#my due south creations

[ezlo-x]

hi I have thoughts to implement to my au maybe sorta I just thought the idea was cool. The Zonai were a Minish Tribe that were established in the Faron region when descending down from the skies

The Zonai were architecturally advanced as their structures and monuments were massive compared to their small size. It was at a point lead to believe that Hylians from a long ago past created those structures that are in the Faron region. Zonai don’t have a third eye in this, only highly respected Zonai would create these headpieces in form of a third eye. It is only a wild coincidence that the Sheikah and Zonai use eye symbols. However the Zonai in my au use more hand symbolism as they connect it more to into their architectural history and skills.

The Zonai established their own society in Faron, being the first to create a monarchy way before Hyrule was established to have a kingdom. That is the Zonai tribe of the south region, as a handful of the Zonai started to embark to the upper north side of Hyrule. There were two siblings in hopes to create their own society just like their cousins, Rauru and Mineru. They first settled in the upper north of the Woodland Region now known as the Thyphlo Ruins, until the discovery of the Great Lord Deku Tree in the Deku Woods (this is before the Koroks appeared). Rauru and Mineru decided to focus on the magic of the forest with the help of the Lord Deku Tree. Making Rauru hone the power of light and Mineru the power of spirit.

With these powers they have and their wisdom through experimentation and with Lord Deku Tree's blessing, was the creation of the Moth Fairy. Healing Fairies that transformed into Moth Fairies in their pupa stage. Who absorb the wisdom and story of the Zonai. As the Zonai wanted to keep their traditions alive the moth fairies were there as to archive their stories.

This magic came in handy when a threat of evil emerged in Hyrule as the Master Sword only being a few centuries old. And the incarnate of Light in a need of help to stop this force of evil from consuming Hyrule into darkness. The Zonai with their powers of magic that were obtained through the forest, gifted the Master Sword an enchantment to strengthen the sword and vanish the evil from Hyrule.

As centuries and many millennia passed by and the threat of evil being handled by child of light and courageous hero. Zonai tradition slowly diminished as also the Minish started to expand across Hyrule. The Zonai culture and tradition slowly faded as new cultures and traditions formed reestablishing as the Woodland tribe. People from Hyrule slowly forgetting about the Minish tribe. Leaving only the Moth Fairies to be the only remnants to know the origin of the Minish. The Zonai from the Faron region never really vanished however just like their Woodland cousins they became the Faron tribe as many things changed. However they had it slightly unlucky as not a lot of Moth Fairies know much for their history aside from the origin. Leaving many things behind and to be left a mystery.

The Master Sword's enchantment slowly diminished mostly as the threat of evil came back in long periods of time. In the current stage the Master Sword is weak due to the absence of maintenance and the enchantment is completely gone. The Master Sword has slowly become a rusted sword from a legend that is 10 thousand years old

[macabresymphonies]

You guys this season is 100% about items and artifacts, this episode confirms it. It's like SCP or Control in that regard - oddities (possibly prototypes for philosopher's stone) gathered and categorized by The Magnus Institute Manchester.

This is much different from TMA where it was very specifically about powers affecting people - items they used (artifacts and leitners) were mentioned to almost always be used improperly and their endgoal was to corrupt and twist person who wielded them and people around them, they weren't instruments on their own, they were extensions of their Entity the same way an avatar is. This is not the case here because of two people specifically: Needles and The Dice guy.

The thing about avatars was that no matter if you were afriad of them or not their corrupting power and presence always affected you in some way and they themselves were some way supernaturally in contact with their Entity - this is very common Lovecraftian concept, trying to get close to those "Gods" corrupts you and warps you, subconsciously making you do their bidding thus giving you this supernatural "confidence" in what you do.

Now look at Needles, we laughed at how he couldn't make the dispacher scared and got thrown off when he realized it, but it makes sense - outside of being made of needles there is no paranormal infulence helping him, he's just unwell. Same goes for The Dice guy, he even mentions trying to "become" a type of person we would expect from a TMA avatar, the trenchoat fedora stranger making people roll bad luck dice, but the moment things go south he ditches the dice and dies at the end due to his own stupidity, can you ever imagine a halfway-there Avatar doing such a thing? All this, because they are NOT Avatars: nobody is guiding them, nobody is whispering instructions in their ears and they do not actually feed of the mayhem they are spreading.

It's the items, they themselves are victims of somebody spreading them for data - this goes back to my "it's about alchemists making prototypes of a philosopher's stone" theory. All of those people are either test subjects for specific items/locations (like class-D personel in SCP) or test subjects themselves, transformed by somebody. This also goes back to the incident at Hilltop the volunteers were a project in themselves, self duplicating each one with an odd item, this was an attempt to apply infinite monkey theorem to philisopher's stone creation.

[dedalvs]

My apologies, what I meant is that most of your languages are made for fantastic, fantasy worlds, as opposed to a fictional culture on Earth. If you're creating a language for a culture set on Earth, you'd probably incorporate features that tie it to a real language, am I correct?

I think you still may be misunderstanding what the key questions are and how they factor into language creation. There are two questions:

Is this language supposed to be descended from an existing language (or set of languages) on Earth?

Is this language spoken by creatures that are identical to humans in all the ways that play a crucial role in language use, comprehensijon, and transmission?

These are the only relevant questions. Notice I didn't say anything about where the languages are spoken. That bit is irrelevant. Language has its own geography and it's the only geography that matters when it comes to a posteriori language construction.

For example, looking at Dothraki, the answer to (1) is no, and the answer to (2) is yes. For that reason, Dothraki should be a language that looks entirely ordinary, in terms of how it stacks up with languages spoken currently on Earth, but its vocabulary and grammar shouldn't be directly related to any language on the planet. How could it be, if our planet doesn't exist in that universe? But since Dothraki are completely ordinary human beings their language should be a compeltely ordinary human language.

If you look at the aliens District 9, the answers to both (1) and (2) are no, despite the fact that the movie takes place in South Africa. And, in fact, you see some very interesting linguistic phenomena in that movie, where you have two species that understand but cannot use each other's languages. Its setting, though, doesn't mean that the alien language should be influenced by Afrikaans in any important way, though. It may have "borrowings", but even those would be strange (calques, most likely), since the aliens can't actually make human sounds—the same way the humans wouldn't have "borrowings" from the alien language.

On the other hand, if you look at Trigedasleng, the answers to both (1) and (2) are yes. But the suggestion you seem to be making is that I might kind of haphazardly "borrow" features from an existing language into a language that I'm nevertheless creating from scratch. That wouldn't make sense. Trigedasleng is simply an evolved form of American English with some specific constraints (some quite unrealistic, due to the scifi setting) placed on the evolution. I didn't "incorporate" features from American English: it IS American English, through and through, evolved in a way that makes sense for the setting.

There are certainly a posteriori conlangs where the creator approaches the creation of the language by saying, "I took the initial consonant mutation of Irish and combined it with the triconsonantal root system of Arabic and added the Turkish plural suffix (with vowel harmony) and added the accusative from Esperanto", and the like. This is one of the hallmarks of an amateur conlanger. Not even a creole language in the real world does this. Creole languages draw influences from many different languages, but the resulting system can't be divided up neatly into different linguistic sources. Furthermore, the result is a coherent system that doesn't look like any of the sources. Tok Pisin gets a lot of its vocabulary and grammar from English, but also gets vocabulary from German and other languages that were native to the region. When listening to the language, though, it's not like it sounds like English, then it suddenly sounds like German for a word, then it sounds like a Papuan language, then back to English: the whole thing sounds like Tok Pisin. It's a seamless, coherent system—just like any language, since all languages on Earth have borrowings and features from other languages.

Also, minor nitpick: "real" language doesn't make sense. We say natural language vs. constructed languages. Both are equally real, in that neither has any kind of material existence. A constructed language is a real language with a fake history.

Does this make sense?

[felassan]

Image credits: David Gaider [source link below]

Article: 'Who is qualified to make a world? In search of the magic of maps'

"You're travelling with your imagination..."

An extensive feature article about maps, map creation and world-building. It refers to David Gaider and the team's early world-building and early-days process of creating the universe that would become Dragon Age. It includes this early series of original sketches of the map of Thedas through time that Gaider drew when the world was being created.

Excerpts under the cut (due to length):

"Dragon Age. That's the game Gaider was working on - or rather, it was the world he would dream up. Ideas had been swirling about what Dragon Age would be for a few months. The team knew it would be like D&D but would not be actual D&D, because BioWare was sick of licensed games at the time. They knew they were going for Tolkien rather than Conan or Diablo. "We definitely had at least some idea of the kind of RPG this was going to be," Gaider tells me when in a video call. But BioWare didn't have a world. One day, Gaider was handed a historical atlas of Europe and tasked with going away and coming up with a fantasy world for players to explore. And almost immediately, he sketched a map." - "What is it about a map that gives it magical powers to bind us and pull us in? I wanted to know more, and through talking to David Gaider and learning about his creation of the map for Dragon Age, I hoped I might find out." - "In fact, he corrects me, "I sketched a lot of maps." But they were the same map, replicated over and over, because in order for a world to make sense to Gaider, it needed history. "I drew this coastline and then made a bunch of photocopies of it," he says, "and did this series of sketches, like, 'Okay in this era, this is where people lived and where they migrated and created different cultures,' and those cultures changed over time as they got conquered. Much like the book of European maps I had, I was doing it in eras and forming an idea in my mind about how these groups all mingled together. David Gaider was kind enough to share his original sketches of the Dragon Age world with me, and in them, you can see an emerging flow of history. You can see the spread of the Tevinter Empire as the race of Men lands in the north and then begins to spread out. You can see, in the earliest images, there's still a kingdom of Elves in the forest of Arlathan, nearby. Then, they are forced out by the growing Tevinter Empire, south to the Dales, where we encounter them in the Dragon Age games, subjugated to being a kind of slave race. Tribes give way to kingdoms, and names we're familiar with begin to appear." - Caption on the sketches: "David Gaider's original sketches of the Dragon Age world. Wherever you see a name typed in, it's because it was changed by EA's in-house sensitivity team, which cross-checked place names with real-world names in case there was a clash. The area of Antiva, for example, used to be called Calabria, but Calabria is the name of a region in southern Italy. "Well, if you do something with the Calabrians that real Calabrians don't like, they might get upset," the sensitivity department at EA told Gaider. "So I was like, 'Oh fine, I'll change it,'" he says." - ""My feeling on history when it comes to worlds," Gaider says, "is that you need to have a lot of it." Without it, he says a world will feel like a facade. "Sometimes you'll see worlds where they've made only what is needed for their current story, and it's like an old Western set: it feels right, it looks right, but then you slowly get a sense of, 'Oh, there's nothing behind those doors.' Before he sat down to draw, Gaider already knew some of the geographical elements he wanted. He knew he wanted a topsy-turvy 'South was cold and North was hot' idea for the continent, to play with people's expectations, and he knew he wanted a large waterway - that he likens to the Mediterranean - carving its way far inland. Today, we know this as the Waking Sea, and it's an incredibly important feature in the Dragon Age games. Gaider also knew he wanted islands far up in the north, from which an unknown race could invade. "I knew that I wanted an 'other' race that would come along," he says, "which ended up being the Qunari." Gaider also knew he wanted untouched areas for adventure, like forests and mountains, just in case the game would need them. "I didn't want every place to be so civilised that when it came time for 'we need ruins' or 'we need massive wilderness', we've got nowhere to go because I've civilised the entire thing," he says."

"Because remember, the team didn't yet know where the game they were making would be set. That's why so much of the continent you see in the sketches is as yet unused in Dragon Age games - the series hasn't needed all of it by this point. Continents are vast, after all, and realising them in 3D for players to explore is a mighty task. "I guess in my head," Gaider says, "we would be probably either on the north of Ferelden, on what became the Free Marches, or maybe off in the west more towards the Tirashan Forest or the Hunterhorns. That was a very wild area and I was like, 'That's a good place for an adventure to be.' Atlas at hand, photocopies in front of him, Gaider set about his work of growing a game world from a bunch of maps, and with not a small amount of trepidation. There was a lot riding on the world after all; it was a far cry from the worlds he'd created and freely abandoned as a teenager. "This is going to form the foundation, ideally, for a lot of games," he says, "and a lot of people are going to do work [on it]. And the trepidation is like, 'I don't know what I'm doing.' I'm essentially the equivalent of a 13-year-old just going, 'La la la, I'm going to call this Ferelden!'" - "Some things bother David Gaider about the Dragon Age 1 map, still, and they occurred when artists prettied his sketches without his involvement. "Oh," he said awkwardly when they were presented to him. "I didn't want it to look like this, exactly." He says they added a lot more rivers and mountains, and flipping between his sketches and the Dragon Age: Origins map, you can see some have moved around, or gained prominence, and places like Redcliffe have shifted. Apparently people would take to the BioWare forums after the game came out to complain about the map's geography. "And I'm like, 'You know what? You got a point,'" Gaider says. This is mostly anger at himself, though, for not doing more about it. Similarly, he wishes he'd been able to sit down with artists and work out what the rest of the continent you don't see in his sketches looked like, so they didn't have to have "the continent just keeps going..."-like messages at the edge of it. "But to where?" Gaider says. But it speaks to something he's noticed in his decades working in games about artists and writers. "They really speak two different languages," he tells me. They process things differently and they tend to care about different things. There were reams of history and lore written in a "world bible" for the Dragon Age team, but getting artists to read it was another matter. They wanted clear visual cues, not piles of backstory. Dragon Age: Origins eventually found its setting in Ferelden, the kingdom in the bottom right bulge of the sketches, so it left a huge portion of the sketched world unused, which the team presumed no one would ever see. "We thought that was going to be the only one," he says of Dragon Age: Origins. "That's why when you get to the end of Origins, there's so many epilogues that cast off far into the future, which, if we'd known that we were going to keep going and keep going with history, we wouldn't have said, 'Oh, in fifty and one hundred years, this is going to happen.' I think we would have played our cards a little closer to our chest. EA apparently found the game very old-fashioned and thought no one wanted turn-based role-playing games like that any more, which of course now seems ridiculous given the success of Baldur's Gate 3. "Baldur's Gate just goes to show how wrong people are when it comes to industry wisdom," Gaider says."

