @thecubanator2 @enchantedbarnes @jvanilly @selella @fireeyes-on-teller-dixon-grimes @cjand10 @pancake-05 @ozwriterchick @crazyunsexycool @baw1066 @nommingonfood

[lukolabrainrot]

I went and rewatched all the interviews and there is just no way those songs and the Milk t-shirt photo was not about Luke. Here are my thoughts about what happened, let me know what you think!

Also, yes, it's entirely delulu but...

*N/L had a casual situationship after filming S3, but eventually both want to be sure that their feelings weren't directly related to being in such close proximity for so long. N pulls away because she's not sure that what they felt was the real deal and wants space to figure that out. L (being someone who prefers being in a relationship, finds A). They have a casual situationship. A knows about N/L's situationship.

*In Nov/Dec A and L's situationship gets more serious so N realizes that perhaps it was what was supposed to happen and (since she is guarded and a little jaded about love) focuses on her career and the upcoming WT.

*The WT comes and BAM! those feelings between L/N are back again and they're full force and too hard to ignore.

*L/N have a discussion about their situation and things...happen. *L/N decide that once the WT ends, they're going to pursue a relationship, likely a serious one based on N's family's reaction to meeting L in Ireland (come on, no one responds like that to meeting a co-star!) and the ring N had custom-made, a ring (that looks to have hands with rings that L wears)! This isn't a subtle sign. This ring was custom-made and listed on Chupi's website as an engagement ring (which the engagement part was later removed...another interesting tidbit) and N liked AND favorited a TT (accidentally) that talks about this ring being an engagement ring!! Whether that's the case or not, I believe 100% that L bought her that ring. I also believe the plan was ALWAYS for them to come back to each other (not only because of the song choice she posted with the lyrics 'I'll wait for you') but the fact that N wore this ring in the 'in a relationship' status since the moment she received it. THAT is telling!

*A finds out that things between L/N have heated up and she's upset (Brazillian Bob haircut era) even though L likely attempted to end things with her multiple times, but she won't go away. She confronts L and threatens to go to the media about him wronging her. And since no one knows the BTS situation between L/N, this could make them both look very bad and affect their careers. So they play along and L promises to help A launch her career by continuing their situationship. L gives A conditions though - he doesn't want to be in any photos where it could look like they're a couple. He doesn't mind if there is the assumption they are together, because he is hoping to just ride this thing out and then make a clean cut from A. He will also not publicly claim her, as all of them know that L/N are end game. Because A is who she is (and seeks media attention) she agrees to these terms, but believes she can change L's mind. This is what we see in her taunting N because she's extremely jealous of her. This is also why we see papgate happen and L's comment (we won't let her ruin our night - imo this was to N about A). A (imo) made papgate happen to prolong their relationship and publicly claim L so that she could control the narrative. Which is why L looks so pissed in the photos. Now this prolongs the ability to cut things off cleanly because the entire world has seen A.

*We see some (most) of the fandom react negatively to the papgate situation, which left everyone confused as to why N was coming to L's defense on instagram (since the majority of us KNEW what we saw between the two of them was genuine) and this was a slap in the face to N to bring A to the premiere. But what we didn't know is that she came to his defense because she KNEW the plan all along and knew that A was trying to split them up and foil their plans to eventually be together.

*L/N discuss what happened and there are some hurt feelings and they disagree on how to handle the situation. And we see their frustration with N's SATC TT she posted and quickly deleted and their lack of sm likes/etc. between the two. I think there was a lot more going on BTS that we didn't know about during this timeframe. Maybe N decided to take a break from things because of what happened and because she's focusing on her career and this caused a rift between them. Or L is just biding his time with A while N turns the other way. Either way, they're not together this summer and L looks absolutely miserable with A. My guess is that papgate and A came between them temporarily (A's plan the whole time).

*But then we get Italy. At this point, L and A have been 'together' doing stuff (always shown in friend groups, never alone together) as part of their earlier agreement. A is pulling out all the stops to win L, but he's not responding. A is frustrated and things take a drastic turn in Italy.

*After Italy, we see L's whole friend group (A, S and R) all stop posting and go virtually quiet. We see N's french toast pic (maybe this is a nod to her cooking things for L or maybe she just wanted to post it. We don't know). But then we get the Scrabble pic with the 'HeyA' etc...we also see N post two songs in quick secession with the lyrics "it's nice to hear your voice again, it's been a long time..." If this was about JD, why would she post that? She's been hanging out with him on/off through out the entire summer. The other song is about opening herself up and the other person knowing N entirely. If that's not L, I don't know what would be. He's seen her about her most vulnerable. And THEN we get the Milk t-shirt photo. Which, imo, is a direct tie-back to references to Tomdaya. She knows that we know she follows them and has mentioned them in interviews. There would be no reason for her to post this (Johnny's charity for this was in June). She knew we'd connect the dots and imo, she was soft-launching L and preparing us for what was to come. And after going back through the interviews, there is just no way anyone could convince me that she fell head over heels with him (JD) after looking at L the way she did and wearing a ring (that she's mentioned is related to her time in Bton and has the ring fingers with L's rings!) in the relationship status since she's received it. Why would she use this ring to denote that she's in a relationship with anyone else? Wouldn't that be a little strange?

*But a lot is going on between L and A and his disentanglement from her and to distract from their situation, N starts posting other pics (notice how there are none of JD on her grid and JD mostly likes the ones of L and N together?)

*We see N go to a festival with friends. The paps claim she's with JD. I firmly believe that JD is a friend and nothing more. I say this for a few reasons - no one batted an eye when we saw N pop up around town with JD earlier this summer, she's typically private about her relationships, she has no pics of him on her grid (look at the tons she has of L) and there are questions about who JD's dated in the past. BUT, since this is convenient for both of them atp, N is going to run with it. This is the perfect opportunity to detract from what is really going on BTS. And this is exactly how N wants it until things are completely resolved with A. Meanwhile, L is laying low and dealing with the disentanglement (which may or may not involve legalities at this point). DM backtracks (not out of any favor to N) but maybe because she's received inside info and she's not being paid by A to build a narrative anymore (yes, that's entirely speculation).

IMO, we just have to wait a few and we'll see L and N come out as a couple.

Um I LOVE THIS LEVEL OF DELULU, TYYYY! ❤️️

I agree with a lot of this as well!

[lxndonorris]

stand by your side - Sebastian Vettel

Y/N x Sebastian Vettel Theme: Fluff/Angst Seb comforts you in time of need x taglist: @wolfsbanesbite @game-set-canet word count: 770+

You're pacing through your apartment, letting out an audible sigh. You don't dare look at the clock hanging behind you on the wall just above the doorframe. But the dooming thought of the upcoming doctor's appointment won't leave your mind even for a mere second. You wouldn't have scheduled one if it wasn't totally necessary.

Yet, the mention of that appointment is enough to tie up your stomach and send shivers down your spine. Unwillingly, you check the time again—one more hour. Shaking your head in disbelief, you keep on pacing from room to room, holding your phone close to your chest.

At least your friend group is trying to support you and cheer you up. They don't know how much stress you're going through just for this damn appointment, but you contemplate telling them—maybe just one of them. But who? So many thoughts race through your mind—just too many for one person to get under control.

Then a sudden noise snaps you out of this state—a key—someone is opening the door behind you. Surprised, you turn around. Not many people have a key to your apartment, and you're expecting no visitors today.

The door swings open slowly and gently. It's one of your closest friends, Sebastian.

"Hi." He says this with a warm but coy smile forming across his lips.

"Seb? What are you doing here?" You are confused.

Just then, you notice him carrying a huge bag, a backpack, and a cup of coffee. How did he even manage to open the door like that?

"I'm just here; uh, I brought you some coffee. And snacks." He lifts his arms, presenting the bag and the cup in his other hand. "I've also brought a smoothy if you're not in the mood for a hot drink, eh?" He struggles a little bit with the load he is carrying, and that's when you regain your composure.

"Oh, I'm sorry." You say you are approaching him to help him.

"No, it's fine." He says, lying obviously.

Sebastian hands you the coffee and sets the bag of snacks down on the floor before he lets out a quiet sigh as well.

The coffee cup is still steaming, and you put it down on the living room table. How did he carry it with his bare hands?

"This is so hot." You chuckle slightly before turning back to Sebastian. He isn't only carrying a dozen things, but he is also wearing a thick jacket, a beanie, jeans, and a pair of sneakers—his usual casual clothes.

"Yeah, I just got it from the bakery." He points behind him, chuckling as well.

Still confused, however, you watch him for a while, not sure what any of this means.

But then he coughs slightly. "I hope this isn't too much." Sebastian says in a rough voice, motioning to all the stuff he got you.

Shaking your head, you let your eyes wander over the coffee cup and the bag full of your favorite snacks—chocolate and cookies.

"This is so sweet." You say it quietly. "But why?"

Your eyes meet again, and his gaze is warm and comforting. It puts you at ease, and you keep looking at each other until he shrugs softly.

"The others called and told me you had an appointment." Sebastian says and hesitates, saying the last word out loud, not in a demeaning way but in a loving way. "So I wanted to cheer you up."

A shy smile forms on his lips again, but you can't believe what he just said. Looking down at the floor, you try to make sense of it.

A thousand thoughts run through your mind again, but then they ´vanish in an instant when your eyes meet again.

"Thank you." You say, holding back a quiet sob, but obviously, he already knows.

"It's okay." He says, wrapping you in a warm hug. "You don't need to tell us; tell me anything. We care for you, always." Sebastian caresses the small of your back, and you embrace him fully.

You can't hold back all the tears filling your eyes, but that's okay. He holds you close to his chest, close to his warmth.

"That's what friends are for." He places a kiss on your forehead and squeezes you gently.

After a while, you talk about the upcoming appointment, and he assures you that everything is going to be fine. He offers to join you and stand by your side, and you cannot say no to that.

Even though you still worry about what the doctor will say, now you know someone will be there to hold you.

[silentscrying]

🏀 buzzer beater | chapter FIVE.

nba!gojo x manager!reader

summary: you thought you'd gotten rid of arrogant NBA star satoru gojo when he left the curses after your first year in basketball management. but when your contract is up three years later, you find yourself working with him once again as the manager for the sorcerers. as you navigate playoff season alongside long-time friend ieiri shoko and the sorcerers' insufferable star player, you start to realize his sudden departure from the curses may not have been what it seemed, and maybe gojo isn't exactly the person (or player) you thought he was, either.

warnings: language, minor injury, mentions of smoking, obscene amounts of pen-twirling and cryptic conversation. || sfw. 3.3k words. reminder that characters are aged up (bc tiny high schoolers ain't playin' in the NBA in any universe) and megumi & yuji & co. are only a few years younger than gojo.

FUSHIGURO’S PRESS SCHEDULE is wiped for the rest of the Phantoms series before you even get back to the hotel, and you and Nobara have mediated press releases and fielded questions about his condition—and Gojo and Hanami—back and forth for hours. Fushiguro will be out game four, but he’ll be fine, and Gojo has not been suspended from upcoming games. According to Nobara, Twitter is relieved to hear it.

The internet’s also blowing up over Gojo and Hanami’s almost-fight. You scrolled through Twitter for all of five seconds before someone said something along the lines of satoru gojo grab me by the shirt like that fr and you considered deleting the app entirely.

You’re trying to forget about the whole thing, or at least be pissed at Gojo, but there’s a part of you that can’t help but fixate on how protective he was of Megumi. It’s not like Gojo didn’t know the consequences of getting into a fight. Was it just that his need to put Hanami in his place, to stand up for Megumi, outweighed the threat of suspension?

Not wanting to keep Ieiri up (not that she’s sleeping, but on the off chance that her insomnia isn’t raging tonight, you aren’t looking to ruin it), you make yourself at home in the floor lounge area to finish your work for the night. You wrap up the Nike contract and send it over to the rep.

You waste the rest of the night away with the usual post-game rituals of paperwork and emails and calls, and only when you’ve closed your laptop and are about to head back to the room does Gojo poke his head into the common room.

“Hey,” he says, and it feels weirdly simple.

“Hey?”

Gojo takes this as an invitation, dropping into the chair on the opposite side of the table, boneless with the day’s exhaustion. He’s got a nondescript Nike tee and a pair of gray sweats on, and he’s ditched the headband so his white hair is falling haywire over his eyes.

For a second he says nothing, and then he glances at the pen on your notepad and picks it up, twirling it between two fingers. You roll your eyes.

“What’s up, Six?”

“I wanted to thank you for taking care of the Nike contract. And Fushiguro’s press schedule.” He clears his throat, like there’s something else he wants to say, and you wait him out. Without meeting your eyes, he says, “And I’m sorry for losing it on the court today. I know that, uh. Makes things harder for you. And Kugisaki.”

You freeze. It’s an unexpected gratitude. You’re starting to find that the apology, though, isn’t so unexpected. He’s been doing an awful lot of apologizing lately. It’s honestly stopped taking you so off guard. “Uh. Yeah, no problem. Just doing my job.”

“You’re good at it,” he says, pointing your pen at you. “Your job.”

“Thanks.” You laugh a little. “How’s he doing?”

Gojo hums absentmindedly and tosses the pen into the air, catching it with his other hand and resuming twirling it between his fingers. “Better, I think,” he says. “He’s with Yuji. Sleeping. Freaked him out a little, I think.”

Bits of your conversation from the locker room flash through your mind. Gojo’s hesitation, his anger, the questions upon questions building up in the back of your throat, the buzzer interrupting whatever answer you might have received.

“You’ve been… a little off, lately.” You bite your lower lip, debating whether to broach the topic. But his too-bright eyes are already trained on you, inquisitive, and the words are leaving your mouth before you know you’re saying them. “I mean, is it just playoffs? Or is there something else going on?”

He opens his mouth, closes it. You don’t often see Gojo speechless.

“It’s—ah, didn’t mean to worry you, Miss Manager.” He grins, covering up whatever emotion he was about to display with charm, that typical Gojo arrogance.

“Gojo.”

“You don’t have to call me that, you know.” You just look at him, waiting out the deflection. He sighs. Drops the pen back onto the notepad. Taps his fingers on the arm of the chair.

“It’s just San Diego,” he confesses after a moment. “I mean, you know. And Yaga doesn’t want us thinking that far ahead, but I can't help it. I just have this gut feeling they're making it to championships. So if we're really gonna win this thing, it's going to be us against them.”

“Not too late for Manhattan to whoop your ass,” you say, but you’re not serious and he knows it. He cocks a brow and snorts. “What is it about the Curses? Just that they know the way you play? That you’re on bad terms?”

Gojo grimaces. “It’s not necessarily that we parted ways on a bad note. More that Geto’s gonna do some weird psychological shit to trip me out, me and Gu—uh, Fushiguro.”

“Fushiguro.” You tilt your head, examining, searching, and decide to push it just a little. “Earlier, in the locker room—what were you going to say?”

The silence isn’t uncomfortable, but it’s long as Gojo searches for the right words, one hand tapping an anxious rhythm on the tabletop. You flick the pen so that it rolls off the notepad, stopping in front of him. Chuckling, he picks it up and resumes using it to occupy his hands. “You were right. That we didn’t play together in college. I, uh, actually met Megumi before he was in college. He was… like, the best point guard I’d ever fuckin’ seen. Recruited all over the place.” He sighs. “Not by our university, though. Probably—for the best.”

There’s a lot to this story, to this history. You know it the way you know Ieiri’s smoking out the hotel window right now—unseen, but inarguable, and not yours to comment on.

You’ll take what he can give you, for now.

“I was on a scouting trip when I met him. The trip was actually for the other team, but I’d never seen a point guard like that.”

Fair enough. Megumi is genuinely one of the best players you’ve ever seen.

“And I asked him about going D1, and he said he couldn’t.”

Couldn’t. What possible reason could he have behind that? Did he not think he was good enough? “But he did go D1,” you prompt.

“I… guess I kind of did him a favor?”

“What does that—”

“It’s not that I don��t want to tell you,” Gojo blurts, like he wants to talk you down before you can accuse him of something. “It’s just that it’s not my thing to tell, you know what I mean?”

You sigh. “Yeah. I do.”

He drags a hand across his eyes. “I got closer to him than I meant to. Him and his sister, actually. Her name’s Tsumiki.” He smiles softly. “The sweetest girl. And we kept in touch throughout his college career. And then he was drafted here.” He shifts in his chair. “And I was traded here.”

Megumi told you himself that’s not the full story. And you were there when Gojo broke things off with the Curses. It wasn’t some simple trade. But you don’t push. He’s already told you more than you anticipated. You feel like you’re on the cusp of some revelation, some conclusion, but you don’t have all the pieces and you know Gojo won’t—can’t—give them to you.

“I think he feels like he owes me,” Gojo confesses quietly, staring at nothing. “Even though I always tell him he doesn’t owe me shit.” His admission is soft, almost like he doesn’t realize you’re listening.

His gaze snaps back to you.

“It sounds kinda stupid, and I know they’re not that much younger than I am, but they’re like… I don’t know. Family. So when Geto pulled that stupid shit with the Curses, I just—” He drags a palm down his face. “Sorry. I know they were your team too. I don’t mean to… like, try and put ideas in your head about them. It’s fine, seriously.”

Another sorry. You study him for a long moment, him looking more out of his element than you’ve maybe ever seen him, aside from that day with Geto. “Is that why you haven’t told me?” He looks down. “You didn’t want to influence my feelings about the Curses?”

It’s actually such an absurd, but weirdly considerate, line of thinking that you scoff out loud. “You know I left them, right? Same as you.”

“Your contract was up.”

“Gojo, I hated it there,” you say, surprising yourself with your own candor. “They were assholes. It was…” You trail off, wondering whether you should admit it. That it was worse when Gojo left.

You shrug. “This team is better than I could’ve hoped for.” You grin. “But I did not follow you here.”

“Oh, sure you didn’t,” he teases, and whatever unease sat in the air between you before melts away.

He throws the pen up in the air again, and this time it arcs forward. Your hand shoots out to catch it at the same time as his, and you suddenly find yourself staring at Gojo’s hand wrapped around yours, the pen tight in your fist. His hand almost entirely encompasses your own, and his grip is loose enough that you could shake it off if you want to.

He’s warm.

You’re about to say something when you look at his forearm, and realize that the skin has turned a mottled yellow. Before you know what you’re doing, you’re wrenching your hand out of his and grabbing him by the arm, pulling him closer to you, examining the rapidly darkening bruise.

“Did Hanami do this?” And you’re surprised by how angry it makes you. “Jesus, Gojo.”

“It’s fine,” he says softly, and he doesn’t try to pull away. You meet his gaze, strands of white falling into his eyes.

“It’s not.”

Time feels suspended around you, the heat of Gojo’s bruising skin on your palm, his eyes locked onto yours like there’s something worth reading there. You clear your throat. “You’ll just have to kick his fucking ass, then.” You let go of his arm, watch as he pulls it back to his side, drops the pen on the table.

“Guess so.”

“Rest up, Six. Phantoms won’t beat themselves.”

“Won’t they?” Gojo chuckles and rises from the seat, tapping the table in a farewell before taking his leave.

“Gojo?” He stops in his tracks, tilts his head like a confused puppy. It’s almost endearing. “Thanks,” you say. “For telling me, I mean.”

He grins, a surprised little smile. “Thanks for listening.”

When he’s gone, you stare at the place he was sitting, the pen he was twirling in his fingers. Thinking about the person you thought he was, the person he might be.

You’re so goddamn confused.

—

Hanami is starting for the Phantoms. That’s their first mistake.

You’ve seen your team pretty divided on a breadth of issues, from which pizza joint to eat at last night to political stances to play strategies. But the one thing they’re unanimous on is that nobody can hurt Megumi Fushiguro and get away with it.

Toge starts in Megumi’s place, which means Ino subs out pretty quickly so that Toge and Yuta are on the court together. But Ino doesn’t seem to mind, leaning in as he swaps out with Yuta to tell you, “I think they might kill Hanami by the end of the half.”

You should probably oppose murder as a general moral standard, but at the moment you kind of just want to see him get absolutely decimated.

There are a number of players you really haven’t seen angry before, Toge most of all—he’s not a vengeful person, not petty, but now he’s playing like Hanami has always been his rival, like he wants to drive him into the court and kick him while he’s down.

Gojo stays on Hanami’s heels like his giant, leering shadow. He’s making comments out of the corner of his mouth, and you don’t even want to imagine what kind of shit he’s saying. Hanami can barely move around on the court, let alone get a shot in, and you can see his frustration building.

Eventually he gets fed up and shoves his shoulder into Gojo’s chest to get past him with the ball, and the ref fouls him. Gojo grins for the entire duration of the free throw, practically dancing to his place on the court.

You’re trying to hide your grin, and by the look Nobara’s giving you, it’s not working.

She texts faster than anyone you’ve ever seen. Apparently she’s keeping Megumi up to date, because Yuji made him stay at the hotel and said if he turned on the TV with a concussion he’d sing “the concrete jungle wet dream tomato song” the whole flight home.

“Are you doing this in a group chat?” you ask, leaning over her screen. It’s called fushiguNO, and you laugh at loud as you realize it’s only Nobara, Yuji, and Megumi.

“It’s mostly me and Yuji. Fushiguro just lurks and dislikes every text with his name in it,” she says.

Over the course of the first quarter, your guys whoop Hanami’s ass. They’re pulling every trick in the book to make his life hell without getting called. It only works sometimes��Yaga has to tell them to cut back when they start running up fouls, especially Gojo, though there’s really no heat behind his voice. It’s just a practical matter. He wants to see Hanami get his ass beat just as much as the rest of them.

After halftime, the Phantoms coach pulls Hanami and doesn’t put him back on. It feels like even more of a victory than the 79-56 score.

As third quarter starts, most of the usual starters aren’t even on the court—they’re toying with the Phantoms. Kusakabe lets Junpei on the floor for more time than he’s ever gotten. You catch a few Phantoms fans slipping out early. There’s no coming back from this.

Gojo probably hasn’t had this little playing time in years, but he doesn’t seem to mind, at least as long as Hanami’s off the court. The point deficit has gotten so insane he could take a nap on the floor and it wouldn’t matter.

Anyway, the Sorcerers fucking sweep.

They win against Manhattan, four games in a row, and just like that the first round is over. It’s hardly a competition. You watch the Phantoms fans file out of the stadium dejected, their home team knocked out of the playoffs before they could really get going.

Ino grabs you by the arm and tugs you into a sweaty team huddle, a few of the other guys doing the same to Nobara and a very reluctant Ieiri. “Semis!” Hakari shouts, and the rest of the team echoes it, jumping around and putting each other in headlocks and being all-around obnoxious boys. Yuta hugs you and you smile, and then Nobara has Megumi on a video call, and then Yaga herds the team out of the gym with a barely-repressed smile.

“Baltimore!” Gojo hollers, coming to walk alongside you. “Gojo City. What do you think of that, Alley-oop?”

“Charm City,” you correct.

“That’s what I said.” He winks.

You roll your eyes. “I think I’m glad we have a fucking week before we have to fly back up to New England,” you say, but you can’t help grinning back at him. The week will be full of practices and film studies for the team, but you’ll at least have a bit more free time once everything is set up with Baltimore. You might even make it a whole day without seeing Satoru.

Oh, shit.

Shit.

When did you start thinking of him on a first-name basis?

“We swept specifically so you could have some free time,” he lies, and you chuckle.

“Giving yourself an awful lot of credit there.”

“That’s what he does best,” Kento drawls from Gojo’s other side, and then Ieiri catches up to you and shoos the boys off.

“Get your asses changed and out the door,” you call after the guys. “We have a flight to catch!”

The team disappears into the locker room, and you, Ieiri, and Nobara catch a cab back to the hotel. You settle the bill, make sure everyone’s luggage is accounted for, and find yourself doing a headcount on the team jet within two hours—an impressive turnaround, by their standards.

You throw Yaga a thumbs-up and head to your seat beside Ieiri, tugging your laptop from your bag to work on the short flight home.

You do not envy anyone who has to fly with a concussion.

Megumi spends most of the flight home with his face tucked into Yuji’s shoulder, headphones on and nose scrunched against the air pressure, and Yuji doesn’t stop rubbing reassuring circles on his shoulder the entire time. Yeah, you’re pretty fucking sure there’s something going on there.

Beside you, Ieiri is way too invested in a sudoku puzzle while you work furiously on your laptop, scribbling notes in the margins of your planner and reading up on the Wolverines.

After an hour or so, Ieiri gets up to go to the bathroom. You’re considering sprawling yourself over her vacant seat when Gojo slides into it instead.

“Well, excuse you.” You close your laptop before he gets any ideas about messing with your work, turning to him expectantly. “What?”

He sticks his bottom lip out in a pout. “I can’t spend time with my super lonely manager?”

“Ieiri left two seconds ago.”

“A long time to be in solitary confinement,” he says solemnly, leaning back and making himself at home in Ieiri’s seat. “Whatcha doin’?”

“I was working, until someone decided he needed attention.”

“Working on what?”

Resigned to the conversation, you maneuver yourself so you’re leaning against the window, one foot up on your seat. “Stuff for Baltimore.”

“Ah. Don't even worry about Baltimore. Non-issue. We'll win."

"So humble," you mutter. You glance at the printed bracket clipped into your planner, noting how the rest of the Eastern Conference is shaping up. "Well, they're higher seeded than you. Watch yourself."

Gojo waves his hand like this is irrelevant. "We got 'em. And then we'll play the Samurai, and it'll be great."

You do really want to play the Savannah Samurai. They've already won three games in their own series. Technically, you won't know if they sweep until tonight, but there's really no world in which they lose to the eighth seed. You played with their manager in college, Ieiri's friends with their trainer, and there are a bunch of connections among the players, too—trades, college teammates, even family ties.

"Hey, you know how Itadori’s half-brother plays for Savannah?” You nod. “Well. According to Yuji, he says their trainer is very not thrilled about the possibility seeing me again. Which is absurd, I think. I am an angel walking God’s green earth.”

“You’re annoying.”

“And so charming.” He nods, like you’re the one who said it and he’s just agreeing. “Just giving you a heads up that Utahime hates me. So you can defend my honor in the conference finals.”

“Bold of you to assume we don’t have a secret Anti-Gojo society already.” You’re well aware Iori Utahime isn’t Gojo’s biggest fan. You know they went to high school together, and you’re honestly just impressed she hasn’t killed him yet.

Gojo gasps. “You wouldn’t.”

“She would,” Ieiri says, standing beside Gojo with arms crossed and brows raised. “I don’t recall inviting you.” She glances over Gojo’s head at you. “Do you?”

“No, ma’am.”

“Shokooo,” Gojo protests, but she jerks a thumb over her shoulder and he sighs dramatically and vacates her seat. He grins at you. “Don’t miss me too much.”

You scoff as he retreats back to his own seat, probably to bother Kento. Ieiri sits down beside you and gives you a weird look.

“What?”

She just smirks and goes back to her sudoku.

directory. || prev. || next.

jjk taglist open: just send me a message!

@shutuppeter @mikikkoo @reactwithjan

[genericpuff]

Rachel did a live Q&A in the LO Discord server and gave some news about the Animated Series, it’s still happening! (Surprisingly) Any thoughts on that or things you’d like to see from it?

Right, like every other time she's said it's "still happening" with no evidence to actually support it. That's always been the issue and still is.

Sorry, that's not me being snarky at you, I'm more so frustrated and absolutely fucking done with all the empty promises and platitudes.

Best case scenario with what was said during the Q&A was that she said "it's still happening" (worst case was that she didn't address it at all).

Like, how is this:

"I can say that… we are currently doing work on it… and it is going well.. and that it looks really cool and that I wish everyone could see what we’ve done because it looks really really really cool, and it’s happening, but that’s all I can say at this point… I can say, making tv shows takes a really long time, it takes so long" (last night's Q&A)

Any different than this:

Any different than this:

“Um, it’s been really interesting. It’s been educational for me. So, what I—what has been done so far is beautiful. Like, if I could share it, I would. But I can’t. Because it’s very naughty.” - Girl Wonder SDCC (July 2023)

She's been saying this for the last two years since people started getting suspicious it wasn't happening in the first place, and despite all the reassurances that "it's still happening", it doesn't seem to have anything to show for itself. Cast list? Nope. Director? Nope. Writers? Nah. Just a showrunner whose bio still says "TBA" and who, despite having a whole ass 40 minute long interview with Girl Wonder, still didn't have anything to show for what's to come, just more empty promises that it's "still happening" (and a lot of banter about Stephanie's life, rather than her involvement with LO).