-

"Nevertheless, when Dragon Age 2 eventually was green-lit, the scope of it, and the focus of it, would completely change. With it, BioWare and EA would push towards a console RPG experience that stopped and started less, and had more action-packed combat. And EA only gave BioWare 18 months to make it, so BioWare decided to make a much smaller, more tightly focused game. It seemed like a good idea at the time. "People at BioWare convinced themselves that the fans would be okay - it'll be fine if it's a smaller game," Gaider says. "And I don't know why we thought that was the case, but for a moment there in time, we were like, 'Yeah, sure, it'll be fine.'" As for the mapping, a tighter focus meant centering on one place rather than a whole region, so the city of Kirkwall on the Waking Sea became the heart of the game, and BioWare developed a time-jumping idea for the game so you could see it at various different points in your character's lifetime, which I still think is really neat. And because there wasn't a large region to explore, the game didn't need a sprawling map, so BioWare turned the map on its side to give Kirkwall some height and majesty instead. It wasn't particularly memorable, but it looked nice. The game didn't go down well. "Its highs were really high, and its lows were really low," Gaider says now. "It was very unpolished. If it even got six months more polish, I think the reception would have been a lot different." More importantly, it meant everything would need to change again for Dragon Age 3." - "In Dragon Age: Inquisition, the third game in the series, the map plays a starring role. It's built into the game world specifically so you and your Inquisition advisors can gather around it and push pieces about as you choose where to go next. Thematically, this fits neatly with the theme of running an organisation like the Inquisition, but the map was also required to cover a lot of ground. One thing BioWare knew the moment it started making the game was that it needed to be bigger than DA2. This time, the game would spread across areas of Ferelden we hadn't been to as well as some we had; up to Kirkwall and into surrounding Free Marches, and then west to the city of Orlais and onwards until it reached past the Waking Sea and arid desert land. But the sense of scale was an illusion. Dragon Age: Inquisition wasn't a continuous, open world, but a fragmented one, made up of a few open-world-like zones, some small parts of cities, and many 'you can't actually explore there, but you can read about it' text-window interactions. Again, this was Gaider's idea, to give the game "a feeling of breadth" without needing the art department to render it all in 3D. By the time Inquisition came out in 2014, the world of Thedas - the name an amalgamation of "the" and "Dragon Age Setting" by the way - had been reinterpreted for three games and touched by many pairs of hands. Gaider's writing team had plugged the holes he, as a single writer, couldn't fill, and the art team had shown us what the world looked like. There was even, fittingly, a Dragon Age encyclopaedia released, compiling the teetering piles of lore and backstory, and maps and imagery that BioWare created for it. People were now joining the team who were already fans of the series. This was no longer an imaginary world; Thedas felt real. And perhaps it no longer needed Gaider to steer it."

- "So Gaider left BioWare in 2016, having worked there for 17 years, most of it spent on Dragon Age. Really, he'd had enough of wizards and demons, and Anthem wasn't the tonic he sought. Eventually, he'd move all the way from Canada to Australia for a fresh start, where he'd start Summerfall Studios and make a role-playing musical called Stray Gods, which was released last year. That game, incidentally, only featured a small map for travelling between city locations. Today, he awaits the arrival of a new Dragon Age game - Dragon Age: Dreadwolf - like the rest of us, having had no direct input. It's an anxious wait, as you can imagine. "I was Mr Dragon Age for ten years," he says, "so there is a certain amount of attachment. I'm not sure how I will feel when Dragon Age 4 comes out. I have a hard time believing that if I play it, I won't spend a lot of the time second guessing any choices I see, like, 'Oh, hmm, I wouldn't have done that.' What if they bring back some characters that I wrote? They're going to Tevinter so what if Dorian's there? Gah! I don't know; I am of two minds as to whether or not I will even play it." "It makes me wonder about these people who create worlds, who draw them into existence - whether that's in a preliminary sketch or a lavish piece of artwork - and whether there's always a point where success comes with the consequence of ceding control. Had Gaider kept the world of Dragon Age to himself, a photocopied map, folded and stuffed in a back pocket, we'd never have played it. And had millions of people not played and enjoyed it, I wouldn't be writing about it now and have that feeling when I look at an image of one of Gaider's photocopies, that I'm in the presence of something special, something powerful. But it's no longer Gaider's map, and no longer Gaider's world. It's all of ours."" - "For Gaider, maps are snapshots of history, photocopied slideshows explaining how places came to be. And of course they are, because he was thinking about Dragon Age when he started in on maps, which meant that he was thinking about geography, sure, but also the passing of time, and the way the latter affects the former."

[source and full article]

[minhosimthings]

For Love to Exist: A Hyunjin Fic

Synopsis: In which Aphrodite makes a plan for two loveless souls.

Pairing: Hwang Hyunjin × Fem!reader, includes rest of Skz (side characters)

Word count: don't know but it's really long

Warnings: Fluff, angst, slow burn, mentions of self harm, and mental abuse, reader is an orphan, mentions of food and drink. She/her pronouns used, reader has scars on her skin

A/N: this is sort of a self indulgent fic for me and it is dedicated to all the people in my life who have made me feel like I am worthy of love again. This is based off of my own experiences due to my abusive past and how I let those go with the help of the people I've met here in university. I based Y/N off of myself (I hope you don't mind) because I feel like Hyunjin would be the type of person to love s person, regardless of their past, and ignorant of their future (and also I'm too delulu for Hyun rn). I dedicate this fic to all the people around the world, who feel that they do not deserve a red heart, and an I love you everyday. I dedicate this fic to the little girl inside of me, who still thinks that she is unworthy of love.

For love to exist, souls should exist too. For love to breathe, souls should take a deep breath too. For love to live, souls should learn how to live too. But for you, souls simply did not exist. They were just imaginary things made up by boring adults to tell children why they married their partners, to mask whatever what going on in reality. Why would anyone believe in souls and hearts and bonds and all that bullshit? Kids, of course, believed it.

You, on the other hand, were taught by cold eyes, ever since forever. Cold eyes had taught you that warm ones always lied and that love was just a fairytale made up to increase the population of earth. Cold eyes told you that June wasn't about pretty flowers and sundresses. They taught you it was about the burning sun and the heatwaves. Cold eyes taught you that flowers were nothing more than biological creations of two genetically unique organisms. Cold eyes taught you that the world was just the Earth, just a globe and that the universe didn't care for a tiny speck like you.

Work, Eat, and sleep. Those were the only things you did with passion. Those were the only things in your life that you noticed and yearned for. It was painful to watch your coworkers at the company, who were below you, enjoy life so much. As chief editor, you had less work than they did, yet they saw life as a chance. They saw life as a chance to enjoy the fruits of the universe, while you still saw life as a scarred being. Funny, how you thought that everyone else was mad to have love in their lives, yet there you were with scars on your chest, both physical and mental, going unnoticed by the minute.

Until Hyunjin came into your life.

Hwang Hyunjin. Step son of your goddamned boss. You were told that he would be working alongside you as both an assistant editor and as a new cartoonist, replacing Mr Park, who had resigned five days ago. You groaned at the idea of having someone follow you all day, asking you if you needed anything. You were better off without an assistant or a cartoonist. But your magazine wasn't the leading magazine in South Korea for no reason. The illustrations provided alongside the thigh slapping articles always provided the greatest entertainment to the millions of readers. Mr Park was an old man, who was always quiet and mostly kept to his drawings, exactly your preference. Someone who doesn't annoy you or ask about your love life because apparently, at 23, a woman has nothing better to do. But a man, your age, who you've heard used to be a singer in a band, yeah that wasn't going to work with you.

Your boss had introduced you guys on his first day. He was.... surprisingly handsome. His eyes were like a kitten's, small and glittery, as if Andromeda had poured all her stars into them. His nose and jawline were so sharp, in total contrast to his gaze, soft and pinkish. You wondered why all those thoughts were coming into your head. Never before had they had even touched your mind, when you saw other men and women around you, no matter how pretty they were.

He worked in silence. Complete silence. He wouldn't even move his chair or anything. The desk on which he worked was so pristine and organized, very much like yours, exactly like yours. But there was an aura with which he worked on piece of paper with a black ink pot that you could only dream of having. It was like the sky favoured him, sunlight illuminating all of his features, including some tiny moles on his face. You couldn't help but admire his serious face, headphones in, with an ink stained brush moving swiftly across paper, tracing the tiny dots and lines of whatever he was making. You had first approached the company as a cartoonist yourself, having the skills because of an art minor. But soon the director saw you better as a journalist and slowly but surely you moved your way up the ladder to become chief editor. And when you saw other people doing something you used to love doing, you wondered if you hadn't accepted the job as an editor, would your life have been so mundane? So brown and still?

"Um Miss Y/N?" A voice broke you out of your stupor, starting you and getting your mind away from the articles on your computer screen. Hyunjin was standing next to you, holding pieces of paper in one hand and his brush in the other. He had a dab of ink sprawled across his nose. Cute, you thought.

"I, uh, finished the illustration for the first article you sent. Are they ok?" He gave you five pieces of paper, all with funny intonations on them, a cookie wearing hat, and an iguana wearing a DJ's glasses. It was cute, really cute you thought, as you gave them back to him, nodding in approval and shooting him a small smile. "You have ink on your nose, did you know that?" You pointed out to him, handing him a tissue from your tissue box, which he took and immediately disappeared behind his computer, wiping his nose aggressively. Cute, so cute.

You usually left work at eight thirty, not too late and not too early that you'd miss your tea. But something made you want to stay back today. Someone, specifically. Hyunjin told you that he usually went home by ten, since he didn't do much during the night. You refrained from telling him when you went, lest he question why you stayed back today.

"Miss Y/N I'll be heading out now. Good night." He held up his olive green bag and waved goodbye to you. Something inside of you wanted to say 'Wanna go together?' but you had always ignored that something so you instead waved back to him and started picking up your things.

That day, the old grandmother at the ramen shop you always went to said something was different about you and told you to smile more. You didn't know whether or not that was a complement but you took it willingly along with spicy ramen with beef.

"Miss Y/N I-" "Hyunjin stop call me Miss. Im your age. Just call me Y/N, alright?" You finally got that sentence out of your mouth after keeping it in for an entire week. An entire week Hyunjin addressed you with honorifics and today you wanted to tell him that just your name was enough. Just your name coming out of his mouth like a sweet melody was alright. "Oh well ok Y/N." He said with some difficulty, feeling awkward not using the proper words. "I wanted to say that lunch break began over two hours ago and you still haven't got up from your seat, so I uh bought you something. I asked your co workers what you usually eat so um yeah." He did what? You looked down at his extended hand, holding a box of your usual Ramyeon and an americano. You silently took the food from his hands, shooting him a quick 'thank you'. He deserved more than that, but at that moment, all your shocked brain could do was that.

Someone cared for you. Someone noticed that you weren't eating. Someone noticed how you stayed on this cold October day. And that was sort of sweet? Someone did that for you and for once it seemed he did not want anything in return. That couldn't be true, you thought as you silently ate your Ramyeon, all the while shooting tiny glances at Hyunjin, who was once again immersed in his drawings. Seeing him so deeply imbued in an art, which provided him a job, was so endearing to look at. He was doing something he enjoyed, while earning money for it. Isn't that what everyone in the world would love?

"Um Hyunjin? Hyunjin." You snapped your fingers in front of Hyunjin, who had his headphones on, with that brush back in his hand. He looked so cute, being broken out of his hypnotised state. His eyes blinked at you for a few seconds, before he took the headphones off and greeted you. "What is it Mi- I mean Y/N?" God he was so handsome. He was in a loose baby blue sweater and white pants today. He looked so dainty and fragile as if you touch him and he'll break. "I uh wanted to thank you again for the food today. Um. Any way I can thank you for it? Maybe buy you a coffee?" You could feel your cheeks getting redder by the moment. Even if he couldn't see the blush, you could definetly feel them. If your guardian angels were watching you right now, they'd be saying 'Y/N get your ass up and stop blushing so much.'. "Oh. Um uh" Hyunjin stuttered for a bit before checking his watch. Nine thirty am. There was still half an hour left to go home, meaning you both had enough time to grab a coffee and perhaps a bagel or something tasty.

"Oh course Y/N. But please do not pay for my food. You need not repay me for lunch." Your pleas for that sentence went unheard, as Hyunjin kept saying that he didn't want anyone to pay for him, reasoning that lunch was a basic human need and he was just helping his co worker out. Something about the way he defended himself and explained things was so adorable. It was like a ferret explaining why it's fur is white and why it's ears are so round.

"This is surprisingly good." You commented, as Hyunjin and you sat by the little round table in the coffee shop, drinking Americans and eating Macarons. Hyunjin raised an eyebrow at you, watching as you are your pistachio Macaron. "You never had a Macaron before in your life?" You shook your head at his question, trying to swallow your bite of the Macaron quickly, so as to answer his question. "No actually." You managed to cough out after what seemed like five hours of you chewing the sweet dessert. "I don't have a preference for sweet things. I used to but I grew out of it." Hyunjin looked up at you, from staring at his shoes. "You used to? Well I always used to believe that a sweet tooth could never grow out of their preferences. Turns out I was wrong then." The corners of your mouth twitched as your heart itched not to say 'why are you so perfect?' to the man sitting in front of you. "So what musicians do you listen to?" It was now your turn to look up at him with wide eyes. It was funny how both of you were eating food together like two normal human beings, yet neither of you dared to look at each other, or maintain direct eye contact for more than a fraction of a second. "Pardon?" You asked him, eyebrow raised and foot tapping on the floor. He stumbled back a bit and said, in a apologetic tone, "Oh I didn't mean to impose. Im sorry. I just thought, you know we see each other every single day, and I have never gotten to know what my coworker likes a dislikes so um.. I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable." Seeing him apologize like that was like seeing a puppy apologize to a black cat. You probably looked scary right now, with your expression and your rigid figure, so it made sense for Hyunjin to react like that.

"Oh it's alright Hyunjin." You said, shooting him the tiniest smile ever. "People don't really ask me questions about myself that often so I was kind of taken aback." Hyunjin just nodded and hummed in response to your bland statement.

That night, when you went home, you thought to yourself, about how much you missed human interaction. Most often disassociation and loneliness were your favourite drugs, but Hyunjin asking you a simple question about your favourite singer, made those drugs seem pleasure less. Your therapist would have probably looked you up and down and immediately told you that you were in love, being the hopeless romantic he was. People were scared to approach you. You, with your head held high in the air, your gait threatening that of Hera's, and your expression, cool and wicked. But Hyunjin just casually asked you what musicians you listen to, as if he had known you for years and he was meeting up with you again, at a school reunion. It was shocking to you, how he could just say that, without stuttering. Yes he did stutter later on, but it was so adorable the way he apologized to you, hands nervously palming at his fingers and nose silently twitching. Maybe friends weren't so bad after all, you thought, as the stars looked at you in pity, talking amongst themselves, about where had God gone wrong with you.

A sticky note? Your boss never left sticky boss for you. Usually his assistant to deliver you messages. So who wrote this mysterious pink sticky note, stuck to your computer with a smiley and something written on it? You had arrived at work after Hyunjin today, who, once again was is a hypnotic state, lightly bobbing his head to whatever was playing inside of those blue headphones. You slightly suspected that the note was probably his, as you sat down on your chair, hanging your bag in the usual place beside your table. You pulled off the note from the computer and examined it closely. There was something written on it with a glittery purple pen.

I scared you yesterday with my question. So I'm going to ask you through a note. What musicians do you listen to? (PS you can answer through a sticky note too)

You noticed Hyunjin kept giving you small glances from time to time, only taking his eyes away from his art for a fraction of a second. Cute, you thought, really cute. This was by far the cutest thing he had done. You silently took up a glittery blue pen from your drawer and wrote some sentences on a different sticky note, knowing when you were going to stick it.

"Hyunjin could you do me a favour?" You tapped on his desk to alert him. He looked up at you once again, with those same doe eyes. You noticed the ink once again splattered on his nose. "Yeah?" "Could you take this up to Mr Kim once and ask him if this is how he wanted the article to be edited?" You handed him a blue file to take it upto your boss, which is silently took and went up to the boss's office, giving you enough time to stick the note onto his computer. You made a last minute addition to the note, before rushing off to the canteen, lest Hyunjin catches you in your mischievous act. Even though it was just sticking a note to your co worker's computer this felt like the most amazing thing you had ever done in your life, the most daring.

Where had you gone? Hyunjin had come back to his desk after handing off the file to the boss, who said he'd give it back tomorrow, only to find you nowhere to be found. He swore that he had saw you here just a second ago. Where had you gone now? Shrugging his shoulders and telling himself that you had probably taken a bathroom break, he sat back down on his desk, ready to complete the illustrations for the day, that you had given him yesterday, when he noticed something stuck to his computer. A green sticky note. Could it be? Did you respond to his very creepy, weirdo nerd way of asking you a question in order to get to know you better?

When Hyunjin sat down on his chair, and slowly pulled the sticky note out, he sweated that his heart had skipped a hundred beats (or 143 beats hehe). Your loopy handwriting was scrambled on it with sparkly blue ink.

This is very middle school of us to be passing notes in work but I like listening to Lana del Rey, Florence and The Machines, a bit of k-pop and lot of classical music. Now you answer my question along with your own question. What is your favourite ice cream flavour? (PS you have ink on your nose)

Hyunjin's soul was doing backflips in his stomach. Having an obsession for love, he wondered whether this was how Cupid felt like when he shot his first arrow. You listened to the same artist he did. He absent-mindedly wondered about what question to ask you next when you came out from the canteen, carrying lunch for the both of you. "Oh hey Hyunjin." You said in what you hoped wasn't an over active tone. "I uh got you lunch to pay back for when you got me lunch and um here you go." You awkwardly handed him the cup of spicy tteokbokki along with some other dishes and an Americano. As if returning the awkwardness, he mumbled a sheepish 'thank you', grabbed the food and hid behind his desk. Somewhere in the clouds Aphrodite was sighing, not knowing what to do with you two.

After a few hours, when you had gotten up to go the boss's office, Hyunjin saw his golden chance and took it. He scribbled his question onto a pink sticky note and quickly stuck it to your desk, frantically sitting back on his chair and pretending to be focusing on his cartoon which had long been completed.

Happiness. Happiness was all you and Hyunjin felt that night, when both of you parted ways. It was that happiness which a fourteen year old gets when their crush pays attention to them. It was mischievous happiness, as both you went home and pondered about questions and answers. Middle school romance was something neither of you had, with him not finding the correct person, who would love him for who he is, and you just not wanting love anymore. Aphrodite would be probably be smiling right now, twirling her roses and she makes the next part of her plan.

"Hyunjin! Over here!" It was raining very heavily today and you had chosen this very day to not take your car. Apparently Hyunjin had done the same thing, as both of you saw other close to the cafe a distance from your work. He didn't have an umbrella and you had spotted him running over in the direction of your work, blue hoodie gripped tightly over his head. "Did the universe have to choose the day I didn't get my car to rain?" He shouted at you as you both were shielded by your umbrella. "I was thinking the same thing!" You shouted back at him. "Let's get inside the cafe!"

The cafe thankfully wasn't crowded at all, and as you took off your coat and shoes to dry, you appreciated the heat coming from inside the cafe. It was on the more traditional side, with a wooden interior and sepia toned plants hidden in mud pots.

"Oh great." Hyunjin sighed. He was holding his phone is his hands, having taken off his hoodie and his shoes before you did and setting his bag down at a table for two. "Boss just texted. Work's cancelled for three days straight." "So we went through all that rain for nothing?" You deflated on the comfy chair, opposite Hyunjin, who was revealed to be wearing a dark blue shirt underneath his baby blue hoodie. "Well damn it. What do we do now? I didn't bring my car and neither did you. Do we have to wait out the storm here?" You asked him, wiping your face with a handkerchief. "Well we can." Hyunjin responded. "I think the owner will probably let us." You raised a brow at him at that statement while he just stared into space, as if expecting an alien to show up any moment. "How do you know the own-" "HWANG HYUNJIN YOU FINALLY DRAG YOUR ASS HERE TO SEE ME."

A very loud voice rang through the cafe, accompanied by a much quieter 'Hyunjin's here?'. Hyunjin groaned and buried his face in his hands, as a handsome man with olive skin, brown hair, and the prettiest nose ever, came striding up to your table, wearing the uniform of the cafe. He promptly pulled up a chair and collapsed onto it, next to Hyunjin, all the while playfully glaring at him. "Hey Minho hyung." Hyunjin mumbled, not looking directly at whoever this Minho was. The other man clicked his tongue out of disapproval and said, "Say that louder would ya? And why have you not been coming to visit me and emotional dump on me for like two weeks? Oh and who's this lovely young lady?" He looked into your eyes at that last bit, startling you a bit, at how round and black his eyes were, like tiny little boba balls. "I'm Y/N." You extended a hand forward. "L/N Y/N" Minho took your hand and shook it with a firm grip, before getting up and slightly bowing to you. "Well Miss Y/N, may I get you anything? Perhaps something which is not an Americano, which is what this monster" he motioned to Hyunjin "drinks?" You gave him a calculator look before saying, "Oh. Um I would like an americano actually and probably one for Hyunjin too please." Minho looked ever so slightly taken aback by your words. "As you wish!" He declared before giving Hyunjin and a smirk and leaving.

"So who was that?" You asked Hyunjin, whose ears were burning red. With a sigh, he put his elbows on the table, burrying his head in them.

"That was Lee Minho. A college mate of mine, who opened a cafe with a friend of his, soon after graduation, because apparently he didn't want to get into a boring job." He chuckled slightly at that. "He's a mentor to me. He's like I think two years older than me and he treats me like a damn baby. But it's fine cause I'm the one who helped him cheat on his exams so I get free shit here."

"Americano for two?" Oh hey Hyunjin!" A freckled boy had come up to your table, americano filled cups in his hand. His skin was porcelain, like glass, dotted with star like freckles, with blonde hair framing his beautiful face. "Hey Lix." Hyunjin patted the boy's back, as he set the coffee down on the table. "How's your mum now? Is the treatment working?" A smile never seemed to leave this boy's face, as he sat down in the chair which Minho had pulled up earlier. "She's good now. Much better! I've been sending her some brownies every now and then but she's still disappointed because apparently her son won't get a girlfriend." He slightly pouted as Hyunjin chuckled lightly. "Oh who's this? Wait are you-" the boy looked at you with excited eyes, before gasping and turning his head to Hyunjin. "Is this the Y/N you told me about?" He excitedly extended a hand towards you, which you took, experience pleasure at his soft grip and hands, which was in stark contrast to Minho's handshake. "I'm Felix! Lee Felix. Nice to meet you! Y/N right?" The amount of happiness radiating from this boy was so much that you thought he was probably the reincarnation of Helios himself. "Nice to meet you too Felix. I'd introduce myself, but judging from your excitement I believe Hyunjin's already told you about me." You gave him a smile, which he returned. "Yah Felix!" Minho's voice came from across the wooden walls. Felix groaned and got up from his chair saying goodbye to both of you and rushing off to Minho.

"They're really nice." You told Hyunjin, sipping on your americano. It was nice and weird to have people like you for who you are. It was kind of alien to you, to meet two people who knew about you. It was even more alien of Hyunjin to tell people about you. What could people tell about you? What fragments of your being attracted Hyunjin that he told his friends about your existence?

"Y/N are you ok?" Hyunjin's voice broke your mind from staring at the rain pouring outside. The storm had calmed down now and it was just lightly drizzling, drops staining the window, racing against each other. "Oh yes I'm good. Sorry."

"So you wanna talk about the notes or should we keep it a middle school secret?" Hyunjin's question rang across your brain, and as you sipped on your americano, you couldn't help but notice how innocent that question was. It was just a question. It wasn't an interrogative question, which you'd be punished for if you didn't answer. You fingers unconsciously went up to your wrists when you thought about that question. "What do you suggest? I'm alright with answering the question in person, instead of exchanging notes." You responded, keeping your tone casual, so as to not reveal the fast pace of your heart beat.

Hyunjin smiled at you and sipped on his americano again. "My favourite ice cream flavour is pistachio. And I also like listening to Lana del Rey and classical music. My turn now." He leaned forward slightly. "A song which you could listen to, for all eternity?" Musical questions were what you enjoyed the most, having being in love with music ever since your ears picked up the tune of twinkle twinkle little star. Hyunjin's question seemed hard, since your favourite song changed every few seconds and you couldn't just choose one melody to pleasure your ears for all of eternity. "Hmm" you responded after a while. "Probably Love by Lana Del Rey." "Why so?" Hyunjin asked.

"Because along with having an amazing tune and the greatest vocals ever," you started your lecture "It's also such a deep song. The way she is symbolising young love is so beautiful, from the way she alters her voice at certain lines to the lyrics themselves. I especially fell in love with the chorus because it signifies such a beautiful matter of being so much in love that even the tiniest actions can seem like elephantine gestures. Even that lyric 'The world is yours and you can't refuse it' it's so pretty. It's symbolising that feeling of ruling the world when you fall in love. Or atleast I think it does. I've never fell in love so."

You fell quiet after your rambling, hoping that it didn't freak him out how much you knew about one particular song, which you definetly did not write an entire essay about. L/n Y/n you've done it again. You've scared a person off because of your rambling about your hyperfixation because you have nothing else to love. Great job, you thought.

But as you looked over at Hyunjin's face, it was happy? His eyes were wide and his lips were slightly parted as if thinking what to say, his americano straw remained in his mouth, but he wasn't sipping on it. He was in total awe, something you couldn't see.

"That- that was amazing." He said after a pregnant silence. "I never thought about songs that way honestly. But I think from now on I'll start thinking of it like that." God his smile was so handsome. The way the corners of his mouth stretched and the way his lips always slightly parted, it was all so pretty. And since when have you became so observant? To notice a man's manner of smiling?

Aphrodite smiled again in the clouds, calling for her chariot, to take a ride across the sky, making up the next step of her masterplan.

It was still pitter-pattering outside the window as both of you finished your drinks. You declined Minho's offer to eat, since you had already ate a lot for breakfast and you weren't feeling hungry. You tasted a bit of Felix's brownies, for which you complemented the freckled boy so mich to point where his glass skin turned into stained red glass.

"God the rain is stopping, how the hell are we going to get home?" Hyunjin sighed, as he meant back in his chair. You both had put your shoes, hoodie and coat back on and were staring out the window. You had an idea in your mind. A peculiar idea. An idea unlike you. An idea made by your heart controlled mind. You know how they say that we should never let our heart control our brain? Well sometimes, just sometimes, in the tiniest moments, we could let it control our being just a little bit.

"Doyouwanttocomeovertomyhouseitsreallycloseby" "I beg your pardon?" Oh great you spoke the easiest sentence in the fastest way you could possibly imagine. You should probably get the Nobel Prize for the most awkward person ever. Taking a deep breath, you made eye contact with Hyunjin (perhaps for the first time) and said, "Would you like to come over to my house? It's close by and I can drop you off at your house if I get my car." Hyunjin looked slightly taken aback by your suggestion, and as he pondered over it with a series of 'ohs' and 'ums', you mentally scolded yourself. How could you never say the right thing ever? How did you manage to say the wrong thing every single time? How did you manage to scare off every person every single time? Were you really not capable of love? Was your mother really right?