In fact, most of what Stephanie talks about in the podcast concerning LO is pitching it, not developing it. And this interview happened just a few months ago. Go listen to it yourself if you don't believe me.

So at this point, I see "it's still happening" as "don't panic" corporate speak for "we're still pitching it and trying to find a network for it so we can actually move onto development." Yes, animation takes a long time, even Hazbin Hotel took about three and a half years to finally release after Prime bought the rights to it in 2020. But LO, again, clearly hasn't even started the animation process yet. And while we're comparing it to Hazbin, note that HH actually had LOADS to show for itself along the way of being developed and did a much, MUCH better job at staying relevant and pulling in new people and hyping it up. Even people who never watched Hazbin before in its indie days on Youtube were hearing about it, it made an active effort to sell itself to new viewers and break out of its bubble on Youtube. Is LO doing that? No, not really. Most of the people who know about it are diehard fans who refuse to read anything that isn't shown directly to them on Webtoons, and diehard haters who are tired of the garbage that gets advertised on Webtoons. Ask anyone who doesn't use Webtoons, and best case, they'll know someone who reads LO, worst case, they won't even know what a webtoon is.

Shit, even the new upcoming Zelda movie has names attached to it, including Avi Arad, Wes Ball, and Derek Connolly. And my god, it's gonna SUCK DICK with that bad of a line-up (the guy who ruined the OG Spiderman trilogy and created Morbius, the guy who directed the Maze Runner films, and one of the leading storywriters behind Rise of Skywalker, fucking YIKES) but hey, at least it has more than one name attached to it.

But okay, if we're gonna play the comparison game, let's be fair and compare LO to some other works in its own lane. Let's Play announced last year that it would be getting an animated adaption, and it already has a studio backing it that is FAR more suited for it than JHC is to LO - OLM, the same studio whose animated for massive franchises like Pokemon, Yo-Kai, and Gudetama. JHC meanwhile has animated... motion capture kid shows like Word Party. Because that's the only kind of animation they actually specialize in when it comes to their in-house services. Sure, they also have Harriet the Spy, but that wasn't animated by them, that was animated by Titmouse Inc (heh sorry).

I'm the Grim Reaper recently had its own animated adaption announced, and who's in charge of it? Oh, only SAM FUCKING RAIMI-

And look, maybe the Let's Play and I'm the Grim Reaper adaptions won't happen either. I just think it's ironic that they both have more to show for themselves in terms of credible names attached to them than what LO has managed to scrape up after five years of promising that it's "still happening" (especially when one of those series is nowhere near as big as LO and the one that WAS as big as LO walked away from Webtoons entirely). For Webtoons' own "worldwide phenomenon", they sure have given LO the shit end of the stick by pairing it with a family-with-kids-under-10 production studio that doesn't specialize in animation and a showrunner who got her start with the Cosmopolitan (weird how LO has so many plugs with Cosmo, huh? Why is JHC producing the show again?)

At the end of the day, nothing's changed. It's still just the ole' "it's still happening" record on a loop, while the comic itself falls further out of favor with people. And it's likely gonna be going behind DailyPass soon, so just think about what that's gonna do to its relevancy after it gets sent away to the equivalent of the Webtoons graveyard.

As I've said countless times before every time this topic comes up, at best, if it is still happening, and I'm wrong about all of this, they are doing the worst job I've ever seen at hyping people up and keeping them informed. It is NOT a good thing that people have to keep asking Rachel if it's still happening.

As for worst case... you wanna know what other projects come to my mind that have fallen into the same state of development hell and decay as LO's TV show? YandereSim and Cryamore. What do you think the popular opinion is about those works and their creators now? Because if you don't know either of those names and are about to google them, let me give you a heads up warning - it's not positive.

If it happens, it happens. It will hopefully be before I get all the therapy I need to undo what LO has done to my brain so that I don't have to make repeat visits LOL But if it's after, hey, maybe the show will be good! Assuming Rachel doesn't, y'know, E.L. James the whole thing. Because frankly, the show will need to cut and rework a LOT of stuff to be any good IMO and I don't think that will be possible if Rachel gets directly involved. But I'm not even hoping for that scenario because there's literally NOTHING to give me that hope, "it's still happening" is nothing more than "don't panic" corporate speak to me at this point. It's cynical, but I just can't waste my energy caring about it anymore.

[tvlandofficiall]

Really interested in what the plush tells us about Seam. I mean look, when it comes to merch one has to generally take a grain of salt and acknowledge that some aspects of it also come from the merch artist's/designer's interpretation of. However, Seam is an interesting case in that they're already a cryptic character with aspects we don't know about, and for some reason is getting a plush right now (not a bad thing, but it is interesting in the fact of long it took for them to get a plush and how Ch. 3+4 are coming sometime soon, probably early 2025). Also, they're getting a full body design, something we haven't seen in any official media, and a staff that we haven't seen them wield before (maybe the seam ripper?), and what details we can get about what Seam would look like in game.

Also, if the past plushies are any indication, the irony of using an actual seam ripper on Seam to check if they have any secrets in them will not be lost on me.

answering these asks slowly as i take time to marinate in my seam thoughts – it's interesting, isn't it? my safe bet has always been that while i don't like to speculate on the release, undertale's 10th anniversary seems most likely as well as the best bet for getting word out and getting promotion done in an eye-catching way. but regardless of that or if it means anything for the upcoming chapters specifically – it is still interesting! extracanonical material is always a bit of a grab-bag for me; i tend to rule out anything too far pre-release on personal principle (ie; toby's older tweets and posts from the early 2010s), because the man himself has said that the idea of deltarune has changed a lot since that time and besides that we don't know if many of them are even about deltarune at all. concept art is similar – fun for headcanons or jokes, but not intended to align with deltarune in its current state. but post-release is a bit different – there's unused text in the game that's clearly meant for players to snoop for, the spamton sweepstakes revealed a lot of important stuff, and there are things like ralsei's repeated association with flowers and this – seam repeatedly being associated with wielding a weapon – that are implied or alluded to in the game and therefore notable in extracanonical material. it's sort of like there's a little sign pointing out that we might want to keep an eye on these things.

(and as for the last bit – i'm also curious as to what seam has inside. given spamton and jevil's plushes didn't have anything, i wonder if seam will be the same?)

[highonmarvel]

Hello! It's not 2024 yet,but it will be in one more day so Happy New Year in Advance! May I please request a dark!reader with a soft!dark Bucky? Not a dark or fully dark Bucky but soft dark one like the Bucky you wrote in your recent story called 'Himalayan Salt'. Your dark Bucky really scares me as they are truly dark and cruel,and stay true to the dark fics genre. But for this request,may I request that he won't do any hitting or physical abuse towards the reader? Because I find that I really liked your 'Himalayan Salt' soft!dark!Bucky.

My request is dark!reader is obsessed with Bucky and stalks him,snaps his pictures to keep to herself,steal his stuffs to keep as souveniers,basically everything a yandere would do. But she has no clue that Bucky is also obsessed with her,probably more than she is of him and that he knows everything that she's doing to him when she thought he wasn't looking or didn't notice. He even finds it amusing and think of her as an adorable amateur stalker. She doesn't talk to him and never introduces herself to him (which Bucky wishes she would do) because she thinks someone as handsome as Bucky wouldn't even spare someone like her a glance so she resorts to watching him and fantasizing about him from afar.

Reader got herself in his apartment (that he didn't have proper security or proper locks for on purpose so she can enter easily and his apartment,not hers,because she wouldn't be able to get him back to her place as easily) to hide and wait until he gets back. He has tiny cameras in his apartment that connects to his phone that let him know that Reader is in his apartment and is about to kidnap him. He get home ASAP,acts normal and unaware and purposely stands near to a spot that he knows reader is hiding at and turns his back to her to let her knock him out. She knocked him out and tied him up/restraints him on his bed. He woke up some time later to reader explaining her plan to keep him and reader forces herself on him. Which he pretends not to like at first so he can let her have her moment and let her think she has the upper hand here. But then he started laughing and giggling which confuses and creeps reader out before he broke out of his restraints easily and flipped her over,pinning her on his bed and revealing that he's knew all along and he's far more obsessed with her as he thinks about her everyday,enjoying the little game they play that's she's unaware of and have his way with her in the end. His turn.

I know you said to expect physical abuse or hitting in your fics as they are dark fics but I want to request that Bucky doesn't hit or physically abuse reader in any way in this one,if I can. And vice versa with reader never hitting or physically abuse Bucky except to knock him out as I find her chloroforming an enchanced super soldier unrealistic. Just the non con or dub con committed towards Reader by Bucky in the end. So I guess it's a soft!dark!reader x soft!dark!Bucky request.

Sorry for this long & shitty request and sorry if this isn't really in your lane. I just needed to get this off my chest before I forgot about the idea completely. And I just wanted to try my luck. It's also okay if you don't want to do it,I understand ❤ I'll be treating myself to your other works and upcoming stories in the future. Take care of yourself,hope you're doing well,stay safe and have a blessed New Year ❤❤❤ Thank you for just reading through my terrible request alone and sorry to put you through this lol. Thanks again ❤ Much love! 💞

i’m gonna be honest with you, i wasn’t really into this. the idea sounds cool but i’m not really into dark!reader, though i see where you’re coming from, and i get that my fics are really fucking dark, but someone has to do it. but this was so well thought out and you were so kind at the end i had to do it for ya. and i had fun! it was outside my comfort zone, that’s why it took so long (among other things.) you had a lot here so i apologise if it doesn’t come out as you wanted, but i tried my best, and i did change it just a little bit. here it is:

Amateur Hour

Bucky Barnes: A glimpse generates an obsession, though maybe it’s not as one-sided as you think.

content warnings here!

Sort of subdued all your life, you’ve never had the courage to come right out and say you liked someone, and that led you to observation more than conversation, watching people you admire closely, but nothing more, until you see him.

It’s a fairly overcast day, the sun just peaking out enough so as to not make the air cold. You sit peacefully on a park bench, reading a novel without the threat of rain tempting fear of getting your book wet. You hear someone coming down the path, obviously, because this is a public park, and you don’t know why you look up, but you do, and the wind is knocked right out of your chest.

You’ve never seen a man as beautiful as him, brown hair and mysterious steel blue eyes with a perfectly sculpted jawline and just enough stubble so as to make your heart rate pick up. You don’t realise you’re staring after him until he turns and gives you a quick friendly smile, pink lips upturning for a moment before he continues, but enough to make you develop an obsession of sorts.

You’re used to watching people you admire, and that’s as far as it goes, but this… this is different. He has to have been sculpted by God Himself, strong arms and broad shoulders you all but want to be wrapped in. You could never speak to a man like that, but you could never let him escape in the streets and never see him again, you’re already haunted by the image of him having only briefly met his eyes, you know you’ll go insane if you don’t know him, and so a less insane option is to… watch.

Very casually, you shut your book and stand, stretching before strolling in his direction, keeping your footsteps small enough so that you can follow without him getting suspicious as to why you don’t overtake him. You take in the tress around you, nature you usually appreciate, but you can’t really observe any beauty anymore without knowing they will never compare to the man in front of you. It’ll never be enough now.

And you don’t know it, but Bucky smirks to himself as he hears your gentle footsteps behind him.

You turn out as he does, and usually you would be more vigilant to pickpockets and busy people speed walking on the pavements of New York, but there’s nothing in the world that can take your focus off of the back of his head. You’re sure you must have bumped into a few people, but you can’t recall it, mumbling an apology every once in a while until you stop them completely, trying to keep as silent as possible. You follow him for a bit, though you’re not sure how long; every concept you’ve ever known—time and space—are nothing compared to him. You’re desperate for him to look at you again, you almost want to out yourself right then and there and force his lips onto yours, but you know that’s dumb, yet still it takes you a lot more self control that you ever thought you needed to keep your cool.

You reach a block of apartment buildings and slow down slightly—with less people around, you don’t want to look suspicious. When he turns to one, you turn to the one across the street, watching in the reflection of the glass door entrance as he lets himself into a building. So that’s where he lives. You jot down the address in your notes app and take a picture of the place, just in case, ducking behind a car to see if one of the windows will open revealing him. You frown when after a few minutes, there’s no movement, and so you head around the back, where the flat is facing an empty lot rather than a long road. And you see him, standing by his window, the breeze perfectly combing through his hair.

So you’re the quiet type, you note, seeing as he’d rather his place face no one than everyone. You can’t help yourself from taking another picture, and just before he disappears from your sight. Once he’s gone, you press your back against the wall and grip your phone with both hands to take in that beautiful sight forever. You can’t fight it anymore, you have to know him.

***

Bucky chuckles to himself as he steps back. He knew you were in the park, he came specifically for a walk to see you, but he wasn’t really expecting you to have such an immediate and visceral reaction to the sight of him. Bucky’s no stranger to flirty glances, but he saw that glint in your eyes, and he knows it; it’s the same one he had when he saw you. When he heard you get up behind him, he hoped it was because you were going to introduce yourself (not that he needed your name, but that seemed like an easier way to go about it) but when the sound of your footsteps didn’t speed up or die down, he knew you were following him. Bucky’s obsession with your started when you’d sweetly bought a cake in a cute bakery, and you just screamed innocence to him right off the bat. Now, well, maybe you’re not so innocent in your own eyes, but, if anything, you’re a little naïve to him, and he finds it adorable.

***

The next day you head back over and sit in your car for a little bit, waiting for him to come out, but you get an opportunity just as good. The mailman comes around with probably some junk mail, and you hop out your car, pretending you were entering your own building. When he opens the door, you stop him.

“I’m just going in, don’t worry, I can take it from you,” you say with a friendly smiles. He thanks you for helping him on his long route as he hands you a few letters and magazines: junk. You wave him goodbye as you step in and the door falls shut behind you.

“Do you live here?” a voice asks, and you startle as you turn to security seated behind a desk.

“No! I’m just volunteering a little on the mail route,” you smile at him, innocently, and raising the pitch of your voice to appear sweeter, “And I’m sorry, I just need a little help getting it into the right boxes.

“Well, I can do it for you,” he offers, but you shake your head.

To avoid suspicion you offer, “Well, there’s five floors, you can do floors one and two and I’ll do three and up.” You counted that the man you’re obsessed with lives on the fourth floor.