"If I don't impose Y/N, I would like to come over to your house. I should actually probably get going home too, so I accept your offer, only if it doesn't bother you." Your heart lifted from where it was earlier. Listening to the words coming out of Hyunjin's mouth in the soft tone, was something so comforting to you. It was like the smell of old books, like the way flowers moved in the wind, like the way wine swirled in a wine glass and like the way melodies danced to the beat of a song.

"This is your house?" You and Hyunjin had walked all the way to your house, shielded by his umbrella. It was safe to say that your house was a very luxurious one, in the more expensive side, courtesy to your high profile job. It was a two bedroom house, with the most beautiful terrace and balcony anyone had ever seen, which gave a view of the Seoul skyline. "It's beautiful." Hyunjin breathed out. "Come inside." You said, taking off your shoes at the entrance and unlocking the wooden door. "Want some food?" Hyunjin shook his head as both of you entered your house, his mouth dropping on seeing the interior. You had a conversation pit inside your house, much like one of those 80's sitcoms, and it was the most queer thing in your house. It was purple and magenta, with white finishings and a pretty carpet, sitting below a glass table. "It seems the interior is much prettier than the exterior." Hyunjin said, as you both entered the pit, sitting down. You sheepishly smiled and mumbled a thank you, before getting up to get him some water, even though you both had downed a big cup of americano.

"Your books are really interesting." You had started showing Hyunjin around your house, and when you reached the library portion, he wouldn't move from there. Granted, you did have a pretty library, decorated with fake moss and hanging vines, which made it look like a shelf growing out of the forest. "What is so interesting about them?" You asked him as he stroked the book covers with his fingers, to which he smiled and pointed to the last two books. "Their arrangment is fascinating first of all. I mean The Animal Farm and Pride and Prejudice are sitting together, as if going for a tea party. Did you arrange them yourself?" You only nodded to his question, too scared to answer. "The second interesting thing about this bookshelf is that all the books are so dual to each other. You have Harry Potter-" he pointed to the topmost shelf, "then you have 1984-" his fingers went to a handsome leather book, "and then finally you have a pop up children'd book." He laughed pointing to the bottom most shelf, where a glittery pink book lie. You blushed, as you saw that book. It was the book, which your best friend at the orphanage had given to you, before she was taken away. You cherished it a lot, it being the only form of love you had ever recieved in your life. "Woah you have Taylor Caldwell too!" Hyunjin said, excitedly, his fingers bouncing on the shelf closest to him, where a series of faded books lie. "Do you want them perhaps?" You asked him, to which he gave you a sad smile. "I've always loved her since the age of eleven but I could never buy any of her books, courtesy to my mum thinking they're too 'westernised'." "You can take some if you want. I hardly ever read these ones." You pulled out some of the books and put them in his hands. He looked surprised and his eyes widened at you. After much trial and error, which included him refusing to take the books, and you threatening to leave him out in the rain if he didn't take them, he finally stuffed then into his bag, thanking you over and over again.

The car ride to his home was fun, to say the least. Hyunjin narrated some funny stories with Minho and Felix, and a few of his other friends. You were shocked to find out that he used to be in a band, where he played the drums. "You must play them for me one day." You said, as you pulled up to a light. "as payback for the books." Hyunjin gave you that sweet smile again, causing your brain to malfunction.

"Thank you for the ride home Y/N. And for the books." Hyunjin said as you both pulled up to his house. "Say I have a question." He said, before unbuckling his seatbelt (drive safely kids). "Would you ever be interested in spending your lunch break with me everyday? Cause I really like talking to you and I don't have many friends at work. Only if you want to though!" God he was so adorable with those round eyes and those cute cheeks. Was he actually so cute or was your hopeless brain just making it up?

Aphrodite sighed again as she watched you silently from the bushes, happy that you were going on the right path, but worried about the trajectory of your mind.

Spending time with Hyunjin were the best moments of your life. It was surprisingly fun to spend a part of your day everyday with Hyunjin. It was just lunch and americanos, fresh from Minho's cafe, since it was the only one you liked now. You warmed up to him more than you had wanted to, and for the first time, your brain didn't mind being ruled by your heart. Hyunjin had introduced you to some of his closest friend, who came to visit him at work, making sure he didn't overwork himself. And he had interesting friends. Apart from Minho and Felix, there was a producer group called 3Racha who wrote songs for a company called JYP. It was composed of the three most kindest people you had ever met. Jisung, Changbin and Chan treated you like their own sister, often picking up an Americano for you whenever they got one for Hyunjin. You met Hyunjin's youngest friends Seungmin and Jeongin at Minho's cafe, when Jeongin bumped into your shoulder, dropping his books and apologizing to you frantically. Both of them were University students, one having a pottery studio and the other studying computer science. They were mischievous little things, but you loved them too, with you sharing Seungmin's love for pottery and Jeongin's hatred for sugary foods. It was so fun, having friends, even if they weren't your friends from the beginning. This was the first time you had experienced happiness ever since you were eight.

The words on your books weren't skimmed over by your eyes anymore. Instead they were carefully taken in, word by word, appreciating how every letter formed the beautiful sentence. Now, winter wasn't about surviving anymore. Instead it was about being warm and cosy, all wrapped up in a big blanket, hugging a plushie and drinking hot chocolate as pretty winter flakes poured outside the window. Now you digged out the sundresses you haven't worn in so long, and you would wear them to work every now and then, catching the eyes of every person you passed (because you are the most beautiful person on earth LOVE YOURSELF I LOVE YOU). You never noticed it, but now, Hyunjin looked at you differently. He wasn't a very defensive person, choosing to end arguments quickly, but whenever his eyes set upon your figure dancing in a yellow sundress, embroidered with flowers, he swore that he would burn done the entire world for you. Both of you regularly met up at each other's house, having k drama nights, where you would do nothing but cry over the slow burn, and try out a new snack from the local convenience store every time. Sometimes Hyunjin would play the drums for you, taking your excited requests of the 70's and 80's rock songs. It was all so perfect, having Hyunjin in your life and every time you saw him moving his own across a piece of paper, whipping up a cartoon for you as a gift, your heart smiled, urging you to let it take over for just a little longer.

But Aphrodite had something else in plan.

Sometimes the Gods plan sinister things for humans. Sometimes they say 'lets whip up conflict'. And most often it's not between one human and another. Most often it's between a human and her own mind. You had gotten a call on a nice Thursday morning, when you were about to set out for work, clad in a white dress, which reached your knees. A call from your adoptive parents. Unbeknownst to the entire world, behind your pretty face, you hid a grief filled secret behind those glassy eyes. Your childhood wasn't all sunshines and rainbows. You had grown up in an orphanage basically your entire life, and at the tender age of eleven, you had gotten adopted by a rich couple. Good right? Nope it was the polar opposite. Turns out they had adopted you for their own benefit, to gain support from the media to continue their company or some bullshit like that. It had haunted you all your life, how they would never speak a word to you, never a word of affection. It was just words of 'who would ever love you?' and 'you aren't capable of love'. When you had gotten accepted in college, with a full ride scholarship, they had help a party, not for you, but to brag that their daughter, whom they did not even love, had gotten into a college all by herself. They had turned their devil tails into angel wings and it angered you, but you stayed silent. Why should you fight battles with other people when you could fight a battle with your own mind? You had cut off all communications with them however as soon as you left for college. Now it was just you and the world. Getting a job was the hardest thing and you still remember all those days that you survived on water and biscuits, like Marie Curie, when she used to research on radioactivity. You had learnt that your 'parents's' buisness had gone bankrupt, soon after you had gotten a job, but they still hadn't ever contacted you until this Thursday. It was Seungmin's birthday today and you had gotten him a puppy keychain, one that he had been wanting for a long time, which he had told you about in secret. You had purchased it the day before and wrapped it up in a cute box, writing some notes on the top. It was supposed to be the most perfect day. Happiness and melted ice cream that was what this day was supposed to be.

"Hello?" You had picked up your mother's call and your world came crashing down immediately. "Hey there Y/N. We need some money right now and we know you work for Mr Kim. Send us some money please." Not even a hello. The woman who had given you food and shelter didn't even say a hello. The woman who you owed nothing to didn't even say hello.

Hyunjin wondered where you were that day. You wouldn't ever miss a day of work and plus you were excited for Seungmin's birthday. You were going to go for a birthday party which was to be held at Chan's house. Hyunjin had told you that most of the boys would be bringing their girlfriends so you could meet them. You wouldn't never have missed this, especially not when your eyes lit up, when he had told you that Seungmin would be singing for you guys and Minho would be bringing his famous meat. So why? Why was your chair lying all alone and your americano untouched? He had asked Mr Kim whether you had called him today, to which he got disappointment when Mr Kim said no. Your boss didn't really care whether or not you took breaks, since you mostly finished your work in advance, in order to save time. That day Hyunjin told the guys, that he wouldn't be coming to the party, much to their disappointment. But they understood when he said that he was worried for you. He basically talked about you 24/7 and the boys still didn't understand how their most romantic friend ever ended up not knowing what love was.

Hyunjin had an extra key to your house, which you had given him after two months of knowing him, trusting him enough to keep an emergency contact. Hyunjin kept fiddling with it on the cab ride to your place, massaging his nerves to calm himself down. As he reached your house, the atmosphere around him changed. It became gloomy, even when the Sun attacked him with his rays. The sunflowers in your garden all seemed to bow their heads to him, as if to apologise.

"Y/N?" Hyunjin stepped inside your house, calling your name. "Y/N where are you?" He shouted a little louder this time. If you weren't in the living room, you'd be up in your bedroom or the library. Hyunjin slowly climbed up the stairs to the second floor, taking in the eerie silence of the house. It was such a loud silence. He could hear something in the distance but he didn't know what it was. Was it a cat? He heard a wailing noise that sounded something like a wolf crying.

The door to your bedroom was open. Hyunjin stepped inside, careful not to make a sound. He knew how creepy this was, to enter a person's house like this, but he didn't have a choice. "Y/N?" He called out, noticing the light in your bathroom switched on. "Y/N!" You were sitting on the floor, with a knife next to you. Your hair was in tangles and your body swayed back and forth, As you kept mumbling something to yourself. Your upper arm was slightly bleeding and your breathing was heavy. You had been lying there for the entire morning. You were still in your dress,which was now stained with blood from your arm. Your face was tear stained and your eyes were glassy. "Y/n. Hey look at me. Look at me. I'm here." You looked up to see Hyunjin's worried face, eyebrows furrowed and lips parted again. "Hyunjin?" You breathed out in a weak voice, which made Hyunjin's heart drop to his knees. "Yes it's me. Hey breathe. Please breathe for me." He coached you through breathing in and out, which calmed you down a bit, but you were still shivering and your skin was ice cold and white. You looked like a ghost. A ghost with sunken eyes and shocked expression stuck on its face.

Hyunjin carefully lifted you up and carried you to your bed, careful not to disturb your injury, which he immediately knew how it happened, from the knife lying beside you. He got some cloth and medicine for you from the first aid kit you hid under your bed, something you had told him a long time ago. You watched him with wide eyes as he carefully dressed your wound and got some water for you, forcing you to drink it.

"What happened? And it's ok if you don't wanna tell me." He sat beside you as you leant back against the bed frame. You tried not to catch his eye because you knew if you looked into those galaxies inside his eyes, you would start weeping. "Nothing happened Hyunjin." You mumbled, to which he scoffed silently, getting his hand up to your forehead to check your temperature. It was normal, thankfully you didn't have a fever. "Y/n" he faced you and out his hand on yours. "You know you can tell me right? I'm here for you and I'm worried. Please tell me what happened." It all happened so quickly. You looked into his eyes, taking in the stars inside of them, and you couldn't hold it back anymore as you burst out crying. Hyunjin was quick to hug you, holding your head gently as you buried yourself deeper in his chest, staining his grey shirt. His heart was breaking into a milion pieces, seeing his universe crying out her planets from her eyes. He shushed you from time to time, to make sure you don't become weak from crying.

"Y/N hey hey." He held you head in his hands, cupping your cheeks. "What's wrong? Just one word. Tell me one word. I beg you." You sniffled slightly and looked up at him, stopping you're tears slowly. You felt guilty, for him coming to you. Why should he? He's a human like you and he has responsibilities too and he should tend to them, not you. "Hyunjin, you should go. Y-you have S-Seungmin's party to attend. I'll be fine." Hyunjin knew how much you rejected being taken care of. Care was was word which simply never existed in your dictionary, courtesy to your past.

"Y/N-" "No Hyunjin!" You lashed out at him, tears brewing again in your eyes. Hyunjin now understood why the sunflowers outside had bowed to him, and why the aura was grey today. You had bottled up your feelings again, and one single word from a person of your past, was enough to break you. "I don't want help I don't need it! Just leave me alone! I don't want to be around you!" You panted a bit after shouting all that, your chest feeling heavy, not from the weight of your exhaustion, but from the weight of the entire world around you "Get out. Now."

The next few days, you came back to work, you avoided Hyunjin. You couldn't bear to look at his face, knowing that the stars in your eyes will collapse again if you do. You both worked in complete silence, with Hyunjin silently putting the completed illustrations in your desk, whenever you left to go to the bathroom. You now left at 9 am, instead of your usual 10 am along with Hyunjin. Your americanos seemed even more bitter now that you had no one to share your memories with. Every song in the world sounded like the same mundane melody now, chords repeating over and over again.

But Aphrodite always have something in plan, for souls like yours and Hyunjin's.

Hyunjin had been comforted by his friends for a week now. Every week, he would turn up at either Felix or Chan's house and cry to them. It broke their hearts to see their dearest friend weep and sob over you. You, on the other hand, would sometimes turn up to Minho, drinking his americano and venting your feelings, while he silently grilled his meat and put it on your plate. What you didn't know was that Hyunjin would be hiding silently behind the counter, listening to the notes of your voice talk about him. So one fine Saturday morning, he decided to do something. Something that would finally satisfy Aphrodite, and make her drop her roses down to earth to celebrate.

"Y/N." He called your name as you focused on your most recent article. "Y/N." He said again, when you didn't respond. "Y/N for Pete's sake, talk to me!" He basically shouted at you. You were staying back late tonight, courtesy to the hundreds of things you had to edit, due to your numerous amount of holidays. "Not now Hyunjin. I have to edit this." You spoke sternly, abandoning the fun filled voice you usually used when you were with him.

Hyunjin frowned at you, this time an actual frown, not like the playful ones he did when you would steal his meat from his plate. He was angry. He was angry at the world and at your mind for not treating you well. He was angry at your past, for making you believe that you were unworthy of love. He was furious and he would take it out right now, when no one except for you two were in the office building.

"Y/N listen to me!" He shouted, making you startled. You had gotten up from your seat and now you were cowering against a wall. You had never seen Hyunjin like this before, eyes narrowed and lips closed, burning anger seeping through them.

"Y/N you are quite possibly the most amazing person I have ever had the pleasure to meet in my stupid life. The way you walk the way you talk, everything about you is so amazing! It's so magnificent to me, how everyday you would explain the meaning behind a song, with your eyes all widened and your mouth moving fast! And it hurts me. It hurts me so much to see you like this, thinking that you are unworthy of love." His words were hitting you like bowling balls. "When you told me about your past, you know what I felt? I felt anger. True anger for the first time in my life. For the first time in my life, I wanted to burn down this entire world for a person. I was also so relieved that you trusted me enough to tell me about something like this. You really think I can't see the scars on your wrist through your foundation?" The scars on your wrist. How did he know about that? "Hyunjin-" you breathed out, crystals forming in your eyes again. "Y/N it breaks me. It breaks me so much to have a person like you in my life and not love them. I love you more than you can imagine. So why won't you accept it?"

"Because I can't!" The words spilled from your mouth like water spilling from a waterfall. "I can't Hyunjin! I don't know what love feels like! I never did! An-and when you came into my life and introduce me to all these amazing people, I felt so happy! For the first time in this dumb thing I call my life I felt happy. And I hated it! I hated the way Felix's eyes would light up every time he saw me. I hated the way Chan would always check up on me, making sure I don't overwork myself. I hated the way Minho would treat me like his own family, making sure I got the biggest portions of meat." Everything that you had kept hidden in that crack of your soul came running out. "I hated the way Jeongin looks up to me, telling me he admires the way I work! And you know what I hate the most out of all? I hate you! I hate the way you care so much for me and my stupid brain can't see it! The way you draw little cartoons on my americanos, the way you talk to me as if you were talking to a gentle lamb! I hate it Hyunjin! I hate myself for not seeing how much you love me! And I hate that I can't return the favour!"

Your knees gave way and you collapsed on the floor, sobbing your eyes out. Hyunjin was quick to kneel down next to you, hands searching for yours. Both of you looked into each other's eyes, seeing your entire universe's inside of them. You need love. You needed love to exist. And Hyunjin was there just to do that.

He leaned closer to you, eyes not leaving yours. He knew he had to do it now. Now or never right? Hyunjin, cupped your cheek with his left hand, right one still squeezing yours, and kissed you. He kissed you as if you were the most beautiful thing in the world. He kissed you as if you were the reincarnation of his last lover. He kissed you as if he had been wanting to kiss you for the last fifteen years. He kissed you, and you kissed him back. Your lips moved in sync with his, not moving away, hands wrapped safely around each other, both of you shielded from whatever the world was planning next. Time moved slowly again, as if the spinners of time had abandoned their looms to come watch you two.

And somewhere in the clouds, Aphrodite smiled, knowing that her mission was complete, and that two loveless souls had finally reunited, mending each other's cracks, slowly but surely.

Epilouge

"Hyunjin! We're going to be late! Hurry your ass!" You called out to your boyfriend of five years, as you waited by the door, bag clutched in hand, and white sundress flowing softly. The ash coloured cat you had both adopted, rubbed against your legs, purring and licking herself. Hyunjin had organised a 'special' date today, taking you to one of your most favourite places, a meadow by the beach, where you used to spend your days. It was already late in tbe evening, when Hyunjin finally came down from the steps of your house, still fixing his hair. "Alright Miss Universe, stop fixing your hair and come on!" You said, causing him to giggle, as both of you got in the car and drove off towards the sunset.

"God I love this place so much." You stretched your arms as you watched the dying sun, collapse into the ocean. "More than me?" Hyunjin pouted, as you slapped his chest playfully. "Oh god are those Minho's Macarons? These things are drugs to me." Both of you took a Macaron each, and raised them in the air, as if to make a toast. "Well, to our five year anniversary." Hyunjin toasted while you said 'hear hear!'.

"Y/N, I have a gift for you." You both had eaten all your food and we're slightly leaning against a tree, wrapped in each other's warmth. "What is it Hyun?" Hyunjin pulled out a paper from his pocket. A link sticky note. With Purple glitter pen scribbled on it.

Marry me Y/N?

"I thought I should do it in the way we first talked to each other. You know to make it more roma-" Hyunjin didn't get to complete his sentence, as you threw yourself around him, kissing him on his lips, as if you didn't kiss him every single day.

And Aphrodite couldn't stop giggling and smiling, knowing that now, love existed. And you? Oh you loved the existence of love.

[halliescomut]

Love Sky to Love Sea connection

Alright, so I was going over everything following the news that our beloved FortPeat are going to be the main couple in a new show for Mame.

And if you have been partaking in Mame BLs for a while, you may be aware that all of her novels and the shows that are based on them have existed in the same universe up until this point (a la the MCU). Following the creation of MeMindY she has not cast previous actors from her shows into new roles, instead having them return in cameos as the universe progressed forward.

It's easy to understand why she would choose this moment to recast FortPeat (and very likely BossNouel, but that confirmation will come in a couple of days). The chief reason of course being money, Love in the Air was arguably one of her most successful series, equaled only by TharnType. This is due to the stories, the performances, and also just luck of timing. The boom of BL shows for international audiences, from what I can tell, occurred in late 2021 - early 2022, with shows like Cutie Pie and Kinnporsche (and the impeccable chemistry presented in both) being some of the most common first forays into BL. I have only assumptions and inferences as to why this is, I think the popularity of shows like Love Victor and HeartStopper on streaming services led more people to essentially google more queer media, and found that there is a rather awesome amount being produced in Thailand, but in South East Asia and East Asia altogether. I also know a number of people were on the K-Drama to BL pipeline, assisted by Netflix and Viki. But back to my point, generally I think the popularity of MewGulf and JaFirst locally, or at least within SEA is fairly equal, but the inclusion of a much larger international audience at the time when Love in the Air came out has created a level of popularity that I don't think Mame expected.

I think another very valid reason why Love in the Air is incredibly popular is that while it exhibits some of her 'classic Mame' tropes like histories and instances of SA, and her ever-present 'No Kink', it is arguably one of the less problematic stories that we've seen on screen so far form her. (And this is coming from someone who actually likes a lot of Mame's stories, though I'd imagine my affection for brat-type characters is a leading cause of this.) This means that for many viewers for whom this was a first foray into Mame's universe and characters were not being immediately put off by some of the more problematic scenes and storylines presented in previous shows.

Mame has most certainly observed the potential for success in recasting these well-liked actors/pairs in other companies, top of said list being pairs like ZeeNunew, EarthMix, FirstKhaotung, and many others. So to take a pair whose chemistry and ease onset is equal to those and cast them in a new role, while breaking a previously established 'rule' is certainly a choice where the potential benefits far outweigh the risk. Literally the only 'risk' is potential confusion from those that are aware of the fact that ALL of Mame's work exists in a single universe, which if you came in on the LITA train is not likely to be something you would know. You may know of the clear connection to Sailom and Nuea presented in Wedding Plan, but connections to the further universe beyond LITA are limited to two rather small cameos that even I didn't pick up on immediately. (These cameos being the brief appearance of the twins and Leon from Don't Say No.)

So, I wanted to give an idea of what exactly is the connection between their existing LITA characters, but also the kind of show why it's really not going to be as big of a deal as far as causing confusion. This is a diagram of the existing Mame universe in terms of her novels, I've updated it as needed to include the connections to Prapai and adding in the Love Sea story as well. I have included a link to the original as well.

I've placed stars for the LoveSky/LoveStorm stories and then added ones by Love Sea and The Boy Next World (which we anticipate to star Boss and Noeul). Because the universe is so large, it is a bit confusing, so I did break it down into more simplified connections.

Hearts represent romantic relationships and the dashes are platonic. most of them are just friendships of various types, though Tharn and Pookan are cousins. But as you can see there is at least 5 people between the characters in LITA and the actors' new characters. So even in-universe the likelihood of these characters ever meeting would be slim, but beyond that the connection of LITA to the over-arching Love by Chance universe is pretty tenuous as previously mentioned.

In the case specifically of Love Sea, this is an unpublished novel, so it's possible Mame will remove or choose to leave out any mentions to the greater universe (meaning either changing the name of Kom's character if he is present in the scripted version, or leaving him out altogether). In the case of The Boy Next World, Pookan is related to Tharn, but let's be honest, do we really expect Mew to show up in a cameo? He's already moved on from Mame, TT, and the MewGulf ship. At best we may get fanservice in the way of a name drop, and it's possible we could see other characters from TT, but I'm skeptical. Since Pookan barely shows up in TT at all, the better option, especially with the passage of time since the first season of TT came out, is to have him be Tharn's cousin, but have him attending university after Tharn has graduated. And that's really only if you want to include that connection, you really don't have to. Given the amount of detail that we get about secondary characters in a lot of these shows, it wouldn't really be that difficult to simply rename any characters that cross over into the greater universe because there's just not going to be enough specific detail to really connect them.

I did also want to include the small amount that we know about Fort and Peat's new characters. We of course don't have much information yet, but there was some crumbs dropped at the recent fanmeet and appearances.

Their characters are Mahasamut(Fort) and Tongrak(Peat). Mahasamut is the son of a hotel owner who after a falling out is now living on his own. It looks as though he is quite young, along the same age of Fort IRL, and he is working as a tour guide to support himself. He is someone who is, I would say, likely lower income, and he's very ambitious and at this current time his goal is to kind of amass a certain amount of savings. He is running his own company as a tour guide and is considered very popular among foreigners both because he can speak good English but also because he is very charismatic. The information given at the fanmeet also includes that he has a diving certificate and is also good at fighting. How that will come up in the story, I don't know.😂

If their hints are to be believed, these characters will be in the same age dynamic as Fort and Peat meaning that Peat's character Tongrak will be older than Fort's character. Tongrak is a writer, specifically of romance novels. He is wealthy, though it is unclear if that is through his career or familial wealth. There's a strange emphasis on how beautiful he is, but in fairness Peat does very accurately fill that criteria. It also says that he does not talk about having a partner, he goes his own way, tends to be a loner. And this is with the implication that this is a result of past negative romantic experiences. Because Mame is who she is, there's also a possibility that part of his solitude is the result of past violence from a previous partner. Fort and Peat did state that they felt the story for this series is more challenging than Love Sky (which honestly scares me a little). But out of all of the stories Mame has told so far, I did feel that Sky's story was handled the best, so hopefully that trend continues.

It's not clear currently if Mame will be directing this series as well, previously she has only directed Wedding Plan, while all of her other series, even those produced by MMY did have other hired directors. We can see from the behind the scenes footage that even with a separate director, Mame was heavily involved in the filming, so her touch will be there regardless.

As far as further timelines, based on past series it is usually about 5-6 months from announcement of a series (and the cast) to the premiere of said series. It does depend on many different variables. The length of the show being one, as well as the level of difficulty. LITA was a more complex series with some pretty large set pieces (the night time races) and more complex scenes in terms of filming (the Stop and Payu race) in comparison to Wedding Plan. Since we don't have a published novel to study and theorize about potential scenes and the difficulties of filming, I can't really give much insight. I will say that the specific inclusion of the fact that Mahasamut holds a diving certification could indicate some diving/underwater filmed scenes. While those are not necessarily super complex, they can be time consuming, require special permits, are very weather dependent, and would require special filming equipment. I also very sincerely hope that if Mame does venture in that direction that she will also make sure that specialists with the necessary expertise are on set to maintain the safety of both the cast and crew. I know what the requirements are in western media, but not in Thailand. What all this boils down to though is that I would not expect the series to premiere earlier than February, and I'd put my bets on March. It's possible she may film a special trailer like she did with LITA, and if that happens, then we may see footage in late November or December, if not I expect a trailer after the New Year. A lot of this actively depends on when we get confirmation that filming has started.

I did also want to note, that while we expect Boss and Noeul to be the leads for The Boy Next World, since she is announcing that after Love Sea, I'm also expecting that to be filmed after Love Sea, even though we suspected that BNW was on the docket way back in March, Boss is still attached to Zomvivor with Mandee/Domundi, which could begin filming this fall, though that's not fully confirmed, it's based on the schedule presented at their look-aheads last year and what has already filmed and aired. But my point is that Boss may not be free to commit to the filming of BNW for a couple of months. There's a lot of variables that go into it.

But anyway...I hope this little rundown/update was helpful. If you have questions and I can answer them, my asks are open.

[homeofhousechickens]

exuse me but whats the difference between kikiriki and serama?

Serama are from Malaysia and Kikiriki are from South America/Puerto Rico/ the Caribbean islands specifically.

They are both micro bantam breeds and have similar ancestry since the Japanese bantam/chabo was used in the creation of both and both are land races shaped by their environment. However there are quite a few differences but in some bantam flocks where both are intermingling and breeding it can muddy the lines.

Serama are standardized with more color varieties added every year. A standard serama looks basically like this they have big chests, a toy soldier like pose and show off attitudes. They are bred to be ornamental show type birds that show off on a table for judges.

Kikiriki are not standardized at the moment and have a variety of different genes that are in their genepool that serama don't really have without outcross from what I have seen. For example Kikiriki can have beards, feathered feet, naked necks, rumpless, ect. They can even have different comb types while you should only see single combs in serama. I am not sure kikiriki are showed in the same way serama are and if the roosters are encouraged to be show offs. They have a lot game bird ancestry though so I imagine in their native range they are still shown off.