He agrees and you get to work putting mail where he tells you each person and their door number.

*

“James B Barnes?” you ask, raising an eyebrow. You had done a few on his floor and asked a little about each, but most of them were either women or people living together, and you knew he had to live alone, he seems really reserved and to himself, likes the quiet.

“James? I don’t know a James…” you frown as he furrows his brows in thought, but suddenly he snaps his fingers and smiles, “Ah, Barnes! That’s Bucky, 4D, really keeps to himself.”

Bucky. But you have to make sure it’s the right person.

“I see,” you say as you gently place letters in a box on the fourth row marked with the letter D, “You don’t know much about him?”

“Nah, only that he’s really into gloves, never see him without ���em, even in scorching hot weather.”

The man you saw yesterday was wearing gloves, even though it wasn’t really cold. That has to be him.

It takes a while to fill up the rest as you try to keep friendly conversation going to not appear suspicious. When you’re finally done, he goes back to scribble something down on a piece of paper.

“You know, he says as he finishes it off, “If you’re going to be coming down this way for a while, you should have the building code, make it easier for you,” he hands you the piece of paper with a smile.

“Thank you!” you say, a little too eagerly as you read the code: 8496, “I’m often busy with work so I’m not sure how many days I can be here,” you sulk, “But I’ll try come in every once in a while, count on it.”

James ‘Bucky’ Barnes, apartment 4D, you’re getting somewhere.

You’ve started to notice that you’ve been so distracted lately you’ve been misplacing items; a t-shirt you thought was in your cupboard would end up on the floor, a few of your bras seem to have disappeared, and you can’t find random notes you’ve written and placed throughout the house. But it’s fine, once you have him you can deal with all that: none of that is as important as Bucky.

*

You’ve always been a bit of a loner, but the next two weeks you spend talking to no one, not even responding to work emails as you stalk Bucky. You’ve managed to sneak in a few times (he doesn’t lock his door) and grab some of his stuff—you even wear his t-shirts sometimes, absolutely intoxicated by his scent—snap a few pictures for memories. Following him around, you find that you were right: he is more of a loner; he hardly talks to anyone, he’s got two friends, Sam and Steve, who he sees maybe once a week for drinks, but that’s it.

On a Friday night, you snap: you have to have him.

***

Bucky is in the middle of taking a sip of beer, watching Sam and Steve laugh at his deadpan joke, when he gets a notification on his phone. It’s a specific sound he has just for the cameras in his house, tells the guys it’s security, and they get it, they think Bucky is a little paranoid from his past, but if anything, his past makes him more comfortable to being exposed to attack, he knows he can take them, and no one with half a brain cell would try a serious-looking well-built man.

He manages to excuse himself for the night, but not without a little protest from Steve and Sam. To get out of explaining himself, he places money on the table for the men to get another round on him, and they cheer as he exits the bar.

Outside in the dark, he opens the app and turns his phone landscape to swipe through the multiple cameras set up in his house to get to the one where you are. Of course you’re in his bedroom; he’s noticed you’ve been stealing some of his clothes, once even a pair of his boxers, and so he moved your stuff to a better hiding spot. From watching you, it didn’t even seem like you noticed your things going missing, that or you didn’t care, but he knew you weren’t as attentive as you thought. Once he literally followed you in his car just to see how far he could go and you didn’t pay it any mind, walking through your neighbourhood as normal—though, granted, you did have your earphones in.

Excitement ripples down Bucky’s spine and he can’t help but smile at the screen as he notices you ducking behind his bed. Really? Behind his bed? Not even in the closet? He bites his lip to prevent himself from laughing, but not in a malicious way, in an adoring way, that you really are committed to this, but not as committed as he is. He’s seen the chloroform, baseball bat and ropes you bought, you’ve been planning it for a little, but nothing could prepare you for him.

He has to stop himself from full on sprinting down the road to get back home. He does to want to show up sweaty and panting, so he tries with all his might to make it casual stroll. He makes sure to slam the front door behind him so you know he’s here, and he sighs loudly as he shrugs off his jacket before tossing it onto the couch. Maybe it’ll spook you too much if he went straight to his bedroom, so he goes to the bathroom first to freshen up a bit, give you time to really think this through, maybe you’ll change your mind. Not that he’ll change his.

His bedroom door is closed, which he finds a little cute because he knows he left it slightly ajar, but you didn’t really take that into consideration. When he enters, he turns to close the door behind him, giving you time to sneak up and hit him over the head with a bat.

He falls, pretends he’s been knocked out, as if a bat could take him out; he’s been punched through walls and barely flinched before getting back up to fight. It takes a lot in him to stop himself from smiling as he feels you lift him from under his armpits and drag him onto the bed. It takes a bit, but once he’s lying down, you puff out a breath and wipe your brows; that was a bit of a workout for you, but for him… how easy it would be to manhandle you.

He hears you shuffling and feels harsh rope chafe against his skin as you wrap a piece around his ankle, not nearly tight enough, and he thinks it’s because you don’t want to hurt him, which is sweet. You’re just so sweet.

Once you’ve ‘secured’ his ankles and wrists, he waits a few moments before he pretends to stir, coming to consciousness. He puts on a confused and scared look as he notices you at the edge of the bed, as if he hasn’t been dreaming about this for the longest time. As soon as your eyes meet his, he can hear the near whisper, swoon-like sigh you give. Bucky has never considered himself too attractive, doesn’t pay much mind when someone is attracted to him, neither gives him an ego boost or knocks him down a notch, but you, the way you’re so affected by his presence has his heart rate picking up.

“You’re just so beautiful,” you breathe, “Bucky.”

Bucky tightens his fists to prevent himself groaning at the sound of his name falling from your lips, and he’s struggling even more now to restrain himself, wanting to fuck you so hard that’s all you can say, just broken sobs of his name as you come over and over, legs trembling around his waist…

“I’m sorry,” you apologise as you stand.

The corner of his lip twitches, and he can tell you’ve noticed, but that scared face he’s putting on for your benefit quickly takes over his expression as you climb over him. He wants to beg you to stop, maybe give you a little more time to feel in control, but it’s been a while now, and he can’t help the chuckle that slips past his smiling lips.

You look up from his crotch to see him full-on laughing now, not necessarily deranged, but laughing like you’ve told him a genuinely funny joke. You sit back on him carefully as you watch this odd behaviour, that really unsettles you.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” he apologies, still with a smile on his face as he shakes his head, “It’s just… come on, now. You’re adorable, but what is this, amateur hour?”

You don’t really have time to take in his giggly response to being ostensibly held captive before he easily pulls himself free of the restraints. You gasp and grab hold of his waist as he grabs hold of your hips, easily pinning you underneath him like it’s the easiest thing in the world. Trying to contain his amusement, he drops his head to hide his smile, but can’t hide it away again when he looks back down at you.

“Two weeks?” he breaths over you, his tone not mocking, but near incredulous, “Try two months, sweetheart. I’ve seen your internal conflict, knowing what you were doing is wrong but not being able to stop, huh?”

He raises an eyebrow with his question and you gulp and look down from his eyes to through his legs.

“Where do you think all your shit’s being going? Things don’t just disappear, touches aren’t always just dreams. And listen,” he brings a hand up from your waist to gently tap your cheek, signalling for you to look back at him, and you do, “I’ve enjoyed playing this little game with you, but I’ve been waiting too long for this now to let you have all the fun.”

You gasp as he ducks his head to press a gentle yet possessing kiss to your neck, grasping onto his hair to keep his mouth against your pulse. He smiles against you, and you take a deep breath in as you turn your head to allow him more space, gently tugging him downwards as you listen to his soft kisses and feel the loving stroke of his fingers on your inner thigh. His gentleness soon turns a little more rushed, like he’s desperate; he lets out a choked groan as he grinds his tightening jeans against your thigh, which you return with a moan of your own, pulling his head from your neck which he at first tries to fight, so lost in the taste of your skin, the quickening rise and fall of your chest against his, your sighs of his name, but he reluctantly pulls away, only to be immediately pulled down to your face as you crash your lips against his. He can tell you’re eager by the way you shift your thighs every once in a while, but he knows there’s fear in the trembling fingers that hold him against you.

Once his tongue slides into your mouth, you know it’s over, unable to stop yourself from draping your arm over his neck so he’s as close to you as possible.

“Bucky…” you moan against his mouth, rolling your hips against him.

“Fuck,” he rasps.

You desperately claw at the waistband of his jeans, and he smiles as he pulls away and sits up to take in your flushed cheeks; he’s hardly touched you and you’re already pleading, “Please, please, please.” He’s sure by now the only words you can get out are ‘fuck,’ ‘please,’ or ‘Bucky,’ and he can’t quite decide which is his favourite one… Definitely his name.

“It’s coming, sweetheart,” he says as he undoes his belt, “Hold on.”

It’s no task for him to pull off your pants as you arch your hips, and he really can’t help but smirk to himself as he notices the dark patch on your underwear when he slides it off next.

He props himself up as he slowly pushes into you, grunting at how good you feel. You moan and Bucky rewards the sweet sound by hiking up your thigh to hit you deeper. You cry out as he bottoms inside you, digging your nails into his back and squeezing your eyes shut, cunt tightening around him, too.

“Oh, fuck,” he whines as he pulls back and pushes into you again. Your hands move to grasp onto his shoulders, and if you’re pushing him off, he doesn’t notice it, letting out a whimper when he hits your spot again, your fingers grasping onto him for dear life.

He tried to keep slow, but he hurries a little, fucking addicted to feeling you, so lost he’s letting pathetic noises fall from his lips as he pushes into you each time, making sure to give praises of, “Fuck, that’s good, you’re so good, fuck,” between harsh breaths, and you can reply with nothing but whines and moans under him.

When he feels your legs begin to tremble, he pulls the one over his waist further back, hitting you even deeper, causing your eyes to roll into the back of your head, and this time he feels your nails break into his skin.

“Bucky, Bucky, Bucky,” is all you can get out as he hovers over you.

“You gonna come, sweetheart? You can do that, fuck, please, please come for me.”

If the feeling of his cock wasn’t enough to drive you over the edge, his pleads and whines do it; you let out a broken sob of his name as you clench down on him, orgasm ripping through you better than in all your fantasies.

“Fuck, yeah, yeah, that’s good, ‘m gonna come in you now, okay?”

And it doesn’t take long, a few more thrusts and he releases himself inside of you, burying his face in the crook of your neck and letting out a long groan of your name. When his breathing has slowed slightly, he raises himself to look down at you, and he doesn’t think he could deny himself another round, whether you want it or not.

✪

[taglist; @cjand10, @pr30087, fill out this form if you’d like to be added!]

[rivalsforlife]

Ace Attorney Investigations Collection Interview Highlight

This is coming a little late - on September 1st, just before the release of the AAI collection, there was an interview on Netlab with Tatsuro Iwamoto (character designer), Kenichi Hashimoto (named in this article as the producer of the AA series overall), and Shunsuke Nishida (producer of the AAIC collection) about the games. It's a long interview with a lot of interesting elements including the reactions to the announcement, a brief mention of the consideration of changing some moments for modern times (example given is the LGBTQ content in the 456 collection - I believe referring to some events in DD, but no specifics), details into the process of upgrading the character minisprites, the staff's favorite characters and cases, why Franziska is 13 in the key art, and other fun details. The part I want to highlight here is what they say about upcoming merch and the future of the ace attorney series.

This small segment of the interview had one part previously translated by nintendoeverything, but there are some little details that I noticed in the full interview that were incorrect so I'm posting this here. But please note that I'm doing this primarily with auto-translate with tiny corrections on the tiny bits of AA-related words in Japanese that I know, which isn't much, so there are likely still inaccuracies in this. Please don't hesitate to correct me if you spot any!

--The " Ace Attorney Series" merchandise has been very popular, including the "Ace Attorney Investigations Lottery" held on Capkuji Online. What do you think about fans purchasing merchandise? Hashimoto : As for merchandise, I have the impression that it sells out across the board for the past few years. The "Ace Attorney" series merchandise is basically sold out on the first day, and it's the same for the "Ace Attorney Investigations" series. This year is the 15th anniversary of the "Ace Attorney Investigations" series, and I've been talking to the store staff about "putting out a lot of Ace Attorney Investigations-related merchandise". There are things that we haven't been able to put out before because it's the 15th anniversary, so this year, the "Ace Attorney Investigations" series is especially hot. There are still some goods that haven't been released, so please look forward to them.

Since there hasn't been much AAI merchandise since around the time of the original release of AAI, I'm super looking forward to seeing what they'll put out. The Capkuji Online lottery they speak of is the one that had the giant tsum of Edgeworth, and I really hope they someday will make that available for general purchase.

--Many fans are hoping that purchasing merchandise will lead to new releases, but is that actually the case? Hashimoto: That's true. The fact that we have such passionate players' support is something that the entire company, including the management, can recognize, even more than just us developers, so it's very important. Of course, the sales of merchandise itself do not cover the development costs of new titles, but it does lead to discussions about how to develop the game in the future if it's that popular, so the fact that people are purchasing merchandise is a very important indicator.

AA merchandise does seem to be doing very well.

--Since this is a work with many overseas fans, we asked overseas users, "What would you like to tell the developers? What would you like them to hear?" Particularly impressive was the feedback from users living in independent language regions, who were pleased with the multilingual support for "Ace Attorney Investigations 1 & 2 Collection," following "Ace Attorney Apollo Justice Trilogy." In the midst of all this, the one thing that has been attracting attention is the future development of the "Ace Attorney Investigations Series." What are your thoughts on this? Hashimoto : We will not stop the "Ace Attorney Investigations Series" content. Of course, we want to develop it in various ways, including other media types. I think there will be something to tell you when it is time to make an announcement, but at the moment I can't say anything.

This part is what was translated in the interview I linked, but it misses a few key distinctions: One is the specification of "Ace Attorney Investigations" over "Ace Attorney". (Or "Gyakuten Kenji" vs "Gyakuten Saiban", if that makes things clearer.) So that makes me think that this isn't referring to an AA7 or Apollo Justice anime, but something specific to the AAI games -- whether that's an anime adaptation, maybe another stage play, or possibly in the future...... aai3.

Another note is what the translated interview calls "mixed media", which comes from "メディアミックス" (literally "media mix"). "Mixed media" in English, to my knowledge, generally refers to a single piece of art which is made up of different forms, which is not what they're talking about here. The Japanese term used here appears to mean more of a "multimedia franchise" - extending the series beyond just games, to other forms that will bring in a wider audience - which makes me think they have something in the works that's not a new game, but something in a different form related to AAI. So I'm curious about what they have planned, whether it would be an adaptation of the existing games or original work with the same characters like my favorite stage play Turnabout Teleportation.

And on the topic of stage plays...

--While there are many die-hard fans of the plays, unfortunately the performance of " Ace Attorney: Turnabout Parallel World " has been postponed. Will we ever get to see lawyer Miles Edgeworth, the perfect idol Franziska von Karma, and the number one host Larry Butz? Also, is there any possibility of a novelization? Iwamoto : (Whispering) Please say it. Please say it more (laughs). Hashimoto : Due to the schedules of the cast, it may be difficult to do it in exactly the same format, but I personally would like to see it. I'm always thinking about how I want to do it and make it happen.

Turnabout Parallel World was a stage play intended for 2020 that got postponed for obvious reasons... and then rescheduled for 2021, where it was postponed again for the same obvious reasons. It hasn't been officially cancelled and we haven't heard anything about it since then, and to my knowledge this is the first acknowledgement of it since then. It does sound like they want to include it in some way.

Novelizations of new AA stories aren't a new concept, but have typically been Japan-only and not gained much traction in the English-speaking fandom.

Finally, Hashimoto's comments to close out the interview:

Hashimoto: As I mentioned at the beginning, I thought it was important to have people play existing content on the current platform, and with the release of "Ace Attorney Investigations 1 & 2 Collection," we're finally ready. I want to deliver it to people who don't know about the "Ace Attorney Series" or haven't touched it, including people in countries with additional languages, as well as in Japan. As I mentioned earlier, we will not stop the "Ace Attorney Series" after that, and it will continue to the 25th and 30th anniversaries. We would like to continue preparing for new developments and expand the series.

The use of "Ace Attorney Series" here doesn't make a distinction between mainline or investigations (just "Gyakuten series"). So while there's definitely something in the works for AAI, there's probably something for mainline as well.

The 25th anniversary is coming up fairly soon in 2026, with the 30th anniversary in 2031. This is not nearly as far away as it feels like it should be. Judging by this interview and similar ones over the last year, it feels more and more likely that we will be getting new ace attorney content in one form or another in the next couple of years at least.

Of note to the Athena fans, the interview also contains this comment from Hashimoto, when talking about favorite characters in AAIC and the series overall:

Throughout the series, I've always liked Athena (Cykes). I've always thought to myself, "I wonder if there's something Athena can do as the main character?" (laughs).

It's not the most serious statement or necessarily a promise, but maybe the tiniest nugget of hope for Athena fans.

Anyways, those are the highlights of the interview from me - again please correct me if there's anything that needs correcting. I highly encourage people to check out the full interview since it has lots of interesting stuff, and hopefully there will be a properly translated version of it out someday!

[selene-lunette]

Fumito Ueda's interview from the 5th issue of PSM (July/August 2024)

Interview done by John Kaminari for PlayStation Magazine (Italy). I translated it to the best of my abilities.

He who transformed video games into art. "PSM" had the great opportunity to interview Fumito Ueda exclusively, after a silence that lasted many years.

There are giants (colossi) of the video gaming industry who mass-produce games merely to fill a schedule increasingly saturated with cookie-cutter products, and then there are small giants (colossi) like Fumito Ueda who, with only three games under his belt, developed for Sony Computer Entertainment, can undoubtedly be considered among the most talented and innovative game creators of all time. After leaving Japan Studio, Fumito Ueda founded the independent studio genDESIGN which, in the upcoming months, will present us with something that could rewrite the rules of video games yet again, and make our favorite hobby even more similar to a work of art of inestimable value. When we interviewed him he spoke to us about him as a gamer, as a game designer, as an artist and as a person. And he told us many anecdotes that make us understand the reason for some of his choices along his path, even painful ones. Because Fumito Ueda isn't a game designer... he is an artist who makes video games.

When did your "first contact" with video games happen? I think it occured with Block Kuzushi or Space Invaders. I remember playing both around the same time. Back then my parents ran a café and they had these two arcade video games there. However, I only remember playing them a few times.

What was your first experience in the video game industry? I was a computer graphics animator at Warp Co., Ltd.. Before that I had an experience in the creation of computer graphics at a movie company, but that was my first time working on a video game. My first experience with Warp Co., Ltd. involved the movement of the main character Laura in the CG sequence added in the 3DO version of D's Dining Table Director's Cut. However, it consisted of only a few cuts. I later became the main CG animator for Enemy Zero.

What prompted you to start working as a game designer? The reason I left Warp Co., Ltd. was due to the fact I wanted to create works that I had designed myself. I was lucky enough to be able to do this at Sony Computer Entertainment (Sce) and I was assigned the role of game designer and game director.

Did you know from the beginning that you wanted to become a game designer or did you want to take up another career? When I was in college I wanted to become a contemporary artist. The reason I got into the video game industry was primarily to a earn a living. Obviously I loved video games and I was what everyone today would call an "otaku", but back then I wouldn't have thought of making it my career.

Simply put, what kind of person is Fumito Ueda? I'm someone who can't help but feel anxious if I'm not constantly creating, even if it's something small.

How did you get involved with Japan Studio? After leaving Warp Co., Ltd., I had started developing Ico as an independent production, but I was worried because I didn't have enough money. In 1996, while I was looking for a job as a freelance CG artist, I turned to Sony Computer Entertainment. At first I approached Sce with the intention of simply helping out with the CG production for their games, but I was asked if I wanted to continue developing Ico with them, no longer as an independent production but as an internal Sce project. I jumped at this opportunity and a production team was formed. Ico was completed in 2001.

How did the idea of Ico come about? The idea was to create an heroic fantasy game similar in setting to Resident Evil, which had just been released in that period and which adopted a fixed camera system. Furthermore, at the time, I wondered if it would've been possible to feature NPCs' animations (non-playable characters) using an artificial intelligence, like in Ganbare Morikawa-kun No. 2, Hello Pac-Man and Wonder Project J', which I personally liked a lot. Eventually Ico was born.

I think Shadow of the Colossus is the most pioneering game ever made. Can you tell us an anecdote about your production process? While producing the game, I imagined that the henkei collision technique would become common in future action video games. And this was precisely my strongest motivation: to reach the goal faster than anyone else.

[There's a little section explaining the henkei collision technique] What is the "henkei collision"? In Shadow of the Colossus the playable character Wander is able to cling to the bodies of gigantic bosses, which made the interaction with the colossal enemy very "intense" and required a very different method of management and control compared to other video games. In English the term could be translated to "deforming collision".

I heard that the development of The Last Guardian was long and difficult. Without giving too much away, could you tell us what happened during that time? The game development engineers wanted to create something overly sophisticated. Using those various technologies was very difficult (like Ico's hand-holding or the deforming collision from Shadow of the Colossus). I think there hasn't been much investment in the foundations that support that advanced engineering; on the contrary, they were rather neglected and the company management did not fully understand the importance of issues of this caliber.

What impact did the 2011 Fukushima tragedy have on Fumito Ueda's sensitivity as an artist? Immediately after the earthquake I couldn't help but feel a decline in power in the entertainment world... and I'm not just talking about video games. However, I felt that my mission was to continue to fulfill my role and in fact I continued to create. Regardless of the type of "unpredictable" difficulties that one may encounter in life, such as the Coronavirus for example, people adapt to the changing environment and little by little this becomes everyday life again. It is something very precious for us living beings, but also a little scary I would say.

What are your sources of inspiration outside of the video game industry? Are there any artists you particularly admire? I think there has been strong video games influences, but I'm convinced that movies, especially anime, have also greatly influenced my works. Not only by legendary Japanese animators, such as Isao Takahata, Hayao Miyazaki and Yasuo Otsuka, but also by manga and anime artists, both national and international, such as Moebius, Katsuhiro Otomo, Paul Grimault and René Laloux.

Thinking back to the games you created, I can imagine that you have a great appreciation for European art and architecture. Do you also like Italy? I actually don't have much knowledge of European architecture, but I like Italy. I also really appreciate Italian food and have been riding a Vespa for about 35 years. I went to Rome once while I was a member of Warp in 1995 and I visited yet again in 2017.

What do you think is more important to be successful in the video game industry today: money or ideas? Ideas are a means to solve most problems, not just economic ones; I'm speaking in general, not just referring to the world of video games.

What games have you enjoyed in recent years? They are not exactly new releases, but some time ago I was very engaged in Humanity and PowerWash Simulator. The first game embodies the charm of programming, while the second is a game that extracts the principle of pleasure hidden in everyday life.

[Two of his top 3 were also added]

TOP 3: Fumito Ueda's favorite places in Tōkyō 1) Tōkyō Gate Bridge - Reiwa Island 2) Tōkyō's Museum of Contemporary Art 3) Daikanyama Tsutaya Books

TOP 3: best video games of all time according to Fumito Ueda 1) Prince of Persia (1989) 2) Virtua Fighter (1993) 3) Half-Life 2 (2004)

[mackeydoodledoo]

She Wears Short Skirts, I Wear T-Shirts: Chapter 9

Pairing: Bridget (Cheerleader AU) x (Fem!)Reader

Chapter Summary: You and Bridget solidify your relationship. She asks you to come to the final home game of the season, however, tell her that your band has a gig the same day. Bridget doesn't know that the gig is being the halftime of her home football game. You get to meet her cheer team at an afterparty and see James Hook.

Chapter Warnings: Swearing, NSFW recollections

Chapter Key: Italics = Thoughts, +*+ = Time Skip, F/n = Friend's name, B/n = Band Name, Bold/Italic = Flashback, G/n = Guitarist's name, Ba/n = Bassist's name, Bold = Singing, C/n = Captain's Name

Chapter Theme(s): Halftime Setlist | Afterparty Setlist

A/n: Enjoy the fact that this is a LONG chapter :)

------------------------------------------------------------------------

*Bridget's POV* You open your eyes and notice it was still dark out. However, see the sky beginning to turn a dark shade of blue.

You sigh, and arch your back as Y/n's lips slowly trail down your body.

"Y/n," You whisper

"Hmm?...." She looks up at you, eyes half open

"Please tell me you were fully awake when we...." Your voice trails off

You let out a strangled moan as Y/n gently rubs your clit in small circles, your entire body on fire.

"Y/n," You moan her name

"I'm here," She replies, resting her forehead onto yours

She slowly picks up her pace.

Your head tilts back, digging into the pillow.

"I was," She answers, "But, somewhat still asleep. But, I was mostly conscious."

"When?..." You ask

"The moment you said that you were real," She answers

You lean down and kiss her firmly.

+*+

The next time you wake up, you see Y/n over in the kitchen. You throw on a hood hanging on the back of a chair and slowly wrap your arm around her stomach and rest your chin on her shoulder. Your eyes look down at her arm, and finally see the details of her sleeve. Your other hand traces the vines all up and down her arm.

"It's beautiful," You kiss the back of her shoulder

"Told you that you'd see the sleeve eventually," She chuckles

"Is there a reason you chose floral design?" You ask

"The aesthetic," She answers, "No real meaning behind it, other than I liked it."

She seats you down at the tabletop bar and begin setting out plates for breakfast.

"So, what time are you going back to college?" She asks

"In a few hours," You say, "Gotta catch up on some work before the week starts."

"Glad I decided not to go to college," She says, sitting in the seat next to you, "Too much money..."

"College isn't for everyone," You say, "Music is working out for you so, there wouldn't be a point for you to go."

"Yeah," She says

*Y/n's POV* "So, how did you and Hook get into the same college?" You ask

"He got a full ride football scholarship," Bridget says, "I did the traditional application and got a few scholarships of my own. It was entirely coincidental."

"Ahh," You say, "Here I thought you simply 'ran off' to the same college to follow him."

"Ha ha very funny," She chuckles, "I wouldn't want to follow anyone..."

"Only me," You tease

"I'll keep it in mind once I graduate," She says, "I'll have to figure out where my culinary skills will lead me."

"Maybe we'll hit you up for catering for a local show," You suggest

"That's a possibility," She says, "But, all of the events outside of campus; study sessions, football afterparties, he'd even come to our cheerleader get-togethers. Mostly because half of our team is dating the football team."

"Ew, talk about cliche romances," You sigh

"Yeah, but you should come to our last football game this season," Bridget suggests

"When?" You ask

"This upcoming Saturday," She says

"Ahh, I have a gig that day," You say, "One of our biggest ones to date."

"Aww, a shame, what's the gig? Are you opening for a big band that's on an arena tour?" She asks

"Something like that," You shrug

+*+

As you finish the last bits of food, your mind begins trailing back to the events of the previous night...

As your lips trail down Bridget's stomach, she twitches. You stop and look up at her.

"I'm sorry," She pants

"Don't be," You caress her face

She leans into your touch.

"Do you want me to stop Bridget?" You ask

"God please no," She begs, smiling

You lowly chuckle as you begin to kiss her stomach again. Her skin was smooth. Way too smooth. You questioned how often she moisturizes her body. You continue to taste the scent left on her skin; continuing to make her writhe right under you.

"Y/n," Bridget's voice calls out, slightly muffled

"Hmm?" You ask, your eyes traveling up to meet hers

"Uhm... My eyes are up here," She chuckles

"Sorry I was zoning out," You say

She hooks her finger under your chin, Mhm, don't worry, there'll be more opportunities."

She hops down from the chair, "Right now I have to get ready to go."

She smiles as she gives your cheek a gentle pinch before running to the bathroom. You out the couch back as you wait for Bridget to finish in the bathroom.

+*+

"Shouldn't we tell your bandmates?" Bridget asks, standing back up, "Since... Well, you're around them a lot? And since I was at the show last night."

"Oh, do you want to?" You ask, "I wasn't sure if you wanted to be public about it first."

"I kinda do yeah," She gently smiles, "Just to your bandmates first. Funny as it sounds.... I really like being around your friends. Even if... One of them doesn't seem to be fond of me."

"She'll open up eventually," You say, hoping

You chuckle as you take out your phone, opening the camera. Bridget takes the phone and pulls your face towards hers. Even after she snaps the photo, she doesn't let go of you. You didn't want to let go of her either. However, she clears her throat as she takes a step back.

"I should uh..." She says, "I should get going. Got a long drive..."