Now people are mixing bantams all the time and might be selling them to people without letting them know the birds ancestry so that's why you might see serama that look Iike kikiriki or kikiriki that look like serama 🤷

For example I don't breed to the serama standard because I'm making my own thing and my breeding project has some Old English Game Bantam in it (these also get mistaken for serama a lot) so my birds get mistaken for kikiriki since my birds don't have the recognizable silhouette.

Princess Cream one of my founders

Some wheaten Old English Game Bantams

A lot of the really small micro bantam type birds can look pretty similar due to similar genetic ancestry but there are differences that the trained eye can tell.

[voraciousvore]

Giganterra (Chapter 53)

Prologue/TOC | Previous (52) | Next (54)

Content Warning: Soft safe unwilling vore, mild sexual themes, vulgar language

Word Count: 2.4k

------ Chapter 53: Lost ------

While the rest of the hunting party retreated to the castle, the greyhounds and their master sought to catch Martin and Candy. They lost the trail at the river. They crossed to the other side and searched, but when the hounds were unable to pick up the scent, the trainer guided them back to the river. He surmised, correctly, that Martin swam downstream, so he sent the hounds on a path along the shore to find him. 

The dog handler had to abandon his horse as the trees grew closer and closer together. Eventually, the riverside became impassible for even the dogs, overgrown with dense webs of thorned brambles, trees, and mud, so the trainer was forced to backtrack and return to the opposing shore. He doubted the knight would be foolish enough to exit the water’s flow so close to the castle, so he continued south through the town. No sightings or sign of the knight materialized, so he trekked into the woods beyond. 

There, he struck gold. He discovered the knight’s gauntlets and supplies, washed up in a tangle of vines. However, the dogs still couldn’t pick up the scent. They wandered aimlessly through the trees, chasing squirrels and marking their scents with pride. The hunter figured the dogs must be too tired after the prolonged journey, which had taken several hours, so he rounded up the animals and went back to the castle to report to the king.  

King Richard brooded on his throne, fuming. He’d lost both his favorites, Millie and Candy, not to mention one of his most esteemed loyal knights. He didn’t understand why Martin betrayed him, except out of envy and greed, to take one of his pets for his own. He observed coldly as Hunter repaired Ajax: stitching up his wounds, refilling his veins with facsimile blood, and infusing fresh magic into his animated corpse via stones, potions, and muttered incantations. Joey stood next to the king, filling in as his personal guard while Ajax’s body was repaired. His cut had been tended to. As he suspected, it was shallow enough to heal quickly with the potion, though the scar still ached. Leon stood stiffly at the king’s left shoulder. 

The king perked up when the dog master, his breeches and boots wet and splattered with grime, marched into the throne room. “Did you find her? Did you slaughter the traitor?” Hardon inquired eagerly. 

“Um... no.” The king clenched his fists in anger on the arms of his throne, causing the handler to cower back. “B-b-but I found some of his gear in the river south of the castle! I had to turn back because the dogs were unable to persist, due to fatigue.” 

“Worthless mutts! Execute them all!” Hardon bellowed, slamming down his fist. The trainer blanched, too dumbfounded to form a protest. 

Leon leaned over and whispered in the king’s ear. “Your Majesty, do not allow your temper to cloud your good judgement. It would take time to replace all those well-trained dogs. For now, send Chester.” The king grunted with annoyance but executed the command. “Show Chester where to search. And if you can’t find her and bring her to me, it’ll be your head!” The trainer bowed and rushed out. 

Next, Hardon sent a servant to fetch the royal blacksmith. He arrived within minutes, wiping the soot from his gloves onto his shirt. “Blacksmith! I need you to craft an iron helmet for my guard! One that can’t be removed and completely covers his empty eye socket!” The blacksmith didn’t question the strange order and measured Ajax’s skull to determine the correct size. 

“I’ll have to weld it directly to his head. Or bolt it on,” the blacksmith stated. 

“Very well. Hunter, go with him to the forge and finish your business there.” Hunter glared disdainfully at the dirty blacksmith but accompanied his own freakish creation to the smithy.  

The king grumbled something under his breath and shifted with dissatisfaction in his chair. Out of habit, his fingers traced the cord of his necklace, but he only became more incensed when he felt the cold metal of the empty clasp, bereft of warm living flesh. 

“Leon! Bring me a big slice of vanilla bean cheesecake! Topped with caramel!” he demanded. “And put every damn human in the kitchen on it!” 

“Sire, your royal food taster is currently absent-” 

“I don’t care! You taste it for me!” Hardon snapped. “It’s not as if he’s not expendable!” Leon bowed and scurried out of the room like a rodent. 

He burst into the kitchen and announced the king’s request. The chefs dropped everything to fulfill the order. Chef Cruor gathered all the humans except for Addison and sprinkled them on top of a gigantic slab of cheesecake. As usual, he had to shove Eren into the slice up to her chin when she refused to settle down. She yelled at him until he buried her under a mountain of whipped cream and drizzled caramel in a fancy swirl over the confection. He handed the plate to Leon. 

“What about that one?” Leon asked, pointing at Addison. “He did say all the humans.” 

Cruor snarled like a feral beast and blocked Addison’s tank with his mass, which Leon couldn’t help but notice seemed to be expanding in width, though he was too polite to point it out. “Touch her and you’re dead meat!” 

“But the king said-” 

“I don’t give a damn what he said! You even think about touching her and I’ll rip your fingers off with my jaws!” Cruor bared his teeth wide enough to reveal a double chin. A wild flash shot through his violet eyes. 

Leon realized he was deathly serious and backed off. “Okay, okay, this should be enough,” he assured the chef, backing out the door. He strode down the hall with a shudder. He glanced down with misery at the multitude of humans trapped in sticky caramel on the giant cheesecake. They gazed back up at him with misery, fear, and condemnation. The tragic sight drowned him in an endless sea of loathing, both for the king and himself. He wanted to grab up all the humans and set them free. He wanted to douse the cake in poison and watch with glee as the savage king died an excruciating death, choking on his own vomit and blood. He wanted to run away from it all—but he knew he couldn’t. He wouldn’t be able to get away with any of it. He was trapped.  

He presented the king with his dessert. Hardon took the plate, licking his chops with ravenous hatred. “Which one of you would like to be my new favorite?” he questioned aggressively. The humans shivered with terror, too petrified to answer. Living in the kitchen was ghastly enough, but they all knew what the perverted giant did to helpless tiny women behind closed doors.  

He plucked each victim out of the cheesecake, one by one, and played with them in his hands. He rolled them around in his fingers, prodded them with his fork to test how they would respond, and licked them clean, before popping them in his mouth. He savored them thoughtfully, sucking and slurping, pressing them into his teeth and the inner walls of his cheeks, before swallowing them down. 

As much as he enjoyed their varied flavors, their fear, and their ceaseless squirming, his wrath increased with every swallow. They were fine and delicious, but none of them were Candy or Millie. None of them were of a high enough standard to qualify as his favorite. After eating five or six of them, he reached the last little morsel, Eren, still buried in cheesecake. He picked her out, amused by her futile thrashing and cursing as she punched his fingers. 

“Saucy little minx, aren’t you?” he remarked with amusement.  

She glowered at him. “Go to hell, you revolting beast!” Despite her attempts to sound fierce, her voice was small and squeaky in the vast hall. 

The giant chuckled. “I like girls with some fight in them. How would you like to be my new favorite?” 

Eren turned white as paper. Her rebellious spirit was dampened in a flash as she realized the error of her ways. She hadn’t anticipated that type of response from the dangerous king. She curled up her arms and trembled. “N-no thanks.” 

Joey, standing on one side of the king, felt dreadfully ill as he watched the display. He was powerless to do anything, surrounded by people and guards in the throne room. He could only stare in horror as the tiny people disappeared down the king’s gullet. He recognized Eren, the brave woman, and crumbled internally when he saw her reduced to such a state. He wondered to himself, if given the opportunity, if he’d be courageous enough to throw it all away like Martin did. He wished he could save her from such a gruesome fate. He regretted going against his better judgement and not taking more decisive action when he had the chance. 

Eren glanced over at Joey. The hard edge of defiance in her eyes softened. They shared a snapshot of connection before Eren was forcibly engulfed in the king’s hungry maw and swallowed. Joey turned his head to the side, sickened. 

“Is this all? This is the best we have?” the king complained as he stewed in his rage. “I might have to place another order with Minimaterra for some fresh meat.” 

“Oh, it’s a bit soon for that, isn’t it?” Leon hastily interjected. “If you ask for tribute too often, the quality will decline.” 

The king, as he listened to Leon, stared down at his half-eaten dessert. The fury festering inside him grew exponentially by the second, until the inferno within became intolerable. He erupted like a volcano, bellowing with intense vitriol, “Why am I surrounded by IDIOTS?! GODDAMMIT!” He stood up and hurled the plate across the throne room, shattering it with a dramatic crash. The room went deathly silent as everyone stiffened. “FIND HER!” he commanded, before storming off. 

In the coming days, Martin and Candy failed to materialize, since both Chester and the dogs were unable to pick up the scent trail south of the castle. The king was enraged and spent most of his time terrorizing his servants and sexually harassing the maids. Fortunately, Joey was relieved from guard duty once Ajax was fully restored. Besides his fresh stitches, Ajax was also equipped with a heavy iron mask that covered most of his face and clamped around his head. The device was a modified torture implement from the dungeons, with the lock welded shut and the chain hanging off the base of the skull shorn. An extra sheet of metal was added to replace his eyepatch, so that nobody could tear the magic runic stone animating his body out of his head. He had no more weaknesses. 

Joey felt lost without his mentor. He was torn between his loyalty to Martin, his duty as a servant to the royal family, and the code of chivalry that demanded he help a maiden in need, all critical foundations of knighthood. He couldn’t navigate the complex web of his responsibilities and what was morally right. He couldn’t read in a book what he was supposed to do in his specific situation. He wasn’t sure what he could do. He didn’t have Sir Maneater anymore to guide him and bestow great advice and wisdom. He wandered aimlessly in a maze of confusion. 

His anxiety spiked when the king commanded him to take over Sir Maneater’s role as instructor and resume the prince’s fencing lessons. Since the incident with the lemonade, Joey had avoided Ronny like the plague, limiting his interactions to sparring with his face covered so he didn’t have to talk or make eye contact. He hadn’t spoken to the prince more than the absolute bare minimum. Ronny hadn’t retaliated against him, but Joey still feared angering the volatile prince. 

He waited anxiously in the courtyard next to the stables for Prince Ronny, twirling his sword, digging his heels into the dirt, and polishing his glasses on his white outfit. Joey flinched, startled, when the royal made his appearance and advanced towards him with purpose. As usual, Ronny’s dark irises were hard and cold, his features haughty and aloof, and his figure sharp enough to be cut from stone. 

“Your Highness!” Joey scrambled into a low bow. 

“Let’s get this over with,” Ronny grumbled. 

“Y-yes, of course, Your Highness,” Joey stammered. “Let’s start with our usual warm-ups and stretches.” Joey was jittery and ungraceful as he went through the motions with Ronny in deafening silence. He couldn’t bear to look the prince in the face, staring stupidly at his shoes or hands instead. When it came to actual instruction, he could barely manage to squeak out a few words without stuttering like a fool. He tried to demonstrate a pattern of footwork and ended up tripping over his feet instead. 

Ronny huffed. “Are you going to be weird and awkward for this entire lesson?” 

“S-s-s-sorry, Your Highness!” Joey bit his tongue and grimaced. 

“Just—stop that! It’s so irritating! Is this about that whole lemonade thing?” the prince questioned gruffly. Joey chewed on his lip, sweating over the mere mention of his transgression. “Because I don’t give a fuck, you know.” 

“R-really? You’re not… mad at me?” Joey asked, incredulous. “I figured you’d want me flogged and quartered for what I did.” 

“Perhaps at one time, yes. But Tanya tells me I need to learn clemency. And... to control my childish tantrums,” Ronny admitted sheepishly. 

“Who’s Tanya?” 

“Never mind,” the prince grunted. “It’s not important. Let’s just keep moving.” Joey resumed the lesson, stronger this time, as he gradually regained his confidence. By the end, he was almost back to his old self. Ronny was in a hurry to leave, since he wanted to wash up and get back to Tanya, so he didn’t stick around for chit chat. Joey sighed in relief as he watched the prince go. He wasn’t about to get destroyed like he thought. Maybe the prince had a glimmer of magnanimity somewhere in his cold heart after all. 

Chapter 54

Tag List: @tinycoded360 @yummynomms @maybeiamdownbad

[outofgloom]

Hi. I was breaking down something you put into your story The Madness of Turaga; the "Eles Raliska". Now I assume this is an in-universe term for the creation machines, or at least how the matoran see them, so I'd like to ask if my breakdown is right: *Eles* from *Olu* and *Rali* are strightforward, but then is it **Iska** from **Akha** or **Ska** from **Xa**? I'd like to ask because I have a post-Reformation headcanon and am trying to figure out how mobile those machines are/were.

You are entirely correctly on the first two parts! Eles is the South Insular form of olu(a) "aperture, opening, access, door, doorway, gateway", while rali(kk) is South Insular for "producer, spawner, factory line, assembly machine", a term which was used to refer to the creation machines of the various species in the MU. In fact, a standardized North Matoric form of this term is also found in the story "Without Faces, Without Eyes" (rala).

The last element is iska, a South Insular form of akha[3]:

So eles raliska translates to something like "aperture of the spawn-machine". Some trivia: The reason that I used a South Insular form is due to the fact that this is the variety of early Matoric that would've been spoken on Lesovikk's home island. I used the properties of the names of the Matoran associated with Lesovikk (Sarda, Idris, etc.) as the basis for the development of the South Insular variety.