"Yeah, right," You clear your throat, "Text me when you're home."

She nods as she shuts the car door. You watch her drive off from the guest area of the parking garage. On your way back up to your apartment, you share the photo with your bandmates group chat.

Finally! Jeez you wouldn't stop staring at that photo from high school. Even if it's someone from the past.... Sometimes second chances work out.

You don't see a reply from F/n... Understandable.

However, sometime later, you see a separate text from F/n.

You're real serious about her huh? Yeah, I am. Hah... It was obvious the moment you had her get into your car after our hometown show. But, I deserve a full on explanation later. Deal.

When you go into the studio later, your friends sitting in the lounge rather than the recording studio.

"Spill," F/n says

"Good to see y'all too," You chuckle, sitting in an open chair, "F/n did you tell them?"

"No, we were solely curious about how all of this between you and Bridget resurfaced," G/n says, "Missed that kiddo."

"To make a long story short... Her now-ex cheated," You answer, bluntly

They stare, blank-faced.

"Well that doesn't surprise me about Hook," F/n says, "He always seemed like a player. I'm surprised he hasn't attempted to try and win her back."

"She mentioned that he's tried right as she ended it," You explain, "But, I haven't seen anything recently."

"Good, I would totally like to wham my fist into his face," F/n says

"You always want to wham your fists on someone's face," You sigh, "But I would too."

"You two are the most chaotic," Ba/n sighs

"Ba/n, it's James Hook," You say, "I've been wanting to brawl with him for a hot while now."

"Okay can we discuss our upcoming gig now?" G/n asks

You all nod in agreement.

"Okay, so we all know we're going to be the halftime performance at Auradon University," G/n begins, "We only have twenty minutes..."

You wanted to tell Bridget, but G/n told you to not tell anyone. As it was the biggest show you guys would be doing all year.

"You didn't tell Bridget did you?" G/n looks at you

"No, I told her we had a gig, that's it," You answer, raising your hands

"Good," He says

+*+

Hey, good luck tonight. I'll be cheering for you in spirit :)

*Bridget's POV* You smile at Y/n's text as you put your phone into your purse. You have a phone call with Y/n almost every night; some night's it had been texting. You were sad that she wasn't able to make it out to your final game.

"Hey Bridge, you've been a lot more chipper lately," Your cheer captain comes up to you, "Who's the lucky person who swept you off of your feet?"

"Let's say it's someone who gave me a second chance," You answer, smiling

"Oh, was it this 'high school crush' you had?" She asks

"Yeah," You answer

"Gotta give me the deets later!" She smirks

You follow your girls out to the tunnel.

"Bridget," Hook's voice sends chills down your spine

Not in a good way.

You attempt to walk off with your girls however, he firmly grips your forearm.

"Hook stop," You yank your arm away, "We don't have time for this right now."

"Let it go Hook," your Cheer captain pulls you along

You hear him growl as you walk towards the other end of the tunnel.

"He wasn't too egressive was he?" She asks, looking down at your forearm

You shake your head, "I'm fine, let's get this show on the road."

+*+

"Good evening Auradon University!" the PA announces, "For tonight's halftime, we have brought a very special guest to perform for you all tonight."

You begin to hear a guitar riff playing loudly, but still low enough to hear the announcer.

"Please welcome back, G/n, and his band, B/n!" The announcer yells

Your eyes widen at the curtains ripping from its attachment to the columns holding the stage lights. You look over to your cheer mates and notice how they were losing their minds. You could only look in shock as Y/n's band plays on that stage.

You could hear the amount of people cheering for them. In four years, you didn't realize how much more popular they've gotten.

If we listen to each other's heart We'll find we're never too far apart And maybe love is a reason why For the first time ever, we're seein' it eye to eye

Seein' it eye to eye (Eye to eye) For the first time (first time) Seein' it eye to eye (first time) Eye to eye

But your eyes widen as Y/n leaves the drum set, and switches with the bassist going into the next song.

Since when could Y/n play anything other than drums?

You look at all of your girls and notice how they were all fawning, despite that their boyfriends were mere feet away. As soon as you turn back to see Y/n on the big screen, your heart thrummed against your chest.

Recipe for disaster Wondering what's gonna come after Will I ever know Do you? Do you?

Do you? Do you?

You watch as Y/n dances around the stage, having the time of her life.

I can't believe that's my girlfriend. Attractive... And multi-talented.

Don't know why, I don't know why, I don't know why I'm so obsessed I wish that I, yea, wish that I, yea, wish that I could worry less  Don't know why, I don't know why, I don't know why I'm so obsessed

Your eyes widen as Y/n stands on the kick drum.

I wish that I, I wish that I, I wish that I could worry less 

You gasp as she jumps off of it; landing perfectly on beat to the chorus.

Recipe for disaster Wondering what's gonna come after Will I ever know Do you? Do you?

Do you? Do you?

Throughout the next few songs, she switches between the instruments.... You were aware that she could sing backing vocals, but not once did you ever see her take the lead microphone, for the lead part.

Up until the second-to-final song...

She high-fives F/n as she hands her the microphone.

"Plot twist-the drummer does sing," She chuckles, "We all having a good time out there?"

The crowd erupts to loud cheering.

"Amazing to hear," Y/n speaks, "Well, it's been an honor performing halftime, I will be at the mic for these last two songs. This one goes out to my girl."

"Her girlfriend goes here?!" You overhear someone's conversation

It's me.

Your head looks around and see your cheer girls talking amongst themselves, assuming that they're coming up with theories to whom Y/n's girlfriend could be.

"She's like... Super hot," You overhear another conversation, "I'd be jealous of whoever her girlfriend is!"

You raise your moms up to your face and couldn't help but smirk to yourself. Your egotistical side wants to brag that the Y/n is your partner, however, either they wouldn't believe you, or you wouldn't hear the end of it. But, you cheer your heart out. Y/n Y/l/n just dedicated a song to you.

"Thanks everyone," She chuckles, "Thanks for having us out here. Now let's end this halftime on a high note!"

Y/n begins singing, muffled vocals as G/n backs it up.

Hyper aware of any change in your voice Yeah I can tell when i've started to annoy being alone is what I try to avoid I put in effort but it just gets destroyed It's true you got me undone I'm through letting you take away all of the fun

You seem so distracted with yourself with yourself Say I overreacted But it's hard for me to tell You you You're my only distraction in this hell but it's oh well

You watch as Y/n falls onto her knees as she sings the outro.

Don't mean to be a bother I'll get out of the way Cause one way or another I'm sensing foul play Say I'm overreacting it's getting hard to tell You were my one distraction but I still wish you well

Staff were quick about disassembling the stage setup as Y/n and her band break down their instruments, disappearing somewhere within the stadium itself. You run into the tunnel in hopes to spot them walking... Well, anywhere out of here.

"Bridget, what are you doing?" C/n asks, "We need to be back out there right now!"

Your head swings back from the hallway to your cheer captain.

"They're practically celebrities, they won't stick around!" She adds, gently grabbing your arm, "They might have special seating or something!"

Your eyes continue searching, your head turns back into the tunnel even after your captain drags you out of it.

*Y/n's POV* You load all music equipment into a small trailer, Ba/n locking it with a padlock.

"So.... Uhhh... What now?" You ask, "Football games are beneath me at this point."

"There's a really good place just out of campus, close to downtown," G/n says, "Assuming you guys have never been here before, let's go!"

Your bandmates agree and begin carpooling into Ba/n's car. You turn your back to them and pull out your phone; nothing from Bridget.

"Yo! Lover girl!" G/n calls you out

You turn back to them.

"We'll be back before the game is over and so you can see your girlfriend," He says, "Now get your ass in the car!"

+*+

"It was really weird having eyes literally everywhere on us, a whole three-sixty," F/n states, "Everywhere I look.... People."

"Even going to a stadium concert, the stage is always off to the side and then there would be a few small stages on the ground floor," Ba/n says

"Don't tell me you two were anxious about that run," G/n chuckles, "It's only going to continue going up from here."

*Bridget's POV* Another win for Auradon University... No surprise for you. Through the sea of exiting fans, you attempt to politely push through them as you rush to the locker room.

As soon as you reach the locker room, you immediately search for your phone, dialing Y/n.

"Yeah?" Y/n's voice answers on the other end

"Where are you?" You ask, throwing on sweats over your uniform

You gather all of your belongings.

"I have no clue," She answers, "I don't go here. We're just waiting at our cars for the traffic to let up so we can get out of here faster. But, I'm mostly waiting for you."

"I'm coming out of the locker room just hang on," You tell her

You keep her on the phone as you exit the locker room and out to the parking lot.

"Can you give me the general area of where you're waiting," You say

"Yeah uh.... I'm.... Well, we're kinda just across the street at the convenience store. Only place we could park at. Cheer captain slipped us an invitation to an after party at her mansion," She says

"Of course she did," You sigh, "Okay, I see you. I'll be over in a second."

As soon as Y/n comes into view, you begin breaking into a run. You notice her spotting you, and she makes her way towards you. You squeal as you jump into her arms.

"You are a liar," You laugh

"G/n wanted to keep it a secret," She chuckles

"Come on, I have to get changed and bring my treats to the after party," You say

+*+

Y/n meets you at your apartment.

"You're dressing up?" She asks

"Seniors do," You clarify, "One last time to feel pretty."

"Well, you don't really have to make an effort there," She chuckles

You smile uncontrollably as you reach into the fridge and grab cupcakes.

"I should wait until the party but I didn't know you were going to be here, so you're the first to try my fabulous pink flamingo feather cupcakes," You remove the cover from the platter

*Y/n's POV* You delicately take the cupcake and slowly undo the wrapping. You even out the frosting-cupcake ratio as your teeth tear into the bakery item.

"Heaven," You sigh, savoring each bite

"Now come on, we don't want to keep them waiting," Bridget hands you a platter of the cupcakes

+*+

You carefully take the bakery items out from a secure spot in her trunk

"Bridget! And... Y/n Y/l/n," One cheerleader attempts to not faint on the spot, "B/n's drummer."

"Hi," You awkwardly smile

You and Bridget walk off to the kitchen, putting the cupcakes somewhere on an open spot on the dessert table. You linger behind Bridget as she brings you into the living room; your bandmates already there. They're chatting among everyone present.

This living room is bigger than my apartment....

"Uhhhhh," Bridget says, clearing her throat loudly

Your head travels down to her as the eyes land on the two of you.

"Girls, I have an announcement," Bridget announces

Without another word, she tugs the collar of your jacket, her eyes looking down at your lips, then looking back up at you. One arm snakes around her waist; pulling her into you, and the other uses its index finger to tilt her head up to you. The both of you meet halfway: the room erupting into a cheer. The both of you rest your foreheads against each other as the cheering continues.

"It feels like we just got married," You chuckle

"Would that be a bad thing?" She asks, smiling

You shake your head, "But, save that for the future."

"God since when!?" A cheerleader asks

"Mere weeks ago," You answer, "But, I've known her for a long while."

"So... She's the one that gave you a second chance?" Another cheerleader asks

Bridget nods, "The cheer captain."

You nod and give the captain a head nod. You find an open spot on the floor and Bridget sits between your legs, leaning back into your body.

"So.... How do you guys know each other?" A football player asks

"We attended the same high school together," Bridget says

"Wouldn't you know it, she's the one who came up to me," You chuckle, "Back then, I was drum captain."

"Pretty lame if you tell me," Hook's voice booms from across the room

"Lay off Hook," One of his teammates tells him, "I'm always in for good music, and want to know all about the people behind them."

+*+

As the night rolls on, your band and the football/cheer team continue conversing amongst one another.

"Hey, I know it might be last minute, but would it be okay if you guys give a performance before my parents kick us all out?" The cheer captain asks

You look to all of your bandmates. They give a thumbs up.

"Give us a little bit to discuss a setlist," You answer

Bridget gets up and you follow your bandmates outside.

*Bridget's POV* "C/n that's asking too much," You cross your arms

"Sorry," She shrugs her shoulders, "They seem willing to do it anyway. Who knows when we'll get another opportunity like this again!"

You roll your eyes.

+*+

You watch as C/n does the decent thing and help them hook up their sound equipment to the power to her house.

"Y/n, you don't have to do this you know," You come up to Y/n

"It's fine. We're already set up, besides, we like doing acoustics too," She smiles

She kisses your temple and meets up with her band.

+*+

"I was dared to sing the last two songs," She chuckles, "But apparently I gt a voice that matches this artist and I enjoy singing this artist the most when I do have to sing in our sets. These will be our last few of the night. So enjoy it while you can."

+*+

"For this last song, I dedicate it to my girl," Y/n smile, standing from her sea ton the other side of the pool, "Our story is insane. But, if any of you got that special 'Antidote', hold onto it."

G/n begins the opening riff. Your heart thrums against your temples as Y/n approaches you; your cheer mates move to sit next to their partners as Y/n seats herself next to you, slinging her arm over your shoulder.

Let everybody say what they wanna say, what they wanna say, baby Let everybody talk (ooh) They all got their stones to toss (ooh) I know you're gonna find me if I lose my mind

She stands up, but holds her hand out to you. You take it and she pulls you close to her.

I get high, I get high I get low, I get low You're my dopamine state You're my sanity dose High, I get high On your new rockin' boat You're the medication I wanna take You are my antidote (you are my) You are my antidote (You) you are (are), you are (my), you are my anti-

Ooh-ooh Ooh-ooh

Erupts of cheers echo through the backyard.

*Y/n's POV* Soyu compose yourself, your eyes travel over Bridget's shoulder and you catch Hook, staring.

Traditionally, if you were still in high school, you'd be terrified of that look. However, you grew up. You have a lot of pent up rage towards him. But, you could care less.

Chapter 10

[yuurei20]

hi hi! i wanna start off this ask with thanking you for all your translations and comparisons! they're all so interesting to read and really help with putting the characters' personalities into perspective. i was rereading the heartslabyul manga and noticed that ace seemed to think the title of magic-less prefect was cool while in the game he was more neutral and simply stated they must be the first at nrc? is the direct translation perhaps more positive? thank you in advance!

Hello hello!! You are too kind, thank you very much m(_ _)m

And thank you so much for this question, it was fascinating to look into!

I went through the game, manga and novel for the scene you refer to, and compared what we see:

Ace's original dialogue and the EN translation are almost identical here (just with the removal of a プッ sound at the beginning, insinuating that he is holding back laughter), where he comments on the player character being maybe NRC's first-ever magicless prefect.

His follow-up line is where things begin to deviate:

Original Game: Nice, that's cool. A prefect who can't use magic! Original Manga: Nice, a prefect who can't use magic! That's cool! English Manga: A prefect who can't use magic. I like it! It's so cool.

English Game: But sure, why not? Whatever works!

While Ace's positive approval from original game and manga was kept in the English-manga adaptation, for some reason it was toned down to "whatever works" in the English game (this line does not exist in the novel). Nice catch!

I also compared Ace's earlier interaction with the prefect across the two translations (plus the manga and novel) to see what deviations there might be, and in that case the English-language adaptation of the game is perfectly accurate to the original:

The original- and English-language manga have slightly different phrasing in this scene (and Deuce is there, whereas he isn't in the game or novel), but the overall feeling is the same:

- "Only the chosen ones are allowed to enroll in this academy. You didn’t have what it takes." - "Are you lecturing me? I kinda think that’s super annoying." - "I’m out of here. I have class."

The biggest change in this scene is in the original novel, where Ace is even meaner:

- "Getting the attention of everyone in school, and then the perfect punchline: you’re a magicless, disappointing, nobody." - "What is with you? Don’t you have any pride?" - "Tried talking to you just to tease you a bit, but this is boring. Do your best with that monster, for the rest of us—and with your cleaning."

And this is possibly because we get a more detailed look into Ace's underlying issue with the prefect in the novel:

"‘I’m saying, I was wrong. I might have said some horrible things to you because I didn’t know your situation. All I heard was there was someone in the school who doesn’t even have any magic, so I thought you’d forced your way in or something, while the rest of us all had to get in on our own merit. I thought it wasn’t fair, so I got a little pissed off.’

The words leave Ace in a rush, fast and awkward, and then he hangs his head. ‘I’m sorry.’

Then Ace lifts his head again just slightly, giving Yuuya a glance.

‘…if you apologize then you get forgiven, right?’"

(The "Meeting Ace" scene has now been added to the overall compilation of translations from the first novel!)

[coraniaid]

AU: Gwendolyn Post is either not evil, or decides to play the long game instead of going straight for the magic glove.

Okay ... let's say Post was still kicked out of the Council for (mis)use of dark magic, but she knows that if she's careful it will take the Scooby Gang a while to figure that out. Indeed, we know Giles hasn't thought of asking the Council for confirmation of Post's claims, and we also know the Council don't plan to actually send a replacement Watcher for Faith. The Council won't visit Sunnydale at all until the events of Helpless, and it's not as if Giles seems to discuss Faith's need for a permanent Watcher with Travers in canon.

Post initially was in town just for the glove, but she reconsiders after she talks to Faith in the motel and realizes the potential she represents. Before knocking Giles out and trying to kill Angel, she hasn't really done anything suspicious at all. So when Giles calls her in to his office and tells her they have a plan to destroy the glove she came all this way for, Post tries her best to look pleased and quietly finishes her tea. Faith and Xander still decide to take matters into their own hands, but the library is empty when they arrive looking for weapons. So rather than splitting up they both head to the mansion, where they run into Angel and Giles and Post. Post is [as in canon] a bit nonplussed to realize that Angel is a vampire (and she's even more surprised when she realizes he's that Angelus), but she sticks with her new plan and (between Giles and Post telling her it's all okay), I don't think Faith is quite ready to attack Angel in front of witnesses. Privately, after the glove is taken care of, Post tells Faith she understands her concerns and admits she didn't realize Angel was a vampire ("Mr Giles' choice of allies are quite utterly unfathomable to me"), but she praises Faith for her good judgment in coming to her Watcher for orders before doing anything rash (they both know, of course, that this isn't what Faith was doing at all, but Faith is more than willing to persuade herself she was if it will win her the approval of her newest surrogate parental figure).

With no big fight or falling out at the end of Revelations, Buffy thinks things with Faith are still going well, even if Faith is angry about her hiding Angel. But behind the scenes, Post has worked out by now that Faith's ties to Buffy are the only competition she has, so she pretty quickly gets to work undermining them as much as she can. Wondering out loud why Giles seems so willing to bend the rules for Buffy and whether Buffy realizes just how dangeous Angelus is, dragging Faith out of town on private training exercises, doing whatever she can to play to Faith's (painfully obvious) inferiority complex. By Amends, when Buffy invites Faith over for Christmas, Faith really isn't lying when she turns Buffy down because she has other plans. (Post invites her over to her house for the first time that Christmas, and though they both find the experience pretty awkward for their own reasons, Faith is moved enough to talk about Diana, who she wasn't good enough to protect, and to try to pretend she's not crying when she promises "Gwen" she won't ever let her Watcher down again.)

Post is almost caught off-guard when Giles talks to her about Buffy's upcoming Cruciamentum [I think the charitable take is that Giles -- and all first time Watchers -- didn't know about the Cruciamentum in advance either], but she agrees to take Faith out of town so she won't cause any problems. Of course, she's smart enough to realize that the game is pretty much up at this point -- no way Giles isn't going to mention her to Travers at least in passing, even if the Council haven't brought a real replacement Watcher yet -- so she decides to make the best of it. Once she and Faith are set up in wherever they've gone for training, Post (while pretending not to know when Buffy's birthday is), does her best to look serious and concerned for her Slayer's well-being while she warns her that as Faith's birthday is coming up soon the Council might be planning to subject her to the Cruciamentum ("a primitive and outdated practice that of course I will have no part in ... though I fear Mr Giles is something of a traditionalist in these matters").

What Post is really hoping for is that they get back to town to find Buffy dead and for Faith to be too furious and heartbroken to do anything but blame Giles and completely refuse to listen to anything the Council tells her ever again [Post wouldn't mind if she took care of Quentin Travers either; she never really cared for him even when she was really a Watcher]. She wasn't expecting Faith to immediately rush back to Sunnydale and arrive just in time to rescue Buffy and her mom from Zachary Kralik, but it all works out pretty well anyway. Giles is fired, so he's no more of a Watcher than she is now, and if Travers starts going on about some supposed thefts and a few cursed rituals she might have been caught doing it's not as if either of the Slayers are going to take his side over hers. Of course she's prepared to bend the rules if it means saving people and stopping monsters. Why, she's just proved that. She doesn't even mind too much when Faith and Buffy start patrolling together again. Maybe Buffy's angry enough at Giles that she'll listen to her over him. (That part doesn't last, sadly for Post.) But Faith is done with the Council, now -- she's not going to let them take her powers away, and she's not going to listen to Wesley for a second. She doesn't need an official Watcher anyway. She's got Mrs Post, and Mrs Post has her back. She saved Buffy's life, didn't she?

That being said, Bad Girls plays out a lot like it does in canon, at least at first (Faith might not listen to Wesley, but if Gwen thinks it's a good idea to look for Balthazar's amulet...). Faith still accidentally kills Allan Finch, and she still freaks out, but this time she doesn't just dump the body and try to convince herself she's made the problem go away. She dumps the body and then goes to see her new mom Watcher, who she knows will be able to make the problem go away. And Mrs Post knows exactly what to tell Faith: she shouldn't feel bad about killing some random interloper, she's a Slayer and accidents happen and it's not as if he were some paragon of virtue. Why, it's quite possible he was in league with Mayor Wilkins, who they've just learned is working hand in hand with vampires, so Faith probably did the right thing by killing him. It's a shame she couldn't do a better job of hiding the evidence, but ... well, perhaps Post was expecting too much of her. She knows Faith prefers hanging out with her friend Buffy to training properly, after all. No wonder the two of them got into trouble without proper supervision. ("It's quite unfair, isn't it, that Mr Giles is planning to cover for his Slayer and put all the blame on you. I don't know how he can countenace the thought of shipping you off to England to be tried by the Council, which ... oh. Didn't Buffy warn you about that, Faith? Well, perhaps she didn't know.") By the time Wesley's Council friends arrive, Faith and Gwendolyn Post are long gone. Boats leave from the docks everyday, after all, and the world is full of vampires to kill and dangerous (and valuable) magical artefacts to secure for safe-keeping. And maybe Mrs Post doesn't have a cool cursed glove that can shoot lightning, but she's got something better. She's got a rogue Slayer who'll do whatever she wants her to do, no questions asked, and all she has to do in exchange is occasionally pretend to give a damn about her.

[sunnyy3d]

All I Want for Christmas is You|

Thomas Thorne x Reader

A/N: I wrote this incredibly late (like I’m posting it at 12:30 Christmas morning) so I hope you enjoy it, and it doesn’t suck… I also had to try and post this at least three different times, so that’s great. Anyways, merry Christmas! Requests open!

"Wake up, it is Christmas!" Thomas gently shakes me awake. I open my eyes to see his bright smile above me. I love waking up beside him every morning, even if we are dead. "Oh, I cannot wait for you to see your gift," he states as he ushers me out of the bed. Thankfully, I am already fully dressed, so I can go straight to the family room where everyone will be waiting.

Usually, I dread the upcoming holidays. There's not much that you can do as a ghost. There's no Christmas dinner, gifts, Christmas crackers, or anything of the sort. The most you can do is participate in one of Pat's games or talks. But that all changed when Allison showed up. She helped us start to enjoy Christmas again. Before Allison, the ghosts and I would just hand out and play some of Pat's games. And then after, Thomas and I would do something special together.

Because of Allison, we've been able to do much more for Christmas. Allison can help with gifts, and we can do more traditions than just Pat's made-up games. I mean, no hate to Pat, but after so many years, you just yearn for more.

This year, I've asked Allison to hang up some mistletoe that I can go under with Thomas. It may seem small and insignificant, but Thomas has always loved the mistletoe tradition and has been begging Allison to put some up around the house.

Before we reach the family room, I let Thomas know I plan to give him his gift in private. His eyebrows raise in shock, and he lets out a tiny "oh." I laugh as he clearly interprets my words in his own way, but don't correct him as we've already reached the family room.

After everyone has exchanged their gifts, I finally get to open Thomas'. Well, Allison gets to. At this moment, Thomas tells me that he actually wrote a poem that he will recite to me.

Thomas starts his poem with great emotion, "I don't want a lot for Christmas. There is just one thing I need. I don't care about the presents underneath the Christmas tree. I just want you for my own, more than you can ever know. Make my wish come true; all I want for Christmas is you."

My smile falters as I recognize his poem from somewhere else. This isn't the first time this has happened, and I know that Thomas will be devastated when he finds out that he has given me a plagiarized piece.

Luckily, I don't need to be the one to break it to him, as Allison has already started. "Thomas, that's 'All I Want for Christmas is You,' by Mariah Carrey..." Mike starts laughing but quickly stops when Allison glares at him. He can't see me, but I am also glaring at him. Thomas will already be upset; there is no need to make it worse.

Thomas is quick to break down. "Oh no! I have done it again. Please send my most sincere apologies to Mrs. Carrey. I did not mean to steal her beautiful work. My dear, I am so so sorry. I did not intentionally give you stolen work, I swear!" he sobs.

"Oh, Thomas, dear, it is okay! You did not mean to. I promise that I don't see you any differently now. You are still a great poet. It happens to the best." I pull him into my arms, shushing him and rubbing his back. "Here, why don't we go get your gift," I whisper.

I stand and dust my clothes off, even though I know nothing is on them. I hold out my hand as an offer to help Thomas up. He gladly takes in, and I pull him up. Now standing, I start to lead him to the mistletoe. I asked Allison to place the mistletoe at an arbor near the lake. Thomas and I love to sit and watch the waves together, so I thought it would be the perfect place to give him his gift.

When we finally reach the arbor, I lead him directly under it. I smile at him as I take both of his hands in mine. His eyebrows scrunch in confusion, and I only look up, prompting him to do the same. Noticing the mistletoe, he looks down at me with a huge smile.

I nod at him, encouraging him to follow the tradition. Quickly, he lets go of one of my hands, instead cupping my cheek with it. His lips crash onto mine. He passionately kisses me like he has been dying to.

He breaks from the kiss after a minute but still holds my face. "Thank you. You know that I have been begging Allison to put some up. And I truly am sorry about the poem. I shall write you another poem-original this time- in order to correctly express my love for you,” he promises with a tight lipped smile.

“It's okay, my love. It's the thought that counts. I would love anything you give me, especially if it is another kiss," I reassure him. His smile widens, but I don't get to look at it for long as he quickly pulls me back into a passionate kiss.

[accirax]

Alright, let me throw my hat in the ring for predicting who the upcoming DRDT MV is gonna be about. Spoilers for the series up to the second victim reveal.

So, I know that earlier today I said that I thought the MV might be about Levi-- I even voted for him on googledetective's poll. However, after actually looking at Yoidoreshirazu's lyrics, I have another prediction who (at the time of writing) has 0% on said poll. I actually think this MV could be about Rose?

I woke up as an unaware drunkard

While Rose obviously isn't known for excessive alcohol consumption, I think you could use her sleepy demeanor as a substitution for drunkenness in this song. Alcohol is a depressant, which "can affect concentration and coordination and slow down a person’s ability to respond to unexpected situations" as the Alcohol and Drug Foundation puts it. Similarly, a person as lethargic as Rose might have trouble remembering what's just transpired, or quickly answering questions. Sleeping may be another way that Rose chooses to get away from her problems, an "addiction" similar to someone who drinks to forget.

All of this bickering goes on til the dawn comes Worn out, we all look horrible Until all thousand voices become hoarse

Chapter 2 was full of lots of fighting and yelling, of which Rose was neither a participant nor an enjoyer.

I’m giving into you, but you don’t even have anything to say And my body is dyed

In order to pay off her debts, Rose has to give in to what the Spurlings ask of her. Her art and her soul are now forever dyed by the intentions and ambitions of the Spurlings, as opposed to her own expression.

And then The sacred mountain is covered in mud, it’s smeared and chipping away, ah yes, it’s not half bad I’m a milligram away from succumbing Getting drunk again and again, unexpectedly- Ah, it’s not half bad I’m a drunkard unaware of my rival in love, so

Rose's "sacred mountain" is art itself. Even if she isn't a sculptor working with clay, it's still the journey to which she wanted to dedicate her life. Her dream is chipping away, but she says it's not that bad because she knows the alternative would have been worse. Still, she's on the verge of giving up because of the depressing state her life has fallen to. The sentiment is then basically repeated with her choice to numb herself to the world around her, being an "unaware drunkard"-- it seems chill on the surface, but she still regrets giving up so easily and not being able to contribute more.