[gallacrafts]

For Theme 30 we will need you to get ready to bow down and worship at his feet…

(let’s be honest, y’all wanna do that, anyway!)

Theme 30:

KING OF THE SOUTHSIDE

I'll worship like a dog at the shrine of your lies / I'll tell you my sins and you can sharpen your knife / Offer me that deathless death / Good God, let me give you my life…

Alternatively, if you don’t want to go down the human sacrifice route - because of how trite and commercial it’s all become - we understand!

Instead we will accept drawings, jewellery, poems, felt art, glass work, stories, topiary, wood work, cork craft, or any other KING OF THE SOUTH SIDE inspired creation your heart desires!

Your offerings to His Royal Majesty King Milkovich are due on Sunday 18th February, and by his royal decree you are to tag them with #Gallacrafts, #Theme 30, and of course #KING OF THE SOUTHSIDE

[kitchenwitchery72]

Herbalism 101: Basil

EP. 6

Fun fact

The word Basil comes from the Greek word “basileus” which means king. Because of this, many believe it led to the creation of the word “basilisk” due to the creature's strength.

Properties : Love, money

Uses in the kitchen

Basil is a pretty common kitchen ingredient and can be delicious in many different cuisines. It can be found cuisines anywhere from Italian to South Asian. It is often used in sauces and broths, but also makes a good garnish.

Uses in healing

Basil is amazing for stomach issues and can also be used as a mood booster. Basil has been used for digestive issues for centuries, including as a way to help stomach cramps in Chinese medicine. It is also said to help improve one's mood.

Uses in witchcraft

I often have fresh Basil on my windowsill because of how versatile it is. My favorite use, however, is to use Basil essential oil in cleaning in order to set intentions of love and money in my home or to banish bad energy. I will often put the essential oil into a spray bottle with some water and other oils, then I spray a small amount on what I am cleaning and wipe it in the direction correlating to my desire. (Towards me to attract, away from me to dispel)

Tips for growing at home

Basil is not too tricky to grow, but it can be sensitive to temperature. It's best to keep the plant somewhere on the warmer side, with plenty of sunlight and moist soil. The other big tip is to prune/trim the flowering parts or dead leaves often.

Recipe

Pesto for love and joy

1 cup fresh basil leaves

2 cups Parmesan cheese

1-2 tablespoons of pine nuts

3 cloves of garlic

Around 1/2 cup of olive oil

Salt to taste

Combine ingredients in a mixer while slowly adding in olive oil until you get a consistency you enjoy. The basil is good for love, garlic can amplify intentions, and pine nuts can represent comfort and sometimes fertility.

[dazed--xx]

Cardinal (Series Preview)

Series Summary: If there was one thing God could say he’s ever regretted creating he’d explain there were 8. The 8 Evil Thoughts. Vainglory, Avarice, Gluttony, Wrath, Lust, Pride, Envy, and Sloth are currently spending their exile living it up in the mortal world; spreading their sins into Gods most beloved creations so with determination in his heart he sends for the only things that can stop them….Their Virtues The Humility twins, Generosity, Temperance, Love, Chastity, Kindness, and Perseverance. Join them on a journey through morality, obsession, and temptation in Cardinal….

Genre: Angst, Smut, Fluff, Demon Au!

TW: YANDERE, Demon AU!, Cardinal Sins, Themes of Catholicism, mentions of religion, mentions of God, Blastphemy, smut, use of demonic powers, non-con (in some parts), more to be added as each part is posted.

A/N: So I’m officially off Hiatus 👋 so HIYA but I’ve been inspired for this for a while and I have been obsessed with the seven deadly sins since my theology class in high school and just now thought to write something about them but I’m super excited about this and I hope you guys will be too. Also anyone that has requested something your requests will be posted before this series and before one more time chapter 2 so keep an eye out cause I’m probably going to start posting those this week or next week anyway hope you enjoy the preview.

Bang Chan: coming soon

Vainglory; the sin or vice of one who immoderately desires renown, prestige, or the praise and respect of others. The desire of these things is not necessarily sinful but becomes so when it is immoderate and disordered.

Virtue: Humility

Summary: Belial, now reborn as Bang Chan as punishment for his most cardinal sin is happy with his prosperity as the CEO of Stay corporation. His employees worship the ground he walks on; his word holds more weight than almost anyone in all of South Korea, that is until a familiar foe threatens to take everything he’s built away. Now, Chan must face his largest feat yet…corrupting his virtue, Humility.

Minho: coming soon…

Avarice; an insatiable desire to gain and hoard wealth. It's similar to greed but goes even further, encompassing such things as selfishness, entitlement, materialism, consumerism, and hoarding.

Virtue: Generosity

Summary: Mammon, now cast away living his life disguised as mortal Lee Minho enjoys his days as the COO of Stay Corporation. From his many houses to the collections of automobiles he adores his cardinal sin. He indulges in his wealth, power and fornication as he so pleases bringing chaos to rain free wherever he so chooses until he’s faced with whom he only thought a myth…his virtue, Generosity.

Changbin: coming soon…

Gluttony; the over-indulgence or lack of self-restraint in food, drink, or wealth items, especially as status tokens.

Virtue: Temperance

Summary: Beelzebub, spends his days as Seo Changbin a world-renowned chef, wandering the cityscape bouncing from each flamboyant club to elegant restaurant he sets his sights on. He’d spend those days if it weren’t for the thorn in his side his virtue Temperance, a feisty archangel with a knack for ruining his fun he makes it his mission to corrupt the virtue and be the first of the sins to create a fallen angel.

Hyunjin: coming soon…

wrath; the inordinate and uncontrolled feeling of hatred and anger

Virtue: love or charity

Summary: Satan, now trapped in his mortal form Hwang Hyunjin by God due to his cardinal sins is forced to spend his eternity with his virtue, Love at his hip in every waking moment. He finds her mysterious call to his mind and heart infuriating as it drives him wild with wrath and infatuation. When he loses his ability to sense her presence everything is flipped into a world of Chaos, disparity and Wrath in which he did not cause. So, with a blood oath he sets out to locate his other half and destroy those that stolen her away from him.

Jisung: Coming soon…

Lust; defined as immoral because its object or action of affection is improperly ordered according to natural law or the appetite for the particular object (eg sexual desire) is governing the person's will and intellect rather than the will and intellect governing the appetite for that object.

Virtue: chastity

Summary: Asmodeus, now Han Jisung, a Has corrupted the strongest willed priests and popes in history. His love for his cardinal sin has him sharing the euphoria with almost every mortal he meets, that is until he comes face to face with his virtue, Chastity; the embodiment of everything he couldn’t have cast away by his own hands at the turn of the century. Her influence reaching a select few in his favorite personal hell. Vowing to show the object of his affection the true lengths Lust and absolute pleasure can take you; he embarks on a journey of fornication, heartbreak and persuasion.

Felix: coming soon…

pride; excessive belief in one's own abilities, that interferes with the individual's recognition of the grace of God.

Virtue: humility

Summary: Lucifer, hates his exile as Lee Felix under the demon Belial. He was far more intelligent than his current supervisor, he loathed his deity and their fear of anyone having a mind. He spent his days in a bore, missing his time in heaven he spends his days with visions of the precious virtue, Humility. He admonishes those that blindly follow their predestination, he detests his creator for condemning him to walk amongst these…. creatures that is until his twin brother presents him with a deal find and seal his beloved's fate…...corrupt her and get back into heaven.

Seungmin: coming soon….

Envy; sin of jealousy over the blessings and achievements of others

Virtue: kindness

Summary: Leviathan, lives his life as Kim Seungmin resenting his fellow keepers of the sins. They’re virtuous extravagant lifestyles to their most wildest dreams being fulfilled. While he had to stand there and watch, watch as the pesky humans around him found their way, watch as his brethren became successful in both hell and the mortal world. The Demon kings names bringing an icy chill up their spines at the power and influence they possess; if a demon king sets his sights on you, your soul becomes tainted with their sin until it eats the being alive and sends your soul straight to hell. He hates as his sin is the one full of disgust and had such a bad wrap, envy is what built civilization itself yet they worship Belial and the wretched deity that cursed himself, that is until he is greeted with something he’d never experienced before his virtue….Kindness

Jeongin: coming soon…

Sloth: a spiritual or emotional apathy, neglecting what God has spoken, and being physically and emotionally inactive. It can also be either an outright refusal or merely a carelessness in the performance of one's obligations, especially spiritual, moral or legal obligations.

Virtue: perseverance

Summary: Belphegor, enjoys his days as Yang Jeongin, the laid back neglectful floor manager of Stay Corporation. If you were to ask any of the mortal employees under his leadership they would say he was always at work but he was rarely ever working. His reputation was a positive one despite his hidden identity, he enjoyed watching as his floor scrambled to get report’s together for meetings he’d never mentioned until the day before. He adored sprinkling small bits of his sin around the office and watching as the floor became bored, underachieving and understandably tired. The only thing he would say he’d enjoy a change with is one particular little itty bitty thorn in his side; the one thing that he cannot stand more than actual work that sat right outside his office. His virtue….Perseverance.

[sewers-headmates]

How To Request & Mod Intros

CW account will have spooky themes around horror and specifically slenderman

This account is a horror themed alter pack/build a headmate style blog that will only do fictives or factives. Your requests can be from almost any source even if we don’t know it. This account has no dni but we block. This is a no discourse zone and a radqueer, transID, and endo friendly zone! We support everyone here <3 we use this account as our main nowadays. we are always open to friends and mainly souecemates! please ask if curious!

our official rules:

Rule Updates: we will not do anything from the following sources

paraphiles for factives

john doe

wilbur soot, melanie martinez related alters

labels that make us uncomfortable

pico’s school & fnf

alfred’s playhouse

magnus archives (can request but we won’t look up pictures/the media/wikis)

sexual trauma holder littles - sore spot for our system

Our sideblogs:

@the-wonderland-subsystem - mod wonderland’s subsystem creation process + general posting for the subsystem

@nighthawk-flock - our system’s posts + us collecting alters from other BAH blogs

@south-park-rq - for our south park alters to post

Request Form-

feel free to change or just give a blurb on what you want ie “a cute and sweet protector with a kidcore aesthetic and transharmed” or “a marble hornets fictive who is transage and transharmful” anything you wish! you can also do full creators choice!

Name:

Age:

Gender:

Pronouns:

Sexuality:

Species:

Ethnicity:

Source:

Roles:

cisIDs:

transIDs:

Paraphiles:

Other Labels:

Appearance:

Aesthetic:

Inspirations:

feel free to include anything else

we will make a picrew or include pictures they can use as a faceclaim! for sources we can do anything! we will look into any source you want to get as close to accurate as possible!

If you don’t want to wait please check out our specials list!

Any more questions please ask!

Anons:

-☀️📹

-🌟

-🍥

-🧠💉

-🫀🐾

-🌈

-☣️

-🔃

-🫀🔧

-🍵🍡

-🔪

-🕰️

-🐾🎀

-🐇

-🌐🌨️

current BAH Game:

don’t want to wait in line? we tend to do species first due to interest:

Mod Intros

we have recently changed how we do this! we will be positing our mod intros and linking them here as we have more alters want to do this

Richie

Jimmy

Eric

Tweek

Max

Wonderland Subsystem

Eddie

Curt

Tadius

Pete

Grace (& Linda)

Tags:

🔪 THE FINAL GIRL - alter requests

🔪 RUN RABBIT RUN - alters we make with no request

🔪 THE SLASHER - mod posts/chatting

🔪 VICTIMS - questions

🔪 PROMO - promoting other accounts

🔪 CLUES - userboxes

🔪 MIDNIGHT - new form submissions

🔪 WANNA PLAY A GAME - BAH game blogs

If you have anymore questions or concerns please feel free to dm us or leave an ask! thank you <3

[kylesplayhouse]

So since my South Park fixation is back in full swing, I figured it was time to properly introduce my New Kid oc, Flava!

This little guy means everything to me, I know that sounds really cheesy to say, but this goofball has genuinely changed my life for the better.

Unfortunately I had never really delved into what all my OC is about until now, so strap in y’all because I have a LOT so say & share about this guy!

Preamble

Flava was created waaaay back in 2018 by my old friend @shin-holly after they whipped up a design in TFBW’s character creation, he looked MUCH different than he does now, as was his lore (which is a whole different thing entirely)

Throughout the years Flava underwent many different design changes as I got better with my art when I transitioned to using MediBang Paint around late 2020. His main idea however stayed relatively the same; A kid who had an interest for Outer Space and the unknown.

Since then i’ve been workshopping what his relationships are with the canon cast as well as his personality, which to be honest I hadn’t even BEGUN to think about thoroughly until 2022.

I’m happy to announce that now, I am fully confident in what this guy’s character is like and what kind of friendships he has with everybody!

Some Info about The Boy™️

10-11 years old

He’s transgender, primarily using He/Him (he also uses they/them occasionally). As a younger kid Flava had always known he was a bit…different from the other kids, and strangely felt unhappy about himself for reasons he couldn’t figure out. Then one day, during a library trip, Flava stumbled into the health section and discovered a book about Transgender youth, then everything made sense to him. Flava wouldn’t tell his mom about how he felt until he had just turned 10 years old

Has an older brother named Niiko. He’s 18 and still in his sophomore year of high school, having been held back due to doing really stupid shit, he loves Flava to death & tries to get him involved in his schemes. He loves grunge culture and frequently binges nu-metal and rock music, his favorite bands are Primus and Nine Inch Nails.

Flava’s friend circle is nerdy at best, with his best friend being Clyde. The duo end up goofing around often, Clyde being the prime instigator 99% of the time. Some other notable pals of his are Kevin, Scott, Kyle(?), Red, Pip, and Gregory. (Last two are important)

Personality is varied, at best Flava can be described as soft due to having such a calm nature to him. Growing up, Flava never had any friends so he is largely an outsider, most people who do talk to him leave after 5 minutes of him infodumping. Other than that, Flava is a very chill person to be around and is more than willing to talk to anyone he deems friendly enough.

He has two pets: Shadow🚺 and Sparky🚹 (Not to be confused with THE Sparky). Shadow is a two year old leucistic Reticulated Python who originally belonged to Niiko, but was moved to Flava’s room due to its bigger size, while Sparky is a 4 month old mixed breed (border collie/husky/german shepherd?). He was given to Flava as a Christmas present by Niiko, he’s extremely playful & loves belly rubs.

Interests

Space

As implied by his alternate costume, Flava loves outer space and all of its planets, his favorites are Neptune and Saturn. It’s probably the one thing everyone knows him for, as Flava talks about it almost every day, he can and will infodump about all the facts he knows about it and the latest news from NASA as he follows their website closely. You might even catch this guy stargazing late at night with his telescope, looking at the sky for hours.

Herpetology (Study of Reptiles and Amphibians)

Flava’s also engaged in learning about reptiles, this stemmed from falling down a rabbit hole while trying to read about snake care when Shadow was moved to his room, lately he’s into dragons, having now read all of Wings of Fire MULTIPLE times.

Art

Flava is a pretty doodle-y guy, he’s especially crafty with scrapbooks and notes. He’ll draw whatever comes to mind really, sometimes its his friends doing epic stunts (Clyde sometimes pays Flava 3 dollars to draw him.), other time its abstract shapes, Flava’s favorite thing to draw though is what the surface of planets look like up close. He considers himself a professional artist, and hopes to one day get his art featured in a museum.

As for hobbies outside of stargazing, Flava takes an interest in hockey, he often trains with Niiko at home, although Niiko is a bit aggressive with his techniques as he’s more experienced with it, Flava actually does use this aggressive himself in full games, this leads to his team getting shockingly good scoring and sometimes even winning.

If it sounds like Flava is absolutely perfect and is a “Mary Sue”, don’t worry because this fella has a few issues, most notably is his anger problem. If you push him enough, Flava will snap and punch you with as much force as a 10 year old boy possibly can. He tends to lash out at people who piss him off or think know better, Kyle being a prime example of this, as the two squabble a lot and appear to have a rivalry of sorts.

Flava also has a tendency to be pretty bad at reading the room, not understanding the context of the situation at hand.

Alter Egos

Kid Dragon

Our kickass “Warrior of the Skies”, Kid Dragon! (Also called KD by his friends)

He’s a brutalist class fighter who uses close proximity attacks with his fists and teeth, in his Ultimate Attack “Dragon Lord Flame Fist” KD is possessed with the full power of The Lord of Dragons and is able to completely K.O one enemy at the cost of losing a lot of health, surrounding enemies are slowed down for 2 turns.

KD is a loner, meaning he doesn’t belong to the Freedom Pals or Coon & Friends, in his words he “doesn’t want to deal with squabbling.” He does team up missions with Mosquito though.

Finnizaar of the 7 Forests

Finnizaar is a hulder/snow elf hybrid, a species of his own creation. Considered the last of his kind, Finnizaar wanders the woods as he awaits to find his true calling.

He’s a fighter that primarily uses animals to attack as he claims to communicate with them, one such being his trusty “heavenly snake familiar.” In one of his attacks Finnizaar reveals his back, a hole filled with gems (which is definitely not a shitty tattoo Niiko gave him that may or may not have been put there permanently…oops), the sight of such hypnotizes enemies and causes them to hurt themselves.

He seems rather fond of Princess Kenny for some reason..

Relationships

Now we’re getting to my favorite part of this post, the relationships!!!

As mentioned previously, Flava had no friends before his family moved to South Park as he’d been homeschooled for 3 grades before starting public at South Park Elementary in 3rd grade. He’s a very isolated kid in his first few months there as he doesn’t know anybody & also is trying to come off as more masculine as a boy so if he slips something up there’s a chance he might be made fun of.

He slowly but surely finds his friends, though he also ends up finding enemies there too.

Clyde

Flava’s first and probably closest friend, they met on the playground at school one day and kind of clicked from there. They build off each other due to their general awkwardness to others and inability to look cooler than they actually are. Clyde tends to gossip to Flava a lot and since he can’t keep quiet on things he kinda spills it to the people Clyde’s talking about, never really ends well for either of them.

Scott

Same reason as Clyde for why they became friends, they just kinda met each other and eventually hit things off. Scott often invites him for sleepovers, which Flava immediately accepts every time because he knows Scott has the best snacks at his house.

Red

These two weren’t actually friends originally, they met in Drama Club and were always partnered up as stagehands, Red was always mildly annoyed with Flava but she never said anything, much like Clyde she eventually came around to gossiping to Flava about girl drama & such. Flava would get closer since he liked her apparent edginesses and not a complete “girly girl.”

Kevin

It’s kind of obvious as to why these guys are friends. Kevin has infodumped all of Star Wars lore to Flava a lot, he doesn’t want him to watch the newer movies though. They also tend to argue about whether Pluto is a planet or not.

Kyle

This one’s a little complicated so here we go.

Flava shares the same classroom as Kyle as well as his other friends, and it seems like he and Kyle would be friends too, and they are…kind of.

Flava is actually extremely jealous of Kyle, as he represents all of the things Flava wants to be but feels he can’t: Smart, reliable, and cohesive, all things that Flava can’t 100% do because of things out of his control. It’s frustrating for him to see Kyle or even hear him out because it feels as though Kyle is just saying words and wonders if he means what he actually says. They argue a lot due to conflicting differences of opinions and Kyle’s tendency to think better of himself.

Despite this, Flava does respect Kyle in a lot of ways and will stand up for him, if just because he knows at the end of the day Kyle is right about a lot of things, even if those things do hurt.

Pip & Gregory (AKA the part I know some of you might be here for.)

Long ramble so here we go.

Pip (or Philly as Flava calls him) met Flava shortly after a pretty bad bullying incident, having been actually shoved in Flava’s locker of all places. Flava was very sympathetic to Pip and spent the rest of the school day talking to him, including eating lunch with him, he was one of the few kids to not actually mind Pip’s voice or his proper grammar. They’re besties now, about the same as Clyde, who begrudgingly accepts Pip as not to destroy the friendship he has with Flava, its a point of contention for the two.

Gregory is complicated, but in a much different way than Kyle is.

Flava cannot help but feel..weirdly enamored by Gregory? He’s got this charm to him that Flava hasn’t ever felt with anyone else before, not even his Mom. He feels really close to Gregory in a way he can’t describe except for just…love. The two are also best friends, though Gregory is completely unaware of Flava’s true feelings for him. Flava wants to do something to make Gregory notice him, but he hasn’t exactly figured out what to do yet.

Fun facts!!

Flava’s mother, Freya, is part Scandanavian since her grandparents grew up in Europe. She’s a pharmacist and works at a drug store part time, her main job is selling herbal remedies online, she makes bank doing so. She’s declined Randy’s offer to collaborate on selling weed infusion medicine multiple times.

It’s actually kind of rare to see Flava without his big fluffy hat on his head, he uses it primarily to hide his hair which he feels extremely self conscious about, he doesn’t want to cut it but he worries people will make fun of him for how long it is, the hat does a good job at hiding it.

Flava’s nickname doesn’t mean anything, its just a goofy word he thought fit his real name Finnegan pretty well. (It’s pronounced Flah-Vuh, not Flay-Vah if anyone was curious)

He’s a very tactile dude, he often stims with his hands and likes feeling soft & silky textures. Things like Gregory’s button up when he holds his arm help Flava focus.

They actually designed their costumes themselves!

He can memorize the entire script of his favorite movie ever: 2001 A Space Odyssey

His original full name was “Flava Lavalamp Fluff”

Flava was also originally shipped with Connor, a very minor character from the episode “South Park is Gay.” I have no idea why i got so attached to him 😭

Although some elements of Flava are based on me, he is NOT a self insert!

Hey!! If you made it this far, thanks so so so so soooooo much for reading this! I had a blast explaining this guy out & drawing him some new references, this is probably the most definitive description you’ll see of Flava so I doubt much will change for him in the future.

And i already said it but I’ll say it again: This guy literally changed my life for the better.

Doing everything that i’ve done with Flava thus far has taught me one thing: Cringe Culture, or being “Mary Sue” or having “overpowered” characters don’t really matter because at the end of the day, they are YOURS and yours alone. It doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks, its your world and you get to make your little guys and do whatever the hell you want with them

Basically, do what you want and don’t let anyone try to tell you what’s right or wrong with making an OC, you’ll feel much better when you just do what you want, regardless of what fandom you’re in.

[pigtailedgirl]

Now I'm curious how you got into due south originally, if you feel like explaining :)

Sure! It's nothing too exciting I guess, but my Dueser origins begin as a wee girl. I know my family must have vaguely watched it because I remember the image of All The Queen's Horses mountie chase pre-dates my series watch beginnings. I know my grandma later confessed as I had it on tv one summer that she watched it. Cause cute Benton Fraser lol.

But real seeing and watch began with a random catch of Free Willie one morning on the Showcase Network. Thank you kindly Showcase.

Yeah, I caught it one morning and stayed to watch because I think I vaguely recognized it, and just fell in love with it's charm and wit and Fraser and Ray. It was the first episode so great timing too. And they had it schedule set to air one episode in the morning, the same at night, five days a week. Perfect for catching up.

Promos were hilarious too. I should see if any are online.

Oh, and it was original edit, so it had extra scenes like the different Victoria's Secret ones.

So I caught up on the series quick. Also, what I think really cemented my season 1 and 2 love was they played that set for months at least before switching to the 3/4 season. That highlighted the difference in tone to my POV too I think, and it's why I kinda view them apart still.

But I really got to experience show first this way.

I think I found fandom when starting Livejournal same time the show hit resurgence there. And I happily caught the tail end of Yahoo Groups so got to back read fan stuff there. Missed most of Ray Wars. Yay. There was the 2000's snippets, but everyone was so fun at content creation and love, that was the best take-aways. It made for a great time. I participated in a watch-along! A big highlight of fannishness for me! That's when I saw The Pilot. Or my fav was squeeing about Pizza and Promises.

Just, some of the many wonderful fans like Nina_DS and movies_michelle and duenorthlaurie for episode discussion, and Sdwolfpup, Belmanoir, Aingeal8C as content creators, or Scotchsour, and Lozenger8 who made some banging icons....Truly, there were so many wonderful people, I couldn't even name them all. Due South provided so many wonderful glimpses of other fans to share with. LJ friends were so lovely.

I fell out in LJ world strangely cause I felt kinda outside the fandom wave as it crested I think, not shipping F/K or really loving those seasons as much. And just personally felt not into fannishness as whole after awhile. It's a me thing across everything, not just Due South. I took an internet break for a long time. I still watched the series on tv, with Showcase and TV Tropolis and DejaView lol, and by then DVD often. Along with new TV of course, although not much cause Tumblr me is not too different from old LJ me. Still kept an eye of forums, sometimes, or such, cause I love discussion as you can see by my screeds versus tech/creative skills, but not actively or with comment.

I return cause, I don't know, seeing people express love for the series again is hitting a happy place of nostaglia I think. I had a rough bout with real-life and comfort fannish stuff is reminding life was full of small good moments. The joy of the endearing nature of the show and the spirit of love for it in the fandom is proof of stuff enduring. Joy that it's still on rebranded Showcase here on the weekends lol, even if you never know which season.

And a new vidder made a wonderful F/V fanvid that, timing again as I hit Tumblr, I stumbled into, and just had me crying when I watched at the beauty and love I remembered in the pair. It spoke to my love of them so hard I think it jolted me into thinking hell yea that love deserves happy expression, I can do it too maybe. Sadly they took it down, but yeah, that was the spark, and that's me fannish story.

[mariacallous]

Guava rugelach are an edible testament to Jews embracing the new ingredients and cooking techniques that they encountered in the Diaspora. They are also a testament to my mom, a culinary magician who wielded guava like a wand, infusing its sweet tones into our meals.

Brought to Latin America by Eastern European Jews in the early 20th century, cities such as Buenos Aires, Mexico City and Caracas have embraced rugelach. While many versions of the pastry still proudly bear the traditional Ashkenazi flavors of cinnamon, raisins and nuts, that’s far from the whole tale. Rugelach in Buenos Aires or Caracas might contain dulce de leche or cabello de ángel (pumpkin jam), while a stroll into a bakery in Mexico City might reveal rugelach filled with luscious chocolate ganache and aromatic Mexican vanilla.

This rugelach dough is enriched with sour cream, and results in a soft, flakey pastry. The pièce de résistance, though, is the guava filling. 

Originating from Central and South America, “guava” translates to “fruit” in Arawak, the language spoken by the native communities of the Caribbean, where this fruit, similar in size to a passion fruit, grows in abundance. The guava’s tender skin encases a creamy white or orange pulp filled with numerous tiny black seeds. 

As guava is a seasonal fruit and isn’t as widespread as mangoes or papaya, I call for guava paste, due to its unique sour-sweet taste profile. Often referred to as “goiabada,” this paste generally has a lower quotient of added sugars and presents a superior texture for baked products. Unlike runny jams and marmalades, guava paste is sculpted into a dense, sticky block yet remains soft enough to be sliced. 

Growing up, my mom used the vibrant, naturally sweet guava as her secret ingredient, a touch of the tropics that hinted at Caribbean culinary tradition in Venezuela. It turned the simplest family recipe into an exotic treat. This recipe draws inspiration from her traditional guava bread, where history, heritage and affection were kneaded into dough and baked to perfection.

Her guava-infused creations echo loudly in my present, shaping the culinary adventurer in me and reminding me of the vital link between taste and memory. Guava rugelach are not merely a pastry but a narrative of the age-old Jewish practice of reinventing ourselves in the face of new environments. The story of my lineage in the Diaspora, one many fellow Jews can relate to, is etched in the buttery dough and sweet, aromatic filling. Each bite is a reminder of who I am: A fusion of cultures, histories and flavors.