I'm not entirely sure who the "rival in love" is. My best guess is that it would sort of be herself? Or, like, the love itself is the rival. Her desire to make art for herself and love her life is the rival of being responsible and loving/supporting her family by making art for the Spurlings.

The singing voices are uncountable And once one gets lost in them, they end up at your xx

If this is Rose's MV, this section is clearly about her nightmares. The "singing voices" would be the other participants of the killing game, specifically those who screamed out in pain from massive injuries or death. Rose gets lost in her memories via her dreams, and those visions stick with her as part of her photographic memory. You could interpret the "xx" as "door," which just means that they always wind up right in the forefront of her mind. But, you could also substitute in "canvas" or "tip of your paintbrush" to incorporate how Rose often paints the things that worry her.

Hey, look at how pretty it is, the daydream rondo一 I hide a thousand and can only spit out ten

The paintings of Rose's dreams are beautiful, but Rose always has to hide them behind black paint, lest the Spurling Foundation fully steal her soul. Still, she's frustrated that she can't paint what she wants more often.

Please don’t let this fleeting happiness go away, Until I can lend an ear by your side I’m giving into you, but you don’t even have anything to say And my heart is dyed

Rose has at least tried to make friends in the killing game. The two most notable, in my opinion, are Teruko and Nico. I'd like to believe that her brief interactions with the two of them, at some points in time, have made her happy, at least in comparison to the rest of the killing game. In Rose and Nico's FTE, Nico mentions how they like that Rose is a chill person who will just hang out and listen, and when Teruko asks Rose about her secret, Rose explains to Teruko that talking to others helps her work through her complicated thoughts and emotions. These two pieces together make me believe that Rose likes showing that she cares by listening to others, so "lending them an ear" is her way of reciprocating that happiness. Both of them are pretty quiet, but they've still changed who she is right now, for better or worse.

I’m a drunkard unaware of the story

Rose's sleepiness and general withdrawl from social interactions prevent her from getting involved in major portions of the story, such as helping Levi reconnect with Ace. Her fears also directly prohibited her from being aware of certain pieces of evidence when she refused to enter the Playground to investigate Arei's body.

Finally, I also think that the style of the music just kinda fits Rose. Veronika would probably say that I'm just primed to believe that after Venus and I assigned Rose the song Always Tired, which has a similar low-key, depressing red flavor. But, while much siller, Cartoons by Louie Zong (which pretty much everyone agrees was Rose's from the official playlist), also has that slow synthetic/tech beat. (Does that make sense??? I don't know what instruments are.)

Obviously, I didn't go through every lyric, but I felt that most other lyrics were either pretty self-explanatory, ignorable, or more of the same. The lyrics of the song definitely lead me to think that we could be looking at a Rose MV, but there are a couple of other factors arguing against that interpretation.

The first is the choice to give Rose an MV now of all times. Our first MV was Sleepy, a song for Min which came out shortly after she died. Our second was Literature Girl Insane for David, which came out shortly after his show-stopping reveal which made waves in the killing game and the fandom. Rose... well, she did have some important scenes this chapter, between the reveal of her secret and her breakdown outside the Playground, but neither of them were particularly recent or relevant to where the story is currently paused.

Well, DRDTdev did say that not every character is planned to have an MV, and that the creation order of them isn't totally within his control. So, if the idea for Rose struck now, then we could get a Rose MV now!

For what it's worth, I realized that it probably doesn't make sense to give this MV to anyone who's involved in the Chapter 2 murder. Even if we're still a few months out from that reveal, I feel like it would make more sense if we just waited until the chapter was over to give the killer a nice MV sendoff, much like Min. I, along with... pretty much everyone else I asked back in August didn't think that Rose was going to die this chapter, so she's most likely free from that mark.

The second is the quote in the description under the video, "I lack self control." I... really don't know what this would mean for Rose. Generally, I think she's pretty good at controlling her emotions, and I agree that that part might point in the MV more in the direction of Ace, Levi, Veronika, or someone else.

Still, I think that the lyrics of Yoidoreshirazu fit Rose pretty well, and wanted to explain my thoughts somewhere. Most importantly, new content! Thank you DRDTdev; stay healthy out there!!!

[mint-yooxgi]

Hey, I really loved that one wooyoung drabble where they're academic rivals? Can we get a part 2, him being extra annoying and bratty, but also down bad... 👉🏻👈🏻

Part One

***

A new semester...

A new chance to get you to pay attention to him...

Wait, that's not right. He only wants to beat you at your own game. One up you in class, prove he's smarter than you, and have you worship him the very same way he worships you...

No, that's not it, either. Wooyoung's going to prove he's the better academic. He doesn't care what you think. It's just a fact that he's smarter.

Maybe.

"Damn, another one point difference between the top two in our major," a voice is overhead saying as Wooyoung walks passed the most recent scoreboard.

"Do you think they have some kind of bet going? They're always trying to outdo the other." Another voice says.

At the looming presence they suddenly sense behind them, the two students turn.

"No, no, it's nothing like that," Wooyoung chuckles, shaking his head. "There's no bet, just some friendly academic competition.

A snort is heard from the male standing beside Wooyoung.

"Right," Yeosang rolls his eyes. "And you don't talk about this person every waking second of every waking day."

Wooyoung smiles tightly, not particularly liking the way the two other students share a look between them.

"As you can see, it's friendly." Wooyoung states, rather firmly as the students scurry off. He watches them go before turning to his friend with a steely expression tugging at his features. "The fuck you mean, Yeo?"

Yeosang snorts, "It's obvious to everyone it's more than just an academic rivalry. Just ask them out already."

"It's not like that!" Wooyoung attempts to defend himself, his lips parted as clear disbelief paints his features.

"Mmhmm," Yeosang hums. "And Mingi and Yunho don't have a competition between them to see how many threesomes they can have this year."

Wooyoung scowls. Everyone in their friend group knows about Yunho's and Mingi's bet.

"That doesn't mean I want to ask them out!"

"You started freaking out when you thought they were on a campus date with Beomgyu." Yeosang deadpans. "Tell me you care without telling me you care."

"That was different!"

"Beomgyu isn't even in your major."

"They could be getting outside information for our upcoming final. I need to know the 'Perfect Academic' isn't so perfect after all." Wooyoung states, matter of factly, crossing his arms over his chest as they walk towards the lecture halls.

"You know, instead of vying for their attention, there's this great thing called 'talking to them' instead." Yeosang shoots Wooyoung a look out of the corner of his eyes.

"I talk to them plenty!" He defends.

"A scholarly debate in class doesn't count."

"What would you know about it?" Wooyoung frowns, stopping suddenly in the middle of the hallway. "You're the one who always freezes around Anne, anyways."

Yeosang purses his lips, a slight tug downwards to his brow. A moment later, and Wooyoung receives a harsh elbow to the side of the ribs.

"Ow! What the fuck, man!"

"It's obvious you like them, and this stupid one sided rivalry is getting old." Yeosang rolls his eyes. "Just ask them out already."

Wooyoung exhales a sharp huff of air through his nose, shaking his head. "I'll ask them out when they score perfect on our next exam."

Surely an impossible feat. No one scores perfect on this professor's exams. Besides, he's not going the one to come to you. He's not going to be the one that'll be desperate for the other. Though, the more you go on ignoring him... perhaps desperate times call for desperate measures after all.

[anxy76]

🍷Overworked

Presented to you by anxy76

Enjoy!

𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 𓆝 𓆟𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 𓆝 𓆟𓆝

It was a dull night, I just got back from Lord Diavolos Castle, I was required to help around for the upcoming party

I slowly put my bag down, feeling pretty tired from all the work I did, but there was one thing I had to check before heading back to sleep

Someone who's been working way too much, the random footsteps from afar could be heard

I slowly walk towards the familiar door, the one I enter almost each and every night thought for the past week I couldn't have made it due to Diavolos' requirements.

Slowly putting my ear next to door, trying to listen if there was any sound inside, a stern voice making me flinch

"I swear if it's you, Mammon, again, I'll hang you upside down!" Lucifer shouted in a clearly annoyed tone, and it could be very much heard through the door

I press the handle and open the door. Lucifer is already staring at it

"Sorry ,Lucifer, I just wanted to check on you. I haven't seen you in a while" keeping my voice as soft as possible, seeing that Lucifer was not in the mood for anything

He just stared at me, right into my eyes. The moonlight was going over his face, making Lucifers features more noticeable, but just when he was about to speak, the second oldest voice was heard

"OI human! Where have ya been all day?! Come 'ere! No more waisting time here. " Mammon grabbed my hand and pulled me out of Lucifers office just as if he no longer wanted to see me in there

"Mammon- wait! Hold on!" I tried stopping him, but there was no chance he'd actually listen to me. Sometimes, I wonder why Mammon isn't the avatar of envy. That would suit him more... when it comes to me.

He kept talking, but instead of listening, I was continuously looking back, hoping Lucifer would come and take me away from his brother and that I'd be in his embrace... but that did not happen because while staring back at the corridor, I could see the door slowly closing back.

As the both of us reached my room, I spoke in a silent yet tired voice.

"I should get some rest, uhm thanks for bringing me to my room...I need to wake up early to help Lord Diavolo out" I groan reminding myself that I indeed need to help out and it was already late.

Mammon looked at me dissapointed yet he did not give up and invited himself in my room starting up a conversation that took atleast three more hours but what can I say other than it was indeed fun, we laughed, giggled , played some games and even comforted eachothers.

Thought my mind was still set on Lucifer,quite worried actually he hadn't left his office since the last time I actually visited him...he'll I hope he's taking care of himself and not overworking.

I brush my thoughts aside, watching as Mammon slowly leaves my room waving goodbye. The moon shined brighter as the time went by, I had to at least get a bit of sleep, I had to help them out, or else Diavolo would be disappointed

My eyes slowly closed, bringing me to my slumber, helped by my blanket, a very comfortable and puffy one.... I didn't even realise I didn't change my clothes due to how tired I was, and we'll because I got distracted by the sin of greed, Mammon.

𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 𓆝 𓆟𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 𓆝 𓆟𓆝

𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 𓆝 𓆟𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 𓆝 𓆟𓆝

Time passed very fast

Diavolos party was starting to look amazing. The finishing touches, making it look absolutely stunning, I was proud of myself for being able to help with so many things my eyes flickering satisfying with all of it, as I take one more look at everything.

I was incredibly happy, but I still felt like something was missing.Someone was missing

Where was he?

I haven't seen his face for the past weeks.

Should I go look for him?

All the questions rang in my head, I needed to know how he was doing.

My mind was made up. I was gonna go search for him. As I was about to go, Lord Diavolo snapped me back to the party

"Ah... yes, the finishing touches, how could I forget I still had to help..!"softly whispering to myself, at how forgetful I get when it comes to the avatar of pride...

Kinda dissapointed at the fact that I can't go see him right now. Oh, how I wish...

The faster I finish this, the quicker I'll get to him!

Or so I thought....

𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 𓆝 𓆟𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 𓆝 𓆟𓆝

For the past hours, I've been helping, it seems as Diavolos thoughts had no stop...!

I'm so tired... After all, im just a human doing all this work.

"Diavolo... we finished everything. Isn't it time to let us go back?" I asked a bit confused since we finished the actual plan a few hours ago.

"Ah yes! But there's so many ideas so much to do!" He responded with his iconic laugh."Sorry (y/n) you can go rest. I understand you don't have the energy as us the demons."

I took a deep breath in. Finally, I can go check on him.

"Thank you!" I respond eagerly, ready to leave.

I didn't usually walk alone in the devildom. It was dangerous for... a human that's what everyone told me, i was supposed to wait for one of the brothers to walk with me towards the House of Lamentation, but I was too worried about the oldest brother, so instead of waiting I was speeding towards the house.

𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 𓆝 𓆟𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 𓆝 𓆟𓆝

Quickly making my way in rushing towards Lucifers office, I slowly knock on the door but only for it to get no response.

"Lucifer?" I ask softly, deciding to open the door as I pull it open

I'm peeking my head inside the room as I see him. His head was lying on the table, probably way too tired to get to his room.

I wonder how long he has been here for?

For how long has he been skipping meals?

"Lucifer.." I call out again his name as I comb my fingers through his hair

He started to stir a bit, and then he brought his head up to look at me

"(y/n)? why are you here? I must've fallen asleep. I have to get back to my work. Thank you for waking me."But my mind was made to at least get him to rest for a bit.

"You need to rest the work can wait," looking him directly in the eyes... his eyes looked so tired, so exhausted."You've been working for the past weeks for what I know. You deserve a break, so please let me help you."

He looked at me, debating if he should listen to me or not... but he knew I wouldn't stop until he rested.

"Alright then." he got up, looking just as exhausted, but instead of walking towards the door, he came to me. "But you're also resting with me, don't think I didn't know you've also been working more than you should of." his hands made their way around my waist , holding me close.

My cheeks turned into a soft red. "But unlike you, I got rest from time to time..!" complaining at his statement.

"Let's head to my room." pulling me towards him, not letting go of my hand as he took the lead into getting us towards his room.

At that time, I forgot I didn't change my clothes due to the hurry I was in. "I think I'll head to my room." I told him

"You're not spending the night with me?" his voice sounded dissapointed, he wanted me to stay , and who was I to decline?

"I'll just change my clothes and come right back, alright?" As I turned my head towards the direction of my room

"I can give you some spare clothes." he responded quickly, grabbing my hand and pulling me inside the room "I don't want you to leave."

I watched him as he got me the spare clothes he had already changed, and so was I about to do as well.

It took me a few minutes, but I finished, I went into the bed right next to Lucifer.

He put his hands around me and pulled me, holding me against his chest. His heartbeat was going fast yet soft like a nice melody.

His voice was soft as he said, "How I wished we'd do this again, I'm sorry I got so worked up with all the paperwork my dear (y/n)" as he held me as close as possible

"It's alright, I was just worried since you haven't been getting rest" I whispered out my thoughts "I want you to take more care of yourself."

"Anything for you my dear."

Those were the last words exchanged from the both of us as we fall into a deep slumber both of us happily in eachothers arms again after so long.

𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 𓆝 𓆟𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 𓆝 𓆟𓆝

Thank you for reading!